The Police

Bobby gave me and Brisco tickets to "The Police" Reunion Tour last Saturday. I took Libby and Brisco took his wife. The seats were totally kick ass. I had an unobstructed view for most of the show (the only time I had trouble seeing was when the drunk off her ass lady one row up kept walking back and forth saying "sorry").

Brisco made fun of everyone the entire time. There was this couple just down the row that were pretty amusing. About half way through the guy took his shirt off and was dancing towards the audience.

I spent the whole time dancing and singing. It was so fun to go to a show and know the words to every single song. Libby likes to leave concerts a little early to beat the traffic, but I just wouldn't leave. The Police are one of my all time favorite groups. I remember listening to the Synchronicity album back in elementary school and making up dances for the songs with Angie.

Thanks Bobby!!!

MS 150

It has been a while since I posted, but I have been busy. On June 28-29 I rode in "Utah's Best Dam MS 150 Bike Tour". It was fun, painful and fulfilling all at the same time. My team rode a total of 300 miles and raised $1100. There were over 3000 riders and over $965K raised.

Here are a few of the pictures from the event.

Team Pedal Pirates

My poor bike at the end

Self-portrait after I finished

Our campground

Little Red Riding Hood

I rode in the Little Red Riding Hood ride, my second long ride. It was raining in Salt Lake as I drove up to Logan and I kept hoping that it would be clear up there. When I arrived at the park it was brisk, but sunny. As the ride began there were at least 1000 women lined up and riding out of the small town of Wellsville. It was extremely slow going for the first 3 miles. Women of all ages and abilities were everywhere. After the pack broke up I kept a pretty good pace of 16mph, until about 12 miles into the ride I began to feel a sharp pain in my knee. I was coming up to the first big hill of the ride and I got about 1/2 way up and realized that I would not make it up with my knee. I hopped off and walked the rest of the way up. It was awful having to walk that soon in the ride. I kept telling myself I just had to walk it off and then I would be fine. About a mile later I reached the turn off for the 36 mile route. I had originally planned on going the 80 miles, but realized that I was not going to be able to do that. I was so mad at myself. I was able to do 80 miles 3 weeks ago no problem and today I was going to have to punk out at 36!! I told myself that I could at least finish in 2 hours and be proud that I kept a good pace. I skipped the next rest stop and headed to the next. My knee was hurting pretty bad, but I thought if I just grabbed a quick snack and kept going I would still finish in 2 hours. After about 5 miles it got to be so windy that I could no longer keep my pace. I slowed to 13mph and just kept pushing. I ended up having to walk for about 1/4 mile because my knee hurt so bad and my fingers were frozen. At the next rest stop I ate a little protein and thought you can do this, you only have 6 more mile and you will still make it in less than 2 1/2 hours. Not what I had hoped, but respectable considering the wind and the pain I was in. Boy was I delusional. About 1/2 mile from the rest stop was a hill that I didn't even remember coming down on the way out. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even pedal any more. I stopped and tried to walk, but that hurt too. After about 10 minutes of walking I finally made it up the hill and started riding again. Less than 2 minutes later it started to pour. I was now soaked through. I couldn't see because my glasses were foggy and wet. I stopped so I could take them off and just let the hail hit me in the face without any protection. I just kept telling myself, two more miles, two more miles. These were the most painful and slow two miles I have ever ridden. I could only go 8 mph and it hurt every time I tried to use my left leg. Finally after 3 hours I made it and could wait to get my wet clothes off and get warm again. It stopped raining and I thought I would go buy a $20 worth of raffle tickets since all of the proceeds went to a good cause (Huntsman Cancer Institute). I arrived at the pavilion and they were serving lunch. I thought okay, I need to get some fuel in me. I grabbed a sub, some watermellon and cheetos. I went to sit down and saw the fountain drinks. I don't know what it is about riding, but after a long ride all I want is Diet Coke. I filled a small cup and sat down. I took a bite of my sandwich and thought, wait where is my $20?? From the time I walked to the pavilion and sat down I had lost my money. I was ticked. I was wet, cold, tired, in a lot of pain and now I lost my money. It was then that I started noticing that I was wheezing. The cold air and rain had given me a bad cough and I was having trouble breathing. I thought great, I am finally starting to get in decent shape that I can ride these rides and my asthma is going to give me problems if the weather isn't perfect. I ate a few more bites of my sandwhich and a couple of chips and decided I was done. I gathered everything up and then threw it away. I started to walk away and I remembered I had my cell phone in my hand when I tossed my lunch and now I don't. I had thrown it and my license in the garbage!!! Luckily noone else had put anything in it so they were on the top. I walked to my car and said I am done. I am going home and not doing anything the rest of the day, and here I am. I took a shower and then slept the rest of the day away and decided I should blog this before I forget all of the details of my lovely day. Another lovely picture of me in my pretty blue jacket. :-)

Kids

As much as I love visiting Isaac and Khania in Evanston, I miss playing at the beach and watching the kids even more. They are so much fun to watch and Grant has so much energy that sometimes I am exhausted just watching him.

Bad Dreams

Have you ever had a bad dream and woke up completely ornery? Last night I had the worst dream. I was yelling at my brother and telling him what an embarrassment he was and that we were all ashamed of how he was behaving. I woke up just after that dream and I have been in a bad mood ever since. Even now 14 hours later I am still in a pretty bad mood.

Sod, Flowers and Veggies

I moved into my house 4 1/2 years ago. While the house was in decent shape, the yard was atrocious. The sprinkler system was complete crap and there wasn't any kind of landscaping in at all. The first year I focused on the front yard. I seeded the lawn, side yard and park strips. I planted four trees, iris, day lillies, daisies, tulips and chrysanthemums. All of these survived and are still doing very well.

Year two was spent weeding and trying to help the plants in front survive. The morning glory in Riverton is just awful. It is a never ending battle trying to get rid of them. I also began trying to figure out how I could landscape the back and somehow get the West side of my house cooler. With the help of my family we put in a good sized deck and some sod that my dad's friend gave me.

Year three was the year of the sprinkler system. I had attempted to hire a friend's brother who owns a landscaping business to come install the system, but he ended up flaking out. Knowing that I had tried, my dad felt bad and started to work on it himself in late Summer. I hired someone to come in and design the system and we began the long tedious process that is installation. Since we could only work on the project on Saturday's it took several months to complete. Travis trenched the entire yard, my dad, mom and I laid all of the pipe, and my dad did all of the electrical work. By the time we had gotten that far, it was winter and time to quit. While working on the system, Travis had cut down my front fence so he could trench the yard easier. Nala also decided that she wanted to see what was going on next door and decided to take a look. For those of you that don't know, Nala is Michael's Great Dane and they live next door. Having a 200lbs dog trying to peak over put a lot of stress on the poorly built fence and it eventually toppled. So we decided it was time to put in a new fence in March. We ended up going with a tan vinyl fence (no maintenance products is all I do).

Year four involved finishing the sprinkler system during the spring. We also laid about 600 sq ft of sod that year as well. I spent so much time out of town last year I really didn't get to do much on the yard. Between Girls Camp, Snowbird and my 3 Chicago trips, the summer was gone.

Year Five so far has been a really busy year. I laid 2000 sq ft of sod. I planted a salsa garden and a peach tree and by the end of the summer will have raspberry bushes, a compost area and my southwest corner will finally be cleared of the sticker weeds and huge clumps of cement (thank you Michael).

I am so excited to finish these projects. I have not had a garden since I moved and I have truly missed making homemade salsa. It is such a stress reliever for me. While I was studying for my CPA exam I would listen to Mr Joe Ben Hoyle on CD and blanch, dice and bottle salsa for hours. I think it greatly contributed to my passing the exam that November. I am also excited for all of the peppers. I always have more peppers than I can possible use for the salsa and I am going to try drying them and then making spices out of them. I love to cook with pepper spices all year round. My favorites are cayenne and habenaro!!!

Movies, Movies and more Movies

I have not been going to see many new releases lately (I couldn't justify having premium satellite and going to new releases), but this week I have seen a plethora. Last Monday I went and saw "The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian", Saturday I saw "Iron Man", yesterday I saw "Indiana Jones and the Valley of the Crystal Skull" and Friday I am going to see "Sex and the City"! Oh how I have missed the movies. This summer is packed full of fun popcorn flicks that I cannot wait to see.