Ladybug Studio

That dipping place…

Tom and I went to The Melting Pot last night with his parents. Tom was reluctant to go, of course. Anyone who knows Tom at all knows that he is a notoriously picky eater. But we out numbered him so he was forced to come along. Naturally, it wasn't really to his liking. He didn't care much for the cheese course, and I didn't think he would. He ate his salad and the beef and chicken from our shared entree. While he enjoyed the flavors, he thought it was too much work. He didn't even care for the chocolate fondue. Which makes him officially too weird for words. The chocolate is the best part!

Decisions, decisions…

I recently got a great little gadget designed to neatly wrap extra earphone cord out of the way while listening to an iPod (or similar device). It's called Magneat. It was inexpensive, arrived quickly and I'm loving it. I've been using it at work while printing, mounting and trimming posters. So far so good. The real test came on Friday afternoon while working in the yard. I spent close to two hours weeding flower beds and trimming back shrubs and not once did I get tangled up in the bushes. Two thumb up! (I purchased the American flag design.)

Last week I had decided to work on making better decisions. In regards to everything really. It just seems that so often, afterward, I realize that I should have gone with B instead of A. My plan isn't really working out though. Saturday I ended up making a pretty poor decision when I neglected to put on sunscreen while getting ready for tennis. "I'll do it later" translated to "I won't get around to it." My face, shoulders and neck are suffering the consequences. Particularly my forehead, as I decided, poorly as well, to not wear sunglasses, a hat or a visor while on the courts because I didn't want that raccoon look. Yes, well, the all over red look isn't so pretty either. And it's going to be oh, so lovely when it all starts to peel. Because it will. The itching has already commenced.

Baby you can drive my car…

It's been over a week since I last posted. I had intended to write first thing on Monday and give a detailed account of the weekend, but obviously that didn't happen. It was an interesting weekend, to be sure.

For several years now, Tom has been wanting to take his car up to the mountains to drive it on curvy roads. He wanted to do this with the GTO, but especially with the Corvette. He finally picked a weekend and made a real plan. I just went along with it, but truthfully, the whole idea had zero appeal to me.

Why would anyone want to drive all day north, then drive around all day, followed by driving all the way home again? Way too much driving. I have to say, Tom did 99% of it. I took the wheel for a couple of hours on Friday and about the same on Sunday, to give him a break, but that was all. I had no desire to maneuver the Corvette on the twisty mountain roads. That car has way too much power and I probably would have put us into a ravine. Not to mention that the setup is completely wrong for me and anything other than interstate driving is rather cumbersome.

Our plan was to drive to Brevard, North Carolina, where we go mountain biking each October, and spend the night in a hotel. But Tom didn't want to take the boring interstate going up there, so he planned some hare-brained route going up the middle of the state. I didn't comment on his plan, but I sure had my doubts. During lunch at Wendy's, when we were somewhere near Jacksonville after over four hours of driving, I finally had to point out the obvious: we wouldn't make it to Brevard until Sunday if we didn't change our route. Fortunately, he saw the wisdom in that and we made our way over to I-95.

At this point, I would like to talk about how much I hate Tom's navigation system. It's his Eclipse stereo and is apparently wired into the actual workings of the car, not simply a GPS. Because every time I used my turn signal to change lanes, the system told me to "Continue North on I-95." If I used my brakes, "Continue North on I-95." Even if I simply took my foot off of the gas, "Continue North on I-95." Between that, the radio and the loud droning of the exhaust, I thought I would go mad. I didn't, but I did have a raging headache by the time we stopped in Spartanburg, South Carolina for the night.

Saturday morning we continued our journey. It was good to see Spartanburg during the daytime. It's a rather nice looking area. Something to keep in mind.

After about an hour, we arrived in Brevard. Tom enjoyed driving up the last twisty bit of 276 in his car, without tons of biking gear and luggage shifting with each curve. It wasn't too bad for me, either. The "race seats" he installed really hold a body in place. I have to make a point of saying that I did not get car sick at all, the entire trip. A great handling car makes a world of difference. Plus, the low center of gravity seemed to play an important part.

We made one stop in Brevard. Tom was thirsty and pulled into a convenience store parking lot. Right next to it was the Indie Coffee House and I suddenly had a desire for a gourmet coffee drink. That turned out to be a great idea. I explained to the owner that I was basically a newbie, but that I liked my coffee really sweet. I asked him to also leave room for milk or creamer to cool down the drink and he suggested that he just make the coffee less hot. I didn't know that could be done. I ended up with a mocha latte with a shot of hazelnut and it was beyond delicious. I didn't even need to add sugar. I will definitely visit again when we return in October.

Getting back to our travels, Tom had planned a route that would take us into the mountains and to the Blue Ridge Parkway. He chose that for me because every time we go to the mountains on our bicycling trips, I always talk about wishing we had time to drive some of the Parkway. As we cruised up to higher elevations, I was surprised to see patches of snow on the side of the road and even more surprised to see road cyclists. It was pretty steep going up there. I can't even begin to imagine being fit enough to attempt such a climb.

When we got to the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway, we were surprised once again. The road was closed. We found out later that it was due to rock slides. All that crazy snow they had was causing big problems. After consulting our map, we continued on toward our next planned destination: the Nantahala Outdoor Center (NOC).

Before we started visiting Brevard, back when we owned a cottage in Clayton, Georgia, our mountain biking group used to visit the NOC every time we came up. First we would spend the day riding the trails at Tsali, then we would enjoy shopping in the outfitter store and watching the kayaks navigating the gates in the Nantahala River. The official season doesn't actually start until the beginning of April. So while there were still people visiting the NOC, it was much quieter than usual and the store obviously wasn't stocked up yet. Too bad. But then again, I probably saved some money.

Our next course of action was to head up US 129, better known as Deal's Gap or The Dragon. We were able to enjoy quite a bit of curviness, but missed out on the twistiest bit, known as the Tail of the Dragon due to… once again - rock slides. We stopped at The Deal's Gap Motorcycle Resort and took photos of the Tree of Shame, a makeshift shrine to those bitten by the Dragon.

Since the Tail was closed, we took NC 28, which was recommended as being a fun and curvy road as well. It definitely was, and it was on this road that Tom noticed what he thought were a few photographers. We later found out that he was indeed correct. They took quite a handful nice photos of us zooming along.

Many curvy miles and several hours later, we made our way south down 441, through Franklin, Dillard, Clayton and so on. We stopped and spent the night in Gainesville, Georgia, then had an uneventful trip back home on Sunday. It was a driving packed weekend for sure.

Natural distraction…

I didn't get to enjoy the extra daylight on Monday. That stomach ache got worse and was joined by a headache. When I got home from work I took two naproxen sodium tablets and went to bed. I got up around 8:00, ate dinner, watched TV with Tom for a bit, then went back to bed. My stomach felt better, but the headache was still lingering on. I couldn't sleep, so I got out of bed, took a Tylenol PM and watched TV until about 11:30, when I finally felt that I could sleep. Big Boo.

Tuesday was better. No stomach ache, no headache. I was able to play tennis in the afternoon and we all had a good time. I ended up with the lowest points, so back down I go. But that's okay. On the way home I was treated to one of the most gorgeous sunsets ever. So many colors! And it just got better and better. Frankly, I'm surprised I didn't drive into a ditch because I couldn't take my eyes off of it.

Hurray for DST…

It sure does feel like a Monday. I'm super tired and sleepy, my eyes are irritated and my stomach hurts. The week isn't starting off well.

But I am really happy about the time change over the weekend. I love Daylight Savings Time! More light in the afternoon is a good thing. We can bike after work, I can spend time in the yard when I get home, we won't have to use the lights at the tennis courts and the sun won't be in my eyes while driving to work in the mornings.

There is one downside though. The time change means that we're moving toward summer and the outrageous heat associated with it. I'll try not to think about it.

So the weekend was okay. It rained and rained and rained on Friday. Total washout there. But that didn't prevent us from watching TV and eating pizza. Not a total loss then.

If I had been planning on playing tennis on Saturday, Friday's rain would have been a problem. But instead, I attended a union meeting. Normally I would be grousing about having to go to a meeting, but we found out about our new contract and it's a good one. Especially considering the current economy. Plus, I drove home from the meeting with the top down and it was glorious. The weather was practically perfect. Happy sunshine, lovely temperature, blue skies.

The Tico Warbird Air Show was happening on Saturday and Sunday. It was pretty neat to see lots of planes flying about. While most of the action happened hear the airport, a few interesting ones flew over our neighborhood.

We went mountain biking at Econ yesterday. Sadly, the rain from Friday (and Thursday) really flooded the trails. In all the years that we've been biking there, we've never seen it so flooded. Most of our favorite trails were completely inaccessible. So we rode the front trails only and still managed to wear out our legs.

Wednesday…

Yesterday afternoon, while running errands in Merritt Island, I saw Elvis and Marilyn Monroe walking down the center of Courtenay Parkway, waving to traffic. If anyone knows what that's all about and can clue me in, I'd appreciate it.

* * *

Yesterday was quite a busy day. I had some packages of calendar artwork to ship back to the company I freelance for and I like using The Shipping Depot in the old Publix Plaza. The two men who run the business are really nice and their long-haired dappled daschhund usually runs out to greet customers. (sadly, she wasn't there) Target is right next door and since it seems that I have a continually ongoing Target shopping list, I stopped in for a bit. Other than a few hair clips (how many do I need?), I pretty much stuck to my list. Though I did buy a Mango Smoothie on my way out.

Next was a trip to Barnes & Noble. I needed to buy a gift card and of course, I had to look around while I was there. I have to admit, now that I have a Kindle, I try to stay out of bookstores. I have plenty of ebooks to read, but there's something seductive about actual, tangible books with their colorful covers and artwork. Magazines are okay though, so I browsed and ended up buying two.

I realized on the way home that I needed to buy Powerball tickets ($170 million!), but didn't have any cash on hand. I knew I had a few bucks stashed away in the house and because the weather was nice, decided to walk to the gas station at the front of our neighborhood. It was a very nice walk, with my audiobook for company. BTW, we didn't win, but no one else did either. Now we get to try for $200 million.

Over and done…

March 8 is over for another year. It always amazes me how quickly the day goes by. It was a good birthday though. I noshed on sugary treats all day long, had plenty of visitors and phone calls, took an afternoon nap and had fast food for dinner. It should have been Arby's, as is our silly tradition. But there was a handwritten sign at the drive-thru kiosk explaining that they were out of fries. That was a deal breaker for sure, so I went to McDonald's instead. They had fries! So all's well that ends well.

Number 41…

I'm no longer 40 years old. I am officially "in my forties". To that, I say, "Meh." It's all just numbers, really. The one thing I did like about being 40 is that I actually knew how old I was without doing math. Somewhere in my thirties, I sort of lost track. I'll probably be okay this year, but soon it will be back to subtraction. Sadly, I am not a numbers person.

So the weekend turned out really nice. I had plans, but they were soft and flexible, allowing for some down time watching TV and such. There was tennis, baking cookies and decorating, shopping at Dick's Sporting Goods and dinner at Shell's with friends.

Then there was sleeping late, cookie decorating completion, a trip to Florida Mall and pizza. I just wish there had been time in there for some bicycling.

Oh well, there's time enough for that next weekend. Looks like our gang is going to Oleta River State Park in Miami next Sunday. Matt and Vicky are doing an XTerra race there in a couple of weeks and wanted to pre-ride the trails before the event. Tom and I went with Alex and Jeanene many years ago, so I barely remember the trails. I recall some raised bridge-like areas that made me pretty nervous, but hopefully they won't bother me any longer as I'm a much more seasoned rider than I was back then. (ha!)

Here are photos of the Strawberry Cream Cheese Cookie Tarts:

March like a lion…

Anyone who hates the current weather in your area, raise your hand. Yes, as I suspected. Everyone is raising their hands. This has been such a very weird year. The cold air keeps coming back and places that are generally mild are getting crazy amounts of snow. It's even cold in Florida, for crying out loud. When it's not cold, it's rainy and windy.

Take yesterday, for example. Rain during the day, then gusty in the afternoon. Not good tennis weather for sure, so league was canceled. I really didn't mind, for once. A nagging headache had me wanting to just go home.

It's supposed to warm up as the week goes on though and the weekend is looking quite nice. It's my Birthday Weekend, so I'm happy about that. I've decided not to participate in the KSC All American Picnic tennis tournament on Saturday. Debbie and I were the only ladies doubles signed up, as I suspected we would be. Miguel, my partner from last year, offered to partner with me again and had another player lined up for Debbie. But we both decided to skip it. I'd rather do the round robin anyway. I will play more sets, it will cost much less and I will be finished by noon.

Which will give me plenty of time for birthday plans. Once I have some.