And now a messege from our security specialist.....

"RAPPY ROO REAR"

(translation-Happy New Year)

From Abraham "Abe"

Happy New Year!

Short work day today(3:00pm!)! YEAH! We are heading out to have sushi tonight and then over to friends house to watch movies and or play board games. Pretty laid back New Years Eve. Kris has to work on Friday so we are going to hang around here a few days and head to Yankton for the weekend. Lots to do there this weekend. Take down Christmas and clean up the Clubhouse better. The last time we were there we left in such a hurry. The snow was coming down and blowing all over the place so we didn't do our NORMAL cleaning. This weekend along with taking down Christmas and cleaning there will be vegging, a crackling fire and a few beverages had, of course!

Hope all of you have a fun and safe New Year!

Shout out to another blog:
Enjoy some GREAT scenic pics from my niece's blog / flicker site. By the way she will be moving up the cyclecross racing category to "A" soon! Congrats kiddo!

New Years Goal-lutions?

New Years is approaching and so is the making of resolution. We were talking about this on our commute to work yesterday. Kris decided that she does not want to make a New Years resolution but come up with some goals for 2009. Same thing? Maybe, maybe not.......

Resolution-the act of resolving or determining, as upon an action or course of action, method, procedure.
Goal-the result or achievement toward which effort is directed.

The resolution is the action and the goal is the result of the resolution. So it seems as though you can't have one without the other, none the less in Kris's mind we are process of setting goals for 2009. What will they entail?

So watch for our upcoming Goal-lutions in the next few days!

Are you making resolutions / goals for 2009?

What does Christmas really mean? Have we lost sight?

Amazing on how fast Christmas is here and gone.

Do we get sick of all the holiday retailing with Christmas stuff being stocked on the shelves before Halloween? Then there is the whole Black Friday gimmick! You know what I mean. They have a good price on a few items and might only have one or two of said items in the store to get you in the store to buy other items...GIMMICK! Don't get me wrong, I know some stores have to do this to be profitable and of course they employ more people but can there be a law out there that Christmas stuff will not go on the shelves until the middle of November? I know it still runs over the forgotten holiday of Thanksgiving but it sure might make the retail mess a bit more tolerable. I am thankful I do not work in a retail store setting and have to endure this mess for three months, I would go insane!

I really think the younger generation has totally lost focus as to the real reason behind Christmas. Oh, sure church had some visitors there for the Christmas Eve service but by no means were the pews full. Then there was a baptism the night of the Christmas Eve service. I know, I know, they had family in town so it was a perfect time to baptise the child, but isn't that being selfish and taking away part of the meaning of Christmas also?

Then the younger generation also gets so wrapped up in gifts like getting a Wii, Xbox, cell phone, stereo, mp3, ipod stuff or whatever. I have found that as I grow older I do not need gifts. Don't get me wrong they are nice but is it something I really, really need, should the money that is spent on presents go to an organization or church that is near and dear ones heart? Maybe.

Here are a few gifts to ponder that fellow local bloggers gave this year:
Life with Tony gave his wife a kidney for Christmas! CycleSD bought Livestrong wear for his family! This is great as a good chunk of the money goes back to fighting cancer. What a great Christmas present it would be to all of us if a cure for cancer or any other nasty, rotten disease out there was found!

What does Christmas really mean to you? Has it gotten out of hand in your eyes?

Good Christmas

I must have been a very good girl this past year! I know some of you might say the verdict is still out on that one!

Had a great time with family and friends but after a few nights of not getting home until one and two in the morning from festivities at the farm I am done. I need a nap and not eat for three months!...UGH!

NNNNOOOoooo..................

There goes my Christmas........read about it here.

A glimpse back at this year.........

Here it is December 23 and Christmas is nipping at our heels. Where did the year go? What did the year hold for you? Did you meet your goals if you are into those type of things? All good questions to ask as we reflect back on the this past year.

Let's see........
I guess the year started off with weight loss for both of us. Not much but I have been able to keep all but 2-3 pounds off of the 20 through out the year.

Bought season tickets for the community theater in Yankton and enjoyed good plays/musicals throughout the year.

Kris had surgery and has some modified body parts that she proudly shows off!

Took a cruise, a first for us, along with two friends. We all had a great time and of course had to spend a day and half at Disney!

We met some great people out there through the area bike clubs (FAB and Lane Hogs), blogging and twittering. Friends that do not judge you for who you are, can or can't do but are very encouraging and just love life and can make you laugh in any situation and of course like to try different beverages!

Helped with the first ever FAB newsletters. We put out three newsletters this year and are ready to take on the challenge of the up coming year. Gotta live our solving the world problems session we have at Monks...oops, I mean newsletter meetings we have.

Went to a Twins game at the Dome and had a lot of fun at an Irish pub after!

Started to do more bike riding to work with the cost of gas and really enjoyed it. Found out that it is not that bad to bike in cooler weather if you have the right gear. I also found out I am in a better mood once I get to work then if I drove to work....interesting.

I put a few miles on my bikes although not as much as some but lots more than last year for me. It gives me a starting point to my New Years resolutions. I rode in the SD MS150 this year and battled the nasty headwinds. I made it 48.3 miles into the teeth of hell and that was it but it is really about the cause and not how far you ride. I had a blast!

Received a vintage Canondale from my brother-in-law to do with as I wish. I still have it and am trying to decided on what I want to do with it yet.

Got Kris to ride 20 miles from the Clubhouse to Valley View on a hot day, on a road that is hilly and back to the Clubhouse then a month later the 30 mile loop on the Margarita ride in Vermillion. She is ready to ride it again next year and is excited about biking in general next year....YEAH!

Kris turned 50. We had a fun birthday supper for her at Spezia's. Then spent a nice week in the Wisc area in October. Even though it was cool it sure was a lot of fun.

Lance Armstrong came out of retirement and will ride in 2009 for Astana!.....YEAH!

Met some Lane Hogs in Wakonda at The Pit, the home of the throne in the men's bathroom. Lots of fun and we are planning more such trips to catch up with everyone!

Got Christmas shopping done early but have yet to wrap presents...UGH...that has to change!

Had a great holiday celebration in Yankton with our extended family!

Tried some great beers at Monks, caught up with friends that have moved away and just haven't seen in a while.

Loving some of the non-smoking bars in Sioux Falls! Hope they are all non-smoking SOON!

Pretty much a good year. We still have our health, jobs and look forward to what next year will bring! More weight loss, more bike riding, more traveling and more friends we will meet along the way!

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and remember the real reason we celebrate Christmas!

Need something to read?

Check out the latest FAB (Falls Area Bicyclists) newsletter here.

Still crappy out.....

Ok, so I wanted a good snowstorm, right? Well, enough already! The wind is still blowing and I can't convince my body to head out and scoop / blow snow yet as it is still blowing plus it is 30-40 below wind chill. DO NOT LIKE THAT CRAP! So, inside I will stay until Kris calls for her pick-up ride home from work today. Have lots of stuff inside to do today but not really in the mood to do much but vegg. Not much on TV either unless you really want to watch football!

Had a good time Saturday. Had lunch with Kris and her nephew Zach, then talked with Dawn and Christi and we decided to meet at Monk's for some beer, solve the world problems, and sit by the fireplace there. We got there around 1:45 and left at 5:20! The beer was good (3-Surly browns and 1-Sam Adams Chocolate Bock) but what was more fun was as we sat there three ladies walked up and ended up to be three friends from my old investment club! So we chatted and got caught up and had a few beers. Lots of fun. I picked up Kris and we headed to A Taste of the Big Apple for supper. The place was hopping! Good pizza was had albeit I still really love Charlie's pizza. Big Apple pizza is different and still really good. We had the Jersey Junker which had almost everything on it! Very tasty!

What next week holds....
*Kris is on vacation, that slug.
*I have presents to wrap and send out. If you are reading this and live in PG Calif or Dallas Center Ia, and you are to receive a present from us it might be LATE!...SORRY!
*Buy beer and wine for Christmas.
*Grocery shop ----EARLY!
*Make whatever we need to make for the meals.
*Laundry...UGH.
*Blow and scoop snow...again.....UGH!
*Gathering at Kris's brother-in-laws followed by Church at 11:00pm.
*Gathering at the farm Christmas Day.

I am sure more will be added to the list as the week goes on....Will I be able to sleep in one day this coming weekend? I can only hope!

Flame, BKs new cologne?

WHAT??? Yup, I said BK (Burger King) not CK (Calvin Klein) read about it here.

Can you imagine?

Yup, honey pick me up a whopper with cheese, medium combo, diet coke and some of Bks finest, a 5ml of their fast food smelling cologne. Of course they aren't selling them in the BKs as of yet but, what is next? We can only imagine......

Wednesday ramblings.........

Saw a brave soul commuting out there this morning. I know there are more than just one out there commuting and my hats off to you all! I have pretty much given into the weather unless the roads get cleaned off a bit better. ...YUP, scared I would fall and break something....can't have that!

The weather report is saying we are to get MORE snow, maybe 6 inches plus! Let me just say I love the snow, but not a fan of the below zero stuff. So it can snow all it wants. Over lunch today I finally got the snowblower started so it is ready to go now. Should have been done a while ago but it was not meant to be, I guess. They are saying next week we will be in the freezer again...UGH!

Downloaded a new program for my crackberry. It is an e-mobile planner. I like it so far. It keeps me from going back and forth from one application to another, calendar to my task list. I need to work with it a bit more yet to utilize it better.

Kris has the day off as she has to work this weekend. She is at home bonding with Abe this afternoon. I am sure it is more like he is laying there snoring and she is reading a book, drinking coffee and of course a load of laundry will be done here and there....ahhh the life.

For being organized with Christmas this year, to start with, we sure have fallen behind in a hurry! No Christmas tree up at our house and guessing with the stuff we have to do yet it will not happen this year. I think putting the tree up at the Clubhouse and helping Kris's brother-in-law with his tree this year was enough. We have all the gifts purchased so it is a matter of wrapping and sending some off which will happen this weekend. The others we will want to get out to Kris's moms before Christmas as it makes things so much easier on Christmas Eve. Good thing Kris has ALL next week off...LUCKY DUCK! We do not have Christmas cards out yet either but that has now turned into holiday cards so it gives us a bit more time! Oh yes, then there is the liquor store run for Christmas....good thing I found a coupon for 10% off!

Why am I blogging with all this to do?

Friends, food, fermentations and festivities.....

Great weekend in Yankton.

Of course hit Charlie's for pizza Friday night. Saturday we slept in as best we could. Why is it when you get older you can't sleep in anymore? Darn internal clock. After breakfast we made our shopping list and hit Wally world.

I decided to buy a couple bows and put them on the trees we donated to the city in memory of mom and dad. One at Memorial park on the northwest edge of the tennis courts and one at Riverside park on the outside of the left field fence at the baseball diamond. I thought it made them look a bit festive! I dropped our new point and shoot digital camera in the mud taking the pics of the evergreen tree (see the mud at the base of that little guy!). Thank God the camera and of course the tree were fine.

We got the soups, potato dumpling and chili, made and all the other stuff ready for our holiday gathering party Saturday night. What fun it is to get together with that group. It was the six owners of the Clubhouse and then Kris's mom (Joan), my Godparents (Luther and Joan) and one of my mom's friends (Rose). We have all become more like family than friends and we cherish the time we spend with all of them. We love to sit and share stories, laugh and have great food. As a thank you and Christmas present, Kris and I took everyone to the play which turned out to be a more of a musical of "What a Wonderful Life" it was good but different with the singing, which was unexpected. I have never seen the film version all the way through so might have to do that this year at some point. We headed back to the clubhouse for desert and an ornament exchange. What fun. We also tried to take a group photo with the new camera. We got it on the tripod. Kris tried to set the self timer. Lets just say this provided a LOT of the laughter of the evening. She did figure it out with Gilly's help and we finally got a good picture of all of us. I guess there is a bit of a learning curve on this little guy (canon SD880is).

(back row l to r) Ronnie, ME, Nanci (Kono), Joan (Kris's Mom)

(middle row l to r) Joan, Rose, Luther

(front row l to r) Dawn (Mackie), Kris and Christi (Gilly)

Sunday was nothing but ugly as far as the weather. Cold with 30-50mph winds makes a deadly windchill. We decided to head out semi-early and glad we did. From Vermillion to I-29 the visibility was not so great at all. We stopped and filled up with gas at the Coffee Cup ($1.43 / gallon) and about got blown away. This truck stop is really out in the open and the wind was REALLY BAD at that point. It had to be 40-50 mph! VERY DEADLY if you are out in that very long. We got on the indy and the road seemed to be good except we had a nasty cross wind at that point that just loves SUVs! Oh well, we survived and got Kris's mom home in Crooks with no nasty events happening. Lot more snow in the the Crooks area than Sioux Falls but Sioux Falls has more then Yankton.

I watched The Flying Scotsman (Graeme Obree)on Showtime yesterday afternoon. He fights evil demons and the World Cycling Federation to set a few world records on a bike he made out of a washing machine parts. Amazing and good story. Then it was off to ZZZZ-land after the movie for three hours! Pretty laid back afternoon that was for sure.

VERY COLD this morning 12 below zero with 30-40 below zero windchill....UGH! Don't like it this cold. I will take snow anytime but I hate this below zero crap!

Bring on the weekend!

HAPPY FRIDAY YA'ALL!

Are we going to have our first major blizzard this weekend? Secretly...I kind of hope so! I like the snow and am ready for an old fashion snow storm where you get snowed in for DAYS! Ok, well, I guess, I am hoping for a lot as that global warming thing has made a mess of the good old snow storms that we had, back in the day.

We are heading out to Bridge City tonight and ready for holiday fun. There will be six of us, clubhouse owners, 4-dogs and one clubhouse owner mom staying there Saturday night. We will have a full house for sleeping. Saturday night we are hosting a holiday gathering with our Yankton family! The beer fridge is stocked and ready. There will be FOOD ABOUND and then off to the play "It's a Wonderful Life", at the old Dakota Theater. I am stoked for this! Last year we saw A Christmas Carol and it was really good and by the review from Cycling Cathy this sounds even better. I can't wait!

I am ready for the weekend to begin!...BRING IT ON!....NOW!

Been awhile.....

Wow, been awhile since I have blogged, that darn Blackberry and all my micro blogging, twitters or tweets or whatever they call it, has clogged my brain with all sorts of stuff that makes it out in little spurts but not to the main blog page. Sorry. Yes, I have become addicted to that darn thing. I was told it would happen and it has....DANG IT!...the land of the Crackberry.

The weekend was fun. We headed to Northfield Mn where Jessie James robbed a bank at some point and was capture, I think, haven't read the whole story yet! Didn't see the bank. Went to St Olaf to see Kris's niece. Her choir had a Christmas concert. It was good. Fun to watch people and how they sing. Some are SO ANIMATED while others just stand there and open their mouths.

Saturday night we had the buffet straight from the land of Norway. I tried lutefisk. Ok, let me just say that I do not see what the big deal is about it. It is a bit odd, can't say I would crave it but it was edible with LOTS of butter and a WHITE CREAM sauce. Would I have it again, probably. One lady behind us called it fish jello! Tried herring also. Not a fan of it as it is either really a strong pickled taste or a bit more fishy taste than I like. This was not bad. Of course lefsa, rosettes, romugrut (sp?) which is kind of a custard type thing. The buffet was actually not bad and of course lots of fun trying the different foods.

Sunday we hit the Tavern for breakfast. It is in the basement of the Archer House an old inn along the river. Good food, service a bit slow and a bit loud in there but I zoned out while Kris and her mom rehashed each apartment Kris had lived in since college.

The drive home was kind of wild at times. Snowing and blowing. One van in the ditch. We noticed no highway crews out on the indy. Cutbacks? Not sure but thought it was odd. We got on to I-90 for a few miles and it cleared up.

Not all that much new. Have a busy rest of the week with FAB board meeting, FAB newsletter meeting, at Monk's of course!

Lots going on.....

It is a special day at our house today! It is Abe's 5th birthday! I can hardly believe he is 5. You can read his story on his webpage about how he came to us so I will not go into details here. We have a trip planned to Petco so he can pick out a treat or toy then it is off to Taco Bell for supper and of course chips for another special treat for Abraham. He loves the Taco Bell chips.

In other noise, crazy work week, COLD weather, have not been on the bike at all, recruiter called about possible job offer in Omaha (lots to consider), one of our friends has skin cancer and same friends 13 y.o. niece has Ewings Sarcoma cancer. UGH....damn cancer raises its ugly head again.

Heading to St Olaf for the Christmas concert this weekend. Should be a good time but not really looking forward to going out of town when we have LOTS to do at home...Oh well it will be fun.

Keep a few people in your prayers / thoughts, if you do that sort of thing, in the coming weeks:
Life with Tony is donating his kidney to his wife on Tuesday, my friends upcoming skin cancer surgery and positive thoughts for friends niece to get her through chemo the next 5-7 months and on to being cancer free and anyone that is having a hard time this holiday season for whatever reason.

If you are struggling with things this holiday season remember God only gives us what he thinks we can handle!

Mug Club party....

Hit up Granite City last night for their Mug Club Keg Tapping party! This was the first one I have been to and it will not be that last. It was free for Mug Club members and one guest. Of course we had to pay for the beer but we got FREE fruit, crackers, cheese, shepherd's pie and bangers and mash! So our meal last night was a little over $8.00 and that was just the price of two beers. I had the new GC brew, Mck's Scottish Ale, which I thought was pretty tasty. Kris didn't much care for it and opted for the two pull which is half Northern Lights and half Brother Benny's, which was good also. My membership has already paid for itself as I got my membership on a Sunday when it is half price, $10.00. You get $2.00 off at brunch and special drink prices plus they have these fun little parties every so often. We had other things to get done last night so we both only had one beer before heading out but it sure was worth it!

Lance to ride TDF

Lance Armstrong to ride in the Tour de France ! Read about it here.