Oh, how I wish I were a little bit taller...

...but I'm not so finding a tri bike that fits my 5'2'' frame (knew gymnastics and cheerleading would come back to bite me in the butt!) that doesn't have 650s was a bit of a challenge. My budget kept the thoughts of all high-end bikes or custom-made frames far, far away... :-) After lots of research, deciding what I wanted, and deciding to bite the bullet, I returned back from Christmas in Tampa to find bf extaordinaire AB had bit the bullet for me and had this amazing Christmas present waiting for me!


Yes, yes! My very own tri bike! (Specialized Transition E5) Woo-hoo! Now I get to go out and play with all the grown-up boys and girls! 100 points for bf extraordinaire! Just have to get fitted on it now and figure out which saddle to switch out with the stock one. (Played around on the trainer for five minutes and was re-introduced to the pain of stock saddles.) I currently have a Specialized Jett on my Orbea Diva but a friend who says she has the same on her road and tried it on her tri, said it was aweful. Any suggestions on what saddle to throw on my tri bike would be greatly appreciated!

Another cool thing in the works is a trip out to Colorado this summer! AB and I are pretty much set on loading up the bikes and heading west (roadtrip!) for a few weeks. The focus will be Colorado since we are working hard to move there in 2010. We hope to do some races depending on when we make the trip. We definitely will be staying around Denver and Boulder and hope to meet some new peeps and say hi to some old ones!

Wonderful Days of Winter

Just got back home a little while ago from running the Wonderful Days of Winter 5k. I ran it with the mindset of it being a completely fun-only race since I have been getting over having bronchitis and haven't been training. You can imagine my surprise when not only did I manage to set a new PR time for a 5K but also walked away winning 3rd place in my Age Group (AG)! It was my first time ever placing in my age group and I was crazy stoked about my placement. AB took 2nd place in his AG and we both were given hand-painted flower pots filled with a bag containing soil and a bulb of some kind. (Maybe a tulip? That would be exciting but I don't know anything about planting or growing bulbs. If anyone does, I'll take any advice!)

(Here's AB and me with our prizes)


Yesterday was a big hangout day for AB and I but we did get to use our iChat for a little while to talk with my sister and her fiance. As you can see, we enjoyed our talk...


(The sis decided to impersonate Kenny from South Park)

Chatting with my sister is always wonderful fun. She has a sense of humor that never stops which I adore. I hope everyone has a friend or family member who makes you laugh and smile as much as S. does for me...

Good karma to all,

r

Dropkick 2008... Ring in the 2009!

A new year deserves a new post! I hope everyone is recovering from all the good time had last night! Mine was certainly entertaining with lots of interesting drama... Never fails to be the case when you bartend. ;) The night started off with one of our bartenders telling us her boyfriend broke up with her a couple of days ago and his band was going to be playing our bar that night. Lucky us! She held it together really well and I especially give her mad props for holding it together as he played song after song that were total heartbreaker songs... (i.e. With or Without You by U2, Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley, Purple Rain by Prince, Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler, etc.) Yeah, no joke. It was brutal and I seriously felt sorry for her.

Later on in the night a fight broke out that turned into four more fights with a bunch of guys and some of their lady friends which spilled into the street. On of the girls came back in and was screaming to us about the whole incident. As she stood there screaming with a her face turning purple all I could think about was how she reminded me of this video...

In these kinds of situations, I find myself using many of the same strategies and techniques I have to use in the classroom when working with my young students. Hmmm...... ;)

(I realize this sounds a bit gossip-y but craziness sometimes has to be put out there.)

Plans for today include meeting up with a cousin for a quick bite to eat then head back home to hang out with AB while watching some football and knitting, knitting, knitting!

Good karma to all,

On the Cusp....

It's hard to believe I was last standing in October and now here I am on the verge of stepping out of December and into a new year. Although I haven't posted in forever, it only seemed appropriate to close out 2008 with one more post with a New Year's Resolution to blog more frequently since I really do enjoy it.

November came and went quickly with a quaint by lovely feast at my sister and her husband's house. Every immediate family member lives in a different state so getting together is usually quite difficult. The big gathering of most of the clan is always at Christmas. Usually all of the kids go to the parents' house but the lack of off-time from work for the youngest meant the holiday gathering was to be held in Tampa, Florida. (Ah, yes. Puts a different spin on the idea of a white Christmas, doesn't it?) It was wicked hot while down there (apparently the hottest winter Tampa has seen in many years... lucky me!) but I had a wonderful time catching up and laughing with everyone. My family was very gracious with the gifts and my mother, a fellow knitter, bought me a blocking board (yippie!) and knitted me a gorgeous basket-weave, lap blanket! Such a wonderful heirloom to have!

Since getting back to Atlanta and having another week off from teaching, I've been knitting and reading (or listening to audiobooks) non-stop! I've gone through some fantastic reads (children's literature) which have included The Looking Glass Wars Series by Frank Beddor which is the "real" story behind the book Alice in Wonderland





































as well as The Bartimaeus Trilogy: The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud.

This story is about a djinni summoned by a young boy studying to become a magician who is trying to get back at an older magician who embarrassed him. The book is told a good bit from the djinni's POV and he is hysterical! I've actually been doing the audiobook version of this and am obsessed with the narrator. I've done many books on tape and the reading of this book may very well be the best reading I have ever listened to. I highly recommend the audio version if you plan to get this book!!!! ( I can't wait to tackle the other two books in the series!) FYI: Don't let the cover discourage you from reading this book. The cover is the only scary thing about this book. :)

The main knitting project I am currently working on is my Baby Cables Sweater. Such a well-written pattern by villapeikko on Ravelry! It's knitting up quickly and, as you can see from the pic, I am really enjoying it. :)




























Good Health, Good Cheer, and Good Karma your way,

r

L5P Halloween Parade!!!

If you live in Atlanta, one thing everyone must go and experience or participate in is the Little 5 Points Halloween Parade! L5P is the deliciously, eclectic part of Atlanta that embraces many lifestyles and people ranging from Rasta to Gothic. Halloween is this neighborhood's Christmas. This year's parade was amazing as ever with a wide array of people, costumes, and good fun. Here are a some pics to give you a taste of the hella good time had...



















Photos courtesy of jillandjohn.com

In the Raw

So I've been looking more into trying to eat a more raw, healthy diet. I picked up Ani's Raw Food Kitchen book

which contains living food recipes. I looked through the recipes (which look pretty damn good) so I decided to look the author up online. I came across Ani Phylo's website. I really liked how informative her website was and I loved that she has several links to youtube videos showing her making several recipes. (I'm a very visual learner so I love any video or tv show that demonstrates cooking!)

I decided tonight to give one of Ani's recipes a try...her cacao pudding recipe from her website. Holy snikies! What a delicious recipe! It literally took 5 minutes total, prep time and actual making, to complete this recipe and I was so hella happy with it! Everything is raw and organic and crazy yummy! Definitely many thumbs up for this one and I definitely plan to try many more recipes now. Here's my finished pudding! Num Num Num!

So Much to Say and Share

It's been a hella long time since I've blogged and I definitely have some catching up to do. Since my last entry, school has been in session for almost two months (Wow!) and the change in the weather has finally started to occur. Fall and Winter are my favorite times of the year so I'm in absolute heaven right now with the cooler weather!

Over the last week I decided to tackle a bunch of unfinished projects. So far I have finished a scarf for my older sister...



...along with my first fair isle project, the Composed Mitts from Interweave Knits Fall 2007 issue.


I'm now trying to tackle for the bizillionth time my Frieda Sweater. Keepin' the fingers crossed. ;)

I've also been doing a bit of cooking and baking. I just finished baking the most delicious banana nut bread. I swiped this recipe from a friend to knit with's blog.

My latest results...


I've been prowling on Ravelry quite a bit the past few days and was checking out skrillaknits's blog and oh me oh my! She was sharing the coolest techie information. For those who have iPhones or an iTouch (I have the latter) you can download an application called Stitch Minder which is a stitch counter. Very cool!

All right! That's it for now! No, wait! One more thing! I just realized a couple of days ago that people are actually reading my blogs AND posting comments! I'm such an idiot. So, my apologies to all who have written comments and wondered why I never responded. I promise now that I know, I will be responding.

Much love and good karma to all,

r