What a coinsidence!

The same day we finish the 2000 piece winter wonderland puzzle, Boulder sees a justifiable amount of snow for the first time this year!

It's freezing cold outside (like single digits) but it finally feels like winter and I'm loving it :)

Let's Go Red Wings

Part of Bryce and my Christmas present to the family was taking all of them to the Red Wings and Avalanche hockey game downtown Denver on Monday, December 27th! Although the Wings played liked doo doo, our goalie Chris Osgood saved the day to win his 400th game in overtime! It's always amazing to see how many Red Wings fans come to this game and it was even better heckling Bryce the whole way home...he's a Colorado Native so he roots for the Avs :) Wooohoooo, go Wings!

Christmas 2010

Unfortunately, the weekend was off to a horrible start when we realized that the wheels we put the snow tires on where the wrong size! Yep, we ended up having to rent a car at the airport because we couldn't bring everyone and their luggage back to Boulder due to the wheel offset on my new wheels! However, things did get better and we had a killer Christmas eve dinner thanks to Rizzo and Joe and a really enjoyable evening.

Christmas morning was just as fun with lots of relaxing, gift opening and great walk in super warm weather. Later that afternoon we headed up to the mountains to Bryce's parent's place. We had delicious dinner of Raclette and pie made exclusively by Momma Bingham then headed up the gondola at Vail for some tubing and good laughs.

The following morning we went snowmobiling with the same company where Bryce, Jerry and I went last year. Although they didn't have nearly as much snow as in prior years, the sun was out and it was an absolute blast!

Big thanks to everyone for a great Xmas weekend with lots of smiles and delicious food :)

Snow Tires!

As much as I love my car, the stock 18 inch rims with performance summer tires just aren't practical for Colorado winters. Luckily, Bryce had some snow tires that he wasn't using this winter. The tires were for 17 inch rims, so it was good incentive to look for a set of spare wheels to dedicate as a winter set-up. I wasn't looking for something this fancy, but I found a great deal on craigslist. The timing couldn't have been better. We're driving up to the mountains to celebrate Christmas this weekend, and we've heard that there is a lot of snow up there!

Cocktails on 6th Street

Alan's holiday cocktail party has become an annual celebration and again, did not disappoint!

This year's theme was titled ''Mad Men" and everyone's attire was spot on.

I would have to say that the music was pretty on cue as well until about 10pm when the beats started to flow and the drinks started kicking in. Since I'm unable to consume any alcohol these days, I got to sit back, enjoy my sparkling grape juice and be entertained by those who did...and may have had a few too many!

Needless to say, it was another great night of camaraderie and celebration of the holidays! Until next time...

Hello SNOW!

While most of the country is experiencing record low temps and boat loads of snow, the Boulder Bubble has been living it up with extremely mild and some ridiculously warm weather. However, our Rocky Mountains are receiving tons of snow which is just how we like it! That was all true until this morning when we woke up to a good inch or two of snow. Don't worry, it's supposed to be back to the mid 50s this weekend and all next week :) Yesssssssss!

The owner of Madd Gear (my newest client), is also the president of EB brands which includes Sportline, Everlast, Bally Total Fitness and Samsonite, just to name a few. EB's newest addition is the iPure brand. Their products will be available in retailers such as Sports Authority and on their website in March 2011. Keep reading for more information on this revolutionary idea and how it can benefit you!


What is it?

Negative ion technology integrated into bands, necklaces and other fitness/wellness products that claim increased energy, balance, flexibility, strength, power and endurance. iPure generates roughly 10 times more negative ions than most competing brands.

How does it work?

Human cells are made up of both negative and positive ions (electrons that carry either a positive or negative charge and protons that carry a positive charge). Cells always seek maximum stability to function properly. A build-up of positive ions is unhealthy and can lead to weakened performance. The generation of negative ions neutralizes positive ion build-up and brings the body into a state balance where it can perform at an optimized level.

It's Holiday Party Season!

On Friday afternoon, Franklin Resource Group (one of my largest clients), had an office get together with lots of food, wine and a characatur artist. The president's wife is writing a children's book and the young man doing her artwork came to draw each person's characatur. Obviously Bryce and mine is above but I'm bummed I didn't get a picture of all the others. Holy moly was he good! Later that evening, we drove down to Denver for Bryce's company holiday party. As always, good laughs were had and it was nice to see several of his co-workers :)

What was I thinking?

There was a brief period of time that I was going a little stir crazy because I wasn't training one bit and my client load wasn't that much. During that short time, Tito and Courtney gave me their 2000 piece puzzle that took them months to complete and told me that this would keep me busy. Not sure why I didn't start it then, but for some reason, I didn't.

Today, I'm in so far over my head with clients, I'm starting to be a little more active and truly don't have one moment for my self. Since Joe is taking a few weeks off the bike and things aren't too busy at work, he's in the exact opposite position and looking for more things to do. My dumbass suggested pulling out the 2000 piece puzzle and unfortunately he took my advice. For those of you who know me really well, I am a huge sucker for anything involving a good challenge. From Sodoku to crosswords to puzzles, I am an addict and cannot leave the scene until it's finished. This giant puzzle has been sitting in the living room for a few days and I'm already freaking out that I can't finish it in one night. Ohhh....it's gonna be a long couple of weeks or months before this silly thing is done...or I just throw it all back in the box while no one is home :)

Where have I been?

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!!!

After getting back from New York, I honestly haven't stopped working around the clock. I usually don't mind working a lot but the stupid red eye flight really jacked me up and I can't seem to catch up on sleep...not that I could before, but now it's really bad.

Luckily, I was able to get outside for a few hours on Saturday to do some trail maintenance on one of our favorite moto hotspots. Bryce organized a big group to play on skidsteers, shovel dirt and burn in new trail so I joined in for the first couple hours. Damn, that's some hard work!!! After some more work, I passed out in bed around 8pm and relaxed most of the day today. Just schooled Joe in some Soduko and now it's time for bed!

MADD GEAR USA

I've been secretly holding out on letting everyone know about my newest client but today is the day you get all the cool news! Madd Gear USA is now in full force and shipping to all 50 states and Canada. Click on the logo above to check out the rockin' scooters that cannot stay on shelves in every other country throughout the world.


After forcing myself to stay awake all night, Bryce finally took me to the airport at 11:30pm Sunday night for a 1am red-eye flight to JFK. It was a 4hr flight and arrived at 6:30am EST where I got approximately 42 seconds of sleep the entire flight! After meeting with the owners and working like crazy all day, we went out for a great dinner where I honestly couldn't keep my eyes open and nearly fell into my ravioli several times! We finally got to the hotel around 10pm and I was out in less than 5 minutes. We finalized a few things this morning and I'm now traveling back to home to Denver. It was so fun meeting the boys and hearing the potential Madd has here in the US. Although we ship most of our product from the warehouse, we had a local customer come directly to us to pick up the first scooters to be available in the country! She was so incredibly jazzed and even got a picture with the owner (above). Thanks to everyone for making me feel so part of the team, it's such a pleasure!

It's time for the Holidays!!!

As always, we received a gorgeous handmade Thanksgiving card from my Grandma to jump start the holiday season. We spent the day in the mountains with Bryce's family and had an incredible homemade meal by Barbara...nut loaf and all :)

To stay in the festive spirit, we decided to go out and purchase our first Christmas tree. It was an artificial pre-lit one, of course, but throw on a skirt and a few ornaments and voila...PERFECT!

Since we only had a few ornaments to decorate the tree, we decided that we would buy one (or two in this year's case) more every year in hopes of eventually filling up the entire tree!

There's no Christmas decor without stockings on the fireplace and menorahs to celebrate Hanukkah. Although Joe is Jewish, we still had to get him his own stocking. No one in the household gets left out :)

Finally, we had to add some holiday touch on the outside of the house. I begged Bryce to let me buy the 7 foot golden retriever blow up figure to put in the yard just to piss off the HOA, but he wouldn't let me. I still may secretly do it, but in the meantime we'll settle for a simple wreathe. The only thing that's missing is the crappy Christmas music, but no one else in the house likes it so we're very fortunate! Happy holiday decorating to all!

Unser Racing Indoor Karting

Last week Tom included us in a group email letting everybody know about a new Go-Kart track in Denver. After a long series of smack-talking, I'm faster than you, you're too scared type emails, a group of us decided we'd settle it on the track. On Tuesday nights, Unser offers 2-for-1 deals, and luckily that day worked out for everybody.

The race track was built in an big car dealership's old building after they had gone out of business. Everything was done very professionally , and you felt like you were walking into a serious race facility. We all got signed up, paid and then sat down for our 'race briefing'.

The guy doing our lecture spoke way too quickly, but we figured he couldn't have said anything too important. He let us know that we were racing 270cc 4-stroke kart's that had been tuned for performance and outfitted with high performance Hoosier tires. We briefly saw a track map with the 'race' line pointed out, and then directed upstairs to the track.


We did two 10 minute races, and before each we did a one lap warm-up. The race winner was decided by who had the fastest lap during that session, so the start wasn't critical. Most of us had never been to this track. There was definitely a steep learning curve. When it was all said and done, everybody walked away with big smiles and big bumps and bruises. All of the times were super close, and I even beat some of the guys :)




We still have some issues to settle on the track, so check back for details on our next Kart outting!

Back on bikes with motors

Even though it was a bit chilly on Sunday, I still had the itch to go play on my dirt bike since I had to sit around and watch everyone race last weekend. Both Joe and Tony wanted to come as well which made for a really fun afternoon.

Since Joe doesn't have a bike, Tom was very gracious and let Bryce borrow his while Joe rode Bryce's. We went back out to Miliken (where the race was held) and the conditions were absolutely perfect! We all had a blast and for the first time in a LONG time, I didn't get dizzy or delirious at all out there! I was oober tired afterward but really excited to have finally done something active for the first time in 4.5 months and felt semi decent. Am I on the up-slope? I sure hope so :)

Fondue and Game Night

Friday night was planned as a triple date night at our place for Nikki and Courtney to meet as their respective boyfriends (Tito and Sean) are racing on the same cycling team next year and we happen to be friends with all of them. Unfortunately, Nikki was incredibly sick all day so they had to reschedule. Instead of canceling the entire night, we decided to stick with the fondue theme that was previously planned and invade the Sheldon/Saario household and invite a few more.

Along with Joe and Hamity, we had a stupid fun time playing this "Apples to Apples" game that made for a lot of laughs. We played two games and I came home with one win and Joe the other. If you are looking for a new game to add to the collection, this is a great suggestion!

And you think you've got bike skills?!?!

Skin Check

When I'm not sick and following my normal schedule, I usually spend the better part of my day training in the sun. I have a family history of having lots of moles (yes, gross, I know) so I visit my wonderful dermatologist a few times a year. Normally I don't have to schedule yearly check ups as I've always got some sort of rash, saddle sore, etc going on during the year so I just get my full body scan during those 2-3 visits per year. Since I hadn't seen Cathy at Kallgren Dermatology in a few months, I went in for normal skin check yesterday. While doing her usual full body check, she noticed that almost none of my moles looked the same as they did in June. She also noticed a few that had come back after she had removed them. A long story short, I had 2 previously removed moles injected with steroid, 1 new mole shaved off and 1 previously removed mole re-removed leaving a few stitches in my behind :( Hopefully everything comes back normal...she thinks that my body is reacting differently due to my compromised immune system. Stay tuned as I'll have the test results next week when I get the stitches out of my bum.

A great way to end the season!

Although it was absolutely freezing with snow on the ground, I went out to watch and pit for Bryce at his last moto race of the year. It was a bummer I couldn't be out there with him as it was the first race I actually finished last year, but oh well. I'm learning that being a cheerleader (minus the heinous outfit) can be kinda fun.

He had a great race and finished 9th overall which also placed him 9th in the overall series. For the 5th year in a row, he will be racing as a AA/Pro in the 2011 Rocky Mountain Enduro Circuit. Whooohooo! After a relaxing afternoon, we put together a great plan for us to start cooking more often and for Bryce to start his new training plan. It's kind of like the start of a new year already :)

New Clients

This past week I have added the above 2 clients to the list of small businesses I help out with accounting and tax needs in the Boulder area. Click on their logos to check out their sites!

Winter has come

And what better way to celebrate than a homemade chili and cornbread family dinner?!

As always, Joe showed off his cooking skills by making an amazing chili with beer and cocoa powder as well as homemade tortilla chips. Bryce and I got Mama Bingham's delicious cornbread recipe then Tito and Courtney wrapped up the night with a killer berry cobbler.

The Iceman Cometh

Saturday came a lot quicker than we thought it was finally time for the Iceman Mountain Bike Race!

Since the race is a point to point from Kalkaska to Traverse City, Michigan, we had a few logistical issues to deal with! Luckily we had my dad's gigantic Suburban to help haul bikes and people around!

After picking up my dad and uncle from another hotel, we all drove out to Kalkaska for the start of the race. Although it was sunny, it was only 23* outside! Puffy jackets were the way to go. Bryce even did his warm up in his!


This was the first time that both Bryce and my Uncle Matt were about to participate in the infamous Iceman race. My uncle and my cousin Warren just got into mountain biking this past year and have been improving like crazy every race. They've been racing the local Michigan mountain bike races and riding to and from work every day! I'm so excited to see other family members enjoy a sport that makes me so happy :)

Over 4000 people race at Iceman and waves go off every 3 minutes for 2.5hrs starting at 9am! Bryce went at 10:22 with the unseeded 19-24 and 25-27 men.

Although Bryce didn't come in with the exact time he would have liked, he was caught up in quite a bit of lap traffic and well, has only ridden his bike about 4 times since July 5th. He finished and that was super exciting to see. Tom and Tony rocked it as well on their single speeds and my cousin and uncle both placed in the top 10 of their respective age groups. It was also great to see Amanda Carey step it up and win the Women's Pro race! Yes, I would have loved to have been out there but it's nice to see things on the flip side as a spectator. Congrats to all!

Back to the Mitten!

On Thursday morning, we headed to Michigan for the 21st Annual Iceman Cometh Mountain Bike race. We flew into Detroit, then spent the afternoon/evening with some family, then headed up to Traverse City early Friday morning.

We knew there was a possibility of snow, but it didn't really seem realistic until we actually got there and it was snowing! Around noon, Bryce, Tony and Matt went out to ride the second half of the course.

Meanwhile, my parents and the Torrances (Don and Rose), got some warm lunch and had fun in the Casino!

After meeting up with my mom's entire side of the family for a fun and relaxing pre-race dinner, we finally got Bryce's bike all ready for the big day. All the traveling has made me completely exhausted so I headed to bed VERY early! Stay tuned for the big race report in a few days :)