Here we are on the day before the Holiday Challenge, the day before the US holiday of Thanksgiving....let's make it a fabulous challenge and help Concept2 get to its $30K donation goal! Back in earlier times, there were only 18 or 19,000 people registered with logbooks at the start of the Challenge, and we would all watch as the numbers ballooned up over 20K participants. Today, we have almost 28,000 participants ...I wonder what the number will go to by end of Challenge? How many new people will get hooked on an exercise that we all enjoy?
But first...a bunny trail (most of these are totally unrelated to rowing and/or ski-erging, so skip this section if you wish). Or, more appropriately, a cat tale. And, not just any cat...it's Jesse, the Marauder, King of Carbohydrates...
Some of you will remember Jesse as the Bread Bandit. His special preference is French Rolls. No bread, wrapped or not, can be left out of the pantry...or we come home to find it unceremoniously strewn (with select segments chewed out) throughout the living room, and perhaps down the stairs. "Oh, there's a sandwich on the stairs." This carbo loving beast ate the crust off a cooling cherry pie that was destined for a silent auction. Yeast breads are also a favorite as they need time to rise...typically done in the kit-chen area (for some reason, the forum denotes the word kit-chen as spam) for most families. No longer here. Is it new? Have I had a taste of this before? seems to be his mantra, as he leaves multiple plastic bags with chew holes through them. Tupperware seems to elude him, although he was discovered in a compromising position with a cake saver...trying to pry off the lid with his toes. Time passes, and the cat that was 12 pounds grew. At 15 pounds, the vet said "he's athletic and has a good muscle base." At 16 pounds, she said.."he's fat." And so began the battle of the Kitty Diet. The first few days, I felt bad for him. He would approach me at feeding time, and I could hear his stomach growling. Still, he seemed to be adjusting well enough to the lesser amount of food. He stopped pestering me an hour before it was "time" for food. And, now I know why.
Many of us who are pet owners buy some fun things for the pets to enjoy - especially for the holidays. I picked up some chew bones (wrapped in shrinkwrap for keeping)...the kind that used to belong to some animal or another...for the Goldens. These were stashed in a closet where all sorts of presents get stashed. I was looking for something in that closet yesterday evening, and what do I find...ALL the bones have been taken out of the plastic and Jesse has enjoyed them thoroughly. He has lost some poundage...but I'm not even thinking of leaving anything related to Thanksgiving out...not even for a few minutes. Besides, there are a lot of pet "poisonings" that happen over the Holidays...and I'm not talking about Aunt Martha's specialty dish that gets all of us...so do be extra vigilant....especially if you have a cat that's on a calorie restricted diet....
Season meters as of 209/365 = 45,143,534 m
Total meters on the day = 167,980 m
MILESTONES...Bragging Rights...Celebrations:
3.15 MM Steve
3.0 MM bg
1.6 MM Ron
550 K Peter G
450 K howard
200 K Peter H ...future owner of Amerigo
Million Meter Milestone:
Ed with (87,464 m) to go!
Million Meters:
with (103,201 m) to go! Ha! You'll get your reindeer about the time you hit 2 MM !
Million Meters:
AJ with (5,313 m) to go!
David T with (82,000 m) to go !!
Thanks, everyone, for rowing and ski-erging with us!
Kerry 2,007 m
Laurie 4,000 m
Chip 5,000 m
Larry 5,100 m
David T 6,000 m
Peter G 6,022 m
Jeff D 6,026 m
K2 
m...a palindrome!
AJ 7,017 m
Ron 
m... a palindrome!
Peter H 10,000 m
Howard 10,225 m
Stuart 10,950 m
Minnie 
m ...hula hula palindrome!
Danno 14,124 m
David A 14,818 m
Steve 16,597 m
bg 22,057 m
27 days of reindeer bliss ! 
Million Meters:
Good use for a charging station!
