holiday week wrap up

wow. what a whirl wind week. (pretty good alliteration eh?) making gingerbread houses with my niece. it turned out spectacular if i do say so myself. early morning drive through the city for masters swim with beth. no that is not snow. my windshield is dirty... everyone taking a million turns on the new wii. and yes i got beat by youngin's in both bowling and tennis... "too bad they dont make wii biking" says my brother... my niece scarlett. love the candy cane tights! a redilla family christmas. one of a couple we had that week!

Julia testing out her new high school musical wii game. she is such a great girl.

a trip to heaven.. or uh.. heinz field to see the steelers play! nothing like 65K fans chanting "cleveland sucks" to make you feel all warm and cozy inside! the city of pittsburgh. see its not so bad! kind of pretty actually..


and of course.. the midget. after a year of hearing about this pittsburgh legend (phenomenon? icon?) i had to go see for myself. when someone tips the bartender $10 he walks down the bar from his treehouse and gives everyone a shot. a pretty nasty margarita tasting concoction that was not so pleasant and only made worse by his bad aim.

its been a good week. a great week in fact. happy new year everyone! cheers to a fantastic 2009.

santa is alive and well

and has me on his good list (now dont go telling him the truth!). today he came a few days early - disguised as the UPS man - to north carolina and dropped off my NEW RACE WHEELS! super sweet! thanks coach jen for hooking me up with these.



for the entire duration of my ride today (i was on the trainer) i stole glances at them (its rude to stare) and welcomed them to their new home. They promised to bring me blazing splits. i pledged to treat them with care. they urged me to get schooled in tire changing. i pinky swore i would. they practiced intimidating other riders and i cheered them on. its going to be a beautiful relationship! hee hee....

happy birthday little bro!

way back in the late late 70's i was hoping that santa would bring me grover from sesame street or maybe some extra cookies after dinner. but instead (or maybe in addition to, hard to remember!) christmas brought you! what a great partner in crime you were, from rafting across the "ponds" behind the house, to trekking to pinebridge for candy, berry picking, sledding, playing kick the can. WWF matches and dangling he-man out the bathroom window. i do have to tell you that i could not ask for a better brother than you. i'm so proud of the person you have become. you have come thru on the other side of adversity stronger and smarter and its very admirable. take a minute today and realize how much we all love you and are thankful to call you brother, son, uncle, FRIEND. cant wait to see you in a few days and celebrate!!!


PS i couldnt find that pic of us in Denver, when you had your dreads and the bright idea to piss off the bartender.. probably better that way... good times we've had and many more to come!





tough weekend training for me. long ride yesterday, with lunges, (yes lunges in the middle of the ride, several times. glorious.) and then 3800 in the pool this morning - good thing i didnt add that up before jumping in! - and then about 10 miles on the roads, finishing just in time to watch the steeler game (though i think now i should have kept running..) yes some of those moments HURT, but more of those moments felt GOOD.

ad⋅dic⋅tion: uh-dik-shuhn

if there is a helpline for "cool minty sensation" please intervene. its bad. really bad.

owie!

when i saw my training for this week i kind of cringed a bit. not because of the hours i will log, or impossible interval times to hit. oh no. no. no. on wednesday it said 'double run day'. uh oh. now for anyone doing any sort of tri training, a 40 minute easy run is HEAVEN. but not for me. not when its before dawn. not when i am the most grumpy unfunctional blob in the morning. no really. people i work with know not to expect a pleasent or even coherent answer before 9 am. bobby doesnt even try to have a conversation with me. the girls dont even get up when i get up in the morning. and no i dont drink coffee. perhaps i should start...so anyway this run today. you know when you open a new bottle of ketchup and it refuses to come out, no matter how hard you hit it (on the 57 of course!) and then slowly, as if it can defy gravity, it saunters out of the bottle? yes that was me this morning. i took EASY to a whole new level. i quite possibly was passed by an 80 year old man on his morning stroll. but i did it, so even in my AM haze, i'll get the work done. because i know that there is a method to the madness.

** pm update - gazelle like on the evening run... so i sorely admit that there might be something good to the agony of early morning jogs...

tis the season...

and i'm excited! not being one to give conventional gifts.. that is what your mom is for. she is the one who buys you sweaters and gift cards to barnes and noble. NOT ME. I'm the one who finds things, or in some cases makes things, that i feel you may not need, but will bring a smile to your face because they are sooo not expecting them! take for instance the gift i'm giving my boss this year.

yes its a hammer and no i dont work in construction. but i KNOW that he is going to love it. its even engraved, by me of course! this will probably only be topped by the thighmaster that we give one of my teammates - not because she needs to exercise, oh no my friends, but for a much much funnier reason. one that i cant even begin to explain.
but anyway, i love the holidays. i love showing people that i appreciate them and i have THOUGHT about their gift. i love that we rekindle old friendships and build new ones. i love making this season all about what matters most and that is the connections that we have to the important people in our lives! yes, even if it comes in the form of a hammer!

airplane arithmetic

just getting back from san diego. i realized that i spent less than 36 hours in san diego and about 20 getting there. that commute to destination ratio is not ideal for a satisfactory and non-delierious time. wednesday was miserable, starting out with a detour to chatenooga as our plane was diverted for more gas. arriving in SD about 5 hours late left me scrambling to get my graphics set up for the next day's meetings. my dinner consisted of 2 glasses of wine and a rice krispie treat from the mini bar -this is after i veto'd the soggy pasta from the hotel. thursday began with an OK run (though inside as it was still dark out and i didnt trust my navigation skills at that point) and progressed to some pretty productive and positive meetings. i had about an hour to walk around the bay before heading back in for round two. but the best part was definately being able to see will and mark again. always good to see friends that you have known for what feels like forever and that you can just completely be yourself.

head spinning surprises

so i've decided that my xmas gift this year will be a new set of racing wheels. sweet! as with all bike related gear i dont have all the facts, ok any of the facts, except what i think looks cool, and honestly dont really jive with alot of the lingo. so off i go into the internet to read up on tubulars and clinchers and rims and mechanics and zipp and roller resistance. its quite a hazy place. and has made my head spin a bit. not sure why i'm having such a hard time grasping this concept. all i know is i want to be faster! and some how some way i'm going to get the ride that will take me there! oh and i guess a few million hours on the trainer and a boat load of lunges might help with that a bit. but nonetheless WHEELS are a welcome addition.

so yes on to the surprise. i LOVE surprises. i LOVE orchestrating surprises. and this one will be a doozy! there are no details to be written as it involves a loyal reader (at least you better be!). but i will say you will be VERY happy and excited and have a spectacular time. so alas, i sit here giddy with anticipation and smitten with a plan. trust me, its worth waiting for!

southern fried hockey

after my 2.5 hour bike/plyo workout today (that i LOVE. see that jen? LOVE! i would do this every day love. hurts so good love! ) we headed to the canes game - carolina hurricanes for those not in the know. we got some club seats from a vendor so decided to head over. it was my first time at the RBC center though i've been in raleigh almost three years now.. hockey really isnt my thing..

so we get there and turns out club seats come with a waitress. sweet! but then the "WTF"s began. the ceremonial ring master --i'll call him for lack of better words, was none other than Rick Flair. yes of WWF hall of fame, the guy with the white hair who always yelled "WOOOOOOOOOOOOO". he apparently is from NC - and i guess either no one else was available or he is the best that carolina has to offer? anyway he found his way up on the jumbo tron a few too many times and always with the same woooo. freaggin rick flair. really?

the canes came out to (surprise surprise ) rock you like a hurricane


so we were lucky enough to be sitting in full view of some of the Storm Squad. what is that you may ask? kinda sorta cheerleaders. though they are pretty useless if you ask me. not only are they somewhat unattractive (trust me i would admit it if they were hot. heidi klum is hot. giselle "i'm dating a punk" bunchen is hot. these girls are not) as in i think they would have trouble being hired by an airport hooters.. anyway the other problem is that their only job was to clap along with whatever song was playing. and they really couldnt even handle that. i mean really. me three drinks in was doing a better job. please.


so the other thing that caught me off guard were the fights. yes i know there are fights in hockey, they are encouraged. but as soon as there is a whiff of action, the fans go nuts. they smell it coming. and its funny to me to see the other players kind of create a ring around the 2 that are going at it and the refs just watch. some other highlights included the zambonie all decked out for the holiday. and of course i found the one thing i could relate to! so all in all an interesting evening. a little bit ho hum.but there are always things to amuse!! and the canes lost by the way. 2-1 in overtime. oh well. i was hoping to see a shoot out..

GRRRRRR

look out '09, here I come!

I'm a lady damn it!

but a lady who entertains several conversations on monday mornings in the fall with people who stop by my office to discuss the weekend's foot ball games. i usually have more to say about them than they do, and most likely in more colorful language.

a lady who in my presense things get said like " i just stuck the pig" or "got a case of the a$$" or "you really know what that thigh master is for".

a lady who cant and doesnt cook. whose fingernails will never be pink. and will never purchase earrings on purpose. and will never coordinate her christmas tree ornaments to match her living room decor.

a lady who sweats more than a fat man in a plastic suit, and who learned to spit and blow her nose without breaking stride.

but i'm still a girl, just one who likes to get dirty and kick a little butt once in a while!

miss you matt

that night way back when..the first of many..

the first time i met him was in NYC for new years. he was a friend of my friend jen and all she could say about him and the weekend was "its gonna be great". and it was--- unforgettable in fact. matt was the kind of guy where you dont need any plans, shouldnt make any plans and if you have plans cancel them. you just let things happen. and happen they did. that day started out in a pizza place, where in the middle of a slice of mushroom this tornado literally swept us up and from that moment on it felt like a magic carpet ride. we started out at an irish place and later stumbled into some swanky lounge drinking black label johnny walker and smoking cigars. later, much later..he convinced a romanian bar owner to open his doors just for us and we danced the night away and we drank some home made concoction that probably is illegal in all 50 states.

he was just someone you wanted to know and someone who wanted to know you. he was amazing. he was genuine. he truly squeezed every single minute out of his life. i miss him.

a year later. st patty's in sydney.

Kopi Luwak

google it. and imagine how that tastes! a friend of mine describes as "It was a little bitter a bit astringent but had a unique taste".....