I get by with a little help from my friends...

What would you think if I sang out of tune,
Would you stand up and walk out on me.
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song,
And I'll try not to sing out of key.
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mmm,I get high with a little help from my friends,
Mmm, I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends.

That's what I've been doing for months, whilst not blogging. Hanging out with my friends and family (which are included in the friends category as well). More details you want? Well let's go in reverse chronology because that's the way my memory seems to work... if it works at all. : )

This week I finally went with Mom, Dad and Ben to the ASTA conference in Chicago. Mom and Dad have been going longer than I've been alive and I've never been although I've been asked many times. Mom and I got pedicures and did a bit of the Magnificent Mile. Very fun time and as we were walking back from our shopping on Wednesday afternoon the snowflakes were huge and beautiful.

Last Sunday we had a super fun day with the family. Mom, Dad, Dana, Scott, Suzzy and family came over to our house and then we went to get Christmas trees together! So much fun! We arrived back at our house after snowball fights and 3 trees chopped down to have soup and bread. The amazing soups included Carrot & Squash Ginger soup, Turkey Barley Vegetable and White Chicken Chili. Delicious!! Mike got the tree in the stand this week and I think tonight we will do some decorating.

Last Saturday we had a baby shower/diaper party for Zach and Sarah Stewart. Both were very nice and then we scooted into EL for a birthday dinner for Nate. It was really nice getting together with everyone. We ate at the new hot restaurant in town, Enso, and I will say that it was good, but I think not quite worth the money. I'm not sure if it is the result of a packed house and a kitchen and staff stretched thin... but it definitely won't be a place we return to for dinner anytime soon.

Thanksgiving was a super fun trip to Ohio. Mike's family are all wonderful and they can cook great too! Dinner at Aunt Donna and Uncle Ron's was delicious. We continued my much treasured traditions of the pottery lottery and the thankful napkins. I was delighted to write on my napkin that I was thankful to spend the weekend in Ohio with family and I got 2 gorgeous bowls in the lottery. Aunt Debbie is so talented! We even turned the family onto geocaching and we went caching after dinner. We found two caches with the whole family and it was sooooo much fun! We did some projects around Mom & Dad's house and we also did some more caching in Columbus. It was great fun. We also had a bit of a strange, but good outing on Saturday. We had Mike's 10 year High School Reunion. It was certainly a different experience for me because so many of my high school commrades still live close to us and still are in contact with each other. Maybe it's the differnce of growing up in a small town vs Columbus. It was still strange to meet lots of people who Mike went to school with, especially because I had only ever met one until that evening. It was at a pretty cool location in the Arena District and we had a good time.

DALMAC - Part 2

Day 3

Day 3 our trip was from Lake City to Boyne City and it was 92 miles. Day 3 was the day we began to hurt. This was certainly the most challenging day we faced. My knee began to hurt, Samone hurt all over and Mike's toosh was starting to get sore as well. The ride was very rewarding though, for all of the hurting it did. We had lots of big uphills and just as many big downhills. On two occasions we went through huge long chutes that were exhilarating and beautiful. The scenery was great all day. We passed several lakes and traversed lots of wooded backroads. Samone was very ill feeling in the morning and I was worried that our SAG may have to come pick her up. I'm very proud to say that she toughed through it and was feeling considerably better by the time we took our lunch break. I'm pretty sure her illness was due to dehydration from the day before. I began pushing liquids on her like a crazy person when she began feeling ill and it helped tremendously. This day also included the dreaded "Wall". I read someplace that it is like a 24% grade. Let me illustrate... that means that over 1 mile the hill drops 1,267 ft. I also found this on a biking website and it seems to ring true:

What does this "grade" number mean?

• 0% grade is exactly flat (and a negative grade, less then zero, is downhill).

• 2% grade does not seem very steep, but it's enough to substantially reduce forward speed, and for most riders it will absorb more than half their power output.

• 6% grade is enough to cut speed to well under half, and absorb more than 80% of a rider's power output (leaving less than 20% to fight air resistance and rolling friction).

• 10% grade, and anyone who is not a fit and frequent rider is off their bike walking -- and anyone who is not a racer is reaching for all the extra power they've got.

Hmm... Seems pretty accurate to me! Samone and I made it about half way. I think we both could have went a bit farther but I had two problems. I was absolutely terrified of A. the hill (it freaked me out) and B. the fact that my feet were clipped to my pedals and there was the possibility that I would get going so slow that I wouldn't be able to get my feet out and I would fall flat on my face. So I slowed wayyyyy down because of the hill steepness and ended up quitting earlier than needed because I was scared of spiking my face on the pavement. Samone unfortunately was right behind me and had no choice to stop as well because I was blocking her. Mike on the other hand went all the way up and sat down the whole way (not to be macho, but because he geared down too far and couldn't stand up). It was hard to even walk up the hill after we got off our bikes! We were so releived to be done with the Wall that we underestimated the 10 miles we had left. It was a very hard day! We were so happy to get to the RV and the nicest high school we stayed at on the trip. That night we were all aching and sleepy. Mike and I ventured on foot into Boyne and found some ice cream/sorbet while the SAG crew and Samone went to Traverse for a visit with Mom, Dad and the Swansons.

Day 4

Day 4. Why do we look so excited in the picture? Because we made it to the final day! We were up and out about 7:15am and we were excited that it was only a 70-some mile day to Mackinaw. It was an awful wake-up climbing out of Boyne City. Big hills to get out of Boyne and I went from chilly to sweating in about 15 minutes. My knee was still bothering me to no end, but I was hoping that it would subside. The final day was a very pretty one. We rode along all kinds of lakes, including Lake Michigan. It was pretty. My knee unfortunately, someplace in the tunnel of trees, took a turn for the worse. I was trying very hard not to cry. It was extremely painful at every pedal. We stopped for a break and a kind fella taped me up to try to help. At our lunch break I took drugs and on we went. All of us were pretty uncomfortable in our seats. Our bumms had had enough! It certainly wasn't our best pace day. I was having a hard time keeping up. Again, someplace in Wilderness State Park I had to stop because of pain. Some lady (read angel) was breaking there as well and offered to rub my knee for me. I was crying by now because it hurt so bad, but the "angel's" knee rub helped. I was able to make it the rest of the way, plus one more stop and another knee rub by Mike. We were all so excited to ride into Mackinaw HS and we had quite the welcoming committee when we arrived. I can't even describe how great of a feeling it was to hear them hollering for us; Mom & Dad; Suzzy, Scott, Joey and Lisa; Scott's sister and brother-in-law and Stephen and Ashley; and Scott's mom & dad - 12 people!

WE DID IT! 323 miles in 4 days. What an adventure!

Riding into Mackinaw HS

DALMAC - Part 1

I said I would write it and I wasn't lying. Here is a narrative of our extremely challenging and rewarding bike tour from East Lansing to the Mackinaw Bridge.

The beginning is always a good place to start and so there we shall start. For anyone who doesn't know, I take my niece and nephews on a trip every year. We call them the Auntie-Niece and Auntie-Nephew trips. I let the kids pick where they want to go.One day last fall I got a phone call from Samone while I was at work.

She said, "Aunt Becki, I know what I want to do for my trip next year..."
I said, "OK, what do you want to do?"

She then informed me that she wanted to do the DALMAC. I'm pretty sure my response began with, "Do you know that it's like 400 miles on a bike?!" and it was followed shortly with, "Ummm, I guess I need to buy a bike..." So this is how it began.

Samone decided that Uncle Mike could join the Auntie-Niece trip as well and we all bought bikes. Shortly after beginning training, we all bought padded bike shorts. Very needed. We trained for about 2 months and we rode about 700 miles in our preparation. I began to feel pretty comfortable on a bike. This was pretty dramatic for me because when Samone suggested this trip I could barely ride by myself, let alone with people without fearing I/we were going to crash! Training went well and we bought all kinds of things to prepare for the ride. We had spare tires, tubes, electrolyte chews, a bike pump, etc. And then, whether we were ready or not... it was time to go.

We drove Charlie's truck into the MSU Pavilion early Thursday morning with all three of our bikes and plans to meet up with Suzzy and Lisa (German exchange student) for lunch at our house because the route went within 2 miles of our house. We got someone to take a picture of us all before we took off, but it wasn't a great picture as you can see.

Day 1

Day 1 was great. We took off about 8am. We were so excited to be on our way and the lunch stop at home with grilled pizzas was delicious. It was mostly flat from East Lansing to our first overnight stop in Vestaburg and a pretty easy 73 mile day. We were into Vestaburg by 2pm or so and Suzzy, Scott and Lisa (our awesome SAG support that were driving an RV for us to sleep in) weren't even there yet! We beat our support vehicle to the 1st stop! We had a nice relaxing evening getting settled into the RV together and making adjustments here and there after our first real day of riding. Mike, Scott and the girls went to the football game while Suzzy and I had dinner and relaxed in the RV.

Day 2

Day 2 started about 7:45am. We were trying to get on the road earlier, but suddenly it was 7:30 and we knew we needed to get going. This was going to be our first test day. We had 89 miles to go and we were a bit intimidated by it. We headed out of Vestaburg and then we had our first unplanned stop. Samone was riding along and a car that drove by startled her. She went off the road a bit and got a flat tire. We were headed downhill, so she had to shout ahead to me of her problem and I in turn had to shout ahead to get Mike to stop. Mike pulled out all of the supplies that we had spent hundreds of dollars on for this very instance and we discovered we had a problem. The spare tube that fit Samone's tires was not on any of our bikes. Whoops! So we called SAG support-Scott and he lept into action. He headed out of town towards us with the tube and we began pulling things apart to see what we could do in the mean time. We had some patches and by the time Scott arrived we already had it patched and Mike was putting the tire back together. We decided to ride the patch and see how far it got us (foreshadowing.. Man I'm quite the writer, lol.). Off we went patched and feeling good about surviving our first breakdown.

The day continued and was very challenging. The last 10 to 20 miles of all of the days seemed like they took hours and hours and hours to complete. It was of course in these last few miles, when we were all exhausted and excited to rest that we had our second unscheduled stop. Approximately 1 1/2 to 2 miles outside of Lake City, Samone's tire patches gave out. Sweaty, dirty and exhausted we stopped to fix the flat. My suggestion of trying to fill it with air and riding it soft into town was a no-go. It wouldn't even hold air for 20 feet, let alone 2 miles. This time we had the replacement tube that fit and Mike expertly changed it out. We rode into Lake City to finish our day. We were relieved to be off our bikes, looking forward to Suzzy's cooking and a shower, after completing our longest ride yet.

To Be Continued...

Down on the Farm

Guinness getting his first bath.

I've been working hard this week on projects. Most of my immediate projects are focused on the cold weather coming. Because it's going to be here before I know it! Last night was an annual bath for the goats and a thorough pen cleaning. Being gone and having friends do chores for us, two things happen. First, the goats are inside (not in the pasture) and that makes more waste on the floor for me to clean up, in comparison to when we're home. Secondly, our fantastic friends (I mean it. All who help us are amazing!!) that take care of our animals while we are away, do not clean barns. Not that I would ever expect them to, but it means when we are gone weekend after weekend... it just piles higher. Ugh.

Cleaning the barn.

All of the goats, except Pepsi, did not enjoy their bath. The two little ones, Tui and Guinness, wanted nothing to do with it. Bell I thought would be a bit calmer, but I ended up chasing her around the clothesline and almost falling many times. Pepsi, is my wonderful and calm goat. She chilled out and even gave me some kisses while getting her bath. What a sweetie!

Pepsi and I at bath time.

The big project this weekend, if we can avoid the rain, is the chicken coop. I would be ecstatic if Mike and I could get the remaining construction done so that I can get it painted, all the goodies installed and the chicken run up in the next week or so. I am going to need several weeks to get the small red barn cleaned out from the chickens and ready for the goats to live in again. I cannot wait to get some of these things done. It will make life for us, the goats and the chickens so much better!

Tuesday.

09/12/09 Bonfire picture from Nick's surprise birthday party in North Ridgeville, OH.

I'm not feeling creative and "Tuesday" is all I could come up with for a header for this entry. Not very exciting, I know.

But, we have as always been doing lots of exciting things and maybe that is why I can't muster some exciting heading. I've already used up so much excitement in doing. Last weekend was a treat for both Mike and I. He was gone golfing and I did a great many things with friends. Then we got to spend time together on Sunday. I had a super fun slumber party with Denise after my all night kitchen bonanza on Wednesday. We stayed up until 2 something and talked and talked and talked. What about? I have no idea. We just hadn't seen each other in such a long time and we had lots of stories for each other. Friday, I got some drinks and did birthday shopping with Stephenie after work and then I drove to Chris & Nicolette's for a bonfire. It was a nice night. Saturday morning I slept in, went to the farmers market, went to a Pampered Chef party, visited Mom at the winery, went shopping with Suzzy and then out for dinner and drinks with Suzzy and Lexie. Quite the day! Maybe that's why most of Sunday Mike and I just vegged out together. We did go to Suzzy & Scott's Sunday afternoon for birthday celebrations of Samone and Lisa. But, otherwise we hung out watching movies and random TV on our very comfortable sofa. On a the birthday topic, Lisa's favorite American food, just like Felipe, is cookies. So, Mike made cookies for part of her birthday present. Seriously, they were the most delicious chocolate chip cookies he has ever made.

***Little known fact. Around our house, I am not the pastry chef. I may be the head chef and even the bread baker, but I do not have the propensity for the baking of sweet things. I very much like to eat them, but they take a real concentration, commitment and some exact measurements to make... and these things are not virtues I posses, currently. (I kinda like to fly by the seat of my pants, whilst in the kitchen.) So, Mike is the official pastry chef around our house and he can make a killer cookie!*****

Last night I got a good deal done around the house and I am planning on more of the same this evening. I made an area in the barn for the storage of car cleaning items and I removed the two months worth of bug guts from my now shiny new car. I need to get some wax and a few other things to help me maintain the Forester, but I'm happy with the progress I made last night! I also have plans to get some yard work done before the frosts come and that means I need to get my rear in gear. There are a couple of trees I'd like to plant and a couple of planters I'd like to build. We shall see what I can achieve in the coming weeks.

Marathon Over...

I've been trying to catch up from the chaos that has been the last 2 months. Mike and I, as of this weekend, have been gone for 7 weeks straight with two exceptions. One weekend we were home and Mike's parents were visiting and this weekend I am home and Mike is gone. Craziness... Amidst all of the things we've done, we succeeded at the DALMAC. It was absolutely exhilarating and we are all in favor of repeating the journey next year. But maybe on a different route. The east route rather than the west. A full narrative is yet to come.

Mike left yesterday to go on his annual golf vacation with some of his college buddies. I took full advantage of it and lingered in the kitchen all night. It was wonderful. It's amazing how I am at my most relaxed in my kitchen. I took the wonderful cookbook that Kate got me for Christmas, The Silver Palette Cookbook, and opened it up randomly. I landed on a White Bean and Sausage Soup. It's delicious. I'm still licking my lips after eating a bit more of it for lunch today. I will say that it was a little arduous for a normal weeknight. This may be something more for a lazy Saturday or a Sunday early evening meal. But, seeing as Mike wasn't home professing how hungry he was and hurrying me along, I took my time and made the soup to recipe. I was also making ice cream and cleaning the kitchen at the same time. I cleaned and organized my freezer upstairs and when I looked into it this morning... it made me smile. I love when all the frozen food products are organized by type and placed on the shelves accordingly. I took some things to the chest freezer and brought some things back up. It will be nice not to have to run downstairs to find something when I would like to have it defrosting already. Ice cream making was an absolute success and I needed it after a certain incident...

Well there were actually two incidents, that I had the last time I was making ice cream. We won't get into the details, but it has to do with trying to be an over-achiever and Walker proclaimed that I was very angry after said incidents. A lesson that I oft learn, I need to focus more! Regardless, the mint chocolate chip on special request from my lady Sagemans looks gorgeous and is very tasty too. I made chocolate in a gelato style and added in some chocolate chunks before going into the deep freeze. Since quality control is very important, I tested it as well and it was great. The one thing I forgot was to strain the mint chocolate chip. I distracted myself by wanting to make sure I got it into the ice cream maker asap and left out that important step. Hopefully, it won't be a fatal mistake. I had a caramel once that I didn't strain and definitely regretted.

Today, I'm enamored with ice cream and absolutely was drooling when I found David Lebovitz's blog, while searching for interesting ice cream recipes. I think I covet his job/life currently. I know it is a sin to covet, but seriously?? Living in France, Paris to be exact... testing recipes, writing recipes and cookbooks... milling about the countryside eating with friends. Dreamy... Oh crap, I'm realizing now that I've spent way too much time dreaming about cooking and I better wake up from my fantasies and get back to work on real estate!! Ugh.

Maybe his life isn't that terrific really...

Who am I kidding? It's the image I have in my dreams and I like that image. I'm going to continue to pretend that life really is perfectly dreamy like that for someone and could be one day for me too...

Lovely Weekend. Now Time to Get Ready for the Big Show.

Well, I got the house back into one piece by the time Mike's parents arrived on Friday night. I was also excited to have Walker come over and spend the night, since school starts soon and I won't see him very much. Walker makes me smile and laugh so much. For such a serious young man, he certainly likes to enjoy himself. Mike & Diane visiting was a treat as we haven't seen them that much this summer. We are going to go to Ohio the weekend after Labor Day for a super quick trip to say hello, so we'll be seeing them a couple of times in a short period. We had a nice day on Saturday, we visited the Farmers Market, the Charm Shop and then took a trip into Threadbare Fiber Arts Studio. Momma Keenan has been wanting to check out the store for quite a while now and I was excited to surprise her with a trip there. The boys tagged along and weren't as enamoured with the knitting shop as we were. It was great fun. We tried very hard to find an argyle sweater pattern for Christy to no avail. But we did pick up some yarn and a snazzy pattern for some fingerless gloves for me and various other yarn goodies! Saturday evening we had a great dinner with my Mom & Dad, the Keenan's and Walker. Walker told me earlier that day that he wanted to stay at my house because it was fun. Alas, I told him that he had to go home that evening. But, it is my goal to make Auntie Becki's house fun all of the time, so that was a big pat on the back for me!! Sunday morning we took a 35 mile bike ride. It was Samone, Mike, Momma Keenan and I. We rode from MSU, down the River Walk through Lansing and then back to our house. It was actually one of the most challenging rides I've done yet!! My bike seat loosened and my rear-end was killing me and we were riding into an extremely strong headwind the entire time!! We stopped in DeWitt for a snack at the nicest park though and we still had a great time despite the difficulty of the ride.

Now it's time to get ready for the big show. DAL MAC is right around the corner. We will begin in East Lansing on Thursday morning and travel 317 miles over 4 days to the Mackinaw Bridge. Sunday and yesterday we went to various sporting goods stores collecting the odds and ends we didn't yet have for the ride. Tire patch kits, tire tubes, etc etc... Suzzy is planning the food and we will pack up the RV on Wednesday night with all of our clothes and whatnots. I'm pretty excited to be doing such a big ride, considering that last year at this time I didn't even feel that safe on a bike. Now it seems connected to my bottom end! I think Mike, Samone and I are going to have a fantastic time. I'm looking forward to see what we run into along the way. (For Samone, what kind of animal she might run into!! Heh.) Wish us luck and good health - Mackinaw Bridge here we come!