It's armageddon...save us!

Nothing cripples Seattle like ice and snow. Some parts of the city got hit really hard while others got nothing. We live too close to Lake Washington to ever get much more than a dusting of snow. When I left work yesterday around 5:30 it was pouring hail and sleet and thundering. I headed to work this morning and once I got to the Renton Airport the roads turned to ice. Getting the rest of the way through Renton was actually pretty challenging. I grew up in Indiana so I've certainly driven in worse conditions, but Seattle has so many hills it's next to impossible to get around here even with minor snow and ice.

I think I'm one of about 20 people that came to work today. I spent the day moving into my new office at work, which is fun and crappy at the same time. Sure, an office is nice, but I enjoy sitting with everyone else and being able to talk. Now I'll be trapped in a box in the corner. At least my team sits right outside my office so I can still talk freely with them. And I have windows :)

I'm leaving early and heading home to finish drywalling the bathroom. It's getting really close to being done - maybe this weekend. I just took some pictures of the disastrous construction mess last night and will post 'em up later tonight.

One overhaul please!

Extra sleep in a warm bed vs. a cold team ride is always a hard decision, but I certainly feel better when I pick the latter. Today we did a nice 40-45 mile loop from Bothell out to Snohomish and back. It was one of those nice epic days for me. My old Giant is in pretty poor shape and all I could notice most of the ride was how much noise my chain and drivetrain were making. With about 15 miles left in the ride, mostly uphill, my bike quit shifting into any easy hillclimbing gears. Riding up hills with a 30 cadence in a great big 'ol gear while barely maintaining 4-5mph is awesome fun! Given my recent laziness, my legs are pretty fatigued after a typical 40 mile ride, so this was extra punishment.

With about 8 miles left we stopped to assist a teammate with a flat and then I noticed that the quick release skewer on my bike tire looked funny. Hmmm, rewind to last night when I put on brand new tires and tubes. Yeah, the skewer looks like it's going the wrong direction because I never secured it! That's right, I rode about 35 miles today with my rear tire "kinda tight" but not locked down. Brilliant! I guess luck was on my side :)

I've had more than enough drivetrain trouble with the Giant, especially since I crashed it last December. It's gotten me over 2500 miles mostly in crappy weather, so I felt like it deserved a nice overhaul. It's over at Sammamish Valley Cycle until Monday getting stripped naked. I probably should have had it overhauled a long time ago. It'll be just like getting a nice new shiny bike (without the carbon fiber).

Back to work now! Marcus and I have been working like crazy on the bathroom and wet bar. I'm sure I'll have some pictures soon...

672 at Sunlani!

I realized I have yet to say anything about bowling, which is funny since it's always been my #1 sport! I've been bowling since I was 5. At one point I was a PWBA regional bowler and very nearly went to Australia for a USA Bowling exchange program. For some reason or another I just got burned out on the sport and it wasn't fun anymore so I "retired" for a few years, then finally got back to it when I moved to Seattle in 2000. Since then I've bowled the Northend General league at Leilani Lanes, which is the men's high-roller league. There's a few of us gals in the league keeping the guys in check :) Unfortunately Leilani got bulldozed last year so our league was moved to Robin Hood Lanes in Edmonds for this year's season.

I've been struggling up there since the league started in September. Most of the league bowlers have averages in the 220+ range and most everyone started out the first few weeks of the league 50+ pins under. It was brutal! I went from a 192 average last year to a 148 this year. Yeah, that's pretty sad. I've now managed to come up to a 168, which is still pretty sad. The shot at Robin Hood is just tough. Don't get me started on the whole science of bowling, but trust me, there's more to it than just throwing your ball down the lane.

I also bowl Monday nights at "Sunlani", aka. Sunset Bowl. The owners installed all of the equipment from Leilani, so Sunset has Leilani's lanes, pinsetters, pins, etc. I bowl great at Sunset, which is to be expected since if I close my eyes it feels like Leilani. Last night I rolled a 672 series, which is my best of the season and I think my best series since my 763 on my birthday last year. Woo! It felt great to roll well since Robin Hood has been such a struggle lately.

Our team took all of our points last night so I think we won the first trimester of the league. Yeah...instant entry for the finals baby! :)

What up with the lazy?

For some reason I just cannot get motivated. Aside from going to our Zoka team party on Saturday night I pretty much did NOTHING all weekend. I was supposed to do the team ride Saturday morning but rather than get out and enjoy the nice day I slept until nearly noon. And of course I couldn't miss the game of the century, which was, in fact, one of the best football games I've ever seen despite Ohio St winning.

I was just really beat this weekend and spent most of it in bed or watching TV. That's a rare occurrence for me. I felt bad since Marcus slaved away all weekend working on the bathroom, which is coming along nicely! So, I have to give myself a huge kick in the ass and really get going. I think the few days off for Thanksgiving will help me get back on track. I gotta hit the gym, start biking, start running, etc etc. Racing starts in March and it'll be here before I know it.

The team party Saturday night was great and it was awesome to see a handful of women there -- yeah! The gals on the team are so excited to race so I hope I can help them out. Most of them are interested in what racing is like and if it's fun, hard, exciting, or scary. It'll be great to have some company out there next year!

It's almost here!!!

The game I usually wait for every year is even better this year. I'm counting the seconds until the epic Ohio St / Michigan battle tomorrow. Yes, I'm a diehard Boilermaker, but I have a soft spot in my heart for the Wolverines (unless they're playing us). It's all about me and the plasma TV tomorrow. I'm sure Marcus understands...

Flat season

The weather was gorgeous Wednesday so I decided to ride the bike (as in bicycle) to work for the first time in a while. As I was riding down Rainier Ave all I could think about was how horribly out of shape I was! Here I was barely going 15 when I normally go at least 19 or 20 with a little effort. Sure, I'm on my old aluminum bike with my old shoes and SPD mountain biking pedals, but seriously! As I headed into Renton it seemed I was working harder and harder and going slower and slower.

About a mile from my work I heard the tell-tale "clink" sound that only comes from your wheel rim hitting a bump in the road. Yup...I looked down and my damn rear tire was pancake flat again. One of these days I will figure out that riding with flat tires really doesn't do much for your ego! This is the second flat in nearly as many days, which tells me I'm due for new tires and tubes. Seems that last winter's riding really took a toll on my bike. So, I'm off to Center Cycle over lunch to drop some $$$ on the old aluminum Giant. I guess it needs a little love.

Back to biking

I woke up early Saturday morning to join the Zoka team ride leaving Exit 9. We were all lucky to have missed the rain and although the ride started out chilly we had suprisingly nice weather. It was great to see several ladies out on the ride!

Last year I struggled to keep up on team rides but this year I'm doing just fine. Unfortunately about 20 or so miles into our 40+ mile ride I had a flat. We were heading up E Lake Sammamish Parkway and suddenly I started dropping way off the pace. We weren't moving that fast so I was rather perplexed. I slid off the back of the pack thinking that I was completely out of shape until I looked down and saw my back tire was pancaked. Nothing like trying to hill climb with a flat tire! I stopped to change the flat and then hooked up with two Zoka riders a little ways back.

We ended up making our own route back to Exit 9 and caught some of the team at the finish. I think we did about 43-45 miles. Riding on the Giant is definitely a workout. It doesn't climb nearly as well or shift as smoothly as the Ruby. I figure if I ride this old heavy aluminum bike all winter I'll be flying when I get back on the Ruby.

VW Update

Well, looks like I get to cruise around in a Beetle for the next few days. University VW found out that I have a small leak around the rear windshield wiper motor and with all of our rain lately it caused a glitch with the hatch sensor. So, it's three days before the parts come in.

University VW has redeemed themselves by allowing me to drive their Beetle for the next few days and keep my car locked up on their lot. At least if the alarm goes off there no one cares. I'm sure my neighbors will be ecstatic.

Waking the dead

Last night while I was driving home from bowling the 'door ajar' light in my Golf starting blinking off and on. I checked that every door including the hatch was shut but it still continued to blink on and off. I figured it was no big deal and I probably had a bit of an electrical gremlin somewhere. Then once I got home and locked my car I realized what a huge problem the 'door ajar' light causes with your alarm system.

No sooner than I had walked in the house the alarm started going off. I figured I accidentally bumped the panic button on my keyless remote so I unlocked and relocked the car. Then the alarm started again. I unlocked and relocked. Well, you get the idea....lather, rinse, repeat. Of course it was around 10:30pm and the neighbors were delighted.

Just as I was contemplating disconnecting the battery the alarm ran its course for the 6th time and quit. I'm a heavy sleeper so who knows if it went off through the night, but I do know it woke me up at about 7 this morning. I then realized the whole absurdity of the situation. Ok, I can't lock my car because the alarm won't stop going off so I can't lock my car? WTF!?

I called University VW and after being put on hold 5 times for over 5 minutes I decided to just drive up there. I explained the situation to the service attendant, who then tells me there is nothing she can do as they are swamped because of the bad weather and have no loaner cars. Apparently everyone's sunroofs are leaking from the massive rain and they're booked. WTF!?

At this point I'm getting irate as I completely understand they are busy but I have a rather serious issue with my car in that I can't lock it without the alarm going off sporadically. I don't need the car fixed right away, I just need to be able to leave it and arrange other transportation. They don't really seem to care much.

Luckily, the lady next to me graciously offered me her loaner car since her car was going to be serviced in about an hour. What an awesome gesture! Now I'm driving a cute little Beetle until the VW dealership can take a look at my car, which likely will take a few days. This is the second time I've had a similar experience with University VW so I'm not certain I would consider buying another car from them.

Ahh, gotta love electronics!

Emerging from hibernation

Last Thursday I did a time trial performance test at Cycle U and my results were less than stellar. Last year I completed the 5-mi time trial in about 16 minutes, which isn't great but it's not horrible given that I suck at time trialing. This year I was somewhere around 19 minutes!? I told Craig that I swore something was amiss with the computrainer. I felt like I was busting my ass and was barely able to sustain 15-16mph.

Sure, I've been off the bike for a few weeks, but I kept up with some faster people on last week's team ride. There's no way I'm that far off the mark! Craig did mention that the guy in the previous heat complained about the same computrainer, so I really do hope something there was off. What a major downer!

I've been too lazy to get my old road bike set up for rainy weather so I missed the team ride Saturday. No way I'm riding the Ruby in the rain! I finally got the 'ol Giant rolling on Sunday and took a cruise up to Sandpoint and back in the rain. At least it was comfortably mild out! After riding a nice new carbon fiber bike the Giant feels aweful. The shifting is clunky, the gears slip around, it makes tons of noise and it feels like I'm towing a ton of bricks. At least when I get back on the Ruby it'll feel awesome!

I think I'm starting to emerge from my hibernating funk. I felt motivated to ride Sunday for the first time in a long while and I'm getting itchy to get my butt in training for doing the LA marathon next March. Now I just need to get back to the gym and I'll be set.

Marcus and I have decided we really need to get some indoor projects done on the house this winter, so we're going to try to put together a "to-do" list. We'll see how far we go with that. If I can FINALLY get the bathroom floor tile finished and grouted I'll be ecstatic.