Exciting News!

Yesterday afternoon I received a package from my daughter Hallie. It was Northwest Runners magazine, a magnificent magazine, and Hallie was featured in a full two page article! I wanted to send a link to this article, but as the magazine is now on sale at news stands, I won't be able to do that until sometime in June. But here are a few favorite lines from the Northwest Runners magazine:

-- After competing in two ironman races last year and six in the past five years, Truswell says she plans on doing more halves and sprints in 2010. One gets the feeling talking to Truswell that it doesn't really matter if she is doing some random sprint race or the Hawaiian Ironman, she will find a way to make it fun and finish fast.

-- Like many good triathletes, Truswell started in the pool.

-- These days Truswell trains with some of the best triathletes in the area including Tracy Orcutt, Joanna Pomyakala, and Rocky Ursino. She gets coaching advice from Kainoa Pauole-Roth, owner of Pauole Sport, a growing coaching service in Seattle.

-- "She may be a competitive age group athlete with countless top performances," brags her coach, "but she is also a very humble and genuine person that all of us love to be around."

-- "Train happy, race happy! That's my motto," Truswell says. But quickly adds, "That's not to say that I don't take it seriously. I'm well prepared before I toe the start line. I always know what to expect both in terms of competition as well as racing conditions. But I also know I can only control so much and the rest is outside of my hands."

-- When talking to her friends and competitors, "balanced" is the word that always comes up next to Truswell's name.

-- Even when talking about her races, Truswell strikes a balance between power and grace.

*****

Needless to say, I am so proud of my daughter, and have always been! There has always been what I would call a "tactful" presence in my daughter.

Now, other boring news...

I hired a new landscape crew to take care of the edging and weeding and also the lawn mowing. Mary doesn't mind mowing and I don't either but they offered half off on the weeding if we ageed to have our lawn mowed. So I went for it. I also decided this was a good year to add mulch. The color, kind of a burgundy, looks really well with the house.

Thursday was supposed to be our pool opening day but they could not get the pump going because the basket was cracked and sucking in air. So everything to do with the pool is about half done. They will be back on monday afternoon with the new part.

Yesterday, Saturday, I chose something new to replace our Black-eyed Susans and I'd never heard of them before. They are called Yarrow ( or Achilea?) and I chose three different kinds and arranged them in the front lawn flower bed which is full sun.

One variety is called Moonshine and has fern like grey-blue foliage. Another is called Summer Berries and is an assortment of bright cheery colors with green fern like foliage. And the third is called Paprika with rusty orange/red flowers and green fern like foliage. All three attract butterflies! I'm very excited about these new plants! Mary did the digging because there is no way I can sit on my heels and when I bend over for long periods my back really bothers me. But I was out there taking the plants out of the containers, not easy as they were root bound. These yarrows by the way are perennials.

We also got some shade plants as well, annuals, and have to be prepared to put them under cover in case we get frost. So far, we've been having great warm weather and are managing to miss the usual tornadoes! (Wait, I shouldn't say that... touching wood here...)

Fare thee well, all!