The Life of a Celebrity

Hello All!

This week was more low key than the last one, but even so we managed to do a lot. We got our presentation assignments from Bike&Build, continued to train (almost) every day and were successfully interviewed about our upcoming summer plans.

At Earthstock last week, we met Samantha Olson, a grad student at Stony Brook who (very generously) decided to interview us about our experiences with B&B so far. Since Annamaria and I were interviewed a couple months ago by our friend Leah Winfield for the Stony Brook radio station, we are old hands at these kinds of things (she said... very pretentiously). For my part, I felt pretty awkward trying to get the words to come out of my mouth in a sensible order. I do believe, though, that we managed to get through the entire interview without completely embarrassing ourselves. After she talked to us, she got a couple clips of us riding our bikes and then we were done! She also said that she was going to send the interview to the editor of Newsday and then get back to us, so we are extremely excited about this possible fundraising opportunity.

We also got an e-mail from our fearless leaders about part of the sweat equity that is required before we can suit up to bike and build across the country. The Affordable Housing (AH) Curriculum is a lesson plan that helps us learn all there is about the affordable housing problem across America. Here is a snapshot of what the curriculum entails:

Before May 30th, each of you will

• Volunteer for a local AH organization at a build site (we have already started on this point - Hooray!)
• Research that AH organization and interview someone who works for it
• Interview a family/homeowner who has benefited from that AH organization
• Create a presentation on the AH organization and the family/homeowner
• Research AH issues and fun facts in 2 towns on our route

These bullet points about affordable housing will definitely make us more aware of the impact AH organizations have on families and on employees/volunteers for the cause. The research on AH issues in 2 towns will be pretty interesting/useful as well - every morning during our pump up routine the person with that day's destination will tell the rest of us a little bit about the town we will be going to. This might be my favorite part of the research we are assigned to do before the summer because learning about new places and then traveling to those places is an awesome way to spend time.

Our towns - 

Annamaria: Hannibal, MO and Eurika, NV

Kathryn: Wellston, OH and Montrose, CO

On a different note, due to sudden popularity we have decided to extend the deadline of our Doctor Who raffle by TWO FULL WEEKS. So don't forget to enter to win a beautiful handmade DW quilt, a fully funtional Sonic Screwdriver, or a TARDIS key chain! 

As always, we are massively grateful to everyone who has donated (time/money/patience) so far, and hope that everyone will tell all their friends about the AH cause.

More soon - 

KAS

Keep Calm and Bike On!

     HOLY POOP!  These last few days have been exhausting!  It feels as if we were fundraising non stop this weekend.  First off was Stony Brooks Earth Day fair, Earthstock,  where Kathryn and I set up an exhibition about Bike & Build and a trainer (which turns your road bike into a stationary bike, courtesy of Campus Bicylce!) and biked all through the the fair from 11am to 2pm.  We switched off every hour of course but it was still pretty draining.  There's proof of this somewhere because about 10 different journalism students came by to take unattractive sweaty pictures of us as well as to record interviews about affordable housing which I'm sure consist mostly of heavy breathing and very few words.  We thought it was a bit curious that they would insist on interviewing the person biking and not the person manning the poster prepared to field these sort of questions with more than one syllable.  Our efforts were not for nothing however, one of the reporters it turns out writes for Newsday, and has decided to do a full piece on us this Saturday!  This is one of those rare instances where stoked doesn't even begin to describe how excited we are.  In the end Earthstock was a great success as far as getting the word out.

     On Saturday we did the whole shindig over again for Stony Brook's Science and Art Expo only this time we each rode for 2 hours (actually Kathryn rode for an extra 30 min because she's a bit of an over achieve *cough cough* oh excuse me).  By the end of these two days  we were $100 closer to our goal and ready to keel over.  Lucky for us we got to sleep in till 10 on Sunday but at 12 it was back to work because we had taken on the important role of providing the Greek Olympics with snacks and lemonade as they fought head to head in prestigious activities such as the wheelbarrow race, water balloon toss, and clean your space (yea I had never heard of that one, either).  Though this event proved to be a bit more low key, Kathryn and I did discover that we are incredibly skilled at three legged races.  I'm not sure when that will come in handy though.

Well we are one step closer but still so far away.  Please continue to tell your friends and family about the cause and as always we want to give a big thanks to our donors so far!

Earthstock and Expo and Perineum... Oh My!

Hey everybody,

This week was a bit of a rest for us on the fundraising front - but that was just in preparation for this weekend coming up. Two, possibly three!, fundraisers in a row. Friday, Saturday, and (maybe) Sunday.

Friday is the Earthstock festival at Stony Brook, and we will be there raising awareness for the affordable housing cause and displaying our Doctor Who quilt. We will also have a trainer set up with one of our bikes so we can bike in place, hopefully this will make people more aware of our cause and demonstrate our efforts. Saturday is the Stony Brook Science and Arts Expo, similar to the Makers Faire, at which engineers/artists/creative people display their talents and things that they have made with their various passions. Friday's Earthstock lasts from 11 am to 3 pm, and Saturday's Expo lasts from 10 am to 4 pm. This, all in all, adds up to 10 hrs of biking in place, which means we will be incredibly uncomfortable for 5 hrs each - let me explain why.

The bikes we got for B&B are great, we are getting used to them and getting better at biking long distances with the clipless pedals and everything. But the fact that we're riding for longer periods of time means we're spending lots of time on our bike seats, and that sucks. You would think that since we're getting a bike for biking across America the seats would be magnificent - but they aren't. It's the most uncomfortable bike seat I've ever sat on. During every ride there is a lot of pressure where there shouldn't be, and the discomfort lasts even after we get off of our bikes. My question is why they would  give ANYONE saddles that aren't the best. That's some sensitive tissue down there, and I don't see any reason to put it through that pain. We are both planning on getting a different seat, one that isn't torturous. Maybe that will happen this week and we will be able to bike in comfort.

Sunday is the Engineering Olympics at Stony Brook, put on by the engineering sorority AOE, and the engineering fraternity SPD. Annamaria and I are hoping to be selling refreshments at this event like lemonade (pink AND yellow), cookies, chips, etc... you know - the sort of unhealthy food everyone expects at sports events.

More soon!
KAS

How do you measure, measure a year? How about graphs!!

Seeing that we are half way through the time we have to fundraise and train, I've decided to give everyone some fantastic visual representation of our progress thus far!  Because what's better than Excel graphs!?  Well probably a lot of things but here we go:

Figure 1:  So half way to beginning our trip and we are very nearly half way to our goal.  Which means we really need to step it up.  Which we will!  This coming week we will be fundraising at both Earth Stock and Stony Brooks Science and Arts Expo a.k.a Makers Fair.  We are also still holding our Doctor Who Raffle so please continue to help us reach $4,500 by either entering the raffle or by just donating. 

(Note: I am in fact closer than Kathryn :P)

Figure 2: Here we clearly have some statistical error.  I'm not sure where the math went wrong but I'll be sure to clear it up by the time my next post is up.... Damn it Kathryn!

Figure 3: I think you can clearly see what's happening here.  Kathryn is some where in the range of a perfect 10 but unfortunately for her my ratings are well just over...9000!

That just about sums it.  Keep a look out for my blog post for DivaCup which should be up in the next week or so.  And as always, thank you so much to our donors and if you haven't yet donated yourself please $5-10 is all we ask.


See ya next week,

Annamaria

PS.  Stats from today's training. I'm gettin there.  (I think 900 Calories is a lie)

Workin' our Sweat Equity

Hey all!

The past couple weeks have been pretty productive for Annamaria and I. Bake sale, shopping (for gear), Doctor Who raffle, training, Diva Cups, and tomorrow we're doing out first volunteer work with the Habitat for Humanity in Nassau County! Like she told you on Monday, Annamaria and I went to the bike shop across from campus last week and got a SWEET deal on clipless pedals and cycling shoes. That's all it takes right? We're serious cyclists now, aren't we? We also started our Doctor Who raffle which is completely awesome, if I do say so myself, and everyone who is anyone should be entering to get some cool DW prizes.

This pedal/shoe combo takes some real getting used to. We of course practiced clipping in and out before we started riding; but the first time we clipped in and started pedaling I felt as if my bike and I were going to be physically connected forever. Clipping out seems counterintuitive as first, I thought that as long as I had a good 30 seconds to stop I'd be fine. Turns out, that's not true. The problem with being clipped to your pedals is that if you lose your balance or need to stop NOW, it's tough to get your feet out in time to stop your fall. So it is clear to new clipless pedalers (like us) that they should expect to fall at least once when learning; I can be an over-achiever, and as such fell TWICE on my ride on Monday, while Annamaria has fallen exactly 0 times (I call this showing off). The first time I fell didn't hurt at all, I was able to bounce back up like I was made of rubber and jump back on my bike. I thought "That wasn't bad, I'll be fine," but I was being cocky, and the universe got me back shortly thereafter. The second time I fell was about a quarter mile away from my dorm, and it was terrible. I sat next to my bike rocking quickly back and forth breathing deeply (like Peter Griffin from Family Guy) for about 10 seconds before stumbling to my feet and slowly getting back in the saddle (this photo doesn't do the pain justice, in my opinion).

Oh, woe is me.

Anyway, the Doctor Who raffle! If you haven't figured it out by now, we are pretty big DW fans and think that everyone else should be too (because, obviously, DW is legit). If you, or any of your friends, are Whovians, make sure you inform them about our raffle. The prizes are : handmade Doctor Who themed quilt, 11th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver, and a TARDIS cell phone alert charm. To enter the raffle click on DOCTOR WHO RAFFLE! at the top of the page, log in with your Facebook or e-mail address, and donate $5 to Annamaria or I. This gives you 5 entries into the raffle - after donating there are ways to get more entries (follow us on Twitter, like our Facebook page, etc.). There are 22 days left for these prizes, so make sure to tell everyone about it.

Tomorrow, Annamaria and I are going to volunteer at a build site for six of our ten required Sweat Equity hours. We will clearly be the best volunteers to have at a build site, what with all our experience, and will leave our mark on this sure-to-be fantastic house. We're pretty excited about it.

To everyone who has donated up to this point (time, money, patience, etc.) we want you to know we are extremely grateful. To everyone who hasn't, shame on you! Just kidding, obviously, but we would really appreciate some donations! Bike&Build has provided us with a timeline for fundraising, and it says we should have $2,000 for affordable housing by April 6. Neither one of us has that (although Annamaria's pretty close), so help us out! We are going to seriously help some American communities and families this summer, but only if we are able to fundraise (reminder: it's tax deductible).

More soon!
KAS

P.S. We passed 2,000 views on our blog this week, woohoo!

...And You Get A DivaCup... And You Get A DivaCup...

Just got DivaCup's donation in the mail!  

A cup for each woman on our ride.

Thank you so much for making our lives on the road that much easier!

Going Clip-less

WE RAISED $4,500 LAST WEEK!

April Fools we're each still ~$3,200 away from our goal:\ but we are closer however, and we are currently holding a raffle to get us closer to our goal! A Doctor Who raffle that is! In case you didn't notice the RaffleCopter widget above, we are raffling off a Doctor Who Quilt, a Sonic Screwdriver, and a Tardis Key Chain! For those of you who do not know what any of those things are, except maybe the quilt, you should still enter.  If you win I'm sure you can find a Whovian* some where who would love you forever if you gave them the gift of opening doors with sonic waves... that's what the quilt does.

Anyhow on other new Kathryn and I finally got cycling shoes and clip-less pedals last week.  Thanks to our deal with Campus Bicycle we got an incredible deal on both the shoes and the pedals. (We use our own money for gear btw) If you unfamiliar with clip-less pedals that are actually the opposite of what you might think they are.  Though they say they're clip-less they are in fact clips which cycling shoes clip into.  Further research on the subject has led me to believe that the only reason they are called clip-less pedals is for veteran cyclists to laugh at newbs when they say it wrong.  Why would you wanna be clipped in to your bike?  Becuase it's hilarious to watch people fall as they fail to twist their feet out.  Well that and the fact that you can then pull and push on pedals so that you no longer rely solely on your quads.  It might seem like it wouldn't make too much of a difference but our average speed went up 4 mph the on our first ride with them.  Which is a lot when you think that before we got our clip-less (clip) pedals it would of taken us 416.6 hours to go from Rhode Island to California but luckily now its only approximatly 297.6 hours.  Which then means that if we did not sleep or stop and ate on our bikes as well as pooped while we pedaled it would take us 12 days! Sorry, I was having too much math fun.

Over and Out!
          

*a person who watches Doctor Who