Eric and Laura's Web Pages

October

The first weekend in October, we drove up to the Chattanooga, TN area for the Chattanooga Bicycle Club's Sequatchie Valley Century ride on October 2. We rode the 25 mile option. The scenery was really beautiful and it was a nice ride. We also stopped in to see Laura's Grandmother and great-Aunt Chris.

October 16, Laura ran another 5K race - the Liz Hurley Ribbon Run . It was a chilly morning. She got to run with a friend she met through bike riding part of the way, and finished in about the same time as the last race. Later the same morning, Laura & Eric brought the dogs up to Big Spring Park for the annual Humane Society Walk For Paws fundraiser/dog-walk. We always have a good time, get the dogs all over-stimulated, and generally also run into various dog-loving friends.

September

Work has been really busy for Laura, and she has been doing her best to keep up with her biking and running. No time to swim so far. As much as we love Florida and the beach, we are very happy not to be living there right now with all the hurricanes. We had a few clouds and a day of rain from Frances, but not too heavy.

The sky the evening before we got rain from Frances: We had a stunning sunset to the west, and rainbows (there were 2, but Laura was slow with the camera) to the east.

We completed the metric century September 18! It was a challenging 65 miles with a couple of brutal hills, but still a lot of fun. Laura also wrote an article for the bike club newsletter about the ride and the training program.

The following weekend was Huntsville's music festival, Big Spring Jam . Eric and Laura went to walk around and listen to a few of the music acts. We really enjoyed George Clinton and the Parliament Funkadelic on Friday night, as well as our friends in 5ive O'Clock Charlie earlier in the evening, and another friend in The Persians on Saturday afternoon. Laura also got up early Saturday morning and ran the Big Spring Jam 5K race. Since we had been getting up early on Saturdays all summer, Eric chose to sleep in for this one. Laura finished in the middle of her age group at 30:17 , happy enough to run at just (barely) under a 10 minute mile.

August

August 20th brought Eric's 20 year high school reunion (has it been that long?) at the new Lodge at Monte Sano State Park. It was a fun time.

Then both Eric and Laura got up early the next morning and did the Hiwaay Sprint Triathlon on August 21. We did the run together, but then Eric left Laura in the dust to finish in 1:01:48. However, Laura was very happy to finish in 1:07:12 - 9th out of 23 in her age group. (We won't get into how low that really is in the total participants.) It turns out we were both strongest in swimming, followed by biking. Laura thinks this is funny because she would not normally characterize herself as a "good" swimmer. It was really a lot of fun to complete something like this together! Eric also did the RocketMan Triathlon the following weekend, which included a 1/2 mile swim in the Tennessee River. Wow!

July

In July, we celebrated John's retirement from the government at Monte Sano State Park. We also attended the requisite big party for Angela's birthday - even Elvis was there!
By the end of July, our rides were in excess of 30 miles, and Laura was having trouble keeping up on her hybrid/comfort bike, sooo... the logical next step was a new road bike! Isn't it COOL?! Despite the fact that he just got a new-to-him full-suspension mountain bike in June, Eric is having "bike lust" for a new road bike for himself.

June

In June, Laura started the Ride- A-Metric (RAM) Training Series offered by the Spring City Cycling Club, and soon talked Eric into joining her. Eric has been biking for a long time, but Laura only just got a bike a couple of years ago - this was her first real venture beyond the beach and the greenway. The end goal of this training series is to be able to ride a metric century (100 kilometers) on September 18. With all this biking, Laura decided that maybe she should add swimming and train for the triathlon Eric always does in August. She was cleared to run again late in June, and it became the summer of workouts. The big news in June was that Suzie and Tim up and got married! Congratulations to them!

May

Laura ended her soccer career in May due to another severe sprain. This also put quite a damper on her running (none), walking (ha!), and general fun-having. That didn't stop Eric and Laura from going to Orange Beach for the Alabama AP annual awards convention - we took the trip courtesy of The Huntsville Times due to Eric winning first place in the Portfolio category. [See photos below in "March"] May was also Vacation Time! We took our mostly-annual trek to St. Augustine, Florida for sun and fun and relaxation. We did the eat, beach, sleep thing; got to visit with Tim & Suzie; and ate, well, like we were on vacation!

We made it back from vacation in time for Eric to run the Cotton Row Run 10K race on Memorial Day. Laura didn't get to run, but she did make it out to watch Eric finish. The race was delayed due to lightning, but the rest of the day turned out beautiful. We brought dinner to Big Spring Park, and Beth came to visit with us.

April

Babies all around! In April, Jason and Amber had their baby, Jackson. Sunday, April 4 was a big day for Kurt & Cheryl, and of course little Samuel. The baptism was at St. Marks Lutheran Church during the Palm Sunday service. Eric & Laura were asked to be Godparents, so we guess we'll have to cut back on the sinning and set a good example. We started our good example with a little gluttony, as Kurt and Eric's Mom had a big to-do at the house afterward.

Make sure you congratulate Eric when you see him. Eric won the Portfolio category for the Alabama Associated Press 2003 Photo Contest. He also won an Honorable Mention in the Spot News category for the photo of the soldier's funeral. Eric has never won in the Portfolio category before, so this is especially exciting for him. Check out the photos below.

It's spring again and our gardens are blooming. The daffodils are finished, but the tulips are in bloom; the phloxx is in bloom; the dianthus are budding; the pansies are hanging on; and even some of the iris are blooming.

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March

Laura has been sick for about half the month. (Don't worry, she's getting better.) She's wanting to get back up to 100% so she can continue training for Cotton Row. Lucky for Eric, he has escaped this one, and has been able to keep up with our social obligations. Laura has at least been able to make it to dinner a few times. Below are a few random pictures from this month.

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February

We became an aunt and uncle again, and Eric's brother Kurt and his wife Cheryl became parents for the very first time. We are excited to announce the birth of our nephew Samuel Frederick on Saturday, February 14 (a Valentine's baby!) at about 10:29 pm. He weighed in at 8 lbs, 6 oz, and 20.5 inches long. There are more pictures at Kurt's site.
	It's a good thing the baby waited until after the Baby Shower. We hosted a Super Bowl Baby Shower for Kurt and Cheryl on Sunday, February 1st. We had a great turnout, tons of food, and hopefully all the gifts are going to be helpful (or at least darn cute!)
Laura is planning on running the Cotton Row Run 10K race on Memorial Day with Eric. She is now officially "in training", and is keeping a running log on Livejournal. (Livejournals are web-logs or "blogs", for those of you who are uninitiated in nerd-dom.) It just seemed like a good place to keep the information - She can update from home if she runs/walks at the gym or the neighborhood, or from work if she uses one of the treadmills at the office. And this way, she can't misplace it.

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