Splish update:
Here are the two suits i just designed from Splish.
Yea I know Frosty is off center. oh well. My favorite part of the suit is the upside down Gingerbread Man on the butt, cuz dont ya ever feel like an upside down cookie in the middle of a swim set when you come into the wall and you botch your flipturn?
Well I do.
The second suit has some new Verve Sponsors on it. Wade Dr ART has joined our team and we couldnt be happier!

Thanksgiving Day Duathlon for Pie aka:
**commuting by bike to/from a 5k run.
So today started out with me jumping out of bed to check the temps. 22. Doable. no wind. So they say.
Had some food, got dressed and then packed my bag for the wardrobe change ( tho minimal) and headed out on my cross bike. Rode here:
The MBC Turkey trot is an annual "3miler, give or take" that the Boat Club puts on every year.



It is open to dogs ( meaning runners who are being pulled by their dogs) which means an interesting dynamic after you turn around and one dog is head on to another dog, on leash. Yea, could be ugly. Fortunately the runner humans had their dogs well under control. Mostly. They left the shenanigans for before and after:

So I got the Winter boots off, the riding gloves off and ditched the riding jacket. Laced up the shoes and went out with my sister and warmed up. For like 5 minutes. No wind. Yea right. There was a wind. West so we would run into it and then have it behind us on the way back.
So off we went, with the whistle start over the bridge off of Raspberry Island and onto the running path. We had a bigger 'gent block the wind for us for a bit, and sister ran right behind me for a bit. I went ahead in attempt to catch the dogs ( and their humans) and to try to keep speedster Kris Miller in sight. Kris is a very strong duathlete and recently joined in with the MBC to help the ladies win the 4 at the Head of the Charles. I still need schooling on whether it was a 4 or a quad but i know there were 4 women, dont know if there were 4 or 8 oars!

I ran for a bit with this nice guy after my windshield let me down. That is Dave D who is married to my fun friend and sushi partner MMcD. No not Mcdonalds, hardly. That is Lila their ADOREABLE otter who just did her first race. She had it easy the first year of her life and after turning 1 yo in October they decided it was time for her to get in the pain locker and start racing.
She did AWESOME in the stroller and wants to do more.


I think i freak lila out bc i am always making goofy faces and she isnt quite sure what to make of me. Maybe I do that to alot of people even if they arent 1 yo. Let me know.

So how did it go? Who won? Lets ask superstar Sandy for the results, and ST's son Bogey will try to Vanna White you a prize from the prize table:
I know Kris smoked me as she went by me in another gear, that i wasnt able to meet. But i am happy with the effort since i really just wanted to run " faster than i would have on my own." I think i was around 20:40 but then again, the course was "give or take 3 miles" so the timing may have been "give or take some seconds."Thanks Bogey, but even if the STAR OARS tshirt looked pretty cool ( and way too big) I had my eye on the real prizes..donated by Jerabek's.


Honey is on call and was stuck at the hospital all morning. So my initial plan of riding to the Boat House, running, and then riding to our new house was on hold. I did manage to get a good ride after the run, not super long, but another hour, and sister took the pie, not without some bargaining. But honey LOVES cherry pie. So the least I could do was share my prize with both my super fantastic fast sister ( she finished just about a minute after me, no dog pulling her!) and Honey. I trust her, she wont eat it ALL before i see her tonight!

Marit, if you are reading, Muriel Says hi. As do Sandy and Susan T. As you can tell the waves and the spray from the Mississippi arent as soothing as your waves in Carlsbad, but know that you are missed at the MBC!

Back to Basics

Not much going on. So when I saw the chance to just have a random blog entry without all the photos of family and nice weather in far off places or any "ha ha, you think it is cold where you live..it is colder here" type posts ( bc you all know what snow looks like and you know what it feels like to lug your heavy mtb or cross bike up a hill) I decided that just bc I dont have anything to say, it is my blog and so i want to write something. Here goes:

~ I designed two new splish suits. One for the holidays. I like it. I like it even more now that i realize after printing it up that the snowman is not centered on my belly. No backstroke or my woeful design will be noticed!

~Do you know who this is?
He is an '83 from Dartmouth, for the purposes of this blog, that is maybe all you need to know.
But if you want to know more, you can guess he is a likely pic by our new pres to be the head of the Treasury. or maybe he has been picked and i just havent seen a paper in a week.~ I saw the Sex in the City movie last night, wow. Big messed up.
I think Sarah Jessica Parker has some long legs..or maybe her dresses are just really short. I bet she could run pretty fast if she had to do a 5k. Maybe she will be the next J Lo in a Triathlon, without all the fuss of "oh I am so great" Sorry not a big fan of J Lo.

~My nephew cracked his jaw on the swimming pool and nearly gave uncle to be some business. Fortunately for nephew 3, nephew 2 was able to paint the stitches black with paint so that nephew 2 would look like he had the 5 0'clock shadow. When nephew 2 told us he was using paint that said "permanent" that he found in Granny and D-daddy's basement i asked him if there was also a label saying "toxic."
Luckily the painter is a smart cookie and knows what to say to cause alarm and get attention.
The paint was watercolor and it came off with some scrubbing.

~Thanksgiving will be awesome. Not sure what the weather will be, but i have a 5k lined up.
Two choices, either a charities challenge at lake como= more people, costs more but for a good cause, and i would get to see Steve in a Speedo ( maybe he has leftover donuts)
OR
Minnesota Boat Club 3 miler ( Ok not a 5k, but who really cares) still a non-profit donation, get to run on a road not a path ( path can be dangerous, ice, lake, likely dog leashes) and it is only $5.
Plus i could see my sister and we could likely do well..since like 20 people run. Maybe she and I can get 1st and 2nd. Dreamin. Maybe. or we can win our divisions. Divisions to be determined after the race when we see who is there. Possible Divisions are:
1) Top women who both drive Volvo's.
2) Top sister division
3) Top woman ( me ) who rode her bike to the boat club that morning
4) Top woman ( Sister) who has two cats, one of whom is an Albino and also deaf.

See, there are many possibilities. IF you have never designed your own race categories to assure that you are a winner, i highly recommend it. Very good for the ego.

~Still engaged. Loving every second of it.
Happy thanksgiving to you all.

SNOW AND FRIENDS

So how do i top last weekend? I didnt try. ( I am trying to figure out why this is underlined, tho) A bit of weather came to MN after our balmy DC weekend. So it was a good chance to get the cross bike out. MN seasons mix: The Grill and Cross bike with fenders. Isnt pool and BBQ season anymore, but the grill will still get some action this winter!


Yep that is me. And now we will switch gears to the friday night fun we had thanks to our First Light Friends. My girlfriends were happy to come and celebrate with us even tho i felt like a louse for meshing parties "Girls happy hour meets Engagement celebration." Thanks to all who came to toast us.
Pat the track man! Watch out he is pumping some serious iron this winter and already talking PR's at the track.
Pat, Honey, Jill and Scott.

Judi, chuck and Bill.
Kevin and Becky. Note that if you EVER get to draft behind Big Kevin, do it. He can also RIP your tire off your bike so fast and change a flat in about 2 minutes. Very handy guy to have around. He also knows how to pick good beers:) Becky, thanks for organizing this. So much fun.
GIRLS NOT GONE WILD.
Bill, Julie and Tom.
Best of all was that other than Rich's cold ( which i am trying to get..cold-eeze cavities are on the way as well) it was so good to have the team there. This year was full of collarbone breaks. Seems that bad things come in threes? Scott at Firehouse 50, down, broken Clavicle. Pat, at the track, down, broken Clavicle. Bill...random mishap with a homeless? (seriously we arent sure) rider who came out of the path on water street as Bill was flying down the road in his aero bars. Bill got the worst of that one becoming friends with the road barrier and banging himself up so badly that his leg looked like an inflated sausage..FOR 4 WEEKS. Positive thing is he is getting a new TREK Madonne. But no new bike can replace the FIRST LIGHT health, so boys, no riding off the trainer into the wall ( no names) and by all means avoid the rollers.

WEEKEND IN D.C!
No monuments in this update, but some juicy gossip. Read on.
So I went to DC this weekend with Rich and my parents. My cousin CR was getting married.
I lived with CR, her sister ER and her parents D and A for a trimester while at the Big Green so it was great to see them some 20 years later! Wow, amazing how those kids grow up. While I havent gotten any older. This amazing family hasnt changed a bit. Still as beautiful and gracious as ever. This is the bride and her Dad.
I have a second calling if my day job doesnt pan out.
Rich went to Georgetown so he caught up with his pal St. Ignatius.
While Rich and Iggy caught up i played some chess with an old/former/stiff professor.

I dont remember the Exorcist( maybe that is good) but i guess these stairs mean something.
Friday it was 74 in DC. We flew out in snow.
But all eyes and hopes were on the cake. No matter what. We all know that the cake is what brings us to a wedding. Ok kidding. But i have to say that it isnt the cake. The cake is the vehicle for all that is good. Frosting. And it is music to my tummy to see WHITE VANILLA, and not chocolate. Call me crazy. Many have. Many will. Vanilla trumps chocolate anyday. Icecream too.

And here we are, all dressed up.
Above is the Dartmouth alum picture. We missed Uncle Chuck, but he was too many tables away so i got Bill. My mid-mass Downhill champion skier over Dartmouth Winter Carnival. Oh and by the way, that is an indoor ski race. Down 4 flights of stairs. Certainly use your back up skis.
As some of you may know, I was SOOOO excited to go to LuluLemmon. I left room in my bag, I planned for a dent in my bank account and had even had an order from a friend, on faith, to get her a pair of the super rockstar paints. So..we walked and walked and asked and found...
LuluLemmon Athletica. I had it planned. I wanted another bag, for my mom.
Lo and behold...IT WASNT OPEN! NO! It cant be. What?
I was devastated. I was sad. I was secretly thrilled to not have a dent in my economy, but I think I was hoping to do my best to single handedly get the economy going and in D.C. to boot!
I figured that there had to be a reason for this. And as you can see, there was.
Because I had already gotten all I needed an hour earlier. I got the promise of a wonderful future with my Honey.
Yes the ring is outstanding. ( other than it is too big so i have nearly thrown it across the Mall in DC running between the Capital, the Washington Monument and the Jefferson Memorial. Also nearly down the drain and tonight lost it on my floor) So it is staying in it's "home bag/box" till it is re-fit. But more important than the ring is the love it represents and even more special than that is that Honey and I got engaged....
On November 7th, 2008...49 years to the day that my Mom and Dad were married.
How amazing is that? Mom rocks in pink and in a Pink hair cut ( i mean the rockstar pink! no nosering needed) and my dad is still as dapper and witty as he has ever been. Thanks Mom and Dad, I hope Rich and I have even 1/2 the number of years of happiness that you two have had.

Positives
With WAAAAAAYYY too many election commercials on air, radio and print I felt this urge to post a few pics that make me smile. And thank you thank you thank you when i dont have to read or hear anymore political ad's. Lets get back to what make Minnesotan's tick. The windchill and temps from our friends in Canada. Oh and the Wild. Go WILD!