Biking to Wine Town
Saturday started out to be a decent day, and with the dogs getting us up early, it was the perfect opportunity to get a start on the day. Rick and I decided to dust off the bikes and see what they were made of. Believe it or not, this was actually the maiden voyage for my mountain since getting it a couple of years ago. It hadn't touched outside pavement, and got the occasional use on the bike trainer I bought in January.
I spent some time riding up the incline around my block trying to figure out the speeds. Not an easy feat for someone who hasn't ridden a bike in years. As we sailed out of our neighborhood, I coasted down the hill. I remember thinking, uh yeah, this is going to suck when we have to ride back up this. Down to the dog park where we picked up a paved trail that in another 7.5 miles would get us to a favorite wine cafe. We had to make a pit stop on the way to an REI so that Rick could pick up some biking gloves for his hands. All the while, we both felt pretty silly that we were the only two people out without helmets. Who knew that they passed a law a couple of years ago mandating bicycle helmets?
We had a late lunch at the cafe sans wine. I really didn't want to test my newly rediscovered biking capabilities with a buzz. Plus, I'm sure they could legally give DUIs on bikes too. Now the ride home was not too bad, especially when to have to take into account that we'd only gone halfway and needed to make it back the 10 miles we'd already gone. Rick had to stop yet again at REI on the way home to exchange the gloves he'd bought earlier for a smaller size. My patience at this point was waning. I just wanted to be home and save myself from swallowing any more gnats than necessary. Ms. Grouch showed up as soon as we re-entered the neighborhood. Even the slight incline was not going to get any effort from me. I pouted and hopped off my bike, as if I had something to prove. Rick just let me whine and I eventually got back on my bike until the base of the hill. His stubbornness wouldn't let him walk it, and my reality knew I couldn't ride up it. So I pushed my bike the last 1/4 mile home. But you know, it was really fun. I think I could enjoy getting out on the bike more often. Just try to stay away from the hills.
Walking the Trails
So on Monday, we'd had a day by then to recuperate from the bike ride, we thought it would be fun to check out some of the walking trails in the nearby neighborhoods. Along the way, we ended up in this very nice golf community with an amazing 18-hole course. We had the dogs with us and found a little, secluded field where we let them run off leash. Zoe needed that run badly -- little ball of endless energy that she is.
Of course curious to see what it would cost us to afford the golf course community lifestyle, we sought out the For Sale houses to see the list prices. Uggh. $899,000. 3100+ sq ft, just off of the 1st tee. Yep, we will be sticking to the quaint townhouse for quite awhile. Better make sure we're darn happy with that for a bit.
Vacation from the Remodel
I haven't lifted a finger to finish up the remodeling that Andrew started over three years ago. There's still a hole in the laundry room. The baseboards never got puttied or painted. The hallway has patches that need to be sanded, textured and repainted. And then there's the upstairs....the old doors, the old trim, the popcorn ceilings, and better yet. The baby blue master bedroom that has yet to be given a face lift since the days of it's original owners.
My list has grown and grown and grown, and finally I have a light at the end of the tunnel. My brother-in-law is such a great asset to have around. He's a contractor and has decided to make some money on the side helping us with the house. So while we're out on vacation for three weeks, he will be working on the house. I'm not sure what I am more excited about. Being in eastern Europe for three weeks. Or coming home to a freshly paint house.
Jeff's going to scrape the popcorn ceilings in the foyer, stairwell, upstairs hallway and master bedroom. And then put in new doors, trim and paint the walls. Plus, Rick and I will finally get some lights installed in the bedroom so that we don't have to rely solely on some cheap $20 lamps from Target.
Of course, the remodel-while-on-vacation means that I can't control what I'm going to come back to. The walls may be painted, but I recognize that everything will need to be moved around and I have come to the realization that not everything will be in it's rightful place. Small price to pay, I suppose.
Now, I just need to make the time for the last of the house projects:
- Bathroom face lifts and Master bath remodel
- Repainting the kitchen (very low priority)
- Finishing the garage and attic
Trippin' Details
I'm already packed and Rick is very close (thanks to me). I spent the weekend ripping all of his music to his iPod that I bought him for Christmas. He still hasn't used it yet, and I realized that 1) he's really going to want this on the trip, and 2) it's not going to get used unless I get it all set up for him. I also took some time to skim through his music and save some select CDs to my own library.
For our "reading" entertainment on the trip, I bought us some audio books from a used bookstore. I found a couple of golf books for Rick and a few novels for me. Not sure what the issue is, but I'm having a terrible time trying to get the audio books uploaded onto the computer. Even so much, that my computer flipped me the bird and refused to give me a home screen. All I got was black screen. So alas, I spent an hour on the phone with Dell tech support in India until we were able to finally get my machine up and running again. Thank God. I was a little worried that everything would be lost and I'd be taking my computer to the computer graveyard and selling it for parts.
All that's really left is for my brother to get his passport. We're one week away and still no sign of it. Last week Dad felt confident it would arrive on time. "They've already cashed the check and they know what his departure date is. " "Um yeah, if you want to trust that they give a shit, go ahead and sit back and see if it arrives on time. I guarantee you that they don't care whether or not he makes his flight with passport in hand."
And so I tasked Dad with tracking down Richard's passport. With the holiday weekend, it was going to be quite the task. I guess he sat on hold for 2.5 hours and finally had to hang up. This morning, he sent mail hoping for a response. I hope that they've got the passport in a FedEx envelope somewhere. I really have no faith that they'll deliver.
On the bright side, we're all set to meet up with Helena and Fil in Prague. Last September, I got to see Helena for the first time since our junior year in high school. And when I met Fil for the first time. At that point Rick and I were dating for a couple of months, but he had to work and couldn't drive up with me to meet them in Canada. So this will be the first time they get to meet Rick and the first time that Helena will see my brother Richard since he was an infant. My, how time flies.
I'm trying to plan out how I'm going to blog my trip while we're there. I'm going to try my hardest to make some time to get to Internet cafes to upload stories and photos. If you want to follow along, I've added My Travel Diaries (my public blog dedicated to travel stories) to the links on this blog.
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