In Memory...

On Sunday, July 20th, Baldwin 'Baldy' Wallace, the Becker family cat, joined Molly, our family dog, in Pet Heaven.
At 18.5 years she led a life most cats would envy. In her formative years you could often hear her running on the roof of my parent's house, or running like mad down the hallway after performing one of her 'dad assisted' backflips. She loved to be pet but only on her terms; was once known as the 'baddest' cat in the neighborhood...but only because she was protecting her family turf.

Grace, Dave, Lizzie, Max and Jake wish their Cat Cousin many lazy days of lounging and endless portions of cat treats.

We Miss You Baldy!

Iron Chef...Family Style

A couple of weeks back my entire immediate family (and respective husband/boyfriend of my sisters) participated in the first ever Becker family Iron Chef to celebrate our parent's kitchen remodel (pics of that to come). It was a blast!

For those of you who don't know Iron Chef, the basic concept is a secret ingredient revealed to all participants (in this case Hard Boiled Egg) in which everyone must bring a dish to eat using said secret ingredient. Sounds pretty easy no? But incorporating hard boiled eggs into a dish other than, well, deviled eggs is actually quite tricky. Have no fear though...the Becker family knocked it out with a great first effort. Here's a run down of the menu:Sheona & Jon were the unanimous winners with their awesome Cobb Salad Sliders and collected the coveted Prize: 1 dozen eggs! Congratulations

After a great meal, we headed into the living room to find out what the next secret ingredient would be. A short Monty Python skit revealed that in January 2009 stayed tuned for Iron Chef: SPAM!

Wrapping up the night, we spent a few hours playing Wii (bowling, tennis and Wii Fit).Check out how much fun mom and Moira had 'hula hooping'!

Welcome Rian!

Visited my friend Marla and her family on Saturday afternoon. Big whoop you say! Yeah it's a big whoop...they have a brand new little girl, Rian Anne, that joined the famiy in June. I got to hold her while she slept and chatted with Marla and I made my exit just before the diaper needed to be changed (that's right...I know how to time these things...no dirty diapers for this girl!).

Here's a pic of the happy family (minus their other daugther Jordan who was playing with neighbors). Congrats to Marla, Jeff and Jordan...Rian is soooo cute!

A Man and His Cat

Took this picure when I went to dinner at my parent's house on Friday night. My dad (the family chef) rocked some salsbury steak with sauted onions and fried mushrooms...yummy comfort food after a rough work week. We finished off dinner with a coolwhip fruit thing...not sure what it was exactly (neither did he I think) but it still tasted good. It was good visiting with Mom and Dad (and being served dinner ain't a bad gig either!).

BTW...Baldy (the cat) is heading into her 19th year...how many years is that in human years? Whatever it is...she's old and still cute....can't you see how much she loves being held by my dad?

Dinner at the Quesadas

Once a month, usually the first or second Thursday, I get together with my friends Mike and Stacy Quesada and their little girl, Corrine, for dinner. It's a way for us to keep our friendship alive amongst the hussle and bussle of life. Tonight we had dinner at their house. I brought yummy food from Saffron in a picnic basket (too cute) and we chowed down (spring rolls were scrumptious!). As always had a great time catching up, and making silly faces at Corrine.

Here's me and Corrine mugging for the Camera. (Oh, I should mention an early congrats to Corrine, she gets her helmet off tomorrow after wearing it for over 4 months. What a well shaped noggin she's going to have.)

Mike imitating Monkey (the best gift I ever got him for his 30th birthday. I'm glad it's served him well.)

The Happy Quesada Family (Check out Stacy's new 'do...tre chic!)

Hamburger Cupcakes

For the 4th of July I helped host a BBQ for my best friend's family. Jen had her mom/stepfather, husband/3 kids, both her brothers (from San Francisco & Wichita Kansas), her cousins (from Seal Beach and Lancaster CA) and all the respective kids/spouses at the house (about 27 people in all)...needless to say it was a small zoo and they were hungry.

Check out the Hot Dog & Hamburger Cupcakes I made..pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. I got the idea from familyfun.com (a pretty cool website for good creative ideas).



As my dad so observantly pointed out...the hot dogs began to look more like cat turds then hot dogs as they melted from the heat...but they still tasted good!

And one more pic just for the cute factor...they were so much fun to make.

Oh and check out Jen's oldest kid, Nathan, doing a flip in the pool...as Nathan told me later that was 'Awesome'!

Triumph at the Tri

My best friend, Jen (you'll be reading lots about her and her adorable kids in future blogs to come), and I just finished our first International Distance Triathlon on Sunday (the SD Int'l to be exact). Happy to report we both finished in under our target finishing time and we feel great. It was just a mere 9 months ago we attempted our first full length (Olympic distance) Tri in Santa Cruz...Jen did great there as well...me, I didn't fair so well. Let's just say I finished but only by the strength of the Almighty above.

Well, almost passing out and being threatened to get taken by ambulance to the hospital for fluids was just the kick in the ars I needed. After some restful and lazy 5 months off (and 10 lbs heavier..whoot whoot) I slowly got back into the swing of things, rededicated myself to conquering the sport of Triathlon, tried to not miss workouts with Jen...and on Sunday I proved to myself that I was made for this sport. I felt great after we finished. All of Jen's family was there near the finish line and that meant a lot (and I need to give my parents a shout out because even though they weren't able to make it to the race, they had snuck into my house while I was at the race and left flowers).

Here's our times/splits (I know, excited aren't you?).

Jen: Swim: 0:23:55 Transition1: 0:03:05 Bike: 1:06:41 Transition2: 0:02:38 Run: 1:06:21 Total Time: 2:42:40

Gwen: Swim: 0:18:33 Transition1: 0:04:57 Bike: 1:12:22 Transition2: 0:02:58 Run: 1:07:29 Total Time: 2:46:19

Well, off to bed...training for Santa Cruz redeux starts tomorrow!