Good weekend

We had a fun Memorial Day weekend, doing a wide range of things we don't normally do during the racing season. The first stop was in Coeur d'Alene where we went to a casting call for the "Amazing Race." Ted is slightly embarassed by the fact that we went to an audition for a reality TV show, but I figure he'd be pretty happy if we actually were chosen and got to travel around the world on someone else's dime.

About 100 teams of two were there to audition, and 75 of those were selected randomly to actually be interviewed on camera; we were selected about 2/3 of the way through, which meant we ended up standing in line for a couple hours, for a couple minutes of air time. I will say that people watching there was great, as you truly had all kinds there; one particularly amusing team to watch consisted of two flannel-wearing women with pig tails, whom Ted called the "Meth addicts."

We finally got our two minutes of time for which we had not rehearsed a bit. Ted definitely was the one who carried it for us, with me piping up here or there. Some teams had whole song and dance routines rehearsed.

After the audition, we headed to the Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane, which was my treat for Ted's birthday. We got a nice penthouse on the 14th floor and the hotel itself was really neat to walk around in. We had dinner out, followed by some drinks at a new martini bar (mango mojitos are good).

On Saturday, we decided to ride our bikes up Mt. Spokane, which is a 12+ mile climb. It started misting about half way up and then began to pour. I knew I was going to have trouble going down when my hands were numb and we were still going up... and I was right. I was frozen, so we stopped at a lodge part-way down the climb and Ted rode down to get the car. He was a good sport because I know he was frozen too.

The weekend in the Spokane area finished up with a visit to Ted's aunt and uncle, with good food and a soak in the hot tub. We also watched most of the Indy 500, which I had never seen before, and found surprisingly exciting. I was hoping for Danica Patrick to do well just because it would be neat to see her do well in such a male-dominated sport.

I made a cake for Ted's birthday on Monday, which was my first fondant cake. It's definitely far from perfect, but I think it was okay for my first try. It's definitely not low on calories.

Off to Hood River, Oregon tomorrow for the Mt. Hood Cycling classic, which goes through Sunday. It'll be a tough one.