Woah. I found some legs in the trash this week at work!

It was pretty unexpected...threw open the trashcan lid to find an oddly-positioned pair of legs. Hm. Art school move-out time always brings out the bizarre trash.
Saturday after I left work I had a few minutes to kill before I met a lady about an internship as a soap maker. I stopped by lamplighter for a fast cup of iced coffee. While I was there, Andrew called me in a little bit of a panic.

Dottie had been stung by a bee in the yard and was having a very severe allergic reaction. She swelled up, vomited, peed, and then laid down, starting to make weird movements with her body and legs. He gave her half a benadryl (roughly 12 mg for a 14 lb dog) and kept a watchful eye on her while I interviewed.

Poor little bean, she was still showing some effects of the sting for the rest of the day. She couldn't keep food down, or water, and kept frantically eating grass when I let her out into the yard...then she'd just ralph it all up.

We sat out into the evening by the campfire. We were planning on having a little cookout for her birthday but after she got stung and blew up, I didn't bother texting around much to let folks know. Just on the chance that we would have to split to the emergency vet, it would have been good to not have a bunch of folks over.

She hung in there for the rest of the night, but at 230am, when the benadryl wore off, she blew up AGAIN. She started barrel rolling and scratching frantically, her ears started to swell and they were very hot...I jumped up from bed and gave her another half a benadryl tab and hung out with her while it absorbed and started to work.

Fifteen minutes or so after I gave it to her, she threw up. Knowing it had to be done, I dug the half digested pill out of it and put it on a piece of dog food. She ate it right back down. Ugh, I've done more super gross things since I own dogs. But again, after about thirty minutes, the swelling wasn't getting worse and she was able to sleep. I stayed up monitoring her breathing until about 4am, then finally called it a night. Sheesh, man.

The next morning I jumped up early to knock out some projects.


Did a little more weeding in the garden while the dogs got real comfortable in the sunny yard.

I put the pups inside and gasolined a yellow jacket nest I had in the yard. I really was hoping I could just leave it alone, but based on Dotties near anaphlactic shock reaction, I'm not gonna chance it again. Yellow Jackets suck anyway, they're not pollinators, they're predatory wasps. So I don't feel that bad.
Sunday was pretty chill. Fathers Day, nbd. I worked in the garden a little, weeding, then started cleaning house. Andrew had a slow leak in his truck tire and we'd noticed a screw buried in one of the tires of the Travco. We called around til we found a shop open on Sundays, then pulled the Travco wheel. Drove it over to the shop and left em both to get plugged/patched.

Took the dogs to Andrews parents house with the intention of continuing the adventure to a close by river afterward for swimming. I ordered a dog life jacket for the Bostons (wasn't sure how sizing would work but it fits em both) and wanted to check it out. The auto shop was closing and we were still out in the west end. Rushed back to the northside to the shop so we could get the truck, then because we were practically back in the city, stopped by the kayak landing at 14th. It was pretty gross, water wise, and there were a ton of raft teams taking out at the landing so it just was not pleasant. Took the dogs back home and porched for a little while. It was so pretty outside.

Monday I had a photoshoot appointment with my friend Ellen.

I drove the Travco into Church Hill to pick up a friend, then rolled down to the floodwall.

Spent a few hours walking all around the flood wall, train yard, under the manchester bridge, and down at the manchester climbing wall.

Can't wait to see edits.

I even found a geocache while we were down near the trains!

After the photoshoot I ran a few errands, bought a knife sharpener (how exciting!) Came home and tried to finish up some yardwork that was hangin from the week.
Andrew trimmed the Mulberry tree that was covering a lot of my garden area. He was cutting it down into smaller sections of stick/brush Sunday morning but snipped his finger and near took the tip off. Needless to say he took a breather from it to tape his finger back together. Barf.

I crammed as much into my wagon as I could (which actually ended up being most of it), then made two trips to the dump with it.
I should never be allowed to go to the dump alone, I always bring stuff (junk) back. I picked up a bunch of nice, precut sections of green bamboo while I was there this time. I figure I'll use em in the garden for a trellace or even a gate to keep the dogs out.

After the dump I took the Bostons to the park to play. As we were leaving, I heard a bunch of real weird noise over near the curb. Went closer to see what it was - turns out a HUGE cicadia killer wasp had caught a massive dragonfly and was in the process of killing/eating him.

The wasp was literally eating him while he was still alive.

Friggin brutal!

finally, two weeks later, i'm not sick anymore!
sheesh.
saturday i came home from work and jumped right back in the travco for an adventure to the river. i'd been talking about taking the dogs swimming and andrew was game. i wanted to see if dottie was a swimmer, since she's been mostly wading in water before.
as a joke about everyone needing a bathing suit, i put dotties old bloomer style pants on from when she was a puppy and went into heat before i got her fixed.
clearly she loves them.

after all that tumbling and rolling around, she took off into the bathroom and out of total craziness, pooped the pants. i called her to see where she'd run off to (honestly to take the pants off so we could go) and as she came running out of the bathroom, a little turd tumbled out of the pants and onto the floor. they were falling out of the hole that would be occupied by her tail if she had more than a tiny nub. andrew took off, a couple more logs hit the floor, and i was so grossed out but laughing so hard. so nasty! she's ridiculous.
got her and the floor cleaned up, pitched the pants in the trash, and we left after she got a butt wash.
we drove around for a good while, trying to come up with a good spot to take the dogs that was both quiet but where the water was deep but not too quickly moving, but also not stagnant.

egon swims like a little beaver, he wades right in and just starts swimming. dottie tends to let the reflective surface of the water freak her out, but she's so determined to come to you in the water that she'll just LEAP to you, splash, and swim your way.

it was a nice trip, all dogs got to do some swimmin, and they were BEAT afterward. so tired, they were like little zombies on the ride home. just sitting next to each other, eyes all squinty and slow-blinking, and just swaying as the RV chugged down the road.

the travco is so awesome. it has little floor vent windows that crank open and channel wind inside...makes for a great dog window! Mr Egon found it to be his favorite spot to sit.

once home, we showered and went out to the backyard to prep a good campfire. it was perfect weather outside, and we both just wanted to sit and relax.


i made a fine foods run and got chips and treats, we cooked hotdogs and ate em in the shed. i don't know why hanging out in the garage is so fun but it is. it was much cooler outside. after a lot of running around and being crazy, dottie was ready to simmer down and sleep.

we sat out for a long time, burning off bits of tree stump we're still working on getting out of the ground. roots, chunks of trunk, and other random sticks and branches all get burned.
hatched a plan to pour a big slab around the firepit area...easiest way to keep grass away from it!

heard some rustling in the trees and watched our owl friend fly to another tree, lurking us all night. he sat in a close by tree, we could hear him rustling around in the branches. creep!

sure enough, there was evidence the next morning. a nice big flight feather!
worked in the garden area until it was too hot to be in the sun any longer. andrew tilled around our stump and after much digging, we finally got the old clothesline pole anchor out of the ground. seriously, they really didn't want that thing to go anywhere. three feet of concrete, held in place by wet clay. what a pain.

andrew tilled up a stag beetle, unfortunately half of it. it was super creepy, lurching all around, half of it intact. eeep!

after all that work, we were both feeling pretty beat. i went over to pats for some hydrotherapy, Vi bought a couple bushels of crabs and everyone was hanging out.

relaxed poolside, caught up with some friends, and headed homeward. again the late afternoon was so cool, it was hard to be inside. the guys had gone saturday morning and done a ton of work on the brownway, and andrew wanted to show it off.
took the MTBs out for a nice spin.

rode to the new skills course that is in the process of being built under the belle isle bridge. we scooted across the belvidere bridge to avoid the xterra crowd, then hit buttermilk. rode to reedy creek then took the fire road back to belle isle and came in from the southside.

the skills course is awesome! all levels of rock gardens, drops, a couple pump tracks, and lots more to come. really rad.
headed back into the city through the trainyard, then rode the floodwall homeward.

a really nice sunset, one of my favorite spots in richmond. you can see most of the urban bridges, the whole cityscape, and most of the train lines that come into the area. i love it!

took the brownway back home a bit, then up and up into the heights and home!

we tried to go get mexican food, but our favorite nearby spot was closed. a little waffle house action was due, so we stopped for breakfast for dinner. nearly killed me.

monday was super busy, worked in the garden, knocked out a sewing commission for a resturant in philly, and hung with the dogs. idle's been a little sick and needed a watchful eye for the day, so i cleaned house and laid low. got myself ready for the work week, and here i am, back at the desk!
counting down the days til the weekend...dotties birthday is in two days and i think i'll have a cookout chiller for her. dawg party, yall!

argh! i'm still sick! last night i had a crazy coughing fit that lasted for an hour, every breath lit up a tickle in my lungs that felt like i'd breathed in a bunch of heavy chlorinated pool water.

feeling a little better now but still have crazy lung going on. hoping that quits real soon.



this year has been a horrible garden year. i started seedlings and accidentally left them covered after they sprouted. they all wilted and died.
then i started a second round and the squirrels mauled them.
i planted seeds directly into tilled garden area, and slowly things sprouted...but the take off was super slow. again the birds and dogs moved things around a lot, squash sprouting in the middle of the tomato area, etc.
i bought plants online from a local guy, and the rabbits demoed all the squash literally overnight. all that was left were straw-like stalks of squash plants. they were making a strong recovery though, lots of new leaves and even some flowers when they (and the cucumbers in the cell next to them) met their ultimate fate via the lawnmower this weekend. dun dunn dunnnnnnnnn....

sigh.

i spent a large portion of my sunday evening weeding and moving plants around to their correct plots. monday i got back in the garden to wax off a particularly stressful and frustrating day, and i knocked out a lot of work. i went off into the woods with a machete after a two hour waste of time at the dmv and cut down a bunch of cottonwood trees, brought em home and cut them down into a trellis for my beans. used the rest for tomato stakes (for now, til i get better ones).

sure enough, the rabbits revisited last night and ate up the baby squash i had growing...i could scream! its literally been one thing after another with these jerks. i guess i should be thankful that my beans and tomatos and carrots are coming along, and that maybe i'll get squash if i can keep the rabbits off it, and maybe i'll get cucumbers if some magic happens. AND i also have beets and chard and okra to be thankful for....its all still in very baby plant stage but at least ITS THERE. i think i'm gonna try to get the fence back up around the garden (it got taken down last week and the dogs smashed most of the tomato plants in a wrestling match, but i staked 'em all and they seem to be recovering) and hopefully that may help with the rabbit situation. hopefully, anyway.

i think i forgot to mention that i went to a really fabulous former coworker and lovely friend's birthday on saturday night...it started off as a hotel motel partay
leslie had booked a really nice suite at a downtown hotel and filled it with treats for everyone. ON HER OWN BIRTHDAY. we all got together and primped hair and makeup, got our fancy outfit on, with intentions of going to dinner at some point.

there was so much food set out that everyone was snacking like crazy, leslie decided she didn't want to rush so she cancelled the dinner reservation. we rolled to the bar at a leisurely pace, i had the supreme honor of DD-ing the birthday girl and my excellent lady friend welsy around. i ate alligator for the first time with my friend charlene, who was threatening to barf on the bartender if he dared serve her bleu cheese dressing instead of ranch in which to dip this alligator. hilarious.
the alligator was good, definitely will revisit. my awful throaty sickness was making the night real rough, so i decided to split out. i had pretty much no voice left and it was getting loud in the bar, i had to yell and my voice was doing this old lady cigarette smoker thing, it was unattractive to say the least.


a fast group photo of nearby folks that i could grab (ah man, i forgot i took a group photo but thats on my camera, not phone) and i drove les, welsy, linda, and linda friend to 'off the hookah' for some serious booty shakin. the club was a real short walk away from the hotel, so they were set for then night. nothing like dropping the kids off, mom style, at a slammin club. it was hilarious.

what a fun night, excellent ladies (and gents) and hilarious times.

Spent the week working, trying to hydrate, sleep, and eat my way out of the NACCC SARS. Julie and I both picked up the same bug and started suffering on Monday night right after NACCCs, what a bummer to take the healthy livin' high road and still get sick! I think everyone else really did pickle themselves with booze that weekend, killing off any germs.

Ah, and back to dog life.

waking up with these bostons is always hilarious.


I mean seriously, so many funny faces.
My friend's dog's benefit auction and raffle was Friday night...I got there an hour late, which actually turned out to be about an hour earlier than everyone else.

there was so much awesome art stuff. some was super custom, based on or portriature of Miss Frankie.

others were donations of all forms...photo, other paintings, drawings, so much awesome stuff!!!
there was a raffle with gift certificates and other items.


i didn't get a picture of the painting i bought, but i may try to pick it up tonight. its awesome. three dogs, "high hopes", just my style.
mike and amanda were having a hard time pricing the sewn portrait of Frankie I made...they couldn't decide wether to auction it off or sell it for a set price, and amanda really wanted to keep it.
John Lytle, the beneficiary of the Ozzy Foundation, was there at Empire and ended up buying the portrait after he heard mike and amanda bantering about how to best sell it and why they couldn't keep it, then he gave it back to them. it was super sweet. he's a nice guy with a great foundation and gusto for helping other folks, i hope to be doing some sewing for his foundation in the future.

mike and amanda raised over 3600$ Friday night, and it is so awesome. they started her treatment about two weeks ago and were just going to keep on with the plan until they were out of money. after frday night, they can finish up the plan without a worry. so glad to hear, and so relieved to be a part of a friend group that is so giving and generous.

egon has been pretty funny lately, a couple times he's been standing on top of the bedside table by the door when i come home on lunch to let him out...an unexpected and odd high-point for him. i also have been seeing him peeking out the window bed space upstairs, always funny to see that little profile in the window.

Dotties hives pretty much quit after two days, thank goodness. we were outside in the yard most of the weekend...filled up the pool so those guys could get wild while i tried to regain control of the garden area. dottie was listing around, begging to be picked up and acting super needy. i went in and got her a little bed and she settled right down. she's such a funny little lady, i like dogs that seize the opportunity to do something special...i feel like she's just the exact kind of ridiculous to take advantage of fancy beds outside on a pallet...and sure enough!
I re-organized things in the garden yesterday. did a little transplanting and started a second round of rainbow chard and beets so i'll have a second flush started. need to do the same with the carrots.
i'd been keeping a watchful eye on my fennel, hoping to see some caterpillars or eggs. very specifically, black eastern swallowtail caterpillars or eggs. we have tons of those little white cabbage butterflies flitting around all the time, but its rare that we get a swallowtail through. last year i had a bunch of the caterpillars and i love them. they were some of my favorites to raise as a kid. sure enough, finally found a dude or two nibbling away, being stinky.
they're so awesome. if you touch them, these bright yellow/orange horns come out of their heads. they wont sting you, but they rub this horrible smell on you...like rotten licorice. it takes forever to wash off. so unpleasant, haha.
Egon had a vet appointment monday to check his blood levels of Bromide, the new drug we had to introduce to control his seizures. He's been having issues controlling his legs, which has only been scary on the steep stairs we have. He's clumsy and extra awkward lately, side effects with his body that should have gone away after two weeks.
he's so good at the vet, just gets real excited to see everyone and freaks out about getting to see a cat that isn't brown cat or zoey. then he crashes on the car ride home, sleeps the whole way back. 5 weeks no seizures, thats the longest we've been since December. stoked. fingers crossed that we continue on the up and up, the bromide has been seemingly working out for him.

After that epic rearrangement of party plans and party people, I was ready for bed sunday night. Plus, Dottie was breaking out in hives super randomly and someone needed to be home with her. I guess she was getting into something in the backyard, though I don't know what. Outside for just a moment or two and her hives would come back with a vengance. I kept her on benadryl and monitored her breathing, her level of cray cray activity never faltered and the hives went away, so...

Monday was a chiller day for anyone left in town for the NACCCs. Alamo BBQ was catering the bike polo hangout at Abner clay park, at a leisurely hour Julie and I rode over there.

Got some food, and left for icecream. Hungout for a little while longer, watched folks play bike polo and give "cornhole" a shot.

It was really hot and humid, and I felt like even though I'd showered a lot, I hadn't ever actually cooled down. Pat was having a pool party, so I threw on a swimsuit and headed to the Lost Bowl.

There were a lot of folks there, even some folks that had been at NACCCs and chose the pool over standing in the sun at polo courts. Good call!

Heck, even Sancho made it out!
The water was super cold, and after jumping in and floating for a bit, I felt way better.

I posted up in a chair and silently enjoyed feeling way better. It was shady and cool and there were folks grilling nearby, dudes skating the coping INTO the pool, and lots of hilarious pool tricks, as always.

It was a great way to end the weekend. Finally cooled off, I headed homeward to try and catch food with Andrew. Stu and Julie were thinking the same, and we ended up all at our favorite little mexican spot, enjoying fresh quac and cold beverages, and recapping our favorite highlights from the weekend. Phew. And just like that, it was over.

The Times dispatch did a solid writeup in the paper, complete with some excellent photos.

The Redline Rep, Robby Bobby (who was a really solid dude btw) posted up a bunch of facebook pics too. I'm sure you have to be logged in to see em, but they're public. Here's a link to em

And someone finally started a Flickr pool for the Naccc2012 photos...So here's more too.

Now I can focus on the sewing commissions I need to knock out this weekend and I can enjoy my new Travco again!

AND THEN THERE WAS SUNDAY.

Things at Chimborazo had gotten a little hectic on Saturday, particularly when someone made off with the all the keys to the rush hour manifests. Volunteers had no idea what packages they were supposed to be accepting, so we all just had to go with the flow. Sunday things were so much easier.
Everyone met up at Shockoe Expresso for breakfast on the house, then rode off to Legend Brewery for the race start.
Headquarters was set up at Shockoe Expresso, where there was an alley entrance to the back end of the resturant...it was perfect for bombing racers with water balloons. There are so many great photos of HQ on Julie Hunter's dad's facebook. I think you have to be logged into facebook to view the album, but they're public.
Ellie rode on the back of a scooter for most of the weekend and snapped a bajillion naccc pics too. Hers really show some Chimborazo sufferin'.

As soon as riders were off to Legend to start, we lit out to our stop at Kanawha Plaza.

armed with a boombox, TONS of water this time, and good friends, we actually even nailed down some shady seating.

It was a great stop. The fountain, or players club, was spewing hobo bath water, and only one hot racer jumped in to cool off. Incidentally, he was originally from LA and in a moped gang there, so he knew the Hells Satans movies and jumped in so he could experience the players club, which is shouted out as a group of people ride by in one of our films. It was funny to see him put two and two together.

The race started off with a sprint across the Manchester Bridge. The finish would come down to a sprint across this same bridge. As the riders got into the city from the southside, they poured past us and had to go to their first stop which was a climb up the 7th street hill. That shit is BRUTAL. Everytime a rider would come through and realized that they had to go BACK up that hill they were SO BUMMED. Austin made it across the bridge first, pulling everyone in. We ran out to the median to cheer everyone on.

Riders continued to pour across the bridge and drag themselves up the hill toward Travellers Alley and the Egyptian Building.

Racers started coming to us shortly thereafter. All fifty qualifiers were riding...each manifest they got culled off the last few riders that came in. Starting with an initial heat of 50, the next manifest only allowed 40 in, then 35, then 30, then 25, then 15, then 10, then 5.

It wasn't as hot as Saturday and everyone seemed like they were just in a better mood. Plus, a stop in the shade by a misting fountain was probably a real nice change from climbing steep hills and then descending on cobbles.

At one point a truckful of firefighters drove by slowly, and being naturally stupid, I waved at them in a "thanks for protecting america from fires!" kind of way. They pulled over and all came over to us. I thought for sure I had gotten us busted at our stop and we were gonna get kicked out.

After a brief round of questions (what are you doing? is this like an organized thing? whats in the packages? srsly the packages are empty, no cookies even?), they revealed that they were just bored and were wondering what we were doing.

Out of nowhere, Kate and Fred rolled up for our checkpoint. The firefighters started cheering and clapping for them as they got their stamp then rode off. It was awesome.

Again the riders were given a mailbin that they had to tote stop to stop, filled full of packages to deliver. Tough times.

We had bike theives on the course all weekend (in this case, the guy just riding on the sidewalk was busy patrolling for unlocked bikes), that was pretty awesome. All manifests and the handbook stated over and over to lock up your bike (as well as wear a helmet) and a couple guys were patrolling like pirhana all weekend...moving unlocked bikes around corners, running away with them, so on. Most folks were able to laugh it off, but you could tell a couple guys got sore about it.
Whatevs. Shoulda locked up!

As the riders whittled down to smaller groups, we could see the consistent top five or so always coming through...it became real clear who the finals were gonna be between.

The last five were given their manifests and dispatched. Luke and Matt (locals) hit us up first, and we knew it would cost them time. Chas hit us up, third through the stop, then cut across the road and went on the "wrong way" side of the bridge. He'd gotten a tip from another rider that riding on the opposite side of the bridge to legend cut out an exit ramp that you had to take if you went on the right side, also shearing a few blocks off the finish. Literally moments behind him was Austin, who went the "right way" with traffic across the bridge. We knew that Chas had it....Luke and Matt rolled back through and blasted past us....Jim (originally a local but now a Cali transplant) made us his last stop then lit out across the bridge as well.
Apparently the finish at legends was amazing, and I believe it. Chas came in hot, a downhill finish, and dismounted, put a foot down and slipped....slid into the finish on his butt. Austin came blasting in right behind him and almost ran into Stu...chestbumped him! That little tip about the bridge paid off, Chas took first.

We were all set up to party at Legends but got a little screwed last minute....we'd made Legends the party spot based on the agreement that they'd donate two kegs of beer to us. When we arrived, there was nothing free...beers were 5$ each and food was also a charge. We hemmed and hawed, had a good amount of cash we were planning on spending at Legends but also realized the potential for a much better party....especially since we were left with a VERY sour taste after they took back their agreement.

We rounded everyone up and moved everyone to Holly Street park...literally just as simple as that. Hey guys, keep it quiet and polite, the party is moving to Holly Street park in thirty minutes. Settle your tabs. See you there for free food and beer. Thats the richmond spirit!!!

I loaded the podium into my car with the prize table and prizes, Stu took the rest of prizes in his Jetta, Eric took some other gear, and another helpful guy took all the Redbull coolers. Julie and Crystal split with cash to buy beer and cookout supplies.

Folks started riding up and we put em to work. Unloaded cars, set up the podium, and started arranging prizes.

Seriously, remember that time we moved a whole party of 130+ people across town seamlessly? Yeah, that just happened. Sean and Stu got the chance to chill finally, have some beers, and hug it out.

Shotgun a beer? Don't mind if I do...

Julie and Crystal arrived with a TON of beer and food, dragged it over to the grills and fired em up. There was a family in the park currently enjoying their memorial day weekend, they had the fountain cut on (which was AWESOME for hot sweaty racers) and the restrooms unlocked. Total coincidence, in the best possible way. They were happy to have free beer and food in exchange for leaving the fountain on and restrooms unlocked. One of the racers lived nearby and actually had keys himself, so we were able to shut things back down at the end of the night.

The kids continued to play for the duration of the afternoon.

The open forum started up, followed by a vote for the following years NACCC host city. Bringin it back to the midwest, looks like everyone can meet in the middle next year.

There was a totally hilarious quick lock compitetion, and as it started to get dark, winners were announced and prizes passed out. It was a perfect end to a great event....the cops even came and gave everyone a time deadline to leave. Easy breezy.

The podium was awesome, Chas took first dude, Carrie took first lady, Austin second, and Matt Kuhn (local) third. What a great race....everyone rode off to Empire for the final dance party of the weekend, happy, full, and stoked.