Holiday STUFF

WE WENT TO FLORIDA, FOR A LITTLE HOLIDAY FUN!! I will post a total family picture when i get it from Pops!

So, if you don't want to see or hear about my family or my trip, go elsewhere! Jason and I made the mistake of flying Southwest, more on that later. I will keep my verbage short (Sometimes, I talk to much....)



PICTURE #1: Saturday Hike in the Swamp - we found a GATOR! Yes it was real, and no it didn't eat any of us!!

PICTURE #2: 4 Hours of canoeing on the Wekiva Springs We saw no Gators, but a Heap of Turtles! If you ever want to know how a person "really" is, take them canoeing in snake/gator infested water with a nasty current...


PICTURE #3: Christmas day at Daytona Beach The crazy boys went in the water, Suzanne and I decided to ride the Huffy Beach Cruisersdown the beach...in jeans and no shoes....(the only riding in ...... days)

PICTURE #4: The "3 J's" being normal. Joy - can't keep her eyes open EVER, so hlepful big brother Jeremy does it for her. big sister Julene just wants us to stop.

PICTURE #5: Jason, Chucky, and Rouru at the beach. Jason got a Rugby shirt from New Zealand for Christmas, so he wears it every day, along with his HAT from the BOOT BARN. Freak. The BOYS are from the Cook Islands Google it if you have no clue - but they live, with sister Julene (she is married to Rouru, father of Chucky) in Palmerston North, NZ
PICTURE #6: Griffyn (yes, he is a mythical figure. Kinda like a Liger. HE is a mix between an Eagle - American, and a Lion - His pops. I was teaching him how to play in the sand.

PICTURE #7: Julene and Me being 16 again. We took a shot like this by the parents pool about 9 years ago, but we can't find it. this is the new and improved us!

Poor Pet

Starter Shot: How big is YOUR kitchen sink? Mine is debatably smaller than my bathroom sink. So the next time you feel bad about emptying your HUGE dishwasher, think about ME. Every dish that is cleaned here passes through this sink with my hands attached. They are rinsed here, washed here, rinsed again. I think i can put 5 bottles in it at one time, but then they are stuck. And yes, most everything else in the house is on the small-scale.


SICK BOY: A tribute to Social Distortion. Check out the little guys muscles and his ENORMOUS TONGUE!!! Thus, the name, SICK BOY!
I am officially on HOLIDAY, so i get to do neat domestic things, ride my bike, and play with DOZER. I realized he does nothing, has a very boring life, and needed some interaction. The following is a photo and written account of... DOZER'S DAY WITH THE MAMA.

It all began with Dozer on the bed. He either sleeps here (thus the sheet over the sheet), by the front door, in the kitchen, or in the middle of the floor. But he does, nothing else. (Unless handlbars are close by, but that's another day).

I decided to load up the jeep with bike and dog, head down to sunny Loma Linda for a little Hulda Crooks action. Notice he looks strong, eager, and ready to go...
He started out strong, leading the way on the single track. He kicks up a huge amount of pebbles and small stones as well as dust, so i tried to keep some space. The fastest we got together was 14.7 MPH, pretty good for a 10 month old Puppy!
However, once we reached the bottom of Jedi, he was DONE. He would burrow under a bush just to get cool and find the 8 blades of grass to lay on. Poor creature. This is when he began to hate me...As we were coming back towards the park, i spotted a nasty little COYOTE!! i Know Dozer can and will pack a punch, but to put him to the test when he is so fatigued and worn out just wouldn't be fair. So i pulled out my 9 and got rid of the Coyote. Just kidding. We just waited a few minutes and kept going.
But, we got all the way back. We only did 4 miles, but that was the longest, hardest thing he has ever done! He had slobber all the way back to his ears, his eyes were bloodshot and it looked like he had a Santa Beard, there was so much slobber on his chin. I had to pull it off with multiple sticks. It made me throw up in my mouth. Joking. It is now all over the back seat of the Jeep. I guess it was his form of payback.

The next stop on Dozer's Day Out was my work for a little girls basketball practice. The little monster found his second wind! He chased the girls as they squealed and ran faster, he stole the ball and licked it 85 times, he spun out and slid across the floor. All the time, still panting. He hasn't stopped!

So, i put him in the other PE teachers office. We could hear his cries for help and feel his hatred towards me. He kept jumping up so he could see us, what a freak!
He is now napping on the floor, and in the near future i will take him into the shower because he is disgusting! At least he is extremely dosile right now, pretty much won't put up a fight!

That's it, the day for my poor little pet.

Christmas Non Cheer

So Christie beat me to the training update, so now I can't make grandious overstatements of our physical capabilities. Thanx. We hammered in the cold saturday up and down and up again and around Crafton, quite delightful actually. Then Sunday we opened a can on the road. We were heading to Riverside, without a map....at Montecito Cemetary, we heard wheels approach, and none other than former Little League All-Stars, from the St.Helena Bunch (my brother pitched for them in 1990) Tito and Zack showed up. Back in the 80's i wasn't cool enough of big enough to hang out with these guys, but this time, they let me ride with them! We all headed to out and picked up Toni who i had met on Sunset a year or so back, so it was great to ride with another high-caliber chick! We were coersed (sp) into doing several hills, but thats ok.

We ended up out for around 5 hours. I think this was the longest road ride i have done in, oh about MY WHOLE LIFE! But it was good. If Christie haden't been there, i would have quit at about 3 hours. We did talk about food a lot and the races we are most scared of, have the gnarliest single track, how we met our men, what color and cut of shorts are most flattering, you know, the usaul ride banter.

BUT THEN...I had to teach spin today. I am SO over that! I actually had to tell them I was taking it easy today. Usually I pretend, but today I have a head cold and was uber sore, so i had to really chill. I have to get rid of that gig.

COMMENT OF THE WEEK: (lAST WEEK) Spoken by a Senior Female: "Ms. Duerksen, is there snow at your house in Big Bear?" "I don't know, i don't live there." "Oh, cause i REALLY want to go snowboarding." "Oh cool. We could go check online." "That's ok, I just want to dress up like i am GOING snowboarding, they look SOOOO cute! I would never actually DO it! It is way too cold!" "Well, the Lodge is probably open....."

WHITE ELEPHANTS: i will be going to my 3rd White Elephant party in Florida. First one was with the co-workers at Teacher Play Time as I like to call it. Thanx again for the stellar bobble-head guys, it totally works with my decore. Then last night, we went to Jason's family party where the theme was gift cards. Highlight of the evening: The torture a junior high boy goes through as his uncle takes his Best Buy card. The kid yelled out "Its not even a store for ADULTS!!!!!!" We all just laughed. I have yet to see an actual elephant at one of these things, and actually, i hope I don't.

BOOT BARN: This store ROCKS! Especially if you ever hit up the Branding Iron....anyways, Jason needed new work boots. This took like an hour. There are SO many types, style blah blah blah of work boots! just BUY ONE! Sorry. Then he got all stoked on some cowboy Australia type hat, then wanted a bolo tie and big belt buckle, but I made him stop at the hat. BUT...we may have met a celebrity. The girl who was behind th counter had a pie-plate of belt buckle that read "MISS RODEO CALIFORNIA" with sequins and other shimmery stuff all around. You could tell she was a true cowgirl because of her SMALL wrangler jeans, Tony Llama Boots, and the fact that under her nicely manicured finger nails there was DIRT!!! And LARGE amounts of it. You can find her on Redlands Blvd, she was pretty too. Probably pretty good with horses and stuff.

My little Friend!

He had his hand in my mouth, what a sick boy! He thought the rest of his dinner was in there, but it wasn't!!!

This is Griffyn!!

He is my new best friend. On December 22, he will be 10 months old and we are hoping that he will be walking! Or not hoping....

He is my sister Julene's kid from New Zealand. When we head to FL we will get pictures of the whole family!

Coolest thing EVER

So, i went to World Market for some Christmas cheer, and i found this thing, for MYSLELF, of course! I eat a lot of eggs due to the fact that i am a lacto-ovo vegetarian, most of the time. This little thing makes perfect eggs for egg McMuffins, and the eggs are nice and fluffy. You should buy one, only about $5.00.

Let's see, what else:

Basketball News: We are now 4-2. No games until New Years Tournament over in Loma Linda!

Training News: I have actually been out on the bike! I am having a good time on the trainer, shockingly! It really pushes me mentally to just keep going!

Another B RATED Restaurant!! As I was walking from "FOX" Monday morning after early morning spin induced need for extreme coffee - My eye spotted a BIG "B"!!!!! I saw it was in the window of The VAULT Martini Bar, so it doesn't really affect me, at all! But come on, do they even serve food there? How can a Martini establishment get a B???? Whatever.

UPGRADES: This is something i have been pondering as I train. How do we all decide to upgrade, and when do we actually deserve it? There are some riders/racers around with the sole purpose to destroy other racers, such as myself (total example guys...). As you know, i moved to Expert, and was granted. It was a HUGE decision and to say the least, back in May, it was a very large decision to move from Beginner to Sport. Now in Expert land the pack widens and the competion is seriously stiff. Can or should racers base an entire move up a level on ONE RACE and how they perform against ONE OTHER PERSON? There are so many variables. Maybe i hit 8 trees, maybe i watched Nemo 6 times the night before, or maybe you just wanted it more. I was going to say that at Mammoth, if i didn't get top 3, i wouldn't go Expert. But why let one race negate an entire season of performance? Or, on the contrary, why let one race overshadow deficiets of 2-20 minutes in a race. At one race I passed girl who is now pro. So tomorrow i will apply to be pro, just because of that race. Joking.

Maybe this is my way of saying beware of why you do things. There are many other things to gain through this training/racing process than beating ONE person. Hopefully, when i quit/die/change/get really slow, you still have something to keep you riding. (Please note: This is not directed to anyone i train with, previous/present teammates, or siblings)

Recap

Here is the rundown of the near past:

Tuesday - Game #1 @ tournament LOST (1-1)
Wednesday - Game #2 LOST bad (1-2). Julene (sister) and her husband Rouru, son Chucky and baby Griffyn arrived from New Zealand! I have not seen them for 2 years and I have never seen Griffyn. This is also Chucky's first time to America as well as his first time on a plane! He's about 16 and lovling it!
Thursday - Game #3 at Tourney WON!!! (2-2) came in about 7th out of 8 at tournament. We learned a lot though...Evening visit to sister and family who are staying at aunts house
Friday - Delighful ride on the trainer and off to shopping madness with the family and Jason ending in a delighful meal at another aunts house! We brought the foreigners to the Woods and my square of a cabin and they said I live in the "wop-wops" NZ for "a long way from anything." I had to interpret for them a few times at Claim Jumpers because even my sister, a US National, who has been in NZ for 5 years, has a nasty thick accent. We look at them and smile, then realize they asked us a question, then we all feel awkward. Actually, it is super fun, they must live here now. And i am stealing the baby. He is my new best friend. At almost 10 months, he is on the verge of walking, we hope by Christmas time so he can dismantle the parents house piece by piece.

More to come because i have packed the chaos in thick for the weekend!

Tournament ETC

Jason exists!Many of you believe that I have created Jason to make myself feel better about not having any friends. But here he is, all dressed up at the Christmas banquet - AKA Kosher-Prom. We had a pretty good time, and yes, he is smiling in this picture. I smile big and a lot and kinda horse-like, which makes up for his under-sized smile. Thus, the perfect relationship!
This is my little basketball team at the Christmas banquet! They are out of control! It took forever to get them to settle down, stop poking or laughing!

We are headed to a tournament in Riverside Tues-Thurs where we will dominate in my quest to take over the world. Or not. It should be a grand time though.

Training Gone WILD

I got a trainer! Thank you Mr. Johnson! This is the exact tool I needed to take my training to the next level so that my dreams of taking over the world would become a reality! I am on the borrow to maybe lease to buy program, it works out very nicely. I think my OCD may become very useful in the fact that with having this thing set up 6 feet from my bed and on the way to anywhere else in my life, i may just ride it a lot!

First trainer workout run down: I watched the "Incredibles" to give me that extra edge as I pedaled. I used Dash as my inspiration and he got me through some of the toughest spots. Since I had yet to light the pilot on my propane heater, the "house" was a crisp 58 degrees as starting. I thought to turn on the overhead fan to simulate more of the actual outdoors, but when i do that, globs of dust fly everywhere, and cause breathing issues.

Problem: DOZER - For awhile he chased my feet as they circled around. He came back later to lick the perspiration off my legs. Then he figured out that he could put his front paws on the top tube and get very close to my face. A very interesting experience. He is getting crated next time.

Pictures of all of this soon to come.



New Training Diet: Hot Cheetos and 7 Up. This is an awful choice. The 7UP was a desperate attempt to bring the sensation back to my mouth and lips after an over-zealous attack on the Cheetos. Those things are sick. But I could not stop eating them. My eyes were watering, nose running. By the end, my fingers were caked in the pink/red substance that must contain high amounts of Red 9 and some addictive addative. To say the least, i do not feel well.

One Complaint: NMBS #1 has been changed to April 23. And it is still in Bonelli. Ack. BUT...there is this epic mtb race up in the Napa Valley that day and I have been trying to get up there for the past few years. I used to do it in college since it was hosted by my school in our back 40, but now i feel like i have to stay in town to hit up a big NORBA. In theory, it conflicts with Castaic as well, which we all know it wouldn't hurt to miss that one.

I am heading to the staff Christmas party for a bunch of teacher cheer! I am making "Black Bean Salad Ole" which has nothing to do with Jose Ole.

INGREDIENTS:

2 Cans black beans, drained
1 Can Herdas medium salsa
2 Limes - squeezed for their delicious juice
I Bunch Cilantro chopped itty-bitty
I bag frozen corn - unfrozen

Get some chips and you are set!

A Tree Fell

The Forest really does fall in Forest Falls, really. THis place gets crazy wind action and the pine cones hitting the roof sound like they are coming right through. We are all now on branch partol, checking out which ones might choose to fall. This tree fell partially on the "Ark" the old restraunt near the trail head in FF.

Small Cabin on the left is my friend Chris's, which was about 4 feet from being smashed in half this week by a giant Oak that took its plummet to earth. The cabin that it squished had one occupant who is actually ok.

OTHER NEWS:

My super cool basketball team has notched its first victory! It was ugly though, 7-4 at HALF TIME!! (Yes, this is HIGH SCHOOL) But we pulled it out in the end. Season record: 1-0

Banquet time: SDA version of the prom - kosher. Jason will be making his debut appearance - should be grand.

OUT: for a ride, the kids get out at 12 since it takes them like 6 hours to primp, so i am out on the road and into the gym! FINALLY! Thank you!!!