After more than 35 years with the same company, my dad is retiring today!


Me, Mom, Dad and my Aunt Marybeth at the beach in July

He'll head into the office for the last time to hand in his badge, do the HR thing and then ride off into retirement sunset.

(Or more like immediately start reporting to his new boss, aka my mom, who has a long list of things for him to do around the house -- like ripping up carpet and putting hard wood floors in my parent's living room.)

Either way, I'm super excited for my dad. I know he's been looking forward to retirement for a while now.


This is my Dad at 18, when he was in the Navy

After years of constantly being on the road at client sites both foreign and domestic and wracking up a million frequent flier miles -- which he then let my brother and I use for fun trips -- he deserves some down time.


Family tailgate in Philly

I know my dad has plans to do some volunteer work and spend some more time on the golf course when the weather gets nicer...and perhaps maybe run some more races.


Family in Baltimore

And he's even planning a trip to Maryland in the coming weeks -- but not, you know, to visit me, his daughter. Nope, he's coming to visit the twins.

He sent me an email that basically said, "Hey, I'm coming to Maryland to see the twins. Hope you can make some time to see us..." Ha thanks Dad.



Guess I can't blame him. They're cuter than me.

So congrats Dad! I hope you have a long and happy retirement...and don't drive Mom too crazy!

Have you all seen in the news how the Raiderettes (the professional cheerleaders for the Oakland Raiders) are suing the Raiders for a whole bunch of things that basically amount to unfair and perhaps illegal employment practices?

When I first saw the headlines, I was a intrigued and wanted to know what the heck was going on. As I started reading more about it though, I became more and more outraged at the Raiders organization and the NFL.

Let me take a step back quickly and say that I am a huge football fan. I love the NFL. I happily spend my Sundays camping out on the sofa watching hours and hours of grown men throwing a pigskin around and acting like idiots when they score a touchdown or sack the quarterback.


Love my Eagles!

I buy jerseys, I play fantasy football, in general I invest a lot of time and energy into loving the NFL.

On the flip side of the coin, I think cheerleading is kind of silly. I've never quite understood the point of girls in short skirts and pom poms jumping around on the sidelines. They don't get to watch the game, they're pretty much just there to be eye candy for the drunk dudes in the stands.

Don't get me wrong, I know there is some level of skill involved in cheerleading, and that it's an athletic event when done in a competitive setting. Maryland used to have a competitive cheer team. Those girls didn't jump around and go "Rah, rah" at games. They did crazy flips and intense feats of gymnastic prowess at competitions around the country and won a few national championships.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmOY9z399qI

But all my personal feelings about cheerleading aside, if a girl decides that's what she wants to do, and she goes and tries out and makes a professional squad, she should freakin' be paid fair wages for all the time and energy she puts into it.

The Raiderettes get paid something like $1,250 per season (which after rehearsals, games, special events, etc amounts to less than $5 per hour) -- all paid at the end of the season, after a whole bunch of fines have been taken out of the pay. What are the fines for you might ask?

Deadspin published a nice list:

Forget to bring (including but not limited to) correct pom(s) or props to practice? $10.00 fine

Wear wrong designated workout wear and/or footwear for two-piece Wednesday rehearsals, special rehearsals and/or game day rehearsals? $10.00 fine

Not able to get bios in on time? $10.00 fine

Forget all or part of the official uniform, boots, and or poms for any event or game day? $10.00 fine (per item) and/or benched from game (-125.00)

Boots not clean and polished for game day? $10.00 fine

Failure to follow point #1 under Etiquette or Appearances (Game Day Ready)? $10.00 fine

FINES WILL CONTINUE TO DOUBLE IF INFRACTIONS CONTINUE. Example: a $10 fine will go up to $20 if you forget to wear the proper attire for a second time, etc.

There are other ridiculous employment practices too -- like forcing the girls to pay for certain hairstyles by a certain hairstylist, paying for transportation costs, and getting benched and not paid for a game if they miss a day of practice or "look too soft" (to be read, perhaps gain a few pounds or bloat a bit).

Seeing this bubble up in the news the other day really pissed me off. Teams in the NFL can afford to pay players millions and millions of dollars. They make a disgusting amount of money from ticket, food and apparel sales and somehow can't afford to treat their cheerleaders human beings worthy of a fair wage.

That's some crap.

I hope the Raiderettes win their lawsuit and the team is forced to pay them fair wages.

End rant.

With the arctic freeze still having a death grip on DC and the gym in my building still closed due to that pipe bursting several weeks ago, I bit the bullet and picked up a membership at the gym down the street.


Back when the fitness center was open

I was sick of not being able to do a good workout, and the gym offered me a pretty decent deal on membership. This is my first real gym membership (if you don't count CrossFit) in six years.

I've never paid to belong to a gym since I moved back to the DC-area because the places I lived always offered a free fitness center as a perk.

Last night I hit the weight room at my new gym to keep up with my online personal training plan. It's been a struggle to stick with it while the fitness center in my building has been closed, but I'm so glad to have access to the equipment I need again.

Last night's workout included some squats, deadlifts and push presses -- a move I haven't done since my CrossFit days. (On a totally random side note, I do hope to go back to CrossFit some day when all my foot problems eventually clear up for good).



I love push presses, for some unexplained reason I think they are the most fun thing ever -- maybe it's because I can lift so much more weight in a push press than in a regular overhead press.

Anyway, I surprised myself last night by how much weight I was able to press. It was definitely more than I expected.

I just so happened to finish up my lifting as a spin class was starting, and since I haven't taken a spin class in ages, I decided to join in.

Unfortunately, the class was only so-so. Definitely not the best I've taken, but not the worst either. I like my spin classes to have good music that I can jam out too, and the song selection last night was definitely meh.

I also thought the drills we did in class were kind of boring. Maybe I'm just a spin brat -- I haven't found an instructor I've really loved since I left the gym in York, Pa., six years ago.

Anyway, I'm glad to have a gym back in my life -- especially since there's no sign of an end to this cold weather.