You Can Never Have Too Much Duct Tape!

Ok, so home ownership is not all that its cracked up to be. Over the course of the last week or so, I've noticed (what a Google search confirmed to be) mouse droppings. Ugh! I swear this is a boy job! I can change a faucet, put in a dimmer switch, and even hang drywall, but the thought of mice just creeps me out!!!!!

So Friday, I went to Home Depot in search of mouse traps - the humane kind that don't kill the mouse, but just trap it so that you can take it outside and set it free. Well, Home Depot only carries killer traps. But I was desperate after reading about the breeding cycles of mice online (trust me, you don't want know) and I bought them and tried to psych myself up that I could do this. I cleared out the cabinet and set the trap.

Apparently I'm quite the pro. It's always nice when you wake up on Saturday morning and the first thing you see is the successful mouse trap. I've spared you the pictures. The problem remains though of how to keep the mice out in the first place!

It seems that when my kitchen was renovated, and the pipes that lead to my garbage disposal had to be lowered, the plumber didn't plug the hole from where the pipes used to be. (My pipes connect to my neighbor's house.) In addition, the openings for where the pipes are now are rectangular, when the pipe is round - leaving lots of extra space for a mouse to climb through to my cabinet. I'm surprised its taken me a year and a half to see my first mouse!

So now the dilemma of how to patch the holes. Home Depot doesn't sell scrap wood anymore and I didn't have any laying around. But my mom had a brilliant idea - Duct Tape! What can't you do with duct tape? A little creativity involving disposable plastic plates and LOTS of duct tape, and wa-la! See for yourself! If this doesn't work...I don't know...I'm moving out. Or at least going to Europe!

Do you think this will pass a home inspection if I ever try to sell the place? :-)

Savageman - Sept. 16, 2007

I know, everyone questions my idea of fun, but this really was fun. Deep Creek Lake, MD is the perfect venue for a race, thanks to David and Kyle for putting together a truly spectacular one!


The Savageman is without a doubt the hardest 1/2 ironman around. I only did the "aqua-velo" (just the swim and bike) and I feel like its taking me longer to recover than it did after my last ironman.

The swim was awesome! It was definitely the most fun I've ever had swimming in a race. With a water temp. of 72 degrees and air temp. of ~40 degrees, the entire surface of the water was covered with a dense fog. You couldn't see a single buoy (despite what the pictures indicate...). Since I'm a horrible sighter anyway, this leveled the playing field for me. It is the only swim race I've done where people were talking to each other in the middle of the race, trying to figure out which direction to go. Although at one point, I stopped and I couldn't seen anyone or even hear anyone. Kind of eerie...but I figured the fog would burn off eventually and I'd find my way back to shore. And the water was so warm in comparison to the air, I could have stayed in all day! But a few second later, one of the support boats, with a blinking blue light on it yelled that the buoys were to my left, and before I knew it I was back in the pack and across the finish line.

The bike course was INSANE! No one hill was any harder than anything I'd ever done, but there were so many hard hills in just 56 miles that I was beat by the end of it. Here are some highlights, thanks to Rodrigo:

Mile 19.5 - the "Westernport Wall". On the first 1/2 mile it climbs 356 ft. and on the second 1/2 mile it climbs 261 ft, for a total of 627 ft. in the first mile. The entire town of Westernport was out cheering. Rumor has it, they even canceled church to come cheer. That is awesome!

Mile 24 - 617 ft. climb in 1.5 miles, of which 250 ft. comes in the first 1/2 mile.
Mile 26 - 274 ft. climb in 0.6 miles.
Mile 31 - 642 ft. in 2 miles.
Mile 36 - 301 ft. in 0.7 miles.
Mile 43 - 233 ft. in 0.7 miles.
Mile 51 - 201 ft. in 0.5 miles. (This was without a doubt the hardest - not statistically, but because it came so late in the ride and after all the other monsters!)

So what's next you might ask? Well, thanks to Amy and Theresa, Ironman Switzerland - July 13, 2008. Zurich anyone?

Norway - A Mexican footnote.

I learned on the most recent trip to Australia & New Zealand with Amy and Theresa, that you have to test out the Mexican food in every country that you visit. For whatever reason, its apparently not that easy to duplicate around the world. Having now tried it in the UK (the worst!), New Zealand (a close second) and Australia (tolerable), Theresa and I were on a mission to find Mexican in Bergen. Just when we thought we might have to try the Cajun place as a close substitute, Diego finally spotted a Mexican place through the downpour. We were saved! Only, it actually turned to taste pretty much like the real thing. It seems the rest of the world might be starting to catch up, as my enchiladas were great! What a disappointment!

Norway (Part 2) - August 2007

A week later and we're back in Bergen. Back to internet access, traffic, and city life. Though Bergen is the second largest city in Norway, by U.S. standards, its still quite small.



We had 5 spectacular days of cycling through the fjords and experienced all Norway had to offer...wind, rain, sleet, snow,....and even a little sun. Apparently we were in the spot one day that registered the coldest temperature in all of Norway and experienced the wettest August in a town called Lom in the last 100 years. I've never had so much fun biking in such miserable weather! But when you have 2 amazing guides, a landrover with coffee and hot chocolate for you every 10 km, and an absolutely amazing group of riders, you can't help but have fun and wish it would never end. The pictures don't even do the scenery justice, it was just phenomenal.


We ended the week last night in a local pub, dancing until 2:30am to a 2-person band playing everything from Bruce Springsteen and Elvis to Shania Twain and Alan Jackson - all with a Norwegian accent. It was hilarious! Today, everyone has headed home except for Theresa, Trevor and I who leave tomorrow. It seems so strange without the rest of the group here!