Spang Christmas 2006

Tom and I have gone from a winter wonderland Christmas full of ice skating and hot cider to a sunny New Year full of sun tanning and water polo. I'm at my future sister-in-law's house in Pinecrest, Florida where I'm just about to head out to the hammock to do some reading in the sun. I have a rough life. Too bad reality is going to set in at about 3:30 Tuesday morning when I have to wake up to go to the airport, fly home, and go directly to work.
Anyway, Christmas in Duluth was an absolutely fabulous time; below are the pictures to prove it. When I get back in town, I'll throw in some pictures from Florida.

Christmas on the Brain... and Everywhere Else

I think I went a bit overboard on my Christmas shopping this year, no? 'Tis the season, I guess.










We went to Trailer Trash's Trashy Little Xmas Show at Lee's Liquor Lounge last night. Best night of the year bar none. In fact, I think I started this blog with pictures from last year's show. Not only do you get to get on stage and perform with the band via their "jingle stick", you get to witness all of the people who go out only once a year, and this night is it. Completely reserved, they imbibe a few drinks and all of a sudden mom is pole-dancing with the jingle stick, and Nancy is limboing under the stick lower than she's ever been before. The people watching is almost as good as at the state fair.




































Oh yeah, on Friday, Tom and I went to a production of "The Nutcracker (Not So) Suite" at the newly renovated Ritz Theater in NE Minneapolis. First off, that theater is gorgeous. Small, but they did a great job with the renovation. Second, the show was pretty good! A "Ken and Barbie" interpretation of the original ballet. Tchaikovsky may be rolling over in his grave, but the audience was plenty satisfied.
Then we went to the Peacock Lounge for a snack. Very cute. I'm going to have to do a little more exploring of NE.

catching up... continued

...And my roomie and I had a party! It has been a busy few weeks. Here are some more pics to sum up the craziness.

catching up

OK, what's happened since I last checked in?
We cut down a Christmas Tree...














We made Turkey noodle soup and homemade bread...




















My nephew and I made Christmas cookies and funny faces...














I hung out with old friends...

Turkey Loaf

Ahh, the amazing things you can do with leftover turkey! This disgusting looking loaf is supposed to be a spinach-turkey log. I didn't have all the necessary ingredients and I was a bit absent minded and so forgot to add the cheese until the end. Hence, the asiago bread-looking loaf. It tastes good though... And, I got to use my new camera!

Age of Technology

Yay! I bought myself a digital camera! Of course I have no time to take pictures and upload them onto my computer, so as of right now, the blog will not reap the benefits. I'll try to take pictures this weekend when we go Christmas Tree shopping.
Thanksgiving was good. We were in St. Louis for Tom's 10-year HS reunion. Quite the interesting crowd. I felt a bit uncomfortable, given that half his graduating class has their PhD's, and the rest is on their way. Such a lowly engineer am I!
As the weekend came to a close, I left St. Louis with porn in my suitcase. Porn! I was complaining of neck pain, and the people hosting us for the weekend gave me a video showing me trigger points to relieve the stress. It was an erotic massage video, produced by Playboy! Our host just laughed and said, don't mind that; it has good information to follow (and men read Playboy magazine for the articles...) I didn't have the heart to tell him I don't have a VCR...

Wedding Date: October 27th 2007

The date and place for the wedding has been finalized! Actually, the church is still unknown, but the reception is going to be at the Wabasha Street Caves in St. Paul on October 27th. The picture makes the place look pretty cheesy (especially the pink chairs) but it's actually a really cool venue. Sorry to disappoint all those who loved the Mill City Museum; that was our first choice too, but unfortunately we're not rich. Anyway, the caves are interesting; they're an old gangster hideout, and the building has its share of charm. One item for the wedding accomplished, 999,999 things to go!

Tapes n' Tapes Make it Big

Local rockstars Tapes n' Tapes have a song on a Nissan commercial. I was watching Heroes last night (Tom likes the comic book/sci-fi genre, so I get sucked into these shows too...) when all of a sudden, Jakov's Suite came on - on a national commercial! Nice work, guys.
Ariane and I made chili and corn muffins last night. Ah, I love comfort food!

Mill City Reception

I've looked at one reception site so far, and I really like it and hope I won't have to look at any others. It's the Mill City Museum in downtown Minneapolis. The guys I work with like it because of its industrial quality (there's diamond plate on portions of the floor). I like it for that reason too, plus there's some charm that goes along with something as old as this building. Plus, the reception site is small and intimate, which cozies up a cold, old building.

It's my birthday tomorrow, wahoo! Tom is taking me (well, I suggested it, I'm driving, and I may be paying, but it sounds better this way...) to a play tonight called Bug. It sounds very interesting, although really weird. Then tomorrow night, Ariane, Tom and I are going to the Triple Rock for dinner for Po'Boys big as a large baby. Too bad I'm not in training for anything right now, I'm really packing in the food; Po'Boys, Ariane and I baked 2 pumpkin pies last night, and with the leftover pumpkin, I'm making pumpkin chocolate chip muffins tonight, and I think we still have some leftover pizza. YIKES, good thing I'm not trying on dresses yet...

women, women everywhere. Yuck.

Over the past 4 days, I have been in the presence of copious amounts of women; something I'm not used to, working in a man's field. Last Thursday and Friday I was at a conference for the Society of Women Engineers. For some reason those conferences make me sick. I don't know why; I just have issues with women getting all gussied up and networking with the best of the corporate world. I think I got into a man's career because I like working with men, and now all these women are coming out of the woodwork, and frankly, I don't work as well with them. Call me afraid of having a more even playing field out there; maybe that's it.
Then, on my own accord, I went to the wedding expo yesterday at the Minneapolis Convention Center. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The women were pretty tame, except the group who came prancing down the escalator wearing pink sweatshirts that read "Carla's Bridesmaid". Gross. Just gross. Anyway, about the expo: I've found that my tastes are simple, but somehow that equates to expensive in the wedding world. I guess the jewel-studded, pink frilly style uses gaudiness to cover up cheapness. My favorite dress, which was pretty plain as far as wedding dresses go, was $3,000. I didn't know I had such an eye for the good stuff; I wish I didn't. Anyway, the best booths were the food/cake booths. I'm definitely going with a Lund's/Byerly's cake. I still need to set a date and find a place for this shindig, so that is the priority for my lunch breaks over the next few weeks.
Tom got some new toys this weekend that most people wouldn't appreciate. They were heavy 20-35 lb balls with handles. They're basically a modified dumbell that gives a lot more versatility to lifting. We squeezed in a playground workout before the expo, and with the balls, did some single arm power lifting. At this rate, my shoulders will never fit into a dress; especially one of my $3,000 picks. I couldn't find my expo picks online, but here's one of the expensive ones I really like.

Gettin Hitched

So if you got to the last paragraph of my last post, you'll have read that I'm getting married. I'm very excited about planning a wedding, but also somewhat overwhelmed. I want a wedding where everyone is genuinely glad they came. I want my bridesmaids to wear chocolate colored dresses. I want the dinner tables to surround the dance floor. I want a friend of a friend to DJ so they'll just play the songs I want and won't play the chicken dance or the hokey pokey. I used to want a strapless dress, but they've been so overdone, I'm going to have to find some other style. Something somewhat vintage. I've started a wedding notebook to figure all this stuff out. How nerdy! But it helps...
In other news, Saturday morning I was playing on a playground with a friend's kids, and I hit the top of my head SO unbelievably hard on a wood platform. So far, I haven't had any ill effects except for an excruciatingly painful-to-the-touch bruise on the top of my head. Hopefully no internal bleeding going on.

Adventure Duluth 2006

I’ve gotten a chance to be a part of Adventure Duluth for three years in a row now. The first year, I did the swim leg as part of a 6-person team; last year I did the swim and the rollerblade as part of a 3-person team with 2 co-workers; Gregg Pattison (who wants everyone to know how envious he is because he didn’t get to race this year) and Todd Ekstrom; and this year I completed every leg of the race with my boyfriend, Tom Alcivar. In the previous years, I considered Adventure Duluth to be a race. This year, it was truly an adventure.

Given normal weather conditions, the race consists of 1-mile swim in Lake Superior, 9-mi kayak in the bay, 18-mi mtn bike through Spirit Mountain, 12-mi inline skate down the Munger Trail, 4-mi whitewater canoe on the St Louis river, 10-mi trail run through jay cooke state park. Race day weather made for a contingency plan on the swim and kayak legs, and cold, wet conditions for the rest of the race.

Tom and I signed up as a two person team. The rules are that we each do every leg of the race together. We must go through each transition together, and finish together. Here’s how it went:

1-mile swim
The winds were 40+ mph at 7am. Rain was falling, and the waves along the beach were 5-7 feet. Due to safety concerns, they shortened the swim to ¼ mile swim in the breakers along the shore, and a ¼ mile beach run to make a ½ mile round trip first leg. The good news was that the water was a steamy 64 degrees (much better than 2 years ago when I was swimming in 52 degree water…) which actually made it somewhat enjoyable for a strong swimmer to navigate ripcurrent and waves by diving under the breakwater every 3rd stroke. Even though Tom and I are strong swimmers, we had to conserve our energy, and as a result ended up finishing the swim in the middle of the pack (21st out of 40 teams – teams could be 6-person, 3-person, 2-person, or solo.)
I tried body surfing my way back to shore after the swim and ended up going a bit off course. I likened my attempt at being cool to that snowboarder chick who took the jump at the end of her race in the Olympics, fell, and lost the gold…

9-mile kayak
The swim ended, the transition timers recorded every team’s time, and then contingency plan #2 started. Every team started the kayak together and we were escorted for 3 miles of the course through 3-foot chop and 1,000-foot laker traffic before being started again with 6 miles of the course left to go. Tom and I were very cold when we were waiting for the race to re-start. We had to wait for everyone to get to the remote starting point which took 45 minutes to an hour. I warmed myself the only way I knew how; by relieving myself in the kayak… Poor Tom; there was no divider in our tandem kayak. He was furiously bilging out the mysterious liquid that kept appearing on the floor of the yak. Once we re-started the race, we warmed up quickly, and learned how to surf the waves. We witnessed a few swamped yaks, and the kind hearted nature of other racers who quickly came to the rescue of the ones who had tipped. We finished 14th in the kayak leg, due to Tom’s steering skills and the benefit of 2 paddlers (most people were in single kayaks).

18-mile mtn bike
We’re now 2 ½ hours into the race. We got to the transition pretty well soaked. After getting hydration packs changed out, eating some solid food, and getting the rest of our gear on, we hopped on the bike for some easy gravel riding. We entered a short portion of xc ski trail that was so bumpy, I thought all the parts on my bike were going to shake loose. I liked it though; grass covered every obstacle, and since my mind is the limiting factor on the bike, I just bombed the hills not knowing what was underneath the grass and let the bike do the work over the rocks. We then started the ascent up to Spirit Mountain. Tom, who has excellent climbing skills, had to hold back and wait for me. I was breathing pretty hard and was nervous that I wouldn’t have enough energy left for the last 3 legs of the race. We eventually flattened out after what had seemed like forever, but missed a turn for some single track and went about 3 minutes out of our way before we ran into other people who missed the same turn and were on their way back to find it. We hopped on with them and walked/biked through the messy, muddy single track. Then we made our way to the steep, rocky, mud/clay, wet descent. My brakes were nearly gone, so I was going faster than I was comfortable with, but I think it helped me rather than hurt me. We finished 31st out of 40 teams in just under 2 hours. We’re strong enough endurance riders, which makes me wonder if other racers missed turns and skipped part of the course, which would have been very easy to do (OR, maybe they just had their eyes open and didn’t miss any turn offs…)

12-mile inline
In any case, we were at the bike to blade transition 4.5 hours into the race, looking very wet and muddy. The transition went smoothly, and we were on our way with refreshed nutrition and water. The trail was wet and full of leaves, but not treacherous for an experienced skater. Now, would one be considered experienced if they bought their first pair of skates in July and had never been on any skates before then? That was Tom’s situation. Despite the lack of experience, he persevered and ended the inline leg with cramps in his quads, trying to maintain a stable position on the skates. We finished 35th in the inline portion, and were now just under 6 hours into the race (BTW, my longest race prior to this one lasted 5 hours and 50 minutes – a half ironman triathlon.)

4-mile canoe
I was not looking forward to the canoe portion at all. The inline was somewhat of a recovery leg for me since I have much more experience on skates than Tom. Due to that, my body got cold on the skate, and I was not excited about being in whitewater. We paddled our wide, heavy, plastic barge of a canoe upstream to the portage head. We had established that Tom would carry the canoe through the ¼ mile portage. I didn’t realize how badly his legs were hurting from the skate, but the portage was the straw that cashed his legs out. I asked if I could help carry the load, but the terrain was difficult to navigate with 2 people under the canoe. Still cold, still fresh, I hop in front for the whitewater portion, and the exhausted Tom hops in back. The flow is very low and we get hung up on some rocks. We back up, get spun around and end up going down the rapids backwards. Tom is trying to figure out his steering while at the same time trying to shout backward-paddling orders to me. In all of the commotion, the canoe flips, I get stuck underneath and dragged across the rocky river bottom and have a nasty collision between my back and a rock. Thank goodness we had helmets on. Tom managed to grab both canoe paddles when we tipped and we floated to shore where we could right the canoe and hop back in for the second white water portion. This one was much better; textbook, in fact, and maybe even a little fun. We had some renewed energy for the paddle back, and had some interesting interactions with other paddlers. On two separate occasions, other racers asked if we were married. One went so far as to tell me that she got married as a result of this race 2 years ago. WEIRD. Anyway, the canoe took us a LONG hour and 20 minutes; 39th out of 40 teams.

10-mile trail run
We were cold and shaking pretty violently during the transition from the canoe to the run. I was a little nervous for my health, but I knew that once I got out running, I would warm up quickly. I ate half a sandwich and we were on our way. Again, my legs were still pretty fresh since I got to recover on the skate. Tom on the other hand had already worked over his legs and was feeling pretty sluggish. I led the way through the first 4-5 miles of rocky, rooty, slippery, technical terrain. It was great. We had amazing scenery, and we couldn’t think about the pain because we had to concentrate so hard on not breaking an ankle. The next few miles were a bit boring and grassy which allowed the fatigue to settle in. Then to add insult to injury, the next 2 miles were uphill after uphill. Every corner we turned there was another hill. We swore we were at about 11,000 feet at the summit. We hit Scenic Hwy 23 with 2 miles to go and just steadily motored into the finish; happy and exhausted.

We finished 34th overall, with an official time of 9 hours, 23 minutes. Before this summer, we had never kayaked before, Tom had never inline skated, I had never canoed in whitewater, and we had very little experience mtn biking. My parents asked me if, now that we had “gotten it out of our system” we would ever consider doing it again. I said, “Heck yes; next year!” It was a great experience, and I don’t even regret the bad weather. How many times do you get to swim/race in 6-foot waves? How often do you swamp a canoe, and end up feeling warmer than before you tipped because of all the adrenaline running through you? How often do you get to do six sports in one day?!

Recovery
I downed 2 cups of the best chicken noodle soup I had ever tasted and was able to stomach half a beer before heading to my family’s home on a small lake just outside of Duluth. We recovered in the hot tub with beer in one hand, chips in the other, the jets massaging our sore muscles. My roommate and friends were there to share in the experience and I was quite content. The next day (which was beautiful in contrast to Saturday’s weather,) we spent much of the day cleaning up our equipment and preparing for the drive back to town.

Surprise
Before we left, Tom took me down to the lake where he asked me to marry him. I had absolutely no clue he was planning to ask. Those canoeists were prophetic! Anyway, I guess he figured that if we could work together during a grueling 9 hour race, we could build a life together. I, of course, said yes, and have been on cloud 9 ever since. Now, as long as the wedding doesn’t interfere with training for next year, we should be set. And so the next adventure begins…

123 Sardines

Last night, I had a conversation on my flight home from Memphis about night games. Night games were the greatest! 1-2-3 sardines, kick the can, capture the flag. The favorite on our block when my sisters and I were growing up was ditch. Which was basically a square-block area of hide and seek. The fun lasted until we heard "Elizabeth, Gretchen, Stephanie, time to come home!!!" One neighbor's parents whistled when it was time for her to go home, and the Locker boys never had a curfew.
Tom and I were at the playground the other night (least expensive gym out there) and there were these two young boys playing there. They started to do our circuit with us which involved pushups, modified monkey-bar chin ups, and laps around the park, until their parents called out their names to come in. It was great to have that memory come back; that neighborhood feel, hearing each house's respective owners call out for their offspring. And sad, that they were the only boys in a neighborhood of umpteen kids who were outside playing. What happened to 'TV/Video games off after dinner' rules?
Anyhoo, the reason this whole conversation came up on my flight is because we were packed in like sardines. I get to my aisle seat, to find some guy sitting there, saying, "can we switch seats so I can be by my kids? My seat is right up there in the middle." Excellent. I was trapped in a middle seat with two kids in front of me, screaming about how they lost their toy, which, for the third time had been thrown over into my row. Thankfully the stroll down memory lane kept me sane...

English Channel Swim

My friend Dave will be doing a DOUBLE crossing of the English Channel next summer. That's right folks, to France AND BACK. Check out the story behind his endeavor at DistanceDave.com. Oh, and by the way, I'm on the crew! I assist in training swims and I get to be on the boat during the swim. I'll even get to jump in every so often to swim with him in the channel. Exciting!

Halfway to Ironwoman

A few weeks ago, I finished my first half-ironman triathlon. It went amazingly well, and I actually had fun through most of it. I think that's par for the course for longer races. You're working so much harder throughout shorter races, so the whole thing is pretty painful. I was going at a somewhat leisurely pace during the race, so it was only the running miles 4-9 that really hurt. Well, some of the giant hills on the bike hurt, but you forget those as soon as your cruising down the other side at upwards of 35 mph. Anyway, the race was a 1.5mi swim, 58.5mi bike, and a 12.4mi run. I was racing for nearly one and a half hours longer than I ever had before, at 5:51 minutes total time. I'll give a recap of the race, and try to make it correspond with the pictures below...
The morning was cool, 55 degrees tops. I couldn't have asked for better weather on race day, as I do NOT perform well in heat and humidity. Tom and I made sure our nutrition flasks were filled and set out to find the best transition spot we could (not that an extra 30 seconds in transition affects a 6-hour race... It's a mental thing.) Then we went on to body marking; magic marker works best when part of your race is in water. Chafing plays a big factor in a long race, so after lubing up under my arms and in my shorts (sorry, 3.5 hours is a LONG time on a bike seat) I headed to the water. The picture is of the women getting ready to start and the men just starting. Notice 1) the man running OUT of the water at the start (forgot his goggles) and 2) how I'm the only woman without a wet suit. Tom raced as well, and he and I have yet to invest in wet suits, which can increase your speed up to 10%. But considering the swim was about one-seventh of the race, I decided to invest in other speed-increasing items, like a new bike (see post "me an my bike"). Anyway, the swim wasn't terribly competitive and I was the first woman out of the water. (Check out how good Tom looks coming out of the water; just like David Hasslehoff!) I was excited to hop on the new bike and see how well it tackled the hilly course. My goal was just to stay ahead of the women for as long as possible, so I pushed it a bit. The first loop was awesome. My legs didn't feel taxed at all. I had a near-traumatic experience when I dropped my water bottle and proceded to ride over it. The picture of my dad running along side of me is after the first loop; I'm asking for a new water bottle to replace the one I dropped. Off I go on the second loop, and still no women have passed me! At this point I have no clue where they are. About 2/3 through the second loop, I am bombing downhill, admiring the gorgeous scenery, LOVING my new bike, when 50 yards ahead a tractor pulls out in front of me with a slow moving vehicle symbol on the back end. I yell F&$K!!! A truck pulled out behind the tractor, and makes a motion to pass. I pull in right behind the truck, and cruise over the double-yellow lines on the street to pass the tractor as well, knowing that if oncoming traffic was coming, I'd be dead. My gamble paid off (it wasn't a huge gamble, I saw maybe 6 cars total on the course.) I was around the tractor and got a pretty good draft from the truck. The next pictures are of Tom and me at 55 miles. I'm still smiling... Nobody has passed me yet! I slow down a bit to eat a few bites of a sandwich and then I head into transition#2. My feet have completely fallen asleep, and I have to begin the run pretty slow to stamp the feeling back in them. The run heads back out on the bike course, and I don't see the first woman until I'm 8 minutes out! Knowing that running is my weak link, I have a feeling I'm going to get caught by this girl. At 5K I'm feeling pretty good (and so was Tom; scroll to calendar shot #2... visor, unzipped top, gatorade in hand...) Ariane, bless her ran with me for some of the worst part of my run; miles 4-9. In the picture, she's telling me, "let's go win this race!" But in the next picture, you see that I have been caught with 5K to go. Do you see the massive legs on that girl! She ended up putting 5 minutes on me in 5K! Anyway, the last 5K felt OK. They were slow, but I knew the end was near. Tom and the fam were waiting at the finish for me. I came in second! It was crazy! How did that happen?! Must've been the bike... Tom had an awesome race as well, finishing 16th overall (the men's race was a bit more competitive.)
Lessons learned:
1. Warm water = mucho seaweed
2. cycling CAN be fun! Just add hills!
3. A happy butt is a happy cyclist
4. don't trust anyone to pre-mix gatorade for you
5. A "good" running pace for me is painfully slow for most other triathletes
6. Bacon, cheese, guacamole burgers and bloody mary's are great recovery foods.

Memorial Day Travels

Check out my travel blog to read about/see pictures of Sasquatch Music Festival 2006!

O Canada

So with my new, big-timer job, I'm going to be traveling a bunch. I just got back from a business trip in Canada; from the beautiful London, ONT. Actually, it's not all that beautiful. And it doesn't have that old Royal Charm like London, ENG has (even though it boasts a Thames River and double-decker bus tours.) No, it wasn't terribly charming, but it was new and different so that's good. Plus, I happened to be in town the same night INXS played a show there. That's not all, they stayed in the same hotel I was in! Not enough? How's this: Tim Farris LOVES restoring furniture and removing corrosion from steel. The numerous groupies who followed him to the hotel bar were less than enthralled about that, but the engineers I was with were digging it! Get it through your head, groupies: rock stars aren't cool! They're techies and dorks like the people you look away from on the street!
Anyhoo, the traveling life may take its toll. There were a lot of late nights at the bar on that trip. For a girl who enjoys falling asleep at 9pm, it all is a bit overwhelming.
Training update: 18 days till the big half-ironman. This past Saturday I did 45 miles biking and 9.5 miles running in about 4 hours. That will be my longest workout until the race. Fortunately it felt good. Let's just hope I can keep my energy level up for another 2 hours during the race. YIKES! By the way, the new bike is AMAZING.

Me an My Bike

I've been pondering ways of priming my bike for triathlon race season this summer, and I ended up with a whole new bike today! It's a great bike; light, aero, quick shifting. I shouldn't be spending money, but the deal was too good to pass up AND... da, da da daaaah... I got a new job! Well, not formally yet, but I'm just waiting for HR to run the numbers. Still at NWA, and it will be a raise, so I can buy a bike, right? I guess I won't be buying new work clothes...

The Minnesota Hillbillies

It's happened; my family are a bunch of hicks! It all began when my parents moved out of the city limits of Duluth to a more peaceful, quieter, rural area. I thought we evaded the hick stigma well at first - it was like visiting a lake home. We had cocktail cruises on the pontoon boat, we lounged in the hot tub, and we BBQ'ed every night we visited. It was easy to forget the time when we shot at soda cans with a pellet gun (the same pellet gun my mom uses to scare away deer and bears... yup, like to forget that one too,) or the times my brother-in-law went ice fishing on the lake, or even the times when my dad let the 2-yr-old grandsons drive the truck on the dirt roads. But we spent this weekend donning fishing waders, digging out the bog that has settled into the lake front in lieu of a sandy beach. All the while we were getting muddy and wet, about 10 lbs of beef brisket was cooking in my dad's smoker. The only saving grace was that we weren't cooking anything we shot with our own hands. If I ever see a snowmobile or 4-wheeler in my parents driveway/lawn/garage, it will be a lost cause...

STUFF - divided

"Stuff" is getting to be too broad a category, so I'm dividing it out into different blogs. For my latest trip to Colorado, see my newest blog "travel stuff" at http://stephspang-travelstuff.blogspot.com.
Now, as for Holidays, my company only pays me for 6 per year. I don't think there are enough to open a new blog, so I'll recap Easter here. It consisted of a mountain bike ride at Lebanon Hills in Eagan and then dinner at my sister's house. It was the most AMAZING DINNER EVER (how's that, L?)
Oh yeah, I interviewed for a new position at Northwest. I was CLEARLY underexperienced. Oh well, doesn't hurt to try!

Dangerous Streets

Spring is in full force right now which means it's bike to work season, right? So in keeping with the season, I rode in to work yesterday morning and saw my life flash before my eyes. I was riding along Xerxes Avenue between HWY 62 and 66th St at 6am and about 18 mph. It was still dark, but I had a flashing light on my handlebars so I could be seen. Apparently not by the guy in the red buick. He pulls out of a side street for a left turn directly in front of me, as if there's no one around for miles. He was going too slow to get around the back of the car, so I turned to the left as he was pulling straight out onto Xerxes so I was side by side with him. Still doesn't see me, still keeps going. I'm screaming at this point. After a near 180 degree turn, I'm able to turn right and get around the front of his car when he finally sees me and stops. I barrel into the oncoming traffic lanes; fortunately there was no other traffic at that point. I was pretty well shaken up after that episode. Time for a new headlight (the side story is that I bought a good headlight, it got stolen out of my condo building 2 days after I installed it on my bike (GRRRR, don't get me started on my condo management,) and I was using a dimmer light.) Know anyone selling old cop car strobes?
Speaking of my subject line, there are lots of killings going on in Minneapolis. It's enough to make anyone want to move to the 'burbs. Save our city!

swim...swim...swim...

I spent thursday through saturday moving my arms in circles, swimming up and down the pool at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex near Fort Lauderdale, FLA. There's something about swimming outside that really makes me happy. On Friday, I swam 10K! 6.2 miles! And it felt really good, although my shoulders are done-for now. The trip was sort of a kick-off of the upcoming triathlon season. We did one open-water swim at Pompano Beach, which was a bit rougher than the lake swims I'm used to. I got a few runs in as well, although I didn't risk bringing the bike. Now that the weather is gorgeous here, I can dust it off and get outside! Next week I'm off to Aspen/Snowmass and will hopefully have pictures...

"...Sometimes it's hard to be a woman..."

At the risk of being crass (ok, it's not a risk it's a definite,) I'm having one of those days where every time I sit down to pee, the stream does not go directly down. No, it decides to meander down my inner and rear thighs and then drip into the bowl in a random mess. How does that happen?! It's not like I decided to sit sideways on the bowl for a change - I sit in the same damn spot every time! I'm at a loss. And then I have to stand up and wipe the back of my thighs and the toilet seat. As if the deed wasn't humiliating enough. When my sister was pregnant with her first child, she told me how she once sat on the toilet and the stream shot out up and over the toilet. I considered getting her a T-shirt that says "I have a urethra and I know how to use it!" Amen, Tammy.

Homeowner Woes

Who knew when I bought a "stress-free, low maintenance" condo last spring that I would be dealing with grout, plumbing, and heat issues a year later? The quirk of owning a condo is that your issues may have stemmed from someone else's issues. You can sometimes piggyback onto the remedy with little effort on your part, but sometimes you have to pull teeth to get things fixed. I'm beginning to think that the sole ownership of a single family home might've been a better option for me. If I'm the only one accountable, I'll get shit done. If not, there's so much grey area that it takes forever to get something done. For instance, the plumbing. My bathtub stopped draining altogether last Wednesday. At the same time, the people doing maintenance to a unit below me got in trouble for doing plumbing work without a permit. I didn't make accusations, but I told them what was going on in my unit and that I had planned to hire a plumber. They were quick to tell me that they'd take care of it. Ok, free vs plumber costs, I'm going to let them take care of it for free. Turns out that the access room for my pipes is padlocked shut. It takes yet another day to find out if it's ok to cut the lock and another day to actually cut the lock. I'm pestering the maintenance guys today by calling and checking on the status. I better get home to a tub that drains!
Let's lighten the mood a bit shall we? Ariane and I are going to see Belle and Sebastian and the New Pornographers on Sunday. YAY!

Allow Myself to Introduce... Myself

I’ve been having an “allow myself to introduce… myself” day today.
Example:
1. “only one write-up has been… written up.”
2. “The necessary access is not…accessible.”
3. "I'm working on... work."
Quite the wordsmith I am, I know. At least I have passable editing skills so I can fix those clever sentences before people of importance read them.

To Slam or Not to Slam?

So I wrote a blog entry on Monday; it was up on my blog for 2 hours when I deleted it. I expressed frustration with a co-worker (and slammed his personality... and his wife's) and then I realized that he had the address to my blog. I didn't use his name but I'm sure he would have known it was him. So I'm going to stick to general work gripes, and no specific slamming. BO-RING...

Creepy Back Woods Washington

Ariane and I went to Portland this weekend to have a girls weekend with Carle. It really allowed me to hit the reset button, and forget about the "stuck in the 1950's" family lives of my co-workers.
We got there on Thursday night, and after a Bloody Mary on the plane and some shared tunes coming out of a single set of iPod earbuds, we were good to go. We saw the band Stars; awesome. Amy is a kick-ass guitarist and singer, which really satisfied my feminist craving. After just snacking on the plane, a few beers did us in, and we were done for after the show. We decided to get a good night's sleep for our day at Mt. Hood Friday. It was a gloriously sunny, brisk day at the mtn, which made for beautiful scenery and icy conditions. It was probably the hardest riding I've done since my skill-level has improved to the point of being able to stay standing for longer than 10 seconds. Ariane, the 2nd timer, did amazingly well for the steep terrain and icy conditions, although her bruises on every joint in her body would indicate otherwise. We braked for beers in the early afternoon, and that threw me off for the rest of my riding, although it lowered my sensibility gauge enough to try the terrain park. Nothing fun to report here, a few falls and no air. We were exhausted by the evening and had yet another low-key night.
Then Saturday came along...
How relaxing does this sound? A scenic drive along the Columbia River and a stop in south Washington for some hot springs mineral bath relaxation? We thought so too. Turns out, the mineral springs are on private property, and you have to Harry Potter your way through barbed wire, broken trail, chainsaws, bones sticking out of the ground, and watch dogs in order to get to the springs. Needless to say, we didn't make it. So we decided to go to the resort hot springs and pay (sacrelige!) for a mineral bath. The eeriness didn't stop then... We ended up at the Hotel St. Martin; a Bates motel-like resort that's apparently haunted, where a bath attendant drew our baths in rusted bear claw tubs and then wrapped us in hot towels to "steep". To top the night off, we went to a nude photo exhibit in which our good friend Carle starred. We got her good and liquored up for the occasion, which was a good thing. Until she got beligerent at the end of the night. Which is excusable. So, a few tears and many hugs later, we're all asleep and by 6:45am on Sunday, Ariane and I were on our way back to reality... *sigh*

Just Call Me Betty Crocker

I went to the Ordway to see Les Miserables last night. It was a great date with Tom, and I even sported makeup for the event! Knowing I didn't have waterproof makeup, I did my best not to cry. Things were getting pretty intense at the end, but THANKFULLY the tone-deaf woman next to me decided to start humming along, which distracted me enough to forget about the show and just glare at her for the last number.
We went to the Black Sea in St. Paul for dinner beforehand, which was excellent. I would say that Christo's in Minneapolis wins out on taste in this Mediterranean Food taste test, but the Black Sea gets the "best atmosphere" award. It's really quaint and cluttered.
Quick story: I'm the youngest worker in my Engineering group by 20 years and the only female, and the guys I work with try to give me the most outdated advice on relationships. First, they were absolutely serious when they said, "it's just as easy to fall in love with a rich person as it is a poor person," because then, I could quit my job, be a stay at home mom, and live comfortably. They told me I will completely understand my husband but he won't know a lick about my feelings. Oh, and here's the best part; they're giving me advice on how to put in time with the family in order to buy "kitchen passes" to do my own thing with my buddies, and they said, "yeah, you gotta make sure the wife... or whatever, is happy before you go off galavanting." I feel like I've warped into a different time zone when I talk to these guys! I just bite my lip and roll my eyes, like any upstanding woman (in the 1950's) would do...