Sunday, March 28, 2010

Getting My Ass Handed to Me on the Bike

Well friends the first (and thus far, only) bike ride of the year is in the books.

Actually, it was about a month ago but I'm just getting around to writing about it. And sadly, it is still the only ride of the year. Thus far. I'm certain that will change... one day...

Anyway, I did my usual thing and committed myself to a ride when it was still many days away and sounded fun. And then I realized that yes, I am still badly out of shape, and oh by the way the forecast called for 30 degrees at 10 a.m. Yikes!

Jennifer wisely never committed. Annnn and Richard chickened out. They will henceforth be known as Waaaaann (like WAH!) and... hmmmm, the only word I can think of for Richard is derogatory to women and one I don't normally use. Will have to work on that.

Susan and Dave braved the weather with me and truth be told forced me to go. We did the Goochland loop from West Creek.

Once upon a time, I could ride that loop at a decent pace and want to do it again when it was over. How I long for last summer. It feels so distant now.

This time? Not so much. The hill out of Cap One nearly killed me - and that's after I fell into the security gate and hurt myself. Graceful I am not. Susan jumped into the lead and never again lost it. And she is injured!

Dave kindly stuck with me for the whole loop, sandbagging. At multiple points, we couldn't even see Susan. She waited for us a few times and then finally gave up and started walking her bike beside me.

Okay, I made that part up - but it's not far from the truth.

Perhaps this will galvanize me to attempt to get back in shape, kind of like the Good Friday ride I did last year where everyone and their infant cousin dropped me.

Or maybe I will continue my sloth like ways and find a slower crowd to hang with.

Ceej, you in?
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Saturday, March 13, 2010

Kid Humor

Taz was on a field trip to a Civil War site with his class on Friday. Mid-afternoon, I got this email from a girlfriend who was chaperoning the trip:

Hey girl -
On the field trip. Tour guide asked a question to kids and said something about a soldier needing to make a decision to fight for the North or the South. She proposed that your mom wanted you to fight for one and your girlfriend wanted you to fight for the other, so who would you pick? Taz clearly stated "your girlfriend." Everyone couldn't help but giggle.

He's only 9. OMG.
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Saturday, March 6, 2010

First Race of the Year

Last fall, I signed up for a 14k in Va. Beach in honor of my friend John Kainer. My awesome posse of TG40, Annnn, JenBo, and Patty signed up too and then recruited CJ, Anita (the coolest sherpa evah), Route, and Route's cute son.

Consider it a girls' weekend at the beach. With a little run thrown in for the hell of it.

TG40 and I hit the road a little later than the others and had just a bit of catching up to do:


Fortunately, we were up for the task and jumped right into the festivities. We initially feared we were going to get thrown out of the restaurant but soon our charm won over the staff and they became our photographers.


Annnn promised surprises in store at the hotel, so eventually we went to check it out, and to stage more merriment. Somehow we managed to forget that we had to run the next day!

The next morning, we awoke to a room that looked like a bachelorette party (or a fairy convention gone wrong) and sadly two sick friends. I must hasten to say they were NOT hungover (although I'm sure that didn't help) but suffered from the stomach flu or something similar.

We were down a few good (wo)men but we persevered... and finally headed to the race, garbed in angel wings, halos, and boas. We were so late arriving that we couldn't even get to the parking lot. As we were jogging to the start line, Annn, Patty, and I finally figured out that we could stop and wait for the race to come to us. None of us were wearing chips (because we are that serious about our race) so it wouldn't hurt a thing.


Annn quickly ditched us. I ran with Patty and her friend's son (I'll just call him Cutie because I can't remember his name) for awhile but they were determined to run the whole 14k and I knew I couldn't hang. When we hit our first out and back, I stopped to wait for them. Man it was cold standing still... Fortunately TG40 blew by. I ran to catch up with her and she put me through my paces for awhile. I saw another out and back and opted to blow off some more of the course to wait for her. Patty and Cutie ran by, still determined to run the whole race. When TG40 finished the loop, I rejoined her - motivated by cupcakes at mile 6. We finished the race together, found Annnn, and saw Patty and Cutie cross the finish line. We had a quick Yuengling while shivering and then headed back to our sickies and showers.

It was almost enough to motivate me to exercise again so that I can actually participate more fully in these events.

Or maybe I'll just continue to plan out of town girls' weekends with races thrown in!
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Mommy of the Year

So it took me three tries to get into my blog today. Pathetic, I know. In case anyone is still reading this, my plan is to keep it if I train for Mighty Man. If on the other hand I continue to be a fat slacker, then I will bag it. I'm guessing TG40 will have something to say about that!

Anyway.... back to our regularly scheduled Mommy of the Year program...

The other day, Taz told me he thought he needed a little extra help with school work. I was puzzled because his grades are good. After a few questions and some not-so-forthcoming answers, I found out that he wanted to start going to the special ed teacher at his elementary school. He would not say much more about it.

Curious, I called his teacher. Initially, she was quite concerned. But then I explained that I suspected something else was going on - and asked what the special ed teacher looks like.

She's 25, blond, and gorgeous.

Hmmm....

Together his teacher and I concocted a little plan to find out whether he really needed extra help or not (strongly suspecting not!).

That night, I told Taz that his teacher and I were both very supportive of his request for extra help with his school work, and as a result we had arranged for him to see one of the teachers at school on a regular basis. This particular teacher is in her 60s, with gray hair and chubby.

Interestingly, he decided he was doing okay on his own after all.
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