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I find myself being flattered when someone thinks I am younger than I am, but I'm not scared of my real age.  I think finding running later in life has a lot to do with it.  I feel healthier and stronger now than I did in my twenties.  And so as I prepared to begin another year, I wanted to start it out right and do something hard.  Last year I went by myself and rode the Red Rock loop.  I thought I might try something new each year, but a couple friends and one of their daughters jumped at the idea of an early morning hard ride.  So we drove away at 5:30 feeling a little groggy and surprisingly chilly.  It was a gorgeous day--bright sun, desert landscape, low traffic, but at least 20 other bikers.  The first 8 miles are hard, the last four, wonderful.  24 total.  If we weren't pressed for time, we would have taken a detour and tried new territory. We have goals to do just that later in the summer.  It feels really good to be back on my bike, but I'm realizing I have some work to do to get back my endurance for the September race.

And speaking of the September race, I got to swim for the first time since our Y membership lapsed in April.  The kids and I met some friends at the community pool.  It's our favorite outside summertime pool.  There is a slide and a great play area.  It's salt water--good for sensitive skin, cheaper and they don't have a lot of annoying rules.  So we hung out there for almost 3 hours and while there, I swam 1/2 mile.  phew.  That was hard.  I am going to start going 2-3 times a week and build the swimming back up too.

When we got back, we met up with Matt.  He had had a meeting and then shopping to do, but he didn't get one ingredient he needed.  So we let the kids play and we ran to the store.  My first clue that he had big news was when he told the kids we would be back in an hour.  Buying frozen raspberries has never taken an hour before.  His morning meeting had been with someone who has a good connection with a possible investor.  I had been thinking of scenarios of all the possibilites from them saying "where do we sign?!" to Matt saying, "that was a complete waste of time" and plenty more moderate ones in between.  It turns out that the meeting went well and there is potential there.  But that wasn't the news.  Just after the meeting, Control4 called.  They have a job in South Korea that they have installed but are stuck on the programming.  They desperately want Matt and Tim to come make it work.  Padwerx saved the day and made a great impression on the City Center Project.  If they go do it again, that is huge.  It's not a big money maker this time, but it's a huge compliment.  And even better than that, it's a great achievement to show potential clients and investors.  So Matt is flying to Korea next week for about a week.  It shouldn't stretch into a few months like City Center did because it's not a massive hotel.  It's just one diplomat's large apartment. We did use the whole hour to talk, Matt took two topical phone calls and we did manage to buy raspberries too.

Dinner was yummy, the dessert too.  The kids and Matt had surprised me in the morning when I got back from the bike ride with a decorated house and the kids were making cake mix cookies, but they had followed the directions on the back of the box, so they ended up being cupcakes instead.  :-)  I guess I need to get the cookie recipe out of my head and onto a recipe card.  It was a lovely family day.