He was a skater boy, she said see ya later boy
he wasn't good enough for her
She had a pretty face, but her head was up in space
she needed to come back down to earth.

When it was our turn to go the entire group chaotically and cautiously stumbled across the Champion Chip Timing mats. With no momentum, it was best to just walk across the mats. Yet to do this in skates, with stumbling people ahead of you and anxious people behind you was no easy task. Soon enough we were off and skating. As I turned left from Victory Lane on to the Osceola Parkway, not even a mile into the course, I had already lost all of my group. They told me they'd yell for me to slow down if I got too far ahead, but I must not have heard them. They were no where in sight. It was too crowded and dangerous to stop and wait.

After a short up hill the first challenge of the course appeared, a nice crowded downhill. With so many people around, it was too dangerous to go fast. I wanted enough space between me and the people in front of me so that if one of them went down, I could avoid a similar fate. I braked the whole way down the hill leaving me with no momentum for the up hill that followed and led us to the Disney-MGM Studios. I passed lots of skaters on the up hills, skaters who must have trained on Florida's flat trails. Once in the Studios, I stopped at the Sunset Blvd crossroads to chat with a co-worker and to wait for my friends. It wasn't crowded and was safe - mostly to consider stopping. Nearly 5 minutes elapsed before I saw the friendly faces of two of my training buddies. I set off with them on the news that the two slower members of our group were well behind them.

The three of us glided through the parking lot, across several more Champion Chip mats, where I learned that the best approach is to bend your knees and keep moving. We skated on towards the boardwalk where I gained even more time on my two pals. I stopped 3 times in Epcot for photos, but my training buddies didn't catch up. I figured I'd go the rest alone, when the elite skaters started passing me on their second loop through the course.

The elites flew by in a single file peloton capitalizing on the benefits of drafting. Every minute or so there would be a switch and the person in front would float to the back of the pack and await his or her turn to lead and break the wind again. The police enforcement barked at us "not-so-elites" to move to the right, but there is only so far to the right you can move before your in the grass. So I moved as far to the right as I was going to and braced to be passed by the elites.

The trip back from the Yacht and Beach resort to the Wide World of Sports and the finish line was over less scenic and much rougher roadway. There were 2 highway clover leaves to navigate. The first was a down hill on reasonable good asphalt. The second was an up hill that got the better of many skaters as I passed them up the hill and even more on the flat high way that followed as they slowed to recover and I plowed on with a heart rate unaffected by the steep grade. Knowing I was close to the finish line, I sped quickly through the final 2 miles to the finish line. I crossed in time to have been allowed to skate the whole course again; less than an hour and a half.

I figured two of my training buddies were close behind, certainly within 5 minutes or so. I had my timer chip removed and grabbed a orange slice and a bottle of water and skated up to the spectator side of the finish line to watch for friends. The two training buddies that I met up with at the Disney-MGM studios were closer to 15 minutes than 5 minutes behind me. I was able to capture their finish on my disposable camera. They came around and joined me in waiting for the rest our group. I figured the last two would skate in around 2:15 after the first start, which would be about a 2:07 half marathon for them. They came in just ahead of my estimate at 2:11, almost making the 2 hour time limit for the half and collecting finishers medals just like the rest of us.

In exchanging stories I learned that I was the only one among our group that didn't have problems with the elite skaters. Perhaps this is because a group of one is always single file. I don't know if the two pairs of my skating friends got in single file when being passed by the elites or not. Two members of our group took mild spills but nothing that couldn't be turned into a good story but still could be covered up with a band-aid.

I didn't see anyone juggle along the course like I did for the NYC running marathon. I did see some skaters do dance-like moves you see pair ice skaters do in televised competitions, like arabesques, twizzles, and cross chases. Although the term, "couples skate" came to mind, they looked like they were having fun. I passed many people for whom the course got the better of them. I saw skaters that had signed up for the full race, but were denied a second loop through the course because they didn't reach the half way point by the hour and a half cut off.

The race was fun and better organized than I expected for an inaugural event. I can't wait to sign up for the full race next year! I hope I can enlist a few more faster friends to join me.

Below is a picture of 4 out of 5 of us holding up the t-shirts from our packets that we picked up the day before the race.

Retail Therapy
It was a good weekend for shopping. Unlike the average woman, I'm not very fond of spending hours in malls trying on clothes, in other words shopping. I prefer to do my shopping on line and have it arrive via UPS at my front door. Last Saturday I decided to give the local Ross (a discount clothier) a try and see if I could find a new dress for an upcoming trip. I scanned the isle of my normal size; the size I've been at Ross and other similar retailers for at least the last seven years. I thought something must be wrong as all the clothes I tried on were too big. This can't be! In a mix of joy, confusion and frustration I tried a few items from the rack of clothes in a size 2 digits lower than my norm. To my delight, and the detriment of my wallet, many items fit beautifully. I walked out with new shoes, two new dresses and two new shirts.

What's Your Number
In the wake of my retail therapy glee, I started doing more diet math. I eat fewer calories these days and I think my body is starting to get accustomed to having less fuel to go on. I think I get what "sparingly" means in reference to fats and sweets on the food pyramid. It certainly doesn't mean once a day, or even once a week. It probably means once every few months it might be ok to have a half a piece of cake or a single scoop of ice cream. To me this portion control of sweets seems very un-American.

I came across some great online calculators for dieters:
If you want to know what was in your fast food lunch, this flash tool can show you.
Now that you've had that power lunch, how many more calories do you have left in your day?
You might want to know where that number of calories came from. You can check your metabolic rate, here.
If you want to increase the number of calories you can consume, you have to increase the number of calories you burn. This tool shows you how many calories are burned for all types of activities, including watching TV.
Despite my recent weight loss, my BMI says I'm overweight. How do you measure up?

I didn't care for ruffles which are apparently "in." As such, I didn't care for the dresses worn by Geena Davis or Jullianne Moore.

Check out all the red carpet fashions.

He may not have won in his category - Best Actor in a Supporting Role, but John C. Reilly deserves recognition as "supporting actor of the year." He appeared in 3 Oscar nominated films this year; The Hours, Chicago, and Gangs of New York, as well as the critically acclaimed film, the Good Girl. Take note of Mr. Reilly as a future Oscar winner.

Two Oscar aired advertisements featured music from Bizet's opera Carmen; an advertisement for Pepsi and an advertisement for AOL Broadband. Same Madison Avenue advertising firm, or same wave length?

My team, UNC of Chapel Hill North Carolina plays in the NIT tonight. An invitation to the NIT is like a consolation prize for teams that didn't make it to the field of 64. There's always next year.

Number 3 seeded UNC women's basketball almost left the NCAA tournament in the second round as Austin Peay did an excellent job of keeping the Lady Tar Heels on their toes. It was a fabulous game with an edge of your seat finish. Were in not for the war, for the first time in history all of the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament games would've been broadcast. However when war broke out, Dan Rather broke in, pushing the CBS coverage of the Men's Tournament to ESPN, and the coverage of the Women's Tournament off the airwaves.

Top of His Game
Is there no one that can challenge Tiger Wood's mastery of golf. Yesterday he won another tournament. He won again by a large margin. He went in history for winning this particular tournament 4 years in a row, which hasn't happened since some time before color photography. More amazing than all of this is that he won while playing the final round in rains that lasted all day while suffering from a stomach virus that had him throwing up on the course.

Here are the winners, the ones in bold are the 8 I picked.
Adrien Brody for the Pianist, Actor in a Leading Role
Chris Cooper for Adaptation, Actor in a Supporting Role
Nicole Kidman for the Hours, Actress in a Leading Role
Catherine Zeta-Jones for Chicago, Actress in a Supporting Role
Spirited Away, Animated Feature
Chicago, Art Direction
Road to Perdition, Cinematography
Chicago, Costume Design
The Pianist, Directing
Bowling for Columbine, Documentary Feature
Twin Towers, Documentary Short
Chicago, Film Editing
Nowhere in Africa, Foreign Language
Frida, Makeup
Frida, Music-Score
8 Mile, Music-Song
Chicago, Best Picture
The ChubbChubbs!, Animated Short
This Charming Man, Live Action Short
Chicago, Sound
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Sound Editing
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Visual Effects
The Pianist, Writing-Adaptation
Talk To Her, Writing-Original

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Adrien Brody
Nicolas Cage
Michael Caine
Daniel Day-Lewis
Jack Nicholson

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Chris Cooper
Ed Harris
Paul Newman
John C. Reilly
Christopher Walken

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Salma Hayek
Nicole Kidman
Diane Lane
Julianne Moore
Renée Zellweger

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Kathy Bates
Julianne Moore
Queen Latifah
Meryl Streep
Catherine Zeta-Jones

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
ICE AGE
LILO & STITCH
SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON
SPIRITED AWAY
TREASURE PLANET

ART DIRECTION
CHICAGO
FRIDA
GANGS OF NEW YORK
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
ROAD TO PERDITION

CINEMATOGRAPHY
CHICAGO
FAR FROM HEAVEN
GANGS OF NEW YORK
THE PIANIST
ROAD TO PERDITION

COSTUME DESIGN
CHICAGO
FRIDA
GANGS OF NEW YORK
THE HOURS
THE PIANIST

DIRECTING
CHICAGO
GANGS OF NEW YORK
THE HOURS
THE PIANIST
TALK TO HER

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE
DAUGHTER FROM DANANG
PRISONER OF PARADISE
SPELLBOUND
WINGED MIGRATION

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
THE COLLECTOR OF BEDFORD STREET
MIGHTY TIMES: THE LEGACY OF ROSA PARKS
TWIN TOWERS
WHY CAN'T WE BE A FAMILY AGAIN?

FILM EDITING
CHICAGO
GANGS OF NEW YORK
THE HOURS
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
THE PIANIST

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO
HERO
THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST
NOWHERE IN AFRICA
ZUS & ZO

MAKEUP
FRIDA
THE TIME MACHINE

MUSIC (SCORE)
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN
FAR FROM HEAVEN
FRIDA
THE HOURS
ROAD TO PERDITION

MUSIC (SONG)
CHICAGO
8 MILE
FRIDA
GANGS OF NEW YORK
THE WILD THORNBERRYS MOVIE

BEST PICTURE
CHICAGO
GANGS OF NEW YORK
THE HOURS
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
THE PIANIST

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
THE CATHEDRAL
THE CHUBBCHUBBS!
DAS RAD
MIKE'S NEW CAR
MT. HEAD

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
FAIT D'HIVER
I'LL WAIT FOR THE NEXT ONE… (J'ATTENDRAI LE SUIVANT…)
INJA (DOG)
JOHNNY FLYNTON
THIS CHARMING MAN (DER ER EN YNDIG MAND)

SOUND
CHICAGO
GANGS OF NEW YORK
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
ROAD TO PERDITION
SPIDER-MAN

SOUND EDITING
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
MINORITY REPORT
ROAD TO PERDITION

VISUAL EFFECTS
THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS
SPIDER-MAN
STAR WARS EPISODE II ATTACK OF THE CLONES

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)
ABOUT A BOY
ADAPTATION
CHICAGO
THE HOURS
THE PIANIST

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)
FAR FROM HEAVEN
GANGS OF NEW YORK
MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING
TALK TO HER
Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN

Eric redesigned his blog, from this terminal its black. From home its gray. A new look is always welcome. There won't be a new look coming to this space for a while thought. I'm happy with it just the way it is. I hope you are too.

Congratulations to my sister who returned from a cruise in the Caribbean engaged. She is now practicing finger exercises to strengthen her ring finger as the enormous rock that is her engagement ring is weighing her hand down like an anchor. So she says. Last word on the proposed wedding date is sometime in the spring of 2004. I've been getting my self prepared by watching wacky wedding comedies like The Wedding Planner, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, My Best Friend's Wedding, The Wedding Singer, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Father of the Bride, The Other Sister and My Sister's Wedding. Yes, there are lots more wedding movies I could mention here. I've also been doing lots of push-ups and hammer curls because the probability that I'll be wearing a sleeveless dress for the occasion is high.

Celebrate in March
Sauce Month
Peanut Month
Noodle Month

March 5 - Ash Wednesday
March 14 - Potato Chip Day
March 17 - St. Patrick's Day
March 20 - First Day of Spring
March 23 - Chip & Dip Day
March 25 - Pecan Day
March 28 - Something-on-a-Stick Day

I watched the first hour of FOX's latest offering, "Married by America" last night. On stage were 30 beautiful people, with nary an ounce of cellulite between them all vying in true "Miss America" fashion, to let their families, friends and all of America match them up, sight unseen with a spouse. If the couples are still married at some point in time in the future they get an expensive car, an expensive house and cash - lots of it. The contestants were all 25 - 35 years old (or thereabouts). Everyone came off as successful. All the home videos showed contestants walking out of expensive houses, into expensive cars, talking on expensive cell phones. Many were "executives." All seemed a little too far ahead in the world given their age. Everyone seemed so very happy about their life and friends and family and success.

It angered me that the television show had only chosen pretty, well off people for its show. I decided to remind myself what the real dating pool looked like with a quick surf of www.greatboyfriends.com. All the personals are the same. They're all full of not-so-pretty people that are desperate.

I grew disinterested with Married by America after the last of the 30 pretty, successful, happy people were introduced. Give me reality TV that's a little closer to reality and a little further away from the fantasy world of Dawson's Creek, et. al.

Yesterday's ridiculously stupid thing that moved the needle up to "highly frustrated" was when the sour and dour office assistant paged me over the company public address system twice letting just 45 seconds elapse between pages. I'm on the phone with a client when the first page occurs. I make a mental note to respond when I'm done talking with the client. The first page didn't irritate me. It was the second page, just 45 seconds later that was irritating. Does the office assistant think I sit around waiting for her to summon me? Is she not aware that 45 seconds is perhaps not quite enough time to finish my current task before I respond to her beck and call? I knew the page was regarding it being my turn at the blood-mobile. In my mind, the client conversation was the more important of these two tasks. When I finished the conversation with the client. I paraded out past the office assistant towards the blood mobile. I flippantly, and might I add cheerfully, quipped to the office assistant, "hey, give a girl a chance... I was on the phone." And she nastily barks back, "You don't have to get mad!" "Look sweetie," I think back really hard at her, "I did not raise my voice, and if you think this is me angry, and remember people get angry, dogs get mad, then you obviously have never pissed me off enough to induce my wrath. Trust me, you'll know it when I'm angry." My thought bubble emitted this tirade in bold 28 point font with lots of exclamation points.

This girl needs an attitude adjustment more than I do. She walks along in her tiny size 2 body with her long soft straight corn silk hair and scowl like no other person has ever possessed. What on earth could that beautiful 23 year old have to be so pissed off about? I don't know if smoking makes her bitter, or her bitterness makes her smoke. She's in charge of nothing, yet she barks orders over the public address system such that you'd think the end of the world is imminent and can only be slowed by your halting your work and quick as a wink producing your spotless signed time sheet. Really, nothing is this urgent. Particularly making an invoice from a time sheet that the company won't be paying for another 60 days. Give a girl 5 minutes. Some things are urgent. Some things are not urgent. I really wish she'd learn to tell the difference.

The public address system here must be reserved for whiners and order barkers. The regular receptionist is a chipper girl. Her pages don't irritate me. Those of a former Instructional Designer turned Payroll Specialist do. When she uses the address system, her commands always come out as a frustrated whine. They always start with a big exasperated sigh, followed by a command to call her extension or come to her office. Heaven forbid she get out of her chair and walk to the person in question's cube or oh-my-goodness, utilize technology and tell the person via email what her query regards so that perhaps you're actually prepared to answer her question once you trek all the way over to her office.

I loathe public address systems in office spaces.

Grumpy people make me grumpier.

Who will be my neighbor now?
Last week marked the passing of Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers Neighborhood fame. It was my favorite children's show when I was a child. It beat Electric Company and Captain Kangaroo. Today's kids know Barney, which doesn't hold a candle to Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. My mother had to call me twice to dinner so I would stop watching Mr. Rogers.

As a member of the Bach Festival Choir, we practice each week in the Rogers Rehearsal Hall. The same Rogers. Mr. Rogers graduated from Rollins college with a degree in Music. He must've donated a lot of money back to the school. The Bach Festival has been dedicated to him this year.