We’ve been in the new house a bit over a month now and are really starting to settle in and both really love the new house and location. The first couple of weeks were pretty fast and furious. Other than a bit of help on our last load we did the entire move by ourselves which basically involved 3 days of non-stop working.

We were originally in a big rush to get the living room and Dining room painted and we started on the living room the following week. It’s a pretty large room with a lot of trim and since we’re pretty inexperienced house painters it was definitely a bit time consuming. We still have a bit of touch up work to do but with the new paint scheme it looks like a totally different room and is definitely more us.
After that we decided to slow down and spend more time enjoying both the house and the nice spring weather. So we’ve been taking our time getting around to the dining room.
We had put the primer down a couple of weeks ago but then let it sit like that and spent our weekends hanging out with friends and riding. Aside from memorial day which was spent assembling new shelves and such so we could finally get the living room mostly in order (still waiting on new furniture).

On the weekend of the 30th, we had our first house guests. Our friends Jeff and Joan decided to come out to DC for a vacation and spent the weekend at our place. We took a trip out to Wisp on Saturday where Jeff got his first taste of Downhilling. Good times were had by all, although at one point I decided to shoulder tackle a rather large tree at about 25 MPH and my shoulder is still sore (had it not been for the body armor it would probably be broken). The rest of the weekend was spent chillin’ on our side porch and enjoying the amenities of Catonsville. It was great to see Jeff again and to meet Joan and hopefully they get out this way again soon.

So overall life in Catonsville has been nice. Busy but nice. For the first time I can remember, I actually feel an emotional bond to my house and its absolutely great being able to walk to restaurants, coffee shops, and music shops. Really the only thing we’re lacking in the old historic district is a grocer of any kind. We have to hop in the car, or on the bikes to get to the nearest grocery store (about 2 miles).

My mom is flying in on Thursday to spend the weekend with us and I’m hoping we have time to get the 2nd color done in the dining room and maybe hang the new chandelier before then.

Ok, all I have to say is …. awesome!!!

Lena and I took off from work early to go hunting around thrift stores for cheap deals on crappy-80’s era vintage pumps. The idea was, that we would make something like these.

The plan was to fuse plastic bags and use the resulting ‘fabric’ to ‘upholster’ these 80’s pumps. So green and eco-friendly!! – Reusing nasty shoes and plastic bags AND making something cool.

Well, after finding pumps for $2.45, we headed back home to melt the plastic. The first couple of attempts were…weird. But, ultimately, ideas came together. We finished one shoe in 3 hours – but I think we can improve upon this. Our friendly onlookers do not seem to agree. They will be sad when our designs catch on and famous celebrities seek out our talents.

The last few weeks have been pretty exciting.
4 weeks ago we took a trip to upstate New York to spend a couple of days at Whiteface ski resort with our friends Hillary and Matt. On the drive up there we had to go a bit out of our way to pick up the downhill bike Matt had bought from someone off Craigslist. This little detour had us driving through downtown NYC during Friday afternoon rush hour. It was a memorable experience to say the least but not one I ever plan to repeat.

As for Whiteface itself…. The trails there, especially the upper half of the mountain, were probably the hardest trails we have ever ridden, and we’ve ridden some pretty challenging terrain. The top half, was comprised primarily of very steep, never-ending rock gardens that required total focus and above-average bike-handling skills. The first day neither Shay or I were riding very well and just as I started to finally find my groove the mechaniclas hit. First it was a rear flat about 1/3 of the way down forcing me to carefully make my way down via fire-roads and ski-runs. Then the subsequent run I plowed into the front side of a rock and burped about half the air out of my front tire and once again having to cut my run short.

And that is how my day ended. Shay didn’t have any mechanical issues but definitely left the day feeling a bit frustrated. That night we replaced my rear tire as I had had previous problems with it and just didn’t want to risk any further flats.

Day 2 turned out to be much better. We did a couple of runs with Matt and Hillary and I was really falling into my rhythm and riding clean. After that Shay and I broke off and did our own thing so that we could stop and work on the sections that were really frustrating her. By the end of the day she was riding strong and we left on a positive note.
On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a local swimming hole and jumped off a 30 foot cliff into freezing cold water. It was quite refreshing.

Our time at Whiteface left us both with a new level of confidence and I think our riding has really stepped up a level. During our next trip out to “The Shed” everything seemed so much easier. Shay hit all the rock gardens that she had been struggling with before and we both started hitting more of the jumps.

Yesterday we returned to Wisp for another day of riding. The trails there for the most part aren’t very technical but that are fast and flowy with some pretty good man-made features including a set of 3 progressively larger drops at the very top. I had hit the first drop during our first trip but this time I hit all 3 without much hesitation. The transition on the largest drop isn’t really steep enough resulting in a pretty harsh landing so I only hit it once. Shay hit the first 2 drops along with every other drop the trails have to offer.

We’re hoping to make another trip out to Whiteface before the bike season ends in October but it’s not a definite yet.

Yesterday marked my 4th trip out to Frederick Watershed and this time I had my new toy with me to capture a few videos.
“The Shed” is right by Gambril State Park and was quite a pleasant surprise for us when we moved here. We new it was there, that it was only about an hour away, and that people did shuttle runs at it but we had no idea how great a network of trails it really was. Big props to those who have been out there building these trails.
And its more than just the trails, there’s a very active downhill/freeride community so you can get a crew together for shuttle runs pretty much any day of the week without issue.
Unfortunately Shay couldn’t make it since her friend, Amanda, is in town visiting but it was still a great trip.
I rode out there with Brian and Dave and we met Jeff and Bobby at the usual spot.
We geared up and did a quick run down Lawnmower to Angies and then headed over to the steep side. For some runs down Evolution, Homo and Creampie.
After our first run down Homo we ran into Omar at the bottom and he joined the crew then once we got back up top Jamie and John showed up bringing our count to 7.

My run down Creampie didn’t go so well. It started off with me giving a great example of how not to jump, which you should see in the video, and that set the tone for the rest of the run. I just couldn’t seem to hold a line and was constantly going off trail and crashing. Nothing major but enough to sap my energy making it an easy choice to sit out and drive on the last run (Double D).

Anyways… here’s the video I mentioned. I basically just edited all the little 10-15 second clips together and needless to say none of us are going to be receiving any Academy Awards for our cinematography but overall they came out pretty nice.
Youc can check out the Youtube version below or see a bit higher quality one here

Here are a few picts from our last Comfort ride at Flat Rock Ranch in TX. We took a few friends. It was also Firas’ first time out there. I’ve only put a few here. To see the rest, click here.