Tonight - wine tasting; Saturday night - probably more drinking. I guess I need to get it out of my system, since I signed up for another tri. This one is a preclude to the big Accenture tri next Sunday. The race is a "Super-Sprint," and is about 1/2 the distance I did last weekend. The swim is in the lake - kinda scary.

Anyhoo, not much progress in the knitting area. Hope to finish the revamped Lelah this weekend, and I'm still churning away on the baby blanket. Pictures soon!

8/21/2005 06:57:00 AM|W|P| byron446douglas|W|P|damn good blog, check out mine http://juicyfruiter.blogspot.com, comments always welcome!8/17/2005 12:56:00 PM|W|P|Melissa|W|P|Lonely me is sans husband this week and next week due to business travel, so twin sister Anna, brother Nick, and I went to see The Aristocrats last night. The premise sounds boring - lots of comics telling the same dirty joke, but it was hysterical, if a little long-winded. My favorites were the mime, the card-trick guy, and of course, Gilbert Gottfried. I highly recommend! Thanks to all you bloggers and my family for support and encouragement during my tri-training. My official time was just over 1:36 - so much better than I was expecting! Not sure when I'll be doing my next one...but a couple swimming clinics will be done this fall, and I'll be bike shopping this weekend. In fact, I had a dream last night that I was bike shopping and almost bought an exact replica of my old yellow Huffy bike - banana seat and all. Damn I loved that bike!|W|P|112430221712026856|W|P|Sounds great, what's the name of your act?|W|P|8/14/2005 06:40:00 PM|W|P|Melissa|W|P|I guess I'm officially a triathlete now...the race was awesome! I think I'm definitely hooked now. It was a lot more fun that the running races I have been doing. The one thing that I really want now is a new road bike. Even though I had road tires put on my Trek mountain bike (which is about 7 years old), there were so many cool bikes at the race, and I would probably go a lot faster. The times haven't been posted yet, but I think I probably finished between 1:30 and 1:45, which is what I was hoping for. A quick recap: 1. Swim - Centennial Beach is a quarry converted into a community pool/beach. The water looked like lake water, and there was some sand at the bottom. I started at the back of the pack, which meant I didn't get in the water until around 8 am (the race started around 7 am). I basically did a mix of free style and breast stroke/doggy paddle...mainly b/c of nerves, and just because it felt right to take breaks. 2. Bike - the swim to bike transition was the hardest...felt kind of out of it when I exited the water. Once I got on my bike and went easy the first mile or so, I felt good. Doug got their just as I was making my first turn, so it was fun to see him! Throughout the race, I was amazed by the number of people racing in the 50+ age group - very inspirational! 3. Run - bike to run transition felt much better. The first mile of the run I felt kind of tight so I went pretty slow. But after the first mile I got into a good pace and really felt like I was coasting. I was shocked by how much energy I still had. The 5K really didn't seem that long. Crossing the finish was fantastic - I'm really proud of myself and have been on a natural high all day! Photos of the race at my Flickr (sorry, bad quality due to cameraphone). I also did some knitting this weekend. I took a break from fixing my Lelah top and knit a hat for a friend who is having boy/girl fraternal twins in December:

Pattern Here

Yarn: Lily Sugar N' Cream

|W|P|112406409432470166|W|P|I finished!|W|P|8/10/2005 10:04:00 PM|W|P|Melissa|W|P|Everytime I attempt to knit myself a garment other than a scarf or a hat, I've been disappointed. I check my guage, follow the pattern to a tee, and it's either too big, too tight, or just ugly. Case in point, I bound off on my Lelah top tonight, and the top is huge.

Too garbage baggish?

Baby got too much back...

I don't know how I'd sew the elastic in without a ton of gathering at the back. This yarn is 100% acrylic, so I doubt blocking will help. Ugh - so frustrating!! I'll probably end up either adding straps, or just balling it up and hiding it somewhere. What am I doing wrong? Funny, someone got to my blog by searching "Dave Navarro's head" in Google. He really does have a big head. Current TV picks - Starved and Kathy Griffin's new reality show (on the surface she seems very annoying but I think she's hilarious).|W|P|112373044237629694|W|P|Maybe I Should Stick to Scarves|W|P|8/08/2005 10:10:00 PM|W|P|Melissa|W|P|So my triathlon is on Sunday...getting excited. In my usual ass-backwards kind of way, I finally decided to get a private swim lesson. Boy was it worth the $80 - among other things, I realized that I was kicking too hard, and that the pool I normally swim in is closer to 50 yards than 25! Other than swimming, I biked about 17 miles yesterday along the lakefront path, and managed to spot some gay pseudo-drill team practicing some awesome routines in the park. Picture 30 men clad in part boy-scout, part national guard uniforms twirling fake rifals to "Stayin' Alive." Perhaps it had s0mething to do with Halsted Market Days? Husband got his motocycle this weekend, but couldn't ride it because he injured his foot on a jet ski on Saturday. The bike is pretty cute, but I'm not getting on it until I get a pink sparkly helmet - that's my only demand. In knitting news, I'm almost finished with Lelah: I got a really cute chocolate brown velvet ribbon for the eyelets. As soon as I finish, it's back to baby projects because all of the babies in my life are due in October, November, and December.|W|P|112355773212400364|W|P|6 Days till Tri|W|P|8/05/2005 01:32:00 PM|W|P|Melissa|W|P|If you haven't already, check out Michael Yon's blog. He's an independent journalist reporting from Iraq - amazing stuff (thanks Nick). Tonight some of my girlfriends from work are coming over for a "Craft Night," or just a good excuse to hang out and drink (except for my friend Amanda who is pregnant with twins). I'll probably end up showing some of them how to knit. I'll have some pictures of my progress later!|W|P|112326698328384470|W|P||W|P|8/02/2005 09:39:00 PM|W|P|Melissa|W|P|Yum - Doug and I lunched at Cereality today. It's a new "cereal bar" that just opened in the Loop. Man was it good! I had the "Life Experience" - Life cereal, bananas, honey, and almonds. Doug's choice sounds disgusting, but it was actually pretty good - Lucky Charms, strawberries, and malted milk balls. And I get to go back again on Thursday! I'm almost done with the lace repeats on my Lelah top. I decided to go with US 8 circulars for the whole top (so my ta-ta's are sufficiently contained), so the lacework isn't as open as it could be, but it's still looks ok. Hopefully I will finish this weekend - I don't seem to be as fast as everyone else out there!|W|P|112303717475251879|W|P|Cereal for Lunch|W|P|