Scotchmallows & Champagne

It's been a rough week. First full week of triathlon training. Good but tired. Annual review at work. Good but stressful. My Grandpa has cancer, and is in lots of pain. Sad. Still in shock. Not sure what else to say about that just yet. For those of you who have been through it, you know. But with God there is hope in all things, and I am clinging to that.

After this long week, I was very tired...worn out physically and emotionally. But I came home to a sweet surprise from Wes. He came by work Friday night before I went for my swim to get my key. He picked up some delicious dinner from this hole-in-the-wall Italian place down the street...with fresh pasta to die for. When I got home there was a candlelight dinner waiting. Our first candle light dinner in almost 6 years of dating.

We had a nice dinner and were going to veg out and watch some Alias by the fire then Wes brought out dessert! The best dessert ever! Scotchmallows and champagne ( yes I know I need to get some champagne flutes )!

For those of you who don't know what scotchmallows are, I am very sad for you, but I hope you meet them soon. They are one of my favorite See's candies. A fellow addict keeps them locked up in a box away from her kids because they are so good! She also calls them PMS pills. They work wonders. And Wes bought my a whole box of scotchmallowy goodness!
It was a nice evening. Good food, a good man, and good rest. :)

Uh oh...Ready or not...Wildflower here I come...

Well, normally I would blame this on Elizabeth, but I think this time the credit goes to Wes. I have been wavering about signing up for this TOTALLY AWESOME internationally known triathlon in CA on May 7th, and now I've gone ahead and done it. I must be officially insane now.


You are probably wondering why this is a big deal to me. Well, first of all, this is an Olympic distance triathlon...meaning double the tris I did last year. Not only is it DOUBLE...but it is a very difficult course. And yes, as I am writing this I am wondering why the heck I did it in the first place. Anyway, I wanted to challenge myself to a longer distance this year, and I have some friends doing this one, and apparently it is supposed to be the triathlon of all triathlons. Since it is in the middle of no where, everyone (except Elizabeth) camps there and it is basically a triathlon party for 3 days. They have a long course (1/2 Ironman distance), Olympic distance, and a sprint mountain bike course. I don't do mountain biking, and I'm not insane enough to do the 1/2IM, so Olympic is the closest.

Anyway, I am way freaked that my body will give out on me or I will never be able to train for this daunting task. BUT the race fills of fast, so I had to chose. I knew if I put off registering, I just wouldn't, then I wouldn't do it. And Wes said that if I registered, then I would train, and then I would do it. So after the waffling, he pushed me over the edge. I'm very grateful for his confidence in me...but I think I'm going to need a few prayers to get through this one.

So I guess now the real training begins! I've had this horrible cold for almost 1.5 weeks now, and no sign of the end...so I hope it ends soon, or I'll never make it. ACK! I'm sure you'll see more posts about this soon!

I'm it!!

So apparently there is a game of tag out there in the blogsphere, and I have been caught by Donna! The game is to tell 5 things about yourself that people don't know, and then tag 5 more people to do the same. Unfortunately, I am generally pretty transparent, so I don't know what people don't already know...and the things they don't know, I'm pretty sure I don't want to post on the internet. So here goes.

1) Copying Donna here...if I was a boy I would have been named Benjamin. How stately...

2) My first pet, other than fish, was a guinea pig. His name was Donald. I loved him. He would squeal incessantly when he heard apples being sliced cause he would know he was about to get a core. He died the year we moved to Oregon at the ripe old age of 7. It was very sad when apples would get sliced and there was silence...

3) 7 is a good number. I know someone else who thinks so too. I was 7 when I got my ears pierced. I was really excited that day, I wore a pink dress and everything. I picked out pink earrings...but when the woman stapled my ear, they were yellow! I was not happy about that. But it turns out yellow is a good color too. Ask Yellow Wolley :)

4) I didn't learn to ride a bike til I was 8. I guess 8 is not such a good number. My parents bought me a BMX bike that was way too big for me, when I was 5. So they put training wheels on it. I hated it cause it was a boys bike! But the boys across the street were jealous. When I was eight I realized that biking could be fun, so I learned to ride :)

5) I have slightly pointed ears...kinda Vulcan if you ask me. It's true...take a closer look some time. :)

Ok, that was fun, turned out mostly to be random childhood memories, but hey, that's ok. Now you're it:

Bridget
Andrea
Kristi
Sarah
Elizabeth

You can run but you can't hide!

I think this speaks for itself

Chronicles of Christmas

Well I know it's a little late, but here is what I did over my week off for Christmas. Wes and I drove up to my parent's new house in Corbett. They basically gutted an old tiny 5 bedroom house ( the bedrooms were like closets ) and made it into a 2 bedroom. They have 3 acres ...lots of room to have fun. Isn't it cute with the red door!

We had a good time visiting my parents and grandparents there, except Wes was miserable because he is allergic to Bentley. Poor thing...Bentley is getting older these days but still very lovable. He's turned into quite the lap cat as he's gotten older...but he's too fat to fit on most laps. Here he is in one of his favorite napping spots...the hall bookshelf.

Then we headed up to Seattle to visit Wes' sisters and little Kaelin. Now we have some good pictures to show. Isn't she so cute. I could hold her all day. I miss her all ready.


And some perspective for Uncle Wes...


After Seattle we went back to Portland to get a quick visit with Wes' mom before we drove home. We had a good time. While we were there we picked up my Christmas present! Wes got lots of my family and friends to pitch in for a new bike for me. My old bike was about 5 sizes too small because of the silly sales people at REI. But now I have this great new one that fits and it is soo light! I can hold it over my head! Thank you cards will be on the way soon, but thanks so much you guys! You are awesome! When I do my Cinderella 100K in March, I'll be sure to send pics of those too.

Then before we hit the road for real, we had to stop at Freddy's to get some good Oregon beer. Ahh I miss the days of one stop shopping.

Then our 12 hour drive turned into a 15 hour drive because of the storms. It rained all the way back to CA! The WHOLE way. Except in the mountains where it was snowing. So not only did Shirley get her first trip up to Portland, but she got her first trip to the snow. She even got to sport her new chains! Isn't she stylin'!

Lostacholic

Me: Hi my name is Elaine...
Group: Hi Elaine...
Me: My name is Elaine...and I'm a Lostaholic.
Group: (Applause)

Yes, that is how it would all start. My first visit to LA, Lostaholics anonymous. But it isn't my fault I tell you! It was WES!! All Wes!! Everyone has been soooo excited about this show Lost, and whenever there is a buzz about a show, I avoid it like the plague. But this is what I get for letting Wes have access to my Netflix queue. He put the first season on there, out of curiosity...so I said I would give it a try. Sarah told me it took her a few shows to get into it, but after the pilot...Wes and I looked at each other and we knew it. We were hooked!

I knew I was hooked when after each episode is over I am screaming for more...but our addiction really showed last night. We had disc 4 when we got back from Oregon. We watched 3 out of 4 episodes. Then last night we started the 4th one...but when it was over...we couldn't take it! We just couldn't wait 2 days for the next one...so we did the unthinkable...we drove to Blockbuster and rented disc 5. Then we were up til after 1 watching the next 3 episodes. I had to put a stop to it when I was falling asleep...though I didn't want to. But I paid for it today at work. Totally exhausted. You know you have a real addiction when it starts interfering with your daily life. Today we rushed over to my place after work to watch the 4th episode.

I fear my reaction when we finish season 1 and have to wait for season 2 to come out on DVD. But at least I have come to step 1...Admitting my addiction.

*After I wrote this post, I googled 'lostaholic'...and there really are a bunch of people out there who call themselves this and post about it. At least I'm not alone.