Infinite Minnie

A few days ago JJ posted a very cute website of cats looking pretty in front of a computer. Here is my version. I actually had this picture long before I saw the website.



This one is a new one that I just had to add.

meanie

"see ya, wouldn't want to be ya", someone once said that and the person next to them said "you are a little meanie"...

The little meanie wants me to post an odd but sort of sad/funny video. It's not a very good quality vid since it was taped on my cell phone and then retaped on my camera and finally uploaded. But, it documents what a bunch of us endured at
1)the retirement party a few nighs ago and 2)the "relaxation" portion of a work lunchtime meeting. If you look closely, no one is in the room. We all went outside and sort of came in once we had to. One of our bosses said that the musican "needs a little practice on the violin". You be the judge.


And, then there is the video of my poor little cat trying desperately to confiscate my sandwich.

new prep

Last night, someone was having her special pre-race prep food. While munching on overgrown sea monkeys and sipping a sidecar, this same person mentioned that she could use a sidecar before races. Not a lot, just a little. "It would help calm the pre-race jitters". I'm thinking, ok, right? After one large pour of wine, I'm tippsy on the rollers. I couldn't imagine alcohol really helping to ease the jitters. And then, I saw this today...

the abyss

sometimes training feels like this...



especially when everyone else is out in the crit playgound.

But, I've learned that patience is really important. So tomorrow, I'll stick to my plan. I'll plug in my ipod, open up a 80s playlist or listen to electronica and go about my business climbing Mt. Diablo.

I'll do my time so that when May comes around so will I.

stacking stuff on cats

I need to ride my bike, but instead I'm uploading cat pictures: cats wearing hats and stuff. I'm checking out the very cool Velo Bella Forum, and I'm wondering who will actually win the 2006Tour de France.

But all is not lost yet because I haven't gone here yet.

those bellas like to climb

Today was the last day of our training camp, whew...

JJ led a beautiful ride full of hills and steep little frikker pitches. Pitches so steep that the front tire might pop up off the ground just a bit and some parts where paperboy technique was necessary. I am a numbers kind of gal. I like to look at the number associated with the pain. I like to look at the numbers, and I like to record them. I save them, file them, and look back on them. Here is the ride from today. It went up over some Granite Hill, up a Mt. Charlie, named after a guy who killed grizzly bears or fought them or something epic. Epic enough to get a road named after him. Finally, we did a summit thing. And then, we turned left and went downhill. Some others kept climbing...yikes.

The other profile is another hill climbing fest from last November. It went up Eureka Canyon and then kept going.

Giant Pandas

My trip to LA was really fun and very much worthwile. It is not often that you can make up for a blunder and have it all turn out better. Missing the Christmas gathering was a bummer, but being able to make it up yesterday was very nice.

Faye was really surprised when she saw me. I called her on the cell phone when I was outside her backdoor. The last thing that I wanted to do was scare her and cause her to have a heart attack. She was very happy to see me. In fact, so happy that she dropped her pants on the foor. When I called, she was stepping out of the shower, just put on her nighty, and the phone had rung. In a rush to get to the phone, she just dropped her her pants and left them on the floor. That was an odd sight. But, at least no heart attack.

When I left to catch the plane back home, Faye told me to "come and surprise me again". I think that I will.

On the JetBlue flght home, I watched their Directv programming. There are 36 channels of satellite tv in every seat. It is pretty cool and a nice way to spend the time flying home. On the way down, I watched "Dodgeball" for about the 6th time. On the way home, I watched the Animal Planet's Giant Panda special. The first part of the show was all about the little Panda Tai Shan that was born July 2005. And, the second part was about Panda mom - Mei Xiang and pop - Tian Tian's flight from China to the US. Pretty cute creatures. They are almost as cute as our cats.


Pics from the Smithstonian National Zoological Park

10 January 1912

Faye is my step mom, and she is 95 tomorrow. She has two sons, and one of them is 75 and the other is 73. I met them all when I was fourteen. My mom had just died, and I had gone to Kansas for the summer. During the time that I was in Kansas, my dad met Faye; she was 62 then. When summer was over, and I came back home, my dad told me they were going to get married. I got upset, locked myself in the closet, and cried. They didn't marry that year since Faye had other boyfriends, and she didn't want a teenage daughter. I totally understand now. My dad finally remarried, and then his second wife died. Faye was still friends with my dad's relatives, and they told her about Anna dying. So, Faye called my dad up, and they went to dinner. Two weeks later, they went to Vegas and got married. He was 75, and she was 73. They had ten lovely years together. After he died, Faye said: "no more men".

Before we took off for our cruise, Marscat and I were down in Los Angeles visiting Faye at Christmas time. When we came back from the cruise, we cut our stay short so we could get a jump start on the drive back home. Because we left early, we also missed the Christmas gathering of Faye's relatives. Two days after the gathering, we found out that her oldest son Norm went to the hospital and was diagnosed with a double dose of CA: pancreatic and liver. Bad decision to miss the Christmas gathering.

Faye sometimes forgets to tell me of the parties. I missed her 90th. Marscat says it because I live up here, and they don't want to imposition me. Still, I feel left out. Today, Faye told me that Norm is going to the City of Hope for some cancer treatment, and then they are dropping by her house for cake and ice cream. Well darn them for not telling me.

I still feel pretty bad about not seeing Norm. Who knows how long he has left or how many birhdays Faye has in her. So, I bit the bullet, logged onto Jet Blue, and bought myself a ticket to Long Beach.

I'm not missing another party!

131 days left

...before our own giggles begin.

For more details - Velo Promo

and here - NCNCA

they are still around

We went out tonight and one of us had a bowl full of shrimp. I had a burger. 1/2 a burger actually. We are on our Kern taper. This is when we try and pretend we are dieting, less wine, mojitos, deep friend thin sliced potatoes fom Cesar's, etc...

I have a pretty narrow choice of things that I like to eat. In terms of protein, I unfortunately eat pork and red meat. I'm not at all fond of fish or seafood. And certainly not shrimp. I'm not sure when I stopped liking fish, but I really don't think I ever liked it. But, I know when I was turned off shrimp.

And here is the reason. When I was in elementary school, I bought some of these creatures from an ad in a comic book. They arrived in the mail, and I followed the enclosed directions. A few days later, a crop of weird little floaty things appeared. I was disappointed because the ad in the comic book said you could teach them tricks. Mine never learned tricks and they weren't as cute as the advertisement.

A month or so later, there was a lightning storm outside and my bowl of sea monkeys were sitting near a window. The next morning, all of them were dead. It was really sad. A bowl full of clear looking bodies with little beady black eyes all sitting lifelessly at the bottom. It was sort of gross so I just left the bowl there and didn't clean it up right away. But the weirdest thing was that after a few weeks, a brand new crop came back to life.

From then on, I thought they were pretty weird. Years later, I learned they were brine shrimp. And, this is why I don't eat shrimp.