Oh we oh we oh we oh waaay aaahhaaahh...

Yippee skippy! One of the best e-mails ever came through at work yesterday.

You see, last summer I was recapping the TV show "Greatest American Dog". It wasn't the best show around, but it got me a great little perk. CBS wanted to promote the show more so they asked the site I write for, http://www.realitynewsonline.com/ if we wouldn't mind interviewing the contestants as they were sent home. Why not, right? I had a fantastic time doing that, but in the swing of it, I got to be good phone friends with the guy who is the CBS rep.

As it turns out, we got to talking about Survivor and he became the contact for the contestants. Woo hoo! I do enjoy talking to him and make a point of it about once every week or two during the season.

Now those who know me, know that Survivor is my all-time favorite show and I'd just about kill to be on it. I've tried to get on for a long time, but nothing has quite hit the spot yet with the casting folks. So in the meantime, I'm working as many other angles as possible.

Back to yesterday's e-mail. My guy came through. The e-mail essentially is a ticket into the LIVE SURVIVOR: TONCANTINS FINALE in New York at the Ed Sullivan theatre!! I can't tell you just how excited I was to get that note, too. I squealed enough to have the prairie dogs pop their heads over their cubes to see what was happening. Once they saw that it wasn't that exciting for them, I tried to find a few of the people in the pool.

Ended up calling my brother, who is also an avid fan and he seems to be excited for me too.

Now I'm in travel mode, trying to figure out where to stay, how to get there, what the trains are and to which airport to go. Wow!

Once that's done, I have to figure out what to wear to make sure Jeff Probst drops whomever his latest girlfriend is, 'cause this chick is gonna get at those dimples.

I'll update you all again after the show.

Jake

It's been over 2 years since I had to let Big Jake go. My 22 pound orange chatty cat with a head the size of a softball was part dog, part human (he'd belch and snore with the best guy), but mostly an obnoxious cat. And I loved him. The day I had to put him down, he had been sick for nearly a month and down to 14 pounds, which on him, was emaciated. Many times, mainly when he was "talking" to me in the middle of the night I threatened to shoot him, but I never really meant it. I was a blubbering mess for several weeks afterwards.

But why do I bring this up?

Yesterday I was flying home from a fabulous bit of tropical therapy in Belize (another blog) and the airline had Marley and Me playing. I'd read the book and knew the ending. I remember laughing through the whole book, then actually crying in the end. And this was before I lost Jake.

The movie was good, but not nearly as good as the book. But I knew about the ending. I kept a napkin from my drink back just in case I teared up. What I wasn't expecting was the outright rush of pain as the final scenes were coming up. It got to a point where I couldn't see anymore through the tears and that I thought I'd start sobbing if I continued watching. I unplugged my headphones, grabbed a book, and refused to look at the screen until we were on final approach. I never did see the ending, but know what happened. Just thinking about it kept my eyes wet.

How is it that 22 pounds of fur can still affect me so much several years later? As much of a pain-in-the-ass my boy was, I loved him dearly. I can't believe I still miss him so much.

Random stuff

Much like watching elementary school kids, it's hard not to laugh at the lineup of carpool vans at 4pm outside one of the entrances at SWA each afternoon. Each van is waiting for its charges before hitting the roads for home.
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I leave the door to my backyard open sometimes when I'm home and it's warm enough to do so. My cat, Tweak, enjoys rolling around in the dirt and hunting lizards. The other night the winds were high and something obviously spooked her. She came tearing through the door; into the hous, tail poofed out like a bottlebrush. At that exact instant, the wind blew the front door open (I didn't have it shut all the way apparently) and she took the opportunity to continue her tear through the house and out the front door. The door immediately slammed shut behind her. It all happened so fast, it didn't seem real.

In my laughter filled with tears, I wandered to the front door to find Tweak's fur completely blown up and pupils dialted to the fullest. She scampered back inside, then gave an insolent sniff in the air as if she meant to give that show.

It still makes me giggle thinking about it. Dumb cat.
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I also giggle when the cat snores. Sometimes it's a slight wheeze. Other times, it's a tiny snort. Either way, it's just so dang cute!
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The wind in north Texas is awful this time of year. It's just so dang gusty in the spring. Not a week goes by without a trip down the alley in search of an esacped garbage can. You'd think I was beating it or something. Sheesh. I'm ready for May and the wind to die down so I can ride more.
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It's almost time to start riding the bike to work again. I noticed on the drive in to work the other day that there was a bit of light on the horizon at 6:30ish. This is a great sign! One check with the sunrise/sunset tables and sure enough, the nautical sunrise, which is the glow on the horizon before actual sunrise, will start to be between 6:15 and 6:30 starting next week. Yay!
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I've had nothing but junk food this past week. Birthday celebrations are bad for the ass.
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There are 4 more days until I'm in Belize again.
There are 61 days until the Danskin triathlon in Austin (gotta seriously start getting ready for this).
There are 110 days unti RAGBRAI (7 day bike ride across Iowa - google it) kicks off, and yes, the getting ready for this also applies.
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Our RAGBRAI team is made up of mostly people from my flying squadron. Okay, they're still in and enjoying the flying time, but I'm retired. Yay!

Over the years, we've spent many days worth of St Croix per diem on Cruzan Rum, mine mainly on Mango rum. In honor of that, we named our team "Cruzan Around".

Thinking that we had a great opportunity to get the word out, I've been trying to get hold of either the company or a local distributor to see if they'd sponsor us by helping us with jerseys or donate rum to the cause. Surely we'd give some away to the other 10,000 people cycling across Iowa? No luck.

Fortunately, yesterday I got a text from my great friend, Greg, who said that we were now being sponsored by Boudreaux's Butt Paste. Wow, what a change, huh? Sadly, I think there will be just as many cyclists excited about this as they would've been for the rum. Either have a way of soothing the chafing.

Investment in sight

The best money I ever spent was getting my eyes done last year. It's been a full year since Lasik and I can't tell you how wonderful it has been.

My first pair of glasses came sometime in about the first or second grade. Mom is legally blind because she's so nearsided; I inherited that from her. By the time I reached high school, I would wear contacts all the time. I even went into basic training with extended wear lenses and didn't take them out for the entire six weeks. It was tough, but sure beat wearing those birth-control glasses, as they are affectionately called. Believe me, you weren't getting any booty wearing those suckers. They were ugly.

Since moving to the Dallas area, I've become much more involved in sports and outdoor stuff. I can't tell you how many times I had to stop and fix contacts or just pull them out and put on glasses, just to get through events. If I cried during a sappy movie (a frequent event), the contacts would be toast and all fogged over. It sucked.

So last year, I bit the bullet and got the Lasik. Scared the ever-livin' poo out of me, but I did it. No regrets. I went from 20/700+ (legally blind) to 20/15 in a matter of 20 minutes. Best money I ever spent.

For the first time this year, I got to go tubing behind a ski boat. Before, I was afraid of losing either the glasses or contacts into the water. I got to do a triathlon without worry. I started riding bikes without worrying about the contacts drying out. I can cry and still see. The best part is waking up in the middle of the night and not only being able to see the clock, but being able to see enough to not hallucinate that someone is looking at me. It's amazing.

If you haven't done it and are considering it. Just do it. It'll be the best money you ever spent.

Monthly status update

One of the best way to make sure you're working on goals is to revisit them occasionally. Since I posted my real-solutions for the year in January, I thought I'd check them out again to see how the first month went. Some were good, others not so much. I'll hit some of the highlights.

Exercise 5x/week - Whoops. Forgot I put this one in there so I'm glad it's being checked. Last month I was in a bit of a funk because of work, so I, at best, got in about 3x/week. The work crap is still there, but I'll have to start working on this one a bit more. So far, I've exercised both days in February and plan to keep the momentum going.

Lose the 10lbs. Hide from them - I'm down about 4 right now overall, and the pants are fitting more nicely. I'm in a fat club at work that has only 2 more weeks to go. Might as well power down to get a few more off when a payout is possible.

Save some money - Check. The savings is up a bit. Not much, but a bit.

Pay off 2 cards. Hide them - Check. I sucked it up in Jan and paid one off. The next one will be a few months away, but still possible.

Finish at least 15 credits - 3 are in progress, 3 more will be started Feb 15th. I plotted out my plan of action for the year on a spreadsheet (I'm sure some of you are surprised - LOL!) and it looks like I might be able to get 21 in this year if all goes well. Yay!

Run 750 miles this year - Well, I only got about 32 in last month. Not a good way to start the year, but it'll pick up. It's still very do-able.

Ride at least 2000 miles this year - Again, none for this month (not counting spin miles), but once it warms up, I'm looking forward to commuting to work and getting ready for RAGBRAI. Whee!

So it's off to a start. Can't wait to see how the year turns out!