Holiday Ramblings...

The long holiday weekend was exactly what I needed.  I'll try to keep it brief, but here's what happened in the shortest form possible.  To start the weekend off right (e.g. preparing for eating tons of turkey and other goodies), the bicycles were loaded with appetizers, wine, and fresh baked bread.  We proceeded to attempt to burn some calories before sitting down to our first Thanksgiving dinner with a good friend from our grad. school days and her family.

 It's amazing how quiet the roads are around noon on Thanksgiving day.  I don't think we saw more than 4 cars on our 4 1/2 mile ride.  If that isn't enough to get you out....you should smell the amazing aromas you catch on every street as you ride by houses where turkeys, and hams, and other goodies are all cooking.  It really is amazing (and you don't experience this in a car).

After some good conversation, massive amounts of food, and a quick ride back home....we did pack up the car for the drive to Thanksgiving number two.  Riding was an option but time pushed us to make the trip in the car.....wifey likes to be punctual!  More turkey was sacrificed that evening and many additional good times were had!

The next day it was time to pay for our sins in the form of an extended version of our weekly trail run.  By extended I was thinking 6 miles or so....turns out extended is 10 miles or so.  Ahhh well, more room for turkey leftovers.

The crew...red sleeve belongs to our leisure suit preacher and beer maker extraordinaire.

Needless to say that the remainder of this day was spend between the hot tub, couch, and eventually the kitchen.  Yep, kitchen....after two turkeys at other folks homes, we decided we needed one of our own for leftovers.  So the afternoon was spent prepping all the items we still were craving!

The day after the marathon run and marathon cooking session.  Someone in the group decided we needed to clean up our act....literally.  So Sunday afternoon we loaded up the bikes again (seven layer dip and sour beers....yes) and headed out for a soap making adventure at the a friends house.

Since the friend is the leisure suit preacher and his wife, six home brewed beers were available on tap (in addition to what we contributed) while we played with caustic chemicals and made soap!  Other than the steps with lye it's really not too bad (in terms of hazard)!

Seven layer dip is a bit awkward to carry even with an Xtracycle.

Preparing the lye.  Note the gloves and goggles!

Melt down all the oils and scents.

Add the lye mixture and stir....for an hour!

Pour into your mold and add color.

Remember to enjoy yourself while working!

So, by the time we finished up dusk had descended and we had a nice ride home.  Well, it would have been nicer if I'd remembered to put wifey's front light back on her bike after charging.  Caught a little flack for that...but we did have my dyno hub light so we managed to get home without incident.  I'd love to say we crashed on the couch at this point....but we ended up doing some clean up in the almost completed brewery building out back before crashing straight into bed!

So that's the long and short of my holiday weekend.  Hope yours was as enjoyable!