Had a great ride today in the mountains about an hour from here. My colleague picked me up at 0600 and we drove up into the mountains. There were four of us and we pretty much stuck together. It took us about 4.5 hours of riding and 45 minor rest stops. The hills were hard, but I did a lot better than I thought I would. I didn't embarrass myself! And one of the guys I was with seemed to be surprised by how well I did. I think he was thinking I'd be slow, but I know I wasn't. It was 5200 feet of climbing. One hill was several miles long. Thanks goodness the first hill was actually the steepest and worst. The last two were small, but they were only bad because they were at the end. The post race party was good. Had a delicious green chile burger and I won a carved bear. When they called my name, I had no idea what I won, but I screamed and acted all crazy anyway. The. I thanks the aAcademy and all my supporters who had gotten me there. It was kind of funny. And that was BEFORE two beers! Then a while later my buddy won two entries to a race the following weekend in El Paso. We screamed like idiots again. People were laughing and having more fun anyway. The DJ was pretty awesome, playing some old music and of course I had to get up and sat. And sit in my chair and dance. And walk and dance. A guy came over to dance with me..that was pretty funny. He was a white guy in his 50s who didn't really dance too well, but he was having a lot of fun!
We drove home and then I had to change and go to Oktoberfest. It was put on by the Germans here and could have been a lot of fun if I wasn't exhausted! They had good music and food and I got a free beer with my free VIP entry ticket. Talked to some people and then came home and packed. Can wait to go home tomorrow and see the family!!!
Saturday, September 22, 2012
Monday, September 3, 2012
Labor day weekend activites
What an awesome weekend! Started out on Friday with a day off. I went for a short run in the morning and then did some work around the house. I had a lot of errands to run, so I went to the box, went to Walmart, went to the gun store. I had planned to go camping that night, but I felt like it was getting sick. My joints had started to hurt and it was getting worse all day. Then my skin started to hurt. That's the sign that I have a fever. I came home and checked and my temp was normal, but I took some Motrin. Then I laid down for awhile. At about 4:00, I got up and decided to pack and see how I felt. I somehow miraculously felt better! So I got loaded up nd set off for Dog Canyon. I had trouble figuring out how to set up the tent, even though I had set it up in the garage. Well, in that garage I didn't try to stake it down. I just stuck the poles in. It was a whole different story when I put it up in real life! I couldn't get the dang poles to stick into the ground. Well, after about an hour, I realized the tents don't go in the ground, they go in the grommets of the tent. Good Lord. I hope no one was looking! How embarrassing! It was pretty quick once I figured that out. By then the sun had just set, so it was too late to go bike riding like I had planned. So I settled in to read by lantern and watch the rest of the sunset. There was a full moon and it was so bright! Turns out it was also a blue moon. That's the second full moon in a month. Had to explain that to someone at church who said the moon didn't look blue to her. And to a guy who said the same thing. And to another woman. They also didn't know that Smurfs are only born during blue moons. Guess you learn something new every day, now don't you! Oh yeah...back to camping. I slept terrible! The wind was howling around my tent all night. My Motrin wore off at about 2am. And I could figure out how to blow up my air mattress. I was tired and didn't try too hard, but nevertheless. I was awake about every hour all night.
I got up about at about 6:30 am and then packed up all my stuff after eating my peanut butter and jelly and then set off for a hike. I met an older couple at the beginning of the trail and they told me a hit about it. My goal was to go about an hour and a half or so. Holy moly. The first half mile was steep and rocky! Thankfully, it got a bit easier after that, but it was still a pretty moderate hike. I had packed a large camelback with plenty of snacks and I drank plenty on the way up. I met a guy on the way down who is an orthopedic physician assistant and who lives in el paso. He works in the animal control and it's his job to get the brains out of animals so they can be tested for rabies. He was funny. I did my 90 minutes and made it two miles. Then I turned around and jogged back down. My legs were so wobbly by the time I finished! I got home and fell into bed without even a shower. I know that's gross, but I was too tired to care. I slept for a couple of hours. Even after that, instill felt like lead. I mosied around a bit and then I slowly got some life back into me. I eventually made it it to pick up a few more things at the store. I Skyped with my friend Mar who lives in Hawaii. That was pretty neat. We toured each others houses.
Sunday I planned to go to church in Las Cruces. I tried to sleep in, but woke up early. I decided to get up and do some organizing. Then I went to house church. Met a bunch of new people and heard a good lesson. Afterwards, we had lunch. I tried some kind of tortilla casserole and I also had menudo for the first time. That's a soup made with cow stomach. It sounds gross, but it was actually delicious. I think it was tomato based and there was hominy in it. The stomach bits had a weird texture, and not terribly pleasant, but not really bad either. It's kind of like tofu...it didn't have it's own flavor, but it absorbed the flavors it was cooked with. After church, I went to the famous Hatch Chili Festival in Hatch, NM. Hatch chili peppers are like Champaign or Kona coffee. They can only be called that if they are grown there. I tried the mild and it was kind of like a green bell pepper. The medium, called a Barker variety, was spicy and had a great flavor. The hot was pleasantly hot, not miserable (to me!), but once it had settled in my stomach, I got nauseated. That has never happened before. Crazy! They had a chili eating contest and I think I could have won it on the pure eating part, but then I would have puked. Not cool. A vendor gave me a sample of prickly pear ginger jelly that he said would help. In about 10 minutes after that, I felt better. not sure if was natural resolution or the jelly, but I didn't care. I was cured! I bought some prickly pear jelly. I also so d sme amazing pasta. I got four different kinds, including the one I sampled. Which was garlic spinach. It was so garlicky and flavorful with no sauce or anything. I can't wait to make some! I also bought two bags of medium chilis, pre-roasted. And I ate a funnel cake. Then I came home and chilled out for the evening. Oh yeah... I made some green chili chicken lasagna with my chilis. It's a dish I had at a restaurant. It turned out great and I'll eat it for lunches this week.I skyped with the family also. A great day!
Monday found me awake earlier than planned, which was good and bad. Bad because I only had about ours of sleep. Good because it was still cool out and if I was going to do a 40 mile ride, I needed to start early. So I did. Had a great ride down route 70. Came home and rested up. Emptied the rest of my boxes. Did some organizing. Vacuumed the car and the house. And discovered Turtleman. Turtleman is the redneck Crocodile Hunter. I love how he names all the creatures that he catches. I am now a fan.
And now...I'm settled in and get back to work tomorrow.
I got up about at about 6:30 am and then packed up all my stuff after eating my peanut butter and jelly and then set off for a hike. I met an older couple at the beginning of the trail and they told me a hit about it. My goal was to go about an hour and a half or so. Holy moly. The first half mile was steep and rocky! Thankfully, it got a bit easier after that, but it was still a pretty moderate hike. I had packed a large camelback with plenty of snacks and I drank plenty on the way up. I met a guy on the way down who is an orthopedic physician assistant and who lives in el paso. He works in the animal control and it's his job to get the brains out of animals so they can be tested for rabies. He was funny. I did my 90 minutes and made it two miles. Then I turned around and jogged back down. My legs were so wobbly by the time I finished! I got home and fell into bed without even a shower. I know that's gross, but I was too tired to care. I slept for a couple of hours. Even after that, instill felt like lead. I mosied around a bit and then I slowly got some life back into me. I eventually made it it to pick up a few more things at the store. I Skyped with my friend Mar who lives in Hawaii. That was pretty neat. We toured each others houses.
Sunday I planned to go to church in Las Cruces. I tried to sleep in, but woke up early. I decided to get up and do some organizing. Then I went to house church. Met a bunch of new people and heard a good lesson. Afterwards, we had lunch. I tried some kind of tortilla casserole and I also had menudo for the first time. That's a soup made with cow stomach. It sounds gross, but it was actually delicious. I think it was tomato based and there was hominy in it. The stomach bits had a weird texture, and not terribly pleasant, but not really bad either. It's kind of like tofu...it didn't have it's own flavor, but it absorbed the flavors it was cooked with. After church, I went to the famous Hatch Chili Festival in Hatch, NM. Hatch chili peppers are like Champaign or Kona coffee. They can only be called that if they are grown there. I tried the mild and it was kind of like a green bell pepper. The medium, called a Barker variety, was spicy and had a great flavor. The hot was pleasantly hot, not miserable (to me!), but once it had settled in my stomach, I got nauseated. That has never happened before. Crazy! They had a chili eating contest and I think I could have won it on the pure eating part, but then I would have puked. Not cool. A vendor gave me a sample of prickly pear ginger jelly that he said would help. In about 10 minutes after that, I felt better. not sure if was natural resolution or the jelly, but I didn't care. I was cured! I bought some prickly pear jelly. I also so d sme amazing pasta. I got four different kinds, including the one I sampled. Which was garlic spinach. It was so garlicky and flavorful with no sauce or anything. I can't wait to make some! I also bought two bags of medium chilis, pre-roasted. And I ate a funnel cake. Then I came home and chilled out for the evening. Oh yeah... I made some green chili chicken lasagna with my chilis. It's a dish I had at a restaurant. It turned out great and I'll eat it for lunches this week.I skyped with the family also. A great day!
Monday found me awake earlier than planned, which was good and bad. Bad because I only had about ours of sleep. Good because it was still cool out and if I was going to do a 40 mile ride, I needed to start early. So I did. Had a great ride down route 70. Came home and rested up. Emptied the rest of my boxes. Did some organizing. Vacuumed the car and the house. And discovered Turtleman. Turtleman is the redneck Crocodile Hunter. I love how he names all the creatures that he catches. I am now a fan.
And now...I'm settled in and get back to work tomorrow.
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