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!!

I survived the rapture, it's name was Onionman.

lets start with jury duty. as per the last post, it kicked my ass.
it was exhausting. listening to the witnesses, all the testimony, all the waiting around, all the not being allowed to talk about it was utterly exhausting!!!
and then we started with deliberations. good grief! that was even MORE exhausting. but we finally were done with it before lunch on friday. after lunch we read the verdict and then we were dismissed, but only after receiving our participation certificates???

saturday morning i got up and did a 50 minute trainer workout and 15 minute run. then we packed up the car with my mom and the kids and started on our way to Walla Walla.
i've done this race 4 times: 2008, 2009, 2010 and then this year. last year was a disaster so i was looking forward to kicking some ass this year.
the week had been so exhausting, and the drive was long. i slept for an hour when we got there and then had dinner then went to bed. i slept terribly that night but got up pretty easily.
i headed out early to get a good parking spot and it started to rain on the way there. :( i put a bunch of my stuff in a garbage bag and took it into transition to mark my spot. when i came back with my bike, SOMEONE HAD PARKED THEIR BIKE ON MY SPOT. WTF, who does that??
so i picked up my bad of stuff and moved. lame. i still got an end spot but whatever, it was lame. it was so cold but i was going to go out on a warm up on the bike - first time i had ever done that! so i put on the knee warmers, the arm warmers, the fleece jacket, the vest, the jacket and the gloves and headed out. i got rained on but the warm up was pretty good, but it was so cold i barely broke a sweat. when i got back to transition, the guy across the rack from me said he had to turn several people away who had tried to take my spot, even though my stuff was RIGHT THERE!! the stuff i was wearing was all wet, but i shook it off and put it into transition. i got on my wetsuit, put on my booties, two swim caps, ear plugs, you name it, i put it on. i was surprised to feel that the suit was a bit loose around the middle, but pleased at the same time! it still fit perfectly everywhere else. the pre-race meeting took forever. it wasn't terrible, just really long although i was there for the part where they said they consulted with the medical staff and agreed with the recommendation of cutting the swim in 1/2 because of the water temp and air temp. i said hooray and then started to leave and head down to the water because i wanted to at least get in the water for a bit before the start. i put my feet in and a shiver went right up me and i couldn't stop shivering! so i got out and started to panic a little, trying to figure out how i was going to get out of doing this race. i had already called eric hoping he would talk me out of it but he didn't answer his phone. the men went first and then the women. i waded out to waste deep and kept looking back wondering what could i do to get out of this, just pack it up and go back to the hotel!!!
but then it was time to start.

The Swim:
30 seconds before the start i splashed the water on my face and that did the trick. actually getting in after that was ok. the water wasn't too bad, cold yes, but tolerable. there was some pushing and shoving. i saw some feet, i did a lot of http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsighting. i was happy with how i was feeling out there in the water. it was turning out to be a pretty good first open water swim of the season! i passed a few of the men before we even got to the first buoy and then passed a few more on the way to the 2nd and then on the way back into shore. my shoulders were getting tired but i kept sighting and kept swimming, all the way to shore.
My time was not awesome, but i was happy with how i swam and how i felt.

T1:
i got out of the water and easily ran up the boat launch to transition. it was crazy in there. people were all over the place, they were sitting and all sprawled out. i looked around and it seemed to be because everyone was putting on extra layers. i struggled through knee warmers, arm warmers, a vest and jacket. i even put on gloves. i could have possibly skipped the gloves but was not sorry at all that i had everything else on. i did not want to relive cascade edge 2008. i headed out on the bike and right away started to pass some people. it was raining but it eventually stopped. i was enjoying the bike and happy to be on my sweet new argon 18 tri bike. i felt good in the aero position and was riding along well until i discovered i couldn't shift into the big ring up front. i tried, i tried and fiddled and tried some more. i eventually came to terms with the fact that it wasn't going to shift so i did what i could with what i had. this made the fast, fun part on the way back not as fast as it could have been. i was still catching people but i got passed by a few on that fast section. i caught some of them back when it flattened and started up hill again, but my overall bike time was slower than the previous two years, even when i got all injured last year. :( i was disappointed but then also realized had i had that big ring this likely would not have been the case.

t2:
longer than normal since i had to take all the cold weather gear off. i kept the arm warmers on but took everything else off.

the RUn:
i headed out feeling not too bad. but i couldn't resist the call of the porta potty. i jumped in there and took waaaay too long. my left foot felt funny, i thought my orthotic might be in my shoe crooked then i wondered if i left a clif shot in there or a hair rubber band. it was really bothering me so i stopped and took off my shoe. there wasn't anything in there, my foot was just frozen solid. i started up again. i was keeping a pretty good pace those first two miles on frozen feet, about an 8min pace. mile 3 was 7:47. then my left calf started hurting. right behind my knee, down a little. biatch. it was hurting. i hit the turn around and slowed down, but was still chugging along. the last part of the run is hard. its trail and up hill and then you can start to see the parking lot and hear the finish line antics and they make you run on this uneven grass and its terrible. but i gave it all i had for that last little bit. my run time was not impressive and i'm ok with it but not super proud. i need to figure out how to not feel the need for the potty breaks. plus i would like to work on working hard on the run instead of just chugging along.
all in all the race was ok, not my best but not my worst. i'm happy i started it! and i was happy that i headed out onto the run before the first place guy finished.
i came in 4th in my age group but got bumped to 3rd and on the podium since the 1st place girl was 2nd overall. More Onionman bling hanging around the house now!

after the race i headed back to the hotel, took a nap, then we walked around walla walla some and then headed to pioneer park to see the birds. we saw some bunnies making more bunnies and then went to a playground. my mom and i met a nice guy who was there with his grandson. he's a cattle farmer from oregon and he answered all my questions about being a cattle farmer. everything from how do you get more cows (do you encourage certain cow relationships or do you let them pick their own up in the pastures?) to when you go to check on the cows out there, how do you get to them? and do you brand them? and when they have their babies do you make them come into the barns, and how does the whole slaughtering thing happen? turns out a lot of his cows go to whole foods. he told us all about it but then mentioned that if the cows get sick, or need any medication or anything at any time, they get tagged and then they go to safeway instead since they will have then had steroids or hormones or something. he was awesome and i was so happy to hear all of his stories. he seemed good with me asking, too.
after we went to dinner and then hung out some more. we stayed up late watching iCarly. I slept waaaay better, seamus was super cuddly during the night, too.
unfortunatly i did not sleep IN like i would have like too, but the kids went swimming and then we headed home.

OMG jury duty is kicking my ass

jury duty consists of a lot of waiting around. but man, it is exhausting. i have had to nap so many times this week when i've gotten home and its only wednesday!!
i managed to NOT go to Cow Chip cookies today which is good because i went last week and then on monday and tuesday. i ran today after jury duty and after my 2hr nap.
i need to go to bed now, too, but i am a little antsy.
so happy to have started reading New Moon, too. its been sitting on my night stand since xmas but i finally cracked it open during all the waiting.
training is going well. my ass still hurts. i need to get in to see the art dude, that was like magic. painful, painful magic!

things i learned at jury duty:
If I go into Betsey Johnson, I will buy something
It is nearly impossible to not eat cow chip cookies everyday
The court house does not like danskos
I miss being in Seattle (but am also somehat glad I'm not here because of 1 and 2 above)
It really doesn't take too long to get to Seattle from the eastside during rush hour, at least not the two weeks i've been on jury duty
Paying such close attention for so long is exhausting
There is a ton of waiting around.

ART

the race was fun today! 8 miles in 1:01:22. Yahoo! that's a 7:40 pace. good enough for 3rd F overall and 1st in my age group! had this been a 10k it would have been a PR but instead it was a crazy 8 miler. eric was an animal! he pushed seamus in the stroller and still managed a 6:10 pace good for 2nd overall and 1st in his age group.
it was fun to have all the folks from work there and it was quite a nice morning for a race, even if i had a totally nasty JIFF peanut butter sandwich for breakfast and wasn't really feeling like running fast.
after the race my left ass was really hurting. i stopped by to see the ART dudes. and man, they HURT me! but it felt so good. there were times when he asked me to move and i couldn't because it hurt just way too much. we determined that its all because of swimming, well actually all the kicking that i have been doing while swimming. so i am going to go back to them and get it all taken care of!
3hr bike ride tomorrow and a jump in the lake possibly!

super allergies and other gross things

eric and sirus went to the allergy doctor today. sirus has had non stop runny nose for months and months, maybe years. he just goes about his business like there is nothing wrong but we finally came to the conclusion he must be allergic to something. so eric took him in today. he got the little pokes of all the different things and apparently they found he is allergic to grass and dogs. sirus even told the doctor that he was super allergic to dogs. and maybe we should think twice before letting him roll down the big grass hills again. but he isn't allergic to cats (but eric is!). but we wonder if the remnants of the old owner's dog is still in any of the carpet. so i am pushing even harder now to tear up ALL of the carpet! hooray, that would be so awesome!!
a few months ago, seamus went to the doctors for something, i can't remember what. they said her ear was all plugged up. the doctor tried to pull a chunk out but couldn't so they flushed it out and apparently big giant chunks came out. eric even told the nurse that i would be so upset to have missed it since i love stuff like that.
so all was good and that was that. i am always cleaning the kids ears all the time, because i am obsessed. one time after that doctors appointment, i was cleaning her ear and out came a chunk of something that looked like paper. after that, seamus refused to let me clean her ears. she would cry and say no and tell me it felt weird and would throw a big fit. finally, several months later she finally told me that she had put a piece of paper in her ear and that it had gotten stuck in there. she cried and was so upset, she was afraid of getting in trouble and she didn't want me to tell eric and she didn't want to go to the doctors to take it out because they would get mad. i told her that at most the doctor would likely just tell her to not put paper in her ear again. anyway, somehow we determined that there was no way that the paper could still be in there.
until tonight. i managed to take a peek in there and there it was!!!! and eric managed to pull that sucker out!! it was HUGE! and brown!!! and nasty!! and OMG, don't touch it!! oh grody!! we wanted to keep it but seamus insisted that we throw it away! oh it was so gross! but she did say she felt way better now that it was out and that she could hear better too!!
what else is new? oh my goodness ALOT. but i can't talk about it.
but i am running an 8 mile race tomorrow. should be exciting! my work is sponsoring it for the employees so there will be a bunch of us there, so that will be fun. and eric and seamus are going to come, too!
i've been running a ton, biking some and doing some swimming. and i might even get in the lake on sunday - yikes!