wildcelticrose.net

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Yeah… yeah… yeah… I’ve been lousy about updating lately.

Life has been a real roller coaster latey.

Serioulsy… click on the Roller Coaster link it’s a total blast from the (1970′s) past from my Roller Gardens and Skating Plus rink rat days. (Yes, YOU friends from high school; admit it…. you skated to this)

Speaking of Roller Coasters, I found this video of “The Revolution” the world’s FIRST vertical loop roller coaster. Where I grew up, we got to go here for Jr High School Graduation. We graduated from Balboa Jr High School (9th grade) in 1976, one month after this baby opened.

Funny, I don’t remember the trees being that tall 34 years ago.

So here’s the ups and downs of the last few days…

I’ve not been sleeping well, even with Ambien and all this stress, sleep deprivation, lack of routine/exercise has my blood pressure up and has given me peri-menopausal symptoms.

Thursday (was my Friday last week): had to leave work to get stuff to the loan folks because FHA is being a total pain in the ass, and the first copies of anything are just not good enough. Before I even got home, I got a call and had to go sign something at my realtor’s place. I was at peak stress because the guy that is selling me the house hadn’t yet made the repairs to the plumbing in the basement (that he said he’d do before the FHA appraisal) and it created an FHA work order and delays. Scummy neighbors were being asshats.

Friday I don’t remember much about Friday other than when I took my blood pressure at Fred Meyers and it scared me. Seller finally finished the FHA plumbing repair but it was too late to get the appraiser out there (and he didn’t do any of the other agreed upon repairs) There was more running around and escrow related stress. Scummy neighbors were being asshats

I did not sleep.

Saturday ran a bunch of errands and hid from asshat neighbors for a while at BFF’s house

Sunday the one day I thought I wouldn’t have to be near a fax machine (oh GAWD how I need a backpacking trip) Went on a Cascade bike ride from the Redhook Brewery.

It was Mother’s Day.

No matter how hard I tried to cheerful and not a downer (no sense ruining other people’s enjoyment of the holiday) I cried. I rode my ass off in the fast group and cried (wind in my eyes right?)

It did not help that my bike computer didn’t work and my front dérailleur was acting up again.

I came home and had to go have some house related things notarized (big surprise)

They say the first mother’s day is the worst; I certainly hope so.

Monday It was supposed to be my day off, but since escrow is supposed to close on Friday I worked today so that I can take Friday off (crossing fingers)

The appraiser made it out there today to sign off on the plumbing repairs (the seller still has some other repairs to make, but that was the only one that was going to hang up escrow)

All of this is killing me gas wise; I’m having to drive to work because I need to be able to leave at a moment’s notice to sign stuff, etc… and I can’t plan anything fun or to get away until this is all over.

If all goes as planned, and it closes on Friday, my floor guy is supposed to be in on Saturday; it will take a week and a half to demo the fake wall, pull out the carpet & tack strips, strip, sand & finish the floors and install the baseboards. I’ll also call my fence guy and get that started. Maybe if it gets unbearable around here, I can camp in the backyard.

I’m hoping to move in on the 25th (can’t be there when the floors are done because Swedish finish is highly toxic, but it’s really what needs to be on 100 year old Douglas Fir)

I’m going to try to move some stuff into the kitchen/basement/attic on Friday/Saturday if I can get some help so that I have room to put packing boxes in this little apartment. I figure that I can move the crappy little futon into the attic and close the door so it doesn’t get dusty) and the kitchen island and table/chairs into the kitchen because I’m leaving the tile floor there intact. (I just can’t see grooves between 100 year old floorboards gathering food debris as a being a good thing)

and now I need to get ready for my work day tomorrow and try to get some decent sleep tonight so that I don’t get sick.

Thanks to everyone sending prayers, energy, lighting candles, thinking good thoughts (and you few who have been dancing around neekid’ under the full moon (you know who you are) for your efforts; please feel free to keep them up until escrow is closed, on FRIDAY! YES! We want FRIDAY!!!

any calming energy you’ve got for me would be appreciated as well. Better Sleep and lower blood pressure would both be good things right now.
~L

Mood: Exhausted

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I just don’t have a rant in me this week.

Instead of my usual Drama Free Thursday warm up, WTF Wednesday, I would like to offer this…

Our actions ripple like a stone thrown into a pond reaching places and touching things we never imagined.

You never know when you might not have the chance again.

~L

Mood: Hopeful

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No, I’m not going all emo on anyone, it’s just that the turning of the wheel of the year to the dark side has hit the Pacific Northwest with a vengeance.

Even without the stupid “fall back” time change (don’t get me started again) November has blown in with dark angry skies, gale force winds, lighting, horizontal wet, frozen and semi-frozen snot and even a funnel cloud.

Today it hit me, overwhelming exhaustion. It didn’t make much senses because I actually got eight hours of good quality sleep last night.

I’ve had a crazy week and I haven’t spent a quiet evening at home until some time last week.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had fun: dinners, parties, mixers, meetings, happy hours and even got to do a good deed or two.

Today I spent most of the morning on the phone with real estate folks, a loan guy and a credit bureau)(TransUnion is a pain in the ass to get your free credit report from) and am getting debts paid off. I also pulled a shift at Speakeasy and helped Christie program the cash register. The “fun” will be trying to train non-retail experienced artists to use it.

Oh, and we’ve split our financial management duties, I’m the “retail manager” and she’s the “membership manager”. It’s less daunting for both of us to split the job than take on all of it (we both have day jobs and that fund our creative jobs). The only thing left to do is get the bank account open.

As I was leaving. I ran into Bart from the Puyallup River Watershed Council (I used to be the chair, but had to step down when I changed jobs/schedules/locations) and we chatted a bit. I had promised Allen that I’d consider a position on the foundation (the actual 501 C (3) non-profit)( board, but we put that on hold when my Mom died. I really should step back up. He was coming out of the Puget Creek Restoration Society office which is a few doors down from Speakeasy (I’m on one of their technical advisory committees) so I stopped in there to say “Hi”.

I really have been working on not volunteering for too much…

Why does this song keep running through my head?

I’m having a slug night; no socializing, no work (day job, photography/web stuff, speakeasy or volunteer stuff) no cooking no cleaning.

I did a quick grocery run on the way home. I’ve been wanting a Christmas Cactus for several years now and they were on sale at Fred Meyer. Not only do I just think they are cool, but they are a houseplant I don’t kill (I can grow anything outside, but I’m a notorious killer of houseplants) I got two, one for my office and one for home.

Tomorrow, I’ll be up bright and early paying of debt, working on inventory sheets, updating my web page and cleaning house. I also need to go for a run. I need to get out and move now that I’m not sick anymore and I’m field testing some waterproof breatheable fabric.

I think I may start decorating for the Winter Solstice. Normally, I roll my eyes when holiday decorations go up too early, but there is a natural inclination to bring lights and shiny things into the home when the winter gets dark and cold. Normally, I do it at Thanksgiving, just in time for my big open house/dinner (I do it the day after Thanksgiving so more people can show up), but I think I’ll do it early this year. I got some cute little LED lights; some look like snowflakes, some look like stars.

I’m up for creating some holiday cheer! (oh, I’ve got to get invitations ready to go)

But now, I think I’m going to have another cup of tea

~L

Mood: Exhausted

~L

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I only have a few moments to crank out a quick update as I’m eating lunch on the fly today.

It’s only Tuesday and I’m already exhausted.

I’m scrambling at work to catch up from being sick last week (I did work at home several days, but I was sick and not all that productive) and to top it all off, I’ve got end of fiscal month GL reporting due today [bangs head on desk]

Sunday night was a fabulous dinner party at the DeRosas (complete with yummy wine and tasty leftovers for lunch the next day)

Yesterday was a long work day followed by picking up a few boxes of my mother’s personal effects from the post office, then a meeting at Speakeasy; we’re getting down to crunch time for our being open for business not just special events on Thursday, and it appears that I’ll be co-managing the retail portion of the gallery (I’ve not been good about saying “no” lately; over extending myself has been a long standing problem of mine)

I stayed up way too late last night going through my Mom’s stuff. I posted a few pictures last night on my blogs, I’ll update more on that process another time.

Today I’m having to crunch numbers for end of fiscal month reporting (not the most “glamorous” part of this job)

There is a lot of crazy stuff going on; and its’ one of those days where I really wish I could blog/talk about work. Oh well… I did get to ring the weasel bell.

On my way home, I’m delivering a calendar to a customer and then meeting some of the other artists to help them set up their PayPal accounts (and teach a couple of them how to use the wifi on their laptops) We’re doing it at the HUB, so there will be the benefit of being paid in Buffalo Chicken Pizza and Puget Sound Porter.

Tomorrow is equally insane, and I have a mixer at Premier Media group for we writer and photographer types for South Sound and 425 magazines.

Thursday is more work, and our first full day of being open as a gallery not just an event space at Speakeasy.

Friday is my “day off” (from the day job) and my first shift in the gallery.

I need to find time (and energy) to run, swim and bike this weekend.

That’s it.

~L

Mood: Tired

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Normally, I’m not one of the “I hate Monday” crowd, but today, Monday is pretty darn “Meh”

My weekend just didn’t feel like a weekend I guess.

I was collateral damage during the huge traffic nightmare that was every North to South route in Western Washington on Friday after work. Normally I don’t drive, I take the train, but I had a bunch of errands to run and was hauling large picture frames, so I needed by truck.

The story of the insanity that was Friday (including my walking to the grocery store in my polar bear jammies for pomegranate juice so that I could make a 2nd martini once I finally got home) is here

It took me a while to unwind and get to sleep, but I finally did.

I had lots of errands to run Saturday, including dealing with some paperwork regarding one of my mother’s accounts. I guess the gray weather and short days are taking their toll on me. Although it’s been getting a lot easier to deal with, Saturday was not one of the easy days and it made me sad. I also had to go grocery shopping, pick up some more framing supplies after dealing with mail.

I headed back over to Speakeasy to finish hanging my stuff (I was so stressed and tired on Friday night that I just didn’t have time to finish). I was still feeling pretty yucky and sinusy and the old guy from the antique store next door smoking in front of his business and letting his smoke blow in our open door made me feel even more sick. This is going to be difficult for me to deal with; more people smoke in the gritty area of downtown (some due to age, others due to socio-economic factors) and the fact that I find it to be a filthy disgusting habit is one thing but the fact that it sets off my allergies and makes me sick is another matter entirely. I’ll have to stock up on anti-histamines and maybe some of that nasal gel block stuff, because I know people will smoke in front of the building and not abide by the law that smoking needs to be done 25 feet away from an entrance. (you’d think that in a state where less than 17% of people smoke, I wouldn’t have to deal with it quite so often-especially since I tend to hang with health minded and well educated individuals)

I went home, did a quick rinse with the neti pot and walked over to the HUB to meet with some city leaders and bike advocate types. Since the weather was awful, they had bagged the ride and everything was breaking up when I got there. Several folks came back (those that did ride there) after they went out to get on their bikes and discovered the hail storm, so at least I had a beer and some conversation with friends for an hour or so.

I spent the rest of Saturday night taking care of art/photography/business stuff (and spending the last of my money to get things printed up) and then finally wandered off to bed way too late. (exciting Saturday nights I have eh?)

Sunday was spent clearing out my closet (this thing is 12 feet long, the length of my living room and only 3 feet wide and requires that everything be pulled out to do any rearranging or switching of seasonal stuff) so that I can store 15 boxes of my Mom’s personal effects which are going to be shipped to me this week (and an ungawdly cost, but it’s better than having to go down there)

I wanted them to be in a spot where they would be out of the way, out of sight and out of mind. I will need to be in just the right frame of mind to go through them, and having boxes strewn all over my tiny 450 sq foot apartment would stress me out. This way, I can take one box at a time when I feel like it. I am looking forward to some of the old old pictures I was trying to get my Mom to send me so that I could scan them.

I made sure to move my holiday stuff to the front so that I can pull it out when the boxes of other stuff show up.

If all goes well, this will be the last holiday season I’ll spend in that apartment. I could be in my own (it won’t be big, but it will be bigger than that place, and it will be mine) place by the end of summer.

I spent the very last of my money until next pay day getting calendars printed up to be delivered in time for our Speakeasy event on Saturday night (I have to go there after my birthday party)

I hope I sell some prints/calendars because I’ve got $20 to last me until next payday; that’s over a week and a half away (this whole starting a business thing is NOT cheap, but hopefully it will pay off in the end; I’ve just got to suck it up now)

So that’s it… The weekend was work work work and now I’m back to work.

~L

Mood: Meh

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To say that today was a wild ride would be a gross understatement.

I drove to work today because I needed my vehicle to run errands at lunch and haul butt back to Tacoma… (yeah, more on that later)

I was at work bright and early and got a lot accomplished.

I ran out to Southcenter at lunch to pick up some frames at Michaels to hang my photos at the Speakeasy Art Cooperative after work.

It was pouring rain (or as we like to say here in Washington State, it was “raining Cougars and Huskies”)

The impending flood (either by catastrophic dam failure or release) in the valley in which I work is an increasingly apparent and alarming issue. I am worried about the data centers, distribution centers and businesses who are headquarted there. It’s a big deal.

The bike trails and some roads are closed, being piled high with giant sandbags that require bulldozers to fill and move. We have evacuation plans in place, King County has advised we VanShare drivers that we can use the vans to evacuate co-workers, friends and family and have give us our options if we are flooded out of work for a month (flooded out for a month? WTF?) They have mentioned the flooding with be on the level of Hurricane Katrina…

Boeing is building an amazing “flood wall” out of highly structured sandbags. (of course, since the “space center” is pretty much about weapons I suspect the government is kicking in some bucks)

I took pictures and sent them to our businesses managers and safety committee. I’d like to see this done for our data center.

Work was insanely busy, and it seems that people in general (no one I work with) are quite snippy and some downright mean as of late, so some of it was challenging.

I headed out at 3:00 PM to “beat” rush hour traffic, pick up my prints at Costco and head to Speakeasy to frame and hang them.

Oh… the best laid plans…

Traffic in the Puget Sound sucks. It sucks pond water, but today was the nightmare of all traffic nightmares.

FOUR major traffic alerts, three of them on the Interstate 5 corridor. 167 was no better (it sucks on a good day) there was no good way to go South. Normally, I’d stay late or do something else. Today, I had no choice. I HAD to go South-I had to go then.

Normally, I’d be on the train. I LOVE the train, the train rocks!

I checked the traffic report, stayed off I-5 which was parking lot, and headed down 99.

It took me 1:45 (that’s one HOUR and 45 minutes) to get 15 miles from Kent to Fife. It was a total of two hours before I finally arrived at Costco. I almost ran out of gas on the way.

I swear, I “almost” understand road rage. I was so tempted to yell at/flip people off (a lot of them were acting like asshats and deserved it) but I didn’t. I still had a headache (I’ve been fighting off a but and my head and sinuses feel like crap anyway)

By the time I got the prints picked up, nails purchased (I never had time to go home) and arrived at Speakeasy, I was practically in tears from stress, tiredness, frustration and hunger. I had been up since 4:30 AM and arrived there just before 6:00 PM.

It sure cheered me up to see what Angie and crew have done with the space and to meet a few other artists. I met a very nice older man who is a painter and a younger, edgier photographer/artist. It was great to meet them both.

When I was about ready to cry from hunger and my head/sinuses were pounding, Angie showed up with leftover nachos from Matador (a place I simply MUST go check out for happy hour) which she happily shared with me.

The universe will provide and Angie rocks!

Jesse was hungry and I shared with him.

I mean after all, that’s what a cooperative is all about, right?

I’ll need to go back tomorrow to finish hanging, but I at least got my space staked out and my art framed.

I came home, grabbed a snack (those nachos saved my ass) and made a kick ass pomegranate martini.

I ran out of pomegranate juice and decided to walk to my corner market (Stadium Thirftway) to get some more.

And I did it in my polar bear jammies.

I did it because:

I deserved another martini

Because I could

and because I’m a “gritty Tacoman”.

The amusing thing is… No one looked at me funny, no one even noticed.

I live in such a Bohemian neighborhood that it’s considered normal.

And now, I’m going to switch to Sleepytime tea and head to bed.

Tomorrow is a busy day, logging into work, errands-lots of errands, hanging art, working at Speakeasy, doing the bike advocacy thing and then trying to take care of personal business stuff.

One thing is certain, life is never boring.

~L

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Yesterday was the culmination of the (sanctioned) triathlon season here in the Pacific Northwest.

I had grand plans to perhaps do a Half Iron triathlon (and and there were the two marathons I was going to do to earn my “marathon maniac” status)

But my training this year was “epic fail”.

Of course, the goal I set at the beginning of the year was an Olympic distance triathlon which I did complete (three of them actually) It just didn’t feel like “enough” once I completed my first one in early June.

I started out by barely surviving the holiday season (our busiest season at work and the beginning of my Mom’s medical drama)

I had to take several weeks off of training at the end of February when due to the aforementioned mom and job stress, layoffs at work, and having been sick I bonked on the Chilly Hilly ride with a heart rate of 215 (totally sick with cold/flu, stress and sleep deprivation induced).

February through the end of July, my mother was in and out of the hospital and there was much drama, lying, and resurgence of childhood issues including abuse.

Against my better judgment, (after much coercion) I attempted a trial co-habitation with the man I’d been dating for a year. I was always concerned about the age difference and that we were at different stages in our lives.

Thank goodness I kept my apartment, because before one month was over, it was apparent that he was selfish, unyielding, uncompromising, uncaring (he was gone on a solo backpacking trip when my mother’s body was found and left the evening I told him what was going down and that I expected her to be found dead within the week-if he has asked if I wanted him to stay, I’d have told him to go-the telling point is that it never occurred to him to ask), the fact that when I moved out, he refused to repay me for what I paid for a bed (his needed to be replaced and he still has it) and other issues that I won’t share out of respect for him (he’s not a bad person, just not boyfriend material) believe it or not, I let him talk me into “trying to start over” after this disaster. The good part is that the “starting over” was so bad, I was finally able to get pissed off. The more I heal from everything I was going through, the more I realize, it wasn’t me and what I was going through. It was a bad idea and a bad match.

And then there was the drama leading up to my mother’s death and the news that her body had been found and all the legal financial pressure dumped on me as the sole survivor. (not to mention having to deal with her friends wanting this or that, and vulture real estate agents)

After that, I got the flu, then I got a nasty sinus infection, then I tried to break my ankle falling/crashing my bike in the transition area at the Bonney Lake Triathlon three weeks ago.

It was a rough year, and I spent so much of it sick, stressed out and grieving that my training was completely inadequate.

I still raced through it all. I knew that my times would suck and that I’d be prone to injury if I pushed. But I needed to move (when I wasn’t sick)

Yesterday I completed my third Olympic triathlon (which I was hoping would be my first half iron distance) at Black Diamond. My 11th triathlon this year, and my 14th triathlon ever. (I started this silliness late last season)

When I drove through Enumclaw early yesterday morning, the thermometer at a local bank read 37 degrees (F) friends who were at the park (Nolte State Park) said that the thermometers in their cars read between 33 and 36 degrees.

That’s just “butt cold”

The lake (Deep Lake at Nolte State Park) was steaming when I arrived.

I needed to get there at 6:30 AM in order to get one of the very limited parking spaces at the state park; otherwise, I’d have to park 1 ¼ miles away in Cumberland and take a bus (not likely, I’d have ridden my bike and hauled my gear) to the park.

By the time I got my transition area set up, my feet were numb from the cold. I walked back to my truck, cranked the heater and hung out there until the start. It takes a lot time for the sun to hit an area surrounded by the Cascade Mountains and old growth forest.

My teeth were chattering (even in 3mm neoprene) when this picture was taken

The water was a “balmy” 64 degrees which sadly, felt good to get into.

I got the snot kicked out of me during the one mile swim (someone even hit my injured ankle). It was like swimming in a washing machine full of boulders. The start area was very wide across the shore, with everyone heading to a tiny point to round the first buoy.

*this shot from last year’s event… Check out how close the buoy on the far left is to the shore (it’s a small lake) No… not the one to the left of the shore, the one behind the shore… We all had to jam into that tiny spot to get around the first buoy (oh, and this shot shows about 1/3 of the swimmers in an average wave…)

I keep saying this, but I have got to stop starting in the back of the swim. I end up getting stuck behind slower swimmers, and there should be a rule that those who breast stroke should start in the back-it’s difficult to safely pass a breast stroking frog kicker.

I had a rather unimpressive transition from swim to bike and hit the rolling hills of the Cascades for what must be one of the most spectacularly beautiful bike courses I’ve ever seen.

The temperature “might” have been up in the 40s by then, but I’m not so certain. I did put on my The North Face Cipher jacket to cut some wind chill on my wet tri suit.

A woman who rode next to me for a time said, “What about that crazy swim?” Apparently she got the snot kicked out of her as well.

The 25 mile ride was challenging without being too difficult. My Garmin shows 1,410 elevation gain, 1,140 feet elevation loss (my Garmin says negative 191 feet of flat. I’m not sure how that works, but let it suffice to say that it was not a flat course)

My legs felt like mush by the time I was done with the bike ride.

I had another unimpressive transition (I was so out of it by this time that I put my bike shoes back on instead of my running shoes so had to change shoes again) to the 10K run.

I was very concerned about my lack of training and injured ankle (it wasn’t sprained but with the kind of trauma it was subjected to, I’m suspected that it would be more prone to injury than normal so I took it very easy on the run, quite a bit of which was on trails.)

The important thing here was to finish uninjured.

I met a very cool woman on the run portion (we also chatted a bit on the bike ride)

Here is my new friend Natalie and I after the race.

I actually managed to eek out a 3rd place finish in the Athena/40 and over divison. There were five women registered. I don’t know how many actually finished (the results page was borked at the time I posted this report) but I’ll take it.

Any finish you can walk away from right…

Here was the course…

My goal this year was to finish an Olympic Distance triathlon.

I completed three. I even (still don’t know how this happened but it’s still showing on the USA Triathlon website) got All American Honors for the Moses Lake Olympic Triathlon. (I think the rest of my times were too slow to even show up on the rankings as that is the only one I could find)

I completed a total of 11 triathlons this year.

And I got a lot of shiny things

I’ll take it.

And I’m planning on 2010 being a MUCH better year!

But I’m not done with 2009. I’ll be running the Seattle Half Marathon, the Norpoint Turkey Trot and some of Bob’s uber fun races down in Elma.

~L

Mood: Tired

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For those who are too young to get that reference, here’s a clip circa 1967 (before Cher made her transformation from Sweet Young Hippie Chick to Tattooed Cougar strutting around the deck of a Navy ship wearing a fish net bodysuit and a leather jacket)

It’s been a week since the notification of my mother’s death (and all the trauma and unfortunate circumstances both short and long term associated with it)

I can say that I feel better than I did at this time last week.

I can also say that there are good days and bad days.

Today was not a good day. I woke up filled with angst and dread over things I have to deal with.

It is what it is.

The record breaking heat wave (hottest well over triple digit temperatures ever recorded in Seattle Tacoma and hottest week in history) is over and I’m no longer miserable from heat, but am still a bit physically and emotionally exhausted from it.

In all honesty, I felt a bit “off” when I woke up this morning, with a lot of things to take care of and a lot on my mind.

One thing that brought me cheer was a surprise gifite from my dear friends Emma and Leo in Wales.

They sent me a lovely card and the most luscious European chocolates from Thorntons (it’s a well know fact that aside from Ghiradelli and a few independent makers that most US chocolate is crap)

I was going to swim today, but my legs are tired from my hilly 5-mile run yesterday. (I went out before it got too hot) I took it easy and went slow since my resting heart rate was high yesterday morning. My heart rate stayed in zones 2 and 3 with an average of only 131 the highest spike being barely into zone 4 (and only staying there for a bit over 4 minutes) at 153

I need to rest up for the Tacoma Narrows Half Marathon tomorrow. I signed up for it after I realized that due to the ongoing issues with my Mom, I wasn’t going to be able to dedicate enough time to training and fund-raising for the Courage Classic this year. At least it will keep my mind and body occupied.

I picked up my race packet today and was pleased to discover that instead of the HUGE shapeless unisex shirts they gave out last year, they actually offered men/women specific athletic cut shirts.

I’m having to pay close attention to my physical well being, specifically: exercise, nutrition and sleep.

It’s important that I stay physically active in order to get through this challenging time. So far, I’ve done well with that (backpacking Sunday/Monday/Tuesday and a run on Thursday-resting up from backpacking on Wednesday and resting up for the half marathon today) I’ve been eating well, even in the heat which is also important.

I had my doctor refill my Ambien prescription. On one hand, it is serious stuff and I don’t like the idea of it. On the other hand, it works well for me with no side effects; and sleep deprivation is the quickest way to trash my immune system and make me sick.

Perhaps I’ll try to muster up the motivation to write up my trip report from earlier in the week.

~L

Mood: tired

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I was pretty stressed out after hurting my back and the jury duty fiasco. (oh, get this… groups 26-50, don’t have to go in at all, they’re done-they never went in, and don’t have to go in next week-I am NOT amused)

So I got on my bike and went for a ride.

First, I had to do something about my areobar situation. One of the pads went flying off on the bike course of the triathlon last weekend and I still have the bruises from riding without it.

So the Icky Boy gave me some foam and I made some make shift ones. They worked pretty well.

I did a loop around Pt Defiance, and then went out on the Scott Pierson Trail. It was 20.65 miles and I really needed it.

After the ride, I treated myself to a chocolate swirl cone at Frisko Freeze (it’s only 9 blocks away)

I’m going to go jump in the hot tub before bed.

~L

Mood: Tired

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Gene’s awesome mom, sent me a link to the pictures that she and his Dad took of He, Kathy and I at the Moses Lake Triathlon.

THIS is my favorite. I almost look like I think I’m doing something “naughty” for trying to strip off my wetuit in front of one of my freind’s parents

Here are the rest of the photos.

In other news, the cohabitation is going well.

I’m actually quite relaxed and the BadKitty is prancing around the place like she owns it. (she previous photo of the Icky Boy on his hands and knees petting the kitty)

~L

Mood: happy

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