June dingoes runnin' in the sun! - Page 37

[poppywise]

and on-topic, congrats gaye and karen!! i can't wait to read about your races.

[nancy926]

poppy, that's terrible....I'm not sure I would have done anything different from what you did. Not to be cynical, but there's no way to change her parenting "style" in a few seconds at Target...you might have been able to keep her from spanking the kid in the store, but who knows how much worse that could have made it for him at home. How sad.

towson -- wow on that race! and I have to say your race time seemed fast to me. But then, I am a penguin at heart. And I'm pretty sure the race directors have a twisted sense of humor, given the gist of that last email you shared.

RR: I did 6 today in the melty humidness of Vermont. I suppose compared with Arizona or Vegas it was not all that hot...in fact, you probably would have thought your refrigerator was warmer! But still, I am acclimated to VT and I was sweating buckets. I ran into a friend around mile 4, and she was doing 10 miles, so we ran 2 together and then she went on her way alone. This is the second time I've run into a runner-friend in the past few weeks.....and it never happened before this in all of my 8-ish years running. Cue Twilight Zone music....

Okay, I am wiped out from a day of yard work and swimming and cleaning and erranding, as well as those 6 miles. Sign me out.
NV

[mothercat]

Originally Posted by poppywise

thanks mothercat, you are right. i did look around for a store employee but didn't see one nearby. what's weird is that even though she was loud and clearly hitting her child while tucked away in the shoe aisles, she was not visibly out of control, which is even scarier to me. she acted like she was going through the motions. like raised voice, yes, but not upset herself, does that make sense? she would have stopped by the time i reached the front of the store, so i was wondering what in those situations could actually be done? but you know what, hopefully they are trained for that sort of thing and i shouldn't have really let that keep me from informing someone. oy i am just mad now that i didn't do anything

It is those people who are so cold about their cruelness that really scare me. People generally think the abuse is a crime of passion, it's not. It is a cold, planned form of control.

I'm just sorry that the usually always present security was not where they should have been.

Linda

[tjsmama]

Ok, race report is up here. Official results weren't as bad as they felt. 1:16:12 for a super-short sprint tri! The winner finished in 57 minutes!

Ceiling fan #1 was well on its way to being installed this afternoon. I assembled it and hooked up all the wiring. Went to mount it...they packed the wrong screws. They're the right shape, and the right length, but not nearly thick enough. I even double-checked the other fan to see if I accidentally used the wrong screws somewhere else. Nope, that one has the same, wrong size screws. ARGH. So, now I get to call the company tomorrow and hope they can send some right-sized screws out pronto, as I currently have a partially assembled ceiling fan hanging from my ceiling. :

[Plady]

Gaye! Great race report. I remember that flying feeling the first (and last) time I did a tri with a real racing bike. Wow what a difference! How did transition go with the wetsuit? I've never worn one except for at a scuba class and I cannot imagine getting out of one quickly.

Towson - Hey, you were there! And there were hills! And, getting mad about not leaving it all out there has just revived your motivation right? So it's all good! for you!

Poppy - I wouldn't have thought of store security. I'm sure I'd have been paralyzed too. It's hardly the kind of situation we plan on being involved in when we're headed out for a new pair of sneakers.

Geo - Glad you're home safe, wild how small your pond is!

No RR to report. We went on a Whale Watch today. Dh needed to get out on the water, we all did, to remind ourselves of how awesome it is to live here. Okay, I don't need reminding but he does. Constantly. I am really beginning to struggle with being the sunny one. Not that I'm not naturally sunny, I actually am pretty optimistic/happy/joyful etc but when it feels like I constantly have to remind someone who has a great life that they have a great life I start feeling rather snarky. And of course that doesn't help. Poppy, what was that meditation smilie?
So oh well.
Dd's show was great fun. Ali G watched it intently not just once but twice. I had no idea a 10 month old could be so interested in anything. I was really stunned. Anyway, there are pix on the blog if any of you are Children's Theatre fans .
This coming week dd1 heads to day camp for a nice long day and hopefully dh and I will be able to get some babysitter time and get some real progress made on this house. Last week we ripped off this silly porch roof that didn't match the style of the house at all and that felt good. Now we need to really bust a move on gutters, a deck, a front door, getting the staircase up to code, kitchen everything, shingling etc etc etc.
: Ommmmmmmmmmmm........

[JayGee]

Great race report, Gaye . I know you're a little disappointed, but seriously, you did really well! With a swim that short though, why bother getting wet ~ makes you think about the hours we put in at the pool each week just for 5-10min in the water.... You're so ready for your Oly though, even if you don't think so.

Plady ~ great pictures from the show! Your Bunny is just adorable . Good luck with those renovations.

Poppy ~ I just hate hearing a child being hurt by a parent. Even just nasty words are enough to make my blood boil. Of course, I never do a thing. My Mom, on the other hand, I've seen her stop parents from hitting kids, stop boyfriends from hitting their girlfriends, and just basically put herself out there when she sees someone getting hurt. Yay Mom!

I had a lovely, cool, non-humid 5 mile run last night after putting the girls to bed. It was so nice to run at dusk. Tonight I'm going to coached adult swim clinic at the IU pool, in hopes that the coach can tell me why I'm so freaking slow in the water!

And Gaye, you reminded me that I need to borrow/rent a wetsuit for Chicago. Apparently, Lake Michigan isn't as warm in August as I'd hoped.

[1jooj]

Penelope, you ARE living my life! We installed doors upstairs yesterday, including an exterior french door. Today, a roofer is coming to measure and estimate labor for that job. Funny story, actually. A carload of people pulled in the yard yesterday to ask whether we have goats for sale. They wanted one for cabrito for this weekend. We don't have any, and somehow the conversation turned to roofing. The guy's cousin runs a roofing crew, so an hour later he was back with the crew to look at the roof. It's the full job--tear down to nothing and totally start over. Yay.

Carpet guy is also coming with samples this week. Then there's painting and moulding, and a balcony railing to replace. And voila, bedrooms for the whole family!

Then we'll need a good 6 months to recover (financially), and we'll take on putting in an upstairs bathroom.

Shoot. That reminds me that the bees are swarmy again (don't know why, but it does). I think we need another super for the hive. We seriously need a couple empty hives, I think. The bees are having such a season, I bet they could produce a couple colonies for us.

Anyway mamas, I finished my 14 miles yesterday. The weather was perfect. Cool, overcast, even some rain but no lightning/thunder. I chafed my pits something fierce, and also discovered it is time for new running pants. : And shoes. But I finished in plenty of time to take dd to be seen for a sore throat (yup, strep), and do groceries and chores while dh worked upstairs.

I'm so ready to be done with the upstairs. Wish I had a big lump of cash to take care of the whole business at once, but ah well. Soon we'll have bedrooms.

(And today will be a rest day for me.)

Oh! And! I started a batch of kombucha last week. It's not very warm in our house most of the time (brick farmhouse), but it's starting to grow. Yay! A nice lady gave me the mother, and I'll be sharing with my work/running friend once it reproduces.:

[towsonmama]

gaye~Great race report!! I am totally in awe of you tri women. No way, no how here. You rock! ing for the MRI report.

poppy~ I didn't respond yesterday because I wanted to think about it first but I don't know of anything I would have done differently. I agree with others about possibly triggering a harsher punishment at home by intervening in public. It's so sad.

bbm~Your vacation sounds wonderful! Virginia is definitely beautiful. Can't wait to see your pics!

nancy~Humidity is a b%#^tch isn't it?!? Summer has arrived on the East coast for sure. I can't even imagine what it's like near the water. I remember trying to run in Ocean City last summer and it was dreadful.

jooj~ for dd. I hope the strep heals quickly.

[poppywise]

i could not sleep last night because of that whole thing. and it occurred to me that i was just spreading the yuk by posting it in full here...so i am sorry if i caused any bad vibes or uncomfortable feelings. i may go back and edit my post and i am putting an extra icon in my siggie to send vibes into the universe for that sweet little boy. thanks for all the feedback everyone.

plady - i have never been to mexico, so i cannot draw a comparison, but i love the SJI so much, i can't imagine anyone not liking it there! it's so wonderful. i hope your dh can grow to love it. and hey, cheryl ann is deeply involved in theatre - she could probably lend some advice on getting involved

tjsmama - what a great race!! sorry about the ceiling fan woes

jo - that's cool you met a running mama friend the other day! sounds like your place is coming along so nicely...can't wait to see photos of the finished results. speaking of photos...you see reb anymore? i know she's busy busy

jaygee - tell your mom i could have used her yesterday! she sounds amazing.

mothercat - you hit the nail on the head with your last post. exactly that kind of person.

here are some better vibes from poppy for all today ...
:

[kate~mom]

i just came to a very unhappy realization - but i think i need to keep it to myself for now to avoid being negative in case it is not accurate.

but i wanted to pop on and share two absolutely hysterical funnies from ds this morning.

1) we were up early, being lazy downstairs with coffee, cereal, cnn and the little people garage. he has to go to the bathroom, so he runs upstairs. returns a minute later, sans underwear - and asks me to go get them. i run upstairs, and go to toss them back down the stairs, so i can go to my room and get the phone i left there. well, i throw them down the stairs and they land IN MY COFFEE MUG! i fix this - tossing the old undies down to the laundry, getting new coffee, and new underwear. ds continues playing - and we go upstairs a little later. i grab my (new) coffee and take a sip. ds gets a HORRIFIED look on his face, and hollers, "MOM! are you drinking my UNDERPANTS?"

2) then i was working on the finishing touches for a report while he was reading in his room - and he climbs up on the bed next to me and says, "no more working today. you can do your work tomorrow." ok, buddy, sounds good.

[Mommabelle]

I went to the park this AM with the kids. It's so nice out today! We walked/ran for 40 min and then they got to play for awhile. DD is really a little too old for play parks, but she had fun!
We will take our bikes next time.

Some ding dong jerk went shopping at Ann Taylor and somehow had my cc number and rang up $550 worth!!!! URGHHH!!! I have no idea how they got my number, but I'm sure it's easy to do.

[Geofizz]

Originally Posted by Mommabelle

Some ding dong jerk went shopping at Ann Taylor and somehow had my cc number and rang up $550 worth!!!! URGHHH!!! I have no idea how they got my number, but I'm sure it's easy to do.

We evidently went on a Chinese porn bender a few months ago. Get the cc company to deal with it. In the end, we were liable for nothing.

[nancy926]

3.5 miles this morning...still muggy. Then, while I was cooling down before showering, the dog had a full-blown epileptic seizure, complete with thrashing, howling, barking, trying to bite things....it was horrifying. I was actually on the phone with the vet at the time it started, because he'd been acting strange for the past 20 minutes even though I'd just fed him (we have to feed him every 3 hours to keep his blood sugar up). I thought he was dying. He was seizing right in the doorway so I couldn't get out (he is a boxer, weighs 70 lbs, big dog!). After 2 or 3 minutes of this I crawled out the window to look for a neighbor or someone to help me (I was not going near him by myself). There was no one, so I crawled back in and got the phone, then tried calling another neighbor - no answer. Finally I went around to the back, came in through the porch door and got the Karo syrup (emergency remedy - really!) and by then he was standing up staggering around looking lost...I gave him three squirts of Karo and he started recovering.

I *never* want to see that again. We went to the vets and they put him on the one med that is supposed to help...at least for a little while.

I still haven't showered and we're supposed to go to our chiro appointment in 5 minutes.....urgh.

[Mommabelle]

nancy..that's aweful!

I have decided my triceps are in horrible shape. It is really bugging me, so today I worked them out hard and plan on doing M,W,F for awhile to get them back!

CC company is taking care of charges to Ann Taylor!

[Megs_BK]

Hey, Kate -- hope things are OK. When you're ready, we're here.

And no more underpants! That is too funny...

RR: I MUST RIDE MY BIKE TONIGHT. Workout plans have either been dropped or thwarted the past several days, so I am officially Very Behind on Oly Tri training. But I think I can go to the pool tomorrow, so that's good...

[Plady]

Originally Posted by 1jooj

Penelope, you ARE living my life!

Except I don't have chickens, goats, sheep, cows, a garden or a full-time job! to you! Dh and I did not get a babysitter today and we have barely accomplished anything. It is amazing how little two people can do really. I think we've managed to get all of four pieces of soffit up. No gutters.
I don't know if it is good news or bad news yet but my mom is coming next week to help babysit. One week of the two she'll be here dh will be gone visiting his mom. How much of a deck can I build by myself? I guess we'll see how much prepping dh and I can get done before he leaves.
Anyway - no running is happening either.

[tjsmama]

kate~mom~ the stories from your DS. Too too cute! I can't wait until my DS starts talking well enough to say cute things like that!

Originally Posted by Plady

How did transition go with the wetsuit? I've never worn one except for at a scuba class and I cannot imagine getting out of one quickly.

You know, it's not that bad with a wetsuit. It certainly slows you down a little, but not terribly. My transition time was actually only a few seconds longer than my transition at my last tri (which had a longer run between the mat and transition area). There's a system...on your walk out of the water, take off goggles and cap and hold them in one hand, unzip wetsuit. Peel off arms, leaving goggles and cap in the arm as you pull it over your hand. Peel suit down to your waist and run to transition. When you get to your spot, peel the legs off, stepping on the opposite one to help get it off. The hardest part is getting the leg over the timing chip, it always seems to get a little stuck. Honestly, I think getting into the %^&* thing is harder!

Originally Posted by Megs_BK

Workout plans have either been dropped or thwarted the past several days, so I am officially Very Behind on Oly Tri training.

Join the club, sister! Of which I think I am founder and president. And I have less than 3 weeks to go!


MRI results: no meniscus tear, which is good. Plica is very difficult to diagnose on MRI, but my doctor is pretty confident that that's what it is, so he did a cortisone shot. Good news, I should have significant pain relief in 4-5 days. Bad news, it will probably only be transient pain relief which may only last a month or two. If the pain comes back, that's a pretty good diagnostic sign that it is plica, and it will almost definitely need to be surgically removed in the off-season. Which, fortunately should be an easier surgery to recover from than meniscus. And hopefully, the cortisone will at least get me through the oly. I have to take today and tomorrow off, but he said I can do my track workout on Wednesday as long as it's not too sore. MUST GET SERIOUS TRAINING IN. NOW. I want to get at least two long runs of 6+ in, a couple of long distance swims + a couple of swim workouts, and 4 or more good long bike rides in before July 14.

Ceiling fan update...after 45 : minutes on the phone (most of it on hold, of course), they are supposed to be sending me two new hardware kits which should have the correct screws in them. They couldn't tell me when I'll actually get them except that they will be fed-exed from their warehouse, so I guess I will have a half-installed ceiling fan dangling from my ceiling for at least a week or more. :

[party_of_seven]

plady~ don't feel bad about the no-running thing. I get so tied up sometimes I can't get a run in either. I didn't run for 2 straight weeks during my last big home project.

nancy~ That is aweful about your dog. I hope the meds work.

geo~ LOL. Chineese porn bender.

poppy~ I'm sorry about that incident you had to witness. That totally sucks. I don't think I have ever run into anything much worse than a woman in the store who would not pick up her crying newborn from the baby-bucket in the shopping cart. It was tearing my heart out, and my kids knew I was stressed about it. We got close to her, and my oldest dd said something like "Gosh, you would think she would pick up her baby!". She must have heard dd because she walked away and picked the baby up. LOL

I had a nice AM run this morning. I'm going to keep trying to get an early run in each day to be more consistent. Baby R is cutting a molar, and she had been a real grouch. Poor baby. We are planning a big 4th of July b-day bash for all of my July birthday babies(3 of my 5 have july b-days) It is going to be a blast.

[JayGee]

Originally Posted by tjsmama

Join the club, sister! Of which I think I am founder and president. And I have less than 3 weeks to go!

MRI results: no meniscus tear, which is good. Plica is very difficult to diagnose on MRI, but my doctor is pretty confident that that's what it is, so he did a cortisone shot. Good news, I should have significant pain relief in 4-5 days. Bad news, it will probably only be transient pain relief which may only last a month or two. If the pain comes back, that's a pretty good diagnostic sign that it is plica, and it will almost definitely need to be surgically removed in the off-season. Which, fortunately should be an easier surgery to recover from than meniscus. And hopefully, the cortisone will at least get me through the oly. I have to take today and tomorrow off, but he said I can do my track workout on Wednesday as long as it's not too sore. MUST GET SERIOUS TRAINING IN. NOW. I want to get at least two long runs of 6+ in, a couple of long distance swims + a couple of swim workouts, and 4 or more good long bike rides in before July 14

Can I join you and Megs in the "nowhere near ready for an Oly Tri" club too?! I'm glad to hear you don't have a meniscus tear. I've had menisectomies in both knees, and it really put me out of commission for a few months. Of course, the recovery was easier than after my total ACL repair! Darn skiing....

Went to the adult technique clinic at the pool tonight and was a little disappointed. I did get a couple of pointers, but otherwise we only swam about 900m in the amount of time I usually do 2400m. Not much of a workout for the extra $12 I spent to get "coached".

[doctorjen]

Hi guys! Things have settled down some from last week finally. The insurance company called dh's car totaled, so now we get to buy a new car in the next couple days. The good news is that they are giving us blue book value for the old car (which, since it has 150,000 miles on it is fantastic - $8000 for a car with that kind of milage seems sort of ridiculous.) The bad news is that we were planning to give that car to ds, as he has my old car with 210,000 miles on it which is now burning oil and leaking coolant. We were planning to get a newer car for dh this summer (he drives insane miles) and give the car that is now totaled to ds thinking it would probably last him the rest of college and into a bit of real life. Now, we have to just replace dh's car and then come up with a plan for when ds's car dies for good, which probably won't be long.

RR - I ran 7+ on the treadmill last night. I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to run 6 per the Hal Higdon plan (it was a step back week) or 8 per the Team in Training plan, and compromised on the 7. I ran 2 easy recovery miles tonight while Justin ran with the local running club's summer kids running program. They are running at a park with a small lake that has a beautiful path around it (0.9 miles) and it was just so gorgeous I had to run a little, even though it's my off day.
I was talking to one of the running club officers about our camping trip and he was fascinated with the idea of an online running group. He suggested I write up a story for the club newsletter. If I have time, I'll have to write something about the dingoes! Runner's World it isn't, but a little publicity would be fun anyway.
Also, I hit my first fundraising goal for Team in Training for the marathon! The first goal was $500 by the recommitment date, and I've raised $645!
In Ohio next week, is anyone going to be wanting to run 12 miles with me? Or at least some portion thereof? Or at least make sure my kids don't kill each other while I run?

poppy - ugh, I just hate witnessing stuff like that. In my own office it happens sometimes - and I or the nurses will intervene and tell parents directly that we don't tolerate that in our office, but out in public it's so much harder.

nancy926 - your poor, poor doggie. How traumatic for both of you. Out of curiosity, what medicine do they use for that?