My neighbor is a Bag Lady

Distinguished Bag Lady . com

Yesterday evening I was invited to a neighborhood open house. The invitation was e-mailed to me by a friend several weeks ago and it stated they were selling crafty things that you could use for stocking stuffers this Holiday season. I thought to myself, bag lady?, sounds like the state fair type of arts and crafts that are out dated. Anyway it was a good idea to get out of the house and call one of my friends I usually never see (because I am always biking) to join me.

Well to my surprise, when this young women opened her door to her home and greeted us with her big bright smile I was taken back. I had thought it would be an older lady type of party. So we step inside and find her home filled with beautiful things that you would of found at a speciality boutique. Interestingly, she had her other friends whom are also crafty present their items for sale too. To make a long story short, the so called "BAG LADY" I envisioned in my head had some of the most unique and beautiful fun purses I have ever seen. They look way too professional, like the one's you spend hundreds of dollars for in the department stores. The best part about her purses is that you can choose the material for her to make it, including the material for the inside lining too!

My friend Rebecca talked me into this Bag which I think is cute. I am really not a purse kind of person and I maybe buy one every two years so I hope this is versatile. Oh well if not, it's just another impulse buy.

Elf Yourself

Click here for some funny Holiday Cheer!

Christmas Lights

Now I know why MTB Girl has been busy all week. Check out their Christmas house display.

Holiday Weekend

Captain and I headed down to Chicago for our annual after Thanksgiving Day getaway. The weather for the weekend was actually very beautiful and the city was busting with life. We arrived early Friday morning and headed towards Michigan Avenue to immerse ourselves in big city pleasures.

Room View from Sheraton Hotel Chicago

Michigan Avenue
Gap commercial rejects

A little early evening cheer at good ole RL

Full Moon on Black Friday

Dinner at Le Colonial

French-Vietnamese

a universal language

Copenhagen Bike Traffic Lights
Originally uploaded by [Zakkaliciousness]

Check out his photography

Alterra Year End Bash

Celebrating the Fruits of Our Labor

e ventually...

Captain A.K.A. River Boy


still looking for the river

Celebrating number one

E Boy

The come back Kid

pro one handed beer bong champion

Job well done!

Part one of team initiation for her. Boy does

she got it coming.

Say Cheese

As always...Chimene and Karen in high fashion

Leadership changes

Hello team,

We went over a few team updates at the meeting that we wanted to share. First off, congratulations to the team on a very successful year and two really big trophies. Special recognition, too, to Mike Phillips, who has kept his roots in the Alterra team while winning and placing in races all over the place. And he's still a nice guy. The team is entering it's twelfth year. As you know, this is a loosely knit organization, but generally run by the team manager and an "executive committee" of past managers/treasurers/etc. At the moment, a lot of this comes down to Greg, Ward Fowler from Alterra and myself. We have always had a good succession in leadership, but I must say that when we reached out to do some brainstorming this year and to recruit help (i.e., spread the work around) we really had a great response. As always, our priority remains on being good cycling citizens, good ambassadors for Alterra, having fun and helping everyone realize and exceed their own personal goals. The fact that we do well in the WORS series is a testament that this formula works and that we do not need or want to recruit people just because they are "top" riders. We have now talked with a number of people on the team and came up with some responsibilities that will need to be covered. With Greg stepping down as team manager/race director, there are some big shoes we need to fill. I would like to thank the following people for volunteering to take on different roles for the '08 season.

Tim Scanley: Team Manager

Tyrone Gonzalez: Race director

Mike Owens: Treasurer

Roger Eckes: Director of team rides

Christine Czarnecke: Sponsorship relations and Race committee

Sonia Dubielzig: Sponsorship relations and Alterra Race committee

Angela Theriault: Community events/Outreach

Christopher Schulz: Assistant Community events/Outreach and writer

Dan Backley: Clothing order and Race committee

Cindy Schulzetenberg: Clothing order and Alterra Race committee

Greg Duckett: Race-day coordinator

I will continue my roll as team liaison to Alterra. As before, everybody is expected to help our with non race events and contribute to preparing for and putting on the race. If you want to volunteer to have a more defined role, let Tim know.

Have fun and keep the rubber side down.

Bruce

Riverwest HOBOS

Alterra Coffee Roasters coming to Riverwest

The new Alterra shop will be really cool once it is up and running. We were fortunate this past weekend to have our year end party here and take a sneak peek at the new operations. Built with a concept of a green conscious, the new building will be a nice welcome to this part of the city. They have already rolled over the bakery shop and I am sure the sweet smells are filling the air. Ward Fowler one of the co founders of Alterra Coffee is really excited about this transition and hopes to open doors to the coffee shop this December.

The new building will house an Alterra café at the corner of Chambers & Humboldt; a super-cool outdoor seating courtyard area on Humboldt; a new yarn and fiber shop; a to-be-announced 5,000 sq. ft. tenant; the Alterra Baking Company; and Alterra’s roasting, wholesale, and administrative operations.

Coffee Mill

Cherry Turnovers were to die for. Tasted like made from scratch with real butter. Supper yummy!
We all look like we color coordinated for the picture and it turned out pretty good considering it was taken toward the end of the evening.




Photos here

MKE RIVER TRAILS

The girls got together again to ride the Milwaukee River Trails located on the fashionable East Side. Thanks again to Claire for hosting the ride and Regina for organizing. The River Trails are another set of great urban mountain bike trails that are bound to test your technical ability. Sections of these trails were used for the 2005 Xterra race. If you want to see if your technical skills are up to par, then bring it to the River Trails. Since, these trails follow the river, muddy and slick conditions can be expected. There are many places to enter these trails, we chose the North Ave Bridge as shown above. We all parked on the side streets around the Pick N Save Parking lot across the street off Humboldt and North Ave.


North Avenue Pedestrian Bridge

Some of Milwaukee's urban artwork. This face reminds me a bit of Picasso




This was cute too


I should have them do some work on
my walls at home.


We all had to stop and watch a moment while a few of us tried some new stunts. We thought this would be a great ride for practicing our MAD MTB Skills. We had a total of nine of us riding and need I say there was never a dull moment.
Left to Right, Brittany, Meg, Amy, Lori, Rachael, Lyndsey

Claire started off with her amazing summer sault! We certainly forgive her for cutting loose "literally" on us. Congratulations on your Grant! I hear she lived it up a bit the night before, can you blame her?

It was nice to see everyone helping each other learn new skills and make riding that more enjoyable.

The dreaded bowl is now a sundae delite! Some of us even made it up the other side without sliding.Amy stopping for a photo shoot

MAD SKILLS AWARD WINNER

The last six survivors (minus one who jetted off for a date) of the 17.5 mile ride of what is most likely the toughest trails in South East Wisconsin. I hope Meg liked this place over Panera Bread.

I really enjoyed the ride it was a lot of fun. At least our group did not end up in the river like the boys on the Alterra team.

It was nice to get to know everyone a little bit better and I wish we had more time to spend hanging out. Oh, and once again we did have a guy crash our little party momentarily.

I think Meg and I will host a Tosa River Trails Ride if anyone is interested

for the month of December.






Pictures here

Boogie Nights

Best Riding Buds

Saturday I had to get out and ride hard since I did not make it to the Iceman race. I met up with the Alterra Gang at the New Alterra Coffee Shop on North Ave in Tosa by 10:00AM. The coffee shop is just ten minutes down the road from my home and I was excited to hammer it all the way there. I just bought a new IPOD shuffle for riding and the little F***** is great! I can't believe how many songs it can hold and how LOUD I can crank it, PERFECT! Anyway... I forget what fun it is to ride with some of the boys and what a good workout I get. It felt good to hammer it through the trails and chase the boys, I swear my heart rate was busting in the 180's and it was sweet!
Perfect trail conditions continue, who's complaining?


Nice and soft, perfect for practice



Can you believe Wisconsin still has green trees in the middle of November?

New team member Greg

New Team member Brandon

Return from the Dark Side, New Team member Angie

New Team member

Miss Buckette

she's a real mountain biking mama