1985.6 + 861.2 + 155.2 = Too Much to Explain, Let Me Sum Up!

To begin, I must apologize to my 50 OFFICIAL followers and to all of those who read my blog but wish to remain anonymous (you know who you are!).  I have been completely remiss in my blogging duties and I am sooooooo sorry!

Okay, so I've gotten so much better about keeping up with this blog than I have in years past but what was only supposed to be a hiatus of a couple of days ended up being two weeks.  I feel really terrible about it.  In fact, I joined these guys for a little while (if you look closely you can see I'm the little guy in front of the banner!);

And I really do truly feel badly about it.  Soooooooo much has happened since I posted the day before Christmas eve.  I really do feel like my friend Inigo Montoya in this scene;



I won't truncate everything down that far but I'll try to be brief;

Christmas Eve was amazing and we had a great time celebrating both our religious heritages - Family Mass at St. Philips at 3:30 followed by an all-you-can eat Chinese buffet!  We got the kids to bed early while we prepared for the arrival of Santa and then Amy and I engaged in our own Christmas Eve tradition - the giving of our stocking stuffers.  Since we celebrate both Christmas and Chanukkah we save the big present for the family Chanukkah party and for Christmas we collect small stocking stuffers during the year (one for each month) and we share them on Christmas Eve.  We finally got to bed at 1:00 only to be awakened at 6:00 by the rampaging hoarde known as our children in search of Christmas Booty! They loved their presents and not to denigrate any of the other gifts they were given, Aunt Alina won the prize award - I mean, who can hope to do better than adopting a wolf for Sarah?  Our little naturalist was "naturally" in heaven.  I too was in heaven since Aunt Alina gave me the folllowing to help me in my cross country ride;

However, the actual detail that came with the device is nowhere near what you see in the picture above (more on that later).  Of course being the "digital tourist" that I am, it took me five days to finally get it programmed and figure out how to use it.

The day after Christmas we had a great snow storm that actually threatened to put the kibosh on our planned mini-vacation to Mystic, CT.  It did leave our house looking lovely and encrusted with frozen splendor;

 

(Shoveling in a winter wonderland)

Ultimately, we did make it to Mystic and since a picture is worth a thousand words, instead of describing it all to you I'll let you see the video/photographic footage;

We had a great trip across on the ferry and although we didn't get the chance to go to Mystic on Monday on Tuesday morning we hit it bright and early and took the obligatory "family at the anchor" shot;

(We Don't Need No Stinkin' Ear Warmers!)

We wandered around Mystic looking at various exhibits and got into an epic snow ball fight;

(It's every man for himself)

We boarded a few "ships";

(Avast ye scurvey dogs, swab the decks afore I keelhaul the lot of ya!)

We went in search of the Sushi place that had eluded us on our last visit and ended up with a truly "epic" platter of sushi;

(Yes, SOME fish was harmed in the making - but not a morsel went to waste!)

The next day we played some more and revisted Mystic.  That evening we joined Santa, Mrs. Claus and a lot of elves (no, not Elvises - the kind that work at the North Pole!) on a train ride to the North Pole;

We then got up the third day, played a while, swam in the pool for a while and surprised the kids with a visit to the Submarine Museum - of course our little military man was in his glory;

And for once all FOUR of Amy's "kids" actually found something they all enjoyed;

We then had Thursday to recuperate before heading into the city on New Year's Eve to see the King Tut exhibit on our way to Mark and Laura's for the semi-annual Cousin's Sleepover - Eat Chinese Food - New Year's Eve - PreFamily Chanukkah Party blast!  The Tut exhibit was amazing and it was fun to see all the tourists running around like maniacs trying to find an open route to Times Square so they could watch the ball drop (sorry Snookie, you weren't there).  But it did mean that we got to have a great visit with Auntie Laurelle (a spur of the moment decision) and we got to have lunch with two of the most amazing guys who had yet to meet our wonderful guys (can you believe it) our dear friends Pat and Stephen;

They are two of the most amazingly giving people I have ever met in my life and the fact that they have adopted our children so warmly just goes to reiterate that.  These two brave men are on a mission to create a documentary about the idiocy that keeps two loving people from enjoying the same rights as other couples in this country.  To show support for them we are going to be a part of their wedding in Washington, D.C. in a few months and Sarah is going to interview them for her reflections film that she will be making.

We then headed off to New Jersey for the annual Cousin's Sleepover and Chanukkah Party.  Basically, sister and brother-in-law Laura and Mark are gracious enough to offer their house to all the cousins to have a huge family sleepover for New Year's Eve.  We go out to an all you can eat Chinese Buffet in New Jersey and then we go back to their house, drink champagne (not the kids) have lots of snacks and wait for the ball to drop -

THEN we all try to get the kids calmed down enough so we can go to sleep - only to be awakened six hours later by the little ones (well, James and William).  We then have lots more food and we exchange Chanukkah presents!  It was a great time had by all - I gave Amy her big holiday present - Cutco Poulty Shears.  I know, romantic right?  But she's always wanted them so I figured what the heck and gave her something I know she'd use.  She gave me the gift that keeps on giving - a gift certificate for an hour and fifteen massage at our local place The Dreaming Tree in Northport.  We got home later on teh first and then spent the rest of the weekend enjoying our last few days of rest and playing with our new toys.

And speaking of new toys, they don't tell you in the product description for the Garmin Edge 605 Cyclocomputer that the "loaded base map" is well, pretty crappy.  It really has almost now detail at all and the only way you can figure out anything is if you by the upgrade for $90.  Well, after five days I figured out it wasn't working real well so I found a used MicroSD card loaded with the map features I need on eBay and it only cost $37!!!!!  So I spent January 2nd ordering it and enjoying a pajama and movie day with the family!

January 3rd saw us back in class and January 4th saw us getting back into rehersals for Bye Bye Birdie!  We've assembled an amazingly talented young cast, the set designs are going to be amazing and we are super excited about the show.    This whoel week we had some great rehearsals putting together "Put on a Happy Face" and "Normal, Healthy American Boy"!  We then got ourselves ready to attend the New York State Theatre Educators' Student Conference in Callicoon, NY!!!!!!  We were going to be staying in the Villa Roma and the kids were super psyched about it - they had even worked on "Pandemonium" from 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee to perform at the showcase of student performances!

But alas it was not to be.  SNOWMAGEDDON II loomed heavy on the horizon and our district decided to cancel any school sponsored trips (that would be us, the Science Olympiad and a field trip to New York City) twenty-four hours before the event.  There were many tears from the seniors who were supposed to be attending - especially those who couldn't attend as juniors and for whom this was going to be their only chance to attend this incredible conference that they've been hearing about since their freshman year.  It was my second year out since last year I was performing A Chorus Line with Amy and I couldn't attend.  The kids are still bummed about it and I'm still waiting to hear from the NYSTEA folks if they are going to give us at least a partial refund.

The second week of January started out incredibly well and we had a great rehearsal getting most of "Telephone Hour" staged.  And then All County stepped in.  I never realized when I made the schedule how many kids would be involved in All County and as a result three rehearsals ended up getting canceled before it was all said and done.

On the plus side - I've been doing an incredible amount of riding.  Even with the weather and the crud all over the shoulders of the road I've managed to log in 125 commuting miles in the last two weeks!  The cold doesn't really bother me so much and now that I'm working on dialing in my Garmin (if you know what I mean) its really a lot of fun!

And now to the cryptic meaning of my post title - 1985.6 is the total number of miles on Black Betty's cyclocomputer, 861.2 is the total number of miles on Black Pearl's cyclocomputer and 155.2 is the amount of miles on my Garmin 605 cyclocomputer after my 27.2 mile ride this morning.  I managed to beg Amy to let me go for a "quick" ride this morning because those numbers total up to;

	Robert Paterson - Fanfare for Trumpet Sextet .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

3001.0 miles!!!!!  You see, I didn't ride my bike the first two weeks of 2010 becasue I was performing in A Chorus Line  and I didn't want to get injured while in the middle of a show so I didn't ride for two weeks.  By the time I did start riding it was only sporadically becuase I had a chest cold.

SO TECHNICALLY, I have ridden 3001 miles in 365 days!  Yes, the most I have ever ridden.  And considering my big century ride was truncated this year and I didn't take the bike on vacations and I only got to take part in two club rides this year, almost 90% of my riding was completely commuting!  Now that is something to blow my trumpet about!

I'm riding as much as I can and I'm going to make my resolution that this year (God willing) I will be able to reach my goal of riding 5,000 miles because 3,600 will be from San Diego, CA to Wheatley Heights, NY.  I have the resolve.  I have the GPS.  I have the route.  The only thing we lack is $7,000 to make this a reality.  I've been sending out sponsorship packets to everyone I can think of and I'm trying to reach out in any way I can but the money is just not coming in. 

If you are reading this (and I hope at least 50 of you are) please help me reach out and try to find those people that believe enough in a child's right to just be a child - to play, laugh, sing, dance, and imagine - without worrying about cancer.  That's what Sunrise does for kids and I need to find the money to start this ride which I have no doubt will raise the money to send 10 kids to camp for the summer.  If you read this blog and you know someone who owns a business or who has a connection at a corporation please see what you can do to help us make a difference. 

Right now we are waiting on an angel (or angels) to help us;

	Ben Harper - Waiting on an Angel .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Can you help us find one?

Stay well my friends and I'll see you on the road (and  lot more often now)!