Speaking of...

Tommy and I bought art! I feel so grown up... It's from a local artist who we met at a street fair. She paints beautiful Arizona skies!

Speaking of being grown up... I haven't stayed up past 11pm in a VERY long time! I usually am in bed before 10pm... It's pretty sad, but I need my sleep! :)

Speaking of sleep, I'm catching up on sleep from when Mary and Michael came to visit! It was SSOOO much fun! We got to tour the city with them and do things we had intended to do but hadn't yet. It was a fun and jam-packed week and nice to have company! :) Plus, they we VERY flexible with the car, which was perfect... considering we only had 1 car and 4 of us :) Willow enjoyed their visit a lot too because Michael gave her TONS of attention :)

Speaking of attention... I've been paying close attention to the NCAA Basketball Tournament because I filled out my first bracket this year. Which is another reason why I feel grown up, because it was a work bracket that me and my co-workers always talk about over lunch :) I'm not doing very well though... but it's still fun! Tommy has Mizzou going all the way! Our fingers are crossed!!

Speaking of Mizzou... How about that AMAZING shot that Mizzou made at the half-time buzzer from beyond half-court!! It was incredible!!!

And speaking of incredible... Tommy and I just ate an incredible dinner, and now I must go to sleep :)

Good night.

Willow the Menace

I just wanted to share with everyone our new addition to the house. Tommy made Willow a fantastic scratching post in hopes of deterring her away from wrecking the couch... it hasn't worked, yet :) But it looks great and she uses it! This just brings us to the fact that Willow is very spoiled. She has taken to having conversations with us more. Whenever we come home she greets us at the door and tells us how her day and how lonely she has been. She then goes on to blaming us for her sorrows and then running up to her room. Willow has also managed to train us to give her ice cubes anytime the freezer is opened. If she hears the freezer, she will constantly whine until she has at least 3 ice cubes strategically placed in her water bowl. She then commences to watching the ice cubes melt for the next 2 hours. It is rather entertaining for us! In order to further understand Willow, we have been dissecting her past with us and we think we have found the problem. The following pictures are evidence:The poor thing... :-P Her life has been so hard!

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.
~Unknown

"Like sledding on jagged rocks"

Here are some pics from my last ride. Don't worry, my bike wasn't harmed and is still running smooth. I was skeptical about getting this Giant xtc frame, but I've done this to it many times without the same issues that plagued the "crackandfail" cannondale.

This is an awesome trail system in Tucson Mountain park. It has plenty of this super technical rock sledding, fast windy singletrack, some tough hills, nasty staircases, and too much wash riding. A wash is an empty creek that's filled with rocks of all sizes and has no bottom. The primary purpose of a wash is to make bikers wonder why they got off the sofa, which has the same ability to swallow entire humans.

This is the second time I've fallen hard on this section. Both times I was glad I didn't fall into the ravine (wash) on the right of the trail nor on the cacti bordering the left. The rocky trail is the least worst choice to land upon. The first time I fell, my bike went in the ravine, and I was terrified something had happened to it. It was perfect. Good bike.


I have to carry more speed to clear the rocks, but that makes it scary. I can either ride this at a speed that I'm comfortable falling at and fall, or I can go a too fast to really consider falling a viable option, be terrified for a second, and then get the rush that keeps you coming back out. It's all about attitude.

In either case, falling is not comfortable.

Other obstacles I haven't encountered include but are not limited the following:
smuggling, illegal immigration, and vertical horizons.


"take care of yourselves and each other," j. springer.