Mat & Amie Levine

We found this in Craigslist…Mat and his sister, Sara, were the lucky people who went to pick it up.

The picture is a little blurry…but it is a fine piano for $35!!!  We had a piano tuner come out who had been doing it for 40 years.  I was at work, but Mat said that Mr. Lindsay was extremely knowledgeable and really took some time to repair the felt underneath the keys and then to tune the piano.  It’s been great to get to play again!

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It has been beautiful the past couple of weekends, but I’d say this past weekend has been the best so far. Mat and I have been trying to take advantage of this beautiful fall weather and do a bit of hiking and biking.

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Yesterday was a beautiful fall day.  Mat and I headed out for a bike ride and as we started the climb it was nice and cool with a lovely mist.  We kept on climbing for about an hour or so (those w/ stronger thigh muscles have been known to do it in about 30 minutes) and we got to the trailhead for Greens Lick.  It had the most signs ever at the trailhead warning people about the difficulty of the trail.

As we started going down I felt like it was awesome!  Out in this area, the trails are so smooth and this did not disappoint.  It was so smooth and it had woop-di-dos and berms and it was really easy to get alot of speed.  I was enjoying myself so much that I went over some woop-di-dos and was getting a wee bit of air and kind of liking it.  So I let myself get more on each one and then realized I had ALOT of air and braked and landed.  I think I tried to ride it out because I recall thinking “oh, it’s gonna be okay, just straighten your tire” and wobbling and then going over the handlebars and rolling.  After sitting still a moment and realizing nothing was broken, I got up and looked down and saw I was bleeding.  I’m a wimp so really I just wanted to sit down and cry, but that wouldn’t help me.  So, I got my shaky self on the bike and rode down to where Mat was riding.  He asked if everything was okay since I was smiling brightly with tears in my eyes.  So I told him about my crash which amazingly enough didn’t crush the sunglasses in my pocket!

I regrouped for a minute and then we finished the trail.  Which was awesome.  We got out and it seemed like such a short ride that we decided to ride back up to 5 points, which we had passed by earlier on the way to the Greens Lick trailhead.  We rode our bikes back up for another 45 minutes or an hour and then rode down another sweet trail.  It is so smooth out there.  I love it.  Maddy was pretty exhausted by the end of the day.  She was getting to the point where she was even letting me go in front of her!  Mat had a good time, too!

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Friday was Mat’s last day of work.  So we went over and made pizza and watched the debate w/ Mat’s boss, Chris and co-worker, Sara and their spouses.  The pizza was delicious and I was glad to watch the debate.  I was glad to see that Senator McCain was willing to come participate in the debate after the uncertainty of whether he would actually come or not.  It was great to hear both speak and answer the questions put forth to them.  I came away feeling that either one would definitely be an improvement on the speaking capabilities of the current president.  I didn’t come away feeling that Senator McCain should be the president.  He repeatedly ignored the moderator, Jim Lehrer’s request that they speak to each other or even look at each other.  I find that disconcerting.  Maybe he did that on purpose, to show that he doesn’t respect Senator Obama.  Personally, I find that to be an unfavorable quality in a person.  Everyday as president, there’s a good possibility that you are going to run into people who don’t agree with you or your policies, but you still need to be able to show each other respect.

Senator McCain also didn’t endear us when he lambasted the grizzly bear project up in Montana…obviously, we don’t feel the same as he does about wildlife research.

It will be interesting to see how the rest of the debates go.  I can’t wait to actually get to see Governor Palin interact during a debate, since at this point we have only gotten the opportunity to hear her give speeches and 2 interviews.  No coming up with answers on the fly.  Next Thursday I’ll be watching Debate # 2.

Tags: politiki

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We are still experiencing a gas shortage out here in the southeast.  Hopefully, it will be over soon.  Mat and I had been talking about going on a backpack this upcoming weekend.  But right now, it’s not looking too good.  The weekend might look a little more like us sitting in lines trying to get gas and having the gas station run out before we make it to the pump. At the moment, I think I have enough gas to make it to work for the next couple of days.  I guess I should have been hitting up the pumps EVERY time I saw a line, so that I could do my part to top off my tank.

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We drove around for about 45 minutes the other night looking for gas to fill up our car.  We gave up and I called around in the morning to find a gas station that had gas.  The Asheville area, along with alot of other southern towns, have been experiencing a shortage for close to two weeks now!

http://citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880923070

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I have really gotten into my yoga class.  I go for an hour and half each week and I love that for the full class all I do is think in the present moment.  Each time I get out of class, I resolve that I will live each moment in the present. That lasts for about 5 minutes until I get on the freeway back home and I start thinking about what I need to do either that evening or the next morning.  And then I forget about it until I’m back in yoga class.  I find that I enjoy challenging myself by doing the poses and really thinking about each minute muscle and action that goes into the pose.  When I do yoga on my own, I find that I don’t push myself as much as I do in class.  Partly because I am afraid that if I do it wrong I will hurt myself and in class my teacher will let me know when I am doing a pose wrong!  It has been a full day and I’m still thinking about how I enjoyed being present in the class but now I’m thinking of the past. So, I will try to put myself in the present again.

Tags: yoga

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I don’t know why I am finding the election so exciting this time around.  Does this really prove that I am getting middle-aged-ish?

I find it fabulous at the selection we have to choose from.  Are people so excited this time around because we’ve had reality television for so many years which people love and now we can find out so much about these 4 individuals in a race towards the White House?

I am excited to see a woman on the ticket, it is crazy to me that it has been 24 years since there’s been a woman on the ticket!  I don’t have a television to watch, but I do find myself checking cnn and the ny times frequently.  I don’t check our local paper, as they didn’t even have any bit of info on the front page about Obama’s speech.  I thought newspapers were suppose to support the news.  Anyway, I am trying to find out about this sarah palin…who is she?  Other than a mom and governor of Alaska for 2 years?  Definitely a stark contrast to Senator McCain (experience-wise, anyway).   At least from what I’ve read so far.  Although, I imagine they have the same views on issues.  Is McCain really going to get the Hillary voters?

I am definitely finding it to be an interesting year.  Are you as interested in the elections this year, or am I abnormal?

Tags: election year

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So, I decided to eliminate dairy from my diet to see if that was aiding and abetting my many allergy attacks.  That includes milk, all types of cheese, cream cheese, pudding, etc.  It hasn’t been fun…soy milk is okay but not getting to put cream cheese on a bagel is true torture.  Along w/ not getting any cheese on my burrito wraps and not getting to put parmesan on my pasta.  I avoid pizza as it is mostly just cheese.  I could go on and on.  But the main thing I’ve noticed is I’m just missing the wonderful taste of cheese.  My head is still congested and my throat is still very sore in the morning.  AND last night, I had another allergy attack that lasted about an hour even after taking meds.  So, now my dilemma is do I continue w/ my dairy free diet that I don’t enjoy and see if I just haven’t given it enough time to go through my system or do I just decide that it is something in the air or in our house and give up figuring out what it is?  (Although, it had been raining all day…if it had happened a few days ago when it was all blustery and windy, that might have been the case.)  Or should I be dairy and soy free?  Since lots of the nieces and nephews are also allergic to soy and I think I was as a child???

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We went blueberry picking this weekend.  Hard to believe, but it was still a bit early.  There was enough to pick to fill 2 nalgene bottles full, but there are more to be picked that will be ready in a couple weeks.  Maddy was eating the blueberries straight off the bush!

We also cut down our dead tree this weekend.  I will have to load the pictures up once Mat gets home from work, so you can check it out.

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