It was a full weekend!

Friday night our friend Lara was in town, and Erin, Jeff, Chris and I had a chance to go to one of our favorite Indian places (Sitar) for dinner. It was good to see the almost the whole crowd back together. Now if we could only have had Eli there, it would have been complete. Of course, one high point for the evening (the one after we went to Grecianland Bakery) was Erin’s photojournalism while Jeff & Chris changed Jeff’s tire. It doesn’t sound thrilling but so few of the funny moments in life really are.

Saturday Chris, Fred, and I loaded up the car and headed to Baltimore for Chris’s friend Pete’s wedding. (Got that? Reread that sentence if necessary). It was really nice, held at a beautiful hotel, and the flowers were gorgeous. The wedding cake was blue modern art, which was probably more to the taste of the bride & groom than the standard white cake. Poor Pete, he looked so stressed out, especially when the wedding coordinator was late. But everything went smoothly, as most weddings ultimately do. Despite the worst fears of we brides, I’ve never seen a spectacularly horrible, tv news worth wedding. Anyway, Chris has that little reminder of what he’s getting into now. Run away!

Saturday night we drove from Baltimore to Philly to stay at a friend’s house. Sunday morning we were off to the races. That was the first MAC (MidAtlantic Cyclocross) race that I’ve been to this year, so it was like old home week. It never fails to amaze me how fabulous the people are at cyclocross when the folks at road races are a really mixed bag of cool people and complete jerks. (Or insert your favorite slanderous description here). Anyway, the race was held at a farm with a pumpkin festival occurring at one end, and the race occurring around a big pasture. The good news for Fred – the pasture was full of tasty treats. The bad news for Chris and I – those tasty treats came from the back end of a cow. EEEEeewwww! Anyway, rough race for Chris with flat tire and all, but he still managed to get 13th. We did our very first bike exchange, which was a little tough since there were a boatload of rookies feeding from within the pit, and therefore blocking the ability to run through as the rider is supposed to be able to. I had to stand at the mouth of the pit and do the hand off into the main stream of the riders. I was lucky, one friend caught Chris’s bike (In a cross exchange, the incoming rider jumps off the bike that needs work, and “throws” his bike, and hopefully someone grabs it, then someone has a spare bike and hands the new bike to the rider who hops back on. ), and another held Fred while we did the exchange. So it didn’t go badly, but we’ve decided that may take a bit more work while I learn how to make it flow better. I know of two mistakes that I made in the process, but it didn’t go poorly for a first time. Anyway, it was really cool to see everyone – our friend JH was up from Richmond (Susan – can’t wait to see you – maybe Beacon??). Another friend, Adam had a 5-week-old kitten in his car that he was taking to his girlfriend that night. It was really amazingly cute. Kittens always are! (Ogden Nash: The problem with a kitten is THAT Eventually it becomes a CAT). I got some of the latest gossip – our friends Marilyn & Sean are off to Houston next week for a half Ironman, and Amber is engaged. In the meantime, Chris was a lean, mean announcing machine for the women’s A-race (which Chris’s teammate, Betsy, won) and the men’s A-race (which his teammates took first and third in). So we went home with a happy post-MAC buzz, ready to face picking up the Volvo today, and cleaning up the invitations, and starting my studying for CPIM. We’re getting there!

- posted by cam @ 9:18 AM