I’m in the mood to blog but I don’t really have a subject in mind. It’s a dreary Saturday. I really hard my heart set on a big bike ride today, but I’m a big pussy when it comes to riding in less than perfect weather. I rode a lot through this winter in wintry California conditions (I know, not that bad to most others in the country) but STILL… I stuck with it. Now that it’s officially spring, I want to ride in warm weather. I got in a few lunch rides this week when it was nice. But today, I woke up to clouds and wind and I don’t feel up to it. Maybe it’ll clear up later today.

So, I’ll probably end up on a trail run later today. I’ve been running for many, many years, but only recently got into trail running. I wouldn’t say that I LOVE running, but it’s something to keep me active when I can’t/don’t feel like running. I like running on the trails a lot and I really feel like it does a lot for building endurance. 

Today, I want to find a color to paint our kitchen. Right now, our kitchen has white cabinets, white countertops, a cream colored floor and MUSTARD yellow appliances. I thought I would despise having to live with these retro-electric appliances. I’ve only ever lived with a gas range before and couldn’t imagine having to cook on electric. But these old-ass GE appliances actually work pretty well. They were probably built before all the safety requirements were put in to electric appliances. The oven is even and consistent and the range gets pretty hot. The fridge takes up a lot of real estate in the kitchen but actually doesn’t have a ton of space in it. 

So… what kind of paint can I use to dress up a stark white kitchen but not completely clash with the lovely mustard oven and fridge? I’m going to be looking at mostly blues and greens. 

I’d love to paint other rooms in our apartment, but it’s a difficult apartment to paint. There are lots of rounded doorways that make it hard to figure out where one room ends and the other begins. The walls in the bedrooms are staggered, so there’s three different levels of wall on one side of the room! So, I think I can live with the white walls in the rest of the house. The kitchen needs to change. I spend a ton of time in there cooking and it needs to be a place I enjoy. I think that slapping some paint on the walls will make a world of a difference.

Work updates:

Ever since starting with Specialized in January, 2009, I’ve had some incredible opportunities to travel. In 2009, I went to the following events/places:

Tour of California - Sacramento to Escondido

Sea Otter - Monterey

Dealer Event - Snowbird, Utah

Philadelphia and Washington DC - Globe launch events

Interbike, Las Vegas

In 2010, I had the opportunity to go to the Specialized international marketing meeting in Milan. All the international subsidiaries got together to talk about the upcoming year. After that meeting, my boss and I went to Portugal to visit dealers and go to some other events. We went to an orphanage to an event where Specialized had donated a ton of children’s bikes to the kids that lived there. It was amazing and heart-wrenching. We also attended the opening of a velodrome. We visited several dealers and went out for lots of good meals and drinks! It was awesome!

Up next for this year:

Sea Otter in Monterey next week. I’m racing the cross country mtb race and really nervous about it. What have I gotten myself into?!

Tour of California in May. I’m only going to three stages this year - Santa Cruz, Bakersfield, and Big Bear Lake. I’m stoked for Santa Cruz because it’s one of the best stages. I’m also excited that the Tour of CA moved to May this year. It’s previously been in January and last year it rained the first 4 or 5 stages. 

Dealer Event is in Keystone Colorado this year. I’m going for 8 days and I will be presenting to both the dealers and the reps. 

I’ll go to Interbike in Vegas again in September. 

I think that’s all I have on my schedule this year, but there’s still possibilities for more!

When I’m not traveling, work is still keeping me plenty busy. There’s been a lot going on for us at work and I like when it’s busy!

Other than work and cycling, I think I’ve been spending tons of time on the house and making it more comfortable. It’s hard to fit so much stuff in such a small place when both of us have hobbies that take up lots of space!

I’m also spending tons of time in the kitchen. I’ve been trying tons of new recipes and experimenting all over the place. I get organic fruits and veggies delivered every two weeks, so I try to cook with a lot of the weird things that come to me. I’ve been cooking a lot of risotto, pastas, focaccia, pizza, and TONS of Mexican food. I’ve really been trying to cook lots of Mexican dishes, like enchiladas and KILLER veggie tacos. With the new Mexican marketing that opened up in East Palo Alto, I’m really able to get some great ingredient to make my dishes taste better. Fresh salsa, fresh sour cream, fresh tortillas, fresh chips! And when I say fresh tortillas and chips, I mean they are still hot when I buy them!

So, maybe I’ll get back into the swing of blogging… maybe I won’t. I just wanted to take some time on this crappy Saturday to blog!