bark in the park

Last, but not least... bark in the park. the game -- rained out. but dog people are a determined pack. we hung out in the stadium for close to 3 hours. Look at this pretty girl ...

Tecalli attacking Randall. Note the energy level in this pict - and the fact that 3/4 of us MATCH our furry companions. chaya and I are discussing worldly issues of great significance. Yes, us dog people have issues. we are ok with that. Nicole hung out with us although she was dog-less. eric was the only one who didn't match his dog! he also was the only photographer present yet he was sans-camera. As the night wore on, the monsters became progressively more mellow. Pepper is always my buddy. Chaya is curled up on my other side napping.
Yawn. can we go home now? come on humans -- we need our beauty sleep.someone was over tired after a long day of working with mom. she decided she was a lap dog but didn't quite fit into mom's lap. ridiculous but i love her just that way!luna and i by the stadium. we both match our dogs. ruk took this with her digital rebel. i'm jealous. good people.

e, nicole and i topped the night off at champs where we collected glasses of water, soda and tonic that the forgetful waitress kept bringing. nice.

phew. hope you enjoyed the show. now i'm tired - goodnight.

Chihuly

This was amazing. Although i think i appreciated the plants more. That's just me.
The phipps conservatory is an enormous venue. If you enjoy tropical plants, than it's a must see. I took nearly 200 pictures - captivated by so many different and unusual plants and sculptures. i tried to get name tags of plants i hadn't seen before.
Phipps has a series of climate / geographically themed rooms. Chihuly's pieces mimic natural plant forms and color palettes found in nature. Interesting & exotic.
When it comes down to it, i find nature itself to be much more elegant, intriguing and exotic. Even if it's put together or cultivated in a contrived way.
Aquatic reflections were more spectacular than the pieces themselves...
Color & contrast. beautiful.
Form & color.
The coveted orchid. They had everything from the common phalaenopsis to more exotic and unusual lady slippers among others. spectacular.
elephant ears. i love these. and each leaf so perfect.
This will one day grow next to my coffee tree... which YES is now mature enough to bloom and provide beans. the coffee tree at the Phipps was, of course, pristine compared to mine.

riding in the burgh

Once again excuse the blur. All taken via camera phone...
Base of the river pre mt. washington - sycamore street climb. all is calm.awwww - so cute. pre-chin incident. sympathy crash - perhaps... or not.

post climb enjoying the view. in between gags i managed to snap some shots. 20%+ grade kicked my ass on this day - in addition to the rail road tracks.
i'm going back to conquer that climb no doubt. can't let that one go.
Heinz field in the middle background. One day I will actually attend a steelers game. in the meantime, i'll take lots of pictures of the exterior! mt washington is even prettier at night.

A Walk in the Woods - Kettle Trail



I had last week off. This meant lots of hikes and bike rides for me & my little furry girl - yay! This little guy was hanging out on Kettle Wednesday AM. We were wimps and didn't want to brave the rain on our bikes so we set off on foot instead with the dogs. Chaya didn't even notice him when we walked by. My phone's picture taking capability is limited, so bare with the odd color / pixelation. You get the idea though!
Aidia enjoys eating trees. branches are ok but bigger is always better.
It's beyond me how people actually ride down this - here we are on our way up. Seriously people - do you really ride this? We were totally out of breath by the time we hit the mid-state. But it sure was fun. Phew!

my new thesis

maybe i should change my topic.


HELLO PEOPLE. my dog eats glass. and let me assure you that it's not cause she's lacking in the fiber(glass) department. dogs eat what tastes GOOD at the time. she also picks string beans in the garden and sniffs other dogs butts.

ouch

this weekend i had the please of acquainting myself with the fine pavement and curb network found next to the train tracks along the streets of Pittsburgh... up close and personal, with my ass. ok, maybe upper hamstring.

i bit the big one, in a not so big way... ego bruised more than body. but still it hurt - and still does.

i saw it coming in slow motion... the tracks - the ridge that i wanted to avoid letting my skinny tires slide down into... the side of the road where i wanted to be, paralleling the tracks and my path. get out of the way dammit - i kept telling myself. you're blocking traffic. i tried to angle it across, but failed miserably. i felt the tire slip off the slick metal track, and into the ridge and off my bike i went.

awesome.

i was in the street and quickly recognized that both myself and my bike were impeding traffic - yet again. crap. i jumped up, picked up my bike and sat down on the sidewalk trying to fight back tears of stinging frustration. after all, big girls don't cry. two ladies in the trailing SUV stopped in the middle of the road:

those tracks are dangerous! are you ok?


i kinda already figured that out, but thanks.

to add insult to injury, my ripped shorts were barely a month old. maybe 2 at the most. dammit!

the bike was fine thank goodness. although i knew both tires needed to be replaced. even better yet was the slow ride home, with added ventilation in my shorts, scraped skin hanging out, trying to avoid bumps and potholes that may cause the tire to bust and tube to blow. time dragged by and then it was over.

thank goodness.

i'm somewhat miserable today after all of this drama. a combination of the pain involved with moving my right leg, PMS (yes it does exist and isn't permanent) and fatigue from travel and not being able to sleep comfortably. there's a first for everything. i'm lucky that mine only resulted in a sore leg and shoulder, some lost skin, tires and shorts and a bruised, bruised ego.

ouch.

guilty

Sign this if you have a few minutes. I guess the more public support there is, the more difficult life becomes for Vick. And we all know that politicians don't like dirty laundry laying around in the public's eye.

steel town

they have a steelers store in monroeville. i'm a happy lady.
vick, on the other hand, is still a bastard.

attempted suicide & damn u vick

so today brought 2 rather sad events.

1. attempted suicide: i came home to a white cloud minnow on the carpet - yes folks he jumped ship - possibly encouraged by two over protective cichlid parents.

he's still alive though as amazingly - a) chaya didn't eat him b) he has gills of steel - or perhaps he wasn't on the carpet for all that long

2. this Damn you Vick. He's one of my favorites too... super quick, confident, cocky & a total bastard. this has, of course, been unfolding for quite some time.

the end.

vacation day 2

it is my second day off of work. it figures that as soon as i take off, the website that i now administer would bomb. well not totally bomb, but emails are not being sent as they should; fortunately after some debugging it turns out that the fix was a simple reboot.

so it goes. reboot - and now i get 10-15 new emails that should have sent over the weekend. why? who knows.

after a lazy wake time of 10am, i spent the morning reading, running errands on the soma, lunch with a colleague, mentor and dear friend and up next more errands and some more reading. it's been so long since i've actually read something for *fun*. what a concept. i forgot how enjoyable it can be.

sometimes life goes by too fast. we become consumed by things that are meaningless in the bigger picture. so fast that we forget to enjoy the small things that make it all worthwhile along the way.

i can't take the abuse


oh my -- how can someone, so anonymous, be so confused!!! for the public record - i don't beat, kick, or feed my dog chocolate, grapes, bread, sugar, raisins, poison apples or sumac, dish washing fluid, or any other toxic substance... not usually anyway :) i mean perhaps, once in a while, on her birthday, summer solstice and other special occasions... but a good beating always comes from the heart. it is unfortunate that this happy, healthy, and ever so lovingly trained Labrador lashes out in the form of counter surfing when i'm gone during the day. she can't help it, she's a dog. dogs like to eat. people forget. but alas... just to spur your memories... here is the original post:

read original post and comments

and here, my friends, is the response, crafted with tender - loving - care:

a lot of us don't know this until it is too late. chocolate can be fatal to a dog or a cat. even in small amounts. it's really too bad how you talk about you little blessing. when a dog misbehaves, in this case you could educate yourself on what is poisonous to a dog, it is usually the owner who has not lovingly trained him or her not to act out. a good trainer could be quite helpful. also a puppy's brain doesn't even fully develop until they are 6 months old. i'm sure you love her very much, but i've never heard anyone except those arrested for animal cruelty talk this way....about kicking them around and such.


And, while we're on this topic, here is some info of note:

On average,
Milk chocolate contains 44 mg of theobromine per oz.
Semisweet chocolate contains 150mg/oz.
Baker's chocolate 390mg/oz.

Using a dose of 100 mg/kg as the toxic dose it comes out roughly as:
1 ounce per 1 pound of body weight for Milk chocolate
1 ounce per 3 pounds of body weight for Semisweet chocolate
1 ounce per 9 pounds of body weight for Baker's chocolate.

So, for example, 2 oz. of Baker's chocolate can cause great risk to an 15 lb. dog. Yet, 2 oz. of Milk chocolate usually will only cause digestive problems.


so, in short, my point for those of you who are a bit slow on the uptake, is this:

if you're trying to off your pooch - use Baker's chocolate - in large quantities. and for heaven's sake people, don't use brownies - especially cheesecake ones. save yourself the baking time as you can feed 'em purina, kibbles and bits or even better yet, Old Roy and get similar results.

thanks for reading :) and thanks for showing you really, really care.

commuter, please

after all of the drama surrounding my cross bike, i have decided to break down and get a commuter with a used frame that is hopefully already beat up a little and parts that can handle abuse - and like it.

oh yes. so i'm not really into cruisers so a cross type frame will be the way to go however... what type of handle bars do i get? drops? mtn? other funky ones that i don't know how to describe? AND do i go fixy on this bad boy? or just stick to the single speed?

decisions... decisions. hmmmm....

love shack p. II



the love shack is in full force and the kribs are at it again. 2 couples have spawned. the first have good sized healthy, happy babies. the second are newly hatched, small in size, many in number. look hard at the picts as i'm certainly lacking in the photography department - but all those blurry specs - are babies!!!

anyway need any cichlids? i may have about 40 + to spare if they all manage to survive...

riding through the storm

there are a few things in this world that can bring absolute peace to the mind - if even for a few fleeting moments, seconds or minutes... riding is one of them.

yesterday brought yet more drama. tears were shed. frowns and gripes filled the day pushing aside all positive thoughts in my mind until there was no more room and my head began to pound. through all of this, a last minute presentation needed to be completed and a boss who is at the heart of the struggle, needed to be prepped for the upcoming day. there was a days worth of work to be done and we only had a fraction of that to complete it. minutes felt like hours. hours felt like days. and eventually it was done.

but there, at the end of it all, was my bike... trail ready, able and willing. and my good friend who is finally back from over seas. two and a half hours later, after sharing many laughs, sweating through short little climbs and flying through my most favorite trail (complete with sound effects - as i am known to do on such a trail) the world was at peace.

the bike can be a beautiful thing in that respect.

wiper

today marked the end of a month-long, and extremely dramatic saga otherwise known as the

"why the hell can't anyone sell me the correct rear wiper blade saga"


here's how it all began. about a month ago, i decided that the wiper blades on my Subaru needed to be replaced. The plastic blades were shredding off and glass meets metal is never healthy. 2 years was enough time spent together. it was time for something new. so i went into advanced auto to get me a new set of blades. the front ones were easy. look them up in the little book. select one of the 10 billion brands that offer subaru compatible blades from the shelf. double check with the guy behind to counter to make sure the selection is suitable for my super sweet, turbo ride. Then wallah - new blades. In fact, the guys at advanced will even help you install them.

nice.

they were outta rears (rear blades for those of you whose minds are in the gutter - i'm not that kinda girl) - go somewhere else.

whatever. onward i went. Napa was the next stop. about a week later i went in to look for a new rear wiper blade. I couldn't find the part number on the shelf so i asked the hip young tatooed boy behind the counter for help. he picked one out and promised it would work.

fine.

i went out to attempt to install it.

it wouldn't fit. Damn.

back in i went and he came out to help me.

still wouldn't fit.

return. he suggested i go to the dealer and onward i went.

a week later i found the time to roll up to the local subaru dealer in town - which, by the way, totally BITES for numerous reasons. and THEY, sold me the part. the kind man behind the counter even brought it out and showed me how to detatch the rear wiper from the arm. it's a bit tricky. he put it back on so i could replace the blade on my own later.

so - last night as i was waiting for the wax to set on my car i decided to switch out my 5 dollar blade. can't be that complicated right?

after about 10 minutes of messing with it i got it off and upon initial attempts to install the new one, i realized that it was TOO SHORT. did the subaru dealer parts guy not see this when he showed me how to install it??

my goodness man!!!

i forced the old, shredded blade back on the arm which was no easy task.

today, i ventured back to the dealer before work armed with the faulty part. the guy recognized me so even though i was lacking a receipt, he switched it out for another part.

i immediately walked out to my car and in the 80 degree sun, switched out the blade.

thank goodness. and it only took a month.

2 car parts stores and 2 trips to the dealer later, a 5 dollar wiper blade became a souvenir - a memory of sorts, of a memorable search for the mysterious rear wiper blade. only in central PA would it be this difficult.

i saved the box. maybe someday i'll frame it.

rollin' w/the boys -- RB Winter p. ii

Wednesday marked yet another 4th of July. The day began at the ass-crack of dawn with the traditional RB Winter Century. 113 miles of road riding goodness.

the plan was this. go out with the pack - hang on for dear life until I was dropped to the point of no return and then hang back with LL and Curt and make our way on our own - or cut it short. plans changed quickly as the ride progressed.
When we began, i was one of 2 ladies in the pack - and still a little sore from monday's cross ride. it was a nice sized group. from Glover, Frank, Jimbo, Harry, Linda, Eric N, Mike, Fred, raymo... to Matt and others. All of whome were definitely well outside of my Linda / Curt riding compadre comfort level. Eric R showed up on his trek cross bike - decked out will a kickin 80 lbs of pressure and full knobbies. nice. that's good - give me a fighting chance. funny enough, for as long as we've been friends this was only our second ride together!

I made it through Lemont, and up Brush Valley. The fast boys were tired from the double on Sunday and the PBP training - so they didn't even go for the sprints. the pace was good - relaxed but brisk for my level. perfect actually. A few pulled off at Penns Cave, but I was feeling good so I tucked in close to Eric and continued on. Next thing I know, i turn around and 2 had become one. I was the only female left on the ride. We were down to a pack of 9 and we were well beyond Rebersburg so I was essentially screwed.

Ha! eric said - now you're stuck with us. Thank goodness for this guy - Curt. He's has pulled me through a good number of rides and is always smiling, talking about his seemingly awesome family, and reminiscing about his racing days.





onward we went. It was a nice feeling to be part of that group. I was almost like the "little sister" of the pack in that i felt they were looking out for me. Eric would reprimand once in a while for pushing too big of a gear. And, why arent your drafting more? The few pulls that i took up front were also moderated "you should drop back". it was cool. i didn't want to not be a part of the group - but i also didn't want to burn myself out and not make it back.


I learned a lot about riding in a tight paceline. maintaining a straight line. judging people around me. and riding close to people. and oh yea, how not to fall when some jerk, i mean, uh, good friend, decides to grab your jersey just to mess with/u. :) Then came the climb. And as hard as it is to believe - i wasn't the last one up to the top. Granted the two people behind me were cramping....

At the bottom of the hill, when we regrouped Frank noted that my rear wheel was crooked and was rubbing on my frame and fixed up the serotta for me. oops. i guess i was practicing some resistance training for the first 65/70 miles of the ride. Roman's wheel was out of true following a little off of the road stunt so he did a quick tune-up as well while we waited to regroup.

we caught this guy on a recumbent wearing a rockin silver BMX helmet w/stickers. he cruised all the way down the hill with us and kept talking all of the way down. He wouldn't stop even though non of us were responding! He continued to follow us through spring mills. Fred was guilty of enabling as you can see.
At Spring Mills we were able to lose the recumbant man. I finally found those glow in the dark condoms that I had always wondered about (bathroom in the bar across the street). I guess in Spring Mills it's important to always know where all body parts are - at all times.


And finally, my favorite part of any post-spring mills ride - the goats. And yes, they were ON THE COUCH. look close - there's a baby on the love seat. He's not lounging like the adult I saw a month or so ago was - but he's there. And this scene can ONLY be found (along with glow in the dark condoms) in central PA.

Yes!

The ride left me tired yet also completely pumped. I had survived a ride with the boys. They were super chill and took care of me all the way - didn't push the pace and made sure i was in tow at all times. it was a confidence boost to know I could do it alone AND a fun way to spend the 4th - catching up with people on the bike. the evening brought fireworks, good food, crazy dogs racing around and jumping in koi ponds and me, planted in a chair drinking beer and water and recovering from a long day. no better way to cap off an awesome day. yay for a fun fourth!

coolness

if you need solid proof that pirates is a rad movie -- here it is... talk about cool CG.

cross!

it's been a busy past week full of friends, good food, beverage consumption and, of course, bike rides. b and the boys came up to hang out this weekend. i managed to sneak in a 70 miler on the road early in the am before they got to town. we acted like tourists walking around campus with cameras as 2 of the boys had never been to state college before. in the evening we did a bar tour of sorts exposing them to all of the local hangouts. sunday we did the obligatory waffle shop brunch / lunch.

yesterday LL and I took the cross bikes out to rothrock. the route was super fun -- out to colyer lake then penn roosevelt and back via biedelheimer, up gettis and down to bear meadows and home. i'm loving my cross bike more and more as I continue to ride it. in the evening, e and i hung out for a few and caught up a bit. we watched crash and were amused by vicious dogs playing tug of war with a rope-toy. both of us were beat and called it an early night.

tomorrow is the ritual 4th of july century. we leave at the butt-crack of dawn - 7am to make our way out to RB winter state park. while my fitness is questionable at this point after a few weeks of only doing shorter rides, i'll most likely show up and hang on to the pack for as long as i can. the other part of the 4th of july ritual is fireworks and food in houserville with friends of both the 2 and four-legged varieties. chaya gets to bark at the neighbors, beg for food and dive into the koi pond. i get to eat good food and enjoy the fireworks with good friends. it's normally a good time for all.

summer is, without a doubt, my favorite time of the year.