11:16 AM: Quite the eventful day out there on the roads... started out by missing our connection... we were supposed to roll out @ 6:15 and meet Katie and Laura and Ken @ or about the corner of OakRidge and Crystal Springs. We arrived there, rode their route backwards, and waited around, and never found them. After over 15 minutes of waiting, we decided we'd somehow missed the connection and we just rode by ourselves. 

Chris and I had a pretty strong ride today. I felt good on Spartacus. We chatted along... and were doing fine... when suddenly Chris says... "You be Wiggo! I'll be Froome!" and I thought that was hilarious! I was like "Are you going to throw down a huge acceleration and leave me, your team leader, in the dust? And then I'll be forced to respond that I could have gone with you, but I was following my own tempo?". Hahaha. (Tour Geek Humor!) We rolled onward, assigning each of our cats last names of guys in the pro peloton... we came up with Quentin Zubeldia, Molly Greipel, and Orbit Zabriskie (or OZ for short) we got a huge kick out of that. I'm thinking it's a good thing we married each other, because there's a limited number of people out there that could derive enjoyment out of giving cyclist names to cats. 

Regardless, things were going well, until we turned onto Rose Farm Road. This is a great stretch of road, and it's slightly downhill, so it's easy to go fast and have a great fun on Rosefarm. It's also got a gravel shoulder, and a brush-like wooded, fieldy type thing over off to the right. 

We came up over a slight hill, and saw someone standing in the middle of the road, flagging down cars. We saw a cyclist over on the side of the road. As we rode toward the scene I immediately knew that the person down was Laura M, the dude with her was her husband, and the woman and man flagging down traffic were two good samaritans that stopped to help. 

Laura was pretty messed up; she was talking like she'd been drinking. Her face was starting to swell (mostly her eyes) and she was complaining of pain in her leg. She had a pretty nasty gash on her chin, and the skin on her thumb was peeled backwards. It was bad. The good samaritans had already called for an ambulance. (they were both employees of our local Farm & Fleet, FYI). 

As we were standing there, waiting for the ambulance to show up, a field mouse sprang out of the field and jumped onto (the already freaked out) Laura's bike jersey. She flailed about, shrieking and screaming, trying to get it off of her. It was the most unusual and bizarre occurrence that could have taken place at that particular moment. 

So, Laura was carted off to the hospital. They took her husband with her as well. The bikes were taken to the Farm & Fleet garden center, by the two F & F employees, where we claimed them after our ride. 

For the record, Laura is still in the hospital, and they're likely going to keep her overnight for observation. She didn't remember seeing Chris or me at the accident site, she had no recollection of the mouse incident, and she has absolutely no idea how she crashed. Her bike looks pretty much unscathed. It's like she crashed and landed right on her own face. Ow. 

Please be careful out there, people. Make sure your helmets fit your heads. Make sure the front of your helmet comes to your forehead and doesn't slide back, past your hairline. And, if you happen to run off the road... keep rolling, stop in the ditch or in the gravel or in a field (with mice) or where-ever. NEVER ever try to correct that move --  I've yet to see anyone win that battle, myself included. 

Rubber side DOWN! 

For those of you not in the know...

This right here is Pierre Rolland. He rides for EuropeCar. He's French. Clicky clicky for the story on how he crashed on a descent the other day, got right back up, and soldiered on to win one of the most difficult Mountain Stages in the Tour this year. I must be at least as tough as him, right? If not as tough, at least I'm almost as tough, but better looking. Right?  No? OK. Well whatever.

I think his seat's too high anyway.

9:37 AM: Operation residential relocation is underway. You may not hear much from me for a while. I will update what I can; but for the most part I'm just trying to keep my head above water between all of the inspections, minor repairs, realtors and paperwork. Honestly, I'm starting to freak out a little bit... but we're trying to take it one step at a time. Today we should find out about our "pre-approval" mortgage amount... so we will either be happy that we've been looking at homes in the right price range, or sad that we have to step it down a bit, or try another neighborhood/area. AAAAAAAAAAAACK!

Chris' house should be on the market later this week (maybe for the weekend?) but definitely by next weekend. Mine? Probably by next weekend. Anyone want to buy a couple of townhouses in the far Northwest Suburbs of Chicago? The bike riding out here is amazing. I'm not kidding. I'm sad to be leaving the area for that reason, amongst many others.

In other news: I had a really really realistic dream last night... I was (and have been) feeling FAT lately. Not sure why necessarily, and I haven't even attempted to step on a scale... so I cannot numerically prove or disprove my fatness. At any rate, in my dream last night I spontaneously gave birth to a huge baby boy. I was relieved that I was just pregnant, and not actually FAT! Anyway, the baby was covered in freckles and we named him KEVIN. I was very careful to support Kevin's little neck and head, but by the end of the dream, he was holding up his own head. I was like "I didn't think that was supposed to happen so soon after birth!?" But as a new Mom, and one who didn't really realize she was 9 months pregnant and about to give birth, I knew I had no idea or reference.  I laid him face up on my lap the long way and I scritched his little tummy, (which was covered in fur-- clearly some sort of cat reference) and he squirmed around happily, lifting up his freckled head with his overly strong infant neck. It seems weird when I write it out here, but it was TOTALLY realistic in my dream. Unbelievably realistic, actually. Chris and I have never discussed the name "Kevin", so I don't know where that came from. We were both so happy! And I was so relieved not to be (actually) fat, just unknowingly pregnant!

It's no wonder I rarely wake rested anymore. My dreams are exhausting.

So, as many of you know, our very own Tony (mr2tony) and Monica (blueeyedbikergirl) got married on Friday July 6, 2012. It was hotter than hell itself in Chicago that day.

Luckily, the civil marriage court is in the basement of the county building, so it was cool and brick.

Can you see them in the reflection? I may be an amateur photographer with very little experience or talent... but I was able to capture this!

They exchanged their vows in a small office in front of a civil judge.

I think they're in looooooooooooooooooooooove.

After the very brief civil ceremony, we ventured outside into the hot hot hot hotness and I further demonstrated my lack of camera skillz. We did get a couple of decent shots, though, and the above is one of them...

As is this one!

And this one too!

We had to call it a day because the bride and groom (and the photographer!) were absolutely melting in the heat.