The Thrill of Victory...

My brother Dave and I participated in a duathlon in Bryan/College Station today. He biked 12 miles and I ran two 5k legs. It was pretty cold, but not windy, and I ran the best 2 5k's I've ever run. Dave had a fabulous 12 miles on the bike. We were excited to have finally done a race together and to have done so well. The great news is that we placed first in the co-ed relay division! We got a great plaque (you know, its all about the hardware). The other side of this story is that there were just two teams in our division, but the other team had a good runner so we had to give it our all and not slack off. We did, and I can finally say I won a race. I will never, however, be able to say that in any marathon or half-marathon. Many thanks and love to our great team manager - Dad!

The best part of the weekend was being with my entire family for my mom's birthday on Friday. My brother, SIL, nephews and niece were there, my grandparents who live there, my grandma from Wisconsin, and my parents of course. We had a very full house, but it was a great time. The boys love love love their Auntie Kiki! And my niece is 6 months old and is just so beautiful.



One family member who was missing was my beloved cat Millie. She had a little "incident" on Friday morning... I got up early to workout on my elliptical, let her out onto the patio, and an hour later, went to let her back in. She was gone. Gone from my third floor patio. Which meant one thing...she fell. Granted, I had visions of some predatory bird swooping in at 5:30 in the morning to snatch her off the patio, but I figured that was pretty remote. I did expect to find her dead though. That's a fall of about 20+ feet, and for an old arthritic cat, well, I expected the worse by the time I made it to the first floor and out the front door.

I was calm, but started calling her name, like she was going to respond to that (never). Then I did a little whistle I do that she responds to in some way 65% of the time. It worked. I heard her meow from the front of my next door neighbors garden area. She poked her little head out from under a bush, a look of bewilderment on her face. I scooped her up and hugged her, and later thought that might not have been the best idea in case she had broken something, but she didn't wince. I checked her out and saw that her nose and mouth area were a little bloody. To be on the safe side, I took her to the vet, and they said all tests and x-rays were just fine. To be on the safer side, I left her at the vet over the weekend, just in case. And that calmness I noted earlier must have been adrenaline, because I was completely mentally wiped out by 10 am Friday morning. I can't wait to bring her home tomorrow. Poor little Millie!! She's gonna get lots of loving!

Congrats to my friends Stacy and Shubh on the baptism of their son Romit today!