Taken This Broken Wing and Learn to Fly...

This morning was a great day to see flowers and dogs during my bike ride. I rode down to North Cherry Creek. I usually go to Whole Foods and have something to drink then head back home. Today there seemed to be a fire on the roof of the building. The alarm was sounding, the employees were in the parking lot and the fire hoses were connected to the fire hydrant. I skipped that scene and rode around looking at the preparations for the Cherry Creek Arts Festival that will happen this weekend. Along the way I got to pet a Harlequin Great Dane, a geriatric poodle and a set of cocker spanail puppies. The flowers were in all their glory, especially the mums and those in the daisy family.

I thought you might be interested in seeing what is happening in my PhotoShop CS3 class. Here is my midterm project and most of the photos I used to get there. The class is still kicking me in the butt, but it is getting easier. It is a rendition of "Blackbird" by The Beatles. Creating it was sort of like trying to sew in the wind. I knew where I wanted to go artistically, but not knowing the progrma as readily I a wish I did made the process clunky. I still enjoyed it although it was difficult and I did not end up with what I wanted. I do like what I ended up with.

Pit Master "Bubba" & Star Struck

We have some friends who used to live in Chicago, but now live here. Denise and Peter are theater folk. Kennedy, Denise's daughter, goes to AVS with my kids and she is also a coach on our bike team. One of the most fun things about Denise is her love of cooking. When you eat at her house you always enjoy what is being served. This summer she decided to have a go at a BBQ contest. Thus, she is working on her recipes and needed some feedback. Lucky us, we were invited to critique her food. Her specialty is smoking just about anything you can think of. And she likes her stuff H-O-T! In Chicago she earned the nickname, "Pit Master Bubba." This time around was amazing and wonderful. She made four smoked chickens that had nice of tenderness and smokiness. The three racks of ribs were popular, too. She covered them with a smear of Dijon mustard and a secret spice mix she creates. Next up were the baked beans she finished in the smoker. They were lovely, too, but a bit spicy. Once I had those I had to wait for my palette to clear. It only took three glasses of water to get there. Okay, where were we? Oh yes, there were spicy deviled eggs, but not being an eggy sort I skipped those. Next was the smoked brisket with homemade BBQ sauce. It was Ethan's favorite because of the flavor. Denise decided that it would have to go back to the drawing table as it was too dry. I have to say, I agreed with her on that. Next was my favorite, the special secret Smoked Mac'n'Cheese. This bad boy has nothing to do with the stuff in the blue box. This one was made with two very adult type cheese, assembled and finished in the smoker. It was velvety, with about three layers of flavor, each cheese being distinct in turn. Finally we had Pulled Pork Sandwiches with a vinegar based sauce and a coleslaw with a Denise flavor signature. I never knew that the proper way to eat a pulled pork sandwich was to start with a bread base, add the meat, dribble on some sauce on and top it with the cole slaw. It was WONDERFUL and hands down, the favorite. It was a flavor treat. You would have the texture of the meat and the smokey aroma meat your mouth first. Then the zip of the sauce and finally the cool crunchiness of the slaw. Oh man! I've included some photos here, along with my friends Laura (with Soji) and Anna (with Tilly.) Steven, the little boy who lives there was a bit enamoured and confused since the dogs are little and extremely soft. He was thinking he needed to "meow" at them.These are the same pups that we camped with. As you can see, Soji knows how to "ham" it up for the camera.

Monday Ellie begged and convinced me to take her to meet singer Natasha Bedingfield. She, along with The Veronicas and Kate Voegele were signing poster and greeting fans. Ellie had hoped to win tickets. It was fine with me that we did not win any. She had on her pants from the "Panic at the Disco" concert and asked the ladies to sign them. It makes her feel zippy. She called her friends and told them that she met someone famous.

That evening my son granted a small wish of mine and made the first backyard fire of the season. We celebrated by making some Jiffy Pop Popcorn and enjoyed the sounds of nature.

Boy Scouts of America -Big Horn Leadership Camp

As you work your way through Boy Scouts more and more cool oportunities become available to you. Ethan has been in Scouts since he was five years old. One fun opportunity that he got this year was to attend the Big Horn Leadership Camp that takes place for a week at the Tahosa Camp near Ward, Colorado. Each year only 2 boys from our troop get selected and invited to go.

We dropped him off after the race last Sunday and picked him up yesterday. He had an absolute blast. They were put into patrols. He was in the green patrol. They set up camp, did duties (such as meal prep. and clean up) and activities together. They had lessons about group behavior, leadership, personality management, conflict management, and so on. They got to go GeoCaching, go on Outpost (camping on their own without the adults hanging around), they got to build a ballistrate ( like a catapult) and many other things. Ethan says that he is glad that he learned so much. He is sure that it will help him be a better leader. When we arrived they were not yet ready so we waited in the wings while they cleaned up. Then we got to go through elements of their days. We had a flag ceremony complete with patrol yells and fob awards (these are like little, often silly, awards that they give each other.) Then we went up to the campfire site. Along the hike there were twelve posts, each one with an element of the Scout Law on it, "brave, trustworthy..." and the like. A boy was at each post doing a Scout salute. It was pretty neat. Then we got a small show. We saw silly skits and sang many songs. They they did a graduation ceremony. They said that some of them might receive an invitation to be on staff in the future. Ethan hopes that he gets to be part of that. His favorite staff member was a Matt. Matt will be on staff during the second week next year so that is the week Ethan would hope to be part of. He was not as tired or dirty as I expected him to be. We missed him but knew that he was having a grand time. It is really something to see my boy growing up.

Yeti Factory Tour

Last Wednesday was Bike to Work day. Our friend Bill helped organize the event. One of the things he helped put together were breakfast stations where people could stop for a bike and a drink on their way to work. Over 30,000 people were registered and even more took part in the event. The grand prize was a Yeti bicycle. Thursday we got to visit where they are constructed. It was very cool to see how they make their bikes. I was expecting a more factory looking place but in fact it was all very simple stuff. Each bike is made by hand. The frames are constructed by Shaggy. They are then sent out to be powder coated and then sent back to be assembled. Shaggy can make 3-5 frames in a day, depending on which bike style he is working on. He says the order in which the items are welded together is very important. The molecules in metal are arranged in a sort of wood grain like fashion. When the metal is welded the molecules migrate to different sections of the metal. They move back as it cools. If you weld things in the wrong order they will more around once cooled and result in an ill fit. Once it is all together it is then "cooked" for at least 8 hours in something that looks like a pizza oven. This ages the metal and makes it strong. He says that cheap bikes are not aged, making the metal more brittle. We also got to meet Jason, a young man who is competing in the BMX Olympic trials. Some of the bikes shown in these photos were used by people who own other Olympic and World Cup races. Yeti is best known for their mountain bikes, but they make other excellent ones as well. They run about $4,800 or more, depending on what components you have on it. It was very interesting to see.

The Kindness of Corporate Sponsors and Those Who Support Junior Athletes

After the last few long rides and races Ellie's knee began to hurt. The harder she rode, the more it hurt. In fact, it was so bad that she would be nearly in tears by the time the adrenaline from racing wore off. We needed to fix the problem. We started out with Bruce repositioning Ellie's cleat. Then we went to practice last Thursday and were luck enough to get new and wonderful cycling shoes from Pearl Izumi, a high quality sports company. They donated a lot of brand new shoes to support junior cycling. Some kids got some, some did not. It all had to do with shoe size. We had Bruce switch out the cleats to the new shoes and that did the trick. I was thankful that something as simple as bigger shoes and a different cleat position could fix this big problem. I will be writing them a thank you note to tell them how happy we are to have the new shoes. (Ethan got mountain biking shoes) I hear that they rarely get positive feedback and would be happy to know that they did good.

Sunday was the Colorado Junior Road Racing Championship. It was a hot day and a tough course. It began at the CSU Hughes stadium, when up around Horsetooth Reservoir and back down. While it was only about 14+ miles, it was hard worn with three steep hill climbs on the course. When we drove the course there were two times when my accelerator was all the way to the floor and we were still going slow. The kids did GREAT! Ethan came in around the middlish of the pack, which was great for him. Ellie finished third place and was thrilled. She must have nearly flown up those hills.

Nursery Rhyme Remix in Photoshop

In my Photoshop class today we were placed into groups and asked to do a nursery rhyme remix/mash-up. Between five of us we had prepared for three different stories. My self and one other person chose "The Owl & The Pussy Cat" (not actually a nursery rhyme - but that's okay.) Two more had "Hey Diddle, Diddle" and Sean wanted,. "Pocket Full of Six Pence." We were asked to rewrite the story and illustrate it. The clincher was that we only had about two hours in which to get it all done. Here's what we came up with:



Pea Green Boat & The Animals Unite

The Owl and the Pussy Cat wanted to get to the sea
In a beautiful pea green boat.

The Cat played the fiddle
To keep the King in the middle
And the Owl flew away with the fee.

The cow did his part
With all of his heart
To make a scene
To distract the Queen.

So the Spoon could make a start
While the Dog made his way towards the Tart.

The Orr Brothers & Other Miscellaneous Days

So, where did I leave off? Oh, yes, the races in Glenwood Springs. After much reflection during Saturday evening and not such great biking results both of the kids made plans on how to improve.

Sunday morning was as beautiful as the last and the kids had a bit of time since they did not race until the afternoon. Ellie and Anna putz around and left a bit early so that could go into town before hand. Ethan and Ari decided that they MUST rent a boat. We discussed the day's schedule and off they went. They were supposed to be gone for only 45 minutes. An hour flew by. They did not return so I went to the dock to wait for them. An other hour later and they were sill not back. By this time I was MAD, madder than I can remember being in YEARS! I could not understand why they had not returned. "Okay," I thought to myself, "the boys could have lost track of time or they might have misgauged how long it takes to row back. " At that point I was anxious. If we did not leave right then Ethan would not make it to the race in time and I would not be there to support Ellie in her race. Where they blowing me off? I was also sad and conflicted. How long do I wait? What if they are hurt? What should I do? I was thankful that Ellie had the foresight to go to town with Anna and Davis. She would race, even if I was not there to cheer her on. It got to the point where I could not wait any longer. I had the awards and duties to attend to. I walked backwards off of the dock, hoping to see them come around the bend.

It may have in fact be best that Ethan was not with me for that ride into town - it would have been a BIG fight. I was fuming! When I got to the race Ellie's group was already lined up and ready to go. I made it with two minutes to spare. She started out slow and then pulled out her big attack. Each lap of the crit. showed her in a better position. When there was just one lap to go she put on her jet pack and sprinted the remaining 1/4 mile, flying happily into 3rd place. We stopped in for ice cream to celebrate her great results.

By the time we were headed home I had decided what some of the consequences would be. Since the camp is in the remote wilderness I still did not know what made them late. The coach was going to have him clean bikes at the next practice. He also suggested that I make him pay for the gas for the entire trip, or at least the extra gas I would use up going back up to camp again. However, once we arrived I learned that I had not been blown off. The boys had run into problems when their oar lock broke. They had to use the paddle and spin their way (against a head wind) to shore. They tried to get help but no one on the lake had a boat big enough to help them. Laura said it took them three hours to paddle back and that they looked like a teacup ride at an amusement park as they made their way to shore. I was relieve to find out that they were okay and that they had not been thoughtless.

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This last Saturday we did not have a bike race so we took the opportunity to sleep in. After a leisurely start we headed to the farmer's market in Cherry Creek. I was hoping for some nice veggies and maybe a bit of fresh basil. The kids and I had a grand time, as always. There was a man playing the pan flute, the smell of freshly made tortillas and tamales. There were the flower vendors, the Hawaiian Shaved Ice and the folks that sell hand made goods. We sampled flavored whipped cream (AMAZINGLY GOOD!) and had some baklava. Later we had grilled sausages. We were enticed by the handmade soap lady and when home with several bars. Ellie picked out "Freckle Face" a nice blue bar of spearmint and peppermint. She also selected "Lemonade" which is made of lemon essence and chamomile. Ethan elected to by a Tea Tree Clay bar that smelled like motor oil to me. It is for deep cleaning. My boy when for that manly odor - no spicey or fruit undertones for him. He loves it. I selected "Peppermint Pumice." We are very happy with what we have. We were having all of the grand parents over for dinner so we picked out some lovely veggies and in the end I succumbed to the cut flower temptation when I purchased a big punch of Canterbury Bells. As we sat by the river before we headed home Ethan remarked how fun it had been. He says, "Mom, do you think this is what farmer's markets are like in France?"