Kirsten's musings...

Friday pix

Our 'niece' Mika is competing in her last Junior Nationals.  This is her racing in the Boise Twilight Criterium.  She's so fast she's blurry!

Friday pix - Heat wave edition

Our bedroom during the 2009 Heat Wave:

Friday pix

I would have loved a pool to cool off in Saturday night in Boise.

Boise 2009

Now that I've somewhat recovered from my trip to Boise last week I guess it's time to post all of the gory details.  :)

Day 0
I flew to Boise right after work on Monday to start my vacation as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately the Lyman house was empty - Michelle was still on her way home from Portland and Mika was on a training ride.  Okay, not completely empty - their new puppy Boon was home, but he was quite skittish about meeting me without his people around.  I'd work all week to gain his trust.

Day 1
Michelle had to work, but Mika and I had some time to kill so we ran a couple of errands and went out for lunch before she had to go to a training for her new job.  So glad she finally found one in this economy.  Once Michelle got home from work the real excitement began - the main reason I went to Boise!  (After seeing the Lyman girls, of course!)  Kenny Chesney was performing in concert that night, along with Lady Antebellum and Miranda Lambert.  Lady A was great, while Miranda was a little disappointing.  I really expected more from her.  Kenny was fabulous, as expected.  I hadn't been to a major concert indoors for a long, long time so I was unprepared for how loud it would be.  Not the music or instruments but the crowd singing along.  Kenny's music is very sing-alongable and the Boise fans didn't disappoint.  On our way back to the car we passed by his tour bus - very cool!

Day 2
Michelle took the day off from work to recover from the concert so we did some work in her backyard.  She had a pile of twigs, vines and 2x4s that we loaded into her truck to take to a recycling center.  The pile was significantly bigger than it initially appeared, completely filling her truck bed and then some.  She had me climb on top to try and compress the debris as much as possible so we didn't lose any during the trip.

After getting cleaned up it was off to the movies - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince opened today.  Due to a little bad planning we were a little bit late getting there but we only missed a couple of the opening minutes.  Michelle liked the movie a lot; I thought it was just okay.  Not nearly as good as some of the previous offerings, but it was hard material to work with.  I'm looking forward to the final two movies.

Days 3-4
Michelle was back at work and Mika was still in training so I had a couple of days to kill on my own.  I spent some time working in her backyard, washing the bug guts off of Michelle's truck, playing with Boon (he was warming up to me) and watching TV.  I stumbled across a 'Joan of Arcadia' marathon - I always liked that show, and was a little bummed that it didn't last longer.

Day 5
On to the next big adventure of my visit - the Boise Twilight Criterium.   We spent the day cheering on Mika's old team (BYRDS) and her new team (Kristin Armstrong Academy) in the blistering heat.  Someone said that the temperature on the course was 112, and standing in the shade it was probably 103.  Way too hot for me.  Mika certainly held her own, but a 17-year-old going up against an Olympic Gold Medalist is expecting a lot.  We were very proud of her race.

Day 6
Today was another big race for Mika - the Idaho State Crit Championships.  She raced in her age group as a warm-up, winning handily, and then competed in the Cat 3 race.  She and her teammate Savannah raced a good race, earning compliments from other riders.  Neither won, but they are setting themselves up for future success.

All of a sudden it was time to go home - where had all the time gone?  Not wanting to spend too much time waiting around the Boise airport I left a little bit later than I should have.  I found out that 30 minutes before the flight takes off they close check-in and start giving away empty seats.  I got there four minutes too late.  Fortunately they were able to get me on the next flight so I didn't have to have Michelle come rescue me and let me sleep on her couch.

The flight home was uneventful and I made it home in good fashion.  Then fell right into bed, and dreamed about next year's trip.

What is a One-Hit Wonder?

I'm sitting here watching VH1's list of the top 100 One-Hit Wonders of the 80s for the I-don't-know-how-many-th time, and I'm always annoyed at the artists that they include.  I really want to know what criteria they use to determine who is a one-hit wonder.  As an example, here are some artists that are on the list:

Midnight Oil
Madness
Twisted Sister
Thomas Dolby

I can name at least two sings from each of these artists, sometimes more.  What's the cutoff for being considered a "hit"?

In my opinion, though, the biggest disservice is applying the "one-hit wonder" label to Devo.  Jim and I went to Portland a few years ago for a fun run called "Run Hit Wonder."  There were one-hit wonder bands along the route, which was very cool, and after both the 5K and 10K runs finished there was a post-race concert with Devo.  They played for an hour and a half and I knew just about every song.  Here's a short list of songs that you probably know that AREN'T "Whip It!"

Are We Not Men? We Are Devo!
(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
Girl U Want
Freedom of Choice
Beautiful World
That's Good

Friday pix

Some ivy growing from the walls of our old shed.

Run of the Mill - Race report

This seemed like a good idea at the time.  Get another 5K in to make up for time lost in preparation for the runs we'll be doing at Disneyland in September.  Unfortunately it was a bad week for me medically with not as much training as usual.  Some combination of not enough training with too much medicine made for a miserable run.  I had to walk most of it because my body was just not up to running.

Run                             Distance    Date          Watch   First stop        Chip
Resolution Run               5K          1/1/2009     37.06    1 mile +          37.05
Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em   5K         2/4/2009      34.50    1.25 miles       34.49
St. Patrick’s Day Dash     6K         3/15/2009    45.13    .75 mile
Vancouver SunRun          10K        4/19/2009                1.5 K              73.46
Edmonds 4th of July       5K          7/4/2009      36.16    .25 miles
Run of the Mill                5K         7/11/2009    38.50     .25 miles

Friday pix

The opening band for the Duran Duran concert - Natalie Portman's Shaved Head:

They were unfortunately so bad it was funny.  For the main attraction:

Duran Duran moves into the lead

In a recent post I listed the artists that I had seen most live in concert, with several tied at two times each.  Well over the weekend Duran Duran moved into the lead when Jim and I went to see them at Marymoor Park Sunday night.  They have a short summer tour schedule planned with just a few dates in the States starting here, which was quite exciting for Seattle fans.

The concert was everything I expected and one thing I absolutely didn't expect.  Four of the five original members were there (Andy Taylor has decided to focus again on a solo career) sounding as strong as ever.  Simon LeBon was in fine form, interacting with the audience and putting his all into every song.  There was a nice mix of old and new songs, from "The Chauffeur" and "Hungry Like The Wolf" to "Sunrise" and tracks from their latest CD.  (I must confess I don't hear their new music very often so I don't know the titles).  The weather cooperated - not too hot and not too cool as the evening went on.  Marymoor Park is not the best place to see and hear a concert but the crowd didn't mind, singing along with all the classics and responding to Simon's encouragement.

I've known subconsciously that there were going to be events that were going to trigger some emotions regarding the loss of our old dog Eli, I just didn't expect one of them to be a song at a Duran Duran  concert.  As Simon introduced "Ordinary World" a wave of emotions came over me, and I was crying before he even started singing.

"What is happening to me?
Crazy, some would say,
Where is my friend when I need you most?
Gone away...

But I wont cry for yesterday, there's an ordinary world,
Somehow I have to find.
And as I try to make my way, to the ordinary world...
I will learn to survive..."

Cry I did throughout the song.  I'm pretty sure it caught Jim off-guard, since I had been singing and dancing up to that point in the show. 

As we made our way back to the car I was mentally comparing this concert to the show we'd seen a few years ago at the Everett Events Center, and decided that they were both strong in their own element.  Trying to compare an indoor show in the middle of a tour to an outside show at the beginning of a tour just doesn't work.  Both were a lot of fun, and if they come back again we'll probably be there, inside or out.

Edmonds Fourth of July 5K - Run report

So it's been a little while since I've posted a run report.  With Jim's surgery, my annual cold that lingered longer than expected, as well as other unexpected conflicts, we haven't done a real 5K since April's SunRun in Vancouver.  We did join in the Race for the Cure in June but we both mostly walked.  Since the Disneyland runs are coming up soon we decided it was definitely time to get back in the race, so to speak.  On a very warm Fourth of July morning we drove down to Edmonds to be a part of their annual celebration.  Unfortunately, if you know Edmonds at all you know that it is at sea level, so just about any direction means climbing a hill.  By Jim's GPS, 85% of the first mile was climbing which makes things difficult for non-climbers.  Coming down (eventually) was nice, but I was already spent, and my time shows it.

Run                             Distance    Date          Watch   First stop        Chip
Resolution Run               5K          1/1/2009     37.06    1 mile +          37.05
Love ‘Em or Leave ‘Em   5K         2/4/2009      34.50    1.25 miles       34.49
St. Patrick’s Day Dash     6K         3/15/2009    45.13    .75 mile
Vancouver SunRun          10K        4/19/2009                1.5 K              73.46
Edmonds 4th of July       5K          7/4/2009      36.16    .25 miles