World Population + 2
March welcomed two new little humans into the world. Riley and Gabriel. Both are healthy, beautiful boys, and both mamas are doing very well. I can't wait to meet them both! Of course, I am now even more excited for Zoe's debut!
Catch-up…Bon Anniversaire (de mariage)…
I've been meaning to post about my post-race description of Hood to Coast, but I just haven't found a time to sit down and organize my thoughts into some cohesive manner. In fact, I haven't had a chance to even properly acknowledge the last week's birthdays and anniversaries of many of my friends. Sheepishly, I attempt to make that up here:
Happy Birthday to Albert, Amy and Ani!
Happy Anniversary to Ben & Cara, Peter & Shanna, Joanne & Paul, and Joanna & Simon!
Thank you, Shanna
Our friend Shanna is a captain of the Minneapolis Fire Department, and she has become the face of the recovery effort of the bridge collapse. If you haven't seen a gazillion video clips of her in the Mississippi River searching for people in trapped in the water, you haven't been watching the news. As I was watching her on CNN and CBS, and after talking to her husband Peter (my friend since high school), I was reminded of what an amazing woman she is. I'm not surprised that she is avoiding all this attention; she thinks she's just doing her job, something anyone would do. Maybe, maybe not. But regardless, I'm still tremendously proud of her. Thank you, Shanna, for being there for all of us, and thank you to all of the others in this recovery effort.
Linked In & Facebook
I finally joined LinkedIn and Facebook. It took me awhile, despite my friends' many attempts to sign on. But here I am. Look me up, and be my friend/connection. The social impact of web and mobile technology never ceases to amaze me, and these types of sites reminds me of how easy it is to find people from your past. Without them, I'd still be just wondering where so-and-so is and what he/she is up to. Now, I can actually locate them and send a message to ask them myself!
User Experience Article
My friend Amy and I are always talking about usability in everyday products, especially software. She's a UX designer, but while our roles in creating user interfaces can traditionally be at odds now and then (the most usable-friendly feature is generally not the easiest to develop!), she and I share the same philosophy and appreciation for the process (including the same analogy of the symbiotic relationship of our professions), as well as our frustrations in where some companies, and individuals, lack in their understanding the importance of the user experience in a product development lifecycles. She has written a great article in Boxes and Arrows, expressing just how necessary her role is in developing a *good* product for the user. I especially recommend developers of UIs to read this article!
Eric’s Debut
Friends Albert and Julia recently welcomed Eric Lee-Fook into the world...another baby in the year of the Golden Pig! Congratulations on your adorable bundle of joy, guys! Love, Auntie Maggie 
Baby announcements…not my own…
Usually, even if we already know, our friends send us announcements of their baby being born. I'm guessing this hold true for a lot of people. Our friend Simon, who lives on the other side of the country in Massachusetts, choose to tell us about his son by sending us an evite to his son's first birthday party. Clearly, we don't keep in close touch with Simon, but what's even funnier to me is that Mike didn't register it was our friend and almost deleted the invitation, thinking it was spam. I think his (mental) spam filter is set a little too high...
Since we aren't likely to attend the birthday party...Happy 1st Birthday, Sebastian! And while I'm at it, Happy 2nd Birthday, Nora! And since I'm surrounded by baby-mania...Congratulations are in order to the following expecting parents!
Albert and Julia
Dan and Stef
Mike and Julie
A Day of Races
Yesterday was an event-filled day for me. I woke up at 5:30 AM thinking that Floyd Landis most likely won the Tour de France (which, I later confirmed, he did). The only reason I'd drag myself out of bed that early is for a race; Mike and I ran in a 15k. Because we've been experiencing a heat wave for the last few days and due to insufficient sleep (because the house couldn't cool down enough, even at night), Mike and I knew that this race would be tough. Forget about keeping pace; we just needed to stay cool enough to avoid heat exhaustion. The race started at 7 am, and it was about 75 degrees with enough humidity in the air (by West Coast standards) that it was a bit harder to breathe.
At the start of the race, we were doing pretty well, keeping a slower pace than our usual, but I was feeling strong and certain that I'd make it up the hills. We turned the corner and headed up Broadway, then wound our way up to the Terwilliger curves. It was about 1/3 of the way up Terwilliger that I realized this race and this heat was taking its toll on me, and that I was going to have to go even slower. I pushed forward, and started looking forward to the downhill back to the finish. When we finally conqueured the hills, we realized that the downhill wasn't even enough for us to recover. At this point, I just wanted to finish; I didn't care about time. Somewhere between mile 7 and mile 8, we saw a woman on a stretcher being treated for heat exhaustion, and admittedly, we were surprised we hadn't seen more of that. I finally crossed the line. I won't say what my time is, since I don't think it was important for this race. I was just happy that we finished.
When we got home, I took a cool shower, and then checked online to see how my friend Joanne was doing in her race, Ironman Lake Placid. She was on her second lap of the bike. I went to take a nap. I woke up, ate some lunch, and by this time, the webcast was streaming real-time video of the finishers. I was so impressed by this feature, how good the video was, that I ended up watching sitting in front of my little Powerbook all afternoon watching people achieve such an enormous goal. It was addictive. Mike joined me later, and we saw Joanne (with her fianc?© Paul beside her) cross that line with a big smile on her face. Congratulations, Joanne! You are an Ironman!
“Joanne Pons, you are an Ironman!”
It's time! My friend Joanne will be racing in Ironman Lake Placid this Sunday, July 23. She has raced in half Ironmans, but this will be her first Ironman. She's been training hard, and I admire her focus and dedication. I know she'll get to hear the announcer shout "Joanne Pons, you are an IRONMAN!!!" when she crosses that finish line! I'll be tracking her progress throughout the day at www.ironmanlive.com, after I conquer my own small challenge, the Cascade Run Off 15k. Go Joanne!