Out like a Lion....

Well it's almost the end of March.  With the Great Fargo Flood in progress I wish everyone in the FM area the best and am hoping that all the great effort put forward by the community shines in your favor!

Nicole is in Chicago at the "Great Hair Convention"

 actually I'm not sure what it's called but I'm sure it's great!   Her and Jonathan were supposed to fly out of Fargo Friday morning, but with the flood issue, they changed their flight out of Mpls and left Friday at 5:30 am.

While she is gone the girls and I have been busy..well I have been as much as I can when Marlo is napping.  I did a little painting in the garage entry (unknown to N

icole) with hopes of surprising her with my efforts in that department.  Not

 really impressed with how the paint went on, not sure what the deal was, will for sure need another coat but it's the color Nicole and I wanted and I

 think it looks good.  We were planning on continuing it through the half bath and laundry room, but I'll wait until Nicole returns and get her opinion first.  I also built some shelving she's been requesting in one of the front entry closets so got that done today as well, turned out pretty good with Marlo supervising that effort while Eleni was at the movie with her cousins. "Thanks Katie!"

Eleni lost her first tooth on March 16th.  She was pretty excited!  

Marlo the copy cat in the background...

Marlo riding in the garage monitoring Daddy's shelf cutting.

Marlo has pretty much mastered the walking thing. It's crazy watching her tiny petit little thing walk around... mastered it a week before her 1st Birthday!

Lotvola Cup Weekend

Today is the Lotvola Cup Cross Country Ski Race/Tour at Maplelag.

It looks like the weather is going to be a little nicer than last years event.

Clear blue sky, temp at the start are expected to be hovering ar

ound 22 degrees or so.

Kinda hovering between two different wax types with my selection, but Marlo was helping me get them prepped for todays ski. Should be a little faster conditions this year compared to the fresh snow coming down at the start last year. I guess I'm just hoping to beat my time last year which was my first year doing it with a time of 1:08:04 for the 12k classical ski. Shouldn't be too hard as last year I had no glide for the last half, so with my new ski set up this year I'm feeling confident to finish a little faster.

Marlo helping Dad wax his skis!

Results:

It was a great day on the trails! Fun to ski in weather above ZERO! Race temp was 18-19 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. I got a good start and set my pace a little fast, but after doing that in last years bike race I knew I had to slow that down a bit or I was not going to make it. So I settled down and enjoyed the ski and fast conditions. I was lucky enough to have 4 cheerleaders to meet me at the crossings. Nicole, Eleni, Marlo and Grandma Trish were there which was around the midway point so that shifted the pace a little after seeing my girls and Eleni jumping up and down which was great! I was passed midway by a few high school kids and then found myself skiing solo for the trip down suicide hill and

then bullhead lake loop and throughout the rest of the race about a 1:30 behind the person if front of me and about 2:00 in front of the person behind, so it didn't really feel like a race when I couldn't see anybody to chase or try to pull away from. So coming across the finish with a time of 54:35 - around 14 minutes faster than last year which was good.

photo courtesy of skinnyski.com

Eleni & Dad at the FINISH!