The Third Race

Great news!!! They got 4th out of 19. They passed 3 boats. They were 2 seconds behind 3rd place and 5 seconds behind 2nd place. Well done!

Green boat in the middle

In case I haven't explained it before, I'll share a little about the fall racing season. They race 5K. They actually put in at the finish line and then row up to the start. So there is 5K of rowing and then 5K of racing. The races are stagger starts. Each crew starts 10 seconds after the one in front. So you are trying to overtake the boats in front of you and not get passed. If you pass a boat you have gained 10 seconds on them. If you get passed, then you know the other boat is at least 10 seconds in front of you. Hopefully I haven't confused anyone. In the spring they race 2K and they all start and finish together. It is an all-out sprint.

I am just going to put some of the photos M has exported to put on her facebook page instead of editing them myself.

Staying warm and sleeping during the wait

My computer is about ready to die (I hope it can wait until I get done with this semester!) so I need to stop messing with the pictures. Next weekend is the Hooch!! They will be competing against 39 other boats. They are hoping to get at least 10th.

Life

Hansel and Gretel: Where in the world are we?

Contrary to what I posted on the CDP blog, I am not in Oak Ridge this weekend. I weighed the pros and cons of going to watch M's race and decided to stay home with Mr. C instead. If he didn't have to go I would have gone, but it is such a long day (6am-7pm) for him to be forced to ride along.

How are things going with us this week? Yesterday we had a half day of school. Mr. C leaf blew for 30 minutes, I leaf blew for 40 minutes, and Hubby took a turn when he got home. Our front yard looked great around 7pm last night. Not so much this morning.

I have already tackled two loads of laundry this morning and painted some of the unfinished spots in the living room. I am thinking of taking on The Hole in the kitchen. There used to be a Very Small Oven in this space. We sold it on Craigslist and have yet to finish it off. I'm afraid that we are growing used to The Hole and are finding it quite handy. It is nice to just toss in the plastic containers and not bend over to mess with the door. Anywho... I have found through experience that it is better for me to complete projects involving power tools and lumber when Hubby is not around. When he sees the finished product he says things like, "Wow you're amazing! I've got the most awesome wife in the whole world!" When he stands over me and watches me work he tends to say things like, "You have to measure that board before you cut it. That looks like crap. That is not what that tool is made to do. What were you thinking?!" So you see that I need to get off this computer and get to work before he gets home.

*Hubby took my camera with him, so the bottom two photos are from my "dumb" phone.

The Second Race

If you want to see M's first race, you'll have to hop on over to Chattanooga Daily Photo. This week we got up at 4:45am to caravan to Huntsville, Alabama. It seemed calm when we arrived around 7am. By lunch time the wind was really blowing and the river was whitecaps. Check out the University of Alabama's men's 8 trying to row in that.

See what happens when you take on too much water.

They were rescued, emptied their boat, and it was towed back to the recovery docks.

This is another team, but the side view gives you a good idea of what they were up against. Even a newbie like me could tell these were not ideal rowing conditions.

Shortly after this, the race was shortened from 5K to 3K so the boats would finish in the protected channel and not have to enter the main Tennessee River. So M had a short race. They finished 3rd of 3 teams, finishing 16 seconds behind 2nd. She was upset, but I thought they looked good and worked hard.

She even had some special visitors drive up from Rainbow City to watch! We'll call them Aunt Tammiey and Uncle Jonniey. If you don't want on the internet, don't pose for someone with a blog!

What the...

Have you ever come home after a 10+ hour day at work (complete with a screaming- kicking,-throwing trash cans and pencils-pushing over bookshelf student) to find your shower door inexplicably shattered? All we could figure, before heading to Lowe's for a replacement, was that Socks accidentally was shut in the shower and busted himself out.