Okay, okay. So my blogging has been a little more scarce and boring. I blam it on Ryan's and my new found addiction to the Soprano's. We watch 2-3 episodes a night and can't turn them off. It's great down time from the bike but we've already watched damn near 20+ shows and at 50 minutes a piece - well that's a ridiculous amount of time to spend in front of the tube. I think we wouldn't be watching as much if Ry's neck wasn't screwed up. He tweaked it about a month ago and still has a hard time with full mobility. And when Ryan can't exercise - he drives me crazy. :)

This past weekend lent to some interesting riding. On Saturday we had "the worst wind storm in 6 years" pass through the Seattle area. My backyard looked like a branch sprawl and filled our yard waste container after clean up. I don't know what to do about our yard - we don't have any grass anymore and it looks like a huge mud pit. Thanks to all the rain we have mass moss growing. I'm almost ready to hire a landscaper to come out and give their professional opinion. Anyway - back to riding. I was invited by Tim to do a CT workout for an hour or so. I jumped on that and managed to get in a total of 2.5 hours.

Sunday was fun - I hooked up with Kele at 9:30 at the UW bridge and we headed to the south end on our way to Cougar. We were almost to Seward when she said her front wheel felt funny and had to stop. Good thing - her rim from years of breaking and grinding in dirt into it splintered apart. "Mike usually takes care of things - that's why that wheel was sitting alone in the corner!" Thank goodness my neck gimped husband was on call and after a trip to Ballard to refill our Biodiesel while he waited for a guy with a 40 gallon pick up truck to fill up - headed to Seward with a spare front wheel and on we went. It was only an hour later when we got moving again - and the hungry bell started screaming at me. Then as we were at the base of cougar putting excess clothing away in our fanny pack like jersery's - Kele discovered she had busted off a rear spoke. But rather than take it off and add it to the plethora of goodies in her pockets - she wrapped it around another spoke and said - "I'm not letting a broken spoke keep me from doing this climb - twice." Freaking' hardcore! So I told her basically the route (minus a few important details) on how to get up the mountain and said I'd meet her at the top. Already I was defeated in my climb mentally (something I am seriously working on!.... I think I can, I think I can I think I can Etc, etc.) and off we went. So the section I forgot about leant Kele into taking a wrong turn and next thing I know I'm rounding the last corner and her she comes like a climbing banchee behind me and whirls by. It was as if I was standing still. Well - if she can do it I can do it. And I'm going to die trying to climb from now on. I talked to Miller about it and he said it just comes with practice and getting in the rythm. And I'm going to throw myself at it just like I do with any other physical challenge and I'm bound to see improvement from where I'm at. :)

But back to the ride - so we're on our way back down the hill and we pass these three guys and he yells at Kele something to the effect of "IMPRESSIVE." Nice work kele - if he only knew about your front rim and then rear spoke - or maybe you told him about it on your way up the hill as you screamed by....