Happy Birthday America!
On Sunday the family and I are heading to Richmond to visit friends. Monday we plan to visit the DC Zoo, then head to POrt Kinsale and spend the night. On Tuesday, another friend (my Tour de Cure riding partner) will meet us there to spend the 4th on the boat. The rest of the week will consist of us just hanging out and fooling around.
Much derbachery will ensue.
I come before you with my empty hands
They are the hands of peace, when nessecary the hands of war. The knowledge I have gained through my training is for the defense of myself, my loved ones, my country, and those deserving. To use this knowledge wrongly is my shame. To use this knowledge properly is my honor. My left hand is the hand of peace and is open in friendship. My right is my clenched fist of war. Together they represent my martial ways and my very life.
Tuesday weekend recap
Hmmm, what did I do this weekend? Something big, important maybe? Oh yeah! I participated in the 2006 ADA Tour de Cure 2 day 150 mile road bike ride.
I had no idea how unprepared I was for this, but I’ll get to that part later.
I drove up to Cary (about 35 mins from home) on Friday night to spend the night since check in started at 7am, and I’m not so much of a morning person. My friend and I had a huge meal of pasta at Olive Garden, and truly overstuffed ourselves. It was awesome to be able to just eat whatever we wanted. We even had 2 desserts.
We went back to the hotel and couldn’t sleep because of nerves and everything else. Saturday morning was fun, lol.
We got up and packed up our overnight back and saddle bags with cliff bars and hammer gel and filled our water bottles and took off to the starting line. Proving that I hadn’t been on eth bike in too long, my tires were flat. Luckily, you couldn’t throw a bike spoke without hitting someone with a pump so I was good. We were all sitting on our bikes waiting for the start. THe co-ordinator started talking about the impact that diabetetes has on society. Throughout the hour registration, they had a volunteer passing out red bandanas. She asked all of us that had one to raise them up. There was a sea of red, when she said every red bandana representsa person who was diagnoised with diabetes within the hour it took to register. Every 22 secs another person gets diagnoised. It’s a staggering statistic. The emotion of it all was a bit much and I had to compose myself a bit.
Then we were off! The first hill came as a surprise. I had no idea what gear to put things in to make it easy, so I was really struggling. The flat part I was keeping a steady pace, but as soon as I hit a hill I was dragging. By teh time we got to the first rest stop, my heart rate was way too high. I was having trouble catching a breathe. The medic wanted me tos top. They started talking about the ER, which was overkill if you ask me, but I can understand why they have to throw it out there. I ended up getting SAGed to the next stop so I could rest a bit. When I got there, my heart rate still wasn’t down, so they woudln’t let me continue. I had someone run me and my bike back to the car, and followed the riders to the finish line. I felt like crap for not being able to finish the ride, but I have to let all that go, and just get back on eth bike and train for next year. This wont happen next year. I know what I need to do and I’m committed to doing it.
Even with my dissapointment, it was still a rewarding experience. I raised a lot of money for a cause that is really close to my heart.
20 things I hate (about you)
Ok, so Black Belt Mama’s alter ego challenged me to post 20 things I hate. I hate a lot of things, so this could get interesting.
- I hate Food Nazi’s. Yeah yeah yeah , we all know that high fat, high sugar, overly processed crap is bad for you. I know that. I get that. But don’t look down your nose at me while I’m drinking a Pepsi when I know that later on you’ll be throwing back a few beers. Barley and Hops don’t make it healthy
- I hate bickering kids. Damn, how hard can it be to just NOT FIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN! And don’t come a tattle to me that your brother hit you, when you just poured pancake syrup on his head.
- I hate internet trolls. I know I know…cliche, but really…do you not have anything better to do with your time than cause trouble? What do you get out of it?
- Closed minded people
- People with minds so open thier brains fall out
- People who don’t get how I can be Pro-Choice, Pro-Family, Pro-Gun Control, and Pro-Death Penalty. It’s my Utopia, let me live in it.
- Liars. I’ll take brutal honesty over a lie anyday
- People who blame infidelity on their negligent spouse, thier childhood, thier uncontrolable urges, the other man/woman. No one makes you cheat on your spouse you do that all on your own.
- Dead batteries
- Catty girls who think it’s fun to make my daughter cry. Sometimes I wish I were 12 again just so I could hit some of these girls.
- People who don’t parent their children
- High school football players who come into McDonald’s all sweaty and gross and cuss in front of kids.
- High school football coaches who don’t do anything about it
- Adrianne Curry and Christopher Knight
- People who say they don’t believe ADHD exsist. It’s not parenting, it’s not diet, it’s a proven nuerological imparement. You don’t have to believe it exsists for it to be real. We aren’t talking about Santa or the Easter Bunny. You don’t have to clap your hands to make it real.
- Bitter mother-in-laws
- Whiney daughter-in-laws
- Homeowners Associations that whine about the cost of keeping up the homeowners association
- Improper use of seen/saw. As in “I seen her walking across the parking lot yesterday”. No, you didn’t, you saw her. She has been seen.
- They’re, there, and their. “Where are thier gloves? They’re over there.”
I have no idea who I would even tag for this. Maybe Kristine over at Random and Odd or Autumn of Autumnville. And anyone else who has something to get off thier chest.
100 Movie Titles
In an attempt to keep my mind off the bike ride this weekend, I submit a bit of a distraction. 100 Movie titles hidden in the picture. How many can you come up with?
Not ready to make nice
I'm still mad as hell and I don't have time to go round and round and round
I've been lied to. I'm so mad that I can't even really talk about it. I know I will have to eventually, but I'm not ready for the fall out that will ensue afterward. I want to get through this week, and this weekend and get this ride behind me.
It’s coming
This is it. The week of my bike ride. I'm trying to hold my shit together, but I'm really kinda freaked out. My friend who's riding with me told me to start cab loading on Weds, 50 grams of carbs an hour from Weds- Friday. Holy crap that's a lot of food. I may not be able to move on Saturday.
Aside from the ride, I'm also nervous about sharing a room with my friend. I know that sounds odd. I'm a weird sleeper though. Just ask my husband. I like to have background noise on. I have a lot of trouble sleeping without the tv on, and most normal people…don't like that so much. I'm worrried that Friday night I wont be able to sleep, then I'll be major bitch Saturday morning. Not a morning person, and not a morning person who hasn't slept well equals bitch. Nervous, anxious bitch. I'm taking plenty of Tylenol Pm with me.
Urgh!
This is my freak out week, just bear with me will ya. I think I'll do karate tonight, then take the rest of the week off. I need to rest my legs, but I also need to clear my head and karate does that for me.
Success!
My grass is mowed, and the lawn mower didn't explode and kill or horrible disfigure me.
My neighbor came over and helped me get the belt on, and got it started and cleaned up.
I hate mowing the grass
But it usually falls on me to do it due to my husband's schedule. I pride myself on my self-sufficiency. I like to be able to do it by myself. That's why the whole lawn mowing thing annoys me so much.
For the longest time we had a push mower. Things were fine with that until the pull cord started jerking back. One time I tried to start it and the damn thing pulled back so hard that it slipped out of one hand and smacked my other hand so hard, I was sure I had broken my thumb. It swelled up and I couldn't move it for a week, but it wasn't broken. After that point, I wouldn't mow using that mower unless someone else started it first. Picture me walking to my neighbors house asking him to start my mower for me. LOL
Just recently we were given a riding mower by my MIL. One of the nicer things she did before she stopped speaking to everyone. We were told that a belt was broken. No problem, I went down to Lowe's and bought a new belt. Then waited…..for my husband to put it on…..still waiting…..I finally, today decided I had enough waiting. I'm a smart girl. I can figure this out. (BTW, we have no owners manual and I've been unsuccessful finding any kind of owners manual on-line. Cub Cadet doesn't even list this model on their web site anymore. We have a parts manual, but nothing to say how to fix anything). So, I start it up and pull it out front. I put it up on a jack so I could see under it. It has a belt where there was supposedly no belt. Hmmm, interesting. So I looked even further under to see if it had blades. Yep, has blades. Great…maybe I can just go ahead and mow my darn grass. I put it down, move everything and climb back on to start it up. It starts, then dies. I start it again and an ear popping *POP* comes from the exhaust. I swear I saw something fly out too. OK, so my brain says it was simply a build up of carbon, no big deal, so out there and start it up again. But, then that other part of me, the part that remembers having my thumb nearly broke says…Nuh uh!! I'm not getting on that thing again. What if it explodes. I called my husband and he laughed at me and said "How many people have you heard of that died from an exploding lawn mower?". Yeah, well, I may very well be the first. And what if I don't die, I'm just horrible disfigured?
So, Now I have a riding mower sitting in my front yard that I'm afraid to try to start so I can move it BACK to the back yard where I should have just left it to begin with.
Sigh
Next house, we hire a lawn service.
84°F