Costa Rica-Part 2-Monte Verde

Although not all that far as the crow flies, Monte Verde is a four hour drive around Arenal Lake from La Fortuna. We opted for the alternative transport via taxi-boat-horse-taxi. The last taxi segment proved to be the most exciting as we bounced around the back of the van with no seat belts through two hours of dirt roads. We only had to take one detour around an impassable section of road that looked to be a foot deep in mud.

On the lake:


On the horse on the way to Monte Verde:



We arrived in Santa Elena which is the town that everyone refers to as Monte Verde because that is the name of the biological reserve and the mountain itself. The locals are apparently a little miffed about that though. We checked into our hotel where we think we were the only guests. It was a small place with only seven rooms, all of which were off the main lobby/sitting/dining/kitchen area. Through the front door you were greeted by a proper reception desk with a hundred tourist brochures to the right. To the left was the TV with a couple rockers where the 13 year old son of the manager (so we presume) spent much of his free time watching futbol. Behind that were couple tables and then a kitchen area which was a cross between a typical american kitchen and something we might have rigged up under the canopy outside the camper. It appeared to be a one woman operation. She spoke the least english of anyone we encountered, but she was very nice and helped with our bus arrangements and cooked breakfast to order every morning when we emerged from our room.


Santa Elena seemed to be more of a city since it had some two and maybe three story buildings, but it was only a few blocks in total. Just a bunch of small hotels and restaurants to serve the crowds of tourists which appear every dry season to walk through the rain forest. There was a cool hotel/restaurant called the Tree House Hotel which had a giant tree going through the main entry-it is kind of hard to see in the pic, but we were sitting up on the second level and the tree hangs over you and the tables (that looked like trees):


We had nothing planned for that day so we looked through the brochures and thought the night walk through the jungle might be interesting. By the way, the sun set early there and it was DARK at 5:30. We joined a group of 5 other people and met our guide Javier who took us into the darkness. Not a minute into the forest did we come across a group of racoon type critters (I forget the name) who were not at all afraid of humans armed with flashlights and cameras. We also saw a tarantula and a couple frogs and small critters. It was a very interesting experience and perhaps our favorite of the trip.

Some popular animal that started with a Q that we came across on the night walk:


Here is a trantula we saw on the night tour:


The next day we did a canopy tour which wasn't much of a tour, but a heck of a good time traversing the forest by zip-line. That afternoon, we returned to the biological reserve to explore the cloud forest in the daylight. I was a little disappointed when we met our guide Ricardo, a white guy who spoke perfect american english. I felt better once I learned that he was the son of one of the 11 quaker families that settled in the Monte Verde area in 1951 to flea the war hungry states. His father just published the book that I saw on the shelf in the gift shop on the way in. They claim to be responsible for establishing the biological reserve (after they chopped down most of the trees to make room for their cheese farms).

Here is Eric and I on the zip lines:


Here is a video of me and the crazy tarzan swing we did as part of the zip-line tour-we got to do it twice since we were the only two in the tour. The second time we did it the had us go backwards where we just fell back off the platform: (the video starts off sideways)


Hiking in the forest (it was so green!):


Then the clouds rolled in (well it is the cloud forest):


We made it all the way to the Continental Divide and then it started to rain (the only day that we got soaking wet). We were maybe 45min to and hour back to the entrance to the park, but you know we had to see the great view from the continental divide:


Alright, give me a few more days and I will post our last stop...the beautiful beach!

Costa Rica-Part 1

Alrighty, this might be long for those of you who are not family...but this is what Eric sent his family (and then I forward to mine) about our trip. The pictures might be a little different and I will hopefully upload some videos... I decided to post our trip in three parts, according to our three places we went.

First stop: La Fortuna, Costa Rica (aka Arenal Volcano)


Our flight to San Jose was delayed a little bit for no apparent reason, but we still made it to the Green Turtle souvenir shop a half hour before our bus was scheduled to depart. Our bus turned out to be a little bit more than a mini van where we would spend the next three hours with one other passenger (a woman from California beginning her week long Yoga retreat) as we weaved our way from San Jose to La Fortuna, our home for the next three nights.

La Fortuna is the small town that sits in the shadow of Arenal Volcano. Its a small place which only extends a few blocks in each direction away from the lovely park in the center of town. There is really nothing to see there except for fair number of restaurants that obviously cater to tourist. Our hotel was about a mile down the road towards the Volcano.

On our first full day in La Fortuna, we hiked to the local waterfall and played in the water for a while. In the afternoon we enjoyed our first adventure (not counting the van ride) as we trekked through a canyon in the rain forest, repelling down the cliffs and waterfalls. (sorry the video is sideways, I couldn't figure out how to turn it the right way).







The next day, we checked out the active side of the volcano. You couldn't see the lava flowing during the day, but every minute or so a couple rocks would tumble down the side throwing up poofs of dust or smoke as they bounced down the volcano. We climbed around the old lava flow (1992) for a while and watched the rocks tumble down. At night you can see red/orange lava and the rocks that tumble down are red hot as well. We didn't learn this until the second day there and the next two nights were very cloudy so we chose not to take the rather expensive taxi ride to the active side of the volcano when it was unlikely that we would be able to see anything through the low clouds.





Here is a video of some crazy bugs we came across-they were moving across our path by crawling on top of each other (the one from the back just crawled on top to the front...)



Here is a picture of our "porch" at our hotel and then the view of the volcano from the hotel pool:





Alright, next stop: MonteVerde....

Up and Running Again

Well we are back from the land of sun and rain and trees and volcanoes and beautiful beaches and cloud forests and monkeys and all sorts of animals!

It was a great trip, not too much rain, lots of fun activities, hardly ANY people, extremely beautiful and great pineapple! Other than ridiculously expensive taxis taking advantage of tourists it was a wonderful trip.

Back to things, we have been super busy since coming home and haven't even had time to go through the pictures (and videos) we took, but will post soon.

Yeah for Halloween and CANDY CORN!!!

Peace Out

Well, I still don't even feel like we are going to Costa Rica tomorrow. I think because we built up our Peru trip for so long, having it booked 5 months in advance and this one was kind of spur of the moment.

Still need to pack this evening and just chill...maybe head to the pumpkin patch and pick up a couple pumpkins so our front porch looks more "halloweenish". :) I am going to try and squeeze in a 9 mile run this afternoon...we'll see how that goes.

We have a few things planned for our trip but that is it, we are spending the first few days in Arenal/La Fortuna where there is an active volcano. We have a canyoning adventure planned for Sunday-that would be some hiking/and rappelling trip down waterfalls. Then we head over to Monteverde which is the rainforest area. We have scheduled our trip over there to be by boat across a lake and then horseback. While we are there we have a canopy tour, which is a zipline tour through the tree tops and there is some massive "tarzan swing" thing too. Then we head down to Manuel Antonio/Queopos (the beach), and we hope to do some snorkeling and sea kayaking as well as just hiking. Apparently thats where the monkeys and sloths are.

Thats seems like a lot to fit in! I saw today on the weather channel there is some tropical depression right over Costa Rica! Should be fun in the rain!

Busy Busy

I spent Friday evening babysitting for a couple that was kind enough to let me live with them for 6 weeks last Fall while our house was being built. It was a fun time, watching The Princess Diaries 2 and then Extreme Makeover:Home Edition that they had dvr'd but hadn't watched yet.

Saturday morning I decided to run a 5K that started right down the street from our house. Even running through part of our neighborhood on part of my usual running route. If you have been following my blog I was hoping to break 22min. I did not. :( Running 22:33. It was a somewhat hilly course, which I think plays a role, but then EZ told me it doesn't...for every up there is a down so it will all balance out. On the flip side, I was 3rd (extremely small race) so I won prize money-$75! That never happens for non runner people to win money!

I dragged ez to the store to buy paint after the race. And then started painting the bedroom. He got frustrated after 10 minutes and left me, so I spent Sat afternoon painting while listening to football and then Sunday morning painting some more (this time with ez's help). I ran another 9 miles yesterday which could explain why I am sore...combine a race with a long run and painting doesn't help.

Then last evening we headed to a local lake for a kayak trip around the lake and a BBQ dinner with a few friends. Man, kayaking is so much harder than a canoe!

T-minus 5 days until we are on an airplane to Costa Rica!

An Ethics Seminar

This is in response to The Office last night and their ethics seminar...

What does it mean to be ethical??

Is it Meredith getting a discount on supplies in exchange for sex???

Is it the AIG corporate people who are part of the financial disaster taking the taxpayers/governments money to go on a spa getaway after getting bailed out? Then getting more money and then proceeding to say they are going on another spa getaway.

What about the guy at the gas station last week that forced the person in front of me (and me too) to move and get gas before us....

I must explain this one, because I have never been so enraged and actually start yelling at some random person at a gas station. :)

If you don't live in the south, perhaps you don't know about the gas shortage here. Gas stations have been running out and typically there have been long lines at stations that do have gas (especially cheap gas) in the past few weeks. I live in a cheap area of the state. In fact, in just my 30 mile commute, gas goes up roughly 40 cents a gallon from where I live to where I work. So yes, I choose to get gas at the cheap stations where I live along with every other person it seems.

Last week (on a Friday) I stopped on my way to work (it is roughly 7:30am). The gas station is a mess and I happen to have one of maybe the 10% of cars that has their gas tank on the right side of the vehicle.

The way this gas station sits, the building is directly behind the 10 or so pumps so it is practically impossible to pull in from the back side of the pumps, since there just isn't room. So I pull in to the gas station and it seems that every line I can pull into has cars facing the rear direction except one. I see a car waiting in line going the way I need to go, granted the car at the pump is pulled in from the other side. I think to myself, yes, I will pull in here and now we can change the way the line moves.

Ok, so the guy finished pumping his gas and needs to leave, so the guy in front of me and myself both back up so he can get out. As we do this a truck pulling a trailer from the other side pulls in.

The guy in front of me gets out of his car and starts yelling at the man in the truck but it is too late, the guy in the truck is at the pump and is saying he was there first and begins pumping his gas. So the car that was in front of me is so mad, he drives off. So it is not me left facing the truck while he pumps his gas.

When he is done he motions for me to back up and I won't move. He gets out of his car and tells me to back up and I refuse. I tell him he can back up since I am not about to let someone else pull into the pump. He tells me that he can't since he has a trailer, which I then proceed to tell him that if he knows how to pull a trailer and since he pulled in, he can just turn his wheel and back himself right out.

We argue a little and he tells me he isn't backing up and I tell him I am not. So we sit. Facing eachother at the gas station. After about 5 min, I get out of my car to go into the travel center to get a coffee and we start yelling at eachother again. A few curse words thrown around, me telling him he has pulled in the wrong way, he then yelling that I don't own the gas station so there is no right or wrong way.

Anyway, I get back in my car and a few minutes later a man from behind the truck pulls up and asks him to move (he wants to pump his gas from the wrong way too instead of waiting in line). Of course the man in the truck tells him I won't move my car and the man behind him explains that if I back up he won't take my space but let me pull. So I agree.

It takes a third person to settle our argument. Not one of my finer moments, but I was not letting this guy in the truck just take advantage of more people. So there.

The funny thing is, I drove by again on Monday and every day since then (since it is on my way to and from work) and now the gas station has ropes and signs and directions saying you can only pull in from the one side! Praise the gas station manager!!!! He has settled the ethics debate.

My Friends....

How many times did John McCain say "My friends" of "My friend" last night during the debate. I got so annoyed that by the end I couldn't even listen to it.

For those of you who don't know I really haven't decided who I am going to vote for. I am a registered independent and never really like anyone in the debate. But I do believe that every American should vote. It is what our country is about-democracy right.

So I have slowly been researching the candidates trying to figure out who favors the sames things I do and it is a mixed bag. So EZ sent me to some website that asks you questions about what you would favor and how high/low you favor them and it spits out a comprehensive list of all the candidates that were running during the primaries and everything.

We'll thrown out who came up #2 since they didn't win the nomination for their party but #1 was Obama and #3 was Ralph Nader and they were with 5% of each other. So since my computer wasn't allowing me to select my level of priority for some reason. I might consider them the same. (McCain by the way was like #13)

What does all this mean...well I need to do more research right??? Oh but wait, Nader isn't even on the ballot in NC. Now that is what makes me mad about the system, not to mention how the independent candidates don't get to debate because there isn't enough support-but only because most people out decide that the only way their vote will really count is if they vote for one of the two major parties-McBama (as Jay is referring to them).

But I will look into both candidates more and really decide in case Nader does show up on the ballot here in 27 days.

Carpooling

So, since we live in the middle of our commutes (35ish minutes in opposite directions for each of us) we have had a hard time finding people we could possibly carpool with. There are actually a lot of people that work at UNC but EZ's office is off campus and most people live on campus and have much different schedules. I on the other hand had found no one who works at HPU...until now.

So apparently someone who lives right down the street works in the criminal justice department here. So we met up for lunch the other week and have arranged things so we can carpool 2x per week. So one less day of driving for each of us per week= approximately $10 in gas per week = a good $400-$500 a year if it all works out (oh and aren't we doing our part to save the environment!)

Then a couple days ago, received an email from a new faculty member who is moving into our neighborhood at the end of the month who is in the Exercise Science department. So now there will be three of us. Hmmmm...we could possible work in 1 more day per week and that would be some more good carpooling.

Now we are talking a possible $800-$1000 in savings-there is almost our trip to Costa Rica-without doing anything! :)

Pictures will come soon of the hair cut...I still don't really like it, but oh well, what's done is done.

Nuculer vs Nuclear

Now, I don't spend much time using the word "nuclear", but EZ sure does. And in the past however many years, he has complained numerously how George Dubbya says nucUler instead of nuclear.

In the past hour that we have been watching the veep debate, every now and then EZ pipes up at how now the governor says the word... also nucUler.

I of course don't really notice it (and really could care less), it is such a small difference. EZ on the other hand uses the word a hundred times a day and it really bothers him. But after the question got asked on nuclear weapons, ahhhh yes, Mrs. Palin does indeed say nucUler, and Mr. Biden uses the correct nuclear.

Maybe this is the underlying reason why EZ is voting for Obama-Biden...No More NucUler!


On a side note...I chopped my hair off today. Super short. I don't know why, but not sure if I like it...oh well, it is just hair, it grows back.

Running with the Buffaloes

So I haven't read this book, but I am sure I will someday. Apparently, EZ makes an appearance in the book! He told me even though he has read (skimmed) it, he never knew it untill a friend of his called him up one day and told him.

Anyway, I wanted to run a 5K before we head to Costa Rica, so I check out the running schedule and find a few races. I almost jumped into a 5K today but I tore up my heel last week in the triathlon and the first half of this week I only ever made is 20-25 min running and was in tons of pain, just ripping open the heel some more. So I took a couple days off.

The running coach has decided I need to start running faster, and since I am not too mentally tough, we decided the best option would be for me to run with the infamous buffalo (EZ). He has been on a run 3-3.5 mile plan lately but running easy (for him), which means down to 7:30 pace. So I head out for 20 min first and then come back to the house and we head out. I manage to make it all but the last hill up to the house with him before I stop and tell him I am going to puke. :) I took my heartrate and I was 180+. :) Yeah, working hard right!

So today I head out again, the heel feels better and I think I can make it for 8 miles. I head out and run 40 min first and come back and pick him up and we head out again. I again make it all the way back to the hill with him before I just tell him to run up it without me. But today, I actually ran up it (slowly), versus walking yesterday. All in all 8 miles in 1:05. Not too bad.

I found another 5K I wanted to do next weekend, but I have to go to work next Saturday and won't be able to run it. So I start searching again...and I have found a 5K on October 11th. Yes, still 2 weeks away, but that gives me two more weeks to get in better run shape before I bust out the sub 22 min 5K right!

So goes running with the not buffalo, but RAZORBACK!

So Excited!!

The Return of the best show on TV...

One of my absolute favorite clips to get you pumped up for tonight!! (it is slightly edited)

5K PR

I am not one to post this frequently, but I looked up my previous results today in an hour break I had between classes. I know, I know, I should be doing work. But for me, it is extremely hard to get anything going in just an hour.

My 5K on Saturday of 22:09 is the fastest I have run at the end of a triathlon! Yeah. And it is almost my PR 5K of 22:08!

I find that super encouraging for all the running I have been doing this summer. I have settled on doing one of two 5K's I have found next weekend. And tomorrow afternoon, EZ is on a mission to run with me and change up one more thing about my stride, not that I have my hips straight.

Who knows, my secret goal of eventually breaking 21 minutes might be in my near future!

Good Morning America

I went to lunch last week in the cafeteria and there were tons of cameras. In addition, the president Dr. Qubein was there telling us that Good Morning America would be doing a story featuring High Point University this weekend. The story aired yesterday morning, and of course I wasn't able to see it, so I looked it up online.

Those of you that have never heard of HPU...or heard me talk about it...this article/video sums up what it is like on campus. Or rather the life at a fancy hotel/country club. :)

GMA Video

Last Tri of the Season

Heading down to Wilmington Friday night I really didn't want to race. We stopped and had dinner in Raleigh at one of my favorite restaurants and got to Wilmington about 10:15pm, and went to sleep.

As I went to bed, I had turned on the weather channel and notice that it the forecast for Saturday morning was cold and windy. Yikes. I hadn't prepared for that.

It was cold (maybe upper 50's to low 60's) and windy (15-20mph winds) when we got to the race in the morning. And really, I know that upper 50's to low 60's isn't cold normally, bue it is when you are use to 90. I warmed up and didn't feel great and headed over to the swim start to get in and warm up in the water. I tried swimming but I was freezing and even just waiting for the start, I was shivering.

The swim was terrible. I don't know what happened but I ended up not with the lead pack, or at least not where I should have been. I typically swim with Kate and she beat me out of the water by a minute. I came out of the water 3rd female but there is an approximately 2 min run to transition in which Amie and Brooke passed me and so by the time we all crossed the mat I was 5th female (in our wave).

I made up 10-15 sec in T1 and as Bri passed me running to our bikes I thought this is going to be a terrible race. I pushed the bike super hard. Somehow I caught Alysia about mile 3 and Bri who I had put like 30 sec on in T1 didn't even pass me until mile 8 or 9. I must say, this might have been my best bike I have ever had.

When I look at the results, I have the 15th fastest swim (this is horrible for me), but I have the 11th fastest bike...I have never been know to have a better bike split than a swim split! I actually made up ground on the bike. How strange. But Alysia and I were about the same speed so when I caught her (I have NEVER caught anyone on the bike), we worked together (not drafting) to push eachother, it was the most fun I have had on the bike since I started triathlons.

I had decided to run so fast that I shouldn't be able to have a conversation. Of course, I still chatted it up a couple times, but not nearly like I usually do. And to my amazement I ran 22:09! Eric thinks this is an accurate 5K, so I am super happy if that is the case.

I ended up 10th overall, in the largest sprint tri on the east coast. I am really happy with the bike and run and for the race in general. This was the first time where I felt like I could actually be part of the open wave/race without getting blown away (even though I was still last open female.).

Alright, now it is time to work on my off season running. I am going to do a 5K here in the next couple weeks to really see if I am all that fast and start training for the half marathon in Dec.

Wilmington

So doesn't the beach sound nice right now??? :) It would except this is what is about to unfold...

Tomorrow night we will drive to the beach and arrive around 10pm. I will get my crap together and go to sleep, wake up at 4:30am the next morning and head to the beach for the last triathlon this season.

The race starts at 7...I will be done by 8:15...if we hang around a little we will be there until 9:30 or 10:00 then drive ourselves back home.

Driving time: 6 hours
Time in Wilmington: 12 hours (half of which are sleeping hours)
Time at the beach: 0 hours

At least it is the last triathlon for the year. And maybe no more traveling for awhile, oh but wait...there is the weekend in SC for the Arkansas game and Eric just decided to go up to Maryland to visit some friends another weekend, oh and the two weekends we will be gone in Costa Rica, then comes Thanksgiving (DC maybe???), and next thing you know it will be xmas and the whole family will be here. :)

But we will be back in time to crash and watch football all day! Yeah for fall football Saturdays!!!

She Roxs

This past weekend, we headed down to Charlotte, as I had volunteered to be a mentor for an all womens triathlon called SheROX. It was the exact same course as Latta which was my first race this year, so I was looking forward to seeing if I was any fitter than I was back in June.

We stayed with Nick and Jen and basically played Rock Band all day Saturday. Must say the drums and even the singing is pretty fun, but the guitars suck compared to the guitars in Guitar Hero. So we might pass on buying Rock Band.

I had no clue how fit I was, I feel like since school started up again and since Eric has decided to stop training, my training has gone downhill. I was in the first wave with 5 other women, which was way cool to be in such a small wave. I took the swim out hard and Melissa stayed on my feet. I really pushed the pace and felt like I should have dropped Melissa, but she stayed with me. After the race, she told me how she tried to pull around and take the lead but she couldn't, I was going to fast for her and she barely stayed on.

We came out of the swim first, although the results don't have our splits. I asked Beth if she knew how far down she was and her husband had told her 40 seconds. So guessing the swim was 12:00 which I could believe.

I had an awesome transition (at least I think I did). I came out of the water with Melissa and probably put 30 seconds on her just there. But you know, she hasn't raced in over a year, so that could be it to!

They weren't ready for any of us leaders, and as I rolled out they were setting up the cones for the beginning of the bike course. I went out what I thought was pretty hard, Melissa passed me about 2 miles in and then Beth followed maybe right behind, maybe mile 3. Then it was pretty lonely. I hammered away on the bike alone for the remaining 14 miles. The hills zapped all of my energy, but I managed to go a minute faster then I did in June so hey, pretty good job.

I had a great T2, even my time was like 30 sec faster! I started out on the run and had a cramp-like one you sometimes get when running and can't breath. As I made my way out onto the run I had to go much slower than I should have just to try and let the cramp subside. It finally went away around mile 2 but by then I was tired and just fell into my "Laurie pace". The run was much harder than it was in June. Already the footing in terrible with the loose rocks and such, but this time the ground/sand was soft. So it was like running in quicksand with rocks all over. Oh well, what can you do.

My run was a little slower, but overall I was 2 1/2 min faster than I was in June and ended up 3rd overall. This was my second all womens race, and I must say they are tons of fun. Much less pressure and so encouraging to see all these women doing their first triathlon. I had a great group of mentees and they all did awesome and the SheRox people put on an outstanding race. They already have races in Philly, and Tempe this year, and next year are adding Miami and I think Boston and Seattle. I highly encourage anyone who wants a unique stress-free triathlon experience to try one of these out!!

I am so happy to finally have met Melissa, Beth, and Katie. Beth who came all the way from PA won the race by like 6 min, congrats to her for an outstanding race! And wow, Katie just raced Ironman Wisconsin last weekend and came out to have fun!

I decided that I will most likely race again this weekend in Wilmington. I think that the longer swim, shorter flatter bike, and flat road run will suit me just fine!

The book list

Well, I have been on a roll lately...I have started spending my evening reading a lot instead of doing work and it has been enjoyable.

I read The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, and I must say this was an amazing book! Loved it. Takes place in Chapel Hill and at VA Tech area and was extremely captivating. Recommended it for anyone just wanting a easy enthralling read.

I also read The Art of Racing in the Rain. Written from the perspective of a dog about living life and what is going on around him. It was pretty good. A lot of people in my book club absolutely loved it and I thought it was a little slow in parts, but pretty interesting to think about whether or not dogs and cats or our pets can actually speak to us and understand us.

I have been listening in my car to Son of a Witch and just finished today. I couldn't get through Wicked, and this book took 2 weeks of listening to back and forth to work to get through and it really wasn't that great. I think if I were reading it, I would have put it down just like I did Wicked.

I have also started two new books-The Omnivores Dilemma and A Short History of Nearly Everything. Both are somewhat long and my take me a little while. I have also been reading through books on Costa Rica to help figure out what we are going to do. This afternoon, I am headed to the library to pick out another book on CD for my commute. I have missed NPR a little, so I think I will have to break it up a bit and pick a book that isn't quite as long too.

Alright, it's off to Charlotte to try and put together a respectable triathlon this weekend. I swam for the 2nd time this week, this morning. OMG, what was I thinking! With the race on Sunday, this would make 3 swims this week! For probably a total of 6000yds...how pathetic.

Back on Track

Antibiotics are amazing. They worked quick and my leg is feeling great. Still a little swelling and itching but really no pain. I managed to do a 7 mile run yesterday and it only started to hurt after I was done (while I was mowing the lawn). The big spot is still slightly purplish red, but much less than before.

I have been thinking about what to do after my race next weekend, and today while I did a whopping 2500 I thought that maybe I won't even race next weekend. I don't know. We are headed to Charlotte this weekend for a race-an all women's race in which I had volunteered to be a mentor for way back 8 months ago. Should be fun and my running has definitely gotten better, thanks to all the running ez has been making me do. :) Right now I think I have settled on a half marathon in December to benefit Victory Junction Gang (NASCAR style)!

We think we have settled on an itinerary for Costa Rica-a couple days at Arenal Volcano National Park, a couple days at Monteverde Cloudforest, and a couple days at Manuel Antonio National Park (apparently the best beach). So that's the plan, with a stop somewhere maybe to go white water rafting and we are definitely touring a coffee plantation.

How terrible is Arkansas football right now, maybe we shouldn't have bought tix for the South Carolina game in Nov-it might just be a waste.

The Evils of the Sting

I ended up going to the doctor this afternoon. It looked worse today and I could barely walk last night it hurt so bad. The doctor said it wasn't an allergic reaction but rather I now have an infection. Yeah. Got some antibiotics and hopefully in a couple days the leg swelling/itching/burning pain will settle down and I can try and run or bike again before my race next weekend.

Here is the best pic I took of myself, it doesn't look that swollen but imagine that my actual ankle bone sticks out on the good one and on this leg I can hardly see the bone. I got stung at the top of the red blotch thing (towards my knee) which is actually more purplely.

Bee Sting

I killed a bee with my leg yesterday while out doing an easy 20 mile ride. It HURT like hell. I made EZ pull over and I pulled the stinger out, ouch. I rode the rest of the way home in some stinging pain but not too bad.

Today however is a different story. As the day went on, where the bee killed himself (or did I kill him), my leg decided to turn red and swell up. The spot is maybe 4 inches above my ankle, and my ankle and foot is also swollen. Is that normal. It also hurts to walk, like I sprained my ankle.

Dr. Kattie, if you are reading this, should I go to see a doctor? :)

BYW-So excited Corey started a blog!!! I feel so honored!

Costa Rica

We are going to Costa Rica in October! :)

We were going to go on a cruise but flights were expensive down to Miami. We had looked into the UK and Ireland and Costa Rica and all sorts of things. Ultimately we decided we would just keep checking tickets for all over and if a good deal came up we would go wherever the deal was.

Well, today we found direct flights from Charlotte to Costa Rica for $288. I don't think we will ever find them cheaper than that. So it is done.

Anyone want to join us? :)

Yeah for College Football!!

How excited are you that college football is back?

Thursday's night game of NCSU vs SC was interesting. The first half was a great game but then SC turned it on and down went NCSU (which I was expecting).

Then so far today-VT loses to ECU (crazy) and I just watched the Maize lose to Utah (WTF). Now I begin watching Arkansas play online until the Clemson vs Alabama game starts, which I think will be amazing-Roll Tide.

I do root for all SEC schools mainly, so Monica, I will be rooting for you on Monday night!!

YEAH FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL!!!

The First Day of School and the Rain Cometh

School started back up again, not too bad today. I teach 3 Monday/Wed/Fri classes, one at 9, one at 11 and one at 1. I am not a fan of having a one hour break in between my classes though. It just isn't really enough time for me to get focused and get stuff done. Today was Abstract Algebra and two sections of Calc 1. Tomorrow I have an 8am (yikes...how early am I have to wake up if I want to work out before class) and at 12:30, both sections are Math for Elementary Ed Majors.

I have been waiting for the sister to post about my visit and see the pictures from my taffy-marshmallow experiment, but she is slacking over there. I also want to see the video of Amelia at the lake taking her first underwater experience!!

We haven't had much rain, as usual here, but yesterday it started and it hasn't stopped yet. I think we are up to 4 or 5 inches and I saw Greensboro has had 7 inches already. Just crazy leftover remnants of Hurricane Fay. But we desperately need it, so bring it on. Oh and as I write this and watch the news there is a tornado about 10 miles from the house. Don't worry mom, it is going away from here and I will stay watching the news in case another one pops up.

Training hasn't been going the greatest...I haven't swam since last Tuesday but have tried the last couple days, this stupid rain/thunder is not helping any, so I have managed to run in what is really 100% humidity with a hat on expecting rain and not once has it actually rained with I was running. Tonight will be a trainer ride and maybe tomorrow I can make it to the pool. I only have two more races since I think Pinehurst isn't going to happen. Looks like I have to be on campus for Parent's weekend. Yes even in college, I have to meet parents like you do in elementary school. :)

I leave you with the Scott family and a huge congrats to the winner (men's) and runner-up (women's) of the Moomer's Mile run-how fast can you eat a pint of ice cream and run a mile-and no the winner of the women's race is not little Amelia!!!

Schools a coming

It's that time of year again and here we go with meetings galore. I spent last weekend up in Michigan with Scott family. :) Little Amelia is so big and talking up a storm. She didn't like me all that much, on my short walk with her she starting screaming for mama after 30 minutes and I had to carry her a good quarter mile back to Krista's office while pushing the 20lb stroller.

The best part of the weekend: In three nights we hit up Moomers twice (our second night, we actually counted it as our dinner :) ). Yum Yum Yum, I had double scoops each night and my selections were: Cupcake, Black Raspberry, Oatmeal Cookie, Raspberry Truffle. Raspberry Truffle was definitely my favorite. Oh and I sampled the Peach Riesling. If you ever head up to Traverse City, MI make sure you go to Moomers and experience the best ice cream in America (even Good Morning America says so too)!!

I also read The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes in a matter of days and it was extremely good. A mystery/drama type novel that takes place partly in Chapel Hill. I highly recommend this book for just a fluffy good read.

Alright, back to lesson planning...the story of my life.

Oh...I also got some ice cream (creamsicle) today at the HPU ice cream truck!! Yeah for new students moving in and everything on campus has to be at its best!

Work?

I have manage to get some reading done lately. It has been great, although I really need to be doing a little more work. Here is a little update:

At First Sight, by Nicholas Sparks.
He is perhaps my favorite author and this is the sequel to True Believer. It was a typical book from him, romance with a twist and I liked it and it made me cry.

Atonement, by Ian McEwan.
I still haven't seen the movie yet, but I just finished this book the other day. I thought it was ok. Pretty good the first half and then it kind of slowed for a while and there was an interesting twist at the end. But it was just a little slow.

The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch
I finished this book the day before he passed away. This is a short, inspirational book. I watched the lecture on the internet before I read the book and then watched the Diane Sawyer special after he passed away. This book is great for everyone and really only takes a few days to read and there are some great motivational chapters.

Next up:
The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein (our book club book for next month) and The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes by Diane Chamberlain. I will hopefully get around to Atlas Shrugged soon too.

The Hills are Alive

Somehow I picked up a respiratory bug last week and have been a little sick for about 4 days now. I am starting to feel better, but this sickness didn't time itself well with our trip up to the mountains with the Franks for some cycling on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We stayed in a little cabin out in the woods that was extremely isolated but really peaceful. Here are a couple pictures of the house and its great view.





We chilled on Friday night grilling and chatting and Saturday after we had some interesting pancakes to which Nick basically burned a pancake scramble to the pan we headed to the Parkway. Nick and Eric did there own thing while Jen and I rode out about 17 miles before I told her we should turn around. I was already having issues breathing and coughing and the dry air was making my throat hurt. Jen climbed up the hills much faster than I but she is scared on the downhills so I would then catch back up. It was a fun ride. Here is Jen way up the mountain and then me (this pic was really hard to take while riding), and then a view of the mountains at one of the overlooks.







Back at the house the boys were tired and Nick was all up for some Guitar Hero so Eric and Nick hammered away while Jen took 20 min trying to clean the pancake scramble Nick had left in the pan. I relaxed and read. :)





We slept in again and try for round 2 of Nick's famous Chocolate chip pancakes and they were great on Sunday. We headed out towards Blowing Rock to Moses Cone Park (which is beautiful). Jen needed to do a long run, I did not. So I opted to ride south on the parkway to Grandfather Mountain while the boys did their own ride. Jen did 16 loops around the lake there (it is 1 mile around) then did 2 more with me when I got back (such a stud). We then packed it up and headed home. Here are some pics from my journey on the parkway.







All in all it was a great weekend. I had to nap today (3 hours-remember I am sick) and the cats joined me. After wards I got up and did a few things and went back up. The cats were still in the bed hanging out (yes I was in the middle and I didn't make the bed). This is why we perhaps needed to get a king:

Oh Canada....

The wedding was awesome! I can't say enough great things about seeing all my swimming friends from Arkansas. I miss them all and love seeing everyone, and it is even better that we all come together for a big party at a wedding.

Congrats to Susie Q and Mark, you guys rock and threw a great party. Here are a few pictures from the trip and the wedding!!


Port Dehlusie before the wedding


Chillin before the dancing


Mo, Lisa and Tyler before the drinking began


Genny having a great time on the dance floor


The beautiful bride and groom


All us Arkansas girls (and Grant)

Sunday night Eric and I went down to the Harbor in Buffalo and took a few pictures:

Madison, WI

I am here for the nerd alert conference know to all as Mathfest...yes there really is such a thing.

I want to live here! It is absolutely amazing! I have run the past two mornings along the lake and it seems like everyone here rides a bike and commutes to work. I have even seen a group of triathletes swimming in the lake both mornings. Had I brought a swim suit I could have joined in (but they did have wetsuits on-so it might be super cold).

I would imagine though once school gets back in session, things get a little crazy here but the downtown area is just gorgeous and friendly and neat restaurants and shops. I even got sucked in to try an east African restaurant-and it was interesting.

Alright, off to listen to some great talks about all things math. :)

Another Triathlon

I actually had a pretty good race this past weekend!

After not doing so hot last weekend I went into this one with the goal to really push myself as hard as I could. I have read a lot of blogs lately about others who are always talking to themselves during the race...focus, push harder, keep your head down, etc... and after talking with Eric, I thought I would give it a try.

To be honest-we had this discussion about how I don't really think about anything when I am racing. I just swim, ride and then run and think about having fun or how much it hurts. :) So I tried a different approach.

The format is quite different-still a sprint tri but split up at 375m swim, 1.5 mile run, 20K bike, 1.5mile run, 375m swim. I took the first swim out hard and fast determined to get on Duncan's feet (he beat me by a minute last week out of the water). I ran into him at the first buoy and I was like sweet, I just need to hang on, and I did. Came out of the water with him and maybe 3 or 4th overall.

Note: As posted before-I was still the ONLY women racing in the open wave-so I was in a wave with all the boys. All of the women started 8 min behind me.

I pushed really hard on the first run and the bike. It was pretty hilly and I manage to pass 2 men!! I was SOOOOO excited about this and I don't know if I have ever passed another guy on the bike (since I usually come out of the water in the front). The second run hurt like hell and I got into the water for my last swim and had left nothing for it. This was the longest 375m EVER! I had no feeling in my arms and couldn't even get my body going. It took me until about half way through to start coming back around and get my head back into it to push hard the last little bit.

I finished and then watched the clock. Three of the women that started 8 min back came in before 8 min had gone by, one only beat me by a few seconds. But the lady that won beat me by 4 min last week managed only 2 minutes this weekend-so I must say that is quite the improvement. And Sarah-who I usually am really close with and who beat me by 2 min back a month ago...I managed to beat her by a minute this time. The power of positive thinking might make a world of difference!

Again-no good pictures. Eric needs to learn how to take some pics at these events.

In other news...we have finally settled on a dining room color and have decided to go with a coffered ceiling and a chair rail but no paneling or beadboard. The painting will be getting done this coming weekend and then I will post a picture!!

The Other Boleyn Girl

I recently read The Other Boleyn Girl for our book club in the neighborhood. Well, I really listened to it on CD (23 hours of the same monotone lady), but it was amazing. Our book club had decided to pick a book that had been turned into a movie and we read the book and then watched the movie together.

I would highly recommend the book. It is the story of Anne Boleyn's (the one who got beheaded by King Henry VIII) other sister Mary. It is in a sense historically pretty accurate in turns of what was going on at the time and how Henry VIII was breaking from Rome, but it was more a story about the lives of the Boleyn's and I found it extremely fascinating. I would highly recommend the book.

However, the movie was a disaster. It was far from the book and left out a lot of things which if I had not read the book would have been confused. Some of our book club members though hadn't read the book and did like the movie, but I must say the book is 100x better than what they created on film.

For this month, everyone is choosing whatever book they want to read. I am halfway through At First Sight by Nicholas Sparks, but have decided to also read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I actually watched the lecture the other day on You Tube and it was pretty good and have heard great things about the book.

Triangle Triathlon

Bri and I before the start:

A few thoughts about yesterday's events...

(1) How I was 2 min slower on the bike than 2 years ago is beyond me. I didn't think I was that unfit and I thought I pushed the hills pretty hard.

(2) How I was 20 second faster on the run from 2 years ago is even crazier...I know I was running decent back then and I was running slow a month ago. This means I had to admit defeat to eric and tell him that maybe his new run plan is working. (Or maybe that since my bike was slower, I was able to run faster).

(3) For sure, my lack of swimming fitness directly correlates to my feeling terrible on the bike. I need to swim more, even though I hate that I have to. But really-swimming more just means swimming 2x a week and having them be good workouts. We'll see if I can fit that in with ez's new run every day plan. Finding the place to do them is the hard part. But I emailed two swim coaches today about some stuff. We'll see...

(4) I had a terrible swim-probably my worst since starting tri's 4 years ago. This is my own fault having not been swimming hardly at all in the past few weeks.

(4) I suprisingly was only 2nd last elite female. I think the other person though didn't sign up correctly. That is 2 for 2 this year. :) Still-Alysia and I are the only ones to be able to fight for last elite Bri.

(5) I race again on Saturday...yikes. But right now I am the only elite female. If this stays the same, this would me I would win (my category right-I could and probably will still get beat by a few age groupers)...and as Eric pointed out, I would also still be last. :)

(6) Bri knows waaaaaaay to much about Ninja Warriors. Alysia knows how to through a great party-with a fully stocked bar, she was the mixing drink queen.

Pictures from Shenendoah

Here we are hiking away...





One of the most humorous events: watching Eric and Erik hang the food bags, which I think took at least 30 minutes.





Day 2: Aren't Ashley and I super strong!!!


The stop at the waterfall...(the Eric's are intensely watching a snake)


Since we seriously hiked in the woods with no overlooks the entire time, on our drive to Charlottesville that evening we stopped at an overlook to take a picture. We were freezing from being soaking wet from the rain:

Humidity

I got home from my run this morning and turned on the tv. The weather was on, it was 7:15am and this is what it said.

Temp: 75
Dew Point: 67
Humidity: 92

92% at 7:15am. Seriously?

Hiking in Shenandoah Valley

The Plan:
Friday July 4th:
Drive up and meet our friends EriK and Ashley in the middle of Shenandoah National Park around 1:00. Hike 4 miles to campsite...set up camp and have some fun.

Saturday July 5th:
Enjoy a nice breakfast in the woods and hike 8-ish miles viewing some waterfalls along the way, then set up camp and enjoy the evening.

Sunday July 6th:
Hike 6ish miles rounding out our loop after some breakfast then drive back home.

What actually happened:
Friday July 4th:
Got delayed a little at the house and meet up with Erik and Ashley at 2:00. Got ready to go and it downpoured. We hung out under the information center where we were starting our hike for 10 minutes and then headed out when it stopped raining. We hiked 5+ miles and finally found a campsite. Set up camp, ate some great freeze dried dinner and homemade brownies, hung out, watched the two Eric's hang our food (which took like 30 minutes) and went to bed.

Overnight...it poured down rain, leaving EriK's shoes soaking wet since he had left them outside the tent fly.

Saturday July 5th:
Got up late and ate some poptarts and an apple. Everything was pretty wet but it wasn't raining anymore. Packed up and left at 10:20am for our hike. We climbed a mountain that lasted 1.7 (or 1.2) miles where we stopped numerous times. Hiked a few more miles and stopped for lunch and a road crossing of Skyline Dr. We probably stayed here for an hour. Hiked a little on the AT and down the mountain and stopped at a nice waterfall for a little break. We got to what was suppose to be campsite #2 around 3:00pm and decided to hike a little further to find another campsite.

This hiking a little further meant climbing up another mountain along the river with no campsite to be found for us. I think we climbed up for at least 2 miles. Close to 6:30 EriK decided to OK a spot that was almost like a campsite. And we were less than a mile to a campground. We started to unpack and the bugs were out of control. I voted to hike to the campground and everyone else ended up agreeing. When we got to the campground, we were in a cloud and 5 minutes later it downpoured.

I think it downpoured for maybe 30 minutes. We all walked in the pouring rain for 5 min to the ranger station and got under it to stay somewhat dry while we debated what to do. We were freezing at this point and our car was a mile down the road. Hmmmm.....

Maybe 10 minutes later, the ranger drove Eric down to the car and we packed it up. :)
Drove to Charlottesville, VA and ate some pizza at almost 10pm and drove to one of EriK and Ashley's family friends house and went to bed.

Sunday July 6th:
Woke up and showered and left Dan's house around 9am, stopped at a local bagel shop and had breakfast and coffee before driving home.

I will post some pics soon once Ashley sends me a few (I only took a couple). My hamstrings and glutes are still sore. But one lesson we all learned: campsites are not that common in Shenandoah, so plan accordingly.

MONDAY July 7th:
Eric convinced me to go for a long ride yesterday to Chapel Hill and then he would ride home. I took the hilly route (WHAT WAS I THINKING). Called ez twice thinking I wouldn't make it not knowing how far/close I was since I was taking a new route. The last time I called, he told me 7 miles. OK, I can make it...but it wasn't 7, it was 10. Those last 3 miles were torture.

I get to the car and pack my bike in and start driving home, not the quick way but the long way, past the creamery I have been dying to try. As I get closer I pass Eric on his way riding home and way. He ends up pulling in the ice cream store telling me he knew I was headed there when I passed him, and tells me he doesn't think he is going to make it home. We agree that he will ride a little while and i will pick him up down the road after I eat my homemade, straight from the cows ice cream (one scoop vanilla lavender, once scoop carolina crunch-which were both excellent).

So I rode 50 and suffer like there is no tomorrow because he tells me I can make it, and he rides 23 and drive him home. The race this weekend might be painful.

Summer School...

Monica, I wish I were you today. I have had the luxury of sitting around and doing nothing for over a month now, and I must say that I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I got in a lot more training than I imagined. Maybe only a few days off in a month, with lot and lots of running, which I according to the running god EZ will make me faster. :)

Monday, I had to drive myself back to HPU for a month of summer school. After a fun mini tri-camp with the Nick and Jen over the weekend (lots and lots of wii with some minimal training), I barely managed to drive home on Monday without falling asleep. Monday's day off from training didn't do much good, as yesterday I only managed to run in the morning and again had to nap yesterday when i got home. This morning...nothing. Eric even decided to take a sick day and is busy staining our deck while I sit in my office. The goal tonight: the hammerfest ride tonight followed by most likely a terrible 20 min run-we'll see how fun that is.

Summer school is no fun...but someone has to pay for the new bike EZ wants. :)

I went from going back and forth to doing an Ironman next year, to not doing an Ironman, but doing a half this September, to not even doing the half this Semptember in a matter of 3 days. But you know me, that might all change tomorrow.

Voting

I was running some errands and listening to the radio the other morning. The group on the radio was talking about what really gets them pumped up, and one of the guys said politics.

He then proceeded to talk about how he isn't going to vote this coming fall because his candidate isn't one of the presidential nominees. He was talking about Mitt Romney, and this guy just happens to be Mormon. He then went on to say, well, he might vote if McCain picks him as his running mate. Now, there is nothing against his religion, but it really drives me mad that people actually think this way.

So are all the people that voted for Hillary in the primary not going to vote because Obama is the democratic nominee? This is just absurd...isn't this what living in the US is all about, exercising your right to vote? Or are you saying that because you have the right, then you can choose not to vote. Even if YOUR candidate isn't the nominee, everyone should vote for the direction you want the country to go.

OK...no more politics.

Sales People...

Sorry Dad...I don't mean get down on your profession but.....

After my swim today, I stopped by at The Rush, a new gym that is opening up here in Burlington. Now, this could be great news because I had heard that they might put a pool in. Since we moved here the pool situation has been slim. Is was great in Raleigh but you know, the options just aren't the same in a small town. To top it off, HPU has a pool that has extremely limited hours and they don't put in lane lines or anything.

Then I thought I could use our community pool this summer...brand new 25meters, but you know what, they don't put lane lines in either, and with a neighborhood of a bunch of kids, you can go do a workout. So once a week or every other week I pay to go use the aquatic center here. It isn't terrible, but like today they had ONE lane line in, ONE! And hardly anyone else in the pool. When I asked if they could put in another lane, the guy (who I know does triathlons) tells me that they can't because swim lessons are coming in. So WTF...what is my $3 getting me??? More swimming without lane lines, I can do that in my pool I pay my HOA dues for.

Turns out as I am getting ready to do my main set, the ONE guy using the ONE lane (yes old guy doing breastroke on his back) tells me he is getting out so I can use it, yeah! So at least I felt I got something out of my $3.

So why is this all about Sales people???? OK, since I am so mad after leaving the aquatic center, I stop by The Rush Gym to see if they are going to have a pool. And yes they will!!! An actually lap pool not for kids! And what is great is that they have a few gyms out by where I work and HPU has some deal with them that you can use any of the gyms you want! So yeah, I think to myself, this could be great. So I tell the guy I just want to know when the gym/pool will open. He beats around the bush to tell me how much I would have to pay for this membership and that. And again, I tell him, I am not going to get a membership today, what do I need it for?? I have a gym where I live that my HOA dues are paying for. And yet again, well I can offer you this rate for this many months....

Again, I tell him I am not going to buy a membership of any kind because YOUR POOL IS NOT OPEN YET. All you have is a small room with some cardio and weight equipment which is what my clubhouse has in my neighborhood. And yet again, well this is what HPU can offer you (because I tell him HPU has some sort of deal with The Rush-and that I would like to look into it a little further). OK, at this point, I am mad. I haven't eaten breakfast and I did a hard swim workout and need to get home to eat and this guy is trying to sell me a membership I DON'T WANT! I just tell him I am leaving. :)

This reminds me of Marty's post on his blog a few weeks ago about the car...

Now I am home, full with food and getting ready to lay on the couch and read...and much happier after venting about this guy at the gym.

A day of triumph and trials

Two of my dearest ladybacks competed yesterday in some amazing events.

Congrats to Mandy, who competed at the Canadian Olympic diving trials yesterday in 3 Meter and placed 3rd. You rock and did amazing. I am sure some of you watched her live on the internet and if you did saw her score some amazing 9's on her last dive!!!


And congrats to Sara who competed in her first Ironman yesterday in Coeur D'Alane (Idaho) and was in 3rd place in her age group after the swim (of course) and rocked the bike in 6:47 and ran a steady marathon in just over 5 hours. Total time: 13:00:42, almost breaking 13 hours!!

You two are both inspirations to all of us and I hope you both enjoy some rest from some hard training up to yesterday!

A Ride from Hell...

ML told me about this group (of mostly roadies) that ride pretty fast on Wednesday nights. Two weeks ago, EZ and I joined the group and it was a bit chaotic. It really wasn't that fast except for the last 8 or so miles (of a 30 mile ride). There was lots of attacking too which I just don't care for all that much.

We didn't go last week because of the race, thinking I didn't want to tire my legs out too much (even though it wasn't that hard of a ride). But we went again last night.

Now, my legs are not at all feeling good as a result from: (1) The race on Saturday, (2) plyometrics on Monday including lots of lunges and (3) running 3 days in a row (with the third day being yesterday, the day of the ride).

Last nights ride was well...fast and long and miserable. Everyone started hammering after 4 miles of warmup and we went 37...with a couple miles cool down...so I would say 30+ miles of hard, fast cycling on a day where my legs/body had nothing. I was only dropped a few times which I consider pretty good for myself. Probably the fastest I have ever ridden since starting triathlons, cycling anywhere between 20-35 mph depending on hills, most of the time around 25 mph. And yes, I averaged 20.4 mph in the race on Saturday, which was only 17 miles, which I know had I had my bike computer on, I would have gone faster.

If this is how it will be, EZ and I will go back. It is good to get out there and really push yourself hard past what you thought wasn't possible...I didn't know I could push 25 mph pulling in the front...which means I can do it in a race! (with much more training of course) :)

A Weekend of Sports

How can you not be happy when Dale Jr wins his first race in forever and the US Open is so great that they add one more day!!

If you are interested in how my triathlon went, you can read my race report at our tri team site here.

By the way...Happy Fathers Day!!! Hope you had a safe trip back to MI, and you will even get to watch the "final round" of the US Open!

New Look

I don't know why (maybe because I was just feeling like a change)...but I decided to try and change the look of the blog and add some stuff. It might go through some changes over the next few weeks of me messing around with it. Hope it isn't too painful for you.

We are off to Charlotte tomorrow for my first tri since the half last May. I am not at all in fast shape nor do I feel fit at all. Should be fun. I haven't even taken a day off since we got back from Peru. And I am tired.

The book list on the side is almost all the books that I have recently checked out or am in the middle of reading. I have never before tried to read multiple books, but am currently in the middle of At First Sight (for fun), Millenials Go to College (not for fun but for work) and am starting The Other Boleyn Girl (for book club).

The Infamous Ironman

Some of you may know or may not that I have thought about doing an ironman for a while. It is one of those things that to me is a goal that puts me out of my comfort zone and seems like a challenge. Just like the marathon or the half ironman I did last year. They were things I wanted to do to say I have done one.

The ironman is a little different. I think because when I tell people I do triathlons, all anyone knows is the ironman so they always bring that up and I have to tell them "No, I haven't done one" as if that makes me something less of a triathlete. So over the past year or so I have brought it up again and again to Eric. Could I do one? Would I be able to put in all the training and not want to kill myself? Now, I know I could finish, but I would want to be respectable, so I would need to train, and train a lot. Every time I bring it up with EZ, I also bring up how much I would hate the training. So is this something I really should do?

I was out riding with ML the other weekend and was talking to her about it and she told me, I don't have to commit to it now. How many more years ahead of me do I have? Then again, once there are little Zack's running around, will I really want to spend a Saturday riding for 7 hours instead of being a mom? Anyway, I digress...

I actually had kind of convinced myself that maybe I will do the new one in Wilmington next November, and I have until Jan 1 to decide since that is when sign up is. Then my friend and team mate Bri posted this on her blog:

"My longest bike ever in my life is 75 miles. I just don’t like sitting on that thing for that long. I think that it’s easy to get caught up in the 70.3/ironman following. Hawaii is like the holy grail of triathlon, but it doesn’t have to be and I’m not sure it ever will be for me. I read a lot of blogs and get excited for the long stuff and then of course how can you not get excited when you watch the broadcast? I truly think that if I had a lot of time and really trained very meticulously I could do well – but for the most part I am happiest doing sprints and Olympics. And right now I would be happy just to be out there competing for the entire time!"

Maybe I don't need to do one. Just be happy with where I am and what I enjoy doing. The sprints. :)

The Heat

I know it can't be as bad as the people in the midwest with the rain/flooding/tornados, but the weather here is unreal. It started getting really hot last Wednesday with temperatures about 95 and just went up from there with added humidity, the heat index has been around 110 for the past couple days.

Saturday morning Eric and I went out for a bike ride at 9am and the heat had killed me by 11. We then had a canoe and dinner planned for the afternoon. So we paddled down a river in the heat. Yesterday, since we had spent almost all of Saturday outside, we hung out at Barnes and Noble reading up on some different stuff including maybe going not to Costa Rica, but maybe China or Japan (so Monica, we will have to chat).

The heat is suppose to stay here for another couple days and then we will be back into the 80's-a little more manageable especially since I have my first triathlon in over a year this coming weekend.

The worse thing about the heat...no rain. Already being in a drought, not having rain (only 1 inch in the last 30 days) along with the hot sun make for dying bushes and grass.

The Couch Part 2

This morning our new bedroom furniture was delivered and the guys that were setting it up noticed the couch sitting in the hall and asked what it was doing there. So I explained that we could get it through the door to the bonus room. He looked at me and looked at the door and said "We can do it." So after they put the bedroom together they took the door off the bonus room and in about 10 seconds got the couch through the door. :) I called Eric at work and told him and he says "Well I feel stupid now".

Guess we won't be selling the couch and chair (too bad!). :)

The Couch

Our couch finally arrived yesterday and when Eric got home we worked on moving our old couch upstairs into the bonus room. Hmmmmmmm.... even with the door off, it won't fit into the room. :) Right now it is sitting in our hall upstairs. Guess that will be going up on craigs list or ebay sooner than we thought.