CafeChatNoir

So, lets say you’re a cat, and you’ve got a potential UTI/blockage going on… When do you decide to show symptoms, especially since something like this can lead to being very very sick, or even dead?

A) 11 AM on a Saturday when the regular vet is open?
B) 11 PM Sunday night of a holiday weekend?

Of course, the answer is B! So, off to the 24 hour vet. Of course, couldn’t get a firm diagnosis, cause he took a leak in the crate on the way over so there wasn’t anything for them to test. However, they did confirm no blockage (that was the biggest concern) and we’ve got 10 days of preventative meds just in case, and I didn’t have to leave him overnight.

Dear Dateline NBC,

Tonight I listened as one of your “reporters” rather patronizingly implied that people don’t recognize what Memorial Day is all about. This based on his skimming several blogs that mentioned folks being happy for a long weekend and talking of barbecue plans with family.

Kind sir, I take great exception to what you had to say tonight.

Your “report” is pathetic on several levels. First, your inability to comprehend that folks do not necessarily put every thought in their head on their blogs. Second, that if they are writing about a welcome day off and spending time with family, that they’re not somehow capable of remembering our war dead as well. Third, you decided to cut a rather wide swath there and decide that a large proportion of the population isn’t being respectful of Memorial Day based on source material of…weblogs. I cannot even imagine how you can consider that to be representative of an entire nation, considering that as of March of 2005, only 6% of the US adult population had created a blog*

Just because the entire internet isn’t writing about remembering their war dead tomorrow doesn’t mean they aren’t doing it. Some of us think about it near every day. All in all though, it did make for a nice lead in to the stories of the soldiers remembering their fallen comrades, as though no one else would. Hopefully they have more faith in the rest of us than you do.

*Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

On a last minute, “OMG, I need red meat” note, I headed up to the pub for a bit this evening for a well earned bacon cheeseburger & a pint. I couldn’t help but notice that my fav bartender Wes seemed a tiny bit off, so I asked if all was OK.

“Yes, but I am bored OUT OF MY MIND.”

It was on the quiet side this evening, because it’s Memorial Day in DC - all the assholes have headed out of town, and the bikers coming in for Rolling Thunder don’t know about GD’s Burke (but from what I hear, have found GD’s C’ville.) The upside is that I got to chat more w/Wes, which is not normal cause he is usually working the other side of the bar, or he’s just insanely busy. I tried to come up with any entertainment that didn’t involve inciting a bar fight (bad) or getting Wes drunk (also bad) and came up empty…

And Edmonton won tonight!! WOOT! If the Caps can’t vie for the cup, I want a Canadian team to get it.

1:10:37 - Not to bad considering summer finally has decided to show up…

Full race report here

OK, there is something to be said for being good and staying home when you have a race the next day. The History Channel is running a show called “How William Shatner Changed the World” and it’s all about inventions and such that were inspired by Star Trek - pretty cool.

Why does the announcement of the winner of American Idol qualify as “breaking news”? Or news in any form?

Kickass day today. Got the bike in and out of the shop, got shoes on order, bike has a computer so I can stop trying to estimate how much time I waste waiting for stoplights. Great swim, then a beautiful day for a ride, even though it was windy as all get out.

Gonna stick w/the stock pedals that came w/the bike for the time being, they’re combo clipless/flats, so I’m not always stuck with having to use the clipless. I’ve heard of issues w/hotspots w/the platform, but we’ll see. Worst case scenario I try something else later. LBS’ supplier was out of the size I need in the “women’s” version, so they’re ordering the men’s version for me - which is fine by me, they’re just plain black. The colors on the women’s cycling shoes pretty much make me want to vomit anyway.

Also hit the uni swim shop and picked up some new suits. My tried & true speedo just isn’t gonna last a whole lot longer, and now I have to hit the pool more to justify the purchase. :) The TI stuff is working really, really well for the swimming - Did almost 30 minutes of drills before doing any actual swimming - just did a 100M for time reasons, but it felt great, basically no fatigue at all, and a decent pace for me. I may not have to have my ass dragged out of the water at Lake Montclair after all if I can keep this up. (I am adding a third swim workout per week to my plan just to be safe, LOL.)

Dear 2006 Virginia Run Sprint Triathlon Participants,

We also raised over $5,000 for Special Olympics Virginia this year and mark your calendars for 5:50pm this Wednesday night (May 24th) as Channel 4 News will be airing a very special story on Jon Callahan who is the 45 year old gentleman with Down Syndrome who finished the VA Run Sprint Tri in an amazing 1 hour 54 min 51 seconds! Be sure to check out his story!

This sport kicks ass.

Sitting here and had a yen for a rum & coke, so off to the fridge and some rooting around the bar to see what’s about. Oooh, unopened bottle of Cruzan Dark Estate rum. How this has remained unopened is beyond me, as it came back from the Virgin Islands sometime in 2003 I think. Wow, that is some nice smooth stuff there. Of course, my domestic inclinations being what they are, I can’t seem to find a clean normal glass, so it’s in a red party cup. Nothing quite like regressing back to the age of 19. Very classy.

Went running over at Burke Lake today - I really need to do that more often since it’s so ridiculously close, and the trails are a nice break from the pavement. However, it does demonstrate my need for some sort of nifty GPS system. (OK, I need it like I need a hole in the head, but they’re cool.) The “trail” is 4.7 miles, but there are lots of places I was off the trail and on super twisty obstacle laden dirt paths that were MUCH more fun. I’m slow, and even slower on trails, but there is no way it took me a full 70 minutes to do 4.7 miles, so I ended up estimating it at around 6 miles. Definitely a great day for it.

Bike & swim tomorrow, need to get Bulletproof back to the shop to get some cable stretching tended to, the rear derailleur is a little bit ‘off’ - should be nothing more than a quick adjustment. Tomorrow’s other big task is remembering to call the title company and see what it’s going to take to get the house title changed over.

Forever Pregnant - Guidelines: Treat Nearly All Women as Pre-Pregnant

New federal guidelines ask all females capable of conceiving a baby to treat themselves — and to be treated by the health care system –as pre-pregnant, regardless of whether they plan to get pregnant anytime soon.

Among other things, this means all women between first menstrual period and menopause should take folic acid supplements, refrain from smoking, maintain a healthy weight and keep chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes under control.

OK, this has struck an ugly nerve with me this morning. Granted, for the most part it’s just taking care of yourself in general - and that’s certainly not a bad thing. If you’ve got a chronic condition such as asthma or diabetes, you should be taking care of that ANYWAY. They’re going on the whole “so much can happen between conception and when the pregnancy is confirmed” track and as such, you should always act like you may have just gotten knocked up and don’t know it yet.

Dear feds, while the attempt to reduce me to nothing more than a baby making factory is admirable to some I’m sure, I don’t feel the need to be treated as though I could get pregnant any day now, and I don’t like the direction I see this going. No more alcohol - can’t do that if you could get pregnant. Stay out of those smoky bars, even if you’re just having club soda. No more carpaccio, brie, caffeine, or deli meat… (There goes my chicken sandwich for lunch…and Starbucks’ profits are gonna tank if I can’t get a latte anymore…) What about all those women training for Ironman Florida in November? Should they really be doing that level of training if they could get pregnant?

Can you tell this annoyed the crap out of me this morning?

- First, WTF is up with the unsolicited advice of late? Seriously, if I need advice, I swear, I will go ask for it.

- Once again, you want to find the oldest guy at the bar, come find me, cause he’s sitting next to me… Talked to a guy last night who is a singer who claims he played with Bonnie Raitt. Dude is old school blues, and I kinda believe him - he gave me a website that I have to go find now cause it’s somewhere at the bottom of my purse, but that was pretty cool. He played in DC way back in the day said he was at a club on 14th Street w/his band one night and then went and found 4 more guys to play with them so they could have a 9 horn band and the owner of the club wouldn’t let them play because the added band members were black. So he went next door, asked that club owner if they could play there, and they said sure. The crew got everything setup over there, he went back to the first club where the crowd was waiting for things to start and basically said “We’re playing next door now, starts in 5 minutes, see you there” and 350 people cleared the club and went next door.

- So yeah, I went out for a couple beers last night and to see the O’s/Nat’s game & hockey playoffs. End up sitting next to a gal who I run into there every now and again. Her EX boyfriend is sitting on the other side of her, and does a masterful job of proving why sometimes you can’t be friends afterwards if you’re still freaking hung up on her and going to be a fuckwit about it. She and I are chatting on and off during the evening and some other folks come and go as the night goes on and he is pretty much being an jerk to anyone talking to her. Idiot, get over it. She’s not your date, she’s not your girlfriend, no one is moving in on your territory because you don’t HAVE any territory!

A bonus of being unemployed: When something that has been bouncing around in your head for three days finally gels enough to get it down on paper, you can stay up until 3AM to get it all written out.

First couple days of blissful unemployment haven’t really felt any different, because I was going to take the first half of this week off anyway had I not quit the job instead. Did have a couple random work related thoughts enter my head today, and it was so nice to then think…”Not my problem anymore.” and away they went.

Hit the MCM registration rally today and I am in. Also had to get a shirt…

Finally sat down and watched the TI (Total Immersion) swim video - yeah, probably should have done that when it actually got here a couple weeks back, but life got in the way of things. 40 minute video, it doesn’t get to actual swimming until about the 38 minute point, LOL. I doubt I’ll remember any of the specific drills by the time I’m in the water, but I’m heading to the pool either tonight or first thing tomorrow, and I’ll look at it again before I go - some pretty cool stuff in it though, the best being what I can only describe as “how to cheat and stay in forward motion when you need a break.” It is however, quite disconcerting that in the opening scenes, absolutely no one is coming up for air…

Definitely enjoying a couple lazy days to be sure. Lecture again tomorrow night up in Carlisle, “The Red Army’s High Commands in World War II”, looks like another good one. Next big project is getting the damn townhouse sold, and then getting this place really seriously reorganized.

http://cafechatnoir.net/tri/photos/varun/index.html

Triathlons are hard.
Well, thank you Commander Obvious. No, it’s not that I ever thought it would be easy, trust me, but it’s really different from anything I’ve done before. You don’t really “rest” anywhere along the way. I think I put forth about the same amount of overall effort as I did for the half mary, except that I crammed it into an hours less time.

Absolutely nothing will 100% prepare you for your first tri.
I trained, I read countless race reports, I saw videos, I practiced transitions, I bricked. I prepared as best as I could, but still realized that today would in essence be one big learning experience, and the morning was filled with surprises. They ran the gamut:
– Wetsuits really are worth the wrestle to get on and there is no such thing as too much body glide. (Though, where does it go? There’s nothing on the inside of my wetsuit, and there was none left on my legs or arms, and I used more for the run on the inside of my arms and it was just…gone.)
– A wetsuit will not actually keep you dry. (I knew this on an intellectual level, but still when I got it all off, I couldn’t help but think, “WTF, I am soaked!”)
– I swim too fast when I start and freak out. (New swim philosophy: Start slow and back off.)
– I am not near the spaz in transition I expected I would be, even with the fight between wetsuit and watch.
– Bulletproof was a Very Good Purchase.
– I ranked higher in AG and overall for the SWIM of all things…
– You can put a big gash in your thumb somewhere between the swim and T1 and not even notice it until you look down on the bike and wonder, “Why am I bleeding?”
– There are a lot of folks that forget to call out “On your left” when they pass you. I am not one of those people, and everyone can hear me, including the people 2 or 3 bikes ahead…
– The nylon bag I had inside my transition bag is so not waterproof and my wetsuit was quite soggy when I stuffed it in the transition bag. (No harm done, but since my tri shorts were drier than my jeans were by the end, I showed up at IHOP in high style…)
Not surprising? The finish line is so, so sweet.

I am a confirmed BOP’er.
This doesn’t bother me a bit (though I’ll admit I was happy to not DFL for my age group, I’m sure it’s coming at some point, and that’s OK, someone has to DFL.) As I’ve said before, I’m firmly in the “Just Do It” crowd, and really only racing against myself and looking to have fun. Mission Accomplished! I figure I really get my money’s worth out of the race registrations. :-D However, it is a bit odd to see people finishing the bike leg as you’re getting out of your wetsuit…

You can do a sprint tri on a near empty stomach.
Though I don’t recommend this, it can be done. I yakked three freaking times before I left the house cause of the sinus issues, so by the start all I had in me was some gatorade and coffee. I pointed out to Chippy, “Two races with you, both times I’ve thrown up. I think it’s you.” (She ran w/ me at Quantico, the site of the infamous “puke & sprint” finish last fall.)

Screw swim time trials
Next time I have to submit an estimated swim time, I am just going to pick the worst swim pace I’ve had in the past 3 months.

You’re not the only one that can’t flip turn.
I was #344 - everyone went out in number order (or something close to it) so the really good swimmers were up front. We’re all watching and saying “Wow…look at all those flip turns…I can’t do that - can you?” “No.” “Thank god I’m not the only one!”

The dog has a love/hate relationship with race days, and is sadly unimpressed with my title of triathlete.
Seriously, he gets his nose all out of joint cause he knows I am headed out the door to run and do things and he’s not going along. However, when I get back, it’s “OMG, you came back! And you smell AWFUL!! I LOVE YOU! And now it’s nap time!”

Neighborhood tris are cool, cause lots of folks sit out in their driveways and cheer you on.
I don’t know how many time I said “Thank you for coming out today!!”, to the spectators - though my voice got smaller and smaller as the race went on. And to the volunteers. And the police department. The folks that set up the makeshift music stop with the car stereo were great.

Post tri refreshments are really good.
I don’t know if this is Va Run specific or a tri thing, but at the finish they had a wading pool filled with ice and SODAS. Given the choice between water, gatorade and an orange soda, the orange soda wins HANDS DOWN. Mmm, fizzy sugar.

It is super cool to see your brother, who is WAY more of a night owl that you even are, on seven different occasions on the course, and then finish and look up and see the folks you raced with, who finished waaay ahead of you, all waiting for you.
‘Nuff said.

There is no such thing as a typical triathlete.
All shapes and sizes, young and old, fast and slow. I saw someone on the run leg who was going on crutches. Holy cow. I cheered for him as I went by in the other direction. (He beat me quite handily, he was on the way back IN when I saw him on my way out on the run.)

DFL = Dead Fucking Last
BOP = Back Of the Pack
AG = Age Group (30-34 for me)

I DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I managed to accomplish everything I wanted - finished in under 2 hours, broke an hour on the bike leg and despite my best attempts, didn’t drown on the swim. Total time 1:42:22 and the full race report is up.

Honestly, I think it was harder than the half marathon was and that went on for almost an hour longer. There just aren’t a lot of opportunities to take a breather in a tri the way you can on a run.

But it was totally, totally fun.

I will fully admit, the race prep process for a tri truly satisfies my inner dork. You’ve got all this gear and lists and figuring out how to have it all arranged and such. I’ve got the big transition bag (that you can fit a small body in) and then inside that, I’ve got a bag with “general” stuff and then a box that has the actual stuff I’ll need for transition - since the weather is looking a tad sketchy tomorrow I wanted to have something that I could keep stuff somewhat dry. That, and it’s all together and less likely to get accidentally kicked around as others are going in and out, and even if it is, with the top on, at least my stuff won’t go flying everywhere.

So, the box has bike gloves, body glide*, goggles*, hat, ipod*, race belt, shoes, socks, swim cap*, and a towel. Little bag has my camera, cell, wallet, spare sunglasses & socks, electrical tape, sharpies and first aid kit. Big transition bag has an outside pocket for my helmet and a water bottle. Dry clothes are smushed in on the sides of the bag, wetsuit on top, and there is just enough room for my camelbak once I get it filled up in the morning. The plan is to just keep stuffing things back in the big bag as I’m done w/them in the transitions. Hopefully it will work! Oh, and the camelbak has all my bike tools in it.

I put the sharpies to good use this evening and the top of the box now says, “Ten feet tall and bulletproof” - figure between that, the pink bike, and that race numbers are on the racks, I have at least half a chance in hell of seeing it before I trip over it or run past it.

The transition bag is really cool - everything fits perfectly - it is HUGE. Bag, box & clothes fit in it perfectly. Then the bottom unzips and expands and *woot* enough room for the wetsuit on top of the rest of it. So, once I get the box & wetsuit out, I can zip the bottom back up so it takes up less space. Best part, it was free with my wetsuit.

Good swag on this race - nice lightweight sweatshirt, 2 water bottles and some gels (which I should give to someone else cause I’ll never use them) - they were also selling raffle tickets (this race & the raffle is benefiting Special Olympics) and for $10 thrown their way, 10 raffle tix, a bag from last year (which is now the “inside” transition bag), a little towel and another water bottle. I give it a week and I won’t be able to locate any of the three bottles.

OK, off to bed, crack of dawn comes early - gun goes off at 6:45 AM.

*These are for the swim & before the race, but I want them right where I know where they are instead of floating around somewhere in the bottom of the bag.

Some general “fear of the unknown” issues with tomorrow’s race. Trying to just remember that everyone has a first tri and this one is mine, and to just treat it as a fun learning experience and that I’ll be so much more prepared for the rest of the season for it. But, EEP. Plus, there is a decent chance of rain, which will make it even more challenging.

Packet pickup today and they’re having a pre-race meeting at 1 - hopefully I can snag a little more insight somehow! Hopefully meeting up with some other BT’ers as well, maybe that will settle my nerves a bit. :)

They did decide to send me an exit interview after all. I’m filling it out now…this may take hours. (They also seem to want to “talk” about it. Um, no, it’s pretty clear and self explanatory…)

OK, so I’m spending most of my day surfing the internet, and answering a few last minute questions from folks. I’m being repeatedly told how relaxed I look. :) Someone on the elevator said to me, “Oh, today is your last day, isn’t it? What a total loss.” Which is nice and all, but I have no earthly idea who she was. It’s a tad disturbing to have people know you and you don’t know them.

I loved my coworkers comment on it: It’s OK one as great as you can not know ALL who adore you LOL!

- You’ve inspired me, I think I’ll do a employement post mortem eval here soon.

I think I have managed to escape the exit interview - no one has contacted me about it, and HR has known I was leaving. I told my boss that if they still want it, she can give them my email address and get in touch with me next week. One of those things, I’m definitely known for my candor and well, no one really wants to hear it right now. Fair enough!

Today’s horoscope:
The minutes may go slowly today, but you’re getting closer to success. Keep going!

Yes, I’m pretty much spending all day today surfing the web. :)

LAST DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NSA kept domestic calls data

Interesting, but I can’t say that it surprises me the tiniest bit. However, I do have to give props to Quest for having the stones to refuse to participate.

I’m sure my weekly phone calls to my grandmother are setting off alarms all over the place… However, I do think we’ll see at least a slight increase in the purchase of disposable cell phones & prepaid phone cards with cash - while the call can still be logged, it’s a lot harder to connect the phone itself back to a particular user, because I think enough people are getting fed up with the idea of their every movement being potentially tracked.

Well, our front line now totally officially sucks. The one good person on front line got promoted to second line! She totally deserved it, she’s done very well since she got here.

and do feel bad for abandoning her…

Apparently upper management got their heads out of their asses for a few minutes and recognized the situation and tossed the stats out the window for 1st quarter and bonuses will be distributed as though every goal was met. Smart move on their part, as they’re already facing near anarchy in the department. (We have goals that simply could not be met for first quarter. Not as in “gosh, if you really tried harder” as in, “fucking impossible”)

This was announced during our senior line conference call yesterday - and several of my coworkers asked “But, what about Cindy?” - I responded that there was probably a snowball’s chance in hell I’d see it, but hey, that’s life in the big city and all that. (Really, I am leaving and despite the fact that I was here for the evaluation period in question, the way things are working these days, I certainly would not expect it.)

Well, I was talking w/my boss today and she’s taken it up two levels of management to be sure that I get the bonus. Basically, she’s ready to claw people’s eyes out if I don’t see that money.

She’s a great manager, stuck with people she never would have hired in a million years, two more openings and an HR department that keeps taking our openings OFF THE DAMN WEBSITE. No wonder we’re having troubles getting resumes in… (This is the third time our department’s openings have disappeared off the site.)