Ode to Al

I'm a lucky gal. What can I say? Albert is the best husband any girl can hope to have. Gag all you want, but it's true. We've been married for two years already. We have been warned that at some point in time, the honeymoon ends. Luckily, we haven't hit that point yet. Our secret, you ask? Well... for one, we're pretty busy so the time have together never gets dull. Another thing is that we just love hanging out together - co-dependence in others' eyes perhaps but pure joy in ours. We love the same foods (ranging from Afghani to Korean to Foster's Freeze). We love the same kinds of books (except for Albert's current obsession with the capture of Osama bin Laden and the war on terror). We love the same TV shows. We also like to bike and swim together... which has led us to compete in triathlons. This year, I'm sitting out because of the future triathlete I'm carrying, but next year I'll be back.

Fresh before the Tri
Originally uploaded by amiura.

Today is Albert's birthday. The big 3-2! We celebrated in a number of ways but the most important is that Albert competed in the Santa Cruz Sentinel triathlon. This is an Olympic length triathlon so only the hard core need apply. And the hard core did apply. Here we have Albert with some of our friends including Bob, Katrina, and Mark. Katrina and Mark were particularly brave since they had just returned from their trip to Europe a couple of days before and were clearly still jetlagged. A 1 mile swim, 25 mile bike and a 10k run lay ahead for these athletes. I can't recommend this triathlon, however, because they don't provide anything except for water along the way AND they ran out of the needed water at the end. Poor Albert bonked at the end after having only 1 gel after his swim. To put this into perspective, I had at least 3 gels and countless bottles and cups of Gatorade when I did the Pacific Grove Triathlon.

Al starts his run
Originally uploaded by amiura.

Also, the Santa Cruz Sentinel Tri gave out really ugly t-shirts (tie die) that we promptly put into the Goodwill pile. Still, Julie and I ran around trying to capture the key moments in the tri. We had our trusty camping chairs and signs to root on our husbands. All in all, I was so impressed with everyone's performance. Bob obviously did quite well because he has turned himself into the Korean equivalent of Bruce Jenner. The man is a workout fiend. Albert has improved his time significantly from last year with a harder course! That in itself was a fantastic birthday present and well worth the 4:30AM wake up to get to the race on time.

If there is one thing I can say for sure, Albert and I share great friends. We have the kinds of friends that are virtual family. They are shoulders to lean on as well as the friends you want to have around just to celebrate another year passing.

Happy B-day Salute
I had asked Al if he wanted to do anything for his birthday and he had said he didn't... mostly because I asked him after he had done one of his epic 50 mile bike rides. Still, his friends Ian, Ped and Greg still managed to put together a bbq that would make any grown man smile complete with sausages, steaks, some veggies and 2 birthday cakes. By the way, the ugly t-shirts are on full display here on Bob and Al.

Happy Birthday Albert! May the 33rd year of your life be as wonderful as the 32nd!