Saturday, September 1, 2012

Oh Happy Day!

There are several reasons why today (actually the last two days) is wonderful happy day.

I felt like superwoman!

As the week wears on, I definitely notice my legs getting weaker in my commutes to and from work, with the best ride being the one first thing in the morning, and the worst usually at the end of the day. I've found out that my route along the bike path is 4.6 miles one way, so I'm now up to bicycling 18 miles every day! Not cycling over the summer didn't hurt my abilities too much, but it did effect them a little bit.

Friday, however, was a complete 180 in terms of bicycling. I don't get it.

That morning, I zoomed along with tires and generator humming, feeling as if I could just go ahead and set out across the US and not stop until I reached the other side- I felt like I could keep pedaling forever, and I was going pretty darned fast too. I was almost sad to get to work. On the ride home I still had plenty of energy. I was carrying a free zucchini that someone had brought in to work. I also stopped to get more apples from the orchard in the park, so that I could eat them with peanut butter as I had craved doing the day before. I climbed the trees to get the really good apples, dress hiked up with the hem in my mouth to serve as a basket, bike shorts showing, I didn't care.

Zucchini!
Not the greatest picture in the world, I wanted to eat it too much.

Jamie cooked up the zucchini for me before he headed off for work because it ended up getting some of the skin bruised and worn off where it was pushed against the metal rod of the rack. I thought it was absolutely delicious!

I sliced up three of the apples to take with me to work that afternoon, and brought peanut butter too of course. My ride in was possibly the fastest of the entire week. I shifted into 5th gear before I even reached the bike path, and I even spent a good bit of the ride in 6th gear! ZOOM! It felt wonderful, and the apples were freaking fantastic. They might have been the most wonderful apples ever. I also had the perfect amount of peanut butter to go with them, I was very happy.

On the last ride home, I was still in great shape and in a higher gear than usual. I could feel my muscles still getting tired super-fast when they had to work up a slight hill, but they could maintain that higher gear without complaining. Weird. So that was the first two awesome things- superwoman and awesome free food.

Then, Friday was also my first payday. Whoohoo! I wanted some Chinese food to celebrate, but my roommate had another idea and we went to the Thai Kitchen instead. I had some odd stir-fry dish over lettuce, Jamie tried spicy jungle noodles, and our roommate had another type of stir-fry-looking dish with broccoli and carrots in it. I decided mine would be better with brown rice instead of lettuce, and Jamie claimed to not feel any heat whatsoever from his noodles, though they were good. It was supposed to have been a testing experience because Pappy's eyes water when eating them or something. Silly boys.

Today I wanted to go shopping. I had no particular goals, but I knew I wanted to visit the bike shop for a look around, and I wanted to see our local Goodwill store. I had planned to bike there by myself, but Jamie wanted to come too, so we all made a field trip of it. At the bike store Jamie decided that my flat tires are unacceptable- he got the thorn-resistant tubes for me. There is a neat display with cut tubes to show you how the thorn-resistant ones are incredibly thick on the outer section so that sharp things theoretically cannot penetrate to give you a flat tire.

Flat-proof?

I can personally attest that the Bell brand tubes that can be bought at Wal-Mart are not worth the cheaper price. My last two flats were due to failures at the inner seam, and I've checked to be sure my rim-tape was in good condition. Two tubes failed in a long un-patchable split in different locations (on the SAME DAY!). Not fun. I don't think I'll wait to experience another flat before I install these new tubes- I'll keep the old ones as spares.

If I had gone by myself to see these stores its likely that's all that would have happened: me seeing the stores. With Jamie along, he felt like treating me to some actual shopping. I got several shoes, a couple pairs of pants, and shirts! Without further ado- the spoils of Goodwill shopping:

Nice comfy black pants with flared legs. Vince size 4.

The most comfortable jeans EVER! Very thick soft denim.
Gap curvey ultra low rise size 6A.


Merino wool! 
Says Kate Hill in it, and Italian Merino Wool, but that's it.

Soft Old Navy shirt size S.


<3 pink
George brand size XS/ECH (0/2).

Look Tig: silk! 
The vest is a bit short, though. I'll need a tank top underneath or a simple dress maybe.
Tag says Valerie Stevens Petites Pure Silk. Care tag says its a 6P for size I'm guessing.

I love that two items were the same color- this shirt makes me feel very girly and pretty.
Axcess brand size S.

Before I get to shoes I simply MUST explain the wonders of my husband in a clothing department. That man can not only fly through the racks to find cute clothes (and he has great taste), but he can look at something and know if it the right size with near-perfect accuracy. I have no idea what size I am, and even if I did so many companies label clothing in the same size when their fit could be wildly different. I would spend hours looking through clothes and have to put them all back. Jamie only had a little bit of difficulty when he tried to give me size 14 girl's jeans when I need 16s- the fit is just too different from one size to the other for young girls when he is right that they LOOKED the same as the women's pants he had found. Anyway, we did not spend an entire day in Goodwill to find all this awesome stuff. In fact I felt very rushed until I came out of the dressing room and realized just how much stuff I was actually getting. Wow!

Ha! Size 4 L.E.I. girl's shoes. I could not resist these adorable things.
Jamie was a little bit confused about the size and I had to explain that shoe-people are dumb, and a size 4 in girls IS a size 6 in women's shoes.

Silly flash went off.

Jamie found these slightly dressy casual black shoes for me. Very comfortable.
No more water shoes with my red-checkered black dress! (Incidently, that's the outfit I wore yesterday.)
They say Franco Sarto on the bottom. I Googled that and just got a $70 pair of shoes for $3!


These were so comfortable I had to get them too. They are Keds and made of suede I think.
Yeah, Jamie found them too. I might not have looked at them twice for the mousy color.
Did I mention they were comfortable?



Yay for new stuff! 

Tomorrow I think shall be a day of laundry and bike-love as Zoomie gets her new tubes, and likely a bath. We also have our weekly pot-luck to go to with Pappy.

I hope your days have been happy too :)





2 comments:

  1. I absolutely love the short sleeved burgundy and long sleeve pink shirt... and everybody loves penny loafers... but you need to put a dime in due to inflation lol..

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    1. They aren't real! That part across the top is not attached to the top of the shoe at all- it won't hold a penny. I'm considering sewing them together so they will.
      Also I have a reversible belt that matches them perfectly :D

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