I've been Russel-ed!!

Since Saturday, I have ridden 25 miles on a bike. That's more than we've ridden the rest of the summer combined. My tailbone is a little sore, but other than that I feel great!!

The first 15 miles were around the lake when we were camping. The last mile or so was a slight uphill and it was pretty killer, but the part in the middle when we stopped for ice cream in Ventura (where Aaron got to see the house that I lived in until I was 4) made it all worth it :-D

The other 10 miles were tonight at a Spin Class. It was the first class that Aaron and I have been to, and it may not have been the greatest idea since we'd just ridden 15 miles on Saturday, but I was very happy to have sweated through it. I honestly am not sure when or if I've ever sweat that much and I definitely felt like quitting a couple times, but luckily I have a very supportive husband who wouldn't let me quit and was very encouraging for the whole 51:36 of cycling and the ab workout that followed. If you need Aaron and I between 5:30 and 6:30 on a Monday night, chances are we're "Spinning!"

Proofreader

Aaron and I joined Ames Racquet and Fitness Club earlier this week. We went for our first workout last night. It was a little overwhelming, because we haven't had our "orientation" to the facilities yet, but we had a nice workout and learned some things for next time.

• Bring headphones. They had these great little TV's on every treadmill, eliptical and bike, but there's no sound unless you have headphones. Surely watching "King of the Hill" or "Reba" will be more interesting than watching my heartrate change and the seconds slowly passing by...
• Don't leave the water bottle in the car all day. Then you end up with luke-warm water, which isn't very satisfying during a workout.
• Take a padlock. It's not that I think anyone will steal my stuff out of the locker (I mean, my theory is that if a person has money to pay for a membership, they probably don't want or need to steal my free cell phone or my pants from Target...), but it's hard to remember where you put your stuff without some sort of identification. And a little security isn't bad either...

Next week we're going to a spinning class at the West location. It should be fun!!

Pink Bismuth

I met another Blakely the other night. Technically, she's a "Blakelee," but still...

We went to Old Chicago for dinner and our server walked up to the table and said, "Hi. My name is Blakelee and I'll be your server." Aaron and I were speechless, as we quickly looked for her nametag to make sure we'd heard her correctly. The next couple minutes were spent with Blakelee and Blakely just staring at eachother, trying to really soak in the fact that there was another one out there!! Then Aaron said, "We've been together 3 years and I've never met another Blakely." I responded with, "Well I've been Blakely for 22 years and I've never met another Blakely." Blakelee responded with, "I've never met another Blakelee in my 18 years."

When she walked away, I called my mom to tell her, because I thought it was that crazy. She pointed out that since this Blakelee was younger, that I'm still the original :-D

Aaron decided that he needed a way to keep all the Blakely's in the world straight now, so he decided that I should be "Smokin' Hot Blakely," since I'm his smokin' hot wife. For short though, he calls me "SHBlakely" (pronounced Sha-Blake-Lee).

1 Chocolate Pepper

Need gas?? It's probably worth a trip to Slater, depending on where you live. Gas in Slater is way cheaper than in Ames ($2.63 in Slater and $2.89 in Ames, last I saw). So for a round trip of less then 20 miles, you can save $.26 per gallon. Our car gets about 33 miles to the gallon, so a round trip from Slater to Ames take around 2/3 of a tank or $1.75 worth of gas. If your car gets similar gas mileage, then you'd be saving money if you got over 7 gallons of gas*.

The Huxley Casey's is currently selling gas for $2.74 a gallon, an $.11 difference per gallon. It's about a 10 mile round trip, which would use about 1/3 of a gallon of gas or $.88 worth of gas. In this scenario, 8 gallons or more of gas would have to be purchased to create a savings*.

*These calculations are only taking into account the actual monetary value of coming to Slater to get gas. The joy you might experience if you stopped by to see Aaron and the dogs and I is just an added bonus.

Belly Flops

We got our water bill the other day and WOW!! Slater recently increased their rates and it must have taken effect this last month. Our bill was at least 150% of what our bills used to be. That's a pretty big increase for one month and it got me thinking. I'd like to take this opportunity to issue a formal apology to my parents...

• I'm sorry for all those times I took a 30 minute shower, just because I was feeling lazy. Or even those times that left the water running the entire time I was brushing my teeth. What a waste!!
• I apologize for all those times I complained about how cold the house was, instead of just cuddling up in a blanket or just joining you in the basement in front of the warm fire. And for all the times I whined about how hot it was, I should have just turned on my fan. Turns out, electricity is expensive!!
• For all the nights that I grumbled about having the same old thing for dinner, I'm sorry. Actually mustering up the ambition to make dinner after being at work all day is hard itself, but as it turns out, you have to come up with an idea first!!
• I couldn't believe that you made me sort my laundry instead of just leaving it all in one big pile. Now I'd like to say, thanks for letting me get by so easy!! The washing, drying, folding and putting away are tough work.
• When I thought you were the "worst parents ever," because you wouldn't buy me a $100 pair of jeans, I was so wrong!! You can buy 4 pairs for that price, and no one can even tell the difference unless they're looking at the tag. Turns out, you were great parents!!
• I rolled my eyes when you asked me to turn down the music in my car when you were riding with me. But now I understand. It's hard to hear over the music if you want to have a real conversation with someone without screaming.

I may have been a pain in the butt a few years back, but don't you think it was all worth it?? I mean, look at who I've turned out to be and all the things I've learned.

Soft Puppies!!

What a great weekend!! This is the type of trip I'd love to take all the time. We didn't just do all of the normal touristy things and had a wonderful time. On Saturday morning, we went to a great farmer's market with fresh, HOT donuts!! Then we took the "El" downtown and walked around Millenium Park, Michigan Avenue and Navy Pier (okay, so that's a little touristy). That night, we went out for "Here Style Pizza" as we called it while we were there and had some amazing Chicago Deep Dish Pizza!!


Sunday , we went to IKEA, which was worth the trip alone :-D I'm thankful that we haven't moved into a bigger house yet, or I don't know that I would have been able to contain myself. Then we went up to Wisconsin (about 3 miles into it) and went to Jelly Belly Lane. We got a great tour of a Jelly Belly distribution center and got tons of "Belly Flops" or Jelly Belly's that just weren't quite the right shape, but still taste great!! Forest Park was having their Centennial Fest, so we went and listened to a Dave Matthews Cover Band and watched some great fireworks.



I can't wait to go back...