Just a regular ol' holiday

My office had a "potluck lunch" for its holiday party. We don't have a budget for anything else, so potluck it is. Usually, I hardly eat anything at these things because there's no telling what people put in their food. This time, a couple of people came by to tell me they'd made a vegetarian dish, so not only did I know there was something I could eat, but I kind of had to try these dishes that were (possibly) made with me in mind.
Here's my contribution: stuffed mushrooms. Mmmmm.

On Christmas Day, I had a little indoor-bike ride. It wasn't fabulous, but it was a good start to the day. I got the Sarah Silverman show from Netflix and popped that in thinking I could watch an episode or two while I rode. I got through about 15 minutes of it and had to turn it off. It was awful -- rather, it was not my type of humor at all. So now I have Freaks & Geeks after several recommendations, and I'll try that next.

After my ride, I packed up my car and headed to Southern California for a little visit with my grandparents. I saw a little snow on the way, but overall, it was an easy drive. But when I got there, there was no room at the Inn! My grandparents had taken lots of other folks in for the holiday as well, so I made my way over to the local Motel 6. I got some raised eyebrows with that one, but no one offered up his or her bed.
I stayed there the first night with one of my sisters and a niece -- a niece who snores like an old man with a head cold.
Next time I see her, I'll have to invest in some earplugs.

We had a great time, though. We went to stand in line for the Wicked lottery. Two hours before showtime, they hold a lottery and you can put your name in for two tickets for $25 each. We tried twice and didn't get in either time -- but it was fun trying. And it's a gorgeous theatre. This is the box office (and all the folks who were crossing their fingers with us).
And here's the ceiling of the foyer.









Here we are a few minutes before the drawing when we still had hope.



You can tell which one is me by my gargantuan teeth.

So . . . we tried that twice and my uncle had a party at my grandparents' house, and I visited a friend from law school. Here are his kids:
Yeah. I'm not sure what was going on. Gabe, on the left, got that star wars helmet thingy for Christmas and Grace, on the right, is fascinated by pirates. To her pirate outfit, she added a batman cape. They were very sweet and Gabe seems to remember me from visit to visit, which is nice.
Oh! And we drove through the Hollywood hills, up to Mulholland Drive and looked out over the city, etc. Karen and I are wretched about directions, so we didn't know where we were or what direction we were facing, but we certainly enjoyed the view. My niece decided it was too cold to enjoy the view -- being from CO, you'd think she could stand it for 3 minutes.

I had a great time, but I was glad to be home in my own bed on Sunday. Now I'm here getting ready for my other sister, her guy, and their two kids to come for a few days. By 'getting ready' I mean sitting here writing my blog and thinking about all the things I should be doing. I'm hoping for a New Year's Day ride again this year, and maybe some normalcy that will follow.
Maybe I'll get back to that workout schedule and box o' workouts soon too.

Gotta love geniosity.

I saw a 'prop 8 protest signs' advertisement (but not the actual signs) that had this as its example:

Jesus had two dads.

Classic.

Family ties

My visit to Colorado last month was pretty fun. And my mom finally sent some photos. One niece is getting old enough that she drives me batty, but she has such good ideas and seems to feel things so earnestly, that the annoyance is short-lived. I actually told her shut up at one point when she started sounding all teen-y and full of herself (good thing I don't have any teens in my house, huh?). My sister laughed (and had already told her that whatever I said, she should say, "Yes Ma'am"), which was good because it could have been ugly. I didn't get a shot of just her and me, but here she is with my other niece when they both came to "help" in the kitchen.

My nephew (Before and After) was a lion for Halloween and learned to roar. He can also name lots of body parts, including the head. What he cannot do, however, is say, "Heather." I know the 'th' sound is difficult. When I go to other countries, I tell people my name is Maria (a version of my middle name, or I spend a lot of time pushing my tongue against my teeth in an effort to demonstrate the 'th' in Heather. The Italians have it best I think: Heazer -- sounds like hezair with the emphasis on the 'hea'), but this is my nephew, and he needs to step up. So we spent a lot of time practicing, based on his skill set: Head, rrrr. Head, rrr. Headrrr. It was like Sesame Street.
It didn't work and all he would do is laugh at me. Here's one of him looking cute, even with his clothes on.

My niece KARL (discussed above) is a great writer (and draw-er), and rather than listen to the boring conversations that were going on after dinner, she brought out a notebook and started writing. Here I am taking a great interest in their literary edification.

Turns out they are both fabulous story-tellers.


Here's my 5.5 year old niece with whom I might share a gene or two.
Looking forward to Christmas fun and sharing some time with four generations of Rowans. How lucky are we?

Copyright: 1991

Sunday morning I got up and set up my trainer again -- it went a little better this time. And I had North & South to watch from Netflix, so I thought that would keep me busy. What's better than riding your bike AND watching fantastic British period-pieces? It was an hour ride with some intervals and some pauses to rewind. It was a great ride, but I need to make sure to keep my cadence up. It's too easy to space out and stop working hard (I just remembered I had to jump off the bike to get a towel, so I must have been working hard enough to work up a sweat).

I probably would have ridden longer, but I was so excited to dig through my box o' workouts! And what do we find? . . . abs of steel! Or, as reads in the video intro, pre-workout: Ab's of steel. What's that apostrophe doing there?
I have heard a lot about these videos: abs of steel and buns of steel. Turns out, there's a whole line of these videos. Mine, in VHS form of course, is dated 1991. Let me give you an idea of what I came upon -- it opens with an intro that's basically an aerobics class warm up. Reach and stretch and bend, okay! Then she gets down on the mat and starts explaining the exercises -- very simple movements and each is explained as she goes. Then she does another one, finishes it and puts both together. Even I could follow the choreography. But see that outfit to the left there? That's what she's wearing (except I think she's wearing some sort of naked-looking tights or something because the skin on her legs looks awful strange). I think the panties are a thong -- not that she turns around for our inspection, but when she does the bridge pose (lie on your back, knees bent, feet on the floor, then lift your little (or not so little) derriere up, hold, and curl back down), the camera changes angles to focus on the part of the body that's doing the motion. Yeah -- it's a close-up of her butt in a thong. I went from trying to get abs of steel to watching soft-core porn in 2 seconds! And on a Sunday no less! Aren't there laws about that?

In between the biking and the pornographic workout, I had called a friend to schedule our tea date. I told her I would meet her in 45 minutes. The abs box says there are 3, 10-minute workouts on the tape, so I thought I would do one 10-minute segment, shower, and meet my friend. After 13 minutes of crunching and not forgetting to breathe, I was starting to question little "Tamilee's" ability to tell time and I had to shut it off. It wasn't the best ab workout ever, but I'm going to finish the other workouts, maybe go through them a couple more times, and then see what I think.

Of course, what would abs of steel be unless you had buns of steel? Thankfully, buns of steel is also in the box o' workouts and I'll have my [hand] at that too. Although, if they found a reason to do a close-up of her backside in an ab-routine, I think I'm going to have to find a different angle from which watch the buns video -- one that partially obscures the view.

My selfish pilates instructor is going to London for 3 weeks to see her selfish boyfriend (whom she only sees 1-2 times/year), so my access to pilates is going to be severely limited. Those of you who know me know I don't adjust to change very well, so going to the substitute pilates instructor's class doesn't go all that well. Maybe I could use it as a learning/growing tool.

When did you choose not to be gay?

In case you missed The Daily Show last night (I actually never see the Daily Show because I don't have that channel, but . . .), here's a clip where Jon Stewart takes on Mike Huckabee re the gay marriage issue.**

So anyway -- it's a good clip and interesting conversation. I think I use the word 'interesting' too much, which is interesting.






Day without a gay: seems to be somewhat successful in that there has been a lot of press coverage. But what do I do with that? I read *&#@! comments on the news articles. I can't tell if I live in an incredibly conservative area, or if the same 10 people are commenting over and over. One guy said that this was an admission that being gay is a sickness (calling in gay is the same as calling in sick) and that gays should use the day to get medical treatment (maybe there's a pill. or a shot). Some said they were glad that there wouldn't be any gays at work or on the roads because they don't want the gays in their midst.
Sort of calls up the sentiment that went something like this (I can't remember where I heard this, but I can't take credit): "Prop 8 is about marriage as much as the bus boycotts were about the transit system in Montgomery, Alabama."*

The result of what I decided: I didn't call in gay and I didn't do much except not buy anything for the day (so far!). I took Jana's comments to heart re: being relatively private about my life in general and that it carries over to work. I figured out today what my discomfort is: calling in 'gay' brings a protest into the office, where it does not belong (at least in my world). Maybe I'm just a wimp and making excuses. On the whole, I work with great people, which is nice. There are some exceptions. . . as usual.

** Thanks Bronwyn for sending it along!
*In case this is only clear in my own head, it seems that people have veiled their fear and hatred with a cloak of "marriage," but this is not about marriage . . . per se.

Seventy-five degrees in late November?

I don't think we're in [Kansas] anymore.

Up first: a photo of the fantastic Colorado jersey my mom sent me. It's much more yellow than anything else in my wardrobe, but it's kind of fun to be sportin' the home state on my rides. I have another photo of the whole shirt -- it's cute with great mountain scenary -- but I'll have to retake it. I thought this one was cute too. Except get a load of my teeth -- they look like monstrosities in this photos. Maybe they are. I wonder if when people meet me, they think, "My, what monstrous teeth she has." I've not heard.

So on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, Emily was in town and we decided to hop on our bikes and head down the river (road) for a while. It was freakishly (if you're from CO) warm and I couldn't resist. I am not a huge fan of the river road because it's not terribly well-paved, but I do like leaving for a ride with scenery and not too much traffic right from my front door, and this ride is good for that.
Though after about 8 miles, we were overtaken on the road by a band of wayward Harley-riders. There were probably upwards of 30 "bikes" and you can sort of see them here if you look down the road. I couldn't (didn't) get my camera out fast enough to get a good shot of the pack, so all you can really see is a few motorcyles growing out of Emily's helmet.
For a while, I took the lead (single file is a must on this road) and Emily more or less stayed on my back tire. Then we switched and I followed her for a while. She set a pace around 18 mph. I was happy just pedaling along at that pace. Then she brought it up to about 20 mph which I can maintain, but wasn't sure how long I wanted to maintain it. I watched her chain-ring and thought, 'if she bumps it up to her big chain-ring, she's going to be at 23mph easy, and I don't know how long I can maintain that.' I kept watching her gears. In less than a minute I watched her chain move out toward the big ring in front -- and off she went. 23-24 mph. I bumped my gears up, tucked my head in and kept it going. I was just starting to feel the rhythm and enjoy the speed and I was just getting ready to pick up my cadence a bit and Emily backed off and I whooshed by her until I was able to slow down.
She said, "Corgi sprint," as I went by. Her little corgi dog can run really really fast, but it fizzles out in about 40 seconds and has to stop to rest.
It was fun while it lasted.
A bit later we saw a sign coming up ahead with an arrow pointing to The Old Sugar Mill. I've passed by the sign many times, but never turned down that road. I called ahead to Emily and asked her if she wanted a detour -- I think she was torn between wanting to ride and wanting a break. So we stopped.
[Some of these photos didn't turn out so well because I couldn't see my view finder all that well and my camera wasn't focusing on the right things.]

In this old sugar mill are five wineries' tasting rooms. There is a hall for weddings and receptions, and huge warehouse space for wine-making (I think). I have a friend from law school whose last name is Carvalho, so we decided to start our wine tasting at the Carvalho Family Winery.
Our pourer was one of the Carvalho brothers and he told stories and recommended wines and was altogether fantastic considering it was pretty clear that we weren't going to be buying any wine at that time as we had no reasonable means of carrying it (unless maybe we put the wine bottles in our water cages, but they're probably a touch too big).

The wine was good and I was trying not to taste too much because I knew that I still had half my ride ahead of me. We decided to make Carvalho our first and last winery of the day. Next time, I'll try some of the others.

There must have been some fancy event that day because we saw this unnecessarily large stretch SUV gas-guzzling limo waiting outside.Though, now that gas prices have come down, we should all be driving around in giant cars and going places just for the heck of it. I'm thinking of trading in my hybrid for a Hummer and my bicycle for a helicopter.

Here we are on our way out of the Sugar Mill and off home -- though it was a warm day, a chill was settling in the air and we didn't want to be on our bikes when the temperature starting dropping.
There are those teeth again.

Calling in Gay

Tomorrow, Human Rights Day, has also been dubbed, "A day without a gay." As a form of protest, folks are encouraged to "call in gay" to work, not spend any money, and volunteer with a local non-profit/human rights organization. The "gay dollar" is estimated at $700 billion annually.

I'd like to comment on this effort, but I'm really not sure what to say. I'm all for making one's voice heard (in a peaceful manner), and protests in large scale are good ways to accomplish this. I've thought about trying a little harder to come out to people who probably don't know I'm "one of them" and not spending any gay dollars, rather than not going to work. There would be no backlash at my office if I didn't go to work -- I'd just have an extra-big pile of stuff to do on Thursday. And I'd have to use a vacation day, and I've used a bunch this year for family stuff.
I would probably be uncomfortable not going to work and in sending a message to my division (our practice here to let folks know we won't be in) saying that I'm 'calling in gay.'
Hmmm -- that's interesting. Why is it uncomfortable? I think in part it's because there's always been a "professional me" -- this "professional me" does not pretend she's straight nor is she closeted or ashamed -- and the rest of me, whether it's the "personal me" or "private me" or whatever. My bike riding comes up at work because I miss work to do it, and those people I know well, I ask to support the ride. I'm a gay attorney, but at my office, it's the "attorney" part that's important and directly impacts what I'm doing minute to minute. The gay me doesn't just hang out and wait for 5 o'clock, she's always there -- it's just me. I tend to compartmentalize things (gets problematic when applied too stringently), so maybe this is a form of compartmentalizing my thoughts and politics and activism and career and work relationships.

Maybe it's just because I'm uncomfortable coming out in some situations and I'm not sure if I want 'a day without a gay' to dictate how it's done. Argh. I don't know. I think in reading this, I see the same fears that I encourage other people to try to face. I might just need to find a way to participate in this day without 'calling in gay' to do it.

I'll report back.

Yummy pizza

How fabulous does this look?

Herbed crust from TJ's, zucchini, red and green bell pepper, garlic, tomato sauce, chopped up veggie-sausage, yams, and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese. Mmmmm. Pretty soon, I'll upload some photos from a fun ride last weekend!

Have you seen this?

Dontcha just love Doogie? I want to see Neil Patrick Harris in a musical now.

See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die

Here he is with his partner DB-- aren't they cute?

Holiday fun

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Me, Mia, and Dozo doing our holiday dance.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's not a crime.

(maybe just a few relatives)
(check)
(check)

I had a great Thanksgiving day. I taught a totally packed class at the gym (60 minutes of cycling and then 30 minutes of abs) -- I guess folks were eager to do a preemptive strike on the Thanksgiving meal -- I read that a typical Thanksgiving meal has between 3,000 and 7,000 calories in it. By my calculations, you would need about 14 spinning classes to combat one dinner to just break even. Anyway. . .
Despite some jalapeno-related mishaps, I had a fantastic dinner: a big veggie salad and some veggie nachos. Fabulous.

I tried out the trainer as well. I got quite a workout just trying to figure out how to get my bike hooked up to it. I biked for an hour and 40 minutes, the same length of "Starter for Ten" (don't you just love James McAvoy?). It was too nice outside to be riding in the garage, but I really wanted to give it a try.

Voila!
Here's my view (look at all those tools! I'm so handy):
Not the best ride ever, but it will be a great when it's too cold to be outside (if that ever happens). Tomorrow is supposed to be another 65 degree day and I'm going to take it to the streets.

I hope you had a good day too.

If you build it

Remember those scenes in Field of Dreams when the guys would walk off the field into the corn and disappear into the mist? That's how Saturday's ride was (but without the corn. Or the dead baseball players. Or the plot. Basically, we just had a lot of mist). It was cold and foggy, but we had a great time, and we had the Farmers' Market as our destination, where they sell hot coffee and hot chocolate for 50 cents. Is this Heaven?, we asked? No, just the Farmers' Market.
A few shots from the ride:
Notice how he's blowing into his hands to warm them.
Jeff's always happy. Sometimes he's mad, but even that's funny. Mostly he's happy, though, even when it's freezing cold or burning hot. He rode a single speed on Saturday and loaned his road bike to a newbie -- thanks Jeff!

Hope! Hope joined up for the first time, and rode her beat up old mountain bike. By the end of the ride, she was asking me for tips on getting a road bike. She did fantastically, and I'm hoping she'll join us again.
Speaking of always happy -- here's the famous Mindy-smile.
Ron forced that smile out for the camera -- I think he was pretending to be happy because he was having such a good time. Hmmm. . . that doesn't make sense. How about, even though he was having a fabulous time, his cheeks were too cold to make a real smile.
New rider Dave, who is not sure if he wants to make the switch from mountain to road bikes (so he borrowed Jeff's). Come on, Dave! Make the switch! You'll be glad you did.

I suppose it's a good thing that we're finally getting some winter. Although, Sunday was sunny and warm and not foggy, so I'm not sure what kind of trick Saturday was.
There is a chance of rain in the forecast today -- I'm dreaming of a white Thanksgiving.

Thanks to all those of you who have made donations to NCAC via my donation page. Please keep it up! You can donate by clicking the link "All your friends are doing it" on the side bar on the right.

A week of fighting against hibernation

I win!

Sunday: pilates
Monday: bootcamp
Tuesday: eliptical/pilates (ow!)
Wednesday: teach spin/abs, a.m./tae-bo instructional video p.m.
Thursday: teach spin a.m./weights, take spin, p.m.
Friday: elliptical/weights
Saturday: NCAC bike ride

And now we're at a whole new week, and I only spent a little time hibernating, but mostly when I was supposed to be at work.

Update on the indoor cycling: I haven't done any. But I did drive halfway across California this way and that and found a cheap TV with a DVD player built in that's nearly-new and much nicer looking in my garage than it was on the previous owner's floor. Which means I'll be cleaning my garage directly. I think I'm more like to stay on my bike if I have a TV, so half the plan is complete.
Also took the trainer out of my trunk and set it up in the garage, but with a flat tire on my fixie, making my road bike my commute bike, I haven't hooked my bike to the trainer. Plus, I'm going to borrow a different tire anyway. These excuses would be a lot more bothersome if I were using them to sit on my couch with my cats and drink hot toddies with a fire going. But I'm not -- I'm working out elsewhere. So there's that.
Next time I'll try to write an even more boring, less informative post. But I tell ya, it will be hard to beat this one.

Comic Relief

My favorite part about this video is the end where no one can sing on key. Finally, I found my People.

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

There was a rally today in Sacramento to come together in opposition to Prop 8's passing and to express some hope regarding the CA Supreme Court's decision to hear the writ petition. I tried to get some photos of the signs that people were holding. Some clever, some, not so much. I avoided capturing the misspellings and grammatically questionable sings and I also think I managed to turn away from all the Palin references.

Do you have a favorite?











Senator Daryl Steinberg spoke (after Margaret Cho and a retired Legislator)
These are the Sisters of Scota motorcycles. Perhaps you remember them -- they provide ride support for NCAC.
I also recorded some of Steinberg's speech. I think it got better as he went along, but if you want to hear a minute or so of it, here tis.



A few more.