Back to work....

.....at least for a few days.

We survived Christmas and I think maybe I only gained a few pounds. LOL. As I sit here eating yet another piece of chocolate. I told Rocky he must take them to work tomorrow and get them out of our house.

I've been sick since Tuesday but I managed to keep myself nice and medicated on Tylenol Cold Medicine and Theraflu and I made it through the festivities. I seem to be fine during the day but feel icky at night :o(

Christmas Eve Rocky and I both worked for a few hours and then headed home to finish wrapping presents and cook a few things for dinner at Martin & Minnelli's house. We headed over to Daly City about 5:30. Most of the family was there and we had all brought a nice combination of food. Minnelli cooked a super yummy roast as the main dish. The food was all super good as were all the desserts. After dinner we did the gift exchange which was just a Kris Kringle type thing. We each brought a gift, you put them all in the middle and each pick a gift. Except it took about 30 minutes to figure out if we'd be stealing gifts or just keeping the one you picked. It was quite funny and in the end we decided with stealing gifts til everyone had picked. It was a very fun night.

Rocky and I headed home and opened gifts at home with the doggies. Then we hit the sack since we had to head back to Daly City on Christmas Day for brunch at my in-laws.

Christmas Day was yet another day filled with food and desserts and more presents. This time no stealing :o) The entire day we sat and relaxed, ate, relaxed, ate.... :o) The doggies got to enjoy the day as well with the family and got spoiled by everyone.

The rest of our weekend has pretty much consisted of relaxing, watching movies at home, a littel shopping, a little more eating and me trying to get better. I'm worried I won't be able to get up tomorrow for work. I've been going to bed late and getting up late :o) Luckily we only have to work 3 days :o) yipee and then.....woohoo it's 2009.

It's been a crazy year for us and we are looking forward to 09 and what it will bring.

Hope you all had a great Christmas

From our home to yours.....

Let it Snow......

It's snowing, not here on the ground where I am at but pretty darn close. It has been freezing and some days the temp has been in the low 30's :o( We aren't used to this and I don't like it. One thing I don't like is being cold :o( brrrrrrr!!


Before I start my update about the happenings of the last few days I'd like to say

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA!!!!

Welcome to 32 :o)

I still can't believe that Christmas is next week. We are so not ready and I'll be one of those people running around like a chicken with my head cut off shopping at the last minute.

Saturday, December 13th - 30 mile ride in Sunol
I had the best ride yet and I'm not sure it'll ever happen again...LOL!! Our team rode in Sunol and although the hills weren't crazy steep like Three Bears last weekend it was still a tough ride. You just slowly kept going up and up and up and up and no joke I thought I'd never be done.

I started out in my group as usual and the first couple of miles were pretty much flat. Once we were going to start going up Coach Beth told us to find a gear that we felt we could keep for 5+ miles, we'd be in that gear for approx. 40-50 minutes. It was all going to be up from there, yikes. Let me just say that after Three Bears I was worried about the ride, my knee and the fact that I had had Chinese food for dinner, not the best choice dinner.

Anyway, I found a gear that I felt comfortable and started pedalling. I passed a couple of people and then passed a few others. Coach Beth and Mentor Amy said I had a great cadence going and that I looked great. This was an out and back so Coach Beth said to go at our own pace and if we got ahead no biggie there was no way of getting lost. Okie dokie, here I go then.

I eventually passed up my whole group and then eventually I lost my whole group. The only good thing about this was that I was feeling great and was moving on up. The bad part though was that I ended up all alone. The mind started messing with me and at one point I wanted to cry. It seemed I was never going to finish climbing, the 14 mile turnaround seemed so far away even though I was at mile 12. At every corner I thought I was done climbing, but NOPE!! I kept on going. In my head I said...keep on going going going :o) you are doing great, you've pedaled this far KEEP PEDALING. I finally saw the water stop and was super happy. The only bad thing is that while I was talking myself into getting up that darn hill I was also freaking myself out because I knew I had to come down it :o( I am terrified of downhills.

I got to the water stop, filled up my water bottles and ate some food. I decided I would wait for my group and decent with them. I waited 25 minutes and they weren't there so Coach Cyd told me to go back down alone :o( I was waiting to long and getting cold. Okie dokie, here I go. I eventually saw my team coming up and later found out they had a flat tire so they had had to stop to fix it. I knew I wasn't that far in front but bummer I had to go back alone.

Once again big bummer I was alone but in the end I was kind of glad I was. I was so scared going down that at some turns I almost came to a complete stop which is a big NO NO, you can fall over doing that. I eventually made it down. I think I forgot to breath though, haa, haa.

It was a physically challenging day but also emotionally and mentally. I did it though and I was so darn proud of myself. I still had some knee pain but I just powered through it. It wasn't as bad as last week but it was still there. Still need to get the darn pedals checked out but haven't had time.

YIPEE!! I did 30 miles :o)

Saturday evening we had Rocky's company Holiday Party. It was held at the Scottish Rite Temple in Oakland so at least it was close by. We had a great time hanging out with his co-workers. They had dinner, did some raffles, had a dj and even had a booth to take photos. We didn't dance but people watched, that's always fun :o) We did take pictures which turned out cute. I'll have to scan it and post it.

Sunday, December 7th - Crazy Day of Shopping!
I had planned on taking my bike in to the shop to get the pedals checked but Christmas took over our day. We got up fairly early to clean our house and once we were done with that we got ready and headed out of the house.

First stop was a Christmas tree lot to get our tree. We usually get a 5-6 foot tree but because of space this year we decided to go with something smaller. We usually get a Noble Fir because I feel like the leaves are a little more sturdy for the ornaments. We went to a lot in Castro Valley which is where we got our tree last year and a 4 foot Noble Fir tree was $68.....YIKES!!!! That seemed quite pricey so we left and headed to another lot. I had seen a lot not far from my work so we headed there. We got a very pretty tree, between 4-5 ft and guess what? It was only $37 with tax...woohoo. I can't believe that going just a few miles down the road made such a big difference.

The next few stops were Target, Whole Foods and the mall. We managed to start our Christmas shopping and got a few gifts. We still need to go back and finish though :o( OY!!!

We invited Olivia and Cousin Rodney over for dinner on Sunday night for a very yummy crab dinner. Crab is my all time favorite and I try to eat it as much as I can when it's in season. When we went to Whole Foods to buy it we were very happy to find that it had gone down in price quite a bit :o) so we even got an extra crab to eat the next day.

Olivia brought some salad and Rodney steamed clams, we had quite the spread. We had WAY too much fun.

4 eaten crabs and clams

Rodney even got us to decorate our tree so it turned into a tree trimming party. Rodney supervised while Rocky and Olivia decorated the tree. I helped by unraveling all the lights and getting all the ornaments out. I love our tree and it looks pretty. Thanks Olivia for helping us out. Thanks Rodney for getting us to decorate it. It'd probably still be bare if we hadn't of done it then.


This week is filled with holiday/birthday dinners all week. I am gonna have a Santa belly before Christmas even arrives :o)

FINALLY A NEW POST :o)

It's going to be a long one since I need to catch up from the last two weeks. I'm gonna have to see if I can remember it all.

Thursday, Nov. 27th - Thanksgiving
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with Rocky's family. We weren't able to see mine :o( since my mommy had to work the whole weekend, even Thanksgiving. This year everyone pitched in and we all had a dish to bring. I was in charge of mashe potatoes and string beans. Nice and easy. There was lots of food, lots of desserts and it was all super yummy.

This is only part of what was there :o)

Friday, Nov. 28th

It was a nice relaxing day. Hubby and I took the doggies to the dog park and made the race each other. It was a great way to get them tired out :o) They've been cooped up in the house for quite some time.

After the doggie park we headed home, gave them a bath and then just relaxed. In the afternoon we headed to the spa for massages. It was so nice and relaxing. Afterwards we had a yummy dinner at Cafe Esin.

Saturday, Nov. 29th
Rocky and I headed out early for a nice bike ride with a co-worker of mine and her husband. They ride in Sonoma every weekend so they invited us to join them. It was a very nice day and we were able to get 32 miles in. Lynn, my co-worker, was a great help and gave me lots of tips. After our ride we had a nice lunch the Red Grape Pizzaria in the Sonoma Square. We walked around and finished our day off with some yummy gelato.

Headed back home, unpacked the car, took showers and headed back out the door. We headed to San Francisco to celebrate my brother-in-laws birthday. We had dinner at Butterfly and had a very yummy dinner and lots of fun hanging out with friends.


Sunday, Nov. 30th
hmmm, what the heck did we do on Sunday??? Okay, this is sad, I really have no idea what we did. Maybe we just hung out at home. I can't remember at all :o( boy, I'm getting old. Was this the day I rode with Jeanette and Phil? Help!!! Hmm, maybe it is the day I rode with them. Okay, I give up.

Rest of the week was pretty hectic and training has really taken a back seat at least during the week. Which is NOT good. That needs to change very quickly.

Friday, Dec. 5th
Rocky's was given the opportunity to attend the Academy of Science and bring me along :o) I had never been there and was pretty excited to go. I guess it just had a major overhaul. I LOVED IT and can't wait to go back. We had a great time spending the day together there and afterwards we had dinner in SF before heading back home. It was a nice day with my hubby.



Saturday, Dec. 6th
OH BOY!! The Three Bears in Orinda. We've head how tough this ride is and I was pretty nervous about it. I was also excited to do it and say that I had done it. It turned out to be a tough day physically and emotionally. Everyone did an awesome job though and I'm proud of our team. I can't give too much info on here but we had 2 riders down and 2 ambulances :o( so that rattles us quite a bit. Happy to report though that both of those people are doing good and on their way to recovering.

I made it up what is called Mama Bear, HILLY, which was 15 miles out. I did not continue on with my team for the last 9 miles though and got a ride back. I have been having lots of knee/shin pain in my right leg and we think it's due to my pedals/cleats. The rest of the ride was harder so my coach advised me to stop and not overdue. It's still early in the season and the ride was only 25 miles. We've done some adjustments and we'll see what happens this weekend. If it still hurts I'll need to go in and see someone and have them help me with adjusting my pedals or mayb even buying different pedals with more supports. I'll keep you posted. My goal is to go back and conquer all 3 bears :o)

In the evening Rocky and I headed to Daly City to his parents house. They were having everyone over and some friends to watch the Oscar de la Hoya fight. I didn't realize until I got there what the big deal about the fight was besides Oscar hadn't fought in a long time. Well the other guy was Filipino....aaaaahhhhh....I get it. Well the little filipino man won. I had a lot of fun hanging out with everyone especially my sister-in-law, Hideko. We kept screaming and closing our eyes every time Oscar got punched in the face, it was a bit stressful. Such girls!!

Sunday, Dec. 7th
A very very early morning. I was up at 4am, showered, dressed and out of the house by 5 to pick up Olivia. We headed to Sacramento to cheer on Lael and our other TNT friends running the Cal International Marathon. We FROZE our tushies off but we had a really fun time. Lael even PR'd so it was a good day for him. Afterwards we had lunch and then headed home.

Okay, I think I'm caught up now.

I have not done a single thing in regards to Christmas and that makes me not only sad but gives me anxiety. Rocky and I need to get on the ball so I'm guessing this weekend we'll be doing some shopping, card sending and getting a tree. I still can't believe Christmas is right around the corner. YIKES!!!

The holiday parties have begun which means so has the eating :o) gonna have to be careful on that one and not over do it.

:o)