Friday, February 29, 2008

Sore and Tired

I hurt, I'm tired. Al was up for a good portion of the night last night so hopefully it's just lack of sleep. I do have to say that I'm appreciating the rush of energy I've been getting just post ride. I've been using that energy to get though cooking dinner every night. I am a little achy though.

The kids wanted to go to the dollar store today. So, we rode down there picked up a couple of cheap toys, dropped by the grocery store and got home just in time to start movie night. I did manage to close my foot in the trailer while folding it down - OUCH. I didn't have time to take care of it when it happened and now my foot is a lovely shade of blue. Let's hope that it works tomorrow because the kids are fascinated with the idea of riding the bike down to the gas station. The gas station? I have no clue why.

Tomorrow is also St. David's day. I figured that I'd try to celebrate with the kids but I really can't come up with much other than coloring pages to do. I was going to make leek soup but there were no leeks at the grocery store. So, no leek soup. Oh well... coloring pages it is. Well, coloring pages and the gas station.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Some Bike related knitting

Yesterday (Wednesday) we devoted some time to a little bike maintenance. My old bike was in desperate need of attention and my new shiny one just needed a going over with a cloth. I also needed a homebody day to get some designing and knitting done.

Okay, so in truth it was cold. We've had a couple of weeks of rather pleasant 60 something degree weather and suddenly it dropped to 40. I know that this isn't cold for most but for us delicate southern flowers (ha ha) it's just freezing. I am suddenly rather glad that I haven't started the garden yet. It was a tempting thought for a while.

Anyway, I used the machine to knit up a neck warmer and a hat. I also spent a great deal of time plotting out a pattern for a matching sweater. The sweater took most of my time. In a slight stroke of vanity, the yarn matches my bike (I just so happened to have found it on sale a few weeks ago). In my knitting adventures I have gotten as close to perfecting my seaming as possible due to the fact that everything I do on the machine must be seamed. I've also written out measurements to draft a T-shirt pattern.

Today (Thursday) I tested out my little neck warmer and the hat that I made to go under my helmet. They worked rather well on our little trip to the post office this evening. It was a significantly tougher ride pulling both kids than it was week before last when I just took little Al. I made it though, despite the fact that I wound up in as close to we get to "traffic" around here. Rhys fell asleep on the ride, or pretended to fall asleep, I'm not sure which.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Finally, A Trip!

Well, we finally made it to the library today! Reguardless of the forcast the clouds parted and the sun came out. So, after Al finished his nap I quickly herded the kids into the trailer and set off for the library. Where I found that someone had moved the bike rack to a bad position causing my bike to have to sit in the mud and precariously balanced to boot. There was also no way to pull the trailer around and attach it as well due to the angle of the rack in relation to the slope of the hill that it now sits on. Grrrr...

I detached the trailer and set it up as a jogger to take inside. Fortunately the head librarian (whom I sense isn't so fond of me) loves my kids. So, the ruckus caused by the stroller was forgiven and if I can get some guys to go turn the thing around we can move the rack so it's no longer in the mud and on a hill.

Rhys feeling rather cool decided to try and pick up some chicks while I was checking out his books (including a rather intelligent selection that the children's librarian helped him make - a factual book about elephants!). Anyway, I noticed him showing off for these girls and one of them borrowing mommy's cell to take a picture. When he came back over he stated, "Those chicks were digging on me!" Being in a library I had to cover my mouth and attempt to remain upright while laughing. The kid is 4!!!!! Gosh, I wish I had taken a picture of him with them.

So, here are today's pictures. We have the kids outside the library, Al inside looking rather upset because I strapped him back into the trailer, Rhys' self portrait (taken while riding), and a picture that Al took of his view from the trailer.


Rain


So, you know that To Do list I made... It's so not happening today. I may see if I can find the size hex wrench I need to adjust the front brake on the bike instead, it's been dragging just a little. At any rate, I tried to take a picture of the conditions outside (which are getting darker by the minute) but the digital camera adjusted for lack of light so my pic doesn't look nearly as dismal as it actually is. The weather is actually supposed to get worse as the day goes on, and I have no rain gear. I guess I'm folding clothes, cleaning, and knitting today.

Wow... the photo really isn't showing how dark it is... From that is looks like a nice day. Hrmmm...

After much photo shopping, this is what it actually looks like outside:

And now the rain has started...

Monday, February 25, 2008

Don't make me pull this bike over!

Well, todays goals of getting out and going to the library and the post office have been ditched. I started checking e-mail and then got on Facebook to see how my new group is doing, and then I checked MySpace to see if any of my friends had dropped me a message there. Then, I got on Ravelry... this ate up over an hour on it's own as I can spend forever on Ravelry and not even realize that time has past. I've also discovered some new "open source" pattern website where you can look at and or download sewing patterns for free... by the time I finished messing around it was play time. So I spent a little time hanging out with the kids. I spent an hour getting them to clean up their mess, and then it was lunchtime. At some point we also had visitors stop by for a few minutes a piece. Oh! I also started baking bread which is a 6 hour process that I just have to check on every once in a while once it gets going.

This brings us to naptime. After 45 min of Al insisting that he would go to sleep in his bed on his own, "Mine Self Mommy!" I finally walked in, snatched him out of bed and loved on him until he fell asleep. I then put him in bed and satisfied my preschoolers need to play Zelda vicariously through me. "Mommy play Zelda! Mommy please play Zelda!" At some point I cleaned the kitchen (which is now dirty again). Al woke up at a little after 4. I spent an hour attempting to get shoes on children who kept turning "Word Girl" on and refusing to move before I finally looked at the clock and decided that by the time we got to the library we would just have to come strait home because it would be getting dark and I am not riding around with the kids in the trailer at dusk, it's just too dangerous.

So, I loaded the kids in the bike trailer anyway and explained that if they had stopped watching TV and put on their shoes when I told them to that we would have made it to the library. But as is we were going to take a ride because Mommy had already pulled the trailer out and needed to get some exercise. I took them on a meandering ride through the neighborhood that at one point would have been rather taxing but after I got my rear end moving it was actually quite nice.

However, on the first little hill we were going pretty slow. Rhys, being the preschooler that he is, demanded to know why we were going so slow. Grrr Argh! I stopped and informed him that he had grown significantly since we had taken this route last and that it was harder to get up the hill. I got back on and got moving. I finally picked up some speed and got going when Rhys starts whining about not going to the library. Rather than have this discussion over my shoulder, I pulled the bike over and reminded him that he chose to watch TV instead of going to the library. He started to whine again before I even got on the bike so I asked him to be quiet for a while. Eventually I picked up enough speed that everyone forgot about the library. I really don't know how far we went but my legs were totally shot at the end of the ride.

The kids played a game of tag in the front yard while I got the bike and trailer packed into the storage room. This eventually ended badly but I'm just not going there. This kids are now happily tucked in bed, I've made myself a little bit of chocolate decadence and I'm going to chill out and watch total trash on TV while knitting. I think I'll make a Jayne hat tonight...

So... tomorrows to do list:
Gardening
Post Office
Library
Park (the kids added this - I'm kind of afraid of the trip as its almost 100% uphill on a really busy road)

Day One


I've decided to take Trek's 1 World 2 Wheels challenge, also known as "Go By Bike". So, yesterday I think was my official Day 1. I took my bike to church. Here's a pic of me and Al (my toddler) after getting home.