A Cube is Not a Box

I was talking to my sister the other day and in the course of the conversation she mentioned the Wii system and commented how it's sold out all over. I said that I had just spoken to a woman that found them online on Friday, so they may still have them. I told her it was called Pandora's Box.

Today: I get a call from Jen double checking the name of the site before informing her co-worker. I again tell her it was definitely Pandora's Box.

Just now: received another call from Jen saying, "what are you trying to do to me!?"

Me: "what?"

Jen: "I gave that site to my co-worker, my 60 year old woman co-worker. Which she pulled up at work and she started freaking out saying, 'oh my, oh my I can't click on any of this.' I figured she must have entered it in wrong so I pulled it up on my work computer only to find out it's some sort of child fetish website!"

Me: "ha ha ha ha ha, oops, sorry. I could have sworn that's what it was called. It was Pandora's something."

Jen: "yeah I found it, Pandora's Cube."

Me: "well that's kinda like a box."

Sorry Jen!

Going Nuts Over Nuts

Last night we went to the grocery store. It was a Thursday night so we figured it'd be slow, we'd get in, get what we need and get out. Painless right? Yeah, not so much. First we get there and everything is moved around. They changed their entire floor plan, so I couldn't find anything. Normally I can skip the aisles I don't need and go directly to what I do. But with everything moved I had to go up and down each aisle, making sure we weren't missing anything.
Then Amy texted me. Normally I go to the store by myself, so I'll text her back while shopping. No big deal. But Marc was already impatient with me wandering around, so he gave me a hard time and told me to do it later. So I put my phone away and kept shopping.
Finally we were at check out. There were a few open, so I picked the one with the least amount of people and got in line. I began unloading the cart and about half way through I realized the belt hadn't moved. I looked up and saw the cashier moving in slow motion inspecting each item as she scanned it. I was like great, this is gonna take forever. At this Marc gives me a hard time and says to suck it up. If I can text while shopping, I can't complain that the cashier is slow. I agreed, but still wasn't happy.
Eventually it was our turn. She's talking to herself saying, "oh no look at all this, who is going to bag all this", with this real spacey expression. Marc heads down to the end and says he'll bag, she just needs to ring us up. She says ok. totally relieved. Again, she begins to move in slow motion inspecting each item as she scans. That is until she comes to the bulk nuts. I had 2 bags of nuts, in separate bags. She picks up the first bag and says, "what kind of nuts are these"? I tell her they are hazelnuts. She replies, "well I know they're acorns, but do you know how much they cost?". I told her no and again said they were hazelnuts. She turns to the girl at the next register, holding up the bag, and asks, "hey I don't know where to find these, I know they're acorns, but I can't find them listed". I said again, "that's because they are hazelnuts". The other cashier is just looking at her pissed off and says just look under nuts. She slowly turns to her screen and begins hitting buttons looking at the screen with wide eyes and gaping mouth. She then calls to another girl to come help her find the acorns. She comes over and tries to find them but can't. (Because they are not acorns!) Then the manager comes over and he takes the bag and says he'll be back he'll go check the price. She says ok, turns back to the register and shakes it off (she actually shakes) and then continues on. She picks up the next item and goes, "oh no, another bag of nuts. At least I know these are walnuts". At this I almost jump over the belt. I as calmly as I could reply, "no they are almonds". She just stares at me with a deer in the headlights looks. The other girl comes back over and says, hey, we'll just give you the shelled almonds price since we can't find the right one, and rings it up to $9.11 for almonds. Like she's doing me a favor. I again, trying to keep my composure say, "no, there's no way you're charging me for shelled almonds, they cost more. I'm not paying $9.00 for almonds". She says ok and takes it off. Luckily just then the guy comes back with the correct price and everything is rung up correctly.
It was an incredibly painful shopping experience.

Hot Topic

I've never had much luck with Hot Balm in the past. It's never really worked for me regardless of how much Ive applied. And if it did work, it started working too late; like once I was home after a hot shower. So this year I got 'hot' instead of using Marc's 'mild'.
Saturday was a cold overcast day threatening rain, so I decided it'd be a great day to try out my new 'hot' Hot Balm. Thinking I'd have the same reaction as previously I slathered on an absorbent amount from upper thigh down to my ankle. Then I put on 2 layers of knee warmers to really work up a sweat.
As I went for my pre-ride and my I could feel the slight burn, but it was nice and not too hot. I abandoned one set of knee warmers for the race, and again, it felt good, not overwhelming. Then after the race I jumped in Tom's Sprinter to clean up my leg (which I bashed into the concrete coming off the beach, leaving behind some skin). I wasn't in there for more than a couple minutes before my legs started to burn, then burn quickly turned to a fiery pain. I cleaned up my leg quickly and disembarked. As soon as I hit the cool air, the pain eased. Problem was I had to sit in the car the whole way home. My upper body was freezing as we couldn't turn the heat on since my legs were on fire.
We stopped on the way home to pick up rubbing alcohol and witch hazel. Both which I've heard removes Hot Balm. So I rubbed and rubbed trying to remove as much as possible so I could take a hot shower. Once I figured all was good I got in the shower and slowly eased the water warmer and warmer. It felt good, not burning. Then I decided to shave. HA! What a mistake. The fire came back 10 fold and nothing made it subside for about an hour.
Sunday I used very little Hot Balm. It was much better.

Weekend results:
Saturday was Beacon. It was a cold and blustery day and I was still not feeling well. But what the hell, I raced anyway. Well, I was in a race. I'm not sure you can call what I did 'racing'. I basically bundled myself up, slathered on a ton of Hot Balm and had a nice ride in the park. Sunday went a little better. I was feeling a little more like my old self and had a little spunk back. Was able to fight it out a little and managed a respectable finish.

Long Live the Rut!

Ok, I feel like I need to say more after my last post. Marc has been giving me a hard time all week. I didn't mean 'rut' in the way that I hate cross. I love cross. It's just a bit all consuming, that's all. I've had a huge break from it this week as I've been sick all week. As it turns out I miss my rut. I've been longing to get back out on the bike all week. I even tried one night, only to find that I had an endless supply of snot and mucus and my head was on fire. But hey, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger right. I sure hope so anyway as I was just checking out the weather for tomorrow's race, 40 and raining! Just keep moving forward.

Cross Rut


I've been kinda in a funk lately. I wait all year for cross season and now that it's here and we're pretty much in the middle of it, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I feel like all I do is work, ride, eat and sleep. I know that's the way it goes and once it's over I'll be missing it all over again. But as for right now I'm feeling a little like I'm in a rut.
Last weekend, like many weekends lately I went to a cross race. Last Saturday was the Wayne Scott Memorial race at Fair Hill. It was a blustery, cold, overcast day. However, the course was pure beauty. I absolutely loved the course. It was fairly flat with false flats, some natural barriers, a short run up and a really long sand pit. Oh and did I mention about 50 billion turns. It was great. I wasn't feeling the sand pit at first. It was a lot of running and incredibly long, but it seemed to work to my advantage. Who knew I could run. It was great to have a course that was actually my style. I couldn't complain at all. I gave it my all and had a great race. Minus a few errors (like not paying attention and running off course) everything went well.
So today I'm back in my rut. Figuring out what I need to do each day, even though basically everyday is the same. Today is the one day I usually get out of my rut and go climbing. I love climbing but it has definitely taken a back seat to cross. Today I'm not going though as I feel a little under the weather. So I'm going to stay home and rest. Rut, rut, rut...

Blunders and Bloopers

This past weekend was my first double weekend and the beginning of the MAC races. Day 1 was Granogue. I knew I was in trouble the night before. We had spent the afternoon taping the course in the pouring rain walking up and down hills. Probably not the best pre-race workout. Then my dinner got me sick and I didn't get to bed until late. Great. Saturday comes and the rain is gone. Only blue sky. That's a plus. I grabbed something to eat, tried to warm up, but my legs were wood. They refused my every attempt. So I raced on dead legs, had an absolutely horrible start and last lap and didn't even contest the sprint finish. Yup, that's bad. So I ended up getting 15th. Not horrible, but not what I wanted either. To make matters worse, once I checked the results and all looked good I went off to do what I needed to do. Apparently then there was a protest and they moved me all the back to 20th! I was not 20th. There were girls that continued to race after they were done and they protested the results. It's not my fault they didn't pay attention when the officials told them to stop, or the lap cards. So yeah I wasn't happy.

Then comes Sunday. I decided I'd use my anger for good and put it into Sunday's race. I knew it'd be a tough one as it was more wide open and not my style, but I was hell bent on having a better day than Saturday. I took off well from the start, then as I got into the sand I struggled something fierce. I didn't think much of it as it's sand and there wasn't a groove yet. On the other side Marc's yelling at me to stand up and 1 more gear. I kept thinking I don't have anymore as I'm mashing away. I'm loosing places quickly as everyone goes past me. I continue on, still struggling. I come around again into the sand pit, still struggling. That's when I hear Marc yell "get out of your big ring". Yeah, found my problem. I never shifted back down. I was mashing away with no more gears cause I never looked down to see that I was still in my big ring. I quickly shifted and took off. Now in last place I had a long way to catch back up. I started picking people off one by one. Then as I come through the start/finish going into my 4th lap I get lapped by the lead C guy. I throw up my hands and ask the officials what they want me to do. They waive me on. Luckily I made the cut to have one more lap. I passed 4 more girls and had another sprint finish where this time I gave it my all and it worked out. I ended up with 19th, which isn't great. But hey, I raced a hell of a race, so I'm ok with that.

Rotten Rob sporting some flora in his helmet.

Noodles.

This is the band that played at the race Sunday. Yup, a band played all day! It was awesome.

Weekend Off
No racing this past weekend. Marc and I packed up and headed out to Portland, OR to see Erika and run around. She was awesome. She took us all over the place showing us all the cool things that is Oregon. We even went wine tasting one day. I don't like wine, but it was very interesting experience. Instead of saying I don't like wine, I can now I say that I don't like woody wines and dessert wines are ok. Really I prefer a Mojito, mmm.
Marc and I headed out to the beach to see the Pacific Ocean. Marc was thrilled at being able to say he touched the Pacific. He actually went out and stuck his hand in the frigid water. I felt seeing it was enough. It was a sight to see however. Very different from here. There were big rocks and the waves seemed to come in forever.
We saw some logging, that was sad. Everywhere was deep lush green forest and then you'd come across a huge patch where it was just stripped clean.
I did have to get a little work out in since we didn't have the bikes with us. One day we went climbing. It was a really cool gym in the heart of Portland. It was the middle of a Thursday afternoon and it was packed. Well, packed for a gym. Everyone was really nice. The holds were way worn, so it was very challenging. Saturday went for a run at Tabor Park. It's an old volcano, so it was quite hilly, with a million steps which Marc made me run over and over again.
Later Marc, Erika and I went out to a gorge, I forget the name. It was cut by the Columbia River. On one side of the Gorge was Oregon and Washington on the other. I could even see Mount Saint Helens. That was cool.
We went and hiked up the side of the gorge to the top of this huge waterfall. It was beautiful. Marc was making fun of me though because I took off strong at the bottom following the John Hopkins XC team who just happened to be out there. About half way up I died and staggered the rest of the way. Marc and Erika just laughed at me.
Overall beautiful trip. It was one of the most bike friendly places I've ever seen. There are bike paths everywhere and tons of commuters. So cool.

This was actually supposed to be a picture of the bike path, but by the time I shot the picture the riders were out of the frame.