Apologies and penance

Well, hello there, little blog. Do you feel better about my neglect of you, when you see my dried-up houseplants and my dirty house?

I've been using my time (mostly) wisely, though, I promise! First, I escaped the city for a weekend and went to my parents' "cabin" with three of my friends. I used that time to convince Kristin that while it's great that she's doing the MS150 ride again, she really ought to do the MS TRAM, too. She signed up yesterday. (Yay!) Maybe she was worried that I'd "accidentally" make her fall in the water in 6-degree temps, like my poor dog, if she didn't agree?

Kristin on a chilly afternoon.

In addition, I've been working on some MS Trivia night planning - soliciting prizes from local businesses, getting people signed up, and things of that ilk. In addition to that, I was finalizing our very limited sponsorship deal with Erik's Bike Shop and looking for other businesses to chip in a bit of money (and their logos) so that my team can have free, matching jerseys. I feel that should be easier than it has been, but everything is a little challenging the first time around, I suppose.

Trivia Night is a Ol' Mexico again.
(my first use of a .gif!)

 

I've also been spending some time researching flights to Iceland, Belgium, and Amsterdam for the trip that my parents, husband, and I plan to take in September. I've been assured that I can do a bit of biking. Perhaps it would be best to do that before drinking Belgian ale.

I have to renew my passport and, as a form of penance for my neglect, I offer you photos of me in 1987 (high school, with my retainer), 1992 (college, with my nose ring), and 2006 (looking like a tortoise).

I prefer the 1992 photo, of these three.

I will try to raise my eyebrow in my next
passport photo, I think.

The other photo of me, from my birthday last month, is way more fun. I wish real photos could go on passports. It also appears that, over the past 30 years (what? shit!) I mostly prefer an inch-below the ear haircut, despite two forays into long hair with handy bike-riding braids.

If you are planning on joining our team, that'd be great! Please do so soon, though, so that I can include you in my jersey calculations! And, of course, if you'd like to support me in my MS fundraising efforts, here's the link for the June ride (the one on which I'm focusing my fundraising efforts: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2016.

Thanks, blog, for being a not-too-judgmental listener.