Meet My Neighbors

This one is an odd bird, he kind of hangs out with a different group.

The strong but silent one...mostly

Sneaky bastard. He's the one who creeps through your yard when he thinks no one is looking...you know the type









There he is again, all smiles, like nothing is going on.










You know those neighbors who "see" everything? Yep, we have one too.








The big Teddy Bear












The recluse

The HOA Architectural Committee is headed up by this guy

This is the couple everyone is jealous of, you know, both tall, both thin, ultra sexy. The couple we all love to hate and hate to love.

Our local chatty Cathy - well, in this case, Vern

He always wins the lawn competition.

seems quiet enough, but everyone is always trying to figure out just how he lost his "ear"

The twins do everything together. They dress alike, they always have the same cocktail.

just passing through actually

Every day she walks her kids to the bus stop

Those are my neighbors. If you ever come to Florida we'll go get to know them and we'll enjoy a beer or two courtesy of my other neighbor Anheiser. Just call and book a room at The Bigun B&B. See you soon!

Kayak Support?????

Have you guys seen this?

Great Clermont

First of all let me start by saying....lucky we made it to Clermont. Okay, TriDogmom and Momo, I know you both know what I am about to discuss. Pre-pre race night partying. WooHooo. Wow. I know Momo and TriDogmom are both table dancers when they drink...or so it has been assumed. (JUST KIDDING!!!LOL) I didn't do any table dancing pre -pre race night but i did do a little "cage" dancing. Yep. Girls' night out and the scotch was flowing... and flowing... I am 99% sure I had a great time. At least my girlfriends are saying I did! I believe them.


So, needless to say, after getting home at 4 am on the day before the race, I kind of took my time getting ready to head to Clermont the day before the race. I was draggin' ass to say the least. I didn't have what you would traditionally call a hangover, I was just tired. WAAAAAAAYYYYY tired. Finally though, after Bigun had BettyLou all packed up and ready to go I figured i should get my fanny in gear and get packed for our overnight stay in Clermont. Geez Louise. How do you pack for only one day?!?!? I don't know!!! Shouldn't someone, a woman in the know, give classes for that? I packed enough clothes for three days. You know, just in case. Hell, it was supposed to rain on race day. What would I do if I got totally wet while watching the race and then wanted to go somewhere afterwards? AND if we did go somewhere else, what did I want to wear? These are all important points when a woman packs an overnighter. Right? Finally, I get packed, enough for three days, throw the bag in BettyLou and we hit the road.


By the time we get on the road it's pretty obvious we'll roll into Clermont around dinner time. Bigun and I are pretty hungry. Afterall, I was too sleepy to bother eating all day Saturday and Bigun, well, I don't remember why he didn't take a break to eat, I was busy. Sleeping. We call GreenEyedLady and ExcelMan to find out their plan. After much deliberating we decide to all meet at the Italian restaurant we enjoy, Bruno's. It's good eats and it's on the way. It's all good.
Dinner is fun, GEL drinks, and drinks, and drinks and well, you get the picture. Okay, I am exaggerating, I just didn't want you to think I was the only one of the group that liked to drink. So, GEL had two glasses of wine. I stayed with water. After the night before, it was a wise choice, hydration and all that.

Finally we make it to our Hotel. If any of you ever stay over in Clermont, stay at the Fairfield Inn. It was really nice. Bigun and i had a super room!! Fantastical as a matter of fact. Supercalifrag...wait, that's a movie I saw. Never mind that train of thought. So, we're checked in and all comfy and finally decide to crash for the night.
Because we are so close to the race site I don't have to get up at O'Dark:thirty with Bigun. He and ExcelMan head out to the race site sans myself and GEL. Wow, who would have ever thought that sleeping in means getting up at 6:30am? That's what I did though, I slept in until 6:30 race day. UN. BE. LEEEEV. ABLE. Truly. Loved it.


After getting a coffee, checking out the breakfast line, drinking some orange juice, chatting about plastic bottle vs wax carton....we head over to the starting line. Parking for a change was actually pretty easy. Even though we didn't arrive until 5 minutes after the first wave. Whoops. GreenEyedLady and I were having a nice leisurely stroll down to the beach. I notice all the women lined up waiting for their start. So I start yelling, really yelling, "CINDY!!!", "CINDY JO!!!", "ANYONE HERE NAMED CINDY JOVANAVICH?!?!?!?" Everyone is turning and staring but no one is raising their hand. I am yelling to a line of blank faced chicas. Nothin. Finally one girl turns and asks.."What does she look like?" my answer..."I don't know." now, just imagine this, an entire line of women staring at you like you have 2 heads. That's what happened. I almost started to put that second head in my hat. Jeez. So, I proceed to say" She's one of my creepy internet friends." The entire group just about fell on the ground laughing. They wished me luck and then the gun went off and they hit the water. I didn't find Cindy Jo until much, much later.

In the mean time GEL and I wait for our guys to come out of the water. Bigun's wave went off first, 5 minutes later, ExcelMan's wave and 5 minutes after him, the women. So, GEL and I are waiting, and we're cheering. Then we cheer some more and wait some more. After a bit GEL and I look at each other. We don't say anything but we are both beginning to think the same thing..."Where are they?" Then, we see the first woman come out of the water. Our guys, both of them, just got chicked, Majorly, in the water. Still, no Bigun and no ExcelMan. We start to worry. Ofcourse, we had no knowledge of the 2 egg mcmuffins that were scarfed down. Finally, huge sigh of relief, ExcelMan comes out of the water. Phew!!! Thank Goodness. Wait, he took off AFTER Bigun. Crap. Worried again. A couple of mintes go by and then we see Bigun making his way on shore. THANK YOU JESUS!!! We crossed ourselves, said a few Hail Mary's, snapped some pictures and hit the path for the bike ride. It was all good.


This race is always a good race to go to. I like it alot. Fred Sommer and his crew do a really, really nice job. GEL and I settle in our chairs on the bike route and commence to more cheering. This is where I dropped the ball. In my foggy stupor of psuedo hangover the day before, I forgot to pack the booze for the race. No. Bloody. Marys. I know. I. Suck. Moving along...
The guys do great on the bike portion. Their timing was right, we cheered, whistled, clapped, etc. (I don't actually know how to whistle but I always imagine myself whistling). It's cowbell time on the run portion. After staking out a great spot just this side of the finish line we start ringing. It's funny how when we start off with the cowbells there are all sorts of people around us. 5 minutes later, not so many. When we start ringing cowbell, we can clear a spot at the finish line faster than a bad case of IBS. We raucously cheered everyone in over the finish line. It was a lot of fun. Not only did we get to cheer in our guys, we also were able to cheer in first time Triathloner John, our blogger peep Moonpie, and blogger peep Cindy Jo. It was fun. Except for the big emptiness left by the lack of Bloody Mary's it was a great time. Swear.

Sommer Sports always has a pretty good post race spread. This past Sunday was no exception. As a Sherpa however, I don't partake in the post race food. I would hate to have an athlete miss out on a plate of much needed nourishment because of me. As I told Moonpie, sometimes I will pilfer a banana or a bottle of water but otherwise, I don't eat the Athletes' food. Wait, unless there are cookies. I will snag a cookie, or two. On occasion. So, it's lunch time for us. Outback is sounding really good and especially fulfilling in the beer department. An added bonus is that it was Happy Hour. 2 for 1. We could drink all day. Until 7 pm atleast. That's when Happy Hour was over.


Gel, Excelman, Bigun and myself all enjoyed a really good lunch. With beer. Moonpie and Cindy Jo were held up at the race but they joined us later. Because of their time schedule GEL and ExcelMan had to leave but the four of us, Bigun, myself, Moonpie and Cindy Jo enjoyed a few hours at the bar laughing and having a good time. We may have even buzz texted TriRob a little bit. Can't really call it drunk dialing like we did to 21CM at IMFL because we weren't yet drunk and we were texting, not dialing. Poor TriRob...lol we are all still laughing pretty hearty about it.


BTW, did I mention that the West Point Triathlon Team cleaned up at this race? They did. Here's a shot of a few of their team members. These guys will be America's future leaders folks. Sharp. Easy on the eyes too!!

IMCdA '08 shirts for Sherpas or Athletes

T's are $18 each if we get minimum order of 37 shirts. Please let me know how many you would like to order.
Art2Di4@aol.com or call and leave a voicemail. please send an email so that I will have your email address to confirm order and totals. Thanks so much!
813-990-0951 if you would like to call.










You can delete "Sherpa" if you like.

What I Did Last Weekend

Last Saturday Bigun and I did a little grocery shopping. You know, stock up on a few staples and pick up a few perishables. Grocery shopping is never an activity that I look forward to doing. I don't hate it, it's one of those automaton type chores for me. In addition, it is inevitable that I forget to pick up the one thing I most wanted. Here's a few of the items we picked up... fresh fruit,

some light refreshment ( I LOVE this stuff)

Bigun needed some Gatorade and also chose some lovely cashews. Cashews don't last long in our home. Costco has a big tub they sell. It lasts about 3 or 4 days.

I walked away from the cart, being minded by Bigun, to grab a few items. When I return I went to place said items into the basket I noticed a couple of new additions to the cart...

But wait...Twizzlers weren't alone. They were accompanied by these -
I was only gone for about 40 seconds. Not even a full minute. All of that Tri-training has atleast paid off for the Bigun in the grocery aisle. He can speed his way through the donut and twizzler section faster than I can turn and grab a gallon of milk!

Bigun had an earache so I told him to rest while I put away groceries. I caught him on camera "resting".

Grocery Shopping is what I did on Saturday. I know, my last post made my weekend seem much more ...involved. Sad to say, most of you will be disappointed. (feel free to click on the pics for a better view) Last Sunday I hung out in my neighbor's (Orlando) backyard. Here's who I met...

I met a Mime at the pool.

A diver named Seymour

A couple of shady characters, I didn't get their names. Probably kin to the ones ExcelMan will be meeting in June during the Escape From Alcatraz Tri.

A surfer chick. She was pretty cool.

A few Acrobats

They were far too busy for me to catch their names.

But, you know how there is always that one, really big, guy who splashes around and jumps around in the pool? You know the one, always manages to soak everyone sitting poolside. He was there too.

I did get his name. He was actually a really likable fellow. His name was Shamu. Great guy.

There you have it. Now you know what I did last weekend. I hung out in the neighbors yard and met quite a few interesting characters. Any time you head this way, let me know. I'll introduce you. I'll fill you in later on what I did Wednesday. Wednesday I stayed home and played in my own backyard. It's pretty WILD.

Guess What I Did This Past Weekend?

More... coming soon....

The Marctionary aka Bigunary

Okay, first things first. Bigun and Excel Man (as most of you already know) participated in the "Escape To Alcatraz" in Clermont, Florida last Sunday. I know, my race report is a little slow on the keypad. Sorry.

I'm going off on a tangent for a minute. No excuses, just plain truth. In my industry (Interior Design) you really have to stay on top of the latest styles, trends, colors, etc. This past week I had seminars to attend and work to do. Wah wah right? I'm not complaining, truly, just explaining my tardiness on the Sherpa Report for E 2 A. - Seminar, BTW, Fantastic. It was a great training tool for our company.

Back to the RR for E2A. Race - sucked. Wait, I know what you are wanting to say ..."Sucked? Why is that TriSherpa Di?"...okay, let me explain. It.Was.Friggin.FREEZING!!!! It was colder than The Escape from Alcatraz last June. If I had balls, they would have been frozen off. That's the truth. Guess who that is wrapped up all nice and tight in the blanket... How Bigun and ExcelMan's jewels came through unscathed is beyond me. Back to the cold. I am a true blue Northerner. Raised in the wicked winters of upstate NY. I love the winter. Thing is, cold air, cutting wind and standing still for extended periods of time does not FUN make. I froze my ass off. (no one ever died of wishful thinking right?)

The race was small. It was the smallest race I've ever been to. I was surprised at the small turnout. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe not so surprised. The way Zeibart burned the Bigun, it probably isn't the first time for this sort of behaviour and I am quite certain it won't be the last time. OR...maybe, just maybe...everyone has gotten wise to the fact that Zeibart is only after a quick buck and that $100 entry fee is just Zeibart's way of making you feel thankful you were even allowed to participate in his race. Cause I am here to tell you, the after race fare...well, pretty much non existent except for some donut holes and 2 cakes from the Food Store. Wait, forgot, they had some crappy hotdogs too.

No finisher's medal was anywhere to be seen. The goody bags did have a T-Shirt in them. There you have it. approximately 300 people in the race, F'n freezing temperatures, no real food and a T-Shirt. Jeez, I am sure thankful Bigun was allowed to participate in this race AND get ripped off for an extra 5 bucks.

Yes, I know...you have already read all of this in Bigun's report. Sorry, nothing like beating a dead horse, right? I honestly tried to find something good to write about this race. I couldn't. I know, the weather was not under anyone's control. I'll give that much. Just a freak of Florida Nature. Or was it? Because I am now wondering if ... well, nevermind.

Okay, I can think of some good things to report about this race. Bigun and ExcelMan. They did really well. Keep in mind we are talking about 2 boys who are totally acclimated to the warm weather of Florida. They both raced with truly frigid digits. Sounds silly to even bring it up? Well, I had a difficult time just cheering in the cold. My SherpaSpirit was a little lacking that morning. Usually I cheer for everyone, admittedly, I only cheered for our boys that morning. I know, I suck. Sorry. I heard quite a few of the athletes remarking how they didn't feel their feet until about half way through the run. The water was very choppy and very chilly. Reminiscent of the St.Anthony's water 2 years ago. Talk about scary.



Both guys raced with smiles. They looked strong and they barely broke a sweat through the whole race. I did manage to get some great shots of them on the course.

There you have it. My race report. That isn't really why I am here today. I am here to talk about something I think you are all well aware of now. "The Marctionary". If you have listened to the podcasts of Tac and Bigun...you know what I'm talking about. Don't you? Yep. Thought so. Here in The Land of Blog you probably all know it not as "The Marctionary" but rather as "The Bigunary".

Some people, you may know someone like this, they know the English language well. So well, in fact, they take certain liberties with it. By liberties I am referring to the Art of Reinvention. Reinventing the English language for the sake of...well...for the sake of...okay. I am at a loss here. Wait, it's Bigun I'm talking about here. It's reinvention for the sake of a laugh, for the sake of the new word just sounds like it fits better. In his mind anyway.

Am I crossing a line here? Busting my husbands chops in public, amongst all of our Blogger friends? Hell, if you can't bust your hubby's chops with your friends, who can you bust them with? Right...? Right?

Bigun, for those of you who have met him, he's a funny guy. He pretty much considers his art of getting a laugh to be a no holds barred sport. If reinventing words for a laugh works, well, he's bound to go for it.

Here are a few examples. You and I would probably say the word "discombobulated" he would say "noncombobulation". Here's one - you and I would say "spectacular" Bigun would say "spectaculous". Everyone else in the free world would say "oxymoron" he would say something like "morononobia". I know, directly translated, not even close to the same thing. But when translated in a Bigun conversation, you can't help but laugh. So, the next time you listen to the Taconite and Bigun Show, you may want to pay attention to how the English language is being reinvented by our own Bigun. He's a funny guy.

Leave him a message on the PodLine 813-990-0951. There's a hot British chick asking you to leave a message. If you can't download for an I Pod, make sure you let them know. They can supply a link for an MP3 also.

Well folks, that's all I've got. Have a great week and hopefully, I'll be chatting with you sooner than a month from now....