How much can you pack into 44 hours and 800+ miles??

I know - I've been delinquent... I've been sick and I'm in the middle of a huge project at work. What can I say.... Any time I've actually had in front of my computer I've actually been working. Sorry...


But I'm here to share a few details about the Cedar Point trip. Now a fever has burned a few details from my brain but a few still exist. I vaguely remember sitting in a car for hours after work on Friday dishing gossip with Karen and Sara. Mike is such a good guy for driving - rather chauffeuring - us girls all the way to Cleveland. But who am I kidding?? Mike is the roller coaster KING! It's not like WE dragged HIM on this trip. Get serious... He had the pedal to the metal. This was HIS trip. We were just along for the ride.



This is Karen with the computer booted up. "Why?" you ask? Because Mike has a GPS system in it. There's a thingy attached to the computer that's up in the dashboard. He had Karen giving him turn by turn directions. This was the joke of the trip. Even when we had visual contact with our destination Karen would ask "can I turn this thing off now???" Mike would shoot back "NO!!" Yep - it wasn't allowed to be booted down down until we were in the parking lot, parked, engine off.


We didn't stick to "the schedule". We arrived at the hotel at 12:06AM. Not the schedule 11:59PM that Mike had planned. tisk tisk. oh well. that's what happens when you go on a road trip with 3 women. I mean really... at least we didn't have him stop 15 times to pee on the way there. we wanted to get to the hotel just as badly as he did. (we saved the pee stops for the way home : )


The next morning we were up and at 'em bright and early. Stopped for breakfast at this fun place. Don't we look like we're having fun? This was THE BEST couch ever!! Do you see how deep it is?? We were all about to take a nap. really. (but noooooo. that would put us off schedule... the park opened promptly at noon and we had to be there at 11:30 you know... ; )















Ok - so we made it to the park. This was our first ride. Something "Dragster-Thrill-Kill-Throw-Up-Pukster-Ride" or something like that.




It doesn't look like a lot, I know. But it goes from 0 to 120 mph in 4 seconds or something. I like coasters. I enjoy them, they don't scare me. You know when you ride a coaster you get that little tickle in your whoo-haa when you drop down the steep parts or go through the corkscrew?? Well that little tickle was well extended as you go racing up to the 120 mph. uh, a little too extended, if you know what I mean...

Next we rode one of the "little" coasters. Somehow when I got off the ride I must had let condensation from my THREE DOLLAR water bottle (what a rip off!!) get on my jeans. It totally looked as though I peed my pants! Which was funny/ embarassing in itself - but the fact that it happened on a weenie coaster was EXCEPTIONALLY embarassing!!! I mean, really. If I was going to look like I had pee pants at least it should have happened on one of the big, mean, scary coasters!!!


We rode a few more rides and then my cousin LH and her SO met up with us. Unfortunately, since it was such a nice day, the place was PACKED. We stood in line for well over an hour - sometimes TWO HOURS - for each coaster. At the end of the day we only got to ride 7 of the 17 coasters they have at the park.

Sara snapped this pic as we left the park. Kinda creepy, isn't? We went back to the hotel and crashed, got up early the AM and hit the road back to NY. It was a fun weekend. I haven't done something like that since college. And here I thought I was getting too old to do stuff like that...

Update soon to come

I spent a fun-packed, whirlwind weekend at Cedar Point (amusement park in Sandusky, OH) this past weekend. Boy do I have stories!! but I'm going to keep you in suspense until I can get my hands on some picutres to accompany said weekend.

stay tuned!!

Veet with squeegee product review

Last night I picked up some of that Veet stuff from Walgreens ($8.99) - not Neet, as I has previously posted. You know what I'm talking about - the cream hair remover that comes with the non-razor squeegee thingy. I believe I referred to it as the equivalent to the kindergarten safety scissors...

Have you seen the commercials for this stuff? The cute, skinny girl - with the assumably fine leg hair - dancing around her bathroom with the white cream on her legs... then taking the squeegee and simply wicking it all away.

yeah, right. let me tell ya - that's not exactly how it works.

OK sista's. (and bro's - for those of you out there that like a nice, slick look) let me tell you the real story behind this stuff. First off, in case you are a visitor to my blog or haven't been up close and personal with my legs let me share that I have the good 'ol dark, coarse leg hair. Yep - and proud of it. Real leg hair. Stuff that really deserves to be shaved. When I decide to go tree hugger the guys really do run for the hills. There really was a reason I lived in CO for a while. They were the only ones that would take me during that "phase"....

So the directions say to spread on (NOT rub in) the cream and leave on for 3 minutes and then squeegee off. Ok, they don't say "squeegee" but I just like to use the word over and over again : ) They do say you can leave it on for up to 6 minutes. They warn that any longer and you're leaving yourself open to chemical burns.

Now remember the reason I'm trying the product in the first place. The last thing I need is a chemical burn. I'm watchin' that clock like a hawk.

Just in case this shit burns I decide to spread it on just a small area on my leg with the coarsest hair - about 2 inches by 4 inches on my shin. I set the timer for 6 minutes. I let it count down 3 minutes, squeegee off , check to see the results, lather back on the same area and repeat every minute for the next three minutes. Pretty scientific, eh?

By the 6th minute I'm still on the verge of not getting all the hair off. But I'm not trying for anything longer. I'm chalking it off for the precious lost seconds in between the checking and respreading. I'm satisfied that I'm not going to burn myself or have some sensitive skin/ allergic reaction and decide to go for the full leg. Well, right up past the knee.

Ok, I'm just going for an honest product review here. I lathered both legs and set the timer to 6 minutes. After a little over 5 minutes I start with the back of the first leg I lathered (finest hair) and start squeegeeing. It's not as easy as the commercial makes it look. I'm standing in the shower with just the tap running so I can rinse the squeegee off. The coarsest hair still isn't coming off that great. I finally get both legs done right around 6 minutes.

They aren't nearly as smooth as with a razor but they are smoother than I thought they'd be. The smell isn't the greatest either. Even though it didn't take that long it still was a pain because I couldn't just incorporate it into my regular shower routine. Ok, maybe I could have, but I didn't.

But I didn't stop there. I decided, what the hell. Wonder what it would do for my pits??

Let me stop you right here and warn you AGAINST trying this at home. Although the instructions didn't say you couldn't do your armpits I wouldn't recommend it. My hair there is also very course - more so than my legs - so I left if on for 6 minutes and I do believe I did end up with mild chemical burns. NOT COMFORTABLE!!! Plus the instructions to tell you not to apply anti-perspirant for 24 hours. WHAT???!!! So what am I supposed to do? go around smelling all day??? Actually I totally disregarded this advice and did apply some Dove eventually. It seemed to soothe the burning pits. I'm ok this AM but there are still noticeable red blotches when I went to apply more deodorant this morning.

So - my final recommendation? Regardless of how hazardous a sharp razor can be it is still worth the risk for a good shave. Just be sure to keep the girls out of the way....

shaving update

I have sufficiently scared myself out of shaving. I haven't done it all week. Not even the pits. Haven't touched the razor AT ALL. Thank god David's out of town. He comes home late tonight. For his sake I'm going to have to break down and shave eventually.

I think I'm going to stop at the store on the way home and pick up some of that new Neet stuff with the rubber tipped "razor" to shave off the hair removing cream. It's like the equivilent of kindergarten saftey scissors.

I may try that for a while and when I'm comfortable work my way back up to the big girl scissors. um, I mean, razor.

MK Par-tee

I hosted a bash last night! Who knew so many women still had issues trying to put on make-up???

I have truly found "my people".

I am not a freak.

I am not the only girl in the world that can't figure out freakin' mascara.

...that not all eye shadow makes me look like the bride of Frankenstein.

...that wearing make-up does not make me a fluff-ball... just prettier...

And I think I have conquered my bizarre make-up hording fetish.... I actually went upstairs last night, grabbed all the baggies of old make-up (some that were YEARS and YEARS old) and tossed them. In front of EVERYONE!!! I think I'm cured.

That or I realized I needed to make room for new stuff....

I will soon be the new owner of vanilla and bronze eyesicle cream, a lip stick and a gloss. Wheee!!!

So thanks to everyone who came and had fun. Thanks to Sara for being the patient jedi master with all of us.

Can't make this shit up

Ok fellow legs shavers. most of this story will probably sound familiar to you... hopefully the last part will not...

picture this:
I'm in the shower. Left foot propped up on the shower wall in front of me. Leg all lathered up ready to be shaved. Thigh gets shaved first because otherwise as I lean forward to shave my shin my boob rubs off shaving cream. (yes, my boobs are big enough to rub against my thighs... smartasses....) I've been shaving since I was about 11. I have this down to a science.

I start shaving said left thigh. I need to rinse the blade. Due to the way I have the shower pointed I need to reach across my left thigh with my right hand to get the blade under the heaviest stream of water that is showering down on the left side of my left thigh.

got all that?? it's very important!

Somehow (and I stress the "somehow") I manage to hit my boob with the razor as I move it across my body to the water.

At first I'm thinking "careful there Tex!!! not smart to go slicin' off the nipple!" Then I go back to shaving. A few minutes later I go to rinse the blade again and notice that MY NIPPLE IS BLEEDING!!!!

I CUT MY NIPPLE WITH MY RAZOR!!!

How in the F**K do you do that?? (aside from how I EXACTLY described it above??)

Yep. I did it. I cut my nipple. Just a nick, mind you, but I cut it all right. And like every other razor nick that bitch kept on bleedin'. Imagine me trying to keep pressure on it while still trying to finish shaving that leg and then the other leg!!! No kidding - it couldn't get it to stop bleeding when I got out of the shower either. I used a tissue and kept applying pressue with no luck.

Yep - I finally grabbed a band-aid, slapped that thing on and put a bra on over it to hold it in place. I'm guessing it finally stopped because it hasn't bled through the band-aid. I think that's a good sign.

And if I ever have kids I'm pretty sure I'm not going to even try to breast feed. Totally not worth it...

100 mile bike is OVER

Whew! The ride is O-V-E-R! Thank god...

Well, I wasn't able to do the whole 100 miles. I'm kinda bummed. but I learned that apparently my "mild" exercise-induced asthma isn't so mild after all... and I don't have it well controlled either... which is triple embarassing seeing as I work for the company leader in AEROSOL DELIVERY DEVICES!!!!!

So, long story short (because giving you the play-by play of a 100 mile ride would be tough for even the best story teller...) 3.97 miles into the ride I had to stop because of my crappy-ass asthma (that isn't supposed to be a big deal!!! AAHHHHH!!!!) I had to get off my bike, get in the SAG wagon ("safety and gear") and ride until I was better. It took me only about 10-15 minutes and I was fine and ready to go!!

"all right - let me out. I'm fine. I've only missed a few miles. let me out!!"

only problem - rule is, once you're in the SAG wagon - for whatever reason (medical emergency, flat tire, etc...) you're in until the next stop. Figures - I got in the wagon early in the LONGEST section (the very FIRST section, might I add...) So I was held hostage until we got to the first stop/school.

Well, that's how David got to finish and I was about 20 miles off. Oh well. Next year I'll get the asthma under control (and condition better for the hills. They were KILLER!!!)

We still had a good time even though we came upon a thunderhead and saw lightening that made me think that Dorothy and Toto were about to make an appearance in a tornado, got caught a shitty downpour (from said thunderhead we saw that we apparently had ridden into) - like the kind where you're riding and the raindrops are stinging your skin. (of course we were still riding....)

But now I have a personal score to settle... so you can bet your pretty panties I'm doing this again next year!!! So - start saving your pennies now becuase I'll be out hitting y'all up again for donations come about July-ish....

BTW - the pic above is from the local news channel. The guys in front in the white jerseys are two of the "shepards" (leaders). The left is Carl and right is Todd. They are AWESOME. Both are racers. Shepards are strong riders that set the pace, watch out for the other riders, assist with issues, etc... kinda like scout leaders... Carl and Todd pet the pace the WHOLE ride. I should mention that a ride like this is ALL about draft. If you're leading you have no draft, you're creating it for everyone else... which means you're one hell of a strong rider. Oh, did I mention that we had a wicked headwind all day too??? These guys need to be given some SERIOUS props!! Although I'm sure that in the scheme of things this ride was really nothing for them, but thee deserve some credit....

Wish me luck!!

Well, it's almost here! My crazy 100 mile bike ride is THIS FRIDAY.

Like as in, day after tomorrow.

I think I want to run and hide under the bed.

Do you think they'll find me there??????????

Really. What was I thinking??

Well, it's here and it's too late to tell them I've changed my mind after all. Plus, I've accidentally raised $455 !!!!! People are really expecting me to do this... So I guess I'm committed.

(In case you have forgotten, or I have forgotten to tell you, I am raising $$ for the NY chapter of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children.)

Send me all your energy vibes people!! (and your cojones vibes too!!) I need it all!!!! I'll be cycling ALL DAY Friday (from 7:50am to about 5pm!!!)

Wish me luck!!! And pray for NO RAIN!!!

More girls weekend

Ok - so I have mroe pics to post. These are the rest of the pics from my girls weekend when we went bikinng in the Pocono's.

This is right before we got started. Becca, Lena, Tracy, Sara, Jenn and me. Sexy, aren't we?? ; )







Along the way there was a water fall. We all decided to get our picture taken.


Here's Becca - of "candy nipple" fame...

















And Lena, our fearless leader.














And here's Jenn, posin' for the camera.

















Tracy was a FABULOUS sport. She was kicking the ride with a chest/ head cold!!! (Did I mention we did TWENTY SIX MILES??!!!)











Check me out! (in me kerchief.... am I'm 60 years old, or what??!!!)













Sara decided to take a detour and I decided to go with her.











Here's a biking shot of Sara in action













And, another group picture in front of the lovely waterfall.

We had a lovely time!! Actually, it ROCKED!! We need to f***ing do it again!! And SOON!!!

Update on dinner

I want to know what he made.... Hey, PB&J would still count in my book, but what did he "whip up"???? -MadHatter

Ok - truth be told - he ended up not actually making dinner - but the fact that he offered to help - that's all I was looking for. It's a start. He has made "real" dinner for me at least once - maybe twice. (I don't count boiling water for pasta, ordering pizza or suggesting going out as "making dinner")

BTW - D doesn't "whip up". Since's he's new to cooking he's a by-the-cookbook kind of guy. Which is fine with me but always requires a LOT of preplanning. He'll learn laddies, he'll learn...

I'm going away more often

real conversation with my husband yesterday...


ME: (on the phone, calling from work) hun, I'm running to the grocery after work while you're at practice. want to add anything to the list?


D: whacha got on the list for dinner this week?


ME: well, I've got that new pasta dish I was telling you about for tonight and other stuff... blah, blah, blah....


D: won't you be at that cycling meeting when I get home from practice tonight?


ME: yeah - I figured I could just make dinner for us when I get home - is that ok??


D: I guess. Or is there anything you'd like me start getting ready for dinner while you're on your way home?


ME: *complete silence* what did you say?


D: well, I figured you aren't going to be getting home until late so I figured I might be able to get something started while you're on your way home.


Ladies... I DID IT!!! Three years of training and I finally got him to VOLUNTARILY ask if there was something he could do to help with dinner!!!


WHOO HOO!!!!!



That's it. I'm going away for the weekend more often.

Girls weekend in the Poconos

This past weekend I was lucky enough to spend the weekend with 5 other gals in need of a girls weekend from my adventure group. And these are no ordinary ladies, might I add. Now, I know y'all want all the juicy details.... well, I can't spill EVERYTHING! I mean, I could, but then I'd have to kill you. We made a pact, what can I say??

But here are some things I can tell you.... (the rest of the pics will have to wait because I have to get them from the other girls. Case in point - this pic is kinda yellow b/c I took it with my cell phone in the not-so-well-lit hotel room... no, not that kind of hotel room... well, maybe it was. but I'm not tellin', and you'll never know...)

It was me, Becca (pictured above with her candy-coated nipples), Jenn (in the background), both of which were my roomies, Lena, Tracy and Sara. We biked the rails-to-trails in the Poconos, ate good food, drank good (and bad) wine, ate chocolate, played games, and my favorites - DID SHOTS AND PEDICURES!!! (not at the same time... but almost at the same time... which accounted for the not-so-hot-looking pedicures the next morning...)

Conversation winner of the weekend:

While we're waiting for our shots to arrive at the bar -

ME: Sara, what career/ job have you NOT have???

(BTW, Sara, in her short 28-29 years of life has done everything from police dispatcher, contracter, mary kay lady, land lord (or 'slum lord' as she calls herself), quasi-massage therapist, hardware store book keeper, working with the developmentally disabled... pretty much you name it, she's done it... I'm sure I'm leaving out the most interesting stuff too... I just can't think of it right off the top of my head.)

ME: Have you ever danced on a pole?? (smile on my face. funny, ha, ha)

SARA: for money? (serious as a monk)

ME: uh, really?

I was speechless. BTW - no, she hadn't for money....

Who knew??

As soon as we drive into the driveway after our camping trip (around 6pm) I get out of the car and immediately let the dogs out, go inside, feed the dogs, get the mail, start going through the mail, you get the idea. At the same time David starts unpacking the car, carrying the cooler inside, bags inside, camping gear to the basement, you get the idea. We do what we can until we just can't do any more.

The next day I take my car to work and later that night when I get home I go to the basement to start sorting through the camping stuff (what needs washed, what can put away, what is for camping only vs. could be used for backpacking....) while David said he was going to finish cleaning out my car. Now, I wasn't exactly sure what he meant by this as there was no more gear left in my car.

My brain processes "clean out car" = "remove all extraneous 'things' from said vehicle"

David's brain processes "clean out car" - "remove all extraneous 'things' *(*anything not nailed down that did not accompany the car from the factory) from car, vacuum distusting dog hair and dust off seats, throw away all trash in trash bag (and trash not in trash bag), actully move seats and vacuum all 'junk' out from under said seats that has been there for god knows how long, wash dog slobber off outside and inside of windows"

WOW! I said. It's not even his car! He doesn't even have to drive the "car full of filth"! He said he did it because the following weekend (this coming weekend) I was going away for a girls weekend and he knew I'd be driving a bunch of my friends in my car and he wanted it to be clean for me.

Isn't he sweet??

Our First Camping Trip

Nikki's version:
This was my first camping trip. It took me a few hours to realize it. At first I thought that mom and dad could have picked a closer park. I mean really!! For the first TWO HOURS I stood anxiously looking out the window wondering when in the heck we were going to get there. It finally dawned on me it wasn't going to be any time soon. I finally decided to take a load off. Liam's butt seemed to make a good pillow.












Ugh!! Are we THERE YET???!!!











I should have know we weren't just out for a few hours at the park when I saw dad packed this on the back of the car...











After a few days in the wilderness I was sick and tired of waking up to gunshots at the firing range across the lake!! (At least mom let me get in bed and snuggle with her until the shots stopped...)













Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with the fam and all, but I have had enough and was ready to get home to air conditioning and a dry, padded bed on level ground. At least the ride home was air conditioned and I was able to get the "double bed"!!! God I can't wait until we get home! I've had enough of this "communing with nature" crap!













Liam's version:


Ah! Fresh air, back to my roots. Lounging around, laying out on the ground, laying my head where ever it happens to land. Chasing balls out in the lake, shakin' off and lettin' the air blow through your fur... that's the life. Not a care in the world. Just how I like it.





























I will admit that the A/C on the way home was kinda nice... just don't tell Nikki I said that....

I'm behind

ok - Ihaven't posted in a while due to jury duty and vacation. Give me a minute to get my pics in order and I'll post here soon.