Priorities?, Thursday 2 May (2013 Resolution Challenge)

I love the entrance to Highland Park at this time of the year. I’m afraid my photo doesn’t do it justice.

Paul arrived home from work with a boo-boo on his knee. Apparently some young kid driving a car, knocked Paul off his bike. I think the kid now has a new a….le.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published a list of movies to be released this summer. Here is my list of “non-intelectual, escapism movies” I would like to go and see: 5/3 – Ironman 3; 5/10 – The Great Gatsby; 6/28 – The Heat; 7/3 – Lone Ranger and Despicable Me 2; 7/19 – Red 2

I am of a mind to take my next photo to Giant Eagle as evidence that their baggers really need to be coached to be more economic when bagging. I know they have to be careful to not squash or cross-contaminate items, but this is really going to the extreme. It’s not a wonder we are creating/have created a plastic bag problem in the world. I think G/E needs to get its priorities a little more in line. Four items – four bags. Eggs, batteries, fish (double wrapped), pears.

Haven’t passed comment on our bathroom redo for a while. Touchy subject. However, we now have a functioning loo installed.

The bath tub has made it out of the garage to the bedroom; not quite to the bathroom yet.

And to close, a quote from the weatherman on CH 11 this evening. Not quite sure where his priorities lie: “I know we need rain for the crops to grow, but more importantly we need it to wash the pollen away”. OK, whatever.

Have a fun Friday.      Joanna

Serious Blonde Moment, Friday 5 April (2013 Resolution Challenge)

Yes, I admit it. I had a serious blonde moment today. I am quite anal about locking my padlock key in my gym locker. I have done it several times before. I know what you will say – get a combination lock. But then I have to remember the combination and after a really hard workout with an oxygen- and sugar-starved brain, remembering the combination probably wouldn’t happen. That aside, I have (had) a padlock and key. I have the key on a hair elastic which I religiously put around my water bottle, check twice and only then close up the padlock. Today, for some unknown reason, I did the check thing but then I put my water bottle in my locker and clicked shut the padlock. Instantly I knew something was wrong; took me a couple of nanoseconds to figure it out and then DUH! OMG, how stupid. Had to find the bolt cutters and get it cut off. I needed my water bottle for my workout. As a replacement, I have bought a padlock with two keys. Gonna leave the extra key in my car. I’m getting smarter with age! Not. This afternoon it was so nice outside; so pleasant to be able to go without a coat and not freeze. Supposed to be even warmer over the weekend. Going to the boat tomorrow to put the final touches on before launch next Friday. So excited except, looking back through my boat logs for the last 3 years, the weather has always turned nasty cold and windy once the boat goes in the water. You never know, things might be different this year. Apparently there aren’t so many potholes in the roads this year (complaints are down 50% apparently) because we didn’t have the freeze/thaw we normally get. We just had the freeze. I have to shake my head at the headline news at the moment in Pittsburgh. Three people were fighting on one of the downtown streets in the middle of the rush hour this afternoon, when 2 of them drew guns and shot each other. And just at that moment, a sheriff’s deputy just happened to drive by and arrested all three. One report said that one offender ‘was taken away squirming on the gurney’. I had to smile. And I just wonder if the new background checks that every potential gun buyer will have to undergo, would have actually prevented this incident. Probably not. I rather doubt that the offenders had licenses to own a gun, never mind a permit to carry. Progress is being made on the bathroom remodel front. The shower is ready to have the tiles stuck into place, the floor heating is ready and waiting, the new tub is in the garage awaiting its installation too. Anna is in California coaching a clinic this weekend and David has driven to Raleigh NC. Bekah thinks he is going to a baby shower. Really he is going to check out the half Ironman course where we will be competing in June. Oops, this evening’s post is rather long so I will sign off and go and make dinner.     Chow down and enjoy.   Joanna

Tea Bag Wisdom, Friday, 22 March (2013 Resolution Challenge)

And also if you get it right, you can extend your ‘young’ right in to your old age. I’m working on it. Funny sort of day; turned off the alarm and when I next looked it was 6:45am. Oops. And I don’t know about you, but If I get up late, I never seem to catch up with myself. However, I did manage to leave for the gym around 9:15, after I had called the builders to find out if the guys were coming. (Apparently they had a meeting this morning at their base before going out on their jobs.) I needed to know in case they were going to turn off the water all day again. I wanted to draw some water off so that I would at least have enough to make tea when I got home. As it turned out, they didn’t turn it off. They got the floor back down and most of the plumbing roughed out. And by the time they left, and we got home, they had put in our bedroom, ready for Monday, the new shower pan, various light fittings and all sorts of cement etc. So progress is being made. Paul has been away all week. Got home at lunchtime and decided it would be a good idea to go skiing. And it was. The slopes were deserted, there was a good covering of powder on top of the ice, it wasn’t too cold and the sun was out. It was beautiful. 

We called in for tea/hot chocolate and then set off again. I had an epiphany on my technique today and am now skiing down the hills, rather than sliding crabwise down. Of course, just in time for the end of the season. Forecast is good for tomorrow so we are going again. Paul has a list of the jobs left to do on the boat and reckons that we will have enough time to get it all done before launch if we don’t go to the boat tomorrow. This was just as we were leaving.

Oh, and Anna completed her 13.3 WOD this evening. Don’t yet how she did but it is a guarantee that she did her best and put it all out there. And the sh.t is hitting the fan in Pittsburgh. The ex police chief of Pittsburgh has been indicted for corruption and is going to plead guilty. The chairman of the PA turnpike commission has resigned and Mayor Luke Ravenstall has gone very quiet. Is he next? Is it a wonder we are in the state we are when we can’t even trust the people we are supposed to trust. We vote them into office because they tell us we can trust them! Bugger. On a positive note for Pittsburgh, the marathon has completely sold out. That is the marathon, half marathon and marathon relay. Pittsburgh is now the steel running city. Hope Friday went well; a good start to the weekend. May it continue.    Joanna