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Photo taken by Hannah

Our Sally has had an injury in her shoulder, which became infected and required some very expensive veterinary care. For the next few days she will be wearing this silly “party hat.” She has finally stopped trying to back out of it, but continues make violent attempts to shake and claw it off. Most pathetic, though, is when she tries to clean herself. Over and over again, she raises her paw delicately toward her head and licks away at the plastic shield in front of her face. This has got to be frustrating!  She is not allowed to go outside, but stands, staring intently at the door like this many times a day, as if willing it to open. It is getting harder and harder to keep her in so hopefully after she gets the drain out of her shoulder tomorrow, we will be able to let her out again.

2008 BRI Triathlon at Seafair

Total Time: 1 hour 33 minutes and 34 seconds 

Division Place: 47 out of 117 women ages 35-39

Yesterday, I participated in the Seafair Triathlon for the first time.  This was my fifth triathlon and my first of 2008.  It felt a little rough.  Maybe I am not as prepared as I have been other events.  In any case, I was proud of myself for finishing and pleasantly surprised by my results, which took over 24 hours to post.  Unacceptable!  Here is my race report:

It was cool and overcast as Isaac dropped me off at Seward Park.  After finding my area and racking my bike, I made my first of several trips to the port-a-potty.  Adrenaline tends to make me very productive.  I set up my area and made the rounds, acquainting myself with the layout of the transition area.  I ate some Shot Blocks and drank a lot of water.  As I set things up, I listened to the folks around me making small talk about recent triathlon experiences. 

At this race, they move everyone out of the transition area and into the staging area before starting anyone.  The announcer explained the various courses and rules as people got into the water and took little warm-up swims.  I got in for a few minutes myself, just to, ummm, warm up the water a little.  Then everyone got out and the race began.  First the Elite category started.  My wave was fifth, starting approximately 15 minutes later.  The first couple of waves were already finishing by then. 

The Swim – I positioned myself over to the left of the pack, neither in the front or the back of the group.  Seeing as how this was a counter-clockwise route, this was a popular position to be in and I found myself crowded once the swimming started.  I felt very slow and heavy and kept colliding with other swimmers.  There were three turns in this route and by the third one, the following wave started to pass me.  This felt discouraging, but I kept on going.  What choice did I have?  As I struggled to swim amidst the tangle of flailing limbs, I found myself thinking, “This is crazy!  What the hell am I doing here?”  I don’t think this is the first time I’ve had this thought during the swimming portion.  In any case, I did finish and managed a slow jog out of the cold water and over the finish line.  18:41 

Transition 1 - As I ran for my rack, I reached to take off my cap and it sort of flew off my head and landed on the ground behind me.  My mind told me to leave it, but my body tried to stop anyway and as my back leg planted to pivot around, my front foot slipped on the grass and I impressively did the splits.  Anyone who saw this maneuver must have thought I was pretty amazing!  Thank goodness I didn’t hurt myself.  I retrieved my cap and ran back to my spot where I quickly changed shoes and downed more water and another Shot Block. 3:21  

Bike - I was excited to get on my sparkly, new bike.  I felt that I pushed hard and did well during this portion of the race.  It was pretty uneventful.  At the end of the race as we were rounding the final curve into the park, a clearly hormonal man yelled at me to get out of his way.  I yelled back at him which was probably a waste of energy.  42:18 

Transition 2- When I got back to my transition spot, I found that someone had placed his bike directly on top of my transition area.  This complication really threw me.  I spent several minutes trying to figure out a solution to the fairly simple problem of where to put my bike since all the areas near me were full.  Finally I managed to set it somewhere and changed my shoes to start the run.  2:54  

Run - The sun had come out by now, but it was still nice and cool; a beautiful day!  The run felt heavy and difficult – not at all like last year’s Danskin where I felt I was flying along.  I was trying to keep up with the 38-year-old woman just in front of me and did pretty well until we came to the big uphill at mile 2.  I actually stopped to walk on this portion and I so wish I hadn’t.  I don’t think I needed to do it.  I  had just psyched myself out about this hill and in my mind I had already planned to walk it.  As it evened out at the top, I started running again and felt myself somewhat recovered.  At the bottom of the hill, I figured it wasn’t much further and I could definitely make it.  I kept coming around those curves and hoping to see the finish line and finally it was in sight.  As I neared the end, a woman was gaining on me and pushed me to pick up my pace.  She still passed me though.  Damn! 26:16  

Summary -  I am surprised that my swim and run times turned out okay and a little disappointed that my bike time wasn’t better.  I was actually slower in that area than previous races.  But considering how I was feeling, I think this is a respectable outcome.  I am doing the Whidbey Island Triathlon again in two weeks so that should be fun.  The distances on that one are different so it will be a little hard to compare.  Maybe I should consider another Sprint triathlon later in August. 

As always, I appreciated having my family there to cheer me on.  Thanks family!!  After I finished we walked to the car and went for our traditional post-triathlon brunch at the Blue Onion Bistro.  We almost didn’t get to eat there because they were short-staffed and closing early, but the owner came out to explain and I guess we seemed so disappointed, that he decided to let us be the last customers of the morning.  Lucky!!      

Hannah has been earning extra money this summer as a mother’s helper.  It turns out that she’s really good at being the boss of other kids.  I guess that shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise seeing as how she’s been practicing for so many years on her brother.  

Now when she sees babies, Hannah emits soothing noises and reaches out to pick them up.  She’s so talented that she can do this while simultaneously barking orders at nearby toddlers. Today my friend Mary gave her the advice to insert ”pleases” and “thank-yous” when she issues her commands.  I’m sure hoping that takes. 

My hairdresser and friend, Camille is delighted with her work.  Hannah will be helping Camille two days a week throughout the summer.  Camille’s three active children seem satisfied as well, if a little put out that they don’t always get their way like they did with last year’s babysitter.  

When Hannah reported for duty on her first day, she came prepared with her terms.  “I have one rule,” she told Camille firmly.  ”I want the kids to stay inside for the morning and then after lunch we can go outside.”

“Hmmm,” said Camille thoughtfully, “I don’t think that’s going to work for us.  I want my kids to be able to play outside whenever they feel like it.”

Hannah considered this.  “Okay,” she conceded, “That’s fine.”   

Hannah came home from that first day and took a nap!  Later, sharing her experiences from the day, she said with a tired smile, “those kids really wore me out.  They are so active.” 

Ummm, yeah.  I can totally relate, sister.   

H and E

Originally uploaded by Ashly and Isaac

This picture was taken on our first tidepool walk of 2008. It’s a very good illustration of the effect Kalaloch has on us.

DSC03555, originally uploaded by Ashly and Isaac.

Here we are at Kalaloch a few weeks ago. This is how most of us spent the sunny, but cold days on the beach. A few crazy kids actually got in the water!

I don’t like this title.  It feels like a question in a survey.  It is meant to be conversational, I think and based on what I’ve read, the film was originally entitled, “And when did you last see your father?” (with a British accent of course)  I think I like that better as it feels a little more like a light, casual question.  I can’t help but hear this one in the voice of James Earl Jones.  “When did you last see your father, young Luke?” 

The good news is that I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would, but I still can’t really recommend it.  I suspected it might annoy me when I saw the preview, which featured Colin Firth making a very dry speech intended to outline the message of the movie.  Listening to his lofty discourse, one feels they will be receiving a primer on family relationships, rather than just experiencing a story.  I had hoped that the actual movie, directed by Anand Tucker, would feel less clumsy. 

The story is about Blake (Colin Firth), a poet and writer, who has spent his adult life avoiding his father, Arthur, who annoys and embarrasses him.  The relationship is wrought with mixed emotions and conflict, as parent-child relationships can be.  Arthur continually criticizes Blake for everything from his spending habits to this career path.  “I wanted him to be a doctor!” he says to anyone who’ll listen.

When Arthur is diagnosed with terminal cancer and given only a few weeks to live, Blake comes to stay in his childhood home and help his mother, Kim (Juliet Stevenson) and his sister Gillian (Claire Skinner) care for him and get things in order.  As his father’s health rapidly declines, Blake feels turmoil over the events of the past, particularly his father’s apparent infidelity and the frequent painful humiliation he suffered by his father’s impulsive and, often, cruel teasing.  

Firth is all arrogance and self-loathing (Will he ever get to play a character other than Darcy?).  His most vulnerable moments are scenes with the women in his life — his mother, his beautiful wife, Kathy (Gina McKee) and Sandra the woman who was his first love (and his family’s live-in maid).  Broadbent and Stevenson sparkle as his parents.  I wanted to see more of Claire Skinner, as Blake’s sister Gillian, who seemed quite wonderful in her brief moments of screentime.  I’m going to keep my eye on her. 

While I appreciated the excellent performances in this film, I found the writing and the direction to be lacking.   The dialogue was rather staid and the relationships not fully explored.  Very British I suppose, but having seen plenty of British films that broke these barriers, I wanted more.  A brief glimpse of sharp sibling resentment between Gillian and Blake as adults yields no follow-through.  Conversations about the past are aimless and inconclusive. 

The didactic tone from the preview is threaded through the film – as if those of us  in the audience might not have some experience with what it is like to have these kinds of conflicted feelings about one’s parents – that is loving them so completely, worshipping them really, while also being driven completely mad by everything they do.  Hmmm.  I may know a thing or two about that.