My life: Dayjob. Wrapping most free moments. Riding my bike on weekends (~100 miles a weekend) Tennis 3x during the week. Long distance relationship with a cycling/roadie 6' hottie in NM with a shaved head, tattoos and blue eyes.

Life is good. ;)

We were out for 5 hours!! You'd think we did a metric or something. Nope. 47 miles. Tried some hills,. Ate a long lunch. Had a couple of breaks. On the bridge, on the road for nl to stretch (she DID do a marathon last weekend!)

I've officially begun my farmer's tan.

Well, I had it perfectly planned. Leave when I feel like it, get to Winters. Solano an option. Eat at Steady Eddies. Ride home and pick up bananas on the way.... I really enjoy riding with nl, but I also like to ride alone. Not worry about riders around you, getting single file when a car zooms by, calling out debris and cars...just thinking, and pacing yourself on your ride, taking it all in...

So the ride there was great! Not many out, getting nods/waves/hellos from roadies going the other way,  happy to be on the road....I get to Steady Eddies, Diane takes my order, and I sit outside. There's a young male roadie a couple of tables down. He catches my eye, and smiles and  it's Eliza's hubby!  OF course, I wouldn't recognize him, since until that moment I'd never seen him without his helmet and sunglasses, although we've had nice conversations on other rides. lol.

So we chat about teaching, riding, and I'm trying to discretely stuff my face with my breakfast panini, when DR and RR ride up.

Eric rides off, DR and RR join me, and then so do J and the-man-that-looks-like-Jack. DR insists that I wait and ride back with them, and maybe catch another group of riders that are heading to the bakery in Dixon. So I do, although I'd rather ride off by myself,  it seems like that would be rude.

So I hang out longer than I like, and we finally head out., the 5 of us. Then we just turn onto Putah Creek it seems when Editor and ? join our casual double paceline.  And the speed picks up, as it always does. We're 7 or so miles out of Winters, keeping about 16 to 17 when J drops off the end. I let DR know, and she drops back. She tells me to go ahead with the other men, so I have someone to ride back with  (??!! )
so I do. Now the pace picks up to 19-20 and I'm in the company of 4 long legged mature male riders. Ack. I keep up just fine I guess, and we get to a turn of (yay!!)...Editor , ? and RR turn right (YAY!)  Long-blond-ponytail stays with me, says he'll ride with me to Pedrick. LBP is a nice guy, and I enjoy his company, so that's cool. But RR has turned around to join us too. Sigh. 3 on a busy road, with cars speeding by. Fine. I hate hugging the edge, so I go outside.

I'm determined to get bananas and get my solo ride. And I'm getting tired. I still have to keep up, mind you.  I'm pushing harder than I like since I haven't ridden since I got sick, and then the rains. 

So it ends up that RR rides all the way to Davis with me. By the end I'm coasting into Old Davis Road at 13 ! I tell him to go ahead, but he stays. He did watch my bike while I got bananas! (forgot my lock.)

I rode a hard 40 miles. I  suffered a bit for it this evening, but it's great to finally  get out and ride!

I may live happily frugal, eating rice and tuna and leftovers, but when it comes to stock picks? I'm the one that goes crazy. I like risky. I know my gain in index in my 403 is about a 27% gain. I know nice safe dividend picks. But I've sort of convinced myself to buy more of AFR - a commercial REIT. Dividend is 6.8%. But it's a REIT in transition, and a riskier play. It could really pay off, it could be bought out. I would be so heavy into REIT, there IS no balance in my Roth. I'm playing with my retirement. It's not my main retirement vehicle: I have my 403 to be that, on top of my little pension. (Not yet maxed by a long shot: that will happen after I get through dd's college costs)...so  I lack the same reasoning ability as db, albeit a different area.

Dang.

 Spin class was good, but with temps in the 20-30's, I WANT to be on the road again. Of course I would be miserable, so I'm waiting for March. I don't know if I'll do March Madness, and now there's a tempting tidbit...Mei called this morning. They're going to start a Woman's Level 5 (I think Womans...or is it co-ed?) tennis team, and she asked me if I would play. But it's March on Saturday. I like to ride on the weekends, although I won't play matches on weeknights, except for my Die Hard Doubles group, because it takes too much time and my life is already over-booked. What to do. I'm so tempted to play. But I want to ride. And I'm not so good playing tennis with women anyway. But I am thinking about it...

Cary got me the dates for the San Juan Island tour this summer. It's in August. A week. Riding. Would dd let me go?

I am SOOOO set! I now am the proud mama of a 10" old Highland Park saw that spits oil like there's no tomorrow, and eats up any rock up to the size of a baseball, and an awesome Workforce 7" wet tile saw that trims and manages to slab little rocks!! I'm one happy cabber.

My Etsy is now all Sock Bugs, Baby Bugs and pendants. I'm out of a spinning mood. Big into my rocks.

I can't help it. I NEED a 10" lapidary trim saw. Called from an add in the Matrix, the guy wanted $475...then the ebay ones looked good. So good, I'm winnin g on not one, but TWO saws. Ack. ~ $200 each. I hope to lose on the newer model, there's an old Highland, that looks amazing. All aluminum, 55 pounds of machine. Old and basic. I love it. I got impatient and bid too early, if I just held off, I could have won it at what I'm at now, but I got stupid. Dang. I DO know better, but if it gets away, I'll wait. 

I'm thinking I don't need a slab 24" monster, I could go with a chisel and hammer to break them down to 4-5" chunks. I mean, I do agate and jasper, for pete's sake.  Save on diamond saws too. So that's the plan.

Oh- and a biggie. To cement my side yard, extend the fence, move the storage unit, and have an extended roof covering for that side yard, so I can have an outside shop space. And a 'doggie' fence, to keep in Woody, and my future bunny. A garbage can shorter fence cubby, so I don't have to roll those in and out. Have an outlet outside, as well. Replace the doors. That's what I would do next to my house.

I could do lapidary outside. Empty out a large part of the house. After that, for the inside, I would tile the downstairs and add a pellet burning stove down there.

Sunday, I really wanted a ride. I left after eating my usual piece of toast with a bit of butter, and jam. I rode 17 or so miles to WInters, stopped and had a gel. Felt good, so I headed for Lake Solano. Got there, and ate half a Luna bar. Drank water, of course. I head back via Pedrick. About .5 from the Pedrick Produce, my blood sugar drops. I feel shaky, light headed, and I think 'Oh hell. I let myself bonk...' 

Why do I think it's supposed to feel differently? Feel a bit  tired, or little weak first, instead of BAM! ? Considering what I had eaten so far, at 40 miles, of course I would need more in my system. 

Of course, I made it that last bit. Tried to look cool and collected, as I downed the rest of the Luna, drank water, then went inside and bought bananas, Gatorade, corn and an avocado. I just ate the banana and drank some Gatorade, and stowed the rest in my rack trunk for dinner. 

Cycling is amazing. Fueled, I was fine the last 10 miles home. 

Tennis is different. I just start missing shots, when my body has used it's stores. Then I eat a gel or something, and I'm fine.  I thought I was going to pass out or fall over on the side of the road when my blood sugar dropped that quickly on a bike. I suppose the exertion is different, or something.

I want this in the worse kind of way. I won't go over Cardiac into Napa without this. I won't tour without this. I'm not forsaking my DF (I need some kind of workout) but this is the way to go for a tour. I'm going to start a ING catagory and start saving for this. Even if it's $10 a month. I swear.

FINALLY getting in the Etsy mode again. Sent out biz card exchanges. Working on all things. I have no idea what the Knitty.com review will do. It's so slow for me now, I even dropped prices on yarns and the heart tags! Not that any of that helped me. lol.  Now, back to work for me, and dream of the perfect tail wind and good food on the road..

Yep. Haven't been in a swimming pool for over 12 years. And then, it was standing in the shallow end, with my children.

So nl and I bike about 40 miles. And she's been asking if I want to swim laps at the Rec pool...I hem, I haw, but it's a big 108 degrees, so I finally say yes.  

Eegad! It wasn't hard physically, but EVERY SINGLE TIME my head goes under water, a thought like -ohmygodIcan't take a breath under water- races through my mind, and I have an overwhelming compulsion to take a breath. Oh yeah. Try taking laps while you're hyperventilating...

I managed 2.5 laps, between crawl and breast stroke(while I calmed my panic attacks/ head above water). It also didn't help having borrowed nl's extra goggles, and seeing 'stuff' floating around. They're kids EVERYWHERE outside the lap lanes, and you *know* what kids do in warm water...

Anywhoo, I've had enough for another dozen years... and riding in 104 degrees, 4 miles up and 4 back on top of 40 was a bit much. HOT!