New furniture and old legs

Most of the furniture that we had ordered arrived this week, as the delivery folks were unwrapping the reclining chair for the baby's room a deep cut was made to the front of the chair that would not be child friendly - that is unless you want your child to eat chair stuffing ... Other than that, all is in the house, assembled and in its current place.  My eyes were bigger than my living room when it came to the couch, but hey, giants need leg room!  Being back on a firm mattress added to smiling mommy and daddy this morning.  So we are about as settled as we will be, other than a few odds, ends and organizing to do's.  I typically rearrange things a few times until I am content with their placement in my little world.

A few have asked what the house is like, and as pictures can convey far more than I desire to type on the subject, so check back in a couple of days, and I will get some photos taken and loaded.

Joan had worked a partial overnight shift, thus she was home Friday afternoon, and I decided to head out on another ride.  In stark contrast to the weather on the first ride, today was clear-ish skies with a stout Westerly wind.  Something around 15-20 sustained with gusts in the 30s.  No rain in the area and the temps were in the mid fifties, although the wind (coming off of the Sea of Japan) took the "feels like" temperature into the forties ... however, the sun was out and was quite warming.

I was joined by Norbert, one of the folks who works with Joan and the resident triathlete.  I had tried to give him fair warning regrading my current cycling shape, and bike selection (mtb) - he was happy to have the company and so was I, as I am still unfamiliar with the area.  We deiced to head into the wind for about an hour than head back.  A few minutes into the wind I knew it would be a challenging ride for me, as I have not had to battle with an element like this for some time.  On the way out we passed through a melon growing region where folks were tending to the fields (there are folks tending to all fields this time of year).  We also passed to a park that is engulfed with Cherry trees, full of blossoms - so I stopped to take a photo (and breathe :) ).  We carried on and about 50 minutes in I knew I was cooking quickly in the leg and lower back regions (where 90% of a cyclist's power is generated), so we took the next "good looking" turn to cross over to the road to head back.  AAAHHHHH, there is nothing quite like getting a tail wind after suffering for any amount of time.

We hit the main road (to take us back to the village where we live), and we again stopped to snap a photo of the largest (tallest) mountain in the area.  Hopped back on and generally cruised with ease back.  I noticed a few children heads turned completely to look at us from their window views as the cars passed us ... I'd wave and they would get excited.  It is worth noting that Norbert is 6' 4", so possibly the two tallest white folks in the region were on bikes at the same time - this has to be some sort of anomoly ...


There are a few little baby lumps in the road on the way back and the power I had drained on the first segment meant I was now in crawl mode over the smallest of rises, despite the tailwind.  After a mere two hours we were back covering 30-ish miles ... no feat of speed, yet a reminder of were my fitness is at the moment.  Good thing is I can only gain at this point.

Photo link from the ride.

Oh, and Stone got suited up in a ridiculous outfit provided by Auntie Stina ... Link

Have a good weekend,

J