how many fish can i kill in one day?

i spent my day wednesday walking the watershed at cunningham lake in omaha. i carried poison on my back.

and i was not as happy about it as i look in this photo. when my backpack sprayer began to leak and the rotenone sloshed down the middle of my back, i vowed to quit my job and become a yogi. later in the day, stuck knee deep in mud on the exposed lake floor, i vowed to quit my job and become a nutritionist. i was furious. nothing is more frustrating than attempting to extract a leg from the sucking mud while the one you are balancing on is steadily disappearing farther and farther into the muck. grrr. my attitude changed somewhat when i realized how ridiculous i surely looked to any one driving by on hwy 36. even better to anyone who might have overheard my pitiful whimpers of self woe.

anyway, the entire day was not horrible. i rather enjoyed speeding along the lake floor on the four wheeler, mud flying behind me.

this is ahri

she was born last night at 1:21 am, just two hours after kellie and nick arrived at the hospital.

my little sister is incredible!

and i am an aunt.

our lady

this afternoon i took one of our trucks down to state surplus. it has transmission problems. the last truck i took to state surplus had all kinds of problems that stemmed from my hitting a deer with it at 60 mph. but that's not today's story.

while at surplus, i took a moment before heading back to the office to browse through the piles of junk in the warehouse, not expecting to find anything of interest. there were the usual bookcases, odds-n-ends pieces of office cubicles, a salad bar, an egg refrigerator, many many outdated computer monitors and cpu's, and then a rather large pile of brand new, in-the-plastic our lady of gaudalupe fleece blankets! what? who surplussed those?

i asked the office manager on my way out how so many our ladys came to rest in the state surplus warehouse. and this is the story: a semi truck loaded with plastic folding tables and fleece blankets - you know, the ones you see hanging heavily from clotheslines at roadside stands on hot summer days - was passing through Nebraska and was pulled over for some infraction or another. officer on duty thought the driver was acting a little funny, so he got permission to search the trailer and cast aside the blankets and tables to find a shiny, brand new floor, just installed. k-9 unit jumped on top of it and raised a ruckus. and that's how the virgin got here.

what interests me most about this story is that along with our lady came blankets adorned with motorcycles, packs of wolves, confederate flags, you name it - you've seen them i'm sure. all of those blankets cleared out at public auction and brought a pretty fair price according to the office manager, but our lady remains stacked in the warehouse awaiting the next auction. apparently religious icons don't appeal to the fleece blanket crowd as much as unicorns and wolves.

in any case, should anyone wish to dress up their guest bed or living room futon with a plush virgin of guadalupe at a fraction of the roadside price, head down to the state surplus auction on april 12. i'll probably be there.

planet x

the planet x kaffenback. i want this frame. it's not sold in the us as far as i can tell, but can be purchased from the manufacturer in england for about $325 usd, shipping included, which will cost me slightly less than the surly cross check frame. this one is essentially the british version of a cross check - a sturdy steel frame that can be built up for whatever you want. i want a commuter. why this frame over the surly? the paint job is lovely and i'll be the only person in town to ride one. lincoln is kind of a cross check nation.

first blog ever

i've been so occupied shopping online for running and cycling gear, i'd forgotten how much I enjoy finding clothes like this.

i used to be a vintage fashionista (as least in my own estimation), now all i think about is whether to wear compression shorts or split shorts for the upcoming marathon, and if i'm spotted in anything other than my running shoes, i must be going to a wedding. and i'm now also the proud owner of TWO pairs of cycling shoes and several pairs of plushly padded shorts.

shopping for vintage clothing these days is pretty much limited to glancing in the windows of Rialto on the way back to the Y after a saturday morning run.