My Cousin, the Ape Lady

This is my cousin, Sally Coxe, who runs a nonprofit organization working to save the Bonobo Apes in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The video is a clip from one of the Obama Inauguration events that focused on environmental conservation efforts around the world. She's actually my Dad's cousin, so I guess that makes her my 2nd cousin. Either that or my 1st cousin once removed...I can't ever get that straight, no matter how many times Cousin Whit explains it to me. :-)

In other news...Hot Flash, my women's hockey team, is doing well again this season. We're currently 11-3 and temporarily in 2nd place in our division standings, but the team we've been flip-flopping with all season plays this afternoon and will be on top by one point again if they win today. This is actually right where we like to be, because the top 6 teams go to the state tournament, but your team is forced to move up a division next season if you win the whole thing 2 years in a row. We don't want to move up, so that tempers our bitterness at getting robbed out of the state championship by a referee error last year. If that hadn't happened and we win it this year, we would have been forced to move up next season, and the next division involves A LOT more travel around the state.

Not a lot of improvement in the weight department, unfortunately. I'm back in the gym on a regular basis thanks in part to my friend Jenny, who has agreed to be my partner in any workout challenges that the Y or our school system come up with. Since I haven't been able to ride outdoors lately because the city of Mankato isn't as good as Minneapolis about clearing road shoulders and bike paths, I've taken up indoor spin classes 3 days a week at the Y. I also recently redesigned my half marathon training plan, so unless I get super bad news at the orthopedist in 2 weeks I'm still planning on doing the New Prague Half Marathon in early May. Despite all that, I'm still departing from the Seattle Sutton's food plan a little too often and my doctor doesn't want me on thyroid meds yet, so my weight hasn't changed much since Thanksgiving. Oh well...I'm happy to at least be back on the right track with exercise. It's the best stress management tool I know of.

Stay tuned...Uber Hubby and I start ballroom dance classes this Tuesday!