Courtenay Brown

Christmas is a pretty busy time. I always forget! Here is what we have been up to:

This weekend, I finished up my public policy essay. It took me forever to write because I kept changing my mind about the topic, getting side-tracked and off-topic during my research, and tempted by training and the great (warm!) outdoors. But it’s done. I wound up scrapping my animal-rights idea that I mentioned on my blog a while ago. Instead I wrote about the obesity epidemic (in 2006, 67% of adults in the U.S. were obese or overweight!) and three suggested policy approaches to get people off their bums and out of McDonald’s.

Other weekend occurrences included a long bike ride wherein I flipped out and told Ben to either shave his mustache or get me a little doggie like this one for Christmas (and somehow, I’m getting neither?! What happened to my negotiation skills!), my niece and her boyfriend arrived from the Netherlands, we all went to two parties and I learned to play rock band (not as easy as Cartman et al. make it look) and I also went home with the most-coveted Book Club White Elephant Prize, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. So far I really like it.

I’ve only been to the beach one time so far, but today we are heading up to the north shore for a week. Our house is about 10 steps from Sunset Beach, so I’ll get to work on my tan and my book. I got some new swimsuits just in time! Including my new favorite . Side note, for those of you who are like me and haven’t finished Christmas shopping, you still have time to get your favorite swimmer or triathlete a gift certificate to design their own Splish suit.

My mom arrived on Monday despite a blizzard that dumped enough snow to practically cover a pony. Poor Hercules! Ben was really nervous about finally meeting Sal but after we went to a family friend’s to have dinner and Ben was the only one of us who didn’t make fun of my mom, didn’t say a curse word, told intelligent stories, and went back for seconds, my mom totally loves him. He also helped her get un-lost while my brother was busy driving fast and plotting late-evening adult-beverage fun.

In a minute I get to head over to Momentum Multisport to pick up my new helmet! I lucked out this Christmas, Lazer and Splish together comprise 100% of my presents! I’ll be sure to snap some photos of the Helium on my ride up to Sunset today. I may also get some flat-tire supplies at Momentum, for some reason (probably “I’ve spent the past __ months riding indoors, what is a flat tire again?”) I came pretty unprepared and Oahu’s notoriously tire-eating roads are, well, eating up my tires. Delicious, I’m sure.

OK my millisecond is well over, time to get back into efficiency mode and go get stuff done. Yay!