Sunday, January 24, 2010

Daytona 500 ... 2010

It's Daytona 500 time! . . . and I can't go (sad).


I'll be at the Vancouver Olympics ... But you can go!


I just put the tickets on E-bay. 4 great seats.


Type the item # 190368087374 into the Ebay search window and it will take you right to them.


Spread the word! Tell your friends.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Its late and I can't sleep... too much running through my head to be tired.

Can't sleep. I'm too excited for the weekend. And, I drank a coke. Before bed. Stupid! What was I thinking. That was so dumb.

I know caffeine affects me!

Oh well. Too late now! I'm headed home tomorrow and I could not possibly be more excited. Its going to rock.

I would love to produce the four pm newscast tomorrow, but I don't know if I can pull that off... I am supposed to produce the 6pm newscast. We will see. I'll ask Ashley if we can switch back.

I was looking on facebook at some old photos Jill tagged me in; wow. Old as in back in the day when I was in Kindergarten at the private Christian school I went to before I was homeschooled. So long ago! And yet I remember the giant plastic hippo on the playground we'd play on and the swingset ... field day and group pictures once a year. Our whole school fit into a giant photo!

And I see my friend Emily and her husband in Cali ... they are the cutest godly couple. Trendy, beautiful and full of the Lord's light. That is what I aspire to be. A real world example of how Jesus would be if he walked in physical human shoes.

I can tell I'm over tired. I'm rambling about the most random things. Its good to get it all out though every once in a while. Because really, no one reads this blog. I mean, who am I kidding? i'm just one girl, living her life, writing about it on the giant space called the internet.


Whistler Olympic ski venue faces foreclosure

Ok so my dad and I were just talking about this ... its really interesting. Go figure! Right before I leave for Vancouver ...

http://olympics.thestar.com/2010/article/753617--whistler-olympic-ski-venue-faces-foreclosure

Whistler Olympic ski venue faces foreclosure
Intrawest assets, including the Games' skiing venue, could be auctioned off next month
January 21, 2010

TONY WONG
PETTI FONG
Creditors holding $1.4 billion (U.S.) in debt on Intrawest ULC have begun foreclosure proceedings on some of the company's assets, including the Whistler Blackcomb ski resort, and say they plan to auction them off on Feb. 19.

The resort operator's financial woes have put Vancouver Olympic organizers in a quandary, since the sale of the company would be an unwelcome disruption to the games, which open Feb. 12.

Vancouver-based Intrawest recently missed a $524 million debt payment, prompting lenders, including investment bank Lehman Bros. and hedge-fund sponsor Davidson Kempner Capital Management, to put a notice in the Wall Street Journal and other U.S. newspapers seeking buyers for assets, including Whistler, Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Stratton in Vermont and Squaw Valley in California.

"Each qualified bidder must be a financial institution or other entity that has the wherewithal to purchase the membership interests in immediately available funds," the notice states.

Dan Doyle, executive vice-president of venue construction for the games organizing committee known as Vanoc, said legal advisers have concluded that the Games will continue as scheduled, despite the auction date. "We have a business plan to take care of any eventuality," Doyle said at a news conference Wednesday.

Asked about the possibility that an auction could affect competition, Doyle said auctions don't "happen overnight.

``There is a small chance. It's minuscule. Smaller than small," he said. "I don't think it's a problem at all."

Vanoc chairman Rusty Goepel said the Olympics will give Whistler unparalleled exposure and doesn't understand why the creditors are rushing to auction.

"You want to go around the world to find all the potential buyers if you're a creditor. You want to give them all your due diligence and information to make potentially the highest bid," he said. "If I'm a vulture fund and I own some of the outstanding debt, I'm trying to increase the value of Whistler, not decrease it."

Publicly traded hedge fund Fortress Investment Group purchased Intrawest in 2006 for $2.8 billion in a highly leveraged buyout.

Intrawest owns a variety of other mountain resorts in the U.S. and Canada, including the popular Blue Mountain resort in Ontario.

Whistler Mountain will host the alpine skiing events, while the sister mountain, Blackcomb, is the site of the sliding centre. Both are part of the Intrawest resort.

Lehman's own bankruptcy in 2008 has complicated the process, since restructuring firm Alvarez & Marsal is trying to find cash to settle the $1 trillion in creditor claims owed by the investment bank.

Meanwhile, Intrawest said in a statement Wednesday that the company is, at least for now, under the control of Fortress.

"Fortress Investment Group continues to own and control Intrawest and all of its properties," read the statement released by Intrawest spokesman Ian Galbraith. "Serious discussions with Intrawest's lenders are ongoing regarding refinancing, and the company continues to operate business as usual at all of its resort properties. Intrawest is looking forward to the success of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games."

Contrary to some media reports, the company's assets ``have most certainly not been seized by the banks. We continue to operate and it's business as usual,'' Galbraith told the Star

Still, the possible sale of the company, an iconic Canadian brand with a global reach, couldn't come at a worse time.

Olympic organizers are hoping to showcase their athletes and the beauty of British Columbia. Instead, it looks like the games may well be seen as a symbol of the global credit crunch.

Fortress and Alvarez & Marsal did not return calls requesting comment Wednesday. A spokesperson for Davidson Kempner declined to comment.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

AB Ripper X Day 1

7:34

just got home from work at WYMT and headed to the DVD player ... Ok, so I feel great! Jeff burned me a copy of the DVD and I am excited! ...

I just finished AB Ripper X 339 for the first time ever ... LOVED IT! Going to tell everyone i know how good it is... my core feels tight. Now headed to the gym for a couple miles on the treadmill and a couple on the track. We'll see how I feel tomorrow.

But my friend Michael said to me today on twitter… “you're excited now but you're going want to cry and shoot yourself late. P90x= punishment worse than death,”

Oh gosh.

But I'm ready... bring it on.

I think Angie would love this. And mom. And Adrian. We'll see what we can do.

Monday, January 18, 2010

Broccoli Alfredo ... a multiple. step. process.

Ok, it's 8:28pm ... and I head to my kitchen with trepidation ... not knowing if my attempt and making Alfredo with Broccoli will turn out successful ...

Last week's attempt to make Basmatti rice in my hot water boiling pot di not end well. It ended with two large tupperware containers full of brown rice, partly mush, partly still crunchy ... that is still in my refrigerator ... untouched.

But i will persevere.

I will fight the good fight.

I will run the race, not giving up. And so all this is said ... and i'm still sitting on my couch, not moving towards the kitchen.

But now i will go!

8:49 pm .... alright, a few more minutes to wait ... and the noodles should be a ... success???!?! could it be? I guess its too early to get excited, but i'm getting excited....

Tweeted a minute ago, "Noodle status: boiling! Still looking good... Results still positive..." I set the timer, so i'm just keeping the ol' fingers crossed.

I think probably one of my biggest downfalls in cooking ... from my observations of myself .... is that i'm not the most patient person in the world... which is not exactly a strongpoint when it comes to cooking...

it takes a lot of patience to be a good cook! Speaking of ... i'm going to head back to the kitchen to watch, and wait ... for the noodles to cook/be done cooking .... ugh the suspense!?

8:54pm 3 minutes and 22 seconds remaining on the timer for the good noodles ...

hmmmmmm. I'm not even really hungry anymore. That pizza i ate earlier must have filled me up more than i thought. That's demotivating when you're cooking. I think i'd be a better cook if i was always hungry when i worked in the kitchen. Then i'd be super energized to make something tasty.... because i was so starved!

8:56pm Just stirred the noodles ... they're getting softer .... hurry up noodles, hurry!

8:57pm ... how do you know when the noodles are finished? the timer clearly is wrong in this case. So many variables in cooking that are out of my control! Maybe that is why i'm not "cookingly" inclined as well ... because i just wait at the mercy of that stovetop and those little shell-shaped noodles ... i heard once that if you throw the noodles against the wall and they stick, they're ready to eat? Does that work for Shells?

9pm ... i just determined tasting the noodles is a more trustworthy approach to checking the shells' 'doneness' than throwing them against the ceiling ... walls, floors and ceilings are too unsanitary for my tastes ... I just ran cold water over the shell and then ate it that way ... but i felt like it was still crunchy-ish ... oh gosh, this is where i get nervous. Do i keep boiling the poor little dears and risk burning or overcooking them? Or do I stop now and just hope they continue to soften? I vote stop now ...

We'll see! The verdict for my shell shaped noodles is definitely still out...

9:03 pm ... alright success! The shell i just tasted was ... perfectly soft and tender! SCORE one for me! Noodles =0. me-1.

Ok ... next step. Cooking has too many steps!
Alfredo sauce. well, that's easy. i bought a jar of it! *grin* I know thats cheating, but baby steps is the goal. I'll tackle that another day.
So, i dump the sauce on. The whole jar? Sure, why not? The more sauce the better in my opinion!

But lastly, the broccoli ... ahhh. I guess i'll steam it. I did this once with Jeff... But he was really good at it, I just watched. Now, i don't remember. I think you just put the broccoli's in the pot with a little water and olive oil, some spices, and then let it soften? Here goes ...

9:44 pm Ok, two phone calls... one from my little brother Alex, the other from Jeff, lots of laughter and several text messages later ... My Alfredo Broccoli or Broccoli Alfredo whichever you prefer ... is done! And delicious!

I just tryed it all together -- the broccoli is not too cooked - its still tough enough that i didn't cook all the vitamins and nutrients out of the vegetables, but soft enough that you can easily bite through. The noodles and veggies are thoroughly covered with sauce, delicious sauce, the noodles are super soft and delish...

This has been an extremely successful evening! IN the kitchen! Unheard of up to this point ... but now no longer ... I feel so much more comfortable in the kitchen just after this one night on my own, trying this "recipe" :)

All i need is confidence in the kitchen, which have a handle on now ... hooray.

mission accomplished.




I'm going to start blogging. daily.

No ifs ands and/or buts about it! I'm going to work at the Vancouver Olympics ... ummm what better time than now to start blogging!

And i'll get started blogging BEFORE I go ... to get in the habit of course!

Too many funny ... amazing ... crazy things happen in my life NOT to blog. I want it all written down so that someday, when i write my own book, I'll have everything documented.

I still think when i make my life into a sitcom someday, i'll be glad i wrote everything down.

I've been meaning to get started again blogging or journaling or something since I stopped last and it took a night by myself resting to get me back into it again!

The movie Julie&Julia inspired me too -- how Julie blogs every night about her cooking disasters ... i have plenty of those!

And i'm not blogging to become famous like some people have in the past ... no, i am blogging for ME. no one else, but myself and my thoughts.

Now, if people are entertained by reading what i have to say, then rock on! Read away!

But, if not, then don't bore yourself with MY ramblings ... make adventures of your own!

So right now my iTunes is open playing "3" by Britney Spears ... ok, i know she isn't a greatly moral person or anything, and i don't look up to her as a role model, thats for sure. BUT i do like her music! Its catchy ... and it makes me want to dance! and OH how i love to dance ....

Ok, so life is all about people, love, relationship, balance ... doing your best and working hard doing what you love with the people you love. Your relationship with God is most important first ... to me at least. Some would argue with me that HE is NOT most important, but i'm not here to argue! He's MOST important to me, and if he's not to you, that is your choice.

But today i found out some more interesting news ... Dad's job might be in jeopardy? oh gosh. I am really scared! But everytime i start to be scared, i just talk to God. I say, Daddy, (because i call God daddy), what do you have planned? Why is this happening? And i hardly ever hear back "why" but i always know to be at peace ... that it will all work out. And i KNOW that it will. I know. I trust. I have faith.

So even when the world seems like its falling apart ... like in the movie "The Book of Eli" that i saw this weekend with Adrian ... God is still there. And he has a plan. He has a reason for things, even when it doesn't make sense to me. And i am so comforted by that knowledge. The knowledge that God is good all the time. All the time my God is good.

He won't give up on me. and I won't give up on him.