Love it.

A weekly thing now? Maybe. Got some more cool things that I love.....this week.

1. Crocs -- Love these ugly as sin shoes. E wears them all the time and I do too. Just saw on their website that they make Red Sox crocs and Wake Forest crocs. What other shoes could you ever need? Plus, the jibbetz (the things you put in them) are so cute. E has about 20 on her 3 pairs.

2. Macs -- Mike would fight me on this, but macs rock. Ibook? Yes. .mac account? Sure. Iphone? PLEASE!! ICar? Just read yesterday that apple and volkswagon are in talks to create an icar....wow. They are just so user friendly and I love the applications.

3. Asheville -- Love this place. Mike and I are excited. We just bought land up there (closed on it this week!) to build a vacation cabin. 10 mins outside downtown Asheville, but still in the mountains. There's a real live buffalo across the street from the place. Seriously. www.mooresvalleyasheville.com

4. Fiber One Bars -- 150 calories of deliciousness. Try them. Yum.

5. Dry Fit Race Shirts -- I LOVE that races are doing this. I have drawers and drawers of too big cotton race tees that never get worn. I wear my dry fit race shirts ALL THE TIME. Great trend.

Happy Friday everyone. Enjoy the long weekend.

Heading to the gym in a minute to run and swim some. Bike's at all3sports right now, so hoping to get it back to ride tomorrow. Had some gear rubbing issues.

2 weeks to Tugaloo

Tugaloo is two weeks from Saturday. Only my second ever Olympic Distance tri. Not quite sure how to pace it. Any and all suggestions are welcome! It's way too long to go all out...but I know I need to definitely go harder than a half. Just don't want to start dry heaving on mile .5 of the run. Been training for this one since CDA, but not feeling too fit right now. Swimming, as of late, has been pretty nonexistent. Sore rotator cuff. Need to give it some rest, I think. Biking and running are both ehh...guess we'll see on the 15th.

Had a great early (5:45) run with Michelle and Jill this am. Michelle is training her a$$ off for IMFL and Jill is starting to train for the ATL Thanksgiving Marathon. Go girls. Nice to run/chat and catch up.

Happy Thursday everyone.

Uncle Seven....

aka Mike's brother, Kevin, to E. He's been staying with us for a week and has spent a lot of qt with E lately. He got to see her in rare form yesterday (up until 10:30 the night before and no nap.) Wow. We might have scared him off kids forever.

Workouts have been pretty good lately. Got to bike with Michelle on Friday AM. She is my idol on the bike..no fear and very comfortable. She's not afraid of anything out there...me? afraid of everything. BIG contrast. Nice, relaxing ride though and it gives me inspiration! Thanks, Michelle. :)

Spin class this AM and run tonight. Forgot how tough spin can be....been a while.

4 Things about Me

Got this forward from my mom. Thought I'd answer on here.


A) FOUR JOBS I'VE HAD IN MY LIFE:
1. Sandwich Artist -- Subway..nice
2. Intern at "Geraldo"
3. Commercial Producer -- Ford Tough.
4. CNN Assistant Producer

B) FOUR PLACES I HAVE LIVED:
1) Naperville IL
2) Winston-Salem, NC
3) Tewksbury Township NJ
4) Roswell GA


C) FOUR TV SHOWS I LIKE TO WATCH
1) Friends -- yes, I still like the reruns
2) Hard Knocks -- Learning a lot about football
3) The Hills
4) Flight of the Conchords

VACATION:
1) Tuscany
2) Turks and Caicos
3) St. Croix
4) Maya Riviera

E) FOUR OF MY FAVORITE FOODS:
1) Peanut Butter M&M's
2) Cookie Dough
3) Cheese Dip
4) Fried Dough aka zeppoli

(Wow. These are really healthy, huh?)

F) FOUR PLACES I WOULD RATHER BE RIGHT NOW:
1) In the mountains -- Asheville
2) At the end of a long run feeling good
3) Ikal Del Mar -- where we honeymooned
4) The Beach at sunset

H) FOUR PLACES I LIKE TO SHOP:
1) All3Sports
2) Athleta/Title Nine
3) J.Crew
4) The Gap

Boston Pictures

If you're interested....
http://web.mac.com/katetparker/iWeb/Site/First%20Red%20Sox%20Game.html

Mike and Uncle Kevin heading off soon to see Dave Chappelle. They are going to go nuts. Funny guy.

Love it.

Few things I am loving lately.
1. Flight of the Conchords -- Anyone seen this new show on HBO? Has me cracking up like a monkey every Sunday night. Watch it. I have a crush on Jemaine and his dancing.
2. New Foo Fighters song -- The Pretender -- great one to run/bike to...as most Foos songs are. Can't wait for the full album in Sept.
3. Athleta and Title Nine -- such cute clothes. Want to buy everything in the catalogue. Seriously. Want the whole thing.
4. The Kite Runner/A thousand splendid suns -- awesome books. So sad/riveting. Just read both of them. Hard to put down.

4 is all I've got today. Good workouts so far this weekend. Early AM swim with Michelle. Run after pushing E. Went down to Riverside to avoid pushing 30+ pounds of stroller and toddler up the hills around here. Good call. 50 minutes with the stroller on the flats nearly killed me. Uncle Kevin is here this week...hanging out and cracking E up.

Home Sweet Home

Back from our little trip up to Boston for the weekend (and Monday.) We had a great time. Saw Mike's family..pretty much everyone. Ella saw her first Red Sox game on Saturday night and had a blast. She wore her Red Sox cheerleader outfit and I think Mike's heart melted a bit seeing her doing a cheer for his beloved Sox and looking so freaking cute, too.

Busy weekend....happy to get 3 runs in with Mike, his brother (Kevin -- training for NYC marathon....fresh off his 3:22 race there last year. Smoking fast.), and Amy (Mike's younger sister -- a great, fast runner, too. training for some reach the beach relay though sounds tough in sept.) Needless to say the runs were somewhat quick. It is inevitable that someone picks the pace up on the agreed upon "slow" pace and the rest of the group has too much pride to protest. :) Oh well, nice to get some fast runs in NOT on the treadmill.

I think I ate all of Boston this weekend. Ugh. Thanks to Amy and Nate for letting us take over their house (or Nate's house). Thanks for taking a nap with E. Precious. Thanks also to Tmo and Bmo for pretty much paying for everything all weekend. We appreciate it!

Will post some pics later when I download them.

Acworth Pictures

"You look like you're working hard" was Mike's quote. I guess that's good....I think it means I have my ugly face on. :) The swim one I think I am smiling at Michelle.

Happy Birthday, Say-Tay

Happy birthday to my exactly two month older cousin, Sara. It seems like yesterday (or maybe 25 years ago) that we were preparing to tour as the 3 Aces:) (yes, we had a band. yes, we had ONE song. yes, we stunk.) btw -- the third "ace" (ass?) was my older sister, Megan. I bet you remember all the words to our big hit. In fact, knowing you, I am SURE you do. Post 'em here if you do....I would love to hear what our seven year old angst sounded like. It's been fun growing up with you....who else would I have had to complain about how stupidly strict our parents were? (NOW...I totally get it.)
Well, Happy Birthday, Say! Enjoy it!

Thanks

That's my mom and E from Monday. Thank for all your babysitting (both Annabelle and E) as of late, Mom.

Workouts getting back on track. Hour swim/1:05 bike yesterday. 40 min. run (pushing E in the stroller) this AM. I know I have said this before, but this is SO hard. I don't know if I could do much more than 40 minutes. Have to try and get another workout in tonight. We'll see....Mike's already claimed the trainer.

Happy Birthday, Mike!

The big 39 for Mike today. He's taking it like a champ. :) Just got back in from a nice night out courtesy of Mimi (my mom). We really do it up right when we get out sans baby....IHOP and a movie. Classy. Saw Bourne Ultimatum. Seriously. Seriously....holy crap. Jason Bourne ROCKS. Such a badass. I hope they come out with another one....maybe a prequel this time. Go see it. Good stuff.

No real workouts today....some lifting and some half hearted laps. Had nothing. Hopefully just tired from yesterday's race. Back in the saddle tomorrow. Heading to Boston this weekend to visit family, so gotta get all the bikes and swims under the belt before Friday. Pressure is on! :)

Happy Birthday, Mike. Hope you enjoyed it. Drago will be happy to hear that you got a proper bike jersey from your lovely wife...no more parachute slowing you down.

Acworth Women's Sprint Tri

Ahh...done. And home on the couch. And still not showered. Gross, but we were busy once I got home. Lunch then Trader Joe's fix.

Race went well. Acworth goes all out for this. So many spectators, especially for a sprint race. I can't say that 600 nearly naked women swimming, running and biking discourages guys from coming out though. :) Michelle came out to support...so nice to see her there. Thanks for all the yelling, Michelle! Can't wait to come and reciprocate at IM Florida. Kindzia was there, too. (What a surprise, huh? Single, male triathlete....talk about a great dating pool for him.)

Good swim. Not too much contact. Nice change from the last sprint I did where it was bad. I was actually going really hard on the swim, arms were burning. Good for a sprint though, I guess.
Bike was great. Felt strong and really pushed it. Hilly ride.
Run was tough...hilly again. No dry heaves though...made me think I didn't push hard enough. Oh well, there's always next race to drop some heaves.

Total --1:10something (I think). 2nd in my Age Group (I think). I didn't hang around for the awards, but Kindzia did and he promised to collect any hardware I might have gotten.

Lotsa firsts

We had a lot of "firsts" today. Big Friday for the Parker clan.
Ella went to see her first movie. We caught a matinee of "Ratatouille" this AM. She was great. Nestled in between me and my mom (who dropped everything to meet us. Thanks, Mom.) Had some fruit snacks and made to about 20 mins. left. We're definitely in for "Bee Movie" when it comes out.

Other first. I fell off the trainer for the first time today. No injuries...just a lot of head shaking. I guess I hadn't screwed it in well enough and ate some coffee table as a result. Did get caught up on the season opener of "Real World Sydney" though. I think I am way too old for this now. These people seem SO hard to like.

DAW DAW DAW!

I am sitting in our den typing this to the broken record of "MOMMA DAW, MOMMA DAW". Apparently, drawing, to Ella, is not a solo activity. If I take the crayon off the page, she starts again. Oh wow. Gonna be a long day at the hands of this 2 year old tyrant. :)
Easy workout week this week. My schedule has me tapering for the Acworth Women's Sprint race this weekend. Awesome. Tapering from what exactly though? My last 2 weeks of workouts have been less than challenging with travel and a cold. Oh well...we'll see how it goes. I always think it is funny that they call sprints a sprint....seriously, it is over an hour long race. I can't sprint for that long.
Heading out to meet Lauren for a swim in a bit. Then off to Roswell Bikes for packet pickup then to the vet to check on Spiderwoman's (Annabelle) face. She's SO much better. All the skin on her face is now falling off. Which is good.

Congrats!

Almost forgot --- big congratulations to Michelle who had a great race at Steelhead on Sat. Awesome job, Michelle! Hope you're recovering and you guys made it home safe and sound. Can't wait to hear all about it.

cooking dinner now. and blogging. blooking?
had a nice sunday. ran with e for the first time in a LONG time in her jogging stroller. the horseshoe bend hills (not to mention the oppressive heat) killed me. our next door neighbor was nice enough pump the tires of the cobwebby stroller and give us some water for the run. they must have thought i was nuts to go out for a run at 11:30. they may not be so wrong. :)
lunch with the johnsons. e and elise are two peas in a pod.....nutso and love to be wild. can't wait for them to move to the roswell.
had lunch in vinings...my old part of town. so many condos and million dollar houses there these days. my old (hoody) apartment is still going strong though. long live "the lakes".

Old Soldier's Day 5K

Not great, not too bad either. 20:57. Good enough for first place in my age group. :) I gotta work on better pacing. I was consistent. Consistently getting slower and slower with each mile. Not the smartest race. :) The dry heaves got me good on the last half mile. Seriously embarassing dry heaves. Loud ones. My throat is sore from them now. I am such a dork.
Nice to see Justin out there. Congrats to Kindzia on his PR and his AG finish.
Happy Weekend everyone!

Good Luck!

Good luck to Michelle tomorrow.....she's doing Steelhead half Ironman. GO, GO, GO MICHELLE!!! Me? Doing a 5K. Done before breakfast....sweet.

Spider(wo)man

Poor, poor Annabelle. Our 9 year old Golden has been bitten FOR THE 4TH TIME by a brown recluse spider. The vet said they never saw a dog get bitten twice and our poor baby has gotten it 4 times. She must nose them out or something. She's no genius, I see her attempting to catch bees in her mouth all the time. She's pretty sick...her neck is a mess of blood, puss and necrotic dying skin. Nice, huh? I promise not to post pictures. She's should be able to shoot webs from her paws any day now...poor Belly.

Workouts are going well. Missed some while at the lake. 1:20 on the bike yesterday and 40 min fartlek. Hour swim this AM.