A real smorgasbord

I've been requested to hop to bloggin' by one of my faithful readers, so I'm dusting off this keyboard to update the world on Chezmoni status. I don't have anything eloquent to say, so this might be a potpourri of random thoughts. A smorgasbord, a mixed bag. Call it what you will.

Top Five Things I'm Excited About:

1. The Bashan Lake Amateur Triathlon (formerly known as the "Fake Tri"), my mom has organized a ladies' triathlon for friends, with a 1/8 mile swim, 5k run, and 10 mile bike ride in September. I've got the running part down, I've done a few (very non-Olympic calibur) laps of freestyle, and my bike is in ship-shape and ready to ride 10 miles. Interestingly, this is my first triathlon, and upon completion I will feel qualified to put a bumper sticker on my car that says 'I Tri'.

2. Edie's new daycare. I'm loving the activities they do, the walks they take to Bushnell park, the daily reports, and the diversity of kids and staff. Her daycare is in the heart of Hartford, and so far it's been great. True to form, she's just warming up this week. They say her silliness is shining through, and I know she'll feel at home there.

3. Ashley's 30th birthday. My baby sis, all grown up this week. She always had the worst birthday time of year as a kid: end of summer, not yet in school to share cupcakes with the class, and it unfailingly rained on every pool party. However, we're grown-ups now and we throw a mean party no matter what the occasion.

4. Lots of ideas are percolating right now. My sister and I have a business idea, I have a t-shirt design idea, and it feels like we're in some kind of renaissance. It's hard to embrace the renaissance with a job, a kid, a house, and a requisite 8 hours of sleep per night, but I'm jazzed about some promising prospects.

5. Baby Boy Edmands, due in late September!

Top Three Things I'm Over:

1. Humidity of summer. Next season, please!

2. My car. Ok, we've had a great run. Over the past 11 year (6 with me) we've clocked a healthy 143,000 miles on the odometer. It's a fantastically reliable car, a real workhorse, but I am frankly over it and ready for a Toyota Highlander or Nissan Murano. Therefore, I bought a Mega Millions ticket today for the first time ever.

3. My clothes. Again, we've really had some good times together. True fact: I wore a shirt the other day from 2003. It's of the Anthropologie vintage so it's held up well, but c'mon. I bought it with prize money in an art show upon graduation. Furthermore, the temp that works with me lives at home in Fairfield County and wears a different Marc Jacobs watch every day of the week, cute flats to match a library of dresses, and generally has a killer sense of style. I might as well wear a muu-muu and Crocs next to her, I feel that lame. Definitely time for a wardrobe refresher.

Top Three All-Time Favorite Vegetables

1. Zucchini

2. Kale

3. Sweet Potatoes

Top Four Favorite Recent Out-Of-Town Visitors:

1. Jake

2. Becky/Vince (they should probably count as one because they're lovebirds)

3. Adrian

Favorite Summertime Pic of Dave:

The hardest job is the best job

Does it seem like I have every other week off? Because I just read my last blog post, which was a summary of my July vacation, and I was all set to write about my most recent vacation. I had a few days off last week. We went nowhere. It was awesome.

We took a couple family bike rides (one a success by Edie's standards, the other a rainy failure), danced and colored, finally did some back-breaking, sweaty yard work, saw a visually and audibly impressive Wilco show, and watched ample Olympics.

Of course I love watching the standard events, and I don't mind the eye candy in a swim suit (I'm lookin at you, Lochte), but I also love watching the parents of the Olympians. I get choked up whenever the camera cuts to them. They are usually decked to the gills in Americana (flags, pins, anything red, white and blue). Are most of them from middle America? A lot of them have that Glamour Shots look, but I appreciate. Their emotions are usually spilling forth. I can empathize with their agony watching their kids, who happen to be the most elite athlethes, perform on a world stage. So of course, I love all the P&G ads dedicated to the Olympic moms.

This, from the P&G web site: Because moms give everything to make their kids′ dreams happen. They carry us for nine months and then keep on carrying us. Through countless sacrifices, they are not only loving nurturers and selfless prodders and motivators, but also alarm-clock setters, chauffeurs, doers of laundry and dishes and makers of breakfasts, lunches and dinners.

I didn't intend for this post to veer into cheese-dome, and I'm a far cry from Olympic calibur, but my mom attended every swim meet, softball, and field hockey game, packed sandwiches and hand-me-down snowpants into our trusty Volvo for many afternoons at Ski Sundown (yes, after work), and was a dogged supporter of any sport my sister and I ever caught wiff of.

After quitting t-ball (I was 7), quitting swimming (age 14) and quitting field hockey (16), it turns out I'm not the best team player, but I've really embraced being an athlete as an adult. So I raise my glass of chocolate milk to my mom!