Froze toes 2010

Today was the first road race of the season in Missouri...Feb 28, Froze Toes, just 15 minutes from my house. I learned that road racing on a sunny, warm-ish day looks like a lot of fun. The funny thing is that cyclocross in the worst weather imaginable still looks like much more fun. Oh well.

I couldn't help but wonder how I would have done...and I couldn't escape the feeling like I was letting myself and others down by not racing. Like I said, oh well...there'll be lots of other races.

I went to the race today to volunteer in the first aid station, which was funny because the doctor there is the husband of one of my professors in med school. I also wanted to take lots of pictures and spend time with my daughter, while not racing. Unfortunately, I forgot a spare battery for my camera so ran out of juice for the camera.

But @ 17 months, my daughter is finally at this whole new level in terms of kicking back on a sunday afternoon. First, she can finally communicate besides just whaleing (sp?), pointing, and grunting. I wrote down the number of words that one can understand if you spend a bit of time with her...granted, many of these are only 1 syllable and therefore don't make much sense to anyone else, but in context, they serve the function of 'language' just fine. Second, there was a playground and she can go down the slide by herself and LOVES IT!

She has 38 words as of today. My favorites being:

'Plea' (please, I think her second word ever)
'Toe' (toast or toe, depending on context)
'Ba' (bath)
'Boo-pah' (hilarious website to teach kids to use a mouse)
'Naooooo' (No)
'Doh' (door)
'Tee' (teeth)
'Coh' (cold)
'Dah' (Father dearest to my heat)
'Cah' (coffee) (yes, my child knows how to say coffee and no, we don't give her coffee, she just loves to play with the beans...pronounced 'bea')
'Biiik' (bike)
'OK' (Okay)

On another note, I never actually blogged about this but my insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri, had initially rejected my last radioactive iodine treatment, calling it 'experimental'. Which is disturbing because (1) that treatment has been used since the 1950s (2) it really isn't that expensive as far as cancer treatments go and (3) it is the reason why medical students in this country are taught that thyroid cancer isn't 'that bad too have' (b/c the treatment is so good and effective). We appealed their rejection and got them to pay, which felt like a victory given what is happening with insurance in this country.

Picture of the damage from my first ride on the bike again after 2 weeks off yesterday: damn ice.