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October 31, 2005

Head of the Fish

Dan, Cassie, Frances, JM, Gardner, Gavin, Tim, Me, Edwina

The Hobart and William Smith crew teams finished their fall seasons at the Head of the Fish this weekend, racing a total of 9 boats between both teams. Originally, I was only going to race once, but Sandra encountered a little issue when a few Hobart novices quit shortly before the race. Thus, the HWS mixed 8+ entry suddenly needed new rowers, and Sandra decided to create a Class of 2006 boat. Coxed by Dan Gilbert, Cassie, Frances, JM, Gardner, Gavin, Tim, Edwina, and I raced down the course a second time immediately following our respective varsity 8+ events. Rowing with men in the engine room is my new favorite way to race, because we spent a lot less time through the water and a lot more time on the recovery at a 32. We passed at least half a dozen boats on the way down the less-than-12-minute course, and won the event by almost a full minute! We had a great time, and it felt like an excellent way to end my final fall season at the Colleges.

Posted by rgutwin at 09:43 PM | Comments (4)

October 16, 2005

Living Situation

For those of you who are interested, I'm posting more photos of my living situation. My dad and Beth visited me this weekend and brought up some window decorations that my Grandma sent my way, so I thought it would be nice for Grandma to see how everything turned out. Notice how well everything matches, even though it was gathered completely separately! Very impressive.

Moving downstairs, here is our common room. The furniture is a collection of Savery's, Allison's, and Frances's...darn my miniature car and six hour travel distance! The artwork above the futon is a piece we have checked out from the library for the year and (ahem, illegally) nailed to the wall...

Turning around, we have the kitchen, which has been working surprisingly well for us. It's slightly too small when more than one person is trying to prepare food at the same time, but we're making the most of the situation. The painting on the wall there is one Frances purchased in South Africa.

And finally, this is the view from outside our building. There are about 30 O'Dells units and four or five buildings, which means quite a few units in one building. We're in Unit 6, and if you squint really hard and make funny faces, you can see my window above the smaller tree there. If you can't see it, don't worry: you're not missing much. Let me know if you want to see anything else. I have left out images of the less-interesting areas of our condo (hallways, bathrooms, closets, etc). I hope this helps you guys visualize where I'm living!

Posted by rgutwin at 06:19 PM | Comments (2)

October 12, 2005

Cold, Gray, and Wet

The perfect rowing weather! While this forecast looks rather miserable on the screen and feels rather moist during the day, when the time comes for practice, one couldn't ask for more comfortable rowing conditions. It's a little chilly before the boat starts moving, but once the coxswains let us start rowing, we get rather warm rather quickly. Many others on the team will probably disagree with me, and I can understand how it would be somewhat difficult to motivate yourself to spend lots of time outdoors in the rainy 50-degree weather. However, I have learned to embrace the rainy times, especially during the peak of our on-the-water fall season.

Posted by rgutwin at 02:32 PM | Comments (3)