6 days out

Yes - I have purposely been elusive.



We are winding down on the home stretch here. I think this entire process has been 20 weeks, and we are closing in on losing 37 pounds! Holy Bageless mornings !!!!











The only thing that has been hard in this process has been the lack of sleep. That is nothing new for me, as many of you know, but after 6 - 8 weeks without proper rest, anyone who has ever been sleep deprived can tell you - you will do just about ANYTHING to get sleep. And that would usually include getting up to eat something to help me sleep, but NOPE, haven't succumbed to that evil the entire time. At times I have wondered if I was going to make it - but I have, and I will. Perserverance!



Somehow I rested last night. I'm not sure how to act! It feels like I have been reborn! Aaaahhhh!!!

C'mon - admit it - that is one BEEFY BUTT !!!!


I'm almost all packed, and am anxious to go. I will be rooming with a figure competitor named Michele Thorington from Michigan. We have only started to get to know each other but I adore her already! I cannot wait to meet her in person. I hear she is looking ready to do some serious damge to the other women in her class. I know her fire and drive are right on point!! Go Michele!!


I haven't let out publicly who I have worked with for this prep, and I am still not going to. I will say this, however, he has been an EXTREME pleasure to work with, and I feel very blessed to have been given this opportunity not only to work with such a knowleadgeable, funny, intelligent soul, but he has become a dear friend to me. I treasure my friends.


Congratulations to Christopher Annino , who directed a film called The Picture Bowl, which will be shown at the 10th Anniversary Women & Girls Fund Fil Festival at the Garde Arts Center in CT on August 06, at 7 pm. Chris, I am so proud of you ! You are the best!

I am going to go practice posing now while I have the energy and good spirits to do so.
See you in Pittsburgh!

3 weeks out

I am talking to a new webmaster and hope to have a new website sometime within the coming months. I know my old site has run its course, and never has worked properly with the like of Firefox and some other browsers. Bear with me.

Here is my new little girl - Cap'n Jazz. She's about 10 weeks old.

She's just a lil' sweetie, she is.

I want to get some things straight here - I am not "chasing" anybody at this competition.

I'm worried only about me. Period. And you know what - I'm not even "worried" about me.

I'm going in looking the way I want to, the way I think I look best. And I WILL be prepared to show my best package, the Kate package. I've still got 3 weeks of work to do, but I'm doing it.

I promise.

I have no idea what I'm looking at here - it was still early in the a.m. I think my eyes hadn't rolled back out of thier sockets yet. : )

4 Weeks Out

This is the group of amazing athletes I was able to meet and watch whilst acting as judge at the Special Olympics of Delaware Powerlifting on June 13th. This was the second year I have taken part in SODE, and again I was very honored to be asked and able to partake in the activities. These guys gave us thier hearts as well as thier athletic talents. Well done ALL !!!!

OK, I'm cranky and I'm tired, but mostly from lack of sleep. If I could only get up and drink a glass of milk or eat a light carbohydrate laden snack I'm sure I could sleep a whole lot better. I admit, I am pure misery on feet these days.

There is nothing I crave so much as 6 straight hours of sleep. Nothing. Not a thing. Nope.

Less than 4 weeks to go and by this time I usually have a very decent base tan, but as the sun seems to have burnt out several months back I'm going to have to just step up the tanning bed frequency. The weather simply has sucked all year.

5 weeks

I had a photoshoot with David Koster of Portraits In The Sand the other day. We went up to Gordon's Pond State Beach, here on the north end of Rehoboth Beach in lovely slower lower Delaware. It was around 5:30 pm, and a beautiful, magical, mystical fog rolled in just in time for the photo session. How can you ever plan for something like that to happen??



David is an amazingly talented photographer, and a super nice guy!





Here are my weekly black undies pictures at 5 and a half weeks out -



Check out the striations starting to come in on the lower lats



:) :) :)









































So you liked playing 20 questions with Kate?



I'll give you 10 more to mull over -



1. Favorite flower - I think that dandelions get a bad rap. I also love purple irises.



2. Favorite smell - that would be the smell of wet concrete after a rain shower.... lilacs smell pretty good too.



3. One physical trait that you would change if you could - like I'm going to point that out to the public ???!!! If you don't notice it, good!!!



4. Where did you go on your first date ? 7th grade dance.



5. Sunrise or sunset - I am rarely up for the event, but each sunrise gives the promise of new hope and the opportunity to create anew.



6. Favorite season - summer - hot and humid, yessss!!!!



7. Favorite artist - I have two: Maxfield Parish, and Abraxas Hudson.



8. Favorite place to shop - Salvation Army.



9. Who you miss the most - Wendy, my childhood best friend - it is MY fault for not staying in touch like I should, and Jody , my business partner and friend, who taught me more useful and important things in life than I ever realized whilst here on earth.



10. How do you start your day - every day before I get out of bed, I try to think of 3 things that I am grateful for. Those things can be anything, but knowing that there is something to be grateful for helps start the day on a positive note. Then I make a beeline to the coffeemaker.

6 and a Half Weeks to go

I was feeling like a basket case because I couldnt sleep for a couple of weeks (imagine THAT! ). But now I am rested and back to being ornery. I feel rather good now. I have changed my training so now I am only doing one big body part per workout, or one, maybe two smaller body parts.

Yes, that makes an incredible difference in energy recovery for now.

I am very pleased with my progress, and the best is yet to come!

Someone suggested I play "20 Questions with Kate" here.

Let's see if I can come up with 10 questions...

1.Favorite color - changes periodically. Right now I go for "energy colors" - yellow, orange, red.

2. Favorite food - frozen birthday cake - has to have plenty of icing.

3. What cd is in your car cd player right now? I believe it is the new Static - X - Cult of Static.

4. How do you like to relax - with a big ol' glass of wine...ok, 2 glasses....

5. Do you have any pets - no...but we are supposed to be getting a kitty cat tomorrow! :)

6. Favorite Muppet - Grover

7.What kind of car do you drive - 2006 Jeep Liberty.

8. Favorite sport - Powerlifting....duhhhh....(and Pro Bull Riding, of course )

9. Chocolate or vanilla - Vanilla

10. favorite comedian - whatever happened to Chris Elliot ????

OK - that's enough. We don't want to get too personal with me.

7 and a half weeks out

I will say this - it is a good thing that the powerlifting meet was a couple of weeks ago, for I have no ability nor even the interest in pushing heavy weights right now.... those little chrome Barbie dumbbells are looking mighty heavy these days....reps, reps, reps....sigh.......




I'm starting to crave salty things.... I might even lick the salt shaker out if given the chance. Visions of chips and salsa dance through my head constantly! That's about all I want, except for a big ol' Golden Margarita to go with them.... but no salt on the margarita, please. And make it fishbowl size.





This is me wearing my APT boy shorts! You can purchase a pair or two at:
http://www.prowriststraps.com/

:) Back to basic black next time though - I promise.

I am hanging in the 161 - 162 range. I'm relatively pleased with the progress. My abs, the little buggers, usually don't come in until the last moment. Sure, they are there, but they usually don't POP until the very end. Maybe they will come out sooner this time...we shall wait and see. Although you cant tell by this backside pic, my beloved Xmas tree is showing :).
I am going to hang blinking lights on it this year - lol.

Delaware Power Classic

the 4th annual APA Delaware Power Classic was FANTASTICALLY AWESOME!!!! As always, held at The Training Center in New Castle DE, on Saturday, May 10, 2009.




First the lifters - when I started lifting 4 years ago RAW was the underdog to geared lifting. Now it is growing wider acceptance and I couldn't be more thrilled. Most of my lifters were raw. Ben Brand SHW hit a 2150 RAW total!!! 820/630/700 - and it all looked way too easy.



Scott Yard did his second ever raw meet (after being one of the top ranked gearedlifters for a few years running)and totalled and incredible 1980 at 275. We had several world records set on this day. So many good lifters participated, whether there were records set or not... my applause and thank yous to all of them. OK, yes - I lifted...I was not going to, but I had to reclaim my APA 165 raw world bench women's masters record. When else was I going to have the chance to do so???? I dieted my ass off to get to 165 (164.6 to be exact). I put up a 275. Yes that was good enough to win the rocord back ! :) On my way back up in weight when I am fueling UP not DOWN in food, not prepping for a bodybuilding show, and when I'm NOT running the meet (cannot do this anymore!!!!) and when I don't have a strained forearm - I'll up that record poundage again, I promise!













Thank you as always Big Al Fortney for being my designated wrist wrapper. Mark Caserta - I wouldn't have gone through with the benching if it wasn't for your encouragement and help in the warm-up room and platform. and Thank you to Gene and Ame Rychlak, (IPA),who came down from PA out of the goodness of their hearts to help me out at this meet. Two totally awesome people!!! Tone Barbaccio- I love you dude - you are such an assett at my meets, as well as all of the Dynamo Club gang out of Rising Sun MD - Matt Wilson, Greg and Dave Murray, Danny Blankenship, all you other guys whose names I do not know - lol - it is because of you guys that this meet is such the event that it has become. George Wilson - even though you were illin' and could not stay, you know I could NOT do any of this without your support, and you are the best training partner EVER!!! AND last and in no way least but most of all - Len Walker - my co-director...how do you stay so calm through all of this??? Thank you Len!!! Special thank you to DeBorah Better for staying to help put the gym back together - girl, heal up so you can lift next time!