Qingdao and Zu Cheng

My colleague Terri and I made the flight to and from Qingdao (pronounced "ching dow") without incident. After the one hour flight, the company with whom we were meeting had a driver at the airport to pick us up. It was about a 1.5 hour drive from Quindao to Zu Cheng (pronounced like it looks!) to the food processing plant.

I don't think Chinese drivers are much worse than Greek or Italian drivers, but they certainly are right up there! There's a lot of passing into oncoming traffic, sometimes even two lanes over into oncoming traffic! Lots of horn-honking too. Not irate, yelling and gesturing horn-honking like in Italy though. This was more like just letting the driver your passing know that you're passing as well as the three vehicles coming straight at you in the oncoming lane! Since they are always in the oncoming traffic lane, the horn is constantly honking.

The drive between Qingdao and Zu Cheng was quite rural with lots of farmland. There were dried up corn stalks piled up everywhere. When asked, our host explained that the stalks will be tilled back into the fields as fertilizer for next years' crop. Most of the ones stacked up right on the side of the highway would be hauled off by folks as fuel for the winter. We saw every kind of "vehicle" you can imagine on the roads and stopping to pick up the stalks. The 3-wheeled truck is quite popular out here. Kind of like the little ones on Crete, Greece, but these are much bigger.

There was a ton of construction on the roads going on, but all by hand. No kidding, they are building and repairing roads without large equipment like back in the States. There were large gaggles of people wearing road construction vests and regular old clothes with shovels and rakes paving roads with a wheelbarrow. The guy sleeping in the three-wheel truck was a road worker. It looks like napping by road workers is universal!! Dumptruck size loads of dirt and rocks were sitting in the middle of two lane highways without any markers or detours. Common sense dictated that drivers would go around a large obstacle in the middle of the road! It's amazing how few incidents we witnessed on roads that have no stop signs and right of ways seem to be understood but not posted.

One of the more amusing sights on the roads was street sweepers. Not street sweepers like back home, but again, a large gaggle of people with road constructions vests actually sweeping the road with homemade brooms. We traveled for miles down roads out in the middle of nowhere with a whole bunch of these street sweepers out doing their thing. Notice the street sweepers mode of transportation on the right side of the picture (a large trike bicycle). Those things and old motorcycle/bikes with engines were everywhere!

I don't want to go into much detail about our meetings today since this is a competitive environment (plus yall know I don't like to talk about work on this blog!). Suffice it to say that our Chinese counterparts were educated in the States and seemed quite comfortable doing business with two very direct, American women! Not only did we not create any international incidents, our meetings were very successful and we made new friends to boot! We were treated to a huge, fancy, traditional lunch about which I will do a whole other post on later!

After just having had a one hour full body message for only 260 RMB (32 US dollars), I am totally relaxed and ready for bed. Tomorrow is another day of meetings and activities (here in Beijing), so I need to get a good nights sleep! Until tomorrow. . .

Ni Hao (hello) again Beijing!

Once again, I made it across the ocean! Actually, our flight route took us from San Francisco, up the west coast, over Alaska, across the Russian peninsula, then down to Beijing (not much ocean beneath the plane!). The 7500 miles equated to 3 flights (Colorado Springs to Denver to San Francisco to Beijing). The journey took 20 hours of flight and layover times. Once we arrived, we had an introductory dinner and a presentation. I felt so bad for the folks who presented to us that first night. As a frequent presenter, I know how painful it is to present to a group of people who are not in the best frame of mind for receiving information!

I apologize for not having more pictures to post, but we were inside all day for a Chinese Cultural Immersion course. In a nut shell, I learned that my whole personality conflicts with Chinese and Asian culture! Modesty is preferred over self-confidence, individualism is frowned upon, direct eye contact and a firm handshake implies aggressiveness and is therefore unacceptable, punctuality is not emphasized, and relationships are much more important than outcomes (process- instead of goal-oriented)! Since Chinese prefer to do business with people they know, part of conducting business here is engaging in lots of small talk to get to know each other. What Americans consider as unprofessional and excessive “small talk”, the Chinese consider an essential part of doing business. We also learned that if we are comfortable during an encounter, we aren’t doing it right. We should be displaying so much respect and modesty that it is uncomfortable for us as Americans! Now, I’m from the South and was raised saying “yes mam” and “no sir” and learned respect and courtesy in the military as well as at home, but it’s so overboard here it really is uncomfortable! I have to say though, China’s history is longer than just about anyone’s, so obviously, this culture works to some degree! I have to admit that I do like the emphasis on teamwork though, and the attention to detail given to the process to achieve a goal.

Having learned all this yesterday, I’m a little nervous of how I will conduct myself in business meetings today! I am catching a cab to the airport at 6:00 a.m. with a colleague to fly to Qingdao (about an hour’s flight south of Beijing), having meetings, then flying back to arrive in Beijing by 7:30 p.m.

For those of you who follow my blog regularly, you may recognize the first pollution picture. We are staying in the Hilton again and these were taken out of my hotel window yesterday. The first daylight shot is of the sun coming up over Beijing at about 7:00 a.m. I know the next one is dark, but look at the specks in the picture. No, the pic was not taken through the window; I actually opened the small window and stuck the camera outside. The specks are particulate matter/ pollution reflecting the flash from my camera. There is a ton of construction going on in this city and the air is filled with construction dust as well as pollution.

OK, sorry not much pictures or fun stuff to report today! Hopefully I won’t offend anyone or cause an international incident today and will be able to post more tonight or tomorrow!!

A Southerner's version of hell

See my car in the picture? See the car with the door frozen shut this morning?! I was so mad I could've spit nails! Of course I'm running late for work as it is, and realize I need to let my car run for at least 20 minutes before I can leave. So I get out of the shower, with my hair still wet, throw on some clothes and gingerly make my way on the iced over sidewalk to my car to start it. Good thing I shoveled the walk last night or I would've been hiking through at least 6 inches of snow instead of sliding on ice. It's 19 degrees and there's so much ice on the lock, I can't get the key in it. The passenger door is no good because that door handle has been broken for years and you can only open the passenger side from the inside. Gingerly tread my way across the icy sidewalk again, tromp snow all through my house, find the BBQ pit lighter and go back out to the car to melt the ice around the lock.

Mission accomplished, I get the key in the lock. After much jiggling of the key, I feel the lock let go. Break more ice off the handle, press the handle and pull. . . nothing! The door won't budge. Are you kidding me?! Go through whole procedure again. . . still nothing. Lots of cursing and swearing, regain composure, put lighter next to lock a little longer. . . nothing. I take a deep breath and whisper to myself "just walk away".

Call my friend Robyn who lives a couple of miles away (and close enough to walk to work) to see if she'll come get me. She's from New York, she'll know how to drive in this crap. OK, she says, let me get my car started and warmed up. In the mean time, my other friend Lance calls to say he's already pulled three people out from being stuck with his pickup truck and he's only half way to work. Should he stop and pick me up? Unless you want to hear about how I put my boot through my car door, yeah! Call Robyn to tell her to turn off her car and go ahead and walk to work.

Lance couldn't help but gloat when he pulled up at my house (he's from Nebraska and thinks this weather is perfect!). All I could say was "I just don't belong here." Along the streets on the way to work it looked like a hurricane had passed. There were broken trees and branches everywhere, including on people's roofs and fences. The snow was so heavy and wet, it split some trees right in half. The snow had already started to melt late yesterday afternoon, so there was only about 6 inches in front of my house this morning (see picture with sidewalk shoveled).

Today was much nicer outside, mid to upper 50s with a crisp blue sky. Lot's of water running everywhere and everything soaked and soggy. As you can see from the last pic, the clouds that were left made an amazing sunset tonight.

I have to leave my house at 4:30 a.m. tomorrow for my flight to Beijing, so I went out and opened the car door tonight just to make sure it would be OK for tomorrow morning. Not sure if cabs run at that time of the morning and that's a lot to ask of a friend, so I'm hoping for the best in the morning! I've decided that this climate is for rich people. People who can afford a garage, a car that you can start from inside, two closets full of appropriate clothes to layer, and expensive winter sports that require lift tickets, ice time, or snowmobiles. I obviously don't belong here!

I know, I know. . . enough complaining about the weather! Stay tuned, the next post should be from Beijing. Until then, send warm and patient thoughts my way!

Where's the nieces & nephews when you need them?!

Around 5:00 p.m. I went outside to shovel my walk and driveway so I'll be able to get my car out tomorrow morning. We got 12-16 inches here in Colorado Springs, but it had just stopped snowing and was actually melting already. As I shoveled the steps leading to my front door, I realized that Bridie had a great idea about the snowman building. This snow was wet and stuck together really well. OK, I'll just shovel my way to the car, then build a snowman.

With an elevated heartrate 30 minutes later and the car still not freed, I decided that this may be good snowman building snow, but it was also HEAVY! My back is still tight as I'm writing this blog post!! Needless to say, once I got the car free and the sidewalk cleared, I wasn't interested in building a snowman anymore (and it was dark). I went outside with an optimistic attitude that maybe this could be fun. Let's just say there's absolutely no chance of me converting from a beach to a mountain person! It looked great out the window, but turned out to be a whole lot of work once I got outside!

I will concede, however, that this could've been a fun afternoon with Gavin, Julia, Philip, and Andy here. And I would've had some help with the shoveling!!!

I heard on the radio earlier that 15,000 homes in the Spring area is without electricity and may not get it back until tomorrow. Luckily, mine is not one of those homes. So, I pulled some gumbo out the freezer and I'm warm and toasty in my house. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for my flight out of here on Saturday morning. Stay tuned. . .

My first blizzard!

All day long yesterday, I kept hearing on the radio how we were gonna have a blizzard today that might rival the one of 1997. Well, I wasn't here in 1997, but I heard it pretty much shut down the city for two days! It was so weird to hear those news reports while it was still in the mid-60s outside!

Not being one to waste good warm weather (it's all relative!) , I took my Harley for a quick spin after work with my friends Suzanne and David. I didn't get to ride it all last week because I was in New York, and I leave day after tomorrow for Beijing for a week. Three weeks would've just been too long without a little spin, so I figured I'd better get it in now while the gettin' was good!!

As you can see from these pics, I'm very glad that I left my bike in their garage for the night!! I have no idea how much snow has fallen, but it's still coming down in buckets! I woke up this morning at 5:00 a. m. like I always do so I can be working out at 5:30 a.m. I looked out the window and it didn't look too bad out there. The snow plow had just come down the street, so it looked drivable. I called the weather line at work and the recording said we'd be on a 2 hour delay (they give us 2 hours for the roads to be cleared and for us to shovel our own walks). So, I worked out, took a shower and looked out the window about 6:30 a.m. I couldn't even see my street anymore, so I called the weather line and the recording said it was a snow day for non-essential personnel. Now, as important as I think nutrition is, I'd have a hard time justifying that my presence on complex today would be essential to keeping the mission going!

I knew there was a high likelihood that I'd be stuck at home today, so I brought some work and my computer home just in case. I will probably get more work done here today than two days at work since I'll have less distractions! As you can see, all the pictures were taken from INSIDE the house! I don't plan on leaving the house today if I can help it. After all, the radio announcer keeps saying that unless it's life or death, please don't get out on the roads. OK by me!!!

One last note before I get back to work (from home!). . . it is so quiet outside it's almost spooky. When I opened the door to take the pictures, it was deafening silent and the air so crisp it almost hurt to breath in too deeply. The outside temperature has been a steady 31 degrees since I got up this morning, so it's not ridiculously cold (again, it's all relative!).

I'll update with more pictures if the snow gets much deeper as the day progresses.

Seeing Ithaca

Yesterday was a gloriously laid-back, vacation day! I tried to sleep in, but being the morning person that I am, "sleeping in" means no later than 7:00 a.m. Bridie's been really cranking at school lately, so I sneaked out for coffee and let her catch up on some much needed sleep. This may make me sound like a great friend, but Bridie doesn't drink coffee, so my jaunt down to the coffee shop was just as much for me as it was for her!

For lunch, we went to the Ithaca Farmer's Market. What a great place! It was pretty large with lots of locally produced vegetables, preserves, prepared foods, and crafts. As we walked through, the longest line was at a place called Macro Momma's, so of course we decided to get some lunch from that booth! What a great lunch it was! It wasn't posted anywhere, but I'm pretty sure it was vegan food (the strictest form of vegetarianism). Apparently it's quite popular- there were lots of folks standing in line with their own food containers from home to get filled up! I don't know if it's because Ithaca is a college town or because it's so close to Vermont, but there are a lot of what my buddies would call "granola people" here! What a great place!
Here was what was on the sampler plates we had for lunch:

Brown & Sweet Rice with Gomasio

Miso-Apple Butter Baked Beans

Roasted Root Veggies with Rosemary & Lemon Zest

Steamed Delecata Squash with Roasted Pecans

Kale, Cabbage & Califlower with Sauteed Shitake Mushrooms, Roasted Pumpkin Seeds & Gingered Soya Sauce

Pressed Mustard Greens, Cabbage and Fresh Herbal Salad

Hiziki Rolls with Sweet Potatoes

Field Greens with Lemon Poppy Dressing

To a lot of my friends, this may not sound like an ideal lunch, but it was absolutely scrumptous! We sat next to Lake Cayuga and enjoyed this leisurely lunch. It was a bit chilly though, so we didn't linger for long. I had my first ever cup of hot apple cider (no Dave and Jim, it wasn't HARD apple cider!). It was good, but way too condensed for me and I couldn't drink all of it.

In the afternoon, we hiked down one of the gorges on campus and toured the Cornell museum. From the top, there's a great view of the Lake. Joe, you were right, it's beautiful, especially with the leaves changing. Since this was a lazy Saturday, we went back to Bridie's apartment and took an hour and a half nap!

We ended the day by having dinner with some of Bridie's friends at a restaurant on the Lake. It's now Sunday morning as I do this post, and I'm about to pack up my stuff for the 3 hour drive back to the airport in Albany. I have to go through Chicago, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'm not delayed in the airport infamous for them!

Hanging with Bridie

Today was back to school for me! I walked to school with Bridie this morning, then checked out the book store while she was in her first class (raining too hard to do much sightseeing). I went to the next one with her though, which was a lecture on the economics of obesity. It was actually quite interesting and I left with a few references for future presentations. Her major is Policy Analysis and Management, so it was interesting to hear about the obesity problem from an economy professor's point of view. A definite difference in perspectives!

It was rainy and in the low 40s today (I'm sure I don't have to interject a comment here!). Although quite chilly, it was still nice to get to hang out with Bridie! There are several gorges on and surrounding Cornell's campus (she's standing in front of one of them). I've always heard how amazingly colorful the fall leaves are here, but the dreary weather today didn't do much to bring out the colors. Maybe tomorrow it'll be a little drier so I can get better pictures of the changing leaves.

After school, we ran some errands and went to a cool place called Buttermilk Falls (you can see it behind us). Bridie said it was pretty skinny a few days ago, but it was flowing pretty forcefully today with all the rain.

All in all, today was a wet, but laid back day. We'll see what tomorrow holds. . .

Lake Placid, NY

Sorry it took me a bit to post, my time at the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center was quite busy. We flew into Burlington, VT and drove down to Lake Placid, New York. It should've only taken us 2 hours, but since it was storming out and night time (and I was driving), we took a couple of wrong turns and it ended up taking closer to 3 hours. We arrived at the Training Center some where around midnight.

We started off with a breakfast meeting on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. and ended with dinner last night. It was a full day yesterday, but we got a lot accomplished. After dinner last night, we caught the tail end of some practice "slides" by the National skeleton team. This track is used by bobsled, skeleton, and luge. The picture is of a skeleton athlete on a start.

Bobsled is the big sled where 2 or 4 person teams sit in it to go down the run. Skeleton is a single-person sled where the athlete takes a running start then jumps on the sled to go down the track on his/her stomach head first. Luge is a one or two person sled where the athlete(s) takes off running then jumps on the sled to go down the track on their back, feet first.

The turns are pretty tight and the athletes sustain forces up to 4 g (acceleration due to gravity). This track is pretty cool to see lit up at night. From a distance it looks like a huge lighted snack on the hill! It's the track that was used for the 1980 Winter Olympics held in Lake Placid (Lake Placid also hosted the 1932 Winter Olympics). Most modern tracks are between 1200-1300 meters, but I'm not sure exactly how long this one is.

Sorry I don't have better pictures from Lake Placid. I had to catch a shuttle for the 2 hour ride to the Albany airport where I rented a car. I drove 3 hours down to Ithaka where I'm visiting my friend Bridie for the next few days who is attending Cornell University. It's still raining pretty steady here, but hopefully I'll have more, and better, pictures to post after a full day in Ithaca.

Kathie's OK!

Just a quick note to those of you who contacted me to see if Kathie is OK after the Hawaiian earthquake. . . got an email from her this morning and she is doing great. OK, with a husband in Afghanistan, maybe not "great", but she's alive and kicking and counting down the days to Whit's return!

We love you Kathie (and you too Whit!) : )

Last breath of warm air

There's a saying in Colorado - "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes and it'll change." As you can see by the way I'm dressed in this picture, today was a big change from the snow we had this week! As evidenced by what is missing in this picture (Pikes Peak is somewhere in those clouds over Garden of the Gods behind me), we are in for some more wet and chilly weather.

Since I was so excited to be able to squeeze in a couple more days of riding, I thought I'd throw out here that the warmer weather (it's all relative you know) is what made me smile this weekend.

I leave on Tuesday for our Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, New York. I'm desperately hoping that I won't be posting snow pictures, but that may just be what you get! Send warm thoughts my way while you're staying tuned. . .

Bayou Blue in Colorado Springs

As my mood drops with the temperature on the thermometer, I figured I’d better find some way to get myself through the winter with my sanity in tact. I always hated to hear people who had moved to South Louisiana from wherever complain about the heat in the summer. I’d always wonder to myself why these people would move to the bayou only to complain about the weather. Now that I am in the same situation, albeit reversed, I have a whole new empathy for those folks! I’m determined not to be one of them, however, so I have a plan. . .

I am inspired by a couple of random events from the last few days. The memory test during the Breast Cancer Awareness motorcycle ride last Saturday renewed my appreciation for the little things. It’s easy to say “it’s the little things” that make life interesting, but when you’re trying to get somewhere, the little things can become anything from a distraction to a nuisance. So, I was reminded by the random questions during the ride about how many small things I overlook that I encounter everyday that has the potential to change my whole outlook on the day.

The second thing that inspired me was a featured blog on the website that I go to to do these blog posts. The name of the blog is “Three Beautiful Things.” The author lives in the UK and does short little posts on 3 things everyday that brightened her day. Man, if this poor girl in that miserable British weather can find three things everyday that brings a smile to her face, then I definitely have the wrong attitude about my winter blues here in Colorado!

Which brings me back to the topic of this post, something that made me feel good.

Yesterday’s weather was cold, overcast, and drizzly all day (which we got a repeat of today, only colder). I had a vaguely pissed off feeling until the afternoon (it’s supposed to be Fall for crying out loud!), then I had a craving for the perfect comfort food for this weather – gumbo! Food is such an amazing thing. Think how much your mood can be affected by what you eat! I don’t need to say anymore than two words for most of you to understand what I’m talking about. . . chocolate and/or coffee!! Maybe it’s the smells also, but nothing can conjure up happy, warm feelings like your favorite comfort foods. For me, cold weather means cornbread for breakfast with coffee-milk (in a mug, not poured over the cornbread like my mom and sister eat it!), gumbo and potato salad, and my mom’s homemade bread!

So, I pulled out my last stashes of gulf coast shrimp and crab meat from home out of the freezer and made a seafood gumbo. I have to confess that I’ve never mastered the art of roux-making, so I cheat and use the instant stuff. Thank God for Toni Chachere’s!! I have this great cookbook that my Mama (pronounced maw maw) Daigle gave to me back in 1990 (for Christmas according to the inscription!) titled “Pour les Manger du Monger de leau Bleu.” I’m not sure of the exact translation, but maybe when my mom & dad get back from their road trip next week, one of them will post a comment with the translation. This cookbook was published in 1980 by the St. Louis Ladies Alter Society of Bayou Blue. This thing is a classic I tell you. I have a memory of it on the shelf of every kitchen I ever went in growing up! It was obviously meant for the locals because the directions for the gumbo recipe simply states “make a roux.” You have to go to the stew recipes for a vague explanation of how to make a roux. . .

“heat cooking oil slightly and add flour. Overheated oil curdles flour. Brown flour over medium heat, stirring often.”

This description in no way captures the essence of how central a roux is to Cajun cooking and how very hard it is to make the perfectly colored and textured roux! Some would call it an art! Also central to Cajun cooking is the chopped onion/green bell pepper/celery medley. Nothing brings a rush of bayou memories to my psyche like the smell of this combination “cooking down” in a kitchen. I took a picture of it so you could see that it’s nothing spectacular color-wise, but it sure is the backbone to the flavor of home for me.

A funny thing about Cajun cooking where I’m from – each bayou or town has it’s own little twist on some central recipes. Take a jumbalaya for instance. It’s a pretty simple brown rice dish on Bayou Blue. Now, if you go to some other bayous in South Louisiana, their jambalyas are red because they add tomato sauce. A small twist that changes the whole taste of the dish and makes it either familiar or just not quite right depending on where you’re from. I don’t recall ever seeing a red gumbo on any bayou in Louisiana, but for some reason every place I’ve seen it outside of Louisiana seems to have tomatoes in it. Hmm, wonder where they got their recipes. . .

OK, back to the gumbo in question. This is my momma’s recipe, though modified to use the instant roux mix. It’s a basic gumbo recipe and the meat ingredients can be switched up depending on what you have available. If shrimp season was good, you'd use seafood. If not, you'd use chicken and sausage.

¼ cup cooking oil and 6 level Tbsp flour (if you’re making the roux from scratch)
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 large yellow onion, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
10 cups cool water
1 lb. shrimp
½ - 1 lb. peeled crab meat

Make a roux.
Cook down (sautee) vegetables until soft.
Add water (and instant roux mix if you’re cheating!)
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
Add shrimp and crab meat and return to simmer for 15 minutes.
Serve piping hot over rice.

I prefer sticky rice because that’s the way my Mama used to make it.

Wow, this ended up being a really long post on the one thing that brightened my day! You see, it really is the little things!

Motorcycles and Philanthropy

The weather has really been conducive to riding the last couple of weekends which made a couple of events here in Colorado Springs quite successful. Last weekend was the 19th Annual High Country Toy Run sponsored by the Pikes Peak Chapter of HOG (Harley Owners Group). It benefits the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves Toys for Tots program. It was a beautiful, warm day when over 1000 bikes took off on a police-escorted motorcyle parade to drop off gifts.

Notice the snow on Pikes Peak in the background in the photo of all the bikes in the Pikes Peak Harley Davidson dealership parking lot where the parade started. It was only a few miles, but my clutch hand was cramped up by the time we got to the drop-off site. I think it was more of a slow-speed skills test than it was a parade! I have a whole new respect for the Shriners back home in Louisiana who not only ride in parades, but do close-quarter maneuvers with other bikes too!

I never heard a final bike count or how many toys were donated, but I know that while I was there, two of those Marine Corp transport vehicles were filled with toys. Folks were pretty inventive with strapping toys onto bikes. Every kind of stuffed animal you can imagine strapped onto passenger seats - I even saw one motorycle with two little bicycles hanging off the sissy bar!

Yesterday, I participated in the 6th Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Ride sponsored by the Mountain Shadow Riders (Colorado Springs chapter of Women on Wheels). Although this event was sponsored by a women's club, there was a great mix of male and female riders. At sign-in, we were issued detailed directions on how to get to 4 stops on a 100 mile course. At each stop, there were three questions posted pertaining to things you saw during that leg of the ride. They were pretty random (e.g. how many pedestrian crosswalks were there in a given area or how many church bells were in a church tower we had passed). I thought the questions should've been more related to Breast Cancer Awareness, but the ride was still a good time. The registration fees and raffles associated with the 200 bikes that participated will go a long way towards increasing breast cancer awareness and education by the Koman foundation.

Just like the Toys for Tots run last weekend, every kind of bike you can imagine was represented. Of course, lots of Harleys and quite a few crotch rockets, but there were some pretty cool non-Harley cruisers also. Lots of Kawasaki Vulcans, Yamaha V-stars, Honda Shadows and Valkyrie, as well as more Indian motorcycles than I had ever seen in one place! The pictures are of an Indian Chief bike parked right next to mine at the start of the Breast Cancer Awareness ride. Check out the Indian head on the front fender! I know this nomenclature isn't politically correct, but that's what the company calls it.

The reason I am posting today instead of being out on my Harley is because the weather is overcast and 44 degrees! Not miserable, but enough to encourage me to stay home and catch up on domestic chores! I'm pretty good about enjoying my Harley when I'm in town though. . . I just flipped 3000 miles yesterday (I bought the bike on June 24th)!

Just to keep you up to date on my travels. . . I leave on the 17th for the Olympic Training Center in Lake Placid, NY (via Burlington, VT). I'll be staying for the weekend to visit my friend Bridie in Ithaca where she is attending Cornell. On the 28th, I go back to Beijing, China for a week, then off to our other Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista (near San Diego, CA). As always, stay tuned and thanks for checking my blog!!

Fall is in the air!

After I recovered from the initial shock of coming back to fall weather from my trip to Hawaii, I'm trying to get out there and enjoy the changing season. This is Colorado where the temperature fluctuates from 38 degrees when I wake up in the morning to upper 70s on my way home from work. At least the daily afternoon showers have stopped, and I have ridden my motorcycle to work just about everyday for the last couple of weeks. Yep, I'm pretty bundled up in the morning, but it's OK in the afternoons.

Last weekend, my friend Robyn and I, rode out to Pueblo and to Bishops Castle. Actually, I rode my Harley and Robyn drove her car! I don't think I'm experienced enough of a rider yet to take passengers. We had both been through Pueblo several times, but never to Pueblo. We went down to the historic district where there is a miniature "river walk". I use the term "river walk" pretty loosly since I grew up with the New Orleans River Walk along the Mississippie River. The one in Pueblo is more like a ditch walk! After Pueblo, I led the way to Bishops Castle since Robyn had never seen it before. I did a post earlier this year if you want to read more about it, but it was worth a return trip.

The aspen trees are all turning colors and it really is pretty. My friends up in those little states all clumped together (AKA New England), would say that this display of fall colors whimpers in comparison to the changing of the leaves out there, but with my dislike of chilly weather, this is fine for me! I do have to admit though, when I went to Marquette, Michigan with my friend Bridie last fall, I had never seen those kinds of colors outside of a Disney animated cartoon.

The picture with the house in front of the mountains is actually my neighbor's house across the street from me. I don't know what kind of trees she has, but they turn crazy reds and oranges this time of year.

As you'll see in my next post, I'm getting in as much riding time as I can while the weather will let me. I'm bracing myself for the inevitable winter and the accompanying 5-6 months of me just trying to live through it with my sanity intact. Don't worry, I'll try not to post complaints about the weather all winter long!