Manual Labor - there is a reason for education!

Friday:
I took a vacation day on Friday to begin preparations (read lots of digging) for my new Patio. I spent about 10 hours on Friday removing sod, leveling the ground and adding 14 (60 lb) bags of sand. All of this for a 12'x8' patio and a cold glass of lemonade (and I don't even like lemonade).

Saturday:
I spent the morning moving 100 lb pavers (2'x2'x2") from the driveway to the patio spot in the back yard. The pavers were fairly easy to work with (of course I've been sweating over this for a month). 24 pavers total to make a really nice patio. Once the patio was finished I moved my 2 Adirondack chairs and the fire pit out to the patio...If I say so myself...it looks awesome!

I spent the rest of the day weeding the flower beds. Managed a total of 8 hours of labor.

Sunday:
Spent four hours power washing the driveway, stairs into back yard, the deck and the space under the deck. Finished early enough to to see Tommy at the Village Theater.

Monday:
Transplanted a beautify big Azalea, mowed the lawn and finished some weeding...was finished by 2:00pm. Another light day...boy was I tired. Cosmos (the wonder dog) was exhausted too...we hung out on the bed reading a novel for a couple of hours....his reading is improving!

Monday night was the neighborhood picnic...and it was really nice to see everyone and meet a couple of new neighbors...there were zillions of kids in all shapes and sizes...some of them even rode bicycles....oh yea....I should be riding bicycles.

The good news is that my Spring yard work is just about done. I only have a few small things to do...nothing that will take much effort or time...so now I'm ready to start planning some fun bike rides...maybe Whistler and Bend Oregon?

Fun, Fun, Fun

Today (Saturday)
I'm bailing on the Tour de Cure (second year in a row)...I'm not up for a ride in the rain...and of course I have a ton of stuff to do around the house. I bought my deck flowers and vegetables yesterday and stayed up till 9:30 pm planting them. I filled the three pots on the front porch with a great assortment of flowers. On the back deck, I planted 3 tomatoes (early girl, cherry and a bush variety), 6 regular cucumber and 2 lemon (?) cucumbers. Basil is not out yet...so I'll need to got back to the nursery is a few weeks. I also added Italian oregano, chives, dill, and parsley to my herb garden in the back yard. I replaced one bush that died this winter and bought 3 new shade plants for a garden bed on the side of the house (still need to plant the shade plants...planting on a rough and slanted bed...is something to do in the daylight!) Today, I want to do the final measuring for a new patio so that I can order the pavers (2' square) and hopefully install the pavers next weekend. I must say that my yard is looking pretty darn good. I have about 3 hours of weeding to do and I need to spread bark (which I haven't ordered). Then it will look great. Tonight is the opera and of course a nice dinner before the opera...so I have a full day. My plan (who knows what will happen) is to go mountain biking with Julie tomorrow.

Friday, May 18, 2007
I woke up with an awful headache in the morning...took a bunch of painkillers and went back to bed. It took till lunch time before I felt human. Made it to work for a noon appointment. This is all to say...I just didn't think I'd be doing my night ride. I called Julie at 4:00 and she was ready to ride...so I changed into riding clothes and grabbed the Nomad (Juliana is still laying in the open bike box...need to do something about that). We rode Tolt. The climb was tough but I rode a good deal of it. Tolt was dry and fun. I can tell I haven't been on Washington single track much in the last year. It took me a bit to warm up (30 minutes) but then I was having a great time. Julie knows the trails...so I just followed along. Had a great ride. Felt I could have ridden for another hour. We headed towards home at 7:00pm. The descent is a fun mile of downhill. I got to the bottom and no Julie. I waited, and waited and waited...then came Julie walking her steel Serotta mountain bike. She had a flat on the descent....but was able to keep it in control and dismount. So the last mile was a sprint for home to get the car and come back for Julie. I love riding!

Now what:
My plan is to take the Nomad to work with me tomorrow and ride with Julie (at Tolt) after work. Saturday is the Tour de Cure (45 miles). Then on Monday I have a road ride planned with Kelsey (I'm going to try to talk her into riding around Mercer Island). I'd like to swim at least 2 days next week. I'd like to ride the worm on Tuesday (need to see if Joseph is free) and then maybe back up to tolt on Friday.

Some desires:
Mountain: I'd like to ride Bend Oregon and I want to do some riding at Whistler, B.C.
Road: I'd like to find a motel based 3-4 day road trip (supported). I have no desire to stay in a tent...at the end of a hard day riding, I want a hotel room! Maybe after a few more trips I'll change my mind...but, when I did the Arizona bike camp...I was so glad I had a room.

Thursday, May 17, 2007
I'm beginning to re-evaluate what I can do (time wise). This quarter my class has taken almost as much time as my class winter quarter. I'm definitely spending a lot of time on homework. Actually, my team (we have to do team work in most classes) wants to meet most weekends and we spend 4-6 hours together...which is killing my free time. The thing is I love taking classes and if I keep my noise to the grindstone, I can be done in two years. But, I have to take a class every quarter to make that happen. So...my plan is to work hard and finish the degree as soon as I can (one class at a time).

What that means for riding. I don't see myself doing STP in a day (and I don't have a desire to do it in two days). So, I'm going to try to get 3-4 rides in a week and be content with a 40-70 mile ride on a weekend day. The bummer is that I'm not going to be able to ride with the STP group...so I need to find some new riding buddies. One desire I do have is to build my distance up to 90 miles over the winter so that I can do the PacTour again...that was just too much fun not to do again.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Today I swam. Haven't been in the pool much lately. In fact, I haven't been doing much (other than work and homework). I've signed up for a class in summer quarter (management of marketing) and a 4 week class that meets twice a week during intersession (the 4 weeks between summer and fall quarters). So I'll be studying this summer.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Had a great ride at Moab Utah. Road Klondike Bluff with a guide. I had a blast. My body had decided that riding wasn't so bad after all. I loved riding on the slick rock! The ride was 6-8 miles of climbing and then a short hike to get to the top. It was great! The descent was heavenly.

Sunday, May 6, 2007
Road my mountain bike in Salt Lake City. Spent 1.5 hours climbing and about 20 minutes descending. It was the first day there and my body didn't like the heat, the altitude and the climbing. I had to keep my heart rate around 85-88% of Max HR or I'd feel sick. Once I figured out that keeping my heart rate down kept me from feeling sick...I did fine.

Saturday, May 5, 2007
I took the Juliana to Utah with me, which was a good choice. My bike box was so heavy that it was a bummer to drag it through the airport. If I'd taken the Nomad...I'd still be trying to pull my bike through the airport. I learned an important lesson as well. Delta charge $100 each way for a bike box...it would have been much cheaper to ship the bike. Oh well! Also the mountain bike is so much heavier (or so it felt so). None the less I was happy to have the bike in Utah with me.

Monday, April 30, 2007
Had a great ride with a couple of gals. We rode from Leshi to Seward park (did a couple of laps around the Seward park loop) and then back to Leshi. I got in several good intervals...I could sure tell it has been a year since I've done intervals.

I'm getting ready for a week long mountain bike trip. I'm guessing that I wont ride every day but I'm hoping for every other day (at least). One of the highlights will be Moab Utah which is the mountain bike mecca. My travel partner doesn't ride so this will be 1/3 hiking, 1/3 biking and 1/3 shopping!