Elk, Bears, Mountains and Crown - Montana June 2006

What more could you ask for! If you don't feel like reading the following novel, pictures tell a thousand words! Erin's Flickr Pics - Pages 1-3

I flew out to Billings a few weekends ago for the weddings of one of my college friends. This was basically the last time the 5 of us will be together, b/c two of the crew are moving to Africa for work (yeah.....).

Anyways, commentary on moving aside, I was very excited to head back to Montana as I hadn't been back since my Glacer backpacking trip in 2004. I decided to get a cabin in Cooke City Thurs night and spend Thurs and Friday exploring Yellowstone and the Beartooths. The rest of my friends were a)lame and b)bridesmaids and had to attend the rehearsal Friday, so I was solo for my adventures. Which I loved.

I'd been to Yellowstone/Beartooths twice before. The first time was for a Field Ecology course in college, where we spent a week camping, hiking, learning in the area. Which was bad ass. However, I didn't see anything remotely touristy. And my last time we were there, it was January and we didn't have snowmobiles, so again - no tourist attractions. I decided that this time, if I wanted to see it, I would stop, no matter how "cliche". Old Faithful, check. Geysers, check. Yellowstone Lake, Check.

I got my car at 11 AM Thursday and made a beeline west on I-90 to Livingston, then down to Gardnier to the park entrance. Make kick-ass time - was in the park by 2 PM. Woo! I loved seeing places I've been before with fresh eyes, noticing new things along the way. And since it was the first weekend in June, there weren't too many people (aka idiots) out. Woo! I'd drive and pull over is something was picture worthy. Take a short hike if I felt like it. I had crazy good timing with seeing wildlife and attractions. I pulled up to Old Faithful 15 min before it went off, not even knowing when it was supposed to go. Yay! I can check that off my list. I also saw (from a distance, thru a scope) a pack of 4 wolves with a kill (sweet!) and 3 black bears (close enough to see them w/out binocs [which I'd stupidly left at home] but far enough away where you wouldn't get hurt).

Total wildlife viewing tally:
Bison (tons), elk (tons), white tail deer (tons), 2 bighorn sheep, 1 trumpet swan, 1 blue heron, 3 bears, 4 wolves. Good day!

Some picture highlights from Thurs:





















That was all from Thursday. Needless to say, I was a wee bit tired. Got to my hotel at 9:30, ate at 10 Pm. Woke up to the annoying sounds of highway construction at 7, was on my way out by 8 AM. Stopped in Cooke City for some coffee, asked the store owner about some good "quick" morning hikes before I had to head back to Billings. He recommended Trout Lake back in the park, then some stream behind this lodge just outside of the park "there's no trail, but if you follow the stream back for a mile, there's a nice waterfall."...

So, I went to Trout Lake first. Very nice!



I drove around the park some more (more killing time, I know its rough!). Then I tried this "waterfall" trail. It consisted of bushwacking thru hills with some pretty big downed trees. I managed to scratch my legs 3 times (so badly blood ran down my legs - two weeks later I still have a scab on one of my legs), then I saw fresh bear tracks and scat, so I decided to turn around...





Got a sammich in Cooke City, found this nice little waterfall (below) off the side of the road and had a lovely picnic lunch before taking the Beartooth Highway back to Billings.



Some pics of the Beartooths (some of my fav mountains)







Rolled back into Billings at 4 PM. Went to the rehearsal dinner, then out. Much craziness ensured. My friend H got very drunk, then decided to make out with the greasy guy with a comb-over. I so wish I had my camera, b/c she still doesn't believe me!

Saturday morning, we all headed to this tiny salon west of Billings - it was like the MT equivalent of the place in Steel Magnolias. Just bizarre. Anyways, I was the only one of the group who wasn't a BM, so I did errand running, which... whatever.

Then the wedding - they had a cash bar, but we were smart enough to bring 3 bottles of crown. Which about 6 of us managed to drain thru the course of the evening. Anways, the wedding was fun, slightly bittersweet, and beautiful.



The next morning, however, was not so pretty, thanks to the 3 bottles of crown and the fact that we went out afterwards and closed a bar down... But, this is true to how our group usually is, so it was nice to go out with a bang! However, in the future, I will do my best to not fly home hungover ever again, b/c it really, really sucked.

So, that was the last trip of the summer. Now all I have to look forward to is my 2.5 weeks in New Zealand over Thanksgiving! Wooo!

Reno trip

So, this would be a lot more vivid if say, I'd written this post right after I got back instead of a month later..... but all you really care about are the pictures anyways...

Erin's Flickr pages - Reno is pages 5 - 7

I needed some R&R between jobs and my HS friend Rochelle had M-W off, so with my handy dandy free ticket (me looove Southwest Airlines!) I booked a trip out there for 5 days to visit. And go gambling. And camping. And stock up on Moose Drool.

So, Monday we just vegged, went to the casinos that night. She went thru her allotted $40 like water, I played for ~1 hr and only lost $10.

Tues we decided to take her dogs and go camping in the Sierras. Now, I like dogs, but I don't actually own dogs - and camping with 2 very large dogs is well, different. Especially when you are all sleeping in a 3 man pack tent and the biggest dog (Griffin, 120 lbs) decides to use your torso as a pillow.



I can't remember where the heck we camped now, but it was by Truckee, CA by a set of 2 reservoirs off an old forest service road. Very isolated and pretty. Unlike anywhere I've camped in TX (except for Big Bend). I was a happy camper.

Pretty Sunset:






Wednesday we woke up, ate, packed up and took the dogs to the lake to play:



Had a nice picnic lunch lakeside, then headed back to Reno.

Thurs, Ro had to work, so I rented a car and decided to head to Tahoe. Because if you absolutely *have* to kill some time, then Tahoe really is a pretty good place to go. I know, it was rough, but I was a trooper. So, more photos!











Thurs night we made tacos, drank Moose Drool out on the patio. I miss cool, dry nights. Friday, I went back to Houston... Booo!

It was really one of my better ideas to head out that way to play. I came back grounded and relaxed - not to mention I got to hang out with one of my best friends and see mountains!

Further evidence of my freak magnetism

I had to go to Atlanta for a safety coordinator training session. I have never had so many safety-related trainings for a job ever. Its craziness. Anyways, they flew in several ppl to our Atlanta office for this training. Our instructor (regional safety mgr for the company) was an hour late, claiming he forgot about the training. And he also was happy to report that at least he wasn’t hungover today, b/c he’s had to teach this class hungover before, and he sure didn’t think that was too much fun. Professional, huh?

Anyways, training was supposed to end at 5 PM, and I had a flight back home for 9:30. Well, despite starting an hour late AND taking an hour lunch break, we finished at 3 PM. A group of 5 of us decided to head back to the airport and try our luck at booking earlier flights. It was me, another girl named Erin, a guy from Florida who was cool, and 2 people from Ohio who were older, and well, socially challenged (a man with terrible teeth who kept fishing for work saying he was very good in the field, yet couldn’t figure out how to calibrate sampling equipment…. and a woman who just got her ears pierced 5 times 3 days ago, to prove her 15 yr old daughter “wrong” that she was indeed cool enough to have multiple holes in her ears….)
I was lucky enough to get an earlier flight, but we still had a few hours to kill, so we went to a restaurant for beers and food. We had a decent time eating and chatting. Then it was time for me and the other Erin to leave for our flights. We all left the restaurant at the same time, stood around saying our good-byes. The Ohio woman (fueled by her Long Island Iced Tea during dinner) hugged the 3 of us younglings good bye.

Then the guy takes my hand. I thought he was going to shake it. Um, no. I do not have that kind of luck. He takes my hand and KISSES IT. I just stand there. He said that I had the furthest to fly, so that’s why he kissed me. The other 2 younglings stood as far away from him as possible and did the kind of handshake where your fingertips barely touch.

I’ve never wanted to wash my hand with OCD tendencies more in my entire life.

this goes under the "only this could happen to me" file

I was just in the ladies room, and the lock for the stall door got stuck "locked". Like the threading in the latch got stripped or something. So, I had to wait for ppl to leave the bathroom before I got on the floor and shimmied out from under the door. I barely fit.

I am *so* special.

home..... what's that?

Sorry for the lack of updates, I really haven't been home much. I still owe a post on my adventures in Reno. And I just got back from Montana for a wedding, and have plenty of stories/pics to share. But I don't seem to have much time these days, and once again, I'm oot this weekend to swim in the Danskin Triathlon. So, I'll do my best in the next few weeks to at least do a photo post, b/c I took some damn fine pics this past month.

So far.....ok

Not much to report, and I still don't have time to do a proper Reno post....

Work is ok, except for the fact that my assigned "buddy" was in a car wreck last week and is still to sore to come into work, and my boss was out today, and I spent most of yesterday in orientation, then today I twiddled my thumbs b/c there wasn't anyone around to ask...

However, its not a disaster, the ppl are nice, things seem to work, my work phone delivers voicemail messages to my email as .wav files (cool!), and yeah, thats about it so far.

Still haven't figured out how to get AIM to work..... May have to do some research or something.

Later!

Cross yer fingers!

I still owe a post about my adventures in Reno, but well, that will be posted later (complete with photos!).

I start my new job tomorrow! Cross your fingers for me :)

Nationals

I had all sorts of witty stuff to post from my adventures in Florida, but its been a week and now most of it is *poof* gone from my head.

So, a summary:

My events: Sure, I came in last in all 3 races, but I improved my times (all best times since joining Masters).

For those that care, my times:

Splits for 200 Free
Leg Cummulative Subtractive
1 38.32 38.32
2 1:20.29 41.97
3 2:03.30 43.01
4 2:46.59 43.29

Splits for 100 Breast
Leg Cummulative Subtractive
1 45.60 45.60
2 1:35.92 50.32

Splits for 100 IM
Leg Cummulative Subtractive
1 40.46 40.46
2 1:27.41 46.95

The only sucky thing was I DQ'd in the 100 breaststroke because - get this - I wore my watch while I swam. Uber lame. *sigh*

Other cool things:
* my friend was the queen of second place, but got best times since joining masters.
* lots of sun :) I have tan lines now :)
* seeing lots of incredible swimmers
* Matt Damon!!! He was there watching someone (we're thinking his dad) and he was behind the blocks with his uber-pregnant and disgusting beautiful wife watching. I took a photo then walked past him, close enough to touch him. Sadly, he really isn't tall and he wasn't buffed out a la Jason Bourne. But still - cool!

And now, picures!

me on the beach, with a tan....er sunburn....


cool shot of the men's 18-25 100 free start (I'm proud of this shot)


Tobi's backstroke start (again, I kick ass as a photographer)


That damn watch!!!


Matt Damon!!! (super zoom.... I'm not really a stalker, I swear!)


And to conclude - my ass, thanks to one of my smartass friends...

So, what do you swim?

So, we spent all day blissfully happy on the beach. I only have one strip of my shin sunburned....

Anyways, the hotel we're staying at has free happy hour - I got a Dolphin Daquiri :) So, we're outside drinking and decide to go to our room to order sushi delivery. These old guys see us leaving and yell "Hey Girls!" and block our path. They're regulars - claim they've been visiting this hotel on this very weekend for the past 5 years, and now was time for their "happy hour game" and it would be something "we'd never forget."

Understandably, we were afraid. We got to talking (well, them talking, we trying to figure out how to leave...) and we said somewhere along the line "we can't play your drinking game - we have to swim tomorrow."

One of the guys at the table decides to guess what kind of swimmer we are....

He looks at Tobi - "you're a backstroker". Errily correct.

He look at me - "you're a freestyle and breastsroker." Again, scary.

His wife looks at the expressions on our faces and says "oh, he could only tell that because of your breast size".

Upon which, Tobi and I began to fold over in laughter and tears and make our escape for one more round of drinks and back to our room. And sure enough, we won't forget that little moment....

Cha-cha-changes

For starters, I quit my job.

Now, pick yourselves off the floor. I have a new job to go to. Sure I hated my old job, but not enough to be unemployed.

Then I reported both of my bosses to HR for harassment and unethical conduct. Wheeee!!! I'd been documenting various harrassement/negative emails my boss has sent me over the past 6 months. The kicker was they pulled a bait and switch with my annual review. Had my face to face back in March, got the finalized review in April, with my supervisor swearing that "nothing drastic had changed". When in fact, everything had changed, and the dumbass (in writing over email - I'm trixy) denied me both a chance to review my March version and the opportunity to discuss the changes face to face. And that my friends was plenty of documentation for HR to have fun with.

Lesson: do not fuck with me. I'm way smarter and craftier than I make myself out to be.

Anyways, I have a new job starting May 22. Last day at crappy old job was yesterday.

So what am I going to do for the next 2 weeks? Vacation!

Today thru Sunday I'm in Florida for the US Masters Nat'l Championship. Not because I'm fast.... its b/c my friend who's fast is going and talked me into entering with her. She bribed me with a hotel on the beach that has free happy hour. Its pretty easy to twist my arm. I'm swimming once a day - 200 free, 100 breast, 100 IM. May have to scratch the breast as I pulled a leg muscle last week and it still hurts. But that's not until Saturday, so we'll see. But I did get a pedicure and now my toenails match my swimsuit (dark hot pink). This way, if I can't be fast, at least I can be stylish. Hey, its the best I can do.

Then next week I'm off to Reno, NV to see my best friend from HS. She just moved there and her hubby is working nights (he's a cardiac care nurse). She's lonely and has M-W off from work, and I have a free air ticket, so voila! Camping and casinos!

So, I'll be MIA for a while, but you can be sure I'll be having a blast :)

If your TiVo does this, you're basically f*cked

We turned on the TiVo on our big tv and this is what was on the screen....

The YELLOW screen of death! Sure, it says its powering up all friedly like and seems cheerfull with its very bright yellow sunrise. But having this vision on the screen for 20 minutes, all the while fearing you're burning that very cheery bright yellow sunrise onto your tv is *not* a good thing. At all.

I'm so sad. Hard drive cratered. 70 hr memory, less than a year old.... Good thing we got it for free.

I made Will call customer service last night (I was too drained after quitting to take care of it myself). Turns out, the CS guy he got was also a Broncos fan, so they talked about the Draft and the future of the team. They got along so well, CS is not only sending us a replacement unit (as they should), but he waived the 2-day FedEx charge! Woo!

We should have our new unit Wed. I'm just glad we kept our old unit (hooked it up in the bedroom). I moved it to the living room so we can watch our shows on the big tv. The only sucky part is that we lost shows on the old hard drive, and I still haven't caught up on Prison Break, but I'll deal.

Go Broncos! And this is the *only* time I say that and mean it.

More adventures in swimming

So, once again, my normal pool is unavailable. This time, the high school fired the varsity swim coach and changed the locks to all the doors. But didn't tell us. Or give us a copy of the new key.

So, Friday we showed up and couldn't get in. So, its 5:45 AM and my hair is in need of a shower before I go into work. Only I don't want to drive alllll the way back home to take a shower. So, I drive to 24-hr fitness (I have a membership there too) for a shower. No workout, just a shower. Which was odd. But whatever - I was NOT swimming with more freaks like I did last time our pool was dead.

Monday I was a bum and didn't work out. hee

Today, coach rented some lanes at a different pool for practice this morning. An outdoor pool. And as it turns out, a long course pool. 50 meters per length vs our usual 25 yds. Which makes a BIG difference.

So, the air temperature was in the upper 60's so that wasn't a big deal. There were other issues, though. Like it being completely dark at 5:30 AM. So dark that if I wanted to read my watch (for pacing), I had to hit my indiglo button. And my goggles are tinted dark purple, which (go figure) makes swimming in the dark even darker (yes, there were lights at the pool, but only a few and none under the water). Also, they don't cover the pool and there's pine trees everywhere, so I had to get used to the sensation of having long pine needles stick to me as I swim, and not freaking out thinking its a huge hairball or bug stuck to me. Although, I think I did swallow a bug today.... And they had this weird aeration system - like BIG sprinkler jets shooting water into the air and back into the pool in big drops. Cold drops. And the drops were so big you couldn't help but swallow water as you took a breath, no matter how careful you were.

And if that wasn't enough - we ran out of hot water in the showers! But (sadly, this is considered luck), we were lucky b/c they turned the water off at the main about 10 mintues after I was done showering b/c they had a pipe rupture.

I think our team just attracts facility issues.

Overall, it was just ok. I didn't like the sprinkler system spraying me the entire time or the dark. But it was nice swimming outside and the light was very pretty when the sun came up - everything was pre-dawn glowing and the water was a lovely shade of blue. And it was better than swimming with the freaky people at the public gym, so I'll take this over the gym any time (as long as the air temperature is above 60, that is...)

My redneck neighbors

I swear, I could not make this up if I could..... I came home from Subaru happy hour tonight (I just go for one beer and dinner - Will stays later) and I hear this monstrous roar outside. I open the door and see this:




That is a mailbox next to the truck. This fucker is that big. I regret that I did not actually see the person who drove the truck. I suspect he's about my height and has a small d*ick. Its all about over-compensation....

This house is a rental - they moved in the beginning of Februrary. During Rodeo time. They couldn't park their normal monster trucks in their very long driveway b/c they had a horse trailer parked there. So they had to park their ginormous (although, not as big as the Don't Hate truck pictured above) on the street. And our street is pretty narrow, so this made it so I couldn't easily back out of my driveway, which is something that's helpful at say, 5 AM.

Anyways, when rodeo was over, the trailer went away, and now they only park one monster truck in the street, which is ok, I suppose.

Will and I are thinking they're Aggies. As in Texas A&M (I'm getting ready for the hate mail now.....) But as Will and I say when we refer to our neighbors across the street, they're "fucking Aggies". Hee.

BTW, this was a hard picture to grab - cars driving down the street would stop cold to look at this behemoth (a mustang was next to it - completely dwarfed.) Then the rednecks would randomly come outside. And I had to take this with a flash, so it was probably very obvious....

Is it summer already?

Man, I hate Texas in the summer. I used to love summers. In Colo and Montana I was always outside, working at the pool or as a park ranger. Now that I'm in Texas, all you can do in the summer is scurry from one air-conditioned space to another air-conditioned space. Its horrible.

So, we had a first for us - rolling blackouts! Wooooooo! Because its so exceptionally hot here. I imagine that the electric generators weren't ready for the demand and didn't have all their units on-line. Ours didn't go out at the house - we have 100% wind power. Wooo! I didn't realize this until just now, but no blackouts is an add'l benefit of wind power. Sweet.

Anyways, in an effort to make something positive out of this, here's a list of things I'm currently enjoying because its warmer out:

* Starbucks iced coffee. But you have to order it in this ridiculous manner (for no other reason than its SB and they make everything sound as pretentious as possible). Iced grande unsweetened iced coffee. It took me about a month to get that whole phrase down.

*My post-swimming b'fast of Stoneyfield Farms lowfat vanilla yogurt, frozen/defrosted bing cherries, and flax seed. Yumminess!

*Daylight savings. I like the sunlight!

23 days to Nationals

Eeps! Really, this trip is an excuse to sit on the beach with friends and drink fruity frozen drinks under the guise that I’m competing at the US Masters National meet. For the record, I am entered in the meet. I did not qualify for anything but the rules say that you don’t actually need to qualify for anything if you enter 3 or fewer events. So, I’m swimming one event per day: 200 free, 100 breast, and 100 IM. Nothing too horrible or painful. I’ve been swimming a LOT of 200’s lately, so that should be a breeze.

The 100 breast is a slightly different story. I went to my coach in October asking for help with my stroke, thinking this would be a simple fix. Yeah, silly me. Nothing is ever simple with my coach. I then spent about 2 practices a month (sometimes more, never less) doing a short axis pulse with flippers. This basically looks like a dolphin kick, with no kick involved. Its basically doing a sin curve with your body thru the water. And its hella boring. Which is why I really only did this about 2x a month.

So, now that this meet is a month away, I’m now in semi-panic mode. I need to learn how to do this for the meet. So, much to my surprise, Coach has decided to speed up my progress a bit. Usually, he’ll give me a task, and that’s all I’m allowed to work on for many successive practices, which is boring. I think that since I’ve got this race in less than a month, he’s willing to speed the process up a bit. He even said that this week, I might be ready to take a complete stroke. Not multiple strokes in succession, mind you, but a single solitary stroke. Ha ha ha.

Today, I took half a stroke. Woo! Arm movements! So, I guess this week I get the arms worked out and then sometime btwn now and then I’ll work on my kick and timing (big laugh). This should be amusing.

Trails on the Trail – the good, the bad, and the ugly

Will and I finally went on our 5 day camping extravaganza (!) to Big Bend National Park. We were supposed to go in March, but that got nixed due to me going to MA for work. The plan (and why I even try to plan is beyond me, b/c things never go according to plan) was to spend a few nights at Elephant Tusk (we stayed there last time, unmaintained 4x4 road = no other people for MILES!) and hike around in the desert and then move to another campsite for the remainder of the trip.

We leave Wed at 4:45 AM, make 2 gas/potty stops, and arrive at the park HQ at 2:30 PM. Woo! We get one night at Paint Gap (Will’s choice) and 2 nights at E Tusk. Decide to spend the final night in the Davis Mountains. Woo! We got our campsites!

We drive over to Paint Gap and unload our wordly belongings. Then we realize its hot. As in you can’t sit down or stand still b/c its sweltering out. In fact, the only way to create a breeze is to take a hike. I immediately curse myself for wanting to take a camping trip in the DESERT in APRIL when instead, I could have spent 5 days on a cruise in Mexico. Anyways, we swelter, the clouds show up, and life is tolerable.

The next morning, we get up, pack up, and head for the mountains. We hike up the Lost Mine Trail (1,100 ft elevation gain, top elevation of 7,650 – hey, I’m used to elevation of oh say 100 feet MSL, so being over a mile high is exciting for me!). Its nice and cool up there so, we find a nice tree, eat a picnic lunch, and take a nap. Well, Will took a nap and I got bored and decided to hike around and explore. We hang around for a long time, waiting for the desert floor temp to go back down to something tolerable. Begin hiking down at 3 PM. Its bloody hot on the hike down. So hot that we decide this isn’t fun anymore and we’ll spend one night at Elephant Tusk then book it the next morning to Davis, where presumably, its much cooler. We get to ET at 6:30, sure enough, its still hot, so we pop open the back of my Xterra and use that as shade. As there’s no SHADE in the DESERT (shaking head again – what were we thinking?) Go to sleep, wake up, pack up, and 4x4 out of the park to coolness.

We stay at the Davis Mtns state park, and well, its not really that pretty. Its brown and hilly, rather than oh, mountainy. But I guess Texans think anything with a bump is a mountain. But surprise! Its actually cool enough that you had to wear pants! Yay! So, we set up and veg. The park is close to the McDonnell Observatory, and we found out they do Star Parties, so after sunset, we mosied over there to look through their telescopes at the stars. Very cool. Get back to our campsite at 11:30 (I’m sure all the campers around us appreciated us driving up that late….) and its so cold I have to bust out my down sleeping bag and sleep the whole night with it over my head to keep my nose warm. We wake up the next day, decide to take the 2 PM guided tour of the observatory, which was cool. Will really likes physics, so he definitely got his geek on. Then we spent the rest on the night bumming around and doing a whole lot of nothing.

Sunday we pack up the truck and drive 8.5 hrs eastward to Houston. I have to say, we saw an awful lot of California license plates on the drive back home. Its like they released them all at the same time in a mass migration east. We’re thinking its spring break over there? But why would you drive across Texas for spring break? Ew….

And now, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly:

Good:
* Seeing someplace new: we’d never been to the Davis Mtns before (we went to Big Bend a few yrs back, but were sick, so it wasn’t that much fun – sense a theme?), so it was fun to explore a new place.
* The hike up the Lost Mine Trail was beautiful. Clear skies, mountains, no idiots on the trail. What more can you ask for.
* Good food – b/c I planned it. Sausage/peppers/onions, pork fajitas, Cajun dirty rice, steak. Mmmmm. I don’t screw around when it comes to camping food.
* Time to relax. Yay! I don’t get to sit around and read books very often, so that was nice.
* Seeing the planet Saturn in such detail, you could see the shadow that its rings cast upon the planet’s surface (badass!).
* Knowing more about constellations and star formations!
* We broke down and got an air mattress to sleep on. (Yes, Christine, I owe you an apology for making fun of you, although you sort of still deserve it b/c I still wouldn’t backpack with an air mattress). My hips go numb despite me buying one of the more cushy therma-rests, so we became soft and got an obnoxious air mattress. And we slept soundly each night. Damn, that means we’ll have to keep it.
* Pictures on Flickr of our trip (purty!)

The Bad:
* Desert in April is HOT. It doesn’t seem like upper 80’s should be all that hot, but when there’s no shade and all the rocks have been baking, its really no fun at all.
* The drive – 1500 miles round trip.
* The enormous amount of bug splatters on my Xterra. I’m gonna have to get it detailed….
* The night at ET, I laid down on my sleeping bag to go to sleep and immediately had a sharp stinging sensation on my left shoulder blade. I sat up and found a squashed bumble-bee on my bag. And the bastard stung me. Fortunately, I had hydrocortisone and bandaids, but damn.

The Ugly:
* Me going Tues – Sunday w/out a shower and being around a LOT of ppl at the observatory tour on Saturday. Good thing I brought some scented lotion!

I'm a sucker for cool packaging

Saw this wine in the grocery store last night. No idea if it tastes good - but the bottle sure looks cool!

I'll let you know how it tastes....

My Girlification is now completely evident…

Make-up: High school I did, but nothing major. College I didn’t wear any (make up, that is!). And for a while in college, my typical outfit was jeans, flannel shirt, and my brown leather hiking boots with red shoe laces (b/c I saw a J Crew catalog that had hiking boots with red shoe laces that I loved, and so I tried to do a low-budget version of that – which resulted as me being known around campus as the “girl with the red shoe laces”). I was so crunchy that Will actually had to ask me to dress like a girl every once in a while.

So, since living in Texas, I now dress like a girl on a regular basis and wear makeup. MAC, Too Faced, or Urban Decay, to be specific. And I like girly things now too*. I didn’t realize how girly I am until coming out to MA for work this week. Especially at that women’s lunch thingy yesterday. I think I was the ONLY one in the room (of about 40) wearing both mascara and eyeshadow. And not beige boring eyeshadow – PURPLE SHIMMERY eyeshadow! And don’t even get me started on how many people are in dire need of an eyebrow waxing or plucking hairs out of facial moles (I was just in a meeting with a lady who had to have at least 5 black ½” hairs growing out of a mole in her cheek – eee! Don’t most people want to take care of things like that?)

And in this lunch meeting yesterday, I was the ONLY person to be wearing high heels (stylish black leather boots w/heels).

And now, I’m here, after observing how crunchy these people are, and I’m wondering if they’re referring to me as “that girl from the Houston office with the heels and a LOT of makeup?” eeks! That’s Texas exemplified! Not that I’m going to go to work tomorrow w/out makeup (scary!) but damn, Texas has really girlified me. Damn.

*yeah, so I really do have a serious addiction to Lush. To the point where I’m now having packages shipped to my office b/c I don’t want Will to realize just how much I’ve purchased. Since Feb – I’ve placed 6 (!!) orders. But to my credit – with every order, I got at least $10 of free stuff (sometimes upwards of $60 in freebies). In fact, I have one box containing 10 freebies and 1 L of shower gel in my office under my desk waiting for me to get back and take it home and I should have one more box delivered to the house Friday. And then I go and lurk on the Lush web forum and see a posting about a party at the Lush store in Boston and how if you RSVP, you’ll get a FREE goodie bag! Free! Goodies! How can I say no?!?! And if the store won’t take my 2-for-1 promo code (I don’t have paper coupons) for some lotion (that I’m getting for my friend for her b’day next month – but I’ll keep the free one, even though I just ordered 2 for myself and got them last week…..) then I’ll most likely place ANOTHER order for that lotion online. I. have. a. problem! But at least I smell good!

Monday night in Boston

I was very lame last night after work. Went to the grocery store for snacks. Then I took the world's worst pilates class at the gym at the hotel (its actually a health club for people who aren't guests). It was this older (50's maybe?) lady who popped in a Prince CD, and instead of providing directions or telling what to focus on, she mouthed the lyrics of the Prince songs. And I don't particularly care for Prince, so this feature wasn't appreciated to me. And peppy musich during pilates? Anyways, it was horrible on many levels. At some point during the "workout" she went into cat pose (you're on your hands and knees with your back arched or flat). Now, most instructors face sideways to the class so you can see how they're positioned and doing the moves. This lady was "facing" us ass first. So, I got to look at her bony tight-fitting yoga pant covered ass - complete with wear marks where her ass-bones are. Lovely! And you couldn't see what the hell poses she was doing. Another fun series of poses was where you are lying on your back, then lift your feet/legs straight up in the air above your head and do random (to me) leg movements while in that position. Which really, what purpose does this serve except to put a lot of pressure on your neck as your entire body weight presses down on it. I left halfway into it b/c I was getting nothing out of it and her poses was really random and awful.

I then ate dinner at the hotel bar/lounge. Had a Concord Pale Ale (eh) and listened to some lady bitch about how she was a "high powered executive" in Orange County, CA and got a DUI and lost her license b/c the cops in OC are on the hunt for DUI offenders to raise the tax base. Or some crap like that. It was annoying but funny at the same time.

See - LAME! Tonight should be better. My friend from back home that now lives in Baltimore is in Boston for work so we're having dinner/drinks tonight! Woo!

Musings from Bawston

Work sent me to the Boston area for the week to help out with my OKC project (only with our Boston engineering staff). I’ve never been to MA before, so this is a nice little adventure for me. It got off to a bad start – Delta and the black hole of Atlanta (yes I know, I should have expected this) lost my luggage. Or rather severely delayed its arrival. I blamed this, of course, on the fact that I was one state over from my friend who always loses her luggage (unless she’s going on a trip with me). Hey, I passed on my freak magnet-ism to her. She lost my luggage. Ok?

Hotel is ok – its some local conference/inn kinda place. Found a pool to swim at. There haven’t been any sightings of freaky people swimming in street clothes or with full-on snorkel gear, so that’s cool. I’ve had frost on my windshield both mornings, which makes me happy.

So, today at lunch, there was an organized “Women’s Leadership [Something or other]” meeting. I suppose some people have realized that there’s not a whole lot of women in upper management company wide and some women at HQ have decided to have monthly meetings about women’s issues. And since this was going on during my visit, I got to sit in. They did talk about some interesting things. Such as how most women have a hard time saying “I want” when it comes to career objectives (like I want this project/role/promotion). And many women don’t get the recognition they deserve b/c they don’t have an advocate. So there was talk of a mentoring network, monthly meetings for this group, etc etc. It was actually not as cheesy as it sounds. And you know, they had really good points. I really would love to have a mentor and someone to be my role model. I think I would work a lot harder and have a much better attitude at work if I had a mentor. And if I worked in this office, that would definitely be possible. But I don’t – with the exception of one Sr Mgr (who is clueless and I really don’t consider her a role model in anything except panicking or ass-kissing) I am the most senior female technical person in our office. And besides me, we have 4 other technical women – all of which are younger than me. And I’ve asked for a mentor and was told by my supervisor that I wouldn’t get any one person as a mentor, that everyone on staff could be my mentor. Which I suppose is true to an extent, except for the fact that I work with a bunch of anti-social freaks who wouldn’t know how to mentor a hole in the wall. And the lady I’m working here in MA with made some comment on how Houston is a hot-bed of opportunity. And here I am getting ready to quit that hot-bed. I suppose that if I stick around another year, things would be better (maybe?). And I wish that maybe I’d met these people a year ago instead of a day ago – because then maybe my situation would be different. I really get along with these people and they make me feel like I’m smart and capable and valuable. Unlike my Houston coworkers. But that’s why I’m looking at moving on – to a place that’s going out of their way to hire me and make me feel like an asset.

Anyways, some interesting things came out of that lunch. A lot of companies out there are trying to grow. And lets face it, half of the work force out there is comprised of women. And most companies in my line of business are mostly men. And one of the things my generation specifically takes into account when shopping for a job is how many women work at the company and what positions are they in. Its something I definitely look for – and have yet to find. To the point where if I find a place that has a LOT of women, I think it’s a freakish place and want to run. But if companies want to grow, they have to at least put front a “women friendly” face. But I can’t help but think to myself that these women friendly places are weaker next to their tougher more manly counterparts. Like where I am now in MA, someone put their Avon catalog in the women’s bathroom. Avon! Blech! At my Houston office, we’re lucky if the bathroom works!

TAR, Season 9, Episodes 3 and 4

Because I didn't manage to blog about this last week. And also: I hate non-elimination episodes!

Episode 3
And I really don't remember much about last week's episode (or last week, for that matter, damn St Patricks day.....), so here's the high/low-lights.

They're in Brazil, and then they all hop on the same plane to go to Russia - home of vodka and people that smoke a lot (according to MoJo). Then they do some stuff that's not very exciting and then they meet up with Phil in Red Square, and Phil does not eliminate them. See? Three sentences for one whole hour!

If 3T Was on the Show
Roadblock - ok, this is a no brainer, as I am the swimmer of the team. And we really, really don't need Will in a speedo on Nat'l tv thankyouverymuch. And we would have selected the bus washing detour, b/c all those damn dolls would lead to an on-camera session of "Watch Erin be a huge bitch and watch Will just stand there." Not so much fun.

Commentary
My main gripe is having people who are NOT GOOD SWIMMERS do a SWIMMING roadblock. Idiots. And its not like they even had to swim all that much (although, I'll admit that the high dive would have freaked me out too).

Teams that annoyed me
Team Nipple Ring and all this hookup crap needs to shut up or die. Fran and Barry are officially on my "dead to me" list for all the bemoaning about how they're soooo veerrryyy unnnfoooootunate and theeeey'reee goinnnng to looooosssseeee". So shut up and come in last already. Just quit bitching on my tv, please

Episode 4
Still not a whole lot of action. And yet, more people annoyed me. Lovely! This episode was the "Product Placement" portion of our season - Travelocity gnome and Mercedes. I think the Mercedes wall o' doom would have been much cooler if they'd have to actually drive it themselves, though. So, they're in Russia and have to fly back to Germany. And that's about it. Oh, and the teams were instructed to bring their gnome with them to the mat - but only a few teams did this..... I think there should have been a time penalty involved... Not to mention making the teams learn and perform the dance correctly. But I digress.....

If 3T Was on the Show
Gnome hunt... really do we care? This was so lame that I don't care. So, rock-paper-scissors. Loser has to find the gnome. And Bottles vs Dancing for the Detour.... I'd say bottles. Will was convinced the glass was really sugar, but I don't know.... But I also know that Will has NO dance skill what-so-ever past the "circle slow dance", so it really would be less painful for me if he bashed a bottle over my head repeatedly than to watch him try to slap his legs and hop around with some semblance of coordination and grace.

Team Commentary
I liked the hippies until this episode. Then (as Miss Alli from TWOP pointed out), it seems like every time they're on camera, they feel the need to do or say something wacky. Every time! Can't they just stand there and be normal? And wear underwear? I really think they spent time pre-race coming up with their little wacky sayings and doings just to use on the show. Its annoying.

I should just put the TV on mute each time Team Nipple Ring is on, they are *that* idiotic. I can't even see their schtick working.

Loved the random drunk guy Lake and Michelle picked up. Go Germany! Beer! Woo!

Inability to find and use a map: see Desiree and Wanda. And doing so twice.

Stupidity for not getting and using a map, and then following someone who also doesn't have/use a map, who gets lost once, and then STILL follows the once-already-lost team again and gets lost a SECOND time at the exact spot: see the Pink Girls. Dumb.

And that's about it - not much else noteworthy happened....

March Madness Meet Results

Here's my latest results, along with my entry seed times*

Event Seed Time Actual Time
100 breaststroke 1:44 1:38.08
100 backstroke 1:27 1:27.63
100 IM 1:36 1:31.68
200 free 3:10** 2:51.86 (!!)
100 free 1:23*** 1:18.48

*Keep in mind that I was never that fast of a swimmer.
** First entry in this event since high school. This time was based on swimming 200's on a fast pace, then taking 5 add'l seconds off for it to be "challenging".
*** Fastest time for me in Masters using proper technique. My "improper" technique time was 1:19 in Dec 2004. Since fixing my technique, I've consistently been 5-8 seconds slower.

I am so amazingly happy with myself. First of all, this was a short meet. We're talking like 10 heats of the 50 free and the rest of the events were more like 4 heats tops. Then I entered fairly long events (ie no 50's) and had 2-3 events to rest up before I had to swim again (equates to 15-20 minutes). Not much time to rest. And honestly, for the 200 I really wasn't even going all that fast. I was so tired and my hypoglycemia was kicking in - my only goal was to get a time down. Imagine my suprise when I looked at my time. Craziness! I really thought I'd be hard pressed to make 3:10 - the day before I was working hard to swim this on a 3:30. And my splits were so good - 41.27; 42.98; 44.42; 43.91. Very consistent. Sure I need to work on negative splitting that, but I'll take consistency any day! And finally, after swimming 4 events, to cut 5 seconds off my 100 free using "proper" technique.... So awesome. Yay me!

Case study: why suburban mothers in Texas should never become costume designers

I soooo wish my husband's camera phone worked better to capture this image properly.

Got free tickets to see the Houston Rockets last night. Ridiculously good seats - 9th row behind the visitors bench.

The half-time entertainment:

(again, apologizing for the craptastic picture quality...)

What you see in this very blurry picture is some high school dance troupe doing some sort of african interpretive dance. As they walked out, all four of us had a "the hell?" moment then broke out in giggles. These poor girls. Their costumes were easily the most horrific thing I've seen for something like this. Even Santino wouldn't have come close. I felt really, really bad for them.

The costumes consisted of a black leotard, but with the mid-section as black mesh. Then it had a bias skirt in fake tiger print and a big floofy collar and headbands made of brown feathers and gold sequins. And one ankle band of feathers, and perhaps wrist bands of feathers too. Fake tiger print AND feathers? Pick and animal and stick with it please. Unless you're trying to depict what a tiger looks like while he's eating a bird covered in sequins.

The dance moves were pretty funny too. Plenty of unflattering poses, and a couple where the girls paired up, and one girl had to hold another girl in an unflattering way then crawl overhere (it was complicated and bizarre and very hard to describe.)

This ranks as really one of the most bizarre halftime performances I've witnessed. Just really, really strange.... and funny!

Random updates

Sooo....updates on me.

Turned 30 on Monday. Day really didn't go all that well. It wasn't that I was upset over turning 30. I just was hoping to have a good day, and well, it wasn't a good day. At all.

Swift kitty ate something in my b'day flowers and has been acting really mopey and quiet since Monday night. She's eating (but not her usual voracious inhaltion of food) and not puking, so I'm not worried enough to call the vet, but its enough to make me still worry.

Have a swim meet this Saturday. Entered myself in some pretty ambitious events.... 100 breast, 100 back 100 IM, 200 free, and 100 free. And there's only 2-3 events separating my events, and I don't expect this to be a big meet, so I probably won't get much rest. I figure I can deck-scratch if need be. This is kind-of a test-run for events for Nationals in May. eeps!

Swim practice is pretty good lately. I have this tempo trainer gizmo that I stick under my cap and it beeps at me on a time interval that I set. It basically serves as a cue for my stroke timing. I got it to help me coordinate my kick, core rotation, and stroke for the 6 beat rotation freestyle technique. Back in January, I talked to the coach about getting faster, and he suggested I use the tempo trainer on a regular basis to train myself into swimming faster. The idea is that with each practice, I bump the tempo a hair faster. So I'll be going faster, but only fractionally, so it won't really feel like I'm putting a ton of effort into actually going faster. Then over time, say weeks of bumping the time interval faster, I'll actually be going noticably faster. I started this in Mid-Jan, and 1.5 months later, I've cut ~3-5 seconds off of my medium paced 50 free.

A swim friend is trying to recruit me to do the swim leg of the Austin Danskin Trathalon. Open water (which I've never done before...) but its only a 1/2 mile. Couldn't be all that painful. So, we'll see. Apparently, someone is trying to put together "relays" for this, but they're really short on swimmers. And seeing as how I have no business running ever again, this would be a good way for me to experience triathalons.

Work is still eh. At least I'm busy. And the current opinon of me is postive around here, so I guess that will do for now.

Having my b'day party this weekend. Nothing too crazy (I hope). We made 2 batches of homebrew - a scotch ale and a vanilla stout and kegged it (5 gal each). Should be fun. Will post pictures and stories if there's anything fun to report.

TAR, Season 9, Episode 2

Episode 1 recap

So, for this episode, we're still in Brazil. Not a whole lot of excitement this episode, but there is some character development, and the fatal driving of a non-automatic-transmission vehicle.

So, we've got some taxis to a bus terminal, to bunching (I'm pretty irritated b/c we had senate primary results blocking out the starting times for all the teams. I *need* to see how spread out the teams are. And I really don't want to know if Tom Delay was selected to run for senate.) Then a boring bus ride. Then VW beetles! But I have to wonder - are these the same as the old-styled beetles that are produced as "new" in Mexico, or are these really 30 yr old hunks of rusting metal. For everyone's sake (and the fact that the seats looked slightly newer) I'm hoping they were newer than 1971.

If 3T was on the show
We would so rock this leg with the VW beetles, as I have 6 years experience driving one. A 1971 beetle, bright yellow, that most of the time only ran on 3 cylinders. One road trip I made, from Gillette, WY (summer job at a coal mine) back to college (Butte, MT) was sheer hell. Mountain bike on top of the car, creating massive drag. Two very vocal and inadequately tranquilized kitties in the front seat. 3 of 4 cylinders functional. Top speed of 50 mph. And complete this experience with a kitty accident of the liquid variety which required me to stop at a gas station around Billings to wash Swift off. Fun! Oh, and 10 hrs of this for ~400 miles. Not cool. Anyways, the race! First of all, I had to laugh at the "hippies" physically walking their VW backwards. Doncha know that for all VWs, to shift it into reverse, you have to push the stickshift vertically down and then shift back to reverse? Silly guys. And those ladies abusing the hell out of their clutch. Its not like VWs are particularly hard to shift.

And as we saw team members climb into the backseat, Will mentioned that he hoped that none of their feet punctured the floor of the vehicle. The floor of mine was so badly rusted that when Will sat in the back of mine (he was being nice and letting my roommate sit up front) his foot went all they way thru the floor of my car. Think Flintstones style. And it was winter, and in Butte, they don't plow the side streets, so you end up basically driving your car in 2 parallel ice ruts the whole winter. And the hole (with scrap metal bent outwards from the car) was in the center of the car, so the entire winter, I had to listen to rusted metal scraping against ice ruts. Yeah, I hate that car and don't really miss it. Why my mom wanted to keep it and restore it is beyond me.

Road Block - ethane or climbing. 3T's choice was decided by me. My knee is still tweaky from training for our backpacking trip in 2004 (I had cartlidge tear or something horrible and while my knee didn't require surgery or hurt, it grinds horribly when I do stairs, but it is getting better, so there's hope). Seeing as how those stupid climber things involve much leg/knee action, and combine that with the fact that in elementary school I could never manage to climb that damn rope to the required height, I chose the sugar cane/ethane option.

Team commentary
Well, my opinions of the other teams pretty much held from Episode 1. Team Nipple Ring are bigger idiots that I thought they were. Glamazons need to go away. The pink girls seem to be ok. Older couple needs to suck it up and start playing. Team Nerd Love is still adoreable. Basically status quo.

I was very satisfied with the ending. I did not like the meltdown between the sisters and how they basically gave up. Considering how many thousands of people applied for the show and would kill to be on it, I think its tremendously rude to just go and give up b/c you can't manage to drive a standard transmission VW beetle in Brazil. Go home, you suck.

TAR, Season 9, Episode 1

Looks promising, with the glaring exception that producers elected not to include myself and Will in the cast (from here on out we will be known as Team Trailer Trash* [3T for short]). I’m going to attempt to do my own version of a recap of the show each week. Don’t plan on me recapping the episode event by event, like TWOP does. But rather, I’ll just comment on how, if 3T was on the show, which choices we would have made on the detours/roadblocks, and commentary on my love/hate for any or all teams (and Phil) on the show.

If Team Trailer Trash were on the show
Yay, DENVER and what’s more RED ROCKS!!! Wooooo! Needless to say, 3T would have rocked this initial part of the show, as I’m very familiar with the area and the airport. We would have avoided at all costs taking the Continental flight, because I hate Continental.

Brazil! Now, if 3T would have made the show, we would have invested in some Spanish lessons. So, please play along and pretend that we speak Spanish, which should help a tiny bit, even though Brazil’s language is Portuguese. (In hindsight, 4 yrs of latin in high school wasn’t the most practical idea. But my main reasons for taking it were a)it looked good on transcripts b)the teacher was cool and the class was a cakewalk b/c of her and c)the retreat every spring to Estes Park where I would ditch most of the scheduled activities and go hiking with hot mountain boys from other schools. Now though, latin doesn’t do me a whole hell of a lot of good.)

Roadblock: re-build a motorcycle or ride a helicopter to some building (or as I call it – “chopper or chopper?” Will didn’t think this was all that clever….). Now, at this point in the show, we pause it, and discuss the merits of each task and figure out which one we would chose. Now, being that we are both engineers and Will is somewhat of an engine repair enthusiast, we decided to choose the motorcycle option. However, after seeing how cool the helicopter ride was, I know I would regret that decision…. But I would hope that we’d perform better than the other teams in rebuilding the motorcycle.

General commentary on each team
Lake & Michelle – well, lets just say that this is one dental practitioner I would never visit. Could you imagine, sitting in the chair as Michelle works on you, and Lake yelling all the time? And you just having to sit there with your mouth open, feeling very uncomfortable?

Dani & Danielle – really don’t have much of an opinion on these 2. They lost major points with their matching pink outfits, although they seemed to accept the fact that getting dirty was a component of the motorcycle detour. They did win points by thinking the Frat Boys were tools, though, so there is hope for them.

BY & Tyler – first thing out of Will’s mouth (Cartman Voice) “Goddamn Hippies” (from the South Park “Die Hippy, Die” episode [we have this permanently saved on our TiVo, its that funny]). Apart from the hippyness, they did make me laugh a few times and generally have their game on.

Ray & Yolanda – no real opinion here about these two. I suspect they will be headed for dating-disaster by the end of the show though, as they are the typecast “long distance dating” couple. I was impressed by the restraint Ray showed for not beating the hell out of the guys commenting on Yolanda’s mechanical prowess.

John & Scott – the typecast gay guys, although supposedly they are “life long friends” friends, rather than a couple. Sadly, they didn’t have the chops to stick around. I did find them mildly amusing and I would have rather preferred the Houston Frosties to be Philiminated instead.

Dave & Lori – ok, say it with me now! Neeerrrrddds! Until reading their bio on CBS, I loved them. Perhaps I should have ignored the bio just now. Musician and Pizza Hut asst mgr? Oh good lord. But I guess there aren’t too many opportunities for high falutin’ jobs in Manhattan….Kansas. Anyways, last night, they were my top team in terms of like-ability. Just love that nerd love.

Eric & Jeremy – annnnd here are the “pretty boys” typecast team. But really, they’re not all that pretty. Or really all that fun to listen to. And they have nipple rings. Enough said.

Fran & Barry – ok, on the show last night, they were listed as being from Littleton, CO (woo! Go Littleton!), but the CBS bio says they’re from Silverthorne…… Hmmm. Anyways, based on the Littleton connection, I loved them right away (and no, I did not know them). But then the roadblock on the bridge lost major points….. Please perform better so I can like you again. K?

Lisa & Joni – wow, reality tv producers sure know how to pick winners from Houston, don’t they? Ok, so Joyce and Uchenna were great. But lets see…. The girls from the Bachelor, Brandy (with her red weave fro’), that Cat woman chickie, and Cassandra from America’s Next Top Model were all equally horrible. And this made me think, if 3T did make it on the show, I guess we’d be “from Houston” which I am just not prepared to actually have “Erin” and “from Houston” in the same sentence. So, based on this alone, I suppose its good 3T was not selected for the cast. Anyways, Lisa and Joni…. Yeah, don’t like them. One bit. The yelling, the spazzing, the Jesus prayers, the makeup. All horrible. Wish they’d been Philimated instead of John & Scott.

Team MoJo – ok, they’re growing on me. I for one like the t-shirts. I thought they were cute. Mo did lose points by crying in the lobby of DIA over not catching the first flight, though. But overall, they’re not too annoying so far.

Wanda & Desiree – at first, I found them annoying. But they really played well, mainly due to Wanda’s knowledge of Portuguese. To date, I feel pretty neutral about them.

“Baby” count. Will and I refer to TAR as the “baby, how bout we watch that ‘baby show’ baby?” Because it seems that there is no other term of endearment allowed on the show. And sure enough, as they left the parking lot of Red Rocks, I heard my first “baby”. Although, later on, I did hear a “sweetie”, and it was nice to hear something else for a change. Will claims if 3T was on, he’d be dropping the nicknames of “muffin” or “pumpkin” on me. And I told him that if he were to do that, I would basically ignore him the entire team and hit on some of the hottie single guys in the race instead.

Overally, TAR 9 shows significant improvement over the suckfest that was the family edition. I look forward to seeing how this season progresses.

*Long story from college. Will's nickname was "Third Wheel (Will) Trailer", given to him by his advisor - how nice of him! He soon became known as "trailer", which then went screaming downhill into "Trailer Trash".

The last days of twentysomething

I came upon an alarming revelation yesterday as I was emailing a friend of mine. He and I have been trying to get together for a beer for a while. Attempted to get together last night, but he was too busy (me, I’m never busy unless I have social activities double-booked). So he suggested next Monday. Which made me look at the calendar. Epps! I will be 30 next Monday*! I should be out living it up this week, my last few days as a 20-something. But true to usual Erin fashion, I’m not. And Will is out racing all weekend, so I won’t even be living it up this weekend. Sucky!

What’s worse is that my birthday falls on a Monday. I’m pretty tempted to just take the day off (ensuring I have a good day). Or maybe just go to swim practice, work a half day, then leave at lunch…..

Then do I need to sit back and reflect on my 20’s, develop a plan for my 30’s? I’m not really the type to do resolutions at new years, so I doubt that doing this now is going to help me out. Besides, I have no idea what I’m doing next week normally, much less being able to plan out an entire decade. Maybe this should be a list of “things to look forward to in the next year”.

1 – must. get. new. job.

2 – camping in March at Big Bend Nat’l park, and not being too sick to do anything active (like last time we went)

3 – swimming at the USMS nationals event in Florida next May.

4 – hopefully taking the much-talked-about-and-little-acted-upon trip to New Zealand’s South Island over Thanksgiving.

See, lots of fun stuff! 30 is the new 20! or something like that.....

*sending me presents is completely optional

Critters and Lush

Found out what the "critter" in the bottom of the pool was.... turns out it was a huge rolled up Ace bandage. Which we all decided was still pretty icky. But not as icky as a bloated dead rat, I guess.

Got my Lush package last night. And well, um, its on the stinky side. Love my Snow Fairy shower gel - with its glitter and candy smell. Mmmmm.... My dusting powder scent is growing on me - its jasmine and vertivert. I don't think it smells that strong, but my swim team ppl did. My soft couer massage bar has potential, but it does smell really, really sweet. My Love Bug, well, lets just say I have it in a ziplock baggie and I can still smell the thing. It does have lovely golden sparkles. I just don't know about the scent. I'm hoping that it mellows out when I wear it. My freebies have potential. Two bubble bath bars, one in my Candy Fluff scent, and one is supposedly lavender (but all I could make out by that point was the stinky Love Bug). So we'll see if I like what I got. I'm thinking I will, its just a bit different than what I was expecting...

I am *dying* with anticipation

Hopefully when I get home from work today, I will finally have my package of goodies I ordered from lush waiting for me. I truly am a tad bit too excited. My friend got me the Rock Star soap, Candy Fluff dusting powder, and Melting Marshmallow Moments as a present last year. Love this stuff. But for some reason, never had the courage to order some on my own. Partially b/c its expensive - partially b/c there is so much to choose from and its overwhelming. And hard to pick things when you read what the ingredients are and you have no idea what they smell like. Such as neroli. What exactly is neroli?

For my first (of I'm sure many, many orders), I purchased 2 massage bars (one with glitter! the other with honey and chocolate!), another scented dusting powder, and a shower gel (pink! with glitter! that smells like my beloved Candy Fluff). And part of a promo deal, I get two mystery freebies. Combine the mystery freebies with the exceptionally long delivery time (15 days since I ordered.... which sadly is std since its handmade and comes from Vancouver), and I simply am dying for my order.

A statement you never want to hear during swim practice

From a swimmer in the fast lane (the opposite side of the pool from where I swim):

"Coach, there's a dead critter at the bottom of the pool. Can you hand me a flipper so I can remove it?"

Um, ewwwww. I'm so glad I own my own flippers so there's no chance of that dead-critter-retrieval-tool ever touching my feet. I don't even want to go there about the whole swimming in a pool with a dead critter thing. Or what kind of critter it was. Ew.

Beer chug swim relay results

First of all, I have three mystery bruises on the side of my left leg that really hurt. And my abs were sore for 2 days from doing those starts. Had to get my whining in first. Swam 8 events. Sounds bad, but it was really only 1x100, 2x50 and a bunch of 25s. Started with 100 back, which turns out, I haven’t swam since July 1994. Woo! I’d swam 50 back in meets in the past year, but not 100s. Turns out, I beat my estimated time (1:27 actual), so I was happy. Swam 50 breast, improved on that time. The rest were 25s or fun relays, so the times really don’t matter. Plus, they’re relay times, so they’re “off” by a few seconds anyways. FYI, I am one of those anal engineer types who has a spreadsheet tracking every event that I’ve swam since returning to swimming, complete with meters/yards conversions. I’ll try to post times next time I swim in a meet (mid-March maybe).

I did two “fun” relays. And by fun, I think it was more fun to watch from the sidelines than to participate.

First up, the sweatpants relay. As in you swim while wearing sweatpants. Then have to get out of the pool, strip, and have the next person put the wet sweatpants on. So dude jumps out of the water and strips the sweats off. I sit on the blocks and have two teammate guys in speedos wrestle with the ginormous wet sweatpants and my feet. My feet didn’t want to cooperate. Then I dive in. First thing that happens is the sweats fall down past my ass. So, I pull them up and swim the best I can while wearing XXL sweat pants. Get to the shallow end. The guys on that end YANK me outof the water by the shoulders and flop me sideways on the deck, then proceed to de-pants me. You know, that’s every girl’s dream, to be de-pantsed on deck by a bunch of balding men in speedos. I figured it was best just to lay there like a dead fish and let them have their way with me and the sweat pants.

Second fun relay – the much anticipated beer relay. Complete with Budweiser! Fortunately for me, I only had to consume half a can of the vile stuff. But man, just the smell reminds me of the time I was at a frat party in Missoula where there was 1” of beer on the basement floor. Ew. Anyways. Deal is, you have to chug your beer then sprint a 25. This old lady on my team kept telling me how to chug my beer. As if this would be a problem. If anything, when I am faced with having to consume crappy beer, the only option is to chug it, so you don’t really taste it. Besides, Bud is basically water, so its not like it was a big deal. So, I chugged, spilling a good portion of it down my face and on the deck (sooo glad I don’t swim at this pool normally or have to clean up – can you imagine the smell?). Then I sprint my 25 free. Let me just say that chugging icky beer then sprinting is really not the best thing for my stomach. I just felt ICKY after that.

Wherin I do my impression of a flopping beached whale

Relay meet is tomorrow. So, we spent half of practice doing relay starts. Pretty entertaining really, as one of my friends hasn’t done a start off the blocks in oh, 25 yrs. I’m certain we were a graceful bunch. Confirmation is from all the red marks on my upper thighs (regular start) and back (backstroke start) from my body smacking the water. And all the bruises I’m sure I will have tomorrow from me scraping my shin as I climbed out of the pool (I hate using the ladder) and on my arm from when I smacked my arm against the block as I was not-so-gracefully climbing out of the pool.

Hey, at least my goggles stayed on!

The Shayla ate my baby

There is something you must know about my husband. He can take any real life event and turn it into a Seinfeld episode, complete with a quote from the show.

So last night we went to the friendly neighborhood pub for the regular Thursday Subaru happy hour. (And on a side note, I was going to post a pic of my newly painted fingernails, inspired by Aarwenn, but well, it was either take a pic of my nails or drink $3 Boddingtons. Sorry blog-world, the Boddington’s won. And now every finger is chipped from swim practice, which serves as a reminder of WHY I normally don’t paint my fingernails.). We sit down and notice that our waitress isn’t completely there. I nicknamed here GED, as I’m sure that’s about as far as she got. Nice girl, but not really there. It was her 4th day on the job. And we knew that she was new a)b/c we’re there every Thurs (and sometimes more often) and we know all the waitstaff and b)she introduced herself (Shayla) and shook each of our hands and asked for our names. Which really was odd. Who shakes hands after receiving a beer order? So after introductions and she walks off, Will comes up with (in his best Elaine-Australian voice) “The Shayla ate my baybey.” Which nearly caused me to shoot beer out my nose. The Shayla thing continued on as we ended up with ~12 ppl at our table and each time someone would order, she would be missing either her notepad or a pen. We’re still not sure how that happens, as she had one of those pocket-apron deals on. And if I was new, I’d be sure to have about 5 of each stashed in those pockets. It just became a running joke and became quite amusing. But I’m sure its one of those things where you had to be there to actually find it funny.

Random mumblings for a Wednesday

Spent most of last week in Oklahoma City for a job. Actually had a splendid time. The client and site people were really nice to me. Actually treated me with respect and didn’t question my every move. I got to relax, have fun, and feel confident in my skills. This week I’m back in the office and its back to the usual crap. Fun fun! Makes me wish I was in the field more often.

Swimming was crazy amounts of hard Monday and Tuesday. Mainly I think b/c Sunday was simply not enough rest for my poor arms. So, I’m taking today and Thurs off. Then hit practice on Friday, and my meet on Saturday. And being that I have OCD about swimming, its killing me that Coach refuses to tell me what I’m swimming. Absolutely killing me. It’s a relay meet and no individual leg is over 100 yds. So, for the entry sheet, he asked for our split times and for us to tell him which events were ok to swim and which events fit into the category “no way in hell”. Well, I told him that everything EXCEPT 100 fly was fair game. Fly is my nemesis. They made me swim it my Sr year in HS and it was agonizing and humiliating. But since a lot of the other schools couldn’t place 3 ppl in that event, it was an easy way for me to get points for my team, even if I did come in last out of 4 or 5 swimmers. Anyways, I fully believe that fly aided in the destruction of my shoulders. I guess destruction is not the right word, as they’re mostly functional now. But at the time, not being able to lift your arms over your head b/c the tendonitis had calcified seemed like “destruction”. So, from then on out – 100 fly is evil. Somehow, though, in my skewed head, 50 fly seems ok. Go figure! So last week, I “attempted” to swim 50 fly with flippers. It was horrible. Of course, part of the reason for it being horrible was that I did it at the end of a 75 minute workout. But still, all I can think of is humiliation and pain and horror. I also told coach that 3 to 5 events would be ok. And I listed times for 100’s of everything, including the IM. So, in my warped mind, I’m swimming 50 fly, 100 IM, and 100 breast, in addition to a few other things. All back-to-back of course. Which makes me hyperventilate! Coach claims that he refuses to tell ppl their events prior to the meet b/c he’s had a good history of people whining about what the got stuck with or simply drop out, which makes his job that much harder on the day of the meet. Good point, but it still doesn’t do much for my OCD.

A funny from Will. He is thinking ahead this year (points are deserved here) and has made reservations for dinner on Feb 12th. The 12th b/c I have to fly back to OKC on the 14th. So, per his email, I am telling my IIF’s. To quoth him, “I deserve positive points for thinking ahead!!! Write them down and tell ALL of your web buddies. I have to keep my status as most desirable but un-obtainable web buddy husband!” So, you have been informed. And I’m thinking of referring to him from now on as “MDBUOWBH”. Damn, that’s a mouthful.

And I seem to have no motivation to do things. Work… home stuff. Even jewelry. No idea why. Must get over this soon though, b/c its annoying.

And speaking of work stuff, I should actually work on well, work. Instead of blogging. Even though this is way more interesting and fun.

Postal swim results

The swim challenge wasn't in our usual pool at the High School (which has been repaired but it needs a few days to flush out all the algae that I'm certain has took up residence in the past 2 weeks). So, we met at this outdoor pool - in January. Which was trippy since I still associate January with cold, but hey, this is Texas. Its warm here. Actually, once I got warm, swimming outside was nice. It was nice to look at the clouds and the trees while I swam.

Anyways, I met my goal of 3,000 yds in 60 minutes. I actually swam 3385 yds, w/out pain or losing focus or being horribly bored. Yay! My arms are beginning to be sore now, though, so I'm very happy I planned ahead and scheduled a massage tomorrow :)

Thanks for all the good luck wishes :)

Next week I have a relay meet - should be fun. Events include a beer chug relay (while you swim). I'll report back in a week with results. :)

I need this swimsuit

Now, I won't look as good as the model, but I still think "Rock Star" is highly appropriate for me :)

Small adventures in Oklahoma

So, I'm in Oklahoma City for work. The place I'm at had a h-u-g-e fire a few months ago, and as a result, the landscape looks quite martian, with the red dirt poking thru the charred remains of grass and trees. The after affects of the fire are pretty cool. I mean, the entire site smells like a campfire, which makes me happy. And the trees! This place is loaded with cedar trees. And as it turns out, when cedar trees burn, they EXPLODE from the inside out, resulting in this tree I took a few too many photos of.

Far away shot of Cedar Explosion Tree:
Closer shot of Cedar Explosion Tree:
Another angle:
Another crazy feature left over from the fire were these crazy little balls scattered all over the ground. I asked the plant guy what they were, and he said they were some sort of vine fruit, and during the fire, the vines burned but the fruit stayed. I thought they were really interesting as well...




So, this has been my week at work thus far. Sure beats being trapped in my office!

3500

That's how many yards I swam today all on my own. In an hour! Woo!

The regular pool is still broken with parts on order. The team practiced today at this outdoor pool, which I elected not to join. Its really not my idea of fun to swim outside when its 45 degrees and misting out. I paid my dues in summer league in HS in Colorado, swimming at 6 AM when it was 55-60 degrees out. I figure that was enough torture for this girl and I've paid my outdoor swimming dues.

So, I swam at yet-another 24-hour fitness this morning. 3 different pools in 3 workouts. Water was cloudy and for some crazy reason, they decided to have the horizontal jets BLASTING cold water at one end of the pool. And my blasting, I mean forceful enough to push me over to the side as I swam by.

I decided to treat today as a test for my 1-hr swim. Swam 48 minutes straight for 2800 yards. Crazy part is that I was barely even winded.... But my arms weren't tweaky/sore like they have been for the past few week and I didn't get bored since I broke up my swim into 12 minute intervals, with each interval having a different set of stuff to do.

Crazy people in the pool report:
- 1 lady doing very slow water jogging - but at least she was wearing appropriate attire.
- 1 hispanic younger lady fully clothed (t-shirt and shorts - but at least they were black!) who would swim 1/3 a length then stop for a full 2-3 minutes then swim another 1/3 length.
- and thanks to Stacers for commenting on this, we had old dude with flippers and full on snorkel gear doing freestyle. Sad part is that I was lapping him even w/out flippers.

The pool is always greener....

Isn't that how the saying goes?

The chlorine pump at my pool is dead. It was a little cloudy yesterday (before we knew the pump was dead) and we showed up this morning and you couldn't even see the shallow end. Although the water was a pretty aqua color instead of mucky green. So, seeing as how my Postal is in 5 DAYS, myself and a friend headed over to a nearby gym where I have membership to swim. We get there and all 3 lanes are taken - by SLOW people. One lady had good form, so she is forgiven for her slowness. One guy had eh form, but he did offer to let me split the lane with him, so he is also forgiven for his slowness. Then there's this dude in the center lane. Older, going bald, wearing a speedo. Ok, you think, not so bad? So, he's swimming side stroke and wearing goggles on his forehead. Then he flips over to do backstroke - a very limp wristed version of backstroke, still with the goggles acting as fashion accessories rather than being on his eyes and functional. Then finally, mid-workout, I look over and see him doing elementary backstroke. Which, if you don't know, is face up and you do a frog kick. Older, not in shape gay man doing face up frog kick in a speedo.... I hope you weren't eating when you read that - if so, I'm sorry.

Then as a bonus, there was a chunky latino lady who was wearing shorts and a *nasty* saggy sports bra, with a clear shower cap over her head. She got in the lane with slow-but-nice guy and proceeded to spend a half hour jumping up and down. In the water in a saggy loose WHITE sports bra.

So, after all this, I guess the okd dude with both nipples pierced w/heavy gauge rings, parrot girl, and hermophrodite lady really aren't all that bad!

Hermaphrodite swimmer “lady”

There’s this “lady” on my swim team. “Lady” only b/c she uses the women’s locker room instead of the men’s one. She’s a twig of a woman and well, not very pretty, with a very whiny nasally voice, that ironically isn’t far off from SNL’s Pat character. Her haircut looks like someone took a bowl to her head and used that as a guide. Her clothes strongly resemble men’s clothes - flat black loafers, trousers, and a button-down shirt (buttoned all the way to her neck). Oddly enough though, she has some interesting jewelry, from her travels abroad for work.

She only shows up to practice on Wednesdays. She shows up, puts her gear bag on the deck – open for all to see the contents as we walk from the locker room to the pool. She generally has a baggie of maxi pads and tampons on the top of the pile in her bag (further proof that she’s not a man?), which ew. Is it really that difficult to put your bag in the locker room like everyone else? The building is generally secure with little threat of things being stolen. Unfortunately, she likes to swim in my lane, which sucks, b/c her lane etiquette is horrible, and she’s actually much faster than she thinks she is. She always skips warm up and stretches. Then puts her cap on, without cramming all of her hair inside the cap. She’s got her bangs and the back of her hair sticking out of the cap. Which begs the question, what’s the point of wearing a cap? And really, I just can’t get past this whole hair/cap issue, b/c its really just so weird. And then the most annoying swimming feature – she refuses to wear flippers for the “flipper designated” swim sets. Which just upsets the natural order of things, as you really don’t have much time in between sets to set up a new swim order. Oh and did I mention she’s an over-achiever during practice? Little to no rest, and she swims more distance than what is required which usually causes her to swim over into the next set, which again upsets the rest of the swimmers in the lane b/c we have to accommodate her and fit her actions into our new set and swim order.

And then finally, the “what’s grosser than gross” portion of her demeanor. After practice, most of us generally take a shower in hopes that our skin won’t glow green from all the chlorine. So, I’m happily enjoying the hot water after practice. And every Wednesday, my post-workout vegetative state in the shower is interrupted by the sound of her blowing snot rockets IN THE SHOWER. She seriously can’t wait to get out of the shower and use tissue. And this morning was particularly gross, as she did this about 6 times and the drain was semi-clogged. Every time she shot a rocket, I mumbled “gross”. She’s pretty clueless and definitely would not see this as a hint. But for some reason, I can’t manage to bitch-up and chew her ass out for this disgusting act. Which is very uncharacteristic of me, b/c generally, there’s nothing I love more than to get my bitch on. Maybe I have been inhaling a few too many chlorine fumes?

A matter of degrees

So, the thermostat at the pool is a goner. As in we have no temperature control – the heat it either on or off. Not a huge problem in summer. But right now, its not so fun. The HS kept the heater on all weekend, and on Monday, the pool’s resultant temperature was 85 degrees. Think bath water. Think Gulf of Mexico in summer. Think of me trying to swim a hard workout without puking due to the heat. Sure, it was easy jumping into the pool, but even during warm-up, I was too hot. Coach killed the heat after practice. Today’s resultant temperature was 84 degrees. I dipped my toes in and it felt *much* colder. I even shivered a few times during practice. It amazes me how HUGE of a difference a degree or two makes for water temperatures. 5 degrees is a matter of being too hot, too cold, or just right. Can we say Goldilocks anyone? Should I be swimming in porridge instead of chlorinated water?

There’s air temperature degrees. We’re in this oingo-boingo phase where the temperature undulates from warm to cold, from cool and crisp to muggy and uncomfortable.

Then there are other degrees. The fancy diploma I have on my wall which tells me I’m an engineer. Even though lately, I don’t feel like much of one. Being an engineer was so much a part of my identity. And now that those brain cells have been on hiatus for so long, I’m not sure I remember how to be an engineer. How to have confidence in my skills that the framed document on my wall professes me to possess. And I’m not sure I want to be an engineer anymore. I’m sure that if I was happy with where I was work-wise, things would be different. But they’re not and at this point, I’m not sure that even switching jobs would help. Or if I switched jobs, I could be motivated to perform or behave like an engineer.

And finally, there’s the degree in which I feel like I should be making an effort with things. Like my job. Sure, I have work to do. And some of it is even interesting for once. But given all the crap that transpired in the past month, I just don’t really feel like putting forth the effort. To me, its much more fun and rewarding to work on promoting my jewelry, reading TWOP and gossip columns, and dreaming of what my life could or should be like.

Place your Vote: Freak Magnet T-shirt

So, I was bored the last 30 min at work and came up with these designs (courtesey of http://www.t-shirts.com/... Place your vote in the comments and I may or may not pick the majority winner.

#1 - conventional, but gets to the point

#2 Bold graphic tiles... refridgerator magents perhaps?

#3 Mr. Roboto. I don't know, clunky robots = freaks?

#4 Rocket Turtle! I mean, what's cooler than a rocket turtle. Really, come on. He's cool and needs to be on a t-shirt.

Ummm, yeah.... thanks

Went on a site with a new client today - with a new co-worker. At lunch, with new client, Co-worker actually said out loud and in front of new client that he would sit with his back to the TV so that way I could watch the soap opera that was on. I blinked in disbelief. Thought about saying hey that's ok, my TiVo has that issue covered just to be a smart ass. Except for the fact that I loathe soap operas and I didn't want this guy to have the impression that I was a "girl" who was the type that enjoyed vapid pointless shows that are only on during the day. So I just told him that I don't watch soap operas, but thanks for thinking of me. What else can you say?

Then later, I'm driving us back to the office. The highway exit is on the left side of the highway. I typically don't drive on that part of the highway and was a bit unsure of where the ramp was. So he kindly informed me of this bit of trivia. Yes he called it trivia. And he said it in a very friendly, "I'm just trying to help kind" of way. He told me that for highway signs posted overhead, its standard practice for exits on the left to have signs on the left. That way you can always tell which side of the highway the exit is on.

Yeahhhh, thanks for that. Why can't I get coworkers that are normal. Its because I'm a freak magnet. I really should make myself a shirt that says that. It would be very appropriate.

Wednesday Updates Galore!

NYE Update: we were incredibly, pathetically lame this year. Seeing as how I was pretty tired of drinking fdue to my mid-day work week adventures, I actually turned down the St. Arnolds brewery tour (and free beer!). I just didn't think that free and relatively unlimited beer at 1 PM was the best thing for me. Instead, I stayed home while Will went and stained cabinets. Then we went to dinner and watched Fantastic Four and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We sure know how to party. But sadly (and pathetically) it was nicer than last year where after who knows how many tequilla shots, I ended up passed out under a tree downtown.

Burn Update: The burn on my finger from the ill-fated Christmas turkey flip STILL is in scab form. Since I was in gloves doing my cabinets right after the burn, the blister came off. Then it became infected. And while it’s not infected anymore – it still hasn’t healed! This sucker’s gonna leave a scar. Must figure out how I can apply Vitamin E without being licked to death by Swift kitty. She looooves vitamin E oil. Its just not right.

Cabinet Update: I’m about 90% done. Stained and varnished them last weekend. And they do look quite nice if I have to say so myself. All that’s left is to knock off the drips with a utility knife (and not injure myself in the process) and put the doors back up. Time spent so far on cabinets: 30 hrs.

Work Update: After being an ultimate slacker last week (as in leaving at lunch Wed and Thurs to go drink alcohol…. and not doing so on vacation time..), I now have to actually WORK this week. And I actually have some work to do. Hopefully my managers will let me actually work without impeding me with idiotic emails and questions.

Swimming Update: strangely, we haven’t been doing crazy long distance sets at practice. As in “choose a distance you can complete in 30 minutes. Now go.” We’ve been doing smaller intervals, which is ok, but I show up every morning being mentally psyched to swim long distances, and then the longest distance we swim w/out stopping is 300 yards. Its kind of a let down. Sure, I’m still getting in some decent overall yardage (2900 yds today – I’m kinda pissed I didn’t push to get in that extra 100 yds to make it an even 3k), but we’re 3 weeks away from our hour challenge and I’m one of those types who has to plan and practice then plan some more.

Chlorine has been fixed in the pool, which is soooo lovely. Its nice to not have to wake up in the middle of the night b/c my skin is itching so much. Those 2 weeks of over-chlorination really did wreak havoc with my gear, though. My Velcro watch band went from back to chartreuse and is very threadbare. And my swimsuit, while being chlorine resistant (these suits kick ass, btw – totally worth the extra money) the straps were not immune to the chlorine and are a lovely icky shade of gray and are stretched out. I really would love to send the HS coach an invoice asking him to replace my gear.

Diet Update: Since I got on different thyroid meds and was diagnosed as hypoglycemic, I’ve lost 10 lbs. Yay me! The hypoglycemic diet is going pretty good – its really not all that hard to follow, as long as I’ve planned ahead and make smart choices. Last week, choices were not so smart. Too much alcohol. It appears that any more than 2 drinks and my blood sugar gets all out of whack and it takes at least a day to get back to normal. Which sucks, b/c it makes me feel like ass, but I had none of the fun the night before.

Homebrew Update: Will purchased 2 more mini-kegs, so we are up to 3 mini-kegs for a total capacity of 15 gallons. We are currently researching a mini kegarator for our beer room. B/c right now we have a full keg o’ beer, but its warm, and therefore not so appealing to me. As if I have any business drinking beer, as evidenced above.

TV Update: TV this week still is sucking. I’m all caught up on Supernatural. Methinks I could watch Dean all day long…. Mmm, Dean. I Tivo’d the What Not To Wear marathon on Monday, just so I’d have something to watch during the week. Lost is new – they supposedly have 2 episodes, but I suspect the 1st one this week is a recap montage of what has happened to date this season…. I’ve also recently read that JJ isn’t even writing for Lost this season, due to his commitments for Mission Impossible 3. a) do we really NEED MI:3? No. And b) JJ seems to be having issues staying focused on his projects. Project jumping really isn’t a good quality b/c then your other shows seem to suffer. On a good note, Battlestar is back up this week, which ALL THE BETTER. I missed my weekly Apollo fix. I'm very curious to see where they go with the rest of the season.