Oct 19-25 Halloween Party

Vampire Amanda

The girls

Micheal Jackson and his deadly doctor

Witches brew

Mummy fingers

Eye balls

Vampire Jim

Back to reality on Tuesday after our mini vacation up in Big Bear last weekend. Pretty uneventful week but busy,I did a couple short work outs at home during the week and rode the Mtn bike out at the Santa Rosa plateau on Fri afternoon and i headed out to Vail lake Sat morning and did 2 laps of the 12 hr course coming up in Nov.Fri during the day we spent running around getting things ready for the Halloween party that the girls were planning for Sat night.We picked up our costumes of course we are all being vampires this year.The party went well the girls did alot of cooking and tony and i helped decorate the house, mostly everybody that was invited was able to make it so all was good, great friends ,good conversation and some good costumes as well.Our neighbors also were having the second annual block party that night so we went over and visited for a short period of time and brought some sweets for them try out.Sunday after a little cleaning up Amanda and I went out to Moreno Valley and picked Taylor up from a birthday party she was at and we headed over to the punpkin patch in Yucaipa for more Halloween adventures.Taylor played some games went to the petting zoo and went thru the corn stock maze . Last week before the time change i guees i'm going to have to join the gym or start running again.

MTN Biking Heaven Oct 12-18

Great week of mtn biking unfolded with a short one hr ride around the power line roads in Temecula on Weds and a short ride at Simpson park in Hemet after work on Thurs, i got to try out the new nightrider lights awesome they really light up the trail. Friday morning i meet up with Richard from work at the Cranston fire station and we car pooled up to Hurkey creek for some single tracking nice and warm out good 17 mile ride and allot of fun playing around on the rock sections, we ended up riding for about 2.5 hrs before Richard started to cramp up.

great views from Hurkey Creek

Friday afternoon Amanda myself Beth Karla and Tony headed down to the bull pen a local sports bar to watch the Angel game it was allot of fun but the Angels lost with a calamity of errs, after that it was still early so we went over to the country bar the Stampede for a while to give Beth a chance to check out the local cowboys. Sat morning i got out around eight on the road bike for a couple of hrs meet up with Amanda and Beth afterwards for a bagel.I picked up Taylor and hung out around the house the rest of the day.Sunday morning we were up early to pick up Amanda from work and up to the cabin in Big Bear for sun/Mon, once we were their Amanda needed to take a nap after working all night so i got out on the mtn bike up around the back side of snow summit and road for about three hrs great day nice and clear with perfect temps.

Big Bear lake

Fall colors

Monday morning we were out on the bikes for close to two hours riding along the lake around snow summits trails and into town for some lunch. Overall a great weekend great weather great views and great company.

Nice and clear up in Big Bear on a Monday morning

Cant beat that smile, these little vacations are addicting.

Weather is changing Oct 5-11

This week was pretty uneventful easy three days at work.My training is going thru some changes since the time and weather is changing, the goal is to concentrate on eating healthy losing hopefully ten more pounds and work on upper body strength and overall better fitness along with being more flexible. The idea is to do activities like tennis , running, swimming, weightlifting, hiking and continue riding the bikes. Only did one short road bike ride after work this week its getting dark so early now and allot cooler in the evenings. I have been keeping up with the 30 min work outs and home.

Friday morning i got out on the road bike and made it up the the top of the Santa rosa plateau nice and tough climb, that night Amanda and I along with Karla and Tony headed down to Del mar fair grounds and went to there haunt night attractions it was pretty good the horror house was the best along with the haunted hay ride.

Saturday i got out again for approx 2 hrs on the road bike cool and windy in the afternoon.

Sunday the plan was to get in a short hike in out at the plateau then watch the Angels play Beth and Amanda's Mom came over for breakfast and the game , thanks to the hottie red head for a great Sunday morning breakfast.The Angels game was nerve racking and awesome with there late innings heroics, congrats to them. Go Angels .After the game i went and picked up Taylor for the afternoon, we went to lunch went bowling and spent some time at the punpkin patch in Yucaipa good times by all.

So Cal Fat Tire Epic looking good before the leg cramps.

Ups and downs 9/27-10/4

This week was pretty low keyed with a few ups and downs, with the fat tire epic happening on Saturday I decided to take it easy this week and I only did a few short mtn bike rides on Tues/Thurs thinking I would be on the bike all day Sat, well that plan didn't work out.I really didn't feel well all week not bad enough to think I was getting sick just kinda tired, I was up early on Sat morning headed out to Vail lake the weather was nice I felt good on the start and was riding a comfortable pace not to hard knowing it was a long race, overall I was about mid pack and happy with that. I keep thing about one hour into it that I should be drinking more heed and taking electrolytes capsules but I just couldn't do it I was not bloated, the only I could drink was water.Well about two hours in I felt the the bonk starting the legs were already tired on any little hill that came up, so I tried to keep drinking but to no avail on one climb heading back to the camp ground I could feel the legs getting ready to cramp up and they did left hamstring and right calf at the same time not fun painful and difficult to get off a bike and try to stand up during this episode I'm glad nobody was close enough to witness this event it was pretty ugly.Well that ended my race I coasted back to the pit area and tried to recover, bummer I was disappointed that I could not finish.Time to reassess my plans, I think my mind is stronger then the body, these events look like fun and I think it would be awesome to be able to finish long distance races with a respectable time but I currently don't have the conditioning to pull it of right now, I don't get enough long rides in during training to improve my endurance oh well back to the drawing board.

That afternoon was fun Amandas friend Beth came over and we all headed to the driving range , Beth just bought a set of pink breast cancer awareness clubs.Beth lost the putting contest so she was buying the first round of drinks at dinner and I learned I have a wicked slice with my golf swing.Off to BJ'S we went good food and good times had by all.Once back at home we all played a few games of wii which the girls picked up last week.

Sunday the plan was to pick up Taylor at noon in Beaumont and head to Palm Desert to take Andrew out to lunch for his birthday.We went to Islands we all had a good time it was good to visit with him it seems like thing are going good, Taylor was real happy to see him. After Andrew opened his cards we headed to the mall to look for Halloween costumes no luck but but Taylor surprised us by saying she wanted to get her ears pierced today, this has been a ongoing saga for a bout a year or so.Congratulations to her she pulled it off with only a couple of tears and a few minutes of looking pretty pale, we thought she was going to pass out or get scared and chicken out again.On the way home we stopped at Dairy Queen for ice cream So this week had some ups and downs bummer about the race but good times with Andrew, congrats to Taylor for over coming her fears and Amanda for spending time with us.

Congratulations to Taylor on her ear piercings

Recovery week 9/21-9/27

Well vacation is over and reality is starting to kick in, today Monday we slept in and our main objective was to get unpacked and get ready to go back to work for Amanda she was starting her new shift on Tuesday 2300-0730 ouch that is going to take some time to get used to.We did manage to get out on the road bikes in the afternoon for a easy one hour spin up the bike path

Tuesday back to work and getting up at 0430 which sucks overall, not to bad of a day at work good to be back and see everybody from work, everybody interested about our trip good times telling the stories. After work I jumped onto the mountain bike for a ride around Temecula road on the power line access roads for about a hr before it got dark.

Wednesday I planned to ride again but we got a late call and ended up getting off work late so I did a 30 min strength workout at home before heading to bed.

Thursday after work I headed to the jewelry store while we were in Florida Amanda and I started looking for her engagement ring, she found one she liked so we went to checked it out again at our local store here in Temecula. We wanted to up grade the center diamond to make it perfect, they made it seem like it was no problem to do that but once it game down to it they weren't willing to work with us and it was going to be to expensive to make the change so the quest continues to find the perfect ring.

Friday the plan was to go pre ride the fat tire epic 50 course at Vail lake since it changed while I was gone on vacation I talked my friend Shrek from work to come join me , he hasn't been riding much so this was going to be a long day for him.We got riding about 0900 and it was already hot not a good sign, our main objective was to check out the new sections on the back side of the lake let me tell you that first climb after the damn makes the damn climb seem like a breeze I think I under stand the word epic a little better now, good lord Jason your a brutal man, this is a tough course one lap was hard two laps will be difficult to complete least for me.One nice thing we ran into two other guys doing the same so it was good company and we saw Jason on course doing some trail marking, once we made it back to the campground we all jumped into the pool , that was nice, by now it was about 104 degrees and almost four hours since we started but we had a lot of stops checking out the course, fixing a flat and talking to Jason overall one good day of riding though.

Saturday at it again today was the last race of the racers/chasers summer series out at Cahuilla creek mx park,up early and and headed out.During warm it was already getting warm pretty decent turnout of riders. The race went well I got a good start and was in third overall out of all sport riders, three laps this time which is one more than the last race so allot tougher. The first three guys were pretty fast I hung in there pretty well with the fourth place guy I ended up fifth on the day and third overall in the series real happy with that. There was a little problem with our category scoring but Rob and his crew were open to hear the concerns and the facts and it was corrected in a timely manner. Props to them I know it can be difficult keeping track of everybody and the amounts of laps between categories.After the race it was off to pick up Taylor for the rest of the weekend. Amanda's friend Beth was coming over tonight and we all were going to the concert in the park here at the Harveston comm center the theme was songs from the 80's.It was good times good company, free drinks,popcorn,face painting for the kids.


Sunday a happy birthday goes out to Andrew today he turns sixteen. Easy day planned hanging out and letting Amanda get some sleep since after last nights concert she had to go work.Yesterday after the race I was going to head down to Palm Desert to take Andrew out for his birthday but he already had plans with his grandmother and two uncles so we talked and were going to get together next weekend and celebrate the big 16th.

Vacation week 2 9/14-9/20

This week the plan was to take it easy and hang out around the pool and do some training. Monday we were up early getting the boys ready for school, once they were off we decided what the heck its vacation we went back to bed and sleep into about ten.After breakfast we took off on the bikes and did a little riding for about 1 hr the ended up being a quest to see if we could spot a alligator, we were successful but the pictures did not come out .Later that afternoon we did a 30 min strength work out at the gym. The rest of the day was spent lounging in the pool.


Tuesday was busy after we got the boys off to school we headed over to message envy for our messages on this day the company was donating a portion of the cost to breast cancer so Amanda made us a appointment in the couples room at noon, after some lunch we headed home for some pool time.Later that evening we hit the gym for about a hour did some arms, core workouts and spun on the stationary bike, for dinner I grilled up some chicken breasts and we made burritos.

Wednesday I got out on the bike and road over to the preserve that is located about four miles away, its a real nice place to ride bikes,run or Rollerblade,no charge for entering the preserve that is about 15 miles of paved roads and a few dirt single tracks and lots of wildlife. I did not make it back home before the thunder storms hit I got a little wet but is was a blast,Amanda saw how much fun it looked so she jumped onto a bike and we road around the neighborhood for a while longer. Once the boys were home from school we had to take Cody to FSU for his music lessons, back home and after dinner we watched a couple of movies before heading to bed.

Nice water stops at the preserve

Thursday we took it easy mostly hanging around the pool, we did managed to hit the gym for one hr. I did a run on the treadmill with Amanda for thirty mins and another thirty min spin on the stationary bike.That night Cody had a football game that the band was playing the half time show so we headed for to watch and support him, no rain tonight that was nice.
Friday morning I got up and went for a two hour ride out at the preserve and ended up with about 30 miles. Another tough day lounging in the pool,that night we watched a baseball game and a movie.

Saturday the plan was to rest up and get the house cleaned, Amanda' parents are returning this afternoon. After picking them up it was pool time once again. We spent the rest of the day telling stories of our week with the boys and hearing about there trip as well.


Sunday was travel today for us we got up lounged one more time pool side drinking some wine eating juicy steaks and snaking on crackers and cheese. In the after noon we said our good byes and thank yous and her dad took us to the airport and guess what it started to rain once we were there of course it was pouring , our flight was only delayed for 30 mins though.After take off things were peaceful we were both really tired, short lay over in Dallas and two hrs later we were back in San Diego Karla picked us up and we cruised home and right into bed. Vacation is officially over, Bummer, Bummer.Off to work we go.