Where's the Pancake Shack?

It's now been almost a month since I took the pancake shack in to get the top fixed and I still haven't heard how much it will cost or when I will get it back. We've had it on one trip since we bought it and I'm hoping we get it back in time for our trip to Dupont in July. The lift mechanism had to be removed and sent to the manufacturer for a rebuild. They no longer make this type of lift so we couldn't get a new one. I'm not sure if it was a manufacturer defect or if it's a warranty issue. I've not heard a word but I will continue to call every week and let them know how upset Moonshine and Jackson are about this ordeal. The people who sold it to us seem really genuine but I still can't help but wonder, I'm tempted to send a nasty email.
We're rolling up on Memorial Day weekend and the gas prices are just continuing to rise. I see people driving around town like it's not effecting them. I'm cruising around under the speed limit coasting as much as possible and only driving when I have to. How far will it go and what will be the breaking point. Melinda's last day at school is next week so that should help us out this summer. I heard Barrack Obama said that if he was elected as our President that he would get gas prices down to .99 a gallon. No word on how he plans to do so. I've voted Republican in the past but I'm not sure what to do this time. I'm really not impressed with any of them right now. I normally don't like to talk politics but I think there are a lot of things that need to change in this country and it's not just gas prices. I would like to see us using alternative sources of fuel that aren't as harmful to the environment.
Some good news, Melinda's school district is in the process of building 2 new schools. They've yet to hire the vice principals. They've been calling our house campaigning for Melinda. She has become the most wanted vice-principal in the Washington County school system. Everyone wants her at their school and I can understand why. She gives 100% percent at her job and really looks out for the less fortunate kids. Her job can really be stressful sometimes and it's taken a toll on her in the past but I am very proud of what she does and how hard she works.

Yesterday Melinda and I took the dogs out on a hike yesterday and poor Jackson, well he tends to be a little clumsy now and then and if anyone is going to get hurt doing nothing it's going to be him. He was trotting through the woods and hopped over a small log but accidentally stepped on a branch and it snapped under his weight and down he went. I don't know if it was the same branch or a different one but it caught him right under his eye. Poor guy I know it had to hurt but I told him if he's lucky he'll have a tough looking scar.









Here is our newest little tree that Melinda planted up in the backyard. It's some kinda Autumn Maple, I can't remember the proper name but the leaves do turn red in the fall so it should look really good.

I think we're close to being done back here, we've still got a few touch ups to do to the walk way. It's not completely level yet. but the gardens turned out great after we finally decided on a design.

New goods

I picked up a couple of new things for our bikes last week. My cruiser got some well needed pedals. The ones that came on it were some cheap black plastic pedals that just didn't fit the style of the bike. I also picked up a new bell for the Karate Monkey. The old one has seen a few muddy wet rides and the lever tends to stick when ringing it.

The original pedals were actually heavier than the new ones I put on which are nothing fancy. They're actually some used pedals I picked up at Norris Bicycles last week for $5. I was checking on the status of Melinda's Schwinn Breeze. Everytime I go in and check on it, Dave gives me the same excuse. "Man I've been slammed and I haven't got a chance to work on it, check back with me this weekend" That the same line I've heard for 3 weeks now.

Pretty cool skull huh, too bad it won't be visible. I always flip the bell upside down so it's not in the way on the Monkey.

Speaking of the Monkey, here she is hanging on the wall where she's been patiently waiting until my back will allow me to take her to the trails again. Yes those are flat pedals on it, I put those on it when I took a friend from work on the CRAWL and let him ride it. Not a good experience, he had a little to much to drink and could keep the Monkey upright. He also got a little whiny and started getting on my nerves. I guess some people just aren't cool enough to ride a KM. He did say he loved the bike and said he wanted one which is what I usually hear every time I let someone ride it. My brother in law is currently try to build one up now.

This weekend I was able to finish sandblasting the CrissCross frame but I still haven't decided on what color to paint it. Looks pretty good I think. I had decided on a yellow orange but now I'm thinking olive green. I've got a few parts for it but not much. I still need a fork, wheels, brakes and drivetrain. Lol, pretty much everything.

Melinda did get some new wheels for her ride and I do say they look pretty sweet. (I lost the front one after our last CRAWL.)

I plan on getting on my bike today to run some errands today. My back is feeling alot better and I think I'm making alot of progress. I'll have to post some more pics up tomorrow of the backyard projects. We made a few more changes and Melinda got some plants in the ground as well as the other Maple tree this weekend while I was at work. It's really starting to look good back there.

Later

Back in the saddle

Yesterday I hit the road for the first time in almost a month. I didn't go hard by any means, in fact I only rode 13 miles. I took it pretty easy but I did climb some hills and kept a pace of 15.2 mph. I felt pretty good but I wasn't completely pain free. In the drops I could feel a little bit of aggravation due to the bent over position. I felt a little awkward and stiff but that should go away with some time. The healing process sucks, I'm ready to be back to normal.

Gardening with dogs?

Maybe I should change the name of my blog. Hmm, gardening and landscaping, that's all we've been doing in our free time. Still no riding here but I don't feel like talking about that right now. Our new little project is coming along nicely, we've had to change our original plan a couple of times but that happens.

It's hard to keep Jackson out of the photos but here is the hole I been working on for a couple of days. It's tough to dig a hole on the side of an embankment.


After a bit more digging and some dirt transplanting I got our new little buddy out of his pot and in the ground. Notice the #8 on the wheel barrow, it's a fast one I have to admit.

I finally got all the peppers in the garden. Watch out for the pepper garden watch dog, she takes her job seriously.

I thought this was a cool picture of Moonshine.

Melinda's little tomato plant

In other great news my sister and bro in-law had a baby boy Eli yesterday. Eli weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs. 6 oz. I'm still hold the record being the biggest in the family. Is that something to brag about, hmm not sure, but I think it sounded funny. Anyway I'm excited about Eli, he's the first boy born into our family since me. It's about time! Being the only male of my generation to bear the Carr family name my Mom reminded me that if I don't have a son the name will stop with me.

Here he is, Eli Teilhet

The whole Teilhet family.

sleepy

It's almost 1 am on Sun morning and I'm at work just hanging out. We're doing alot of hurry up and waiting and I'm starting to get sleepy so I figured I would blog a little. We've had a pretty rough month and I hope we're on the road to smoother sailing. We were on our feet most of the night last night but tonight been a little bit easier. If you've driven past my place of business lately at night you could have driven with your lights off due to the pretty blue flame.
Last year we decided not to do anymore projects to the house because we didn't think we would be staying there long but the last couple of weeks at home have kept us pretty busy. With the current hosing funk and our lack of desire to go house hunting I think we might stay put for just a while longer. I knew the "no new projects" wouldn't last long. Melinda is always thinking of new things to do to the house. She would probably make a good landscape or interior designer if the whole school thing doesn't pan out for her.
I proceeded to dig a giant hole in the ground today for our new tree that has been waiting patiently in it's little black bucket. Normally I would have already planted the tree but we're digging a new garden that will be the resting place for our new tree and half of it is on a slope. It's kinda hard to dig a hole on the side of a hill, Especially when I'm working night shifts.

Still no saddle time

Technically I have been ok'd to get get back on my roadie but I've yet to do it. What am I waiting on you ask yourself? Well for one my back has been bothering me some here lately, not sure if I aggravated it again or what but I decided to hold off for a while longer. Also I've had a terrible head cold. I've felt pretty crappy this week and I figured I'm better off not trying to push myself, because if I re injure myself it will be longer before I get back to normal. I don't think I can take anymore of this, I'm already about to go crazy.

Ok enough of this whining. I have managed to stay fairly busy this week. We've been doing a lot of landscaping in the backyard, thanks to George W. and the economic stimulus act. We've been hating our back walkway for some time. The mulch we had around the stepping stones was getting kicked around especially by the dogs and after a big rain it would get kinda muddy so we finally decided to do something about it.

Before

After, it's still not finished but I hope to get it completed by this weekend.

Yesterday Melinda and I headed out to Lowes to grab some more stepping stones, we were about 6 short from finishing. We also needed a couple more plants because we extended the flower bed out to the walkway instead of having that goofy little strip of grass. We also decided to add 2 more flower beds on the other side of the walk way to make the whole area a little more appealing. The grass on the left side of the walk way has been looking bad for some time now so we decided to just do away with it. While we were out we stopped by Evergreen to what they had in stock. I was cruising around the Japanese Maple trees which are WAY out of our price range. $80 for a twig and $250 for a decent size tree. I noticed a couple a really big maples in the back that looked really nice, I looked at the price tag expecting to see an amount that was way outta my budget. It read $79, I couldn't believe it. $79 bucks is still alot more than we're used to paying for a tree but this was a Japanese Maple and it was about 10ft. tall and really a great looking tree. I grabbed Melinda and showed it to her and she gave the okay so we loaded it up and headed to the cash register. When the cashier rang it up it registered for $250. I showed the guy the tag and he said something about a mistake but still gave it to us anyway. I couldn't believe it we just bought a $250 tree for a measly $79 bucks. As we were heading out the door Melinda said let's get out of here quick before they change their minds and make us give it back.

Here's our new addition, a Coral Bark Japanese Maple. Jackson seemed to like it as much as I do, I think he's getting ready to take a bite out of it.

I also got some pepper plants for my garden. This year we're growing Jalapenos, Bananas (hot & sweet), Habanaros, Cheyennes, and two cucumber plants (hot pickles).

Melinda got some new bling for her ride two Yakima King Cobra racks. They look really cool and I know all the teachers at her school wonder what all that stuff is on top of her car. She tries to explain but I don't think they really get it.

I'll post some more pics up later of the progress we make this weekend.

Later

New Tattoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is finished, I finally got it and I'm really impressed with Tom's work. I went down to 2 Ton Tat 2 on Fri for my appointment with Tom and I still hadn't seen the artwork yet. When I talked to Melinda she was a little uneasy about it because I hadn't seen anything. I promised her I wouldn't get anything inked unless I was 100% sure it's what I wanted. Tom was actually still drawing when I got there so I got to watch and kinda help out. He was right on with what I wanted and he drew right from the photos that I had taken.







Here I am under the needle, the sitting took a little over 2 1/2 hours. I had to take a couple of breaks not really from the pain but my leg was giving me a bit of trouble and my butt was falling asleep.








Although it appears to have red in the clouds, the tattoo is all black and grey. To keep with the existing theme of the sun and the Celtic band I decided against color. As it heals the clouds will soften to a light grey and the rest of the tattoo will blend and match my older tattoos. Actually the "M" (for Melinda) inside the sun is only a couple of months old. So you can see what it should look like when it's completely healed. A big thanks to Tom at 2 Ton Tat 2 for putting up with me and my indecisiveness. I decided to go with Tom since he is a fellow mtn biker and I had heard nothing but good things about his business and his excellent artwork. He totally lived up to my expectations and I would recommend him to anyone. I can't wait until it's fully healed I can can post some pics here.
Now I guess I'm a cyclist for life which is no problem for me. Cycling has changed my life. It's made me healthier in mind and body and I totally plan on being that grey haired or bald old guy that people talk about in the parking lot at the trailhead. "Did you see that old guy out there riding? I can't believe he's still at it."
I'm sure my parents would like to hear me say this is my last tattoo and it may but I can't help but ponder on another idea I have brewing in my head.

Went to the doctor Wed. and I had a good visit. He seemed to think I'm doing better and I feel better, maybe not 100% but I can actually sit here at the computer and type, hence the lack of blogging. I'm not limping and pretty much off the pain killers. I asked him when I could start exercising and he told me no running which sucked but he did say I could do things like cycling and swimming. Did you say cycling? I asked. He said yeah, I said SWEET! Then I proceeded to ask him about racing at the BURN 24 this month and he went whoa! He meant road cycling no mtn biking. CRAP! No mtn biking for at least 6 weeks and no running for a couple of months. That knocks me out of the BURN 24, Blue Plum 5k, Crazy 8's, The Bristol Challenge & the Holston Grind. What a way to start the summer. I'm trying to think positive about all of this, at least I can ride my road bike, the doc did say something funny "easy 25-30 minute rides" what does that mean?
Speaking of bikes I went ahead and bought Melinda a whole new wheel set, same wheels (Mavic Crossrides) but these are a little nicer than her last set and they don't have the goofy UB sidewalls for rim brakes. Who uses rim brakes?
I have been wanting to lose some weight, not that I'm overweight I actually weigh what I'm supposed too for my height and build but I've been wanting to trim down and strengthen my core and upper body so that is what I've decided to focus on. I'm going to try and start eating healthier and eating less, which has been easier since I've not been working out I've been less hungry.
Painting, something I used to do before I got heavily into cycling. Now that I wont be riding my bike as much I think I'm going to try and do some painting this next week. Guess what ideas I have running around in my head right know? Bikes of course.
Today is tattoo day, at least I hope. I haven't seen the new artwork yet and as of Tues there was no artwork but I do have an appointment today at 2 Ton Tat 2 for 3:00. I plan on calling Tom today to see what he's got for me.
I know I promised a few pics from the last CRAWL so here you go.






Alan honoring the mandatory PBR stop




Brandon watering the shrubs






I need one of these on my bike, would a basket look gay?



Scooby & Angie and their new rides



Brad & Sara and the new/old sweet rides

Hope you enjoy!