Waffle Cross

Some guys at Wheelworks had the brilliant idea to combine waffle making/eating and cyclocross into one event: Waffle Cross. It is definitely a case of the whole being more than the sum of its (incredibly awesome) parts. I went to the inaugural Waffle Cross on Sunday. Ed and Elliot came along for the waffles, but left before the ride.

First things first. I made a half-hearted attempt at gaufres de Liege, but it did not work. I was trying to take a shortcut with turbinado and waffle mix. I'm going to have to rethink this for the next Waffle Cross. The waffles were yummy, but they were not wafels. (Speaking of wafels, there's a Belgian street food place, Saus, opening in Faneuil Hall.)

I just joined a new-to-me team, HUP United, and I got to meet some of my awesome, friendly new teammates (Chip, Justin, and Jenn) and get my new kit. Check out Chip's excellent Waffle Cross write-up.

Photo borrowed from Andy Huff, Waffle Cross maestro:



Also from Andy:



My baby, he is fast:



Trying out mommy's bike:



We headed out on Concord Ave ('cross-worthy in its own right), where I promptly got dropped on the climb. Fortunately this was a fun, non-race-style ride so we regrouped at intersections. As Chip put it, "It wasn't attacking like on some group rides it was more just plain letting it rip because it was so cool to be on cross bikes with other riders who are just as stoked as you are about cross." I had so much fun getting to know everyone.

Photo borrowed from HUPper Jenn.



We went to Battle Road and rode it both ways.



I admit I was a little overconfident about Battle Road, which I've ridden many times on my road bike. But this was my third time outside on a bike since last October and I am sooo rusty. I know the fitness and bike-handling skills will come back, but yesterday I was having trouble turning, kept picking bad lines, etc. By the time we turned around and came back on Battle Road I was a little less sketchy. Then we went back to Concord Ave. We took a very nice detour through Rock Meadow and then back to Wheelworks. I was completely knackered but managed to ride home.

So fun. I can't wait to do it again next month!

Elliot at 1/6 G

Visit from Grandma, Auntie Liz, and Uncle Brandon

Elliot's Grandma, Auntie Liz, and Uncle Brandon visited on Sunday.

Here's Elliot in the 50-year-old overalls that Ed's uncles and Ed wore when they were babies.



We took Elliot to the park near our house.





Awesome play structure at the park. And Ed is pleased it predates the IAU downgrade of Pluto from planet status.



A great way to get drool in one's hair.



Sleepy from the trip to the park.



Elliot has a lot to say to Grandma.



Yummy cake! Rachel, Josh, my sister, and my BIL Brad joined us for dinner.



Dinosaur jammies, ready for bed!

Babysitting

Uncle Brad and Auntie Kris babysat on Saturday and took some awesome photos of the little guy.

Swim meet video

Ed and Elliot made it into a video about the New England SCY Champs! Look for them at around the 1:20 point.

Piano time

I got home from work earlier this week to find Ed and Elliot enjoying some piano time. It reminded me of playing my family's old Hammond organ with my dad. We have an electric piano and Elliot particularly enjoys the harpsichord and organ settings.

Swim meet

I did my first swim meet since 1996 last weekend. Ed and I competed at the New England Championships (short course yards) on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Elliot came along and was so good. He watched most of our events from the end of the lane. It was pretty cool to be swimming the breaststroke while seeing my two favorite guys cheering for me.

I didn't know how to come up with seed times, so I went to my local pool and swam all the events in one afternoon. It was only three weeks after I'd started swimming again (Elliot was 11 weeks old), so my times were so slow that I considered not entering. But I worked really hard leading up to the meet and blew away my seed times. Out of almost 1100 swimmers, I was the 9th worst seeder. :) I swam in 12 events (100 IM, 200 IM, 400 IM, 50 Free, 50 fly, 100 fly, 50 back, 100 back, 200 back, 50 breast, 100 breast, 200 breast). I also did 4 relays. It was exhausting. The overall distances per day were pretty short compared to what we do in practice, but it was tough to sit around all day (12 hrs on Saturday -- humans are not meant to be damp for that long) and get up every so often to do a very short, intense race. I'm sure holding a wiggly baby for half of that time didn't help either. It was so humid that Elliot's feet got prune-y.

I was pretty excited when I beat Ed's time in the 200 IM, but of course he shaved 20 seconds off his seed time when he swam the event after I did. This is just like xc skiing -- I get him to try a new sport, and then he gets better at it than I am. :) US Masters Swimming was giving a prize to all heat winners in the 200 IM. Ed and I both won our heats and got very nice USMS polo shirts that make us look like USMS employees.

Elliot was so interested in what was going on that he barely slept on the first day, but fortunately he was ready to nap a bit on the second day.



My guys!



Me with Elliot and our teammates' baby Annika. We swim for Minuteman Masters, so these are the Minutebabies! I found out a few weeks ago that one of the swimmers in my lane is pregnant and heard earlier this week that another woman in our lane is also pregnant. Exciting!



Here I am doing my favorite stroke, breaststroke. I really enjoyed swimming the IMs and fly as well.

Trip to McLean VA

Last week, I traveled to NoVA for work. It was a three-day, two-night trip, which was too long to be away from Elliot. So Ed and Elliot both came along. (Ed is so awesome. Elliot and I are very lucky.) I was pretty nervous about the trip logistics, but everything went well. We were able to avoid checking luggage and had no trouble installing our car seat (which arrived safe and sound thanks to the fancy traveling bag we bought) in the rental car.

I managed to get a room at per diem at the Ritz-Carlton, so Ed joked with his friends that he was going to be my trophy wife for a few days. The room was, of course, lovely, and we were provided with a crib, fridge, and baby gift bag free of charge. (The gift bag included a diaper, bandaids, a small stuffed cat, a tub spout cover, and a bunch of other first aid/baby care items. Very thoughtful!)

Here, Elliot talks about his first airplane flight.



Brad and Fiona had us over for dinner and Elliot got to hang out with their two lovely kids.



Fist bump!



Ed, Elliot, Fiona, and Clare went to the Air and Space Museum annex at Dulles (the Udvar-Hazy Center). Ed was very excited about showing Elliot his first SR-71 and space shuttle, but of course Elliot slept through the whole thing.







Afterwards, Elliot enjoyed a luxurious lunch at the Ritz. Note the space shuttle jammies, which Ed wanted to make sure Elliot wore to the museum. We own these in 3 sizes. :)



We were so happy to be able to meet up with Ed's college friends Yvette and Dorian and their two sons, Cyrus and August. We hadn't seen them since the last college reunion when Yvette was very pregnant with August.



The flight back wasn't too bad, even though we flew at the "snitting hour" (as my friend Heather calls it -- right around 6 pm). We had the loveliest TSA employee help us out at security, as our enormous car seat would only go through the scanner if it was out of the bag and reclined at a 45-degree angle. He followed us through the checkpoint and gave us tips for future trips with the car seat.

So, everything went well, but between my meetings, having dinner with friends, catching up on work late at night, and traveling with a baby, we were pretty exhausted when we got home and had just one day to recover before our swim meet.