Wednesday

All Baylee's curriculum came in the mail yesterday, so, since I already got the school supplies like paper, pens, folders, etc. the other day, we're ready to go. We'll start on September 4th, the day after Labor Day.*

One of the things that came in the package of school books was a...not sure what to call it...list, I guess, of every class Baylee will have taken by the time she graduates at the end of this year. Looking at it made me realize she's been on an honors track. I guess I kinda knew that in the back of my mind, but seeing it all on paper was gratifying. She has taken a lot of tough classes and done well.

Tomorrow is the century ride!!! What if I can't make it? Ugh, I'm excited, but I'm getting nervous. Mike's been telling me to prepare myself for hills, but the woman who did the write-up on the route says, and I exactly quote, "This would be a great first century for anyone with minimal elevation gain." But then later she shows this picture with the caption, "104.4 miles with 2731′ of elevation gain."

So...who's right? Are there a lot of hills or not? Is it gonna be hellish or no big deal? I'll find out, I guess. PS: It's an out-and-back route, which is why that picture looks like a mirror image.

Two things are happening around here pet-wise:

1.  Cooper has the worst smelling poop ever in the history of cats. I don't know if it's his age or the fact that he'll only eat wet cat food now or what, but dang. It's like going in an outhouse and jumping down into the hole.

2.  Gibbs has suddenly started supplementing his own diet with Cooper's poop. If we don't get it out of the litter box immediately, Gibbs will eat it. It doesn't matter that the poop has litter coating it; he doesn't care. Awhile back I said that Gibbs has three good points: He's cute, he's nice, and he doesn't eat poop. Well, scratch that and make it two good points. 


*By the way, September 4th is also the day Baylee starts driver's ed. There are different ways you can schedule it. You can choose to go once a week, but then it lasts forever, or you can go a few times a week and get it over with faster. She chose to go 3 times a week, meaning she'll be finished in a month.

Tuesday

I'm getting so excited about the 100-mile ride, despite the fact that it's supposed to be cold and raining on Thursday. I'm just hyped! Man, though, I hope after all the build-up I don't fail somehow.

Speaking of things going wrong on rides, I found something that's really hard to do with only 9 fingers: cut a bagel. You should've seen the mess I made of it yesterday. Otherwise I'm getting pretty good at not using the pointer finger of my left hand.  PS:   Opening child-proof pill bottles and bags of chips is hard, too.

Weird French Thing of the Day:  The French phrase for "window shopping" is "lèche-vitrine." That literally means "to lick the showcase." Basically it's saying that you want something badly, but you can't afford it, so you're standing in front of the store, licking the window.

Okay, One More Odd French Thing:  The letter "y" in French is pronounced /ee grek/. What I mean by that is if you were to say the alphabet in French, when you got to "y" you'd say /ee grek/. That literally means "greek i." Weird, huh?

Monday

I make myself listen to at least one episode of the Coffee Break French podcast every day and do at least one lesson of Babbel French. Neither of those things takes very long, so it's a very doable goal. I like both, but the podcast is my favorite, because it's more laid back. All I have to do is listen.

Today's episode was about how to handle problems that might come up in French hotels, like the room being too small, too hot, too cold, or lacking in toilet paper. By the way, "toilet paper" in French is "le papier hygiénique" (hygienic paper). I didn't know that before.

The century ride is coming up in just a few days. Mike and I are doing it on Thursday, because that's when it works out best for our schedule. It's just strange, because 14 weeks ago I could barely imagine completing a metric century (62 miles), let alone an actual 100 miles. Here we are, though. Crazy.

Here's what I've come to realize over the course of training for this:  There's nothing special about me. Anybody who doesn't have major health issues could accomplish the same thing. It boils down to coming up with a plan and following through on it. That's it. And do you know what? That's such good news! It means we can all do hard things. We don't have to be athletic or super smart or extraordinary in any way. We just have to keep going and not give up.

Sunday

I had a good bike ride yesterday. The funny thing is that I didn't want to go on it at all. The weather wasn't great and I wasn't feeling it, but a 20-miler was on the schedule, so I had to.

At first I amused myself by seeing if I could have a conversation (with myself) in French about the weather.  This was me out there:

"Quel temps fait-il aujourd'hui?" (What's the weather like today?)

"Le temps est mauvais. Il fait froid et du vent, et il pleut. Je porte mon imperméable, mais maintenant je suis trop chaud." (The weather is bad. It's cold and windy, and it's raining. I'm wearing my raincoat, but now I'm too hot.)

That kept my mind occupied for awhile. Then things started to actually get interesting.

1.  I was waiting for a light at an intersection, when a guy on a bike came up to me. He had a pouch in his hand and he said, "Hey, do you have a second? I need a witness." It turned out he found that pouch on the ground, and he wanted someone with him when he opened it to see if he could figure out who it belonged to. I was like, "Uh, sure!" so we opened it together. It was filled with important stuff: cash, a driver's license, all kinds of cards of different types, and a passport. We got a name and even a picture (from the passport), and then together we decided the best thing to do would be for the guy to take the pouch to the police station, so the police could call the person (an older woman) and have her pick it up from there. So that's what happened.

2.  I saw a bald eagle from really close! It was sitting on a rock in the middle of the river next to the trail, and I was probably about 30 or 40 feet from it. When I moved to take a picture of it, though, it flew off.

3.  These geese flew over. Can you believe the noise?

4.  An elderly woman with totally white hair (but dark brown eyebrows that she drew on herself) came up to me while I was stopped for a second. She was walking her dog, and I think she was a little lonely, because she struck up a conversation. She told me about how, over the course of her life, she's owned several of a certain breed of dog called a schipperke (pronounced skipper key). It looks like this:

Pretty cute, huh? I'd never heard of them before yesterday.

Long story short, I ended up going farther than I had to.

Also, I took this picture on another ride I did during the week.

Thursday

Last week Mike took his mid-term for the class he's in right now. The way it works is he does the class on the computer, but it's live and everybody can see each other in real time, because everybody has cameras on themselves. Anyway, after Mike finished the exam the professor, a woman, said to him, "That's such a beautiful wedding ring quilt that's hanging on the wall behind you!" She was talking about a quilt we have hanging in our bedroom. lol Isn't that kinda weird? PS: I made sure to mention it to my mom, since she's the one who made the quilt. She got a kick out of it.

There have been a couple different times now that I've had the splint off and accidentally bumped my finger on something. Near death experiences, people. Holy. COW. Words fail.

Some pics I got of Baylee and Cooper yesterday:

Tuesday

Yesterday Mike and I were coming home from downtown via a street called Aurora, and, because it goes through a seedy area, we got into a discussion about how you just know when someone is a prostitute.  "They have a certain look about them," I said. "In French you'd say they have l'air de..." Then I stopped and thought about it for a second. "Oh, it's the same in both languages! They have l'air de la prostitution."

And how did I know that without ever being taught it? Because all English "tion" words come from the French language.  They're usually written pretty much exactly the same, but are just pronounced a bit differently. That one is pronounced /pro stee too see oh/.

So the moral of the story is that French is a good language to learn, because sometimes, even if you don't think you know a word, you do.

By the way, the reason we were downtown yesterday is because TMA played a show there and did a great job!

Mike, Drew, and I went to see them. We had to go early in order to drop Baylee off, so we killed time by getting food and coffee.

This was one of my favorite bits of the night. The band introduced itself in a fun way right before the end of their set.

Monday

I don't have much today, but I do have this picture of a youth group breakfast that Baylee and Rachel went to this past weekend. Baylee said that it's a really tight-knit group this year, and that's cool.

Mike and I are going to see both TMA and Cashing in Karma perform tonight in Seattle. It'll be fun! We love both those bands a lot.

Oh, I was about to end this post, but then I remembered that I'm doing a couple new things in French that I'm excited about.

1. Babbel is having a great sale (less than $5 a month for 6 months), so I bought a subscription. I like it a lot! It teaches the same sorts of things as Duolingo, but in a way that's more interesting and fun in my opinion. I think it handles grammar quite a bit better, too. Oh, and every single lesson ends with a conversation between two people that you have to participate in. (In other words, you have to help them both say what they mean to say.) That's such a good idea. It's one thing to know vocab and stuff, but it's another to use it in real life situations. Another thing I like about it is it keeps an ongoing set of flashcards for you to study based on what you've learned so far.
2. I found a podcast I love called Coffee Break French. The first season is for beginners (I'm listening to it anyway), but after that it's got different stories and conversations, all in slow, clear French. Perfect!

PS: I lost interest in this, but for awhile I was also watching a French movie on Netflix called The Chalet. It was a little too weird for me...and probably too subtle for my language abilities. I did learn one new thing from it, though: How French people say they need to go to the bathroom. One of the characters excused herself to go "faire pipi." That literally means "make peepee." Like, what??? No. No, no, no. If I ever go to France you couldn't pay me to say that.

75-Mile Ride, Baby!

I did it! Yesterday I rode for 75 miles!

There were points I didn't think I was going to make it, but I kept this quote by Churchill in mind and pressed on:

"If you're going through hell, keep going."

LOL Just kidding; it wasn't that bad. Mostly it was a ton of fun. Mike and I went together, and we included a side trip to a Dutch bakery (They had banket!) and a stop at a trail-side restaurant for fish tacos. It was an all-day project to do that ride, so the food was necessary for both strength and morale.

University of WA

the bakery

People like to kayak and paddle board in the river next to the trail. (Totally off topic, but every once in awhile my brain translates things into French for fun. "Next to the biking trail" is "à côté de la piste cyclable." I like it!)

We saw a mama deer with her two babies, which was neat. (The mom is way on the left side of the picture.)  It did cause me to think, though, about how "fawn" is such a lovely word...all the way up until you use it to name a person. Then it's redneckish.

He always looks so grumpy in pictures when we're riding together. lol He's not at all, though. He makes these rides so much more interesting and enjoyable.

random bagpiper on the bike trail

Okay, now for the main reason why I thought I might not make it:  I broke my finger on that ride. At around mile seven we came across a mud puddle. I swerved so that I wouldn’t hit it and get my legs dirty, and in doing so my tire went off the edge of the trail and I fell right into the puddle. So much for staying clean! Doh.

When it first happened I had two thoughts:  1) I broke my finger. 2) Oh my gosh, who saw that??? The reason I immediately thought it was broken was the pain was pretty bad. I had to sit in the dirt off to the side and try not to cry. Also, I felt nauseated. After about 10 minutes and a few sips of water, though, I decided I was okay enough to go on, so I did.

During the night the pain and swelling got a little crazy, so finally at 5am this morning I got up, got ready, and took myself to the emergency clinic. They did an x-ray and found there’s a hairline fracture, and they gave me a splint and a tetanus shot. (The shot was because I got kinda scraped up in a couple different spots. I don't think it was necessary, but whatever.)

Anyway, here's the progression:

right after it happened

about an hour later

early this morning

after the clinic

Friday

Last night Drew was trying to convince his dad to let him have another house key. "I tried to keep it safe! I thought if I put it on a key ring with my other keys I'd be able to keep track of it, you know? But...plot twist...I lost them all."

Today we have a reprieve from the smoke, so at least for now we're not dealing with this:

 And here's a picture of TMA that they just put up on social media. I like it.

Wednesday

Here's what's going on in Seattle right now.

There are forest fires on all sides of us, and the smoke in the air is legit bad right now. Here's a pic from a news site.

And here's one I took myself yesterday.

This morning I had to get a 15-mile ride in, so I went out in it. It was okay, but it made my eyes water something fierce. Hopefully it'll clear away by this weekend, because it would suck to have to do 75 miles in that.

PS: There were other bikers out...I wasn't the only idiot...but some of them had things on their faces. One lady had sunglasses on and then a bandana covering her nose and mouth. Others wore medical masks.

Cooper, Our Lovable Old Guy

So it's come to this:  Last night I found myself googling "diapers for cats."

Sigh. Cooper is OLD. In fact, Mike saw online recently that a 15-year-old cat is like a 73-year-old person. I did a little algebra and figured out that makes our 17-year-old cat 82.73 people years old. He's so old that unless he has immediate, unhindered access to his litter box,  he sometimes pees in whatever place makes the most sense to him. Like he peed all over an area rug in Baylee's room. He also peed in a decorative box that she kept paperwork in, on a pile of her old SoR posters, and on a drum bag. The truth is, he targets Baylee almost exclusively. I'm not sure why, as he loves her best. (Speaking of being targeted by animals, she also got pooped on by a bird the other day.)

Before we get to the diaper stage, though, we're trying something else. We've now got two litter boxes in the house, one in the laundry room and one in Baylee's room, and we're putting nightlights through the house. (Mike read that nightlights can help old cats.) We'll see if it makes a difference. I sure hope so.

PS: We're thoroughly cleaning up after him, just so you know.

Monday

This past week, the first week of training for a 100-mile ride, was pretty easy. It was a recovery week according to the schedule, so I only had two rides: a 10-mile and a 45-mile. The 10-mile was interesting, because it's the first time I've ridden (this year) in really heavy rain. In fact, by the time I got home I was splashed from head to foot with mud. The shower I took afterward felt amazing. The 45-mile was...long. I was by myself on a route I've done a bunch of times, so there wasn't much new. I was a little bored. Although I did explore a little section (about 3 miles) of a new-to-me trail called the East Sammamish River Trail. It was bordered by huge, beautiful homes with their own private beaches. One even had a pretty big golf putting green in the yard. It was an interesting trail, I guess, but...eh. I probably won't go down it again. I sort of felt like an intruder.

Pics from the 45-mile ride:

Lots of sections of the bike trail have wild blackberries growing along them.

This is not a picture of the rich people section. lol It shows the Sammamish River Trail (as opposed to the East Sammamish River trail), and it's my favorite. It's out in the country for the most part, following the river you can see on the right side. It's peaceful. PS: Many miles away, on the East Sammamish River Trail, that little river becomes a really big river.

Now this week is going to be difficult, because it includes a 75-mile ride. Gulp. That'll be my new record distance once I've finished it. 

On a different, but kinda related-in-terms-of-health note, I'm not doing intermittent fasting right now. I gave it up about a week ago...right after the 100-km ride, in fact. I just suddenly couldn't stand the thought of it anymore. I feel a little guilty, because so many people wrote to me and asked tons of questions, bought the book Delay, Don't Deny for themselves, and then started their own IF journey. I feel like I led them down a path and then abandoned them. Nevertheless, I can't make it work anymore. Possibly (probably?) the really long bike rides made it so I couldn't get enough food in my eating window. Whatever happened, I still believe in IF. I still think it's a super healthy way to eat, and when I'm done with all this long-distance riding I may very well go back to it. In the meantime, I'm trying something else that feels more doable.

Tuesday

Baylee played drums for the camp worship services...that's twice a day for each day she was there...and she enjoyed it a lot. Here's a picture (taken by John) of the worship group this year.

Speaking of Baylee and drumming, she started private lessons back up again. Here's the timeline of her drumming:

• She was in the performance program at the SoR for a few years.
• She auditioned and got into TMA, so she dropped out of the performance program, but continued to take private lessons at the SoR with her teacher, Michael Knight.
• Between shows and rehearsals and prep for tour she got overwhelmed and stopped practicing. Michael laid into her about it, and ultimately Baylee quit lessons. That was in March. (The  two of them did part on good terms, though.)
• This past Sunday she started lessons back up with Michael Knight again (totally her decision). We're making her pay for half, so I think she'll buckle down and get far.

PS: Michael's a great teacher. Even though he's a young guy, he's old-school. Remember those old lady piano teachers back in the '70s and '80s? The ones who gave you stuff to work on during the week and absolutely expected it to get done? He's like that.

Different topic: I'm really excited! This morning I found a route for my century ride in a few weeks. (It was going to be 5 weeks away, but Mike, who's going with me, asked if we could do it in 4 weeks instead, because he's taking vacation time that weekend. I think that'll be fine.) Anyway, this route is really scenic, and it's supposed to be good for 1st-time century riders, because it's not too hilly. It includes the Centennial Trail and lots of farmland in that area. The thing I'm most excited about, besides the challenge of it, is going somewhere totally new.

Update Week 10

Biking:  I did it! After 10 weeks of training, I rode a metric century yesterday.

Here's the schedule I used. The days that are boxed and connected are times I combined two rides into one. I added it all up and found out I went 538.01 miles over the whole 10 weeks.

Now I'm ready to move on to the next challenge: a 100-mile ride. I'll use this schedule...

...but pick it up on week 12. That means that, if everything goes well, I'll do a century ride in 5 weeks. Crazy!

Diet:  25 pounds lost!

PS: Look what an awful farmer's tan I have from riding all summer.

PPS: I'm not going to do the weekly diet and biking updates anymore. I'll still tell you all about both, but when I feel like it.

Saturday

One of the youth workers, John, is a photographer and always manages to capture some great pictures at camp. Here are a few with Baylee in them.

Baylee with the girls in her cabin and the two counselors

The Junior and Senior high youth group from our church and some of the youth workers.

On the last night of camp there's always a themed costume dinner. This year's theme was "Decades," which meant everyone had to pick a decade and dress that way. Here are all the hippies from the '60s. Baylee's on the far left.

Misc.

And this is when she got home.

Today Again

A Second Post for Today...

This evening I called to see how my dad is doing. He's doing well! He's home, puttering, and feeling good. In the course of that phone conversation I told my mom about the dream I had where I left Dad at Pizza Hut, but then couldn't find where I parked my car in order to go pick him up. She laughed and said, "Well, that sounds exactly like something I would do...and Lindsey. Did she ever tell you about the time Aiden was a baby and it was pouring rain, and she couldn't find her car in the mall parking lot? She had to be driven around by security."

"Really??? That same thing happened to me! I couldn't find where I parked at the mall once and had to be driven around by security, too! Oh, and get this: The security guy asked me what my license plate number was, so he could be on the lookout for it."

My mom snorted. "Yeah, as if we know that."

"Right? I told him I had no idea, so then he asked what kind of car I had. I told him it was brown."

(PS: This was a long time ago. I do know what kind of car I have now, but I still don't know the plate number.)

In other news, I'm not doing the bike ride tomorrow after all, because it doesn't work out logistically with Mike.  I'll do it Sunday instead.

Baylee had a great time at camp! It was so good to get her home and then sit in the living room and listen to her tell me about her week. I missed her a lot.

Friday

This is going to be a quick post, because today's a full day. In awhile I have to pick up the girls from camp, but I'm also picking up Bryce, the kid of some friends of ours. Todd and Kellie, our friends, have to go to the funeral of a child who went to the Christian school where Kellie teaches. The little girl was hit by a car. It's beyond devastating. Anyway, we're getting Bryce so they can do that, then this evening they'll come to our house to pick him up, and we'll all have dinner together. It'll be good to see them, even though the circumstances are sad.

After I wrote yesterday's blog post I got news that one of the tests they did on my dad came back abnormal, so they did more tests and figured out that he did, in fact, have a blockage in his heart. The put a stent in and made him stay another night, but today he'll be allowed to go home. They'll keep an eye on him, and he has to start eating a heart-healthy diet, but he should be good now. I'm so thankful.

Non-Scale Victory:  Last month this jacket didn't fit. Yesterday morning I wore it on a bike ride.

Oh yeah, and tomorrow is the EVENT, the 100km bike ride. Gulp. It's weird. I've been working toward this for 10 weeks, but now that it's here it feels like it snuck up on me. I should probably be giving it more thought than I have been. When I've read about other people who do long running or riding events, it seems like they always plan everything out. They lay out their outfit the night before and think through how they're going to fuel their body, etc. Me, though? I'm just here with my normal clothes and some peanut butter crackers. I feel sort of resigned/terrified, like a condemned person walking the Green Mile. Like, "Well, here we go. Not much I can do now."

Family

Yesterday my dad went in for a check-up, and in the course of that he mentioned to the doctor that he's been having some pressure in his chest and pain down his left arm on and off for the last couple weeks. (Face palm. Really, Dad?) Of course, the doctor took it very seriously and wanted my dad to go to the hospital immediately. He even wanted him to take an ambulance there. My dad did go to the hospital, but he refused the ambulance and drove himself. (Sigh.) Anyway, long story short, they've done some initial tests, and Dad's heart seems to be in good health. Now they think it might be caused by some medication he's on. They're still trying to figure it out, and I'll hear more from my mom later today.

In the meantime, though, I had a conversation with my mom yesterday afternoon and one with my sister this morning. Both of them complained to me about something that happened between the two of them, and neither of them know that I heard the story from the other one. I'm secretly laughing about it.

See, my parents only have one car, and my dad had it at the hospital with him, so my sister gave my mom a ride over there. When I talked to my mom she said that Lindsey drove like a maniac, and that she's never riding with her again. I commiserated, because the truth is my sister does drive a bit like a maniac. Then this morning Lindsey and I had this text conversation:

Lin:  FYI, don't ever drive mom somewhere in an emergency. She made me just about shart...twice.

Me:  [laughing emoji] Poor thing. I can imagine.

Lin:  It felt like driving with my permit times a million.

Me:  Oh, girl. Why do you think it took me so long to get my license? She was the worst.

Lin:  Haha! Dad was like, "Yeah, you should probably slow down here..." Mom was like, "OH GOSH!"

Me:  The arm across your chest.

Lin:  Grabbing the dashboard.

Me:  Pressing the invisible brake on her side.

Lin:  Yep.

Me:  Mom finally had to just let me go out and learn by myself. Literally, she finally had to trust God that it was better without her in the car than with her.    



PS:  I'll let you know about my dad.

PPS:  Hopefully my mom and sister won't read this.

B's Senior Year

Yesterday I made the first payment to Baylee's school.  For her senior year she'll be taking:

• British Literature
• Civics (one semester)
• Economics (one semester)
• Health (one semester)
• Algebra 2 (Err...We sorta didn't finish this last year, so now we have to complete it this year, along with doing Precalc. Doh. Not my finest moment as a homeschool mom, but she was so busy it was difficult to get it all done. This year I'm going to force her to slow down.)
• Precalculus
• Music

Luckily we have another month yet before we have to start.