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We arrived in Lake Placid on Wednesday night. The skies were clear and it was a bit colder than we had anticipated, but it didn’t seem unmanageable. We found a place to have dinner where we could eat outside (and thus avoid trying to get our ginormous stroller out of everyone’s way). Then we walked through the town and down to the speed skating rink where all of the triathlon hoopla would be taking place.

Thursday morning was registration:

And name check:

Then it rained, and we spent the remainder of the day hanging out in the hotel with a very upset and snot-filled Jillian.

Friday morning, we went down to the town again, hoping it wouldn’t rain. The transition area was set up:


But then it rained again, some more, so we spent the remainder of the morning in the hotel with an exhausted, pissed-off, snotty-faced baby. Freddie wanted to drive the bike course to get a sense of where he’d be going, so we spent the afternoon doing that, then we headed out to the Horse Show Grounds for the Welcome Dinner. This is always a fun event, with hundreds of hungry, skinny people chowing down and talking about the races they’ve done. They always have first-time Ironman people stand up and get applause, which is inspiring. Not inspiring enough to push me to want to do it, but it’s a nice thing to watch.

Jillian enjoyed it:



On the way back to the hotel, we saw this:



Saturday was meant to be a “relaxation” day, but since it had finally MY GOD stopped raining, we wandered down to the town to give ourselves something to do and to also do a little shopping. I had to get my Harry Potter book, after all. There was a gang of little kids squirming in line and I was right there with them, fidgeting and trying my best to be patient! Then I got my hands on it and started jumping up and down with glee. I’m a hard-core dork.

The rest of Saturday was spent reading (me), watching the weather channel (Freddie) and making snot (Jillian). We went out for a pasta dinner, then we all hit the sack early. I even managed to fall asleep and not lock myself in the bathroom to read all night.

Sunday morning started VERY EARLY. We set the alarm clock and both of our cell phones to go off at 4 o’clock. Nobody was really happy with that, and even Jillian woke up and looked at us all “you people are idiots.”

No, Jilly, that’s just Daddy.

We loaded up the stroller and started moseying down to the lake. It wasn’t even light out yet, but there were clumps of sleepy-looking people headed our way as well. The one bagel place in town was crowded as hell, but I got myself something to eat and we were ready to start the day.

Like I said, Jillian was not pleased about being up so early, so she decided to call her Nana:



We got Freddie dressed in his wetsuit:



… and that was pretty much it until about fourteen hours later when we saw him come around the speedskating oval to the finish line:



In between, Jillian and I cheered for him as he came jogging out of the swim area, then we headed back to the hotel for a much-needed nap. Well, I was hoping she’d nap so I could read, but she had other plans at first. There was some yelling and some Drama-Queening, but when I picked her up, she barfed all over us both, so then we needed baths.

The barfing seemed to be a good thing, though, because right after I bathed her, I put her back in the pack & play so I could shower and she was asleep by the time I was done. I got a good three hours of reading in while she napped, then we loaded ourselves back up and headed back to town.

We missed him coming in on the bike because I was changing the kid’s diaper. I put of changing it as long as I could, knowing full well that as soon as I did, he’d ride right past us. Which is exactly what happened. Oh well. After that, we made our way to the finish line and prepared to hang out.

For four hours.

After a long fight, Jilly fell asleep in the stroller and then Freddie finished his race. Our weary family trudged back to the hotel where we all showered and fell asleep almost instantly.

Gah. I never think about how much time I spend online with my friends (both of the Real and Imaginary Internet variety) until I’ve been gone for a time and therefore have to catch up.

I’ve tried to limit my online time in the past, but like Lindsay Lohan, moderation does not work for me in this regard. I will eventually post about the triathlon (with photos! Probably!), but right now I really must be going - there’s laundry to do.

I’ve been away from the computer for a couple of days due to a wonky connection and a desire to stay away from all types of media until I finished Harry Potter. Now that I’m home and done reading the book, I will update with the rest of our Triathlon Adventure just as soon as I finish putting my house back together.

So… tired…

I can’t believe my best pal Stimpy would turn on me like that!

Wait, what?

After a great deal of screaming and snots and one rather theatrical choking episode, Jillian is finally asleep. I’m sure the Tylenol I dosed her with is helping this. It was legit, though - she was a wee bit feverish and there is no room in our upcoming schedule for a sick baby! If I have to drug her to get her to sleep so that we can also sleep, then I shall. Too bad I don’t know where to get horse tranquilizers around here.

It rained all day. ALL DAY. And totally ruined my plans to maybe go to the bobsled track and ride. Tomorrow and Saturday are chock-full of triathlon goodness leading up to the race start on Sunday morning, so my chance for bobsled glory is gone.

It’s 9 o’clock - I wonder if the ice cream place is still open?

Day 2 at Lake Placid, and it is anything but. After a few false starts, Jillian fell asleep last night around 10. This was after about 45 minutes of babbling and singing like she was on American Idol, but once she crashed, she crashed.

Today, she was up at 7, which is normal, but what is not normal is the fact that she refused both the bottle and the yummy mushed bananas that make up a typical breakfast. She barely ate a thing, which of course has my Mommy Alert all “whoop! whoop! whoop!” Because she’s been feeling poorly the last couple of days, I’ve been trying to make sure she’s eating and getting enough fluids, but I am no match for Lockjaw.

So we abandoned any attempts at breakfast, loaded up the stroller and headed into town to throw Freddie in the lake for awhile. It was cloudy this morning, but the weather channel assured us that the rain would hold off until late afternoon at the earliest.

THEY LIE.

While Freddie was swimming, we went on the swings and talked to other Mama/baby teams about this crazy thing that we’re all here for. Good times. I tried to feed the kid again, but no luck.

Freddie finished swimming and we went off in search of bagels and coffee before heading back down to Lake Placid High School to get him all checked in and stuff. As we were inside checking in, it began to rain. A LOT.

I realized that we do not have a rain cover for the jog stroller, which is going to suck if it rains on Sunday. I briefly thought about finding one online and paying whatever I need to in order to have it Fed-Exed to me here at the hotel, but I think at this point all we can do is hope it doesn’t rain too much on Sunday. I can probably put my poncho over the stroller and then just wear my rain jacket, but I’d really rather not.

At first, we thought we might be all right walking back to the hotel. After all, it’s only about a mile from the start/finish line to where we’re staying, but in the rain it might as well be fifteen miles. Instead, Jillian and I hung out in the “make your sign” tent while Freddie hoofed it back to the hotel, got the truck, and came to pick us up.

Keep in mind, the kid hasn’t eaten but a few spoons of bananas and maybe half a bottle ALL DAMN DAY. She normally would be STARVING and attempting to gnaw off her own leg, but not today. We got back to the hotel and I tried to feed her, thinking she might finally eat and then sack out for a nap, but OH NO. I put her in the pack & play and she started to flip her lid.

I’ve never ever been a fan of the “cry it out” method, so listening to her scream was rough. After about fifteen minutes of it, I finally rescued her and rocked her to sleep on my lap. Because I’m irredeemably stupid, I thought I could maybe gently lower her back into the pack & play and she would stay asleep, but…

An hour later, she is finally asleep. I’m thinking really hard about going out to play in the traffic, but I think I’ll just find some ice cream or something instead. There IS a Ben & Jerry’s in town, after all.

Here we are in Lake Placid! After a fairly uneventful drive up, we are happily ensconced in our motel, hoping Jillian will go to sleep sometime before September.

She hates the pack & play, normally. It manages to make her shriek and wail like she’s being tortured, so I was fully prepared for that tonight.

Not so. She is having a BLAST. How this is possible, given the last two days of not really sleeping or napping, I do not know. She is really just having the best time ever.

I’m thinking we should probably just give up hope that she’s going to fall asleep so we can turn the light on again and maybe read or something. It’s 9:30, so we might as well go to bed.

HOW IS SHE NOT EXHAUSTED? She hasn’t really had a full night’s sleep since Saturday night and NEITHER HAVE I, and I am really really tired. Which is not good, because we have a scary-busy weekend ahead of us.

But - did you know that for $55, I can ride in a bobsled? How awesome is that? Especially since I just watched Cool Runnings AGAIN the other day and now I want to be on the bobsled team! Ha ha, not really. I hate snow. I’d rather be in Jamaica.

Tomorrow we’re going to cruise the merch tents and maybe head over to the ski jumps for a look around and I’m going to try really really hard not to convince Freddie that I need to go in the bobsled.

Of course, if Jillian doesn’t go to sleep again, EVER, I’m going to figure out what makes her go and see if we can’t power the town with it.

My wee munchkin woke me up at midnight, 2 AM, 4 AM and 5:30 AM. It seems she’s got some kind of cold.

I wonder if she picked it up from someone while she was at Grandma’s last weekend, since she was fine until yesterday afternoon, which is plenty of time for some germs to incubate and start with the sneezing/snots that we are experiencing today.

Last night, she woke up the first time with a fever, so I dosed her with some Tylenol and took her out of the sleep sack. The next few times she awoke was due to snot issues.

This morning, she woke up with a low fever and snots, and that’s what I’ve been dealing with all damn day. She ate breakfast but rejected her morning bottle, which is bad because I need to make sure she doesn’t get dehydrated.

Naptime was actually pretty decent, but she woke up with snot-encrusted hair, which is not a good look for anyone. She was still pretty feverish, and I could tell she wasn’t feeling good by the way she consented to sit on my lap for over an hour. Normally, she sits with me for about thirty seconds then sees something she can eat and punches her way out of my embrace.

That was when I decided to dose her up with Tylenol again. Normally I hesitate to give her drugs, but I’m glad I did because she seems to be feeling a bit better. She’s “napping” right now, which means she’s upstairs in her crib making a whole bunch of damn noise.

I’m sure she’ll be fine - there’s nothing really wrong with her that sleep and sleep and sleep and a couple of days won’t fix. If it weren’t for the amazing snot rockets she’s shooting, I’d chalk it up to more new teeth but I don’t think that’s what’s going on here.

I am tired. There are six million things I need to do before we leave tomorrow, but I think I’m going to just sit on the couch for an hour (I hope) and stare into space.

Yesterday, I had a lovely baby- and husband-free afternoon, so I took that time to re-pot my green peppers and tomatoes. So far, they still appear to be alive, so I’m tentatively considering it a success.

Time will tell, though. I am a notoriously bad gardener, since my “benign neglect” strategy doesn’t work as well on plants as it does on the cat and the kid. I have to actually pay attention to the plants.

On top of my legendary ability to kill plants, I also don’t know much about them. I suppose I could find a website or get a book about container gardening and plants and the best ways to nurture them and keep them alive, but that would be too easy yet also requires work. Maybe my success rate would rise if I did things in the plant’s best interests.

The only thing I have researched is about Japanese beetles. They ATE my ENTIRE red geranium, which was in a basket with a white geranium that they haven’t touched. I got a beautiful rose off of my rose “bush” in front of the house, but now the beetles have found it and are currently eating the other bloom. Yesterday, when I was making a hellacious mess with dirt and stuff, a Japanese beetle flew past me and I whacked it GOOD with my trowel. I picked up the corpse and waved it at the geranium yelling “tell your friends, motherfuckers!”

Clearly, I have issues.

But everything I found on the internet about Japanese battle eradication is disheartening. It says stuff like “go out in the morning when they’re sluggish and pick them off one by one, putting them in a can of soapy water.”

Um.

No.

I considered getting a Japanese Beetle Internment Camp Bag, but I’m pretty sure the homeowner’s association would frown upon that, and I can’t put it anywhere near my own plants because it attracts beetles. I can’t put it AWAY from my plants, either, because then it’s near someone else’s plants and that’s bad, too. I don’t think I’m going to win this particular war unless I get some chemical help, but I haven’t yet found a spray that kills the beetles but also leave the plants alone. Napalm would probably do it, but then I wouldn’t have any plants to look at.