Snacks the Pegasus

Good ol' Bent Creek

2012-01-20T13:21:00.000-08:00

Just shy of two years ago, now, I took my first photo at five points at Bent Creek.

I took this photo this past week, the very same day that Milwaukee was getting snow! It was nearly 50 degrees out, and really nice and warm in the sun. Short sleeves and shorts! There's no way to put this nicely, so....

Nana nana boo boo!

Sorry it's terrible and cold where you are.

Later on in the ride, though, karma repaid me and I got a flat. But it was still nice out, suckers!

Sleigh Ride '11

2012-01-06T18:00:00.000-08:00

Also around Christmas, a bunch of us bundled up and went for a sleigh ride. Luckily, there was just enough snow. Our family and friends filled one sleigh pulled by a team of these leggy black Percherons, and behind then you can just see a team of Belgians.

Here most of us are, smiling for the camera,

and here we are in our natural state, which is a kind of constant movement, usually in search of things or people misplaced :)

Here we are, stopped for a breather.

And here we are at the halfway point, stopping for hot chocolate... and hot chocolate with booze in it, for those who didn't bring a thermos of their own.

It's a lovely sight to see two teams of horses parked in the lot of a north woods bar, isn't it? It was nice to get inside and warm up before heading back out for the return trip, which was lit only by the lights on the sleigh.

LlamaRama

2011-12-30T21:30:00.001-08:00

I did a lot of things over Christmas 'break', but you'll have to excuse me for reporting on them all out of order. One of the more exciting and frightening things was taking a llama for a walk, and I'm going to blog on that one first.

For the week between Christmas and New Year's, most of my dad's side of the family goes 'up north' to Tomahawk, WI. Formerly the family cabin, my Aunt Andy and Uncle Paul remodeled and have lived there for many years. They get the distinct honor and pain in the neck of hosting us all at least once a year. Well as it turns out, my aunt knows a woman, Rachel, who owns llamas. One of the family outings was to her farm, to take her llamas for a walk.

So what's it like to walk a llama? It's pretty much like leading a horse, if horses could spit and were incredibly willful. Llamas are strange and therefore unpredictable to the general populace, which I happen to be a part of in this matter.

My charming girl, who had recently fallen on a slippery floor onto a pile of poo, was very hard to read. Every minute or so, Prairie Flower would balk, and it was up to me to gently pull but not tug, coax but not demand, that she please keep continuing forward if it would please her thank you. As the walk went on, she started 'humming', which sounds like what I would imagine a sasquatch to sound like. Like Chewey, but not so dramatic. I tried scratching behind her ears to reassure her that we would be turning back and heading for home shortly, but she only drew back and looked at me in distrust.

And distaste.

Everyone had a different experience on the walk, with very different llamas. Edie had a fairly easy time with her llama, Morning Glory.

Steve got the matron of the herd. She was not totally keen on walking but plugged away at the back of our procession for most of the walk. Her number of years was in direct correlation with the snaggleness of her teeth.

Ruben had what might have been the easiest time with the gelding of the herd, which actually seemed to enjoy the outing. It led the way and was amiable and possibly even affectionate.

Sue's llama just seemed to be rubbing it in our faces. While most of us were anxiously trying to read our charges and figure out just how far back the ears would go before spitting commenced, Sue got fuzzy little kisses and all sorts of affection.

What a showoff.

However, one only had to look at Travis to know that one had it good. Travis spent the entire 20 minutes or so with a llama that seemed to hate him and everything he stood for, which in this case was only a simple walk in the woods. Twenty minutes spent at the end of a lead, avoiding the drops of spit when his llama sprayed the air in frustration (or apparently some dispute over hierarchy).

At last we arrived back at their pasture and set them free. You don't have to know much about llamas at all to sense that Travis' llama did not enjoy the outing or our company.

Overall, it was fun and actually kind of an adventure. It's not often you get to participate in something like this.

Team Stampede Submission

2011-12-19T09:47:00.001-08:00

The color isn't accurate (the purple should be a little more reddish, and less eye-hurty), but this is my submission for Team Stampede's kit. If they know what's good for them, they'll go with the purplest of all the kits.

Team Stampede's page:
(For some reason the link option isn't showing up on the blog template...)

http://teamstampede.tumblr.com/

Merry Christmas / Prosperous New Year / Hey, thanks!

2011-12-14T13:31:00.000-08:00

Holiday cards for many kinds of salutations. We got lucky at work and managed to beg the help of a couple of guys at the downtown Milwaukee agency Cramer-Krasselt, who took some great photos for us.

I made a few different versions- One for the Chinese New Year, for our guys in Taiwan, a simple Thank You with no 'cute' quips for our European customers, and a classic Santa/Christmas card for the heck of it. I think I might have missed the mark with the typography on the Christmas card, but overall I'm pretty pleased with the day's effort.

The Cruel Mistress

2011-12-06T21:16:00.000-08:00

I'm beginning to realize I use the term 'cruel mistress' quite a bit... in this case I'm referring to Graphic Design. My job at Hayes is drawing to a close, and I'm on the hunt for other design jobs in the cycling/outdoors/sports realm, because it interests me and because I'm efficient, proficient and elicit great sales in the cycling industry. (WOO HOO alliteration!) Recently I found what looked to be a pretty cool job that unfortunately pays a pittance. It gave a range that started at $20,000. And their ad got 60+ applicants in three days. I was talking to Robb about this job and just kind of hashing things out. It went something like this:

Robb: ...Yeah, but that salary at the high end is like working at Target.
Me: But they said they got 60+ applicants, and they even had a guy lined up to start in that salary range.
Robb: What happened to him, why didn't that go through?
Me: The person mentioned it but I don't remember.... I think maybe he starved to death.
Robb: Hah.
Me: Or it might have been some combination of exposure to the elements and starvation...

Point being, I'm not good at quitting while I'm ahead on jokes, and that times are tough, people! Boo Hoo for me, right? I swing between optimism: "Surely the universe will provide! Things will be ok after this little rough patch! Keep at it!" and despair: "There's nothing out there! And there are hungry designers dying of exposure who will surely take any job at any salary at any cost! Oh, the humanity!"

If you would like to help the universe provide, let me know if you know of anything.

This is my most excellent recent catalog that I use to lure potential employers in. Feel free to pass it on.

To the friends who've already alerted me to opportunities (you know who you are) thank you very much. It stocks the optimism that's in short supply.

Job Hunt 2012 continues....

Lionel Supporter

2011-11-29T15:37:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, I designed a 'Lionel Supporter' t-shirt for Lionel Rocheleau and his family to sell as a fundraiser. He was recently chosen to go to EuroCross, which is an honor and also a financial burden :) If you'd like to help out and learn more, or buy a t-shirt, see the MadCross page for more details.

Crocheted Bling

2011-11-29T09:15:00.000-08:00

As I've said, the urge to craft is upon me, and the list of projects I can do is limited. I recently ran across photos of a big crocheted gold chain so simple that just by looking at it, I could tell how it was made. That's my kind of craft! It was easy, it was funny, and I was halfway finished with it before I thought "What am I going to do with this?"...

I solved that problem. Sort of. I sewed a Hawley 'H' on it, send it to my ol' friend Bloggy at The Hawley Company, and now it's their problem.

The 16th Annual Green Race

2011-11-19T14:11:00.000-08:00

A few weekends ago Todd, Robb and I headed out to watch the 16th Annual Green Race, which is a creek race (using kayaks) on the Green River Narrows. I'm not a paddler, myself, but it's interesting to me, and the spectating was supposed to be prime.

There was limited parking when we got there- there's one long, rural road to park on and we wound up parking a long ways away from the trail. Luckily Robb was thinking quickly when the driver of a truck stopped to ask us a question. With the driver's permission, we hopped in the back and watched the poor suckers trudging down the road as we floated along for a few minutes.

The race is well attended, and that showed along the hike down to the river. Young and old piled up at slightly difficult sections.

We got down to the section of river and watched at different spots as we walked further up. There was a pretty good crowd, and most people were intently watching the racers.

(Hiking on the trails along the river)

You can see paddlers on the other side- we hikers couldn't access that side.

We watched for a while at the end of a particularly hard section. At the end of the run were some volunteers in safety gear, waiting to flip people right side up. It seemed to be pretty common that a paddler would spend the entirety of a section upside down, swept along with no break to right themselves. Fun, right?

Since I don't know much else about whitewater kayaking or the race in general, how about some more photos?

Fin.

Rock Climbing

2011-11-19T13:44:00.001-08:00

Lucky for you, I don't know enough about rock climbing to really talk your ear off about it. Instead, here are a bunch of pictures and a little narrative.

I went rock climbing last weekend for the first time; a 5.9 or 5.10, and nothing death defying since I was on top rope the whole time, but I'm counting it. Here we are parking and unpacking, arriving after a 30 min hike, and setting up at the base of the wall.

I managed to get up this wall, which is slightly sloping, but as you can see from the third photo (the one with my bum in it) it was really smooth and hard for me to learn how to stick to. Please do note that in this second photo, Official Trip Photographer Todd has the camera tilted, making it look easier. He's since been let go. That's Former Official Trip Photographer Todd.

Here I've got one hand hanging onto an undercut in the rock, which made it easier for me to lean back and kind of stand.

All in all, not a bad time for a first climb. The second route I took (the one in all the photos) was much harder than the first. I'm not used to how much or little the shoes grip, and it was frustrating to try to find purchase on what seemed to me like a smooth wall devoid of any purchase. At one point I gave up and said "I want down." only to look up and declare, seconds later, that I was going to finish it. Robb was not amused, but he complied because he knows what's good for him.

Post about Posting

2011-11-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted anything new in a while, but the urge to do wintery-style crafts is upon me. There's no shaking it until I've made scarves for just about anyone I think might want one. Being as this is my fifth year of crocheting only scarves (patterns = HARD) I'm kind of scraping the bottom already. I thought I might learn to knit this year, but to be truthful, I like the simple repetitive act of crocheting long lengths of scarf while I watch a movie or chat with someone.

New Carpet and Living Room Tour

2011-11-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

What is this? you ask. Did you stay at a tacky hotel recently? A: No! That is our new carpet. It's much too big for the room, it's busy and colorful, and I really like it. It's super thick wool, and the colors seem to change all the time in different lights.

I think the 'ol futon needs some different throw pillows to go with the rug, but once you start down that road you find you need new end tables, and a coffee table and some matching throws and then it's too late for you. The pillows stay for now.

We switched up the shelving thang, which used to be horizontal and between the futon and the table.

Check out that handsome fireplace. Surely there's something better that could go on the hearth, but I haven't figured it out, and it's good as-is.

Check out those hot moon bootie slippers and busy flower pattern. Sorry to make you jealous, this just comes naturally to me.

Halloween

2011-11-03T22:27:00.001-07:00

Ok, the original costume idea went out the window while I focused on a couples costume for me and Robb- he was a beekeeper and I was a bee. I also 'remixed' my old showgirl costume for Monday's Halloween costumed CrossFit workout. I've wanted to wear corpse paint (the black and white face paint) for a number of Halloweens now, and I finally got my chance as a Black Metal Showgirl. Here I'm lifting sans feather fan, wig and headpiece.

Here's a photo with those things:

Wicked, right? I had also planned on wearing this to race in, but the morning of it was just way too hard to get up and drive two hours.

But back to the bees! Here are some process shots of the costumes, Robb's beekeeper costume first:

I made a bee smoker out of cardboard and some canvas I had left over from oil painting.

Here the green clips hold the canvas on while the glue dries. (Halloween is the worst time to misplace your hot glue gun)

Amazon provided a great, cheap Safari style straw hat that I spray painted white.

I made some bees from pipe cleaner, following and tweaking a tutorial I found. I took short sections of white tulle and wedged it between the coils for the bee wings (one of my more genius time-saving ideas).

Robb bought a suit you'd use to paint or clean, and voila! Bee keeper for probably under $30, including spray paint and all materials.

We went on a ride, the Pumpkin Pedaler, and there were several other bees there. There was a bevy of bees.

I taped off and painted a cheap yellow silk shirt I found at TJ Maxx.

I made wings from coat hangers around the house and cheap pantyhose in a coffee color- perfect! I had a specific (and anatomically correct) pattern in mind, so I drew it in Sharpie on a piece of paper. That way, I could flip over the paper and trace both wings with fabric paint (or 'puffy paint', as my mom and I used to call it).

I had no idea how to attach these suckers. I wound up winding yarn around the top and bottom pieces, and using electrical tape to secure one side to the other by matching up the curved 'hanger' part of the hanger.

I liked the angle these wound up at. I added a cutesy bow for full cutesy points.

Shoes? No ordinary shoes.

Voila! Bee shoes. The black bow they came with happened to work perfectly to tie a pom pom on.

Not pictured- I bought a cheesy springy bat headband, cut the bats off to make them more antennae-like and added a yellow bow to that as well. I also wore a wig and false eyelashes because you can! You can do these things on Halloween! And that's part of the reason why it's such an amazing holiday. Le sigh. Why can't there be like four Halloweens per year?

Is it so wrong?

2011-10-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

I got caught up going through Lyle's photos. Sometimes I really miss the Wisconsin cross scene. There was one race at CamRock that I remember in particular, and I can't say what year it was, that it happened to be a beautiful, sunny and warm fall day in the middle of a cold streak. Maybe it was more than one year. This certainly looks like the same kind of charmed day.

Skull bong, jam box and beer cans (that were guaranteed to have been picked up and likely recycled at the end of the race). Very considerate low-level mayhem, I miss you.

Halloween Costume .5

2011-10-12T18:49:00.000-07:00

Since this isn't a progress shot of my costume yet, we'll call this post Halloween Costume .5. These are my materials. Any guesses, from those who haven't heard the latest plan?

We've got 2.5 yards of REALLY ugly brown fur (that the pets love, you see), 100 pipe cleaners (or chenille sticks, as they're called these days) and something like 4 yards of cheap white fabric. While I may not totally agree with Columbus Day, I do agree with the sales. I think this is about all I'll need to buy or collect for the costume, which is a nice change from last year's expensive (and TOTALLY WORTH IT) costume. By the way, don't go expecting something on that level again. It's pretty much impossible.

Remember When I Used To Bike?

2011-10-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

I do. Vaguely.

I've done a couple of local CX races since moving, two of the Asheville Cyclocross Series. The first one, the Blue Ridge CrossFit race, was just about 20 minutes from home, and hard to say no to. I was actually planning on just showing up to cheer, but the night before I thought 'Hey, I could race.'

It seems like an easy decision, but lately I've shied away from racing. In Wisconsin, I knew just who I should be ahead of and behind. I knew if it was a national champion beating me, or someone who'd just started racing the season before (ouch, that stings). I knew if someone had recently returned from having a baby, or was just entering their first year of college. Here, I have no idea where I 'should' be in the pack, and I really like it that way. Very few people in Asheville know me or my background, so I like to think I'm racing anonymously, which means a little less anxiety for me. If I show up and have less that spectacular results, I know nobody was expecting me to finish in any particular place, anyway. Feels good, man.

That said, at this past weekend's race I seemed to run into everyone in Asheville that I do know! It was good, though, and not stressful. I didn't ride much this summer (a trend that continues), and so I don't even expect much of myself. (Wow, that looks pretty sad when I type it out, there.) But onward! Two surprise friend sightings were the Becks! Aaron lives 25 min away in Hendersonville, and Jon was visiting, and they decided to try out their first cyclocross race.

I go into an information spewing mode sometimes, and the Becks bore the brunt of it that day. I remember what it was like, going to my first cyclocross race. And I've learned a lot since. What I'm starting to realize is that there's simply not enough time to convey all of that information to someone in the 45 minutes before their race. AND that they (the victim) may not want to be bombarded by info. Whoops. So if I have come off as a know-it-all to you, please know that I was just trying to help. And that I lack impulse control.

On to the race report, shall we? The course was almost perfectly flat, and bumpy, and had some good corners and a nice tough straight-away. For those following along in Wisconsin, it was like the old Whitewater course, without the elevation change of the two little dips and climbs on the edge of the field. I suspect this was even bumpier, though. My lady parts were tenderized throughout the 30 minute race, and took a few days to recover. Sure, that might be TMI, but come on, it's a great way to convey how bumpy the course was, right?

In the local series, all categories of women race with the Men's C's. In the WI 2's races, I was the one being passed by the quick masters, but here in the combined categories, it is I who am doing the passing. It can get annoying (as I'm sure I was in WI) but it is nice to have more people to 'race' against. I also delighted in passing people in the barriers. Only once was I held up, and the rest of the laps, I used the barriers to pass men and gain ground on some of the ladies following me. I may be out of shape, but I can mount and dismount like a champ. Please don't mistake that for pride- that's me clinging to the shreds of a racing career.

Barriers! I felt faster than I look here.

For the last few laps of the race, I went back and forth with a girl. She pulled ahead of me and I sat in, then I cut to the inside of her and got about 10 yards on her through the barriers. We traded on and off in a few sections, and during the last lap I wanted to keep her behind me until the barriers again, but she pulled ahead of me before the straightaway on the back of the course, and I couldn't respond.

Anyway, there's not much more to it. It was fun and it was great to see so many people I knew. At one point, I thought there must be another Katy out on the course, because I was hearing my name yelled so often! Although, there was a Kaysee. Hmmmm.

It feels good to be doing some anonymous racing. Here's to more of that.

Mobius Snips

2011-10-12T14:08:00.001-07:00

GET IT?!

Silver Ball Pinball Museum

2011-10-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Robb and I were up in New Jersey for All Tomorrow's Parties. The music was great, but that was expected. What was not expected was the awesome free admission to the even more awesome pinball museum, Silver Ball.

Robb slipped back into the groove with the Indiana Jones Temple of Doom pinball machine that he used to play as a kid. I was pretty awful at just about everything but inexplicably won when we played The Challenger, a two-player machine that tilted back and forth.

IN YOUR FACE.

For the most part, I wandered around taking photos of great vintage graphics, stopping to play the very coolest looking machines.

This is a game that was created when the Playboy Mansion opened in Chicago. One of the goals of the game was to light up the letters to spell out 'Slick Chick'.

Woo hoo!

Just go ahead and let this last one soak in:

and think about where you went wrong in your life.

Ingenuity Fest

2011-09-29T08:06:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago, we journeyed up to Cleveland for a wedding. We got up there on Thursday night, and one of Robb's friends told him about an art show thing under a bridge. Vague, yes. I was picturing some guerrilla grunge art scene, but in fact it was a pretty big production; The Ingenuity Fest Cleveland.

It was 'under a bridge' not in the Red Hot Chili Peppers sense, but tucked under the full length of this bridge, where I believe they used to run street cars.

It was lit with colorful lights, and there were vendors and artists on either side, and a river of humanity in the middle.

Performing artists:

Neon:

A project where artists were challenged to make chairs from recycled materials from the same factory (I think...)

This chair felt amaaaazing to roll around on. Like a massage for your buns. (The trick was to forget about acting cool/normal and just roll, because it was worth it.)

This was a printmaking booth- the selected volunteers from the audience to press the print under this rocking horse. (The cowboy hat was mandatory.)

Very unexpected, I was once again glad to know people much cooler than I. If not for them, I wouldn't hear about such things as the Ingenuity Fest. Hats off :)

Life Imitates Art, etc

2011-09-19T11:28:00.001-07:00

This here's an update of weekday life.

Projects: I have a screen print from some friend-of-a-friend in college. It's a unique size and requires a custom frame. I always kinda liked this creeper, so I recently bought a custom frame for it. The old one was 1" wide, cherry wood 'look', broken and not quite the right size.

(Here's Snips showing you his creeper claws)

The new frame looks good, but it's 2" wide, and I don't think it looks quite so good as the old one. Uh, besides the fact that it's in one piece. Four sides definitely look better than three.

Like a creepy mustache, I think the thin frame looks better than the thick one.

I've got a lot of pictures of Snips these days, since working from home is Working With Cat.

Bella the Dog and Snips are getting along better these days.

Sometimes I leave the house during the week. You know, to grocery shop and occasionally ride. I'm getting into the habit of a Tues/Thurs ride with a few members of Team Hoffenchard at Bent Creek. Bent Creek's a lot like Kettles, but only 15 min away or so. Point, Asheville.

Sunday!

2011-09-12T19:52:00.001-07:00

Day two of the third weekend down here... how is it all slipping by so quickly?

Having ridden quite a bit the day before, we ate breakfast (oatmeal with blueberries, yum!) and broke down camp at a leisurely pace. Our plan was to split up for the day and meet back at home. Robb and a friend went climbing at Looking Glass (it was pretty easy for them, I hear)...

...and I opted to walk up the less direct way :) I took Bella and started on my hike.

I gathered that it would be quite a little walk, but had no idea what to expect. I'm still not sure how I would rate it. Hike? Walk? It was nearly all climbing, but most of it had clearly been graded recently. In some spots I could see where the trail had been- it looked pretty rough! Some spots would have been difficult with a messenger bag (I had only decided to hike instead of ride for a second day after we had left, so I didn't have a proper bag) and a dog that tugged at her leash the entire way.

(The entire way.)

As it was, the path was about 4' wide and had nicely structured hairpin corners as it climbed higher.

Where water crossed the path, there were rocky dips in the trail, with stepping stones over it.

Toward the top it got a little gnarlier, but I could still get along just fine with one hand full.

About an hour in or so (the best weekends are ones in which you never have to look at a clock) I reached the top. The trail started sloping downward, and I got a little skeptical. There had been a bunch of beaten trails going off this way or that, and now the trail was sloping downward- was this a loop, and had I missed a turn, missing the overlook on top of Looking Glass? I asked someone and they confirmed that the overlook was just a little ways more down the trail.

When I did find it, it was clear. When I stepped out into the sun, the first thing I saw was an expanse of rock that seemed to slide off into nothing, and right at eye level a vulture was soaring on thermals of warm air that breezed past me. Vultures soaring usually happen above your head, and far, far off. I had been hiking through dense cover, and though I obviously knew I had been climbing, I didn't know just how high I had gotten. For lack of a more original thought, it was cool!

I gave Bella some water and tied her up in the shade. I saw the drop off and wanted to explore, and the thought of Bella tugging or tangling her leash had me tying her up immediately.

Then I went and crept to the edge. But it wasn't the edge. As soon as you stood where you had thought the edge was, you could see more smooth rock dropping off.

For instance, here's me standing at the top and aiming the camera to the left.

Walk down a little, and this is your view to the left.

Likewise, this water channel looks like it drops off:

But when you get to the 'edge' you find this.

This is looking back up (yes, I'm trying to give you vertigo).

I think that's about as far as I went! It was steep. And scary. I took this photo of myself (let's not dignify it with 'self portrait') looking down the rock.

Recently some friends of mine were making jokes about someone who had taken photos of himself on his bike tour using a timer... I did not join in. Yeah, it's goofy. But as someone who loves to take [bad] photos of just about everything and everyone, I get bummed that I have all these photos of the people around me doing these fun activities, or funtivities, but very few of ME doing them, other than the icky at-arm's-length riding-my-bike-along photos.

Goofy: yes. Punishable: no. I support taking photos of oneself.

Also in conclusion: It's as I suspected. North Carolina's got a lot of great things to see and experience.

Saturday!

2011-09-12T17:51:00.000-07:00

Third Saturday, now! (Not a whole lot has been happening during the week, besides working and the odd bit of exploring.)

Robb and I were planning to do a ride and maybe a hike or something when he idly commented, "We should have planned on going camping." To which I replied, "It's only 11am. Let's just... go camping." And so we did.

We (Robb) got everything packed up for some good wholesome car camping, drove about 30 min and set up camp in the Mills River area, on 1206/Yellow Gap Rd, in a free camping spot. (FREE CAMPING!)

After we staked out a spot, we went out for a long ride. Well, it was long enough for me, at least, at about four hours. The ride had all sorts of the great kind of stuff I moved down here for.

River crossings

Some adventurous terrain (though still not quite as wild as Laurel Mountain/Pilot Rock when I last saw it.)

Suspension bridges

Pretty scenery

Neat wildlife

(+ an owl and a big nasty millipede that squirmed every which way when I picked it up)

At the end of the day, we ate chips and salsa and spaghetti squash, and drank beer and Blackberry Sparks (I couldn't help myself, ok?!) Relaxing around (and messing with) the fire was the order of the evening.

Tomorrow, the Sunday activities!

Labor Day Weekend

2011-09-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

The first week here, I chilled. I'm still working for Hayes, but moving from salaried to 30 hrs/week part time. They informed me that it would work best if they could have a week to get things set up, as it's kind of a unique situation for them. It was fine by me! I spent most of the week unpacking (though I did sneak out for a ride) and was glad for the time off.

That brings us up to my second weekend in town. Robb's parents visited and we toured the area, scouring shops and restaurants for Asheville's best. So much shopping! SO much eating!

We briefly visited the downtown area to check out the Lexington Avenue Arts & Fun Festival, aka a great excuse to dress up in costume outside of Halloween. There were some pretty cool vendors there, too.

Reminded me of my friend Asia and her deep yearning for a VW Van. (I know it's still there, honey.)

The Silver Drummer Girl. Robb said a friend of his recognized her outside of her silver paint and tried to date her. What tactics he used, or how aggressively he tried, I didn't ask.

There was bicycle jousting. (I did not participate. It seemed involved.)

On to some of the vendors!

These were part cool, part really badly sewn.

Um, and then a third part badly sewn.

Pretty cool paintings that remind me of an artist in Chicago. A little too distressed for my tastes, but I like the illustrations and the colors used.

Earrings made from scraps of paper left over from prints.

Cool earrings from Fernworks.org - these were probably my favorite all day. There were different things like honeycombs, bees, lichen, coral and leaves sealed in resin. It reminded me of my grandma and her penchant for amber.

That was only a small part of our three day weekend, but my computer would probably freeze if I tried to cram it all in here.

Soft Indoor Cat?

2011-09-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

The cat very much enjoys it here in Asheville. He's never been an outdoors cat, but here not only does he have all sorts of windows to look out over bushes teeming with birds, he's got a small fenced in yard to prowl around. He's been outside in 'the wild', too, but seems to prefer the safety of the fenced in area. There's plenty do to, like stalk the shrews that live all over the place. Bella, Robb's dog, has been hunting them for months but never caught one.

Imagine my surprise when the soft indoor cat caught his first shrew. (And three others since then, too!)

Bella was keenly interested.

I call this one The Killer.

At night, though, he turns into The Thriller.

First Weekend in NC

2011-09-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

I've got some catching up to do! As always.

My first Sunday in town, I hiked and rode on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Robb and his friend went climbing nearby, so we split up and adventures were had. I got to hike in and see what they were going to climb, then I headed back out to grab my bike for the ride.

I rode over the Linn Cove Viaduct, and also stopped in the little information center to learn more about it, and the surrounding area.

(Don't judge my helmet, I had to borrow one! I don't usually do pink and baby blue.)

Back at the car I napped and relaxed for a while before getting my shoes on for a hike. I met an 85 year old WWII veteran, and we hiked to the top of what i think was Pilot Knob with him. He moved pretty well for an old dude.

He told stories aaalllll along the way :) Here we're hanging out at the top. He showed me a way to do a loop instead of descending the way we came, which would have been very steep and rocky.

Back at the parking lot, he rejoined his wife and I moseyed on back to the climbing area and rejoined the guys.

All in all, not a bad day :)

Snips and the Move

2011-08-30T06:33:00.001-07:00

We made it! Joey, Emily Joy and Kate came over to help me pack, and Dad came to lend a hand and his F150. With the truck, Kate's trailer and a 15 passenger van we'd borrowed, we moved everything to the packing location in one trip! Of course, that trip was during rush hour traffic, but you can't win them all.

Such excellent friends, to help me move. Andy generously loaned his roof rack, too, so I was able to drive down with 5 bikes on the roof.

On Saturday morning we loaded up the car, mostly with artwork, and headed out. As a side note, the moving truck just got here this morning (Tues) and am I ever glad I took the artwork with me! I'm not sure if anything got broken yet, but things sure got shifted and squished.

Here's the car riding low.

After taking the photo, I shuttled Snips into the car. We had planned on giving him a little something to sedate him for the first leg, but he ralphed that up. That sums up the whole move for Snips: traumatizing. In car trips past, he's meowed for 45 minutes, then settled down and slept, but not this time. He spent the whole 13 hours panting, meowing, and cramming himself in small places. The last few hours he finally settled down, but insisted on being swaddled tightly in a towel.

Shoving his head under a box:

Aaand at last.

I'd feel bad about taking so many photos of an animal so clearly distressed, but there was nothing to do for him. I tried shushing, petting, etc etc. He would not be consoled. Once we got to the house, though, he settled right down and seems to love the place. Lots of windows to watch birds, and a backyard to explore. He took to it quickly. So though he did indeed suffer, you can all rest assured that he's none worse for the wear.

Lots to catch up on here, but much to unpack! More later.

Oh my.

2011-08-24T13:53:00.001-07:00

This morning it hit me, as I collected my thoughts and sorted things out as I woke up.

Today's Wednesday.

Tomorrow's Thursday, and Robb flies into Milwaukee in the evening.

And merely the day after tomorrow is my last half-day of work, and packing the truck in the afternoon.

And when I wake up the next morning, I'll be waking up and Robb and I will be driving down to my new home.

Oh my.

Sunrises: They are all that.

2011-08-23T05:37:00.000-07:00

Last night was a late night, and this morning is an early morning.

I headed home from work around 1AM and got home only to find that I couldn't sleep. There are just too many things to think about these days, first and foremost the catalog that has to go to print in just a few hours. I wound up getting up, showering, and coming back to work around 3:30AM. Lucky I did, though, because I found plenty of things that needed tweaking. So here I sit, awaiting edits- the calm before the storm, and the last few hours of concentrated stress on my calendar before moving.

Just before handing it off, and right around sunrise, I looked outside and there was some really pretty fog in the field next to Hayes.

As I turned to get back to the grind, I noticed it was shifting from the field and seeping over the road toward Hayes. Retreat!

Everything's Coming up Milverine

2011-08-21T17:40:00.000-07:00

After a few really hectic and stressful weeks, large projects are finally getting done, and it feels gooood! Today's a long day at work, then I should be home free.

Excellent things which I have done:
Put up the family art show.
Cut and installed the largest vinyl decal I've done yet for the family art show.
Enjoyed the family art show's opening with friends and family!
Packed all the bikes I need to.
Carefully packed all the artwork I'm taking to NC.
Caught the fish, dug out the plants and cleaned the sand from the 55 gallon fish tank.
Sold my track bike to Vicky.
Got Vicky and Cupcake to help me move the fish tank by luring them to the apartment with a track bike.
Sold said tank for enough to buy a lovely small Fluval Edge Aquarium to take with me to NC.

On the way home from the Aquatics Unlimited, I was driving through Milwaukee and going past places that brought back memories. Leon's Frozen Custard, the Asian food store on 27th St, my old house on Montana St, the Ben's Cycle and Fitness and Bayview/KK area... I was feeling pleased with my industrious ways and enjoying the mild, sunny weather and thinking about the other places I should go and things I should see before heading out in less than a week.

Then, one very special piece of Milwaukee I had forgotten about came striding down the sidewalk toward me as I drove north. Shoulders back, arms in the slightly bowed muscle-bound action figure position, orange evening sun glowing on a tanned chest... !!!!

It was the Milerine! I'll explain. Or, I'll explain as well as I can.

Milverene bears a striking resemblance to Wolverine, and he's often seen on 1st St in Milwaukee. He's usually shirtless, sometimes with his shirt hanging out of his back pocket. Even when it's cold, though, you can spot him by his walk, facial hair and tousled 'do. There's a facebook page where his movements are tracked.

It was special to see him one last time. Really special.

Steudel Show Set-Up

2011-08-15T11:20:00.000-07:00

This past Friday there was a jazz crawl in Plymouth- incidentally, the night before our set-up time for the Steudel show. The relatives all gathered on Friday evening for a night of jazz and precipitation. It was pouring out! Things were still pretty lively, though. We made our way around to coffee shops, the art center, bars, restaurants and more bars with jazz ensembles tucked away in a corner.

Jazz featuring a flute, yes sir.

That night we made our way to Lakeland college, where the three previous generations of my family attended college. (My generation scattered to the four corners, alas.) We stayed on the cheap in some guest rooms in the dorms.

The next morning we went to set up at the art center, which was still recovering from the jazz crawl, while also trying to set up for a 50th wedding anniversary at 3:00. To say that it was hectic would be... accurate.

Tables, chairs and a platform had to be moved, a silent auction had to be carefully documented and removed, we had to check every piece in and then start hanging! All while people buzzed around, moving furniture and dropping paintings. Luckily, no canvases were skewered.

Aunt Pam arranging her work.

Rachel and Edie hanging Grandpa's painting.

Gradually before you know it, the hell hole becomes a gallery once more!

Ta-da! This is my section. It's funny that looking at it in this photo, it doesn't look like much work at all. Just... take my word for it :)

Gravel Grinder 2

2011-08-15T11:07:00.000-07:00

On our way to Verona, we got stopped and asked for our trail passes. I actually didn't think to bring my trail pass with me, since it's more of a Kettles/mountain biking thing in my mind. Whoops. This is my citation being written out. Kate approves. (I sent in a copy of my trail pass and it should be all good now.)

We got picked up in Madison for a total of 85 miles for the day.

We ate.

We played.

We played with what we ate.

We cut mullets.

And then the next day we went to the zoo.

Not a bad weekend at all. I recently sent out a letter to Mr. Miller, the guy whose wallet we found. And now we wait!

Dear Crumpler Toilet Paper,

2011-08-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

In less than a month, we will have been together for three years. Three years! (Remember when we first laid eyes on each other at the Crumpler booth at Interbike?)

But today... today I have run out of toilet paper. We must part ways.

Gravel Grinder 1

2011-08-08T17:49:00.000-07:00

This weekend myself and two other friends, Kate and Janelle, rode from Waukesha to Madison. We took some roads and crushed some limestone. If you're familiar with my oddities, you'll know I like to take pictures of road kill (that meet certain standards) while on road rides. This particular Saturday, I was scanning the side of the road as usual when I spotted something interesting. I yelled for the ladies to stop and doubled back around. It was a wallet! I was excited. I had never found a wallet.

To answer your first question: No, there wasn't any money in it. A quick scan of the driver's license revealed that the young man (20yrs, 150lbs) lived only a few miles away! I talked Kate and Janelle into dropping off the wallet at his house. It went something like this:

Me: "Let's drop it off at his house!"
Kate: "Hahaha"
Kate: "Wait... really?"
Me: "Yeah!! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!"
Kate: "What if he turns out to be a creep?"
Me: "He's 20 years old! And he's only 150 lbs."

So, after a little confusion we found his house, and... nobody was home! We took this stalker-esque photo with his dog, left the wallet on the seat of the car (the windows were open), and went on our merry way.

Mr. Miller, you owe me one!

I tried to find the guy on facebook, to no avail. Thanks to his license, though, I know where to send a card! :)

Art, Art, and Ice Cream

2011-07-28T21:41:00.000-07:00

That about sums up my weekend. Before I get going on that, a shameless plug:

My family's having an art show. You should come if you like multiple generations of art.

The opening night of the show is August 19th, at the Plymouth Arts Center. Having just looked it up, I can tell you it's 1 hour and 2 minutes from downtown Milwaukee... I won't hold any of you to it!

Here's the logo I designed for it. It's kind of nice to work on a design that doesn't have to fit on a very specifically shaped bike part. Skinny wheel decals, I'm looking at YOU.

The plan is for everyone in the family to bring their best, and also for all of us to paint the same pig in roughly the same size, to display together. I suspect most of my aunts will be using pastel, so I dug out the gouache for mine. Gouache, more like gauche! (That means 'tacky' or tasteless in French, if I remember correctly) If you've never come across is, gouache is like a chalky water color paint that dries quickly to a shade that is significantly lighter than what it was wet. Not real popular for a reason.

But I figured I'd try it. It didn't turn out too badly, either. The colors are hard to capture with my camera- the iPhone camera made everything more saturated, and it seems my regular ol' digital camera isn't picking up the blues very well. The colors aren't playing nicely. I don't have an excuse for the background, though :) I'm still (over)working on that.

In related news, much of my birthday weekend was spent on the cement floor, fooling around with finicky paints. Every once in a while the cat reminded me he needed to eat. He's good at the whole silent presence thing.

But fear not. I left the apartment. I attended gallery night, helped a friend move, and put on a funky dress/necklace combo and went out for pizza and ice cream.

PRO tip: Galleries get hot as heck. The doors are always open and there are tons of people. Wear a tank top.

I stopped by my old design professor's studio. He paints in his free time- mostly oils of the northwoods.

He recently had the lighting redone in the window of his studio. It looks fabulous.

Sunday moving crew in front of Kris' new house:

Makin' memorieeees.

FYI

2011-07-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

I'm moving!

To this place.

To this face.

Whoops, nope. Not that one.

This one.

Apparently I like to flank my prey and snap photos from one side or the other...

I just reserved some space in a U-Pack truck, so it's for real. At this point I'm so excited to move, I could pack myself in a box and wait until August 28th, the Sunday I'll be driving down to my new home :)

There'll be a lot more of this sort of thing... exploring amazing new trails and terrain with my favorite guy.

I'm very excited for the adventure to begin! I've never lived outside of Wisconsin. I'm positive I'll miss it, and the wonderful cycling community I'm a part of here, but when I start to get a little misty eyed thinking about it, I think about all the cool people there are out there, yet to be met!

Things on Strings

2011-07-23T21:01:00.000-07:00

On Friday night I went to the Things on Strings show in Waukesha. Or, I think it was in Waukesha. If it wasn't, it was darn close. Anyhow, I went out with a few friends to see some artwork, some of which was bike themed, from local artist Becky Tesch.

Before I let loose on the bike themed work, though, let me share with you some of the coolest interactive pieces. Here I am grinning like a goon at this one, which were a bunch of little... I don't even know what they're called. Let's call them viewers.

Looking inside, you could see little photos like this.

I'm amazed that the camera could focus on that. Modern Marvel.

The other cool one had a bunch of small houses with locked doors hanging, along with about a hundred keys. There were arrows on the floor to point you into the whole mess, which was a nice touch. I think without that people would have stayed away and not touched the art. Anyway, your task was to find the right key so you could open the door and get a sealed envelope with different confessions.

They were... um...

...interesting.

Dad, I know you read my blog, and let me stress that that is not MY confession! You'll all be relieved to know that none of those are any of our confessions. Phwew!

Now let's all shake it off with some nice bike themed artwork.

And just one more piece...

After that, we went to Cafe Hollander in 'Tosa, and I begged to have my photo taken. I know when I've got it going on, and that night was rare example. That, and it was dark enough to hide my frizzy hair.

We ladies also stopped for a picture on the newly finished Hank Aaron bike trail bridge, by the Brewer's stadium. It's so nice! And the bike trail is like butter. I've used that trail the most of all the trails (more than the Oak Leaf Trail!) this summer, I think. Well done, Milwaukee.

Stealth

2011-07-20T14:10:00.000-07:00

Finally, we're moving away from the bright red and gold of the old Dorado decals. They were designed before my time, and were never my taste. Lots of people liked them, though- they're pretty flashy. More and more, though, we've been getting reports that people wanted a more neutral look. Ask and I will rock your world.

Enjoy these nasty photos of the fork, quickly snapped right after getting the new decals on it, and immediately before putting in a trailer bound for Dealer Camp.

Come to think of it, I accidentally took the photos with a low light setting, so they're a little grainy, too.

Actual product photos to come later.

Purple Finches

2011-07-19T20:51:00.000-07:00

When I was in Asheville for a visit, Robb and I planted some hanging baskets for the front porch.

Ta-da!

I thought they looked pretty good, and it would appear that a mama finch thought the same thing. Robb recently sent a picture of 'the kids', who are getting big! I think they're purple finches, but feel free to challenge that... and lose! I know a purple finch when I see one.

Good Luck Charms

2011-07-19T20:35:00.001-07:00

My good luck charms, Rachel and Will, have left the building. As promised, I got a couple of photos of them before they left.

In front of a picturesque red truck, even!

Since I got rid of them -er, since they left, good things are popping up all over the place, some expected and some unexpected. I hate when blogs are vague like that, but some of these good things are merely potential, so I dare not speak of them (in specifics, anyway). I just thought it would be nice to write a positive post after my Bad Karma post a while back, but I'm going to have to leave it at "Everything's coming up Milhouse!" Though I will tell you at the end of the day I got to come home and snack on things Rachel, Will and I had picked from the garden in Mineral Point, and while I was doing so I got news that my own garden, at a friend's house, is doing well and will be ready for snackage soon. It was that kind of a day.

MKE > MSN > MP > CR > MP > MKE

2011-07-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a good one. On Friday night I went on a fun bike ride with Kelly in Madison. We were out late, but the next morning I got up early and pressed on to Mineral Point. Dad and I seized the day and struck out for the Wisconsin River with the dog and a cooler of snacks.

Canoes are to Subarus as large gold necklaces are to Run DMC. Bling bling!

We were out from 1:00 til around 7:00. It got pretty warm, but there was a decent breeze, and I took frequent dips in the river to cool down. When we got home I got a call from my friend Rachel, who's on a bike tour that started on the West coast. The guy she's touring with, Will, had a bad mechanical. By pure luck, they were only 2 hours away from Mineral Point. On Sunday morning I got up early and went to collect them. I found them in Coon Valley with little problem, and would have taken some photos of them, but I found a cool tree frog (a Grey Tree Frog) instead.

We stopped back through Mineral Point for lunch and some swimming and fetching in the lake with the dogs. We made our way back to Milwaukee in the evening, and today while I was at work, they got Will's bike fixed at Ben's Cycle and Fitness - quick and thorough!- and will be heading out to Chicago from Milwaukee tomorrow. I'll be sure to get a photo of them before they leave! Unless, of course, I get distracted by an interesting bug or something.

Unicorn Package

2011-07-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

My parents sent me some Easter candy (Yes, it's July. Yes, I still want chocolate bunnies.) in this package the other day. Since sending anything to my apartment is like putting it on an old, frail ship and sending it into the Bermuda Triangle, it got delivered to work. The VP of Hayes noticed it while he was over in the administration offices, so he brought it over to me, through a couple hundred yards of the power sports factory area. He said he got more than a few looks and comments.

As I've alluded to, there were a couple of Easter bunnies in there. I've been really bad with candy lately (or really good at consuming it, if you want to look at it that way) so I decided to cut the bunny up into pieces to limit intake. The chocolate was somewhat soft from the car ride home, so it sliced up nicely, and I wrapped each piece (half of a serving) in tin foil, because for some reason I've got six rolls of it. Since it's warm in the apartment, I decided to keep the little packages in the freezer.

As I was dumping them in there, it occurred to me that I was very much like 'The Ice Truck Killer' from the first season of Dexter. He cut up and packaged his victims and kept them on ice. I'm a serial chocolate bunny killer. I've killed before and I'll kill again.

Heh.

Brewers

2011-07-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

More like Boooo-ers. I'm bad luck for them.

The night started out with stopping at home to grab the Civia and bike to meet my parents at the Brewers game.

It was hot. Damn hot.

This guy's photo looked so much like the character from 'O Brother Where Art Thou'.
"We thought... you was... a tooaad."

You with me?

Anyway, the Brewers probably lost horribly but we didn't stay til the end. I did get home before the rain, though!

Bad Karma

2011-07-03T08:10:00.000-07:00

So many nasty things have been happening lately that when I try to remember back the the days before there were monthly wallet-devastating occurrences (like the brakes on my car, for instance) I can't remember what it was like. I'm pretty much planning for disasters every two weeks now. It seems like they're inevitable at this point.

Hasn't the universe heard I've been donating to charity lately? Come on, guys, I'm a nice person! I went to Megabolt's fundraiser (and I hate to 'go out'!) and bought some raffle tickets! Lily and Emily were there, and when asked if deserved a more worry-free summer they said 'Yes, oh yes!'

If you don't know what Megabolt is, you're missing out. "In late 2009, Megabolt started as nothing more than an idea to do something good rather than just talk about it." One of my designer friends does some work for them, and if I were cool enough I'd design stuff for them, too. One of their neatest projects is the sketchbook.

"When you buy a sketchbook, you're not only getting one for yourself, you're also giving one to a child in a hospital. But we're not stopping there. Every sketchbook is individually numbered which will allow you to see exactly whom you are giving the book to. Once the child has completed his or her book, their artwork will be uploaded onto Megabolt.org where you will be able to interactively flip through the pages of the book."

Who here doesn't think that's the best idea ever? I should buy a few- certainly then I could count on some good karma.

Subaru Cup Report #2 - XC Race

2011-06-27T10:22:00.000-07:00

XC Race: 16th of 18 finishers. At one point I thought of pulling myself from the race, but made myself finish and own up to 16th as punishment for being so shamefully out of shape. Oh lord, it was awful. I started out strong, and was where I thought I should be (around where I thought I would finish) but no. I faded hard and got passed by a few people. Then I thought I would level out, but I got passed by more people. Then some more. Then I thought that there couldn't possibly be that many more people behind me. But there were, and most of them passed me, too.

Grimace.

A few high points of the race: I heard I was one of a handful of women who rode the big rock with the intimidating looking drop down. It wasn't too bad, and I took it with more speed each time. (I liked the technical areas. I'll practice launching off of features for the race next year.) The second time I rode the drop down I heard someone yell "Yeah! Pegasus doesn't give a crap!" in the style of Honey Badger, like 'it ain't no thang for her', or so I imagine. That was nice.

That brings me to the other nice part of the race. There were a lot of people cheering for me. Even a lot of the guys, when they came around and lapped the tailings of our race, said hi as they passed. That's nice when you're clearly not doing so well. Thanks for not pretending not to know me and hiding your face in shame at my performance, everyone! I get pretty wound up because I think that people will watch how I do in the race and comment on it later, or catalog it away- especially for track racing, where everything is on display. If anyone was paying attention this past weekend, they probably would have filed me under 'Not A Threat', Sub Category: 'Might as well be dead'. However, the cheering gets it through my head that even if friends are noting these things, they don't really care and will heckle and cheer me on anyway. So why get wound up? Yeah.

Subaru Cup Report #1

2011-06-26T21:01:00.001-07:00

There's a lot to report from this weekend's Subaru Cup at Mt. Morris, but the biggest achievements this year were not on the race course: I got my chest signed by Ryan Trebon. Then Ryan Trebon got his chest signed by me.

I wonder if he remembers me from last year (at the bottom of the post).

Garden

2011-06-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

Getting started a little late on a garden this year, but hey! I'm getting started, anyway. A cycling friend of mine offered me some space in his garden, if I wanted it. The only thing standing between me and garden space of my own was weeds. Lots of weeds.

Here's the latest- four rows (onions, lettuce, carrots and peas) and a lot more dirt to be turned over. I'll chip away a little more each night I go, which will probably be a few times a week. I don't mind the slow progress, and in fact it reminds me of my old place at Homer St with the rag tag flower beds. They weren't anything to write home about, but I really liked tucking things in here and there and watching them grow. That's good enough for me.

As a note: My laptop refuses to turn on (gr-reat) so I'll be blogging a little less until I can get the old girl up and running again. I hope all three of you will wait for my return.

Fangs and Feets

2011-06-08T06:11:00.000-07:00

The cat usually sleeps or naps with one paw touching me. On this day it was my foot, and I felt his toes dance when they jerked in his sleep.

Road Ride?

2011-06-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

On the way home from work, I decided on a whim to go for a road ride. Even I was surprised at myself. But it was a nice day, and I'm doing this thing where I try to exercise regularly so that I might become 'in shape'. Teammate Mike and I headed south against the wind. We went down to Bender Park and then headed back downtown, cursing that we hadn't brought money for ice cream at Babe's and squeaking home just as it became too dark to safely ride. Here's Mike at Bender Park:

I got these gloves at the swap meet this past winter and I've been itching to wear them ever since. At last!

A photo for the fans.

We stopped to watch a family of geese cross the road.

Hitting up The Pryor Avenue Iron Well on the way back into town. I like stopping by it, and there usually happens to be someone filling up gallon jugs for drinking water when I stop.

I know how to do it right.

2011-06-05T15:10:00.000-07:00

This was my weekend.

Camping in the woods the first night...

...and the second night.

Fact: Secret Trail isn't really on the map.

More riding...

Will protect you from ticks and advances from the opposite sex.

Hanging out at twilight on top of the mound.

FIN

Garage Sale Season

2011-06-01T19:58:00.000-07:00

I love garage sales. It's the thrill of the hunt and all. I've stayed away from them because I'm trying to pare down my things, not add to the clutter. I recently sold an overhead projector on Craigslist for $30, and was feeling great about the little extra cash and the newly won space in the apartment. So what do I do? Get sucked into the first garage sale I see. I was leaving a Walgreens parking lot when I drove past a garage sale. I saw three chairs in the driveway and made a hasty Y turn to get back at them.

They were beautiful. They were not in bad shape. I had to have them. All three of them.

Please forgive the fuzzy photos, but I was probably still shaking from the adrenaline rush of buying all three for $15.

One is ripped and stained and would probably have to be repaired or re-done someday, but the leather and chrome are in great condition on the other two. I found their cream and black counterparts (same stitching and hardware) on Room and Board for $400 apiece. I win!

Memorial Day Pt 2

2011-05-31T20:52:00.000-07:00

Enough posts about cars, right? For Memorial Day weekend my parents picked me up (due to a certain... machine with four wheels) and we went north to my Aunt and Uncle's house near Tomahawk, WI. I decided to haul my SS mountain bike along, and I wanted to get some use out of it. I did pretty well, and as a wonderful bonus, I was moving too quickly for most ticks to hitch a ride. The dogs did not fare so well:

Heck yeah that's gross. All of those are from one dog.

The first day, I headed out into this for a quick ride on the trails across the creek.

Very pretty back there.

Pleased with myself for striking out.

Saturday's ride consisted of biking over to Shannon and Darwin's land, which was a quick 45 minute ride away.

We had a good time on their land this weekend, playing football and badminton, kayaking and canoeing, and cooking over the fire- potatoes, venison hotdogs, Boca burgers, freshly picked asparagus and corn on the cob.

On the way back, there was a lovely sky.

The third and final day up there, I decided to see what all this talk about Irma Hill was about. It's the third highest point in Wisconsin, and has got a long, slow hill leading up to it. It wasn't one of the hardest things I've ever done, but it wasn't easy on knobbies and one gear.

Other activities:

Dinner of pheasant stir fry.

Mexican Train until midnight. I took a page from my dad and quit before I could lose.

Gardening. (I weeded for a while, then skipped out for a ride :) )

Designing and constructing an outhouse.

The consuming of venison bacon and eggs.

Good stuff.

Don't Fight It

2011-05-31T18:42:00.001-07:00

I was crouched down by Snips with a petite notebook in my hand, and he snagged it and began biting it all over. I was going to get some evidence of what a naughty animal he was, but wound up with this instead.

And speaking of naughty pets that we love anyway, I picked the car up at the shop today. I got two knowledgeable outside opinions and took someone to listen to the shop's explanation, and the consensus was that I was just unlucky and that the shop was not to blame. Fair's fair. I don't like to be a mistrusting person, but I'm not the kind of person who can blindly believe in the best, either, so I'm pretty happy with the outcome; I didn't trust the shop, I dutifully checked out all the angles, and it turns out (in all likelihood) that the shop is one of the good guys. I still had a bill, but it was minus some of the parts, the labor and the tow. OK. And I've got to admit, I felt a little giddy when I took off down the road in my newly fixed car. I can't help but like driving it, even if it does misbehave sometimes.

Memorial Day Pt 1

2011-05-30T18:46:00.000-07:00

or, Why You Should Never Love a Car

Cars will never love you back. They will ignore your love and hurt you, seemingly on purpose. Maliciously. I learned that with the Ranger. Shortly after over a thousand dollars worth of repairs, it broke down on the way up to Ore to Shore a few years ago.

Enter the 2006 Subaru Impreza with reasonable mileage, and words like reliable and dependable. This was supposed to be my adult car, one that worked and looked current and was able to provide heat from the vents in the winter.

Nope.

Approximately 15min after leaving work to start my Memorial Day weekend, I noticed some things scattering across the road behind me. And then I noticed that the brakes weren't working like they were supposed to... I stopped just in time behind some traffic and pulled over. The cool part of this story? I had had it in to get the brakes done (new rotors and brake pads) a few weeks ago. I called the shop and primly demanded a tow: "I had my brakes done at your shop and they just stopped working and I would like a tow, please."

When I got to the shop, I was told the caliper 'blew up' and that this was not their fault, and that I would have to buy a new caliper, but that they would put the new caliper in for no cost of labor. Fishy. I'll have to duke it out with them tomorrow when I pick up the nefarious hunk of crap that is my car.

Portraits

2011-05-24T10:52:00.001-07:00

Many of you already know that one of my second jobs is as a model for art classes. I usually only pose for shorter periods of time, anywhere from a minute to a little over an hour. While it doesn't pay terribly well, I really enjoy it. It's relaxing to sit quietly for a while, and I like seeing how people perceive and translate things to paper. Sometimes you can kind of tell how they see things by the elements (light, shape, weight) they notice and record. It's special.

Moving on. This pose was four class periods long, which means my Wednesday evenings for four weeks were all booked up. While I got regular breaks, each class was 2.5hrs long. It's easiest to hold a pose if you sit straight up- if you're leaning on an elbow or slouched, it WILL get uncomfortable. Thus, 10hrs of sitting up straight/4wks. This class was made up of mostly first time painters, with a few seasoned pros sprinkled in. Without further ado, a 'round-the-room tour of my face, as perceived by the artists:

Beach Time

2011-05-24T10:17:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, I slept in because I honestly didn't think it would be worth getting up- I thought it was supposed to rain all weekend. I stumbled out-of-doors around 10:30 to gorgeous weather and blinding sun. What?! I made plans for a ride in the afternoon and then hightailed it to the beach. These days, living in Walkers Point, I suppose the downtown beach is quicker to get to, but habit took me to the beach in Bayview. I stopped at Groppi's on the way there for a snack, and then hit the sand for some reading.

I much prefer Bayview to downtown- it's a little rougher as groomed beaches go, but most of the people are out riding their bikes, running, or letting their dogs play in the water. It's a good crowd.

Speaking of bikes, look at this smug jerk.

Ladies, if you ever get tired of being catcalled while out for a ride, just switch your bike out for a Civia Loring. Be sure to get a front rack, and don't forget the bamboo fenders. While on or even within 10' of your bike, the only rack people will be ogling is the aluminum and bamboo one with a special holster for your U lock (oh yes). Just be careful what you wish for. After a while, you might find yourself getting jealous of all the compliments and attention your bike receives.

Fox Shorts, Eat My Shorts.

2011-05-23T11:43:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I rode the River Trails with Joey and Evan up to Capitol and back; word on the streets is, the rest of it is probably in pretty bad shape. The sections we rode were pretty nice, though.

While I'm smiling on the outside, I'm frowning frumpily on the inside at my one and only pair of 'casual riding shorts'. I don't know what model they are, but they are Fox's womens' trail shorts. Here they are, hiding behind my bike.

They look pretty cool, but as far as garment design goes, these suck a big one.

I went for one ride in them, and this is what my (ordinary, not velcro covered) saddle did to the fabric in the upper-inner thigh region:

Tons of pilling... it appears that the fabric is made out of some sort of grey cotton candy. It was not enough for the designers to put a single layer of this awful fake ripstop fabric on the outside of the padded shorts, they went ahead and added a tag larger than a credit card and only slightly smaller than a license plate on the inside of the shorts. That's four and five layers of fabric total, with somewhat tough corners on the tag, making the small of your back sweat even more and scratching the tender tops of your biscuits every time you move.

'Rider Designed' my sweaty, itchy arse. Show me the rider that said "I'm sweaty, I'm uncomfortable, and these will soon look like junk... Cut! Print! Ship!"

As a final insult, the snap on the waistband isn't reinforced, so after one ride of being bent over the handlebars while ripping it up, the snap will be falsely broadcasting to everyone that it's got its work cut out for it. Give me a break, shorts. I have to crank the velcro tabs on the sides just to make it feel like I'm not going to jump out of you the next time I hop on the bike.

I hate you.

Bye, Everyone!

2011-05-21T17:06:00.000-07:00

I done got raptured.

Don't worry, I arranged for some non-Christian caretakers for the cat. He's just hanging out and waiting for them to get there.

I like to think he'll miss me, but I'm not so sure.

Bike to Work Week

2011-05-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

...or as I like to call it, Drive Your Bike to Work Week. I took an excellent photo to illustrate this, as well as show off two of the most expensive things I own; a 5 year old car and an aging Christmas colored carbon road bike. Jealous much? Mhm, I thought so.

I loaded my bike in my car and planned on riding home if the rain held off. Not only did the rain hold off, the weather was Perfect. One of my coworkers, John, showed me a new way back downtown- it's shorter and goes through a few parks and trail systems, instead of 20 miles long and all roads (the Lakefront route). I think I'll be using it quite a bit this summer, especially if I want a low stress jaunt rather than a workout.

Getting one Spring in Asheville and then another in Milwaukee, I think that's the way to do it. Recently I've had that song from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in my head:

In springtime
The only pretty ring time
Birds sing
Hey ding, a-ding a-ding
Sweet lovers love*

*Sweet lover not pictured

And now I'd better head to bed, because I have to get up early to ride in. (Having no choice but to bike in is the only way to get myself up before 7am.)

Monster Mash

2011-05-18T22:49:00.000-07:00

'Monster Mash' will always remind me of going to the local skating rink when I was a kid. Anyway, I'm working on a few longer bike-related blog posts and meanwhile, a bunch of random stuff somewhat of note is happening.

My violet is going cra-zay. (Ok, that's arguably not even somewhat of note.)

I decided to put up a screen of sorts on my windows, but I still wanted the cat to be able to stalk birds. It's a little sparse as-is, so I might stick another pattern on the outside side of the window. We'll see.

I sold some smuttons this week, so I decided to design some pins to throw in with the order. I've been thinking about business cards lately, and this seemed like the perfect medium for a company (a The Vinyl Countdown subsidiary) that makes buttons. If you have to ask... just think about what the word 'smutton' implies and think long and hard *AHEM* about whether or not you'd want to hear the description.

I recently visited a thrift store and came across a clump of sassy empowered woman books. Looks like someone's got a new man in her life. Won't be needing you anymore, What to do Until Love Finds You.

Have you ever wished you could combine the magical properties of a unicorn horn with a pair of shoes? These heels have got you covered.

Unimpressed Mattress remains unimpressed.

I helped this little guy, Alden, with a word find. I taught him what Dad taught me- if there's an uncommon letter in the word you're looking for (like 'Y') look for that letter. It's quick. It was working well, but then Alden got a hold of a cupcake and started running up and down a set of stairs to work off his sugar high. So long, word find.

The view from my alley toward the end of the day.

And just as the days end, so does this post.

Snips Diptych

2011-05-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

Ohhh, this cat.

Tree Diptych

2011-05-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

The past couple of years (oh, how they go by) I've watched the tree next to the building at work unfurl its leaves one side at a time. The side closest to the metal and brick building take off first, because it's warmer.

Sides One and Two.

ACT Air decal

2011-05-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

In an review for Manitou's Circus Expert, I noticed a pretty neat photo of my set-up sticker on the back of the fork leg. Photo by VitalMTB, with accompanying article.

I take time to make all of my decals look as cool as I can, even if they're tiny and iconsequential. Pride.

Design note: That font was great, because its height and narrowness allowed me to keep the letters large, and I think it looks just interesting enough. However, it was a hassle. Terrible kerning, and dashes (these guys: - ) that were on a really low x-height. After everything was typed out, I had a lot of tweaking to do. If you, too, would like to wrestle with a font, by all means download Tall Dark and Handsome.

Pedal Gloves

2011-05-04T17:24:00.000-07:00

Pedal gloves are in stock! And they look so good and they match the women's XC Trail bars, which also look so good.

I made the WORS Women website (what-what!) and there's an article about them on Bike Rumor.

DIRT / Iola WORS Race #1

2011-05-03T19:47:00.000-07:00

Since Asheville, I've had a craving for dirt. Think of it this way; If it were a craving for a food, I would get out of bed and dressed at 1am to bike up to three miles in a light drizzle and even get cash from an ATM (assuming this food is cash-only) to get this food. What I'm trying to convey is that this is a very. serious. craving. Because once my pants are off for the night, I'm incredibly unlikely to put them back on.

On Friday, the first sunny day after two nasty weather days, I got the itch. Bad. On the one hand, the belt is being tightened on my finances, but on the other hand, it was important for my sanity that I leave Milwaukee and ride my mountain bike on dirt. Were I to go insane, I would lack the mental faculty to even mail checks to pay my bills, so I decided that the only responsible thing to do (big picture, here) would be to take off for the weekend.

Via facebook, I found out that Chris K was driving up with a friend, Tony, on Saturday to pre-ride the Iola WORS race. (Carpooling for the win!) With a minimal amount of planning, it was on. We left around 1:00 on Saturday, and arrived to brisk but livable weather and really nice trails.

The trails were perfectly tacky with unlimited grip in some places. Mmmmm. I had brought my single speed, since my geared bike is still in NC, which is another (short, boring) story in itself.

You know how you go to races and look around and realize the bike you thought was humble yet nicely dialed looks like a pile of grimy doll heads with one eye missing and crudely shorn hair next to all of the shiny, glossy carbon things with carbon wheels and XX groupos? Hoo boy. My bike is humble alright, and not in a 'I don't need fancy things, watch me kick ass anyway' sort of way. Being as I've been mountain biking 'plein air' a total of twice this year and haven't been training, that wasn't a statement I was prepared to make with my bike.

That leads me to my race strategy: Have fun. I had a 34t ring up front and a 17t cog on the back. I knew it would be tough, but my only other option, a 20t cog that Chris pulled off the Pugsley, would be sissy to the max. (I would ride that at Levis, but not really anywhere else around here.) On the pre-ride I noted that with the gearing I had on I'd have to walk a few of the climbs, could ride a few others, and would be very, very tired by the time lap 4 was in the books.

Sunday dawned cold, cloudy and windy. Some people cheerfully likened it to cross weather, saying things like "Oh, it's just like cross. You're used to that, right? This is no big deal." To which I replied with pursed lips, narrowed eyes and a non committal 'Mm' noise. Seriously. Too cold. I spent a lot of the day huddled in the car.

The race rolled around and I rolled off the start line. As much as I wanted to race (especially in the first lap, when there were so many women in sight) I knew I would be wrecked and hating everything by the last lap if I were to go out too hard. So I took it easy. I said hi to people out on the course, I did rad (tiny) jumps into the bowl, I remembered to eat enough and when big groups of guys needed to pass, I stopped trail-side and had a drink of water. Yes, it was low stress. The first half of the course is rather hilly to begin with, and the second half is fun and flowy. I didn't kill myself up climbs so I could enjoy pushing my limits in the second half, laying off the brakes in corners and downhills. I did my best, and in the end it was mission: accomplished. I had fun and paced myself well enough that I finished tired but not defeated. I wound up 12th out of 20 (with 3 DNFs) in the Cat 1 women, too. I'll take it!

Topping off the weekend, I got to eat dinner in the presence of this:

And we stopped in Scandanavia on the way home. No big deal.

Oh! And as a funny aside, I think two of the women riding Trek Top Fuels, the official (and enviable, and beautiful) bike of WORS, had mechanicals that put them out of the race. To be clear: Not funny that they had bad luck for the first WORS race of the season. Funny because my bike is a trooper, anyway, and I should be glad for that.

Violet

2011-04-28T11:01:00.000-07:00

I got a sad little african violet about a year ago on clearance for 50 cents. I've been nursing it along and I finally get to see what color blooms it has. Pink!

I know, this is hardly blog worthy, but it's been cold and rainy out the past few days and my natural response is to cling to a single pink blossom in a public forum. It's science! Can't stop it.

Asheville

2011-04-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

There's so much to catch up on from Asheville, I'll give the Cliff Notes version of the week.

I stayed here. It was as lovely as it looks. Most days were glorious spring days, too; only one was cool and wet.

Pete and Robb went climbing. I didn't go, as I do not climb.

Robb, Meghan, Ed, my cousin Marlon and I rode at Kitsuma. It was my first time this year on dirt, and it was basically straight up and then straight down. It was slow going both ways, but it was a really nice night, and the fitness and skills will come back.

Meghan blinked in her first picture, so I took another one. She blinked again.

We took the easy way back to the parking lot, on a paved road with very little traffic.

Some friends from Ohio came down, and we went on a short 'take the kinks out of the ol' legs' road ride up to a hill overlooking the city. No pictures, as it was pretty dark. On the way out, one of the guys broke a spoke, so we had the pleasure of checking out Pro Bikes- we got to visit Dave and meet the shop cat.

We ate pizza.

We went to Harvest Records.

I finished off the trip with a celebratory ride in Bent Creek. This time, my legs felt good and I was starting to get back into the groove. It was a great end to a great week.

As a bonus, I got a new dead animal for MY flickr set.

Tea for Me

2011-04-25T21:05:00.002-07:00

My friend Pete threw me a set of mugs so tall, the tag on the tea doesn't even touch the table. (And they're pleasantly warped... just like me? There's a possible artist's statement.)

That's a lot of quality tea time. And a lot of pee time, too, of course. Such quantities of tea!

Snips Update

2011-04-25T20:28:00.000-07:00

I've been in beautiful Asheville, NC for the past week, while the cat wasted away (or grew fatter still) at home. Someone get this animal some attention, STAT!

The word of the day is Happy Paws.

Once satiated, though, I'm afraid he's right back to being a troublemaker.

Gallery Night

2011-04-15T22:06:00.000-07:00

I've been doing it wrong all these years... the MIAD senior thesis show was good, as usual, but the Hide House is where it's at.

After getting home from work, there came an hour or so of "I'll get ready soon." and "Or... Maybe I'll just stay in..." Eventually I forced myself out into the cold, driving rain, armed with an umbrella and a resolve to see some art.

This is a photo of a photo, with reflections of two other photos in the glass over the first photo. Got it?

This girl had a few photos of dead animals. As soon as I saw them, I gave out an audible "Unh!" Doesn't everyone know that that's MY thing? (It's my thing.) I've got the Flickr group to prove it.

I left MIAD around 9:00 and almost didn't go to check out the Hide House. I know one of the artists there and wanted to check out her work. So onward my car flew through the stormy night, into the dark heart of Bayview. (This dramatic effect isn't all for your benefit- it's more like an accurate description of how badly I wanted to chill at home.) I made it, but only just! Again I had to park so far away, I think my parking spot might not have been in Wisconsin. Once inside, I found it was worth it. There were multiple bands, lots of food and wine, and best yet? It doesn't shut down at 9:00! Most of the downtown galleries shut down at 9, tidy and clean. The Hide House keeps rolling. I like a place that seems to say, "No thanks, you do things the way you want to do them downtown, but we're not done yet." Yeah.

After that, it was just a quick jaunt home, and inside for the night at last.

4/14

2011-04-15T14:16:00.001-07:00

I missed Milwaukee Day! Area code 414, April 14th, get it?

I'll be celebrating it a day late by going out for gallery night (one of my favorite things to do in the city) and swinging by MIAD to see old classmates and professors, and brand new work from the students there :) That is, I'll be going out if I can shore myself up to face the weather outside...

Sorry, Milwaukee. I'll celebrate on the correct day next year.

Books

2011-04-14T10:55:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night I visited a couple of my favorite places- the used book stores of downtown Milwaukee. I was looking for a specific book on minimalism, because I like the thrill of the hunt. You'd think every copy of that book would be littering thift stores across the country, because heaven forbid you have a book cluttering up your life, but no dice.

I liked digging around, anyway! Here are some things I found.

Cats! These two were grooming each other in a chair at Downtown Books. Groom on.

A room FULL of cassettes.

Some kinda neat vintage book covers.

On the third floor of Renaissance Books, I found a vintage book for the ladies. It must have been pretty scandalous in the 40's, right?

It's been a while since I visited these places... maybe since my birthday last summer. It's funny I don't go more often, because once I get in there I really enjoy looking around. Renaissance Books especially, because there are piles to sift through. It would drive some people crazy, but I love it. I'm always on the lookout for a few specific books, and though I rarely find one of them, that's the fun and excitement of it for me.

Family Features

2011-04-12T10:12:00.001-07:00

I've got some catching up to do on the H8TR wake, but first, these photos I snapped of me and my dad in our younger years.

Spot-on, right down to the highlights on our noses.

It's the weekend!

2011-04-08T18:59:00.000-07:00

Phwew! Busy week at work, but some really cool stuff going on. We're producing a poster of Mike Montgomery to hand out at Sea Otter and beyond. Justin Brantley took some awesome photos- it's easy to make things look good where there's a great photo to design around.

This is the front of the poster:

And the back highlights our raddest products.

It's been a stressful week for all of us, getting ready for Sea Otter, but I finally wrapped up a few projects today, and I stopped by a church garage sale on my way back from lunch. Pretty disappointing for a church garage sale, but I did find these little guys. Cute! And now, to sanitize the bejesus out of them.

Voting

2011-04-05T17:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it's not as impressive as the woman who biked to the hospital to give birth... but I biked to my polling place to vote.

BMC TT02 for sale

2011-04-03T21:48:00.000-07:00

The Tim(e) Machine is up for sale. It's a size small TT02, no dents, some chips in the paint from transport. Raced three times, never crashed.

$900 for the frame (and seat post), fork (Easton EC90 carbon fork- as new as the frame) and headset. I'd do free shipping, too.

It's more track bike than I need! (Oh, and if you didn't know, the frame's mainly used for time trialing, I just built it up as a track bike.) I didn't really like how the huge tubes and deep wheels sounded on the track, either. Good lord, was it ever handsome, though. I'll keep it up here for a while, then it's going on Ebay.

Hail Yes!

2011-04-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

Cue the thunder, cue the hail.

Earlier this morning it started hailing, and hard! It was really coming down. My first instinct was to grab a camera and run outside, but then I thought about what that would be like... trying to juggle an umbrella and take photos with the iPhone (It's what I'm using as a camera these days. Very awkward for one-handed use). And THEN I remembered my umbrella was out in my car, so I was now imagining trying to take photos while being pelted about the head and shoulders with pea sized hail. Not ideal.

So I opened a window, leaned out, snapped some pictures and retreated back indoors.

This also starts a theme for this weekend: weather as seen from inside my apartment.

Here's some late Saturday sunlight coming in through the painted windows.

Some light on an unfinished painting in the living room area.

Lest you think I was inside all weekend, I will happily inform you that I was outdoors all Saturday morning and early afternoon. I meant to do trail work, but my friend Pete and I went to the wrong parking lot to meet up with the crew, couldn't find the other parking lot, and weren't sure people were even at the other parking lot, anyway. So we wound up hiking on a scenic overlook and then did 7 or 8 miles at John Muir, instead. (A word for mountain bikers: the trails are still pretty muddy, as you might expect. Wah wah.) While we were walking it was perfectly cloudy, and darker underneath the tree cover. The light was so gray, I remarked that it could have been any time of the morning, afternoon or evening.

All in all, I'd call it an ordinary but interesting weekend for weather.

Home Again, Home Again

2011-04-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

On the last visit home (this past weekend) it was the same ol', by which I mean the same 'ol great things I get to do when I'm home. I've said it before, but I like getting back out into the land I grew up around. City slickers could liken it to visiting a neighborhood they used to live in ;), except my 'neighborhood' is a good portion of Iowa County, filled with county highways and small towns.

And now, less pontification, more photography.

Trap shooting seems like it's becoming a tradition.

I'm only just raising the gun up to my shoulder in this photo, but I may as well have been shooting at the ground... I am awful at trap shooting.

We went out to Highland, WI to look at the work that's being done on the streams there, and to do a little fishing. Dad was the only one with a fishing license, so I happily took the camera out to do some shooting I'm arguably better at. Aim, shoot, success! The subject is in the frame, at least.

Another nice trip home, in the kreel. Hah, fishing jokes.

Shoes, and other things near and dear to me.

2011-03-31T18:50:00.000-07:00

I feel so smart. S-M-R-T! I am so smart! I'm not so good at the fashion, so it tickled me to find a pair of sandals at Target that look an awful lot like their more expensive Anthropologie counterpart.

I've got the shoe madness, folks. Warming temperatures remind me of bike rides on the city bike, remind me of sundresses, remind me of cute, pretty sandals. Aaahhh. Ladies, you with me?

Blog readers, sometimes you're just gonna have to bear with me. Some people are here to read about bikes, some people read to keep up with what I'm up to (ok, those are my relatives), some people are only around for Snips... ok, you're all around for Snips. We knows who runs the place.

I could split up personal and cycling topics into two separate blogs, but I like having everything in one spot. So go ahead and skip the posts with with pictures of the apartment, or gloss over race reports. I won't make you read them.

We can all come together and agree that was a spectacular find on the sandals, though. Right? (Don't worry, Dad. I didn't buy either of them. I'm being responsible!)

Getting Hayesed

2011-03-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

I work with these dorks!

Hayesed Trailer from Thirsty Boy on Vimeo.

Getting Hayesed means we steal your bike, update it with the latest and greatest components, and you get a shock when you go to grab your bike. (You get your old parts back in a bag.) This woman is a mother of two (I believe) and brings her kids to ride Ray's all the time. She wrote a thank you note and baked us cookies! How nice.

The new Hayes Components site looks pretty good, too. It pains me to say I didn't have anything to do with it. However, I do believe I supplied the black and white logos of all our brands to the marketing firm who did, so... none of this could have happened without me.

The Odd Couple

2011-03-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

Hayes just picked up a couple of sponsored riders who are rad riders and really nice guys. There was a video competition at Ray's (The Odd Couple) and they got second, and Mike Montgomery won 'Best Rider', as voted on by the pros present. If you know the park, it's pretty crazy to watch the stuff they do:

Rays Odd Couple 2011 - Aaron Chase & Mike Montgomery from RaysMTB on Vimeo.

I asked Mike if he got nervous for the filming- he said no, that it was just fun. He was kind of shy, actually. He's younger, and it seemed like Aaron Chase was watching out for him. Example: we were in the van headed to Ray's, and Aaron asked if we were going to get lunch, because they had planned on it, and Mike hadn't eaten any breakfast. Awww, how nice.

Here's an article on picking up Aaron.

I almost forgot! Should you come across Aaron, be sure to ask him about his 22" rod.

Work Space

2011-03-28T19:40:00.001-07:00

Cale's headed to San Diego (To live out there. Keep up, people.) so I'm downscaling the living situation. No more Garage Mahal for me, so I'm moving all of my junk into the apartment. You know how it is with moving- you do the fun stuff first, then it seems there are several boxes of stuff that doesn't fit anywhere... Thankfully, I'm still in the fun stuff, as evidenced below.

I moved the vinyl cutter and its supplies into the apartment. This corner works out really well, and the table, taken from across the room, works perfectly. The cardboard box is the DIY garbage can, left over from a shipment of vinyl. The drawers hold some bike parts in the bottom drawers and some excess decals in the top. My button making supplies also fit in this new project area. The computer on the shelf by the window runs the cutter. Aaand, that concludes this tour.

Home Improvement

2011-03-28T10:23:00.000-07:00

After years of keeping an eye out for an awesome, affordable and easy-to-clean rug, I figured out that there is no such thing and decided to paint my own on the floor.

It's home improvement month, since I'm giving up the bike room and moving everything into the apartment. I've got the Vinyl Countdown cutter and workspace set up... here's a teaser of that space.

I started throwing supplies up there and noticed it was taking on an all-white artsy look. All of it's legit except the ball of twine. I did have it laying around, but I don't use it for vinyl work. I'll admit, it's purely decorative! I feel I make up for it by having made the pencil holder myself in a clay class in high school. (I got the anthro box with a gift card. Excessive packaging, yes, but at least it's been re-purposed.)

Too Many Colors?

2011-03-09T20:07:00.000-08:00

Trick question! Fact: No such thing as too many colors. I think it was my grandma who used to say, "Why would God make all these colors if you couldn't wear them all at once? (The accent color was not a familiar concept to Evelyn.) The idea that God had anything to do with a blaze orange, lime green, lemon yellow, silver, purple and blue helmet is kind of humorous...

Anyway, giggle all you want at my colorful new helmet, but the evidence is undeniable: I had a new facebook friend request when I got home from Ray's tonight. HAH.

I think another thing about this helmet that's really gonna catch on is that it squishes my cheeks. You might think that's unattractive, but I think it's going to be the new cleavage.

Ray's

2011-03-06T19:48:00.000-08:00

Top two activities this winter: riding at Ray's and recovering from riding at Ray's. Sprained ankle, split open chin, and I'm pretty sure I picked up bronchitis there, too. I'm being careful with the goods these days. I borrowed a full face helmet to practice the expert jumps with, and it felt pretty good. The wolf shirt gave me courage, as well. I'm not as terrible anymore, but you certainly wouldn't call me 'good'. One night down, many to go on the expert jumps.

I think this is my next only somewhat warranted bike related purchase....

p.s. The pump track is the best thing since sliced bread. And 24" bikes in the pump track is the best thing ever.

Domestic Livin'

2011-03-06T19:21:00.000-08:00

Here's some of the stuff I've been up to lately.

Cale made a pot pie. I kinda helped.

I made some decals for work.

The cat continues to do his thing.

I got rid of the ugly, sagging plastic shelf next to the fridge and put two random things there instead. Best case scenario, right there.

I painted part of the kitchen. It was boring and ugly. And now it's not boring anymore!

Stuff from the plastic shelving got relocated, aka crammed in other places.

Ever have a long sickness where you get tired of blowing your nose? Me too.

Snowmageddon, of course.

2011-02-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

Photos from the snowstorm!

We went out around 10 at night to ride the streets the night of the storm- it was wicked! Very cold, and the driving snow stung any exposed skin. At one point I had to take off my foggy glasses, and even closing my eyes against the wind didn't help. My eyelids felt like they were getting pelted with sand. Ice built up on my eyelashes throughout the ride, too.

The next day was beautiful, so we explored during lunch.

We had a small leak in our apartment... surprise! We found the culprit.

Wish I could have tunneled in here :) No parents to shoo me out, either! Has any kid ever actually died in a collapsed snow fort?

The Good Bike

2011-02-06T20:43:00.000-08:00

The Good Bike is nearly done. I put on some frame graphics today... I think I'm going to put some decals on the wheels and switch out the fork to a Circus still.

I didn't like the plastic pedals, but I loved the color, so Cale and I shaved off the lame plastic 'pins', drilled out some holes and screwed in some Real Pins from some Answer pedals. Much better.

Tell me you don't love the lilac and green scheme. Look in the wolf's eyes and tell it that. You can't.

This camera's the worst, so just see it in person at Ray's.

"Hey guys, watch this."

2011-01-27T20:49:00.000-08:00

PRO mountain biking tip: Never cancel your blood donation because you're too busy at work. The universe will find a way to get the blood it feels it's owed.

Ray's is a cruel mistress, friends. I was in the street park, showing off my new found skillz of dropping the inside shoulder and pumping through the corners (skillz lessons courtesy of Jon Wells: The Man, The Myth, The Legend) and I started cutting across the bottom of the bowl and - -

on the floor, knees first then in an instant laid out on my chin. I don't even know exactly what happened, but I know my tires slipped out from underneath me. Looking out across the floor, I could see all the dust from the pump track construction, and looking back at my bike, all the dust on my tires. Well, that was settled.

I stayed down for a moment, sussing things out. Knees, sore but not bad. Left hand, sore. Luckily I hadn't bitten my lips or tongue, and my teeth felt fine. My chin was... stunned. I couldn't feel much but I knew my head had snapped down on the floor. I touched the back of my hand to my chin to check for bleeding. Sho'nuff. A moment later I started dripping on the floor. I stayed put and bled a little puddle while Cale ran and grabbed some napkins. It didn't really hurt, and I never got that sick sinking feeling in my stomach- a pretty tame injury. Not to mention, I now got to get stitches- a first for me!

We tried to go to the urgent care center, but it was 8:30 at night, and it was closed. But then! I remembered I had a doctor friend who had mentioned stitching people up. Perfect! What's that? You wish you had been there to see it? Well, let us show you.

And here I am, all stitched up. Thanks, Doc!

It was actually a pretty pleasant evening.

Chinjury

2011-01-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

OH NOOOOOO!

More later, friends.

The Bad Bike

2011-01-24T21:14:00.000-08:00

This is The Bad Bike. The bike is just wrong somehow... the steering is awful, even after a fork change (pictured below). We don't really know what frame it is, but the geometry just doesn't make any sense. I took it to Ray's to ride it and, well, I hated it. I set it aside and rented a Trek Ticket instead. I left it there while trying to decide what to do with it. Cale was at Ray's one night without me, and asked me if I wanted him to bring the bad bike home to work on. Thus, the name came about.

That was The Bad Bike. We took it apart, threw the weirdo frame aside, and built up The Good Bike.

The Good Bike still features some things that are going to get replaced soon (bars, stem), but it's a start. Even riding it down the hall, things felt better. We'll see soon enough when I take it to Ray's, which will maybe be tomorrow or the night after.

It does have some cool features, though. Purple nipples and decals I did at Hayes:

I think I might take the decals off, though, and cut some of my own out of lavender vinyl. That would really bring the wheelset and frame together.

A note on Ray's:
It's hard to tell these days if my muscles are sore from use, or if they're sore from the many bruises populating my limbs. My only hint is whether or not the ache is symmetrical.

Fish Tank

2011-01-06T10:06:00.000-08:00

Those of you who've seen the fish tank in the past few months will no doubt be relieved that Cale cleaned it out and fixed it up a few weekends ago. I should have taken a before picture, but it might have broken the camera. Fuzzy green junk had taken over the entire thing to the point that it looked like the miniature of a landscape where Orson Wells would have set the death of the protagonist's love. Beautiful, yet terrible and otherworldly. Our protagonist falling to his knees in the unnatural silence, the water's surface once again smooth, belying the heartbreak and horror beneath...

But I digress. Here's a picture of the tank, replanted. (The tank always looks a little sad at first, before the plants get a chance to grow in.) We're going to add some more fish soon.

Santa Rampage

2011-01-06T09:53:00.001-08:00

Ok, I'm way behind the times. What are you gonna do about it?

The Santa Rampage was fun. Like it always is... and probably always will be. I didn't grab too many photos this time, opting instead to just hang out without a camera in front of my face. I fixed up the horse bike (the rear legs and tail had fallen off during the Halloween XC race), repainted it, and added some wreaths from materials I had bought at the local thrift store and Michael's. The most difficult and awkward task of the whole horse bike project? Tying the big gold bows. I actually had to go online and look up a video of someone tying ribbon bows.

Repairs:

Said bows:

Enjoying some quality time with the horse bike on its last outing:

These last two photos by Tom Martin. Thanks again!

I didn't keep track of how many people asked why I didn't modify the horse to a reindeer or at least put antlers on it... but it was A LOT. Sorry everyone, child obsessions with horses don't go away just because it's Christmas :)

New XC Trail Bars

2010-12-02T10:29:00.000-08:00

Some handlebars I designed for Answer came in yesterday. My favorite? The women's version, of course.

Fear not, the busiest, girliest graphics will be hidden under the grips.

The men's version is cleaner, simpler, and they come in a lot of different annodized colors. I was supposed to narrow down the bar colors, but it was hard! "We could get rid of blue... but it looks so good! What about green... green would look good with a brown bike, though." So I think we've settled on green, red, blue, orangey gold, brown and black. Plus the pink girlie bars.

We can rebuild it!

2010-11-29T20:12:00.000-08:00

I'm repairing the horse for a Santa themed bar crawl in a few weeks. I modified the rear legs to pick them up a little more from the ground, so hopefully they'll last this time. Cale made a support for the tail so it won't bounce up and down when I ride. I'll have to get some updated photos up soon.

I used duct tape for a little extra strength. The rear legs flex up and down a bit, so if there's something in there that can't rip, it should hopefully be able to stand up to a few hours of riding.

Followed by lots more paper mache, of course.

Fatty Boombalatty

2010-11-29T20:02:00.000-08:00

I'm all for making a little room for a cat on your lap while you're on the computer, but when the cat starts abusing his privilege by spreading out and gnawing at his claws like a heathen, that's not cool.

Doppelganger

2010-11-24T19:11:00.000-08:00

I found a better groomed, more put-together version of me on Facebook. This photo in particular, I thought.

Blanketed

2010-11-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

It occurred to me the other day that I haven't put a Snips picture up here in a while. This is the first cat I've had that likes burrowing under the covers. Last night he searched for hours for the perfect spot. He was supremely satisfied with what he eventually arrived at. Ever had your legs spooned by a tuxedo cat?

Post Halloween

2010-11-12T20:32:00.000-08:00

What have I been doing since Halloween? I'm so glad you asked. I've been staying on the craft/art kick, and I've been making myself get out and about a little bit. I've been saying I would go to open drawing night at MIAD for a few months, and the same went for Doodle Day. I'd been putting both off because my drawing skills were so rusty! And because the Doodle Day crew is seriously creative and skilled. It was intimidating.

I dipped my toe in the water first by going to figure drawing. It has been so long, I don't think I've seen a naked model for... four years, maybe more. It was a bit of a shock to realize that, and strange like first-time-figure-drawing-strange to see that again. But! The setting was familiar and I soon fell back into the art groove. After a few hours, I realized that I've still got it! And by 'it' I mean drawing skills that are neither great nor totally shameful. I'll take it!

First drawing back (1 min gesture drawing):

Last drawing of the night (20 or 30 min):

Next up was Doodle Day, a week or two later. I biked up to Alterra (a coffee shop) on the East Side (look at me, getting out!). I sat down at a table with a bunch of people, set up my markers and stared at the blank page for a while. Then I stared some more. So big, so much paper, so white! Glancing around, I saw all sorts of good ideas and cool executions. Talent to the left of me, talent to the right! I decided to keep my head down and go for quantity over quality.

I did manage to fill the whole page, and it wasn't so agonizing!

The other thing I've been doing with nearly all my free time is crocheting. Maybe this is the year I finally learn to do more than just scarves. Maybe not! I made this one for myself out of a bunch of smaller balls of yarn. I tried to make a gradient in purples and yellows. I'm happy with how it turned out.

A better look at all the colors:

Playing Adult

2010-11-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

Ever feel like you're playing adult? Like today for instance, during my lunch hour (9-5, what-what!) I went to the gym, and on the way back I stopped at the gas station to fill up. When you were a kid, did you think you'd ever be this grown up? Having a real job and running errands in your very own CAR?

At the gym, I put my hair into a sporty pony tail, changed into an old t-shirt from an alleycat and some PRO looking running shorts, put my headphones in and stepped out... in my pilly black ankle socks and some scraggly old flats.

I forgot my tennis shoes and extra socks today. Also, when I stopped at the gas station, I may have bought myself some gas station nachos for lunch. You'll never take me alive, adulthood!

Halloween Wrap Up

2010-11-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

Get with the program! Here are some older posts about the process of making the Equestrian costume.
Costume Post #1
Costume Post #2
Costume Post #3
Costume Post #4

Alright, you adoring fans, you. You wanted the finished Equestrian costume, so here goes.

I borrowed a helmet from a coworker's mom. I didn't have a backup plan and I got it a few days before Halloween.. luckily it was perfect, if a little large. Easily solved- Halloween is the time for wigs, and I had one left over from last year. Helmet is pictured below, wig is not. Those luscious tresses are mine, all mine!

I also got the breeches and boots on the same day, so I came home and hopped on the bike for a test ride. This is before I added the bridle and saddle.

This is what it looked like before the tack. I never did get the hounds painted and attached. They were going to get attached to the pedals. While it would have been exceedingly hard to get on and off the bike with them there, I think it would have been TOTALLY WORTH IT to see them 'bounding' along with each pedal stroke. Alas.

Here it is at the race (Photo by Karen Larson):

What, want some more photos of me and the horse that I stole from other people? Suuure! I never did pose for a picture with my camera, so I thank those who got pictures.

This one's from John Owen. I was pretty much mobbed as soon as I pulled up to the race- I should have taken my bag off! There's my ratty wig, with my actual hair sticking out the bottom.

Speaking of getting to the race, and also of thanks, I owe Nick H. many thanks for letting me borrow his big 15 passenger van to transport the horse and my regular bike! I don't think I've ever been more uncomfortable driving than I was when driving that gigantic mass of metal. Luckily we both made it out unscathed.

And of the actual race? I planned on doing an awesome job racing the Women's 1/2, then doing a second race with the horse bike. The only other race I could do, according to an official, was the Men's 1/2. So I told eeeeveryone to look for the horse in the Men's 1/2 in the first lap, because I planned on doing one lap and then getting out of the way. The best laid plans of mice and men...

I did not do an awesome job in my race. It was almost what you'd call.... terrible. My racing lately has not been all that great, and that combined with a hot, hot, hot costume was enough to pretty much do me in. The one year I'm wearing a bunch of clothing, it's too hot for it! The nerve. Anyway, on the run up I asked a friend to hand me off the horse in the pit. The next time around I grabbed it and the fun began. I lost the race to everyone else, I think, but I was proclaimed winner of all costume contests in the land.

Photo from here.

Photo from here.

These I just flat out took from Peloton-Pix, but I'm planning on buying them, along with a few more, at the end of the season. So we're cool?

Thanks again for photos and/or comments on the costume. It took about two weeks total of about three hours a night, minus a night or two. It sounds like a lot of work, and it was, but I found myself actually skipping around at times. I had a ball making this thing! Gotta plan next year's now...