50 Miles


Now get me a burger and fries. And a milkshake and a bottle of wine. Please. This weekend’s Zoo-De-Mack ride (my third? Or fourth?) was a success—a cloudy, slightly rainy, success.

Our group was eight strong, but spent Saturday riding at various paces between my brother’s speed demon approach and first-timers-powering-through (not without a quick stop at the antique place on the route, mind you) style of Ben’s parents.

Ben and I kept a really good pace through the first half’s rolling hills, only struggling for a few miles post lunch. Note for next year: eat speedy. Scenic views of Lake Michigan, congregation of friendly bikers and live music make it easy to linger at the midway point—and brutal to start up again.


Special blog shout-out to my dad for not only hosting a full house of bikers at my aunt’s chalet this weekend, but also for schooling his 9th ZDM ride. I’m thinking next year he should ride 100 miles out and back to celebrate his decennial. Maybe the extra mileage will ensure hot water for your shower!

Popular posts from this blog

The Waffles ChatGPT Taught Me to Make

My kids stopped eating my go-to oat waffles. No reason why, but one day they were in, the next day they were very mas o menos or 6-7 about them (reader translation: more or less, uncertain), and the day after that a solid nope... where they have remained. Then I broke the waffle iron.  Cool! Never one to quickly learn from the most obvious mistakes, I Amazon'd a new waffle iron over and sought to find a new recipe.  I'm really not interested in crap waffles. If it's a white flour/quarter cup of sugar waffle recipe, I might as well buy Eggos, buckle my seatbelt for a hunger induced fit (from the boys OR myself) 30 min after breakfast and call it a day. But, my last recipe (which was good! Here if you want it!) got rejected. I wasn't easily finding something that still had protein and felt good, so I turned my effort to ChatGPT. Give me a kid-friendly, oat-flour, waffle recipe And oat-flour and kid-friendly... ish it is. I now have one kid (actually my more challenging ...
Read more

Cooking Out My Kitchen

Taking down holiday decorations last week snowballed into a total home clean out. I was wild. I was ruthless. I realized I’d been compulsively buying paper plates and storing them in unique corners of the basement. You know when we use paper plates? Maybe twice a year and also when I draw on 8 of them as paper plate awards for C’s soccer team. Good thing I have 3,000 of them! Clearly I need to get better at monitoring and using what I have. That big time applies to the kitchen. I’ve got a stocked pantry, yet I’m a frequent flier at our grocery store–constantly filling the gaps of what we run out of or suddenly want. For shame! This week I had a craving for homemade soup, a want for granola on my yogurt when we were out, and a need for a dinner side dish hit and I…*groundbreaking I know* used what I had. Here’s what I made, and altered, cooking out of my kitchen: Greek Fries A half bag of frozen Costco gyro meat A half bag of frozen fries Diced cucumber & red onion Fet...
Read more

Halloween 2025

...and what a year it was. Both boys were ninjas. C and his friend Theo SPRINTED through the entire neighborhood, ping ponging across the street while the Dads strolled down the middle. Their night wrapped up after two solid hours, a full pillow case of candy, and a sweaty ninja costume. They hit the entire neighborhood, a new PR, and as C proudly displayed on his watch--17K steps. Whoa.  Meanwhile the Moms took A and friend Benny out together. What started as a sprint quickly turned into a walk/run combo. The boys also PR'd, down our long street, around the full corner and cul-de-sac, and back home again. A real highlight was trick-or-treating at our own house, where Uncle E was on duty handing out candy... Trick or treat at your own house?! HILARIOUS! They loved racing to the door to help in handing out candy, too. While the boys' stamina is always new and improved year over year, so many traditions stay the same: Our family friends, former neighbors, with boys similar ages, ...
Read more