A Day for Karma

Focusing on the positive... poor baby Cassie got fixed yesterday and tried to pull out her stitches so she has to wear this thing around her neck but DANG doesn't she look cute!

Can't resist this note on bad karma: this morning we came out of the house to see our neighbor's car had been broken into and his expensive stereo stolen. He drives around our quiet neighborhood with the stereo blaring all the time and they have loud parties with their garage door open so we get to hear everything. We haven't been hit by thieves yet so I think Bill will need to put motion detecting lights in front of the house as a deterrant but our cars are quite homely compared to the BMW and SUV these college kids drive. Did I mention their parents bought their house for them? We love them as neighboors (please graduate!)

And finally, it was announced in the local media today that my boss was arrested on DUII and assault charges after running his car into someone's garage. I won't be commenting further.

Back to the positive... sleeping kitties are the best kitties.

Fine with it

Yesterday sucked! First my embroidery contact for tribabe.com notified me that she is leaving town this weekend for one week, the last week before I leave for our honeymoon which is right in the heat of the holiday rush. So I have to find someone else to handle the embroidery for my business or I have to shut the web store down in the next 24 hours.

Then I got bad news from my boss at the university but I can't put it on my blog because it hasn't been announced yet. A big change is coming in my work world and I'm not happy about it in any way. Sorry to be so cryptic but I know a couple of people at the university read my blog so I can't put details out yet.

Bill (smart and loving husband) took a night off from marathon studying and cooked dinner for me and we watched an old movie (Boomerang with Eddie Murhphy--love that movie and the soundtrack is the best!) and drank hot cocoa with whipped cream on top together. He also took the dog for a run which was a great relief to me, Bill has almost stopped working out since he started school and I've been trying to keep the dog exercised by myself which isn't easy people. Since I've known Bill he's been training for Ironmans so to see him swim once a week and run every other week is a bit of a shock. The one great thing about it is that he is fine with it. No worries about getting out of shape or losing his competitive edge, he's just fine with it.

So my goal for today is to be fine with myself. I have swim class, a date for coffee with a friend, and work piling up but its going to be a good day. I'm going to go make a video of myself singing "Forget your troubles come on get happy, its going to be a beautiful day!" and post it on my blog. Hold your breath waiting for it!

Cranky!

Grrr my massage appt got canceled so the stuck back and bad attitude continues... Based on my horroscope for today I need a movie or book and to not express anger toward Bill (oops! messed that up already!) Here is the horrorscope:

You are being pushed and pulled all over the place and you might be close to snapping like an over-stretched rubber band. You can pull yourself together, but one little thing could just set you off again. Expressing your anger toward a loved one isn't going to help matters. No matter how much the situation is bothering you, today's solution requires you to change your attitude. And while you're doing your inner work, try some healthy outer distractions like spectator sports, a movie or reading a good novel.

I guess I can replace an hour long massage with walking the dog in 20 degree weather. gr gr gr gr gr grrr grrr grr gr grrrrrrrr brrr brrr brrr brrrr brrrrrrr

I know, my problems aren't that bad. I'm just CRANKY!

Dogs love snow

Well my wish for a snow day didn't come true, it snowed and we accumulated an inch but the university didn't close. Bummer! I have to take Baby Cassie in to the vet for her pre-op exam and then tomorrow our little sweetheart gets fixed. I bet Marshall will cuddle her and take care of her when she gets home. I don't know how to winterize a yard so I hope these freezing temperatures don't kill everything.

I am in a foul mood today. Bill's school schedule has been crazy busy (home at midnight Sunday then home at 9pm last night) and he's not in the best mood and I'm handling everything at home and getting busy with orders on tribabe.com for the holidays so... yeah I am cranky. I have a massage scheduled for tonight so hopefully that will set me straight, my back is still stuck so I'm going to ask her to focus on my hips to see if we can get them loosened up. Here is a short video of Marshall running around in the snow this morning, if this doesn't cheer me up...

How about a trip to Mexico now?

Photo taken with my mobile phone and posted to my blog by emailing to blogger. SO cool! While we are in Mexico I will have to take pics and send to the blog. It's snowing here in the Willamette Valley with more snow in the forecast but its not supposed to accumulate to much. We'll see if we wake up to a snow day tomorrow! It typically does not snow in Corvallis and never this early in the year!

On the road with the funny farm

Ms Kitty sitting on my lap for the 6.5 hour drive from Corvallis to Spokane. We left Thursday morning for the long drive with 2 cats, 1 dog, cross country skis and Xmas presents. Plus Bill brought his school books and planned to study during the entire trip which left me with the driving. I like driving through the Columbia Gorge area, its quite stunning, but the heavy rains kept me from feeling too inspired by the view.

Marshall with Baby Cassie in the backseat. We arrived in Spokane just in time for a huge turkey dinner and plenty of pie. The animals assimilated well to my parents animals and Cassie got to see her mommie (Spaz) and brother (Blacky) and the kitty hijinx went into high speed as Cassie and Blacky chased eachother around the house. Marshall was on high alert and spent the entire weekend trying to track the comings and goings of the people and cats. I had to take him on a long walk when we got back so he could settle down.

Friday we went for a hike at the Dishman Hills area and ate plenty of turkey leftovers which resulted in napping. We woke up in time for the Civil War football game and the Beavers beat the Ducks at the last minute for a very exciting game. There were more leftovers and more napping and the weekend was basically a big turkey napping blur. The hike lead us to the top of a hill with views ranging from downtown Spokane all the way over to Idaho. Click on this photo of me looking like a giraffe next to my mom to see the view to Idaho.

Saturday we hiked down by the Spokane River and then packed it up to drive the 6.5 hours home. A severe weather alert and forecast for several inches of snow got us out of town early, plus Bill had a 20 page paper to work on with his venture planning group so we needed to get home anyway! Here is Marshall loving up my mom and sister in the back seat of the car, he has a way with the ladies. Its snowing in Corvallis today with more snow tomorrow so I'm hoping for a snow day so I can stay home and cuddle the critters!

Retro race report: Wildflower 2003

This race was significant for me as this is where Bill and I looked at eachother with new eyes. We knew eachother through the triathlon club and I was always intrigued by Bill but I was dating someone and Bill seemed really into Ironman triathlons and not too into goofy women. Still, whenever we were in a room together, I found myself wanting to be near him. On the long drive down to Lake San Antonio in California I announced that I had broken off the relationship I had been in which would have been great for Bill to hear except he was napping in the back of the van. Yep, that's a photo of him so its documented.

At that time I was working full time and taking enough credits at OSU to be considered a full time student so I raced in the Collegiate Olympic distance race. I had been hanging out with a bunch of young college girls and one of them convinced me not to shave my legs for several weeks leading up to the race so that when we got there we could shave as part of our pre race ritual. That was a gross idea, don't ask me how I fell for it! We had a small team that year, three girls and three guys to complete our team but we hoped we could do relatively well with the talent we thought we had.

The weather at Wildflower can be really hot but this year it decided to dump rain on Fri and Sat. Sat morning we woke up with a small river flowing in front of our tent The race organizer had to modify the run course due to flooding which meant we had a much more difficult course to run on race day. I'll get back to that, but first, some more romance...

I asked Bill to go on a walk with me Saturday evening and so we got away from everyone for some private time. Bill detailed his Ironman experiences to me which only caused me to think that he REALLY was into triathlon. He was actually was training through Wildflower and had ridden the 1/2 Ironman course the day before our event so I was thinking he was kind of hard core. He is hard core (BTW he swam 1000 IM today because I was giving him a bad time about not swimming). While we were walking he would put his hand on my back to steer me clear of curbs and was quite the gentleman. I couldn't tell for sure if he was into me so later that night I reached over and touched his nose. He just sat there like a deer in headlights so I touched his nose again (hoping he liked me and wasn't horrified) and he finally reacted and touched my hair. It was really sweet and the beginning of our relationship. Neither one of us slept that night, we were too wound up by eachother and the race the next day.

Race day: the collegiate wave starts first with the men and then the women. Its great because you get to see the thousands of other racers as you come back on the bike, its like you are leading a gigantic race. I thought I had a rough time on the swim but when I came into T1 my two female teammates were still there and they are much better swimmers than I am so I thought I was about to have an awesome race! I went out hard on the bike, passing a bunch of people on the first hill. I think I red lined really fast and it took about 12 miles before I realized I was not going to have a great day. Dork! Then it became a race to not get passed by my teammates for the rest of the 24 mile bike ride. I was on the verge of cracking and still had a hard run ahead.

I got into T2 first but my teammate was right behind me. Not good, typically I am a better cyclist and a better runner but not today! I left T2 first but once I hit the first hill on the run I had to walk. They modifed the course to go up the 1/2 Ironman bike course which is a long steep hill right out of the transition area. I walked and my teammate caught me, she was running slow so I just kept her in my sight. As soon as it flattened out I passed her back and started running hard again until the next hill when I was reduced to a walk again. I could not get my legs to run up a hill which was the first time I had ever experienced something like that before. So I kept the back and forth going, encouraging my teammate to come run with me when I ran the flat parts. She couldn't go any faster. Finally, I hit the downhill to get back to the finish line, its a long steep hill that kills your quads to run down. I tried to open up my run but my legs were screaming so I could only modestly hobble down to the finish chute. I tried to finish strong and beat my poor teammate by 15 seconds.

I wish I would have waited for her and that we would have run in together so lesson learned there. She was the one who got me not to shave my legs so I guess we're even now. Here are my painful splits: swim 31:20 bike 1:30:16 run 53:46 (my slowest 10k)

Bill was a little more triumpant: swim 22:32 bike 1:11:19 run 41:02 Our team finished 6th out of 10 teams. After racing we had a long ride in the van to get home. Even though I was exhausted from racing, I was giddy about the potential with Bill. Turns out that my life was really just a long ride to get to this day, the day I found my life partner in Bill.

2 pies per person

Pic from last Xmas at Mt Spokane. The weather forecast for Spokane, WA this weekend is for snow so we'll have to load the cross country skis and snow clothes into the car for our trip tomorrow. My mom emailed me that she has made 9 pies so far, since there are only going to be 5 of us for dinner, I think Bill is going to be eating a lot of pie. Actually, I know she has plans to give some pies away but still, we are going to be eating some serious pie.

We are also celebrating Christmas with my family while we are there so I will be wrapping presents tonight, I don't feel ready to do that yet but I am.

Random news: I am thinking about taking guitar lessons next Jan. I used to sing with a small band (actually it was less of a band and more of a random assortment of musicians who were available that night) but all of the performances were in bars on weeknights and I don't have any interest in that anymore. I was meeting a guy once or twice a week to practice old jazz tunes but it kept coming back to performing in bars on weeknights. Now that I'm not triathlon training as much I have more time and energy so I think its time for me to get back into music.

So I'm just warning you that I will be talking about music next year in addition to babbling about my pets. I can't wait, I have held back from playing guitar because of arthritis but if I can practice with moderation then maybe I can make it hapen. I am going to be such a stereotypical Oregonian once I play the accoustic guitar! Jeez I just need to go vegetarian and then I'll be genuine.

Monster swims and wild beasts

I'm going to post some retro race reports tomorrow to keep the unfortunate people who read my blog mildly entertained while we are away for Thanksgiving weekend. By the way, our swim class is gearing up for a monster swim competition next Friday, the events are:

200 fly
1650 free
400 IM

Bill has only been able to swim once a week since September but he still thinks he can beat everyone in the class at this swim. I am getting ready to be entertained by his attempt.

Bill took this photo using the camera on his cell phone. The entire funny farm is sacked out on the couch with me. Yes, we let them on the couch. I want to frame this and put it in our entryway:

ALL NON-PET OWNERS WHO VISIT & LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS

1. They live here. You don't.

2. If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.
(That's why they call it "fur"niture.)

3. I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.

4. To you, it's an animal. To me, he/she is an adopted son/daughter
who is short, hairy, walks on all fours and doesn't speak clearly.

Here is another funny one:
Dear Dogs and Cats,

The dishes with the paw print are yours and contain your food. The
other dishes are mine and contain my food. Please note, placing a
paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim
for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically
pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Beating
me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I
fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry
about this. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to
ensure your comfort. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball
when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each
other stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know
that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out the
other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is not a secret exit from the bathroom. If
by some miracle I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it
is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get
your paw under the edge and try to pull the door open. I must exit
through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the
bathroom for years --canine or feline attendance is not mandatory.

The proper order is kiss me, then go smell the other dog or cat's
butt. I cannot stress this enough!

Drinking beer and football

I forgot to follow up on the turkey cupcakes train of thought... I get Betty Crocker recipe of the day updates and I thought these cute things were poorly named. Well I had a nice weekend but I'm not sure that Bill did...

Saturday I went on hike with the ladies and the dog then watched The Big Football game at the sports park with a bunch of men (and Bill). We drank too much beer, ate a bunch of tater tots and hot wings and then went back to The Hippie's house for ping pong. Apparently the guys drank way too much and were having trouble keeping upright. I had a great time observing the guys although one of them said "She quit triathlons and she's obsessed with getting pregnant now" which I didn't think was totally fair. I'm not obsessed with it I'm just goal oriented and I am very very focused AND I haven't quit triathlons so stuff it buddy. Maybe I can't hang out with the guys ;) These are the things I need to do before I get pregnant because I'm pretty sure I won't want to hang out with a bunch of boozy guys watching football when I'm 7 months pregnant. Who knows though!?!

Sunday we went to Bill's favorite place on the planet: Costco and I had to stop him from putting Xmas gifts in the cart for himself. He was good though and we were able to leave without an incident. I made a whole load of hats Sunday afternoon for a group of triathletes up in Canada and tried to clean the house. Little Cassie was having a bad day, she was picking fights with the other animals and had an accident before puking 4 times throughout the night. Fortunately for me, Bill was up until 3:30 am trying to write a paper for his Venture Planning class so he took care of poor Cassie while I slept. Good baby practice ;) I guess I'll spoil him tonight since he had it so rough yesterday.

Turkey cupcakes

Thankgiving is next weekend and we will be headed over to Spokane, WA to see my parents. Bill has nixed the side trip to the Wallawa Mtns because he needs to have time for school work. I'm not too upset because two weeks later we leave for our honeymoon trip to Mexico! Then one week later we leave to see Bill's parents in Phoenix! Then its January which is 2007 which means we can start trying with the baby making! Yeah! Don't worry, I won't detail it on my blog. That would be strange.

We're taking the entire animal kingdom to my parent's small house where 3 dogs and 2 cats live. It is going to be total chaos. I'm going to hang out with my mom and sister and wait for Bill to do something horrifying. Somehow my mom thinks its cute when Bill demands food from his sprawled out position on the couch where he has been hogging the TV for the past 4 hours. It freaks me out because in our house he cooks more than I do and is very helpful and sweet to me. Apparently there is an Al Bundy lurking deep inside my seemingly modern husband. (shudder)

Here is a pic of Cassie playing in a plastic bag, she can't really have toys because Marshall eats them. We are going to be terrible parents ;) This weekend I am going to attempt to hike without throwing out my back again and we're watching the big Ohio State football game with friends. I have a large hat order for a triathlon club up in Canada so I'll be spending several hours in the sewing room. I also need to get back to drinking my Jubelale since the holidays are near! Jubel Jubel... Jubel Jubelale beer!

Volunteers at Silverman triathlon

Monica got up sometime around 4am on Sunday to head out with the rest of the race officials to the swim start. This was her second time serving as a race official and she seemed to know the rules and was excited to catch some bad guys. I was worried about her riding around on the back of a motorcycle all day because it was kind of cold and she is a little thing! Erin and I hit Starbucks and then drove out to Lake Mead to watch the first swimmers come in. The water on the lake looked pretty rough and there were already some swimmers in the medical tent so it probably wasn't going to be a fast swim.

I was hoping to see Jonas (the Swedish Speedo model from the Ladies of Slowtwitch triathlon camp) with the top swimmers but apparently he swam off course and ended up 10 minutes down on the lead guy. His team probably wouldn't have 5 minutes to spare with pro cyclist Tyler Hamilton on the lead team so it didn't look good for the Swedish Doodes early in the day. We decided not to say "hi" to Jonas that day since the prize money was probably weighing on his mind. I read on slowtwitch that Jonas displayed his flawless English with a slew of curse words once he was out of the water.

Erin and I decided to take a detour from the race and go over to Hoover Dam since it was only 6 miles away. There is something really creepy about a big dam. Hoover is pretty narrow and really steep so I felt a little dizzy being near it (don't think about it!) Our volunteer shift didn't start until 4pm so we drove back to town and got some breakfast and then took a nap. Since we didn't spend much time on the Vegas strip I asked Erin if we could just go drive down it so I would feel like I had seen it all in case I don't go there again. The throngs of people were still milling about and it was enough to remind me: nope! Vegas is not my town!

We didn't make it back to the race in time to see the first finisher's but Bill kept in cell phone contact with updates (from his computer at home). The big deal with Silverman was the first team to break 8 hours would win $100k. Apparently the lead team's runner went out too hard and blew up on the run, it was especially bitter because he had plenty of time to finish in under 8 hours but ended up missing it by 16 minutes! He's just a young guy from Kenya and we heard that he crossed the finish line in tears. I'm glad I didn't see that, it was devastating just to hear about it.

We were assigned to stand outside of the men's changing tent at T2 and direct the runners up a little hill and through an archway. Since our shift started at 4pm we were seeing people who had been racing for more than 8 hours and still had a marathon to finish. They were mostly incoherent, Erin was walking with some of them to get them on course. Kind of disturbing! By 5pm it was getting dark and the bike cut off time was fast approaching so these were the last people to get out on the course. It was pretty cold and most of the racers were in shorts and little tops, I don't know how they were going to finish. I think they were moving forward only on sheer will. Very tough people!

After volunteering we headed over to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and drinks (and cheesecake) and then back to the hotel for more girl talk and bed. We were up again by 5am the next day to fly out so not a lot of rest but a very good time indeed. Can't wait for the next girls weekend because this one was a lot of fun!

Tribabes in Vegas

Check out Erin, she's so sparkly and cute in her Vegas outfit. More pics in my photo album >
Our story continues...

Monica dropped us off at the Bellagio so we could eat and see the sights of the Strip. Monica had just been in Vegas for a conference and she was sick so she wasn't too hot to tramp around in high heeled shoes with us. She recommended we eat at Sensi which had both Italian and Asian food, it was kind of wierd but very good. We started off with some cocktails and then had appetizers for dinner. I think we spent close to $100 there (don't tell Bill!)

Here I am posing in front of the gelato shop. MMMMMM cascading chocolate! After dinner and drinks we watched the water show in front of the Bellagio and then attempted to walk around but we didn't last too long before hopping a taxi back to our hotel in Henderson. The mobs of people, cigarette smoke, artifical environment and flashing lights were totally overwhelming. For me, it was kind of a nightmare. I guess you won't be suprised that we didn't gamble or go into any nightclubs--I know that is what we were supposed to do but it just wasn't appealing.

Yep, we tried but we just weren't cut out for the Las Vegas strip. But we did have fun chatting it up in the hotel room and at restaurants. I think Monica's mouth hurt from talking so much--zing! Just teasing girl! and shopping. Um, I'm not going to tell you about the shopping. Really the best part of the trip was just hanging out with my new girlfriends, we bonded quickly and had an excellent time. Very pleasurable indeed!

Tomorrow: Silverman triathlon is WAY hard core.

End of triathlon season in Sin City

My triathlon season this year was not good. I planned on improving on my NW ranking and ended up bombing in the sprint championship before bailing on the season so I could finish planning our wedding. I'm not going to lie, it was depressing. After the wedding in September, I had to start gaining weight to prepare my body for getting pregnant so I cut my activity level down and gained ~10 pounds. Not easy for a thin framed triathlete to handle.

Anyway, I needed to do something fun for myself that was triathlon related so volunteering at Silverman triathlon and a trip to Vegas with the girls was really just a perfect idea for me. Luckily my girl Erin from Washington was in for the trip so we met at the airport in Portland and flew down together.

Triathlon is a huge part of my life and I enjoy meeting other triathletes and find that I really connect with the fun-loving but competitive people who do triathlons. Some triathletes don't pursue fun, they are so focused on racing and training that there isn't time for much else. I know they enjoy what they do, but I just can't connect the dots on a personal level with them. It is so much easier for me to connect with the self improving and dedicated types that can still enjoy a trip to the mall and a margarita. Which is exactly what Erin and I did after we checked into our hotel in Vegas.

We planned to get dressed up and hit the Strip on Friday because Saturday night would be an early bed time due to the 6:30 am Sunday race start. Even though our suitcases were packed full of clothes and shoes, we knew the highest priority was to obtain NEWER clothes and shoes so off we went for a quick shopping spree.

Our 3rd (Monica) called from the LV airport and had been waiting for her bags for an hour and 15 minutes and was now in a 30 minute line to get a taxi. LAME! Erin and I embarked upon a major project while waiting for Monica: hair and make up. Folks, I do not wear much make up or do my hair in my daily life because I'm at the pool most days and it just isn't worth it. So I just applied a bunch of spackle and curled my hair (just like high school!) and put on a tube top and wa-la! I looked like a street walker! Erin and I laughed at how ridiculous we felt in our fancy outfits and decided to pose for provacative pics when in walks Monica!

Nice to meet you Monica, I'm posing like a prostitute! Oh well, she took it in stride and despite a very long day got herself together and drove Erin and I to the Bellagio so we could have dinner (at 10:30 at night). Monica was battling broncitis so she went back to the hotel and slept while Erin and I hit the streets.

Tomorrow: what happens when two triathletes from the Pacific Northwest dressed like street walkers hit the Vegas strip for the first time?

I'm back from Vegas

I'm really tired and need to go to the chiro and walk the dog so real quick: had a blast in Las Vegas! Did all the required girl things (makeup, hair and SHOPPING!) We volunteered at Silverman triathlon and had fun watching the hard core people trying to finish the race (ouch!) and one great highlight...

I gave triathlon great Dave Scott a "POSER" hat. Oh jeez. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm crazy. I told him to give it to Simon Lessing if he didn't want to wear it and he basically said he wouldn't give Simon anything! It was funny.

I'll spill details and post cute pics tomorrow when I'm not jonesing for my puppy and kitties (and hubby).

Taking my new hippie shoes to Vegas

Wow! I got knocked on my butt from that lower back problem. I didn't walk farther than a block for five days but I finally got off the muscle relaxers yesterday. I have side twisting mobilty and I can stand upright but I still can't bend over. The muscles in my hips are cramping from over compensating from my out of whack core. This is totally ridiculous because in the days leading up to this I was going easy in swim class and doing my walks in flat areas. I was being very easy on myself. And yet I end up flat on my back. What can I do!?! I am perplexed.

I am getting on the plane tomorrow morning at 10 am and hoping I don't end up needing a wheelchair while we are in Vegas. If I didn't feel old after turning 34 well I really feel old now. I couldn't walk the dog or do anything all week except watch chick flicks (The Break Up with Jennifer Aniston was suprisingly good!) and go to the office for a few hours at a time.

I bought some Earth shoes yesterday, supposedly they make you stand straighter by lowering the heel like you are walking in sand. They are very granola/Oregon and I'm wearing them to Vegas so I guess no heels for me. If my back gets better then I'm wearing something cute!

I am volunteering at Silverman triathlon at Lake Mead and hanging out with some tri babes this weekend. Yeah for girl's weekend! I hope Erin doesn't have to push me around in a wheelchair because then I won't be able to show off my new skinny jeans. Maybe some good luck while come my way in Vegas! For those interested, live coverage of the race will be available online at: http://silvermancoverage.com/ We will be volunteering in T2. I'll post pics when I get back or while I'm there if Erin has her laptop. BYE for now!

I have turned into my mother

I managed to put my sacrum out of alignment on Friday and spent the entire weekend on the couch trying to stomach muscle relaxers. Saturday night I was so desperately bored I asked Bill to help me clean the house (for something fun to do) and I waddled around moaning and saying, "oh my back! ah that hurts!" Bill looked at me and said, "Sit down, you sound just like your mother!"

My mom always has back problems and never lets it slow her down so its not uncommon to hear her say, "Ouch that hurts!" While she's lifting something gigantic. My chiro tried to adjust it after some massage but it wouldn't budge so I get to go back tomorrow. At least my boss at work got sympathetic and is buying me a new chair with back support. I think I am doing better, I can stand without wanting to scream, but I need to take it easy so we can get rested for my trip to Las Vegas on Friday.

By the way, I haven't had a drink since the Halloween party last weekend. Not even a Jubelale! I got to get back on track, the holidays are near!

Sweet swimmers

Our swim class got us a wedding present--isn't that sweet! The hard main set of the week:
400IM
4x400

Going to a party this evening to celebrate Griz's Kona finish. Not sure what else we are doing because I've been too busy to plan anything else so we'll see what happens when we don't have a plan.

Evil Tribabe

Check out our Evil Tribabe pumpkin. We had some very cute trick or treaters stop by last night but not nearly enough so we have lots of candy left over. DARN! Explain this to me: how can the forecast say low: 43 but the current temp is 32F? I'm looking forward to the trip to Las Vegas next weekend where its sunny and mid 70s. I still don't have anything stylish to wear and I don't know that will change before I leave, I'm pretty clueless about this stuff now but I'm going to try to find something this weekend. Oy.

Here is a pic of Cassie sleeping under a blanket last night. I rented "Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift" for Bill and realized that was a big mistake. He decided he was going to learn how to "drift" around our housing development in his Subaru wagon. How is it that people think I'm the wierd one!?!