Another New Purchase

A few days before Tom left on this current trip, we stopped in a nice store where I happen to be on a first name basis with the owner and the Saturday clerk. We noticed a very similar coat rack to the one pictured below, and decided to have her set aside the next one she got in for us. I love it. Now, before you all think I am crazy for buying a coat rack in a tropical climate where the temperature never drops out of the the 80s, let me tell you that we have been in the market for a coat rack for a long time. We wanted one in Connecticut to augment our tiny front coat closet. It is amazing how many coats two people accumulate. So, here it is, our new coat rack....

And just because he is so cute, here is a picture of my buddy, Sylvester.

Chicago

After my conference in St Louis I was able to visit my sister Peggy, brother-in-law Russ, and niece and nephew, Hayley and Noah in Evanston, outside of Chicago. The pictures below were taken at the Nature Museum in Chicago.


Noah and I in a boat in his favorite part of the museum, a big treehouse.


Hayley's favorite part of the museum. Yes, that is an albino snake wrapped around her neck.

We all had a great visit, it was so good to see everyone. The kids grow so fast!

There are a few more pictures over in Flickr.

Home from St Louis

I got home earlier this week from my work trip to St. Louis and fun visit in Chicago with Peggy and her family. I think I am over the jet lag after four days of being back home.

I was out today for a while, and found out that Tom will be delayed coming home, so it will be around two weeks from now that he will be back. I was feeling sorry for myself, and when I got home this beautiful cloud and sky greeted me... so I felt better.



By the way, you may notice the new little gadget over to the right. That is a link to my Flickr page, where there are more photos. I posted several more there from our trip to Palau in December. There are still more, but I think you will get the idea from what is there.

I hope everyone has a good weekend. Mine is just about over, and I spent most of today inside, doing taxes... yuck.

XTerra!!!!

Today was the XTerra Triathalon! I was the swimmer on a relay team. The race had a 1K ocean swim, a 23K mountain bike and a 7K trail run.

We did awesome! All three of us were really pleased with our individual times and with our team time. I did the swim in 23min 45sec, finishing the swim #41 out of 81 total racers, not too bad for my first ocean race, I think.

The complete results are in a picture below.


Here we are stretching for the race:


The swimming start line. I have no idea where I am in there. My team mates had a hard time getting a picture of me, because all the swimmers had on green caps:


The swim:


Me running to the transition area to tag out Marcus (in the yellow jersey) for the biking portion:


Marcus (in yellow) coming back to tag out Bea (in black):


Bea finishing! I have to add here that Bea had a baby 5 months ago and has a three year old. Her time on the crazy trail run down waterfalls and through a river was 1 hour 8 minutes:


All of the Coasties who participated. Marcus and Bea and I were a team, the others all did it individually. CDR Rocks, the guy all the way to the left came in 3rd for his age group.



So, now I am going to start training for the Cocos Swim, and 1.5mile ocean swim in May.

Kite Festival

Yesterday we went to a Kites for Wishes fundraiser at a local beach park. There were some huge kites, as you can see in the picture below. It was a beautiful day!


Since Mom and Dad are back in PA in the cold weather now, here is a reminder of their favorite place in Guam...

House pictures

It was recently brought to my attention that I never put up more pictures of our house. So, by popular demand, here are some photos of the downstairs, and one of our bedroom:

Spider

A while ago, I wrote a blog about a huge spider in my bedroom. I did not get a picture of him then, but I am pretty sure this is the same one. Dad took this photo a few nights ago when we spotted him on Tom's scooter. If you can not tell from the picture he is really, honestly about the size of my hand.

Winding down

Mom and Dad's visit is coming to an end... It does not seem like it, but it is almost time for them to head back to cold, snowy PA. Last weekend we all traveled to the Northern Mariana Islands for a few days, so they could see more of this side of the world before they depart. We spent three days on Rota, then Tom came back to Guam and three of us continued to Saipan. After two days in Saipan, I came back to Guam and Mom and Dad continued to Tinian for another day and a half before flying back again to Guam. We had a great time.

Tom and I dove in Rota, the visability was fantastic! Our first dive was on a wreck that lay at 100ft down. We could see it clearly through the water from the boat, that is how clear the water is there. Unfortunately, I came down with a sinus infection or something, and had to cancel one of the dives on the second day.

The Northern Marianas are less developed than Guam, and we had a lot of fun exploring.

Sunset from our bungalow in Rota:


The bird sanctuary in Rota:


The swimming hole that we decided was a bit too rough for our liking!


Dad in a cave that was once used as the town typhoon shelter:


And.... Tommy posing with an ancient Chamorro carver. Some people carve giant stones out of the ground, some people wave and drink beer...


That is all for now, I will put some more photos up later on today.