Tuesday, March 25, 2008

House Photos





Long over due..but here are some photos. FYI, the house was in good shape whe we bought it but needed some updating....may have gone over board on this one!
Enjoy!

Crash #$%^!

Well, The affair with my bike took a bumpy ride last week. I was being a super green urbanite and biking from my office downtown to our TNT practice at Green Lake, about 4 miles, in the rain a had my first real bike wreck. The super skinny road tires don't handle the urban environment that well and I hit a metal plate at the wrong angle and my front tire just flew out from under me. I didn't even have a chance to yell out an obscene comment, just bit the pavement hard. Luckily I was on the sidewalk and not in traffic where a car would have run me over. My super quick reflexes kicked in and I un-clipped from my pedals on the way down (I have no idea how that really happened). It was a very minor accident looking back on it...but at the time I was sure that I broke my knee...if that is even possible? Anyway, about 3 minutes of extreme pain and my poor friend trying to soothe me, I was able to get back on the bike and continue to practice where we then ran hills for over an hour...did I mention it was raining? Now I have a nice bruise to gross people out with and a slightly dented knee cap. Luckily, my body took most of the fall and the bike has a very minor scratch on the brake lever...which looks hard core and cool anyway. I'm going to try the same route tonight but will pay great attention to any metal plates on the sidewalks. (I don't generally bike on the sidewalks , but the only way to safely cross the Freemont bridge is to take the sidewalk / bike path....just fyi)
Other than that, training is going well. Last week really bumped the running time up to over an hour and the only way I would have mentally been up for that was with the team, so Go Team!

Brazil is now even more lame than ever, she gets better then worse then better...who knows really. The vet will be back out this week to try and figure out what is going on and of course to drain the bank account.

The house is going well, most of the electrical wire is replaced and all the demolition is complete, yeah!!! I hate demo! And, we have a toilet again, thanks to me. I promise to post photos tonight.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Spring?

Brrr...freezing out this week. The cold weather is putting a damper on my new love affair with my bike. Last weekend I road 19 miles around Mercer Island and then ran 2.5 miles for my second brick work out. I LOVE my bike, love love love. I also had a professional bike fitting which made a huge difference. I will never yell at Jared again for going out on long bike rides, I totally get it now. Move over Brazil, there's a new love in my live. (Brazil is my horse)

Speaking of horse, poor thing has been lame for 2 weeks now. Not sure what the exact problem is, but will have x-rays done at the end of the week if she's not doing better. Again, bike breaks, bike gets fixed...so much more simple than these 4 legged creatures that don't speak english and cost a fortune.

The remodel on the house is going super slow right now. Jared and I haven't had much time or energy lately, but hope to get things cranking again this weekend. (I blame it on the time change and cold weather) We are waiting for the new windows to arrive in 2 weeks before we can hang drywall and do the tile work. Cabinets are also going to be on order soon and thankfully will not require any work by us...aka no Ikea (not that I don't love Ikea)

My fund raising has hit a serious road block. Not seeing much activity in the donation department this week. I desperately need to raise $500 by the end of the month to cover my re-commitment costs. I do have a silent art auction event in the works and will post the date and location once that gets figured out.

whew, better get back to work.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

New bike!

My training has officially kicked off with the purchase of a new bike! It's not the same bike I've been waiting for, but it's a comparable bike and woman specific which fits better anyway.
Here's the website, the color is lipstick red, which is very cool.
http://www.feltracing.com/08/product.asp?catid=1504,1508&pid=8690
Our practice last weekend was a 'brick'. That's were you combine running and biking...not at the same time. I ran one mile, bike 13 and then ran..er walked one more mile. The bike ride was great, a loop around Mercer Island which has fun hills and lots of curves. Great place to break in the new bike. Sunday we swam (in a pool) and I was in lane 6, which is the fast lane! Jared was only in lane 3, the slow lane...hehhhehe. That just means he wants more help and I just like to get out and swim.
After the work outs on Sat. and Sun. we immediately started working on the house. Saturday we bought all our new kitchen appliances at a warehouse liquidation sale, serious savings!!! Then loaded a 16' moving truck with construction debris. Sunday we took 2.5 tons of debris to the dump and then recycled what we could. I felt really bad putting all that stuff into a landfill, but not sure how else to do it? This week we are working on re-wiring the house and then will start putting it back together again. busy busy busy.
I will post photos soon.....

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Another Sunny Day

We have had 4 days of sun shine in Seattle, whoo hooo. This seems to happen every Feb. 2 nice weeks and then back to the winter drab. I can't complain though, it's a great place to live. Today I send out a mass email for my first drive of the fund raising effort. I'm also starting to plan 2 fund raisers, which combined will hopefully get me pretty close to my goal of $5,600. Seems that I didn't link my TNT site correctly, so here it is again http://www.active.com/donate/tntwaak/katieschiller

The training is starting to ramp up too, 3 practices this week and so far I've only managed to run once on my own unless you count scraping popcorn ceilings as exercise! I've also found the bike of my dreams, a Cervello Soloist Team, but it's not going to be here until mid March. Total bummer, all this sunshine and no kick ass bike to ride!!! You can check out at this link http://www.cervelo.com/bikes.aspx?bike=SLT2008 it's so beautiful, matt dark grey with a simple graphic, love it and it's not too expensive in the land of road bikes. I do have my commuter bike which is perfectly capable of going on longer rides, but not nearly as much fun.

On the home front, we are making good progress with the new house. The closing went off with out a hitch, thanks to our amazing real estate agent Renee, and we have started the remodel process. My dad flew in last Saturday and we put him right to work. So far this week we have scraped off all the nasty popcorn ceiling which contained asbestos and meant that we had to wear space suites and respirators, no fun. Next is painting all the ceilings and walls that aren't going to be demo'd this weekend. I think the place hasn't been painted since 1970, there are ghost marks where the picture frames used to be. Saturday we'll give Jared a sledge hammer and let him go to town on the kitchen and bathroom. Then it's time for new electrical and plumbing which will also start next week. Good thing it's a tiny house!
Oh, and the dogs love their new back yard. Miles spent the first night marking the entire fence line.

I'll post photos this weekend to keep you up on the fun.

Friday, February 15, 2008

First blog ever!

Howdy, this is my first posting on my new training blog. It was soooo easy to set up. As most of you know I am participating in Team in Training this year and going to compete in the King's trail triathlon in Maui. I'll track my progress here and try to post every week. I'll also include other happenings about my life including the new house/ remodel that Jared and I just bought on and of course the latest on the critters.

Check out my TNT website http://www.active.com/donate/tntwaak/katieschiller. You can go to this website and make donations with a simple click of a button. Don't you love the internet!