We walked from Beacon Hill to Cambridge for dinner tonight. Crossing the bridge over the Charles River we had a great view of the Boston skyline and the frozen Charles River with all the patterns in the ice.
Via iPad
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Ladder 1, North End Fire House, Boston
The great folks at this fire house let us in from the cold to use their rest room!
Via iPad
Paul Revere and Old North Church, Boston
It does not get much more historic than this. Iconic statute of Paul Revere, with the Old North Church in the background. This is in the North End in Boston, now home to wall-to-wall Italian restaurants.
Via iPad
Monday, December 27, 2010
Logan Airport Runway - Monday Afternoon
We were on the first flight from IAD to Boston Logan this afternoon. The driven snow on the runway made me surprised that our commuter jet landed at all. Cath is glad she was not watching out the window.
Via iPad
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Eva Wearing Her New Hat, Necklace and Earings!
Always easier to make nice photos with a good looking model. One of Daddy's presents to himself was a second flash stand and Pocket Wizard.
Via iPad
Most Mechanically Exotic Christmas Present - Cathleen's Umbrella Swift
Every craft has it's unique labor saving tools, and knitting is no exception. Even though knitting itself is slow and monotonous (my view) knitters hate wasting time prepping their yarn. Hence the umbrella swift to hold yarn being wound by the ball winder (the alternative being husbands or small children to hold the yarn).
Via iPad
Friday, December 24, 2010
Merry Christmas & Warm Wishes to All
Whatever your religious persuasion, best wishes to all my friends. This has been a fun filled Christmas eve, with family gingerbread house decoration this afternoon. Cathleen took the kids to church for a late afternoon service, so I could get a start on present wrapping. For dinner we had our traditional chili dinner with homemade peppermint ice cream, hot fudge and crumbled candy cane on top. Now encouraging the children to get to bed, with limited success. Everyone is looking forward to Christmas morning!
Via iPad
Santa gets cookies!
And a proactive Thank You Note. The kids still need to find carrots
for the reindeer and something warmer than milk for Santa to drink.
It is going to be a late night!!!
Gingerbread houses...REMODELED!
This didn't turn out to be the ordeal I feared it might be. There was
only minor swearing this morning before the kids were up while I
ascended the learning curve in assembling the houses. But then I
figured it out and decorating was a lot of fun!
only minor swearing this morning before the kids were up while I
ascended the learning curve in assembling the houses. But then I
figured it out and decorating was a lot of fun!
Will's house has the snowcaps and M&Ms on the roof. Lyra's is right
next to it. Mine has the icing roof tiles...I had hoped for a red and
white theme but didn't have quite as many red decorations available as
I would have liked. Eva's has the pretty flower cookie on the side.
The last house was an extra one since Bill declined to decorate (maybe
next year we'll get him!). Eva wanted to do a Nativity scene but I
hadn't factored that into the cookies I cut from the gingerbread
scraps. So we have the stable (No Vacancy!) and just Mary and Baby
Jesus. Everyone else is out for a walk.
We all need to go brush and floss now. Merry Christmas!!!
Gingerbread tract housing.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Next Year's Christmas Card
Eva was bored this morning (the downside of Christmas break) so a suggested she draw a picture. I think the result will be our Christmas card cover next year.
Via iPad
Camo Lego
Will and his buddies have moved from building Lego kits, to custom Lego creations, to customizing the Legos themselves. Will's friend Caldwell did this camouflage paint job.
Via iPad
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Some More Bouldering Comp Photos from Sterling Today #abs #bouldering #photogene
Here are some more shots of Eva and her friends climbing today in Sterling. These were all processed in Photogene on the iPad, which insists on crashing when I save a cropped photo at native resolution. I love Photogene but would gladly pay for a little more functionality and stability.
Via iPad
Eva' Climbing Competition Today at SportRock Sterling #abs #bouldering
This was Eva's last local bouldering competition this season and she won first place. Eva climbed strong and her training and conditioning showed. Thanks coaches Jason and Ed! Now on to regional competition in Philadelphia on January 15th.
Via iPad
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Christmas Shopping with Eva - The Hour in Old Town
This could be the prop shop for Mad Men. Two floors of vintage cocktail glasses. Did people really drink martinis at lunch?
Via iPad
Bella at Poppy - Georgetown
This is Bella at Poppy (www.poppymetals.com) in Georgetown. Some shops have a guard dog. Bella is a love dog. Every customer is a long lost friend. I asked her to get a little closer for another photo. She thought I meant get in my lap and lick my face, so this was my only photo.
Via iPad
Trolley Tracks - P Street Georgetown
My daughter asked why cars replaced trolleys. I did not have a good answer.
Via iPad
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
The Scoop on Tough Mudder - Post Event
We did it! The finish was a bit anti-climatic though. The "mystery
obstacle," a field of hanging live electrical wires, was a non-event.
THANKFULLY. That was the only obstacle I was thinking I'd skip. I
mean, you are supposed to AVOID live electrical wires. But I saw
people running through and no one was screaming. Rebecca put her
hands over her face and went for it! She said it wasn't bad so Tara
and I followed suit. It was like running through ropes although we
literally had no exposed skin. Maybe the people who had bare skin had
a different experience. The last obstacle was supposed to be Insane
Bolt - a timed wave of people trying to sprint 100 yards before an air
horn blast. I don't know why they didn't have this but after 12
miles, I wasn't going to be sprinting anyway. We crossed the finish
without much fanfare at 2 hours and 41 minutes.
obstacle," a field of hanging live electrical wires, was a non-event.
THANKFULLY. That was the only obstacle I was thinking I'd skip. I
mean, you are supposed to AVOID live electrical wires. But I saw
people running through and no one was screaming. Rebecca put her
hands over her face and went for it! She said it wasn't bad so Tara
and I followed suit. It was like running through ropes although we
literally had no exposed skin. Maybe the people who had bare skin had
a different experience. The last obstacle was supposed to be Insane
Bolt - a timed wave of people trying to sprint 100 yards before an air
horn blast. I don't know why they didn't have this but after 12
miles, I wasn't going to be sprinting anyway. We crossed the finish
without much fanfare at 2 hours and 41 minutes.
Little did we know that the next hour and a half was going to be far
tougher than the Tough Mudder itself. We went back to the car to get
someone to photograph us all muddy. We really don't look all that
muddy, do we? But trust me, We Were! Then we started trying to find
ibuprofen, warm clothes and figure out how many towels we needed. The
shower area was far away so by the time we walked there, we were every
bit as cold as we had been during the race. Rebecca and I chickened
out of the fire hose "shower" and changed in the Women's restroom
which was disgusting but had access to warm water. Tara braved the
fire hoses and said all semblance of camaraderie and chivalry was gone
with the last obstacle; I think she had to fight for her turn. We
could not figure out how to get our free beer and were way too cold to
care, so we went shopping for some Tough Mudder gear and then headed
home.
We had a lot of dirty laundry and new bruises appearing daily but I
don't think any of us are terribly sore. The WW Bridge Marathon
incapacitated me more than this event. I was telling Tara that I'm
almost embarrassed to post this publicly because many people from this
event have said they are in utter pain. But our goal was to finish
and to finish without requiring medical attention. Achieving this
goal meant taking our time in the treacherous areas (hence the 13
minute mile pace). I am thankful for my running group and CrossFit
because without them, this event would have been a lot less fun!
The Scoop on Tough Mudder - During the Event
I had bought a disposable waterproof camera to take some photos of us during the event but I can't imagine what I was thinking!! I abandoned that idea the night before when I realized that I was not going to be able to manipulate even a disposable camera with my kayaking gloves on and that we'd really need to keep moving for warmth. Here are links to event photos taken by TM: Saturday, another group from Saturday and Sunday.
After reading posts on the Tough Mudder Facebook page Saturday night and Sunday morning, we were thankful that we enough clothes to cover up all exposed skin save our faces. We wore tight winter-weight Nike mock t-neck shirts (on sale!!), winter weight tights (well Tara wore compression shorts), gloves and our diving beanies. We made a point of getting our faces wet during the wading obstacle before the big jump and it was SUCH a good call to do that. But not everyone was as concerned about the cold water as we were. There were people wearing COTTON t-shirts, sports bras or no shirt at all. There were men in dresses, tutus, footie PJs, shorts, Speedos, boxers, you-name-it. I can't tell you how many people we saw in that water wearing nothing on their heads or hands. We asked the very young-looking burly guys who drew our numbers on our faces if they'd have our back during Walk the Plank. They said not to worry, they'd pull us out if need be...."we pulled out about 300 people on Saturday." I didn't know if that made me feel better or worse but decided I'd walk my plank right next to them just in case. You know what? It was not that bad! I jumped off quick and I was warm enough to swim plus the distance was not nearly as long as I feared it might be. Boy did I feel healthy after that! I won't even go off the high dive at the pool so I still can't believe I jumped that 15 feet. It was easy to enjoy the rest of TM with that particular obstacle out of the way.
The slog through the mud was next and I can't exactly say I enjoyed it because it was so long and the mud was even more glacial than the pond, but at least it didn't involve any fear. My wool socks did the best they could to warm my feet but they were numb for the next mile AT LEAST. After that, there were many obstacles interspersed with twisty-turny hilly running on the slippery muddy motorcross track. Some obstacles were straightforward, like the Kiss of Mud, Boa Constrictor and Spider's Web. Some obstacles we could not complete by ourselves. Rebecca was seriously close to getting over the 10 foot "Berlin Walls" unassisted but Tara and I needed the help of #414, who graciously allowed us to use him as a staircase for all three walls. None of us could traverse the Funkey Monkey Bars past bar two, so that meant more wading through arctic water. There were steep mud hills where people had to pull us up and where we lent a hand when we could. It was hard to feel like we could be helpful to such enormous and muscular men except to add encouragement for the very long run. I think the length of the event may have been the most difficult thing for many people. The TM site said 22% of Saturday's group did not finish.
Tara, Rebecca and I were jubilant and thankful to finish without injury and to be able to honestly say that we had a TOTAL BLAST!
The Scoop on Tough Mudder - Pre-Event
The Tough Mudder is an event (not a race b/c they don't track everyone's time) to test all around fitness, strength, stamina, physical and mental endurance. All proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Project. My friends, Tara, Rebecca and I completed the Tri-State Tough Mudder in New Jersey this past Sunday. This particular TM was 12.1 miles up and down and around the Old Bridge Township Raceway and involved 18 obstacles of varying difficulty including a 15 foot leap into an icy lake, wading through a long and frigid stretch of mud, running between two stretches of flames and running through a string of electric wires. Those are just the obstacles that I dreaded...there were a lot more and you can read about the course details on the TM site. Certainly this event was a test of my worst fears...heights, drowning and fire. I think the only that would have made it worse would have been something involving bugs. That would have been a deal-breaker.
We drove up on Saturday stayed at the Spring Hill Suites in Ewing NJ which was just LOVELY! We nearly skipped TM just to hang out at the hotel. To alleviate anxiety and better prepare for the ridiculous weather and track conditions, we went shopping for warmer clothes and tape for our ankles. Tried to get compression socks too but the kids at Sports Authority were confused by the word "compression." We ate dinner at a funky local pizza place that I couldn't find again if you paid me, then we spent the rest of the evening glued to the computer looking for info and advice from people who had already run their TM. This activity provided alternating bursts of panic and relief. We tried to sleep as best we could.
Sunday was a gorgeous day but FREEZING, even colder than Saturday. I was sick with dread at the thought of jumping into an icy pond and seriously worried that we might end up in the hospital (I can post this now that the event is done and has a happy ending). We all agreed to stay together, not to leave an injured teammate until she had all appropriate medical care, and that we'd all go to any ER trip because it would be warm there! (and of course to provide moral support).
Here are the "Before" photos! Do you just love our beanies? We did! These are what divers use to keep their heads warm in the water and they really do work.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
We are Tough Mudders!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Lyra on the Monkey Bars - Del Ray
After custard from Dairy Godmother today we briefly visited one of Lyra's many favorite playgrounds. Basically any place with monkey bars she can swing on. This is another iPhone 4 shot. It's nice that my new camera also supports phone and email features. I also ran this through Photgene on the iPad, so basically an all Apple photo workflow.
Via iPad
Lyra at The Dairy Godmother in Del Ray
One of the first photos with my new iPhone 4. Way better than my iPhone 3 (not even GS). Lyra decided on lime sorbet, which she quickly traded for my custard because the sorbet was too tart. I thought it was perfect.
Sent from Bill Phelps' iPhone
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Eva Climbing Today at Earth Treks in Timonium, MD
Eva climbed today in the American Bouldering Series competition. It was a long competition, starting at 11:00 and going until 5:00. Eva climbed very well with a V3, 3 V4s and a V6. She came in 2nd in her age group.
Via iPad
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Pumpkins of Old Town Alexandria - Halloween Photos
A selection of the many pumpkins we saw on Halloween, mostly on Lee Street in Old Town. the baby pumpkin in the mouth of the big pumpkin is probably my favorite.
Via iPad
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