Babysat for sis Saturday. So picked her two up early Sat morning and headed to the Zoo to watch hub run the Zoo Run 5k. We were gonna do it together until babysitting duty arose. Sis doesn't have a jog stroller and would not dared to have tried to run/walk to 5k or even the 1 mile fun run with her two kids. So we walked around and looked at animals. When race started we stood aside and cheered everyone on. The walked back to finish line to cheer hub in. Nephew said something about why was my hub doing a race when he was so fat. Lovely child. After 2nd time I told him he was a very rude and that his uncle had already lost more than what he (nephew) weighed. I think that got his attention. He is one of those kids that has no social filter. He is 8 1/2 now and old enough to know what is rude and what isnt. But those 2 get away with so much with my sister and her hub ... but not with me. I don't put up with the whining n crying n tempers. So they were actually pretty fun to be around for a change. Better than when sis n her hub are around with them. When they are all together it is dysunctional chaos. Makes me nuts. i grew up with chaos and don't have to put up with it any more! After race while hub relazed, I took kids back to finsih tour of zoo. Then we had an early lunch and went home. They played and watched a couple of movies. Finally called sis because I thought she was coming back around 2 and it was 2:30/ They were eating lunch. I wanted to scream over phone "Please hurrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" but I didn't. I was just suddenly so tired but didnt to stick hub with watching the 2 terrors alone. So we suffered together til they came to pick them up.

Then we finally got to take a mini nap before bringing son to his football jamboree. Luckily it was not as hot as last year as Tropical Storm Fay winds were blowing over us.It threatened to rain whole time but we managed to make it with only a few drops. 2 1/2 hours of sitting on hard metal bleachers left hub and I sore n exhausted. We had to mchange bleacher sections about halfway through because 3-4 little ones had their hot wheels out. At first it was mildly annoying and only 2 kids playing and they only took up about 3 feet of bleachers behind us. The sound of the cars on the corrugated metal was annoying but the kicker was they would throw the cars down on the metal ^&^*$^&*. Ignored it as much as possible. They ran several people off and when they people left the kids would take over their section of the bleacher and then more kids would come over to play *great!*. Soon they had 3-4 rows to themselves and were so loud you couldnt hardly hear the game. Their parents laughed every time someone got annoyed and left. I would have liked to have scratched all of the parents eyes out! Fn rude inconsiderate asses! Hub had left to get water, so when he came back I said lets move over. So we went to next section about half way over. Another family who had moved asked "so they got you too?" I said yep I figured I better move before I caused a scene. About 2 minutes later here come one of the hellions across the steps and onto the  our bench runnign his car screaming all the way up to my husband. I looked over at the parents and waved for them to keep the kids over there. They were smiling until I mouthed rude assholes. Oh well. I understand you want to bring something to help keep the litle ones entertained but when they are running totally wild and annoying everyone around them AND the parents think its funny .. better look out. At least I know what these inconsiderate jerks look like and can try to avoid them in future games if possible. If not, look out.

Got up at crack Sunday morning. Peeked outside as Fay had dumped a lot of rain on us overnight. You could tell it had been raining but had stopped. Was suppossed to be doing a 53 mile Tour d'Ascension ride. Got dressed and ate breakfast and peeked back outside and it was sprinkling. Hmmmmmmmm. Decided to hang about 15 more minutes before deciding. Hate to miss ride but not riding in rain! Checked email and saw there was a message cancelling it. Thank goodness because by then the bottom had fallen out and it was pouring. So changed back into pj's. Crawled in bed and watched a movie til e1 else got up.
After that it was just a lazy dreary day of washing and folding clothes and watching back episodes of Lost.

SLept weird last night apparently. Hub said I pulled my sleep apnea mask off then reached over and pulled his off his face and let it go so it popped him (lol). Then I kicked him and picked his arm up in the air and dropped it. Later I apparently slapped him in the head  ... I said what had u done he said "I was sleeeeeeping". LOL No idea. He knows I have a disclaimer when I sleep I am not responsible for what I do or say!!!

Got son to school and came home and got ready for work. Got halfway down street when realized movie place in opposite direction so turned around. Turned in subdivision by mistake *sigh* so back out, turn left, drop movies off. Ok back on track ... ummm nope. Got about 2 miles away when realize don't have swim stuff. Have running stuff not swim. So turn back around. Get swim gear. Back in car heading to work. Forgot watch *sigh*. Not going back home again because if I do I will stay! So no watch . May not even swim depending on weather. But have meeting for new beginner's running group today at 5:30. Am excited but hope they have other really sucky runners like me there!!!

Having sushi for lunch! YEAH!!

Rambling over .....

OK I was catching up reading some of your blogs and was perusing plain_jane0309's blog and she mentioned meetings ... so you can blame her for this rambling LOL.

Classes started yesterday for Fall semester. So of course what should faculty be doing the week before classes but attending a deluge of unnecessary, monotonous, make you want to scratch your own eyes out meetings. Who cares if you have your materials etc ready for students right?

So last Wednesday was the all day long faculty assembly. It started with a meet-n-greet coffee hour. I chose to have my coffee hour at home with myself ... excellent choice if I do say so myself! Now if it had been margarita hour, or we're passing out Valiums then maybe I would have showed early.

After coffee we were rearranged so that we were not sitting with people we already knew. They had us pick up all our crap along with all the folders and goodies they had laid out on the tables and line up in alphabetical order according to our middle names. Now our table just pretty much relocated to another table because we had 2 C's and 1 D and the rest renamed themselves temporarily for the meeting lol. Now what grade school did they get this from?

Then it was 2 hours of droning on about various announcements which could have easily been put into an email or newsletter.

Now comes the guest speaker from Baylor University. Our school is trying to encourage writing across the curriculum which is good so I was thinking this would be an interesting topic. Well ..... afterwards I could not have told you what the topic was. The guy was an English professor - he sure as H.E. double hockey sticks was NOT a speech or communication teacher! Major ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZzzzzzZzzzz's! His power point was horrible - he was Ambien on legs! Spent 45 minutes trying not to rock and drool and doze off and fall out of my chair. Then he made a remark about he only had 5 minutes left cause the boss "president of school" just held up her hand. He spent a minute micking her for that which was rude but made me start to pay attention because I was waiting for the fight to break out lol.

His last 5 minutes he spent talking about balls. Yep balls. Apparently he was trying to make some points about juggling things but of course he had to use juggling balls and proceeded to talk for 5 minutes about how "you have big balls and little balls, different shape balls, balls for different jobs ...... every other word was balls. Add one idiot talking about balls plus 1 gutter-minded and very bored Tater = recipe for major disaster! First you could sense the vibe in the room perk up, then you could sense some getting very uncomfortable and some trying to control the laughter and jokes. The president's face shriveled up into a prune ... priceless! He even made a hand gesture like he was cupping a set of ... well ... balls . Reminded me of the movie Funny Farm when Chevy Chase was eating the "lamb fries" and the waitress told him the secret was to clip the testicles way up high - she used same hand gesture. My friend next to me was in silent hysterics, blood-red face, tears running down. Somehow (still not sure how) I managed to not look at her and to maintain my composure cause when I get the uncontrollable giggles once they start I can't stop and I would have had to run giggling, crying and snorting from the room. Sooooooooooooo it was worth sitting through all the rest of his monotonous helldrom for the whole ball spiel!
 

Assorted balls provided for your amusement :

Then we had 3 mini seminar type things to rotate through. And for some brilliant reason instead of rotating the speaker/group leaders they made all the groups rotate and we had to cart all our crap around again. I think next meeting I will bring a lil red wagon!

Then came final thoughts and announcements ... yeah yeah yeah can we go already. They tried to drag it out as it was still an hour to go before the college staff would join us for wine and cheese. But we got to bail if we wanted to, so I yelled adios and scrammed! I had already done enough and had enough whine and had wine at home lol.

So even though I cringe every time I hear meeting, every once in a while there is this brilliant bright spot that makes it almost worth while LOL. And then we were free .....

that is until the next meeting ... the next day and the one the day after ........ *SIGH*

Yesterday I went along on a MS Training Bike Ride along with people who are training for the MS 150 in October. This was my longest ride yet at 41 miles. WOOHOO! It was a beautiful day. Overcast a bit which kept the heat and glare from sun down. The ride started in Abita Springs, La on a trail called the Tammany Trace . The Trace is a scenic 31 mile paved path that was converted to the path from old railway tracks.

We stayed on the Trace for the first mile or two before venturing off onto country backroads most of which were in terrible condition. My sponge flew out of my aero water bottle and my teeth were chattering from the bumps *sigh*. But some of the bike routes for events are as bumpy as that so...

On the first few miles of the paved trail you had to stop every once in a while at stop signs. Most were country roads with no traffic. BUT ... one was a curvy, high traffic road. On the way out we stopped at this one. When clear the group of 5 - 6 of us started to go. I always have to do a scoot-n-boot to get on bike so by the time I got my butt on seat a car was coming flying around the curve. So being my graceful self ....... I got nervous, freaked out, couldn't get bike shoe unclipped in time to put foot down and crashed. Add another zmpher (0 mph crash) to my record . Now lets list the injuries...

• achy right shoulder from hitting the asphault
• scraped skin off 2 quarter size areas on right knee along with a few small bruises and assorted scrapes
• 3 inch circular and assorted smaller bruises on right ass cheek
• and 1 quarter size hickey looking bruise on left breast along with a horrendous looking 4" dark purple monster bruise in right breast both from where the armrests on my aero bars dug into my chest during my oh so graceful fall

But I rallied and went on. They had 3 SAG stations along the route where you could replinish our water bottles, get gatorade, fruit, cookies, etc. So the few girls I was hanging with graciously waited for me at each stop. Although I rode most of it by myself there were always other riders within sight. And my group said I was never more than a few minutes behind them. There were lots of rolling hills and some challenging ones and I definately need more hill word and distance work so am very glad I got up to go even tho I had only gotten 2 hours sleep the night before.

Next events:

• This coming Sat is the Baton Rouge Zoo Run 5k that hub and I and a couple of my friends are doing. Need to get blood pumping that day as will be babysitting niece and nephew later  LOL
• This coming Sunis the Tour de Ascension bike ride offering rides of different lengths so think I will sign up for that also

Classes for fall semester began today with all the usually commotion and then some! But finally got my schedule straightened out - last minute of course *sigh*. So should get new training schedule worked out this week YEAH!

Next Monday is an informational meeting for a beginner's running group hosted by Varsity Sports in Baton Rouge. It is for beginner runners who would like to train to run a half marathon by December... DECEMBER??!!?? LOL I know I am nuts now. My "friend" said I was nuts because I would not be able to keep up with the group. I emailed the owner and told her who I was, my weight, my experience, etc and she said I "was exactly who they were looking for"! SO THERE "FRIEND"!!! Nothing gets me quite as fired up as telling me I can't or won't be able to do something. Course this is the same friend that didn't think I would be able to finish the Heatwave tri. So DOUBLE HAHA! I think she means well but she is in a bad place in her life and isnt able to train and compete much right now. She did not used to be like this or we would never have been friends in first place.

Weight: had gained 9 pounds when was sick and lazy and as of couple days ago had lost 6 of those so will update weight on blog after next weigh in.

Still working on last race report. Is easier to type blogs on laptop or at school and keep forgetting to either forward pics to email or post on a site to copy from. So tune in .....

Tee Hee... get it .... re"cycling"

Still transferring pics that I want to include in RR. May pull a RBR and link from here to my blogger page as it is so much easier to post to and can include pics, etc easier. EP may not like it but ...... will post here still but will prob post Race Results there only and just post link here.

Food been waaaayyyyyyyyyyyy better since Monday. Can def feel it! Rode bike trainer indoors 45 minutes on Tuesday. Yesterday walked anout 2 miles and ran 1.5 miles. Need to start training program for Half-Ironman in April next year. A running group here is starting a beginner-beginner's training group on Monday so that you would be ready to do a half marathon by December. And I need to be able to do a half marathon for the run part of the H-I next April so will be joining that group. Hopefully will have other woggers like me out there!

OMG Ran across this pic when googling for a wogger pic to insert here and make me crack up so am postin git. Hopefully won't offend anyone and I don't get reported .

Off to another meeting. Hope is better than yesterday's ALL DAY faculty meeting *ack ack*! But yesterday's meeting did have its highlights! There was a guest speaker that they flew in, paid for his travel, room, expenses, speaker fee, etc. He is an English professor. Well ...... obviously he was not a professional speaker and hope he doesn't teach speech or communication . He was a horrible speaker, very monotone and told too many lame jokes. So we were all squirming with ants in our pants and trying not to drool or doze off. THEN ... he started a new section about balls. Yes, balls. Suppossedly about juggling balls. This crackpot must have said the word balls about 100 times in 5 minutes. Now .... I can only keep my mind out of the gutter for about 5 seconds. He was talking about big balls and little balls, different shaped balls, balls for different jobs, etc. He made a hand gesture that looked like he was cupping a set of "balls" . It reminded me of that scene in the movie Funny Farm with Chevy Chase when they went out to dinner and he was eating "lamb fries" and about to set the record in number eaten when he found out that they were fried lamb testicles LOL and the waitress made a demonstrated that the secret was to clip them way up high and she made the same cupping gesture. OMG! Somehow I managed to control myself although I could not look at my friend to the left. She was silently giggling and had tears runnign down her face. Now I don't do that. When I get a giant case of the uncontrollable giggles I would be very loud, crying hysterically, probably snorting and would have made a huge scene as I stumbled out of the room. Somehow I managed (I don't know how) to control myself. So other than being a long dull meeting and general waste of time, it did have its interesting

Off to another meeting LOL.

OMgosh. It is so incredibly hot down here. Did the Rivercities tri this past SUnday. It was over 100 degrees and water temp was in low 90's . Like swimming in soup. Don't even want to know what the bacteria count was ! (Race report coming soon)!

Had boot camp yesterday - was sooooo not pretty. I am fixin to bring back the sweatband!!!

There wasn't a dry patch on me. Went to OA meeting after boot camp. And yes, I went all cold and sweaty. Because is only time I red-faced and sweat stained than not at all lol soooooooo. I gave em what they asked for! Not sure they really knew what they were getting into lol. But they swore they couldn't smell me. Isn't B.O. smell but that icky cold, stale sweat smell *gag*. Anyway .........

Doing the Up, Up and Away 5k with hub, son and friends in morning. Bright and early at 7am. Hopefully it won't be raining as this is the forecast for southern Louisiana for next week ..

Friday ... HOT (90 ) scattered showers and thunderstorms

Sat ... HOT (90 ) scattered showers and thunderstorms

Sun ... HOT (90 ) scattered showers and thunderstorms

Mon ... HOT (90 ) scattered showers and thunderstorms

Well, you get the picture .

Got hair whacked today. Had gotten it cut in a short sassy style a lil over month ago and told her she could go even a lil shorter this time as long as I could still make a lil nubby ponytail n stick my hair up under a hat. Kind of an angled short bob. One of those cuts that looks cute if you keep it trimmed and styled but for people like me will look cute on few days that I wake up early enough to fix it and will look like Phyllis Diller

on other days lol. But I have kept it up since last cut so hope to keep it up a lil longer.

Anyway, I have procrastinated going to work long enough so better get over to the lab and get a lil bit done. School starts week after next *SIGH*!

Holy cr*p! What have I gotten myself into??!?? This event is coming up on Sunday, Aug 3rd. It is in Shreveport, La. So hub and I will drive up Saturday. It is a very boring 4 hour drive up there. Nothing to look at. Am sure I will sleep the whole way home tho lol.                                            

The tri consists of a 1/2 mile swim in reservoir, 18.2 mile bike around the reservoir park with several rolling hills (I hope their idea of rolling and mine are the same   ,  and a "flat and fast" 5k run around lake. I get nervous on any new courses! Especially when I see the word HILL! ANNNNDDDDDDD ... on top of that there could be 1300 peeps competing HOILY CR*P!!! On my tri groups forum I asked about the hills etc and was told not to worry about those but to worry about getting caught up in a big group of people on the bike. Hell ... I am just worried about finding my frickin bike in transition! If I can find it and then find my spot again to park it I will be ecstatic!               

Just gave final exam for summer semester. Yeah! But fall starts in couple of weeks BOO!

Have huge mess still in chem labs due to the jerk that was over it final got fired. Now no one seems to want to be responsible for cleaning it and organizing it. I am putting foot down and repeating the mantra "Lack of preparation on your part does NOT constitute an emergency on mine!  Tired of cleaning up other peoples messes and reminding other people to do their job or to do the things they committed to doing. Not being an enabler any longer. My friend always tells her students when they come up with lame excuses or are whining "I don't know how that affects me". Think I may adopt that one too.

Man it is storming out there. If this keeps up won't have boot camp tonight. Any volunteers to clean off this junk pile I call a desk? Am whooped from cleaning, reorganizing, throwing stuff out, shredding old papers. Got a lots more to go. Been giving away stuff left and right and bagged up a bunch of stuff to donate. Half my brain is trying to tell me to have a garage sale but the other half is saying "Not no but HELL NO!" LOL so am going with the NO side lol. Last one I had I almost had to call police of a family who was literally trying to steal stuff. I mean hell I would prob give it to you but don't steal it. Then you have the people who switch price tags on things. And the ones who speak other languages acting like they don't understand anything. Some of them might not speak much English but someone has to. So no thanks!

Anyway enough for now...

Sorry have been MIA. I tend not to blog much from home with all the snoopy boys at my house lol. Been sick for a few weeks with my usual allergy, creepy crud head and chest congestion. So after a few weeks of basically doing nothing physically, I am back at it. Rode my bike today (~32 miles) and thought I was gonna die ... but I didn't lol. Have boot camp in a lil while *sigh* gonna get my butt handed back to me. Had short tri last weekend and did ok considering. Have longer one this weekend and am very nervous about any hills they might have on bike because where we are it is flatter than a pancake.

We are redoing the spare bedroom and making it officially a workout room. The TM has always been in there but we just got son a weight bench and getting it set up. Stress level is up though since now have half the crap that was in there in the den ARGH! I always feel like I get one area straight in my house and then all the others get totally Fd up.

I need to get my food better under control. Been slipping and sliding with it last several weeks. Need to get back on a schedule with exercise routine. Too easy to let day slip by without it if I don't schedule it or commit to it.

Race I did last weekend I had done last year so I compared pics. Well I am about 50 pounds lighter than last year but am still so big that it is hard to tell. Now there is no real reason why I couldn't have lost more than that in last year. Just gonna be grateful for what I did lose and tighten up on everything else!

That's it for now. Better go change and get ready for boot camp .