Pictures

Just some pictures this time. The top two pictures are Kaori's and the bottom two are Cole's. The tiger is laying beside a lake by the way. In the bottom picture you can see Hiroo with his new haircut. He's resting nicely after getting snipped last week.

What A Difference A Week Makes

Kaori was nervous on the car ride and once again had tears in her eyes as she skated out on the ice. She was still moving very slowly, kind of a shuffling walk on the ice. All the other kids would skate across to the other side and then back. She would make it about 1/4 the way across and then turn around and go back when they would get to her. But slowly she stopped crying. Then she made it all the way across the rink. And then class was over. When she got out she was so happy to say that she only fell one time. She joined Cole to skate during the entire half-hour practice period after the lesson. Now she just says that she wants to go skating all the time. Hopefully she'll remember this lesson once I try to get those training wheels off.

Hiroo is getting trimmed today, I'll have to put up pictures of him. Also, after art class this afternoon I'll have a few pictures to post.

An Icy Blast

Yes it was an icy blast and we were even indoors. Cole and Kaori were very excited and just a little nervous for their very first ice skating lesson. I think they've only been on skates one previous time each. Both seemed to quickly settle into the last place position in their respective groups. It seems that in Minnesota beginner ice skating means being only mildly proficient and I'm sure I'd wind up in the last place position if I were brave enough to join an adult beginner class.

I could only cringe and peek out over the top of my magazine when trying to watch Kaori. Being the slowest and repeated falls brought tears to her eyes and longing looks to Robyn and me in the stands. Robyn continually gave her big smiles and "thumbs up" in hopeless attempts to cheer her from afar. I finally quit trying to watch, seeing her fall was just too much, and took my cue on how she was doing by Robyn's constant updates. Cole on the other hand was getting the hang of it and was able to skate back and forth across the ice with only minor incident.

Finally the lesson part of the session was over and just the practice, free skate part was left. Cole quickly went to the end of the rink and started skating while Kaori was escorted to the door. I hustled over to give her a big hug and try to make her feel better. She just said "it was so hard!" through her tears. I told her how much of a trooper she was for always getting back up again and keeping at it. We watched Cole skate around and through the precariously balanced beginner skaters, back and forth, back and forth. Then a surprising thing happened, with Robyn's encouragement Kaori got back out on the ice. She didn't go far but she did go. She'll be back again next week.

Today's post script is that Kaori has a sore bottom from falling. This too shall pass.

Ice Fishing

Cole and I went ice fishing with his cub scout troop last Saturday. You want my opinion? No? Okay stop reading. Yes? Well, it's winter, give the fish a break. IT'S WINTER! YOU ARE STANDING ON ICE! Really, go home and get warm. It was cold and windy and not so much fun. There wasn't so much fish action going on anyway. A few boys reeled in a small fish or two but we got nothing. Cole said he enjoyed it so I suppose I'm on the hook for next year too. He was the one who wanted to go home early though. And now Kaori wants to try ice fishing. When the Daisies have their ice fishing outing, is it Robyn's turn to go?

Myrtle Beach Weekend

We had a great weekend in Myrtle Beach, thanks to the fact that we were able to catch up with the Moores who we haven't seen in three and a half years. John found us a condo on the beach

with an indoor waterpark. Plenty to keep us occupied even if they hadn't brought their Wii down (but we're glad they did).

Congratulations to John for finishing his first half marathon. He did a great job. Many thanks to our fans (read families) as they supported us on the course. Robyn, the experienced race watcher, knows the ins and outs of getting around a course for optimal athlete viewing.

As for my marathon, nobody was right in their prediction but that was because I didn't provide the correct time option. I finished in 3:19:56 which is a couple minutes slower than my personal best. I'm quite happy with this time because I was afraid I'd totally bomb and it would end up being a walking, four hour affair. I was able to qualify for the Boston marathon again and completed my first marathon without walking a step.

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."