Weekends Like This…. Foothill Century
After we sent Kelly off to the ball Saturday night, we went and met Diane and Lorenzo for dinner at Elephant Bar. They had come over to check out our new kitchen, have dinner, and discuss the plan for our premier in the Foothill Century the next morning. None of us had ever riddin this ride before so it was going to be a new adventure for all of us. 
The plan was to do the 25 mile “fun ride” at least once. If after 25 miles, we were feeling strong, we would decide if we wanted to do it again. We arrived around 7:30am in Sunnyvale and signed in, got our ride numbers and were on the rode by 8:30.
No sooner did Kelly finish her last swim in the MVALs, she had to rush off to get ready for her senior ball later that evening. Senior Ball, the pinnacle of high school social life. Held this year at the plush Rincon Center in San Francisco. Kelly finished the 200 freestyle relay at 2:45pm and had an “up-do” hair appointment at 3:15. This is the part of weekends like this that give me anxiety. RUSH RUSH RUSH. We got Kelly home, where she quickly showered the chlorine off then drove over to the Hub for her up-do. I should mention here that
Staci came to town to attend the swim meet and help with Senior Ball prep. As always, Staci was there when we needed her. I had to drive to the florist to get the buttoneer for her date Kevin. Turns out the up-do wasn’t doing it for Kelly. The lady rushed through and didn’t do it at all like Kelly wanted. Plan “B” quickly developed where Kelly was going to have girlfriends Kim and Alyx updo it right. 
Kelly and Kate (and most of the varsity swim girls) spent Friday night over at Stefani’s house in preparation for Saturday’s MVAL swim meet. The end of year meet featuring all seven schools in the Mission Valley Atheletic 
League was held at our home pool. Of course, the place was packed with both swimmers and fans. Tent cities set up outside the pool area where swimmers would hang when not swimming. All in all a great day. Kate had a great 50 freestyle swim coming in first in her heat and
beating her best time. All with a bum knee!! Kelly also did great. Her IM relay team did good enough to get consideration for the North Coast Sectionals next weekend. An emotional day for Kelly since it was her last swim as a high schooler. We are proud of both Kelly and 
Kate for the great job they did this year. Kate, swimming with knee pain most of the year never quit. Kelly, the leader of the varsity girls squad finished her high school sports career in fine form. Check out a few other pictures from the day here.
Our busy weekend actually started Thursday night with the swim team awards banquet for Kelly and Kate. A desert buffet followed by awards. A bittersweet moment for Kelly. Our senior, who has finished a great high school sports career. She made a great speech honoring outgoing coach, Mr Gygax. Kate got her varsity swim block (yay!) and will undergo Orthoscopic knee surgery in a couple of weeks to fix a lingering knee problem that has been bugging her. Kelly received the coaches award for her hard work and leadership.
At the end of her stellar high school swim career, Kelly brought an underwater camera to one of the last practices to capture some memories. My favorite of the bunch was this one of her and Nicole, hamming it up under water. 
Barb and I spent the weekend painting the living room and pulling up the old carpet. Saturday was paint day. We had done a “red wall” earlier in the week and were planning on finishing up this weekend. The “earthy cane” color looks really good with the “whatever color” the red was. We couldn’t decide what color to paint the ceiling, so after much consideration and consultation (thanks Claudia!) we went with white. It was a long day Saturday but it really looked good when we finished. Sunday we were planning on pulling up the last of the pink carpet that we had installed over 10 years ago. We had pulled it up in the girls rooms a couple of months earlier, and I did the hall a couple of weeks ago. The only problem in doing the living room was pulling the carpet up around the 400 pound 
TV and 300 pound couch. Barb and I spent a good 5 hours pulling carpet and padding, nails and staples. A tedious job. The hardwood floors underneath look pretty good! A little work needed to get them up to par, but no serious damage that would prevent us from moving forward. The new living room goes real nice with our new kitchen. Our contractor Mike Lober is here this morning to finish up our To-do list and put up some crown molding in the living room. Its all coming together nicely!
Been without a kitchen for almost a month so I jumped at the chance to do some cooking. Got to go back to Aptos and cook for the confirmation retreat hosted by Our Lady of Guadelupe Church. Did this the last couple of years when Kelly and Kate went on their retreats. Camp St. Francis in Aptos is right on the beach next to Seascape resort. 68 kids and 15 adults down for the weekend. 
Its always fun to do. Cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner Saturday and breakfast Sunday. Also made a couple of huge sheet cakes, baked cookies and also made a big batch of salsa. Was a great but exhausting weekend. Can’t wait til next year!