LIVESTRONG CHALLENGE 2006

THE 2006 LIVESTRONG CHALLENGE PORTLAND HAS COME AND GONE...TOM AND I HAD A GREAT TIME AND COMPLETED THE 40 MILE ROUTE IN JUST UNDER 3 HOURS.

PHOTOS WILL BE AVAILABLE TO VIEW ON-LINE SOMETIME IN THE NEAR FUTURE...UNTIL THEN CHECK OUT WWW.LIVESTRONGCHALLENGE.ORG TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE CHALLENGE.

I will post more about our day later this week.

LIVESTRONG CHALLENGE IS ALMOST HERE

July 30 is the LIVESTRONG Challenge in Portland...I have been fund raising since March and have met my goal and have raised a little extra. Check out my personal web page:

http://www.livestrongchallenge.org/06OR/nancygrace/.

Tom and I will be riding in an organized ride for the next 4 weekends! I CAN'T WAIT!

Oh, by the way, Performance Bicycles is the BEST...I brought my bike in on Saturday and they fixed it all up while we were shopping around. It's nearly as good as new despite the raccoon incident last week.

AC no work

Here I sit, following a weekend of hot weather, in an office where the AC is not working at all in the areas where it really should be and is in overdrive in other areas. If I had known this before I came to work I think I would have conjured up an illness to stay home.

I HATE CRITTERS

I spent a some time off my bike this week - lack of motivation, getting ready for the heat.

Now I'm just plain ol' pissed...

Tom went off to work and I decided that since it will be too hot to ride this weekend I'll ride a nice short loop this morning. Everything was fine, until I came upon a raccoon on the Salmon Creek Trail. Usually I see bunnies hoppin' into the brush. This little guy was actually heading one direction while I decided to give him some room and then he darted across the trail...the stupid thing got caught up in my front wheel which sent me into the brush...thank goodness for a fairly soft landing.

I'm all good though, I got away with just a nasty bruise on my leg. Can't say the same about my bike, which is still rideable, just need some adjustments on my brake lever and maybe my wheel.

With the Livestrong ride just over a week away, I'm glad that nothing more serious happened to ME or MY BIKE.

HEAT IS ON ITS WAY

I hate the heat...I would be happy with 75 degrees and the occasional cloud cruising by. I shouldn't complain though - a few years ago Tom had a conference in Charleston, South Carolina in the middle of July(!) and I went along for not quite 48 hours. That place was HOT and the humidity...oh my...don't get me started. The moment we walked out of the airport my glasses fogged right up. That was it I wanted to go home.

Our most recent experience with humidity was in Naperville, IL during a visit to see Tom's brother and his family. OH MY...we ended up in Arlington Heights for a special event and the temperature at 11:30 AM was 96 degrees. 96 DEGREES and it wasn't even NOON. It was a very miserable day...I thought I was going to melt. We were to leave to come home the following day and that night, of all nights, there was no breeze, nothing, not even a hint. I sweated thru the night and may have gotten two hours of sleep. Oh well. It's a once in a while event.

This weekend may be in the high 90s but most likely will reach mid 100s. I'm out! I'll be living in our basement until this heat goes away.

Rest Day

The the riders in the Tour de France are taking a rest day and so am I. Over the last week I rode approximately 85 miles...Tom wanted me to take a day off. Actually, I decided that I should take the day off, but if I feel good then I go against my better judgement.

So, today is my rest day and I am sitting at work looking at cycling related websites. Cycling News, Graham Watson photography...riders sites. It's almost a sad commentary. Earlier this afternoon I was discussing some of the finer points of the Tour with one of the firefighters...we are GEEKS!

I have to say that this year's tour is a wild one. No one team is in control and the Yellow Jersey has switched hands so many times among several different teams. We'll see how race goes in this last week when the riders enter the Alps.

Tomorrow'sStage 15 ends atop L'Alpe d'Huez I'll be glued to the set tomorrow evening!

Wine Tasting 101

I was just now going thru the Oregonian on-line and some wine tasting articles caught my eye. Reading the following article caused me to giggle a bit as I thought back to the time that Tom and I and our friend Daniel went to Zupan's after a sushi dinner and needed a diversion for Daniel as he would be attending a family function. Keep in mind that this moment was before our magical tranformation into the world of wine and we had no clue what a wine tasting was...so here we are wandering around Zupan's and the wine steward asked Daniel and Tom if they would be interested in tasting some wine...well sure! She barely had the wine poured and Daniel slammed it back before she had the opportunity to describe the wine. Just imagine the look of surprise on the wine stewards face as he replaced his glass to the table.

We have come a long way since that moment and have started to appreciate a good bottle of wine...heck we even enjoy the not so good wine....enjoy the following article on wine tasting!

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We all know how to sip, gulp and guzzle wine. Really, tasting wine can be just as fun, but it takes some focus. Here's how to sip like a professional:

The look: Hold your glass against a white or pale background and note the color. If it's a white wine, it might be a shade of straw, lemon or gold; if it's red, it might be ruby, garnet, mahogany, brick or black. Get a sense of the colors and you'll begin to draw conclusions about what they mean. For example, with red wine, the purply-red colors of a young wine fade to browns with age. An older red wine might be mahogany to brick in color, while a highly concentrated younger red might be garnet to black.

The sniff: Hold the stem and slide the glass in tiny circles on a flat surface to swirl the wine and release its aroma. Tip the glass and bury your nose in it. What do you smell? Is it the toasted, caramel-vanilla or woodlike scent of new oak barrels? Apples, pears, citrus or tropical fruits in a white wine? Cherries, plums or berries in a red? Anything you smell -- leather, gasoline, pencil shavings -- is worth noting.

YUM!

I subscribe to www.winecountry.com and get some neat recipes...this one will definitely be on our table in the near future!

http://www.winecountry.com/about/food/recipes/0706/goatCheeseDressing_0706.html

Coolest Cat in the World!

These are our cats...the orange one is Riley and the other stretching and yawning is Decaf. Decaf is a former Wisner kitten and has been with us a year and a half now and has been so much fun. Riley tolerates him most days and has a fit when Decaf is around, but I think that deep down inside he likes the little guy.

Decaf is very routine oriented and most mornings after he is fed he gets to come upstairs and play on the bed with me. He zooms up the stairs to the bedroom and sometimes it sounds like he is literally tripping up the stairs. After Tom goes off to work he knows that he will get the rest of his breakfast and will meow and pace around until I get my rear out of bed and trek downstairs. What a life!

Tougher than Boiled Owl!

One day a couple of months ago I went on a ride that had some nice rolling hills...I had a good time with it, getting a good workout. Not long afterwards Tom and I went out for a ride and I wanted to take him on my new route...he was game. He could not believe how many rollers there were and wondered when the madness would end! 10 miles later he proclaimed that I was "tougher than boiled owl".

Last night we went for a ride with a couple of roadies from church and we took a nice route that is not heavily traveled. There was one hill that was nearly vertical in my cycling mind and I went onward and forward...and made it to the top! It wasn't necessarily a long hill just STEEP! Rather ominous, but sooo good to know that I did it!

What's tougher than boiled owl?

The Night Ride 2006 - Portland

This last Saturday (July 8) Tom and I along with a couple from church participated in the Night Ride. Proper Attire: costumes or PJs. There were a lot of both...go to www.thenightride.com to check out the photographs.

The next few rides that we will ride are:

July 30 - Livestrong Challenge - Portland www.livestrongchallenge.org

August 6 - The Hottest Day of the Year ride www.hottestdayride.com; complete with building your own sundaes at the finish and beer for purchase!

August 13 - The Providence Bridge Pedal
www.providence.org/oregon/events/bridge_pedal/default.htm

August 19 - The Vine Ride www.vineride.com

Come join us on one or more of these rides...

First posting on Blogger

This is almost too exciting! I'm back into the blog world now that I am able to access a blog space while at work. So much happens here that I wouldn't want anyone to miss what's happening!

Now...I need to figure out how to post photos and stuff....more later!