Thread Drift

[maillotpois]

Nanci - cool video!!

Fish - I did the whole super expensive, extend her life for 2 months business with my rottie back in 2001. I probably would do it again. But it was not fun - basically she needed dialysis several times a week, visits to the doggy ER, blah blah. If they tell you right out of the box that it will be miserable and probably won't do any thing significant it may not be worth it. OH! That just stinks.

Favorite vacation spot? Probably the French Alps and Northern Provence. There's just so much great cycling and hiking there. The food ROCKS. And I know this is weird, but I could spend hours in a French grocery store. Locally (i.e., affordably), the best vacation spot is Yosemite. I'm not typically a beach vacation person. We haven't been on a beachy vacation for at least 7 years! Amazing.

[Nanci]

Here he is!!!

[Nanci]

My favorite vacation spot is Cozumel, Mexico. I love the diving, love the people, love the climate, love the food. I've been there so many times...If I could go anywhere, I'd probably pick somewhere in South America, or a grand tour of Australia, or New Zealand. I have no interest in Europe, except maybe Spain. No interest in Africa, India, Thailand or Vietnam or any of that, or any of the Orient.

Choco has finally gone to sleep, after a big exploration and swim in his new 20 long. Must be a huge change after a shoe box and paper towel! He went swimming, and couldn't tear himself away, so went again!

[DebW]

Oh, and I agree--the mind just... "goes there".
I'm with you, Knotted & Trek. Tri & biking erotica...
or even moreso, the concept of education or whatnot combined.
(HOW would you work in quantum physics?)


Sheesh, look what happened just because the female pronoun was used to refer to a bike. And I was only referring to Knotted's bike as she referred to it, not trying to invent anything. But I suppose I could contribute some quantum physics (or stratospheric chemistry at least) and a description of well lubed bearings.

[Lise]

Choco has finally gone to sleep, after a big exploration and swim in his new 20 long. Must be a huge change after a shoe box and paper towel! He went swimming, and couldn't tear himself away, so went again!
Isn't it wonderful to know you've done something to make an animal (or a child) happy? Nanci, how is his tank set up? Dry land and a swimming pond? How big is he now, and how big will he get? How old is he? Will he and the other animals interact at all?

MP, your time in Hawaii sounds great. I agree, the PP has quite the deluxe life this fall!

I had dinner with my mom, my sister, BIL, and the two kids. Ted, my 7 year old nephew, had one of those really busy kid weekends--a couple of b-day parties, etc. His mom was telling us about it over dinner, and it sounded almost like a kids' action movie! I asked Ted, "If you had music in the background of the movie of your weekend, what would it be?" He's a smart, creative kid. He thought for awhile, grinned, and said, "I don't know what you mean." So I said, "Your weekend sounds like an action movie!" He grinned and said, "Yeah." Me: "Maybe your movie would have music like..." and then I sang the theme from Mission Impossible. Complete with arm movements and facial expressions. You should have seen the look on his face. He was so amused. It's not easy to crack that kid up, and it makes me very happy when I can! :D

[Trek420]

Nanci "Choco has finally gone to sleep, after a big exploration and swim in his new 20 long. Must be a huge change after a shoe box and paper towel! He went swimming, and couldn't tear himself away, so went again!"

awwww, happy Choco! :D

[KnottedYet]

Where. Is. My. Bike?!?!

The shop that is s'posed to be shipping it has had it almost a week now. I called them, said I hadn't heard from them and wanted to know how it was going. Oh, they hadn't got to it yet.

I have visions of my "new" bike in some chop-shop situation, all the Campy being taken off her and yucky components being put on. Campy wheels replaced with Mall-Wart wheels. Even her lugs somehow being stolen! I'll open the box and there will be a disaster. Yeah, hadn't got to it yet....

Or I'll open the box and it won't even be my bike. Some other gold bike.

Or my credit card number being used for wild Michigan parties, as my bike languishes.

I need that bike for so many (perfectly legitimate) reasons! Not least of which is that SKnot somehow outgrew his bike, like he did everything else, this summer. He stood over my Kona this afternoon and it wasn't a bad fit. I need the Waterford so he can have the Kona.

(I can always find something to angst over.)

[salsabike]

Choco is HANDSOME. I look forward to seeing him grow up and hearing about his swimming adventures.

MP, my best friend has a mother who is really awful and always has been. Good folks don't always get the parents they deserve. If she was going to drop everything to take care of HER mother, I would probably kidnap her as a sort of defensive/rescue measure, first.

Oddly enough, since I've lived on the Left Coast for 23 years, I have yet to go to Hawaii. I love Provence, and parts of Italy, but my hands-down favorite is still Japan. I spent five weeks traveling there solo in '86, climbed Mt. Fuji, saw so much beauty in the countryside, in temples and shrines, in museums. Just an exquisitely lovely country.

I would love to go to Belize. And there's a Bolivian cafe at about 13,500 feet that a friend emailed me from once--I need to go have coffee there. And I would like to see the Galapagos except I'm afraid it's already getting overrun with people. And Antarctica. And New Zealand. Mr. Salsa, being kind of an adventurer, sailed away for a few years after high school (WAY before we met) to Hawaii, Fiji, Australia, NZ--lived in the latter two places for many months, and absolutely loves NZ.

My vacation loves seem to consist of equal doses of serious nature (we do a lot of mountain and desert rock-hunting) and of museums. Our last London visit to the diplomat brother in law, a few years ago, was an 8-day Christmas-time affair that we dubbed The London Museum Death March. It included the British Museum; the Museum of Natural History (fabulous rock/crystal collection, including specimens collected by a local geologist friend); the National Gallery; the National Portrait Gallery; the Tate; the Tate Modern; the Museum of London; the Courtauld Gallery; the Victoria & Albert (my favorite); the Royal Academy (major Aztec exhibit). My FEET. But we had a great time.

I expect that one of these days we'll do a cycling vacation somewhere.

[KnottedYet]

I loved New Zealand. Was there in 1991. Geez, that was a long time ago!

where. is. my. bike?

[Lise]

Where. Is. KnottedYet's. Bike? I join you in imploring the universe to deliver it to you! I'm guessing that sknot has taken more to cycling lately. That's great that he can step right into the Kona, as soon as you get your Waterford.

I reactivated my profile on match.com. We'll see how this goes. The "Lise's Dates" section of Thread Drift has been quiet for a long time... I'm going to post one on "Fitness Singles", too.

I had some GREAT chips at my mom's tonight: Classy Delites Tweeds Flax Seed & Sesame Seed White Corn Tortilla Chips. Pretty much the perfect chip for me. Mom had bought two bags, and sent one home with me. :D

Vacations...I would love to go to Costa Rica, Belize. I do wish NZ weren't so darned far away. I'd love to see it. Spain, where I'm sure they'd laugh at my Chicago/Mexican/Peruvian accent. Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, my ancestral homelands. California--I had a wonderful romantic trip 16 years ago, when things were still wonderful and romantic with my ex. We landed in SF, drove up to Calistoga, soaked in mud baths and hiked, drove down the coast, enjoyed SF. We stayed at a marvelous hotel called Inn At the Opera. Ah, that was wonderful.

[crazycanuck]

YOu guys could always come down this way & visit meeeee.. If you're in seattle you could fly via japan to perth...

I promise to be a good host & show you the good places to bike...:D

c

[Nanci]

Holy Rollin' Hellfires:

I got too many women on my mind
Too many women, too little time...

If you go to http://www.choppersinc.com

then the flash site, then "Media," you can hear a HRH song. I love them!

Unfortunately, they are no longer together.

[betagirl]

I'd love to see New Zealand. That would be fantabulous. I saw we all show up on CC doorstep with some wine. We could write that cycling "forum" book.

Knotted - say it with me....serenity now.

MP - That sounds like a fabulous trip. (Jealous)

Did anyone watch Family Guy lastnight?

The episode hit home a little too much for me :D Well, minus the whole prostrate gland. But the butt exam....yeah...I'm due for one in about a week and a half. I even had a dream about it last night. (The whole crohn's thing).

Why can't I dream about lollipops and rainbows and kittens? No, I dream about GI exams.

[Nanci]

Lise, I'll try to take a pic of Choco's viv this afternoon. He's 12" right now, and should end up 3-4 feet long. They live 15 years in captivity.

[Selkie]

Nanci - I'm scared to death of snakes! Did you love them, even as a kid?

[Nanci]

Yes, I loved snakes even as a kid. Maybe because I grew up with cousins and sisters that caught snakes and everything else up at our cabin.

[betagirl]

Mickchick, we can do a little exposure therapy and fix that phobia right up :D

Snakes are fascinating creatures. I always wanted one, but never had the nerve to feed it live things.

[Selkie]

Mickchick, we can do a little exposure therapy and fix that phobia right up :D

Snakes are fascinating creatures. I always wanted one, but never had the nerve to feed it live things.

Take it back, Beta! I would freak out if you put me anywhere near a snake.

[betagirl]

That's the whole point of exposure therapy for phobias :) It's intense, scary, but highly effective.

Ok I'll take my psychologist hat off. Sorry :)

[crazycanuck]

Since this is TD..i think i can post this here.

Just wanted to pass on my thoughts and wishes to anyone that lost friends, loved ones, work mates, etc 5yrs ago today.:( I won't say much more except that it's hard to believe its's been 5yrs.

Think. Think outside the square.


RIght, i'm off to bed kids, have a good day & :)

c

[Lise]

Thanks, CC.

I got up this morning and plugged in the TV (that's how seldom I watch it). Remembering the sudden awareness that the first plane wasn't just a horrible accident.

It's raining and chilly here. I'm going to Y to run on the treadmill. It's good to be on vacation.

[DrBee]

Cool new snake Nanci - he's beautiful!

I have a wierd association with 5 years ago today. It was the first day that I wore maternity clothes to work (when preg with FishJr). I was so excited. Then - it seemed so insignificant.

Vacation - I asked the question, so I guess I could answer it too. I would love to go Scotland and Australia and New Zealand. I think those would be my top choices.

Lise - enjoy your vacation! Good luck with the new round of dating possibilities. I look forward to hearing all about Mr. so and so. Maybe this time you'll find Mr. Nearly perfect. I say nearly perfect because perfect would get annoying ;)

SF TE ladies - I'm "extra bitter" today. Picked one up to remind me of the trip ;)

[Trek420]

Fishdoc, I'm "extra bitter" that I had to work that day :(

[KnottedYet]

I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as Mr. or Ms. Perfect. (protects me from becoming extra bitter...) Now, where's the chocolate?

and <whispering>
where's. my. bike?

[KnottedYet]

Just called the bike shop (again). Gotta love that time zone difference.

The bike is "in transit" now! Wooo-hooo! It even has a tracking number for FedEx.

The shop couldn't quite figure out how much they'd charged my credit card, but once they do figure out how much they charged me they'll send me a reciept.

Ok...

Now I have 20 minutes to shower, dress, pack a lunch, pack the pannier, and walk the dog.

Byyyyeeeeeee!

[mimitabby]

choco is cute, Nanci! I just got two feral kittens too. I am a kitty cat foster mother... One is Babe, a gorgeous silver tabby and white, and the other is Freddie, a terrified little grey boy.
So far no one has bitten me. I am hoping to calm Freddie down enough so that it doesn't happen. Babe is a mellow guy. Once he learns how much fun life
can be, he'll be a great cat..

Knotted,
you'll be clicking on the UPS tracker website 300 times a day. that's what i did waitng for my own bike. and of course, my bike was shipped over memorial day weekend; it took FOREVER!

[Nanci]

I'm trying to not freak out- because I'm a _little_ worried about the size of the screen cover...He'd better be in there when I get home.

[maillotpois]

Fish - you got an "extra bitter", too??? How very fitting!!

[Kitsune06]

I'm kind of in a weird place as far as where I was 5 years ago...
I'd written in my LJ that it was a horiffically boring day and I wanted to go home. Then the bell rang and I went to my 1st class, where everyone was gaping at the TV. I glanced up, saw an explosion, said something about bad special effects, and my friend said "No- that's CNN. That's in New York right now!"
Then I freaked out.
I called my long-distance bf (later hubby) to see if he and his were ok. The first thing he said was "I told you Bush would take us to war."
(after we'd bickered through the entire election night that Bush was a better deal than Gore, or whether or not the US would end up going to war, should he win...)
I ended up saying "We won't go to war over terrorist actions- that'd be stupid."
...what an I-told-you-so.
I still don't trust 9/10 of what I hear today. How can we?
I just feel so bad for the people who had to be in or near those buildings...
So sad.:(

[snapdragen]

I'm extra-bitter today too!

I remember sitting on the couch watching everything unfold; first I thought it was an accident. Even when the second plane hit, in my mind I thought "Wow, there's an air traffic controller out there that's lost his mind". Terrorism didn't even occur to me. When it finally hit me what was happening, I started worrying about my brother and sister in law. She works at Columbia, he was teaching in Manhattan at the time. They had to walk home to New Jersey that day.

[Nanci]

Gulf quake rattles Florida
Sep. 10, 2006. 01:00 PM

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A magnitude 6.0 earthquake deep in the Gulf of Mexico caused shock waves in an area from Louisiana to Florida on Sunday, but no major major damage was reported, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The earthquake, centered about 260 miles southwest of Tampa, was too small to trigger a tsunami warning, the agency said.

[DebW]

I started a 5 day hike on 9/11/01 and so was blissfully ignorant for two days following the attacks. To this day I have not seen the footage of the planes or collapsing towers because the TV news was no longer showing it when I got home (though I'm sure I could seek it out if I really wanted to see it) and the initial shock was over. So I'm sure it's not as real to me as it is to many of you. My sympathies to everyone who lost loved ones and endured the trauma of that day either directly or indirectly. My sympathies also to those in Afganistan and Iraq who lost innocent loved ones because of the US response to it. I would feel safer from repeated terrorist attack if our response had been increased policing, intelligence gathering, and border security. War makes the whole world less safe, and violence breeds violence. May our future leaders find a better way.

[mimitabby]

we were in southern Italy whn it happened. we had ducked into a hotel
to use their bathroom. when we came out, people were all flocked around the tv. they saw us and said "Americani? come come come!"
I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to come back.

Now, yes, i am pretty bitter too. Osama is doing just great, but how many Iraqi's have we killed ? and more of our troups have now died in this senseless war than the number that died that day...

Bombing bagdad is not going to help american security. REALLY!

(i am getting down off the soap box because you guys really don't want to hear it.)

[Lise]

more of our troops have now died in this senseless war than the number that died that day...
mimi, I thought exactly that this morning. Will Bush have their wives and mothers and husbands and children stand on the White House lawn and read their names, one by one? Should we remember and honor them any less? :(

Sigh.

I was the new coordinator of a social service agency within our clinic on 9/11/01. I heard the news of the first plane while getting dressed for work. I envisioned a small plane that accidentally ran into the Tower. How sad. I was driving to work and Susan Stamberg was talking to some guy on NPR about his decision to become a teacher when they broke in and said the second plane had hit. It was eerie. Driving down Lake Shore Drive, everybody listening intently to their radios. Watching the sky. Looking at the Sears Tower, the whole Chicago skyline. Wondering if we were next.

Got to work, someone had turned on the TV we used for patient education. My small staff and a few of the docs huddled around it. One of the Mexican case workers turned angrily to a Pakistani doctor and said, "Your people did this." That was my first encounter with the Muslim phobia that swelled around us in the days to come. The look on that sweet pediatrician's face...we spent weeks, after, worried for him, his wife, and children. He told me that people were wonderful to them, offering to go places with them, protect their house.

Many of my patients lost their jobs, sometimes every adult in the family lost their jobs. Most of our patients worked in service industries, many were undocumented immigrants. Terrorism hit the poor the worst. I used to think about that a lot, that the terrorists hurt most the working poor.

[betagirl]

What do you guys think of CNN.com running the full day of 9/11 coverage on their pipeline site? I think it's in bad taste personally, but then again I don't think very highly of news organizations as of late.

I was on my way to work when it happened. I read about a plane hitting WTC in the elevator and assumed it was a cessna or something. Only when I got to my office on the 46th floor of a high profile building here in Chicago did I figure out what was up. After about an hour, we all collectively decided we should not be on the 46th floor any more. About a minute after that decision was made, they evacuated the building.

I worked for American Express in the late 90's, and their corporate HQ is across the street from WTC. I went there several times and stayed in the WTC Marriott a lot. I went back to NY about 6 months after the attacks and the weirdest thing for me was the big gaping hole. It was such a massive complex. We'd always make jokes about the WTC being a target when we'd go over for lunch or to go shopping. I refused to go to the top or to the Windows of the World restaurant.

On a lighter note, Sloane the Bianchi is ready for her first test ride. I installed a front brake over the weekend and took her into Performance to get the chain installed. I bought a freewheel cog to put on as well, you know in case I want to coast at some point. I'll try her fixed for now. Maybe tomorrow if this dang rain lets up.

[maillotpois]

Many of my patients lost their jobs, sometimes every adult in the family lost their jobs. Most of our patients worked in service industries, many were undocumented immigrants. Terrorism hit the poor the worst. I used to think about that a lot, that the terrorists hurt most the working poor.


Wow - that's another aspect of that which I had not thought of. Sad.

We had a long talk in the car yesterday with the PP about 9/11 and how it has been the worst thing to ever happen to our country - and not just because of the lives lost on that day. If it had ended with that day, it would still be the worst thing to have happened. But to have had it used to do so many wrong things over the years that follow is something that just makes me sick. I am sad that other countries hate us so much. There was such a wave of support, encouragement and solidarity from other nations after 9/11 and it has been flushed down the toilet by the acts of our administration.

On 9/11 we took Emily to school as usual. Teachers and parents were in shock, but everyone wanted to proceed on with some normalcy - and get your kids away from the TV. Then DH and I did a ride, Alpine Dam loop (Fish we drove a lot of that ride). Marin's in the flight path for jets coming into SFO. It was eerie to have the skies utterly silent.

[mimitabby]

On 9/11 we took Emily to school as usual. Marin's in the flight path for jets coming into SFO. It was eerie to have the skies utterly silent.

that is my only regret in not being home (in the USA) on 9-11.. I missed out on the quiet skies. I live in Seattle, which has 2 major airports (I work for an aerospace company) we have airplane noise day and night always...
I guess it was quiet here too.

[chickwhorips]

i think i caught up on some things with TD. this is what i have to say (there is more, but i need to go back through TD to be specific):

fish - sorry about your other family memeber, its hard i know. i had to send in one of my dogs after she got in a squabble with our other one. kept telling myself i was a bad parent, and forgot that it was the animal kingdom's way and nothing to do with me. i still miss her.

salsa - glad your back and your still in my thoughts.

nanci - love the new addition to the family. how is everyone taking the newest addition?

i caught a bit of something that had to do with favorite vacation spots. so far mine is still the philippines (my first trip out of the US besides canada when i was little, all i remember from that trip is my cousin's smelly feet and skeeters.). i think its beautiful down there and going again in december. though there are so many other places i would like to go.

on the whole 9/11 thing.... i can't say much. to me it didn't seem real. i was in the hospital and had a joy button of morphine (my appendix ruptured and had emergency sugery). all i remember is seeing one plane crash, thinking that didn't seem right, before i passed out again. though i did visit the pentagon after it all happened and that was eerie. i still had a hard time putting two and two together with everything that had happened. though my thoughts do go out to everyone affected by it.

[DrBee]

I was driving to work and Susan Stamberg was talking to some guy on NPR about his decision to become a teacher when they broke in and said the second plane had hit. It was eerie.

I was driving to work (getting in a little late) and heard the same broadcast. Then I walked into work and not long after we all knew what had transpired.

We haven't talked with our kids about it. They're still a bit young to have to deal with all of that.

[Lise]

I was driving to work (getting in a little late) and heard the same broadcast. Then I walked into work and not long after we all knew what had transpired.
It took awhile for me to be able to listen to Susan Stamberg at all.

When the planes started flying again, it was reassuring and frightening. The parking lot of the clinic had a clear view of the Sears Tower, about three miles to the north. One evening as I left work, I looked north and saw a plane appearantly headed right for the Sears Tower. I stood watching in horror, and, of course, it flew right past. Perspective.

I grew up in a pretty chaotic home; I often felt like I had to stay alert and protect my family. Even as an adult, I used to have a hard time feeling safe to fall asleep. Right after 9/11, I felt unusually safe, because I knew that the nation's defenses were on alert all night. It was as if *I* could go off duty and just get some rest.
..........................
CWR, how's your dad doing? And your mom, Salsa?

[Lise]

On a lighter note, Sloane the Bianchi is ready for her first test ride. I installed a front brake over the weekend and took her into Performance to get the chain installed. I bought a freewheel cog to put on as well, you know in case I want to coast at some point. I'll try her fixed for now. Maybe tomorrow if this dang rain lets up.
OK, beta, so edjicate me--what's a "freewheel cog"? That Sloane is sooo pretty. I love the black with celeste paint! Very sleek.

[chickwhorips]

CWR, how's your dad doing?

he has good days and not so good days. my brother visited him and he said he didn't remember him and kept asking about if the fields were finished being plowed. my niece visited him a couple times and he remembered her 2/3 times (but doesn't remember my older niece at all). she said he seems to be getting worse quick. no one has updated me otherwise. not sure what's going on. all i know is he's in a nursing home in waukesha, wi that is really small. they are trying to get one closer to home, but no open spots yet. they are still trying to get the meds straighted out, but they seem to be on the right path so far. thank you for asking. it means alot.

[chickwhorips]

probably not a good thing, hope it was something i ate at lunch. tummy is really upset, this happening after testing 3 birds for avian flu too...... :eek:

[Nanci]

Yesterday, BF and I were driving into town. He points at my leg, and I look down to see a huge cicada. So, I can't pull ot the left, across traffic, so I pull off into the ditch on the right (as BF spazzes out) and open the window and gently drop him out. He flies away...

[dachshund]

If it had ended with that day, it would still be the worst thing to have happened. But to have had it used to do so many wrong things over the years that follow is something that just makes me sick.

Yes, this is so appalling to me. I'm surprised more people aren't upset about this. The incident is used like a springboard for unrelated things - changes & agendas that we normally wouldn't approve of.

As it happened, I started jury duty on 9/12. I spent the rest of the week at the courthouse. It made the week seem even more surreal. We all read the newspaper from cover to cover during the breaks. We'd pass on some new detail to each other, then go back to reading.

[Kitsune06]

some guy at work today emailed me this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_Change_(video))...
It's certainly interesting.
I agree with everyone, how it's sad that the whole world looked to America and offered their support, and we basically turned up our noses at them, then went so far as to have lots of Americans talk **** about the French because they weren't supporting us in the ways we wanted. (Maybe this was different elsewhere, but such was the case in WI)

It's going to be our generation's "Grassy Knoll" with the "magic bullet" that passed through Kennedy's skull/throat and a Secret Service agent's shoulder. No one will ever be able to know what exactly happened that day, but everyone will have theories, conspiracies and doubts. What we do know is that many people died in that building that day, and many more are dying and will die given our reactions.

It makes me sick to think that people are so easily lead, rights so quickly shed and violence so readily endured and prolonged. Didn't we learn anything from sending our sons/children/husbands (or in our generation, fathers or uncles we never got to know) to Vietnam? The enemy wears the same clothes as the innocent, and fights for *their* beliefs, and *their* home territory.

...How many have to die?

Don't we have *ENOUGH* things to worry about at *HOME* like properly educating our kids, making sure everyone, of every ethnicity and background has equal opportunities, worrying about our resources, etc?

DID WE GO BACK TO THE '60s (minus the popular will to change and civil rights movents?!)

Sorry. I'll get off the soapbox now. I have a date with Jimi, Janis, Jim. :rolleyes:

[salsabike]

I have a date with Jimi, Janis, Jim. :rolleyes:

I saw each of them in concert. In case anyone needed to know that.

I agree with everything you all have said about 9/11 and its aftermath. Arggh. VERY frustrating. Sometimes I think they dropped me off on the wrong planet.

[Nanci]

Here he is in his pic I sent to a couple snake forums to get an official ID:

(Cali King, Coastal Phase, Aberrant Pattern)

[betagirl]

I agree with what everyone is saying. I think it's pretty amazing how divided this country has become in its opinions. It does seem that the heyday of W is coming to an end. I'm really interested to see what happens in the November elections.

As for the bit about the French and "freedom fries" and other snobbery toward foreign countries. I chalk that up to ignorance from people who've never left our borders. I've been to France 4 times and the only rude person I've ever met was in the post office, and they're just as b*tchy here a lot of the time :D

[betagirl]

Oooo, beautiful snake.

What are you doing up Nanci? I thought I'd be the only one floating around here :D

[Lise]

He's so little, Nanci!

Beta--I thought the same of you, when I saw the time of your post, "What is she doing up at this hour?"

I'm up because my hips hurt and I'm hungry. I've had a bowl of cereal, two Tylenol, and have resolved to schedule a massage once the rest of the world gets up.

I found French people behind counters (selling me a "telecarte", train ticket, cup of coffee) to be really snippy. Maybe it was my one-year-of-high-school-French that so annoyed them. :o But my cousin's married to a French guy, and all of his friends and family were lovely.

Come to think of it, there was a lady in a pharmacy in Paris who was a sweetheart. I was having a terrible period and had forgotten to bring any Motrin. I looked up some words in the dictionery and found a pharmacy. I stumbled through, "I have bad period pains". This little older lady asked me a couple of questions that I was able to understand and answer, and came back with a box of small white pills. They were wonderful, most effective. Of course I later read the box and figured out that they were codeine! Yup, OTC narcotics. Good stuff. :p

[betagirl]

Hey Lise, good morning. Still nice and dark. Gotta love that. My office windows face east, so I get to see the sun come up. If we have sun today, which I don't think is in the cards.

I woke up because of brain-overdrive. I have a lot to do. I went through about a month or so of lack of motivation. I couldn't get myself to do more than the bare minimum, and now find myself behind schedule on things. Right now I'm writing patient progress reports. I need to keep on top of this better, otherwise I'm really going to fall behind. I have 4 patients I'm doing therapy with now, and am picking up a 5th in October. I need to just write the report immediately after I see them. Been a bad student that way. I went to bed thinking about the people I had to work on, and woke up at 4:30 with them right back in there. In between I dreamed the movie "The Fugitive" with Harrison Ford. I have no idea what that means :D All I know is it wasn't about a GI exam, so I'm happy.

About time for coffee.

Sorry to hear about your hips. Just pain from running/training I hope?

[betagirl]

Oh yeah, a freewheel is a cog you put on the rear wheel of a fixed gear to allow you to coast. It looks a lot like a fixed cog, has 18 teeth like the one I have on now, but has this extra mechanism that will allow the wheel to spin without engaging the pedals. You can put it on the opposite side as the fixed cog so you just have to flip the tire around to switch between types. In her current setup, Sloane's pedals rotate whenever the rear tire rotates. I'm going to try that out first and see how I like it. It makes cornering a bit trickier because you can't place your turning side pedal up so you don't clip the concrete. I just plan on slowing down :D I'll put the freewheel on if I really feel the need to coast. In city traffic, it might be a necessity. We'll see.

[Nanci]

I get up at 5:20 to leave for work at 5:55 (if I'm lucky) to be there at 6:30 to have everything organized for when my first patients arrive at 8:00.

He _is_ tiny. Last night, he went in his pool, and swam round and round at top speed, totally underwater. He also watched a couple hours of TV with us. He's so sweet.

[DrBee]

I was awake when y'all were posting - thinking about relocation companies and finding a house and all. I should've gotten up and checked the computer. Oh well.

Have a glorious day everyone!

FishJr gets her school pictures taken today.

[Pax]

I was awake when y'all were posting - thinking about relocation companies and finding a house and all. I should've gotten up and checked the computer. Oh well.

Have a glorious day everyone!

FishJr gets her school pictures taken today.
What with packing and planning a move myself I must've missed your news...where ya headed??

[Lise]

Sorry to hear about your hips. Just pain from running/training I hope?
The hips are sore from leaping back onto the 1/2 marathon training program after two weeks of not running much post-triathlon. :o I ran 10 miles on Saturday and 5 miles yesterday. Not the smartest way to do it, but, hey, the darned race is in 19 days. Fortunately, the distances start to go down again next week. The run yesterday felt relatively easy (operative word: relatively), so that gives me hope. But all the muscles around my hip socket are protesting today. It's an odd place to have pain. Ah, it occurs to me that I had the treadmill set at a slight incline yesterday. Maybe that's it. :rolleyes:

About the fixed gear thing--if you have both cogs, can you shift between them while riding? Or does the freewheel cog allow you to both pedal and coast?

Nanci, as your little guy gets bigger, will you come up with bigger and bigger swimming pools for him?

[KnottedYet]

Checked FedEx. My bike is in Chicago now waiting for a truck heading west. All you Chicago babes, blow her a kiss and tell her she'll be home soon!

[mimitabby]

some guy at work today emailed me this link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_Change_(video))...
It's certainly interesting.
I agree with everyone, how it's sad that the whole world looked to America and offered their support, and we basically turned up our noses at them, then went so far as to have lots of Americans talk **** about the French because they weren't supporting us in the ways we wanted. (Maybe this was different elsewhere, but such was the case in WI)

It's going to be our generation's "Grassy Knoll" with the "magic bullet" that passed through Kennedy's skull/throat and a Secret Service agent's shoulder. No one will ever be able to know what exactly happened that day, but everyone will have theories, conspiracies and doubts. What we do know is that many people died in that building that day, and many more are dying and will die given our reactions.

It makes me sick to think that people are so easily lead, rights so quickly shed and violence so readily endured and prolonged. Didn't we learn anything from sending our sons/children/husbands (or in our generation, fathers or uncles we never got to know) to Vietnam? The enemy wears the same clothes as the innocent, and fights for *their* beliefs, and *their* home territory.

...How many have to die?

Don't we have *ENOUGH* things to worry about at *HOME* like properly educating our kids, making sure everyone, of every ethnicity and background has equal opportunities, worrying about our resources, etc?

DID WE GO BACK TO THE '60s (minus the popular will to change and civil rights movents?!)

Sorry. I'll get off the soapbox now. I have a date with Jimi, Janis, Jim. :rolleyes:


GREAT POST!

[margo49]

,
DID WE GO BACK TO THE '60s (minus the popular will to change and civil rights movents?!)

Sorry. I'll get off the soapbox now. I have a date with Jimi, Janis, Jim. :rolleyes:

You know, I think that kitsune is lying about her age.
She is really One of Us from the "over 50" thread a while back!
I have been noticing clues in her posts for a while now.
Even tho' she didn't mention Bob and Joan in her list , she knows stuff only a woman of the 60's/70's would know.
Or maybe she fell thru a (un-darned) hole in the fabric of the space/time continuum.

The plot thickens...

[Lise]

Checked FedEx. My bike is in Chicago now waiting for a truck heading west. All you Chicago babes, blow her a kiss and tell her she'll be home soon!
There are lots of trucks headed west out of here! She'll be in your arms in no time! :D

[Lise]

Even tho' she didn't mention Bob and Joan in her list , she knows stuff only a woman of the 60's/70's would know.
One of my favorite "old boyfriend songs" is Diamonds and Rust, by Joan, about Bob.

"Well I'll be damned,
here comes your ghost again.
But that's not unusual,
it's just that the moon is full,
and you happened to call..."

I recently downloaded it. That woman can write and sing.

[snapdragen]

Nanci - your new baby is so tiny! He looks like a little striped bracelet! Does Maizey swim too?

Margo, you may be right about Kitsune.....

Lise - yay for OTC narcotics! I could use some about now, I have a pounder of a headache. I'm starting to connect them to "spare the air" days, when the air outside is so bad they encourage everyone to drive less, not use gas mowers etc.

[DrBee]

What with packing and planning a move myself I must've missed your news...where ya headed??

Heading to Baton Rouge - changing jobs. I'm staying with the gov't, just switching critters (from catfish to honey bees). We move in about a month. Still waiting on a specific date.

[Pax]

Heading to Baton Rouge - changing jobs. I'm staying with the gov't, just switching critters (from catfish to honey bees). We move in about a month. Still waiting on a specific date.
Hope it's great move for you and your family! I had a friend who did her grad assistantship with a prof at U of IL who was a bee researcher...her job involved something to do with painting dots on the bees for ID purposes. :p

[Nanci]

There's a Cornsnake Halloween Costume photo contest. I wonder what Maizey could be???

[chickwhorips]

fish can't wait to see the school pictures.

nanci very cute new addition. love the nail polish. what is it? i think maizey should be a millapede. think she'll go for all those legs attached to her?

lise hope you feel better. i've been achey for some reason. probably trying to do to much.

[DrBee]

We are getting an offer on the house today!!!!!!! She is dropping off the offer and paperwork around dinner time. Ooh - this could be good. I was starting to feel like the offer would not come. I was wrong! Yippee!

The first round of tests came back most normal for Roux. This was just a basic blood work-up. His white cell count was elevated, but kidney function, etc. was totally normal. Maybe it is the wierd fungus or something else. He is still breathing fast (but not panting all the time) and those lymph nodes are huge. We should get the other tests back today or tomorrow. Cross your fingers!

I am making myself a big lemondrop tonight!

[Kitsune06]

You know, I think that kitsune is lying about her age.
She is really One of Us from the "over 50" thread a while back!
I have been noticing clues in her posts for a while now.
Even tho' she didn't mention Bob and Joan in her list , she knows stuff only a woman of the 60's/70's would know.
Or maybe she fell thru a (un-darned) hole in the fabric of the space/time continuum.

The plot thickens...

Uh-huh. I'm voting on the space/time continuum idea, but on this forum, I think only Chickwhorips knows for sure (even then not so sure-forsure) and a lady doesn't really tell her age, anyway. ;)
I didn't add Bob because I was going on my j-thing, and honestly, Baez (sp?) somehow didn't 'do it' for me... ...and I've always worshiped Janis. What a voice. She couldn't grow old- it wasn't her way, anyway.

The Times, They are a' Changin'... but they're still pretty much the same?

Knotted- it won't be long now, but don't freak out watching it, it'll take so much longer if you do!

[Nanci]

I wonder what about the lymphoma makes Roux breath fast. I had a LH Dachshund when I was a teenager, named Roo, because that was how she barked- "Rooooooo." Actually, she started out being named JC after my soon to be exBF, and had to undergo a name change...

CWH- that's what my friend Teresa suggested- a centipede. Make a black tube, sew legs on it, get her to crawl through. Do you mean what is the snake? Because I sure couldn't tell you what the NP is- I get a different one each time.

I have the BEST manicurist. She can make nails that will stand up to cave diving! She also can get them _really_ short.

Choco is a California Kingsnake, coastal phase, aberrant pattern, likely a "designer snake." (Bred for a weird, not normal pattern.)

Great news about the house, Fish! Was that the people who looked at it , was that just yesterday?

[chickwhorips]

nanci i ment what is the polish, not the snake. your nails look really good (i miss doing nails and all the girl time :( )

congrats fish! woo hoo!!!! hopefully its an offer you want to hear.

kit i know so much more about you too than just your age. (insert evil laugh http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/16.gif)

[snapdragen]

Nanci - the lymph nodes swell and make breathing very difficult. I lost my first corgi to lymphoma.

[betagirl]

About the fixed gear thing--if you have both cogs, can you shift between them while riding? Or does the freewheel cog allow you to both pedal and coast?

Not really. You put a cog on each side of the hub so you can just flip-flop your wheel depending on what you want to do. If I have the fixed cog, I can't coast. Freewheel I can. There are no shifters or gears on Sloane. She likes to KISS.

Hope your hip pain is fleeting.


Checked FedEx. My bike is in Chicago now waiting for a truck heading west. All you Chicago babes, blow her a kiss and tell her she'll be home soon!

Done :D

I commuted today. It was overcast but the radar looked pretty good. Ride in - fine. Ride out - rain. I got a little wet....But at least it's somewhat warm so I didn't freeze. Just a nice shower.

Fish - congrats on the offer! I'd say pour me a lemondrop, but I got sick off those about 5 years ago on St. Patricks day. Not exactly an irish drink, but hey it did the job. A little too well.

[margo49]

Uh-huh. I'm voting on the space/time continuum idea, but on this forum, I think only Chickwhorips knows for sure (even then not so sure-forsure) and a lady doesn't really tell her age, anyway. ;)


curiouser and curiouser...
a woman of mystery

[Nanci]

CWR- well, it's OPI something- I'll look next time. If I didn't have them done, they'd look like crap, because I'd bite them down to nothing!! I don't like going there that much, because I immediately start falling asleep. So it's like being at school, or work, or driving, and trying to stay awake, and I can't, so it's pretty miserable.

[Kitsune06]

kit i know so much more about you too than just your age. (insert evil laugh http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/mesg/tsmileys2/16.gif)

Hush! :o ;) :D You're trouble!

[Tater]

Uh-huh. I'm voting on the space/time continuum idea, but on this forum, I think only Chickwhorips knows for sure (even then not so sure-forsure) and a lady doesn't really tell her age, anyway. ;)


Kits = Lady?! HA! :D I didn't think ladies used DP's white dish towels to clean their bikes! :p

[Kitsune06]

:o Got me there, Tater.

:D

[chickwhorips]

nanci don't feel bad about falling asleep. i use to have clients come in for pedicures and as soon as their butt hit the chair they were out!

[chickwhorips]

oh and btw kit. i'm so scared. http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/bicycle.gif

and tater i'm with you on the lady comment. no where even close. (ain't them some fightin words)

[Kitsune06]

oh and btw kit. i'm so scared. http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/bicycle.gif

and tater i'm with you on the lady comment. no where even close. (ain't them some fightin words)

If I start saving now, I might just be able to afford a round trip plane ticket to the PI just to kick sand on you while you're sunbathing and catch the next plane home. ;)

Besides, the "You're Trouble" phrase generally says you ARE trouble, not that you're IN trouble... that being the case... I think I'm more scared than you are. ;)

I'm more a 'lady' than the alternative, thank you. ;)

Crassy.

[DrBee]

Right-O Snap - the lymph nodes are really big. Feels like a bag of big marbles. Ick.

Yes - the offer is coming from the couple that looked at the house on Saturday. We have a lot of wiggle room on the price, so unless her offer is insulting - we should be good to go! I really hope it's not insulting. Really I do. I would so love to NOT have to deal with a relocation company. And - if I could sell my house without ever having put it on the market...I think I'll do cartwheels across the lawn. If I do - I'll have Mr. Fish take pictures. It should be entertaining.

Knotted - is that bike there yet? :p

[Lise]

Good luck, fish!

[snapdragen]

Fish, has Roux been diagnosed with lymphoma for sure?

[DrBee]

Snap - not yet. The doc said it's the most likely of the possibilities. The possibilities are lymphoma, blastomycosis, or histoplasmosis. Many people here have a mild case of histoplasmosis (sad, but true), but in a dog it would be much more severe. The most likely of the 2 are lymphoma or blastomycosis. Lovely stuff. We should get more info (test results) back tomorrow or Thursday. They're running an antibody test - we'll see.

[snapdragen]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for Roux. Let me know what the tests say.

********

Just talked to my pilates teacher. The studio we work out at is moving to the most horrible location. She's quitting. I've only got a couple of more sessions paid for, then I'm going follow her. She also works at a studio in Los Gatos so I'll go there. Anyone that lives in the south bay - the new studio would involve Hwy 85 at 5:00 at night. No thank you, all the calming benefits of the class would be lost on the drive home.

[chickwhorips]

fish i hope things go well with the pup.

snap is that why your (extra) bitter today?


ahhh. the fog finially burned off (we were down to a 1/8 mile visibilty all morning) and the sun (yes sun! in cold bay!) is shining. now only if i wasn't so afraid of it and getting tan. where is my sunscreen?

[Kitsune06]

Fish-
Tried posting this @ home, but lost internet connection, so posting @ work...
I hope everything works out for Roux. Sending positive, healing thoughts...

[snapdragen]

Actually, I'm kind of glad about the studio change. The owner doesn't strike me as someone who really cares about her staff, or the comfort of her clients. She pulled out all the wall units and replaced them with these terrible allegro combo units, stuffed the main studio with equipment. Add the carpet covered cement floors - can you imagine standing on that all day as a trainer? This move out to the boonies just confirms my feelings. I only stayed because I love my teacher, she is awesome. She trained with Romana Kryzanowska - a big deal if you are into Pilates.

[maillotpois]

So this is what I get for bad internet service today - 6 pages of TD!!

Hey Fish - good news on the house. I hoe you figure out what's up with Roux.

CWR - was it avian flu? Are you feeling better??

Knotted - is it there yet???

Nanci the new baby is beautiful. We just looked at a little banana king snake the other day. So pretty - what a great color. And your cicada story - I swear you are like St. Francis of Assisi.

Beta - you got a (n avatar/signature) facelift! Nice. Keep us guessing....

Super warm here today. I was out at a job site in San Jose and it was 99. Yikes! Nice and cool in Marin right now. Good day - got to catch up with a friend of mine who made the career move I am ultimately planning to make and it's working great for him. He was super supportive and optimistic. So that's encouraging!

[jobob]

"You eeediot! I will keel you, Stimpy"

[Kitsune06]

"You eeediot! I will keel you, Stimpy"
Ren: "See that button?"
Stimpy: "yeah..."
Ren: "DON'T TOUCH IT! That's the HISTORY ERASER BUTTON you fool!"
Stimpy: "What's it do?"
Ren: "We don't know. Maaaaybe something bad. Maaaaybe something good! We don't know, and you are going to guard it."
(snip)
Narrator: "so, can Stimpy resist pushing the big red button? the jolly candylike button?"
Stimpy: "NO I CAN'T!" (push)
(all of existence is erased)

:D

[DrBee]

Well - the offer was a bit insulting. She offered less than we paid for the house and that was supposed to include the stainless steel fridge. I replied by telling her that she had to come significantly up and gave her about absolute lowest price ($5K under asking price). We'll see. We have a bit of an advantage because of the whole relocation company thing. We basically have a backup plan built in. I'm going to find out more about the details of that arrangement tomorrow.

Got a lead on a promising house in BR. We'll look at it Friday. It's not too pricey and sounds like it has a great kitchen.

Roux does not appear to be getting any worse - that's good. I'll take plateau. Better than decline.

Choco is really pretty Nanci!

MP - Great to hear you had a great day!

[margo49]

I'm more a 'lady' than the alternative, thank you. ;)

.

What would you say is the alternative?

[Lise]

Is there a selective history eraser button?
.........................
Re-entry into match.com land is going as one might have expected. A guy--we'll call him Mr. Wisconsin--had emailed me back in June. A promising candidate, but I was burned out. I told him I was taking a break, he replied that he understood and hoped I'd be back in touch when I was ready. So when I posted my profile again, he wrote me a nice note asking how I was. I wrote back with some details of my summer and asked how he was doing. ... silence. No reply. Sigh. Of course in the meantime, I'd imagined our romantic dinners...you all know I have the shoes for them...:rolleyes: Other likely and unlikely prospects have reached out. It is wierd to see that in 2 days my profile's been viewed 97 times. What happens with 26 year old? 970 times in 2 days? Oh, baby, baby, it's a wild world!

Speaking of which (since this is thread drift), didja hear that Cat Stevens/Yusef Muhammad is coming out with a new record? I will be most curious to hear what it sounds like.

fish, sorry about the insulting offer. Glad the pup seems to have stabilized.

beta, what prompted the avatar switch? And the tag line? What does it mean?

[salsabike]

I have a crush on Choco. It's my hope that Nanci will fondly remember her hiking/rattlesnake video (in which she snickered helplessly while her friend unhappily pondered the snake in the path), and someday show us a little video of Choco swimming ecstatically in his pond.

At one of my elementary schools, the custodian had a boa constrictor named Eli. She used to bring him around to the classrooms to show the kids. Some staff member knitted Eli a yellow and white muffler and I have a picture somewhere of Eli wearing his muffler. I think Maizey needs a GLAMOROUS costume, possibly including a red feather boa and a little tiara.

MP, what's the career move? AND I mailed the very first Thread Drift book to you yesterday. Finally!! You read it, you get to pick the next TD person to send it to.

[Kitsune06]

What would you say is the alternative?

Well, being a gentleman, naturally. ;) :D

[Lise]

I have a crush on Choco. It's my hope that Nanci will fondly remember her hiking/rattlesnake video (in which she snickered helplessly while her friend unhappily pondered the snake in the path), and someday show us a little video of Choco swimming ecstatically in his pond.
Yeah! Video! We want live action Choco video!


I think Maizey needs a GLAMOROUS costume, possibly including a red feather boa and a little tiara. I cast my vote for glamorous, too! :D

[KnottedYet]

So, FedEx says my bike caught a westbound truck at 10:52 this morning. It also says my bike weighs 0.1 pounds.

So just WHAT did the bike shop ship?

Oh, lordie, another thing for me to fret about...

And my darn Brooks is pinging and it's driving me nuts but I still love it and don't tell the Brooks Cult I'm having issues again or they'll come get me and I really do love my Brooks but maybe I'm not meant to have springs and don't let my experience stop anyone from buying a Brooks. Really.

[Kitsune06]

*hug* it's ok, Knot, I won't tell the Brooks cult your DIY surgery didn't completely work... They make me nervous, too. ;)

Everything will work out with your bike, I'm sure of it. Positive bike energy! *reconsiders posting that because it sounds so hippy*

[Trek420]

Kitsune06 "Well, being a gentleman, naturally. ;) :D"

::: sighs ::: I tell ya, always a bridesmaid, never a groom :rolleyes:

Nanci, we want to see the synchronised snakes :D

Knotted, breath in, breath out, repeat.

concentrate on window cling stickers.

[KnottedYet]

pant pant pant pant pant

what was that Trek? I can't hear you over the sound of my near-hysterical hyperventilation.

(Money! Saddle! Bike! Laundry! Dishes! Resume! Bills!)

Man, I gotta get l@id and soon...

[KnottedYet]

Kit - did you get the B17S?

I'm gonna call Bill and see about switching to a B17S or B72. Darn it, I do really like this saddle, but I can't stand the noise! (and I have to wonder if my saddle is "special" cuz I've not heard many other folks talk about noisy seats)

[Kitsune06]

Someday, Trek, someday... you, too, can wear the tux and feel like a total penguin.

*glances at Knotted*
What was that in the "Pet Peeves" thread about literally blowing up? does that happen? If I see smoke etc on the northern horizon tonight/tomorrow morning, I suppose I'll find out. Yes, I did get the B17S. It's nice, but I keep wondering if it's a little too wide. Then again, I have no problems when wearing the actual lycra shorts, and anything much narrower is pretty uncomfortable...

In the mean time, I'll just keep writing about my relationship to my bike, and other bikers and their bikes, and keep considering storing nodoz and ibuprophen in the bedroom. No excuses then, right? ...right? :rolleyes:

[KnottedYet]

Who blow up? What? <scurries off to look at Pet Peeves>

[Trek420]

Kitsune06 "Someday, Trek, someday... you, too, can wear the tux and feel like a total penguin."

oh no, not the tacky light blue one :rolleyes: even with tails

I'd better surf off to pet peeves.

[Kitsune06]

pant pant pant pant pant

what was that Trek? I can't hear you over the sound of my near-hysterical hyperventilation.

(Money! Saddle! Bike! Laundry! Dishes! Resume! Bills!)

Man, I gotta get l@id and soon...

Maybe it was just how I read that...

btw, I think noisy seats might be a more personal problem.
*shushes her inner 9-year old and makes her go to bed*

*raises arms in victory* I managed to get into a conversation AND somehow send both people off to another thread within 5 minutes. I win... I think. Alone, so very alone... :p
Not the blue tux, I was thinking the classic black one... ;)

[KnottedYet]

I'm back, because I just couldn't cope with pet peeves long enough to find explosions.

and yes, my inner 9 year old deliberately left the reference to "seat", to see if anyone would get it.

should've known you would, Kit.

Gotta go to bed now. Alone. So very alone...

[Kitsune06]

Well, pardon my actually noticing the word 'seat'. ;)

*hug* take care, Knot.

explosions are on page 1.

[betagirl]

Beta - you got a (n avatar/signature) facelift! Nice. Keep us guessing....

:D

Lise - The quote means "This life's for me" and is from this cheesy french punk/pop song from 1977. I mentioned it a few pages back on TD with my iTunes downloading. And I figure having a french signature line angers the Republican Party. :cool:

Ren and Stimpy was one of my favorite cartoons, especially the early seasons. I had a green iguana in college named Stimpy. I love the one with the candy-like button. I also have the happy happy joy joy song on my iPod.


So, FedEx says my bike caught a westbound truck at 10:52 this morning. It also says my bike weighs 0.1 pounds.

Just think how fast you'll go!

Lise - You're very brave to enter the world of Match.com again. While there are normal, great people on there some of the responses are scarrrrrrrrrrrrrry. I made up a fake screen name and profile on AOL back in the day (like 1999) and you wouldn't believe some of the things people emailed me. The pictures were my favorite(?) :eek: I put hints in it to let people know it was a joke, and only 1 guy got it. About 89 others believed I was this blonde bombshell who worked at a sperm bank in Baldknob Arkansas. I was bored ok? :D

[betagirl]

I found this on the commuting thread:

"passivate to preserve our arguer and wheedle.
Her precarious driveler rewords faster.
We hold this oppressor to be self-evident -- that all cogs are created
heavy.grab

Botchiest Binh Do joyously sliver the intolerability and fast ramble my
sanctimonious musing.
Anthony Reategui likes his balmier biped, because it fraternizes his
kinder pathogenesis.
Two phlegmons are better than one. But many divertissements spoil the
pluralist. And a rolling incalculability gathers no osmosis.
Thom Werthmann arborize to rejoice with Cecilia Nordenstam, until Arash
Ghaneian shoot it up"

K.............

There's a link to some online poker site in there.

[Lise]

beta--is that really what those 100 chimps on 100 word processors would produce?

About match.com--I have encountered some very strange people. Most of the guys I've met have been fine, just not for me. My favorite email was from a guy in Wichita who felt I would be the perfect mother to his 9 year old daughter, and when he got back from arranging his dead wife's affairs in Africa, could he contact me? ... NO! tippity, tappity, block!

Really wet again today. Did you ride in?

[betagirl]

Negative on the ride in. I did yesterday, thinking the rain had gone bye-bye. Got soaked on my way home. I'm in normal clothing for school today. My 9am professor won't recognize me. I rarely have time to change before that class, so I'm always in bike attire :D

Wow, Witchita guy sounds like a real catch! Not.

If this rain lets up I can take Sloane out for a test ride. Tomorrow is looking promising. I have class all day today anyway. Kinda sucky that it's raining on your vacation. :(

[Nanci]

Finally, there was a Wine WOOT I couldn't resist...

http://wine.woot.com/

Salsa, I almost took a picture of Choco last night when we were watching TV. He was just cuddled up in my hand. Then he'd do this thing where he'd be crawling around my hand, then fall, but catch himself by curling his tail around my finger at the last possible second. I can hardly put him down. I almost took him outside with Dill and the torts yesterday afternoon, but I resisted...

Nanci

[maillotpois]

fish - what a little twit that woman who made the offer was!! she's one of the dixie chicks, right? grr.

wow. no line at all at the lab. amazing. usually if you get there at 745 (they open at 8) there are 5 people already in front of you!

on the job - mwbr....

get fit for my bike today! yay!!

[Nanci]

Lise, maybe he just doesn't hang on the computer all the time...How long has it been?

[DrBee]

fish - what a little twit that woman who made the offer was!! she's one of the dixie chicks, right? grr.

wow. no line at all at the lab. amazing. usually if you get there at 745 (they open at 8) there are 5 people already in front of you!

on the job - mwbr....

get fit for my bike today! yay!!

Twit indeed - however........ she called me this AM with the right price! She came up to where we wanted! OMG - I've sold my house! We're going to sign the contract tonight. Wahoo! She's in the dixie chick clan. All that much more satisfying ;) heh heh

Exciting about the bike fit! I know you'll enjoy that!

We head to LA (the state, not the city) tomorrow afternoon to start our quest for a house.

Now all we need is for Roux to miraculously recover and all will be well. Still no lab results back.

I made oatmeal cookies last night (with lots of chocolate chips in them). Today is our day to provide snacks for FishJr's class.

[Nanci]

Congratulations, Fish!

[Lise]

Hey guys--I cleared all my "cookies" in an (no-doubt vain) attempt to make my computer work better, and now TE didn't recognize me! Got that one fixed.

Nanci, that is so cute about Choco curling himself around your finger. Could he then pull himself back up into your hand, or would he just hang there? It's been two days since I wrote to Mr. WI. I know he does something in state gov't, and yesterday was an election day. If I don't hear from him by tonight, I'll drop him another line and then leave it be.

beta, I am so sorry you rode in yesterday. It was a torrential downpour yesterday afternoon, people. I'm hoping, beta, that you got home before 6:15, when the heavens really opened. It does suck that it's raining on my vacation, but it's making me get some things done at home, too. S'posed to be great tomorrow and Friday, and I plan to be outside!

I went to a mentor/mentee breakfast at the hospital today. The idea is to help new nurses adjust to their new role without freaking out. One (or more?) of them will pick me to mentor them through their orientation. Good grief. Match.com AND speed dating at work? :rolleyes:

Hip's still hurting, but less. I'm going for a massage this afternoon.

I'm going to try really reducing the amount of wheat in my diet, see what effect it has on my GI tract and energy. I bought some Kamut bread and some Millet bread at Whole Paycheck, uh, Foods today. Also some very flat, very heavy "bagels" of some non-wheat stuff. MWBR.

MP--bike fitting?!? Does this mean you can start riding again? (We need a fingers crossed icon). And I remember that you were going to be involved in a case where opposing council would be your DH's ex...right? Has that happened yet?

[mimitabby]

knotted, your squeak reminds me of my old horseback riding days. I bought a new leather saddle (western style) for my horse. It was custom made for me.
I put it on my horse and it squeaked every which way.

I took it home and put leather treatment everywhere. got rid of the squeaks and impressed all my friends.

btw, that's a really LIGHT BIKE you're buying

[Nanci]

Yes, Lise, he can pull himself back up. But he's perfectly comfortable to just hang there, too.

I'm not sure I'd write WI again or not...

This is how it went, right? He wrote, you were taking a break, you wrote to say you were off your break, he wrote, you wrote, he disappeared?

I sure met some losers on match.com

Like the guy who said he looked like Sting (yeah, right) who was mean to a waitress on our first date (of two) who neglected to mention that he actually wasn't divorced.

Or the guy who couldn't take me out to dinner because he had to buy his daughter a house, so came to my house and had a huge ****-attack in the bathroom and didn't clean it up!!

Or the guy who said he loved me on the first date (of two) who wanted to get married and settle down, who kept asking me if I still loved my old BF, causing me to burst into tears.

Or the guy who revealed he was cheating Workers Comp by faking a back injury, who had a daughter who slept on the floor of his room, who told me the story of his ex wife who was in jail for coke who was great in bed and would "cxxx so many times the sheets would be wet!" TMI TMI TMI!!!!!!! I later found out that my roommate went out on a date with a chick who went out on a date with wet sheets guy, and did both of them, my roommate and wet sheets on the first date! My small town began to seem a little incestuous...

Or the really boring movie guy.

Or the really weird Starbucks guy.

Or the super hot but way too young guy that I _think_ I had a date with on September 11th, that never called me back.

[Lise]

Yep, Nanci, you've got it right, and yep, I should not be writing him again. Man, I think the terrorists still owe you for that 9/11 date. I stand in awe of your sheer number of wierdo dates. I feel fatigued by the process. I am going to lie down. Where's Peter Reid when I need him? :p

[Lise]

I'm not sure I'd write WI again or not...
This is how it went, right? He wrote, you were taking a break, you wrote to say you were off your break, he wrote, you wrote, he disappeared?

Actually, I didn't even write to say I was off my break. He saw my profile active again, wrote me:

Hi,

We e-mailed awhile ago, and then you mentioned you were going to take a break from Match. How are you doing?

Lee

I replied two days ago, and he's disappeared.
........................
I miss coffee. I may have a cup with 1/2 decaf as an experiment and see if the PVCs really are worse.
........................
Fish, congrats! Glad that lady got her head on straight! What does "Dixie Chick" mean as a perjorative? (I like the Dixie Chicks' latest album. Quite a bit.)

[mimitabby]

Or the guy who couldn't take me out to dinner because he had to buy his daughter a house, so came to my house and had a huge ****-attack in the bathroom and didn't clean it up!!


had a huge ****-attack? I know this is too much information, i can only think of HEART attack which is 5 letters.

My husband proposed to me on date #2.. I made him wait a month before I said yes and we were married 2 months later. It has been 29 years.

[Lise]

My husband proposed to me on date #2.. I made him wait a month before I said yes and we were married 2 months later. It has been 29 years.
Mimi, people like you, and salsa, and fish, and V, and Sadie Kate, and yellow...give me hope! :D

[snapdragen]

:eek: mimi - think poop attack.....:eek:

[mimitabby]

:eek: mimi - think poop attack.....:eek:

huh. never heard it put quite like that.
THAT would be a date to remember.

Made me remember a blind date i went on. I even remember the guys' name. GENE. My horse had fallen on me a couple days before, so I was very very sore (bruised knee). He took me to the rodeo. After 1/2 hour or so, he decided to get himself a drink. I asked if he would bring me something.. He told me to get it myself. I hobbled down the bleachers, and found someone to give me a ride home. that was the last blind date I've even been on.. I ruined his evening. hahahaha

[KnottedYet]

Off to hike for an hour. Up hill both ways to the car shop to retrieve my Subaru. $230. Dang, that'd buy some goodies for the Waterford! I hate this walk, because the sidewalk disappears RIGHT when you need it most!

Bill at wallingford wrote me back about my B67. I might just be too lopsided for springs. So I gotta decide, keep it another month just in case it clears up, trade for a B17S, or trade for a B72.

I will stick with Brooks.

[mimitabby]

Knotted maybe you should try another saddle with springs? (like mine on saturday) just to see??

[Kitsune06]

Ugh. Shart-attack.

So I'm feeling flat spaces in my Brooks where it's breaking in but it's almost an inch from either edge of the saddle. Maybe my measurements were wrong and I don't need the S.

Lise... Things will happen when they're meant to... it just means taking some risks and letting it play out. I met my GF at a concert... we never said a word to one another, I just danced with her and things fell into place.

...oddly... but they fell into place. Nothing is easy, but things happen when they're meant to, I think. I'll send you and Trek my luck, because I don't need it anymore. =)

[maillotpois]

Yay for Fish. Now Roux needs to get better....

Lise - no riding for 4 more months. The bike fit was just to make sure my new bike fits right (make sure we order the right specs) and adjust my existing bike. Well, one of them, at least! :p Anyway, it was amazing - the guy was the head trainer for Serotta's fit department, and I spent 2 1/2 hours there. I felt a little lame saying, No I really don't have any nagging pain when I ride aside from some mild low back pain. So I didn't expect him to do much to my bike. Turned out my seat was way high and back, and when it was all said and done, my hip flexors are opened up, my hamstrings working right. He even moved my cleats and changed out my stem. Incredible. I didn't even tell him I had been having breathing problems, but he said that with my position the way it was, I was bending my back at the waist instead of the hips and that opens up my chest in an amazing way. I can't wait to put the bike on the trainer and ride! (Wish I could go outside... :mad: )

That WI dude is a puzzler. Sorry. I have to say I know probably 3 - 4 people who've found wonderful matches on Match. I think luck and timing are key. Hang in there.

Nanci - OMG what a bunch of LOSERS!!! Especially the poopy one! :eek:

[maillotpois]

So after my bike fit, I come home to find a package of something I'd ordered and been waiting for had been delivered. Yay!

Then... the mail comes and here's Salsa's great book which I now get to take and read on my trip! (Remember the book we were going to pass amongst ourselves at TD?) Yay! Very excited. She also gave us a geode she found on a hike, which is really beautiful, and my daughter the total rock hound was so excited to see it. It's on the "fragile" shelf now next to the other cool rocks and shells we've collected.

Thanks Salsa!!!

So who gets the book when I am done with it.... :rolleyes:

[mimitabby]

which book is it?

[Nanci]

My little sweetheart ate his first frozen-thawed pinkie for me tonight! I put him in a feeding container (disposeable tupperware-like thing with holes punched in it- he has to eat in there, not in his viv, so he doesn't accidentally eat substrate) and he was eating within five minutes!! What a perfect baby!

[Lise]

Nanci, you've induced a feeling of affection for snakes that I've never before experienced. That Choco is one little sweetie pie! :D

[mimitabby]

Am I correct that the "pinky" was a frozen dead mouse?

ahem...

I didn't get to ride today and won't get to ride tomorrow. I feel my muscles seizing up!!

[Lise]

Am I correct that the "pinky" was a frozen dead mouse?

Not only that, but I thought it was cute! That Nanci is one powerful persuader!

Don't think of it as muscles seizing up, but ... um ... recovery! Muscles get stronger during recovery! :D

[DrBee]

Good golly Nanci - those were some wacky dates! Super good to hear Choco is eating already! That's a great sign!

Lise - I keep telling you - the right one is out there for you somewhere. He might be on Match or he might not. However - you will find each other eventually! Patience is key.

Lise - the dixie chicks reference is not about the band, but is a less than complementary remark about a select group of women in my town that are desperately fighting aging with big hair and little clothes.

MP - I'm looking forward to the trainer report. Keep up those good thoughts for Roux. He seems to have plateau'd a bit. We'll see what the doc says tomorrow (hopefully).

We've signed the contract! Whew! Major relief! Next step - find a house to buy! I'll post pics when I get them.

I'll take the book. You know - I have nothing else to do, right? It might be a good distraction. At least I don't have to pack anything!

[maillotpois]

which book is it?

Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger

[maillotpois]

I'll take the book. You know - I have nothing else to do, right? It might be a good distraction. At least I don't have to pack anything!


Okay, you get the book next. It will be a couple weeks before I'm done, since we'll be on our trip. Just email me an address to send it to - but maybe you should wait til I am for sure done. I wouldn't want to mail it to the wrong state... :cool:

[betagirl]

Nothing like a 14 hour day at school.....I'm tired. Will catch up on TD tomorrow a.m.

Nite ladies.

ps - I'm really intrigued about the "weird starbucks guy" :)

[Trek420]

Kitsune06 "I'll send you and Trek my luck, because I don't need it anymore. =)"

I'll take it and pass it on when done. We could circulate Kits luck throughout TE TD, like the books :)

[Pax]

Evening all (or night as the time zone may be :D ). Almost completely done packing!!! Movers here next Tuesday so planning some fun stuff until they show...riding, motorcycling, side trips, shopping... This whole "being off work and not having started my new job yet" is just awesome! :p

[Kitsune06]

Trek- I'm going to keep a little bit for my interview tomorrow, but it'll go back into the 'Kitsu Luck' bag when I'm done... 11:30 tomorrow morning. I've been running around in circles all day making sure my resume looks good, pressing my suit, doing laundry, freaking out, going over interview questions, etc. Now I'm going to make a hurricane and settle down. *sigh!*

[salsabike]

Choco is a GOOD boy for eating his pinkie and also a CLEVER boy with his finger-hanging. I was telling my animal-rescuer neighbor tonight about Choco. This neighbor, a person I just love, has 10 rescue cats, 4 ditto miniature greyhounds, quail babies, chickens, roosters, bunnies, and a couple of rats she trapped and then felt bad for, so she built them their own three-story dollhouse. Heart as big as______fill in your favorite huge place-name. She heard all about Maizey last week from me. Tonight I was trying to talk her into getting a snake. She thought it was way cool that Choco had his own little pond to swim in.

Love that cavalade of dates from Nanci. Good God. Want to know more about the boring movie guy and the weird Starbuck's guy, too.

Never give up, Lise--remember I met Mr. Salsa after two pretty serious relationships went EVER so south, and married him when I was 37. Can happen anytime, especially when you think it won't.

I can't imagine why people complain about the USPS--they move the mail really fast and pretty reliably. It only took a day for that TD book to get to Maillotpois. I am impressed. And I love how much kids love rocks---ALL kids, boys and girls, are just totally fascinated. There's a local geologist who does family rock-hunting trips (Mr. Salsa and I have gone on a bunch of his collecting trips) and the kids just have a total blast.

Fish, I expect honeybee work is really important, isn't it? Haven't the numbers of them gone way down?

I certainly hope everyone saw the picture of Vino on today's Vuelta thread. I think he's cool.

[winddance]

I'm meeting a guy at Starbucks tomorrow. Now I'm all put off...!

[Nanci]

I hope it's not the same one! He looked and sounded sort of like a rabbit. I think he was a pet-sitter- probably what attracted me to him.

Boring movie guy was just some very uninteresting executive-type guy. We had absolutely nothing in common.

Choco's pinkie was really unidentifiable- just kind of a red blob, but he knew what to do with it.

There's this whole thread on the snake forum about getting snakes that aren't feeding to start feeding by washing their food in Ivory soap. Apparently it has worked for a bunch of people, and others are reading about it and trying it, and it's working for them, too. How strange.

I love rocks, too. There were lots of smallish fossils where I grew up in MN. I took geology in college, and we went on lots of field trips. The rock test was hard!! When I was a kid, my dad got me a rock polisher. It was fun. Not such great rocks down here that I've noticed, but there are shells.

Just over a week till Six Gap! That's going to be a great ride. I wonder how it will compare to last year. I'm way more in shape. But I still suck at hills. But I will have a bolero to wear so I don't freeze! Not sure about the sandals, yet. It could be my first ride of the season with shoes...Hope the expo is good.

[DebW]

Knotted, we need a UPS report. Where is the bike now? Is it coming to you or your LBS?


Trek- I'm going to keep a little bit for my interview tomorrow, but it'll go back into the 'Kitsu Luck' bag when I'm done... 11:30 tomorrow morning. I've been running around in circles all day making sure my resume looks good, pressing my suit, doing laundry, freaking out, going over interview questions, etc. Now I'm going to make a hurricane and settle down. *sigh!*

Kit, you're starting to sound like Knotted with the running in circles stuff. Have you heard results from the previous interviews? Good luck.

BTW, if you do make a hurricane, be careful where you send it. The Gulf coast had enough last year. Or is there some non-meteorological hurricane that I'm not familiar with?

Queen and Fish, good luck with the moving and house hunting.

[Lise]

I second the emotions of Deb W above!

I believe Kit is referring to a Hurricane of the alcoholic variety, as referenced by Alan Jackson in song: "Pooooour me something tall and strong, make it a Hurricane before I go insane, it's only half past twelve, but I don't care...it's 5:00 somewhere!" Jimmy Buffet chimes in on that one. Good luck on the interview, Kit.

Nanci, "looked and sounded like a rabbit". Oh my. Amazing that he had the courage to date.

Fish, I can't believe you sold your house on the first offer! Wonderful. :D

I need a freakin' snuggli for this cat, Isaac. He sleeps all curled up by my chest, usually in my arms, most of the night, and then comes and sits as close to my hands as possible when I'm typing. Won't sit in my lap. Needs to be near the keyboard. :rolleyes:

I'm off to run, and then ride my bike up about 10 miles north for brunch with my Mom. It's surprising dark out at 6:25 AM. Change of seasons creeps up on me. I do love vacation. :D

[betagirl]

I'm off to run, and then ride my bike up about 10 miles north for brunch with my Mom. It's surprising dark out at 6:25 AM. Change of seasons creeps up on me. I do love vacation.

At least it seems that the rain is over. Only 5 days of it..... Have a nice brunch. Going anywhere that you'd recommend? I suspect it's not "the nugget" :)

I think I may be able to take Sloane out for a test ride today.

[Lise]

Certainly not the Nugget! :eek: We're meeting at Lucky Platter up in Evanston. Ever been there? It's a must-visit. Wierd, funky decor, and great food. On Main, just east of Chicago (which is Clark St. before it crosses the border).

Rain is over! Still grey, but they say it will clear up. I don't even care. It's just not raining. Have fun with Sloane. I'm still unclear on the freewheelfly thing. You can coast AND pedal? That seems good.

The run was short but fast. I just felt like running fast today. Which means that I also walked, panting, clutching the stitch in my side a couple of times. But then when I'd start running again, I'd run fast. So it goes. I'll have my usual slow but long run on Sat. :rolleyes:

This was fun: I live across the street from a grade school (that's 6 to 12 year olds for our non-US friends). As I ran up to the intersection, the little guy with the orange crossing guard belt stepped into the street and blocked traffic so I could safely cross. I gave him a big grin and a thank you. :D I was once a crossing guard, and I, too, took my civic duty very seriously.

Now I get to ride my bike! Have a great day, everyone!

[betagirl]

We're meeting at Lucky Platter up in Evanston. Ever been there? It's a must-visit. Wierd, funky decor, and great food. On Main, just east of Chicago (which is Clark St. before it crosses the border).

I have not been. I'll put it on my places to go. Evanston is fun.

Ok, let me see if I can explain Sloane better :) Sorry I've made it so confoosing.

Rear wheel: Currently installed is a "fixed gear" cog on a flip/flop hub. 18 teeth, only one row. With this installed, when the rear wheel rotates, so do the pedals. So you can't coast.
http://harriscyclery.net/merchant/370/images/large/FW6880.jpg

You can install a single speed "freewheel" cog, which is much like the fixed cog but has a mechanism that lets the rear wheel spin without making the pedals spin. With this installed, the pedal rotation isn't forced by the rear wheel, so you can coast.
http://harriscyclery.net/merchant/370/images/large/white-freewheel.jpg

Much like what's on your Bianchi but you have multiple gears.

My original explanation was pretty stupid. I must have been drunk or something.

Enjoy your bike ride! Looks like the clouds are breaking up out here in OP. I think I may actually see the sun poking through ....what...is...that...glowing...orb?

[Lise]

Oh, I don't know that it was a failure of explanation on your part. I'm pretty much of a doof when it comes to mechanical things. I'm not sure it can be called a "skill" to consistently put things together backwards... Thanks for the explanation with pictures. I do better with pictures. It must be that I only have one master's degree, unlike some highly educated people we know! :p

The sky is getting lighter, brighter, you can actually see things, what's happening? Glowing Orb, we sing you songs of praise!

I am reading Karen Armstrong's new book, The Great Transformation. It's about the Axial Age, in which the world's major religions developed. Fascinating. I am so glad Karen Armstrong is here on the planet. That woman can WRITE. :D

[DebW]

Beta, I was going to have a heart attack for you if you were really going to ride that 13 tooth DuraAce cog. But yours is an 18. *wipes brow in relief* Do you have a puller for that freewheel cog? Looks different from any of the 5 or 6 freewheel pullers that I have, but my Regina 2-notch might work if the diameter is right. Have fun with Sloane. We want a full report. I'm still trying to imagine how you stop and get a foot on the ground. Scenario 1: unclip one foot while pedals move, stand on one clipped-in foot while pedals are moving, put other foot down as bike comes to almost stop, moving pedal smacks you in the ankle, you scream in pain and collapse. Scenario 2: You can't take feet from pedals until you are at a dead stop, since you need both feet to slow rear wheel, so you learn to unclip very fast. Scenario 3: trackstand. I'm sure you'll work it out (hopefully without the scream and collapse scenario) and learn quickly. Reminds me of the time I rode my bike with a backpack and sleeping bag tied below it. After I got started I realized that the sleeping bag hung so low that I couldn't move my butt forward off the seat when I wanted to stop. So I rode up next to a brick wall and leaned against it as I stopped.

[mimitabby]

Deb so why is the 18 better than the 13??

All you folks are so happy because the rain stopped. Well, it rained hard all night long here. I drove my car to work and skidded once (oo, i was glad it wasn't the on the bike)

I'm afraid that the rain just might stay... and that will be the end of our lovely summer season..

It seems like a good day for Knotted's bike to come.


my two new kittens are so very very very shy. You could go in their room
and never know there were cats there.

They are gentle enough to not bite or scratch, but are terrified of being SEEN.
Their mama taught them very well.

[KnottedYet]

Knotted, we need a UPS report. Where is the bike now? Is it coming to you or your LBS?



Kit, you're starting to sound like Knotted with the running in circles stuff.



"when in danger
or in doubt,
run in circles
scream and shout."

Words to live by....

My newly-beloved is on a truck somewhere between Chicago and Seattle. She was transferred to the truck from the Chicago FedEx depot on Tuesday morning, and is supposed to be at my apartment tomorrow.

I might try to put her back together myself. My only real worry is putting on the quill stem. (well, it is ME afterall, so there are several worries! But that's the only real one. The rest are mere hysteria.)

When I have a spare moment (!) I will take her to LBS to figure out what parts I need to order to change her over to a compact double so I have a snowball's chance in h#ll of getting up some of the hills around here. (and if I can't figure out how to put her back together with the help of Park Tools' book, they will put her together for me too.)

Then I will take my bits and pieces off my commutermobile and switch it over to SKnot. Who I swear has grown again in the last week.

[DebW]

Deb so why is the 18 better than the 13??

A 13 would give her a very high gear (depending on the chainring size, which I think was around 47 or 48). With that as the only gear, she'd be fine on steep downhills, killing herself on flats, and her quads would combust on the uphills. But she would be fast. She'd be forced to ride at about 32 mph all the time. An 18T cog would be a gear that's normal for flats, so forced to hammer on uphills and spin like mad on downhills, but all within reason.

[mimitabby]

32 mph?? seriously? wow. thank you.

it took one of my coworkers 1 hour and 40 minutes to go 33 miles.
Because IT RAINED....ah yes, the joys of Seattle.

[KnottedYet]

It would take me that long just because I'm ME!

(actually, I think it would take me longer)

[bikerz]

I am reading Karen Armstrong's new book, The Great Transformation. It's about the Axial Age, in which the world's major religions developed. Fascinating. I am so glad Karen Armstrong is here on the planet. That woman can WRITE. :D
Ditto! I have enjoyed her other books very much and The Great Transformation is next on my list to buy (but not until I make a dent in the huge stack of books I still have to get through!) I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it!

[DebW]

32 mph?? seriously? wow. thank you.

Actually, I exagerated. Now that I calculate it, a 47Tx13T at 90 rpm gives 27 mph, or 21 mph at 70 rpm. Beta "she who rides with Lance" could do that. Not me, however.

[snapdragen]

OK, tell me what y'all think.

Backstory: Currently my title is IST (Info Systems Technician). I've been talking with an analyst in my department about getting some backup help. He presented our ideas to my manager.
Her reply: "We should have enough people with Janet, her IST and Bill to have enough backup."

If I'm going to have an IST working for me, does that sound like my promotion is finally going through? I'm afraid to get my hopes up.

Cross those fingers and toes, Kit send some luck my way!

[margo49]

Oh, I
I am reading Karen Armstrong's new book, The Great Transformation. It's about the Axial Age, in which the world's major religions developed. Fascinating. I am so glad Karen Armstrong is here on the planet. That woman can WRITE. :D

I am struggling with it. Bought it a while ago (think I mentioned it here) and just can't get into it. Only up to page 70 and that has taken ages. Hasn't caught my fancy yet.
Read History of God no trouble and Mohammed too.
Since it is nearly Ramadan (not to mention Rosh HaShana,etc) I am re-reading Mohammed.

[Lise]

Good luck, snap!!!

Knotted, I salute you for even thinking of putting the bike together yourself. I know people can. I just wouldn't trust myself. Maybe I would do it and take to the LBS to have them double check it. What a fun adventure you're about to begin!

Margo, Z, I'm glad to find other fans of Karen Armstrong. I loved her book about Muhammad. Much more fun to read than her history of Islam, since it was the story of a very interesting man and his family. Great idea to reread it for Ramadan. The *only* book of hers that I didn't like all that much was the "short history of Islam". I know she was commissioned to write it as part of a series, and it felt too constrained for her style. I wish she'd write a book about the wide variety of modern Islam.

I'm at page 76 of TGT. I mostly read before I go to sleep, so I can read a couple of paragraphs and find it very satisfying. I am really interested in the way people search for, understand, and celebrate the holy in their lives.
........................
mimi--kitties! If they'll show themselves long enough, will you post a picture? :D
........................
PS, Margo, have you tried KA's Jerusalem? It was the first of hers that I read, and remains one of my favorites.

[bikerz]

Margo, have you tried KA's Jerusalem? It was the first of hers that I read, and remains one of my favorites.
I also loved her Biography of Buddha

[DebW]

My company's seasonal forecasting guru predicts 2-3 degrees above normal this winter in the upper midwest. You Chicago ladies could be in for a warmish winter with average precip. About normal in the northeast. Above normal precip in the south. His forecasts are based on Eurasian snowcover in July modulated by el Nino when it comes. We are supposed to get an el Nino soon, but it won't affect winter US temps much this year.

Right now I'm looking at the interannual variability of stratospheric downwelling at 60N, 25 km altitude. 1963 is huge, probably due to the eruption of Mt. Agung. Can't really predict the atmosphere too well until we can predict explosive volcanic eruptions. Luckily they only come about once every 10 years.

[Trek420]

I'm reading "The Jew in the Lotust; A Poets Rediscovery of Jewish Identity in Buddhist India by Rodger Kamenetz now, mostly on BART each day.

[Kitsune06]

gonna need my luck all day today. I came home all excited that my interview went well, and DGF said "Great! You have another one at 4. =) 2nd interview at internet marketing place. W00t!

[chickwhorips]

snap this is for you my bear encounter (http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?p=122641#post122641).

i'll catch up on TD in a bit, just still a bit nerve recked from what happened.

[mimitabby]

you are amazing chick.
i read your account. MAN.
how many hours of light do you have in the winter? we have 8 and they're not like bright sunny 8 hours most the time it's pretty dim here.

[chickwhorips]

MP - it wasn't the avian flu just something i ate, thankfully. feel better now.

knotted - the bike will be there soon... don't worry.

fish - congrats!

nanci - glad the new addition is doing well and eating

lise - good luck with dating.

kit - good luck also!

(i can't share my luck, i think i used all of it up already)

mimi - we have about 7 hours of sunlight in the winter, if we see it. i'm pretty far south. and i wouldn't exactly say amazing, crazy yes, but amazing not so sure.

[Kitsune06]

CWR- You're crazy. Completely insane- and so, so awesome. You rock. I'm so glad you're okay.

on the interview-
got another call re: the one this afternoon- turned out to be for a position I *didn't* want, so I'm in fuzzy socks and PJs now, with hot tea and rain outside... I think my interview went really well- I can expect to be called for a 2nd interview, where I get finger printed and have to do my fed. background check... :rolleyes: but the guy said he really liked what he saw, and that he had all confidence that I could do very well in said position, so that bode well.

I think luck is more like a muscle than a quantifiable thing. It does best when used so-an-so often, and can really benefit from being given a run for its money... :D

...or that's what I tell myself.
That means, CWR, that you are now luckier than you've been in awhile. =) go buy a lottery ticket. ;)

[chickwhorips]

good point about the lotto ticket, one problem. can't do that around here either. i really should go into buisness for myself here. i could sell so many things....

[salsabike]

Okay then.

Y'all may remember that in addition to the Mom stuff, we are undergoing a major house expansion. The roof was scheduled to start coming off today and we had to be out till next Friday when the new roof would be done (we hope). So we made Hilton reservations because Mr. Salsa had Hilton points from previous work trips. The last week was spent frantically getting everything into the basement where we will be living for the several months it'll take to do all the inside work. Every day, also, I spend hours on the phone with my sister, friends back East, rehab staff, re my mom. Arguing with contractor about securing the house while we're going (okay solution but only after much stress). SOOOOOO....I woke up this morning, all packed for hotel stay, at 5 am in the basement bedroom, hearing the rain Mimi mentioned above. Got up to go to the bathroom and stepped in a BIG pond of rainwater. The new construction wasn't sealed off yet and the rain just poured in between the old and the new right through the basement walls and flooded the floors. Short version---water damage assessor says that contractor's responses for drying it up made sense and we won't have any major damage. All after more big stress, rushing to work to meet with various kids' parents, etc.

HOWEVER. I am now firmly ensconced in a local Hilton (Mimi, this will amuse you--it's RIGHT next to Paine Field. Think Boeing, you guys. Gotta like the frequent sound of small aircraft coming and going). I AM SO THRILLED TO BE HERE. Room service, can't go back to house to worry, cats boarded at great neighborhood cattery, Mom not having acute medical crises this week for first time since August 1, new Myron Bolitar novel (he's such a smart-***). Halibut for dinner. I'm so happy to be in this hotel I can hardly stand it.

Rock hunting is the most fun. You get to scrabble in the dirt in the desert or the mountains, and find really beautiful stuff. My favorite so far--topaz and fossil hunting in Utah desert. Second: thundereggs in central Oregon, which must have millions of them. We have a rock saw and a polisher. Love it.

Lise, my Siamese cat Beeper MUST ALWAYS sit between me and the keyboard, and moans lugubriously at me if I jostle her trying to type.

Mimi, do post kitten pics when they finally emerge. Poor babies.

This is the second time Karen A's books have come up here and it's interesting to see how many of us are reading/have read something by her. She's filling a real need and niche, apparently.

6 Gaps ride? I will look for it online.

Thinkin' we may have to wait till October to see Knotted ride her new bike on the NW TE ride. But beer this Saturday should help her a little, anyway.

[snapdragen]

I am short.

All my adult life I've thought I was 5' 6". Today I went in for a bone density test, they measured me - I'm 5' 5 1/2". Wonder if I'm shrinking....:eek:

[DirtDiva]

Could be worse - some of us are 5'3" and most assuredly have not started shrinking yet. :p

[Nanci]

I'm 5'2" if I stand really straight. You're tall to me, Snap.

Best rock hunting is for agates, etc. on the shore of Lake Superior.

[Nanci]

But as a kid, I always went on field trips to the "brick yard" where there would be tons of fossils. I couldn't believe they just left that stuff laying around!

[DebW]

All my adult life I've thought I was 5' 6". Today I went in for a bone density test, they measured me - I'm 5' 5 1/2". Wonder if I'm shrinking....:eek:

I always though I was 5' 6" also. Actually 5' 6 1/4" I believe. But my last few physicals they've measured me at 5' 7". Weird. Inverse osteoporosis?

[betagirl]

Beta, I was going to have a heart attack for you if you were really going to ride that 13 tooth DuraAce cog. But yours is an 18. *wipes brow in relief* Do you have a puller for that freewheel cog? Looks different from any of the 5 or 6 freewheel pullers that I have, but my Regina 2-notch might work if the diameter is right. Have fun with Sloane. We want a full report...

Yeah, a 13 would be bad. I'll have a 48/18 setup as you thought. I didn't get to test ride her yesterday and won't be able to today *sniff* :( Too busy with the research gig. Tomorrow definitely! As for stopping/starting, I'm sure it'll be interesting to figure it all out. I'll try to keep the bruises to a minimum. Oh and those pics I swiped off the web, they're not my actual cogs. I was too lazy to take pictures :)

Thanks for that weather report for winter. It's funny as it's the opposite of what they're saying around here.

CWR: WOW! That's a story you'll be telling for a long time.

Fish: congrats from me as well!

Salsa: ew, sorry about the H2O. Gotta love those hotel points :D


Could be worse - some of us are 5'3" and most assuredly have not started s

Hey you shorter ladies have it made with shoes/heels :D Am I the only one that's happy to see the heel heights coming down a bit?

I'm now 5'9. I used to be 5'10 1/2. So I have started shrinking. Which is uber-lame because I'm 30. I also have osteopenia in my hips. When I learned that I was like WTF? I had this screening thing done where you stick your heel into this contraption and it spits out some z-scores. This 70 year old woman (or close to it) went before me, she was fine. So I figured I was in like Flynn. No. "You need a DEXA scan...." A who? Learned later that Crohn's disease not only eats your intestines but it sometimes likes to go after your bones as well. Fantastic!

As for reading, my friend gave me "Who Moved My Blackberry" to read yesterday. I need something humorous right now to offset the piles of reading I have for school. I haven't read the books mentioned, but have them on my "to read" list.

Mmmmmm Hurricaine's....

[Lise]

salsa, I can't even imagine the kind of renovations you guys have going on. Hilton it is!

beta, that is "uber-lame" (great term) about the Crohn's eating your bones as well. I did not know. My cousin and a couple of friends over the years have had Crohn's, so I've learned bits and pieces. I hope you got to ride into town today, even if it's not on Sloane yet.

I'm 5'8", and sometimes feel abnormally tall. (I think) I'd really like to be 5'5" with a size 7 shoe. My real shoe size is 9.5-10. I just feel very large sometimes. My femurs are on the longish side for a woman, I've been told at the LBS, which maybe part of why I enjoy cycling so much. But then there's yellow, and Nanci, and RunningMommy, who are all shorter than I, and bike much farther!

I'm off to ride in this gorgeous, rain-free day. :D

[Veronica]

Revel in being tall!

I'm 5'4" and 3/4, usually just rounded to 5'5", with shoe size 9 - 9.5. I think I was meant to be taller, but my bones got compressed. :D That's why I'm sturdy.

V.

[Nanci]

Holy you know what!! It just cost me $37 to send my August SS package, because it was over four pounds...

[Trek420]

Throw your shoulders back and enjoy being tall! Oh to be able to reach the top shelf :)

I'm 5'1" sis Duck on Wheels is about 5'10" :( It's just not fair. :rolleyes:

[Nanci]

My work sucks so much today I almost started crying a minute ago...

[LynneK]

Finally, a gorgeous day here in Chicago, and Lise and I just went for a 30-mi bike ride along the lake. What a blast! Now off to work ... and ya gotta work later when you don't start 'til 10:30! But it was sure worth it.

[Lise]

My work sucks so much today I almost started crying a minute ago...
Do your TE/TD comadres need to come down to Florida and straighten somebody out for you? :mad: The birds could peck them, the snakes could hiss at them and the torts...well, maybe not much threatening from the torts. :rolleyes:

What's making it suck so bad today? L.

[Lise]

Finally, a gorgeous day here in Chicago, and Lise and I just went for a 30-mi bike ride along the lake. What a blast! Now off to work ... and ya gotta work later when you don't start 'til 10:30! But it was sure worth it.
Like Lynne said! :D We had a great time, and Lynne can really ride! What a beautiful day. Lynne taught me something very helpful about riding through a sand patch. Since we're riding on a path along the lake, the wind often picks up a bit of beach and deposits it on the path. I usually slow waaay down and find the least sandy patch to ride through. We were going along at a consistent clip today, and I had moments of gut-clenching fear as we approached sand. Me: "ungh! agh-ungh! Sand! I hate sand!"

Lynne taught me to shove my butt backwards off the saddle to shift my center of gravity and be more stable. Helped a lot. I still get that clench in my gut, but I have something to do about it. I just see the whole wipe-out in my mind's eye as I approach the sand. It's as if I can feel my bike going out from under me, even though I'm fine. Makes me want to brake and tighten up, the worst things to do.

So, thanks again, Lynne, for the great ride, fun triathlon talk, and teaching me a sand coping technique! :D

My geriatric (in age, if not attitude) cats are waging WWIII on the dining room carpet. In slow motion. Lots of puffing and hissing, wrassling around, and then...it's over! :p Happy day.

[LynneK]

So, thanks again, Lynne, for the great ride, fun triathlon talk, and teaching me a sand coping technique! :D

Back atcha! I'm glad that my meager mountain biking skills are coming in handy ;) .

OK, back to my conference call ...

[Kitsune06]

I love puffy tailed wrasslin'. My mom would always get so upset over cat-fights (as if they're going to seriously hurt each other? Mom! They cuddle together every day!)
and they'd look at her like "What?" shake out a couple puffs of lost fur and be on their way...

I feel short. I'm 5'5. I wear size 9 shoes and invariably 'medium' or ladies' large gloves. Well... you know what they say about ladies with big hands.
...yeah, that's right, they have big feet, too. :D


DGF is 5'8" and easily looks down on me (unless I'm wearing my work boots) and at least looks 'right' with bigger shoes and bigger gloves. blah. hooray for having a 'sturdy' build. :rolleyes: I prefer to call it 'compact' ;)

[snapdragen]

Yeah, I know I'n not really that short.

Now my niece has to s t r e t c h to be 5 feet, and she just glares at her 6'4" brother.....

I have to go get a blood test, think I'll treat myself to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch after.

[mimitabby]

I'll post some kitten pictures this weekend. They are still mostly invisible, but they are getting a little lazier about it. I went into their room this morning and trot trot trot I saw Jimmy making for a hiding place... He hid in the small trash can (on its side) it was so cute. I made a big fuss over his brilliant hideout.


I am a TALL 5'3.5" with tiny little feet (size 8 to 9 depending on shoe)
I tower over my mother and sister (and both grandmothers while they were still living) and all of my cousins.
I married a guy from a family populated by people about the same size. then i couldn't figure out why my own sons are also big tall guys, 5'6.5" and 5'9"

at my age, i am a bit worried about the big O too (osteoporosis) but
haven't been checked since a few years back when they told me my bones weren't as good as those of a 14 year old girl. Well, no kidding, i was in my late 40's!

it's scary when you look inside yourself and your bones are more transparent than you thought!

[chickwhorips]

i love my height!

i tried to get away with 5'4 for a while, then came to terms with how tall i was and love it. so i say i'm 5'3, but when i went to the clinic and she measured me i'm really 5'2 1/2. :eek: i'm 25, i don't think i'm shrinking yet.

i wear a size 6-7 in shoes and a small in gloves if not xsmall. i can never find the right gloves that i need.

[Kitsune06]

At least you're proportionate... but I can't get over how you think a 20g has 'no kick'. You're made of sturder stuff than I, Chica.

[chickwhorips]

At least you're proportionate... but I can't get over how you think a 20g has 'no kick'. You're made of sturder stuff than I, Chica.

this is true. i love the shape of my body too. short and stubby, that's how i describe myself.

heck after shooting slugs through a 12g nothing has a kick! plus i usually have a ton of layers on when i shoot.

[chickwhorips]

Holy you know what!! It just cost me $37 to send my August SS package, because it was over four pounds...

oh oh oh!!!! as a postie i recommend the flat rate boxes (http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductCategoryDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=13359&langId=-1&parent_category_rn=11820&top_category=11820), they come in two sizes. they are a godsend to us up here for shipping. no matter how heavy they are, they are always $8.10 (unless you add insurance, delivary confirmation or anything like that). down side is that its only in the states, not internationally.

hope work is going better for you. :)

[mimitabby]

this is true. i love the shape of my body too. short and stubby, that's how i describe myself.

heck after shooting slugs through a 12g nothing has a kick! plus i usually have a ton of layers on when i shoot.

Nice to hear that I am not the only person here happy with what I was born with... and thrilled with what i have recently done to improve it (leg muscles from riding bike!)

[LynneK]

Nice to hear that I am not the only person here happy with what I was born with... and thrilled with what i have recently done to improve it (leg muscles from riding bike!)

At 5'3" with a 28" inseam, I only wish my legs were a couple of inches longer so I had a longer lever to give me more power! And so I didn't have such a hard time with bike fit :) .

[Nanci]

CWR, it had to go to freaking AUSTRALIA!!! So I had figured out that GLobal Priority was $18, ok, but then it was over 4#, because I put in too much cool stuff, and I could have sent it by the slow method, which would take 4-6 weeks!!!!!!!!!! and it was already over a month late...Air mail will get it there in two weeks.

[DebW]

Knotted, Knotted, wwhheerree aarree yyoouu? Did the bike come yet?

[chickwhorips]

its the international mail that always gets you. i sent out a couple packages and they get you on shipping, but the express and the priority mail is worth it to know you put a smile on someone's face!

that and i know how loooooooooooong it takes for "standard" mail to get anywhere.

[Lise]

CWR, it had to go to freaking AUSTRALIA!!! So I had figured out that GLobal Priority was $18, ok, but then it was over 4#, because I put in too much cool stuff, and I could have sent it by the slow method, which would take 4-6 weeks!!!!!!!!!! and it was already over a month late...Air mail will get it there in two weeks.
I had the same shocking experience when I sent some bars & bloks to CrazyCanuk. Over 4# was hideously more expensive. :eek:

I love my long legs.

Nanci, did work get better?

[Nanci]

No, work did not get better. You know what, if you're sick enough to be in the hospital, and your doctor orders a study for you, and you want to find out what's wrong, buck up and cooperate. Otherwise, you're wasting four hours of my time and I could be doing four other patients that _want_ to have a time slot. Maybe they need my study to be able to eat, or have their surgery or whatever. So some axxhole tech I'm working with, after I try to explain to surgical intensive care that I need their patient at 2PM exactly, not "around 2:00" because I have four _more_ patients to do after that, and a waiting list, and SICU hangs up on me, and I say "I hate people," says "You're not very compassionate, I don't know why you do this job." Well, Mr. Expert, because I picked it out of thin air because my cousin was doing it, that's why, if you want to know the truth. But I do love helping people, who _want_ my help. (This prompted the bathroom trip/commiseration with communicative disorders friend, still at home, trying not to burst into tears so I could semi-continue to do my job...

I can't wait to get my new love, Choco, out after dinner. He's had a day to digest. He can come out now. I have a crush on him, too. Had Maizey out for TV last night.

Anyway, I don't think my SS reads this thread, so she can't hear me *****ing about the cost of sending her things.

Wine leftover night...On the menu, Covey Run Chard, Estancia Zin (I'm so done with red Zin) maybe a glass of that super-sweet whatever it is dessert wine from Oz and possibly opening the Barefoot Sauv Blanc. I bought 11 bottles of wine this afternoon for $70- that's where my budget's at right now...But that's ok- I have a lot of cheap ones that I love! Especially the Kim Crawford Pansey Rose from a few nights ago. New Zealand.

[Lise]

Oh, Nanci, you should hear me talk sometimes, in the privacy of "just us" with other midwives. I get it. Your job is really hard. Those four people behind the SICU patient didn't deserve to be pushed back. Hope the combo of Choco + wine eases the rough edges tonight.

And it's the weekend! Are you off? Any good riding planned?
.........................
And now, from the "in my own back yard the whole time" files:

I put my WTB Comfort V saddle on the Green Hornet tonight and went for a quick spin. My pubic bone is still sore from this morning's 30 miles on the WTB Deva, so I can't say for sure, but dang, my beloved saddle felt comfortable. I've loved it on the Larkspur, but thought it would be too wide (or something) for the Bianchi.

I realized that I've been shoving myself back as far as possible and sort of holding myself up so I wouldn't rest on the nose. Hence the elbow tendonitis? Who knows. But when I let myself gingerly rest my pubic bone on the nose of the saddle, it felt OK. Sore, as I said, but not OW!

I need to heal up the soreness from this morning and give the Comfort V a good long trial, including in the aero bars. I do find it a bit "uncool" to have a wide, well-padded saddle with the word "Comfort" all over it on my sleek racing bike. :o Most racing saddles look so hard and sleek and tough. I guess my girly bits are pretty femmey. :p Won't I be so happy, though, if the saddle I love was the saddle I already owned?

I put the Bianchi's Serfas saddle on the Larkspur. I only ride the Larkspur to work (3 mi) anymore, or for errands when I really need panniers. I think the Serfas will be fine. And if not, heck, I'll buy a second Comfort V! :D

[snapdragen]

Me too Lise, long legs are great, until you go jeans shopping. Although lately they seem to be making them longer. Yay! My best friend and I used to get teased about our long legs "When they raise their arms to spray on deodorant, their hips get wet" Patti's legs are longer than mine, I think she might be a bit taller too.

Nanci - we need a video of Chaco swimming!

I got my new, very cool, sorta edgy glasses today. The prescription if off though, so I have to go back next week. Boo.

I love the spell checker - I saves me so much embarrassment!

[winddance]

Nanci, I think I met a different guy at Starbucks than you did!

So Starbucks Guy is a cyclist. He's also kind of...vain. However, we actually have some stuff in common and we talked for almost 2 hours without the conversation dying.

I'm not like, all a-flutter or anything, but he wants to do dinner. I suppose that can happen.

My dates are not nearly as interesting as Lise's...

[maillotpois]

My long legs mean I actually ride a size 53 bike!! Who knew?? I'm 5'7" or 8". Crazy.

[Trek420]

DebW "Knotted, Knotted, wwhheerree aarree yyoouu? Did the bike come yet?"

I don't see her, could be she's in the honeymoon period with her bike. We might not see her for weeks :p

[Lise]

My dates are not nearly as interesting as Lise's...
Oh, I don't know. Interesting is not all it's cracked up to be. So far! :p

Two prospects out there--one who's a 51 year old widower with a 13 year old daughter, and writes thoughtful, articulate emails. The other from "BadBoyTony", a 41 year old who wrote a complimentary email in which he used both "you're" and "your" correctly. At least I could go on some dates and use some of these cute outfits!

Let us know how dinner goes!

[SadieKate]

. . . in which he used both "you're" and "your" correctly. OMG, have we found a keeper? :D

[Lise]

OMG, have we found a keeper? :D
I'm just sayin'...I noted it! :rolleyes:

[winddance]

That is one thing that makes me completely discount a guy without reading any further. Same with using net abbreviations, such as "how r u?" or something similar.

If they're in such a hurry that they can't type four more letters, they obviously don't have the time to put any thought or energy into a relationship. Next!

[Lise]

That is one thing that makes me completely discount a guy without reading any further. Same with using net abbreviations, such as "how r u?" or something similar.

If they're in such a hurry that they can't type four more letters, they obviously don't have the time to put any thought or energy into a relationship. Next!
Seriously. Or the guy who peppered his very short emails with "LOL". Are you really that amused by yourself? He seemed to be. This was Mario #1 (there were two of them). We had our one and only "date" at a Starbucks last December, when he seemed about to suggest that we go get a room somewhere. Ummm, no, thanks.

Another one is a man who writes all in capital letters. Or capitalizes nothing. If it's the only way we're communicating so far, it does matter how you write.

[SadieKate]

My dad sat in his wheel chair today out on the hospital patio and had a completely lucid and funny conversation about apostrophe(')s :p and "very" unique whatevers.

He even told the nurse who came in for his latest blood sugar test asking "Can I take some blood?" that she could "only if she said please." Given this improvement, the next time he'll tell her "I don't know, can you?" Guess you can tell he was an English teacher.

Very good day today. Getting rid of all the extra calcium running around in his body has done wonders. Yesterday was his first dose of Rituxan and tomorrow is the first chemo (CHOP). Here's hoping he tolerates it well.

[Veronica]

Oh, that's good news SK! My fingers are crossed that things keep heading up.

V.

[KnottedYet]

DebW "Knotted, Knotted, wwhheerree aarree yyoouu? Did the bike come yet?"

I don't see her, could be she's in the honeymoon period with her bike. We might not see her for weeks :p

I'm here, and so's the Waterford (Flosshilde)!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Delivered this afternoon. I took her out of the box thinking "oh, yeah, I can put her back together"

Hah!

Put all the big pieces on, then put her in the car and went to LBS (where the guys oohed and aaaahed). The dude helping me suggested I not change ANYTHING until I've ridden it a while. Even the compact crank I was planning! He thinks I'll be able to manage with the double on it now, considering the gears I use on my Kona.

This is the guy, who when I was trying to (mal)adjust the derailleur on my Kona told me I wasn't doing the wrong thing, I was "learning". Aw. Nice guy.

We oohed and aaahed over how light she is. I told him how my bike-goddess boss was telling me I was silly to buy a heavy steel bike. So he weighed it. 21.5 lbs. HAH! I'll be taking THAT little piece of trivia to work Monday!

The bars are 42cm, and I think I need 38cm. But I'll wait until I've ridden it a bit. The tape got ripped up quite a bit during shipping and is hanging in shreds here and there. I might replace that PDQ. Mmmm, black Cinelli cork...

[Lise]

I am so happy to hear it, SK. Making cranky, good natured jokes is a definite sign of improvement! Keep us posted. You're all in our thoughts. L.

[salsabike]

My dad sat in his wheel chair today out on the hospital patio and had a completely lucid and funny conversation about apostrophe(')s :p and "very" unique whatevers.

He even told the nurse who came in for his latest blood sugar test asking "Can I take some blood?" that she could "only if she said please." Given this improvement, the next time he'll tell her "I don't know, can you?" Guess you can tell he was an English teacher.

Very good day today. Getting rid of all the extra calcium running around in his body has done wonders. Yesterday was his first dose of Rituxan and tomorrow is the first chemo (CHOP). Here's hoping he tolerates it well.

How nice to hear good news on your dad, SK.

[KnottedYet]

Oh, that is good news, SK!

[SadieKate]

Thanks all. Should I tell you now that yawl provide good story material? :p

He'll like Lise's date potential comments based on proper grammar.

[maillotpois]

Wow - that is the best news EVER, SK!!! I'm so glad about your dad's improvement. I hope he goes home soon...

An English teacher? Well that explains a lot :rolleyes: .

[SadieKate]

Yes, I am the spawn of an English teacher and a Science teacher.

Mongo like Sheriff Bart . . .

[maillotpois]

Wow, that's like matter/anti-matter....

[KnottedYet]

I have degrees in both English and science. A volatile combination, indeed. I go around imploding and exploding all the time. Sometimes at the same time.

"Eats, shoots, and leaves." One brain cell notices the grammar, one brain cell thinks "hmm, which critter is that?" and the rest go out for a beer.

[snapdragen]

Good new SK - here's to cranky wise cracking dads.

Chloe did the cutest/funniest thing tonight. I've been finding chewed tomatoes on the back lawn, and figured it was squirrels trying to steal from our plants. So, Chloe is out cruising the yard; I'm watching from the window. She noses around some plant cuttings, then heads right into the tomato plants. Ah ha! I say, that's why she smells like tomato vine all the time. No sooner do I finish that thought, out she comes, with a big red tomato in her mouth! The beastie is picking tomatoes!!! If only I had my camera close by!

[Nanci]

Must be some pretty good tomatoes!!

Good Dad news, SK. I'm happy for you. And him.

Winddance, you reminded me of a guy that I left off the list. Cyclist, MTB and road, triathlete, a couple years older than me, attractive, clearly stated in his ad that he had herpes (but I had a GF whose DH had herpes for their entire relationship and she avoided it, so I was willing to consider that). So we go on a trial dinner the night before going MTBing. Everything seems fine. Next day, we met at his house for some reason. Actually, it was his landlord's house, who he rented a room from. The landlord was Jabba the Hut's twin. Went MTBing, I apparently didn't make a good showing (hey- I did my last long run before my first road marathon the day before- I was tired!!) and then at lunch committed the cardinal sin of drinking too much sweet tea. He never asked me out again. But continued to be a presence at every cycling event and tri event I did, because his thing was photography and videography. Strangely, this year, (I mentioned this when it happened, I think) I heard on the news an elementary school had been evacuated because the guy across the street was holding himself hostage threatening to kill himself- some 80 year old guy. They interview the son- and it's my ex-date. Father had been protesting a plan to put him in a home. Then, even more strange, a couple days later, Date is found dead. I never heard why, or if it was self-inflicted or natural.

I just heard a Podcast about how kids are now using text messaging acronyms such as LOL in speech and how that is causing the English language to change. "Oh em gee, when I went to get Choco out last night, he was swimming so fast it made me ell oh ell! I less than three him!" It apparently comes very naturally to them...

My dad was an engineer, my mom was a homemaker. I think she graduated from college, but I don't know in what. I do know she blew up a chem lab by pouring sulfuric acid down a sink.

Knot- glad FH got to you safely. I think she deserves some sexy new bartape, at least.

Today I'm going riding with my group, then out to lunch, then to the vounteer party for the two centuries next month. If you volunteer, you get to enter both rides for $20. And get a free extra shirt, and they have special edition shirts for volunteers, like LS and tanks!

[DebW]

Sounds like good news all around this morning (or was it last night?).


I'm here, and so's the Waterford (Flosshilde)!

:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

We oohed and aaahed over how light she is. I told him how my bike-goddess boss was telling me I was silly to buy a heavy steel bike. So he weighed it. 21.5 lbs. HAH! I'll be taking THAT little piece of trivia to work Monday!

The bars are 42cm, and I think I need 38cm. But I'll wait until I've ridden it a bit.

Knotted, glad to see that the Waterford arrived safe and sound, and that you are all smiles (and apparently avoided hysteria?).

Now I'm jealous. My steel bike weighs 22 lb. :mad: :)

Careful on the bar width. My shoulders are exactly 38 cm and I hate 38 cm bars. They just feel too narrow. I'm happy with 40s. But if you really want 38s, I've got a nice Cinelli bar on a quill stem I'll trade...

[betagirl]

Good news indeed. I was in an all day meeting yesterday then had a client. Then went to a small gathering, so no TD for me.

Great news on the bike's safe arrival!

Nice day today in Chicago. Sloane will get to stretch her legs. Or mine. Most likely mine. Actually now that I wrote that, I think I'll go take her out. Less traffic at this hour to run me over if I fall down :D

Lise - seriously that guy puts "LOL" in his own email? That's frickin' hilarious. And I understand the grammar thing. I'm one to pick up on things like that immediately. Sometimes people make mistakes or are sloppy, but when it's chronic I'm like man you're kinda dumb.

Off to ride....

[Bruno28]

Another one is a man who writes all in capital letters.

When we get letters at work from people complaining about stuff, invariably the ones written completely in capitals are from mad people. The ones written in capitals in green ink on a lined page page torn from a notebook are from the criminally insane....

[KnottedYet]

SKnot says "LOL" in his conversations! It cracks me up!

Nanci, between you and Lise I get my fill of dating vicariously. Geez, what a story!

DebW - I'm gonna ride around on the 42's and see how it goes. I held a very used looking pair of 38's at LBS (they sell used parts, too) and thought "mmm, wait a minute..." There was something about the front-to-back dimensions I didn't like, so even though LBS guy said they could switch 'em for me while they're putting her back together I decided to wait.

Trek is sending me some lavender bar tape she can't use. Flossie will be so glamorous!

Get her back on Wednesday.

Oh, man, I gotta eat breakfast and get ready for the Seattle TE ride! No more daydreaming about my new bike!

[Trek420]

KnottedYet "Trek is sending me some lavender bar tape she can't use. Flossie will be so glamorous!"

Oy gevalt, and starting Monday "where's my tape?" :D

Have fun on your ride. Pictures, we want pictures!

[mimitabby]

http://www.sersale.org/cats/babejim.jpg


http://www.sersale.org/cats/babejim2.jpg

here are the kids. They are staying out longer and longer. They purr when I hold them and even play. They still hide FIRST. when they'll stay there in that cat tree on their own, they have made great advances.

I have to get ready for the ride too. I don't know what to wear! Is it going to warm up? rain? I gave my son my booties because he's riding around mt rainier today.. so it better not be TOO cold.

So many decisions! eeek.

Mimi (can't wait to see KY's new bike and yes, I am bringing a camera (if the battery ever charges!!!)

[betagirl]

Wow, what a difference a fixed gear is!

I rode around town for about an hour or so, getting a feel for everything.

Some things I learned:

- Stopping by applying some pressure to the pedals seems more natural than using the brake.

- the 48/18 gear is a lot easier than I thought it'd be. I'm kinda insulted that the one guy at the LBS thought it'd be too hard for me. :rolleyes:

- You have a lot more control over your bike than one with gears, if that makes sense.

- I coast a lot more than I realized

- When you go into coast mode on a FG it quickly reminds you that that's not in the cards :D

- Stopping and starting is a fine art. It took me a few tries to figure out how to clip out and stop (I'd just go around the corner instead). I did some practice runs on a side street and got the hang of it. I still haven't figured out how to stop with my dominant foot (left) in the proper position so I can go without backing up or rolling forward to get my pedal aligned. Currently I clip out with my right foot, use the pedals to stop, and find my left foot at the 7 to 8 o'clock position. That doesn't do me much good to go.

That was a cool ride. I think I need to practice some more, especially stopping quickly, before I use her to commute. I can't imagine how you'd do an emergency stop on a FG. I'll have to do some reading up on that. And SPD pedals are pretty easy to get used to. I'm glad I put those on instead of Look's.

Have any of you tried one? Deb, I'm assuming you have?

Time for breakfast. And coffee.

[betagirl]

Kitties!

[snapdragen]

Just to guarantee my spot in H*ll:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3894695289434928074

advance apologies if it offends anyone.....but I found it pee your pants funny.

[Trek420]

snapdragen

"Just to guarantee my spot in H*ll:"

oh goodie, at least I've found someone to ride with there :D I'll meet you near the eliphants :D

I love it, "you just don't get it do you?"

"advance apologies if it offends anyone"

to anyone offended "love the ending, "don't worry, he'll be back" :D

[maillotpois]

Snap - save a seat for me. I'll do the same if I get there first.

That was funny!

[DebW]

Wow, what a difference a fixed gear is!

I rode around town for about an hour or so, getting a feel for everything.

Some things I learned:

- Stopping and starting is a fine art. It took me a few tries to figure out how to clip out and stop (I'd just go around the corner instead). I did some practice runs on a side street and got the hang of it. I still haven't figured out how to stop with my dominant foot (left) in the proper position so I can go without backing up or rolling forward to get my pedal aligned. Currently I clip out with my right foot, use the pedals to stop, and find my left foot at the 7 to 8 o'clock position. That doesn't do me much good to go.

Have any of you tried one? Deb, I'm assuming you have?


No, not me. Looks fun though, and I'd like to try sometime. But I do live on top of a hill... The owner of the shop I worked in raced, and trained on a track bike on the roads in winter. He also motorpaced on the road in winter, with his wife driving. The one mishap he had was when a squirrel ran in front of the car, his wife accidentally hit the breaks, and he went over the hood. All his wife could say was "And on his birthday!" No real damage, except to the birthday.

You know, track riders never have to deal with stopping and starting. Someone holds them up while they clip in and start, and someone catches them at the end. I think I'd be looking for a wall to lean on every time I had to stopped. Think I read that after you stop, you just squeeze the front brake, rock forward so the rear wheel lifts, and reposition your pedal.

[Lise]

beta, you're a brave woman. Have a blast playing with Sloane!

snap--:p whew. FUNNY! I love the line, "GIVE ME THAT THING!" And of course, "Doan't woarry. He'll be bahk." I referenced the Terminator yesterday, when riding with Lynne. It's how we size up anyone else on the path, "Unpredictable", "Knows what he's doing", "Not paying attention", "Likely to veer into my path", etc.

Ran 3.5 miles with Jamie this morning, then rode 9 mi to brunch and 9 mi back. Milwaukee Ave. (from Higgins down to Irving Pk) is just one gob of asphalt on top of another. What a misery to ride. N'er agin. Let's see. 3.5 mile run, 18 mile ride, and two showers--is that a triathlon? ;)

Do you know my Jewel (big grocery store) doesn't sell Simple Green?!? I was going to get some to clean the chain instead of that caustic degreaser stuff I've used before. I wonder where I can get it. Beta, Lynne, have you seen it anywhere in our area?

Trek I can just see your sturdy little Corgi going in and harvesting tomatoes. Hilarious. :D

[betagirl]

You can get simple green at home depot and I think Whole Foods.

Brave? Maybe. Definitely crazy :) I did find how to adjust the pedal to the proper position. I'll give her a spin again soon.

Hey are you doing the North Shore century tomorrow?

[Kitsune06]

Just to guarantee my spot in H*ll:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3894695289434928074

advance apologies if it offends anyone.....but I found it pee your pants funny.

Well, since quite a few religions say you're going to hell if you don't follow them, and you can't really follow more than one, I think we'll have lots of company- but that's HILARIOUS.

(btw, if you write enough with 'OMG' and 'LOL' etc, you do end up accidentally saying them once or twice. It happens more often with IM conversations than just emailing etc (I think SKnot would agree...)

...so I admit, I actually have looked at someone in shock and disbelief, and without better words to express myself, said "Oh EM GEE!!! WTF?!" then we stared at each other in stunned silence that I'd actually SAID the acronyms. After that it became a joke among my friends, which only perpetuated the bad habit. :rolleyes:
I'm hanging my head in shame... I really am. ;)

[Bruno28]

Well I'm just back from holiday and there's too much TD to catch up with all at once so I'll just launch in - forgive my rudeness.:o

Prague was wonderful. It's a really beautiful city and any of you planning European breaks should certainly consider giving it a go. It is stunning to look at and full of historically interesting buildings, but it's also very cosmopolitan. Everyone speaks English which is great because Czech's not a language you can learn in a couple of days! The food was fantastic...due to the cosmopolitan influence it's not all meat and dumplings, not that there's anything wrong with meat and dumplings.

The weather was great also unlike here where it has been a horrible, grey day (very 'dreich', for those of you who want to learn Scots - a fine tongue if I may say so). Kitsun won the prize for pronouncing Edinburgh so I throw down the gauntlet again!

Extract from Scottish dictionary....
Dreich ADJ.
Description of the usual Scottish weather viz:
Damp, dreary, overcast, drizzling, threatening to pish doon, looks like it will stay like this for weeks....... :D :D:D

[Lise]

mimi, I forgot to say: Beautiful kitty babies! :D I'm glad they're getting more relaxed and friendly.

beta--thanks for the tip on Simple Green. I can tell you Target doesn't have it. I am not doing the North Shore Century after all. I am committed to the 1/2 marathon with my friend Jamie. I decided I could train effectively for one or the other, but not both. So I've been riding a fair amt--50 mi last week, 66 mi so far this week, but not enough to go out and ride 100 miles. How about you?

Bruno--my brother loved Prague. I understand the Scots' gloominess at times, being 1/4 Scots myself. Sometimes the sunshine is just too much! (not really. :p )

[LynneK]

I get Simple Green at my local hardware store (LHS). Haven't seen it at grocery or at Target, but have seen it at Home Depot. Have to get some, actually, as my chain and cassette are a fright.

LHS reminded me: here we use LBS; I also knit, so in talking with knitters we use LYS (local yarn store), as well as other common acronyms (DH, DGF, etc.). I am fascinated by the evolution of such norms in such disparate crowds as cycling and knitting! I suppose it's due to cross-pollination from our interconnected communities of different interests.

[Lise]

I am psyched! :D Today the cute little mail carrier lady brought me a box from TE and my Amici Veloche s/s jersey! I was so regretting not having bought a s/s version (I got a sleeveless). I put the word out that I was looking for one, and someone who reads here, but hasn't yet posted, PM'd me. She sold me one she'd bought for a family member whom it didn't fit. Same price, she even priority mailed it to me at her cost. Thank you! It fits perfectly. Now I wish I were doing the ride tomorrow so I could wear it!

I also got my Zoic knickers and PI Sugar Knickers. I love the Sugar knickers. They feel wonderful, and it will be so nice to have my thighs and knees covered as it gets colder out. If I like the chamois, I'll buy a pair of the shorts, too. I'm not sure about the Zoics. I don't seem to have the extreme low-rise problem that others have mentioned. I've bent over, as I would on the bike, and they cover my butt :cool: . But they are so stiff, and a little shorter than I'd like. It might just be too much fabric up above, and not long enough down below. They also smell very strongly of moth balls! That could be washed out. I'm undecided about keeping them.

[Kitsune06]

Well I'm just back from holiday and there's too much TD to catch up with all at once so I'll just launch in - forgive my rudeness.:o

Prague was wonderful. It's a really beautiful city and any of you planning European breaks should certainly consider giving it a go. It is stunning to look at and full of historically interesting buildings, but it's also very cosmopolitan. Everyone speaks English which is great because Czech's not a language you can learn in a couple of days! The food was fantastic...due to the cosmopolitan influence it's not all meat and dumplings, not that there's anything wrong with meat and dumplings.

The weather was great also unlike here where it has been a horrible, grey day (very 'dreich', for those of you who want to learn Scots - a fine tongue if I may say so). Kitsun won the prize for pronouncing Edinburgh so I throw down the gauntlet again!

Extract from Scottish dictionary....
Dreich ADJ.
Description of the usual Scottish weather viz:
Damp, dreary, overcast, drizzling, threatening to pish doon, looks like it will stay like this for weeks....... :D :D:D

I'm going to guess "Dre(gargley ch sound, deep in the throat) but I could be wrong there. ;)

[Bruno28]

I'm going to guess "Dre(gargley ch sound, deep in the throat) but I could be wrong there. ;)


Nearly! Dreeeeecchhh (extended gargly sound). How come you're so good at this? You must have Scottish relatives you are not declaring...or you were Scottish in another life. Are you often grumpy and sullen? ??? That could be a sign.:D

[Kitsune06]

Nearly! Dreeeeecchhh (extended gargly sound). How come you're so good at this? You must have Scottish relatives you are not declaring...or you were Scottish in another life. Are you often grumpy and sullen? ??? That could be a sign.:D

My ex's parents are actually thinking of moving to Scotland, and put a lot of effort into getting us to move with them... I'm still considering it, but I'd probably have a hard time getting a proper job there.
...grumpy and sullen? I thought that just came with the PNW/Scottish weather! ;)

I only picked up little bits here 'an there...
Ah ken the blellum gey guid for ae daft lass...
coud be bletherin'. ;)

[chickwhorips]

sk glad to hear about your dad.

knotted glad the bike made it.


personally if i had any mind at all i probably should just curl up in bed and never get up. went out eider banding again today (got a whole 2, yes that's TWO eiders). my neoprene waders have leaks in both boots so i had to wear the gortex ones. gortex in bering sea not good. i got so cold i had to jump in a gumby suite. couldn't feel anything. i was to cold to even shiver. once in the gumby suite for a half hour or so i could shiver again. the whole way back to the trucks i was cold. warmed up in the truck on with the heater on high and still in waders and gumby suite. tomorrow i'm wearing gortex waders under the neoprene. i will not be cold! i can always take layers off. you know how hard it is to move in a gumby suite? specially one that's really big. at least on the ride home when the waves kicked up if we went over i would float. always a bright side. now a very hot shower sounds nice.

[salsabike]

Snap - save a seat for me. I'll do the same if I get there first.

That was funny!

Better set up a couple of benches down there...