Not only workouts, backpack campin and hikin, but.....

The month of September should prove to be a busy month, in one week I am off to Isle Royale for a weeklong trek with 3 others, back into this life for a week, then possibly a worktrip to Dallas, the month will conclude with yours truly turning 52, Sept 29, and Bryan heading off to Malawi, Sept 26. He received his final itinerary, flying into Philly for a day of meetings and an overnight stay, then off to South Africa, the following day onto Malawi to start the 3 mths training with placement into his village at a later date.

Jeff and I had supper tonight at Buffalo Wild Wings, he starts his senior high school year tomorrow and is already in the midst of football season, spraining his ankle a week ago he missed their first game last Friday, but is hopeful for this week's home game, their games will get easier as the season rolls on and they are hoping to improve on last year's season inwhich they had only one win, Jeff plays running back and linebacker.

Back to work into the City tomorrow for me, the week will be interesting with the RNC in town, while the convention is held in St Paul, much activity also happens in MPLS and the Hilton Hotel across from my office is the RNC headquaters hotel. A week ago we had a sitdown protest in our office's lobby, targeting HUD for not sufficiently helping the homeless. Since then we have added security and much law enforcement will be present in the entire downtown area of each city.

I enjoy daily workouts, being in the woods, hiking, ect, but also this year I bought a violin after renting one on a trial basis. I took lessons for awhile, but during the summer months my free time was all dedicated to triathlon training, however, the past few weeks I have made practicing a priority again. I have always loved the sound of this instrument and learned to read music while playing alto sax in high school. This is not an easy one to master, but I have a lifetime, once I am satisfied I would like to give the cello a try.

This past weekend was mostly a weekend of R & R, easy lake swimming, bikerides, a movie, baking bread...... until I purchased a new DVD player, as the young man at Walmart said, " You just hook that wire there , and this one here......." It still looks like the mess above, does play DVDs, but no cable, my den tv does get cable fine tho, a work in progress........

This pic is from my last tri on Aug 10 at Spicer, the short course and long course races were run the same time on the same course. For the swim, the short distance racers went to the white buoy in the center of this pic, turned left, and went to another and back to shore, 1/4 mile total. My distance was out to the small red buoy and back, you can see the buoy in the distance at the top and center. With goggles on, I had trouble seeing it and teh waves were high going out, but as those of us going that distance went out, the safety boats in this pic formed a line and we could just stay between them. The buoy looked small from shore, but when I got there it was 5-6 feet tall, 3/4 mile total distance. I am somewhere in this photo, the first group out, each "wave" was released in 3 min intervals.

This pic was taken during Grandma's Marathon, Bryan's first this year, as all days in Duluth are, sunny and mild, clear sky, does it ever rain there ? I watched the race at various parts along the upper half of the course between Two Harbors and northern Duluth. This pic was at the elite runners' aid station, where their fluid bottles are lined up on the table, each elite runner has a specific spot for their bottle and aid station workers are not allowed to touch or handle them. Bryan was about 5 minutes ahead of these guys.

I took many floral pics this summer at the BWCA and along the SHT. This was in the BWCA at one of our campsites, a Wild Rose, right ?

Dangerous wildlife in the BWCA !

The mantra "another day in paradise" definitely applies when one is fortunate enough to spend time in the BWCA !

Have a great week everyone !