Myrtle Beach Marathon

As you can see from the countdown, we'll be heading to Myrtle Beach this weekend. It will be a nice family vacation at a great hotel with a waterpark but the first order of business is me running the marathon on Saturday morning. The training has been done. Maybe not quite as much as I'd have liked but it has gone pretty well. I'd like to finish in under 3 hours and 15 minutes which would be a personal best by over 3 minutes. Can I do it? I just don't know. I've been doing almost 100% of my training on a treadmill which is supposed to be easier than running outside. To compensate, I've been running faster than the pace I'd like to run. So the speed I've been running is about the same as when I was training when I ran my current personal best but I haven't run nearly as much mileage. So why do I think I can run faster this race? Well, for starters my in race nutrition will be much better now. Something I learned from doing triathlons. Secondly, I ran a hard half marathon two weeks before the previous race and never fully recovered. I'm definitely not doing that this time. So what does it all add up to? I really don't know. But you can provide your input on the poll question to the left.

So why am I telling you all this? Just letting you look through the window at the thoughts that are currently dominating my brain.

More Pictures From Art Class

You might have noticed a new way to interact with this blog. It is the little votes you can do at the bottom of each post. Go ahead and rate that particular post. I still like the comments though so keep adding those. So far I understand you don't like my complaining about the weather and mowing the lawn. If I complain about something else is that okay? Maybe I'll find out. Also, just because you provide feedback doesn't mean I'll listen to it.

Speaking of reader interaction, the current poll votes so far only add up to 5. The previous poll which was about your new year's resolution had 10 votes. Something doesn't equate.

More drawings from Cole and Kaori soon; I promise.

A Fun Weekend

We had a good weekend, too bad it is over. It started Friday night with Cole's pinewood derby. As you can see in the picture Cole won a trophy, taking second place and a chance to move on to districts in a couple months. His car won 3 out of 4 heats and was second in the other. At the end he was tied for third. The timing was down to the thousandth of a second and they were still tied after 4 heats. The race off was almost as close but Cole's car won by a few hundredths of a second.

Also on Friday night was the girl scout cookie dance; this kicks off cookie selling season. Anybody want some? Robyn and Kaori went to that and had a lot of fun.

After that we went to Rapid City, SD to spend time with my family. We shopped a little, played cards (who got the first place prize in the canasta tournament? It wasn't the left-handed dealer) and swam in the hotel pool. Cole and Kaori especially liked the pool with the water slide. I can't forget to mention that we ate and ate and ate all weekend too. We returned home last night and picked up Hiroo who stayed at the kennel at his veterinarian. Very enjoyable.

Winter Doldrums

We are currently riding out a "wind chill warning". This means temperatures are cold. This is a direct quote from the weather channel (online edition):

TEMPERATURES THIS AFTERNOON WILL REMAIN NEARLY STATIONARY OR RISE A DEGREE OR TWO... BUT STILL REMAIN BETWEEN 4 TO 12 BELOW ZERO. NORTHERLY WINDS OF 10 TO 20 MPH THROUGH THIS AFTERNOON WILL CAUSE WIND CHILL READINGS OF 30 BELOW TO 40 BELOW ZERO. OVERNIGHT LOWS TONIGHT WILL DROP TO NEAR 30 BELOW ZERO TO AROUND 20 BELOW ZERO. DURING THE OVERNIGHT HOURS INTO THURSDAY MORNING... WIND CHILLS WILL TUMBLE TO 35 BELOW TO 45 BELOW ZERO.

It kind of reminds me of a comedian's schpiel (sp?) on the starving Africans from 20 years ago. He said they were living in the desert, of course they couldn't grow food in sand. We are living in the Northern Plains, of course it is going to be d*mn cold. And I don't mean to be making light of people starving anywhere, just drawing a parallel. And I'm not saying my suffering from cold = people dying. Have I covered all the politically correct bases yet?

Cole and I turned in his pinewood derby car for cub scouts last night. We had a last minute scare when the car came in too long because of the exhaust pipes we added in the back. Fortunately the always prepared scouts had problems like this in mind and all sorts of power tools were on hand. So I pulled the exhaust pipes off, redrilled the holes and stuck the pipes back on, only deeper this time. After that we glued on an extra penny to get the weight up to the allowable limit and we were good to go. The actual racing takes place this Friday night. Pictures and results to follow. Wish Cole good luck.

More Drawings

More drawings as promised. Cole joined in the art class with Kaori so that is why there are two of each. They'll start in a couple weeks in another session. Also they'll start a chess class after school.

An Innocent Phone Call

That was all it started out with. Cole called his friend one day after school to see if he wanted to come over and play. His friend did but only after he was done checking out the presents under his Christmas tree. Cole got off the phone and told me that and then asked me why he couldn't look at his presents. I said he could, conjuring memories of the Christmas' in my youth, rearranging, sorting and shaking the presents all the while imagining the treasures I'd get.

Well, you can understand my surprise when Cole came waltzing into the kitchen minutes later saying "Look what Hiroo gave me!" I'm like all "Wait...no...what?!? You're not supposed to open the presents!" I hurried into the living room where Cole and Kaori had opened all their presents that were under the tree! Luckily there were only a few out there so there will still be surprises on Christmas morning.

Cole claims that "we just had a miscommunication."

Winter Wonderland

I figured that our family walks would end with the first few flurries of snow. But there we were, right in the middle of a winter weather advisory, blowing snow, dark night and cold weather walking Hiroo down the street. The walk was even suggested by the kids no less. And if that is not enough, it was after Kaori had helped me shovel the driveway and patio for half an hour and the kids were outside playing.

So as not to leave you with some romantic notion of a fresh, untouched blanket of snow with large, gently falling flakes, I must tell you that I'm done with this winter now almost even before it is starting. As I mentioned, I had to shovel the driveway tonight as well as last night. And even now as I sit here typing the godforsaken stuff continues to fall and accumulate on my driveway necessitating my further shoveling tomorrow. How I long for the days of summer when I can go back to complaining about mowing the lawn.

Reader Feedback

I got some feedback that Kaori should be in some pictures with Hiroo too. The first couple days she didn't want too hold him too much but now she is okay. Here's a photo.

By the way, the feedback wasn't in comment form though which is what I'd prefer.

Introducing Hiroo!

Say hello to Hiroo (pronounced hero). Hiroo is the area of Tokyo where we lived but we are using a more English pronunciation. He is a nine week old soft coated wheaton terrier. We picked him up Saturday, Nov. 15. He's a lot of fun and well-behaved. The kids love him. I guess it's likely he'll be the subject of future blog entries.

Yuki Daruma

The overnight snowfall got the kids all excited about building a snowman. It is their first significant snowfall in three years afterall. So we went out and built a snowman and gave him a dog too. He didn't tip over, contrary to how it looks. But our attempts to fix him might have hurt him. He's still standing, for now anyway.

Recent Pictures

This is Kaori's recent artwork. The owl isn't copied from anything, the teacher just kind of showed them how to draw it.










Cole has recently taken up rock climbing. Here he is at our local health club, Lifetime Fitness. He can climb all the way to the top.
















And here are our trick or treaters.












By the way, I'm leaving the current poll up until I get more votes. Four isn't enough.