happy 10th birthday meiko!

happy 10th birthday maestro!

spin-a-thon

On Saturday, April 12th, I participated in

Spin-A-Thon for the Tour de Cure.

6 hours, 110 miles!

My awesome spin instructor, Tracy Shivone, organized this event at Gold's Gym to raise money and awareness for the American Diabetes Association. She will be cycling in the 2-day 320K Extreme (thats 100 miles each day!) for the Tour de Cure. We were spinning (indoor cycling) for 7 hours to simulate the road race that takes place in Cary, NC on June 7-8, 2008. I was only able to sign up for 6 hours because the first hour was completely filled. The group raised close to $1000 for the day and I personally raised $160! Please visit the links above to learn more about the event, see our fundraising progress, and take time to learn more about diabetes, treatment and prevention.

new and improved

Here are the pics from the home improvement!

Brian and Rob worked 40+ hours from Friday morning through Sunday evening and the floors look great. I spent the following week dusting everything and vacuuming at least twice a day...the dust never seemed to settle!

Before, we had carpet in the living room, hallway and dog room and there was tile pattern laminate in the kitchen. We looked at flooring, flooring, and more flooring and finally decided on the Heirloom Hickory Hardwood Laminate from Armstrong. The finish looked the most like real hardwoods and it is really durable with the dogs (and daily living). We were a little concerned about the floors blending with the cabinets, but the end result is better that I could ever imagine. I can't believe we waited this long to replace our floors! What a difference!

Before pics

well, I guess these are working pics

Here you can see the pile o' carpet, the hallway post-demo, Brian beginning the flooring in the dog room, and Brian and Rob deciding where to start in the living room.

After Pics

Here is the finished living room

the hallway

and the kitchen!

home improvement

This weekend is the flooring project! It was supposed to happen last weekend, but our main helper had a schedule conflict. Good for me...as it turns out, I will be out of town this weekend for a "girls trip" that has been planned for months. However, I will post before, during and after pics...of the flooring project and the girls weekend! Looks like I will get my own version of While You Were Out.

first catch of the year

Brian reeled in a big one to start off 2008!

Here he is with the 15+ lb. Black Drum that he caught on the jetty wall at Wrightsville Beach. It is the biggest fish that he has caught that we could eat. The King Mackerel that he has caught were bigger, but they are not good eats - kind of gamey and full of mercury. We had two delicious meals from this fellow. Its a really mild, flakey, white fish and totally kicks Mahi's ass. He has also caught several Tautog which are not usually found this far south, but since the water has cooled down they are also hanging out on the jetty wall...and hanging out on our dinner table, too.