Random Thoughts Saturday!

I've been busy and not blogging much lately. Here's some quick notes before I pass out

1. We had a surprise B-Day party for my roommate Matt last night. A great time was had by all. I bought him some Under Armour and he, in classic Matt style, put it on in front of all his guests and flexed his muscles. It was awesome. And we have so much beer left over! Thankfully a lot of people brought over Great Lakes Christmas Ale. I love the stuff. I have about a 1 month limit, though, because it is a little bit of a spicy beer and it's easy to get tired of it.

2. We had a really fun training session today. DaisyDuc came over, right from a PR 5K of 21:37 (awesome!) and we did a 2:15 bike / 35 minute run brick. Janet, Matt, and I set up our bikes in the living room, popped The Terminal into the DVD player and spun away. Afterwards we had a hectic T2 (In true Ironman style we had separate male and female changing "tents"). FYI, don't try to put on Under Armour Cold Gear when you're covered in sweat. It's not pretty. The run was nice and easy and, as always, I really enjoyed Janet's company. I am so lucky to have such wonderful training buddies!

3. I guess maybe I am a hopeless romantic. I tend not to be a girly girl and don't watch the romantic comedies. But one of my movie weaknesses was on today. Love Actually is one of my all time favorite movies. It's just so heartwarming and wonderful and funny. Maybe I'm just a sucker for Christmas movies. Yeah, that's it.

4. Had a girl's night with Colleen tonight. We went out to the fancy shmancy outdoor mall for some shopping. It was great. The air was crisp, trees were decorated and Christmas music was playing. We both bought the most adorable dresses from White House Black Market. Mine is a black strapless number with an asian looking embroidery on the front. I'm going to a few Christmas parties coming up and I can't wait to wear it!

5. Steve update: Here is a little except from the email I got on Wednesday from his wife:

He felt great all week-end. Monday he started getting "small" cramps but was standing at the door waving when I left for my night class around 5:00. By 8:00, when I got home, he was in the ER in the worst pain he's ever experienced. He basically collapsed in front of the kids, called my dad to come watch them, and sent Emma to the neighbor's house to get help.

A second CT looked "about the same" but he was in so much pain, I had them transfer him to UH, where they noticed a "microperf" on the bowel. By 4:00, when he wasn't improving, they took him to surgery, and it was a mess. The surgeon said the hole was as big around as her finger and he was filling up with pus. She cleaned him out, removed 32 cm including ileum and cecum, and took out a few lymph nodes she thought were malignant. Otherwise, she said there was no visible mass. Most of the cancerous part is out of him ... Not the way we wanted it to happen, however.

The next morning, I walked in expecting him to be flat on his back, drugged out of his mind, and still looking scary, but he was sitting up, cracking (bad) jokes, and being the real Steve (well, morphine Steve). A huge relief after two days of such awful pain. He is looking really good (for a cancer patient, that is). No signs of infection, lots of soreness, but the tubes, etc., are gone. I expect bitching and moaning to begin before long. :-)

We went to see him on Thursday. He looked fantastic and is in great spirits. He says that he feels that he should do something incredibly heroic once he beats the cancer. He said his wife said: "If Lance can win 7 tours after his cancer, what are you gonna do?"

Great attitude. He's vowed to enter Cleveland's Road Race series this summer and give his age group a run for their money. What a great guy! He's such an inspiration for me. I am so honored to be raising money for L&L in his name.

I'm out. Another really busy week ahead. My half is in one week. I'll post a pre-race report sometime before Thursday.

Hope you all had a great weekend!