Thursday, February 9, 2012

What you see is what you get?

It's been a few weeks since my last update. Where should we begin? Once the spring semester of school started it was face first in the books. This semester I'm taking Art History, Spanish, Glass blowing, and English writing; do I work you ask? In a sense taking 15 credit hours for college, cycling 300 miles a week, studying for exams, and helping friends with photography. Enough about that, my spanish is coming along quite nicely, I am really digging my professor he is quite comical. As most know I love cycling "understatement" in the last three weeks I have purchased 3 bicycles and have sold 2. Currently my line up is my Trek T1 fixed gear brakeless, recently we threw some Continental Gator skins on it. The newest addition is my Trek 2.1 with all Sram Force group set, minus Sram Rival carbon double tap shifters, and all components are from a Trek 5.1 Madone I absolutely love this bike and he shifts like butter. As some know I recently joined Tri Power race team out of Virginia Beach, Virginia; the atmosphere of the group is amazing everyone is very informative. Along with my extra riding, I broke down and purchased cycling shoes, cycling bibs etc. Let me be the first to admit I have hated on the spandex gear but from experience wearing the correct gear really makes riding more enjoyable. Overall I try and ride at least 300 miles per week thats commuting, solo, and group riding; along with 7-9 hours per week on my indoor trainer. Why am I doing this? For the first time in my life, I can honestly say I enjoy the competitive environment of cycling. Pushing my body to new boundaries is awesome, but being able to muscle over the pain, drown the agony out grit your teeth and get to work. Priceless. After a hard ride Sunday morning I came home to awesome breakfast Ashley whipped up for us. What was it you ask! "Sausage rolls" Cooking is not my strong point at all, but admitting Ashley is amazing is fairly easy SHE IS AMAZING! My main focus with photography besides cycling and cycling gear has been Jobie. He is so photogenic and makes taking photos easy. Our eyes stay peeled open for possible Sphynx sitings if anyone knows of a Sphynx that needs adoption please email us. Thanks for viewing.






























Monday, January 16, 2012

Ripleys Museum and Yankee Candle Wonderland

 Since we decided to stay home last Sunday and chill, I wanted to make sure this Sunday we went somewhere different than usual. I was researching "things to do in..." on Google and Williamsburg just happened to pop up. I scrolled thru a few pages and stumbled upon a Ripley's link. I clicked on it and as soon as I saw it was the Ripley's Museum of Oddities, I knew where we were going.  I did a bit more research and found that a Yankee headquarters is right down the road from the museum.

  All I could think about while getting thru the work week was how awesome and fun filled Sunday was going to be. When Sunday did roll around, we rolled out of the door and on our way there. Williamsburg is a great day trip since it is only about an hour away. We arrived to the Ripley's Museum and were eager to get inside for two main reasons: 1. Can't wait to see the museum  2. It's friggin' cold outside! We got our tickets and started our tour by seeing a life size replica of a gorilla that was made completely out of metal nails. Everything had a card to inform you of what it was. There were things from a monks skull that was decorated with silver and gems to a replica figure of a 1400 LB. man! I couldn't get enough of this place. I kept calling Coty over to show him what I had just read because things were so interesting.

  In the same room as the 1400LB. man and a two headed kitten, was a chair that told you what kind of person you are. I loved the old antique style of it and bright red color so I had to sit in it. I was "ENCHANTED" it said, but mainly I felt more powerful therefore my pose. Haha. What was also really intriguing was a dress made completely out of coffee filters! I would wear that in a heartbeat! <{Speaking of coffee filters, right before I went to write this post Coty and I were about to make some coffee. I grabbed the coffee machine and went to put a new filter in. Coty was the last one to use it and with our recent use of instant coffee, he didn't take out the filter last time he used it. So imagine my surprise when I see little hills of mold in the filter cup! My reaction is probably not what you expect tho..."Oooh, Coty, you left the filter in and now theres lots of mold on it...It looks cool tho...you should take a picture of it!" back to post now}>  Another part of the museum, there was one of those rooms where the walls spin and you get dizzy bring to walk across the bridge. That was a lot of fun as well. Coty wanted to get a picture of it, so I stood there while he tried to get the best quality picture. After a minute I really did begin to feel dizzy! Towards the end of the tour there was a photo booth, the kind that gives you the strip with 4 pictures. Coty saw it and since he knows very well that those are one of my favorite things, he paid so we could get one done to add to our collection.

  Next we went to the Yankee Candle store...or what we thought was a store. When we entered, it had a giant open ceiling with a false painted sky with lights and all. On one end of the "city" was a winter wonderland with snow falling over you and a bridge to walk over a frozen pond! What makes this even better is that fact that the whole store is staffed with lots of very friendly grandmas. Everywhere you looked there was one. It was almost like a Yankee Candle version of Willy Wonkas candy factory. I wonder if the head person working at the store were to play a flute that all the grandmas would start singing about the candles. Maybe something like : "Yankee, Yankee, mank-a-de-hick, make sure to always trim the wick"...or whatever.

  This place had every scent and type of candle size you could imagine. There were sales left and right and also a place where you can make your own candle! I got a XL size of one of my favorite scents (Pineapple Cilantro) and Coty got some tea lights in a scent that he liked( Maple Pancakes). Since I had planned the Yankee stop, I remembered Coty telling me he received a coupon for Yankee in an Email. That saved us $10 on top of our already on sale items. The trip was so smooth, fun, interesting and definitely something I would do again.

Hello, Coty here. This weekend a friend of mine approached me with taking photos of his brace links bracelets. There available thru his shop  here is the physical address 4915 Colley Ave Norfolk, VA. 23508.
The week ended with me realizing that I'm in need of a road bike and pursuing that will be more beneficial to myself. Until next time get out there and give 110%. If you see me out there riding give me a wave.