Danskin Tri 2008

This years Danskin Tri can be summed up in two words: Kick Ass! I felt good going into the swim, confident and relaxed. The fact that the last few days have been in the upper 80's low 90's also made the swim much more enjoyable as the water temp was lovely for an early morning swim. However, knowing there were several hundred women set to swim behind me makes one swim rather quickly. In fact, I did several things rather quickly this morning:

• Swim: 22:03
• 1st Transition: 5:52 (not so good but we were .13 miles away from the main entrance with our bikes in the way back!)
• Bike: 51:55
• 2nd Transition: 2:08 (much better!)
• Run: 34:46
• Total Time: 1 hour 56 min - my best time ever and four minutes off of last years tri!

I have to say I'm very proud of myself and Darcy (2 hours) and Mara (kick ass 1:37!) I had said earlier that this was going to be my third and last tri, now, um, I thinking I could come back for a fourth. However, this will be my last one on my extremely heavy mountain bike - I'm so getting a road bike!

Rebecca was there with her camera to capture all of the moments! Here are some of her great pics!

Time to carbo load!

The body marking is on. The bikes are racked. And the homemade spaghetti sauce is cooking on the stove (despite the 90 degree heat!)! The best part about this years Danskin Tri? Is this:

Mara, Darcy and I are all in the same bike section and our transition areas are right next to each other! In fact, they are in the same race heat and start 3 minutes after I hit the water! We all have been working really hard this summer and I'm proud of all of us! Stay tuned for tomorrow's race result posting. My goal for my third tri was 1 hour 45 minutes - that's 15 minutes off of last years time. Although now I'm thinking it's more of a guideline and if I'm under 2 hours, I'll be happy!

Yeah, that's a lot of bikes. And once again, I am in the freakin' last bike rack of 5,000 racers! I have to run past all of these bikes after my swim just to get to my bike and transition area!!! Oh well.

Thieves don't like broccoli

Or radishes. But they do like apples, bananas, peaches, bagged spinach, potatoes, two cans of organic tomato sauce, green onions and organic rolls. How do I know this you wonder? Because that's what was supposed to in my organic delivery box yesterday. Only, the wasn't there. Today when I came home, the delivery box was there. But when I opened it up, the only things in it were the broccoli, radishes and the carrot bunch tops. And they had clearly been there sitting in the sun for a while. I'm thinking someone in our complex found our box and returned it to us. So now we're cancelling our organic delivery service so it won't turn out to be a free organic meal for someone every Tuesday. While, I'm disappointed in yet another robbery from us (the car, the bike, several car break-ins resulting in car/window damage in case you keeping track along with me), I'm surprised it hasn't happened earlier. I'm just going to look at this as our organic contribution to the food bank.

It's race week!

And racer #2839 (that's me) is ready to go! My third Danskin Sprint Triathlon is Sunday - that's a 1/2 mile swim, 13 mile bike ride and a 5 k. I'm planning on channeling my inner Dara Torres for a strong swim, my inner Kristin Armstrong for a good bike ride (she's a cyclist from Boise who's in the Olympics and she's an Idaho Vandal!), and for a good run, I'll channel....well, the only strong female runner I can think of right now is Marion Jones. And since she's in jail for doping and then lying about it, perhaps I'll just try to run fast on my own.

Friday Night Jam

Another Friday night, another trip to the Phinney Ridge Farmers Market. Tonight was all about raspberry jam. My dear friend June came over to help me with my first jammin' session. My mom is also in town this weekend so it was a fun girls night!

Before:
During:

During:

After:

A few quick tastes tests so far reveal lots of yums!!!

(Don't worry, there's more jars than these!)

In just 6-8 short weeks, it'll be here

The yarn I finally picked out to make my February Lady Sweater is on its way. But it'll be a while. I ended up going with the Aurora 8 merino wool in New Leaf. The color spoke to me when I saw it. It said, "Meg, pick me. I'll be a fabulous sweater and make your eyes sparkle!"

Now with a promise like that, who could resist? I can't wait to jump on the band wagon of knitters making the sweater and land in a big soft pile of pretty yarn.

In the meantime, while I patiently wait for the yarn to get here, I'm hoping to finish a project or two (or three). Ok, four.

Why sock knitting is like that bad Junior High crush

Admit it. Most of us had them. You know, those Junior High crushes on the boy that didn't even know your name. You didn't pay attention in math because you were too busy day dreaming about how you two would go to the dance together and live happily ever after. Or maybe you didn't pay attention because when your notes should have been about some mathematic equation, you were too busy writing his last name after your first name. Deny it if you like, but we had them. No matter how much you wanted him to like you (or for that matter, even know your name), it just wasn't in the cards. That's kind of how I feel about sock knitting. I want to love it. I want it to love me back. But I don't feel that way right now. And I haven't felt that way in a long time (remember the Toe Jazz socks? Yeah, me neither.)

But like any good Junior High student, I'll keep at my studies and try to focus. I'll keep working on the socks with the hopes that one day, the crush will be fulfilled.

Eat Local Challenge: Week Two

Another week, another trip to the Phinney Ridge Farmers Market. This week I kind of made up dinner based on a recipe I pulled off the Internet a while ago. It's for roasted veggie wraps. But there are no locally made wraps around here that I'm aware of so I had to improvise. Instead, I roasted the veggies (zucchini, potatoes, onions) for a sandwich. I bought foccia bread, locally made chevre with Herbs de Provence, veggies and created a lovely sandwich. I roasted the veggies, then toasted the bread, veggies and cheese. It was quite yummy, however, the hubby took one look at it and wondered where the meat was. But in the end, he cleaned his plate.

I also bought more raspberries and blueberries. The blueberries are set to become muffins this weekend while the raspberries are perfect for snacking. However, if they are still around next week, they'll become jam!

A New Year

My friends all said that 33 is a lucky number, so this should be a good year for me. I have to say, I believe that my last few years have been very lucky and good. But who am I to argue with numerology!

And if this isn't any indication that I'm off to a good start, two of my coworkers thought I was in my late 20's!

Here's the birthday pic with the hubby! As our friend pointed out, it wasn't just my birthday, but the 2 year anniversary of when we got engaged! For my gift, he gave me a bouquet of my favorite flowers and tickets to the opera next week!

Eat Local Challenge: Week One

This was my first week of Heather's Eat Local Challenge. I almost didn't make it. The week turned out to be a little more crazy/hectic than I thought. I started out missing my weekly trip to the Ballard Farmers Market due to a long/hard training workout that was immediately followed by a nap. The rest of the week looked very similar. But on Friday night, I hit the Phinney Ridge Farmers Market after work. I'm so glad I went. If you haven't been to this market, I highly suggest it. I think it could quickly become my favorite one! I bought everything for our dinner:

• Beef Rib Eye from Olsen Farms in Colville, WA


• Lettuce from Carnation, WA which was mixed with lettuce from my container garden & carrots from our organic delivery service (they came from another farm in Washington, but I'm not sure where)


• Potatoes from Carnation, WA


• Blueberries and Raspberries from Fir Island

I added that with bread from the Essential Baking Company and a couple of glasses of wine from Chateau St. Michelle. It was a fabulous dinner. I look forward to more of these!

Apparently, I'm a Protector

You Are An INFJ

The Protector You live your life with integrity, originality, vision, and creativity. Independent and stubborn, you rarely stray from your vision - no matter what it is. You are an excellent listener, with almost infinite patience. You have complex, deep feelings, and you take great care to express them. In love, you truly see relationships as an opportunity to connect and grow. You enjoy relationships as long as they are improving and changing. You can't stand stagnation. At work, you stay motivated and happy... as long as you are working toward a dream you support. You would make a great photographer, alternative medicine guru, or teacher. How you see yourself: Hardworking, ethical, and helpful When other people don't get you, they see you as: Manipulative, weak, and unstable

What's" Your Personality Type?

Birthday Month

It's birthday month around here and I'm a big fan of it, I must say. I treated myself to a little crafting pre-birthday gift.It's the Bend the Rules Sewing book from Amy Karol. I've been eyeing this little gem for a while now. Now I own it and I'm still eyeing the pretty pictures. I'm hoping they will provide a little sewing inspiration as I dig around in my fabric stash and try to get creative.

Getting off the bench & into the game

I'm officially getting off the bench and signing up for Heather's local food challenge! For weeks now, I've been admiring the delightfully delicious creations everyone has cooked up. Now it's my turn to get creative while supporting local farmers.

And it's a good thing too. We've signed up for organic delivery for fruits and veggies, however they have all organic stuff but they still get stuff from Mexico, New Zealand, etc. I had to explain to the hubby that he couldn't buy anything that wasn't from Washington or Oregon (and I don't even think the Oregon stuff counts for the food challenge). In fact, on our first order they sent us a fact sheet about our food. It said that the average food travels from the fields to the table is 1500 miles. Our first order: our food came a whopping 1450. Clearly we have our work cut out for us.

Time to get serious

My third Danskin Sprint Triathlon is less than a month away. My fabulous training partner Darcy has been a great inspiration to workout with. We push each other, give encouragement and vent frustrations when a workout is very, very tough. Since this is my third tri, I'm really hoping to do well and push myself farther and harder than in the past. My goal is to do the 1/2 mile swim; 13 mile bike ride and 5k run in 1hour 45 minutes.

Better get back to training.

Tri Training, Knitting & One Less Car On The Road

In an effort to get in some triathlon training where ever I can, and to keep up with my goal of using my car less, I decided to ride my bike up to the Fiber Gallery after work to pick up my new sock book. I figured it'd be about 3 miles each way. Easy-peasy, right? Well, as you savvy Seattle knitters know, the Fiber Gallery is on Phinney Ridge. That's ridge as in big fat freakin' steep hill.

Not to be deterred, but rather challenged, I figured, why not. So I rode from my place up Fremont Ave to the zoo, then cut across to the main drag along Phinney Ridge. At about 39th and Fremont, I'm sucking wind big time. Muscles in my legs (and ass) were aching that I didn't know ever existed. So, having no shame what-so-ever, I got off and walked my bike up and even steeper part of the road. Now the thing about this road is, it's not as crazy steep as many hills in Seattle, it's a slight incline that just goes on and on (OK, maybe it's 2.1 miles, but it seemed like eternity.)

About halfway up the hill, I did get back on and power through. It was worth it. It was a beautiful afternoon and Jessica was working and greeted me with a smile. She didn't even mind that I was totally sweaty, panting, and slightly ditzy. I even couldn't remember if I needed a skein of Manos or Malibrego for a scarf I want to make.

Here's a view of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains! You don't always see that when you're whizzing by in a car!

Christmas in July

This is the year that I actually start my Christmas gifts early! And I even whittled down the list of who gets knitted gifts. This year's first project goes to my dad. He's getting knitted socks. I'm very excited about this project because I'm learning how to do socks on two circular needles and I have to say, I'm totally loving this and wondering why the heck it took me so long to get here? It's a pretty simple sock pattern (more on that when I actually buy the book - look for post to come later this week.)

But here's the reason for the socks for dad (aside from the fact that he's the best dad and deserves handknit socks from his kid). My sister and I have a running joke about who's the favorite daughter. It can be for either parent. At any time and for any reason. For example, I was talking to my dad the other day when he got a call on the other line. He went to answer it, came back and said it was Lindsay (the sister). I said, "Did you tell her you'd call her back later because you were talking to your favorite daughter on the other line?" That type of stuff.

When I was visiting the family over the Fourth of July at our place in Cascade, my dad proudly displayed his new favorite toy. It was a gift from Lindsay for Fathers Day. And I can honestly say, I've been dethroned as favorite kid. This gift freakin' blew everything out of the water. No comparison.

My dad now owns a bright orange Boise State University beer bottle opener that plays the Paul J. Schnider final call of the famed Fiesta Bowl game where the BSU Broncos came from behind in the final seconds to win the game. (I hate to do this, but to get an idea of how great this play was - in the minds of Broncos - here's a link to a crappy YouTube clip where the BSU fan actually spelled Boise wrong in the title. It's just classic.)

And the best part, she found it for 99 cents. (Editor's note: personally, I believe that's because no one would want that reminder of a game, but whatever.) So needless to say, he went around all weekend offering to open all of our beer bottles. The rest of the guests were all Idaho Vandals (for those readers not from Idaho, this is the big, massive football rival. It's messy. It's personal. It ain't pretty.) But it made my dad happy. Especially as we all squirmed when the damn thing would go off.

Now, to give my non-Idaho readers another perspective of how beloved this damn game is, it was played about two years ago and if you go into any big store that sells T.V.'s in Boise, they still replay that game on all of their T.V.'s and people still stop and watch it. Plu-eezeee, get over it for crying out loud. Move on. That's what I'm hoping these socks will do for my dad, help him move on past that damn game. And put me back in the favorite daughter throne that I so rightfully deserve.

(Pictures of these fabulous-favorite-daughter-winning socks to come later, my camera battery is recharging.)

Mystery Project Revealed

(Editor's note: This photo was totally stolen from Pike Schemes. Photo credit: Shawn)

It has finally arrived at Sara's place in D.C. A very late graduation present for finishing her masters! It's the Easy Lace Scarf pattern made from Tess' Designer Yarns Cascade Silk Worsted in blue. I know it's not scarf wearing season just yet, but I think it looks great on her! Congrats Sara!

Vacation Pics!

The view from our deck across from hole 1 of the golf course and Lake Cascade.

It was a fabulous fun time in Cascade, Idaho! It felt like I had never left. One of the many things I love about Cascade is how relaxing it can be. I did a lot of reading, hanging out with friends and family, and oh, out fishing my dad! Not to brag, but within 10 minutes of throwing the first cast I had landed two Rainbow Trout. Then it did get a little slow, then Matt caught a fish, then we headed in. Our second day out on the water, I once again, out fished dad. What can I say, I learned from the best!

Here are my two favorite fisherman....too bad I caught all the fish!
I love a good small town parade and their floats! But the crowd had gotten much larger over the years. I don't remember that many people along the street when I was a kid.


And another treat for my trip, was visits with friends who were in the area to celebrate the 4th! Like cute little Kellan, who makes a silly face on command for pics!

Summer Vacation

We're hitting the open road to take in some fresh mountain air for the 4th of July! We're heading to Cascade, Idaho to spend a long weekend with family and friends. We're going to be staying at my family's place, and while, it's not fancy by any stretch of the imagination, it's perfect to me. I have lots of happy memories of us staying there as kids, riding our bikes into town to buy ice cream, climbing on the rocks along the lake (which in hindsight may not have been the safest activity, but hey, we were young), and family visits. Then as I got older, more great memories of fun girls weekend get-a-ways with margaritas, gin and tonics, and relaxing. And in one case, a very fun game of mini golf in the front yard while we were all still in our p.j.'s. You had to be there.

I don't have a picture of our place along the lake, I'll have many to share when I get back. But for now, as we in Seattle deal with a lot of heat right now, I'll leave you with shot my dad sent this past winter. They had record snow in the area and he had to park on the street and snow shoe into our place to shovel all of the snow off of the deck and roof. He did that a couple of times.

(Yes, that is snow up to the roof in some places!)

First Crop

It seems the only ones enjoying the heat at our house is the tomatoes. I've discovered my first little ones of the season and I have to admit, I'm pretty excited to see them! Hopefully, by they time we get back from our vacation, they'll be ready to eat, along with our second round of lettuce! I do love a good container garden!

Mystery Project: an FO

The Mystery Project is finally finished! It's wrapped and ready to be given to the person it was meant for! Once it's been opened, I'll post pictures of the mystery project for all to see! I have to admit, it turned out pretty darn good!

My first local side dish

I've been inspired by Heather (and Jen's yummy dishes too!) to try her get local challenge. But I'll confess, I don't think I'm really good at eating local all the time. I try to be, but sometimes, life just doesn't lend to eating local (i.e. running late for work, grab a Lean Cuisine and a Diet Coke - although I'm secretly hoping there's a Coke factory around Seattle somewhere so that would, technically make it local. I think.) But I digress. Tonight, I was able to pull something together. While BBQing our dinner (that was somewhat local), the hubby said:

"So, do we have a salad with dinner?"

I said, "No, we're out of spinach."

He said, "Well, whats that?"

That was my lettuce in the container garden. I guess I was waiting for it to get a little bigger. I guess he was really hungry. Without any veggies to add to the salad (tomorrow is my weekly trip to the Farmers Market), I tossed in dried cranberries and feta and he scarfed it down.

It's been a year...

Since the hubby and I tied the knot! We celebrated with a fabulous dinner at Canlis. I wanted to bring the camera, but the hubby protested, so I figured, I wouldn't be that person taking pictures of her food this one time. But the food was fabulous! And the wine - fabulous! And the uber chocolaty dessert - fabulous! And for the "paper anniversary," the hubby got me a pretty leather bound journal! I love it!

Now, for those of you, ehem, Cousin Mike, who keep telling us to check the mail, this is for you.

Just like Popeye

I am officially a sailor man. I finished my SailNOW! course at the Center for Wooden Boats today under a slightly sunny Seattle sky. The winds were calm, but we did find some good patches of strong wind to set our sails! Now I can check out boats from the Center and take them around Lake Union for a spin.

But unlike Popeye, I like my spinach fresh. Not that canned crap.

Another Guardian Angel

Today Jen M. was laid to rest. She lost her very long and courageous battle with cancer last Thursday. We were friends at the University of Idaho. She was roommates with Sara and April and I was lucky enough to become her friend through them. We had many good times together. She was a beautiful and kind person. We were all very lucky to have someone like her come into our lives. She will be missed.

Family Visit + New York Heat Wave

I don't think I've ever been so happy to pull out my fleece in June as I was when I returned from NYC today! The hubby and I spent the past few days visiting family in NYC! It was quite the fun trip, however, weatherchannel.com failed to mention the HEAT WAVE that hit while we were there! I've never been so hot and miserable in my life! I truly do appreciate how wonderful/beautiful the weather is here in the West!

We got to see and do lots of fun things, but the thing I loved most about this trip was that it turns out one of my dearest friends Sara was in town at the same time! We hooked up and spent Saturday walking around Soho, the Village and Times Square! Despite the heat, we had a fabulous day! She went with me to Purl and Purl Patchwork! Here are some pics of the trip!

Outside of Purl

Me with my new yarn two skeins of Organik in Coral Reef. It's so soft and pretty.

Hmm...is Sara thinking of coming over to the way of the wool?A wall decoration at Purl Patchwork - a very cute fabric shop!

View from a hiking trail in the Hudson Valley...can't remember where, but it was really hot that day!We were able to take in a Yankees game in Yankee Stadium. This is the last year for this stadium so it was fun to catch the game. However, this was on Monday, one of the most miserable days of the heat wave! I can't even begin to describe the agony that was the heat and humidity....and really, I'm trying to block that portion of the trip out of my head!

BAT/KAT project & NYC trip

I saw this on Rebecca's blog* and it is so funny because we just decided to start doing something like this. Claudia is starting the BAT/KAT project: "Bicycling as Transportation/Knitters Alternatively Transporting Project. The goal of which is to substitute at least one bicycling/walking/alternatively transporting trip for one car trip every week."



Just on Saturday, Rebecca and I rode to University Village to run some errands. We figured it took about the same amount of time to ride there as it does to drive and deal with all the traffic. It was a fabulous ride, we did our shopping, loaded our goodies in our backpacks and headed home. The funny thing was, as we were walking around, and it was obvious we had biked to the stores, sales people kept commenting about how great it was that we rode our bikes here. It was funny. It was the best sales service I've had there in a long time!


*She has some semi-cute biking pics of us on her blog if you need a little laugh. We had a little fun at the bike shop while they installed my new bike seat.

In other news, two knitting projects are packed and ready for tomorrow's trip to NYC! It'll be a fun quick visit with the hubby's family! I've already downloaded the map to get to Purl in SOHO and Purl Patchwork! Pics and adventure stories in a few days! I'm also hoping the mold will magically clear up while I'm gone.

WTF??!!!!

We have mold. Black Mold. A lot of it. It was discovered when the dishwasher guy was pulling out the old one to install our new one. It's not only behind where the dishwasher goes, but it's also under the sink, only someone, at one time, painted over it. Yes, you read that right. Someone painted over the black mold. Again, I say WTF???!!!! I can't wait to see how the powers that be will fix this one. Until then, I have no dishwasher and a really ugly hole in my kitchen that makes me queasy just to look at it.

Cute Baby Quilt Causes Guilt

I haven't worked on my friends baby quilt in a really long, long time. I used to think it was adorable and it made me happy to look at it. Now, it makes me feel guilty. Really, really guilty. The kid is going to be heading off to junior high before I get him his quilt at the rate I'm going. So this weekend, I took matters into my own hands. I set up my sewing machine (again) and got to work. Some serious headway was made and it's looking pretty cute once again if I do say so!

Bad Knittng vs. No Knitting

Every night this week I was really proud of myself because no matter how tired I was, I still managed to get some knitting done. Just a few rows here and a few rows there. I had been so tired that no knitting was getting done at all for a while. The other night, I thought, this row looks a little off, but I was too tired to figure it out so I put it away and quickly fell into a TV coma. Then this afternoon, while waiting for a rainstorm to pass before a bike ride, I pulled out my knitting to get a few rows done. However I quickly realized that something was amiss. Instead of the 22 stitches that should have been on the needles, there were 46! Yes, more than double the amount for the pattern. How that happened is beyond me. Obviously, my few tired nights of a few rows there and few row here took a turn for the horribly worse. So I ripped back several, several rows and am now knitting with some nicely caffeinated Diet Coke.

Mystery Project....

I've started working on a new project. It's fun, it's pretty and it's a surprise for someone dear! That's all I'm saying now....