Monday's are horrible....

I didn't want to come back to school today. It meant that I had to deal with 6th graders all day long as well as their parents (their parents are always emailing about this and that). A lot of people think teachers make way too much money for the time we spend teaching and the amount of time we get off. Well, if people think that, then they need to come and stand in my shoes for a day. I think teaching would be 70% better if parents would parent their children, if parents would not question our authority, if parents would let us teach and do our jobs, if parents would realize that sometimes their "perfect child" isn't at all perfect! Crazy....I have been called to parent conferences with two principals in the room because I was "so mean to their kid"....I'm like, maybe your kid is a HUGE disturbance and pretty much deserved to be called out! It is just crazy. I love teaching though don't get me wrong. It is a great PROFESSION and I am so glad I went into it. I have some really great kids and I look forward to watching them succeed in life (hopefully right?).

So, Sunday Smap and I went out to Norris with Larry Creech, Tim Rogers, and Craig Rogers (Tim and Craig are not related). It was Craig's first time out to Norris ever and he was on his new Fisher Paragon 29'er. It was a day full of climbing. Smap and I were on our single speed 29'ers. I love mine. Smap asked me what bike I intended on riding due to the guys we would be riding with, and I just said, "my single speed". He kind of looked at me like, "don't you know we are riding with Larry and Tim?"....but, he just said, "okay, we're doing a lot of climbing"... The climbing part wasn't so bad until we went up to climb up to the water tower. I had to walk that part....just so steep and so LONG. I did it last summer, but right now I am just not fit yet. I also had to walk up the Lake Loop climb, but dang it is steep too. Plus, Smap reminded me that he changed out my rear cog from a 22 to a 21, so it is going to be harder for me for a while until I really get use to the ratio. I am fine with that. I just love riding that bike.

So, it was pretty cold and the sketchy descents were made sketchier because all of us were having trouble with our eyes...it was also very windy, so it made everyone's eyes water and blurry. It was a great day though. Smap took a photo of us on top of the last climb, but it was really too dark for me to post. I may try to lighten it up. All it is, is me standing with a bunch of tall fit guys. I did feel priviledged riding with them though. They are super strong riders and if I can continue to increase my fitness with them, I will be ready for the racing season this year! I can't wait.

After the ride Larry and Smap shared cold beverages with us as well as Larry's homemade guacamole... Mountain biking is great because we always drink cold beer after good hard rides. I never feel guilty indulging in a nice cold beer. It makes the ride even sweeter in the end. Actually, after Tuesday night rides, we usually enjoy frosty beverages at the bike shop. Trust me, after a Tuesday night road ride with some of the fastest dudes in Knoxville, you deserve a beer. Sometimes I pass though and go straight home to drink more water. More on those rides after the time changes.

Peace out!

Saturday Farm stop-in

Dad's Farm:

I finally hooked up my new camera to the computer to download some new shots. I am doing this as I clean house (sweep, change the bed, do laundry, etc..). I hate cleaning. I would much rather be outside doing domething else. I had a friend over the other day who is also outdoorsy, and she said her house was in the same shape...so, I don't feel so bad knowing that other couples have the same type of house cleaning issues. It is enough for me to get all the laundry done all week long. It would be okay if I just had my own laundry to do because I don't mind wearing something until it looks dirty or I can smell myself, but my husband likes to put something on for 10 seconds and it is then classified dirty to him...

Anyway, that is probably too much information on laundry in my house.

Here are some recent shots from my new camera (Thanks again Dad!)

One of my BFF's, Jen, and I do a lot together on the weekends. Her husband works at the Bike Zoo (Cedar Bluff Cycles' biggest competitor for expensive bikes. She and I have a lot in common, therefor you will usually find us together on Saturdays. Jen is just getting use to the whole road biking thing, but she can kick some major butt mountain biking. She just recently decided to ride a 29'er with only one speed just like me....now, I have someone else with me (besides the guys) to experience the same kind of pain and fun on a mountain bike that I experience often.

Here are the two of us goofing off on my dad's farm. I ride over there frequently to hang out w/my dad and my stepmom Joyce. It is a blast over there. They have an incredible "water feature" which I will probably have lots of photos of on here sooner or later (spring time is best), and they have 9 pot-bellied pigs, 11 llamas, lots of horses, 5 dogs, cats, and a lot of KOI, which my dog Ippon LOVES to watch. He is enamored by them.

Here is a shot of Jen and some Koi....the Koi are like dogs and cats....they always want treats. We can't feed them in the winter time, so they are coming up to taste our fingers. In the summer time, we have a lot of fun with them. You can put your toes in the water and they will suck on them....I know that sounds perverted, but oh well. We have a good time with them...Ippon will stick his nose in there and they will even suck on his nose. We also paid a visit to the llamas. My dad and some others were vaccinating them and clipping their toe nails. These animals are so peculiar to me. They hard huge and strong. They have these feet like dog feet, but the feet are at the end of what looks like horse legs....then, they have these really soft mouths (like a dog's mouth), but their teeth look like horse teeth. I had one (Garinger) eating out of my hand a few weeks ago. They look at you and due to lack of being around them, you feel very awkward, like why is that llama looking at me like that. They seem to be thinking really hard about what

are these humans looking at me for? Anyway, here is Jen checking out the llamas. You can see them in the background if you look pretty hard. I had on my cycling shoes, so I didn't want to get out in the mud. Okay, so here is one more shot of Jen with the pigs in the background. These were my dad's first "different" type of farm animal. He has always had horses and cattle, but no pigs or llamas until just over the last several years. It all started with one pig named Oz. Ozzie isn't with us any longer, but he was the first. My dad and Joyce are very involved in taking in unwanted animals...or helping out by letting folks keep their horses on the farm for free (they pay for the feed and my dad takes care of them). So, Oz was an unwanted Pot-Bellied pig someone did not want. One way or anther, Dad and Joyce got connected with some pig refuge in Cookeville I think. The lady there started giving Dad and Joyce overflow pigs. My dad loves them...he is now at nine and holding. Just a year ago, Dad's horse vet came to him needing someone to take on some "overflow" llamas from a llama refuge. Of course my dad accepted. He started out with three, and now has 11. Dad says his nex animal to take on is a Donkey. He had one for a little while (again, someone needed Dad to "house" the Donkey for a short period), so now he wants his own. It is never boring over at LAUGHALOT....the name of Dad's farm. We do laugh quite a bit here. This is also where Smap and I got married. Perfect place for a big party (which is what our wedding was...300+).

So, this was my Saturday fun. Jen and I got in 40 miles, and I planned on doing some more at Cherokee Blvd, but Ippon came first. Actually, one of our friends had a shoe blowout playing frisbee golf down at Morningside Park. Smap and some others had ridden their urban Assault bikes downtown to play. I had to run down some duct tape so the guys could tape Larry's sole back onto his shoe. Then, I took Ippon down to the park where we met up with Lindsay Rogers and her three dogs. It got really windy and I lost interest in getting on my bike again...that is the way it goes for me. Gung ho one moment and uninterested as soon as the weather changes.

I'm not sure what we are going to do today. It is colder...I think the high will be 45 or so. I am thinking a good Norris ride perhaps...I can hurt myself on the single speed up there pretty good with all the climbing. That is all for now. I have a lot more photos to show from previous weeks!

Chiao!

2 posts in one day!

Okay, so about a year ago Smap and I went to Aspen with his mom, his brother Alex and his wife Kate. It was a very nice trip. It helped me take my mind off of losing my dearest grandmother, Nernie (she passed right before we left). Smap's mom, Barbara, left Aspen the day before we did, so she made it back to K-town just fine. Alex and Kate's flight back to San Fransisco was four hours prior to ours. They flew out of Aspen just fine. We didn't have such luck. As soon as they flew out, the clouds started rolling in and we got stuck! Smap and I missed the last free shuttle to Denver, so we had to rent a Ford Explorer with some really rich old man, and a very young married couple from South Africa. The five us set off in a semi blizzard for Denver around 4:00 that day. We got to the Denver airport in one piece around 9 pm and dropped off our passengers. Since Smap drove the truck, the old rich guy paid for most of the rental, so we had it for the entire next day. Our flight wasn't until like 6pm the next day too, so we had a day to kill in Colorado. As soon as we dropped off the passengers, Smap asked me, "how far is it to Fort Collins?"... He knew I had been there before (7 years prior). "An hour and a half"....I say, and as I look at him, I see a huge grin. "We're going to the New Belgium Brewery then tomorrow". Yep, we did and here are photos to prove. Of all the breweries in the world, I have only been to one before, and I have been to this one TWICE! Yep, two times...

This time at the brewery, Smap and I had such a good time. We made friends with all the people working there (I think we got there as soon as they opened for the day). We got our own private tour and tasting. They usually only let you taste each beer once, but we pretty much got whatever we wanted. Also, they gave us so much free stuff since we were from Tennessee and since we were buying so much other stuff. I could live in Fort Collins. It is such a cool town. We really like this brewery because they are COMPLETELY off the grid and they are employee owned. They give a really cool cruiser to all their employees after a year of employment.

Smap and I are really into being green these days, so we appreciate and spend our money on items/services/food from companies that are green.

Anyway, I wanted to share the spontaneous unplanned trip from last year. Hard to believe this was a year ago. Hopefully, I have a lot more fun times to share soon.

Peace Out,

Rach

Thursday...cold again...

Well, we had a warm snap, but it didn't last long. Good thing too because it has really caused some damage with all the tornados and crazy wind gusts. My poor sis can't sleep at night due to Nashville's tornado warnings (which I think my sis said are actual alarms right next to her house). Anyway, I ended up getting in 25 miles on Tuesday rather than the 40 actually wanted. I only took one water bottle with me. I failed to remember how much water I actually drink when it is really warm outside. I think the high on Tuesday was 77?!!! Craziness. I did have a good ride though. I am feeling quite strong.

Other than that, not much is going on. I am hoping schools will get called out due to the flu. So many kids have been sick and we had like over 200 out yesterday. They are dropping like flies. So, if I don't have school tomorrow, I will upload photos! I have so many to share.

Cheers for now.

~Two days in a row for blogging~

So, this is what I am "doing" today (see picture).... Ha ha ha....

Yep, for some reason (perhaps GLOBAL WARMING) the weather is a balmy 70 or so degrees out today. Yesterday it was terrential (SP?) downfall and cold. This calls for a celebration. Oops, I forgot to vote. Well, it gets dark at 6, so I have time to run home and get 30-40 miles in prior to the darkness and prior to the polls closing. I just can't pass up the opportunity to get a ride in in February without knee or arm warmers in! And, for once my feet will not hurt.

This is my pretty road bike I got last year. It was the Discovery Team's race bike last year. Of course the Discovery team doesn't exist anymore, and Trek has come out with a much better race bike. I will be on this one for not much longer. Smap has aquired the ability to sense when I need new bikes (which is frequently!). Soon, I hope to have my new single speed frame in possession as well as my new Fisher HIFI carbon full suspension bike. Truefully, I really could care less about the HiFI. I really LOVE riding my single speed mountain bike the best out of any bike I have EVER had. This says a lot about me. Coming from a girl who use to cry when Smap took me mountain biking. I just use to get so completely frustrated because I couldn't stay with him or the other guys like I could on the road bike rides. It took me a while to be able to ride fast, but thankfully Smap introduced me to the single speed. It has changed my world of riding (both on the mountain and the road). I am so very thankful for my one geared bike. My technical ability on mountain is 100 X's better as well as my strength and speed....just because of one gear. I could tell on the Tuesday night CBC shop rides how big a difference it made for my road riding last year. I would be able to hang on to those super fast rides just by channelling strength from my core into my legs...it was amazing. I am looking forward to more channelling this year on both my road and mountain bikes!!!

Not much more to talk about today except that I don't have kids today due to teacher in-service!!! WAHOOOOOOOOO... teaching rocks. I do need to plan, so I will plan to blog a little more tomorrow about my ride today.

Cheers!

I'm a lazy poster, but not a lazy rider...

Well, I have a camera full of great photos. My dad got it for us for Christmas, but the thing is, I have no patience to unload the pics onto the computer in the computer room....I think partly because the computer room in our house is cold. I like using the lap top in the den which we don't load the different stuff on to (Ipod music, pictures, etc). I will get around to doing it soon. Like I said, I have some great photos/shots.

This past weekend, Smap and did two great rides. I (maybe we) am training for the Cohutta 100, which is a mountain bike race in April. Our friend Carol Ann has done the previous two years of the race. I was thinking about doing the 100 on my single speed, but Smap convinced me to ride gears (and he is getting me a new carbon full suspension Fisher), so I will be riding gears for my first mountain bike century. We got over 100 miles in this weekend. Close to 50 on the greenways Saturday, and then close to 60 on the road yesterday before the Super Bowl. I felt abnormally good. I think it is because of all the swimming and weight training I have been doing. Not sure, but also the single speed helps.

I am hoping to also race the road once agian this year. My sis is racing for the Harpeth Bike Shop in Nashville, so I am riding for that team too. It will be nice to have teammates...even though they may all be 4's...the last time I raced I was a 2, but I may be back down to a 3 now...I will have to contact the lady who moved me up to a 2 back in 03' (the last time I road raced). It will be exciting. I think I have really matured as a rider and I feel like I will be really strong this year due to my single speed training/riding/racing and the fact that I am just more seasoned on the bike. I feel really comfortable.

I am hoping Smap will be racing with me (mountain bikes), but if not that is cool. He really likes doing the long epic stuff, but other than that he usually isn't interested. He did great this year at the 12 hour racing solo....he got 9 laps on his single speed.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to all the racing and camping and fun this spring, summer and fall. I am ready for all the rain and cold to end (even though the South desperately needs the rain) so I can start riding more. I haven't been to Haw Ridge since Christmas time....too wet. You really can't ride out there if it is wet because 1)it is dangerous on the roots/rocks and 2)it destroys the trails. We have been out to Norris, but Norris is soooo boring compared to the Ridge. Not enough technical stuff.

Aw well, 4 more months of school and I will be out for 10 weeks!!! Love being a teacher. Hopefully I won't work as much this summer like last summer. I didn't leave myself much time to do what I had planned on doing (swimming and riding every single day). I will change that this summer.

Cheers for today.

My first 08' post...I am a slacker!

I'm not really a slacker, I just have gone through a camerless spell and have not been able to get some good shots to share. Finally though, I paid a visit out to my dad's farm last weekend and he so kindly sent me a shot of my activity for the day. Llamas! My dad and Joyce have begun taking on unwanted llamas on their farm. Before, they took on pot-bellied pigs (they have 9), and now their latest animal to add to the Laughalot pets are LLAMAS! They have 11 of them now in two different pastures. I need to go out and get a bunch of shots of all the animals (koi, horses, dogs, pigs, llamas, cats, and sometimes they have some of my uncle's cattle). It is such a fun place to take Ippon because he has so much fun sniffing, swimming, and just hanging out w/all the other dogs.

So, here I am feeding a few llamas. The brown one was letting me hand feed him. I can't remember his name. Corky (the blonde) was only eating out of the bucket (Dad said it was his first time eating out of the bucket). Such funny animals to be around. I shall post more soon....I promise!