I know (October update pics)

My wonderful grandmother waving from her hospital bed. She is back home and doing much better but she scared us a bit there - she doesn't like eating or drinking water, and here's how she winds up. Stubborn!

This is Clover, the dog I helped to dogsit for my friend B. Clover is old and has lost some functioning, which makes it not so easy to care for her, but what a sweet pooch - look at that face!

I am terrible at this blog-updating thing. I am gonna try to be better. I also haven't been doing pushups, situps, or anything else lately. Swam once last week, that was good. Now, I am mildly sick and without any new or exciting netflix DVDs at home, plus it's incredibly cold in my apartment - so the most comfortable place is under the covers in by bed with Lois and the warm laptop in my lap.

P came to visit and took me to the opera - Manon, at the Lyric. It was such a treat! Most of all, it was great to see him.

I have been working on lots of things: winterizing the apartment, going back to school in January, preparing for the birth of my brother's first children - twin girls expected in late January or early Feb. (I have about 7 craft projects in planning-to-just-started phase all over the apartment), cleaning the apartment, and looking for a job. We just found out today that there will be no salary increases in 2009 and we're switching insurance carriers even though we just did that last year.

I went to Philadelphia for a work conference and loved it - the conference, and what I got to see of Philly. Here's a big ship next to my hotel at Penn's landing.

I also have one broken tooth and crown and another tooth that one dentist has said needs to be removed and replaced with an implant. I need a second opinion, because should I have implants already at 38? I have yet to start that investigative process because of the unbelievable expense it is clear it will cost me.

This is my favorite Philly pic. I was there when they won the Series, and this sign was still up at City Hall after the ginormous parade/rally when I walked around downtown after midnight on my last night.

Season change

Friend S with excellent Chicago-based photographer M, hiding behind sign at Obama speech party.

Does anyone still check this little blog anymore? Maybe I've filtered out some of you anonymous readers who never comment (AHEM!) by being so lax on the posting. I promise to get better. Maybe someday I will even get regular about it...

Lois running like a bat outta hell in my parents' sloping backyard. She loves it there!

I've been working - as soon as the tri was over it was back to work after taking those 4 days off, and then to Iowa for my mom's 60th birthday party, and then back to work for the (evil) busiest week of the fall. I have six of these busiest weeks a year, and they are not so pretty. Lots of phone calling which disrupts my normal web surfing and emailing. No, really, just lots of long hours, fires to put out and people to disappoint inadvertently. But: I do look forward to autumn, my favorite season, and have been responding strongly to the cooler weather!

Fog rolling onto the Mississippi early last Saturday morning - the breathtaking view from my parents' place.

I've already baked brownies twice, baked a cake (not impressed by the trader joe's vanilla cake mix, by the way), ordered take-out Chinese food for the first time in months, bought a duvet cover, rummaged for my knitting, and started actually reading a non-triathlon book, Middlesex (finally, I know). It's fun to be in hibernation mode again. And have a little more time to indulge the settling in thing.

Bike ride with stepfather (in crazy yellow bike wear) down to the south end of the path on the day of the Air & Water show in Chicago - the firetrucks (and hot firemen) hang out all along the lakefront and watch for trouble.

Since the triathlon's over, I have to do two things: 1-clean, and 2-get myself into some sort of self-directed exercise regimen. Taking the 13 days off since the event was NOT good - I feel giant, sluggish, and sore. I attempted to find time to run in Iowa over labor day wknd, but every time I had my running stuff on, some table needed wiping down or setting or an errand needed to be run. It was hard (but fun!) being one of the four people at the house who knew about the surprise and the 30+ other people secretly in town waiting to ambush my mom and her twin.

That's my aunt K totally surprised (looks fake but the tears are about to burst out) at her 60th birthday party. Big props to my stepfather who engineered the whole weekend.

Other things about the weekend were that I got to see a lot of the great kids in my family, who I love, and - I got in a huge fight (well, one of those nonspeaking things that may last forever) with my brother, who said that I should "put Lois to sleep," totally seriously, with great conviction and bilious anger. She was barking and harmlessly nipped at my cousin's boys who were getting on her nerves. My brother had been a dick to me all weekend, but that was the final straw, and I asked my aunt to take me and pooch home instead of riding in his car as I had on the way down. Sad part is that he and his wife are expecting twins this winter, and honestly, his issues with anger toward my innocent DOG do *not* bode well for fatherhood. Plus, they just lost their best babysitter!

My jerk brother (doesn't he just *look* jerky?) with my awesome second cousin. Note shirt.

SO, anyway, I ran this morning with the Saturday 8am running group from the running store - a super-slow 3 miles with Lois. It was good to get back on the horse, but I do suck. I also had a massage last night at the physical therapy place - that was the present to myself I'd been looking forward to after finishing the triathlon. It was great. I also took my very favorite dance class on Tuesday—West African Dance—for the first time in over a year, and that was awesome. I hope to add pilates to this mix and keep up the running as long as I can into the fall, then switch back to all swimming as it gets cold. I want to get faster and more comfortable with running for longer distances if I'm gonna do the international distance next year. Then, I'll have to look for a gym again, because I recently read that the drug I take for my thyroid can cause bone density loss, and weight training (something I've successfully avoided doing for 38 years) is the #1 thing I can do to combat it.

Perfect day for a family brunch/gathering in a small town overlooking the river...really perfect.

I'm boring. I know. I have so so so many more pictures to post but it's not so easy for me with my short attention span, so these will have to do.

Whew!

The finish line. There was an announcer in the tent on the left broadcasting our names as we crossed. (SO FUN!) He even pronounced my last name OK, and when he did, I did the Rocky hands in the air.
The triathlon was AMAZING. I haven't had time to really process all of my thoughts but I thought I'd report in and start to post a few of the pictures I took over the next couple of days.

Time: 4:22am. Location: North entrance to the world's largest triathlon transition area. They were supposed to open at 4:15am. We were getting pretty antsy from waiting the 7 minutes, but they opened very soon after I took this pic.
As an event, as a spectacle, as a personal achievement, as a physical challenge and mental rush - the whole thing blew me away. I LOVED IT! I am definitely hooked and hope to do another one - the sooner the better!

Lordy Lordy

G, looking pretty damn surprised when he walked in.

Then he was hugged his by son J, who shouted "Surprise!" the loudest of anyone.

My friend G, a drummer in many an excellent band, and an all-around great, funny, wonderful guy that everyone loves, turned 40 last Thursday and his wife, my friend B, threw him a huge, fun, crazy surprise party at a club called Martyr's.


The band onstage when he walked in was Exo, who he played with years and years ago. He was really really touched to see em all together. G even got behind the drum kit at the end of the evening with them (for the first time all night!) when they came up for an "encore" after all the other bands had played.



Now, this party was even advertised as a "show" in the newspapers, on the website for more than a month, and on the club's outdoor marquee, and G was still surprised, hadn't gotten wind of it at all. It was awesome.


I forgot my camera, but I had my trusty, non-flash, less than 1 megapixel camera phone handy. This is why the pics all suck.

Probably the funniest moment of the night, Robbie Fulks and band's improv-rap-scat song about G.

I helped out by stage managing the bands that were playing, all 10 or so of which have a G connection somehow. It was super fun. And it was excellent to have a role - if you know me, you know how I hate to just be at a party.


The emcee was Dick O'Day, who was hilarious. We worked together to make the show run smoothly despite the grouchiest sound guy in Chicago (seriously!) trying to bring us down for most of the night.


Oh, there was bingo! Dick O'Day brought it. It was fun. Whenever there was a "G" called, he asked for a piece of G trivia.


Here's the awesome mom of G, who came in from New Hampshire for the party, and brought great posters of digitized pictures and ephemera from G's childhood/life. Including letters like "No one loves me, I hate you, I do not want to speak to anyone ever again and that's final, Love, G" type things in total kid writing. Have I told you how much I love G's mom?

I only drank 3 drinks in about 6 hours, and still I was a wreck the next day. It was super fun though. B did a great job.

Phone pic catchup

Friday night was the awesome Polkaholics doing a "musical" of the life of Li'l Wally Jagiello, but they did a whole regular set first, and we were tired, so
...B (above, in bad no-light pic) and I had to leave early. We'd been out to delicious dinner beforehand, and got to visit a little more at the bar during the break, too, so that was the main thing anyway. We definitely thought their set time choices were lame - wouldn't you want the people less ridiculously drunk for the thing you've worked on for a year, and have them plastered for your regular stuff?
Saturday morning I was up with the birds to get down to Ohio St. beach for an open water swim. I was a little late, though, and couldn't find my training group among the spandex-and-neoprene crowd that was there. It's amazing how many people are up and out that early as it gets closer to the event!
This is my favorite photo. It doesn't quite capture how high (and super frightening) the waves were. I swam a crazy half-mile in it. I have never had such a treacherous swim in my life! Luckily the triathlon will be in a harbor, and the waves won't be as bad. You can see how few people actually swam once they saw the 4-foot waves. Grueling.
Even more ridiculous than the wetsuit crowd are these incredible herds of runners who are out at 5, 6, 7am on Saturdays on the lakefront in August. I know they are part of running/training groups, but it's sorta scary when you see them coming. Like, there are hundreds and hundreds of them, stampeding along the trail out of nowhere. Hard to bike around, too.
I have to say though, that the triathlon people are all very friendly and super cool. I feel like I've discovered a whole new world I never knew existed! Plus, it is really great to be up and already all worked out before 8am on a gorgeous summer Saturday!
After a coffee and walk with Lois, it was off to my friend S's (with A, above) yard sale, where a bunch of us hung out and kept her and her landlady company while they peddled their wares.
It was a fun group of people. D, A and J (seated on left) brought sausages, hot dogs and buns and D grilled them for us for a lunchtime treat.
But the best part was the amazing lemonade J sold for 50¢ a glass, and the delicious ghirardelli brownies that were 50¢ each, too. His mom made it and he and his brother were splitting the profits with charity. Cute, huh? The kicker was that he poured you your yummy lemonade and then if you wanted, you could add a "splash" of vodka from the cooler. We were all very relaxed that afternoon.
Then I rode home for a bit, and rode back, and S and I rode to A's lovely house for a LOVELY dinner! She made penne with vodka sauce and caesar salad and R grilled sausages and J brought fresh bread from Red Hen Bakery and we all brought wine and a fantastic group of 7 was there and the great conversation, out in the beautifully lit backyard at night, was funny and mellow and fabulous. S and two friends joined us later, after they were out to eat. No one wanted to leave. I didn't get any pictures (besides the spread, above) because really, it was too perfect to spoil. I found out J and I went to the same grade school and middle school! He's 6 years older but still, it was fun to know that. We talked religion, and libido, and future planning, and art - it was a perfect dinner party.
SO, then on the ride home at 2am, a rear spoke on my bike broke as I rode through Logan Square from A's place in Humboldt. I rode on it anyway because it was so late - to the bike shop - and locked and left it there over night. Then I walked home, stopping at about 3 at the Burrito House, above, for horchata and guacamole. I have never seen so many people in line there! (But I've also never been there at Saturday bar closing time.)
And though I've spent like 150 dollars in transport already this month, I rented an iGo on Sunday afternoon (after sleeping until 1pm and the hour-long walk back to the bike shop to bring it in) so I could take Lois to the dog beach for the first time in a long, long time. She had a blast - but there were so many people there (lots of unattended kids that didn't even seem to have dogs with them, annoying), she really didn't play with other dogs and focused on playing ball.
Lois loves swimming, but she's really slow going in and getting to the ball. If another dog goes for her ball, she just lets the dog take it. It's funny.
It was a great weekend. Then I worked yesterday and subbed a couple of art classes and went to the dermatologist and then to awesome bike class where I replaced my brake cables and housing and learned about tire trueing (sp?), which was too late for my spoke problem, but still cool to learn. There was a massive storm while we were in there - we heard that a tornado hit. But we kept going. I love my bike class. Then it stormed again, all night almost, and poor Lois freaked out. Seems calm this morning, but I saw some serious downed trees and pieces of building on our late between-storms walk last night. Also three birds that were hurt badly by the storm on the sidewalk - I didn't realize until Lois sorta chased one that that's what was going on. Sad!

Today I'm up early for no good reason. I have a "big" tri practice tonight - our group is meeting at the race site to go over transitions and get the lay of the land for the event. Maybe I'll take pics. I hope my good bike is finished being fixed and I can pick it up!

Catch P if you can!

After my job interview, which went fantastically and they loved me, (but so sadly couldn't offer me enough money for the position), P and I met at Pastoral, a downtown wine and cheese shop, and had some delicious cheese-enhanced salads. Here's P and his friend D, who was shopping for picnic stuff.

Then P rented a bike - and we were off! It was great to catch up with him on a fabulous two-hour lakefront bike ride! But sometimes we had to yell to hear each other and that was especially funny if we were talking about things like sex when spandex-clad superbikers whizzed by.

We found that they're improving the path by the planetarium, and had to fight a little congestion with touristy types on the way back through this area... there were a bunch of folks going to see John Cougar Mellencamp who didn't seem to know what they were doing.

And as we cruised south of downtown, the path got much friendlier and MUCH less congested. Did I mention it was the most beautiful day of the summer?

We went to promontory point, a lovely peninsula into the lake at about 56th Street. If I ever get married, this would be a great place for it! (and everyone has to bike)!

P at the point

Crazy fellas playing in the super-high waves hitting the point.

Here's us with the very distant skyline in the background - it took a while and a lot of giggles to get the shot because I am slightly special needs in the camera department.

As the sun started setting when we turned back north, it was even prettier on the path. P kept hotdog-riding with no hands but I couldn't whip out the phone in time for a pic.

As we came back into the city, the views were still spectacular.

Then we made it back to check P's bike in just in time to catch the tail end of the Grant Park Symphony concert in Millennium Park

P and D again, with the stage in the background. The great lawn was packed with picnickers and music lovers.

The evening ended with a few impromptu songs by this group of Russian women - it was magical!