Froze Our B**** Off!

Well the rally was a good time and yes it lived up to it's name. The first snowfall and possibly the only in The triangle area of North Carolina for the year. There were a few snags on the way, but all in all seemed worthwhile.

Snag #1 Couldn't leave Norfolk until 8:30PM

Snag #2 Took us an hour to get checked into hotel room due to frozen door locks, broken heater, 99% capacity and lazy front desk attendants...but they were nice and apologetic.

Snag #3 The weather made it exciting to ride but I am still trying to regain feeling in my kneecaps. It allowed us to ride to the bowling alley, but then got treacherous so we trailered the scooters back to the Bates- I mean, Duke hotel.

Snag #4 Losing the kickstand halfway across Durham and having the scooterist behind us run over it in the road

Snag #5 While taking a nap after dinner on Saturday Gordon and I awoke to the sound of our friend reliving his burger and garlic fries from Tyler's Tap Room. He stayed in for the party that night.

Snag #6 The service at Alivia's restaurant...nuff said

Snag #7 (more for our friend than us) When he and Gordon dropped off the trailer in Norfolk Coolant flooded the pavement from his vehicle. His response "nothing $700 can't fix"

But there were a lot of positives to the trip:

1. The debut of "the Green Meanie"

2. Meeting and reconnecting with old friends

3. A chance to get out of town

4. Check out the scooter competition

Here are some highlights below

2 stroke smoke!!

Wedding invitations are in the hands of the United States Postal Service now. So you can expect them any time between this weekend and 2013! Hopefully they will arrive in decent condition and we have supplied enough info for everyone to make plans/decisions.

In other news...The mean green machine is in working order and ready to rally!! The "freeze your balls off" rally (appropriately named) is this weekend. All Gordon has to do is put in the headlight bulb that finally arrived today and tighten some cables. It's already been tagged titled and insured to VA standards.

We gathered our cold weather gear today to assure as minimal of freezing as possible. It took me back to elementary school days where to go out to recess you had to wear everything you were sent to school in. Therefore, by the time you are done layering you resemble a cross between the little brother on Christmas Story and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow man. I hate the cold weather but it should be fun. Apparently there is a to be a good turn out this year.

Although the vespa is running or at least it was the other day there is always that unfortunate bike that breaks down during the ride...I just hope it is not us because it will be a test of patience and will power to ride at 50mph in 40 degree weather itself. We'll share pics when we get back I am sure

Project Week

This has been a productive week. Besides working my regular hours I have also made progress with wedding invitations. They are really looking good (as good as DIY invitations can be). We still need the address labels to do but that will be cake compared to rolling 60 little scrolls and tying even smaller ribbons around them.

Other than that I have begun to push myself a little farther in my running. I normally like the comfort of the treadmill but have been forcing myself to take advantage of the unusually warm weather-thank you CFC's and styrofoam!

Gordon has been taking full advantage of his paid time off and is getting our '79 vespa P200E ready for the "Freeze your Balls off" rally in NC next weekend. This has been a 10 year project for Gordon. While living in Indiana he made significant progress with my encouragement. Little did I know when he said it's pretty much a complete bike he meant...he had all of the parts but you had to sift through a tub of rust and tetanus to begin to decipher what they were...but Props to Gordon cuz it looks great now!!

And we can't forget the other member of our family...well he is feeling better since his bout with diarrhea. He has been making progress on his sleep...as you can clearly see!

What Have I done!

Well I just officially registered myself in the Yeungling Shamrock Marathon in Virginia Beach. Before you get too excited though I am only running the 8k. I thought it was a 5k which would be no problem for me but that extra mile and a half (roughly) may put me over the edge!

My new years resolution was to get more involved in community activities (particularly sports related ones). Although I enjoy hanging out with our friends here in Hampton Roads, I would like to have a little more substantial plans in my social calendar than "Cogan's or Taphouse tonight?" "Is Jill working?" "I think so." "Yeah see ya there."

I have been running fairly steadily for the last 5 years but I am comfortable in my 3 mile bubble. Hopefully this will be a good thing although the waiver I had to sign was intimidating...not just because it lists the possible dangers of participating in such an event but more so because they have the right to videotape and redistribute my image as I am sucking wind down the boardwalk inevitably with well-toned seniors and pre-teen anomalies zipping by me. Why again did I paid to do this!?! ;P

catch up

I'm not quite sure why I am creating this blog...but maybe it will amuse someone.

Well, It is already 2008 and things are in full swing for the wedding. We have all kinds of goodies en route to the apartment (as if we need more stuff in here!) like plastic bottles, coconut mugs, corks and phone calls about where to stay and when to get there and other miscellaneous questions...all I can tell you is the island is not that big and wherever you feel comfortable staying (i.e. financially and location-wise) you will be alright. There is really not a safety issue in Key West...I've never seen roving gangs or muggers mostly because 90% of the people that live down there are ex-hippies and also because there is not much room to run...so I think you are all pretty safe!

In other news: Gordon is enjoying his new job still. They have had him all over the eastern sea board so far but his main route right now is from the Outer Banks in NC to our beloved Norfolk. The schedule is a little strange in my opinion but it seems to work out.

I am still with the Hope House Foundation working with my caseload of individuals with mild mental retardation. It was a hectic December with my boss out for the month but my coworker (yes singular) and I managed to hold everything together fairly well.

Unless you are a direct family member or live in town with us you may not have known about "The Green Goblin", our 1992 teal green Mazda pickup with 230,000 miles...well it lived up to the name I dubbed it when we got it! Maybe I should have named it "the Green Go-Go" or something instead because on my way home from Gordon's folks it decided to "Stop-Stop". After a ride with a tow truck driver that refused to listen to the new GPS system he got for Christmas and actually used the word "Nyaw" plus a $292 repair to get it back to Norfolk I took that sucker to Carmax and got me a 2006 pumpkin orange...yes you heard me...pumpkin orange Chevy Cobalt! So far I am really enjoying it and the people that have to ride with me are grateful as well...

That about covers it for this installment of "Erin's boring rants" tune in next time for "what Erin and Gordon decided to eat for dinner" :P