Puppy Love

And they called it......

On Thursday, Neal and I headed west to the Charlotte area for my Tri! Along the way we paid a visit to our puppy in Gastonia. Anita and Paul Pennell welcomed the two of us, plus Sonja (Neal's sister) and our nephews Drew and Nathan to their home to sit with the two-week-old pups.

On Saturday, we had a break in our agenda and visited AGAIN (I couldn't resist). They were peeking through mostly open eyes and starting to scooch around.

You'll notice in these first two pix, all the puppies have different colored collars. In several weeks, the Pennells will choose the dog that best fits our family. We'll be able to look back and see how our dog grew over the first few weeks!
This one is from Thursday:
She stuck with Neal nearly the whole time. It must have been his brown shirt.
Sleepy Girls:
The Countdown is On!!! You can see more pix on Picasa.

Face on Fire

It's official: I have my first triathlon-related injury. I would argue that running into the ottoman after a workout last week was painful enough to count. HOWEVER, running over a jellyfish with your face is far more dramatic. Yes, it's true. During the swim portion of my mini-tri on Saturday I hit what was probably a sea nettle in Banks Channel. It was a beautiful day: calm, warm and sunny. But nobody knew what lurked beneath........ When I turned to breathe on one of the last strokes before I hit the halfway mark, I felt the stings on my face and then it brushed across the back of my left shoulder.

Instead of swimming back, I hoisted myself onto the nearest dock, rinsed myself off and jogged bare-footed back to the Seaside Club. Neal, who was my SAG (support and gear), caked on some Benedryl cream (that expired in 1999) and I decided to finish the second leg of the race - the 15 mile bike ride that ended at home. I reapplied my anti-sting cream (Neal bought some brand-new version on the way home - awwwwww!) and I headed out for the 3.1 mile run!

My face burned for the rest of the day and there's a hint of a red swoosh on my cheek. (Maybe I'll be the new cover girl for Nike). My new mantra: on PHIRE TO THE PHINISH.

TTFN!