Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all of my loved ones.

Enjoy the new decade!!!

Happy Christmas!

I'm a little delayed in wishing everyone a Happy Christmas, but I suppose it's better late than never.

It was a banner Christmas over here at our house. Chuck got me some sweet goodies, including a Flip Video Camera and a giant toolbox full of bike tools and a maintenance book. He has me on my way toward my New Year's Resolution, which is to spend less time and money at the bike shop getting my bike fixed up. I'm going to learn as much as I can so that I can do a lot of minor mechanical stuff myself. Who knows...maybe I'll become the team mechanic! :) My mom sent me some gorgeous clothes and socks (I was in desperate need of socks!) and Chuck's mom got us a new TV set. We've now moved into the 21st century, with a 37 inch flat screen. I love that it makes everyone look fat!! :)

Chuck's Dad got the whole family a trip to Disney for the 4 days following Christmas. Unfortunately for us, we had a minor disaster at the house and were unable to go. I'm so incredibly bummed out about missing the trip. I was really looking forward to spending some quality time with my nieces and nephews (not to mention my brother and sisters-in-law). So, thanks to a faulty sump pump - we spent our departure day mopping water out of the cellar and installing two new pumps. Grrrrr....

Anywho...we are enjoying some time off for the holidays. The weekend is going to include a trip down to Baltimore to visit with the team - team training session on Saturday or Sunday (depending on the weather) and a party at Jen's house on Saturday night! :)

Well - that's it for now. I'll work on getting something taped with my Flip! Maybe a fun video of the cats doing something nutty! :)

More Snow and Other Goodies!

So, here are some "Before Shoveling" photos. This is what the front looked like after Chuck shoveled three times yesterday, but before we started today. Geez.

This is the coolest Christmas present...my Mom and Dad and sister and brother-in-law bought us this popcorn machine for our Movie Nights. We finally got around to using it. We blew a fuse twice, but finally got a giant pile of yummy popcorn to munch on. It was fun!

Big Blizzard of 2009!

Well, it's been a while since I have had a true white Christmas. Looks like we're going to have one of them this year. Not only did we get about 15 inches of snow yesterday, but it's going to snow again on Christmas Eve!

I have to admit...I'm pretty excited about having a white Christmas. And, after 2 hours of shoveling this morning, my arms are going to be RIPPED! :)

The kittehs wanted to try out the snow as it fell yesterday. They didn't last too long! :)

NWBP Christmas Party

The annual NWBP Christmas party at The Irish Pub took place on Friday night. I haven't been feeling great the past few days, so I stayed in this week, rested a lot, and prepped myself for the big night. Fortunately, I was feeling much better and was ready for a night on the town! :)

It was a good year. Lots of older faces that I enjoy seeing now and again (outside of Facebook!) and the newer crew of younger folks that I really don't know that well, but who love Chuck.

Here are some pics from the night...

Sara - looking dashing, of course.
Me and Den
Richard and Chuck (it's a bit crazy that Richard was one of Chuck's 8th graders many years ago - they've kept in touch and he came in from LA for the holidays...)
general shot of the pub...complete with a Kev, a Steve, a McGarry, a Johnny Gartonny, and a Fixler...nice.

Me and Billy

We had a nice time. Jim and Jeanne showed up, which was awesome. On the way home, it started to snow. Which brings me to my next post and set of photos!

Green Weekend

I had a very green weekend! And, by green, I do not mean I recycled a lot. I mean that some of my new teammates came up to Philly to visit Alaina and I and ride with our Specialized rep Mike. It was awesome!

We spent some quality time together hanging out on and off the bike, and I am feeling so excited about the coming season. I am going to continue to learn so much from these women, and I know that I will be able to contribute to the team and our goals. I'll certainly miss my Pinkees, but as I keep telling them...I'm not going anywhere. I'm still going to be a part of that group of women, because I really believe in what they stand for.

Anywho...here are some photos from our weekend...

Robin during our Verge fashion show! We spent some time trying on jerseys, bibs, jackets, and vests and trying to decide on a new kit design for 2010. I think we've decided on one that is going to be quite PURTY. :)

Sonja - showing her support for the Philadelphia Bicycle Insurrection!

Robin - fully kitted up for riding in the chilly Saturday morning weather...brrrrr...

After a little mishap with her shifter (the daggon thing broke right off the bike), Robin decided she might switch to this fancy number!

Alaina, Chicken, Sonja, Robin, Mike and Me out on our ride Saturday morning - it was great to have Mike out on the road with us.
Mike, Christina, Sonja, Alaina, Me, and Robin posing with our team moto-pacing bike! hehe!
Wine for dinner at Mike's place. Cycles Gladiator!
Cakes from the Night Kitchen for dessert - Chocolate Super Cake and the Carrot Cake with a Specialized S to make it complete.

Alaina cuddling with Maggie at Mike and Maureen's house.

Thanks to Mike and Maureen for having us all over for dinner and thanks to Alaina and Hoover for putting up the team and to Hoover especially for dealing with all of us clucking hens running around the house! ;)

Absolutely HILARIOUS!

Thanks to Josh for posting this and bringing it to my attention.

Kittehs

Since I know that there are some folks out there (Jackie!) who visit my blog to see the latest crazy pics of our kitty-cat menagerie, I had to upload a few funny new shots! So, here we go...

All of them together on one chair...Cuey in the back, Tuga, Quin, and Elwood from left to right in the front.

Quin is a total attention hog...this day was no exception!

Christmas Time is Here Again

Now that the Turkey has been properly given its respects, Chuck has insisted that we immediately move on to the Christmas season!

The day after Thanksgiving, we put out a bunch of house decorations. Yesterday, we put up the tree, and today we finished the exterior decor by putting up the lights on the tree outside and hanging the wreath on the chimney. We are now officially Christmas-ed out and ready to go. I even have a gift wrapped already! Hehe! Mainly, it's wrapped because it's too big to hide and if I don't wrap it, Chuck will find it and know what I got for him!

Other Christmas traditions have also begun.

1. I got the first (of many) phone calls during which my mom makes every singing Christmas animal serenade me. I got the chicken-clucking version of Jingle Bells, the cow-mooing version of Silent Night, and the really bad Santa singing We Wish You a Merry Christmas in tune-less monotone. It was GREAT!

2. Quin has begun his assault on the Christmas Tree. For him, it's like his very own Mount Everest that he must summit each year in order to maintain his status as the most annoying cat in the house!

3. We have purchased (and consumed) a bag of Christmas candy from CVS. The first of many.

4. I have made my first batch of Date and Nut bread (nom, nom, nom).

That's it for now. More Christmas pleasantries are ahead, I am sure!

They Strike Again!

Those darned Christmas animals have struck again! This time taking things just a bit too far. They attempted to ROAST THE TURKEY!!! What the heck!? Chuck claims that they were just joking around, but the Turkey was none too pleased about being set on a baking pan and set on top of the pre-heating oven!

Note the turkey on the pan and the beaver looking up Roast Turkey recipe.

Mrs. Rat making mashed potatoes.
The Moose making hummus...not sure what hummus has to do with Thanksgiving...

We have WAAAAY too much time on our hands.

Another Animal Surprise

Another incident with the animals occurred when I got home this afternoon....

They were playing Boggle. At least they invited the Turkey this time, he was pretty miffed to be left out of the game the other day.

Amazing how the random shaking of the Boggle letters could come up with such an amazing series of letters that spell out, "Sarah is a Booger." Kinda creepy!

If you look closely, you would note that the Beaver, and all of the other animals, had "Sarah" and "Booger" as their first two words.

It sure is fun around this place.

Manimals

So, Chuck loves Christmas. He loves Christmas so much that he will do anything to begin the decorating process. His most recent aggregious disrepectful act against the Thanksgiving Turkey is to allow the Christmas animal collection to "escape" their Tupperware storage facility. Unfortunately for us, these maminals are particularly rambunctious due to the fact that they have been cooped up in a box for 11 months. They have been sneaking up on us in our dresser drawers, on top of doors, and in the fridge and freezer. The other night, they topped it all off with a card game that got a bit out of hand...note the photos.

What began as a nice evening of poker with a few drinks....

Became a night of debauchery with drunken bears and beavers everywhere. They raided the beer and liquor cabinet, and the result was not good. Now we REALLY have to keep an eye on them!!!

Crazy Quinny

Quin is a great cat. We've been pretty daggon lucky to have a bunch of animals that have great personalities, that like people, and that are generally well behaved. Certainly, they get out of hand on occasion and act like butts, but most of the time they are really sweet.

We have taken to letting them hang out and play in the backyard once in a while. They are supervised and they stay inside the fence, but they do have a good time. Quin loves to chase things, and we found him one day hanging from the clothesline trying to attack the clothespins that were up there. So, the other day, we hung a leaf from the clothesline and took some pictures of him trying to capture the leaf!

Wedding Weekend

I just realized that I don't have a single photo of my cousin from her wedding. Oops! My mom took a few, so I'll have to steal her pics when I get the chance.

I did take a few photos from our whirlwind trip to Cincinnati this weekend. And, it really was a whirlwind.

We were supposed to fly out Friday night around 4:30. Unfortunately, our flight was canceled. They wanted to rebook us on a flight stopping in La Guardia and then heading to Cincy and I said, "no way." We ended up on a flight the next morning. Unfortunately, it didn't leave until 9:30, getting into Cincy at 11. It really sucked to lose nearly 20 hours of time with my family, but at least we got there! See...I'm trying to be nice about it.

We spent part of Saturday with the Dad's side of the family. Some of my cousins, their kids, my Aunts and Uncles. It was really fun to see my cousins and talk about all of the crazy things we used to do when we were kids. Oh, geez!

Saturday night was the wedding. It was beautiful...my cousin was gorgeous and we danced the night away...especially my 84-year old Grandmother. That lady can MOVE, I tell ya! :)

Sunday morning was a brunch stop at my Uncle's and then back to the airport. I swear, it felt like we were barely there. Thankfully, the flight from Cincy back home was only just over an hour, so it wasn't too long in terms of traveling time.

Anyway...back home and back to work. It's going to be a looooong week!

Here are some pics from our trip!