Ryzzie's Advenutres in Wonderland

So I got to go on what I affectionately call a work sponsored vacation last week.  This time they sent me to Las Vegas.  I must say that I genuinely prefer to go places I don't typically go...and this was no exception.  I always come home with this aweful, anxious, twitchy feeling about me, and this time was no exception.  Well.... except in that it was MUCH MUCH WORSE this time.  Typically we drive, so I thought flying would be BETTER.  Boy was I wrong!  By the time they pulled in to our gate I was ready to crawl over people to get off the plane.  Then the fact that no one was meeting me at the baggage claim made it even worse =(.  I had to wait alone, and cut off from the world (my phone was not adjusting to the switch from airplane mode to 3G very well) for my bag, in an extremely edgy and anxious state.

Plus I thought the whole world was going to come crashing down around me when I got back to work.  I was dreading it from the moment I sat in my seat on the jet on Saturday.  Know what?  Today wasn't so bad!  We had chocolate cake before breakfast, and then as I was having my strawberry snack later, one of the girls came around with cheesecake.  It was meant to be!!!

So I spent the week at Nellis AFB with a group of excellent people doing jet stuff.  3 days in the meeting room, and 2 days in the hangar.  I know Nellis can be miserable, but it was positively beautiful while we were there.  I wanted to take pictures of the mountain ranges surrounding the flight line, but operative word there being "flight line", meaning no paparazzi (or mamarazzi) allowed.  BUMMER!  No I didn't get to go for a ride-a-long either.  BOO!

I did end up being the event/dinner coordinator, since I go to Vegas all the time and seemed to know where all of the reasonably priced foods were.  We ate at several great places:

• Margaritaville
• Harley Davidson Cafe
• Cheesecake Factory
• Spice Market
• Viva Zapata's

Lunches were much less exciting, we ate on base twice, skipped lunch one day, and Olive Garden on another day.  Oh we hit some BBQ place too, that was pretty good.

Everything went super well, and in fact we had such fabulous support from the team at Nellis, I can't thank them enough!

Wednesday we went to the Hoover Dam.  That was a TON of fun, and beautiful.

Friday night I met up with a friend from a previous AFB adventure (who is stationed at Nellis) and we did like a supermarathon barhop.  I think this list encompasses where we went:

• NYNY - Irish Pub
• NYNY - Roller Coaster
• NYNY - Piano Bar
• MGM - Studio 54
• Walked all the way over to Mandalay Bay
• Drove up to Venetian

By the time I was dropped off (I only had 3 drinks other than copious amounts of water) it was 5am, and time to load up my car.  I had time to meet everyone for brekkie at 630 before sharing goodbyes and getting to the airport.

I forgot to mention that Kiefer decided to plan a fun weekend for us at Catalina first weekend in May.  I'm really looking forward to the trip, and it will definitely be unique.  I'll explain more later, but for now, it's CIAO!

That's Dr. to you Ma'am!

So I have met someone...yes I know it's so sudden....but he works where I work, and we both live in the same area, and we both ride our bikes to work!  So we've decided to give it a try....as riding buddies!!! What were you thinking GEEEZE!!??

I'm really thrilled to have someone to ride home with a few nights a week.  We're going to try some different routes home, even try to squeeze in a ride down the beach on our working Fridays!  I'm so excited!

So I had some lady come up behind me at a stop light and tell me that I should be riding in the right hand side of the road.  This is correct, especially since there is a bike lane.  However, the bike lane ended at the intersection in question, and in it's place was a right turn only lane, and I was going straight through.  PLUS you're supposed to take the center position (even by CA cycling rules) when riding through an intersection.  She also said my light was hard to see, so I thought maybe my tool bag was blocking it.....no...it's not...oookay...."but it's just hard to see!"  I really have a hard time believing that, considering I've ridden behind Kiefer before with his identical light, and felt like I needed sunglasses.  We chose these lights because of their brightness.  I think the case was really that she was on the phone.

She was polite nonetheless, so I was in turn polite myself.  Right after that was when I got the flat tire mentioned earlier (I think).  Boohoo.

Anyway, so Dr. Bo and I will be heading out for our first ride together tonight.  I'm hoping we can gather more to our numbers, and make a "thing" out of it.  Thanks to Flexi for introducing us, we have plenty to share, considering he's a parent of a baby that won't sleep, and we all know I have PLENTY of experience with that from miss kate's sleepless infant days!

Trip of the Month: January

I think i still have more pictures from Colorado, but it's important to keep up with current events, and then go back later!

So we decided to go to Big Bear for Kiefer's birthday, and it was beautiful.  I felt very over booked, so we sadly skipped out on the Jackie Bristow Memorial 5K, which was probably just as well because I came down with a gnarly cold this past weekend.  In fact I am currently home sick from work because said aformentioned illness =(.

We drove up late Friday night, dropping the kitties of at my mom's house.  Crookshanks was extremely displeased with the incarceration during the drive.  Then we made our way up the mountain, which was totally bizarre because HWY 330 washed out in the last rain!  So we drove up HWY 38, it was long and winding, but we made it up a okay (at 2am...).  Poor Kate was sick when we picked her up though.  We never got to get up on the mountain because Kate and I were sick the entire time.  We did enjoy the Ice Cream Social a cople times while we were up there, YUM!  And a few awesome games of Life!

I feel like they've changed the game of Life some since I played last...of course this one WAS missing some pieces, but probably not as many as the game my sister and I used to have!  My mom won one game, and Kiefer won the other.

Wow this is probably a fairly incoherent entry.  Anyway, on my way home from work yesterday I got ANOTHER flat tire.  This one resulted in a cut in the wall of my tire that was about 3/4" long =(.  Had to run out and get another tire ($19) last night, and REI was the only place left, so I had minimal selection, and it was teh suck.

I fell asleep on the sofa last night instead of taking my turn at Wii Fit, and slept a good 12 hours...this prompted me (along with a throat so sore I could barely swallow) to stay home today.

Needless to say, Ryzzie's Day Off is not nearly as exciting as Ferris' was.  Oh well.

I kindof wish I could just blog professionally, maybe I'll get a tablet and draw up some cartoons as well hhaahahah!!!  Yah right!

Next trip of the month will be to Vegas for the Rugby 7s World Series.  I'll be blogging and posting from the hotel, we'll be staying near the freemont.

I think it's time for me to come up with a logo for my blog.  Okay, cat on my lap, impossible to type on laptop with lap cat.  It's one or the other, and furry Dr. Crookshanks usually wins.

Life on the Farm

Kiefer, Katie and I have been having a lot of fun here on the goat farm.  It has been so wonderful to spend this time with my family!

Monday, December 20th, 2010
This was a bit of a lazy morning, but eventually we made our lunches and headed for the museum.  Thanks to Grandma we got to see the Planetarium show about Black Holes, AND the 3D-IMAX showing about the Hubble telescope as well as the museum.  Kiefer, Katie and I enjoyed the Gems & Crystals exhibit, as well as the planetarium exhibits, the Colorado exhibit, and the dinosaur exhibit before they kicked us out.  We picked up some peppermint brownies for Grandma on our way home as a thank you, she really enjoyed those.

I've really enjoyed talking with Grandma when we go down there, and hearing stories about my dad growing up.  It's nice to hear it from an outside perspective.  See dad?  I'm learning all about you =P, and now I know where I get my issue with authority from!

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010
Today we learned how to milk a goat!  Yes it's true, even us city folks can learn to milk a goat.

Not these goats, this is (left to right) Mira and Tully.

Not these goats either, (left to right) this is Tessa, Ziggy, and Pixie.

It was Lucy (a.k.a. Lulu) (left) that we milked.  Also pictured is Marygold (left) who is 3 months pregnant, and yours truly =).

The first step was to get cleaned up!  Cassie wiped down the goats udders and teats with warmed wipes (yay technology!) after sanitizing her hands.

Here you see me rolling Katie's sleeves up so she can get ready to get messy!  It's pretty chilly down there by they way!!  Next you get the bucket in place, and you have to learn the mechanics of milking!  This is actually very interesting, as the udder is much like a bag full of milk.  When you grab the teats you can feel the milk go out of them, so you have to kind of pinch it off at the top to trap it in the teat, then squeeze the teat firmly to get the milk to come out.

Kate took a couple tries to get it down, but then was excitedly (and slowly) milking!  She was very focused, so you can see that her glasses are slipping off of her face.  Speaking of the cold we all got cold weather/snow boots to wear, and we have been VERY glad to have them down at the barn.  They are excellent muck boots as well.

There is something extremely satisfying about learning how to do something different and new, and that is the whole point of this blog, to encourage us to get up and get out of the house!  See how proud of herself Katie is?

Kiefer and I also gave it a try

Success!!  We all have learned a new skill! 

Also interesting to note, goats like to eat pine needles (and branches), and peanuts!

Kiefer went out and participated in an Airsoft game with my cousin Riley.  They had fun =).  Cassie and I spent some time decorating the FRESH CUT Christmas tree.  Rice lights are awesome, and we wrapped them from the center of the tree outward along each branch for MAXIMUM LIGHTS!!!  We used strands of blue, fuchsia, and red lights, creating an amazing lighting effect!

Sorry no nighttime pictures to share yet, maybe I'll snag one tonight!  Later Cassie and I went down and lunged Dancer and Piper (two of the horses).  They seemed to enjoy the stretch of the legs.  We finished up just in time for the boys to get home.  Cassie had to throw some hay down (HEY!) from the loft in the barn, so Kiefer and I helped her out by stacking the bales.  This was a very dusty job!  Then we fed all the goats, and they were very happy.

Kiefer and I ran to the grocery store to buy dinner makings, and headed home to prepare a feast of Fajitas for everyone.  This dinner was devoured with many compliments all around.  It was very nice to be able to make a meal for our hosts, and give them a treat to say thank you =).  We then exchanged our Christmas gifts.  Kiefer and I decided to get the whole family a Wii since they were so generous in sharing their home with us this week (and their food!).  This seemed to be a very good choice as everyone was delighted.  My aunt got me a HILARIOUS set of post-it notes, and Kiefer got a "demotivational" calendar from Think-geek.com.  We both loved them as much as they loved the Wii!  I will be using those at work for sure =).  Katie got a plush horse which she thinks is the best thing since sliced bread!

We helped them put the Wii together immediately, and showed them how to put on all the updates.  Uploaded the Netflix channel for them, and now they're all set!  Raving Rabbids TV Party wrapped up our evening.

Exploring Colorado

Dear Readers I am sorry I have not posted in a while.  I have been having issues with my commuting bike, so my blogging time has been spent exploring those.  Additionally I just spent a week in Fort Walton Beach Florida for business travel (I'll have to backdate blog that in).  But for now, expect regular updates, as I am off of work, and on vacation!

Kiefer and I decided it would be fun to visit Colorado before Christmas.  So I contacted my dad's brother and sister and let them know we were coming to visit, and planning to stay in a hotel.  My Aunt emailed me back as soon as she heard, and informed me that Kiefer, my daughter and I were all invited to stay with her and her family (my uncle, two cousins, and my grandmother) on the farm.  They own a beautiful farm on about 40 acres (which I'm always going on and on about to my friends and coworkers) where they keep the following menagerie of animals:

• 24 goats (+/- periodic boarders)
• 4 Horses
• 2 Dogs
• 5 House Cats
• 2 Barn Cats
• "some" fish

Kiefer was positively delighted that we would be staying with them.  So we bought our tickets, and packed our bags and here we are!!

Friday, December 17th, 2010
I spent the morning doing mundane pre-vacation chores like washing the bedding, and folding laundry (we were already packed) until it was time to pick up my daughter.  This is where the true fun began!  We had spent the week prior to this baking cookies and packing so we would be prepared for our hectic schedule, so when I picked Kate up we were all ready to go.....deliver cookies at my work!  Katie put on her best Christmas dress when I picked her up, and we made our rounds at my office delivering Christmas cookies and Christmas cheer.  Everyone was very cheery to see her in her little red dress with white fuzzy trim.

From there we headed for the OC to pick up Kiefer from his mom's house (That crazy man rode his motorcycle to work in the rain so he could leave his car at our house!).  The drive was...dreary.  It was pouring rain all day in Southern California, and it is supposed to continue to do so through Thursday last I heard!  After picking the Kiefer up, and a blessed episode of NO traffic between his mom's house and the airport we made it in time for our 8:08 pm flight....which ended up being delayed by 30 min.  /facepalm

I Had a gourmet veggie sammich, and Kiefer had a deli multi meat sandwich for dinner.  I allowed Katie to have a happy meal, since I know those were pretty hefty ($9!!) sandwiches, so she had "chicken nuggets" for dinner, and proceeded to devour the entire thing.  The flight was 2 hours, and wasn't too bad.  Kate read book 6 of Chugo Chara (Santa apparently heard that she was running out of books to read, and slipped one in her backpack at some point!  What a clever Santa!), watched "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" with Chris on the mini TVs, and followed it up with some Scribblenauts .  She made it ALL THE WAY to when we were taxiing in to the gate before she started to fall asleep.

Backstory here:  Kate is a VERY heavy sleeper.  She sleeps like the dead.  You can pick her up and move her, or make loud sounds, or turn on all the lights, and nothing will wake her.  I like to say she'd sleep through the nuclear holocaust.

We made it to the rental car depot to find that the 20 Subaru Outbacks that had been there when I was last in Denver on business in April 2010........were all gone!!!  So we looked, in the 25F chilly night air at all the cars.  Chevy Malibu, Chevy HHR, VW Bug (no way our luggage will fit in there!)...and one Nissan Altima...which was already being sat in by another family.  DANGIT!  So we decided the HHR was our best bet, since it has room for us.  Fortunately it gets GREAT gas milage, but I hate it still.  Wussy little car...and the seat is impossible to adjust!  That reminds me... I need to look up the owners manual.  Anyhoo...we headed to our hotel.

Saturday, December 18th, 2010

We stayed in a hotel overnight, which was fantastic, had our delish breakfast, and then watched Four Christmases in our hotel room.  This was a funny/frustrating movie, check out IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes for reviews..as that is not really the premise of this blog!  We packed up our stuff and headed for......TARGET!  Because I forgot my belt! We had lunch at this gourmet burger place called Diego Zhane's, and it was fantastic.  It was a total pain in the butt to find, but we found it, and it was yummy!  I had a tasty salmon burger, Kiefer had his first Buffalo burger, and Kate had unlimited grilled cheese sandwiches.  I also had some of their tomato basil soup.  YUM!

Then right to my aunts house.  We got ourselves situated, and had a lovely dinner with my family.  I had forgotten how much I love spending time with my aunt, uncle, and cousins.  I think after dinner we visited grandma (she lives in an apartment below the main farm house.).  We finished up the evening by watching Home Alone (which my daughter had never seen before).  This turned out to be an excellent choice, and everyone laughed.  Then we went to bed!

By they by, dinner was accompanied by home made goat cheese.  It was fantastic.  We had a pepper jack, and a chev with honey.  Oh and btw, the honey comes from their friend's bee hive.  Fresh made cheese, fresh gathered honey.  Amazing.

Sunday, December 19th, 2010
Today was very exciting!  We started off the morning with a hot breakfast of cream of wheat topped with fresh honey, raisins, and fresh goat milk.  Yum!  My aunt also makes fresh yogurt, but I haven't gotten around to trying any yet.  I'll have a snack of it before we leave =D.  Next we proceeded to take the goats for a walk!

They are so funny, all you have to do is walk away and they will follow you!  I was feeding them some stalks off the bushes.  Also, apparently goats really like to eat pine trees too.

Even Kiefer was playing with the goats!

We are already getting to know the goats.  This one reminds us of our friend Sean...we call him "One Horn"

My uncle said that us taking the goats for a walk was a big help, because it allowed them to get their stalls cleaned quickly.  Yay for being helpful!  There are a few other things we're trying to help out with while we're here.  I have NO problem with earning my keep.  In fact, I'd like to make dinner for them one night.  Tomorrow night will probably be the best night for that =).  We'll bring taco Tuesday to the farm!

We ended the night by introducing my uncle to Top Gear, and watching the pilot episode of Firefly with my cousins.
The plan for today is to visit the Denver Museum of Science and Nature.  Grandma gave us tickets for it, which is extremely helpful!  Time to make sandwiches!

Look for more posts later!

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!