I think I can

do a century on my bike. ??? That is a LOT of miles. I've only ever ridden 67 miles.

I was planning for my first century to be in September and it would be this one: Peach of a Century. It sounded tame with promises of mostly flat, rolling hills and moderate climbs. I like hills, but over about 30 miles or so I like them...not so sure about 100!!

So, I got to thinking about my goals. You know those pesky little buggers that guilt you subconsiously into conscious guilt ridden action for setting them or in my case a blatent and frequent sabbotage. One goal for this year was to knock out a "couple centuries". This idea rolls off the top of my tongue like butter. The idea rolls smoothly. In application I'm still unsuccessful only because I haven't even actually attempted the goal. That is of course a very important step in success or failure apparently.

I was toying with the idea of doing the Crater Lake METRIC Century on August 16th. However, we are going camping that day and I was trying to figure out all the logistics to make everyone happy and the traveling smooth and it isn't going to work so smoothly. Although this is a very excellent goal for next year.

My biking partner in crime up here suggested we attempt the Covered Bridge ride out in the Willamette Valley. So, I being the geek that I am had to go investigate the elevation gain for the ride and fancy that it is only a mere 3,500-ish feet of gain the whole 100 miles. The first number doesn't scare me....the second number "100 miles" doesn't feel like butter on my tongue anymore! It feels more like indigestion.

I am going to knock this baby out of the goal box on August 10th. Wish me lot's of physical and mental endurance. There, I'm committed I said it out loud.

Really now animals...go away!

Dear Mr. Coyote,

I think you are beautiful, but can you please not stroll out in front of me when I'm going down the hills of Hockinson. It scares me and you were a big ass coyote; skinny, but bigger than my dog and that freaked me out for a nano second. Then I realized I could scare you out of the street by making this really weird noise like this --->whisckpschhhht! Then you ran into the bushes and all I could think of was that you were mad at my noise and were now tracking me.

So can you please be more careful when crossing the street. You could get hurt out there!

Sincerely,
The weird girl who sings to herself while spinning her wheels out in the country.

I ran right off that elliptical and into the woods

I blew off my ride tonight. Mara was not happy with me. I cannot commit to anything. I have exercise ADD. I plan my week out so nicely and then it is any one's call what I'm actually going to do to move this body. Maybe I'm just flexible, easygoing, I can roll with change right? Or is that what I'm telling myself?

Let's back track. My ride was to be at 6pm. So, at 4pm I go out to the garage and start cleaning my bike which is up on the spin doctor. I clean my chain and it is filthy so instead of the basic wipe down and lube I decide to do the full 9 yards and actually scrub it with degreaser and get my bucket of suds out for a thorough cleaning. As I remove my wheels I notice I have another flat! Damn it. This time on the front. I must not be seating my tubes correctly. I didn't have another spare tube so my ride was not looking good. Yes, I could have ridden my other bike, but I wasn't feeling strong enough to do the hills and climbs on my double today in the 91 degree heat. Excuses, excuses...we'll get to that.

I call Mara and tell her that I'm not going on the ride (after I pussy foot around with my excuses). However, now I have a really shiny clean bike to ride tomorrow morning :) She was not amused I'm sure.

I come in the house and jump on the elliptical because I needed to get in some kind of exercise before the days end. ZZZZZZ...BORING! I had my tunes plugged firmly into my ears, but damned if I can ever love boring cardio on a machine. So after 25 minutes on that thing I literally ran out the back door and did a two mile run out on our back hilly road. I didn't tell a soul, I just ran right off the thing and into the woods.

Something is very wrong with me lately.

On my run all I could think of was that I probably should have actually told Edward or one of the kids that I was going to run out back, but that didn't even cross my mind until I was a mile into my run. What if a bear attacked me, what if a lynx decides to pounce on my head and scratch my eyes out, what if I tripped over a bunny and hurt my wittle self? Because those things *could* have happened...right? And nobody would have known where I was. Next time I'll leave a note.

It is smoldering hot and I think it has gone to my brain; the worse thing that would have really happened would be that I would have passed out from heat stroke! Screw the animals, I am my own worst enemy.

Cherry Days

It is July and although the cherry's are "late" this year, but we still enjoyed a day under the VERY hot sun (temps in the high 90's) picking this beloved fruit out in Hood River.

We started the day meeting up with the Hagen's at Cherry Karma's Purple Pit stop where we did some kid crafts, drank delicious cherry smoothies, admiring some glass jewelry/crafts, and ate some little cherry brownies.

Next, we headed over to Lavender Valley lavender farm to learn how to make lavender wands. The smell of the acres of lavender fields was intoxicating.

I love this smell, it reminds me of all of my home births. It was so fun to watch how our personalities emerged while attending to this craft. Some of us had fierce determination to keep at the complicated task of weaving, while others frustration gave up to abandon the wand or put it on the back burner for a later attempt at home w/o the 90 degree heat fueling their impatience :).

After the lavender farm visit we headed over to Alices Orchard where we got our buckets and headed out to the fields of cherry picking and eating bliss. The Rainer cherries were not ready yet so we couldn't pick those. We picked Lapin cherries that grow on very small trees so the kids can reach them.
Time for a break under the shade of the cherry trees to eat some of that hard work. Little cherry pickers sweat fiercely under the pounding rays of the sun and shove mouthfuls of cherries before calling it quits.I think we walked out of that field with over 40 lbs of cherries amongst our 2 families. Satori became over heated and looked like she was dizzy, so I took her back to the car and cooled her off with some ice to suck on and a break in the shade.

She seemed to recover alright and I coaxed us on to our last stop...the winery. The the older kids came up with a plan to end us at Sushi Hana for dinner. We didn't argue with this idea.

We headed over to Cathedral Ridge Winery where Mara and I enjoyed a little taste test of some of their wines which was nice. The kids were not allowed in the building which they were disgruntle about; however, there was a huge and beautiful garden outside to explore, so they did and found an injured butterfly which gave them plenty of entertainment.

After a fun day, we headed back to town to enjoy a feast of Sushi at Sushi Hana. They were having a special "all plates $1.50 so we just filled up on some delicious food. Yummy. I tried a few new varieties that I had never seen before. One was called the Vegas and I have no idea what was in it, but it was so sinfully delicious. Somehow they fry the whole roll which leaves the outside just a bit crispy. Strangely delightful. Everyone was stuffed to the gills as we now rolled out of the restaurant and headed to our homes.

A fantastic summer day with great company.

Playing with Macro

Just some neat shots from the past week.

The dragon fly who kept visiting my garden


And the artsy shot I'm not quite happy with. Playing around with my silloette on the wall at sunset last night. I look pregnant where I was holding the camera. I still like it, I'll work on another one with the tripod.


The flowers in Mara's garden. .

Big A$$ Beaver attack...aka...when animals attack the helmet/lycra clad folk on spinny things

Was that a long enough title or what? So no beavers were involved, but due to my friend who will remain nameless (but is linked in my side bar) we will say the "beagle" in my story sounds so much more exciting when it is a big a$$ BEAVER! Yes, all the Primus people unite and think about Winona's beaver for a moment. Yes, that was lovely can I tell my tale now?

Okay, are you back? Really, because I need you to listen. Here we go...

This summer has been weird: I attract animals.

At the very beginning of summer I did a big ride with some friends and we almost hit a DEER. It just strolled out into our path, thank goodness we were paying attention and going slow enough to see it and slow down for it to meander across the road.

Tues: on my ride a ginourmous toad (that we thought was a rock) jumped into our path on the road barely missing us on a downhill.

Wed: I almost crash, slam on my breaks (going 39mph downhill) smoke flying, back tire fishtailing, but again everything fine. <---no animals, just thought I'd slip in a scary personal moment.

Today,

Mara and I are chatting riding the country road and all of a sudden a really mad fat Beagle comes chasing me trying to either bite my ankle or my rear wheel. I started yelling NO NO NO, BAD DOG NO!!!! Which did NOTHING so I had to out pedal him. We laughed about that even though I was shaking.

THEN,

In the last few miles of my ride I was in between groups. I was trying to catch up with this fast group about 1/4 mile in front of me when OMG A HUGE HORSE ON MY RIGHT STARTS GALLOPING AND SNARLING FULL SPEED TOWARD HIS "FENCE" AND.JUMPS.OUT.OF. HIS.YARD AND INTO THE ROAD LITERALLY 3-4 car lengths in front of me and is going all sketchy crazy running up and down the road at me. I kept my pee in...no I did not soak my diaper spandex today and anyways I had on my thin shorts so it would have been apparent. Pshhah, lycra hate-ahs!

I get off my bike and head toward a blackberry bush (because those little thorns will scare away the big ASS horse. Every time I would start to try to get back on my bike it seemed he/she whatever big a$$ horse got mad and seemed to gallop at me.

So, I tapped into my horse whisperer mode<---really I have one and I start saying softly "it's okay, whoa horsey, calm down, whoa, it's okay" and it started to calm down and at least not come rushing me.

Finally, (like 5 mins after the break out), the owner comes out and gets the crazy horse and puts it back into the same area that the thing just busted out of!!! As he mumbles how some kids must have spooked him angry.gif OMG if you have a sketchy horse that is easily spooked, please keep him/her/whatever big a$$ horse locked up dufuss!

Thanks for listening.

I need to report him for being such a negligent owner. People/kids/cars/bikes could be injured for cryin' out loud.

Red

My new bike. goes. so . faaaaasssssssssttt. I luvs her.



My new hair, hmm. Its temporary and fun and also red. I got teased a lot about my new bike/hair coordination.