What was I thinking?!?!?!?!

So, I bought this road bicycle last fall.....



and fell in LOVE! I *might* love it more than skiing... shhhhh, don't tell Tucker! I had knee surgery 4 weeks ago... did I mention that I'm a type 1 diabetic and have been since my FIFTEENTH BIRTHDAY!!!!!?!??!?! That makes just over 19 years of shots, insulin, glucose tests, A1C tests, doctor's visits, etc. Those of you that know me well know that I normally don't make a big deal of it but it is right now - and it has something to do with BICYCLING!!!!

In August this year I plan on riding the Tour de Cure - I plan on raising over $1000 for the American Diabetes Association. Oh! Did I mention that they hold the BBB Seal Holder. What this means to you is if you donate to me!!!! - the ADA will use your donations responsibly....
**less than 5% of the budget went towards administrative expenses last year!** YEAH!

I have never participated in this type of event before... well, there was one motorcycle ride? I will donate the first $200 (did i just say that?) and the rest is up to you guys! Keep in mind than an insulin pump costs more than $5000 (my insurance has a $1k limit annually on DME (durable medical equipment), thank you Tucker insurance)! There is a woman at my work whose pump is out of warranty and when it fails - so does she, so to speak. The ADA may or may not be able to help her out - and we have GREAT insurance!

My website can be found at http://main.diabetes.org/goto/KarynBrown

Please donate!!!! My training started this week and I'm sorta looking forward to riding more than 60 miles with others in red jerseys (I'm on team Red Riders - we ALL have diabetes!). I'll post a picture on ride day which isn't until Aug. 22. My personal goal is $1000 right now (hoping to increase that based on participation!) and my team is looking to raise $750,000!!!!!! *please remember that your gifts are tax deductible and I can provide a receipt if required!*

I am SO excited to be riding after the last month of no, no, no, and no from the docs and physical therapists!

Donate soon (and often!) Make my $200 MORE, MORE, MORE, MORE!!!!

~karyn


oh! and the deck... still no stairs but an updated pic!

The pond is open!!!

A few weeks back, at the closing of Vail, I had a bunch of friends signed up for the pond skim... If you recall the weather came in that day, and the skim was postponed... I ended up taking one of the spots for someone who couldn't participate...

Well I have some links up on youtube. Take a moment to visit...
The skimming

The aftermath



But the story didn't start there... Every spring under the Lenaway lift, a pond opens. Today the pond was open...




























Here you can see someone skimming on camera!!! I've skied days at Arapahoe Basin in the spring with Harry (who visited the ER after the Vail event) skimming every run... That's where you learn skim.

There was a fair bit of carnage today. One fella skied down fast and just before entering jumped to switch. He only made it about 3 feet into the water before the cartwheel... A few others face planted, tipped over and just plain sank... It was all in good fun...

David, ski season isn't over... Let's head up and get a few skims in before the end of the season!

More Home improvement

Well I can't edit the post Karyn put up with the pictures, but I suppose I can add comments to it. ;)

The Deck really feels like a deck now. It's great to just walk out the back door on to the deck with a handful of grilling food, stable as can be. Avoiding the walk down the rickety wobbly stairs that used to head down to the rock below with two hands full of items just begging to fall to the ground...

But... It's still a project unfinished. We have yet to build stairs... The deck is on the East end of the house, and the first set of stairs will exit East of the deck. 11 feet wide in fact, and eventually drop you on a rock patio of some kind which will lead you to the garage. The second set of stairs will exit South in the nook next to the house, again to some sort of landscaping not yet decided.

We will eventually put deck boards around the exterior of the deck for a pretty finish!

The tile shows some hard work (Mostly on Karyn's account) finishing the transition from the old wood floor in the living room to the new wood floor in the Kitchen. We will eventually re-do the entire house in wood flooring, but for the time being we have this little transition point. Obviously you can see the walls still have some finishing to be done.

Next weekend? Memorial day? I think I'll be working on the stairs for the Deck. Karyn and I already have 4 hours into cutting the stringers which you can see in the pile.

More Home improvement

Again, not many words, just pictures....

The deck takes shape

No descriptions for this one.. just pictures. You'll get the idea. This was yesterday and we've been inside tiling today thanks to some crappy weather but will get those pics up soon as well.... here's yesterday!

Summer is here!

It is absolutely beautiful outside right now! The sun is up at 6am when I get up and up when we get home around 6pm! What a change - and a refreshing one at that. I, Karyn, am getting anxious to see the doctor on Monday to see what she says about me commuting to work via bicycle and train once again. I can't wait! Also, I've been reading and a possible closing day ski run might happen as well - with her approval, of course!

A friend of mine and I decided to support each other and lose some weight! I always gain 15 pounds with knee surgery so the idea is NOT to do that this time and maybe lose some at the same time. I was shocked when I weighed in to find out that I was already 10 over my norm, 1 week after surgery. so, less calories... more exercise is difficult to do right now but Tucker has joined in to support me - I'm sure he'll end up more fit than I will!

This weekend may be the building of the deck weekend - finally! The lumber was delivered on October 1st and has been sitting in the backyard waiting to be used for 7 LONG months! I will post pics of the deck when it is built but for now... a pile of lumber... it will get better, I promise!

Cinco de Mono

Skiing was great over the weekend. It was pretty warm, but we still managed to get sunshine, rain and snow!

I'm not sure how Karyn survived, she managed to sleep most of both days, and all night on every night. We bought a new tent to put up on the beach, it was only used by Karyn for a couple hour nap.

2" fresh Saturday, warmed up in the afternoon. About 3-4" Sunday. we were about 8 skiers each day.

Nobody took pictures, I got a small amount of video, but nothing to post yet...