Girly Post
Ok, ya wanna know why I like cycling? Let me show you Exhibit A:
This is Alberto Contador, winner of the Tour de France, wearer of both the yellow jersey and the white jersey for best young rider (under 26) I searched but could not find a photo that appropriately showed off the 7 feet of eyelashes the man has
And this is Tom Boonen, international heart throb. He ended up with the green jersey - what the sprinters like to wear. He looks good in green. Also not so bad in red, white, yellow, black or any other color. Also seems like a nice guy who would treat his mama well.
So when you wonder why despite the crazy doping going on, I still am mesmerized by the Tour, feel free to surf google images for those two names.
Since this weekend was all about the lethargy, I did something I haven't done since I left Houston - I scrapbooked. I'm just not that detailed, not that creative, and not that patient. But it occurs to me that I may have an in for Christmas presents for the new grandparents. And it's a way of forcing myself to sort through cycling pix, so I'm working on a cycling scrapbook. Now if you were to see my friend Tammie's books....those are works of art. Mine....not so much. Oh well.
Last night Chris came home from his week of wrenching duties. WOOHOOO! Fred gave him the appropriate conquering hero status welcome after a whole week of not seeing Chris. I greeted him with a hug and a kiss. Ginger....well she had a bone! and was outside! and things were going on! Ok, so Ginger's initial reaction was a little low key. Until a couple of hours later when apparently the brain cell kicked in. We were in the living room, and you could see a puff of smoke and her little brain went "Wait....something is different about this room. Dad! Dad's home!", and the puppy insanity commenced. Not the brightest light in the harbor, our little girl. But bossy. Very, very bossy.
Labels: cycling, Dogs, Love of My Life, pregnancy
Been there, done that
I love
this post from Dooce about how she scared the living daylights out of her husband over an electric bill. Because when Chris and I first started dating, we were watching tv, and a commercial for the movie "Naked Gun" came on. About halfway through the commercial, I felt the urge to confess something that would make me an outcast from society. A pariah. The bane of everyone's existence.
"Sweetie, I have a confession to make"
Pause while Chris mentally flips through the rolodex of men we both know so he can brace himself for which one I've started sleeping with.
"Yes?"
"I can't stand Leslie Nielsen or any of his movies."
I, too, have a lot to live down.
Labels: Other Blogs
Say it isn't so, Joe
I am Jack's raging cynicism...
So last night Michael Rasmussen, the leader of the Tour de France,
was pulled from the race by his team. Supposedly for missing doping tests, but I'm not buying it. I have this suspicion somewhere deep down inside that eventually more will come out, and they'll find out that he really did some serious doping. (Hubby: "So the man spends 6 months in Mexico and suddenly he can time trial?")
As my friend Tammie puts it, it's almost not worth watching the Tour any more. Except that now it's got that train wreck quality that keeps me watching. Who's going down next? Especially with whole teams pulling out. It wasn't just Alexander Vinokourov that pulled out two days ago, but all of Astana. Yesterday Cristian Moreni returned positive results and all of Cofidis is out. It's still up in the air whether Rasmussen's team will carry on (although since he was pulled by the team on a "technicality" and not on a doping charge, they may get to stay). At this rate, the guys at the back of the field have to be getting excited about their chances.
Labels: cycling
Yes, yes, I live
I feel like I'm barely keeping up with things these days. By noon I'm completely wiped out, and I've been leaving work early every day (2-3 ish, not at noon). Grr. Fortunately I'm transitioning things at work, so my job is slowing down a bit in some ways. There are things that I have to wrap up, but not many new things on the list.
The doggers have been moping a bit in Chris's absence. Ginger runs to the back window (traditional bark-a-greeting spot of hyper puppies) every time the neighbors come home to see if it's Chris. And Fred seems to have his pouting paw out a lot, although that could be because he's missing the frequent mountain bike rides. Long walks with me don't really accomplish the same de-energizing. And my ears perk up every time I see a Volvo wagon go by. But things are going well at the Tour de Toona, so just a few more days!
Sigh, and
my pick to win the Tour de France has now been busted for his A-sample doping with someone else's blood. Igggggh. Technically he's not officially guilty until he's either declined the B-sample re-test, or it has been tested and proven guilty. Technically the media isn't supposed to know anything about it until after the whole B-sample thing. So not only is it enough that most of these guys are dopers, but the organization that's riding herd on them is so immoral that it won't even abide by it's own standards much less some of the rules of common decency used elsewhere.
My doc gave me the spiel on Monday on what I need to do when "the time" comes. How far apart contractions should be, etc. I'm getting close. I've started gathering up the stuff to take to the hospital, and I need to finish off the back room. I'm getting close enough. As long as I don't have the baby until next week, I'm in good shape. The parents are all arriving then to help us get the house in shape. So once that's done, we're ready. Theoretically. If anyone needs me I'll spend the next few weeks breathing into a brown paper bag because I've forgotten something else.
Labels: cycling, Dogs, pregnancy
E-freakin-GADS
I went for a 35 week ultrasound today. 5 more weeks until I'm due. And I found out that the baby ALREADY weighs 6lbs 12oz.
WHAT?!
If I carry this kid to term, and he/she continues to grow at the same rate, I'll have a 9lb 7oz baby. Oh Heeeellll no. I wasn't hoping for an early delivery, until now. But sheer terror will have me at the drugstore looking at castor oil in a few weeks. (for those not in the know, castor oil is one of those old wives tales for inducing delivery)
Labels: pregnancy
Focus? What Focus?
Hubby home from his ride at around 2ish: "What did you do today?"
Me: "Well the dogs and I woke up around 9, went for a walk, came home watched the Tour, went to Walmart, and then watched some more tv."
"Got a lot done on the back room, huh?"
Sigh, ok, he's right, today wasn't the most impressive day I had on the back room despite my assertions that THIS is the weekend. Having said that, we're actually almost there. Unfortunately you can't tell because as fast as we moved other stuff out, the baby stuff has moved in. And grown. And taken over. I'm waiting for it to give me an Audrey style "FEED ME, SEYMOUR." Oh well.
Chris is out next week wrenching at the big Div III bike race a couple of hours away. It'll be me and the dogs for 7 days. He's been working like crazy this weekend to make sure that they're good and tired. Which I SO appreciate! And that would be why dogs and I could sleep until 9 this morning instead of my getting the doggy nose in the face at 7:30. Usually on the weekend I'm awakened by Fred's schnozz two inches from my face.
We saw the Imax "
Wired to Win" last night. I forgot how swoopy Imaxes are. I was a eensy teensy bit motion sick afterwards. But what great footage of the Tour! And interesting wander through the brain. All in about 45 minutes. And yes, we're geeks for going to a 7:45PM Imax movie on a Saturday. But it was cool.
Labels: Dogs, Movies, pregnancy
Sultry Summer Days
Things around here have been as summery hot as it usually gets around here. Ie in the mid 80s. Which is usually enough to be uncomfortable since central air is not ubiquitous here like it is in Texas. Yesterday's dog walk looked like it was happening in super slo-mo. Even Ginger was content to walk placidly next to me. Which is totally unusual for her, usually she's freaking out over dogs, trains, birds, buses, squirrels, chipmunks, etc. Add to that these days I'm moving super duper slowly and we just crawled along the streets wondering why no one had the courtesy to turn the sprinklers on the lawns.
The endless doctors visits continue. The doc's estimate is that the baby won't be particularly big, and that it will probably be early. My estimate is that he/she will be Lord of the Dance or a Rockette. For entertainment these days, we sort of watch my belly jump around. It's crazy. I can see in Chris's eyes that he's flashing back on Alien. We're talking a LOT of movement, not just the little belly twitches from last month.
In the Tour de France the other day, a labrador retriever took out one of the cyclists and destroyed his wheel. Which gave me cold shivers because I could just picture it being Ginger. As Chris put it..."Love me, Love ME, LOVE ME!" The puppy mantra!
Speaking of the Tour, I have no idea who's going to win this thing. Michael Rasmussen whose last TdF Time Trial was a total disaster is leading the race. If there were no Time Trials, he'd probably win the whole thing. But now we're trying to figure out which of the next 8 riders is good enough time trialer to take the whole thing. It's much more interesting than the Lance years, when the only question was the stage that Lance would take the lead.
And now I'm off to read the live coverage...
Labels: cycling, Dogs, pregnancy
Pronouncement
Ok, people, I need some imagination here. Let's start with the fact that President Bush's popularity rating is in the toilet with everyone. Even his "supporters" hate him. Do we all agree on that? Good. Having said that, I hereby declare that
anyone who compares President Bush to Hitler completely loses my attention and respect. This is because of two things:
1. Hitler: Murdered 6 million of his own citizens in gas chambers. Comparing someone whose policies you don't like to Hitler strikes me as something that would be extremely offensive to the survivors of those concentration camps and disrespectful to those who were starved, tortured and killed. Plenty of presidents have waged war, plenty of presidents have had distasteful policies. Casualties of war are still different than what Hitler did. Let's have a little respect for the survivors of the Holocaust.
2. How about some imagination? Maybe he's more like LBJ or Robert McNamara? Maybe J Edgar Hoover? Those of you with a little more culture might be able to pull up a figure from overseas.
Pope Alexander II anyone? Going to the same old comparison doesn't show any eternal truths, it's more like a serious lack of creativity or knowledge. If you're comparing President Bush to Hitler because you don't know any other historical figures, maybe you just shouldn't make any comparison at all.
I'm not saying that people can't complain about President Bush or his policies, I'm merely suggesting that maybe just comparing him to history's officially sanctioned bad guy doesn't show an understanding of the current administration. Honestly not even Stalin or Lenin would be good comparisons because of the huge amount of people that they offed. But at least you would then pass the imagination test since no one seems to have gone there.
Stuff you can't make up
I passed these lawyers yesterday while running errands:
Apple and Apple, P.C.Which of course made Chris remember his favorite law firm in Murrysville:
Bickers & Bickers
Ow Ow Ow, my head!
They're talking about dropping Churchill from
England's history syllabus for 11-14 year olds. How is this at all sane? I like the commenter who was happy to see Churchill go because he/she (I don't remember who it was) didn't like Churchill. What? Where does this ridiculous notion come from that we should only learn about people we like? To add to the goodies....they're also dropping Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi, Joseph Stalin and Martin Luther King. Surely they jest. What the heck is left to talk about?
People make me crazy.
Lucky Day
Ok, today hasn't been particularly lucky or unlucky. But it is Friday the 13th!
Busy week. Some of it is the drs-appt, monitoring, drs-appt, monitoring cycle I'm currently in. But more of it was a visit from JBV so he could do a presentation at a seminar they were having at Masters Natz. Poor guy, he got here on one of the 3 miserable hot nights we have had this year. Can you say "no ac?" I thought you could. Thankfully Wed a storm blew through and it became sleeping weather overnight. Phew. Then Chris and JBV made the mistake of leaving the house. And Ginger took advantage of that to get into his toiletries bag and chew everything. Until I got home last night, we thought she had eaten the head of his razor. Sigh. Do we know how to show a guest a good time, or what? I think in my heart of hearts, I know that Ginger is going to need an operation at some point to have something she ate removed from her intestines.
Monitoring stuff went well today. Both of the drs in my practice were at the hospital, so I'm assuming they both had patients in delivery. They both popped in to see how my monitoring was going. Dr Z told me not to mow the lawn this weekend (sorry, sweetie!), to which I complained that he never let me have any fun. Dr C looked beat, poor guy. Must have been a super duper early morning.
I've become the voice of the disaffected at work. I blame all of my crankiness on hormones, and have told the guys that they're welcome to blame their crankiness on my hormones as well. When I have a built in excuse like pregnancy for everything from forgetfulness, to crankiness, and clumsiness, I feel that I should share the wealth. But anyway, when they're worried about something, I have no probs talking to my boss. I figure as long as I'm not memorably nasty, they'll forget my kvetching by the time I get back from maternity leave anyway.
And this is the baby pool at work. Just for fun, no money on the line. I'm amazed at how conservative everyone has been on the DOB and the weight. Out of 11 guesses only two are 8lbs or over. And none are predicting a hugely early DOB. Only two are predicting I'll deliver late.
Oh and 7 out of 11 think it's a boy.
Labels: Dogs, pregnancy
From the department of "Don't You Have Anything Better to Do?"
Via
Asymmetrical Information and straight from
BRAINJUNE 15, 2007 -- TRENTON, NJ (BRAIN)--The New Jersey bicycle business may be in serious trouble unless retailers and suppliers take immediate action. State legislators earlier this week approved a bill banning the sale of all bikes equipped with current quick release wheels and tabbed tips.
Under the bill, it would be illegal to sell bicycles with quick release wheels unless they met performance specifications that are not commercially available. Assembly bill A2686, which was introduced in February 2006, passed in the assembly with a vote of 77-3 and is now headed to the Senate Commerce Committee.
While originally drafted to ban quick release wheels on children’s bikes, the bill was recently amended to include bikes with 20-inch or larger wheels. It also stipulates that the secondary retention device on a wheel meet certain specifications, including that it activate automatically and always prevent wheel separation.
I've been riding bikes and been around cyclists for 10 years, I don't think I've EVER heard of someone crashing because of their quick release wheel. I do know a lot of people who would have been stranded a bazillion miles from home because they got a flat (or like Chris's friends, 6 flats between 3 of them with only 3 spares!). Quick release means you don't have to carry a tool to take your wheel off. Believe me, on some of those long, hot summer rides, the less things to carry, drop, and try to remember how to use, the better. I'm hoping that I'm really late to the party because it appears that most of the data was from June, but my question is...how is that a body that doesn't know anything about bicycles (duh, obviously) feels qualified to legislate safety?
Labels: cycling
Holy cow....this is real. Yes, I know, I'm the thickest person in the world to be 33 freakin' weeks pregnant before it finally sinks in. But I think the Lamaze class this past weekend pretty much did the trick. Followed up by a meeting at work yesterday to discuss who would have responsibility for projects that will be unfinished when I leave. We're actually talking about when I leave for a few months. It's sort of nuts.
Lamaze really wasn't bad at all, thank heavens. I can see where doing the class as multiple sessions rather than one 5 hour day would probably have been good. We're hit with a lot of stuff all at once. And yes, we watched the clip of "Miracle of Life" with the hippy couple giving birth. But we lucked out, the VCR died and they couldn't show us the movie on (shudder) episiotomy. Er, I'm perfectly happy with letting certain things happen without having complete details and visual. No, really, no mirrors for me. But at this point it's sort of hard to avoid the concept that yes, we really are having a baby.
Which brings us to the nightmare room from hell, aka the future nursery. The good news is that we got another box moved to the basement, with my having gone through and thrown more things out, filed some things, etc. Oh and shown Chris my prom picture. My teenage years (like most people, I guess) were not my finest years. Anyway, in about 2 weeks, I'm afraid we're just going to have to move everything as-is to the basement, because we need a place to put all of the baby stuff. As fast as I'm moving it out of one corner, the other corner is filling up with cribs, strollers, clothes, infant car seats.... At some point I'm just going to have to say "this is it" and set up the changing table and crib, put all the cute little stuff up, etc. Being a pack rat doesn't pay. But I'm working hard on making up for my past pack rat sins, and hopefully by the time baby gets here, we'll have a proper room for him/her.
Labels: pregnancy
mental ambling
- Yesterday took the mutts to the park. For the first 10 minutes I was really excited, I was clipping along at an almost reasonable speed. And I wasn't panting. "Woohoo!!" I thought, "I'm doing so great!" Then I realized that was because I was going downhill. And I still had to go back up. DOH!
- Angie sent me an article from the Wall Street Journal about how it's all Mr Rogers's fault that young adults feel overly entitled.
"Don Chance, a finance professor at Louisiana State University, says it dawned on him last spring. The semester was ending, and as usual, students were making a pilgrimage to his office, asking for the extra points needed to lift their grades to A's.
"They felt so entitled," he recalls, "and it just hit me. We can blame Mr. Rogers."
Fred Rogers, the late TV icon, told several generations of children that they were "special" just for being whoever they were. He meant well, and he was a sterling role model in many ways. But what often got lost in his self-esteem-building patter was the idea that being special comes from working hard and having high expectations for yourself"
And my question is...why is a single person to blame? Really, Mr Rogers? I watched Mr Rogers too, but I've never asked a professor to change my grade for anything other than a mistake. And I was hardly alone among my classmates with that. Color me skeptical on this one!
- Went to have Peanut monitored this AM. The idea is that when the baby kicks, the heart rate should increase and all will be considered well. Let me tell you, our kid is a champ. They gave me this little button to push everytime I felt him/her move. It looked like I was playing a video game, I pushed it so often. Think of the possibilities, Peanut could be a Karate expert, an international soccer star, a member of the "Lord of the Dance" cast.... The possibilities are endless!
- After being such a dud on my birthday, tomorrow we're going to try again. I was totally non-functional, so we'll see if I can sneak a nap in between our Lamaze class and my birthday dinner. Then I might be able to hold a conversation - woohoo!
- Fred actually did better this year with the fireworks - no more staring into the corner of the room like a re-enactment of The Blair Witch Project. I think it probably had something to do with the fact that Ginger was completely oblivious to the scariness of the loud banging things around her head. As a matter of fact, I sat on the front porch and Ging just stood with her front on the wall waiting to see if anything barkable went by. Fred came out for 2 seconds, but his bravery didn't extend to getting CLOSER to the lound banging things. Are you nuts? But while he wasn't happy, he also wasn't immobilized. And I'll take that!
- Flipping around last night I ran across the tribute to Heart last night. And I've got to ask... Who thought to pair Gretchen Wilson with Alice in Chains? That ended up being inspired. I do love Heart (yeah, shut up, I'm a midwestern child of the 80s. I'm just disappointed they don't make IROCs anymore), and it was great to see them on stage. And yes, they no longer look like 20 something glam rockers, but it didn't slow down either of the Wilson sisters in the least. Rock on, WHOOO (flips out lighter).
Labels: pregnancy
Brilliant
The front page of the paper version of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette has a story about fireworks/fourth of July yesterday. The headline is "Bombs Bursting in Air". That's just brilliant. After all of the things that have gone on in Britain and Scotland the last week, is that really an appropriate choice for a fluffy fireworks piece?
Milestone
Today Ginger turns 1 year old. Mostly because this is approximately the right time, and also because it's my birthday too. (She's a pound puppy, we only have the vet's best guess as to when she was born) And the country turns 231 years old. And I turn pretty doggone old. Sigh....40 to be precise. Looking back, it's sort of amazing to find myself where I am. 10 years ago I was very, very, VERY single with no dogs and sort of no aim in life. Now I'm married to the greatest guy in the world with two dogs and a baby on the way. And my aim in life is to work with my hubby keep her off the pole if we have a girl. If we have a boy, it's to teach him respect for women without denigrating the areas that men are strong. Not too shabby, I've made great strides in the last few years, thank heavens.
And how do I know I'm very, very pregnant? Because a couple of weeks ago I told Chris that I wanted to go to Cleveland to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But now I realize that what I really want instead is a nap.
Have a great 4th of July!
Buying Into the Green Movement
Good article in the
NY Times (I believe a subscription is required) about how the green movement is being subverted from "don't use what you don't need" to "pay 3 times the going rate for things you didn't need anyway". Although I have to say what I think I need, and what people like "
No Impact Man" think I need are pretty widely separated. I think I need...electricity...
Tear your heart out and stomp that sucker flat
What a sad scenario - a beautiful dog that will need a home much to the dismay of both owners and dog. If you can help out call
Steve & Haliel Selig
412 - 260 - 5098 –Haliel’s Cell
412 - 260 - 5775 –Steven’s Cell
(If someone outside of the Pgh area needs help getting her transported to where they are, let me know. We can see if we can help arrange something).
To read the document, click on it, and it will be bigger.
Labels: Dogs
Buy that man a beer
Poor hubby. We have now moved into the phase of pregnancy officially known as the "Whiny Trimester". Let's start out with "I have nothing to complain about." Everything has been going pretty well so far. But I'm most definitely starting to feel the joys of carrying an extra 25lbs. Let me tell you, this is the best incentive I can have to work out after the baby is born. I'm tired all of the time, my joints sometimes hurt, and I've lost all fluidity of motion. If I get myself down to the floor to play with dogs or assemble a filing cabinet (why yes, it was an exciting weekend), I need a crane to get up. And the bad thing is....it's not really bad enough to warrant my grumbling. It really isn't.
So if you see my husband, buy that man a mint julep. He's more than earned it.
Labels: pregnancy
Ewwww moment
So every weekend I try to get the dogs to the ballfield near our house to burn off energy. And a good time is had by all when the leashes come off. There's birds to be chased, rough-housing to be accomplished, a ball to be thrown... But yesterday the rough-housing went a little awry. I heard Ginger yelp, so I called to the dogs and they went back to running in circles for a few more minutes. Sometimes Fred is a little too rough, but when he's really hard on her, there's a sustained wail. Then I have to break them up and direct them to other games. Anyway, as I started to round them up to head back home I realized the side of Ginger's face and the top of her head were covered in blood. The best we can figure, Fred must have bitten down too hard on her ear while they were rough-housing, and then she drew back. She has a big slice out of her ear. And it didn't stop bleeding for quite a while which meant that after getting home we had a lot of blood clean up off of bedding, clothes, and my knee. I looked like I'd made good on my threats to bury Ginger in the backyard.
I tell myself this is what it would be like to have a boy - crazy disgusting injuries that make a queasy mom flip out. Eeks.
Labels: Dogs
