Well well well, look who decided to come back for more blog candy... let's jump right to it. In short, this week was great. Starting things off with some retail goodness (holidays always bring out the best in people,) for those of you who shop during the holiday season here's some retail sage advice: be nice...please.
It was quite fun was to establish a partnership with a local nonprofit for families in need. A donor gave a large sum of money to purchase 11 kids bicycles and helmets to be raffled off at an annual toy giveaway. I was setup as the point person for placing the order, building the bicycles and being able to give them away. I definitely think we built up a few extra karma points this holiday season when we're able to help put some new bikes and helmets under the tree. What was most fun was that a large majority of these families didn't speak any English so I got to whip out my rusty (very rusty) spanish and explain what was going on. I think the parents were more amused at my attempt to speak spanish with them than anything else. (btw, I'm starting to learn a little french and I'm sure I was throwing around some of that in the mix as well.)
It was quite fun was to establish a partnership with a local nonprofit for families in need. A donor gave a large sum of money to purchase 11 kids bicycles and helmets to be raffled off at an annual toy giveaway. I was setup as the point person for placing the order, building the bicycles and being able to give them away. I definitely think we built up a few extra karma points this holiday season when we're able to help put some new bikes and helmets under the tree. What was most fun was that a large majority of these families didn't speak any English so I got to whip out my rusty (very rusty) spanish and explain what was going on. I think the parents were more amused at my attempt to speak spanish with them than anything else. (btw, I'm starting to learn a little french and I'm sure I was throwing around some of that in the mix as well.)
On the training front, it's been fairly consistent. Yesterday marked the end of week 1 for my first base build session. I got in 10 hrs on the bike and this week I'm shooting for 12. I will be building toward 14 until I reset back to 10 and build up again. At the end of each block I'll be doing a fitness test to use as a gauge to see how I'm progressing. Look's like I've found a 10ish minute climb in West Salem that will serve as a good proving ground.
Yesterday, my teammate Mr. Adam came up to Salem and we headed out for a pretty amazing 4 hr ride. Being that I don't fancy a lot of solo exploration, it was very nice to have someone to explore with. At least this way I could apologize to someone when we made a wrong turn: once again, for the millionth time, sorry Adam. We did find some fun gravel roads to ride on (again, another reason I need a cheap gravel bike) and eventually made our way to the booming town of Amity, Oregon. Upon our arrival the mayor came out and a parade was immediately conjured up with a marching band, fire trucks, horses, boy scout troops and clowns.
After a quick refueling, we made our way out of town and the fatigue slowly started to set in, well it did for me at least. We hopped onto hwy 224 and trucked back into Salem.
After a quick refueling, we made our way out of town and the fatigue slowly started to set in, well it did for me at least. We hopped onto hwy 224 and trucked back into Salem.
When I say 'parade' and 'mayor', I mean a woman sitting out front of the market smoking with her dog and staring at us trying to decide if we're human or not. Turns out she didn't turn the dog loose on us so I guess we get a pass this time around. Adam did find a chicken pesto panini and a bottle of coke though.
You know you've found a good teammate when he's willing to take his road bike out on some gravel roads, get relatively lost and grind it out for miles as you're both tired and want to get home so you stop talking and just ride for the last 18 miles. Once we got back to the house, he loaded up, we said our good byes and he headed home. I on the other hand, found myself a large helping of fudge and coffee as a recovery food. Followed by a shower and a long nap.
That brings us right up to today, and what an eventful day it has been. Starting off with a late morning start, walking into downtown for brunch followed by perusing the shelves of the downtown book store. We've put up our tree and decorated for Christmas, did groceries and made the most amazing dinner which I'm going to tell you about, complete with pictures.
Let me begin with this: we are not vegan, vegetarian or on any kind of special diet. Except for this: the see-food diet. I see food and I eat it. We did however construct some homemade tortillas (thanks mom for the recipe,) garlic-teriyaki tofu, with rice and black beans. In total it cost us about a dollar per plate to make and was, in short, one of the best made-from-scratch meals we've created to date. Certainly not vegan, as we used butter for the tortillas and I'm sure the teriyaki sauce wasn't either, but we were pretty close. Let's say 80% vegan. Couldn't really tell there wasn't any meat either (I think my team captain would be proud).
So, karma points achieved, riding under control, better cooking habits, decorated for christmas and now about to make a pot of tea and eat the final bits of our 6-year-bazillion-triple-mega-fudge anniversary cake. Yup, life's pretty grand right now.
Still working toward hitting that 10k views mark, be sure to read, share and enjoy this thing. As I said before, if we hit 10,000 views by Jan 1st. 2015 I'll purchase this domain name for a year which will allow me to include some extra features like videos, maps, and audio files.
Until next time I'll leave you with this:
Until next time I'll leave you with this:
Cheers,
-Andrew-
(still trying to fill the internet with cat photos, add one more to the pile).
-Andrew-
(still trying to fill the internet with cat photos, add one more to the pile).