Yesterday started early with a 7am conference call and I was running late, fortunately traffic was pretty light and I was able to make it just on time. From that point forward it was business as usual and for treated myself to FatBurger for lunch.

I headed home to meet Sarah and open up a couple of presents. I got a great gift from Linda/Dwight/Janessa, a framed painting of the 1824 Alamo flag. I’ll have to get the full story from them but it is very cool. I also now have a grown-up watch, courtesy of Sarah and Swiss Army and a shirt that I have been searching for God-knows how long. My parents helped with the technology upgrade around our house and kicked in a new router which should come online next week and will give me yet something else to blog about.

We highlight of the evening was dinner with Sarah. She looked amazing and our meal at Drinkwater’s City Hall was out of this world. For desert we went for gelato and a cappuccino from Olive & Ivy. She has been to it before and I have been wanting to check it out so this was a very good opportunity.

Thanks to everyone for the good wishes, I am sorry for those calls that I could not take during dinner but I appreciate your call and texts. So we are now officially living the 30s and thus far I would say it is going to be a-ok!

We had some passes for the Barrett Jackson car auction so we made the most of our Saturday evening and decided to check it out. Sarah had been out there on friday night as well, which is how we got our passes, but Saturday night was the not-to-be-missed night.

You certainly get caught up on the rush of the high-speed bidding that goes on with some of these cars. We missed the Shelby Cobra that sold for $5.5 million (the crowd went wild right as we were walking toward the auction area) but were able to see some high-profile and great looking cars.

We saw some of the cars auctioned by the OCC crew with Paul, Mikey and Sr. all on attendance. They sold their cars with matching choppers which was pretty unique. Alice Cooper also had a few cars on sale and we came pretty close to him while checking out this "Billion Dollar Babies" as it was getting ready to on the block. Reggie Jackson was also auctioning one of his cars and threw in a signed baseball bat to sweeten the deal.

Tony Stewart and Chip Foose were frequent visitors on the auction block during the evening, I was told that Tony Stweart had bought a couple of cars earlier in the day, including a home-depot-orange truck. We also saw the Shelby GT500 used on the commercial from Ford which introduces the new model.

Speaking of getting caught in the rush of the auction, I wanted to make a bid on one of the cars, as long as it was one of the first bids, but I could not convince Sarah and the fact we did not have a bidder card would not have helped my cause. Anyways, it was a lot of fun to be out there and thanks to the guy next to me telling us all that extra-info as the cars came on the block, such as the truck bought by Tony Stewart.

We are starting off the 2007 season with the Copper Cup tournament this weekend with only after a couple of scrimmages to get ready. We have a couple of games on Saturday and one on Saturday. Hopefully we can make it to the Monday play when the semifinals and final takes place.

This weekend also marks one year since we ran the P.F. Changs marathon and half-marathon. A few friends are participating this year but unfortunately the tournament does not allow me/us to go cheer them on. However, the sunday schedule allow us to meet up with them for lunch and celebrate their accomplishment without feeling the pain of running the miles.

The only bad thing about this weekend, at least Saturday, is the weather forecast. We have a cold front moving in which is cooling down the whole state and will make for a very chilly Saturday morning game. At least it appears as though rain will not be a factor so we just need to bundle up.

update: well the tournament didn’t quite go like we expected as far as results goes. At least I got the temperature thing correct and it was cold, apparently the coldest Phoenix has been in sixteen years. As far as the team goes, we tied our first two games and lost our third game against a team we’ll see again in league play. Instead of playing on the semi-finals on Monday morning, we had to play Sunday night and settle for our only win of the tournament on the consolation game against a team from New Mexico. At least, the tournament gives us a few games to work out the kinks before league season starts next week.

May 2007 be full of health, great memories, and many personal and professional success. 2006 was a great year for us, one that saw a lot of great moments from a personal point of view (I married my best friend for one!) and I am looking forward to an even better 2007.

People have asked me what my resolutions were for the new year and truth be told I have never been a resolutions kind of guy, however, I do have certain goals and objectives that I want to accomplish this year. You will certain hear about them as they become reality over the next twelve months.

We spent Christmas in Elko with my parents and my sister’s family also down from her home in Oregon. The drive up there was not bad, I had some concerns about the weather but other than some rain in the northeastern part of Arizona, the rest of the way was pretty smooth. Driving through rural Nevada, I can only think of how lucky we are to have XM Radio in Sarah’s car. Satellite radio has put long road-trips on a different scale!

It was a fairly short trip but we managed to get some quality family time and our fair share of food. There was plenty to eat and I don’t think the kitchen had seen this kind of action probably since last year. We even ventured into the kitchen and made dinner for everyone on Saturday night.

Christmas eve is somewhat of our big day around the Heredia household. Sarah and I headed downtown around mid-morning for a cup of coffee and walk around a couple of stores that were open. We actually found some cool stuff. A new lamp for our house and even an extra present for my parents’ house. After a little while we headed back home to help with the evening’s preparations. We usually have a nice meal that evening before heading downstairs to exchange presents. Usually, presents are opened later in the evening but it would be too late for Marcelino. Actually, any time after sunrise is already too late for Marcelino to open his gifts under the tree. He even wanted to open presents first and have dinner afterwards. He was voted down!

We got some pretty good presents from the family. Sarah got a new Forerunner 301 from my parents as well as some stuff for the house. I got some pretty good presents as well, including a few items from the list. Sarah and I exchanged our presents at the end of the evening and we had some good laughs while going through our stocking.

Of course, I also need to mentioned about the mixed emotions that came with spending our first Christmas together. This was the first year that Sarah spent the season away from her family, which was a bit sad for all of us. We certainly had everyone in mind and in our hearts. It will take some getting used to but we’ll certainly make the most of our family-time regardless of which zip code we are in. We have also been thinking and praying for Dwight and hope he bounces back soon.

update: this post was stuck in draft mode for a few days as you can imagine. Photos from the weekend will be online soon too.