I took my bike down to Waynesville and rode some hills last weekend.

It's fun to discover new spots off road.

I thought up a way to portion my ice cream.

Each month I usually treat myself to half a pint of my favorite.  It's hard to know how far down to stop since it's a tapered cup.  I decided to cut it the lengthwise, and now I have two perfect halves. ;) My band saw isn't happy about it though…

Just cool color reflecting on an ad in Shanghai

The lights were reflections from a pendulum swingIHG back and forth.

RetroBlog 2006-10-20

Coca Cola in Chinese

RetroBlog 2006-10-20

Andy crafted a great case for some of his plumbing tools!

Just a pretty cool sunset on the way home one night recently.

Trying to do yoga with Zoe around is kind of interesting… :)

We eventually made it up into the needle tower on the left. :)

RetroBlog 2006-10-17

I really enjoyed the views in Shanghai

These are along the river in downtown.  I loved all the golden lighting.  It was relaxing and fun to walk along capturing it.

RetroBlog 2006-10-17

What my iPad sees…

I was relaxing one weekend morning and opened the camera on my iPad my accident and saw this view.  I thought it was a cute little scene of my work, relaxation, breakfast, and devotions all at once. ;)

One of my students brought this beauty to class

I have a modern Walther PPK/S or this PP intrigued me.  Especially the marks stamped on the various parts… The serial number dates it to 1944, near the end of WWII.  The stamps mean it was in German possession at that time.  The lady in my class got it as part of lot of historical items from Scotland Yard.  Quite the history this one could tell…

I am trying to work on my flexibility, balance and strength.

Laura swears yoga will help that.  I think she's right. :)

I was in Shanghai for one evening

So we walked along the short and took pictures.  The city lights were pretty as were the lights on the tour boats along the river

RetroBlog 2006-10-17

Driving to our first destination in China

Along the way, I snapped a picture of this pretty building.

RetroBlog 2006-10-17

My CrossTREK and my TREK

I like my little commuter

And now I can fit it AND my bike, all in the garage at the same time.  It makes it nice to be able to be packed up the night before a trip and still be able to take some exercise with me. :)

The simplicity of a random Mexican restaurant

The food is good, the decor is nice, and I got to relax while I had my car serviced across the street :)

A couple weeks later, I am headed to China…

Back in the day, I did a decent amount of globe hopping.  I like this picture of the sun setting and I am boarding a double-decker Boeing 767-600 for the long trip overseas. That leg was usually 11-12 hours.  I think this was in Detroit on that trip. 

RetroBlog 2006-10-15

The boys and I enjoyed a visit to the Air Force Museum

It was a nice way to unwind after my trip. :)

RetroBlog 2006-10-08

Heading home on a rainy night

I like the vibe here…

Kendama, LuLu, along with Christmas cookies and popcorn.  I am almost ready for my upcoming competition with Andy. :)

Getting better at hitting my heart rate zone on the bike.

It helps to have a nephew in the business. :)

All time favorite watch face?

While I was shopping in Germany, I saw this in a window.  It's just my kind of face.  A Breitling with a little of EVERYTHING, haha.  NOT my kind of price tag though.  It was going for 20,000 Euro… Over $35,000 at the time. Still pretty though!

RetroBlog 2006-09-28

Shopping in Dortmund, Germany on a random evening

RetroBlog 2006-09-28

Entirely too many giggles?

As we keep adding girls to the group, we are getting deeper and deeper in trouble.  They're banding together, laughing and probably plotting, hahaha.  It's great to see them being friends and joining in on the family fun too.

We enjoyed some family time playing games.

It was nice to play some games with those of us that could make it to my mom's party.  Always good for smiles and silliness.

Julie and I made a charcuterie tray

That and our favorite mustard sauce were out contribution to my mom's birthday dinner that Susan hosted.  It was fun to hand pick some of of favorite meats and cheeses and put them together artfully.  It was yummy too!

It was starting to get dark…

…so I headed back down the hill.  The curves and the fall leaves were pretty.

RetroBlog 2006-09-24

More beautiful German castles…

I was getting to the end of the day, so some of the sites were closing up, but I was able to hop off, climb the hill, and take a look around the outside of this one!  Hopefully, y'all can put up with me hopping all over the place from current day to 2006 and back and forth?! 

RetroBlog 2006-09-24

The “kids” are always up to something silly…!

Not so much kids any more.  We were commenting that instead of a separate "kids table" at our parties that it's become the adult table and a separate old folks table, hahaha!

We even managed to get at least one serious picture too. ;)

The Queen Bee and her drones. ;)

We all celebrated my mom’s birthday last night!

It was good to get together for the usual food, laughter, presents and fun!  Susan organized a commissioned painting of our Busy B Acres homestead.  We all chipped in and also contributed the various pictures so the artist could capture it properly.  How fun.  

You’re not doing planks right…

…if you don't have a gooey dog stuffy dripping of your head… Zoe LOVES to "help" with my exercises…

Exercise, antiques, and the dog…

I still use the cuff holders that my Grandpa used on his bike from the 1930 era!  You can see one of them hanging off my seat just behind the reflector.  They are easy on/off.  Much more so than the modern version which is the yellow nylon/Velcro strap you can see in the pic on the left.  The old ones are comfortable, easy to use, and do a great job of keeping my pants out of the chain.  While you're at it, notice the gear ratios on this back.  How much bigger the rear sprockets are than the front.  That means lots of power.  1.5x multiplier to be exact.  It's such a low gear, that you almost can't pedal on flat ground, because there's nothing to push against, haha!

One the right, you can see how I rigged up a short leash to attach Zoe to.  That way, she stays close, stays out of the way, and still has fun jogging along with me.  I attach her bungie leash to that we off we go! :)

 

One more shot of the castle before I hopped on the next boat :)

RetroBlog 2006-09-24

And here is an artist rendition of the remains to give you a perspective of what the whole thing looked like:

Andy and I ventured out for “breakfast” at noon.

What else is there to do when you're hungry after a workout and church is closed on a Sunday :)

Of course Andy had to stack the creamers for old time's sake!

I like this picture of Hasty Tasty from their google page!

It’s oddly satisfying to watch the snow plows

Snowcicles hanging down through holes in the barn light’s shade.

Have you ever seen a snowcicle?

 Better yet? Have you ever seen a snowcicle fall? 

Quite a change of scenery from the day before…

We got 8 inches of snow overnight and a total of 9.4" yesterday.  So, what do you do?  Get out in it and get a bike ride in!  Zoe loved it.  You can see her here sitting by my bike while I take a break for a pic.  :) She toggled between bounding along at full speed or snow-plowing the whole way with her snout!  She's too cute, and the ride was a little more fun, and challenging than normal.  In spite of slipping around on a couple turns, I didn't even wreck out! 

My fitness advisor nephew was even happy with my heart rate workout and recovery :)