My Beachfront Walkout

I'm feeling nostalgic for my hotel room in San Diego from the weekend. More the view than the room itself, actually. How could you not love this view? Especially when it's currently 20 degrees outside and snowing. Ugh. I should have stayed there! Tomorrow is supposed to be even more snow. I can't wait. I'll be making my triumphant return to the pool tomorrow. The Ironman training starts to get serious now. I hope they've turned up the heater in the pool. I get cold just thinking about it.

Did they go to the zoo? Supposubly.*

Over the weekend I was in sunny, but chilly San Diego for the 2007 IABC Leadership Institute. Since I am the chair of the US Southern Region, my schedule was jam packed with meetings, networking and idea sharing, but I had a chance to get out and enjoy the city a bit too. Congratulations to my friends Tammie and Dan for being named IABC's Regional Volunteers of the Year. A very well deserved recognition!

I spent Saturday afternoon at the wonderful San Diego Zoo with my friend and fellow board member, Carol. Since we only had a couple of hours, it was a bit of a whirlwind tour, but we still got to see most of the animals we wanted to see. The only disappointment is that the big cats were doing what most cats do, they had found a sunny spot and were sleeping the afternoon away. Unfortunately, the sunny spots weren't in good viewing areas. But other animals didn't disappoint...

Monkey!

Baby Pandas are so cute.

And big pandas are pretty darn cute too. Bamboo sure is tasty.

This duck has a really pretty blue bill. Unfortunately, he didn't want to sit still for a photo.

I just couldn't resist.

This is some sort of wild cat from Africa, but it really looks like someone dropped their tabby cat off at the zoo. If I ever get tired of my kitties, now I know where to take them.

*If you're not a fan of Friends, then the title of this post probably makes no sense to you, but to me, it makes me laugh every time I hear it. I can't go to the zoo without hearing Joey say that line in my head. It's a word snob thing.

Welcome to my blog!

Only 7 months and 9 days until Ironman Wisconsin! On Sept. 9, I'll be swimming, running and biking 140.6 miles through the beautiful countryside in and around Madison, Wisconsin. I can't wait! This blog is meant to chronicle my training and the other interesting events in my life. While most of my posts will probably be Ironman related, my biggest challenge for myself over the next 9 months is to not let Ironman training completely take over my life, so I'll try to post on a variety of topics.
If you're reading this, you probably already know me, so I won't do a long intro, but if you've somehow stumbled across this, here are the highlights. I have lived in Bartlesville, Okla. for the last year and work for a major energy company as a communications consultant. My job keeps me very busy and I've been traveling quite a bit lately between Houston (ugh.) and Calgary. I'm also very active with the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), a professional organization that has played a huge role in my career. This is my 10th year of doing triathlons, and IM Wisconsin 2007 will be my 2nd Ironman. My first Ironman was Wisconsin in 2004. I finished in 13:25:50, so my goal this year is to beat that time by at least 1 second. Aim high, right? :)

I also am an avid knitter, hence the name of the blog. After several years of knitting mostly square and rectangular items, I finally decided I had too many scarves, so I have tried to challenge myself and my knitting skills with some less rectangular projects. I'll post updates on my progress from time to time.

I bought my first house when I moved to Bville and live there with the worlds most adorable roommates, my two cats, Stewart and Xena. As I type this, they are sprawled across my living room floor trying to soak in as much of the sunbeam as possible. Ah, the life of a cat. You can tell them apart by looking at their noses, Stewart's is black, Xena's is white.
So, that's it for now. Feel free to comment, I'd love to hear from you. Lynn