I KILLED MRS. FRISBY!!!! Poor little creature :( :(

Mrs. Frisby---R.I.P.

Ever since I found that first little mouse poo on my kitchen counter I knew that I was living amongst uninvited creatures once again. Creatures just seem to find me. For some reason they know I don't eat them, kill them or mind them. I have lived with such creatures as raccoons in the chimney, squirrels in the attic and the house, mice in the walls and even snakes in the basement. The snake was the freakiest but my neighbor got him out in a hurry. Of course I am especially a rodent lover having raised two lovely rats a few years back. Finding mouse poo on the kitchen counter though is going a bit too far. This was going to have to stop. It all started when I found holes in my pumpkin seed and soy nut bags from the bulk section at Copps. I picked them up the next morning and they were full of holes and then I saw the poo. Eeek! Mice are cute but not where I eat!

I decided to get one of those live traps at the hardware store and set it up in the kitchen. I baited it with the soy nuts but nothing! For weeks no catch, yet I was finding mouse poo on the counter whenever I would leave bits of food out. Ok, well, I wasn't sure what to do until one night when I saw her! Right on the kitchen sink was Mrs. Frisby! She was standing there looking at me and then when I yelled she ran down the side of the counter and smooshed her fat little self flat and went right under the door to the basement! Sneaky little creature! At least I knew where she was coming from.

Mrs. Frisby was aptly named after my favorite literary heroine--Mrs. Frisby from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh. In this lovely little story she actually escaped from a cage in a farmer's kitchen and saved the day! Well she did much more than that but that was part of it!

Read it! It's a great book!

So each time I came and went I decided to put tin foil under the door to block her from coming back. For some reason I didn't put the trap in the basement. Not sure why. So one night I was out after dark and forgot to block the door but immediately blocked it when I came in. Well, it wasn't five seconds later while putting the tea kettle on that out of the corner of my eye I see a little mouse! Mrs. Frisby had found her way in when I was gone and was now trapped inside. She saw me and ran under the refrigerator. I opened the door to the basement and propped up a paper bag so she would have to jump in there first to escape! I thought maybe I could grab the bag and then get her outside. I sat in silence on the kitchen counter for 30 minutes waiting for her to appear but she never came. Finally I just unblocked the door and went to bed thinking she would eventually leave and go back to the basement or wherever she was living.

Well, about this time was when I had my little accident in Iowa and did not come home for several days. The day I got home I did look in the live trap but there was nothing there. I then went to recuperate at my parent's house though did come every other day to check my email here as my parents don't have a computer. I periodically checked the trap but nothing was there. I figured Mrs. Frisby was living happily with her babies somewhere and was about to completely invade my house one of these days but I wasn't really worried.

The day I moved back home I noticed a raunchy odor and thought to myself--"I better take the trash out!" The next day it seemed to disappear but the day after that it was worse and then the day after even worse. I noticed the smell was very strong when I got near the floor to look under the fridge to see if I had some old food hiding under there and realized the smell was coming from the live trap! OH NO!!!  I didn't even want to look but as I peered through the vents I saw a motionless shadow! OMG! NOOO!!!!! After all the effort to save Mrs. Frisby she had died of starvation in the live trap!! Poor little Mrs. Frisby! Had I wanted to kill her I would have bought a regular mouse trap and snapped her to save her the suffering!  I felt awful and went running out of the house freaking out with the trap in my hand! I opened up the lid and there she was--just looking like she was sleeping (as you can see from the photo). She looked like a healthy little mouse but alas she was not meant to live!  

Poor little sweet creature

I gave her a proper burial near the flowers and weeds growing near the house. Poor Mrs. Frisby. I can only hope that her life was good while it lasted........

Healing!!!

Two days after surgery!

I haven't been in the hospital as an inpatient for almost 20 years so this was sort of a new experience for me! I can hardly believe it has been 2 weeks today that I was being wheeled back to my room after surgery!  Anyway, I was told I would have to stay in the hospital for a couple days to make sure everything was going ok before I headed home to Madison.  I have to say that the experience overall was not that bad for a hospital. Everyone from the admissions staff to the nurses, NA's, residents and Dr.'s were amazing and really helped me to remain calm throughout the experience.  I kept telling the nurses that I felt like I was at a spa!  I got my legs massaged with those anti-blood clotting machines, watched cable TV,  got to eat anything from the menu which came like room service and didn't have to go to work--so I guess it was sort of like a vacation in a way.  :)

Unfortunately I missed the race (Old Capitol Crit) on Sunday but Jess and Kristin came by before the race to check on me and I made them promise to kick ass for me!  They called after the race very excited and I found out Kristin had won, Catherine had gotten 2nd, Jill 4th and Jess 9th! What an amazing day for Team Kenda!  Kristin came back later and brought her podium flowers which consisted of a beautiful bouquet of yellow roses with a blue ribbon wrapped around! So awesome!  Kristin got some host housing with Robin that evening so she could stay and drive me home on Monday. Thanks to both of them for helping me out so much! I also got some calls from the rest of the girls before they headed for home and a great pep talk from Catherine so thanks to all for keeping me from getting too bummed out!!

When I met Dr. Kealey Sunday morning he told me that the verdict was a ruptured artery. Luckily he said that the dying tissue had pinked right up and that the artery had clotted off.  He said I should be ok as far as not needing a skin graft though could not be sure until I healed a bit further.  He also told me I must adhere to taking 30 days off the bike as it takes this long for any wound to heal and reach 30% burst strength. Wow! That is crazy! Anyway he did say if I were to push it that a cyst would most likely form in my hip causing another mandatory surgery and skin graft!  OMG!  I am definitely listening to the Dr. this time! It is going to suck but before I know it 30 days will be over but my fitness will be gone!  :(

So, Kristin drove me home and I spent most of last week at my parent's house recuperating. They were so generous and took such great care of me it was like continuing my vacation after the hospital.  I did lots of reading and sleeping, ate lots of healthy, organic food and vitamins and drank tons of water. My parents are retired so I think they sort of enjoyed having me around.  :)

Aren't they cute?

This past Monday I went to see the trauma surgeon here at UW hospital to get my surgical drain removed.  Being an athlete I think I have a pretty high tolerance for physical pain though was absolutely petrified to get this tube yanked out of my leg. It was in there about a foot or so, so I could not imagine how it would feel getting pulled out!  Thankfully the Dr. explained it all and did a pretty good job and all I felt was a burning/pinching sensation for about 5 seconds and it was over! It did make a sort of slooshing sound which was really gross but I was so relieved when it was over!  One more step in the healing process! Unfortunately he told me the staples have to stay in another week and they are now getting very irritated and I can't wait until they are gone!!

In the mean time I went back to work Wednesday just in time for our school to have the first district wide diagnosed case of Swine Flu/H1H1 virus!  I figured I have had enough bad luck for a while so just told the kids to wash their hands with soap and sterilize the tables.  I guess there is really nothing we can do except take regular precautions and try not to freak out. I think the media has really overhyped it all anyway and soon it will hopefully be over.

There is much more I could type but this has gotten really long. Time to eat my mango and get to bed!  :)  Thanks for reading! :)

MO's Blog Revival

Me, Jess, Catherine, Jill, Kristin at Hillsboro

Well, I know I have not been the best blogger since my time out west but I was interrupted mainly by the nasty car accident I had on the way home from Oregon in July.  So much has happened since then I don't know where to start but I have some pretty amazing (and depressing) photos of the poor beetle burning up in the dessert leaving me stranded with nothing and eventually being rescued by the Red Cross.  I think I will save the long version of this story for later. It is still pretty depressing to think about. I have decided to make my blog more than just about bike building and to incorporate other cycling and life adventures!

This year I had a goal to continue my road back to fitness after my hiatus in Asia and my training has been going very well.  I did a series of Indoor Time Trials this winter which really helped my fitness along. I have been racing with Team Kenda again this year and our team is amazing all around having taken several regional wins and podium finishes already!  I am very proud of our team this year and our overall team chemistry makes us a force to be reckoned with. Another rider's blog refers to us as "the Green Monster known as Kenda" which I found very cute and also fitting.  We are really tearing it up this year and that is in part due to our team commitment and unselfishness by all riders.  It has been so much fun racing with all the amazing women so far.  The women in the Midwest from other teams are really cool this year and have been very encouraging to each other.  The rivalry stays on the road and I have made many friends on other teams which I like. I think we should all make an effort to support women's racing as a whole.

A couple weeks ago I did the first local crit at Research Park in Madison.  Not many women showed up--only about 9--but I was able to get into my first break in a long time helping me gain a bit more confidence about my fitness and about racing over all.  I ended up 3rd which I felt good about though I need to kick up the training on my sprint!  Step by step it is all coming back together and I am enjoying racing more than I ever have!

Last weekend I travelled to Iowa with Kristin, Jill, Jess and Catherine to do the Iowa City Road Race and the Old Capitol Crit.  These two races are really fun and our team hoped to make a good showing.  On Saturday the 52 mile road race began with a threat of rain but the rain seemed to hold off.  The course was a rolling country route of 4 thirteen mile loops.  Kenda did a great job on the offensive and we kept attacking and stringing out the group hoping to get Kristin and Catherine in the break.  I made an attack attempt near the end of lap one and it nearly wasted me.  I remember the days of being able to keep doing it over and over but I guess once is a good start!  A little while later I was able to get back on the front and Kristin attacked with Jill on her wheel. I know the two of them are very strong but also knew no one would let them get away.  The group started to chase while I fell to the rear of the group wasted and not yet recovered from my attack.  I got gapped with a few riders yet behind me as we approached the start/finish line and took the first corner a bit too fast.  I saw the ditch approaching and realized the corner was much tighter than I had anticipated.  It was either try to be like Lance and do a cyclocross move into the ditch or go down. Unfortunately I didn't really have time to think and locked it up and layed it down.  Aaaacckk!  At first I was a bit worried about my new bike but then realized it was ok.  Just a minor scrape on the SRAM Red crank :( and a bent derailleur hanger which a mechanic fixed on the spot.  I noticed my hip felt "tingly" but aside from that only my forearm and ankle had any marks on them.  I was approached by Jeremy Sartaine, a cat 1 rider and nurse.  He suggested I get up and ride around so that I got the blood flowing again and didn't get stiff. So he and I rode down the course and back about 5 miles and I felt ok though a little sore.  I got back to the S/F area and got an ice pack which felt very good and the hip did not seem to be in too much trouble at the time. 

I went to the finish line to watch Kenda finish the race and I was happy to see Catherine pull out the sprint!  It was amazing to see her come from no where and pull that off in the end.  In any event, by that point my hip had what looked like a baseball growing on it and after that it progressively got bigger and bigger and bigger. I found Jeremy and he suggested going in to "have it drained."  I thought this meant a big needle and it made me a bit anxious but after seeing my growing hip Kristin thought it a good idea to find an emergency room. We found our friend Robin, who rides for Mercy Cycling and is a med student in Iowa and we ended up at the University of Iowa hospital emergency room.

When the nurse took me back she thought I had an ice pack in my sweats but I explained to her this was my leg and nothing was there. Once I dropped trou in the exam room she called immediately for the Dr's who still took over 30 minutes to arrive.  I was lucky to have Jess and Kristin there with me to keep me occupied and entertained. Once the Dr's arrived they exclaimed that this was the biggest hematoma they had ever seen and they called in the trauma surgeons.  The trauma surgeons, with an impressed look on their face, passed the ball to the head of trauma, Dr. Kealey, who drove in from on call. He was a very cool "more experienced" doctor and knew all about cycling, etc. He told me I needed emergency surgery because this thing had gotten so large that the blood supply was already cut off in my leg and my tissue was going necrotic (dying) and that it could result in a skin graft if not resolved asap!  ( I later found out that I had ruptured an artery in my hip which was the cause of the bleeding!)  At this point I got a little nervous as they were hooking me up to IV's, etc and bringing in the anesthesiologist to discuss knocking me out.  I was able to plead a quick call to my parents to let them know what was up and the next thing I knew I was being wheeled to the operating room and given a nice drug that made me laugh.  I didn't remember much after that except for waking up in the recovery room with a guy that had been mugged and needed surgery on 3 stab wounds to his stomach.

Here is the nice hematoma growing on my hip

It got huge!!!

Kristin and Jess were there an hour later when I came out of surgery with a nice drain and in my hip and 12 staples in my ass/back of leg. Wow!  What would probably 9 times out of 10 be just a case of road rash and a bruised ego had turned into quite an ordeal and I would spend the next two days in the hospital in Iowa.

Here is my hip after the surgery!

I think I will just post the photos and leave it at this for now and tell the rest of the story later. I has been a whirlwind of craziness but I appreciate all the support I have received from my team mates and other women racers!  Stay tuned for the next installment very soon!

TIG Welding Workshop

Do I look like Darth Vader? :)

Now that my bike is done I can relax but I have sacrificed my last free weekend in Ashland to take a TIG welding seminar at UBI taught by Mike DeSalvo. You might have heard of DeSalvo custom cycles and Mike is a local here living a couple miles from the school. They offer this class the weekend after the brazing class I took and before the TIG frame class starting next week. Learning to weld is the next logical step in frame building as many custom bikes are welded and you are not limited by lug angles. I am not sure how many people fillet braze vs. TIG weld in the industry but most custom higher end performance bikes are TIG welded.

Anyway, I took a welding class about 5 years ago and learned all 3; MIG, TIG and Stick. TIG was by far the hardest and I just remember burning holes in all my work. It was cool to meet Mike and he gave us a few exercises to do using the Tig welders at our stations. We had lots of hands on for the day and I quickly remembered how hard Tig welding was as I burnt several holes in my bike tubing. We practiced on scraps of bike tubing as this most closely simulates how you would build a bike. Below are some photos of my fancy tubes! LOL!!! :)

My first attempt at TIG welding. It might make some nice art! :)

By the end of the day I sort of got it

Mike said that you need about 100 hours of welding to really catch onto it. That made me feel better since I kept burning my tubes in the hard to reach angles and we only welded for several hours. It is hard on your eyes also so I haven't quite decided if I like this method or not yet.

On Day 2, Sunday, we reviewed the above steps and then moved on to making a triangle with 3 tubes with very difficult angles. It seems that I was getting the hang of it on the flat sections but the acute angles were very tough to get into with the torch and it was easy to burn your tube. Here is how Mike had us set up our practice triangle:

After two of these it seemed only a little easier but it was one step forward, two steps back for most of the day. When you seemed to be getting it then all of a sudden you would burn a hole into your tube. I also burnt myself more in 2 days than I did building my bike in 2 weeks. There is a definite acquired skill in TIG welding! I am now closer to that 100 hours.

Our last exercise was to weld a bottom bracket-seat tube combination and then afterwards we broke it on purpose to see where it would fail if it were a real bike. The key was to get it to fail outside the weld and not on the weld. Lucky for me mine broke perfectly about 1/4 inch outside the weld all the way around. It was sort of satisfying to know that if it were a bike--as ugly as the weld was--that it would still hold together. I was happy to have done the brazing class and felt sorry for those poor guys who are starting the TIG frame welding class tomorrow. Still, I know they will somehow come out with a bike in the end.

Here is one side of my welded bottom bracket

Here I am breaking my bottom bracket!

The final result--a perfect break! :)

Overall, it has been an amazing month I have spent out here in Ashland! I haven't even written about my mechanics class which was pre-blog. It was so much fun and I made lots of friends in the process, many of which are reading this blog! :) Tomorrow I head for home back to the midwest! 2,152 miles of driving ahead. Should be interesting. On the way out here in the middle of Nevada I saw a donkey in the middle of the desert! He was so cute and I hope I see him again! :)

I spent my last evening at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory for my last caramel apple and piece of Java Toffee. Well, I am trying to save the toffee for the road--if it lasts.

Stay tuned for future updates on my trip home and of course finishing up my bike! :)

Day 10--The End...or the Beginning?

Our class with our finished frames!!!

Those of you following this blog every day probably noticed that I didn't write the day 10 update yesterday. This is because I was so exhausted after class that I thought I was going to die. I ended up going to bed before 9:00pm and was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

It was an intense last couple days. We got right into it friday morning with our final brazing. Most people finished thursday and were just doing their frame prep -- mostly because they made fixed gear bikes and had no braze ons to add --that and they worked faster than I did. Anyway, we had lots of breaks today which made me nervous because we were told our bikes had to be done by 3:30pm and basically they were going to close the doors on us. It was the end!! I was able to get my braze ons added and made sure I added some for front and rear derailleurs in case I want to add gears to my bike later on. For now I plan to make it a single speed and race it when they have the Wisconsin Single Speed State Championships. I am sure it will be heavier than every other race bike but it will be the coolest bike there! :)

It was so intense that I hardly took any photos but here is one of my fancy little water bottle bosses. Don't you love the funky little star thingy around the holes? It added weight but this bike is all about fancy, not being the lightest. :) That white stuff is just flux and will be cleaned up later.

After lunch we had our little graduation ceremony and got our certificates of completion--even though a couple of us still had a little work to do. Once we filled out our evaluation of the class I got right back at it and filed the excess silver out of my bottom bracket, chased all the metal out of the threads, faced it and then reamed and faced my headtube and the seat tube. I cut the slot in the seat tube also and that happened at about 3:29pm! Needless to say I felt a little rushed and stressed but I made it! My bike is done!!! Hooray! Instead of celebrating and going for a nice bike ride I went almost right to bed. Is it the end? Or just the beginning of MO's bike building future?

Here I am chasing the threads on my bottom bracket

Look!!!!! It's my bike! OMG! I actually made it with my own two hands. It needs a little finishing on the seat post and I have to file the drop outs yet to blend them into the stays and also file around the lugs. Then after a good final sanding it will be ready for paint!!! :)

Day 9--The Final Countdown!

The pressure was on to get everything brazed today. The schedule called for finishing all torch work and beginning frame prep. This includes things which get your bike ready for painting such as chasing threads in your bottom bracket and facing it as well as reaming and facing the head tube so it will be ready for a headset. As a rookie I have a bunch of silver blobs in my bottom bracket threads so have to file those down before facing it. This could take a bit of time. :(

In any event I got lots done including finishing my seat stay caps, brazing on the chain stays themselves, brazing on a bridge between the stays as well as adding my cantilever brake mounts! It was a productive day and all I have left to braze on are my cable guides. Even though I am making a single speed I am going to add them in case I want to put gears on the bike. I hope it turns out cool and rideable in the end.

Here I am brazing the cantilever brake mounts to my rear seat stays!

Lucky for us they let us stay longer again tonight. This time it wasn't just me but everyone trying hard to get their frames done. I feel good that I am not the furthest one behind anymore but still one of the 3 who works the slowest. I feel less pressure not being the last one to finish something and actually think I might get it done tomorrow. Hopefully so because it is the last possible day to do it! It will be amazing to have a bike finished! :) After class Steve, Zach and I took Ron, our teacher, out for beer and pizza. I am exhausted and ready to flop into bed again!

Post class party: L-R: Me, Steve (Idaho), Ron (Instructor and owner of UBI), Zach (NYC)

Day 8--Getting it done

This was the motto for the day. Gary is always saying "get it done." So today I decided there was no time for messing around and that I would not choose the more complicated route like I normally do if there is a choice. The lugs are enough, my finger is infected and hands totally cut and beat up. I figured my bike is only about a cm or so short in size so I will be able to work with it and make it work. It is my first frame and aside from my ego (on bike knowledge) being bruised I will get over it and hopefully build more bikes! :)

In the morning I did my frame alignment check and had it almost perfect but Gary came over and cranked on my stay and misaligned it a bit more. Steve (another instructor) came over to help and was being very helpful though was doing some of the adjustments for me which I didn't like. It's sometimes hard being the only woman in the class because men don't always understand that you actually want to do it yourself and just want them to guide you. Still they are very helpful. At this point I couldn't get my frame realigned so I took a break and went outside to have my daily meltdown. Once I went back in it was all business. I fixed the frame and went for the round chainstays which were simpler than the ovals and would still look ok. We learned how to make bridges, add braze ons and water bottle bosses, etc. to complete our frame. By the end of the day I got my seat stays going and my bike looks pretty cool so far. Below you can see how far I have come on my frame up to this point! :)

After class I went home to change because Ariel had organized an "Alley Cat" race for 6:30pm tonight. This is a type of Urban Bike race where you race all over the city and get a clue at each stop to find out where to ride to next. First you must have your "manifest" signed and do a task. The first one to get to the finish line wins. She did a great job organizing it and even got prizes. Races of this type are held in cities all over the country but are relatively underground because they are not sanctioned, do not provide insurance, etc. Basically it is all at your own risk. This was my first ever Alley Cat and I have only recently heard of them but the appeal of riding a bike and solving clues is sort of like a version of the Amazing Race! Seven students from the bike school started at the Siskiyou Pub where Ariel read us a clue leading us to the Library. Luckily I had driven by a couple days before and knew how to get there. We were off sprinting up Main St. and 4 of us got there are approximately the same time. We had to write down 3 cycling references on our paper before moving on. I got on my bike first and the next clue led me to the local bike shop about a mile away where we had to perform a track stand for several seconds (sitting on your bike in a stopped position without falling off). I had to do this 4 times before I got to move on and the boys all passed me. The next clue led us to the reservoir I had been to on Sunday. The advantage to this was that it was all uphill for a couple miles and I knew I could climb the hill fast. I got there first and the task was to run into the water to waist deep!! It wasn't as cold and I just did it and then blew down the hill as fast as I could back to the hostel which was the next checkpoint. We had to run up the stairs with our bikes like in a cyclocross race and down the other side of the stairs. At this point Ed passed me and I wondered how he had caught me so fast. I later found out he cheated and never went to the 2nd checkpoint! Our next destination was an intersection between 2 streets and my map had fallen apart from going into the water. Ed left and appeared to know where he was going so I followed however I thought this might be a bad idea and stopped to ask some people for directions. They pointed me uphill and I caught Ed. He asked if I wanted to work with him and I said "no, this isn't Survivor" and ditched him going up hill. It was awesome. So I rode around a while and ended up getting sort of lost but climbed a huge ass hill and found the corner of Fork and Vista where I had to calculate my gear ratio with this formula. The final clue led me to the public pool and when I got there I wasted 10 minutes riding around before realizing the finish line was across the street. I was first!!!! It was really fun and exciting and surprising too. This 17 year old kid on a fixed gear with no brakes was only a minute behind me! Good thing I was on it and saw the finish line in time. It took about 30 minutes for everyone to come in with one guy dropping out and one guy getting stopped by the cops and issued $300 worth of tickets for running red lights and speeding!! Crazy. I won $20 to the local bike shop and we all went out for pizza later to celebrate! A great ending to a fun day and a good workout to boot! :) I would love to do another Alley Cat race in a big city sometime just for the challenge.

The Alley Cat crew--L-R: Me (1st), Little Mike (2nd), Killian (helping), Izzy (4th), Ed (5th), Big Mike (3rd) and Ariel--the organizer! :)

Day 7--Epiphany!!!

Today was a great day. It was also not a great day. I was about 2 days behind in class when the day started even though I had spent several hours outside of school filing my lugs down. It was a little stressful when I still could not fit my lugs perfectly on my tubes. I kept working at it and finally got some good advice from Ron on how to get them to fit. In the morning I was able to get the head tube and top tube assembly done which was exciting because it started looking like a bike! :) In between lectures on chain stays, seat stays and mitering we continued to work on our frames. Supposedly they have taught 1500 people how to build frames and have almost a 100% success rate so I don't really want to be the one who doesn't get her bike done. The day went by very quickly and I was tired from staying up so late but tonight they let us stay after for a while for the first time and I was so relieved. By the end of the day I was pretty much ready to braze my whole triangle and my chain stays. Ron was ultra nice and stayed and helped me so patiently for 2 1/2 hours after class. I got the whole thing done! It was hardcore as I had that torch on for 90 minutes straight. Intense.......That was the good part.

Ron is a super nice guy and owner of UBI. Here he is helping me set up my triangle for brazing.

So, I left the shop in a daze around 7:30pm and saw David getting on his bike. I told him to wait and so we rode up the mountain hard partly on gravel and sucked wind for about a 1000 feet. Then we went down Morton Street. This is a crazy street that goes down the mountain at a 20% grade! (Or up if you want to ride it!). We then headed for Dead Indian Memorial Hwy which is the 12 miles up that Ariel and I rode the other day. It was serious stress relief but it was getting dark so we turned around.

In the middle of this cathartic release of tension, talking to people and Ron helping me measure up my frame for brazing I realized that for the past 10 years I thought that the size of a bike frame was the top tube length instead of the seat tube length. I have no idea where I came up with this other than when I got my Pinarello (my first bike as an adult) that this size was determined and fit me very well. So, now I am the biggest MORON on the face of the earth--going to bike school without knowing this very important fact and the combination of all these conversations I had tonight being a total ephipany! Needless to say I made my bike about a size too small so my bubble has been burst a bit. The geometry is different because it is a cross bike so I am hoping that it works out ok in the end once I get it all put together. This was the bad part of the day. In any event below you can see my nicely brazed head tube with my fancy lugs. It will eventually be cleaned up. Even if it doesn't fit it will at least look pretty.

Day 6--My fork is finished!!! :)

LOOK! MY FORK IS DONE!!!

Today was another busy day in the shop. I finally feel like I might have a bike made by the end of the week. It is getting really exciting but you have to work consistently and stay on task. Luckily this morning Gary let us work for 4 hours straight and I was able to finish my fork! It turned out cool and I am really proud of it because I got it brazed pretty nice and all the silver flowed where it needed to go so I am sure it will hold up on my bike. :)

The remainder of the day was spent mitering tubing and filing my lugs which don't fit the tubes very well so you have to file them to a loose fit. Since I chose the big, fancy lugs I have about twice as much work as everyone else. Still, they are pretty and I would not change my mind if I had to choose again. I got up at 6am this morning and filed for over an hour before class and I still wasn't done. Tonight after class Steve and I filed for a while and then I went home and filed some more. Good thing I can take that part home because if I had to do it in class I would never get done. My fingers are raw but I am planning on getting up early again tomorrow morning to finish and hopefully braze my triangle by the end of the day! (Top tube, down tube and seat tube). Then I think I will feel more caught up with the rest of the class.

Steve and I doing lug "homework"

Some of us went to a British pub to watch the Tour de France tonight and it was sort of fun but they didn't have the sound on so it was a bit hard to follow. It isn't the same without hearing Phil Liggett. Our room at the hostel doesn't have cable so we can't watch it here unfortunately.

We saw the fox again tonight running through our neigborhood! It is so weird to see a wild animal in town and I have never seen a fox before. He was so cute! As well the California wild fires blew into town from the south tonight and it was hard to breathe outside for a while. Everything smelled burnt and charred. It seemed strange to be able to smell it this far away!

Stay tuned tomorrow for more bike making updates!!! :)

Relaxing Sunday at the Reservoir :)

Today I decided would be a good day to sleep in and finally got my first night of 8 hours of sleep in over a week. Five of us from the bike school decided to make a big brunch together and we cooked up some potatoes, multi-grain pancakes and scrambled eggs with veggies. We pulled a table out into the parking lot at the hostel and had a nice meal.

Here are Erin, Steve and Ariel cooking up a storm!

Ariel, Erin, Zach, Steve and Mo enjoy their meal

After brunch I went into town to check the weekend art market which was nothing really spectacular and check out a few shops that I hadn't seen yet. I stopped at a great sweet shop called The Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory where I bought a delicious caramel apple to satisfy my sweet tooth! :) I eventually ended up at Starbucks because I was so tired and decided I was craving a coffee but it didn't taste too good especially since it was 98 degrees outside.

Erin, Ariel and I decided we wanted to go for a swim because it was too hot to do anything else and so we rode our bikes up the mountain to the local reservoir. The water comes from Mt. Ashland which still has snow on it and so it is FREEZING cold. Someone said it is about 50 degrees and to me it felt a little like getting into Lake Michigan. It took me about 20 minutes to get fully immersed and it took my breath away when I got in. There was a rope swing hanging from a tree and I decided I had to do it. Erin took a great series of photos which you can see below. Even though I look petrified in half of the photos it wasn't really that scary. :)

Getting ready to jump!

Taking the jump!

Wheeeeeee!!

Flying through the air!

Preparing for landing

Splash!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Refresing!!

It was a great day and fun to just relax and prepare ourselves for the upcoming work week. We really aren't on vacation here as we work hard 8am-5pm each day. It is pretty intense and I am determined to have a completed bike frame by the end of the week! :) On the way home we biked by this old beetle which had been turned into an art car. Pretty sweet!!

Once we got home I decided to do a little "homework" filing my lugs to fit my bike tubing as it will save me a couple hours in class tomorrow and I am determined to get as far ahead as I can so that I don't stress too much. As I was outside filing Steve comes running out of the hostel freaking out to look across the street to the parking lot there. There was a creature which I thought was a coyote but what he determined to be a fox. I ran to get the camera and it ran so we ran around this building to chase it and get a photo. We found it sitting on a doormat right in front of someone's house! It looked just like a cat sitting there except for it's long ears and bushy tail!!Tonight we played some scrabble with our new hostel mates Rivka and Dan who are walking the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico to Canada!! We think biking 36 miles is tough and they have been walking about 20 miles per day! Amazing.

Time to get some sleep as I have to wake up early to do a bit more filing on my lugs before class!