Sharry Miller

Glass Class: Thinking Outside the Box

Today was the first day of the Glass Craft and Bead Expo, the whole reason I'm in Las Vegas. I thought I'd post a few pictures from each of my classes so you could see what I'm up to. On today's schedule was Thinking Outside the Box with Cathy Claycombe. The premise of the class was to use stained glass to create an art piece without soldering the components together. Although I didn't choose to... Read more →

Red Rock Canyon

Lisa Blanchard and I went hiking today in Red Rock Canyon, about an hour outside of Las Vegas. (It occurred to me that it's been said that Anchorage is nice because it's so close to Alaska. The same might be said about Las Vegas and Nevada). It is an absolutely gorgeous place that I would love to spend a week cycling and hiking and exploring. The variety of colors was astonishing, especially the reds (0f... Read more →

Tri Training Update - Week 7

These weekly updates keep getting looser and less specific. I hope that doesn't mean I'm losing focus. I think that it's just that life keeps getting in the way of my good intentions. I finally had my first opportunity to run outside this week. It was a wet, muddy trail in Juneau, but it was heaven compared to being stuck on a treadmill. I discovered, however, that running on a trail, even a flat one,... Read more →

Juneau, Thane…Hyderabad?

As often seems to happen, my grand intentions were for naught. As I write this, I’m on a plane on my way back to Anchorage after two and a half days in Juneau. Thinking that many of my acquaintances had likely never been to our capitol city, and likely never would, I thought I’d make a point of taking photos of the capitol buildings, state museum, etc. and post a bit of a photo essay... Read more →

The Power of Compliments

After waiting slightly less than the usual interminable amount of time at the clinic yesterday, J finally led me back to an exam room. She agreeably bypassed the scale when I told her how much I weighed and ushered me into the room ahead of her. Then she looked at me and asked, “Are you the one who’s always at the gym?” I hesitated, thinking that any number of people were always at the gym,... Read more →

Tri Training Update - Week 6

Sometimes, it seems the gods are conspiring against me. The week started out so well: I was supposed to be increasing to 6 minutes running/one minute walking and it went perfectly Monday, even though 5/1 had been problematic. Then came Monday afternoon. I was picking Rowan up at a friend's house and had to find my way through their dark garage to the front door and light switch. Unfortunately, I forgot about the Bobcat parked... Read more →

Pi Day

My friend and colleague Roy called me at work this morning to tell me that someone noticed during his office's staff meeting that today's date is 3/14, and therefore it must be Pi Day. I laughed and said it sounded like a good idea to me. My coworkers agreed that we needed to celebrate with pie at 3:00 break (a near-daily break/mini-work session). Coincidentally, it was also the first day of spring break. Since Thane... Read more →

Tri Training Update - Weeks 4 and 5

Ulp! I just went back to look at my last Tri Training Update and realized I'm further behind than I thought. I was planning for this one to be weeks 3 and 4, not 4 and 5. Ah well, so it goes. I'm combining two week's reports for a couple of reasons. First, last week I did no training. Between my mom-in-law coming down on Tuesday to stay with Rowan (I guess at 9 the... Read more →

Warm in Tok

Given that temperatures in Dawson continued to be -20 to -30 degrees, Thane was justifiably worried about getting the 800 I'd been riding started so we could get home. Personally, I knew there was nothing I could do about it, so I just kept Thane company as he fretted. On Saturday afternoon (-20 or so) when we went out to start the machines to get gas, many riders were out in the cold figuring out... Read more →

Dawson City

Thane and I woke up way too early Friday morning, so we wandered downstairs to the Jack London restaurant in search of coffee and breakfast. Afterwards we changed into our swim suits (happily we'd thought at the last minute to bring them along) and indulged in a hot tub soak. Given that it was still about -30 outside, it was wonderful to get good and warm! I honestly have no idea what Thane did then... Read more →