Friends and Junk

So, my friend Cara finally got her blog up and running again! She's the author of Monster of All Cakes over to the sidebar to the right there and she wrote the sweetest entry where she mentioned me, Mason and Beetlejuice here! I've actually been waiting for her to post and mention her pup, Didgeridoo so I can write about her as well so here goes!

Cara and I have been friends since my freshman year of college, and although we had our falling out and whatever, I'm really glad to call her my friend once again. We've always had an insane-lot-in-common (and still do evidently, even with our time apart!), and I'm sad that we managed this and then I left Memphis so we never get to hang, but we still talk often about dogs, bikes and a potential comic that we wanna start, which is exciting beyond BELIEF because I've been wanting to start a new webcomic with a friend!

She got Didgeridoo, what is possibly a catahoula/lab/aussie mix a few months ago, and he's wonderful. He started my love of catahoulas, as mentioned in my last post about what kinda dog I want:


(Photo from facebook!)

To nerd about him for a moment: he has the cutest floppy ears, the most handsome merley-patchy-coloring-with-tan-points and the sweetest face! I wish so badly I could have snatched up one of his siblings, but he's definitely made me really want my next dog to have a bit of catahoula, because I'm a sucker for him! (Him and a dog I follow on instagram named Charlie--he's a catahoula corgi mix (his owner refers to him as a corgahoula) and he has Didgi's face on a short lil body! SO CUTE!)

He apparently gets some flak for his breed and barking (some people say he has cattledog in him, which I also mentioned in my last post where most people judge them to be sour tempered), but I know he's a sweet boy. Cara has raised him really well, socializes him regularly and he gets plenty of exercise.

Cara also rides bikes waaay more than I do and for way longer, and she does Hardcourt Bike Polo and Fixed Gear Freestyle, both of which I find crazy awesome. I'd like to eventually do some tricks, and I've been practicing my trackstanding and riding backwards in the garage the past few rainy days!

Anyways, I don't know if many people read this, but I wanted to write a bit about her in hopes you'll enjoy her blog as well. We both will be writing about our dogs and junk, so I know they'll both be fun reads!

Two of my Favorite Things

I'm going to write a post dedicated to the two things I will probably write about the most: my bike and my dog.




The other day I took Mason to see his cousin, Cash. Cash is a 4 month old pitbull, and he's adorable. I took some quick shots with my phone and instagrammed them up, and I was pleased with what I managed to catch. I can't believe that Cash is already as big as Mason, and I swear he weighs twice as much. He's ALL muscle. I can't express how proud I am of Mason and how much I love him. He's such a good dog, he's friendly to every person and every dog he meets (unless a tennis ball is involved, in which case he is all business). He's growing up so fast too, he's mellowed out a little overnight it seems and is finally not going 110% 24/9...more like 100% 24/7, so that's been a relief. I'm glad to know there's a light at the end of the cracked out puppy phase.






I also finally got to ride Beetlejuice for the first time the other day. I walked up to the top of the hill and rode around on flat ground to get used to the whole fixed gear thing, and then did something incredibly stupid: went down a hill. Needless to say, my legs couldn't keep up with the pedals because my bike weighs like 5 pounds or something ridic and I had to stick my legs out and slowly brake. It almost ended in disaster, but I really am so glad for bike brakes. WHEW. The bike itself still needs a few paint touchups (removal mainly on the logo and stem) and a new saddle, but is done otherwise.



After this, my friends Tristen, Sam and I decided to go riding in town at night around the housing and retirement home. It's kind of like a little quiet suburb area, so it was an easy ride for the most part. It was definitely different--Tristen kept powering ahead with Sam and I was doing my best to catch up, it's HARDER to pedal on a fixed gear, but once you get going, you're much faster than everyone else is my experience. I like the control with it. We rode for a while, we rode to a playground, stopped, rode to a friend's house, stopped and rode back on the sidewalk so we wouldn't be riding on a main road without reflectors/helmets/lights/etc. (Hey Memphis--up here the sidewalks are unmarred and flat as can be...it's amazing). We were going to go again tonight, but I had a shitty day and it was really late when Tristen finally asked me to go (10:30 lol). But here are the photos from that, and I hope to do it again soon but since Tristen and Sam both go to school in DC, I don't know how often it will happen. I may end up driving up to Hburg every coupla nights to ride on my own, because that was a really good area to practice my riding in. OH and the other two bikes are the ones they rode--old ass cruiser type bikes they keep there for the residents to ride. They were a hot mess, and it was really good I brought my tire pump because they were FLAT.






I'm also getting back into World of Warcraft...so I'm sure there will be a post about that soon. :D

Beetlejuice

So now that I'm not a crippled old woman and I can ride bikes again, I decided to pick it back up. I'm really amped about doing just about anything now that I can, and I wanna ride fixed gear because A) I never have B)I hate gears and have always rode single speed C) I want a challenge D) I want something I can learn on, like learn tricks and stuff.

I used to have a Raleigh that my friend Cara converted to a single speed for me before my joints went to hell and I couldn't ride and I sold it, thinking I'd be 4ever in pain. Now that I'm not, I found ANOTHER Raleigh (totally not my intent, I was gonna get a Motobecane track bike online) in my friend Charles' backyard and after talking to Cara and my friend Jim I've decided to build this puppers cuz it'll be like a 300 dollar investment in something totally badass.

Just talking to them and having my dad help me disassemble it and looking at fresh parts I've learned A LOT. Not enough to call myself at all competent, but I love learning new things and it's exciting.


As you see in the title of this post, I've decided to name my bike Beetlejuice. I have two progress photos of relevance, I'm putting the cog/lockring on the wheel this weekend and putting the wheels on temporarily until I get the crankset/raiserbars/grips/brake/wolfseat with my tax refund.

BEFORE:


SORTA AFTER:


As you can see I just propped it up on those wheels to check it out, and it still has some masking tape on the Raleigh logo and other parts that need to be taken off and sanded to finish (no I didn't just attack it with paint haha).


So far its only parts are the Raleigh sportif frame (lugged and sexy repainted in Mandarin orange) and the Eighthinch Amelia lime green wheelset. Oh, and I have a 1/8 inch purple chain sitting off to the side waiting to be used.