Haven't really felt up to posting much lately, and pressures with work and all have cut into the training a bit. But there's quite a bit of news, so here goes.
A while back, I posted about our trip to Europe-- we're supposed to be just getting home now, but we were supposed to leave the day after that volcano erupted in Iceland, shutting down air traffic over Europe for the better part of a week. It took most of the day to sort out the flights and hotels, but we re-booked for the end of May instead. Originally, we were to fly into Paris, spend 5 nights, then a few nights in Lyon, on to Arles (in Provence), then Barcelona for 5 nights and home from there. Because of the change in dates, we couldn't get flights home from Barcelona, so we've had to cut out Lyon and make an extra leg to Madrid. We'll rack up a few more miles this way, but we get to see another great city (albeit for only a day and a half). Luckily, it's not going to cost us any more than the price of a few train reservations--which are only a fraction of the actual ticket.
In other news, we went to the Laugh Shop on Saturday for my sister-in law's birthday. Haven't been since it was Yuk Yuks-- I didn't even realize they'd changed their name! Normally, it's a great deal, ticket's aren't too expensive, and they'll serve you mini-jugs of highballs at a decent price too. The mini-jugs were still a good deal, but the tickets were double the price because Tom Green was the headliner. He was pretty funny at times, but other times he would go on these rants-- mostly about how much he hated the celebrity culture, Hollywood in general. Mostly because the crowd wanted it, he'd fall back to some of his famous movie lines. But most of us hadn't seen any of his movies!
Nicole and I have been taking advantage of the basement setup these past two weeks, doing brick workouts together on Sundays. Pop in a Real Rides disc, and go-- today, I got on the bike first, and rode Richter's Pass for just over an hour. I get the feeling that our wind trainer doesn't have quite enough resistance, but oh well. After the bike, I ran for 30 minutes on the treadmill, while Nicole got on the bike. Felt good.
We've also been running through the community quite a bit-- unfortunately, we're not really connected to any other pathways, and Sage Hill is pretty small, so we've run every single road-- in fact, it's hard not to overlap on a single run! Things change so quickly with all the new houses being built, that it's entertaining just to run or walk through the neighborhood (watch out for dumpsters and building materials!)
I've been spending a lot of time on the backyard. The plan is to build a deck, then finish the fence, prep the flower and shrub beds, plant some trees, and sod. I think that some of the shrubs and such will have to wait for next year, but hopefully we'll have a yard we can use by the summer. I've been doing quite a bit of digging in the garden and beds, getting rid of some of the clay, so that there's more room for good soil. The neighbors think I'm crazy for doing all that digging, but being outside in the yard has been a great way to meet them!
