NaNoWriMo

Hi all,

Sorry there has been a gap in posts but truthfully life has slowed down a little bit and I really didn't have anything to say. Well now that is changed so let's start with an update.

This weekend marks my first compressed schedule Friday, which means last week and this week I worked 9 hour days instead of 8 so I could take this Friday off. All we have to do is make sure we work 80 hours in two weeks and my company is fine with this as long as we aren't absurd about it by doing something like working 65 hours the first week and then 15 the next. We still need to be around in case something comes up. As a bonus Columbus day is Monday so I actually have a four day weekend. YAY!

So like most people that have time off I've crammed in as much stuff as possible in order to make the "Vacation" more work than work. It all begins tomorrow night when Hillary arrives via Greyhound bus from NY NY where she is studying law which is not nearly as exciting as when she was in Roller derby but sadly enough we all grow up one day. :-(

Then Saturday morning we will get up nice and early and drive down to Lake Anna for the last triathlon of the seaon. I keep saying that. The Giant Acorn is the last race of the year for Setupevents Virginia Triathlon Series (setupevents.com) and I had registerd earlier in the year and didn't cancel soon enough so I figured, I paid for it I may as well go. There is 1 guy racing that could, if he has a good day, pass me in the points thereby knocking me out of the lead and I really don't want that to happen. He's been getting progressively fast throughout the year while I peaked early and have been sliding down hill on my a%% since June. I'm going to just try have fun in a beautiful venue. Hopefully we'll have pictures to share. Which reminds me I'll try post Julie's slideshow from Savageman soon; there are only 8 pictures but they are really good as always.

After the event we will rush home so Julie and Hillary can get in some shopping and I can get some rest because the next morning I'll be up and out the door at 6am in order to get to the start of the Army Ten Miler which I am using really as a fun training run as opposed to a race. Again pictures will follow.

After the race we are all heading to Four Courts in Arlington for some early morning drinks and a good Irish breakfast, although I'm not sure if that is a very vegetarian friendly ethnicity but I figure worst case scenario I just drink more.

Sunday night we are heading to the haunted forest just outside of town that we tried to go to a couple years ago but were thwarted when the lines were so long that we couldn't get in. This year we are going early to try avoid the line and see the much talked about Haunted Forest. Probably won't have pictures of that but I'll at least try pass on some more info about the place.

Now if for some reason Hillary can't change her bus ticket from sunday night to monday morning then we will NOT be doing the forest this weekend but later in the season and Sunday night we will be saying so long to Hillary in Chinatown.

Finally I wanted to let you all know that National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) begins on November 1st. I have signed up to participate. It is a month where all participants are challenged to throw quality out the window, (Ahh...quali what), and focus on just getting all the crap out of your head. You MUST write no less than 50,000 words before midnight on November 30. Several people in our area will be participating and we are thinking of even having a party to celebrate the beginning. Now I have no plan to write the great american novel; I don't even know if it will be coherent enough to read so I'm not going to promise excerpts or copies to anyone BUT I will keep you updated on my progress after it begins. Tonight we are having a brainstorming session to come up with tone, theme, maybe a character or two, so when November 1st hits I'll at least know where I want to start. If you want to read more about the event go to http://www.nanowrimo.org/

Yes I realize most of this isn't triathlon but the blog is My Tri Life and in that life there must be seasons of 'Other' interests but I've tried to keep with the spirit of the sport by making my vacations and even my novice novel writing attempt endurance events.

blog to you later,

- Shawn