They're seasonal now?

how dumb do they think girls are? but it does beg the question: if you get one out of season, is he all stringy and tough and not very good on salads?
boyfriend = avocado. interesting...

Congratulations to me

i did my longest training ride ever this weekend: 7 hours. and it wasn't just 5 minutes to a coffee shop, 6 hours 50 minutes of internet surfing while wearing a chamois, then 5 minutes home. i actually rode. and i even crashed myself. ice and pavement and excessive speed are not a good combination. i have a raspberry (perhaps blackberry?) on my rear to remind me.
and another congratulatory factoid: i rock at cooking. so much so that a former teammate (from florida) and a buddy (from connecticut) met at a training race a few weeks ago in florida. they got to talking. and figured out they both knew me. and kristin said "that girl can bake anything!" and kyle agreed, 'cause he'd seen me in action, too.
imagine that. half a country away and they both are privvy to one of my few talents: the kitchen fairy/mcguyver. makes me all warm and fuzzy inside to know i'm remembered for my mad kitchen skillz.
okay, done giving myself accolades.
and lo! behold! my pimpin new dmt cycling shoes that a nice mailman brought to me today. at least i'll look fast.

I am totally on the phone, Ivan

Don't you have a Tour of California to race?

Hot Chamois and a Windy Day (sounds like the new Yanni album)

Such an interesting day.
I started off by waking up early-ish to check my email and see if Rick had some web copy edits for me. He’s in Israel at the moment, so the 7-hour time difference whacks me out.
I did some worky-work, and my laundry. I had a ride at 1 with a cool girl, Rachel. She looks like Anna Paquin. More on her later.
So, I take my kit out of my washer/dryer combo (motto: “do two things but neither thing well”). And I was all stoked: Yay! I get to put on a nice warm bit of clothing and pedal around for a few hours! I love residual dryer toastiness.
Let’s edit that. I pulled on my chamois, and was immediately greeted with the none-too-pleasant sensation of a 3rd-degree burn. Who has been BURNED by their chamois before? Don’t know. Apparently all those techy layers hold mega heat, because it hurt. I did a little dance around the hallway to take the edge off.
Then, I stupidly pulled on my full-zip jersey. No dice. The zipper was scorching and now I have a nice little welt on my neck from a 900-degree zipper.
Holeymoley, as Jens Voigt would say.
Based on this morning’s occurrences I am retracting my previous assertions that my damn washer/dryer thing is actually good for the environment.
Reason 1: in order to heat my clothes to melting point in the drying process, a large amount of fossil fuel must be burned. We’re talking enough to take the Tennessee Valley Authority grid down a notch or two.
Reason 2: if by chance the GENERATION of said ridiculous heat is not the direct result of burning fossil fuels and is instead extracted straight from the core of the earth (my new suspicion), then we’ve got some environmental issues there, too. I’d imagine that the “center of the earth-grade heat” must be drilled out. And if you’ve ever seen an oil rig, I’m guessing that’s the process. And you never see an oil rig without a raft of Greenpeacers. So I’m extrapolating once again that the environment is getting royally f-ed, or at least the population of a few pods of whales. Hence the Greenpeacers.
So, in closing: I’m not too sure I condone the purchase of a washer/dryer combo. But it does save space.
So, I show up for my ride with Rachel. She’s adorable (see lookalike actress pic at left). And incredibly tolerant. I nearly killed her 94 times before leaving the metropolis of Charlottesville. Following Mandy through traffic is akin to chasing a cockroach around your kitchen. Just do whatever you’ve gotta do.
Then we began the windy part of our ride, which was...oh...right...ALL of our ride. Rachel was kind enough to track her calories burned on her PowerTap, and doing a bit of fancy math to tell me how many calories I was burning since the Mandytee is twice her size. (on a side note…the Mandytee may be nearing extinction. Check back after I go to El Salvador for the World Cup in March). We did some urban terrorism by (gasp!) riding on the road where there were other people in cars. I even got the f-word once from some jackass in a purple Acura. Hey, dude: you have a purple car. You have bigger problems.
So, now I’m writing more web copy (and I PROMISE to post the results once we finish! Mine is not a mythical occupation like in Office Space), and maxin and relaxin and stuff. It’s gonna be a 20+ hour week on the bike. Not much by the standards of some, but a lot by the standards of the Mandy.
Peace.
PS: This has got to be one of the funniest things I've seen lately. And it's also a test. Do you have to be a fan of HomestarRunner to enjoy? Methinks not. Weigh in, people.

Philly!

no, i wasn't here for the wachovia crash-fest classic. that's in june. last weekend it was a crash-free, philly cheesesteak-infused bonanza! here i am at the start of my treasure hunt...and subsequent posing (as rocky; never seen the movie), in the h&m dressing room (i picked out that shirt for ryan to see how silly he could look), and enjoying my first geno's cheesesteak (ryan photoshopped his head in over my delectable sandwich. primadonna)

Never eat anything larger than your head

2/14/07 10:32 p.m. EST. Washington, DC

2/14/07 10:35 p.m. EST. Washington, DC

2/14/07 10:38 p.m. EST. Washington, DC

score

cake: 0

mandy: 1

and it even had a steak knife in its corner

I have to register for Accounting I

somebody please remind me to get on it, stat! that way, when i start classes at darden in september, i don't do this:geometry; accounting...to-may-toe; to-mah-to

The death spiral continues

(before i rush off to david's bridal to be fitted for a bridesmaid's dress...)
i just opened up an i-tunes account. now corporate america can suck the life out of me, 99 cents at a time.
curses.
first purchase...fall out boy, of course. courtesy of youtube. i can't stop!
back to i-tunes: i have a new plan. every time i forgo the luxury of a fancy coffee (for the record i like my coffee either straight, black and strong because i was once a resident of italia; or froufrou. no middle ground) or nice shoes, i put the money i would have spent into a jar. at the end of the month i blow it all on i-tunes.
but, as i languish away in poverty, it will all have been worth it because of johnny and at least that'll free up some mental bandwidth to watch homeboy matt white do his thing on youtube. so impressive!
mom & dad, i am just kidding. i will blow all my money this.
ps: some fun for your valentine's day (which i do not celebrate). because, according to recent research, matt white is so hot right now:

Top 5 best-ever rides

yesterday made the list. i started out the ride by griping and stealing steven's glove liners on account of my lame circulation. we rolled through some valley near waynesboro, va. then climbed reed's gap, which i am positive was over 18% in places. ordinarily not a problem but the mandytee's 15 extra lbs made it suck (+12.5% of my bodyweight, people!). i promised steven i didn't hate him. then we descended past wintergreen ski resort, and climed back up to reed's gap. and again, i had to reassure steven that i didn't hate him even though the banana slugs in santa cruz (which i ingested as a child on a dare) woulda beat me up that climb. but then came the best part: the blue ridge parkway. conveniently closed to cars for the winter. we rolled toward the "road closed" gate (and passed what looked like a serial-killer, smiling from his late-model chevrolet) and thus commenced the last half of one my favorite rides, ever. we rode in snow, people. and we're not talking snow on the sides of the road. we're talking 4 inches under our tires. and it was awesome! and not just a few feet. miles and miles of it. we had it all to ourselves. and i was stoked. i "got my 'cross on" again!
i grew up skiing, and hated nearly every minute of it (sorry family...it wasn't about your company, but the cold). this was the best snow experience i'd had in a long time. the last time i liked snow on/around me was in the hottub at aspen a few winters ago. i'm that cranky about it.
except the snow-covered trees, the parkway looked just like this:

we are so hard-core.

Lessons learned...

this week mom was in town, painting and spiffing up my condo so that the editors of architectural digest will turn green with envy. my brain was working overtime due to the newness of everything: condo, mom visiting me at home (?) in virginia, job, training, steady diet, not driving my car across the country every weekend, etc.

a few things i thought about:

1. where, oh where do us 30-ish chicks get our fascination for cutesy things? hello kitty, pink, pictures of puppies/bunnies, cushy pillows in the shape of hearts, t-shirts with kittycats on them, etc? answer: no idea. but perhaps something important to ponder on the next cross-country road trip. maybe, as well, someone could get a fulbright fellowship to study said phenomenon.

2. according to mom, how on earth did i make it to age 29 without knowing:

a. studies show that your car runs better when the clutter is off the floormats

b. eating raw cookie dough will kill you

c. eating the results of (what's left of) the cookie dough will make you fat

d. every single person who surfs the internet is a serial killer. clearly, it is a useless and illegitimate medium that will die out soon

e. the world will stop spinning if you dry your hands on a dishtowel instead of hand towel.

f. the guys at the medford, OR mac store do not try to sell my mother more computer than she needs. everybody knows salespeople never work on comission

i'm glad i know all that now. i think i just might make it to 30.

on that note, i'll leave you with a picture at home on the ranch on a warm summer day. yes, i am holding a bottle of bombay saphire.L-R: mom, uncle mike, ryan, jake, aunt shirley, dad. kneeling: sarah, minnie the border collie, me, the bombay

Tired, so tired...

of talking about me. so i'll talk about my b.f.f., cara. she is the bestest. here is a photo montage of her. i am in some pix, too, to prove that yes, though i rock at photoshop (um...no), she does indeed exist and i didn't just download her from www.ReallyFreakinHotFinancialAnalystChicksWhoRaceBikes.com. (the domain owners had to lame-ize the spelling of "chicks" because someone already had www.ReallyFreakinHotFinancialAnalystChixWhoRaceBikes.com. bastards.)

okay, now that we've kept the boys occupied with cara's lovely face: girls get your jollies here. who cares about the music: mute it, watch and drool.

No more Vanderkitten lingerie pictures

i promise. this is the last one. my mom, ever the protector of all things pure and nun-like, thinks it's not okay. but...
it was so cold today! instead of braving the cold like the ever-better-than-mandy ian ayers; i rode the trainer for 3 hours. i was all stoked. 180-190 watts for 3 hours. those are girl watts, people. cut me some slack. i even watched two movies. got even more excited when i played dearest brian vernor's pure sweet hell . i got all jazzed for 'cross again. too bad i have to wait 8 months! waaaaah! and, i watched another really cool movie. but it's a secret.
now it's snowing. beautiful. i distinctly remembering only applying to mba programs south of the mason-dixon line to avoid this. no more running around the condo in my sweet vanderkitten lingerie, i guess. sniff. whine. frown.

I hate to say it...

but this year i could give a crap about who wins the super bowl. but it does make for some fun photoshopping.

The $.79 secret, See's lollies, and greetings from Charlottesville, Antarctica

it has taken me 19 minutes to type the last 3 words because my fingers haven't thawed from the frigid 3-hour ride i just took. and i had an icy headwind both out AND back. that is just not fair!

on a good note, this weekend was spent discovering two really cool things: 79 cent chenile gloves at harris teeter (with the v.i.c. card, of course! and that stands for 'very important customer', by the way, dear readers. those people in marketing are fancy!). i threw those bad boys under my uber-thick specialized gloves and i was toasty warm all day yesterday (save 30 minutes because i did the dumbest thing and stopped riding for a bit to look at monticello. which is dope, but not worth freezing fingers), and all ride today. but now my hands decide to freeze. damn raynaud's syndrome (which, according to the innnnernet, can be a useful predictor of autoimmune rheumatic disease. yay)!

good thing #2: see's lollipops. people, if you have no tried these, you have led an unfulfilled life. they are a san francisco 'thing', and are unparalleled in taste and fun-factor. i found them on sale at cvs on friday and jumped for joy. so much joy, in fact, that i gave a handful to the teenaged barrista at greeberry's because he could tell i was happy about something unrelated to the latte i was drinking.

so, life is good. so good, in fact, i'm enjoying a lolli now. doesn't help me get back to race weight, but oh well.

speaking of which, here is a photo of a newly-discovered species, bovinus aquis lozano. i couldn't find a pic of another new species, the semi-nocturnal hippopotamandy, on google images. wtf?

bovinus aquis lozano, aka mandytee; active in winter months

I win! I win

for the world's most boring post! here are a few condo shots, taken by oh so pro ian. mom is coming next week to make the place lovely and colorful and un-boring! mom wanted me to send her photos of the place so that she could get ideas. i think she's lying and is just trying to check on me and see if i keep my room clean. answer = no.
L-R: living room with 'heavenly' hanging out on the floor, waiting for a home. notice 3 bikes in picture; can't get away from the damn things! oh, and do you like my xmas light sculpture? long story on that one. okay, so then the stairwell. notice my stylish parquet entryway. i paid premium for that, baby. then, me in the shower. this is how i prefer to bathe. and lastly, me pseudo-guillotining myself.
this the best. i thought for a minute here that james baker was giving our president the bird.
okay, dear readers: i promise to be more interesting from here on out! i swear.