In Which Our Heroine Reflects On Her Heart Rate Monitor
So one of the things that Team Milhouse needs to do is build up its stamina. We're working, but is it efficient? Will it get us where we want to be come head race season? And how on earth do we find out? I mean, it feels better, but who's pushing us? Just us, which is good, but is it really enough? I'm a big believer in the outside standard. Exam standards, testing standards, and of course race standards. There's a lot in the world that happens because people think they're good enough, and never submit to outside examination. Of course, a lot of us don't even submit to internal examination and reflection either, but I'll start where I can. Feeling a bit lost, Liz and I bribed Coach Joel for some advice. Lucky for us, Joel is a cheap bribe: dinner and the promise of beers and socializing. Which means we all got to have a happy dinner and talk about rowing. Right now, for us, it all appears to boil down to three words: heart rate training. Which meant we needed to get heart rate monitors. I'm very poor, but this was important and I did just get paid, so come Saturday I made plans to head to REI and buy a monitor. This was a well thought out budgeted plan. I had done my on-line research, knew what I wanted to spend, had a coupon for 20% off, and a $5 dividend rebate to spend. I was set. At the last minute Lolo phoned for pancakes. Now, I love Lolo and we've been trying to get together for ages, but schedules weren't permitting it. But I had to go to REI. I asked her if she'd come with me and keep me on budget. Sure! Off we went. I told her the budget was a monitor and possibly a pair of slides for the boathouse. Monitor was easy, the staff as always at REI very nice. Lora then got a pair of sunglasses and we continued to have fun with the same sales guy, who thought we were funny because we keep making fun of each other. "You two have a real tough love thing going on here." he said. Lolo immediately retorted "There's no love. Just tough." Then we all just fell about laughing, and moved on to the sandal section. They didn't have the slides I wanted, the other Teva and similar style sandals I wanted were out of budget, but we asked a guy where we could get the slides. He didn't know because he was working the grand opening from the Seattle main store. But he did give us Cliff bars, which counted as breakfast. Everyone happily goes to the counter, where Lolo decides to fill out the REI credit card form (1% cash rebate on all purhcases, more on REI purchases.) and we hear the guy from some radio station doing a free giveaway for the REI grand opening. I am dispatched with the words "Go get me something free. I don't care what it is." So, dispatched to the giveaway desk to fill out a raffle form for a heart rate monitor of all things, there were some pop quiz questions for freebies. "For a pair of Teva sandals, which was the first REI store in the greater Boston area?" "Framingham!" I shouted. No. So without pausing for breath I went for "Reading." knowing that there's only the two others here in the area. Boom. Pair of Tevas! Lolo, by now standing next to me, managed to then get a pair of Tevas as well on the question "where is this guy from?" It was our sandal friend. "Seattle!" Excellent. The Tevas were actually a gift certificate for a specific style. Mine were a women's style, which concerned me, because they tend not to have my size. The marketing woman in charge was very nice, set us up with the Teva rep working the grand opening, and he got us sorted out. Lolo told the marketing woman how great it was as I had $0.62 cents in my bank account last week, and had come down for a monitor and pair of sandals but couldn't afford the sandals and now......... so she was impressed. The Teva rep was great. Nope, no woman's sizes for me, but he fitted me up with a pair of nice men's ones, and my new $70 pair of Tevas is now in the mail. I would like to publicly say thank you to Teva, and recommend them heartily to all comers. You can link here: Teva. Lolo liked her pair too. They're in a funky colour, which she got to pick. So we headed off for lunch. We stood no chance of winning the heart rate monitor, as while I'm putting back out the good karma in the world with all my volunteering, and charity fundraising and work with children, there's only so much a gal can get back, but still I had asked and found out that you had to be present to win, so I headed us back for the two o'clock drawing. They were still on freebie giveaways, but no one was really responding, so Lolo picked up two t-shirts (including a Teva one) for her boyfriend who needs them, and then we looked on the computer for other things. While looking, the guy drew the name of the HR monitor winner. "Sarah Smith of Encino, CA." She didn't seem to be around. "Are either of you Sarah Smith of Encino, CA?" he came over to ask us. No, we're not, but we're both in the bag, so get back to your drawing, Mr. Man. Next name out of the hat......me. Huzzah! More joy with the marketing woman, who is now taking my name for the intranet promo within REI. I'm happy to help her out, and she also then gave me a box of Cliff bars, a frisbee, and other things for the CRI Auction. Yeah, REI! I return my newly purchased HR monitor and take my newly won one home. Only to discover that there are two models. There is the Suutomo X6 and there is the Suutomo X6HR, which includes a heart rate monitor. Guess which one I had? Oops. Back to REI, to purchase a monitor again. I talked to the marketing people. There was no reason for them to fix it at law, I had won what I won, and it was an impressive piece of gear. Compass, clock, barometer, altimeter, etc. Does everything but row the boat for you. And take your heart rate! And they didn't have an X6HR, so I was a bit stuck. But I asked on the offchance, could I have a store credit instead? REI, being my favorite store in the entire world, not to mention having phenomonal customer service, said yes. So with a $350