I need a bigger lap

Is it starting to feel a little cooler in the earth's underbelly? I had three, yes, three adorable kitties sitting on my lap last night for more than 5 seconds. The clouds had parted, the angels were singing and kitties were tolerating each other (read - Xena was tolerating Purl and Ashford). It probably would have lasted all night had I not needed to eat. Thankfully, before I was loaded down with kitties, I had been surfing the net on my computer so I was able to capture the momentous occasion on the Mac's built in camera.


Not the best photo, but that's the best I can do with 3 cats on my lap. If you're playing along at home, that's Xena's side in the front, Purl's cute little mug in the left and Ashford's orange chiny chin chin on the right.

And I can't just post one cute kitty photo. Here's what happens when you leave a ball of orange yarn out on the table.All I can say is thank goodness I was home to witness this. The crazy little cat would have been in a bit of a bind...literally.

This past weekend, Mary and Phil finally tied the knot. It was a beautiful ceremony at my grandparent's farm. The weather decided to not act more like May than the middle of July, so it was an absolutely lovely day. There are more photos of the big day at their blog. Here's one from my camera.



That's the flower mob. Such a fine looking group all decked out in their polka dots.

After the wedding, Mary and Phil had invited their friends and family to join them on their RAGBRAI honeymoon. RAGBRAI is a week-long bike ride across Iowa. So, right after the reception, we jumped in the car and drove several hours to Rock Rapids, which is about as far northwest as you can get in Iowa without crossing the stateline into South Dakota.

On Sunday, we rode 77 miles from Rock Rapids with the other 15,000 cyclists to Spencer, and Monday, we rode 79 miles from Spencer to Humbolt. Unfortunately, after 2 days, I had to head back to Bartlesville, and even worse I left my camera with my parents, so I have no photographic proof, except for the photo of me that appeared in the Des Moines Register. I'm the rider in the orange on the left side of the photo. Next year, I'd like to ride for the entire week. There just wasn't enough time in 2 days to taste test all of the the wonderful goodies the towns along the way were serving. I did manage to eat a couple of Farm Boys breakfast burritos, vanilla milk shakes, homemade vanilla ice cream, a smoothie, one of the best monster cookies I've ever had, fresh-picked Iowa sweet corn, watermelon and a wonderful spaghetti dinner served by a local Catholic church. I can totally see how people gain weight while riding 450 miles in 7 days.

It was pointed out to me this week that Ironman Wisconsin is less than 50 days away. Yikes! If I survive the next two weeks, I'll be feeling pretty good. I'll be getting up early in the morning to ride 90 miles and then go on a 15 mile run Sunday morning. Good times. As a reward, I'll be heading to a fiber festival in Tulsa. I think that will give me an incentive to ride fast. I need to get there before all of the good stuff is gone.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention that I finally got my invitation to join Ravelry. My username is LynnZimm. I still have a lot of work to do to upload my photos, but I'll get that done in my free time. :)