The Hills

**To make up for not posting this weekend, I decided to throw in an extra post**

I have a secret. I'm addicted to MTV's reality trash show The Hills. Silly, I know. But I just watch in fascination as a bunch of 20-something girls and guys spend their lives in clubs, at lunches/dinners out, at fake jobs, and creating silly drama among their friends. I know the show is staged, and I know I should probably not watch it...but I'm kinda hooked. I think I watch it completely amazed that people waste their lives in the way this crowd does. Anyway, here are a few of my observations/questions about the show.

- What does Spencer spend his time doing and how does he have any money to buy clothes and go out every night?

- How does Lauren (or any of the girls on the show, really) drink so much, eat out so much and still stay thin? I know they show her at the gym occasionally, but still!

- Does anyone on the show but Heidi ever actually visit their family?

- Can anyone find any redeemable qualities in Brody Jenner? Anything?

- My favorite quote from the show this week "You broke up with a guy who owns a jet?"

Well, now that you all know my shameful secret and addiction, I'll have to redeem myself tomorrow by writing about the books I've been reading and listening to...which have much more substance than The Hills!

Oops

Oops. I've already messed up on my NaBloPoMo post once a day for the month of September. It was an accident, really! I meant to write a quick post on Saturday morning...but then forgot. Since I left for the evening, I was without a computer until yesterday evening. At that point, I decided to wait until today to post. I guess I'll have to try again next month...for now, I'll consider this a "practice" month and try to get myself in the habit of posting every day anyway!

My weekend was really quite nice. I did manage to sleep in a bit on Saturday morning, with cozy rain falling courtesy of Tropical Storm Hanna. After spending the morning and early afternoon cleaning and getting things done around the house, Maureen and I headed down to her brother's place at Solomon's island. We had dinner, watched the sunset, chatted, and listened to music until about midnight.

Sunday morning, after a much-needed Starbucks stop, we arrived at Parkers Creek on the Chestnut Land Preserve. The storm had blown a tree onto the road to the water, so we spent some time clearing that out with a chainsaw that didn't want to start. An hour or so later, we managed to get the canoes of the car and into the Bay. The beginning of the paddle was a little tough- some rough water and a stiff downstream current that we were paddling against. It calmed down after a bit and we enjoyed a nice canoe trip up the creek. We had some bald eagles following us up the creek, and at one point spotted 8 eagles circling at the same time!

It really was a peaceful and gorgeous day to be on the water!

Weekend Plans

This will be my first "free" weekend in about a month. I'm looking forward to a little downtime. With the possibility of Hanna coming through, looks like I'll be staying in on Saturday. Maureen and I are headed down to her brother's house in Solomon's Island Saturday evening in preparation for a canoe trip down there on Sunday morning.

Other than that, I plan on sleeping, cleaning, and doing a lot of relaxing. Hopefully I'll be happy and rested by the time Monday comes around again...

Come Sail Away...

No, this blog is not referring to the jingle I mentioned a few posts ago. I've actually been thinking about sailing a lot recently. I'm not a sailor at all (have only been out a few times...and didn't do anything but sit and enjoy the ride), but something about sailing appeals to me. Since I live in Annapolis, maybe one day I'll get to actually do something on a sailboat other than sit.

Anyway, I was looking for blogs about Annapolis and found a few travel blogs of folks who are sailing in the Bahamas, up and down the East Coast, and around the world! I've always been fascinated by people who live aboard their boats and the freedom of sailing to a port, choosing to stay awhile, and then sailing on. It's something I'd love to do- and it's interesting to read blogs of real people who have taken time off from "real life" and are just sailing around experiencing life on a sailboat and in various ports.

I think I'd like to live like that one day for a while, but I'll definitely need to actually know how to sail. So who knows.

I did have a dream last night that someone gave my coworker a sailboat and she and I decided to fix it up and sail to the Bahamas. It was quite a funny dream...concocted by my subconscious based on these thoughts I imagine.

Triathlon Photos

Here are a few photos of Jenny, Lauren and I after the triathlon. Please excuse my appearance. I'm standing next to a tiny person (Lauren), my hair had been stuck under a swim cap, sweated through on the bike ride, and hastily put in a rubber band during transition #2. Just be glad you couldn't smell us...lake water and sweat don't mix well!

Proud of our medals

Iron girls!

On to another run...

Food

I've eaten so much good-tasting, not-so-good-for-me food in the past week. A trip to SC didn't help...caramel cake, chicken salad, southern barbecue....mmmm yummy! However, I need to get myself back on the wagon! I'm not sure what that wagon is (I'm not really a dieter), but I need to eat healthier for awhile! More fruits, veggies and whole grains, I suppose.

Training for an event (marathon, triathlon, etc) always causes me to up my calorie intake, and it's hard sometimes to bring it back down. I guess I'll have to go gradually, and perhaps keep my exercise time up. On that note, I'm off to change my clothes for our run tonight!

NaBloPoMo Day #1

Well, I'm home from SC and had a great, albeit busy, visit. I did all the things I wrote about in my last post, with the addition of a little shopping, a tiny bit of sleeping, and A LOT of talking and catching up. But, that is how visits to the Homeland should be, right?

Today, I'm embarking on an endeavor which requires me to post at least once a day for the month of September. My blogging frequency has fallen off dramatically in the past year or so, and I'd like to jumpstart my writing again. So, I joined NaBloPoMo. Which is essentially a challenge each month to write one blog post a day. We'll hope that I can meet the challenge...