Irish Vacation

MTH and I are trying to plan our trip to Ireland. Since we've been to Dublin before, we're going to check out the rest of the country. We're thinking of going to Belfast as well. Anyone out there been to Belfast? If so, what would you recommendn doing?

We know that we'll be going to County Cork and County Clare later in the week. Do you recommend any other places that we must see?

I've found an interesting website that helps you to find places to stay along the route. But, if you anyone has any suggestions based on their past experience, we'd love to hear about great places to stay.

I hope to hear from a few of you!

Adirondacks

I'll be posting more pictures from the latest triathlon I've attended this coming weekend. For now, I'll share some scenic pictures of nature from the Lake Placid area.

It's the real thing! Like Christmas in July

Clear water of Mirror Lake

There's Lake Placid

Looking East at the top of White Face Mountain

Kickball

Did I mention that I'm in a kickball league? It's called the River City Sports and Social Club. I met a friend (MusicPhD) of a friend (Vespagirl) while having drinks with MusicPhD and Britgirl. Vespagirl asked if anyone was interested in joining a kickball league. I decided that it might be a good way to meet people so I signed up. We've played five games and have lost five games. But, we're still having fun. I sometimes join them at the bar after but unfortunately, I've not gone as much as I would have liked. Last weekend, they went to Veritas for wine tasting. It's too bad it wasn't on a different weekend because as you know, we were in Geneva, NY for MTH's Musselman. There's another one planned so I'm hoping it will work out for MTH and me to go. I'm also planning to host them for a cookout in August at some point.

I have to leave soon for our sixth game of the season. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can win at least one game for the season although at this point it might be better to play like we're playing Hearts (shoot the moon)! We only have 2 more games after tonight!

ETK to the Rescue

So, you may have noticed the wonderful pictures in my previous post. Those are thanks to my new camera. When I took pictures in MTH's triathlon in June, I found that I could get at most one picture each time he passed. As you might imagine, I sometimes messed up so would be left with no picture for that pass through. Therefore, I decided I needed a new camera. Then, ETK posted about her new camera. I talked to her about what I wanted and voila, I have a new camera. It's not quite as nice as hers but it's close. I can now take almost continuous pictures as MTH rides by on his bike. My pictures of Phoebe capture her as she does something cool, not just her backside.

Now, I just need to take some classes. My kickball games will not allow me to take the next available one as they conflict. But, hopefully, I won't have any conflicts in the fall.

Two New Musselmen

What is a Musselman? Some of you may say they are crazy people. That may be true but they are also very tough people. This past weekend, my husband, MTH, and my sister-in-law, KSH, finished a half ironman length triathlon in Geneva, NY. It is called the Musselman Triathlon (thus, the fact that they are both now Musselmen). The distances are: 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike and 13.1 mile run. The day was beautiful. It started out around 60 degrees and ended around 82 degrees. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Picking up MTH's bike in Geneva

KSH and MTH getting ready for the swim

MTH mentally preparing for the day

MTH's wave of swimmers - they all start at once!

MTH exiting the water

MTH heads off for the scenic bike route

KSH is off on the bike

First guy out for the run - he won

MTH coming back in from the bike ride

MTH off for the last leg - just a half marathon to go

KSH gracefully dismounts the bike after a multiple hour bike ride

She's flying!

And, she's done!

Here comes MTH

Finally, time to relax

MTH's Triathlon

MTH ran the "I Heart The Tavern" Triathlon this morning. It was 750 meter swim, 18 mile bike and a 5k run. He finished in about 1 hour and 44 minutes. I'll update with the exact results once they're posted. Here's some highlights from the race:

MTH informed me that he's at the front of the pack and not even in this picture :)

Look at MTH run in flip flops!

He's getting quicker in the transition area!

Going out for the bike ride

Looking good after the bike ride

Only 5k more to go

What? Did I just do a trail run?

I'm ready for another round.

My Life Lately

This post was originally written on 6/24 but I didn't publish it until today, 7/1.

I know that I haven't posted much lately. Here's a quick review of what's been going on:

1st week in June:
I went to a Happy Hour with my kickball team at Nacho Mama's. We're called the Bad Guys from Fraggle Rock. I'm not sure what the significance of that name is. That weekend MTH and I went to DC for the Lawyers Have Heart 10K. The night before the 10K, AL and I went to the Village Bistro and The Dairy Godmother, home of the best French custard. I definitely miss Alexandria! I had hoped to stop by Cheesetique and Whole Foods before leaving the DC area but MTH had to hurry back on Saturday in order to work and work out.

2nd week in June:
We had our first kickball game. We lost (badly). But, we did have fun at Sine after the game. That weekend was the James River Scramble and the James River Splash that MTH and I took part in. For the rest of the weekend, I hung out with my parents. MTH was working a lot of that time unfortunately. He did get to catch up with us over dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. SM, Mom and I made a cake to celebrate SM's and MTH's birthdays early. We also tried out barbecuing chicken on the grill with woodchips. I made a homemade bbq sauce that we brushed on the chicken at the end. It turned out quite nice.

3rd week in June:
I missed our second kickball game on Tuesday as I thought I was going to be traveling to Northern VA for work. I ended up staying in Richmond until Wednesday. I was going up to NYC to go to a work party with MTH. As a side note, MTH has been basically working out of the NYC office lately. My flight was originally supposed to leave at 7:15pm. Instead, we left around 10:15pm. Because I was so delayed, MTH and I landed at LaGuardia about the same time. He was coming from a day trip to Dallas. We took a taxi to our hotel, W New York. When we go to check in, they inform us that they are sold out and that they've rebooked us at their sister property, the W New York Court. They pay for the taxi ride there. We go to check in there and they were so slow that it was at least another 15 minutes before we got to our room. We were in bed by 1am. MTH had a wake up call at 7am but neither of us got up. Six hours is just not quite enough sleep for me. I was up and working by 8am though. Then, I left for the party at 3:15pm. It was in a place called Rye, NY. We took a black car there. The party was quite nice. It was catered with Cuban/Latin inspired dishes. After dinner, we had a Texas Hold 'Em tournament. I did respectably but did not win. We ended up not getting back to the hotel room until after 11pm. I'm too old for late nights during the week! I got up the next morning at 7am in order to head over to KSH (my sister-in-law) to work for the morning. She and I then headed to Grand Central Station for lunch with MTH and MDH (her husband, MTH's brother). MTH canceled on us as he had a phone call for work. After a nice and extremely quick lunch at Junior's, I headed to LaGuardia. I had a 2 hour meeting from 2-4 but my flight was scheduled to leave at 5:19pm so I needed to be inside the security area in order to be on time for the flight. I was inside by 1:30pm. But, then I couldn't find a place with power or wireless for my computer. So, I bought a one day pass to the US Airways Club. It worked out for the best anyway as there were no announcements in there. That makes for a better situation when you're on the phone. Unfortunately, my flight did not leave at 5:19pm as scheduled. Instead, it left around 10pm. At this point in my life, I am not at all fond of US Airways. They are extremely unreliable and on top of that, they do not communicate very well with their passengers. The only good part about the evening is that MTH and I were there together. If I hadn't been in NYC with him, he would have been in the airport trying to get home while I was at home in Richmond, waiting on him to get there. Yesterday, we slept late in order to catch up on our sleep. I then went for an hour long walk with Britgirl. MTH and I met up with Britgirl and BL (her boyfriend, my friend from work) at Millie's for a nice dinner. Britgirl will be going back to England next weekend for a month. She's changing her visa to a student one as she's going back to school in the fall. After dinner, MTH wanted to see the DC United soccer game so we headed to Penny Lane Pub. While MTH and BL watched the game, Britgirl and I played some terrible games of pool but they were fun. We also played some games of darts. They were not as fun. Today, I've gone for a 4 mile run and am now getting a list together to go to the store.

That's June in a nutshell so far.