Sundown in the City...Citizen Cope

Last night was a great night in Knoxville! Smap met (he now commutes to work 2 days a week) me at the old Bi-Lo in Bearden to ride downtown to see Citizen Cope (one of my favorite artists) play on Market Square. It was a BLAST! I would have liked to have been closer to the stage, but in order to be up close I would have had to be packed in with no breathing room with all the people. This was the second time we have seen Cope. He has great sound and is pretty nice to look at too. :-)

Smap and I met up with our friends Chuck, Peggy, Tim Buxton, Mebby and her daughter, Peter and Hillary, Jay and Jen, and then some. I could not have asked for a better night. If only Knoxville had Sundowns year round.

Yesterday was a nice day to not work. I got up and took my favorite pup to Admiral park to swim before it got way too hot for him. There is a nice short walking trail on the park which goes along the shore that I took Eeps down. Unfortunately there is a large amount of broken class close to the water, so we had to turn around. I don't know why people have to ruin places by being so inconsiderate with littering, etc. Admiral park has quite a bit of litter due to the Frisbee golf course located here. A lot of teenagers hang out here and refuse to place their garbage in the waste cans located throughout the property. I have taken a large garbage bag in the past to pick up litter as we play the course. I can't stand litter. When I worked out at Dagger, I use to tell people that Roane County could possibly be the prettiest town in TN except for all the dang litter. I won't even get started on people throwing it out of their cars in busy intersections! Horrible.

This upcoming weekend will be a busy one! Our bike club (Knox Velo) is hosting a pretty big mountain bike race at Haw Ridge. Smap and I volunteered to help out most of the day tomorrow for registration and then for the race on Sunday. Too bad the race is on Dad's Day. Hopefully my dad won't mind putting off a greenway ride till later on in the afternoon...

I found a new way to do self portraits....within the Element. I really get bored sometimes...

Finally, here is my Rig I got for my birthday back in April. A lot of the parts are from my previous Rig. I love the G2 geometry on this thing...and the yummy new Fox shock! Too bad my Chris King headset did not fit this bike....it goes with the pink hubs and peddals and saddle, etc... Pretty cool! Reminds me of a cupcake for some reason. I know, I am random.

Later! Got to ride, swim and work!

Finally a good ride

I got up this morning early with Smap. I immediately went to Tim and Lindsay's to get the dog sitting duties out of the way. Their pups were so happy to see Ippon and me. We hung with them for a while until they were bored with us.

We came back and I got on my road bike for a perfect 40+ mile ride. Well, not exactly perfect...when I had my bike in the little ring, it was not wanting to stay in any gear except the easiest or hardest in the back, so I pretty much did a lot of climbing in my big ring today. It was good though! The air temp was not roasting yet, and the air was not completely filled with humidity.
I wish I had taken my camera so badly because I saw a lot of cool shots I could have taken. I rode all the way out to the dam in Lenoir City. There is a steep grave yard hill leading over to the dam, which has a huge grave yard field at the top. I got up to the top and thought I heard music. As I got to the bottom of the hill, the music grew louder and louder, but I could not see anyone in the grave yard field. Finally, as I approached the next hill leading up to the dam, I saw a lone bag piper playing near a freshly dug grave. Soon I saw a caravan of funeral folk heading the way. It was pretty cool seeing and hearing the guy play. It is a beautiful sounding instrument.

Anyway, as I got to the end of my ride it started getting a little bit hotter. I have been suffering this summer with the intense humidity and heat already. My asthma just doesn't do well with it. I was really glad to get a good ride in this morning and still feel like I can actually ride well at a nice fast pace. Recently I have been sucking on the bike because I have just been riding when it has been too hot. Now, if I can just get out to Haw Ridge to ride my single speed!

Cheers!

Swiss Family Apking

Our secret deck in the woods over looking the water!

Smap, Ippon and I drove up to our beautiful property on Norris yesterday. Our good friends Chuck and Peggy rode up via waverunner. Smap and I have had this property now for @ 5 years. Just in the last couple of years we have built this killer deck overlooking the cove.

Prior to having our deck, we would just sit behind the big tree in the area where the deck is now standing. The property is so steep, so we would race up to the one flat spot to sit.

**Here is the Grant family (above)...predeck....this is an old shot I decided to pull out of our files.**

Building this moster of a deck was a tough job. Smap and Chuck lugged the bags of concrete down (a tough hike...Chuck says he only carried 2 of the 80 lb bags). Anyway, just hiking up and down to where we have to park is hard enough without carrying anything at all.

Smap and Chuck finally decided on a deck plan (Chuck is a top architect and second in command at Michael Brady...an architect firm here in K-town), so we began getting the wood down one fall. We had a large assembly line at hand to throw the huge planks of wood down the side of the land to where we were building our deck. Chuck, Peg, their daughter Nicole, Skinny D, Monte, Tim and Lindsay were all at hand to help with the arduous and dangerous task of getting the wood safely down. It was worth it though because we now have the perfect place to hang overlooking a beautiful cove up on Lake Norris. The water this year is breathtaking for its clarity and pureness. Ippon loves to just walk down and swim around the cove.

These rocks are on part of our trail down to our deck. It is a fun STEEP hike.

Smap decided the deck needed some places to hold beers, so he came up with the ingenious idea of using old bottle cages and bottles to sit your beer bottles in. He also uses old beer bottles as citronella candles.

I am attempting to show the trail and the landscape as I hike down to the deck here...Happy Dog enjoying his water...

Enough for now. Time to ride!

Around the house this hot morning...

I meant to post this several days ago, but had it as a draft and just couldn't get time to post it.





If you look really hard you can see Smap's solar panels in the top middle of the roof in the shot below. I think I have mentioned before that Smap has our kitchen TV hooked up to it. One of these days hopefully we'll build an earthship somewhere (not in our present neighborhood)! One of our far out future goals...

Lucky for me, I work when I want to work this summer. I am trying to keep my work schedule to a minumum (15-20 hours) this summer because last summer the only thing I remember doing with all my time was working at the bike shop. Not going to happen this summer!

Smap is able to ride his bike to work now, which is great! He is going to try to ride one way a day saving him about 15 miles on his tank a day. He rode home yesterday and back to work again this morning. I am glad for him because he has been wanting to commute for so long. I wish I had a photo of him this morning leaving on his commuter....next time.

Ippon and I got in a walk at 7 this morning after Smap left. It was already getting super hot. It is funny how in the winter all I can think about is it being summer. When summer gets here, I am cussing the heat and humidity. I can't ride like I want to because I can't breath...blasted asthma! Ippon is in the house as I take some shots. He just got through walking and decided it was too hot already at 8 am to come back outside. He is just a little bit spoiled. I told him we would go to grandma's (my mom's house) to swim a little later today. He is excited about that.

Here is the really cool cactus that Skinny D gave us! He and Tim brought it over the other night. The thing is a monster! I need to think of a cool name to give him. We placed him on our front stoop for the ample amount of sunshine we get on this south facing side of our house. He'll be a lot of fun to watch as he continues to grow up and out!

Fun with colors... Smap and I have a colorful house....purple dining room, red pool room, yellow den and hallway (I'm going to carry the yellow into the kitchen when we get around to it). Here is one of our guest bedrooms...lime green and brown! LOVE IT... When I am not teaching, working at CBC, riding, reading, or whatever, I love doing my little interior design thing. After my junior year in college, I lived with my sister pretty much until I got married. My sister has always been in charge of decor and furniture/home accesory arrangement...she is really good at it, so I never minded letting her be creative. Well, now that I have my own home (with Smap of course), I finally get to dabble in interior design. Below and above is the most recent room Smap has painted. We're still waiting on our blinds, but otherwise it is a pretty cozy room. I like mixing antiques with contemporary items (shown above). And of course, I LOVE art. The picture below is fuzzy, but is a shot of Smap sitting in a classroom at Farragut High (he was in summer school one summer) with Ronald Reagan. Reagan was in town and had heard about some kids giving up their summer to get their last year of English out of the way. Yeah right. Smap and his friends were in there because they were grounded and the only way they could get out of the house during the summer was to attend summer school. Pretty funny that he got to sit next to ole' Reagan himself. I like the story that goes along with his photo.

This shot above is Smap's water catchment thingy majiggy... He has like 10 of these water barrels he got for a song, so he is going to start collecting lots-o-water...just another thing he is doing to make us more green.

Some more shots...

This is the kind of a Monday I don't mind having. I get up with my husband, eat oatmeal and drink coffee, hang out until Smap leaves, then start my day off doing what ever the hell I want to do! Smap did give me a big chore to do today though....spray off our screened-in porch. It is pretty nasty with all the pollen and such. Fine by me though. It is better than being at school! Plus, I get to see my beautiful dog all day long!

I am going through some more photos here...I found a good file I will save for next month, but here are some more from the last month or so...

Here I am on my birthday I think....documenting my aging process. Below is a shot from my birthday dinner at my Dad's farm....pictured is Rudy (one of the llamas), Dad (in the T hat), Chuck, Joyce, and Peggy. Chuck and Peggy are two of our best friends. We always find different things to celebrate with them. We had a good time that night.

Well, that is all I have for today. Blogger is experiencing some technical difficulties and I don't have the patience to wait. I have some chores and riding to do.

Until next time, peace out.

Another post for the day...

During my and Jen's 12+ hour day of fun yesterday, I totally forgot we took this shot together.  Jen lives in two towns....Knoxville and Nashville.  A normal week for Jen is getting up at @ 4:00 am to leave for Nashville where she works Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from like 6-6.   Sometimes she leaves a little early on Thursdays to drive back to K-town.  So, she misses out on a lot.  She got to come home on Wednesday this week so she got to hang out with me all day Thursday.  We never plan days like this, but when they happen, we have so much fun.  

Jen came over at 7:30 in the morning for our 8:00 golf time with Kimberly.  We played 9 holes at the Concord golf course for $6.00 apiece.  Jen played some as a kid, and I have played a total of maybe 3 times prior to yesterday.  So much fun.   Jen actually got a birdie.  I had a couple of good shots, but never anything consistent.  Like I said previously, we have agreed to start working on our golf.  Totally random for us, but absolutely fun.

After we finished playing golf we went to deliver some furniture for Jen's job.  I helped by staying out of the way basically.  Well, I moved her bike out of the back of the Sprinter to help.  Next, we decided to ride the greenway from Jen's house to downtown to check out some furniture stores and to pay Jen's KUB bill.  I had found some chairs at TJMAXX that I decided I had to have, but were sold when I went back to get them, so now we are searching all the stores in K-town for something similar.  Yeah, I don't usually buy furniture, but I enjoy finding good buys every once in a while.  I did score another table from my dad.  I love going through his barns on his property and spotted an antique dining table gathering lots of dust.  Lucky for me, my dad LOVES me and Smap, so we got a new dining room table.  It needs work, but should be ready for duty soon.  THANKS DAD...WE LOVE YOU!

Jen and I got back to her house around 4:30 from riding greenways etc, and we had to meet our husbands to ride together at 6ish for Sundown.  We left that at like 10ish and rode back to our cars, so she and I were actually together for a good 12+ hours.  Fun times.  Never a dull moment with the two of us.  We can always find something interesting to do whether it is riding, painting walls, shopping, walking, or whatever.  

Cheers!

Summer blogger slacker!

I am not a complete slacker this summer, just a blogger slacker. I have been having so much fun though! Since school has been out, I have been to two Sundown in the City's down on Market Square mall. Last night Smap and I rode down with Jen and Jay Smelser. We lucked out and had one friend (our friend Suzi, who owns World Grotto) invited us down to the VIP lounge at the World Grotto (free food and nice bathrooms), and then we noticed our friend Jay Nevans had his door open up at his office very close to the stage on Market Square. We got to listen to Robert Earl Keen (I think I spelled it correctly) from very close up. It was a fun show. I even went down to dance some with Jen. She and I somehow ended up in the younger age side (the kids were in their high teens to low twenties). It was amazing to see how old we really were just by standing in that section. We felt out of place so quickly moved.

Jen and I played golf yesterday with our friend Kimberly Pemberton. It was a BLAST. Jen and I agreed to start playing more. We need a lot of work, but it is fun to do something SO different than riding a bike. Jen and I also did a big greenway ride from her house yesterday. We successfully spent over 12 hours together yesterday. It was a good time.

I am on the computer in the "cold" room. The room is no longer cold because we still have yet to turn our AC on. Our electricity bill for last month was something like $80. We were pretty proud of that. Smap downloaded a bunch of photos from my camera, so I think today I will finally get around to putting some up.

Enjoy:

Recognize anyone familiar in the above shot???

Above are shots from my Cohutta 100 race. Smap was able to get a shot of Mr.Landis at the start line. He did a 8:27 I think. I think I may be in the shot below somewhere???

Here is my first shot ever of my other BIL (brother-n-law) and his new wife Leslie. They were married in December and have a little one on the way! I am very excited to be an aunt for the first time! Leslie also has a 10 year old from a previous marriage who is equally as good looking as she is. Jay is the middle brother of the Apking boys. I married the oldest of the three.

Below is Alex and Kate. By the way, all these shots of Smap's brothers and such were taken in Cinci, OH several weeks ago for a big family dinner honoring Jay and Leslie's marriage back in December. It was a fun night with yummy good and good company.

Here is a shot of Jay and Barbara (the lady who produced all three of these fine gentlemen!). She is very tiny and VERY pretty. Sweet too. I lucked out in the in-law department!

Below is Kate and Leslie, followed by an after dinner shot of the two of us having a little bit too much fun (everything was funny on the way home that night). Also, a couple shots of our dogs on the way up to Cinci that day (Kate loved how Ippon insisted on sticking his nose up through the head rests so he could see what was going on).

I found a shot of "The King"....above is Steve Apking himself (yellow sweater). Smap, Jay and Alex's dad. He is called "The King" because of his ability to play golf. His pals at his golf club have dubbed him this name. Kate, Leslie and I were looking at some old Apking family albums the other day and found that Big Steve looked so much like Smap in his younger years. Smap also looks like his mom if you ask me.

Below: Dagger 20th Reunion shots. I didn't take many because I was too busy talking. Steve Scarbrough (one of the original 4 owners) promises a CD of shots coming soon. Here is a shot of the yummy cake Teri and Tony's sister made for the occasion. My boss (also very good friend)Teri is below in the pink. Bucky is standing behind her. The shot below her is of DR (David Rose) and his beautiful daughter and Mark Brown. The final shot is of Mark and Tom Windham. Tom and I use to commute from Knoxville to Harriman together. He lives in Kentucky now so I haven't seen him since I was on top of Brass Town Bald in 05' waiting on the Tour de Georgia to race to the finish.

Okay, that is enough fun for the day. I shall post more shots soon. I have a lot of back-logged shots to post. I just don't have the time now! Gotta go work at the bike shop. Keep those boys straight!

Peace