Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category
Aloha from Waikiki!!
I’m having an AMAZING time with my friends in Hawai’i. So much so that we’ve decided to come back again next year! 
I’m not going to take the time to post details right now, but I thought I would share a few favorite pics. Mahalo and enjoy!
View from the lanai at our condo:
International Market Place and surrounding area:
Picking out pearl settings at The Pearl Factory with the help of Cousin Grant (left) and Cousin Wayne (right):
Result of our efforts:
Paradise Cove Luau:
Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve: (place we went snorkeling)
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll write up more details after I get back home on Sunday. 
Up, up and away ….
in my beautiful, my beautiful …. balloon! I had an AMAZING experience yesterday! My friend who is visiting surprised me with a sunrise hot air balloon ride over wine country in Temecula, CA. It was awesome!! Here are a couple of pics taken during the ride. As always, you can click on each photo for a larger view.
If you want to see all of the pics, you can view them here.
I’m not sure if I’ll have a chance to update my blog much over the next week. I’m leaving tomorrow for vacation in Hawaii with Terri and Tracy. I can update my blog from my iPhone, so I might try to at least post a couple of updates, but there probably won’t be anything substantial until after I get back.
So, until next time … 
Dinner with Alison
I met up for dinner last night with a stitching friend I’ve known online for several years. Alison lives in Sydney, Australia, but was in the U.S. for the Shepherd’s Bush retreat a few weeks ago and for some general holiday fun. She was in Los Angeles as her final stop before hopping on a plane to head home today. My friends Darla and Nick were also able to join us. We all hit it off immediately and had a wonderful time together. I couldn’t believe how quickly three hours passed! 
Here are a couple of photos (click for larger view):
Clockwise from lower left: Alison’s mum, Alison, Alison’s DD, Me, Darla
Left to right: Me, Alison, Darla
Bike MS Michigan-style
My very dear friend Nick is once again riding in the Bike MS event in Michigan. This weekend marks his 6th year riding in this event. It’s a pretty grueling 150 mile ride over 2 days. This is just one of many such rides and walks sponsored each year across the country by local chapters of the National MS Society. Participants ride/walk for, and in honor of, people with Multiple Sclerosis so that hopefully one day they can find a cure for this debilitating and, sometimes, fatal disease.
One of my those people with MS is my sister Marilyn. She was diagnosed with MS about 8 or 9 years ago after she began experiencing “floaters” and blurriness in her vision. She went to see her eye doctor about this issue. He had, thankfully, recently attended a conference where the link between vision problems and MS were discussed. He referred her to a Neuroimmunologist at the MS Clinic at Vanderbilt Medical Center who ran a battery of tests and ultimately confirmed she had MS. At the time of her diagnosis, she was both a fairly recent newlywed and a new mom to my niece Casey. It was devastating news.
She has done fairly well over the years with treatment and has been able to lead a somewhat “normal” life. It hasn’t been easy though. Several years into her treatment, a routine test panel revealed that the Interferon was adversely affecting her liver (a somewhat common problem). So, she was forced to make a decision to lower her dosage of Interferon which increases the likelihood of experiencing the MS symptoms, or to continue with the normal dosage and run the risk of potentially needing to have a liver transplant down the road.
My sister opted for decreasing her dosage. This has resulted more symptoms, but she’s still doing fairly well otherwise and her liver panels are holding steady. The one symptom that has gotten noticeably worse is her balance. Even without drinking a drop of alcohol, she would be unable to pass a field sobriety test simply because she doesn’t have the balance capacity necessary to pass the tests. If her balance continues to deteriorate, she will eventually lose her driving privileges and, if it gets bad enough, end up having to use either a walker or wheelchair.
About 3 years ago, she was unexpectedly fired from a job at a small to medium-sized wholesale distributing company where she had worked for well over 10 years. Even though nothing was ever able to be proven definitively, the vast assumption by everyone involved was that her employer let her go due to the ever-increasing costs of providing my sister with medical insurance. Since her husband and his father owned a small trucking company together, he also did not have medical insurance, so they were forced to start paying for all of her medications out-of-pocket. There were many times, however, that if it was a bad month for the trucking company, that she went without purchasing her medication because they simply couldn’t afford it.
Fast forward to the end of January of this year. My brother-in-law was killed in a single-car accident on icy roads on January 31st. My sister was now an unemployed widow at the age of 45 with MS and two children under the age of 10. (In addition to my niece, my sister and her husband had taken responsibility a couple of years ago for raising his great-nephew, now 3 years old, because the mother had a drug abuse problem.) Finding a job in our current economy can be difficult enough on its own, but try finding a job when you tell the potential employer that you have MS. Fortunately, her father-in-law basically created a position for her at the trucking company to give her enough income to be able to feed her family, but she still doesn’t have any medical insurance and can’t afford to pay for an individual policy because of her pre-existing MS.
I’m not telling you guys all of this so that you will feel sorry for my sister. I’m sharing this to give you just one of the many faces of people living with MS. She’s just one story. There are so many more out there, some much worse than her own, since there are currently nearly a half million people in the U.S. living with MS with approximately another 200 people each week being diagnosed. This disease affects about 2.5 million people world-wide, most of whom are women since women are 2-3 times more likely to have MS than men.
So, if you are so inclined, I would be ever so grateful if you would make a donation to my friend Nick as he is riding his heart out this weekend, not only for my sister, but for all the others like her who are living with MS. The money does not go to him, but goes directly to the MS Society. Here’s the link one more time:
The MS Society is an wonderful organization that not only helps fund amazing research, but also uses the money raised to help support those already living with the disease. They locally fund both educational and recreational programs for MS patients and their families. They also assist patients financially and through advocacy as needed. They truly are an amazing organization and I’m honored to work with them at my local chapter here as well.
If you decide to make a donation, please accept my
First Weigh In & Kelly’s Wedding
I went to my first weigh in today since rejoining Weight Watchers last week. I was down 4.2 pounds!!! The most amazing part of that is that in the past couple of days I’ve eaten some very out of the norm foods for me.
On Sunday, I went to a Chinese buffet with my outlaws (former in-laws) for Father’s Day. I did really well with the situation and only had foods that were steamed and avoided anything with much of a sauce. The only real “bad” thing I had was 1 small veggie egg roll. All in all, I considered the meal a great success for my weight loss journey!
Yesterday was much more of a challenge. I attended the wedding & reception of my coworker Kelly which took place on a Carnival cruise ship. Pretty much all of the food was fried with the exception of some sushi, the deviled eggs, and the fruit. Oh, I almost forgot, the cake wasn’t fried either. 
Since I knew I had the event coming up, I had reserved all of my extra weekly points allowance just for this occasion. I did dip into them quite a bit yesterday, but didn’t exceed my budget, so my OP string continues.
Here are a couple of pics from the wedding. As always, you can click on the images here in the blog to see a larger version of them.
The ceremony:
The reception area:
Cutting the cake:
The kiss at the end of their first dance:
I think Kelly was such a beautiful bride and her dress was gorgeous! Here’s to wishing Kelly & Adam and long, healthy, and happy marriage!
In closing, here are my WW stats for yesterday:
Total Points: 45
Exercise: Walking - 2 APs
Weekly Points balance: 23
Water: 64 oz
Consecutive Days OP: 7
Until next time …
Good Race Vibes!
Just wanted to take a minute to send out good race vibes to a couple of local friends who are racing this weekend. Yanti is doing the Redondo Beach Triathlon, and Darla is cycling the half century distance of the Los Angeles River Ride.
I hope you both have a great day out there!!
*Gulp*
Well, I did it. I broke down and ordered a wetsuit today. I’m already dreading trying it on when it arrives, but I just keep reminding myself that really no one looks good in a wetsuit. Well, ok, so maybe fitness models and elite triathletes look good in wetsuits, but pretty much no one else does.
Since I live in southern California, I opted for a spring suit instead of a full suit. I ordered an O’Neill Reactor suit (part of their multi-sport line) from Becker Surfboards. I pretty much decided on the spring suit for a few different reasons:
1. It should provide plenty of warmth for the waters here.
2. It was more affordable than a full suit.
3. It should fit better since I had to order a men’s suit.
Yeah, that third item was the most depressing. For anyone who cares to know, it’s pretty much impossible to find a women’s triathlon wetsuit if you are a plus size. Even though I’ve lost over 75 pounds, I’m still very much a plus size and there just isn’t much to be found out there in my size as far as tri gear goes.
My friend Nick flew back home yesterday. We had a great time while he was here. The trip to Palm Springs & Joshua Tree was amazing! As feared, when we took the aerial tram up on to Mount San Jacinto, we did face temps around 30°F and falling snow. We didn’t let it deter us though as we still went out and had a nice hike for just over an hour. Here are a couple of pics (click on each for a larger view):
Snow … in May?! WTF?!?!?
Me at the mountain station of the tram (8516′ elevation)
I came from Detroit to southern California for THIS?!
Tram up to the mountain (definitely click this one to see it full size)
After enjoying a day in the snow, the next day we headed into the desert at Joshua Tree National Park. The temperatures there was definitely far below the norm as well. Normal high temperatures for this time of the year is in the low to mid-90’s F. It was in the 60’s most of the day, but did dip down into the upper 50’s at one point when we went up to Keys View (5185′ elevation). Here are a few pics from that day:
Joshua Tree Welcome Center
Beaver Tail Cactus in Bloom
Forest of Joshua Trees
Self-Portrait of Nick Chilling Out
Hiking on the Lost Horse Mine Trail
Well, I guess that’s enough for now. I really need to head off to bed since it’s back to work full-time tomorrow. After working part-time the past couple of weeks while Nick was here, working a full week again is going to be a rude reality check.
Until next time … 
Greetings from Palm Springs
My friend Nick and I arrived safely in Palm Springs after driving through a horrific thunderstorm in Moreno Valley. We heard later there was apparently a tornado that went through not long after us, so we’re really thankful we didn’t caught up in that!
Our plan for tomorrow is to take the aerial tram up to the top of Mount San Jacinto. Imagine my surprise when we got out here and found out there’s still SNOW up there and the forecasted high for tomorrow is only 40°F. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! I’m not sure I brought warm enough clothing for those conditions!
The hotel we’re staying at doesn’t offer free WiFi, but I managed to locate a signal out on the balcony. So, after having gone to one of my favorite vegan restaurants for dinner, I’m now sitting here on our balcony enjoying all the hub-bub from an English pub on the street below and doing a lot of people watching on a very pleasant spring-like evening. Nick is inside doing a bit of cross-stitching while I finish this post. After that, we’re planning to play a bit of Gin Rummy or Canasta. Life is good.
Until next time …
Cool new shirts & Weekly Update
I ordered a couple of new tech shirts recently from the Run Athena website. They arrived earlier this week, but I’m just now getting around to posting about them. Here’s a photo:
For those not into the crazy world of endurance sports like marathon running or triathlons, there is a separate category at races for those us who are *ahem* larger than the typical athlete. For women, that category is called the Athena category and is compromised of female participants in excess of 150 pounds. Please don’t even get me started on what a ridiculously low weight that seems to me for an “Athena”. Oh well, at least Athena sounds pretty cool. For men over 200 pounds, their category is called “Clydesdales”. Yeah, Athena sounds much better.
Anyway, back to the shirts. I was really pleased with the quality given they were only $12 + s/h each. The shirt itself is from Bike and they come in size L and XL. I ordered the XL knowing it would probably be a bit before I could actually wear them. Well, I was really surprised when I tried them on to see that it won’t be long at all! They are cut quite generously. It actually fits me already, but it’s tighter than my current comfort level would allow for me to wear in public.
I’m think they’ll be just about right in about 10-15 more pounds. I will wear them proudly! 
I’m still in the (hopefully) final stages of recovery from the tonsillitis/sinus infection. I still have a bit of congestion, but it’s a lot better than it was last weekend. As a result of still being in recovery, I didn’t get in very much training this week. I got in 4.05 total miles of walking/wogging (walk/jog combo) and 3 miles on the stationary bike.
My wogging miles will definitely increase tomorrow since I’ll be doing the Coaster Run 5k with Darla. I went by and picked up my race packet earlier today, so I’m all ready to go. After the race is over, we’ll be heading over to the LNS for an all day stitch & bitch and potluck, so tomorrow should be a really fun day all around.
This morning was also my weekly Weight Watchers meeting. I went to it hopeful for a bit of a loss, but realized that it might not happen since I’ve been on Prednisone for the past 8 days. I was THRILLED when I stepped on the scale and saw I was down 2.2 pounds this week. 
It’s the first time I’ve EVER lost weight on Prednisone! So, this now brings my total loss thus far for my 50 day no cheat challenge up to 13.4 pounds.
Today is actually day 41 of my challenge. It’s amazing to realize that I’m already over 80% done with it! Things have been going so well lately and I’m feeling so good where I am on my journey that I may just keep going with it for a while. I don’t know that I’ll extend it out to another specific point, but I figure since I’m not really struggling and wanting to have a cheat day then it only makes sense to stick with it. I have just over 6 months until the Subaru triathlon and I would really like to be about 35 pounds lighter by then, so sticking with my no cheat plan will definitely help with that.
Ok, this is starting to get crazy long, so I’ll finish off for now. As usual, I’ll close with my WW stats for the past 2 days since I didn’t get around to posting yesterday.
Thursday:
Total Points: 28
Exercise: Cycling (1 AP) & Wogging (2 AP) - 3
Weekly Points balance: 34
Water: 88 oz
Days OP: 39
Friday:
Total Points: 29.5
Exercise: Walking - 1 AP
Weekly Points balance: 34
Water: 72 oz
Days OP: 40
Until next time …
WOOOOT!!!!
Congratulations to the Lady Vols on making it to the NCAA Championship coming up on Tuesday night! (Sorry about LSU, Terri)
Alas, there was no racing for me today. Even though my throat was feeling a lot better this morning, I just knew I was too weak still to make the 125 mile round trip drive down regardless of how badly I wanted to be there. Major kudos to Terri for getting out there and finishing the 5k even though she’s been battling PF for a few months now!
My friend Kris was also out racing today. She ran a half marathon in Athens, OH this morning. She was actually only a couple of minutes shy of getting a new PR, so she did GREAT!
In closing, here are my WW stats for Saturday:
Total Points: 32 (used 1 WP)
Exercise:
Weekly Points balance: 34
Water: 64 oz
Days OP: 34
