California Sun!

We were off to the California beaches for Memorial Day weekend. Tom and I went with Barbie and Larry to Malibu for a long weekend and stayed at my Granny's beach house in Malibu. There is nothing better than free lodging!

We started out Thursday doing some sight-seeing in L.A. We hit Sunset Blvd, Grauman's Chinese Theatre, the Kodak Theatre, Hollywood Walk of Stars, went to a rehearsal at CBS Studios for "Real Time with Bill Maher", and finished up at Venice Beach. It was a packed day of weird/hilarious people watching and ended with some serious tasty beverages at Duke's.

Friday - had lunch with my Granny, took naps, and then saw Star Trek. I loved it! What I didn't love? $15 per freaking ticket!!!! Two people + tickets, popcorn and drinks = $50. Wow, Malibu is seriously expensive.

Saturday - went to Paradise Cove for breakfast and had a yummy breakfast. Serious people watching there. We sat next to a freakish couple who were not afraid to talk about their sex life, doing it on the beach, getting tattoos of their family members on their bodies, and ordering Vodka on the Rocks at 9:30am. Wow. After that fun stuff, we got some Miller Lite and headed to Zuma beach for some sun. A little bit of info: it is illegal to have beer or cigarettes on the beach. We didn't know that and got a "talking to" from the beach patrol on their 4 wheelers. Luckily, they found our Texas accents adorable and let us off with a warning. After our brush with the law, we decided to move our party back to the condo. We ended our day grilling, playing Phase 10 (Larry is the new King of the game), and consuming more beer. I think we all reached our limit of beer drinking this weekend.

Sunday - we went to pick up my aunt for breakfast and ended up calling 911. She boards horses on her property and one of the riders was kicked off their horse and kicked around a bit. Luckily, it looked like a 'minor' injury, according to my aunt. I'm not sure I'd call a broken rib and wrist, minor, but, that's my aunt for ya. Before we headed to the airport, we watched a few episodes of "Top Gear". Hilarious show, if you haven't seen it.

After all that, here are some photos. Enjoy!

Our view from the condo:

One of the major reasons we headed to Sunset - we wanted to see The Viper Room.

I'm a celebrity nerd, as you know. It's Hyde Lounge!!

An example of the interesting people on Venice Beach:

Venice beach:

Barbie and Larry - not prepared for the freezing ocean water:

We went to In-N-Out Burger for lunch. YUM!

Jealous??


Look, it's the Hollywood sign!!

Barbie after two bottles of wine:




Another example of drunkenness:

Barbie and Larry on Zuma Beach:

Me and Senor at Zuma:

Weekend Fun!

My high school friend, Mandy, is getting married next month. She and her fiance, Mikey (also high school pal), live in San Antonio, but, most of her friends live here in Dallas. So, where should she have her bachelorette party? Dallas, of course!

I only knew two girls at the party when I got there, but, the group was so much fun that we were all best friends by the end of the evening. When you have to wear sombreros the entire evening, you bond.

During the lingerie shower, Mandy had to answer questions that the hostesses had asked Mikey. You know the drill: how well do you know your groom? kind of questions. However, if she got them wrong, she had to do shots of Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill. How hilarious is that??? We had to help her finish the bottle at the end. Why, oh why, did we ever drink that crap? Oh right, we were 18 yrs old and drank whatever we could get.

After the shower, we had time to kill, so we played Catchphrase for awhile. Mandy and I were on the same team and we rocked it! Our other friend, Stephanie, was not happy that we kicked her team's ass. Little did she realize that I am super competitive....and stop at nothing, NOTHING, to win.

We then met the group out at Manny's for a quick bite. Our sombreros were the hit of the night. We had to do some chasing around the bar later that night to get them back. People were trying to steal them!

It was great fun with lots of shots (the bar owner gave us free shots if he could wear Mandy's sombrero for awhile) and dancing.

I'm bummed that I can't make it to their wedding because these peeps know how to party!

Last picture of the night....drunk girls!

Congrats, Mandy and Mikey!!

Geez, not again.

I distinctly remember saying "no running in 2009". How is it that I am ignored and harped on until I cave? Sigh.

I am doing a Sprint Triathlon in July. Yes, swimming, biking, and RUNNING in JULY. What the heck am I thinking???

A few friends (and sister who always gets me into trouble) and I are competing in the Disco Triathlon on July 19th at Lake Ray Roberts in Denton. Here is what I have to do:

500 yard swim

17.6 mile bike ride

3.1 mile run

Sounds short, right? I've been in swim training mode for about a week and my fellow triathlon-ers and I have discovered that swimming is EXHAUSTING. And, it's first on the list. I am going to have to drag myself out of the lake and on to a bike, then switch to running. UGH.

Here's the big issue: I have to swim in a lake...gross. You can't see where you're going and I'm probably going to get kicked in the head by my fellow competitors. Plus, I hear that swimming in a pool is a breeze to swimming in "open water". Awesome, I'm going to drown.

I'm such a positive person sometimes. :)

Goodbye, my friend.

I have watched Scrubs since it first began years ago. I've loved every episode. I couldn't decide which episode was my favorite because they were all so great. Before last night, it was "My Hero" which was dedicated to John Ritter, who played JD's dad. I also absolutely love "My Musical" with Turk and JD's "Guy Love" song.

Last night's finale is now my all-time favorite. I laughed and cried at the same time.

I've heard rumor that they are thinking of bringing back the show without it's main characters. At first, I thought, "Great! More Scrubs!". But, after last night, I realize that Scrubs cannot exist without JD, Turk, Elliott, Carla, and Dr. Cox. They are the core of the show and I don't think I'll watch it without them.

Selfishly, I hope they don't bring it back and let last night's episode be their final word. It was fantastic.

MS150...er, MS72?

The big bike ride weekend. We've been training for weeks. We had our gear ready. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate. We were only able to ride 72 miles of the 86 mile day one. The officials called the ride around 1pm due to incoming bad weather. We got into the car just before the skies opened up. They cancelled day two around 6pm Saturday night because of the weather reports/warnings for Sunday. Weather reports are another discussion....seriously, are they morons? I can guess better than they can. It was quite the thunderstorm Saturday night, but, Sunday had no rain in sight. We could have rode, but, it was a little chilly. Oh well, we had tons of fun Saturday night.

But first, the ride. We all rocked! We started in the back of the pack, due to mishaps with Julie's bike tire. So, it was around 7:30am before we crossed the start line. Our average mph for the first 35 miles was 18.4. That's great for me, especially with the humidity level. At one of the rest stops, we felt a cold gust of wind and hurried past Lake Ray Roberts to get to lunch. We had one of our support people there with our windbreakers. Of course, five minutes after we left lunch with the windbreakers on, the weather turned back to humid and hot. After pulling into the last rest stop, the announcement was made over the loudspeaker that the ride was cancelled for the day. They had reports of hail and lightening that were coming in. Talk about frustrating - we had 14 miles left and we were all feeling great and wanted to cross the finishline. Some people hopped on their bikes and took off. We were glad we didn't do that - it took about 20 minutes and the rain started pouring. So, we called Dwane for a pick up and got out of there.

We all went to the hotel, took showers, and went to grab dinner. While at On The Border, we got word that the ride had been cancelled and the drinking commenced. Margaritas and beer, what else do you need? How about 90s trivia - guys vs girls, back at the hotel? It was ON! Of course, the girls won. We are awesome.

Thanks to everyone who donated - I've raised $1460 this year so far. Woo Hoo!!

Below are some fun pics from the weekend.

Julie, Tom, and Barbie at the start line.

Barbie's excited because they just announced our team name over the loudspeaker.

The start line. 3,000 cyclists.

The scrumptious lunch - BEST PB&J

The last rest stop where we were forced to stop. We had to leave our bikes and get the heck out of there. The volunteers loaded all the bikes and took them to the finish line.

Nora, Julie, Kris, and Tom's sad faces after we found out we had to quit for the day.

Loading up the Yukon with 4 bikes, luggage, coolers, and all of us. It was packed!

The inside of Barbie and Larry's Pathfinder. They crammed the rest of the bikes and luggage, plus, their group. I'm not sure we could have fit anyone else or another piece of luggage.

Larry - trying to tie down the bikes.

UPDATE ON THE DUCKS: The ducks are gone. After the storm on Wednesday, the ducks left the pool. They were there Thursday morning when I left for work and then gone when I got home. They haven't made an appearance since then. The pool, however, is about to overflow. Stop raining!!