Hot Head Regatta 2006

Last Saturday I participated in the Hot Head Regatta on Tempe Town Lake. It's a 2.75 mile head race--which means it's a staggered start and best time wins. I rowed a double with fellow Arizona Outlaw, Kathy Moum, and we won our Master Women's 2x race in 20:34. I was also going to row in the single race but it was cancelled due to high winds. Although I think I could have handled the waves and probably the wind, I'm sure it would not have been a pleasant row. I was somewhat thankful that they cancelled. The Arizona Outlaws did well in all the sculling events. In fact, we placed first in all that we entered.

More Images from Burgundy

I finally got a chance to put some images up on a photo page from France. I took a cajillion, so I had to select just a few for the photo page. Some of the pictures look like they have a mist over them. That's because it was foggy for at least 3 days. The fog would usually burn off later in the day. Certainly, it made the old chateaus look more mystifying. To get to the photo page CLICK HERE

Below are a few more added to the blog. Next week, I'm off to London with Wanda and then onto Louisiana for my rowing marathon. So check back soon for more travel pictures.


Pretty berries on a bush outside the apartment.


Mmmmmmmmm, fromage (stinky cheese). No one does stinky cheese like the French. This was taken at a local market where Wanda and I gathered fresh goodies for and evening meal.


A view of the apartment from the road. We had a vineyard as the front yard. Merci to Joe and Susan Howe for going on vacation to let us have the run of the place.

Bon Jour and Au Revoir!

Today we are leaving Paris for the States. We spent a week traveling around the beautiful French countryside. Very rural with lots of little villages within a few kilometers of each other. As we were in wine country, half the enjoyment was being able to drive up to farm houses with the sign "Cave" (French for cellar) and "digustation" (for tasting) and try out the local wines. So many great wines and a shame we can only bring 2 bottles back each. The only mishaps of the trip were transport related (rental car/s). The first day our auto had a flat and the last day the NEW Ford S-max mini-van just turned off on a highway exit and wouldn't restart. We were in a rural area-- so it was a long day of waiting for tow truck, taxi's and re-renting. All a learning experience for sure and I learned quickly how to talk to non English speaking policemen through broken French and sign language. Wanda was a good interpreter throughout the trip. I really think if she stayed another month or so she would be speaking fluently.

Below are a couple pictures of our trip. I'll post a picture page when we get home. Au Revoir France! Bon Jour U.S.A.


One of the farms we drove up and did a tasting. Not very far away from the apartment we stayed at.


Wanda was quite happy to go wine tasting in the area of Chardonnay.


Here's Wanda's next house.


Matt at a tasting place where they have Brouilly wines (grapes from the area of Mont Brouilly and Beaujolais). Definitely our favorites. We would have loved to be able to ship home cases, however, the cost was prohibitive.

Kick In The Pants...

A shopper's woeful story.

I hardly think that I'm so weird shaped that the clothing industry would spite me. However, after spending to much time actually shopping and trying on pants, I'm convinced that the current pant styles were designed by the fashion devil.

E goes shopping.
I started out with high hopes since it seemed all my pants from the previous year were a bit loose (from all the rowing I've been doing). I actually had visions of the perfectly fit, cute, pinstriped pants that would look snappy with a cute sweater set. I can see myself in them--sipping a glass of wine in a French café. And wouldn't it be cool if I could actually find more than one pair and at a reasonable price?

First stop: Kohls
After all, I did find a bitch'in pair of dressy Capris there last year that fit me perfect. Surely, they would have a similar style in a long pant. WRONG! My J-Lo butt and smaller waist created the perfect gap for someone to toss some peanut shells down my backside if I actually sat down in them. "No biggie, just get a smaller size" .... WRONG again. The waist was still to big and my legs looked like two sausages stuffed inside. I thought "Maybe a little liposuction would make them look better". Anyone that knows me, knows that would be a totally against my "love yourself for who you are" attitude. Luckily, I came back from the dark side to remind myself that I could have several pairs of pants tailor made for a lot less.

Next Stop: Macy's
Ahhhhhh a department store with lots of different designers and brands of pants. This has to be the place. SOMEBODY must have designed a pair of pants just for me. I immediately went to the petite section a.k.a. "short person section" and lo and behold--cute, gray, and black pinstriped pants! God, I hope they fit... they were exactly like my pre-shopping vision. Just to be sure, I picked up several different styles and practically skipped to the dressing room. With 10 pairs of different pants, the sales lady was concerned that I didn't have tops to try on with them. I assured her that I was doing focused shopping. I would NOT be able to move onto tops until I found the perfect pants.

"How are you doing in there?" I heard after trying on 5 pairs and with the 6th pair half pulled on. "I'm not quite sure" I replied. This must have perplexed her as there was a long, long pause. "Is there another size I can get you?". Guess it was better that she didn't say ".... BIGGER size".

To make a way to long time in that dressing room short... NADA! Not one stinking pair of pinstriped pants regardless of size looked right. Had to be the bad lighting and the mirrors. Dejected, I carried out all 10 pairs and put them on the "These looked like crap on me" rack.


Last Stop: Talbot's
Talbot's is hit or miss with me. Sometimes they seem to carry way to many "old lady" clothes. Granted I'm heading to middle age in a month, but who says I have to start dressing like it. In Talbot's defense--sometimes they have some cute, nicely fitting stuff. Which they may have had.... if I had actually tried anything on. For some reason I couldn't see myself paying $128 dollars for one pair of pants. Besides, I'm sure my spouse would use it as ammo for the next 10 years. I can see it now "We could have retired by now if you hadn't bought those $128 pair of pants..." or "We had to refinance our house, just so you could buy the top to go with those pants". Those of you with spouses know exactly what I'm talking about.

I left Talbot's and in my mind I started to wonder if starving for a couple of weeks would do the trick. Better think that out. So I sat down to rest the hamstring I had pulled trying to get out of a pair of pants in Macy's. I people watched or I guess I should say I watched other women and took note of what their pants looked like. Then it dawned on me--they ALL looked like they stuffed sausages (with the exception of one chick who looked like she had been starving herself for more than a couple of weeks)!

So what's with the story fatty pants?
Did you say that or was that my "inner E"? Regardless, the pant shopping experience made me realize that one can't get down on oneself but one can "dis" the fashion designer devils who are trying to tell us that this crap actually looks good. Who the hell are they designing for anyway? Even J-Lo's Jeans look like *#@% on a J-Lo figured girl. What's up with that?

I've given up on my perfect pant thoughts for now. If I'm not thinking or looking, maybe the fashion fairy will appear and turn a full fashion circle to show me how great they look. Then with a wave of a wand make them appear at a store close by with a tiny price tag attached.

p.s. If your ass hasn't been chewed off and you've found a pair of pants to fit over it that looks good--I want to hear from you! If you're a size 2 or 0 and everything looks good on you then I BETTER NOT hear from you (Yeah, that means YOU--Audrey and Wanda. Your day will come. A designer with a big tush is gonna get even).

Arizona Outlaw Erg Marathon

After a 3 hour nap, I finally mustered the energy to upload pictures (CLICK HERE to view) and blog about my first Erg marathon. For friends and family members that don't know--the erg is a piece of exercise equipment that most rowers use to train. Nonetheless, it doesn't move like my boat does and it's painfully honest in projecting your split time, projected finish time etc.

42,195 meters (26 miles) of rowing and everyone finished. Most everyone did it in 3-4 hours with a few exceptions to that rule. Ted Paxton was closer to the 2:30 mark (Can't quite remember--I just know it was way fast!) My goal was to finish within 4 hours and I'm happy to say that I accomplished that by finishing in 3:42.04. The last 5000 meters my legs were burning and mentally I had to fight through to the end. Now that I've had time to rest and reflect, I think it was a personal challenge and I'm already making notes on how to improve upon my time in preparation for my November rowing marathon. That one will be on water, which will certainly be a plus.

Tom and Kim Wilmer (family friends) were nice enough to let us use their super garage for the event. I think everyone agreed it was the perfect place. Lots of space, cool and easy access.

I'm sure the results will be on the Arizona Outlaws website soon. You can get to that from my links section.

Rest In Peace Lovable Leo

It's a sad day in our neighborhood as our friend and neighbor Leo "Bud" Ryan passed away at 11:00 a.m. This past year he fought off cancer as long as he could. He was affectionately known to many as "Loveable Leo" as he was always smiling, happy and joking around with his neighbors, friends and family. My neighbor, Tom and good friend to Bud, called him the "Mayor of Rancho Caliente" (our street). A fitting office for him as he always was helping out and supervising our home improvement endeavors, meeting us with his side kick "Lucky" to chat at the end of his driveway during nightly dog walks and sharing his great love for cooking by dropping off lemon merigue pies and goodies every so often. His green thumb made his plants always grow greener and many of my starter plants came from his yard. We truly loved him and will miss his Irish eyes and good humor.

Bud didn't want any of us to see him on the decline --so I wrote him a note to make sure he knew that his job was to make sure we all had a place to move into when we move into his new neighborhood. Whenever I talk about my neighbors to others--they've always told me that having such a nice neighborhood is a rarity. So many people only see their neighbors as their garage doors close behind them. Bud certainly didn't shut us out and as a result we became good friends and our neighborhood became a nicer place.

Above are a few pictures from his 80th birthday party last December. I still have those pictures posted. Just click on the December 2005 archive link.

Much love and support to his wife Barbara, and daughter Joan. He was so proud of his family, loved his loyal dog Lucky and for 80 years he lived the good life and brought sunshine into all of those lucky enough to know him. Those memories will certainly be cherished.

Helicopter Flys

Yesterday, Dan and Matt Sr. got to witness their helicopter take a test flight. See the video by CLICKING HERE.There is also a page of pictures for the pre-flight prep. You can click the link "Helicopter Flys" from the movie page and the movie from the picture page as well. If you just want to view pictures CLICK HERE.

Sin City Bad Ass Dudes

Perhaps I'm playing in PhotoShop a little to much... Ok, this one is my feeble attempts to get the "Sin City" graphic look. I had to search for some mean looking people. Apparently, I don't know many mean people. However I cropped a picture of friend, Gary, in Idaho and Matt from one of his snowboard trips. Do they look mean? Or just Cool? Maybe a little of both.

Things That Make You Go Hmmmmm...

I've always wondered what I might look like if I were just a little taller...
After playing around in PhotoShop today you can see the result. Oh, and of course I had to make the sky a little more interesting and the green more green...

Just goes to show--things are always more beautiful with a few PhotoShop tricks.

One Year Later

Today marks a year since my Grandmother, Mable Jackson, passed away. Even as time passes, I clearly picture her in my mind and miss her. It seems I have a ton of pictures of both her and my Grandfather on their sailboat. However, I really like this picture as it shows my Grandmother was a good multi-tasker. She's not only steering the boat but fishing as well.

In Memory of Beverly Bellile

It is almost a year ago when I saw my Aunt Kathy's Mom, Beverly, at my Grandparents memorial. My Grandmother passed away on August 25th last year. Well this August is another heartbreaker for my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tom. Beverly certainly was part of our family and she will be remembered and missed. She was a beautiful woman. Whenever I saw her, she was stylish and looked far younger than she was. A classy lady. Her daughters are certainly fortunate to have inherited her good look gene (see picture of Kathy in my previous blog).

The picture is from a Cancer walk that Beverly and my Grandmother did together ( I scanned this picture in and therefore the numbers they are wearing are backwards). Below the picture is an excerpt from my Uncle Tom's e-mail of this morning.

With loss comes appreciation for the friends and family we have. We should all take the time to appreciate each day as if it were a new adventure.
Love to all,
E



Letter from Uncle Tom

All,

Kathy's mom died around 6:30 am this morning. She was 68. As you may remember, her mom had been battling breast cancer for over 6 years. This spring it had spread to her brain. Kathy has been fortunate to not have to work so she could spend a lot of time with her mom this spring and summer. She flew down two weeks ago last Friday and her mom picked her up at the airport. By that evening the tumors had affected her frontal lobes and she lost her ability to vocalize in any coherent way.

I think Kathy is fortunate that the progression happened so quickly after that. Kathy was able to bring her home from the hospital and cared for her around the clock at her mom's home. I know she is very tired but feels blessed to have had the opportunity for her mother to pass on in her own house attended by her daughter instead of an impersonal institution. Hospice was of a great help.

I drove down and brought Kathy supplies last Friday and just returned late last night. When I arrived in Michigan, Beverly (mom) was clearly drifting in and out of the borderline of reality, but she made eye contact with me and nodded to acknowledge she recognized me. Kathy called this morning. We had an air bed I'd slept on when I was living in the River House in Milwaukee last year while Kathy (and our furniture) was still in Eden Prairie. Kathy slept on that on the floor by her mom's hospital-style bed at the end. She gave her the medication at 5:00 and fell asleep. At 6:30 she woke up because she didn't hear her mother's labored breathing. Her mom was still warm when she checked her pulse.

Beverly was in a lot of pain from the brain tumors and it is a good thing she passed quickly. She pressed hard right to the end, coming for a week to Milwaukee this summer and going to Charleston, SC to visit her best friend in July, plus working still until three weeks ago.

The funeral is at Sawyer Fuller, 2525 12 Mile Rd, Berkley, MI, 48072 this Wednesday. Her mom went to Berkley high school and Kathy's dad and grandparents are buried there.

Health and prosperity to you all,

Tom

I'm Just A Tad Behind...

I'm usually a little more on top of the blog updates, however, I've been a blog slacker for the past few months. These pictures are from the 4th of July when I took the ferry across Lake Michigan to visit my Uncle Tom and Aunt Kathy with my parents. They recently relocated to Milwaukee and found these really cool townhomes right on the Milwaukee River. They have a really nice patio overlooking the river and city. We could see fireworks from 3 different parts of the city on the 4th of July.

Being the great hosts that they were, they made sure for that even though we were there for a short period of time we got in some good city touring walking.

My assessment of Milwaukee is that it still has small city feel but is growing with character. I love to see interesting old warehouses being revamped into cool living spaces. This is what is happening along the river and soon the River Walk will be bustling with residents and activityr. The Milwaukee Rowing Club is about 500 meters from my Aunt and Uncle's townhome. Rest assured, I'll make sure I get in a row the next time I visit!


Cool sculpture on a walking tour. My parents, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Tom.



These are the townhomes. The empty lot is for the next set of riverside townhomes.

Tempe Town Lake Gets TV Time

A couple months ago Arizona Weekly Entertainment filmed some of us rowing for a segment. I'm sure you'll recognize a few people or at least the ones with names on the screen. As for the instruction--what can I say--good instructors are hard to find! I'm not sure I like the amount of time my "ass" was in this clip--however, if you are of the opposite sex--you're not looking at that anyway!

You can see the video by CLICKING HERE. WARNING: If you have dial-up, you will not be able to see this. Mom, you can always view it at Cori's or Aunt Jill's house.

PC users: If you don't have Quicktime Video installed on your computer, you can get it FREE by CLICKING HERE.

Feeling Sheepish?

I took a quick trip home for a cousin's party over the 4th of July week as well as Ferry trip across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee to visit my Uncle Tom and Aunt Kathy (Pictures for those events are coming soon). For those of you I didn't get to see while I was there--don't take it personal. It was a quick trip and everyday had an event. My last day I went and picked some black raspberries on the farm and took my camera along. I got some nice farm, flower pictures.

The sheep found me annoying with all that camera clicking noise while they were eating.

Summer on the farm has everything green and blooming. Even a simple ground cover flower (clover?) is beautiful.

The bees are busy with all the flowers on the farm.

Oops... Give Credit Where Credit is Due

After getting the race results for Rumble in the Jungle today via spreadsheet, it would appear that mathematical errors and confusion will make my first place a second place. Apparently, I was mistaken for Julie Busskohl and she for me. As Julie is a few years older than me her time handicap got applied to my time giving me a few more seconds of handicap than I should have. Thus making it so I was 5.5 seconds behind the ZLAC rower.

A bit of a letdown but I'll certainly make up for it the next time I race! That being said--I'm removing my medal smiling picture!
I'll try and get one at a later date : )

Rumble in the Jungle!

It was my first real race in my single and my first row in my single not on Tempe Town Lake. I think it turned out quite well. The weather was perfect and I had some good results. The first race I did was the Women's 1x Open. That means all age groups and the gal that won was 16 years old. However, she's been rowing for awhile and rowed in Sweden. I finished a distant 2nd to her. My traveling sculler, Julie B put in a good effort and we shared some somewhat scary moments while discovering that we were maybe a bit to far into the ocean on our way from the LMU dock to the UCLA boathouse. Needlesss to say we handled some much bigger waves and I don't think we'll complain about waves on Tempe Town Lake any longer! Below are some of the race pictures. For a few more pictures CLICK HERE.


Julie and I leaving the LMU dock to head to the race spot on Ballona Creek and the UCLA dock.

Rowing by the marina area to the race. On the way back I was accompanied by a seal swimming alongside me. That was really cool!

E races!


Towards the end of the masters race.

Here's Julie B. racing.

By the way, everyone knew I was from Arizona with the Arizona Outlaws garb on. I had nice conversations with lots of California rowers. My first interests in the sport came when Matt and I stayed at a condo on Pacific Beach. In the morning the rowers from ZLAC were out in the bay. I told Matt that I thought it was a really cool sport and wouldn't it be nice to live by water to row. After discovering Tempe Town Lake and the City of Tempe rowing program--it was kind of nice that the person that finished 1st in my 2nd place race result was a ZLAC rower.

LMU Boathouse, Marina Del Rey

Matt and I are in Marina Del Rey--not far from LA as you'll notice by the early morning haze in these pictures. We went to the LMU boathouse with Julie Busskohl and her husband Craig, to see if we could figure out the logistics of getting our shells where they needed to be by racetime. Julie had bought a used set of oars back in February from Patrick Kelly who happened to be the contact person for the event. He was very nice to us, allowing us to store our shells on 2 open rack spaces inside the LMU boathouse. We'll row from their dock down to the UCLA boathouse in the morning for our first race at 8:14 a.m.


We were waiting to talk to Patrick at the boathouse and I snapped a picture of Matt watching the scullers and rowers on the water.


Matt noticed a familiar name on the LMU rowers board. His brother Dan's friend, Frank Kennedy rowed for LMU for 4 years.


Julie cartopped our shells (which I'm so grateful for). Julie and Craig prepping before we took our boats into the boathouse.


Julie checking out the race schedule and notes.

My Oars Get Personalized

My sculling oars were a sparkling orange color, however, the sparkle was fading fast with all the time in the water. I decided to make my next paint job a bit more personal. Although, admittedly, I took a shortcut to have my oars nice and fresh for my Regatta this weekend (At Marina del Rey, CA). I had my design made into a vinyl decal and they got put on today. Then I put a coat of clear acrylic paint of paint over them so hopefully they will stay around for awhile. The design is on the front and back of the oars. More on the Regatta after this weekend!

Dan & Matt Sr's Helicopter Debut

Today Matt spent the day taking pictures and video taping the big helicopter debut. Dan and Matt Sr's helicopter had it first start up after almost 2 years of repair. Pretty soon they'll be flying around giving traffic reports... To bad there's already a "Detour Dan" in town with that job.

There's many more pictures and video. You can see more pictures on my iWeb photo page. Or click here to view the movie of the actual start up.

You'll see no Matt Sr. pictures--he's off on a Cruise to Russia, Finland and more...

I've Just Got To Say Something...

I try to keep my blogs on the positive side, however, I've just got to say something about this...
I've had a subscription to Woman's Day Magazine for quite awhile. I've never cancelled it because every now and then there's a good recipe or crafty project to keep my interest and I've always recycled it to my neighbor, Jan. So what's my beef?

This month's edition had a piece on 4 or 5 different women getting a makeover before their class reunions. In the old Woman's Day Magazines that might have included a snappy new haircut/hairdo, some make-up and some snazzy outfits. Pretty harmless stuff. And who doesn't want that killer outfit that makes you look 10lbs thinner! Well times have certainly changed... now these "makeovers" include Botox, Restalyn and some lip plumping with collagen. I think that's just WRONG to start pimping invasive procedures (yes, getting fluids inserted under your skin is invasive) to solve all your beauty woes. They even have the nerve to tell you how much the procedure cost as if $350 for some Botox is a drop in the bucket. AND does anybody truly know what happens to all that stuff they're injecting? I still find it hard to believe that women are that insecure as to liposuction, inject & implant themselves for a brief moment of vanity. I say "brief" because it seems that those women always find something else that needs fixing and a new beauty deadline to meet.

To each his own... I'm lucky the gals I choose to hang out with and who I call friends--have beauty from within. Their inner beauty translates to outer beauty and they are inspiring to me. Those are the women I want to read about.

I've passed the magazine onto Jan, who I'm sure will find a nice place for it in the trash where it belongs.