Podcasting (maybe)

Not sure if this will work but here goes!

Ragbrai photos

2006

In summary

We just got home from our trip and it's late but we have a pizza in the oven and kids in bed so I thought I could give you a little summary of the bike trip.

• Lance Armstrong rides very fast and thinks most Iowans drink a lot.
  
• It continues to be hotter than hell in Iowa. Riding your bike in those weather conditions felt a lot like you were in a pizza oven. A rolling convection pizza oven. Man, it was HOT.
• It was humid. If you're going to camp in Iowa in the last part of July don't expect your clothes or tent gear to ever dry out. Along with that, don't expect to smell okay. It's not possible.
• When you are sweating six quarts of sweat by 9 a.m., one or two Bloody Mary's for breakfast have little impact.
• If I had to choose between having a heart attack peddling uphill and crashing to the pavement going downhill, based on this year's route of hills I'd rather die going downhill.
• Don't decide that Ragbrai would be a good time to learn to use aerobars. It's not.
  

Ragbrai breakfast day 6.

Ragbrai breakfast day 6.
Originally uploaded by Mrs. Bickerson.

Ragbrai day 4: short shorts

Ragbrai day 4: short shorts
Originally uploaded by Mrs. Bickerson.

ragbrai breakfast day 3.

ragbrai breakfast day 3.
Originally uploaded by Mrs. Bickerson.

Patrick

Do you know who this guy is? He is Patrick, friendly sidekick to SpongeBob Squarepants. My kids came home from VBS today with crosses decorated with sand, shells, and (gasp!) previously live/now dead and tiny starfish. "Just like PATRICK, Mom. On SPONGEBOB!"

RAGBRAI packing

• Clothes in Ziplocks in case bags sit in the rain -- Check.
  
• Sunscreen -- Check.
  
• Camera -- Check.
  
• Shower caddy -- Check.
  
• Camp towel (where is my damn camp towel?)
• Benadryl and Sudafed (for sure we will be camped next to a soybean or alfalfa field once or twice) -- Check.
  
• Swim suit -- Check.
• Air mattress -- Check! Whoo hoo we will be sleeping in total comfort this year.
• Bike mirror
• Bike gloves
• Bike shorts
• Bike tops -- Check, check, check. Check.
  
• Bug spray -- Check.
• Book -- Check.
• Shuffle -- Check.
• Cell phone and charger -- Check.
• Bike tools -- Check.
• Running shoes -- Check.
• Refreshing "lavender-scented yoga cleansing wipes" found at Whole Foods. Individually wrapped. -- Check.
• Maps (It's not like it's hard to find where you're going with 15, 000 fellow cyclists, but you gotta have maps) -- Check.
• Dog to kennel -- Check. (We have been so spoiled by leaving Peggy with our neighbor for free. I had no idea what kennel charges are near us. One place STARTS at 37.95/day! So we drive her north to cheaper territory.)
  

Fitness vibe

I have a WAY cheaper version of this. It's called a Lawn Boy (it needs a tune-up -- it can shake your teeth loose) and if Madonna would come over and mow my yard every day and if she could figure out how to mow with her feet ('cause you know she needs a full body workout, not just upper), I could save her $14,000.

BWCA

A different view than our vacation there one month ago.

BWCA fire

Training

I got all worked up today after receiving an email from a friend who has been training for Ragbrai. She has ridden 450 miles in preparation but fears that this might not be enough. Gah!

Mr. Bickerson assured me tonight that I am well-prepared. I trained by riding 20 miles to a brew pub. Twice. Later, we checked the maps and determined there is no distance greater than 2o miles to any given bar on the route. So I must be ready. And I have new aerobars.

Sing, sing a song

You never know what song Hope is going to start singing. Either she watched enough American Idol to memorize the "you're outta here" song or she has paid attention to it when it's been playing in the shuffle dock. Doesn't matter what she sings or where, it's always good for at least three solid minutes of happiness and I can forget momentarily that she kicked a beach ball into the lamp in the living room.

Cause you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You had a bad day

It's hot and humid

This is all you need to know:

Happy National Ice Cream Day!

Go get 'em, Mary!

I'll be thinking cool, fast thoughts for you tomorrow!

Lifetime Triathlon

Epitome of summer camp

It's Hank's job to get on the bus every morning, play nice, and come home. It's my job to empty the lunch bag and get it ready for tomorrow. This is what I cleaned out of it today:



He has a backpack. Heaven knows why he saw fit to put his wet socks in here instead. Where's the common sense?

Cross-training option?

For those of you who have plateaued...

I won't do that again

I spent a nonrefundable portion of my afternoon in the Anoka County Courthouse (don't ask) and I made some observations:

1. There might be more people wearing flipflops in Courtroom 12 than on any given beach in Minnesota.
2. Part of the punishment that goes with having to appear in court is how long they make you sit outside of the Pay Fine Here window until you are called up to pay fine there.
3. A majority of the people waiting to pay their fines seemed to be acquainted with other people who were there to pay their fines (as well as the courthouse employees).
4. In an anecdotal study (n=2) at least 50% sentences are getting lighter: The man sitting next to me asked the man sitting next to him, "What did you get?" And the other man replied, "90 days; 200. What did you get?" And the first man replied, "60 days; 350. Man, I don't get it; my sentences have been getting lighter."
5. If there's any building in Minnesota where people should be allowed to smoke and carry concealed weapons it's a county courthouse.
   

My compulsion

I search for TomKat news almost every day. Gary thinks it's unhealthy, nevertheless I am determined to get to the bottom of this story.

You can thank me later for keeping you informed:

The latest.

Stop harshing my buzz

You, my friend, are supposed to go to camp tomorrow. What's with this let's get a sore throat with the tell-tale white spots on my tonsils the day before I go to camp? Don't you know how much your mother looks forward to camp?
I find this behavior unacceptable.
I guess Team Hank will have to go at least one day without a key player.

The wedding

Hank's run through at home paid off. Hope performed her flower girl duties perfectly. At the end of the service the wedding party walked back up the aisle the way they do in weddings and Hope asked the minister in a very loud voice, "Can I sprinkle the rest of the flowers? 'Cause I got a lot left over!"

Most importantly, it was a beautiful wedding, a beautiful bride and groom, and a hint of a beautiful life together.

Congratulations, Tanya and Anson!

More wedding pictures

Rehearsal

Friday morning

Hank decided that he needed to give Hope some pointers on how the whole wedding ceremony was going to go down. Hope was pretty much focused on the beautiful gown that she was going to get to wear. I could tell that Hank had been giving a lot of thought to the actual flower girl duties. He showed her how to walk down the aisle. He explained how she would sprinkle the flower petals. And he told her that she should be prepared for the fact that the actual wedding would be "WAY scarier" than the reheasal.

"'Cause people are gonna be staring at you Hope. That's what they do at weddings."

Laughter-indooced abdominal pain

If you haven't read this yet you should. Every sentence is funny except for the last paragraph which is very touching.

dooce.com post from July 7, 2006

The best movie ever

We caught the last part of Field of Dreams tonight. I forgot about how much I love the speech given by James Earl Jones' character while Ray's brother-in-law yells at him about selling the farm. Mr. B and I are in agreement that this movie makes our noses run more than other movies do:

People will come, Ray.

They'll come to lowa for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children...longing for the past. "Of course, we won't mind if you look around," you'll say. "It's only $20 per person." They'll pass over the money without even thinking about it. For it is money they have and peace they like.

Ray! Just sign the papers.

Then they'll walk off to the bleachers...and sit in their shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon. They'll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines...where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes...and they'll watch the game...and it will be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick...they'll have to brush them away from their faces.

When the bank opens in the morning, they'll foreclose.

People will come, Ray.

You're broke, Ray. You sell now, or you lose everything.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game. It's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good...and it could be again. People will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.

Soon to have head examined

File this one under: Reason #872 why I might need some kind of therapy some day



The picture you are looking at is our basement shower which, as you can see, has had some duct tape expertly applied to its lower connection point. You might be wondering what the heck happened in the Bickerson's bathroom this evening! I'll tell you what happened. For the last couple of months Hank has been taking showers in the basement and I have been lowering the shower head holder thingy -- with great effort -- so he can be adequately clean. I have silently cursed the builder who installed such a cheapo shower system. So tonight there I was yanking that holder down to Hank's height when it separated from the wall. Damn IT! To boot, we have relatives coming to town to stay with us for my nephew's wedding this weekend. This is their shower. Mr. Bickerson, while irritated, thought it was pretty hilarious that I ripped the shower bar from the wall, laughed heartily at me, and suggested I take a break from weight lifting at the Y.

Here's the why I'm crazy part: He said, "Why didn't you press the button behind the holder to lower it? There's a release button, you know? Or don't you know? How the hell could you not know?"

I don't know how I didn't know. I just assumed we had been stuck with a crapola shower.

Here's the button on the left side:

Bluegrass + Choral Music = ??

The paid portion of the chorus I get to sing with in the fall will perform next year with this group: Monroe Crossing. Who, by the way, played recently at nearby Lutheran church and we missed it. (Dang.)

For the record, my favorite Bluegrass group of all time?

The McPunk Brothers

Fun with Photo Booth

4th of July report

You can find it here:

Pyromania Day

New format

I'd love to figure out how to make this fully functional:

iWeb site

Peggy, come home!

The gate was open in the backyard this afternoon and it appears that our canine friend had a good time sprinting about the neighborhood for about 30 minutes. We called her a few times and she came running with her tongue hanging all the way out, tail wagging like crazy. She had a big smile on her face.

Bicycle time

The fun starts today, and along with it -- the countdown to Ragbrai. Whoo hoo.