The Clear

Does anyone remember my tendinitus problem in my foot ?? a year or so ago? No ? Gawd, don't you folks pay attention? to my injury blog. Anyway, I'm sure you remember that the good foot doc prescribed ice (of course) ibuprofen (of course) and what we affectionately call 'the clear'. It's a compound medicine, a cream, that is basically a topical anti-inflammatory.

So, I just remembered that Gina had some, too, from her foot problem. And there's some leftover. So I have been applying to the hamstring, and I don't want to jinx things, butt, within the day things are butt-er. Of course I haven't run today so tomorrow morning will be the test.

Although, I did give the massage therapist, Kathryn, most of the credit today, while she was working on my legs. Cuz I remembered the charlie horse she inflicted on my calf last week. What is torture ? I dare Mr. Mukasey to endure that, and say "hmm, not sure if it's torture." :) I digress. And I shall also give much credit to Terri, the PT. Lest she decide on yet another stretching method (torture) to increase my flexibility.

Anyway, back to the Clear. If it's good enough for Marion Jones, it's good enough for me. Gotta love left over medicines.

Hurry

We just got a recorded message from Qwest saying they will be doing work in our area in next 24 hours, and that our DSL connection might be down for up to 4 hours. OMIGOD !! no internet, for 4 hours ?!!

So, I needed to get today's posting in before that disaster strikes.

At least it wasn't yet another campaign phone call.

I see our commander (decider, torturer, loser) in chief has told Musharaff to lose the uniform. Yeah, like that will help restore democracy. And Condi will be there soon to see that he complies. oh, but sure, we'll keep sending the billions of $$.

OK, OK so it's a running blog, not political. But I get all fired up each day, after listening to Rachel Maddow on AirAmerica radio.

And I did run 4 easy miles. Of course, while I whiled away the pleasant morning , as soon as I was out running, it rained. sure. Then I tried to do some of the new core and glute exercises that coach lesley gave me last night.

And now I'm trying the new wine that Kathy and Val gave us.. Pinot Evil. and I must say, I'm liking K & V's gift better than Lesley's.

Ooops

So much for posting every day in November. I already missed yesterday. Wow... that sounds like a killer song title. If only I had lyrical talent.

It's the time change, that's the problem. I've been up at 6:00am yesterday (which I miss) and today. And the only thing to do at that hour is surf the net. I mean, 'do some research'. So by 8:25am, now, I am on my umpteenth cup of coffee, waiting for Gina to get up and entertain me.

FYI, Keith Olberman had a great rant last night. I listen occassionally on hoffmania.com Mukasey appt. has moved out of committee. What is up with Feinstein? The Utter Wonder has an amusing post about his kid's soccer game. The urban word of the day is lame. No, it's not the word lame. Can anyone believe that the "super fit" Katie Holmes ran the NY Marathon, without a sports bra ? But she did flaunt the 'no iPods' rule. Many rants about her on the juvenile running forums. Fit? 5 and half hours? A Rep. congressman in Washington state is practically kicked out of office, no not the one who "IS NOT GAY", but wears women's clothes and has sex with men, BUT the one who very verbally sexually assaulted a female staffer. To quote the Seattle Times article "Dunn also said he could not exactly recall what he said to the woman, but said he was "sure it was very inappropriate, because I do that kind of thing."

Ok, now I'm boring myself with this useless but very 'today' post. But at least I'm entertained by listening to all my new songs on iTunes. Gina has been getting each day's free song card. We missed Sat. (that could be the chorus line in my new song) but yesterday at UVillage starbucks the gal gave us several recent days' cards. God love her. So far my fav is Tears from a Gun by the Black Ghosts. yeah, I know, they've always been my fav band, too. And Fav is fab word from back in the golden days of teen mags.

I have heard from the famous drummer girl, who is righteously humiliated by the video. So, everyone, PLEASE do not click on said video. You will only contribute to her angst. Oh, and don't click on her blog site because she obviously is NOT in the daily posting contest. She misses most of November. (a calendar girl, miss nov.)

Giddy up ! I hear Rip van Winkle in the kitchen. (not Dinah) Gotta go.

Is anyone wondering exactly how many cups of java I did have this morning???

More Wiki drivel

We were 7th amongst female 2 person teams. And all were in one big age group. Which means the other 6 teams were probably 20 yrs. old. I'm sure of it. Gina analyzed the results and we would have been 5th in the men's 2 person teams. :)
We had to carry the pineapple the whole way. The obstacles were fairly easy; crawl thru a tube, climb over a wall, climb over a higher wall ( i stepped on gina's back) and then came back around to give her a boost, after the monitor said that was OK. Then the next wall, with tires, was really high... I thought no way I can climb that, but all we had to do was toss the pineapple thru one of the tires.. SWEET ! My middle name isn't Bart Starr/Brett Favre for nothing. Then crawl under some netting, then thru some punching bags and up and over a big container box like a climbing wall, then up a steep but short hill, then under a pole and to the finish line.
Then off to the luau ! It was a fun event, but an odd for us. We did not see one person we knew. None of the usual suspects like at regular races. No Wendy, Judy, George, Gwen, Uli, Karen, Val, or the countless others that we see all the time but don't have names for.
Today I ran 8 miles. A new loop that included going across and back on the Aurora bridge. Kind of interesting. Great view. Gina spun on the bike. Still feeling like a cold is dragging her down.

I said it was luau.
SpongeBob was in the house.
We gotta get some colorful grass skirts.
Gina is proud of her lei matching the pineapple design.

Wiki Pineapple Race

Here we are with the pineapple that we had to carry with us during the race. The obstacles were no problem for us. The 2 beers put me over the edge and into nap mode, though.

Don't know these guys but they are certainly more festively dressed for the Wiki party than we were.

Sad news from the Marathon Olympic Trials in NYC. Ryan Shay, a contender, died of apparent heart attack at mile 5. sheesh. Michigan born, Notre Dame man. very sad.

Test Post 3

this is a test posting of a video, and well, probably unfortunately for ABB, the only one I have on my computer right now. So, maybe she'll film another, more recent one of herself drumming and send it to me. To update the world famous blog with news about the world famous drummer.

Hey, i just remembered i have some old video of my nephews. If I thought they checked in on TWFB i'd post it.

Something tells me i should save future test posts for those days when i've really got nuttin to post, during Nov., nat'l post daily at your blog month.

Test Post2

darcy, karen and gina pre Danskin. pardon the un-timely-ness of this, but i'm test driving posting via my cell phone. i've forgotten how, and if i've got to post daily for a month i'l need options.

Noveber 2, and still posting daily

OK, so I've been informed that November is National Blog Posting Month. http://www.nablopomo.ning.com/
Some sort of deal where anyone with a blog (isn't that everyone?, as the dude says) posts daily. It's all about writing. whatever.
It's also national write a novel month. http://www.nanowrimo.org/ Kristoffer has done this in the past, and I'm sure he's onto novel #3 by now.
But because a photo is worth a 1000 words, prepare for about 5K .


Kathy belatedly celebrating '55 and alive"

OK, so we were early with our festive Halloween garb.

Michelle, the focaccia maker

It was good, and gone. And Terri chef'ed up some fine pasta y pork. I mean arista porchetta con fresca erba.

K & Val did not get the "wear orange" memo.

And the best news ?

I got promoted to Deputy Decorator !
Because I come up with the idea to put a mask on Charlie Brown. Gina actually made it but it was my idea and the Queen of Decorating loved it.

B O O to you

Spinning class today was a blast ! A cowboy theme although it looks a bit Hee Haw -ish.


The Halloween Queen. Queen of decorating, anyway.


Welcome to our house.


It's a grave yard blast !


Not sure about the traffic cone head.


Gina's decorating touch. nice


Yee Ha !


More dead things in my garden.


And you should see the ruby red ring I had.


We don't even look tired after class.




Darcy and Teddy and Aliza. and Count D.
doesn't Aliza look happy to be here.

Draw ! oops, forgot my side arms. Thank God I've got Gatorade.

Joan had one bad ass cowboy shirt on.
Keith has a bad ass green T-shirt.




Well, halloween must be over. Gina is out taking down any lights that might encourage a late night snacker from trick or treating. Hey, it's 9:00pm. We've been ready since 4:30. We had 8 kids. A couple neighbor kids and their friends. And Darcy and her 2 kids. They all got big candy bars !! which leaves all the little ones for us. great.





Time for Criminal Minds.

Pushing pumpkins

I've got no times but we had a fun time at the annual Pumpkin Push 5k. It was a beautiful morning, a bit chilly to start but the sun appeared at the end.

We need a bigger podium this year to include all our pals. Our tri buddy Karen sped thru the course (in viking woman coustume, no less) for 1st in our age group. I tried to cross the line at the same time as Wendy but managed to beat her by a second. :) Val cruised across in 4th place and Gina took 7th. I think we've got the makings of a great 50 yr old cross country team.

No pictures today but Coach Lesley was there as Wilma in a Flintstones car. Coach Tony had his whole group there in chef costumes. He and his trusty dog Jersey took 1st place in Dog division. Ironman Eileen seemed to be wearing some sort of princess costume.

Back to the Husky game.

Butt, what was I gonna say?

Oh, yes.... so coach Lesley got lousy news about her hamstring/BUTT/etc. issues..... and since some of our aches were similar I was scared straight... into the MRI machine. BUTT, I was lucky this time around. The doc was worried of maybe a stress fracture of the ischium (sp?) or a tear in the hamstring (Lesley's :( news ) BUTT, there was no evidence of either. Just some edema/swelling of tendon near the icshium (sp?) indicating maybe some tendinitis. Nothing to say "STOP ALL ACTIVITY" . He must love those days. I will do some appts. with the PT. Our buddy Terri Graham, PT, seems willing to work on this with me.

Of course I went for an 8 mile run today, in anticipation of the "STOP ALL ACTIVITY" news.

Hey, be sure to check out the links listed to the right side of this page. Karen BUTTram, our fellow runner, I'd say fellow triathlete BUTT we are so not in her league. And given her recent times at 10K's and 5K's, we are dropping quickly out of that league, too. Kudos to her for really working on her speed work.

And Kristoffer has his photo's up on a Flickr site. And he's got a good eye with the lens. and with the descriptions.

And Annalise's site is swell, esp. if you are a Henry Potter fan. I think you must sign up as a google member to visit this site, but it's no big issue to do so.

And the Utter Wonder is just a gem. He posts more photos of his ugly toes than I do.

I HAVE A BLOG !!!!

Omigod !! like, I totally forgot my cute little bloggie-pie.

So, what have we missed all Sept.? Not too much. My butt problem still plagues me, which is part of my lame excuse for not posting. I have only so much "sit time" and I'm using that to read stuff, not write. I have now had 2 accupuncture treatments and unlike the others I will not share photos of the needles in the butt.. You're welcome.

I have been running still. Just not as fast or enjoyable. But it's doable. We have done a few 12, 13, 14 milers on Saturday with the Coach Lesley group. Last Sat. I did 8, on the very hilly and treacherous trails of St. Edwards park. It was fun. Thankfully the coaches marked it with chalk cuz I have no idea where I went. Always looking down so as to not trip. Gina did not join us this time. She had just experienced a FABULOUS 10 miler on Thur. Her best run in a year, at least. She did not want to risk all by tripping or sliding in mud. Smart choice.


I did take a quick trip to Thousand Oaks to check out the godchild on tenor drums. The band marched at halftime of the football game. I'm certain of all the band parents, I was the only one more interested in the game. This photo is from practice, hence the shorts, sunglasses, sneakers ... no uniform.


And then on Sunday night Traci drove me down to Hollywood where we met up with my movie star good looking nephew, Kristoffer.

OK. Next race is Dawg Dash this weekend. It's a 10K, but we need to add 4 or so at the end, so really it is just a long training run, with a bunch of Husky fanatics.

Hoopin at the Lake

And I'm not talking basketball.

Earlier today, while I was 'working' in the yard I spot the "Hula Hooper" . Some gal is down there, at lake's edge, doing a hula hoop routine. Seems to be done to music. Very cheerlead-ey-ish or similar to (I can't believe it's an Olympic sport) Rythmic Gymnastics. Hasn't stopped for the 20 minutes now that i've noticed her. This is when I need a reallly goood zooooooooom on my camera lens.

OK, so with my little zoom and a bunch of computer crop & zoom and here's what we got. You can almost see her pink hoop. Yes, she was down there for at least an hour, altho a bit of time was spent telling roller skater gal all about the Joy of Hula Hooping (in public)


no, really, in line skates are like so yesterday... hula hoops, yes, you can touch it, are retro, totally cool, and my capri's, well thanks, i luv them, too. And with an hour a day of hoopin i can stand out here in public in my sports bra... not that i'm seeking attention or anything.


the lady tries not to look, I think she's calling someone on her cell phone... "Gladys, you won't believe what I'm seeing at the lake today"


This is an adult toy, little girl... but you can dream


My hips... my hips .... my lovely lady hips....
or is it my hoop, my hoop my oh, forget it , that song sucks anyhow.

Margina & her Makita

OK, so all our friends with drills are out of town and Gina just happened to find the perfect curtain/door for the new bedroom. So, we rented a drill from Handy Andy (ok, really Aurora Rents but...) got a 2 minute lesson on how it works. Came home and Gina drilled and installed.

The funny part was at the store, the dude immediately says to her "why the frown? let me talk to the 'fun' one. You're the bean counter." How did he know? The fun one (me ! ) was over looking at an electric hedge trimmer to rent... hmmmm Anyway, he was nice. The drill worked and the curtain looks good.

Oh, and she was frowning cuz the rental store we've used in the past was closed, who knew? and so our errand was delayed.

tunnel of luv

this is the entrance to the 2.5 mile long tunnel on the Iron Horse Trail. We did a 12 mile run last Saturday. Starting a few miles west of here, then thru the tunnel of pitch darkness, out to pass Lake Kachees (sp?) , that we normally only see from the other side as we drive on I-90 heading to eastern Washington. Then we ran an extra mile out and back, then back thru the tunnel and back to the Lake Annette trail head.

A fun group was just starting their day, on the other end of this tunnel. A bike & beer ride from there down to Lake Sammamish. Some of the bikes had little trailers connected, holding big ice chests full of beer. As I was on the return run thru the tunnel, close to the end, we (coach lesley was with me at this point) hear the bikes coming.... we start running faster, faster... It was like in the movies when the dude is trying to outrun the train bearing down on him. Instead of just stepping aside and letting it pass.

No, trains do not use this tunnel anymore. Darcy.

2 in one day

Well, i've got time on my hands.... the mariners are just awful these days so i don't have to camp in front of the tv.

This past weekend gina and i rode bikes on friday. 34 miles. From here to Seward Park and back. And did not get stopped by the bike cops this time. Don't ask. But be sure and stop at stop signs if you're on a bike.

Then Sat. morning we ran 11 miles. It was supposed to be an easy run, but Gina got paired up with Trisha, who says 10:00 pace but really likes a 9:15. And I was with the coach, so my idea of a nice easy 9:15 pace immediately became an 8:30 pace. So, a tempo run it was !

Afterwards we jumped in the car and headed to Hood Canal to meet up with the gang for a cruise on Cindy's boat. It was a perfect day for a cruise.

Then we headed home because the running group was meeting at our house at 7:00am, for 5k race at Green Lake. We had a team photo taken. It was fun. Oh, and Gina and I were on the podium.



Mona, Teri and Gina


It was beautiful on the Hood Canal , or is it a fjord?


Coach Lesley's running group



The crew member barely fits thru the hatch


G and me with the Captain


Cruising along


The group... Legends, really.


Mona and Margaret, and not a tool in sight.

9/11/2007

So, what happens to a blog left unattended for weeks?? does it gather dust? grow weeds? get tagged? shrivel up and die? (you wish) nope... it just sits there. which is not what i've been doing.

9/11 .... what a date. For the Rinehart family, it's the day Catherine survived. We were lucky. Her story of getting out of her office bldg. which was next door to the WTC was just like what we all saw on tv that morning... And her seeing one of the planes circle the bldgs. too eery. erie? eary? a little help here, ABB. anyway. just talked with her, and it's still a very emotional date.

So, when last i wrote i was heading to canada to watch Coach Lesley and others compete in Ironman Canada. She did great. Bettered her time from last year. Unfortunately, a few ringers in her age group (the toughest) showed up. So she didn't get a qualifying spot for Kona. But still awesome. As were the races of my other friends. Eileen, one of Lesley's clients, was the last finisher. Which is actually a really cool thing. There is a big crowd that stays to cheer on the final competitiors. There is a cutoff of midnight, and actually Eileen finished at 12:03, so she's not official, but you couldn't tell from the announcer and the cheering. Fireworks go off at midnight. Lesley and Tony and some others, including a race official were running in with her (he made sure she got a medal cuz she was running) ( I was in charge of Jersey the dog) It was truly amazing !

The thing about Ironman Canada is to enter the race you must be on site the day after to register for the next year. Are you following along...?

Let's see if I can find some photos.



Lesley starting out on the run. Mumbling something about a headwind for last 60 miles of bike.


Ironwomen Eileen and Lesley


I found a beer garden surprise surprise.... and a buddy from California, Spiff.


Ann Judd, a buddy from our gym, who had a great day !

12

This morning I got 12 miles of running in.... and yes, lots of it seemed / was uphill. From Marymoor half way around Lake Sammamish. And it is obvious that the construction/remodel business is in full swing out there.

Ran with the group , such as it was this morning. 4 of us. Coach Lesley is up in Penticton. Ironman Canada is tomorrow morning. And Eileen, one of the team, is also doing the race. And we've got a few others we know.

I'm flying up to watch in the morning. More news on that later.

Gina stayed in town and ran her 12 miles around here, the Burke Gilman, the UW campus, GLake, etc. Which reminds me to try and get a photo up here from my latest ride around campus.

Danskin Triathlon 2007

Here are some photos from this year's triathlon. It was a rainy day. I freaked in the swim. Gina had a flat , and we still managed to land in the Top 10 of the 50-54 age group. Val, of course, took 1st.
Karen B. waxed us all, competing with the elites (and she's had at least 20 more birthday parties than the rest of those gals)
Darcy placed 8th in the youngsters group (40-44). I guess all those spin classes paid off.




I think the little green dot behind the lead lady's butt, is me.

Post race, freezing, but the gal next to us insisted on taking our photo. uh, ok.
Nice that the free hat matched my shirt. (cuz we're all about fashion)


Gina runs

Gina finishes

Ann runs behind an ex Russian basketball player


Finishers. Gina, Darcy, ATR, Val, Karen


Our best-est (wettest) fan, Kathy.


No wonder I freaked in the swim.


Gina "speeds" thru the transition area.

ATR goes with the 'off the shoulder' look...... ooooh la la


Cap beauties.


Gina bikes... this is on the way out. The flat occurred about .75 miles from the finish. She rode it in, flat... and did not ruin her rim.