Train, bikes, and Mexican food
I hopped a train last night to meet Chris and another friend of ours at a restaurant. I had my bike with me to get from the train to the restaurant, but was doing the geeky "roll up the jeans" thing so that I wasn't too obviously out of place at the restauranat.
I was on the back train car in the handicapped seats, and the train was filling quickly. Finally, the only seats left were the two across from me, and the handicapped seat next to me. So three guys got on the train, and one said "I'll sit next to you."
I smiled. He said "Cute bike."
I said (With a smile) "Cute? Drats, I was going for fearsome, but I'll settle for cute!"
Hey it got a laugh.
We were pretty excited, the restaurant that we were going to is our favorite (aka only acceptable) Mexican restaurant in the city. They got glowing reviews in the newspaper, and last night they were completely slammed. And running out of things. They were obviously caught completely off guard. Hopefully they did well enough in keeping up appearances that people will be understanding and come back. That's the first time I've been during which more than 4 tables were full. And it's a pretty big place. So I'm hoping that we'll see a long lingering effect. Everyone likes to have a secret hideaway place, but I don't need it to be so secret that it goes under.
Evening Ride
Wednesday was the perfect fall evening for a bike ride along Pittsburgh's Southside bike trail
Fall
It's Fall. I actually woke up this morning and was cold. Great sleeping weather, but totally sucky waking up weather. So for the first time for the fall, I've started closing windows and eyeing up the window AC unit for removal to its winter home.
I also know that it's fall because people have their Halloween decorations up. Halloween: The new Christmas. I think we should have a moratorium on this whole Halloween thing until at least October 1st. It's bad enough the Christmas decorations are going up on Labor Day, are we going to end up with witches in the stores on the 4th of July? Maybe hang a few black cats on our Christmas trees to kick the whole thing off?
Let's just enjoy the current season - the start of school, the in between not-quite-leaf-falling season, the not-too-hot-to-play-outside-anymore weather. That's really enough to appreciate for now, dontcha think?
Labels: Seasons
The Approaching Weekend
This weekend begins the first of my trips East for cyclocross races. Chris has already had the
first CX adventure last weekend, but this is my first time out. Oh, I’m not racing. I’m going along to stand alongside the course yelling “GO CHRIS” through mouthfuls of ding dongs and ho hos.
I have to admit that if I were going to race again, I’d be most tempted by cyclocross. Essentially it looks do-able to me because at the beginner level, EVERYONE looks like they’re suffering. Unlike my experience with road racing where working hard as a beginner just meant I could count progress in terms of “I only got lapped twice!” while more natural athletes seemed to make better use of their hard work. I’m wayyy too competitive to be able to put up with that. And way too lazy to put in the consistent, day-in, day-out, dead of winter training that I really would have needed to do to finish with the pack. Actually racing kind of killed my appetite for cycling for a really long time. When you start doing something because you HAVE TO, it’s easy to lose track of doing it because you love to. And that’s where I found myself with racing. And now I’m just to the point of occasionally going out for a few mile rides along the local rails-to-trails, and occasionally trying (but not succeeding too well at) mountain biking. It’s the mountain biking that keeps me sane with regards to racing cross. I’m a poor mountain biker, and I think that probably reflects where I would be with cyclocross. Well that and I haven’t worked out, and the reality is there’s no reason to believe I’d be any better racing cyclocross than I would at any other form of bike racing.
Anyway, Chris is on a new team this year, so he’ll have plenty of fresh faces to hang with, in addition to our friends on other teams. The Fred dog is ready to be oohed and aahed over, and has his special “Go Dad” yip (which is probably more like a “Come back! You should be with the rest of the pack!” yip) all primed. And I’ve already printed out 300 pages of directions to the race. (we’ve had a few lost moments in our travels and now we’re way, WAY over prepared on maps).
So if you need me this weekend, I’ll either be in the pit, or chilling with the mutt. If you’re going to be at Buckeyestown, say “hi” and I’ll cheer for you. Or pit for you. Or feed you. Whatever, it’ll be a nice mellow day for me and I’ll have time to lend a hand.
Labels: Travel
Tour de Chubs
Quick, how many of the
top 20 fattest states have
you lived in? I've personally lived in 5 of the fat states - Tennessee, Texas, Missouri, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The way I'm laying in the winter fat at the moment, I prefer to think of them as "My People" rather than fat states...
(Percentage of obese people per state)
1. Mississippi: 30.3%
2. West Virginia: 30.1%
3. Louisiana: 30%
4. South Carolina: 28.5%
5. Alabama: 28.1%
6. Kentucky: 27.9%
7. Arkansas: 27.2%
8. Alaska: 26.9%
9. Tennessee: 26.7%
10. Indiana: 26.4%
11. Texas: 26.3%
12. Missouri: 26.2%
13. Oklahoma: 26.1%
14. Georgia: 25.9%
15. Michigan: 25.5%
16. North Carolina: 25.4%
17. Nebraska: 25.1%
18. South Dakota: 24.9%
19. Iowa: 24.7%
19. North Dakota: 24.7%
20. Pennsylvania: 24.6%
Labels: Fab-Flab
Oh my achin' head
I just read today that Olivia Newton-John was born today. Happy Birthday, Sandy! She was born this day in 1948. Insert record scratching noise here. Sandy in “Grease” is 4 years younger than my MOM? Holy crap. She was about THIRTY when she made “Grease”.
This just makes my brain hurt on so many levels. When I was still a pre-teen (yes, my love, there were movies then), “Grease” and “Annie” were sort of the two movies that all of the girls in my class were really into. Like play the albums over and over and over and …. It just seems wrong that my mom could is that close in age. Crazy!
Why my husband wants to change careers
From
Page Six of the NY Post "We Hear...":
September 25, 2006 -- THAT Scarlett Johansson was a nervous wreck before she had her first Brazilian waxing at the Oasis Day Spa and, according to insiders at DaTommaso restaurant, the waxing crew couldn't stop admiring her body . . .
Ambling Thoughts
Happiness is mountain biking season. Man and dog get out of the house to be rowdy in the woods. In the meantime, I get to putter around the house without the dog drilling holes in my head for daring to exist without keeping him entertained. After yesterday’s mountain bike ride, the dog was dawdling on his morning walk. And when we got home, instead of hanging with me, he went back to bed. Ahhhhh, I love mountain bike season!
I watched “
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” this weekend. I’d heard all sorts of raves on this movie, and I sort of had the same reaction to this that I did to “
March of the Penguins”. Yeah, it’s good, but have you people never watched Animal Planet or the Discovery Channel? I just didn’t see either of them as being so outstanding that they deserved special praise. Good, but….
What is it about grocery stores in this area? I’ve never been in one where the help wasn’t surly. Are these people beaten at the start of their shift to get them in the right mindset? I especially like the part where they don’t even acknowledge you at the start of the transaction. I’ve taken to holding the little club cards until the cashier looks at me. I’m not expecting to be entertained, but politeness would be a good touch.
Go Saints! What a Hollywood ending that they won their first game back in the Superdome.
Great posts on Enron and whether Faustow deserved to be the guy with plea bargain on
Asymmetrical Information.
Labels: Dogs
More bad boss stories
My brother has had WAY worse luck with his bosses than I ever had. Now he's out of the boss biz (and in the seminary), but he relates the following stories which make me REALLY happy I didn't have to deal with it...
One was one of the bosses for the lab guys was giving them experiments that required that them to sit and monitor things for 14 hours. He would need the results on Monday and give them the test on Thursday. It takes 3 days to run it. The guys were not hourly but they would come in and work the weekend and get it done. Then the boss would not give them comp time to make up for it.
There were many times when I knew of guys (MHR: Including my brother by the way), that again were not hourly but worked 70-90 hour weeks. I figured out one time I was making less then a manager at a fast food resturant.
There was another boss that was having a relationship with one of the girls in the lab and everyone knew about it. His wife was a good person. He then brought the fling into the department at a higher salary then all of the other men that were there and all she did was spend time with him and not work. Until he got tired of her then she got transfered to a different department.
Moment of Panic
I was already in bed reading when hubby and the mutt showed up. I wasn’t really paying attention, when Fred started the tap-tap-tapping walk around the bed, and hopped in on Chris’s side. That should have been enough to set off warning bells. He NEVER gets in on Chris’s side of the bed. And when he laid down between us, that should have been warning bells as loud as Big Ben, the dog's sleeping place is always nearest the door. When I looked up, I caught a flash of red on a leg that was being carefully hidden by the dog from my sight. He’s no dummy, he knows which of the owners is most likely to poke, prod, and otherwise annoy him when he’s hurting. A closer look showed blood on his chest and down his front left paw.
“Sweetie, Fred’s bleeding!”
“Oh. Yeah, he was messing with a cat when he was out.”
“Sweetie, he’s bleeding a lot…”
“I guess the cat got him.”
Meanwhile I’m frantically looking for a wound, but can’t find it on him. It doesn’t look like the cat’s blood, so that means that he probably got a puncture that stopped bleeding by the time the dog got into bed. I try wiping the blood off of him, which is getting more blood on the blanket. I finally gave up.
“Fine” I grumped as I put my book down. “Make sure you spray the blanket with Spray and Wash in the morning.”
Well I’d hoped when Fred was young that a cat would smack him upside the head. This one missed his head, but maybe it’ll teach the big lug some respect. Somehow I doubt it, though.
Harrumph. Men.
Labels: Dogs
I've been working on the railroad
I did a doggy railroad run on Saturday (pictures to follow). Two fat little chihuahuas -
Peewee and
Chico left a kill shelter in Virginia and are in the welcoming arms of a local rescue. I have to admit that I'm totally not a chihuahua kind of gal. You've seen Fred, there's just no way I can make the leap from 70 lean pounds of fuzz, play, and affection to...a fat chihuahua. But both dogs were very sweet (which I'm told is very
unusual for this breed), albeit a bit fried. They'd had a long day of constant change and I'm sure wished they could just hide in a nice cave.
I was a little nervous because I didn't have a crate, so substituted a cardboard box. I wasn't sure if this was going to earn the wrath of the delivering or receiving driver, but both were cool with it. And all was well, the two slept the whole trip until about 150 feet from the drop off point, at which time Peewee climbed out of the box and into the back window of the car. I'm never going to see a bobble head chihuahua again without thinking of that rotten dog pointing out that I apparently let the dogs run free under risky circumstances. But he's safe, and hopefully will get adopted quickly.
Update:A photo of PeeWee making a great escape
A photo of Chico in his temporary cardboard box home
Labels: Charities, Dogs
Bad Boss, Bad!
For reasons unrelated to my job, (a friend of mine is suffering through serious seagull management right now, and his whole department is completely de-moralized). I've been thinking about bad boss stories. So what's your best, or worst? (don't tell anything current, I don't want anyone
Dooced!)
A long time ago, in an office far, far away, I worked for a man who, outside of work, was a wonderful guy. Apparently passing through the portals of our office imported his evil twin, and exiled the good guy to another dimension. More realistically he was the type of person who would have been far happier in the corner working on numbers than being a manager of people. Over the course of a week at the beginning of May, I had been feeling sicker and sicker. I had a business trip that took a few days, and by the time I came back, I was running a fever and could barely swallow because my throat hurt so much. One of my co-workers took a look at me, and said "You need to see a nurse!!" Off I went, and the nurse took one look at my throat and said I needed to see a doctor. So being the good employee, I told my boss that I was sick, and needed to go to the doctor. He then hauled me into his office for 45 minutes to discuss a project I was working on. At one point I believe I was berated for having a piece of paper on the wrong side of the folder, but that actually may have happened at another time. By the time it was all done, I was completely wilted. I left work, and went to the doctor who promptly diagnosed me with mono and tonsillitis. My co-workers tell me that he spent the next two weeks absolutely petrified. Which I just think is a sign that there really is justice in the world.
Dumb Bumper Sticker of the Day
I was in the parking lot of Whole Foods when I saw today's dumb bumper sticker. It said "Why do you love animals called pets and eat animals called dinner?"
See, this is called the ability to differentiate between species. I have no interest in eating dogs, cats, and horses because they're different species than bovines, pigs, and chickens. Their place on the food chain is completely different.
In other words, I don't have a problem with cooking that veggie burger when vegetarians come over to my house, but please don't tell me I can't eat my beef. We just disagree. If I wanted a conversion I would have invited the Mormons.
Move it on over
Now that the weather has cooled considerably, Fred is giving up his summer snoozing place at the top of the stairs to take his rightful place in bed with the pack. Which isn't a bad thing, it's getting chilly at night and the additional body heat feels good. But it does mean a couple of times a night I have to tell Fred to move so that I can roll over. I have sort of a bad hip, so I can only sleep in one position for so long before I have to shift. And that's harder to negotiate with three in a queen sized bed. Because God does have a sense of humor, the song playing on the radio when the alarm went off this AM was "Move it on over" by George Thorogood.
Move it on over
Rock it on over
Move over little dog,
A big dog's movin' in
Labels: Dogs
Bad year for movies
Sigh. It seems like Rotten Tomatoes has looked like this all year:
Labels: Movies
Home, Sweet Home
Another road trip under my belt, this one for work. On the plus side:
Walker’s chocolate (which is wicked good) and
Canadian wine. On the minus side: Traveling without hubby and dog. At this point we are so used to each other’s styles, that even when we’re not a well oiled machine, we’re used to those bumps. (we’ll be re-testing during
cross season, of course). Chris knows when snarky comments are meant as criticisms, and when they’re just things that sort of make me laugh and move on. With anyone else, I’m on my guard. And that just makes business trips that little bit more stressful and therefore that little bit more tired.
Anyway, I’m super happy to be home!
Labels: Travel
I missed it...
Avast me hearties, I missed
National Talk Like A Pirate Day. I don't think the training we put on today would have gone as well if I had required everyone who gave a wrong answer to walk the plank, though.
In my next life....
In my next life I want to have the talent and confidence to sing like this in front of a crowd. I'm totally addicted to KT Tunstall right now. The funny part is that I was just telling Chris that for cross season I'd like to hear some Faith No More. Which I'm taking to mean either I have really eclectic taste, or I'm a total schizophrenic.
Doggy Railroad
About two years back, I stumbled over this list on Yahoo called the
Dog Rescue Railroad. Essentially the purpose is to move dogs from rural shelters where there's often more dogs than there are resources (making them high kill shelters) to urban areas where there are more available people to adopt. Since most shelters don't have a dog bus hanging around, the Dog Rescue Railroad consists of a bunch of people who each take a leg of a trip (usually about an hour, one way) and then hand the dog(s) off to the next person on the list. And thus a dog in rural VA is delivered to a rescue group in Albany. I usually only do this once or twice a year. For one thing, we're on the road so much that the idea of driving even more, sucks. But in case there's anyone out there ready to be in the dog transport business, click the link above. And if you're ready to be in the foster biz like Mike & Laura (Hi guys! How's the sleeping going?), another interesting site is
Rural Shelter Help.
Labels: Charities, Dogs
Dirty minds
On an
SI article about the shooting of 5 Duquesne basketball players is this photo:
Now I
know what I should be experiencing is distress over this horrible occurence, senseless loss of young lives, etc. But I can't seem to shake off the one thought that's in my head when I look at this picture:
What on earth is the girl in the center doing?
On the Road Again
I’m getting ready for the business/road trip to Canada with my co-workers Jan and Bob. 5 Quality Hours together. Bob is considerably younger than either Jan or I, and we were regaling him this morning with the singing frog from the Bugs Bunny cartoons. (“Hello my Baby, Hello my Honey, Hello my Ragtime Gaaaaaaaalllll”). He doesn't have a context for something that we watched religiously every day. Bob already has a deer in the headlights look. This is going to be fun!
Labels: Travel
Of course you realize, this means WAR!
Sigh. I've really tried not to comment on the whole Pope-Muslims kerfuffle. I figure most people just don't care. I'm just sort of sick of the Muslims burning things every time they get their knickers in a twist.
But...c'mon....
The Pope quotes a man who says that the Muslims depend on violence to spread their religion, and the Muslim response is "NUH-UH!
We're declaring WAR on you!"? "That
nun we shot working at a children's hospital in Somalia, she had it coming because we aren't violent!" "
Burning effigies of the Pope is done in love!"
Are these guys the only ones not getting the irony? I'm thinking group discount rates on some anger management classes.
Things that make you go hmmmm
Why is it when I buy pants these days, the ones that look best are all marked "Curvy"?
Labels: Fab-Flab
The Sun will come out....
Once the fog burned off, this morning became beeyoootiful. Dog and I put the cell phone camera to work on our walk. Well ok, me. Fredly suffers in his cell phone camera use due to lack of opposable thumbs.
Labels: Seasons
Whistling Past the Graveyard
This morning's walk to church was foggy. Given the definite turning of the leaves and cooler, darker mornings, all I could think of was Halloween. I did pass on one picture. My cell phone doesn't get those distance shots, so I had to pass on a very cool, foggy picture with a man praying/meditating by a grave. Taking pictures of unattended graves, no problem. Interrupting people in their communion with the dead, big problem.
Labels: Seasons
Bach-ing it
No, that's bach as in bachelorette not as in Bach the musician.
Chris is off to DC this weekend to assist in teaching a
cyclo-cross clinic. Which is a little bit lonely. But I figure I'll make the best of it - I'm eating everything he hates this weekend - raw tomatoes, olives, asparagus, artichokes, wine... The bummer part is he gets back either late Sunday or midday Monday, and I leave on a business trip Monday until late Wednesday.
But on the flip side, I have a backlog of chick flicks to catch up on. So I'm watching
Warm Springs (aka Franklin Roosevelt not only learns to walk IN water, he walks ON it.), with
Memoirs of a Geisha and
A Very Long Engagement in the backlog. I've also got Marisha Pessl's
Special Topics in Calamity Physics to read. So far, very funny, a light, easy read. But I miss Chris and I'm looking forward to seeing him again maybe tomorrow, but for sure no later than Thursday.
It's Official
Labels: Seasons
Flashbacks
Dear lord, the 80s are back.
See when the 60s and 70s were in style, it didn't bother me in the least. I really wasn't cognizant of style, or anything like that. Given I was getting hand me downs from cousins who are 20 years older than me, I wasn't in the right decade until I finally grew taller than any of my cousins in 8th grade.
Seriously, check out those stripes. It's just missing
shoulder pads for a proper 80s look.
But the 80s? Well that was my decade to go horribly, fashionably wrong in high school. So to see those outfits coming back is a cringe factor of 12. The idea of re-visiting those fashion mistakes at my advanced age? Bwah-ha-ha-haaaa. C'mon, I need to have learned something in the last 20 years.
Ahhh, great, long sweaters and leggings are back. Just dandy.
I've been trying to buy at least a few things that are a little trendier. I'm not that old. But I think this fall may be my time to "stock up on the classics".
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to listen to some Duran Duran.
My Sweetie
I love being in
my husband's top 5. I love it even more than I'm his number 1.
A friend in need
My brother has become good friends with one of the priests that is on the admin staff at the seminary little bro is attending. For years, he had been telling me about this wonderful priest who is intelligent, funny, and battling illness that has left him wheelchair bound for the most part. Occasionally he can stand, but then his balance is so gone that he'll just spontaneously collapse. I finally had a chance to meet him this past April when Bill was ordained a deacon, and was shocked at how young Fr is. I was thinking that he was an elderly priest, only to find out that he's slightly older than I am.
In talking to my brother yesterday, he mentioned that Fr is getting sicker, and yesterday couldn't make the 4 steps he has to get up to get into his quarters. Bill offered to carry him, but I suspect Fr isn't quite ready to get to that point. Bill's concerned that the medicines he's had to take for so long, are now making Fr a good bit sicker. He desperately needs a proper ramp, but because of the location of the steps, the building will have to be partially rebuilt. So about $5000 to make rennovations. They're hoping the local Knights of Columbus will help out, but there are no guarantees.
If you're of the praying sort, please throw an extra prayer in both for Fr, and for some source of income for the school to be able to put in the necessary handicapped accessible features.
Retirement
My Dad retires in 2 weeks. What a surreal thought that is. In my head, my father is still in his late 30s, hosing down the hill next to our house in the dead of winter so we will go faster when we sled down it. To this day the chain link fence at the end of the sled run is bowed from where we hit it at about a million miles an hour. The neighbors are still amazed that we didn’t go through.
Anyway, a few days ago, he forwarded the trip itinerary for their first post-retirement trip. Dad began his time in the professional work world making schedules for plane lines at McDonnell Douglass. So when my brother and I were little, his itineraries were masterpieces of detail.
9:32AM: Pull into rest stop in Cape Girardeau MO
9:41AM: Leave Cape Girardeau MO
Thankfully he’s lightened up a bit in his old age. In reviewing the latest masterpiece, though, my eyes were drawn to the very bottom where total miles driven existed. 2564 miles in 2 weeks. Holy mackerel. He could drive from one coast to the other with that kind of mileage. In the course of all of that driving they’re going to see my bro, Hershey PA, Niagara Falls, Cooperstown NY, Lexington & Concord MA, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA and Adams National Historic Park. When they visit him, I have no doubt my brother will take them on a prolonged hike sure to crush their souls. I’ve told them both that when they’re at our place, there will be muchas vegging for them. And on their return swing through our place, they’re welcome to stay an extra day or two should they so desire. But they have to be back for a K of C bash a few days later, so flexibility is limited.
I think retirement is going to suit Dad to a T. It’s just a question of whether he’s going to completely run Mom into the ground in the process.
Numbers
Too funny. About a month ago I installed a sitemeter from Bravenet which allows me to see the last 10 page referrals, number of new, returning and unique visitors per day for the last 7 days, etc. I'm way too cheap to actually pay for anything, so I don't have the total cumulative effect, but you know...whatever. The referrals aspect though is just hours of entertainment. It's always interesting to see what pearls of wisdom will lead to a hit from Google, Technorati, or Google Blogs. There is one persistent chap who keeps clicking on my blog for "Sweet Lebanese Nymphets" because those three words appear scattered about one page of my blog. I know Flick feels my pain, he keeps getting hits for Hot Gril because of
this post.And to the dude who's look for Hot Gril...Howdy! This blog is too wholesome for you, keep surfing!
One small step for cars....
Does anyone else look at
this and think "Sweet! We're just one step away from
Mr Fusion!"?
Disillusionment
I first started watching cycling during the winter between 1998 and 1999. A friend of mine had gotten the 1998 Tour de France on DVD, and I ended up watching it. And getting hooked right around the time the leader of the race, Jan Ullrich, facing horrible rainy conditions on a huge climb, cracked completely. And off went little Marco Pantani to blow everyone away, and ultimately win the race. The following year was the Tour de Lance, and I became a huge fan of Tyler Hamilton and of Frankie Andreu. C'mon, even if I couldn't admire what they had accomplished - a lot - they were at least really freakin' easy to watch. But other than good looks, Frankie had a sense of humor, and Tyler had Tugboat, a low key personality, and an awesome wife.
Given 1998 was the year of the
Festina Affair, I'm not 100% sure why doping in cycling was never really on my radar screen. Oh sure, Lance was accused a few times, but convicted? Never convicted. So the last two years have suuuuucked. Two years ago Tyler was suspended for blood doping. This year Floyd Landis wins the TdF under charges of steroid usage.
And now Frankie has admitted to EPO. I try not to get too cynical about things like this, but well, I've had it. Football is blood doping central, but turning a blind eye in case they find something. Baseball's biggest stars count by pawing the ground. And cycling is just a disaster.
Anybody know anything about Chess?
9/11 Retrospective
Jon Stewart's first show back after 9/11 . 9 Minutes. A tear jerker, so if you've already had more 9/11 than you can stand, you may want to pass.
In the spirit of the day…
Our company just met at the flagpoles out front for a moment of silence for 9/11.
Not having watched any tv at all this weekend, I haven’t had the experience of wallowing in 9/11 pathos to the point of being sick of it. So the very simple little ceremony today was just right. The company is located immediately next door to the airport, and today all of the planes were taking off in our direction. It’s ironic that about 6 planes went over during our moment of silence. Especially given that one of my remembrances about that time was being outside and not hearing the planes in the two days they were grounded after the terrorist attacks. When you’re used to hearing planes, the silence is eerie. It’s doubly so because not only do you feel that something is wrong, but you also know in your brain that something is wrong.
It’s funny, because the gentleman who said a few quick words to start and end mentioned the souls of the departed. Which struck me as a very Catholic thing to say because that phrase is part of a Catholic prayer. But yet I think his reference was neutral enough not to offend any other religion. Anyway, very appropriate.
“May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.”
Pie in the Sky...My Favorite!
My friend Christine and I email every day to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow on various topics. The last year we've been working on our eating/work out habits, finances, cleaning out the house.... We're good for each other, even though we live on opposite sides of the country.
Christine spent most of her formative years in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, so she loves going back to Southeast Asia. For her, that’s going home. So for the last few months, we’ve been idly kicking about the possibility of a trip.
Today’s conversation, however, turned to “What's it going to take to motivate us to get our exercise and eating habits back on track.” Having pretty much accomplished what I want to accomplish on the bike in the way of big (doable for me) challenges, I considered running events or triathlons. Now the whole catch about triathlons is that I swim like a boulder. But a team tri…. Hmmmm. So I emailed two friends in Richmond to see if they’d be interested in doing one in Richmond. And then… Christine looked up a triathlon for us to do as a team. In Bali. Frickin’ BALI? Oh man, I can’t wait for the water cooler conversations if we do that one. “Yeah, I’ve been to Bali. Did a tri there once…” I’ll be damn near insufferable. (And if my hubby says “How would we be able to tell?” I’m going to shoot him.)
Labels: Fab-Flab
Another "Duh" Moment
Paris Hilton says that
the events surrounding her arrest have been blown out of proportion. To which my response is "DUH". Everything she does is blown out of proportion, usually by her, to advance her fame. I'd say career instead of fame, but I'm still not sure what she does. The problem is, when EVERYTHING you do is blown out of proportion, that means EVERYTHING. Including the stuff that normal, obscure people can somewhat sweep under the rug. Maybe I'll save my tears for someone else.
Woohoo!
Daily Mumps is back! Suh-weet!
Free at last
Chris got the official clean bill of health this A.M. and is free to mountain bike ride. That makes two happy fuzz faces in our house as Fred went with him on the first ride. Just in time too, because the cooler weather has given Fredly a new lease on life. So last night as we were trying to go to sleep, he started with gnawing on a bone for about half an hour. GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND. When Chris put the bone up, we were then faced with TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP. Sniff. Sniff. TAP TAP Sniff. Sniff. TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP TAP. Finally we threw the bone out in the hall and closed the door after him. Through the door we could hear him
GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND, but we were too tired to care. Tonight, we all sleep well.
While they ride, I'm taking the opportunity to watch a movie and play on the computer without sulky looks from the dog. Ah, the decadence.
Cojones
Apparently "former Clinton administration officials" are t
elling ABC to pull their miniseries "The Path to 9/11". To which ABC responded:
"No one has seen the final version of the film, because the editing process is not yet complete, so criticisms of film specifics are premature and
irresponsible."
And this is why I will never survive in this world. I would not have the cojones to tell a former president that he's premature and irresponsible. Although that's probably a good summation of the Monica Lewinsky stained-dress thing. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate Clinton, but a good portion of his presidency dissolved into farce because of that.
Anyway, I like the part where one of the people who signed the letter was Sandy Berger. Wasn't he last seen stuffing paper down his pants? I guess it's a lucky thing this didn't end up there as well, or no one would know the angst these folks feel about their former boss.
So will ABC cave? Will they
pull a CBS and shunt it off to a premium channel to take the heat off themselves? Stay tuned tomorrow for "As your stomach turns".
(PS - does anyone else find it funny that the same people who condemned pulling the Reagan series as censorship are now trying to do the same thing?)
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Happy
International Pole Dance Day!
New Fred-dog song
To the tune of
"Folsom Prison Blues"When I was just a puppy
My mother told me, "Son
Always be a good dog
Don't bark at anyone"
But I bark at passing semis
Just to watch Mom cry
And when she grabs me by the collar
I hang my head and sigh.
True Love
I've taken to bringing Fredly around back of our favorite coffee shop these days. This was prompted by his insisting on taking out any dogs that tried to walk down the block while I was inside ordering my frou-frou drink. The other day while Chris was holding him, he broke his chain collar and went after a dog, only to find out that the other dog had a buddy with him. Oops.
Anyways, behind the coffee shop is an open iron work set of steps, of which Fred is terrified. He won't even walk across grates on the sidewalk, and these have no kick plate and are open grates. I tie Fred up at the bottom of the steps, so he doesn't have to deal with them. Today as Chris and I were about to tie up Muttley, we heard Belle, one of our favorite baristas, in the kitchen. So we called out to her, and she stepped out on the open grillwork porch. Fred was a dog on a mission. With legs trembling the
whole way, he took each step gingerly to the top, scurried across the scary open grill work porch, and stood on the mats just outside the kitchen door. All this for a scratch on the ears from Belle. That's true love.
How was your vacation, Fred?
Labels: Dogs, Travel
Photo Diary from the Louisville Trip
Lovely Louisville neighborhoods where my husband and our dog could walk
God is watching. Or the Masons. Or something. The dome at St James Church on Bardstown Rd where they celebrated their 100th anniversary at 11AM Mass this past Sunday. I have to admit to being a little creeped out.
Zara fearlessly scopes out a mutt that weighs three times what she does. The real hit of the evening, though, was that Chris is a champion bubble blower.
Keep Louisville Weird. I have to say they're doing a banner job. Stereotypical Louisville bumper stickers.
Labels: Dogs, Travel
The Ultimate Southern Moment
This morning we had hash browns in a Waffle House and someone cranked up the Jukebox. Johnny Cash came blaring through the speakers:
I hear the train a comin’
It’s moving round the bend
And I ain’t seen the sunshine
Since I don’t know when….
I don’t think we’re in Pennsylvania any more.
Labels: Dogs, Travel
Palermo Viejo, Louisville KY
MMMmm, this is one of our favorite restaurants, period. It’s a beautiful, elegant place right on Bardstown Rd. The first time we came here for takeout, we were standing at the bar next to a guy dressed pretty casually, sporting a baseball cap. We ordered Loma ta Gusta, Rabas, and Empanadas. When the waitress asked what types of empanadas we wanted, and we gave her a blank stare, the guy in the baseball cap piped up with “The best is to order one of each”. Turns out he was the owner.
Loma ta Gusta is a 6 oz filet….and it is AWESOME. I don’t think I’ve ever had a better piece of beef (shut up, Bill). Last night I tried the Beefe de Chorizo, and it was good, but I have to go back to Loma ta Gusta as the one of my favorite things on the menu. Chris loves the empanadas, and we pretty much order both and eat off of each other’s plates.
If you ever get to Louisville, this is worth a special trip.
Labels: Dogs, Travel
Buy Two!
Holy mackerel, I think I've found the ultimate gift for the winter for any couch potato.
The Slanket. It's a couch blanket with two sleeves so you don't have to expose your arms to the air while moving the twinkie (or beer, you make the call) from the coffee table to your mouth. Because what this country needs is a reason to move less while reaching for our food.
