Catch-up

Yeah, I'm delinquent. Severely delinquent. I owe several updates for my faithful followers...I would use the excuse that I've been busy, but everyone's busy so that's not really a valid excuse. The real reason is, as my reader's know, I really try to maintain a balance in my life and for the past month I have not been able to get the "life" scales horizontal-i.e. they've been steeply tipped in the direction of racing and work while the other aspects have taken the very back seat in a 15 person van (sorry Ari).
So here's the abridged version to catch-up:
~Sea Otter cross country was hot. I ran out of water, I got a stinging bug stuck in my jersey and got stung several times, but I finished pretty strong and felt pretty good aside from the dehydration.
~Got home to meet our new puppy, Riley. Who is a handful. To be specific he's an ornery handful of mischievous energy.
~Raced in Nathrop for the MSC cross country race. Had a good race. Dropped my water bottle and again had some dehydration issues. Finished 3rd though which I was happy about. Plus my technical skills have improved significantly since the last time I did this race, so that was encouraging.
~Raced the Battle of the Bear race. Way fun, perfect day, great race. I got 4th. Katie Compton, Heather Irmiger, and Judy Freeman came ahead of me. Which I don't mind since they're more on the international caliber of things and I'm just trying to become of National caliber.
~Sold my bike. Found out that some key components are missing on new bike-BUMMER. I am bike-less for now, but the plan is to buy temporary key components and get the bike built up ASAP!!