100 miles for best buddies!

In case you haven't heard yet - I am riding in the 100 mile "2007 Best Buddies Challenge: Hearst Castle" ride on September 8th. It's a fundraiser for Best Buddies International. They are an organization that supports people with intellectual disabilities.

I'm pretty excited about this, partly because it is my first ever century, and partly because I've caught the fundraising bug a bit. I've raised $1,100 so far, and would love to hit $1,500 before the event comes.

Here's a link to my donation page in case you feel like making a contribution :).

The training has been going pretty well. My longest ride so far has been 65 miles with a lot of climbing. My odometer is up to 1,700 miles now, meaning I've ridden about 700 miles since the end of June. Looks like I'll hit 2,000 right about the time of the big ride. :)

Solo parent weekend

Just got back from my first weekend with Aria away from Hosanna. Left Friday morning & got back today around 3:30 p.m. The trip was to fulfill several aims, e.g. give Hosanna a weekend off, give me a lot of extra time with Aria since I've been working so much lately, & give Aria a chance to spend time with my parents & my sister & her family. Oh yes, and to start weaning her. Suffice to say, the trip was a smashing success on all counts. There were some bumps in the road along the way, but overall, I had such a joyous time with her. I feel much closer to her and I think she feels closer to me too.

Don't have time to relate the entire trip, but here are a couple moments I thought were really special:

1 - At Lisa & Jason's house in Santa Cruz, we were sleeping in their bedroom, which they graciously gave to us for the night. Aria was in the portable crib & I was in the bed. At about 2:45 a.m. I awoke to a tiny little voice saying, cute as can be:

"Where's Daddy?"

then...

"Daddy's hiding!"

"Daddy's hiding... in the... bed!"

I had a mixed reaction. On the one hand, I was practically panicking, because if I moved or did anything, I was sure I'd be awake with her for the rest of the night. But on the other hand, I just LOVED her so much in that moment, because it was impossibly adorable.

Also, I was really hot in the bed, and I needed to move. So eventually, I did. And that's when she said, really excited:

"THERE'S Daddy!"

And it was all over. I went over, got her out of the crib, got her into the bed with me... and she proceeded to serenade me with every song she knows. For example: "The Perfect Nanny" from Mary Poppins. (She knows a lot of this song because Hosie & Kathy sing it to her all the time. But she sings "never smell like Charlie water" instead of "never smell like barley water," which cracks us up to no end.) And the Sesame Street theme song. And the Teddy Bears' Picnic. And Twinkle Twinkle. And it's 3 in the morning and what's a guy to do? I just kept saying "shhhhh, honey, lie down," and eventually, around 3:30, she did, and finally drifted off next to me in the bed.

2 - It was my mom's 70th birthday recently, so the whole family took her out to Hobee's for brunch. Aria had woken up early for some reason today (7:00 a.m., when she usually sleeps until 8:30), and was *really* tired before we even got to the restaurant. Hobee's is a really loud place and she was just overwhelmed. Machen sat near her and tried to get her interested in coloring, but she was just spent, & just kinda sat there looking at everybody. Then the food came, and she ate a bit, but not with much vigor. We were starting to wrap things up when I looked at her and said "how are you doing, honey?" She sat up real straight, looked at everyone, and announced, loudly, "We... should... go.... HOME!!!!!!" I've never heard her say that before.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back home, but as usual, not excited about going back to work tomorrow. I loved having that time with her and I will miss her even more than usual tomorrow.