a day in the saddle

No pictures to post from today, but what a day! We had classic spring weather -we started in the warm sun but had everything from cold wind, no wind, snow, rain, and then sun again. It was so nice to see the sun though! I think the rain and nasty weather was bummin me out a bit more than I realized because after 2 days in the sun I feel normal again.

why am I still up???

It has been brought to my attention that I am once again turning into a blog slacker so I will do my best to up the anti and start making more frequent entries into this on-line journal. Note though - just because you know what I'm doing doesn't mean I know what you are up to so I still want to hear from you :) hint hint.

This weekend has been fun, but a bit of a disappointment. I had plans to visit Peter and Melissa in Tahoe, but this past several weeks at work have been hectic and it all came to a head in the past 5 days. I wasn't able to get out of the office in time on fri to get to Tahoe so I decided to do some night skiing at Mt. A. DENIED! Night skiing is over. Instead, I sat on my couch like a zombie. I figured that today would be a great ski day though since it snowed all day yesterday, no night skiing last night and the Aerial lift was closed due to high winds yesterday. DENIED! Apparently the groomers were fighting some serious boredom Fri night - WFT! At least the shoots and the back side was still in good shape...and it was sunny :) It's a free day at the mountain tomorrow, but I don't even think it will be worth the money in gas so I think I'll ride Eddy instead. It will give me time to clean my house in the morning too. My house is so nasty that it's keeping me awake at night...hence the reason that I am still up.

funny from Dad

This little animal is called the Naked Mole-Rat and it's from Africa.
So if you are having a bad day and feeling sorry for yourself.... Remember: Going through life is hard enough, but to go through life looking like a dick with buck teeth must be horrible!

You might not think it's funny now, but just wait until the image pops into your head in 2 hrs - it's worth a giggle.

Mamma Mia!

I am up in Seattle with Holly this weekend. It worked out perfect because I had meetings in Portland for work on Thurs so I drove up there on Wed night and headed on up here after the meetings were over on Thurs afternoon. Holly doesn't work on Fridays so I took a mental health day and goofed around with her. (No worries - I'll work most of the afternoon today to make up for it...must get these school projects done!). Anyway, we went shopping, per my request because I needed to make an REI run to pick up my skins :).
I think I am going to sell the washer and dryer which will open up a corner of the living room so I might rearrange the house so I wanted to go to Ikea and get some "small space" organizing ideas. That place is great with their displays. I think I have a solution for the house and the best part is, all I bought for it was 2 pillows to put in the covers that Matt and Renee got me for Christmas. I am a bit lacking in plants too and I found this - it's a "money tree" so I had to get it. Maybe I'll put it in my money corner and see if starts to grow dollars.

Last night we went and saw Mama Mia. It was great!!! I am usually not into musicals, but I really enjoyed this. It was really funny and well done. I feel so cultural - I've already seen 3 shows this year.

cycling commercial

check out this cycling awareness video from the UK

2 new loves

First off, I must say that this week was hell and I have 2 more just like it coming up so come Friday afternoon I was in the world's worst mood. I knew that I'd be working this all day Sunday (or should be, but it's now 1:30 so it looks like it will be a short 6 hr work day) so that made it even worse. My new skies came in the mail on Wed, along with my bindings so by Thurs. they weree mounted and ready to ride. We just had a new storm system move through so it was the perfect conditions to check out the fat boards. I got the G3 Sirens, which are just made for the powder and crud so aound 3:30 on Friday afternoon I said f*#@ it, I'm outta here. Night skiing is $10 right now and there can't be a better way to spend a Friday evening than pounding out a bad mood on a new pair of skies, on a powder day non the less. Let me tell you, I ended up having the time of my life! I ran into a bunch of friends up there so I had a heard of teliers to rip around with for a couple of hours and then Alex showed up and the real fun started. He's a rebel without a cause, most of the time, but Friday night he was on a mission for the best powder runs on the mountain so off a poachin' we went. Tree line, in the dark, uncut powder, new fat skies, in a storm, with a fun companion - WOW!

Yesterday was the Tele Lizard. Of course, it was colder than hell and snowing. We were all out there skiing around in our costumes and freezing, but it was so much fun! I can't wait to do it next year. I even raced my new skies. I wore Gram's suit - it was an awesome costume. I thought polyester would be warmer, but it did not hold up to high winds, blowing snow /ice and low temps. I had so as many layers as a I could under wthe suit, to the point I couldn't bend my arms past 90 degrees and I was afraid to rip the butt out of the pants. Pete said I looked "frumpy" but I think that adds to the costume. I think he looked like a creepy perv with that mullet and hat, esp. when he was skiing around the pony I gave him for his b-day!

ok - better get to work because my neighbor just gave me 2 free tickets to Fences for tonight's performance. Time line...must motivate.

spring fever

It was warm this weekend :)! I took advantage of it and spent 4.5 hrs each day sitting in the saddle, exploring more of the area. Bob and I went out to Gold Hill on Sat. The flowers are starting to appear in the ditches and the flowers are starting to open on the trees. Can't wait until the pears start to bloom - that will be relly pretty.

Bob doesn't like to pose, so he growled at me. He looks pretty tough - I think he should flash that look at the start line of his next race.




















I started out the weekend at 1st Friday art walk. It was a nice evening so there were a lot of people out. I have been on a cleanse for the past month and Friday was the first day I could eat whatever I wanted. It was straight to Amuse for chocolate cake. It is the best dessert ever!!! Amuse was the 1st restraunt in town that I ate at and it still stands as my favorite - all because of that cake. It was a fun night too because I had a date with an interesting gentleman. After dinner we met a group of our friends at Tabu for the 1st Friday party and danced until 1 in the morning. Must have been the coffee I had Friday am, because every other night this month I've been out by 10:30. One good thing about going decaf - I actually sleep.

Of course, spring forward is always something to celebrate. We have a ton of work to get done this week so I worked late, but still had time to get out for a nice walk in the park after work. Looks like rain and snow on the way but that's ok because the Tele Lizard is this weekend so I'll be up on the mountain anyway. Can't wait to get schooled in the gates.

dividend time

I hopped home last night thinking I would have a package from Holly on my stoop, but no package. However, REI saved the day because my dividend check was there waiting. I have been thinking long and hard about what I would get with this years' money and I decided that I "need" a Garmin. I have been doing a lot of trail running and my heart rate monitor died, and I don't have a computer on my mountain bike, so why not get an all in one / all sport monitoring device??? I know, I can justify just about anything when I want to. The bummer about it is that it's on back order from Garmin until the end of April and the 20% coupon is not applicable on GPS units. oh well - the dividend and gift certificates from Christmas still bring this little package of goodness below the cost of a trip to the grocery store. Just means I'll have to use the 20% off on something else :) After doing some research and reading the reviews, I decided on the Garmin Forerunner405. Style points on this one.

creativity

I am very impressed with the creative power in our group of friends. We celebrated a third b-day for the month with a scavenger hunt and a full on Moraccan dinner. Robyn decorated to the nines! We all crowded around a long, low table and sat on pillows on the floor and enjoyed a wonderful, home cooked meal. We're good cooks too! I forgot to take pics - I really need to get in the habit of documenting this stuff because it is so impressive.

I went on a "break-through" ride yesterday. I was suffering, but I guess that's what happens. I was glad that I planned ahead and did all the prep work for dinner before Iwent out on the bike. That ginger crusted ahi tasted oh so gooood after 5 hrs in the saddle.

This is going to be a great week. It's the last 5 days of this month long cleanse, it's a new moon, first Friday art walk and the best of all...SPRING FORWARD! yeah