blahg!

The weight loss challenge is ON!

2011-10-15T08:57:00.000-07:00

Every year for the past 4 or 5 years, my friend MaryEllen and I embark on a weight-loss program. Always begins at the official end of road season, the glorious "off season". Last year, we started it a bit early, as I had surgery and wanted to start the week of the surgery, due to the sheer volume of snack food that was available to me at work. I needed 2 weeks away from all of that crap before I could really resist it. That worked. It only took 1 week of longing, sideways glances before I was able to steer clear, and continue down the road to a lighter body.

Well, the challenge takes us into the holidays (accck), and into the new year, when racing begins all over again. Both of us reached reasonable losses, but neither achieved the lauded: GOAL WEIGHT.

Here we are in October. Both of us are at the same weight as January. Yeah, generally good not to gain it all back again, but this is the dreaded plateau. Ugh. For nearly 10 months, maintaining has been pretty easy. The first 3 weeks were fine. But I didn't drop a single pound. ME fluctuated a bit, but was generally heading in the right direction. My body is stubborn. Really stubborn. I actually gained a pound one week (sh*t), but quickly got rid of it again... What to do now? I had to employ serious tactics in order to start dropping weight:

Restrict ANY and ALL junk (stopped eating any candy,chocolate and/or chips)
Learn how to go hungry without getting into that weird "I'm so hungry I could eat my shoe" place... That's a fine line - trust me.
Employ drastic measures: my brain

Back when I was bodybuilding, the diet was the worst part for me. The WORST. I could lift weights, run, do whatever for however long, but when it came to dropping the necessary body fat needed to compete? Just shoot me. I remember being at shows, and someone would step out into the harsh lights, and the first thing that came to mind: "Damn. He/she should have dieted for another 8 weeks...". I never wanted anyone to say that about me! You're standing on stage, wearing 4 teensey triangles of fabric, under the harshest lights EVER (makes dressing rooms look weak, in comparison), and the last thing you want is for someone to see that Snickers bar you scarfed down a few weeks ago, planted firmly on your butt cheek. Sounds harsh, but it was a tough sport. Nobody cared what you looked like 6 months ago, how far you'd progressed, it only mattered what you looked like, for those 5 minutes (or so) you were standing on stage in a bikini. Nothing else mattered. You had to have a really thick skin... Totally unhealthy, for sure, and I blame that lifestyle for making it so darned hard for me to drop any weight now that I have a normal, healthy diet, but it was necessary to be that way for the sport. Of course, I had no butt back then, and was utterly unable to sit at the bus stop the last month or so before a contest, because any fat stores were just gone. Pfft. Just like that. But my brain was the most effective tool in my arsenal for dropping weight back then.

I'm using it once again. Much like the fear of being seen naked, the fear of "if I put this in my mouth, where will it end up on my body?" and "do I really NEED that? Or am I just wanting to eat something?"... Hey, it works for me. The weight is coming off now, FINALLY! All it takes for me is that first pound to be lost, then I'm on a roll... I won't eat the roll, but I'm on one. :o) And this time, I'm going for that elusive: super-stretch goal. I'm just 2 pounds from my goal as I write this, and it will be 4 to that weight which I've not weighed in over 10 years. When I get there, the first thing I want to go do is climb some big hill on my bike. Then I'll probably have to buy some new jeans, because even the skinny jeans are starting to be less and less snug...

Even using a scale, jeans are the better indicator of weight loss. They either fit, or they don't. No getting around it! I may have to go buy a new pair or two sooner than the holidays... Now that's an awesome dilemma!

Why I dont' like riding with non-racers

2011-10-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

Okay. Not really non-racers. Mostly encompassing anyone who doesn't have a clue as to how to ride in a pack. I don't give a crap how SMART you are, if you don't know group etiquette, you are not someone I wish to ride with.

The first day of my new job, my boss introduces me to the group. They find out I ride, and I immediately get invited to a fund-raising ride on 10/1. "Sure, I'm in" I say. "But it's 50 miles", I'm told. "Yeah, so. That's fine." They had no idea...

As the weeks progress towards the goal, I'm continually talked to by the ring leader about how many centuries and double-centuries he's ridden. And I'm a bit nervous. It's only 50 miles, but he's talking 18-mph averages and I haven't raced since June. I'm way prone to leg cramps, so I'm thinking, "how can I keep up without cramping?" I settled on drinking a ton of water to stave off the cramps.

I get up a bit late on the morning of the ride. I'm tired from working for a living! 7 months of not working has totally ruined me for getting up and being someplace every day, and being PRODUCTIVE. I proceed to hurry to shower, eat, have a crapload of coffee and find the start of the ride. I estimate I'm leaving the house 20 min late. ACCCCCKKKKKKKK.

I arrive 15 min late. UGH!! I can get ready FAST, so I jam on my knee warmers, grab food, pump my tires, helmet and shoes on, set everything and am on my way to the start like 6 min later.... I saw one guy when I got there, so I head to reg, get my number and find the group. I only find 3 of the 7 others.

We head out on the ride, which is mostly uneventful. But I get the sense that 2 of the 4 of us aren't *that* used to riding in a group. We finally re-group at the last rest stop, and head out for the final few miles.

Then as we're crossing Monterey Highway, one guy gets a flat. So I go back. It takes him a LONG time to change that effing flat. I start giggling and say, "How many engineers does it take to change a flat?" because it was funny, but it was apparent that he was 'done for the day'. DONE. He gets it fixed, and starts to mount the bike, leaving the tube lying on the side of the road!!! LITTERBUG!!! I pick it up and hand it to him, and say, "You gotta take this along to toss it." I'm sure he hates me.

Off we go. I don't want the one guy to be last all day, so I let him go in front and give him a bit of room, based on his previous bad bike-handling skills. Apparently, one man had left his seat bag open, and stuff was starting to fall out. I noticed a tire lever on the side of the road, and when I looked up, the one guy was DEAD STOPPED, directly in front of me. UGH! I slammed on the brakes, managed to avoid slamming into his rear wheel with my front, but the back end of my bike came up and I endo'd. Fortunately for me, he had a saddle bag attached to his pannier rack over the rear wheel, which had his jacket in it, because I FACE PLANTED on that bag, and then continued my slow-speed endo, ending up on the ground, bike still firmly attached to my feet. I'm laying on the ground, still attached to my bike, I can't get up, and I'm confused why someone would dead stop for a tire lever - (it's an inanimate object! It's not as if it's a puppy and it's going to dart into traffic!!!!!). Luckily I didn't get hurt. I scared the crap out of one man who saw the entire thing. If he'd not had that bag on the pannier? I probably would have broken my nose, because I landed left side of my nose and cheek on that bag. My left sunglasses lens had an imprint of my cheek on it (thank God for shatter-proof sports glasses). I had not a scratch on me. My bar tape got a small tear in it, but that was it. I guess if anyone should have fallen, it should have been the one who KNOWS how to crash and not get hurt (me), but damn. Needless to say, after that, I refused to get within 20 FEET of the guy who braked, and I'd been about 3 or so feet behind him at the time of the wreck. Cripes. We were only about 4 miles from the finish, but still.

My neck is a bit sore, but nothing else. I have a few bruises. I can't post the picture of the one, because it's way too close to my kitty, but it's a pretty good mark. A couple on my knees, but literally nothing else. Okay, I admit it. My nose is still a bit sore. And frankly: it should be. Holy crap.

It could have been worse. Much worse. But I don't know what I'll do next year... full face helmet?

FINALLY, I have a job!

2011-10-05T20:33:00.000-07:00

A bit behind, but I got a job. Finally. And what happens? 7 months of not-a-single-offer. Not even a crap one. And then what goes on? I get two offers. At once. It was awful. I know, I know. "You should have a choice!" and blah blah blah, but it sucked. I won't get into it, and sometimes you still wonder if you made the right choice, but I believe I did.

And now. How the hell do people do a full-time job, ride, grocery shop and keep up on life? Holy moly. I'm so freaking tired. ALL THE TIME. I'm just hoping that my "schedule" kicks back in. And soon!

Tomorrow marks 4 weeks of employment. And my benefits just kicked in last Saturday. That will be important in the next post...

Bruised Bananas

2011-08-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

Ah, the bruised banana. Much like the too-soft avocado, which is really only good for guacamole, the bruised banana is actually good for eating. To a certain point. Once it reaches that point, it's really just good for banana bread. But don't discount the bruised banana. Good banana bread isn't truly good with the elusive PERFECT BANANA. Good banana bread NEEDS the bruised bananas of the world.

Which brings up my point.

The job market. It pretty much sucks right now. I've been looking for a job since January. That's SEVEN months, tomorrow, since I lost my job. Dang. And I haven't been sitting around counting my cash. Well, I've been watching it disappear, but I digress. I've been applying, and interviewing, and applying and after countless applications and interviews, I haven't even gotten a LOUSY offer. Believe me. I'd take a low offer, or even a contract position, just to keep my brain from turning to mush. I need to feel productive!

I've had some close calls. One, in which, the hiring manager was checking references, asking about salary requirements, and throwing about titles. Only to do a 180 three weeks later and say she wanted something completely different. Talk about frustrating. What's actually MORE frustrating is that I'm finding that she never actually contacted any of my references. Just kept giving them the run-around. Much like I was given.

Last week, I got more bad news. I'd applied for a job about 2 weeks ago. Actually, 2 weeks ago yesterday. That went well enough that I got a request for a phone screen with the recruiter. Those are usually fun, and give you insight into the company, while they get some info about you. It turned out to be a very entertaining interview, mostly due to my getting caught with food in my mouth. TWICE. After I got off the phone with her, she called back. Yes, I had ANOTHER mouth full of food. Good Lord. I really don't eat 24x7, but it was funny. That was a request for a phone interview with the hiring manager the same afternoon. Totally open for it. It seemed to go well, with a few misses, mostly just due to my rustiness on intense DB operations. He indicated it went well, and the follow-up email the next day indicated it as well, as they were requesting a face-to-face last week.

Fast forward to last week. No word. Nothing Monday. I figured that if I hadn't heard by noon Tuesday, I'd ping them to find out. I got my answer Tuesday. "On second thought, the hiring manager felt your DB skills weren't good enough, so he doesn't want to pursue it any further." UGH. Really? Such a shame, because this is totally fixable - immersion in the DB world causes things to come back very quickly, but alas.... it was not meant to be.

This made me think of the banana theory. Trying to find a job is like online dating. If you're not perfect, the date passes, or the employer passes. Does any perfect candidate exist, in any realm?

I felt like the lowly bruised banana. The banana with a small bruise, which lies in the banana bin, being continually picked over for the perfect, yellow banana. Only 1 in 1,000 truly appreciates the bruised banana, knowing darned well that it makes the perfect banana bread.

Real Roadkill Ride

2011-08-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry, no actual pics! Just a cruise from Woodside Town Hall to Los Altos and back, with a few loops in Palo Alto (where I kept wanting to count one dead skunk, multiple times, due to the "loop" I was riding...).

- 1 dead skunk (pee-yew)
- 2 dead squirrels
- 1 dead something-or-other (it was picked pretty clean and was unable to be identified)

Let's just say the dead skunk did NOT look like this --->

Roadkill Ride

2011-08-14T09:23:00.000-07:00

Met a friend of mine (IronCLM) in Livermore yesterday for a ride. Started late @11 a.m., but gave me the chance to sleep in!

I think the East Bay must be tops in road kill for the Bay Area. I see a lot of dead stuff on the Peninsula and around the South Bay but not like East Bay. I admit that I got distracted by all of the live, and CRAZY squirrels racing next to us, across fields, across the roads (EGAD), and was also distracted by their "cute factor"... Why do their tails twitch when they run? I know. A squirrel is a rodent. But it's a cute rodent. :o)

Many mangled little bodies out there. So much so, that I lost count. I did not see any dead snakes, which was a relief since I saw a baby dead one around here the other day (forget where).

I did get a pretty cool pic of the a few turbine blades for the windmills. They were parked along 580 and holy crap. They're HUGE. I got a photo with my camera phone of a man walking next to them - for scale.
I'm glad I grabbed the pics, as I nearly fell over riding past 'em! I just wonder how much work it is to put a windmill up, esp given the size of these puppies. They don't look this huge from a distance, for sure!

All in all, a pretty darned good day, even if I did lose track of the roadkill. But dang, it was warm. I drank FOUR bottles out there!!!!!!

TGIF!

2011-08-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

This has been an insane week, to say the least. I'm exhausted from applying for jobs, interviewing on the phone, and studying for the phone interviews! This week alone, I applied to 9 jobs, and had phone interviews with 4 different companies, one on each day this week (except today. Yay!). Yesterday, consisted of two phone interviews, with the SAME company (One screen, with their recruiter. The 2nd: a technical phone interview with the hiring manager.). Usually I have a few days to prepare for the tech interviews (as in the one I have next Wednesday afternoon - I'll start that later today and work on this weekend and early next week). This time, I had just a few hours.

My average rate of return on applications has been about 20%. Last week fit this model perfectly: I sent out 10 applications, heard back from 2. This week has had slightly higher numbers, with 9 out, 3 in. 30%. WHOOT. I guess the days of hearing from everyone are long gone... sigh.

In any case, since I have the "day off", I am going for a ride! I was supposed to do this ride yesterday, but hadn't accounted for the doubling-up interviewing - finding a job is more important! Then I get to ride all weekend! I haven't done a "roadkill count" ride for awhile, so maybe I'll try that! Have seen lots of flattened squirrels and black birds, and even a little, squished snake these past few weeks...

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

The wedding of my friend!

2011-08-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

The last weekend of July was the road trip down to Long Beach for the wedding of my good friend, Leilani. I have to say that I was so glad that she found her now-husband! The first time I met him was after driving to Long Beach and sitting in awful traffic. They came to pick me up and took me to dinner (and for a much-needed Margarita!). To see them together, was very comforting. She was just glowing. Their personalities are different, yet they mesh so well.

During the pre-wedding picture session, I got this picture of the Bride with my camera phone. She looked so beautiful, and SO happy. Whenever I look at this picture, or even think about that day, I smile. Yay!

I should have gotten a picture of all of the bobby pins we pulled out of her hair that evening, after all of the festivities. OMG. If I had 50 in my hair (I counted), she had at least double that, if not greater!

No wedding ever goes off without a hitch, and this was no different. Fortunately, it wasn't a disaster, and too bad we didn't have a person videoing it. America's Funniest Home Videos, for sure. During the ceremony, a friend of the Bride came onto the stage (the wedding was upstairs, but due to the Bride's challenging height, the decision was made to build a stage on top of the upstairs, and let me tell you: we were WAY up there!) to do his reading. Not 20 seconds later, his almost 4-year old son bounds up on stage behind him. I'm horrified. The Pastor is horrified. The bridesmaid next to me says under her breath (something to the effect of), "Oh no he didn't. Uh, uh. Mmm, mmm, mmm." Then, he moves over behind the column of the hoopah (half Jewish/half Christian wedding) and peeks around it, while holding it. OMG. I'm sure we were all thinking, "Don't let him knock it over...". By now, the Bride and Groom see him and are equally horrified. The kids Dad doesn't do anything, because he is reading! I look into the audience and don't see his Mom (she was outside, as the youngest was having a meltdown). Then, he moves over in front of us bridesmaids, and is kind of dancing. I am hearing, "Uh, uh. Mmm, mmm, mmm" and I'm trying not to crack up. The urge to laugh was unbearable. I'm worried the kid is either going to step on the Bride's dress, knock something over, or fall off the stage and we'll have to call 911 in the middle of the ceremony. I bent down a few times to whisper to him to go stand by his Father, but that would last about 2 seconds and he'd be back! I finally, panicked, reached down, grabbed him by the hand, whispered to stay next to me, and held him close, hoping he'd not start crying. The only thing that I could think of was to try to control him. When his Dad was done, I handed him off. No crying, no 911 calls, no stepping on the Brides dress, nothing knocked over - crisis averted!

After giving the speech, accompanying the bride to all of the tables, keeping the Bride calm pre and post-ceremony, and running around checking for cakes with one of the other bridesmaids (there were 18 cakes! We were on the hunt for carrot cake, and the white cake with lemon curd and fruit!!), I was just exhausted! Definitely more work to be the Maid of Honor, than the Bride. At least what I remember of it, since it was so long ago!

It was truly a memorable day! And I'll just keep looking at this picture of Leilani smiling, and smile as wide as a house. I'm so proud of her for finding "The One", and for just being herself. She's a great friend, very generous, very patient, and very loving. And she deserved to have someone who'd treat her like the Princess she IS!

For fun, some hair and dress pics, including one of the crazy amount of bobby pins I pulled out of my hair. My poor scalp was so sore!!!

Word of the day: C R E E P Y

2011-08-03T08:33:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging for awhile, so I'd forgotten all the bells & whistles that make the Blogger tool useful and fun. I think useful is more appropriate for what I found yesterday...

You see, you can tell how many have been viewing your entries, and what web-site or method they arrived at your blog. This is kind of interesting, TILL you find the following:

I'm presuming a female was at the other end of the computer on this one... Someone arrived at my blog by Googling "my_first_name + my_last_name + slept with my husband". WHAT? I know that I have a pretty common name, but that totally creeped me out. Anyone who's ever had a spouse cheat on them (me) would never, ever do something like that! And here the person found me, and I list my location, etc. I know there was another bad person out there with my same name, as she was on the "no fly" list a few Christmases ago, and made my boarding a flight home for the holidays a nightmare. Maybe that one sleeps with others husbands too?

In any case, it prompted me to remove my last name from my profile. I may go through and scrub any other blog entries that refer to it as well.

Road Trip!

2011-08-02T12:31:00.003-07:00

Bette, getting her nap on.

On Thursday, the dog, my bike and I took a road trip to Long Beach for a wedding. Ordinarily, Miss Bette will stare at me, for the entire trip. This time, she was pooped. Must be her advanced age (11, that's 77 in people years). This was the rare nap she managed to pull off (and let's not discuss how I managed to snap a photo with my camera phone while driving down I-5, m-kay? I know. HANDS FREE!!!), before the freeway got really bumpy. Those semi trucks sure do mess up the pavement. Filling-jarring bumps. Bette voiced her disapproval with many well-timed, LOUD snorts. Sorry, nothing I can do.

Took longer than I wanted (longer than the dog wanted, for sure) to get there, and the stupid Google maps failed by telling me to take I-5 all the way to 710. I should have taken the time to look myself and I swore I'd have been better off with 5 to 405 to 710.

Made it, safely. Checked into room, and went to dinner with the very-soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs. Silverman for a well-deserved dinner, and MARGARITA!!!

Road Trip - part 2

2011-08-02T12:31:00.001-07:00

Ugh. If I EVER choose to complain about traffic in the Bay Area, I'll just look at this picture. This was on I-5, around 7 at night. I was so tired of this sh*t. Every few miles, BLAMMO! Brake lights and stoppage. Not to mention the bone and filling-jarring WUMP, WUMP, WUMP on the slabs of concrete on the freeway. I know the state of CA isn't broke because of all of the freeway work, because this is definitely worse than 680 in the East Bay, and I swore I thought it was the crappiest, bumpiest freeway in the entire state. I see that I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

On my way home, I took I-405. You'd think it would be gentle and nice on a Sunday. Well, it was, for quite awhile, then it jammed up. I should have gotten a picture of that for the memory banks... 6 lanes (or so) in both directions, totally gridlocked. I'd kill myself if I had to drive on this stuff every day. Really. Couldn't deal with it. Once I-405 cleared up, it was only severely jammed going Southbound, near the Getty museum. But then... I entered I-5 northbound... Holy crap. I think I would enjoy my stays in SoCal if I chose to leave on a Monday morning, at 5 a.m. I think it must be like this often on Sundays... It is every Sunday I've ever been on it. And through a serious mis-judgment, I missed getting onto the truck bypass for NB I-5. Man, I regretted that... I very nearly drove over the curb, but thought otherwise. Good thing. Not 2 minutes later, a CHP passed by. I'm sure that would have been a fat ticket.

I ended up taking a detour (one of two), and taking highway 14 towards Santa Clarita. I knew I could sneak back through onto I-5, and even though the mileage was greater, it beat sitting in the God-awful traffic jam on I-5! I got off at Newhall, then followed to Railroad, then I think Magic Mountain Parkway. By the time I got back on I-5, it was smooth sailing (for awhile)!

This time, the dog slept nearly the entire drive home. :o)

ugh

2010-10-13T15:56:00.001-07:00

Too hot outside! Gradually ramping up to 90 something would be nice, no?

TGIF

2009-08-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

1:30 on a Friday. I don't want to be in the office. I want to be outside, or home doing laundry, or taking a nap. Or heck, even grocery shopping, which I have to do on my way home, else I cannot eat tonight or have a cup of coffee before I drive out to BF Egypt for a bike race. Better stop at the store...

Lots been going on. Finally took the plunge to FaceBook and as I was warned: what a time suck! Egad. I swore off any more of those dumb FB quizzes, but sometimes they really ARE fun. Especially on a day like today!

The move was fine. A rough transition though. Probably harder on my dog than me. I've lived alone for her entire life. Then I move into a multi-level town-home, with a male roommate (just a roommate, trust me), I take the dog's couch away and force her to be a dog and sleep in her dog bed and not on the furniture anymore, and the roommate is grumpy. Oh dear God. He is exactly like my step-Dad. Just a younger version. How can that be? Did I not learn enough life lessons living at home till I was 18? Jeesh. My dog gets a wee bit out of sorts when she's around my loud, obnoxious, negative, grumpy Dad, and we only visit once every few years. You can imagine her horror to having to live with that on a daily basis. She had an accident in the house the first week or so. Yikes! She NEVER has accidents. Ever. I was grateful for the carpet cleaner I'd purchased a few years ago, so I cleaned it up and vowed to keep her in my bedroom while I was out of the house. She'd had runny poop for almost the entire first week, and now she'd stopped drinking water. So I drowned her food with water, since her appetite seemed unaffected and this was my way of forcing water into her system. Well, now it's over a week, and I'm packed and ready to go race my MTB at Sea Otter. I decided to take the dog with me, just so I could keep an eye on her, and our last visit to the grass produced a bunch of bloody poops. Not good. I ended up calling the vet in tears, and begged them to get her in. Turned out it was just nerves, but she was dehydrated and they gave her a big shot of fluid under her skin, and sent us home with a bottle of doggy valium. She mostly slept it off and was a bit leary of the roommate for a long time (she's only started to come around him now, 4 months later!), but she was fine.

The roommate situation was pretty tough for me too. I've lived alone for almost 2 decades, and the last person I lived with was my ex-husband, Satan. Well, he had a name, but I prefer the nickname. It's more suitable. 4 months later, those things have mostly worked out. I still think he's the most OCD person on the planet, but I know him better and can give him grief for the stuff that used to completely freak me out. However, I came home the other night from work, and for whatever reason, he was in the office downstairs where we put bikes. He opened the door just as I was going to open it and there he stood: in a speedo. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! To his credit, he did try to cover up, but I'm sort of wondering what the hell he was doing in there, and he left in his car a few min later. I'm really hoping he put pants on first. I don't think I'll ask about that, because I really just don't want to know...

The red stapler guy is out of the picture. Completely. He apparently decided that he didn't want to see me anymore, but instead of being a man and talking to me about it, he just vanished. Not the full-on vanish, but the wimpy, "if I disappear and stop calling her, maybe she'll get it" type of vanishing act. Really disappointing in how he handled that one. I'm not so fragile that I'd fall apart and I had my reservations as it was. Fortunately for that, I wouldn't let myself get "too close" to him.

At the end of June, my Dad went into the hospital. Turned out, not only did he have a bad heart (which we all knew), but it was now only operating at 25% capacity. Add to that: he's 82. And add to that: he now had an infected gall bladder that needed to come out. So I get this news and I'm pretty shook up about it. And I have to race that weekend. So, not only did I get heat exhaustion racing at Benicia in 100-and-some-change degree temps (I threw up AND got the chills... yummy), I had to mentor the Burlingame Criterium by myself at 7:50 the next morning. And I felt like asssssss. I was sure that I was going to puke and get dropped, or get dropped and puke. Just wasn't sure of the order. I spent the first 15-min of the race in complete silence, as I was dying out there. I finally pulled my head out and started doing my job and ended up staying with the field. Unfortunately, there was a crash with 2 to go and as I swung wide and told everyone to keep going, I was already at the back and I stopped. The second I put my foot down, BLAM! Some chick rear-ended me and the impact blew the chain off, wrapped it around my crank and up in my spokes and down I went. Didn't get hurt, but it made me sooo mad and took a chunk of the paint and clearcoat off my downtube. Unreal. The next week I drove up to WA State with my dog and the bike, so I could spend some time with my Dad... He was up and down and up and down, and finally, after a few days, I saw a glimpse of his former self. Whew. The morning of the 4th of July, I went to go for a bike ride with my brother, and found my parents cat dead on the side of the highway. GAAAH. So I spent the late morning of the 4th, digging the cat off of the road, and burying him in their pasture. Poor kitty. My Dad's doing better now, but his health is still not great. Going home for Christmas this year. Might be the last one...

So I'm glad that summer is waning. It's been a year of change and ups and downs. I'm looking forward to my trip to Hawaii in October. Going for almost a full 2 weeks this time and I'm planning on doing a whole lot of nothing! Reading. Sunning. Driving around. Sleeping. Napping. Visiting the volcano, the SAFE way this time! And watching the Kona Ironman again. Heck, I might even do part of the bike ride this time. I'll have the time for it, certainly!

The final nail in the coffin...

2009-04-03T16:30:00.000-07:00

I'm moving next week. And after today, it's one of those things where I have no doubt that I am making the right decision.

I was scheduled for a pre move-out inspection at 4 p.m. today. I needed to be home for it, so I busted my ass to get out of work at 2, so I could go ride and be home by 4. FAIL. I wasn't able to leave work till 3. I can do the ride later. Well, the wind is crap and my allergies are bugging me, so indoors it is.

However, it's 4:32, and still nobody has shown up for a "move out inspection". I just called the office and they are "sending someone over". I came home for this? Not that I'm not glad I'm here and not at work, but this is a bunch of hogwash.

Let me go down the list:

- My appliances are about as old as God.
- The refrigerator randomly freezes things - haven't been able to put eggs in the egg holders in the door since I moved in (last May). It's only stuff on the top shelf of the refrigerator too. Everything else is happy and unfrozen.
- The pipes have started knocking in the walls, bad. Whenever my upstairs neighbor flushes his toilet or runs water in the bathroom, knock, knock, clunk, clunk. For like 5 minutes after he shuts the water off. When I mentioned it to the office, "Oh that's normal.". Uh, not in the real world it's not.
- The washing machine is so rough on my clothes that 2 of my favorite tank tops are FULL of holes and in tatters. They were fine when I moved in last May...
- There seems to be a severe allergy to picking up your dog's crap around here. Good thing I get allergy shots.
- Speaking of dogs, everyone has dogs (plural, most have 2). And everyone's dogs bark. It sounds like a kennel around here. My dog is quiet, and all the barking prevents her from getting her 18 hours of beauty sleep each day, and prevents me from working at home. Especially when the gardeners come with the leaf blowers.
- Speaking of which, the gardeners with their arsenal of leaf blowers haven't been here to mow or blow leaves around for like 3 weeks. Maybe the bill didn't get paid?
- There are small gangs of pre-teenage boys everywhere, on skateboards. In the parking lots. Umm, isn't that the equivalent of "go play in traffic"?
- I have a leak in my apartment. And not just any leak. A foundation leak. Awesome. I found this out during the recent wet weather when the carpeting was really damp around my BR window and I hunted around looking for the leak, and was unable to find it, other than it was coming up from the floor. The office's solution? They came in and shampooed my carpet. Yeah, that'll fix a leak every time. When I explained that I think I found the source, I was told, "Oh, experts have looked at this. They know what they're doing.". Yeah, been told THAT ONE before and didn't believe it. I don't believe it this time either, but I don't give a crap, because I'm moving out.
- My guests never are able to find a place to park anymore. Why? Because everyone has 2 or 3 cars, and we are allotted ONE parking spot.
- Speaking of multiple cars... I just found out that the management actually allows 2 adults and THREE children to live (max occupancy) in each 2 BR 1 BA apartment home. Are you kidding me? That's the same one I've been living in, alone, for the last year. If I had to share a bathroom with another adult and 3 kids, there would be an unhappy ending.

It's 4:55 and the guy just left (at least he's nice and was honest, or at least I think he's honest. He's always been a cool guy...). He came at 4:40. The office told me my inspection was at 4:00. They told him: 4:30. UGGGHH!!!

End of rant. I can't wait to move next week...

I have a knot in my ass

2009-03-30T21:26:00.000-07:00

The title sounds much more salacious than the actual fact: I have a knot in my gluteus something-us. But boy, does it hurt.

What hurts worse than having a knot, in a muscle, in your ass (the largest muscle in our body - umm, I think)? Sitting on a tennis ball to get that knot to release.

Sweet Jesus, that hurts. I have tears in my eyes as I write this...

Today, my life sucks. Clearly, I have a case of the Muuuuundays.

Beware - there was another sale on crazy pants*...

2009-03-20T09:47:00.000-07:00

* Many, many thanks to Megan Guarnier for coining this phrase. I swear that it's the only way to think to keep things in perspective with so many asshats out there "acting out".

Last night, one of my friends and I went for a ride. It was a lovely night. Warm, sunny, a bit windy, but felt really good to be out. As we were riding across Arastradero, we heard a car honk behind us. In the process of moving over, the car pulls up next to us, and proceeds to "lecture" us about taking up too much space. Honestly, I didn't hear a lot of the conversation, as my teammate was actually in between us, but I heard something about "in the middle of the road" and "dangerous" and "holding up all these cars behind me". I yelled, "No, YOU'RE holding up all the cars behind you by being trying to educate us and driving in the middle of the road on a winding road with a crapload of blind corners!" At which point more words were exchanged (my blood was boiling and I heard very little), except the final, "What if I were to put you in the ditch?". WHAT? Are you effing kidding me? We BOTH yelled at him, "GO AHEAD! I'll call 911 right now and you have a TON of witnesses behind you! GO AHEAD!". My teammate said something about "you can buy my next education, and I think I want to go to LAW SCHOOL!". The guy even had the nerve to tell us that he was a cyclist. My ass he was a cyclist. I've never been so angry at a cyclist that I would threaten to "put them in the ditch", even in jest. I guess when you get really old, as this guy was, you feel the need to spread your "many years of wisdom around". Yeah pal, you can kiss my butt.

We got through most of the rest of the ride, but I was still pretty mad. In Redwood City, we had a SECOND encounter. This time it was with a fat, middle-aged woman. We were riding side-by-side on a deserted street when we heard a car. My teammate rode ahead and over into the bike lane, but we had to go around a car parked in the bike lane. Unfortunately, fat-ass decides to pass us at the same time, on a slight hill, with a pretty big blind spot - the down hill (and subsequent stop sign) at the bottom of it, which was pretty close to where we were. As I was cresting the hill I heard the screech of brakes and saw that the woman nearly went through the intersection! I kind of chuckled, thinking that she wasn't paying attention or something, because let's face it: 99% of CA drivers cannot be bothered to drive AND pay attention. But that was only part of it. Naturally, it was OUR FAULT she almost ran the stopsign. Again, I missed the bulk of the exchange because I was further back, but the woman made sure to slow up enough so that I could hear it too (I was honestly trying to stay the hell away from her when I realized she was serious). But I clearly heard: "This is why you guys are always getting killed. Riding in the middle of the road and blah blah blah." I was too stunned to even say anything. We weren't "in the middle of the road".

This is what makes me want to get a camera for my bike. It's been awhile since anything like this has happened to me, but it's so rare to encounter such rude, vile people. I'm still pretty upset about it today. In both cases, it was completely and utterly unnecessary. Sort of makes you wonder WHY someone would be so pissed off and so miserable with themselves that they felt they needed to pick on random strangers to make themselves feel better.

People, don't fall for the crazy pants sale! They're not worth it!!! And if you get the chance to get someone like this out of their car? Yank their crazy pants off!

The best T-shirt - ever

2009-03-16T17:30:00.000-07:00

My officemate is pregnant. She wore this shirt last week and I thought it was the funniest thing I'd seen in a long time!

Well, when she wore it again today, I just HAD to have a picture!

Awesomeness...

Douchebag!

2009-02-23T19:40:00.000-08:00

A powerful word. I rarely get to use it though. It's just so rare when someone does something so lame that you think, "Wow, what a douchebag!". Well, today was that day. Want to know what a douchebag looks like? I could, of course, post his picture. But that might be bad. Instead, I'll post what he did...

We have teensy parking places at work. That's why I always park on the street. Best to be safe and not get my car dinged up. Today, I got back from lunch to find an email that had been sent to everyone in our building. "To the owner of the green VW bug who tried to park so that nobody would park next to you. Well, it didn't work. If you leave before I do, please come and see me, as I'll probably have to move my car." It was actually said in a normal email tone. Nothing sinister. Till I looked out my window.

Sweet Jesus! It, of course, looked a little different from upstairs. In fact, I had incorrectly estimated the distance between cars to be roughly 1/4 inch. I'm not quite sure it was that. I know that I couldn't get my finger between the two cars (I tried, see below).

Now, I'm looking at the VW. Yeah, it's parked on the line. BFD. It's not like we're a driving shop, for crissakes. And deal with it, douchebag. People just don't give a shit about taking the time to park their car in the morning. I'm just wondering how long it took this guy to park THAT effing close to make some type of point. Talk about a Jurrassic Jackass... Then, to email the entire building about it. "Hi, I'm an angry douchebag. Oh wait, that's MISTER douchebag to you.". Then the guy changes his IM status to: "people need to l2park". Uhhh... Wait a minute... Part of me wanted to reply to his email with the picture above and say, "That's not a very nice thing to do!", but clearly the guy has some anger issues he needs to work out!

Anyway, the owner of the VW opted not to move or contact the guy. And he ended up stewing all day and moved his car on his own.

Jeesh...

The Red Stapler...

2009-02-12T21:27:00.000-08:00

I'm actually afraid to say this out loud. I like someone. Really LIKE him. We met about a month ago. The more I'm around him, the more I WANT to be around him, and when I'm away from him, I MISS him. I haven't felt like this in a very, very, very long time!

Last night, we had a date. Dinner and a movie. We watched "Office Space". Holy crap, I forgot how funny that movie is! Today, we were IM'ing, and I said, "Gosh, I really want a red stapler!". He said, "Me too!".

That's when I knew just how MUCH I liked him. I found myself driving to OfficeMax at lunch to buy a red stapler. I'm going to see him Saturday, and Valentine's Day is always an awkward holiday when you're just starting to date. What better way to break the ice than with a red stapler?
Perfect...

Since when does the phrase "kick it" make headlines?

2009-01-20T20:13:00.000-08:00

Apparently when it comes out of the mouth of a young, COOL President. I've been cracking up today at CNN and the "crazy" things our new President is saying.

It's about freaking time the stodgy OLD GUYS got out of office. Breathe some life into politics, for crying out loud!

I'm just wondering if CNN altered or adjusted the crowd noise at the inauguration this morning. Because when Bush Sr and ESPECIALLY GW Bush were announced, I swear to God that you could hear crickets. I know I was unhappy with the both of them, and I've been fond of my saying, "Whenever there's a Bush in the White House, we go to war...", and I guess I knew just HOW unhappy the country is with him, but that was really sobering this morning.

Crazy.

Lost pictures from 2008

2009-01-11T20:05:00.000-08:00

My April Fool's Day joke at work (before):

After:

Whenever I saw the original, I always thought it said, "Mother Goose". Took some folks awhile to "get it", but when they did, it was pretty funny. The sign remained until the fake S wore off, just a few months ago.

My fake "bobcat scratching". I told people for weeks that a Bobcat scratched me when I was mountain biking. :o) In reality: my bike fell over when I was standing on the side of the trail eating and my chain ring slashed my leg. It bled really good...

The "sleeping squirrel". You decide. Asleep? Crawled up under the car tire and died? Or was ran over and killed? I won't release the name of the person who's tire this is (to protect the innocent), but it was hilarious! Look at it - poor little squirrel...

The ugliest birds on the planet... They are called "Turkey Geese". Someone didn't bother hitting them with an ugly stick - they used the whole forest. These were pointed out to me at Christmas when I was in Texas. They have that weird red "waddle" or whatever its called that turkeys have on their beaks, and the black and white feathers. But they seem to have mates, so I guess there really IS someone for everyone...

Too bad this one isn't clearer, but I can't retake the picture, because I've already thrown it away. I'm including it as a lost 2008 picture because it was actually PURCHASED in 2008. Okay, so I didn't find it till yesterday, so technically it's 2009. But not. It took me awhile to figure out what it was, so I made sure to take a picture of the label:

Honestly, I thought it was a walnut. But it was curiously sparkly, like it was crystallized. I was scratching my head and then I saw the label. A cutie (tangerine). I bought a boatload of those last year. May, to be exact. I had a bona-fide science project fossilizing in the vegetable drawer of my refrigerator. BLEAH!!!

I'm glad it's 2009...

Sometimes people are SO stupid...

2008-12-10T14:30:00.000-08:00

Metering lights... When the light is red, you stop. When the light is green, you go. When nothing is lit up, the meter is OFF and you go. Seems simple enough.

I can only speak for a few on-ramps, but I know that those metering lights turn off at 10 a.m. After that time, wheeee! Anyway, I was running a bit late this morning and hit the on-ramp around 10:30. No metering light, right? Most would think that because, well, IT'S REALITY. About the time the curve of the ramp straightens out, most normal people are accelerating to merge into traffic at the speed limit. There were 2 cars in front of me that were sort of dawdling. A maroon Tercel (or some variation) and the black Mustang convertible in front of me. All of a sudden, the Tercel slams on their brakes at the metering light and the Mustang plows into them. Fortunately for me, I was well aware of my surroundings and able to move around them without having to brake much.

Ummm, who stops for a non-lit metering light? Okay, who in their right mind stops for a non-lit metering light? No, they weren't elderly.

I still feel a bit bad about not stopping to offer to be a witness, but dang. I've always thought that the time between Thanksgiving and New Year's was the worst time of year to be on the road, and it seems to hold true every year.

Hold onto your butts. We still have a few weeks till the madness is over...

I am so grateful...

2008-11-04T20:39:00.000-08:00

Today has been topsy-turvy. I went to vote this morning. I was on top of the world. Huge smile on my face. Back on track to getting into work on time again, and I'd done my civic duty by voting. I felt the hopefulness the country felt this morning.

Then I got stuck in traffic. Then my phone rang. My cousin was on the phone, telling me that my favorite Uncle, Robert, had passed away early this morning. He had been sick, but my Great-Aunt, Hazel, had been covering for him - he had dementia and they had to put him into a nursing home. I only found this out last Friday. I had no time for any of this to sink in. I got off the phone with my cousin, and called Hazel. As soon as she got on the phone, I burst into tears. I only talked to her for a short while, but continued bawling my eyes out, the rest of the way to work. Fortunately for me, traffic was moving at about 15 mph, so I didn't endanger myself or anyone else. Finally, after trying to work, and failing, I came back home. I rode my bike, which only made my back hurt and didn't make me feel better.

I've been watching the telly, and now that the networks can predict a President elect, I am again, in tears. But these are tears of joy. Tears of hope. Tears of relief.

And Christ, I have a headache. Whenever I cry, I sweat. And I get a gnarly headache. It's bad... I seem to be a bit more tearful than normal, which the 2nd glass of wine is probably NOT helping, but wow.

I can't believe my Uncle Robert got out of voting by dying. I guess that's a valid excuse. I'm grateful that I'll be able to go to his funeral on Friday morning in Kansas. And I really hope someone tells the story about when Robert won the County Commissioner seat in the county in Kansas in which he and Hazel live in. They told me this story many, many years ago, and I was so shocked, but amused. It's one of those stories that will stay with me and make me smile for the rest of my life... Robert won the election. Kind of like tonight - by a landslide. He and Hazel were celebrating a bit, and on the way home, Hazel got sick. Out the car window (acccckkkkk!!!). Imagine your Grandma barfing out the car window, and you get the picture. He got them both home and into bed. Sometime in the middle of the night, Robert woke up. Sick as a dog. He knew he was going to throw up, so he jumped out of bed, and ran down the hall to the bathroom. Only he didn't make it. He puked in the hall while running. And then he stepped in it. To add to all that humiliation, he then slipped and fell down - into his own vomit! Gross, but funny as hell. I'll always cherish that story. And even though I'm both sad for him, and elated for our country, it makes me smile.

I will never forget today...

Grow up and vote.

2008-11-03T20:32:00.000-08:00

Tonight, I left work early to go to the gym. It was raining lightly, and everything on the radio stations was saying to "drive mellow". Lots of spin-outs and accidents due to the rain. I saw a few driving like morons, as usual. Tailgating and such. You just know that those people wouldn't be able to stop in time in the rain, and I always pray some *sshat like that stays off my tail.

Around Marsh on 101 North, I saw a caravan of automobiles, all with signs, in support of Proposition 8. I have my own feelings on the Proposition, but it's a free country. Tomorrow is election day, and everyone has a right to express their viewpoints. Out of nowhere, a silver BMW comes flying past me on the right, and darts into the caravan. I think, "Jeez, plan ahead... it's raining, can't you think ahead for a few seconds and plan your exit safely?". A few seconds later, the BMW darts out of the caravan towards me, speeds up and then darts back into it. I was so shocked that it hadn't occurred to me exactly what was taking place until a few moments later. The BMW veers out of the caravan and back towards me again. I get a good look at the guy: white, male, late 30's, silver BMW 5-series, 4-door sedan. He speeds up and darts in front of me. Now I'm mad. I lay on the horn and the jerk slams his brakes on. Hi. What the heck is your problem buddy? I probably aggravated the situation by telling him he was "#1", but I'm sure he already knew that. That prompted me to call 911, as I felt like he was endangering a whole lot of people, just because he disagreed with a caravan of people, expressing their rights to free speech.

When I finally got through to the 911 operator, the jerk had darted in and out of 101 and onto the collector distributor lane before the Holly Street exit (I'm well aware of the irony here). I was so shook-up that I was in tears trying to explain to the nice 911-operator exactly what took place. I couldn't get the fool's license number because it all happened so fast and I was unable to follow him with his erratic driving. I was able to explain what had happened and what had so obviously set him off, and a description of him, and the car, but no plate #. I have no clue if he exited at Holly, or darted back onto 101, but it was likely the latter. Both the 911 operator and myself got a good laugh when I had to give her my location and name (no pun intended).

I can't believe I was the only one that called and turned that moron in. And I'm ashamed that I too oppose Proposition 8, not because of what it is or represents or what I believe in, but because that jerk just made everyone who opposes it look like a homicidal maniac to every single supporter in that caravan. Thanks, pal, thanks a lot. It wasn't so much that he was darting in and out in the rain, but he was DIVING. Turning his steering wheel HARD and directly in the path of those cars. Endangering people just because they disagreed with his thinking (and people like myself who weren't even involved). What kind of Neanderthal douche-bag does stuff like that? And I'm not saying that all BMW owners drive like a-holes, but why is it so many of them DO?

It made me start thinking about how polarizing Prop 8 really IS. I mean, think about it. Nobody will win. Regardless of the outcome, nobody really is going to win. If it passes, then there will be another prop in a few more years to re-vote. If it fails, same thing. It will be like a bad penny and keep coming back again and again. And what will it do for *true* voting? Will people try to vote multiple times just to make their point? It's just ugly any way you look at it, unfortunately.

Back to the douche-bag on 101 tonight... Jeez dude. Don't endanger people just because they don't see eye to eye with you. Just grow up, and go vote.

Low key hill climb - Bear Gulch

2008-10-25T15:47:00.001-07:00

Cripes. Why I agreed to do a HILL CLIMB, I'll never know. Several weeks ago, before I went on a blissful (and mai tai'd) vacation, I mentioned a couple of these to my coach. Well, I went on vacation and promptly forgot.

Wednesday evening, I was looking ahead to what I needed to do over the weekend for training (since I did SO much riding in Hawaii - yeah, 3 days on a rented bike with toe clips. I tried to train on vacation, and have you ever tried to sprint with toe clips? I pulled out of them the exact number of sprint attempts: three.). Thursday looked good. Friday good. Saturday: Low key hill climb: Bear Gulch. WHAT? Oh crap. How can I get out of this? It's going to be evil. I distinctly remember (now) thinking it would be a good idea, because it was short (less than 3 miles) and not super steep (6.4% average). But I also remember saying, "I'm not sure if it's a good idea THAT close to returning from vacation.". Clearly, my coach ignored that last sentence. I tried to think of all the excuses, and finally I decided to just go do it. "It's low key! It's not a race! I can do what I want!". But I also decided to park in Woodside and ride up Kings for my warm-up.

Yeah, I said that. Climb Kings for a warm-up. Clearly, I lost my mind on vacation. If someone sees it, please send it home. I sort of need it back...

A co-worker of mine wanted me to join our work team, so I raced (relative term today) with them today. I told her I was slow. I don't think she REALLY believed me.

This morning, I nearly caved and stayed in bed. I was awake before the alarm went off, but then I did a stupid thing: I hit the snooze. Bad, bad! I freaking snoozed for 45 more minutes, which just made me TIRED-ER. I stumbled around the house and made breakfast and got myself together, but not fast enough. I got to Woodside later than I wanted, so my leisurely ride up Kings turned into a faster ride than I was ready for. Drat. It was stinking cold at my car, but the higher I climbed, the warmer it got. I started bemoaning the fact that I wore a vest, arm warmers and long fingered gloves. This would turn out to be a problem later...

(at least I looked okay.... thanks Eric Willis! )

As I was climbing, I noticed that I felt really awful. I'm not much of a climber, but I usually don't feel *that* crappy. Especially since I made the brilliant move to skip power and use my bike with the compact crank (my knees are still thanking me). I was spinning, but my legs were dead. I bet that the deep-tissue massage I got last night didn't help (well, it did, but it didn't), and then the 2 weeks of mai-tai time, and non-riding and "hiking" with my Mom. It's not like I did a ton of high intensity stuff.

Anyway, I made it to the reg area in time, but then we stood around registering, and talking, and trying to get ready to roll out. And then riding down Skyline to the real Bear Gulch, I dropped my chain! Ugh, the curse of the compact crank!!! I had a really hard time putting it back on too (the old up-shift trick did exactly squat). Then another co-worker helped, but now I had grease all over my glove and fingers. And then we descended Bear Gulch. And stood around. When we started, my legs felt exactly like they did when I first started climbing Kings! And I thought, "Why on Earth did I bother with a warm-up?"

The bottom of Bear Gulch is nasty and steep and then barren. The trees give way to completely exposed roads and was it hot! Especially with a vest and full-fingered BLACK gloves on. Oh yeah, those were a stunning idea, if I do say so myself... My computer registered the max temp at: 93. BLEAH! At one point, I was doing about 3 mph, the paper boy, my HR was inching up, I was roasting like a luau pig, and I really thought I was going to barf. I got off my bike and walked... I'm not too proud to admit that, but I really wanted to just lie down and think about life... I was almost moving faster on foot at that point. Forced myself back on the bike and ended up getting back off again later. Jeez. Once I got back into the shade and the pitch mellowed out, I was fine. I rode myself back up to a few that had passed me and I felt pretty comfortable climbing after that point. My HR was high (I wasn't going harder than 80 or 85%), but I've not been doing much climbing or intensity, so I pretty much expected it. I finished much better than I started (if you start at the bottom... nowhere to go but up!) and I can still laugh about walking. It's Low Key for crying out loud! One woman told me, "I don't know what's wrong with me. I'm usually ahead of those 3 up there." Maybe I'm still on Hawaiian time, but I didn't really care who beat me today. I just know that I didn't chicken out, and I finished...

I think I like this low key stuff, but I'm sure not keen to do one again soon! I do now remember telling my coach that I wanted to do the Low Key up Mt. Hamilton on Thanksgiving. I've never been up Hamilton, so I think it will be good. I likely will not feel the same way the night before or the day of, but I'll be glad I did it when I'm done. Just like today...

Laupahoehoe Point and Tsunami Victims Plaque

2008-10-17T00:33:00.000-07:00

On April 1, 1946, a tsunami blew into Laupahoehoe Point and swept several small schoolchildren and a few adults out to sea. I'd read about this before, but never got to visit the place where it happened. I knew there was a plaque for them, so I made sure to visit this time. What a powerful place. Just the sight of the plaque brought tears to my eyes. Some as young as 2 years old. Several children from single families. Wiped out. In seconds. It struck at 7 a.m. Really makes you think...
The waves on this side of the island are CRAZY intense. Raw, powerful and really, really scary. There's a story inside my guide book which tells about a barge of brand-new Toyotas crashing near here. An insurance adjuster came to assess the damage, insisted on the helicopter he was riding in land on the barge, a wave came in, swept over the helicopter, tossing it, and killing the adjuster. You don't mess around with the ocean on this side of the island...

More volcano images

2008-10-13T18:57:00.001-07:00

First stop yesterday was the end of Highway 130, South of Hilo, on the East side of Hawaii. As we were hiking the approximately one mile out to the overlook to see the lava, you could turn to the right and see the lava coming down the side of the hill, towards the ocean. Luckily, it's jogging West before heading down to the water.

My Mom and I on the edge of the Earth!
Inside Hawaii Volcano National Park, a new steam vent/lava pit has opened up. It's inside the Halema'uma'u crater, which is inside of the Kilauea Caldera (next to the Volcano House hotel and the Jagger Museum). The view during the daytime is impressive enough, but when I looked at the webcam, during the evening (Hawaii time), OMG. It's glowing orange/red with lava inside! Before this vent opened up, you used to be able to drive to the other side and look over the edge of the Caldera, just to the right of the steam and smoke. The eruption of this new vent took out part of the fence, that I've stood at, looking down into the Caldera. CRAZY! The webcam is here. It also looks like we had significantly better weather yesterday than they're having today. Whew!
The view of the smoke/steam from Halema'uma'u from the other side of the Kilauea Iki. The Iki is an amazing hike, but it was not to be on this trip... It's a long trek from one side to the other, but it sure is amazing. The "hill" just to the left of the steam cloud is Pu'u Pua'i, the cinder cone that was built by the eruption of Kilauea Volcano inside the Kilauea Iki crater (in 1959). There is just some really amazing history to go with the Volcano and I'd have loved to have been a geologist here. Truly fascinating stuff.

Looking into the mouth of Hell

2008-10-12T23:45:00.000-07:00

I was pretty stoked to find out that the lava was flowing to the East side of the lava fields. This meant that we could DRIVE to it, and then a short hike to a lookout, and voila! Last time I was there, the stuff was flowing to the center of the field and the Park Ranger told me: "Yup, it's a 6.5 hour round-trip hike. Well worth it." F*ck that. This was after doing a hike in the park which lasted just over 2 hours, and got me soaking wet when it rained. I took the plane ride instead, and it was great.

This time... we drove to it. And hiked. 1 mile each way. Over lava. Damn. That counted as double. I got freaked out a few times when there was hot steam coming out of the cracks in the lava. And one such area was SILVER, instead of black. WTH??? I later learned that it was lava FRESH from AUGUST. Yeah, 2 months ago August. No wonder... There was no one else out, except two girls that we finally caught up with on the edge of the world. I took their picture, they took my Mom's and mine, they gave me some cool advice, and told me to perch on the ledge above and that was that. I stood on this ledge for a long time, watching the delta below. There was a crapload of steam (and sulpher, gross) from the lava hitting the ocean (it was RIGHT THERE). When the clouds moved out of the way, there it was - a shelf with orange lava flowing across it. Every time I saw it, I tried to take a picture. And every time, the steam clouds obscured it. I couldn't see the lava through the view finder, but I could with the naked eye. We played this game for a good 20 minutes and I finally snapped a few pics. In this one, when I zoomed in, I could see the orange (faintly) on the shelf. Thank God. I sure didn't want to hike back out there for more pics!!!

It was cool, definitely. But it was at least 2 hours of hard hiking to get 2 miles, round trip. And with steam all around, and only the forest to go by (for the safe harbor), I got freaked out more than a few times (and checked to make sure the soles of my shoes weren't melting!!!!). I almost aborted the hike due to concerns (and very few markings, and no other souls out there). But in the end, I'm glad we stuck it out (my Mom had a hard time with the hike and the heat coming off of the lava). We got to look out onto new land being created, see lava flowing into the ocean, and I kid you not: it was like staring into the mouth of Hell.

My favorite sign from the Ironman

2008-10-11T21:37:00.000-07:00

That just RULES!

Ironman World Championships - Kona

2008-10-11T21:22:00.000-07:00

This is a CRAZY event. I've never been able to see it before, but decided to take my Mom on a really nice vacation. To Hawaii. Since I like to come here in October, why not plan it around the Ironman?

We woke up early this morning to drive down the road, park the rental car, then walk to Kailua Harbor, where we saw thousands of people swimming! The scene was insane. We found a spot on the wall to sit and watch and proceeded to wait till the first 3 Pro men finishers came in. The groups all had escorts and the helicopter was hovering over the top 3 (who were a few minutes ahead of the next group!). Camera phone isn't the best action shot - as it was much more impressive than it looks:
We waited for some more to come in, including the first few pro women (I knew when I heard Gina Kehr's name (she's from Redwood City!!! And she placed 9th overall, which is soooo cool)), and then we moved to the first corner to watch them come flying out of the transition area on their TT bikes. Saw some near accidents with people still trying to get shoes fastened, and veering all over and whatnot. We saw a guy get a flat tire about 1/4 mile into the 112 miles! He took a long time to change it, then we all cheered him on. Apparently, he went up the hill, around the corner, had another mechanical - and called it a day. We saw young (20-something) and old (78!!!), and everything in between. Really inspirational. Then we wandered off to find food and chill out for a few hours till they came back from their 112 mile bike race (jeeeesus), so they could transition to do a full marathon. I just can't imagine...

Several hours passed, then the first guys came in, and then out they went to do the marathon. By this time, we'd been outside and in the heat and humidity for SEVEN hours. I shouldn't be whining, because I wasn't swimming, riding forever and then doing a full marathon. It's my OFF SEASON for crying out loud! I'm shot tonight though... It's only 6:30 here in Hawaii, but I swear that I'm going to bed in about an hour.

Today was an impressive showing of athletic endurance, and I'm humbled... In fact, to call it impressive is an injustice. There are no words...

Just needed some inspiration!

2008-09-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

Blogging sporadically. Been busy doing nothing. Very little riding. I've touched my bike a few times, mostly to move it when I'm vacuuming. A clean house is a... yeah. I miss riding, actually. Guess I'll start up again really soon. Tomorrow, I think.

Anyway, as I was leaving one of the cafe's at work today, I noticed this car... I can't believe I hadn't seen it before (obviously, it's been there AWHILE)! And I thought MY car was dirty! Guess not... The writing on the windshield is pretty funny too.

Just needs a "help me", "wash me" or "free to good home" write-in, and it would be perfect. At least the owner has a good sense of humor: "Batt dead - will move soon"...

White Trash day at lunch and Day 2 of my social experiments

2008-09-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

We have these different themed cafe's at work. The one I generally eat at has a Spanish-style tapas menu, which gives me the chance to have a nice green salad, PLUS something else really tasty. I always create a little "bowl" of tasty stuff, usually with a bit of rice or something. The chefs tease me about it and "is it a rice bowl today? or a pasta bowl?" This week has been really confusing. Corn-dogs, garlic fries, lasagne, etc. Today was the kicker. Green bean casserole, buffalo wings, potato skins, little cheeseburgers. It may be obvious to others, but since I'm not much of a football fan, the week's menu items were lost on me. I was laughing, thinking, "Surely this must be White Trash Week in the Spanish cafe!". Nope. All week was in honor of football starting, so the theme was: Tailgate Food. My favorite chef, Jason, was all fired up to see me today. "Have I got a bowl for you!!! We'll get you some potato skins, add a little chili, some cheese and jalapenos! It'll be the best!" Gad, he talked me into it, sans jalapenos. The heartburn-inducing creation is below:
As much as I hate to admit it: it was really good! Not long after I snapped the picture, it was gone. I'll probably regret it later, but a very tasty treat, and unlike anything I ordinarily eat.

The social experiment is something else. Although it does tie in nicely with today's lunch menu. I work with a lot of social retards. I think that a lot of engineers are pretty introverted anyway, and my work environment seems to accept it and expound on it, creating more introverted introverts than any other high tech company I've ever worked for. And I really thought the old-time mainframe programmers I used to work with at Boeing with were the geekiest of the lot. I was soooo wrong. The nerd of 2008 is more socially retarded than anyone I've ever worked with in the 24 years I've been in high-tech. Seriously. I also seem to have a lot of social retards where I live. Won't make eye contact, won't say hi, even if they live across from you. It's crazy. So my social experiment is to start saying "HI" to all of these socially-retarded folks. Even if I don't get answers in return. The experiment part is to see if the more I do it, the more people might be coaxed out of their shells.

I started yesterday with a neighbor. I was out with my dog and stepped out of her way, making direct eye contact and chirped, "Good morning!". I think she greeted me with a quiet grunt, although I'm not really sure about that. I did a bit of it in the lunch line yesterday, but it seemed most folks were in a good mood, and there were only like 3 people in line.

Today was different. There were definitely more folks in line at lunch, and when I was joking with the chefs about the white trash menu and they were flipping it all back at me, it seemed to engage those around me. The people on both sides of me were listening, laughing and asking questions, and even talking to me. CRAZY! Could it really be that simple?

Experiments to continue indefinitely...

I'm sooo going to have a hard time going to sleep tonight...

2008-09-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

I opened my mailbox when I got home tonight (after meeting Jill Kintner, no less) and found my pre-sale Metallica tickets and their new CD in my mailbox. Yesssssssssss!

If I were really smart, I'd get up early and listen to it, but oh no. I'm listening to it now (it's really good) and figuring I can crank out the last car review that's been due before I get another car to review in a couple of weeks (the MINI Clubman).

BTW, Jill Kintner is very sweet. I only wish I could have ridden with the nice group of people that rode Saratoga Gap tonight. Looking forward to that ride report!

My little angel

2008-08-25T20:11:00.000-07:00

Snoring away under my desk...

There are no words...

2008-08-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Our President, at the Olympics. Lovely representation...

What NOT to wear to the company picnic

2008-08-01T13:59:00.000-07:00

I took a full-sized picture of this, but I sort of want to protect the innocent (even if my eyes will never be the same). She did fidget with her bottoms for a bit, but clearly more fidgeting was in order...

We have TWO butt gasket bandits!

2008-07-22T17:21:00.000-07:00

I was sort of glad to have caught the one last week, but on Friday, I caught a 2nd one. God. Both women have kids. And homes. And husbands. And the 2nd one, even has a cook, so I presume she thinks that someone should just pick up after her.

Wrong idea, sistah!

Anyway, with some input from some nice people who left comments, I'm doing the following: I've created a funny checklist, which I'm going to hang up in each stall. It's printed and all official, and not hand-written (since my hand-writing sucks). And this way, if someone gets pissy and tries to take them down, I'm just a button click away from printing 1 more for each stall.

I tried to be realistic, cover ALL the bases and still have a sense of humor about it, so that it can be fun to learn. Jeez. Now if that doesn't work, the founder's admin is going to help me out and the both of us are going to go talk to both of these butt gasket bandits.

Here's the note, in case someone else needs a copy for their own work-place bathrooms (note: here at work, they hang up official notices in the bathrooms called "Testing on the Toilet". Since I'm not interested in working while I'm taking care of bizness, I pretty much ignore them. But I lifted the title for my own signage):

TESTING ON THE TOILET
Before you walk out of the stall, do the following:

1) IF the toilet an Auto-flush toilet, did it flush?
IF YES
good, proceed to step 2
ELSE
push the button and flush it
IF NO
surely you remember how to flush a normal toilet. do it.

2) Did everything get flushed?
IF YES
good, proceed to step 3
ELSE
go back to step 1

3) Is your seat liner still on the toilet seat?
IF YES
for God's sake, push it into the toilet bowl and go back to step 1
ELSE
good, proceed to step 4

4) One last check of the seat, did you leave any drops of "bodily fluids" behind?
IF YES
Does your Mother work here?
IF YES
don't burden your Mother! you're old enough to clean up after yourself
ELSE
wipe off the seat
IF NO
Do you see a full-time attendant in the bathroom who'll clean up after you?
IF YES
clearly, you're lost and in the wrong building
ELSE
wipe off the seat
ELSE
all of the women of 1055 Joaquin thank you - you may now exit

Busted! But now what?

2008-07-14T19:36:00.000-07:00

For the past few months, some twit at work (or maybe I should say twat? It's more fitting...) has been leaving seat liners (aka: butt gaskets) on the toilet seats. Not making sure the auto flush toilet flushes all their junk away. And the lamest infraction: walking away from the handicapped stall leaving both the butt gasket AND their junk behind. Hi, the handicapped stall is the ONE toilet in our bathroom without a heated seat, or the auto-flush. And I really thought I worked with smart people. I guess smart does not translate to: neat or tidy or un-lazy.

Anyway, I've been DYING to catch this woman. DYING. Curiosity has been killing me and I've made so many trips to the bathroom, just hoping to catch this twit. Alas, she has always eluded me.

This afternoon, I rolled up into the bathroom to find TWO stalls, already occupied with the used butt gaskets on the seats. NASTY! I'd lost all hope. However, when I decided to use the bathroom later this evening before heading home. Someone was in the far right stall. Nobody in the other 4, and no used seat liners. So I used my favorite stall and noticed that the other person waited till the toilet flushed, then washed their hands. In the middle of washing their hands, I was done and walked out of the stall. I didn't really make eye contact with her, but as I was reaching for the paper towel after she'd already walked out the door, there it was! The used butt gasket left behind. UGH, not only did the b*tch leave it behind, but she left a smear of blood on it. That's so revolting, I just can't even believe it. And the offender? OMG, someone I'd never imagined! She's an engineer! She's got 2 kids! And a husband! And probably the most disgusting house in Silicon Valley. Jesus. Bleah, bleah, bleah, bleah, bleah! I'm just grateful that I never have to work on projects with her, but Christ.

Now what do I do? Do I confront her and bust her out? Do I start leaving butt gaskets on her chair? Do I send out a company-wide email (jk)? I can tell you one thing: I'm going to think twice about touching any surface without a paper towel or tissue in hand while at work. Even though she DID wash her hands, that's really, really disgusting...

Johan Bruyneel

2008-07-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Came to work yesterday to give a book talk. I bought the book on Monday night so he'd have something to sign, and started reading it yesterday morning...

The talk was interesting. Inspiring, actually. He's very real, very funny and as all team directors have interesting stories, he certainly has his share. We all got to ask him questions, which was the bulk of the talk, and I was really impressed to see him wearing his LiveStrong band. I have always worn mine, and even though folks sometimes give me grief about it, I still feel very strongly about it's message (it's my good-luck charm).

Some of the people at the talk yesterday clearly weren't cycling fanatics. Someone asked him if they'd known that Astana would not be invited to the Tour de France, would they have had different goals for the Tour of Italy (Giro). I had to bite my lip. I think winning the Giro with not much notice was pretty spectacular, but that's just me.

This has been a most excellent week. The Tour has been fun. I found a link to the Vaughter's f-bomb incident here. I've had stellar training rides (crushing 6 of my 8 peak power records), even in the heat, and I got to meet Johan Bruyneel. I even got this most excellent souvenir:

I never thought I'd love a badger...

2008-07-07T19:37:00.000-07:00

Until today...

Damn! I was watching today's stage LIVE this morning and I almost dropped my cup of coffee! The protester was a total surprise, but I had NO idea Bernard Hinault could still move so fast.

That made my entire week...

Aiiieeee, the apocalypse is coming!

2008-06-25T20:25:00.000-07:00

Just kidding. But it sure seems like it with the smoky sky and the sun. OMFG. I had to stop on my way home and take a picture of it, because it was so surreal looking.

To add to the mystique, and surely this must be another "sign", I hit EVERY SINGLE TRAFFIC LIGHT GREEN on my way home. I drove home via Woodside Road. Road of a thousand stop lights. And anyone that knows me knows I am a red-light magnet (my "gift" to the group ride). It was crazy. Not only did I hit 'em all green on Woodside (has anyone ever hit them all green?) from Woodside Town Hall all the way to 101, I hit the 3 traffic lights GREEN in Foster City. I probably should have bought a lotto ticket, but I was sweaty and cold and just wanted to come home.

I sure hope these fires get under control, sooner rather than later. It's so sad...

Why I hate to ride my bike in Burlingame

2008-06-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

Our sponsor shop is in Burlingame (Summit Bikes). Periodically, I'll ride from home over to see them. As it's been hot, I'm trying to ride in the heat to acclimate, so I headed over yesterday around 11:30. While riding along the gutter line on California Avenue (4-lane road) a car came within inches of me with their mirror. I was a bit miffed and raised up my hand like "what the hell?", especially since the other lane was completely devoid of cars. Well, unfortunately for both of us, the car hit the light red at the next intersection. I rolled up, not looking for a confrontation, but wanting to just say, "hey, you got really close to me, please be careful.". Oh, that's so NOT what I got... Me: "Hey, do you know how close you got to me back there?". Psycho woman driver: "It's YOUR fault. You swerved out in front of me!". Me: "Umm, no I didn't. All I'm saying..." PWD: "IT'S YOUR FAULT. YOU SWERVED IN FRONT OF ME! HAVE A NICE DAY! HAVE A NICE DAY!!!" Me, "Look, lady, do you understand..." PWD: "HAVE A NICE DAY! HAVE A NICE DAY!" The more I tried to say, the more she interrupted me. I should have known that on a day close to 100, with all her windows rolled down, that her brain was probably pooched from the heat, and that trying to reason with a psycho is a moot point. Sort of like, jumbo shrimp, military intelligence, etc. I was so shook up that someone could have such little regard for another's safety that I just yelled at her (over her still screaming at me), "Nice, well, it's obvious that you're a psycho. Have a nice day!" and rolled forward.

In hindsight, so many things come to mind. Like, if I really wanted to get hit, I'd not mess around with a car, and I'd go and "swerve" in front of a bus. Or does it not imply the motorist isn't morally obligated to avoid hitting a cyclist, even if the cyclist swerves a bit? For the record, I didn't even twitch. I can ride a line without wavering for a very long time. Then there's always the stuff you think of saying hours after the fact. Like, "It's nice the mental institution lets you out for the weekend, but you really SHOULD go back before someone gets hurt.". That would have been a fun comeback. But likely, the way she was acting, she probably did it on purpose, and then was mortified to hit the light and then, on top of that, be confronted. Well, if you endanger me, and I can catch you, I WILL confront you. I don't regret confronting her, but I regret that it kind of consumed me for the day and that's such a waste.

Not more than 45 minutes later, after stopping at Summit to get COLD water and visit, I headed back towards home. Checking out the course for the Burlingame Crit next Sunday. On my second pass, as I was getting ready to get out of the madness of downtown, some asshat in front of me (I was a safe 4-5 bike lengths away, but we were doing close to 20), decides to SLAM on his brakes to let a pedestrian cross (not in a crosswalk). Holy sh*t. I slammed on the brakes and missed slamming into his bumper by about 1/2 inch. God, I was furious. And you know what? HE NEVER EVEN SAW ME. The pedestrian did, but not the motorist. Wow... I decided that I couldn't get out of there fast enough and there was a huge blockage at the next intersection, so I stopped (full stop) and then proceeded through the 2 cars blocking the entire intersection, only to be nearly pegged by someone turning right. I hit the brakes again, they let me go (I have no idea if that was my fault or not - I was pretty shook up by then). I got out of there as fast as I could, in tears.

I have had more "near death" experiences in Burlingame than I ever have in San Francisco, Los Gatos, Redwood City, South City or Foster City. All places I consider to be more dangerous than Burlingame. But I've been proven wrong again and again.

All I can say is that I felt safer than I have in ages on the bike path yesterday. And my SRAM Red brakes work REALLY well.

Holy sh*t!

2008-06-13T19:44:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to break 1000 watts since I started training with power last fall. I got close a few weeks ago with 994 watts, but this is all during training. I haven't felt good enough to actually sprint in a RACE, so it's kind of a moot point. Tonight, I'm out on a pre-race ride with a former teammate (Kim P), just messing about. Did a few efforts and asked her if she wanted to go do a couple of sprints on Runnymeade (my favorite place to do sprints). She was game and so off we went. The first one was a bit shaky, but I still pulled out 909 watts. Okay, good, but I can do better. The next one was way better. I could tell because I felt like I was going to pull my shoes out of the pedals! Kim got a better wattage reading that time too, so when I checked my max, all I could do was scream. I just kept whooping/screaming and almost crying and when she caught up to me all I could blurt out was "Holy shit. I did it. I broke 1000 watts!!!!!!". Kim was hilarious. "This is great! I've never seen you this happy!".

I had to take a picture of it, just in case. And I have no idea how the hell I'm going to sleep tonight, because I'm SO amped up. And to think I did it on Friday the 13th, of all days. Wow. Must be still wound up about the butt gasket business! JK.

So I'm not a jerk, my co-workers are just lazy slobs

2008-06-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

This time, I taped it to the top of the mirror, since all of the big paper clips have mysteriously gone missing. The worst part, in using the long piece of tape to grab the butt gasket off the toilet, the end of the butt gasket dipped into the toilet. EEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! Too bad the picture didn't come out better...

If I can catch this person, I think the funnier thing would be not to confront them, but to silently put a butt gasket on their desk chair. This was suggested by a co-worker and I think it would be awesome!

I'm on a mission now...

Sometimes I can be a jerk

2008-06-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

A funny jerk, mind you. But a jerk. I have this pet peeve at work: women who don't bother to see if the auto-flush toilet actually flushes their junk down the toilet, women who drip all things unholy on the toilet seat and then leave it for some unlucky bloke, and women who leave the butt gasket on the toilet seat. Jesus. I work at Google for crissakes. Some of the brightest minds work here. Supposedly. Yet these women (I've been trying to catch the culprits for months, because I can shame them like no other... and I've been bleakly disappointed to not catch a one of them) expect someone else to clean up after them.

A few months ago, someone left a butt gasket on the toilet. Incensed, I went and got a sticky note and a red Sharpie and left a note, with a brand-new butt gasket taped to the mirror. "You left this behind. I thought you might want it." I ran out of the bathroom trying not to laugh. A few hours later I went back in and it was gone. Bummer.

Earlier today, I went in, and there was a butt gasket left on my favorite heated toilet seat. UGGGGH! So I used a different stall. Tonight, when I went into the bathroom to change for my ride, there it was. The used butt gasket was back in my favorite stall. Even though I had to use the "big stall" to change in and go to the bathroom - I couldn't help it. I found myself digging through my backpack for a Sharpie and scrap of paper. I left a note: "Please take this with you next time. Nobody wants to sit on a USED seat liner. Gross!!". The cleaning staff leaves a couple of gigantic paper clips in the bathroom to use to prop the door open, so I grabbed one and used it to grab the butt gasket off the toilet. I then grabbed the note and somehow got part of the butt gasket in the sink, setting off the automatic water faucet, which washed away part of the used butt gasket. By this time, I was almost crying from stifling the laughter. Using the end of the clip, I attached the entire thing to the tampon dispenser, took a picture, changed my clothes and got the hell out of there before I got an aneurysm from holding back the laughter...

I sure hope it's still up in the morning, although I'm afraid to go look!

Birthday Ride

2008-06-07T13:43:00.000-07:00

So I'm slow. My birthday was actually on Monday... I went for a nice ride to celebrate. And of all the odd-ball things for me to do, I decided to climb Old La Honda. First time since last fall. I held myself back so I could take in the scenery and try not to worry about how long it was going to take me to get to the top. And I made sure to do it the first part of the ride, so I wouldn't chicken out. I was surprised to make it in a reasonable time. I remember a few summers ago, training my ass off to get a good time on OLH. Seriously. I turned myself inside out to get to the top, and clocked a slower time by 20 seconds! Good to know that my fitness has improved in the past few years!

Oh yeah. When I stopped for water before heading back to the car, I saw a bunch of Harleys parked at Roberts Market in Woodside. As I was standing there, eating and drinking I noticed this sticker on one of the bikes... I almost fell over laughing. Classic!

Some of the other bikes had the "Support your local Hells Angels" stickers, but this was the only one that I saw that had the added tagline: "OR ELSE". Awesome.

I followed my ride with a trip to the store for some mahvelous cheese and had homemade Bruschetta, yummy cheese and wine for birthday dinner. I figured the cheese might be s l i g h t l y better for me than the planned piece of carrot cake. ;o)

Wow, I guess I got my wish

2008-05-15T10:47:00.001-07:00

That's the last time I gripe about the lack of hot weather. My bad...

WTF is up with the weather?

2008-04-30T20:47:00.000-07:00

How can I possibly acclimate to the heat when it's 50-something on my after-work rides? 2 weekends (Madera and the Wente Crit last Sunday) I've puked in my races. Both times it was well into the 90's.

At Madera, it was in the TT and at least I could back off a bit and recover, while only losing a bit of time.

But shoot, Wente? I'm in a crit. How the hell do I back off without getting dropped? Answer: I followed an attack (after puking, mind you), which of course, blew me to smithereens. But hey, I'd rather go down, guns blazin' , than be a puss and just drop out. Yeah, I puked again after that, but whatever. And with the crashfest that ensued, my dropping out of the race was a blessing in disguise. And from the looks of this pic (thanks Garrett!!! Go check out Garrett's photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/garrettlau/), I was already dehydrated well before the race even started. Nice white mustache. That's what I get for having a super-stressful work-week (I have GOT to win the lottery...).

Back to the weather. My thought, after suffering like a dog on Sunday was to start riding mid-day, to acclimate to the heat. Bloody hell. It's been like 30 degrees cooler ALL WEEK. I haven't bothered riding at lunch, because it's only 60-something degrees. I still need knees and arm warmers in that weather. Maybe I should wear a space suit, or plastic bags or something, but with all the wind, it would be deafening! And I might actually get blown off the road...

Sea Otter MTB Race

2008-04-19T08:45:00.000-07:00

I had no expectations going into this race. I was pretty fried from Madera last weekend, and after tacking onto the Valley Ride this week and keeping up to my goal intersection. When I did my pre-race ride on Thursday, my legs were seriously protesting. I decided to just "ride" the MTB race this year. Have fun. Not worry about my front brake dragging me down like last year (and making me want to throw my bike down some ravine!).

Sea Otter was the usual madness, but reg was a disaster this year. Took forever because I had to: stand in line to be told to fill out a waiver (even though I pre-reg'd), go stand back in line to get my number and ankle chip, go stand in line to have USA Cycling verify my NORBA license, so I could get a stamp on my voucher (they ridiculously charged all of us $10 for a one-day license), stand in line for my goodie bag (shit, just give me a bottle, I don't need all those damned coupons) and then go stand in line to get my $10 back from the cashier. In a word: LAME.

It was cold and windy and luckily, I brought all kinds of clothes. Ran around to visit some of the vendors and my friends and then back to the car to get ready. Felt like ass during my warm-up, but something happened once we lined up. I got the competitive thing going. As we inched forward, it grew. When we were first in line, I accidentally overshot the start line and everyone was teasing me. Oops. BANG! Off we go. 2 women took off like a shot, and I just steadily rode ahead. As we approached the turn that goes up the first little grunt on the racetrack, we'd pulled the 2 leaders in and were now a tighter group of 6 or so. Then a gap opened and I went around it. We caught some women in the group ahead of us while still on the track, and somehow I got around the leader in our group and was first going into the dirt. Holy crap. As we approached the first sharp turn, there was a woman having trouble in it and she stopped. Now, my room was gone and I'm a bona-fide retard when it comes to sharp hairpins. I biffed and landed on my ass. Ouch. I was embarrassed because I slowed everyone down and quickly moved my carcass. I then was able to make up ground on the climb and was in first again. However, I can't descend well and was asked to move over on the single track descent. Fine by me... Then we hit the conga line. Garrrr. Got around them and onto the next section where my rabbit was in sight. Anyway, I ended up passing again, but was behind some slower folks. Tag, I'm not "it" any more, but I was in 2nd leading into the sandy descent.

I have GOT to learn how to ride that stuff better. I ate it at least 10 times, including the last "dance", where I started to endo, but got my left foot out, left hand out trying to balance self, bike endo's forward, I get right foot out, do a pirouette and end up standing, holding my still downhill-facing bike with my left hand. I have no idea how I did it, but that was at LEAST 10 style points right there. I finally gave up after being passed by several people and just ran it.

I then got discouraged and almost panicky. My breathing was ragged. I was almost panting going uphill. It took about another 15 minutes or so to get myself under control and just start RIDING again. I was riding with a purpose, most definitely, but I needed to focus, just to get my head back into the ride. It worked. I was able to ride another sandy descent, which proved less formidable than the first (thank God), and I rode all the steep little grunts. I was doing great right up to when I dropped my chain and banged my knee on the top tube. Ouch, that hurt! I didn't think to try to shift up, because I was ready to fall over anyway. Got the chain back on, then shifted back down and off we go. I caught a few women on the long uphill grind back to the race track, but I had no idea which group they were in. I did end up walking the last part, because the huge gravel freaked me out! But once onto the track, I threw it into a huge gear and motored through the finish.

We stood huddled around waiting for the results, which were totally screwed up. Apparently, several women missed the one turn, where a yellow sign indicated "10 mile ride go this way" while the red ARROW indicated the race goes left here. Janet LeFleur saw at least 4 women going straight at that junction, which indicates that they cut quite a few miles and time off of their race. The results in several groups showed the screw-up, where women finished (14.7 miles, mind you) in: 32 minutes, 40 minutes, 41 minutes. Yeah, right! Anyway, the officials were scrambling last night trying to get the results straightened out and told us that they wouldn't have them posted OFFICIALLY till the morning (today).

Bummer. I drove home, in a stupor. I was so tired! I didn't know how many passed me on my fumblings on the beach, but I figured it was quite a few, so I guesstimated I'd finished in the top 10. Which is great. I thought there were about 15-20 of us, and it was significantly better, time-wise, for me than last year (I shaved off 25 minutes. Of course, last year I had to stop and try to fix a sticky brake about 30 times, but who's counting?). I was happy with the way I rode and I got a really good training ride in.

Holy shit. Janet just called. She's at Sea Otter this morning. Results are posted. She's in 2nd. I GOT FREAKING THIRD PLACE!!! I can't believe it! I'm totally excited, but also bummed in a way. I'm on the podium (for real this time, not because I was 5th of 5 like last year's circuit race!) at Sea Otter, but there probably won't be a podium ceremony, and no pics. :(

But somehow, that placing justifies all the bumps and bruises that I got yesterday. And it was hard, but it was a total blast!

Mondays

2008-03-24T22:47:00.000-07:00

So how was YOUR Monday?

Mine started off innocent enough. But then I took the dog for a walk. I have some new neighbors. They moved in about 3 weeks ago. They have a dog. A yellow lab. A normally docile creature. Not this one... 2 weeks ago, he was off-leash in the courtyard and he came after Bette. Luckily, I just reached down, picked her up and held her overhead. The owner was yelling for the dog to come. He totally ignored his master and the guy had to come and drag him away. Nice. I said, "WTF? Where's his leash?" "Oh, he's a nice dog." "My ass. Where's his leash?".

This morning... no owner. Just some girl who lives here and insists on trying to be everyone's new best friend. She's now been hanging with the new neighbors and taking the yellow lab for short, windy walks. Except this morning, he was off-leash again. And I didn't see him. And I had an arm-load of mail and magazines from my over-stuffed mailbox. He ran around me, in front of me (effectively cutting me off) and got into Bette's face. I kicked at him to nudge him away whilst trying to pull her back, but he came at her again. Now she's cornered in the bushes and defensive, and I don't blame her. So she jumps at him to push him and he comes unhinged and attacked her. I threw down all my mail, lost my slippers and was screaming and crying and making noises I've never heard come out of my mouth. He had her neck in his mouth and wouldn't let go. I yanked his collar: nothing. I broke and bent fingernails back, yanking at the scruff of his neck: nothing. By this time, the neighbor girls was there, doing something, although I couldn't tell you what. He doesn't listen to his owner, why would he listen to anyone else?

Somehow, Bette got loose and they ended up behind me. I'm on my hands and knees, on the concrete, scrambling to get my dog loose. Around I go, and I wanted to kick him in the
head, or punch him in the head, but with her neck in his jaw... All I could think of was to pry his mouth open. This wasn't working, so I stuck my left index finger into his eye. And I kept pushing, while using my left thumb to pry his upper jaw open, and my right hand to pry his lower jaw open. I got bit, a couple of times, but he let loose and I was able to scoop her up while jumping up and got both of us in the house. I collapsed, sobbing and checking her over. Amazingly, she only has a bit of road rash on her chin. I have road rash on both knees, lacerations on my right index finger, broke half the nails on both hands, and broke off the ring finger nail on my right hand about 2 mm into the quick. I almost passed out when I cleaned it and put hydrogen peroxide on it.

I was so angry that I called the apt office and filed a complaint. I was then urged to go to the urgent care, where they filed a report with the SPCA. If this was the first time, I'd still be pissed, but this dog has come after mine TWICE. In three weeks. Both times, he's been off-leash. No excuse for that. I hope to God this never happens again, but I think if it did, I'd have to choke the attacking dog. Maybe if it didn't have oxygen, it would let go sooner. Christ, I don't know. It was scary as hell and happened SO fast...

The dog is sleeping away. I'm typing like a 3rd grader with the bandaids on my fingers. But here's the damage. It's black and blue around the knuckle and sore as all get-out! The photo is blurry, but it really feels much worse than it looks...

ZEUS!

2008-03-22T18:57:00.001-07:00

My new bike... I've been toying with a name for him for a few days. He arrived on St. Patrick's Day, so I was kind of thinking of an Irish theme. Finn MacCool was suggested. Cool name, kind of long. Then I found Niul, which is old Irish for "champion". Aidan was kind of cool, and I think it means "fire". But after riding this bike, damn. Zeus is totally appropriate. This bike is almost a God... I was told that with the white bar tape, I need to be winning some races. Sign me up!

Lots of things on my mind though. Still sad over the deaths of Matt and Kristy. Went by the site where they were killed yesterday, with two teammates. It was overwhelming. I've been off the bike all week, suffering from a bit of depression, horrible allergies, and lethargy. I've not had a training program since January. I've had a few workouts sprinkled in here and there, but I've basically been winging it. My coach has been "out of touch". I know he's busy, but I'm not getting what I need, and it shows in my racing and my riding. It's correctable, but it needs to be corrected sooner, rather than later.

I was so excited to ride Zeus yesterday, that I rode WAY too hard. When I went out to ride today, I was pretty sore. I then ran into three former teammates and rode too hard with them too. By the time the last two of us were headed back up Woodside Road, my legs had been twinging with cramps for about 20 minutes. Well, that was it. My right hamstring seized up, as did my right inner quad. Argh. Curses!!! They cleared pretty quickly (after drinking a ton), but dang. I know better. I rode hard yesterday and didn't hydrate enough. Then I rode hard AGAIN today and didn't hydrate enough. I should have expected as much.

At least I have a cool bike to ride... and I had a better day today shifting with the new SRAM Red stuff. Next time, I should be golden. And I had a really nice ride with Yvonne, Kim and Norma today. It was good to catch up with them. When I got back to the car, who was parked by me? Another former teammate who had moved to CO a few years ago! Another Kim! I was soooo glad to see her! And yesterday's ride with my current teammates, Erin and Angela was stellar. I learned a lot about Angela, and laughed so much that my sides hurt! What's Spanish for "Kitty Killer"? My spirits are improving, and I have my friends to thank!

Trying to make sense of the senseless

2008-03-11T08:42:00.000-07:00

After the horrible weekend of cycling tragedies in the Bay Area, I was having trouble being motivated and staying focused yesterday (turn head to view pic till I figure out how the hell to rotate it - sorry!).

To summarize: Sean Smith (Team Oakland) was hit and left for dead Friday morning while commuting to work in Oakland. Thankfully, he's alive. Then the tragedy with Kristi Gough and Matt Peterson on Sunday morning. Then I heard that three Alto Velo riders were descending Skyline near Alice's when a car turned directly in front of them, and this was Sunday afternoon! Thankfully, after a trip to the ER, the three of them are all alive too. The only bright spot was that the man who ran over MaryAnn Levenson was sentenced last Friday and taken into custody directly in front of her. Thank God for that. I don't think the sentence was stiff enough, but at least something was done, and the Levenson's can finally heave a small sigh of relief and get on with their lives.

After reading and re-reading the stupid bit of "journalism" in the Mercury News regarding Sunday's horrible accident, it seemed to me that they glossed over what the cop DID and without actually saying IT, lay blame on the cyclists. I was seething. What the hell happened to reporting the FACTS? I don't care what your opinion is, as a reporter, it's your JOB to report the facts. Maybe I'm old fashioned, but damn. I sat down and wrote a scathing letter to the editor of the Merc News, cc'ing the ass-clown reporter that originally penned the piece. I chewed them out for exactly the above: slanting the story to make it sound like it was the cyclists' fault, and irresponsible journalism. What's happened to innocent until proven guilty? We've become a society of guilty until proven innocent, which is so back-ass-wards, and I blame the media. I threatened to pull my subscription (which I've held for six years) if they didn't accurately report the story.

Now I'm not saying that my letter has even been READ yet, as I'm sure the cycling community (and hopefully the community at large) railed on them for that piece of garbage they printed in the paper yesterday. But today, they printed (front page again, mind you) a completely re-written piece. They even added two reporters to the story, which I'm assuming helped the original journalist, since it was clear that the person couldn't write their way out of a paper bag.

I left work early yesterday because I just was so profoundly sad. I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to be home. And I certainly didn't want to be on my bike. So I drove to the ocean. The long way. Of course, from Mountain View, the ocean IS the long way. But I needed to clear my head and get some perspective. As I stood and took in the view and wonderful smells, I hoped that this tragedy would be treated delicately, and an investigation would be swift and impartial. And that justice will be served. I decided to go back to something I used to do working in an AIDS Hospice in Seattle. I'm going to plant some things in honor of Kristi and Matt. I'm going to look for a plant or flowering plant which will return year after year. Something beautiful to look at, and that won't fade away at the end of the fall. I'm also going to plant something that will keep on giving. A tomato plant (or 3). I've been wanting to do this for awhile, and now I have the impetus to make it happen.

Call someone you love, and tell them so. Life is short.

Our pets (best friends)

2008-01-15T20:44:00.000-08:00

I love my dog. Just love her. And because I love her so much, I'm pretty fanatical about keeping her on her leash and in my direct control at all times. Of course, when she was a puppy, she sometimes got out of the yard by squeezing her fat little body under my fence. It obviously freaked me out because I lived on a busy street in Seattle. Once, when I was on vacation, her sitter left their back gate open and she escaped. Luckily, they found her rather quickly, but I'll never forget the phone call when I was told. I was sitting in my rental car, in Hawaii. It was warm, and peaceful and beautiful. And I was so upset that I nearly threw up.

Today, I decided to commute to/from work on my bike. The ride in was miserable. Cold, damp, foggy. I didn't warm up until lunchtime. I figured the ride home would be better. The sun had come out, blue sky, no fog. But it was cold as sh*t. On "Bike Boulevard" in Palo Alto (Bryant St.) I was nearly hit by 2 cars and 2 cyclists (one weaved in front of me, the other rounde the corner on the wrong side of the road - dumbasses.). This was my sign.

As I turned off of Middlefield Road onto Ringwood, it seemed like it would be a nice ride. Light traffic, a slight tailwind. I was running out of daylight, so I was motoring, trying to get back to my car at the Redwood City Caltrain station. Up the road, near a school, I saw a person standing in the bike lane. I thought it was a kid. The figure looked small and childlike, and it was near the school. As I got closer, I saw that the figure was bent down, I assumed messing with their skateboard or scooter, and partially in the road AND the bike lane. I was annoyed. I hoped that I could get around them and not get pegged by a car. As I passed by, I realized what had happened and it both sickened me and broke my heart. The figure was an older women. She was crouched down, trying to turn her small dog over, to possibly get some life back into it. I saw the small, light brown body. The stiff legs. The small pool of blood. And then I heard her sobbing. 2 children were across the street, a little further down, watching.

I was running out of daylight and couldn't stop, although it took everything I had in me to not turn around and go back and try to comfort her. But what could I do? I cried. All the way back to my car. I cried because I was sad for this poor woman, who's best friend had somehow gotten out and into the path of a car. I cried because I realized how lucky I was that nothing ever happened to my dog. All the times she got out of my yard, she was spared. And I cried because I was annoyed at her. How utterly selfish of me. I'm ashamed that I was annoyed, and I hope it makes me more patient with people. You just never know what someone is going through, why they're doing what they're doing at that particular moment in time.

Once I got into my car, I cried some more. And I came home and hugged and hugged and hugged my dog. And I hope all of my friends with pets keep them safe and hold them next to your hearts, because I never want anyone I care about to go through what that poor woman was going through tonight.

Blog Spam

2008-01-08T19:03:00.001-08:00

What the hell is the deal with people who spam blog comments? I just got my first one, and someone else had mentioned this in another blog post: can't they even bother to figure out the language the blog is posted in, and spam appropriately?

Lazy spammers suck.

Happy New Year!

2008-01-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

I've been remiss in adding any blog entries. Jeez. I hadn't realized it's been so long. I hope everyone had a really great holiday season, and best wishes for a healthy, happy 2008!

Updates on:

Work: We moved our offices to the Google MTV campus. Our bathrooms all have washlets (as shown in the last entry), but I've been afraid to use one! Just in case it misses or something.

Paper thief: I put the darned flour-filled paper out I don't know HOW many Saturdays in a row. No bites. But one morning, I was headed out with the flour-filled "bait paper" under one arm, and the dog leash in the other hand and I caught my neighbor as he was starting to head down my sidewalk. He freaked out, jumped and yelled and I was standing there saying, "Jeez, you ok?". It didn't dawn on me until about 10 min later than grown men don't freak out like that unless they're doing something wrong. Interesting... he's someone I'd steer clear of anyway (he screams in his sleep... anyone that has THAT violent of dreams is someone I do not want to encounter in the dark), but I never imagined that he was the paper thief. My paper has not been stolen since September.

Holidays: My usual luck with getting the short-end of the Christmas-weather-stick was absent this year. It usually snows, freezing rains, etc., whenever I visit Eastern WA. Couple of snow flurries this year, but nothing that stuck. The real news came when my flight leaving SFO was delayed for 4 hours, causing me to miss my connecting flight in Seattle, and Alaska Airlines was unable to swing getting me to Eastern WA for TWO DAYS. Luckily I have friends in Seattle and was able to spend a lot of time with my friend, Maria, AND get a lot of flat presents so they'd fit in my luggage. It all worked out great, as I'd wanted to have a 2-day layover in Seattle to see my friends there, and it was just too complicated to book.

Family: Most of my family is great, and I had a lot of fun seeing most of them for the holidays. But I have a step-dad for sale. Real cheap. In fact, I'd probably pay someone to take him off my hands.

Health: Well, it was great till a co-worker came to work sick. I fought it off for awhile, but a much-needed deep-tissue massage brought it out in full force. I was sick with it for 2.5 weeks and off the bike for 2 of those... It has wiped me completely out. I hope it didn't set my training back, but who knows? My HR was been out of control on rides the past few days (only been back on the bike for 5 days). It seems to be dependent on my fatigue and I saw a noticeable gain in HR when I got tired on yesterday's ride. All these years of training and it was only apparent YESTERDAY. I just stopped looking at my HR and rode by perceived effort. My power data was decent, so I think I'm ok.

On today's ride (before the storm), I got a cute pic of a feral cat on the bike path in Foster City. I had to circle back because the cat reminded me of the original cat from: http://icanhascheezburger.com/ (thanks to Courtenay and a co-worker of mine for pointing me to this cute site). I think I'll title it: THOSE BE MAH FRISKIES!

Cracking me up (pun intended)

2007-09-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, we had a little TGIF celebration at Google. It was kind of a big deal, since they were basically introducing us (Postini) as a whole to the rest of the Google TGIF'ers. (Boy, that's a whole other blog post, let me tell you. I've worked with some geeky people in my 20+ years in high tech, but dammmmmmmmmmmmn. I saw some sh*t Friday that just takes the cake.)

We celebrated Google accomplishments (lots of polite clapping), and more Google accomplishments, blah, blah, blah. There was free food, and free beer (heyyyyy, that's what I'm talking about!) and free water. Oh, wait. Water IS free. Mostly. Anyway, all the water and beer and on the way back to the shuttle bus, I realized: I'm not going to make it back to San Carlos. I gotta pee! I stopped at a building and it was off to find the restroom. Found it, with the help of a fellow Googler! And jeez. What the hell? The toilet seat looked weird. Surgical-like hoses coming out of it, a weird little control panel on the wall next to the toilet. What is this? When I sat down, I found that the seat was HEATED! As I was examining the control panel, I realized that the funny toilet seat was actually a bidet! It even had pictures on the buttons. Ha, ha, ha.

Okay, I've never seen a bidet. I admit it. But an OFFICE building was the last place on Earth (next to my parents place) that I ever expected to see one! The worst part: I was on the verge of cracking up, but I couldn't, because someone else was in there!!! I was afraid to test it out, in case it reacted badly and I didn't want to explain why the back of my shirt was all wet...

N U T S

2007-09-13T12:01:00.000-07:00

Today is going to be nuts. I'm not sure exactly when things will take a turn for the crazy side, but I expect it will be somewhere around 3. Today is the day when "officially", Google takes over. Today I work for Postini. Tomorrow I will be a Google employee. A Googler, or is it a Giggler? At least I will still be employed!

Some stand to make an a**load of cash for their stock options. I'm on the low end of the totem pole (engineering scum), so I'll make a fair bit. Not enough to quit my day job (and race full-time), mind you. But enough that I think I can buy a place to live sometime next year. For those that will be semi-millionaires, and millionaires, and multi-millionaires, the celebration is planned. This showed up yesterday, courtesy of one of the soon-to-be-millionaires:

Someone added a couple of magnums to the collection this morning. I added a can of Coke, to gain perspective of the size of the GrandDaddy. Gawddamn, that bottle is big. I almost fell over last night when I took a look at it (after prodding from other engineers, because I didn't believe them). That's a whole lotta champagne. The last time everyone at work was drunk was in July. When the announcement was first made about the buyout. It was kind of scary, actually. One man, who apparently really likes to drink (a LOT) was pretty hammered. He cornered me (reeeeee! reeeee! reeeee!) and proceeded to tell me how he remembered (and obviously liked) the dress I wore at the holiday party. Umm, that was in JANUARY. Granted, I never wear dresses to work, I mean, why would I? I don't see customers, I sit at a computer all day. I'd not want to date someone from work, so who do I need to impress? Nobody. But I'd lost weight and I promised myself that I'd wear that dress for the holiday party, if I'd lost enough weight. I hadn't worn it in YEARS. And it looked GOOD on me. But damn, y'all. I didn't think some drunken engineer would remember that dress many months later... and as he was telling me about it, he was standing about an inch away from me. Kind of makes me want to re-think the dress code for the holiday party NEXT year...

And here we go again. I'm going to hide from him later today. HIDE, I tell you. I know that's not very grown up, but I don't care. :o)

Random musings (of a spaz)

2007-09-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

I used to LOVE going to the gym. Of course, that was when I was bodybuilding. And I was living in Seattle, where it rains 9 months (or more) of the year. Ride a a bike outdoors in Seattle? Fuggetabout it. So I lifted weights. And competed in bodybuilding shows. And tanned. OMG, did I tan. I hope it never bites me in the butt, but I digress.

I started lifting again last week. I imposed a 2-3 week ban from the bike for myself, and headed back into the gym. Figured I'd do some other stuff. Rock climbing. Weights (and not the wimpy ones I have at home), real weights! Running. Anything but the bike. I even got new running shoes on Saturday after watching the track championships. I had every intention of going to the gym last night after work. I packed my gym bag and was ready to go. Ready to try out my new running shoes. On the way to the bathroom at work, I wondered: "Nuts. What shirt did I bring with me for the gym?". AUGH! NO SHIRT! Dammit. I had everything but a shirt. I'm not going to the gym in my work shirt, so I went home instead. Bloody hell. Went home and watched some silly reality show (The Pick Up Artist). I'm almost embarrassed to admit that, but it's hilarious. The "supposed" master of the show I wouldn't let near me with his weird goggles, but one of his sidekicks is pretty hot. Silly entertainment.

So about an hour or so before bed (I wasn't really tired, but knew I had to get up early for the gym), I took an Advil P.M. I got a free sample with my Sunday paper. Obviously, I wasn't that tired, or I'd have not stayed up to watch 4 dorks trying to hopelessly learn how to pick up chicks. Finally, I made myself go to bed. Damn, I just couldn't sleep.

The next thing I know, the alarm was going off. Huh? I just went to bed! I felt like I was in a coma, or drugged, or something. I had no idea where I was or what the hell that noise was (the alarm). After much procrastination, I got out of bed and started the coffee. I finally got my butt out of the house and to the gym, and it felt pretty good to be lifting in the morning.

For whatever reason I didn't notice it last week, but this morning it was clear. Ewww. Lots of dudes with hairy legs. That USED to look normal to me. And I actually kind of liked it. And I liked the big muscular guys. Okay, I still like the guys with big muscles, but only if they shave their legs! I don't even know how I'd handle that if some cute, muscular guy got all friendly with me. "Oh, sure. We could go out, but only if I could shave your legs." Ha, ha, ha. That might actually be funny... Somehow, I don't think the guy would think so though.

Apparently the combination of: Advil PM, good night's sleep, coffee, lifting weights and just one more cup of coffee has made me into one hyper, computer nerd today. I cannot sit still. I am completely unable to maintain my train of thought. I'm almost scared because I have an acupuncture appointment tonight which either makes me really sleepy or really hyper. Jesus. If it's the latter, I'd better be stopping at the store for more of that Advil PM, otherwise I will be trying to recruit neighbors to my impromptu aerobics class in the parking lot.

Oh yeah. Nobody stole the flour-filled paper last Saturday morning (damn!!!). It remains, in it's plastic bag, awaiting the next time I get to try to catch the paper thief.

Payback's a b*tch

2007-09-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

I hate when people steal things. Two of the last three Saturdays, I've had to leave early, before my paper arrived. One of the Saturdays, I didn't get home till around 4, so it didn't really matter. But last Saturday, I got home around noon. No paper. WTF? I think I'm the only person in my building that gets a paper, but people, please. Buy your own effing paper! How much are they, like $0.50? If you can't afford your own paper, then maybe you should move to a more affordable neighborhood, no?

As I usually do, I opted not to get mad, but to get even. I swear to God, if my front porch were made of wood, I'd nail the paper to it, but then again, my paperboy must be sleeping in on Saturdays. Last Saturday, I left at 6:30, no paper. Dude. 6:30!!! So, I kept a paper from Thursday. And of course, I keep the little blue plastic bags they come in, because they make awesome poop bags! Tonight I doctored up that paper.

I lay it on the kitchen counter, opened and filled each section with flour. Not a ton, but enough to make a mess. I put the entire paper back together as it came to me, put it back in the plastic bag, and it's lying in the hall. I plan to leave in the morning, grab the *real* paper and switch it with the flour-filled paper. Muwahahaha! I hope that whomever is stealing it gets that sh*t all over themselves and all over their apartment. It will absolutely serve them right.

If you wonder where this comes from, it comes from my Grandmother, Ruth. My Dad's Mom. She was my rock. Greatest cook in the world, and a fabulous mother-figure for me. When she was working, she'd put her lunch in the company refrigerator. Someone kept stealing her sandwich. So, one day, she got even. She made a sandwich, with some Ex-Lax in it. Put it in the refrigerator just like all the other days. And sure enough, it was stolen. I remember how funny she thought that was, and you know, I get it. I really do. If you steal, then you deserve what you get!

Don't get mad, get EVEN!

My dog is a dork

2007-08-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

While this is somewhat old news, now that I've figured out how to post photos to my blog, watch out!

A very dear friend of mine moved to LA last month. We decided to have a nice little dinner and some wine before she left and so I took my dog, Bette, to go see her. Before dinner, we took a walk to the little park near her old apartment in San Mateo (Central Park). As we walked in, we were so busy talking that I somehow missed the HUGE metal dog sculpture at the South entrance. Well, I saw it on the way out. So did Bette. Bette, who is usually terrified of large dogs, just stood and STARED at it. Then she walked over, put her paws up on it's chest and proceeded to sniff it's nose! I was floored and fumbled around trying to get my camera phone to take a picture, but it took so long the moment (and it was a LONG one too, so I guess that makes me a BIGGER dork than Bette) was over.

I just got the camera part figured out and we tried to get her to do it again, but she was over it. However, before we left, she gave the dog the classic "dog greeting". I managed to save that little moment, luckily.

You would have thought Bette would have figured out that it really wasn't a dog when she tried to sniff it's nose. Not to be deterred, I guess she had to make ABSOLUTE CERTAIN before we walked away... Classic.

My kharma was pee'd on by someone's dogma

2007-08-23T11:25:00.000-07:00

This past weekend were 2 of the Cal-Cup races, Dunnigan Hills (air quotes) Road Race and the Suisun Harbor Criterium. Dunnigan Hills is a sprinter's dream for a road race. 700' of climbing in about 43 miles. And this year would include a flat finish.

My teammate (MaryEllen) and I leave my place at 5 a.m. on Saturday to get to the race. She was asleep, but we were making good time until we got to Vacaville. Traffic jam!!! Construction running late. OMFG. I had to pee, and I would have made it to Yolo, if not for the traffic jam. We lost about 20 minutes. By the time we got past it, I was pretty uncomfortable. Exiting 80 onto 113 North, there were seams in the pavement (or so it FELT like), which were killing my bladder. We missed stopping at the first exit, which had a nice Starbucks, a service station, etc. Argh! The next few exits contained nothing but farmland, and the bushes were looking pretty good. MaryEllen has a talent for spotting McDonald's signs and there it was. Just at the offramp in Woodland. I literally ran into the bathroom, whilst she strolled in behind me. Although I usually put my car keys into a pocket or someplace else, this particular moment, they were in my hand. As I turned to flush the toilet, they fell INTO the toilet. It all happened in slow motion. I was too out of it to take a swipe at them to knock them away, so all that was heard was, "Plink" followed by "f**************************************ck!!!!!". MaryEllen calls out, "I'm NEVER touching your keys again..." I didn't even want to touch them, because what do all bike racers do prior to races, besides pee? Awww, nuts. I grabbed them after standing there, horrified. Flushed the toilet and ran screaming to the sink where I threw them in the sink and proceeded to wash both my hands and the keys with soap and water.

Once we started the race, I was fine, till about 45 minutes in. My left hip has really been bugging me, and it's tight. WAY tighter than it's normally been. Jane Robertson attacks and I went with her. Well, I tried to go with her, but I didn't quite have enough to get there from here. We got caught rather quickly anyway, and I was sitting in, trying to recover. I seemed to be recovering, heart-rate wise, but I can't explain what happened other than I had barely any power. The pack started to ride away from me. And despite my accelerations, I could not stay. I chased for awhile and got within about 10 bike lengths and then they just rode away. MaryEllen was looking like she was going to come back for me, but I waved her on. Considering what was going on, I'd not have been able to keep up much longer anyway. My hip/glute continued to degrade until the pain was shooting into my low back, and down my left leg. I was barely moving on the slight rollers (around 5 mph) and nothing is steep on that course. As I was making the long trek back on the straight, boring, 99West, I decided to eat some of my GU. I pulled the GU flask out and when I went to eat it, it was pooled in the bottom. So I held it upside down for about a minute and then ate some. It went into my mouth, and all down my chin. ARGH. I put it away and wiped it off my chin. Then I looked down. It was all down the front of my shorts and my left leg, clear to my knee. And it was a combination of chocolate and espresso (read: brown). God. I tried to wipe it off, but it wasn't keen to leave my leg, so I left it. A few minutes later, I looked down to find a big blob of it, pooled on the top tube, near the seat post. ACCCK. I scooped it up with my thumb and ate it too. When I finally got to the finish line, MaryEllen was waiting for me (she'd won! And I'm so bummed I missed it, but thank God she didn't need me!). "Dude, what's all over your shorts?"

After arriving back at the registration area, I went into the bathroom to clean up. Wiped it off my shorts and my leg, and then went to clean the bike up. Man, that stuff was all over the place. Top tube. Seat post. Even in my rear brake! Threw the towel away and went to mount the bike. Looked down at my left (white) shoe. Sick. It was ALL over my shoe! Back to the bathroom. Stuck foot in the sink and washed my shoe off. Back to the bike. All is well. In talking to 2 girls from Touchstone and MaryEllen, the one girl points at my chest and said, "You missed some." MaryEllen starts laughing and said, "You're right! They DO catch everything!!!" :o)

The next day, the hip issue is still bugging me, which basically takes me out of any contention at Suisun Harbor, so I ride back to my car, shove a gel ice pack down into my skin suit (do these shorts make my butt look fat?) and proceed to roll around town and around the course, encouraging MaryEllen. I came back to the course to find 2 of the women from our race on the ground! I hadn't realized the Virginia Perkins AND MaryEllen both went down in this crash too, because they were both still in the race. Later, Virginia comes out of the race, and we're standing there talking. MaryEllen comes rolling up, and yells, "Dude, give me your rear wheel!" "What?" "Give me your rear wheel! I have a flat!" So I yank it off my bike, Virginia holds my bike and MaryEllen and I go running back to the pit. Mind you, I still have the ice pack in my skin suit and said running action sends it South, so now it's basically fallen down below my butt and is attached to the back of my leg. We arrive at pit in record time (sprinting in road shoes is not recommended) and they tell her, "Sorry, free laps are over. You have to chase." She takes my wheel and takes off, and I head back to my bike with her dead wheel. When I put it onto my bike, someone points at it and said, "Whoa. Look at that!"

Whoever thought a safety pin would flat a tire? Damn. She ran over it a few times too, so it was bent pretty good and looked like someone just fastened it in the tire.

While it was a less-than-desirable weekend, it was still a lot of fun. I have great (albeit, disgusting) stories from the experience, and I'll be more careful with key placement in the restroom in the future. Thank God I didn't drop the keys in the porta-potty. Cuz ewwwww.

Holy effing sh*t

2007-07-10T18:31:00.000-07:00

My employer was purchased by Google yesterday. Well, the news hit yesterday, the purchase will be complete sometime this quarter. I still haven't managed to collect 90% of my cash from my last company who was bought out, and now this on top of it. Looks like I might be able to buy a place to live next year. My own garage for all the damned bikes I have and hopefully a teeny yard for the dog. I'm not greedy. Just something that is a tax write-off and so I quit throwing my rent money down the proverbial toilet each month.

Part of me is thrilled as I'll be working for Google, one of the best employers in the nation (I was already working for the BEST, unknown employer in the nation, but Postini doesn't really count on that grand of a scale, because we're such a small fish)! Part of me is scared of the unknown, but another part of me is excited, as I'll have plenty of room to grow professionally. I hope I'm good enough! I love my current commute, so my hope is that they don't move us in the next year, so I can keep my wimpy 2.5 mile and no freeway-BS commute. Of course, moving us to Mountain View would actually give me a decent bike commute and it would be worth my while. But that's down the road anyway, right?

Back to watching Le Tour and drinking wine!

Cyclists, Woodside residents and the Sheriff

2007-06-21T13:46:00.000-07:00

Who'd of thunk that a large, fast-moving group of cyclists could create a roadblock for more than a few moments?

The residents of Woodside, of course.

This is my 4th year of racing. For FOUR summers, I've been wanting to go on the Wednesday night Valley Ride. But I've been afraid. Afraid of being dropped. Afraid of the rumors of sketchy riders. Afraid of looking like the dreaded "Fred", well, maybe "Frederique". My coach finally talked me into it. "Just try it" he said. So I decided to just try part of it. "Be sure to get a good warmup in". So I did a couple of 10 minute efforts to get some intensity into my legs. I knew I'd have to blend in from nearly a dead halt and append onto the back of the pack, and that was going to be tough, since I'd planned to join in from a slight downgrade section.

I went about my business warming up, and then waiting. Waiting whilst rolling around. Finally, the group arrived, and yup. Had to join from a dead halt. The entire group passed and then I sprinted to latch onto the back of the pack. And they just sucked me along. I moved up and whoosh, whoosh. It was fun! Over a slight crest and then back down again. Whooshing along. Didn't seem sketchy to me, at least not last night. Over another crest and then damn. I had to use my biggest gear so I wasn't spinning my brains out. I don't think I've used that gear in a very, very, very long time. And then we turned, it were going down a long, section of gradual rollers. On an uphill roller, I eventually blew up and popped off of the group. I worked pretty hard to catch up to a teammate, and then we rolled along to the re-group point. I figured the group could just pull me along, back to where I'd parked, and I'd be good to go. So I waited. Once we pulled back onto the road (Kings Mountain Road) and started heading towards 84 and Roberts Market, there sat the Sheriff. I heard voices saying, "Single file! Everyone ride single file." which I tried to do. But others were passing. Then we spread out again as we approached the stop sign at 84 and Kings. The first group got through the left and the rest of us had to wait for traffic. Finally a nice motorist stopped and motioned us to go through. This is where it gets weird. There wasn't much room between the motorist and the head of the group of cyclists, but somehow, Mr. Man (the sheriff) drove through it. I felt like he'd endangered us, but I already know that as a cyclist, my opinion does not matter. Not in Woodside. He cut us off and then parked sideways, in the middle of 84, just to get out and lecture us and make a huge showing for the motorists. I'm thinking to myself, "Wow, what a jerk". He proceeds to lecture us about taking up the entire lane and riding 5 abreast when there's no bike lane, and how he'd gotten FIVE calls already about us. This is where I have to call bullsh*t.

I know this group, and I know the route. The group is traveling at the speed limit for cars. This is why it's so damned hard to stay on the ride. It's FAST, and if motorists are angry because they can't get around, then that tells me they are speeding. And due to the speed, the entire group is present in Woodside for maybe 25 minutes. Tops. I caught the group out in Portola Valley at 6:25. I was back at my car in Woodside at 7. I got popped at 6:35, in Woodside, and part of the route is going up the backside of Kings Mountain to Huddart Park. So for those 5 or 10 minutes, the group is not in the vicinity of any vehicular traffic. Five calls my arse. The whole lot of us would take things more seriously if the door swung both ways. Where was Mr. Man 45 minutes prior when a dark gray Mitsubishi Eclipse passed me within about 2 inches out on 84. I was over to the right as far as possible and there was no oncoming traffic. The driver was just being an a-hole. Where was Mr. Man last week, when I was again, as far to the right as possible, and one of his beloved Woodside residents blew past me in a HUGE, white pick-up truck, with a BBQ strapped in the back of it, on Kings mountain road, missed me by an inch or so (again, no oncoming traffic) and then turned into his driveway? Where was Mr. Man 4 years ago, when some stupid woman ran me off the Kings Mountain descent and I crashed into the ditch, breaking my helmet and denting the sh*t out of some residents fence (said fence kept me from falling down the ravine). 8 out of 10 times I ride in Woodside, I nearly get pegged by some jerk-off motorist, trying to MAKE A POINT. As cyclists, we don't really bother filing complaints, because we know nothing will be done.

But if you're a Woodside resident and mad because some horde of cyclists makes you sit behind them for about 1 minute or so, watch out. The Sheriff's got your back.

Me thinks I'll start spending my Wednesday evenings at the track, where there are no Sheriffs or rich, angry residents with nothing better to do than bug the cops and prevent them from tracking down the speeders, stop-sign runners, drug dealers, meth labs, pimps, prostitutes and bank robbers plaguing the community at large.

New climbing keyword

2007-02-02T20:31:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, I went on a long lunch ride. My coach wanted me to do some AT (Anaerobic Threshold - in layman's terms: HR is high and it hurts!) efforts. 1x10 and 1x20 minutes. I figured I'd do the 1x10 on Jefferson, since it's pretty easy to get my HR up to 170 bpm climbing, but there was some construction. By the time I got going, I got 9 minutes in, before it turned downhill and my HR went back down. Fine.

So I ride out to Woodside, trying to hit the bathroom at Tripp and Kings. Foiled! It was closed. Augh. So I headed over to Old La Honda. Knowing, that worst case, I could use the bathroom at the intersection of Skyline and 84. I really wanted to go BEFORE I climbing OLH, but that's the way it goes.

Felt like crap climbing Jefferson, so was a bit nervous about OLH. It's way longer, way harder, and I'd just done it last Saturday. Got a less than stellar time, but it was raining, sloppy and I was on my heavy, rain bike. Honestly, all I wanted to do was get a better time than Saturday. I was on my climbing machine (Orbea), so I felt confident that I could beat the time. It took awhile to get my HR up there, but once it was at 170, it stayed put. I kept my speed around 7 mph, and kept at it. Around the half-way mark, I checked my time. Damn! I was making some serious time! I decided to just keep at it, and keep going till I hit the top, or blew up. If I blew, I could ride slowly to the top, so no harm, no foul. I'd have gotten my 20 min AT effort in, so that'd be good. I was even doing so well that I'd forgotten to use my climbing "keyword", MAGNIFICENT! Usually that keeps my mind off of the pain, and makes me laugh.

Anyone who climbs this hill knows this spot. The spot where the road narrows, because there's a huge tree growing to the right of the road. Probably the left too, but all I know is the road becomes one lane. It's absolutely breathtaking. Of course, my HR was so high, that I was already breathless, but I digress. As I'm approaching the "trees", I hear a car approaching behind me. Because I'm nice, I sped up and got over to the right as quickly as possible, all the while praying said car would wait till I had more room. Since they did, I waved to them, thanking them. They passed me and gunned the engine. Okay, that was weird, but whatever. After they were a "safe" distance away, the female passenger yells "BITCH!". WTF? Dude, I was THANKING you! I hold up my right hand like, "What's your problem?" and they slam on the brakes. "Cool, I can go tell them how fricking stupid they are, since I was thanking them." Trust me, if I was being a bitch, they'd have known it. As I get closer, they change their mind and speed off. Chickenshits.

I was pretty mad, and I kept thinking, "Dang, what's wrong with them? Stupid morons", but then I decide to just turn that anger into energy. I'm really good at that. I used my anger to keep turning the pedals over and driving uphill. Near the top, I realized that I was going to do really well, so when the road got all bumpy and un-even (the end), I was up out of the saddle, driving to the finish. When I hit the stop sign, I stopped the computer.

I'd just clocked my best time on Old La Honda. EVER. And it was the last day of January. I rode to a time 3.5 minutes FASTER than I'd done only 4 days earlier. Wait till June... I might actually achieve my time goal for OLH this season!!! Only 1.5 more minutes to shave off!

Gosh, if they'd called me the C word, I might have gotten a sub 20-minute climb! Too bad I didn't see them at the top, otherwise I'd have arranged to be in their way again next time I climbed it!

Oh yeah. My new keyword for climbing? BITCH! It was easy to explain "MAGNIFICENT" when someone heard me say it aloud. This one's gonna be a bit harder to explain...

Cheerio!

S t r e s s and stupid people

2007-01-29T20:51:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is a big day. Tomorrow, is a court hearing for a man, a drunk, a total f*cking idiot who ran over my former teammate whilst riding her bike, on the day before Christmas Eve. I received news of her accident that evening, while in Seattle for holiday. I felt so helpless, being so far away, and being able to do nothing. I promised her husband I'd be there for the court hearing, as it was the day of my return. Naturally, my flight was delayed, but I made it anyway. The hearing was postponed. Till tomorrow.

Mind you, she is a strong person. The strongest, most stubborn individual I've ever known. I knew by listening to her husband (a doctor) that she would be fine. Her husband setup a website to keep all of her friends, family and the cycling community apprised of her progress. You can see it at: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/maryannlevenson . It's really great, and he updates it daily.

Now here's the kicker. The granddaughter of the "accused" (and I say this loosely, since he was actually detained by witnesses, arrested and spent the night in jail), had the audacity to post to her caringbridge web-site. WTF? Oh I'm sure she was sorry, but my guess is that she is sorrier her grandfather is being painted as a drunk, than the fact that he seriously injured, and nearly killed a human being, wife and mother of 3 rambunctious boys. My favorite line is: "Changing lanes is dangerous." Of course it is, especially when someone changes 2 lanes and then rolls into the bike lane, and then it's really fricking dangerous for a cyclist in said bike lane. My 2nd favorite line in the post was that Walter Sorensen (drunk, old fart, stupid man, and yes, I hope he and his lame-ass granddaughter find this, read it, and then I dare them to contact me) mistook a living, breathing, MOVING human being on a bike, IN the bike lane, for an "inanimate object" lying in the road. I wish that someone would explain to me how one is unable to distinguish between a person and an inanimate object. God, how bombed, or old and feeble is he that he can't figure this sh*t out? Damn. Maybe he shouldn't be driving any longer, hmmm? I don't know, call me crazy. Good people take responsibility for their actions. Bad people just make excuses.

Hopefully, by posting this rant, I can behave myself in court tomorrow and not embarrass MaryAnn, her husband, their boys, their attorney and the rest of my cycing community. I think I can. I hope I can!!!

Virgin voyage

2007-01-26T17:51:00.000-08:00

First blog, first post, first rainy day in a while.