Time Flies When You Aren't Working

For real, why does time go so much faster when you aren't working?! This weekend was a busy one! 

Saturday: Double Feature at the Drive-In!

I've been making some regular appearance at the drive-in this year so far. You just can't turn down a double feature, two movies for the price of one! NiBo and I met our friends to catch Man of Steel (yes I know, my 2nd time, but NiBo hadn't see it yet and man Superman is hot!) and World War Z. Man of Steel was just as excellent the 2nd time around and World War Z was meh. NiBo has read the book and said the book is way better, and that it's hard to make the book into a movie the way it is set up. That added with the fact that I'm over Brad Pitt and wish he'd cut his hair, I'd say if the Zombie apocalypse came before you saw this movie you wouldn't be missing much. We had a great time and got to stay out late and had lots of laughs with BWurm and CLoo

Sunday: A Taste of the big city

We ventured off to the big city where they have their annual "Taste of" festival. Dad had never been and was a little excited, then a little let down. There wasn't a whole lot of variety, I mean it's no Taste of Chicago. So we had pizza, some crepe's, and some Smoothie King.

Monday: A Day off

Monday I was a lazy butt and took the day off. I took a nap, caught up on some DVR and shopped around town. I bought some shirts and a surprise for this year's Mini Pool Paradise! You'll have to stay tuned to find out!

And Today...
well I had been working on a cute way to display my summer bucket list and then the website crashed and I lost it all, never mind you that I had been working on it for a solid hour :( So I may or may not try again.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! 

Remember Monday...

You know, Monday, the day of the no choice snow day. Where we had about 11" of snow on the ground. Well you wouldn't know it by the weekend we had.

The weather we had on Friday was amazeballs. So much so that I went out on a limb and bought some rollerblades. Sure I might get weird looks through town but I don't care. I'm a kid of the 90's and I grew up with rollerblades, and it's more fun than running and a good exercise too.

The weather was even so nice, the cover came off the bike and out of the shed for a ride around town

If Saturday had been more like Friday, that would have been ideal. With several and I mean several layers, the Rural Renegades geared up, braved the cold and wind and headed to the big city for the annual Blessing of the Bikes. Tons of bikes were there this year even though the weather was less than ideal. They even had to start the blessing early because the parking lot was filling up so much! 

Here's a few pics from the day...

It's a fun event that I look forward to every year, it's the official start of the riding season.

The Birthday I Gained My Age in Pounds

Holy sweets and foods batman! This birthday was my 27th, and I think I gained 27lbs, not kidding! It has been a busy birthday weekend and I am pooped! I even kind of did an around the world food tour for my birthday.

Thursday: My friends are moving to Hawaii. I know how terrible for them, so we had a going away/Heather's birthday dinner at the Mexican restaurant. They were made aware of my birthday and I had to wear a sombrero, but there was free dessert.

Friday: February 8th! The real deal, as of 7:29am I am officially 27.  Holy moly sweets. There were donuts, cookies, cupcakes and MONKEY BREAD! Lunch out was a slight disaster but we made it work (stupid Panera and your redic lines, but BK is there) Then after work I got my haircut (hello layers) and then we had Chinese (I was mad craving some eggrolls) I was then serenaded by the man who clears the tables and boxes up your food (um amazing voice, everyone stared) but there was free desert ;) (are you keeping up with how the lbs can really add up?!)

Look at the beautiful tulips from OL :D

A.Drama really knows how to decorate a cake! 

Saturday: I worked all day then had a dinner date, pizza, more food..yum, with some friends and then we went bowling. I suck at bowling but man it is a cheap and entertaining way to spend your evening with friends. NiBo was present too, he took the pic. Then it was back home for a little TV and off to bed, early morning headed to Chi!!

Sunday: Birthday weekend tradition. Head to Chicago for the Auto Show! We made a pit stop in Page Turner land for some 50's style breakfast and then headed up 55 to McCormick Place. Luckily we didn't get lost and traffic wasn't too bad on the way up or back. Gpa couldn't go but wanted us to make sure we picked up brochures for him to check out. I checked out all the cars that are on my possibly buy list and narrowed it down to just a few. I have a few months to research and talk myself out of it. But we had a great day! NiBo ran into a few rodents while were at the Kia booth, luckily they were kind enough to pose for a picture. We did quite a bit of walking around so hopefully that helped to shed some of the monkey bread and donuts away.

The new 2014 Corvette Stingray

I don't feel any wiser and luckily didn't go grey or wrinkly overnight. I look forward to what the rest of the year brings, hopefully some nice changes that have been long over due for such a nice lady such as myself.

Just a shout out to everyone who wished me a happy birthday or helped to make my day special. And thanks to you blog reader for stopping by today!

Warrior Dash 2012

The Warrior Dash is not for the faint of heart. First let me give you the brief backstory. I signed up for the Warrior Dash back in December, it was always in the back of my mind and I had good intentions. Time spent training for the Dash? I was on it good for the first few months of the year then nada. Dumb, sure, shoulda/coulda etc etc. Final time was 1:18:06.50 as BWurm put it, I left room for improvement.. um clearly, thanks captain obvious. Since I know how to play the blame game, it's always someone else's fault, I would like to place blame of todays time on the heat... that is all. But I wasn't last, and that's always the default goal.

First timer observations:
* $20 for parking is slightly redic
* People in way less shape then me- check. Makes a girl feel good
* People wearing way less than I wanted to see their body type in? check
* The website lied. Obstacles listed on website not accurate nor does it fully prepare you for them. Seriously, the firepole was not listed.
* Runners are the nicest people. Everyone was friendly and offered to help at obstacles. Much appreciated.
* The barbwire is in fact real.
* Don't keep eyes open and smile at the fact that you are going down a hill on a slipn'slide.
* The mud pool at bottom of said slip n' slide is in fact deeper than thought, you will be submerged.
* It is possible for your eyeballs to be saturated with mud water, you will have blurred vision.
* Knee pads would be a nice suggested item to bring, that or at least throw sand or something soft so I'm not crawling through a dried up field. Knees are all scraped up.
* I was unprepared for the high vegetation I would be "running" through (when I say run, I mean walk)
* Wear appropriate footwear... for real (see accompanying story below)
* Do make your dad an awesome shirt, he likes the compliments (although he did say "this was fun, but one and done")
* When you fall on your butt (or face) people will in fact ask if you are ok before they laugh. Runners are nice.
*If you stay at the back and walk, you will make friends with fellow "slow runners" (when I say slow runners I mean people who walk)
* If you are a slow runner (walker) you will most likely get passed by the next heat behind you. Oh well.
* Why "run fast" (walk at normal pace) when there is a line to get though the obstacles. Clearly not a race made for speed where there is a line.
* You will get mud in places there should not be mud
* I think I took the longest shower I have ever taken in my life and still found mud when I was done. May need to shower multiple times.
* The sun knows when you miss a spot with sunblock
* A sign posted on the course "Make up for the other 364 days" will make you hang your head in agreement.
* Mud on my face makes my eyes stand out like bam! Creepy ice blue eyes basically.

So the story of my first warrior dash goes something like this...

I don't remember the order of the obstacles just know there were several and the website was not entirely accurate. Here are the stand out obstacles for me. The first being the slip n' slide down a hill. Seems innocent enough right? WRONG! I scoot down thinking this isn't too fast and assuming I'll be able to just scoot off the slope into the mud puddle at the bottom and wade through some mud and go on my way. EEEEEENNT! Wrong! The slope steepens and the water was deeper than anticipated. Mouth was open I was not prepared and I fully submerged, gross. I had mud water on my eyeballs. The next obstacle I believe is called "Storming Normandy" where you must crawl under barbed wire. way too long. Yikes, tore up my knees decently. Every obstacle seemed to be just far enough away or the foot holdings just a little too small or the fire pole just a little too tall, but I conquered them all, one by one.

The shoe story. I knew not to wear nice shoes because they would be drenched in mud. I also knew they have a place where you can toss your shoes at the end of the race to be donated and used for something else. I knew the perfect pair to wear... or so I thought. My Blue Nike Air Max shoes have been with me for awhile... like since sixth grade awhile. I paid $180 for them, it was a big deal, Gma paid for half as a bday present. My first expensive pair of shoes, but I loved them so much. They shit and died on me before the race even began. By the time the race had ended the entire sole of both shoes were off, they died a noble death and shall be missed.

I fell a few times, poor dad fell a few times. I fell through a cargo net and have a lovely bruise/scrape, A.Drama got a fire pole burn. If you come out injury or without a "bite" from the big WD, then I feel you were doing it wrong, or maybe I was doing it wrong, who knows. The one thing I do know, if your going to fall... don't fall where there are people and cameras. If it's not on film it didn't happen, however dad was not so lucky, his spill was caught as he neared the finish line. The announcer called it to every ones attention and complimented him on his graceful faceplant.

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves, however a few things to note. Take note of the distinct technique differences in the fire jumping (leave your vote for favorite, the ninja, the rockstar or the leaping gazelle) Also note the picture of our poor father biting it, tuck that away for future inheritance decisions, note the daughter that is assisting and note the daughter laughing. Everyone loved dad's shirts and he got lots of compliments, I think he liked the attention. Note how creepy blue my eyes appear with mud on da face. And a brief history of mine and BWurms shirts. He and I both have motorcycles and talk about how badass we are and how we should have a biker gang (watch too much Sons of Anarchy, probably) so we call ourselves the Rural Renegades we don't murder or run guns, think more 'Wild Hogs' than Hells Angels... but don't lie we look BA in our shirts.

Without further adieu I give you the photo story of the 2012 Warrior Dash, a North of 10th followers exclusive...

... until next year! Props to the other blog world warriors!

Blessing of the Bikes

Every year on the Saturday before Easter the Btown Harley dealer hosts an open house and annual Blessing of the bikes. I've been to a total of 3, 2 on my own bike. This was the second year in a row that the weather cooperated and today was a beautiful day to get outside and ride!

Lots of bikes made it out!

the rides

 

the guys taking it all in

The guys and me in the back getting blessed

Have a safe and happy riding season!

Birthday Week: A Day-by-Day

Monday: Monday, blah, blah. Typical, nothing to report.

Tuesday: Blaher, nothing to report

Wednesday: Happy 26th Birthday to me! I got lots of nice texts and facebook birthday wishes from my friends! Thank you all so much! I had birthday pizza dinner with the family and ate way too much. * Happy Birthday to me * Upgraded my phone to the new iPhone 4s!! :D I love it.

Thursday: Blah again, wish it was Friday. Nothing to report.

Friday: OL gave me a good scolding on my lack of gym/eating well this week I was sad, but she was right. She wouldn't even let me make any excuses, she wasn't havin' it :( then I went to a Hockey game after work, I'd never been before and I liked it, I would definitely go back, so anytime ya wanna go :D

Saturday: Lazy bum day. Procrastinated and put things off I should have been working on. Rented 'Warrior' it was good.

Sunday: Chicago for the International Motorcycle Show AND the Auto show. Long day. I love the Ford Edge. I hate driving around Chicago, people are stupid, roads should not have that many lanes and exits. We survived. and 'The Walking Dead' returned to TV.

Weeeee! Weeeeeeee! Pure.Adrenaline.

This year was a pretty quiet birthday passing, which is bound to happen from time to time. I had great mini-nights of fun low key things with the people who look out for me on a day to day. I don't know what I would do without you guys! Thanks for all the gifts and well wishes. I had a great birthday week!

and don't worry OL back on track this week I promise! :) Wish me luck that I didn't do too much damage this week or at least anything that can't be undone with a little more hardwork and sweat.