The End

No more storage units for me! As of yesterday at 6 pm, I'm finished. I've worked my last day at All Safe Storage. No more being stuck at home from 9 am to 6 pm. No more having to deal with some very unique tenants. No more having people knock on my door at 10 pm, asking me to unlock their unit. No more free rent. No more having to spray the office with air freshener over and over again from smoke-smelling customers. No more having my landlord/boss joking in public (and having people believe) that I am his wife. No more having to live in a house that only has three working ceiling lights. No more wonderful neighbors who listen for Hattie on the monitor while I go running. No more threats of lawsuits. No more having to auction off foreclosed units. No more having to be mean and make people pay late fees. No more hearing the beep of the gate opening as tenants go back to the units. I get to enjoy relative silence from now on.

We went and got Hickory Kist fudge to celebrate. Yum.

The Name Game

I was tagged on our Iverson Family blog, and thought I'd include it here:

1. My Rockstar Name (first pet, current car) --
Cookie Protege
2. My Gangsta Name (favorite ice cream flavor, favorite shoe) --
Toffee Bar Chaco
3. My Native American Name (favorite color, favorite animal)--
Blue Monkey
4. My Soap Opera Name (middle name, city where you were born)--
Dame Ontario
5. My Star Wars Name (first 3 letters of last name, first 2 of your first)--
Iveme
6. My Super Hero Name (second favorite color, favorite drink)--
Red Juice
7. My nascar Name (first names of your grandfathers)--
Don "Bud" Merrill
8. My Stripper Name (favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy)--
Grapefruit Twix
9. My TV weather anchor name (5th grade teacher, city that begins with same letter)--
Carr Cambridge
10. My Spy Name (favorite season/holiday, favorite flower)--
Spring Tulip
11. My cartoon name (favorite fruit, article of clothing you are wearing now)--
Fuji Apple Shorts
12. My Hippie Name (what you ate for breakfast, favorite tree)--
Fruit Alder

My superhero name is pretty intimidating...and I like my rockstar name :) I tag Karli C., Erin F., and Kristen B.

Parties and Playtime

Funny that I'm finally posting pictures of my trip to Ontario a few weeks ago...and I am currently packing to leave for Ontario again! It's a busy month, so I'm slow on this blogging thing.

I was home for a whole week and simply relaxed. I spent a few days with Lisa and Val in Nampa, a few days sewing Paul an apron for Father's Day, an afternoon with my cousin Janice, and had a lot of time to spend with my parents. And my dad and I started watching the John Adams miniseries. I only got to watch the first two episodes. Is it sad that I am anxious to go home again so that I can finish?

We had a big party on Saturday, the 14th, to celebrate my mom's birthday, my nephew Sam's birthday, and Father's Day. Here are the highlights:

Hattie with Cousin Kate and Great Grandma Lula

Some of the MANY kids that were running around that day...I think there were 13 total.


Hattie and her newest cousin, Luke


Me, Abby, and Val enjoying the 72 degree pool


Andrew sporting Spencer's swimming suit from the 80's


Mom and Sam blowing out candles

Somehow, I forgot to get pictures of the chickens. Yes, my family has chickens. My dad bought some for Easter for the grandkids, and has ended up raising them himself. He built a chicken coop and everything. They are fully grown now, and ready for butchering. He likes to let them out when all the grandkids are over and have a contest to see who can catch the chickens. He feeds them every morning and really loves it. I think he'll have a hard time butchering them, he's become so attached!

Paul is a manimal

So I've decided that this should be in a climbing magazine. Sweet, eh?

Be prepared

Twice in 12 hours, I learned the same lesson.

My sister-in-law Christina is in town for BYU softball camp, so last night we decided to hit the Spanish 8 theater to see Kung Fu Panda. The main reason that cheap little Melanie was willing to go is because it's only $4.50 on Monday nights, so I thought we should capitalize (instead of paying regular price, $5.75). We each brought exactly $5 cash, and were surprised when the cashier said it would be $11.50 for both of us. My jaw dropped. I asked her if Monday wasn't $4.50 night, but coolly replied that the offer didn't apply to Kung Fu Panda. After searching the car for change, we raced home, grabbed my wallet and were back at the theater. Only now a line of teenagers had formed. Another register opened and we jumped over there. This cashier said, "That'll be $9." Apparently she didn't get the memo about Kung Fu Panda not getting the special deal. Laughing, we passed over our 9 dollars, not believing that we went all the way home for nothing.

Then, this morning, I went to the ATM to deposit some checks. While pulling up to the ATM, I realized I did not have a pen, since I had only grabbed my debit card instead of my entire wallet. So I wasted a trip to the bank.

So I think I finally learned to take my wallet with me everywhere. Just in case.

Biathlon? Duathlon? Or just a race?

I'm still trying to determine what kind of race I ran on Saturday.

I awakened around 5 a.m. to the sound of rain on our windows - not a very welcome sound when you are planning to do a triathlon. I got ready for the race and headed out, somewhat hoping they would postpone it a few weeks. I was willing to do it in the rain. It just seemed like way less fun than what I had imagined - a nice sunny spring day for the Salem Spring Tri. I arrived and parked, then had to ride my bike (borrowed from Paul's cousin) over the to race sight. By then I was already soaked through. As I was hanging my bike on the rack, I heard rumors that they had decided to cancel the biking section. I quickly found my training partner, Lindsay, who confirmed the cancellation. I was bummed, since I was excited to use Juel's really nice bike, but kind of glad not to have to freeze myself in the process. (I just found out that it was about 40 degrees outside that day...no wonder I had a sweatshirt, a coat, and a rain jacket on.)

We waited around. More rumors circulated about canceling the swim. That would make me really mad...I didn't pay 50 bucks to run a 5K race! But they sent some willing athletes into the water to test it out. The decided to keep the swim, but to cut it from 800 meters to 500 meters. So that's a little more than 1/4 mile. That was somewhat depressing since I felt the most confident on the swim, and since I usually swim about 3/4 mile when I go to the pool. But so it was. We waited a long while...and took some silly pictures.

By the time it actually started, the rain had stopped. And I was warmer, thanks to the wet suit. But lots of racers had gone home, so they cut down on the number of waves of racers to speed things up.

Here's the murky Salem Pond. Not too cold actually, again thanks to the wet suit. I swallowed plenty of water as the race started, stuck in the wake of other vicious racers. So I wasn't as fast as I'd hoped, but got into a nice rhythm by the end.

You'd better appreciate these wet suit pictures...certainly not the most attractive. But we had a lot of fun.

The 5K run was fine...but running has never been that fun for me. And I forgot my iPod, so it was quite boring. And lots of people passed me. I'm no runner. But I passed some people...even some men! Which meant I had at least 4 minutes on them since they left in the wave before me. Paul, Hattie, Aaron and Tandy were waiting at the finish line.

It was a different experience. I don't think I've run a race since elementary school. Crossing the finish line is something I've never done before. I wanna do it again, but with the bike part thrown in there. It wasn't quite as fulfilling as I had hoped and expected, mostly because it was a typical training workout for me - run 3 miles, and swim 1/2 mile (even less, since they cut it short).

I just looked up my final times...I did the swim in 11 minutes and the running in 30...which is normal for me. I came in #280, with over 400 people actually racing. I looked at the guy's time who finished 5 spots before me...and it took him 22 minutes to swim...twice as long! - but he still beat me cuz I'm such a slow runner. I guess I know where I need to focus next time.

So I looked up biathlon and duathlon. Wikipedia says a biathlon is a term used to describe any sporting event made up of two disciplines. However, biathlon usually refers specifically to the winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. Another popular variant is summer biathlon, which combines cross-country running with riflery.

Haha, definitely no guns yesterday, but it almost snowed!

A duathlon, on the other hand, is an athletic event (not to be confused with biathlon) that consists of a running leg, followed by a cycling leg and then another running leg in a format bearing some resemblance to triathlons.

So I suppose it was a biathlon...but when you've been planning for months for a tri, a biathlon is just less fulfilling.

All in all, it was a fun day...I think I'm going to sign up for one this September in Texas.

Summertime

The triathlon is tomorrow...wish me luck!

Next I'm getting ready for a week-long trip to Ontario.

Then back to Utah to pack up our house.

Then to Ontario again for two weeks.

Then to Wyoming for a backpacking trip.

Then finally the move to Texas.

And then medical school starts.

It'll be a fast summer.