Homecoming

In my last post, I mentioned I was coming home from my trip to a big surprise. That big surprise came in the form of family. My older brother Curt, his wife Mandy and their two kiddos, Andrew and baby Aubrey live in Texas and we only get to see them a few times a year. We hadn't even met our six week old niece, Aubrey yet. But when I got home from Hilton Head, they were here in CT. That's a surprise in itself, but the BIG surprise was that this time it wasn't just for a short visit - they're moving here! Curt flies for Delta Airlines and has recently been promoted to Captain. With that also came a change of hubs- he'll now be based out of D.C. rather than Atlanta. In order to make the commute easier on the family, they'll be staying in CT for a time and then eventually moving to the D.C. area. So it's just a temporary move, but still, to have him and his family around for a least a couple months is exciting. Curt moved out of state when he started college in 1998 and hasn't been home (for more than a visit) since, so this is very exciting for the Chadwick family. And when they do move for good, Curt and Mandy will be in the D.C. area, so more frequent visits will definitely be a reality.

Curt, Andrew, Mandy and Jax

So yippie for family, yippie for meeting our new niece Aubrey for the first time, and yippie for Summit's two new playmates - Andrew and Jax, Curt and Mandy's German Shepard.

Hilton Head Island

Work has brought me to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. I've been here for the past four days for a conference and I'm heading home this afternoon. It's quite beautiful here and the weather has been wonderful - a nice escape from the cold, wet weather back home. My conference responsibilities - a workshop about publishing interactive maps online - went really well and I've enjoyed attending some of the other sessions and mingling with professionals in my field. I did manage to sneak away yesterday for a long bike ride on the beach. It was 70 and sunny. I didn't remember to bring my sunscreen and ended up with a nice sunburn, but it didn't matter - just being out in sunshine made it all worth it!

As enjoyable as the trip has been, I'm looking forward to heading home and can't wait to see James and Summit. I have a BIG surprise waiting for me when I get back to Connecticut. I bet you wanna know what it is...but I'm not telling! You'll have to wait until the next post! Ahhhh, the suspense!

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

I got my hair cut last night. I was tired of my long boring hair but not quite ready for a true PWC (post wedding chop). I'm still trying to decide if I love it or not, though I am fancying the side-pony. What do you think? (Sorry I don't have any "before" pictures. Just imagine long brown boring hair).

Weekend on Mt. Washington

I'm happy to report that we made it up (all the way to the summit!) and back in one piece. I blogged last week about how the weather wasn't looking too great for our summit bid, but it turned out the mountain was in a good mood and we were given very favorable climbing conditions on both days. The night was quite cold, with wind chills down near -15 degrees, but we stayed pretty cozy holed up in our sleeping bags. Even though we weren't frozen solid, the night was somewhat uncomfortable and resulted in little sleep. Still, we woke up to a beautiful morning, fresh snow and fresh legs to begin our climb.

Summit learning she's not coming with us (that's a pout if I've ever seen one!)

The weather the day of our summit climb was the nicest winter day we've ever experienced on Mount Washington. The temps were in the teens with only moderate winds and the sky was clear. A perfect day for summiting!

For more photos of this and other trips to the White Mountains, click HERE.

Barn Dweller

Yesterday we found this guy (or gal?) in our barn. The pictures make him seem much larger than he really was (maybe 8-9 inches tall?). It was tiny! After doing some research, we think he's an Eastern Screech Owl. While we don't mind him living in our barn, we weren't sure if he actually wanted to be there or he was trapped, so we decided to try to get him to fly out of the barn. After 15 minutes of chasing him around with a broom, we managed to get him to fly outside. Hopefully he wasn't too traumatized and if he did end up in the barn out of his own free will, maybe he'll be back and we'll see him again.

Heading North

Every winter since we've met (going on six years now), James and I have heading up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire to climb Mount Washington. It has always been a special place for us and it is where we got engaged in December 2008. At 6,288 feet, Mount Washington is the highest peak in the Northeast. The weather on the mountain is notoriously erratic, even in summer. Mount Washington once held the world record (still the Northern Hemisphere and Western Hemisphere record) for directly measured surface wind speed, at 231 miles per hour. Winds on the mountain exceed hurricane force on average 110 days out of the year. Mount Washington in winter is seriously not for the faint of heart.

Mount Washington, New Hampshire ~ James on the mountain, January 2007

Engaged on Tuckerman's Ravine, Mount Washington, Dec. 27, 2008

This weekend, James and I will head north to attempt our sixth winter summit of the mountain. We haven't always been successful at reaching the top, sometimes the weather is just not in our favor. To ensure the best chance of a successful summit, this year we're trying something new - camping on the mountain. By splitting the hike into two days we get a jump on the weather (which tends to be worse later in the day) and we'll get out ahead of some of the day trippers. James has participated in extreme winter camping before, but this will be a first for me. And after checking the forecast for this weekend, it doesn't look like Mother Nature is going to make it easy on us. Friday's highs are only in the teens with lows around zero. Saturday is even colder with lows in the negative digits. And that's without the wind chill! Holy-mole is it going to be cold!!! Something tells me all those nights warming my toes by our wood stove will NOT help me get through Friday night. Stay tuned, I'll be sure to post updates early next week.

Outlook not so good.

Death by a Thousand Pricks

Yesterday I tried acupuncture for the first time. Many of you that hang around me a lot probably know (at least) two things about me: first, I love to run. Second, I'm always injured. I've had a lot of injuries in the past, but the one that has been nagging me for a few years now is my back. On Monday I had yet another MRI done, and found out bad news - I have bone spurs, compression fractures, disc degeneration, spinal compression and arthritis in my lower back (the "real" terms for all this are: anterior osteophytes, chronic endplate compression fractures, facet and ligamentum flavum hypertonic changes, neural foraminal stenosis and central spinal canal stenosis and mild straightening of the lumbar spine. awesome). All this sounds bad, right? But the truth is none of it is bad enough to warrent a treatment protocol other than what I've already tried over the past two years (physical therapy, water therapy, massage therapy, cortosone injections, orthotics, traction, chiropratic manipulation). Oh and in case you're wondering, yes, I've tried REST. In fact, I've missed the better part of two and a half running seasons because of this (and other) injuries. The main problem is that all of those things going on in my back are compressing the nerves that run down my left leg. This causes pain in my butt (literally and figuratively), hamstring, calf, and numbness and tingling in my foot. It's really hard to run with all that going on.


So, back to my point. Yesterday, I tried the one thing left to try. Acupunture. I'm not going to go into exactly how acupuncture works (the truth is no one really knows how it works), you can read all about it on Wikipedia if you are so inclined. What I can tell you is that yesterday I had 30 pin-thin needles poking out of me - some in a few very sensitive areas (think between your toes!). I don't know exactly what I was expecting, but I can tell you that after I got over the initial pain (it wasn't nearly as relaxing as it looks in those photographs), I chilled out (because really what else can you do when you're lying face down and you look like a porcupine?) and let those little things work their magic. Magic, you ask? Well, it's not exactly like the pain just melted away, but I do feel a little better today. I'll have to make it through a few more needles and a run or two (or fifty) before I really know if it's all in my head or not. I'll keep ya posted!