Big plans for landscaping

Lisa and I had a landscape architect draw up some plans for a makeover of our landscape. This is the plan he drew up. We have a few changes that we want to make but overall it looks good.

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Vacation in Bar Harbor, ME

Lisa, Tucker and I have been spending the week in Bar Harbor, ME following my sister's wedding in Camden, ME. The weather here has been gorgeous. The cool seabreeze has made it quite enjoyable. This became especially apparent when I received a text message from my neighbor this morning saying that it was 103 degrees back home. I replied to his text saying that it was chilly enough here last night to necesitate my wearing a jacket. I'm such an ass sometimes.

Bike Trip Preperation

What seems like almost a year ago three of my friends and I decided to embark on an adventure. The adventure that we decided upon was to ride our mountain bikes from Telluride, CO to Moab, UT. One of Tom's old roommates did the trip a few years ago and said that it was amazing. So, that put the wheels on motion. Now, keep in mind that when we decided to take this trip I weighed 245 or so pounds and was getting pretty out of shape. I decided that I needed to lose some weight and, with the help of my friend Lee, I have been able to shed somewhere between 50 to 55 pounds so far. I also have taken a bike repair course to help ensure that we aren't left stranded in the mountains because of something that could easily be fixed with a little bit of know-how.

Now the trip is less than a week away and I'm getting ready to ship my gear to Telluride to ensure that the airlines don't have a chance to lose it, or confiscate my tools as "bomb making equipment". I will do my best to take some pictures so that I can detail the trip on this blog. For now I'll just post the picture of my bike with all of my gear packed on it during my "dry run" last week.

Of Woodchucks and Men

How much could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? According to Cornell researchers the answer would be approximately 700 pounds. I have a different answer if the woodchuck (or groundhog if you prefer) happens to be in my backyard and showing signs of rabies, and the answer is none. In reality, the woodchuck will be too busy being shot by the animal control officer (I know that I design guns for a living and should be able to do this myself) to chuck any wood or anything else for that matter.

Don't think that I enjoyed seeing the woodchuck be shot. I love woodchucks. If I could have one as a pet I totally would. I just happen to fear dying of a disease as unpleasant as rabies. This particular woodchuck may not have been rabid, but he was not at all well. I nearly stepped on him as I walked to my compost bin this afternoon. Seriously, I was about to take a step when I looked down and a few feet from where I was about to step was a cute little woodchuck. The curious thing about this guy though was that he wasn't really in too much of a hurry to not be just a few feet from me. In fact, when he did move it was only somewhat away from me as he seemed to be slowly staggering in circles. This was obviously not a healthy animal.

I thought at first that he may have been hit by a car and had stumbled into the yard, but I got a pretty good look at him and saw no blood. To make a long story short, I ended up calling animal control and they sent an officer right over. The officer agreed that the animal needed to be "dispatched". She used a bolt action Marlin .22 Magnum. The first shot was to the head but the little guy was still fighting so a second was necessary, but it did the trick. She took the body and told me to dump bleach water on the blood, more for peace of mind than anything since rabies is passed through saliva not blood. So that was the most exciting time I've had in a while. The woodchuck is dead, but hopefully he suffered less than if the illness had run its course.

Lisa's Triathlon Thoughts

So Pete's being very generous. The only reason we finished together is the fact that he stood in the transition area until I got out of the water and then stuck behind me on the bike and kept me company on the run. I definitely had trouble in the water - I'm not a fan of open water and I was unprepared for how panicked I'd be in there. I couldn't get my stroke down because I couldn't put my face in the water without increasing the panic because the water was just dark and I couldn't see. I HAVE to be able to see when I'm swimming! Anyway, swimming while panicking really takes a lot out of you! I thought I was quick on the bike, but since my bike computer broke I didn't have the data at the time and Pete told me after we were going much slower than our plan. Then I had a hard time jogging and had to walk a big chunk of the run - I think I was so dehydrated and tired that I just couldn't keep my heart rate under the "holy crap are you having a heart attack right now?" rate. Anyway, I did enjoy it a lot once I got out of the scary, scary water, so I'm definitely up for another. This time we'll have a lot more time to train too, so times should be way better! Anyway, we finished, and that's what matters. I also am just so glad Pete stuck with me. I feel bad that he doesn't know how fast he could have done it if he didn't wait, but selfishly I was SO glad he was with me keeping me going at the end. But hey, as I keep reminding myself...WE DID IT!!!!!!!

Triathlons are fun!

Lisa and I finished our first ever triathlon today. It was the Sobe Mossman Sprint Triathlon in Norwalk, CT. Being a sprint triathlon it has a .5 mile swim, a 12 mile bike and a 5k run. I was pretty concerned about how well the swim would go, being our first open water swim. I was very impressed with the buoyancy provided by the wetsuit. What didn't impress me was the chafing on the back of my neck from the wetsuit. I've gotta remember to put adequate Body Glide(it's a lubricant for your skin) on my neck next time. That's right, I said next time. We'll be doing this again. Aside from that tiny bit of chafing I feel pretty good. My arms are dead from the swim, but otherwise my body didn't fall apart as I feared it would.

You may be wondering who had the better time; me or Lisa. The answer to that question is Lisa. She had a hard time in the water, but she was a flash on the bike and in the run. I could hardly keep up ;) Maybe I'll be able to beat her next time.

I think that we may get pictures of us from the Mossman team. If/when we get them I'll post a few here for all to see.

Triathlon Tripidation

Just a few more days before Lisa and I participate in our first triathlon. I'm totally not worried about it though... Okay, so it may be causing me some anxiety, but it isn't as if it's effecting my sleep or anything. Crap! That's not true either. At least it's only 11:30pm right now. I'm starting to feel more tired than I am anxious. Hopefully I'll reach the point soon where fatigue will kick in and I will be able to sleep and not have to go to work with mere hours of shut-eye.