I cemented my mother of the year award last night by not only volunteering at the school in Elias's classroom, but also buying the Absolute Minimum purchase. I would have felt guilty if I didn't buy the magnet that was already made up and in the display. Of course, that is what they are relying on, but I didn't give in and buy a mug, kitchen apron or anything else with anyone's art on it. No WAY. Here is a picture of everyone's art. Andy is the top one, Benjamin the middle one, and Elias the bottom one.

I don't know if there are any budding Picassos, but I think they did a good job. Andy had to do his thing in the style of Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar), and Benjamin had to do his in the style of Georgia O'Keefe. Elias's theme was Under the Sea (note the skeleton in his). Elias just told me that the big thing in the middle is a puffer fish, and the red things are crabs.

I am training away in preparation for my races this season -- the first one is on 16 March. It is a sprint race, but I am not feeling especially ready. I am hoping that this feeling will pass before the actual race.

I went to a triathlon conference last weekend that was very interesting. I got to hear many of the pioneers of triathlon talk about their experiences and talk about how the sport has changed. I also got to go to the Expo where all the new products were on display and you could test them out. That was interesting, and a major opportunity to spend money. I resisted the spending thing and managed to avoid it completely. I did participate in a contest though, and I almost won! Polar Heart Monitors came and were demonstrating their new power meter (this is used to find out how much power you can put out to the pedals, and really how fast you can go -- it is the next big thing in bicycle training). So, one of the other TriGirls told me about it and she was in first place -- her name was on the big board for everyone to see. She had averaged (over a minute) 292 watts of power. She told me I should do it, and I figured I didn't have anything to lose. So I did it. Boy did that hurt. Doing one minute on the bike with everything you have is HARD! However, it was all worth it when I took over first place!! This was very exciting!! I averaged 318 watts of power (and my high was 488!). It was MY name on the big board for everyone to see! Another woman beat me about 4 hours later, but it was pretty cool nonetheless. The woman who beat me put out 342 watts. The male winner put out 624 watts. The great thing about this was that I was, for once, way up in the rankings -- it was terrific to be on the top end of things, rather than the bottom to middle end!!

I have the dates for my beach trip this summer and I am already looking forward to it in a Big Way!! I will be flying in to Maryland on 5 July, and flying back to Tucson on 13 July. It promises to be a FANTASTIC trip!