Geek Habitat

After a week of short posts and URL sharing in lieu of entries, I thought it might be time to actually write an entry for a change.

My bicycle trainer has not arrived yet, but the climbing block (goes under the bike’s front tire) arrived on Thursday. I’ll be buying a Garmin cadence sensor soon to couple with my existing Garmin Forerunner 305 w/heart rate strap (which I’ve had for quite some time, and use for hiking and walking, as well as cycling.) The cadence sensor is so I will have speed and distance data, as well as pedaling cadence, for my indoor bike trainer rides, since obviously the GPS can’t provide such data indoors, on a stationary object. The good news is I initially thought I needed a Garmin Footpod (retails about $100,) but upon further examination, I simply need the cadence sensor ($40) for my indoor training. The bonus is that the cadence sensor will also prove useful on my actual road cycling rides with Justin.

Anyway, that’s a brief update on the status on my exercise gear acquisition and (soon) initial set-up. If the trainer arrives on Monday, I hope to have my Felt FW35 bicycle mounted to it by the time Justin gets home (wishful thinking, perhaps, with a toddler… not to mention UPS arrives anywhere between 10 AM and 4:30 PM.)

My brother is returning from yet another 10-day stint working in El Paso, so I excused myself from what is I admit one of the best cycling days in San Antonio history (and that’s saying a lot, as we are one of the few cities with a year-round cycling season due to our relatively moderate weather.) Justin and one of his friend’s/co-workers are doing a challenging ride today, and I do honestly look forward to working myself up to their fitness level again. Being overweight absolutely sucks rocks. I don’t see myself when I look in the mirror, I can’t wear 75% of my old wardrobe and am stuck in even more casual than I like t-shirts, and I don’t have the stamina and energy I used to. All of these things are surmountable, and I look forward to having the trainer so I don’t have to feel (like I do now) like a huge couch potato slacker when I need or want to miss a road cycling ride.

In other news, our small business is rocking and it’s in no small part due to Justin’s skills as a portrait photographer. I have many “to do” lists to tackle, but as the saying goes it’s better to have too many opportunities than too few. I’ve made some fortuitous contacts in the past 6 months or so that are definitely paying off, and with Sara getting a little more self-sufficient I am finding slightly longer (10 minutes vs. 5 minutes–LOL!) intervals to tackle bite-sized work tasks.

My photography is suffering because I have so few opportunities to shoot with my professional digital SLR, but this too shall pass. The passion’s still there, what I want for is opportunity. Isn’t that always the way?

Last, but not least, Sara is growing into such a wonderful little girl. We had a very rocky night last night–our best guess is she is cutting some more teeth–so she and I slept in until *10 AM* (not a typo!) this morning to recharge our batteries. Until 3:30 AM or so, she slept very fitfully, and anytime she woke up it was in a full wail with real tears and everything. After trying all our usual tricks, I finally succumbed and took her into her nursery where she played with her toys for about 35 to 40 minutes. She was still not any closer to sleep by that point, so we returned to bed and Justin whisked her into the computer room to work his magic on her (she adores Renee Fleming, not just her voice but a DVD performance we have of her–particularly Ave Maria.) It sort of worked, although she woke back up soon after we three snuggled back in bed together. A lightbulb finally flickered on over my head, and I gave her a dose of infant Tylenol, and either thanks to that or her sheer exhaustion at that point, we all fell soundly asleep… until the usual ~5 AM bottle.

Sara’s development is a joy to behold, and I promise to dig through our backlog of videos of her and post some of the best ones. We don’t shoot nearly enough video of her, but I suspect a parent is hard-wired to feel that way no matter how much video or photographs they take of their little one. Health-wise, she continues to be a true blessing with no issues; hell, she’s never even had a case of diaper rash (I don’t know if she’s just blessed with great skin, unlike her mother, or if the unscented, chlorine free Seventh Generation wipes we have used since Day #1 have something to do with it. Even the clogged tear duct in her left eye resolved itself with help from me (multiple daily massages of the area, per ped’s recommendation). We’re a little late on the uptake, but we are also brushing her (4) teeth and her gums daily now; she loves to do it while watching Justin or I brush our teeth. (No, she doesn’t hold the toothbrush, so it’s basically a 2-adult-1-toddler affair at this point!)

We have a camping trip scheduled for early April, tent camping this time (Sara’s first foray in the tent, and my first tent camping trip in *cough* far too long) and one of these weekends when we’re not so overbooked, we’ll be taking her to the Zoo and/or the Whitte (I don’t know if the Our Body exhibit would captivate or worry her.)

(more later)