A few weeks ago, Carson participated in the Naperville Sprint Triathlon. He did really well finishing in just over 1 hour, 16 minutes. It is a 400 m swim, a 13 mile bike and a 3.2 mile run.
The swim was done at Centennial Beach.
All set to go. Pre-race nerves are non-existent!
It was one of the hottest days of the year, but there was a beautiful sunrise.
Entering the transistion area for a final check and to leave off the shoes.
Exiting the swim
Onto the bike-
Here's our friend Andy flying down the road. I think it was all in the helmet.
Don't 'cha hate summer colds? Unfortunately, I've dropped my exercise schedule and I've caught a bug. But, I'm on the mend and we are planning to do The Last Fling this weekend and go see Jason Aldean. Should be a blast.
Here are some pics from the other night. Just enjoying some nice weather on the deck. Ah. This is the life...
Wow. It' s almost been a month since my last post. We have been super busy this summer. CB has been traveling for work and so have I. Two weeks ago, I traveled to Orlando, FL for the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) Supershow. I met some craft celebrities including TIM HOLTZ
(that was super cool!), Claudine Hellmuth, Suze Weinberg, Donna Downey and many other people who's blogs I follow. We had a great time shopping for new product and our make-and-take was the hit of the show.
This past Friday, I had a date with my boyfriend:
Hello handsome.
We saw Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley and it was a great show. It wasn't as good as when I saw BP from the 7th row, but it was still great music.
What's been going on? A whole lotta nothin'...Weather is pretty good today so I got out and took some photos:
A couple of weeks ago, we noticed some noise under our deck...what was going on? This was in the making:
It's a little hard to tell, but this is a baby bird beak. Here's a shot from under the deck:
There are two babies in the nest and the parents are not happy to have us bothering their young. See?
Especially when breakfast is ready:
She may look small, but she is mighty. They (the parents) make a lot of noise and dive-bomb our heads. We had a nest earlier this year and were happy when the kids had finally left the nest. Only to be replaced by this one.
We've enlisted the help of our two fearless and furry troops, but they just enjoy playtime by trying the catch the birds when they get dive-bombed (note: the doggies aren't even CLOSE to hurting the birds - they think it's all a big game.)
Then, we noticed all of our trees had leaves that started looking like this:
And then we found the cause:
Yuck! Japanese Beetles. So, we've resorted to a Beetle catcher. It had been up only a couple of hours and had ATLEAST 30 beetles. Again, YUCK, I say.
All of the dark color at the bottom of the bag are beetles - just a solid layer. Yuck.
Here are some of my other plants that are thriving, inspite of the beetle attack.
Hope everyone has great plans for the 4th of July. We are headed up to the Northern parts of Wisconsin. Usually, we go in August and spend the entire weekend doing lake activities (swimming, skiing, etc.) But, they're forecasting a high of only 70 and that lake water is sure gonna be cold...this girl's not getting in that water. I haven't posted anything about Michael Jackson - I really don't know what to think. I've been watching all the documentaries and media frenzy. He was talented. "Thriller" was the very first RECORD I owned ( I know, I am dating myself). I would put it on the turntable and sit right next to the speaker - it was really something you could move to. I actually loved it so much that I bought the CD version when it came out. I also remember when he participated in a tribute to Motown and did his first moonwalk across the stage...the crowd went crazy! But, it is so sad to watch interviews from later in his life. He completely lost his mind. And, was that due to the fact that he was a performer from the age of 6 until he died? Was it because he never really had a childhood? It is just saddening to watch these interviews where he is going into a Las Vegas boutique and talking about all the things he's purchased and then recent reports say his estate is worth far less than he owes. All that work and he couldn't even break even. Oh well. The guy could sure sing and dance. Did fame get the best of him? Maybe. But, I want to remember him as the guy who rocked with the zombies in "Thriller", "Beat It" in a rival gang fight and told Billie Jean that she certainly was not his lover...
Have a happy 4th and remember those that have give their lives and those that are still fighting for our freedom.
It's another hot day here in the Midwest - 90 plus and about the same in humidity. These are the days that you wish you had a pool to jump into! I got home yesterday and had to water my hydrangeas - they were totally wilted. Nothing exciting going on - a little painting this weekend and a wedding to go to.
Rise and shine - at 4:55 am this morning, it was time for my run. It's no fun getting out of bed that early, but it's so nice to have the workout out of the way. And, during the summer, the sun is coming up at that time. So, it's much easier to roll out of bed when it's hot and sunny.
Thinking about doing the sprint triathlon this year, just for kicks. We'll see...
We've been on vacation to Florida! And, I can't believe that it's been just about a month since my last post! The creative juices have been flowing at work- and since I do that M-F, I am finding little time to do it in my spare time - but that's okay.
I have some great pictures from Florida that I will post tomorrow.
We're going to see Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley on August 7th and then Toby Keith and Trace Atkins on Sept. 19th - Woo-hoo!
Happy Dad's Day to all those Father's out there.
Check back tomorrow for some great deep-sea fishing pics - (we caught a 200 lb Goliath Grouper! and also caught our dinner for that night. It was awesome!)
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