They're Baaaaaaaaack

The park across the street is crowded with semi-trucks stacked with games and rides -- all of which should be unpacked and set up later today.

Yes, it’s that time of year again when the carnies transform the park across the street into a carnival in celebration of the city's founding (or something like that).

Last night Aidan stared out his bedroom window with big eyes at the trucks. He asked about them and to explain the different rides. I think once these things are set up, he’s really going to want to ride them.

The last two years the carnival hasn't been a big deal for the kids because they've been too young to really care about them. Not this year. We're going to have one, at least, who is going to be very interested in the rides, noises, and flashing lights.

What I Did All Weekend

 

If you can’t tell from the photo above, I received the edited version of Room for Two from the publisher. It came Friday afternoon and I spent pretty much the entire weekend going over their changes and making final suggestions and corrections.

I quite happy with the editor and her changes. I think the story flows and reads much better. The suggestions and changes I submitted back were rather minor. According to the editor, there’s a chance my book may go to press in June – a month earlier than planned – so it will be ready for a big state book convention in August. Nothing final on the actual press date, though. Stay tuned for details.

Running Injuries?

Marathon Girl is hurt. Not sure what’s wrong with her exactly but she’s been having some problems with her right calf which has slowed her running time down considerably this last week. Fortunately she has a great sports-medicine doctor and has an appointment to see him today. The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for her. The Dam Marathon is two weeks away and it’s hard for her to put all this time and effort into training only to get hurt. Running as much as she does takes a toll on the body. Hopefully the doctor will have some good news for her and a couple of days rest will be all it takes to get her running fast again.

LOST: Through the Looking Glass

Note (05/29/08): If you're looking for the Jeremy Bantham (also spelled Jeremy Bentham) refrence, scroll down to comment number six. My friend Jon called it a year ago!

I can't think of any time a television show has left me speechless. However, after the season finale of LOST last night, I don't know what to say.

Don't misunderstand. I LOVED the episode. If anything the finale proved that LOST is the best damn show in the history of television and I'm anxiously awaiting season four.

*** Major Spoiler Warning ***

But seriously, a flash forward to where Jack is miserable, his ex-wife is pregnant with another man's child, someone connected to the island (I think so, anyway) is dead, and Jack wants to return to the island.

Yeah, the clues that this was a flash-forward were all over the place, weren't they. Jack was wearing contemporary sunglasses and using a modern cell phone, he was sprawled out in a room full of maps of the Pacific Ocean, and flying on Oceanic Airlines with a glimpse of the Los Angeles Times with a headline from April of this year. But most everyone didn't catch that, did they. Instead we were trying to piece together when in Jack's past this was taking place so we were ignoring the obvious clues.

I was listening to the official podcast a couple weeks ago where and Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse were talking about knowing the show would end in 2010. One of the things they said was that now that they knew how many episodes were left, they could create a beautiful tapestry that would not only answer all the show's mysteries but would show us who the charters would become in the future. I think that little clue was lost (no pun intended) on just about everyone. I think we can look for more flash-forwards in upcoming episodes next season.

So most of the Others are dead and a "escue boat" is on it's way to the island. The good news is that at least Kate and Jack will be rescued at some point. The bad news is that for one of them, that may not have been the best thing.

I Believe in Jacob

Even before Cassie warned me about reading any spoilers regarding the season finale of LOST, I was already practicing self-restraint and have refrained from visiting any LOST-related sites since last week should any part of the plot be spoiled for me.

Instead I've been discovering creative LOST merchandise that fans have created. So far the "I believe in Jacob" store in CafePress is my favorite. 

Think Different in St. George

If anyone’s ever participated in or has gone to cheer for someone running the St. George Marathon, then you know what a bother it is to find accommodations that weekend. Hotel rooms are usually booked a year in advance and go for a premium. Even though the city and the surrounding community are one of the fastest growing areas in the United States, it still hasn’t grown enough to accommodate everyone who runs it, let alone those who come to cheer their friends and family members on.

The last time Marathon Girl ran this marathon was the fall of 2002. We were dating then and I went down with her family to watch her run. It was a great trip and one that helped confirm that Marathon Girl was indeed the perfect woman for me.

The only downside of the trip was the hotel. Her family had two rooms that were nice and big by hotel standards but still didn’t provide much in the way of privacy and considered the hotel was packed with other runners, it was rather noisy and busy.

After Marathon Girl found out would be running St. George, I started looking for two hotel rooms. The few I was able to find has just one queen sized bed. That might be fine if it were just Marathon Girl and I, but where we have three kids and three other family members who want to watch her run, two small rooms like this just don’t cut it.

Besides traveling with three small kids can be tough. We need a place where the kids can have a separate room to run around or entertain themselves – especially if Marathon Girl is sleeping before the big race or needs some downtime after running 26.2 miles.

Frustrated at the hotel search, I started doing some Google searches until I came upon a website where people rent out condos. I sent out a couple of queries and got a response from a lady who just had people cancel their reservation for the marathon weekend. After looking at pictures of the place we’d be staying and reading the positive feedback from others on their experience with the owners, I took it.

And this is what we ended up with: a three bedroom, three bathroom condo (all bed rooms have king-sized beds), a full kitchen (which is great because taking three small kids to eat out every meal can be hard) and a living room. The condo complex also has six swimming pools (including a kiddie pool), a dozen tennis courts, four spas, half dozen basketball, sand volleyball courts, a weight room (maybe I’ll be benching my weight by then), playground for the kids, and is only a 10 minute drive to the marathon finish line. All this for (amazingly) about the same price we would have paid for two hotel rooms.

I’m really looking forward to this trip.

Aidan 3

Aidan turned three today. And three-year-old boys are so easy to please.

Aidan’s been pining for a bike since the snow melted and he’s observed kids riding around the park and through the neighborhood on them. He's wanted one so bad that every time we went to a store that sells bikes, he heads straight to the bike section and start climbing on them.

So when he saw a new bike sitting in the living room this afternoon, he went nuts. He spent the next hour learning how to pedal it. He hasn’t mastered the concept of pedaling completely but he made great progress today. Despite the fact he can’t pedal that well, he stuck with it until he was exhausted.

When I tucked him in bed, he asked if I’d help him learn how to ride the bike tomorrow. I told him I would.

What a great kid. He’s been such a joy and a blessing in our life.  

I just can’t believe it’s been three years since he was born. The next thing you know, he'll be asking me to borrow the keys to my car.

Love you, kid!

LOST: Greatest Hits

 

I’m actually going to miss Charlie when he dies next week.

Even though I’ve never liked his character much (he’s always been kind of a whiner), it was nice for the writers to give him an endearing set of flashbacks that depicted the good moments in his life that showed that even if I don’t miss him, there will be some people who do.

And since the show’s producers have indicated five people will die in the season finale next week, here’s my list off possible causalities:

1. Charlie (duh) 2. Locke (I think we’ll get confirmation that he’s actually dead.) 3. Bernard (He hasn’t been used much all season and I think his story line is just about over.) 4. Rose (see above) 5. Ben (why not)

And did anyone really think The Looking Glass Station was uninhabited? I didn’t either.

Running With Marathon Girl

Now that Marathon Girl is training for marathons, our typical Saturday mornings now go something like this: we wake up and get the kids out of bed around 6:30. (Since our boys are early risers, they don't seem to mind that much.) We put them and other supplies in our minivan and drive to some of Marathon Girl's preferred running routes. She's usually running before seven.

On runs under 12 miles, I drive the van to designated spots every three miles or so and wait for her with plenty of cold Gatorade and water. While waiting I give the kids plastic sandwich bags full of fruit loops, a doughnut or two, and sippy cups full of milk. We also bring a big stack of the kids’ favorite books so they can have stories read to them while we're waiting.

On the longer runs (12 plus miles) we usually have Marathon Girl's dad in the van with us. This means I can run with Marathon Girl every other leg. This is good because Marathon Girl inevitably runs better when she has someone to run with--even for a couple of miles.

Even though I'm not running as much as I have in the past, I've still been able to keep pace with Marathon Girl. That is until last week. She pulled ahead of me after about a mile of running with her. I thought it was a fluke. I thought that the wind, the freezing rain, and the extra layers of clothing had slowed me down. So Saturday I vowed I'd keep up with Marathon Girl no matter what.

Didn't happen.

She had a 20 miler scheduled. This time I couldn't keep up with her for half a mile. Even at the end of her run, me being somewhat rested, she still pulled ahead. And it's not because I'm a slowpoke. It's because Marathon Girl's getting faster. Much faster. And not doing all that bad considering she had a baby five months ago.

Saturday felt like the days before we were married: Marathon Girl busting ahead and me struggling to keep up with her. Good times.

I wouldn't trade them for the world.

Ripping Shirts

I ripped my shirt yesterday. It was a glorious thing to behold.

Let me explain.

Back in February I joined a gym with the intention of finally building up enough muscle mass to bench my weight – something I’ve always wanted to do. Unlike most guys, strength and muscle mass isn’t something my body is blessed with – I have to work for it. If I don’t exercise my muscles on a regular basis then they tend to disappear. So I joined a gym and decided to take advantage wonderful free weights and equipment they have.

The results have been very good. I’m the strongest I’ve ever been in my life. I’m currently benching 80 percent of my body weight and my arms and chest have muscled out rather nicely. (Marathon Girl is really happy with the results.) As a result of this weight lifting, some of my shirts are becoming tighter in the chest and arm area – also a nice problem to worry about.

So yesterday I was doing a dumbbell chest press when I heard a ripping sound. Thankfully the sound wasn’t followed by a searing pain. I stopped lifting not sure that I had heard a ripping sound. I put the dumbbells on the floor and started making sure I was okay. Turns out I ripped my t-shirt under along the seam under my arm.

I was a little stunned what I had done. Me having big enough muscles to rip shirts doesn’t happen every day. But then the shock wore off and the euphoria set in. This was really cool!

And, no, I haven’t stopped running. My weekly workout routine includes three days of strength training, three days of running, and one day off.  My weekly mileage has dropped but I’m still able to run four miles in under 30 minutes and keep up with Marathon Girl during parts of her long Saturday runs. (More on that in an upcoming blog entry.)

In the meantime I’m getting ready to rip more shirts.