Maxie's turn

Now it's my Maxie who was offended that I didn't post photos of her..... so today it's all about Ms Maxie.

Hello Minneapolis!

I had my first on-site visit with one of my accounts today in Cleveland. Now I'm in a hotel room in Minneapolis, ready for my next visit tomorrow...then off to Chicago tomorrow afternoon for one more on Thursday. So far, so good! I'm glad that things are really starting to get going with my new job.
Chris' parents are taking both girls for the weekend...Chris and I are planning on riding our bikes to Madison to hang out, as long as the weather holds out. We're excited to get out for a ride and have some 'us' time!
Ran about three miles in downtown Cleveland this morning...and got lost. :) It was fun, though :)

Maxie and Me

I LOVE my new bike. She is so easy to ride...light, nimble, incredible cornering. Yesterday we took a ride and stopped by Chris' parents for about ten minutes. His mom took a couple of photos....isn't she tough and cool and hot??? (Maxie, not the oaf sitting on her)

Maxie is coming home to mama!!!!!

Well, her name is Maxie. The bike. She is fast, tough, sleek, German, and black and grey... just like our old dog, Max. He was a retired sled dog from a prestigious German line of sled dogs. He was the coolest dog. So sweet, so beautiful, so fast and he had a similar sleek and different look as the bike. So Maxie she is!!

AND

She comes home to mama tomorrow!!!!!!

I was going to get her tonight, but the universe was against me and it stormed. I'm praying for nice weather tomorrow!!!!

Well, that was fast....

Daisy is sold already! 1.5 days on the market and sold her for 1200.00 MORE than what the dealership would have given me. 700.00 MORE than the reserve price I listed on eBay. And the woman buyer is from 20 minutes away, which is awesome!!!
Beemer, here I come!!!!

I need a name for her. She'll be black with a small amount of white and pink pinstriping. (her photo is two posts down the page) Please leave a comment on this post with your suggestions!!! Do I want to stick with the flower theme?

EDITED TO ADD: I agree with Coty...she is not a sweet flower like Daisy. She is hot and fast and needs a name that reflects just that. SO, if you know any hot and fast women that my bike should be named for... ;) Don't leave without leaving a comment (click on the link at the bottom of this post...)with your suggestions. Pretty please?

Daisy is for sale!!!!!!

My gorgeous friend, Daisy, is for sale.... Never thought you'd see the day, did you? If you've been under a rock for the last couple of years, Daisy is my pink motorcycle.






































I will be very sad to see her go, but it looks as though I'm going to be getting my dream bike. I have wanted a BMW motorcycle for years. My dream BMW model is the R1200R.
I put a deposit on it yesterday to hold it. And went to the bank today. As soon as Daisy sells, I'll be riding the Beemer home. This one is black with a little white pinstriping...the perfect partner for some pink pinstriping. This is the bike:


















I listed Daisy late last night on eBay and within 20 hours had three people email me expressing interest, 8 bids, and a current bid of nearly a thousand more than the 'reserve price' I set (the lowest I'll take). A woman from Oshkosh is coming to see her in person tomorrow. Crazy stuff.

If it all happens, I'll need to come up with a name for the new girl!


**PS... there are photos from yesterday's session on my Soul Reflection Blog. She's a beautiful 9 month old and I'm very happy with the images.

Can you hear the rumble?

They're forcasting 48 degrees on Monday and 54 degrees on Tuesday....time to get the bike out!!!!! You can bet that if we get up close to that temperature this biker girl will be riding to work on the pink Daisy. That's right, my motorcycle will officially come out of Winter storage and I'll be breaking in my new jacket. I'd better polish up the pink flames on the helmet and get ready to brave snowbanks and road grit. I'll keep you posted on any motorcycle activity. I just can't keep Daisy locked up in the stinky garage any longer!

We're getting ready for the pink party on Sunday. Today was the trip to the party store, tomorrow will bring cleaning, stuffing goody bags, a trip to the grocery store, and the baking of the cake. The very special cake.... Sunday morning is a long run of somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 miles (not as long as I'd like, due to a time shortage in the Reb Haus) and then it's time to party in pink.

Heartbreaker

I didn't post a photo of my new motorcycle jacket yet, and I have to show it off. It should look pretty sweet with my pink bike..... it's the Joe Rocket Heartbreaker. There are more flowers & butterflies on the lower back.

My Daisy Is Pink!!!!!

I got my freshly painted bike parts back today and we got her back together. Daisy looks amazing. Better than I'd hoped. She's a beautiful 1950's or 60's shade of pink with small silver flakes. My bike is the American Classic Edition Shadow, so the color works with the look. See for yourself!!

Before: (June 2004)






















After: (October 2006)






















And some others....

Red Daisy

Red Daisies just aren't as pretty as pink Daisies.
Here she is, my Daisy in red for the last time..... Next time she's in one piece again she'll be black and pink!!!!!!! (Edited--I decided to go with all pink, instead! She'll be some sort of light glittery pink or light metallic pink)
Also see Libby's new 'do from the front in one photo and back in the other.

New Half-Marathon PR!!!! New look for the blog!! New teeth for Monkey!! New Hairdos for the girls!! New Paint Job for my Motorcycle!!

All sorts of new stuff in the last few days!
New Half-Marathon PR
Yesterday Jo and I ran our new personal records for Half-Marathon (13.1 miles) and in doing so ran a new PR for a 15K, as well! Two, two, two PRs in one! We ran the Half in 2 hours 11 minutes, shaving two minutes off of our previous best and averaging a flat 10:00/mile pace. We are very pleased and both of us are quite sore, as well. Now I need to rest and run easy for the next two weeks as I get ready to run the Fox Cities Marathon. I'm running the Half-Marathon event with Chris. I must admit that I'm a bit concerned about it, as he's only run four times now, the longest distance being four miles. As I always say, there is a bit of a flaw in your training if tapering for a race means increasing your mileage.

Because of my lack of time, I'll give you the Cliff Notes version of the 13.1 Mile Adventure Run Report this week.
** Jo and I saw another Heron. That's something like three adventure runs in a row where we had Heron sightings. Trying to tell us something? Hmmmm.....
**Jo respected the "No Dumping" signs along the trail....for once.
**A baby bunny ran by and Jo swore she could smell it before she saw it...said something about recognizing animal pee smell...smelled like a Guinnea Pig... and then I asked if it could have actually been the horse farm we were running by.
**Seizures. I have a mild form of Epilepsy which sometimes get worse during long training runs if I am not careful about keeping up on my electrolyte intake. I apparently wasn't careful enough of it yesterday. It was seizure galore throughout the run, and I actually fell and did a complete sommersault in the last quarter mile. I figure it was a combination of fatigue and seizure. Poor Jo was behind me and so focussed on her feet (staring at them, willing them to keep moving) that she wasn't aware of the fall until she saw me laying sideways in a weird position on the sidewalk. I am fairly certain that she was thinking that it served me right for yelling at her to keep running despite leg cramps and fatigue in the last couple of miles.

New Look For the Blog
I've been a bit behind on posting because I've been trying to change up the look of the blog. I switched it over to Blogger Beta, which I like a lot more, but I've had trouble getting everything back the way I want. For instance, the long string of jibberish on the right should be my Race Day Countown ticker. I hope to have that fixed soon. I also used my meager graphics art ability to create a new header for the top. I like it, and FINALLY figured out how to get it up there....after hours of trying (and hours of driving Chris nuts with my OCD-like focus on the computer and not him and the girls), but now must figure out how to make it fit the space better. It's currently too small and off to the left side.

New Teeth For Monkey!!
Amelia (aka "Monkey-Monkey") pushed out two more teeth this weekend. That brings her total up to eight.

New Hairdos for the Little Ladies
We don't cut our children's hair until they turn a year old. It's a Moroccan tradition that Jo follows with her children and we really liked it. Monkey has been unable to see unless she had a Pebbles-style ponytail for months. I cut her hair a little early because she gets her 1 Year Old photos taken next week and wanted to have it done before those. While I was at it I spontaneously decided to give Libby a 'big-girl-hairdo' and cut hers, as well. It's a short, trendy do that is super cute on her. I'll be sure to post photos of both girls soon.

New Paint-Job for My Motorcycle!!
WAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! I'm getting my bike painted!!!!!!!! If you are familiar, my biker jacket is pink and my helmet is white with sparkly pink flames..... any guesses about the new bike color??? OH YEAH, BABY, IT'S PINK!!!!! I'm so excited. My bike is currently black and deep red. We're having all of the red parts painted pink to match the helmet. I am SO freakin' excited!!!!! Libby and Chris are out there right now taking the parts off so we can take them to the guy. You KNOW I'll be posting before and afters photos.

Two hawks, two turkey vultures, one deer, one dead porcupine, one enormous spider with babies, 10 hours on a motorcycle, and one accident.

Chris and I sneaked off this weekend for a motorcycle trip. His parents watched the girls and dogs and we had two wonderful days. We headed North, destination the deep woods. In the first half hour of the ride I saw two hawks. The weather was perfect for riding with blue sky painted with fluffy white clouds, suprisingly cooler air, and no wind. It was peaceful....beautiful....serene.... and then I nearly crashed my bike. I left the highway, so I guess that counts as an accident, though I stayed upright and neither Daisy (my bike) or I had a scratch on us.
Chris and I had agreed that I would follow him for the first leg of the trip because he knew the route better. So I was just looking around, spotting hawks, looking at the blue sky painted with fluffy white clouds, enjoying the suprisingly cooler air, and thinking how pleasant it was with no wind. I was not paying attention to signs or speed, just making sure I stayed about the same distance behind Chris all the time. We were going into a curve to the right when I saw Chris brake hard because it was much sharper curve than expected. Then I noticed all of the gravel blanketing the highway. I hit my brakes hard because I knew I'd never make that curve at the speed I was going, even without the gravel. I started to skid and my rear wheel was sliding out to the side. This has never happened to me before, yet I was keenly aware that this was not a good thing. Had I not let go of the brakes and decided to go for the ditch at that moment, I would have laid her down on the highway and slid who-knows-how-far on my pretty pink leather jacket.
I picked a spot ahead of me, crossed the oncoming lane, and rode hard down into a deep ditch. I felt Daisy's shocks bottom out and my spine took care of the rest of the shock absorbsion. I raised up on my foot pegs, eased off of my throttle, rode up the other side of the ditch, apparently just missed a fence (I had tunnel vision and a little adrenaline flowing, and don't recall seeing that), over a driveway, and back up the ditch and onto the highway. Never stopped, never looked back.
Chris saw the whole thing in his mirrors. He knew I was going too fast for the curve, he knew that I'd never make it with the gravel...and was at least somewhat relieved when he realized that I'd crash on grass. I'd be plenty broken up, but I wouldn't have road rash. Then he watched me disappear into the ditch, jump off the other side, miss the fence, and climb right back onto the highway with a huge smile on my face.
We pulled off of the highway, I let out a huge scream and then laughed hysterically for five minutes. Chris thought I may have actually been hysterical. We pulled back onto the highway once I had control of my maniacal laughter and within a few minutes I was pointing to pretty birds 300 feet up in the air. He wasn't amused.
On the trip we also saw one deer, two turkey vultures, and a dead porcupine. We found my sister's new house up in the woods and visited with she and her husband and my brother and his wife who happened to be visiting, also. It was wonderful. Melia's house is a dream. On a river. Ten acres of wooded land. Beautiful house with huge deck. A canoe. Set waaaaaayyyy off of the road. Heaven.
Oh, and by the river was the largest spider I've ever seen in the wild. It was the size of a turantula....and had a huge nest with little babies running around inside. If my photos do it justice, I'll show you.

The Hip Man, Growling Raccoons, a Pink Motorcycle, and a Fast Run (for me)

**The Hip Man**
Tomorrow I see the Physical Therapist. Don't tell Chris that it may cost a little more than usual because he's not in our insurance plan. I'm told he's the best, and that's worth a few extra dollars to me when it comes to my legs and their ability to run marathons. I will definitely post about the Hip Man tomorrow night.

**Growling Raccoons**
As I mentioned briefly when I posted the photos, we went camping this weekend. It was 98 degrees and H U M I D so the weather was not very comfortable. It was otherwise very nice, the girls did great, Libby got a lot of quality time with her boyfriend, and we got to have some laughs with the future in-laws. I was extremely tired, from a month alone with the girls (except for one weekend when Chris came home) and from waiting up for him to get home Friday night until 1:00 am. I typically do not sleep well when camping. Especially when it's hot. But to give me a little break, we brought two tents...The big one for Chris and the girls and the little backpacking one for me. To sleep in alone. I layed down, watched the stars out of the 'sunroof' for a few minutes, then fell asleep. I slept through two raccoons bigger than Holly, our Black Lab, fighting five feet from my little tent. Chris said that they were growling, hissing, and scuffling, fighting for our site. The more intimidating raccoon apparently won the hard-fought battle for our site and went about raiding our food. He was not deterred by the fact that we had not left anything out. He simply opened our rubbermaid bins and took out the full loaf of bread, large bag of unshelled peanuts, and large ziploc bag of peanut butter cookies and had his way with them. He chomped on peanuts, gorged on cookies, and ate a half loaf of bread...grunting and snorting and sighing with contentment...until he was once again threatened by another raccoon. Another scuffle ensued and Amelia woke up crying for a bottle. Chris peeked out of the tent and said, "psssst!!! Get out of here! Go away!" and the obese one turned, looked at him, and waddled towards him. Just as Chris was wondering what to do, the raccoon veered off and went over by our food. Chris had to get Amelia a bottle from out there, so grabbed 'the buster' (a sawed off broom handle we use for protection and pinata busting) and went out carrying the buster in one hand and Libby's princess flashlight in the other. He managed to get the bottle and formula safely back into the tent. And I continued to sleep. I missed the entire thing!! I missed my husband challenging an obese dog-sized raccoon with my three year old's princess flashlight. I even had my camera in my little tent...I missed some serious Kodak moments.

**A Pink Motorcycle**
I ride motorcycle. Not a little scooter. A 2003 750cc Honda Shadow ACE. When I ride, I try to wear as much pink as possible, so as to not appear too 'butch'. I seem to have developed an obsession with pink anyway, so it works out just fine. I ride in a pink leather biker jacket and white half-shell helmet with glittery pink flames. I was thinking...how cool would my bike look if I painted out the red parts PINK???? See photos of my bike (and pink jacket):
Edited to add that these photos are two years old. No, I did not cut my hair

**A Fast Run (for me)**
I ran four miles tonight at my 'normal' pace. The last mile was the fastest one I've run in ages and ages. And it felt great!! Only a little tightness/pain in the hip. I'm definitely on the mend!!!! Thank God. As you know, I've been freaking out about missing my long runs, so hopefully with some help from the Hip Guy, I'll be back on the long run horse in no time!