good news from the tri !

My sister's new house in Richmond is really, really nice. It's an old 1920's home in a cute little neighborhood, with a storybook fence along the front walk. The house has a had a big remodel, and is just gorgeous. She's done well.

The move itself went off without a hitch. We had the truck fully loaded Friday night. Saturday morning, the moving crew was in top gear. Lots of fam was there, along with a team of good friends. (Much love out to Jacob, Cheryl & her mom, Tyree, Becky, La & his cuz) We had the truck emptied in just a couple hours, with plenty of time afterwards to do a bunch of organizing and maintenance tasks. I kinna like busting out a job like that sometimes, but I sure am happy that's not how I earn my paycheck every week.

The Taylor Love Sprint Triathlon kicked off bright and early Sunday morning. Actually, "bright" is a poor choice of words. We had to be on site by 530am to get inked and checked in, and it was definitely still the middle of the night.

This was my second time running this race, so I was pretty excited to compare this year's performance to last year. I remarked last week that I was nervous about my preparation. The nerves got tighter & tighter right up until I got in the water. Once I kicked off the wall to start, my brain cleared and things fell right into place.

I couldn't have been happier with the results! The only number that got worse was my age! Swim & bike both kicked tail, but as you can see below, my run still sucks (pic of my bad form).

Start position (based on estimated swim time)
2008 - 157th
2009 - 116th (out of 330 people)

Finish position
2008 - 79th, 24th in the 35-39 age group
2009 - 54th, 16th in the 35-39 age group (next year I'm with the really old guys)

Swim - 300 yards
2008 - 12:24
2009 - 6:47

Bike - 17+ miles
2008 - 1:04:00 - 16.7mph avg speed
2009 - 0:57:09 - 18.5mph avg speed

Run - 2 miles
2008 - 18:58 - 9:29 avg mile
2009 - 18:04 - 9:02 avg mile

Total Time (includes transition times, like putting helmet & shoes on after swim)
2008 - 1:36:32
2009 - 1:25:17

Next year's goals (publicly shared, which makes it a lot harder to back out)
- Race in minimum three triathlon events
- At least one of those three is Olympic distance
- Get my run down to 7:30 / mile

Other news...

School finished up last week. Banged out both classes with an A. I'm on a break between semesters until the second week of October. It feels really good to have a bit of free time in the evening, especially since football season has started eating my Monday nights.

Kid2 abused her cell phone privs and got on her mom's bad side, and earned a restriction from text messaging for the past year or so. I think it punished me more than it punished her. The ban was lifted this week, so now I can chat with her while she's in class again.

Weekend plans - heading back down to the Richmond area again tomorrow. This time, we're checking out the VA State Fair. Rain or shine, no worries, there's a lot of indoor stuff to do, too. Last time we went was about 8 years ago, and we found a bunch of firetrucks at my house when we got home. The three cripples had a chimney fire at home while we were at the fair. (I'll tell that story sometime soon. It's worth the wait.)

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I really have no idea what to do with this one. The title makes me giggle like I'm 13 years old, though. The Glean of Glob.

Get high, without losing your clearance or going to jail.

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It Made My Day - Like Texts From Last Night, but with less embarrassing entries.

Top 10 weirdest moments from The Muppet Show.

Basic science info - This should be a pre-req for spawning or voting.

Facebook brings all your worlds together.

How throwback jerseys are hurting the NFL.

No comment.


Oh, my. Looks like someone shared a bit too much info about Josh's aim. (Headphones REQUIRED!)

Al Franken is a breath of fresh air in politics. So many of those jackoffs are so far removed from the real world, they've totally forgotten what their job is supposed to be all about.

Boom with the muay thai!


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