Julie and Jan's visit

Ok, this is a week late but oh well- we've been busy! Last (last) weekend Julie and Jan came out to visit. We started off with a great dinner at the Melting Pot, then hit the Pike Place on Saturday. After my race on Sunday we did a little more shopping at U Village. On Monday Eric took the ladies on tour of the city.

SCC #3- Kelly Creek

Yesterday was race #3 in the Seattle Cyclocross Series. I'm not even sure where it was. Enumclaw? Sumner? Moving along...This weekend's venue was a farm with grassy pastures and plenty of cow pies to ride though. I guess this course is typically very muddy but it turned out to be pretty dry (yea!).

I arrived somewhat early, warmed up for a few on the trainer then took a quick practice lap. I had been eyeing the "downhill from hell" from the comfort of my trainer and wanted to give a try. It looked really scary from the top, but not so bad once you got going. I even lined up early. Come to find out it wasn't necessary as I was "called up" to the front of the group with few other ladies. This was a pleasant surprise and really helped me establish a good lead from the start.

The first lap really sucked. I couldn't breathe and my stomach was on "E" despite choking down 2 Gu's right before the start. Even though I felt bad I was still able to keep the pack behind me. Laps 2-3 were more of the same and I traded places with a few women before eventually dropping them. The last lap was a string of "on your left" and "passing on the inside" while I tried to get around some of the slower men. Most were cool about it but some dude tried to outsprint me. Whatever! I passed him anyway and took 4th out of 28 :)

Thank you to my cheerleading squad-it was cool to hear my name all over the course ( Eric, Julie, Jan, Jerry, Stacy and my co-worker Sherri).

SCC Series #2- Evergreen

Today's cross race was at Evergreen High school. The morning was really foggy- I was wondering if I'd need a map to navigate the course, since I couldn't see any of it. I arrived about an hour and half before the start and kind of fumbled around till the last minute. Waiting in the port-a-potty line ate up about 20 minutes of my time since they only had two. That doesn't sit well with a bunch of nervous racers! I pre-rode about 3/4 of the course, made some last minutes changes to tire pressure than hauled over to the start line. My last race was women only; this time it was cat 4 women, a few master's men groups and some single speeders. Needless to say there were a lot of people on the course.

As usual, I lined up late and was at the back of the group. And I mean all the way in the back. The gun goes off and we start on a dirt track to some long grassy switchbacks. Then two run-ups, the latter of which was long and had loose dirt. After a bumpy descent we rode over more grass and then had two barriers at the top of a short incline. I liked this course a lot better than Marymoor.

The first lap went OK and I passed a couple girls. On lap #2 I noticed that a lot of people were losing steam and I took the opportunity to move up. Laps 3 and 4 were sweet and I moved up even further.

I came in 9th out of 36. I'm pleased with this finish because I didn't sleep well the night before and wasn't in the game mentally. And it was only my 2nd race ever. Thanks to Eric, Jerry and Stacy for cheering me on, especially at the top of the big run-up! Photos courtesy of Jerry- click here to see a few more.

The bathroom remodel

Our guest bathroom is the last room in the house to get any love. It has cream walls, cream moulding and you guessed it, cream tile. Boring! This week we're going to paint and install a granite tile countertop. Well, Ok, Eric is doing most of the work but someone has to supervise, right? I'll post pictures of our progress throughout the week.

Day 1: Remove old laminate countertop, buy and cut cement board.