New Stuff!

It's been an exciting week here in the land of the kitties. The new bike FINALLY came in and I got another delivery from The Loopy Ewe.

First, let's talk about the bike. I decided to get a Kuota Kalibur, which is a bike that was ridden by the winner of the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii twice. I doubt I'll be winning an Ironman anytime soon, but I'll look awfully cool. My friend Renee, who owns an online triathlon shop called Core Multisport, just became a Kuota dealer, so it was nice to help her out with her business. If you need any tri gear, check out her store, she has some cool stuff.

I took the Kuota for it's first ride on Sunday. What a great bike! And what a perfect day for a bike ride. It was probably the one day of the year in Oklahoma when it is sunny and gorgeous and there's not a bit of wind. There are a few things I need to adjust, but I'm in love with this bike. Plus, with the black and white paint job, it matches the kitties. My other training is going well. Last week, I did a 1000m swim for time, and came in at 17:45. That's pretty good for me. I'm just a couple of weeks out from the Oklahoma City half marathon, so I did a 9 mile run on Saturday. I'm hoping I can come in under 2 hours in the half. I set my PR of 1:56 at the Austin Half Marathon in 2006. Austin is really flat, and from what I've heard OKC is a little more challenging. It will be a good way to gauge my fitness level.

On the yarn front, I couldn't resist ordering a couple of skeins of yarn when The Loopy Ewe posted some gorgeous yarn from The Yarn Pirate. It arrived on my doorstep yesterday. I'll be using the purple and lime green skein to knit the Monkey socks from Knitty. I don't have plans yet for the other skein, but I'll probably pick something out of my Favorite Socks book.

I'm also working on my Magic Loop socks that I'm learning to make at Loops in Tulsa. It's my first time making socks using a size 1 needle. That's really, really small. They're going to be very pretty. The yarn I'm using is a hand-dyed yarn from Colinette called Jitterbug. I love the way a pattern is forming as I knit it.

Xena has always loved to help me knit, but I think the combination of tiny, shiny needles and skinny, bright colored yarn is too much to resist. She has really taken an interest in this project. It gets a bit annoying.