the race..

Thank you to everyone who helped us out with donations and came to support us at the race. We held a good lead until disaster struck.. not one but TWO flats on the bike. Unfortunately that took us out of the race. We still finished (umm duh, the last leg was dessert!) and had a great morning with great friends!!


we did make the paper, both durham and raleigh :)

la isla bonita

i spent the weekend in the keys. it was glorious. was it because i wasnt at work? was it because i was with two very good friends? was it because the weather was perfect? ummm YES.


gorgeous views at dinner


great talks about now, then and of course later.


snacks by the pool


a little tennis (actually it was ball chasing, yelling explatives and sweating)


more sunsets and fruity drinks


fireworks at the full moon party (never mind we never actually saw a moon, let alone a FULL one.. details..)


kayaking on the clearest water i've seen in a long time. gorgeous.


gelato on the beach. does it get any better?

fun stuff.

i didnt do it.

yesterday called for a pool workout. i'm not always, um, excited to get to the pool. and admit that even through the warm up i'm usually grumbling about swimming. sorry, but i just will never love it.

but.

i will do it. and do my best at it. yesterday i fell short. on the workout was sets of 200s on 2:xx pace. actually under that pace. i swam my ass off. each one. and came up slow each time. 2 seconds, 1 second. but never securely below that pace. dang it.

but.

six months ago i couldnt make the 200 interval on a time that was 11 seconds slower. so there is progress. thats my motivation.

i like to think maybe i'm a little like this guy.



doing something each day to get just a little bit better.

(*humor me people. with another step AWAY from a 2011 nfl season i am desperate. am wishing DWTS would last just a little bit longer. )

BARON BATCH
i fumbled (yes another football reference) onto this blog. he's the steelers 7th round pick. a running back. but this kid has alot more to offer us than just yards. all i can say is WOW.

about time

last weekend i went down to whitelake. here is the recap in photos.


driving into white lake is like taking doc browns delorian right into 1972. not much has changed. including our motel. the town is kinda like summer camp. with a hint of dirty dancing movie thrown in.

our room had this couch in it.

with a pattern that gave us deja-vu

upon arrival the first priority was to eat cake.


then we stayed up and talked like 12 year olds before falling asleep. or sort of. it was one of those night where you only knew you slept cause you had dreams but you really didnt feel like you slept. up at 430 am to race. not me though, i was sherpa-ing that day.

my goal was to out sherpa bri. i was doing GREAT until this happened.

drat.

the swim was cancelled so we set up camp right at the bike exit and caught everyone running out.


with some time to kill we chatted up some friends.



after everyone came in off the bike we headed out to the turn around on the run. i had a difficult time choosing the right spectating outfit.


how cute are they.



we hung out by the lake and had pizza


then we got up the next morning and did it again. this time i raced.



good swim (though please tell me it was long!), good bike (stupid penalty dropped me to 4th), and then didnt get it together on the run. come on noggin, gotta get in the game!

good fun weekend.

my grandpa

is turning 99 this year. imagine. just for a minute. the things he has seen in his lifetime. the changes. the firsts. the no mores.

he built the panema canal. graduated from carnegie mellon (in pgh) in 1933. drank beer on warm afternoons with his neighbors. actually finishes the crossword.



this is my little bro, mom and me visting him in tampa last christmas.

my mom shared a little story with me the other night and well i just loved it. wanted to remember it. maybe you will like it too.

my grandpa loves music. the old stuff. the big band stuff. the kind of music that guys would ASK you to dance to. he plays CDs on his BOSE all the time. recently he has been added to the activity schedule (PSA- dont worry about getting old. you will get to live in these retirement communities that are utopian.) on sundays at 1 pm you can attend 'easy listening with forrest'. thats great i say. apparently its a packed room. BUT the side note is - the nurses suggested he be put on the schedule because they had found on more than one occiasion a congregation of people in his room listening to his music. most of that congregation being female.