Massage Parlor

I never posted these. I found them on another digital camera card. This was hilarious. The kids secretly planned and set up this massage business (while we were in Colorado) since they thought we'd need one after our triathlon. They made aluminum foil credit cards with loaded with "dollar" credit to use towards a massage. They gave one to all the adults and then charged the triathletes 1/2 price after the triathlon. They were actually pretty good at it. As you can see, everyone got some great relaxation. It was so cute!

I have been away all day every day this week at a Children's Book Writing Conference, hosting author Kathi Appelt. I learned so much from her and from all the other speakers this week. It was amazing. I even met an editor from Greenwillow books and went over a dummy book with her that I wrote and illustrated. She gave me great comments and said to send it to her after I revise. I've been up late, up early and running my but off all day taking care of things for the conference and it's main guests. I also got some great contact with Richard Erickson, art director at Shadow Mountain (publisher of Fablehaven).
Out to dinner with some of the gals from class, Kathi in blue and me in the hat.

Our class. Kathi taught us well. We had a great week together.

But then I came home after a good but tiring week...to my good husband trying to fix the basement toilet. I started dinner and called him up when i was done. We ate and then he took one of our son's on a motorcycle ride. I decided to go downstairs for some reason or other and found that darn toilet spraying tons of water EVERYWHERE. It'd been going all through dinner it seems. The bathroom floor was soaked, the water went under the baseboards and into both neighboring rooms (my office and a small edge of my husbands office) and soaked the carpet in the hallway and along the entire edge of part of the playroom. This all happened after a long week but also after our entire playroom flooded from an open sprinkler head a month and a half ago (and $1000 ago). So this is what it looks like down there right now. This really stinks b/c my office floor (laminate) is ruined and I actually have 2 jobs I'm now working on. Not a great workspace anymore. My husband said he's just hiring professionals from now on for any repairs. Poor guy. Expensive toilet job.

Sectioned off to minimize moisture spread in the air.

Dehumidifier to suck up all the moisture.

My lovely office.

Take me out to the Ballgame!

When you go to a ballgame, you know summer is here. Yay! We were able to go to a Colorado Rockies game while in Denver. We had a great time and a good view. The kids lasted the whole time, minus the youngest who was with a babysitter. They even scored with a soft pretzel and a drink from Dad.


And here's a pic from the ride home. Boy, our boys grew fast. J/K These are her Uncles bumming a ride back with us. Our boys got to ride with Nana and Papa.

The Rest of the Story

So, here are some more pics from the rest of our trip in Colorado...we didn't just do a triathlon.


On the long drive out...they look identical...uh, are they related or something?


Cousins...had a great time!


A trip to the park starts with a simple dino ride


Escalating to some teeter tottering


And then some all out twirling


Even our dog Zoe found a playmate at the park (we saw a few Berners while in Colorado...this was a big boy Berner...about 40-50 lbs heavier than ours)


The boys went golfing...and we went swimming with the kids


I even got to visit my old college dorm roommate from freshman year...she actually lives less than a mile from my sister-in-law there. It was great to catch up...it's been 11 years.


And after the tri we all went out to Cheeburger Cheeburger for some unhealthy burgers and shakes...YUM!


She loved the chocolate shake!

HRAC Tri - our racing trio

BEFORE the race 5:30 am


AFTER the race

We went to Colorado this weekend to do a triathlon with my sister-in-law. It was fun doing it together. We didn't get to see much of each other on the course, but did wave when we did. My husband and my swim heat was combined with the heat following ours because of start time screw ups, so we had to circle swim with 6 people in our lane instead of half the amount. We weren't happy with that. I still was the second one out of the pool in all the 8 lanes for our heat. I did better than I had hoped except in the bike, but overall it went great! Here is are my times and a little video.



Jun 7th, 2008 - Highlands Ranch, CO

Summary
number of finishers: 378
number of females: 179
number of males: 199

MY RANKS AND TIMES
overall place: 167 out of 378
division place (30-34 year old females): 12 out of 45
gender place: 47 out of 179

total time: 1:29:38

500 yd swim: 9:32.6 (which I was proud of because I usually swim it in practice at 10:15 without the 1 million people in my lane)

transition area 1: 2:42.4 (could be faster here easily)

12 mile bike: 49:23.9 (I need to get faster on the bike...time should help that)

transition area 2: 1:29.9

5 k run: 26:29.4 (I was happy with this time as well since it was done after doing the other 2 events)
run pace: 8:32

Dancing Flower

Here are a couple of quick shots from last night's dancing of the flowers.