Happy New Year!

Last year's New Year post had an Irish blessing and a toast. They are two of my favorites so I was thinking that I would do something different this year, but then decided against it. The Irish comes from my father and December 23 is his birthday so it seems appropriate to honor my Irish heritage at this time of year. Also I realized last month that's been 10 years since my father passed away so I think I'll stick with the Irish blessing. Incidentally, December 23 is also Festivus Day. I think my father would have approved of that.

In case you are wondering why a blessing and a toast, why not one or the other? Well, I feel that sharing both reflects something interesting about the Irish. They are very caring, thoughtful, and emotional, and yet mischievous and full of fun. I hope you all have a wonderful New Year surrounded by the people you love.

May your glass be ever full.
May the roof over your head be always strong.
And may you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead.
-Irish toast

May the sun shine, all day long,
everything go right, and nothing wrong.
May those you love bring love back to you,
and may all the wishes you wish come true!
-Irish blessing

Happy Holidays!

Driving, driving, driving

Saturday afternoon, Brian and I headed out on our annual Christmas trip to Maryland. This year we decided to drive from Florida to Maryland, since we are making it a longer visit. I figured the drive would take us about 12 - 13 hours, which is totally doable in one day. It ended up taking us 14 hours but that had to do with the freezing rain we encountered when we got to D.C. There's not much you can do about the weather. Fortunately the salt trucks were out doing their thing and the roads were pretty good.

Overall, the drive was fine. There were the typical issues with Virginia drivers. I don't understand it, but VA drivers don't seem to understand the concept of the left lane as the passing lane. I don't usually make blanket statements about a group like that, but in this case I've had nearly 7 years of experience driving through VA, and it is a consistent thing. There could be three lanes and the right two lanes will be empty and there will be a VA driver in the left lane driving below the speed limit. Seriously! and they won't change lanes when you come up behind them. This occurrence is so common that even Brian has noticed it. Considering he doesn't drive, that's kind of a big deal. I can only assume that the Driver's Ed courses in VA are somehow deficient. At least it was late at night when we were in VA so the amount of drivers on the road was minimal. That really is my only driving rant. For the most part, everyone was driving reasonably well. Considering it's holiday time, I was surprised.

Pros - Brian getting silly/punchy due to sleep deprivation - always good for a laugh - and getting to use my new music player. It was awesome! I think I'll write a separate blog entry/review, since I just realized I can't write about my shopping adventure today without revealing my Secret Santa. That story will have to wait until after Christmas.

Cons - freezing rain, VA drivers, closed interstate due to an accident, and road salt all over my bike. I'm so glad I brought the bike, even though I will likely be confined to the trainer all week - the high temp today was 22 - but I was very unhappy about the thick coating of ice that was on it by the end of the trip AND the crud that was caked on it after the ice melted. I was especially annoyed because I had the drive train cleaned and a new chain put on it and a full tune up done last May and then I only rode it for 2 more months while the tribike was MIA. Before the trip, the bike was as spotless as it's been in a long time. The components were so clean they looked new. Now - not so much. I spent at least an hour cleaning and lubing. Oh well!

I will say that driving is definitely the way to go if we are staying for a week. I don't know if this will become a regular thing for Christmas, but it's not off the table. Whenever I get around to doing Eagleman 70.3 - maybe 2010 - I will definitely drive.

Grossology

Last Saturday, Brian and I went to the Florida Museum of Natural History to visit the Grossology exhibit. The official exhibit title is "Grossology: The Impolite Science of the Human Body". The exhibit is based on the book "Grossology" by Sylvia Branzei. We had gotten this book for my niece Emily a few years ago. As I'm sure you've guessed, the book and exhibit are all about bodily functions - explanations about burps and farts, boogers and poo - and are directed at children.

The exhibit was a blast! All the slang terms that children are used to hearing were used as well as excellent scientific explanations on everything from burps to zits. There were lots of games to play and giant models of the nose and stomach, and a small climbing wall that depicted the skin. Just in case you were wondering, we played all the games and did all the activities that we weren't too large for. We couldn't go down the esophagus slide or climb through the rectum tunnel - that was only for the small children. Dang! I did beat Brian at Grossology trivia - yes, I know more about disgusting bodily functions than my hubby. That really shouldn't surprise anyone.

Here are a few pictures.

Laugh, Think, Cry

My next post was going to be on something completely different, but last night, as Brian and I sat down to watch the Texas-Villanova game, ESPN aired the Jimmy Valvano speech from the 1993 Espy Awards. The game was part of the Jimmy V Basketball Classic played annually at Madison Square Garden to help raise money for the V Foundation, which is dedicated to funding cancer research. In between games, ESPN was doing segments about the Foundation and cancer. I walked into the living room just in time to see "1993 Espy Awards" flash on the screen. I told Brian "They are going to show the Jimmy V speech. Is ESPN trying to make me cry?" Sure enough they showed the speech. Sure enough, I cried. ESPN followed the speech with personal commentary by people who knew Jimmy V, and I cried some more. Dammit! Then the game started and everything was good. Texas won - yay!

Now maybe you are wondering, "Who the heck is Jimmy V and why would he make you cry?" Jimmy Valvano was the men's basketball coach at NC State from 1980-1990, which included 1 national championship in 1983, won by a basket at the buzzer. In July 1992, he was diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer. In March of 1993, he was awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage and Humanitarian Award at the inaugural Espy Awards. He died the next month. He was 47.

I've included the speech in this post. It's about 10 minutes long, but if you've never seen it, it's worth watching. If you have seen it, it's worth watching again. Laugh, think, cry - thank you, Jimmy. I did all three just watching your speech.

Twitter and things

Again I've been light on the posting. It's been a bit on the slow side here in Gainesville. Brian and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday in Rockport with our Texas family. There was the usual delicious food, lots of pie, and lots of love. It seems like everyone is doing well there, and we enjoyed the visit.

Since we've been home, we've been enjoying our regular routine. I find it's nice to have a few weeks of same-old same-old before the Christmas craziness begins. Brian especially enjoys the routine. He doesn't particularly travel well, and by that, I mean he doesn't really enjoy it. He loves visiting new places, and he always enjoys visiting family and friends, he just doesn't enjoy the process of getting there and back. I keep telling him he needs to build a transporter. Then we can visit whenever we want and still sleep in our own bed - wouldn't that be great! We have decided to drive to Maryland this year for Christmas, since we are going to stay for longer. I'm hoping that driving will make travelling during the Holiday more tolerable for Brian - and me. It will certainly make packing easier, and I am considering bringing my bike. How bad can biking in 30 degree weather be? After all, I have a ninja mask from my days in NC. Actually, I think all the hills in MD will kill me before the cold does. Maybe there'll be a warm spell.

In case you haven't noticed, I've made a couple of additions to my sidebar. The new countdown clock is for the 3M half-marathon in Austin. This will be my next big race, and I really need to focus more on my run. Right now I've just been going through the workouts, but haven't really been giving it my all. It really is time to put it into high gear.

The other addition is a Twitter Update box. What is Twitter, you ask? It's a microblog service that allows you to post 140 letter updates. I call it FaceBook Lite, but I actually think it could have a broader appeal than FaceBook. Anyway, it's a nice way to provide short updates to the blog on events that don't necessarily warrent a full post, and it's supereasy to do updates from my mobile phone. That way if I haven't posted in awhile, you can always check the Twitter Update.