Best Buddies

In a few weeks time, I am going to participating in a 100 mile charity ride raising money for an organization called Best Buddies. I got involved through my company who is helping to sponsor the event for a very good cause. The mission of Best Buddies is to enhance the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by providing opportunities for one-to-one friendships and integrated employment. I could go on and on about how great the organization is but feel free to check it out for yourself at bestbuddies.org.

Last time I was back in the States, we went on a group ride with our buddy Carlos (show in the white jersey with his arm around Kim). Carlos is going to be riding the tandem during the friendship races and is excited and eager about his training! He also told me I have great silver shoes - you can't seem them though, they are hidden by the grass (I'm second from the right).

So for those of you who would like to make a tax deduction to a good cause, please think about sponsoring me as a rider in this event. The event is fun, the charity is backed by the Shriver family (Maria and Ah-nold will be at the event) and the money definitely goes to a good cause. (And I will NOT make a shameless plug to everyone I've ever sponsored and their great causes) You can sponsor me by going to the website below, clicking Sponsor Rider, and searching for my name. Thank You!!!!

http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=249917

Panic in the Fridge

Since moving here, everyone keeps asking me if I am having any trouble eating or finding something to eat. Trust me - I have NO problems consuming more calories than I need. I think the food here is great and the grocery stores are generally enormous. As London is such an international city you can find pretty much everything at the grocery store. The Asian food aisle is usually more than one aisle and you can concistently find local favorites like peanut butter, marmite, nan bread and curry sauce in the store. They literally have something for everyone.

Something that is causing me to panic is the fact that food here is so fresh! Normally, people get very excited when they find out the grocery store only carries fresh food so why do I panic? First of all, what the heck is going to happen in the event of a nuclear war!?!?! How will I eat if everything goes bad? I'm going to have to import some twinkies. But the fresh food down side means no macaroni and cheese in a box, no pasta roni - no anything powered! I'm going to be lost without my favorites! The only thing in the pasta aisle is actual pasta and pasta sauce. Strange. The real down side of Fresh Food Land is that by law, everything must be dated and displayed. When I say everything, I mean everything is dated. Stores incur a fine if food is on the shelf past the Display By date. It's up to you to chance the Eat By date...

How can Soured Cream be fresh?

Even my chocolate could go bad!

Now do you see what I mean by panic? Apparently you don't put food in your fridge unless you plan on eating it..... I never thought I would miss perservatives....

Two Weeks in the Homeland

I just got back after spending two weeks in the States for work. It was quite the whirlwind trip as I tried to squeeze in as many visits with friends, meetings, borrowed bike rides and trips to the veterinarian as I could.

To start, I visited my brother Ken and sister-in-law Rachel in San Diego. The picture isn't the best so I'm afraid you are missing the view of the San Diego skyline behind us on the water. We were joined by their good friend Tracy and we had a nice meal right on the water. Unfortunately, all the peace and quiet was thrown out the window when I accidently set off the house alarm at 3:30AM. Blame the jet lag that I was wide awake but I really didn't mean to wake up the whole house and neighborhood. Note to self: do not open windows at 3:30AM when the alarm is on. Whah! Whah! Whah! (It was like a very loud, screeching bird)

Another bad picture but what can you do with a camera phone and a squirming dog? I had to take Tucker back to the vet since he pulled his stitches open while I was visiting. It probably was good to connect with the vet staff again as we will be going to the vet's office in September to complete the final paperwork for his move to London. You just might be able to see the Frankenstein-esque pattern in his side. Let's just say I can't wait for his hair to grow back.

Although the work trip was full - and really - it was very full - I did have a great offiste meeting. We spent the morning reviewing the different fuctional areas and then plotted a course for the department as a whole. Once done with the 'business' end of things, it was outside to the horseshoe pits for some friendly competition. I'm not hard to pick out in this photo as my blinding white legs reflect the glare from the cement.

To keep the competition fair, one of the rounds required the 'granny throw'.

Action shot....

More to come soon - hopefully I'll be buying a new digital camera that will allow me to download the photos to other computers rather than having to wait until I get home. Don't forget to keep in touch!

Tucker's Trauma

Just a quick post as I am back in the States for two weeks. I needed to make a trip back for work and in the mean time I got to see my mutt. Unfortunately, he had a little altercation at the park before I got here (I think he's acting up on the account of me being an absentee parent) and as a result, ended up at the vet with stitches. Not the best picture, but I still think his expression speaks volumes about his predicament.

Moving In

It's been an exciting week as my household goods have finally arrived in the UK. It was quite the fun filled day of delivery, damages, stuff that doesn't fit and finally feeling a little bit more like home.....

My sea container arrived right on time. It's fairly disconcerting to know that your entire life fits in a 20 ft sea container. And even then it only fit 2/3rds of the container! In the end, I still have way too much stuff. I thought I did a good job purging before I left (I took MANY bags to Goodwill), however, I still ended up with 12 pot holders. I guess I'm holding out to have a lot of cooks in my kitchen.

After the container arrived and the movers showed up, it was a bit of drama to actually get the container open. Due to this bent bolt, the guys had to drive around until they found a hardware store where they could buy a hacksaw. The crowbar just wasn't cutting it.

Turns out my queen size box spring is too big for the staircase so I've moved it into the sports/office/garage room for now. So much for dreams of sleeping in my own bed. Now I have to find a mattress store for a split box spring. Note to self: buy a two piece box spring.

The couch was also quite a challenge. Good thing the boys were able to get it through the window.

Lastly, after much hard work and unpacking on my end, I thought I'd show you what some of the rooms look like with all my junk in them. Before and After... enjoy!

I know, looking at photos of someone's old furniture is pretty lame, but for me, it made my week. Now I'm off to try and unpack/organize the kitchen. Good night everyone - I'm ready for visitors!

Bella Italia

My good friends J and M invited me to meet them on their Spanish and Italian holiday and I jumped at the chance. I took a couple of days off and met them in Milan and then we headed to the Italian Riveria.

Here we are on the bus to the train station. In order to get to the tiny town of Monterosso we took planes to the airport, a bus to the train station and a train to the beach.

The views upon arrival. The train station sits in the center of town between Old Town and New Town. You exit the train station and view the ocean - and we just headed to the right and walked two blocks to our hotel.

Look just above the pier to see the man carved into the rock...

Once we got the lay off the land, we stopped off for some prosecco (Italian champagne) and some people watching.

Here's a photo of J heading down the pedestrian area carrying our after dinner drinks (we haven't had dinner yet however)

The view from our table at dinner. It really couldn't get better than this.

Just proving we really are at dinner! More prosecco....

....as the evening moved on we discovered a beach party in full swing. The flyers described it as a 'cartoon party' and after a few sightings of Minnie Mouse and a few other interesting characters we decided to join the fun. To all of you who we emailed, called and texted during this hour - our sincere apologies. It was the Smurfs that made us do it! Well, more likely it was the beer that the smurfs kept giving us in exchange for money. It could have been the prosecco or vino rosso too, but in the end - we absolutely apologize for antagonizing you while we enjoyed our vacation.

The next day J and M went off hiking and I spent some quality time by the beach. We ended the day with another lovely evening - starting off with some wonderful meat and cheese plates while relaxing by the water....

Just a quick photo - I like how the bidet has a hand soap dispenser. We challenged J with figuring out exactly how this works.

After two lovely days in Monterosso we heading back north to Milan. Here M writes postcards and J takes a siesta.

In Milan, we toured the Duomo. Built to hold 40,000 worshippers (the entire population of Milan at the time construction started) the church is impressive inside and out.

After climbing to the roof, we admired the spires and pondered the structural phenomenon of creating this masterpiece without modern technology.

For our last night in Italy we wandered down another pedestrian walkway for some delicious food and a final gellato.

Amazingly enough, to close our Italian visit, as we were wandering back through the park - we came across a concert being held in the local stadium. This photo is obviously useless, but I didn't know if you would believe that we snuck into see R.E.M without it. Yes, that's right - we saw R.E.M in Milan!! Holy crap!

Thanks again to my wonderful friends for inviting me along. I cannot wait for a return trip to Italy - let me know if you would like to join me. Ciao!

Wheels

My new car arrived today. Whahoo!!

I can't figure out how to fold the rear seats down, open up the trunk from in the car or figure out the display - but I'll get there eventually. Good thing I only stalled twice on the way home. Can I blame a new clutch?

By the way, it is a diesel engine that gets 50+ mpg. Cool, huh?

Oh yeah... and here's a picture of the scratch that I already put in the wheel. It only took me 2.5 miles to run into a curb. How can I be so talented?!!?!?? The sad part is, I was warned as soon as I moved here that I will hit the curb at least once with the left front tire - so sad that I managed to avoid it until I got the new car. Oh well, I guess I don't have to worry about scratching it from now on.... Now, who is ready for a spin?