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[JURIST] The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday in Monsanto Company v. Geertson Seed Farms on what conditions must be met to obtain a nationwide injunction prohibiting the planting of genetically engineered crops. The case arose over an injunction against the planting of Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready alfalfa,” pending an environmental impact statement. The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) plaintiffs are specially exempt from the requirement of showing a likelihood of irreparable harm to obtain an injunction, affirming the nationwide injunction. Counsel for the petitioners argued that the district court, “short-circuited the requisite inquiry into the likelihood of reparable – irreparable harm, because they reasoned that the agency was going to get into this anyway in the course of preparing its environmental impact statement.” Counsel for respondents argued:In our view Petitioners lack standing to bring this case to this Court. By failing to challenge the lawfulness of the deregulation vacatur either in the Ninth Circuit or in this Court, Petitioners have an insurmountable redressability problem. They cannot get the practical relief they seek even in the event that this Court vacates or narrows the injunction.The case is being closely followed by environmental and industry groups.

According to a report in Tuesday’s San Francisco Chronicle, Giants catching prospect Buster Posey(notes) could arrive a bit sooner than we’d originally anticipated, regardless of his arbitration clock. Here’s the scoop from Henry Schulman:

One team official said fans likely will not see Posey in San Francisco this weekend or even in Florida next week. However, the brass is keeping close tabs on Posey as the Giants’ offense regresses.

The 2008 first-round draft pick is catching and playing first base at Triple-A Fresno at a time when Giants catcher Bengie Molina(notes) and first baseman Aubrey Huff(notes) are not producing. One does not need binoculars to see the potential benefit of Posey as a backup at each position.

Molina is actually batting .308 at the moment, although he’s just 3-for-23 over his last seven games. Huff is hitting .239, which is almost dead-on his lifetime April average (.243). Neither player is doing anything unexpected.

Meanwhile, Posey is hitting .353/.438/.456 at Fresno. He only has four extra-base hits, though, so it’s not as if he’s playing home run derby in the PCL, a traditionally hitter-friendly league. As Schulman mentions, "reports on the ground say [Posey] is not driving the ball." Buster was a .325/.416/.531 hitter across two levels in 2009, however, and he hit 18 homers with 31 doubles in 497 plate appearances. 

I’d still rate Carlos Santana(notes) ahead of Posey for 2010 fantasy purposes, but it’s beginning to sound as if Buster will win the race to the big leagues.

His grown-up name, just for the record, is "Gerald Demp Posey III." Not quite as creepy as Larry Wayne Jones Jr., but close. 

Programming note: This week’s Closing Thoughts has been delayed, due to completely foreseeable circumstances that we nonetheless failed to adequately plan for. Here’s the incredibly short version: Kerry Wood(notes) is progressing, Chad Qualls(notes) is recovering, Brad Lidge(notes) is returning, Neftali Feliz(notes) is stumbling, Frank Francisco(notes) is improving, the O’s got nothin’, and Octavio Dotel(notes) has been awful (in keeping with team tradition).

—

Photo via AP Images 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will take his push to move financial reform legislation back to the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon, after failing to get the numbers he needed during a vote late Monday. In the meantime, bi-partisan negotiations spearheaded by Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) continue on Capitol Hill. Senator Shelby tells Fox News, “The next 36 to 48 hours are crucial.” As lawmakers work to hammer out a compromise, some conservatives are voicing concerns about proposed language they see as a threat to consumer privacy.

As it stands now, a provision in the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 calls for the creation of the Office of Financial Research (OFR). The agency – which will not answer to Congress, the President or the Treasury – will be authorized to collect financial data on a wide range of transactions. Critics worry that means trouble for consumer privacy. According to Karl Rove, “They are going to have the capacity to go through everybody’s brokerage account and checking account and everybody’s credit card and financial transactions and sweep that information and then analyze it.” Senator Shelby says the more the American people learn about the “intrusive” provisions, the more they will mobilize against it. “I think the American people are now thinking, ‘We just don’t have that level of trust in the government,’” James Gattuso of the Heritage Foundation says, adding, “We don’t want to give you that power to do something even though you promised that you won’t do it.”

Supporters of the legislation say the worries are overblown, partisan scare tactics. David Min, with the Center for American Progress, says the provision is more about keeping an eye on big business, not average American citizens. “[Regulators] would be looking at the firms themselves, the lenders – not the borrowers,” Min says. He notes that privacy advocates have no problem with the proposed language, and no one is planning to pry into your debit card activity. “If that was the case consumer folks and the ACLU would be all over this,” Min argues, adding, “Those guys are very sensitive to this stuff and the fact that they are on board with this to me suggests that there’s nowhere close to that type of intrusion.”

A 69-year-old woman in Frisco, Texas, now has a pile of rubble to call home after a bulldozer operator screwed up and leveled her house instead of the one across the street that was supposed to be demolished.

The house across the street had been slated for demo after repeated violations including high grass and weeds, outside storage, junked vehicles and failure to secure the structure. That homeowner had been notified in January of the need to repair or face demolition.

Last week, the demo company got the permit to raze that house and notified the utilities to cut service.

And then they flattened the wrong home.

“I don’t have the words to say,” explained the wronged homeowner, whose family had lived in the house for 47 years. “I just want this house put back together… I think I need a lawyer.”

She says that she has been made offers of $5,000 or a new home.

Like the house that was supposed to be demolished, this house had been given a warning about violations at a recent hearing. The homeowner promised to make repairs by July 15, but that might be a little difficult now.

Lucky for her, a City Council rep says the homeowner can file for an extension.

Home totaled in mix-up [WFAA.com]

Thanks to Kris for the tip!

We’ve got some bad news, guys. It seems the BioShock 2 DLC won’t be coming this week after all.

(This guest post comes courtesy of a pseudonymous natural gas trader)

The United States Gas Economy is simple: Supply-Demand=Storage.  Every day of the year.

The EIA releases an aggregated survey-based estimate of US natural gas storage weekly – produced from submissions of form EIA-912 by storage and pipeline operators.  This is an original data source from which our understanding of current US storage, and therefore the supply/demand balance, is predicated.  This is why this weekly number garners the attention that it does: it is, in large measure, the genesis of nearly any understanding of the US Natural Gas market.  Much has been made of the burgeoning “balancing item” in EIA data; a favorite of the “gas is in decline, damn it” crowd.  The “balancing item” is a plug figure enlisted by the EIA to balance their supply estimates with their demand estimates as they then both relate to…weekly storage data.  In other words, a popular argument is EIA 914 is materially overstating production because we would actually have significantly higher storage inventories if EIA 914 estimates were correct.

Storage data is not in question.  Is it free from errors?  Not a chance.  Are they huge?  Could be.  I am not warrantying them in any manner.  But, I am not aware of any current challenge to storage data and it is not in any way being questioned by Thursday’s release of revisions to EIA 914 data.  This is important.

If storage data is not in question, meaning, there is no challenge that current NG inventories sit at 1,829 Bcf, then whatever revisions are made to production data in EIA-914 will necessarily result in commensurate downward revisions to demand estimates.  It does not, in any way, alter our understanding of the supply/demand balance, it simply shifts the legs that constitute the balance.  Any shift we find on Thursday will be important.  If we see a decline in production, principal deductions will be that production was more sensitive to the largest abandonment of gas rigs in the history of mankind and that demand was more sensitive to the greatest liquidity-driven recession in the history of mankind.  This will not require an extended walk with reasoning should it be called upon.  Some would argue it makes for a more realistic script.

Back to the 1,829 Bcf and April 16, 2010.  This proves to be the highest level of NG inventories for this time of the year; it is higher than last year by roughly 95 Bcf.   This is interesting to some, as we did see a record draw for Dec 1 –  Feb 28 this past winter – largely driven (this is becoming better understood with each storage report this spring) by marvelous winter events (research the Arctic Oscillation: you’ll find grown scientists insisting upon a -4.5 sigma event this past winter).  DFW got a foot of snow in mid Feb.  Washington’s Dulles got 42 inches of snow, the entire accumulation from the previous 4 years, in 6 February days.  The 2.1 Tcf pull from storage Dec 1 – Feb 28 was the subject of considerable conversation as it became forecasted by mid Feb and realized into early March.  How much was due to not only the severity of the cold, but the location of the cold?  Shifts in demand are not uniform across the country for a given drop in temperature.  Answers not found through some healthy mixture of hard-nosed analysis and incantation would be found through time: spring would deliver some clarity.

March registered a net draw of 45 Bcf.  This is followed by a current estimate for a net build between 290 and 305 Bcf for April.  March is a record-low draw; April will prove to be a record-high build.  While temperatures were very mild (both March and April looking to be the 2nd warmest over the past 5 years), when adjusting for weather, given the storage result we have for the last 5 weeks it becomes difficult to husband the storage results from the winter (through Apr 16 – a build of 214 Bcf, the largest on record, beating last year’s record result for the same period (days 71 – 106 of the year) of a build of 79 Bcf).   Further, it strongly suggests that winter storage results were not driven by the material tightening of the supply/demand balance but rather the idiosyncratic matrix of temperature and place this past winter.

This is not a call on price.  There is healthy doubt swirling around the idea that shale gas has changed exploration and production into a manufacturing process.  But the key element that directly influences price – the supply/demand dynamic, a.k.a. storage – will not be under review on Thursday with the release of revisions to EIA 914.   We are likely to simply learn that production and demand were reasonably more responsive to the historical elements that have driven them since Jan 2009.  Given the fact that until last week we hadn’t seen a decline in gas rigs since Christmas, mounting the largest net add to gas rigs over a four-month period in Baker Hughes gas-rig-data history, the potential for a more responsive production data set to changes in rig counts doesn’t immediately wax bullishly.

Join the conversation about this story »

Shing-Tung Yau explains how he discovered the hidden dimensions of string theory.

Bravo is now casting for its next breakout reality series — and instead of well-to-do and temperamental Housewives, this time the cable network is on the hunt for aspiring songwriters.

Bravo’s Hitmakers is the branchild of a platinum-selling songwriting collective called The Writing Camp. Formed in 2007, the group is comprised of Evan “Kidd” Bogart, Erika Nuri, and David “DQ” Quiñones, who have penned hits for Beyonce (“Halo”) and Brandy (“Right Here (Departed),” and a bevy of other hits.

Open casting calls will be held in cities across the country beginning this weekend. Visit Hitmakers.com for more information…..

No premiere date has been set.

In Chicago on Tuesday, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel tells the Chicago press corps, ‘You guys gotta start drinking decaf,’ after reporters asked him about his admission last week that one day he want to be Chicago mayor. Below, my Sun-Times colleagues report on Emanuel at the Richard J. Daley Global Cities Forum at the University of Illinois in Chicago.

BY ABDON M. PALLASCH AND FRAN SPIELMAN
Chicago Sun-Times Staff Reporters
CHICAGO–President Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel tried to tamp down talk about him running for Mayor of Chicago as he appeared Tuesday at the Richard J. Daley annual Global Cities Forum at UIC.

At the same time, Emanuel gave what might be construed as a window into how he would govern as mayor, advocating a regional approach, cooperating with suburbs to tackle problems. Emanuel shared the stage with mayors of Paris and Philadelphia.

“Emanuel has recently expressed an interest in being mayor of the city of Chicago AFTER Mayor Daley steps down,” moderator Judy Woodruff said. “But the consensus is that before that happens he’s going to have to get some real experience.”

As laughter broke out, Emanuel said, “I’m smiling.”

When reporters pressed him on the issue, Emanuel told them to calm down, implying it was their questions — not his statement of interest in running for mayor on Charlie Rose’ national talk show last week — driving the discussion.

“You know we have our home here,” Emanuel said, trying to beg off questions. “I can’t wait. At some point in the future… Don’t over-interpret anything. Don’t everybody get excited. At some point, when we come back, which is always our goal, which is why we rented the house. … You guys are way too excited. You guys gotta start drinking decaf.”

for the rest of the story…

Leave it to the crunchy granola types in California to rain on the Happy Meal parade. County officials in Silicon Valley want to outlaw toys from the famous (or infamous, depending on your perspective) McDonald’s kids meals. That way, children won’t want them as much, and they won’t be as fat. Or so the thinking goes. Santa Clara County is proposing a ban on toys in any restaurant meal with more than 485 calories, more than 600 milligrams of salt or high sugar or fat content, according to the Los Angeles Times. If the proposal passes, it won’t affect much—there are only about a dozen fast-food restaurants within the county’s jurisdiction. But its broader implications, and its first-of-a-kind status, have the California Restaurant Association and others in a tizzy about government interference in action-figure and mini-stuffed-animal distribution. For Hollywood studios, it would be disastrous if they couldn’t link their Ice Ages, Shreks and Alvin and the Chipmunks with the caloric, pint-sized meals. Even though Disney got out of that business when it didn’t renew its long-term McDonald’s deal, other movie makers rushed to fill the void, keeping the McD’s calendar packed with entertainment promotions. We’ll keep an eye on the situation, so check back for the vote.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

Despite Sen. Lindsey Graham’s (R-S.C.) recent withdrawal from the climate legislation process, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is telling reporters that the Environmental Protection Agency will soon begin analyzing the economic impact of the climate bill he and Graham helped craft.

“We are sending the bill to be modeled now with Lindsey Graham’s consent,” the Democratic senator told reporters. […]

The EPA analysis of their bill could take more than a month to complete and legislation could not be queued up for a full Senate debate until the results are disseminated.

That would put the climate bill on the Senate floor in June at the earliest, but more likely in July. But that assumes that political divisions, of which there are many in addition to Graham’s concerns, get resolved.

That’s the banner headline from HuffPost.  Be sure to read their story on how “Big Oil Fought Off New Safety Rules Before Rig Explosion.”  They link to some amazing NASA photos of the “worst oil rig disaster in decades”:

And here’s the close up:

To paraphrase the movie Airplane, looks like Obama picked the wrong time to give up the offshore drilling moratorium.

Related Posts:

• EIA: New offshore drilling will lower gas prices in 2030 a few pennies a gallon
• The conservative stagnation, Part 13: New RNC chair coined phrase “Drill, baby, Drill”
• “Drill baby, drill”: The moment the Republic died

When US Cellular first announced their intent to carry the HTC Desire, some industry writers were skeptical.  While most immediately thought of what we know as the Desire (Android 2.1, Sense UI, 5.0-megapixel camera, etc.), others thought that US Cellular’s “Desire” referred to a device similar to the DROID Eris (since “Desire” was its code name prior to launch).

US Cellular posted the following on their Facebook page:

“Hungry for more Android info? How about a peek at some specs for the gorgeous HTC Desire including a 3.7” AMOLED touchscreen display, 5 MP camera with LED flash, Wi-Fi, GPS, Android Market and an 8 GB microSD card. How about news of a launch date around July? We’ll need to make sure our rigorous testing is complete bef…ore you can get your hands on this sweet phone. Stay tuned here for more exclusive Android updates!“

The industry argument continues – if US Cellular is actually getting this device, why haven’t the big four (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile) spoken up?  Honestly, they don’t need to.  Verizon has the DROID Incredible (with nearly identical specifications), Sprint’s getting the EVO 4G, AT&T is picking up five Android devices this year, and T-Mobile continues to lead in the number of Android devices offered.  Since we haven’t seen a CDMA-equipped Desire just yet, it’s possible that US Cellular’s “Desire” may be something similar to the DROID Incredible.

If you’re a US Cellular user (or live in a US Cellular market), does the news excite you?

Thanks to one of our tipsters!

In the last decade, the shambling hordes of the undead have graduated from schlock pulp material to the new wunderkind of horror and speculative writers around the world. Be they Haitin voodoo slaves; Romero shamblers; biological virii; otherworldly invaders or mystical monsters, the dead have risen and you don’t want to get in their way!

13. Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter by Laurell K. Hamilton

The Anita Blake books cross the whole gamut of supernatural — werewolves, vampires and zombies included. The titular character has the ability to talk to the dead — a skill usually called upon during litigation. A vampire hunter by trade (hence the name), Anita Blake raises the dead during the day, and slays the bloodsuckers at night. The series are incredibly popular, and a staple of the urban fantasy genre. Plus, we have to give Hamilton major credit for essentially turning her series into porn. The later novels are filled with BDSM, multiple partners, and all the other wonderful perversions we love vampire romances for. Anita wears pants less often than Lady Gaga, and will shag anything on two legs. See Stephenie Meyer — vampires are about sex!

12. Necroscope by Brian Lumley

Necroscope is like the hyper-masculine version of the Anita Blake novels. Starring a vampire hunter with the ability to talk to the dead, who helps out a government agency, and grows gradually more and more crazy powerful with each novel. Where the Blake stories soon become saturated in sex, Necroscope is instead intensely violent and horrific — centered around the threat of the Wamphyri. Of course, the main character’s greatest gift is his ability to talk to the dead, absorb their skills, and animate them to help him in times of need. I’ve got to say, when fighting against a mammoth tide of evil, I could think of worse allies than zombies.

11. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith

How do you take a classic Regency romance, and make it interesting for those who don’t care about the romantic tribulations of wealthy brits? Throw in a few zombies, of course! This mash-up takes Jane Austen’s most famous novel and gives it a major geek upgrade. England has been troubled by the undead for some time in the novel, a dangerous annoyance, but not one sufficient enough to disrupt high society. The Bennet sisters have been trained from their youth as deadly martial artists, and the story covers their war against the undead, their attempts at love, and of course Elizabeth Bennet’s rocky romance with monster hunter Fitzwilliam Darcy.

10. Blood Crazy by Simon Clark

Blood Crazy is a pseudo-zombie story, much the way 28 Days Later is. The ravenous horde aren’t actually the undead, but their actions are close enough for them to make the genre jump. In this incredibly violent and dark story, on Saturday night every adult in the world starts trying to kill anyone under the age of 19. Parents turn on their children, ruthlessly slaughtering them, and the young have to try and band together against their loving elders. Critically panned but popular regardless, Blood Crazy in an intense, blood-pounding page turner, that will have you up all night reading.

9. I, Zombie by Al Ewing

I, Zombie — as you probably guessed from the title — sticks you in the head of one of the undead. As much a noir detective story as a zombie thriller, I, Zombie is about a ten years dead private dick, solving mysteries and busting heads for a price. The real question on his mind, and on the readers, is the one he can never solve: who killed him in the first place. Ewing is a relatively new author, who has cut his teeth writing for 2000 A.D., the weekly comic magazine that spawned Judge Dredd. For some reason, Brits seem to have a special affinity for zombies, and they make up a significant portion of this list.

8. Dead in the West by Joe Lansdale

The very definition of pulp — less than two hundred pages long, on shoddy stock, weird cover art, and stereotypical characters, Dead in the West shouldn’t be as good as it is. Yet somehow, taking the essence of two genres — in this case western and zombies — makes it greater than the sum of its parts. Two great tastes, etc., etc. Peanut butter, chocolate, you know how it goes. There are all the stock characters of the western: the disillusioned preacher, town doctor and his beautiful daughter, and angry town, and an Indian who cursed the whole place. Now besieged by the walking dead, the wandering preacher must use his mad gun skills to take on zombies, demons, and whatever else comes his way. Sometimes brevity is a good thing.

7. Empire: A Zombie Novel by David Dunwoody

After 100 years of zombies, Earth’s governments are in tatters. Only a few heavily defended cities remain, and the rest are badlands, where all must fend for themselves. With all these dead stumbling about, who do you think would be the least happy at the situation? It turns out Death himself, the Grim Reaper. Furious at these souls who have avoided his grasp by becoming shambling corpses, he descends onto Earth to discover their origin, and take as many of them to the afterlife as possible. Allying himself with survivors, the incarnation of Death must face off those who should be under his rightful domain.

6. Cell by Stephen King

Another almost-but-not-quote zombie story, that’s close enough for our definitions. This novel by Stephen King was excellently written, even if the basis for the plot is ludicrous in the extreme. A computer virus infects cellphone wielders the world over, turning them into a murderous hive mind, intent on destroying society. You have to give King points for making such a preposterous and technophobic plot into something worth reading. Then again, this is the same guy who wrote a story about a possessed car. While the phoners in this story are not technically undead, there’s not much difference between people infected with the Rage virus from 28 Days Later, and those hit by a cellphone virus — except the latter is far less plausible.

5. Day by Day Armageddon by JL Bourne

Bare-bones in the extreme, Day by Day Armageddon is a journal of the apocalypse. Just about zero characterization or growth, instead it’s just the day-to-day writings of the mundanity and terror of a zombie world. Sparse, violent, and logical, Day by Day Armageddon was a major hit with readers. The novel is written with a military bent, stuffed with with acronyms and army talk. It’s also a handy guide for how to protect yourself, and what you might need when Z day comes. The novel also has its fair share of critics: spelling and grammar are a major issue, and the novel is very right wing. As in “the Liberals are trying to take all of our guns, and we just managed to get them in time for the Apocalypse” style right wing. Ignore the politics, enjoy the headshots.

4. Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman

I went back and forth about including a comic on this list, but in the end, Walking Dead is far, far too good to be left by the wayside. An ongoing black-and-white comic published by Image, the Walking Dead centers on a small town cop in a world of traditional Romero zombies. Slow, relentless and hungry for you. In an interesting twist, the zombie infection isn’t transmitted via biting. All humans have it, and if they die with their brain intact, they’ll rise as the undead. Getting a bite just means infection and death, unless treated promptly. Walking Dead excels in every facet of the zombie story. It’s tightly plotted, with intense action and every rising pressure. It also excels in one field other zombie stories often fail — Kirkman actually knows how to write characterization! Shocking, I know!

3. The Rising by Brian Keene

Rather than the mindless zombies of most of these entries, the creatures in The Rising are thinking, reasoning, and pure evil. They set traps, use weapons, taunt the living and drive cars. The zombie plague was unleashed on the earth when scientists at a particle accelerator accidentally let a demonic alien force into our world. These demons took over the dead, using their memories and skills to try and kill all those remaining. A man West Virginia is taunted by the corpse of his second wife and their unborn child, as he attempts to make his way to New Jersey to rescue his surviving son. While it’s a questionable addition to the zombie genre to blame everything on dimension hopping demons, it’s not really any weirder than the mysticism steeped origins of the field. The strength of the story comes at least partly from having an enemy that is so malevolently intelligent, but also able to be slaughtered in such joyful numbers.

2. Autumn by David Moody

Originally released free online, Autumn (and now its sequels) proved to be mammothly successful, and soon spun into book and movie deals. Now spanning five books, the first of which can still be downloaded for free, Autumn humanizes the zombie apocalypse in a manner few other books do. Instead of gore and violence, Moody tells the story of the people who survived. It’s a deep, intriguing look at the psychological terror of the worst situation imaginable — almost everyone on the planet dying, and then coming back again. There are no flying guts and decapitations, hell the Z word isn’t even used, instead it’s claustrophobia, terror, and the dawning realization that humanity is completely and utterly boned. It’s a much slower, more deliberate story than the often breakneck pace of many other entrants on the list, taking more time to focus on the horror of the situation rather than gung-ho action and splatterfests.

1.World War Z by Max Brooks

Are you really surprised? WWZ is possibly the greatest zombie novel ever created, accurately portraying the immense damage a tide of the living dead would cause. Set after the end of a zombie war, it’s a collection of tales from survivors, under the guise of a report to the UN. It deals with people attempting to understand the causes of the attacks, struggling to leave their homes, the military attempting to deal with an enemy unlike anything ever seen before. Half the book is a broad historical discussion of the events, but scattered throughout are interviews and stories from individuals that bring home just how terrifying a zombie war would be. The eventual choices that had to be made are harrowing, but at the same time logical. It’s a terrifying, touching, and balanced look at a world at war with the undead. Remember Yonkers.

We recently mentioned that Google announced that the Nexus One wouldn’t be hitting Verizon, and the reason behind the decision is that there is a better option in the Droid Incredible from HTC. We recently got our hands on a Droid Incredible, and we’ve been playing with it for a couple of days now, steadily forming our opinion of the device. While the full review isn’t ready yet, we can comfortably say that we like the Incredible quite a bit more than the Nexus One. Look out for our review in a few days, but in the meantime, we’ve got a Droid Incredible gallery for you, giving you a look at the aesthetics of the device.

Gallery: Verizon HTC Droid Incredible unboxing gallery

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I’m sure everyone can guess what I did as soon as I got home from the triathlon on Sunday…
Yes, I looked up triathlons for me!
I’m sure if you remember in February when I first got my bike that I was quite excited about doing a sprint triathlon. I had planned to do one in June that my hospital puts on, but then I lost enthusiasm and got caught up in issues at work/home/etc. I also seriously questioned whether I could ever do one based on my fitness level. I realize this is just stupid because I need to train for this event. Obviously, I cannot just wake up and expect to be able to do this!! Plus, I’m 25, in good shape, eat healthy, so there is NO REASON that I cannot do this!!

Watching St. A’s tri truly inspired me to venture out of my comfort zones and do the sprint triathlon.

Currently, I am looking at these:

This one is at Fort Desoto in August:

Family Fitness Weekend

This one sounds awesome because it is sponsored by Trek (my bike), it is all women, and it is by Disney in September:

Trek Women’s Triathlon series

My sister mentioned doing them both. She thinks the first one can be like a practice–to see how it works, get comfortable, and then the second one will be better.

As you can see, I’m giving myself plenty of time to get used to all three events. I’m also looking into these open water swim nights from a local triathlon club. I have also e-mailed a swim coach about possible coaching.

I’m not going to let anything stop me this time, not even the fear of the water or the HEAT (August/September in Florida=HELL ON EARTH).

Yesterday, I went on a (approximate) 8-9 mile bike ride. It took me 38 minutes. Baby steps, baby steps!!

I park my car at a local Target and jump on the Pinellas Trail from there, which is right in the back.
When I come back from Washington, DC in mid-May, I am going straight to the bike shop to get the clip-in shoes/pedals. I would do it sooner, but I need the money for my vacation:)

After my ride yesterday, I refueled with a big green monster, and then got to baking! I was craving blueberry muffins!

(I love my apron)

(Recipe was derived from Jenna: http://eatliverun.com/good-stuff-all-around/ . I used frozen berries since the organic ones were cheaper than conventional fresh)

Later, we went downtown and sat on the bench for awhile.

Friendly dog who came over to say hello!

Other random photos:

—-

To continue with my triathlon post, today I started the Couch-to-5K program!!
I successfully completed work-out 1. I wasn’t going for distance, just the time intervals that they specify in the program for work-out 1. I did 1.71 miles on the treadmill. I know this sounds like nothing, especially compared to all of the marathon runners out there, but like I said–BABY STEPS!!
I am not a runner. But maybe someday I will be. I am trying to be enthusiastic about running, tricking my brain/emotions into thinking that I LOVE RUNNING, but I would much rather not be doing it, hehe. POSITIVITY!!

Here I am before my “run,” in all my glory, bahaha.

The always entertaining Center For Science in the Public Interest is attacking White Castle, Bob Evans, and Long John Silver’s for still using trans fats in their foods when other chains have eliminated it.

At Bob Evans the pancakes have up to 9 grams of trans fat, while at White Castle the French fries, onion chips and onion rings, have between 2 and 10 grams of trans fat per order.

From the press release:

CSPI said it was particularly disappointed to find that zombie trans fat still lurks at Long John Silver’s. That chain, owned by Yum! Brands, the parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut, knows better, according to the group. KFC phased trans fat out of its fried foods in 2006, four months after CSPI filed a lawsuit against the chain. Taco Bell also phased out artificial trans fat several years ago. Nevertheless, at LJS, battered fish and shrimp has between 2.5 and 4.5 grams of trans fat; a side order of cryptic “Crumblies” has 4 grams; and every single meal on the chain’s Dollar Stretcher menu has artificial trans fat, ranging from the Small Golden Fries (2.5 grams) to the Two Jr. Fish and Fries (7 grams).

“The FDA has all the scientific evidence and legal authority it needs to send partially hydrogenated oil to the chemical boneyard quickly and permanently, but it has failed to do so,” Jacobson said. “Banning it would save thousands of lives annually.”

Attack of the Zombie Trans Fat [CSPI]