Happy Birthday Bloggity Blog

I started Life Shiny Side Up a year ago today with full intentions of it being all about race reports for DC.  And then the crazy part of my brain took over…which is the majority of my brain.

To celebrate, let’s do a giveaway.

Leave a comment…say anything (anything appropriate, mmk?)…and I will pick a winner tomorrow morning.

The winner can have their choice between any of these:

Jillian Michaels’ new cookbook.  I think it was released on Monday.  I’ve used her recipes – they’re always delicious.

A pair of Mellow Johnny’s Socks (Mellow Johnny’s is Lance Armstrong’s bike shop in Austin.  It is a crazy fun place and they have a coffee bar too.  I am sort of thinking of pressing charges for stealing my bike shop / coffee bar / book store / nap area / bad ass sandwiches place idea, but I think Lance may win…unless Lieutenant Lauren Hugel will defend me…anyway…if you’re in Austin, you should stop by.  And these socks are cool.  DC has some.  You could wear them for running too.  Moving on.  Still in parenthesis.  Geez.)

or

some garden markers

go by their shop.  I love their mugs too.  If you want one of those instead, I understand.

A batch of Fattycakes of your choice

delivered straight to your door.  The red velvet is delicious.  Just sayin’

or

these tumblers…

reasons I love them:

1. I like owls

2. They are recycled wine bottles (see the bottom?) and I love wine

  3. No one else would ever have them.  Except you.  If you choose them.

or

a print of your choice from the vol25 shop

I like this one

and this one

but you can choose whichever you want.

So that’s it!  Leave a comment- contest ends tomorrow morning.

Thanks for reading for a whole year…if you have.  That’s pretty ridiculous that you still like me, but thank you!

Lovefest 2010 Part 2

The campsite had a brand new bath house where I took the coldest shower of my life.  So cold my body was convulsing and gasping.  I had to be clean for zip-lining.  Or if not for zip-lining, I had to be clean for others.  Actually, I figured out that I didn't because one of our guides smelled like he rolled in hot wet garbage and then laid in the sun to dry.  But, I mean, he was really nice.

40 feet up swinging between those gorgeous trees I saw at the campsite.

I thought DC would really like this- something he's never done, something fun, something outdoors.  Turns out he liked their rope swing way more than he liked the zip lining.

Pay no attention to the fact that I sound like a grizzly man with a sinus infection.  Or that I had to ask what he landed on because I wasn't really watching...

After DC dried off, we headed here for the best BBQ you will ever taste.  When we got there around 2, there was an hour wait, so we brought some beers in and enjoyed the live music.  Then we chowed.

We headed into the ATX to check in to our hotel and rest before dinner.  The iPhone got us lost and we walked about 6 blocks the wrong way.  I was in heels.  Not fun.

We ended up having to take a pedicab to get to the restaurant in time.  Ironic?

On Easter Sunday, we went to San Marcos where I went to college to eat at one of my favorite places.  It was a beautiful day- everyone was dressed up for church and the wildflowers were EVERYWHERE.

Of course I didn't get a picture of them.  Not one bluebonnet.

I like to start my day

with some hot breakfast.

DC and his team got 2nd place in a 12 hour mountain bike race this weekend.

If that doesn't make you feel lazy, I don't know what will.

Photo by bobcat13

EP5k 2010

I ran the EP5K on Sunday.

It’s the fun run that goes on during the Chevron Houston Marathon and the Aramco Half.

It was early.  The sun came up just before the start.

Warm up dance

I sent this picture to my dad after the race.  He replied, “Cool, but you look homeless”

Thanks?

I’m a dork

Then again, I’m not the one who was completely obsessed with the dog stroller.

My finisher’s medal

I beat my December 5K time by almost a minute, and that includes weaving in and out of slower runners/walkers (I didn’t experience this at my first 5K -only about 40 people ran in that one)

By the time we left, DC was saying, “We’re doing the full next year, get ready” and I’m all, “No, YOU get ready” and he’s all…never mind

DC's Black Bean Hummus (in his own words)

Note from Stephanie: my husband is an amazing cook and is THE BEST at putting things you have in your fridge together to make something fantastic.  Like, you could have a squash, some cherry jell-o, some leftover pork chops, and some seltzer and somehow he makes gourmet mac-n-cheese out of all of it.  I do not lie.

Ingredients:

• 1 can black beans drained and rinsed in the can
• Like, a half a jalapeno...a medium one
• 2 pinches of chunks of yellow onion

• 2 gurgles of Olive Oil out of a bottle

• dash of kosher salt
• dash of pepper (fresh ground)
• full ringing of one tired lime...scrape a little pulp out too

• put it all in your bullet, and turn it on (Note from Stephanie: if you do not own a Magic Bullet, you are not living)

but you gotta shake it a little

Done and Done.

Delish.

Note from Stephanie: I love when he makes this.  It is SO good, so healthy, such a great vegetable dip (we put together small things of fresh veggies for our lunches during the week and add a scoop of this to it) or chip dip (we decided to keep our Snyder's Chips around...the ingredients fit our 5 ingredients or less requirements!  Try them out, for serious).  You can also spread hummus on a sandwich, or eat it off of your finger.  Not that we do that.

Just Melting Some Faces…

A little known fact about me: I was supposed to be born in the 60s. But, there was a slight hiccup in timing, and I came out in the 80s amidst the worst musical decade in the history of the world. Why, God, why!? Luckily, my father loved me and fed me with the music of the 50s, 60s, and 70s (if you were at our wedding, you know of our superb taste in music), so I am not completely musically hopeless like my husband. I’m kidding. Sort of. We’re working on him.

Last week, our Bible study group played Beatles Rock Band.

Best night of my life (other than the aforementioned wedding).

Hit it, Ringo.

It was twenty years ago today, that
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play

They've been going in and out of style
But they're guaranteed to raise a smile.
So may I introduce to you

The act you've known for all these years,
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

We hope you will enjoy the show,
We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,
Sit back and let the evening go.

Sgt. Pepper's lonely, Sgt. Pepper's lonely,
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

It's wonderful to be here,
It's certainly a thrill.
You're such a lovely audience,

We'd like to take you home with us,
We'd love to take you home.
I don't really want to stop the show,

But I thought you might like to know,
That the singer's going to sing a song,

And he wants you all to sing along.
So may I introduce to you

The one only Billy Shears
And Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Smoke him.

In eleven days, my man, my hero! is racing this guy.

Mr. Armstrong, I hope you know how to stay on to a wheel like this rider.

Look at them eating Dev’s dust. I love it.

Lance, perhaps you want to learn to fix a flat for this race so you don’t have to finish the way you did at Leadville.

I can teach you if you want.

So, if Lance can fix a flat, and as long as Chad “Julius” Hagasaki keeps his fingers out of his spokes, we might have some competition!

In conclusion,

My husband is going to smoke you, Juan Pelota.

Enough hardcoretrashtalk. The countdown until we race Lance is on! Why did I pick 11 days? Your guess is as good as mine.

The race is at Lance’s ranch near Austin on November 22, and we are so pumped for it. Herzbin has been getting a good amount of time on his bike, and when I asked him the other day if he was fast, I believe his exact words were, “Psh yah” with a not-too-cocky grin and head nod.

I believe it. That guy is an absolute natural especially on the mountain bike. He hops on and flies through any trail like a little bumblebee. I guess I could pick something manlier…jackrabbit?

I am so proud of him and so excited to see this.

We’d love your prayers (we don’t need another broken collar bone…or anything broken for that matter), encouragement, comments

In exchange, I will take one bazillion pictures and hope for one or two good ones to post. Like one of Devin lining up next to Lance. Or one of Devin laughing as he passes Lance. Or one of me running alongside Lance in a banana costume. You just never know.

Two words: wife. points.

You may be thinking to yourself, “I wonder how Steph got to be such a cool and funny person?”  Right?  You were totally thinking that!  Well, every morning, I stick a piece of bologna in my shoes…nevermind. I refuse to make the same jokes as my dad.

I’m not really that cool or funny, but the fact of the matter is, I rule at being a wife.  Stop laughing.

Reason (the one and only reason, I guess): I am going to see this tonight with Devin. 

I know, I can’t believe it either.  I mean, I like bikes and I love to ride mine and would love to have a mountain bike someday, but I am about riding them to have fun and cannot comprehend the technical stuff or the racing strategy.  So, it’s sort of like how I watch baseball- I just watch and don’t listen to the announcers.  With this, I will just watch and make an idiot out of myself yelling for Lance to PEDAL!!!! the way I yell at Devin at races.  The only difference is Devin can hear me when I do it. 

Maybe I’ll bring my cowbell to get in the spirit.  No?  Too much?

Anyway.

I had other plans tonight (don’t ask me what they were because they were less than exciting.  Fine, they were lame and this is not lame). 

…but because it is a ONE NIGHT ONLY event resulting in this documentary being wiped off the planet so Devin can never see it again, and he would cheat on me with a bicycle if he could, AND because he has successfully brainwashed me into being somewhat interested in cycling, I choose to go see a documentary about some insane mountain bike race that sorta kinda features some other 6 time champion, but conveniently follows Lance the majority of the time. 

And I guess when I say let’s go to a movie sometime, I can’t be picky.

But I won’t lie- I’m very excited to hang with him, half-way excited to see the movie, and really hoping that the A&M Cycling Team list-serve will please discuss this tomorrow at length so that Devin can get it all out.

In return, Devin has promised to buy me a scooter. 

He just doesn’t know it until right about now when he’s reading this like everyone else.

It’s all about give and take, you guys.

And speaking of cycling, if you’re into it, check out http://fitbottomedgirls.blogspot.com/ for a short interview with Chris Carmichael.  And if you’re a girl, read it daily.  It’s one of my favorite fitness blogs designed for women.  Good stuff.

Movin' Up in the World!

How exciting! My brother, Zach, just found out he got an internship in Washington, DC working for the Discovery Channel! We're so proud of him, so excited, and so sad he won't be in Houston for the summer...BUT! It is so neat to see how God has taught Zach patience. He has been working to get this for a long time, with a lot of closed doors, and it has paid off. So proud of you, Z-Man!

PEDAL, CHAD!!!

We're so excited for our friend, Chad Haga, who just placed 13th out of 130 riders at the Collegiate Road Nationals today in Ft. Collins, CO!!! Unbelievable finish! Congrats, buddy!!! We're so so proud!!! Fine...I'll do it...Whoop!?!