Looking Back on 2012

2012 was a pretty good year.  I accomplished things I never thought possible.  I had set some goals last year and met most of them. 

Totals for the year:

Miles Run--476.05 (unless I run tonight)  This is down from the previous year of 600 miles.  Somehow in my deluded mind, I thought I could run 1000 miles in a year and that was my goal.  ha.  good one.  I guess I never really broke that down into what that means per month because there no way this girl is going to average 83 miles a month!  Maybe if that's all I did, but trying to keep up with tennis, swimming and biking--that is just not going to happen. 

Reasonable goal for 2013--550

Miles Biked--220 miles.  Last year 164, the goal I set for myself was 250.  Close enough.  Yay me.

Goal for 2013--maintain and shoot for 260. 

Miles Swam--54!  Last year I swam 22 and my goal was 50!  That means I'm probably about 30 miles away from the 100 mile club at our local YMCA.  That's pretty exciting stuff for someone who couldn't swim 10 lengths without stopping just 2 years ago. 

Goal for 2013--join the 100 mile club at the Y.  End the year with 60 miles of swimming.


December totals 2012

Miles Run--37.65
Swim Yards--10,000
Tennis--5 hours
Bike Minutes--190
Weight Training--70 minutes

I didn't race much this year, but what I did, I loved!

First place finish in a local YMCA sprint tri!

Ran into some friends at the Beach to Beacon 10K

Conquered this ocean swim to complete my first olympic length tri!

One of my proudest accomplishments yet.

We managed to get in some non-running fun as well.

Oh!  and ended the year with one last race--the Operation Jack Satellite Run 10K.  19 degrees out and we knocked out 6.2 like nobodys business.

If I got to run with this crew all the time, I think I might want to do a marathon.....


That's all for 2012.  I wish you all a happy, healthy and wealthy New Year! 

Snow, Hair and Shit

Umm yah, so we are getting hammered by snow.  And here I sit.  At work.  Actually working.  Strangely enough, people are still showing up for their eye appointments.  I have no help--technician or optician (read: I have to do everything) so that kinda stinks.  But at least it's been worth the drive in. 

The view from my office window. 

So even though I am still seeing patients, there has been some down time for me to ponder life's mysteries. 

Like why I can almost grow a better moustache than my husband.  I mean, it hardly seems fair that even without the benefit of two functioning testicles, my facial hair continues to grow.  Damn you French heritage!  I am seriously considering getting that laser hair removal treatment. 


Or why on a snowy day when I can't get to the gym to exercise, I just want to:

And I mean ALL THE FOOD.


Or why this cracks me up so much:

ALERT:

The Therapy pool will be closed for the rest of today, Wednesday December 26, due to a Biohazard.

It will re-open at its regular time, 5:00am Thursday morning, weather permitting. Please check our website for cancellations and updates due to weather tomorrow, 12/27.

There will be no Family Swim tonight due to the pool closure.

Sorry for the inconvenience

Sent via email from one of the local YMCA's. 

Someone shit in the pool, so sorry you can't have your water therapy tonight. 

Have you tried laser hair removal?  Expensive?  Does it work?

Did you ever miss a swim workout because of a bolivian steamboat?

Most Awesome Weekend

This weekend goes down as one of the best ones ever.  For sure.  In fact, Christmas could be over right now and I think everyone in this family would still be pretty darn happy.

We surprised the kids with tickets to a Celtics game on Friday.  We took them out of school a little early so that we could get down to Boston in time to drop off the dog at my mother-in-law's house and pick up my sister-in-law who was coming with us.  Everyone was pretty excited just to go to Boston, let alone go to a Celtics game!

We got to Boston in no time at all--there was no traffic--it was all heading out of the city.  We had gotten there really early so we had plenty of time to kill at the pro shop at North Station.  The kids all picked out a souvenir--Manimal got a Celtics warm up suit, Princess picked out a stuffed Lucky that turns into a basketball and Sissy picked out a Celtics scarf.

So crazy that we actually ran into some people we knew from Boothbay Harbor.  Seriously?  What are the chances of that?  North Station is a pretty large subway hub in Boston that is also the home of the Boston Garden.  There were people everywhere and we run into the one other family from Boothbay that is there for the game too.  Weird.

I had purchased a family pack from the Celtics directly and they mailed me a 'credit card' that holds your tickets and they just swipe it as you go it.  I paid $189 for 6 tickets which is a deal and a half because I couldn't find anything online that was less than $80/ticket.  Even for nosebleed section.  So we knew that we were going to be way up high.  But that was fine.  The kids didn't care where we sat.

So we headed in to get to our seats.  The usher beeps our card and the thing says Not Valid.  The usher next to him tries to beep it and again Not Valid.  Holy shit.  I am Not Happy right now as we just drove 3 hours to get there and my tickets are NOT VALID?  Ok, so we go down to customer service and try to figure out what was wrong.

I had originally bought tickets for Jan 4 but then found out Sissy had a basketball game that day so I called right away and they switched the tickets to 12/21.  Or so I had thought.

As the guy at customer service was checking our card, it said the tickets were for 1/4.  Thankfully, I had my emails saved that said all was switched and was able to show him on my phone.  For once that piece of shit phone actually worked.  After some internal talking and figuring, we had 4 tickets in one spot and 2 tickets in another spot.  Both were, no joke, about 14 rows back from the court!

SCORE!

This is where we were sitting.  You can actually see that it is Paul Pierce.  And yes, they are tall as shit.

Thank you, thank you for that ticket screw up!  Un-freakin'-believable.  The kids are so spoiled now.  They won't want to watch a Celtics game any other way now.  We were directly behind the press seats, which no one showed up for, and therefore, we sat in.  You could see how tall they were, you could see their actual faces, the sweat, everything.  Just fabulous.  I want to go to a game like that every month.  We got to meet Lucky, the Celtics mascot, we were on the jumbo tron twice, we got those balloons that you wave when the other team is shooting foul shots, I swear it was like VIP.

The family pack was a pretty nice deal just by itself.  We also got a $20 gift card, and 3 packs for the kids that were full of sweat bands, sunglasses and other celtics stuff.  Well worth the money.  I think we'll purchase another family pack for a game later in the year.

The kids all decked out in their Celtics stuff.

The next day was the day that I promised Princess that I would finally take her to the American Girl Doll store.  Finally.  I promised this for her birthday.  Which was in May.  Yes, I get mother of the year.    But the bottom line is, we were finally going.

Thankfully, she really didn't want to do the tea-with-your-doll thing.  And she didn't even want to have her doll's hair done.  So, we just shopped.  Not much to talk about that trip, just make sure you bring your wallet.  Nothing is cheap and nothing is on sale.

There was a Cheesecake Factory next door so after an hour or so of AG fun, we went there for lunch.   It was a yummy lunch for everyone else.  I got fish tacos and they were just ok.  The cheesecake, on the other hand, was fabulous.  I guess that's why it's called The Cheesecake Factory and not The Fish Taco Factory.

Four different kinds of cheesecake--top left chocolate raspberry, tiramisu, lemon raspberry and my favorite the apple strudel.

Holy freakin yum.  If you ever go there, get the carmel apple strudel cheesecake.  It is spectacular.  That's $30 worth of cheesecake in that picture.  A bit overpriced but at least it tastes good.

I started this post before Christmas but never got around to finishing it so now it's Christmas night.  I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and I'll have another post tomorrow about the holiday.

Merry Christmas!

50 Shades of Chicken

A mishmash of random stuff that has happened to me this week:

1.  Not even 8 minutes into my morning, my first patient made these two comments:

"Well, at least you aren't getting fat"
"This must get so boring for you"

Seriously.  What the f is wrong with people?  at least I'm not getting fat??  umm... thanks?  Is that how I'm supposed to respond to that?

To the second comment--why yes, this IS incredibly boring to me.  That is why I chose this as my life's work, so I can be bored every second of every day.

2.  This cookie might be the cutest of all Christmas cookies I have ever seen.

 So freakin' cute.

3.  Or how about that moment you realize that your cheap hair elastic has leaked it's dye all over your hair?

See the lovely blue-ish tinge?  Right above the ragged split ends?

This is an excellent look for an eye doctor, don't you think?  I'm hoping my patients are either blurry enough already or the dilating drops will get them so they don't notice.  Dark rooms are my friend.

Or how about that same moment when you realize how bad your hair looks?  Double whammy for me today.


4.  One of my co-workers gave this book as a gift at our Christmas party yesterday. 

A cookbook that is written in the style of the 50 Shades of Grey book.  Pretty freaking funny.  Mustard Spanked Chicken, Dripping Thighs, Erect Chicken and Chicken with a Lardon.  An excellent joke (kinda) gift if you need one.  The actual recipes looked yummy!

What is the cutest cookie you have seen this holiday season?

HBBC Week 4 Recap

I have to say I feel a little bit like this is so stupid to even bother writing about when so many tragic events have occurred.  However, I don't need to rehash everything that has happened.  We all know what happened, we all are grieving in our own way and we all do not want to give that pathetic piece of trash anymore air time than what he is getting already.  I want to remember the innocent souls that were lost and focus on them.  Twenty beautiful babies and 6 brave adults.

Charlotte, Daniel, Olivia, Josephine, Anna, Dylan, Madeleine, Catherine, Chase, Jesse, James, Grace, Emilie, Jack, Noah, Caroline, Jessica, Avielle, Benjamin, Allison, Mary, Victoria, Anne, Lauren, Dawn and Rachel. 


____________________________________________________________________________________


Week 4 Review

Monday--1 hour of tennis, 10 minutes on spin bike and 10 minutes with weights = 8 points
Tuesday--4 mile run = 4 points
Wednesday--nothing
Thursday-- 1 hour of tennis = 6 points
Friday--4.85 mile run = 4.85 points
Saturday--nothing
Sunday--40 minutes on bike trainer = 4 points

2 days of 7+ fruits veggies = 2 points
4 dog walking days = 2 points

Week total = 30.85

Worst week yet, but also my most hectic week.  We had kid's stuff every evening during the week, dance dress rehearsal Friday night, basketball and two dance rectials on Saturday (add in a puking kid in the wee hours of Saturday am just to make things fun) and indoor field hockey tournaments for two girls on Sunday (early morning, of course!).  I forced myself to get on my bike trainer last night so I wouldn't have three goose eggs for this week. 

This indoor field hockey club is pretty darn fun for the girls (and me!).  I had a great time watching them both play.  Sissy plays for a U14 team and Princess is playing for the U12 team.  Sissy had a goal in one of her games and her team won the tournament.  Princess' team had two ties and two losses but still they did a great job.  She played goalie for the last 3 games and those were the two tie games.  She was blocking shots left and right and as we sat there, the parents around us were commenting on how little she was but what a great job she was doing.  Each time she blocked a shot, the crowd would cheer!  It was really great for her because she is the one who doesn't do sports.  So to have people cheering for her, well, I was just proud and glad for her to hear that.  The last game, not as good-- she had 6 goals go by her, but I guess you can't do well all the time, right? 

Here she is getting the goalie gear on.  It's a little big.... lol

So this week is a quiet week as far as activities go.  Dance is done until the new year, so is field hockey and there are only two basketball games this week and then that's done until next week.  We have a big surprise coming up but I won't say anymore because of certain folks that might be reading... I'll fill you in next week. :)


I hope this week finds you all well, thankful for your blessings and ready to celebrate the holidays!

2012 Can Just Go Away

Overall 2012 was a pretty good year, but like every year, sometimes there are things you wish you never saw/heard.  Here are a few of those things for me:

1.  Honey boo boo.  I cannot believe that show ever had a following.  I hope it goes away and never ever comes back.

2.  My blackberry and the shitty wifi that came with it.  What a waste of $30/month to have it.  It took forever to connect to anything and the screen was so small I couldn't see a damn thing.  Not that my new Android phone is much better...

3.  The story of Kate Middleton's hospitalization for 'acute morning sickness'.  Oh please.  Seriously?  Why is this news?

4.  Any and all Adele songs.  I swear I must be the only person on this planet who does not like her music but really, to hear it every hour on the hour on every radio station you turn to is a little much.  Go away please.

5.  The Red Sox.  This year was dismal.  Depressing.  Embarrassing.  And now Youkilis is a Yankee?  Will the misery ever end?

6.  Anything Kardashian.  nuff' said.

7.  All that Keep Calm and Carry On poster shit.  Or Keep Calm and Whatever.  What the fuck is that anyway?   Stupid.  This one is my favorite.

8.  My plantar fasciitis.  Please be gone and never come back.

9.  Or how about when people ask you your opinion on something and then either do the complete opposite of what you suggested or proceed to tell you all the reasons why that won't work.  Wtf did you want my opinion for then?  Just leave me the hell out of it. 

10.  To go along with number 9 above, (and this probably won't mean anything to anyone but eye doctors) Vision Plans can just go away as well.  I don't know how it makes any sense at all to separate vision from your medical health and why an eye exam can't continue to be included as part of medical insurance.   Just another way for insurance companies to charge the patient more and pay the doctor less.

11.  Political rants on FB, twitter, radio, tv whatever.  I am so glad that shit is over with.  I don't care which party you support--they are all crooks and liars who are looking out for their own pockets. 

What from 2012 do you never want to see/hear again?

I'll leave you with a cute parody of Gangnam Style.  The chickens kill me..  lol

HBBC Week 3 and other stuff

We are now beginning the 4th week of the Holiday Booty Buster Challenge so it's time to recap last week.  Here are my totals for the week.

Monday 1 hour of tennis = 6 points
Tuesday 5 miles run = 5 points
Wednesday 5 miles run = 5 points
Thursday 1 hour of tennis = 6 points
Friday rest
Saturday 50 minutes lap swimming = 5 points
Sunday 3.6 miles run = 3.6 points

+3 points for 7 veggies/fruits in a day
+5 points for FB check in
+3 points for dog walking 6 out of 7 days

Total points for the week = 41.6

Last week I finally went back to the dentist after a month of suffering with pain in my jaw and now below my ears after having all the dental work.  It turns out because one of the teeth that he had to rebuilt was a little bigger than what it should be, I was altering my bite to accommodate it and then caused TMJ.  TMJ is basically inflammation of the jaw joint.  Which, if you didn't know, is unbelievably painful.  For me, it feels like I have the worst ear infection ever.  Crazy pain just below the ears.  So, he ground down the larger tooth so that my bite is more like it used to be and hopefully, that will allow the jaw joint to heal as I'm chewing more correctly. 

What a strange thing that is, to have to think about how you chew and to try to do it correctly and evenly.  It's one of those things you never think about until it doesn't work properly. 

Since the diagnosis, I have been able to make sure to unclench my jaw and relax and I have had a few pain-free meals.  I do feel like it's getting better but like anything, it will take time to go away completely. 

lining up for promotions.  Manimal is in the black gi.

This weekend my son had his testing for jiu-jitsu with promotions afterward.  We weren't sure if he was getting stripes for his current belt or a new belt.  He received this belt just 5 months ago and so I kinda thought that he might be getting stripes.  But Professor surprised us all when all the kids in his group received the next belt up!  Manimal is now a yellow belt!  He was very surprised and proud.  He looks so god damn cute!

Professor giving him his yellow belt

nice long belt because they have this one for a LONG time... lol

Then afterwards we went over to Professor's house for a holiday party.  We ate too much and stayed out too late but had a great time. 

Just two more crazy weekends until Christmas and we can go back to normal.  Whatever that is. 

Are you keeping your holiday eating in check?  Keeping up with exercise?

Have you finished/started your holiday shopping?

November Review

Time to look back on November.  Another month that just flew by.  I'm pretty sure that my kids are going to graduate soon with how quickly time is flying by.  Remember when you were 8 and the days seemed to last forever?  When a week was so long and a month was like a lifetime?  I'm not sure when the distortion of time perception changed but I think it was somewhere in my 30's.  Around the time I had kids.... Hmmm...  When my time wasn't my own anymore.  But I digress.

So anyway.

Miles Ran--50.5  Second month in a row of breaking 50!  Yay me!  As long as the weather cooperates, I should be able to keep up running at lunch time.

Bike Minutes--135 Not that much this month.  Something had to give I suppose.

Swim Yards--7000

Weight Training--0  oops.

Tennis--5 hours

Races run--Nothing official but my family and I did do a Turkey Trot 5K on Thanksgiving.  It wasn't timed and was really just a fun run to help raise money for the local food pantry.  It was a lot of fun and I can't wait to do it again next year.

Current Excitement--There a lot of exciting things going on in my world right now.  Sissy's basketball team is undefeated right now 5-0, so that is pretty exciting.  They are playing the other undefeated team tonight so we'll see how that goes.  Princess has decided to join the u12 field hockey team that Sissy is playing u14 for.  They have practices and games all at the same time so that is super convenient.  The coaches are excellent and I'm thrilled to have the girls learn more and me too for coaching next year. 

My heel is doing great!  No pain to speak of.  I don't know whether to credit this to my Mizuno sneakers, the Rock Tape or just good luck.  Whatever it is, it feels great and running is not an issue at all. 

Boiled dinner.  I made boiled dinner last night and I forget just how much I love that!  Turnip, carrots, cabbage, potatoes, and kielbasa all boiled together in one large pot.  What's not to like?  Why, yes, Amanda--I DID make my 7 veggie goal for today!  I have crazy, smelly gas but whatever.

Current Annoyance--the aftermath from having my cavities filled continues.  My jaw aches all the time, I am 15xs more sensitive to cold than I was and my ears are now aching.  Something is not right.  I hope I'm not having an infection--well, actually, I do hope it is an infection because then I can just take antibiotics.  If it isn't infected, then that probably means I need a crown and/or root canal.  Neither of which is fun.  Or cheap.  Gah.  Take care of your teeth people.

Current Book--Hunger Games for the second time.  Still a good book. 

That's all to report this month!  Half day for me today AND it's sunny and warm!  Bonus! I'm headed home to go for a run then off to watch Sissy play ball!  Have a great day!

HBBC Week 2 Check In

Just checking in with my weekly post of how I am doing with HBBC.  Not a great week for running miles--the weather and my schedule just didn't allow for it.  But I was able to get grab a few last minute sessions on my trainer to make up for the missed run during the day.  Here's last week's schedule:

Monday-- 1 hour cardio tennis = 6 points +1 point FB check in
Tuesday-- 4 miles = 4 points +1 point FB check in
Wednesday--30 min spin = 3 points +1 FB check in
Thursday--1 hour cardio tennis = 6 points, 40 min on bike trainer = 4 points + 1 FB check in = 11 total
Friday--no exercise
Saturday--2000 yds swim = 5 points
Sunday--50 minutes on trainer = 5 points

2.5 points for dog walking 5 out of 7 days. 

Only one day with 7+ fruits and veggies +1 (I'm so bad with that...)

I won a bunch of great coupons for free products that I'm so excited to try.  Although I forgot to bring them shopping with me yesterday.... doh.  Next week..

Tomorrow I should have the November totals.  I'm excited to see how many running miles I got in!  I think it was a pretty good month.  I hope your December is off to a great start!