It's all about the t-shirt...

Unlike myself, Ben only has to work 4 Saturdays a year and 2 Sundays a year. I on the other hand, have to work every other weekend which really sucks. Since Ben's weekend schedules don't happen very often, he'd get in big trouble if he doesn't show up. It's also hard to find a replacement to switch with since he is always in charge on his weekend rotation.

Unfortunately for me, he works this Saturday. It's See Jane Tri day. This means that no Ben, no kids, and not even Lizzie. Lizzie works EVERY weekend which is a very sucky schedule. She took yesterday off for mental health reasons and she thinks she will be fired if she called out sick 2 Saturdays in a row. I thought that was pretty reasonable (which meant that the "mental health day" did pay off).

Anyway, this would be my first tri without a sherpa or cheering section. I would me all by my lonesome. I texted my friend Paul in Sacramento who did a solo on his first tri on account of having 2 very active toddlers that can only be managed at home by his wife. I was waiting for a text response of sympathy and all, but this was the text I got: "U just have 2 realize u r there 2 get d tshirt." That was a direct quote.



Nothing like a good friend who knows you well to open your eyes to the truth and put things into perspective. So, I guess I will have to go at it alone for the t-shirt. It's all about the t-shirt after all. Maybe I've always known in the back of my mind. It's all about the t-shirt. Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

Calling on Janes

I really, really, really wanna have a tri "season." Of course I won't be doing Pacific Grove tomorrow and I've only done Quarry Lakes Mermaid. Well, here's an all women sprint that I'm doing on September 30th. I'm registered for it and everything so I'm going do it for sure. This would give me a "season."



So, you ladies know who you are. I would be thrilled if any of you can join me. I'ts going to be at Shadow Cliffs and may well follow the course of "Tri for Fun." Think about it. Have a fabulous weekend! Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

Fire! Fire!

I ate very poorly yesterday. I had popcorn and diet coke for breakfast/lunch as I watched Barnyard with my boys at the movie theater (a strange movie by the way, and not a very good movie even for kids). After that, I had about half a bowl of Ben's chicken and dumpling and half a slice of pepperoni pizza. I had a 16 oz. mango a-go-go from jamba and that was about it. Not what I would call a balanced diet.

This was why I was still up close to midnight last night. I nibbled on 2 pieces of buttered toast that Ben made because I was feeling dizzy and nauseous. I knew that my blood sugar was dropping rapidly and I was beginning to get nervous -- being diabetic and all. A little after midnight, I was just getting ready to turn off the lights, our doorbell rang twice. I rushed to the door so the caller wouldn't wake up the boys by ringing again. I looked out of the glass on our door and saw a fireman at our front porch.




I opened the door a crack (too embarassing to be seen in my grubby pj's). He started talking about a fire next door and our trash bin. I ran to my room to get a dressing gown. At this moment Ben was royally ticked because he just started to doze off. I ran out of the house and joined our next door neighbor on their driveway.

There was a fire truck and 3 firemen. Apparently, somebody set fire inside a paper recycling bin using our paper recyclables. It had my name all over the place so the fireman asked me if it was our "garbage" and where we kept our trash bins. At this point Ben just walked out into our lawn. The fireman asked to see where we put our trash and Ben showed him where they're usually kept. All 3 of our recycling bins were there but one bag of paper recyclables was missing. They were the ones that were burned at our neighbor's driveway.

So, our "arsonist" apparently took a recycling bucket from one of our neighbors (which one we don't know). He took our trash out of our bucket, put it in the stolen bucket and then put it on our neighbor's driveway and started a bonfire. Totally does not make sense. Steal bucket from A, get trash from B, light a fire at C's driveway. Huh?! Totally baffled the fireman.

Police patrol car drove by asked questions then left to cruise the area. Ben and I stood out there for a while for questioning. We went in and didn't bother to look at the clock since we know we'd be digusted by the lateness. Ben couldn't settle down so he went to the backyard just to check it out and make sure no one's back there. He got back in and then Joey woke up. We had to switch beds because Joey couldn't sleep. Ben and I were in bed (but not asleep) at 2:30 am.

This is why I feel like a zombie today. I wanted to go back to sleep after dropping off the boys but I had to do the dishes and put away the laundry. Next thing I knew it was time to leave. $#;+! I thought my face was going to fall into the soup during lunch. Still trying to work. That's why I'm blogging. Bed is chasing me. Can't wait to get off work (9pm). Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...

What happened to Pluto?

There are days when Ben, out of the blue, will give me "death reports." He goes to this "dead or alive" website that lists celebrities of sorts who died that day. Mostly he'll tell me about some unknown actor/actress from the '20's or '30's who only ever had one bit player part in one obscure movie in their entire lives. He then tells me a bit of background on the person, cause of death or whatever info he read. Of course, being the good wife that I am, I come up with a couple of polite responses and questions and that would be the end of it. That's Ben's contribution on keeping me up on current events.

This morning I had to go to the Tech Museum in San Jose for a meeting with some Young Adult and Children's Librarians. Before our meeting, the director gave us a tour of the place, and of course there was the section on the planets. The women around me (these are librarians folks, so naturally everyone was female -- including the director of the museum) started mentioning the word Pluto. At first I didn't think anything of it until they started making jokes. Then, started talking about books on Pluto, and/or books that mention Pluto, and even possible classroom discussions about Pluto. At this point, I felt that I must have missed something really big -- like the size of a planet BIG!



Without asking any direct questions (so as not to sound completely stupid), I figured out that at some point, Pluto is/was no longer considered a planet -- or something to that effect. I felt like such a clueless dopehead! How could I have missed something as big as... as big as...as big as... well, Pluto?! I guess that just serves me right. I don't read the paper nor watch the news. Last year, Lizzie's jaw dropped after I asked her who Lance Armstrong was. She couldn't believe what (or in this case, who) I didn't know. She thought I was living under a rock! Then I impressed her lately by mentioning that Landis fellow during the course of a normal conversation. I thought I was doing pretty good -- until this morning.

When I got home, I asked Ben about Pluto to see if he knew what the deal was. He pretty much told me what I just found out. He said he's read stuff about it these last few days.These last few days. I ask you, WHY did he not tell me about this? Not that I blame him or whatever, but this information is a helluva lot more useful than the mini-biography of someone I've never heard of and will not EVER hear of again because he/she just died! Aaaaaarrrrggghhhh!

So, for you guys who read my blog, keep me informed. Don't let me miss anything this BIG again. Please. It was bad enough being in this committee, worse feeling like a dork finding out about a planet (or in this case a non-planet) for the first time at the Tech Museum of all places! Hanggang sa muli, until next e-time...