old

omg, i am going to be old tomorrow. woe is me. i'm not handling this one so well. ok, so i am actually doing better about it today then i was a few weeks ago. OLD. like when you work with people who just turned 24, and like you aren't going to be 24 on your next birthday. woe is me. i did a mountain bike race yesterday. it was the first one in a long long time. like a year or more. i was nervous about the race which was weird but also part of the reason i don't like doing mountain bike races. back in 2009 i did a lap of this course. i did not enjoy it back then. but i've been having some health issues and we had the kids with us so i raced the beginner race so eric could race later. it turned out to be really a fun race. the 29er was so fast and handled it all so well. up and down and all kinds of stuff. i was having a ton of fun. it was sunny but not too hot but i was also like, omg are we at altitude? but i was probably more aggressive on the downhill than i have been before and i didn't run out of gears on the uphills, so that was good. the 2 rings upfront is different but it seems ok so far at least. but it was a fun day after the race, got to hang with some peeps that were in town visiting from utah and some of the other racers. then we went home with our sunburns. did i mention we drove in our awesome new car? it is so fun, the kids love it. seamus was all silly all day and when i asked her why she said she thought it might have been because of the new car. xtie asked me today why we chose that car over all the others available out there. i said that first of all, since it is eric's car, it is a bit more manly than the volvo station wagon that he was driving. i had read somewhere a long time ago that the only reason men drive volvos is because they are afriad of their wives. when i told this to eric he said yes. which reminds me that i was wearing a new summer dress on our way to the bike race on friday night and when we got to our hotel i mentioned to eric that i was surprised that he did not comment on my dress and he replied with "so?" i did think i was looking a little broad in the shoulders in that dress. i'm also looking a little broad in the face. i think the awesome swimming might be making my shoulders broader for sure. all the fat isn't helping the situation either, especially on my face, but hopfully there is some muscle in there too. i don't necessarily need a muscular face but a not as fat one wouldn't be so bad. especially now that i have all these gray hairs popping out everywhere now that i am OLD tomorrow!!! but the other reason we got the car that we did was because we want to make a bigger impact on the environment. gah!!! i hope our children's children don't burn up in the hot hot sun or drown in the overflowing oceans because of our irresponsible vehicle choice!! a friend of mine at work stopped recycling. he said the wants to add to the landfills. he said he is worried about the rising oceans and that soon the land will all be flooded, so we need to make more land by filling the landfills with our bottles and old envelopes. that was an interesting idea.

record setting!!

wow, stuff has been GOING ON. i am on the tour of swedish hospitals. issaquah last week and then this week redmond. good fun in the neighborhoods. i went to nashville! hooray!! that was fun!

a group of girls from high school all went. none of us are country music people, but it was a strange series of event that wound us up there. it was fun to be with the girls, and nashville was fine enough, i just don't know if i will go back.

and i am doing a mtn bike race this weekend! can't remember if i mentioned my sweet new mtn bike. ok, well, it is mine for now and then after the big race in may comes, it will go to eric. i don't know what i will ride then, but most likely i won't be doing much mountain biking after may.

and OH the BIG BIG news! I am the super fastest swimmer in the whole world!! back in feb we went to wenatchee before heading out for our ski weekend and worked on some swimming. that was key to my extreme swimming awesomeness. if you also recall, i had been sucking at swimming. for some reason i was going backwards. i was so slow. i was struggling to do a 1:55 100. it was work and no fun. but then after that wenatchee swim, things started to click!! and i have been shaving off time like there is no tomorrow. this morning i did a 6:52 - 400. this is super fast for me. like super fast, PR type of swim for me. every timed swim i've been doing has been a PR, each time. unreal. maybe i am miscounting? NO. i am NOT miscounting. i am just super fast. let's see. our old station wagon needs some work. we are at the time in the station wagon's life were we have to decide, is it worth $2800 to do the necessary work on the car that at very best is worth $2500? what to do. i put a bee in eric's bonnet back on that same ski trip about getting a new car. we even test drove one on that trip. so he has been revisiting the idea. he even took the kids out to test drive with him and sirus told me last night that eric was buying a new car next week. what to get is the big question and it looks like we are leaning towards the SUV route even tho we said we would never do it. gah!!!

teeth be gone

today seamus went in to have some teeth taken out. how come back when i was younger and had like 8 teeth taken out, all i got were a few painful pokes with a needle and he nurse telling my i had pretty hair as i drooled blood all over the place, but seamus got the full on deluxe treatment! seamus had a "large mesiodens" i suggest you don't do a google image search of that one unless you want to have nightmares for the rest of your life. i have said this more than once, but it is best not to think too much about the giant hole on your face that has a weird long flapping muscle and sharp white things that grow of out no where, and that we put stuff on the outside of that hole to make it redder and some people like to inject it and make it all puffy. and we put stuff in that hole in order to stay alive. so gross. yet the only thing grosser than all that is when in movies they have people with no mouths, like when the skin just grows over the hole. omg, terrifying!!! mouths are weird and scary. so she needed to have that sucker taken out, along with 2 baby teeth. so she was put under and then they took them out. took 45 minutes, maybe not even from them taking her back to when we could see her in recovery as she was coming too. she was so sweet and cute as she lay there all wrapped up in a fuzzy blanket, curled up. but then she started to get all pissed as she woke up because she had a roll of gauze in her mouth that she was biting down on and her face was all numb and she did not like that one bit. she probably didn't like it that we were all standing over her yapping, well, i wasn't, i was cuddling her trying to make her feel safe but everyone else seemed like they were yelling. not too long after, eric picked her up and put her in the car. she would shed a few tears every once in a while about how she didn't like it, ok, she said she hated it, but then she would just sit there. once we got home, eric put her in bed and i cuddled with her. the whole time just a little afraid she was going to throw up on me since they say that can happen, but she never did. she had one dose of her pain medication as the numbness wore off but has had nothing since. she doesn't like it and she doesn't want it. the rest of the day she just took it mellow, napped a little on the couch, had lots of applesauce and pudding and will be off to school tomorrow! she is a trooper!! now the big thing is that the real tooth is in a funky position that it could very easily swap places with the smaller tooth next to it! gotta git it all figured out and taken care of. what else? nuthin. i've got nuthin. i'll have sumpthin next week tho!!

a case of the pukes

uhoh. wondering if one is building up right now. i am going to try to hold it together. so it seems as though i maybe had some food poisoning. i remember sorta waking up a few times last night thinking, wow, i feel like i am going to lose it but also, like, huh? that doesn't seem right. then shore 'nuffs 6am hit and it all came tumbling down. or projecting out i guess would be more like it. nonstop. i swear i was even puking out of my ears it was so bad. it started as just a little this and that, and then it got into all of that and some more. puke was getting caught and a few times i was pretty sure it was cutting off my air and i was going to choke to death. if i am standing up with i puke, is that possible? oh it was horrible. eventually i was empty but i managed to sleep on and off until about 630pm. at around 4pm i had a 1/2 an english muffin but it was scary. i was worried! but it made me feel uneasy and i think that's why i managed to sleep another 2 and 1/2 hrs. i was sipping heed all day, as i assumed that the 6lbs i had managed to lose since the morning before were sadly not all fat but instead some combination of stuff that was not helping my situation, the heed in tiny sips tasted good and refreshing, plus it stayed down. ive had the food poisoning twice before that i can remember. once, a long long time ago, i went to seaotter. i was going to race! i had quit my job and had been riding my bike like crazy. it was the fittest i had ever been up until that point. eric had been in arizona, we had only been dating a little while but i was excited to see him in the CA. a big group of us went down to race and it was going to be a great weekend! then the night before the race we went to some place and burritos and carrot juice. and then i got the pukes. it was bad, especially since we were sharing a room with other people, too. i blame the whole beans on the burrito and to this day won't eat them. eric says it was the sour cream, or maybe the carrot juice, which i was a huge fan of, but again, won't touch since then. i couldn't race in the morning. instead, eric made up a bed in the back of his van and i slept. through the whole race. :( for most of the day even. the next time was after going to the luau which i don't think exists anymore. everything was fine and dandy, but then the next morning, there i was at work laying on the bathroom floor. ?? i was recently married and everyone thought i was el-preggo but no. just puking. i went home, but not before managing to puke all over myself in the car. good fun. i was supposed to go to work today but i couldn't. i am supposed to race tomorrow but can't. not properly hydrated or fuels. omg, i did eat 3 pieces of pepperoni pizza just now!! but that isn't good enough. plus i still feel like ass. better, but still like ass. we are still going to go, eric is going to race, but i am going to use it as a workout. just to tool around along the course, maybe i will offer to sweep! but its a 3mile run, 17 mile bike, 3mile run. we'll have to see how it goes. gah!! the thought of a clif shot right now.... the other day i was supposed to ride my tri bike for 90 minutes. i was supposed to ride outside but eric was out of town and i am a wimp and it was kind of cold and i get freaked out about things when eric is out of town so i came home and did it on the trainer. it was torture. i am a fan of the trainer. i do enjoy it, but something about it on this was was terrible. not even 4 minutes in and i was like, omg, am i done yet? i slogged along. i kept my cadence high and my hr was in zn1-zn2 but i was dying. i was in my easiest gear, struggling. i was like, wow, maybe i need to lube my chain? could the track workout the day before really be affecting me this much? i got to 58 minutes and was like, NO MORE! so i swapped bikes and put my road bike on there. it was better for like 5 seconds. i only managed 75 minutes. i couldn't do any more. i loaded all my data on the computer and found i averaged 12.3 mph. i was mortified!! what was going on?? the next morning i discovered that eric had been the last one to use the trainer and had totally cranked up the resistance. i was riding up hill!! i felt a little better after that. and i had a great swim, so that was good too. now i am going to clean out my ears, i think there is still some puke in them.

PR maybe

this morning i did my first race since getting injured back in august. it may have actually been my first race since july even. i did an indoor mini tri like in november or something but i don't know if that is really a race or not, so i'm not going to count it.
but today i did a 10k. it was rough. i wasn't sure what to expect. i've been doing lots of long runs, and i've done a few tempo runs too, but have only dabbled with a tiny bit at "race" pace. so many different race paces to dabble in!
i was about to say that the race was fun but i am not so sure it was. it was 2 - 5k loops and mile 1 was pretty good. mile 2 was ok, too. this is when i hooked up with a group of 4 other girls. i was behind them, but i was keeping pace with them, they were only a few seconds ahead. even mile 3 was ok, but then they picked up the pace and i was like WHAT ARE THEY DOING???? i couldn't keep up. i was just like, man was this their strategy for the 2nd lap? man, this sucks. but then they turned off and finished at the 5k. it was fun to see them finish, all sprint finish and all.
and i kept going, into the headwind, all alone and by myself. then i turned and headed toward the hill and noticed that everything (except my back!) down to my left elbow was hurting! i started to hyperventilate, which is no fun when going up hill and i was pretty sure i wasn't going to make it. but then i started to feel ok but that 4th mile pretty much blew. mile 5 was only slightly better. i really wanted to make mile 6 count but yeah, not much there. when i got to the out and back i was glad to be off the twisty gravel and be on flat but headed to the finish it was all head wind and stuff. at the 6 mile mark i really tried to give it my all for those last .2 and my speed did not increase. it was rough. after i crossed the finish line i had to lean against a tree. i came home, barely made it through a shower then slept for 2 hours!!!
wow. racing is tough.
PR maybe. i as happy with the time but at the same time don't understand why i am not faster. its a PR maybe because it was definitely a PR for a stand alone 10k. the 8 miler i did last year was at a faster pace and the 10k at the end of the tri i did last july was slightly faster by 25 seconds. does that count?
regardless, it was good to get racing and the sleep that followed was delicious.

plans

today we found out that eric made the team usa team, too!! i don't know if alabama will know what is going to hit it.
i will be fully versed in the south as only 1 month prior i will be in nashville.
two things i never thought i would say "i'm going to nashville!" and "i;m going to alabama!"
so i am pretty sure we have driven through tennesee when i was little either on our way to florida or maybe on the way back but i haven't ever gone there on purpose and actually stayed.
i also have been to alabama. but only for like a few minutes. when i was living in atlanta we said, oh, let's go to alabama! so we drove west, hit alabama, got freaked out so we turned around and headed back into good, safe georgia!
but swimming has been going really well!
AND i am going to do a 10k race this weekend. i do'nt know how it will go but i am kind of excited. whoa!!

wow, that was a lot of yds

i think this week was an all time high for swim volume!!! 11,450!! wow!! that was a lot. my swimming is coming along nicely which is good since just a month ago i was swimming backwards! significantly less effort to go slightly faster. i'd say that is a win. but boy, i am a little on the tired side.
today is st patricks day. because of this, i wore this to the pool this morning:

it was a bit of a challenge because a)its totally stretched out b)since i got this one i have realized my actual swim suit size is 2 sizes smaller 3)because of a&b i wore an extra swim top on top to keep it family friendly. and all of this on a 3300 yds day, one that included 10x200!! oh that was a lot of 200s.
after swimming i went to the costco. i did some looking around and the sample people were crazy sampling all over the place. one lady came chasing me down saying that if i wanted i could try the thermacare heating pads.

i told her unfortunately i have had plenty of experience with them and didn't need to sample them. she looked at me sorta funny and then said, yeah, i guess it is one of those things that it is sort of unfortunate if you have to use them.
but i picked up a book for the kids and some muscle milk and headed on home to take a nap. but first having a pbj and two pieces of cinnamon swirl french toast. good gracious.
other news, booked my hotel in alabama. yahoo! i think. AND working on getting a new mountain bike. mine is old. like old old. and eric said i could, so now we need to get it so i can ride it and be comfortable with it before going to alabama. after that race, i might just give it to eric. we will have to see how it all works out. thinking about a specialized. they are snazzy bikes and my boyfriend Dan Hugo rides one. xoxo

deep thots

just finished up a 3hr ride. ok, so that is a lie! sort of. headed out with xtie and sara with big ambitions of doing a 3hr ride. in the rain. but at like 1:34 in i was like, no. i am cold and i didn't want to go up any more hills. so we decided to cut it to 2hrs which worked out great because i got us a bit lost and had to back track some and then we did a short detour and then got back in all of 2:15. then i got on the trainer and spun for another 45 minutes. my bike needs some work. i swear on some of the hills i was just like, dude, am i in my big ring? cardio=good, legs=not as good. i have to stretch them out instead of sit here on my equally tight arse.

yesterday i found out that i have been given a spot on team usa for the itu cross triathlon world championships. essentially the itu's version of xterra. so swim / mountain bike / trail run. oops - how'd i make the team when i've been on my mtn bike 4 times in the last year? i sent in my race resume and they took me so that is exciting. now we are waiting to hear about eric's application. he is much faster than me and has placed much better in many more races than me but his AG is much more competitive than mine, so we have to wait to find out. so we haven't 100% decided if i will go. i will go if eric gets in and goes. but if he doesn't then we need to figure out what to do. regardless, i have to do some mad planks because the USA kit is all like one piece and omg, i've got a huge gut these days. so fat. its not cool. like i have always complained about it, but man, so fat. its the medication, i know it!! omg. not sure if my new wetsuit will fit any more! yikes! haven't even been in the lake yet in it. so fat. f-a-t. and what doesn't help is that eric apparently likes my fat ass the way it is because he keeps commenting on how it looks in my jeans. i hate him. its his fault too because i have zero will power and he brings things like nutella and frosted mini wheats into the house. in BULK even. f***er. oh but i do love him. wait, no i don't, i just don't hate him 10 of the time, and its not like even the fat is just adding more muscle. no, it is fat.
i cut my bangs the other day. all by myself. i went to get my eyelashes did because they ALL FELL OUT. the eye lash lady convinced me that they are just too expensive to keep getting done. but i love them! she also hinted that maybe i was a little addicted to them, which i admit i was because I LOVE THEM, so i wound up not getting them did again but i did get my hairs cut. she cut a lot off but it didn't actually seem any different. and i got all frustrated so i chopped the bangs right off!! the morning i was headed out of town for a work trip, awesome. totally awesome because i got to see ALLIE!!! total random, 2hrs when we both happened to be in the same city and we were able to meet up!! HOORAY!! everyone needs a little more Allie in their lives!!! but, the bangs still look ok i think. maybe i will have to take the scissors to them some more even! horray!
so now i am just sitting here. resting my fat ass on TWO pillows because otherwise my back starts to hurt. gah!! tomorrow i run for like 384036 hrs and swim for just about as long.
but that is good because i took TWO extra days off this week. after my trip i was oh so tired, totally exhausted.
.....
so now its tonight!! i did all the swimming in the outdoor pool with lavonne and janet and some other peeps and it was so glorious! oh the fresh clean water!!! and it was almost as though some sun came out. it was so nice!! and then chit chatting over coffees, hot chocolates, crepes and croissants. then i went home, got ready for my run, jumped in the car to drive to the flat trail. 15 minutes it takes me to get there. so when i got there, yeah, i forgot my running shoes. so i drove home, got the shoes then drove like 8 minutes to a closer part of the flat running trail, why didn't i go there the first time??? but i ran towards the park and it was going great. 40 minutes later i turned around to start my 2x10' intervals. into a headwind!!! the whole way!!!! and it was pace intervals, not HR so it was extra ugh! but i got it done and was pretty darn happy with it.
it was a good weekend. i'm recovered, i am tired though, and i ate all the leftovers for dinner but someone told me that leftovers are 1/2 the calories that they were when they were first served. just like how free samples from the bakery have zero calories. but then, THEN the girl scouts stopped by to drop off the cookies we bought. gah!! i was happy (and sad) to see that we only got 3 boxes. But THEN eric and the kids came home and of course eric was dragging in a 6 pack o beers and a 1/2 gallon of ice cream. he will be the death of me!!!

the big joke

ok, so there is a reason why eric stays home with the kids and i get sent off the coal mines.
not too long ago, seamus and i were reading a book about cats. one of the words in bold, that required more information was GENES. she asked what they were. ok, earlier in the conversation we had already discussed how the dad cat helps the mom cat become a mom. but boy the genes topic was way harder to explain. so tonight, we went for a walk and started talking about politics and how one of the big republican something or anothers was going on this week. so i mentioned how back in the last election i was going to participate in a caucus and everyone wanted to know what THAT was. so i tried to explain it. and while i was explaining it eric totally made fun of me for my inability to explain things at a level an 8 and 6yr olds can understand, seeing as when i was trying to explain genes, and eric totally called me out on it when i told him about it, i totally brought up the DNA.
me: maybe nadj is the same size and she just looks smaller since fuzy is so huge!
eric: no, she is totally skinnier, you can tell my her waist line.
nadj has a waist. who knew?

when will it stop!!

ever since i went and saw brooke at nordstrom and she helped me get my fashion groove back, i have been non stop shopping. i did manage to take a break there for a month or two, but dude, DUDE!! i have to get it under control. but i went to the jcrew yesterday. i went a few weeks and saw a few things and totally fell in love with the idea of this one particular outfit, so i took sirus with me and tried it on. and it did not look good. sirus said he liked it, but alas, all i could see was pasty white glowing in the mirror. highly disappointing. i did leave with a new top, although its a sweat shirt and really i was almost thinking about getting rid of the house uniform sweatshirt but when i actually start to think about putting it in the trash or the donation pile i start to get all anxious and tears start to well up. i ran into dana at the mall, and she saw me in what i call "1 step up from the house uniform". i had my dress up house uniform pants on. let me tell you i was looking good, too. what have i become - going to bellevue square like that!! poor eric. poor poor eric. omg and sirus! poor sirus!! he actually was seen in public with me!!
anyway, the new top from the jcrew might be part of the house uniform replacement. also, apparently i am the only person in the world who A) wears underpants under my yoga pants aka dress up house uniform pants and B) wears my yoga pants baggy - waist to feet baggylicious. i wear them baggy for two reasons: 1) so i can wear underpants under them and 2)because i don't want my butt or front butt to be on display like i see so many yoga pant wearers doing.
then i took sirus to the lego store and he played in there for about 15 minutes, then we went to splendid which is my favorite store lately and the cause of my shopping problems. brooke helped me pick out my very first 2 splendid clothing items and then the splendid bitches opened up a store right there in bellevue square! i i bought a "maxi" skirt. now i am pretty tall, and that skirt is so maxi it is on the floor. i was talking to the sales girls and was just like - who is this made for? apparently you can wear it as a dress too which i will totally be doing. but i will also wear it as a skirt. and i picked up another pair of leggings! yikes! these ones are thicker so although i really like my other pair that i picked up there, i might like these ones more because they will be less likely to become see through. i think. i hope.

after the splendid is when we ran into dana and then went to starbucks. we stood in line in front of the goalie for the seattle sounders. i knew he was someone interesting when i saw him from afar because he was very tall, tan and very handsome. and then i saw his shoes and i was like, ok, this dude has something going on, or must be european or something. he had on super fancy shiny pumas. they were crazy. then some woman got out of line to go talk to him then she got back in line and he got in line behind me and sirus. all the while the little girl with the woman was yelling "you can't talk to that man!" over and over again. that's when she said "he plays for the sounders!" and i said - ooh, interesting. so i sneaked a photo and then looked him up. he IS super tall - 6'5!! my brush with fame. HA. then i ran into leslie - another brush with fame!!

omg, i ate a shit ton of birthday cake. the kids didn't get to celebrate eric's bday so we did that today and following our tradition, we just put the birthday cake in the middle of the table and with each of us armed with a fork we started to dig in. ugh, now i feel sick.
tomorrow is monday monday. la la, la la la la.

accountability

a few things. i am going to nashville in april. what is that? nashville? yeah. one place i never thought i would go. i am flying there 1st class though, so that's exciting.
i am also going to oakland. well, sort of. berkely but flying into oakland.
both of these places better be chock full of sunshine. at least i am hoping!!!

and wow, aren't i just the vacation queen or something!! i just got back from a long weekend away, or as bridget jones would say - a mini break. we did a lot of driving without really going anywhere:
thursday - out to yakima and back
friday - to wenatchee for a swim lesson and an interesting conversation and weird observation in the locker room, a test drive of a new car and then to chelan.
saturday - to winthrop for a 30k ski and then back to chelan.
sunday - to leavenworth to to ski and munchen haus goodness and then back to chelan
monday - home and then to the gym.
it was a fantastic vacation. a weekend of good physical activity, lots of rest and lots of time with my main squeeze.

during my swim lesson, eric was video taping. what was shocking was that i swear i kick super small and tight, just like they say i should but then i saw the video and wow, my legs are ALL over the place. crazy. video feedback is good. my two swims since then have both been really good. although my right arm is a little geeked and i was worried i pulled something in my back today. but i think its because i am now using my totally disgusting "gross" muscles now instead of my teeny tiny pretty muscles.

you know what i am going to do? i am going to offer a service where i will help people pick out what clothes to wear to work out in. yes, there are plenty of wonderful stores out there that have all the cutest athletic wear, but somehow people still manage to do it all wrong. now, i don't tend to get all dressed up to go to the gym. i wish i did, but i like baggy stuff so i can breath and a lot of the cute stuff is close fitting. i have to be able to let my gut hang out and not be self concious about it. but you know what i don't do? i don't wear bottoms of any sort that show sweat in unsightly locations. i do have some grey baggy shorts, but grey is one of the worst offenders of a poor choice in athletic bottoms. i often wonder why people get any color on the bottom half. i did have pink running shorts once and i liked them, but they were baggy. not like baggy but not tight and certainly did not show sweat. the only thing worse than grey, sweat stained bottoms is wearing under wear under them and having major underpant lines. really i don't care what people wear on top, ok, that is a lie but the bottoms are really the big offenders. and that is just the ladies. the guys, oh the guys!!! ugh.
this one is called "men's hot shorts"

and these two dudes are totally confusing:

i lied on valentines day!!

i was sitting here all minding my own business when eric said, uh, don't take this the wrong way, but did you get hit in the face or something? what IS that?
to which i replied, that is Natasha. so i guess i really would say i think i'll name that thing growing out of the side of my face Natasha. and i already have.
eric got me chocolate covered strawberries for valentines day. i thought he got them for the family but so far i have had 6 of them, and he has had one and that is it. they need to be consumed or they will go bad and you can't let them go bad!!
i had a good swim today! WHAT? i know, seriously. and one of the swim instructors said she liked my swim suit and one of the other ones was wearing sunglasses inside in the pool. why is he doing that?
6 chocolate covered strawberries is too many in such a short time. i do think the shoot up the strawberries with something, kind of like how those chickens on the foster farms commercials get shot up with water and salt and "flavor". similar stuff gets into these strawberries i think.

[no title] because i don't have anything witty to say

2 other things i don't say:

wow, this mustache really makes me look distinguished.
i think i'll name that thing growing out of the side of my face Natasha.

onto other news:
i went on a date with the swim coach! hooray! for those of you that may be concerned about it, it wasn't really a date and i told eric all about it.

wow, i had a big week last week which was awesome considering the week before that totally blew. did i mention that two things that are apparently key to a good swim include a swim suit that fits and goggles that fit, and are new, too! hooray! but i had two big swims, a hard run and a big run and a long bike and omy gosh!! the long run and long bike were both outdoors! cannot believe it!!

oh poor little sirus if having some breathing problems tonight, too. oh that little guy.

shart i don't say.

stealing this idea from lavonne, but changing it to stuff i don't say. check it:

wow, my skin looks awesome!
i can touch my toes!
chocolate, ew, gross!
i'll have tea, thanks.
i'm vegan.
extra jalepenos please!
I totally want to go bungee jumping.
I totally want to go sky diving.
wow, its really warm in my office.
where's the sunblock?
kim kardashian is my idol.
i like rap music.
i want to move back to ohio.
my ass looks so tiny in these jeans!
i wouldn't be caught dead in public with hairy legs.
i threw out my house uniform.
i blow dried my hair.
i brushed my hair.
i hate cereal.
Tom Cruise is so hot.
i hate riding on the trainer.
jumping rope is so easy.
lets all use our outside voices!!
i love swimming in the lake!
dan hugo isn't my type. AT ALL.

Dan Hugo

gah!!! i am sick. again. seems like i am sick a lot. but it started sunday right after i drank a beer, like instantly!! and then got worse on monday and then yesterday, ugh. i went into work, was actually quite productive but the time was crawling. left early to go to a school conference. but then got to the school just as eric and the kids were walking out - i missed the conference! omg, i almost started crying. not only was a sick, but i felt like a bad parent, not there to hear about seamus's progress and her goals and her school work. when we got home i went right to bed and slept for 2.5 hrs.
and wow, back into obesity i am falling, upwards!! i was only a tiny bit on the brink of not being obese but then eric had to go to leavenworth for a weekend to ski and now i am sick and we all know that leads to huge amounts of cereal and other crappy things being put in my carmelita hole. although that is partially how i got into this mess in the first place i think. no win.
so i have been a little depressed and weepy lately. ever since the crappy swim last week and then with being sick its just gotten worse.
so i decided i should post some photos of my boyfriend Dan Hugo. i love him. i am pretty sure he loves me too. its totally mutual. here are some photos of dan from the internets.

here is dan hugo thinking about me. he is in some tropical location as is apparent by the palm leaves in the background, and he misses me.

this is one of my favorites, i ask him to run for me some times. just for fun.
and since i am such a craptastic swimmer, he is planning on helping me.
this one is funny because he is trying to make me jealous by talking to these girls.
xoxo

swimming blows

oh, i got myself into such a swimming pity party this morning that i almost started to cry. not while swimming, but after, while sitting at my desk at work. woe is me and how sucky of a swimmer i am. as for the aqua jogger - she wasn't using a floating device, the pool is shallow so she was moving along touching the bottom.
today i thought was going well, i was kicking and keeping up with the old lady doing butterfly in the lane next to me. maybe i was even gaining on her occasionally.
but then everything fell apart after that. lots of drills, but its not helping, hence the almost cry and the pity party. maybe i need a new swim suit.
i did wear my new top to the gym last night while i ran. i was looking good in it, too. i left work at 5 and didn't get home until 7:50, but only ran for 1:10. how is that possible? what was i doing that other hour and 50 minutes?
lets break it down:
5pm - leave work
5:04 - arrive at the gym and get a quick parking spot which is pretty impressive!
5:06 - waiting in line for them to check me in.
5:07 - duck into the pool area to avoid being blocked behind the slow walkers on the way to the locker room.
5:08 - arrive in the locker room before the slow walkers, yay!! hit the jon and change my clothes.
5:24 - check the cinema room for open treadmill, none available, but hang out long enough to see that Hanna is playing.
5:27 - get on a treadmill out in the open, tune into a show about Tupac, Biggie and Suge and start my 20 minute warm up.
5:47 - get a drink, pee again, head into the cinema room to do some drills and watch some Hanna.
6:03 - manage to get back on a treadmill because somehow ALL of them were occupied when i was done with my drills and stuff. ALL of them, with a line even. 3 were broken, too.
6:04 - tune into Toddlers and Tiara's and start up my workout.
6:34 - intervals done
6:35 - head to the locker room because i decided i needed to change back to my old orthotics
6:38 - stop at the water fountain and stand there waiting as two girls just stood there infront of them
6:41 - found a free treadmill, tunned back into toddlers and tiara's and started 20 min cool down.
7:01 - done! whew! finally
7:02 - see that the stretching area is totally full so head to the "ladies only!" section and just lay there for a few minutes
7:06 - start stretching and doing some PT
7:20 - head to the locker room to shower
7:35 - get in the car and start the drive home
7:50 - arrive home
gracious. that was a long 1:10 run.

so today, for lunch, i had this:

because i knew i was going to have this directly after:

what is that you ask? its a carmelita from Whole foods. Unfortunately i love them. and like the poptarts in the vending machine, once i start thinking about them, there is a certain gravitational like pull that puts them in my mouth.
oh dear. well, at least i managed to not also take down my afternoon snacks.
but i got on the trainer when i got home and eric made a penne bake which is da'bomb so i ate two big bowls of that. when he first started making it back in the day he would use the good sausage, im talking the good stuff, and we would easily go through it in a night. until i did some math and figured it has like 100 grams of fat and 1200 calories in that package.

i do like on the jimmy dean site, right above this image there is the following:

gross, right?? anyway, eric uses some sort of turkey sausage now which is still not good for us but better.
now i am patiently waiting for the kids to go to bed so i can have the last of the pinckney cookies that the evil eric brought home yesterday, or maybe a bowl of cereal. i think my metabolism is finally kicking back in, or something.

skiing

we went skate skiing again today. it is exhausting. so fun but wow, i am really tired. eric was trying to tell me that for every hour of skate skiing, its the same as 3 hours of cycling. not sure that is right, but considering i have yet been able to manage 2hrs of actual ski time, its probably not too far off.

yesterday was uber productive! despite having imbibed lemony goodness friday night, and dreaming about sodas all night long and when eric woke up in the morning i asked him to get me a coke and he said no but sho' nuffs when i did get out of bed eventually i got a coke which while i was drinking it the kids were like - omg what are you doing!! since they haven't ever seen me drink the coca colas before. but i got out the door and swam for an hour. man, i am the slowest swimmer in all of the universe. how do i know this you ask? because i was doing a hard 100 and the aqua jogger in the lane next to me was keeping up. :(
but then i got on the treadmill and ran for 1:10. i was tired of running in the snow and slush and since i had escaped the cul de sac, i decided to take advantage of the treadmill. it was a good run, nice and easy, trucking along.
after i had to head into seattle to get my eyelashes did but did some shopping while i was there. i picked up this tank:http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

only in black with black camo underneath. maybe i will look cute next time i go to the gym. or maybe when i am out running this summer? i normally wear my old race shirts, and i tend to get those shirts in big big sizes, so i think maybe this will do a good job.
then i picked up a pair of jeans. they are one step away from jeggings i am afraid. i think, maybe.
but today while i was out skiing i thought of my new favorite blog, from the land of cheese and sunkist. she is working on improving her backside and has named it operation booty pop. well, while i was hiking it up yet another one of those hills, all i could think was too bad she lives in florida because i am pretty sure my booty is popping from today.
back to work and reality tomorrow.

its goes a little like this

i was just bragging about my 20 days on the wagon when i fell off. whoops!

a little bit of being snowed in, a little bit of loss of electricity, heat and internets. omg, beyblades are going to be the death of me. hot water was on, so that was good, and it all came on today, but add that to a rest day, an attempt at escaping only to high center the car on a block of ice/snow and then to have the brush guard broken and torn off (how much is that going to cost?) followed by jumping into the most giant monster truck imaginable and then hours and hours of waiting, well that results in the consumption of the strongest lemon drops ever, along with the tastiest mucho macho nochos and bbq burger followed by ice cream with 8yr old hot fudge. oh yummy, or something.

20 days was a good run, but it was, one could say, our anniversary celebration, right. we'll see how i feel in the morning. gotta swim, gotta run. omg, let's see if i gained 1000lbs. ah, joy. i have to get my eyelashes fixed. my right eye is almost eyelash free while my left eye still has them all. i am looking good, kinda like this, only opposite.

snowblast 2012

first, this is me getting the tiny, invisible E.

we spent our anniversary at home. we tried to go out but we couldn't get out of our hood. plus, we're pretty sure the place we were heading was closed due to the weather. i was on a business trip for our 5yr, and for 10yrs we are snowed in, which was nice after all.
next, this is fuzy laying on the Sky Mall rug. he loves it. he just walks right into the kitchen then falls onto his side with a thud. plop. he has one of his pompoms there with him. he loves them and carries them all over. yesterday i found about 10 of his toys in the fireplace in the living room.

today is day 3.5 of being snowed in. yesterday was exciting because there was no electricity, no heat, no internets, no cell receptions. good times. eric had the fire going all day which was nice. i went for a run outside which was nice, and then got on the trainer. i warmed my chamwow butter by the fire since it was so so chilly from being in the garage.

later we tossed both kids into sirus's bed, each in their sleeping bags with flannel sheet, quilt, blanket, and another quilt and of course footie jammies. we had our flannel sheets, down comforter, blanket, blanket, blanket. eric reminded me that although it was chilly in the house, we have been camping in much colder. the toughest part for me was no internets!!! we were lucky though that it was only for a day and that we had so much firewood. eric also moved all of our perishables out onto the deck, and while i was worried that the bears would come drink all of his beers and eat our yogurt, but alas, they did not.
speaking of which, today is day 20. i have not had any lemon drops, margaritas or beers in all of those days. wow, that was uber tough last night when eric pulled one of the beers from the back deck and began to chug it, all super frosty and super, omagosh, i wanted a sip. but i held strong, but he is very mean.

Sky Mall

i love it. it brings hours of entertainment with every flight.
i have even made two purchases from the sky mall catalog! TWO.

one was this rug a long long time ago. possibly pre-eric even. the color here is bad, but you can get the idea of what is going on. darling kitties drinking milk all at the same time. i like that some of them are laying flat on their bellies with their feet sprawled right behind them.


the other this the garden yeti. this was a father's day present for eric. the yeti is proving to be a little bit of a wuss as he isn't holding up too well in the severe weather of the pac nw. now he is wintering in the garage.


but today the catalog showed up and the cover totally grossed me out. i can't find it online, but its of a waterproof keyboard with coffee being spilled on it. only the coffee has cream in it, so its kind of that yucky coffee color and it looks terrible and gross on that cover. they should have dumped a soda or a black coffee or something. totally grosses me out. but i am thankful for that cover because i decided to look for a photo on line and although i couldn't, i found this which you may purchase from the catalog.

could you imagine pulling that thing out and blowing it up? better yet, at the end of your flight, deflating it, blowing all that stale air all over your row mates? ew, makes me shiver and laugh each time.

AND then for some reason while looking for the coffee spill cover photo, these photos came up and they are my very new most favorite favorites ever:


you never see football players doing this. or race car drivers, or not even golfers. i love cyclists, but they just need to stop doing this to themselves, although it does bring me great joy, so carry on, boys! carry on!