Another day in paradise

Today was fabulous!! It started out kind of rough because of daylight savings time, but once I was cognizant things got better. Chris and I went to church at 9:30, and a short video he made was shown at the beginning of the service. The church is focusing on 4 service projects in Africa for 6 weeks after lent and I think it will be really good. He's got the video up on his blog, so you can check it out if you'd like: www.christonigeria.blogspot.com

So I had this crazy idea. It started because I feel oddly drawn towards doing a half ironman later this summer. This would be ridiculously difficult, but I've looked at some training plans and for the beginner ones I would only have to add 1 or 2 workouts a week to what I'm already doing. I want to do one at some point in my life, so why not this year? (voice of logic: "Because it would suck!! A half marathon after riding 56 miles, are you kidding me??") Anyway, I also feel silly doing something so huge and me being the only one to benefit from it. So I thought I could raise money for the church's work in Africa in conjunction with my training.

Well, I am not committed to the training (I'm putting off registering for the race perhaps indefinitely), but I decided today to commit to doing a fundraiser. I am going to make an African cookbook. Woohoo! I think it will be good and will hopefully raise a decent amount of money. So I talked to some people about that after church and got some positive responses and offers/suggestions for help. My goal for finishing it is April 16, which is when Dr Chris, the founder of Faith Alive AIDS clinic, is visiting. The church is going to have an African dinner that night, so it is a logical time to sell a cookbook that will partially benefit Dr. Chris's work.

The weather was really nice today. After church I spent about an hour contacting people who live on the course of the collegiate cycling nationals crit, which will be in Fort Collins this year (exciting!). The people who live along the course have to approve it because the streets will be shut down basically the whole day.

When I got home I worked in the backyard (second time this weekend, go me!). Chris and I pulled a ton of weeds that are in the very back of the yard. We now have 3-4 piles of weeds that are almost as tall as me. Ridiculous! It was a freaking jungle back there. It is amazing how big our yard looks now. Then I did some work on the computer - planning for the next issue of the AGU newsletter and sending some emails regarding the cookbook.

At 5:00 I went on a run. I wasn't sure how long I would run for, but I headed out on the trails to the west of our house. My run was phenomenal!!! It's amazing what a week of rest can do for you. I felt really good, probably the best since I started running again. I will definitely do that loop again. Most of it was on dirt trails and that is considerably more interesting than running down a paved trail. And it is beautiful. I am blown away by the scenery I can run through just a 10 minute jog from my house. Toward the end of the run, I was at a high point and could see some wind turbines on the horizon that are on the Wyoming border! You can see so far onto the plains, it's really cool. Anyway, I ended up running for 1 hour 25 minutes and I think I went about 7.5 miles. Nice!

Chris and I met our friends Jeramy and Christine for pizza at Beaujo's at 7:30. Two other friends, Kelly and John, also happened to be there so it was a nice little group. It was a pretty unhealthy meal but really delicious and I feel very little regret about it (I enjoyed it too much to feel bad). We had a pitcher of 1554 (a New Belgium beer), an order of hot wings, a delicious pizza, and then we went to Walrus! Chris and I shared a sugar bomb ice cream treat. :) Yum!

So now I am pretty happy (it is probably the sugar buzz). I had a productive day, a wonderful run, and a great meal with good friends. And now I am watching the Paris-Nice cycling race. Who could ask for more? :)