Hodgepodge

Here is a link to a photo of Jennifer, Joe and me (R to L) on ING race morning. I'll have you know that Jennifer looked just that good after the race too. The rest of my photos (with many of Joe, too) are here.

After the urgent care clinic visit on Sunday (post-race and pre-shower, mind you) to cure the Scourge, two checkups (regular and allergy) on Tuesday, Annika had a full-blown allergy attack on Tuesday afternoon. Her face swelled up and turned red and she itched all over. I had to call the doc to see how much Benadryl was too much because enough had stopped working. At the checkups we learned that Annika's height, weight, hearing and vision are normal. She has finally broken into double-digit BMI, which is nice. I forgot about picture day that day and it will be interesting to see what a lovely photo combination the allergies and a dumbass mother make. Wouldn't you know that she gets allergic AFTER the two doctor visits.

At Annika's school Easter party, they did the Easter egg hunt and subsequent egg redistribution (just like Annie described) but the cool thing was the cake. One of the party volunteers ordered it and it was HUGE. The cake woman made the most delicious white cake with frosting and two layers. She decorated three large round tombs with brown frosting, brown dots and crosses made from pretzels. Upon further inspection, I discovered that she had also made a recessed tomb for Jesus, with a chocolate chip bar cookie "stone" covering half of it and the tomb was EMPTY. How cool is that? You would never get that stuff at public school! I tried to find instructions for making this cake online so that you could link to a photo, but no luck. There is, however, an Easter cake contest and I suspect some variation of this will win. If so, I'll post.

Doug found something cool for me on Audible this week. Audible is the site where he downloads books to listen to on his long commute. I listen too, since we share the i-tunes account but I don't have as much kid-free time in the car and our books tend to be murder mysteries or have lots of bad words. Anyway, the cool thing is called podrunner and it is a bunch of mixes for running that are centered around a certain beat-per-minute. I listened to one with Doug the other day that began and ended with the USMC cadence - "got to keep on rolling." Today's mix did not have that at the beginning and I didn't get to the end, but it was pretty good. 176 BPM is a bit fast for a recovery run, though. I did my 5K in 26:25. Unrelated to the music, I rolled my ankle on a pinecone (not looking where I was going when exiting the bathroom area) - it's swollen but clearly not broken. I think this podrunner thing would be good for outdoor tempo runs, if you are the kind of person who has to get in step with the beat. Which I am. And what is more fun than a cadence, anyway?

Play it Again, ING

I am SO signing up to run the ING half again next year. The course was beautiful and the crowds were awesome. I expect that the start and water difficulties will be ironed out before the next one - maybe they can consult the track club for some advice.

Here are my stats:

Official time: 2:00:18
Chip time: 1:54:06
Garmin: 1:54:24
pace: 8:42

The PR time was due to our friend, Joe, who ran with me and kept the pace. He kicks ass.

Here are my friends and their times - all halves, except SuperNat:

Chris: 2:15:37 (first race EVER)
Susan: 2:28:52 (my boss)
Virginia: 2:03:46 (first half - my training partner)
Joe: 1:54:06
Jason: 2:01:39
Jennifer: 2:13:12 (first half)
Nat: 3:44:15 (heatstroke and a BQ)
Wes: 2:07:45

Here is my report:

My alarm was set for 4:00am, I thought. Apparently, it was not because I woke up at 4:14 with no alarm and my watch reading the wrong time. I'd cooked my oatmeal and set out my gear the night before and Doug made the coffee while I was in the shower, so I wasn't too far behind. Joe overslept too, so he was a little late picking me up and we were late picking up my friend Jennifer. We flew down the highway, so we got on MARTA at the Medical Center Station where it would be less crowded. MARTA was a breeze, we got to Underground at 6/6:15. We applied the vasaline, changed shoes and put on my knee-braces and checked our bags. Awesome job on the bag-check, UPS.

We finally found the huge wall of porto-potties and blanched at the lines. No matter, we waited and headed for the start. There were no signs, we just followed the masses. Because of the huge crowd, we knew not to try to go in at the back. Instead we walked outside the barricades until the 5:00 marathon pace group. At that point, we started to worry that we wouldn't get into the road. We went just behind the 4:30 pace group sign, and jumped (with help from those around us) the barricades. We helped several others do the same thing. I never heard a gun or a starting whistle. The crowd just started moving and we went with. We accidentally started Garmin at the finish line mats instead of the start, but quickly switched off - hence the 20-odd second discrepancy in the times. While waiting to start, I asked Joe his pace - "I don't know, what are we doing?" So, we ran together, even though Joe is MUCH faster and a better runner.

Jennifer had her own pace and so we parted at the start. The first 2-3 miles were bobbing and weaving as dawn broke over the city. The expo article about the views in those mile was not kidding. It was gorgeous. My knees felt OK but my toes got sore from sliding to the front of my shoes when tiptoeing between the other runners. We went through Inman Park and Little Five Points at or below my goal pace (9:09). I watched for running skirts (yes, I have skirt envy)pointed them out to Joe - he's not in the market for a skirt, but maybe for a skirt-wearing runner. We went through Little Five Points, which I haven't seen since Doug and I took my sister to see Dogstar 15 years ago. Then, we went down the Freedom Parkway - I remembered to eat my Sportsbeans during this stretch and on the way back we saw Jennifer and waved. She looked happy and chipper andwas running fast. Others have complained about this section, but it was still shady when we were there and was pretty pleasant. Then we ran up through Virginia-Highlands and I started to get a little tired. I was waiting for the post-beans euphoria. Some guy was handing out bottles of cool water from a grey trashcan and we got one. Thank you guy - we shared that water for the next two miles. It hit the spot. We went around through Piedmont park and I started to fade a bit. I was still with Joe, though, and we were doing about 8:20s at this point.

Then, the hills. On the back of the map that they gave us at the expo, it showed 3 big inclines. I kept thinking that we had finished the last hill, but no - there were more. I think that map was lying. Joe stared leaving me at this point. I caught back up and gave him a punch after the last out-n-back into the cheering zone. Then, going back up the hill to Peachtree, I stared to flag. My gut grumbled ominously. I looked in vain for a potty. No dice. This is a bad situation for a girl with pelvic floor issues. I stuck my earbuds in (had been only wearing one and switching ears so I could talk to Joe) and soldiered on. I kept Joe in sight and told myself to keep moving. Several times, I wanted to walk. The devil on my left shoulder kept saying "you can walk just a few steps, it will be no problem to catch back up," while the angel on the right said "no, sister, you better catch back up NOW." At the mile 1 sign, which apparently means one mile to go, Joe said "we're at 1:53" - I was a little loopy by this point and running with my eyes closed. I thought he meant that it was 1:53, which meant no way for the two hour goal. No matter, we pressed on. Those last two miles were in the 9:15 range and were not at all fun. The crowd started counting down as we approached the mats - I made the first mat before 2 hours, but that was the start mat. Oops - so I finished at 2:00:15. We got bananas and water and made the requisite pitstop - sorry to the guy who walked into my portopotty because I forgot to lock it. I felt like ass - not at all like Superwoman. After some curbside relaxing and ice shrink-wrapped to my IT band knee, I felt better. We limped to the UPS trucks to find Jennifer. There she was, at the appointed location - chipper and bouncing with glee. She finished in great time and at the same time as the marathon finisher.

It was a great race. I still have some muscle soreness today, but the knees are fine. I'm definitely there next year with more hydration and hill work under my belt. Thanks Joe, for keeping the pace. 65 Roses.

Full of Nerves

Annika's teachers told our sitter that they thought she had the Scourge on Thursday. After a
nervous phone call with Doug's sister Katie (who knows everything), we've decided that she does not have pinkeye, but does have allergies. Luckily we are going to the allergist on Tuesday anyway and Katie's daughter has allergy eyes too and had been for her four year checkup last week and they recommended some drops. We've purchased the drops (the name starts with a "Z") and they are working pretty well. We did have to go to both Walgreens (they were out) and Publix with Dagny clad only in a pair of shorts, but you gotta do what you gotta do. You can just call me Britney.

The nerves are about the big race tomorrow. I went to the expo today and got my number and cool Mizuno shirt. The expo was nice and though it looked like chaos, it wasn't bad like it was yesterday. Watch for #16060 - I'll be smack dab in the middle of the pack, hopefully not hobbling.

Better

When Doug first started playing golf in our neighborhood, he took me to the parties and I didn't know anyone - those golf guys all looked the same to me. Gradually, I started to make some distinctions by associating one fact about each guy with his face - names came later. My first two facts were: (1) the bartender who made everyone feel liked and important and (2) the singing guy.

"The singing guy," you say, "that sounds bad".

But he was a marvel. The singing guy would talk the band or DJ at whatever party it was into giving him the microphone and maybe some backup music (not always) so that he could sing a love song to his wife. And he could sing! He sang ballads, like "The Way You Look Tonight" or "Unforgettable" and his wife just looked embarrassed and gave him a hug when he was done.

Later, when I came to know the singing guy by his name, I also noticed that when you asked him how he was, he always said "Better than I deserve!" with a big smile.

At the church service on Saturday, the preacher said that this was a great reminder of the Lenten season. I thought he was just strange until I had some time to meditate on the idea. Lent is a good time to remind ourselves that we are all really better than we deserve. That is the point of giving things up and foregoing meat and all of that. I know that my spouse is better for and to me than I deserve most of the time. And the kids are better than I could even hope for. How about remembering to be grateful for that and reveling in it, instead of bothering to think about how they could be doing it "better" or "my way".

We lost the singing guy last week. The preacher was speaking at his funeral. Our friend was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about six months ago. For those of you that don't know, there is not a good prognosis for that kind of cancer and though he fought the good fight, it was too strong. He was grateful and friendly to the end - sending out updates full of sunshine and any good news he could think of. It was almost as if he were keeping our spirits up, instead of the other way around.

As the preacher said, we are better for having known him, much better than we deserve. We will miss you, Cary.

Frustrated

So, I wrote a nice post while at my continuing education class on Tuesday, but it was lost in the ether when the hotspot at the Sheraton went out on me. Then, I was going to write after finishing my work on Friday but the internet at home went out. It turns out that my moden was not on "bridge mode" despite the nice Bellsouth customer service rep's assurances to the contrary. I didn't believe her anway because her grasp on the English language was tenuous at best and she kept blaming it on my router, which is brand new. Luckily, the D-Link customer service rep was (1) a speaker of English, (2) knowledgeable and (3) helpful. There were long pauses in our conversation where I thought he was reading the instructions, but when he was probably surfing the internet and lost focus with me. No matter, the internet is up. It only took ALL of Dagny's nap and the 2 hours that Annika was being punished in her room. No work was completed and no blogging done. Stupid Bellsouth.

Annika was punished because (as was revealed when Doug questioned her about it) she was having a parade with Dagny while I was on the phone with a work colleague on a business call after I told her that I was going to take the call and that she needed to be quiet. I had just thought that she was following me from room to room with the loudness to get attention. Silly me - who knew it was a parade?

On the running front, I think I've solved the problem. My shoes were old. I knew that they were getting old, but I was waiting until the new Brooks Adrenalines came to my running store. If I was to buy shoes, why not the latest technology? Because waiting for the new technology will @#?*& up your knee - That is why. Stupid. Anyway, long story short, I bought an interim pair of new Adrenalines while waiting for them to come in at my store (because they ordered them especially for me) and now I have two new pairs of shoes. They won't go bad, though, and I'll hopefully get more mileage out of them if I rotate pairs - especially in the sweaty summer months.

Sun: 5 miles with knee brace on non-IT knee at 9:45 pace. Could have gone longer if I would have had both braces.

Tues: 4 miles in the flats at unknown pace. Could have gone longer if I would have remembered to wear any knee braces. You can't re-enter the house after leaving at 5am because the alarm beeps and will wake the babies. It was a joy to run without anything though - I felt like a gazelle.

Fri: 3 miles in the flats at 9:00 pace, cut short because of potty break

Sat: 6 miles in the nasty wind with both knee braces and no tunes at 9:09 pace. This run sucked; the wind, silence, cold and bad Mexican food for dinner on Friday combined for a lot of misery. The cardio and the knees were fine though. This is my race pace for ING if I'm to hit my goal time. I think, with proper fueling, hydration, both braces and some tylenol, it might be possible. Cross your fingers.

I'm Not Trippin'

I saw a bumper sticker this morning that said "Faith is a journey - not a guilt trip." I think this was a slam on the Catholic church because there was also another church (protestant) sticker on the car.

I know that it's the conventional wisdom that the Catholic church is all about guilt. And, believe me, Catholics carry a lot of it. However, since I've been doing the regular church attendance thing while Annika is in religious classes, I've thought a lot about this guilt and whether the Church puts it on the parishoners or if the parishoners put it on themselves. The priests joke about it a lot, so it's not news to them.

Here is what I think - there is always a "better" Catholic. For folks who don't make weekly Mass, it's the regulars. For the regulars, it's the Eucharistic ministers or ushers. For those folks, it is the folks who do adoration. For those folks, it is the daily Mass attenders or the Deacons or whoever. Someone is always commenting favorably on all of the ways that you can give of yourself (time, talent, $) to the church and there are always opportunities to do it. So, it's only natural for we competitive creatures to want to be the best at any or all of these things. The failure to do so causes guilt.

So, I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. If a rational, thoughtful, adult feels guilt because he or she COULD be doing more volunteer work or giving more money or attending more activies, that is not a bad thing - especially if it impels them to do good things. I think, though, that the words "rational" and "thoughtful" are the keys, though, because a person can do only so much.

Isn't She Lovely

Annika spent Tuesday afternoon playing dress-up while Dagny napped and Doug and I played dueling laptops on the porch in the beautiful weather.

You can't see the many back-view photos that I was required to take so that I could capture the fairy wings and fireman hat at the same time.

She might be a big pain in our bottoms right now, but Annika sure is cute.

I reread my post from this morning and apologize for the negativity. My lack of getting out and running or doing exercise has got me in a funk.

Tomorrow, swim lessons. We are already talking about how tough Annika is, so cross your fingers.

Issues

When I worked at the law firm, we used to call things that sucked "issues." There were title issues, contract issues, marriage issues, job issues and personality issues. We've had some issues at our house this week.

Annika went to Grammie/Grampa's cabin for the weekend last weekend and has been a bear ever since. I don't know if being the center of attention for two whole days spoiled her for the week or if she is just having a rough spot. Sunday, general bad behavior and failure to listen or follow directions. Monday, in addition to similar behavior, refused to eat dinner then whined about being hungry/thirsty. Tuesday, hit Dagny and then lied about it after bad behavior and waking Dagny from her nap. Wednesday, refused to use the potty for me and the sitter. Peed in the car on the way to dance class.

Doug had to plug two of his tires on Tuesday. He was in the driveway with the tools and the car jacked up when I returned home from picking Annika up from school. He is good at this and gets a lot of nails in his tires at work. While on the ground, he noticed that MY tires had the metal showing. "Have you seen your tires?" he asked. Clearly not. I left work early and got new tires (4 of them) yesterday.

And my knee is still bad. Despite the mileage scheduled for this week and next week (16 and 20 miles per week, respectively, plus speed work), I've done the following: Monday, Pilates. Tues, 6 miles too fast and hurt the knee. Wed, Tae Bo. Thurs, Pilates. Sat, 4 miles at 9:30ish pace. Sun, Tae Bo. Mon, Pilates. Tues, 3.1 miles at approx 9:45 pace. Wed, tennis - I don't think this counts. Thurs, does Peachtree application count? The tapering is supposed to start next week. I think that I've already started tapering. SIGH. The good news is that my Tuesday run at the park was without a brace on my IT band knee and despite some stiffness, it didn't hurt. Or maybe the other one just distracted me.

Now THAT is Creative

So, have I mentioned that I'm not creative?

Doug is a much more creative and adventurous cook and Annika can draw circles around me. And, Corinne, she can knit a billion things 40 times faster than me and with less mistakes and more importantly, she knows how to fix the mistakes.

But this woman, takes the cake. . . or the muffin, if you will. The link is courtesy of my sister, Emily. She is pursuing graduate school in psychology, with an emphasis on sex disorders.

Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

So, this was the third hard week of training in a row. I was even having delusions of marathon possibility (not this year, but ever). Instead of relaxing and enjoying the easy running, I pushed through that tempo run on Tuesday (8-ish min pace because of the 9s last week) and hurt my knee. No, not the IT Band knee, the original bad knee. Dumbass.

It's feeling better now, and I may even get to run this weekend so I'm not worried about my race except that I might not be as fast as I could have been. Sigh, sometimes it's one step forward, two steps back.

And, in other news, if work asks you to come in on your off-day for a 30 minute meeting, the answer should be no. Otherwise, your whole week is shot to hell because the day off that you were going to get to make up for the extra workday will be lost to a meeting (cancelled) and the original 30 minute meeting will be moved to 5pm - on Friday.

Didja Know?

Did you know that Thursdays are free beer glass night at Taco Mac? The food is iffy and the bathrooms are ugly, but the beer is lovely and I just noticed what a great collection of glasses we have. Just imagine if we remembered to take them home every time!

Dagny actually stood still for me to take her photo this morning. She was in a very good mood. I'm about to go and get her up for lunch. She was setting up a tea party on the little table with her milk and cups at each place. Then, a poo happened and she had to get a change and a rest. We thought today was service officer day at school and borrowed the police uniform from cousin Clay. Thanks Katie and Clay! I'll have to wash it tomorrow so that Annika can wear it again on the right day. Sometimes, all of these clothing instructions (color day, costume day, pajama day) are irritating. The fire truck will be appearing at school so that will be cause for big excitement, though. As you can see, Dagny is learning to use her spoon very well. She likes ice cream the best but dry cereal is fine too.

Not So Very Smart

So, in the beautiful weather this afternoon I took Annika and Dagny up the street to play with their cousins. In the whirlwind of getting ready for the outing (filling water, using the bathroom, etc), Doug suggested that Annika drive her jeep. We bought this for her for Christmas from a friend whose daughter had outgrown it. Against my better judgment (because Doug made me feel like an asshole), I made the "if a car is coming at you, you must stop" rule and off we went.

Because it was too scary for me to strap Dagny into the car with Annika, I pushed her in the push-n-ride car with it tilted into a wheelie so that her feet didn't catch on the pavement. So, we had the first near miss crossing the street in front of our house. Annika panicked while I was trying to explain where to drive (against the curb, facing traffic) and stopped in the middle of the road. I (still holding Dagny in wheelie-position) grabbed the bar of the car and yanked her over to the curb out of the way of the oncoming car. We will be lucky if her neck isn't sore. Sigh. After another discussion of where to drive, we were off. I think that those 0.4 miles were the longest of my life.

Did I mention that the jeep has two speeds? Low, which is a crawl, and fast, which is faster than I can walk. So I walked then jogged, walked then jogged. We made it to Katie's house without wrecking and fun was had by all. Annika only had one time-out and it was only because she ran the car into me. Much better than running into her cousins or sister, and she didn't do it intentionally. She is just a bad driver (just like Mom!). Katie offered to drive us home (to get the car later) but I sucked it up, put the car in low speed for the downhill and off we went. Annika hates low speed. I let her put in back in fast when we got to the flat parts.

Upon our return (not too much the worse for wear), Doug said "why didn't you just put Dagny in the car." I explained the terror of Annika driving Dagny and that I couldn't walk fast enough to keep up. He said that I should have put Dagny in and jogged alongside, with the idea of grabbing the car if Annika made a driving error. Maybe next trip. In the meantime, I'm going to get an adult beverage and try to calm down.

In other news, Annika's pants (size 4-T) are too short. She has actually been eating for the past two days, so we thought a growth spurt was upon us and 'lo it appears to have already happened.

Still other news: my parents have moved into the neighborhood. I think Dad is enjoying it already, but hopefully Mom will warm up on the idea soon. Dagny and Annika LOVE to drop by for visits or grocery errands.

Running: Tuesday was an 8 mile tempo run. Tempo-schmempo. I ran at the park and Garmin was worthless. He kept stopping while I was still running. I think I ran almost 8 miles at about a 9 minute/mile pace. Thursday was the hill sprints with walking in between - 3.37 miles at a 9:15 combined pace. Saturday was an 8.34 mile long run at 9:20 pace - it was my first non-park run and I did OK to end up back at the front of our subdivision (it's all downhill from there) at close to the 8 mile goal. Probably I should have eaten something before I did this run because it was pre-breakfast but I had to get back by 7 for Doug to leave for his tournament, so I chalked it up to fat-burning training. I'm STILL craving salt, though. Maybe I'll have gatorade next time. Anyone noticing a trend on the pacing? Yep, it was the week of 9 - that wasn't the plan, but oh well.

The Scourge

Now that I'm the mother of toddler and preschooler, I'm coming around to the idea that pinkeye is the new scourge. I know that you can give it to yourself and that toddlers are most likely to do it because of the frequent finger/nose + finger/eye contact, but frequently (like the throw-up virus), it seems like folks send their kids out sick so that they spread their crud to everyone else.

Yesterday, Doug's sister called me at work to tell me that one of the other moms in Annika's class reported that 3 kids in the class have pinkeye (3 out of 13). Yikes! Annika's eyes were goopy yesterday morning but didn't look red. After a warning email to Doug, 2 hours of worrying about my own itchy eyes and one trip to the ladies room to wash hands and check the mirror, I realized that maybe it's just spring. That, and I saw a sign at the eye doctor's office on the way home that said something about allergies. Me being crazy and paranoid is nothing new.

However, I took Annika to her first swim lesson today. She whined and acted like she was going to drown (she was not - they put a floatie on her at the beginning so that she wouldn't sink) - it was very embarrassing, but hilarious. Wow, are we ever going to have to work on toughening her up, though. What a wuss. Anyway - back to the story, while we were waiting to begin the lesson, one of the teachers showed up late to work. The other instructors had been whispering about him prior to his arrival because he was late. His right eye was swollen shut and he said that it hurt to even open it. That's right - pinkeye. No one said that out loud, and the guy said he would do his lessons with goggles on, but they sent him home.

Whew!

I was very worried about the scene I was about to make about how my kid was not getting in the pool with oozy eye boy.

Skubetzelis

The photos are apropos of nothing. I was trying to capture Dagny and Annika while they were all dressed up in their pretty dresses the other day, but had only limited success. Above, my friends Michelle, Corinne and Beth during the Christmas knitting night with cracker crowns.

Then, Annika showing me her beautiful dress and smile. I think it was on Valentines Day. I took photos of Dagny too, but hers were blurry because she is so fast. So, I put in a Christmas on of her instead. Same dress, though, so just imagine her taller with more hair.
The Skubetzelis is a Lithuanian word which means klutz (we think, but possibly with stupid and some bad words involved). We don't mean it as stupid or with cursing, though, it's just that Annika is currently so clumsy that the words "klutz" or "clumsy" do not cover it adequately. Yesterday, she fell off of her chair at least three times, flipped a grocery cart over on herself and crashed on the floor while walking or dancing more times than I counted. This, after hitting her lip on the kitchen counter on Saturday. She must be having a growth spurt. Poor thing, she is all bruised and battered.

In other news, on Tues - 4 mile tempo run at 8:53 pace, very slow and sluggish. Thurs, 3.32 mile hill sprints/walks at combined 8:56 pace. Sun, 10 miles at 9:24 pace. That was my longest run of my training so far (and farther than any run for my Disney race). I'm sore today, but was not in any appreciable pain yesterday. Next time, I'll make a better route and station some water or gatorade so that I don't have to avail myself of the QuickTrip. Doug told me to run somewhere else and he was right, again.

Still other news, we made our adult dinner on Saturday and had the fancy wine that I bought Doug for Valentines Day. We are still wondering whether we don't appreciate wine enough to like the expensive stuff or if it was simply not a good choice. It seems to me that we are far less likely to be disappointed in a bottle of wine if we only paid $14 for it - we expect less, but are surprised when it is (frequently) better than that. And the $5.49 Valpolicello at Trader Joes -delicious.

Now That's Action

Today the House passed a resolution (non-binding) which says that they disapprove of President Bush's direction in Iraq. In case you've not heard of this, read a story on MSNBC here.

Regardless of your position on the war in Iraq or President Bush, doesn't a non-binding resolution saying that they don't like his plan seem dumb? I remember listening to a Representative (don't recall his name - he's not from GA) say on NPR on the day after the State of the Union address that he really needed to "DO SOMETHING" about this new plan and that his action would be to propose a non-binding resolution. What kind of action is that? Who doesn't know how their Representative feels about this issue? Or their Senator? What is the point of a non-binding resolution but to send a big F-you to the Executive Branch? And that helps our country, how? Doesn't the Congress send the President a big F-you every day anyway? Seems like it to me.

Why do they waste our tax dollars this way? I think these folks have a bit too much time on their hands and might need some real jobs.

I'm "off" from my paying job today and Annika was supposed to go away with Doug's folks for the weekend. We had big plans for running this afternoon and an adult dinner, with wine. Instead, Annika threw up on the rug in the den. She seems fine, though, so that is good - but if anyone knows how to get vomit out of the fringe of a rug, please let me know.

The Food Wars

Mike just posted about the food issues going on at their house. Annika has developed the delightful habit of sitting with her food in her mouth (un- or partially-chewed) when she is supposed to be eating. Sometimes she even adds little gagging sounds to increase our fun. The offending food doesn't have to be anything that she doesn't like (onions, peppers, anything good) - sometime it is something as yummy as applesauce or bananas.

Last night, we had a meal of Chinese food that we got at Trader Joes - Shu Mai and Chicken Lemongrass sticks (which are a lot like taquitos with lemon flavoring) and honey glazed baby carrots (not from Trader Joes, but from Doug's imagination). No dice. After 10 minutes at the table with her first bite of Shu Mai in her mouth, Doug sent Annika to "The Chair" to chew it up and swallow with the instructions that she couldn't return to the table until she finished. She sat there for an hour while Doug and I had a delightful dinner and shared a bottle of wine and conversation. Dagny screamed a lot because Annika was missing and because she wasn't hungry either, but we can talk louder than she can scream. Apparently, the pile of Chik-Fil-A nuggets that they had for lunch at Annika's Valentines party filled them up so that they weren't interested in dinner (except for Dagny's cheerios). Too bad, they missed out.

Just wait until Annika figures out that she can spit out the food that is sitting in her mouth.

It's Going Around

On the eve of our big race - the 10K Peachtree qualifier, I woke at 12:52am to find Doug awake. "I've been throwing up all night and I have a fever," he said. Food poisoning or the roto-virus? We don't know, but he is still in bed with his ginger ale. He will have to race another day. The girls and I are going to relax the rest of the day and try to stay quiet.

I picked up our babysitter (bless her) and went to the race with Joe and Virginia and we had a lovely run, except for the ridiculous cold. Running is not so much fun when the temperature is in the 20s. However, I got my qualifying time for the Peachtree and a new fastest mile record. Here is the weekly report:

My training plan said to run 6x400s, a 6 mile tempo run and a 6 mile long run. I was a little off because of the work/run time crunch, but the results were generally good.

Mon: 4 mile tempo run at 8:45 avg pace. Cold and no fun.
Wed: overslept because the dog got up at 3:30 to pee - no run
Thurs: dog got up at 4, so I ran early - 3.31 miles hill sprints, walking down the hills at a combined 9:00 pace. I was sluggish because of not enough sleep and not wanting to overdo prior to Saturday's race
Sat: Race day - according to Garmin, I went 6.4 miles at an average 7:47 pace with mile 6 being the fastest at 7:24. That is my fastest recorded mile ever. Thank you, Joe and Virginia, for the encouragement and pacing. According to the race clock, I finished in 49:54 and Garmin said 49:55 so I don't know where the extra 0.2 miles came from.

Day Off

Today is one of my days off from my office work. In a fit of feeling sorry for myself, I was going to list all of the zillion errands we've done today. Other than the scone from Starbucks, the half-bag of veggie chips (sweet potato, taro, beet-colored sweet potato and something else I've never heard of) and the two trips to the running store, none of it was terribly fun. However, I've done this before on the blog - another Friday when we ran ourselves ragged and got me down. Maybe it would be better if I just didn't try to cram so much stuff into one day.

So, now I'm going to get my work computer and my i-pod and sit on my bed with Annika. She is having "quiet time" today. The days of her taking naps are finished but we are both a little worn down this week so maybe I'll work or maybe it will wait until tomorrow. But at least I've got the laundry going.

The Patience of a Chopping Block

Dagny is finally learning some words. They are mostly not intelligible to regular humans, though, so she gets very frustrated when we can't understand what she is saying. So frustrated that she balls her hands into fists, turns red, shakes and bangs her head on the floor - which hurts, apparently, and that only makes her more angry. We may have some discipline issues later, I'm thinking.

The word of the week is milk - sounds like meyouk.

Inquiring minds: BMI - 20.4-8, BF 20%

TMI

For those of you who don't frequent any online forums that use "internet-speak," TMI means too much information. Usually that means that someone is about to talk about their sex life or their poop or vomit. I will leave all of those things to your imagination. It may also be used in IMing, but I don't know how to do that so I can't comment.

Thank you, Dorothy, for reminding me that I was supposed to have done a 15 month check-up for Dagny. So, belatedly, here are the stats:

Height: 32 inches (80th percentile and exactly the same as Annika at this age)
Weight: 22lb, 11oz (38th percentile, down from 57th at the last visit - I thought she was looking thinner. That's almost 3lbs more than Annika at this age)
Head: 18.5 inches (69th percentile - still a pea, but not as much as Annika)

It's very interesting to see how little their body shapes resemble each other - Annika is thin and slight and Dagny is sturdy. When I was little/adolescent, my Grammy told me (to make me feel better about not being thin) that I was sturdy. Oooh, I hated being sturdy at the time, but now it makes me happy. I hear/read "sturdy" and I think "kick-ass."

In other news, Doug bought us a new scale because ours was getting a little erratic. Doug was having 8 lb weight shifts in 24 hr periods. I said it just needed a battery, but now we own a body composition monitor which tells us our weight, % bodyfat and % water. How's that for TMI?