It's Payback Time!!

I've been foiled!!!!

My secure connection to work was having issues last Friday morning, so I had to drive in to work. I was looking forward to sitting in my PJ's and working from home, but no luck. I IM'd a couple of coworkers to let them know that I'd be showing my sweet face in the office.

What a suprise when I walked in. For some reason everyone just hushed up and kinda prarie dogged from their cubes when I walked down my row. I had this look of surprise when I saw what they did to my cube. They turned it into a little fort made of foil! The "Entrance", a little square hole on the bottom, was clearly marked. Suddenly, Andrew's bald little head pops out of the entrance. "Why, Hello! Come on in!" He said.

It was so funny! I knew I had it coming, I just didn't know when. I guess my birthday week was the best time as any. They actually did it on Wednesday and were wondering when I would finally come in. What a classic gag!



I crawled into my little club house and created a little sunroof on the top so my head could poke out and I could still work. I kept the tin foil fort up until this morning when I finally (noisily) tore it down. I left the giant ball of foil on James' desk. I'm sure he was a part of the effort.

Happy Birthday To Me!!

BT was scheduled to be at a conference during my birthday, so he thought he should go a day early and take me along to celebrate a day early. We made reservations at the Hard Rock and planned to hang out by their pool. Apparently, Sundays at the pool are a big party. They call the place "Rehab".

Well, that was our plan. We got to the parking lot and took a peek over the wall to check out the pool. And to our surprise, we saw nothing but dirt and diggers. The pool was a construction zone!! We couldn't believe it! We could always go to plan B and head over to the Palms. But I thought I saw some people in the cabanas behind the construction zone, so there was still hope. So, we checked it out and were happy to find that part of the pool was still open.

Checking in at the front desk, Andrea was very friendly and offered us a suite, since we were only there for one night. We told her it was my birthday, so she said, well, definitely you should get a suite. Andrea's birthday was later this month, too, so she had to look out for her fellow Arian (not Aryan :P). And yeah, I know it's cheesy, but upon walking into our Suite, I did feel like a rock star.

We were on the 10th floor and had a great view of the pool. I know it was only 10:30 in the morning (Andrea totally hooked us up with the early check in, too!), but BT went down to the pool to reserve a couple of lounge chairs for us. I told him to call me and I could help guide him to some empty seats from my vantage point. He was able to find a couple of seats next to some friendly couples.

The weather was perfect, not too hot. We stayed at the pool until about 4:00. We chatted with our new friends, Mitch & Amy from Colorado and Simon & Nina from London. I have to hand the *Party Like a Rock Star* award to Simon. They were here for a wedding and have managed to be kicked out of their original Hotel AND banned from 4 OTHER hotels in Las Vegas! Brilliant Work, Simon. Brilliant!

We decided to meet up with Mitch & Amy for dinner and drinks later that evening. We took a quick nap in the room and I woke up with a massive headache. I told my husband that all that sun really takes a toll on you. BT replied that it probably had nothing to do with the two $18.00 drinks I had at the pool. Of course not.

Dinner was at Tao in the Venetian. I have to recommend the Sashimi of Kobe Beef! Kanpeki! Oishii!

After dinner we danced to a live band in some outdoor patio. Then we walked over to the Mirage just in time to catch the Fountain Dance show. We didn't stay out too late, since my flight the next morning was at 6:05 AM. But it was a great way to celebrate my birthday.

Mr. Pinnacle 2008

My son's high school had their annual Mr. Pinnacle contest - a pageant of sorts to win Prom Tickets and Limousine service to the event. This year's theme, "The Best of the West" The 20 cowboy contestants came out and danced to 'Space Cowboy', 'Save a Horse. Ride a Cowboy', etc.

I was taking my daughter and her two friends to watch the show. We arrived just a few minutes before it started and our seats were taken! Some lady with a crown, was sitting in one of our seats. She told us that the front seats at the end of the catwalk were too close, and they needed to sit back one row to get a better view. She offered the three empty seats meant for the judges to my girls. I sat next to Miss. Arizona and the girls took the front row.

Big mistake.

After the opening dance, each contestant was introduced in their Casual Wear Walk. They would strut their stuff down the runway, and not knowing that the little 11 year olds in the front were NOT the judges, they would do even more exaggerated "strutting" right in front of the girls! Yikes! The poor girls. They kept trying to look away. I'm sure they're traumatized for life. It was pretty funny, and I have to apologize to the girls parents. They're never going to let me take the girls out anymore :) One of the girls jokingly said on the drive home "I don't want to go to high school!" Oh great! Way to go, Jaina!

After the casual walk, the girls spied three seats, two rows behind me. So, they moved and were able to enjoy the remainder of the show, unharassed.

The next segment of the show was the Swimwear competition and Pick-Up line demonstrations. Ms. Pickering, my son's AP English teacher came out and sat on the hay bales in her black and red Saloon Girl dress as the boys once again came out in their swimwear and white "Mr. Pinnacle" tank tops. But, oh, the pick up lines!

"Hi Ms. Pickering. Are you a parking ticket? Because you've got "FINE" written all over you!"

"Ms. Pickering. Why don't you and I go out this weekend and we can do the same thing you did to my grades." And then in Flo Rida's lyrics the contestant said "We can get Low, low, low, low, low, low, low"

The school soccer star came out doing some tricks with the ball and said to her "Did you like my soccer playing? Well, maybe we can get together. I can show you how to dribble and kick. And then you can show me how to score"

My son's pick up line..."OK! I'm here. Now what's your next two wishes?"

Unfortunately, my son didn't make the cut down to 10. The 10 finalists get to perform their talent. And some of these boys are super talented!!

However, they did allow him to perform when the show needed some time to tabulate scores. Below is his performance:





It was a great night. Kyle Robot was crowned Mr. Pinnacle (Pinoy Power!!). And my daughter and her friends enjoyed the show. They were able to meet Miss. Arizona 2007, Nicole Turner, who signed my daughter's Mr. Pinnacle program.

April Fools

I stayed late Monday afternoon to beadazzle my coworker's cube. He was finding sticky little rhinestone throughout the day as he went about work. Reaching for his stapler...a rhinestone. Pulling open a drawer...a rhinestone. Grabbing the phone...you get the idea.
I added some tiger fabric to his chair and a "chalk" outline on the ground for more sh*ts and giggles. Heather helped me out. She even snapped this pic of the dirty work when we were done and sent it to me.
The next day, James KNEW it was Heather. Just last month we collaborated to wrap her car in tin foil. She was obviously getting back at him. Later, someone who also stayed late (I won't mention any names, PETE!) ratted me out. I continued to play innocent and even showed him the picture mail I received last night, from Heather! Hahaha! Evidence against her, and proving my innocence, or so I thought.
James decided it was a group effort and laid the blame on both Heather and I.

Cheer For me!

I finally figured out how to sync my runs to Nikeplus now that I got my new sensor working. ...and...I realized all my runs are saved as XML files. Yeah, I know I'm a big, bad, XML Account manager and can create these XML files in my sleep. But don't worry...I promise I won't cheat to get to this goal. Cross my heart.

Instant Fans...Just add Ice

I know, I know, the Coyotes season is pretty much over since they didn't make it into the play-offs this year. Thanks to the San Jose Sharks making that a certainty last night. But, BT finally got these pictures to me.

It was almost 4 weeks ago, Tuesday when he was able to get us 4 tickets (Thanks, Mike!!) to the Coyotes v. Ducks game. And 4 seems to be the number because we were in the 4th row!!

A-Maz-Ing! I couldn't believe how close they were to us. We could even see the Great One, Wayne Gretzky himself right across the ice from us. The action was fast, loud and exciting. Spencer and Trenton came with us and they were instant fans. The players crashing against the plexiglass windows made us jump and laugh each time.

The game was awesome. The kids enjoyed the crowd chants and songs. Especially when players were put in the penalty box. "Bad Boys! Bad Boys! Whatcha gonna do?" Then the Coyote Cheerleaders performed after the 2nd period to Janet Jackson's Feedback. Too bad we had to leave our seats 5 minutes into the 3rd period, with the Ducks leading 2 to 1. After all, it was a school night and already way past 9 o'clock. The drive back would take at least a half hour, too.

But we even ran into some action in the hallway of the Jobing.com Arena as we were walking to the exits. We saw the SRP Water drop guy. He's the Salt River Project mascot named "Dewey", dressed in blue tights and shaped like a big blue water droplet. Trenton got to give Dewey a High Five.

Then, one guy walking by stopped us and handed me a box. "Here you go. This is for him." and he pointed at my 4 year old.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It's a bobble head." and he walked away after I thanked him.

It was the bobble head of the Coyotes Mascot Howler. Wow! Trenton was cleaning up.

Then, we heard the crowd go crazy! The Coyotes just scored another goal and tied it up! We stopped in front of one of the TV screens to watch the replay.

Spencer couldn't stop talking about how much fun she had! She was disappointed when I told her that it was almost the end of the season. She wanted to go to another game.

By the time we got home, the game finally ended. The Coyotes won in overtime in a shoot-out, 3 to 2!

Nice Tri

I think I kinda like the visceral nervous excitement you feel right before an event like this. Your doubts, fears, and anxiety churning in your stomach like a protein shake in the blender. Even though this is as mini as a tri can get, you still get that feeling. I actually am thinking I should go ahead and finally register for the Tri-for-a cure next month.

My Tri Notes.
The swim. We were required to wear the swim caps that were given to us at check in. I usually wear the lycra/spandex swim cap that's soft and easy to put on. They gave us those tight rubber caps that feel like your trying to slip a condom over your head. I did a warm up lap and felt like my head was being squeezed by the thing. Oh well, it's only a 10 minute swim. I did 14 25 m laps, 350 meters.

The bike. We were supposed to have a 10 minute transition, but our swim started 5 minutes late. I was still setting up my bike as my wave started. My hair wasn't as wet as I thought it would be and the drops of water from my hair helped keep me cool. The rubber swim cap actually kept it less wet than it does with the lycra cap.

We weren't allowed to touch the resistance on the bike. Apparently, I have been WAY too easy on myself during spin class because the resistance was about an 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest I ever go in spin class. I was able to do 9.1 miles in 30 minutes.

The run. The 5 minute transition was plenty of time to change into running shoes and get to the treadmills. But again I wasn't ready for this. They made us set the incline at 2%. I was pretty tired from the earlier events so I ran it at a leisurely pace. Plus, I heard about this from many triathletes, that running right after the bike is a really funky feeling. The transition to using the muscles differently is kinda wierd. My legs were feeling wobbly for the first 5 minutes. I did only 1.76 miles in 20 minutes. Not at all my usual pace.

But I'm done!! I did it!! And I'm proud of myself, despite the pace. To treat myself, I headed to the cafe for a Strawberry Sunrise Smoothie. The guy at the counter saw my "Tri it Indoors" shirt and told me that it's free if we're a participant. Score!