Ed

For those of you who haven't met my dad (Ed) but have heard all the stories, here are a few pictures that sum up who he is.


Yes my friends, that is a t-shirt on his head, a long-john pj shirt, camouflage boxers, and long socks. We were out shopping at Lowes.
My parents came out to visit and we are doing some minor home improvements. We took down the back porch since it had come apart from the house after the big snowstorm in 06. We are also putting a new roof on since the old roof was not put on properly and was a very ugly color. Here are a few pics of the before and mid point of the porch. Kathy has been brave enough to join my dad on the roof. She said it was "entertaining" and wanted to make sure that she could be up on the roof to hear all he had to say for the remainder of the job. I'll be sure to post more pics later.



Last Monday Camie and I (friend from way back!) ran the Bolder-Boulder and had a lot of fun eating exotic food. Here is a picture of our friend Kathy eating duck feet (she wanted chicken feet but they were out!)


It's been a great first week off from school. Here's to a great summer!

Eric's Day of Jubilee

We had a wonderful day of jubilee, despite the windy cool day and the fact that I thought my new bike was totaled...to all of you who have a bike rack on the roof of your car-always remove the garage door opener from your visor and place into your saddle bag before putting your bike on the rack. That way there is no way you can open the garage door and slowly crash your baby Trek into the garage door-I mean your precious bike into the garage door. Yes my friends, that is what happened to me on Friday night. After school I rode my bike to the wine store for a tasting and planned to meet Eric there since he had the car. We decided to put my bike on top of the car and go to dinner. Two glasses of wine and two margaritas later I was in no condition to remember that my prized bike was on top of our car...and Eric in his sober mind didn't remember either :-( CRUNCH...then a few swear words on our part...then the reality that this could be the end of my carbon frame. I hurriedly took my bike from Eric, who was swearing as he removed the mangled mess from the rack. I rushed onto the porch and carefully removed the tire and tube from the cracked wheel. (I had just put new tires and tubes on it!) It didn't look good...I had no idea what a new wheel would cost so I went downstairs and began the research. As I read my face grew sober. Turns out that bikes made out of metal bend, whereas bikes made out of carbon crack. So even though I didn't seen any damage, other than the shifters moved and the wheel cracked (and the Thule sidebar bent to pieces) I knew I wouldn't really know until I took my bike into Steve, the local bike guy and our neighbor. I did find out that I didn't just have any wheel, but a 400$ set...so that wasn't fun to find out either.

During all of this Eric was so mad at himself and so sad about what he had done to one of my favorite possessions, he didn't know what to say to me. We went to bed and slept on it.

The next day was Eric's Day of Jubilee. Our group of friends coined this term a few years back. We decided that on your birthday (or a day close to your actual day but on a weekend) you should get to choose exactly what you want to do for an entire day, and all your friends are invited to whatever you plan. Your very own day of jubilee! Eric decided to go to the deli for a late breakfast, a movie in the afternoon, disc golf, and then a fabulous barbecue where he could use both his smoker and new gas grill. Yes, he had two grills going! After the bike incident he wanted to cancel his day of jubilee, but we all made him see that would be stupid. Instead of going to the movie I took my bike to Steve and he looked at it and told me I was lucky. There was no indication of a crack anywhere on the fork or frame, which apparently is unheard of when you run a bike into a garage. (Yes, it is a VERY common problem, so heed my advise about the opener in the saddle bag!) So I went home and joined in the day of jubilee, very jubilant from the news that my baby Trek only needed a new wheel. In fact, Steve put a spare on so I could go for a ride in the mountains. Roubaix is the best shop ever!!!

Here are pictures from Eric's wonderful day and his real birthday on Monday. There is one of Eric planting Broccoli too. I also slipped in a few pictures of cute baby Erin :-)

What would you do for your day of jubilee?