Crash...again!

 

I'm having a tough summer of bike commuting. On Wednesday I was riding in to work along a two lane road. There was a left hand turn lane coming up that I had to get into, so I glanced back to check traffic and started drifting at the same time. I was riding my road bike with 23 mm wide tires (< 1 inch). The street was concrete, and I didn't happen to see a gap between concrete slabs that was very long and skinny and deep going parallel to my direction of travel. I know to watch out for that, I just didn't see it. My front tire jammed in the groove and stopped instantly. I was probably going between 15 and 20 mph. The last thing I remember I was starting to go over the handlebars.

Then I remember waking up with four or five faces staring down at me. Traffic was piled up and the ambulance and firemen were there shortly. Surprisingly my bike isn't too bad, front wheel came out of true and the saddle must be replaced. Anyway, back to me. I was told to go to the E.R. to get a C.T. scan. They did that and found out that I'm smarter than ever (obscure Simpson's reference: "Extended warranty? How could I lose?"). Well, things looked okay (except for the metal shards in my skull and finger bone, unless it's just "calcification", I kid you not). Now the worst part is my left arm, I can barely move it in some directions. Hopefully it doesn't take too long to heal.

Quotables from Elizabeth

I'm hoping to get a sidebar up with some of the funny things Elizabeth says but until then, enjoy two quotes from the past week.

"Mom, you're the best. You never follow Satan."

"Dad, you can't get a new bike until you get rid of your new computer. If you have two things you have the gimmies." (See Berenstain Bears Got the Gimmies)

We love you Elizabeth!

Crash!

That's what our computer decided to do Sunday afternoon, completely crash. The screen started to do weird things and then we got a blue screen of death--you know skulls and all. Eric said he also heard the hard drive start to click and every part of the computer was shutting down one after the other. Monday Eric got to buy a new computer that is soooo quiet compared to our old one. Thankfully, he was also able to restore the data from our old hard drive to the new one so we still have all our pictures and other memories since the last full backup. We will be more diligent about backing up our data now!

Saturday was rainy and cold, it felt like fall in Ohio with all the rain over the weekend. Since we couldn't go outside and do anything fun, I got my hair cut and here's the result. I only wish I could make it look this good everyday but I'm trying.

I couldn't take a picture with just me as the subject but in our photo shoot, true to form the girls wouldn't smile and look at the camera at the same time so here's the best one.

Last week I finally decided to start Rachel potty training. Since we didn't have too much going on during the week, I thought it a good excuse to stay home and try it out. She's been a lot easier than Elizabeth, fruit snacks and stickers work great for bribery/reward, and we're still working on #2 (sorry if TMI) but I'm hoping we stay on track to only have one in diapers when the baby comes.

Let's see what else we did last week. Playgroup with MOMS Club, reservoir with other moms from church on Thursday, and me trying to keep the house clean all week so people could come over and try on some Shade shirts (I had an open house Thursday night). I've decided it's not worth my sanity to try keeping my house spotless all the time with two little kids under foot.

Elizabeth started preschool yesterday and is absolutely loving it. I don't know how she survived over 6 months being home with boring and crazy mom without school. By next week she should be reading at a college level :) Really, I just want her to write her name (I have to write the z's now) and have fun with other kids at Miss Jen's joy school. Now I just have to keep Rachel entertained while her playmate is gone.

Random Pictures

Last week we did much of the same--MOMS club playgroups, trip to a gymnastics place, swimming at a neighborhood pool and even going down a slide (I went with Rachel), play date at the park riding bikes, and hanging out the rest of the time. I don't have any pictures of those activities but here are two cute ones.

We start them out in their own beds and then someone migrates to the other's bed. It's cute that they love to sleep with each other.

Carissa made a nice quilt for Elizabeth for a YW project. Elizabeth must approve because she has to sleep with it and her other "blanket" that's getting pretty worn out.

Keeping Busy

This week I felt like we did a good job keeping busy, at least in the mornings when I still had some energy. The heat wave continues here in Denver and I don't know how many days over 90 we've had in a row but I'm ready for them to be over so I can get my ankles back.

Monday we went to the Aurora Reservoir with Lisa, Carissa, and Mike. We love having family 15 minutes away. Here are some pictures of them in the big hole they dug. Maybe next time we can get one going all the way to China! We all took turns on a paddle boat too and the girls loved getting out on the water. Just don't forgot to put sunblock all over (including legs) or else the mile-high city sun will scorch you.

I honestly don't know why kids love sitting in mud but I know I did it when I was one :)
See, always with the silly face for the camera

Tuesday was library day with storytime. They don't have any in August which I am sad about because I have to find something else to keep the girls busy.

Wednesday we went to the last free movie of the summer and watched Horton Hears a Who! with Kelli, Callahan, and Cami. I had a nice little nap during the movie, it was that good for me. We saw some other moms and kids from our ward and played in the splash area afterward.

Thursday we went to the park with MOMS Club. I finally joined the chapter out here and am starting to feel comfortable at events. They have a lot of activities planned and it's fun to get to know different places to go with kids as well as meeting lots of moms.

Friday was another day with family members as we went bowling and then swimming with Lisa and her kids. I called her in the morning and said, "I need water" and she obliged by taking us swimming at her HOA pool. Sometimes I wish our neighborhood had one but as long as I can mooch off others, I'm good :) Here are some pictures of bowling. The girls loved using the ramp that gave the ball some momentum and direction so they did very well.

And it's a? Probably 6 but they did get some spares.

Mike was our big helper and the girls love him.

Yesterday we went out again with Lisa and the whole family, I hope they didn't get sick of us this week. We celebrated Brent and Eric's birthdays at White Fence Farm with yummy food (I ate way too many corn fritters!), petting zoo, fish pond, and gift shop with fun activities. I think the girls had a blast and it reminded me a little of Young's Jersey Dairy out in Ohio where we'd take the girls to feed the goats and eat yummy ice cream. After that we had cake and ice cream back at Lisa and then I crashed at home since I didn't have my nap. Are we done with this pregnancy thing yet? 9 more weeks to go but who's counting?

I even had enough energy left after all these activities to finally work on some blackout curtains I bought the material for back in March. For my third sewing project and not using a pattern I think I did pretty well. I'm not going to post any pictures because I don't want to embarrass myself with all the crooked lines but it blocks the sun in our bedroom in the morning. Have I mentioned the sun here is very bright? I like it especially since we didn't see the sun as much as I would have liked in Ohio but early and bright sunrises aren't the most fun to wake up to every morning. My next project is already under way--two rag quilts, one for baby and one for a gift. The squares are cut out I just need to find a couple kid-free hours that I don't want to nap in.

Lookout Mountain

This weekend I decided to do the rite of passage for Colorado road bicycling...I climbed lookout mountain. As far as mountain climbs this one is relatively mild, so it's the rite of passage in that it's the first one you can do. Rest assured there are much worse ones, including a fourteener.

There was beautiful scenery, but unfortunately it all occurred on the way up and I didn't want to stop. It's about 1,600 feet of elevation gain in 4.5 miles. It averages to about a 6% grade. Here's some maps of the trail and of the elevation profile. I actually did a loop so it was much longer than the 4.5 miles. I also didn't turn on my GPS right away.









The picture above was taken from the bottom as I was starting with a 3x zoom. This is a picture of the top (and also where the TV stations broadcast from for the Denver area).



I did the main climb part in about 34 minutes, which is pretty slow. Being a big guy I'm just not suited to climbing. My heart rate was usually in the 160's, but I took it easy on the flatter section and got it in the 150's. I could have pushed myself much harder, it was hard but not grueling by any stretch (at least compared to some of the workouts I got while in organized sports). I also hit my record of 43 mph on the downside. I could have gone faster, but I was a little bit scared.

I know this doesn't compare to many other mountain rides, but it's a start.