Happy New Year 2007

And who will be the winner of the Great 2007 New Year's stage race?
Only one day to go before the winner presents herself.

But, it won't be these two...that's for sure.

late assignments & happy birthday WD

We have no tree this year. I don't feel great about getting them, and the only reason I do is because Minnie likes them. This is an old picture, but it's the only holiday picture that I have to post.

Here is my completed assignment about 5 things that are not known about me.
1. When I was 15, I sent a birthday present to Elton John. He never wrote back so I never sent anymore presents. I was also a member of the Elton John fan club.

2. I once pretended that I was someone else. It was during the Dunlap ITT in Davis. This particular year was super windy. A bike got blown off a car rack and crashed into the side window of he car. One fellow quit since he brought a fixed gear. Karen Kurreck went out in her small chair ring. It was so windy and noisy that I had to distract myself. I imagined that I was Karen Kurreck, and I was cutting through the wind and riding very fast.

3. If I am not having fun in a race, I like to give my bike away. During Wards Ferry the only year that I raced it, I saw Adam Switters walking his bike. I knew he was too tall for my bike so I tried to give him a wheel. He had broken a derailer thingy so I ended up keeping my wheel. Another time, I saw Bunny walking her bike during the Madera ITT. She had a flat, and I tried to give her my bike. But, she graciously declined my offer. Another time, during one of the many Kerns, Marscat had a mechanical and her wheel came out of the dropout. Since she was doing much better than I was and we couldn't get the wheel back in fast enough, I gave her my bike so she could stay with the group. When I finished the race, the officials ran over to me and told me that she had won the stage. Pretty cool.

4. I won a prime once. I think I have only won one or two. I was off the front and very excited to stay away. It was sort of easy to stay away since it was the Visalia crit which had a lot of corners and one person could go faster than the group. Also, Debbie Allen and a few other NorCal riders were in the field and were kind enough not to chase. I won a timex watch. I gave it it marscat as a present.

5. Sometimes, I make extra room on my side of the bed so Minnie can stretch out. I get in trouble for this when someone else is scrunched into 1/4 of the bed, and I have my 1/2 plus the empty 1/4 that is being saved for Minnie.

And last but not least, Happy Birthday Wild Dingo. I think the kitties have eaten your cake.

cat ate the blogger

No excuses for such a long time in posting. I am feeling guilty that marscat already posted about the cruise so here is a short one that will get me back in the swing of things. Like training, I need to start off semi-slow after such a long layoff.

This one sums up our philosophy on food. Flandria forgive us. But, it's true, deep down inside we really want to be vegetarians.

12-7-2006

Happy Birthday to the sweetness. Now you are the same age as that hairdresser, almost. This is a day early, but better early than late.

Very cute picture of when life began. Every time I ask marscat about her childhood stories and ask when something happened, she always replies "7".


This isn't really re-posting but it is recycling. This was my 2005 birthday present from marscat and the cats.


Had to include this picture of a little Minnie.

no E Coli here

My first job was at Taco Bell when I was about 16 years old. My dad used to eat lunch at the Taco Bell near his job. He also ate at the Der Wienersnitzel(which is probably spelled wrong and it won't google), McDonalds, Orange Julius, Arbys, and other unhealthy fast food joints. I got the job because the woman at the Taco Bell was being nice to my dad.

I was a pretty bad fast food worker. I was really slow. I made lousy tacos, burritos, supreme burritos, blah blah blah. One day, I was feeling a bit sick from my monthly cramps and from the smell of grease frying at 10am. Someone had grated a bunch of cheese and all the containers of food were prepped for the lunch time crowd. For some reason, there was some dry dishwashing detergent near all this food. I wasn't paying attention because I wasn't feeling so great, and I knocked all of the powdered detergent in the freshly grated cheese plus all the other little containers of food like onions, tomatoes, lettuce, etc... I was so mortified. I didn't know what to do so I went to the bathroom and just sat on the toilet feeling embarrased as well as sick. I got to go home early that day.

The next day as I was getting ready for work, I sort of said to my dad that I didn't really want to go back to Taco Bell. My dad told me that it was ok, and that I never had to go back again. I asked if I had been fired, and he replied "yes, you were just too slow and then you spilled all that detergent in the cheese".

About a week later, I got my first paycheck from the days that I had worked at Taco Bell. I don't think it was much since I was there for just three days.

It took years to go back and eat at a Taco Bell. That was probably a good thing.

just like the movies

We didn't make the drive to Aptos today and instead rode our regular ride through the ugly flats of San Pablo, up Miner Rd., through Lafayette, onto the bike path to Moraga, and then through Canyon. In Moraga, I noticed a "command post" set up in the parking lot next to the watershed reservoir. For some reason, I thought it was a mock set up for practicing. Don't ask why? Later as we rode through Canyon, we noticed several sheriff cars, search and rescue vans, search dogs, and more sheriffs on foot, in ATVs, and on motorcycles.

We wondered what was happening. At one point before the climb up Pinehurst, the sheriff had stopped a car. So, I stopped too and finally got the chance to ask what was going on.

Turns out, they were searching for Nina Reiser who has been missing from Oakland since September of this year. Her husband was arrested last month. The sheriff told me they were making sure Mrs. Reiser's body wasn't in Canyon. I mentioned something about the Prime Suspect series, and he said they had their PS.

As we continued the ride and saw all the search and rescue teams, it seemed just like something we had seen in Prime Suspect. I sure hope they find her and find out who killed her.

stalkers...

I had one once. Or, maybe twice. She used to go to every k.d. lang concert. She once told me that k.d. thought she and her friends were stalkers. My friend who I nicknamed "the stalker" would come and watch me at bike races from Sacramento to Bakersfield. Of course, I told her where the races were and some were at my invitation. But, then she started giving all kinds of nice presents, like a 2 year subscription to Cycle Sport. Then, I knew it was a bit more than just wanting to be friends.

Marscat and I have been doing a bit of stalking lately. Private stalking in our own home and not just googling. We saw Prime Suspect 7 a few weeks ago. We had not seen the other 6, but 7 was really good. So now, I am pleased to announce that we have seen all 7 Prime Suspects, plus The Queen, The Cook, the thief, his wife, and her lover, Calendar Girls, Gosford Park(again), and tonight we have The Madness of King George. And, I have The Clearing on dvd. So what does that amount to but about 10 Helen Mirren movies in two weeks?

Gotta get a life...

Oh, and marscat watches them while I am sleeping...should I be worried?