To Do List: post family pics

Okay, I'm on the very verge of finally posting our family pics online. I just need to weigh the pros and cons of using our domain name webspace versus flickr.com's service, yahoo photos and the like (e.g., privacy/anonymity, spiders, hackers, user interfaces, fees, etc). Any advice would be appreciated.

Biking in CT

A done deal at the Bloomin' Metric bike tour in Norwalk, CT. It was definitely a fun ride, but in a masochistic, exasperating, heart-attacking sort of way. Hills, hills and more hills. Talk about lactic acid city! At some fork early along the route was a sign that pointed in two directions: a right arrow toward the 75k ride and a left arrow toward the max 100k ride. So we stopped, thought and talked a little, and then went left. A long 100k or bust.

I loved the tour. I think it'll be an annual tradition.

Ride on!

Mom's Day plug

If it were my day, I'd want the The Mighty Bright Triple LED Telescoping Book Light. Well, it wasn't my day, but I bought it anyway, actually yesterday at Waldenbooks in the mall. I'm getting tired of spending money for ebooks when there's a plethora of free books to be had at the library. And since I do much of my reading (which in truth is very little) in the dim, this portable LED book light does the job eons better than the 'bulb' type that I have. Plus, my new light is a hit with little Miguel as a flashlight, doubles as a metal-cutting laser, does text messaging, is iPod compatible, has force field and death ray settings, serves as a portable tanning booth and runs on nuclear fusion trilithium everlasting crystalite batteries. Sshhhh!

Happy Mother's Day!
xxxooo

Bike tour

This morning, I signed up for the Bloomin' Metric Bike Ride in Norwalk, CT. I'll be doing the ride on May 21st with three of my cycling homeboyz. We haven't decided yet, but I think we'll be doing the 75k distance. Hopefully, it should be a nice scenic tour. We'll only be there for the day and hope to be back home by early afternoon.

Ride on, dudes!

I'm a big girl now.

"It's okay, Daddy. I know where to go."
"You sure, sweetie?"
"Yes."

And off running toward the school doors little Tina went. I had brought my camera thinking we'd get a little daddy & daughter self-portrait within the school just before I'd give her my hugs and goodbye-for-the-day kisses. No such luck. Just a quick peck on the cheek and a trailing "I love you too, Daddy" yell as she darted away. At least I managed to shoot a pic before she made it inside.

Here's to another growth plateau reached. (sigh)

Overachievement

"I don't mean to sound like a late-night self-help infomercial, but to stay focused you need standards--something to measure your day-to-day progress by. And in this, as in all things, happiness is my yardstick. You can use what you like, by all means, but I highly recommend happiness. If I'm happy in a comprehensive, contented way, then I'm doing things right. If something is bad for my skiing but good for my general happiness, I give more weight to the latter. I recognize that there are things I enjoy--certain people, beer, and fast cars--that are not directly beneficial to my sport. Still, they make me happy. And that's all there is to it."
--Bode Miller (Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun)

* * *

Alright, so I'm a hopeless self-help book fan. I've gone through The One-Minute Manager, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, In Pursuit of Excellence, the Tony Robbins series, The Now Habit, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, yadda yadda yadda. And this evening, I just finished Overachievement by John Eliot. And of course, I'm all gung ho and pumped up and I highly recommend this latest installment--yeah, whatever; my fervor being the immediate result of my pep rally reading. As usual, let's see how long it lasts.

Ever since highschool, I've thought often about all the mumbo jumbo on self-improvement, the meaning of life and the search for true happiness and passion. Like who hasn't. Anyway, tonight I feel like there's something new right on the tip of my thingy nose that can propel me a bit of a ways forward in my daily attitude for the better. Makes sense? Like I'm on the verge of a eureka moment that can lift me out of bed daily feeling passionate about life. Well, at least for a week. I feel it right in front of me. Some kind of 'happy' cloud. Right there.

Nah, it's probably just the book. And a little spring fever.

Ohhhh Melinda! ;-)

Galactica, Season 2.5

I finally watched my recordings of this season's final episodes of Battlestar Galactica, Season 2.5--or rather, The Sharon Show as I'd come to know it (geez, the humans treat her soooo badly that I often root for the Cylons!).

Wow. Again.

What will happen to the human race? What is the Cylons' new plan? Will Sharon and Cally ever receive the box of heart shaped chocolates I FedExed them last month?! Ahem, I mean, will they ever find Earth?

Stay tuned until October for season three. Goodness gracious, that's seven months from now!

Icing on the cake

Just when I thought I had my last snowboarding runs in, Mountain Creek does a surprise re-opening for this past weekend. I took off like a rabbit with my brother toward the resort Saturday morning.

We did four trips down the green trails of Vernon Peak before quitting at noon. I got a little better practicing my slalom ride down the slopes. These are the 'linked turns' that I finally got the hang of on my supposed last trip.

Who knows, maybe they'll keep the resort open for April Fool's Day.

Back to business

I'm starting this year's spring workout season with a battlecry song -- Unwritten, sung by Natasha Bedingfield. It's followed closely by Good Times, sung by Tommy Lee. I didn't pick them to be the flagships; I just happen to be listening to them as part of a playlist while working out and then suddenly they made me feel that spring 'gotta-give-it-a-go' sensation.

It happens every year. There's always a song that sort of symbolizes the beginning of my renewed drive to physical self improvement. I usually end up repeating it over and over again on my mp3 player like when I'm biking or running or even shopping alone at Costco. And I'm seriously talking about hours of repeat of a single song.

So with that, I started my methodical training regimen on the 20th with an interval workout on the bike trainer for about 45 minutes. Rested on the 21st, biked on the 22nd, rested on the 23rd, and biked once more today, the 24th. Yeah, I know it's a little late in the year for starting triathlon training, but I unfortunately let other things get in the way and couldn't get anything consistent going. Live and learn.

Knowing more Bode

The day after the 2002 Olympics ended I did an interview on MSNBC with some yakker who had the temerity to ask me ... "Hey, Bode, you did a great job for America in Salt Lake City, two silver medals, but your teammates ... not a medal among them. What happened there?" ... It was like saying, "Hey, Bode, the dam broke and drowned all your neighbors, but you survived. What's up with those dopes - couldn't they swim?"
--Bode Miller (Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun)

I unintentionally awoke at 5:43 am today, but with the first thought of finishing the last chapters of Bode: Go Fast, Be Good, Have Fun. It was a done deal 30 minutes later. A good book.

Of all the athletes from the 2006 Winter Olympics, Bode Miller retained the longest of my interest and has currently become the reference hero who continues to fuel my drive to be a better me. He may have disappointed many of his Olympic fans (although I seriously doubt the bitter ones were fans; more like one time watchers), but at least he stuck to his ideals of snobbing over the media's ever present medal count and gave us an in your face reminder of the Olympic creed of "not to win, but to take part." It figures he would stick to his guns. His 'hippie' upbringing, as I'd read, seemed to make him so.

Reiterating his viewpoints on life and competition at this year's Olympics, he said stuff that I certainly would tell to my kids as well, against the grain of what the sports announcers were saying like, "Bode finished a disappointing 5th and 6th in the men's Downhill and Giant Slalom," or "Bode gave such a lackluster performance in today's events." But hey, what's up with those negative adjectives? It turned out that he was the highest ranking American in those events; info you guys never told me that I had to dig out somewhere else. So how about a pat on the back and a "well done, Bode! you beat the shit out of your U.S. teammates" encouragement instead? But I heard none of that, and neither did my kids. So I thought it was unfortunate that they left it up to me to do the spin doctoring.

And what about that death-defying mishap in the Super-G when he clipped a gate and gracefully skiied out of disaster on only one leg! How many wrote about that instead of the more 'important' lack of a medal? The sports announcers weren't exactly bringing Bode and other athletes into the brightest of light. If I were in the negative, I suppose I'd have to say to my kids, "Hey look Tina, Bode messed up again and didn't get a medal. Let's make an L shape with our fingers and hold it up to our foreheads, just like the news guys on TV seem to be doing." Instead I preferred, "Y'know sweetie, Bode never holds back and he may have gone out so much faster than the other guys, as he loves to do, that he missed the gate and got DQF'd; but at least he gave it his all; f*ck the medal. And screw the media." Well, you get the gist.

Anyway, it's all water under the bridge now, isn't it? After all, he and Darren Rahlves just did an unprecedented respective 1st & 2nd place in the Super-G World Cup Finals in Aare, Sweden last week. It placed Bode 3rd overall in the World Cup final standings (the equivalent of the winning cumulative times in the Tour de France) as well. Again, he was the highest American finisher.

So perhaps the hate mail of the disappointed will now stop flowing. But if not, hopefully they'll read the book, cruise the sites, see the lifetime results, think beyond the media's comments, and get a bit of a bigger picture of the man Bode is. It might just bring about some positive fuel for their betterment.