More birthday weekend photos

Well, Traci put on the pressure, so here are tons of photos.... cuz we had tons o fun !
Can you believe that I'm sippin a lovely cheap pinot grigio as we speak? Blog posting is so much easier with a bit of a buzz on.


sippin glasses

WOW I had a great time !


Adrian explains the willow stick theory to Cindy,
Harlan checks his texts. cuz he's a VIP. whatever.

Adrian asks good questions, gets BS answers about bio dynamics.


Seattlites soakin up the sun. ahhh

This pic is TOO good to not post twice .


T. O. grrlz Rulz !!


Donna must have known I was trying to get a shot of that fab belt she had on.
Jale ignores me.


Kids will be kids.

Ever hear of SPF 30 ?

Hurry and open those divine chocolate fortune cookies.


Janet & Pat listen.

Pat swirls.

Pat gulps it down.
Next he will do his Oliver Twist impression "please sir, may I have more?"

Denise, a very suave looking oenophile.
Or at least a one handed oenophile.

John calculates how much Eric makes per tour to afford that(those) Escalades.


The surprise guests ! oh, just siblings

OK, which cheapskate tipped the $1 bill ?

Is that? Omigod, it is.... Jan Smezek !!

Karen did remember her sunscreen.

That's Frank Frankowski, in the background. Driver extraordinaire.. How he stayed on the 101 with Anne K. whispering in his ear I'll never know. I was distracted 6 rows back.

Did you like my California-speak ?? The 101 ??

Mileage update

Here are some belatedly posted #'s that I know you have been wondering about. I'm sure the biking times will be going up, soon. As soon as Coach Lesley can convince me that it's warm enough to ride outside. But it's barely 40 degrees today so.................

My knee is doing MUCH BETTER, thanks for asking. Not completely healed and back to back long runs make it act up, but overall better. I was a bit worried for a while.

While in Santa B. we swam in a 50 meter pool. Outdoors of course, it is sunny southern California. It was great ! except that wall is so not where you expect it to be. But the distance really allows you to get into a rythm. But back to reality at our Green Lake Pool tomorrow.

Week 7 Totals : Mar 10 - Mar 16
Swim Time = 1hr. 32 min. (4300 yards)
Bike Time = 2hr. 50 min. (39 miles)
Run Time = 3hr. 21 min. (20.7 miles)
Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 10hr. 11 min. (26800 yards)
Bike Miles = 19hr. 51 min. (292 miles)
Run Miles = 19hr. 27 min. (119.3 miles)


Week 8 Totals : Mar 17 - Mar 23
Swim Time = 0hr. 56 min. (5200 yards)
Bike Time = 2hr. 52 min. (50 miles)
Run Time = 3hr. 36 min. (22.5 miles)
Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 11hr. 7 min. (32000 yards)
Bike Miles = 22hr. 43 min. (342 miles)
Run Miles = 23hr. 3 min. (141.8 miles)

Time to Detox

We are back from THE Traci Lyn Brown 50th birthday bash in Santa Barbara. whew ! I'm still working on the photo collection but here's a sampling. Or shall I say "a tasting".


Was the weekend really all about the youthful and playful Traci Lyn Brown ?


Or was it about her buddy ? ME !! It's all about ME !! It's MY BLOG !! It's MY CAMERA !! It's MY GREEN SHIRT !!
I learned this "me" crap from Traci.


Or was it about the wines ? Bio dynamic or not, could I please have a full pour?


Or was this really a Neti Pot User convention?
Hi, My name is Ann, I've known Traci for 27 years and I've had sinus issues for the last 6 years.

McHugh Leprechauns

Krissy. I can't stop smiling seeing this picture.


Eli Manning and Krissy.
I'm loving his shirt.

St. Patty's Day Dress

An annual sighting. This lady wears this beautiful housedress EVERY year to Murphy's Pub. I know this cuz every year I go to Murphy's. I know, I'm in a huge rut. So today I tried to surreptitiously take a photo of it. hence the blur. REALLY, I was only there for 1.5 Guinness's. The lady actually talked to me, she inherited the dress from her mother, but still I could not bring myself to ask for a full photo.

Dan Maher, the blind guy from Spokane, sang all the same Irish tunes as he does every year. Same jokes. And I hung out with Dave, yet another blind guy. Does Guinness have an effect on the eyes?

Road Trip ? Boat Trip? Zoo Trip?

What? oh, OK, so the blog allah wants me to only upload one or 2 photos at a time.. Like I've got nothin else to do ! :) So as usual, there is no order, rhyme or reason to these pictures. But really great captions.


The eagle has landed.

Obligatory lighthouse photo.

The ONLY whale we spotted. darn

let's back up the car a half mile to take a photo of this for Gina.


Just before I make them take the "shortcut".


There MUST be a whale out there somewhere. But really, how do you like my Boston Marathon Jacket? Did I tell you I ran that race last year? I did tell you? ok, well, it was really something.. oh never mind.

On golden pond, AKA the view from our lodge.

You would have thunk we made her hike up and across Deception Pass or something.


Mona looks for cookies.

Gina sure attracts the cutest animals.

Kathy's chums. We horned in on opening night party. Thanks Patty. (for the fun, free food & drinks)

Lodge night. Don't even ask us for the secret password.


That's Mt.Baker in the background. And a couple of 'swells' in the foreground.

Who are these movie stars?

Allah forbid we get out of the car to look at the eagle.

Mangiest fox we ever did see. He came to the car for his close up, though. Gina spotted him(her?) way across the prairie. Good eye, mate.

San Juans

Well, I'm trying to add photos but Google seems to be having server problems today. Stay tuned.

The most I can offer tonight are the #'s and I can't even look at 'em. Knee still sucks. Seems worse. How can that be?


Week 6 Totals : Mar 3 - Mar 9
Swim Time = 0hr. 59 min. (2700 yards)
Bike Time = 2hr. 57 min. (44 miles)
Run Time = 2hr. 37 min. (15.75 miles)

Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 8hr. 39 min. (22500 yards)
Bike Miles = 17hr. 1 min. (253 miles)
Run Miles = 16hr. 6 min. (98.6 miles)

Why bother?

Why do I bother posting this week's #'s ?
Because I can.


Week 5 Totals : Feb 25 - Mar 2
Swim Time = 0hr. 45 min. (1800 yards)
Bike Time = 1hr. 30 min. (25 miles)
Run Time = 0hr. 56 min. (6 miles)

Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 7hr. 40 min. (19800 yards)
Bike Miles = 14hr. 4 min. (209 miles)
Run Miles = 13hr. 29 min. (82.85 miles)

Thirdgill's 40th

Last night we went to Traci's 40th birthday party. She and I worked together at Queen Anne Rec. She put on a great party! If you want something done right, do it yourself. It was at some pub in Lynnwood. She had friends from her playing days at UW (Karen Bryant, Lisa Oriard, Yvette Cole, Jackie Meyers) (and they look like they could still put a hurtin on the current UW team), family members, and old and current park dept. friends. It was a great mix of people.

Her brother Troy is a professional comedian. No, really, he has been making a living at it for many years. We last saw him at a club downtown, Gina thinks it was 15 years ago or more. I, as usual, have no memory of it. :) Anyway, Troy did a performance of mostly his routine but threw in some good Traci roasts. Jackie had the best line tho.. She said she and Traci went to the UW women's game on Friday night, thinking they were "all that"... imagine their shock when no one recognized them as they strolled thru Hec Ed. Those days of giving autographs are OVAH.

And then there was karaoke. That's when some of the bar's regulars stepped in. Very odd scene. Nope, Gina and I did not do our duet. Although Troy and his wife Amy did a great Sonny & Cher, "I've Got You Babe".


Thirdgill and Rinehart

Jackie TTT and Yvette together again !

Just to prove that Traci does not ALWAYS take a good photo. But that smile is always beautiful.

She made the signs, and little table dec's, all with photos of herself...
which gave Troy just the material he needed for a few jokes.

'Nuf Said

this photo fairly accurately describes the pool lane today.
Oh, that is these cars were slowly doing the breast stroke, or slowly doing the back stroke, using a kickboard, or crawling.
no really c r a w l i n g ..............

When it got to 8 people, with one guy doing deep, underwater, length of pool dives, I called it a day.

Ding !

Drummer girl, aka, Annalise, aka ABB... playing the ..... drumroll please............................................the triangle ! and quite well, if I must say so myself.

it's cell phone video, to explain the quality of video.

Shorts weather

Finally, on Monday I was able to run in shorts.. the first time since before Thanksgiving. Of course on Wed. it was back to the capri tights. That's kind of a weird sentence. One doesn't normally think of me and capri's. (or tights)

We did have a fun swim yesterday at the secret pool. Coach Lesley came along to check things out. One of the kindly pool staff offered Gina some hints on how to get her kick to be more helpful instead of "anchor-ish". She already knew but no one gets it... take one look at her calf muscles and tell me you don't see why she sinks.

Anyway , for some mid week fun I'll add a couple photos.


Here's super model Gina. Just before we headed off for a 2 hour indoor ride. Thank allah for tunes and Tiger on TV, kicking butt.

Yes, that's the pesky spot that is the reason I am blogging and not working out. Have decided a couple more complete rest days might be in order. Und now, more ice.

A Weak-ly Blog

Or at least I have only recently been inspired once a week. I'm sure things will pick up. But for now my posts are kind of like Maureen Dowd's..... one theme, and a boring one at that.

I've just sent in Gina's diatribe to the NY Times, asking if they want her to write the column cuz we all know the formula now. Trash Hillary and don't even bother being clever about it anymore. Sheesh..

So, off that political talk because it annoys me and onto this week's workouts. Which slightly annoyed me because my funky knee. It seemed like it had calmed down and was ready to go, so I went. But it's still a bit weird so I am erring on the side of caution. Lots of ice, a couple free PT clinics to help allay my fears that I've torn meniscus or something (weird word - meniscus).

I did swim 3 times and had great lane luck each time. The secret pool gave us a lane each, and then on Tues. I went to Green Lake pool, which had been shut for a few days maintenance. Thank allah Gina didn't go that day as the water was downright chilly. My second polar bear swim of the year. No wonder no one was there.

I went again on Sat. (cuz I didn't run) and my lane was fine. But I was glad no Fast lane folks showed up. Cuz the people who were in that lane would have been eaten alive. One dude was doing a floundering backstroke, and you know he didn't belong in the fast lane cuz he was not wearing a speedo. If the big guy who usually owns that lane had been there, well, lane rage might have made the nightly news.

OK, here are the #'s you are looking for. Me, I must go see who is wearing what on the red carpet.

Week 4 Totals : Feb 18 - Feb 24
Swim Time = 2hr. 37 min. (6900 yards)
Bike Time = 4hr. 50 min. (71 miles)
Run Time = 0hr. 50 min. (5.2 miles)

Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 6hr. 55 min. (18000 yards)
Bike Miles = 12hr. 34 min. (184 miles)
Run Miles = 12hr. 33 min. (76.85 miles)

ugh

So, this week didn't seem so bad. Only swam once cuz of the slightly sore back. Only biked once. But ran 2 medium long and 1 really long.. and it showed. I have some sort of a sore knee after the 13+ miles yesterday. So I did not do the 90 minutes of biking that was on schedule for today. But I did ice it about 18 times.

Perhaps I need a new column in the spreadsheet. "hours spent icing".

Week 3 Totals : Feb 11 - Feb 17
Swim Time = 0hr. 54 min. (2200 yards)
Bike Time = 0hr. 52 min. (13 miles)
Run Time = 4hr. 20 min. (27 miles)

Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 4hr. 18 min. (11100 yards)
Bike Miles = 7hr. 44 min. (113 miles)
Run Miles = 11hr. 43 min. (71.65 miles)

Uno is Numero Uno

Finally, a normal dog wins !
(OK, the Newfy that won a couple years ago is kind of normal. But HUGE.)

I was totally rooting for the beagle because the only dog I ever owned was a beagle. Bucko. And I can't wait to see Snickers, the neighbor beagle, to congratulate him on his breed.

But you know I can't let a dog show go by without a comment on the lady dog handlers and their outfits. OK, I'm not saying a word. But you know what I mean.

1406 is the best precinct !!!!!!!!!!!

Our precinct leader was a cheerleader type . I'm sure he was student body prez in high school. Which was probably 6 years ago.

This photo is fuzzy but Gina was clear about her candidate.... Hillary !!

We participated in the caucus on Saturday. Along with hundreds of others of our neighbors. I said that this (all these people here) was Bush's "legacy".... the country is thru with the ways of our president and want to have a say in the next go round. Well , I might have spiced it up a bit but this is a family blog.

We said our pledge of allegiance. Can't remember the last time that happened. Val was in the Library (with the wrench, says Gina) We were in the Girls Gym. Val said there was no flag in the library, but there was a poster of the USA Women's volleyball team and in the background of that picture was flag, so their precinct said the pledge to a team poster. so funny.

After counting the votes (Gina offered to do the tallying since it is a specialty of hers but they didn't need help) there was discussion zz zzz and then getting the uncommitted's to commit. Then a separation of Clinton fans and Obama fans... Gina wasn't sure if the older ladies on our side were really Hillary fans or just didn't want to give up their chairs.

We went with Val for a couple post caucus beers at the Green Lake Grill to discuss it all. Cuz I love talkin politics.

WSU rebounds

I finally got National Access, whatever that means on my cell phone. Here' s a pic of the cutest sweatpants . From our card playing days, last month. Tami showing her Cougar pride. But only because what was in that beer glass ended up on her lap minutes before.

But the Coug's did bounce back on Sat. They've had a rough stretch but got a win. As did the Huskies today, amazingly vs. the Bruins.

Caucus Schmaukus

I pledge allegiance to my stomach.

You can see by my grimace how happy I was to be at the caucus. I told Gina I'd go, but if ANYONE started talking politics with me I was OUTTA THERE !

The lady to my left is Michelle, a neighbor that I met there. If she turned around you would see the cutest little Hillary supporter. 5 months old. Dad was for Obama. go figure. We met and hung out with a bunch of our neighbors.

If I knew the caucus was going to be in the gym, I would have brought a basketball.. How about a game of HORSE to decide who the candidate is ? I've got a left handed hook shot that would put Hillary on the ticket for sure. Or how about a little two-on-two to pick delegates? .. Gina and I could pick and roll those Barack supporters to death. Seems about as fair as the process we went thru.

Another Week, a few more yards

Week 2 Totals : Feb 4 - Feb 10
Swim Time = 1hr. 45 min. (4800 yards)
Bike Time = 3hr. 50 min. (55 miles)
Run Time = 3hr. 58 min. (22.65 miles)

Total Training to Date
Swim Yards = 3hr. 24 min. (8900 yards)
Bike Miles = 6hr. 52 min. (100 miles)
Run Miles = 7hr. 23 min. (44.65 miles)

We may want to keep an eye on those weekly hour totals. If they get too close to looking like a J-O-B I might need to back off. I kid. Just today we were commenting on how our weekends are getting pretty tiring with long run on Saturday and long bike ride on Sunday. But then we laughed, cuz really, we like the long workouts.

On Thurs. we tried out a new swim pool. And I use the term 'new' loosely. We went to Mercer Island pool. They advertise an hour lap swim at 10am for $1 ! cheap. I figured if they are having a promo hour it means they want more people. Which means there probably aren't many people there. Correcto mundo ! G and I each had our own lane. Swimming Bliss ! But when we first walked out onto the pool deck our eyebrows raised.... The pool looks gross. The deep end is stained pretty badly. The water is fine and the pool is clean, just stained. But hey, we swim in Green Lake. And they actually use less chlorine so our noses were happy.

Oh, and the showers don't all work, and it was quite chilly in the lockerroom, and only one hair dryer works...... There's a big fundraising poster in the lobby. They plan on making things nice next August. What was so funny is this was Mercer Island !! How did they let it get so bad? I figure they all have their own lap pool at home.

But for now ? we had swimming bliss. No excessively slow backstrokers in my way. We'll still use our local pool mostly because it's close, but they are closed for installation of new filter system next week so glad we know about M I pool.

Yesterday I ran with the group on a 7.5 mile trail run up on Cougar Mtn. It was muddy and snowy/icy in some sections. But a great workout. Up and down, and over logs, and tip toe thru mud sections. Gina did 11 miles here in town. That trail run is the place she pulled (or tore) her hamstring so badly a few years ago. She don't need that action.

Today we joined Coach Lesley and Patricia and Tricia for some indoor biking. 2 hours worth, with a couple miles of running thrown in for good bricking measure. They would love to be outdoors but me, still too cold and it wasn't raining but it was wet. It makes it "fun" to do that amount of time with other people. The "Tricia's" are training for a half ironman in Calif. this summer.

Go Giants

We picked the Giants because I think my nephew Kyle (who is from NY) looks like Eli Manning. Only cuter.


See, now watch for when you see Eli's face framed by his helmet. You will see the resemblance.
Only Kyle is cuter. And smarter. And funner. And we love him.

I'm still kind of pissed at Eli for having the game of his life versus my Packers.

Info from the spreadsheet

Week 1 Totals : Jan 28 - Feb 3
Swim Time = 1hr. 39 min. (4100 yards)
Bike Time = 3hr. 2 min. (45 miles)
Run Time = 3hr. 25 min. (22 miles)


Gina did produce the most beautiful spreadsheet for me to keep daily, weekly, accumalative totals of all my swimming, biking and running #'s . Unfortunately, for some reason I am not allowed to copy & paste it into this blog page. So, then she fixed up a little baby spreadsheet that does the trick.