Cobra Kai Lives

This entry is dedicated to a great American hero. In 2003 in the month of June, Mike Morrill aka Johnny aka Cobra Kai, married my sister, Karyn. Having been in hiding for the past 15 years, the Cobra Kai will soon leave his mark on the world. Only this time...it will be by the hand of his newborn son, Nash aka The Rattler.
For those of you reading this, we ask you to please keep this a secret for while dangerous he is still in his youth and must learn valuable lessons from the Cobra Kai....strike first, strike hard, no mercy.
LaRusso, your crane is no match for the venomous bite that awaits you.
We love you, Cobra Kai!

London Pics so far

We are just about to go bowling here in london but we wanted to post our pics thus far. Please forgive Robyn of her spelling errors in these blogs, but I dont take the time to edit what she has written.

Umbria... pics

All these pics were at that 7th century house in umbria where St Francis lived. the path, the chapel the cemetery and the wilderness. You cant forget of coarse the Cats and the race.

video links

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6995624250315306712 this one is an italian cat
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8501757729304616274 this is Leila
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3887597211707044286 this is a start to my third race

pics

more and more pics yea yea

Robyn is on the phone to San Diego here
She is telling someone the good news...












Robyn had to get her arm bandaged up after she wiped out on the highway...But she loves the scars she gets from crashing






Dan Building a fire for a barbeque in Reggio... amidst our orchard

This is Dan Floating in the Med Sea. 36 degrees outside (celcuis) and the water was freezing so it was nice The others of of Dan in the pool. I thought we would buy a swimming pool cause it was so hot and we were being lazy and didnt feel like going to the beach. we would overheat in like 10 minutes and then go jump in the pool.

London Hotel

These first two are from Montecatini Terme were our last race was.

Here are some more pictures... We are in the hotel in london rite now and its high speed internet so we thought we would take advantage and make some good posts.

Here is a pic from the night train we took. We were so squished that we had to sleep with our bikes and it sucked.

old pictures

This was our last race here in Italy. We just gotten back to the hotel room and thought we'd take a pic. We are wearing the jerseys of our Italian team "RenoBike". Unfortunately for us the team wasnt found untill we were finished, but it was still cool to race for them in one race and wear some new jerseys and shorts.
Dan's race: 155 km 6000 feet of climbing
Robyn's race: 120 km 3000 feet of climbing

Dan got dead last place because of three flat tires and a car accident (Car hit dan and broke wheel)
Robyn did awsome as usual and was in top ten for women.

train and wallets and also some cats

We took a train back from Reggio thursday night. We boarded the train about 8pm. we then sat on the train for two hours while they messed around underneath it. The a/c wasnt on so the temperature rose to over 100 in the cabin. the train had been sitting in the sun all day not in use(night train). so we were cramped in our little bunk bed with two bikes and our bags in our laps sweating profusely. Robyn has been getting morning sickness and wasnt feeling great. We were releived when they finally got the train underway and we took off on our 12 hour trip.

Dan Fell asleep rite away on the top bunk and Robyn on the bottom. We opened the window cause the a/c sucked. The train was an hour late getting to bologna...
We carried all our stuff back about 20 blocks to Max's apartment. Then we looked for our wallet to go and buy some food. that is when we discovered the wallet was gone.

Dan then went to the police station and filed a stolen wallet, then to the train station to see if it showed up anywere. Luckily... it showed up !!!! someone found it and turned it into the customer care office in Venice. So Dan jumped on a train to Venice and upon retreival he jumped back on the home bound train.
Dan's total train time : 21.5 hrs
Robyns total train time: 13.5 hrs

when we finally got back to bologna the temperature was 35, in fact its hot all over europe now. Nobody here has a/c so we are really sweaty!!!
Well take care everyone... here is a pic for you.

So I have a little story to tell about a certain person finding out she is pregnant. Dan and I had gotten some pregnancy tests while in San Giustino b/c I was having some lower abdomen pain and some sore boobies. It came out negative, which was no surprise to me. There were two tests in the package so we kept in for later. Just a note…we weren’t really even trying to get pregnant due to the fact that I didn’t even think it was possible for me. I thought I had a lot of tests to look forward to in Hawaii. So last week I started crying uncontrollably at night a few times for no reason at all. I was trying to think of why I was sad. Could it be Dan’s smelly farts? Maybe but I had never cried that hard about them. So one night I decided to take the other test before I took my shower. I didn’t tell Dan I was doing so. So when I got out of the shower I looked at the test….is that two lines? I go to Dan and ask “does it mean yes when there are two lines?” The look on his face was one of disbelief. I showed it to him but we didn’t have the original package so he looked it up on the internet. Sure enough it meant positive. The next morning I took another one and sure enough…same thing. Dan and I sat on the front porch looking at each giggling like we were on a first date! We finally got up to hug each other! I called my mom to wake her up and she told me that she had a feeling that is why I was calling! She was totally excited and couldn’t even go back to sleep! She is a new Grandma and will have 2 grandkids come next year! Go, Mom! My sister recently had her first baby boy, Nash. He is totally the cutest little baby. Dan called his mom and dad to tell them the good news. He, of course, woke them up, too. His mom didn’t believe him b/c he has joked about me being pregnant a few too many times, I think. So she had to hear it from my mouth. Lynne and Steve were both very excited! I called my sister and I thought she was upset when I told her. Turns out she was just in total shock. She is totally excited, though, and is giving me tons of advice!! Thanks, Karyn! But she really was in shock and had to be treated at the hospital. Thanks to everyone for all the tips and advice! Dan and I are totally excited to see everyone soon!!

Montecatini Terme

So we are in a place called Montecatini Terme now. We packed up all our stuff in Bologna and said See ya! We are going to be racing down here this week end and then off to Reggio Calabria. It is at the toe of the boot of Italy. Our roommate’s mom has a summer home there that she rents out and is giving us a very special deal to say there. It will be super fun considering we will be right near the water. I know we didn’t get enough of the ocean while living right on it! Today is Sat. and Dan and I walked around the town. It is different from any town we have been to so far. First of all there are a lot of houses with yards that remind us of Australia or the States. There are some huge ones here. Plus this seems to be a super rich town…we fit right in. Right. We had a good walk and spotted a few cats but they are rich snobs and paid us no mind. We found the start of the race and there was an expo going on. There were even little kids on road bikes doing a little obstacle course! They start super young on road bikes here. They even had race jerseys on. We found some friends that work every race so we said hello to them. Dan is ranked 4th among the elites overall and we are thinking one of the trophies we saw will be in his hand tomorrow. That will be great. He has worked so hard this year training and racing. He deserves a huge trophy. This town is famous for all the thermal fountains here.
Well I will tell a little more about Mont. Terme. It was one of my fav places. It was a rich area…I fit in nicely. Ha! No, but we didn’t stay in an agriturismo which we normally do. I am glad we didn’t b/c we got to walk around town all week end. Plus we were close to where the race started and finished. Let’s see…about the race. I didn’t cry when I was racing but I think I did as soon as I saw Dan again. It is hard to explain but your body is so stressed and it just wants to stop and at some points I think it believes it never will be able to rest! This race course was hard. They all are but usually there are a lot of ups and downs. This had a lot of ups and then more ups. I would be climbing and climbing and I thought I was at the top b/c I was looking all the way down the climb and couldn’t see anything else above me…then I would turn a corner and there is more climbing!! Plus there would be a sign saying the climb would be 10K when in fact it was like 15 or 20K. Sometimes when you go up for so long going downhill still feels like you are going up. That is so frustrating. Dan and I are pretty sure the guys who win these take drugs. The one guy who wins any race he enters apparently was in the Tour De France but was kicked out due to drugs. In these races you can take whatever you want…that’s why some girls can hang with the lead guys and look like are just chillin. No way, man. So Dan had a rough day. He got hit by a car, along with a few others, and then had three flat tires! And he still finished! Most people would have given up. It was so hot and he had to wait b/c the support cars flew by him and didn’t even stop and help him! I was very proud that he finished in spite of all he had to deal with. So by the time we both wheeled in there was so more pasta at the party! All we had was a few pieces of prosciutto and some bread. But they did have a cooler full of popsicles so we had like 6 each. We went home and showered and then went out to eat. We sound some good soft serve yogurt we had, too. The next day we went to this public swimming pool and lounged there for awhile. I had heard people here were more open and they sure are. We were quite surprised at how many girls were topless and were wearing barely a string for the bottoms. Plus the men find it okay to wear French cut bikini speedos. Gross! So we hopped on a train at about 8 that night for a long night to go to Reggio Calabria. We took a nite train and got there at 9 a.m. It was a cramped space with two bunk beds. Dan had to share his with his lovely bike. I don’t think he minded. J He loves her so.
So Max’s dad picked us up from the train station which was so awesome. I thought we were going to have to ride our bikes. So we are staying at one of his 5 houses which is in the middle of fruit trees. Let me see…there are fig trees, lemon, orange, grapefruit, pear, cherry, almonds, plums, and peaches. He also has apples. His brother in law lives nearby and is the gardener. He talks like your classic Italian. He lived in Canada for awhile so he knows English. We will wake up or come home from the beach to a basket of fruit he has picked for us. Oh, he also has strawberries, as well. We chat everyday with him. SO today I crashed on my bike and I was so mad. I hit this cheese grater speed bump that I thought I was okay to go over. I flew off head first to the ground and skidded with Lady due to the fact that my leg was stuck under her. My shoulder got some skin taken right off and my head hurt. Plus my leg hurt…my groin muscle that I had pulled!! Oh no!! Lady got some new grip tape…red and blue to match her and it got ripped. Plus my shifters got wrecked. She is okay. We will take her to our friend at the bike shop in Bologna when we are there next. He will fix her right up. Dan has bbq’d the last two nights. It has been super good. I have mainly just watched and sat on the rocking swing chair. We went to the beach yesterday. The water is so beautiful and we can see Sicily from here.

Ism's

Robyn Ism's
1. It is really beautifull in Canada except I dont understand why everything is so brown?
(comment made mid Winter)
2. Back in the past all roads led to rome, do you still think there are roads that lead to rome?
3. (while walking into our 500 year old palace apartment) It is weird to think that people actually lived here! oh wait, we live here...

Lynne Ism's
1. Sometimes it is so hard to see into the future!
2. Sometimes you have to travel all over the world in order to see it.

Dan Ism's
1. It works better if you plug it in

Famous people

1. "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."- Brooke Shields
2. "This planet is our home. If we destroy the planet, we've destroyed our home, so it is fundamentally important."- H. Ross Perot
3. I do not like this word "bomb." It is not a bomb. It is a device that is exploding."- French ambassador to New Zealand Jacques le Blanc, regarding press coverage of France's nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific
4. "I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version."- Colonel Oliver North, from his Iran-Contra testimony
5. "Do not touch anything unnecessarily. Beware of pretty girls in dance halls and parks who may be spies, as well as bicycles, revolvers, uniforms, arms, dead horses, and men lying on roads -- they are not there accidentally."- Soviet infantry manual, issued in the 1930's
6. "All you have to do is go down to the bottom of your swimming pool and hold your breath."- David Miller, US DOE spokesperson, on protecting yourself from nuclear radiation
7. "My fellow Americans. I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes."- President Reagan, before a scheduled radio broadcast, unaware that the microphone was already on
8. "The private enterprise system indicates that some people have higher incomes than others."- Gerry Brown, California governor
9. "Traditionally, most of Australia's imports come from overseas."- Keppel Enderbery
10. "Things are more like they are now than they have ever been."- President Gerald Ford

Does anybody have any more?

questionaire

here is a quick question for all of you. If you were in Europe for six weeks and you could do anything you wanted to do, what would you do?

This one is for all you Raffi Lovers

Robin in the rain

What a saucy fellow

Robin in the rain

Mind your socks of yellow

Running in the garden

On your nimble feet

Digging for your dinner

With your long, strong beak

Robin in the rain,

You don't mind the weather

Showers always make you gay

But the worms are wishing

You would stay at home

Robin on a rainy day

last week was cool

This weekend we went to San Giustino. anyways we got off the train and robyn realizes that all the food was left on the train in her backpack. We were all scared and hungry and sad. So we sat down and said a little prayer that we could somehow get it back. It was the weekend food and the race nutrition that I need to race. Well an hour later when the train came back through town the conductor from our train had gotten onto it and brought our bag with him and he jumped out and gave it too us. It was really nice of him. So then we fought through wind and rain and got to sansepolcro which is near san giustino in the region of Umbria. We hiked up to this valley to an old farm that was built in the 7th century and passed down through the years. Now it was owned by a Canadian and he had a bed and breakfast thing going. We stayed there and had our own bedroom, kitchen, bath, living room, dining room, swimming pool and hundreds of acres to roam around on. They even had on old chappel that is the oldest part of the farm. Up in the hill was where St. Francis would meditate and there was an old monestary in the woods that he lived in. I remember high school when my rival high school was St Francis. Well turns out he was an animal lover and he must have been pretty cool if he lived in this area because it was beautiful. We saw Deer Tracks and Three wild pigs in the woods too. So it was a rainy weekend but we had fun. The farm had about nine cats and one dog. We just wish that it had been hot for us to use the pool but oh well… there will be other pools to swim in.
The race was freezing and rainy. When I got to the top of the biggest climb there was snow on the ground and I was drenched at that point. Also blizzard winds didn’t feel too good either. It was a 3000 foot climb and it killed me. I had a police and motorcycle escort from the bottom of the mountain for the last 70 km to the finish line.
The Cats were awsome and the youngest little cute female was our favorite.
Also Dan is now getting plump on some new chocolate filled crousantes he found in the supermarket