Tri it...I know you'll like it.

Rich decided to do a triathlon and get some of his dental classmates in on it. He asked me to join and I told him absolutely not, because I hate swimming. BUT he convinced me, and I am now a hug fan. The excitement on race day was amazing. The pre-race speaker was a guy with ALS that brought tears to my eyes (literally). We drove 4 hours to Lake Moomaw which is a beautiful wooded area in western Virginia.

This is the spot that was reserved but nobody was camping in it when we arrived at 11pm so we claimed it. Hey, if they weren't there by 11, I bet they weren't coming.

Rich, Whitney (0ne of his dental classmates) and the pink shirt girl. We camped out the night before and all had the nervous first day of school feeling.Getting our numbers. They write your age on the back of your calf. Rich found that this made it particularly demoralizing when he would get passed a lady and all he had to do was check her right calf and realize she was 50.

Our time clocks.

This is where he got his fast time from....I'm not bitter, I promise.

Get on your bike and ride.

This looks just like the butterfly/moth thing that hit me in the face during the ride.

Part of the classmates that came.
The whole Dental 2011 triathletes and fans.


Sweaty and Happy....Richard beat me timewise...I was bummed, but he was happy(if only I could swim fast).

They provided us with this nutritious (okay not really) and delicious (definitely) lunch.

Yes, I quite enjoyed it.

Are you sure you don't mean...

Today I was doing a preop physical on a patient. She said she had been smoking marijuana. I started to write it down and she said, "no don't write that down." I told her I had to because the anesthesiologist would need to know ALL medications or drugs. She said marijuana was no big deal and the surgeon wouldn't care because, "he probably smokes marijuana too, everybody has. Well, you probably don't." I said, "yeah, that is true. How did you know?" She said, "your too dorky to use marijuana." I wanted to say, "are you sure don't mean too sweet and innocent or too smart."

How Christopher Felt

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be Christopher Columbus and set out to discover something? Yesterday Richard and I had a Christopher Columbus experience.

We set out in this the great year of 2009 from the beautiful beaches of Lake Anna (where we enjoyed swimming and bike riding-it was awesome and deserves a post of its own) and under the direction of His Majesty Richard we were to find something delectable to our taste buds and fill our grumbling bellies. We proceeded to wend our way slowly through all the villages along the winding and arduous route 208. I was the lookout in the crow's nest (passenger seat) on our mighty ship (the subaru) and I fruitlessly scanned the vast horizon for the object of our quest. A mom and pop diner was what His Majesty had ordered and nothing less would satisfy. We eventually had to veer from our projected route due south and steer east. We felt that our hardship and hunger were becoming intolerable and had almost determined that we must give up on our expedition and follow the high winds of I-64 back to the warm comforts and plentiful pantry of the Sedwick Abode. Alas, we had deemed that there was no "new world" (or mom and pop diner) to be discovered. Fortunately, at the last minute word came from His Majesty that we must press on and continue our search, but this time we steered on route 250 in hopes that it would lead us to the desired destination of this enterprise. Along the way the crew (me) began to complain against the tiresomeness of the journey. Night was beginning to fall upon us when, from the crows nest, the banner of a mom and pop grill caught my attention. I exclaimed with dismay as we sailed past it and demanded that the ship be turned around. We immediately turned our ship around and dropped anchor in the parking lot of abundance. Upon arrival we were greeted by natives who declared, "you are in for a treat, the hush puppies are wonderful," and I demanded reward for my intelligence and bravery at my post in the crows nest. Camp was set up on the outside deck overlooking the verdant yard (It was fantastic, the weather was perfect and peaceful, there were lightning bugs and the fans to keep it cool). We devoured a mound of superb honey barbecue ribs, chicken, shredded pork and shredded beef, plus the "token vegetable." The chief (the restaurant owner) came to welcome us to our maiden voyage to the Hickory Notch Grill and invited us to come back. We assured him that it would be done and then commenced plans on bringing colonists with us the next time we come. I am of the opinion that this discovery will come to be a pleasing place for any colonist who would make the voyage with us again.


My dad always wants to discover someplace good and we were proud that we "discovered" a great little restraunt about 20 minutes west of Richmond.

Moral Dilemma

Do you support local business, or pay cheaper from the big box store?

Richard, here: I bought these shoes from a local running store. They were super helpful. They analyzed my gait and picked out shoes specific to the way I run. They let me try on four or five pairs of different shoes and ran back into the back room several times. They watched me run around the store several times. It was great. I found the perfect shoes, and I'm pretty excited about them. Anyway, I came home, and out of curiosity, I checked prices. Bad idea. I found them at one of the big box stores for half the price on sale! So now, I can't decide. Should I take them back and order the cheaper shoes, and basically stiff the cool sales people for all of the help, not to mention the local economy and the continued survival of a local business. Or should I just take the hit to my wallet, and be happy with my purchase and the A+ service and sweet shoes?

Thoughts?

UP

Last night Rich and I went on a date to the movie Up. It was so good. I cried my big alligator tears (as Hillary called them) and I giggled like a little kid. I highly recommend it. It made me realize that we need to enjoy life while we are living it. I was thinking about that movie and the adventure of life and I started to think of this song that my dad had me listen to on his ipod. It was about slowing down and enjoying life, in my mind it is like somebody giving advice (I think that was the main theme). Anyway, I really liked the song a lot and wanted to remember it, but I can't. It was a song by somebody my dad likes (James Taylor, Kenny Loggins or one of thos guys). I know it is long shot, but I thought I put this out there and see if anybody has any ideas on what the song might be. I'll take any suggestions.

Bright Smile

We had the most AMAZING night!!! We went to a Josh Ritter Concert at the Louis Ginter Botanical Gardens with my old roommate Katie and her husband Kevin (visiting from Utah). Let me set the mood. It rained hard for two hours today and we didn't know how the concert would be. Then all of a sudden the rain stopped, so we headed over to the garden. The gardens were beautiful with green trees, a peaceful little pond, lightning bugs and a warm misty humidity. We were just chillin and listening to the tunes. Then Rich and I saw a guy from our ward. He told us he was in charge of the sound system. We were loving the concert, the music was fantastic. Then Grant (the guy from our ward) asked us if we wanted to come up closer to the stage. It was sweet to see Josh up there singing his song and grinning ear to ear (you can tell he loves it). Then as he was playing the last song Grant ushered us behind the stage and gave us a CD and a sharpie. We GOT TO MEET JOSH RITTER!! He was so cool. He asked what books we liked to read, what we did for work, where we were from, how we knew each other, what kind of music we liked and then he gave us all really sweaty hugs. Normally, I don't like sweaty hugs, but this sweaty hug was AWESOME!

Check out Josh's music at http://www.joshritter.com/index.html

Virginia, Earth's onely paradise

"Virginia, Earth's onely paradise" -Michael Drayton 1606

This is a quote that is displayed at the historic Jamestown. My mom is in town (which I love) and we went down to Jamestown. It was fascinating to learn all about the beginnings of our Nation. We love to have visitors so if you want to come see Earth's onely paradise, consider yourself invited.