Why, why, why???

Why am I doing this? What possessed me, girl who cannot wrench to take home a lost soul and set her mind to making it pretty and new again? I should just ride it till it falls apart and call it good. Bah!

Here is a snippet of the email I got from the gorgeous Joshua who I for years have been hoping would ditch his current Hillary in favor of me:

hillary-
that centurion might be a beast beyond your means. these old road bikes can be plagued with issues that made them great in the first place. putting a triple on means replacing a lot of things with things that wont be compatible with others... thus replacing those too...

Oh Joshua, so wise, so pretty, so the kind of guy who builds sweet bikes for his girlfriend.

Anyway, I got my new groupo today and probably should have done a skosh more homework, but my stupid ebay lust got me and finding exact specs on my turd is hard. I know the big fat Specialized handlebar won't fit which sucks because I love it. Now as it turns out, neither will the front derailleur. ARGH!!!! I'm trying to find a replacement clamp, it looks like it comes off but I dunno. Might be cheaper to just buy a new one. Oh well, she comes apart this weekend for paint and I AM a contractors daughter (my mom thankyouverymuch) and I WILL make this work. So help me Shimano I WILL.

Well if nothing else it will be a learning experience. ;)

Your avatar reminds me so much of RunItRideIt's old avatar- anyone else remember that?

Smurf.... I like your spunk.

Thank you, kind Sheldon, for you were a god to geeky little girls who see the value in saving old crap. I found a new freehub so even if the roommate won't trade me his old wheels for my MTB brakes I'm set. With a little manipulating I will be styling on Bike to Work Day.

I'm so super tired, but super excited because I got my paint today. Bubblegum pink and black. Awhhh yeah. I was just going to do the lugs in pink but now I'm thinking the fork needs to be pink, too. Oh she's gonna be so damn kyoot!

I had this grand plan to stencil lettering and put "steel is real" on her somewhere, and maybe "ride like a girl" and then I remembered a good friend works at a damn sign shop and can knock out the adhesive vinyl for me. Dur.

My friend got me in check the other night when I was getting bummed about things not working right. I was throwing a tantrum saying I should have bought a Costco BOS and called it good. Then he reminded me how nice it will be to ride a sweet bike that I saved from certain death. Pandering to my DIY ethic, nice.

Anyway, need to decide if I'm going to tear her apart tonight or not. Thought about riding to work tomorrow to knock out my overtime, but since I have tons that needs to happen I may start tonight and bus it tomorrow.