Visual Oxymoron?

I’m pretty sure I saw an oxymoron this morning while driving to work.

It was a vanity plate.

It said:

“2 CLASY”

What do you think?

First Biking Update

Friday night I hurried home and put myself together to go out on my first bike ride in almost 2 years. I dusted off the camelbak, unearthed my bike shorts and brushed off my helmet and headed out right after work.

It wasn't too tough but it wasn't easy either. There were several hills to climb and I had to dig deep to get up a few of them. I thought my heart might beat right out of my chest!

I rode 6 miles in 50 minutes and I was tired. In my mind that isn't good enough to do this 20 mile ride in 2 weeks.

So what I'm going to do now is ride more this week and see how I feel about it by the end of the week.

Regardless, I'm glad I'm riding again and it is nice to have a goal to work towards.

The Cowtown Classic

Call me crazy if you want but just today I decided to see if I can do the shortest distance in the Cowtown Classic this year. Its 20 miles. I haven't been on my bike in at least a year. The ride is 2 1/2 weeks away.

I spent a few minutes looking at the info on the website, printed the cue and route maps along with the registration form. Then I ran to Target and picked up a Bike Computer. I've been wanting one anyway as I anticipate bike riding will commence this fall when the weather cools. We live too close to a NICE trail to not be riding.

Anyway, so over the next couple of weeks I'll see how far I can ride without too much trouble to gauge if I can even pull off a 20 mile ride in this short of a time.

I think I can. Actually I know I can so really the question is, can I do it and still enjoy it. That's the part I think I can do.

We'll see. I'll update how my first ride goes soon.

Feeling Accomplished

Wow I got a lot done this weekend. Alas there are no pretty pictures this time.

It is all a blur really, I can't remember everything exactly how it happened but the weekend felt long and although I got a lot done I also felt like I had plenty of time to relax and goof off, which I did as well.

Firstly, Honey and I were able to get some regular maintenance things done. The whole house was swept or vacuumed, the dishes were done and some laundry was taken care of. I even washed the dog blanket and the dogs! They got their nails clipped too. Milo doesn't like it but he holds still for me but Mina hates it. The poor thing is terrified so we wrapped her in a towel and Honey held her while I clipped as quickly as possible.

She also killed another squirrel and brought it into the house while we were out grocery shopping. She was barking at it wildly and it hit me funny that she was in the house, barking her head off at a dead squirrel. We also picked up a stray dog and brought him home. It was a little Scottie dog who turned out to be named Bogie. My Aunt and Uncle (they live next door) found his owner while we were off shopping.

I was able to finally get my winter clothes washed and put away for the summer. You may think it is a little too late for that, and although they could have easily gone into storage several months ago, they'll be in there several months still before it cools off again. The laundry process isn't finished. I need to de-wrinkle all the clean warm weather clothes and put them away properly. I think laundry is the bane of my existence.

On Saturday I mowed the front and back yards and Honey edged the driveway. He had gone to get his haircut and jumped in on the lawn maintenance action when he returned.

Yesterday I finished my plans for cleaning up the backyard. Due to the hot summer weather we've had some leaves falling and the yard actually needed to be raked! I was happy the temperature was cool because raking in mid August is just ridiculous. After that I got the hoe and rearranged the dirt around all the holes the dogs have dug. By rearrange I mean I turned the mounds around the holes back into the holes to fill them and level out the ground as best as I could. It isn't perfect, but it is better. I think we'd have to bring in a tiller to level the whole yard now. I'm sure they'll dig more, but the old holes are now filled instead of hidden by tall grass. It's dangerous out there!

After that I went into the shed to get the spreader to spread some grass seed in the bare places but was sidetracked by the messy shed. So I also cleaned and organized the shed as it had gotten cluttered and out of control. Just as I was finishing it started to sprinkle so I grabbed the spreader and got the grass seed down quickly. Perfect timing!

Before all of the hole filling but after the raking I also paved a 72"x24" area with bricks and pavers for our garbage, recycle and yard trash bins. The 3 pavers that were there were used as part of the expanding porch project but we didn't want those bins to sit on the bare ground, plus we had a surplus of free bricks to use so I made a new spot for the bins to sit.

Somewhere in all of this I managed to watch about 6 hours of TV and play World of Warcraft for a few hours as well.

It feels really good to get so much done.

Making Plain Bagels

I work with some people who are from the New England area. When they first arrived they used to go on and on about how much better things were up there than down here. One of the things they've still not gotten used to are the bagels. Apparently bagels from the north are much better than this "hard round bread" we make down here.

So one of these guys comes back from PA last week and in hand he has some northern bagels. He says to me "Hey, come try this." So I did. They were right. Northern bagels are really good. I've never been a big bagel eater anyway, so I've never been offended nor do I care to say that southern bagels are crap beacause compared, they are.

Then I had the idea that maybe I could make good bagels too. So I did a little searching and came up with some recipes to try and set to the task this past Tuesday evening. This is what I came up with.

Step 1

Dissolve 2 1/4 tsp of active dry yeast in 1 1/2 cups of warm water in a large bowl.

Step 2

Add 2 Tbsp of granulated sugar, 1/2 tsp of salt and 4 1/4 cups of flour the stir to form a soft dough.

Step 3

Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured board and knead until it is smooth. It takes about 10 minutes. (This photo was taken after about 7 minutes of kneading. The initial consistency is more dry and broken apart, just keep at it.)

Step 4

Cover the dough with a lint-free towel and allow to rise for 15 minutes.

Step 5

Flatten the dough, then roll it out to a thickness of one inch, and about 12 inches long and 6 inches wide. Cut it into strips 12 inches long and one inch wide.

Step 6

Roll the strip between your hands into a cylinder about one-half inch thick.

Step 7

Cut each cylinder in half crosswise so you have 12, 6 inch pieces.

Step 8

Form each 6 inch piece into a ring, and fold one end over the other pinching it tight to form circles.

Step 9

Cover the bagels again with a towel and allow to rise for 20 minutes.

Step 10

Place the bagels, four at a time, into 16 cups of boiling water.

Step 11

Reduce the heat and simmer for 7 minutes. I turned the bagels over about halfway through the simmering.

Step 12

Remove the bagels and drain well.

Step 13

Place them on baking sheets.

Step 14

Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown in a preheated 375° oven.

Step 15

15 minutes through the baking.

Step 16

Voila!
They're not half bad. They aren't northern bagels though and the only thing that makes them southern are the fact that they were baked from scratch in my Texas kitchen by myself who is born and raised Texan.

So whatever, they're good. I can't impress my work friends with them though I'm sure, but they're feeding me and my honey well enough this week and that's good enough for me.

Saturday

Developers have bought several lots and old houses in our neighborhood and plan to demolish them and build brand new "better" homes. 2 of those houses have already been demolished, one of which sits right behind our house. Since they've torn that house down we've had a clear view of the main, busiest road that runs through the neighborhood. That clear view of so much activity has set our little Mina to barking. A lot apparently.

So we were informed of this, since we don't hear it much being gone all day, and a suggestion was made to put up a fence. We pondered the idea and decided, "Yea, we don't much like seeing that traffic either, and we certainly don't want a building crew to see all of our backyard business plus we of course don't want to bother our neighbors with our little barking dog."

The suggestion also came with information about cheap bamboo fencing that would easily be installed against our existing chain link fence. So we setout yesterday to acquire said fencing and the work commenced.

Most of the work involved clearing all of the English Ivy and Honeysuckle off of the existing fence, not to mention other sundry plants.

We did most of the clearing in the morning and then I got a wild hair and drug us out there at 5pm to start putting up the fence.







We put up the first section and took a step back to see how it looked and to see if you could see through it easily. We were disappointed to notice that yes, you can see straight through it as if it weren't even there. So the whole reason we bought the damn thing in the first place was immediately thwarted.

However, we decided we liked the way it looked, so we continued the installation. The 4th section is much longer than we need to finish the length of the fence so our plan is to cut the remainder off and then in half to install a second layer across the bottom. That should help and prevent Mina from seeing through. We may back that second layer with a more opaque material to make sure she can't see through.

Regardless, we're happy with the fence. We think it looks cleaner and eventually we hope that the English Ivy will grow back and cover it more fully so we'll have more of a plant life fence than a blank bamboo fence.

A Cool August Day

When I went outside for lunch I thought, "Oh it's kind of cool today." When I was able, I checked the temprature and found it was 96°.

That's pretty bad when you feel "cool" at 96°.

It is nice, regardless. Now for more rain!