Wednesday, October 17, 2007

By the way...

I signed up for my first '08 triathlon!

The Spirit of Racine Sprint triathlon on July 22, referred to on triathlon websites as SOR.

Shall I "SOaR" to victory?

Yeah. Right.

Meet my friend.

Whilst experimenting with her new digital camera, Erika took a picture of my childhood friend, Theo. This tattered old bear was given to me in 1980 as a Christmas present, and I promptly named him Theo (you know, because it's another nickname for "Theodore", just like "Teddy", which is what he is). Over the years, he has been stained, picked at (see nose), cast aside, I pierced his ears, and more, but he has followed me to the countless places I've lived since I was an 8 year-old girl, and now he's followed me again...to my blog profile.

Welcome, Theo.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

My third week gluten-free update

I've completed week three out of four in my miniature experiment with going gluten free in an attempt to reduce my pooch. (I know the real word is "ponch", but to me the perfect word to describe my belly is "pooch".)

Friday morning, before leaving for work and undergoing my "Friday morning weigh-in" in the nurse's office at my school, I asked Erika for a prediction. She was noticeably reluctant to do this, as last week she predicted a two-pound drop and I had done no such thing. (I broke even, which I feel very even about.) She chose the safe route: "Well, I don't think you gained any weight". I agreed with her.

Alas, we were wrong. I gained a pound. The following are possible reasons why:

-I had three beers the night before, then promptly went to bed.
-I eat brownies every day in my lunch, and justify it by saying they're gluten-free.
-The hour and a half of working out I had done this week has created yet another pound of muscle on my already ripped body.
-A pound is no big deal; a person can sneeze and lose a pound.
-My flip-flops were deceptively heavy.
-The scale was off (my favorite excuse, as it can apply to anyone at any time).
-I gained it all in my boobs, which frankly were lacking lately anyway.
-Erika lost another pound (because she can look at a treadmill and lose a pound), and instead of floating aimlessly in the universe it landed on me.
-It's just a freakin' pound, and sometimes there is no reason why.

So Erika and I have this gift for occasionally getting down about things in our own lives but always remaining optimistic about each others; her response to the news was, "so now if you factor in the pound and a half you lost two weeks ago, you've nearly broken even!"

So true.

Monday, October 1, 2007

WARNING: Non-Triathlon-Related Post

So my dear friend Elizabeth "tagged" Erika and I, and now she's not our dear friend anymore.

Just kidding.

THE RULES:
1. Post these rules before you give you the facts.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself.
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) someone and list their name (linking to their page).
4. Leave them a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged!

EIGHT RANDOM FACTS.
1. I don't normally participate in these types of activities, but there is thawing chicken in the kitchen waiting for me to cut into serving sizes, saran wrap (with a layer of tin foil on top to prevent freezer burn) and store in the freezer betwixt the beef and the turkey servings. I hate wrapping the chicken, so I'm putting it off.
2. I eat left-handed. No big deal, except that my spouse, whom I've known for nearly three years, casually interjected a "you eat left-handed?" into our dessert conversation last night. Never stop learning about each other.
3. I never eat popcorn. I don't like it. When I tell people this they usually respond with shock and disbelief, like I just told them I'm the second coming of their personal Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But it's true, I just don't care for it.
4. I'm fluent in Spanish (speaking), but only half-fluent in understanding it and barely a Kindergarten level in Spanish reading.
5. I can't write poetry to save my life. My cover is my "Roses are Red" poems that I'll insert in friends' birthday cards, in which the last line rhymes with nothing. Example:
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
Walt Whitman is over my head
Why doesn't he use capital letters ever?
6. My favorite T-shirt of all time is a memento from a mountain biking trip in Bolivia in which the slogan on the back is "Going down has never been better". It has holes dotting every seam (and some in random spots as well) but I don't care--I'll never give it up.
7. My best leg of a triathlon is the swim.
8. I am choosing to tag Scott and Greg!