Because the weather was so lovely today, my husband and I decided to go to “Pothole Park” and do some hiking and climbing. The park is really called Interstate State Park, but we call it Pothole Park because the park has potholes! It’s much easier to recall a park by its identifying features. Half way there, I realized I had forgotten my camera! My sweet husband offered to turn around and get it, but I thought that would’ve been rather silly. I just took some crummy photos with my cell phone.

One thing I love about the park is that the ground there is nearly completely stone with some deposits of silt/dirt here and there, and so the park is full of amazing trees growing up from the rock. I love how the roots are visible, twisting and vining every which way, supporting the trunk and gathering nutrients.

Here’s a pothole! I’d say this one is a mid-size pothole. There are many small ones, as big across as your foot. There are some that are much larger. The “Bottomless Pit” is 10 feet wide and 60 feet deep!

We saw a stickbug! I had never seen one in the wild before. Probably due to the amazing camouflage! We caught this one crawling up the side of a rock wall we were climbing. It followed us to the top and crawled up Ash’s leg, where I attempted to take a photo. Dumb phone cam. It’s blurry, but you can see it…

So we climbed around on the rocks until we were dripping in sweat, and then we walked into town and had a nice lunch at Schoony’s Malt Shop & Pizzeria. They have good pizza and delicious ice cream! Then we headed home.

So, back to Computrainer! Here’s my setup! I have the software on my hubby’s computer in the basement, and the computer is hooked up to a projector so I can ride courses on the big screen! I love it. I bought one Real Course video when I bought the trainer, it’s the Ironman Coeur d’Alene. I chose it for the scenery (I don’t think I’ll be doing an Ironman anytime soon!). I haven’t ridden the whole course yet, but it has been fun so far. The video speeds up or slows down according to your speed, and the resistance changes according to the terrain on the course. I seem to sweat more on the Computrainer than I do on the road. It must have a little more resistance than riding outdoors. That’s fine by me. Hopefully, I’ll have lots of time to ride inside over the winter, and I’ll be in great shape by spring.

Here’s a screencap of what I’m looking at. You can see a sample video of the course on this page.

(crummy cell phone photo!)

On Tuesday I saw Chicago (the band!) with my mom and grandma. Sort of girls night out, I guess. We had a bite to eat and a few drinks before the concert, and had a lovely evening. Here’s a crappy video I took with my cell phone!

Mom brought over this special gift which she purchased for me at a yard sale for $30! It’s a fun retro Minolta XE-5 35mm camera! It came in this super heavy-duty metal case with lots of extra goodies. I got electronic flash, cleaning kit, polarizing filter, remote shutter release, and telephoto and wide-angle lenses, as well as the original manuals. I have some old film in the fridge just waiting to get loaded into this baby.

Haven’t posted for a while, and here’s why!
June 6th - 8th, I did the MS150! It’s a 150-mile bike tour ridden in two days. 75 miles on Saturday and again on Sunday. It was definitely one of the most challenging physical endeavors I’ve ever undertaken. I didn’t do much training for the event - the longest ride I attempted beforehand was 40 miles. I was incredibly sore at the end, but I surprised myself by making pretty good time on both days. I averaged about 15mph on Saturday and 17mph on Sunday. And to top it off, I was riding a mountain bike! I’m really hoping to get a new road bike for next year. I signed up to do it again in ‘09!

In order to carry more stuff with me on the ride, I made this “box” that attaches to the top bar of my bike with velcro. The commercial version of this is called a “Bento Box” and it can be had very cheaply, but by the time I decided I wanted one, it was too near the date of the event to order and get it shipped in time. So I made my own! It is constructed from pieces of plastic canvas sandwiched between layers of heavy black canvas fabric. I added a vinyl top that attaches with Velcro for quick access. Once it’s all sewn together, it’s quite stiff and once attached to the bike, it can hold a slew of energy bars, a cell phone, tools… any small items you need on the road. Mine had a tendency to lean to the right a bit, so I think I need to adjust the way the Velcro is sewn on. Overall, it worked very well though!

After the MS150, my husband and I went on a trip to the Chicago area for the week! We visited family who live in the area, went to the science museum, ate tons of Chinese food and did a lot of shopping. One of my favorite shopping spots is Mitsuwa Marketplace in Arlington Heights. There’s a great Japanese bookstore there that carries Japanese craft books. I bought a handful of crafty books and magazines that looked inspiring! I’ll definitely feature some of them here in the future.

Soooo, I’ve been busy, but I’m back in action now and should be posting regularly as before!

On Puerto Rico, I bought 2 neat wrap dresses in San Juan! These each have two layers of coordinating fabric with ruffly edges. You can tie them in several different configurations, this photo shows just a few! I don’t know where I’ll ever wear them, other than vacations. I have a lot of clothes like that! I have a little collection of some kimono and salwar kameez sets and one silky saree I won on eBay, and I very rarely get enough guts to wear any of this out of the house. haha At least I’ve joined a Japanese dance group now, so I can wear my kimono once in a while.

Anyhoo, I don’t know what possessed me, but there was a Claire’s in San Juan and I got some new hair sticks. It was strangely comforting to see stores that we have back home. We also saw plenty of McDonald’s, Burger King, Hooters, and Hard Rock Cafes throughout the voyage. We ate at the Hooters in St. Thomas. It was tasty, but a little expensive IMO. haha In St. Thomas I also bought some ginger sauce and some piña colada tea! mmmm I love ginger, and I’ll put it in darn near everything I cook in some form or another. Ginger sauce is very friendly with stir fry and curry. It adds such a nice tangy sweetness.

I made the mistake of not bringing my own camera on this trip and depending on my brother and husband for photos… hence I have none. I will certainly post a few good ones as soon as I get my hands on them, we did take a lot.

I just returned from a Caribbean cruise, and I’m proud to say that I didn’t spend an incredible amount of money! haha This is mostly due to the fact that the island shops are overrun with imported goods, so you see a lot of the same cheesy souvenirs at every stop on the voyage. However, I found some imports in Puerto Rico that I could not pass up! It was a shop selling bellydance gear and various cool things from India.

In a stack on the floor, hiding in a corner of the shop, I found these sweet old skool prints of Hindu deities. They are so beautifully ideal and full of symbolism. Only $3 each. I wish I had bought more of them, but I was afraid they’d get destroyed in my suitcase on the journey home. I’ve been enjoying reading about the adventures of each one on the web. I’ll have to search for a good book so I can learn more…