Tech Toys and Tight Turns

Let's begin with the latter: last weekend's race at Maybury State Park was a smashing success! Well, there wasn't really that much smashing - just one crash when I was a bit heavy on my front brake and toppled sideways over my right handle. The damage was limited to a pretty, late-forming bruise on my lower leg and a chunk out of my new grips.

I got third place, but the big achievement of the day goes to Mitch who got first place by three seconds. Here he is with Rick...both got medals and cash prizes for having the two fastest times in the whole beginning class:



Rick started thirty seconds ahead of Mitch, per the time trial format. They each had only on respective thought for the entire eight and a half-mile course:

Summary of Rick's race: He's catching me!

Summary of Mitch's race: He's pulling away!

Now onto the "tech toys" part of the post: in preparation for all the online work I'll be doing for grad school, we bought a MacBook on Friday night! It's a very cool computer, and we've already managed to transfer all our iTunes songs over...PLUS sync up our TWO NEW iPods. That's right, we now own a ridiculous number of mp3 players (though our sleeping bag count is still higher). We got a free iPod Touch with the computer purchase - what an awesome back to school incentive - and I bought a Shuffle for working out, so I don't kill the good one. Plus we got a free photo printer.

Man, can that Touch do some sweet things! I know I haven't even scratched the surface of its capabilities, but I'm still amazed.

OK, work time. Then a quick lunch. Then a trip to the rec to try out my pretty blue Shuffle. Wheeee!

Concert and Orientation

The past 24 hours have been a whirlwind! Actually, the past week has been super busy, but the highlights really began last night around 9:00 pm when Third Day took the stage, and we were there to rock along with them!

We'd never seen Third Day in concert before, so we couldn't pass up the chance. Along with some friends from work, Mitch and I took half of Thursday off and drive out to DTE Energy Music Theatre for the show. Jars of Clay opened, and I'm sad to say it was a disappointing performance. I guess I'll give them a pass, though, since their other shows have always been awesome. Then this guy named Robert Randolph gets up and is completely awesome on the slide guitar. It was bluesy-gospel and I really liked it. After their set, Switchfoot performed, and while I never really thought I liked them all that much, they put on an amazing show. I was impressed.

Third Day was 100% the best part of the night, though. Wow. Period. If you don't have their new album, Revelation, I highly recommend it. On their website, there's a nice video with some of the songs and a discussion of the project.

I fell asleep in the car on the way home, but didn't get to snuggle into my bed until 12:30 am, which is way too late to stay up when one has grad school orientation in the morning. After my hour-long drive to lovely Flint, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open. But I got my ID, parking pass, books and all sorts of gifts - flash drive, calculator, fancy bag - so I guess I'm officially ready to get moving on my MBA. Wahoo!

Now I'm just waiting for Mitch to arrive at my parents' house so we can eat some dinner, ride the trails for a little bit and rest up in preparation for tomorrow's mountain bike race. The rest of the weekend will consist of a trip to the Mac store (it's new laptop time!) and lots of floating on the potoon boat. Ah, I will miss parts of the summer...

Ray and Kristy's Wedding!

The event we've been anticipating all summer was just as fun and exciting as we had built it up to be! Kristy was a beautiful bride, Ray was a handsome groom, and my own date wasn't too bad, either.

The photos really tell the story, but I'm too swamped right now to post the highlights directly on here. So, you can see them all at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/skibunny112882/RayAndKristySWedding

(Sorry, no ceremony photos. Both Mitch and I were standing up and, due to the downpour that resulted in the bridal party's late arrival, I didn't have time to pass off my camera to another attendee.)

Kristy's Bachelorette Party

This week's been so busy that I haven't had time to post about Kristy's bachelorette party 'til now! Well, it was a great time. She loved the decorations in her apartment, the champagne glasses with homemade stem charms, the gifts from all the girls (including the photo album I made her) and all our evening escapades:



Here's the blushing bride opening her gifts at the restaurant. She was initially reluctant to hold them up in front of everyone, but eventually complied.



All the girls at the bachelorette party, full and wine-happy from dinner.



Obligatory bridesmaid show - we can't wait for her wedding!



After our go-kart race; Kristy was bitter that some little girl bumped her and made her get stuck in a corner...



Member of the A.C. softball team get ready to show us how it's done at the batting cages.



Mim and Kristy sang "Friends in Low Places" at the bar...we laughed pretty hard!



The lady running the karaoke got us all to sing "I Touch Myself" for Kristy - again, hilarious!



And here's the whole group, one more time, right before we left the bar. More photos are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/skibunny112882/KristySBacheloretteParty.

Overdue, but still cool

I took this video of Mitch during his second lap at the Boyne Marathon race. He's already done over 20 miles at this point, so I didn't even get a smile as a cheered him on. The guy who was 30 seconds ahead of him is his main rival for first place in the overall standings. Shortly after this road crossing, he caught the guy and, after stopping to help him out of his pedals (Rick's calves were so cramped up that he was lying there, stuck in his clipless pedals), Mitch crossed the finish line several minutes ahead of him. (At Stony Creek, he beat Mitch by 50 seconds. They're good-natured competitors, chatting before and after the races and pushing each other hard on the trail.)

Completely Random

A family friend sent me this video as a suggestion for our next hiking trip. Can we say, insane?



Yes, Robin, this does look beautiful...but I am pretty terrified of heights and some of that would leave me quaking in my boots!