Videos and such

OK...I have spent the past few hours (as I work at my desk) trying to upload the videos to my last blog...still somehow every time I do it and it says it has loaded (which takes forever), I load the blog again and the video isn't there....

I will keep working at it!

On another note: we went out Friday and got our Christmas tree!!! Spent Saturday morning decorating, then went out furniture shopping...and we bought a chair! Yes, one chair (and an ottoman). We have decided to design our whole living room around this chair...no we are not crazy! :) We (or maybe I) just really liked this chair so we just bit the bullet and will worry about the couch and love seat next!

I don't have my camera cord with me right now, but will post pictures in a day or so!

My rant for the day is the BCS....first of all I am super excited that both WV and Missouri lost but what in the world is happening with Kanas gets a BCS bid over Missouri who lost 2x BOTH to Oklahoma...who has Kansas played???? I really hope (and expect) that VT will blow them out! The flip side of this is that Missouri now is going to the Cotton Bowl and playing of all teams, Arkansas. Right now at Arkansas Houston Nutt is leaving and taking almost all of his coaches to Ole Miss and apparently is going to be there for a week...Is Arkansas even going to be ready to play Missouri, and if so won't they be highly distracted by the fact that they whole coaching staff is leaving! I don't know, I think Missouri got screwed, and then Arkansas got screwed as well. There is always hope for the upset though! And Mark May really makes me mad and his whole Tim Tebow talk...DMac is the best player in the country. People talk about it all over the place and he has a couple bad games, one in which he was playing injured...

OK...don't ranting, I will just keep going if I don't stop now. :)

We also decorated the front of our house with Christmas lights, and I must say it is pretty freaking awesome! :) At least I think so, it took us forever to wrap our columns in ribbon and lights, but it was well worth it....picture to come in a day...I will hold you all in suspense until then! And maybe by then I can figure out this video thing!

Mini Vacation...

Well things are winding down here for the semester thank goodness. I am worn out. I think I just feel like I haven't had any time to do anything. With moving and then family here, and teaching an extra class right now, preparing for a talk, I have just been overwelhmed. We haven't been able to do much at the house and we can't seem to agree on furniture. We headed down to Mrytle Beach last week for Thanksgiving with my parents. It was a nice time, good shopping while Eric and my dad golfed....had some nice meals and walks on the beach and some excellent football action! Go Hogs! And according to Tyler: "Looks like Christmas came early" with the ousting of Coach Nutt. Thanks to him I have been graced with watching the funniest you tube video possible: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KM-yCyIdOYU And sorry Monica, but I really think Georgia should be in the championship game. But since Tenn is going, I will route for them against LSU! :) We introduced my parents to the wonderful world of the wii and wii sports. I laughed so hard watching my parents box eachother, we had to take a little video of it: Then we had them try out Dance Dance Revolution on the PS2, again, quite humourous. I talked to my dad yesterday who said his arm was sore from boxing and my moms foot still hurt from dancing! (Note: Eric and my dad were on different levels so they aren't doing the same moves) In the meantime, our goal this weekend is to once again go furniture shopping and buy a Christmas tree. I am super excited about it since it will be my first tree since going to college and I have been saving all my ornaments just waiting to be used! After we decorate and put up stuff outside I will take some pictures and post. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Congrats to my friends Becka and Tim for the birth of their baby boy, Frank!

The House

Well, I know it has been a couple weeks, but we finally got around to taking a picture of the house...with us in front. Eric's parents were here last weekend for a quick visit and Eric and I are slowly moving in.

Right now I am overwhelmed with a lot of stuff. I have a lot to do in the next week and I am starting to really stress out but I know everything will all work itself out and by next Thursday I will be hopefully mostly prepared for a talk I am giving. I did manage to make it home last night and take a bath in the new garden tub. It was nice and hot...too hot for maybe 10 minutes of trying to get in, but that is ok, it was nice to relax a little.

Well, here you go, our house (complete with our "fall" decorations)



And then we realized we looked so small...so we took another:



We didn't take any of the inside...we don't have much funiture in so it just looks so empty...As we get furniture though I will take more pictures!

Mother Nature

Well, first let me say that my thoughts and prayers are with all the people in CA dealing with the fires. 11 houses on the street where I lived burned down along with roughly 40 houses in the neighborhood. My friends that are still there are ok and so is my gradparents house. Mother Nature has come to life out in CA and it is not pretty. On the flip side, over here, we are in serious draught conditions. Many cities in the state have less than 2 months of water left...but all that changed Tuesday night.

We have had rain on and off for the past 3 days and it is suppose to continue through tomorrow morning. When all is said and done, I think we will have received roughly 3-4 inches of rain which is much needed to fill our lakes back up. Needless to say, we have not been able to get outside to take a picture of us and the house, but this weekend is suppose to be nice and sunny, so just hold on a few more days!

Eric's parents have had their bags packed waiting until we moved so they can come visit and we got the word last night that they will be arriving next weekend! I doubt our house will be in order but maybe I can convince Nancy to help me pick plants/flowers/shrubs to plant so that in the spring there will be a nice garden!

Exhausted!

We are finally moved in to our new house!!!!! After a quick trip to Hilton Head with the parents we came back, closed on the house and then Friday night pack up the U-Haul and moved out! We got to the house close to 11pm and we just unloaded a few things (i.e. the bed), showered and went to bed. Woke up early the next morning and unloaded the truck with some help and started getting settled in. Although I made a drive back to Raleigh for a baby shower that afternoon while Eric went back to the apartment to clean (I definitely got the better deal!). We passed out early Friday night and spent Sunday unpacking boxes and putting furniture in the right places.

This house is huge! Eric and I get tired just walking from one part to the other! The cats meanwhile are getting lost, crying out at times and waiting for you to answer so they can come find you. The house makes our apartment look crazy small as half of our rooms are completely empty since we don't have furniture to put in them. All that is in our bonus room is the computer which is sitting on the floor! Our dining room has been our place to collect all the empty boxes. :) Oh well, give me some time and I will buy some furniture!

Sorry, no pictures today of the house, will get some taken this week and post them soon, we have just been way too tired from moving!!

Winding Down

Well, things have been going right along...sorry no new pictures, but for sure there will be some next week! I have 2 1/2 more days this week and then a whole week off!! Yeah, I love that they have a week break...makes working on Labor day that much sweeter. :) We leave Friday for our mini vacation to Hilton Head with my parents. We'll be back Tuesday evening so that we can close next Wednesday!!! In exactly one week we will finally have our house!!!! We (really Eric) has been packing up stuff while I have been gone and getting everything set up/hooked up ect. Ordering our fridge and microwave and whatnot. We probably won't move until next Saturday though so we can pack up after we get back and pack the moving van Friday afternoon to move on Saturday morning. THen I will post more pictures of move in day!

Closing Date

Well, we have been out to the house a few more times and things are moving right along. They were still saying Oct 11 on Friday and we pushed it to Oct 17. I know, you might think we are crazy but we had already planned a mini vaction from the 12-16 with my parents so it made no sense to try and close the day before we left. They actually probably needed the extra almost week to finish up all the details that we want them to fix. :) We just want everything to be perfect right!

So cabinets went in over a week ago: Here is one of the desk area in the kitchen and one of the kitchen (next to the desk area with the space for the fridge)





They had said the countertops were backordered and they came in last week and put them in:


We even got lucky and they happen to put in a bar eating area in the kitchen. (I don't have a pic). We had already talked about doing this at some point, right were the sink is, since there already is a countertop (just too narrow to be a eating area), but they put in a bigger piece of countertop that hangs over to create a nice eating area, so that was really nice!

They also put our garage doors in, our mailbox is in, and put up the rail on our porch-just not painted yet, but I imagine when I go by this Friday it might be as well as our front door finally getting painted:



We have scheduled our walk through on October 9th and then they say they will fix everything we want by the 17th, so hopefully that is true...we'll see. :)

In other news, I can't begin to express my dissatisfaction with Houston Nutt. I believe he has done all he is capable of at Arkansas and should be let go. Why on earth wasn't he before and maybe then we could have gotten Nick Saban...that would have been sweet. Or maybe if we had someone else, we would have been able to recruit Mallet, true freshman quarterback at Michigan from Arkansas. The past two games have been great games, but of course big let downs because we can't (nor have we ever) seem to finish a game without stupid errors/penalties, or just plain decent playing for 4 quarters. I only wish Frank Broyles would see that it is time for a change and hire someone else who might be able to truely put together a great team. I would also like to say that even though we have lost, I still think Darren McFadden is the best collegiate football player in the country, and definitely the best to ever play at Arkansas.

Spring Schedule

Yesterday the department chair came by my office to talk about the spring semester and what he had me down to teach. I will have a very similar schedule which I reall like. I will teach 1 section of Calc 2 (I am teaching 1 Sect of Calc 1 right now-so continue the sequence), 2 sections of a class called A Survey of Mathematics-it is the second half of a sequence for elementary education majors which I am teaching 2 sections of the first half of the sequence right now. And then I will get to teach Linear Algebra.

The time of my classes is just about the same as this semester, I have a MWF 9:00, MWF 11:00, MW 2-3:15 and a TTh 9:30-10:45. It will be nice not having an 8 next semester too! I also think it won't take me as much time to lesson plan as this semester since I have already taught Linear Algebra and Calc 2 at State and they use the same book here. Of course I will reprep those, but I only have one new prep which will be nice. This semester, the geometry class is a killer!

Pictures Pictures Pictures

Dude, I am a posting machine!!! :) Krista you and Ethan need to keep up!!! Eric and I met up at the house during lunch today to check it out. They have fixed the outside shake color problem and had installed all the lights/ceiling fans/light switches/electrical socket plates in. They have the cabinets in their respective rooms but have not installed them, but will probably have them in by Friday when I go by again. :)
Here are the latest photos:


Here is the master bath again with the cabinet/lights (even though the cabinet isn't installed yet-these are the cabinets that are in all our bathrooms and the kitchen)



Here is the foyer/dining room/looking into the family room. I took this picture because up above there is the gate that Eric thinks looks like prison bars (that is the bonus room up there). Which is does. Our other option would have been to get a curved iron gate that looks much nicer but the cost was something like $1000 for it...ummm...I think we can live with the prison bars and maybe find something else to put up there! :)

More Pictures

Another week...the house is coming along. I was there on Wednesday and they were just finishing up the hardwood floors, the paint color we picked is really nice too, not as dark as it looked last week when it was going up.
Here are a few new pics...

These are the kitchen and the eating area:




Here are the stairs (since I like them so much):


Here is the dining room:



And here is the master bath: I can't really tell in this pic that the floors are different from the floors in the kitchen, but they are different colors.

THE ICE CREAM TRUCK!!

I went out to the kiosk before my 2:00 class today for a bottle of water and low and behold the ice cream truck was out!!! I got me a nice yummy ice cream sandwich (the ones with chocolate chip cookies as the top and bottom!!) I love HPU!

A Weekend Full of Sports

Yeah for college football!!! But what in the world can be more devestating then seeing Michigan lose to App State. I mean how terrible is that. The only other upseting loss to me was the Tenn/Cal game. Yes, I do root for Tenn, even though I went to Arkansas. I root for all SEC schools unless they are playing the Hogs. Since the more the SEC wins, the better our conference, and then the better the wins are against other SEC schools. The only other team I root for over a SEC school is Michigan...

There was also lots of running on this weekend as well as Tennis and Nascar. Although I did fall asleep last night and didn't see the last of the race. I did have to get up at 5am to get to HP this morning to teach....what...yes...teach, today, Labor Day. :) It seems that private schools are allowed to honor their own holidays! :) But I can't complain because since we work today, we are able to get an entire week off in October for a fall break. So that is nice.

An update on the house: I stopped by Friday afternoon and there were tons of people working away. They were painting the inside, putting in the air conditioning and all the duct work, they finished the driveway/sidewalks, started on the porch and put the metal trim up on the house. Here are the latest pictures:

Here is the house with the porch columns (there will be a rail across the front) and you can see the dark trim above the garage and in the triangles on the shake. I am not sure we did good picking this color (forest green), which is the color our door will be too. You might also notice that the shakes are two different colors. The siding is a tan and then the shakes are a cream (above garage) and another tan/clay (above porch) color. They are suppose to be the same. :) And they are suppose to be the tan/clay color. This will eventually get fixed. :)



Here are a couple from the inside: One is upstairs and of the railing they put in on the stairs. They call it shadowboxes, and I am not sure if you can tell in the pic, but it is pretty thick railing and then the posts coming down alternate forward and back to add depth. (I really like it which is why it is up here).



The other is of our bedroom and the tray ceiling that is in as well as the paint around the tops of the walls. (When I was there they were painting by hand all the corners and the places where the walls meet the ceiling and the floor and windows/doors, etc).




They are still projecting October 11 as closing date. :)

That time of year again...

It is football season again!!! So excited that my weekends will now be filled laying around watching football. Last's night I flipped around back and fourth to the LSU/MSU game-how can you pass up SEC football-and actually MSU did really well the first half, I was pretty suprised. I am mostly excited about the Cal/Tenn game this weekend. Hockey season is about to get going again too as NASCAR season winds down. Yes for those of you that don't know that I watch NASCAR...

The house is coming along nicely, Eric was out on Tuesday and they had already done a bunch of stuff since last Friday. So I am stopping there on my way back to Apex today to see the house and take pictures. So those will get posted this weekend or early next week. So stay tuned...

First day of School!

Yeah yeah yeah...it has been awhile. Really that hasn't been anything interesting to talk about. For the first week of August I flew out to San Jose for a math conference. It was 6 days long, which was about 3 days too many. :) Really, I just can only handle about 3 days of talks. But what was really cool was that I was part of a program for new teachers just starting out. So I met a bunch of people in the same situation as me (many who got jobs where I applied). We also got tips, went to workshops, etc that really gave me great ideas about things to do in my classes.

While I was there, I met up with a friend from High School, Jason, who I think I haven't seen since my sister got married which was almost 6 years ago. We hung out a bit, went to dinner and to the beach...wow was it freezing at the beach! Anyway, here is a pic of us: Jason looks a little scary though in the pic :)



So after I got back, I have just been getting ready for school. Lesson planning, getting my office set up, sitting through long faculty meetings, figuring out my way around High Point, etc. I decided I wanted to paint my office because it was this institutional beige color, and half of my walls were cinder blocks which didn't help. I picked out a light greenish gray color to brighten it up and I dragged Eric out there to help. We spent 5 hours paiting a room that is only 8x10 without priming and everything...it was those damn cinder blocks that took it out of me. Here are a couple pictures since my family wanted to see my lovely office in the basement! By the way, you can't tell in the pictures but the color turned out a light blue, yes I know there is nothing up on the walls and yes there are no windows. :(




We started classes today and things went pretty well. I am getting adjusted to being at a new place that has free snacks at kiosks on campus and a starbucks in the student center. The (free) ice cream truck hasn't gone around yet...or at least I haven't heard it...but it is freaking ridiculous hot here, I know in Raleigh it was 105 yesterday and they said it was only the third time ever it has gotten that hot. That is actual temperature people not the heat index! But anyway, I will get me some free ice cream from that HPU ice cream truck one of these days! :) I am teaching 4 classes-a Calc 1 class, a upper level Geometry class, and two sections of a math class for elementary education majors. So far things are going smoothly and I feel like I am super prepared for classes. But maybe that is just in my head! :)

I did stop by the house last week and this week. Eric and I are a little upset...they got a little behind and so they just finished drywalling. So not much has happened since I posted pictures last time. Here is a couple though, they did put the rest of the outside up. And WOW, the sky in the second picture looks beautiful!

Updates

Well, it has been an eventful week. Last weekend, Eric and I went up to Maryland for a wedding on the beach. It was really great. They did an amazing job with all the details like having our namecards on shells, and the centerpieces were vases filled with shells water and floating candles, the programs were fans that spread out like a shell, and the favors were flip-flops. All very beachy, so cute! The couple is very athletic and had what they called a "Games Over 5K" which Eric and I ran in the morning of the wedding. There was also a softball game after the run, but Eric and I choose to go out to lunch on the water and then watch the Tour before the wedding. All in all, it was a really nice wedding and a great location.

Eric and I had our pre-dry wall meeting with the builder on Wednesday. Everything is going well. They had a few more things to fix before they start drywalling, but nothing major. They still say our closing date is October 11, but are hoping that they might have it finished the end of September. Here are some pictures of the outside: (the inside isn't that interesting-just all the framework...once cabinets and stuff go in, then I put up some of those pic)






Our door will eventually be painted (forest green) and the rest of the lighter colored tanish shingles in the front were on back order so that is why that isn't complete yet. You can also see that they have put the deck on the back which is nice.

Anyway, I headed out to High Point yesterday and got all set up. Got the ID, parking permit, office keys, books, ect. The campus is so nice, with the music playing and the snack kiosk with the free drinks and snacks (yesterday it was oreos and apples). I am getting excited about the new job and getting into the house. Not too much longer now! Other news-I am heading off to California (San Jose) on Tuesday for a week for a math conference. I am not sure what to expect, should be interesting and hopefully I will learn some good stuff. Other than that, just keeping busy with the Tour (can't stand all the doping scandals-makes me think that noone on the entire tour is riding clean) and just finished Harry Potter-oh it was so good! Now I have to start lesson planning for the upcoming year!

Back from the North

So I am finally home after my almost 2 1/2 week vacation up North. I had a really great time and I think it was the longest time I have spend with my sister is maybe close to 8 or 10 years! I had so much fun with Amelia and just hanging out. I ran a little, rode with Ethan a few times. Painted a bathroom and helped reupholster a rocking chair. Learned how to do some "handy" type things which is probably good for when we move into our house. I was really sad to leave my sister and it makes me want to live near her...now why can't I convince her and Ethan to move south...there ARE mountains down her you know!

Kathy, Krista, Mom and I went and saw Wicked and it was good as it was last year. I think the girl who played Elphaba was just as good and sounded a lot like the recording they have and Glinda was especially funny. I then headed down to Ohio for an old friend's wedding. It was extremely beautiful and it was nice to see her and her family. I then made the long drive home and stopped to see the house. It looks really great! The colors we choose for the siding and shake are up and they look good together. They have done the plumbing and electrical inside, put on the deck and have the porch up. The next step is drywalling and then they say about 2 months until it is ours!!! I don't have pictures because I didn't have the camera with me. But Eric is heading out there probably early next week and so I will post some then.

Other than that I did try my hand at golfing with my dad while I was up in Michigan. Played twice, both times only 9 holes. I shot 66 and 63...not really good, but not terrible. Actually the second time I played, I shot 5 or 6 on 6 of the holes and then shot 9 or 10's on 3 of the holes, so I only played 3 bad holes. Things are coming along though. Still frustrating at times but I just am not good enough yet!

Here are a couple of my favorite photos of Amelia...and one in her perfect dress! :)








I still have to get the red eye out of the one in the brown dress, but these are just too cute!

Michigan and the little aquathon

I just finished teaching summer school and pack up the car and drove up to Michigan for the next two weeks. The first day here I went out for a 6 mile run and felt amazing...wow no humidity makes a world of difference in the crisp air. No asthma problems whatsoever! After that I headed over to the Buick Open for 6 plus hours of walking and cheering on my friend who is on a streak of some great golf! He played very well with the exception of a couple holes, but I am so happy that he has finally put his golf game together. He has inspired me to try and take up golf and I just bought a set of clubs and am currently working on my swing.

I spent the weekend at my parents with Eric and my sister, Ethan and little Amelia. She is so cute and is a very good baby. She is a bit fussy, but otherwise is happy and smiles a bunch. Maybe by the end of my two weeks up here she will be smiling some more. I took some pictures, but Eric took the camera home with him.

Then on Sunday, I decided last minute to do a short aquathon 20 min from my parents house. We drove over not too early and I got set up. Very small and laid back race put on in Howell, maybe 50+ people. I haven't race but the half ironman this year, so really no speed whatsoever, and I have only swam maybe 5 times in the past 6 weeks, but hey we'll see how it goes.

The first 1.2 mile run was alright, I kept within a minute of the lead women and I jumped in to the 2 loop 750meter swim feeling a bit tired. It went ok, I didn't really have any speed swimming, just cruzing a long. I did pass all the women in the water and Eric said I had about a 30 sec lead after the swim. I headed out onto the second run after putting on my shorts (since I didn't have a race belt and had to have my number on), and started running. With maybe 1/4 mile to go I got passed by a girl (18 years old) and maybe a min later got passed by another (15 years old), yeah... so impressed that the 15 year old didn't even tie her shoes!! But niether of them had a race number on....

I finished third, 20 seconds behind the leader and 10 seconds behind second...now had this truely been run under the right rules I technically won, since both girls should have been penalized for not having a race number, especially since it was a USAT sanctioned event. But since they claimed it was a low key event for beginners, they didn't penalize anyone. I at least feel good about myself that I chose to put on my shorts so I raced cleanly. I did get a nice coffee mug and a mesh laundry type bag, so that was pretty sweet. And I did finally got to do something fast or at least try too. Still trying to fit in another race while I am up here, we'll see if I can.

Now I am up in Traverse City hanging out with the Scotts...helping take some stress of my sister and helping Ethan with his Calculus. :) We have no set plans up here, for me I hope that this is a nice vacation away from school world!!

House Update

Yeah...walls are up, windows are in...things are moving along quickly now...
Here is a couple pic from June 14th when we headed out there:




And then a few more from yesterday, the 25th with the windows in and the roof up, one from every side...







They say in a another week or so we will have a pre-drywall meeting, which means the siding will be up. I didn't go out there yesterday (Eric did), but he said they have the plumbing all in and all the tubs/showers in (but he didn't take any pic of the inside). Will keep you posted.

Also, congrats again to Andy, who qualified for the Buick Open this weekend. Eric and I are making the 11-12 hour drive Thursday night to watch him on Friday! Good Luck!

Wedding Weekend

I flew out last Thursday to New Orleans to a wedding and let me say it was one of the best weekends I have had in a long time. Almost all of my friends from college came for this long weekend that consisted of a bachelorette party thursday night, rehersal dinner friday night and the wedding saturday. Let me begin with thursday...

We (11 of us girls) went to Burbon St at about 10:30ish. It was somewhat slow in terms of Burbon St, but we have a party wherever we go. We wandered around in and out of bars and clubs drinking and dancing. We came back around 3am and talked and fell asleep a little after 4am (5am my time!) We all crashed at one of Genny's BF in New Orleans sleeping on FEMA cots and pull out couch and air mattresses. It was quite a good time and I don't remember the last time I has so much to drink and stayed up so late. Here is a pic I took of all the girls:


one with some of my closest friends(drinking some crazy mix called a hand grenade):


We managed to get up around 9am and Mo and I drove to get some benieges (sp), while the girls cooked some eggs, bacon and biscuits. After breakfast we drove the 1 1/2 hour drive to Biloxi to our hotel and crashed for a good hour or so which we really needed. Then up again and ready to go to the rehersal dinner which was at a great restaurant near the ocean that they rebuilt after the hurricane. A few more drinks and a 5 course meal consisting of stuffed lobster and we headed to the newly rebuilt casino for some more drinks, dancing and gambling. I managed to only lose $30. Here is a couple pics from dinner including one of the lobster! :)




We lounged around Saturday and layed out at the pool (I managed to get in a short 3 mile run on the hotel treadmill) before getting ready for the wedding. It started storming around 2ish and didn't really let up. The wedding was at 5, outdoors, at a plantation on the water, and it was lightly raining. Mo and I kept dry with hotel towels until the ceremony started. The wedding was short and sweet and then we drank and ate until 9 before heading back to the casino for more dancing. Here are some more pic.




Here is one of Genny and her man...and of course Genny is being herself stuffing her flowers in her dress for an added accessory!



I had a great time and it was so great seeing everyone again. I really miss my close friends from college and this was a perfect getaway!! Although, now I need another vacation, as the lack of sleeping and too much drinking has caused me to be a bit exhausted!!

Congrats!

Just wanted to send out a big congrats to Andy, my long time friend from Michigan, who just this past weekend qualified for the U.S. Open (Golf) in a 4 hole playoff. I am so excited for you! Good Luck next weekend!

House

So, there hasn't been much progess on the house. But last week they were just about to start framing. So I figured I would load up some pictures of the lot and then foundation. Again, not too interesting yet. It will soon start looking like a house though!!
This one was right when after we signed the papers, on April 14th.


Here are a couple with the foundation practically done taken on May 21st (I love our brick color we choose!):




And here are a couple taken on May 26th, the foundation is done and they are getting ready to build...as you can see from all the wood!


Here is one from the back:



Hopefully next week, I will have some new ones with some framing going up!

Half Ironman

So things have been busy this semester, but if you read my blog then you know I have been training for a half ironman. The was my first half ironman and will probably be my last at least for a while. My official time was 5:27:02. This includes my about 3 minute bathroom break about 8 miles into the run and the fact that my front tire was going flat on the bike, maybe costing my 5-10 minutes and a lot of wasted effort. Oh well. This race was just long and not that fun for me. At least racing sprints, while painful, they are fun. This was just long and drawn out pain and not one part of it was fun. :)

I wrote up a race report on our Triangle Tri Team I am on. You can find it at 2007.elitetriangletriteam.org if you can to read it. Meanwhile I am back training a little. More high intensity stuff since I felt like I was always going long and slow. I got Eric out for a 1 1/2 hour mountain bike ride over the holiday weekend which was a different change of pace. And I have a short sprint race in a few weekends. Other than that, not much on the racing agenda. I am taking tthe rest of his year as a year to not focus on training, I have a lot going on and want to just stay in shape and train some and have some fun and not worry so much if I get in the right workouts.

Anyway, here are some pictures from the race:
This is before the race, Eric is getting my wetsuit ready and then my dad and I since he was super excited that I was taking on this challenge. I look good right now getting ready!




I don't have any good ones during the race, but here are two of me afterwards. One, right after I finished trying to cool off with a cold towel and one maybe 5 minutes later, after sitting down and trying to collect myself. I don't look so good anymore!