Mary Bellamy

Dillon was warned that if he persisted in requesting pictures on this blog, I'd end up posting stuff of my cat. But he said he's not afraid of a little kitty (that's paraphrasing his dirty mouth, actually).

As you can see, Nibbles is completely aware that she, as the cat, must subjugate herself to the whims of her owner. I am not her toy, though apparently I do make a nice seat.

It's less than two months until the Gold Nugget Triathlon. Am I going to be ready? Well, what have I done to prepare?

• Swimming: I've taken some lessons, learned the flip turns, and figured out the best style for me (for the record, I plan to swim half the pool on my back, then flip to a crawl stroke so I can turn at the end and resume the backstroke). Right now, my quickest lap time is 55 seconds. I'll need to do 10 laps, so I need to wrk on my stamina.
• Running: My ankle still hurts from the incident a few weeks ago. Nevertheless, I've been forcing myself to go running. And, to be frank, I suck at it. I'm working on it, though.
• Biking: Well, I need to get a bike.... I've been using the stationary bikes at the gym, but they are no comparison to riding an actual bike. The fact that it's still snowing in Fairbanks is another factor getting in the way of my bike training, but right now my big issue is that I need a bike. Preferrably a Trek Hybrid.
  

In short, I am not quite ready yet. But I gave myself a day off of training yesterday and took stock of how far I've come since making this decision. I still think I can do it. I guess we'll see on May 21.

Today I discovered that there is a booming world on the Internet: the fantasy blog stock market. As of Feb. 20 (the last time it was updated), the stock for this blog had a valuation of B$4,896.46 and an outgoing link value of B$356.89. What does all that mean? I haven't the foggiest.

Check it out for yourself and see if you can explain it for me.

I don't want to sound paranoid, but there may be a virulent strain of pregnancy in the water....

Last night, Jen and Don told us they are expecting a baby. Congratulations, and don't forget that we get to name it for you! Zephyr? Gunther? Marla? We'll pick a good one.

I managed to sprain my ankle at Gretta's birthday party. I don't want to blame anyone here, but it's not like anyone warned me that doing an Irish step dance on bubble wrap was dangerous. Anyway, it's nicely swollen, so I'll be taking a few days off from my training regimen. I will try to get into the pool, though the hours may be limited because of spring break.

I've altered my summer plans: Instead of going to Nome for the Stroke-N-Croak mini triathlon, I've registered for the Gold Nugget Triathlon in Anchorage on May 21. It's a different course, with a 500 yd. swim, 10 mile bike ride and 4.1 mile run. It's also much more expensive than the Nome one, but I figure it'll be worth it. Nome usually has a field of about 8 competitors. The GNT usually has about 1,000.

When Tom and I got home from work yesterday, I convinced him that we should head out in the blowing snow for a run. If you're not familiar with Fairbanks, it is rarely windy here. When it is, it's miserable. If you're not familiar with me, I rarely run. When I do, I'm miserable.

Fortunately Tom was tired from biking home, so he could take it easy and run at my (painfully slow) pace. We only did about a mile, but it was good progress. The run portion will be the hardest part for me.

My last swimming lesson is tonight. No one else showed up on Tuesday, so I got some quality one-on-one instruction. It still amazes me that 9 days ago I couldn't put my face in the water, even with nose clips on. Now I can do flip turns at the end of the lane.

Love means never having to say "I'm sorry I dropped your favorite crossword pencil into the outhouse hole."

But just to be on the safe side, I'll say it anyway. Sorry, Tom.

After Tom told me that friends were asking him why I hadn't posted in a while, I realized that it's time to get my butt back on Blogger. I could give you a song and dance about what I've been up to, but let's just hit the high points here.

• I quit the library and started my new job (where I don't want to be known as Mary-that-girl-who-spends-all-the-time-on-the-Internet, hence the lack of posts). The new position is cool - plenty of editing and design, plus other stuff to keep me from getting bored.
• I was offered my old position at the library and accepted it. I will start on Monday.
• I started writing restaurant reviews for the Anchorage Press, the alternative weekly paper in town.
  
• It got really icy for a while, so I stayed in a lot.
• We got new satellite residents at Hidden Hill. Based on the last few dinners, you'll be seeing quotes from Sunna and Russ here quite frequently.
• Last Friday it started snowing and didn't stop until sometime Sunday, leaving my car rather buried. Those damn 30-degree days had spoiled me, and I thought winter was over.
• I decided maybe I should run more than one triathlon this summer, so I'm considering another one either in Fairbanks or Anchorage.
• I started swimming lessons and am now much less afraid to put my face in the water. This should help with the triathlon.

And speaking of swimming lessons, that's where I'm going right now.