The STP, a quilt & a grill.

What has merryheathre been doing, you may be wondering... Well, I have been training for the STP, but not nearly as much as I should have. Turns out, it's very boring and it takes a very long time to ride 60 miles on your bike by yourself. The BIG EVENT is this weekend and I'm sorta ready. My philosophy is that in endurance events (and this is DEFINITELY an endurance event) it's almost more mental than physical, so I'm trying not to freak out. I keep asking people to tell me "You're going to be fine. You won't die. You'll have fun! You'll meet people to ride with."

It's sort of working.

Now last weekend, I was looking for things to do to avoid riding my bike, so I got some quilting done! And will you look at this:

It's the center of the quilt of merryheathreness, which I showed you here eons ago.

Finally, I'd like to say a little something in defense of my Le Creuset skinny grill pan. I did a google search on how to use the thing and I found numerous sites with people detailing why they don't love the pan, threatening to send it to Goodwill, ebay, etc. Well, I used mine for veggie burgers on the 4th, and it was GREAT! I got it as hot as possible without it smoking. Then, I placed the burger on for a good amount of time, turned it over, and voila! Nice little grill marks, nothing stuck!

I used olive oil spray on the pan, and on the burger (because the burgers don't have much fat in them). The sheen that's left there is from numerous burgers... :)

So, I am speaking up in support of the Le Creuset skinny grill pan! I think it's awesome! I'm going to use it again and again! Take that, you haters!

Okay. I'm going to pack for my ride to my death Portland.

Well, I am soaked. Or rather, I would be, if I had not stripped down to my underwear the moment I entered my front door.

I'm trying to figure out who I can blame - and where it all started... It might be my brother, who loves to ride bikes. It might be the citizen committee I staff, dedicated to non-motorized transportation. It might be that I need to lose a few pounds.

Whatever it is, I am training for the Seattle to Portland. I am freaked out, because apparently that's a REALLY long way.

And, I spent my ride home from work today blinking the rain out of my eyes and hoping that I'm not the body type that bulks up from exercise. I really don't want to end up looking like this:

Champion, from The Triplets of Belleville, one of the best animated movies of all time.

What Should I Read Next?

So, my parents got me a Kindle for Christmas - you may recall, as I posted a cover that I made for it here earlier. Also, I made a resolution (that I also posted here) to alternate between fiction and non-fiction books this year. BTW, this has been fun. I've been despairing a bit of fiction, though, since I can only read one before I go back to non-fiction and it seems like it's hard to know whether or not you're going to get a good book. Therefore, I googled "book recommendations". The first link was What Should I Read Next? and I am enamored of it.

It's simple - you type in the title of a book that you like and it gives you books that other people who like that book like. It is similar to Amazon's recommendations, except here people make their own lists of books they own, not just books that they also purchased.

I just spent a good hour and a half typing in all the books I could think of that I loved and then looking at the recommendations. I now have a pretty good idea of a few books I'd like to read next... It lived up to its name!

I signed up... Now comes the real challenge.

I did it! I bit the bullet and got out my credit card. Now I'm going to ride my bike back to work and start getting used to being "in the saddle". It's 80% sold out, so if you're going to join me, sign up now! For more info on the STP, go here.

I've missed you...

I've been remiss in this, my seemingly easiest of New Feb's Rezzies. So, as a peace offering:




P.S. You may have to go to youtube to watch it in all it's glory, and I do recommend it.

Weekly Post

I saw lots of really cool things today. Alas, I did not get pictures of any of them. But! Have no fear, I will recreate them here:

I saw baby ducks and a grown up duck. Aha! Upon google image searching, I do believe I saw goslings and a goose because the babies were quite yellow and the adult was really big in comparison to the babies. This is a close approximation:

I also saw a train-full of tractors. There were at least 30 identical tractors. There could have been 50. I was getting on the ferry in Edmonds, but had to wait for the train to go by and they were on some of the middle cars, all perfectly aligned with each other.

I also saw (fine, I broke one of my new feb's rezzies and bought) some really cute fabric! It's called Hideaway by Lauren & Jessie Jung for Moda. I got a half yard of the chalet fabric on bottom, a quarter of the teeny-tiny deers in the middle, and a quarter of the dot fabric on the right (but with a white background). I love it.

Also, while I was at the quilt shop, the ladies working there LOVED my kindle cover and said I should write patterns. I thought - "hey! that's a great idea!" So, there we go. Another back up career if this whole engineering thing ends up being too much of a drag for me.

The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful day!

P.S. I haven't forgotten about NYC. Someday - maybe even soon - I will post more.

New Feb's Rezzies

Well, New Year's passed me by without much fanfare, so I've decided to make New February Resolutions. I'll follow them (or at least try) for the next year - so here goes!

1. Read at least one non-fiction book for every fiction book read.
2. No purchasing new fabric, paper, stamps, ribbon, stickers, etc. (Exception: Items needed to finish projects that I own the majority of the supplies.)
3. Go on one date per month - at least.
4. Blog weekly or more.
5. Ride the Seattle to Portland - sign ups are today!

Other things I'm thinking about - Cleaning? Eating better? Being on time? Did any of you make new's years resolutions? How are they going?