The Diamond State

This past weekend, I made my way up to Delaware not once but twice, to participate in the Diamond State Masters regatta. Luckily, I didn't have to do all of the driving by myself; my pair partner, doubles partner, and teammate extraordinaire, Stephanie, split the driving with me.

On Saturday, Stephanie and I raced in the pair and doubles events. We placed 2nd in the pair and 4th in the double. This was the first time that Stephanie and I raced the pair and double together and the first time that Stephanie raced either event ever. We only had a few practice sessions in the boats prior to the race so, all in all, we performed well in both events.

The "launching dock" on Noxontown Pond - Diamond States

Posing in front of our boat, the Callahan

Getting the Callahan rigged for the double

On Sunday, we raced in the four and the eight events. We placed 1st in the four and 1st in the eight. Both events had multiple heats and we won the overall awards for both events, meaning that we had the fastest time of all boats that participated in the different heats for both events.

The winning 4+ line-up, posing in front of our boat

Medals and the overall award for the 8+

Ashley, excited for the bling that I brought home

Driving to and from Delaware on Saturday and Sunday certainly made for a very long weekend. (Honestly, there hasn't been a day in the past 8 days where I've been able to sleep past 5:00am and not go to the boathouse!) I also missed spending the weekend at home with Brian, Tahoe, and Ashley. But, I must admit that it's been really nice to get back on the water and race - of course, the first place finishes are pretty sweet too.

Olympic Fever

Olympic Games XXX

London 2012

Have you been swept up by the excitement of the Olympic games? Brian and I have been tuning in to watch as many events as we can on the television. Brian is even following a number of Olympic athletes on twitter. Everyone in our household seems to have their favorite events... for Brian, it's diving, for me, it's rowing, for Ashley, it's sleeping, and for Tahoe, it's sucking on blankets. 

O.k., "sleeping" and "sucking on blankets" are not really official Olympic events but, I bet that Tahoe and Ashley would be champions if they were.

Ashley excels in "sleeping"

Tahoe is an elite "blanket sucker"

Heat Wave

It seems that the dog days of summer are back. Today's high temperature was 101 with 70% humidity - yuck! Poor Tahoe and Ashley... they both start to pant and get over-heated after 5 minutes outside in this heat. We've adjusted our afternoon walks to try and keep them as comfortable as possible. After today's walk, I decided that they needed something to help cool them off - ice cream!

Tahoe running with his tongue out

Ashley on the path

Hot dogs

Yummy - ice cream!

Nom nom nom.... nom nom nom

Did you know that in London, there is a doggy ice cream truck? It's known as the K99 Doggy Ice Cream Truck and it serves two doggy-friendly flavors of ice cream for $1 a scoop. Since we don't live in London, Tahoe and Ashley had to settle for store bought Edy's ice cream.

London's K99 Doggy Ice Cream Truck

Club Nationals

On Thursday afternoon, I drove to Camden, New Jersey to participate in the USRowing Club Nationals regatta on Friday morning. I had been signed up to row in a 4x (quad) with my friend Wendin, and two other women who I had never met, Kris and Erica. We entered the race as a "Composite Boat" - composite meaning that we are all affiliated with different rowing clubs but we decided to join forces and enter an event together. Unfortunately, we didn't advance past our heat but, considering that we had never rowed together and that we were borrowing equipment, we were competitive and had a good row.

The boat we "rented" for the race

Boatmates, Kris and Wendin

After the race, we visited some of the vendor tents that had been set-up by the water. There was one tent in particular that caught my attention... not because of what they were selling, but because of who we found sleeping inside.

The ladies in front of the vendor tents

A weimaraner, sleeping under one of the tents

Kris giving the weim some love

Coney Island Fun - Virtually

On July 4th, Brian participated in something that has become a bit of an annual tradition in our household -- the Nathan's Famous Hotdog Eating Contest. The official contest takes place every year in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York. And, every year at noon, Brian and I tune into ESPN and watch as championship competitive eaters attempt to consume as many hotdogs as they can in a 10 minute time period. Of course, Brian just can't sit back and watch... he has to participate too!

The hotdogs are ready...

Brian "the iron stomach" is ready...

Ashley & Tahoe are thinking "you can do it!"

After 10 minutes, Brian successfully polished off 4.5 hotdogs*

*Note: It must be mentioned that Brian was at a slight disadvantage this year. The buns that we used were potato buns, not regular white bread buns. Potato buns are much heavier and denser - not ideal for competitive eating.

Happy July 4th!

Happy 4th of July! What are your plans for today? Watching a parade, lighting fireworks, grilling with friends...? Whatever lies ahead for you today, I hope that you have fun and remember to take a moment to reflect on what Independence Day is all about.

Derecho Causes Havoc

A strong storm, labeled a derecho by our local weathermen, swept through our area at 10:00pm on Friday night. The storm produced heavy rain, lightning, and 90 mph wind gusts in some spots. The storm caused two fatalities close to our home.

We were lucky as we were safe and had no damage to our home. The power went out around 10:30pm on Friday night though, and was restored at 10:00am this morning (Sunday). This weekend has been one of the hottest this summer, with temperatures reaching 100. Needless to say, with no power (and air conditioning) many people in our area have been very uncomfortable and hot.

Down power lines, 2 miles from our house

Tahoe and Ashley took the power outage in stride. They spent most of the time in the basement - the coolest part of our house - and slept.