2,399....

soldiers, Marines and other American service people, dead since the beginning of the Iraq war 3 years ago.

At Last......

Ok, it has only been 5 days since our house went on the market but it does seem like an eternity. Last night (at 9:30!!!) we accepted an offer from a couple for slightly over asking price. Yea!!! Unfortunately, we have appointments for 2 people to see the house this morning and both want to keep them. I guess if they like the house, they can make a back up offer in the event the first one falls through. The best thing about the accepted offer? According to our realtor, the woman loves our house and they need to be in it by the beginning of the school year. She loves our house and they have kids! The perfect family for our house!!! I mean, lets face it. We would have sold it to anyone who wanted to buy it but I really wanted, wanted, wanted someone who would love this house, want to live in it, see all the good that it has to offer. I wanted a family in this house, with kids. We raised our kids here, they went to the elementary school, the middle school, and the high school. It is such a great, quiet, safe neighborhood for children. They will be able to walk to the elementary and high school. Our neighbors are wonderful and quiet. The house backs up to a beautiful, forever green area. It is a great house and neighborhood for a family and I think and hope this family will enjoy it and have many happy years in it :-)

AND....I am so happy to be done with the selling part. Keeping the house clean? For the birds! Everytime someone came to look at the house, it had to be spotless (of course. Who wants to buy a dirty house?), all the dog beds and bowls/dishes had to be put away. We had to be out of the house. It was a hassle but hopefully it will be over now. Home inspection within 7 days.....cross our fingers :-)

More choices

Wednesday we had yet another selection meeting with the new house people. I know some people like doing this kind of stuff but honestly, how the heck do I know where I want phone jacks? I knew we were way out of our league when the decorator started to tell us about warm and cool tones. I mean, c'mon. We had to choose grout. Grout! I didn't know grout came in different colors. And not only different colors but about 30 different colors. Oy vey.

We chose appliances, counters, cupboards, tile and some floors. Of course, we had to upgrade almost absolutely everything. We aren't fancy people, but jeeze.....the standard stuff is just so......standard :-/

Our counters: Cambria, natural quartz in Bristol Blue

Our stove (gas! woohoo! I am soooo happy about that):

Our dishwasher

Our microwave:

We also choose some lights and cupboards but I can't remember them. We have another appointment on Monday and I will try to get the actual names at that time.

Another choice we made was the tile backsplash in the kitchen which I am pretty excited about. I have always wanted tile in every kitchen I have had and never got it. Now I am going to get it :-) We choose 6 inch square tiles, kind of white with grey tones, very rustic looking. We also chose tiles with a kind of medallion design, very rustic. It reminded us of the tile work in Rome. We are going to do a design like so:

X X X X X X X X X

X O X X O X X O X

X X X X X X X X X

X being regular tile

O being the medallion tile

Between each group of 9 there will be an extra column of regular tiles. This was the decorator and A's idea, because, yes, I am clueless. I will try to get the name next time and see if I can find pictures

trac

gas prices

This is a picture from my 1981 yearbook of a gas station in Camden, NY.

This entry would be enough to generate some angry responses if anyone read my blog but no one hardly does, so here goes. :-)

Cost of gas in 1981? 1.259 (notice it is a full-service - remember those?)

Cost of gas April 27, 2006? 3.029

Adjusted for inflation what should gas be based on the 1981 price in 2006 according to this website?
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

$2.82

We really aren't paying much more than we were in 1981 adjusted for inflation.

Of course the fact that oil companies are raking in record profits while raising gas prices is ridiculous. It is such a burden upon the poor and middle class. But the fact is our gas is cheap. It is cheap. The price we pay at the pump does not reflect the true cost in environmental and social terms. Our gas is cheap. We do not conserve. We have developed no viable alternative fuel. We have not developed and we have not used public transportation. Sorry folks. There is no free lunch and there is no free/cheap fuel. We have been junkies on a bender with our drug dished up cheap and easy to us. Looks like our free ride might have come to an end.

Selling a house

Selling a house is a real pain. I am not the greatest housekeeper. In fact, many of the decisions we have made in regards to the new house, are based upon ease of cleaning :-). Anyways, the current house went on the market at 12:01 this morning. We had two people look at it so far - one at 4 pm and one at 5 pm. Trevor (realtor extraordinaire) said both want to see the house again tomorrow, with family members. One couple would want immediate (after closing) occupancy. That isn't an option for us because WE DON'T WANT TO MOVE TWICE. But Trevor told them anything is possible if the price is right. I don't know if these people are going to be willing to pay what it would take to get A to move into interim housing. I don't know if anyone, short of Donald Trump could pay enough to get A to move into interim housing. Second couple are renting an apartment and the timing would be really good for them because they don't want to break their lease. Everyone, let's cross our fingers!

In order to show the house, it has to be:
1) clean - as mentioned above, not the easiest for me!
2) uncluttered
3) all dog beds, bowls, etc. have to be out of sight. I guess people don't like it shoved right in their face that Rover might have lived in the house they want to buy. This means I have to shove two huge greyhound beds under my bed and haul two huge ones down to the basement.
4) We can't be in the house and neither can the dogs. So when someone wants to see the house, everyone gets loaded into the car and we head over to Budge's to hang out for a while. One benefit is that tomorrow, I will go over there around noon so Budge's husband who usually comes home at lunch for their dogs, won't have to. I will let them out and give them their treat and he will get a break. If I could schedule every house showing for weekdays noon, that would be great!

It has been raining a lot here and very muddy so with three dogs, there is much mopping in order to keep the floors looking decent.

House News

The kitchen faucet we chose.

The bathroom faucets:

For the kitchen, we are going to have an undermount sink. This isn't the countertop we chose but does show what an undermount sink looks like:

Running and poop

We did our 30 minute run this morning. First mile was good, felt good, good pace. Slowed down though after that. When Mo runs, it is 'stimulating' and it makes him poop. So before we run, I always let him outside and try to get him going so he will go. I have to be careful though, if he thinks I am getting ready to run, he won't do anything but stand at the door or stand in front of me, whining. This morning, I put my running shoes on before letting him out so there was no way he was going to leave my side. I was the recipient of what I refer to as the "Momo Enema". Meaning I had his head up my a$$ every step I took :-)

I don't like to have to haul a baggie full of poop when I run. So on our way to our customary starting point, we strolled along, Momo did a lot of sniffing and finally, voila! Production!!! I was able to stash the poopbag near our starting point, we had a good run and picked up the bag on our way home.

How to Train for an open water, mass start triathlon swim

Continuing my love affair with youtube.com, this video is for Budge. She will be doing her very first triathlon, June 17. This is how we will start training in a week or two for that mass start, open water swim.

Now that I have figured out.....

How to embed www.youtube.com videos, here is the one of the Dixie Chicks, 'Not Ready to Make Nice'. Oh, by the way, I read somewhere that what they are smearing on themselves isn't black paint or ink, as I first thought, but actually oil. Even more interesting!

This week's training quote:

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~Thomas Jefferson

We have been working very hard! Today was Matt's cycle class (it is a beginning tri training class with a cycle class). He was nice enough to allow Bridget and I to sit and ride with them. Great class, he did a few different things that I might try in my own class. Then we headed to the center for an easy 20 minute run. I did 1.77 miles for a 11:18 m/m. Not bad for me, I am satisfied with that :-)

This coming week's schedule:
Monday - 30 minute run
1500 yd swim

Tuesday - 60 minute bike

Wednesday - 45 minute run
weight train

Thursday - 1750 yd swim

Friday - weight train

Saturday - 60 minute run
1000 yd. swim

Sunday - 90 minute bike
20 minute run

That is what is schedule but what is scheduled and what is done is two different things. I will definitely will get the runs in and try my hardest for the weights. Bike? I will probably just take a couple classes and call it even. Swim? That is a little tougher - I will try for 2 sessions.

Tri Training - Week Eleven

This week's training quote:

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. ~Thomas Jefferson

We have been working very hard! Today was Matt's cycle class (it is a beginning tri training class with a cycle class). He was nice enough to allow Bridget and I to sit and ride with them. Great class, he did a few different things that I might try in my own class. Then we headed to the center for an easy 20 minute run. I did 1.77 miles for a 11:18 m/m. Not bad for me, I am satisfied with that :-)

This coming week's schedule:
Monday - 30 minute run
1500 yd swim

Tuesday - 60 minute bike

Wednesday - 45 minute run
weight train

Thursday - 1750 yd swim

Friday - weight train

Saturday - 60 minute run
1000 yd. swim

Sunday - 90 minute bike
20 minute run

That is what is schedule but what is scheduled and what is done is two different things. I will definitely will get the runs in and try my hardest for the weights. Bike? I will probably just take a couple classes and call it even. Swim? That is a little tougher - I will try for 2 sessions.

Too cool

First the Dixie Chicks and now Pink! Do you think maybe, finally, people are getting tired of the excuses we are being fed on a continual basis by our so-called leaders? Wonder how much airtime these songs will get? Probably not much considering who owns the radio airwaves now. Oh, and just to put everyone on notice - new Pearl Jam on May 2nd. Life is looking good :-)

Training recap

This week:
Monday - ran 30 minutes
Tuesday - cycled (taught class)
Wednesday - ran 45 minutes
Thursday - cycled (taught and took additional class)
Friday - swam (1200 yards)
Saturday - ran 60 minutes (treadmill, 5.25 miles, 11:26 m/m)
Will teach cycle class in afternoon
Sunday - cycle class and 20 minute run (planned)

Overall, not too bad. Got the runs in :-) I do need to get a weight session or two in there, another cycle and another swim and I will be in primo shape! This week was a toughie timewise with house meetings and a job interview (!!) so I am pretty happy with what I was able to do.

In other news, we made exterior house choices. We decided to go with the color scheme of the model house. We like bold colors and we didn't have much to choose from. Our house will look like:

Pretty cool?

Current house will go on the market Monday morning at 12:01 am with a contingency that we will retain occupancy until the new house is ready. That might deter some buyers but the theory is if we get no offers because of it, we will just relist the house in a couple of months without the contingency and hope for a seller. The timing should be better for the new house move then.

Chicks with attitude

Spark has accused Budge of attempting to attend a Reba McIntyre concert last year at the State Fair but bagging it because of weather. Budge adamantly denies this. I have a vague memory of some concert and her not going but I don't know if it was a country one or not. At any rate, keeping in the country vein (which none of us are big fans of), I ran across news that the Dixie Chicks are releasing a new album next month. Definitely not a fan, don't own any of their music but this is one I might just have to buy out of principle.

Some background:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/14/dixie.chicks.reut/
From CNN, March 14, 2003

Dixie Chicks pulled from air after bashing Bush
DALLAS, Texas (Reuters) --There are a lot worse things in country music than your wife leaving you or your dog dying. There's stations not playing your music because you done gone and said some things against the president.
Music superstars the Dixie Chicks are finding out that criticizing President Bush's plans for war in Iraq can cost you air play, big time.
Country stations across the United States have pulled the Chicks from playlists following reports that lead singer Natalie Maines said in a concert in London earlier this week that she was "ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
Station managers said their decisions were prompted by calls from irate listeners who thought criticism of the president was unpatriotic.
The group, which got its start in Texas, was one of the darlings of this year's Grammy Awards. The three-woman band that blends blue grass and pop hooks has spawned legions of fans who embrace the ideals of strong women celebrated in some of the trio's songs.
One station in Kansas City, Missouri held a Dixie "chicken toss" party Friday morning, where Chick critics were encouraged to dump the group's tapes, CDs and concert tickets into trash cans.
Houston country station KILT pulled the band's records from its playlist -- at least temporarily -- after 77 percent of people polled on its Web site said they supported the move.
"We've got them off the air for right now," said Jeff Garrison, program director at KILT, which is owned by Viacom's Infinity Broadcasting Corp.
"People are shocked. They cannot believe Texas' own have attacked the state and the president," Garrison said.
Lead singer Maines said in a statement she felt the president was ignoring the opinions of many in the United States and alienating the rest of the world by pushing for war with Iraq.
"We've been overseas for several weeks and have been reading and following the news accounts of our government's position. The anti-American sentiment that has unfolded here is astounding," Maines said.
One of the country stations in Dallas that helped champion the Chicks when they were scraping by in that city playing gigs on street corners for tips, "99.5 The Wolf," said they are listening to the listener's views but do not think it is right to immediately jump on the bandwagon and stop playing the Chicks, said program director Paul Williams.
Williams said it is too early to tell how strong a backlash may develop against the Chicks. He said the comments touched a deep nerve in Texas because they came from one of the biggest country groups to come out of the state and were directed at a president who calls Texas home.
"The listener outlash is probably bigger here than anywhere else," William said.
The Chicks have the number one country album in the United States on the Billboard charts called "Home" and the No. 1 single with "Travelin' Soldier", which is about a U.S. soldier who fought in Vietnam.

Their website has lyrics posted from their upcoming single:
Not Ready To Make Nice

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I’m through with doubt
There’s nothing left for me to figure out
I’ve paid a price
And I’ll keep paying

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell andI don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

I know you said
Can’t you just get over it
It turned my whole world around
And I kind of like it
I made my bed and I sleep like a baby
With no regrets and I don’t mind sayin’
It’s a sad sad story when a mother will teach her
Daughter that she ought to hate a perfect stranger
And how in the world can the words that I said
Send somebody so over the edge
That they’d write me a letter
Sayin’ that I better shut up and sing
Or my life will be over

I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should
I’m not ready to make nice
I’m not ready to back down
I’m still mad as hell and
I don’t have time to go round and round and round
It’s too late to make it right
I probably wouldn’t if I could
‘Cause I’m mad as hell
Can’t bring myself to do what it is you think I should

Forgive, sounds good
Forget, I’m not sure I could
They say time heals everything
But I’m still waiting

I think they are making their feelings towards those who believe it is unpatriotic to have a dissenting opinion very clear. You go girls!!!

Latest update on the Slippers Worn To Work Saga

From Spark:

My house slippers are my light-up flip flops... everyone that has seen me finds them highly amusing but I am highly embarrassed! And unfortunately I wore the pink pair that don't match my workclothes at all. :o(

Hmmmmm.......if they were light-up flip-flops that matched her outfit, would that make it all right?

This morning

First email of the morning from Spark:

OMG… I am so embarrassed… I forgot to take my slippers off this morning and I wore them to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o( I am an idiot!

I really am at a lost for words. I guess it is a good think she works at a university where this will probably be viewed as typical, idiosyncratic, non-conformist, protesting against the patriarchal, societal constraints forced upon women and their appearance, behavior. If it is noticed at all :-)

How crazy is this?

25 years ago, married to my first husband (with a steady job), we set out to try to establish some credit. It took 3 times applying but we finally qualified for a $250 line of credit with a Sears credit card. We were thrilled that we could start building credit and possibly buy a house one day.

Nowadays, the mail brings numerous 'pre-approved' credit offers for the 21 yr old and 19 yr old in this household.

Yesterday, in our meeting with the mortgage officer for the new house loan, we were told we could qualify for a $450,000 loan. Now, the new house we are building is way, way, waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay less than that. And it has been keeping me up at nights, worrying if we can afford it. I am saying, unequivocally, uncategorically, that there is no way we could afford a $450,000 mortgage. No way, no how. Uh-uh. We were also told that the percentage of gross monthly income that could go towards a mortgage is now upwards of 55%, leaving 45% for income taxes and living expenses.

Syracuse is considered a very reasonable real estate market and an area with a low cost of living, especially compared to major metropolitan areas. You can still get a very decent house for $125,000 or even less. Part of this is because the jobs here suck. But there are some pricey houses being built in this area more and more often. I often wondered, as I saw development after development of $350,000 houses being built, 'who in the world in Syracuse is buying these houses?' Well, now I know. I don't know if this type of behavior qualifies as predatory lending but I do think that there are people being told by realtors and lenders that they can afford houses they really can't. It might be why the consumer debt load just keeps rising - people have to pay expenses with credit cards because they can't afford the cash with their high mortgages. It might be why more and more people are leasing cars instead of buying. When we bought our 2000 Toyota minivan, the salesman told us that approximately 85% of the cars he sells were leased. Leasing is cheaper on a monthly basis, and people can't afford to buy the cars. There really needs to be a concerted national dialogue about debt, credit and lifestyles in this country. I really do think that we are living on the edge of a precipice and that one wrong movement will send us careening over.

Why does she do this?

Last night Budge stopped over with 2 syrajuice vegan cookies (yum, yum!), a $20 gift certificate for King David's, a really cool water bottle and a thank you card, all for the nothing I did while her hub was incapcitated. I ran over and let her dogs out once or twice. Big deal. Anyways, this makes me feel at a distinct disadvantage because I still owe her $15 because we went in on a birthday present for a mutual friend. Which reminds me, I have it all bagged up here and still haven't gotten it to the person! And her birthday was last Saturday. Anyways, I am going to make Budge take a day off from work (or an afternoon), we are going to King David's together with the gift certificate and then letterbox.

New favorite running song

Anthem by Superchick

Here's to the ones who don't give up
Here's to the ones who don't give up
Here's to the ones who don't give up
This is your anthem
Get your hands up

We are fire inside
We are lipstick and cleats
We are not going home and
We are playing for keeps
We are girls with skinned knees
We are concrete and grace
We are not what you think
Can't keep us in our place

Chorus:
Here's to the girls on their boards with bruises and scars
Here's to the girls whose fingers bleed from playing guitar
Here's to anyone who never quit when things got hard
You'll never let them say you'll never get that far
You'll never get that far
Never get that far

We are a fire inside
We are an army asleep
We are a people awaking to follow their dreams
We don't have time for your games
We have our own goals to score
There are trophies to win
Instead of being one of yours

Chorus

Here's to the ones who don't give up
Here's to the ones who don't give up
Here's to the ones who don't give up
This is your anthem

Chorus

It's not great, but it's okay....

To paraphrase Whitney Houston. 45 minute run this morning with Momo. And the title sums it all up. Not a great run but an ok one and I will take that happily. Saturday's run was brutal, Monday's was hard so I am very happy for an ok run. I do think that 45 minutes is too long for Mo. I think he can do it physically no problem but I've noticed he checks out mentally at about 30 minutes. So in the future I will limit him to 30 minutes. I definitely want him to continue to enjoy running with me.
I also think that I will start tracking my resting heartrate in the mornings. I am a little worried about overtraining. The physical effort it takes to do my runs seems to be increasing not decreasing and that is discouraging. I made a point to ice my feet after today's run. I have gotten out of that habit and forgot just how great it feels. I hope that it will also decrease my stiffness I get hours after my run.

Tri Training Week 10

We are in week 10 of an 18 week training schedule for the Green Lakes Triathlon, June 17. Last week was a bit of a bust - unavoidable. Had my house full of painters, husband gone, Budge's husband very sick with kidney stones. But we are back on track this week! It is a maintenance week and calls for 4 runs, 3 swims, 2 bikes and 2 weight lifting sessions. Budge and I ran last night for 30 minutes, did about 2.8 miles. We didn't take Momo as he had just eaten an hour before but he was giving us significant, 'oh, please, please, please, take me' eye contact. Budge is running me hard :-/ She has really improved speed-wise the past 2 months and I feel like she is practically plodding along when we run together. However.......at the library today (to pay my $10.25 fine!!!!! Yes, folks, that is how crazy it has been! Not to mention, I had 6 books on reserve that were returned because I didn't pick them up!) I thumbed through the latest Runners and they had two workouts for runners of different speeds:

1st one - 1)Warmup 5 minutes easy jogging. 2)Slower runner takes lead and picks up the pace for the next 5 minutes, followed by 2 minutes recovery of slow jogging. 3) Faster runner takes lead, running at hard effort for two minutes while slower runs at their own hard effort for two minutes 4)2 minutes recovery easy jogging while faster runner doubles back to meet slower runner. Repeat #3 and 4 two/three times and then cool down with 10 minute recovery jog.

2nd one - 1)5 to 10 minutes easy jogging 2) both runners take turns choosing course (street, direction, etc.) for 3 minutes at a time. Pace is moderate but faster runner must double back and join up with slower runner before the end of their 3 minute segment. Each runner takes three turns choosing direction. Finish with easy 10 minute jog.

Maybe if we do something along these lines, we will still be able to run together and get the workouts we both need. It was a good run yesterday which I think we both needed as a confidence builder. Saturday we were to run 60 minutes and I think we got to just under 50. She was tired and I developed an odd, never had it before, cramp in my left leg, behind my knee. I would walk it out and then it would reappear as soon as I started to run.

Anyways, this week I am determined to do my best. Might not get 3 swims in but I can live with that but 4 runs? Yeah, gotta do those and get back to the weights.

A new venture!

I am going to try something new here at the instigation of trailhoundz (hereafter know as Spark). I am setting up a website called www.runswithdog.com and I hope to embed this blog in it. I will use it to host my planted letterbox clues, post delicious vegan recipes and recount my various triathlon training travails. Here's to happy reading, happy (and compassionate, cruelty-free!) eating and happy running! And, yes, I do run with my dog, Momo.