Looking for opinions again, friends, so feel free to speak your mind...

As well as think about tattoos [inlink]leetee,30[/inlink], i was also thinking about bikes. Since i don't like hiking or walking as much as i used to (i don't know if that's due to weight or age), i turned to something i used to do quite regularly. Ride my bike. I used to comute uphill (i lived in Hamilton, Ontario, then, and i lived downtown and worked on the escarpment, aka the "mountain") twice a day. I was trimmer then.

So, (e:uncutsaniflush) and i went to a local shop, Campus Wheel Works, to see what they had. So, if you some weird chick looking wobbly on a bike on Elmwood this afternoon, it was me, testing bikes and i apologize if i almost ran into anybody!

First, i test rode the milano... in a cute a turquois shade. NIce looking, but not quite right for me.

Then, i test rode this one, a Townie (love the name!) in a cute pink shade. It was better, but i didn't like the brakes on it.

Then, i rode something less cute, but comfy and more practical and less expensive.

Of course, as usual with me, they don't have my size or a girls bike in the shop, so i would have to order it. Sight unseen. I assume if the mens one, slightly too big was comfy, so will the girls one in my size... And, if i had good luck ordering from a catalog with my desk, i would like to think i might have the same luck with this?

Anyone have any recommendations on bike shops? Good, bad or indiffernet experiences with Campus Wheel Works?


Thanks to...

(e:Paul) for reminding me that i did not have a userpic up. I do now, thanks to his reminder and offer of help if i needed it. And, of course, to (e:uncutsaniflush) for his help in me getting the pic itself up.

Despite the Morrissey quote, i hardly feel dreary today. Looks like it might rain any second, but i love that feeling. I love the rain too.. in the summertime, i think it's grand to take a walk in the rain. Very refreshing.

We just finished lunch (an odd combo of toasted bagels and vegetarian breakfast sausages) just after finishing watching the Tour de France.

Congrats to Lance Armstrong for winning once again, his 7th win, on this, his last race before retirement. I was torn between wanting to see him break yet another record and win 7 times in a row, and wanting to see the excitment on an upset and see an underdog pass him to the finish. Yet, i am oddly proud of Lance Armstrong for what he has accomplished. He beat cancer, and as someone who has done the same (although i will admit, not in the same places!!), i can say the process is exhausting and painful. Somehow, i think having endured the pain and discomfort of cancer and its treatments has made him a stronger person, better able to endure the pain and discomfort of sitting on a bike and racing all those hundreds of kilometers. I imagine it is as though he said "this ain't nuthin'" in comparison to cancer treatments. I think comentary on the race parallels my thoughts... i heard someone saying that surviving cancer changed him and created an even more enduring personality. I applaud him in his victory and wish him well in his future. Congrats and good luck, Lance!

Today is my parent's 40th wedding anniversary... i am surprised they lasted this long, to be honest. I love them both dearly, but i do not understand why they are still married to each other. Oh, i know why they got married... that's what guys did back then when they got their girlfriends knocked up. My older brother barely heard the end of that from my dad when he was younger -- all the things my dad did not become were due to my mom being preggers with him. Anyhoo, i digress....

I called today to wish them a happy anniversary and spoke with my father. Not something he does usually. He's not a phone person. Mom wasn't home. What was she doing? Exciting stuff. Going to the laudromat to wash their big king sized bedpread that doesn't fit in her washer (i say hers 'cause my dad wouldn't know how to use it). Such a way to celebrate, eh? But i heard that last night they opned up one of the bottles of Biltmore Estates Reserve wine we got them for xmas and my dad reported they are going out to dinner. To the Keg... *shudder*

We, (e:uncutsaniflush) and i that is, decided to go for a walk at the Tifft Nature Preserve When we lived in Knoxville, we used to go to a place call Ijams regularly. (e:uncutsaniflush) would drag this city girl off her lazy behind to go out where the bugs and bees (i am SOO scare of bees and things that sting!!) were ready to pounce and face the elements. We had a nice walk today. My lazy behind is grateful that Tifft is far less hilly than Ijams is. It was a beautiful morning.. and we saw a lot of frogs. We didn't bring our camera, or we might have pictures to share. We heard a lot of frogs, too. Or what we think are frogs. In the ponds, there were some creatures making a strange little noise. Sounded like a flat guitar string being plucked. Anyone know what creature makes this sound?

After that, we decided to head over to Elmwood. We had decided on what we think would be an ideal gift for a friend of ours (she reads this or else i would tell ya'll what we bought!!) and then decided to go for lunch.

At first, we thought we would go to Louie's. Then, we got distracted by the latest incarnation of Vietnamese restaurant that is on the west side of the street between Hodge and Utica... oh, darn my brain... (e:uncutsaniflush) would remember the name of the place but i forget. We ate there and i had a really yummie tofu dish.... marinated and fried with lemongrass and some other spicy salty flavours. We had some veggie summer rools too that were good. (e:uncutsaniflush) had a noodle soup with beef and meatballs (that he said tasted sorta like sausage) that he really enjoyed too. It was my first time eating and a Vietnamese place... i have eaten at Thai/Vietnamese places before, however. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Now, i think i am going to continue to work on my desk -- getting everything in it and organized. Thanks to (e:Paul) and (e:Boxerboi) for the complments on my dream desk. I will take and publish pics once it is all full of it's stuff.

Speaking of papers, we got the papers for the house today. The deed and the search... both are interesting reading, particularly the latter. If one can manage to wade through all the legalese, it's interesting to find out who owned what bits of this land and the over a hundred year old house before we did...

Today, (e:uncutsaniflush) and i went to see the film March of the Penguins and we both enjoyed it. I highly recommend it. I'm such a big kid, and i ended up practiclly bouncing around in my seat when good things happened to these wonderful creqatures. I happen to be a sucker for anything having to do with animals, and i found myself crying a few times in the theatre... those penguins have a rough go of things.

But thinking of these poor penguins souls not being able to eat and having to huddle in a group to keep from freezing to death makes me not want to complain about things in my life that get me down. Talk about perspective...

I have a great life. I have a beautiful, wonderful, loving, supportive husband who is my best friend, therapist and lover. I couldn't ask for a better spouse. I live in a beautiful house with him, but i would live anywhere with hiim. I owhn beautiful things my husband encourages me to buy, sometimes even buys for me... How could i go wrong with a husband that wants me to go shopping?

I would like to wish (e:Paul), (e:Matthew) and (e:Terry) much luck in obtaining financing to purchasing the mini mansion!! [inlink]matthew,594[/inlink] [inlink]paul,3550[/inlink]

This mini mansion (e:uncusaniflush) and i own is my first time being a homeowner (i know it's supposed to count that i married him when he owned a house and because we married in Tennessee, i was automaticly 1/2 owner of the house we lived in, but it's not the same as picking one out with him!), and i can say that it feels really great to not have to pay rent!!!

And if you guys get the house we can all say that we used to live on Linwood and moved to the West Side... :O)

Yay! It arrived. Finally. And it is beautiful. Everything i dreamed of. As (e:uncutsaniflush) mentioned a while ago [inlink]uncutsaniflush,66[/inlink] i have always wanted to have my very own rolltop desk. And not just any old rolltop desk, but a writing desk. And not in the typical honey/golden oak colours... I guess you could say i like things that are traditional, but with a twist?

I got a call last week saying that my desk was in and when did i want it? Well, how about in 5 minutes? No? OK, when can someone bring it? Next Tuesay? OK. I was told someone would call me on Monday to arrange a more specific time. I didn't get the call and i must say, i was a bit skeptical. But i was patient. I called and they apologized, not knowing why someone didn't call me. I was told someone would be here to bring my desk between 10.30 and 11.30 am.

This morning, (e:uncutsaniflush) and i made bets on when it would arrive. I said 12.30 and he said 11.45. Would you believe they were here by 10.45! Within the time they said? Wow, eh?

So, i am happy to have my desk. The desk i always wanted. We bought it for me sight unseen, from a page in a catalog and an online picture, and it is just as i hoped it would be. Even better. I'm looking forward to filling it with papers and files and stationery. Who wants to be the first to get a snail mail letter from me written on my new desk?

Here it is. :O)

I've yet to meet anyone that likes the dentist. I know someone who became a hygenist that loves the feeling after her teeth are cleaned and doesn't mind having other work done, but even she admits she doesn't like the dentist. Then again, she has near perfect teeth...

I, on the other hand, do not have anywhere near perfect teeth. When i was a child, dental reports of me having less than 10 cavities was a happy day, and i learned to hate dentistry.

Firstly, i don't take locals very well... not on any part of my body, including my mouth. When i used to tell my dentist it hurt when i was a kid, he told me it was all in my head. So, i would squirm a lot. He and the hygenist came up with some clever ideas to keep me still. Most frighteningly i realize now, was rope. I used to get tied to the dental chair. I thought it was normal. When i was a teenager and finally decided to go back to see a dentist after a long time away from them, i held my hands out to be tied and i got the most horrific look from the people there.

During January 2004, i chipped an old filling and decided it was once again time to go back to a dentist after another long absence. I went to my husband's dentist, who had just newly taken over the practice from the dentist my husband actually liked, but since he only had his teeth cleaned and was lucky enough to have not had to have much else done, he couldn't tell me much about this dentist except that he seemed to do a good job. Cool. Perhaps a dentist i could like? I went in and told them that i am one of those 'fraidy cat people and the dentist recommended i take a pill to help me relax. He gave me a perscription for 2, since i felt obligated to tell him that i am a recovering addict. So far, so good. He seemed like a decent guy.

Sadly, my chipped tooth needed a crown (no shock there, i think i have more metal in my teeth than tooth). Being my first crown, i was a tad more nervous and afterwards when it still hurt like crazy, i thought perhaps i was overreacting. But the pain continued. Eventually, i was sent to another dentist and the theory was confirmed, i needed a root canal. Great. Another dental first. Thank goodness it was only the temporary crown that was on. But still, this guy couldn't get the other guys crown off, so he drilled through it. And this guy was REALLY good about how nervous i was. Even gave me a wee stuffed penguin to squeeze when i got scared.

Sadly, he found another problem. He has these super sensitive high tech xray thingies... showed me more than i wanted to see on a computer screen. But, what he saw scared me even more. He saw a shadow under one of my wisdom teeth. Yep, one that was still under the gum. I was refered to an oral surgeon.

Sadly, this guy comfirmed it. I had some sort of cyst that was between my very back tooth's root and an impacted wisdom tooth that was growing sideways. He didn't recommend removing any of my other impacted wisdom teeth because of the way they were growing. Too close to a major nerve that could cause me to loose function of the muscles of my face. But they needed to get at and remove one wisdom tooth to get at the cyst and remove it. Not something i would recommend someone do for fun. Oral surgery SUCKS. Luckily, the lab results from the biopsy of the cyst came back with good results... whew.

A couple of months after that, i was finally able to get that permanent crown put on. It still bothers me. The original dentist turned out to be not so great, but not that bad either. Been to worse, been to better.

The surgery site bothers me a bit sometimes, too. Then again, i was told that back tooth's root got a bit of a scraping to get rid of all the cyst, so i should be careful in that area of my mouth for about a year or so.... might even loose the tooth. Still can't eat back on that side of my mouth.

It's been 16 months since all this happened, and i think i need to bite the bullet and go to a dentist again. I want to take care of things before they become huge problems... least, that is what i intend to do. My intentions don't always mean jack, as the saying goes... but that, my friends, is a different story.

So, for anyone who has managed to read through that whole horrific story, i have a question...

Know of a good dentist?

My Mom would NOT take no for an answer. She was going to buy us chairs for the porch for a housewarming gift if it killed me to find ones i liked.

(e:uncutsaniflush) said he wasn't picky and if it were up to him, we would have white plastic ones. The plastic ones hurt my ass, and i thought my parents were looking to spend more than $4.99 each, so i found them. At Target. Couldn't get them home on our wee little Toyota Prius, so we ordered them online. Talk about sticker shock at delivery prices... wow..

They came via UPS yesterday while we were hanging our brand new mailbox



and while we were waiting for the computer desk



to arrive (tell me folks, is 2.30pm "morning" to you?).

Here are the chairs. Woo hoo. Only took a couple of hours to put them all together. After i screwed up on the front bit 3 times, that is... sheesh, i CAN read directions, i think.




Also found out today that my dream desk is due to be delivered next Tuesday... yay! A cherry roll top desk!!!!

As (e:Paul) has posted about,[inlink]paul,3490[/inlink] Guercio's is a wonderful Italian grocery on Grant. (e:uncutsanilfush) and i get all our produce there. Thier prices are fantastic and the quality is top notch.

This is what we got yesterday for $10.47. Yummmmmm...



On a sad note, when we were there, we saw a sign that said they will be closed today due to a death in the family. I am happy that they think there are things more important than business.


[size=m]Desk[/size]

Right now, we are waiting for our computer desk to arrive. Found a nice used one last week and they said they were going to deliver it this morning. Not much morning left...

Sorry guys, i know this is a subject a lot of you cringe at.. but most of us women deal with it once a month.

Every month, i try not to let it affect me, but every month is different.. One month i can't get enough chocoloate (ok, maybe every day i can't get enough chocolate?), the next month, i could eat my weight in potoato chips and the following month, i barely notice it. Sometimes, i want to throw away being a vegetarian because i would love to chomp into tastes of my childhood like greasy fried pork chops with a big plate of mashed potatoes and thick gravy. Alternatively gross and appealing to me at the moment...

This month, however, and at this very moment, i am fighting pessimism and cynicism. I know it's happening sometimes and i know that makes it easier (ya can't deal with what you don't know), but i still don't like that it happens at all. I would love to will it away. Most times i can work through it but today, i just feel like complaining and crying...

I am so fortunate that (e:uncutsaniflush) is so very understanding, loving and patient. He also knows when to leave me be... he's pretty damn smart if ya ask me.

Today, i am being supremely lazy, something i very rarely do. Laying on a sofa, watching movies on tv and now, listening to other people's problems as solved by Dr Phil.

OK, self pitying session over... the guys can come back now...