Hey Everyone…

Well you see I’m not really going to say it twice, but last weekend, saturday specifically… not really sunday… Chrissy decided that we had to dress up as a couple… the original idea was for me to be a horse as Jenny and Chrissy were going to be cowgirls… As things turned out when we were in the Costume store, we we’re late to rent the horse outfit(for the 2nd day in a row) so Plan B(which was sporatic at best) was put into effect… I spoted a Firefighter uniform and immediately looked at Chrissy and said, you hot…so hot in fact she was going to dress up as fire…. So me the fireman and Chrissy the fire, that goes together right?? well at this point we we’re already 30 mins late for the party, and Chrissy still hadn’t really gotten her costume together… so with fabric, that we got at walmart and a 3 dollar pair of hot underwear, we made her costume… then when thinking about it we didn’t have a bottle of wine for our great hosts Shep and April… so off to the market (in our costumes) we went… As Chrissy is standing in line, some random guy standing behind us comes out with the line of the month(this could be a new contest) without thinking he says, “its funny I was going to wear the same outfit, I’m glad I didn’t, that would have been awkward”… anyways off to the party we went, and good times were had by all… the next morning good times were rough for Chrissy as I slept thru the whole deal… well I guess thats the just of it all… I hope that my guest blog wasn’t too long… just remember Fire is HOT….

Cheers,
Phil

Yep, true true in fact it is true I have turned into a slacker blog composor which consists of letting the 6754357 of people know what is going on here and there and let me tell you… holy catfish stuff has been going up, definately not down

Although that isn’t completely true… I am not sure what in the World made me get up before the sun, but yesterday I went on a run with some friends at 5:45am and low and behold I was the only one without a light. Oh yes and guess who was the only one to find the only rock on the entire run and trip on it… mawah. I haven’t been on a trip since last year, probably around this time so I guess I was due for one…

And talking about other trips or I guess I haven’t yet, but anyways… we went to Portland for the cyclocross race on Sunday where Phil raced and I watched a number of people crash on the 6 decker (oh yes 6!!) plywood ankle hurdle setup.

Which brings me to my next suggestion topic and really first…

If I were going to race over wooded hurdles about ankle high there are a few things I would do…

Well for one I would wear a mouth gard, shin gards, wrist protectors, knee pads, and of course the usual… helmet and what not

BUT the most important thing it seems really is bike placement when going over the wooden ankle high hurdles… now the chance of me falling over these (like many this weekend) are great to extreme (considering it is hard for me to get over a rock) SO

As I was watching I noticed a couple different ways to place the bike being…
1.over the shoulder laying mostly on your back (preferred it seemed by mock speed travelers)
2. a half over the shoulder (or more should height but not over) more to the side
3. a barly off the ground middle bar grad (I am actually amazed the bikes cleared the hurdles)

Now I would probably go with number 2 soley because in the likely hood of falling I could launch my bike toward the end of the 6 decker wooden hurdles kinda like a shot poot or discus.
Number 1 seems to cause problems because in the likely hood of tripping it is unlikely to avoid getting tangled up in the bike, and if you happen to avoid this… the bike will surely be on top and who wants a bike on top of them
AND number 3 seems to cause problems becaues as you are nose diving toward a ankle high wooden hurdle your bike will be doing the same thing AND two nose dives have to be worse then one…

Then I guess I would just make sure I put some oil on me so I would slid and not stick minimizing skid rash… (and look shinny of course)

Alright that is about all other then building and hammering away listening to none other then MC Hammer to keep me motivated to just keep hammering…

I am off to practice shot putting in case I want to cross race in my life time… I am going to be ready for the trip, not to the race the one over the ankle high hurdles…

Oh, but if you are really good I guess you could hop them like some do… true true I agree

K, night
:)Chrissy

Now I have been helping my Dad for some time doing some constructions things… but I mostly would just pick a few things up run back inside, get on the computer, run back outside when it seemed like I had been gone for a long time, and repeat until the day was done… BUT, now that Phil and I are really and truely building a doo-plex I can’t do that.

Well for one there is no computer present…

Anyways, instead of learning french for the time being (the language) I have switched my focus to learning the construction lingo… 2 by4, 8 by6, hammer, 6 and 5/8th.

AND let me tell you, some of the stuff is pretty confusing…

Jeff kept saying “I need a stud” and I kept yelling to Phil that Jeff wanted him BUT that isn’t what he wanted at all… he just wanted a piece of wood, ply wood or something like that.

Anways we have been hammering away on wood, not at all on our bikes… Although we have been mountain biking which reminds me…

Alright this isn’t going to work so here we go… a bunch of picture probably to small to see so please get out that handy dandy magnifying glass, binoculars, or your grandparents glasses and here we go…

the lake we road around on dirt, rocks, and through trees…

and from a different angle when I stopped again and really should be trying to stay with Phil…

Jenny looking at some trees…

trees that were burnt due to the high speeds we were traveling at through the forest… I am still not sure how the tires made it the whole day…

Phil and I next to the lake right before and after I crashed, yep I crashed once before this picture and once after…

oh but before any of this occured 3.87 minutes after departing Jenny continued to uphold the Ruiter tradition of over dressing and undressing shortly after departure…

and 30 seconds later holding up another Ruiter tradition… when does our bikes truely work correctly??

And then there was the chipmuk (spelled like that in Oregon and possibly other places too) coming out to say Hi to Phil and I on…

Phil’s trail…

a better view of the sign, even though the last picture was a better picture of the real Phil… I am still looking for Chrissy’s trail, but am darned if there is one…

BUT we haven’t just been biking around… as I said an am really telling the truth we have been hammering and what not…

Here is Phil in action…

and

those are not because it is cold out although the other day I was wishing I had some stylin’ ear muffs… these are to block out sound… you know like when he startes to sing we all put them on… oh yes even he does it

Alrighty it is time to hit the hay and I am sure glad my bed isn’t really made of hay…

Night,

:)Chrissy

ps… I was just kidding about his singing, it is good. really

pss… pounding like hammering, cutting like sawing, AND riding like biking

psss…. I have not control over the pictures. They just go where they want and I have no say

This and that sums up what has been going on in Bend, OR where a lot of jiggling and wiggling has been occuring. Now I am not talking about the jiggling and wiggling that may go on while dancing or even jumping on a trampoline, both things I enjoy doing and spent much of my college days doing. Oh yes this is in fact true… I took three trampoline classes and to tell you the truth still need a few more to perfect any type of jump that consists of actually touching my toes or something while still staying on the platform…

Anyways, we have been mountain biking all over the place here and there… jiggling and wiggling the whole time…

Actually the faster you go down the hills the more you jiggle and wiggle, so if you like jiggling and wiggling go as fast as you can… Also the more rocks, sticks, trees, and even pine cones the more you jiggle and wiggle.

My fingers are going to be so strong from gripping my handle bars with a death grip as a fly mock minus speeds down the hills. Look out I may be pretty good at a game of mercy if you challange me. Just a heads up…

So here is a few pictures of where we have been jiggling and wiggling…

 around a lake

 and trees

k, this is a test… I am now seeing if the pictures are working so if you are reading this and not seeing any pictures below I am still working on it…

Dang… not working so I will do it tomorrow

:)Chrissy

Now I have to admit I am pretty good, but Phil has proven to be a master at waiting till the last minute to pack everything… He is in fact still downstairs packing and departure time is in, oh about 2 minutes. I am guessing by the looks of things it will be pushed back to about 2 or 3 this afternoon… But I have to say I am glad it will still be today and not tomorrow since we will be in the air flying high accoss the entire Canada land and then South toward Oregon.

I should go down and help him so we will in fact be able to catch the plane tomorrow. Although if we miss it Campbellton is a great place to hang out. The trees are almost all red now and starting to lose their leaves. Yep, which only means one thing… A lot of piling and jumping to be done…

So it is nationals right now in LA for circular wooden planked riding… I am looking and looking for news of how it is going, but haven’t seen any so I have no other news…

Have a good day…

:)Chrissy

Ps… if you happen to be in Campbellton you must go to the McEDee’s here… know as McDonalds.