Burton with his puppy mullet....business in front and party in the back!

Burton got a haircut....and a cute new Halloween bandana! What a stud!

Costme

So this is what I REALLY want to be for Halloween...only Katie sized. How cute is that!

But is it ok for a girl to dress up as a boy lion? I mean seriously, boy lions have much cuter outfits and hair than girl lions.

Thoughts???

Thursday 13.....maybe later?
It's rainy, it's cold, I'm sleepy and unmotivated. So yeah, maybe later.  Maybe next week.

Dinner

Let me tell you a little something about this picture.  It may not look like much, but to me it was.  I was my first ever attempt to make spaghetti and (turkey) meatballs. From scratch.

Ok the meatballs were from scratch, the sauce not so much.  But lets not split hairs here people.  I tried really hard.  I hand mixed, made and rolled those stupid turkey meatballs.

Since Wyatt was suppose to be home early from his clinic tonight I decided to make dinner.  From scratch.  Now I don't do this very often, because, well it's hard and I'm not very good at it.  And it never works out.  So home early from the clinic tonight I took to mean 8:15-8:30'ish (as he didn't get home from the clinic the night before until after 9).  Cool.  I can work with that.

So at like 7, when I got home from work, errands, etc, I started cooking.  From 7 to 8:30 I cooked.  And read recipes.  And tried really f'ing hard.

At 8:15 or so it was done'ish and staying warm.  Around 8:45 I started to wonder what the deal was.  9:15ish he strolls in the door.

I guess having beers with the boys trumps your girlfriend cooking dinner. 

Fuck that.

The new wheels have arrived! Pretty sassy, eh? :)

A hard day's work at Devil's Lake....

I.AM.SO.EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday 13

This has definitely not be a rockstar week for me, and after getting no sleep last night I am full on sporting my cranky panties this morning. Proceed with caution....

1. Do you ever feel like what you really want is right there, but just out of grasp? That for every step you make towards it, you end up making many many steps back? Like you are stuck. STUCK! Yeah, that's kind of what's on my mind lately.

2. My Sports Med doc wants to take drastic measures in regards to my non healing foot. Seeing as PRP is definitely not covered by my insurance, he wants to try Prolotherapy. My insurance is likely to cover 50-60% of the 1000+ treatment, which leaves me to come up with a nice chunk of change. And it may or may not work. AND this therapy has NOT previously been done on the posterior tibial tendon. Hmmmm. I'm not sure I understand all this or like my odds...or the price tag.

3. Meanwhile my physical therapist (who ROCKS!!! I'd tell you here name, but I don't want to share her) is pretty skeptical of Prolotherapy. She's decided to try Iontophoresis instead to get the pain and swelling down. Hence the battery powered foot pic on my blog the other day. It seems to be working. But is this just a temporary fix or is it going to get the job done?

4. The house is still not unpack or organized and this OCD gal is starting to twitch.!! I cannot handle the boxes, the mess, the not knowing where things are stashed. Grrr.

5. Missing money. As in $322 of my money is MIA. We're not talking the twenty dollar bill I may or may not have spent at the bar the other night, but really thought I came home with. We're talking a lot of moolah in my world. I don't just lose hundreds oh dollars. I will even own up to poor math skilz and losing like a hundred of dollars in poor subtraction. Bu this is not the case. So put it back. Because if I have to face the humiliation of some teeny bopper cashier handing me back my card and snickering that its declined I am going to lose it. I've been told this opps of a transaction has been fixed (as of like 10mins ago) so we'll see if the ATM can confirm this fact at lunch.

6. I didn't sleep well last night because of the stress of the above situation and am feeling pretty much like a useless zombie at work. I;m am staring listlessly at the monitor, mouth agape, just waiting for the day to come to an end so I can resume staring blankly at my tv at home.

7. We had epic plans to camp and climb this weekend. Ok I'd be belaying and observing the climbing part because, well, I'm still a gimp. It was suppose to be chill-lay, but manageable. But instead the forecast is now for a mix of rain/freezing rain/snow for the majority of the week, Yuck, double yuck! Every time I get excited about something it falls through. Maybe I will set up my tent in the dining nook and start something on fire in the kitchen just for effect....

8. This is the first time ever in my life I am just not excited about Halloween. I thought that going to the punkin farm and picking out a punkin or 2 would do the trick, but alas, it did not. I just don't seem to care this year. I don't know what I would be, I don't know where I would go. I'm just not getting excited about any of it.

9. I've been given the green light to get on trainer and ride for 20-30mins at a time now AND that swimming (as long as I don't push off the wall) is ok! Woo Woo! 2 of my least favorite activities are ok to do again! Smell like chlorine and go nowhere on my bike. Did I mention I have a sassy attitude today?

Let's wrap it up with some good news...

10. My friend Natallia is in town with her beautiful baby girl Katia. I am so excited to see her and meet Katia. :) I love babies, especially when I get to hand them back to their parents.

11. Wyatt comes home tomorrow (finally....) and is traveling locally next week!! That means a week and half with him around. What's a girl to do? :)

12. I came across a recipe for S'mores pie. If I can't roast marshmallows at least I can eat S'mores pie! MMMM!

13. 6wks to the day I will be jet setting to NYC for some much needed vacay with my girl Jamie. Can I get a heck yeah?!?

PINK + KATIE = HAPPY!!

That's right people, SRAM has a new PINK groupo.....and I am REALLY excited about it.

Combine it with a little Chris King...

and Sweet Jeebus! It's like MY Holy Grail in bike form. I can't handle it. Granted this is a way super pricey project I am lusting after, but oh yes, it WILL be mine.

As for the frame...well I am kind of in love with the geared GF Superfly frame, but that would be a little over the top I think. And the red on the paint would kind of clash with my pink theme, but I would ride shiznit out of it just the same. The GF Paragon might also work.

Our trip to NYC over Thanksgiving is my birthday present....maybe the PINK geared 29'er will be Christmas??? Something to think about Wyatt. :)

My foot is battery powered...but sadly not healed.

Farmer's Market!

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Hey Shopaholics!!

You know what comes with house expenses? A budget. You know what I am bad at doing? Budgeting.

For example. I really want a Pottery Barn bedroom set. Like REALLY want. Pottery Barn is not in my budget. My budget is much more like middle of the range Steinhafle furniture. Sigh.

It stinks to have champagne taste with a PBR budget. I am sure many of you can relate as this dilemma applies as much to my tri gear as anything else. I want the $50 CEP compression socks, but the $20 Wigwam "compression socks" are in the budget. I want Zipp 404's with a PowerTap hub, but hand me down American Classics are in the budget. I want to race Escape from Alcatraz, but High Cliff is in the budget. Double sigh.

When I can across the website Ruelala.com I thought it had to be too good to be true. Designer gear at like half price? No friggin' way. Well it's true. The website is "invite only" so I am posting my invite link for all interested parties.

Check it, shop it, LOVE IT!

Now if only a site like this existed to tri goods and Pottery Barn furniture....

MMM, pie!

What do you do when you have reached an all time high frustration level?  When life seems to have handed you more than you can deal with?  You bake!!

After a fantastic trip to the farmer's market, I had all sort of goodies to play with, including a bag of delicious Macintosh apples.  Fall + Apples = APPLE PIE!

Now don't let the fact that I have never made an apple pie unsupervised before second guess my pie baking skilz.  I didn't.  Secretly I believed myself to be quite the gourmet.  And so it begins.

First step crust.  Wait.  I've never made crust before.  Ok, first step, locate a cook book and a recipe...then mix.  

It was about this time that I realized I didn't actually own a a pie pan.  Really?  Really.  Luckily Wyatt was willing to save my pie making dreams and borrow one from his parents who are nearby.

And just in case my crust was a bust, ha, Wyatt's mom also sent this:

hmmm....do you think she doubted my crazy mad cookin' skilz?

Then it was time to peel the apples.  Oh so many apples.  But don't worry, PBR came to help.

After peeling like a kajillion apples, it was time to get a lil saucy!  All those tediously peeled and sliced apples went into the cinnamony sugary yum waiting in the bowl nearby. 

After saucin' the apples the went into my crust and awaited a top.

At which point I realized I didn't actually own a rolling pin.  

I SWEAR I DID!  I am not normally this unprepared.  

But luckily my Klean Kanteen doubled as a rolling pin. 

All crusted up and into the oven it goes.

Voila! 35-40mins later you have pie!

It tasted better than I looked.  I would say that my first unsupervised apple pie adventure was a success!  I'm feeling good about it.  :)

I'll take a little DIY with a side of apple pie...

So what's been going on these days you ask? Well certainly no training, that's for sure. But my body feels like box moving, cleaning and house projects is more than enough cardio and strength for some time....

The day of the close Wyatt decided the carpet in the living room had to go. Immediately. And so it did.

Going....

(front door)

Going...

(living room and picture window)

Going...

(dining nook)

Going....

(and happy to see it)

GONE!!!

Let me tell you, we hit the jackpot on the floors! Under the smelly blah beige carpet (which was really stained underneath, can you say cats? ewww...) were beee-o-tiful hardwood floors. And best yet? Other than pulling A LOT of staples, and cleaning it, we didn't have to do anything to them. WOOT WOOT!

Final step on the floors was to cut 1/4 round and trim out the room to cover the gap in the floor from where the tack strips were. Yes, I made Wyatt wear safety glasses. Yes, he still has all of his fingers. And yes, if you look closely I think you can see the start of his plumber's crack.... :)

BTW, cyber friends, if anyone has a trick as to how to get gunk off of hardwood floor I would LOVE to know. Specifically the gunk is carpet pad residue that is stuck, and I mean stuck, on the floor in a few areas.

The house is still a work in progress. So many boxes to be unpacked and dealt with. So many projects on the to do list. So many deliveries to be made. Ugh. Will this ever end?

What do you do when you have reached an all time high frustration level? When life seems to have handed you more than you can deal with? You bake!! But that story will have to wait til tomorrow...

Saris Gala

click here for event details and registration info

This Friday is the annual Saris Gala benefiting the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. Every fall Saris teams up with the BFW and hosts a fundraising event to help support their efforts. There's delicious food and beverages, a silent and LIVE auction, and an array of speakers. Joining us this year is our keynote speaker Taylor Phinney, as well as Axel Merckx and Gary Fisher (just to name a few others).

So come on out, grab some food, have a drink. mingle with other cycling enthusiasts and help raise money for an amazing cause!!

The Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin is a nonprofit organization that through advocacy, education and coordination is working to Make Wisconsin a Better Place to Bike.