Superhero Race

Up until now I've been very lucky weather-wise on race day. My worst weather to date was the 70 degree sticky humid start to the Princess Half Marathon, but at least that was dry (well, as dry as a humid day can be). Sunday's Superhero Race in Morristown, NJ was 58 degrees and raining. Fortunately that was the biggest problem for the day.

As soon as I heard about this race, I knew I wanted to do it. After all dressing up in costume is part of the fun of running a race. One of the reasons I signed up for the Rutgers 8K was that my friends were all planning on wearing their Sparkle Skirts. When I ran the Big Red Race two weeks ago I was the only one wearing a Sparkle Skirt, but I enjoyed the crowds comments about my skirt and the extra cheers I feel that generated. I still enjoy playing dress up.

The only trouble with this race was that I was not ready to run a half marathon. I ran one in February, and I am signed up for three in the fall, but I have not been training with a plan of running a half marathon this summer. This race has the option of running it as a relay. The course is two loops through Morristown, with a relay stop in-between. Perfect! Now who can I talk into running with me?? Hmm.... 


I asked Debbie (the Perfect Princess I met on the plane to Florida). She was already racing with Jen. 

I asked Sharon. She was already running the Bay to Breakers in San Francisco.

I asked Michelle. She was already running Color Me Rad race closer to home.

I asked Lisa. She prefers cycling to running.

I asked people on the PbRC Facebook group. Sarah and Becca said they were already running it.


I asked Don. If he can ride his bike 200 miles in a day, surely he can run / walk 6.4 miles. He agreed, but was in denial up until race day.

Jen took this picture of us at the relay station. Hard to tell, but I attached a purple cape to the back of my Princess Half Marathon shirt. If nothing else, it helped keep the back of my legs warm. Don is wearing the official Superhero shirt, with boxer shorts that have the Beatles Yellow Submarine on them, and blue cycling pants. He was too cold to take off his jacket. I'm glad I wore my running cap.

1700 people signed up for the race. Not sure if many bailed due to the weather. I ran the first (and longer) leg of the relay. The course was packed in the beginning to the extent that when it was time for me to do my first interval I did not feel comfortable slowing down to a walk. Thirty seconds later I could. At the time, I was concerned that by going out too strong I was going to hurt my chances of a good finish later. Those fears were based on past races when I have pushed too strong in the first mile and suffered before long. Fortunately that was not the case here.

I did have a stitch in my side during the second mile. Fortunately the cup of water took care of that problem and I ran /walked my 3:2 interval pace most of the rest of the run. I did walk up the giant hill. Whew! We don't have hills like that in Lawrenceville.


The crowds were the real superheros of the day. As we ran through neighborhoods, kids were sitting outside with their parents cheering us on. You knew that they were inconvenienced by having roads closed, but no one seemed to mind. I did see one man running with his dog against the flow of traffic in the park.

Lots of police, fire and EMT support. Speaking of support, at one of the water stations the volunteers dressed as Mario Brothers. That little bit of extra helped me keep going after the big hill. 

Before I started, I told Don expect me between 1:15 and 1:30. I made it to him at 1:17! I was lapped by 5 half marathoners (God Bless them and their speed!). We took a quick picture at the swap and he was off and running. Meanwhile, I changed into dry clothes and took some pictures of other people in costume.

Unlike the Big Red Race where he beat me by at least a mile a minute, Don kept a similar pace to me and finished with a smile at 2:32. We came in 125th place out of all relay teams. We each earned a finisher's medal.

After the race Debbie said she would do it again. I'd have to agree. It was a nice race. Well organized. In the "room for improvement" side would have been an extra water station and one set of port-o-pots. Since the race was a loop, the one set of bathrooms was at the beginning, middle and end of the half marathon -- or the beginning and end of the relay. Fortunately that was not an issue for us.

I'm especially pleased with how well I did because this weekend called for two long runs in anticipation of the Dumbo Double Dare at the end of the summer. Saturday I ran 5 miles around the Lawrenceville School and the Lawrence Hopewell Trail. Following that with Sunday's Superhero race was a test for me as to how I would feel running the 10K and Half Marathons back to back. I was happy with how I felt mentally and physically. 

I've lately realized how cool the swag is features in my enjoyment. The shirts are awesome -- girl-cut tech in Boston Marathon yellow and blue. The finisher medals were the same for the relay and half marathon people -- I did anticipate ours would be smaller to reflect the smaller effort we did, but was very happy we were not slighted. The vast majority of the runners did the whole half marathon.

I don't know if I could have finished the whole half marathon with a smile, but  my legs had enough in them for another few miles. Ideally our swap would have taken place just before that giant hill at the 3.5 mile spot (which reappeared at the 10.2 mile spot) and let Don do the last few miles. That wasn't an option.

We celebrated our victory with greasy sandwiches from the Minuteman of America restaurant -- a local restaurant that has been open since 1962, and one I remember going to as a child when we'd visit Aunt Debra at Jockey Hollow. I cannot find a website for the place, but it is modernizing -- they now offer WiFi, a service that did not exist when we went there last on Boxing Day 2011 with my parents. Maybe a website is in their future.

An online article about the race with a few pictures: http://photos.nj.com/morris/2013/05/photos_superhero_half-marathon_1.html

Celebration Week

Eleven years ago we realized the middle of May would always be a busy week for us, filled with many celebrations.

I suppose it all began 20 years when we decided to get married on May 15. I love the weather this time of year, plus knew we wanted to take our pictures at our alma mater (Trenton State College), but didn't want a bunch of college students in our way. It was as we were interviewing florists when we first realized our wedding would always be near Mother's Day (it was the following weekend that year).

Fast forward to fall 2001 when we realized our baby's due date was May 13. There was a good chance the baby (we didn't know until Ashley was born that she was a girl) would be born near our anniversary.

Ashley was born on May 17.

That makes three holidays in one week, every single year.

New this year was ArtWorks opening reception for "Unchained," an exhibit that includes Don's first time being chosen to be in an art exhibit.

It is also Bike to Work week. Don has been busy encouraging co-workers to ride to work. As I type, they are enjoying the cookie cake I made for the celebration and will take a group photo later today with their bicycles. Seven employees (just over 1% of the 600 employees in his office) rode their bikes to work this week, including three who rode from Philadelphia to the Mount Laurel office for the first time.

Life is good. We are blessed to be able to have so many reasons to celebrate. As the school year draws to the end -- there will be more celebrations. Father's Day ... Last Day of School ... races

We've got our health, and we've got each other. What more can we ask for?

Unchained--Don's first Art exhibit

Last night was a lot of fun! We attended ArtWorks opening reception of the exhibit Unchained: the art of the bicycle. This was his first juried exhibit. The guidelines were that you had to submit art that involved bicycles in some way, shape, or form. there were many photographs and drawings, and a few sculptures. 

Don wore his "Don's Double Century" polo shirt.

This tricycle has a camera mounted on the front and pictures taken by that camera on the wall behind it.

This pooch is made out of bicycle chains.

Don's artwork was pictures he took at Walt Disney World and turned into a calendar. Rather than submitting the calendar, he turned it into a collage. Even enlarged, it is hard to distinguish the images. January was taken at Epcot (near France). October and December were both taken in MGM (before it became known as Hollywood Studios) in the back lot area. The rest were taken in Animal Kingdom. If you love the image, ArtWorks is selling it for $25 with all proceeds going to ArtWorks. Or perhaps a deal can be made with the artist.

What made the evening the most special, though, was seeing so many people from different stages of Don's life. There were the usual Trenton cycling crowd (Jacque, Kate, Mike, and Wills), Lawrence cycling friends (Dennis and his wife, Laura), friends from college (Mike and Debbi, with their boys), and friends from our former church (Jen and Ben). I know as Don reads this, he will remind me of others who turned out for the opening reception. It was so much fun seeing friends from different parts of life come together to celebrate. One of the biggest reasons I have been keeping this blog is to help us to remember special moments in our lives such as this one, and to share those moments with those of you who live too far away to share them with us in person.

His art will be on exhibit through June 13. I encourage you to go to celebrate Trenton's rich art culture. ArtWorks is most easily found by taking the Market Street exit off of Route 1 South. When you come off of the highway, the building is across the street from the exit.

Trenton Times article about the event: http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2013/05/artworks_unveils_bicycle_art_s.html

Don's Double Century

Don wrote a blog post about his experience riding 200 miles in one day. 

On Saturday, June 23, I completed my first double century. I was tired at the end but finished with a smile and really glad I did it. The day was a real blessing. The days before and after were super hot.

The northern half of the ride was most interesting and fun. Up through Frenchtown, the rolling country side leading to Round Valley Reservoir, riding through Whitehouse Station, down along the D&R Canal to Kingston out through Plainsboro to Windsor. The southern half was more monotonous. From Windsor I continued out to Millstone and then south through the Pine Barrens to Chatsworth west to Smithville and returning north via Columbus (NJ) back to Mercer County Park and finally home.

This was a solo venture. My SAG support was carrying a cell phone with Jacquie and Ashley at home “on stand-by alert.” There were no pre-defined rest stops with ample supplies of food and water. I was following a route someone posted to a website. The directions were amazingly good. But I was surprised by the lack of convenience stores and places to grab a bite to eat along the route. Fortunately, there happened to be two strategically placed stores that were real godsends. (I bought a gallon of water from each.)

The really remarkable aspect of the day is for something created by someone I’ve never met, the route provided a virtual scrap book tour of my 14 years of bike commuting. I ended up seeing a lot of new stuff while traversing familiar ground. The initial portion of the ride touched upon Anchor House training rides. The middle of the ride brought back memories of commuting along the towpath to New Brunswick. The trip was wrapped up by utilizing portions of my present commute.

When I discovered this route last August and set in motion plans to do it, I started with the grandest of intentions for training. That didn’t exactly happen. I did supplement my regular commute with hill training rides but the best thing I did was a week before the ride, on a whim, I did the northern half of the ride. This proved to be the best prep of all. First, it acquainted me with the route. But the best training came when my rear derailleur broke half way into the ride. Getting home with just the 3 front gears proved to be the most valuable lesson of all. Ascending any sort of incline required me to get out of the saddle and ride standing up. (Something I normally don’t do.) Drawing upon the extra strength provided by the additional leverage from standing on the pedals was the only resource that got me through the last 25 miles on June 23rd.

In case you want the details: I left at 3:15am, finished at 7:30pm, traveled 210 miles and took about an hour of breaks along the way.  I did not have any mechanical failures during the ride. Although my odometer did quit 20 miles before the end. Fortunately I was on familiar enough ground to be able to find my way home. Had it stopped working any earlier I would have been sunk. There were several intersections without street signs. Without knowing exactly how far since my last turn, I would not know where to turn and would have been lost.

The next day I did get back on the bike to join Ashley for a ride to the park (< ½ mile). She was faster than me.  – Don

Bugsy Malone

I cannot say enough nice things about the drama program at Ashley's school. The program is entirely run by parents, who volunteer many hours to make sure every child who wants to be in a play has that opportunity. After holding auditions, the core drama parents divide the students into two casts. This gives everyone a chance to shine on stage, while creating built in understudies. The parents work tirelessly to get the best performance out of each student. It is a lot of work, but everyone loves it.


I've become the official photographer for the show. They grant me full access to take pictures non-stop during the dress rehearsal. In exchange, I give them 300 of my best pictures for them to disseminate to the cast with a DVD of the show.


This year Don worked stage crew. With two casts, there are also two sets of parent volunteers. In theory he was backstage the nights Ashley was not in the show. It didn't quite work that way, but he was able to sneak out and see her whenever she was on stage.


Ashley shined as the police officer who wanted to be a ventriloquist.


"Bugsy Malone" is not a very well-known show. It was a 1976 movie starring a very young Scott Baio and Jodie Foster as kids who were gangsters. Instead of killing people, they splurged them. No one dies. Everyone sings and dances and (in the end) gets along with each other. 


In many ways it was a lot of fun because it is an unknown show. The directors decided to have some fun with the plot and added vaudeville acts to keep it light. A stroke of genius was giving each showgirl a solo dance in which she held a sign announcing where the action was taking place next. The girls loved their solos and the stage crew appreciated a few extra moments to make sure the set was in place.


No more shows in the plans for now. We'll see what the future brings.

Happy Birthday, Don

Don's birthday is January 8.

His birthday wish?

A picnic in the park in New Jersey. 

A few years ago, on another unseasonably warm day, we celebrated Don's birthday with a picnic. Unfortunately it was a spur of the moment decision and I left the camera at home. He has been wanting a repeat ever since.

Last year, New Jersey was covered in a blanket of snow on his birthday. We ate indoors at Candela's Pizzeria instead.

This year we were able to grant his wish as we had take out from Tiger Noodle in Princeton, NJ and ate in a small park around the corner from the restaurant. We brought a candle and a couple of book lights for ambiance. Temperatures reached 60 during the day, and by dinner time it was still in the low 50s. Just perfect for a winter picnic.

Happy 48th birthday, Don. Time to start planning for the next milestone in two years.

I Bike NYC

by Don

This year I developed a fondness for bicycling in Manhattan, which is quite surprising given my aversion to riding with traffic. What helps me is over the past three years, New York has added 200 miles of bike lanes, some of which are protected bike paths completely segregated from cars.

On four separate days I loaded my bike into the car and drove to New York to explore this new treasure.

On April 30 I went to the Blessing of the Bikes at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. I stood with my bike in the sanctuary along with hundreds of other cyclists and their bicycles. The priest read scripture, led us in prayer, and sprinkled us with holy water. After the service I joined the Five Borough Bicycle Club for a ride to Brooklyn and to the New Amsterdam Bike Show. Most of this ride was on the Greenway, which hugs the Manhattan coastline. 

Six weeks later I returned for the World Naked Bike Ride. Even though it was June, it was a frigid day and as a result the ride was cancelled. Instead, I cycled to the Plaza Hotel in search of a temporary display of Ai Weiwei’s “Circle of Animals: Zodiac Heads” sculpture. While cycling along 1^st Ave I realized the scope of the bike infrastructure. To my surprise, there were signs directing cyclists to various destinations.

A week later I returned at 8 PM for “Bike All Night.” This turned out to be too disorganized for me. I left the group and explored the Greenway, Broadway, the financial district and Central Park instead.

By far, my longest ride this year was the NYC Century on September 18. This ride, covering 100 miles in a single day, extended into Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. The highlight was finally making it to the site of the 1964 World’s Fair and posing next to the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows.

Tour de Fat

Chicago, IL. July took us on an adventure through 7 states in 9 days and numerous stops for local treats.

The road trip stemmed from Don’s desire to experience the Tour de Fat – a bicycle-centric festival sponsored by the New Belgium Brewing Company.

The festival was held in Palmer Square, a park on the outskirts of Chicago. Highlights included a performance by synchronized bicycle dancers (think synchronized swimming, but using bicycles instead of water), a bicycle parade, and The Bike Pit (artistically altered bicycles anyone could ride – Ashley’s favorite had a series of shoes in lieu of tires). There were also bicycle-themed skits and activities.

While in Chicago we walked along Lake Michigan, around downtown and on the Magnificent Mile, visiting the American Girl Store and the Disney Store. 

The trip turned into a personal “Tour de Fat.” It coincided with a major heat wave and each stop included sampling local ice cream and other sweets.

Our first stop was Columbus, OH. We stayed with Aunt Debra and Uncle Tom Smith. After touring Slate Run (a historic site), we stopped at Fantasy Cupcakes in Canal Winchester, OH with them and Cousin Laura. Later we visited Tom’s mom, Marge Smith, and his sister, Joanie Smith Morris. Joanie, my running partner, happened to be in Bexley at the same time, so we went on our only training run together. It was great running with her, and great to have a chance to burn off some calories.

While in Columbus, we visited with our friend Heidi Harendza, a New Jersey transplant living in the German Village section of the city. She took us to Jeni’s, a new ice cream parlor that is rapidly spreading beyond its Columbus origins. We also visited Cousin David Smith at his new job at Tim Horton’s, where we had a fruit smoothie.

Continuing west, our next stop was Beaver Creek, OH for lunch with Joe

Langer, a friend of Don’s from high school. We met at Mimi’s Café for lunch and shared a dessert trio.

The next leg of the trip (the drive to Chicago) was not so sweet. We sat for 2¼ hours in a traffic jam, or should I say we stood in a traffic jam since we were able to get out of our car and walk around meeting people. If only Indiana had a Patch.com site I could have sent them some great pictures.

After the Tour de Fat festival in Chicago, we continued to Washington, IL to visit our friend Rebecca Weltmann. We have known her since she was a teen. Now she is the solo pastor of Washington Presbyterian Church. The timing allowed us to hear her preach and go out to lunch with her. Lunch was followed by Key Lime Pie over ice cream.

A benefit of going to the Tour de Fat festival in Chicago was visiting my 85-year-old great aunt, Lee Thomas. Three years ago she moved from New Jersey to an assisted living residence in Illinois. It was great seeing her looking so well.

Barbara, Scott, Blaire and Haleigh Theurerkoff (Aunt Lee’s daughter and her family) joined us for Gino’s Chicago deep dish pizza, followed by ice cream at Oberweis Dairy.

The trip home we took a different route. We spent two days in East Lansing, MI with Jennie, Chris, Emma, Bella and Luke Waters. Emma and Ashley are best friends from kindergarten, but had not seen each other in three years. They picked up as if only three days had passed. It was hard to separate them at the end of our stay. The Waters family took us to the Michigan State University Dairy Store. Ice cream is produced there as part of their Food Science program.

While Ashley stayed with Emma and her family, Don and I drove to Grand Rapids to visit Steve Paulsen. Steve, Don and I worked together many years ago. Steve navigated us to Holland, MI where we toured Steve’s alma mater, Hope College, and watched the sun set over Lake Michigan. Though we did not have dessert with Mr. Paulsen, Don did have a tasty beer called Dragon’s Milk.

We continued east with a stop in Bethel Park, PA to visit Bruce and Debbie Thomas, Aunt Lee’s son and daughter-in-law. Debbie cooked a wonderful meal, including homemade peanut butter ice cream for dessert. Yum!

After the last five hours on the road, we celebrated coming home with Chinese food from Tiger Noodle. Based on the rest of this trip, we should have had Purple Cow Ice Cream instead.      

Tour de Fat - Chicago

When Don suggested we take a road trip to Chicago to go to the Tour de Fat (a festival sponsored by New Belgium Brewing Company) I had no idea what to expect. I'm willing to admit I jumped into this one a bit blind. I did ask if it was open to people of all ages (it was sponsored by a beer company). Assured that it was (based more on the 10AM -4 PM schedule, being in a public park, and absence of being told it was only open to those legal drinking age) I said sure, why not.

The festival is a celebration of all things bicycle related. An early highlight was seeing synchronized bicycle dancing by the Racketeers -- a local group. Prior to the trip, we saw a different group of women performing similar stunts in the documentary Veer (http://www.amazon.com/Veer-Matthew-Modine/dp/B0033G9NPG/ref=sr_1_7?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1311796583&sr=1-7). Think of Ethel Williams' group hopping out of the water and riding bicycles and you ahve a good idea of what we saw. It was quite entertaining.

One of the anticipated highlights was that the event was kicked off by a bicycle ride through the section of Chicago near Palmer Square. We hadn't expected to see people in costumes. This has renewed my interest in creating a costume for the Disneyland Half Marathon. My favorite was seeing The Flintstones. The dads even toted "Pebbles" and "Bamm Bamm" behind them. Very clever!




 I had not anticipated being able to ride novelty bicycles. This one was clearly Ashley's favorite since the wheels are made out of shoes. Unfortunately she was a little too short for it. In this area they conformed bicycles into all different shapes -- there were three bicycles put into a triangle shape that went around in circles, a unicycle with training wheels, and hinges put in place so the bicycle could not steer strait. Remember -- this is a beer festival so you have that added dimension to bike riding. Helmets were a requirement.

Ashely rode a bicycle "all around the world." I think she went about 7 times before getting "too tired." (a little bicycle humor for you)

Don sampled some beers he really liked. Unfortunately New Belgium is not in our part of the country, and the beer he liked most is only available in bars.

One note about the festival, it ran "off the grid" using panels that were pedalled around the park. Hence they call themselves a "Pedal Powered FUNdraiser of Sustainable Folly."

Next month New Belgium is breaking into the Washington, DC /Maryland market. Maybe next year's Tour de Fat will have a stop on the East Coast.

http://www.newbelgium.com/events/tour-de-fat.aspx

Art All Night

This weekend Trenton hosted it's fifth annual Art All Night program. Art All Night is a 24-hour art show hosted in the Roebling Steel Works building near Broad Street. http://www.artworkstrenton.org/artallnight/

Artists of all ages and all levels of talent are encouraged to participate. We attended the event in 2009. Last year we each submitted art work. Don and I, more as a joke than anything else, put a $5 price tag on our 4x6 photographs framed at the dollar store. They actually sold! Ashley did not want to sell her Fashion Drawing.

This year we each submitted a photograph, but we raised our price to $20 each -- with the entire procedes going to ArtWorks. Mine photograph, entitled "A Look into the Past" sold. Sadly Don and Ashley came home with their artwork.

I took this picture at Pennsbury Manor.

Ashley's picture is called "Hide and Seek with my Cat." It is three pictures of Ariel hiding in the backyard.

Don's picture is titled "Sunnyside up."

Thursday night we have been invited to a meet the artists event where the donors meet the artists who created their art. Should be fun.

Statue of Liberty

After months of planning, Don, Ashley and I went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island this past weekend. While looking out on our snow covered lawn on January 9th I made reservations to climb to the crown of the Statue of Liberty on April 16th, a day that we thought would be the perfect Spring Day. As the day drew closer and the forecast called for cold rain, we hesitated about making the trip. As you can see in the above picture, we had Liberty Island almost to ourselves and the rain held until the ride home.

Don and I had both been to the Statue of Liberty a couple of times. Each time it was extremely crowded, and hot (well, it was summer) and our view at the top was rushed because the people immediately behind us also wanted to see. If this was your experience, it is time to go back.

Tickets now must be purchased months in advance: http://www.statuecruises.com/ferry-service/welcome.aspx

Every 20 minutes the Park Rangers send up a group of 10 people. We climbed all 200+ steps at our own pace. At the top were two Park Rangers telling us what we are seeing, and that swaying is normal. They also took our picture and let us take as much time as we wanted. About 20 minutes later we began the descent on the other side of the double-helix staircase.

We wandered around the museum in the pedestal and then boarded the boat to Ellis Island. Ashely and I had read lots of books about people coming through Ellis Island. We also watched their movie. Nothing compares, though, to seeing the place. It was quiet there, too.

The best part of the day was seeing Ashley's eyes sparkle with amazement at the entire experience. Each time she saw Lady Liberty that day she couldn't believe she actually climbed to the top of her.

She couldn't wait to see her classmates and tell them about her weekend.

If you do plan to go, order tickets soon because the Statue of Liberty will be closed starting in November for scheduled maintenance. Climbing to the crown was definitely the highlight of our trip.

Life is Boring ... and I wouldn't have it any other way

When I started this blog I had grandiose ideas of updating it on a weekly basis with lots of great pictures and stories. Well, the truth of the matter is, our lives are not that exciting.

Ashley has been busy with school and play practice (Annie -- April 2 and 8). In her spare time she reads lots of books.

Don is working and waiting for warmer, drier weather so he can ride his bicycle to work on a more regular basis. He did attend a statewide bicycle summit meeting this weekend.

I'm writing articles for Lawrenceville.Patch.com and trying to build my miles in anticipation of May 1st 10 mile Broad Street Run.

Not much worthy of a photograph. So, I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of the cats.

Charlie napping on Ashley's bed.

Ariel wondering what Ashley is reading.

Hibernation

Today marks the one month mark since we last saw our lawn. We have adopted an attitude of "if you can't beat it, then join it."

Ashley has been sledding and playing in the snow with her friends. She seems to be having blast whenever it snows. So far there has been one snow day and two delayed openings. It is currently snowing and not supposed to stop until tomorrow morning, so I suspect we might have at least a delayed opening tomorrow. There are still 53 more days until Spring!


I ran a 5K on January 1st. This weather has really cut into my training. Most days I am opting for a walk in the snow rather than a run, but I have managed to go for at least one 3 mile run each week, sometimes two. My goal is still 3 runs of increasing mileage, but I'll take what I feel comfortable doing for now.

Don is the one enjoying each snowstorm the most. He recently purchased a "wovel," think eco-friendly snow blower and uses it to clear our driveway and sidewalk. His new motto is "let it snow, let it snow, let it snow."

In the meantime I am enjoying this bright sign of
hope I saw in our yard a couple of days ago.

How are you staying warm and sane this snowy winter? Be safe!