Florida...here I come!

I'm going to Florida for probably the shortest trip ever. I am flying into the Orlando airport on Friday afternoon in order to hop in a car the next day to drive back to Asheville! Mat's co-worker is coming back early for a job interview which means he would have been driving back the 12 hours by himself. So, thanks to Allegiant Air and their $50 tickets I am gonna go on a road trip with Mat before our big road trip out west! And when I say before, I mean one day before!

4 weeks down, 2 to go

Hard to believe, but it's been over 4 weeks since Mat headed down to Florida for some extra work. I've been staying busy up here and can hardly believe that we have 2 weeks until we are heading out to Utah. Yay! We are looking forward to the travels. Check out flickr, if you haven't been there for awhile as Mat has been taking some amazing pictures down in Florida. Twelve more days until Mat comes home. It's almost like the countdown for Christmas!

ahhh...lovely ride

This picture is of Maddy and I at the top of our climb, now we just have downhill to go.  Yay!  We couldn't stay inside even though the house needs to be cleaned and papers need to be organized, it was just too beautiful outside.  So we went for a ride out at Bent Creek and joined many others in the fabulous weather. (note: all our leaves have dropped, so we are entering stick season, not the most attractive way to see the trees, but it allows for awesome long distance views that you only see in the winter around here!)

It was a quick, fun ride back down to the trailhead.  Since I was riding by myself, I decided not to go on this one trail with a lot of whoop-de-doos just cuz' I've gotten too much air before and messed up on the landing, so I didn't want to chance.  I did come across a log that I'd been eyeing for a while.  Usually it is kind of wet and slippery looking, but yesterday, it was dry and looked like I could attempt.

So I tried, and got up on it, surprised myself, so I hopped off.  It didn't seem too bad, so I tried it again and rode it.  Yay for my balance, then at the end there was a rock placed to help with the dismount, but I didn't realize it was there, so I wasn't lined up correctly for it and I went off the side and must have turned my handlebars.  Because next thing I know, I am kneeling on the ground with the handlebar wrapped around my knee.  All I could think was, "oh no, I sure hope I didn't do anything serious, cuz it will take at least 6 weeks to heal and Mat and I are going on a road trip in 2 weeks in search of mountain bike trails!!!"  But I was able to get up and ride my bike out.  So nothing was broken, I just have some attractive bruising and swelling.



I don't know if you can see or not, but on the right side there is some swelling and then on the inside of my leg is an attractive bruise where it was jammed against the top bar.  But, hopefully, no long lasting issues.  I still have a slight limp, but I think it just has to do with the internal bruising, thankfully!

Dad's birthday

Dad would be 64, I know this because every time his birthday comes around, all I have to do is add 30 to what I am going to be turning. (I hate to think how many years I've been doing that because that makes me old.)  I always loved that I was dad's late 30th birthday present!  I loved that we share the same birth month.



Some of my best memories of dad are:  my wedding day, his helping me when I bought my first truck, going bike riding out in southern Utah with the family on our new bikes, camping in Waterton and hiking, his dutch oven cooking, driving straight through the night to Canada to visit the cousins, watching him hold the new babies in the family, his sitting on the couch and listening to me play the piano and always telling me how nice it was (even though it was mostly pounding or playing wrong notes as I practiced for piano lessons) and his reading books to us on Sunday afternoons while laying on the floor and he eventually would fall asleep.

While he's no longer here to celebrate his birthday, I still get to be thankful for his birth.

bottle opening workout anyone?

For dinner tonight I made up taco salad...one of my favorite easy meals to make. Or at least easy until I tried to open a new bottle of salsa. I don't know what I did before Mat, I guess I had stronger hand/wrist muscles because I sure couldn't open the jar tonight. I tapped it on the counter, ran it under warm water in the sink. Tried as hard as I could to open the bottle and when grimacing as hard as I could and a whole lot of muscle the bottle opened...and out came the salsa down the kitchen wall and counter and onto the floor.

Anyone know of a good workout routine to get these hands/wrists into shape? I still have four more weeks to go!

two weeks down, four more to go...

so, Mat has been down in Florida for a couple weeks now. I've been staying busy between work, volunteering at the yoga center, playing with Maddy and enjoying the beautiful fall weather.





Note the nice new flagging that is out for Maddy.  I had to get the fence fixed, because she realized it wasn't on and she could leave the yard, so I was starting to find her regularly down at our compost pile eating.  :-(  So, I spent a day trying to fix the fence and the light wouldn't turn on at the transmitter, so I had Ron come over and he got it all fixed up within 15-20 minutes.  Then I put the flagging up so Maddy would know to not go beyond the flags when she hears the beeping of her collar.  Yay!  I can now let Maddy out and not have to worry if she's running into the road.



Went for a beautiful fall bike ride at Bent Creek.  Perfect weather and the perfect way to wear out some energetic dogs!!!!  This weekend, I also put together some new pictures to hang up and I've rearranged the bedroom.  We'll see what else I'll decide to do on my weekends while Mat is gone.

magnificient sunset at Devil's Courthouse

Yesterday evening after work I met Mat at the French Broad Overlook and hopped in with him and Madera for a drive down to Devil's Courthouse. We enjoyed some cheese and crackers and watched the sun set. It was amazingly beautiful with some clouds and fog that came in to make interesting light.  For such a quick walk to the top (paved most of the way) we were a bit surprised to not share the view with others.  It was a lovely bonus to have the summit all to ourselves.

(I'm enjoying the view.  Below is Mat practicing his meditation/yoga moves!)