Just kick that boatman in the teeth

Ava often likes to play with our jar of spare change; dumping it all out, pointing out the image of "Jesus" on the face of the pennies, and slotting it into her little piggy bank. One afternoon I left the room as she was counting her money and returned a few moments later. This is the sight I encountered...



I know she asks for black cereal in the morning and is fascinated with skeletons, but I had no idea she was this morbid.

On Drowning and Muddling

I’m innocently reading my Harper’s magazine the other day and I come across this little excerpt from an article about a couple who search for drowning victims.

“Drowning, it turns out, is not difficult. Once someone falls overboard, especially if the water is cold, he gasps for air, the way one gasps when a shower runs suddenly cold. He inhales water, then coughs and inhales more water. From Dr. Jeff Kalina, at the Methodist Hospital in Houston, I know that one inhaled breath is sufficient to cause drowning. The integrity of the small pockets in the lungs through which oxygen is absorbed depends on a coating called surfactant. When water dissolves the surfactant, the pockets collapse, and oxygen can no longer be absorbed.
Drowning can also be initiated by a response called laryngospasm. When the larynx detects water entering the lungs, it closes, leaving a swimmer unable to breathe. Two tablespoons of water could stimulate laryngospasm.”

ACK! Two tablespoons! I’m pretty sure there’s more water than that in Jordanelle Reservoir. I promise you, I do not search out this information but apparently it’s still finding its way into my consciousness.

On a related note, my training has been going really well the last month. I’ve actually made the time to train six days a week and feel like I’m slowly getting stronger, especially in the pool. And then WHAM, I got sick last week: Intestinal distress and a fever and chills and all. Was this because I’ve been training too much? Because my diet hasn’t been absolutely sugar and junk free? I can’t begin to tell you how frustrated I am right now. So last week I only got in two workouts and this week so far at least I got onto the bike and into the pool. But I feel really tired and my arms and legs fell like lead. At least I've learned my lesson (knock on wood) about my diet. Help me, internet world! How can I be ready for this race and not kill myself in the process?

Nice Mane, Dude

Last Saturday we attended the Venture Outdoors Festival in Canyon Rim Park. Among the vendor booths, live music, and kiddie games, there were some people demonstrating how to ride a mountain board down a grassy hill and over a pink wooden ramp. Ava was enchanted and stopped to watch for several minutes. As we were sitting there, she pointed to a guy standing near us with a hairdo similar to this....

....and exclaimed "Horsey!" I could definitely identify with that viewpoint. I laughed and wished that he had heard her creative interpretation of his carefully constructed social statement. Then the next morning as we were playing with her barn, Ava's reality suddenly struck home with me. She was more right than I imagined.....