Cycling Goal- 1,000 Miles. CHECK!

Hell yeah, we did it! Mr. TEK and I bicycled just over 1,000 miles over the course of the season. It is an amazing feeling, to set a goal like that and accomplish it. Our biggest hangup is the time involved. We still managed to have an outing average of 16.7 miles. At the beginning of the season our normal weekday ride was 10 miles. By the end of the season we managed to increase our speed enough that we could do a 15 mile route with the time that we had.

I'm kinda happy that cycling season is over for us, towards the end it was getting to be a chore. One thing that helped were the organized rides we signed up for. We did both the Tour de Troit and the Blue Water Ramble. We've started back at the gym now, and I know for a fact that I am in much better shape than when we signed up for our membership in February to prepare for cycling season.

Here are the bikes on the car for the final trek to the local metropark. I'm looking forward to next year!

October was BUSY!

And here we are in November.  And with November is NaBloPoMo. So I'm going to try to blog something every day. I can do this.

October is a transition month for me. The end of cycling season and the beginning of gym season. Time to clean up the patio and the yard, and settle in to being inside. More knitting, less being too hot to move. Hot cocoa instead of iced tea.

A pasty for lunch.

It’s almost time for vacation

Next week Mr. TEK and I have a vacation week! Over the weekend we will be doing some camping, then we’ll have the rest of the week to relax and recharge. I need this. I need this so bad I can taste it.

Today, Wednesday, September 14 is the one year anniversary of my Papa’s death. It is going to be a very difficult day for me and my family. My Papa was an amazing man; he was a major influence on how I live my life now, as an adult. Sometime around 2000 he was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. He had half of one lung removed and radiation therapy to put him into remission. We were lucky in that the cancer never returned, but we were left with a host of other issues. In addition to the cancer, he had emphysema and COPD and finally he was unable to breathe enough to sustain his body. Yes, it’s sad, but I’d rather think about the good things. Like sitting on his back porch watching a storm roll in. Gardening and learning how to maintain a yard. I remember reading his books about birds, and watching the Red Wings on TV. There were fishing trips, swapping recipes, and knowing that if I ever had a question about anything he would probably know the answer. My grandpa is very much a missed part of my life. Thanks to him I live my life without regret.

What does it mean to live without regret? It means making the best decision that you can with the information that you have and knowing that no matter what happens you did your best. It means taking the time to visit with those most important to you. It means having integrity in your relationships, especially your relationship with yourself. It means holding yourself and other to a realistically high standard. Living without regret is not easy. There are days when anxiety would take the very heart of me and I have to embrace it, plan through it, and work harder. I have to remind myself that being happy is not easy; it’s a garden that must be tended. Right now, my garden needs to be weeded and the sad flowers need cut back, and that is how I plan to spend my week off.

My life is moving forward at an alarming rate.

It’s hard to believe that we’re already past the 4^th of July holiday and are steadily moving towards August. Good thing that despite my lack of posts I have been making progress.

Knitting: I finally finished Todd’s hat!!! Yay!!! I’ll have a Finished Object Post about it this weekend. I’ve cast on for another one of the Yarn Harlot’s Unoriginal Hats, but I haven’t gotten past the cast on yet. It’s been sooooo hot and humid here that I just haven’t wanted to get out the wool. I’ve got other things to work on anyway.

Sewing: I have not touched my sewing machine of late, but that’s going to change in a few minutes. I’m planning tonight to finish the curtain I started, hem the other curtains I bought, and hem the piece of fabric I am using as a backdrop in my knitting photos.Or maybe not. I just realized it's 8:30... crap. Oh well, maybe this weekend.

Photography: I've been messing around with my 60mm Macro lens and have been getting a better understanding of exposure. I'm just the kind of person that can read about it all day long, but it doesn't really make sense until I actually do it several times. I'm thinking that I might anoint a Saturday as "Photography Day" and everything I do try to take a good photo of whatever it is I'm doing... like laundry, yard work, or cycling.

Bicycling: We took this week off due to the excessive heat, we're expecting record temperatures in the Detroit area, potentially over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Blah. Thank goodness for central A/C!!! We will pick back up next week, and maybe have another 50 mile week now that Mr. TEK is done with classes for the semester.

Cooking: Thanks to the heat and our outside project (more about that in the next paragraph) I have been cooking the bare minimum to keep us fed. It's not good by any stretch, and it certainly doesn't help that I'm in a bit of a slump. After about a year of no eggs, no beef, no pork, or no dairy you tend to run out of ideas. I'm totally craving some home made stuffed shells pasta with 4 cheeses and italian sausage. yyyyyuuummmm...

Outside Project: The Patio. The concrete is in, the fence is up, the plants are in place. We still have a small pile of topsoil to disperse around the yard. I am so sick of yard work though! It is certainly worth it, as I love our "Beer Fridays" where we sit on the patio and have a beer and either chat or read or I knit.

I had an awesome thing happen to me last week.... I got a great haircut! I'll write a full post about that too.

(Mr. TEK might not be able to have butter, but Duke doesn't mind having his portion!)

Independence Weekend Wrap-Up

I love a summer long weekend, especially now that our patio has been completed and is set up with seating. We were pretty busy all weekend, but I had some time to do some “me” stuff. Did I work on all the crafting projects I wanted to? No, not really. But the housework was caught-up, yard work too. Here’s my recap:

Friday: 10 mile bike ride at Sterling State Park, then a trip to Lowe’s to see about getting the fencing to provide some privacy to our new outdoor space. We ended the evening with a couple of beers on the patio. (Bell’s Oberon and Paulaner Hefe-weizen)

Saturday: We started early with 15 miles on the bikes, then did a bunch of hard-labor yard work. We needed to fill in around the new cement, and prep the center area for landscaping; using the dirt they had taken out of the area- which was littered with sod, rocks, and plant roots. It was not easy, and we had to take several breaks, lest we get heatstroke. No heatstroke, but I tweaked my lower back. It’s still a little sore, so I’ve been taking it easy. The rest of the day was housework galore, but it got done. That’s all that really matters to me!

Sunday: I had a nice coupon in addition to the mega-sale going on at the Banana Republic Outlet, so I picked up my sister-in-law and we went shopping. The mall is over an hour away from where we live, so it was an all-day shopping trip. We both needed work clothes, so we stocked up at Banana Republic, and then I stocked up some more at the Ann Taylor Outlet Store. It was definitely worth the drive. In the evening I started the Black Forest Cupcakes again for the 4th of July party at my Grandma’s house on Monday.

Monday: Work holidays can’t really be bad, can they? Mine started with a cup of tea and my knitting out on the patio. I got to the point of decreasing on Todd’s hat, however when I looked at it, I didn’t start my decreases soon enough (le sigh). Before I could properly deal with that, there was housework to do, video games to play, and cupcakes to finish, and a party to attend! I had purchased the supplies to make this paper plate tiered dessert plate thingie, but I don’t own a hot glue gun, so I couldn’t make it before the party. But my Grandma has one- so I was able to throw two together with my cousin, Nicole. I did not have the presence of mind to take pictures, but it was super easy and looked super cute, so I’m sure I’ll make more. The party was fun and the cupcakes were delicious.

When I got home, I frogged several inches from the hat, and got the live stitches picked up onto a combination of thread and circular needles. I absolutely intend to finish the hat this weekend.Since I demolished any progress I had made on the hat, I did not take any pictures. That’s something else I have to get better about. I’m working on it though! 


Old photo of Duke "helping" me knit. He's keeping my pattern from floating away!

There's Nothing Like a Long Weekend

It's been a pretty crazy week for me leading into what is going to be a crazy weekend, but good things did happen. We now have a patio on the side of our house! Hooray for outdoor spaces! And just in time for 4th of July.

Unfortunately, due to the pouring of concrete, and the preparations for the great yard work weekend from hell, I did not do much with my hobbies. I'm hoping that despite all of the work that Mr. TEK has planned I'll be able to do some baking for a 4th of July party, finish Todd's hat, and maybe do a tiny bit of sewing I have piling up.

The sewing is nothing fancy or special, just repairing a couple of pairs of pants, but it's something.

There is nothing like writing a blog post from your backyard on a beautiful day, unless concrete sealant fumes drive you back inside.