Why Pat Isn't My Race Partner

Every Saturday through July and August, New Belgium is giving away a Fat Tire bike. At 6:00 am, they post a photo of the bike on their facebook page with the bike lock combination. You have to figure out where it is by just the picture. The first one there to unlock the bike wins it. So far there have been 2 bikes in Tempe, one in Chandler, one at the Biltmore and one in Glendale. Last week was my first week to play and I did not recognize the location so I went back to bed.

But today's picture was this:Bam! I knew it right away...because we got married there:
Here's the scene. It's 5:58 am. My alarm goes off, I check my phone. "Pat! It's at Heritage Square!" I say. Heritage Square is downtown, about 11 miles away. There is only a very slim chance I could get there first since we live so far away. I would truly have to haul ass and hope that no one else recognized the location. But Pat says, "We can try, I'll go with you." My response was "Ok, but we have to go right now! And we can't let the dogs know we are leaving." There wasn't time to let them go out to pee, you see, so I didn't want them to wake up.

I grab the first pair of shoes I see, run (silently) to the kitchen to grab my purse and my keys while pulling on the shoes and I'm out the door and in the car. I pull out of the driveway and am waiting in the street. And waiting. A full minute goes by. Wtf? And I'm still waiting. And another full minute goes by. WTF?? This is a frickin' race!! Minutes count! Where is he?!?! I put it in park and go running in to see what the hell his problem is...and he comes ambling out the door. Three and a half minutes!!! Oh my god!!!!!

This is what he did: He got out of bed. He went pee. He got some socks and found his shoes. He wondered for a bit where I was and why I wasn't in the room urging him to go faster. Then he SAT DOWN and put on the socks. Then he put on the shoes. He kept wondering where I was. HUH? Where do you think I would be?? He ambles to the kitchen to get his wallet and keys. As he's meandering through the house, he sees the front door is open and he sees my car in the street. He gets the "uh oh, I'm in trouble" sinking feeling and heads outside. It never occurred to him that I'd already be ready to go. Huh?!?!?

The whole way there we laughed that he could waste 3.5 minutes wondering where I was. Has he not met me? Does he not know that competitive is in my blood? AND THAT THIS WAS A RACE?!?! Oh sweet jesus, if we missed the bike by three minutes, I would have had to kill him. The man has no sense of urgency at all!

As it turned out, we were 5th to Heritage Square which really isn't that bad considering the distance we had to drive to get there...and that Pat wasted 3.5 minutes! We missed the bike by 9 minutes, so Pat was off the hook. The girl who won lived right by there.

So, since we were up super early anyway, we went for a hike. Which I finished about 10 minutes before Pat did.

St. Louis Twilight Town Treks

When Christy and I first talked about doing an urban adventure race gig, it was a given that we'd bring the race to St. Louis. My sister, Amy, lives in St. Louis. For a few years I've been telling her that we should do one of the races together. She was interested...but none of the races go to St. Louis! Wtf? So, MY race definitely would! And...it did!

From the very start of Twilight Town Treks, St. Louis was hoppin'. The minute I put our website up, we were getting hits from St. Louis. The only marketing we did was to post the race on various race calendars in our markets. Immediately, St. Louis made up 1/2 of our total webhits every day. We had teams register there before any teams registered here in Phoenix! And we KNOW people in Phoenix!! It was crazy.

I expected St. Louis would be great, and I was not at all surprised that the race was SO SUPER FUN!!

We had 38 teams register and 7 teams sign up at the event - a perfect amount of teams! The weather was really, really hot and really, really humid. There was a thunderstorm threatening at 5:30 when registration started. Luckily, it blew over and the weather behaved for the duration of the race. I was worried about my volunteers being out there in the rain all night. Rain is fun for racers, but not so much for people who have to stand out in it for 4 hours!

Let's talk about the race volunteers. Do these people look familiar to you? Yep, pretty much my whole family came to St. Louis to help! Pat flew in the day after we got there. Anne and my parents drove down from Springfield and Amy, of course, lives there. It was like a slumber party at her house that night! How cute does Amy look with her newly bald head? What a trooper she is...she had chemo on Thursday and on Saturday night she's staffing a checkpoint on my race for me. My family rocks!

And some more sisters:
Yes, I was in a sorority and these are my sorority sisters. The girl on the left is my college roommate, Jill. The girl on the right is Kristen, a friend of Jill's and a DG who came around after I slacked out of the sorority. Luckily Jill forgave me for being a DG flake and we've remained friends for 15 years! These girls are awesome!

More great friends:
There is Christy...and who's that in the background? It's our friend, Wayne, who flew in from Phoenix to take a mini-vacation and help us with the race. So nice!

I am so lucky to have such great friends and family. Without them I know that the St. Louis race would not have been the HUGE success it was. And, a HUGE success it was!! All the racers were enthusiastic about being there. They all had a ton of fun on the race, despite the 95 degree, 95 percent humidity that night. It was so hot and sweaty that at the puzzle challenge, we actually had to pull one of the puzzles out of use because the pieces were so soggy from people's sweat that they were losing their shape. Ew. :)

Pat keeping the sweaty puzzlers in line:
The Animal Protective Association was our charity recipient for the race and working with them was just as awesome as everything else in St. Louis. They were so eager to be a part of everything. They scoped out their location, they brought out their tent (but were asked to take it down by the park people), they even tried to bring their RV out for a better visual, but the parking was too difficult. I love them! The dogs they brought were Cooper and Lula. Lula is the black one. They were both sweet but Lula stole my heart. She did eventually get adopted, but sadly not by one of my racers. Last I checked Cooper was still waiting for a home (breaks my heart!!).

After the race, most of the racers stuck around the bar all night, talking about the race and making friends. It was incredible how good the mood was! Almost all of the teams told us how much fun they had and promised they'd be back next year. The facebook postings from the racers that night and the next day were all positive. One of my favorites: "This ranks up there as the funnest thing we have done as a couple." Some teams were even talking about road-tripping to Las Vegas to do our race there. I would love that! These people were so much fun! I can't wait to go back there again next year.

A Tent or a Hotel Room??

Pat got a new tent. He did a ton of research over the past year to get exactly the tent he wanted. He spent a crazy amount on this tent, in my opinion. I have this opinion because with our crazy schedules, there really aren't that many free weekends to go camping. He had it for months before he finally used it. I harassed him quite a bit that if was going to be in possession of such a fine tent, he'd probably make an effort to use the fine tent.

Putting it up in the backyard doesn't count!He finally went camping with his dad over Easter. He's getting his money's worth. Right now, he's at about $200 a night! No, that didn't come with room service, big screen TV or a view of the ocean. :)

Inaugural Male Diamond Christmas Cookie Making Contest

This year marked the start of what will hopefully become an annual tradition for the Diamond family Christmas: The Male Diamond Christmas Cookie Making Contest. Wow, this event might need a new title. That one is a little unwieldy, I'd say. But it explains the event exactly: all the males in the Diamond family made cookies for a Christmas evening taste-off. My mother took pity on poor Pat and didn't want to make him schlep cookies all the way across the country, so Pat was named the judge.

Personally, I think, that as a connoisseur of cookies (mmmm.... cookies!!), I should be the judge (duh!) and Pat should have to bake like everybody else. How difficult would it be for him to put a ziploc baggie of cookies in his luggage? It might be hard for him (...er...me) to make it all the way to Springfield without eating all the cookies before arrival, but the schlepping would not be a problem. Besides, once you give Pat such power like a judgeship, it goes right to his head. He made everyone address him as "Your Honor" for the rest of the vacation. (I actually made that part up, but it is something he would do if he had thought of it.)

Anyway...Pat was the judge and the other men made the cookies.

Judge Pat:
The entrants:
Starting at center top: 1. Sugar, submitted by Kevin. 2. White Chocolate Chip Something-or-Other that was supposed to be more Other than Something, submitted by my dad. 3. Chocolate Mint Brownie Sandwich Cookie, submitted by Lane. 4. Ginger Snap, submitted by my dad. 5. Chocolate Chip, submitted by Kevin.

Yes, Kevin had two entries. It's not too hard to make two kinds of cookie when all you do is buy the rolls of pre-made dough and put them in the oven. Or, maybe it is that hard when you ruin two of Anne's air-bake baking sheets by putting them in water after baking. Oops.

Yes, my dad also had two entries. After spending over $37.00 (!) on supplies, you'd better hope he made more than one kind of cookie. Too bad neither of them were very edible.

Brett almost had an entry, but it would have been cheating anyway, as he was going to let Chris make the dough and he was just going to bake them. Slacker!

Pat was a very diplomatic judge. He discussed the merits of taste and form of each of the cookies. He awarded first place in the chocolate chip division to Kevin, second place to my dad. First place in the ginger snap division went to my dad. First place in the sandwich cookie division (do you see where this is going?) went to Lane. First place in the sugar cookie division went to Kevin. Pat did lose some credibility when he picked up the sugar cookie and asked us, "This is a sugar cookie, right?"

After awarding all the Best of Breeds, it was time to award Best In Show. After some deliberation, he announced the winner:

Lane and his Chocolate Mint Brownie Sandwich Cookie took the prize!

Congratulations, Lane!

Next year I hope that Brett enters and that my dad stays away from the ginger snap recipes!

And that wraps up all the Christmas posts. Hopefully now I will continue the unprecedented productivity and move onto some 2010 stuff! I know you're dying to hear about my New Year's Resolutions!

Another Sleepless Night

Rustle-rustle-rustle-rustle....

me (waking up): What are you doing? It is 2:30 in the morning!!
Pat (just arriving home from a party): Looking for the gift card I got my mom.
me: Is it Barnes and Noble?
Pat: Yes! Have you seen it?
me: It's in the fridge.
Pat: What?
me: It's in the fridge.
Pat: What?
me: It's in the fridge.
Pat: Why?
me: How would I know?! That's where you put it, I guess.
steps walking away...
steps returning....
Pat: Huh. Never would have thought to look there.

Good god. I wish this was a dream.

Wigs: Not Just For Halloween

Wigs aren't just for Halloween. No way! Wigs are great anytime! Wigs are especially great for when you get your three favorite boys together to eat sushi and watch hockey. See?




Btw, the Coyotes won this game, so wigs and sushi might have to be our new superstitious tradition. And isn't Pat super-pretty with long hair?

10th Anniversary Wedding Party

Saturday, September 12 was my 10th Wedding Anniversary. Pat and I had some misunderstandings about how it was to be celebrated. Initially Pat wanted to rent a venue and throw a huge catered gala. I felt this was more expense than I really wanted to go to. Then I suggested a baseball game because Pat has become a fan this summer. No more was said, so I thought this was the plan. I was wrong. On Tuesday before the date, Pat wanted to know how I was coming with the party plans. Huh? I was doing a lot of event planning...at work! 12 events in two weeks, to be exact. But I hadn't been planning a party for our anniversary.

So, with very little advance notice, I threw together a "Wedding Party" and invited lots of people. Pat and I had already planned to wear our wedding clothes for our annual anniversary pictures so I thought it would be fun if everyone got to wear wedding clothes to the party.

The Evite:

"What a lovely bridesmaid's dress! And you can definitely wear it again!!" And it's true! You can wear it again! You can wear it to Jill & Pat's 10th Anniversary Wedding Party! Saturday is our 10th Anniversary and we'd love it if you would come help celebrate the occasion. But this time around you are all invited to be a member of our wedding party. Every single one of you...Bridesmaids and Groomsmen!

Dress Code:
Girls - a bridesmaid dress that has been sitting in your closet waiting for the chance to wear it again (Nicole and Christy - it would be cool if you could dig out your dress from my wedding!) If you don't have one hanging in your closet, then be a good sport and borrow one, make one or visit Goodwill!
Boys - A tux, a suit, preferably with a bow tie or something you'd wear as the groomsman in Pat's wedding.
Jill - Obviously, I'll be wearing my wedding dress!
Pat - Busting out the old zoot suit!
Rules: No anniversary gifts are allowed. Save the environment and skip the cards, too. No bridal party gifts will be given either, so if you were thinking about attending just to get your pair of jammies or your cuff links, forget about it. Also, we won't be buying your dinner, because we are cheap assholes. But we really hope you are able to come join our wedding party!!


And with only 4 days notice, we got 30 people to say yes!

We started out at Heritage Square taking our usual anniversary pictures:
Then our friends started to arrive for the group Wedding Pictures.

Three of Pat's original groomsmen, Steven (the best man), NFBF and Josh (Sean was sick and Brian was out of town):
Two of my original bridesmaids, Nicole and Christy (Anne, Amy and Laura all live out of state):
Christy was so excited because ten years later, her dress was too big for her!
Nicole was not as happy, because ten years later, her size 0 dress would not zip up anymore. But it looked pretty sexy as a backless number!
Both girls have babies as the cause. Christy had just given birth two weeks prior to my wedding so she's a lot smaller now that she's stopped having babies. Nicole just gave birth a year ago and the pregnancy expanded her rib cage. What good sports they are to keep and bring out their dresses!!

Pat's family (Pat's mom is also wearing the same dress from the wedding!):

Pat and I with all of our new bridesmaids in their beautiful bridesmaid dresses:

This pictures cracks me up:
Pat with all his new groomsmen in their varying degrees of groomsmen attire:

The entire wedding party:

After taking pictures we headed over to our "reception" at Local Breeze, where we accumulated a few more bridesmaids. Aimee in one of her sage green bridesmaid dresses:
The book club bridesmaids (Kiri let us down with the pretty sundress, when she had promised an atrocious floral velvet bridesmaid dress):

And more groomsmen. Here is Brent in his red, velvet smoking jacket. This boy certainly knows how to Wedding Party:

All of these people were present at our wedding ten years ago!!
And just as a reminder...pimpin' ain't easy...though these boys make it look like it is!

The dinner was yummy, the waiter (a drag queen named Aimee D'Manda Justice, though not in drag so was answering to Zach) was hilarious, the company was great. We had a bunch of tables together on the patio. There were other diners on the patio and I'm sure they thought we were having a real wedding reception. I wonder if they felt bad for us...no music, no dancing, no private venue. :)

And here is something you don't see every day:

Offroading

Pat is forever complaining that we don't have enough time to do the stuff we like to do. He likes to blame this on my Sunday soccer schedule, but his Saturday night hockey is equally at fault. And, of course, the real culprit is work. If we weren't spending 40+ hours slaving for The Man, then we'd have plenty of time to do everything he wants to do!
One of the things he'd like to do more of is to take the Jeep out and explore Arizona's backroads. I finally convinced him that this doesn't have to be a full weekend excursion and can be done on a Saturday (after I go hiking with Christy and before he goes to hockey, of course.) There are lots of trails east of the Phoenix metro area, only about an hour from our house that we have never been to. We headed out there on Saturday to finally check it out.

The trail started with the usual desert landscape - saguaros and scrub.
As the trail wound its way up the mountain, we got more trees and less cactus.
It's all pines at the top of the mountain.Arizona is pretty. I like mountains. It makes me happy! :)The trail goes through this river bed. I'm sure the driving is a little more difficult in the spring when there is actually a river in the river bed, instead of just a few puddles.
More pretty:
Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. I assure you they are cleaner than they appear, as well.

The Adventures of I LOVE KAYAKING

Look at this! I'm kayaking! And I'm having fun.
Trade in a river for a lake, a cold day for warm sunshine, an inflatable monstrosity for sleek, hard plastic and crap oars for cool black ones.... and magic happens. It turns out that I DO like kayaking. Add in a dose of good friends and the most beautiful surroundings you can imagine and you have the ingredients for a perfect day.

It really was a perfect day. I LOVE KAYAKING!

Here is my dose of good friends...such a willing and adventurous bunch!
The fun started before we even got in our kayaks.

Once we finally got in the lake, we found that the kayaks took a little getting used to. The water was quite cold and we really hoped we wouldn't end up in it. Craig was a bit nervous at first - well, quite scared actually, of tipping over and falling into the cold lake.
Here is Pat in an inflatable monstrosity. He wanted a more stable kayak to ensure that there would be no tipping himself over into the really cold lake.

Laura went with the sleek, hard plastic. Unlike the rest of us, she was not scared of falling in. As a matter of fact, after about an hour of kayaking, we stopped at a little beach to eat and hang out and she went swimming. Intentionally! Crazy.
David and Iren got a double inflatable monstrosity. The inflatable kayaks are very slow and very hard to maneuver. It was even harder in a double, but they did great!

We kayaked for quite a while. I have no idea how to measure water distance or kayak time, so I have no idea how far we went, but I can assure you it was not 9 and a half miles like I did two weeks ago. Perhaps this was also a part of why today was so much more fun than last time!

On our way back, we stopped to do a little hiking. David, Iren, Laura and I climbed to the top of this hill. Wow, what a view! I love Arizona so much! This was an extra dose of the most beautiful surroundings you can imagine.
Be careful where you step or you might step on this.

I was about an inch from squishing this poor guy. For a moment, I thought he was dead, but then he slithered off the trail.

A pretty successful trip so far... no one got bit by a snake and no one fell in the lake!

As we neared the dock and waited for our slow-poke friends in the inflatable monstrosities to catch up, Laura and I tested Craig's strength. We both grabbed on to the back of his kayak and made him tow us. He actually got up some speed and we went a fairly good distance. It took all of his effort. When we finally gave in and let go, an exhausted Craig leaned back in his kayak to rest. Not such a good idea! Kayak tipped! Ha! Craig fell in! Hilarious!!
And then the fun was over much too soon. This was one of the best days ever! I love my friends, I love Arizona, I love weekends, I love that I have the ability to go adventure-seeking and what do you know? I love kayaking.

We went out to eat on the way home where Laura memorialized our wonderful day.

And for those of you who stop by my blog just to see what the pups are up to...they had some fun today, too. We went for a long hike this morning and though there was no bunny chasing, there was some lizard chasing. They are happily curled up in various spots around my feet right now.