sledding babies

also at this conference

is a guy who used to work with a guy i went to elementary school with.

one last two cents

and then i off to go to sleep.

i am on the 11th floor of the hotel. i am so high up that there isn't another floor above me. when i got into the elevator i noticed the elevator inspection certificate. i'm not all OCD about elevator inspection, but i do tend to pay attention to them as they often times are expired. this certificate stood out because in the upper right hand corner of it there was a logo for "Take the Stairs".

So, the question is: is this really a a logo, or was it the elevator inspector's recommendation based on the inspection?

i'm at a confernce today

and you will never guess who else is here:
1 guy that xtie used to work with
2 guys and 1 girl that i used to work with
1 guy who used to work with a guy i used to work with
i guy who currently works with a guy and a girl i used to work with
1 guy who sold us our volvo.

yes, that last one is the weirdest if i might say. real wierd. he looks so familiar and it was killing me. so i asked him and we figured it out.

i also saw what may be been one, but might have actually been 2 or even more dolphins.

florida here is weird and i don't know if i like it. its very dark out. i went out this morning with good intentions of going running but it was totally black out and they couldn't tell me when sunrise might be so i went to the hot, humid gym. that was ok i guess.

then i went to the executive portion of the conference and didn't say one word. not because i didn't try, but because no one would let me. then when they were trying to get volunteers to present to the big group what all we discussed someone said, "who hasn't said anything all day" and I could feel their eyes on me. but i tried to contribute. its weird this time. i had a lot of fun and felt like i fit in at the last one, but this one, not so much. plus its about 8 degrees in the hotel and i had a headache all day and i woke up with a sore throat.

i hope i feel betta tomorra....

i get to be on a conference call with people in seattle, new york, florida (that's me!), london and dubai tomorrow. my boss sent me an email telling me to make sure i don't get steamrolled. i think the last time i was steamrolled i was in gradeschool, although it could have been last week. i don;t know any more, but that is kind of funny.

love 'em or leave 'em

the kids did a kid's race at greenlake today. it was part of a larger 5k going on there which we thot was kind of silly. the kids ran an out and back course. seamus ran on her own but eric kept sirus company which i guess was good because eric said sirus cried the entire time because of all the cheering, which explained the tears while crossing the finish line. none the less, the kids did awesome and i was so proud of them!

the exciting news from a few weeks back

so i realized that i never said what the something exciting was that i alluded to the other week so now i will fill you in! i was accepted onto the LUNAChix Seattle Cycling team. i am totally excited about this. we just had our first team meeting today and i am ready to get this season started. there are many great things about LUNA and the LUNAChix, one being that this is a non-competative team. It is more about getting the LUNA message out there, doing good for the community, the Breast Cancer Fund, and getting women out on their bikes. We will have a booth at the Seattle Bike Expo in March, which will interestingly be held at the same location where Hilary supposedly spoke. We will also be hosting group rides and clinics throughout the summer, be at the LUNAFest and many other exciting things throughout the season. Also in Seattle is a LUNAChix Triathlon and Mountain Bike Team. One of the perks of being on the team is getting to try out cool new LUNA products and they are coming out with some good ones! I just went for a killer run (5.9 miles at a shocking 8:20 pace, i won't tell you how annoyed i am that i didn't go hat extra .1 mile...) and followed it up with a very tasty LUNA Sport Recovery Smoothie!
Its been so long since i have been part of a team and i am totally excited to be part of such a great one!!

i am loving the treadmill

this week, and this week only i am loving the treadmill. ok, i go through stages where i love it. i don't think i ever have hated it although it about killed me last saturday but i am feelng so good right now it makes me happy.
swimming. goodness. i have a long way to go. although someone reminded me that i did swim for a mile just the other day, all in one swoop. not fast at all, but i have some time between now and my first oly this year to pick up a little speed and even more time before the lake stevens 1/2 to get the full distance. the pool where i go is weird. in the morning in the locker room are all these old ladies who talk about how they can't stand the new year because all of a sudden the pool gets crowded again and how like it better a month in because the crowds start to disappear. i don't understand why the old ladies stand under the dryers with their pants on but nothing else. its weird. they also get all weird in the pool. i am slow but i am not so slow that i can't be in the lane that i am in. i am the same speed as the old ladies unless they put their flippers on. then they are faster and they start giving attitude at the wall. i don't understand if they are going to wear flippers they should move over a lane and go into the lane that only has one other person instead of sitting in this sort of medium lane that is totally crowded with swimmers foot to head.
biking. i am looking at getting a bike fitting. i am totally stoked. and maybe some earo bars, too. i don't want to look like a tool or a barney but i do want to be relaxed and i do want to try to shave off 20 minutes (or more!) from my bike and 10 minutes from my run, so getting the right positioning and some extra training might do the trick. we will have to see! i am totally excited. oh, i will try to get some new pedals too but will keep my shoes. they still work fine.

will i caucus?

tonight starla and i went to go see hilary clinton down at pier 30. we were curious as to what these political rallies were all about and i had never gotten to see someone so important so up close before so it was a good opportunity. we parked about 839420736 miles away and walked along with all kinds of other people. we got there a little before 8 and wedged ourselves in so we could see the stage. there were all kinds of people there and all kinds of the media folks. hilary was late. she was so late that her soundtrack repeated, went through the whole rotation and started over again. we kept saying, 10 more minutes, 5 more minutes, ok 2 more. finally we decided to leave. we stopped to talk to some policemen guarding the door because they said once we left we couldn't come back in. they also told us that 5 people had fainted already while waiting. we weren't suprised. finally we left. an hour and 1/2 after she was supposed to be there. we caught a taxi and the driver was suprised to hear that the event hadn't even started. sure enough though, two blocks in the taxi and here comes the motorcade. this is what we saw on our attempt to experience politics:

bday fun

today was seamus's bday party! she won't be 4 until tuesday but today it was party time, complete with pin the tail on the donkey, a pinata and a hello kitty theme. seamus made the pinata herself with paper mache and a balloon. when we got to decorating it with tissue paper and streamers she got really upset because it didn't look like hello kitty. i didn't know it was supposed to otherwise we wouldn't have used green and pink paper. she wound up getting pretty upset, screaming "this doesn't look like hello kitty! this looks like ...(pause, pause, pause with her thinking lots and me having an overwhelming sense that my feelings were going to be very hurt), this looks like a BALL!" good save seamus! she was right, it did look like a ball. but in the end, once filled with candy and toys, it really didn't matter what it looked like and the party was quite fun!



sirus's first reaction to the american girl doll dressed in her punk outfit was one of almost fear, he backed off and made a kind of "whoa" sound. but he quickly regrouped and took a different approach to dealing with her. he had all of us in tears because we were laughing so hard.