Times Flies When You're Having Fun

Wow, last week flew by. I was pretty busy and didn't take the time to sit down and update, so I'll kind of recap any points of interest I can think of that occurred over the last few days.

First of all, for all of you who have been telling me I should read it, I finally broke down, jumped on the bandwagon, and read Stephanie Meyer's uber-popular Twilight. Even though I have been resisting reading it, because it's not my kind of book, I decided it was a pool/lakeside/beach worthy read. I checked the 500-pager out of the library around 12:00 noon on Friday and had finished the entire book by 1:00 pm on Saturday. I didn't think it was fantastic, but it was a good, easy read, and now some things that didn't make sense when I saw the movie recently make a little more sense. Since I already bothered with the first 500 pages of vampire fun, I'm sure I will read the other three books in the series as well. I DO have a lot of pool/lakeside/beach laying around to attend to, so I have a good excuse to indulge in some light-hearted chick lit, my favorite. Next up for pool time today: Nicholas Sparks' Nights in Rodanthe.

Last Wednesday, Gearry and I hosted my head coach Steve and two assistant coaches, Conny and Josh, for a little dinner party on our back porch. Gearry played chef, of course. The food was amazing! The salad was made with baby spinach, strawberries, feta, candied almonds, and poppyseed dressing. For the meat eaters, he made a grilled red snapper. For the vegetarians (Steve and me), he made grilled portabello mushrooms. For everyone, he made goat cheese and fresh herb risotto and grilled asparagus. Gearry picked out a wine that accompanied everything nicely and we also had plenty of cold brew on hand. The evening was great, and as you can see by the picture, the table settings and fresh flowers looked fantastic on the back porch. So much fun to just sit and relax with these people who I worked so hard with all year long.

The Hoosierman Triathlon is getting closer and closer and closer! This Saturday, June 6, at Fairfax Beach. Today, I met up with about 15 triathletes for an organized group ride on the course. It was a social ride at a relatively comfortable pace, so it was fun to ride alongside people who enjoy doing all the same things you do and get to know them. Everyone was so friendly and interesting! Even some of the more seasoned triathletes thought the bike course, with all of its monster hills, was pretty intense, so that made me feel a little bit better about thinking the same thing! After the ride, a few of us decided we wanted to go run the 5K course. Well, it's a good thing we were all together because no one could figure out the trail course! A lot of the orange markers the race organizers put up a couple weeks ago have been taken down or moved, so it was pretty darn confusing. It took us 17 minutes to do the first mile of the trail run... that should say something! I also have a nice cut on my leg from some sticker bushes. The first mile of the run is crazy... Lots of steep, steep trail and you have to jump over creeks, over logs. Dang. But then the last two miles of the run are on the road, so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. If you don't get lost in the woods. They said they are going to remark the trails on Friday night, but I can see someone getting lost. Hopefully it is not me!

Also, perhaps since I last updated or perhaps I just forgot to mention it, Stebby and I decided we had far too little Colleen in our lives these days and so we're heading to Washington, D.C./Annapolis, for a girls' weekend, June 12th-15th. I fly out of Indy Friday afternoon, and Stebby flies out of Columbus around the same time, and we should land about the same time in Baltimore Friday afternoon, where Colleen will pick us up to begin a weekend of fun and mayhem! Can't wait to get crazy with my girls again. Saturday is our D.C. tourist day, which should be fun, and then we'll just see where the wind blows us for Sunday. So, this weekend, triathlon. Next weekend, D.C. Next weekend, Mexico. And then it will almost be July! CRAZY!

Alright, the pool is calling my name for a couple hours of sunning and reading before I drag myself back in front of my laptop to work on my (overdue) assignment for P540. This class seriously blows and is trying to put a damper on my summer, but I'm not going to let it!