Pinnacle Peak

I took the day off from rowing and went for a hike with Matt instead. We hiked Pinnacle Peak. The cactus are blooming and the Ocotillo's are all green. I took my camera today to fullfill a panorama photo assignment. I think I had a bit to much light but nonetheless I think I demostrated my ability to meet the assignment.

Stumptuous!

Today I had a sculling meeting with a new club that I joined. I was given a sample training calendar and grimaced at the 3 days listed "Weights". Sure, I definitely know the benefits. Afterall, I was the thinnest, strongest and most healthy when I pumped iron at the MSU weight club many moons ago. But as the years went by, my weight training regime became obsolete. I do know that I need to get back to weights if I want to become a better sculler. One of the girls mentioned the website Stumptuous.com . I've been sitting here reading it and it is refreshing, funny and motivating. This chick (Kristi) cuts right to chase. I especially love her "crap list". Girlfriends--give this site a read. If anything it is funny--and maybe it will give you that motivation you're looking for to do what we all know will make us stronger now and as we creep into our golden years!

Rowing the New Boat

Matt went with me to Tempe Town Lake to check out my new sculling shell. He snapped a few pictures for my blog. I’ve decided on a boat name and am going to get it printed on vinyl sometime soon. I’ll let you know what it is after it’s on my boat. I’m really enjoying sculling on my schedule and in my own boat. When you’re concentrating on each stroke, all the little worries of the day disappear.

A New Home for the Element

Our Honda Element was getting sad and lonely sitting covered in our driveway. We seem to always be driving the Insight around town as it gets great gas mileage. The Element did pretty well for a small SUV but we felt another car would be more practical. A nice, young, hardworking couple with a little boy purchased it. We met them at their bank and exchanged title for funds. I think they are quite happy with getting a like new vehicle that will get much better mileage than the vehicle they had.

On the way home, we stopped and put a deposit down on a Honda Fit. They've been around in Europe as the Honda Jazz. Honda just "rolled them out" yesterday. Of course, the dealerships only have one or two and not with what we want on it. So we just test drove one and left a deposit. We should see our new Fit sometime mid-May.

It was kind of sad to drive away from our Honda Element. I really liked it. However, selling it to nice people made me feel better.

Spring in the Desert

This is the time of year where the cactus are blooming and it's starting to warm up.** Our winter visitors leave town, we start to set our alarms clocks to get up before the sun and put the sunscreens back on the windows. We'll start getting phone calls from our friends in cooler places who think we must be sooooooooo hot. It's the same cycle every year. To be honest--I have to say that I've really enjoyed the great weather we had all winter long and am looking forward to staying inside and focusing on some work projects this summer. I'll still be outside but very early in the morning and in the evenings. I'm also looking forward to early morning rows at Tempe Town lake ( I get my new sculling shell this Tuesday).

I've had my Aunt Jill & Uncle Steve in town over the last month. They just left today --but we'll be seeing lots more of them when they come back Arizona in September to move into their new home (they bought a house in Mesa). With them here--I'm sure I'll be seeing more of my cousins and family then in previous years. So here we go into the dry hot summer but in our nice cool house. Hope everyone enjoys their Summer!

**For those of you that think we're hot today-- well, we're not. It's a beautiful 75 degrees with breezes. Sculling on Easter morning was great!

I Need YOUR Creativity!

It's been quite some time since I posted to this blog since I've been posting to So Say We All (There's a cool dolphin photo on that blog). I'll try and post to both places just to keep those that have this site bookmarked happy.

This blog is to ask for some creative help. Most of you know that I've been sweep rowing and sculling for over a year now. My favorite is sculling--which brings me to your ideas. This month my NEW sculling shell will arrive at Tempe Town Lake. It's a Maas flyweight and is an open water, racer type shell. While I'm waiting--there's a few things I've been thinking about. First, I opted for a plain white shell so that I could create my own hull and oar design. Second, I'd like to name my boat. That's where I'm stuck. It can't be to "girly" of a name and it should be something to do with being on the water, sculling, and it shouldn't be anything like "sea turtle" as that would imply that it's not a FAST boat! It would also be cool if it was a graphical name. In other words, my hull and oar design could match.

So my friends... got ideas? I'd love to hear them. If I like it and choose yours, there may be a special "Thank You!" gift coming your way.

p.s. "Smoke on the Water" is already taken by one of my sculling instructors. He said it's going to be hard to top that ... I take that as a challenge!