blissful week

Before this sentence was fully written Carlos Zambrano threw the first pitch, opening up the Brewers 2008 season...oops...I didn't even finish and Ricky Weeks struck out. So its opening day, last day of March, and we are in the middle of our spring snow storm. Oh well..

Much has happened in the past two weeks and I just wanted to let everyone know of the wonderful honeymoon that we embarked on two weeks ago. And so writing about our time in Mexico is hard when it is 30 and snowing.

I won't bother you with the details but will highlight some of our experiences in Los Cabos. Enjoy:

Most adventurous time: zip-lining over nine hundred yards, 300 feet up across a canyon. It was intense and at times breath taking. We went across 8 different zip lines that varied in length and height.

By the time we were done we were dirty, tired of the massive wind, and each had one major grundy.

Most fascinating thing we did: we jumped on this rubber raft with twin 250 horse-power boat motors, sat saddle back on this raft, and ventured deep into the Pacific ocean looking for whales. After an hour of up and down motion in 9 foot swells trying to look for blow holes, we found two Hump Back whales 200 feet from the shore.
It was amazing to see these massive creatures hanging out and feeding just feet from our little dingy.

Most dangerous thing we did: while swimming one day I got attacked by a puffer fish. It was a hearty fight but in the end it got my ankle and I got him. Well not really. What really happened was that I got caught in an undertow and ended up tumbling head over heels and banged my ankle on the ocean floor. The puffer fish was already dead and washed up on the beach. I like my first story though.

The sunsets and sunrises were beautiful and breath taking even though we only took in one sun set and one sunrise!

2nd most adventurous time: we did spend two nights out on the town of Los Cabos. There was a fair share of college students on spring break but it wasn't out of control. So for two nights we managed to stay out past midnight. One night we found an Irish pub in Mexico and celebrated St. Patrick's Day. They were actually serving Heineken and Guinness FREE of charge. Pretty sweet set up. We also visited the must Cabo Wabo and notorious Squid Row. I'm pretty prideful to say we closed down Cabo Wabo one night, Nikole's Birthday night! Hell yea.
(I coughed through a Cuban cigar one evening as well)

It was my first time at an all-inclusive resort. So needless to say, by the time we left we were tired of buffets, Corona, and fruity drinks. We were not tired of 80 degree weather, the beach, bartering with the sellers, and just plain lazy people for 7 days. It was a wonderful honeymoon and we spent some wonderful, quality time with no dogs and just each other.

So now we are back to reality and I'm back on my bike. Look forward to keeping you posted as the race season quickly approaches!

Ciao

Sturgie (& Nikole)

show your teeth....

....and extract some fear!

Saturday Nikole and I came home to feathers all over our dinning room, bird crap on the wall and a live Finch hanging from the mouth of Chessie (aka Killer). It was quite the entertainment seeing the smallest of our three dogs with feathers sticking out of her mouth. One quick command and she spat the confused bird out of her mouth and scampered outside.

After some concern for the bird (Nikole swore it had a broken leg but I disagreed with her) we finally contacted White Manor which takes wounded animals of all kinds so to nurse them back to health. The Bird managed to escape from the shoebox we had placed it in and after another brief and chaotic episode of "the bird flying around our house, pooping, while three dogs salivating at the mouths and chasing it," I managed to get it back into the shoe box and to Pet Food Plus for rescue.

I enjoyed my week off of training and now I am really finding the itch for the bike season. I keep reminding myself to be patient because not only is the season long but it looks like we will have snow for quite some time. I'm slowly making the transition from skis to the bike. I've been getting out on the ski trial about 3 times a week and enjoying some great winter/spring skiing.

I figure that when the temp hits 40 I will hit the road on my bike. In the meantime its spinning at the gym and on my bike trainer in the living room. My first road race is just over a month, April 19th.

Thanks for all your kind thoughts and words of congratulations over the past two weeks. I'm over my Birkie depression and am thinking spring and all that we can do when the snow is gone!

Cord under the boards (for a bit longer)

Sturgie