More favorite athletes

Presenting ....
Team SAG (slots, ann, gina) .... the Arhythmic Gymnastics Team for the USA.

Team members are recent immigrants who brought their talent and love for this "sport" to the USA in hopes of winning a gold medal.

Gina Danskoshoesnova
Marilyn Van der Slotsalot
Annie Blogonandonski

There has been suspician that two of the members were too 'Young' and there was also rumor that a third tested positve for performance enhancing liquids (beer).

Nevertheless, the team members worked hard and performed magnificently (and in only one take). Although the athletes realize they need work on sticking their landing for the finale.

Special thanks goes to videographer Erica, Van der Slotsalot's next door neighbor.

Gina, marilyn and i did this project in response to a challenge put out by gina's cousin margaret. i'd spent a bit of time last week pooh poohing the "sport" of rythmic gymnastics. her other cousin, louise actually likes the sport. So margaret thought we should all come up with a routine.. I think we get gold medal for being first, if not best. Enjoy.

Our favorite Olympian

Susan Nattrass.... age 58 her 5th Olympic Games... and the nicest gal with a gun you could ever want to meet. Well, she is Canadian, afterall. They are all nice.

She lives here in Seattle, and measures our bone density every couple years. For which we are grateful.

Olympics

a gold medal and a new car !!! congratulations !!

14 hours

I've got 14 hours til start time of the ironman... guess it 's time to delete that countdown clock.

Coach Lesley is up there, ready to go... and Rose, and Eileen, and Anne Judd.... I'll be sitting in front of the computer all day, keeping up with their checkpoints, then at the end watching the screen as each competitor gets their moment of glory crossing the line.

I did a bit of a walk on the treadmill, a spin class, and then a swim in the lake... my own little triathlon today. I wish the same conditions for the ironman athletes.

Now, back to the Olympic marathon... I must say, I think I've been a bit of an Ironman in the sport of Olympics watching....

Clean and Jerk

Shane Hammond... My new favorite announcer.
He's the color analyst for, you guessed it, weightlifting.
He has a nice Oklahoman accent. "He almost made bacon outta that" (whatever that means)

Here he is in his glory days in Sydney.

Opening Ceremonies spoiler alert

A couple quick thoughts... after watching the CBC's replay version of the opening ceremonies.

Thumbs down on the French women's outfit. The Polish ladies' dress was nice, just not so on some huge must be weight lifter lady. And what was with the Swede's sort of Japanese look, complete with fans ??

The Chinese are big on the 8/8/8 business, down tot he 2008 drummers, tai chi-ers, But I loved the drums... and the oar/flags ... Did anyone wonder which orphanage the little 9 yr. old girl who sang that song came from ? we are cynical..

And no one really thought that volleyball woman was going to be the torch lighter? right. but it was cool to watch

But right now the Canadian Bob Costas (Ron McClean) is interviewing the parents of a gymnast guy. This interview epitomizes why we love Canada. These folks are from Calgary, sitting there in t-shirts and jeans, not team gear, sponsor gear, not a Maple leaf flag in sight, they are NOT there in China, they look like some kid's parents...totally nervous to be on tv.. Just regular people. Not over the top pushing their kid...

And Ron is calling it 'pollution'. Not mincing words like the NBC folks who spout the party (China, IOC) line

OK, so no spoiler ... they light the caldron at the end. as usual.

I day til........THE OLYMPICS

2 full weeks of tv to watch !!! not to mention the millions of blogs to read.

I've spent the morning putting together a chart of all the tv stations with Olympic coverage, and times of day.. It's not just NBC at 8pm Not with MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Oxygen, CBUT. I'd post it here for you but the cut and paste thing isn't happening with the chart.

Now I have to match up what is actually happening on which channel and decide what gets taped. Cuz, no, not even I, sports freak that I am, will stay up from 3am to 9am.

I think I can skip Oxygen channel.. it seems to be mostly equestrian and boxing. I'm just not into horses beating each other up.

Randomness

I'm listening to this cd... by sufjan Stevens...
Song titles include Detroit, Holland, Upper Penninsula, Sleeping Bear Sault Ste Marie, Romulus, Woverine, Marching Band, For the widows in paradise-the fatherless in Ypsilanti, They also mourn those who wear black (for the homeless in Muskegon)


Kudos to Kyle Mc Hugh who shot a bulls eye with the bow & arrow, after a tough week of archery lessons at Cub Scout camp. I'm amazed... I remember trying archery as a 13 yr. old, and failing miserably... fortunately my PE grade was not affected.


THE famous Kyle !



Bike crash week... Joan crashed and burned in Portland. But it sounds like she'll live to ride again. Bruising and swelling. I prescribed some of Dr. Jamieson's medicine. Fortunately she only hit the trolley tracks and not the trolley. I cannot believe she hasn't posted photos.

And we just heard from our buddy Rock (the surfer) who got hit by a car, coming around a traffic circle near his house. He inflicted a bit of pain on the windshield.. and as he says it has led to numerous "rock hitting windshield" jokes. not by me, dammit. He's OK, cuz he had his helmet on but scary.





So, I don't think that the mother of this blogger has been pictured on this blog lately so here she is, Mary K. Rinehart. Pre digital photo era... but just barely. I presume she is enjoying the lake this weekend. And, yes, mom, you were the first item, but I don't know how to rearrange photos on the blog. I can't know everything.


Now, back to Facebook... Allah, am I having an exciting Saturday night ? yes.

Practice Triathlon

Tri Geeks


Discussing the fine points of the transition area. with the dog


which end is up Izzy?

Today we did a practice triathlon with Pam and Lisa. A swim in the lake, which was very wavy. Then 3 hot laps around the lake on the bike (2 for Ann) and they did a run around the lake. I walked to the corner and back (yes, the far corner). Then like after every tri we sat around and re-lived it... with a beer.

You may notice the rowing boats in the background. A friend from Gina's rowing days is using the yard for storage this weekend. There is a regatta tomorrow on the lake.


Then the dog, Izzy, tried to make a run for it... lap dog goes crazy !! fortunately, she was fine, even with the attempted street crossing.

Everyone gets Tested

There will be no performance enhanced stuffed animals in Le Tour DAY France !!!

Latest news is some Russian gals have been swapping pee samples... that's a no no... No running in the smog for them this year.

I'm having withdrawals from watching televised international sporting events... Hopefully I can hang on til 08-08-08.
Stay tuned.

Au Revoir

We can finally sleep in. After 3 weeks of daily 4 hours stages of the bike race, I have some tendonitis in my remote control hand. :)


Our favorite commentators, Phil & Paul (with the Arc de Triomphe behind them)
"I reckon" and "round about" have slipped into our parlance.


This is how we spent each morning for the last 3 weeks.
Well, the champagne was only for the last day.

I am studying his form.

And his tenacity.

Sightseeing in Paris.

Carlos Sastre is the winner of le maillot jaune, the golden fleece, that darn yellow tunic.

1 step forward............

2 GIANT steps backwards.... stepping right back into my real age group. so sad...

after that little run there has been soreness.... I'm presuming I did no damage, but I guess the new knee was NOT ready for weightbearing activity. Now, I know that when I get back to that good point, to give it some more time, and maybe walk ONLY, then walk/run.

So, it's been a week of icing, and spinning the bike, and swimming.

But I was able to make it thru the entire Tour de France. Well, there is still tomorrow morning to watch. After we go swim and bike with Pam and Tami and the rest of their gang. That reminds me.... pack the camera.

Tri - ing the New Knee

the scars are little

i really must work on the size of my quads...

So, I did go for a run.... 1 mile of run for 2 minutes, walk for 2... then on the mile back it seemed like I should walk all the way. So i did. But hey, I was running !! Yahoo !!

And then I swam in the lake for 30:00, and now, I'm going to ride my bike to the optician's office.

It's like I'm doing a triathlon today .

(10 weeks since my last run, 7 since the operation)

Look at Me

Look at me, I'm A -annie
Running on a brand new knee !
I won't write the blog, til I've gone for a jog,
I can't, I'm A-annie.

You know, of course, to sing this to the tune of "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee" from Grease.
Now you know more of what's on my iPod.
And yes, I did come up with more verses, but it scares my sister to know I have so much free time.

53 is the NEW 33

I had my 5 week follow up appt. with the surgeon. He immediately starts in again with the time frame for recovery for the various age groups (under 30, 30-50, and 50+) and is telling me how I should be feeling due to my age, what I 'should' be able to do, maybe run at week 12 .... but wait a minute ! No, I don't have pain walking down stairs (thank allah cuz our house has quite a few) and Yes, I can kneel on it ( I think he liked it when I proved it, kneeling before the almight surgeon) and Hey! I'm using the elliptical machine, and spinning, and swimming, and look at that photo... is that almost a complete knee flex ?? He had to admit that I was not "acting my age" and said I was more in the 30-50 grouping. So, of course, I put myself at the lower end of the range. :) You can see by the look on his face, that doc is quite pleased with the results of his work. He said 8 weeks out, or maybe a bit earlier, I should try running a bit. But probably not ride the bike with the clip in shoes til almost Sept. We'll see about that. If my foot isn't hampering things I'd be feeling pretty good.


My acupuncturist buddy, Tami Hansen...
She's the reason for my knee flexibility.





Doc Holland....






a recent sunset


cuz I wasn't sure if I had posted this.. Allah forbid I go back and read my own blog.





the newly flexible ATR

yes, those are my daily footwear, the sandals. Yes, with sox. I hate sandals.


Gina has her Dansko's and I have my Josef Seibels..

Kudos all around

Val wins again ! This foto is not recent.. but I find I could use it anytime Val enters a triathlon. This past weekend she took first place in her age group in her hometown (Ventura, CA) race, the Breath of Life Triathlon.




Here is my niece Mary Kay Capon, who recently passed her "Bac's"... she lives in Paris, France (well, really a suburb) and the Bacc. is a bunch of really hard tests at the end of high school. I know they are hard cuz my sister emailed some sample questions, fortunately I only had to take kind of hard Regents exams in NY state. We await word on what school she will attend next year.
She's is smart, and more importantly, a kind and compassionate person. I don't know how my siblings are doing it, but they certainly are raising some great people !!


Oh, and that is the new beau (see I parlez a little francais) Antoine. Not to leave him out, I think he passed, too.

Me ? well I did swim twice this weekend for 40 minutes each time. And today I went for a 20 minute "run" on the elliptical machine. Progress, for sure.

New Swim Buddy

Pam joined us for a swim today. Her first open water swim with wetsuit. Yahoo !
We'll do a bunch more so she's comfortable come Danskin tri time.


getting the wetsuit ON is THE workout.

My Blog has been Hi Jacked

And I'm happy to let it happen.

For the next month (or til Traci -- Tres si ) gets bored I'll post some photos from San Miguel Allende.. the town where they are attending Spanish language school. Traci and Denise have an apt. and Annalise is living with a local family. You can read some highlights of their days in the comments section.

But I see we have to work on photo file size.


Annalise and Denise

the previously commented on hot air balloons

a picturesque window sill

the skyline of San Miguel Allende

Hey

Could someone down there in Meh hi co please find out "como se dice BLOG en espanol?
Traci or is that Tres-si ? email some photos to me, I'll post 'em. cuz my big sister said I had to. :) You can tell me stories, too, and I'll post, and if your T.O. friends don't have the blog address............... well, I can't believe they don't already, but you could send it to them.

So, ok, we are back in racing form. NOT REALLY. But this morning Gina left early to do a 5K race, the Shore Run. There were other options, the 6.7 miler, or the half marathon that went across the 520 bridge.... but given recent training schedule and the HEAT she chose the 5K. She's a wise runner. She felt pretty good about her time.

I went over to the lake for the Green Lake Open Water Race. I did the 1 mile race and did pretty well for myself, considering I have only one lake swim under my wetsuit, and the recent layoff for surgery. Did it in 30 minutes. Two years ago I had a 31:00 so things are looking up. Either the stroke is better, thanks to the torture machine, or I swam a slightly straighter line.

Then I hit the gym to go thru my series of leg strenghtening exercises, 3 times. And my new routine of some abs, followed by 100 bicycle crunches. Joan, ask Grady if he needs the list of quad exercises.

And I rode my bike to QFC for some supplies (yard waste bags, cuz I've done some work finally, COFFEE, and some other stuff) But can you believe I actually rode the bike for shopping errands? Jeez, I'm really following in Joan's pedal strokes.

Because I know you're wondering .... the foot is still ,.... ok, it's a family blog.... it still hurts. Doc is sending me for a bone scan tomorrow. This is to rule out any bone issues (stress fracture, fracture fracture). Because possibly the next step for a neuroma would be a cortisone shot, and one would NOT want cortisone in the area of a bone that is trying to heal. Folks at the gym say if it's a neuroma to "get it surgically removed !!!" but my sports med doc, my g.p., and my good friend and orthopedic surgeon doc, Trish, ALL say "SURGERY ON YOUR FOOT, ESPECIALLY NERVE RELATED, IS LAST RESORT !! IF EVEN THEN !"

I tend to agree. I'll keep you in-blog-a-formed.

Adios

To our buddies who live on Avenida de los Flores.... The Bender-Browns (Denise, Traci and Annalise) are leaving for Mexico, for a month. The tres of them will be taking espanol classes.
Speaking of flores... here is the dreaded peony, still in the yard.. It will not see the inside of the house, now that we've all seen how it affects my nose. But it is lovely in the yard. The yellow ones, well, if you look closely you can see they are a variety of dandelion.

Anyway, safe travels, amigas.
Hey, I don't think I mentioned the band news.. Annalise will be captain of the drumline next year!!! and if she wasn't I would have had to hunt down the famous Marty Martone, band director.
Oh, and watch out on the streets of California, cuz she also just got her driver's permit.