armlessbear.com

Back from Vacation

In 7 days:
Badlands
Black Hills (incl. Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse)
Eastern Montana
Beartooth Pass (a road climbing up to 11,000 feet – a scenicly terrifying way to get into Yellowstone)
Yellowstone
Sleeping outside under the stars (no tent, long story)
More Yellowstone
Eastern bits of Idaho (incl. Victor, ID which is on the west side of the Tetons)
Jackson Hole, WY
Grand Tetons Park
Yet more Yellowstone
Return to Eastern Montana
Back through South Dakota and terrifying but brilliant storms.
Home.

I love mountains and the west. I haven’t been out west since 99 and really forgot how much I love the fresh smell of pine forests. I even enjoyed our second night of camping that actually involved sleeping in a tent.

The Drive From Hell

Ordinarily when the authorities say things like “avoid unnecessary travel” I do just that. Oh, sure, in the middle of winter when there’s just been a huge snowstorm it’s fun, no it’s mandatory, to put on the winter clothes and test your driving skills in ridiculous amounts of snow.
Saturday, unfortunately, I HAD to drive, up north to retrieve Adam from his week of camp Grandma and Grandpa, Spooner site.
I left home at 9:18am on Saturday and finally hit the opened portion of 90/94 at 12:20pm. It was bloody awful. And it wasn’t just the stop and wait bits. No, it was the idiot guy in front of me driving his teal Honda civic with a really loud, huge muffler. So everytime we got to inch forward, he of course, had to make a loud, annoying vroom vroom noise.

New and Exciting Medical Terminology

Costochondritis.

“Costochondritis is an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib to the breastbone (sternum). It causes sharp pain in the costosternal joint — where your ribs and breastbone are joined by rubbery cartilage. Pain caused by costochondritis may mimic that of a heart attack or other heart conditions.”

It’s pretty damn uncomfortable.

One Small Hill for man, one giant hill for me

Today I biked my usual route from home to Adam’s daycare and was about to take the easy way to the Monona Terrace bike elevator when I decided 2 things:
1) I needed to deposit money at the UWCU (on the square)
2) The most expedient way to do that would be to bike UP Wilson street.

I assumed I’d make it up to King@Wilson and my legs would give out and I’d look like a moron pushing my bike up the hill. Oh well… nothing ventured.. blah blah blah.

So I started out and kept shifting down and I made it to the King St. intersection and a red light which fortunately turned green before I had to come to a complete stop. I kept pedaling and made it all the way to the Capitol and around to the bank.

It's Stupid Graph Time!

more graph humor and song chart memes

and...

more graph humor and song chart memes

It's Like Raaaaai-aain...........

This morning my co-worker mocked me for not biking with essentials like a tire pump and a patch kit. “What would you do,” he asked “if you got a flat tire on the bike path?” Well, duh, I’d walk or ride the bus home, get the car and take it to someone to fix it.

Today I also decided I needed a front basket on my bike instead of just the saddle bags. My first reason for needing them was farmers market. One simply cannot bring plants home in saddle bags. My second reason became evident when I retrieved my birthday meal leftovers from my saddlebag and found that my Bang-Bang Chicken had all-but exploded. Fortunately, I had put it in a ziploc bag, preventing a much bigger disaster than a ruined lunch and yogurt.

Five, Six... Pick Up Sticks

On Sunday I raked up and hauled to the front yard a ridiculous number of branches from the back garden. Then I dug part of my front flower beds and planted in 9 new plants to add some variety to the hostas that have taken over the space. In the middle of all this I made a couple trips to garden centers to pick up the best dirt and potting soil available in Madison. And I’m not telling you where it is. :)

Following Sara's Random Music Meme

The Steps for the Meme:
Step 1: Put your MP3 player or whatever on random.
Step 2: Post the first line from the first 25 songs that play, no matter how embarrassing the song.
Step 3: Post and let everyone you know guess what song and artist the lines come from.

Your steps:
Step 3a: Post your guesses in the comments.
Step 4: I’ll strike through bold them when someone gets them right
Step 5: Looking them up on Google or any other search engine is CHEATING.

Here’s my 25…. Good Luck

1 Midnight, On the water. I saw the ocean’s daughter…. Can’t Get it Out of My Head – Fountains of Wayne (cover)
2 Rain falls, I fix my eyes Stinging Velvet – Neko Case

Life/Lemons/Lemonade/Etc

It seems as if our brutally long, cold, snowy(!) winter is finally over.
I came the the decision last night that winters like the one we had only help to make us appreciate spring a lot more.

So far the things we’ve enjoyed: *Leaving the house with no mittens, hat, jacket, or shoes *Grilling delicious hamburgers and brats *Outdoor Farmers Market *Bicycling *Sleeping with the windows wide open *Driving with the sunroof open *Yardwork *Playing in the sandbox (well, the boy anyway) *Throwing the kitties outside

I’m now anxiously awaiting Mike’s first batch of Sun tea, a light suntan, the pool opening, gardening, margaritas made from locally grown fresh strawberries, and fresh asparagus grilled lightly.

Head Winds Suck

We bought a tag-along bike a while ago with the notion that I could bike A. to school in the morning and bike us both home at night. It’s a short distance – about 2.5 miles one way, and on a very pleasant bike trail.
This morning we bundled him up with a hat under his helmet, mittens, and a light winter coat to keep him warm. The ride was surprisingly easy and despite the fact that this is only my 2nd bike ride of the season, I wasn’t in any sort of pain in my legs or butt after the ride.
As I scoped out the weather for the next few days it said “WINDY” with 23mph winds from the SW. How bad can that be, I wondered to myself.
Well as “luck” would have it, I found out tonight on my ride home.