Seriously, I Had No Idea.

I might have to give back my 4.0 GPA, y'all.

So you know The Itsy Bitsy Spider song, right? Sure you do. We all learned it as kids. On the off chance you grew up in northern Siberia or, I dunno, Idaho or something (hee!), here are the lyrics:

The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.
And the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.

Catchy, right? Throw in some corresponding hand motions and you have yourself the makings of Preschool Woodstock.

Well, I saw this on Natalie Dee today and my world was subsequently rocked.
Would you check out that waterspout? I swear to all that is good and holy that, for the last 27-odd years, the image in my head when hearing "went up the water spout" was a spider making its way up the post of one of these: I never quite understood the syntax of the spider being washed OUT of the spout. It made way more sense that it would get washed OFF of the spout, but who was I to question the grammar of a beloved children's tune?

For real, you guys. The spider was going UP A WATERSPOUT. OHHHHHHH.

[Skadandy] "So you see, Wigglemunch - that's why it's important to shaaare."
[Joey] "I am learning so much from you."

I'm Pretty Sure We Have All The Same Readers

but on the off-chance that we don't...

Go here and read the Bea's latest post. He says it better than I ever could.

The Return Of Tuesday Tunes

Been awhile, eh?

I promise this video is family friendly and fully awesome.



Freelance Whales. Love it.

5 Things That I Love, And You Should Too.

In no particular order.

1. Greek Yogurt. Mmmm. How is it different from regular yogurt, you ask? It's BETTER. And according to Heath and Aunnee's friend Duncan, it shouts "Opa!" when you open it. Ok ok - really, it's more thoroughly strained than regular yogurt, which makes it a much thicker consistency. More like cheesecake than pudding. It's also a bit tangier and has way more protein than regular yogurt. Buy some plain greek yogurt (Fage, Oikos, Trader Joe's, etc.) and mix in fresh cherry preserves and TaDa! You've just created heaven in a bowl. The power is oddly unsettling. And delicious.

2. Wacom Tablet. I've forgotten how I ever drew on the computer without it. It took me a good long while to come around to the idea of using one, but halfway through my first semester of grad school I finally gave it a try and never looked back. It makes my job so much simpler. And while sometimes I do miss the days of starting every illustration with a pencil sketch, mostly I just love the seamless flow from the beginning of an illustration to the end. And it makes those times I do draw with a pencil/pen (cover illustrations, portraits, line art, etc.) a little more... special, I guess. One of these days I'm going to get a Cintiq and it's going to rock. my. face off.

3. Aveda Hair Products. THE best smelling hair products on the market. Bar none. Sure they're pricey, but a little goes a looong way, so they last for-ev-VUR. And they're awesome for your hair. And you get a free hand and neck massage every time you go into their store. However, avoid the free spritz of perfume - it's usually a little...earthy. I'd stick with the hair products.

4. Green. Probably my favorite restaurant in the Valley. (Although True Food, which I went to for the first time on Wednesday, ranks pretty high up there now.) They have an entirely vegetarian menu and, while I do love me some meat, it is amazingly delicious. I've never taken anyone there who didn't like it. My dad included. Granted it wasn't his favorite, but, when I asked him where he wanted to eat during his visit here last week, he said "Anyplace is fine by me. Even that weird place [Green]." High praise from Pops.

5. Emma. Because OMG how cute is she? She and my brother visited my parents a couple weekends ago. She's been picking up a lot of words lately and my dad was trying to get her to say "Grandpa." Her version? "Munchuck." Sure. So he tried "Opa," which is Grandpa in German. That one came out Pop-Pop, so I guess they're going with that for now. :) However, she can say "Where's Klaus?" (my mom and dad's dog) clear as day. Priorities, people.

Who's Getting Tired Of Posts About Triathlon?

[looks around. slowly raises hand.]

So I've actually watched a couple movies lately! I know, right? Time for movies? What is this, some sort of magical alternate universe or something? I don't know, I did escape near-death yesterday so for all I know it could be, but I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT TRIATHLON IN THIS POST. All you readers who raised your hands are regretting it now, aren't you?

ANYway, movies!

Slumdog Millionaire - I've had this movie through Netflix since the beginning of February. Not a very good use of my subscription, I know, I know. I finally watched it the other day and it was great! Much different than I was expecting, though. For some reason I had it in my head that it was a musical. Not sure why... maybe I heard someone say that it had great music (which it does) and made the leap. Regardless, I thought it was really well done. And I loved the touches of color symbolism throughout - beautifully done.

How To Train Your Dragon - I saw this at a real, live, pay-$10-to-see-a-movie theater. Only it was free. I was finally able to use a couple movie coupons that I got for my birthday last year. They were for one of the smaller theater chains that, while it's not that far from my house, is just not as close as the one that is virtually next door. So a friend and I checked out some kiddie movie fun. It was really cute! There were definitely some laugh-out-loud moments, and the voice cast was pretty spot on.

The Hurt Locker - Holy crap. What an intense, AWESOME movie. I don't think I blinked for two hours. My dad and I saw this over the weekend and both really enjoyed it. The movie focuses on the last month or so of service of a bomb-disposal squad in Iraq - it's a super gritty, realistic (I think) look into the kind of physical and psychological beating US soldiers go through over there, and how they handle it (or don't).

And that is my eclectic mix of movies from the last couple weeks. I also just saw that they are looking into making a film version - possibly a trilogy - of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, which I LOVED. I have some reservations: 1) I don't know if Ron Howard, who is rumored to be the director, can pull off such a dark and complex storyline. 2) I don't know how in the world they are going to combine seven hefty books into only three movies. Harry Potter got a movie per book - why not Roland the Gunslinger? But I'll definitely be watching either way - I hope they do it justice.

Happy May!

Swim/Bike/Run

OR what happened to my free time.

Swim: Thursday evening was the first open water swim of the TNT training season. We swam out at Saguaro Lake, which is just spectacularly beautiful. The difference between where I was with my swim skills for the first open water last year and where I am now is like night and day. It was fun to see the new participants getting their feet wet (hee). It really is a whole different experience doing distance swimming in a cold, murky lake - definitely takes some getting used to. [image source]

Bike: This was my ride today. 46 miles. Of hills. Oy. See that red section around miles 4 and 15.5ish? This was through a neighborhood and there was this incredibly steep section of hill that the elevation chart doesn't show. It was at least a 10% grade. I rounded a curve and saw that sucker come into view and a little part of me died inside. There's a point in cycling where a hill is so steep, you just can't turn the cranks any more. So you stand up and pedal. But then even that gets maxed out and you're just stuck. (This is the sort of situation where 0mph crashes occur. I managed to avoid that.) Never in my life have I had to walk a hill, even when I was just starting out... until today. I am not ashamed to say that I made it halfway up the beast the first time around and 2/3 of the way up the second time before I had to get off the bike and hoof my way to the top. Holy crap. Also: FORTY SIX MILES OF HILLS.

Run: This was my run today.
Immediately after my ride, I had the distinct pleasure of running nearly three miles. Of hills. The first song to come up in my shuffling list of tunes as I left the parking lot on foot was Raining in Baltimore. Seemed appropriate.

I hope I don't come across like I'm complaining (or bragging - ugh). It's just that it still blows my mind a little bit that I can do this stuff. I can still remember so. clearly. that first minute of running that htd and I set out on and how ten seconds in I thought it was over for me. But now I can have days like today and know that next week, this same ride will be a little easier. And I'll be able to run a little farther in the same amount of time. And it will get a little more enjoyable. And I'll see that same progression in all of my teammates. I really do love this stuff. And that's what keeps me coming back.

Also: Third bike ride in a row that I've gotten a flat tire.

Pro: I'm getting pretty kickass at changing flat tires.

Con: Time to buy new tires.

Oh Goodness

It's been awhile.

The quick recap: March sucked, for the most part.

There were a couple good things, though.
1. My parents were here for a week. Love them. Had a great time.
2. I won TWO raffle prizes at a bachelor auction - a manicure/pedicure and a ski rental package, the latter of which came in very handy on my...

3. snowboarding trip to Telluride, which actually took place April 1-4 - a great way to put that craptastic March behind me.


Learning to snowboard is painful. Oh-so-very painful. But, once I got the hang of it, it was SO. MUCH. FUN. Can't wait to go again next year.

So I'm in the middle of training for a half Ironman. I don't think I've mentioned that yet. Training started at the beginning of February and my race is in early June. 1.2 mile swim / 56 mile ride / 13.1 mile run. The training schedule is unreal. Thursday is our first open water swim of the season, which I'm actually looking forward to. You know, now that I can swim. :)