Pumpkins 2008

We went to a pumpkin carving party tonight, and as been the trend lately we were the hit of the party! Well I should say our pumpkins were. And by our pumpkins I really mean my pumpkins since daddy ended up carving 3 of them! Sydney saw me looking up patterns on the internet this afternoon, and decided she wanted to pick her own too. I steered her away from the Disney princesses, yes there are Disney princess pumpkin carving templates! So here they are in no particular order:

Aiden's Vampire

Sydney's Kitty Cat

My Mummy

Bridget's Jack Skellington from Tim Burtons A Nightmare Before Christmas!

Here is the Jack Skellington template I went off of:

I am the pumpkin carving master!

Guess who's #1 now!

As if there was ever any doubt......I won first place in the bowling league Halloween party! The prizes were pretty lame, I'm not sure it was worth the embarrassment...but I won! I had my choice of a wind sock, some flowers, and a Halloween plate. I chose the plate, I don't know what to do with it, but I chose it.

Claire won second place with her bowling pin poodle skirt, she chose the flowers.

Strangely, I bowled better with the skirt on..it was my highest game of the week. After they announced the winners I changed, and bowled two crappy games! I half considered putting just the skirt back on, but I couldn't bring myself to do it!

Halloween Fun

Worst idea I ever agreed to! I am supposed to be June Cleaver and Bridget is Ward. We wore these to a Halloween party tonight and we were the hit of the party! Definitely the best dressed couple at the party! Although on the drive across town to the party I was mortified, I refused to even look out of the window and I was really wondering why we didn't drive my car with the tinted windows! I think the worst part is that I have to wear this getup to bowling on Wednesday, any predictions on if I win one of the prizes for best costume?




Claire made the skirt for me, and the apron, and the pearl necklace. I found the shoes and shirt at Goodwill, and we found Bridget's entire "Ward" outfit there as well. I styled Bridget's hair for her, I used about a gallon of hair gel...it was awesome!

New Maserati

I was driving around downtown yesterday and I saw a guy on a test drive of a new Maserati. The window sticker was visible to me when he was next to me at a light so I was checking it out. 12 miles to the gallon in the city and 18 on the highway. Now I realize that people don't buy a car just for fuel economy, but this car didn't look like it was anything special. I would expect a new pickup to get those kind of numbers, even my 5 year old VW gets better mileage than that. Then there was another interesting tidbit on the window sticker, an environmental scale. I couldn't read the fine print, but it was a scale with a triangle marking the center which I'll assume meant average. This Maserati was about 1/3 of the way to average, so I'm guessing it has a pretty crappy impact on the environment. But for an entry price of $114,000 I guess I was asking a bit much for this car right?

Click here to get yours today!

In recognigition:

I just wanted to jot a little down about a great local triathlete, BJ Christenson. BJ works at my favorite local running store, Salt Lake Running Company. Last time I was in there he was super helpful and gave me lots of advice about the cramping issue I had in the Utah Half. I actually saw him run in the Shark Attack triathlon 2 years ago, I think he was on a relay team and he was the runner...he flew past me so fast, he must have been running 5 minute miles (seriously). It really isn't fair though he has legs that are 6 feet long each, his stride is equivalent to 3 of mine I'm sure of it! Anyway, super nice guy and somewhat of a triathlon legend here in the SLC area.

He competed in the Ironman Kona race this year, his second time I think. This is the ultimate triathlon, at the birthplace of the sport. I would say it is like a triathletes Graceland or something. Anyway he finished 129th out of 1736 and 21st in his age group. I think the amazing part are his times broken down by sport. Like his swim for example, 2.4 miles in 1 hour 25 seconds. That is really frickin fast! His bike was an average of 20.68 MPH for 112 miles, while that may seem slow one has to factor in the LAVA effect....riding through the lava fields of Hawaii in stiff winds and excruciating heat and humidity. And finally the run, a 26.2 mile marathon after 6 hours of hardcore exercise, and he completes in in 3:06:07, or just over 7 minutes per mile.

I think of BJ as an inspiration and one who's every move should be copied. Like I said earlier he is a super nice guy, step into the Running Company and he will be more than willing to answer your questions, and it will seem like he really wants to help.

Here is a race recap if you are interested.