Gina makes the rounds

Somehow Gina ended up in a lot of photos. Next time you'll know to sit next to her, for sure inclusion in the blog.
And you know she j u s t L U V S the attention. right.


The New Yawkers - Dyan, Herman and Gina



Gina and Dorothy looking sharp for Monday Mass.


Slots, Aunt Louise, and Gina are ready to hit the machines.


Cousin Mike and Gina. and some headless guy.


Wendy and Gina...
Wendy, you should have drunk all that OJ, ... and saved the slacks.

Family from Afar

Now that I've got the hang of multiple photos per posting I can do some more reunion stuff. Warning.... I have a full pot of coffee to work with. Here are some of the gang who travelled quite a distance to celebrate with JJ.


Ljoiussee, Patty and Dorothy enjoy
post dinner drinks, thanks to Slots who finally won some spending $.

Aunt Mary, Margaret, and Marilyn (Slots)
enjoy the post breakfast OJ.


The Scwhalls are plotting
how to get some more of that delish - ious egg dish.


Joe and Carrie appear to be
paying attention, but really they are checking out the photos
on their digital camera.


Settling in for
the big Monday Mass.

Lee was there

Did I mention that?

More photos

fotos are fighting me.
this only took 4 tries. Blogging is not coming easily tonight.

JJ's pal from seminary, Val, was ordained this week. I liked him immediately as he walked off the plane wearing a Packers shirt. He gave the sermon for JJ, and JJ will/did return the favor for him.

Gina rehearsed for her solo in the choir and performed admirably. With such a great back up band, how couldn't she?

We also held a white elephant xmas party (since Aunt Louise left up the tree it seemed the thing to do) Great gifts ! pencils ! wow! microwave egg cookers got Wendy all excited. Stuffed fish for the new fisher of men. (or whatever that saying is) Aussie gear... oy oy oy. a wig. Ichiro crap. Sam's Town candy and stuff. clocks that don't work. binoculars, in case you have a back row seat at Mass (and you know who you are) And a really cool PALOOZER SNOW GLOBE.

And now i see i can only add so many fotos per posting so let's finish up here and i'll add the rest from the party.

Vegas, Baby !!!!!!!!!!!

We are home from Vegas where we properly celebrated the ordination of cousin JJ. The 1st Mass, 1st Mass pizza, White Elephant Christmas in May, the 2nd Mass, 2nd Mass breakfast, Ordination dinner party, buffets, Fresh Harvest meals..... swimming pool activities, a couple cocktails, non-stop laser shows, a bit of gambling (Winners: Slots, of course, Aunt Louise, and Ljoiusee) and numerous eventful trips to the airport.


A reunion of the Schwall / Croghan families took place during the ordination festivities. What a fun time ! and a fun group. Folks from Canada, Australia, Washington, California, Florida, Michigan (the home base is Ypsi) New York, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada.

In Memory of ...

Verle, thanks for the breakfasts, the jokes, the insights, the sound of the trumpet in the Maui air, the puns, the "hi sweetie's".

The guy was funny, funny as a rubber crutch..

Training

Today was an indoor spin, doing some intervals, meaning sweat-city. Then later we swam 1800 yds. Mostly drills, which I'm gonna have to tell Coach Lesley to save for those that might actually benefit. Although it is nice to swim with fins. So much easier. I see why fish like it. Too bad it's not allowed in the races. oh well.

Tomorrow we get to go to the M's game. Thankfully it is an afternoon game so we won't freeze as badly as if it were a night game.

that's it.

Hall of Famer !

Jeez, the "hanging out with the superstars" scene is just non-stop for us. We are too cool.

Last night we had dinner with our buddies from California (really from here) , Traci, Denise and Annalise (the drummer extraordinaire) Anyway, on Saturday night Denise was inducted into the Washington State Soccer Hall of Fame. For lifetime achievements. I thought those awards went to old people but... you know, she did out-head Michelle Akers. I think that's soccer trash talk meaning Akers just has a lot of big hair and Denise has brains. Denise was the captain of the 1st USA women's World Cup team. Before Mia and the gang. The team that went to Italy for games but no one ever heard anything about it because, well, because it's soccer. And it happened before the internet was invented (by Al Gore).

The other photo is A.B.B. and me, swapping iPod earbuds. Yes, my 14 yr. old Godchild is now taller than me. Who cares? she's nice enough to not care (or say anything) that I don't know Coldplay from Black Eyed Peas, or hip hop from rap.

I won't bore you with details of the bike ride on Saturday, as most of you got it in an email. But yesterday I ran 4 miles and today 3. WOW ! back to back days of running !!

Congratulations, Denise Bender !

G L O R I A !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's MS. Steinem, to you. We had "dinner & a conversation" with Gloria Steinem last night. She was appearing at Central Washington Univ., and as a fund raiser for one of the departments, she mingled and then sat down to dinner with 30 of us, before the speech. She is 72, and smart and funny and nice and caring, and gives even the lone blowhard a tactful answer. She zinged him a bit later. :)

Unlike our crashing of the Al Franken party, we actually paid for this gig. I imagine Gina will be getting even more solicitations from her alma mater. If so it will be worth it. Gina said the evening was one of the highlights of her life.

In fact, let's hear from our guest Blogger Gina now:

Gloria talked about a lot of stuff. One item was the fact that the term feminism is sometimes used as a derogatory term. She said the definition of feminism is the pursuit of equality. Therefore if you deny feminism then in effect you are ok with inequality.

Thank you, Gina. Well said. And so succinct.

I'm sorry I forgot to ask Gloria what's the furthest she's ridden a bike. There was much discussion of her famous line "a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle". Yes, I did have the T-shirt in college. Gloria did fess up at dinner that actually she heard that line from some Australian woman. Then later a 20-something year-old woman got up and said her mother told her that a fish might Want a bicycle, but the fish certainly did not Need a bicycle. That got a good laugh from the crowd.

Jeez, then some gal got up to ask "what is NOW?". That got a groan from the crowd. I felt I should speak to the admissions director about who's getting into Central these days. We did meet the Vice Prez. of the college. The prez had a board mtg, as this gig had been re-scheduled from the previous week. (Gloria had back spasms) Of course, we dropped the tidbit of dad being a college president.


And we rode 30 miles today.
And we'll ride 30 more tomorrow.

Bike Butt

We have a new all time high, for mileage on the bike.... 50. Actually, we rode our age, 51. Sunday we tooled around the city for 20 then rode the trail over to Redmond. And just for fun jogged for 20 minutes. For a while on the trail we were behind a couple, who were doing a nice easy 16 mph. But Gina wanted a bit more, so took the lead. I waited a while, biding my time. Then I passed the 2 and took the lead. And immediately saw the error of my ways. Too much work to be the leader. Now 16mph wasn't so easy. I guess that old drafting theory is true. But we maintained and the others dropped off after a while.

The biggest obstacle on the trail is the little guys who kind of zig zag along. And you can't really expect a 6 yr. old to understand "On your right".

Didn't have our camera or we could have taken photos of Val, who was at the velodrome in Redmond learning how to ride the track cycles. Looked cool. I wouldn't do it, of course, but looked cool.

Those 51 miles took just under 4 hours. ugggh. We had parked our car in Redmond the day before so we put the bikes on the rack and headed home. Realizing that we had put all water bottles in the trunk. Unaccessable after the rack is on. Talk about a dehydrated drive home.

Today was more swimming. I'm just waiting to see if the old sudafed will work today or not. We'll know when the breding tru da node stops.

All Righty - O

Saw the doc today and he says "Start running". Yahoo, Mt. Dew !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With that glorious news we went off to look at yet some more (or is it the same?) tile, and, oh yes, lighting fixtures. How special it was. And as it goes, each time we leave a tile store we said "All Righty- O, we've got that part of the remodel figured out" .

Mariners finally won a game. Took extra innings but hey a win's a win.

The bad news of the day is JC Penney is no longer carrying our sports bra. OMIGOD. What are we going to do? And by 'we' I mean 'me', as I am the underwear shopper in the family. But I don't think we've ever worn a different brand. These were good, cheap and comfortable. I know there will not be a similar one on the market. Oh, but hey, maybe eBay.

And on that note............

Why is it ???

That which ever direction you are riding a bike in, the wind is ALWAYS AGAINST YOU ???

We have a new mileage high -- 40 -- on Saturday we rode on the Burke-Gilman Trail, 20 miles out and 20 back. With that darn wind in our face both ways. sheesh.

Next weekend we are going with our Always Running group on a 50 mile bike ride (Always Riding, is their sub-motto). Somewhere on the penninsula I'm guessing, as it involves a ferry ride.

All this mileage has me looking into a new seat. Just "numb" luck that the seat that came with the bike is just not the right one. If you get my drift.

The foot is feeling fine !!!!!!! I think the drugs have worked. see photo of my drugs of choice.

I ran (and I don't mean our new nukular nemisis) on Friday.

1.5 miles and was I happy. I believe my seratonin levels have been quite low for the last few weeks. I just don't get that 'runner's high' while biking. Could it be the seat? Blogging doesn't seem to do it, either, as you'll note the lack of postings this past month

Anyway, I see the rundoctor.com again on Tues. and anticipate him saying "go for it". Too bad if he doesn't cuz it is time to run.

We finally have some great weather. Warm and sunny. Unlike Friday night at the Mariner game. FREEZING !!! I did some yard work today (mowed the lawn w/ the weed eater cuz the mower had no gas, hmm) I've attached a photo from the "garden".

Marathon ?

What stinkin marathon??? Well, we did watch a marathon of Law & Order:SVU this weekend.

And we did hop on the indoor bikes to watch the Boston Marathon. Had a nice 1:45:00 workout, with intervals, while we watched the elite runners (in perfect running weather) During commercials we tuned the radio in to the M's game, who happened to lose via a walkoff homer to those Red Sox. not the best ending to the bike ride. oh well.

The Clear (and the ibuprofen, and all the icing) seem to be doing the trick. Can't find that painful spot. Although by poking and prodding looking for it, my foot gets sore. I see the rundoctor.com again next week, but I just might throw in a little jog before that. Today I was officially bored with all this "cross training" . Couldn't even do it.

Enuf talkin about runnin.............. time to start walking the talk.

Good luck to my Drum Line buddy, heading off to Nationals in Dayton, this week. Even more good luck to mom, Traci, who goes as an official chaperone. Those mini bars could not be stocked suffiently to get me to do that.

Is a Puzzlement

Any opportunity to drop a line from a favorite song and movie....

So, just to post more photos, here I am with the famous drummer,Annalise. I've wearing my new bday Drumline t-shirt and iPod . And given the title of this post, other than the Cold Play songs Annalise loaded for me, you can imagine my play list.

After dragging the cool and rainy weather to southern California, we then took it to Wapato. Where we visited the world famous puzzle solver, Slots. We couldn't get the Mariners to win a game but we got most of the puzzle put together before leaving. I'm certain we left only the easy pieces for Marilyn. You notice the height of the table. Now imagine my aching back.

We had a great time, but had to come back to Seattle for some nice weather.

Which it was today, so we took off for a bike ride. From Green Lake to Mercer Island, around the island and back. 37 miles ! a new mileage high. the worst is carrying the bikes back up the stairs when exhausted.

Had an appt. with the RunningDoctor.com yesterday. He thinks my problem, my FOOT problem, is tendonitis of the blah blah blah tendon at the insertion point of the blah blah blah bone. Has prescribed ICE ICE ICE and more ICE. and some big time Ibuprofen. And a topical anti-inflammatory that will be sent to me from some hush hush pharmacy. I'm sure it's "The Clear", made famous by Balco Lab clients Marion Jones and Barry Bonds. Hey, if I can run a 9 sec. 100 meters and hit homers, I'm all for it. If it helps me jog around the lake, I'm all for it.

Now, off to ice da foot.

Schmoozing with the stars

Gina and I took an impromptu trip to Santa Barbara over the Final Four weekend. aka, my birthday weekend. We had booked a bike tour for Fri. and Mon. with an outfit out of Santa Ynez. The wine area, made famous by the movie "Sideways". We just wanted a good 25 mile ride, a hard workout, no stopping at wineries. We'd have wine for dinner. And it was a great ride ! 35 miles ! our personal tour guide, Robert, led the way. Unless Gina was leading on a breakaway, or me, up a hill. Our Monday ride got rained out. And we were not wimps, it was POURING !!!

We saw Bo Derek riding horses. Well, she lives in the area, and I'm sure it was her. At 500 yds. everyone is a celebrity. Robert told us Bernie Taupin lives in the area, and Doc Severinson. OK, so maybe it's the "B" list of stars, but... hey top this.... Dr. Laura Schlesinger has a condo next door to the hotel.

We stayed at the Fess Parker Doubletree in SB. Kept our eyes peeled for Fess, but never saw him. darn. Loved his show.

However, that night at the hotel, Al Franken, one of my mom's favorites (just kidding), was giving a show for a local charity. For $250 you could go to the "meet & greet", or $50 for the show. When we got back from dinner, we moseyed down to the ballroom, bought a glass of wine, and well, you've heard of the Wedding Crashers, we became the "meet & greet crashers". I'm sure we fit right in, esp. me carrying my plastic drug store bag with water bottles and tampons. While Gina raided the cheese table, I channeled the spirit of Dick Rinehart and started talking to strangers. When G turned around I was chatting with the mayor of SB. We had a nice long talk. Her husband (yes, the mayor is a woman) was most interested in any "Bill" stories Gina had. and she has one that he loved. Then we mingled a bit. Got our photos taken with Al Franken. My, he's a short guy. Not on my camera, darn it, and I'm not sure I want to track down the photographer, might get charged $250 each. Then we split, our work being done.

Slainte !

So, we're at Murphy's (local pub). Chandler Bing's old girlfriend, the one with the laugh, comes in and parks next to us at the bar. OK, OK, so it's not HER, but this gal has the LAUGH. She asks me about the pin given out at the door, Slainte. "What's that mean?" I said, something like "cheers". She says "oh, like Salute !" I said sure, thinking yes, Gaelic is so similar to the Romance languages. But, hey, it's St.Patty's day, and everyone is your best buddy. She and her gang were nice. She laughed at ALL MY JOKES so I really liked her.

The blind singer of Irish tunes was there, again. Dan Maher, to give full credit. He's good, and gets the crowd involved. We had a couple Guinness's. Here we are at home with our new necklaces. Gina spotted one staff guy with it, and really liked it. Kind of neon-ish. Usually, they are very stingy about giving away the good stuff. He was about to give us a cheap Mardi Gras type strand, but I said I really (O'Riley ?) liked his other one. And he went and got us each one. Love that guy.

My bracket sheet is a mess of red errors. Of course I picked MSU. Sorry, Uncle Jerry.
And I'm still kicking myself for picking Syracuse. I NEVER pick them. and never will again.
Now I must go watch the rest of the games. and hope.

Erin go braugh !

Ex ZAG ly !

No worries in today's game. That's how the Zags win games. scarily, at the end. But they've got Adam Morrison, and if anyone can carry a team thru, it's him (he ? ) We'll have to rename the coach, Mark "Phew".

Now we await the UW game. Delayed due to a bomb sniffing dog reacting to a hot dog cart. say what? Was the dog hungry? Was it a case of the Ball Park frank going bad? No bomb, but someone was saved from botulism, or at least serious indigestion.

In today's yoga class as the instructor (Jubilee !!) was leading the way to the "crow" position (don't ask) she asks, "everyone got it?" then looks at me, starts to correct my positioning, thinks better of it and says "um, yeah, that's ok, Ann". Like, she's not about to take an hour helping me on this one.

Lance, I'm not

Well, today we took the bikes out for a ride. No big deal. Except we have these new pedals, and the funky bike shoes that clip into those pedals. I was a little worried, having never ridden with them, except for when the bike is set up on the trainer inside. For good reason I was worried. We went down to the grocery store parking lot to practice a bit. I was fine, until I tried to brake, then unclip. Um, no... that's not how to do it. I went over like Arte Johnson on Laugh In. Slow motion. But no worries. Except that the chain fell off and the brake got slightly messed up. After Gina finished rolling her eyes (how did that happen?) she fixed the bike and we were off for an 18 mile ride out and back on the Burke Gilman trail.

Unclip, then brake. Unclip, then brake. That's my new mantra, to try out at yoga class tomorrow.

Oh, and after the ride, I washed the blood off my knee then went to the pool for some lap swimming. And, of course, now my node is all sniffly and congested.

Can't I just run?

Bottom o the Blog

We had strong opionions on this woman's choice of green garb. What do you think?

Top of the Blog, to ya

St Patty's Day Dash Photo Phun

Gwen was 2nd overall women, we call her Fast Lady with a Fast Dog, as she usually trains around Green Lake with her dog.

Val was 3rd in our age group and Gina was 5th. And we are thinking everyone moves up a slot since some woman named Ted was listed first. hmm. Kathy cruised into the beer garden in a highly respectable time. But she didn't beat me ! And as you can see from the photos, time does not matter.. It's all about the wearin of the green.

I skipped my favorite race of the year, cuz I'm trying to respect the healing process. But it didn't stop me from having fun in the beer garden. Let's see if I can add the pictures to this blog.

Ohm migod

Well, it's come to this. Today I took a yoga class. Yes, you heard me.. a roll out the mat, breathe, say ohm, breathe, and stretch the bee-you know whose - us out of my hamstrings, yoga class.

But the teacher's name is "Jubilee" . How bad can it be?

Not bad, and I will go back. "They", everyone, the magazines, coaches... all say take yoga. It really helps, especially if you are a runner. And since I'm on a leave of absence from running, I might as well give it a shot. I do have some flexibility issues. And I do believe it will improve my overall strength.

Gina and I did a heart rate threshold test on the bikes yesterday. Basically you ride at a HR you think you can sustain for 20 minutes, rest 5, then do it again. It should give the coach and us some info for bike training, and how to pace our ride and run during the half ironman. I'm sure we'll re-test in a month, as we get fitter. And realize how hard we can ride. Let me know if you want me to post all the #'s.

zzz back to the BLAH-g

CRASH ing the party

Did anyone see this one? not me. But I'm so busy reading every running blog, I don't have time for movies.

I give the Oscar to Clooney for best acceptance speech. Sorry, Reese, I know you're a real woman, but to me, it just doesn't MATTER.

Hey, the Zags in another OT thriller ! which was what we were really watching and flipping to the Oscars. Because, like Capote said, it's NCAA basketball that MATTERS. Yes, JC, I did watch your beluv-ed T(w)erps win today. Kind of a close one, eh?

And for anyone interested in my running issues, I think I have given up the ghost on the Boston marathon for this year. This, expletive deleted, foot just isn't healing up well enough to put in the miles before April. So, maybe I'll take some time off the running, catch up on my swimming and put in some more butt time on the bike. At least there will be lots of bball to watch while I ride.

Now, upon accepting the BLOSCAR for best adaptation and spewing of B.S. --- I'd like to thank..

my agent, wait, I don't have an agent.
Leslie, my coach
my friends, you know who you are
Dicky V, "get a TO, baby"
Tami, my accupuncturist
Leslie, my rolfer
Bill, my PT
Chet, my shoe guy and Ty, and Tom, and John, and Sean (I gotta lot of shoe guys)
Janice at Super Cuts
Cornie, our house sitter
My neighbors, for getting rid of their dog
Patrick at the Stick dot Com
ABB, my inspiration
Gina, my inspiration's god mother
Mia, Julie, Joy, Brandi, and Abbie (not Amy)
My sisters, too numerous to mention well, ok, Joan, Mary, Patty, Catherine, Maureen, the music has started
My brother, but he's not paying attention to this drivel
Aunt Louise
My mom, who is truly beginning to understand that I wasted those college years
My dad, who would have been a beautiful blogger
Cousin John, for getting me started on this path of blog-ism
The Paloozers !
Traci, whew, remembered my friend's name
Did I say Gina ? who wishes I wouldn't mention her name on this blog, much less twice
Sandra Schmerler, the curler

and remember,
I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!