One mile closer... the weekend and clean teeth

Wednesday I swam one more mile. It was harder this time. The first couple of times it seemed effortless but this time I had to mentally push myself.





I will go to the pool on Saturday again for the second mile of the week.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. I am getting my hair done after work today, that is always fun. I might do something a bit different, like bangs. I'm going to a plant sale with my sister after that. Saturday, both my children have sleepovers to go to and The Professor and I will be home alone. Now THAT is always fun!!

I had my semi-annual teeth cleaning yesterday. Many people dislike the dentist but I don't mind it and after I am finished with my cleaning, I run my tongue across my front teeth and enjoy the smooth feeling of a good cleaning. Don't laugh!! I know many of you have done the same thing.

Have a good one!

Swimming again

I took swimming lessons all through my youth. My mom never learned to swim very well. When she was very young her older brother drown in a lake when he about 10 years old. As a result, she enrolled her oldest daughter in swimming lessons year after year for as long as I can remember. I LOVED it! Sometimes I would re-take a class that I had already passed just so I could swim. When I got to Jr. High we were able to join the high school swim team. I swam all through high school and in college as well. After college, it became easier to run than to try and find a pool to swim in so I abandoned my first love.

At 41, my knees and back have taken a beating and although I don't want to say that I will NEVER run again, I do want to be able to walk at 60. So, water, here I come!

Coming back to swimming is like riding a bike; the hardest part is getting in that cold water! Once in though, I go and go and go. Last Wednesday was the first day I decided to actually go a distance to see if I could. I thought, I'll go 40 lengths and see how I feel. Well, I did 40 and felt fine. So, then I thought, I could probably go mile...66 lengths, so I did! I did it again on Saturday and was amazed that I could go a mile and it didn't take me that long. I mean, I like to work out but I don't want to spend 2 hours doing it, I have other things to do. It takes me about a half an hour to do a mile.

Part of the pool is open swim space and while I'm doing laps, the little man is practicing his water skills and getting more comfortable holding his breath under water. The teenager likes to swim as well and has been on the swimming and diving team for the last 2 years. He likes the adventure of diving a bit more than the monotony of swimming laps but joins us anyway and has fun with his brother.

My goal is to swim 2 miles each week for 2 months. I'm not going to stress out over this. I want a goal that I can achieve and I think this is do-able. Wish me luck!!

Tired of the gang bangers

I'm SICK and TIRED and SICK of violence in my neighborhood! This incident occurred a block away from my house. My children were playing outside and had to run to the neighbor's house because they heard gunshots. The people involved are NOT from my neighborhood but are drawn to it by the annual Cinco de Mayo (I like to call it Cino de Capitalism) event which draws the scum of the earth to one central impoverished location.

Years ago I organized a block club which still meets. We are able to do some good but the amount of rental properties and properties that are unkept outnumber the houses that are owned and cared for. It is unfortunate but I can't see turning our side of the hood around. I have lived in this neighborhood all my life and it is all about location. The location of my house sits in an area that unless is bulldozed will never draw people with money who can care for their homes properly. It is also about values. The values of people who are in these types of altercations differ greatly from my values. I don't want to get in to a big sociological debate but it just makes me think about all that is going on in the world AND this is is just MY little piece of it.

Two wounded in shootings in St. Paul

May 4, 2008

A 19-year old man and a 14-year old boy were shot Saturday evening in St. Paul in separate incidents and two teenagers are in custody following the attacks that took place on the city's West Side at about 6:40 p.m.

Police said that the 14-year old is in critical condition at Regions Hospital in St. Paul after being shot in the back. The man was shot in the leg as is in stable condition. (I have a 14 year old son! Thank GOD he was home. I don't even let him go East from our house alone. RIDICULOUS!)

The shootings took place within a one-block area, authorities said. Police said they could not confirm whether the shootings were related.

Authorities did say that they didn't believe the attacks were related to any activities held during the Cinco de Mayo celebration that had taken place nearby. They said that the festival ended about 45 minutes before the shootings. (Of course authorities would say this. How could they say that shootings were RELATED to the event activities unless they actually held a "drive-by" event. Stupid! Yet, every teenager knows that THAT is what goes on at Cinco.)

The department's gang unit is involved in the investigation of what motives may have led to the shootings, a police spokesman said.

Police stopped a suspicious car about 20 minutes after the shootings and reportedly recovered a gun believed used in the shootings. The two teenagers taken into custody for questioning were in the car at the time it was stopped, police said.

PAUL MCENROE

My First Film EVER!

Here it is...what you've all been waiting for. This is the first film I was chosen for in my professional acting career. I did this in March for a local Minneapolis band, " Now, Now Every Children". The guys who directed and produced the film are students from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). The song is called "Friends with My Sister".




Here is a link to their myspace page, check them out! http://www.myspace.com/nownoweverychildren

Birthday Bash Week

Birthday fiesta for The Professor


The Professor and The Captain enjoyed art and boarding in Chi-town.

The little man and I cooked a delicious meal. We ate by candlelight and had Total Eclipse Chocolate Cake for desert which we made from scratch...a healthy chocolate cake if there ever was one...tofu, cashews and dates are part of the ingredients.

After we were done, since our dishwasher is broken, this is what the kitchen looked like. Well, it actually still looks like that today...oh well, there is always tomorrow!

We're Forty...what does it all mean?!

"Father Time is not always a hard parent, and though he tarries for none of his children, often lays his hand lightly upon those who have used him well; making them old men and women inexorably enough, but leaving their heart and spirits young and full of vigour. With such people the grey head is but the impression of the old fellow's hand in giving them his blessing, and every wrinkle but a notch in the quiet calendar of a well-spent life."

~Charles Dickens

Mark Twain said, "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."


"None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm." ~Henry David Thoreau


"Nobody grows old merely by living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals. Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul." ~Samuel Ullman

"I'm not 40, I'm 18 with 22 years of experience!" ~Author Unknown

A Guatemalan Proverb says, "Everyone is the age of their heart."

"The years teach much which the days never knew." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been." ~Mark Twain

"A man has more character in his face at forty than at twenty - he has suffered longer."
~Mae West

"Forty isn't old if your a tree." ~Anonymous

"She said she was approaching forty, and I couldn't help wondering from what direction."
~Bob Hope

"We don't understand life any better at forty than at twenty, but we know it and admit it."
~Jules Renard

"The body is at its best between the ages of thirty and thirty-five; the mind is at its best about the age of forty- nine."~Aristotle

"Everyone should fail once before reaching forty." ~Allen Neuharth

Quoted by Francis Bacon, Apothegm ~ "Old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read."

"Grow old with me! The best is yet to be." ~Robert Browning

How we celebrated Earth Day.

There is an annual Earth Day celebration down by the Mississippi River in Saint Paul. This year my little man was looking forward to the ritual of writing a wish on a kite and flying it high in the air. It was a gorgeous day...sunny, warm, a light breeze in the air.

Such different weather just a week later here in MN.

Enjoy these pictures of a warmer, sunnier day.

Bamboo hut with windchimes hanging inside. The chimes were by a microphone and heard over speakers that were set throughout the island.

My sister Amy enjoying the day!