Oh Hello, Sea Lions!

Recently I had a birthday.  Kind of a big one.  The big 3-0.  As such, we splurged and went to Monterey!  (And by splurged, I mean of course that Eddy came with me to a conference that happened to be held in Monterey over my birthday.) We did get a pretty schmancy hotel room.

Unfortunately this beast stared at me every time we entered the room.

Creepy. The nice thing about Monterey, though, is that they do have real versions of those guys.

Like lots of them.

But I mean really a lot.

Lots.

Portrait of An Ada

Here's my Ada!

She's fat, as you can see in the embroidery rendition.

BFFs At Last

When we first got Rupert, he was a pain.  I mean really.  He literally cried all night.  We had this really loud fan we would turn on right by the bed in a vain attempt to drown out a portion of his meows.

Enter Ada.  We thought she would "keep him company."  I had this dream of them curling up together like internet kittehz.

Boy were we wrong.  He stopped meowing at night (thankfully) but he pretty much replaced that with constant hissing at Ada.  As long as they hissed at each other during the daytime hours only we were happy.

Enter Norman.  Norman loves Ada.  Loves to nom her, that is.  Rupert, on the other hand, is back to his old hissing routine and he totally intimidates Norman.  Norman won't even enter a room if Rupert hisses at him.

Enter kitchen demolition.

 Finally my dream is realized.

Let's just say that it didn't take nearly so long to get the boys to get along with each other.

Excuses

So this year we wussed out again.  I am not ashamed to say it.  Instead of the planned 180 miles in two days, we merely rode 90ish miles in one day.

Excuse #1: Eddy had a medical issue that prevented us from training to tha max, so we planned to take it a little easy.

[Yep.  We ride a tendem bike and occasionally wear matching jerseys.  We're cool like that]

Excuse #2: Also, the changed the route this year. Instead of 60 miles the first day you ride 90 miles. Unfortunately, they added all 30 miles to the route before lunch. So actually, we did sag in the last 10 or so miles to lunch.

[P.S. That's totally the Gulf in the background.]

Excuse #3: Eddy was real dehydrated. See how he couldn't even apply sunscreen properly?!

Excuse #4: About 8 miles from the first day finish (8 miles, people!) our chain broke!

We are actually really glad that we planned to sit out the second day because it's not like the support techs just hang around all day with extra chains for tandem bikes.

Excuse #5: Nicci loves pools. Instead of waking up at 5 am the next day to ride another 90ish miles we did this.

Pools > Bikes.

Portrait of A Norman

Here's the second in my series of family portraits.

More to come!

Curb Alert

Having bathroom renovations promptly followed by kitchen renovations means that our trash guys hate us in a serious way.

The remains of our bathroom:

The remains of our kitchen:

At least the kitchen reno team cleans up their mess a little more thoroughly than Eddy does.

Gonna Get To You Girl

Step by step
Ooh baby
Gonna get to you girl



Step by step!

Step by step
Ooh baby
Gonna get to you girl

Step by step
Ooh baby
Really want ya in my world

Hey girl in your eyes
I see a picture of me all the time
(Step)
And girl when you smile
You got to know that you drive me wild

Step by step
Ooh baby
You're always on my mind
Step by step
Ooh girl
I really think it's just a matter of time

Hey girl can't you see
I got to have you all just for me
And girl yes it's true
No one else will ever do

Step
Step

Step
Step by step

Step one:
We can have lots of fun

Step two:
There's so much we can do

Step three:
It's just you and me

Step four:
I can give you more

Step five:

Don't you know that the time has arrived
Huh!!

Green Hooded Sweatshirt

If you are of a certain generation, when you read this blog title you automatically sing, "red hooded sweatshirt!"  Before you look at these pictures I would like to state for the record that the reason we bought this thing is that despite his macho demeanor Norman gets cold.  He shivers when it's 60 degrees outside.  Doesn't that remind you of someone else you know?

I would also like to state for the record that I might applique a unicorn on this hoodie.  That way Norman can have street cred.