A hike in the woods

Here are some pictures of a hike I went on with Eric and Indy last weekend at Wild River State Park. The leaves were just starting to change last weekend, so we got a glimpse of the fall colors to come during the next couple weeks. The weather was perfect -- low 70s and not a cloud in the sky. We hiked about 4.5 miles and also stopped to eat lunch at a beachy area on the St. Croix River. Indy also had her first meeting with horses and horseback riders. She did not like them. At all. Whenever they'd approach us on the hiking trails, we'd try to get her into the woods a little bit to let the horses pass. But Indy would kind of growl at the horses and let out little mini barks, and then when they'd pass by, she would take off in the opposite direction with her little hind legs shaking. Poor girl was quite scared of the "big-ass, unfriendly dogs" (I'm sure that's what she thought they were).

Welcome Baby Wes!

It's the beginning of a new era. My friend Eleni and her husband Scott are the first of my friends to have a baby. Wes Drake was born yesterday around 6 pm and is healthy (and I'm assuming cute as can be -- haven't seen pics yet). Congrats to the Drakes! I can't wait to see baby blog updates. You know I'm all over that!

UPDATE: Baby Wes has a blog. Already? Yup, his daddy posted pictures on it already. Good on ya, Scott.

Triathlon pics

Here are some pictures that Rae just sent me from the triathlon a couple weeks ago. That's Rae, Katie and me after the tri in front of the St. Croix River (where we swam). Gotta love spandex.

Fun website

I recently found out about this fun website: http://overheardinminneapolis.com/. Check it out for some free entertainment when you need a break. I love it!

PS You can also click on links to "overheard" in other cities around the world. Oh my... the fun is endless.

St. Croix Valley Sprint Triathlon

The results for the St. Croix Valley Sprint Triathlon are in, and I feel great! This was a great race -- very good distance, not too long or too short, very scenic, challenging and good food at the end. I'll try to get some photos from Rob (my brother) since he took some pics and video during the race. I have yet to see if any of the video turned out, but that'd be fun if it did. Anyway, here are my results (drumroll, please):

Overall time: 1:30:13
Swim (1/3 mile): 12:25
Transition 1: 2:45
Bike (10 miles): 37:12
Transition 2: 1:24
Run (4 miles): 36:29

Katie and Rae both finished as well and are now hooked on triathlons. Immediately after the race, they were both talking about doing it again next year. So if anyone wants to join us for this race or another, just let me know. It was so fun to get back into doing these kinds of races. It's a very positive atmosphere and just a great reason to get back in shape.

I should get back to work. I'll write more later and hopefully have some pics to post.

Note to self (and other bike-riding commuters)

When riding your bike to work in Minnesota when the humidity level is like 80-something percent, do not just wear the clothes that you are planning to wear for the rest of the day. Why is this a problem? Well....see....what happens is your shirt gets really wet due to your backpack resting on it while cruising at a good rate. It's not necessarily sweaty -- mostly just wet from the damn humidity. Perhaps one solution would be to just wear a sports bra and ratty old T-shirt for the commute, and then bring the shirt you'd like to wear all day in your trusty backpack. This isn't so much a problem when it's not as humid. Good luck in your future bike-riding adventures, and let's hope no one notices that my back is still wet in a backpack-type shape on my back. Nice, Heidi. Very classy.

Packing=bad, Moving=good

I hate packing and cleaning in general...especially when you do such crazy things on a Friday night. I'm really tired and should probably just go to bed, but at the same time, it kind of stresses me out to just go to sleep with my apartment in such disarray. I'll be slowly downsizing this weekend -- giving some furniture to friends, trying to sell other stuff on craigslist, storing some more stuff at Mom's house -- and then I'm going to slowly move in to the new place on Thursday and Friday. I'm a little nervous about moving in with three new people, but at the same time, I am looking forward to having roommates again. I hope they like Indy! And I hope she adjusts normally, too.

Okay, I am going to finish putting some clothes away and go to bed. I hope you had a more eventful night than I did!

I have a problem

Hi, my name is Heidi, and I'm addicted to my yahoo and facebook accounts.

It's true. I check them approximately 23 times a day. Somehow I still manage to be productive at work and in life in general. But really....the obsession needs to stop. I'm not sure how I let it get so out of control.

Any advice?

Week in review

Let's do a week in review, starting with last weekend... (Note: I started this post last Friday and then got side-tracked. Now, I'm not even sure if this will be interesting to anyone, but too bad. It's already here...enjoy (or not)!)

Friday, Aug. 3: Mom came over, and we had a nice snack of watermelon and kiwi before heading out to play tennis with our 'oh-so-cute' matching rackets (it was her mother's day gift). After playing for about an hour, we headed over to Carbone's for some salad, pizza, beer and good conversation out on the patio. Good Friday night!

Saturday, Aug. 4: Went on a 20-mile bike ride with Aunt Katie, Rae and Tadd. We took the greenway (former railroad track turned bike path -- like the Monon in Indy) from South Mpls. through Uptown over to Hopkins and stopped for a snack of donuts and coffee at the Depot. (Common theme so far: working out and eating snacks). After the bike ride, I went over to Karin and John's new house in St. Paul and helped paint and sand -- they're totally re-doing this house. I mean, why anyone would want to paint over pink walls and tear up even pinker carpeting is beyond me... They're even tearing down some walls. I'm impressed and inspired by their hard work and can't wait to see the final product. After that, I picked up my brother Rob at his place and we played soccer with Indy for a bit and then headed over to Matt's bar (total dive with the BEST burgers and fries). We had juicy lucys (hamburger with cheese in the middle of it -- it's soooooo good, but HOT! Watch out for hot cheese squirting out of your burger!), fries and some beer. It was fun to chat and hang out with him -- he needed to get out of his house for a bit because he had been pretty down lately. Last week, he had his moped stolen -- he's pretty upset about it. (Side note: people who steal other people's things are some of the worst people in the world. I just don't get it. The only thing I can understand is if it's like the Jean Valjean story of how he needed bread just to survive. Do you think some guy needed Rob's moped or he would die? I think not.)


Sunday, Aug. 5: Looked at potential bridesmaid dresses for Alyse's wedding at the Mall of America. Dress shopping is really fun for like the first hour. After that, it's a challenge and tiring. I needed a nap after that.

Monday-Friday, Aug. 6-10: I worked three days at the U and two days at Fairview. Also tried to keep up with my training for the triathlon (which is coming up in three weeks!). It's really nice living near a lake when training for a tri. Monday, I went for a run for 25 mins, and then went on down to Lake Nokomis (about a mile from my place) and swam for 20 mins. It was good practice for the actual race -- but man, it's really so much easier to swim in a pool so you can see where you're going. The lake is a little claustrophobic. Yikes...Wednesday, I had dinner with Ang at a great BBQ place in south Mpls. called "Caps." Good stuff! Thursday and Friday were "goodbye/good riddance" parties for a friend from high school (Shehan) who is moving to Denver for grad school. I heart the Otter Bar in NE Mpls. It is such a dive, but they have karaoke and it's sooooo funny. Cousin Jess and I got up there and sang Ace of Base's "The Sign." let me tell ya....it was quite funny. My fav moment was when these two random guys got up and sang Boyz II Men's "End of the Road." It was AMAZING! This white guy was bustin' it out just like the real song. I was very impressed and entertained -- as was the rest of the bar.

Saturday, Aug. 11: Red Ribbon Ride victory party took place at a restaurant in Mpls. I got to have a little reunion with the other participants and watch a video that had pics and live-action video footage from the ride this year. They already have 125 or so people registered for next year. I'll probably be signing up here soon. So let me know if you're interested in joining me (or donating $$$). :)

Sunday, Aug. 12: Katie and I rode our bikes up to the U of M rec center (about 7 miles), then swam a little over 1/3 mile (the distance of the tri's swim), then rode back home. I felt great -- a little tired, but not too shabby. So that makes me feel like the training is working. I just need to keep working on the swimming. That's hard work -- I have a great respect for swimmers who can just keep doing lap after lap without a little break. After that, I took Indy down to Lake Nokomis and we just hung out on the beach. Me reading, and her jumping around in the water playing with a bone. It was one of those afternoons that just remind you that life is good. I love relaxing like that with a good book in the sun. Ahhhh....I want to go do that today, but alas, I'm at work. Then for dinner yesterday, I went over to Angie's (friend from high school) for a girls dinner. She combined her two worlds by inviting me and Ashlee over as well as her grad school friends for a nice dinner and good chats. What a great day...

Overwhelmed

I have actually had somewhat of a life the past few weeks, so after slacking off a bit, I have felt a little overwhelmed at the thought of catching everyone up on my life. I'll give it a shot...

BRIDGE

First of all, thank you to everyone all over the WORLD who has contacted me to see if my family, friends and I are okay after the bridge collapsed here in Minneapolis yesterday. Luckily, although I work about a half mile from the bridge, I do not commute to/from work that way. None of my family or friends were on the bridge. I did hear stories from several co-workers who had just driven over the bridge about 30 minutes prior to the collapse on their way home from work. Crazy timing. Today after work was my happy hour "going away" party at a nearby bar/restaurant, which happens to be located at the exit ramp just before the bridge (a football field or two away). From there, looking down 35W toward the river, I could see the other side of bridge, and it just looked like a steep hill leading down into the river. It's hard to explain, but I really didn't get up close or even try. There are news crews and rescue teams everywhere. And it was really sad walking to our cars. The parking ramp happens to be right next door to the hotel where the family waiting area is -- so there are chaplains and police and reporters hanging out there, while family members give descriptions of their missing loved ones and just wait to hear if they're found. My co-worker and I had actually gone inside the hotel to use the restroom before we knew what it was. It was as I was walking to the bathroom that I overheard a terrible portion of a conversation between a red cross worker and a man describing a missing woman. I felt bad just being there, like I was trespassing or something. I can't even imagine what that would be like.

RED RIBBON RIDE

A couple weekends ago, I volunteered as a crew member for the Red Ribbon Ride, a 4-day, 300-mile bike ride that benefits eight AIDS/HIV organizations in the Twin Cities area. My aunt Katie has done the ride for the past three years as a bike rider, and I wanted to participate this year as well, but I had a crappy Huffy from 10 years ago. Hence, volunteering as a pit crew member was more realistic for me. It turned out to be an awesome weekend filled with lots of funny memories.

I was part of Pit 1 (which was the first pit stop every day of the ride). There are five pits total each day, and each pit plans a theme for each day as well. Our themes were: Village People, Jetsons, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and Phantom of the Opera. We were up at 4 am each day, set up our pit stop with food, water, decorations (of course!), ice, etc. and then we'd welcome the riders and entertain and cheer them on. After they left our pit, we'd pack up and follow along the route, cheering out our car windows, stopping at the other pits to chat with them and check out their themes, and then we'd finally get to camp each night at a different high school in a different city in southern MN and camp out. Oh yeah, and our team (Team Wells Fargo) would go out each night for a beer. :) Don't worry, we'd be in by 9:30 pm. Anyway, if you want to hear more about it or get involved, call me or write me. It was so fun. Exhausting physically and emotionally, but also so refreshing to be with such a positive group of people for four straight days. Oh yeah, and I was so inspired that I have now upgraded from my old Huffy and just bought a Trek 1000 road bike -- yay! I'm seriously considering doing the ride next year, so let me know if you want to join me!

My RRR pictures

Team Wells Fargo RRR photo site

RRR site

BASTILLE DAY WEEKEND

The weekend prior to the RRR, I went to Indianapolis for yet another college friend's wedding. I got the chance to hang out with all my old roomies and co-workers, hit up my favorite places out on the town and also see my first pregnant friend, Eleni! We had a surprise baby shower for her, and she is just so darn cute. This is my favorite picture of the weekend (only the girl in the middle is pregnant -- we didn't all get knocked up just for the picture):

It was so fun to see everyone and see Nathan and Leah get married -- the whole wedding was like a mini-Butler reunion. Here are more of my favorite pics of the weekend: