Twenty-twenty twenty-four hours to go...

Ahhh, just under 24 hours until I'll be at the Annie Lennox concert at the Carnival Center down in Miami, and today I had the...

• mundane
  (Post work traffic was frustrating, as normal. And at lunch today, the KFC i went to was running on emergency power for some reason.)
  
• insane
  (Outer-band winds from Tropical Storm Noel were blowing all day, and there is still a strong wind here which will probably be stronger tomorrow. But good news for the school kids here, apparently: if the winds go above 40 mph, there won't be school tomorrow because the buses don't drive in those winds.)
• inane
  (A coworker answered the phone after (!) work hours, and then transfered it to me... it took 12 minutes. 12!)
• deranged
  (A father at dinner tonight literally had a conniption after his son touched his food. He stormed up to get some napkins, then came back to the table and started throwing the "contaminated" food across the table, then proceeded to go purchase a replacement, all the while berating his soon about how rude it was to touch another person's plate--and completely missing how rude it was to scold you child from 5-10 minutes in a public place...)

Added to this is that the person that's been handling the finances for our (tiny) condo association is selling his place and moving (coming about a 2 weeks after one of the other 5 owners announced she was going to move out and lease her place); and I randomly figured out yesterday that I'm semi broke at the moment. So fun all around: yeah!!! (But not so terrible, actually: I realized I'm way more than halfway through Crime & Punishment, maybe even 3/4^th of the way through--woo-hoo!)

Oh, and today's song randomly got stuck in my head today: I've not even seen an episode of My So-Called Life recently... maybe it's cause Halloween's tomorrow?

Twenty, twenty, twenty-four hours to go
I wanna be sedated
Nothing to do, nowhere to go...
I wanna be sedated

Valley girl, she's a Valley girl...

I went to the bank earlier this week for work, and the sign above was on the door... which caused me to like totally start thinking in valley-girl-esque speech. Dude, it was like, totally, unstoppable.


In other news, today I'm recovering from a day-trip yesterday to Orlando with 3 of my Masters teammates, where we swam in a dual meet against Rollins College with some other Masters swimmers from the Orlando area. It was interesting, as the four of us haven't really swum this week, but all-in-all not too terrible. (I went a 1:51 200 free and 4:58 500 free, for those interested.)

It's like grody
Grody to the max
I'm sure
It's like really nauseating

The rain is fallin' on my window pane

SuperPoke (on Facebook) has added festive Halloween actions (like throwing candy corn or a vampire at someone). They've even spiffied up they're normal action with costumes ("use the force" and "waving" here--the fact that it's a Super Chicken is just bonus). Ahhh... the fun. (And have I mentioned that the creators of SP went to my high school--or so I've been told?)

Speaking of fun, with the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show decimating evening practice this week, tonight a group from the team headed to Dave & Buster's for dinner. A good day to go, and we seemed to have fun... although I completly suck at those dancing games--or maybe it was poor music selection.

Oh! and yesterday (October 24) was United Nations Day....

It starts in my toes
And I crinkle my nose
Wherever it goes, I always know
That you make me smile

Oops, I, did it again...

Pictures from today's Men's 10K race at the USA 2008 Open Water World Trials.

Pre-race, women's 10K winner Micha Burden awaits getting on a boat. Micha was the feeder for 3 of her teammates who swam today. (There's a feeding station on course, so that swimmers can get food/liquids during the race. The catch is that the swimmers can't touch the boat where the stuff is, so someone needs to hand it to them. Hence Micha hanging out on a boat for the 2 hour race, as well as her having the stick in her hand.)

The men's pre-race meeting. During the meeting, the referee goes over general course layout/race plan (4 laps around the 2.5K course, there's the feeding boats, finish is over there...) and rule reminders ("I'll blow my whistle to let you know to move apart--which he did a whole lot during the race--or to indicate someone getting a yellow card--one guy did get one).

After the meeting, the swimmers headed to the starting area, either via land or water. Here, Scott Kaufmann straightens out his cap as he gets used to the water and before swimming over to the starting line. (Scott's the one in the the blue jacket in the pic above).


Here, the guys have started lining up for the start, which is about 5-6 minutes away. A few guys are still swimming over as well (they are above the line, in center frame). In this shot you can also see that the water is not smooth (due to the wind). This chop caused half the race to be into the wind (going down) and half the race to be with the wind (coming back).

And they're off!
Unlike the women's race, the referee didn't watch the start from the dock today, but rather stayed in a boat (the starter was in a boat both days). I also was a wee bit later snapping the pic, so the guys are a bit farther off the line here than the girls are... the interesting thing to me is how clear the arms in the far side of the line are (and through the splash as well).




A few more differences between the guys and girls races, which this picture shows. The guys field stayed together through most of the race; no one broke away early. So when they got to the turns, 15 guys went around them together, bunched up (like here). Also, there were more local swimmers spectating today, so the dock in the background was crowded (and sinking somewhat)--so I moved from it (also because they were talking over the announcer and not about the race...).

The staying-together of the men's field also led to their race being more physical, to the point where many of the guys emerged from the water with cuts or scrapes, and in the case of Chip Peterson, a rip in the leg of his suit...

Can't you see I am fool, in so many ways
But to lose all my senses
That is just so typically me

Dad is great, give us chocolate cake

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Fort Myers at the moment, watching Bill Cosby's Himself--hence today's chocolate cake reference. Actually, my mom watched this the other day... and coincidently, my dad's birthday is next week (I hope he gets some chocolate cake...).


I'm on the Gulf Coast of Florida this weekend, attending the USA 2008 Open Water Worlds 10K Trials (the pictures are from today's women's 10K race...).

Above: The lake where this weekend's events are being held, looking down the 1.25K length of the course (the 3 orange buoys are the turn).

at left: Start of the women's race.


Shortly after the start of the women's race, 4 swimmers broke away to form the lead pack; they stayed together for the remainder of the race.
Here 3 of them (in order front to back: Chloe Sutton, Kirsten Groome and Micha Burden head out of the first lap (2.5K), with the fourth (Kalyn Keller) just out of frame to the left. In the background of this photo is the finish line area (the white & blue rectangle just above the hat of the guy standing in the boat).

By the end of the race, with about 300m to go, the 4 ladies had split up.
In this picture are all 4 (look closely). Just in front of the boat is Burden, pulling into the lead with a more directly line to the finish. To the right of the boat, the big splash is Groome (blue cap) and Sutton (yellow), who veered a bit wide. And the splash behind this pair is Keller.


And lastly, here are Groome and Sutton finishing in second and third (Groome is on the other side of the person in the black shirt, Sutton is on the right side of the frame). After 2 hours, they're just that far apart.

Final times for the top-4:
1) Burden--2:00:47
(2 hours and 47 seconds)
2) Groome--2:01:05
3) Sutton--2:01:09
4) Keller--2:01:42

A good--more detailed--write up of the race, with a full results can be found here, if you're interested (although I don't believe it mentions the dislocated shoulder that happened...).


Eggs; eggs are in chocolate cake.
And milk! Oh, goodie!
And wheat: that's nutrition....
Now need something to drink with chocolate cake, something breakfast.
Grapefruit juice! (groan from the audience)
This is not your child.

Better the devil you know

Sometimes slow is just slow (not safer).

Sometimes more is just more (not bettah).

And sometimes you get a funky Halloween cat [at right] in the mail from your mom... (thanks ;).


I'll forgive and forget
If you say you'll never go
'Cause it's true, what they say
It's (better the devil you know) better the devil you know
(better the devil you know)

How can you stop, the sun from shining? What makes the world go 'round

Well, my weekend was fairly uneventful. Other than...

• seeing a guy driving a Vespa sending a text message,
• having the Bee Gees' How Can You Mend a Broken Heart stuck in my head, (which led me to...)
• editing the Bee Gees record on LyricWiki (actually reformatting most of it),
• getting my oil change and having it only cost $130 (yes, it's a lot, but it wasn't just an oil change and given that at least two of the last "oil changes" I've gotten have led to around $1,000 in repairs, it was a relief),
• getting caught up on some work, and
• attempting to get some of my friends to go see Elizabeth: The Golden Age on both Saturday and Sunday, and eventually going by myself.

So I guess it was uneventful--nor "fairly" about it--but restful.... Topping it off, I've not yet mailed my mom her birthday card/present, and her birthday is tomorrow (bad son that I am... course I can't mail part of it--not sure how/when that will get to her :-/ ). Oh, but I am now, officially, halfway through C&P: hopefully the second half will go by faster... hasta


And...
How can you mend a broken heart?
How can you stop the rain from falling down?
How can you stop, the sun from shining?
What makes the world go 'round?

And even though it's hard to see the glass as full and, not half empty (a thousand beautiful things)

Today was really a half-empty/half-full day; which apparently matches the three-star astrology day I was having (and I only mention that, as some of my fellow Virgos had a not-so-fun day as well)....

I awoke in a blasé mood, not really caring exactly what was to happen, or for that matter if I would swim tonight. I wasn't even compelled to listen to the new Annie Lennox CD Songs of Mass Destruction [at right] that I got earlier this week--unlike the previous few days. But I've got a few more weeks before I see Annie on Halloween night down in Miami to get familiar with the songs...

Anyways, so work today went fairly well--somewhat surprisingly--but not well enough to shake my funk. Nope, that distinction--and my switched over from empty to full (half-wise)--occurred during practice tonight, thanks to a challenging set (and to think I almost didn't go) and some joking around with my fellow Masters (and the hanging out post-practice didn't hurt, particularly the quote about how Nashville isn't know for Country music ;).

So the evening ended better... now I just need to get to sleep before tomorrow's here. So hasta...


The world was meant for you and me
To figure out our destiny (All the world is meant for you and me)
(Ooh, remember)

Tomorrow will be too late, it's now or never

It is late, Elvis is still stuck in my head (It's Now Or Never, today), I've got The Matador to watch, and the Horns lost to OU yesterday, so... I'll be brief.

On Friday, I saw on Yahoo that the "Canyon Lake Gorge" is set to open to the public for the first time since its formation in 2002 (The AP item even ran the Joe Mitchell picture at right).

The gorge was formed in the matter of a few weeks, due to an overflow of Canyon Lake cause by heavy rains/flooding in the South Texas that year (the "Great Flood of 2002", I believe is how the local news posted it at the time--to over-stress the importance of it). This was during a time when the rest of the country was having a drought and/or heat way, so the national news was dominated with all this talk about a lack of water, meanwhile, down in San Antonio/Austin way, we were dealing with a lake overflowing around the dam (luckily, the dam didn't break, the water just went around it).

Anyways, pretty cool. More information on the Gorge is available here.

It's now or never, come hold me tight
Kiss me my darling, be mine tonight
Tomorrow will be too late
It's now or never, my love won't wait

I'm falling in love with the right-now poster girl

Well... I'm still partially on Pacific time, even though I returned on Monday. So I'll be brief...

Today on the drive into work, one of the cars in front of me had this bumper sticker on it:







Which made me laugh. After pondering a bit, trying to figure out who of my friends would get the Deliverance reference, I remembered another--funnier--bumper sticker I saw while out in California:








The Voldemort one is apparently based off this comic strip from a few years ago. Course, the sticker still makes me laugh.

That the consequences of your actions really are just a game
That your life is just a chain reaction taking you day by day
She says nothing's forever in this crazy world