A Day/Week in the Life....

Mon-Fri - the work week - the weekly grind - paying the piper -- brining home the bacon....whatever you want to call it, here is where it all takes place:

Lunch and Happy Hour are only a short tunnel walk away....action shot in "the tunnel" --
And our destination is:
No, it is not glamorous or upscale, but it is our "Cheers" -- The Inn Between, which opened in our parking garage last fall. We have had many Happy Hours with our friends debating anything and everything...yes, Leonard and Kim are always on opposite sides of the debate....but most importantly, we work is rarely a topic of conversation and it is a nice way to end our week and transistion into weekend freedom. Here is the usual crowd:

Happy Work Week to all and yes, we are halfway to next weekend!!!!

SNOW RIDING!!!

Last week we rode in the cold....but this week it was the SNOW!! Great time, very slow moving, lots of snowy ruts to slide through but very very picturesque. Snow was falling at a steady clip throughout the ride, making it difficult to even see where the trail went....one other group of riders were out...by the time we retraced out route, you could not even see our previous tracks due to the newly fallen snow...what a wonderful day of riding.


Here are some snapshots of the scenery (ignore my big gloves that got in the way):




And me winding my way through the trail system:

And finally the aftermath:

FIRST MTB RIDE OF 2007!!!

It finally froze...but so did out toes

riding the crispy JB trails with the deer on our tails

19 degrees at the start but the wooded background looked of art

JB consists of three trail systems

Powerline, Abracadabra and Great Scott

PL and Great Scott were open for action on today....

My favorite ramp @ JB lives on Great Scott....it probably the smallest but with no effort you can always catch a little air........ ( **this is obviously not a picture from yesterday!!)

Although Saturday was all about biking, I also managed to hit the antiques with Kim...here are my purchases all for upcoming projects. The two nails with the big heads were used to hang pictures but who would put a nail this big in their wall?? I hope you hit a stud or that will be on BIG hole....anyway, I'll have to see how I can put it to use....

Lastly, it was off to dinner with Deb and Kelly. We headed to the Lazy Chameleon...a small bar that serves great Key West Style Seafood...it is in a weird location, with crazy mix of music, food and drinks. We, however, had no problem finishing off the shrimp, scallops, chocolate martinis and margaritas!

I'm BACK......

OK. Miss Blogger Police - I will plead no contest to the charge...but here we go:



Freakonomics -- still reading, I like to spread it out chapter by chapter so it will not be over too soon....no I do not believe it is dry. I find it interesting.



On the reading subject - I have finished The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (book 2 - Chronicles of Narnia). It was good several things popped up that I forgot about from the movie.



I also read The Great Gatsby - it was ok, I am glad I can say I read it but I was glad when it was over.



Currently, along with Freakonomics I am reading the Iraq Report and Middlesex. I know very very little about the Iraq and the Middle East in general. Although, the Iraq Report is extremely boring and yes dry - I have educated myself a bit. Now I understand the news stories a bit more and why the Sunni's would be upset with the Shiite's --and who the Kurds are etc - I still do not have enough info to form an educated opinion on the war, withdrawal, resurgence etc...but I am learning.



Now onto a lighter note---the puppies are getting so BIG - I can't to see them again...they are so so cute!!

It is getting cold here in OH --- lows for the next few night 17, 17, 19 -- I AM SO HAPPY -

A HARD FREEZE AT LAST!!!! HARD FREEZE = GET THE MTN BIKE OUT!!! Trails will be reopened this weekend and I will be there 7:30 sharp to get in some much needed miles on dirt...frozen dirt!! YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

bad picture of my MTB rig -- freeze. freeze. freeze!!!!

Reading and creating....

2007 has gotten off on the right foot in the reading department, hopefully I can keep it up! I am currently reading:

This book has caught my attention over the past couple months at B&N -- so when the TBR Challenge came to be I had to buy it...must be something from my economic roots (yes, my degree is in economics) kept telling me it was a must read. The book focuses on a bunch of odd relationships and analyzes data to draw comparisons and correlations. Yes, you can pretty much correlate any two pieces of data together but is there a causal connection? This book asks some of those questions, shows some to be true and other logical assumptions to be false. Topics I have read about so far include:

• What do school teacher and sumo wrestlers have in common -- this explores has incentive based performance objectives can lead to cheating


• How is the KKK like a group of real estate agents -- an exploration of power derived by the possession of information that another party lacks


• Why do drug dealers still live with their Moms -- comparison of how foot soldiers (street dealers) who make less than minimum wages selling seek high posts within the drug gangs just as high school footballs places and young actresses strive to make it to the big stage even though the numbers are against them

Along the way you learn bits of information into each of the classes that are discussed through the eyes of an unexpected observer -- the KKK through the eyes of an infiltrator, the Black Disciples through the eyes of a graduate student collecting research data. Very interesting to me although I know probably a boring turn off to most. The book has been quite a success and there is even an associated blog --

Freakonomics blog

-- the blog focus is not as in depth but still offers insight into strange questions -- what do Bill Clinton and Jessica Simpson have in common?

Besides reading I have a couple of projects I will be working on over the next couple months -- the first will be a present to my Mom to display in her new kitchen. She is a recently retired school teacher.....here are my supplies:

eventually I will post the finished product.

New Year's Weekend

Since my birthday is 12/30, it is always a very eventful time around the turn of the year. This year, my 33rd birthday, was celebrated in conjunction with Heather's 30th birthday. We started out at The Inn Between but had a bit too much fun as Heather was unable to make it through dinner at Hyde Park -- a top notch Steak House here in Columbus. The dinner was excellent except for the absence of the birthday girl.

Leonard at dinner missing his birthday girl:

Then to New Year's Eve, the party was at our house, good friends, good drinks and fun for all.....even if you were just watching Absolutely Fabulous..:)

This time Leonard was the one who had to much fun....


Even the dogs were beat by the end of the night -- looks at poor nelly and kaj:



The holiday ended with much needed sleep--sleeping in past noon both Monday and Tuesday. Now it is time to get back to the grind........

New Friends and Finds from 2006

New Friends from 2006.....
the Kirk's Folly DW's quite a group....

Chicagoland Friends....future neighbors????



Along with new friends, I had a handful of "firsts" in 2006
--first made from scratch cake....cherry coffee cake
--first marshmallows from scratch, thanks Sandy for the recipe--well officially they were done today so I guess that is 2007
--first CHICAGO HOT DOG
--first trips to QVC, Rhode Island and Houston
--First, second and third trips to Chicago
--First bar we could call our own "Cheers"...The Inn Between where our Happy Hour friends meet religiously every Friday afternoon
--First bike shop visited in IL -- in LaGrange..sorry too many antiques for me :)
--First time seeing Lebron in action
--First 6 hour MTB race (and not last!!)

many more but that is all that came to mind at this time

Special thanks to all those who have inspired my blogging...both knowingly and unknowingly...

Kim

Sandy

Laura

Heather