About America's Favorite Pastime..

Observations about baseball from a girl:

1. Is it just me or does it seem strange that 9 men stand in a field, just waiting for something to happen? When it does, it lasts about 10 seconds, then they stand around again..

2. It is probably wrong that I think there are no ugly major league baseball players...I am old enough to be their mother.

3. Speaking of being their mother, who dresses these guys? One guy had his back pocket hanging completely out...Isn't it like the army where they all have to look good?

4. Nine innings is WAY TOO LONG! I could get the point and enjoyment with 7 innings. I think they do this at the Little League level, don't they?

5. Why do people who drink beer get more obnoxious the more they drink and yell LOUDER at the umpire?

6. Who pays $6.00 for a beer? I have been out of the loop way too long!

7. Why did the lady next to me think it was really cute to spray water on her husband with one of those fan thingies just as I was on my Blackberry that got water on it too, then chuckled when I gave her a dirty look?






8. I love my husband's reaction to a professional baseball game. It is worth it! He looks like a little boy who is the happiest kid on the planet when he is at these things..













9. I love sports, I love a good, fast basketball or football game. But there is something so sleepy about baseball.

10. Why can't we have just ONE male child to go with H to these things? I know girls can love this stuff too but our girls are very girly. I think until we get a small male child who can have that shit-eating grin on his face with H, I will be going to the games with him..

11. To the people behind us, who talked THE WHOLE GAME, please do not sit near us at the game tomorrow. We do not care if you go to Hooters, or got up at 2:00 AM this AM or drank too much yesterday..or have a whiny teenager who wants to go home after the 2nd inning!

12. Tommy Lasorda is eating and drinking WAY too much these days!














I am trying to love baseball!! I really am!

February totals and trip to LB..

February training totals:

Swim: 4188 yards

Bike: 215 miles:

Run: 75 miles

This includes trainer rides in the Spin Nazi's class, which should count as double miles in my book but it is in my heart anyway.

We are enjoying a few days in Long Beach visiting Lane:





This child has boundless amounts of energy and a strong personality...very hard to say "no" to her but I actually do sometimes!






She looks very much like her mom at her age. This is her mom now.
She caught the running bug from mom and Hartley and here she is training for her first half marathon (in which she will be kicking my ass):

We are staying at a house we found on VRBO.
We have found many places on this site. This house is several decades old and is called "Poet's Corner." I think a famous poet lived here but who knows? It is on a quiet old street in Long Beach with little difficulty in parking (a big plus). We were a little worried when the owner met us and showed us around. When we mentioned grand daughter and daughter staying here with us, it was met with talk of "charging us extra" & "not really a place for children" Uh-oh..With all the old nic-nacks around, I can understand that..We have really not had any trouble with Lane messing with anything. If all goes well this weekend, we will talk to said owner to see if our week long stay in May for the marathon will be any trouble. In my opinion, in this housing market in CA, I would not put up much of a fuss if I were her. We can always find somewhere else for the price I would bet. There are signs everywhere in the house on what we can use, what we cannot; which is a little offputting at first. I think at this point the positives outweigh the negatives..but will make final judgement tomorrow...

Did I mention the owner lives across the street?

We ran on the beach 10 miles yesterday. It was so beautiful-the sun, the ocean, the perfect temperature, no allergens, sea level. If only the pollution and traffic were not such an issue, I would live here in a heartbeat...oh and the cost of living..

Just the highlights...

Its been such a long time since I have blogged, I do not know where to start...

So I just will touch on the highlights:

1. Training-I have my long term goals:

Buffalo Springs Lake triathlon half IM in June in Lubbock.

Beach2Battleship half IM in November.

And my short term goals: OC Marathon, which may get to be a half IM by the time May rolls around. I am thinking of doing a sprint tri in May, going to Phoenix in April for a bike ride, Lake Tahoe Century in June, some fill in races..

As far as my training for all of this, I am primarily running, though not enough really. The quality of my workouts are much more intense than last year...I am going the "speed workout" route. This has included track workouts, hill repeats..etc. I am riding once a week on my bike "long" with my tri buddies..For some reason, I decided I needed a change in pace and signed up for "Roy's time trial Spin class" Some call it Satan's spin class (DP)..I sometimes refer to this 2 hours of torture on a spin bike as lead by the "Spin Nazi". At any rate, it is at 5:30 AM, that is in the morning..And to think when I worked as a nurse for 17 years, this was my waking hour everyday..I swam Masters for years and got up that early-no problem...Now it is tough getting up..I know it is time limited but my body clock just doesn't run that early anymore..I am really hoping that this sufferfest is worth it..I am TIRED of being the last one up the hill, the one everyone is waiting for. It is getting really old! Then my loving hubby, who could not ride a bike 5 years ago has surpassed me. Yep-he is riding with the big boys in the front now..Uh, honey can you PLEASE not leave me behind by myself so much? That is me now! Nagging, bitch cyclist wife I am sometimes..new role for me..

H & I are seriously batting around the idea of doing IMWA..in Western Australia in December. Afterwards traveling across Western Australia, which is basically the size of the US, then hopping over to New Zealand and hiking the Milford Trail. That should all take a couple of months...at least..Of course all depends on the health of one elderly mother in law and one elderly dog..we are dreaming for now..we hope it will become a reality..H is armed with travel books, we are hunkering down for some serious travel planning. This would mean another Ironman. Didn't I just say no more this year? Well, I forgot the pain, obviously and the course is FLAT, SEA LEVEL, WELL RUN, so far NO WOMEN in my AG. All of this makes me weak..I am just weak and addicted to these things, I swear..

2. Hormones- I am lathering on the creams daily for 3 weeks now, adjusting doses to get the least amount of side effects. It will take awhile for the verdict on this. Oh and by the way, these are bioidentical hormones, which from the research I have done, are safer and have less side effects than the synthetic, made from horse urine ones..The folks who disagree may be in cahoots with the drug companies, but don't get me started..

3. Grandparenting-my role as Grandma just keeps getting bigger. H & I are having fun seeing at least one granddaughter a month for many months now. We are now in Long Beach, spending time with Lane, our 4 year old, going on 30 one..She keeps us entertained with endless amounts of preschool energy...

There are so many things I want to do. Sometimes I feel like life is passing me by-there just isn't enough time or hours in the day..So far we are surviving the economic crisis pretty unscathed, for which I am grateful..

My online world continues to grow. Who would have thought I would meet a community of so many wonderful friends on the WWW?

Hello I am Debi and I am..

a Facebook addict. My daughter finally confronted me this AM with this:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tara-stiles/help-im-addicted-to-faceb_b_166726.html

Now I find myself losing hours and hours and finding random people on these social networking sites. Is that a bad thing? I love it and do not want to quit. If I start receiving naked pictures, well the I may consider it (well depends I guess)..ha!

My whole world has opened up with Facebook. I keep daily track of my closest friends, my family, even random people I haven't seen in years. It is the next best thing to having a job except you don't have to work!

Random thoughts by a menopausal athlete....

I just realized I am one of those women! I am my grandmother, one of those post menopausal "older women". Will someone please let my psyche in on this? My teenage mind and soul does not know this yet on a lot of levels. As someone said, menopause is like adolescence only in reverse. Traumatic, dramatic, emotional...

I came to this realization on a more clear level recently although my body has been trying to tell me for about 4 years now..Lab work says:

Estrogen: ZERO
Progesterone: ZERO
Testosterone (women have this too): A LITTLE
DHEA: A LITTLE

As Dread Pirate says, I am an empty vessel. Now on alot of levels this is a relief. The hot flashes, the fog brain, memory loss, difficulties sleeping, etc. has a reason. Yes it is nature's way of f%^*ing with your whole life, that is all. Did I mention anger and anoyance is part of this huge life change? I am especially annoyed that I went to my gynecologist 4 years ago regarding my sleep issues, who sent me to a sleep doctor instead of checking my hormones. And this person specializes in women's issues? He is male..not that that should matter-but I am pissed!! The sleep doctor (also male) did what he does: prescribe meds. Again, no mention of hormones, or menopause..It is not like I am in my 20's or something. Is menopause a taboo subject or something in the medical world? OK here is the biggest lesson I am learning throughout this whole process. There is no doctor, medical professional who is going to take charge of my health. EVER!! I am in charge of my body, my medical care, my health research, my treatments, health records, disease prevention..I have known this but for some reason my denial would not let me do this around menopause until now..

Well, anyway to make a long story short, I am now armed with several hormone creams that I get to slather on a couple of times a day, which seems like a pain in the ass but if it helps all of the above, I will be happy. I had another weird lab value that needs to be followed but I am not too concerned with that..

Oh and just for kicks, I stopped drinking coffee, which gets a bad rap with some folks, others feel it is a cure all for disease prevention. So I am going down the middle and drinking green tea...also taking more supplements, vitamin C, Vitamin D and calcium, etc...

My training is going well. Running is my predominate sport at the moment although somehow, in a weak moment, DP talked me into, inspired me to, something..anyways I ended up in a 2 hour spin class at 5:30 AM yesterday. A class that lasts 10 weeks and is run by a bipolar crazy ex-pro cyclist who thinks it is fun to yell at people on spin bikes. BUT, I have taken his class many times in years past, and know it helps with overall fitness...and it is REALLY hard when you are in it..I am committed however because H is convinced I will never do all 10 sessions (just watch me buddy) and DP will be there every week so I am held accountable to people...
I am just in the mood to change things up a bit..thus the spin class. I am also looking into a different weight routine, the current one is boring me to death..

We added another event to our ever growing calendar: The Tour de Phoenix, the first week in April. Invited by friends with a place to stay and someone taking our bikes-how could we say no? The wind should be familiar!

I am still doing running class on Fridays..it sucks like the spin class but will make me faster and sore and probably more bitchy but the end may be a good placing at Buffalo Springs half IM..

Did I mention that H and I are looking at this? Please God, let me come to my senses before I do another IM this year!