Apparently there is a guy in India who is rolling (across India, a continent, the world - I don't know all the details) for peace. He rolls at a pace of 8 miles a day. Pretty impressive, but quite uncomfortable... Anyway, he ran into a little problem when he tried to cross over to Pakistan - the border patrol did not want to let him through because he did not have a passport. I guess you need your documents even if your mode of transportation is rolling over...

On a completely unrelated note - today (at a random store) I met another pregnant woman with the same due date as I (10/05). She has a friend with a due date 10/06. Apparently these are very common birth dates for babies (10/05 being the most 'popular' as she put it) in the US. About 40 weeks after the holidays and all...

Today our doctor predicted that our baby will be born on 10/09. He just looked at me when we were leaving his office and said that. I guess that's experience! 10/09 is the birthday of our friends' first baby, and that would be fine - easier to remember all the birthdays. It would also be fine if he were to be born on 09/29 which is my sister's second girl's birthday (she was born last year). This would keep the 'tradition' going since my husband's brother's baby girl was born this year on 06/03 which is my husband's birthday... But who knows...

Today was the day of the Malibu Triathlon.
Four years ago we did not know about it. On our way to California, driving from Texas via Montana (long story; 6 weeks long) we were somwhere between the Tetons and the Yellowstone National park at that time. Three years ago it was cancelled because it was scheduled only a week after 9/11. Two years ago, now living in Santa Monica, we woke up early on a Sunday morning to drive all the way up to Malibu to see the celebrities participate in this event. A year ago, this time living in Venice, we woke up even earlier to again drive to Malibu, this time to participate in this even as a relay team. I swam, my husband ran and a friend rode the bike. We ended up 9th in the mixed team division. Not bad. However, all the credit needs to go to the runner and the biker, because my time was really not too good (see below for results). After we found out the results, we agreed that we (meaning especially I) would train even harder so that we could make it to the podium the following year...
But, it wasn't meant to be. This year, I could not be on the team. In the 38th week of pregnancy I am sure (I have not tried though) I would not fit into my swim suit. At least it would be very hard to peel it off! I was replaced by 'some guy' and the rest of the team did it again this year. They did even better, they were 7th, but in an even tougher division of all male relay teams. Congrats!
The worst thing is that I could not even go to cheer them today. I had a very tough night, and at 4 am could not even think about getting up, driving 45 minutes and then stand aroud in heat until 11am. But next year, I will be back, and we are getting up on that podium...

2003 Malibu Triathlon results for team TIZ:
DivPl #9                                 
TIZ Tm #97                  Score:  1:46:25
Name                        Sex  Time
"swimmer (me)"           F    31:43  (0.5 mile, even though everybody said it was longer)
"biker (friend)"             M     1:29  (transition)
"biker"                        M   46:02  (18 mile)
"runner (my hubby)"      M        46  (transition)
"runner"                      M   26:25  (4 mile)

Update: 11/08/2004
2004 Malibu Triathlon results for team Orange (very original!):
DivPl #6                                    
Team Riley - Orange Tm #139  Score:  1:41:51
Name                 Sex Age    Time  Bib#
"swimmer (not me this time)        M    0   26:25  2315   
"biker (friend)"                          M   30    1:09  2316   (transition)
"biker"                                     M   30   47:19  2316
"runner (my hubby)"                   M    0      51  2317   (transition)
"runner"                                   M    0   26:07  2317   

Yes, the question is why do we have to have the hottest day of the year almost at the end of this summer?? Why does this summer, the summer I am pregnant, have to be hotter than average? Why do we have to have almost record highs now that I am entering the ninth month?
We moved here, to the West Side four years ago, and one of the deciding factors was the climate, the average temperatures throughout the year between 62 and 71. Isn't that just perfect? The record high for September (104 F) was in 1963, today it was 100 F - Lucky me...

Update: Here is what the Santa Monica Beach looked like over the weekend. (LA Times Cover Page on Tuesday 09/07/04). Whay is everbody standing (even those under the umbrellas) ?

I had the strangest dream last night. I was in school, and we were assigned to draw a picture titled "Shadows on the wall" that should depict our worst nightmare. We had two hours to finish the drawing. After about an hour, and not a single line on my paper, I started panicking. I could not remember a single nightmare. Not one. And the worst thing was that everybody else was close to done. There were ghosts, big black birds and other scary creatures scattered around the room. The teacher saw that I was frantically looking around, so she asked what was wrong. But she wasn't helpful at all - after I told her I could not remember any nightmares, she said in a mocking tone - "Are you trying to tell us you don't have any nightmares. Oh, you are so perfect!".
What a nightmare...