Tandem ride

Riding my own bike is becoming less fun, so last Sunday we got out the tandem and rode to Verrill Farm in Concord. It worked out really well. I used the telescoping stoker's stem to get a nice upright position and Ed didn't have to wait for me. Next time though, I will get out the Camelbak. I had trouble getting to the bottle cages on this bike when I wasn't pregnant and now it's pretty much impossible. Fortunately on this ride, Ed had a spare bottle in his back pocket that I could get to easily.

Pic from the back-of-the-tandem cam, as Claudia would say.



The pumpkins at Verrill Farm were looking really lovely.



We had so much fun that we bought a tandem tray for our roof rack earlier this week. We've already got a few rides planned. We'll be doing a belated anniversary trip in mid-October in southern Maine and now we can take the tandem. It seems fitting, since it was a wedding gift from my dad.

Baby shower

My MIL and SILs hosted a lovely shower for us with Ed's extended family on 9/19.

This panda cake doesn't know what's coming. Ed decapitated it. (This is the same cake mold my MIL has used to make fabulous kid-friendly cakes since the '70s.)



Baby jail!



Tiny hat.



These overalls were worn by Ed's uncles and then by Ed. Don't spank! Ed's comment on this photo in FB: "I imagine this was a cute joke in the 60s. Today, an overbearing liberal political statement. Excellent."



Ed's mom made us the cutest quilt. There are little messages under all the duck wings.



(Almost) the whole family! The funny thing is that even though these are Ed's blood relatives, the majority of the people in this photo have my last name.



Micah, my SIL Liz's Yorkie, always gets lots of attention. Here he is with Ed's friend Allison, whom he's known since they were 10. (Recently she graduated from Sloan one year ahead of him.)

FIRMMAN Tri

I've got a cold, so I've finally got some time to catch up on blogging.

Almost two weeks ago, Ed finished off his short triathlon season with the FIRMMAN (half-Ironman distance) in Naragansett, RI. I got a refurbished entry-level DSLR (Olympus E-520 w/14-42mm & 40-150mm lenses) so we can get better pics of the kiddo in the future. The camera arrived just before Ed's race. I got more than 100 photos, thanks to sports mode and "microdrive." We have some time to become more sophisticated camera users before the due date, fortunately.

One thing I hate about triathlons is that they start super-early in the morning. We were on the road at 4:30 a.m. There was no coffee to be found at the race, so I had to make do with some Clif ShotBloks (dark cherry w/caffeine).

The seas were pretty choppy, which made the swim challenging. Ed was able to use his skills from our surf lesson in Waikiki in May to successfully negotiate the breaking waves at the start and finish of the swim. You can just barely see a kayaker and a buoy and a few swimmers in this pic. I guess I need a longer lens. :)





As usual, Ed had an excellent bike leg and made good use of his cyclocross mount/dismount.





Off on the run.



The last brutal .5 miles of the run was on the beach. While I was waiting to get this shot, I was standing behind two Cyclonauts guys (one of whom had crashed and had a huge rip in the back of this shorts). They were talking about pro cycling. I think one guy was from Belgium and the other kept talking about those great Belgian pros, the Schleck brothers. It was all I could do not to yell, "They're from LUXEMBOURG!!"



The finish -- 4:55.44.



Half-Ironman complete!

Mayflower International Triathlon

We went to Plymouth (home of Plymouth Rock, which was on the course) for Ed's second triathlon yesterday. It was a gorgeous day and I had the best iced coffee and breakfast sandwich (egg and cheese on a Portuguese sweet bread roll) before the start. I'm glad that it's not too hard to get Portuguese sweet bread around here -- it's one of my favorite Hawaii foods.

The swim went along the jetty in Plymouth Harbor. Here all the guys in Ed's wave lined up by the boat ramp and then started the swim.





Ed did a textbook cyclocross dismount after the bike section, which had a lot of short, steep hills and went through Myles Standish State Park.



The run. Ed went even faster this week than last week!



Floating on air at the finish. This was a longer course than last week.



Ed was 2nd in his age group! Unfortunately he got the wrong age group trophy, but the promoter said he would send the correct one next week.



And here's the baby bump at week 28. It's getting a bit hard to transport this thing with all the walking involved with triathlon spectating -- I'm going to have to break out the running shoes for next week's half-Ironman so I'll have some more support. Or maybe I'll bring my own bike so I can get around more easily. If I do, naturally I will avoid the triathlete faux pas of riding without a helmet and festering in a chamois for hours and hours after the event is over.