Wednesday, October 6, 2010

happy anniversary to us!

Patrick and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary Monday.

Scratch that. We started on Saturday. We've done a great job in the last few months of enjoying our time together as much as possible; maximizing our adventures, stretching out our weekends. It's especially fun to act like the entire weekend was a celebration of something: our anniversary, my 29th birthday.

I have a feeling this is part of the secret to me getting serious about healthfulness. I know how to have fun. I'm having a lot of positive, enriching experiencing. I'm getting off my butt.

I don't know; it makes sense somehow that having a full life means having more room to make sound decisions. Positive energy breeds positive energy. An object in motion tends to stay in motion. That whole thing.

In any case, our weekend looked like this:

saturday: neighborhood bike ride!
I was getting over a little cold (that Patrick had gotten over a few days earlier), but I'd really wanted to ride from our house to the start/finish point for the 10th anniversary of this neighborhood ride. So we did, damnit. Six miles there and back. A little over ten miles through Knoxville neighborhoods. Twenty-two miles total!

neighborhood ride: heading outneighborhood ride: heading out

I felt a little like I made up for missing our Sunday ride the week earlier. And let me tell you, this was my first long ride with Stinger, and she was freakingamazing.

I'm gonna sound maybe, I don't know, obsessed? But this bike feels so much better than the mountain bike. Maybe because it's a road bike, and I'm riding it on roads? Right? Also, I love the positioning. I thought I'd feel unbalanced hanging my torso over the bike, arms outstretched. But there's something strangely comfortable about it. (My neck and shoulders are extremely sore, but I expect I'll develop better upper-body support over time.)

Also? I loved riding with a group. Whaaa? I was scared as heck at the beginning of the ride that I was going to crash into the (hundreds of?) other riders, but that didn't happen. Instead, I felt a great energy. Which I noticed only once Patrick and I headed back home by ourselves, and suddenly I got a bit sluggish.

Even then, though, the bike felt easier to maneuver. And I know I made it up some hills with more ease than I had a few weeks earlier on our 23-mile ride around Knoxville.

Progress: it feels good.

Things we did after our ride: brewed beer! I helped. Kind of. Mostly watched. I even took a nap in the middle of everything.

And then we sauteed up some veggies and fried up some sweet potatoes (lesson: acorn squash, skin it!).

veggie sautesweet potato fries

sunday
I worked on spreadsheets! I'll write up a series of entries about these tools I built and how I use them. In the meantime, preview:

weekly tracking

And we went to see The Social Network, which I loved. I liked it more as a metaphor for the generation than a biopic on one man.

And that was us on Sunday. Spreadsheets? Movies? Perfect Sunday.

monday, our anniversary!
I worked at the bakery, then came home and off we went to Cades Cove to ride our bikes.

Original plan? Park at the foot of the road that leads up to the park, ride up it, around the park and back down. But not so much. The ride to the park is seven miles and straight up. One: I was still a little sore from Saturday's ride. Two: I'm scared of being run over and killed by a car on two-lane roads; especially ones with sheer drops down a (admittedly small) mountainside. And while it's something of an irrational fear, it makes me a nervous rider (which is what would be the more likely culprit if I ever got in an accident). So until I'm more comfortable, I'll stick to wider roads on flatter land.

In any case, that's a long way of saying that what we did do was ride the 11-mile loop around Cades Cove and had a really spectacular, chilly, invigorating ride. So many deer and wild turkeys. And some familiar old churches and log homes.

checkingcades cove
cades cove baptist churchhelmet hair, it ain't so bad

Note of progress? There's a hill that, when we've riden the park before, I had to hop off my bike to walk up. But after our Monday ride, I couldn't tell you which one it was, because I didn't get off my bike once.

Also? I love Stinger.

We followed our ride with lunch at Tomato Head (our first trip to the one in Maryville), where I had my favorite healthy meal (hummus plate), and where I forgot to take photos. Arg! I'll get the hang of this food documenting soon.

Before we headed home, I picked up ... pumpkin cake! I made up extra pumpkin layers that morning and made a friendly request that it be decorated for our anniversary. Request granted by the best cake decorators in Knoxville.

Then home for a nap (for me) and grocery shopping (for Patrick ... best husband ever).

We rounded out the day with roses (aww), a mixed tape (best one!), and a famous Lindsay & Patrick meal: chicken cordon bleu with rice and veggies (asparagus). Patrick made me this our first Valentine's Day, and the night before he proposed to me, and for various happy celebrations in our five years together.

chicken fry in the chicken fryerbeer before dinnerbeer sniffsierra nevada 30th anniversary ale
dinner & beermagpies pumpkin cake

All in all, perfect day.

6 comments:

  1. All of it (the food, the ride, the attiude) is amazing. You definitely motivate me to do more!

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  2. Thank you! Consider it payback for all the times you've been the one inspiring me ...

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  3. Beautiful pictures! Way to go not wussing out on the hills. Dylan always comes home after his runs around the Cove and makes fun of the bikers who walked their bikes up the hills.

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  4. Thank you! And we saw two cyclists on their feet at the tops of hills; they got a pass for being old ladies :)

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  5. Whoa, those are some serious asparagus spears! I'm hoping my crowns will produce some that large next year. :)

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  6. Holy crap and they were delicious! Olive oil, salt, lemon juice. And if you grow asparagus, I would *love* to taste test!

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