Feast or Famine- two posts in one day!

I know you thought the triathlon had killed me, but no, I am alive. I was just busy crafting that masterpiece of a post of the second half of our trip. (All I have to say is, thank god for cute pictures of Silas, otherwise all posts would absolutely suck, and none of you would ever stop by.)
That, and playing the tour guide to our neighbors from Minnesota. And perpetually nursing Silas. I don't know if he's teething, or having a growth spurt, or just feeling insecure because there are visitors in the house, but it better come to an end soon. There is not enough chocolate in the world to deal with it for much longer.

The triathlon was fine. Not really as exhilarating as was promised to me. I placed 213th out of 229. My times were 22:29 for the 750 m swim, 48:11 for the 20 k bike, and 28:01 for the 5 k run. The swim really was awful. It was in a really cold lake despite the wetsuit, with 100 other flailing swimmers. I couldn't see where I was going. It felt like I wasn't moving at all. And contrary to popular belief that slow and steady wins the race, slow and steady just seems to get you run over the a walrus man, repeatedly. So after the swim was over, everything else seemed easy by comparison. It was fun, and I'm glad to say I finished, but I'm not sure I'll be doing another one.

Our visit with our neighbors was fun. They have two teenage girls, so they were very good with Silas, although he was not always so good with them. Anytime I was in view I was supposed to be holding him. They claimed he stopped crying when I wasn't around (grocery shopping or out kayaking), but they might have just been saying that to make me feel better.

We took them down to the beach on Monday for kayaking on the ocean. They explored some sea caves and the tide pools and caught some mackerel for dinner. Orrin took them to a hurling match, which they really enjoyed, despite the fecking language. Really, it's every other word, sometimes. I'm not sure they really consider it a swear word. Tuesday they slept in, and we went the Swiss Cottage and then to Mahon falls for a little hike. It was a pretty drizzly day so I'm not sure the hiking was much fun, but they claimed to enjoy it. We came back late from the hike, so we ordered some indian take-away and gorged ourselves. Then we played Proclaim! and Oh Hell while eating marscapone and raspberry ice cream.

They left this morning for the Burren, Galway, and Connemara, before heading back home. We had a really fun time visiting with them. And now that they are gone I have to get back caught up with everything around here. But for today I plan to do as much lounging around as Silas will allow.