Another year recap....

Every year, I make a New Years' Resolutions.....tone my abs, tone my triceps, tone my rear, tone down my eating, tone up my hair color, eat less processed foods, stop at all 'stop' signs, paint my living room, race smart and get on the podium, and the list goes on. I have kept some of these Resolutions:

toned my abs
toned my triceps
genetics did not allow me to tone my rear
toned up my hair color--it's darker now
I eat about the same amount of processed foods
I come to a 100% stop at all stop signs
Jimmy will not allow any color except eggshell white on the walls
I raced several smart races and got on the podium several times

With this being said, I do not know what my Resolution is going to be this year. There are so many things I want to do, accomplish, and experience this year; I do not know if I should "Just Do It" (sorry Nike, I just stole your 1989 motto) or should it be a Resolution?

Either way, I have my health, a great family and a wonderful job. Do I really need to paint my walls or have a firm rear to make it a successful year?

Our idea of a great flick.....

After the 30-second info commercial, there is a trailer of the BEST movie in the theaters, now. If you are looking for human mutilations, graphic violence or gratuitous sex......you do not know me very well (except for the last one!).

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2121072665/

And not a moment too soon.....

Holiday schmaliday.....

Our decorations have been sitting in the living room, for several days now. Our tree is in 2 peices (lights and decorations are attached) and I have not had the time to do any of the holiday stuff that I would like to do. No cards have been sent, not one decoration has been put up, and even Bo has not worn his Christmas cardigan yet.

Four more days and counting......

Oh my gosh.....

If I can hang on for 8 more days, my life will resume to normalcy as I know it..............8 more short days.

Sensory overload.....

I was up to my eyeballs in homework, when I decided to take a much-needed break. Usually, my idea of a break would be checking e-mail, tossing the ball with the pooch, or walking around the backyard for a few laps.


A much better idea came to me. Heck, it's is almost dinner time, so why not have a banana split?! I will gladly forgo chicken and green salad for an ice cream dinner.



It looked so awesome, so perfect, so delectable, that I wanted to take a photo of my culinary creation and post it. Mid-way though the creation process, I got the camera ready. Poured on some more caramel and turned the camera on. A big whirl of whipped creme, with some chopped peanuts on top finished my masterpeice.

After that, it was a blur. I forgot about the camera. I sat down, moving my books out of the way and dug in, wiping the edges clean with the banana slices. What an awesome dinner.

Zabriskie fans......

If you know who he is, you'll enjoy this:

http://www.youtube.com/rumorvids

What the heck is goin' on....?

With me? Everything and nothing. My life in a nutshell:
teach spin 3x a week
school 5x a week
work 3-5x a week
wife 10x a week
train (back down to a measly 3x per week)

Once again, my plate is too darn full.......why my brains are not oozing out from my eyeballs, is beyond me.

Oh yah, I had to break out the sweatshirt for the first time, this year. Gloomy ol' winter is around the corner and that is going to reallllllly mess with my brain. I want off of this train.

Approved and funded by the Ramirez household.....

This photo evidences a disturbing trend that is beginning to affect wildlife in the U.S.

Animals that were formerly self-sufficient are now showing signs of belonging to the Democratic Party- as they have apparently learned to simply sit and wait for the government to provide for their care and sustenance.

Welcome to my world.....

Bo, our one-eyed dog is happy as a clam these days. All the girls think he is flirting with him. Wink! Missy (the calico) is mentally challenged, due to a bang on her head as a kitten and Lil' Kitty has 1/2 an ear.

Meet our 3-legged kitty, named Kitty. Do not feel sorry for this fat guy; he rules the roost. Interestingly, the other cats always wack him on the left side of his head, like they know he is missing something. His right hand is lightening fast.

Perfect pets are a dime a dozen. Let Paris and Brittany keep their well-coiffed pooches and send us the rejects.............

Blah of a month....

I have not posted in exactly one month and that is pretty unusual for me. I love blogging and writing about the mundane aspects of my mundane life on my mundane neighborhood.

This month was filled with lots of real crappy stuff:
~My dear friend of 25-years died of cancer.
~Lil' Sis Johnna, finished radiation treatments for Stage 2 breast cancer.
~Bo, had to have his eye removed, due to advanced stages of glaucoma.
~And other shit I cannot even blog about..........

This month was filled was some slightly crappy stuff:
~I did not race San Ardo; my fav race of the season.
~School started back and I have 3 more semesters to go, before graduation
~In a few weeks, I'll be 46 years old
~Jimmy continues to loose weight without exercise and diet pills, while I maintain my weight with calorie restriction and 10-hours a week of exercise.

This month was filled with some not crappy stuff:
~The cat did not pee on my homework

Canine rehab....

Not to be confused with the reality show, Celebrity Rehab, Bo is not some washed-up, has-been who is addicted to drugs, alcohol, or sex (though he does like to hump the kitties; I would classify that as a fetish, but not an addiction). His therapy was prescribed so that he could increase his physical activity with little impact on his arthritic joints.

After his strenuous 5-minute walk, the doc said he should rest and stretch tonight. This is how he looked on the way home.....

Take me out to the ballgame....

We drove for 7 hours, spent $125 in gas, and missed the final stage of the Tour de France, to watch the Giants loose. The good news is that we got 2 free Bobble Heads...which I am going to post on E-Bay today.

We love the game, but it's just not the same if your team does not win. SF Giants 1--Arizona Diamondback 7

Oh, la, la.....

This years legs.....I mean peloton.

This blows.....

Road Rage vs. Cyclists...guess who lost?

Here is the story from the L.A. newspaper:
http://laist.com/2008/07/07/road_rage_motorist_vs_cyclists_on_m.php


This link is the follow-up on the offender:
http://laist.com/2008/07/07/update_on_bicycle_accident.php

Thanks to the Foggy Blogger for the heads-up about this tragedy.

Boring......

I have done nothing exciting or even remotely interesting, lately. After the vacation and wedding stuff, everything else seems boring and mundane.

Being out of school for the summer is awesome and I have quickly filled up all of my time, that would be usually dedicated to studying, homework or being in class.

I have been riding my bike an awful lot, spinning, yoga and Pilates; I think am getting tired of having fun......

Vacation Recap.......

Since there is no way that I could possibly write about everything we did/saw/experienced into a single blog entry, I've decided to just post the highlights. Here is a smidgen of what we did on a Aspencade............

-almost 4,000 miles

-11 states

-about 400 photos were taken

-$460.00 in gas, prices ranging from $3.76 to $5.85 a gallon

-rode 300-500 miles a day

-2 'rest days'

-temps from 25-109 degrees

-hotels from $39.00-$400.00 a night

-crossed the Continental Divide 3 times

-Hoover Dam
-Zion Park
-Bryce Canyon Park
-Devil's Tower
-Crazy Horse
-Mt. Rushmore
-Grand Tetons

-Yellowstone Park

-Yosemite Park

-Lake Tahoe

It is so good to be home, back on a routine; riding my bike,

eating normally, sleeping with the dog, watering the plants.

Normalcy is a good thing.

Just Married.....again

We renewed our wedding vows in Lake Tahoe, Nevada this afternoon and we went to the same chapel that we were married in 27 years ago. This was the last stop on our 4,000 mile motorcyle journey over the past few weeks.

I'll blog more about that later, afterall, this is my honeymoon..............

A normal person, please......

I manage the bar at a country club and we placed an ad in the paper, soliciting for a bartender--I interviewed almost 40 people. I hired one. TRUE recants of the day:

1) Almost half of the applicants did not bring a writing utencil.

2) The first male applicant had 'WHITE BOYZZ' tattooed across his knuckles. He asked me if his ink was a problem for the company. "This is a friggin country club, buddy!!!"

3) One gal had so much collagen injected into her lips, she could hardly talk. Or maybe, it was due to her gigantic tongue ring; I am not sure which caused her verbal imparement.

4) A bartender who bragged about all of his female-beer-guzzling-admirers, then casually mentioned he was fired from his last bar, due to accusations of stealing.

5) I cannot forget the middle-aged lady, who looked like Lady Marmalade. Her overprocessed platinum colored hair, shiny pink corset with a dark pink bra peeking out, lycra peddle-pushers and sky-high platform heels that only strippers wear and of course, she reeked of cigarettes.

One looser after another. I endured six solid hours of interviews for practically nothing. Where are the normal people, I ask?

Got gas???

I am not speaking of the flatulence type of gas....I am referring to gasoline.

It costs me $80.00 to fill my tank, which is a major deterrent to my traveling plans. I wanted to race this weekend, but the cost of gas would have exceeded any winnings that I may have earned. Multiply this by my usual weekly gasoline usage and I would have $160.00 spent.

These prices are really cramping into my race plans and that makes me angry.

Memorial Day excursion.....

It is not as morbid as it sounds, but we love to visit old cemeteries. We have visited grounds all around California, Nevada, Maui, France, England, and Italy.

Our visits are quite historical. Today, we encountered a family who had 5 children; all died in the early 1800's and each were under the age of 1 year old. What rough and disease filled lives they must have led. Recently, we stumbled across a descendant of mine, in an obscure little cemetery that was nestled in the mountain-side. Our visit to an ancient Indian burial ground proved to be a bit eerie, when all of the photos turned out with a yellow hue. Spooky.

Jimmy cracked up when he found this name:

My idea of bliss.....

What do these photos mean to me? They reflect my idea of a great day of riding....heat, sweat, and sun. On days like these I tend to ride solo, as it is exceedingly difficult to find anyone else who loves the heat as much as I do.

My legs always spin well, I get in better workouts, stay more focused and overall--feel like a million bucks. I wish that race season did not start until April, since I do not come out of hibernation until then. I am soooo ready to roll up to

the start line now, because I am feeling pretty darn spry.

School's out for the summer.....

A famous (and stoned) man uttered those words in the 70's and now, so am I.

Things I am going to do while on break:

*make some terrific dinners from Cooking Light

*take Bo for more walks

*go to a S.F. Giants game

*take a week-long, bike-riding excursion

*renew wedding vows

*go on a motorcycle trip across the U.S., with Jimmy

*ride my bike to the lake and tan all afternoon

*visit my family

*read a book while swinging on the hammock

Today is Day #1 of vacation and I am kicking off the festivities by washing my truck......ahhhh....simple pleasures.

Wha-iiinnndddyyy!

Our ride today was brutally windy. We pedaled downhill just to maintain 13 mph!! A ride I can do solo takes me 2:20 to complete, and doing the same ride, with the two of us bustin' our butts, took us 3:05 to finish.

I guess I should not complain....atleast I was out playing.

What the.....?!

I just finished an awesome ride and was driving home, when I stopped at a red light. This guy rolls up on his yellow LeMond across from me. He immediately caught my eye.....and not in a good way.

He was about 30-years old, no socks, no jersey, no helmet, no water bottle, no fanny pack for supplies, BUT he did have yellow spandex/lycra riding shorts on, apparently to match his LeMond, because there is no other reason in this entire world why someone would purchase yellow shorts.

The light changed and he hunched over into his aerobars, with buckets of sweat running down onto the asphalt--it is almost 90 degrees today. As he rolled past me, I witnesses his mini-man boobs in the inverted tee-pee position and his shorts pulled up to the middle of his back. Gag me with a spoon.

As we know, I am not Style Man, but this was a cycling atrocity that no citizen should have to witness.

My new ride....

I was so bummed when bike-shop-guy said my race bike had a crack in the frame. The day I was riding it, it was extremely difficult to handle and I thought I had broken a few spokes. I was doing a very hilly ride and had to walk my bike down one of the descents, because I could not control it.






I test rode this frame and was really surprised with the results. I wanted something snappy and responsive (like my other bike) but it needed to have a smooth ride. The Cervelo R3 was the winner.


You can't tell I had 3 years of photography classses, huh?!

Boots'n Balls.....

Meet Joe Construction Worker. He pulled out from his construction site, right in front of me, as I was descending at 40 m.p.h. It scared the absoulte bejezzus out of me!!!

I wish I were wearing these:

Instead of these:

So, I could have kicked him in these:

Hikin' Table Mtn.

Fresno is actually the basin of volcanic and glacial action that occurred some 10 million+ years ago. The flat, table-like lava formations are still easily visible from most of the city. Jimmy and I took a guided hike with a knowledgeable naturist.




Just leaving the parking area. No sweat. The plateau behind us, is our destination.













As we approach the flat top, we must scale this steep trail, first.
Wildflowers abound!

Several hours later, we reach the top and and this is what we found: flora and fauna that survives only on CA lava beds.

We had lunch on the edge of the earth...freakin' awesome!

1 Bike, 2 Bras and 3 Bees.....

1 Bike

I grabbed my Cadillac of a bike to head out for a 80 degree workout consisting of some sprints and high cadence work;
which leads me to the next topic--the right bra for this job.





2 Bras

Bra #1, though quite industrious looking with it's 4 clasps,
1 1/2" wide shoulder straps and drab gray cotton, it holds the
girls in securely during the high cadence workout. When I stand up to sprint, everything stays in it's place...no bouncing here.







Bra #2, is three years old and was (at one time) a compression
bra. The color is still vibrant and matches the Velo Bella kit so
perfectly, that I can unzip the jersey a bit lower than usual.
Since the fabric is stretched out, it allows my DD's to swing
to and fro in the hunched-over cyclist position.




3 Bees
Off I went on my Caddy and in Bra #2, into the agricultural
abyss, known as Fresno. Where there are fruit trees, there
are blossoms, and where there are blossoms there are bees.
LOTS! Wearing baggy Bra #2, created a gap between my
clavicle and bosom area. A bee flew in and stung me on the
left one. A few moments later a bee got wedged into my helmet
vent and stung my cranium when I tried to remove him.


As I rolled into my driveway, with an itchy boob and lumpy
scalp, a bee had the audacity to land on my handlebars. With
a quick flick, I knocked him into next week.

1 Bike, 2 Bras, 3 Bees and a Partridge in a Pear Tree......

How we roll in Avila Beach.....

We loaded the beach cruisers and Bo into the R.V., and headed to Avila Beach for a few days. Since it was Spring Break for most, we were packed in like sardines and did not have the elbow space we usually enjoy, but we were fortunate to get our usual spot on the beach.

There is a terrific bike trail in the city and we rode for about 10-miles....which is alot on those balloon tires, with no gears. Bo, being almost 14-years old has arthritis and cannot walk further than a few blocks, so he rides in the kiddie stroller and takes in the scenery. We ate gelato, had espresso and people watched, for 3 glorious days at the beach.

High "Awwwww" Factor...

This is a pic of what Wilddingo posted on her site:
http://www.wilddingo.com/











This is the pic Marscat posted on her site, in response to Dingo: http://marscat.blogspot.com/

Here is my pic in reply to Dingo and Marscat. Though not a real animal, he still has alot of "Awwwwww" qualities.

Dang, I crack myself up.

Spring Riding...

I went on a 2.5 hour endurance ride with a friend today. The great thing about doing endurance mileage, is that you get to stop and smell the flowers, without any fear of your HR dropping. When my HR is at 150 I can enjoy the scenery, sounds, and scents that a cyclist has the opportunity to enjoy.

There are ACRES of these wild flowers on the hillsides. The entire valley is in bloom right now and is amazing.

This lovely gal was happy to pose for me. I think she wanted to be petted, but I was too nervous to approach her. Her compadre, in the corner, was being distracted by my friend.

I am so fortunate to experience these kinds of simple things. Some people never get to see beyond their cubicle.......and that is sad.

Day Four....

Apparently, Jimmy added the wrong cleaning solution to our fountain. Good thing there are no koi in there.....

Italian Teddy Bear....

I am Italian so I can post this.......if you are offended by racial stereotypes, SORRRRY...

http://www.bordergatewayprotocol.net/jon/humor/web_animations/1.swf

Mother Nature needs to make up her mind.....

It rained, I mean POURED, last week and this week we are expecting 65-78 degrees. Today I rode out to do a hill fit-test for coach and it was amazingly beautiful. The snow capped mountains were easily visible, hundreds of calves were frolicking on green hills, and blossoms on fruit trees abound.

When I got home, I washed the ol' bike for the first time in ages. It has been so cold, that if my bike needed a cleaning, I would squirt the hose on it for a few mili-moments and then run back in the house. Today, was the exception. I cleaned the gears, washed the tires, and de-gunked the chain so it is clean for tomorrow's ride. It is supposed to be 70. Gotta love living in Cali.

Blah.....

Roses are truly red,

Violets are nearly blue,

Seven straight days of rain,

Makes Denise feel like freakin' poo.

Didn't know I was such a poet, huh??

Valentine's Day recap....

Jimmy gave me some wonderful 'unmentionables' from Victoria's Secret, in a special gift basket; this was the first time he ever bought anything from that store and I was flabbergasted. Also, he brought me a dozen of the most beautiful, peach-colored roses, I have ever seen.

I bought him a new wedding band and asked him to remarry me. Honestly, I was a bit nervous about the entire thing, as he thinks that renewing wedding vows are hookey. What if he were to laugh at the idea or worse yet, what if he turned down my proposal?

Fortunately, he said "yes" (and quite happily). June will be our 28th anniversary and I know most couple renew their vows on their 25th or 50th anniversary, but I cannot wait until then. I am hopelessly, madly in love with my husband and I cannot wait a few more years. We'll do this by ourselves on the beach..........

Jackass Driver

This is a brand-new, 4' wide, bike lane. I'm rolling along today and I feel the presence of a vehicle coming up on my rear.......uncomfortablely close. He is pulling a small trailer and as he passes by me on this curve, his trailer serves into my lane. He pushes me over the curb (fortunately, it is nicely sloped) and into the dirt.


I flipped him off (something I have done only one other time) and then shouted "C*#K SUCKER!" (that word I have used only once, as well). I was really hoping he would have pulled over. I was so angry. The entire way home, I was looking for that black trailer with snow on the bumper. I envisioned flattening all of his tires.

Bast*/!d. (that word I use alot)