retail therapy

i'm having a rough day. just cannot seem to get it going. i'm STILL fighting this cold, which is frustrating beyond words. it's starting to make it hard to be motivated to work and is just leaving me feeling uncomfortable all the time. and ugly and fat and all low self-esteemy. ugh. if it doesn't go away soon, i'll see a doctor about it. maybe he/she can recommend some sort of wonder drug.

i went for a swim yesterday (1000 yards) and felt pretty good doing it. i thought that the half hour dip in disinfectant might help knock away some of the cold germs. i don't feel as bad today as i did yesterday, but i'm still not 100%. i may ride my bike at home tonight during lost. i'm not really feeling all that up to exercising lately, but i have a 5 mile race at the end of march that i have to get ready for.

i was feeling so like crap that i went shopping at lunch in hopes of cheering me up. i bought a hairbrush. whoohoo. not exactly exciting, but it was something i needed and i got one with ceramic on it (which is supposed to be good for some reason?) that matches my cool tiger stripe blow dryer. so that was fun.

anyway, just need to make it another 2 hours or so before heading home. i'm about due for some more sinus medicine. please please please go away cold!

citrus

somebody here is eating an orange and it smells SO GOOD. it reminds me of when heath and i were just in florida visiting his grandma. (i need to post more about it and post some pics soon!) she has grapefruit and orange trees in her yard and they had more fruit on them than a person could possibly eat in a year. it was so great! in the morning, i walked outside and grabbed an orange off the tree and ate it. it was so fresh and juicy. yum! heath's grandma picks them and juices them, then freezes the juice since there's no way anyone can eat all that. i wish i were back there now, pigging out on fresh oranges... much better than the cold ick here. i usually don't mind winter all that much, but all this snow is starting to wear on me. i should use some citrusy lotions or something to help cope...

score!

i went to barnes and noble today at lunch. mindy and ron had gotten me a book for christmas that i already owned. i returned it last week, but didn't have time to shop around (note: i also found out that beginning in march, b&n will not accept returns more than 2 weeks past the date of purchase, even with receipt... going to make it hard to buy gifts there from now on). today i was able to browse for a bit. nothing was really catching my eye. i found a triathlon magazine that looked good, but still needed to spend about $6. i was getting discouraged, but then i saw it. a table with a sign that read: "limited time: games sale. everything with green dot sticker = $1." yeah. $1. and it wasn't total crap either. i got the shrek version of monopoly, a family guy version of uno, some game that involves a martini shaker, some chicago cubs dominoes in a cute tin lunchpail type box, and another game that i don't even remember what it is, but it looked like it might be interesting. insane sale. total luck. whoo-hoo, that made sitting in my cube on this gray monday with a looming winter storm warning tolerable. ;)

stolen

from dooce.

cute stuff.

insanity

today i have been participating in something so absurd: the purchase of chicago cubs home game tickets. the demand is so high for these tickets that they have elaborate systems put in place with wristbands, a random number drawing, online waiting rooms, and various ticket limit rules. since 10am, i've been in an online waiting room, as has heath, hoping against hope to get to drop gobs of money on baseball tickets. by the time i finally got in at about 2:10pm, about seven games had completely sold out. i managed to grab some bleacher (read: hot commodity) seats for a weekend game in may. i lucked out and got back in at about 2:45pm and grabbed some tickets to a weeknight brewers game in september (hoping that it is the heat of the pennant race). heath still has yet to get in at all. as of this post, there are 16 games sold out. the first to go were the cross-town classic tickets (heath and i were at one of those games last year and it was miserable - cubs lost, i was sick, and it was rainy and freezing) and opening day. next were the cardinals games. now, it seems more random, but weekend games always go first.

it's insanity, really. which is why, when i bought whitecaps tickets last may about a week before the game and got seats right (and i mean RIGHT) behind homeplate for a fraction of a fraction of what cubs tickets cost, i was visibly giddy. small town baseball is soooo fun! but wrigley field is one of a kind! GO CUBS!

excellent sermon

there was a guest pastor at our church (first united methodist church of evanston) last sunday (2/17), and his sermon, "finding the real thing" was one of the best sermons i can remember hearing. so, i wanted to share it here. if you have some spare time, i highly recommend giving it a listen, as it is certainly worthwhile. the church podcasts the services here -- how cool is that?! you can download the mp3 directly or subscribe to the podcast through itunes. i haven't listened yet to see how the sound quality is, but hopefully it's good.

tax refund = races

i already got my tax refund! i already spent my tax refund! it went to a good purpose, though: my race entry fees for the year. (i have an expensive hobby...)

so here is my race calendar so far.

• Shamrock Shuffle March 30 in Chicago, IL: 8k run = 5 miles
• Galena Triathlon May 17 in Galena, IL: Sprint Triathlon: 660 yd swim, 16.8 mile bike, 4.3 mile run - hilly!
• Quad Cities Triathlon June 14 in Davenport, IA: Sprint Triathlon: 600yd swim, 15 mile bike, 5k/3.1mile run
• Tri-ing For Children's Triathlon July 27 at Kettle Moraine State Park, WI: Olympic Distance Triathlon: 1.5k swim, 40k bike (approx 25 miles), 10k run (6.2 miles)
• Accenture Chicago Triathlon August 24 in Chicago, IL: The biggest triathlon in the world!: Olympic Distance Triathlon (same distances as the WI race above)
  

i might also do the following races, depending on scheduling, etc:

• Race to Wrigley April 13 in Chicago, IL (5k run that ends inside Wrigley Field - Fun!)
• Run for the Zoo June 1 (?) in Chicago, IL (10k run that goes through Lincoln Park Zoo and along the Lakeshore)
• Lifetime Fitness Triathlon July 12 in Minneapolis, MN (Olympic Distance Triathlon)
• Muddy Buddy August 3 in Elgin, IL (Fun race that Heath did last year - we might do it together this year)

i finally made it back to the gym today after a week of being sick with a horrible cold. i struggled on the treadmill, but expect to be back on track shortly. this will be the most triathlons i've done in a season, so i'm really excited to see how much i can improve over my previous races!

in case it wasn't already a luxury enough...

if fast forwarding through commercials using your tivo remote is too much work - having to watch for the commercials to end and the show begin, then being fast enough on the play button to not miss any program (whew! who can manage that?!), you can hack a button on your remote to jump the program 30 seconds forward (which happens to be the length of the majority of commercials). so, you can just hit this button a few times to get through the commercials. how to is here. i might try it tonight and see if it works. supposedly there are some updates that have happened that disabled it. worth a try though!

updates coming...but first

currently wishing i had: a pashmina

yes, one of those blanket-y scarf-y things that were uber popular a few years back. i think they've come around to being not entirely unfashionable anymore (after the backlash following their overpopularity). last weekend, i saw one in the airport and thought, hey that would be nice to have on the plane, but decided to not spend the $10. duh. last night, one would have been the perfect solution for a short sleeved dress on a cold night with no warp/appropriate sweater/anything to keep me warm in sight. now today at work, i'm chilly and am realizing that once again, a pashmina would offer an extra layer of warmth, without looking utterly frumpy, and maybe even looking a bit stylish. i'd probably lean toward a baby blue color, since that would go with a lot of what i have. pink would be another maybe. now, pashmina refers to the specific material, but has come to mean the item itself. i should've spent the $10 at the airport!

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