Burgermeister

Some chick named Maxim Iglinsky won the first official stage of the Tour de Romandie...but the big news is that her teammate, and Mongo's guy, Andreas Kloden, is riding and on good form.

A Chair a Day . . . Wicker for a Big Southern Front Porch

Movin' On Up

"With the 24th pick in the 2008 NFL draft, the Tennessee Titans select...Chris Johnson, RB, East Carolina University."

...And Li'l Fatback

"Thanks for the Gnar and the Shred".

Domo Arigato

Mongo's been recovering from what turned out to be a pretty punishing Monday group ride. Though I'm all healed from the crash, I've had a bad cold dancing around my sinus and chest cavities for about two weeks and my riding has suffered because of it.

The Monday ride is a super-fast drop ride. Mongo is usually near or at the front, so getting dropped is never a concern...that is unless I'm doped up on Benadryl and Claratin, with a pound of phlegm in my lungs.

In cycling as in life, excuses carry little weight, so you either put up or shut up. That's exactly what Mongo did.

After barely hanging on for most of the 30 mile ride, Mongo used the skills he learned as an S1 Keirin Pro, back in Osaka in '89, to weave through the congestion and traffic that had slowed near the end and launch a furious sprint.

...After nearly blacking out and coughing up a rib, my sprint came to a premature halt a mere football field or two from the finish and the peleton swallowed me up. Had I been healthy...

Sweet Giveaway

Stop by Darly's blog and see her giveaway of a CREATE banner that is ready for a home in your studio or creative space. Her blog is a wonderful mix of vintage finds, a beautiful home, and her crafty endeavors. (Photo courtesy of Darly)

A Chair a Day . . . Wooden Park Bench

Mailboxes

I do love a pretty mailbox. Susan at T-Cozy has a blog post about a mailbox that is one of the prettiest (and beachiest). Years and years ago I began collecting vintage mailboxes. I always liked the idea of a postman on foot coming up onto the front porch, pulling a handful of your mail out of his weathered leather satchel. I sold most of the boxes, but kept this one, way too pretty to let go of. My mailman, Henry, delivers by truck to my mailbox which sets on a wooden post at the street. Not nearly as small town a notion as my little green box conveys — complete with a scrolled holder for a newspaper. I have the box in my garage next to the screen door. It has no use, but just serves to make me smile, remembering simpler times.

Hebron Pottery

My parents just returned from a trip to the Holy Lands and brought me back this piece of Hebron pottery. It's small, about 3 3/4' inches in diameter. It's the perfect size for corralling loose change or holding rings and bracelets while you do the dishes.

If Movement Matters I Can Still Be Moved

“I censored myself to project an appropriate image
I asked only the questions with comfortable answers
I revealed just enough of the truth that was needed
I avoided the person God intended me to be
I learned through loss the consequences of the myth
I carried the weight of a lifetime of regret
I understood that my slate might never be clean
I changed direction to face the rising sun”

Sunday Evening at Chateau Gahan

This view of the study and part of our living room is typical on a Sunday evening. I'll be busy crafting at the table with NPR as my muse. The living room chair is now devoid of a slipcover; it's off to the upholsterer so that they can create a pattern and make a new one. The manufacturers of my living room suite, Mitchell Gold, was going to charge me over $800 for a slipcover for chair and ottoman. A little on the high side? I figured it was worth it to go to a mom-and-pop upholstery shop that my parents have used with much success. Will keep you posted on the outcome. In the meantime, the ottoman is naked and the chair will don an Early American blanket.

There But For The Grace Of God Go I

Mongo watched Dogtown and Z-Boys the other night for the umpteenth time. It came on Fuel TV, and even though I own it on DVD, I had to watch.

It makes me feel good every time I see it. Memories of my youth are re-awakened, and the pure joy of skateboarding pulses through me. The culture and style of modern skateboarding began with the Zephyr Skate Team...period! Those guys, and girl, are my heroes, but they're not my contemporaries. The skate scene, and the world for that matter, of the 1980's was Mongo's oyster.

Lance Mountain, Steve Caballero, Christian Hosoi, Gator Rogowski...these were the guys my own age out there ripping and inspiring me.

Mongo was attending a snobby New England prep school during this time, and though I was into skateboarding, I was also starting my detachment from reality. Isolated, and separated by several thousand miles from my family, surrounded by wealth and privilege, I created a fantasy world for myself to both survive and thrive. My ego grew and my morals diminished, all in the name of self promotion and self preservation.

You're probably asking yourself, what the f*** does that have to do with anything? Well, bare with me for a minute.

Today, Mongo is older and wiser and a pretty balanced dude. I have been to the top of the mountain and also the bottom of the sea. I have seen and done horrible things that I'll never be allowed to forget, but I've also had the opportunity to redeem myself, which I take advantage of every day...This brings me to my point.

Mark "Gator" Rogowski...He will spend most of his life in jail because he murdered an innocent girl. He can never redeem himself because of this.

There is a dark side to all of us within the human condition, and sometimes we need a little glimpse of it to keep us on the right path. Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator is an appropriate lens.

Varsity Cycling

While the J.V. squads were racing in Georgia, the big boys were racing in the last of the spring classics, Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

Alejandro Valverde won by beating Davide Rebellin and Frank Schleck, along with one of the strongest fields of the year.

Valverde's back...and with Caisse d'Epargne behind him, he will be a factor at the Tour de France.

Let Levi Ride?...Maybe Not

So, you want Levi Leipheimer to be able to race in this year's Tour de France. Well, you might want to be glad he 'aint.

You see...ol' smilin' Jack, here on the left, finished 3rd in the Tour de Georgia behind Kanstantin Sivtsov and Trent Lowe...Exactly!

Leipheimer didn't have the legs to win on Brasstown Bald, and was never a threat on any individual stage. If not for the TTT, he woudn't have made the final podium.

The Family at Home

Jane at Posy has a wondrous library of decorating, craft and fiction books. Many of the titles grace my own study shelves, but a handful of titles that she owns are ones I want to add to my collection. One book that she featured in a blog entry, Home by Anita Kaushal, is unavailable in the States, but the version I purchased on US Amazon is, I believe, the same book but published here in New York. The cover is different, but the spread that Jane featured (pages 138 and 139) matches exactly what is in my book. I mirror exactly what Jane said about it, everything from the love of its non-glossy pages to its subject of creating a home for family. I love a decorating/style book that captures me with both its pictures and WORDS. I read every single page of it last night. Here is picture of my favorite spread in the book; this kitchen is one I would love, and I'm only seeing a table and window. But I just know that the rest of it must be just as enchanting.

The Bench Found Its Home

Yesterday's yard sale find now has a place in our garage. It had quite a layer of furniture polish on it which can, over time with buildup, leave the surface rather sticky. Such was the state of the seat on this bench and so I stripped off all of the buildup and gave it a good rubbing with tung oil. Plopped a pillow on it. Now Harleigh has a place to sit when she's putting on shoes. The basket underneath the bench is filled with SOME of her flipflops, a staple here in the South.

P.S. Cece and my sister asked if I would be painting the bench. Not sure. I sorta like the wood (maple?) and it certainly won't show dirt. Of course, on a whim who knows how it might look down the road.

Seriously . . .

. . . this has to be one of the sweetest yard sale finds ever. Did some googling on it and found out that it is a vase sold by Avon in the early 1980's.

Fund-Raising Yard Sale

Dropped Harleigh off at church early this morning where a group was meeting to head off to a rural area of Georgia to work on a Habitat for Humanity home. She is required by her school to get so many hours of community service in a year and this is a great way to earn them.

On my way home I stopped at a yard sale where the proceeds are going to English Springer Spaniel Rescue. The sale was out of control good. Tons of stuff. I bought a bench for the garage, a glass champagne bucket, a pink glass compote, little round blue vase, two salt shakers, a floral serving plate, ceramic scissor holder which I'll use at work, a ceramic Nantucket basket which holds a tealight candle, and this couldn't-pass-it-up trim with beads and shells . . . which when added up, the lady apologetically asked, "Is $16 OK?" Needless to say, I wrote the check out for more. Here's my stash.

A Chair a Day . . . Wrought Iron Bistro Chair

A New Header! Hip-hip-hooray!

Thanks so much to my dear dear friend Ali for doing my new header. This is my mantle which I hope screams a little bit of beachiness in this landlocked town I live in. The painting is one I talked about in an earlier blog. Now all I have to do is finish labeling all my posts (which I should have been doing from the beginning!).

A Chair a Day . . . Bentwood Rocking Chair

This stands about 2 1/2 inches tall and is made of metal. My mom had one of these and so it brings back fond memories of where she lived when she had it.

Gentlemen...Start Your Engines

Today, Mongo took his cold/allergies to Road Atlanta, along with a few buddies, to watch the TTT in the Tour de Georgia.

It's a 2.5 mile race course with steep decents and a couple of 14% climbs. As unusual as the setting was, the action was great to watch. Two teams shared the course at the same time, which resulted in many dropped riders being passed by the second team. Only the first four riders across the line are counted, so most teams sacrificed a few workhorses and finished with four or five.

The disparity between the Pro Tour teams and the Continental teams was quite obvious. All you had to do was look at the chase vehicles as they followed the teams to realize that Astana, High Road, Gerolsteiner, and the eventual winner, Slipstream-Chipotle, made the Jelly Belly's and Bissell's look like club teams.

Slipstream nudged Astana and High Road by a few seconds with porntastic David Zabriskie leading the way.

Rock Racing had, by far, the best pit space. Pimped out Escalades mixed with hotties and cool merchandise filled the area.(Mongo got two cool red and white R.R. water bottles for White Lightin')

Fun was had by all!

In need of a facelift

I bought this cabinet at Lakewood with no idea what I was going to do with it, but I had to have it. It's a wonderfully multi-functional piece of furniture due to its height, depth and overall size. It is currently a night table in my bedroom and holds my bedsheets (which were jammed in the hall linen closet). I think I want to do something to it to give it a little ooomph. Just not sure what that would entail. Stripping and refinishing? Stripping and painting? Stripping, painting and then using accent colors on the bas-relief embellishments and the carved legs? Leave it alone?

Any ideas?

Three'fer Thursday

Got this meme from Kate . . .

1. What is your prefered type of candy?

Hands down, a pecan log. Perhaps my love of the most famous of all pecan logs, the Stuckey's version, stems from road trips to Florida as a child. Back then there weren't a ton of gas stations like there are today and so you usually stopped at a Stuckey's to gas up, go potty and walk around the gift shop. Lots of souvenir items from American Indian reservations, Mexico and of course Florida. And you couldn't leave without getting one of their famous pecan logs. I had an assistant at work who shared my love of these sinful delights and I made homemade ones one Christmas as a gift to him. I gotta admit that they were just as good, but messy as all get out to make.

2. What is your favorite meal?

A medium rare T-bone steak, baked potato with butter and sour cream and a green vegetable of any kind.

3. If you could only have one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Steamed Maryland Blue Crabs. Eating them is such a production, a creative feast. I think the only reason I ever stopped eating at crab feasts was because they ran out of crabs.

A Chair a Day . . . Dawn at the Beach

This was one of the very first chairs I bought. It was raw wood and I can't even remember what the seat fabric was. I painted it pink and replaced the seat with this gingham gauze fabric. I glued the hat and shells on. I can feel the sand 'tween my toes just looking at this little lovely.

This is . . . the contents of my closet

Everyone who knows me is well aware that my daily outfit consists of Merrells on my feet (and white socks, always white), polyester elastic-waist pants, and a big buttoned shirt. That's pretty much my uniform 7 days a week. Yes, as I've alluded to before, I am a prime candidate for What Not to Wear, but I'm certainly comfortable and save a ton of money on expensive clothes obsessions. My closet is a small walk-in with great shelving and hanging space. If I purged it of all that I don't wear or doesn't fit anymore, I could rent out the space as a storage unit, it would be that widdled down to just a handful of items. I don't use wire hangers (except where you see them on pieces just back from the dry cleaners). Instead I use the plastic hangers with the hook part that moves. My daughter, on the other hand, uses only the molded plastic hangers that are all one piece and come in colors, and she has her clothes separated by type, each type with a different color hanger.
The basket on the shelf holds a small steamer, Febreze, lint brush and a non-static spray. Purses are in a plastic tub, as are scarves.

At the bottom of the closet is my beach/pool tote ready to go. And a basket of Beanie Babies that my daughter can't part with that just haven't made it up to the attic.

A Chair a Day . . . Goldilocks Chair

This has always reminded me of the type of chair Goldilocks would sit in while at the cottage of the Three Bears. It was plain wood and I painted it these fun colors with a splash of flowers on the two back panels. It stands about 6 inches tall.

Oh Yeah

My first signature shoe...The Converse Mongo OX

(I have the white leather with the black logo)

Respectable

With only 40 miles and one ride under my belt since the crash two weeks ago, Mongo wasn't expecting much today. I'm only about 75% healed, and in the past two days I got a head cold and pulled a muscle in my back while I was yawning. Yes, you heard me...yawning!

I was really hoping for an easy ride when I headed up to the staging area at Smyrna Bicycles. That was not to be the case. All the big hitters were there...Boonen, Irish Brian, Crazy/Superfast Gary, Alp d'Huez Mike, and a few other random dudes.

Mongo "middle of the pack'd it" all ride, and was able to hang. I didn't contest the breakaway at the end on purpose, and finished fourth or fifth. It felt good to mix it up in the peleton again.

Bald and Happy

OK, he is sooooo not the same looking dog, but he is a happier one. With the hot winter coat gone, this guy played fetch for almost three hours straight today while I gardened. Dig (me), throw (me), fetch (him), dig (me), drop (him), throw (me), then repeat about a million times. This is the state he was in when he finally called it quits. That was one happy, sleeping little guy. You can even see the drool puddle at his mouth.

Tastefully Simple Muffins

Had these at a church function and tracked down the gal who made them. Turns out that they're from a box mix from a company called Tastefully Simple. These foods are sold at home shows (and can also be purchased online); her daughter is a rep. She got me 2 boxes and I made them this morning. Served Harleigh a few and watched her eat it and she got that same gone-to-heaven look on her face that I did when I first ate them. You can find the mix on the Tastefully Simple website. I'm really tempted to try more of their products.

A Chair a Day . . . White Metal Swing

Found this in one of my favorite antique/flea markets in Roswell. I like dressing it up at Christmas with miniature lights. When Harleigh was little, it was inevitable to find a Beanie Baby or two sitting on it lollygagging around.

Four Twenty

“Coffee in the vein and smoke on the brain
A contradiction within the choices of addiction
Speed up the engine but throttle back the mind
Nowhere fast with nothing to say… or something else at all? ”

One of the best Saturdays in a long time

This morning started rainy, but when the sun came out at around 10:00, the early morning moisture did wonders for the colors in the sunshine. The grass looked greener, flowers more vibrant, the sky bluer.

Took Gideon to the groomer this morning for his summer shave. Harleigh goes into quite a funk when we do this because she feels like she's lost her Gideon. I will admit that he looks totally different, more fragile, less cuddly, and somewhat gangly and teenagery. Nonetheless, it really makes him more comfortable for the hot months ahead.

Harleigh had a job interview this morning for a summer camp "servant" (what they deem the high school help) at a local mega-church. She was a camper there for 9 years, then served her first year last year as an employee. We so want her to get back on staff this summer. She loves it. Every weekday outside, with kids, in a Christian atmosphere. And during college summers she will want to serve as a counselor. We'll hear in two weeks.

We got her some more uniform wear for school: a short sleeve white blouse and a kilt. What with the warmer weather hitting, she needs some cooler duds. The saleslady who worked with us was one of those people who when we checked out I said, "you were so helpful and good at what you do. Thank you." She made me happy.

Then off to our town's park for a festival. The day couldn't have been more perfect. We arrived, spread out a quilt, and laid back to enjoy the town high school jazz band. Then the three sons of friends of ours, who are in a band, played (the main reason we went) and it was great to be there to support them. It was one of those days when I like living in a small town. In the one picture with the funnel cake stand, you can see the train chugging through.

A Chair a Day . . . Bunny Bench

I bought this one when Harleigh was little because it felt girly. What with the bunny on it and all. At the time that I bought it, I was on a white kick. It hung on a wall for the longest time.

This is . . . the contents of my jewelry box

Any necklaces I have are on Lady Goodwill. And the few bracelets and earrings I have are in a smaller trinket box. But my jewelry box is strictly for my pin collection. I go in waves. There are months at a time that I won't go out of the house without a pin on. And other stretches where they get a rest. (Come November I'll share my Christmas pin collection which, if I must say so myself, is quite impressive.) Here is the box that holds them all. It's a vintage piece where the bottom drawer slides open by itself when the lid is lifted. I've got three or four of these types of jewelry boxes that I've been meaning to do something with.