Beach Attire

Or, what to do while you hang out with small children all day.

I've been checking out the bathing suits of all of the people who walk by while Dagny and I play in the sand here. I was hoping to develop some kind of theory on what kinds of suits look good on different kinds of bodies. So, no -I can't report any great theories here. The number of different body shapes is too vast.

However, I have identified some easy "don't" rules:

1. Big circles or dots on bathing suits are bad. They don't look good on anyone, even college girls.
2. Writing on your bottom is bad.
3. Suits (even if they are metallic) that are close to your skin color are always unattractive.
4. More of us need to spend more time picking suits that actually "suit" us instead of falling back on whatever is at Target or Lands End.
5. You can tell when the boobs aren't real

Also, I'm becoming an un-fan of the tankini. It seems like the bathing suit equivalent of a baggy sweatshirt or yoga pants and flip flops. Why even bother with a two piece? Doug and I are working on me being less frumpy (a personal "what not to wear") so I'm looking at this a lot. I'm not saying everyone should wear a string bikini (myself included) but there is something to be said for a nice Speedo tank.

New Reading Material and Gearing Up

So, I finished reading the Triathlon Training in 4 Hours a Week book. The 4 hours a week thing is a bit of a lie, if your goal is more than just finishing, but still it was very good. Packed with inspiring stories. Wes recommended it and I can second his recommendation. Doug poo-poohed the idea of a book for sprint training, but I was glad to have some of the mysteries solved for me.

All that remains is to (1) sign up for a race, (2) pick up my bike from the bike store so that I can ride it, and (3) start some swimming. The bike store guy and I decided to tune up the bike, put on some toe clips and a new seat but that it is not worth putting slicks on my bike for a sprint race. It would cost $60 per tire and the whole bike is probably not worth that much at this point. Regardless, it was really fun to ride again (it's been 10 years). I'm going to look at the knobby tires as the biking equivalent of a drag suit. Then, if I do OK at this first race and decide to continue, we can evaluate a new (to me) bike.

The girls are LOVING the beach. Dagny is so tired that she is napping before lunctime and Annika is chilling in front of "The Little Mermaid." We will be back outside for more fun in the sun after lunch.

Can You Hear Me Now?

See if the comments appear now . . .

Gratuitous Photos

At the left is Annika the day she came down for breakfast with sparkly jewels from her "decorate-your-own-treasure-box" set on her face and in her hair. Someone gave us the set for her birthday and she had a great time decorating. Who knew that the jewels would come off and retain enough stick to be placed on the face and hair. We keep finding them everywhere now.

Next is a cool pergola/fire pit that Doug built at one of his houses. He has some cool ideas, doesn't he? Can't you just see a bunch of folks out there grilling with beers or party drinks while their kids run wild in the grass?

Here is Annika in her fairy princess dress, heels, fire department hat (made at school), part of my Daphne outfit and butterfly wings. She came downstairs one afternoon and insisted that we memorialize the beauty. But it had to be from the back so that you could see the wings - because the wings are the best part. I just love how her braids curl up at the ends - just like Pippi Longstocking. Annika's hair is so curly that not even braids can contain its curl-iciousness.



Last, but not least is Dagny with her purse. I bought this for her first birthday and she still loves it (and all purses). She is a girly girl. Thank you to cousin Sophie for the beautiful orange dress.

In other news, we've been busy here! The washing mashine broke last week so I've been shuttling back and for to my parents' house (thank goodness they moved into the neighborhood) to try to keep up. Annika's two pull-up leakage accidents didn't help, either. According to our repairman, our old Maytag was a piece of junk - and it died just like the one owned by the first commenter in the linked blog. We could have fixed it, but for $300-400 and it was likely to break again in a year. So, I have a beautiful new washing machine. This was not what I wanted to spend a load of money on this month, but at least I'm back in laundry action. And, it's cool to watch the clothes spin around in the suds like we used to do at Grammy's house when I was little. A big fat kiss to Best Buy for delivering on Sunday!

Also, I have found a great park for running. It is called the Leita Thompson Memorial Park (top left on the map). The City of Roswell has cut trails into some very hilly and beautiful wild land. This city is worth the taxes for this park alone. There are coyotes, apparently, so I wouldn't run there at dusk or sunrise and you'd be an idiot to do it in the dark, but WOW is it fun! It is like the trails at the creek in our neighborhood when I was a kid (minus the storm sewer outlet pipe, offensive odor and frequently appearing underpants) - green leaves as far as your eye can see. You can put your arms out like an airplane and just fly down the hills. And it is ridiculously hilly. The first time I ran there, I thought I would do a leisurely six miles - I did 6 miles at a 10 minute per mile pace, but my heart rate was in the 170s most of the run. Those hills kicked my ass. I nearly threw up a couple of times, had to stop for water, nearly quit more than three times, and bit it at one point. A kind gentleman, who was walking with those trekking poles, stopped to be sure I was OK (I was), but I had a blast! I left the trail feeling 10 feet tall and sexy like superman. Plus, a war wound! How cool is that?

I Placed!

3rd place! - Check it out!

Natalie would have won, as I suspected.

Can't Run at This Pace Very Long

The girls spent the night with my parents last night so Doug and I went on a date. Yes, a real meal with no highchairs, bibs or sippy cups. We had a great meal with some terrific wine. I highly recommend this restaurant. We went to the Buckhead location (next to Nava) but they also have one at Perimeter. Then, we met some friends for drinks. Doug was watching out for me since I was nervous about my race and got me tonic water with lime, my favorite masquerade cocktail. I was also trying to hydrate because I might have the tummy bug that Dagny had last weekend and that poor Annika is still fighting.

Anyway, the hydrating was also because Nat talked me into running a race this morning. That's right - the Big Peach 5K in Brookhaven. It was, as advertised, a beautiful green course through east Brookhaven. I had a great time - met two nice ladies (in line for the potties and for the start) and was home before they gave out any awards. I can't find the race results online, if they will even be posted, but here are my stats:

22:44 gun time
22:25 Garmin time

The McMillan race calculator predicted I would finish at 24:01 so I was aiming for anything under 24. A girl has gotta hope! I seeded myself badly and dodged folks for the first mile - but my first mile split was 6:54.

That's right, 6:54. Holy shit! A new world record. The rest of the race was a slog but I'm very happy with my time (avg 7:12 min/mile). Those hill repeats suck, but are clearly working. And the best part - no knee braces. NAKED KNEES! Yes, one of my high school sweethearts once told me that I had ugly knees, but they are so beautiful with no neoprene.

In other news, our friends Jerry and Wes (and Sarah, who I follow on the internet) ran their first triathalons this morning at Lake Lanier. Jerry and Wes finished within minutes of each other. Sarah hasn't posted yet, but I'm sure she did great too. Way to go triatheletes! And, my friend Kelly is running her first half marathon in Vancouver this weekend - Go Kelly!

We Are the Champions

That's right. The beer fridge is defrosted and clean. You may now feel safe consuming beer at my house unmolested by exploding coke cans, beers that overflow upon opening or sticky coke goo. I defrosted it on the deck with our bird friends - we thought they were swallows, but an internet search was inconclusive. I had to disinfect the whole fridge because those darn birds poop a LOT.

Dagny is feeling better this afternoon and proved (yet again) that she is more stubborn than I am. She would not drink any liquids from a sippy cup after 10am this morning. Why? Who knows. I think it was because her head hurt from being dehydrated. After an ill-fated attempt at siphoning by mouth, I finally put milk (I know it isn't a clear liquid but she refused all forms of liquid except milk) in a medicine cup and she drank that. We progressed to the Dora big-girl cup with about a millimeter of liquid at the time. Maybe she was just trying to tell me that she is too big for sippy cups. And, no barf for over 24 hours. Whew!

Annika and I ran 4 miles today in the flats during Dagny's nap. Annika was going to do more bike-riding after we finished, but the neighbor kids showed up so I was chopped liver after that. No matter, it gave me time to do the fridge.

Oh, and, did you know that some red food dye is made from bugs? Cochineal is made from little bugs that are hard to raise and live on cacti. I found this out because the Vegan Lunchbox (March 26 post) mentioned not being able to use red rice sheets because apparently, vegans can't eat cochineal. Thanks to the wonders of the internet, I now know what that stuff is. I refrained from commenting that most grains contain some kind of bug larva which will hatch under favorable conditions (like your pantry). Better for the nice vegan lady not to know.

Let's Make the Most of this Beautiful Day

I had big plans of taking the photos off of our camera this weekend and defrosting the beer fridge. Yes, it is a frost-fridge because it was the cheapest one they had at Sears when Doug and I were first married. Now I'm thinking we should have paid the extra $30 and gotten a frost-free but at the time a beer fridge was quite the extravagance. Anyway, when there is too much frost, the freezer gets too warm (stuff melts or never freezes) and the fridge gets too cold (exploded Coke and beer). Whatever, I have no time for defrosting anyway. It will have to wait for another day.

Annika and I had a great time this afternoon during Dagny's nap. I ran the flats (back and forth in front of our house) while pushing Annika in the jogging stroller. Annika sipped her water and gave me commentary on the scenery and the neighbors. 35 lbs of kid is a LOT to push, but we had a nice time and I did 3 miles in 9 min/mile pace. I had planned for 4 miles, but Annika wanted to run with me, so we walked and then raced between mailboxes and storm drains. Then Annika rode her bike while I helped keep cars from running over her. We talked to some neighbors and enjoyed the lovely, breezy day and admired the big puffy clouds.

The original plan had been for my Mom to come over in the morning so that I could do my long run. Unfortunately, Dagny's poop issue from last evening turned into a throw-up issue during the night so I didn't want to subject Nana to that. We've been in barf recovery mode ever since (laundry, baths, attempts to hydrate). I'm very sorry to any Publix shoppers who we infected today. I thought Dagny was fine (no fever, no more barf since the wee hours) and Annika was getting stir crazy so we went to get Saltines and Pedialyte. Unfortunately, a bag boy came and took our cart while I was loading the kids before I had time to explain about the anti-bacterial wipes that I had just purchased so that I could disinfect the cart before returning it. Then, Dagny threw up again during her nap and is running a temperature. SIGH.

But, it was a beautiful day. We had a good time playing outside and eating breakfast for dinner (Fogle family secret tummy food is Cream of Wheat). Doug and friends are having a blast in Vegas - it is 96 degrees there!

Limiting Factors

Or, Hill Repeats - Day One

In the quest to be better/stronger/faster, I've decided to add hill repeats to my running repertoire. I had been doing the run-fast-up-the-hills, walk-fast-down-the-hills routine around my loop, but felt like I wasn't pushing myself hard enough.

So, this morning, I started by jogging around my 3 mile loop until I got to the Big Hill. Then, I sprinted up the hill, circled the manhole cover at my turn-off and walked back down to the bottom (not slow - 12:30 min/mile pace). I had planned to repeat this hill four times and then complete the loop because I estimated that the hill was 1/2 of a mile and thought that it would add a mile to my 3 mile loop.

Yes, math whiz, I'm not. It made sense to my not-quite-awake mind early this morning, though. Regardless, it turns out that either the hill is not that long or that I didn't start at the actual bottom and so I finished almost right at 4 miles as planned (including walking down the hill 3x). I had to stop after 3 repeats because my heart was trying to escape through my chest at the top of repeat number 3. The legs were rubbery but held out OK.

Until I encountered the knee troubles, I thought that cardio was my limiting factor in the pursuit of fitness. Then, it was my knees. I would have thought that the leg muscles would be the limiter on hill repeats. Glover talks about how your legs should be burning when you finish your hill repeats. But for me, it's the cardio again. Who knew?

And, Doug bought us new Garmins on e-Bay last week so I know that my heartrate reached 183 on my hill repeats today. I think 185 is supposed to be my max but this place says it is 187. Doug is the master of e-Bay. It will be interesting to see how/if the knowledge of my heartrate will help my training. As my Dad would say, "hide and watch!"

In other news, the girls and I went to dinner with my Dad tonight because Doug is in Las Vegas. We had a great time with Dad, but miss Doug already.

Two Easter Perils

Easter egg dye tablets look like candy, SweeTarts, in particular. We found this out the hard way last week while Doug was dyeing the Easter eggs for Annika to decorate. Annika saw the tablets on the counter and popped the yellow one into her mouth. We had no idea until she said, "this candy tastes bad!" A quick look at the ingredients revealed sugar and food coloring, so we didn't have to call poison control. We washed Annika's mouth out with water and wiped most of the coloring off of her tongue, but the good part was the quote of the day: "Mom, I'm not dyeing!" Get it? Dyeing, dying? It's funny now, but not so much then.

Easter is all about candy. My children ate the following on Easter day:

Breakfast: Twinkies and Froot Loops
Snack: Candy from Easter baskets at home
Brunch: Whatever they wanted from the buffet, including chicken fingers, blueberry muffins, bacon and Lindt eggs.
Lunch?: More Easter candy, plus some Cheerios as a nod to health.
Dinner: Grilled cheese sandwiches, pears, bread in the shape of a bunny, Cadbury Mini Eggs (not the creme ones) and brownies.

They appear fine and have not suffered the sugar overload I thought would have occurred. You will want to know, however, that Twinkies do not last forever if you remove them from the packaging. Sponge cake does not like to air-it-out. Oh, and, I'd forgotten but I LOVE Twinkies. They are actually not that bad for you - we read the nutrition information. Sponge cake is not as bad for you as regular cake. If you want vegan twinkies, though, look here.

Not Quite One, Not Really the Other

The part-time working is going fairly well. I feel like I have enough time with and for my kids and Doug (thanks in large part to Doug's willingness to come home early to relieve the sitter and do the bulk of the cooking) but also enough time to get my work done at the office or at home. The folks who have had their calls interrupted by my kids may not feel quite the same way, but at least I'm still working on their stuff in the midst of the chaos.

At Annika's school, there is a definite bias towards the moms who don't work outside the home. No one has made any overt comments to me, there is a chilliness towards those of us who aren't there every day and who can't drop everything at a moment's notice to help chaperone a field trip. Interestingly, more and more of the moms seem to be easing back into the workforce in some way . . . but that is another story. And don't get me started on the "party" businesses. Ragsland, schmagsland. I'm not buying it.

Anyway, at work I'm still not "part of the gang" yet. I keep reminding myself that this will come with time and that I should make a move by inviting some of them to eat lunch. It's depressing sometimes to face the microwaved lunch alone - even if it is spectacular leftovers from Doug's dinner.

So today, the girls and I dropped some travel books off at the office for one of my co-workers. She is interested in going to Prague and I forgot the books yesterday so I thought it would be nice if I brought them today (instead of waiting for my workday tomorrow) so that she would have an additional day for planning. That, and we were going to buy some play sandals at the shoe outlet near the office. I know that it's not terribly professional to bring the kids to the office - but I was just dropping the books off. As I handed them over to one co-worker, another came out into the hall and made a joke about lording my "non-working day over them." SIGH. Such a loaded comment for me. The person who made it has no idea - I don't think it was meant to be off-putting at all.

"Hm," I said, "you think so?" "How about if you watch the kids for an hour while I go buy myself some shoes?" Ha, Ha, Ha. We had a big laugh about that. Clearly there were no takers so the mobile disasters and I left the office and motored to the shoe outlet. After Dagny removed all of the crocs and flip-flops from the extensive color-coded display, I got some cute sandals for me (pink is not my color, though) and new crocs for Dagny. She and Doug lost one of her old ones while shopping on Sunday and I haven't been able to find it at any of their destinations. A pox on the person who found that lone shoe and chose not to turn it in to the store.

One guy who was giving me job advice before I took my job mentioned that his wife had similar issues with the part-time gig. It's not necessarily the best of both worlds, I don't think.

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.