A Hot & Wild Weekend - Racing, Resturants, Fish & Photoshop Links

This past weekend we had the last two road races that are part of the two race series that the kids compete in. For Ethan things went pretty well. For Ellie it was another story.





Saturday they completed the Federal Center Crit. It is a closed (no traffic)technical course with 12 corners. Ethan just did two short laps and managed to get his place (I think it was 7th or 8th place) by just about 2" as his friend, Tom, was right next to him. He enjoyed the race. Sunday was the criterium championship and a very hot day. He got a slow start and just never caught up. He came in 14th out of 20 riders. However, he still had fun. And why ride if you are not having fun? That is the most important part.



Ellie had fun at both races, but it was not her weekend. Her group did one lap at the Federal Center. She was speeding around the second to last corner and ready to come in first place when she was pushed off by a rider with less control. This caused her to flip on her bike and crash. She recovered quickly but her waterbottle had rolled onto the middle of the road so she had to get it before it caused another crash. I was worried when slower riders came in and she was no where in sight. Eventually she rounded the corner and finished the race. Her gear shifter was wonky and nearly parallel with the handlebars, her brakes were held open because there were chunks of grass and dirt stuck in them from when she crashed. Her ankle, hip, ribs and shoulder were hurt a bit, but none so much as her pride. She had victory in her grasp and lost it. It made her MAD! The next day, the championship, came and she was still sore. She enjoyed the race a little bit, but was disappointed with her performance as she came in 5th place.

After the races on Sunday we met the grandparents


at the Downtown Aquarium for lunch and to take in the sights. The food at the Laundry's was okay. Larr's fish taco's and Eleanor's Crab Dip were the best things served. The big thing was how fun the restaurant itself was!





The aquarium was a lot of fun. It was taken over by Laundry's a few years ago and boy did they change things. It was much more colorful and touristy than before. It was interesting to see people feeding the rays, the tube where you can see a turtle swim above you and all of the different displays. We had a lot of fun that day, feeling like we were on vacation right in our own home town. I think they call that a Staycation these days.


I have been researching my options for doing digital scrapbooking now that I can use Photoshop. I have found great sites to download free brushes and a few reasonably priced places for large size prints ( such as 12" x 12") and photobooks.

Trendyrobot.com seems to be the place with the larges (500+) number of brush sets that you can download for free. If you feel like making ultra fancy fonts or headings you can go to this site (photoshoproadmap) for tutorials.

If you want to print up individual pages the best price seems to be found at scrapbooks to share where a 12" x 12" print is just $1.50. They even have a special deal you can try so that you can see the quality of their product. If you want to have your scrapbook printed with a full color hardcover book you can go to Shutterfly. They seem to have the best and most clear options. They even have a specs download so that you can plan your pages to fit the book perfectly.