We interrupt this blog ...

... for a cross-country move Boise, Idaho. Things are changing so quickly; new city, new lifestyle, new house (we hope). We have misplaced the cable for the camera and have hundreds of pictures and many stories to share about our journey and our current state of affairs. It's been such a blur I am afraid I will forget if I don't write it down. I miss Raleigh-home, but love Boise-home.

For the past 11 days we (dogs, too!) have been living out of a Marriott Springhill Suites hotel. I have taken to calling it "the apartment" in my mind. The best things about it are the surprisingly yummy free breakfast and the hotel's proximity to the Boise River. Woe is the day I have to start making my own morning coffee again. Just about every day after work, we walk down to the river, take the dogs for a swim, watch all the people floating and fly fishing, and marvel at this urban gem. Yesterday after dinner we picked blackberries while we wandered.

We have a contract in on a little brick cottage and if all goes as planned, we will close on Thursday. The unplanned part is that we found an underground oil storage tank. Yes, folks, as if once in a lifetime wasn't enough, ring the bell for round two. The current owners are in the process of having it dug out right now and if there is no leaking or soil contamination, we will proceed with the home purchase.

Have patience with our blog as we rearrange our lives. Love and thanks to everyone who has supported us in this (ad)venture. We are off to the farmer's market!

We've Arrived!

After roughly 55 hours of driving we finally made it to Boise. Everything went according to plan, with a few hiccups along the way. Improper trailer loading caused Brut and I to dance across 3 lanes of traffic on I-40 east at 80 mph--that was a thrill. A quick weight shift fixed that problem. Our breakfast detour in Nashville was a hoot, chocolate and pancakes...who knew? The Montana visit was a well needed break and we got to ride our bikes up the Beartooth Pass!

We arrived in Boise on Tuesday, and to our dismay the rental market proved to be really dry. Everything near work and school was either falling down, sinking in, dark and dirty, or completely disgusting in some other way. By Friday it was down to buying a house or living in our hotel for the duration of our stay here in Boise.

Saturday morning we found our next home--one street south of Cresent Rim, just up the hill from Ann Morrison Park and Katheryn Albertson Park, the Boise River, and downtown Boise or Bodo.

We've got many ends to tie very quickly, but as you can see below we've had time to relax with the boys.


It's been rough staying 200 yards from the river this past week. I'm glad we'll be within walking distance from the new house too!

Bitter and Sweet. Mostly Bitter.

Last Wednesday, Jon and I had our orphan friends Bill and Nancy over for dinner. Bill's wife is a firefighter and was working her typical 24 hour shift, while Nancy's husband was on a business trip in California. As we were wrapping up dinner, my work phone rang. I thought it odd, but figured it must be someone on the west coast forgetting the time difference and dismissed it. Minutes later, my cell phone rang. I noticed that it was my friend Tricia from Florida but because we had company and were having dinner, decided to let it go to voicemail. When the home phone rang, I thought something was amiss and answered. Reliving what I heard from the voice on the other end of the phone still makes my throat clench.

Tricia: "Leila was killed in a car accident."
Me: "What?"
Tricia: "Leila was killed in a car accident."
Me: "What?"
Tricia: "Leila was killed in a car accident."

I fell silent for what felt like forever. I think I believed that if I stopped speaking, time would slow, my mind would stop racing, and this voice would stop filling my head with seven simple words that suddenly made no sense.

When I finally mustered my voice, my response was "What do you mean?"

As if "Leila was killed in a car accident" could be any less plain.

When I was in college, the Baruch sisters: Leila, Shena, and Estelle, were famous--at least in Gainesville, Florida. Each one of them beautiful, infinitely talented, fiercely loyal, wickedly smart, and terribly sweet in their own unique way, but to know one was to know each of them. The sisters were a package deal--when I befriended Shena because our boyfriends were house mates, I instantly had not one, but three new friends.

It is hard to believe that was 15 years ago and naturally, so much has changed since then. Shena moved to California and back, married and now has two children. Estelle is engaged and living in Tel Aviv, making music in Elephant Parade. Leila moved to St. Augustine to be closer to the surf and married four years ago. She and her husband were expecting their first baby, Lloyd Asberry Davis, IV. Leila was seven months pregnant when she and her baby died.

So what is the sweet? Certainly it wasn't the tears or the seemingly infinite sadness that rocked this group of family and friends. Sweet wasn't the space left by the loss of a daughter, sister, wife, niece, and friend. Sweet wasn't the loss of a baby boy, surely destined to uphold his legacy of grace and talent.

If there is to be any sweetness, it is in the reminders. Being reminded of the details about Leila that were so much a part of her as to be indistinct until now. Being reminded of the impact she had on so many lives, as evidenced by the numbers in attendance at her funeral service. Being reminded of who your friends are by their desperation to do something, anything, to help soothe the pain.

We would all take Leila and baby Lloyd back in place of these reminders but we were not consulted.

As Shena said so poignantly, "Grief is just love. Grief is love that has no place to go."

Leila Jean Baruch Davis
May 23, 1970 - June 27, 2007

Happy 4th of July!

Yesterday marked 231 years since the United States of America declared Independence from the United Kingdom, congrats to all for staying free! Most Americans celebrate with a leisurely day of rest, beer, barbecues, and the evening fireworks. Kate spent the early part of the week in Florida with friends, remembering the life of another friend who was abruptly taken from this world. I know they didn't have a festive time, rather it was probably a healing time. I was up early because there was a bike ride in Cary. I rode the fastest ride in my brief cycling history. I kept up with the leaders until they decided to run a red light to lose the main pack, so much for the cyclist's etiquette or safety! My race stats can be found by clicking on the picture below.

Saturday Morning Spin

We packed it in early last night because we both had early morning plans. My plans involved me, the road, my bike, and some friends to share the time. The plan was to ride out of Blue Jay County Park around 8am. The calls for morning rain had subsided by the time I got around to looking at the news.

Check out the links below to see the details from our ride. Click the MotionBased logo to see all the GPS data or just check out the route on Bikely.


Thanks for the ride!

Being Me

Blood, Sweat, and Gears pictures are posted. As we were climing a fairly large hill on "Big Hill Road" during the race we encountered the Bird's Eye photographer. This is my picture. Obviously I was posing, check out some of the other people at this point in the race.

Pain, Ache, and Humility

Saturday was a great day to ride a bicycle in North Carolina. Check out my ride info, provided by Garmin at Motionbased.com. The ride was perfect, neither of us had a mechanical failure! According to my GPS it took me 6 hours and 13 minutes to complete the ride, but it stops tracking time while I'm at rest breaks. The race clock showed 6 hours 38 minutes when I crossed the line. The ascents were torture, keeping me climbing for 2 hours and 38 minutes.
Blood Sweat and Gears 2007


Full Race results for Blood, Sweat, and Gears 2007 can be found @ Race Management Systems.

The professional photos should be posted on the Bird's Eye website. (I was bib #189. John (aka "InfinityMan") and Drew can post their number in the comments if they'd like.) I'll post some of my pictures in our photo repository.