One Life Stand

Hubby and I took our new bikes for a ride on Saturday morning.  We picked up the trail at a different spot than we usually do.  Apparently the new spot is where all the bikers hang.  I felt like quite the amateur riding along getting passed by all the cool kids in their nifty bicycle shoes and tops and pants.  But whatever, I’m not trying to enter a bike race, just get in shape.

Last time, I rode 5 miles with a 10-15 minute break in the middle.  This time we rode 6.2 miles without stopping.  Yippee!  I’m getting better already.  I may start riding around the neighborhood a bit during the week too.  The only thing is, I need to figure out what the heck to do about my hair.  Eleven months san relaxer + exercise = poofy, wooly roots.  Not to mention summer is around the corner which means humidity, humidity, humidity.

We went to Bed Bath and Beyond after church on Sunday and picked up some knick-knacks for the house.  (Thanks for the gift card GeckoBro!)  I STILL need to get some more curtains but can’t decide what I want.  In the meanwhile, hubby has started the prep work for the backyard patio.  He said something about wanting to rent a bobcat.  Sounds crazy to me (visions of having to re-sod the backyard come to mind) but I’m not in charge of such except as it pertains to cost so I’ll let him do his thing.  We should be picking up our new (to us) truck this coming weekend so now I can buy all the stuff I want from Lowe’s.  Azaleas here I come!

I’ve been looking for a pair of new brown boots for months now.  I bought these earlier in the week.  List price at the Charles David site was $195.  MY price…under $60.  Yippee!  Too bad I can’t wear them until the fall though.

It looks like the frigid weather is gone for good.  If I manage to wake up at a decent hour tomorrow, I’m going to take my new bicycle to the trail.  I’ve got my helmet and my gloves ready.  I refuse to wear bicycle shorts (wouldn’t wear them in the 80s either) but maybe I should get some bicycle shoes.  We’ll see.

Okay, the weather here is just crazy.  It was quite pleasant on Friday and somewhat on Saturday.  After a long day of stump-grinding, hubby put some meat on the grill and we lounged on the deck in our new, oh so comfy chairs.  So I assumed the weather would be the same on Sunday.  Wrong!  Our church had Easter service at an outdoor amphitheatre and there I am with bare legs and a lightweight coat on over my dress.  I am quite thankful that I got the time confused and got there late so I didn’t have to endure the cold for very long.

The HIGH is 53 today and the low will be below freezing.  What the heck?!  This is supposed to be spring.  Our tulips have started to sprout.  I hope they can survive the freeze tonight.  This weather is seriously cramping my plans.  I’d hoped to ride my brand new bicycle yesterday but that didn’t happen and probably won’t happen until later in the week.  I’m so sad.  Oh well.

Well, it’s not summer yet but we’re already making progress on creating a backyard oasis.  We picked up this set over the weekend to put on the deck.  Now we can dine al fresca when hubby grills.  Next up is to start the massive undertaking that will be building a patio.  Also, we’ve come to the realization that we need to get a third vehicle, a pickup truck.  Relying on the kindness of friends will only go so far.  After buying the aforementioned furniture for the deck, we realized it wouldn’t fit in the car!  I called one of my friends and thankfully she was in the area and able to transport it for us. 

In other news, my birthday is Thursday.  Woo hoo!  GeckoDad and GeckoBigBro are coming to town on Saturday and we’re going to have a few people over.  I’m sure that will be interesting.  I can’t wait.

I was thumbing through the latest issue of Essence last night and apparently 31% of Essence readers are some bitter azz broads.  Essence took a poll and 31% of the respondents said that a man can’t be trusted to be faithful in an exclusive relationship.  WTF?  Of course these are probably the same women complaining about how there are ‘no good men’.  But they probably wouldn’t recognize a good man if he sat on their laps.  But hey, don’t listen to me.  Keep believing that ish and not trusting any man and wondering why you remain unhappily single.

The weather here is bipolar to say the least.  It was close to 70 degrees on Friday then snow flurries Sunday morning.  Crazy I tell you.  We didn’t do much this weekend but that was fine with me.  We missed church yesterday because hubby didn’t ’spring ahead’.  I guess we could have gone to the noon service but for some reason, I don’t like that one as much as the ten o’clock service.

I had hoped the weather would be nice so we could go bike riding again but oh well, maybe next weekend.  On the bright side, I did get somewhat caught up with my schoolwork.  I’m such a procrastinator.  I don’t see how people work full-time and go to school full-time and have a life.  I’m only taking one class and I’m forever behind.  I’m going to get better about my time management though.  I think going forward, I’m going to focus on my business during the week and schoolwork on weekends.  Maybe I should pick specific days of the week.

In other news, I am addicted to "the roundup".  It seems that all the HBCUs have their own version of mysp.ace (or what I imagine mysp.ace is like since I’ve never been on it).  I’ve "seen" so many folks that I haven’t seen since graduation. It’s definitely interesting to see what people are doing now.

Also, hubby and others are lobbying for me to become treasurer of our ski club.  On one hand, it’s a tempting prospect but on the other hand, it will cut into my free time.  Elections are next month so I need to decide soon whether or not I’m going to throw my hat into the ring.  And last but not least, please tell me I’m not the only person who was disappointed by the finale of "The Wire".  Last night’s events seriously border on worst.episode.ever. for me.

That’s right, the grill is open for business.  It was a lovely day yesterday (~73 degrees) so hubby mentioned firing up the grill.  I must admit I got a bit over-excited at the prospect for some reason.  So I jumped in the car and headed to Kroger to get some brats and steak.  Now that I think about it, maybe that was a devious plot by hubby to get me to go to the grocery store.  I’d been saying I needed to go but hadn’t actually bothered to do it.  Nevertheless, hubby worked it out yesterday.  We had the brats for lunch, the steak for dinner and will have the chicken he grilled for dinner tonight.

I took hubby’s car to the grocery store so that he could wash mine.  He was quite paranoid as I think that’s only the second time I’ve driven his car and the first time was into the garage from the driveway.  I’ve always liked small cars and his is a behemoth compared to mine so I’m not too keen on getting behind the wheel.  Not to mention, the SMG takes some getting used to.  I’m a purist and don’t really like ‘hybrd’ transmissions.  Give me a regular old manual, not that fancy-schmancy new stuff.

It’s funny though because hubby decided to take my car around the block when I was gone and for some reason felt the need to actually take pics of the deed.  I guess he was excited because he generally doesn’t get a chance to drive my car.  I’m not as confident in his manual transmission abilities as he is.  Everytime he cranks up my car, I get flashbacks of the herky-jerky that was going on when I tried to teach him in my Honda.

But back to the grilling, we really need to get a nice patio set this year.  Half the fun of grilling is being able to eat outside.  Last summer we tried eating in the hammock but that’s not a good look.  While highly amusing to onlookers I’m sure, I don’t like wearing my food.  I was tempted to get hubby to pull out the hammock but since the weatherman predicts SNOW FLURRIES for tomorrow night (remember it was 73 yesterday), I decided against it.  I’ll be glad when this schizophrenic weather comes to an end and I can put away my winter things for once and for all while.  I had just washed all my scarves and gloves to put them away for the season then we had snow last week.  So have a happy Monday and send some warm thoughts and weather our way.

5.2 miles - that’s how far I rode today.  Now that the weather (at least some of the time), I need to head outdoors and start getting some fresh air and exercise.  I decided bike riding might be a nice change of pace from rollerblading and jogging walking.  I haven’t been on a bike in at least 15 years but I think I did okay all things considered. 

Hubby and I went to the trail near our house and rented bikes.  Of course, we went to Target on the way so that I could get a helmet.  As uncoordinated as I can be sometimes, I definitely don’t want to tumble off the trail and crack my skull.  It was fun though.  Maybe we’ll go again next weekend.