Day 1

I hate taking pictures of myself.  I still haven't quite figured out how to make it work...  but here goes nothing!


Kidding...

Yes, I have pink earbuds in... I'm at work, posting $$$ and "watching" Lois & Clark.

Looks like fun!

So...  I'm going to try to follow through with this.  Hopefully I can do it while I'm out teaching too - we'll see.

I'll start tomorrow. 

Very Productive Evening

Of course I forgot to take pictures until it was too late... 

Kyle and I had a very productive evening! 

First he showed me how to make homemade laundry soap.  We prefer the dry kind, instead of the wet.  (The wet is sort of messy and kind of gross...)

It is SUPER easy!  (Especially when you are WATCHING and letting Kyle do it...)

He grated one bar of Ivory Soap into nice fine flakes.  Then he measured it to see how much he had.  It worked out to 2.5 cups of soap flakes.  Then he measured out an equal amount of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda (NOT baking soda) and Borax.  Mixed all three together and then poured them into a tupperware tub.  You add between 1 and 3 tablespoons, depending on your load size.  Kyle made a bunch before the Arizona trip and we used it til it was all gone and then sort of got lazy.  Don't know why!  It does a great job - especially with the whites - and it's CHEAP!!!!

Then, I went out to the barn and got my big bucket of MSM I bought for Andy's arthritic joints.  And broke out my new little capsule maker.  It took two tries, but we ended up with 23 capsules of MSM for Kyle to take each day to help with his ankles and knees.  I take 1/4 tsp each morning, but I mix it with D-Ribose and Emergen-C.  Kyle can't take that mix - says it just tastes too gross!  So he takes a couple Vitamin C pills and one of his new little capsules.  Here's hoping it helps...

And then I made a BIG batch of smoothies in my new Ninja Blender (thanks Nanc - used some of the WalMart gift cards from last Christmas!) and poured them into plastic cups, covered them with plastic wrap, and stuck them in the freezer!  Now I can have my smoothie in the morning without waking the dead!  It was nice and convenient this morning - I made them with Chia seeds, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, 1/2 an avacado, and some milk.  YUM!

OH!  And before all that, we went for a nice hour long walk in the woods.  We LOVE spring!

So... that was OUR evening, how was yours?

Kyle's New Toy

First things First... the sesame oil hot oil hair treatment?  FAIL!  (Sesame oil STINKS and does not make any appreciable difference to my hair...)  New hair thing coming soon.  (Oh, and for those who care, and need a little time to prepare - I got it cut last week...  FAIL!)

So... 

On to the actual point of this post.

Kyle is the MASTER of working hard and saving piles and piles of money.  And then he does lots of research.  And then he SPENDS a pile of money.  (Hmmm remind you of anybody?  NOPE!  Definitely NOT me!  It's Rod!  LOL)

So... (again) here is what he worked for, saved for, researched the living daylights out of, and then PURCHASED!

It's HUGE! 

It's FIFTY-FIVE INCHES!

And it's in MY living room (cuz it's bigger than his whole bedroom... lol)

The artistic wire sculpture to the left is actually the MESSY wires leading to the dvr and direct tv box.  But I am cancelling Direct TV this week (we are going Netflix and Roku for a savings of $90/month) so those will be gone soon.  And yes, that IS a fish tank only half full of water.  We can't seem to ever be at WalMart at the same time as a person who works in the fish department, so after cleaning and refilling it several times in anticipation of new fish... I've given up.

(And yes, we are currently on a Bones kick...  Our new favorite show...)

Breakfast

I am NOT a food blogger.  (Thank goodness, eh?)  But this is a quick look at what I brought with me for breakfast here at the hotel.

This is some oatmeal flour (oatmeal ground in the food processor - easier to mix up when you aren't home...), chia seeds, chopped walnuts and chopped dates.  Oh, and a nice big glob of virgin coconut oil.  A good amount of hot water (thank you hotel) melts the oil and turns it all into a yummy mush.

There was a story on the news this morning about a recall on hard cooked eggs delivered to commercial sites (ie: hotel breakfast bars) so the hard boiled egg I was planning on eating wasn't available.

Instead I had some of their scrambled eggs, and just couldn't resist a little bacon...

After adding some 2% milk (it was that or fat free... ick) this is what breakfast looked like.

With The Hunger Games on my Kindle, it was a GREAT breakfast!  

And now I'm back in my room to do a hot sesame oil hair thing - then once I have a plastic bag and hot towel on my head, I'm going to do a workout.  (There will be NO pictures! LOL)

The coffee pot is heating water as we speak... so here we go!  (This is my first hot oil treatment... wish me LUCK!)

RIP BSY

It was a long run. 

There have been good times, and not so good times.  But through it all, there has been family.
And loyalty.
  And hard work.
And family.

We announced, formally, on February 1, that Beach Sportcycles, Inc. is no more. 

Wow - surprisingly I just teared up writing that sentence.  Surprisingly, because it's been some tough times lately, and it's a little bit, a relief that it's over.
 But last night I was looking at old photos and there were about a gazillion of the boys and their cousins - whooping it up on their summer vacations at "the shop". 

Oh, my goodness!  They are so LITTLE!

The shop has provided for my family in many more ways than financially.  It was so much more than a job.  It was an institution. 

It started as little more than an idea.  It grew to a dream, then a little shop in Melbourne.  And then to an even bigger shop 30 miles away in Cocoa.  When it began, it was Tim and George.  Alone in a little building.  It became the Number 1 YZ Dealer in the entire South Eastern United States.  An accomplishment to be proud of.  But more importantly, it became the number one place for people who loved bikes to come and hang out.  To learn more about bikes and riding and racing.  It was where friendships were formed, where people were so much more than customers. 

I've been reading some of the comments and tributes on the Facebook page. 

There were years and years (and years and years) of going to races, of putting on races, of racing in races, of supporting others in races...  There were races including everything from go-carts to 3-wheelers to dirt bikes to pit bikes to pocket bikes. 

Through it all, there was loyalty.  Word in the pits was, if you needed a part, whether you were a team rider, a privateer, or just a guy with a bike, Tim could set you up.  If you needed help, Scott was your guy. If they didn't have what you needed, Rod was back in Cocoa holding down the fort and he would get it to you.   Didn't matter who you were, what you rode, you could always go to the big blue Yamaha truck and somebody from BSY would take care of it.

There was chili.  There were laughs.  There were often "stars" hanging around.  There were always kids.  But through it all, you didn't, really, you didn't, take on a Buffaloe.  Cuz there was never just one.  And beware the little, sweet, innocent looking lady.  She was the toughest of all of 'em!

It's been a long run.

It's been a good run.

We will miss it.

Welcome February!

Oh those mornings I remember standing on the side of Elbow Drive waiting for a break in the traffic so I could run across to Woodman Jr. High School.  Those mornings in February when it was -40 degrees F!  Those mornings when I promised myself, once I was an adult, I would NEVER AGAIN be found in Calgary in February.

Well, this morning I was most definitely NOT in Calgary.  Instead, I was in my backyard, here in Paradise.  (Otherwise known as Florida...) 

It was a GLORIOUS morning - just enough "crisp" to the air that I didn't get too hot feeding the horses.

My sweet next door neighbor did some clearing on his property yesterday and gifted us with a GIANT pile of freshly cut grass!  This pile is about half of what there was last night... but since I didn't get home until after dark, I couldn't take a picture of it then. 

The horses were SUPER happy to help get rid of it!  (Even what you see there is only about half of what was left... there were two more piles on the other side of the pasture!)  Of course, I had already done my workout for the day, so my arms were TIRED after hauling all that using our pitchfork... 

The flock of sandhill cranes came back while I was finishing up spreading the grass...  They are tough to miss - each has a wingspan of probably 8 feet and when they fly they make this SUPER loud call.  They flew into the neighbor's yard, so I grabbed the iPod and headed back to snap a picture.  I took 8 or 9 of them, but since I don't wear my glasses out to the barn, only one of them actually turned out!  (sigh... it's tough getting old...) 

Sorry, it's not as good as I was hoping for - but you get a good idea of what a beautiful morning it was!  LOL

Here's a stock picture from Wikipedia - in case you've never had the pleasure of meeting a Sandhill Crane in person.   The neighbor's son showed up to feed the horses and chickens.  As soon as his truck pulled in the yard, they started walking up to the barn, honking the entire time.  He said they eat right out of his hand!  (They "clean up" any spilled chicken feed...)  They have 4 "chicken tractors" (coops on skids so they can be moved around the property as the chickens eat down the grass/bugs in one area) so whenever they move one, the birds flock over to tidy up anything that might be left.

Here's hoping February continues to be this lovely!  (And I hope yours is lovely as well - with or without snow and freezing temperatures...)