I swam like a champ... and then I broke my toe

I went to Colman Pool over in West Seattle on Saturday. That is an amazing pool. It sits right on the Sound. So you get this awesome view. It's also a 50 yard pool unlike the others that are 25 yards. And it's also a heated salt water pool. It's awesome. I swam a half mile, which felt pretty good. I was a bit tired and of course had to stop and slow down for the other people that shared the lane with me. But I think I did a half mile in under and hour. When I got out of the pool, I started walking over to my towel and I stubbed my toe on one of the small rocks they have embedded into the cement. It hurt like hell and there was some muffled swearing and I figured I just stubbed it and it was gonna hurt for a bit. Well, I got back home and it was throbbing. I put it up and waited a bit. If the body goes thru a bone break your temperature goes up as it's your body's defense mechanism. So I took my temperature and sure enough my temp went up. And by this point I couldn't bend my toe and it was a nice shade of blue and purple. So I went down to Seward Park with an ice pack and read my book and iced my toe. Hey, it was nice out. I wasn't about to stay inside. My neighbor joined me down at the park and we went for a swim... roughly another half mile, if not more. So aside from breaking my toe, this weekend was darn good.

Went for a run today

We got these kinda cool coolmax shirts for our group tri training. So I decided I would wear it while running tonight. The back says, "www.teamdanskintraining.com" and the front says "triathlete," with a little goofy logo at the end of word. Part way thru my run I look down for some reason or another and I realize, because my boobs are slightly bigger than average, and it looks like it just says "athlete." So I suppose in order for you to be able to read the whole thing, you would have to roll up on my right side.
On the positive side, I was able to run longer than I normally do and I was able to run more and walk less.

Thank God today is over

All my banking stuff was finally worked out. It looks like the payroll company was to blame. The unfortunate thing is that I had to do all the running around. Which was total bull, but it's done and everything is back to normal. Then to add insult to injury, I was cutting into an avocado for lunch, and sliced right thru to the palm of my hand. It was pretty deep and kinda made me a bit queasy. But since I've cut myself numerous times trying to cut mats for artwork, I'm a pro at butterfly closures. Now it just hurts like hell. Hopefully it won't get infected.
This evening was way better. I started my group training for the triatlhon. Which was a tremendous mood lifter. Everyone was so positive, nice and friendly. It just was a good way to end the day.

The Good, the Bad and the whatever

I got to see my photos up at the Edmonds Arts Festival. Which as pretty darn cool. When I got there, neither of them had sold. So I thought, well it's pretty cool that I got in and if I decide to enter another show, I'll at least have 2 photos ready to go. Then as I was on my way home I got a call from a volunteer with the festival. Apparently one of my photos sold shortly after I left. So I went back later to go and pick up the remaining photo, I ran into the guy who bought the one photo. He said he thought it was a cool photo, but when his son pointed out it was taken at the Getty in LA, that's when he really thought he wanted to buy it. Apparently he had been dating someone for about 6 years and she worked at the Getty. While the relationship never worked out, he's now got a small piece to remind him of that time in his life. Which, if you ask me, is a pretty darn cool story.
As for the bad, well, I just found out that my direct deposit paycheck, didn't get directly deposited into my account. So for the past 4 days I have been without my paycheck and bouncing checks and accumulating overdraft charges like it's going out of style. I'm so glad that I signed up for automatic bill pay for most of my bills. Thanks... Hopefully tomorrow this will all be sorted out. If not, I'll have to kill someone.
And the whatever part, I did yet another lake swim sans wetsuit. I'm actually getting used to the water and the temperature. The best part about the swim this time was that there were several other tri folks there. All in wetsuits. And here I come, no wetsuit. Everyone was either impressed or thought I was the biggest tool in the world. I'm going with impressed.
Tomorrow I start my group training. I can't wait to see what we'll be doing for the next couple of weeks. It should be a good time. Or at the very least, a workout.

Back on the bike and back to school

I got back on my bike after my day off of training. I went about 10 miles. It took every ounce of my strength to do it. I guess because the past couple of days have been long work days. Whatever. Work is work. Sometimes it's hard and sometimes it's not. I filled out my application for school. Yup. It's decided. I'll be heading back to school - part time - to work towards another bachelors and possible a masters in nutrition. The big goal, to become a nutritionist, specializing in sports nutrition.
I'm such a dork. This weekend, I went to see my friend Andrew race (he's a cyclist). And when I was hanging out with him and his friends, we were hanging out with his team. And all I could think of was, "I'm hanging with the cool kids... the athletes." I'm a total dork. But it also made me realize that I really love being around sports and athletes. I may not be the best athlete in the world, but I really do enjoy all that goes with it. Just thinking out loud here, but how friggin' great would it be to somehow get involved with the World's Strongest Man Competition. That would kill two birds with one stone - work with athletes and embarass the hell out of mom. What more could you ask for in a job? I love you mom! I really do!
And one final note, I was checking out my friend, Kristian's blog and of course that led me to some of my other friend's myspace pages and their websites. And I got a bit teary-eyed. I miss those guys. And I miss Jersey House... (you know who you are.) I love you guys. I will always remember Joe DJ'ing in his room, Bug with a cup of coffee and the morning paper, Mark in the love bottle, Dinardo talking about Kiss, Brian in Kiss makeup, me and Paulie cracking up and just about everything Brian did, and Kristian instigating and sitting back watching the fun. And how could I forget our friend Frank and watching Mark try and describe what I looked like from about 50 feet away. Let's just say it was similar to the "she's got huge tracks of land" gesture from the Holy Grail. And then there's Ken... Ken, I don't think I ever told you this, but the Valentine's day that we went to see WWF wrestling, still stands as the best Valentine's day I've ever had. I wish I were kidding, but it's true. We're also the only two sober people at the end of the night and we were able to recall all the damaging things the rest of you did.
I work with a bunch of 17 year old kids, who really can't seem to imagine half the stuff I tell them we did. ( And then in the same breathe they say stupid shit like, "House of Pain? Don't you mean Whitey Ford?" Seriously. I can't work like that.)
So I guess, that begs the question, when and where is the big residents and friend and family of Jersey House reunion?

The first race of the season!

Today I did my first race of the season. It was the Furry 5k to benefit the animal shelter (where I got my two nutty cats). The cool thing with this race is that you can run with your dog. As I have no dog, I ran solo. Dodging dogs and doggie doo the whole time. My only goal for this race was to finish in under and hour. Which is totally do-able. Considering I can walk 4 miles in about an hour. Another sorta goal was to run the whole thing. Unfortunately I didn't meet that goal. But I did my best and I ended up running at least 3/4s of the race. So I was pleased with that. My time ended up being 35 minutes 10 sec. So I feel a bit better about running and where I am with that. Now I just need to work on my swim times.

Dear God that's friggin cold!

So today I thought it would be a great idea to bike the long way to Seward Park and then go swimming. Here's the beauty of the internet... You can check the temperature of Lake Washington... online! Since it's been in the mid 70s for the past couple of days, I foolishly thought it would be refreshing to swim in the 63 degree water. Refreshing doesn't even begin to cover it. It was down right cold. I pretty much went into shock when I finally decided to just go for it and start swimming. I had to basically float on my back for a bit until I could get my breathing back to normal. Oh, and I forgot to mention that I did the swim without a wetsuit. Fortunately my upstairs neighbor came with me. She pretty much jumped right in and went for it. Thank God. Because if it were anyone else, I would have shot out of that water like I was a cat who was just put in the tub for a bath. But I got over it and started swimming. I made it to the buoy and back. I wish I knew how far it was. I've heard it's a 1/4 mile out and back and I've also heard it's 1/2 mile out and back. The swim back from the buoy was awful because everything I looked up, I was moving further and further to the left of where we were heading. I now know what it's like to be a salmon just trying to get home to die. I got home and ran into the house turned the hot water in the bath to super hot and sat in the tube until the water got cold. Which wasn't that long since I was already at sub zero temperature. But I definitely feel great for doing the swim. I kick butt!

I can honestly say

That was the worst episode of the Sopranos ever. I can't even begin to describe how disappointing that last episode was. Absolutely nothing happened. It was awful. I feel like the writers, directors. actors, producers and everyone else who worked on the episode, owe me an hour of my life back. That's how bad it was.
I helped out my old roommate this weekend. We spent a good portion of Saturday weeding her lawn. Her landlord put in this beautiful English Garden and they're a bitch. And I believe I'm the only person who can pull both my hamstrings gardening. I wish I could say it was extreme gardening, like moving massive boulders from one side of the yard to other. But no... I was basically, just pulling weeds. And apparently pulling hamstrings.
I got my new bathing suit this weekend. It's got a skull and crossbones on the front and on the back (across my butt) it says "Argh!" I finally got back to the pool this evening and wore the new bathing suit. and forgetting that there was something written across my arse, I was starting to get a bit self-conscience and wonder why people were staring at my rear. And then it hit me... yeah, I've got something written across my butt. Other than getting used to the strange looks, I really like the bathing suit.

Strength training day

Super tired, but it was a good workout. I'm actually thinking about joining a gym.... dear god what has this world come to?