My Family

Yeah, so I don't say much about my family - there isn't a lot to say really there are few left that I can call family. That would be my aunt & uncle and two cousins. They came to the US from the Netherlands in 1977. At the time I was still in middle school and they lived with us for 6 or 7 months before they established their own home in Camas. It was kinda cool living as a big family, but I mostly remember being annoyed that there were toys all over MY room - as a pre-teen what else am I supposed to complain about.

So, years and years go by and we drifted in and out of each others worlds. They lived with us, then after I moved away from home I lived with them for a while, after that we kept in touch sporadically. We are still family and I keep in constant contact with my cousin Francois thru email almost daily. So I am never too terribly out of the loop.

Last Thursday, I had not heard from him and he had not responded to my email, but I didn't think anything of it. Sometimes work just gets crazy and there isn't time to "talk". During my lunch I saw that I had an voicemail message waiting for me. Later when I listened to it, it was my cousin calling to let me know that his dad had a heart attack and that they were all at the hospital....it didn't sound good. He only calls when things are bad.

So I got myself out of work the rest of the day and headed over there to see my uncle and support my cousin. It didn't look very encouraging that first day, but things started looking up when on my next visit we could see that he was not happy with his nurse when she tried to clean out his mouth...and today he was actually coming out of being asleep since last Wednesday evening. It was good to visit with my aunt (my mom's sister) and just talk about everyday stuff. Things felt just as they always did. I think there will be more visits in our immediate future as Oom Freddy recuperates.

Yeah, we might not see each other much, but things just keep on going and we are there for each other when the time comes.

Oom Freddy and Francois

National Bike Month Ends Soon...

Had a really fun month of cycling! We started the month off with the RACC and will hopefully have a nice relaxing ride or two this weekend.

Somehow in the last week or so my average speed bike commuting to and from work (mostly to) has increased - freakishly fast. Not that the average is freakish, just that I have noticed all of a sudden makes it so odd. A couple of weeks ago I was out on my own while Tom was working having just finished cleaning and lubing my chain and doing some general maintenance that a girl would understand I decided it would be wrong to just hang my bike back up on the rack. It was in that ride that I noticed that I was doing better than I thought I might AND it was a warm day. Anyway, this morning while coming to work, it felt almost easy going from Klineline to 99th Street - the dreaded grind - BLAH. It is rally quite weird. Is it possible that I'm getting better?! Looking back I can plainly see that I have logged more miles are up this year compared to this time a year ago, so that has something to do with it. I can just feel that century already...I know it is going to be good.

OH - here is my chart for the end of this week...I didn't bike commute the three days had some eye redness issues something about grass, tree and weed pollen - BOOOO!



PS: Bike Month is every month in my mind!

Weekend Fun

On Saturday after our ride into Portland and a trip to the Vancouver Farmer's Market we went to East Fork Cellars located next to Pacific NW Best Fish in Ridgefield.

This was my first visit and I was impressed. The tasting room was very cute and quite roomy and also, it was furnished with some items from the now closed Urban Wineworks. One of the ladies told us how they had gotten the idea to do wine blending by visting UW and bought their barrel heads and a couple of tables when UW was having their closing sale. Having Urban Wineworks close was a sad thing, but now we'll have opportunities to wine blending classes here in Clark County! The wine was tasty - my faves were the Riesling (dry and crisp) and the Petite Syrah and Zinfandel. We went home with a bottle each of the reds.

After leaving East Fork we decided to head over to Bethany - it was packed! There was a wedding getting started and then of course the wine tour event. The tasting room was full which was nice to see, and as cellar club members we decided to taste some of our favorites...the Sureoh, '06 Pinot Noir and then the last one we tried was the 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon...OH MY! It was so smooth and so tasty...AND to make matters more interesting, Bethany had a special deal 4 for $40. Let's see that's 10 bucks a bottle!!! For AWESOME WINE!!!!

So, if you are looking for really great wine, just remember there are a couple of places just around the corner here in Clark County!

Mileage Chart

Me and my obsessive nature...here is my chart for May (so far). Will be bike commuting the rest of the month...YAY! That's only 3 days...but they will be the best days!

Just Three Words

SAN PELLEGRINO LIMONATA...
this is seriously good stuff...try it!

Saturday Morning Rides

Life seems to be getting back to "normal" with our going on a ride this morning - I have been missing my weekend rides and am hopeful that the sunshine will stick around for a while.

I had suggested to Tom to take his bike to work with him and ride home so we could ride back this morning to get the truck. It was a really nice ride into Portland and I have to say that the route that Tom showed me today was much more pleasant than the route that we took a couple of months ago...it is one I could take by myself if I chose to. It's not likely, but at least I know the route now.

Trust is a huge thing when riding with your spouse, at least when we ride it's a huge thing. Since I am not familiar with some of the intersections going thru Portland Tom will almost always ride in front of me and when we get to an intersection that could potentially be traffic rich, but is not and he says "ALL CLEAR" and with urgency I better be on the ball and go for it! It's all good, I know that Tom wouldn't want me to get smooshed by a car so I put my trust in him and at the same time I am becoming a bolder rider. I might not go rushing up to an intersection, but I know when Tom says go I just need to do it and not dawdle.

This morning there was some organized walking event which took over the East Bank Esplanade and for a while it was just a sea of people ALL OVER THE PLACE. As if they were the only ones out and about. There were several other cyclists that were trying to get thru, and it was slow going - that pretty much killed our average going into PDX. As much as we tried, we attempted to avoid making contact with any of the walkers, but it's hard to miss a kid that is walking without looking where he's going - not my fault that I hit him...looking straight ahead would have had different results. Tom on the other hand ended up colliding with an older woman and as much as her companions tried to keep her from going down, she had too much momentum and as Tom put it "She went down like a rock!" Another one of those moments that could have been avoided if she was paying attention. I almost have it in my mind to figure out who was doing this event and sending them a mini-flaming email, but I don't know if I will.

Once we had passed all the walkers I felt that familiar bumpy feel and stopped to check my rear wheel just to see that it indeed was flat...I picked up some metal thing that was like a very rigid piece of metal thread that just pierced right through my tire and thus the flat. I don't get flats very often, but I can get that tire off the rim lickety-split! I love my Hutchinson tires that I just put on - thems come off very easily! After checking the inside of the tire and finding the metal and cutting my thumb, I installed the new tube, inflated and 10, 15 minutes tops we were outta there!

Fortunately we were fairly close to Tom's office and just needed to get across the Hawthorne Bridge which was also full of silly walkers. It was a challenge just trying to stay on the sidewalk - there was a fall onto the metal grate of the bridge just within the last couple of weeks - very scary! So my goal was to stay upright and not be the next bridge grill victim. All in all we had a great ride this morning and I'm looking forward to more rides as the season goes on. More rides with Tom and with friends...

See ya on the road...

Lazy Saturday Morning Cat Nap

Here is Mr. Decaf doing what he does best...napping!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Third Day mini-movie

At the end of the night each member was introduced...this is Mark Lee's intro...

Third Day Rocks!

What is there to say? Third Day Rocks! Had great seats...and got some good shots...enjoy.

Meet & Greet before the show

Waiting for the opening Bands - cool stage

On the main aisle doing a "request" time and a Third Day Karaoke with a couple people coming up to sing with the bandMac Powell & Tai Anderson
Mac Powell

Third Day Revelation Tour Widget

VIP Rocks!

Tom just forwarded an email to me regarding the Third Day concert this Friday night. Check it out...

************************************************

Dear Third Day VIP ticket holder,

Here is what you need to know for the concert this Friday at Rolling Hills Community Church.

Bring your photo ID to the church between 5:30 and 5:45 p.m. In the main lobby you’ll see the VIP area, where you’ll go to redeem your VIP package which includes a CD from the band.

At 5:45 p.m. you’ll be taken back to a private meet and greet with Third Day. After that time you’ll be allowed to take your seats in the VIP section of the auditorium.

Let us know if you have any questions or if we can be of further assistance. We’re looking forward to seeing you at the show!

********************************

A MEET AND GREET...TOO STINKIN' COOL! I'M A LITTLE EXCITED...

Our Cycling Season So Far...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

2009 Ride Around Clark County

Had ourselves a superb ride with Mark & Robin, their first organized cycling event. The RACC is always a good one and even though the route doesn't change too much, it's fun to see parts of the county that we would never go to.

Only one flat in our group amongst a few others within a distance of two blocks...it was all good, sometimes we need to remember how to repair flats and such.

This is it for cyling events until June - Pioneer Century is up next! I'm looking forward to bike commuting as much as possible this month.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Thought I would post my end of the week chart from "My Cycling Log". It occurred to me that since I have discovered this chart, next year might be difficult in exceeding the mileage that I am logging on a monthly basis...that's the obsessive part of me, bigger and better, not going backwards! Oh well, maybe I'll get over it by the end of this year.

Get Those Bikes Out!!!

New Tires

Before heading to Salem we stopped at the Tualatin Performance Store and picked up some supplies and visited with Matt, Justin & Barry. I have been wanting to get new tires for the past couple of weeks....I got them and finally had a chance to put them on!

For some reason I was having a really hard time getting the old tire off the rim and couldn't understand WHY it was so much easier when I actually had a flat, then it occurred to me that the tire wasn't totally deflated...DUH.

Here is the first wheel all done!

Had a little issue getting the rear wheel off my bike - Only when I ask Tom for help, does that stupid thing finally come off. OOOOOH....Nice brand new tire. What's wrong with this picture? Yeah, I have no helmet on,
but most importantly, I have no socks on!