Funny video

I posted this on my facebook page but I've heard that not everyone checks it regularly, so I thought I'd post it here.  I just found this amusing and it reminded me of our family.

Video

MS 150 turned 170-ish

I'm a few days late in reporting, but I think I probably should document this experience in some way.

I completed the MS 150 bike ride last weekend in Logan.  Randy used to work for Hammer Nutrition, so he sent me with all kinds of powder to make shakes and pills for electrolytes and stuff like that, along with eating instructions.  

The first day was the century ride.  You were given the option of completing the 40, 75, or 100-mile route.  Of course I was determined to do the 100-mile route.  I didn't eat much for breakfast, per Randy's advice, and kept fueled with the stuff he'd given me.  It actually worked out really well.  

I went up with Devin (Rob's friend who does this ride and has organized a group every year for the last 7 years) and his friend, Jared.  Jared was really struggling at the 50-mile mark and ended up just taking the 75-mile route back.  Devin had a time goal this time around, so that's right around when I told him to go ahead without me.  

I was actually pretty impressed by my pace and how good I felt right up until about mile 85, then I was just beat.  I met a lady and got talking with her, which helped both of us get through the last few miles.  Seriously, the last 5 were the hardest I've ever done.  Right around then I kept trying to remind myself that I was grateful to have a body that allowed me to push it that hard.  Grateful to have my good health and kept thinking of those people who didn't have that.  It felt SO good to cross that finish line and know what I had just accomplished.

The next day we were also given the option to do a 40, (unofficial) 50, or 75-mile ride.  Devin said that normally they take the 50-mile route, which was supposed to be a pretty easy recovery ride up a canyon.  I started out with Devin and his chiropractor partner, Jay.  (Partner in their chiropractor business... not his partner who happens to be a chiropractor... Just wanted to clarify)  

So anywayzzz, we started through the city, following the route to the canyon.  Devin had to leave early, so he took off ahead, rode for a bit of the canyon, then headed back.  I rode most of the route with Jay, got to the turn-around point, and he said he needed to get a ride back to the fairgrounds (the start/finish and where we were camping) early, so I took off by myself.

I got back to the city but didn't know which way to go.  Long story short, I found some bikers and thought I was on the short route back to the fairgrounds.  I kept asking people if this route led back to the fairgrounds cuz I did NOT want to do the whole 75-mile route.  One guy told me that I was on the 75-mile route and that I might as well finish it out cuz it was the quickest way back to the fairgrounds at that point.   I thought he was joking.  

Turns out he wasn't.

So there was one section of that route that I believe I skipped, making my route about 70 miles instead of the full 75.  It would have been ok, except I kept thinking the end was right around this next corner and I also hadn't eaten to prepare for that long of a ride.  We had a kind of heavy breakfast and because I kept thinking the end was right around the corner I didn't take all the rest stops available.  I even saw "4 miles" spray-painted on the road at one point, so I thought I'd finally made it.  That must have been for something else, though, cuz I still had about 15 miles go to at that point.

I did finally make it back and luckily (for me) Jay had had car problems, so he was still there when I arrived so he was able to give me a much-needed adjustment before I left.

My final conclusion- Road biking is boring.  I do not see why people would do it outside of a competition except maybe to train for one.  I can see the appeal of the event, but I am still undecided on whether or not I will do this again next year.  Maybe if actually train in advance and I can convince some more people to join me I will...  Any takers?  :)

Randy's first mountain bike ride!

So I took Randy mt. biking today. Our goal was to do a very popular "beginner's" ride. It's a 7-mile out-and-back route up Millcreek Canyon. It's part of the Pipeline trail, but the section we were planning on doing was called Birch Hollow. If you follow the Pipeline trail further down, there are several different shorter trails you can do as entry points. One of those is called Rattlesnake Gulch.
Here's what the website says about it, "While most of the Pipeline is easy cruising, we wouldn't recommend taking a newbie down Rattlesnake Gulch. This descent is advanced technical. When the dust gets deep and slippery, Rattlesnake can be a white-knuckle slide for the best riders."
We drove around for a bit, looking for the entry to Birch Hollow. Instead, I saw a sign that said, "Pipeline" and decided that was it.
You guessed it, we had arrived at the base of Rattlesnake Gulch.
So after struggling UP this ridiculous down-hillers' trail for about 20 minutes, I realized we may be in the wrong area. We rode back down it, THEN noticed the sign. Oops. :)

Anyway, long story short, we found the right trailhead, road Birch Hollow down to one of the other entry trails (not Rattlesnake) and headed back to the car.
We were seriously like 100 yards from my car when a car came up from behind us and wanted to pass. Randy was behind me and was riding as close to the edge of the pavement as he could so they could get by. In doing so, however, he caught the edge of the pavement with his tire and supermanned off the bike. When the car got to me, the driver and passenger both had shocked looks on their faces and pointed for me to go back.

Anyway, luckily Randy's ok. He just cut his chin, and scraped his nose, shoulder, a few fingers, knee, and leg... Overall, I was very impressed. Especially how he handled Rattlesnake, PLUS he agreed to go with me again some time! :D

Oh, btw Marty, the bike's fine... After some minor adjustments... :)

Below are photos of the carnage, also added to my Facebook account.

Bless his heart. :)

Randy's new addition! Oh, and a random guy at D.I.

So I was talking to Kryn and Gregan last weekend about my blog and how I never have anything interesting to blog about.

Well, this weekend was definitely different.

Friday afternoon I made some incredible homemade bread, thanks to Dad's advice and Mom's "Tried and True" recipe book. Randy was thoroughly impressed.

Then we went to D.I. to look for a dresser for Randy's son who lives in MT but is spending pretty much all of July out here. (By the way, Randy has a 6-year-old son) :)

Randy had never been to a D.I. so I was excited to show him all the random treasures and see his reaction to the always-interesting crowd that accompany D.I. As we were walking around, taking it all in, looking at the dressers we heard a huge crash and breaking of glass. I turned around to see a guy jumping up from a broken table with a look of utter shock on his face.

A D.I. employee happened to be walking by just then and his face most definitely had, "oh, jeez, do I really have to go over there...?" written all over it.

So he walked over to the guy and asked if he was ok and the man said, "I think I have glass in my butt." With that, Randy and I had to slip around the corner before bursting out in uncontrollable laughter. Yeah, we're mean.

After D.I. we decided to go look at pets at the Humane Society. I'm not sure whose idea it was, but I'm pretty sure Randy had been wanting a pet for a while and I just wanted to go play with puppies. The whole way there Randy just kept saying, "I'm going to leave today with an animal! I can't have a dog in my house... I can't get a dog..." But his tone said that he was actually trying to work out a way for him to keep a dog in his house.

First, we looked at the little dogs, since that would be the most logical for his one-level condo, and cuz I wanted to play with the puppies, of course. We saw a few hyper-active chihuahua mixes and a poodle from an apparently infamous "poodle house" http://www.sltrib.com/News/ci_12594477 (very sad story) but none he was really interested in.

Then we looked at some cats. He didn't want to have to clean up after a kitten or a puppy, so he was looking for something that was already housebroken. In my opinion, the only reason anyone has cats is because they were at some point an adorable kitten. I don't see the point in buying one past that stage.

We then moved on to the bigger dogs. There were 3 different black lab mixes that we just fell in love with right away. One of whom, was Lola. At first, we thought she was not the smartest duck in the bucket cuz she has this look (as pictured) that she does any time you talk to her where she cocks her head to the side and stares intently. Turns out, though, she's one of the best fetchin' dogs I've ever seen. She's an athlete and she LOVES to play. Isn't she adorable?? Her favorite games are fetch and tug-o-war and she already knows "sit" and "stay."

Right when we got her home we gave her a bath. She didn't love that, but she was SOO well-behaved. Didn't even shake off till we were done rinsing her. After her bath we went for a walk... She's not so good on a leash yet...

Randy got her a big wire kennel to sleep in and he said she slept all through the night without even barking or whining!

Today I'm dog-sitting while Randy's at the dentist. She's been kinda sick though. She has had a runny nose and cough this morning and has been asleep for about the last 3 hours. While she was in the shelter she had developed and gotten over something called kennel cough, and the workers there said there's a chance she could get it again. He's taking her in today or tomorrow to have it checked out. Poor thing's exhausted but she's just so sweet.

Gregan thinks we should arrange a play date for Spiche and Lola. Once she's feeling better and I know she can't get Spiche sick, we'll make it happen. Don't worry, I'll document it for you.

*Update*

When Randy got back from the dentist we went to the dog park. She's great with the other dogs, but she absolutely LOVES chasing and catching balls. Even if she had one in her mouth she would drop it and go chase after the balls other owners were throwing for their dogs. She's super fast and she's got mad hops, so the other dogs don't have a chance. She's so sweet though, they couldn't even get mad at her.

After the dog park I took her for a walk using some leash-training tips we found online and she's practically trained already. She's seriously one of the fastest learners I know, and I'm a high school teacher! ;) Hahahaha

Here's Lola!!

This is the look she gives when you have a ball in your hand and she's DYING for you to throw it. Otherwise it's cocked to her left, as shown below.

This is the look she gives any time you talk without a ball in your hand. The higher pitch your voice goes, the higher her right ear goes. She's adorable. :)

This was a long one, but I've been overdue for a while. Thanks for hangin in there!

One more great time-waster

I actually found this one as a result of surfing Jaron's "99 sites you should've seen by now" list.  So have at it, Gregan and thanks, Jar!

http://failblog.org/

There are some great ones on there!

How I'm procrastinating now...

I went to dinner last night with a friend who told me about this website:

http://funnyexam.com/

I'm already feeling antsy with the end of the year coming up, so it is really a bad time to be introducing new ways to waste time, but I thought I'd pass it along.  There are some pretty funny ones.

Enjoy!  :)

Poll Results

Results are in, and apparently I'm supposed to make a new blog about it.  (Thanks for the info, Kryn, I had no idea!)

Wow, I'm surprised so many people voted for Education! Actually I'm not, but I'm pretty sure you all only voted for that one cuz I'm a teacher and it seems like a logical step.
In reality, one reason I'm thinking of getting my master's is so I have something to do if I decide not to teach for the rest of my life.
I've been contemplating speech language pathology, but really ears interest me more than swallowing and stutters. Being an SLP would be cool, though.
I'm surprised no one chose Math, even as a joke.
I keep going back to linguistics myself, though. I really like the study of language and how language develops. The big question, however, is what do I do with a master's in linguistics?