Good Weekend

We had a fun weekend. We went on the Mesquite Rotary Ride Saturday morning. It was only 20 miles… and it’s so good to be able to say *only* in front of *20 miles*. I guess we’re getting better.

The route was good and the support was wonderful. Afterwards, lunch was being catered by Outback Steakhouse, although that sounds much better than it actually was (chicken sandwich and chips). Next week we’ll attempt 32 miles. That will be more challenging.

Saturday night we went to The Improv to see Christopher Titus. We’ve seen him before there and I thought he was great and I used to watch his TV show on Fox a few years back. This time was good also. There was some material I recognized from before but some new stuff also. He did mention he’s getting a new TV show and doing a movie, so that’s cool. I’ll be interested to check them out.

Sunday I spent cleaning in preparation for school starting this week and hence the reduction in free time… certainly cleaning won’t be a high priority following the reduction. :-)

Rachelle at the Cross Timbers Classic

Rachelle_CTC_May 2006
Originally uploaded by rkbk03.

Here's a picture of me at the Cross Timbers Classic. This was at the end of the 30 mile ride.

And Here's Gary

Gary_CTC_May 2006
Originally uploaded by rkbk03.

I'm so sore...

I can't figure out if it's the Afro-Latin dancing I did yesterday or the tennis I played last night. Probably a combination.

Yep - I did a workout that I recorded off of Fit TV that was in the style of Afro-Latin dance. I think my neck is sore from that... recall what I'm sure you have seen on TV at some point... the African dance, throw your head around, kind of dance. Are you picturing me doing this now? LOL. It was fun.

I played tennis with my sis last night and according to my heart rate monitor, burned 800 calories. Woo hoo... except it probably didn't make up for the Red Lobster dinner we had beforehand :-(

Tonight it's another new adventure in exercise. I'm going to do a Hip Hop class at my gym. I wonder where I'll be sore tomorrow.

Weekend Bike Tour

Gary and I did the Cross Timbers Class Bike Tour this weekend in Flower Mound. It was nice since it was very close to home. The ride was 30 miles, which was a lot for our second tour this season. It was tough, but do-able. There were some hills that were a struggle, but we did all right.

The rest stops were very nice. The volunteers at the second stop were unbelievable. They were by far the most grateful (that I've ever seen) at a rally for the riders to be participating and supporting their cause. We pay to participate and the money goes to a charity or some cause, I'm actually not sure what this one was for, but they were very appreciative.

The police support was rather spotty. There were times when they were at intersections where they probably weren't needed and other times when they weren't at major intersections (like the first time crossing main street, although they were there the second time). Overall it was pretty good support, but I was puzzled by the location choices.

It was fun and challenging and I would definitely do that ride again.

Class One: Complete... Seven More to Go

I finished my first class last week before we left for DC. Yay!

I had my final the night before we left and I was pretty confident that I did well on it. I did get an A on both the test and in the class. Double Yay!

I have a couple weeks off and then summer school. That will be more intense since it's two nights a week and only 5 weeks long. Here's hoping it's not *too* much. :-)

Trip to Washington DC

Gary and I went to DC this weekend. It was a lot of fun, but it was certainly a lot of walking. My feet seem to have recuperated though.

We left Thursday morning and headed straight to the National Zoo when we got there. They have a baby panda that was adorable. He's several months old now and weighs about 50 lbs, but still really cute. Towards the end of our day it began to rain and a lot of the animals had sought shelter. It was a nice zoo though. We stopped for Chinese on the way back to the hotel.

Friday we hit a couple of the Smithsonian museums and then we did a Segway Tour, by recommendation of Liz and Daniel. That took us by the Capitol, the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, and Korean Memorial, among other things. It was a pretty cool tour. Afterwards, we got some dinner and then walked around a bit as it was getting dark. We saw the Supreme Court, the Library of Congress and got closer to the Capitol.

Saturday, my feet really needed a rest, so we tried to do a little less walking... we drove to Mount Vernon. On the way back we went to Georgetown for dinner and then actually saw a movie (again resting the feet).

Sunday we explored Arlington cemetery. We bought tickets for a play for Sunday evening before we left Dallas. We made some dinner reservations nearby and then headed over to the play which was at the Warner Theater. The play turned out to be quite an experience. Among the patrons we were by far the minority - I believe I counted 5 other white folks like us. :-) It turned out to be quite a cultural experience. The audience was very boisterous. They were dancing in their seats during some of the songs and at one point the lead actress actually said, "I'm going to need you to be quiet while I'm doing my lines". That was pretty funny. The play had it's moments. There were some quite funny parts.

Finally on Monday, we went back to hit more of the Smithsonian museums. We only made it to one, but it was a good one (American History).

Overall, the trip was a lot of fun and very full. The hotel was nice and was less than a block to the subway station, so we traveled by subway most of the time. Our one experience driving was to Mount Vernon and then back through Georgetown. We soon found out why everyone told us not to try to drive in DC. :-)

Easter Weekend

Easter was pretty uneventful for us. However, we did have an unusual meal for Easter... We grilled out some Bison. Yep, bison.

We went grocery shopping at Walmart on Saturday and I told Gary he was in charge of picking out some steak for us to grill. I then went off on in my own direction. When I returned, he asked me what I really meant when I said he was in charge. I told him I trusted him to pick out a good steak. He then showed me his find... Bison.

I did have a brief feeling of that just not being "right"... especially since I went to school at NDSU and our school mascot was the Bison. But, I did agree to give it a try.

It wasn't too bad. Of course, I'm not a big steak fan, so it really tasted like any other steak to me. Maybe others would be able to tell the difference. The good news is it is really low fat. :-)

Second Test

Good news. My second test didn't turn out to badly. I actually managed to get an 85% on it, so I was pleased with that. I was even more pleased when the instructor told us that due to the low median score of 74%, the he would add 10% to all of our scores. Yay - that means a 95% and I'm still headed for an A.

Stars Game

Gary and I got to go to the Dallas Stars game this past Tuesday courtesy of someone he knows that has season tickets which they couldn't use. It was a first for both of us (a Stars game) and it was a lot of fun.

Unfortunately, we did leave a little earlier with the Stars leading 3-0, and... we ended up missing some excitement. The other team scored two goals in the last 2 1/2 minutes.

Oh well, it was still fun. (I enjoyed cheating on the diet with some nachos loaded with cheese also). :-)

Weekend Activities

This weekend was much improved over last weekend, which I spent studying. We actually had quite a bit of fun events planned, although they didn’t all go so well.

Friday night we went to the Frisco Roughriders baseball game. Unfortunately, it was cold and really windy. The fireworks that were supposed to be after the show were cancelled due to the wind. Thankfully they did announce this early on in the game since it was one of the main draws for me. So… since we were freezing, didn’t have a finale to look forward to, and Frisco was getting their butts kicked, we didn’t stay long. Actually, I believe we left in the 3rd inning. We basically had an expensive hot dog while we huddled under a blanket - lol.

Saturday morning we intended on doing a bike rally in Plano. We got up and started getting ready at 5:45am (yikes), but after checking the weather and realizing that it was still cold and windy (wind chill in low 40’s), we went back to bed.

Finally, we did get to have some fun on Saturday afternoon – something worked out. We went to an “Easter Party” at a friend of Gary’s home in Lucas. It was fun to watch all the kids search for eggs, etc. The house was gorgeous, and I finally got to meet some of Gary’s friends from work or previous work.

Second Test...

.... Probably didn't go as well as the first. I took it last night and I knew I didn't quite "get" everything, but I was hopeful that I knew enough to plug the right data in the right formulas and end up with the right answers. Unforutnately, it didn't work out quite that well. :-(

I'm still hoping for a B, but I was really frustrated that I had to flat out *guess* on some of the multiple choice questions. Yikes. Not good.

Here's crossing my fingers and I am *really* glad it's over.

Tour Dallas

Gary and I did our first real bike ride of the season this weekend. It was the Tour Dallas and was really a good ride. It started out at American Airlines Center and "toured" around downtown Dallas - The West End, Swiss Avenue, Turtle Creek. It was cool to get to ride through town vs the normal rural routes that we do. The only draw back was that there were a *ton* of people and it was pretty tightly packed most of the time. I think we averaged about 11 mph (which is pretty slow). The number of police at intersections was amazing compared to other rides we've done. I think there were two police officers at every intersection. It misted a little bit, but not enough to be bothersome. Overall, it was a great start to the season.

A Litte Fun / A Litte Productive

That's the description of my weekend.

For fun, Gary and I had dinner with Liz, Daniel and Alan at the All Good Cafe in Deep Ellum. The Asylum Street Spankers were there. We liked the location and the Spankers were good, as always.

For productive, I got some homework done - Yay. I've been procrastinating a bit and the next test is a little over a week away. Secondly, Gary and I had some fun adjusting the sprinklers. Woohoo. Gary was even more productive and put down the fertilizer and fire ant killer. :-)

Kevin Nealon

We went to see Kevin Nealon, of SNL fame, at the Improv this weekend. It was cool to see someone that famous there. I thought he was pretty funny, but not the funniest guy I've ever seen or anything.

It was nice to see Liz and Daniel since they have been particularly busy lately. We got to catch up over dinner beforehand.

Tip for purchasing tickets for "special events"... usually tickets are first come, first seated, but in the case of special events - your table number is assigned when you purchase the tickets. Thankfully we purchased tickets at about the same time so we were at neighboring tables. :-)

New Picture of the Twins

Sammie and Jake March 2006
Originally uploaded by rkbk03.

Mom (Kelly) quickly gave me a more recent photo. Aren't they cute? :-)

Trip to the Zoo

Kelly's Twins
Originally uploaded by rkbk03.

My friend, Kelly, and I took her two-year-old twins to the Fort Worth zoo on Saturday afternoon. We spent all afternoon chasing them around. The day went about how I expected it to. Kelly thought they were a lot more trouble than she expected. I was probably expecting the worst since 1) she had told me she wouldn’t be able to handle them by herself and 2) she kept asking me if I was *sure* that I wanted to go. I told her she was scaring me and maybe I should rethink my offer…

Honestly, I’ve been feeling a bit anxious to get married and have kids and I really was thinking that a day at the zoo with two-year-olds would probably help me feel less so. I thought I’d be thinking “I don’t ever want kids” by the end of the day. But, they were just so gosh darn cute even when they were bad. That thought just didn’t come to pass. :-)

This is the most recent picture I have of them from Halloween last year.

First Exam and First Project

Yay - Got my first exam and first project back tonight in my class and got an A on both. Yay!! I really thought I was headed for a B on both, so I am very happy.

Got a new project assignment tonight, so hopefully will go as well. The first one was really a bitch. It took a lot of time. At least it ended up well. :-)

New Job Opportunity

My boss recently offered me the opportunity to make a change and do something different. It sounded like a good opportunity, so I accepted the offer. It’s a lateral move but I will no longer have direct reports. I’m basically going to help him with analysis and projects as he has been swamped and needs some assistance. I’ve only gotten a little taste of what I will be doing so far, but I’m looking forward to it. It will be nice to do something different since I’ve been doing the same thing for a couple years.

Wish me luck. Hopefully I won’t soon regret the decision.

Formal Night on Cruise

2006 01 09_19_Rachelle and Gary formal night
Originally uploaded by rkbk03.

Here's a picture of us on our cruise.