Success, Impatience, European Plots, and Other Matters

Success: Ladybug went an entire day without an accident yesterday and was a potty using champ! She rocks! When I got to daycare yesterday, Ladybug ran up to me gave me her hug and said, "Mommy I kept my underpants clean and dry all day! I want popcorn!" Not wanting to be fooled, I asked "You have the same underpants on that you had on this morning?" And she said "yes!" while flashing me. Sure enough. Same underpants! Will wonders never cease?

I told her how proud I was of her and gave her lots of kisses and hugs, and promised popcorn when we got home. At this point, Angelfish made sure to let me know that she kept her underpants dry and clean too. So she too got popcorn. And the best part? Ladybug went accident free all the way up to bed time when we put her in a pull up (she's not able to keep it dry at night yet) and put on her pajamas. She even got up to use the potty before going to bed, after our story! Let's hope this is the start of a nice long winning streak in the potty department!

Impatience: #1 The tri-bike I won, has been ordered. Now I wait, wait, wait for it to arrive at the bike shop. I was told that it could be here sometime this week, but it is already Wednesday. In the meantime, people have been inquiring as to whether I'm going to sell my road bike. If they'll give me the price I'm looking for yes, but otherwise I'm holding on to it. It's only 3 months old and is a wonderful bike. The bike shop owner and my coach recommend keeping it so that I can do road races or group rides that don't allow for triathlons and for those times I want to just train on a road bike instead of a tri-bike. So, if it happens to sell, great. If it doesn't, that's OK too. But, I REALLY want my Orbea tri-bike to arrive. (In my dreamy moments, I tell myself that it's being crafted and sent all the way from the Spanish Pyrenees, so I should be patient.)

#2 Blood work. I called the doctor's office yesterday about my blood work. I had it done last Tuesday, so you'd think they would have the results. Evidently, one of the tests that was ordered takes 7-10 business days for them to get the results so they don't have the blood work back yet. In this day and age, what in the world could they be doing with that blood that can take so incredibly long? They did tell me that my thyroid ultrasound showed that my thyroid is officially "slightly enlarged," but that there is no need for a biopsy or surgery. Anyway, I want to know the blood work results.

European Plots: Living in Atlanta spoiled us for overseas travel. Direct flights abounded. Living in Orlando means no direct flights to Europe. London would be at shortest 11 hours and 30 minutes, including flight times and layovers. Dublin, 15 hours. So now my darling hubby is attempting to distract my plots with tickets to the U2 concert that would be right in the time frame that I was talking about traveling. (U2 is my favorite band from my youth. I still love their music to this day - in fact, Angelfish and Ladybug were in utero at about 10 weeks at their last concert.) I have countered with the suggestion of attending the concert and going on a trip to Seattle, seeing my family who lives out there and crossing the border into Canada to go to Vancouver for a day or two. It's not Europe, but I've never been and always wanted to go. Plus, it brings us to just under 8 hours for layovers and flight times. If worst comes to worst, I will concoct an adventure to take on my own, but I would much prefer traveling with the fam. We shall see as the plotting continues.

Other matters: My morning swim was quite good. A 200 warm up, and 2 x 750 m negative splits. I felt like I was a little boat cutting through the water with little effort. But, I noticed that when I started to get a little tired I change my body position so that my head is not looking high enough and my chest is not held far enough forward. So I worked on it. When I stay in the right position, I am super fast! I made sure to maintain posture for the entire 2nd 750 m and I made the negative split easily with out much additional effort. The weird part too was that on that 2nd 750, I got so into a zone with it that I forgot where I was for a bit. I still somehow knew what lap I was on, but I had to remember whether it was my first or 2nd 8 (I count lengths in 8s, it's my swim number so I don't get lost on how many I've counted) because I was just going through the water like no body's business and evidently without a care in the world. It was almost like I fell asleep while swimming. You know, kind of like you do when you're really tired and driving a car... you are driving, your eyes are open, but you don't remember the past 5 miles. The only difference was that I didn't feel tired, I felt great!

And I had this nagging desire to tell the guy in the lane next to me that he crosses his arms over when he swims and that he needs to work on entering the water with his hands in line with his shoulders. This guy swims in the pool at the same time I do, is there almost every day I am there, and he works hard at his swimming. He uses the paddles and the zoomers, and does sprints and distances as well as just doing the paces. But he's never going to be able to get going really good until he stops crossing over. He does it with both arms, which is perhaps the only thing that keeps him moving in a semblance of a straight line, but his stroke is catty wampus. His right hand is entering the water in line with his left ear, and his left hand is in line with his right eye. Thus the slapping sound he makes when his right arm enters the water (that and his elbow isn't high enough). I don't know the guy. He has never even said hello in response to my greeting him on occasion when we both arrive at the pool at the same moment. Yet I want to fix his stroke. Maybe it's that slapping noise with the right arm... it's even worse when he breathes on the right side. Maybe it's my obsessive tendencies with swimming and/or perfectionism. Whatever it is, he's making me want to stop him (even in the middle of my swim) and tell him. Of course, he might find that rather impertinent. Ah well. I'll just have to be content to fix my own stroke and body position issues, and continue to out pace him in the pool.

So here's to a day of wishing for dry underpants, the arrival of my tri-bike and blood work, an adventure abroad, and good swim form! Tomorrow's workout will have me up rather early... I have a 1 1/2 hour bike workout that is supposed to be done on the trainer as it involves some 1 legged cycling, followed by a 30 minute run. So, think of me at 4:30 am!