1st Adoption Anniversary

Katie, you came to us a year ago yesterday in Nanning, China ("Gotcha Day"), and became ours a year ago today. Happy 1st adoption anniversary, sweetheart. You have so changed, and so changed us in a single year, that we cannot remember life before you. When we do vaguely recall some previous activity or pleasure, we wonder why we thought it was important or rich or substantial.

Now I hurry home from work, which isn't easy right now, hoping I haven't missed too much of the fun. Your bedtime comes much too soon, and when you decide to sleep in, or I have an especially early morning start, I feel like there's something wrong all day long.

Tonight we celebrated by dressing you in your Chinese silk dress and going to our favorite little Chinese restaurant, The Golden Dragon. The two couples who run the restaurant doted on you as always, saying funny little things to you in Cantonese and Mandarin, and laughed as you showed off and strutted around. Then we came home and watched all the videos we took of your first and second days with us a year ago. You laughed, pointed, and snuggled with us as if to say, "I remember that, and I'm so glad I came home with you."

Here's that very first look we got of you on that wonderful day a year ago when we became a real family. You came home a little baby; now you're a little girl. Either way, you're our real live China Doll.

Lame Update

Worked my butt off the past couple of weeks. I set some records for stuff that I really never thought anyone would keep track of, but they do. All it means is that I've been at the office longer than I should be and not doing everything else as much as I'd like. For instance:

I ate supper somewhere other than my house every night this past week until Saturday, and even then, dinner started at around 9pm. Katie was really cranky all week because she didn't get her "comfort object" (me) much at all.

I sat on my road bike for the first time since I got knocked into the ditch 2 weeks ago in the East Union circuit race. Big Jim took me for our 4 hour, 6 hill hammerfest, and we did 82 miles and 4000 feet of climbing in 3:58. Today I didn't feel like riding at all.

I feel like my margin is all used up right now, but things are changing for the better. We have a new partner coming for the office, so schedules should be better by August. I don't plan to set any more records for the rest of my working life.

Katie is a joy and a challenge, but much more joy than challenge. She's been in "swimming school" as Soulmate calls it (Katie loves anything associated with "school") Mon-Thur last week, and 4 days this coming week as well. I took her to the pool yesterday so she could show Daddy how she was doing, and she was ecstatic to be there. We paddled around and played with an Ariel beach ball until she was shivering almost uncontrollably, and even then she cried her eyes out when I announced our imminent departure.

Today was hot enough that we went to the local splash pad to get wet. Katie was quite excited until the moment came to actually get wet, and then she lost her nerve. She finally managed to get somewhat wet, but we bailed and went on the swings and slides instead. Oh, and she hung out in the "fire truck" previously mentioned, but someone had ripped the steering wheels out so she was disappointed not to be able to steer it.

Next week I hope to eat a couple dinners at home, get wet at the splash pad, and race a road race. Then it's my first official Father's Day with Katie (last year we were still waiting to fly to China). I wonder what she'll give me...

Katie, Camping, and Karma

Katie: adorable as usual, very busy, into everything. Loves daddy & mommy, camping, and blueberries in that order (I hope). Also loves her Cozy Coupe (see photo). She found her dream home in my sister-in-law's back yard (see other photo).

Camping: another weekend of family fun in the Katiemobile. We spent Friday night in the camper in the driveway of sis-in-law's house so we could make an early exit for my bike race 10 miles away in the metrop of East Union. When you're camping in the Katiemobile, a driveway is just as good as a KOA. After the race, we hung out at their house and jumped on the trampoline for hours.

Karma: bad for me at the race. Everything pointed to a top 5 finish: short (27 miles), flat as a pancake, and fast--the finish line was 500 yards after the last turn into a howling tailwind of 30mph. Needless to say, this was the race where somebody had to bump me hard at 25mph while I was riding right next to the shoulder, which was deep gravel, which pulled me into the ditch, which was at least 10 feet deep and steep. By the time I screeched to a stop, ran my bike up the ditch and hopped on, the peloton was 200 yards ahead and going gangbusters. I chased for half an hour at TT+ pace, but only passed the stragglers who popped off the back of the peloton. At least I didn't end up DFL.

Katie's Kozy Koupe

Thanks to Ashton's mom, Katie is the proud new owner of a gently used, low-mileage kiddie car. Thanks, Jessica!

Do it Myself!

We're all scurrying around packing the Katiemobile so we can leave tomorrow around noon, so we can get to Duluth in time for my time trial start. Energy and anxiety is high around here.

To lighten the mood a little, I gave Katie a spoon and a cup of yogurt to try by herself, since she wasn't in the mood to take any of the foods I was offering. Soulmate and I did a little reverse psychology on Katie, saying "I don't know if Katie is big enough to eat yogurt with her own spoon." Beth then said, "yes, I think she can" and sure enough, she started scooping up spoonfuls of yogurt and using a variety of interesting approaches to get the yogurt mostly in her mouth. Here's a sample:

TT Troubles

I skipped the Synergy TT yesterday but did the Charity TT on Black Dog Road this afternoon. I think I did pretty well, running the 7 mile pothole rally in 15:34, which was good enough for a tie for 5th place. Trouble is, the judges had me down for 19:04 (good for 19th place) because they say I missed my start time. I say I didn't, and have the proof.

Nobody likes a whiner, so I'll take my lumps, even though I could have used the points for the Rider of the Year competition. Is it just me, or does it seem ironic that every one of the 4 road races so far this year have run a half hour late (and with 9am starts, that means 30 minutes spent shivering in 40 degree weather). Now, with the first nice day for a race (and a 12:15 start), they decide to start 5 minutes early.

Start times for TTs aren't that hard: today's race had the first rider go off at 12:15:00, the second one at 12:15:30, and so on every 30 seconds. I was given number 34, which means I was to start 34 riders, or 17 minutes, after the first rider. My math puts that at 12:32:00. I showed up at the start line at 12:30:00 by my watch (correct time, BTW), and even asked one of the judges what time it was. He agreed it was 12:30.

Trouble was, they were sending rider #41 off at that point, so I had "missed" my start time by 3.5 minutes already! Then they were going to hold me up for even longer since they had just sent a rider off, but I took off like my hair was on fire and almost blew up in the first mile before I dialed back a notch and grimly rode on for personal satisfaction.

I haven't ridden a TT on the Dog in 4 years, and I can safely say the road conditions have definitely deteriorated. I spent the entire 15 minutes hanging on to my aero bars for dear life over "repaired" potholes and frost heaves so numerous I couldn't tell what was original and what was repair. If they had thrown a little more tar out of the truck, they would have repaved it.

OK, enough grousing. I was pleasantly surprised by my time (and my would-be place). I've never been good at TTs, and I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by them, but after Jacobs and I won the Henderson two-man last fall, I've been more motivated to work at it. At least in this shorter distance, it looks like it has paid off.

We'll see next Friday in Duluth where I have a 16 mile TT to kick off a 4-day, 4-race Memorial Day weekend.

Just for fun, here's an update on the Highway 23 bridge just upriver from us:

Food for a 2 year old

Peanut butter--nothing better, whether you're eating it or wearing it.

Katie got a new Lil' Tikes kitchen from Auntie Sue and cousin Jenny on Mother's Day. She loves it a lot: