Seattle
Public Market
My team, at the Victory Party
Mt. Hood
Columbia River
More to follow, stay tuned! I haven’t had all the time in the world to edit and post, so be patient (hannah!)
Greetings from Portland!
Just a quick post to let you all know I finished, and I finished well. Everything went relatively smoothly, except for sore knee. But I’m done, and I’m glad.
Thanks for all your prayers!
. . .getting your luggage right before you have to go to bed! I was getting kind of worried–the afternoon had past, and no lost bag. Then the evening coming and going, and nothing. FINALLY, after filling up my arms with extra toiletries from the front desk, a harried looking man walked into the lobby carryin my lost bag! It felt SOOO good to brush my teeth!
My bike made it, in several pieces, but we’ve been able to put them all back together again. My front quick-release skewer was completely missing, must have fallen out of the box in transit, but I was able to walk to a bike shop and get another one.
In completely unrelated news, my humongous Stampin Up order shipped and is arriving in OHio the same day I am! NEw toys to play with when I get home! YAy yAY YAY!
Tomorrow’s the big day! Pray for my stomach!
Just a quick note from the hotel lobby to say hello from Seattle! The weather is great today, but it’s Saturday that really counts. Praying for gentle temps and dry skies. Flight was long, but uneventful, except that they lost one of my bags. Oh well, they tell me they’ll deliver them here later.
I’ll post more later!
Thank yous to all of my sweet friends who have encouraged me! I feel bolstered and strengthened by all your support, and I can’t wait to give you reports of my success. I’m leaving EARLY tomorrow morning for Seattle, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to get online until I get home next Wednesday. I will try, though, and if I can’t get to a computer, I’ll have Chad post here and tell you how I did.
I love you guys!
I just don’t know what to do with myself. I think I’m just really overwhelmed by this trip and bike event this weekend, and it’s making me super-emotional and sensitve about everything else. I’m just so afraid I’m going to fail again! I’m not even excited about it-I just dread it. I like the other cyclists on my team, and I get along with them fine, but I don’t have any real friend there. I’m usually pretty self-sufficient, but this week, I’m really anxious and raw. I don’t want to go all by myself. I’m too nervous to carry all of it alone. There are some other pressures in my life right now, too, and I’m having a hard time compartmentalizing. So I dont’ even know why I’m unloading this on my blog, except that I need you, my friends, to tell me that I can do this. And that it’s going to be ok.
It is going to be ok. Right?
We went to Granny’s tonight for dinner. Sausage and orange potatoes (only orange because they cook in the paprika-y sausage grease), cabbage noodles, homemade applesauce. . .great meal for carb loading! Anyways, it was nice to visit with people I don’t often see.
Granny Annie and my cousin, Kristen:
My cousin, Whitney, who is suddenly grown up!
And Tony, my cousin Jesse’s little boy:
He was never too sure of me, so I usually just got this suspicious face.
I told her I wouldn’t be able to work on these until Sunday, but you know me. I just can’t NOT play around with them a teensy tiny bit!
Helps that she’s gawgeous.
And now for a little fun with the cross-process action. . .
I got so many great shots today, I don’t know how to narrow it down!
The newest member of the clan: Edson.
Maci:
lily:
Gabi:
Brandon:
Liz:
Laurel:
Happy Independence Day!!!
Apparently, I am much too in love with the family I work for to stay away from them even on my week off! I was lonely and bored yesterday afternoon, so I called Kristen and offered to drop off her Stampin’ Up order. She was excited to get it, so I went over and ended up staying for dinner and s’mores. Ben was cute but crabby, so I didn’t get any good pictures of him, but Emma was hamming it up for the camera.
Chad and I went on a walk around downtown Medina last night. Such a beautiful evening! Perfect weather, crips air, lovely lovely lovely. I had my little purse camera with me, and I was holding it by my side, randomly shooting the area, just to see what I’d get. This is my favorite shot:
And this one, too. I actually aimed at this though. I love the hardware store!
I have nothing planned today. That is not always a good thing, because when I think I have all the time in the world, I get nothing done. I’m always going to do it "later." But maybe it’s ok to have a day to chill and do nothing and sit around in my pajamas til 11:13 in the morning.
Funny story. Yesterday, Chad and I went out to the Eddy’s Bike Shop in Stow and bought some new shorts, chamois butt’r (hee hee!), and toe clips. We came home, Chad installed one of the clips, and I decided to try it out in the driveway to see how it worked. Well, we have a narrow drive, the car was in it, and the grass on the side of the drive has been turfed and is uneven. Can you see where this is going? So I’m riding very slowly, trying to avoid the garage, the car, Chad, the ruts in the grass, and I have to make a sharp turn. And I just fall over. Kerplump. Right on my face, with my right foot still in the toe clip. Chad very graciously did NOT laugh until he was telling the story later to all our friends. Apparently, it was quite hilarious. I didn’t get hurt, other than wounding my pride and getting a grass stain on the knee of my favorite capris. So I went inside, put on my helmet and my gloves (wasn’t going to break my head open learning how to use toe clips, for goodness’ sake!), and tried it out on the road. They’re weird, and they’ll take some getting used to. And they change my stance and sitting position slightly, which worries me. I don’t want to be sore during my event in TWO WEEKS. We pack the bikes and ship them off this Thursday, so I’m going to try to get lots of practice in before then.
I get to "carb-load" during these next two weeks. The BEST part of training!
Recent photos:
Kim at Hiraeth tagged me today in this fun meme! My five favorite local restaurants. . .Hmm, just five? Ok, my top five in the Cleveland/Akron/Medina area.
1. Dan’s Dogs. Come on. You all saw this coming! I LOVE Dan’s Dogs with a passion usually reserved for books and certain fuzzy grey kitties. It has the BEST onion rings in the whole world, and entire page in the menu devoted to different dogs, a smashingly wonderful sandwich called the Chicken LaScola, coloring contests, milkshakes topped with almonds, a giant hotdog-man cut-out, and a juke box. Remember, you may already be a wiener!
2. Main Street Cafe. Free burger Mondays! They also have other food–blackberry chicken with ginger rice; white balsamic vinaigrette; french onion soup ( my favorite! ) But the best really is the free burgers on Monday night with the purchase of any beverage. It’s always packed, always fun, always delicious. ANd we can WALK there.
3. The Post House. This one might surprise some of you, because it’s just a little truck stop in the middle of no-where in the Marshallville/Smithville area. But they do have the world’s best crinkle fries and their blackberry pie is to DIE FOR! One time, the aunties and I split a piece three ways, and when the waiter brought it to the table, we all had our forks ready. He was like, "I’m a little bit scared to put this on the table, I don’t want to be accidently stabbed!" I licked the plate clean. In public. I’m such a pig.
4. Sky Way. Our favorite drive-in. I love all drive-ins, though. I think it’s because when I was little, our family would get in the car at least once a week during the summer, and drive to Swensons or Sky Way and eat burgers and listen to the Tribe game on the radio. It’s fun, cheap, relaxing, tasty, and close. I recommend the burgers, the fried chicken sandwich, the fries (but ask for extra crispy) and the chocolate milk shakes.
5. Pad Thai. Look! A non-diner/burger place! Our girl has some class after all! This restaurant opened in Montrose a few years ago. YUMMY food–hot & sour soup, eggrolls, Spicy curry peanut Chicken (no calories, of course), Siam beef, tiramisu cheesecake. . .yes, tiramisu cheesecake!! It also has a glass floor in the foyer with fish swimming underneath. Tres chic, yes?
Oh. That’s five already. Ok, here are some honorable mentions.
6. Tulipan–Hungarian tea shop in Wooster
7. Heck’s cafe up in Cleveland
8. The Medina County Fair. I kid you not!
9. The Winking Lizard
10. Rizzi’s Other Place
11. Parassons
But my two absolute FAVORITE restaurants in the WORLD are not local.
Joe T. Garcia’s in Fort Worth (I want to cry it’s so good!) and Pars Cove in Chicago (Persian FOOD!!))
Whew. That made me hungry! I’m tagging: Jenn, Melissa, Luke Fodor (because i KNOW you are reading my blog! and you live in a good food town. . .) Liz, and Joe. You can post your answers in the comments if you want.
I love days like today. Of course, too many of them in a short period of time makes me aimless and unhappy. But once a week I can handle! I went to the grocery store, flirted with the laundry, tidied the house in a desultory manner, read my book, passed out reading said book, walked the dog, stamped some cards, talked on the phone, groomed the hairy pets, and inspected my veggie patch. I am extremely unhappy with my cucumbers, which are refusing to grow. But I finally have baby green tomatoes, so all is not lost. I think my great garden spot is not as sunny as I was hoping, but it’s as good as it gets around here. Today is also noteworthy in that I had my first winter-longing of the season. I am rather hopeless about wanting the exact opposite of whatever I happen to have at any given time. In the winter, I dream of hot, steamy summer days like today. In the summer, I long for those cozy, shut-in-the-snow days of February. I’m not as bad as I used to be, but it irritates me all the same. There is much to enjoy about these days: the lavender that is bursting with purple flowers, popsicles, flip-flops, long days, warm pavement, cycling without a jacket, eating al fresco, watching little green tomatoes form in the garden, hanging clothes out on the line, sparklers, picnics, driving at night with the windows down, strawberries. . .the list goes on and on.
Only 19 days until the Seattle-to-Portland Classic! I’m getting excited! We have our last team ride on Saturday, then it’s good-bye to the bikes until STP.
Ok. . .done rambling now. . .
