Tomorrow night

I have happy news to share!

Tomorrow night D and I take a huge step: a meeting with an adoption agency to begin the process of adopting a newborn.

More info to come, but for now we'll take all the good wishes and positive mojo we can get! (But save some... We'll definitely need more later on in the process when the waiting becomes interminable and the fees astronomical.)

A good run? I'd forgotten what those were like!

I knew yesterday's run was a little zippier than usual. I could feel it. Maybe it was the cooler temperature. Maybe it was the constant drizzle of rain (good motivation to be done sooner, right?). Maybe it was the slightly shortened route. Maybe it was the awesome bike ride with M on Saturday -- and the more awesome recovery drink AND chocolate milk afterward. (The final hill was so brutal I needed two recoveries!)

Whatever the reason, I felt pretty good out there yesterday morning. I didn't realize until logging my run just now, though, that I actually WAS pretty good out there. My first sub-9 pace on a run longer than one hour in I can't even tell you how long. Good to know I'm still capable of a good run... once in a while!

So, you know by now that I'm a complete hockey fanatic

Have been since I was a kid. I can thank my brother for that. When we were very young (about 4 and 7), he discovered the Flyers on our one television and decided that's what we were watching. So that's what we watched! Since then, I have been a Flyers fanatic of course, but also a huge fan of the whole sport.

I'm sure it comes as no surprise, then, that I finally picked up a stick and some skates and took a lesson. Yep, that's right folks -- my new challenge is women's ice hockey.

In my first lesson (last Friday), I learned stopping, puck handling, skating backward, different skating techniques, and, most importantly, SHOOTING! The lesson ended with drills where I had to skate all the way up the ice with the puck and then take a shot at the goal area (there was no net in place, but of course the crease is still blue so you know where to shoot).

Lessons are a bit of reach for me on a regular basis, as far as cost, so tonight I'm going to the coach's open clinic. Less money, but of course also less personal attention. That's OK. This is just for fun, so I'm thrilled to be on the ice playing the game I love so much.

And since it's game day...

LET'S GO FLYERS!!

Believe

My mom totally rocks

If you know me in real life, you know that one of my favorite announcements is that I won the Mom Lottery. No lie. Check this out.

As a partial season ticket holder for the Flyers, I had early access to playoff tickets. Since you have to buy them so far in advance, you don't know the schedule -- or even the opponent -- when you fork over your money. You just buy tickets for Round 1, Home Game 2 or whatever.

So I bought some tix for me and my brother, and I bought an additional game for D and me -- Round 1, Home Game 1. When the schedules were announced, we realized that Round 1, Home Game 1 falls on April 15 -- Orthodox Easter, a day we have plans with family at a halfway point in a neighboring state. Since my brother lives in the opposite direction, D and I also have the responsibility of driving my mom to and from.

So what did Mom do when she had time to digest all of this?

She volunteered to wait in the car while D and I go to the game. Actually, it was more like she insisted that she wait in the car with a book and the new O magazine so that we didn't have to sell the tix.

Seriously? Who does that? I mean, when we were 14 and couldn't drive, yes whichever parent had carpool duty waited outside the games, concerts, etc. More than 30 years later, there is no way in hell I'm making my mom sit outside for 3+ hours in the car while we are inside.

Still, how much does she ROCK for offering??

I think she dissed me!

Yesterday after work I went to the swim shop to pick up a new suit for my lap swims. My old one (while not that old) is starting to decay from the chlorine, so I figured I'd see what was on sale or in the grab box.

The (young -- college-aged) girl who was working at the counter said hi but didn't jump on me as soon as I walked in (don't you hate when they do that?), instead allowing me to meander through the store until I found what I was looking for. At that point, she asked if I needed help. I said no, I was looking for a suit for laps and found them, so now I was just looking for sizes.

She came over to me then and told me that "a lot of people" don't like the suits I was perusing because they are competition suits and, "you know, they're cut high on the leg and, like, low in the back." Instead, she pointed me toward another rack of suits that "a lot of people" prefer.

They were freaking OLD LADY SUITS. You know, the ones with low leg openings and/or skirts. And cups in the chest. I mean, they had boobs built in! THAT's what she thought I would want to swim laps in????

And then it hit me. She thought *I* was an old lady! An old lady who swims in a flowered swim cap in a 90 degree orthopedic pool and does 200 yards and then calls it a day. You know, in her modest but sensible navy blue cupped swimsuit.

I should have slashed her tires or something. No jury would have convicted me.

Achoo!

This photo pretty much sums up my life right now.

I am not exaggerating when I tell you I am allergic to nearly everything (and, as a result, I also have allergy-related asthma). When I had allergy testing done a few years ago, there were seven items on the list of 48 potential allergens that I WASN'T allergic to. All the rest caused a moderate to severe reaction.

Fun, huh?

We bought a scale

No batteries for it yet, though, which is good because I'm afraid to step on it! :)