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April 25, 2005
Come Tri with me, we'll Tri away!!
So I've finally decided to jump into my first mini-triathlon. I've managed to join a fitness center with a lovely 75 foot pool, I have a good cross-trainer bike, two feet that will carry me, and asthma medicine. There's no other thing to do but start tri-ing. After a little research, I've found my first Triathlon in the area.
It's in September and features a 1/2 mile swim, 11 mile bike ride, and a 5k. Only 45 miles from the New York City area, this triathlon has quite a reputation and is geared towards women....That's right,
I'm doing the DANSKIN!
I've opted to do Team Danskin which starts 8 weeks before the tri, but will also train on my own until that starts. I've already started swimming and can swim the 1/2 mile in a pool. I also did a 5k yesterday and while my legs are extremely sore, they have at least begun the long road to getting tri-ready.
Since I'm doing the Danskin and since alot of my female relatives have some experience with the Danskin, it occurs to me that this would be a great time for all of us. So I ask you, Come Tri with me! New York City, September 18, 2005. Let's do it.
Posted by mermu at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2005
Fiesta Mas Fina!
Well, my Mexican Brunch was a huge hit. I ended up making about 5 dozen tortillas in three batches. This enabled me to experiment a little with the recipe as far as how much of each ingredient to add. This process helped alot in my attempt to recreate a Grandma Lucio Tortilla. Alas, most of my torts were just like my Aunt Ginny's; texas shaped. (My Dad tells me they were named as such because all of them had a panhandle instead of being round.) But I've found that rolling tortillas is a little like playing golf (Patrick: that's golf, not gulf.) You swing and swing and hit nothing but slices and hooks and you get so frustrated you want to throw the tortilla (er, club) across the green. Then you hit that one shot where you hear that ever so satisfactory pop as your club hits the ball. You've hit a good one and seeing it sail across the sky, you're sure, will keep you tided over until you managed to hit another good one. That's right, folks. Some of my 60 tortillas were round.
On another culinary note, I've finally found the cookware for me. I've been using hand-me-downs all my life and to be fair hand me downs are still fine. But I've wanted this particular brand of cookware for awhile and they've finally created it in my color. If you want to shower me with gifts, here's where you can find the right faucet.
Posted by mermu at 12:56 PM | Comments (0)
April 20, 2005
Smoke Signals Part Deux
Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Pope Benedict XVI aka Joseph Ratzinger. No one can really say what P.B.16 might do; although it doesn't look good. From what I've gathered in the news so far we do know a little about Joseph Ratzinger.
-He was a Nazi in his youth. The war ended when he was 18 and thus his involvment in the Nazi party.
-He seems more concerned with applauding the 99% of priests that do not abuse children than dealing with the 1% who do.
"In the Church, priests also are sinners. But I am personally convinced that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the United States, is a planned campaign, as the percentage of these offenses among priests is not higher than in other categories, and perhaps it is even lower.
and
"In the United States, there is constant news on this topic, but less than 1 percent of priests are guilty of acts of this type. The constant presence of these news items does not correspond to the objectivity of the information nor to the statistical objectivity of the facts."
While Pope B16 seems earnest in his speeches as Pope, only time will tell what his true agenda seeks to achieve. In short Benedict, your actions will speak louder than your words. God be with you.
Posted by mermu at 11:53 AM | Comments (2)
April 18, 2005
Smoke Signals
So JP2 has now been laid to rest and the world now waits for a plume of white smoke. It's a historic moment this choosing of a pope. I'm watching with the rest of the world in fascination and curiosity at this Pope and circumstance. Part of me has hope that this pope will make a change. Embrace true spirutality and cast the "business of God" aside. The reality is whomever is chosen will most likely be as conservative and mysogynistic as the previous pope. I wish I wasn't so jaded about it all. The problems that plague the American Catholic are vastly different from those that plague the African one and the church seems content to accept that not all problems can be addressed. Last week, an indicted priest said mass in Rome adoring a fallen pope while thousands of Priest-abuse victims suffer his church-sponsored freedom.
I was out with Pru this weekend and she has taken a less reverent attitude.
I'm suddenly inclined to not only have premarital sex, but to do it with contraception. I find myself drawn towards good wine that wasn't blessed and easily led astray by the lascivious and prurient. It must be the lack of leadership for my soul; I am rudderless without a pope.
Cheeky and irreverent and a great excuse to do alot of things. In the end, like Pru, I feel rudderless. I am a ship at sail in a dark blue ocean crested with white and questions; rudderless. Sadly, I do not believe that the other end of that plume of white smoke will guide me safely to shore.
Posted by mermu at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
April 15, 2005
Fiesta!
A few years ago, I had this idea to host a Mexican Breakfast in honor of my Grandma Lucio. It was a known fact that showing up at my Grandma's door at 10:30am on Saturday got you the best you'd ever have; homemade tortillas, eggs, beans, bacon. It's amazing how something so simple can be so satisfying. Some of my earliest memories are of watching my Grandmother making tortillas. I always got a little one to practice on. Oh how I wish I had paid more attention.
So this Sunday, I'm doing a Mexican Brunch. My first batch of tortillas tasted great but alas still are not round in the strictest sense of the shape. Making them did seem alot easier and faster than last year so I comfort myself with the idea that I'm making progress. And I can't wait for the day that I can set a little dough aside for Magda so that she can try to make one too. By then I may have to set one aside for her sisters and brothers and possibly for her Uncle Danny's kids as well. (My kids will probably still be too small ;-)
Word of Mexican Brunches may be getting around. Mat (my cohost) and I are having 28 of our closest friends over to his 25th floor NYC haven near Macy's. We invited most of our friends but largely expected many of them to have better things to do. I suppose we underestimated the power of a good breakfast. Twenty-eight people in a one bedroom apartment with Mexican food and bloody mary's promises to be a real barn burner. I'll let you know how it goes.
Posted by mermu at 01:53 PM | Comments (1)
April 13, 2005
Still No Time For Delay
In today's excite poll, 56% of the responses from approximately 10k people (at the time of this entry) believe Delay should resign his Congressional Seat. Another 18% think he should step down in his leadership roll in Congress. He was reprimanded three times last year. In yet another display of Congress' attempts of creating laws (or rescinding them) to benefit one person, last year the House of Representives attempted to rescind the rule keeping Representatives from holding a leadership post if they have been indicted by state grand juries. Currently, Texas DA Ronnie Earl is investigating a Political Action committee associtated with Delay and he has already indicted three of Delay's political associates. (FYI, Republicans and Delay backed down from changing the Indictment rule due to public pressure.)
So what did Delay do? Well, it mostly has to do with this political action committee and how they receive and encourage donations. Essentially, Delay's vote and influence was allegedly for sale. If you live in Texas and ever wondered why you might be in one district for State Representative, your neighbor might be in another and still the guy across the street might be in another? Well, that is largely due to the Redistricting push bought by contributors of this political action committee. This Great Gerrymander resulted in 6 additional Republican seats. Delay was a huge proponent of this recent redistricting push and even pressured the FAA to find errant Democrats in the Great Walkout now known as "Texas-Gate" last year. Delay, at least on some level (this is what might get him indicted depending on his degree of involvement), also supported and raised funds for this political action committee. The question is whether or not he sold his vote.
There's a great article in last month's Texas Monthly about Texas DA Ronnie Earl which details some of the Delay allegations.
Posted by mermu at 11:50 AM | Comments (1)
April 11, 2005
High Blood Pressure Can Save your Life
My Uncle Matthew went to Vietnam before I was born. After being seriously injured, he was brought home and left to convalesce in San Antonio. He was in a coma for a little while but came out of it in time to stand as my godfather in my baptism. I never knew my uncle before the war so I'm not really sure how it may have affected him. Though he had a slight limp and a blacked-out lens in his glasses, I never thought anything of it. He wasn't a Vietnam Vet, he was just Uncle Matthew and that's what Uncle Matthew looked like. I thought it was kind of neat. He had a scar that looked like a football I remember was pretty fascinating which I think came from an unrelated injury. It was all the same to me; very interesting. I was quite a bit older before I realized that his blacked out patch might be considered odd or different from the norm or that his limp might be uncomfortable or keep him from doing fun things like snow-skiing we all liked to do. I was even older when I recognized the danger and heartbreak of the Vietnam War.
I remember seeing a picture of my Dad once in a uniform and wondering if he went with Matthew to Vietnam. The response I remember had something to do with my Dad not going because he was in ROTC at home. I don't know what was actually told to me but that's what I remember. After talking with my mother last night, I've got the real story.
Before I was even born, my Dad's number came up. He wasn't married, he wasn't in college and so he would be drafted. My Dad had a history of High Blood Pressure and so he expected to not pass the physical. They took the test and it was fine. My Dad told them they better check it again, that he had HBP and that they should check it again. Perhaps it was the abject fear that he might be shipped off to fight that triggered it but sure enough, the second check came back as High Blood Pressure and he would not be drafted.
Without High Blood Pressure my father could easily have gone to a winless war in a vary dangerous role. Young, Mexican, and not in college; a perfect candidate to send off to the frontlines in those times. Thinking about the road less traveled is sometimes foolish, maybe often times foolish. Who really knows? I can't help thinking that without High Blood Pressure, I might never have been conceived, much less born. My father, instead of managing this ailment in his 50s, would have been spared the last 35 years of his life because he was deemed healthy.
And then I think of all of those men and women who are going off to war for 2nd and 3rd tours of duty today. What would the lives of those lost been like if lucky enough to have High Blood Pressure? It's disconcerting really.
War is serious business and very important. It shouldn't be taken lightly, and our troops should always be supported, but it also shouldn't be entered into lightly either and it should NEVER be based on a lie. Our troops aren't just pawns on a chess board or images in a video game and they aren't in the war, on the battlefield or an carriers to serve as rhetoric or a photo op either. What about all of those young American children the fallen would have had? What about all of the lives that should have been led? I can't help thinking that today's war is so much more damaging than anything we could possible gain. We've lost so much for the sake of a greedy President and a lack of knowledge and vision. It might be hard for Bush to understand that; given his privileged "I've never had to earn anything background" but I feel it. And I'm praying for all of those soldiers to develop high blood pressure.
Posted by mermu at 03:46 PM | Comments (2)
April 06, 2005
Getting High
A week ago, I finally managed to see a pulmonologist about my asthma. I've been having difficulty breathing for probably about the last 8 months or so but have only recently gotten insured. The doctor did some tests and as it turns out, I don't really have asthma but something termed Hyperactive blah blah blah. It's basically a weak form of asthma. The doctor said I am in the 85th percentile. (Healthy people are around 100% or above.) So it's not too bad. He prescribed Proventil which I'm used to. This is used when I feel difficulty breathing. It clears the passageways and enables me to breathe better but it does nothing of a preventive nature. He also prescribed QVAR. This is supposed to help prevent the Hyperactive Blah Blah Blah altogether. My doctor is considering prescribing a new therapy called Xolair which is an injection taken once a month for six months and then, theoretically, I would be asthma free. So far there's been no severely adverse affects. No one knows how long it lasts or what happens ten years from taking. It could work well and solve all my asthma problems; it also could make me grow an extra kidney or a new vestigial tale...nobody knows for sure. It's so expensive my insurance most likely won't pay for it. I'm not convinced but I'd consider it if it were in my plan.
I haven't taken the Proventil yet as it's going to my mail order pharmacy. The doctor gave me a sample of the Qvar and I'm taking that regularly. For the last two weeks I've been in a stellar mood and just a little euphoric. I think it's because I'm finally getting enough oxygen in my body. In short, I'm getting high on the O2. Who needs heroin! Life is beautiful.
Posted by mermu at 05:25 PM | Comments (3)