Ten

The secret knitting, and the socks, continue apace (I'm halfway through sock #2 of pair 48, and really should take pictures!), squeezed into a weirdly busy weekend.

On Saturday, Kevin actually had to be somewhere earlier than me (during the week, he gets to "sleep in" till 6 while I get up to row), because he met up with a bunch of triathlon people for a bike ride. A very, very hilly ride--they call the route Holiday Hell, because it goes over Holiday Hill. We drove out that way on Sunday, and I can confirm that it was appropriately named--the car seemed a little tired when we got tot he top.

I meant to row, but Saturday rows aren't centrally organized, and I chickened out--there was lots of potential for being picked last in gym class (or feeling guilty because someone else felt bad for me and offered to erg, or any number of other scenarios), so I just went home and ran instead.

Then in the afternoon, Jenn and I went up to the CT Sheep and Wool festival--where I refrained from buying any more rabbits, much to Kevin's relief (speaking of which, I finally spun some of Moppet's fur--it's not very even, but it's very soft!). I bought a skein of sock yarn, and 4 oz of fiber (and some soap), but mainly it was great to see all the SnBers I haven't seen in weeks (I switched days, and now I miss everyone from my original day).

Sunday, Kevin had signed up for a duathon (except that it calls itself a biathlon) in the Bronx--that's run, bike, run again, because it's still too cold to swim in the ocean--so we trooped down there, with 3 sets of workout clothes each and the tandem (plus Kevin's tri bike), because we'd somehow scheduled back to back workouts all day.

While Kevin did his duathlon, I ran around the park, then changed into workout outfit #2 to cheer for him at the finish. It was the first hot weather workout of the year (and only his second time biking in race this year), but he was very speedy--which was good, because once he get back and slightly cleaned up, back we went to CT for race # 2 of the day.

The university's grad school crew organizes a scrimmage (does anyone else think it's funny scrimmage can be applied to rowing? I feel like it should be confined to rugby and minor military engagements) against crews from MIT's grad school and Wharton each year, and this year MIT and Wharton didn't have a men's or women's 8, so the grad school asked us if we could come up with those boats so they'd have someone to race against.

We did, but barely, and at the last minute--despite much emailing ahead of time, there was a lot of "OK, there are 6 of us here, and you said you'd talked to so-and-so, and she said she could come?" "Wait, so-and-so was just here. Where did she go?" It was especially confusing because several of the New Haven Rowing Club members are also grad students, so we'd have seen them, but it wouldn't do us any good. Then there was some discussion about what seat everyone felt like, and didn't anyone feel like being stroke? (Stroke is the one everyone follows.) Then some discussion about whether being stroke when sweeping (1 oar per person) might be like singles sculling (where you have 2 oars, and it's just you), so maybe it would be fine that stroke hadn't rowed sweep since last year?

We got ourselves sorted out, and up to the starting line (where getting to the right spot was a bit like parallel parking for the first time--but fortunately with less to bump into), and off we went.

And somehow, we won--much to our amazement, because were were all positive we were going to lose embarrassingly.

In celebration, Kevin and I went for short ride on the tandem (getting away from our house on a bike is such a pain that we feel obligated to ride every time we're already somewhere else)--we meant to bike to an ice cream shop, but one we couldn't find (Cheshire, why do you have so many streets called Main St?) and the other was closed on Sundays, so that had to wait till the drive home.

Best ice cream ever.