A field trip to the zoo

One advantage(?) of not having Ariel as much is that I have more time to volunteer at the boys' school. So today I had my first gig as a field trip chaperon. Chaperoning 60 kindergartners to the zoo may seem like an impossible task, but somehow it gets done every year. Actually, the way they make it work is by having an average adult to child ration of 3:1. I lucked out and was only in charge of one other kid, so it was like taking my kid to the zoo, plus babysitting a spastic and energetic stranger.

One way we knew we were on the field trip was riding the school bus. Adam made us sit in the last row and I almost thought about being car bus sick.



My charge, Grant, and Adam posing at first opportunity upon learning I brought a camera:



One of the few times Grant stopped bolting and allowed us to actually look at an animal:



I asked, Grant is only 5 1/2. I guess if Adam is at the bottom 5% of size, this is what the 95% looks like:

Changes

Things are a-changing around here. I am no longer having many adventures with Ariel. Ariel is going to preschool 4 days a week and I only have the pleasure of hanging with her on Mondays. But this blog has always been more than just Ariel, and I'm not ready to stop it, or go through the hassle of starting a new one.

And since it's my blog and I can do whatever I darn well please with it, I'm morphing it into a training blog for my first Ironman. I'm sure Ariel will still make many an appearance, as will the boys in my life, but I'm envisioning it to be a cross of Adventures with Ariel and my MS50 blogs.

So, I hope you stick around. I have 351 days to train for the mother of all triathlons. A 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike and a 26.2 mile run. Believe me, it's going to be an adventure...

Oktoberfest

Well, Oktoberfest marks the end of the 2009 tri season. I had been on the fence about even doing this race but when I volunteered for the Tri Babe race last month, I earned a discounted race entry. Triathlons aren't cheap and I do LOVE splaving, plus it was nice to have a goal to keep me working out in September.

The Oktoberfest course is the same courses as the Tri Babes race I did last year (except they didn't short the run by 1/2 a mile this time) and the Summer Open I did in May. Going in, I had four goals.

1. To beat my Summer Open time.
2. To go under 1:20.
3. To beat fellow TriBabe Rachel. (Does that seem less snarky if I told Rachel that was my goal beforehand?)
4. To go under 28 minutes on the run

The swim went well. You never know with these things. Sometimes the course is long (*cough cough* Boulder Peak). Sometimes you have a panic attack (uh, Wildlflower?) and sometimes you just have a crappy swim. My swim felt fine and I was relived when I glanced at my watch and saw 13:xx. My official time was 14:04, a minute off the Summer Open.

TI went fine. Unlike the Summer Open, I didn't loose my bike, which is always nice and got me a few seconds closer to beating my Summer Open time.

The bike was fine. I took a minute off my Summer Open time but I don't know if it's because I'm in better biking shape, or because I was racing in my nifty aerohelmet. I mostly wear it for the intimidation factor, but who knows, maybe it does make me go faster:



My only biking snafu was somehow my magnet got misaligned and my bike computer wasn't working. Maybe that was better, I just put my head down and hammered.

T2 was also uneventful. I glanced at my watch on the way out and it was about 50 minutes, so I knew if I ran ok, I would go under 1:20. Woot! for goals 1 & 2.

And the run was ok. I tried to hold it in the first mile, and it was somewhere around 9:30. A bit too much holding in, but then there was the only uphill of the course. I got up the hill and then did all I could. Somewhere after the turn around I saw Rachel going the other way and cursed at her (literally. I think I screamed "damn you!"). I was sure she was going to catch me. I felt her on my heels the whole way in but she never passed me. My 5k time was 28:14. Dang, there went goal 4. Ah well, something to work for next year.



My total time was 1:18:56 and Rachel came in 8 seconds after me. I was a bit faster on the swim and bike than her, but I really beat her in transition, or as Jeremy calls it, Competative Clothes Changing. I had over a minute on her in T1 & T2 and that is way longer than 8 seconds.

Now, being that this event was called Oktoberfest, wouldn't you think there would be beer served afterwards? I mean, there was beer after all the 5430 races. But no, there was some issue with permits and non profits and blah blah blah and NO BEER. Luckily, I swam a masters class coached the race promoter and knew this beforehand and brought my own beer. See, it's St. Pauli's Girl - German and girly! And no, there's NOTHING wrong with drinking deer before 10 in the morning. NOTHING!



And the big surprise of the day, I won my age group! Now, much like Danskin, the 30-34 group was underperforming (I would have been in 5th place in both the 24-29 and 35-39 groups) but there WERE 30 women in my division so it's worth something, right? I was 18/172 women and 73/288 total.

And even more fun, TriBabe Michelle won the 35-39 group (she's hardcore, she was 8 *minutes* faster than me) and Rachel got second in 30-34. Well, Michelle won until we got home and looked at the results and she was bumped to second. But we both still got the first place prize of Zeal sunglasses.

And here's a really crappy picture of the three of us - somehow Rachel's husband kept taking video instead of stills with my cell phone and this is as good as it gets.



The award was a beer stein with an Oktoberfest engraving. Decorative AND useful.

So, that's it for this year. But stay tuned for next year and Ironman Wisconsin!

Updated - A decent picture. That's Rachel, Me, Michelle and Namino on top:

Three stories you can read to your cat

At the library yesterday, Alex picked out Three Stories You Can Read to Your Cat. And today, he read it to the cat.

Abby must be more attention starved that I realized. Not only did she stay, but if you listen very carefully, she was purring the whole time too.

Cuckoo!

I think it all started with Grandpa showing the boys Woody Woodpecker last weekend. In one of the episode, Woody confronted a cuckoo clock in, I'm sure, a hilarious caper. Then when we were at the parent's house last night, my dad showed Alex their old cuckoo clock. The boys loved it (and then the evening digressed into an eBay search for rolling ball clocks...)

Alex was up half the night with a nasty cough so I kept him home from school. He was not so sick to stay in bed and built this cuckoo clock with legos:



The cuckoo bird is on a sliding ramp that can be manipulated from the back. I think it's one of the coolest things he's designed, the attention to detail is amazing:



And in other bird news, we had a new bird come to the feeder today:



At first I was just excited to have a new bird in our yard, except for a nuthatch earlier this month, we've been new bird free since May.

Right away Alex identified it as a wren, but when we got out our Colorado bird guide we couldn't find it. It's not a House Wren or Rock Wren or even Canyon Wren. Next, I went online and still had trouble so I went to my last resort, the geeky bird forum. Right away a few people got excited because this is a Carolina Wren and their range usually doesn't extend past mid-Kansas. The forum geeks suggested I report this bird to the powers that be, or the people who might care so I emailed The Wild Bird Center, The Colorado Audubon Society and the Colorado Field Ornithologists. The last group emailed back wondering if I would let them put my address on their list serve so birders could come to my yard and see the wren too. I did decline that (lord knows no one should be subjected to my backyard) but let them know that I'm right next to the park.

Anyway, I just thought this was cool because two years ago I wouldn't have given that little innocuous bird a second glace (I probably would have dismissed it as a sparrow - the horror!) and now it's the second most exciting thing to happen to me all week. The first would be winning my age group at the Oktoberfest triathlon, but that's another post...

Crawdaddy Fishing

Ok, so this creek is like 50' from my house and this is the first time my kids have crawdad fished on their own (aka, not scamming some other kid's stuff). Alex made the fishing poles himself with sticks, string and paper clips. I was informed that hot dogs are the proper bait, but I was not so inclined to buy hot dogs solely for fishing. So we used leftover salmon instead (and it worked just fine).





Alex caught the first one:



Alex made me a pole too, so I got in the action. If I can brag, I'm quite a good fisherwoman. Or the crawdads aren't particularly bright.

We caught about 12 then dumped them back in. And then caught them again, did another dump and then one more fill.



I showed Alex how to pick them up right between the pinchers:



And that's how we spent 2 hours at the creek. And no, we didn't eat our catch, but our neighbors have eaten them before. Our little creek is kind of a storm sewer and I'm not sure that even if I wanted to eat crawdads, I would eat these.

5430 Long Course

The week before the Long Course did not go as I had anticipated. I had been fighting a cold/cough for over 2 weeks but up until the Sunday before the race, it had just been annoying. A week before the race, I did my last long run of 70 minutes and posted my worst pace of the year and had a small vomiting incident around 5 miles. It was not boding well for racing.

I swam on Monday and Tuesday, and did a bike ride Tuesday evening. I only ran 30 minutes on Wednesday and at least it was better than Sunday. And then my low point was Thursday morning at 2:10am. I awoke in the middle of the night with excruciating neck pain. I can only guess that in one of my coughing fits, I gave myself whiplash. As I lay on the heating pad, I actually wondered what the process was to get a medical waiver. Would I need a physician's signature? I really did not know if I would be able race.

I spent Thursday trying to fix my neck. I had a chiropractor appointment with a friend's guy (mine, of course, was on vacation). Then I had a doctor's appointment and got some antibiotics ("If you've been sick for 3 weeks, it's probably a sinus infection"), a cortisone shot and 3 muscle relaxer pills. I was able to do an hour ride in the evening, though the thought of swimming still scared the crap out of me.

The kids had their triathlon on Saturday morning. As usual, super cute. Then me and some of the TriBabes did our last brick practice. We only rode 30 minutes and ran 10, it barely seemed worth the effort. It was nice to think that a 40 minute workout had become beneath notice.

Race day came and while I did not feel like I was at the pinnacle of fitness, I did feel ok. My neck was mostly better, as long as I did not look straight up and to the left. I thought I could manage not to do that during the race.

Even though I was in the last wave, I still had to have my bike racked by 6:15. I was there around 5:40 and got a nice spot on an aisle. My age group shared wave 10 with the 20-24 men and it was weird racking up next to a big guy.

The morning started out nice and cloudy, until right before the start of wave 9 when the sun broke through the clouds. Which was really frustrating because the longest leg of the swim course was right into the sun. I gave up trying to spot on a buoy and just followed the crowd. Luckily, I did not end up off course. My swim was just so-so. I've felt stronger before but I really did navigate ok and like usual, my swim ended up being my best sport compared to the rest of the racers.

When I got into transition, I noted that the guy I racked next to still hadn't gotten on his bike. My transition was short because despite waffling on this all summer, I decided not to change into bike shorts and just wore my (not padded) triathlon shorts. I figured I might as well race it as fast as I could.

The bike was, as usual, was where I felt the strongest. I had already rode the 28 mile loop 3 times the week before. I worked hard where it was hilly and chilled when it was downhill. We even lucked out with a bit of a tail wind up Foothills, which is slightly uphill and not the most scenic of the race anyway. My only mistake was thinking that just because I could eat solid food while training, I would be able to eat while racing. I only ate 3/4 of 2 cliff bars and 1 1/2 of 2 cliff shots. I was thinking there would be Hammer Gel every aid station, but at least 2 of the 4 did not have any. I did drink Gatorade most of the race. If I ever race a longer race, I would need to do the nutrion much better. I squeaked by this time, but I could see getting in trouble too.

The best part of the bike was that I made my goal of under 3 hours with a time of 2:57. And the guy that I racked next to had not put his bike back yet.



The run, as expected, was the hardest part of the race. For the first mile, my left foot hurt in a weird and new sort of way, but it sorted itself out as things unually do after a mile. For the run, I had a goal of running to the aid stations and walking though, thinking about it as a mile by mile race. My first mile was sub-10, way too fast but I soon leveled out. I walked the aid stations, taking water every time, sometimes gatorade too. A girl from last year told me she put ice in her hat and I did that too. My mile to mile race worked pretty well until mile 9, then I was just hot and tired and ready to be done. I ended up walking most of the hills (there weren't that many, maybe 4 per loop, for 2 loops). My hips and legs started getting sore and achy, but at least they were sore and achy in a normal sort of way and not an injury sort of way. I got my second wind about 300 yards from the finish line but at least I was able to run through the crowd with some energy.



And I tried for a good finishing picture, instead of my usual pose of checking my watch.



Post race with the Babes:



There were actully two others that raced, one so fast that she had gone home (she finished about an hour before me) and the other a bit slower and not yet done.

All and all, I was pretty happy with my race. Before I got sick, I made a goal that if I raced well, I could finish in 6:10. I finished in 6:13. The run was hard, but in an expected sort of way, not at all like my marathon of 9 years ago way. When I finished the marathon, I was so sore and dejected, I did not run again for 7 1/2 years. The week after this race, I swam some, walked a bit and then even ran a couple 5k. I would have biked too if I was not 2,000 miles away from home in Maryland. I was a bit sore for about 3 days after the race, but I think the recovery was pretty easy.

1.2 mile swim: 40:19
T1: 2:02
56 mile bike: 2:57:21 (average 18.9 mph)
T2: 3:16
13.1 mile run: 2:30:10 (average 11:28 miles)

Total: 6:13:06

August 7, 2009

We had another full house today with Hannah-Banana.

I packed 4 lunches to take to the pool:



Buckled 4 kids in the car:



Stopped by the grocery store for more sunscreen and doughnuts.

Picked up Alex and Adam's race packets for the Boulder kid's triathlon tomorrow.

And then went swimming! Hannah enjoyed her lunch except for the mac & cheese:



Ariel modeling the swim cap she swiped from the packet pick up.



Underwater Adam:



Underwater Ariel:



Underwater Alex:



We swam from about 11:20 to 2:00. Mostly it was an easy day except I had to yell at Ariel again for doing a belly flop off the side of the baby pool. She just tips over like a tree and isn't in danger of breaking her neck yet, but still not a good habit. She's come so far with her swimming this year though, I even saw her doing some freestyle arms today.

After swimming we stopped by Whole Foods to buy salmon for tonight's dinner. They have a chipolte rub that's really good.

We got home around 2:45 and both Ariel and Hannah went down for a nap. Whew.

July 31, 2009

Not a lot happened today. So rather than bore you with that, I'll tell you about our Exploding Light Fixture Problem.

A long time ago, we had a nice house. When we bought the house, one of the features I loved was this line of blue lights hanging in the kitchen:



Unfortunately, they seem to be one of the previous owners many DIY projects that have not stood up to the test of time. A few month ago, one of the light EXPLODED when Jeremy turned it on. I was laying down on the coach in the living room and saw the orange flash. The glass shattered, the light fixture was toast. And we thought, "Huh, that was weird."

And then, it happened to a second light last night. Same explosion, same melted cord left. For precautionary measures, we took down the remaining shade. And now we have a row of useless, ugly black cords hanging out of our ceiling:



Like I said, it's been a while since the first Explosion. And Jeremy has a lot on his plate with work and the Breckenridge remodel, so I haven't said anything. But really, I think it's time to do something now. Before anything else Explodes.

July 29, 2009

Today was a very 1995 kind of day. Yesterday, Ariel showed up at our house with a new beanie baby skunk. Alex was enamored. He HAD to have one too. He even offered to pay for it, and that's a big deal. He won't even shell out $.89 for the nerd ropes he's always begging for at the grocery store.

So after my bike ride (and the kid's morning at the gym) we started our quest for Skunkers. Our first stop was Grandrabbits, which does not carry beanie babies. They did, however, have three other skunks in various sizes and Adam was happy with a similarly sized non-branded one. Alex was not.

Next stop, Hallmark. Hallmark had beanie babies, but not that beanie baby.

Intermission - we met Ellen at for Indian lunch. I'm not sure Ariel has ever had Indian, but she was game. She ate all her lentils, some rice and 4 meatballs. She would not try her spinach or fried veggies and did not care for the rice pudding or naan. She also drank about 17 glasses of water, which will become important later.



After lunch, we drove out to the mall for more skunk hunting. We first tried Fuzziwigs, but they were closed for a quick remodel. Next, we tried Hallmark, which much like the first had beanie babies, but not that beanie baby. And then, a desparate attempt at Justice (thank gawd I don't have a girl) but they only carry webkinz.

After exausted all possibilities, we played at the dinosaurs. Well, Adam and Ariel played, Alex had to sit next to me because he refused to follow instructions or rules. Which made it hard for me to want to continue on our quest.

On the way out of the mall, we made a pit stop and I suggested to Ariel that she check if she had to pee. She threw a full blown tantrum on the potty, going on way longer than I thought possible, especially for maintaing such a stiff body in a seated position. She finally stopped, but whimpered "Mommy" the whole way out of the mall. She didn't fall asleep in the car, but she crashed pretty quickly at home.

After Ariel left, we checked Walgreens on the way to swimming. They seem to carry TY animals, but not beanie babies. And then I gave up. I showed Alex we could order Skunkers off Amazon for only $12 including shipping or give up. He wanted to go back to the store that Becky bought the original Skunkers from, which while a logical idea, I had no desire to drive 300 miles to and from Glenwood for a $6 toy. Though Alex told me he didn't care how far it was.

But joy of joys, Grandpa found Skunkers and now the world, circa 1995, can go on.

July 24, 2009

In a somewhat annual tradition, we celebrated Alex's half birthday at Lakeside. While we've gone the past few years (I believe Alex was 4 1/2 the first time) this was Ariel's first time. And she had a BLAST.

Alex was very sweet with her for the first hour or so. He made sure he sat with her on the rides and told her what they were doing. And Adam was amazingly ok sitting by himself.



Love this shot. Lakeside is so old that this Broncos car is probably one of the newer things in the park.



And like most years, the Frog Hopper and the roller coaster won out on being the most popular:



And I said Alex was sweet for the first hour, he didn't end up mean. He wandered off by himself for awhile while Adam and Ariel rode together. Which didn't go nearly as well, at one point Adam didn't want Ariel sitting next to him on the roller coaster, even though it was the only seat left.

We stayed for about 2 1/2 hours and that's about right. Any more fun and they would have burst their brains.

July 23, 2009

Here's some tales of interest from the past week.

Yesterday afternoon, the kids and I went to the museum. We visited the space exhibit and then saw the IMAX movie The Grand Canyon. The movie was not the best I've seen, though Ariel waited 33 minutes before getting thirsty. Next, Alex wanted to show Ariel all his favorite dioramas. And then we tried to squeeze in mummies and dinosaurs and ended up leaving a bit late, which is why Becky had to meet us at the Broomfield park-n-ride to pick up Ariel.

And Tuesday/Thursdays are shaping up to be just swimming days. On Tuesdays, the kids do their lessons and then can play until 11:45. Then they go to daycare while I do a masters class. On Thurdays, I can put the kids in daycare while I run and the daycare takes them to swim lessons. I get back when lesssons are over and then we hang out as long as we can/want. I pack lunches and today we made it to about 12:45.



And in rodent news, we caught our first squirrel today. Here's proof:

Our wildlife woes

A week ago, we had a squirrel in the house. Like, we came home and there was a freaked out squirrel. It ricocheted off of a couple walls and windows and Ariel and we finally got it out the back door. And we thought it was weird but our screen door was ripped and it was conceivable that it had just come it that way.

Jeremy repaired the door and then two days later, another squirrel. And this one we did not see go out any door. And then, more squirrel related incidents, including sightings, close encounters, urine and feces. Finally, the experts - aka Critter Control - were brought it. The verdict - the eaves to both our front and back porches go directly into the attic. The squirrels have been holing up there for a while and have found ways to get into the house as well. The solution - pricey special one way doors on the eaves so hopefully we get squirrels out of the attic, not trapped and dead in the attic. Also, we do have a few traps inside the house in case any squirrel is dumb enough to get caught inside. Today, a squirrel came in and helped himself to some peanuts in the mudroom, then left again, uncaught.

And oh, you think, but you have cats. Don't the cats get the squirrels? The answer is no. In fact, I witnessed a squirrel run right by Dexter and he just looked at me like, "huh, that was weird." AND DIDN'T MOVE. So yes, the cats are completely useless.

And in other random wildlife news, a family of skunks has moved in under our foundation. Critter Control would be happy to install a really REALLY big one way door back there for $550. So, for now the skunks can stay.

Danskin Trophy

Yesterday, I received this in the mail:



It's quite puzzling, as I did not actually get 3rd place. I was a solid 4th, almost a minute behind 3rd. I know, I checked very carefully. And yet, now I have a trophy. I went back and rechecked the results and from what I can gather, about 18 girls were disqualified, including the 1st place winner of my age group, who beat me by 6 minutes. In reviewing the rules, the only grounds for DQ that I could find (beyond some blatant cheating) is that USAT mandates that only only must you wear a helmet during the race, but that if you are seen riding your bike BEFORE or AFTER the race without a helmet - DQ. Now, the race parking was way out in BFE, probably 1/2 - 1 miles from the transition area. A lot of people rode their bikes from to and from their cars (I sure did) and I did see quite a few girs doing it without their helmets. So there you go, 3 rules to remember:

1. ALWAYS wear a helmet
2. ALWAYS play by the rules
3. ALWAYS wear pink when racing

PS - I have been very humble about this race (especially after getting my ass kicked in the Peak) but for the record, there were 142 girls in my age group.

July 13, 2009

Our adventure of the day was biking down to the library. Adam hasn't done much riding since The Big Crash but he insisted he was ok to ride. With him and Alex on their own bikes, it seemed like a good time to try Ariel on the tag-a-long. And we had a very nice ride. Adam seems to be able to handle the big biker more smoothly. Alex is doing well on his bigger bike too, though it seems harder to ride with the big, squishy mountain bike tires. Actually, slowing Alex down was a good thing, Adam was able to keep up pretty well. And Ariel hung on and didn't fall off. I think she was pretty proud of herself. The tag-a-long was more wobbly than she expected and she skrieked at me a few times when the bike shook.

We went to the libray and to Starbucks. It was a nice morning.

The Boulder Peak

The Boulder Peak was my first olympic distance race in 9 years, and coincidentally the last olympic race I've did. It is also a very competitive big kid race.

The swim went well. I got ahead out the main pack and felt like I swam strong and didn't get off course. So I was bummed when I got out of the water and checked my watch and was at 34:22. I had hoped to break 30 minutes. This week I have had many people confirm that the swim was long, by 200-300 yards (or 4-5 minutes for me). That's racing.

The bike went well. I was 2 minutes faster than 9 years ago.



And the run kinda bombed. I warned this guy not to draft and he didn't for long. He was also like 60, almost as old as DAD. In fact, MANY old people passed me on the run. And I did not pass a single one. A bit demoralizing, actually.



And the blessed finish:



I had a stretch goal of breaking 3 hours but with the long swim and a poor 10k (66 minutes) that didn't happen. 3:08.

July 10, 2009

At the end of June, the boys and I went to see kid's symphony at Chautauqua. It was a full orchestra and they played familiar music like ET and Star Wars. The boys really enjoyed it so today we headed back for a less formal concert entitled "Strings and Things." This ended up being just a string quintet (I had to look that up, what's a string quartet with an extra bass?) and lots more talking. Ariel has a talent for quickly surmising situations in which she IS NOT THE CENTER OF ATTENTION and after about 10 minutes she was whining about being thirsty or hungry or tired or bored. But she mostly kept to herself and the boys and I were able to enjoy the strings.

Before the onslaught of boredom:



The string quintet:



And Alex put up this welcome sign a few weeks ago. It's a porcupine from Harold and the Purple Crayon and it does say Welcome underneath. My only question is, is it a welcome sign solely for porcupines? Is that why it's 2' off the ground? Is Dexter welcome as well?



PS - I partook in Jean Skirt Friday. It did not bring as much joy to my life as anticipated.

July 9, 2009

Just our regularly scheduled Thursday for you. The kids did swimming lessons and I took my camera to show all the progress Ariel has made. At her first lesson, she was hesitant to put her face in the water. Now she's underwater more that she is above it:







She's still only safe in water she can touch the bottom in but it's great she's enjoying it so much!

July 8, 2009

Random Update Post:

- We went up to Breckenridge last Friday. Jeremy had already been there for a week, working on the remodel (see pictures of facebook). We are adding a garage and two bedrooms plus a bunch a little stuff. Hopefully it will be done before ski season. Devon is acting at the GC and Jeremy and his cousin Grant are helping with the rough framing. Most other things besides siding and painting will be contracted out. We are paying for half the remodel, and when it's all said it done will own 15% of the house.

- On Saturday, I rode my bike from Frisco to Leadville and back. On the way home, I got a flat tire. I stopped and changed it (as the competent biker woman that I am). A few men stopped by and asked if I needed help and I assured them I was ok. Then one guy came back and would not take no for an answer so I let him put my tire back on. We talked a while before his wife rode up and I realized it was Tom, of Tom and Kathy (Covell). AKA, the ONLY people I know that live full time in Summit County. Seriously, what are the odds? I would never have recognized them in their bike clothes out riding.

- I let Adam open a package I got from Kimberly-Clark. I thought it was a diaper sample. It was not. I still have not directly answered his questions on what exactly he opened.

- Last night I slipped in the shower. I managed to fall out of the tub, taking down the shower curtain but not hitting my head or twisting/straining/breaking anything. On the way down I had the thought, "So this is how people die in the shower."

- When Hooker visited us last week, she torn our screen door. It's now open like a cat door on the bottom. Last night, we heard Abby making a weird noise (the Tabitha-the-might-ball-hunter cry) and found her in the family room with a house sparrow. I thought she killed it, so imagine my surprise when I went to put it in a newspaper bag and it flew around our house. We had a madcap chase involving me, Jeremy and a taco kit box before getting it out the mudroom door. And later, Abby cried again, announcing she had brought me a live earthworm. She's probably have more hunting luck if she had any teeth left.

- This morning I got the results of my lab work back. My ferritin (iron stores) are extremely low at 12. Athletes should be more around 80, and can be as high as 190. It's hard to get enough iron through ingestion (thought I've been taking a supplement and eating red meat) so I had an iron IV today. I'll need about 2, which should get my iron stores back up to the 60-80 range. Iron is needed to make more red blood cells and endurance athletes kinda need all the red blood cells they can get. The kids behaved very well while I got the IV, it took about 30 minutes. I should feel like I have more energy in about 10 days. Today, however, I had the reverse problem since the doctor had me take Benadryl to ward off any possible reaction. Holy Cow did I have a slow and tired ride later.

- So back to the Breckenridge weekend and my iron levels - usually at altitude you make more red blood cells to compensate for less oxygen (which is why athletes like training at altitude). Since I had no extra iron to make more red blood cells, I just got more fatigued. So there's your practical application.

- Ariel was the only kid of the three to try yoga at daycare. And I think she liked it. Maybe it will help with her anger management, hair combing went especially poorly this morning.

We got the slip-n-slide out today. All kids tried it, with varying degrees of success.