Brilliant Tourists

During the Christmas Season of our shows, November 1st - January 1, I sell blinking LED lights. Believe me, this is not a job I love. Before I begin, here is a link to the lights. I use the display board at the bottom of that link to display 12 different designs. They are mainly Christmas themed to go along with the season. The lights are all magnetic instead of having a pin. Very cool because they do not damage your clothing. I usually wear two of them on my dress and one on each ear, like earrings. I have a little sign that says " 1 for $3 or 2 for $5". The price is posted, they are told that they are held on by a magnet and there are 12 designs. Simple right? Easy to understand?

I am basically a very friendly person and very easy to get along with. The main thing that will lessen the "friendly" demeanor is......stupidity. Sorry, it's true. I cannot always keep the cheery smile when I am asked stupid questions. It doesn't help that I am normally swamped with people and selling them like peanuts at a ballgame. Frequently I am helping up to 4 people at a time, making $500 in 15 minutes. Here are some of the brilliant questions that I have been asked. Oh, and yes, that was meant to be read with a great deal of sarcasm. By the way, I write these down as I am selling them, so as not to forget the exact wording.

Did you make them? (no, but my people did. Actually, I have my own little factory at my house)

They are 1 for $3 or 2 for $5? So, you can't get just one?

Do they stick to your skin?

Me: You need 2 of them for earrings
Them: Why?
Me: You have 2 ears

So...are these the cookies? ( we also sell cookies at the booths, however, I am on the stage and ummm DUH, do these look like cookies?)

Them:No, I want the other Santa Claus
Me: There isn't another one
Them: That one
Me: The snowman?
Them: Yes, that santa

Blinky lights, is that what you're wearing?

Me: They are all different
Them: How are they different?
Me: There are 11 different designs

So, are you Oriental? (Grrr, no I'm Asian! I am not a rug!!)

Is the battery the magnet?

The best 2 questions of all time....

Which one's the tree? The star?

So, they blink?

Yes, these are actual questions. *sigh*

Healthy again...sort of

Well, I was out of commission for a good two weeks this month, ugh! I think I had an inner ear infection but am still not sure. I was really dizzy and my equilibrium was a bit wonky. I couldn't stand, walk or sit up for very long because the room would start spinning...not good for singing and dancing on stage. On the upside, I got to skip the show for 2 weeks, yay! On the downside, I lost about 8 pounds in 2 weeks. That whole nauseous from the spinning room thing. Now, most of you would be saying,"wahoooo." Not me. I got down to 92 pounds. For those of you that don't know me. NO! I am not anorexic or bulimic. I am just small and petite. It IS possible to be small and healthy, so.....tabloid reading people....HUSH! LOL Sorry, it just bothers me when they pick on a few stars that are 100 pounds or less and everyone says they have a disorder of some sort. Now, don't get me wrong, some of them may have them BUT there are a few that are naturally skinny.

Anyway, I am almost back to normal. I now just have a head cold and an ear infection. I can't get in to see an ENT for another month. Grrrr.

I have a few blog entries that I need to post from a month or so back. Sorry for the slacking.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!!

Shows start back up tonight. We have 4 more left and then I am off for a month or two. =)

Featured picture on Webshots!

I just found out that this picture that I took of Chewie playing in the snow, was a Picture of the Day in the Kitten section on Webshots.com! Very cool! Right now it is being featured on the Kitten Channel on their website.

Christmas kitty

Tigger loves sitting under our decorated trees. We have three this
year. This is the medium sized tree that is next to the front door.
The gifts under this tree are the ones that we give out. It's so much
easier having a separate tree so that there is no need to dig through
all of the presents.

Backstage

Thought I would post a pic of us getting ready to go on stage for the
opener. From left to right: Carina, Mara, Cindy, me, and Becky.

...and they keep on falling

So...it's less than 24 hours later and there are now 3 kids with the stomach flu in the family. I wonder what tomorrow will bring. AHHHHHHH

"It's the time of year"

"It's the time of year..when the puking begins." Ugh. Every year, about this time, the stomach flu tends to circulate through our family. Once again, it has happened around Thanksgiving. Tonight, as we were leaving the theatre, Jonathan threw up on Dallin's head. Ewwwww. Dallin was trying to be nice and carry him out to the car and was lifting him over his head...and ...bleeeeccchhh.Poor guy.

For those of you that don't know me, I am a COMPLETE GERMAPHOBE when it comes to the stomach flu. Vomiting and nausea are my kryptonite. I can deal with physical pain (dancing on a swollen knee, broken leg and surgery without pain killers afterwards)but not nausea. So....I am thrilled at this point. (major sarcasm BTW)

When the flu kits our family, it's not just a small thing. Don't forget that we see each other on a daily basis and there are 25 kids backstage....that play together. Yep, you see the dilemma. Here's hoping Thanksgiving will go well with year and no one else will get sick. Wish us luck!

Our Christmas Show

Here are a few pictures that I found from our show last year. I am trying to get a few from this year still. Hopefully I will be able to have someone take a few in the next week or two. Enjoy!




The older kids play "Jingle Bells" on their violins while the little ones shake bells.

Change in the weather

Winter weather is finally here in Branson. Two days ago it was almost 80 degrees and this morning it was in the 40s with a nice little wind chill. Now, normally this is fine. I just put on jeans and a few layers and all is well in the world. When there is a morning show with a lot of coaches coming, that all changes. When we have coaches ( buses full of tourist/customers), I have the lovely privilege of helping to greet and seat them in our theatre. U huh, PRI-VI-LEGE...no sarcasm. Because I am out there until the show starts, I need to dress in my opener costume...dress, puffy slip, knee brace and fishnet tights ( remember the weird bruise?)...not very warm. Here is a picture from this morning. I was trying to hide behind a car to help buffer the wind. This works much better when there is a van in the near vicinity. Did I mention the coach driver that was laughing at me?

Funkiest bruise

So... For those of you who don't know me... I'm a klutz. I tend to
walk into things on a regular basis. For some reason I like to cut
corners, literally. I turn a little too soon. This is from 4 days ago.
We have square planters in the front of our theater and I ran right
into one. The funky pattern is from the fishnet tights that I wear in
the show. Funky bruise?

I voted... Did you?

I just got home from voting and various errands. One of the great
things about living in Branson...no long voting lines. Wahooo

Did you know that voting can be unhealthy? After voting I went to get
my free red, white and blue sprinkled donut from Krispy Kreme. Later
tonight I will go get my free scoop of ice cream from Ben and
Jerry's. :)

If you haven't voted yet... Go vote!!!

quick update

I'm sorry that I haven't been posting as often. Things have been rather hectic with our rehearsals and last minute costume buying. Each year, because of the number of children in our show....that grow....costumes need to be replaced. Because I am the only wife without children, I am the Merry Shopper. I think it is also because I happen to know where to buy things and find random things around town.

Today we had our one and only full run through of the show and it was a bit...umm, stressful? There are still costumes that need to be made and purchased and we open in less than 24 hours. Hmmmm should be interesting. To top things off, I have been struck down with some sort of cold. Oh yay. Gotta love it!

I will try and post pictures from the show as soon as I can. We had some Trick or Treaters in our family tonight but I didn't have my camera on me. I'll see if someone else in the family did. I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Thought for the day

Stress !!!

I am starting to stress out a tad. Out here in Branson, Christmas starts November 1st. This means that our theatre and our show completely change. Normally I am fine with the show. Perhaps a little bit of nervousness for the first few shows...but other than that, no big deal. This year is going to be a little different though.

Due to my motorcycle accident, I am the "gimp" out of the wives. I normally will dance the opening number and nothing else. I used to do the other dance numbers but my knee swelled up after dancing the first year so I decided to cut back a little. Cortisone shots were not something I wanted to rely on. This year I am adding in a few more dances. Two of them are ones that I have done before...but it has been 5 years since I last did them. The memory isn't quite what it used to be. Actually, forget memory, the muscles aren't what they used to be.

There is also a song that I normally do with Adam, Cindy and Marty. Just singing and then minimal dancing. Well, this year things are changing. It's a brand new song with all of the couples that sounds great vocally. It's the dancing that is stressing me out. We just had our first rehearsal yesterday and we aren't even done with the choreography. The show opens in literally ONE week! AHHHHH. Aside from the very short time...I have never danced a Viennese Waltz before. Hello??? Not the easiest thing for me to pick up. We probably only have another day or two of rehearsals to learn it. Yep! Color me stressed!

Ran out of gas today...

Yep, that's right. I ran out of gas on the way to the theatre this morning. I'm 35 and this has never happened to me before. My dad trained me early on to never let my tank get below a quarter tank. Apparently that lesson has been forgotten.

This morning started off so well, aside from it being only 45 degrees outside when I woke up. Because we have rehearsals after the morning show this morning, I decided to pack lunches for Adam and me. Turkey, Muenster cheese, sprouts and sliced cucumbers on homemade whole wheat bread, grapes, chips and a yummy veggie salsa that I make every year. I'll have to post that recipe some time. Anyway, I was prepared. It was going to be a great day.

At the moment I have bills on my steering wheel console thing/dashboard, thus blocking the gas gauge. I decided to stop at the gas station near my house because I knew I was getting low. I normally pay with my debit card but accidentally put in a credit card and it wanted me to go inside to pay. It was already 9:45 AM (our show starts at 10 AM) so I thought I didn't have enough time and would just go to the station near the theatre. Silly me. So, I'm on the way to the theatre and I notice my car starting to stall a bit. I have a Subaru Forester, automatic...my first automatic car. I'm all about manual cars because I detest having to wait for the car to kick into gear. I like being able to control the gears on hills. I also like the fact that you can push start the car. Anyway, the car didn't seem to want to kick into gear...then I noticed the gas gauge. The bar was way below the empty mark. Oops. I was about half way there and there was bumper to bumper traffic and a slight hill. I decided to turn back around and go back to the first gas station because it was mostly downhill and I figured I would have a better chance driving in neutral and coasting to it. Uh, I forgot that there is a slight uphill curve about 1/2 mile from the station. As soon as I hit the hill the car died. Foot to the floor...nothing! I was running out of "speed" and turned left down a driveway just as I lost the last of my "speed". Yes, I had to almost cut off a car. I had turned down a gravel driveway to a used car lot. Of course I ran into one of the 22 Mexican people that lives in Branson. No, I'm not being racist AT ALL. Just factual. I grew up in Southern California,which is a melting pot of cultures, so....no racism here. I am 1 of 2 Chinese people who live out here (unless you count the cast of the Chinese Acrobats. That would bring the total to about 18). Needless to say, it's a predominantly white town out here in the Ozarks. It took me a little time telling him what was wrong because my Spanish/Mexican is a tad rusty. I also kept coming up with Italian words now that I am trying to learn that. I only had a $20 bill so I paid him that to get a about a gallon of gas. SO WORTH IT.

After that I made it to the gas station and through the awful traffic. I got to the theatre around 10:25 AM and still had plenty of time to get on stage. I don't go on until about 10:30 or so.
Hopefully the remainder of the day will be less eventful.

Ugh, the negative side of Facebook

Most of you out there are familiar with Facebook I imagine. It's a great social network that allows you to keep in touch with your present friends, as well as ones from the past. For the most part I have loved it. It has been fun getting to re-connect with friends from high school and college. I have even found a few people from intermediate and grade school. I mainly only add people that know I because I keep my personal information on my page. Oh yeah, I also like Facebook because you can choose whether to "accept" a friend or not. You have the option of letting people view your page or not. If I have met you in person, feel free to add me.

Facebook also has fun procrastination tools. You can literally waste several days away on there. It's actually a little bit frightening the amount of time you can waste. You can play online poker, Scrabble, Boggle, have Pillow Fights, and play other addicting games ( Packrat). OH, and you can meet people from all over the world on the poker application. Note to self, must find Italian people to communicate with...

So...with all of these wonderful things, where is the negative?

Pictures....many, many pictures from the past. Eek. It's a lot of fun being able to post pictures on your page and seeing pictures of friends on their pages. You can also post comments under the pictures. However, some of those pictures are from high school.....in the 80s.....with really really big hair.....and lace...Need I say more? Ugh...embarrassing pictures for all of your friends to see. Pictures that you thought were long forgotten and that should not be introduced to the non-suspecting eyes. They didn't know they existed...why show them now? UGH

Tour of Missouri Rankings article

I just came across an article on uscyclingreport.com and thought I would paste part of it here:

After only two years of operations the Tour of Missouri was recently promoted to international cycling’s big leagues. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has announced that next year’s week-long, 600-mile race across the Show Me state will be run under the sport’s highest rating, 2HC, which awards premium international competition points to winners.
“For the Tour of Missouri to become HC category means it has attained the highest ranking it can get in the U.S.,” said Andy Lee, a spokesman for the European-based UCI’s American affiliate USA Cycling.

Lee said the upgrade should attract more attention from fans, the international media and top international competitors.

“Missouri has made a name for itself,” said Chris Aronhalt, managing partner of Atlanta-based Medalist Sports the Missouri race owner that also owns the top rated Amgen Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia which are the only other 2HC-rated races among 39 sanctioned events scheduled through 2009 in the Western Hemisphere.

Learning a new language

The latest thing that I am challenging myself with is learning Italian. I know, random right? Since finishing up 8 years of college, back in 2002, I haven't taken any classes and it feels like my brain is slowing down. I miss being able to learn new things and decided that learning languages might be fun.

Growing up in the US, of course I learned how to speak American/English. My parents are Chinese so I also picked up Mandarin. Granted, I only understand it now and can't really speak it that well. I have an embarrassingly awful American accent when I attempt to speak. It's actually a little fun because most people assume I don't understand Chinese so I get to eavesdrop. Heh heh. I took a total of about 10 years of Spanish and was fairly fluent at one time. However, because I never use it, it has mostly left my brain. Again, I understand more than I can speak. It's easier for me to translate things as opposed to coming up with the words. Make sense?

SO, about a year ago I tried to pick up Turkish. Now, the problem with trying to learn Turkish when you live in the Ozarks is.....there is no one to speak with. I had to try and pick it up from friends online and a few websites. I really tried learning for about 3 months but had to give up. The problem was, I knew how to write the words but had no idea how they sounded. That tends to be a problem. LOL SO, I could write to friends but couldn't speak to someone if I ran into a random Turkish person in Branson.

I have decided to challenge myself to learn another language and stick with it this time. I'm attempting Italian because it's similar to Spanish. Hopefully that will make it a little easier for me. After watching cycling for so many years I have always wanted to learn either French or Italian, so.....Italian it is. Who knows? Maybe I'll be able to pick up enough by next year's Tour of Missouri if it comes through town again. This time I'm going to use one of those programs that teaches you to speak and write. As of yet I've been listening to a few podcasts and learning how to speak. So far I have run into one problem. The 2 podcasts have taught me different ways to say the same word so....I guess I'll have to research a little online to see which is more widely used. A friend of mine is also giving me a few Italian programs that he has. Hopefully one of them will work. Keep your fingers crossed!

Rankings Bump

Today we had our wrap-up meeting on the Tour of Missouri. It was the last meeting of the year and we received great news about the Tour. Out ranking was bumped up to a 2.HC...Wahooo!!! This means that we are now part of the trifecta officially. The Tour de Georgia, Tour of California and the Tour of Missouri are the highest ranking Tours in the states. YES!

According to the VS. channel, the Tour of Missouri is the fastest growing Tour in the states. Not too shabby for only being in its second year. Hopefully it will continue to grow in popularity and we can keep getting those sponsors.

Kitty Torture

Heheheeeeee. I HAD to buy the hat to torture my kitties. Chewie wasn't too thrilled with me. Gotta love Halloween costumes.

Kitty Capers

You have to love the crazy things that cats do. One of our cats, Chewie, loves to make a fool of himself. Like all of my cats that I have owned, he plays fetch, tosses his toys around in the air and chases them around. No big deal...regular cat behavior. However, I DO love the fact that he will slide across the wood floor and smack into a wall or chair as he chases things that you throw. Heh heh. He has his very own "toy box" that holds about 20 - 30 toys that he can access at all times. Yes, he does know where it is and does nose through the toys until he gets one that he wants. Now, if I could only teach him how to put the toys BACK.

I decided to sweep under one of our cabinets the other day. OK, so I haven't done that in about 8 months or so. It's in the formal dining room and we generally don't go in there. The cabinet is about 3' X 1.5'...not the hugest of areas. This is the collection of toys that I found under it: 7 balls, bumble bee toy, eeyore stuffed magnet, big furry mouse, small mouse, stuffed stocking toy, 2 mini boxes of nerds, 3 hair ties, 1 fake snake, 1 plastic pull top, a pen lid, and 9 q-tips. *sigh*

Chewie's favorite pastime? Climbing ladders. yes, climbing ladders. We found this out when we were painting the walls in our house. Ever since then, if you bring a ladder in the house, he will climb it. I got to prove this to the gentleman that installed all of our fire alarms. I don't know why people don't believe me when I tell them things.

Best Gadget for a Bookworm

Actually, forget the title of the blog. This is the BEST. GADGET. EVER. OK, so I may be a little biased seeing as I love reading so much. I have loved reading since I was about six years old...well, at least that is my first memory of reading. My mom used to take me to the library to check out books and I remember being able to check out as many books as I was old. I was so excited when I was about to turn seven because it meant that I could check out one more book each time. YEP...I have been a nerd since a very young age. I think I liked reading because I was basically an only child. My brother is 15 years older than I am, which basically made me an only child. I wasn't allowed to watch TV during the weekend, and only a few hours on the weekends. Add that to the fact that I was always at one lesson or another when I wasn't home...well, you get the picture. Books became my best friend. You can always bring them with you where ever you go and yes, as cliche as it sounds, they do open you up to an exciting new world.

Now, reading is great because it helps you with your spelling and vocabulary but...did you know that it can also be bad? I'm one of those crazy people that can read a book a day, sometimes two. Now, this tends to be a very bad thing when you are staying up at all hours trying to finish a book. I always tell myself, " OK, I'll just finish this chapter and then I'll stop." Yeah, right! I get to the end and then think "I'll just start this next chapter" and then the cycle continues. This was especially bad in college when I was supposed to be reading my actual course books. What were my teachers thinking? Did they not KNOW that I had much more exciting things to read? Sheesh! Needless to say, in college I had to force myself to stop reading "my" books until after finals.

OK, so the gadget....it is The Cybook by Bookeen. SO COOL! It's one of those digital readers that there are so many of. Amazon has the Kindle, which you may have heard of. However, that thing is ugly and you are forced to buy the eBooks from Amazon. I found some online comparisons and settled on the Cybook. The Cybook allows you to buy eBooks from anywhere and also reads PDF files. You can also bookmark different pages in your books. I bought mine from Booksonboard.com . They had a great price and also added store credit to the deal. I think they sometimes have a special where they also throw in a memory card that has a lot of clssics loaded onto it. The Cybook is nice because it is so compact and also has a cover. I can fit it into my purse and take it with me everywhere. You can load hundreds of books onto it and can also buy a memory card to hold more (I also have a 2GB card). It's about the size of a paperback but is only 1/2" thick. The screen is nice because it uses e-ink and is not back lit. There is no strain on your eyes like when you read your computer screen. It's like you are reading a regular book but much lighter. I love the fact that I can choose from any book and just read at my leisure. It's great when I am early to a meeting or am just sitting around.

Now, don't get me wrong...I'm still a book nerd at heart. I love my tangible books and have literally over 1000 books. Yep, I've got my own library! Some are I loved my from my childhood. I will still continue to buy hard back books of my favorite authors but will also buy the eBook versions of those I think. Case and point, the Twilight series.

So...if you love reading like I do you should check out that link that I posted. It is the BEST GADGET EVER!

Tour of Missouri 2008

FINALLY...I'm up to date on Tour stuff. OK...so this year's Tour = fun, fun, fun! For the second year I was chairman of the Ancillary Events and planned activities again. This year the bike safety rodeo was held at Celebration City. The park was very generous and allowed all of the kids that brought their bikes to get into the park for free. The Taney County Fire Department also came out to help. SO...all in all, it went fairly well. Granted, for the second year in a row...it rained that day, thus lowering our attendance. Did I mention that it rained LAST year also?

The night before the race we had our VIP night at the Landing on a boat. Great food and friends! After the party everyone worked their way over to the stage area where we were having a block party. We had live music playing by the fountains and plenty of people listening. The cyclists stay at the Hilton, which is right on the Landing, and some of them started to filter towards the music. Most of them eventually wind up at Waxy O'Sheas, an Irish Pub near the Hilton. SO....anticipating that, my friends and I started at the music and then made our way to the Pub to mingle with everyone. On the way to the pub we ran into most of the Liquigas Team. COOL!

Of course, a picture was taken.

I suppose I should interrupt my blogging and explain why I said "COOL" about meeting the Liquigas Team. They were the Team that I was pulling for this year. I had been a HUGE Discovery Team fan for years, hence my stalking of their bus last year. After the team ended, a lot of the riders went to Team Astana, along with Johan. Naturally I followed along to Astana along with some of my other friends. George went to Team Columbia so I kept tabs on that too. Well....this year Astana didn't participate in the Tour of Missouri so I decided to pick another Team to follow. In addition to all of the US Teams, there were a few European teams that weren't here last year. I liked a few riders on the Liquigas Team (Italian) already so I decided to support them. Granted, I only recognized a few of the names of the team that they sent to the ToM but hey, they were still Liquigas. SO.....that is how I decided on "my team" this year.

OK, back to the Pub. It was a blast! Steve, a preivious drummer from our show, was playing in the band that night. I only planned to stay for about an hour because I had to get up really early to help set things up for the trike race and the TT. While we were sitting at our table Mark Cavendish, from Team Columbia, walked in. He had won a couple stages already and is inhumanly fast on that bike. Seriously one of the fastest men in the world. My friends kept teasing me (and double dog daring me...are we in grade school?) to get a picture taken with him but I didn't want to bug him since he was with his friends. I was literally almost shoved out the door to the patio where he sat . I was laughing ( and embarrassed) when I looked over to a the table across from us. There sat 3 of the Liquigas riders that we took our picture with. They nodded their heads and raised their bottles to me and then....I left. LOL I was embarrassed enough and figured it was time to go anyway. OH yeah, and I also don't speak Italian.

Branson was again the stage with the Time Trial Course. The tour organisers wanted us to keep the same course because it went over so well the year before. Before the TT we had the Trike Race again but, instead of celebrities, we used mascots from around the area. After the trike race I was off to see if I could find Debbie at the Columbia bus. When I got to the parking lot I couldn't find her so I walked around and saw Rory Sutherland and decided to get his picture. He writes a witty blog when he races and I always make sure I read the new posts to get a chuckle. After that I tried to find the Liquigas bus. To my disappointment I couldn't find it. I was a bit confused because I thought they would all be in the same parking lot. Eventually I saw a few riders and then saw 2 men with team shirts talking to the food people. I decided to ask them where the Liquigas riders were since one of them spoke English. He told me that they were on the other end, across the street, and that it wasn't that far of a walk. I showed him the picture that I had taken the night before (I had it printed up that morning....loooove 1 hour photo) and asked him if he thought the guys would mind signing it. He said that they would love it and that I should go over there. After that he rode off on his BIKE. Ummm, yeah, not far with a bike but walking? With my short legs it took a little while. Hehe.

Eventually I got over there and to my dismay, there was only one other team over there. Now, normally I'm fine with that but, well.....now I felt like a stalker. Because it was so out of the way there were only a few other people over there. I couldn't try and blend in with the other crazy fans because I was pretty much the only one. AWKWARD!!! OH yeah, and I don't speak Italian as I stated earlier. Well, I saw the guy that told me how to get there and he told me that he would translate for me and would help me out. His name was Rory and he was great. When I got there Jacopo and Da Ros were warming up for their ride while the rest of the team was still in the hotel. I got their signatures and then sat around waiting for the other guys to show up. So....for a little while I was the dork sitting there, like a stalker, waiting for photos and autographs. *sigh* Yep, dorkdom at its best. The Team guys were nice and offered me a chair and something to drink while I waited. Now, normally I am the most talkative person in the world. I will talk to anyone. Those of you that know me...stop laughing. Shhhhhh. SO...the talkative person was actually silent and a little shy since there were only a few people that spoke English and I didn't want to bother them. Eventually the rest of the team made it out there and I was able to get them to sign the pic. I also got to take a pic with Chicchi. YAY...the Man is a great sprinter. He had come in 3rd in the first two stages of the Tour and was currently in second place. Anyway, he warmed up for a little while and then got ready for the ride. Meanwhile, at one point, Rory left to get a Mountain Dew so...there I was, alone with Chicchi and no talking. Talk about Awkward. I would have loved to talk to him but... there was that whole language barrier thing. I also didn't want to take a lot of pics because it was a bit obvious since I was the only one there. I think I need to learn a bit of Italian if I want to hang out with Liquigas again. LOL Eventually Chicchi got ready to leave for his ride and Rory gave me a lift so that I didn't have to walk. He also invited me to sit in the team car behind Chicchi. WHAT? So....I was really tempted and would have loved to go but I get really carsick. The ride would have been on windy roads for around 45 minutes and then back down. I didn't think it would be nice of my to projectile over Rory's head as he drove. Seriously....really bummed that I missed out on that one. Chance of a lifetime and I blew it. I saw Chicchi as he was riding up to the ramp for his ride. He saw me and aimed his bike at me and he rode by and that was that. About 15 minutes later I watched him ride his TT and wished I was in that car. =(

I watched the rest of the Tour online on Justin.tv. They had a great feed and chatroom with alot of the same people each day. It was our own little online cycling fandom. I had a great time chatting and watching with them. The last day of the tour was GREAT! There was going to be a sprint finish and I was still pulling for Chicchi to win a stage. I had typed his name in bold letters when everyone was "pulling" for the rider they wanted to win. I was screaming and yelling when he crossed that line ahead of Cavendish. WAHOOOO AMAZING!!! Everyone figured Cavendish had it again since the guy is so stinking fast. So, when Chicchi crossed the line I was thrilled and told them that I called it. LOL That man has quads and those quads beat Cav!!! Also, Roman finished with the White jersey. What a great way to end the Tour.

I hope you enjoy the pics that I have in the slideshow. Some of the pics were taken by my new friend, Amy. She is from the boards and is friends with Debbie. Great gal! She was taking pics and writing a blog about the Tour. Thanks Amy!

Tour of Missouri 2007

I had a great time at the Tour of Missouri in 2007. Because I only had a few events the morning of the race, I was free to be a crazy cycling fan the rest of the day. So....after the Hughes Brothers sang the National Anthem, I was off to the Discovery Channel bus. Wahoooo.

Throughout the year I had kept in touch with a few friends on the Paceline Forum and was planning on meeting up with them at the Disco Bus. It was Discovery's last year and we wanted to make sure that we had a chance to get pictures and autographs. It was great to put a face to the names of the people that I met on the forums. Debbie also brought a Thank You banner for Johan ( the team manager), signed by people from the forum, to thank him for his work with the Discovery Team. I spent most of the day with Debbie at the bus in the HOT sun. We took plenty of pictures of the team and even got a pic taken with Johan. Wahooo. We also were given Discovery Channel water bottles to take home. I bought a Discovery t-shirt for autographs and had fun working on getting it signed.

Levi won the Time Trial and George was still in the yellow jersey. For those of you that don't follow cycling, they were both on the Discovery Team. YAY. So...off to the awards ceremony I went. I had a few things to do so I told Debbie that I would catch up with her later. On my way to the ceremony I was taking pictures with a friend on the TT ramp when someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and was face to face with George and Levi. Ummmmm...uhhhh, hi? They wanted to know how to get to stage. I pointed them in the correct direction because apparently... I had lost all speaking ability. LOL However, my friend had my camera at the time and snapped a great picture of George as they took off. NOW, had I actually had control of my brain at the time, I would have asked for a picture with the both of them, but no...frozen solid and in shock. Yes, I realize, they are just people too but, well, you don't expect to turn around and see them face to face.

The ceremony went off wonderfully. The Branson Landing, where the event was held, is on the waterfront. It has a beautiful fountain, designed by the same people that did the fountain at the Mirage in Las Vegas. When Levi got his award the fire was shooting out of the columns and the fountains were going off. It looked very impressive. So, I'm standing at the rail with the t-shirt in my hand hoping to get Levi to sign my shirt, getting smushed between all of the other fans. All of a sudden, Levi walks off the podium and hands someone his flowers. This person proceeds to walk past everyone and then puts the flowers in my hand. Ummm, ok...SHOCK? AWE? So, I wound up with Levi's flowers to take home.

Needless to say. I had a blast at the Tour of Missouri. I got to meet a few friends and went home with some great souvenirs. I wasn't able to get all of my signatures on my shirt so Kelly, one of the Tour organisers, took the shirt with her and got the rest of it signed for me. I got it at our follow up meeting later that year. =)

OH, so as a sidenote. A lot of the riders made comments on how hard the TT course was and that it was one of the toughest that they had ever ridden. We didn't have the high mountains but the hills made it hard for them to get a good rhythm. Great job Craig and Dathan!

Tour of Missouri

So...I have been dying to blog about the Tour of Missouri but have been trying to figure out the best way to go about it. Do I start from the current day or do I start from the race last year? I wanted to write about how Chicchi crossed the finish line ahead of Cavendish yesterday but thought...hmmm, no one really knows where I am coming from. I'm thinking that there would be questions like...what is the Tour of Missouri? Who is Chicchi? Cavendish? So...like the Sound of Music says, "Let's start at the very beginning".

For those of you that don't know me, I am a HUGE cycling fan. I'm not quite sure when it started. I have always loved watching sports. I still remember watching football games with my brother and dad and my mom asking what a touchdown was. My love for sports grew over the years as I watched various sports on TV and attended games...OK, so I don't like watching bowling or golfing. Sorry, not my cup of tea.

Things changed when I got married. My schedule became a little strange because of the show schedule, and....ummm, well, Adam just doesn't watch sports on TV. I decided that I needed to pick one thing to follow and just go from there. My choice? The Tour de France! Adam knows that for three weeks , every July, I will be glued to the television. I will be waking up at 4 AM to watch riders climb L'Alpe D'Huez. I will be taping various stages when I miss a stage due to a show. The TV will always be tuned on to the Tour, even if I have already watched the stage, as background noise. I completely immerse myself in the Tour and make up for my lack of watching all year. Some may call me crazy. I like the term "dedicated".

A little over 2 years ago I found out that we were going to have a Tour of Missouri cycling race. (Picture the Tour de France but 1/3 the length and no killer mountains ). My first reaction? YES!!! I MUST be involved! I called up Craig, my friend that owns the only bike store in town, Downhill Bikes and asked if he knew anything about it. He told me to call Dathan to see if I could get involved. Dathan is the Chairman of the LOCs for the Branson leg of the race. I went to the next meeting with the Local Organizing Committees (LOC) and was basically told that I was now the Ancillary Events Chairman. Ummmm, ok.....ummmm, what exactly are ancillary events? I later found out that it was comprised of random events, school education and the health fair. Gee, is that all? SO....I went to the meetings and met a lot of wonderful people as we planned for the inaugural Tour of Missouri.

Branson was given the Time Trial for its leg of the race. Craig and Dathan made a killer course that showcased a lot of our Ozark hills. As for the events that were planned. We had a Bike Safety Rodeo for the younger kids the Saturday before the race. The day of the race we had a Celebrity Trike Race and the Hughes Brothers (WAHOOOOO) sang the National Anthem. They were told that it was the best Anthem that they had heard at a race! YES! We so ROCK! Of course there was the normal block party the night before and all of the events the day OF the event. I'll write about that in the next blog and will add pics. For more info on the Tour you can go to http://www.tourofmissouri.com/

MELONS

Wahooo it's melon time! For the second year in a row we decided to add melons to our garden of zucchini and tomatoes. If you have never had a fresh off the vine melon, you don't know what you are missing. The ones at the supermarket are blech in comparison.

We found out just how fast watermelon vines can grow and also learned that they eventually take over your yard. The bigger the fruit, the more crows we collected in our yard. Soon they started pecking and eating them, no matter how big or small the melons were. Grrrr Crows are EVIL! This year we decided to get motion sensor scarecrows. *snicker snicker. The scarecrows are basically high powered sprinklers that you can shoot down the crows with. =) Worked like a charm.

Our biggest melon in 2007 was 40 pounds! This year we had a 31+ pound yellow watermelon. Because there are only the two of us ( the kitties don't count because they don't like watermelon), we handed out fruit to our family and neighbors. I hope you enjoy the pictures. I was trying to balance myself on the yellow watermelon so....if there are any dancers out there...no comments on my position since I was falling at the time. =)~

About Me

I suppose I should start off the blog with a little about me. Makes sense, right? I'll just give a brief overview and go into more detail when I am struggling for a topic later on.

I grew up in Southern California across from the cliffs in Palos Verdes Estates. LOVE. IT. THERE. I really was lucky to grow up so close to the ocean. I was the typical Chinese child taking piano, tap, jazz, ballet, tennis and voice lessons. ALL Chinese children MUST be over-achievers and given all of the things our parents lacked in their childhood. (If you are Asian you know what I mean. ) I only had one brother growing up, William, who is 15 years older than I am...and no, I was not a mistake!

I played tennis until around 1987, when I broke my femur in a motorcycle accident, the summer before freshman year in high school. After my accident I decided to quit playing tennis because I wasn't recuperating fast enough for my liking. I am very competitive and hard on myself BTW.

In high school I was active in drama and dance mainly. After graduating I went to UC Irvine and studied Environmental Law and then I studied 3d media Art at CSU Long Beach. Oh, after Irvine I had some fun health problems and had to move home for a year. THAT was fun.

After school I worked as an Executive Assistant at PC Liquidator and eventually got married and moved to Branson. More on that later.

Now I live in Branson, Mo and perform in our theatre, The Hughes American Family Theatre. We have a show with the entire family...5 brothers, 5 wives and 25 kids. There are also a few adopted kids that are in the show and dad joins in for the Christmas Show. For now we have no kids but we DO have 2 very spoiled kitties, Tigger and Chewie. Because there is Oh So Much to do out here, I sell products for Close to My Heart and Watkins. I have also been involved with the Tour of Missouri for the past 2 years.

As for interests, I have quite a few. The main ones are reading, cycling, my TiVo, catching up with friends, napping, photography, scrapbooking and cooking. Hopefully blogging will be added to that list very soon.

Giving in

Well, it's happened...I've given in to the blogging world. Honestly, I have been comtemplating blogging, off and on, for the past two years. Most of my friends have blogs and are constantly telling me to do one so that they can keep tabs on me. STALKERS! I think the reason that I have been putting it off is the fact that there isn't always a lot to write about. I had this notion that I needed to write about things on a daily basis. Ummmm, well...it dawned on me that I can write about anything. I can write about current AND past events. I know...brilliant right? It's pathetic...since moving from California six years ago, I think my brain cells are steadily declining. It happens when you move to the Ozarks. UGH

So...this blog will sometimes have current events but will probably mainly consist of things things that come to mind. I tend to be sarcastic at times so please keep that in mind.

Now...what to write about first?