Dana Burland

A closet organizing system! I put it up successfully all by myself! You can get a sense of how far along our construction project is. Plenty not done, but lots coming together, too.  I gotta say, this simple closet system is a jewel in the project crown. I can reach the majority of these shelves!  A simple thing but cool I know how to do this now. :)

Ok that was fun. This morning I did the EGR Reeds Lake Triathon with coworkers as a relay. We had enough interest to put 2 teams together. I swam for "Team A". When we all signed up for this months ago I was hoping to REALLY nail my open water swim practice to show up and crush race day. Which I sorta did, but sort of fell off with too. It was nice going into race day with the excited nerves of ONE discipline vs all 3. Extra nice because it was 48 °  at swim start, and while it warmed up from there I would have struggled biking and running wet.  Wow did I fly in the water this year. My best swim time from this race was 13:36. Today I swam it in 10:24! It did go by fast but it didn't feel crazy fast. There was a lot of "traffic" in the water--lots of bodies bumping into me, arms thwacking me, a man straight up swimming over me. It was tough to navigate. Also much like most of my open water swim races, my shoulders burn out early into the race. I don't have th...

It's chilly in the mornings, now. School has started. Our favorite pool, "The Pancake Pool" (named after the annual Memorial Day Weekend, opening weekend, everyone-is-welcome pancake breakfast) just closed. And we wrapped out a last-hurrah summer trip--to visit relatives who live on crystal clear Avalon Lake in Hillman, MI. We took many pontoon boat rides, kayaked, swam, fished, shopped in town, played and played and played some more. Had a bunch of yummy family meals together--9 of us circling around a big table looking out at one of the best views.  See what I mean? Summer, we loved ya this year.