Samples

One of the perks of my job is that I get sent a lot of samples from the vendors we work with. They'll send me a new running shirt or pair of shoes, I run in it and tell them what I think, a new pair of headphones, sure I'll test them out...a new energy bar, mmm, lunch. So, all in all, it's great, especially because I get to keep everything.

This week I got one of the stranger samples I've ever seen.

Introducing...The Whiz Freedom Kit for Women! "Allowing women to wee standing or sitting indoors or outdoors whenever they choose."

"No need to undress - discreet use"

"Liquid repellant, flick to dry"

"Machine Washable"

Some additional images in case you had a hard time visualizing how it should be used

I'd be willing to pass along this sample to you if you want to try it out, just comment below. If you're too embarrassed to say you want to try it out, you can order one for yourself at www.whizfreedomusa.com. If no one claims it, I think I will wrap it up and give it to my sister for Christmas.

One Of Those Mornings

Today was one of those days that when the alarm went off, I turned over, convinced myself I needed the sleep more than a run and then turned it off. I hate when I do that because usually I could use the run more than the sleep, but sometimes it turns out okay.

I decided to make up the run I missed this morning and went after work, even though it was still hot out and I was hungry for dinner. Every once in a while I have a run that makes me so happy that I feel like I should just keep going...tonight was one of those nights. On my way up the river I saw a group of about 30 people standing watching something on the pier, so I stopped to see what they were watching. A guy was down on one knee proposing to his girlfriend after leading her through an obstacle course of flowers, candles and boxes...the last box had the ring! Everyone started clapping and some people were wiping their tears away.

Further up the river I saw two old guys smoking cigars on a bench laughing, a mom teaching her son how to ride a bike, a dad playing catch with his daughter, a chocolate lab puppy that melted my heart and a ballroom dance class waltzing on the pier. My body felt healthy and strong and I was smiling from ear to ear.

As I ran home watching the sunset over the Hudson River I was glad I turned off my alarm this morning.

Happy Birthday Ciena

My oldest furry child turned 6 today. I've definitely said about her what I hear all my mom friends say when their kids have bdays..."I can't believe she's 6 already...where has the time gone...I can remember just yesterday falling in love with her picture on Findapuppy.com..." ...yeah, maybe not the last one. Here are a few photos of my pretty girl.

NYC's a lot different from S. Dakota

Out for a rollerblade (yeah...I don't think I've been since)

Rockstar

Happy Birthday Ciena dog!

NYC Triathlon Report

Of all of the races I've done, the NYC Triathlon is by far my favorite. The transition is 30 blocks from our apt, so the commute is easy on race morning, it's a race around the big city, the people watching is always good and the crowds are great! Doug and I did the race on Sunday for the 5th year in a row and while the course was the same, the race report is always different. This year I fell down a set of stairs (while out for run) about a month ago and got a small fracture in my forearm and strained my IT band. So, I hadn't swam or been on a bike in a month and had only gotten a handful of runs in before the race...a month long "taper" I call it. So, considering that, things went pretty well...

The day started at 3:45am as it does every year. This year our friend Flora did it with us, so she stayed over the night before so that we could all go to the race together. When we got on the elevator to leave, it was full of smelly drunk people that were still partying and heading out for more fun. Drunk people are so not funny when you're not one of them. They kept whispering back and forth, of course super loudly, "I wonder where these guys are going hiking." Yeah, I often go hiking in spandex shorts at 3:45 in the morning. Moron.

Anyhoo, we got to transition, set up camp and made the 1 mile walk up the river to the swim start (it's a point to point 1 mile swim, so that means hoofing it a mile to the start). Now, the Hudson River gets a pretty bad rap...dead bodies, garbage, muck, etc...but they assured everyone that the water is perfectly safe and there are no dead bodies unless they died in the swim. The nice thing about this race is that the river is known for being quite fast and sure to give everyone a swim PR with the fast current, so I never stress too much about this part. Once our wave (Flora and I luckily were in the same wave), we jumped in and took off down the river. Everything went swimmingly (hardee, har) and I had no major surprises until about the halfway point when my goggles fogged up. Only one side fogged, so I decided not to worry about it and only look out of one eye. Big mistake...next thing I know, I'm literally laying on top of some woman backstroking down the river...seriously, we were boobs to boobs, goggles to goggles...so awkward. She was in a white cap, which was two waves ahead of us and she was a total straggler. Not sure how she faired, but I wriggled myself off my "raft", apologized and went on my merry way to the swim exit.

After finishing the swim, the way the transitions are set up, it's a 1/2 mile run to your bike. On asphalt. My feet are still sensitive from it. So much for all that time we supposedly gained on the fast swim.

Oh well, onto the bike...my fav. The bike was 25 miles, 12.5 out and you guessed it, 12.5 back with rolling hills and a few good risers. I paced myself pretty well so that I would have something left for the run. I knew with my lack of training in the last month, I wouldn't be able to go all out on the bike without seriously paying for it on the run (which happened anyway). So, I took in the scenery, watched the elites fly by, watched some super jacked 57 year old chica fly by (surely she's retired and just trains all day) and enjoyed the ride. I usually start getting excited for the run near the end of the ride, but it was so hot out and I knew that the run was going to be really tough. When I got into transition to rack my bike I didn't seem to be in the normal hurry I'm in...probably a sign of things to come.

The run was a 6.2 mile jaunt from transition to Central Park and then around the Park to the east side finish. It is a really pretty run because you're in CP most of the time, but it is also really hilly because you're in CP most of the time (the hilly north end). I felt really good for the first couple of miles until I started hitting the big hills at the top of the park. My mind was all over the place...."just walk for a bit, who cares", "in 2 hours you won't remember how crappy you felt", "seriously, why does everyone else look so good?", "oh man, I really have to pee." Up and down the hills, around the park to the east side I went. Right around mile 4.5, I REALLY had to pee. TMI TIME...(IF YOU GET GROSSED OUT EASILY, JUMP TO THE NEXT PARAGRAPH)...finally my bladder officially gave up and I couldn't hold it anymore. I guess at that point, I figured no one would be able to tell the difference between sweat, Hudson River scum and pee running down my leg, so I didn't bother to stop at a porta john. I was planning on showering afterwards, so might as well save the two minutes right?:) Ewww...I get grossed out writing that...amazing what goes on in the heat of competition. After that I got a little bit of extra energy and pushed fairly hard to the finish. I guess I gave it all I had because once I crossed the line, I teetered over and was caught by a very ready medical person. They covered me in ice cold towels and then sent me on my way after a few. I guess I had managed to stop my watch once I cross the line, before I teetered, and I realized I was only 3 min slower than my PR from last year...woohoo! I didn't even check my watch throughout the run because I felt so crappy, but later when I looked at results, I realized that I held a 7:40 pace, which was quicker than last year...ughhh. No wonder I almost had a heart attack...my poor body wasn't ready for that after a long break.

As predicted, two hours later I was tired, but forgetful of the pain on the run. I'm happy to report, Doug and Flora did great! Doug was his usual steady eddy and didn't look phased when I saw him at the end. Flora completed her first ever Olympic distance and seemed to have a great time. She even said she's going to do it next year!! The heat took a major toll on all of us though, so Doug and I went home, took a 3 hour nap, grabbed dinner and then went back to bed at 9pm! Another NYC Tri in the books!

40th Bday Bash

When Doug turned 40 in December, I surprised him with a dinner at Zoom in Park City with 4 of his best friends. We had a great evening, catching up, telling stories and toasting Doug on his 40 years of life. I even picked up the tab…Happy Birthday Doug.

This weekend, I got completely upstaged. I guess I should have known this was going to happen when we got the evite a year ago, but honestly, I had forgotten until a couple of weeks ago when follow up evites starting hitting my inbox.

The invite was for a surprise 40^th birthday party for one of Doug’s friends from college, who was a swimmer all four years while Doug was a diver. The invite told us to be at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the Trustee’s Dining Room at 6pm dressed in summer cocktail attire…ruh roh…this is one of those parties. So, I convinced Doug I needed a new fancy schmancy dress and we headed to Saks on Saturday morning.

Here’s the little number I settled on…Doug picked it out!

Once we arrived all gussied up, we were met by photographers taking our pictures and a full open bar until the guest of honor showed up. The birthday boy and planner extraordinaire wife showed up around 6:15 to a whooping surprise and some mingling for a bit (funny thing is, the dress that wifey showed up in is one I had tried on only a few hours ago at Saks…don’t think that would’ve been too cool). After a bit, we were seated at our tables that had place cards for each of us. On the back of Doug’s place card had the exact time he was supposed to give a toast, 9:15pm. Also on the table were hard cover books with about 75 pages of pictures and stories of bday boy.

She also made everyone a cd with the top song for each of the last 40 years

Oh, and this was the centerpiece

As we made our way through the 5 course dinner, people stood up to toast every 10-12min. as instructed. The stories were great, the company was fabulous and the food was amazing. When we finished up around 10:30pm, we were escorted through the now closed Met (think Night At The Museum) to a line of waiting car services to shuttle us to our next stop, the five star Surrey Hotel, where wifey had reserved the full bar and had free flowing champagne. Doug and I bailed around 1am, but were told on our way out that she had arranged a full brunch at 12pm the next day, also at the Surrey. What?!! Two days of this? We didn’t end up going to the brunch, so I’m not sure what that all entailed, but just from what we experienced on Saturday night, I’m pretty sure wifey spent more on that party than we did on our whole wedding.

Doug’s bday party seemed pretty lame in comparison, but too bad…I would have had to rob a bank, or steal one of those paintings from the Met, to afford something like that. Maybe for his 50^th…

Summer in the City

This post is inspired by the "Heat Wave of 2010" that New York has been experiencing for the last 4 days. I guess most places in the country are pretty warm right now too, it is summer after all, but summer in the city is different from anywhere else and I don't wish it on anyone. If you don't believe me...continue reading.

When it gets this hot and everyone starts running their AC to the max, blackouts are bound to happen, ie NYC Blackout 2003 (and it wasn't as hot then as it is now). So, now everyone is on high alert and trying to conserve as much energy as possible by turning off computers at the end of the work day, not turning on lights when you don't need them and only cooling one room in your apt. instead of the whole place. Whether it was an effort to conserve energy, or just a lapse in upkeep, our buildings elevators went out last night. This wouldn't be a big deal if you were a few floors up, but we live on the 34th floor. Thankfully by the time I had to take my two furry kids outside, everything was up and running again because I was going to start potty training lessons. Can I get a "Summer in the City" (at least my butt is a little bit tighter this morning.)

This morning I took my usual 15 min. walk to the subway. I debated jumping on the bus, but thought that if I just walked a little bit slower than normal, I shouldn't be too sweaty by the time I got there. Think again. By the time I hit the subway platform, which is a good 30 degrees warmer than it is outside, I was dripping with sweat. The back of my shirt was stuck to me, my whole face and neck were pouring like a fountain and my legs had streams of water running off of them. For some reason, today of all days, one of the trains was stuck on the track, so there were hundreds of people waiting to get on the one already crowded train when it finally pulled up. So, I shoved my way onto the car and played sardines with all of my fellow commuters. Of course, I hadn't stopped sweating, so now I'm arm to arm on all sides and I'm the only one sweating. I had sweat dripping off my chin, my sandals had pools of water in them from the streams flowing off my legs, the neck line of my shirt is a big ring and my shirt is more akin to a body suit than the flowy number it started off as. People were staring and trying not to get too close because if I touched their arm or their purse, I would rub off. I'm pretty sure a few of the gawkers thought I was having a heart attack...luckily no one pulled the emergency brake to signal the ambulance. Hot mess, I tell you. Summer in the City.

It's days like these that I dream of walking out of my two story house at the end of a col-de-sac, getting into my air conditioned car and driving to my office. Life would be so much easier (and the dry cleaning bill for my body suit, so much cheaper).

On a lighter note...a joke about crowded subways:

The subway car was packed. It was rush hour, and many people were forced to stand. One particularly cramped woman turned to the man behind her and said, "Sir, if you don't stop poking me with your thing, I'm going to the cops!"

"I don't know what you're talking about miss - that's just my pay check in my pocket."

"Oh really," she spat. "Then you must have some job, because that's the fifth raise you've had in the last half hour!"

St. Thomas

When you get a wedding invitation to St. Thomas, you don't say no. So, I didn't. A bunch of girlfriends decided to go together, sans hubbies and boyfriends...no offense to the said hubbies and boyfriends, but sometimes girl time is a must!

Growing up in the mountains, I've always thought I wasn't much of a beach girl because I get antsy and can't lay around and sun myself (maybe the ginger kid skin is another good reason). But since Lindsey got married in Jamaica and now this wedding in St. Thomas, I'm pretty convinced I can be Karma Chameleon and hang on the beach with the best of them. I still can't sit still, but hanging out in the water can be so nice!

Here are some pics from the trip...I'm ready to go back...any takers?!

Half Moon Bay - Rehearsal Dinner

The happy couple - Meghan & Steve

We chartered a sailboat to go snorkeling all day. Go ahead, say it, "I'm on a boat."

The crew

We saw this little guy right by our boat...Rimora Shark

Magen's Bay - wedding spot

Mini dinosaurs all over the island