TGIF....sort of....

After this weekend, I only have two more weeks before I go back to school. What happened to all my time??? I know, I have been working for Smap at the Label company. Earlier this summer I was working at the bike shop when I wanted to and however long I wanted to. The first part of my summer went really slow and I enjoyed the hell out of it. But, good things must come to an end... It hasn't been too bad. Smap and I work extremely well together. People can't believe that we like to work together, but we do. Sometimes when I work at the bike shop on Saturdays, Smap will work with me so we can be together. We REALLY work well together at the bike shop. We just have a lot of fun.

Last night Smap and I got a new member for our family. In June I had to cat/dog sit for Tim and Lindsay Rogers. I fell in love with their kitty, Escher....he is an outside cat, but just loved to be held etc. I told Lindsay how sweet he was and that Smap and I have been thinking about getting a kitty for some time. Long story short, she called me Sunday in excitement claiming a kitty just like Escher had walked into her yard/life. So, I picked him up last night. His name is Fisher (after the 5 Fisher mtn.bikes we have hanging in our garage). The name totally suits him too. I felt a little guilty getting a kitten because of Ippon. I didn't want Ippon to get his feelings hurt...but, Ippon likes him.. He was a little peaved by Fisher last night, but this morning Ippon was trying to play with him and even let him curl up next to him while we ate our morning oatmeal. So sweet!

So, tonight we are doing Cades Cove...it is a full moon. It will be a mountain bike ride up and over Rich Mountain, around the cove and back. The only times I have done this, it has been freakin' colder than S**T! This will be a nice change.

That's about it...still no pics for my blog. I just have been busy whenever I am at the house.
Ciao

Widespread Panic 08'

Wow, we had a great time last night at the Widespread show. They are here playing at the Tennessee Theatre three nights in a row. We had some killer seats up on the balcony in the center, so we could see the stage really well. I never sat down one time and never stopped moving for that matter. Smap was even dancing the entire time. Even though I worked out before going to this show, I consideer the amount of dancing I did last night a good two hour workout.

Tonight is a mountain bike night. I do miss riding my road bike. I really need to get back on a steady training program. I use to be so obsessed with training and racing for so many years. I think it is just that my daily schedule is so different from day to day this last part of my summer. When school starts back, it will be easier for me to find my rhythm again.

I would love to get back into the whole triathlon thing again if I could run. My dad has been on me for years to stop running completely, but Eric Bell's mom says she can help me with her Reiki and Quantum-Touch. I am going to give it a shot! It would be awesome to start doing the X-Terra thing. The last one I did I had to walk the whole run due to my asthma and my knees, so we'll see!

T minus 3 weeks till I go back to school....

Smap and I had a great weekend for his birthday. He decided he wanted to go down to the Ocoee on Saturday, so we took our single speeds and rode trails, then he jumped in his kayak to cool off with some friends we ran into (Brian N and Jeff M). It was a very enjoyable day. Again, I will post some pics next time I get a chance to download at home. I am still pretending to be Smap's office girl at this label company. I am trying to get him some new business. Anyone know anyone who needs some labels? We do all sorts!

Tonight we are heading down to the Tennessee Theatre to see Widespread Panic. This will be my 6th or 7th time to see this band. The first two times I saw WP was at the World's Fair Park amplitheater....way too much fun. I use to go see a LOT of shows with the guys and gals on the swim team at UT. It shocks me to realize that I graduated from UT 10 years ago. Gosh, I really don't feel like I am getting older... I think the last time we saw WP was at the Civic Colliseum in 02' or 03'. It should be a great show tonight! They sold out three nights in a row. Time to dance!

Yep, so it is starting to hit me that I have to be back in my school on August 4th. I saw my assistant principal the other day and she said I had my job back. I was a little worried because of the stupid Knox County school budget crisis. We were told on the last day of school that all of us who are not tenured woudn't be promised our jobs this next school year. Luckily our school didn't get hit and I will be back. It will be very interesting though because we are having a lot of administrative turnover this year as well as teacher turnover. It is also ALWAYS interesting to meet the new little scared 6th graders coming in. I love it!

I will try to post a bunch of photos on Thursday.
Cheers!

A few shots of Birthday Boy...

I am not at home and have limited access to shots of Smap on my computer at Smap's office. Here are a few that I don't think I have posted on here before. Again, Happy Birthday Smap. I love you so very much. You are a stellar husband. :)Here is poor ole' Smap on his 40th birthday. We had a great evening in the ER after Smap had a little accident at Haw Ridge. Sucked because I had a cake in the car in a cooler and totally forgot about it until like 3 days later. When I remembered it, I dreaded opening the lid knowing it was going to be a big nasty watery cake mess.

Here is Smap finishing the Black Bear Rampage last summer. Of course everyone knows there was a drought last summer. And, of course it decided to rain hard as nails at the beginning of the race for an hour. Made for a very sloppy ride much like the Cohutta 100 this year!

Smap and I are both signed up to race single speed again this year down at Black Bear. Gary Fisher will be there racing and for post race entertainment. The preregistered riders list states that Floyd Landis is racing. We'll see. It is only a 44 mile race. I'm excited! (not to see Floyd, just for the race because last year was such a kickin' fun time).

And of course a shot of Smap standing in front of the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO last year. We had one hell of a good time hanging out here for three hours getting a private tour and learning all we could about beer being manufactured off the grid. Luckily, we can FINALLY purchase this stuff in K-Town! Smap has been drinking every night I think since it has been on the shelves here.

Enough for today.

ps...how about that Tour! It is pretty good this year! I haven't picked my favorite yet, but I guess I will go for Team Columbia since they are a US team and Hincapi is on there. Gotta love that he has been a very strong racer in the tour for the last 13 years.

Next week I will also try to post shots from the 05' Tour de France! I had an interesting time!

a day early.....HAPPY BIRTHDAY SMAP!!!!

Tomorrow is Smap's big day. He will be 42 years young! The other night we were out to dinner and the gal looked at Smap's ID and gasped at how young he looked for his age. He does very good indeed! I wouldn't have married him if he wasn't good looking! Ha ha....only kidding...not really. We'll be doing just about whatever Smap wants to do tomorrow. It will probably consist of mountain biking and/or kayaking. We may have to squeeze the kayaking in on Sunday instead?? It will be a fun weekend though! I will surely get some shots of Smap enjoying his day.
Cheers!

BEE careful of the BEEs....

I still haven't got the chance to upload the shots from last week.

Last night Smap and I decided to do our own road ride out of the house after work. We have this fun route we take out Hardin Valley down to Solway and then back behind Solway (in between Solway and Hardin Valley) there are all kinds of hills and nice beautiful country roads to ride. We came down this downhill that I have done many times before and on the way down I got stung. I am not sure what it was, but I was going so fast and the fear of the dogs that usually haunt this particular hill, I couldn't stop in time to see the bee. I hollered at Smap to hold-up and that I had been stung. When I reached him and got off my bike, he pulled out a huge stinger with some kind of little round white sack attached. I know nothing of bees except I hate getting stung. Smap told me to tell him if I started feeling weird. We talked for a few minutes while riding and sure enough it hit me hard. First my ears and head got extremely hot, my body got really cold with chills, and I had an emergency bathroom break behind a small tree...one that required the use of a sock! I have had to use this trick before. I was also having a hard time breathing. Smap got my phone and got a hold of my dad and stepmom (Joyce). They came and got me about 30 minutes later and drove me home. I still feel not normal today, like that stuff is still in my system. My leg looks like something other than a bee got me too....there is a red puffy area 5" in diameter surrounding the sting. Crap...all I need is some other type of scar on my legs.
Luckily Dad is a doc, so he prescribed me an epi-pen....just in case the next time I go into anafalactic shock. He said the symptoms I had came to me so fast because my heart rate was up there and the juice spread through my system fast...including my digestive system. Poor Smap told me to get behind a tree....I could only make it behind a tiny tree just barely off the road. It is pretty funny now, but at the time it was awful...

Bee Careful.

P.s....this year's Tour is shaping up to be a pretty good one!

Back from the beach!

Smap and I went with several friends (the Grants and the Smelsers) for an extended Fourth of July holiday weekend this past week.  We enjoyed Smap's family beach house in Hilton Head once again playing on the beach, riding bikes, and having a lot of laughs.  I will get the photos up as time permits.  I have been summoned to take on the role of Smap's office manager at his label company while he tries to hire someone new.  I can't say I am overly excited by this because I sense that my summer is pretty much over as far as having continued days off in a row.  Not anymore.  Oh well, I am helping Smap as I should....my bike time will suffer too....and my swim time....fuey.

I really can't complain though because I have been off for 6 nice long weeks.  I will get some HHI shots posted soon.  Right now, I am just recovering from the car ride home.

Cheers!