A mouse in my house

Well, it's not quite my house, but I spend more time at my office (which happens to be an old farm house from the Civil War days)than anywhere else. Recently, the product management group moved into a new office space in the building. It's quaint, modern and probably the best spot in the whole building. We even have a great stereo system in the room complete with large audio cabinets. Great storage space, right? It depends what you are storing.

One fine morning I decided to grab some of my instant oatmeal out of the cabinet. What I found was a completely eaten granola bar and holes in the bags of pretzels, oatmeal,and hot cocoa. We had a visitor! It's not a secret that this old farmhouse had mice. It just never occurred to us that they would find their way into the audio cabinet.

The next day we set a trap with peanut butter to catch the little rodent. We set the trap at 830am and went about our days. By 330pm we had completely forgotten that a trap had been set. One of my co-workers and I were having a meeting and suddenly we heard a loud 'CRACK!'. We both realized that the mouse had been caught. Too scared to look we tracked down our IT guy and made him check it out. He confirmed that a mouse was dead and closed the cabinet. We emailed maintenance to take care of the guy and went about our meeting.

A few moments later we were startled by 2 new noises. We heard 'Eeeeek!' and then another loud 'CRACK'. The mouse was not dead! At this point we kind of squealed in fright (yep, two chicks and a mouse) and a few co-workers came running in. One of our co-workers was kind enough to put on some Safety Goggles and grab some giant kitchen tongs to dispose of the little guy. He even put the mouse out of it's misery and sent it to an icy grave. The bonus = He cleaned the blood out of the audio cabinet! Our hero!

We haven't seen a visitor in awhile now. I'm guessing the little mouse grapevine sent word of what happens when you sneak into the audio cabinet. The food has been moved to a more secure location that the mice can't get to also.

This is not the only animal story at Saris that I have. Last summer, we had a bat fly through our area. One of the engineers captured him in a plastic bin. What a creepy little thing. But that's another story for another day....

Swimtastic!

Last week I returned from San Diego ready to get back into my routine. Thanks to a massive snowstorm on Wednesday that would have to wait until Thursday.

I headed back to the pool after 11 days of being out of the water. I hate going that long without swimming. The first day back is usually terrible and I was fully expecting to have an awful morning in the pool.

When I arrived at swim, there were three lanes and 4 ability levels. I debated between jumping into the Fast lane or the 'about my speed' lane. Since this was my first day back, I thought the 'about my speed' lane would be the more sensible choice. There were already 3 people in that lane though and to avoid overcrowding in a lane, I decided to jump in with the speed demons. I just told myself I'd do what I could and get through it as best I can. If I get lapped (which I always do), I'd adjust my workout as necessary. The workout had 4900 yards on it and the closest I'd ever come to that before is 4300 yards. And that was only with a LOT of continuous swimming and very little kicking.

To my surprise and delight, I didn't feel too bad in the water. I never got lapped and somehow managed to do my flip turns in a lane with 4 people. I made it through 4700 yards along with the rest of the lane. I couldn't believe it! (And I still can't!) What a great day in the water! I am working on my next breakthrough in swim. I can feel it coming. :)

I haven't done a Time Trial in awhile, but I'm looking forward to the next time we have one. I will be ready and considerably faster than the last time. My last 400 yard TT: 5:59 (with all flip turns!).

Snow, Snow and more snow....

Today, Madison officially has broken the record for snowiest winter ever. Last week, we had a storm that dumped over 13 inches on Madison and 18 inches in Janesville. It crippled roads, shut down schools and businesses and led to a 12 hour back-up on the Interstate. Even my travel back from San Diego was affected. I flew into Minneapolis and all flights to Madison were canceled. I think I snagged the last one-way rental car available and drove nearly 4 hours to get home. Fun stuff.

Over the weekend, we had some nasty wind chills along with blowing snow. Today, we have gotten 3 inches of new snow and it's still coming. And, if that's not enough snow for you, there is another 4-7 on tap for Thursday. Ugh.

Don't get me wrong - I LOVE snow! I like to be outside in it. It makes winter 'pretty' rather than brown and grim. But, I am so sick of driving in it! Roads are terrible and driving has become quite dangerous. Lots of ice under the snow and no sign of a warm-up to help rid us of some of it.

Fortunately, I get to run with Peter tonight. We are resuming our regular Tuesday evening run after a few weeks off. And we are doing it like only we can - in 4 inches of new snow, ice and some chilly temps.

Stay tuned for a full run report!

Rainy Day

I'm in San Diego right now and it's anything but sunny. In fact, today resembled a rainy day in Seattle. The rain came down in sheets, the wind was blowing and the clouds were hovering below the tops of the surrounding mountains. It looked pretty cool, but kept us inside for the day.

I'm here visiting my brother, sister-in-law and niece right now. My brother is leaving for Iraq in a few days and we are helping my sister-in-law move back to Michigan with her family. It will be nice to have my niece within driving distance, but I wish my brother didn't have to go.

Here's the recap of the trip so far:

Friday
Wonderful 'new boy' (also known as Joe) dropped me off at the Madison airport around 815am. I have to give the personal shout out to him as he drove through rush-hour traffic and snowy roads to get me there. Thanks Joe!

I barely cruised through security and am greeted by the 'boarding' process at the Madison airport. We were all set to go on the plane when the de-icing process began. This took 30 minutes and delayed our take-off by 40 minutes. That cut my layover down to about 35 minutes. Lucky for me, Joe had given me a book to read called 'Into Thin Air'. (True story, excellent read, check it out!) I read all the way to Minneapolis.

Once in Minneapolis, I walked straight to my San Diego flight and boarded. Again, I settled in quickly and got right back into the book. I had nearly 4 hours of flying ahead of me and it was time to get cracking. I did manage to finish the book just in time for landing. I hurried off the plane to get to baggage claim. We were already 25 minutes late and my parents were waiting. Unfortunately for them my bags took an additional 35 minutes to get off the plane.

We ate lunch on the pier and then checked into our condo in Escondido. The weather was cooler than last time, but still better than back home. A cool 59 degrees and cloudy - I'll take that over snowy and cold. Don't get me wrong, I love the snow and cold, but I'm ready for spring. Anyways....

The rest of the evening went as follows:
1) Help Brother move out of apartment
2) Play with my cute little niece
3) Try to calm my cute little niece down in the parking lot at the grocery store
4) Return and have dinner with the family

Saturday
Saturday kicked off early. I was up at 530am! Darn time change....I gave Joe a call and spoke with him for about 20 minutes. Then I laid down again for a bit and tried to fall back asleep. I just couldn't get to sleep. So, I logged onto the internet, checked emailed, surfed, shopped, etc...

Finally, the rest of the family got up and go moving. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon playing with my niece. She is sitting up (or trying to anyways) and making lots of funny noises. Very, very cute. Check out the pictures below!


I did go for a run yesterday as well. It was great to get outside and run in shorts and a T-shirt and be comfortable. This area is very hilly and I ended up running 'uphill' for about 30 minutes before turning around and coming back down. It was nice to get out of the condo, as that was my only time outside all day.

The rest of the day was spent with family - eating, relaxing, talking and watching movies. It was great, but I still wish I had more outside time.

Sunday
And today....today is the rainy day. Today is the day the New York Giants won the Superbowl against all the odds! Today is another day spent at the condo the whole day.

I love my family and I'm really happy I got to see my brother before he leaves. But I'm ready to go home and get back to the rest of my life - training, friends, work, Joe....all of it. I'm looking forward to making the most of each of those things.

I'm not really sure what tomorrow will bring yet. I know we will get out a bit more tomorrow and I will get a run in there somewhere. I'm sure there will be more play time with my niece as well :)