motor motor motor

It's been awhile since I've written, but it's because I've been so busy riding my MOTORCYCLE! Not really, but sort of. I took it out several times and just rode on some streets near my apartment that are very lightly traveled. I was a little nervous because for awhile my brake light wasn't working and my turn signals seemed to only work half the time. Fortunately, do to some sleuthing on my part and a little hands on education I was able to get my brake light to work. The turn signals are a different story, but it seems like they've been working for the last few rides without any issues.

Last Sunday I finally ventured out on the bike into the great unknown (except that i knew where i was going)... Andy and I rode to Red Jacket park where there are a couple trail systems that meet. (I've been there before and showed some pictures of the Le Sueur River before on this blog). Then we went a bit on highway 66. The total trip was about thirty miles. That night we made the same trip again just to get more practice. I wasn't feeling well on Monday so I didn't go out, but I took another ride on Tuesday with Andy. We went south on 22, west to 90, and south-east-ish on 16. We turned around where 16 meets up with 22 and did the reverse route home. That trip was also about 30 miles.

I'm still a little shaky on things--I'm not quick on taking turns, sometimes forget what gear I'm in, and have a little trouble always getting into first gear, but I'm feeling pretty good about it overall. I plan on getting out as often as possible though the wind seems to get in the way a lot (riding when it is really windy is scary and sometimes dangerous). The wind also seems to think it's amusing to blow my bike cover off and rip it which frustrates me to no end. I'll attempt to remember to get a picture of me on my bike so you can make fun of how alien i look in my helmet. :)

Plants and Plants and Plants

In light of the nice weather, I've begun a "garden." I don't have any actual space to plant so I've improvised. My mom bought me a tomato plant (who I've named Walter....which is also what I named my motorcycle, so the plant goes by Wally) to put on my patio and some cucumber seeds (who are collectively named Claire and Emmit). Theoretically the cucumber plants are close enough to the ground that they can just spill onto the deck as the vines get longer and produce millions of cucumbers. Andy and I plan on making pickles with a recipe that he got from his uncle, who I only know as "pickle uncle." I'm not exactly sure if the deck gets as much sunlight as the plants might prefer, but I'm hoping that things will work out for me.

I've also acquired a few new house plants. I got a wine colored oxalis (clover plant) from a greenhouse in Fairmont. I think she's a really pretty plant and she likes shade which is a bonus for everyone. I've named her Isabel.

A woman at work has a philodendron and she gave me a few pieces of it to bring home. I've been letting it grow roots in a glass of water and just yesterday potted it. I put in the bedroom next to Mary the fish (he's a boy fish and I did not name him). This plant I've just decided will be names (appropriately I think) Phil.


Lastly, another woman at work gave me a salvia plant (not the psychedelic kind). I've decided she will be named Sylvia. I need to go out and buy her a home. I think she will get to live on the deck with Wally, Emmit, and Clair.

A Dam Good Time... Damn it.

This weekend Andy and I went to the Rapidan Dam. We rode his bike out there and packed a nice picnic. We did some exploring on a neat little hiking path along the river. Probably not exactly encouraged by dam officials, but obviously frequented by many other people. The dam looks a bit different when the water level is down so much lower than the last time I was there. There is even a nice little sandy beach area along the bank that we stopped at along our hike. We also stopped to watch a few people pull some catfish out of the river. Does anyone know if there is anything to catch in the river besides catfish and carp? (which are both gross....along with all other fish.)

We had a nice lunch with chips and sandwiches, explored more, and then headed home. After our nice hike, we worked up enough energy to eat some delicious hamburgers on the grill. Today Meg is coming up to play. We are going to do a little shopping and have a nice picnic with some frisbee throwing and maybe some basketball.

This past Monday was Andy's 24th birthday. His school was nice enough to give him two tests to take that day. He also had class most of the day and didn't get home to celebrate until around seven. I made him a birthday cake on Friday so we could have more time over the weekend to eat it.....This is why his cake is partly gone in the picture. He wasn't allowed to "blow out his candles" until his actual birthday or his wish wouldn't work. We failed at actually consuming much of the cake...It was good (lemon with lemon frosting) but other things seemed to have more need-to-be-eaten urgency....Like the potato salad that I made him.

For his birthday present I made him a quilt. I finished it awhile ago, but had to keep it hidden. I also had to work on it in secret so it could be a surprise. It's about 70 x 60 and has a nice cuddly fleece backing. I almost got caught several times working on this because Andy would get home early from class or work, but in the end it still finished as the surprise that it started as. I ended up tying the blanket because I didn't have a chance to visit my aunt to get it machine quilted and I'm not good enough to do it on a regular machine. Andy didn't seem to care.

One failed attempt

Last Saturday I decided to make my first attempt at drinking a 40. I hate beer (and malt liquor if you want to be picky). A lot. But apparently it's a taste that can be acquired by drinking a ton of it. I decided to document my progress through this attempt. Please note the excited look on my face at the start of the evening. I was very confident. Andy and I got a Mickeys and an Old English. I picked the one that tasted the most bearable--the Mickeys. Andy's theory regarding drinking 40's is the think of them in thirds. The first third should be chugged. The second is enjoyed. The third basically has to be forced down.

I'm not sure how this theory stands for other people, and since I haven't got one of my own, I decided to go for it. The first third was not great. The next photo in sequence is me as I made my way through the second third. As I'm sure you can see from the photo, my enthusiasm went down dramatically.

I won't go into great detail, but the evening ended about midway through the bottle. I couldn't force anymore down my throat. Eventually, what I drank forced it's way back up my throat along with the sandwich I had for supper...This was not photographed. The concluding photo show the failed first attempt ending just about exactly half way through the bottle.

On a completely unrelated topic, I started working on a puzzle with Andy. I think we started it last Wednesday and finished it sometime early this week. It was not the most attractive puzzle, but it had really neat shaped pieces and a pretty easy picture to give clues about where pieces should go. All in all, i think Andy put about one eight of it together and left the rest for me.

Rivers

With all the rain we've been getting and all the snow that's been melting, there has been a lot of talk about the rivers in the area. I decided to go out and take a look at how things were going. I went with Daniel on Tuesday to the Rapidan Dam. I think it's the Blue Earth River that runs though it. I've never been there before. It was pretty neat. The water was still frozen over on one side of the dam, but it was still flowing through really heavily. There are some walking/bike trails around the area that I might devote more time to exploring when the weather starts staying nice.



On the way there, we passes a really neat lokoing house. With a little bit of work on the main floor, I think it would make a fantastic Zombie house. (meaning a house to hide out in when the zobies come. Not a house for zombies to live in). I would like to explore it more thoroughly but I'm not sure if there are acutally people living in it. I bet it's haunted.



We also stopped at the Le Sueur River. There is a park called ther Red Something Something park that has a really cool walking bridge built over the river and highway. There seems to be a lot of trail ruinning through this area that will be worth checking out in nicer weather too. This river was also really high. I wish I had a paper boat that I could have dropped in to watch.



The weather was great for two whole days. It made me want summer really badly. This winter has been going on for far too long.

Kiddie Casket

When I graduated from the Mortuary Science program I received a very nice, unique gift. My friends Trista (aka T-borg, T-bot, T-bear, and t-bibbity)'s dad makes plane pine caskets/coffins. As a gift to me, he made an infant/display size casket for me to have. It's really neat. I said that since I don't currently have a dead infant to put in it, I would use it to store some things. I keep my photo albums in it along with a box of "treasured" items, which actually is more of a random assortment of silly things that are not horribly important. That's what I keep in there for now, but I said that if I ever to have a dead infant, I'll use the casket for it's intended purpose.