mid life crisis

if i am having a midlife crisis, does that mean i will only wind up being 74?
its been rough lately. i had a total breakdown when we got back from ogden. i am tired of looking like ass all the time, tired of bad hair, bad skin, ever increasing body fat % due to lack of exercise, always being tired. so i had my breakdown, and then i went shopping. totally a risky move when feeling so horrible, but i went to nordstrom and found one of the sales girls there, brooke and told her i needed an overhaul. SHE WAS AWESOME. we picked out some jeans to start with, then she asked me what i was looking for in tops. i said nothing clingy and nothign that needed dry cleaning. she said i was really testing her fabric knowledge, but we looked at all the tags. she didn't discourage me from picking things out to try, but funny how the things i picked looked like ASS but the things she picked were super cute. but first we started with the denim, as she put it. she told me to try them on in a certain order. she got me different sizes and when i tried the smaller size and was freaking out by all the ass rolls, i asked her to come in the room and look. she said the ass rolls are exactly what they want to see! who knew??? so i picked out two pairs of skinny jeans. omg, yes, TWO. SKINNY jeans. i tried on some leggings and they looked horrible, but the skinny jeans were good.
then the tops. she brought me things to layer them all with and when i said i didn't like something she didn't try to convince me otherwise and instead just took it away and brought something else. it was awesome. i wound up with a TON of stuff, including a poncho?? what? when she was ringing me up, i asked her if she could go to shoes with me. she said she couldn't but called down there to see if her favorite shoe guy was there. he wasn't but that was ok. i did get a pair of boots but after determining they were too big around the calves i have since returned them. now i want to go back and see brooke again and see if i can hire her to be my stylist, at least for a day. go through my stuff and my shoes and all that stuff and help me put some stuff together. i did get some accessories, too, which i have been trying to encorporate every day. its been fun. NOW if only i could get my hair and face under control.
i did put my fake bangs on the other day and looked into some hair extensions. working on it. and so excited that i picked up the groupon for eyelash extenstions! cannot wait!! hate to be so obsessed with how i look, but i'm not getting any younger. and OMG the gray hairs!! wtf.
but PT is going pretty well. i have some set backs every once in a while, like yesterday i wore soem totally sensible old lady boots to work. they are aersoles for goodness sake!! low, very sensible heel, totally safe. until about 90 minutes into the work day and i realized i really really needed to take them off. luckily i brought my sandals and i changed out of them, and almost instantly the acute discomfort i was having in my back went away. i was sitting the whole time - how does that happen? anyway, those boots are going away, especially since i suspected them of sabotauging me in the past!!!. then i sat weird on the couch while using the computer and while that was ok, unfolding from it was not ok. thorough back agitation. but PT this morning fixed it. i rode on the trainer the other day!! how hooray is that? big time hooray!! and i was happy to figure out that the reason the 20 minutes i did the other day were so hard was because eric had cranked up the resistance! but i was happy to be spinning again. and swimming is going awesome. still with the pull buoy but that is more to my liking anyway. i can feel swim improvement happening! but serious lack of motivation it me the other day and i did nothing but be grumpy. i am on a leg shaving strike!! its really gross. when the PT did some work on my IT band i appologized for the extreme fur on my legs, i am not sure i have ever let it get this long, but i am protesting my injury. ok, so i did shave them before going to ogden - couldn't let dan hugo see them in that shape!! but they are baad. eric said, hmph, not a big deal, his are hairier. but still its gross.
but some good stuff going on. getting through it. not thrilled with the winter approaching but looking forward to progressing to a run here someday soon.

so what else is new?

omagosh! so much!!!
we went to ogden! good times at xterra usa championships! we decided to take the kids which turned out to be very fun. we flew out friday and got a MONSTER huge 11 person passenger van. best van ever!! sirus sat in the very backest back and seamus sat right behind us.
we went straight to ogden, the kids and i checked into the hotel then went over to the expo area. eric put his bike together and then met up with his buddy troy, who i had forgotten was the one who gave me all the pointers on which coffee grinder to get eric for xmas 6 or so years ago. the kids started running around all over the place in the kids zone. crazy non stop at altitude in the heat running around. i thought they were going to wear themselves out before the kids race, but they got some snow cones, met xterra world champ shonny vanlandingham and then were off. the xterra peeps did a great job with the kids race. it was one of the best kids races ever. the run was actually pretty far but then after, the called each kid up to get their medals. they used old number plates and medals from races all over which was super cool. then we went to the dinner - eric was regional champ! the dinner options were odd, and had i been racing i would have been like, uh, not nearly enough... it was all gluten free except the bread they had, and totally unfilling. anyway, it wound up being pretty expensive for the kids to each eat a plate of pineapple, strawberries and grapes, but whatever.
in the morning we all piled into the giant van, dropped erics shoes at t1 and then headed down to t2. eric stood in line for a million minutes for packet pickup and then finally got things going.
lance armstrong was there, he had an entourage and stuff. it was kind of cool to see him and the hubub and all that. he looked like a normal dude, only all of his stuff matched. all his nike live strong gear, all perfectly laid out. he was wearing the brand new TYR Freak of Nature wetsuit and had a really good swim. bff matt from high school came out for the race, so we hung out during the bike and run legs. seamus made some signs for all of her favorite racers! Daddy, Mat, Shonny, Danelle, Cori, Ashlie, Marci, Jason and Dan Hugo. we cheered as they all passed by on the bike and then rearranged ourselves a little up the hill to see them on the run. it was cool because we could see them coming down the mountain, head into and out of the switchbacks and then head up the hill again right before heading back down to the finish. i brought my outside voice and yelled for alls of them when we saw them on the switch backs, and then when they passed right by us. sirus even told me i was being too loud which is funny. lots of really great races going on out there! matt and jason both won their age groups, danelle came in 3rd overall for the women's, shonny, i don't know how she does it but she raced with a torn acl coming in 7th, and Dan Hugo came in 2nd! super stellar racing by these guys and everyone else. i was a little sad not racing and being part of the fun, but i really did have a good time watching and cheering.
later we took sirus to iFly Utah. seamus didn't want to do it but sirus was hilarious, bringing down the house with how funny he was!
what else?
omg, sirus turned 6 today. my sweet little baby is a big grown up 6. how in the world did that happen. makes me want to cry!!

ready

dude, if it weren't for the fact that the window is only 4 inches off the ground, i would totally jump out of it!! it took every iota of will power i had today to not visit the candy dish at work a 2nd time. now i am anxiously waiting for the kids to get themselves busy something so i can snag one of the last donuts.
the other night, the kids were all giving pointers as to what eric should do. i said i knew of something he should do but that i couldn't say it out loud. reason being is that i thot he should go to the store and get some stuff to make brownies and i didn't think the kids needed brownies. just me. but seamus wanted to guess what it was, so she asked if i wanted him to do an underwear fashion show. it was not, instead eric went on to display how either loves me or hates me by going to the store and getting the stuff to make the brownies, plus the extra chocolate chips and walnuts to load into them. they were geeeewwwddd. but those brownies are long gone, and now instead of that donut i am eyeing, which very well might not even be in the box sitting on the counter, i might instead go for a handful or two of chocolate chips and walnuts, or better yet, get a giant spoonful of peanut butter and toss chocolate chips on top of that.

OMG what is wrong with me???

and even more, i am facing quite the dilemma right now. eclipse just showed up from netflix. i want to watch it. BUT tonight is the first show of 2 and 1/2 men with ashton kutcher. i hate that show. but gawwdamitall, sometimes erci flips around and lands on the reruns and every single time i laugh at least once and it pisses me off!! but anyway, i kinda want to see what happens.

i ran on sunday! hooray! i am running tomorrow too! still walk 2 run 1. easy easy. lookin forward to it!!

appendicitis

so i am having one. right now. i must be! what else could it be? no wonder i have been feeling weird lately. whew, glad to have that figured out. i had an appendicitis last week soemtime, too. seems like i just keep getting them.
ugh.
so excited that i have been cleared to start running on saturday! 1 mile!! 2 min walk / 1 min run for that 1 mile. IF i feel ok, i can continue on for another mile.
omagosh - i am SO stuck in Twilight. i totally love it, i'm most of the way through the 3rd book, then i'll see the movie and i am hoping to get far enough along in Breaking Dawn by the time that movie comes out so i can see it in the theater. i have been cheating by looking at photos and watching the previews and trailers and stuff. SO excited about it. its rediculous. I'M rediculous.
i have been having interesting conversations with people about the movies. eric says he is team jacob. mat says so is he. i can't decide! i know its totally superficial and lame of me, but i really don't like that Edward has a big butt and it bothers me that jacob is supposed to be like 6'7" and he is only a little taller than Bella. Eric says the reason that none of the vampire's powers like being able to read her mind, or see her memories work is because there is nothing in there for them to see. she is a rock. totally empty. i want to know why we can call jacob, Jake but we can't call Edward, Ed. janet wants to know why edward doesn't turn into a bat. i asked eric this question. he said its because that is silly, but janet insists that it makes more sense for edward to turn into a bat then it does for him to be in love with bella. but bella smells delicious. i once worked with a girl names delicia, and my bf at the time called her delicious. she wore blue stirrup pants that were too small. she was nice but she was not delicious.
i want to know what would have happened if bella hadn't have gone to forks in the first place. i also want to know, other than his big butt/pear shape, why isn't edward a little more muscularly defined? she goes on and one about he is hard as stone but yet he looks kinda squishy. and why doesn't her mother love her and why can't her dad fix himself dinner? and was it career limiting that i told one of the sales people at work that the instant he walked into the office i was just like - OMG, its Edward! not because he reminds me of robert pattinson or whoever, but because he is sorta more like what i expected edward to be.
eric went to costco today. he called me to ask if there was anything i wanted him to get. i said NO GRANOLA! so i came home from work and there was granola. he said the woman in line in front of him had nothing but 6 boxes of the granola in her cart. well, DUH, its THAT good. i do wonder if my appendicitises are because of all the granola and blueberries i have been eating.

the kids and i are watching old school smurf cartoons.

AND eric is going to be racing against lance armstrong at xterra nationals. since its a mass start he will be right up there with him. THAT is kind of bad ass.

this is me pist off

see! pist! super pist! its morning! my pancakes are almost gone! i have to go to work! i have been sitting on my ass far too long! the 72 pounds of "muscle" i gained in the past year have turned into fat along with the extra 47 pounds i have gained while i am recovering. wow, no wonder my back hurts!!! uuuggghhh!!
but no really, this was the first test photo we took using the camera after it made its appearance in the canadian toilet. the camera is actually focusing now, too! the camera is actually quite old, i want to say like 4-5years maybe? we got it at walmart in vernal utah. gah! so many trips to walmart!! dude, when we were in portland i wasn't wearing my wedding rings. i had actually stopped wearing them quite often because its bad to swim in them, and whatever else, and i totally stopped racing in them. but i was feeling all lovey dovey about eric while we were on our way to that portland race. i can't remember why we stopped at walmart, but i said - i want a wedding ring. so right then and there, we went to the walmart jewelry counter and i got one! a nice, white gold band that i totally love. i like my fancy rings too, but this one is good, too. so lightweight, its like wearing nothing at all.
in las vegas, i had forgotten my ear plugs. so we went to the walmart there and i got some. US Divers, professional series or something like that. i wound up not wearing ear plugs at that race. i would prefer to find a k-mart but they aren't as pleantiful.
i'm getting a new wetsuit - hooray!!
i've been down in the dumps, i was super in those dumps the other day, but today i am feeling better. strangely dizzy and kind of sick to my stomach, but not so dumpy! tomorrow is thursday and i go to the PT again. i am almost on the healed list! i have been out of commission for so long now i can't even remember what it feels like to sweat and i can't imagine being active every day, sometimes TWICE in a day?? omg.

purge

i totally just purged all my drawers and the closet. everything that needs to be drycleaned is going to be donated. most things i haven't worn in the last year are going to be donated, too. shoes that i have tried to wear but can't stand being in for the 8hrs required at work - out. birkenstocks i've had since 1986 - staying! can't part with those!!
organized my shoes, most of which i can't wear or don't wear often but will keep for eternity because they are awesome. some i should get rid of. maybe next time around.
i would like to go through the entire house and just pitch EVERYTHING, i'm in that kind of mood, but the kids have most of their stuff confined to their rooms, so i will let it slide.
i swam. twice! yesterday and today. it was amazing. i have been so starved for some sort of physical activity that i am beside myself with its wonderfulness. i felt good, an i felt good after. well, yesterday things started to hurt on the drive back home but today, i have been feeling really good, even able to pick up the giant thing of cat food, the aforementioned purging. feeling good! what will i do tomorrow?
should i even bother mentioning how i slept in until 930 yesterday and then stayed in bed until 2:30 before finally getting up to swim? i was/am a little sick, so it was good for me!
my back has been a pain in my ass. PT all the time, no doing anything. standing is getting better but sitting pretty much blows. the one night i was in so much pain, it was a new horrible pain i didn't understand it, it had progressivly gotten worse during the day at work, but by the time i was home all i could do was lay on the floor. so that is what i did. eventually i got up and lasted about 20 seconds before i wanted to lay back down. standing on my right foot brought me to tears and just standing in general was horrible. laying down wasn't much better, i could feel my quads gradually tightening up, on the verge of cramping and then moving to my calves. it was horrible. i eventually called the nurse on call because there was no way i was going to make it through the night. we talked for a long time and she had me take some aleve and get on some ice. after a few hours i fell asleep and then in the morning, like most mornings, i was totally cured. until an hour or so later... but thank goodness that pain hasn't come back. it was horrible!
i've spent the weekend reading the 3rd of the twilight books and just chilling out. it was a sorta rough week so its been nice to just relax. can't believe its gone so fast, though.
we went to whistler!! for the xterra! i did not race. even if i was healthy i wouldn't have raced, are you kidding me? i am smart enough to know that whistler is not a place for me to be racing. mat went with us, he sat in the back seat with the kids an they loved it. he is good with them. the weekend itself was good, too. got to see friends and cheer on all the racers. it was exciting and eric did fantastic! mat did well, too, but eric broke mat's winning streak seeing as eric beat him at vashon by like 30 seconds, then mat beat eric at black diamond and portland both by about 30 seconds, so eric won this one. nationals will be an interesting one - who will win there i wonder?
everythign else has been ok i guess. i was sad to miss the two races that i had to cancel my registration for, the weather has been so amazing that its totally lame that i have not done anything! but the open water swim was delicious this morning! at least I got that in!

self medicating

ugh. that is almost all i can say. but lemme tell you more.
ugh my back.
let start with friday. i called eric friday afternoon for no real reason and asked him what he was up to. he said he was on his way to taking sirus to the doctor. oh? why, what's wrong. well, he can't breathe. oh he seemed fine this morning, except when he sneezed and spewed giant snot globule all over his arm. yeah, but he got worse and now he sounds terrible.
so i come home from work, and sirus is all huffing and puffing while sitting on the couch. he had gotten two breathing treatments at the doctor's office and then started on some steroids.
i jumped on the trainer, the first bit of activity in a few days since my back had been killing me. it felt good, although i was going light and wound up averaging less than 14mph, which on the trainer is really light. nothing hurt! horray!
i went back in the house. hung out with sirus, and we decided we needed to take him to the ER.
seamus wasn't so thrilled with the idea of going, so i called around to see if someone could come watch her. the swim coach said he could, so on the way we dropped her off with him, they went out to dinner and then hung out.
we took sirus in. they took him in right away. he is such a sweet little guy. they asked him what was going on. in between puffs of air he sweetly replied with "not...much". they clipped the thing on his finger and hooked him up to oxygen. all he wanted was to lie there and have me rub his belly but he had to sit up right so he could get more oxygen in. the doctor came in, took a look at him and then started him on more breathing treatments. after the first two there was no change, so they gave him more steroids, a giant cup of apple juice, the doctor talked about more treatments and what would happen if he had to be admitted, and then started up a 3rd breathing treatment. this one seemed to start kicking in. he was becoming more alert, and started talking in full sentences, poking the doctor in the face with the finger clip while he listened to his heart, telling the nurse all about the home made black berry pie he helped make and asking her to take a look at his belly button since it was the deepest belly button in existence. the 4th breathing treatment got him to the point where the doctor finally felt comfortable with letting us go home. he said he could sirus's chatter and laughter from down the hall, and took that as a good sign. we are now the proud owner of a nebulizer, so we could give him treatments at home, and were given explicit instructions on when to bring him back or when to call an ambulance. he seemed to sleep fine, but seemed to stay the same on saturday and until sunday morning. but then he got a little active, running around like crazy on sunday. i asked him to stop and relax some. he said he couldn't breathe very well, but then hacked a few times and then was practically perfect ever since! he goes in for a follow up appointment tomorrow, hopefully all is as good as it seems!
oh that little guy tires me out, but soooo glad he is better.
my back on the other hand is not better. i swam saturday morning, did about 600yds before determining that kicking wasn't going to cut it, but with the pull buoy everything was dandy. then i came home and napped for 2 hrs! 2HRS!! had i lost that much fitness that after 1500yds i needed a 2hr nap? no, it couldn't be. then i remembered that we didn't get home from the hospital until midnight and then i got up at 5am to go volunteer at the lake sammamish triathlon, ya know, the race i was already registered for and super excited about doing but couldn't do because of my back. yeah that one. volunteering was way fun though, it was a perfect day, and it was so great to be in transition to watch all the different expressions as the racers left and came back from the bike leg. so, ok, the 2hr nap sorta made sense.
i wont mention the 1hr nap from before the swim.
then a bit later i got on the trainer for an easy 40 minutes. no pain. nothing, felt great. was able to push it a little more than the day before but still surprised by the lack of wattage. shower and then uuugh, the pain! for the rest of the evening.
sunday i felt not awesome, but i took the kids school shoe shopping. i forced seamus to get the cutest purple mary jane danskos!! SO CUTE! and then sirus said he needed sketchers. and they needed to light up. the ones he wanted were ugly and expensive so i said no and suggested some others and then, he did the funniest thing i have ever seen him do. in a funny voice, he scrunched up his nose and asked "what, are they too 'expensive'?" putting his little fingers up in quotes while saying expensive. yes, snotty of him, but he caught me off guard and it was pretty darn cute, but i said yes, too expensive. so we went to JC Pennys and found him some sketchers there that were on sale AND lit up AND weren't not totally butt ugly. he was happy. then i took them to build a bear workshop. sirus got mad because he said i was giving him too many choices!! but he decided on getting a friend for Sirus Wirus, a camoflauge bear like the one grandpa has, and he named it Wirus. sirus decided to get Wirus instead of the many accessories he was thinking of because he thought Sirus Wirus needed a friend. seamus got another cat that looks like fuzy stripe and she named it stripe. by this time my back was KILLING me, so we went home. again i got on the trainer and felt great, nothing hurt, it was relief, i felt so good just riding along watching Underworld. when i was done i still felt great. i was healed hallelujah! and then an hour later it hit me and i was just as bad off as before.
monday was a rest day and then today i went to PT. i told her everything that happened and she said that i seem to be having some increase neural tension, which she said was apparent based on how i felt fine but then an hour or so after activity it got worse. i was possibly doing more damage from riding even though it felt good and provided temporary relief. no activity for me for a week. canceled my season closer oly tri race entry for september 10 and tried to not feel sorry for myself. so for lunch i went to baskin robins and had a scoop of peanut butter n' chocolate ice cream and a scoop of chocolate fudge. then i went to the party store and looked at halloween costumes.

oh joy! so now, other cool things coming up, i'm prematurely officially in the off season so there ya go.

internets, its been so long

that's a lie. actually, the ability to come up with something interesting to tell the internets has been my problem. lets see, what has happened since the last post? oh, i guess quite a bit actually!
a few days before xterra blackdiamond i decided i didn't want to do it. not only did i not want to do it, i decided i didn't want to do any xterra racing. and not really that, i just realized i didn't want to ride my mountain bike at all. so i canceled my registration for xterra worlds and almost begged to be taken back when i got their reply saying they took me off the start list. :( but then i changed my black diamond registration into a relay and then did not register for portland.
the relay at blackdiamond was SO MUCH FUN. i decided to go out on the swim and actually try to race the swim. it was a crazy swim start, the whole field together at once, guys and girls, nutty. it was tough but i didn't get kicked at all so that was good. i think i raced it but looking at my time, it wasn't any faster than any previous swims, so who knows. my friend rick was my biker and he headed out. he had been xterra and tri curious for some time now, but he doesn't swim. he has become quite the runner though. he did a killer job out on the bike and i was headed out on the run. so i felt like i was cheating every time i caught someone and then when i heard someone ask if i was the first woman as i ran by. but i had the big R on the leg so there ya go. i did run all of the hills which was the first time i had done that on an xterra but seeing as i didn't do the bike part, i better have run the hills and i managed to get stung at least 3 times by bees or some other stinging like thing. once in my lady parts and it really started to hurt so i went to the paramedics. later tho wow, it totally swelled into a horrible welt, itched like a mo fo, turned dark purple, all kinds of horror. after about a week, the itching and swelling calmed down, thank goodness but the big purple spot was still there. yuck, gotta see what's up with my bee reactions these days. the two on my feet however didn't bother me.
the following weekend we drove down to hagg lake for xterra portland. eric went to pre-ride, i went for a run. we had dinner with mat,. i had a beer sampler, and something for dinner?? i think?? after a few cookies back at the hotel, a good nights rest, we got up so i could volunteer at the race site and eric could get ready to race. i was parking enforcement, one might call it. i had my giant volunteer shirt on over top my puffy coat. i looked good. once the race started i headed out on the course to make sure the one place where there was two way traffic that the biker heading back stayed on the sidewalk so they wouldn't crash into the other peeps. it was quite fun being out there, i liked seeing the racers and watching them and all of their different racing personalities.
eventually i was done and jumped in the lake for a swim, then headed out on a 9mile run. eric managed 4th overall despite breaking his chain and having to fix it, mat was 3rd overall, beating eric for the 2nd race in a row by only 30 seconds. it was a pretty fun day i'd say. volunteering is good.
but then we got in the car for 4hrs to go to yakima and that was bad news. uuuugggh!! my back! by the time we got to yakima i could barely move. so the next day we went on a alsmost 3hr ride by acciendt and i took seamus out to run with me since i ws hurting a bit. ow my back! then back in the car again for 3hrs.
monday i could barely move so i went to the chiro. i love him, he is awesome. i skipped my run on tuesday but did swim and then on wednesday we did the swim for life, 2.5 mile swim accross lake washington! it was SO different than last year since it was a) warm, b) sunny, c) no white caps, d) we had eric as our kayaker! i was so relaxed this year compared to last year when i was pretty sure i was going to die. although the swim was totally fine last year, this year was so awesome. we went to fast, not because we swam fast but because we should have just floated around in the lake more since it was so beautiful. it made me want to do more swims like that!!
then thursday i went back to the chiro because i am a complete mess. he strapped me into the stretcher, ya know, the ancient torture device they use where they pull you into pieces. yeah, one of those. the whole time he was strapping me in i was just like, dude, yeah, so uh, is this going to hurt? this is really weird. i don't know about this. yeah,. no, don't turn the light off, and yeah, keep the door open. will you be able to hear me if i yell for help? oh, ok, emergency shut oswitch. that's great, thanks. good fun!

hate, love and don't understand

hate:
people. okok, that is pretty broad. how about people who are a-holes. people who you go out of your way to help, and then when you are done, they are lame to you. people who get all aggro on you because you are going the speed limit. people who farking don't know how to park their cars or don't know how to pull their car out of a parking spot.

love:
people. okok, that is pretty broad. how about people at the gym who wear khaki pants and dress shoes on the treadmill. or blue jeans on the stair master. or flip flops on the recumbent bike. there is one dude who wears his clogs at the gym, and i would be him if i could. i also have come to the conclusion that i like it when some dudes wear flip flops with the blue jeans. some dudes can't pull it off, but some can, and when they can, i think its a good thing.

don't understand:
if you are bald, you can't have bad hair days. so do you have bad head days? i know i have bad face days, but what do the bald people have? and whats the deal with the hipster's hair? is it really THAT dirty? or do they just put so much stuff in their clean hair to make it look dirty?

eric

tonight eric gave me a hall pass and said he would take both kids to bed so i can blog. not sure what he was thinking i would be blogging about but i guess after about an hour of us sitting at the kitchen table chit chatting over margaritas he had enough of me.
today i went to the chiropractor. i was going to try to get through a whole week without seeing him but i decided this morning that i wanted to see him. so i went. he did is usual elbow in the ass routine that i long for on a regular basis. did some hip flexor pain inducers, some it band horror and then pulled put the scraper. omg, i don't know what this scraper thing is for. something to do with fascia and whatever but i am also pretty sure it was designed for pain induction. its a funny blue thing, he puts some lubey stuff on it, he says its emollient, and then tries to scrape my skin off. dude, there are easier and less painful ways to get my DNA!! he did it on my back once and that sucked, so when he pulled it out this time, i was just like, dude, i dunno if you need to be going to such extremes. then he got all aggro on my side hip. wtf. while he was doing it he was like," uh, yeah, you are going to have a bruise from this. wow, yeah, its going to be pretty bad. hmm, you should try and ice this when you have the chance." scrape scrape scrape!!!! dude, so yeah, when i got to work i took a peek and it was all red and swollen and a mess, and by the time i got home sho-nuffs it was all black and blue. please internets, tell me if you have experienced the scraper and if you have, what was your experience like? so, i definitely felt better when i left his office, but dude. i do'nt want to do that again.
none of these are of my chiropractor. but they illustrate my experiences:
I am pretty sure this is the look my guy has when he is using that scraper and i am secreting my face juices on that paper:

I often wear my navy blue dockers, brown belt and heather blue polo shirt when i am getting a good cracking. today i wasn't able to crack to the right.
and this is a perfect illustration of my too toned ass. remember when my PT told me i had too much tone in my ass? that's because it looked like this:

not really.

chips ahoys

everything has changed! i have made some big decisions and made some drastic moves but i am feeling quite good about it all. whew. big plans! big plans i tell you! but i won't tell those plans just yet. patience grasshopper. soon. maybe.

eric and i have also been discussing all along the changes we want to make to the house. especially this year with this super crappy summer, all i want is more light. he cleared out some of the crazy over grown bushes and underbrush around the house and that has allowed more light in but i'm talking needing waaay more. so today i almost popped another blood vessel just thinking about the lack of light and just now told eric to start working on the plans for how we're going to get some of this stuff done. we aren't ones for fancy furniture and details like that, especially right now since the kids are small and the cats are cats. eventually we will get to that but hot damn do i need more light!!! its probably just a phase and i'll get over it, especially when he comes to me with an estimate of $200k or whatever to get it done. ugh.

one of the best things i have found for when i am feeling particularly obese is to do some planks. a few days of some serious planks and everything is better. not totally but somewhat. omg, tonight i was trying really hard to not have a margarita so i had a bunch of chips ahoys and oreos. aak. but dude, eric is da'man. he fixes dinner every night. he does all the cooking. but tonight i got home from running and it smelled mighty good in the house. but as i got closer to the kitchen it started smelling somewhat fishy and i was like bleck, not in the mood for that. but i opened up the dish and what did i see? salmon with bratwursts!!! yeah!!! the brats were sliced thin and layered over top of the salmon with some zucchini, too. at first i was like, this is going to probably not taste very good but it was awesome. totally perfect. i paired that up with a giant, super juicy nectarine and i was totally in business. until i ate the chips ahoys and oreos. :(

headed to the pool tomorrow am. my swim on tuesday was actually quite nice. i do like to swim. it feels good and i like what it does to my body, but that doesn't keep me from being a sucky swimmer. back when i used to go back home each year for xmas or thanksgiving or something, my friends would make fun of me because i would always plan a trip to the local pool. even though i couldn't swim worth a hill of beans, i had fond memories of that pool and i always enjoyed going back there. i even made eric go with me the few times he went back there with me, and seamus even made an appearance the one time she went back there, too. and i used to always have dreams about being on the swim team in HS. too bad i wasn't ON the swim team, seeing as that would maybe help me now. but whatever, ya know, and stuff.

things and stuff

wow am i tired. i was going to go do a 10 mile trail race tonight, just for mellow and just for fun but wow, yeah, the 5am wake up yesterday followed by the 1am bed time last night and 8am arrival at work this morning all started to catch up with me and i HAD TO TAKE A NAP.
tuesday night janet invited me to masters on wednesday morning. in the middle of my 2nd margarita I thought that would be a fantastic idea! i hadn't been since prepping for the swim meet back in feb or whenever it was and even that was just for diving. but i was excited to swim with janet and to see my swim friends. i had even agreed knowing it was IM wednesday. lucky for me the swim coach didnt show up! so we did our own workout but yeah, they go a lot faster than me. i had to work pretty hard for them to still even open a big gap on me with each set. but the water was lovely and i was happy to catch up with everyone! after work was a work party. actually, work was a big sponsor at big event and hosted a big party. that didn't start until 9pm. 9PM. what? so i put on my sweet betsey johnson shoes and headed out to party to the wee hours of the night. i had quite a good time but realized two things: i must really look like ASS all the time because so many of the people i work with commented that i looked nice, and it really makes people uncomfortable if you are taller than them. i am tall. always a head or more taller than my friends or folks in photos. but i normally don't stand next to people i work with. i am usually sitting and slouching and if i am standing i am wearing flats, at most danskos. but the high heels were very alarming for many people.

Chelanman

this weekend we went to chelan to race in the chelanman olympic distance triathlon.

i didn't have any alcohol since the pre-race champagne fiasco the previous weekend, but i was tired all week, borderline exhausted.

friday we headed out, registered and racked my bike. the forecast was looking like rain, and the water was looking super choppy. i had been eating pasta for the past two days non stop and was going to hurl if i had it again, so i had french toast and eggs for dinner. and i started hydrating.

i slept ok and got up at 4:30, before my Groupon email arrived even, to have pbj and some heed but since everyone else was still asleep i laid back down until 5:20. then i headed over to the race site with friends and got everything set up.

after the start of the 1/2 iron swim I futzed around, did a short warm up which i am pretty sure didn't really qualify as a warm up, then tried to stay relaxed and have some fun with my friends. took the first clif shot and got ready to race.

the swim:
i stayed left at the start to avoid the mad dash to watch the rope. there was a ton of contact for the whole swim. i think it wound up being more draft like then distracting or hampering. i tried to stick to people as much as i could, and just swam. i felt good the entire time. my arms didn't feel tired or weak like they have been lately, and other than a few minutes where i got super tight between my shoulder blades and the creepy seaweed from the deep stuck to my face, the swim was was good. i was happy with it, i loved the shallow water at the end.
it wound up being my fastest race swim at this distance!

nothing thrilling or interesting happened in T1.

the bike:
i love my bike. i felt strong, i felt fast, i had a ton of fun. nothing was hurting, which is a big deal! i got caught up in some car traffic at the turn around but made it through ok. at the 20 mile sign i was shocked to see on my bike computer that i was at 58 minutes. i don't set it to speed ever so i had no idea i was going over 20mph and wondering if i was even doing the math right, but that's pretty simple math right there. i was shocked and excited and amazed. so i kept going. hit some rain but welcomed it. i got caught in more car traffic at the end but ran it into T2. i took 2 clif shots on the bike and about 3 sips of heed.
this was my fastest bike time at this distance!

nothing thrilling happened in T2, thank goodness!

the run:
right away i had to pee. i looked longingly at the line of porta potties as i left transition. they were taped off from transition, so kept going. i was taking tiny steps since that seemed to work two races ago. i kept them quick, tried to think about form, but pretty sure it wasn't pretty, eric even let me know so after the race. the porta potties at the first aid station were full so i kept going. mile 2-3 was horrible, boring, omg its never going to end. but eventually i made it. i was able to pick up the pace after that, i started to feel better, my form felt better and i was more relaxed. i started looking for mini landmarks and accelerating to them and then settling in for a bit after each. i noticed my settled in pace was getting faster, but as it did, i was less inclined to accelerate again, but tried. AND THEN my tri top started to feel super tight. i folded it up to expose my belly but kids started crying, ladies started fainting, men started screaming that their eyes were burning, so i folded it back down. my shorts were tied too tight, too, but i couldn't untie them, so i just continued to suffocate in my kit. i took water twice on the run and 1 clif shot at mile 4.
this was my fastest run in an olympic tri, also a 10k PR had it been a stand alone race (even though that 8 miler i did was actually faster).

3 good things about this race:
1) i had fun the entire race. at no point did i want to quit, slow down, question why i was racing, not even during the swim! i was excited to start each leg of the race and was surprised how fast and "easy" they were going by.
2) I didn't stop to pee and i don't think it really effected my run. this was the first time ever that i have not stopped to pee during this distance.
3) this was the first race this distance where i didn't wear socks. but now i say - screw socks, who needs them. please don't tell them i said that!

3 things to work on:
1) i need to work on being comfortable in the aero position on the downhills. i took most of those hills out of aero. i was pedaling like crazy but i was too sketched out to not have easy access to my brakes.
2) i need to watch my fluid intake. i was well hydrated before the race but wonder if my lack of fluid on the bike affected anything. some of that was not being totally comfortable with the set up, and the other is not wanting to pee.
3) i could have run harder i think.

all in all this was a great race. i was happy when i crossed the finish line, knowing i had raced hard and felt good the entire time. i don't want to rain on my own parade, but i am pretty sure this is a super fast course, but i am still super psyched that this was 12 minutes faster than my fastest prior olympic distance. a big part of what made the race and whole weekend so fun was that so many of my LUNA teammates and ladies from our workouts were there. the 3rd place AG finish was gravy on top of all of that. i definitely want to do this race again next year. SO FUN.

pokemon

we've got a pokemon craze going on here in the house. non stop.
we also have a pain in my arse. mostly non stop. sometimes in my back.
last week we went to chelan and it was hot and glorious and relaxing and fun. i had a run analysis done. i look terrible when i run. i look like i am 85. i also look like my ass has gotten huge. has it? my mid section too. gawd i hate video. luckily he cut my head off in the video.
i had a race yesterday. i won my age group but i feel weird about the race. i had a sucky swim. ok, pity party going on right here. i am a sucky swimmer and its totally sucky. why bother swimming so much when i know people who haven't ever swam, or who have swum only a few times and then they get in and kick my ass? ugh.
oh, i had too much champagne the night before, too. and some wine. but just a little bit of wine. but it was a lot of champagne.
my bike was pretty good but i had mixed feelings about my run. maybe the booze affected it, i hope, or maybe it was the hills. i don't mean to be ungrateful for my age group placing, but man, i am going to have to figure out this swim situation.
i also have to figure out why i weigh like a thousand pounds. i think its because i am like super old and my metabolism has slowed down. or something.
my ART guy last week was just like WTF?!!?? why are you so messed up? he couldn't believe how i managed to get all messed up since the last time i had seen him, like a few days earlier. he's going to have a field day with me tomorrow, that's for sure. i am going to have to start booking him for double appointments or something. at the run analysis, that guy looked at me in horror as i couldn't touch my toes. i now have to stretch for 10 minutes a night, all in capital letters even.
maybe that will help me to get rid of my giant gut.

houston

we've got a problem. dude, so i am totally getting old. remember how not too long ago i hurt my neck getting back in bed? seems i have magically hurt my mothra effing back. essentially just the same. gaahh!!!! i am even more pist that i was yesterday! it actually happened yesterday, like last night. i'd say it happened while i was cleaning and disinfecting litter boxes. eric thinks it happened from me sitting incorrectly on the couch. it could be because i changed from drinking lemon drops to drinking lemonade. i am totally annoyed because i even stretched after my run yesterday, like a lot. ugh.
so i tried to sleep normal last night instead of the screwed up way i normally sleep. i laid in bed for a while this morning then got up only to go to they gym to sit in the hot tub there. eric got me this crazy heating pad thing that wraps around my waist, with velcro, totally funny but i think its helping, i don't know. its annoying. the gait analysis i have planned for wednesday isn't going to be very helpful if i am all tweeked and even worse the car ride to it is going to be a biatch.

so pist!!!

OMG!!! how can netflix do this to me!!!! i settled down already to get my dexter on and what? its not there? what do you mean i can't watch it? you must be joking, here, give that to me, let me check. what?? waaaaahhhhh!!!! now what am i going to watch. so apparently netflix every once in a while will just add and drop things from their instant queue. thank goodness eric and i stayed up till all hours of the night watching the last several episodes of season 1 instead of calling it a night. wow, i would have been really mad then. instead now i just ordered season 2 disk 1 to show up in the mail and i can't remember what we did yesterday but it was not watch dexter.
this has been an awesome week. awesome i tell you. each day since i have taken off from work i have taken at least one nap, sometimes two!! i wake up, i eat breakfast and then i take a nap for a few more hours. delux. D-E-lux. then i do some running, or biking or like on saturday we called up the babysitter, ok, who am i kidding, we texted the babysitter and went for an open water swim and out on the mountain bikes. the swim was nice. although on the way back in i told eric that wow, he has really gotten to be much faster this year. to which he made the HUGE mistake of replying with, no, i don't think i am actually any faster. to which i said Ok, so you just said that i got considerably slower then since you dropped my ass out in the middle of the lake. to which he said, on the way out there i stopped and looked around and saw you back there but figured you must have stopped to fix your goggles or something, which i didn't. to which finally he decided on,that he has been putting on a lot of swimming muscle mass and that is must what it be. we did comment on how apparently my armpits have totally leaned out because my wetsuit is all baggy and stuff in my front and back arm pits.
the mtn biking was fun. i haven't been on the mtn bike in a while. it was quite fun. my handling was going pretty well, and i was having fun. nothing we did was technical even slightly but i was finally leaning into the turns for once, i think??
somehow i totally hurt my back cleaning out the damn litter boxes tonight. dude, last night that fuzy stripe got on our bed and ran up and down it all night until eric picked him up and put him on the floor. then he just ran around like a madman the rest of the night and then the kids came in and decided they needed to crawl all over us and then fuzy stripe and nadj felt they needed to "play" and fuzy stripe needed to play with the ball with the bell in it, and OMG can you just go in the other room? so i got out of bed at some ungodly hour and chased that ginger kitty all over the place, finally grabbed him and tossed him in seamus's room and shut the door. and then he meowed all morning, but only between the kids poking eric in the face asking him when they could have breakfast. so eric told them tonight, if you wake up and want to crawl into our bed just to fall back asleep - stay in your own bed because apparently you are still tired. usually they don't wind up with us until like 630 or so but dude, eric gets yelled at if he wakes me up at 659 when my alarm goes off at 7. luckily for all of them, i can just take a nap or two later in the day!
eric brought home some ice cream the other day. and this is a very rare and strange thing that i am about to say but it is super gross ice cream. its breyers Whoppers ice cream. makes me gag just thinking about it. first, whoppers are nasty. terrible nasty little buggers and then the ice cream itself is like a nasty whopper flavor. at least he is helping me to not eat ice cream i guess.

today i said holly shart

i was wound up so tight this morning that i was pretty sure i was going to pop a blood vessel or something. now that i think about it, i did look in the mirror at one point at work and my left eye was so totally bloodshot for no apparent reason. i checked my calendar for the next few days and said - dude, i am taking a vacation. omg, that felt so good. the day went by ok but by the end i was so excited to set my out of office and gt outta there! whew!! i have the next 6 days as work free!
dudes, my ass has been killing me. the chiropractor guy, man i love him has been ARTing on me and i've been loving that and he's been cracking me all over the place and it has been delicious. the arse is better indeed, i just have to learn to sit correctly and sleep like a normal person. ok and maybe drink a bit more water too.
over the weekend we went to my friends wedding. we hired the swim coach's younger brother to watch the kids. they loooove him so they couldn't wait to get rid of us. i had so much fun at the wedding. i totally let loose, drank a ton, danced like a fool even getting a few zn4 intervals out there on the dance floor and looked totally awesome doing it. i wore my new awesome dress and shoes and my feet and legs didn't hurt at all. even with all the dancing!!
fuzy stripe is getting so big these days. he is actually quite often called fuzy kitty or just kitty. he's a chewer and he loooves nadj. he will follow her around the house. she will walk slowly allowing him to bat at her tail and get close but then she will turn and hiss at him every once in a while, i assume just for shits and giggles. she will sit all like a loaf of bread and then he will get so close that she'll make her skin crawl and then he will run away. then he will sneak up on her again, be getting ready to pounce and before he does, she'll turn and his and he will run away sideways! they aren't cuddling yet, but soon i imagine, soon i hope. seamus mccat on the other hand is not amuzed. she just hisses at him. she doesn't move or swat or anything, she just hisses the most horrible sounding hiss.
what else?? i am being punished with a rest week, although this rest week i really really am enjoying and actually feel like i am getting something out of it. normally i am a total mess while trying to rest but this week i am managing, at least so far a total i don't give a fark, i'll do whatever i want. AND my new tri shoes showed up!! oooooh! they are white and pearly! and pretty and i can't wait to get some cleats on those bad bears!!
and you know what? i know its june because i wore a skirt today. i also know its june because i wore my puffy coat with that skirt. we're all like, what the hell? it claims its like 70 out but its cold as balls. doesn't make sense.
at least the water is warmer these days.
gettin in some good training in the next few weeks and after mid july will start with the xterra training. i was thinking i'd like to go on a trail run tomorrow or mtn biking or something but gotta wait and see!!!
yay!!! going to watch some dexter now!!

Fuzzy Stripe

i think i love the little guy. i told him i didn't know him very well yet but that i think i might love him anyway. he is starting to explore the house and mix with the other cats, even having the kitty balls to go up to the cat tree, with nadj sitting right under it, and start scratching it.
i took today as a rest day. it was a rough week. re-org, reviews - giving and receiving, crappy and nice weather. you name it we had it. i wanted to lay on the floor in my office at around 3pm and take a nap. instead i came home after work and slept instead of running.
tomorrow is a tough long swim + a long, semi tough run. my calves hurt from some calf raises and possibly from running on the treadmill while watching Twilight: New Moon yesteday. so i needed the rest. i need to work better on my hydration and recovery, too.
kitty is on my shoulder! horray!
i got some spray tan stuff. i normally use this lotion stuff that smells pretty terrible but while standing in line at target to buy a wedding hat, OMG let me tell you about the HAT! they had the spray on stuff right there, so i bought it.
as a joke i totally sprayed on some abs. i can't wait to see if they show up at all - cannot wait!!
so we are going to a wedding tomorrow. sooo excited! while on jury duty i went to betsy johnson and got a new dress and finally some shoes!!! so i am going to wear the new dress and shoes and i figured i needed something fancy for my hair. so i got this feather and pearl and rinestone thing - like a hat, all royal wedding style and i am totally going to wear it. i cannot wait!! i am not going to wear it all victoria beckham pregnant style
or Eugennie style either,
but i am totally going to wear it, cannot wait. super excited. first i gotta git through that swim which i am somewhat looking forward to and then the run. hoping the leg is better by then.
hooray! TGIF.

5 mile lake women's triathlon

the week leading up to this race kind of blew. i had a bad tuesday and didn't get any of my workouts in. we had our mini tri tuesday night and traffic was horrible and i had high hopes of getting in the water to at least make up for some of the fact that i slept through all of my alarms in the morning, but i got there late and the ladies were already out there and pretty much on their way back in. i guess i was lucky to have gotten there late since the water was about 4 degrees and they were all frozen solid when they got out. i did get in a nice bike ride but could barely function when it was time to run, so i didn't. the rest of the week was ok, went to see the ART guy - love him!! rest day on thursday and then a good swim on friday morning! so excited to be feeling good and effective!! and i wore one of my new swim suits! i have finally figured out what size i am, too! i wont even mention work and then it was hot and sunny in the evening, so i got in run. everything hurt, a lot. i wondered how in the world i'd be able to race the next day! i was starving by the time i got home so i chowed down like 6 bbq chicken legs from the big green egg and a recovery smoothie then we headed out to meet some friends at the pine lake alehouse. i was looking good - one step up from the house uniform piled on top of all my sweat and filth - it was awesome. we didn't get home until late, i started packing up my stuff, tried to work on my hydration and then eventually got into bed around 10:30. oh i slept horribly. my left leg and ass were hurting so bad, every time i rolled and stretched it would cramp up and i was thinking the race would be terrible. and then of course i woke up before my alarm went off at 4:50 to the sound of rain. awesome.
i got up, ate my breakfast, finished the last bit of packing and out the door i went.
it was dumping so much rain and the car was hydroplaning on the freeway and there were times when i couldn't see out the windshield. awesome again.
i got to the race site super early and was happy to see one of the girls from our workouts and that made me instantly feel better. eventually i gathered up my towel and running stuff, put it in a garbage bag and set it in my spot in transition.
then i geared up in knee warmers, my tri kit, a long sleeve jersey and rain jacket to head out on a warm up. i was supposed to be out for a 1/2 hr and i wondered if i would be able to do a whole loop or not but after about 12 minutes or so i just turned around and came back. i was moving in and out of my big ring and then all of s sudden it stopped working! i stopped 3 times to try to fix it but couldn't. i started to panic, i got lost, got back on track and then booked it back to transition. i found all the girls, and jenny's husband fiddled with the bike, eventually we all decided it would be best if we just got it into the big ring and left it there. so that is what we did. then i ran my bike in to rack it and people put their bikes on my stuff. :( we had assigned racks and there were to be 8 bikes to a rack. i feel bad because i totally bit this one woman's head off about how there are supposed to be 8 to the rack when she said there wasn't any room, but i was totally running late and panicking and i should have just chilled out, so i appologize! but we got the bikes moved around and i set up my transition with my run stuff and took all my biking stuff off. then i ran to the car in my socks to put on my wetsuit. i decided to try something new on race day! i decided i was going to wear both my knee warmers and arm warmers under my wetsuit. i spent 5 minutes in transition at onionman fiddling with that stuff, so this time i decided i'd try it out and see how it went.
i was finally all set with wet suit, booties, two caps, goggles and ear plugs and headed down to the water. found jenny, kate and kristina and we stepped in the water and were all like - oooh! the water is really nice! so sad considering it was 63 degrees but totally warmer than anything else we had been in this year.
it was a 3 wave start where they blew this crazy horn thing, but the swim started out good. it was definitely crowded but i wouldn't say super aggressive. not a lot of pushing or kicking, just a lot of closeness. after the 1st buoy it spread out a bit and then the 2nd buoy in was totally fine. i was super happy with how i was swimming. i was able to decide pretty quickly that maybe i wouldn't do the arm warmers under the wet suit again since my arms were getting super tired but the knee warmers were feeling great. my swim time wasn't stellar but i was still really happy that i felt as good as i did.
t1 was so much better than my last race since i had everything on already pretty much and skipped the socks! i was in and out of there in just over a minute!
i was so happy to have those arm and knee warmers out on the bike! even though they were wet the were warm. my hands were frozen and when i tried to pull my clif shot off my top tube i could barely grasp it. i laughed a little. i was having fun, pushing hard and hoping i wouldn't need that smaller ring up front. the course is pretty much rolling so i was all set although there was one point i would have like to have been able to shift down. the first lap was done pretty quickly and the 2nd one went well, too. next thing ya know i was back at transition, trying to go in the run exit. :( i had to back it up and then go the correct way - better pay more attention to that stuff next time.
t2 was fast, the biggest issue was pulling off the knee warmers, especially with hands that couldn't move. i did discover that my hand was bleeding for some mysterious reason.
i took off on the run and wow, everything was super tight. i threw my arm warmers to jenny's husband and then took teeny weeny super fast steps. like tiny, like i swear my stride was microscopic and i am pretty sure i looked rediculous. but i did pass a few people with that funny stride and i kept going. i didn't have my garmin so i didn't know how fast i was going but i kept on keeping on. again, the course was rolling and i was able to lengthen it out a little on some of the downhills but the uphills and flats it was tiny stride again. the fun flew by and next thing i knew i was crossing the finish line.
i wound up being 11th overall, 3rd in my AG.
i was super happy with this race for a few reasons - this course was the 2nd triathlon i had ever done back in 2006 so it was fun to come back and do it again.
i felt good on the swim!
so excited to discover the knee warmers under the wetsuit trick - awesome!
and i think most of all i was so happy to have friends there, it definitely made the miserableness of the day much less miserable!

blowing

today blew. ok that is all i am going to say about that.
wow, the kitten is so cute!! i can hardly stand it. i went in to check on seamus when i got home tonight and she was still awake, the kitty had crawled under the blanket and was purring up a storm cuddled against her.
we took the kitty to the vet yesterday to make sure he is a-ok. he seemed a-ok, but still he should go to the vet to be sure.
the vet said that kitty is probably about 5 weeks old. although the kitty is super young i think we did the right thing bringing him home with us. the mama cat wasn't looking very good and i don't think she was able to feed those kittens very much. maybe that is why he practically dove into the food dish when he first got to our house. but now his belly is all round and full and he purrs non stop. he weighed 1.2 pounds! so tiny! the vet fussed over him and when she took him into the back to draw some blood and give him a shot she said they were all gushing over him. i told eric that i thought this was funny considering how many kittens they must see and all he could say is kittens are cute. everyone loves kittens. cats are another story. i'll take the opportunity to remind everyone how i had 3 cats when eric first met me. he jokes now that i was easy pickings, but really, he just liked cats, ha! ok i had just cut off all my hair and was wearing a monster truck rally t-shirt too. oh and it was at a mountain bike race too...
but i digress. i hadn't even thought about the possibility of the kitty having FIV or any of that stuff, but the vet said it was good that i hadn't introduced him yet to the others and then i was all in a panic. he turned out to be negative which is good. and what i thought was ear mites weren't, it was just dirt. and he looked flee less, but we gave him a flea treatment anyway.
seamus was super excited this morning that the kitty hadn't woken her up during the night so hoping that will continue and she is doing such a good job feeding him and getting him water and OMG wow!!! scooping kitty litter is so much fun, everyone wants to do it!!
there are so many cute things about this kitty! one being that at the vet the kitty was very scared, seamus said that maybe the mommy should comfort the kitty - the mommy being seamus. we got her settled and then i put the kitty on her lap and seamus held him and spoke to him in the cutest, softest, caring voice, oh kitty, its going to be ok, kitty, its alright. so cute! and then at some point i called the kitty Fuzzy Stripe and her face lit up! that is the kitty's name and she was so happy to hear it!
when we got home, since the vet said it was ok, i took the kitty in to visit nadj. this didn't go quite as i expected. nadj came over and sniffed him, hissed a little hiss then the kitty totally hissed!! he hissed and hissed and growled and oh he was not happy! i thought maybe he would be happy to see another cat but hmm, wondering how this will go. nadj really wasn't very interested in him. we'll have to introduce him again, but he is so tiny i'm not sure when we might want to let him out to explore the whole house.
and then!! eric told me about how he went in to check on the kitty during the day while the kids were at school, ya know, just to check. not because he thinks kittens are cute or anything, but when he went into seamus's room he couldn't find the kitty any where! he said it took about 3 minutes until he spotted him all curled up with the stuffed animals! so cute!! kittens are awesome!

new kitty

oh this week. what can i say about you.
we were supposed to go to chelan, eric was supposed to race some 60 mile mtn bike race, i was going to ride the chelanman tri course plus some exciting extra part with lots of climbing plus a tunnel where i would get to push a button to make a light flash, but alas, eric called around 330 on friday saying that seamus was sick, had a fever of 102 and how he was feeling quite terrible, considering he had been not feeling his best the previous few days and sirus was so full of snot it was coming out of his ears. we decided to bail on the trip.
sirus and i went out to dinner while eric and seamus went home to relax. we had a perfectly good date night, but they sat us at a table for 6, even though the place was crowded and there was a line. i told the waitress to let any other groups of 2 or 3 know that we would be willing to share but no one wanted to, although they did seem perfectly fine with hanging over the wall from the bar, leaning on our table staring at us.
on saturday i got up to go right the 45 mile route of the flywheels summer century. as i drove down to the start, i was getting more and more excited looking at all of the cyclist riding up the big hill and along the lake. i haven't done an organized ride like this since i did STP in like 2001 i think it was. there had to have been thousands of cyclists out there, it was nutty. i needed to register and found that unless you are able to pick up your packet early, you should register for this event day of. the packet pickup line had probably 150 or more people in line and it wasn't moving. the registration tent had 4 people in line and was super quick. janet, kristi and i found each other in line, then we stood in the potty line for ever, chatted with jenny and then finally headed out.
while it wasn't sunny, it wound up being somewhat warm. we each took a jacket with us in case of rain, but it never rained, although at one point we all tried to figure out if we should put them on anyway since it had gotten a little chilly. we opted out and continued on.
not too long after the start is the first big hill, up Inglewood hill Rd. ok, so i will totally out myself here, while i live kind of at the top of this hill, this was only the 3rd time i had ridden up it in the 3 years we have lived here. and the first time - i had to stop 3 times!! yes! 3 times!!! while the hill isn't too long, about 1/2 mile or so, it is about 12% grade and i had no idea how to get up it. now i have a better idea. eric and i laugh about how i stopped 3 times because the 3rd stop was like 20 ft from the top. no joke, but i didn't know and really, i wasn't sure i would have been able to get up those last 20ft anyway! we all made it up this time and it seemed like many more of the riders were making it up this year compared to years passed, not too many walking this time around.
a short while we rolled past our neighborhood and there was eric in his Plants vs Zombies shirt and leider hosen doing a little jig with the kids running around cheering.
we hit a round about and it was clear that we are not very euro because the mix of cars and cyclists was a complete mess. i'm surprised it wasn't worse. then down 244th which at the bottom is a totally steep, sketchy descent which is fine but i was totally amazed how despite the route turning right onto a very busy, totally small shouldered road, people were not slowing down or stopping and instead were flying right into traffic. it was so sketchy, i couldn't believe it. we later heard that there was a crash at the bottom of that hill. yeah, not surprised.
the rest of the ride was fun and even though i have ridden all of those roads before it was just way fun.
later when i got home, we started making some phone calls then we hopped into the car and headed to burien to check out some kittens! and OMG!! we brought one home!!! so cute!! big name discussions though. we got this kitten for seamus because even though we lost pawpi back in december, there are still some nights when after she has settled into bed for the night we can hear here in the crying. when we ask he why she is crying she always tells us how much she misses pawpi. she never asked for a new kitten and when we first asked her if she wanted to get one she wasn't sure she wanted one. but we decided to take the leap, lord help me if that cat poos and pees on the carpet!!! seamus picked out the orange one and i instantly started suggesting names for him (i haven't ever had an orange cat and haven' had a boy cat since the first family cat we had when i was little - snowie. he was a good cat!). but i suggested naming the cat Dan after my boyfriend Dan Hugo, then i suggested naming him Jason Jablonski, and i even suggested naming him Antoine after the baby sitter. all were no gos. we suggested Jean-Luc and Sedgewick and Seeley (Booth), all names we had lined up in case of more kids someday, but no gos there either. she considered Sunset, and Totorro and i really liked Honey Senpai, but she wasn't too into it. i have settled on calling him The Doctor from Dr Who, eric likes that one, too. sirus suggested the totally awesome name of grilled cheese but she was adamant no people names and no food names. it looks like the kitty's name is Fuzy Stripe - at least that is what was on the sign she made in her room.
seamus had did an amazing job of cleaning her room in anticipation of the kitty, so when we got home, we found a place for the tiny litter box, and a place for his food and water dishes. we let him walk around and he was HUNGRY! he practically jumped in his food dish and chomped away. when he was done i dipped his paw in his water dish so he would know it was in there and i'm not sure he had ever drank water because he just kept dipping his face in it and then licking it off. after a few dips he seemed to get a better hang of it.
the people we got him from said they weren't sure he was litter trained. i'm not sure what that was about but i was worried but remembered when we had kittens when i was little, they seemed to know what to do. so i put him in the litter box and then told seamus that whenever he woke up from naps and stuff that she should try to put him in there, too. and do you know what? he used it! hooray!
we gave him a bath and got him nice and clean and wrapped him up in a warm towel until he was dry. he slept in the bed with seamus, she said he even cuddled on her chest and walked on her face while she slept, or tried too.
this morning he was a totally different kitty! he was running around her room playing with everything! tumbling around and jumping and chasing and being cute cute cute!! he'll go to the vets this week and then next weekend we'll introduce him to the other cats. as of right now they are not interested in him. they have to be able to hear him meowing some, and even after i play with him i go pet them so they will get used to his smell, but they don't seem interested. hopefully the transition with go well!

one of those days

ever have one of those days that isn't too bad but isn't great? where kinda the best part of the day is when your new BFF the chiropractor cracks yer lower back and hips and stuff into a million pieces? where he sticks his elbow way into yer side ass, tweaks yer leg off to the side so that you are in so much pain you are paralyzed and then he cracks a few jokes and the only way you can respond is to whimper?
other stuff is kind of shitty and blah today too. its warm which is nice!

compliments that aren't compliments and can't be warped or twisted in any way to make them into compliments

DUDE, someone today asked me if i was pregnant. :(
and they yesterday, a certain husband who shall remain nameless told me that my new haircut makes my head look smaller. he said that he even tried to make that one not sound bad but he couldn't think of any way to do it.
just for that i won't tell all of the internets how that nameless husband accidentally wore my cycling shorts out for a ride on thursday. he said they felt funny and that they seemed pretty short when he put them on but assumed that it was because he had done a bunch of quad exercises earlier in the day. so there.

chop chop tupe top

today i had about 11-12 inches of my hairs cut off. all of it. not totally on a whim, but sorta, kinda. i also got my hairs colored. but before doing so, my absolute favorite hair cutter James Dean at the downtown GeneJuarez did some precutting. he put my hair in 4 ponytails, grabbed the clippers and chopped it all off. he put the ponies in a bag, and i filled out a form and the hairs are now on their way to locks of love. although i read a blog post poo-poohing the locks of love program for selling all the donated hair that they can't use to wig makers, all in all, even if that is true, that's fine. the hairs were getting cut off anywhere and if there is even a tiny chance they will make someone in need happy then no harm in trying.
i haven't colored my hair i don't think since before i was pregnant with seamus so like a million years and the color girl was super excited since i told her to do whatever she wanted. she picked darker! which i was excited about. she even mentioned that it would nicely take care of my sparkles. and i was like - did you just call my gray hairs sparkles? and she was like, i like to call them sparkles. i apparently had more sparkles than i knew about. scary thing - what if when all this awesome dark brown grows out its all gray underneath?
so i told mr dean who he himself is growing out is hair and is looking quite handsome these days that i was embarrassed to say that i kinda wanted a cut similar to ashlee simpson's new short do. he said, he asked if i might have a photo since he wasn't quite up to date on what was going on with her hair, and then was quite surprised when i went on to tell him about her recent divorce, since he didn't know she was married and a little shocked that she had a baby.
anyway, i walked out of there looking lovely, i even stopped in at betsey johnson and they all gushed over the lovely short hairs. i did not however buy anything in there this time, although i did go in there with the intent to purchase a belt and that they no longer had.
that was the big surprise or the something exciting that i mentioned for saturday.
and OMG it was sunny and warm! so sunny and warm that OMG i wore a tube top! whoa!!

compliments that aren't really, part deux

i am a big fan of compliments that aren't really compliments. like here and here.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
yesterday i thought i got a compliment that's not really but maybe it was an insult that wasn't really?
i went to a sports chiropractor for the first time. i had gone to a normal chiropractor a few years ago and she totally freaked me out. although she had used her little popper to pop a few joint in my chest which actually felt amazingly good, she had me lay on some crazy ass table that made horrible noises and jarred my noggin so hard i saw stars. that and she tried to get me to commit to some crazy treatment plan for the next year. i couldn't do that, plus she scared me so i never went back.
but after the race the other weekend when i had the ART done, it has been all i can think about. i called my insurance and it didn't seem like it was covered but then i called the place anyway and talked to them and we got it all figured out and it is covered after all! i made an appointment and i was so excited to go!
i already had a history with the guy since he worked on me at the race, but we talked some more and then we got to work. i told him about all my aches and pains. he asked some health history questions and i should have known that the compliments (insults?) would be coming when he said i was healthy as a horse.
so the obturator inturnus came up so of course, there i was all laying face down on the table when he said we were going to get all personal and yep, right up in there. not invasive by any means but yeah, maybe i will wear pants next time instead of shorts. he did some awesomely painful things to my hips, so awesomely painful that i could barely talk or move but it was totally awesome. he had me stand there and he looked at my back, he poked me a few times and was like, oh yeah, these muscles are hard as rock. then he hurt me again, but it was so good, i was sad when it was done. there was some strength testing in which he was giving me crap about being weak, not bad crap but joking crap and then wow, my right hip, to quote him, has got nothing. i could hardly push any resistance against him. then more hurting then on that crazy table that was weaving me back and forth. i flat out was just like, whoa! what is going on?? then he cracked my lover back which was awesome. loved it. then we talked some at which point he said i was a solid girl. ok, girl is good, solid, i am not so keen on. solid is right up there with sturdy or thick. but he followed it with , you know, not full of flab and all that other stuff. what other stuff??? anyway, when i had walked in there i was in quite a bit of pain, but when i walked out i felt 100%. it was awesome.
after work i did a track workout, hitting times between 5:58 and 7:20 for the various distances and wow, i didn't hurt at all! later that evening, yeah, i was a little out of sorts, but man, feeling quite helpful about this whole ART thing!!
something exciting is going to happen on saturday! whoowhoo!!