You Can Still Sing, Even With a Froggy Throat!

I hope you had a great weekend.  It's spring and we've had decent weather so I'm sure some of you may need to go back to work to get some rest.

I opened one of my wildlife publications recently and this riveting gribbiting little fellow greeted me:

 A little bird told me that a certain geek has a birthday soon.  

Then I ate it.  Gribbit.  Burp.

Yes, indeedy, this geek is celebrating another birthday.  *It's tomorrow and my age will be x'30'. Unlike last year, I'm hoping that I don't get a hail storm as my gift!

Yesterday (Sunday) was the 10th anniversary of the tornado that hit downtown Fort Worth.  It was quite an event.  There were a few deaths and a lot of damage.  Seeing the streets of downtown decorated with shreds of glass was not my idea of entertainment.  I wrote a post about it last year.  If anything, take the time to click on this link just to see the photo.  It shows the building I worked in at the time.

For my birthday this year, Hubby dressed up in my clothes:

Just kidding.  He needed a kilt for an online contest!    I told him that it takes a real man to wear a kilt.

Let's end today's post with a song:

Happy Birthday to Me

Happy Birthday Silly Geek

Happy Birthday, Happy Earth Day

Happy Birthday to Me.

*My age in hexadecimal notation.  Yeah, I'm a dorky geek.  I'll be 48.

It's Bullocks and Discombobulation!

It was just another week in paradise or maybe it was in Geekville.  I can't remember.  I do know that it is Friday, the weather is gorgeous, and a busy weekend awaits!

The rude and obnoxious alarm goes off this morning making its usual repetitive chirping noise.  Hubby stirs and then lets out a big bear groan.  Unfortunately, I don't think he was awakening from a dream involving the potentially available Sandra Bullock.   I reminded Hubby that it was Friday and the bear calmed and started to purr. 

Yes, I know that bears don't purr but maybe they vibrate when they sigh.  Hubby did get up leaving me for another hour of precious snore time.

Then, Ms. Spring redeemed herself.  I woke up feeling all out of sorts.  I didn't sleep well.  Hum....maybe I was wrestling Sandra Bullock for my husband's attentions.

Anywhatsit, I felt discombobulated, my head no longer attached to my body but floating around like a gaseous ghost high on paint fumes.

Driving to work, I was greeted with this, which only intensified my out of body experience:

Yeah, I WISH!  Those are from Yellowstone, courtesy of rickz on flickr.com but our local ponds were steamy and with pink and orange from the morning sun, I now know what SERENITY looks like!

And me without me camera.

For shame.

I'm better now.  My class is done.  Nobody died and my CPR skills were not needed.  PHEW!    My swim is over.  I'm glad I did it even though I felt every inch of the pool and was struggling with my breathing.  I took a few shots of chlorinated water when the guy in the next lane started his butterfly stroke.   

Thanks, Dude.  That's not the drink I really wanted.   Could you have gotten me a coffee or at least a green tea?

This swimmer attended my class prior to his swim so we know each other.  I think he may have been picking on me or paying me back for that last set of push-ups.

Sigh.

In other goofiness,

One of the swimmers in the recent triathlon mentioned she was going to wear a swim cap to keep her hair dry.

Um, no Sweetie. It doesn't work that way.  I certainly wish it did.

A friend of mine was almost stopped in the middle of a half marathon BY A TRAIN CROSSING!

What idiot designed THAT route?

A woman leaves her baby in her SUV to avoid it being repossessed.

Words cannot describe....

People make such great blog fodder.

Have a great weekend!

Ms. Spring, You Owe Us an Apology!

While folks up north and to the east enjoyed our warm Texas weather this past weekend, spring came to north Texas with an attitude, or a hangover, or both.  It must have been some party Ms. Spring attended.  

We had rain, and some more rain, and then snow, and some more snow.   Also, saying that we had a bit of a breeze would be an understatement.  The squirrels adapted by sprouting wings.  They gracefully flew through the trees when they were brave enough to come out of hiding.  Rabbits were getting a little extra air on their hops, easily avoiding Cat while he slept on a warm binkie snuggled up next to me in the warm house.  

Hum...maybe my twisted view of local "wildlife" was caused by a different kind of hops.

Although the snow blew away by mid-afternoon on Sunday,  there was enough of it in some areas to cause some serious issues with our roads. Texans with spring fever hit by a freak snowstorm in the dark is not a good mix.  It would be similar to rednecks in tuxedos singing opera.

Yeah.  I know. That's enough whining.  It's Texas.  The weather changes quickly.

TODAY IS BEAUTIFUL!  I'm having a bit of an issue with lead foot.  I have to drive through numerous 30-mile zones to get to my part-time job and I try to keep it under 40.  I'm having a hard time today.

Maybe I was in a hurry to get home and write this post.  

I know I was in a hurry to get out of the cold water at the gym.  Maybe Ms. Spring left some of her blasted frigid white stuff in the pool?

Sheesh!  I did a lot of full-stroke swimming this morning eliminating some of the drills that I normally do because they don't keep my heart rate up high enough to stay warm. 

Yeah.  I know.  I'm whining again.  LOL.

Have a happy Monday!

I have some photos from my St. Patrick's Day Triathlon.  Enjoy!

 Slithering up the ladder

 Loving the sunshine

 Where's the finish line?

 Satisfied finisher!

Photos:  Your Sporting Image by Karen Thibodeaux, purchased by Reforming Geek

You Are My Sunshine, My Only Sunshine

Uh huh.  If you believe that,  for only $19.99, you, too, can have this adorable beast to keep you warm on these chilly spring nights:

 Don't EVEN think about it.

Um....Reffie, that thing doesn't look very friendly.  It looks more like me when I have PMS.

Yeah, well.  He is what he is and he just puked so get over it already.  I'm going on with today's post, 'K?

Suit yourself.

I know you are probably tired of me talking about awards.

My apologies.

SNORT!

Give me a break!  I'm trying to keep their attention for a few more minutes.

...

If someone takes the time and effort to give me blog bling, I want to take the time to thank them for it.  I know I'm slow to do this sometimes and for that, I really am sorry!

I received the Sunshine Award from a relatively new-to-me blogger Ivy over at Unscriptedlife.com:

What a sweetheart she is.  Her multi-featured site has uplifting offerings of humor and inspiration.  It's just what you need to start or finish your day. Please visit her and leave witty comments from all of your personas.

What?  You mean most of you don't have multiple personas?

Oh.

Momma told me there would be days like this...

Anyway, I'd like to spread some sunshine to some of you northerners.  May this burst of orange bring you warmth and awaken you from your long hibernation:

Michiganer Collette, from My Babcia's Babushka

Mainah Deb, from Debbie Does Drivel

Upstate New Yorker No-Cats-Lady Larew, from How to Become a Cat Lady Without the Cats

With a little sunshine and a little spring in my step, I leave you this white delight from my neighbor's yard:

Although we are expecting a chilly weekend, spring is upon us!

Photos:  Reforming Geek (Reffie)

Big Fish, Little Fish, and Bottom Feeders

You probably noticed that someone stole an hour from most of us over the weekend.  Yes, you lucky folks in Arizona and Hawaii still have your hour.  Wait.  Maybe you've been stealing them all along. 

THIEVES!

Off to the races...

After losing that hour and not being able to sleep all that well anyway, I somehow got out of bed Sunday morning for the St. Patrick's Day Triathlon.

The weather was nice.  There was no wind in the chilly transition area at 6:30 am when I arrived and arranged my stuff but I was glad when they let us inside the natatorium to hang around for the start of the race. 

Swimmers hit the water by 7:40 am and I listened to a dude playing bagpipes for over an hour before it was my turn to swim.  Can I have his lung capacity?

In the pool, I felt pretty good until the next to last leg.  That's when I encountered octopi.  No, these weren't critters recently escaped from the ocean, but they were men flailing about doing every stroke imaginable to stay afloat and to get ahead of the other guys (of course!).  There were hands and legs and bodies everywhere going nowhere. They completely blocked the swim lane so I had to invent a slither stroke to get around them.  SHEESH!

The exit ladder was a welcome sight.

  

After dripping my way through the transition area to my stuff and attempting to towel off,  I hopped on my bike for the next part of the race.

While on my ride, I saw a local elite runner out for her morning practice.  This woman chases cars for practice.  No, not really, but she does sprint half marathons. She reminds me of the Energizer Bunny and the vortex of energy around her is surely very powerful.  Her name is Fiona (what a pretty name) which I've conveniently changed to "Speedy Fi (fee)".  Maybe it's good her parents did not name her Phoebe.  "Speedy Phoebe" is just too hard to say.

I must learn to siphon her energy.  Too bad she was going the opposite direction or I might have asked her to carry me and my bike up the hill.

Finally, I finished the ride, found my stuff, racked my bike, took off my bike helmet (very important) and started the run.

But wait. What's this?  My feet were numb.  What the frozen tundra was that about?  Yes, it was chilly on the bike after being in the water but I didn't think I was that cold.  Apparently, I was.  That, and the fact that my brain said "send blood to quads, glutes, and hamstrings" over and over again for almost an hour.

The finish line was beautiful.  Hubby arrived just as the announcer called my name as I was crossing the line.  Hubby couldn't have planned that if he'd tried.   

I got me some pancakes, and no, they weren't green.

The lady with the green hair...

I wore my costume.  I had the shirt and skirt on for the bike ride and added the green hair and a hat for the run.  I received many comments, mostly from guys on bikes passing me saying "nice skirt".......

I certainly didn't mind.  A few of the ladies indicated that they liked my hair.    There weren't too many costumes so it must have been up to me to entertain folks!

The results are in....

Surprisingly, on the running part, I did quite well, coming in second in my age group.  For swimming, I need to advance from bottom feeder to at least little fishie drafting off big fishies in order to improve my swim time.  I improved my biking time by over 10 minutes.  I noticed something else, though.  My quads are about 1/3 the size of some of these ladies' quads.  That can be said for my butt, too, and that's a good thing!

Update: Although I'm happy with my run results, I placed very low in the swim and bike events so my overall result makes me somewhere between a bottom feeder and a little fish.  LOL.

I hope to have some photos soon.

Spring Arrives, Sinks Sedan, While Geek in Strange Clothing Rants On

It's rained so much out here that our yards are soggy.  One of my neighbors got a little over-excited about spring and decided to mow using his riding mower.  Surprise.  Surprise.  It got stuck in his front yard. 

Then he must have swallowed an insanity pill because he tried to rescue the lawn mower with his CAR.  That's right.  CAR.  No, not his truck, but a 2-door sedan, an older vehicle he's had sitting around for awhile.  Um....gee, guess what happened?

Yes, indeedy.  It's stuck, too.

One of my azaleas has bloomed.  It must be confused.   The daffodils aren't even finished yet!

Yes, those are leaves in the background.  Anytime you guys want to show up with brooms and rakes is fine with me!

Ok. Ok.  On with the rant:

Did you know that Natatoriums have Nazis?  I think these are the same type of people that must work at schools herding rowdy little kiddies in and out of the building, monitoring the lunch room, jumping out from behind potted plants scaring children, etc.   

When I went to the local Natatorium to pick up my race packet for Sunday's triathlon, I encountered such a person.  She will be known as NN, the Natatorium Nazi.

Yeah, N-squared.  I caught that.

The packet pick-up area was in a crowded part of the lobby.  Yes, that was the first problem.  There wasn't much space to wait your turn so there was little bit of a line.  We were standing in line chatting about the race but apparently we weren't doing it right.  NN got all huffy and fussy because we weren't keeping the line moving.  She said that people were having to stand outside.  HEAVENS TO BETSY!  WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?  It's 65 degrees and dry.  We won't freeze or melt or did I miss recent reports of zombie activity in the area?

These are ADULTS that are competing in a triathlon.  I think we can handle it, NN. 

Maybe she thought we were sheep?

Beware of wolves, NN.

NN was also instructing us as to where we could or could not fill out forms.   Yes, another problem.  We were told to go across the room to use the tables to fill out the forms.  Of course nobody was doing this.  We were using whatever we could find as a hard surface and NN made her displeasure known!  Um.......how about providing a table close to the pick-up area?   

Sheesh.

I was trying to picture myself calm and at peace but thoughts of NN falling into the pool, falling under the wheels of a bus, being strangled with a race T-shirt, writing "I will not be rude" on the board 1000 times, tripping over a potted plant,  etc., kept coming into my mind.  

For shame.

Finally, Sunday's race is another costume race in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  Here is my expression of a Scottish lass bringing snakes to Ireland:

Again. For shame.

All of you Irish out there, please stop throwing things at me. 

Photos:  ReformingGeek

Beware the Sue

While I was on a long run the other day, my mind wandered around the forest, found a few trees, and came back.  Then I realized I was thinking about women named "Sue" and how many of them are BEE-OTCHes.  Yeah, crazy huh?  It's not "Susan" or "Suzanne" or "Suzie".  Apparently, only the name "Sue" creates this horrifying image of pure female witchy bitchiness from my haunted past.

When I was 10 and taking swimming lessons at the local pool, the instructor you DID NOT want to get was.....you guessed it, SUE.  She was old.  She was probably 28, but anybody over 16 was ancient to silly 10-year-olds.   She was mean.  She actually made you learn the strokes and swim and yelled at you if you didn't.  Sheesh!

I'm sure all the bullies in junior high were named "Sue" or "Annette" but the next infamous "Sue" I encountered was another instructor.  This time, I was an adult taking a fitness training class at the YMCA.  SUE was the drill sergeant....er...trainer and she made you do the work/exercises correctly and yelled at you if you didn't.  OK.  Maybe she didn't yell but she sure had a loud voice.   Heaven forbid if you had a question about something....

Just to be clear, our fellow blogger named Sue from Farvel Cargo is NOT a BEE-OTCH.  I've only "met" her online and she seems to have not inherited the "Sue" curse.  Evil Twin and Cat love her blog! 

Wait.  I think she is my new boss.

Uh oh.

In other news, Mom is looking less like a raccoon.  The coloring, with the help of gravity, has moved down her face to her neck.  She is able to see better but still has a big knot on her head. 

She has a broken nose and she saw the nose doctor today. The doctor said that it's up to her whether or not to fix her broken nose with surgery.  Unless she is having difficulty breathing or insists the nose be reshaped, the surgery is not a necessity.  As of right now, she is not having any breathing problems.  No surgery is planned.

Her arm is still very sore.  She wants to try to drive but I think she knows she's not ready yet.   

Sigh.

Thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers.

SPLAT!

What was that?

Oh, the poor cat fell off the couch.  He looks so surprised.  He thinks I pushed him.   Now he's licking himself in disgrace.  Silly beast.

Pass the Happy, Everything is Beautiful!

I'm excited today.  I get to talk about how beautiful I am.

No?

Well, I thought that was what this latest blog award was about.

Wait.  Cat is tapping the keyboard.  He is saying HE is the most beautiful of them all and it's all about him.

Um....no.

Anybeautified, I got this little beauty from Quirky, my bestest bloggin' buddy and most beautifulest zombie wanna-be of them all.

Thanks, Quirky.  

Now I have to talk about what I think is beautiful. 

Evil Twin and I battled but I have a soft spot for her so I told her I would post her thoughts, too:

1.  I love peopleofwalmart.com.  Where else can you find this kind of gorgeous?

Evil Twin is afraid she may appear on this site one of these days.

2.  I think any movie with Matt Damon is a work of art.

Evil Twin loves the movie SCREAM, all 210 of them!  She thinks the mask is sexy and has asked for one for her birthday.  Hint. Hint.

I'll take a cupcake.  Hint.  Hint.   Red Velvet, Lemon, Marble, all of the above...

3.  I prefer the beauty of a clear spring day with flowers blooming and the lawn freshly cut.

Evil Twin likes to play with lawn mower blades...

4.  I've always wanted to express myself in the dramatic field.  Yes, being The Doctor's companion has been at the top of my list for awhile.  I'm sure it would be great fun to be chased by Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, or any of the other nonsensical alien villains.   I can't wait to spin around in a time machine that looks like a telephone box.  YEEEEEEHAW!

Evil Twin enjoys hearing The Doctor's companion scream and she's trying to tell me that it isn't a real time machine.

Sheesh! 

4.  America, the beautiful.  I love our beautiful country and its magical national parks.

Evil Twin is very interested in how high some of the waterfalls are at Yosemite.

5. Ice sculptures. WOW!

"Um....  Put that chainsaw down.  There isn't any ice around here anymore."

6.  I love it when I wake-up in the mornings.

Evil Twin is handing me some mouth wash.

7.  I've saved the best for last.

Mirror, mirror on the the wall.
Who is the most beautiful of all?
Silly Reffie, you can play this hand
Your blogging buddies are the most beautiful of this land!

Evil Twin says.......

You don't want to know.

I'm also supposed to give this award to other bloggers.  I will pretend I didn't see this part.

Oh, ok.  Sigh.  I'll pick a couple of you newbies (to my blog):

Anything Fits a Naked Man  - Beautiful craziness from a former actress (YES, it's a SHE!)

Think Spin - Lots of laughs from a fellow beautifully warped person.

Enjoy!