Yes I am a Diva

I have just returned from my 8 km Diva on the Run Race, the first in a series of three races that I am doing this year in the hope of finishing the last race (10 km) in 48 minutes. Here are my race stats:

Temperature: 4 degrees Celsius

Weather: Sunny, clear blue sky and stunning views across the water

Race course: Flat and fast, gravel and chip trail along the waterfront of Jericho Beach, Spanish Banks and Locarno Beach

Details: Run for women only; field of 217 Divas

Crowd support: My mum and dad, and a bouncy, excited super-cheerleader Jack

(now for the crappy part)
Finishing time: 49:36 chip time; placing 106/217 overall and 11/29 in my age group


So how does this happen? Race conditions can only be decribed as ideal; I have no injuries or physical issues at the moment; perfect pre-race breakfast of toast and honey and a banana (and perfect post-race meal of cold pizza and Coke).

Yet.

49 freaking minutes for 8 km! Sigh. I was getting SO frustrated with every step, overthinking it as I checked my watch yet again and KNOWING that I was so far behind my desired finish time of 45 minutes. I killed the last kilometer, going awesome fast, because I was so damn mad at the previous 7. But the whole race was a gigantic mental battle with my mind saying destructive things like "You can just walk. No one will know." and "Take a break. Who cares?" and "Your legs are heavy." I really needed the angel on the other shoulder saying positive things, but the only one who showed up this morning was the freaking race devil.

My dad took a couple of pictures. I'm going to go wallow in my misery and try a little harder on my next run. And if any of you want to volunteer to be my shoulder angel for the next race, I'm all for it.

I'm on the far right

I am officially a Diva.

Sexy Hoover

We got so many awesome gifts for our wedding (almost ten years ago) that we still use all the time. Half of them still feel like new, to be honest! The vacuum, on the other hand, has seen better days. That could imply that it has seen more use than some of our other gifts but sadly that is not the case. However, in its time it has probably sucked up more than a box worth of Cheerios so that has to count for something...
I picked myself up a beautiful new canister Hoover last weekend. Byebye to my upright and Hellooo Hoover, you sexy beast! After setting it up I hoovered the whole house (including the stairs which I always avoided with the upright) and I loved it! OK, not loved it so I will be vacuuming every day or anything. Ridiculous. But it is decent and POWERFUL. I was actually sore the next day from holding the thing back!
However. I have a sneaky feeling that the Hoover is alive. Everytime I turn my back on it, I'm pretty sure it moves. When I was vacuuming the dining room, I propped it up while it was still on, and went to move a chair out of the way. A split second later, Hoover nudged me in the back of the leg. I jumped and screamed a little (or a lot, I'm just saying) and tripped backwards over the thing. So it may be hazardous to my health and just a little bit possessed but this Hoover is mine all mine. But like the apron I inherited from Grandmother Hardy says: "Don't expect miracles". That is all.

Cinco de Jacko

Since I became lazy after my February posting blitz, our little Jack turned 5. Wait a moment for the shock to sink in... actually I've been waiting 11 days since his birthday and I am still shocked. FIVE! Seriously, now. It is surreal now, when someone asks how old my kids are. I say 5 and 6, and then I pass out a little because when did I get so OLD to have kids who are NO LONGER LITTLE? (And on a related note, my hair better hurry up and GROW so I can donate it before I am completely grey.)
So Jack turned five, and I am in the midst of writing his birthday letter that I will eventually post up here. But a quick word about his big day: fantabulous! We got him a fish for his birthday, fulfilling his most desperate birthday wish, and he just loved it. The fish has gone through a million names since: Fishy, Bluey, Wemily, Mike, and my favourite derivative from the boy who loves to change the first letter of names (my name is Bummy): Dike. Thankfully Dike has not stuck but Wemily might have.
His Lego party went very well with 17 little lego maniacs in attendance. Thankfully for us it was only two hours long! They had a really good time and we had a relaxing weekend afterward building a LOT of Lego.
Oh, and Happy St. Paddy's Day to all my kinfolk who share some Irish blood! Enjoy a green beer or two and look out for the leprechauns!

Another Cop-out Post

I know it's been forever since I posted (forgive me Father, and all that...) but here is a little something I stumbled across while procrastinating on my own post, that will be up in a couple of days. Here is one of those fun time-wasters: My band and the album I would produce.

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
Gone Fishin’

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
Part of Daily Life

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

February in Photos Day 28

Briana and Rob brought Liam and Kieran over this weekend. The boys all had a great time playing, and one of the highlights of Saturday was a trip to Science World and the Lego exhibit that is currently there. Here are E&J staring at one of the gigantic creations.So that wraps up February in Photos! Hope you've enjoyed the ride. I'll be back to my sporadic (weekly?) posting schedule from now on!

February in Photos Day 27

This week we've been driving my dad's Mini, serving three purposes: babysitting it while my dad is away, allowing Mike to take our car on business to Seattle, and showing us just how nice it is to have at least a little space in our regular car. Squishy is the first word I would use to describe two car seats in the back of the Mini! And I attempted a Costco trip which was pretty funny in itself...

February in Photos Day 26

Jack and I saw a very scary thing today. We were driving down a major street, two lanes our way and three the other. We stopped at a red light about 4 cars back from the front. The light went green, our cars started to go... all of a sudden I noticed a lady running across the road from left to right about 4 cars back from the start line/crosswalk on the other side facing us. She was trying to beat all of us who were just going, and most certainly did not have a walk sign even if she had been anywhere near a crosswalk. So she successfully got across the three lanes on that side of the road, behind all those cars who had been waiting at the light. The lead car in our lane saw her and stopped - she kept running. The curb lane to my right, however, had a guy blasting up who hadn't been stopped at the light and she ran RIGHT. IN. FRONT. OF. HIS. CAR.

I don't think Jack saw the actual impact, I hope he didn't see, but he did ask me, "Why you yell NO and then SH*T, Mummy?" The driver did an amazing job of slamming on his brakes but the end result was that the pedestrian was down and under the front of his car. Not the wheels thank GOD. Amazingly, unbelievably, she rolled out from under, stood up, brushed herself off, and walked to the sidewalk while we all gaped at her from our stopped cars. We were all yelling are you ok, and all attempting to pull over into the bus stop. The guy who hit her (although I want to say the guy whose car she hit with her body because: totally not your fault poor guy!) was just too damn shocked to even move. She yelled to all, "I'm fine, thanks, everyone!" gave a little cheerio wave and a smile and started walking briskly away up the sidewalk.
You would expect her to be young and stupid, right? Nope. Late fifties or early sixties, well dressed and obviously in just that much too much of a hurry to give a sh*t about those of us just trying to drive without killing a human.

Anyway. I was an absolute stress case on the way to Costco, but on the way there I saw a sign that made me laugh and totally took my tension away. So here is the photo of the day.