That is a picture of my second place boom run out in Lake Placid a few weeks ago (I look a bit scary, eh?). Unfortunately the boom didn't go so well for me at Hayward. I didn't even make it to finals.
So yeah, I'm back from Hayward. Nothing too eventful this weekend. I picked up Megan on Thursday from her girl scout camp. I decided to watch a movie on my laptop on the way to Hayward while she drove. She kinda sorta missed a turn, and we ended up WAY off course. But that was a bit my fault too. :) Anyway, we found a shortcut and didn't get there too late.
Overall it was a fun weekend. Megan and I were kinda antisocial....we were totally pooped out from all of the rolling. So we spent most of the time hanging out at our hotel. K, to make a long story short, I lost my first match, won the second, then lost the third. I got a fall on the other person in all of my matches, unfortunately they got two before I did. :) But I had some awesome matches, and I know that if I train as much as those girls do, I could do good things.
Congrats to Megan who won the Senior girls division! Next year we're gonna get her some spikes and put her in semi-pro. It was also great to see Olivia and Kent out there.
Mike came out to watch on Saturday. It was so neat to show him my lumberjack life! He was much more excited to be there when he heard about the chain saws with snowmobile engines. hehehe.
So now I'm home safe and sound. All done with logrolling stuff for this summer. Now it's time to focus on my fitness routine and get that finished. Still dieting! K, I'm off too bed. Long day of work tomorrow....goodnight!

Hi! Sorry, not much time to post. I'm leaving for the Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, WI in a few minutes! Quick recap of last few days....
Work, school, workout, work, school, workout, work, work....okay seriously. I finally got my laptop, only to find out from Mike yesterday that my sales rep from Dell knew I was a dumb blonde who only pretended to know a lot about computers, and I was royally screwed. I ended up with bad parts, a bad price, a bad warrantee, and all the while I was thinking a got a great computer for a great deal. So now I have to send it back, get my $ back, and Mike is going to order me one.
The local news did a nice story on my mom and I last night. They had been doing promos for it since Sunday so I think a lot of people saw it. Fun stuff! k, I'm gonna be on ESPN this weekend. I don't have enough time to write the schedule, but if you go to http://espn.go.com/gog01/gen/s/tv_schedule.html anywhere it says Women's logrolling or Boom Run, that will be me. I will also be on tonight at 8pm EASTERN (notice the times on that page are Eastern) on regular ESPN for logrolling.
I have to get going. Everybody have a wonderful weekend! Wish me luck!

What a fun weekend!!! I FINALLY got a chance to relax and have a good time. Let's see....Friday night. When I got there Mike and I went straight into the cities to have dinner with His brother Dan and his girlfriend Melissa. We ate at the Rainforest Cafe in the Mall of America. I cheated on my diet a bit (okay...a lot) but it was a YUMMY dinner! Mike, Dan, and Melissa didn't seem to be too amused with how cool the cafe was. I LOVED IT!
On Saturday, Mike and I slept in until like 9:30am (oh man that felt nice!!!) then ate breakfast and watched TV all morning! We were going to go rafting with some of his friends down this river, but they kinda ditched us, so we went out on our own. First we went out on some islands on the St. Croix river...Mike didn't seem to care for swimming between the islands though. :) So we then went to this lake called Perch Lake...........super pretty. The water was so clear, and the fish swam right up to you! We fell asleep floating in the middle of the lake on our floaty things. Talk about relaxing! That night we rented Thirteen Days and vedged in front of the TV.
This morning we actually slept in until 10am!!! Holy cats! It was great! After a nice breakfast, we took his moped out and went for a LONG ride. The sun finally came out so we went back to Perch lake. Then, I ate lunch and took off back to Madison.
Even though we didn't do much, I had SUCH an awesome weekend with Mike. We always have so much fun when we are together.
Cool news! My laptop was shipped on Friday! I might have it tomorrow! Oh man, I'm WAY too excited! K, I've gotta work out and work tomorrow, so I've got to get to bed. Goodnight!

Hello! Get ready for a lot of whining and complaining, cause that's all I can really do about the last few days.
Wednesday I kinda sorta slept in, and missed my morning workout. Downhill from there. I worked all day (9am to 8pm) then went logrolling with Kent out at the Oregon pool. That actually didn't go so bad. I love practicing with Kent. But boy was I pooped by the end of that day! Oh but wait, the day was far from over. I was about to go to bed and I got a call from my dad. His van broke down in Mt. Horeb!!! So I had to drive all of the way there and pick him up. An hour and a half later I was back home and ready for bed. I had a bit of a belly ache from eating these sugar free jelly beans on my little car trip, but I didn't think much of it. Then I woke up at 2am. I've suffered some physical pain in my lifetime, but this was darn near the top of the list. I literally thought my stomach was going to explode. I was so full of gas I couldn't bend over, or turn to either side. I didn't know if I had to puke, go to the bathroom, or what! SO I called my daddy, then the doctor. Let me tell you something, Doctors aren't too happy about being called at 2am. Especially when it's "just gas". Anyway, to make a long story short, I was up most of the night being sick. I finally got all of the crap through my system, but not much sleep. No more sugar free Jelly Bellys for Shana.
So the next day (yesterday) was not fun because I was working on no sleep. I worked all day, then went home to no electricity. We don't have air conditioning here, but we do have many strategically placed fans. It was 95 degrees out and humid, with no air. Fun stuff. But the day gets even worse. I went to logrolling and the logs were in the far corner of the pool area. The pool director said that the health inspector made them move the logs. That didn't make any sense. Those (and many other) logs had been in the same spot for 30 friggin years. She showed me this "easy" system of how to get the logs in the water. It took 15 frickin minutes!!! Okay, so an extra half hour at logrolling every week; not too big of a deal. BUT, she never thought about getting the logs BACK to the spot they were at. After class the lifeguard and I spent around a half hour trying to get them back. We both strained our backs and nearly crushed our feet several times. And I'm supposed to do this by myself every week!!!!??? I was so mad I think I said several naughty words right in front of some of the parents, but I think they completely understood. I am so sick of the YMCA's crap. A few months ago they had to give me a review. One question was "knowledge of sport". The pool director game me a SATISFACTORY!!! Who in Madison knows more about this sport than I do??? I dare her to grab an average person off the street and ask them what they know about logrolling. Oh man, I need to have some words with the YMCA.
Okay, done griping. Today, I leave for Minnesota to see Mike and get some rolling in. This weekend will be fun and I will be in a much better mood when I get back. :) I'm already excited to get up there. We have some hardcore river tubing planned!!! So I'd better get packing and get out of here! Have a good weekend all!
P.S.- please read the post below. I know it is kinda deep, but it's an issue that is very important to me. Thanks.

Stem Cell Debate

I'm taking a break from my normal posts to voice something I feel very strongly about. Bush has an incredibly large decision on his shoulders: should we use stem cells of human embryos for research? YES! YES! YES! Embryonic stem cell research is necessary to aid in finding a cure for diseases such as Huntington's, ALS, Parkinson's, etc. So what is the debate if it will help cure all of these diseases? Many feel that using embryos for this research is a form of abortion. Oh lord, here we go. As most of you know I am strongly pro-choice. BUT I don't even see this as a form of abortion.

Here is a good quote from Christopher Reeve: ""Is it more ethical for a woman to donate unused embryos that will never become human beings, or to let them be tossed away as so much garbage when they could help save thousands of lives? While we prolong the stem-cell debate, millions continue to suffer. "

Exactly. Call me selfish on this issue, maybe I am. My life is at risk for Huntington's disease. My future could be dependent on stem cell research. Though I am not the only one. Every disease that affects the brain will benefit from this research. That will affect millions, possibly a billion people worldwide. But according to those right wing religious fanatics, I will go to hell if I support this. Fine, send me to hell. I am willing to go there for this cause. I have seen so many lives ruined by Huntington's disease. I won't stand for it anymore.

So Bush has this tough decision on his shoulders. The man can barely put a sentence together and all of these lives are put in his hands. Again, I say lordy. I know Clinton would have known what to do in this situation. We need to help push him in the right direction. This is a letter written by the HDSA to President Bush. Personal letters are also encouraged. I know I will be writing mine this weekend. Please take the time to read this and put some thought into this issue.

July 18, 2001

President George W. Bush

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Washington, D.C. 20502

Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research

Dear President Bush,

The Board of Trustees of the Huntington's Disease Society of America have authorized and directed us to write you to urge your

support for federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

Huntington's disease (HD) is an inherited degenerative brain disorder that slowly robs the affected individual of the ability to

perform the most basic of activities--to walk, talk, think, and reason. It affects about 30,000 Americans, with about 150,000

more directly at risk. HD usually strikes during the prime of life, but symptoms and age of onset vary from individual to

individual, and it can attack in childhood or in old age. The gene whose mutation causes HD has been identified, but there is no

effective therapy. The person with HD--and his or her family--often suffer through years of emotional and cognitive problems that

can be more difficult to deal with than the movement disorder. Each child watching his or her parent suffer knows that he or she

also has a fifty percent chance of inheriting HD.

HDSA is committed to making this the last generation with HD. But to make good on our promise to our families and ourselves, we

need to know more about the origin and development of HD at the cell level. Human embryonic stem cell research holds the

potential for the creation of cells, which will help us understand HD at the cellular level, and screen for possible drugs that

might block the disease process. Most remarkably, human embryonic stem cell research offers the hope for the development of

therapy to actually replace the degenerating nerve cells--and potentially restore the functions lost as brain tissue atrophies.

Furthermore, the hope of scientists is that this research will prove beneficial to the many millions of sufferers from Alzheimer's

disease, Parkinson's disease, Diabetes, and other conditions.

Our scientists tell us that it is not likely that stem cells derived from adult tissues will have the same research and

therapeutic potential as cells derived from early embryos. Federal

funding, and Federal oversight--either by NIH guidelines, or federal law--will help ensure that researchers can explore the many

promises of human embryonic stem cell research, with appropriate guidelines to address the admittedly difficult legal, social and

ethical issues raised by this important research tool.

With each passing day, the HD gene destroys a bit more of the brain, and the individuality, of the person with HD. Our families,

and the families of individuals suffering from other neurodegenerative diseases, do not have time to wait. Human embryonic stem

cell research holds the potential of accelerating our search, and bringing closer the day we can fulfill our promise of making

this the last generation with HD.

We respectfully request that you support the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.

Sincerely yours,

Donald A. King, Ph.D. Barbara T. Boyle

Chair, Board of Trustees National Executive Director/CEO

This is a little personality test I took. It's good to see I'm "normal"! Just moderatly full of myself......hahaha!

Disorder	Rating
Paranoid:	Low
Schizoid:	Low
Schizotypal:	Low
Antisocial:	Low
Borderline:	Low
Histrionic:	Moderate
Narcissistic:	Moderate
Avoidant:	Low
Dependent:	Low
Obsessive-Compulsive:	Moderate
-- Click Here To Take The Test --

Whew, back to the good ol' Backstreet Boys pictures. :) I like this one a lot. So the countdown goes from 4 days to several months because of the tour postponement. I'm sure you all heard about that in the news. A.J. is in my prayers. Wait, I don't pray.....k, um.....my best wishes go out to A.J. Anyway, I don't know if I can make it that long to see them!!! Oh well, I'm sure I'll manage.
So today I got a lot done. The most important thing....I ORDERED MY LAPTOP!!! WAHOO! It's going to be so cool. I honestly don't know anything about computer hardware to explain what I got, but it's the best one Dell makes. I can't wait! J.R. said that I have to name it...with a guy's name. Any ideas? Mike would be way too cheesy...besides, who wants a boyfriend named after a computer? hehehe. I was thinking Backstreet. But who knows. I'm just excited to be getting a laptop, finally!
What else did I do today? Unpacked all of my crap from last weekend. Oh yeah, I also started mixing the music for my fitness routine. That's harder than I thought...I'm going to have to give Ben Casey from Z104 a call; see if he can do it.
I had to buy a new screen for Elvis's cage today. For those of you who don't know....Ezra, the cat I'm taking care of this summer, tried to eat my lizard. She broke through the screen and tried to get him, but thank goodness, he had a log to hide under. I also bought a frame for my ESPN Great Outdoor Games poster, so I can hang it in my room. All I have hanging in here right now is a Backstreet Boys poster and a board with a bunch of pictures of friends.
Then, I worked all afternoon until now. Quade and Peter decided to stop in and run around the health club naked after close. That was nice....something I DID NOT need to see. But those two sure are good at cheering me up when I'm stressed.
I have to get up and work early tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. This is later than I've stayed up in a LONG time!!! Goodnight!

Oh my gosh...it's not a Backstreet Boy's picture!!! BUT if you look real close, the Backstreet Boys logo can be seen on my pants. :) So this picture kinda sums up the good part of the weekend. (Getting second in the boom run) For those of you who didn't know, I spent last weekend in Lake Placid, NY competing in the ESPN Great Outdoor Games. It will air on ESPN the last weekend in July. When I get details on when logrolling and the boom run will be on, I will post it.
So I arrived Wednesday night, went to the boom run meeting, had a yummy dinner (diet was ditched for 2 days) and went to bed. I was SO incredibly nervous that I was going to bomb the whole weekend. So on Thursday I went to breakfast. I ate with some of the ESPN crew since nobody was really up yet. I practiced the boom run with the other girls during our scheduled practice time. I didn't fall in once! I won my first race against Crystal Salzman, which left me in complete shock. I wasn't going to go home poor!!! My next race was with Taylor Duffy. Now this girl is unbeatable. How I beat her (by like a tenth of a second) is beyond me. Then I had to race Mandy Erdman in the finals (for first and second). Now, this girl weighs all of 80 pounds (I'm being sarcastic here...Mandy does weigh more than that, and she is an incredible athlete) so she can pretty much skim across the boom without a problem. I had no intention of beating her.........and I didn't. When I watched her cross the finish line, I fell in...finally getting wet. While I was in the water, I was laughing too hard to get back on the log. So it took me a while to finish, but I still ended up in second place. TONS of interviews and media attention...it was great! Even my dad got to be in some interviews. Talk about getting a chance to feel special.
So the next day was logrolling. It also happened to be Friday the 13th. Go figure. Anyway, I lost my first match. I could go on with excuses all day, but I do have one really good one. I have never been more nervous for anything in my entire life. When I was out on the log, I just wanted the match to be over and for the cameras to go away. I seriously thought I was going to throw up on camera. (Wouldn't that have been pretty???) I got the first fall, but she took the next two. It was very close....but I guess I gave that match away. It just sucks how ESPN does it. If you lose your first match, you're done. So no chance for me to redeem myself of TV this year. I still have Hayward in 2 weeks though.
That night we all went out and partied until the wee hours. Actually, I only made it to about midnight. Everybody else stayed out until the wee hours though. :) From what I hear, J.R. had quite the night...hehehee. He also had quite the weekend, taking gold in both of his events. I love logrolling, but I don't think anybody can embrace the sport like J.R. has. Thus he deserves all of the wins he achieves.
The next day my dad and I spent time hiking in the Adirondacks. They sure are beautiful mountains. I'll bet they would have been even more beautiful if it didn't rain all weekend. But it was great to see everything, and spend time with my daddy.
On Sunday my dad and I watched the agility dogs for the rest of the afternoon. Those dogs are SO cool!!! It was so funny, people kept asking me to be in pictures with them. I was a real celebrity that weekend! After the dog stuff, my dad and I headed to the airport and came home. Now I'm back to my normal life of dieting, working, working out, and being normal Shana.
Overall it was a cool weekend. Unfortunately it had to end on the bad note with logrolling, but I was very happy with the boom run outcome. I also got to do a few interviews about Huntington's Disease. One reporter even referred to me as the spokesperson for Huntington's Disease. That was always my goal, maybe it's actually starting to happen.
K, it was a long weekend, and today was a long day of work. I need to get some rest and try to unpack some stuff tomorrow. Goodnight.
PS- Last week I totally typed out a super long entry. But stupid me forgot to hit the "publish" button. Duh.

So who's getting sick of the Backstreet Boys' pictures??? hehehe...not me!!! That's what J.R. gets for not putting more BSB stuff on the site. :) In exactly one week from this moment, I will be at the Backstreet Boys concert in Chicago! I can't wait!!! I still haven't found anybody to go with me. Go figure...nobody my age is interested in seeing the Backstreet Boys.
Goodness, I have Thursday, Friday, and Saturday to write about! Thursday kicked ass. Mike came to town and I didn't have to work. Mike and I spent the day at Devil's Lake state park. It was BEAUTIFUL! We hiked halfway around, then we went for a swim. We decided to dry off after the swim and ended up falling asleep on the beach for an hour!!! Wow, talk about relaxing. Then we hiked around the other half of the park and went home. Of course I wasn't able to stay up late with my new bed-at-nine schedule, so I went to bed kinda early.
The next day Mike and I ran some errands, then he had to do some other stuff before heading back to Hudson. Before I left for Hayward I stopped at the shoe store and got some AWESOME new running shoes. They are Nikes....and they slip on...PERFECT for the triathlon. They are also very light. So anyway...I then enjoyed my five hour drive to Hayward. While I was driving up there, I called Mike to see if he had left yet...I was already up by Eau Claire. It turns out when I called him he was less than a mile in front of me!!! We had basically been driving a few blocks from each other for three hours! Funny stuff. At Hayward, I did a little bit of logrolling, but I was pretty pooped and sore. I stayed at Telemark Resort for a night. That place used to be SUPER crumby, but it is SO NICE now! The cool thing is they still have the same low prices. My room was so beautiful. It was really relaxing to eat a little dinner, and hang out in my room, then sleep in the next morning.
K, so now we are at today's morning. Mandy, J.R., and I ran the boom for about an hour. Man those two are fast. I have a feeling I'm up for a butt kickin' from Mandy on ESPN and in Hayward. Oh well. :) Then a few of us went to Jenny's house to roll. Again, I got my butt kicked royally, but got in some REALLY good practice. Sore, tired, and beat up, I drove back to Madison. I thought a workout would feel great after a 5 hour drive. Wrong. Working out when I got back wasn't the greatest idea, but at least my muscles are a little looser. Now it's time to get to bed...I have a triathlon tomorrow morning. I know I'm going to be sore...but it's all for fun, right? Okay, I need my sleep, wish me luck! Goodnight!

Hola. Okay...yesterday and today...what happened? Oh yeah. Yesterday was a pretty stressful, strange day as usual. I went for a great run, then went to class. Quick story...when I got back from my run, I heard a meow. I tried to figure out where the cat was that was doing it. I turned around and saw that Ezra was standing at the screen door.....she actually MEOWED!!! All she has ever done in the past was squeak. I was so proud! I felt like another who's child said it's first word! k...story's done now. Where was I? Oh yeah, class. I began working with a very interesting man who had a compound fracture in his leg a few years back. It happened while he was running, and nobody can figure out how. He's also had many surprise knee injuries as well. I sure hope he doesn't break while I'm working with him! Through working with him, I began to realize how many people have NO CLUE how important weight training is. This man has been an athlete for many years, yet has never set foot in a weight room. Thus he is inflexible, his muscles are imbalanced, and his overall body is awkward. I hope I can help fix things up for him over the next month.
Anyway, after class, I had another interview with the Channel 15 guy. He actually came out to my mom's nursing home and asked me about Huntington's Disease with my mom there. It was a wonderful experience....my mom loved it! All of the nurses were very excited as well. They even put make-up on my mom! I don't even think my mom wore make-up at her wedding!!! I will post when this news story will be aired. He said it should be sometime before I leave for the ESPN Great Outdoor Games on Wednesday.
I then had lunch with my cousins and dad before they headed back down south. I felt bad that I was not able to go with them, but this is the busiest summer of my life. Between work, school, karate, logrolling, and the triathlon this weekend, there was no way. The consequence? Me sitting at home alone typing on the computer while everybody else is out watching fireworks.
After lunch I worked, then went rolling with Kent and Megan. Man were my legs tired after that! We got in a GREAT workout!
Today I opened the club and worked there until noon (when it closed). Then I biked the course of this weekend's triathlon with Ben, Brian, Scooter, and Lisa. It's a great course, not too hilly...but enough to get some great speed.
Surprisingly enough, many stores were open today, so I got some errands done. I got a new Nike swimsuit, and a kick ass speedometer for my bike! Plus a bunch of other stuff that I needed. I've just been cleaning around the house tonight, and packing things for this weekend, and the triathlon on Sunday.
Mike comes to Madison tomorrow...and I only have to work for a little bit. We're going to Devil's Lake state park to do some hiking and swimming. I'm so excited! Finally, a relaxing day. But tomorrow won't be too relaxing if I don't get to bed soon...goodnight!

Oh wow. What a weekend. I don't even think it was worth it. No, I lied. Going to the Huntington's Disease convention and seeing all of those wonderful people is always worth it. It's just the airplanes that get me. Here's my weekend...it's long...be ready.
So I have one of the most psycho days of my life on Thursday trying to get ready. I found out last minute that the pictures I was supposed to submit to Muscle and Fitness were due in three days. So I grabbed my friend Jessica, took some REALLY quick pictures (which didn't turn out all that well), got them developed in an hour, and send them priority mail. Then I had to pack and pay bills. I made it to my plane in one piece though. But this is where it gets interesting. So I make it into O'Hare, and have a two hour wait for my plane. Board the plane, it leaves late as usual, nothing special. So we fly for about an hour, then they make an announcement that one of the landing gears is stuck out. So we had to fly back to O'Hare. Not only that, but when we got there, we have to circle the airport for two hours because the plane was too heavy with fuel. Then about two or three hours were spent at the airport being moved around and them telling us the plane will be fixed soon. Then there was an announcement that the crew was too tired and we would have to wait until the next day to get our flight. So we all got put up in a hotel. It took about an hour to get to it. Once there, there were 250 of us, and one hotel clerk. So only about five people were actually able to get rooms. Some of us decided to try to sleep in the lobby, but it was so cold, and we were so frustrated, that there wasn't much snoozing. Then it was time to go back to the airport. We finally got our flight to San Diego, and were quite relived to be there. I was so tired, that what was left of the convention on Friday, I don't really remember. A bunch of us did skip out of a few sessions and went to the beach. Of course I was so tired I didn't even want to try surfing...I just slept on my towel. Normally I wouldn't have been such a party pooper, but I was SO stinkin tired.
The next day was full of great informational sessions. I took breaks throughout the day and laid by the pool. The weather was BEAUTIFUL! Plus the resort we were at was incredible. There were four pools, and about 7 different buildings with rooms. The whole place was filled with roses, gazebos, walkways...wow it was pretty. So all day at the convention. I got to meet some more amazing people with amazing stories as usual. That night was the usual banquet and dancing. I was up until about 1am dancing, then I had to hit the hay. I had to be up at 6am to catch my plane and leave again. I won't go into details about the awful plane trip back, but let's just say it was jam packed with delays, taxiing, and cranky people (including me). But when I finally did arrive back in Madison, my whole family was there waiting for me, which was very nice. My third cousin Della, her husband, and daughter, along with my mom and dad. Though I was very tired, we all had a nice dinner.
Today I still wasn't caught up on sleep. I struggled through, work, school, karate, and cardio karate. But overall it was a good day. I had my first day of class, working with disabled people. It's a great group of people, and I have some pretty cool ideas of what kind of exercise programs I will put them on. And though I was super tired tonight, it felt good to get into karate and cardio karate.
The thing about that cardio karate class it that it's pretty easy...and kinda boring. Which is good and bad. I'm glad it's kind of easy, so that I don't have to worry about getting too tired to talk when I finally start teaching it. Also, I know that I will have a MUCH more enthusiastic class when I teach it. Hopefully that will draw more people...hopefully. But it sucks for now because before I get certified, I have to take a bunch of classes...and I'm really not getting a whole lot out of them. Oh well.
So to add to the craziness of my life, I totally forgot I was supposed to meet with the guy from channel 15 tomorrow to do some filming on logrolling. Not only am I not able to do it because I have class, my dad is gone with the van, so I have no way of getting the logs to the lake. Opps. We decided instead to go to my mom's nursing home out in Mt. Horeb and do some filming out there. I'm really glad he is including Huntington's disease in his story, it will mean a lot to the HD community and my mom.
Alright, enough babble. I was supposed to go home and see my dad and cousin before them left tonight, but they aren't even back from Noah's Ark (the waterpark) yet! I'm so tired, I'm going to have to get to bed. I feel bad for not being able to spend more time with them. But I have GOT to sleep. Goodnight.