Maybe in Oz

I previously wrote about Ditto, the crazy giant Hunstman spider that was living on my car.  The good news is we discovered his home inside the mirror and "relocated" him.  The bad news is his buddies somehow got into our house.  Sure, they might be "friendly", but I really have no need for these kind of friends. Just after we got Lucy I found a Huntsman spider in the toilet (not literally IN the toilet, just in the bathroom, which here they call the toilet).  I of course freaked and called Phil.  I was pretty much hysterical, telling him this spider was so large that it was going to eat the kitten.  He said oh, you mean the one in the shower?  A feeling of dread settled in and I inspected the shower.  Sure enough, there was another one in the shower.  Once Phil saw them, he informed me that while I was in the US, he found the cat playing with another one.  We must have missed hearing them when they knocked on the door - we're real...

Dear Phil and Suzannah- I cannot begin to express how thankful I am for this trip.  I am so glad that I was able to witness Phil become an Ironman!  I am in awe of his strength and drive to accomplish this honor.  What a stud!  If witnessing that was all I did while I was here the trip would have been worth it 100 times over, but you guys made sure that I was able to take in all the wonderful Aussie experiences. I will always remember the style that Suzannah and I got to see as we spent a fun filled day being groupies for Phil.  :)  It was great to spend time with you both touring all the sites.  You guys definitely know how to make your guests enjoy their trip. I am overwhelmed with all the good food, company, and activities that we were able to do.  From the bottom of my heart, thank you! Love, Jamie

It has been said, “It’s not the destination but the journey that counts”. My Ironman journey didn’t happen as planned, and there have been a veritable motley crew of characters that have played a part. To each of them, I say thank you. This story begins on an evening, ironically, at the very birthplace of triathlon, at Mission Bay in San Diego. There I met Tyson Stephenson, who is a fellow cyclist. I had started to get serious about cycling again and was training for a half marathon. Tyson asked a very innocent question, on whether or not I had done a triathlon before. The thought had never crossed my mind. I quickly explained that I hadn’t been swimming in years, and don’t remember ever having a lesson. Tyson then suggested something called a “duathlon”. Never heard of it. Essentially, a duathlon substitutes the swim with a short run. I went home and found a race in Encinitas and signed up. Race morning arrived and we headed out to the beach. We stood at Moonlight Beach and wa...

Phil and I joined a running group at the end of last year as a way of meeting people and to help him train for the ironman.  When a few of them first invited us to join them in running the King Island 32km race, I didn't have to think twice about saying yes.  King Island is best known for its King Island brand cheese, and the promise of a cheese-filled weekend was enough to get me to run farther than I would have otherwise. King Island is a a small island between mainland Australia and Tasmania.  There are around 1200 people living on the island, and 50,000+ wallabies.  Getting to the island involves flying on the kind of 10-seater plane that requires passengers to flap their wings in order to get off the ground.  When you land, you don't reset your watch to a different time zone, you set your watch back 60 years.  The main drag in the "city" is one block long, and in order to play 18 holes of golf you'd have to golf at both golf courses.  Good ...

I'm sitting at the computer going through pictures we took of the condo before we moved.  I flip through the folder titled "sell" and see pictures of our Hyundai Genesis Coupe, my frogs, Phil's cat Sigmund, and it makes me really sad to see everything we have had to give up in order to move here.  I know they are only things but for some reason it just hit me how much we had to leave behind.  I miss our old cars.  I miss our frogs.  I miss looking at the hard work we put into making the condo a really nice place to live.  I miss Sigmund's annoying "mows".  And I miss knowing that March is Spring and October is fall and what the weather is going to be like because it's San Diego and it's always nice outside. I had originally planned on keeping the Xterra but have finally realized it makes no sense to keep it because I can buy another one when we move back.  And now we have to sell the condo, the place that saw me from a young adult just st...