Monthly Reports SUCK!

Particularly when the contract came back 3 workdays before the end of the month but you have to make it look like you did something on the project because 2 people are charging a week and a half to it (the contract was signed 10/30). I really suck at saying nothing in 50 words or more. The worst part is that one of the things to fill in on the report is "significance of the work" - so when I get some data I can put it straight into the model? Because eventually we'll have data to evaluate but we have to wait on everyone else to send us their data?...Oh, and Wednesday I get to have a conference call about the all the (non)work I've accomplished* (and all the other research partners) that'll last about an hour. ARGH. My boss is in Spain for all of this -yay for him.

So, while I rack my brain for better ways to say 'nada' here's what I did for Thanksgiving:



Yes, that is my little sister going swimming in the northern Gulf of Mexico the morning of November 29th. If I'd had my suit, I'd have been in there, too**. We had gorgeous weather until Saturday afternoon, when it started raining. And Dad only tried to kill us once while driving.:)



*on this project, I've done lots on another project. I'm glad I now have something else to do than rename files and calibrate rasters.
**The forecast had said upper 60s to low 70s for the high so I didn't pack my swimsuit, but it felt much warmer, like well in the 70s maybe even 80 Friday afternoon. I'd've also had to shave my legs. It has been a long time since I even planned on going swimming based leg hair.

500+

500 meters / 15 minutes today.

100 free
50 back
200 - 2 sets of 50back kick/50free pull
50 back
75 back kick while pinching the massive stitch in my side
25 free

PLUS an additional 100 meters of walking in the water (waist to shoulder deep) with my arms over my head trying to get rid of the stitch. It was almost on both sides. If it hadn't been for the cramp I might have tried for a 750.

I wish I had remember to bring a pair of barrettes with me. My goggle straps didn't quite hold all my hair back.

(I'm now just past Falmouth.)

300 Meters

Or yards, I'm not sure which that pool is.

Yes, I swam last night, just not very far. Nettie swam 75 yards (without stopping to rest half way!) in the lane and who knows how much diving for pennies. (diving for pennies without bright over head light (i.e. the sun) is much more difficult, especially ungoggled as I usually swim.)

There are some definite disadvantages to swimming laps with Nettie. If she is in front of me I have to either kick only or do a catch-up drill* so I don't run her over. And one of my 25s was towing her back to the other end of the pool. (Where else is a girl going to get an extra 50 lbs to pull?) She, obviously, bored with lap swimming quickly but seemed relatively happy diving for pennies while I continued. One problem with the pool, and our timing, is that lots (relatively) of people come to swim after work and don't seem too keen on asking strangers to share a lane.

Allow me to review the evening, then ask you a question:They keep two lanes up in the "lap" pool (oddly the put a lane rope in against the wall, too) and the rest is open and from 10 to close the pool is open for "lap/open swim" (at least in August, could we maybe get a schedule for 2 months at a time??). When Nettie and I arrived there was a person in one lane (lane '2' for reference) and a young couple swimming/flirting just outside the lane (I think the girl was using the lane rope as a guide; they were not flirting/hanging one to each other obnoxiously as the students often do at UA's outdoor pool.) so Nettie and I had a lane to ourselves, which is good because she is slow, splashy, and rest a lot, and if I'm on my back I need lane ropes or a wall to keep me from wandering across the pool. After I finished swimming laps we got out of the lane and moved over to the open area, there was a guy swimming about in what would be the 4th lane over and the young couple mostly just hanging out at the shallow end of lane 3 she occasionally swam down and back. A guy showed up and moved into the lane I'd been swimming in (lane 1). Then two other ladies showed up to swim (in lane 3.5?) and I had Nettie move to the shallow end of lane 5, next to the ramp for chasing pennies. When lane 2 guy left, one of the lane 4 girls was using a kick board so she certainly could have seen that the roped lane was empty but she didn't move. (I know that while one is swimming laps one often doesn't notice when someone in the next lane gets out/in, particularly several lanes over, but when I swim I want to be in a roped lane (see backstroke comment above so if I'm using a kick board and can see what's going on (or paused at the wall), I'd be watching for these things.) Then someone else arrived and took lane 2 and a couple arrived and swam in lane 5 and Nettie was stuck diving for pennies basically right against the ramp (several times my throws actually landed on the ramp) and the shallow part at the end of the ramp. Three feet isn't much of a practice of ones underwater swimming. I did manage one more lap (for a total of 350 yards) right along the wall/ramp but lane 5 guy kind of gave me a bad look. Hey, he and his wife were staying on the line and to the other side of it, I had room. I did my best to keep us out of the way of the lap swimmers (unlike the other kids who were going back and forth between the pools and randomly jumping (but not on people) into the lap pool. BTW, I don't want to do anything but float in the "therapy" pool; 93° water is too warm to even think about moving in.) I just found the unwillingness to share a roped lane, odd.

Did my years (all 4 of them) give me a different view on sharing a lane? Or just give me a high preference for roped lanes even when room exists elsewhere?

We were there about an hour total. Nettie had tons of fun. (Hello, she was with her favorite sister, how could she not?)


*While swimming "freestyle" one are is stationary, always extended forward while the other does a stroke. When the stroking arm completes it's recovery (catches up), they trade places/jobs. To stay behind Nettie I didn't kick.

Can you say chick magnet?

A guy surfing with a cat - that has to be even better than a dog at getting girls. It'd work on me*. I'm guessing 'surfing cat' is probably just below 'cute baby/little kid in the stroller at the mall' on the guaranteed-to-get-girls to stop and chat list.



*assuming the cat seemed to like the water, as this one does, and didn't act like it was being tortured, like mine would.

Weekend Round-up

Warning: Long, rambling, mostly pointless.

Saturday I got up at 5, woke Nettie, went back to bed (but not asleep) until Nettie got out of the shower twenty minutes later (wish she'd told me she was going to shower in the morning).

We left only 10 minutes late for the triathlon (Collegiate National Championship). Arrived on campus I pulled my bike off the rack and discovered that despite my checking and pumping up the tires Friday, my front tire was flat as a pancake; riding down the hill wasn't bad. We managed to wind our way to the volunteer tent, get our assignment, and hitch a ride with a family also working in the same area. Then we sat for 30-45 minutes. Then we stood and waved a flag for 3 hours. I was facing the sun much of the time, or turned sideways and allowing my hair to shade my face. I got to chat with a nice police officer who works nights and got 'voluntold' to work traffic control for the triathlon. Getting up at 5 greatly diminished my remembering sunblock and a hat. It was a beautiful day. After the last rider went by we hitched a ride back. We went and ate, then went home. I napped; Nettie (except for about 5 minutes in the car) didn't.

Ellen came over and she and I went to Dillards. Our local store is going out of business. They have some stuff really reduced; some stuff barely discounted; and some stuff not discounted at all. All of it, by this time, is pretty picked over. There was a really pretty pair of shoes that were completely impractical (too high!) and that was the only thing I saw. I could have looked at the men's shirts more but didn't feel like dragging Ellen through there. Then we ate and went to Movie Gallery. I think we wandered around for half an hour and never picked out anything. Then we went back to her house and watched a couple of movies.

Sunday I got up at 6, Nettie came over. We left for the triathlon (Tuscaloosa Triathlon) on time. We worked the swim start this time. Not much to do since there were only two waves - men and women & relays. There were four colors of caps, so I wonder if they started out planning on 4 waves and decided the groups were small enough to just do two. I made Nettie come over and cheer for the swimmers at the swim finish. One guy did the backstroke the whole way, apparently he learned a little more than a year ago. Last year he didn't finish the swim; this year he did. Backstroke is not the best for an open water race because it is hard to see where you're going. I wouldn't be surprised if he swam an extra 50m (over the 750 meters) just course correcting. We stayed and cheered for him (2nd to last) and the grandmother who was last. We watched a little of the bike finish after that, then went home. I napped, again.

About 2, Nettie, Honey, and I picked up her friend and we all went to EarthFest On the Quad. We ate tofu-dogs and a tofu-burger (Nettie didn't like her hot dog.); listened to a reading of The Lorax ("I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues") with (bad) puppetry; the girls got their faces painted; I got two free nice tote/grocery bags from the Sierra Club. Before we went to the Quad we stopped by the park; my flannel shirt/jacket was still where I'd set down at 7:30 in the morning but Nettie's headband was gone. Later, I planted a few veggies, watched The Phantom Menace, and went to bed. I was exhausted.

Yesterday wanted a weekend to recover from my weekend.

Tri-athletes are incredible. And slightly insane. I didn't make it to the dance (and I'll be out of town for next month's). I didn't go because Ellen wanted to hang out and I don't get to see her that much. (I told you there would be rationalizing.)

I'll stop rambling now.


p.s. at least one word in my post tags (all of them) begins with each letter of the alphabet.