We leave in a few hours for our annual White Lake triathlon weekend extravaganza.

I am doing the half-Ironman distance race tomorrow morning.. bright and early 7:20 start time.

1.2 miles of swimming, 56 miles of cycling, 13.1 miles of running.

I am hoping to finish by 1pm.

But this year has been nuts and recently I've been having conversations with myself that are normally reserved for kindergarten playgrounds.

Play nice. Maybe you're tired and need a nap? Just do your best.

I am looking forward to spending a lovely weekend with all our dear friends who we've convinced that this is a good idea. It will be fun and I will finish the race in some reasonable time.

Or I won't. And that is okay.

(Picture above is from my first Olympic distance race, Wildflower. You can see me in my gray cap and blue goggles standing up amongst the mayhem and looking slightly terrified. The swim starts are still my least favorite part.)

(Our little fella is spending the weekend with a coxswain and her 6 female roommates. He is going to be in snuggle heaven!!)

He's a spooner!

Long conference all day on microRNAs and their role in cancer biology, diagnostics and therapuetics. Awesome, but exhausting. Followed by splitting a pitcher of margaritas with Deirdre and a couple hundred thrilled undergrads celebrating their last day of class for the year.

Best recovery?

Falling asleep on the sofa with a snuggly sweet little fella.

Awesome!

Puppy pics!

Hello. My name is Pilot. I am the newest addition to the family. Allow me to introduce myself.

I am pretty stoked with my new digs. I have more chew toys and rawhides than I know what to do with. I also have these fancy beds everywhere my dad got me. I cannot chew on them, despite my best efforts.

I spend my time either asleep, trying to get into as much trouble as possible, or out on walks where I am meeting tons of people and dogs. My folks hope I settle down a bit with the inside craziness, but I just have so much energy and there is so much to do!

Look at me, a tennis ball and a rawhide. This is the good life. Unfortunately, I am teething right now. I've lost a couple of molars already. Not fun. But these raw hides help, as does stale toast. Man, I love stale toast.

I really like to snuggle on people's laps and be carried around. However, I have no idea how big I am going to get, probably around 30-40 pounds. I need to grow into my ears! I have a cute pink belly with brown freckles and a pink and brown nose. Just like my mom!

I am no good at sitting still for pictures for this crazy lady. I just woke up, time to play. Fortunately, I sleep through the night like a champ and am gaining weight (which I needed to do, my brother and I were abandoned in a field). I go to the vet tomorrow for my last booster shots and then I get to go to the dog park!! So much to learn and experience.

Anyways, this is me at four months. I can't wait to meet lots of you soon!

Weekend Recap

Fantastic bbq Friday night on the new patio to celebrate the new pup. Ended up with about 5 dogs running around (Pilot was in heaven), a whole posse of people who were randomly connected (gotta love Carrboro) and our new friends from across the street (who will be wonderful friends of ours someday... love that feeling!).

Saturday was lots of playing with the pup and then heading to the bike shop. Trent came along to learn the ropes so I could take off at noon and go see Wicked!! Sheila got Becca and I tickets as a thank you for throwing her baby shower. We met up with two other friends and had a pre-show lunch at Cuban Revolution before our 2pm showing. It was great, I didn't know much about it before (except that Defying Gravity song gets stuck in my head from Glee!). A lovely day with good girl friends. Back home to close up the bike shop and home to relieve the puppy. Long walk for him, long run for Trent and I. He isn't quite ready for the running yet, but we are working on it. Raining night, cozy snuggling on the sofa watching Flight of the Concords.

Sunday we headed over to Weaver Street for breakfast, studying, and puppy snuggling. It is the best place to socialize a dog, I think. So many hugs from little kids! Ran into lots of friends (love Carrboro!) and stayed till noon. Trent went on a long bike ride with Stephen, Paul and Erik and the puppy and I napped and took our first hike in the forest (he loved it). Home to rest up for a bit and clean house, and realize that Pilot is losing teeth and teething, poor guy. Last walk over to play with Jersey and then home and to bed!

Lovely.. and no pictures to show today. Sorry! More pictures will come soon, promise.

Impulsivity

Trent and I are not impulsive. I think it would rank about 123th on personality descriptions.

We are in graduate school... the ultimate un-impulsive lifestyle.

We have a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. And you should have seen the spreadsheets that accompanied that decision.

But this month has been hard. Our dear Sadie passed away. Our relationship went through a bit of a rough time. Our most lovely friend continues to fight an unfair foe.

So we've decided to let a little impulsive joy into our world.

His name is Pilot.

Trent went by casually to the shelter and fell in love with this little fella. I went in the next day, and he came home with us. He is a 4 month old hound mix, incredibly snuggly and makes us deliriously happy. Why not?

He is spoiled beyond belief already, and has already had breakfast and dinner with us at Weaver St (and been played with by all the cute free range kiddos in Carrboro) and studied with Trent at the coffee shop next to the bike shop. Our goal is to expose him to as much as possible and enroll him in every puppy class available. He is learning potty training quickly and is nearly 100% with "sit." Lots of work to do...

but oh goodness... nothing heals your heart like puppy snuggles.

Patio Madness!

I brought my camera to work today to finally upload pictures. So here's some more! After enjoying the successes of our awesome brick walkway (here elegantly sprinkled with petals from our pear tree), we were ready to tackle the back patio!

And it is awesome. Trent did an amazing job and a little teamwork plus a whole bunch of perfectionism resulted in my new favorite place. Here is a close up of the handiwork with our lovely new ferns!

The nearly finished product!! Trent was still working on the back wall portion, but this is pretty much it. Isn't it awesome?! Sadie thinks so. It's been getting lots of use, almost every breakfast and dinner have been enjoyed out there. Here are some examples:

Trent, Joel (with Eaden, the awesome 11 month old) and Paul enjoying a bbq out on patio, last Sunday afternoon.

Alex and I enjoying a lovely Sunday afternoon while his parents get a chance to finally eat with both hands. I am in love with this little person.

Joel and Eaden taking a stroll around the big backyard. That's our fantastic shed which chickens will be living to the left of shortly. And our newly refurbished garden boxes that are will hopefully do amazing things this summer. Not patio related, but cute.

Friday night, neighbors came over, with Thomas to build a bean-bag tossing game for their elementary school. Patio provided an excellent surface for highly technical construction. Thomas (assistant coach), Trent, Dave and Kristen (left to right).

Thomas and Kristen drilling the legs. Of course, Trent figured out a way for the legs to fold down. Awesome. You can kinda see in this picture that we had extra stones that we used to connect the gate to the back steps to the patio. It is more loosely arranged, so hopefully some moss will get in there and grow!

Here is another example of the in-between area. I really like it. There was a lot of standing around watching other people (or taking pictures of other people) working, but great conversation and new friends is always fun!

Eventually, Trent had to bust out his skills to finish up the project as it was starting to get late and I had a 10 mile race in the morning. We finished the whole thing from boards to game in about an hour and a half. With lots of beers and conversation. Hooray for the patio!!

Excellent way to spend a Tuesday evening...

Snuggling with your favorite 10 week old. It was his mom's birthday (Sheila) and the first time he'd been left with babysitters. A little fussing but lots of good napping which more than made up for it.

Brace yourself for ridiculous cuteness ahead...

We even got some work done, Trent did a product review for his blogs about this baby rocker they sent us. Alex was a lovely model and seemed to enjoy it!

He was awake and chatting/crying, promise. It wasn't all snuggles and napping. But it was pretty darn fun. Happy Birthday Sheila, thanks for bringing this joy into our lives!

the best

Yesterday my husband woke up at 4:30 am to go to the boat house to work on rudders before his team showed up for practice.

They rowed hard and worked on last minute techniques for their big race this weekend.

He came home just as I was waking up. I took Sadie out on a walk and came home to find an egg sandwich with tapatio hot sauce and tons of cut up strawberries arranged in the shape of a hugging stick figure for my breakfast.

We got ready and biked to work together, enjoying our "commute" to chat.

He worked all day for the honors department, helping students apply for scholarships and coordinating scattered professors.

Back to the boat house for evening practice. I'd been thinking of how busy he's been recently and made a big dinner, jacket potatoes, broccoli, etc.

He gets home, but is dying to get a run in before he eats dinner. Of course, right before he heads out, a friend of mine from the bike shop calls. He's just moved here from Texas with his family and the moving truck arrived. They really need help. Of course, my husband is eager to help and decides to run there instead. We spend two hours hauling boxes and beds.

Finally home, we eat our now cold dinner. Immediately after, he has to go finish his Re-Nest post for today.

We get ready for bed and chat for few minutes before he is conked out. To repeat it all today.

Except this morning he made french toast.

I am so incredibly lucky.