Life Altering Moment

A small one I can assure you, but I've been told it's the little things in life that make you happy. Today is one of those small thing happy days. Let me just preface this with the fact I'm not a techi so I tend to be a tad slow on the uptake of certain cyber-lingo things. Again, today is no different.

I read various blogs/boards and have seen the acronym LMAO quite a bit. One day a friend of mine responded to one of my posts with LMAO. I e-mailed him to find out what it stood for, no response. Today as I'm reading Joey's blog all of a sudden Maggie's response hit me like a ton of bricks. LAUGHED MY ASS OFF!!!

My world can go on;) Seriously, this made me happy!!!

Could It Be

I just may have fallen in love with my bike. I'm probably jumping the gun a bit much like I do in my love life or lack there of;) I really think it could be love for me and Belle, not the lezbot kind of love (not that there's anything wrong with that) but my bike's name is Southern Belle and Belle for short. Maybe some day I'll write about her name, for now will stick to the cycling.

I managed to ride 42 miles last week outside. No, this is nothing in comparison to my cycling peeps but I've got to start somewhere. Panther was kind enough to give me weekly mileage goals to get me ready for the Katy Flatlands which I will be doing the 62 mile ride.

Yesterday I rode by myself for the first time granted it was on the Veloway which means NO cars but still I went out and entertained myself. My plan was to get in a few laps before Lulu joined me to hit the Autobahn.

When riding the Veloway it is likely one will see quite a bit of "wild" life out there. You may wonder why they have a yellow warning sign about crossing snakes. I am here to tell you it's there for a reason, there really are crossing snakes. I don't know why this came as a surprise to me, I am known to attract them. I spotted one yesterday on a curve no less. I can't guarantee my steering on curves but managed not to hit this one. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before I way-lay one. Argh!!! Me and my so called life with the reptiles. At some point I will blog about my history with these scary creatures;)

KAPUT

My legs are officially kaput. Yesterday involved another 2-fer. I knew after the first work out my legs were beat but did that stop me from the second part of the day's work-out. Hell no!

5:30am met my running peeps for what was supposed to be an easy 10 miler. We usually do this run on Friday but since everyone is out of town this weekend we upped the day for the longer run. I don't know what happened but for some odd known reason this run turned out to be more of a "race" pace. Legs dead by the time I got home.

The second work-out was to be a bike ride, keep in mind I'm just getting "back in the saddle." I e-mailed Lulu secretly hoping she couldn't make our afternoon ride;) No such luck. So I plopped my lazy butt on the couch to "rest" until it was time to head to the Veloway.

It's official I've finally clipped into the bike and happy to report I didn't take Coop or Lulu out during the ride. Now, when it came time to clip out I had to keep pedaling until I figured out which side I was most comfortable in getting out of. I swear I slowed down to 5mph before I decided on the right foot.

Katy Flatlands here I come!!!

Brick #2

Apparently, what I considered to be a brick on Friday 10/10 was really just a 2-fer, meaning I worked out twice in one day. Whatever, LuLu said it's a brick as far as she is concerned. I tend to agree with her.

Today was a combo of a 2-fer and a brick. Today started with the Mother's Day Trail Race. This consisted of 2 loops on the Moonshadow trail. If you missed it this year I highly recommend it for next year. I took it easy since breathing seemed to be optional for me this morning.

This afternoon I met up with Kris & Erin for a 2 mile run followed by swimming/not drowning. So today was my first day in the pool since last summer. I wouldn't call my pool experience last summer swimming necessarily, but today was a new day. We swam at Stacy Pool which apparently is 32m as opposed to the normal 25m. The first lap pretty uneventful the laps there after just involve me trying not to drown. I swear at one point on the way back down the pool I must have snoozed or something because the next thing I know I'm sinking and in need of oxygen...what a pretty site this must have been. I'm pretty sure I came out of the water flailing my arms and choking on water with my hair all in my face, now I know why I need to put that heinous swim cap on. I'm so glad Kris was there to chat with in between laps. The continuous swim was not on my to-do list, Erin. There was a cute boy in the lane next to us which made drowning worth my time. ;)

10/10 BRICK

You read that right Ladies and Gentlemen. Today was my first official outdoor brick. Granted the 10 mile run was at 5:30am and the 10 mi bike was at 3:30pm, everything was outside.

Yep rode the bike for the first time in 2 years. Lulu was kind enough to meet me at the veloway and we went for 3 full loops and 1 mini loop. I'm not gonna mislead y'all I did ride in my tennis shoes as geeky/dorky as that is I needed to remind myself which gears did what and being glued in was not part of my learning equation.

I'm officially worn out today. When the alarm went off at 4:45am my legs were already tired. Hello, my feet hadn't even hit the ground. Something tells me the beer, wine & margarita the night before may have had a little something to do with this but whatever, I pulled it off. I think it's time for a Tecate.

I will be clipping into my pedals on Sunday...I'll keep y'all posted;)

Buh-Bye Spring Semester '07

It's official. Spring Semester '07 done!!! My art professor was very impressed with the improvements I made and how many drawings I had completed for today. Honestly, improving was going to be simple. I was going from hangman to an actual drawing. I was excited, not that I plan to show anyone any of this. Just sayin.'

Also, I went to see Zane today at Jack & Adams for my bike-fit. He made some adjustments to the seat which puts him in God-like status in my eyes. Took some pressure off some serious body parts;) I can't wait to pick her up tomorrow and hit the road. I advise the rest of you to stay off the road. Consider this a kind warning;)

The best news of all...I've worn my sunglasses 2 days in a row. I may just crack a beer for the occasion!!!

I LOVE YELLOW

Honestly, I have nothing to report other than I love the yellow sun!!!! I was starting to think I'd never see it again. I had to go sit by the pool and just absorb some good 'ole vitamin d. AHHH!!!

There is one more day I also thought would never get here...end of spring semester. Tomorrow at 10am I can kiss spring '07 good bye. YIPPEE!!!

Random notes- I actually ran 5 days last week which included one 10 mi run. Who knew any of this was still possible? We're back for the month of May. I have no idea how it's going to work for the month of June. I've got class M-F starting at 8am...yuck!

Last but not least- my bike will be tuned up come Thursday. You may want to stay off the road;)

What's Not My Calling

Well, I spend a lot of time wondering what it is I should do with my life. They say figuring out what you don't like or things you're not good at is just as important. I can say with absolute certainty drawing is NOT MY CALLING. Granted I wasn't expecting to be an undiscovered Van Gogh but seriously the lack of my skill is quite frightening. The good news is for my curriculum we only need 1 basic drawing class...whew!!! I'm going to show you what I'm currently working on and I'm bored to tears with this thing. I seriously wish we could splash some of these things with color...the charcoal thing gets a tad boring!

Next Wednesday is my critique in drawing. We've got to show our professor complete drawings. I'm trying to get several finished. Argh!!! It takes forever and it's torture. I have one I really like but it's huge. Once I finish it I will actually post it. It's really hard to tell what in the heck I've got going on in this one but my professor loves vine charcoal. What the heck is vine charcoal you ask...a raw stick of charcoal. Talk about messy. I walk away looking more like a mechanic than an "artist." It's hard to draw straight precise lines with this stuff...granted the professor doesn't like that but I really like things to be clear and I swear this drawing I'm about to show you looked much better as a penciled drawing. Keep in mind this isn't complete I'm just sick of drawing for the moment.

Amazed

I'm amazed with myself today. Yes, I have the right to be self-absorbed on occasion. I admit I stayed up late and watched all of the bachelor so I didn't get a whole lot of sleep before my early am run. I must say I'm amazed at everything I managed to accomplish on little sleep. Pam, Jane & I met at the rock at 5:30am sharp (Jane is really doing well with the time thing!). We took off for a 5 mile run which was surprisingly nice. Afterwords I went to the gym to lift weights, this is something I'm dedicating myself to this summer. I then hit the grocery, washed clothes and cleaned my house all before noon today. I'm patting myself on the back as I type this. For the afternoon I went to Book People to study for my final and of course I had to buy a book on the way out. Confession- I am dangerous in a book store;)

Tomorrow up for another 5:30am run...it's time to turn this into a habit!!!

Random Thoughts

It's the final night of the posting war with Buzz, thank goodness;) This will also be my final post for this month obviously. Again, thank goodness;) Curious to see if he has 4 or 5 posts just waiting for him to hit the publish button and beat me...that would actually be a smart move and not one I intend to pull.

TV- I'm not one for watching tv with the exception of Greys Anatomy...leave me to my McDreamy ok, other than that I honestly don't need the thing. With that said I will confess I've been watching parts of The Bachelor this season. The only reason I am watching is because I know Andy from my SF days and yes, he really is a nice guy that happens to be super hot at the same time, go figure. The one thing that always baffles me about this show is the women. Do they honestly think they are going to find true love or is it the potential Hollywood discovery moment? As I type this last statement I realize they may actually think they can find love on this show. Have you ever noticed the majority of these women are in their early 20's with a few that cross the 25 threshold and one that's 30 or 31. The one that's crossed over to the dark side of her 30's gets the boot within the first 2 episodes it never fails. I'm sure no strange man is worth being stuck in a house of a bunch of young Ms. Thangs and their catty selves. Although the young Ms. Thangs are very entertaining not to mention great for ratings...the things they will do to get their man. It makes me cringe and laugh at the same time. 5 more minutes and it's on;)

Unfortunately, I will not be able to watch the entire thing as I've committed to meeting 3 of my friends at 5:30am for a run. What was I thinking? I don't even have class tomorrow so technically I have no reason to get out of bed. Reason- I've been extremely lazy since the marathon and I'm watching my muscles disappear into thin air. Gettin' back on the work-out wagon.

Blogged Out

I know Buzz is kickin' my ass in the blog war but as the title says I'm blogged out. There are some stories I could tell but really just not in the mood. At this point I'm just trying to stay somewhat even with Buzz. He's at 12.25 (you tube is only .25 of a post) and this teenie tiny paragraph will put me at 12.

I am excited to announce I did my first brick last week. Thanks to Lulu for making me feel lazy she inspired me to get off my lazy bum and hit the gym. I did 22 min on the spin bike and a 2 mile run. I must say I really liked it. Actually I ran the run much faster than I had planned. I guess this has something to do with the high cadence on the bike making me want to keep moving my feet at a similar pace. I do have a lot of work to do on the bike before hitting the pavement with Amber & Lulu as they are getting much stronger and well, I haven't been on the pavement in a few years;) Oh, well it's time for a new challenge!!!

Bring it on!!!

It's Really Going to Happen

Dear goodness I think it's really gonna happen. Argh!!! We're coming to the end of semester and I was thinking I'm safe I'm going to get through basic drawing without drawing a nude model, Yippee! My friend who is in Interior Design with me said when she took basic drawing they had a nude model everyday. My response, eeww, gross. Horrors, seriously. Today was the first day we started discussing the human body. I start counting how many more classes we have to figure out if it is humanly (no pun intended) possible to get to where we would need a nude model. As I'm doing the calculation Ms. Goody-Two-Shoes pipes in how cool it would be to draw one, has she lost her mind? There is no way I can do this with a straight face, are you kidding me? I barely got through the reproductive chapter in Biology class in high school and I'm pretty sure I haven't matured much since then. Seriously, when we were drawing the human figure today and the teacher mentions the wrist lines up with the crotch, I like to have fallen out of my chair I thought it was sooo funny. Crotch is only a word imagine a nekid (some may spell this as naked) person that I have to look at and draw. We all know the people that volunteer to be nekid (naked) in public are not good nekid (or naked). This just goes without saying. Good Grief!!!

The Mexican Martini

Lately, I have had some strong cravings for a mexican martini. Now the challenge here is finding places that serve good ones. Let me tell you, if you order one and it's bad you could be scarred for life. I may need to start a list of places where not to order them, Freddies for example...save yourself some money and stick to their margaritas. You can thank me later for this nugget of info.


This weekend I had to stay in like a good Samaritan and study or catch up rather on all of the reading I have not done for a final that I take on Wednesday. Some things about me haven't changed;) Now taking my cue from a friend of mine that finds time each and every weekend to sprinkle in some fun even though she has tons of work to crank out, I got the bright idea to walk over to Curras for you guessed it a mexican martini ( I remembered they have a pretty good one). Not to worry I took my books with me and am proud to announce that I cranked out a few chapters of reading/note taking. I highly recommend combining a good martini with the mundane tasks one has to deal with over the weekend. I must say this helped me to condense my note taking and leave out the trivial stuff that I can't ever decide if it's important to know or to discard.

Eventually I conned another friend to come meet me so I could have another martini and 3 later I rolled down the hill back to my house;)

Safety Question

I've been riding the bus to school all semester and today as I climb on board there's a new older gentleman behind the wheel. He looked a tad frail especially in comparison to the dude I'm used to driving. The bus was full today so I was stuck in the seats that face one another which means I'm going to be bouncing around and eventually land on one of my neighbor's lap. There's nothing to hold onto.

As I was sitting there I got to thinking why don't buses have seat belts? This makes absolutely no sense to me. That's a lot of lives in this little bus drivers hands. If you've ever been on IH-35 between ATX and San Marcos you've seen a number of flipped over vehicles...what happens if the bus flips over or goes sideways? That means flying bodies. Basically, you're either going to go flying elsewhere or get squished into grits. I really can't wrap my head around this one.

These thoughts brought to you by your Cruise Director, class dismissed!

Body Marking

If you ever want to see/touch a ton of hot bodies at once I highly recommend body marking for a triathlon. Now there are a few sacrifices to this rewarding experience such as getting up at 4:30am on Sunday; obviously this cuts into your exciting Saturday night plans but all for a good cause right? The alarm will go off and you will wonder how much you had been drinking when you agreed to do this. Your next thought will be how important are Maggie and Joey? Does the I'm too tired excuse work? Ok, so just a few more snoozes to think about where all of my cold weather clothes might be and I'm up.

5:20am Erin & I are off.

I will say up until today I never understood the reason for men to shave their arms & legs. Today I got it. Let's just say it's much easier to get a clear number on smooth skin. There were a few hairy hairy dudes that I thought I would never get their number on them. Obviously they can't completely help it but there's nothing wrong with men waxing. Just sayin.'

I did get to mark Desiree Ficker; she was #5!

Final Design Project

Finally, we're getting to the end of semester. My first semester back in school and oh, about 5 more to go. What's sad is I'm ready for this semester to be over. I really like it don't get me wrong, but the classes I'm currently in are all part of the preliminary curriculum which includes a very wacky/bizarre teacher.

Our final project for my design class is due next week. We're building a habitat on a 12X20 board. The idea is to build something one would never live in and to be super creative. Think Alice N' Wonderland or Hanzel & Gretel. Ok, sounds easy but once you factor in wacky teacher it has to be her type of creativity. Basically, any rough drafts you showed her she nixed. I opted to stop showing her what I was doing. I'll plead my case during presentation (this worked for my other project and I got an A). I just made a mental note of things she doesn't like- toothpicks, popsicle sticks, anything cutsie, funky colors and balanced. Apparently, creativity is all relative???

Now the real challenge begins once I start to glue/stick this thing together. Let me tell you they've got some strong adhesives on the market these days. There's this stuff called sticky back foam that feels and looks flimsy. I'm hear to tell you looks ARE deceiving. Whatever you do don't let it drop to the floor. I made this mistake and wasn't paying attention until the other day I decided to clean the previous project off of my kitchen table only to realize sticky back foam is super glued to the floor. I now have a new textured flooring;)

WAR PART 2

Alright, this is serious business Buzz!!! Our war has taken over our e-mails at this point. For those of you with gmail you know what I'm talking about. Your "chat" friends where you can write little one liners. Buzz and I don't bother with the e-mails anymore we talk through the 1-liners of our gmails. You may call us 2 mature adults with serious procrastinating issues. Personally I think Buzz is looking for more publicity or has serious attention issues, maybe a little of both. Notice the past 2 posts I have had are all about him and for anyone that doesn't know him my blog has become ultra boring. Keep in mind I've got to post like a maniac in order to win and we didn't set any guidelines about our posting other than a title with a YouTube video counts as .25 of a post.

I would like to note that Buzz is having 2 separate wars right now and their both with strong women. I don't know why he wants to take on a losing battle for himself this makes no sense to me???

I honestly need to work on my final project for my design class...I don't wanna;(

WAR

Apparently, I'm in a posting war with Buzz who knew. His blog is listed to the right of this blog and no I don't know how to link. I get an e-mail from him today saying he's at 6 postings and to take that. I immediately click on his blog (I can't believe I'll admit to this during a time of War) because he really is funny. He's calling a title with a you tube video a post. I totally disagree with him, but being the generous person I am I gave him .25 for the post so really he's only posted 5.25 for this month. I'm going to kick his ass!!!

Mimosas & Woodrows

I know it sounds really strange but Woodrows has a killer FROZEN mimosa. Honestly, I can't recommend them enough. Jarvis Girl and I discovered these luscious things on Saturday night, so taking our cue from Erin (side note- when Erin finds something she likes she goes back several days in a row) we promptly returned on Monday night to enjoy them again. I must say they are very tasty especially when your allergies are in high gear.

Was I supposed to go to core last night? yes. Did I? No. Laundry list of excuses- 2 major ones allergies killin' me and 2 major projects due this morning.

What do I do with a text from Jarvis about Mimosas NOW? Y-E-S. Did I get both projects done before 10pm? Yes. Did I get a good nights sleep? Hell Yes!!! Can I answer my own questions on my blog? Of course I can. ;)

Now I'm off to class!!!

Frozen Indoors

Seriously, I ventured out this morning to get some things for these projects that are due on Tuesday. It's frigid out there! Yes, I know all you Texans already know this. My point is I'm still in my coat indoors and have been here for 2 hours. I've also agreed to go to a friend's bbq this evening surely we get to stand inside while Gareth grills our food. He's a guy he can handle the cold. I totally think this is fair.

How does one motivate in this weather? Don't even ask me about my working out or lack there of. Erin I will be seeking motivation from you this summer when I take a long break from running;)

I guess I should get back to the projects or I'm going to really hate life tomorrow!!!