Great weekend!

So this weekend had a LOT of varying activities!  So, we worked a lot, I am tired now, and I hope I can get up in the morning!

First of all, on Friday afternoon, I finally got Killin's postal address and sent him a letter =D

We did a lot of stuff around the house, to help us be able to organise all of our boxes and such...

I built this shelf with my dad to put holiday things and other storage on top, and hang the bikes from underneath it:

ya, we have too many bikes ;)

 

My dad also cut this hole in our wall :O  No worries, it is for a dog door so the dogs can go out whenever they want to!

that is the kitchen as seen from the outside of the house ;)

And I cut the bottom of my portafilter on my espresso machine so I can see what is going on when I pull a shot <-- LOTS of coffee geek talk right there!  I'll cut to the chase, here is a video:





Then this morning I had a race!  It was the Tour De Scottsdale, and it was different than any other race I had done before.  It was open to anyone (no license needed) but it was timed with a chip and everything.  Pretty cool!  Anyway, there were 1300 riders, and it was a pretty fast race up at the front, but I stayed for quite a while with the fast guys.  The race was 70ish miles and the winner finished in around 2h:20min or so, and I got 2h:58 min, so I was pretty happy with that :)  There were a BUNCH of crashes though :/  I mean like 4 or 5, and it was pretty much all because of the organizers did stupid things to try to keep us out of the way of traffic!  Thankfully, I don't think anyone was seriously hurt though. Here are some pics my mom took of me afterwards with the medal we got for finishing.  And you can see my bike rack on my little car ;)

And I hit the Jackpot on Nut butters today!!  Three different kinds I have never tried before :p

sorry for the crappy photo, I was tired...

She does this ALL on her own!

And, of course, the dogs got some relaxation even if we didn't!  They wanted to be on my blog :)

Well, that was my weekend, all the business and fun I could handle! 

How was your weekend??  I hope it was fantastic!

Have a Magnificent Monday my friends =D 

Scott

Trip report and updates

Has it really been an entire week since I have blogged?!?!  I think it has!  I am about due then aren't I!

The important stuff first.  I have been struggling a bit lately.  I haven't lost any weight, but my eating habits are becoming a bit more ED like :( And I can see it with my own eyes but I don't know what to do!  I guess it is a really stressful time for me, with finals and the end of school coming up, my trip to Germany, and moving to Arizona.  I am excited for it all, but maybe it is all coming at me a bit too fast?  I don't know...  But that doesn't make it okay.  Why am I going back down this road if I know I don't want to?  I don't want to loose all that I have gained!  It is just a little bit of a change here and there, but the more I act on these thoughts the worse they will become.  And I know that but ugh :/   It makes me feel better just to write that though.  It has been bothering me the last couple of days...

So, the rest of my trip right?  Here it goes...

On tuesday morning (or was it wednesday.???) I had oats with some of this: 

Nom Nom Nom...

I also bought these which I have eaten over the past couple of days.  They are my first Raw Revolution bars and I must say they are quite good!  They have a bit of a different texture to them, but good nonetheless :]

Some pics from the plane... 

You can see the Indianapolis Speedway in this one!  Isn't that cool?!?!

And of course the house!~~

the breakfast nook.  I LOVE the natural light!!

the kitchen, AKA heart of the house ;]  I like the sink being in the island ;}

And here are a few ideas we want to implement for the yard.  Right now, it is a blank canvas!!

And lastly, I found this beautiful moth on a taxi parked next to my dad's car! 

Then I got back on wednesday night and on friday I headed up to Chicago to race on saturday morning!  I feel like a world travler!!

We stayed at my coach's mom's house.  She has hosted us for the past three years I have been here, and I am not sure how long before that.  She is so sweet!  They are a traditional Mexican family so it is always a home-made Mexican feast whenever we come over ;)  Tacos, but the kind the Mexicans meant for them to be!  They were great :)

Then the race(s) were on saturday.  My first race was at 8am for the juniors.  I felt well, but I ended up getting caught pulling at the front.  That means to block the wind for the rest of the group and use up more energy.  I tried to slow down but nobody would pass :/  Anyways, I did fine, but on the last turn I took a bad line and slowed down too much.  I wasn't where I needed to for the sprint so I got 7th.  I am ok with that though :)

Then the cat 4 race was at 3:45.  Two words that you need to know for this race.  BIG CRASH.  Yep.  I mean BIG!  The whole race went fine, except I was farther back in the pack than I would have liked.  I kept trying to move up then kept getting squished out the back.  I think I wasn't aggressive enough...  But then with two laps to go, I hear this huge crashing sound.  It takes me a second to figure out what is going on, and then there are bikes falling over to my right.  From what I am told, some team attacked off the front to start the sprint and they bumped some people and caused a domino effect.  All in all there were probably 20+ riders that went down all across the road.  I was near the back so I am so thank God I didn't go down.  The odds were definitely against me.  I slammed on my brakes and locked up the rear wheel for a second, then got it back under control and stopped.  As soon as I stopped it was like I re entered the world, cause I was like in a trance/survival mode during the crash.  I looked to my right and saw a guy moaning in pain, and a guy running by me screaming "where the f*** is my bike!!"  At that point I decided I should really try to help out, I couldn't finish any better anyways.  I tried to get the ambulance to come which they finally did.  It was a fiasco.  I rode over to the finish and saw some guy carrying his bike and his wheel was bent like a taco.  Ouch.  Not a good day for some.  I am so thankful I am safe.

Then sunday I went to Cincinnati to see my cousin that lives in Florida and is the head chef at a restaurant there.  My eating problems were noticeable there :(  They had lasagne and garlic bread, and I just sat there picking it apart and eating certain parts.  It is awful, and I know I am upsetting my family, and myself, but I feel like it is out of my control. Ugh...

So that is the end of my novel of a post.  Sorry it is so long, I just had a lot to say I guess!  Now I am off to study some more if I am good, but probably read some blogs before I go to bed and maybe watch a bit of tv ;)

Have a terrific Tuesday!!!!

Scott

The end of a long week...

WOW has it been a long week!!  I wish I could say that I have a boatload of pictures to share with you, but I don't :(  I am so sorry!!  I really must get back to a regular nightly posting routine because I absolutely love it!!  Your comments brighten my day and I just don't want to go without that.  So I am going to try next week to do my best to post more than only Monday and Friday!!

So, because I have neglected my blog for the entire week, here are a few highlights of my week :]

• I have been talking to Megan over the past week while she is being admitted to IP.  Such a sweet girl, and she really could use all of your support.
• I got to ride Tuesday and Thursday on the training ride!!  Ya, it is pretty much the norm, but after this past weekend I was a bit worried!  This weekend looks like it will be a bit better but with a bit of rain still :/
• School was CRAZY!!  Tests galore and ugh I am so glad to be through with this week!
• Finished my German project over the Indianapolis 500, in (English and German!) for my exchange trip (I can't wait to see you Pascal, Ich freue mich sehr viel daran!!)
• Got my skype working again so I was able to talk to my dad in AZ, and I am right now too!!  (I keep missing Maddi!  Darn time difference...)
• got my Lego project mostly painted for IED (intro to engineering and design)  We are making a School bus with custom parts on a 3D printer!!  I will tell you more when it is finished ;)

So that is pretty much all I did this week.  Insert a bunch of school garbage important school work and you have my week!  Now the fun part, my weekend!

Tomorrow I am planning on racing in the late afternoon as long as it doesn't rain (crosses fingers pleasepleaseplease!) hehe I am going to see my sister on Sunday in her new house on campus!!  She is taking my furniture to put in there because it isn't furnished ;]

I am off to read your posts and try to get caught up!  I will leave you with a random picture I took today...

Can you believe it‽ <-- (I just remembered that symbol, it is called an Interrobang isn't it great‽)  Edible grass for Easter baskets!  And it is from Germany!! 

Have a great Saturday everyone :)

Scott