Training Woes

Things are going pretty slow. I haven't looked at my training log all week. :-( I have been running and biking but probably not near the distance I should be. This morning, Mo and I went out and did two big loops. Usually takes us 28 minutes and took us over 30 today. It was much warmer than I thought once we got out in the sun and on the pavement. He slowed down a lot on the 2nd loop.

We are going to get a long run and bike in though this weekend. A 60 minute run and a 19 mile ride. I am also going to see if I can convince B to head out Friday evening for a swim :-)

The other day I was wearing shorts and A made some remark about my legs. I don't even remember what - it was something about the definition or size of my quads. It just wasn't a 'Oooooo, look at those great quads!' but more of a 'Hmmmmmm, those are some quads you got there' Didn't make me feel good :-( In the whole scheme of things, I would rather have ripped quads than blubbery thighs but I would like my husband to like my legs!

It's official!

They have started building us a house - rather we want it or not :-) The little upraised section is where the garage will be.

House news

They should be breaking ground today on the new house. Yesterday, I had a crisis of faith. Budge says it is just the typical buyer's remorse. I think it is just good old liberal, middle class guilt :-) It doesn't help that Spark sings, 'They paved paradise and put up a parking lot' when I talk to her :-)

We changed our countertop. We had the cambia bristol blue but it didn't really work with any of our other color choices. Since the living/dining/kitchen is all open, this became a problem of aesthetics. Seems most of our choices lean to warm tones with the exception of this huge expanse of cool blue countertop. So we lined all the selections up against our choices and the three of us (A, the decorator and myself) unanimously agreed on a new choice:

We also choose our light style:

I think this is the finish we choose - brushed nickel, but who the heck knows anymore? There will be pendelum lights in this style and a few ceiling lights also.

We choose escape gray for the master bedroom walls and whole wheat for the living/dining/kitchen walls (hence the removal of the blue countertops)

http://www.sherwin-williams.com/do_it_yourself/paint_colors/

Launch the color visualizere and you can search for the colors and actually drag them into room pictures. I wasn't all that thrilled with whole wheat - it just seemed so neutral and blah. I wanted hunter green, aubergine, burgundy....something! Some color! But the decorator assures me that this will look great on the walls.

Yesterday's ride

Did a 12.5 mile bike ride with Budge yesterday evening. Something is off with my setup. I really got a bad lower backache about 1/2 way through. I do think my seat needs to go higher. We went through neighborhoods to get to the park so there were lots of turns and stop signs. We also had to take a couple of really sharp turns to go over a pedestrian bridge above a highway. No falls for either of us but I had one wobbly 'oh no, I might be going down' moment while I was trying to go up the incline to the bridge after taking a sharp left turn and turning around to see if Budge was managing ok. I managed to keep it together though, whew!

I am really not liking Budge lately. She seems to be faster than me at everything! Swim, bike and run!!! She isn't good at shifting because her levers are on the frame so she is in one gear practically the whole ride while I am working my gears like a slot machine! I might have to steal her inhaler to give myself a fighting chance :-)

We really have had some beautiful weather lately, makes me nervous :-) Wen is back from Florida so we will be running with her on Sunday. Yea!

Morning run

I really need to get back on track with the training. I have tried to keep up with the running but everything else has kind of fallen by the wayside. Mo and I went out this morning - it is so gorgeous outside! Why can't every day be like the days we have been having? We did our first half mile in 5:10, mile in 10:30 and then progressively slowed down :-( He was lagging a bit so I didn't try to push it too much. We ended up with 2.7 miles in 28:30.

President Bystander

Sometimes I wonder if I am the only person angry about what is going on in our country. 3 years ago we were told Mission Accomplished. What do we have now? April was the deadliest month for American service people in 2006. I still have folks telling me that we had to go into Iraq because they attacked us. If you told me a year ago that Americans would have laid dead for days in the streets of a major American metropolis while our government was unable to put together a concerted organized response to a natural disaster, I wouldn't have believed you. We are told it is our patriotic duty to shop while we are 'at war' and, oh, by the way, here is a tax break to help you do so (oh, but don't you poor people expect anything). Oil companies making record profits, but our so-called leader says there will be no windfall tax for them. He does, however, expect them to reinvest their profits in alternative fuel development. Why should they? Oil and gas has been pretty good to them.

And what is the public response to all of this? We complain that it is too expensive to fill up our SUVs while slapping a yellow 'support the troops' magnet on. As if supporting the troops is synonomous with supporting this f*cked up war. Anyways, I do wonder if I am the only angry person about all of this. I look at a car with the ubiquitous yellow magnet and think, are they upset that funds to provide healthcare and rehabilitation of our wounded vets are cut? Are they upset that this war is costing one billion dollars a day while our social services are being gutted? Are they ticked that our press corps are such pansies, swallowing everything that this administration dishes out that it takes a comedian to speak truth (or rather 'truthiness') to power (and from what I have read, the 'power' wasn't all that amused :-))


Do they feel like vomiting when they see that lying sack of sh*t tell us, 'I am the decider', 'Mission Accomplished', or better yet, 'Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job'?

As so often happens, whenever I do feel like I am the only one who sees the Emperor has no clothes, Bruce comes along.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=312f0735-0a0d-4bcf-9e78-d815dbfa3bad&f=jazzfest&fg=copy

'Dedicated to President Bystander', indeed :-)
We can only hope that...
'There's gonna be a judgement, that's a fact
A righteous train rolling down this track'

I love this guy :-) Thanks Bruce (and Steven Colbert!).

Sunday, sunny Sunday!

Yesterday I spent the day in the Auburn area with Budge, Spark, Mo and Ang. It was a gloriously sunny, beautiful, spring New York day. Couldn't get any better! I was thinking, 'wow, I could get used to this type of weather' when I checked the forecast and it is back to damp and chilly for us later in the week :-( Oh, well, we have had some beautiful days lately and yesterday was one of them.

Budge, Mo, Ang and I headed to Auburn. Ang spent most the ride hanging out on Budge's lap. He is a great traveller. We first got Spark's letterbox series, Clifford and Lucy's Wildlife Adventures before heading to her house. Very short little trail but 9 stamps planted, illustrating all the wildlife Cliff and Lu see on their walks. We then headed over to Spark's house to hang out a while, eat lunch and let Ang run wild through her house. He always just gets so excited. He got a few swats from Mary, the hospice cat but it didn't faze him. After lunch, while I would have been content to hang out in the backyard in the sun while the dogs slept or got yelled at to stay away from Spark's newly planted forsythia and strawberries, Budge got us all up and moving. We did a few driveby letterboxes. Bromeliad, planted by Spark and not on-line yet, Spark's Auburn Doubledays and Lockwench's As the Crow Flies.

After getting those, we drove out to Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge. I have driven by it countless times on the thruway but never stopped. It is a beautiful area. We looked for Cock o' the Trail's box first. It was hot and dog's weren't allowed out so Budge and Spark found it and brought it back to me where I sat in airconditioned comfort with Mo and Ang :-) This stamp was planted November '03 so I think it is the oldest I have found so far.

We then hopped back into the cars and drove to the Esker Brook area. This area is still part of the Montezuma refuge but dogs are allowed. We were very impressed with Spark's navigational skills. We also had to stop so Budge could pick up some cranberry wine at a local winery. Here, we found another Lockwench box, Esker Brook and a series by Craftymouse called the Accidental Birdwatcher. Awesome bird stamps! We took our time and inked them as close as we could to the birds' actual coloring and they turned out awesome! Beautiful stamps and a great area for hiking.

We loaded the dogs back in the car, bid farewill to Spark (she was dogless because hers weren't feeling well :-( ) and headed home with an absolutely exhausted Mo and Ang. I think they had a great time. I know I did.