2010-11-24

Fun Weekend of Fun - Part 2: Saturday and Sunday

Dated from 9/20/2010
Saturday
So saturday morning we mostly just relaxed....a lot.  It was much needed at any rate.  Kiefer went to our friend's place for the afternoon to help him get a new mountain bike, so he can ride with us more often, and he was really jazzed about it.  Kiefer even liked all the hydrolic brakes he's tried out lately soooo much that he's ordered some for himself!

That evening we went to a charity dinner for GT.  He is doing a charity ride for MS, and proceeds from the dinner benefited that.  My daughter was really excited about going to the dinner, mostly because she got to dress up real fancy.  The food was great, and I enjoyed seeing Ernie there and meeting all the new people.  They even had karaoke, and I got my daughter to dance with me.  She, of course, was the major star of the dance floor, and everyone loved her.  We kept dancing until we had no more dancing left in us, then our Kiefer drove us home.  What a good man!

Sunday
Sunday morning we all got up and Kiefer was a darling and loaded all of our mountain bikes into the truck.  Katie was excited to go for a ride, and even donned the cute pink cycling jersey Kiefer gave her for her birthday last year.  We arrived at Bonelli only a couple minutes late (which is pretty good considering we had to bet money for parking!), and quickly got on our way!  Katie and I did one loop trailing behind the guys before they took off for more adventures, though Kiefer's dad was nice enough to stay behind with Katie and me.  After our loop we went to the playground area, as planned, and "tested" all of the slides, and the swing.

Apparently Sean took a grandiose dive over his handle bars down a hill, and Crab and Sean's Uncle were feeling like taking a break.  So we all sat down and enjoyed the park for a while until the boys caught back up with us....just in time to watch Sean take ANOTHER spectacular dive down a hill, crashing through some brush at the end.  We all did one more loop together, and then headed for the cars.

After our ride we headed for In-Cycle in San Dimas, and lunch (I was starving!).  We all agreed that Red Robin was the tastiest option, so we headed over and dug in.  During lunch we found out what, exactly, a sesame is.
Bike Shopping at In-Cycle
Hanging out with baba
Bike Shopping at Helen's Cycles
Tasty Dinner
Planet Earth!

Long time no See!!!

Sorry I havn't given you an update in a while, things are a little hectic for me.  My Babushka is in the hospital, well now she's in convalescent care.  She's not doing too well.  I spent a few weeks staying with her until late at night.

This past weekend Kiefer and I went with my folks up to Big Bear Lake.  It was WONDERFUL.  Rained miserably most of Saturday morning, so we stayed in.  I got to finish my book, which was nice, and taught Kiefer how to Crochet too!  Mid Saturday morning it started to snow a little, and it pretty much never stopped until after we left.  Kiefer treated me and my folks to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 1.  I REALLY enjoyed that movie.  I LOVE the whole series like a crazy fan girl (come on, my cat's name is CROOKSHANKS for goshsakes!). 

We skittered around town afterwards and headed to K-Mart to look for snow chains.  The skittering was indeed due to the fresh coating of snow over a lovely bed of ice caused by the rain that morning.  The chains at K-Mart were the ultra el-cheapo kind but instead of being $50 they were nearly $80!  So we went to Napa and got some $140 ones instead.  These were not really marked up, and they are much much higher quality, so I was okay with spending the extra dough.  I know I go up to Big Bear frequently, and these are VERY easy to apply, so I'd be fine with applying them myself on a solo trip to Yosemite or something.  And yes, I do realize that I overpaid by the same % I would have for the K-Mart ones....but the K-Mart ones wouldn't have lasted 5 miles.

Tonight we're getting ready for our annual Stress-Free (aka Family Free) Thanksgiving.  Everyone knows it's gonna happen, so they just call to confirm that hey, we're still doing this right?  Yup!

Meanwhile my bike is giving me issues.  He's started whining on my ride home (Kiefer suspects the bearings need repacking).  Also the forward derailleur is not operating correctly.  It's very frustrating because I have to shift all the way up in the rear chainrings before the forward chainring will shift in to top gear...which means that now I have a bike in top gear, and I was just getting going.  /fail  I have some kind of throat tickle as well ahem ahem...HEM!!

Finally I've been practicing my piano again, trying to get the old fingers warmed up for the Holiday Season.  I love to play Christmas music on the piano.  My favorite thing while in drumline was to get the vibes out and play the Ukranian Bell Carol (no that's NOT me, we didn't have Youtube when I was in High School).  Time to go out and buy some music!

2010-11-01

GTFO and VOTE

I don't care who you vote for, just VOTE!!

Don't vote for someone just because you hate the other guy more, if there is a 3rd candidate, vote for them!  Know your measures and propositions, and wield your ink-a-dot (or finger for electronic voting) carefully.

Get out there and Vote!