Two. Many. Bikes!

Seems like every few months, we spent most of a day organizing our garage, only to have it overflow with stuff again in what seems like no time.  I accept 95% responsibility for this.  The other 5% I blame on the recession, since it seems our two perfectly lovely commuter bikes aren't going to find a new home for a while.

So, with the help of Rubbermaid, we set out to once again hack a path through the middle.  I'd say we were fairly successful:

While we were in a groove, we went through several boxes and drawers full of bike stuff, and a box of goodies will be making it's way to Goodwill or the Community Cycling Center in the near future.

Then there's the stuff, we're still hoping to get a little cash for.  So if you're in the market for:

Columbia winter boots
Specialized bike shoes
women's bike saddle
Apple Mighty Mouse (the computer kind, not the super hero)
Surly Cross Check Fork

...by all means, click on through.  I also have a bunch of old Star Trek comics I'd love to see get a good home (not so attached to the cash).  Something about dealing with all my mom's stuff has given me a strong urge to de-clutter my life.  It's an ongoing project.

But for now, I'm going to pat myself on the back (and Jess too) and maybe wander back out to the garage before bed so I can revel in the orderliness of it all:

Outside Looking In

I'm enjoying a rare quiet moment in the middle of my Monday, sitting OUTSIDE IN THE SUN on the campus quad. 

I feel like I've been through the wars. Except I got a little perspective on that this weekend, so I'll change that to, 'I feel like I've been through the bougie middle-class-problems skirmish.'

I promised Jess that we would tackle the garage this weekend.  We organized it last summer (sort of) but then we kept getting more and more stuff, until we could barely walk through to get our bikes out.  I think J's eye literally started twitching every time she had to go in there.  It's a good thing she hasn't been riding much these last few months.  We took everything out, rearranged the shelves and then put it all back in, but more organized.  The results are so pleasing that I've gone out there several times just to admire all the luscious space.

Saturday, I had to go to the farmer's market in search of snap peas. The selection at New Seasons is pathetic right now and I've been getting pretty desperate.  We rode our bikes to Lisa's house and then we all car pooled downtown together, J and I hardly fighting over Essex at all.  There were no snap peas, but it was good to get out and see people outside. It's like it's spring or something--crazy.

We also stopped for chocolate at a place (I forget the name), near Cacao that Lisa has been praising for months.  It definitely lived up to the hype.  I will link the name when remember it.

Then we had to rush back to NE to meet the delivery people, who were bringing my new stove from Home Depot. Geahk also met us there so he could take a look at a project I need help with.  The stove has one of those high backs with the controls at the back, and, unfortunately, I forgot about the counter that hangs over the kitchen--right where the stove would fit under, if it were short enough.  Geahk said he could just move the counter top, but after further study, he thought the best option would be to just get a different stove.  I agreed, but wailed silently over the doom that is every house related activity I try to do.

Which is why I get to spend the rest of the afternoon in rush hour traffic.  I found slide-in stove that will work, and it's even the right color---but it's out in BFE Milwaukie and my hired help, AKA my little brother Kenny, isn't available until 3:30. Fun times.

The rest of the weekend was spent either stressing over homework, the garage, or the stove.  Poor Jess had to put up with a pretty cranky, stressed out, and overwhelmed version of me.  I had the final draft of a story due in writing and our second midterm in Math.  Since those classes are back-to-back, there would be no time to cram for the math test before class.  For our second essay in writing on 'place,' I decided to write about Mom's house.  It seemed a prominent subject, since I have been working on the house for the past few months and accepting the reality that strangers will soon be living in it.  I knew it wouldn't be fun to write, but I underestimated just how much it would suck.  Aside from having to view the computer screen through tears much of the time, I also didn't feel like the story was coming together in a technical way either.  I felt like I was floundering through jello and I was sick of rereading it long before I could call it anything close to 'finished.'  The only good news about it was that people in my first workshop responded well to it emotionally.  Fellow classmate Rebecca even said that she really came to like mom through my story--so that made the torture seem more worthwhile. I do feel sorry for folks that didn't get to know her. She was just so damn cool.

Between the help I got from Jess and a fellow classmate, I muddled through to something that is hopefully acceptable.  In our class discussion today, it seemed that a lot of people really struggled with this topic, for one reason or another.  I really related to the person who said that she might not be graded as well, but she was glad she took the risk.  I took this class so I could push myself, so struggle is actually a good sign.  It's just not fun.  Jess strongly suggested I choose a more uplifting topic next time...

I left off halfway through this post to go to yoga, only to find class was canceled.  On the one hand, I definitely could have used a nice yoga session today--on the other hand, I was grateful for the unexpected hour of time which meant a little more time outside, and time to eat before spending the afternoon in rush hour traffic.

I went home and ate, then remembered I promised to cut the lawn, so I did that too.  Then I discovered cat puke on the carpet--not an unusual occurrance, but I so was not in the mood.  I was already exhausted and I still had two stoves to move.

Lil' bro showed up right on time and for bonus points brought his friend C, to help.  She was cute, smart and totally together which prompted me to ask her what she was doing hanging out with my brother. <G> Apparently, I wasn't the first to ask.

I'll say one thing for my bro, he's entertaining.  We had a surprisingly good time on the ride out and back and the woman selling the stove was warm and friendly and not at all a suburban pod person.  We stopped at McD's on the way back and traded bawdy jokes.  Kenny said something annoying that made me punch his leg--at which time he revealed that he'd been campaigning all day to see what it would take to force me to violence.

"Are you FIVE?" I replied.  I promised to hit him on general principle the next time I saw him, so he wouldn't have to work so hard.

The Home Depot folks were surprisingly--no make that astonishingly, nice when I returned the stove, even refunding my delivery charge.  My dad hasn't had quite as much luck--I guess our last name is pretty regularly cursed around those parts now, so I was happy to get no-hassle service.

It was after 8:00pm by the time I returned the truck and came home, stopping at Fred Meyer for ice cream so I could assuage my pain with food like any good American.  I was even prepared to buy the ::gasp:: packaged snap peas--but they didn't have any! Not even any snow peas just to feel the satisfying crunch of a semi-sweet vegetable.  I bought a small bag of baby carrots instead and some canned pineapple.  I've gotten semi-hooked on the fresh pineapples at New Seasons, but that's not sustainable for our budget. 

I was too tired and head-sore to think about homework so I just showered and spend some much needed time catching up with J.

Tomorrow, the first of two deep cleaning dental appointments lasting aproximately two hours each. This week is not the funnest I've ever had.

She blogs, So I Don't Have To

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Thanks honey!

Why We Don't Shop at Fred Meyer

Beach Day

Beach day is an idea that I came up with originally when some friends and I had scheduled a trip but one by one we all backed out becuase we were broke. But, since we'd already planned to spend the weekend together, I suggested we dedicate at least one day to pretending we were at the beach. I hosted, everyone brought food and Tessa even brought her "Endless Beach" DVD which as you might suspect, just plays scenes of ocean waves continually, like a never ending visual Enya. It was perfect.

Jess and I spend a lot of time at home, but not enough time really enjoying home, so we decided to do a beach day for two. Unplugged, offline and no work allowed.

The weather was freakishly cooperative, serving up our first official storm of the Fall/Winter with rain and wind gusts up to 50mph. After the last week or more of gorgeous mild sunny Fall days, it was quite a shock to the system--but a perfect day to stay in, put on your most comfortable jammies and watch movies by the fake fire, which is just what we did. The Minestra Root Vegetable soup we made on Saturday was a perfect compliment to the weather. We watched leaves blow down our street and saw a huge branch that had broken off and fallen into the driveway across the street but were fortunate not to lose power at any time during the day.

Jess has her own Netflix account now, so we had plenty of movies to choose from. We started with Hell On Wheels, a documentary about the Tour de France which follows the German Telekom (now T-Mobile) team in the 2004 race. We followed that up with lunch and a few Tony Hawk battles and then watched Superman Returns. The opening credits rolled and some expository text came rolling up about Krypton, the journey to earth etc etc. I said, "You probably know all this stuff already," and started to fast forward.

"No, I don't, what's the story?"

"What!? You've never seen Superman?" I knew that she was tragically sheltered from pop culture in her youth, but come on, it's Superman! Truth, justice, the American way! Well there was no help for it. But I'll have to rectify this gaping hole in her super hero education before winter is over.

The entire day was lazy, warm (did I mention the fake fire) and thoroughly enjoyable. We've decided to do it once a month.

What I love about Portland...

Is that you can go out to a fine dining restaurant in the grubby shorts and t-shirt you wore to Home Depot.

I borrowed a very big truck, owned by a very large guy. I've borrowed it before and I have no trouble driving stick except...I couldn't get the seat to move up. Apparently, there's a trick to it that wasn't necessary last time. So I made do, looking like a 12 year old on a joy ride and killing my leg stretching to push in the clutch. But hey, what is all that biking for, if not for emergencies such as these?

As if that weren't bad enough, we waited till four in the afternoon so it took 30 minutes of parked traffic on the freeway to get there. I just kept thinking of it as a good workout.

We got our supplies, including 8 fence posts, 13 2x4's, 102 6 ft x 5.5 inch slats, and 8 bags of 80lb concrete mix. The truck swallowed it all and said, "May I have some more please?" I know people think of me as a hard core biker, but I would not have wanted to carry that on the Xtracycle.

It was Jess's turn to supply cheap labor, so her friend T is coming over tomorrow to help us get the posts placed, level, straight etc. She has fence building experience so we're really happy to have her help.

After we unloaded, Jess went on a date with her friend and I returned the truck (it was *very* nice to be able to reach the pedals again!) and then was left to my own devices. I was hungry and wanted to blog away from home so I solved both problems by coming over to the Equinox. Everyone was sitting on the patio and the lighting inside is dim so I didn't have to worry about my shabby state. The waiter-turned-manager gave me a warm greeting. He was our waiter for mom's last meal here on her 55th birthday. I love these guys and besides that, everything I've ever tasted here is incredible. So if you need a party in your mouth, stop on by and tell 'em I sent you.

I had a lovely salad with pear, chevre (cheese) and prawns wrapped in procciuto. I passed on dessert since we still have cake at home, but the manager informed me that I had no choice because Tara was buying me dessert. Well, I never look a cheesecake horse in the mouth but I wisely took it to go so I can share with Jess.

What are you at, getting terribly fat?

Jess rode to work today, which is a big deal when you have an exhausting 12 hour nursing shift and a 6 mile uphill ride home against inevitable headwinds. I'm always impressed when she does it. I had a meeting in NW this afternoon after which I met her at work so we could ride home together.

She's been 'waiting for the baby' for a few days (AKA PMS) which usually means eating more than usual. Her last snack was at 6pm and by the time we got home just after 8:30, she was starving. I sent her off to shower and headed straight for the kitchen to whip up garden burgers with all the fixings and corn on the cob.

When she came down, she proceeded to inhale everything in sight, along with a few things that weren't, like chips and salsa. Shortly after that, she got out the carton of Ben & Jerry's Phish Food (light) ice cream and a spoon. I tried to gently discourage her from having cake too, but she said, “I'm PMSing and I can do anything I want.” So I wisely cut her a piece. The nice thing about not being a man, is that I get to have my turn to be bossy every month too, but in the meantime, it's just a survival game.

Before you could say “oompa loompa,” she was starting to have regrets. As I sat at the table organizing pictures on my computer, I could see over my monitor, her looking down at her belly with an expression of remorse. Then she started talking to it. “Belly, I ate too much and now you're fat and bloated and...” I didn't hear everything she said. After a few sentences she suddenly looked up at me.

“You're not even listening!”

I remained calm. “You're not talking to me, you're lecturing your belly about how fat it is. It's an A/B conversation. I'm not required to listen or respond...and besides I did to hear you.” I was quite pleased with myself for my mental agility.

“Well, it was funny!” she said.

“Yes, it was,” I agreed. Survival game.

She stood up to demonstrate her over=stuffed state. Her belly did indeed stick out pretty far. “Wow, you really over did it,” I said.

“Well, I'm waiting for the baby, so I'm really hungry and then there's the water retention, plus I had a lot of salt...” Her stomach seemed to be actually expanding with each explanation and I forgot survival mode and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Are you going to be able to lay on that belly for your back rub or will you be too wobbly?” I rocked my torso back and forth as I said it, as if lying on a beach ball.

My life could've ended right there, but fortunately, she literally fell down laughing and so couldn't give chase. Her laughing set me laughing and we giggled and snorted and wiped tears from our eyes for the next 10 minutes. At one point she tried to punish me by biting my leg, but I pushed her away, saying, “No, you've eaten too much already!” which just set us off again.

Though I have permission to post this on the blog, Jess declined to have her belly photographed for posterity.

Do nothing day

It feels like I've been waiting for this day for a year. Somehow the summer I envisioned of chilling out, grieving and writing turned into the summer of running a million miles an hour. Which actually isn't too much different from any other summer, but the month and a half of non-stop travel really took it out of me. In hindsight, I would've made some different choices.

But finally things are slowing down and I'm staying in one place for more than a day and today was the ultimate prize--a day of doing pretty much nothing. I did get up in the morning to run out for emergency craving groceries so I could have biscuits with fresh blackberries that we picked last week.

I worked on the blog for a while, uploaded some more pictures, caught up on my bloglines and puttered for a while. Across the table from me were two of my favorite girls being unbearably cute:

After breakfast, we played some Chinese checkers. I don't play often, but I used to play with mom and Grammy when they tired of scrabble wars, or were willing to switch games to I'd have some tiny chance at winning. Jess hadn't played in years and needed a short refresher course. I helped her with her strategy and she improved quite a bit in just one game. I predict in another 4-5 games, she won't need me at all.

We spent the afternoon watching movies. This is always a risky activity because we are TERRIBLE at picking movies at the video store. The badness generally falls into two categories, boring/unrealistic plot (Deja Vu) or completely depressing.

First we watched My Brother, which came from the Indie film section, starred Vanessa Williams and the cover description promised "an uplifting tale" in which two brothers overcome impossible odds, blah blah blah. Right. After an hour and 40 minutes of watching the older brother make one stupid choice after another we get three minutes at the end where he comes back and they supposedly live happily ever after on the sale of the diamonds Isiah stole from some Italian mafia guys. Oh but the best part...the endless flashbacks where we get to watch their mom waste away from some terminal disease! Like I really need to see more of that right now.

Our other movie was one I pulled off the shelf without a second thought because it fell into the category of one of my major obsessions: horses. Ruffian is the true tale of the greatest filly in horse racing history, who not only was never beaten in a race, but actually led the field at every pole of every race she ever ran and set or equaled the track record every time. I actually read a book about Ruffian during my 'horse phase after Seabiscuit came out. So I'm not sure how it was that I completely forgot that she broke her leg in a match race with Kentucky Derby winner Foolish Pleasure and died.

But hey, until her leg snapped in mid-run with the up close gruesomeness only modern special effects can provide, I was really enjoying the flim.

Euthanized horse aside, the special features were really excellent and included the real footage of all Ruffian's races and interviews with her trainer, the sports writer who covered her the most, jockey and others.

In the evening there was more puttering on the Internet, dinner of leftovers from our recent bbq and cake. Even though we had a ton of sweets in the house from our party on Saturday, I had to make a lemon cake for Cory--standard payment and we sent him home with the pan. "How often do you make this cake?" he asked.

"Whenever we get our bikes worked on," I said. And it occurred to me that indeed, I haven't made a lemon cake for myself to enjoy since my birthday. I figured if I was going to violate the 'sweets in the house rule' then I would rather have my own cake so I formulated a quick exit strategy for the store bought cookies and cake leftover from the party and took them down to Kinkos for the staff to enjoy.

We played one more game of Chinese checkers before bed and I won by just two moves. As soon as Jess learns to look for sideways jumps, I'm a goner.

Productivity

While I would've been perfectly content to wipe the sweat off my brow from making Cory lunch after he finished digging our fence post holes, Jess decreed that I should get off my lazy butt and do a house project. So we hung up the road bikes, which of course took about 1.8 hours longer than it should have and necessitated a trip to the store, which is what happens when the toolbox that's not really a toolbox isn't organized so that you think you're out of #10 two inch screws when in fact you have plentysix of them on hand. But I digress.

Wait, you're thinking. Didn't you already do this project in like, May?

You're so observant! Why yes, we did. But sadly, bikes fall down, go boom. So we bought a support board that's been sitting in the garage for over a month and re-hung them. They better stay put this time.

They don't make 'em like this anymore

There's no denying that when it comes to bike shops, I'm something of a ho. There are so many to choose from and I dabble in several different ones depending on the need of the day, location, price convenience etc. But I've always had a special love for Seven Corners (now on 21st and Powell) bike shop. This is mostly because of Cory, the fabulous guy who owns and runs the shop. When I was searching for a replacement for my stolen KHS mountain bike many years ago, he was the only one who didn't laugh at me when I said I didn't want the 'upgrade' of disc brakes and yes, I really did want grip shifters.

I went to see him and he basically custom built me the exact bike I wanted, and for a great price. Cory doesn't seem to have customers, he just has a lot of friends who need bike stuff. And that's why we still make the almost eight mile trek to have him work on our bikes or pick up some gloves or just say hi.

On one of these visits, we mentioned needing to build the rest of our fence sometime this summer.

"Oh yeah, I have a great post hole digger, I'll dig the holes for you," he said.

When you think about it, it's kind of an outrageous offer, but clearly, he didn't think so. So last week I called him up and sure enough he said, "What time should I come over?"

As I type this, he's out in the yard, working on hole five of eight. He didn't want breakfast, coffee or soda and we'll probably be hard pressed to get him to eat any lunch...although I'm sure we'll have no trouble getting him to take the lemon cake I made, which doesn't seem like nearly enough of a thank you for such a hard morning of work. But, much like my dad was at the grill yesterday, he seems to be happy and in his element.

Still, it boggles my mind a little when I think about it.

So like I said, they just don't make 'em like Cory anymore.

Just start somewhere

To say I'm completely overwhelmed with how 'behind' I am on this blog would be an understatement. We've actually been back from vacation since last Sunday night but I've been running a million miles a minute since then. So this an attempt to just post something in the hopes of making the task less daunting.

Wednesday we had a day that was more like what I thought my whole summer would be like. Sleep in, have a nice breakfast, slowly mosey out of the house on bikes to go pick blackberries. After that we stopped a the Bike Gallery so I could look at shiny new mountain bikes (more on that later) and then to Trader Joe's since we were in the neighborhood. They've finally moved into their new space in the old Gold's Gym location and it's huge and very nice to have so much space.

Then we hoisted ourselves and our groceries up the Alameda ridge to the Kennedy School for a Women for Bikes meeting. Then we headed home and paused to look at the amazing sunset/moonrise over the west hills.