June 2, 2008

Lucky for you, today is a picture heavy day. Over the weekend, Becky and I were emailed our Bolder Boulder pictures. Here's our wave at the start line. Uh, yeah, we don't know where we are either. For 54,000 registered walkers/runners, the race officials did a great job of keeping things moving on time, though:



Here we are, somewhere near the finish line. And I'd just like to point out, woman in the corner was NOT in our wave. She started sometime before us. I'd like to think maybe even hours before us, we are so cool. Look how determined we are (Becky is probably shouting, "Michelob Ultra, I run for you!"):



And our geeky hand clasp in victory at the finish line:



I got another picture but I look fat and sad so I'm not going to share it.

7:20 Drop off. Ariel declined breakfast, though soon after broke open her cheerio/goldfish tupperware.

8:15 Left on bike to take Alex to science camp. Lucky for us, I left plenty of time. ½ a mile from home Alex took a nasty tumble and cut his forehead. It was a bleeder but between my stash of kleenex, wipes and single band-aid we got it cleaned up. And in a surprising show of toughness, he didn't want to ride home and get more cleaned up and put his bike back. He was determined to make it to camp on time.

9:00 Official camp start.

9:10 Kids actually left with their teachers. Ariel and I decided to bum around this morning. First we went to Varsity Pond. They must be cleaning it, half the water was drained. After I got sick of the repetitive conversation, "Where da turtles?" "There they are, on the other side of the pond." "Where da turtles?" We moved on.



Next we took a little bike ride over to the 29th Street Mall Starbucks. I got another mint frappachino and Ariel played on the playground.

10:30 Headed over to Borders for storytime. It was L.A.M.E. I guess the regular Gymboree guy didn't show up and so there was a sub. But afterwards we got free mini frappachinos and cookies in the cafe so that was nice. Ariel especially approved of the frappachino:



11:15 Headed over Home Depot. I only bought a 7 lbs bag of bird seed last week and I needed to get more. I went big and did the 20lbs bag. I shudder to think how much I've spent on bird seed already this year. You know those commercials that show you can feed some starving 3rd world child on pennies a day? Let's just say our birds are doing a heck of a lot better than that. And, in all randomness we ran into Riley and Kyler and set up a playdate for tomorrow afternoon.

Ariel cares not for bird seed but she does love those riding mowers.



12:00 Picked up Alex from camp.

12:30 Got home without any further bike catastrophes. Ariel fell asleep in the trailer and transfered to bed.

I cleaned out Alex's cut and re-bandaged it. Looks bad, huh?



So, my husband is in India. I've had to do things this week that I would normally defer to his manliness. I mowed the lawn. I took out the trash (and every time I do that I realize it's actually more work to remind him to do it than to actually do it). And I installed a hook on the garage to hang the hummingbird feeder. I thought I'd share how this chore went.

I did find the drill and since Jeremy had just put up the hook for the seed feeder it was all ready to go. I drilled the hole without falling off the ladder. Then I broke the drill bit in half trying to get it out of the hole. After some fanagling (and a nasty cut on my thumb), I got the bit out. Then I tried to get the screw in the hole but only got it half way. I tried to use the drill to get it in but ended up stripping the screw where the hook goes on. So, back to square one. I got a new drill bit, drilled another hole and put another screw in it. I still couldn't get the screw in all the way. I put the hook on it to give me more leverage and ended up breaking the end of the hook off. Finally, I gave up on perfection. And even not-even-close-to-perfection.

The hummingbird feeder is currently suspended from our garage. I miss my husband:



Another funny story is how I tried to pump up my bike tires Saturday and ended up letting out all the air instead but I'm too demoralized to share more.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, Adam is spending the week at Camp Grammie. He left yesterday morning and Alex and I had a nice day together. We rode the bike with the tagalong (yes, I had to switch it from Jeremy's bike to mine) to Pearl St. and went to the ritzy rock store. I let Alex pick out a geode and he has lost it not once, but twice today. And he loves it very much:



3:00 Ariel woke up. I thought she'd be hungry but she didn't touch her sauce and only had half her mac & cheese.

4:00 The kids and I adjourned to the front porch for popcicles and beer, respectively.

4:15 The mailman came. I wonder if he thinks I'm a lush yet.

4:30 Pick up.