panoramic photos

If you've got a few minutes (or hours), check out these amazing panoramic photos from around the world. Clearly I'm working hard at shortening my to-do list.

Link

Well hi there!

I'm back. Possibly. Maybe. (you've heard that before) I was thinking it might be a good idea to keep up with this a little more to let folks (or just my dad) know what I'm up to all summer.

I've got lots coming up that I'm really excited about and I needed somewhere to write it down. Here goes.

Summer job: Bike mechanic at a company called Lose the Training Wheels. I get to put on summer camps in different cities all around the country that teaches kids with disabilities how to ride a 2-wheeled bike. I know, right? I get paid to play with kids and ride bikes. How cool is that?

New Bike: Look 566. I swore up and down I'd never get a carbon bike. Then I rode this machine. Wow. Not to mention a great deal and it's in great shape.

Grad School: I'll be starting in August at Texas Woman's University for my Doctorate of Physical Therapy. I'm so excited to be working toward a job that I'll enjoy for the rest of my life.

Other things currently making me happy: my friends. I've been catching up with a lot of people lately and it's been awesome. Goal: keep it up because I'm terrible at keeping in touch with people.

I'm out of town right now working a bike camp but I'll be back in town and I've got nothing to do except ride my bike. (well, that's not true, but I can pretend) Life is good!

Here's a pic of one of my buddies from bike camp this week. I was trying to do the bunny ears; you can just see the tips of my fingers behind his head. This kid is such a riot. AND I got to launch him on a 2-wheeled bike today for the first time in his life. SO AWESOME!!

Cake balls!

I made some cake balls the other day. I've been following Bakerella's blog (www.bakerella.com) for a few years. She's she lady who started the whole cake pops craze. Check out her blog; it's awesome. She's so creative. Anyways, I couldn't find any lollipop sticks, so cake balls were the next best thing. They turned out pretty well!

The bike

I hopped on my bike for a few days over thanksgiving break to meet up with some cross country cyclists who were passing through the hill country, where I was going to be anyways. I had a great time finding out new things about familiar towns as well as meeting great new friends. More soon!

Austin

I went to Austin a couple of weeks ago to visit some friends and have a mini reunion with a bike team I was on a few years ago.

We had an alumni tailgate while watching the Longhorns beat Texas Tech. We had some breakfast tacos, breakfast beers, and camaraderie, and we got some good group photos.

Then I met up with some friends at the Jester King Brewery. It's out in the hill country a bit, but it's totally worth the drive. Beautiful brewery (looks like an old farmhouse) and delicious, wonderful beer. Their Wytchmaker Rye India Pale Ale was my favorite.

Then, we went out to the Salt Lick, which is renowned in these parts for their fantastic barbecue. They have expanded since I've been there last, which may or may not be a good thing, but they still make a damn good plate of barbecue.

All in all, a fantastic weekend.

I'm looking forward to seeing these folks again this weekend for the Renaissance Festival. Who doesn't love dressing up in ridiculous costumes, drinking beer, and walking around all day checking out the other ridiculous costumes, awesome music, and jousting??

Beer

Lest you think that all I do is garden, I also enjoy a frosty beverage from time to time. This was taken Saturday at the monsters of beer charity festival - a beer fest with at least 50 breweries from all over the US. I was serving for Saint Arnold, one of Houston's most well-known craft breweries.

This was also the kickoff to Houston Beer Week. They were raising money for a couple of charities, including Friday Harbour, which helps provide free housing for families traveling to the area to undergo cancer treatment. Great day and a cool event! If I can find more pics from the event I'll post them up here as well.

Garlic!

Found this little guy in the garden this morning. Awesome!

Carrots

Just a quick picture of the carrot sprouts I've got so far. I thinned some lettuce and broccoli today, still have more to go. Still no rosemary or garlic, hopefully soon!

Sprouts!

I've got sprouts in the garden! I'm super excited because that means I haven't killed the plants (yet). So far, I'm looking at carrots, broccoli, lettuce, and peas that all have sprouts. Garlic and rosemary...not yet. I'll be thinning them out soon and hopefully can transplant some to another planter. It's amazing how small a 3' x 5' box becomes when you actually start using it. Stay tuned!!

Gardening

Today I finally planted some seeds in the garden box that my dad helped me build! I'm really excited to actually have a yard where I can grow something besides an IKEA bamboo plant (which I still have from 4 years ago). I'm even giving vegetables a shot. Hopefully it's not too ambitious! We'll see what happens....

You're looking at garlic, rosemary, broccoli, snow peas, lettuce, and carrots. I'm staggering the planting of the peas and carrots so I can harvest them at different times and give myself more time to eat everything. Ideally there will be too much for me and I can give some away.

The first seeds will start sprouting in 5-10 days (broccoli, snow peas, lettuce) so hopefully I'll be able to see some progress in about a week. Stay tuned!

Technical stuff: I bought the seeds at Central Market - they all say "packed for 2012" on them. The box is 3' x 5' and took about 12 bags of soil: Scotts premium garden soil (enriched with plant food).  I placed a divider to one side of the box to raise the soil level, giving the carrots and snow peas deeper soil than the rest of the plants without having to put a ton more soil in the entire box.

Last Meal

My last meal at the Moon Tower - the ghetto bird (pheasant dog on a pretzel bun) and a Polygamy Porter. Yum!!

I'm back

I'm going to give blogging a shot. Again. I feel like this is a bit more personal (and perhaps less obnoxious) than Facebook or Twitter. Plus I have a lot of random things going on in my life that people far away may (or may not) be interested in. Here's to the old college try!

Yay!

I'm so excited that this is really coming together.

This is what's been going on:

-Tomorrow is my last day of work (!!!)
-One of the trailers came in the mail today!! Pictures to come soon. I haven't seen it yet.
-I've been hearing from friends I have along the route; people are offering up their floors or couches or extra bedrooms, as well as their company! Some folks are talking about coming along and riding with us, yay!
-We've been buying extra supplies: tires, spokes, chains, bar tape, etc.
-Tomorrow is my last day of work!

Hoping to leave in 3-4 weeks. We'll try to set a definite date soon.

did I mention that tomorrow is my last day of work??! :D

More Preparations

So it looks like we'll be riding for a charity cause, and will probably set up a different blog with a slightly more relevant title than 'shampoo walrus'.

We'll post a link when we have one.

Also, sorry about the photo links with random pictures. I've been selling stuff on Craigslist and if you post a link to your photos on an externally hosted site (like Flickr), you can post larger pictures in your ad. Anyone want to buy some cowboy boots?

Preparations

Trying to re-vamp the blog to chronicle our trip by bicycle from Florida to Maine. Will be looking into how to add photo albums and a Twitter feed here (suggestions welcome).

Click for the route.

More to come.