Adding it all up.

A short while ago Adam, in Utah, decided to start tracking his Calories via The Daily Plate (.com). He's being a brave one by posting his weight, so we can all watch and heckle him as he tries to lose some. He is a brave man.

Now - I'm not trying to lose weight (do I admit, I may in fact be trying to gain some... at least I wouldn't mind a bit more muscle and I hear weight comes along with that)- and I'm really not going to tell any of you how much I weigh... cause, I don't know. However - I've long wondered exactly what my daily caloric intake is - I think I eat plenty of food, as I'm never hungry - others maintain I eat something similar to the diet of a hamster. I've attempted to keep track of everything I eat before... but when you always have to track down the boxes, write out the calories, estimate or track down numbers when you go out to eat - to create a hard copy list - it just doesn't get done for very long. So - when Adam pointed out this great, fun little internet accessory I realized it was time to get serious.

Now - let me be clean - I'm not dieting. No one out there needs to freak out that I'm paying an un-healthy amount of attention to my weight (that's directed at you, mother). We don't even own a scale (and have no intention of getting one).

However - I'm a really unhealthy eater. D is constantly furious at me for my diet. I have a horrendous sweet tooth, am pretty sure Fried is the food group at the base of my pyramid, and consider Ice Cream my primary strategy for calcium intake. So I'm hoping increased awareness will lead to better choices.


There's also the small matter than even though I eat horribly - that doesn't mean my body likes it, or really, can handle it. On my mother's side of the family is a genetic history of difficulty with fat digestion... something to do with the pancreas (is that right - mother???) I've never totally understood the whole story, except I can get really horrible stomach aches (intestinal aches... who really knows which part is unhappy) when I eat too much of the wrong foods too quickly, and can only presume that's why I've grown into this minimalist diet. (This is the primary reason why I've tried to track my eating before - to document associations between what I eat and how I feel - but as I've said it's only worked for so long before I stop keeping as strict of track and everything falls apart, though these attempts have subtly shaped my eating).


All this increased awareness will hopefully, eventually lead to a strong and realistic nutritional strategy for TransIowa - but I'll get into that later, as the heating repairman has arrived (yes - after the car was out of operation for almost two weeks and our internet connection went on vacation the last two days - this morning our heater wasn't working... can't tell you how interested I am to wake up and find out what little thing is going wrong tomorrow.... especially cause D's getting a colonoscopy!!!)

Yea!!!

p.s. That's why I was posting photos of food last night... just to be mean - as he can't eat anything solid today!!! (Joking - it was an accident - I wouldn't have done it if I'd remembered)

What am I???

Yummy - that's what.

Picasa my friend.

Sifting through some of the unchecked photos on the computer - I thought I would offer these two amusing pieces.
D - rock hopping in Tenaya Canyan (just for fun - that wasn't a required move).

And this little gem was our lunch in Seligman, AZ - on a Elk-Hunting-Area scouting trip. The main point of interest being that little fried smiley face... what is it??? It appeared to be some form of potato product - and it was most definately Delicious... I wanted to go back and ask for a whole basket of just smiley faces, cause you only got one in each basket of french fries...

Yummy.

Riding.

To answer Whiskey's question about whether or not I rode this weekend...
this was a view off our deck last week, right after it snowed slightly.

This is the view off our deck right now. Note the solid white curtain of clouds that descends just beyond the last row of houses. I'm just not in the mood for riding in the rain today. I'll go to the gym later, if D gets back from The South in time.

I know it makes me a bad little "Enduro" - to bail on a long ride cause it's raining. But ya know what??? I'm going to make cookies now.

Can I hear it for the Fuel Injector!!!

They are going to order and then replace the #2 fuel injector - and only charge us their cost (meaning about 20% less than we would have otherwise paid - because they didn't managed to figure this out before).

I'm still irritated. They can't order it till Monday, it will arrive and they can fix it on Tuesday. I called all the parts stores in town to see if anyone else had one in stock - no dice.


D didn't think working on his patience was a quality use of his time this weekend - he has rented a car and driven down to Hell (ahem... the Phoenix metropolitan area) to carry-on with the planned bicycle riding and running this weekend. Let's all wish him a good time.

Umm... can I take back my praise???

I'm posting from the computers at the dealership again.

D said everything's been running fine when he drove it home yesterday afternoon - and then up to work and back today.

I got in it to run a quick errand before D went south for the weekend - and what do you know - it started up even worse than it did before.
So - we drove her back to the dealership. The really nice service guy continues to be friendly and upbeat - but I'll wait to find out what they say before I sing his praises again.

p.s. To be clear - it is functioning worse than it was before (but in the exact same ways) - and pulling up the exact same Cylinder #2 Misfire. Yippy.

The Morning Routine.

Besides reading through various comics, blogs, and news headlines - I also like to check out The Morning Report most days. The Morning Report is put out by the National Park Service each business day, and includes incident/accident/rescue summaries, wildfire tracking, weekly summaries on legislative actions that effect the NPS, and various other general information about very specific and very general changes to our National Parks. Granted - it can be a bit dull sometimes... but then other times - you get this -

Everglades National Park (FL)
Rangers Remove Python From Visitor’s Car

On Tuesday, January 15th, visitor Ron DeLong stopped his car on the main park road in order to watch a crawling, six-foot-long, exotic Burmese python. As DeLong stepped out of his Ford Explorer, the python began crawling underneath the vehicle and into its engine compartment. DeLong attempted to grab the python with the curved end of his walking cane, but was unable to stop it. After several failed attempts to remove the snake, DeLong decided to drive 15 miles to the main entrance station for assistance. When ranger Willie Lopez, wildlife biologist Skip Snow, biologist’s assistant Alex Wolf and firefighter Henry Delvalle checked the Explorer, they found its hood open, with only the tail end of the python visible – the rest of the snake was coiled around various parts of the engine and undercarriage. Several attempts were made to pull it out through the top of the engine, but failed because the snake tightened its hold on the car. The four responders then discussed their options. Snow reported that there had been several published articles about the successful use of tasers to loosen the tight grip of constricting snakes, so that was tried. Unfortunately, it resulted in the python contracting and excreting bodily fluids all over the responders. They then decided to disassemble parts of the Explorer’s undercarriage in order to get to the python’s head, which was then covered with duct tape. The snake’s head and body were uncoiled and maneuvered through the engine compartment, then pulled out the top of the engine. Since Burmese pythons are exotic, prolific and aggressive, the snake was euthanized and taken to a lab to be studied. DeLong’s car was then put back together. [Submitted by Willie Lopez, Pine Island District Ranger]


Classic!!!

Quote of the Day.

Trying to get a little TransIowa fix I was reading Guitar Ted's blog... he discussed a certain Irony inherent in an uber-expensive cycling gear company trying to make their customers feel Hard Core (tm) by setting up a website dedicated to underground style - endurance cycling events.

Hey - I own a company - I know what marketing is all about... however - reading through that site I started wishing it was actually a comedy set up - cause really, who can keep from laughing when they read something like this -

"He stopped only at night to sleep wrapped in plastic, in the bottom of ditches, on the side of the road. He wore the same bib shorts and sleeveless jersey three very long days straight... Like Randonneuring or Touring only faster and sexier..."


Can someone please explain to me what's Sexy about three day old bib shorts???

This is a joke, right???


Heck - I start thinking about getting separate apartments after D's been in bib shorts for six hours.


p.s. They don't appear to do women's clothing... what am I to make of that???

WooHoo!!!

Word from the dealer is - no leaking head gaskets!!!

See - Josey still loves us!!!


Problem is entirely coolant leaking from under the intake manifold into the #2 cylinder and causing the plug and wire to malfunction. This is great news - though it's still a very big project to pull off the intake manifold - which is why we'll be paying the dealership a ton in labor to get it done. We should have her back on Thursday at the latest.

Secondly - I heard all sorts of bad things about Nissan dealerships from various Nissan and XTerra internet forums while I was doing research - but our dealership service department is just totally wonderful - especially Joshua, the service manager, and the guy I call when dealing with all this. He's been totally helpful and always friendly and doesn't even mind all my questions (and I've made him explain each and every little thing about what's going on). Plus he makes frequent phone calls to keep us informed - and I do love updates!!!

Now granted - there were a few moments the other day when we were talking to him in person, when he kept turning to D and not me... and nothing bothers me more than when I ask someone a question and they deliver the answer to my husband - as if I'm just a woman and what do I know... but he wasn't nearly as egregious as some - so I'm willing to forgive him.

But anyway... woohoo!!!

A new Vehicle???

All the cargo space you need and look at that beautiful wood... only weighs 275 pounds!!! (From The Dutch Bicycling Company - who imports them from Europe to the US)

Bit more, well, everything... those white and black bags on the back slide on and off for easy shopping. (Just the tip of the iceberg from Basil)

Maybe the real solution??? VW's Jetta SportWagen available with their newest diesel technology... now if only they offered a diesel Tiguan in the US... something to hope for...


in the meantime - we still haven't heard from the dealer... either way it goes, she's going to get fixed - we're not ready to give up on Josey yet... we'll have plenty more roadtrips together.

675 miles.

In the end - we took their shuttle home (they even put down the seats in the back to take our bikes home with us to) as their pressure sensor broke and we're waiting till tomorrow morning for them to run all the pressure tests and tell us whether it's a $2,200 repair, or a much more exciting $1,600 repair!!!

In the meantime - D's been playing with my calculator... which is never a good thing.

We drive about 38,000 miles a year. Considering how long we owned Josey and what we paid for her - if we retired her right now, she'd have cost us $100 a week to drive (not counting regular maintenance... which, considering she was our house for like eight months - isn't too bad, but still seems like a lot).

When you break it down and average it out - that's 675 miles we drive each and every week!!!
Which means we've paid 15 cents per mile... just for the car - not counting the gas, new tires, filters, fluids....

Anyway - on the more positive spectrum - if we do this fix and manage to drive her another six months, the fix would have paid for itself by our current rate. Seems reasonable.


D was also looking at various other cars (and whether - if we bought another car right now, we'd get a big fat SUV or a happy fuel efficient car). The biggest issue here being that currently, we can sleep in the back of our Josey - in fact, we can drive her down the worst, cruddy roads in the middle of a thunderstorm (though in the desert that wouldn't be smart), stop where ever we want, climb in the back and go to sleep without even getting out of the car and getting wet...

which is nice.

However - at our current rate of driving, if we bought a Prius, we could pay for 90 nights in a hotel room in Moab during the off-season, or, like 45 nights in a hotel room anywhere, with the money we'd save on gas...

hmm... the again - they don't often have hotel rooms where we spend the night...

too much to think about (Prius batteries still haven't been perfected, etc) plus, ideally we'd want something in between, something with decent gas mileage, decent ground clearance, decent cargo space, etc... but that doesn't exist - and why???

Because of what car companies are offering in the United States.

What happened to Subaru??? What happened to Volkswagen???

D used to have a Forrester that we both adored - but the Forrester he got nine years ago got better actual mileage than what they report on their site for their '08s. Oh - and the Jetta we used to have - got like 8 mpg better than what VW is reporting for their '08s.

You know what car I really want???

A Volkswagen Golf BlueMotion. 52mpg. Diesel. Know what I'd have to do to get one???

Move to Germany!!!

The Dealership.

Well the Nissan dealership in town is part of a huge car dealership conglomerate - which in this instance is a really great thing.

I'm currently posting this on one of their provided computers (they also have wireless), staring through two huge windows into the incredibly clean and efficient looking service area. I can see our car right now :)

They'll also drive you places in their little shuttle - a service we have yet to make use of - but may just come in handy.


Now the bad news - we originally dropped off Josey and went across the street to get breakfast, came back right as they were calling us to say we're leaking coolant out of the intake manifold, and we possibly have problems with the head gaskets. Now we're chilling in their waiting area (which besides computers - also has donuts... and at $100 just to look under the hood, I appreciate a donut or two) while they do pressure tests to determine whether fixing the intake manifold at $600 will be enough, or if part or all of the head gaskets need help at another one to two thousand dollars.

And D's looking through all the shinny procures and keeps telling me what he'd want if we bought a new vehicle today.

Good times.

The beginning of the end.

So - nothing has worked. There are no other possibilities within my ability and tool capacity to evaluate.

Tomorrow I take her to The Dealership. I'm hesitant, skeptical and relieved.

Quote of the Day.

In reference to Diagnostic Code P0325 "Knock Sensor" - the one Josey is displaying - from a forum discussion -

"Furthermore it is the "run home to mamma" code. When the computer does not really know what is going on it throws that code. "


While the Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve makes sense for some of the symptoms - there are specific codes indicating a problem with it - and none of those codes popped up...



more research.

No option but success.

Well - I was so certain it was the spark plugs - so I wasted Friday playing with them when I could have taken it somewhere. When we learned that wasn't it, I tried calling the dealership in the afternoon, but they were all going home early for the three day weekend!!!

So now it's Me, Josey and the Parts Store.

I said I could get it fixed... D placed his confidence in me (well, actually, Thursday night he said "I'm too tired to think about this, do whatever you want") but I feel this nagging compulsion to get it right after so many failed attempts (or, well - two and counting).

It started up fine after we replaced the distributor parts... and D went off for a bike ride. I told him I wouldn't let myself get excited about the fix until after he got back from his ride and started the car to drive it home. And there you have it - it was misfiring (though apparently less... ) when he started it up just a little while ago (he called to tell me). It appears to act up more when it is colder... we're adding that into the factoring...

I'm researching the EGR now that Enel has re-nudged me in that direction. The parts store is open till 9pm...

New Friend.

I made a new friend today. He wears a torn, fake leather jacket, and doesn't usually work at AutoZone on Saturdays, but just happened to be there at 8am this morning.

The enigma of "Service Engine Soon" got transcribed via a hand held computer into "Knock Sensor" and "Misfire". This was obviously illustrative. After additional online research last night (I don't know how people fixed automotives before there was the "XTerra Owner's Club" Forums and the like), and a brief discussion with my new friend - we decided to buy new spark plug wires, distributor rotor and distributor cap.

We got home and attacked the Distributor first. Rotor looked alright, but it's cheap, so it got replaced without much thought. The Cap (shown) is just a plastic dome with six little metal pegs that go from the inside to the outside. On the outside, each peg connects to a spark plug wire, on the inside there's the rotor, with a metal connector on one end, it spins around and creates circuits with each little peg in turn, making the spark plugs fire. So the little pegs in our old one were all white and covered with corrosion!!! Not a happy Distributor Cap!!! So it got replaced, and we're hoping that was the problem... if it's all corroded and the connection fails to get made between the rotor and the peg, then that spark plug doesn't get the juice it needs to fire, hence - Misfire!!!

The Knock Sensor we're hoping was just picking up the accompanying shake in the engine from all the cylinders not firing in proper sequence. We'll see. My Josikins started fine after the exchange, but we're waiting till she cools down again to really be sure everything's back to Happiness. If not - then we'll install those new wires we got, and continue... if the wires don't help - we're probably looking at $700 worth of fuel injectors and goodness knows how much $ in labor.

But seeing as she's at 175,000 miles and has never so much as hiccuped - she's allowed to demand a little attention now and again (I just think D wishes she wouldn't have asked for it at the start of a three day weekend)!!!

Happiness.

Look at the Spark Plug sticking out of the end of the socket - thank goodness for whomever first made sockets with little rubber grips to hold Spark Plugs in place!!!

Then just when I was getting discouraged - one of our neighborhood RoadRunners came to say Hello... Beeb, Beeb!!!

I had to swear to D - there really was a Spark Plug down that deep dark hole... but he eventually got it out...

Define "Soon".

Yesterday, driving - a light came on...

we're talkin' bout Josey the Xterra here. It said -Service Engine Soon. How soon???

D read to me what the Owner's Manual had to say about the light. Let me just say - I'm not a big fan of Owner's Manuals - I believe they contribute to people not knowing as much as they easily could about their own vehicles. Anyway - it said something or other about "mis-firing" as well as "exhaust control system"...

now what on earth is a person suppose to do with that???

Well - I asked D - When was the last time we changed our Spark Plugs??? We've owned Josey for a little while over two years, and about 80,000 miles. Now, our Plugs are suppose to last 100,000 miles but Josey was also previously owned... things weren't looking good when D confirmed we'd never done it. So I convinced myself - after some additional research online - that it must be the Spark Plugs.

I rode my bike over to the parts store this morning - bought some various socket extending devices - as spark plugs are just not easy to get to. I got four of the six changed before D got home - barely managed to replace the most difficult to reach one, but required D's "Man Intelligence" a.k.a. Brute Strength, to get the last one out.

And Josey still wasn't happy upon restarting. She's clearly mis-firing, she's rough and chugging when started, belches white smoke out the tail pipe, that irrelevant light comes on...

it makes me so angry - the idea that my car knows exactly what's wrong, but the only way for it to share that information with me is through an expensive mechanic. I'm taking her over to AutoZone in the morning - where it's rumored they have the requisite computers to tell me the precious code I need to figure this out. I was so sure I had the answer with the Spark Plugs it's sort of a vendetta now. I'm thinking it's the injectors, maybe... which are suppose to be even worse than the Spark Plugs... which I really can't imagine... let's take a look at the Spark Plug install - shall we???

This is what it took to get in there...

See those dust covered wires coming in from the bottom right??? Now follow them...

See them round the corner???

Where is that going??? Can I go there too???

The answer is NO... no you can not - not without the tool in the first picture...

Quote of the Day.

D and I talking about Training.


D - It's not about any type of rest, you need to rest deliberately, not just follow your whims.
M - Are you calling me Whimsical and Capricious???

D - No, I'm calling you Lazy.



Now I'm going into town proper to see what I can do about my dérailleur that's missing a pulley :)

Re-engage.

The main reason for me to go to Bike Camp Lynda this last weekend, was to re-engage in my training plan. After the slackness required post wisdom extraction, then the holiday traveling, I got a bit de-railed from my training schedule. So I'm kicking myself back into gear for the last three months before TransIowa V.4. D seems to be doing a similar thing, and since he's posting his realigned goals and training plan - I thought I'd do similar.

Now I don't have the whole three month schedule worked out yet - but I figured I could atleast discuss the shorter term goals I have already set.

Goal 1 - Don't finish off the first half of the pan of brownies until after I come back from the gym today.

I think that's a pretty good start. Go me!!!

(Especially cause I won't be going to the gym till like 8pm tonight... that's gonna be a real push for me - but ya gotta set difficult goals to get where I want to go!!!)

The hedonist joys of riding solo.

This was my work station Friday morning - two new disc brakes to install, the associated brake cables and the shift cable to run - none of these tasks being things I'd ever done before... and it all needed to be completed by 2:30pm when D came home from work and would want to leave for Bike Camp Lynda!!!

So - yeah - didn't all get done. I let D change my tires, rant about my front brake routing (even though it was fine anyway), run some cable housing and otherwise save us from being really, really late getting up to Utah!!!


This last picture is of a string of burns near the North Rim - they had copious piles of logs and brush they were torching, both on our way up and on our way home - the already burned out piles of charred ashes made particularly interesting blotches in the otherwise solid blanket of snow. Much more snow than this time last year, too.

As for the three days between when these photos were taken??? Well - I really enjoyed being up there. Plans went quite smoothly each day (a giant credit to both Lynda and Dave for how they put things together - we won't mention how appreciated the roof was :) I started... and I use that term loosely... the first two days "with" the bigger group and then took off on whatever looked good from there. Part of the fun was being back in St. George. Even if I hadn't had a map - it's so easy to orient yourself with the cliffs of Zion to the East, snowy peaks to the north, and distinctive red rock just about everywhere you look. The first day as I was riding along a paved rode wondering whether or not I'd be able to easy catch everyone else's bike tracks when they turned back out onto dirt trail (which was pretty obvious once I got there) I just kept thinking - maybe I don't want to find their tracks, maybe I'll just ride this road, whatever it was, till I get tired, turn around, orient the West Temple to my left and start riding south again. Sounded pretty nice to me, though I didn't take myself up on it.

In the end my favorite day was still probably the last. Cause of the quick work I never did manage to get the shifting right on PomPom - all three gears of it - and at the end of the first two days my left knee was just starting to get bothered by the unaccustomed strain of pushing through instead of shifting down, so pulling M'Lady out for the last day (with all her eight gears) and riding the main rode into the heart of Zion Canyon was exactly what I needed. I really do adore Zion like nothing else. After the trails the road just felt so fast - and let's admit... there's not really anything you could call a Climb along that stretch. There were cold temps on the way in, I had to stop several times to dance around and get the blood moving in my toesies, and there might have been a slight bit of a headwind... but there weren't any goatheads - so really, I got the best of the bad. (My first goathead experience happened on day one - with a four goathead simultaneous assult on my front wheel which took me a good ten minutes per head to straighten out... I may be getting a new pump soon too - I have a little squatty hand-me-down from D that just isn't my friend)

Anyway - my ride on day three was really perfect, especially once the sun reached all the way down into the canyon and I hid under a bridge, in the sun, but out of the wind, to eat lunch. I know it may be weird to some people - but I really like riding by myself. It may have to do with starting to ride with D and a certain level of unarticulated pressure - he usually has a strict goal, he doesn't want to change his plans part way through a ride, and when we hike - he always complains when he's behind me that I randomly speed up or slow down without any ryhme or reason - or better yet, several minutes advanced warning. When I ride by myself I can choose to really push up a hill, or slow down and slog one tired stoke after another. I can careen wildly along the edge of the road while I attempt to reach my hankerchief and blow my nose and not worry about running someone else into oncoming traffic. Especially in Zion - where it's addictive but necessary to my very survival - I can stop just whenever I want to stare up at a particularly well lit stripe of canyon cliff and not have a single other thought fill my head for those 30 seconds, until I decide I want to keep going again.

It's quite a selfish inclination - it makes me appreciate more, how irritating it probably is sometimes for D to have me along, messing everything up, when he's so used to riding and hiking and doing other things at his own pace. And really - when you set a goal like TransIowa, you have to realize there's not always going to be another rider anywhere near you - you need to get used to the solitary sensation.

I'm thinking that part will come easily.

Camp Lynda Day 2 - Quote (extended conversation) of the Day

I finished up the first loop today - Barrel Roll, and was flying around the side of a hill on zippy trail, into the small parking area. There were two cars, one with two twenty something guys, another with two fourty something men and a woman, all of whom were playing with their bikes and getting ready to head out (I was way behind everyone else, obviously, and by myself).

They all watch as I come in -

Younger Guy- Nice socks.
Me - Thanks - they keep the wind off.
(I pull out cookies and water - two minutes pass)

YG - Are you out here by yourself???
Me - Well, I'm loosely associated with a group that's ahead of me, off... somewhere.
(Pause)
YG - Are they doing the Stucki route??? (pronounced Stewkey)
Me - Yeah - they are.
(Pause)
YG - Do you know where it connects up with this??? Somewhere on the road here???
Me - I don't really know, I'm gonna figure things out on my map in a minute.
YG - Oh.
(I pull my map out and contemplate my options while continuing to eat my cookies - four minutes pass)

YG - So, does your group always leave you... all by yourself???
Me - Uh - no, I'm not doing everything they're doing, that's why I brought a map, so I can make my own way...
it was planned, they didn't just drop me - that's why I'm Loosely Associated with Them.
(Older woman overhears and laughs)

YG - Oh - well... it's good that you, ya know, came out... and... rode anyway... cause, there's not a lot of girls that... well, ride mountain bikes.


(Apparently Not... so here's a question - Does the appearance of an unexpected woman in cycling shorts just automatically make men less articulate???)

Camp Lynda Day 1 - Quote of the Day

We're in Utah for a three day weekend of crazy bike riding. I started with the group today (got utterly dropped by the group, got a flat tire, etc) then cut off on my own thing and just got back. On the way into town - I stopped by the local bike shop were we'd started from - Desert Cyclery to see if anyone else was back yet.

Not seeing anyone and realizing I needed some more bar tape - I set my bike up in the rack right outside the store and went in -

there was a guy at the counter waiting to pay while the shop worker was busy - he looked at my bike, looked at me, looked at my bike again -

"twenty-niner... single speed... hard tail... ... with mustach bars...
you must be HardCore... (I stare blankly at him)
that's a HardCore bike... (more blankness)
you can't be from around here, not with a bike like that... (I turn away looking at bar tape)
where you from???"

Yeah... oh - and he was wrong, it's a three-speed.

Flippy Quote of Yesterday.

So yesterday, I had completely unwrapped my new phone, and was holding it, all my itself, in my hand. D came over to have a look, got really excited and exclaimed -

"Does it have a phone in it - I think it has a phone in it!!!"


Ahem... I believe he meant Camera, and yes - it has a wee camera in it... though goodness knows what I'll ever do with it, as once you have the picture on the phone, you either send it to someone else's phone, or e-mail it to someone/yourself from the phone, which is terribly awkward, considering I can connect the phone to my computer via USB, I ought to just be able to get it off the phone, (but they probably haven't figured out a way to charge me for that, so they'll just do it this way instead) stupid phone.

Flippy.

Lots of new and shinny things in my life right now... one of which is the new mobile.

I've been priviledged to re-enter Flippy-Phone Land(As seen on Left in photos). Stumpi, our dear, dutiful Stumpi was originally purchased by Dave when he left college and got a cell phone (was I there for that??? Don't remember, anyway) we've had it since then - a long time in the life of a cell phone... I think it's gone through like five area-code changes, just think of all the great calls placed on Stumpi!!!

Right before we left for the holidays it wasn't calling out properly, but I'd received calls, so I thought it would be fine - then D told me he'd tried to call me, and it didn't show up as a missed call till the next day... not a good sign. It's performance has been intermitant but usually fine for the last few weeks... but ya know... time for something New. So - as loyal customers of our mobile service for many years now, I got to pick out this new, overly shinny, flippy phone for no charge - and yesterday we de-activated Stumpi... it was a hard moment for both of us... okady, maybe just me.

While Stumpi wasn't perfect - he had his good qualities and it's sad to see him leave us. Plus I don't like the whole trend of people always wanting the newest, shinniest phone, like life fulfillment can come from a hand-held device... so I sort of liked having an antiquated phone (we won't even get into the gorillas I've saved the last so many years by not buying new phones, the components of which are manufactured using minerals mined in the remote forests of central Africa).

However - I was really excited to get a flippy-phone again. My first phone was a flippy phone, and lets be honest - ever since I switched services and could no longer use it, I've wanted another one. I'm pretty sure I'm a bad person for that.

Anyway.


p.s. She's been named Stumpet - a cross between Stumpette (in honor of Stumpi) and Strumpet (though considering I didn't actually pay for her, I'm not sure how appropriate that is...).

Again.

In a stunning feat of brilliance - I have broken my glasses for a third time, in not as many years of ownership.

The first time, was less than six months after getting them, my first ever pair of glasses - I slipped on icy cobbles while descending a canyon in February (almost exactly two years ago), and face planted the side of my glasses (and the attached head) into a large rock. Luckily I was fine, I even had a cool scar for awhile, where the broken edge of my glasses made a cut from the edge of my eye down over my cheek bone.

The second time was about two weeks later - after I hadn't done a very good job with the super glue, and I turned around in the cramped servers' area of the restaurant I worked at in St. George and ran the side of my face into the shoulder of my very tall coworker. While that wasn't quite as glamorous, everyone noticed that I wasn't wearing my glasses and gave said coworker a really hard time for "Making me blind". (He felt really really bad, until I explained that they'd already broken before, and I'd just need to re-super glue them...)

So - what great and hilarious story do I have to tell this time???


I sat on them.

They re-broke at the Super Glue Point - which is just a break in the front, plastic part of the glasses - and doesn't harm the metal pivot point or metal sides. So I'll just re-glue the plastic to the plastic and they'll be good as new, you can't even notice.

However - this time I also bent the pivot point on the other side, like 25 degrees from normal - which I somehow managed to bend back into place... though they don't pivot Quite as smoothly as they used to...


Now - I've been toying with the idea of prescription sunglasses for awhile now... I don't really ever wear sunglass - but I have glasses to help me see details at distances, which, more often than not, means outside - when I should be protecting my eyes anyway... so it makes sense. And I've decided to use today's exploits as an excuse to bump Prescription Sunglasses to the top of my Personal Acquisitions List. Yes - yes I think so.

The search commences.

So - D has prescription Oakley sunglasses that he really likes and have served him well - which made the first place I looked - Oakley.com... which just lead to disappointment. I want these glasses primarily for biking, so I want ones that wrap around a bit, to decrease wind getting inside - but I also need them to have really thin sides so I can slide them on after I have my helmet on (which the glasses I have right now, do really well). I already have enough trouble getting my hair out of the way with my helmet - I don't need my glasses complicating things!!!

So what does Oakley offer woman in the prescription sunglasses market???
Ugly...
Ugly...
Ugliness - all around - that's what.

The middle ones are cute in their own way... sort of... but have really thick sides - most of their woman's prescription sunglasses are obviously meant for beach going (and then let's be honest - Aviator glasses don't look good on Anyone!!!) and not active pursuits. The only ones that scream Performance are face shields - like the first picture.

Now - you go over to the men's section, and there's heaping gobs of classically designed, thin, sleek prescription sunglass - and you'd think the least they could go, is show them in the women's search results as well... even if they aren't "Women Specific" which most of their women's stuff isn't anyway, which I'm fine with - but at least show us all the options if you're going to have separate sections in the first place.

Exhibit A -
Exhibit B-

Exhibit C-Grr. Now how does This fit into Hillary's run for president??? Does she wear sunglasses on the campaign trail???

Or does it just mean I need to switch to contacts and get whatever sunglasses I want...

Perspective.

I like this picture. That is Dave.


p.s. Tenaya Canyon, Yosemite

Baggage.

We've been home for... four days. In that time I've done a complete cleaning overhaul of the kitchen. Edges and ledges and skinny corners that hadn't been truly scrubbed in the one and a half years that we've lived in this apartment are now sparkling and beautiful... and that's great. Except this is what my side of our bedroom looks like right now.

D made a valiant attempt at getting me up for Piyo Class (pilates/yoga mishmash) this morning - which included bringing the yellow suitcase on the right, above, into the bedroom and plopping it down in front of me, so I wouldn't have to get out of bed to find my gym clothes.

The other suitcase in the picture above, (you can only really see green edges, right above the yellow blob on the left) is also not totally unpacked. Except it wasn't from our most recent trip - but rather from my trip to visit my sissy in New York - in 2006. I hear there might still be subway maps in the bottom of it...


but the kitchen's clean!!!

Presents.

D's sister got us Scattergories for Christmas. The first time I ever played Scattergories was last week at D's parent's house. The second time I ever played it was five minutes ago - here's a snippet -

The letter was "W", the category was "Things that are cold" -

I answered "Water"

D answered "Women"

Special delivery.

Who got an e-mail today from "Guitar Ted"???

I did.


And what did it say???

I'm officially on the TransIowa v4 Race Roster!!!


Mr. Nice and Mr. Plesko, I will see you two at the start line!!!

Looking like your dog.

So - you know those owners who look like their pets??? We'll I'm starting to think the same thing is happening with me and my spouse.

I mean really - I now own my 1st sweatshirt, I know mashed potatoes don't always come out of a box, I think TransIowa sounds like fun, I recognize Ani Defranco songs after the first few chords, and I've bowed so low as to actually set a specific goal!!!

But most insidious of all???


This morning I was looking for the book I'm reading right now - and couldn't find it anywhere, till I noticed it sitting on the floor next to D's side of the bed, with a slip of paper that was his, placed as a book mark!!!

(Now don't get too many ideas, I can guarantee you he hasn't been reading My book).

I actually fell asleep Before him, and he had to take the book away from ME, and set it aside... this is a perfect reversal of Normal - and a very frightening occurrence, indeed. I mean ME - going to sleep early???


I must be ever vigilant against such creeping intrusions of D-ness, eroding away the very essence of my personhood!!!

Or next thing I know I'll be enjoying spinach and thinking 45 degrees is wonderful t-shirt weather.

Back to the Gym and other good things.

We're back from vacation - and while I debated going to the gym last night, we didn't get back home till almost 8pm and I was oddly overwhelmed with a desire to clean the kitchen.

So tonight will be the first day at the gym for like... two weeks... how sad.


Also - having grown up in Iowa, all the attention paid to it this evening is both flattering and ridiculous. I mean really. But I have to be sad about the fact that I'll never again be a resident of the state, and never managed to have an opportunity to caucus myself. D and I were living in Utah for the last presidential caucus, and before that (dare I say it) I was not old enough.

However - regardless of my lack of caucusing, what was even more sad was my father, who'd lived in Iowa for some 60 years, and never gone to caucus... until...

tonight!!!



My daddy went to caucus tonight - and I'm so excited for him, cause if I can't caucus, someone in my family should (and we won't even get started on why my mother won't) even if he's not caucusing for the party I would...











details.

Funniest Holiday Moment.

D's mom reaches for the last present under the tree and starts to hand it to me - she qualifies -

"Now, you have to tell us if you don't want it, really. D said you did, but I didn't quite believe him, and I still don't - so if this isn't something you really want, you need to tell us and we'll return it."

Worried - I slowly opened the package with everyone watching - to find the ACA's complete GDMBR maps and Cycling the Great Divide book my Michael McCoy!!!

Which - by the way - is something I had casually mentioned to D I wanted to get at some point, but I actually totally wanted like RIGHT NOW!!! Because I'm afraid to truly admit (to myself or others, opps...) that I'm totally obsessed with it, in a very unhealthy and repressed sort of way.

So they accessed my expression and determined I was genuinely excited, at which point his parents confessed they'd heard "Mountain Bike Route Maps" and immediately suspected that really, D wanted them, and was using some tiny interest on my behalf to justify them being my present and not his... but they needn't have worried... I'm the weirdo this time... and I'm just so lucky that D somehow picked up on this and passed along my latent desires!!!


Now I want another set - so I can lay them out, end to end and create the entire course in our apartment... (which I think I would have to start in the kitchen, turn through the family room, and carry on partway down the stairs...)

details.