May 31, 2012

Randomly On Thursday

1. Thank you all very much for your support of Amanda and her ride yesterday. When she met her fundraising goal she said it was the best birthday present ever, and was grateful in the extreme.  So am I.  The Bike Rally has a fundraising minimum for each participant, and while grown-ups are fairly well prepared to meet it,  for the kids on the ride, finding a way to raise $2200 can be more than daunting.  Our family team this year consists of my best friend Ken, my sister Erin, me, my daughters Amanda and Sam, Amanda's young friend Katie, and Megan's friend Pato.  (You remember Pato, don't you? For those of you who've asked, my Meg is unable to ride this year because her job can't give her the time off.  It's a grown-up problem. Sam's helping her out by taking her place.)  The grown-ups are committed to helping the kids every way we can - because, well.  The money all goes to the same place, no matter who you pledge it to.  We've already held one fundraiser to help the kids out, and there will be more hosted here.  For now, know that I'm planning something, and it will involve Karmic balancing gifts mailed off to knitters who donated to anyone on our family team.

2. I'm donating part of my stash for that, but if you're a yarn company or just an amazing person who would like to help out, you can send me an email at stephanieATyarnharlotDOTca.  (Replace the AT with @ and the DOT with .  I just do it like that to try and throw off the spambots, which is probably totally pointless.

3. Further to that, Amanda's asking that if any of you are still inclined to donate for her birthday, that you fling it the way of her little sister, Sam.  (Further to that, I can't believe I have an 18 year old willing to give up her weekends to train for this. It's amazing.)

4. Omelet continues apace - and in the spirit of #2, I'm planning to give her away when she's done.  Surely there's a non-knitter who'd like to have her in exchange for a donation?

I'm onto Chart D, which gives me immeasurable hope for the future.

5. I'm leaving now to go to the bike shop, to try and get them to swap out my snazzy new clipless pedals for ones that are slightly less fancy, and therefore slightly less likely to fling me to the ground at random intervals - because both of my knees are scabbed up like I'm five years old, and it's starting to freak me out.
I'm a pain coward. I'm totally willing to do what it takes to make this ride possible - and I'm brave enough to try, but the falling down has got to stop.  I'm too chicken for it.  I'm still going clipless, but trying mountain shoes with a recessed cleat,  instead of race. (If that means anything to you.)

6. Further to #5, I am, rather unbelievably, taking the subway to the bike shop. Those pedals have me scared to death.

7. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to not evaluating a day in terms of how many times I did or didn't fall down. 

8. Have a great Thursday. It's my favourite day of the week.

Posted by Stephanie at May 31, 2012 1:58 PM