Crap Crap Crap!

So, I get home from lunch today and Abe was all excited to see me, nothing new. Then I walked into the dining room and a nasty stench was hanging in the air. Yup, Abe could not make it until I got home for lunch. Poor guy. He felt bad, I could tell. So I pulled my shirt up over my nose, I will gag pretty easy with this kind of stuff so it was best to be prepared, I am my fathers daughter that is for sure. He could not handle things like this either. I get it all cleaned up and take Abe outside. He was fine. I eat my lunch and we headed back to work. Abe is a pretty laid bad guy so when he comes running into my cubicle and is panting it is either he is out of water, wants a treat or he has "issues" as we call it. So I try the water. Nope that was not it. He had already had treats so I thought it must be that he had "issues". So, we head outside. He goes #1 and then gets scared from a noise and runs back to the front door of my place of employment. I am thinking he must be ok now. Well, not to be. He did another round of panting so I took him out again. THAT WAS IT! WOW! Poor guy! Being a good citizen I picked it up and double bagged the evidence. Now he is sleeping just fine outside my cubicle entrance.

I can't help but wonder what it is going be like tomorrow at our house if Abe is still having "issues". You see Kris is having her 50 year old baseline colonoscopy. She is taking tomorrow afternoon off to start the "prep" work. Could be an "issue" filled day at our house!

Break out the 5 gallon can of air freshener!

Clubhouse, carpentry and the colon.......

HAPPY MONDAY...hahaha...NOT!

We, my Monday is not bad, but it is a Monday. I need to finish the DC recap yet and have not. SORRY, but the goal is to finish that this weekend.

In other noise. Hit the Clubhouse this past weekend and had a great time. We went to a Pampered Chef party on Friday night at my God parents place which of course is always fun. Saturday we worked at the clubhouse for a bit. I cleaned off the patio even though I am pretty sure all the leaves I swept off it, have now blown back on it since it is SO VERY WINDY TODAY. I also am trying to finish up taking the wall down at the bottom of the steps in the basement to make it easy to get the water heater in and out. I have to notch a couple boards yet and then she will be able to come down with two thru-bolts (carriage bolts). YEAH! Not sure why they installed the water heater in a corner then put the furnace next to it and build a wall so you can't get the water heater between the furnace and the wall but they did! Oh, well this little project will make it easy to take the wall down and put back up again.

Saturday night we hit River Rose Bistro for supper. It was good except a group of maybe middle school girls came in from a basketball tournament and of course were loud. So much for a relaxing supper! We did make the most of it by heading to Ben's Brewing Company after supper. We had a great time there watching the guys make drinks. The martinis are fun to watch them make. Of course after my three glasses of wine I decided I needed, yes needed to order a martini. I had Ben make me the most popular martini they serve. The Lemon Drop. It was darn good! I refrained and only allowed myself one martini as we decided we needed to head home if we were to drink anymore. Once home we each had a nightcap of Godiva chocolate liquor and what I thought was a Kahlua bottle turned out to be a premixed White Russian bottle. Not a big deal it was actually pretty good. Needless to say we both slept good Saturday night!

Sunday was a lazy day. We watched a couple movies on the tellie and then we headed home later arriving back to Sioux Falls around 6:30 or so.

It was a good weekend. The only bummer is that we left out leftovers in the truck on Saturday night thinking it was not going to get that warm on Sunday so they would be fine...NOT! Oh well....

This week is another busy one at work plus FAB newsletter meeting and then Kris is having the 50 year old baseline / check - colonoscopy on Thursday! What a crappy day that will be!...hahaha, Oh, well, needs to be done! Getting back on the bikes is also a priority since the scale needle seems to be going the WRONG direction as of late! Weather outside will not be good for biking so we are relegated to the basement but that is ok.

Have a great week everyone even with a BLIZZARD on the way!

Blogging, biking and a boob!

HOLY CRAP! I noticed I had a blog draft for DC vacation day #4 all ready about a week ago and all I needed to do was add pics! I had not realized this until I was reading another blog then looked to see when I last did my bloggie thing and it was a WEEK AGO! Sorry folks. I know the two of you that read this blog have been sitting on the edge of yours seat wonder what happened on my other days of vacation...NOT! haha!

Anyway I will do a total recap soon, but first some there business to take care of.

First off. The City of Sioux Falls seems to think that bikers, walkers, rollerbladers, hikers will not need an alternate route mapped out when the diversion ditch levy is raised from 41st to the zoo and not completed until 2010. WHAT? So all those people that use this stretch of the "greenway" which includes bike commuters, recreation bikers, joggers, rollerbladers or whatever will have to find their own way around this mess? This means pouring people out into streets that might have heavy traffic already and not warning said motor vehicle traffic to watch for pedal pedestrian traffic in these areas. Are they asking for injuries? Maybe? Most of us are safe riders on the road but when motor vehicle drivers are not used to seeing an increase in pedal / pedestrian traffic in areas it could get scary. There is a meeting about this March 25 from 5-6:30pm at the Oyate Community Center (by Garfield Elem School). Ride you bike to the meeting and show your support in getting an alternate route mapped out for this area during construction.

Second. This past weekend Cassie Soeffing and myself were lucky enough to get our first USA Cycling officiating gig. The Twin Bing road race in Climbing Hills, IA went off without a hitch. Cassie was at the finish line compiling numbers and times and I was in the commissionaire car with our officials class instructor following the Class B field watching for infractions and keeping track of riders. It was a great day on a VERY TOUGH HILLY course with 26 in the Class A field and 72 in the Class B field. The loop was 22 miles with the A's doing three laps and the B's doing two laps. Let's just say I was glad I was riding in the car and NOT riding a bike! It is fair to say we learned a lot and have a lot to learn! All in all it was good and we are both ready to do more. Even Cassie's husband got in the mix to help with writing down numbers at the finish line. Glen from our officials class was also there at the finish line so we had three green officials and two veteran officials but I think the green officials did ok. The road race was a success so look for it next year on the www.siouxcityvelo.com website!

Third. Before we went on vacation to DC, Kris had done the fun mammogram. The doctor called and said they needed to do a magnification of the an area. We could not get it done before we went to DC so it was done the day after we arrived home. The magnification determined that there was an area showing "not normal breast tissue" so a biopsy was ordered and done this past Friday. The biopsy was a needle core biopsy. It is a matter of numbing the area then inserting a bigger bore needle that can grab tissue samples. Five samples were taken and of course they would not know the results until Monday sometime. Well of course a person ALWAYS thinks the worst even though we were told there was no blood supply to this tissue that is needed for tumors to feed it. We were pretty sure it was scar tissue but you always have a bit of doubt in the back of your mind. I guess it is human nature. We talked about the what ifs and decided you know there is nothing we can do about it if it is cancer, so we would deal with whatever God had in store for us. I am happy to report it was all benign breast tissue! YEAH! All that worry for nothing?...NOPE! Just reaffirms as to the importance of yearly mammograms! If you have not had your baseline at age 35-40 ....GET IT DONE....if you have not had a yearly mammogram after the age of 40...GET IT DONE! This is a VERY SIMPLE test that can save your life! We all want to grow old together!

St Patty's Day ride

A break from the vacation rehash... (boy, the pics turned out dark looking on the blog..dang!)

Saturday was the St Patrick's Day ride in Yankton. In preparation a gathering of sorts happened at the Clubhouse for food and beverages. Present were Cycling Cathy & Charlie, Biking Brady, Ride Vermillion, The Hammer, Kris, myself, Dawn (Mackie) and Christi (Gilly). We fueled up and headed to the starting point down by the river. We took off around 2:15 and made our way out to the Cottonwood Coral. I struggled with one of the hills in town along the bluff. My bike would not shift into the small chain ring so I got REALLY winded shortly into the ride. Then got a bad headache and stopped to medicate the noggin before heading down the BIG HILL to the lake. We were going into more of a head wind instead of a cross wind. The wind was out of the SW and we were heading west. Gust were around 30 but we prevailed! Halfway to the halfway point there was an older fella that biffed on his hybrid ahead of us. He dropped the front wheel into a pothole at a driveway to a business along the bike trail. He landed HARD on his shoulder and elbow. We helped him to his feet after we untangled his legs from his bike frame. He seemed a little shaky but was ok. Kind of scary as he had no helmet on and his rear wheel ended up in the lane of traffic. He hopped on his bike and headed across the four-lane to the gas station and seemed ok so we carried on FINALLY making it the the Coral where food and beverages awaited.

I decided that since I was tired, from the hill issue and vacation, that we would call our SAG wagon and have them drive us across the dam plus it gets really windy when riding across the dam, which I was done with. So we joined in with The Hammer cruising the Nebraska side of the Missouri River then across the new Discovery Bridge back to Yankton and on to Ben's Brewing Company for beverages.

It was a great time and we had LOTS of fun. I think Dawn might be a bit excited about riding. She has had some leg issues in the past couple years that are finally getting resolved. All I heard from her on Saturday night was how much fun she had riding and how great the people are. It was the longest ride she had done at one time and with a bunch of riders...CONGRATS MACKIE!

Check out Cycling Cathy's blog to view some of the pics from the ride.

DC day three

We trekked out Sunday morning to seek out MORE American History. Not hard to find in DC!

We hit the American History Museum and saw the American flag that was the inspiration of the Star Spangled Banner. We also did the Abraham Lincoln exhibit. There were some neat items on display like the hat he wore the night he was shot, his suit coat from the inauguration and all sorts of other items. Of course Kris, Liz and Joan (Kris's mom) all wanted to see the First Lady's inaugural gown exhibit. I, of course, could do with out it but got to pick where I wanted to go which was Julia Child's kitchen! The First Lady's gown exhibit was a dud. Only about eight gowns on display and no, Mrs Obama's was not there. The Julia Child's exhibit ROCKED! It was her WHOLE kitchen. They also had little snippets of her TV show running. Very funny lady. We all decided that our favorites there were the flag followed by Julia's kitchen!

Next we headed to the Holocaust Museum. So, I really didn't want to go to this museum as it is a DEPRESSING subject. I realize this is history and I know history that is forgotten is bound to repeat itself. Let me just say, I feel bad for what happened to the people and how tragic it was but do we really need three floors to remind us of it? I mean there are only so many pictures or films of people being killed and falling into a pit with other dead bodies and then buried or burned that I can handle. The most moving thing I saw was the story of this young lady at the time that had been in the camp for three years and was liberated by an American soldier whom she later married. The stories the survivors told were amazing and emotion. You could see the terror, hate and sadness in their eyes and to me that was enough. It was a very somber museum and one place I would not need to go back and see again.

We headed back to Union Station for our Monuments by Moonlight tour. This was really amazing to see and our tour guide was a blast. They take you by all the important buildings in DC and then would let you off the trolley at certain points to get closer views of the FDR Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Iwo Jima Memorial, plus other sites. If you get a chance to do this tour it is wonderful and well worth the money. You can pick up the trolley at Union Station but reservations are recommended!

Kris giving the Rangers a hard time!

DC day two

After a quick breakfast at Starbucks and people asking us for money we headed out on our adventures for the day.

Let me just say this about the homeless. LOTS AND LOTS of homeless people in the Capitol Hill area panhandling. Shaking cups at you as you walk by or even coming up to you asking for money. Some are slumped over the newspaper stands in the morning sleeping on their feet. Some are living in BIG cardboard boxes on the sidewalk with sheets over the top of the box. Others wonder around talking to God knows who. Very sad and I am guessing the numbers will grow.

Ok, back to our events of the day. We went to moleville, the Metro, and headed to Ford's Theater. Very cool place but they did not even mention that this theater is not the "original" theater in their presentation. It is in the "original" spot but is a replica but still cool to see. The other thing I found interesting was that the National Park Service takes care of the property and tours. I guess they do more than just parks! The theater box in the picture is decorated the same as the night that Lincoln was assassinated. The ONLY ORIGINAL item in the box is a picture of George Washington in a gilded frame. Again, still cool to see.

We then headed to the Old Post Office Museum to go up in the clock tower tour. We passed all sorts of buildings on the way to this museum and one was the IRS building which we found humorous. The clock tower tour was a self guided tour with the highlight going up into the clock tower to see the views! Very cool. There was a National Parks Ranger up in the tower answering all the questions that were asked. The highlight while we were there was the Presidential helicopter take off from the White House. I guess there are always three helicopters that fly together so you never know which one the President is in once they are up in the air. We saw the other two join the one that took off from the "backyard" of the White House. This would be as close as we would get to seeing him. We later learned the First Family was headed to Camp David.

(The tower on this building is where the clock tower tour took place)

Arlington Cemetery was our next stop and of course we went to "moleville" first then under the Potomac River, yes, under the river..UGH! Anyway, we did the sightseeing bus there as it is a LOT of walking. Amazing place and very moving. From seeing the Kennedy's graves to the changing of the guards this is all very surreal to see. Why did they pick this place for the cemetery? There is a house at the top of the hill at Arlington called the Custis-Lee house. This is where Robert E Lee and his family lived. During the Civil War they needed a place to bury the dead and so it was decided to bury the hundreds of dead as close to the Lee plantation as possible so it was a constant reminder of the war. The Lee's never lived in the house after the war and later a Lee family member sued the government for taking their land to which the government paid $158,000 to the Lee family. The view from this hilltop is amazing.




We headed back to the hotel to freshen up before meeting up with one of Liz's, Kris's sisters, former students, Leo. Leo works in the Congressional budget office in DC. We ate outside on a patio at a little French place. I had the rabbit that was recommended by Leo and it was not to disappoint. Very good food. We parted ways with Leo, but would see him again at another tour during our stay, and headed to our next stop which was to see the Capitol Steps. They are a comedic, musical, group that poke fun at all the current events going on in the world. Very FUNNY!

It was then off to bed after a LONG day of site seeing!

DC day one

We are back from vacation and boy LOTS of walking was done. I am also half mole it seems also. You ask yourself, Mole? YUP. The Metro that runs in DC is mainly underground and underwater in some places. You take an escalator down the the lower levers anywhere from 4-8 stories underground, hop on the train going the right direction and then up an escalator to see what the world reveals as you pop out of the underground...just like a mole! Anyway, I digress.

(Pictures if the underground Metro. The red dots in the pictures are lights that flash when the train is approaching)

Our adventure started with a drive to Omaha to catch an early flight to Baltimore via Minneapolis. Once we arrived in Baltimore we took a short shuttle ride to the Amtrak station to ride the MARC train into Washington DC. Tickets were $6 each for one way trip which was about 30 miles in length and about 35 mi to go those 30 miles. Once there we meandered up out of the depths to Union Station. This is a HUGE building were you can catch a taxi, trolley to see the sites, Metro, Amtrak not to mention do some shopping, grab a bite to eat or even see a movie! We headed to our hotel and checked in. Nice place but it should be. The rack rate was $899 a night! We got ours for $169 a night for non busy nights, Friday and Saturday and then it jumped up to $269 a night for Sunday-Tuesday. It is a business town when Friday and Saturday are their cheap nights!

(Union Station)

We headed out on our adventure lead by our tour guide Jay, Kris's brother-in-law. He took us over the Metro to learn how to use it and we were off. First place was the White House. It was cool to see but was surprised at how small it looks and that the grounds were not all the big. There are BIG buildings on two sides of the White House with parks on the other two sides. We snapped a few pics then it was off to Old Ebbits Grille. YUMMY! Good place to have a bit to eat. I had some grilled oysters that were awesome for and appetizer and then had parmesan encrusted trout for supper. Very good but kind of noisy and VERY busy! It was well worth it! We headed back to the hotel as all of us were tired from our early traveling and ready to bound out of bed the next day to what was in store for us.

Sorry, no bloggie in a while and also up coming ride!

Sorry kids, lots going on with work and getting ready for a short vacation I have neglected to do the, as my niece calls it, the bloggie thing....forgive me and I will do a longer blog when things slow down a bit or when I get back from vacation.

FYI----
The weather is WONDERFUL out there today, but I AM WAY TO BUSY to enjoy any of it which BUMS me out HUGE! Word has it there might be snow this weekend and some next weekend, so get out there and enjoy the weather doing whatever, if you can!

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Check this ride out if you will be in the Yankton area....I will be!

St. Patrick's Day Bike Ride
Saturday, March 14™ 2:OO PM
Start at west parking lot of Riverside Park, Yankton, SD
Route 15-2o mile to lake area and back to Ben's Brewing Company

with several rest stops including the Cottonwood Corral
Free will donations accepted long-sleeve t-shirts available for $15

Sponsored by Missouri River Cycling

(Ben's Brewing Company is having a St Patty's party March 14th

also with a band and all sorts of fun stuff planned)

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