Cinderella Dinner

[SadieKate]

Yes, you may order pizza - but you have to invite me.

I have a friend who is constantly on his cell, even on the bike. Another friend and I informed him we would not ride with him if he did not turn off the phone. I also threatened to insert said phone into an orifice of my choice if he didn't turn it off in a movie theater!

Re: invitation -- always!! You going to be in our neck 'o the valley soon?

Re: cell phone placement -- good for you! I have a couple friends who take calls when we're in the car together and then proceed to have long conversations with the caller, like suddenly the rest of us have disappeared. I need a pithy remark.

[snapdragen]

He has to wear panty hose and a skirt. I hope the estrogen levels don't overwhelm him......

well, I hope I didn't throw a cog in the works here, cause my prince charming is coming with me to night and we have our own table next to janets.,

[ride4ur_life]

I'll pass it on.. but then that would open up a whole nuther can o worms..

[cindysue]

I hope I didn't throw a cog in the works here, cause my prince charming is coming with me to night and we have our own table next to janets.,

no worries - I was just wondering. We are going to have a GREAT time. boyz or no boyz!

[cindysue]

hey folks,

I do not like talking on the cell when I'm with friends, in a restaurant, at the movies, etc. In fact - just yesterday I told a friend I had "to go" because my carpool was picking me up. And today I told a business partner I couldn't talk while in the postoffice.

As for slinkedog calling me - I will not jeopardize my safety or others and will pull over if she calls. Cheers! I'm a good soul, really!

P.S. I have some wierd news to share with you gals tonight - and need your advice!

[slinkedog]

Yes, I can vouch for Cindy's good soul! She's great! <sigh> Have fun tonight!!!!

[Melody]

Yup, I'm on my Blackberry. Yeah, i am soooooooooo a geek

Mel

[Trek420]

good dinner, great meeting all you gals. the weather was near perfect.

how was everyone's Cindy?

I had a swell time, fell over once (getting started at a light that was uphill. Note to self: practice unclipping right. you're right handed, why do you unclip left?) narry a scratch on myself or bike.

I felt faster than last year, I credit Spazzdog's gorp for that, not a healthy thing in it ;-)

so...let's hear eveyone's stories and .....where's the next ride?

[snapdragen]

This weekend was so fun! It was great meeting everyone, geez, y'all gotta know this, Nancy Lund is a classy lady! Spazz is a total riot - we must bring her out for every ride!

I am proud and amazed to annouce I finished the Cinderella. After the first pit stop I developed a stitch in my side. By the time I got to the lunch stop I figured that was it - I'm sagging. But I ate, and talked to AG and HillSlug, popped 3 vitamin I's and on my way I went. Decided Lemon Drop Hill should serve real Lemon Drops (welcome to the darkside jobob...) Was horribly disappointed to discover reststop 3 is no longer at the 1 room schoolhouse, complete with critters. Some generic nasty newly built school --- bah! I want my baby goats!!!!! Announced to some friends I was toast, I'm sagging. Marge looked at me and says "geez, it's all downhill from here, and it's only 16 miles" Yeah, tell that to my crotch..... Any way, revivied with Circus Animal Cookies - my true addiction, along with Oreos -- I made my way back to Camp Parks. WooHoo! My longest ride this year!!!!

I have my own bizzare celebration - I take myself to dinner at Applebees. OK, not the greatest, but it's become tradition. Sing along now TRADITION!

[jobob]

Dinner at Fuzio's was a blast. It was great to see my old friends Snap, AG, & Trek, and to meet Melody, Spazz, CindySue, HillSlug, ride4_urlife, BikeMomma, and Nancy L

The food was good, the conversation was animated and nonstop, Spazz and AG were a stitch - I think it's safe to say a good time was had by all. Oh, and I discovered that Lemon Drop martinis are absolutely wonderful (and I only had one, so there, harrumph )

Here's a group photo - missing from the photo are Melody, HillSlug, and ride4_urlife. Sorry about that!



Starting from the left, there's Spazz, Trek, cindysue, BikeMomma, AG, Snap, & nancy lund.

As you can see, AG dusted off her tiara for the occasion. I brought the pink flower leis, which many of us took on the ride the next day, along with the adorable little glass slipper charms that Snap gave us. Nancy brought along a Gumps bag full of sample sizes of beauty creams and such that she passed around as a sort of a grab bag - that was fun - and some Gumps chocolates yuuuuummm.

Morning came waay too early. Here's me & Snap before we set out, too bad you can't see the lovely veils cascading from the back of our helmets. Next best things to tiaras.




Dusty was dolled up too, sporting the pink flower lei from the night before on her saddlebag along with the glass slipper charm.




The weather was pretty nearly perfect, cool with some sun. There were some windy stretches, and my friend Angie pretty much rode me into the ground in those parts, it was all I could do to hang on (wait for meeeeee !) - gah I hate headwinds

Many of us met up again at the end of the ride where we feasted on minestrone soup, bagels and cookies, and then headed off to the exhibitor booths. Team Estrogen provided all of the riders with water bottles with the TE logo on one side and the Cinderella 2005 logo on the other - a very nice momento!

Rivendell had a booth set up, displaying their new Glorious mixte, a Rambouillet & a custom (didn't see a Saluki, rats) so I chatted with Grant for a few moments, told him I spotted 3 Rambouillets and 1 Atlantis on the ride. He was pleased to see I was wearing my trusty WollyWarm jersey (perfect weather for it today) and he gave me 2 of their nice wide-mouth water bottles - early birthday present for Lee . Good thing I had that big ol' saddlebag since I had 3 waterbottles to schlep back to the hotel, along with my 2 TE bottles already in the cages.

That's all I can think of for the moment. I had a great time, many thanks to Snap & A"alpha dog"G for organizing the dinner, hope we can do it all again next year... if not sooner.

[BikeMomma]

I do not like talking on the cell when I'm with friends, in a restaurant, at the movies, etc.

P.S. I have some wierd news to share with you gals tonight - and need your advice!

Oooohhh, guilty as charged....
Sorry, gals, for checking my messages in the restaurant & for taking that call afterwards....haven't learned proper phone etiquette yet, I guess. I rarely get calls, just make them when I need to. I mainly have it for emergencies.

I missed the weird news....darn.

Anyhoo...I had a blast last night and today. The Cinderella is so much fun!! Everyone's costumes and helmets were awesome, and the course was truly bee-utiful! Those awesome green hills! I kept looking around at two things - those hills and the gorgeous horses in the pastures (I'm a horse freak, too). There was a beautiful grey that was right along the fenceline that looked interested in the bicycles. I swear I almost stopped, but alas, just clucked to him, instead.

Jobob, the pics turned out great! Can you tell I had my mouth full at the time? hehe Just call me "chipmunk".

I only saw two of you during the ride, as I think I left later than everyone (about 8:45-ish...a morning person I am not), and got in about 2:30. Next year, I'm really going to try to leave earlier, to maybe avoid some of the congestion, which sorta slowed me down, along with all the stop lights/signs (grrrr). Once I hit the open road, I was peachy-happy. I found my ideal pace to be faster than most, it seemed, so maybe I could have benefitted from an earlier start? Hmmm, not sure. I found myself tiring of saying "on your left", though. There was a group of about four (from Las Vegas area, one of them said) that I seemed to match pace with, but I lost track of them at the first stop. I did see Spazz getting into a sag van at the last rest stop. Hope you're ok, Spazz. I stopped and almost spoke to get your attention to say hi, but you really looked like you just wanted to go, so I didn't bother you. Were there any others in the van? - couldn't see through the tinted windows. Hi (belated) if so! Sorry I missed y'all. And I saw HillSlug at the finish, but she was too far away to flag down (you looked good!). I looked for the rest of you, but either didn't recognize anyone, or just didn't see ya at all. Bummer.

I saw a few aftermaths of crashes, and one crash happened right in front of me. There was a girl with a "bride" sign and her mother was with her with a "mother of the bride" sign (you might have seen them also). Too cute! Apparently, though, the "bride" was I think trying to pull out of her pedal, lost her balance and fell hard on her hip or tailbone. Anyway, she was in pretty good pain, but after a minute or so, was able to get up and walk to the side of the road. I saw them up the road after the stop and Mom reported that she was doing much better ("sore in the morning"). Her bike seemed ok, just the chain came off the chainring, which I helped put right. Ah, love 'da chain grease! So all seems to have ended well. I and others were quite concerned for her at first. She was really hurting, and even said that she heard a pop sound when she landed (oooh not good).

Flicka (a.k.a. the new bike) was a dream....totally. Flew up the hills, or felt like I did. Awesome. Yesterday's "shake-out" ride to tweak the fit really helped. I felt as comfy at the end as I did when I started. The only thing about the ride is that the rear derailler shifter cables became loose with use (breaking-in blues), so my shifting was rather screwy sometimes.

And I have to rave about the downhill that came right before the lunch stop. Oh goodness - whoa that was fun! I hit 32.5mph along with a couple other gals in front of me. I commented to one that I'm comin' next year just to do that again!! Whoo-hooooooo.

The drive home was smooth as silk, just like the Starbucks I got at the drive-thru at the top of the hill in Livingston (it's conveniently right off the freeway). Couldn't pass that one up, now could I?? I rode hard for that venti nonfat Caffe Mocha! The great part was when I walked in the door when I got home and got mobbed by the kids. They missed me, and I surely did miss them (and my hubby, of course). He gets to hear me babble on (and on, and on) about it for the next week, then gets to hear the babble continue after the Tiera Bella. Lucky him! I think I might get him some earplugs to help him out, 'cause I'm not shutting up anytime soon. ha!

I truly had a great time these last couple days, and I'm already looking forward to next year!! Thanks to all of you for the part you played in my great time!

[Surlygirl]

Hi Gang,
Can you tell us who is who in the pictures at the dinner table. Looks like a fun group. Maybe once the east coast contingent finally gets out together we'll send a pic.

[jobob]

oops, sorry, forgot to do that - I'll edit my post. - Jo.

[jobob]

BM, sorry we missed you on the ride! But I'm really happy to hear your new bike worked out well, sounds like you two were made for each other

During the ride this time I encountered no near-collisions with scary/inexperienced riders, and the vast majority of the riders who blew by me were very good about calling out. I also didn't enounter as much bike traffic piling up as last year and what I did was very easy to get around, for the most part. It could very well be because I headed out earlier this year than last.

It still took bloody for-ever to get thru registration though; those of us in the PQ row who had to suffer through the guy who forgot his reading glasses last year were re-bonding and resorting to bad puns to pass the time. I think we went through a bit faster this year but I still maintained we were in the P for Punishment line.

Congrats to Spazz for making it to the last rest stop, that was well into 50 miles, wasn't it? Considering that you've been living in the land of winter for so long and had no chance to train for this, 50 miles is nothing short of remarkable. Hope the aches & pains subside soon

[Surlygirl]

Thanks Jobob, its nice to put some faces with the names.