Naked Friends and Strangers

Between the hours of 3 and 7 pm, 12 friends and strangers will be showering at our house (a comedy if you've ever used our shower, aka Mensa puzzle #42).

Today begins Hood to Coast. A 197 relay race from the top of Mt. Hood to the Oregon Coast. It winds through mountains, small towns, Portland and the boonies (otherwise known as Mist. Curse you, Mist!)

Ken's excited. He took today off of work today in preparation for his first leg at 3 pm. He is running a total of 19.7 miles . Last night we made enough baked ziti and garlic bread to feed an army. We also made chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies. I won't be there for the showering stop since I'll be at the cured meats class, but I will get to see Ken at his transition tomorrow morning outside of Astoria -- he projected it to be "around 11:56 am" (much better than his 2 am second leg in the middle of nowhere).

We'll be staying at a runner's family cabin tomorrow night rather than driving back to Portland afterwards. And, I learned my lesson last year such that Kinley will be staying with Alyson and Eric while we're gone (read: his best dogfriend forever, Otis). I am very thankful. Especially because that means I can enjoy the Hood to Coast BEER GARDEN on the beach while waiting for Ken's team to finish rather than being banned from it because of said dog. Hopefully this Hood to Coast will be quite different than last year. We're older and wiser, right?