I wrote this post last August but never got it off my netbook and onto the web.
------------------------------
I don't have the energy to do a full story on the triathlons that we did a couple weeks ago. So here are some highlights.
The Night Before the Kids Races:
We camped. It was hot when we started setting up our camp. It was hot a lot.
We went to packet-pickup and to eat. The restaurant that we chose had lost its air conditioning. They gave us free drinks and we ate on their patio but I would have preferred cold air.
When we got back we had a camp fire with Mrk and Mg and Mtt and Mtt's family.
Matt tried to start the fire with me giving useless advice. Mg came and saved the day with her mastery over fire.
Mrk and Mg are camping experts.
Marshmallows were roasted and s'mores made.
The kids all played together and had fun.
Bedtime was late for the kids, after 10pm. Not really ideal for pre-race sleep.
It was a challenge getting Gwen to sleep. After letting her cry her-self to sleep outside the tent (thankfully we weren't at the "quiet" camp ground) and a failed attempt to transfer her to the bed, I wound up sitting with her in the van.
There were no bugs in the van and it muffled the sounds of her crying.
Eventually, she fell asleep but according to Arial, spent a good chunk of the night awake and moving.
Then there was a vicious thunderstorm.
Kids' Triathlons:
Both Frances and Johann did great.
There were no major problems for either of them.
It was really cool to see them each gut it out all the way to the end of the run.
When Johann got his medal, he beamed with pride (and looked like he got a second wind).
When Frances got her medal, she was tired. She posed nicely for the picture but she had left it all out on the course.
I couldn't be more proud of them.
The Night Before Adult Races:
That night we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows (for s'mores).
The kids played together again, although Frances was bummed because there weren't any girls to play with and her ear hurt (which turned out to be infected).
Around 11pm Johann threw up in his sleep. We bagged up his pillow pet, cleaned up the spot on the air mattress and put down the extra sleeping bag we had brought.
Meanwhile, Johann had curled up and fallen back to sleep. He slept through me finishing cleaning him up.
Frances and Gwen slept through the whole vomit episode.
At 4am, I woke up to Frances screaming bloody murder. It took me a bit to figure out that Johann had rolled onto her hair. After extracting the hair she stopped screaming and went back to sleep.
At 5am I got up for the tri.
Adult Race:
My race went great. I had decided to just have fun and I did, even when I was tired.
I did well for me. There was a bit of amazement where I saw that I took 9th in my division (later I found out there were only 14 people in my division). Arial told me that I had the 22nd fastest bike time overall (later I found out that she didn't read the results correctly and that I had the 22nd fastest T2).
T2 went fast. I just wore the same shoes for biking and running.
On the swim, the moment that I was thinking about how few swimmers were around me, I got smashed in the face by someone wearing a wetsuit. Cheater.
Oh yeah, the water was too warm for wet suits. It slowed everyone down but it did make for a comfortable swim.
Mrk had a rough time with leg cramps during his (Olympic distance) run. Even with the cramping issues he beat my Olympic time from three years ago (and wet suits were legal that year).
It was a lot of fun. We're looking forward to doing it again next year.
mwz
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Summer Triathlon
This is an old post that I wrote about the triathlons that we did this summer. I didn't get around to posting it though.
---
I don't have the energy to do a full story on the triathlons that we did a couple weeks ago. So here are some bulletted highlights.
The Night Before the Kids Races:
We camped. It was hot when we started setting up our camp. It was hot a lot.
We went to packet-pickup and to eat. The restaurant that we chose had lost its air conditioning. They gave us free drinks and we ate on their patio but I would have prefered cold air.
When we got back we had a camp fire with Mrk and Mg and Mtt and Mtt's family.
Matt tried to start the fire with me giving useless advice. Mg came and saved the day with her mastery over fire.
Mrk and Mg are camping experts.
Marshmallows were roasted and smores made.
The kids all played together and had fun.
Bedtime was late for the kids, after 10pm. Not really ideal for pre-race sleep.
It was a challenge getting Gwen to sleep. After letting her cry her-self to sleep outside the tent (thankfully we weren't at the "quiet" camp ground) and a failed attempt to transfer her to the bed, I wound up sitting with her in the van.
There were no bugs in the van and it muffled the sounds of her crying.
Eventually, she fell asleep but according to Arial, spent a good chunck of the night awake and moving.
Then there was a vicious thunderstorm.
Kids' Triathlons:
Both Frances and Johann did great.
There were no major problems for either of them.
It was really cool to see them each gut it out all the way to the end of the run.
When Johann got his medal, he beamed with pride (and looked like he got a second wind).
When Frances got her medal, she was tired. She posed nicely for the picture but she had left it all out on the course.
I couldn't be more proud of them.
The Night Before Adult Races:
That night we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows (for s'mores).
The kids played together again, although Frances was bummed because there weren't any girls to play with and her ear hurt (which turned out to be infected).
Around 11pm Johann threw up in his sleep. We bagged up his pillow pet, cleaned up the spot on the air mattress and put down the extra sleeping bag we had brought.
Meanwhile, Johann had curled up and fallen back to sleep. He slept through me finishing cleaning him up.
Frances and Gwen slept through the whole vomit episode.
At 4am, I woke up to Frances screaming bloody murder. It took me a bit to figure out that Johann had rolled onto her hair. After extracting the hair she stopped screaming and went back to sleep.
At 5am I got up for the tri.
Adult Race:
My race went great. I had decided to just have fun and I did, even when I was tired.
I did well for me. There was a bit of amazement where I saw that I took 9th in my division (later I found out there were only 14 people in my division). Arial told me that I had the 22nd fastest bike time overall (later I found out that she didn't read the results correctly and that I had the 22nd fastest T2).
T2 went fast. I just wore the same shoes for biking and running.
On the swim, the moment that I was thinking about how few swimmers were around me, I got smashed in the face by someone wearing a wetsuit. Cheater.
Oh yeah, the water was too warm for wet suits. It slowed everyone down but it did make for a comfortable swim.
Mrk had a rough time with leg cramps during his (Olympic distance) run. Even with the cramping issues he beat my olympic time from three years ago (and wet suits were legal that year).
It was a lot of fun. We're looking forward to doing it again next year.
mwz
---
I don't have the energy to do a full story on the triathlons that we did a couple weeks ago. So here are some bulletted highlights.
The Night Before the Kids Races:
We camped. It was hot when we started setting up our camp. It was hot a lot.
We went to packet-pickup and to eat. The restaurant that we chose had lost its air conditioning. They gave us free drinks and we ate on their patio but I would have prefered cold air.
When we got back we had a camp fire with Mrk and Mg and Mtt and Mtt's family.
Matt tried to start the fire with me giving useless advice. Mg came and saved the day with her mastery over fire.
Mrk and Mg are camping experts.
Marshmallows were roasted and smores made.
The kids all played together and had fun.
Bedtime was late for the kids, after 10pm. Not really ideal for pre-race sleep.
It was a challenge getting Gwen to sleep. After letting her cry her-self to sleep outside the tent (thankfully we weren't at the "quiet" camp ground) and a failed attempt to transfer her to the bed, I wound up sitting with her in the van.
There were no bugs in the van and it muffled the sounds of her crying.
Eventually, she fell asleep but according to Arial, spent a good chunck of the night awake and moving.
Then there was a vicious thunderstorm.
Kids' Triathlons:
Both Frances and Johann did great.
There were no major problems for either of them.
It was really cool to see them each gut it out all the way to the end of the run.
When Johann got his medal, he beamed with pride (and looked like he got a second wind).
When Frances got her medal, she was tired. She posed nicely for the picture but she had left it all out on the course.
I couldn't be more proud of them.
The Night Before Adult Races:
That night we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows (for s'mores).
The kids played together again, although Frances was bummed because there weren't any girls to play with and her ear hurt (which turned out to be infected).
Around 11pm Johann threw up in his sleep. We bagged up his pillow pet, cleaned up the spot on the air mattress and put down the extra sleeping bag we had brought.
Meanwhile, Johann had curled up and fallen back to sleep. He slept through me finishing cleaning him up.
Frances and Gwen slept through the whole vomit episode.
At 4am, I woke up to Frances screaming bloody murder. It took me a bit to figure out that Johann had rolled onto her hair. After extracting the hair she stopped screaming and went back to sleep.
At 5am I got up for the tri.
Adult Race:
My race went great. I had decided to just have fun and I did, even when I was tired.
I did well for me. There was a bit of amazement where I saw that I took 9th in my division (later I found out there were only 14 people in my division). Arial told me that I had the 22nd fastest bike time overall (later I found out that she didn't read the results correctly and that I had the 22nd fastest T2).
T2 went fast. I just wore the same shoes for biking and running.
On the swim, the moment that I was thinking about how few swimmers were around me, I got smashed in the face by someone wearing a wetsuit. Cheater.
Oh yeah, the water was too warm for wet suits. It slowed everyone down but it did make for a comfortable swim.
Mrk had a rough time with leg cramps during his (Olympic distance) run. Even with the cramping issues he beat my olympic time from three years ago (and wet suits were legal that year).
It was a lot of fun. We're looking forward to doing it again next year.
mwz
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Handful
Gwen has started to become a bit of a handful.
She likes to carry things around the house now. Shoes often get separated from their mates. Bath toys wind up in our bed room.
The worst is that we think she has hidden (or maybe thrown away) our DVR remotes (both of them). I don't think she likes the TV. Especially when we are watching it instead of her.
Gwen has also started climbing. We just got bunk beds for Frances' room (in the unlikely event that Gwen leaves our bed). Gwen can clime the ladder to the top. She can't get up to the bed from their though, which is good because one of the things she does when she gets up their is throw her legs over the side like she'd getting off a regular bed. It's better she get stuck than fall from the top bunk.
Basically, we now keep Frances' door closed.
She also can climb onto the dining room table. And tonight she climbed to the top of the cat tree. We got the cat tree so the cats could climb up to their food but Gwen wouldn't. That plan is shot.
As an aside, Gwen seems to really like owls. We went to the natural history museum and there was a case with about 20 different stuffed owls. She would point and say "Owa". She also said "Oo" which could have been a try for "who" (like an owl says) or just regular old ooing. We had to go back to that case a second time to see them again.
mwz
She likes to carry things around the house now. Shoes often get separated from their mates. Bath toys wind up in our bed room.
The worst is that we think she has hidden (or maybe thrown away) our DVR remotes (both of them). I don't think she likes the TV. Especially when we are watching it instead of her.
Gwen has also started climbing. We just got bunk beds for Frances' room (in the unlikely event that Gwen leaves our bed). Gwen can clime the ladder to the top. She can't get up to the bed from their though, which is good because one of the things she does when she gets up their is throw her legs over the side like she'd getting off a regular bed. It's better she get stuck than fall from the top bunk.
Basically, we now keep Frances' door closed.
She also can climb onto the dining room table. And tonight she climbed to the top of the cat tree. We got the cat tree so the cats could climb up to their food but Gwen wouldn't. That plan is shot.
As an aside, Gwen seems to really like owls. We went to the natural history museum and there was a case with about 20 different stuffed owls. She would point and say "Owa". She also said "Oo" which could have been a try for "who" (like an owl says) or just regular old ooing. We had to go back to that case a second time to see them again.
mwz
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
France's Race Report
The following was written by Frances about our recent trip. I cleaned up the very few spelling and punctuation mistakes. - mwz
My Trip
We went to a stat park in Wisconsin. We went camping there. We went there because I had a triathlon there. We got to stay up late.
At the triathlon, when I was swimming I was faster than when I ran in the lake and every time I swam I needed to breath. Next I had to bike 3 miles. It was 2 laps around. For the run I was so tired.
I had fun on my trip.
My Trip
We went to a stat park in Wisconsin. We went camping there. We went there because I had a triathlon there. We got to stay up late.
At the triathlon, when I was swimming I was faster than when I ran in the lake and every time I swam I needed to breath. Next I had to bike 3 miles. It was 2 laps around. For the run I was so tired.
I had fun on my trip.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Transformers III
Arial let me sneak out to see the late showing of Transformers 3.
It's been getting pretty bad reviews but I loved it.
It had Transformers fighting other Transformers; People fighting Transformers; Transformers transforming.
There were even scenes where there weren't Transformers, if you are into that sort of thing.
I had to see it in 3D since that was the latest show and I'm kinda glad I did. There were a couple spots where it was incredible but for most of the film, I didn't really care.
Where the 3D did help was during fight scenes. In previous movies, sometimes robots blended into one another during fights making it hard to tell what was going on. But the depth really helped sort out where each robot was. I never felt confused.
The only thing that took me out of the movie was the crazy amount of product placement. It was more than just noticing new guns that attach to Autobots for the express purpose of selling new toys. There were product shots everywhere.
For a little bit, I thought one of the companies in the movie was Lenovo. It wasn't until I saw another Lenovo computer somewhere else that it dawned on me that that was strange.
All in all, I had a great time. I'm glad I didn't take the kids though (it was pretty brutal).
mwz
It's been getting pretty bad reviews but I loved it.
It had Transformers fighting other Transformers; People fighting Transformers; Transformers transforming.
There were even scenes where there weren't Transformers, if you are into that sort of thing.
I had to see it in 3D since that was the latest show and I'm kinda glad I did. There were a couple spots where it was incredible but for most of the film, I didn't really care.
Where the 3D did help was during fight scenes. In previous movies, sometimes robots blended into one another during fights making it hard to tell what was going on. But the depth really helped sort out where each robot was. I never felt confused.
The only thing that took me out of the movie was the crazy amount of product placement. It was more than just noticing new guns that attach to Autobots for the express purpose of selling new toys. There were product shots everywhere.
For a little bit, I thought one of the companies in the movie was Lenovo. It wasn't until I saw another Lenovo computer somewhere else that it dawned on me that that was strange.
All in all, I had a great time. I'm glad I didn't take the kids though (it was pretty brutal).
mwz
Wednesday, July 06, 2011
T-Ball
Frances and Johann are getting so much better at T-ball.
At last nights game, they both hit the ball without using the T.
Johann showed a lot of guts. During his first at bat, he tripped on the plate on his way to first base. His knee got skinned up pretty good. But Johann got right up and ran to first. It wasn't until he got back in the dugout did anyone notice that he was bleeding.
Arial got him a big band-aid and he played the rest of the game (albeit with a slight limp).
I was very proud.
mwz
At last nights game, they both hit the ball without using the T.
Johann showed a lot of guts. During his first at bat, he tripped on the plate on his way to first base. His knee got skinned up pretty good. But Johann got right up and ran to first. It wasn't until he got back in the dugout did anyone notice that he was bleeding.
Arial got him a big band-aid and he played the rest of the game (albeit with a slight limp).
I was very proud.
mwz
Friday, July 01, 2011
Walking
So, Gwen took her first steps not too long ago and now she has started toddling all over the place. Crawling is still her long distance travel method but for short journeys it's walking all the way.
mwz
mwz
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