Saturday, April 5th...rainy and wet.

Today will be a perfect day for a river rescue.  Hopefully it will clear up by the afternoon so we can actually do some type of riding.  I did end up getting to swim OUTSIDE in the rain yesterday after school.  I started out in the indoor pool and saw someone come in from the outdoor pool.  I high-tailed it outside to be the only one in the pool with some drizzling rain.  It was quite peaceful.  The water temp was perfect, so it made for a very good swim.  I was so glad to get outside because there were some screaming kids in the pool.  My eardrums just don't appreciate high pitched squealing like that.  

Today might have to be another pool day if the roads continue to stay wet.  Fine with me...I am paying an arm and a leg to belong to the overpriced facility anyways.  I have decided to put a hold on my membership for the summer time though because Smap and I can ride the 3 miles down the greenway to the West Side Y.  I can't wait to swim in their Olympic size pool.  I grew up swimming there.  Plus, Smap says he will go with me.  He hates my current club and at the most I could only get him to go there once a year.  

Later on today, I hope to post some pics from last weekend.  Until then....

My two brothers.

Here is my older brother Josh (with the dog's nose in his crotch), his semi-x girlfriend (also Rachel) and my little brother Nic out at my Dad's right after Christmas. I don't think I have mentioned either bro yet. Josh lives currently in a trailer in Lake Tahoe, CA. I call him our family nomad chef. He has "cooked" as he calls it all over the country (he calls it "cooked", but it is not just cooking, he creates amazing food). He graduated at the top of his class from Johnson and Wales Cullinary School in Charleston, SC and he did his internship at the Biltmore Estate. After graduating and interning, Josh moved to Lake Tahoe where he has lived on numerous occasions. He is currently living there for his 3rd or 4th time. Last year, he lived outside of Bozeman, MT working at an exclusive lodge called Papoose Lodge. He has worked at some pretty swanky places including Blackberry Farm close to K-town up in Townsend, TN. He is an AMAZING chef/artist/mountain biker/writer/brother. He moves when he gets tired of where he is living. He pretty much lives out of his truck with his dog George. George is the most human like dog I have ever met. He also moves to where there is amazing mountain biking and/or snowboarding. He leads a pretty interesting life. Right now, he is helping some friends expand their pizza place he helped open in 98'. Josh comes home in between jobs usually during the winter holidays. When I got married, he had just moved out to Bozeman, but I made him PROMISE to come back for my wedding. So he did....he drove 24 hours back to K-town and stayed for the weekend festivities, and then drove straight back. He is such an awesome brother. :)

My little brother Nic is nearly 22 and living on the farm with Dad and Joyce. I'm very unsure what he is doing besides sleeping a lot. I think he is in school at Pellissippi. He is a pretty funny kid to hang out with. He talks like he knows everything about everything. You gotta love him though.

It is POURING rain again today so I am going to be forced to swim in the indoor pool. I could very well go home and ride the spin bike, or go into my health club and do the elliptical machine, but I would rather poke myself in the eye than do either of the latter choices. The indoor pool at Fort Sanders is pretty nasty, but it isn't so bad on Friday afternoons after school.

It looks like I will NOT be racing the Tsali race this weekend...too much rain. I need LOTS O' Miles anyways for Cohutta now only two weeks away!!!!

There is a shoreline clean-up tomorrow morning at the Ridge, so I am hoping I can get myself up early to help pick up! I despise how rednecks feel it is their priviledge to throw anything and everything out their car windows or their fishing boats! Litterbugs SUCK!

Have a nice weekend!

Niplets!!!!! I'm bored again due to rain.

My friend Jimi makes the coolest bracelets!  She calls them "Niplets".  This one matches my favorite bike I own...my single speed.  I have the pink Chris King hubs and headset along with my pink Oury  grips, some pink brake cable, a pink BMX chain, and pink pedals.  Smap insists on adding more and more pink.  OH...and I have a pink Terry saddle.  The pink is rubbing off of it, but it adds character to my bike.  I love my Rig.
Today is a most dreadful day.  It has been raining all day long.  I am SO glad I got in a fun ride yesterday and two swims in a row prior to that, or I would be going CRAZY.  Just another day of rain and it looks like PERFECT weather for riding from Saturday afternoon and on out.  

I am thinking about maybe perhaps possibly doing the Tsali Knobscorcher with my friend Maria on Sunday.  Tsali is very unpleasant when it is muddy though.  I really don't mind too much mud due to being on my single speed, but when it splatters up into my eyes is when it really sucks for me.  I had that problem at the Black Bear Rampage last year.  We'll see.  I really want to do a long road ride with Missy this weekend.  Hopefully the weather will cooperate and I can do both.

Taking furniture from others...

I have a problem... I always see furniture that either parents or friends have that I want.  It is a serious problem probably, but it works out pretty well for me.  

Smap and I were at our friends' Karen and Jeff's pre-wedding party the other night and I spotted a cute little desk in Karen's "garage sale room" of things that she needed to sell.  Luckily someone had given her the desk and she was willing to pass it on for free to a friend (ME).  So, I lucked out with a cute little desk for our yellow den.  A few weeks ago I scored a bench from my dad (previously blogged about).  He was so kind to donate such a beautiful piece to our pool room.  I also score nice things from my mom on a regular basis as she begins her de-cluttering of her house and multiple storage facilities. :)

Below, are so other examples of my horrible problem of taking furniture from friends.  

Here is the red desk (below) from Karen's.   I was afraid to tell Smap about it, so I showed it to him after I moved it in.  Luckily he liked it!!! 
Our coffee table also has a fun story behind it.  My best friend from high school and college got it for a wedding gift from a friend who MADE it for her and her husband as their gift.  I saw it and immediately told her that I wanted it.  It has a killer shelf built into it for storage.  I was over at her house several years ago and saw that it was no longer in her den.  She told me she was getting ready to take it to Goodwill....so here it is....in my den.
My buffet in my dining room....came from my friend Abby's house.  The first time I walked into her house I saw it.  I told her if she ever wanted to get rid of it, I would take it.  She called me last year and offered it for $50.  Her folks even delivered it and helped us move it into the house....pretty darn heavy piece.  It was a perfect fit once again.  Buying/taking furniture off of friends and asking parents for unwanted furniture is a gift I have.  Smap and I have pretty good stories behind a lot of our furniture.  

Anyway, I had a great ride tonight with my new friend Missy who just moved here.  She is a cat 2 roadie and is so fun to talk to.  We rode out of her house in South Knox.  I have not been out there in several years.  Hard to believe I started riding out there over 10 years ago when I first started riding with the Zoo folk.  What is even crazier is that I will be 33 in a week.  Wow....time flies when you are having fun. 

CRAZY!!!!  Just yesterday I was starting college....

I'm pregnant!!!!

Ha ha....April Fools!!!! Maybe in a few years...

Well, I did the marathon bike marshall thing on Sunday. It was COLD, but fun. I think I was on my bike (my Paragon 29'er) for about 4.5 hours. I am unsure of how many miles I actually rode because I don't have a computer on that bike, but it was anywhere between 25-35 miles. I rode pretty slowly riding next to friends going back and forth on the race course. It was a fun time even though my heart rate never got up once. I got some good photos of my twin sis (I'll post at some point this week), and of some of my friends I ran into along the way. I had two friends actually do the marathon...AmyLynn (the mountain biker turned roller derby queen) and our friend Jim Smith (Smithers). Crazy people....I saw a lot of people going through all kinds of pain. I did the bike marshalling the first year of the K-town marathon, but Smap and I were positioned on the 1/2 marathon part of the course. We didn't even think about moving on to the rest of the course that year. This year I wish I had taken a whole bottle of endurolytes (sp?) because I gave out the 10 I had in my mtn.bike pack I had with me. I needed more. I also needed more water. On a few occasions, I had to ride back to find bottled water for some poor souls... Luckily Amylynn was carrying a lot of extra endurolytes with her, so I bugged her for some one time after I ran out. Next year I will be a lot more prepared.

So, after the marathon it actually became a pretty Sunday. Too bad for me though. Being out in the cold all morning totally zapped me. I was immobile on the couch for the rest of the day. I did make it out to walk with Mr.Ippon, but I was quickly back on the couch as soon as we got back in the house. Smap was busy installing our new dishwasher that must have taken him 8 hours all together....or it seemed like it. I kept telling myself I was staying inside just in case he needed my help....I had a good excuse to remain on the couch. Actually, he did need my help at one point...I think I handed him a cup from the cabinet so he could drain some water out of the old dishwasher....he he he.

Well, today my brother and sister in law offically start their way back to Tennessee. They are moving back to TN from SAN FRANSISCO. I can't wait! My twin sis left me the month before I got married in 05' for a bigger TN town, so I have been without the extravegance of having a person to hang out with when my husband just won't do. Kate is from the Czech Republic and is super fun. Alex (Smap's youngest bro) is pretty fun too. They both love to ride and camp just like us. Alex even races. Perfect...Smap and Kate can hang with our dogs while Alex and I race. Only kidding Smap if you are reading this. ;-)

So, I am looking at the radar today. I think someone is pulling an April Fool's on Knoxville. They are saying that it is suppose to be stormy weather out tonight, but I just don't see it. I hope not because I need to get some good road miles in today. I haven't been on that bike since....ummmmm....last Tuesday. I have been on my other two mountain bikes 3 times though...and have swam good swims twice, so I think I will be alright. I tell myself that at least. And, I did run from the Knoxville Expo center to my mom's car parked behind the Knox Museum of Art in the rain on Saturday so my sis and mom wouldn't have to get wet. That may have been a half mile run....I am counting that too.

Okay, enough rambling. Fingers are crossed for no rain!

TGIF! Last March weekend of 08'

This week has been hard on me (riding). Tuesday night we did the CBC "shop ride". I was doing fine in the rotation until it was my turn to take a pull at the near top of a hill on Hardin Valley Road. I hit a wall of head wind. It sucked. I sucked. My heart rate jumped up too high and my legs started screaming from all the abuse I had put them through the previous weekend. I made it up the long false flat of Hickory Creek Road, which is no easy feat due to the pace these guys keep. Once again we rode up and over Everitt Road this week due to lack of daylight still. I was already in the back when the climb started. Unfortunately I had a small asthma/acid reflux attack. I have had this happen a few times before, but this time I seriously thought I was going to fall off the bike. I didn't have my inhaler (I usually just take a few hits off of it prior to activity), so I took it easy going over the hill. I strolled back until I finally felt like breathing hard again. I met up with Mary and Gene, who dropped off the pace line also on Everitt. It was a decent ride, but I am really looking forward to the regular 42 mile loop that doesn't have that dang hill.

Wednesday is always Haw Ridge night (if it is dry and not raining). I rode with my Menstral Cycle 12 hour team (Kimberly Pemberton, Jimi Flynt, and Karent Clemments). We had a good ride except I bruised my arse pretty good when I fell over on a climb. Smap put some new candies on my single speed, so I am still adjusting to getting in and out of them. We rode my least favorite trail that I need to put some time in on (Roller Coaster). It kicked my butt.

Thursday, I planned on doing a solo road ride after school, but last minute changed my mind and decided to go out to the ridge again. Bad mistake. My legs were seriously tired as well as my lower back. I did not realize this until I got up the first hill. I rode for a pretty good amount of time and finally decided I would do one last climb up Low Gap, so I could do the super fun decent over to my favorite trail, Soccer. I took a wrong turn and upon coming back down to the correct trail, I crashed hard. A sticked popped out of the ground as I rolled over it with my front wheel and it caught me. I landed so hard on my left thigh muscle. I just had to lay there in a fetal position for a minute or so to catch my breath. So much for going down Low Gap. I made my way back to my car and called it a night. I am glad I went though. I need as much trail time as I can get because Cohotta is creeping in pretty quickly.

This weekend hopefully will be fun if it doesn't rain too much. Smap and I are doing a lot of volunteering on Saturday and Sunday. Smap is building trails over at Hastie Park in South Knox on Saturday and I will be helping out with the bike marshalling at the Knoxville Marathon on Sunday. My twin sis will be in town to run the half. It will be fun hanging with her some this weekend too!

That is about it. Hopefully I will remember to take some shots this weekend.

Chaio!

My St.Patty's day photos....a week late...

My dad LOVES collecting different things. This is one of two barns which display his ever growing collection of license plates. If you have some and don't want to throw them away, my dad will take them. At night, you can point your head lights towards the barn, and it lights up. It is really cool!

The llamas are just so different. I love watching them!

Here I am on the "Four Corners" of Laughalot (my dad's farm is called this). We need another corner to fit the horses in. Ippon and Sam are wondering what the heck I am doing up there. I just thought it would be cool to see if I could get all the animals over there together. They all came when I called. The llamas and pigs all somewhat know their names. My dad is letting my uncle keep some cattle in the one pasture. I think it would be cool to see how the llamas and the horses interact...the cows are just kind of dumb.

Ippon with a ball in his mouth.

Dad and myself doing the self-portrait thing.

He is so cute. He doesn't look like he is over 11 years old (77 in doggy years).

Dorky girl on the John Deere.

My little brother has a pit bull named Sam. He is such a sweet sweet dog. He is very smart too. We were saying hi to the a few of the pigs.

I grew up LOVING horses and always wanting to ride them. I think Smap and I are going to have to get over to the farm to ride this spring. It is so much fun. I guess the last time I actually rode one of my dad's horses was about 7-8 years ago. So sad.

Well, that was our day. Just hanging on the farm walking around. Afterwards, Dad took Joyce and me for a delicious lunch and some beers (you have to have some beer on St.Pat's Day!).

Over and out!