Courtenay Brown

I painted for a bit this morning, before putting in the evil dizzifying contact lenses.This one's got my name all over it, or at least my first initial anyway.It's posted with all the others on my art blog.

The fish are alive and thriving!I am not thriving as much.I went to the eye doctor yesterday to get a new contact lens prescription because a. it's been over two years since my last one and b. I was down to one last pair after accidentally dumping the next-to-last pair down the drain on Tuesday.The visit went fine, I really like my eye doctor and, unlike my trips to the dentist and the general practitioner, I didn't get any lectures about anything.However I did get my pupils dilated. And for some reason it was SUNNY in San Francisco yesterday morning. And my office was a long and treacherous 6 block walk away... ...

Everyone's happy so far, including myself of course. I was definitely the proud parent this afternoon, taking way too many mediocre photos. But I thought I was having fun. Thank you to the anonymous commenter who suggested I go to the Lucky Goldfish - what a great store! And thanks to Panda for steering me away from the pricey fish... Good idea. Names for these two will be made official next week, pending their survival under my care.Wish them luck!

I am feeling sorry for myself. Which is annoying because, when I feel sorry for myself, I tend to go buy stuff. The gory details:Today I got up way early and drove out to Esparto for an 18 mile TT. Unfortunately the race energy, aero equipment, and prize motivation weren't quite enough to chase away my accumulated tiredness. I gave it my all, but I had to sort of "adjust" my performance goal on the fly.Oh well.Also my trainer is the noisiest piece of crapola ever. Sorry to whoever was within hearing range (which I am guessing was about 300 yards), I'd totally forgotten how annoying its squeaking is. The last time ...

I have had about 13 or 14 telephone conversations with a friend about lodgings for Downer's Grove. It's all very highly complex, believe me...Me: So, I am back to Plan A of staying with you at Breda's.Him: Oh. Um. Oh. Well. OK.Me: Wait, it's still OK with her, right?Him: I think so. I emailed her last week and asked her but I haven't heard back.Me: WE HAVE BEEN TALKING ABOUT THIS FOR THE PAST SIX WEEKS. YOU SAID IT WAS FINE. WHAT DO YOU MEAN "LAST WEEK"?!?!Him: Well, I am pretty sure I asked her a while ago, and I think ...

With regards to the post below...Resident Swimming Expert slash Boyfriend Greg read it, and chuckled when he got to the part about the water in my ears.Me: That's definitely a possibility right? That my swim technique has improved and thereby reduced the water in my ears right? That has to be it.Him: Hmmm. Um, well, I guess-Me: Just say yes.Him: Hahahaha.Me: Seriously just say yes, it is such an easy teeny little word, please just say yes I am getting better please? Him: Yes. I knew it! Yessss...

At the risk of alienating/irritating/embarrassing all my bike racer friends... triathlon training is now in full swing for me. Basically this means I am even busier than ever, I'm even hungrier if that's possible, I'm taking at least two showers a day, and I'm carting around like three times as much stuff everywhere. It also means I am riding my TT bike a lot, and prompting certain experts to slow down their cars and roll down their windows and prolongedly tease me for riding uphill in my aero bars. And it means I splurged on a disc wheel on ebay, then ...

Massage-therapist JD had to go on VACATION for the past month (how selfish!) so I have resorted to (1) rolling around on a lacrosse ball on my living room floor to get out the knots, and (2) looking to other people for laughs.(2) has gone a little better than (1)... See below.One email response I got to my Vineman blog post, specifically the part about '...monstrosity, run by the Ironman corporation which as far as I can tell is the Clear Channel of the sports world that has created a huge machine to take people's money whilst making them feel like Winners because they get to spend all sorts of money and ...

Blogging about broadly interesting topics (current events, for example) sure sets my comments section on fire. I think I like it. Expect synopses of New Yorker articles in the future.In the meantime, however, I am going to brag about the fact that I won my duathlon race yesterday!I had planned on winning. Which is presumptuous to say, considering the last time I did a running race was 7 years ago, but I planned on winning. I also dragged along my resident multi-sport professional (I am talking about Greg) for advice, cheerleading, photographing, etc. And yes, Lisa, he was the recipient of ...