Survivor

I didn't make a video AGAIN this year. But I was in Ann Arbor for work last week and I happened to catch a commercial that said they would be hosting open casting calls at the Ann Arbor Art Fair Thursday and Friday, so I decided it was a sign...After we got done Friday afternoon I headed down, turned in my application, and made a video. It wasn't nearly as cool as the real video I had been imagining, but let's face it--I will be a procrastinator for the rest of my life, so the chances of me making a video next year are no better than this year. At least I'm in the pool of millions of other people who want to be on the show. I'm sure they'll call...any day now...probably Jeff Probst himself...so don't tie up my phone lines, ok?

plodding along

I finished my first Olympic distance triathlon on Sunday. Officially, an Olympic tri consists of a 1.5K swim, a 40K bike, and a 10K run. Of course, it's difficult to make the bike course match that exactly, so give or take a mile.

I had a blast! I finished in 2:42, which was faster than my goal, and put me 5th out of 11 in my age group. I really like this distance; I had time to kind of settle into a rhythm in all the legs, although maybe too much of a rhythm in the swim because my time was SLOW! I did get my goggles kicked (or pulled...I'm not really sure what happened) off my face, so there was some time dedicated to trying to tread water with just my feet while putting the goggles back on my face (you try it!). Luckily, I was almost done when that happened, so when the goggles started letting in water because I couldn't get a good seal while in the middle of the lake, it wasn't a big deal and I just kept going.

One more tri for the summer...and then if I can get my knee back to some level of normalcy, the marathon in October.

back to the baby gate

Lexi is the most horrible dog ever! (I'm sure that there are some that are worse, but I've never met them.) I bought another baby gate at Target last night in an attempt to limit her to only the kitchen during the day when we're not home. Unfortunately, the other dogs will suffer in her containment because they will have to stay in the kitchen, too, but I'm pretty sure they sleep all day, so it's probably not a big deal.

We abandoned the baby gate idea several years ago after she finally broke the baby gate we had. I think she chewed on it until it fell apart. In any case, she could jump over the baby gate at a normal height and if you raised it high enough that she couldn't jump it, she could shimmy under it. But, 30 pounds and a bad hip later, I'm pretty sure she won't be able to do that anymore. We tried other alternatives such as blocking the door with the dog cage. She climbed on top and over--leaving her free to roam the house and the other dogs stuck in the kitchen distraught because they couldn't get out. We also tried leaving her in the cage during the day, but there is a lot of barking involved in that because she's pissed that she's in a cage, and we feel sorry for our neighbors. So, it's back to the baby gate--we'll see how long it lasts this time!