Cherry Creek Duathlon here I come!

So last semester I bought myself a cycling shirt.

I promised myself that if I bought it, I would start cycling. And so...about 6 months later, I finally bought a bike (mine's black, not red). I got it from bikesdirect.com and I put it together myself! I'm so proud of me. :)

I took her for a maiden voyage a couple of days ago but had some trouble with the gears (these were put together before the bike came to me--not my fault). I've made some adjustments, and am taking her for "maiden voyage part deux" tomorrow morning. I hope to eventually participate in a duathlon they hold here every year at Cherry Creek State Park. It's a 5k run, 30k bike, 5k run. If training goes well, I will do it in May. If not, next May. Either way, I'm going to do it. I'll put before and after pictures up of my bike, and maybe a few of the "maiden voyage part deux".

Any ideas for a name for the bike? So far I've decided it's a she because I keep saying "her" when I refer to it.

Maybe I should update this...

The latest news is that I have a cool job in Denver, and that life is good. I do forensic accounting, which is an adventure every day. On Friday we went out to see a burned up antique store regarding an insurance claim. The police detectives were there trying to determine whether it was arsen while we were wandering around trying to figure out how to value the loss of inventory. I smelled like smoke until my lunch break when I went home and took a shower. My own scent was giving me a headache. My nose and throat hurt for a while, which makes me wonder why anyone would start smoking. Seriously, it can't be fun. I was only in the building for about 1hr, but I could feel the affects of it. And it's not like there was smoke in the building, just the stench of burned up stuff.

Life is just great. Can I just tell you how nice it is to be done with school? I feel better, I even look better, and I finally have time to be social again. I feel like my old self before I was hit with the semi truck that was the accounting program.

Last week I organized a group of people to go up to the Cheyene Frontier Days Rodeo . Did you know that it's the largest rodeo in the world? I got to wear my cowboy had and eat expensive greasy food, which included a rather large funnel cake. I had to share it with 3 other people. I heard they had deep fried candy bars there, but I'm not brave enough to venture into the unknown world of 1,000 calorie snacks. Good times. There was a huge thunderstorm during the rodeo, so the arena turned into a gigantic mud puddle. It was like watching mud wrestling, but better.

My favorite event was the wild horse race. Teams of 3 guys try to race wild horses. One guys holds the rope, one puts the saddle on, and one rides it. Believe me, when the track is one big mud river, it's pretty entertaining. A lot of guys got dragged through the mud by those horses. I think 4 or 5 of the 15+ riders actually got on their horses and rode once around the track.

Denver is awesome--I absolutely love it here. It's a great place to be if you're outdoorsy. I think my favorite thing about summer here is that it's hot during the day, but always cools off at night with a nice thunderstorm. It's fairly green, there's mountains in the east, state parks everywhere, and a million bike/running paths. Heaven.

Hey, do you guys all remember Zac Christensen from the 2nd Ward? He's in my Ward here! Well, he's gone for the summer, but he will be back soon. I can't believe Kat was here in Denver and I didn't even know. I've been living here since June 6, but I guess there's no way anyone could have known, since I have neglected my blog. Sorry. I am repenting, and will try to post more often.

If any of you ever take a trip to Denver, call me. :)