Iditarod and randomness

We have had an exciting week. Clown and Princess are following the Iditarod Race in their Monday morning "Adventures Around the Globe" class.

They were each assigned a Musher and we get to check many times a day to see where they are. If you go here you can follow along too. It is pretty fun!

Clown's Musher is Mitch Seavey. He is 47 and has done this race 14 times! He has won at least once, maybe more. Can't remember right now. One night before we went to bed, he was in 24th place. He had been much further ahead than that, so Clown was a little concerned. I told him not to worry, he knows what he is doing. I had a feeling he would have passed quite a few other teams by morning. When we went to bed, I said to Clown that the Internet said that Mitch was going really fast. I said I bet he was going to go strong all night and would be way ahead in the morning.

We got up the next morning to check and Mitch was in 1st place! Clown was SO EXCITED! We both commented how we knew he would surpass some people, but we had no idea it would be THAT good! We talked about how tired he and the dogs must be and how much strategy and training is involved. It has been really fun to keep up with all this, read some books about it and discuss it with the kids. We read articles on the site and look at photos from the trail.

We are anxious to get to class on Monday morning and see how some of the other kids' mushers have done. If anyone's musher scratches, they just choose another one. The week after next, a Musher is coming with a dog and all the equipment to show all of us! Clown and Princess can hardly stand it! In class this coming Monday, the kids are going to sew booties for the dogs:)

Mitch has fallen far back to 24th and 25th again a few times, but as things stand now, he is in 3rd. I guess from what I have read, his dogs are not doing very well, so he is taking it easy and not pushing them.

Princess has a woman assigned to her named Heather Siirtola. This is only her 2nd Iditarod, so when she was really lagging, Clown tried to encourage Princess and reminded her that Mitch has more experience and not to feel bad. Although you can tell he is pleased with Mitch being so far ahead and he will sometimes make some comments to Princess to try and upset her. Overall, he is nice about it. You know how big brothers can be!

Princess asks to see where Heather is every morning and at night before she goes to bed, she wants to know where she is and wonders if the dogs and her are doing a mandatory lay over or if they are out on the trail. She is pretty worried about them being out in the dark and the cold, but I have assured her it is quite warm there this year. Some years there are horrible blizzards and it is really cold, but it is actually quite balmy this year, from what I hear.

So that is mostly what is going on here. We all went to the Mall today to hang around and see if there was anything to get. I had a gift card for Libby Lu and wanted to let Princess spend that. Then I thought the boys could each choose something as well.

We NEVER go to the Mall together. So it was fun. We are traumatized from doing it when the kids were younger, I think. Not that they are bad kids, they are great. It is just kind of chaotic with them all excited and pointing and talking at once. Now that they are older it is a little more pleasant.

Princess ended up in the "Pooch Parlor" at the store and choose a little dog and some little things that go along with him. You know, normal things for a stuffed dog. T-Shirt, bag to carry him in, collar etc. The things they come up with now! He is really cute and she named him "Wrinkles". She was also excited to spend some allowance she had saved up. She bought a used video game for her DS Lite that Santa brought her this past Christmas. Of course it is a dog game:)

Stud is buying Clown and Cryptic a game that they both want really bad. It comes out tomorrow, so they have to wait. While we were in the store, we discovered that they are doing some kind of tournament where people can come tonight and play the game and win prizes. So that is where Stud and Cryptic are now. You have to be 13 to play, so Clown was a little bit sad about that. OH! Stud just called and said that Cryptic made it through the first round. I guess 24 people played, then the ones that lose will be out. Then those 12 play, then they keep on that way. I hope Cryptic makes it pretty far, he would be so excited! I hope he wins something too:) One of the prizes is $5,000 CASH! There is a Plasma TV, a Wii, and some other fun things. Stud is not clear if winners are entered in a drawing or what the deal is.

So before we all came back here so that Stud and Cryptic could go back for this tournament, we wandered into the Apple computer Store and Stud offered to buy me thislittle shuffle. We got the red one. HOW COOL IS THAT!?!?

I LOVE that colour:) I am a purple/blue lover usually and I adore the lilac and turquoise hues. But something about this red just really struck me. So he has it charging now, after putting some of my beloved Celtic music on it for me:) I am SO EXCITED! How sweet is he?? I had no idea *I* was going to get a treat today:) teehee


Jock didn't get anything new, but is going to help pay for a new hockey stick soon. I think he is sad that he didn't get anything today, but he DID pay $50 for a new video game the other day that he is playing right as I type this. He had saved his allowance for quite a while, so it is not like he is deprived:) I know he likely thinks he is:) The stick he wants is $180! So Stud will pay for some of that. He told Jock that if he made a certain # of points in hockey this season that he would buy him a new stick. Poor Jock is ONE SHORT of the agreed upon #, so if he wants the stick, he will have to pay for some. Stud won't buy him one that expensive anyway! LOL Even though Jock will try and convince him to.


Hope everyone has had a lovely weekend!