Warrior Dash!

Today Charlie and I were officially crowned Warriors! We did our very first 'adventure race': The Warrior Dash! The race was located about 70 miles away in Conroe, TX on the site of what looked to be a dirt bike race track. The race is a 3.18 mile race with several obstacles to conquer along the way.

I made us t-shirts that read "Threat Level Mudnight. Clean up on Mile 5!". Charlie was "Cherokee Chuck" and I was "Mud-in-Face". If you haven't seen The Office tv show lately, you may not get the reference (see here for more info), but we got a kick out of it! We met a few friends of ours up there about an hour and a half prior to our 2:30pm heat. HEAT being the key word. Yowsa! We had great weather, but it was at least 80 degrees and full o' sun for our wave. Hot hot heat for a 5k race!

Our wave of the race started promptly at 2:30 and we were off with the other Loonies in our wave!! Charlie graced me with his presence the entire time, bless his sweet heart. After the first mile there was a "Texas Tornado" where a guy in an air boat blew dirt and debris at us as we passed by. Next came running up a muddy, steep hill (with rope assist at the side, thankfully), getting DOUSED by a fire hose at the top, then sliding down the other side. We slid feet first into the pile at the bottom of the hill, wet & muddy, then continued on. I can't remember the next sequence of obstacles, but they included: more little hills along the dirt track, a low, dark, HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT tented obstacle we had to bear crawl through (total spine knocker!), a tangled web of bungees to maneuver through, over walls/under barbed wire, a horizontal cargo net (my knees are killing me from that one!), a vertical cargo net (which we ruled!!!), jump through a tire run (or step slowly, in my case...charlie high-stepped it), run through a small pond and over floating logs (thank you for the cool off!!), climb up and over a tall hay-bale hill (where I fell at the bottom of it on my arse), jump over two fire obstacles (hot foot!), then finally jump into a swimmy mud pit and army crawl underneath barbed wire to the finish line. My time was ~43 mins...and I did walk or break for ~5 total minutes of it.

Whew. Warriors!!

We all survived without any notable injury, though once Charlie face-dove into the mud pit at the end, he popped up after the first set of barbed wire and misjudged the distance to the next set...slashing his arms on the wire. Whoopsie. A little medical tent cleanse hopefully keeps him free of infection ...ewy dirt water! After the cleanse in the lake, we changed out in the open, in front of god and country into new clothes and went to party with our posse in our new hats and free beer for racing :)

I highly encourage any and everyone to participate in this race if you ever want to try out a minor version of an 'adventure race'. The distance was a manageable one and the obstacles were super fun. There are people of ALL kinds there, ready to have fun and party.

Recommendations:

1. Choose an early-ish race. Helps beat the heat and gives you more time to party to the live music and festivities afterward. Saturday would be best (so you can rest on Sunday), but we had a really great time even though we have to work tomorrow :)

2. WATER. Bring it. Bring it to drink and maybe even to clean off with. They didn't provide free water for our race (except at the midpoint and the finish line), it cost $1 for a bottle.

3. Bring: A change of clothes & shoes, wet clothes bag, old shoes (our race had a shoe donation pile (rather, mountain!) for those who didn't want their shoes), Qtips for your nasty ears and nose holes, sunscreen, towels, snacks for after (if you don't want to spend the $$ on the turkey legs and other awesomeness). The bag check was easy-peasy and well worth it to be in good clothes again.

4. Dressing up can be super fun (even with just a silly t-shirt), and everyone is doing something wacky from body paint, costuming of ALL kinds or regular running clothes. Be creative and enjoy yourself!

More pix to be added to the album once I get them from the other participants, but for now: Enjoy the show!

New Favorite Thing

Strange, but true! I have an unhealthy love (read: LOVE LOVE!) for this thing!! Thank you Pier One :)

2011

Well, so much for posting more frequently! Let's see, where did I leave off?

Oh yes, it was pre-holiday 2010. I had just had a horrendous yet delicious experience baking Pioneer Woman's cinnamon rolls and we were about to embark on our quest for another Minnesota family christmas, 1200-mile driving with a dog in the new Subaru, staying in a small town in Missouri, kind of holiday.

MN was great! We stayed with my sister for the majority of the time, enjoying the fresh loads of FEET of snow and my little nephews. Sammie learned all about the joys of trouncing through 2 feet of snow like a wolverine and we learned all about the joys of Baby Jaguar and the Rescue Pack...and Thomas the Train...and stinky butt diapers. It was so fun!! Charlie's family was doing wonderfully as well, and we got to see our newest nieces in action too. They grow up so fast!!

I know there was more that we saw and did and loved and enjoyed, but after 3 months...the old synapses aren't firing as efficiently as they used to. What I CAN say is that we had a marvelous time and Christmas 2010 was a good one!!

New Years came and went without much ado, minus the VERY MUCH ADO about our dear friend's baby girl Grace being born on 1/1/2011. I've only seen pictures, but she's as cuddly as they come and of course, her amazing parents are blessed with her awesomeness every day. I'm so happy for their new addition to the family!

In January I got to give a $1000 donation to Second Chance Pets (the rescue org we got our first dog from), thanks to HEB and their Travel with Run E Nose photo competition. A photo from our trip to Africa with their "flat stanley" of Run E Nose (mascot) won us the privilege of choosing a charity to donate the $1000 prize to. It was a good feeling to give back to the organization who rescued our pup and blessed us with her over 5 years ago.

Charlie got a wild hair and decided that this year was the year for planting citrus fruit trees in our backyard, so we went to a wild/wacky fruit tree sale at the University of Houston campus (accompanied by obliging friend Aaron) and picked up 2 pomegranates, 1 grapefruit and 1 tri-peach tree to plant. We also took a fruit tree class for free in town nearby, given by the local gardeners club. Fun stuff!

Also, January is the time of year I get the privilege of watching all of the SAG award nominated films for free thanks to my ongoing membership with SAG. I watched a ton of amazing films and by far this award season my favorites were: The Kings Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter, 127 Hours...in no particular order. Oh yeah, Conviction was good too!! So many films to watch, so little time to remember those I loved and those I could have done without (I mean YOU, "Rabbit Hole"). Almost forgot (but didn't!), Charlie's really good friend from as far back as forever Barrett was in H-town for work for the month and we got to spend time with him as well. It was really great to see him and catch up! ...if you get the chance, make sure to ask him about the speed of time ;)

February was a blur! We went to Atlantic City for a surprise get-together for a friend and the trip was a really great time with good friends! AC I can probably do without in the forseeable future - mostly because gambling isn't one of my favorite pasttimes - but if I had to go again, I would. Also, there is a FAB crepe shop near our hotel that if you ever go to AC, you MUST go there. I am sure you'd like the name of this little shop, but as you must already suspect...I cannot remember the name of it. It's just across the street from the Sheraton Convention Center/Hotel, by the H&M store. THAT I can remember. Good luck and happy crepe-ing!! Mmmmmm.

February also brought with it another birthday for me (yay me), a much-needed visit from Mom for mucho shopping, pedicures and margaritas (yay Lunas!), and the final mission of Space Shuttle Discovery on STS-133/ULF-5. I worked the entire mission in a supporting role and enjoyed almost every second of it. As these amazing vehicles bid us farewell and head to their final place in history I am proud to say I have worked for and been a contributing part of such a workhorse of a program. I know the Space Shuttle program inspired me when I was young, so I can only imagine that she has continued to inspire countless others as well throughout her tenure for NASA. Two more flights left, let's make them count!

This weekend I got a surprise visit from my sister here in H-town and it was also much needed. I've been missing the family a lot these days and as we've been dealing with some personal tragedies at home, it's driven home the need for family connection even further. We went to the rodeo with a friend to see some country music people (Rascal Flatts?) and ate some cheese-laden country fries...oh lordy. Mmmmm rodeo food! Also, I love Mutton Bustin'. If you've never seen it, google it and enjoy. SERIOUSLY my favorite part of the rodeo.

Lastly, for catch up:

1. Fatness re-joined the Army National Guard (this time in TX) after his stint in the Naval Reserves. It was really fun to see him get sworn-in in Austin not too long ago. I love him and am proud of him, as always!!

2. Dogs are doing well - Sammie got her teeth cleaned and a cyst removed from her underarm and is healing nicely.

3. Hung new outdoor lights that I love (pix if I can get to them).

4. Charlie went into full-on garden mode and we have 4 new hardscaped gardens with beans, hot and bell peppers, herbs, broccoli, kale (the new spinach, we hear), tomatoes, pak choi...and probably some other stuff too.

5. Splurged on two gel-mats for the kitchen and already I love them.

I can't writes no mo'!

Later!