Sidelined

I injured myself knitting last night. I'm not sure whether I should be proud or embarassed. Is it akin to a war wound, or more like a bed sore? I have a nasty blister on my thumb. I've been knitting with chenille yarn which is kind of sticky, like suede, and it gets hot as it slides through my fingers. I noticed that my thumb hurt while I was knitting and when I put my work down for the night I looked a my thumb and there was a blister. I think I'm embarassed. Who hurts themselves knitting? All I know is this better not throw off my Chrismas present production schedule. I'm already running short on days - tomorrow is December 1st!

Snowkids!

Sure, it's been in the 60's and we have a much better chance of torrential ran than we do a nice snow storm, but that doesn't mean you have to go without snowmen.

I've been working on a new gang of little baby sock snowkids for the upcoming shopping night. they're also going into my Etsy shop today if you want to shop early. They're adorable and made from fleece, felt, old buttons and baby socks. What's not to like?

Auto Anxiety

I’ve never had a healthy relationship with my car. I spend most of my time behind the wheel in a co-dependant partnership where I’m constantly trying to understand why my car is acting grumpy and what I may have done to make it mad.

Bad cars have burned me in the past. This has scarred me and caused me to distrust anything on four wheels. My first car was a freebie that my dad found, a 1987 Hyundai Excel. By the second year I owned it, the engine had been rebuilt twice and, among the many Hyundai adventures I had, on my very first solo drive in it the clutch went out.

I traded the Hyundai for a 1979 Audi Fox. I was in college and the Audi looked cooler. Plus it had a big trunk to hold all of my art projects. Unfortunately it also had an engine-cooling fan that had been rewired so that it no longer kicked on by itself. It had been given a switch that I needed to hit to start the fan and keep the car from overheating. This was fine and all, except the fact that the electrical system had been incredibly messed up by this episode of mechanical genius and if I happened to leave the car with the radio dial in the on position or the cooling fan not switched off (despite the fact that the car was off and nothing appeared to be running) I would kill the battery and need to find myself a jumpstart. I learned pretty quickly to park on a downhill and how exactly to push a car, run alongside, jump in, and pop start it without running myself over.

From the Audi I moved up to a 1987 Subaru Justy. The only car to never let me down. This car was awesome and I would still be driving it today if it hadn’t started to spontaneously lose important parts, like the steering stabilizer, while doing 65 on the highway.

We junked the poor Justy (I’ll never forgive myself) and I bought a heap of crap from the Kia dealership. A used 2000 Kia Sportage which not only needed to have the transfer case replaced twice and the 4-wheel drive replaced once, but I actually broke the driver’s side air bag one early morning in Hartford by honking my horn at the FedEx guy who was about to back into my car. I should have let him hit me.

Because I come from the one step forward and two steps back school of car-buying, I traded the Kia for my current bad relationship – a 1997 Isuzu Rodeo. Just like anyone in an abusive relationship, I really do love my car. It just doesn’t love me back in the same way. The first month I owned the Isuzu was a nightmare of stranding incidents and rides with nice tow truck drivers. This was all related to a bad starter wire which, unfortunately, took a long freakin time to uncover. The dealership was very nice about all of this and I didn’t have to pay for any of the repairs, or even the long tow from Hartford to Ellington one cold morning.

I had several lovely months of stress-free driving and then a few months ago, the check engine light came on. I usually don’t hold any faith in the check engine light knowing that it is set to light up at certain intervals to get you to take your car in for service. I ignored it until my car started to run badly and then finally I took it in to the shop. I received a diagnosis of a bad EGR valve, which is apparently expensive, so the nice repair guy cleaned some things and changed some others and got the car to the point that it ran smoothly but told me to save my money becasue I most likely wouldn’t pass emissions if I didn’t change my EGR valve. That’s fine, considering that the Connecticut emissions testing system was such a mess that I hadn’t received a notice for testing in over four years. I could possibly be on my next car before I got a notice to take the Isuzu in for testing. Ha! Fates, you mock me. What did I get in the mail last month but a notice for emissions testing for my Isuzu.

Just about the time I got the notice in the mail, my car began doing something strange. The check engine light would occasionally go out. Then suddenly it would come back on. I began a careful study of when and where it happened as well as the time of day and weather conditions. I needed to discover the pattern. When the gas tank was low, the light would come on. After I filled up, it would go off. Riding home from work in the rain, it would come on. Some cold mornings when I would head out to work, the light would be off. It wasn’t entirely consistent and it was driving me crazy. So crazy, in fact, that I began to hear noises. Small whistling noises when I would take off from a stop. I was obsessed with figuring out this new sound. What made it happen? Where was it coming from? Was it a precursor to a larger problem? Was it the sound of my engine mounting bolts slowly falling out or was it just wind in the roof rack?

I was studying the check engine light pattern and the whistling noise one night driving home in traffic when a new annoyance popped up. As I would coast to a stop with my foot on the clutch, the 4-wheel drive indicator light would flicker on. As I would let out the clutch to take off, the light would go out. Back and forth, the light would flicker on, then flicker off. I checked to see that it was in 2-wheel drive, put it in 4, then back in 2, still the light flickered. Then one morning driving out to Stafford, the check engine light suddenly flashed on immediately followed by the 4-wheel drive indicator light, which came on and stayed on. It’s been on for a week now. Luke has assured me that it is truly not in 4-wheel drive, but still I’m worried.

I drive my car the 20 miles to and from work every day holding my breath and hoping that nothing falls off or blows up. I’m just waiting for my transmission to fall out of the car or a big cloud of smoke to come from under the hood. Add to that the stress of my impending emissions test – I can’t handle this anxiety! I just want a car I can drive. I don’t really care what it looks like. I want it to be decent on gas, have a working gas gauge, to have heat and a/c, and no major mechanical problems! Is that too much to ask? Why can’t there be a subway connecting Andover and Hartford? That would make my life so much easier.

Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Killing a Tree for Christmas

Well, four days off from work and I've already forgotten my routine. Last night I couldn't remember what time I was supposed to set the alarm for. This morning I left the house and came back in three times for things I had forgotten and still I managed to leave without packing anything for lunch. Luckily I rememberd how to get to work.

Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone! We had a nice day. We woke up late and watched the parade while I started putting up Christmas decorations. Then we spent some time with Luke's side of the family and had a nice dinner. We stayed until after midnight and despite the fact that I didn't get in to bed unto almost 1am, I was excited about going shopping early the next morning.

For about the past seven or so years, since I stopped working retail and being on the cash register side of the counter, I've been going shopping early on Black Friday and I have to say that I love it for some strange reason. I love to get out there early, before the sun is up. I love to be in the stores browsing around for nothing in particular while the mommies get into fistfights over Easy bake Ovens. I love the unexpected deals and I love to have all of my shopping done and wrapped at home before noon. I had planned to get up around 7 and head out. I wanted to go to Toys R Us to find something for my nephews, Jo-Ann Etc. for something for my sister (and me), Target for more stuff for my sister, and maybe Pier 1 just for fun if I was up to it.

I woke up and looked at the clock, saw that it was almost 7, so I got up and got ready. I kissed good-bye to a sleeping Luke and Molly and went out to the kitchen to leave where I saw the clock and it said 6:20. Ug. I could have slept for another hour. Oh well, I set out and got a jump on my big shopping day with a whopping 5 hours of sleep, no makeup and no coffee. My grumpy, sleepy, wild bedhead and bags under my eyes should scare everyone out of my way.

I hit Toys R Us as the sun was coming up and found that the line wrapped completely around the inside of the store and the things I wanted weren't on sale. Not worth waiting in line if it's not on sale. Bummer. Then I hit Jo-Ann's where I couldn't find what I wanted to get for my sister. Almost another bummer, but I walked past the bead display on the way out and saw that everything was 40% off, plus I had a 20% off coupon on top of that! Excellent.

It's now 8am and all I had purchased was $40 of beads for me. So far, not good.

I went to Target to see if I could find the toys for my nephews but found a mostly empty toy section. I tried to find something for my sister - nothing. I bought some wrapping paper and a tablecloth.

9:30am and I have beads, wrapping paper and a tablecloth. This is turning into a particularly black Black Friday. I was tired, coffeeless, giftless, and I just wanted to go home.

I headed home to get Luke and head back out for lunch and to cut down our Christmas tree. We get our tree each year the day after Thanksgiving and despite the fact that it was almost 65 degrees on Friday, we went out to see Santa and get our tree. There's a tree farm down the road from us that we've been going to every year and the old man who lives there is very sweet and dresses like Santa every day to greet the people coming to get their trees. An hour later we were home with our tree but we didn't have a chance to decorate it because we had friends coming over for dinner.

Saturday I spent all day decorating the tree and watching Christmas movies. I swear I was in slow motion this weekend. I started putting the lights on the tree around 11am and by 6:30pm I was finally done adding ornaments. Now the living room looks sparkly and Chrsitmasy and the cat is camped out on her usual spot under the tree on the skirt.

Well hopefully today I won't be in slow motion and since it is "Cyber Mmonday" maybe I'll start my online Christmas shopping and make up for my pathetic Black Friday shopping trip.

Moo

Playing with Flickr this morning I found this from Moo:
I think this is so awesome. 100 Beautiful business cards with your own photos or artwork on them for $19.99. You can have 100 of the same design or one of each of 100 designs. I think this is such a great idea! I can't wait to upload some artwork to Flickr and make some art cards. I think I'll make 100 for my artwork and 100 for my jewelry.

My Application For Suzuki’s “Ride of A Lifetime” Contest

Have two long-time motorcyclist friends? You know, the ones you’ve shared the highs and lows of the road with for as long as you can remember? Perhaps more importantly, two that could put up with you for 1000+ miles on a bike road trip?

Well get your riding gear ready, because Suzuki is looking for three close friends (and licensed motorcyclists) to take “THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME.” The chosen few will ride new, 2007 Suzuki Boulevard cruisers on a 5-day, 1000+ mile road trip through some of this country's most beautiful scenery, on roads that you'll swear were made for motorcycling. To top it off, the entire trip will be filmed for Suzuki’s new 2007 Suzuki Boulevard advertising campaign, and you & your friends could be the stars!

APPLICATION:

Rider 1: me
Rider 2: Luke
Rider 3: Keith

Riding Experience: four years

Current and Previous Motorcycles Owned: none
Current and Previous Motorcycles Borrowed From Husband: ’83 Honda Nighthawk, ’00 Buell M2 Cyclone

How Long Have You Known: Luke – 16 years, Keith – 5 years

While addressing a large group of people, select which of the following is going through your mind:
Great Group! Can we hang out later? ___ I’ll be glad when this is over! _X_ Just shoot me! ___

Describe yourself and your two friends’ personalities on the road, either Leader of the Pack/Navigator, Mid-pack, Bringing up the rear, or Where’s lunch/are we there yet?
Me: Mid-pack
Luke: Leader of the Pack/Navigator
Keith: Mid-pack

Describe your favorite motorcycling memory:
I have some great memories of gorgeous days and twisty roads. Of realizing the power beneath me and that capability within me, but my favorite memory is from early on, before I even had my license. I was taking the motorcycle education class and the big, burly teacher went around the room and asked why we all wanted our motorcycle licenses. I said that I wanted mine to make my dad proud. My dad really wanted me to learn and I wanted to do well for him. We were on our first day of the road course and we were doing the typical exercises of circling and swerving, going around cones and I was having a great time. We were all doing one last big circle around the course and as I came back in to the parking area, the burly instructor said to me, “why did you say you wanted your license?” I said, “to make my dad proud”. He said, “I think that did it”.

Describe the funniest thing in your motorcycling life:
That would have to be Luke. He’s hard on me when I make mistakes riding, but he’s also the only thing that can make we laugh when we’re on a long, wet ride or stuck in traffic on a 90-degree day. He’ll reach out and pretend to pinch bicyclist’s butts as we pass them by on the road. If we see someone bending over, working on their garden and their showing a bit of “plumber’s crack”, he’ll make a hand motion like he’s dropping a quarter in a slot machine. If we’re in traffic or behind a slow driver, he’ll motion like he’s pushing himself along with his feet. It’s the stupid little things like that that keep us both going on long days. With no radios and helmets covering our faces, we have to rely on creative sign language to pass the time.

Describe what it is about your two friends that makes them worthy to be part of the Suzuki “Ride of a Lifetime” with you:
To put it very simply, if it wasn’t for Luke letting me ride his motorcycles, I wouldn’t be riding. He cautiously encouraged me to learn to ride and offered his bikes for me to ride on. He’s been my constant riding buddy and I feel like I’ve forgotten something if I ride anywhere without him. That, and we’ve been together forever and he’d kill me if I did this without him. If it wasn’t for Keith getting his license, I wouldn’t have mine either. When he was getting ready to take his test, he needed a bike to ride and the old Nighthawk had been sitting, unloved, in our garage for a while. It needed a little work but since Keith needed a bike, we took her out and dusted her off and got her up and running. After Keith got his license, he bought a bike of his own and the Nighthawk was free for me to ride. The rest is history. That, and he’s really tall so our awesome leather-clad trio would look proportionate on the promotional posters with tall Keith in the middle and me and Luke like short bookends on either side. He also sent me the link to the contest, so it would be mean if I didn’t include him.

Describe something that each of your two friends did that drove you crazy:
Well I’m married to one of them, so eventually everything he does drives me a little crazy. Keith, I cant say there’s anything he does to drive me crazy, but give me five days and 1100 miles with him and I’m sure I’ll change my story.

I'm Back

Well, after two weeks of sleepless stress, a twelve-hour work day on Friday, a punctured finger, a funeral on Saturday morning and an overnight babysitting gig watcing my 4- and 1-year old nephews, I'm back.

I took the day off to sleep in and not do a damn thing for anyone but me. Ironically, I would have had the day off anyhow because the University where I work had no power. I guess I'll just save that vacation day for later.

I spent the morning cleaning the house (that was for me, so it still fell within my day off rules), I listed a couple of new things on Etsy, (by the way, have you been there recently? The new site is BEAUTIFUL! I love it). And I spent the early afternoon designing a postcard to announce the holiday shopping extravaganza we're hosting at my house on December 8th with sparkly Lisa Gaumond goodies and beautiful SimplyJune things. Here's how it looks: You're all invited, so please come! Email me if you need directions. Well Molly's pestering me to go out and I have lasagna noodles burining on the stove, so that's it for now. I'll be back tomoroow - I promise!

Show and Tell

Here's my hat. Cute, huh? I've already finished another one to give as a Christas present and I'm working on yet another. My fingertips are red and sore from the needles but I can't seem to stop knitting. I might be able to graduate to mittens or socks soon!

You can see a shot of my new painting on the home page of my website: www.LisaGaumond.com. I decided to call it "Trouble Sleeping" and I really do like the way it came out. Come to the Alumni Show opening this weekend at the Joseloff Gallery and See it in person!

And more exciting developments: I'm planning to team up with Simply June to have a holiday sale night extravaganza at my house in early December. We're still planning it all out but I hope to have the date and time set in the next day or two. You'll have a chance to come have a glass of wine, browse around, and buy all of your Christmas presents in one place. Purses, jewelry, hats, artwork, notecards, magnets, handmade cards, tea towels, children's aprons, and so much more! We may even have a masseuse on hand for chair massages. I have to see if she'll be available. I'll let you know the specifics as soon as Karen and I figure them out. Stay tuned!

And thank you for being patient. Work has been so busy and so stressful lately. I haven't been sleeping much, which means that the funny part of my brain isn't exactly functioning at top form. I can barely remember how to answer the phone, let alone write, spell and punctuate correctly. Once this week is over and my brain can rest, I have many blog ideas I've been writing down of things I want to talk about. There will be much more regular blogging coming soon.

Hello?

Anyone still reading? Sorry I've been gone so long. A combination of work, a few days off to rest and relax, more insanely busy work, and my forgetfullness led to several dead days of Artsy Fartsy. Sorry about that. I have so many things to share but, as I said, I forgot to grab my memory card before I left the house and all the images are still at home.

Here, just imagine...

I finished my hat finally and I love it. It fits perfectly, I'm now a hat-making machine.

I'm working on a new painting to submit to the Hartford Art School Alumni Small Works Show at the Joseloff Gallery. It's a cute little painting I think I'm going to call "My Sleeping Problem".

There are several new gift sets in my jewelry shop on Etsy. Etsy is also changing its format this weekend and will soon be even more awesome than before, I can't wait. So don't try to shop this weekend - the site will be own - but next week go and enjoy!

I also have more pictures of Peanut and Molly's new haircut. Lots of pretty things to look at. Too bad the pictures are at home. Sigh.

Well thanks for being patient. I'll be back to my semi-daily posting schedule soon.

Peanutty Goodness

Say hello to Peanut. This little love-nugget belongs to our friends Paula and Karlo - but not for long! We're stealing her. Peanut is the new little sister of our other favorite greyhound, Bentley, and she is nothing but love. If you were really this close to her, she'd turn to look at you and lean in for a snuggle. She loves to be near you, loves to be touched. She's just too cute.

We're watching Peanut this week while her parents are away and her big brother is hanging with another family, but we're considering just not giving her back. She's perfect. She gets along well with Molly, she's mellow and sweet and lovable and I don't want her to go away. I think that I have a secret love affair with greyhounds. I've always wanted to steal Bentley, too. Greyhounds are just the sweetest dogs and I think I need to get one. How about this one? We could just change our locks and ignore the doorbell when Paula and Karlo come to collect her. Yes, I think that's a plan...

Bang!

I thought I'd try something new. New and scary.

(Don't try this at home - close-up shots of your own forehead are really rather frightening.)

Before:
After:Wow, that's one big forehead. I'm still getting used to feeling the hair tickling my face and I think that everyne is looking at me and thinking I have 80's hair, but I should get over that.

Thanks to all the Halloween movies on TV this weekend, I realized yesterday that I now have Gina Davis's hair from Beetlejuice. Great.

Knitty

Will this be YOUR Christmas present? I don't know, have you been good? I've abandoned the hat project in favor of the easier scarves. After bombing on Hat 6.0 I decided to seek professional help, which told me I needed new needles. New needles will be purchased tonight. Hopefully Hat 7.0 will actually fit on my head. Don't you love this yarn? It's called Licorice, yum.

Tree Art

Check this out: Tree ArtFirst cats were painting and then elephants were playing musical instruments. Now trees are drawing! What's next?

Thanks to Drawn! for pointing it out.

You're Making Me Look Bad

OK, people, it's time to help out your pal Lisa and possibly score yourself a brand new iPod. And, no, this isn't one of those pop-up ads promising free iPods and Applebee's gift certificates; this one's for real.

Remember this?Well in case you need a reminder, one of my regular podcasts (and probably my favorite) is Croncast. I'm a fairly new listener, but shortly after I started, they announced a contest. They want to have 300 listeners by their 300th show, which should happen in early November. The way the contest goes, I recommend the show to you. You sign up as a new listener, paste some info into your iTunes or other podcast software, and you're entered to win. If you're the 300th new listener, you'll win a new 30GB iPod, and so will I, since I recommended you. I'm pretty sure there will also be a random drawing of all the new listeners and that person, along with the recommender, will also win a 30GB iPod.

So what are you waiting for? You have nothing to lose. You not only get to hear some incredibly funny stuff straight from your iPod or computer three times a week - you could also win some lovely goodies! And to make it even better, the 250th listener and recommender will win an iPod shuffle (or similar small MP3 player).

Have you signed up yet? Don't lie, I know you haven't. This is where you make me look bad. There's a weekly round-up of how many new listeners there are and the breakdown of who recommended how many new listeners. Waaaaaaay down at the bottom of the list is LisaLisa (that's me) with 1 lousy new listener. And that was Luke, so it doesn't even count!

See? Don't they look like nice people? That's my cut and pasted Photoshop collage of Betsy and Kris. I stole the photos from their website, hope they don't mind.

I'm not asking you to join my Amway pyramid scam, I'm just asking you to sign up and try out a new podcast that you will most definitely love.

It's hard to describe the show to someone who has never listened. It's just Kris and Betsy talking about life. I've got it... it's like Seinfeld. Remember Seinfeld? It was a show about nothing. The characters just talked about life and the crazy stuff that happens on a daily basis. That's exactly what Kris and Betsy do, but instead of New York, they're living in Naperville, IL. Instead of the puffy shirt, there's puffy cuffs! Instead of Newman, there's crazy Goodwill people! Instead of Kramer, there's Zeus! Are you intrigued? You should be.

Ready to sign up? It's easy.
1.) Click on the red rectangle on the right hand column of my blog, or go to www.croncast.com and click on the "300 by the 300th" banner
2.) Fill in the little form, and where it asks for the handle of the person who referred you, type "LisaLisa"
3.) After you submit your registration, you'll get some code that you have to paste into iTunes - copy it.
4.) Now go to iTunes. Click on Advanced from your top menu. Click on "Open Stream" and you'll get a blank window. Paste your code in there. That's it!
5.) Now search for "Croncast". Two will come up, choose either, they're both the same. Click on "Subscribe" and download away! Then listen, laugh and get hooked just like I did.

Now cross your fingers and hope that we win! Mama needs some good news to brighten her day. A brand spanking new iPod sure would help.

Being Nice Finally Pays Off!

I hate parking meters. Especially Hartford parking meters where you get 2 mintes for a nickel, 5 minutes for a dime, and 10 minutes for a quarter. Seriously. 10 minutes for a QUARTER!?

I had to go to Hartford this morning to work on the chalkboards at Max Downtown again. Since the sun doesn't come up until after 7am, I left in the dark with a still sleeping Luke and Molly snuggled up in bed. I grabbed a handful of change for the meter from the change bowl, not sure what I grabbed since the room was dark, and I headed into Hartford. Well. I got to my meter and found that all I had a bunch of pennies and a few dimes. Crap! I was only able to feed the meter for 47 minutes. Not long enough.

What I hate almost as much as parking meters is parking tickets. $15 parking tickets in the lovely city of Hartford.

I was up on the ladder, adding "Chili Steak Fries" and a drawing of a Veuve Clicquot champagne bottle to the chalkboard, among other paradoxes, thinking that I was totally screwed. I was going to get a parking ticket, there was no way I wouldn't.

I left the restaurant and walked to my car where I see an employee of the Hartford Parking Authority circling my car. Ug. I walked over and said, "that's for me, huh?" He smiled, tapped on his little ticket-making machine, I put my stuff in the car. He looked up and asked me, "why aren't you arguing with me?" I told him that I didn't see any reason to. He was doing his job, I did something wrong, I accept my fate. He smiled. I boiled inside. I really can't stand paying the city of Hartford $15 for parking when they don't wash my car or deliver it to the door of Max Downtown for me. He walked over to me and handed me my ticket. Just a warning this time.For being NICE! Ha! Finally, nice pays off. Check it out:

Ho, Ho, Hold on There a Minute!

I know, Halloween isn't even here yet, it's way too early for Santa pictures. But I was hired to create a Breakfast with Santa announcement. I had to do it. So what do you think? Would you want to have pancakes with this guy? He'll eventually be juggling candy canes and holly berries but now that I look at him, it looks like he's being held up at gun point. Hmm. Better do something about that.

Payback

It's time to hold up my end of the bargain. Karen was nice enough to front me the awesome purse, now here's my end of the swap. Karen, if you're reading, what do you think?

By the way, has anyone noticed how much I say "awesome"? What, is it 1989 again? If I start throwing in "like" and "fer sher" you'll know it's time to up my meds. I say "awesome" almost as much as "so". Time to come up with some new words. So. Awesome.

Cats and Bats and Breast Cancer Awareness

You might remember that last year I painted this lady.

Well she's back and she's celebrating Breast Cancer Awareness Month with an event on Halloween.

The original clients asked that the lady get a spooky makeover for this year's event complete with mask, black cat and bats and this is how she looks now.

Spoooky!

Molly the Awesome Biker-Pup

Our motorcycle trip on Saturday started out well. We were headed to New York for a campout and we actually left early for once. The day was perfect, crisp and sunny, and I was back in my groove, back on the Buell. Everything was going right.

Until this happened:
(that would be my drive belt - a small, but unfortunately very necessary part of motorcycle-riding, BTW, it's supposed to be shaped like an "O")And then this happened:
(that would be my dad's friend Pete's truck with me, my dead bike and my helmet hair in it)And then this happened:
(that would be my bike in my dad's basement [and me with more lovely helmet hair] - the Buell's not going anywhere this weekend)So, rather than complain and whine about having my broken-down butt carried up to the campout on the back of Luke's bike, I did this:Yes, that would be the divine miss Molly riding on the motorcycle with us. I was afraid of her riding on Luke's bike alone in a basket, but curled up in my lap on the back of Luke's bike, now that's a different story. That I could go along with.

We bundled her up in her fleece coat, then her Old Navy parka, then her harness, which I attached to a rope that went around my body. I sat her on my lap and we were on our way. I thought she'd get sick of the wind in her face and tuck her head inside my jacket after a while. Boy was I wrong.Two and a half hours of riding, one short stop for lunch and she was still hanging her floppy ears out in the wind. In fact she kept leaning into Luke's back, trying to squeeze herself in front of him. She perched on the end of my lap, stretching her little neck out to catch as much air as she possibly could.

Once we got to Sioux and Voyle's place in NY, Molly hopped off the bike and had a grand time sitting by the bonfire and hanging out with the crowd. She got to sleep in a tent with me and Luke, she shared (hogged) my sleeping bag and woke up the next morning raring to go. When we packed up the gear and I grabbed her parka she started to wag her tail and when I put it on her she jumped up on the bike, ready to go. She amazed me. She's one tough little cookie and she's fearless.

So if you were in the souhwestern part of Connecticut/southeastern part of New York state this weekend and saw what looked like a fluffy white dog on a motorcycle, you weren't going crazy, that was my biker-pup, Molly.

My Dog is AWESOME.

More bragging to follow. Stay tuned.