OMG, I just discovered the most amazing Gen Y thing ever.
QR codes... my phone can read 'em. Just used one to download the LivingSocial app... It's pretty exciting.
**Now, to get one on the back of my government business cards...** HA! I forgot, the stone age doesn't have QR scanners, but it does have lots of acronyms...
18 October 2010
12 October 2010
05 October 2010
Dear Dad,
On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 9:42 AM, ______Randler <[email protected]> wrote:
Hey kiddo
Hope you are having a good trip & getting a chance to enjoy the pizza.
We have decided to foster this little dog for a week and see how it will work.
I will send you a pic soon. He is little fuzzy mutt, part this and part that.
His name is boss & you can see where he got it. He is a cocky little thing.
We will call him Tony. ( In memory of one of the local white ducks who was killed by a dog recently)
You had to be there. He is cute and smart & house trained !
We'll see how it goes.
Love you
Dad
Dear Dad,
That just made my day - and my friend Becca's too.
Why did a duck have a name?
How did a dog get ahold of it?
And why would you name a dog after a duck that had been killed by a dog?
These and other thoughts are keeping Becca and I in stitches this morning.
I'm super-excited about your potential new housemate :)
Love,
Paula
Hey kiddo
Hope you are having a good trip & getting a chance to enjoy the pizza.
We have decided to foster this little dog for a week and see how it will work.
I will send you a pic soon. He is little fuzzy mutt, part this and part that.
His name is boss & you can see where he got it. He is a cocky little thing.
We will call him Tony. ( In memory of one of the local white ducks who was killed by a dog recently)
You had to be there. He is cute and smart & house trained !
We'll see how it goes.
Love you
Dad
Dear Dad,
That just made my day - and my friend Becca's too.
Why did a duck have a name?
How did a dog get ahold of it?
And why would you name a dog after a duck that had been killed by a dog?
These and other thoughts are keeping Becca and I in stitches this morning.
I'm super-excited about your potential new housemate :)
Love,
Paula
26 September 2010
At long last, the full story...
The alarm went off at 4 am, and lightning lit up my room. We were expecting it, but it was still pretty disheartening. I put on my tri suit, then long pants, then rain pants. This rain was accompanied by cold. You may remember, it was the first rain we'd had in about 6 weeks... Triathlon day, of course, calls for rain.
At 4:30, Connie showed up and we loaded her things into my car. Getting to the convention center parking lot was pretty easy. Not a lot of commuters at 4:30 on a Sunday morning. Then we met Adam, a Senate committee staff member, who was the only person to beat us to the parking lot where we waited for the shuttle down to the park. Then more people came (we don't know their names or who they work for). Then more. Then we started to get worried. Where was the bus? Someone called. At 6 am, a bus came. We got as many people on as we could, and the rest walked around the corner, to where the buses had been waiting all along. This is why I'm obsessed with communications, it wouldn't have taken much effort to put the correct shuttle location on the race day materials (or to give the drivers other instructions I suppose).
But we got there! Stood around in the rain and waited to see if it would let up. There were several optimistic announcements made over the loudspeaker that the rain would be over soon, the most entertaining of which was made during such a downpour that we couldn't really see the edges of the transition area or hear what was going on around us. It was pouring.
They postponed the race by about 20 minutes (from 7 am to 7:20 am) pushing my start time back from 8:44 to 9:04. With 33 waves of athletes, separated by 4 minutes each, this was about to be the largest Olympic distance triathlon in America (we made the Guiness Book of Records!).
At 7:10, the rain let up (miraculously and as promised) and it was suddenly light out, since day had been postponed by the rain as well. Connie and I found a quiet bench away from the hullabaloo and waited for our friends and family to show up. At about 7:45, Rachel and Bryan arrived! Bryan had called me at 4:30 in the morning to make sure I was up and heading out... I didn't know that he and Rachel had ulterior motives for me being out of the house by 4:30... more on that later :)
Connie and I waited excitedly, and somewhat nervously, although the time for nerves had passed long ago. We zipped up our wetsuits against the chilly morning. Rachel and I caught up. It had been a long time since we'd seen each other and all this was to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, as you already know. Rachel agreed to be my honored teammate, having kicked Hodgkins Lymphoma's butt some years ago.
My wave number was 27, Connie's was 26, and after wave 18 got in the water, time began to speed up. Soon we didn't have an hour before our wave, soon we didn't even have 15 minutes... I got in line with the rest of the purple-capped swimmers. Most of us were for Team in Training. 750 athletes from chapters across the country competed in this race for Team in Training and we raised over $3 million dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In my "women aged 25-29" group, most of us were on the Team.
You know how you see athletes psyching themselves up for competition? Thwacking their arms and legs with their own fists or slapping vigorously? This, apparently, works for me. I had jogged barefoot a bit to keep my legs loose before I got in line, but needed to get my brain in order too. Slapping my abs and the fronts of my legs is my answer to the "athlete psych up" requirement. It really works. I was ready to swim.
I was one of the first in the water, and was grateful that I'd gotten in on Saturday to get a feel for the course. I moved as far toward the course as I could, and was in the front of the pack. We tread water for 3+ minutes before the horn blew and we were off.
I took my time finding my stride, and tried a race mantra that Danielle said she uses. "Run. MyOwn. Race." One stroke each. The buoys passed quickly, every 100 meters. And soon I was passing some purple caps, then some green caps (the wave before mine), then some red caps and blue caps. I couldn't believe it. Swimming under the Memorial Bridge was amazing. The swim course was in the shape of the Washington Monument, which made the turn really easy, actually.
I scampered out of the water after 33 minutes. I was expecting it to take 40. If I'd known how fast I was at the time, I would have swum faster. (Could have done it in 30 :) ) When I ran through the chute to transition, ALL my coaches were on the sidelines giving high fives, which I happily accepted. Rachel and Bryan were further down yelling insane encouragement.
Because of the rain, I had not laid out my socks for the bike, so my transition was over 7 minutes! 7 minutes in triathlon-time is about 2 weeks. I'll definitely not worry about wet socks next time. Gotta get out there!
I dried off as best I could, put socks on my still mostly-muddy feet, and snapped on my helmet. In that moment, I realized I'd forgotten my gloves. How could I forget my gloves? 12 Saturdays at 6 am I'd never forgotten them. But it didn't matter. I ran as fast as I could with my bike under one hand, mud squishing up into my bike shoes, through the little hole in the sole where water is supposed to drain out. Our transition area, where all 5000+ bikes were racked up the day before, was larger than FedEx field - my bike was somewhere around the 50 yard line, if the metaphor holds. Bryan and Rachel had sprinted around the outside of the transition to see me off from the bike! I clipped in and was away. Miles up Clara Barton Parkway, single file around some serious flooding that nearly blocked the whole lane, up Rock Creek Parkway, past waterfalls that definitely weren't there the day before, under enormous overpasses in Rock Creek Park, and along normally jam-packed highways through the District. Every once in a while, the misty sound of wheels tossing up road spray was punctuated by a loud "GO TEAM!" I didn't notice the rain after a while. I wiped the mist off my glasses once or twice early on, but after that it didn't really register.
I rounded the last turn and came back to the transition, zipping by Bryan and Rachel who had since been joined by Gregg, my third fan of the day :) I caught them by surprise since I'd planned on the bike taking me 90 minutes, and I come in at 78 minutes, about 19 miles per hour, on average.
The ground hadn't firmed up any in that time - just the opposite in fact - so I squished back to my spot and racked my bike. Dry socks, dry shoes, my cap, and a quick GU. I ran past the Treasury, the Washington Monument, and was only momentarily slowed by a scary rally on the mall (*tea partiers*), but it was a u-turn, so I made up the time when I ran away from them. :)
I ran fast. I was running intervals as I had all summer, 5 minutes on, 1 minute walking. Marissa found me just before mile 2, and ran a little bit of the way with me. Bryan, Rachel, and Gregg had caught up with me just after that, at the top of the Hains Point loop. I realized after my first mile that I was plenty fresh and could easily do 10 minute miles so I pushed it. Just before the 5th mile marker, there were all the coaches again, handing out high fives and taking pictures :) That was all I needed to make it all the way in... I saw the finish line. I sprinted faster than I ever had, my legs on autopilot. Now, it makes me think of that part in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, when he's describing athletes in the zone. Charles Barkley says the court would go silent before he made a great shot. I don't remember seeing anyone on the sidelines, just people, but no persons, no distinguishable sound, and I couldn't really feel my legs. 60 minutes, 48 seconds, for a mile time of 9:49. :) Next time, there'll be no seconds hanging off the end of that hour...
The truth is, the whole weekend, starting with a short and easy brick on Saturday, picking up my packet Friday afternoon, getting in a practice swim, waking up hours before dawn, standing in the rain, and then cranking out 32 miles after 5 hours of sleep... it was all a cinch compared to 6 am long runs when it was already 85 degrees, cranking out the last 3 enormous hills on a Saturday around 9:30 at 97 degrees, then putting on running shoes and pushing through another 2 miles. It was a long hot summer, and I can't think of anything I've done recently that's been so worthwhile.
Crossing the finish line felt great, and the stupid grin I'd been wearing for the previous 3 hours stuck around for 3 more :) I got my stats, drank a coconut water and a muscle milk, and met up with some teammates.
Madeleine showed up to say hi and then half my fan-base said "welp, we better get going!" I couldn't believe it! Finally got all my equipment and Rachel and Marissa back to my car at the convention center and headed home to sleep and get ready for the evening's TNT victory party. I turned the key in the lock and met 5 of my friends yelling "SURPRISE!" and my parents on skype in the midst of it all. Bryan and Rachel had spent 3 hours in the morning getting my house ready for the afternoon surprise party. My first surprise party ever! though I regretted that I'd gotten home so late; I'd missed Hillary, Blair and Lindsay, and had made my friends wait a while for me to finally make it back. But they were wonderful, patient, and had prepared a feast. The perfect afternoon to follow a perfect morning.
Thanks for your support - together we raised $2782.00 to beat blood cancers and, as many of you might have guessed, I'm completely addicted to my road bike. Next stop: "America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride" June 5, 2011, Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
All my love,
Paula
At 4:30, Connie showed up and we loaded her things into my car. Getting to the convention center parking lot was pretty easy. Not a lot of commuters at 4:30 on a Sunday morning. Then we met Adam, a Senate committee staff member, who was the only person to beat us to the parking lot where we waited for the shuttle down to the park. Then more people came (we don't know their names or who they work for). Then more. Then we started to get worried. Where was the bus? Someone called. At 6 am, a bus came. We got as many people on as we could, and the rest walked around the corner, to where the buses had been waiting all along. This is why I'm obsessed with communications, it wouldn't have taken much effort to put the correct shuttle location on the race day materials (or to give the drivers other instructions I suppose).
But we got there! Stood around in the rain and waited to see if it would let up. There were several optimistic announcements made over the loudspeaker that the rain would be over soon, the most entertaining of which was made during such a downpour that we couldn't really see the edges of the transition area or hear what was going on around us. It was pouring.
They postponed the race by about 20 minutes (from 7 am to 7:20 am) pushing my start time back from 8:44 to 9:04. With 33 waves of athletes, separated by 4 minutes each, this was about to be the largest Olympic distance triathlon in America (we made the Guiness Book of Records!).
At 7:10, the rain let up (miraculously and as promised) and it was suddenly light out, since day had been postponed by the rain as well. Connie and I found a quiet bench away from the hullabaloo and waited for our friends and family to show up. At about 7:45, Rachel and Bryan arrived! Bryan had called me at 4:30 in the morning to make sure I was up and heading out... I didn't know that he and Rachel had ulterior motives for me being out of the house by 4:30... more on that later :)
Connie and I waited excitedly, and somewhat nervously, although the time for nerves had passed long ago. We zipped up our wetsuits against the chilly morning. Rachel and I caught up. It had been a long time since we'd seen each other and all this was to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, as you already know. Rachel agreed to be my honored teammate, having kicked Hodgkins Lymphoma's butt some years ago.
My wave number was 27, Connie's was 26, and after wave 18 got in the water, time began to speed up. Soon we didn't have an hour before our wave, soon we didn't even have 15 minutes... I got in line with the rest of the purple-capped swimmers. Most of us were for Team in Training. 750 athletes from chapters across the country competed in this race for Team in Training and we raised over $3 million dollars for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. In my "women aged 25-29" group, most of us were on the Team.
You know how you see athletes psyching themselves up for competition? Thwacking their arms and legs with their own fists or slapping vigorously? This, apparently, works for me. I had jogged barefoot a bit to keep my legs loose before I got in line, but needed to get my brain in order too. Slapping my abs and the fronts of my legs is my answer to the "athlete psych up" requirement. It really works. I was ready to swim.
I was one of the first in the water, and was grateful that I'd gotten in on Saturday to get a feel for the course. I moved as far toward the course as I could, and was in the front of the pack. We tread water for 3+ minutes before the horn blew and we were off.
I took my time finding my stride, and tried a race mantra that Danielle said she uses. "Run. MyOwn. Race." One stroke each. The buoys passed quickly, every 100 meters. And soon I was passing some purple caps, then some green caps (the wave before mine), then some red caps and blue caps. I couldn't believe it. Swimming under the Memorial Bridge was amazing. The swim course was in the shape of the Washington Monument, which made the turn really easy, actually.
I scampered out of the water after 33 minutes. I was expecting it to take 40. If I'd known how fast I was at the time, I would have swum faster. (Could have done it in 30 :) ) When I ran through the chute to transition, ALL my coaches were on the sidelines giving high fives, which I happily accepted. Rachel and Bryan were further down yelling insane encouragement.
Because of the rain, I had not laid out my socks for the bike, so my transition was over 7 minutes! 7 minutes in triathlon-time is about 2 weeks. I'll definitely not worry about wet socks next time. Gotta get out there!
I dried off as best I could, put socks on my still mostly-muddy feet, and snapped on my helmet. In that moment, I realized I'd forgotten my gloves. How could I forget my gloves? 12 Saturdays at 6 am I'd never forgotten them. But it didn't matter. I ran as fast as I could with my bike under one hand, mud squishing up into my bike shoes, through the little hole in the sole where water is supposed to drain out. Our transition area, where all 5000+ bikes were racked up the day before, was larger than FedEx field - my bike was somewhere around the 50 yard line, if the metaphor holds. Bryan and Rachel had sprinted around the outside of the transition to see me off from the bike! I clipped in and was away. Miles up Clara Barton Parkway, single file around some serious flooding that nearly blocked the whole lane, up Rock Creek Parkway, past waterfalls that definitely weren't there the day before, under enormous overpasses in Rock Creek Park, and along normally jam-packed highways through the District. Every once in a while, the misty sound of wheels tossing up road spray was punctuated by a loud "GO TEAM!" I didn't notice the rain after a while. I wiped the mist off my glasses once or twice early on, but after that it didn't really register.
I rounded the last turn and came back to the transition, zipping by Bryan and Rachel who had since been joined by Gregg, my third fan of the day :) I caught them by surprise since I'd planned on the bike taking me 90 minutes, and I come in at 78 minutes, about 19 miles per hour, on average.
The ground hadn't firmed up any in that time - just the opposite in fact - so I squished back to my spot and racked my bike. Dry socks, dry shoes, my cap, and a quick GU. I ran past the Treasury, the Washington Monument, and was only momentarily slowed by a scary rally on the mall (*tea partiers*), but it was a u-turn, so I made up the time when I ran away from them. :)
I ran fast. I was running intervals as I had all summer, 5 minutes on, 1 minute walking. Marissa found me just before mile 2, and ran a little bit of the way with me. Bryan, Rachel, and Gregg had caught up with me just after that, at the top of the Hains Point loop. I realized after my first mile that I was plenty fresh and could easily do 10 minute miles so I pushed it. Just before the 5th mile marker, there were all the coaches again, handing out high fives and taking pictures :) That was all I needed to make it all the way in... I saw the finish line. I sprinted faster than I ever had, my legs on autopilot. Now, it makes me think of that part in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink, when he's describing athletes in the zone. Charles Barkley says the court would go silent before he made a great shot. I don't remember seeing anyone on the sidelines, just people, but no persons, no distinguishable sound, and I couldn't really feel my legs. 60 minutes, 48 seconds, for a mile time of 9:49. :) Next time, there'll be no seconds hanging off the end of that hour...
The truth is, the whole weekend, starting with a short and easy brick on Saturday, picking up my packet Friday afternoon, getting in a practice swim, waking up hours before dawn, standing in the rain, and then cranking out 32 miles after 5 hours of sleep... it was all a cinch compared to 6 am long runs when it was already 85 degrees, cranking out the last 3 enormous hills on a Saturday around 9:30 at 97 degrees, then putting on running shoes and pushing through another 2 miles. It was a long hot summer, and I can't think of anything I've done recently that's been so worthwhile.
Crossing the finish line felt great, and the stupid grin I'd been wearing for the previous 3 hours stuck around for 3 more :) I got my stats, drank a coconut water and a muscle milk, and met up with some teammates.
Madeleine showed up to say hi and then half my fan-base said "welp, we better get going!" I couldn't believe it! Finally got all my equipment and Rachel and Marissa back to my car at the convention center and headed home to sleep and get ready for the evening's TNT victory party. I turned the key in the lock and met 5 of my friends yelling "SURPRISE!" and my parents on skype in the midst of it all. Bryan and Rachel had spent 3 hours in the morning getting my house ready for the afternoon surprise party. My first surprise party ever! though I regretted that I'd gotten home so late; I'd missed Hillary, Blair and Lindsay, and had made my friends wait a while for me to finally make it back. But they were wonderful, patient, and had prepared a feast. The perfect afternoon to follow a perfect morning.
Thanks for your support - together we raised $2782.00 to beat blood cancers and, as many of you might have guessed, I'm completely addicted to my road bike. Next stop: "America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride" June 5, 2011, Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
All my love,
Paula
18 September 2010
an open letter from my awesome grandparents :)
That's it, You've become a wild thing. I knew it "wood" happen if you hang around trees too long. Next thing you know your hair will become deciduous, but fear not it will bud out and come back in the Spring. At that point you must watch out for nesting birds. They are noisy and worst of all messy, and Woodpeckers can cause violent headaches. On the other hand, wild things can run long distances, swim with and like a fish, and ride two wheeled contraptions like a human. Congratulations on competing and doing well, but now we've just come to expect that. We continue to love you, and admire you for a number of strange reasons which we don't even understand our selves. Keep in touch! Papa and Gram
14 September 2010
3:03!
I finished in 3 hours and 3 minutes, and I beat ALL my time goals!
Swim: estimated 38-40 minutes... finished in 33.
Bike: estimated 90 minutes... finished in 78.
Run: estimated 75-80 minutes... finished in 60 MINUTES AND 48 SECONDS!
I had a great time and finished strong :)
Some pics are here: http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event_video.asp?EVENTID=60074&BIB=5219
And there're more to post when I'm home from this week's work trip... I promise. I also promise to tell you about how hard it was raining when we set up transition at 6 am Sunday morning :)
GO TEAM!
Swim: estimated 38-40 minutes... finished in 33.
Bike: estimated 90 minutes... finished in 78.
Run: estimated 75-80 minutes... finished in 60 MINUTES AND 48 SECONDS!
I had a great time and finished strong :)
Some pics are here: http://www.asiorders.com/view_user_event_video.asp?EVENTID=60074&BIB=5219
And there're more to post when I'm home from this week's work trip... I promise. I also promise to tell you about how hard it was raining when we set up transition at 6 am Sunday morning :)
GO TEAM!
24 August 2010
Bird to Gird
This bike ride alone was a good enough reason to come to Anchorage. Of course, I'm lucky to have had many other good reasons as well :)
Today: Hatchers Pass!
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