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.

Cats and Socks

Xena is modeling my latest finished knitting project, the socks from Colorado. I'll post a better photo of the socks soon but i couldn't resist the opportunity to take a photo of two of my favorite things together.

Back Door Guests

Spring.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!

What a weekend! I love March Madness. My Kansas Jayhawks started things out right with a big win over Texas to win the Big 12 championship. And thanks to my friend Shea, and her very generous Texas fan friends, I got to be in OKC to watch them cut down the nets. So much fun! It was one of the best college basketball games I've ever seen. I'll post a better photo of the game soon. I really appreciate my new Longhorn friends for not leaving me somewhere along the turnpike on the way home. They were very nice to this Jayhawk. In training news, I'm starting to fight off an IT band problem. I had to cut my 9 mile run down to 8 on Saturday because it became so painful when i would put weight on it. Tonight, I ran 3 with no pain, so I'm hoping I'm just a quick healer. I don't want to have to deal with that for the rest of the summer. So painful. My regular massagesare supposed to help prevent this kind of injury. Ugh.

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

How could you not fall in love with this?

Meet Perchance to Knit in Primarily and Claudia Hand Painted Yarns in Poppy and Carousel

I arrived home this evening to find my package from The Loopy Ewe with the sock yarn I've been anxiously awaiting since the full contact yarn buying experience on Monday night. It was worth the extra effort it took to purchase it. Absolutely gorgeous. Now I have to decide what pattern to use.

It's been a great week and the yarn delivery is the cherry on top. I found out Tuesday night that I am being promoted, the Big 12 basketball tournament is starting (Rock Chalk Jayhawk!), and the weather is absolutely spectacular. The daffodils are even starting to bloom. This time of year goes by so fast...probably because we only get about 20 days of spring weather before it becomes blazing hot. You've got to love Oklahoma.

The race is on

You wouldn't think that buying yarn would be a full contact sport, but last night I discovered it can be pretty cutthroat. For my birthday, my sister and her family bought me a gift certificate for a really cool online yarn shop called The Loopy Ewe. They specialize in sock yarn, my latest obsession, and they carry brands of yarn that are made just for the shop. She received a big shipment of yarn last week and her blog promised that the store would be updated last night between 8-9 p.m. When I got online, I was not disappointed, and there were a lot of other people who were just as excited. It was a mad dash to look through all of the new, beautiful skeins of yarn in every color scheme imaginable, and decide what to order before it all sold out. I'm very excited to receive my package in the next few days. I'll post photos as soon as it arrives.