Rebellin

I got a kick out of this snippet from the Reno Gazette Journal this week:

Curly hair advantage

It might be time to give the straightening iron a rest. According to a story last week on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” employers are more likely to hire a woman with curly hair. A behavioral study found that woman with curls are considered self-starters, low maintenance and trustworthy compared to their flat locked peers.”
 

I love it! I knew there was a reason I wasn’t putting out the effort to straighten my hair all these years! (Besides not wanting to take the time to do so.)

With another birthday looming, it was comforting today to be told my Real Age is only 28.7.  Phew! Here’s to reverse aging!  How old are you?

Edited to add: Great, my brother that is 7 years older than me has a RealAge of 28, so now I’m not so proud of my 28.7.

OK, admittedly after watching this, open water swimming doesn’t make for the best TV.  BUT, watching the Olympic open water swim is good on your computer, as you can jump through to the good parts really easily.

This is for any of you nutty people like me that are interested in watching the women’s 10K Open Water Swimming event.

View the video on MSN

yum

I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed watching the Olympic swimming this past week.  I’m blessed with a husband who also enjoys watching swimming, so we watched together with baited breath, and constantly rewinded to see different techniques that we saw.  I have to admit I’ve developed a swimmer’s crush on Michael Phelps.  Not only is he an amazing swimmer, but he has a great laid back personality with a ton of humility and sportsmanship.  It’s already evident that he has brought the sport of swimming to new levels of respect.  Non-swimmers watched him avidly, and swim teams across the nation are seeing an influx of interest.  I even found renewed interest in myself to get back into swimming and hone my technique. 

I enjoyed watching all of the US team, and especially liked Natalie Couglin as well.  I’m sad that there is no more swimming to be seen (probably for another 4 years unfortunately), but I do look forward to catching the open water swim highlights on TV. 

I signed Little Miss up for swim lessons this week.  She has been what I call “God’s practical joke” when it comes to swimming, as it is my favorite sport in which I taught swim lessons for 7 years and coached for 3 years, but my toughest pupil yet is in my own daughter.  She is “cautious” (i.e. wimpy) in the water, and I’ve spent countless hours working with her, but I’m to the point where I’m sick of dealing with her extreme caution, and I think that some peer involvment would help her get over her issues. 

Anyway, congratulations to Michael Phelps, whom I call Phelpsy in our household.  I’m so proud of him, and look forward to seeing what he will continue to do in growing US Swimming.

This kept me conscious while in a really long, boring meeting:

1. What time did you get up this morning? 6am so that I could take a 45 minute walk before work.
2. Diamonds or pearls? Diamonds – like the sparkle, feel guilty for the way they are harvested
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema?  Sex and the City, seen with like 30 women from work.  So fun!
4. What are your favorite TV shows? Grey’s Anatomy, ‘Til Death (which has a scary depiction of our marriage), The Office, Scrubs, Sex and the City, John and Kate Plus Eight
5. What did you have for breakfast this morning? Protein shake, with V8 juice for a mid morning snack (I’m in phase 1 of the South Beach Diet)
6. What is your middle name? Lynnette.  No, seriously, it is.
7. What is your favorite cuisine?  Perhaps New Mexican, simply because of my limited access to it.  But I enjoy Indian, Thai, and sushi
8. What foods do you dislike? There aren’t many, and that is my problem.
9. Favorite chips? Soy Chips
10. What is your favorite CD at the moment? Aren’t CDs passé?  I listen to internet radio (Pandora.com) with the Frank Sinatra station
11. What kind of car do you drive?  2007 Toyota RAV-4 (i.e. my Mom car).  And yes, I still miss my 2000 Trans Am Ram Air (sniff)
12. What is your favorite sandwich? Winter’s Best bread with ham, cheese, avocado, onion and green chili
13. What characteristics do you despise? Being deceptive or selfish.
14. What are your favorite clothes? Pajamas, shorts, jeans
15. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation? I’ve been wanting a nice beach vacation for years…  One with tropical blue waters, white sandy beaches…  And after I get that, I’d like to go to the South of France and perhaps Spain.  But I don’t envision taking Little Miss on a trip like that, nor do I want to leave her for that long, so Europe will have to wait.

16. What’s your favorite brand of clothing? I’m not really into brands.  Right now, I’m enjoying my clothes from Banana Republic, J Jill, Anne Taylor and Talbots.
17. Where would you want to retire?  I wouldn’t mind retiring in Reno or a place like Reno.  I need access to the great outdoors as well as an established city with plenty of things to do.

18. Favorite time of day?  Snuggle time with Little Miss right before she goes to sleep.

19. Where were you born? Nuevo Mexico.  The new one, not the old one.   Did anyone see the reference on the show Las Vegas to New Mexico?  The character Samantha said, “not everything new is good.  Look at New Mexico.”  Ouch, that one stung.

 20. What is your favorite sport to watch? Swimming.  I know, I’m a freak.  Can’t wait to watch Michael Phelps and Dara Torres in the Olympics!

21. Pepsi or Coke? Diet Coke

22. Beavers or ducks? Ducks  (we’re rather partial to ducks in our household)

23. Are you a morning person or a night owl? I’d love to be a night owl, but motherhood prevents that. 

24. Pedicure or manicure? Pedicure – manicures never last.

25. Any new and exciting news you’d like to share?  Just heard the possibility of a business trip to Barcelona in the Fall (not holding my breath on that one).

 26. What did you want to be when you were little? An exotic dancer.  Really – I thought it meant a “fancy” dancer.  Then I wanted to be a writer…  A dream still unfulfilled.

 27. What is your best childhood memory? Wow, just one?  Well, I’d like to say Christmas mornings

 28. Piercing? Just one in each ear.

 29. Ever been to Africa ? NO

 30. Ever been toilet papering? Ah, this was quite the pass-time in middle school and high school.  I used to regularly TP and fork the lawn of my big crush, whom I later learned was the next door neighbor of my siter-in-law

 31. Been in a car accident? Yes.  I was the passenger in a car that was hit by a UPS truck.  Now that was riveting!

 32. Favorite Day of the week? Saturday

 33. Favorite restaurant? Country Gourmet in the Bay Area.  They have generous portions of delicious and healthy food, no corkage fees, and an entire play area for kids in the back room.

 34. Favorite Flower? Hard to pick just one…  I like red roses, as they make me think of my wedding, daisies, as they make me think of my Mom, and the Stargazer Lilly because they smell so darn good.

 35. Favorite Ice Cream? Cake batter

 36. Favorite fast food restaurant? QDoba

 37. How many times did you fail your drivers test? 0

 38. From whom did you get your last email? Crap, I receive hundreds of emails a day, so there is no such thing as a last email.

 39. In which stores would you choose to max out your Credit card? None.  I’ve never maxed out a credit card, and don’t plan on doing that.  I’m just not that into shopping.

 40. Bedtime? 11 ish usually

 41. Last person you went to dinner with? JB – went to Rapscallion to celebrate his bday.

 42. What are you listening to right now? Blah blah blah blah blah blah

 43. What is your favorite color? Red

 44. How many tattoos do you have?  None.  Never found a symbol I thought would last me a lifetime.   Just can’t think of anything I’d want on my body when I’m eighty.

I love the summer Olympics, as it’s one of the only times I get to watch swimming on TV (one of the only sports I actually like to watch on TV).  This year, I’m rooting for Dara Torres, the 41 year old mother competing against a bunch of teenagers.  I think it is so awesome to see her be competitive against girls young enough to be her daughters!

And of course, I’ll be waching my Phelpsy (Michael Phelps).  Not really a fan of the Mark Spitz mustache he’s sporting, but I do like why he is sporting it, as he aims to break Mark Spitz’s record of 8 gold medals!  Plus, he’s not hard on the eyes!

This weekend, I did the best birthday surprise ever for JB.  It completely blew his mind!  I told him we were going somewhere on an overnight trip.  I told him to pack all kinds of random things, including swim fins, a dress shirt, goggles, running shoes, etc.  I didn’t let on until we pulled into the long term parking at the airport that we weren’t actually going anywhere, but that we were going to pick someone up.

You should have seen his reaction.  It was hilarious.  I then called the surprise guest, JB’s best friend Jon, and Jon answered the phone saying, “the eagle has landed”.  I marched JB to the bag claim area, and then just told him to keep an eye out for people he recognized. 

My husband had perma-grin all weekend.  And not only did he get time with Jon, but he got to go to the Steely Dan  concert that he has been drooling over for weeks.  In fact, at one point last week, he asked if he really had to go on the surprise trip, as he wanted to go to this concert.  It made things all the sweeter that Jon and JB had been Steely Dan fans together in their college days.

Before the concert, we went out to eat at Cabo Wabo’s in South Lake Tahoe.  The concert was really good (very interesting people watching as well).  I hate to admit that I only knew 2 songs, but I guess that’s because the band was popular in the 70s, and well, I don’t have much memory of the 70s. 

Afterwards, we went out to Cabo Wabo’s for the bar scene, and they had an awesome cover band that had me dancing like crazy as the boys hung out.  There were bachelorette parties amuck in there, and I have decided that the next bachelorette party I throw will need to be there. 

Sunday, the boys recovered most of the day while I hung out with Little Miss.  I was on low sleep as well, but didn’t have the hangover issue that they did.  Little Miss got to spend time at her cousins’ house, so she was thrilled.  Next weekend, it’s my turn to watch her cousins, which I can’t complain, because babysitters are flipping expensive, and there aren’t three little girls I’d rather hang out with than my nieces and daughter.

On a side note, congrats to my brother G, who finished second overall and first in his age-group in the Vineman AquaBike race over the weekend.  This nutty event is like an Ironman without the marathon run, including a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike.  His athletic prowess never ceases to amaze me.  Thanks for being so selfish with those athletic genes, bro!