Lindsey Heim

Weekend happenings...

What a great independence day weekend! Accomplished all of the following/ made these revelations with some great company over the past several days

- attended my second 'concerts on the square;' this time with a nice, classy box of Franzia. Not just any Franzia, the classiest and finest of them all- the sunset blush. All we needed is some cheese from a can or individually cellophane wrapped slices, and the party will be complete.

- Rode a bunch in the beautiful weather including a ride out to New Glarus, home of two wonderful things: New Glarus brewery, producers of Spotted Cow Ale, and the New Glarus bakery- I returned home with a bag of herbed beer bread mix in my jersey pocket, which was immediately baked up for the cookout that evening

- why is it that I always run into people out riding right after I am done with a hard workout/ intervals and can barely ride?

- had an awesome cookout with grilled chicken and steak burritos, guac, and margaritas for the fourth of July - it may not have been burgers and apple pie, but we're in a melting pot- right?

- Played with some sparklers, and enjoyed the pletora of ilegal fireworks being lit off around the neighborhood. Gladly avoided all mass crowds and traffic jams associated with public fireworks displays

- night bike ride beebop around town with Sara- super fun, and realized how many people are fishing in the dark on saturday nights- weird. My favorite quote from Sara, "I feel tough with my pants leg rolled up while riding a bike."

- checked out ZuZu cafe and went kayaking with Michelle- super fun! new lesson: paddling in a 'sit in kayak'= you will get wet

- finally able to check out the coveted Michael's frozen custard. Yum...

- Went to picnic and see "Ah Wilderness!" at the American Players outdoor theatre/ theater. Learned about what a masters degree in costume design entails- very interesting.

- I ran out of coffee this morning, so this means that I get to go out to explore out a new local roaster and purchase some new beans! I am very excited! Not only that, but I get to finally use my newest aquisition: a coffee grinder! I am very excited to have this new machine and variable introduced to hopefully get me oh so much closer to brewing perfection.

- Had some awesome help to remove the upper trim boards from my garage so I can finally get the additional few cm of clearance to get my car+bike rack inside. In this process, I uncovered a carpenter ant colony. Now, after working the past nine+ years in healthcare, I promise that I have seen some disgusting things. I usually don't get grossed out by insects, but I will admit that uncovering this colony is towards the top of the list of disgusting things I have seen. This was a pile of the hugest ants i have ever seen, surrounded by hundreds of these disgusting yellow ant egg sacs. I am no entomologist; however I am pretty sure that I saw, and killed the queen ant of the colony- which was by far the grosset and hugest ant I have ever seen in my life. When all is said and done, I am glad that they are hopefully now dead, and that I now know what carpenter ants look like, and that I have not seen any of these creatures of the order hymenoptera (if I remember correctly from first semester bio in undergrad) in my home.

- sitting on the porch at night during a thunderstorm is awesome (what I am doing right now) :)

- I am so excited that the Tour de France is on!!! I love having cycling on ALL the time during the TdF!! On top of that, I could not be more excited the stage 4 time trial tomorrow, not to mention all of the super sweet TT machines to roll out of the start house. I paraphrase Phil Liggett, 'the best way to view the race of truth is on television.'