Body Slam

Some lovely blue flowers captured on the camera phone this morning - do you know what they're called? If so, please comment (thanks)!
So, I'm sorta on this training kick, right? Although I wouldn't say it's in full swing, I've certainly stepped up my activity. And even though I've missed doing my regular lunchtime swims (5 days til the pool opens!), I have added running and biking everywhere, for longer and longer periods. And yes, we did our heart rate testing on Tuesday and I know I have a lot to work on, runningwise. Still. This is ridiculous.

Lois on our morning walk by the river today.
Tonight I got on the scale for the first time in a few months, figuring that I would be about the same or maybe even a little lighter than the weight I've been hovering around this past year, and lo and behold, I am 15 pounds heavier. FIFTEEN! It's scary! I knew I was having trouble losing my gut, and I knew that my legs appeared more saddlebag-y than last summer, but JEEZ, I had no idea. I mean, I am fitting into my jeans.

Some other flowers I want to learn the name of, with Lois in the background.
I know you're gonna bring up the muscle vs. fat crap but this is ridiculous. I am tempted to find some crazy quick-loss drastic measures to get to a normal weight. But instead, I am gonna cut back on the candy intake (the licorice/haribo thing...I need a 12-step program) and watch when I eat, and I guess just keep trying to run a lot more.

I did skip a workout this week (swapping for tomorrow, my off day), and the strength training sheet is a little hard to follow... But I'm committed and I know I can do it. I just wish my body would cooperate! I want to at least look semi-athletic when I run around publicly in head-to-toe spandex and neoprene!

Recap/pictures

Last Thursday, my friend E and I went to Redmoon Theatre's Boneyard Prayer, and though the play itself (I felt) had some imperfections, the art, the music (composed by a friend of mine and played by another), the puppets, and most of all, the stage and production stuff was fabulous. After the performance they let the audience wander around the set, and I took a couple of pictures.


Then on Friday, I worked (though it was sposed to be a day off) and at night, I babysat for my young friends Jimmy and Tommy. We had a fun night, but when Tommy, who's 6 1/2, had a difficult time at bedtime, the only solution was to bring his, and his brother's, mattresses into the master bedroom for a surprise when the parents got home. A family slumber party, if you will...


On Saturday, I overslept and didn't run, but I picked up my bike from the shop, where I paid $140 to fix it up and find out, after the 14-mile ride to and from my brother's place in the South Loop, that the bike just doesn't fit me well, and I'll probably need a different bike for the triathlon.


The barbecue at my brother's place was great, and there were lots of kids and lots of food there. I mostly hung with my awesome cousin who lives in Chicago but I don't see enough of and some of my brother's friends.
Here are the kids and one parent jamming out on drums in front of one of my paintings, which my brother has purchased and hung all over his house, which I think is super cool.

...and the kids piled up with my brother and sister-in-law:

Sunday morning came, and I taught my classes, and then I walked with Lois to pick up my other bike from the bike shop (where it was parked outside), and I saw this crazy graffiti on a building along Lincoln Avenue:
(What IS it?!)

On Memorial Day, I did all the garden and porch stuff I'd been putting off. The flower boxes are all done (and my gnome is guarding them),


and I planted the rest of the baby sunflowers in the rocky, sandy soil over by the garbage cans,


Lois hung out on the porch,


and the crazy neighbor lady N was out reading and making comments.


The nice next-door neighbor couple even put together a new picnic table they bought for the yard!


Then I went to R's Memorial Day barbecue, and it was lovely and the food was amazing (R can rub pork, lemme tell you!), and the company was even better.



BUT: Lois bit Tommy on the thumb (when he bugged her as he likes to do) and drew blood! I felt terrible. He was understandably very upset. Luckily, his parents are great about it and he's a tough cookie. Here he is with his Dad and his bandaid after the incident:


Lois, the biter, is now banned from all kid-attending events, which makes me sad. (Although she's probably relieved.)

Overall a great weekend! And I can barely bring myself to get back into working, if you can't tell already.

Hearts and flowers

Here are 2 twilight pictures from my lovely porch garden! I finally finished all the planting today. I also went swimming, took the dogs for 2 long walks (and some short ones), took Sheila on some errands (she doesn't drive) and splurged for the latest Yo La Tengo CD, I am not afraid of you and I will beat your ass, which is about a year old but I never got it. It's SO good. I am only down to a few bands I still like and make an effort to buy and listen to, and YLT is always worth it. I swear, they make my life better.

I haven't had a chance to write about my internet date on Tuesday night - my first from match.com. He is a divorced police officer, cute, balding, blond, and tall. We met at the Starbucks across from my workplace. He was friendly for the most part, but he did this spacing out thing every once in a while, which was disconcerting, especially because he was doing most of the talking (which is a gooooood tactic I learned from that book). The sorta kicker came when I said, fishing for topics:

"So, what kind of music do you like?"

"I dunno. I guess I mostly listen to Q101 in the car. Nothing particular."

"Well, what about at home?"

At this, he went on the tell the story of how, when he got his iPod, he didn't have any music to put in it, so he went to a friend's house, and borrowed his friend's wife's CD collection, which was huge, because she had been a member of the Columbia record and tape club for like 20 years. So that well-chosen bunch of stuff is what's in his iTunes and iPod.

It was then that what I had suspected ever since he contacted me was absolutely certain: I would never be able to hang out with this guy again.

He went on to talk about how he would NEVER let his dog sniff anything while they were on walks, which was a handful of extra nails in the coffin.

When we finally decided to end the torture, about 1-1/2 hours too late, I grabbed my bags - laptop and regular, and he asked:

"Oh, do you have a Mac?"

"Yes! I love it."

"Yeah...all the artsy people have those."

(Awkward pause while I fumble with my bike helmet.)

"Um, OK, nice to meet you! Thanks for the iced tea!"

...at least it was a lovely night for sitting at a sidewalk cafe!