Biggest Loser - Shelley Style

That's right folks, I AM the biggest loser - although that title would imply that I have lost something - not!!  I have officially pulled out the "huffy girl" jeans from the bottom of the closet.  They barely fit.  Now I have made some attempts in the past week to keep up with my phat ass plan to get back in shape - but have only seen marginal improvement and minimal weight loss.  I can't wait for the holiday cookies!!!!  I suppose I could purchase my next pair of pants from the army surplus supply store.

To further my humiliation I paid for the honor of having Karen H come over to work on a weight training plan for me.  I really do need it but talk about embarressing...   So  poor Karen shows up at my door in the pouring down rain - upset.  I am thinking she has had a car accident or hit a dog on her way over. Nope - a moving violation.  Some peace officer has informed her ( incorrectly I am told) that she failed to come to a complete stop.  It takes Karen several minutes of venting to calm down before we get down to the business of torturing me.  So up to my "girl cave" in the attic we go.  We have a fair amount of weight liftting equipment that has been collecting dust - obviously.  So Karen starts off with some upper body arm/chest stuff.  I am only doing one set with her as she is correcting my form and making sure I am doing the exercises correctly.  I start to sweat, which is not uncommon as I normally sweat like a pig, except that we haven't really been working that hard as we are taking breaks so she can show me the next exercise and write notes.  This should have been my first clue that I was in for some serious humiliation. As we go through different exercises I am shocked at the number of strength imbalances I have with both arms and legs.  Wow! I am messed up.  No wonder I have continued to get hurt and never recover.  Anyways, the last area to be address is my core/abds.  Yikes!  I knew - well thought I knew - that I was going to be in trouble in this area but was not prepared for how bad.

Enter my own personal Jillian(Karen) biggest loser moment.
Jillian(Karen): "OK, now I want you to put your feet up on the (stability) ball and roll it up under your chest"  "Get your toes up on the ball and your butt up in the air"
Shea(Shelley): ..attempting but falling sideways off of the ball without even being able to move my feet toward my chest, onto the floor.
Jillian(Karen): "What was that??????"
Shea(Shelley): "Ahhh, me trying to do what you just said"
Jillian(Karen): "OK......try again"
Shea(Shelley): trying again, again falling over sideways on the floor
Jillian(Karen): "Really!  What ARE you doing?"  "It's like this"  as she easily demonstrates it for me
Shea(Shelley):  Trying yet a 3rd time and again falling over
Jillian(Karen): "What!"
Shea(Shelley): "OK, I am the biggest loser.  This is where I have my melt down and tell you that I am afraid of being a winner and that's why I fail.  And now would be the part where you psycho analyse me, I break down and cry then walk out on you.......
Jillian(Karen): "Ok, you will do 3 sets of those"  "Now for my next torture abd fest activity that you will completely suck at......(gives me next exercise)
Shea(Shelley): Again, falls off ball and can not do it! 

So, it would have been less humiliating if I had  "papa smurfed" her.  I know she went home and marvelled to her husband about how pathetic I was.  Today I actually did both sets of her exercises that she gave me.  I continued to fall off of the stability ball after one or two reps, but at least I did one/two reps (I was probably not doing them right).  Maybe by next month I will be able to stay on the ball for all of the reps.  I am afraid that I am not going to be able to move tomorrow - this would be a good thing if it meant that I couldn't walk to the refridgerator.

Oh well - maybe my friends won't vote me off this week and I can stay to humiliate myself for another chapter in the life of a fat ass!  Tune in next week folks...

Day one on "the wagon"

Can you say LARD ASS?!?!  I can, and so can my mirror and my - uhmm - wardrobe.  I want to wear my scrubs 24/7.  Not because they are flattering, but because they fit & I don't have to squirm around and wiggle to get into them.  It's not like I was in awesome shape at IM Lake Placid, but I have managed to put on 19 pounds in my 3month "recovery" period.  What a pig! I do this every year.  I suppose it will make the transformation into the "in shape" me appear all that much more dramatic!  I know I am getting up there in age, and every "transformation" is harder and I never manage to quite get down to the previous years "in shape" weight.  I am going to be a very fat old lady.  I have always stated that I do triathlon training to support my eating habits - this is confirmation of that.

So now I start a long/slow and painful process of getting back into shape.  I managed to run 3miles in the rain this weekend (11 min miles - ouch) and I swam 1 mile today.  I have been trying to put together a weight training program for myself - I, like my bud Shawn - need structure.  I spent today going through a years worth of exercises that I have cut out of Bicycling & Triathlete magazines and categorizing them in a notebook.  I would much rather pay someone to do this for me.... but I am trying to get inspired.  I also made my way (literally had to blaze a path) up into our attic.  I cleaned out a space to put my stabilizer ball, tubes and weights.  It was so dusty that by the time I cleared out an area I was too grossed out to actually dust/mop the floor.  HMMMM I wonder if I will actually lift tomorrow - What do you think?

As far as the "recovery" period, my leg still bothers me.  But it is bothering me without doing exercise so I may as well start exercising again and see if it gets worse.  Maybe this is just what I am going to have to live with for now.  Not sure what this year is going to bring.  I am not committing to IM Canada even though I am registered for the race.

Week 1 on the Fat Ass diet.....let's see if I can be good for one week.  I feel like am in a dieters 12step program. 
1. I admit I am powerless over my addiction to anything sweet
2. I admit that I overeat
3. I admit that the fear of Ironman training is my higher power
4. training gives me clarity
5. I have wronged my favorite jeans
6. I have wronged my knees and other weight bearing joints of my body
7. I must make ammends to my jeans & my joints
8. I will ask my bike seat and my wetsuit for forgiveness for my shortcomings
9. I will take a self inventory every week on the bathroom scale and recognize my failures and ask for forgiveness
10. I will seek out consultation in ProK as my higher Tri power person
11. I will switch from Guinness to Red wine - or at least to "cheater 'ritas"
12. I will switch from Milk Chocolate to Dark Chocolate - at least 60%  cocoa

amen

Home Sweet Home

Wow! made it home with no real issues! Coolest thing ever is the new international customs. We actually cleared customs (for the USA) IN IRELAND! We got our USA/Homeland security stamp while still standing in Ireland. The best is that they check you back all the way through to your final destination now. You no longer have to claim your bag in the US, go through customs, then stand in line again to recheck it to your final stop. AWESOME. Probably THE coolest is that when you go through immigrations, they ask "is this your bag?" and on the screen is a picture of the bag you checked at the airport counter. Creepy and cool at the same time. Big Brother is soo here. The flights were long but good. This says alot since I hate to fly. I had the whole season 5 of Gray's Anatomy loaded on my ipod and I had one of those extra battery packs for my ipod so I was set. I don't know about y'all but I cry everytime I watch this show. They do a good job with character development and, well, I really do cry at hallmark commercials. So with that in mind, I spent 7 1/2 hours crying on the freakin' flight from Shannon to Philadelphia. Lisa was watching a wolverine movie and reading her kindle. we had no one in between us so she never even noticed that I was crying the whole flight. She finally looked over at me and was like WTF? What is wrong with you??!!! I probably looked like someone who was going home for a funeral or something. It was entertaining and kept my mind off of flying. I love my ipod. We got back into Richmond and Shawnee surprised us by already being at the airport terminal. THANKS! We went to O'Toole's for a celebratory Guinness and while it really isn't the same, it was still good. It was fun pretend talking with an Irish accent. Lisa makes fun of me b/c my voice goes up an octave or two. The girls waiting on us were only mildly entertained. We got in the door to our two sweet pups who about waggled their tails off. They are soooo sweet. They have been like velcro. Forgot what it was like having 2 dogs sleeping ON TOP of me. At least for one night it was sweet and I didn't mind, tonight will be a different story.

Got up this morning and decided it was time to start working off the 6 pounds of Guinness and Soda Bread I brought back with me. I got my garmin out and my shoes. I was slightly dreading it until I saw that the temperature outside was not even 70 yet - awesome. I also grabbed my ipod. I decided to try and be smart and only go for 3miles, 2 if I was feeling bad, walk if feeling worse. I am retarded for signing up for IM Canada! I am determined not to be "injured girl" this year. I am going to start slow, stretch, ice do all of my strength training (slowly) and rest when I need too. Easy to say now - we will see. I am going to find this book I heard about that talks about stress and the subconscious. Basically, it thinks that your body takes your stress and basically displaces to a part of your body where the oxygen supply becomes limited and then you have pain. At this point I am beginning to wonder if I am a nut case for how long it is taking me to heal. Anyways, I love my IPOD. I wsh they would let us have them on the IM Run. It really makes running fun. I put a large variety of music on my shuffle and keep it on shuffle mode. That way I don't get bored and become surprised to hear an old song pop up. Today the song that I hit the replay button for was Steve Winfield's "Bring me a higher love". I am not a religious person, although I was raised Catholic. I am, however spiritual. For some reason this song today felt very spiritual and was very uplifiting. These versus inparticular:

Think about it, there must be higher love
Down in the heart or hidden in the stars above
Without it, life is a wasted time
Look inside your heart, Ill look inside mine
Things look so bad everywhere
In this whole world, what is fair?
We walk blind and we try to see
Falling behind in what could be
--and--
I could light the night up with my soul on fire
I could make the sun shine from pure desire
Let me feel that love come over me
Let me feel how strong it could be

Cheesy maybe, but it made my run. Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend. I have to write up my eval to turn in tuesday ---ugh. I need some "spiritual" right now.

Day 12 - Last day in Ireland

Rain Rain Rain! Whatever!!! I do not want to leave, but I really want to escape this crappy and depressing weather. I really want to see my squirty brown dog too. I miss her cute brown butt and sweet face. So last night we stayed in what is probably an original style B&B. It is where you are really IN the peoples house, not an annex that they have built on for customers. The "sitting area" was literally their couch and we were invited to watch tv with them. TV - we have not seen it for 2 weeks. We declined politely - as this would have just been weird. We went to the Abbey Tavern for a couple pints and dinner. It was very delicious. Slept well in our tiny twin beds and up for breakfast. Gee, I wonder why I feel so fat! Anyways, there is no breakfast area other than the home's dining room table. There is another couple there from Canada. I have had no coffee, and really not good at small talk anyways. Uncomfortable, to say the least. The little old man who lives in the house is quite a character. He tells us funny story's and asks us questions that he has already asked us a few minutes ago.. You could tell he was quite the entertainer in his time. We finish breakfast and it is back in the car to see two castles before we head to the Bunratty Castle in Shannon, our final destination. The 1st castle is not open. The 2nd castle was really cool and we found an old megalithic wedge tomb - Indiana Jones style. It was on our most awesome map, but not listed on the property grounds. As we were one of the only people there at the time, we asked one of the folks working there and he told us how to find it. He said it is not posted on their map/land because they didn't want kids climbing on it. It is as if they could care less about these thousand (or two) year old tombs. It is really strange. In the states, we would have it sectioned off, or in a museum and you would have to pay extra to see them. Instead they are in random cow/grazing pastures and you just go find 'em! Anyways, we then head to Bunratty. This would be a cool place if you came here 1st. It is like Disney Land and kind of cheesy but still fun. The castle is nice as it is furnished with really cool stuff. We checked into our hotel, had a pint at the pub and packed up our bags. We then took a nap as we were scheduled for the 845pm banquet at the castle. It is one of those pretend you are invited by the Earl to dinner, and you better watch your manners or you may end up in the dungeon kind of dinners. We know it will be cheesy, but decide to go. It is actually very entertaining. The main "actor" reminds us of our friend Roger. He is a total flaming ham! So off to sleep we go. We manage to get up and out of the hotel. We have our last experience driving in Ireland as we make it to the airport to check in the car. We have to explain that the hubcap is in the back of the car. We did not want to put it on as we were worried it would fly off again before getting back to the airport and then we would be charged for it. We make no mention about the flat and having to get a new tire. We didn't want them to look at the car too closely in case something else happened to it. Lisa and I both laughed, envisioning us pulling into the parking lot, closing the doors and have them all fall off, the wheels would spontaneously explode and the windows would implode. You get the visual - mostly like an old Seinfield episode - you know, Kramer in the parking lot with the AC....one of those kind of scenarios.  We escape the car rental return without being charged for anything being damaged - shuuueeeww! We have made it through immigrations and passport clearance and are sitting in the Shannon airport waiting for our flight. I have purposefully not checked the weather channel.....I don't even want to know! I can't wait to sleep in my own bed and see our dogs. I am truly going to miss the Guinness and the soda bread. I am frightened to step on the scale. I think the post Ironman recovery period has ended and it is time to find out how much residual damage I am still having. That will have to wait until sunday though. I hope you have been entertained. I will hopefully get some Blogger tips from my friends and make this a better site to read. I am sure we are now about 50weeks away from IM Canada 2010. It is really not that far away, the weeks fly by as does life. Whatever - I am not a philosopher - don't even got good english skills :=)

Day 11 - The Burren Ireland continues

Good evening peeps. Hope ye been keepin’ well. We spent yesterday evening at a fine pub in Doolin. Had us a Guinness and some dinner then headed down to the peer to try and get some sunset pics. Our efforts were thwarted once again by the damn clouds. The sun got within 5 minutes of setting and it got socked in by the clouds…..ergh. So back “home” to the best B&B ever – the Duhblinn House in Doolin if yer ever in da airea. :-) We have figured out that tomorrow should be 45% sunshine –again whatever that means. So we plan to get up and hit the coastal drive up to Black Head and then see one of the castles up there and head down to Dysea O’Dea Castle, abbey and High Cross (yippee). Well we wake up and …… you guessed it – RAIN! We really don’t want to leave our B&B – they make THE fluffiest omelets and eggs (almost as good as Shawns). The house is so homey and warm and has totally good vibes , unlike the Bates Motel! But, we have to go. We have an extra voucher that we could not use d/t arriving one day late so Lisa & I decide to give it to the owners of this B&B. They have 2 cute girls and an awesome place, we figured they deserved it. At breakfast, we met a group of 4 from Newport News and Suffolk VA. What are the chances? Of course they were soooo incredibly loud I was embarrassed that we were from the same general area. After breakfast we hit the road – Lisa at the wheel (thank god). We have dark skies but only sprinkles and we can see some blue sky. Looking for that damn 45%. We get on the coastal/scenic road and it starts to downpour. “Look Lisa, a scenic overlook coming on our right”. Well, we blow through that route and pull over on the side of the road to figure out what we are going to do next. We decide to head down to where there are a bunch of stone forts and tombs that we hadn't seen and try and find them. Basically another treasure hunt like yesterday. We actually find one of the old wedge tombs. It is up some miniscule road where we park barely off the road and then hike up a hill and through a couple of different fields until we get to a pile of rocks and some ruins. These have been here since 5000bc. I would post a picture but it really just looks like a pile of rocks. (Maybe I will just for kicks) We manage to make it back to the car before it starts raining. We head next to a really cool church that we saw yesterday because I found out that I had missed a demon sculpture carved into the doorway. We are going by it anyways so it is not like I am making Lisa backtrack. Get the pic, then decide to try and find a wedge tomb that is off the beaten path. It is up one of the really scary "two lane roads" that is only wide enough for one car at most. It is of course raining as we pass by another “scenic overlook”. Lisa turns a corner and a huge tractor is coming right at us. She pulls off of the road as best she can without sending us off of the cliff and the tractor manages to get by us.I am so glad we got the extra insurance. I think this is really wearing Lisa out! So we continue on and are pretty sure we have missed it. We earlier found a stone fort out in the middle of nowhere that we were lucky to find. So Lisa goes on looking for a safe place to turn around and..... look over there! There it is! A cool wedge tomb!!!! Score! We are really feeling like Indiana Jones. It was really cool. Ok, so we decide to get back on the main road and head to Dysea O’Dea castle, abbey and such. We find the castle and go in. We are really in search of the high cross and the cool doorway with the sculptures over top of it. We pay 4euro’s each and head into the castle. They are not here but in the field adjacent to the castle (which would have been free!). So we head over to the next field and park the car. We start walking down a gravel road and it starts to rain just as we get to the cross. Damn it! We both run back to the car. We scrimmage around and eat a cliff bar and some granola that we have in our food sack and wait out the rain. We really want to see this cross.  So it stops raining and we head back out. We take pictures of the cross and Lisa hollers that it is going to start raining again as she can see it coming from across the field. We decide to run to the Abbey which has no roof, but has a big tree next to it. We hang out under the tree and stay relatively dry. On the way to the tree we have to slog our way through really wet boggy grass and I have mud covering both legs up to my calves – nice. The rain subsides and we get to tour around the ruins and get some good pictures. We slog back through the mud pit and are greeted by two noisy cows. We get in the car and head to Ennis. We manage not to get lost and make it into town. Our next B&B will be just beyond the town so we are close to stopping. We visit the Abbey and the Friary; take a bunch of pictures and Lisa spies an Ireland bicycling jersey that I end up purchasing. We then go to the B&B. Once we find it – by chance – the lady is in a “spot of bother”. There is “a problem”. OK. She starts rambling on about her husband and has an xray sleeve sitting on the table but she is waving these 2 envelopes at Lisa & I and finally gets to the point. Her husband had a 3rd knee operation today and she put him in the downstairs bedroom that we were supposed to be in. But she has a plan. She has called her friend up the road and has found us somewhere else to stay. We hop in the car and follow her “down the road” – 5 miles across motorways and through some back country roads that are not marked. I am glad Lisa & I are getting along! It would be a great place to leave me :-) It is an older home – no internet access (curses) – but very pleasant people. It turns out to be only a couple of miles from where we were going to explore tomorrow anyways – so really not so bad. (Twin rooms but with private bath). Now I must confess. A majority of rooms that we have had have had the old skeleton key type locks. They kind of freak me out. I think I watched too many old Hitchcock movies (or Scooby Doo cartoons) and think that people are either spying through them or will push a hairpin through the opening to make the key fall on the floor, landing on a piece of paper that they have slid under the door, then get the key and break in the room and attack! Irrational? Yes! It doesn’t matter. Every time we have one of these rooms I make sure to take the key out of the lock (so they can’t get it) and hang my coat or hat on the door (so they can’t peep through the hole). Weird or what! Back to the story. Lisa and I go to a pub and have dinner. We manage our way back despite a couple of Guinness. It is hard to believe that we only have one more day left in this beautiful wet country. We really have had a lot of fun despite the rain. This is the 1st international trip that we have taken alone, just the two of us. It has been good for us. Neither of us like to go out of our comfort zone and make decisions or ask strangers questions……etc. We have had to do that this time (we are not traveling with tour guide Karen B – recreational specialist!). Hopefully, this will make us better traveling companions in the future (no promises). Tomorrow we stay at the Bunratty Castle and are scheduled to go to one of those medieval dinner shows. Should be cheesy but probably pretty funny! As a side note, the rain has been really messing with me. Today I decided to count the number of times I had a hot flash. By noon it was four (far - in irish speak) and as of tonight I am up to 7. They totally suck! Well, here's hopin' ye B-ach-es are dry!

Day 10 - The Burren

Good day people. Hope you are warm and comfy. We had just another marvelous day of RAIN here in Ireland - again! I am not talking about a little sprinkle here or there, I am talking road flooding! But Lisa & I decided that we could care less (right) and we were going to go on a little archeological seek and find in the rain. We had a really good map and had looked up and bunch of really cool churches, megalithic tombs, cairns and castles to discover. We figured today would not be the day to tour the "beautiful coastline". So off we go. We really did find some cool stuff. It was like being on the amazing race. The flooded roads, the unmarked roads (sign wise and general road markings) along with driving rain and wind made for it to be fun, when we used our imaginations. It became really old when my pants were soaked up to mid calf and my toes were cold and had that pastie white shriveled up look. Both Lisa & my REI raincoats where beaten down by the Ireland rain as they both suddenly became not so waterproofed anymore - this is truly how much rain we have had. So, still pretending to have fun became a little harder. We only have a couple more days left here and are hoping tomorrow will be sunny so we can see the coast here. We went down to the peer and took some more pictures of the Cliffs of Moher with some giant waves crashing and some really dark clouds coming in (no surprise). We have both just changed into some warm dry clothes. We stink. Despite it not being hot we are are both wearing dirty clothes, and mine do stink from the endless hot flashes. I am not sure where we will eat dinner, but I am totally looking forward to the Guinness. Maybe Guinness stew - won' dat be lovely! Wid a little soooda bread. My diet will officially start the Tuesday after labor day. Sunday or Monday, upon or return, Lisa & I are already talking about having to go to Sine or O'Tooles for dinner to get us a pint back home to truly compare. We already know there is no comparison but it will be a good excuse to have another before the big calorie cut starts. oh yeah....360 something days to IM Canada...I am still trying to figure out why I thought this would be a good idea!

Days 8 & 9

So day 8 (I think – I don’t have wireless connection so I cant see where I left off!) we wake up in a beautiful B&B in Dingle. They have wireless! I see that Ironman canada is over and Marcul & some dude I don’t know won. I also see that Sister madonna Buda (or something like that) finished in 16:48 or close to that. At 79, holy crap (sorry God) man she rocks! There is no way I will be doing Ironman’s at that age. I don’t know if I can do another one ever! Anyways, back to Ireland (for now). So we wake up and have another yummy breakfast. Of course IT IS RAINING!!!!! WTF!!! After we eat, we try to figure out what to do. I look at the weather forecast and see that we are supposed to have a 35% sunny day –whatever that means. [ Susie Q, if you ever read this, I apologize now for my incorrect sentence structure and use of dashes, commas and dots. I stick needles in people, they don’t care if I can properly construct a sentence!] So we pack up our bags and start to pack up the car. Even though we are spending another night in Dingle, our B&B does not have rooms available so we are going to have to move. As we are finishing loading up the car we are slightly blinded by this bright light shining in the sky. UNBELEIVABLE – the sun. We hurry our asses up and get in the car. We are going to circle around the coast on the Slea Head Drive that we did yesterday (in the rain, fog and mist). Poor Lisa, it’s bad enough driving on these roads, but to do it in these conditions and then have to backtrack. Let me tell you, it was worth it! The area was absolutely gorgeous. We kept saying that we could not believe that we had been on the same roads, you would never know it. The day before we could only see a feet in front of us, now we were seeing beautiful coast and the “creamy beaches”. We had been to the grocery so we ate on the fly our new staple of: soda bread, cheese, apple and salami sandwiches – yum. Really anything you put on this soda bread would be good. Anyways, we made back to Dingle and found another B&B, not nearly as nice as our last. In fact, it is OK but kind of creepy. It gave me a Norman Bates kind of vibe. Anyways, we head into town for a fried snickers. Yup, that’s right people...a fried snickers bar! Shawn & Karen have been talking about it since their Ireland trip so Lisa & I had to try it. It was interesting and good. But I think I would rather just have had the delicious Murphy’s Ice Cream! Lisa & I have seen countless people stumble out of bars completely wasted. It is amazing. I guess the difference is that they are not getting into their cars and driving home….they walk….er…sort of walk. So, some dude stumbles out of the bar, looks at the harbor and the boats, makes some sort of harsh remark to someone/something that had done him wrong and gives the old f-you gesture.  The one where you hit your elbow with one arm and  it makes that arm bend up raising the glinched fist up in the air (you get the picture). Then he proceeds to sit down next to me on a bench (lucky me). He is still kind of cursing under his breath and then he drops a pack “Chesterfields” out of his hand and it goes flying and lands under the bench behind him. I help him retrieve his little cancer sticks and hand them to him. He tells me, more with grunting than actual words that they are for me, a present. I think he may have been speaking Gaelic, but really it sounded more like caveman. I told him I didn’t smoke, he wouldn’t take the cigarettes from me. Then he takes off his Ray Bans and sort of tells me he has had them for 25yrs, then asks if I want them (as only a caveman could --- grunt and shove them towards me). Lisa said it was time to go (oh darn) so I go up and politely left the cigarette pack next to him on the bench (nice caveman) and left. We later saw him rumbling up the street kicking some piece of trash and still mumbling to himself.
Unfortunately, after all of this excitement, there was no way we were going to be able to make it up to Connor Pass because it was raining and we wouldn’t see a thing anyways so ….. off to the grocery, the pub and then to the Bates Motel (we’ll sleep with the lights on).

Day 8.5
1230am – Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring! S:”what is that?” L:”It’s the phone” S: “Where is it?” L;”I don’t know” Lisa stumbles in the dark, finds the phone which has now stopped ringing. She has purchased a phone with international service that has her phone number and only those people watching our dogs (and our family) are to call if there is a problem. So naturally we are worried that something is wrong. The caller ID says it was Shawn. So we call her back. “Ironman Canada is open!”. I am not really awake yet. Ironman Canada I thought wasn’t supposed to open until some time in September. Shawn is asking for numbers, she tells me Squirty (my dog) is with her – What day is it?!?! Shawn was supposed to get Squirty on Monday. It is Monday you dummy. OK. So after a little waking up and calling Shawn back a second time, I learn that her and Karen have managed to enter me into Ironman Canada 2010 (damn!). I know this is supposed to be about Ireland but it is the “Irongirl Chronicles” after all. Now I can’t sleep for the rest of the night worrying already about something 364 days away.

Day 9

We survive the night! I have decided that this is the trip of hot flashes. I have been having them now for well over a year now. They come in spells, I have them for a couple months and then I won’t have them for a couple of months. Well, I have been having them for a couple months now at least. I have them almost every hour of every day. It is disgusting! I take a shower, put on clean clothes sit down to eat breakfast and then I am covered in sweat. Why bother showering or changing clothes. They are only clean for at the most, an hour. I am over it! So after we watch it rain while eating breakfast and sweating, we pack up and decide to leave Dingle and head towards the Cliffs of Moher. We are not sure how far we will get but we need a change of scenery. Again, packing up the clouds start to break-up slightly so we decide to leave via Connors Pass . We start to drive up there and we are going through clouds and fog. You can see the coast(s) from up there but not clear enough to take any pictures. Brandon mountain is completely enclosed in clouds. At the overlook it is just Lisa & I and another blue car. I get out (with my camera just in case) and so does Lisa. After a couple minutes, a man who had been sitting the car, gets out and asks if we want him to take our picture. We politely decline as there is nothing to take a picture of. He asks where we are from and he informs us that he is from Wales. He looks like an old fisherman with crinkly leathered skin, blue eyes and a white beard and hair. He is hoping the clouds will lift too. We tell him we are not waiting around and Lisa starts to head back to the car. I pat the man on the arm and tell him to have a safe trip. He seizes the opportunity and says: “Hugs. Can I get a hug?” At this point he has already grabbed me so I just go with it and give the man a hug. One of those, I’m hugging you but my chest and hips are about as far away from him as possible. For those of you who know me, I DO NOT HUG MY FRIENDS so why would I want to hug a stranger!!???!!!!?? Anyways, he wants Lisa to give him one too. She really doesn’t want to but reluctantly does and we head off down the mountain. Lisa then makes the proclamation that she is not hugging anyone else. The guy and the circumstances gave her the creeps. Off we go. The sun actually does come out. We stop a bunch to take some pictures of some cool Guinness signs along the way. We make it across the River Shannon on a car ferry and actually get to the Cliffs of Moher ahead of schedule. On issue…..it’s starts to drizzle and some clouds roll in (no, I am not kidding!) The good thing, the wind is so strong that the clouds blow over pretty quickly. It is 2-3pm so the sun is not in the best place for pictures but we don’t care. We can see the cliffs, take pictures and it isn’t raining! We have our second argument of the trip. The coolest part of the Cliffs is on private property. They have a big sign and fence but everyone walks around it and walks on the top of the cliffs. There is no one there to stop you and it is obvious that the trail is so tramped down and established that the only reason that the signs are there are so if you fall off it isn’t the property owners fault. I head out onto the Cliffs. The views are amazing. I forgot how scared list is of heights and edges in particular – she gets vertigo. So I convince her to come over and get someone to take our picture, she will not back up so I am kind of pulling her back and she is getting mad at me. Long story short, I should not have pulled her back or made her go out onto a ledged area. She was very mad at me. I told her I was sorry and we kissed and made up! Over & done! We tramped around the other side of the cliffs and started to head back to the car. It is Lisa & my 10year anniversary trip, so I asked if she would be my girl for another 10 years. (it is really romantic at the cliffs – what can I say!) She said she would think about it! We went into Doolen – the next town up- and got a very nice B&B that is supposed to have internet. I can’t get on :-( Anyways we went down to the peer and saw the Cliffs from afar. We tried to watch the sunset over the cliffs but some clouds came in before it could actually set. Oh well, we got some good shots anyways. Tomorrow is The Burren!

Ireland Days 6 & 7

Day 6 was Dunloe Gap. We booked a trip that would provide us with transportation to the hike and a boat ride through the 3 lakes of Kilarney. Of course, it is raining when we get up, great! Day 5 of rain and we are supposed to hike 7miles and we aren't going to see a damn thing. Fun! We eat our delicious breakfast (I am going to have to wear sweat pants home I am getting so big) and walk into town to buy fixin's to make a picnic lunch (still full from breakfast and already worried about lunch). We buy bread...which I could live off of by itself...cheese, and apple and some cookies. We get to the tour place and get on the bus. The man comes on and wants our tickets. He tells us we are on the wrong bus...oops! We make our way onto the correct bus and off we go. The sky's are overcast and there is a misting in the air but it is not really raining. We make to to the start, which is Kearney's Cottage. The person who lived here was supposed to have magical healing powers (too bad they are dead, if I could have found her grave I would have rolled on it!)

So you have an option of riding horse back or buggy ride (jaunt) or hiking. Of course the horses are extra. Lisa and I are excited to hike to we head off. I read somewhere that when they did this hike they followed the path of poop. Now I know why! Horses sure are messy. After a while you forget about it. It is kind of like hiking in Switzerland. There is cow pooh everywhere and so after a while, you forget to even "look out for it" unless it's a large fresh pile!

I was going to bring my garmin for fun, just to see how far (not how fast) we had been. At the last minute I decided not to bring it. I wish I had. We had 3hours 15minutes to go 7miles. It would have been nice to know that we were goofing off too much in the 1st part, taking pictures and such. It seems like the last hour we were walking faster than I had walked during the ironman, (not saying much there am I) and we were worried we wouldn't get there in time. We made it with 30 extra minutes, enough time to eat the lunch we brought. I think besides Lisa & myself, there was one woman from France who also hiked, the rest were on horses - slackers. Oh btw...we didn't get rained on, just overcast! Lucky us! We got on our little boat ride through the lakes which was nice. We were with a group of 8 other women. Lisa was talking to one of them and found out they were here on a "hen's weekend". We thought that was funny. I wonder if they have rooster weekends instead of "going to Vegas". We made it to shore and we were at the Ross Castle which is just a little over a mile back to our B&B. Lisa decides she doesn't want to wait for the bus (and all the other people to come in by their boats) and says she wants to walk. We only get about 2-3minutes up the road when the bus passes us...ergh! Did I mention I was going to have to wear sweatpants? Shut up and walk! Dinner was 2 pints of Guinness!

Day 7- Dingle

The goal today was to pack up and head over to Dingle, find a B&B and do some site seeing. It is raining hard! We have found out from the locals that it was a beautiful June. It rained the last day in June and it hasn't stopped yet! Everyone is sick of the rain. This July has had the most amount of rain in the past 50years and they figure August is going to be another record as well. How many days away is September? Anyways, we make it to Dingle and drive by the B&B that is our #1 wish list pick b/c it has wireless internet, parking and is in town. The sign says "no vacancy's"rats! So I convince Lisa to call them, hoping that they just haven't changed their board yet. Sure enough, vacancy for tonight but not for tomorrow. Oh well, we will worry about that then. So we head to the tourist information office and get some info. Right across the street is the place you can get fried snickers bars. Yum! I may not even FIT into my sweatpants. We decide to save that for another time. We get some info on two museums that are free today, so we head out. Now Dingle is supposed to be prettier than the ring of Kerry. We couldn't tell you if this is true because all we could see was road, windshield wipers and rain. We did see some cool archaeological stones and stone monastic sites. They look fitting pictured in the rain and clouds. We did get a glimpse of what was described in one of our guide books as a "creamy stretch of beach". All I could think of was Shawn doing her Irish accent talking about the "creamy soups". We did see another skin cancer prevention sign and had another good chuckle. I mean really, who are these people kidding. They must have actors and photographers who stay camped out all summer, and on the ONE day it is sunny, they run down and do a camera shoot so they can publish them in the guide books. A bunch of crap they are! We are hoping that tomorrow will be clearer so we can get a view of the shoreline. What we could see looked very pretty. We have learned about two very popular sports while we have been here (and spent some time in the pubs) Hurling and Gaelic Football. I have also had to read up on the European football (soccer) league. People here love their sport! More reason for me to love this place (just not the rain).

Hopefully tomorrow won't be so miserable. Lisa and I are ready for it not to be raining. We are wondering why all of our summer vacations have involved us freezing (Peru, Sonoma valley, Maine, Switzerland and now here) . Next year may have to be somewhere warm.

Day 5 - Ring of Kerry

Good mornin' lasses. The day started off pretty good. We are at a nice B&B that is just a few minutes walk from Killarney. Last night there was a terrible storm, bad wind and a lot of rain. The wind has been incredible, I thought it was just always like that, but apparently this is a bit unusual. So, no run this am. (at this point any excuse will do!) We got an early start and jumped in the car with our Ring of Kerry map and hit the pavement. Alot of standing water in the roadways, but at least it wasn't raining hard. Our 1st stop was the Kerry Peat Bog Village. What a rip off! I made Lisa stop because I didn't want to sit in the car all day, drive around the peninsula and not get out of the car. Since I was navigating, I told her to stop. Really cheesy! Back in the car to the next stop..someplace that starts with a C, is really long and I have no idea how to pronounce it. Anyways, they have a bunch of cool ruins and Churches and stuff. We go to one fort (fart in irish speak) and one castle. Both were really cool and we could see another set of ruins but had no idea how to get there. The place was extra cool because the buses couldn't get there so we basically had the whole place to ourselves! On our way back into town to get back on "the ring" Lisa pulled over because someone was on her butt. The still driving pull over that just lets the person pass but you don't have to stop kind of pull over. She made this maneuver just as i was opening up the map, partially obstruction her view. WHAM! She hits a rock sticking out of the embankment. We drive a lit bit further and we hear a noise. You guessed it, flat tire in the middle of nowhere. Lisa wants to walk into town, I decide that we are going to change the darn tire....my Dad taught me how to do this for a reason! Since it is a rental car, we are having to search for the jack.....finally find it under the passenger seat. Try to loosen the lug nuts......I think they purposefully put them on so that no other human can loosen them without an air compressor! I can not loosen them. Welcome Jack O'Shea to da story! Love these Irish people! Jack O'Shea changes our tire in under 5 minutes - I think he used to work for nascar. But guess what...it gets better....he has service station 3k up the road. We follow Jack O'Shea and he fixes our tire and gets us on our way in less that 30minutes total (including the original tire change)! Holy Cow! I thought our day was going to be ruined, but no...Jack O'Shea to the rescue.

So on our way we go. Lisa is now a little unnerved and is a little more tentative driving. She has been doing great and the whole thing was a freak accident but she is taking it personally. We get to a beautiful overlook and I am hollering at her to pull over. Unfortunately, there is some funeral going on and there are all these cars pulled over on the side of the road making it truly a one lane road (yes with 2 way traffic). The roads are narrow enough to begin with, but this was ridiculous. Anyways, I was getting inpatient and saw an area that she could pull over for a second, she didn't want to pull over and well.................our 1st fight :-(
Don't worry, we got over it pretty quickly (20minutes later after 2 people mooping in silence).

We made some fun stops (one to pee at the side of the road) and made it back to Torc waterfalls in the national park. We saw the waterfalls and then did a little hike around it. We then decided we were going to walk to an abbey a mile or so away when we saw the "Jaunts" which is a horse drawn carriage. I decided to treat Lisa to a buggy ride around the park to the abbey and back in payment for all of the driving that she has been doing. It was fun. We got pelted on (by freezing rain) on the way back. By the time we got in the car and started back to Killarney, the sun had come out again...truly wait 5 minutes and the weather will change. We made it back to the B&B and changed shoes and headed back out to get some dinner (and guinness). We booked a trip to the Gap of Dunloe tommorrow. It is a bus ride, with a hike in the middle, then a boat ride through the 3 lakes. It will take all day, and Lisa won't have to drive (the best part!). Hopefully, I will get a run in tomorrow, especially since we can sleep in. The tour doesn't start until 10 turdy.

Funny observations:
The speed limit on these roads on the Ring of Kerry is 100km. There is no way to really get above 50k...I guess the point is you can go as fast as you dare...



Killarney won a "tidy town" award. There is horse poop everwhere! I would hate to visit an "untidy" town!

At one of the beaches we stopped at today it had a sign warning people about skin cancer and the need for sunscreen, especially between 11a and 3p. Mind you it is august, the temperature is 60 and the wind was gusting about 20mph (at least). Who the hell is wearing a bathing suit let alone actually sun bathing? None of the people who live here are tan. It is the home of rain. WTF!!







There is apparently an Irish tradition of being in love and having your picture taken by your S.O. when you are out in the woods. In involves standing on an object (preferably a rock) and crouch down resting your head on your fist. We saw several of the "poses" on our hike today. I had Lisa take one of me. I am not sure if these are supposed to be private pictures or not, so I am not sure if I should share (haha).

Ireland Days 3 & 4

Wow, two days. I can't really remember what we did. Too much Guinness and not enough note taking, or maybe just killed off enough brain cells! I woke up early, wanting to go for a run prior to getting in the car. We had a full day of driving and some touristy site seeing to do. I looked out the window and it was raining. There was a momentary thought of, "I'm not training, I am supposed to be resting, it's raining, go back to bed". I am glad I didn't listen to myself. I ran across the river and into the park and got to run next to a 16th century castle. How cool was that! Not something I ever get to do. That made it all worth it. It was only 3 miles, but that is enough to make my leg hurt for a couple days.....ergh!

We drove from Kilkenny and ended up in Kinsale. We bypassed the city of Cork but drove around it 3 times (poor planning). We stopped at the Blarney Castle. I was supposed to kiss the Blarney stone. We stood in line for about an hour at which point someone came out of the tower and told us it would probably take another hour from where we were in line. FORGET IT! We got there when all the cruise ships were there..Bad timing. I decided that when you get old, instead of wearing your race t-shirts, cruise people where their past cruise t-shirts around (kind of the same idea) pretty funny. So no kissing a piss covered stone - oh well. I don't really want the gift of gab. I think it would take more than kissing that to work on me! Next stop...Jameson distillery. What? Really? That's on the other side of Cork.....ok. It was ok, but we got thrown in with a dutch group and the movie presentation was in dutch so we had to leave. The next english tour would be in another 1/2hour (darn - wish they would have told us that before we bought the tickets) Anyways, the tour of the old factory was cool, but I don't really want to see how they make alcohol anymore on this trip. I would prefer to see other things and drink my libations. They gave us "free" Jameson's to drink at the end. I was nauseated for a couple hours afterwards...yuk! Don't know why I thought I might like that stuff, I guess I figured it might be like Guiness...better here than in the US (wrong).

Anyways, we drove to Kinsale. Lisa is really good at the driving thing and I have figured out (mostly) the navigating. Here's the thing though. We can get to our destination..ie the city we are going to....but then we don't have street maps for the towns so we drive around in circles trying to figure out where we are supposed to be going. This night was no exception. We were looking for our B&B. We had the street name and actually found it on a map. But none of the streets have signs on them so you have no idea where you are! Frustrating! To get our B&B I had to call them on the phone while Lisa was driving to see if they had rooms. Lisa did not want to call them b/c it is hard to understand them and figuring out the numbers is difficult. I didn't really want to call either, but decided that since she was driving I would suck it up and make the call. Lisa was cracking up. I guess I reverted to some weird form of Irish/american accent about 2 octaves higher than I usually speak. Hey, we got the room. I understood her, she understood me. As a side note however, when we left the B&B the next morning, the owner asked where we were from. She said she couldn't tell we were from the states except every once in a while it would "flash out". Haha, must be getting better at me accent.

Day 4 - Kinsale to Killarney

We were going to stay in Kenmare but it was torrential downpours and really strong winds so we decided it was a good day to just drive to Killarney. We figure this is a good headquarters to see a bunch of stuff that is close by. I am tired of packing my suitcase. I like to nest (for those of you who don't know me). So 2-3days in one place will be a little like heaven! We went to the grocery and got two baguettes, cheese, apples and cookies for a little lunch. We went to some stone circles in the middle of nowhere. Lisa (the formally known horse whisperer) is now a cow whisperer. Some cows were grazing as we got out of the car. Lisa had to keep rushing them along the path to get them to move. She broke out her mad intellect and informed me that cows kick out to the side (followed by a brief but hysterical demonstration) unlike horses who kick backwards. (ok brainiac) Anyways, the cows parted and we saw the circles. Cool b/c is was rainy and eerie.
We then drove over the Cahal Gap and down into Killarney natl park. It was very pretty, although rainy. Once we got there, the rain stopped. We walked around town, had some beer, dinner and then walked to the Ross Castle. I will have to start writing down all the funny things as I am drawing a blank. I am going to bed now. Since I have internet(for next 2 days) I will have to catch up next time.

Turdy Tree is:
A. a smelly bush
B. the place your dog goes to the bathroom
C. the number of euro's you owe for your dinner

Day 2 - Dublin to Kilkenny

We both slept about 11hours. I did not get to run because it was 8am when we woke up. Too late as we wanted to get an early start. We headed down to breakfast, it was a very nice spread of cold and warm items. Was that sausage? A couple sat down at the table next to ours. Definitely an american white woman (loud) with a very quite black man (don't know if he was american or from africa) who seemed like he was a business man or dignitary. Lisa and I both thought of the movie "Pretty Woman" with Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. The woman was totally out of her element and trying VERY hard to please the guy, doting all over him. OK.

Off to the rental car company. Do we want the extra insurance? YES We have a hard enough time crossing the road on foot, let alone driving on the other side!

Lisa does great. The 1st hour or so is very nerve racking. I think she is going to drive me off of the edge of the road into the trees and fences. She thinks she is going to have a head on collision. Eventually, we both figure it out and Lisa really does great. We only miss two turns. (I am navigating so I am surprised there wasn't more). The 1st one was because I was upset, thinking I had left my garmin at the hotel and was not paying attention to the signs, the next was just not recognizing that the right hand "turn" was not a turn at all but the street we were supposed to be already on. Anyways, we realized straight away that I made a boo boo and turned around before driving on for hours lost! Lisa had to stop for Sheep running out and down the side of the road.

We visited Powerscourt, Glendalough, wicklow gap, ate in Roundwood (highest village in Ireland) and ended up in Kilkenny. (I think of Southpark everytime I say that name - "you bastard") We saw the Smithwick's brewery today and drank a pint at dinner. I love this place.

The best was at Glendalough - I keep pronouncing it glen-da-low but it is really glen-da-lock, Lisa keeps yelling at me. It is an old monastery founded by "St Kevin". He is proof that Ireland really is my homeland, and he & I must have been related. He liked to "talk to the animals" and liked to live secluded. He had a cave, called Kevin's bed, the ULTIMATE HIDEY HOLE that he lived in!

Planning our day tommorrow. We have to cut off half of the things that we wanted to see on our way to Cork and Kinsale. We are trying to make up for the day we lost :-( It is taking us longer to get places and do things. Oh well.

Irish accent lesson 102:
Phrase: "How you ladies keepin?"

Day 1 - Dublin

Yeah, we made it!! Now for the bag drama: none, yes it made it, unbelievable!!
Now I am going to have to kiss the Blarney stone (even if locals pee on it like Shawn says). I told the lady at the baggage claim that I would kiss the blarney stone for her if my bag made it! Kissin' piss=gross, having my ironman finishers shirts/hats and not having to clothes shop=priceless. Besides, pee is sterile (haha). So day one in Ireland was Dublin. We ran our sleep deprived bodies all over and don't really remember the names of all the places we went. We decided that we were tired when:
1. We decided we were happy when we hit a dead end road. It was the 1st place we decided to go. We got our map, headed out of the hotel and turned right. Kept walking until we hit the dead end. It was the wrong way. If we hadn't hit the dead end we would have surely walked into the river!

2. We both, simultaneously, fell asleep on the hop on, hop off city tour bus.

3. Got real excited by the number of public toilets advertised in big red signs all up and down the road. After looking more closely, I discovered they were not toilet signs but: TO LET. Remember, we had not slept for a while!

4. Almost getting run over repeatedly while crossing the street. Then we looked down only to find that they have "Look Left" or " Look Right" painted at the start of the crosswalks for us morons who can't figure out which way to look for oncoming traffic. (they drive on the left hand side of the road)

5. We almost were showered by "Lisa's people". A city tour bus company has old Duck Boats that are themed viking ships. They have the people on board wearing the old viking helmuts with the horns sticking out. Anyways, they spray out water from the side of the "boat" as they are going by, hooting and hollering. We almost got nailed!

6. Funny conversations like this one:
L:"was that a girl"
S: "no, it was a guy with boobs"
L "It looked like a tibetan monk with boobs cuz it was bald in the front and hair down to it's shoulders in the back. And it was wearing a long skirt"
s: "yah - like the ultimate mullet"
L: "I'm glad you saw that too, I thought I was so tired I was imagining things."

7. Lisa thought the cars were driving themselves. No one was on the "drivers side" of the car.

We ended the day in the Guiness factory - awesome! We went then and had a pint and some fish 'n chips for dinner. All and all a great day. tommorrow=driving, should get interesting :-)

Irish accent class 101:
They pronounce thr as tr, th as t. And they cannot pronounce cathedral.

Ireland - Days 1 & 2

Now I realize that if your reading this, my title might imply that days 1 & 2 of Lisa and my Ireland trip are going to be about Ireland..........NOT!

Day 1 was running around getting ourselves together so that we could leave in the afternoon for Dublin. It started off with me cutting the grass at 8am - the only speed work I have done recently - I heard thunder so I was practically running around with the lawn mower to get it done (I have a checklist you know). Shawn so kindly pointed out that you could not even tell that I cut the grass as it really hadn't grown in the past week. I had to check the box! Shawn & I ran..man was it humid and saw a really scary character...looked like he was stalking a girl walking down a street so we stopped to watch what he was doing. Other than the sweltering heat/humidity, it was fun to run with Shawnee.

After finishing up my chores, I decided to turn on the TV and relax for the 45minutes remaining before Shawn was coming to pick us up to go to the airport. Almost immediately, the tv program was interrupted with a severe weather warning......tornado warning. Flipped to TWC and holy crap!!!!!! This nasty little storm was coming into Richmond. I REALLY hate flying. I know I used to be a travel agent, but I am a white knuckle flyer on good days. I was on a Pan Am 747 going to europe not long after the Lockerbe bombing, when our plane was struck by lightening right in front of where I was sitting (in the window seat). We all thought it was a bomb at 1st. I probably don't need to say anything more about that....I am sure I had to change my shorts!
Anyways, Lisa & I saw the storm on the radar, but thought that we still had over 2hours before our flight was to leave Richmond, and 7-8 hours before our flight was to leave for Dublin, surely we would get there, maybe a bit delayed.

Shawnee dropped us off at the terminal (thank-you) and Lisa & I check-in and go up to security. We have plenty of time and the security area is pretty much deserted, interesting. We both make it through security without either of us being strip searched. It is a minor miracle as we believe that Lisa was on a terrorist watch list. Every time we fly, she would get "randomly selected". We have a good chuckle about our good fortune and head to our gate. When we get there, the 130pm departure is still at the gate. They have been delayed d/t the weather...poor suckers. We then here a urgent announcement from the gate agent for the 130p passengers: "you have 15minutes to get on the plane, get seated and close the door". "We want you to be safe, but you need to hurry". The captain must have seen a small clearing in the clouds and decided it was now or never. I briefly thought to ask if we could get on this flight, but knew that the airline personnel were too stressed to figure it out so I kept my mouth shut. The flight left, and it wasn't 10minutes later that the skies opened up! I am glad I was not on that flight.

Almost immediately, the gate agents were saying that there was a possibility that they would not be able to leave Richmond. It was still only 3:30pm???? WTF? By 4pm they made the announcement that the flight was canceled and there was no other way to get to Philly....no way to get to Dublin. It is not like it used to be when the airlines cared about your travel itinerary and would find other ways to get you to your destination....very sad! So we were booked for a 7am flight the next morning and would have a 12hour layover in Philadelphia.

I started to make phone calls to see if we could change our car rental and hotel in Dublin. Lisa got her first taste with a REAL Irish accent on the phone...haha. She could not really understand the person on the phone, even though they were speaking English. I hope we have a hotel room when we get there. On our way home, the clouds parted and the sky was blue. It was only 430pm. Still unclear why we couldn't have made it to Philadelphia. We figure there must not have been enough customers on the plane, so they were going to lose $$ if they flew.....how convenient there was a storm. As we were leaving the airport we noticed that USAir was the ONLY airline that canceled flights. Oh well, another awesome dinner with Shawn & Karen at a new place on Broad by Bellvidere called "the Bellvidere" - I would highly recommend it! At least we weren't stranded in some foreign country (Miami) with no place to go/stay and no one to help you (Brazil).

Day 2 - 5:00am - up and stumbling around trying to get out of the house. We make it to the airport without event. We hope to be able to run around Philadelphia with all our free time. We check-in and learn that the airlines will not check our bags all the way to Dublin d/t the long layover - like we asked for it! Damn! Now what? We don't want to cart all of our bags around with us all day. We are pretty sure that after 9-11, there are no longer lockers at the airports, oh well. The flight to Philly was uneventful and we get our bags without any incident. We start looking for options of what to do, do we bring our bags and go into town??? do we spend 12hours in the airport (sounding like Brasil yet?). We happen to walk by the Usair Lost baggage claim area and Lisa decides to go ask them if there is anything they could suggest for leaving our bags. As she is explaining our sad tale about missing our flight, long layover....one of the girls makes a comment about starting a side business and that she could make a lot of $$$ storing bags for the day. Lisa says that she would gladly pay for such a service - wink wink. We go out to the side of the office where all the bags are lined-up (in a secure area) and the lady takes our bags and Lisa slides her a $20.00. Awesome! Now we don't have to lug those things around.

We head out to the train tracks and get on the train to central Philly. We had an awesome time running around the city. It was not too hot which was good as we were dressed for airplane/Ireland weather = jeans. Not too smart. Should have worn shorts and changed into jeans when we got back to the airport. Oh well, now we will smell like Europeans :-)
In our day tour we say the liberty bell, independence hall (inside and out), Benjamin Franklin & Betsy Ross's gravestones and tomb of the unknown soldier. We also went to some really old street - started with an E - oops, and of course had a Philly cheese steak.

Probably the best part of our tour was when we were in the Independence House. There were some breeders with a few young offspring. One of the kids was screaming/crying and carrying on. The parents were not really making any attempt to shut it up. It was very distracting. Finally the tour guide told the woman that she was going to have to do something about her kid, or leave. She actually started to argue with the guy, with a whole room full of people. I would have been mortified. She eventually packed up her kids and left in a huff. It was the 1st time I have seen someone actually speak up and say how annoying it is, and then ask them to leave! :-)

OK, we make it back to the airport without any issues. We go to pick-up our bag, and of course, the crew manning the baggage claim area are all new people. We go to get our bags and Lisa's bag is there....mine is mysteriously missing. I know all of you reading this are thinking, dah.....what did you think was going to happen! Well, honestly, I didn't really think they would loose my bag. We have a heated conversation with the lady at the baggage claim area. She swears that my bag will be in Dublin.....right. I will shave my head if my bag shows up :-)
She is saying that they start looking at the bags and see where the passenger is going and that they must have sent mine forward to Dublin. We shall see. I will only be disappointed about losing all of my Ironman finishers shirts/hats that I will lose......bastards!

This blogging thing is hard work. I am not so cleaver.....if you are still reading this is you must be bored. sorry!

We are in the Philadelphia airport. I hour until we leave? Hopefully leave - with my bag mysteriously in the bottom of the plane.

Night before leaving for Ireland

So...it is the eve of our Ireland vacation. I have just returned from having a celebratory pint (or two) with my BFF's Shawn & Karen, and of course my girl McBrathy! Trying to figure out how this whole blog thing works so I can entertain my peeps with excerpts from our upcoming trip. My belly still hurts from watching highlights of mascots running into things and fighting on tv. My explanation of this would never do justice....let's just say (with an Irish accent) "there was not a dry eye amongst the lasses". Getting very excited. Lisa is packing. Tomorrow morning will be a blur...running, cleaning, packing, cutting the grass..then off to our homeland--well for one of us anyways. Lisa's kin just pillaged and plundered there. Peace out for now...have to see if I am doing this right :-)