Alphabet Cities - 18 Down, 7 to go

A - Aurora - 08/05/2007
B - Brookville - 08/05/2007
C - Cortland - 04/28/2007
D - Dillsboro - 08/05/2007
E -
F -
G - Guilford - 08/05/2007
H - Hartford City - 05/13/2007
I -
J -
K - Knightstown - 05/13/2007
L - Larwill - 07/21/2007
M - Muncie - 05/13/2007
N - Napoleon - 08/05/2007
O - Oakville - 05/13/2007
P - Paris Crossing - 04/28/2007
Q -
R - Rochester - 07/21/2007
S - Seymour - 04/28/2007
T -
U - Uniontown - 04/28/2007
V - Versailles - 08/05/2007
W - Warsaw - 07/21/2007
Y - Yoder - 07/21/2007
Z -

Motorcycle Alphabet City Tour - Ride #1

So, as part of our motorcycle fun, Troy and I enjoy participating in a little game of sorts. It's the called the Alphabet City Tour. The premise is that we travel throughout the state to 26 places that start with each letter of the alphabet. So far, we have actually NOT completed this, but we made a valiant effort last year. We completed about 20 of the 26, I think.

Basically, at each city, you take a picture of yourself (with your motorcycle, preferably) in front of a sign or something that has the name of the city or town on it. That can be quite a feat in some of the smaller towns in our great state.

Sunday was such a gorgeous day and that weather was just perfect, so we decided to get a jump on our Alphabet City Tour (2007 Edition). We grabbed the digital camera, which makes this endeavor all the easier, gassed up our bikes and headed out of town. Our first stop was Greenwood. It is a fairly substantial "burg" and finding a sign in the quaint downtown area was not difficult at all.

The next town we stopped in was New Whiteland and although I followed a sign indicating a library and those often have the name of the town/city, this one did not. However, about 1/4 of a mile down the road there was a strip of office buildings with a VERY large sign for New Whiteland. Bingo! It was only after we had taken our pictures that we realized there was a police man checking for speeders and we could have stood next to his car, which had "New Whiteland" emblazened on the side.


A few miles down the road was Franklin where we spotted this church right off of IN-31. Of course, as soon as we had come to a stop and dismounted our bikes for the photo op, Troy realized there was a small problem with his bike. At first, he thought it was a fuel leak, but after consulting his manual and more thoroughly checking out the situation, he realized he was a fuel safety overflow tube of sorts (he could explain in detail what it's called, but I won't even pretend to understand. I put fuel and a key in and hope that the "magic" doesn't leak out along the way.). He cleared up the problem in no time and decided it was safe to continue. We got our shots at the Franklin Church of Christ and headed out. The day was getting late (we hadn't started until about 4:30 in the afternoon) and we still had one more stop to make before heading back home and preparing ourselves for the week to come.

Our final city of the day was Edinburgh, which is home to a sizeable outlet mall. I've never actually been to it, but I've heard other people say that it's the place to find some good deals around Christmas time. Maybe I'll have to venture out there next holiday season.

It had been a gorgeous day and it was great to see so many other women out riding. But ladies, please take some free advice from someone who knows. Get some good riding gear! Sure, a t-shirt and jeans feels great when you're whizzing down the road and you may be the safest rider out there, but you're small and car drivers sometimes don't see us. If you remember how much it hurt to fall off of your bicycle and skin your knee as a kid, you can only imagine the pain of coming off of your motorcycle at even 20 or 30 miles per hour when a car tries to push you out of your lane or worse. If your boyfriend/husband says it's not cool to wear a helmet and that you'll be hot wearing all of that gear in the summer. Remind him how much he cares about you and your cute little face and body and tell him that if you get hot, it just means you have to ride faster! Hopefully he will be able to keep up. ;-)

New List Item

So, many of you may have noticed that there was an empty space on my 101 list. When I wrote the original list, I assumed that my high school class would have a 15-year reunion and that I could try to suprise someone with something I've done, but, alas, they are not having such a gathering, so I had to remove it from the list. Up until now, I haven't been able to think of a suitable replacement for it. That has all changed now!

When I was 16 my mom tried to teach me to crochet. It was not pretty and there was MUCH wailing and gnashing of teeth at that time, but with a little patience and a LOT of time, I've since acquired some MAD crochet skills! I've completed some pot holders, scarves and several very nice afghans. Some of them using lettering and patterns I made up myself. (Pictures to follow) In my somewhat limited crochet career, I've found that most people are either crocheters or knitters. Someone who enjoys both can be found, but they are a rare breed, indeed. A friend of mine is a knitter and tried, QUITE unsuccessfully, to teach me to knit a few years back. It was not pretty!

Well, since then, I've apparently become more patient in my old age and she's been teaching knitting as a side job. So, we decided to give it another try. She suggested I find and "Easy" pattern at http://www.lionbrand.com/. I chose the Stripey Strap bag, which is pink. (Gotta love pink!). Claire (my knitting friend) and I got together on Friday evening after our book club meeting and started the project. At first I didn't think it would go well, but after only a few days, I'm nearly 1/2 done! Woohoo. And I think it will look VERY cute when it's done.

So, now that I'm flush with confidence regarding knitting, I'm adding "Complete a knitting project that I can wear" to the empty spot on my list. I think that gives me just enough yarn to hang myself.

Wish me luck!

Manual Transmission

While at the farm this weekend, I had my first opportunity to drive a manual transmission. We were just going a short distance down the road from the farm to check out a bit of forest area and Troy and his dad said there was no time like the present to do a bit of practice driving. The great thing about the country is that there isn't much of anyone around and there is LOTS of wide open space, so my chances of injuring someone were greatly reduced.

Troy gave me a very cursory explanation of the shift, clutch, gas and brake and I was off before we knew it. The explanation was only cursory because I understood the theory behind a manual transmission from my experience with driving my motorcycle. I actually only drove probably less than a mile down the road and ended up killing the engine when we stopped at our destination, but they both said that I did very well easing off of the clutch and finding the friction zone without jerking the truck all over the place. :-)

While I'm not gonna cross this one off of my list yet, I'm excited to at least have gotten a start on it!

Put 'er in drive!

Over the weekend, I spent much of my time running around trying to get my motorcycle prepped for the riding season. Last fall, when I got a new roof and siding on my house, the roofers failed to clean up after themselves and I got a piece of metal stuck in my rear tire and it went FLAT! While it was quite frustrating and cut my riding season a few weeks short last year, it was nothing that couldn't be fixed.

After a LOT of run-around on Saturday, my bike was outfitted with a new tire and I was ready to roll. The weather people had been calling for spotty showers, but thank goodness, they were wrong. The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day, if still a BIT chilly.

Since I hadn't been on the bike in nearly 4 months, I was a bit nervous. I was sure that I had forgotten everything I had ever known about riding a motorcycle. Which foot shifts? Where are the brakes? But it really WAS just like riding a bike. You get on and all of a sudden your body remembers how to ride. It knows when to shift and when to brake. How much throttle to put on and just the right amount of lean to make the bike go where you want. It was great!

When I had gotten back on the bike in March of 2006, it was just 5 months after I had crashed and broken my arm. Needless to say, I had been a BIT nervous and unsure of whether I would really like to ride again. This time the feeling was completely different. I know that bad things can happen when I get too sure of my skills, but I also know that I learned a lot during the last riding season about the capabilities of both the bike and me.

Troy and I went out on our first ride of the season on Sunday afternoon. We visited his family about an hour south of here and took the "scenic route." There is a stretch of road that we sometimes take that is a little curvier than the rest and my stomach used to just churn at the mere thought of riding it. But this time things were different. I felt more at ease leaning the bike into the sweeping curves and the oncoming traffic didn't rattle my nerves.

We've planned 3 major motorcycle trips this summer and before this weekend I really was looking forward to them. Now, with the first taste of the open road in my mouth, I'm as anxious to get riding as a kid waiting for Santa to pop down that chimney on Christmas morning! I eagerly anticipate the hours spent with wheels humming beneath me, The Dixie Chicks crooning in my earbuds and the call of distance places filling my head.

#66. Win more than $25 in the monthly poker game

#66. Win more than $25 in the monthly poker game. - Completed January 4, 2007. So, back in October of 2005, I wrecked my motorcycle and broke my arm (a long, PAINFUL story) and so I couldn't attend my regular Wednesday evening bowling league. Instead, Troy invited me to join him at is monthly Texas Hold'em poker game. I'd seen it played on TV before and since it's not very much money ($10), I thought what the heck. At first I was QUITE intimidated since it was all guys and they had been playing as a group for several years. I made LOTS of rookie mistakes by playing hands I shouldn't have been in on and betting into other people with better hands when I did actually have some decent cards.

I took my hits for the first year or so. I just could NOT come out on the positive. The worst I ever did was lose $50, which was absolutely crushing to my little ego. But eventually, I could tell I was getting better at betting, judging when I should fold and not getting so nervous about EVERY hand. It was about that time that I latched onto this 101 list idea. As a test of my skills, I thought I would see if I could come out $25 ahead in the game. It was a feat I NEVER thought I would be able to accomplish.

At the end of 2006, our game host informed us that he would no longer be able to host the game and I volunteered to take over since I don't live too far from him. That first game at my house was in December of 2006. I spent so much time being concerned about being a good hostess that I only ended up playing the really good hands that I had and not stressing over them. That was the first time I had come away from the table on the positive! I walked away with $32.50. Unfortunately, that meant I had only been able to "win" $22.50. UGH! So CLOSE!

When the January game came around, I had pledged to only play the very best hands, not be afraid to be pushy with my chips when the cards were good and I got some really great hands. Those things all conspired for me and I walked away from the table that night with a total of $44.75. I was nearly $35 to the good and got to cross this one off of my list!. Today the home game, tomorrow the world!

#35. Set up an IRA with regular contributions.

So, my thought was that I would set up a Roth IRA in order to fulfill #35 since I'm more than 10 years from retirement (that's one of the main criterian I've seen for whether one should choose a Roth IRA or Traditional IRA). However, starting April 1 of this year, my company is starting a Roth 401(k) plan in addition to our regular 401(k) plan, so I think that making contributions to it more than fits the bill in order to fulfill #35.

Besides, I don't have to do anything basically. They'll use my current contribution elections, automatically deduct it from my payroll and I don't have to pay a broker any fees. I love it when a plan comes together so well!