Hometown: The Roch, MI (aka. The Crotch, aka. Crotchscratcher, aka. Crotchmolester, aka. Rochester)
Currently Living: Clawson, MI
Height: 5'8
Weight: Ha ha, yeah right
Favorite Color: Blue (preferably navy)
Profession: Researcher
Favorite Nickname: Trick, Sloan
Favorite Drinks:Vodka Tonic, Guinness, Diet Dr. Pepper, Dirty Martinis, red wine
Favorite TV Show: Friends, Sex & The City, Project Runway, The Amazing Race, Iron Chef America
Least Favorite TV Show: A Baby Story, I Love Lucy, Martha Stewart, Everybody Loves Raymond, every hour long drama
Favorite Books: The History of Love, Beloved, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Fight Club, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The of Being, SurUnbearable Lightness vivor, Empire Falls, The Corrections, The Bell Jar
Favorite Movies: Little Miss Sunshine, Anchorman, The 40 Year Old Virgin, Wordplay, American Beauty, Life is Beautiful, Amelie, Breakfast Club, Singin In The Rain, Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Sleeping Beauty, Dancer in the Dark, Duets, The Virgin Suicides, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Austin Powers I, II & III, My Best Friends Wedding, Moulin Rouge, Tommy Boy, Billy Madison, The Shining, Gone With The Wind, Bridget Jones' Diary, Chicago, Love Actually
Guilty Pleasure Movies: Xanadu, Dirty Dancing, Overboard, Groundhog Day, Steel Magnolias, 10 Things I Hate About You, Bond movies, Footloose, Clue, Murder By Death, High Spirits, A Cinderella Story
What I Do Too Much: Check email, crossword puzzles, complain about my job to friends and family,
Obsessions: sushi, Indian food, ranch dressing, toenail polish, song lyrics, hands, awards shows, symmetry, avocados, maps, dreams, This American Life, the display in my car that tracks my MPG
Pet Peeves: loud eaters, slurping, gulping, arrogance, snoring, bad grammar, repetition, late mergers, ripping cardboard, the word "chunky", intolerance, couples in a restaurant sitting on the same side of a booth, pop-up ads, privacy manager, men that drive without shirts on, being foolish, unfairly jumping to conclusions, being made fun of, cat-calling, people who type too hard
Greatest Fear: crossing bridges
Relaxing Activites: late night drives to sing by myself, headstands, hot baths,
Wish I Was: Ansel Adams, Jenifer Aniston, in love, living alone
Prized Possessions: ring from my grandparents, flower pot of my Grandma's, electric blanket (temporarily broken), tongue scraper, my bed
Craziest Thing Ever Done: getting a tattoo, strip Jenga
Things I Eventually Want To Do: skydive, buy a guitar, learn how to play the aforementioned guitar, take flying lessons, travel to France, write a novel, learn how to play the harp, tap dancing lessons, run a marathon
Tuesday, August 22, 2006 And I think it's going to rain today....
Last Saturday was one of the last few days that Suz and I would have an opportunity before our triathalon to practice doing a full swim/bike/run (although not entire the full distances of all, but pretty close). We had planned for it all week, and all week, it was sunny and mild and perfect for outdoor exercising. Welllll, not quite so with Saturday. I woke up in the wee hours of the morn to the sound of the rain on pavement and car tires kicking up water and noise. But we were both stubborn, sat around most of the morning waiting for it to wane, and then went anyway. Although I'd like to point out that it hadn't really "waned" at all. I was soaking wet by the time we got the damn bikes into the car.
But we tried to rationalize that we started with the swim anyway so we were going to be wet for the rest of it already. So what's a little rain?
Well, yes, the swim was, well, wet. But the bike and run were equally as wet. When we got on out bikes to start the second leg, we both had to laugh at each other at what silly girls we are, not to mention how frightening we looked. But that was only while we could still see. Because once we took off on the bikes, the first half of the ride was a nice steady pelting of misty raindrops into our eyes. And I don't typically train by riding bikes on hills, and the park we were at was far more hilly than I seem to remember. So by the time we got to the run, my pants were falling off my ass from the 5lbs weight of water that they were carrying and I was sufficiently tired. But we soldiered through a couple mile run to complete the most amusing few hours that I've experienced in a long while. I suppose that you're advised to train in all kinds of different conditions, and it's damn sure that I'll be ready for rain now. Shoot, sunshine will feel like a picnic (I almost wrote "...will feel too easy," but I know that certainly won't be the case).
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Friday night Suz and I babysat our niece and nephews while my sister Laura went out to dinner with her husband and some friends of theirs. By the time they got back, the kids weren't in bed yet (hey there great babysitters!) but were in the process. Sort of. We would have made them go to be after the Tom and Jerry movie we were watching.
But my niece went upstairs first and we were surprised when she started screaming from her bedroom saying there was a mouse behind her door. Of course when we get upstairs, there's nothing there, and we all seem a little convinced that she was either just imagining things or that she didn't want to go to bed.
Well imagine my surprise (and sudden pangs as a bad auntie) to discover that, lo and behold, their cat caught a mouse in the basement on Saturday. And yet more trauma for my niece, was that she was the one who came upon the cat with the mouse in its mouth and batting it around while still alive and struggling. Geez, that traumatizes me just thinking about it. So I think there's a moral here somewhere and I will probably take what the kids say a little more seriously next time.
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So I'm having some serious serious work drama this week. Actually for the past couple weeks. Remember how I've been lamenting that I was supposed to start this other job? (How could you forget, I've been complaining about it enough). Well, that's supposed TO ACTUALLY HAPPEN September 1st. However, I'm being wooed to stay. Very convincingly wooed. Plus, I just discovered that there's no increase in pay in the new job, which wasn't my original understanding. So I have a tough decision that I have to make...oooohhhh....yesterday.
I don't know why I'm so overwhelmingly distraught by the whole situation though. When I met with my boss last week though, he always gives me so much to think about. Which position is really going to be best for my interests and career? Which situation do I see making me the happiest? What do I want to be when I grow up? Sadly I don't have answers to any of those questions. But I suppose that I will need to come up with some right quick. Like today quick.
Well, I have a bike ride staring me in the face this morning, so have a lovely day and wish me luck. Not just on the bike ride, but on all the other crap too.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
Yet another example of dumbass celebrity news having their priorities way the hell out of whack:
On Entertainment Tonight today they were discussing the exposure of the foiled terrorist plots. And Mary Hart had an insightful observation about the devastation that could have been unleashed on thousands of people:
[paraphrased, but said with the utmost of all seriousness]: "There's no indication yet how this news will affect the box office of the opening this weekend of World Trade Center."
Way to always keep an eye out for that bottom line.
(Note: This is in no way to imply that I'm actually still watching this crap. But Jeopardy! was a rerun....).
9:28 PM
This just in, where to begin, grin and bear it, it's bare and grim....Short bits for today:
~ One place I would never want to be this weekend: They're holding auditions for SuperNanny at Oakland Mall. Can you just imagaine having that many rotten children in one place at the same time? My biological clocks comes to a screeching halt just thinking about that. **shudder**
~ On Sun, the boy was rehearsing at his friend's house and I tagged along for kicks to just do some work while I was there. What did I do instead? Play with his friend's ADORABLE new little kitten. I could have just squished him he was so dman cute. Not so cute: the tiny little pinpricks all over my hands from his nails.
~ When I was driving home the other day, there was a fake rubber hand on the shoulder of the highway. I couldn't help but think of Kingpin.
~ So remember how I mentioned previously that I enjoy the variety of triathlon training? Strike that to exclude biking. I seriuosly suck at biking. Everytime I hit a hill I suddenly can't breathe and my legs turn to mush. Makes me appreciate those Tour de France guys a little more.
~ On that note, I can't even begin to tell you how upset I am about this whole Floyd Landis bit. I was so willing to defend him, but as a scientist knowing how the tests work that they ran, the chances are so slim that they had errors twice. Unless someone really is trying to shaft him and the results are being falsified. But that weekend after he had that amazing comeback, I sat on Suzy's deck, telling everyone that was over how it was the most amazingly inspiring feat of athleticism I had ever seen and his determination was just astounding and on and on. Nice that I was all gaga about it.
Alrighty dighty. C'est tout. Happy trails.
3:06 PM
Tuesday, August 01, 2006 I'm tired of runnin' let's walk for a minute....So apparently I'm asking for more bodily pain and aspire to have insane goals that I would laugh at in others (laugh at in a "You're out of your mind" kinda way). Well, I'm planning on doing a triathlon in September.
Now, before you remind me how much I loathed running the marathon 2 years ago (or how much I asked you to remind me how much I loathed running the marathon 2 years ago), I'll point out to you that the distance is substantially shorter. It's a sprint distance, meaning 500m swim, 20k bike, and 5k run. So technically, it's only ~3 miles running, not 26.2. Those crazy Ironman peole can just go ahead and be crazy.
But so far, I've thoroughly enjoyed the training. It's a nice variety to decide which discipline to do on any given day. And I'm comfortable being able to do any of the separate legs on their own. It's just putting them together I'm not all that sure about. I went biking last Friday and did ~16 miles and discovered what my weak leg is going to be. Man do I suck at biking. I'll ignore the fact that it was up into the 90's when I went.
So I'll keep you posted about the progress of the training. Suz and I have a bike/run on Sat, and hopefully it's not as mother-truckin' hot then as it is now, or else we're going to be doing our training before the sun comes up. And if I have issues riding a bike in the daylight, I think riding in the dark might be hazardous to my health.
They had the Lifetime Fitness triathlon on tv last weekend too. I got incredibly inspired. Allthough I'm guessing that I'm not going to be running any 5:30 minute miles (and that was the chicks!!).
