Wednesday, May 06, 2009

If today were a weekend

This morning when I was supposed to be sitting in my office chair but was actually sitting on the 223 couch reading a magazine, I was thinking about the things I would rather do today than work.
  • Go to the library and read MANY magazines
  • Read a book
  • Ride my bike
  • Get my rear derailleur re-aligned (was going to do this before work but was discouraged by the rain)
  • Buy a rear fender
  • Put rear fender on bike
  • Learn to make sushi
  • Eat poorly made sushi (reference above bullet)
  • Start planning a new vacation
  • Devise a plan on how to start dating Wolverine
  • Watch online episodes of "Deadliest Warrior"
  • Purchase groceries that aren't candy or cereal
  • Rent and watch the three X-Men movies (research for Wolverine goal)
  • Destroy the funny blisters on my finger (I did this at work anyway)
  • Fill a deep bathtub with water
  • Sit in deep bathtub that had been filled with water
  • Feel guilty about wasting water
  • Devise a strategy to change the rainy forecast for the next few days
  • Get a tan, through sheer will powering and mental determination
  • Develop some sort of skill that will allow me to be cast in Cirque du Soleil
There is a huge possibility that I would not be able to complete this list all in one day.

On Monday night I went for my first "big" bike ride of the year (big being more than 20ish km). I went with people much fast than me. I was absolutely exhausted afterwards. Including my short commute to work and home, I biked about 50 km that day. Nothing excessive, but whoa, I didn't quite expect it to hit me that hard. The 'official' ride of my day started from Stratford and went to Cherry Valley. I borrowed a lovely road bike from Cycling PEI and went to their "beginners" road ride. I guess beginner is a very broad term as I'm pretty sure I was the only beginner/newbie. That being said, everyone was super friendly, nice, and encouraging and I look forward to the next ride!

The ride to Cherry Valley actually went over quite well. The ride back... mostly well! There was one point going up what seemed to be the Biggeset Hill on Planet PEI that I may had gotten off the bike and walked up the hill had no one been around. Big hill + head wind = Weakened Jennifer. I felt so jittery when I got off the bike after the ride. I'm not used to the odd vibrations of road bikes - the senseation of someone rattling all your bones. Riding my regular bike home afterwards (I'm such a hard-core comuter) seemed so cushiony. I got home at about 8:00 and was passed out on the couch at 9:15 and woke up at one point wondering if someone had beat me with a hockey stick while I was sleeping. Then I was thirsty and hungry, but was supposed to fast for bloodwork the following morning. No refueling for me! (Again, because I'm hardcore.)

So in weird business practice, I took my bike in to a bike shop last week for some pedals and I needed new front break pads. I didn't notice when I picked up my bike, but they took my break pads off the back, and replaced them with new ones?! This was not mentioned to me, and I do believe I was charged for them reflecting on the un-itemized receipt. Issue: I didn't ask them to do that, they didn't tell me they were doing that, and the break pads on the back were brand new, and the kind with removeable pads, so you can just replace that rather than the entire component. Boggles the mind and it will be brought up when I go into the shop again very very very soon (as mentioned, rear derailleur has been malfunctioning since I picked my bike back up).

I suppose I should work now.

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