Time flies...

...whether you're having fun or not! Wow, it's already March. We have been enjoying the early arrival of spring and doing a lot of biking and hiking.

Spring has sprung...well, kinda....

We have had unseasonably warm weather lately. OK, so "warm" only means 55 degrees but hey, I'll take it. It's better than 40 and rain! Our plants have been having a field day- everything has mini-leaves on it and my tulips are about 3" tall right now. Here's a shot of the flower pots on my front porch.

Boatin' weather

No news is good news

No news to report, mostly because we don't have a camera anymore (which means no photos to post). We're both busy with work, busy at home, busy with Daisy and Little B. We are tenatively planning a trip to Hawaii...we could use some sun and warm weather!

In the year 2010...

Shouldn't we be wearing silver space suits and riding in flying cars? 2010 sounds so futuristic. The minute someone invents a food-a-rac-a-cycle I'm gonna buy one.

CX nationals- Bend, Oregon

Some thoughts about last weekend's CX national championship race...

The good:
1. I had a nice start in the top 1/3rd of the pack. Didn't last very long though!
2. I met my main goal (not to get lapped by the leaders).
3. I didn't break anything.
4. Had a fun (yet humbling) experience. The top women are SO fast.
5. I will be better prepared for next year!

The bad:
1. Forgot my inhaler (not good in cold weather).
2. Icy course. 'Nuff said.
3. Crashed hard twice on my right side. Thought something was broken (see # 3 above).
4. Overall had a bad race. Felt slow and my tech skills were poor.
5. Must buy a lighter bike for next season.

I ended up 31st out of 45 starters. Kinda what I expected though. Now I can kick back, enjoy the holidays and then start training for...road racing! Should be interesting!

Here are a few photos/videos from the race.

Scc #8- Monroe

Today was the last race of the SCC series. I had bad tire karma at last year's Monroe race and I wanted to redeem myself this time around. My legs felt pretty heavy during the warmup and that got me a little worried. Plus, I left my inhaler at home...ack!

The course was chock full 'o variety- pavement, barns, mud, cruddy downhills, you name it. Lucky me- I had the perfect holeshot and lead the entire first lap...then fell back a few spots over the next 6 laps. I should mention that I was absolutely sick to my stomach and actually stopped for a minute (wasn't sure if I should stop or keep riding...barfing is not fun!). I ended up in 4th out of 16 and earned another upgrade point. I am really happy with my race- I have not ridden that hard all year! Click here for photos.

Halloween weekend

Autumn is quickly coming to a close...I can't believe it's already November!! We've been really lucky weather-wise, with a fair amount of sun and not a whole lot of rain.

A few of us ventured out to Fremont last night for Halloween. Eric and I dressed up at Ben and Juliet from LOST (complete with Dharma Iniative lab coats). We had fun but turned in early so we could race the next morning.

Today's race at Maris Farms was awesome!! We got to ride through a pumpkin patch and a corn maze!! My first lap sucked- I lined up on the ride side and was shut out of the first right-hand turn. I was probably close to last place at that point. Then we hit the corn maze and I hooked my bar on a cornstalk, and I ended up tipping over. Once I got back up I hooked my bars again! ACK! After that I picked off quite a few girls and ended up 5th out of 14. I really loved this venue and hope the cyclocross community is welcome back next year.

Here are a few photos from the weekend.

Salmon Days 2009

This weekend is the annual Salmon Days festival here in Issaquah. It was especially fun this year because it was dry! Issaquah has it's own fish hatchery and ladder, which is the final destination for spawning salmon. Here's a short video:

Scc #1

Today was my first real race of the season at Evergreen high school. I've never really loved the course, but it was a little different today and favored racers with good handling skills. I actually warmed up today and I think it made a huge difference- I came in 3rd out of 17! Here are a few more photos.

MFG #2- Fort Steilacoom

I can sum up my race in one word: sucky. I bet a lot of the suckiness could have been avoided if:

1. I got more than 5 hours of sleep the night before
2. I actually warmed up (one slow pre-race lap does NOT count as a warm up)
3. I spent more time training and less time being stressed out.

Not really looking forward to next Sunday's race. Ugh.

This photo shows how slow I was- I had time to smile and wave at the camera!

MFG cross #1

Today was the inaugral MFG cross race at Big Finn Hill in Kirkland. It was hot and sunny- not good cross weather in my opinion, and the course was totally designed for roadies. It was fun but REALLY tough and my back is totally aching now. My form was a lot better today and I think I came in 5th out of 20-some riders. Here I am out in front...that only lasted for about a minute though!

Cyclocross season is here!

Monday's race was the kick-off for cross season here in the NW. It was a new venue for me and I was relieved to see that the course had a little singletrack, which tends to be one of my strong suits. My plan was to take it easy- start in the back, keep an easy pace and just get back into the swing of things. Well, that plan went to hell- I was lined up against the fence (heading into a right-hand turn) so I sped to the front to avoid getting shut out. The rest of the race was brutal- my lungs are just not 100% yet. BUT- I still managed to take 2nd out of 17! Here I am busting my butt across the finish line...

Evicted!

I had to evict a chipmunk today- he wasn't paying rent on the flowerpot. Poor thing is probably sitting out in the rain somewhere :(

Here fishy, fishy, fishy....

Last weekend we went out on the Puget Sound to catch some pink salmon. It was a gorgeous day and we pulled in four good-size fish! Click here for a few more pictures.

Photos from Poland

I finally posted some photos here.

Our travels to the countryside...

One of the main reasons we came to Poland was to "get back to our roots". Mom has been speaking to some newfound cousins in Lancut (pronounced Wine-suit) and they asked us to come visit for a couple days. We thought it would be easiest to take a train from Krakow to Lancut and it turned out to be a trip from hell!

The morning started out innocently enough with breakfast at the hotel. It's the same thing every day for me- three slices of rye bread with butter and jelly with some green tea. There are other items at the buffet but I wouldn't dare try them!

The hellish day started when the cabs arrived. First of all keep in mind that between the four of use there are seven pieces of luggage and about as many carry-on bags and purses. So one cabbie looks at all the bags and basically says "forget it" in Polish. We eventually had to call the hotel receptionist over to help us out. Then we arrive at the train station. We check our tickets and figure out that we're supposed to be on platform 2. We lug all of our bags up the stairs or elevator and wait for the train to arrive. Shortly before our scheduled departure I notice that we're on the wrong frickin' platform. F***! There was no way we could get all of that luggage down the stairs and back to the other platform in 2 minutes, and thus we missed the train. Thankfully a very nice young guy helped us reschedule our tickets and get us to the correct platform.

But our troubles were not over yet! As soon as the train pulled up, passengers rushed the cars trying to get on and we totally struggled with all of those stinkin' suitcases. So then I start looking for seats. Do we have assigned seats? Who knows- none of us can read the ticket an so we're just standing there blocking the narrow aisles. Then the conductor points out that we're in the wrong frickin' car and we have to the move to the one behind us. ARRGGH. The train is about to leave any minute and we had to wrestle all of those stupid suitcases off that car and onto the new one. The conductor helps us find our seats but the little compartment can barely fit us and the luggage and he helps us put the bags on the overhead racks. FINALLY we sit down for a breather.

Little did we know what would happen when we arrived at our destination, Lancut (pronounced wine-suit). We pull up to the station and um, it's in the middle of nowhere. I mean, just a platform out in the middle of frickin' nowhere. We figured there would be taxis around but there were none to be found. I pop my head into the ticket office but no one speaks english. Ugh. I called our hotel and no one speaks english there either! I was so frustrated that I was nearly in tears. We had no idea how we'd get to the hotel. We end up calling our travel agent in the US to see what we should do, and while that's happening a Chrystler minivan pulls up and asks if we need any help in a mix of Polish and Italian. We handed the phone to him and our agent explained the situation. He offered to drive us to the hotel but we were a but unsure ("stranger danger" as Rose called it). However, he seemed nice so we went for it. He dropped us off and refused to take any money (we still pushed 20zl. at him anyway). Talk about a stressful trip.

So then we check into the hotel. It's actually a "pension" and man, it was sure no-frills. Our room looked like the maid's quarters and only had a small skylight for air. Needless to say it was so damn HOT in there. We decided to venture out for some dinner since we had barely eaten anything that day and ended up eating pizza...go figure.

Ok, so I know we were out in the sticks and all, but everyone STARED at us like we had 3 heads or something. I mean really stared. Do we really look that different? Or maybe people have never head english spoken before. Either way it was weird and very uncomfortable.

The rest of our stay in Lancut was, um, interesting...to be continued!!!

Poland- day 4

Today we visited the salt mines. They are over 400' deep! I wasn't really sure about this tour but it was quite fun and very interesting. Believe it or not they carved a whole chapel out of salt!

We ended up having Mexican food for dinner. Yep, that's right- Mexican food. And I must say it wasn't that bad!

Poland- day 3

We spent the morning at Auschwitz and Birkenau. There's not much to say about these places really. Auschwitz looked like a park with the trees, grass and brick buildings. That is, until you see things like the mounds of human hair, a room full of shoes and the gas chamber. Birkenau was another story. At one time it was covered with hundreds of crude wooden barracks but only a few are still standing. The brick chimneys remain though and they stretch as far as the eye can see. The most ominous structure is the brick entrance and watchtower (as seen in Schindler's List). Sad.

Later that afternoon Jana invited us to dinner at their home. Their home is really neat- it's an old flat (more than a hundred years old) and is filled with all sorts of books and antiques. We had a traditional Polish dinner of beet soup, beef and potatoes, and an assortment of sweets for dessert. Of course no visit to a Polish home would be complete with out the vodka! Ugh. We at dinner in the building's brick courtyard. It was so beatiful. Well, minus the endless cooing of pigeons.

Poland- Day 2

Mom has been doing some family tree research and found some distant relative in Krakow. So Jana and her daughter Francesca took us around town for a tour of the city. Oh, did I mention that Jana has degrees in art history, architecture and the theology? Needless to say they took us to some amazing sites- churches, the Jewish quarter and the Wawel castle. We stopped for lunch at a wonderful outdoor cafe.

Later that evening the four of us wandered around the main square and did a little more shopping. The old section of town is just beautiful!