Giving everything

The cold was something else this morning. I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry at the whole situation. What was I doing? Running outside on a day like that? I had no hat, no gloves. My finger tips were ice cold. Yet sure enough, run is what I did. And I can honestly say, for the first time, as my 3rd attempt at this race, I gave everything I had.


I ended with an offical time of 45:32, almost a full minute faster then my goal for the year. I was very happy with that time and will be in no rush to attempt to beat it. I was just spent at the end of this race, honestly out of any energy left.

So what does a crazy below freezing temperature run need at the end of it? You guessed it, ICE CREAM!



It may look nice out in that picture, but trust me, it was freezing. And you know what? We ate the damn ice cream anyway. Why? Because sometimes in the face of crazy sub zero temp runs, you just have to be crazy too.

I'm glad I did it, I wish the weather was better, and maybe, just MAYBE, I would have had a slightly better time. I'm already signed up for another 10k this year and in 2 weeks is the silly "Twin Cities 1-miler". I only signed up for that to get an extra shot at a random ticket into the 10-miler. Don't ask... it's complicated.

In other news, Megan's hand is healing up just fine. She has no problems with it at all, and is using it totally normal. We've resumed normal bath times and stuff, and so soon it will just be a fading memory.

Lame, lame, LAME!

This weekend is shaping up to be worse weather than the very first Get in Gear that I ran. I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm still gonna do it. The fact that the weather is not going to cooperate just means I'm going to go ahead and sign up for another 10k asap.

Runners often talk about a new PR. That stands for "Personal Record". Most runners use "offical" events to set their PRs, and I'm no exception. Every single race I've done has had some form of PR attached to it. I've got all sorts of goals for PRs this year. For the 10k, I had (have?) a goal of 46:30, which is a pace of 7:30. The thing is, I've already hit that on a practice run this year.



So is the race PR really that big of a deal? I dunno... It is and it isn't I guess. If the weather is lame, then I'm not going to be all upset if I can't hit my goal. Then again, maybe if it's cold I'll just end up running fast to get it over with!

In other news, quitting World of Warcraft hasn't been all that hard. Not only has the game itself got stale, but they are making changes soon that will make it even harder for the casual gamers to have fun. Okay, I get the hint! No need to kick me on the way out...

Problem is, I need something new to fill those few hours in the evening I have to myself, or I tend to get bored. Last night I fell asleep at 7:30pm. That was crazy weird. I woke up to Megan crying at 11pm. She was cold after having climbed into her crib. (a new habit we have got to break) After that I wasn't able to get back to sleep until 1:30am. Don't want that to be happening again.

Well, wish me luck this weekend and hope for good weather!

Good news, honest

This weekend was great, not the long weekend I needed, but great just the same. I've designated May to be my "4-day work week" month. I've lined up some vacation days so every single week in May is only 4 days long. (with two 4-day weekends as well) All I need to do is get through the next 2 weeks!

Saturday was mostly just Megan and I doing our thing, from reading to playing to lunch and everything else. I wanted to give Andrea some time to herself because I had a large amount of plans on Sunday. It worked out great, and we both enjoyed our time.

Papa B and Grandma B came up Sunday, but I was off doing my thing, so I didn't visit with anyone. I ended up doing a 10 mile run with my running buddy. He suffered a minor set back during the run, hopefully it won't come back to haunt him during the Get in Gear this weekend. The weather started out a little over cast and cold, but by midway into our run the sun was coming out and things were warming up nicely.

After that I headed over to Eden Prairie to catch lunch and a movie with a coworker and friend. That wouldn't have been so bad, if it wasn't for the fact that I also play World of Warcraft with these two guys. Going to lunch with the people you play WoW with shortly after quitting... is like going out with your drinking buddies the day after becoming sober. Time will tell...

Anyway, on to the ACTUAL good news that just came in this afternoon. Megan's hand has healed so well, she is going without bandages! This is great news and we are both so relieved to know there most likely won't even be any long term visible scaring. It still in the healing process so we have to be careful with her outside (sand, debris, sun exposure, etc). But she is using it normally with no ill effects. If you are curious (and brave?) you can see the close up shot of her hand below.

Ah well, screw it

I got my World of Warcraft account back, although it wasn't without a price. They stripped one of my characters of everything I had "earned". Did I cheat to earn what they took away? You bet. Do I feel guilty about it? Of course not. It's a form of entertainment, a way to kill time, and nothing else.

The problem is, the game isn't actually that fun. If it was, I wouldn't want to cheat to bypass the lame parts and time that has to be invested. On top of that, even the parts I was enjoying for a while have started to become stale. The people I play with have schedules that don't jive, the competitive parts of the game I was enjoying are saturated with people way better and with way more time.

So screw it, I don't need to waste money on something I don't enjoy. I cancelled my account, time to find a new night time hobby. On the plus side, until something comes along my new default night time hobby is sleeping. Quite a strange hobby, but damn, went to bed at 9:30pm last night. 10 hours of sleep!! Don't know when the last time was that I got that much sleep...

In other news, the Get in Gear 10k run is just around the corner. Have I trained for it properly? Not really... am I going to hit my goals? Maybe... As long as the weather behaves and nothing crazy happens between now and then. I did a practice run and hit my goal with room to spare, so I know it can be done.

Megan update: Hand is healing well according to the doctors. It's way past the point of any infection concerns and the skin is growing back nice and fast. She might be able to go without bandages as early as next week. Only things we have to worry about now are keeping the bandages on and keeping any exposed skin out of the sun. Not to hard with this weather...

As far as the other things are going, Megan is amazing us every day with what she is learning. Her lack of language seems to not be preventing her from learning a lot of things. For example, she can identify a large number of letters now. Not just pictures, animals and words, but individual letters! That's huge. From a verbal perspective, she can make animal sounds "Moo" and "Baa" and roars for Tigers and Lions. She also says "Boo" when playing the peek-a-boo game. In general, she is vocalizing strings of sounds together, so you can tell she is trying to communicate.

My prediction is still a late summer time, early fall when that explosion occurs and the words start coming. All the time between now and then will be just building up the individual words and then working on putting words together.

Last night Megan and I went to the grocery store. As we were going down the aisle, all of a sudden Megan started doing the sign for "Dog". I asked her where she saw the dog? She pointed and I was still confused, so I slowly backed up the cart until I could see what she was point at. Sure enough, right there on the cereal box was Clifford the Big Red Dog. Way to go Megs!

Oh Noes!

Will I have to face the harsh realities of Real Life!?!?!?!?!


One can only hope not...

Something Positive

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

I'm just going to get the horrible shit out of the way, in the odd chance that I can come up with anything positive. It's been awhile since I quoted THE song. Oddly enough, for me it was 2pm on Tuesday, not 4pm this week. I got a phone call at work from Andrea, she was in the emergency room with Megan.

While helping make her lunch of Mac & Cheese with Mommy, Megan managed to get her hand on the stove and got some pretty bad burns. She suffered second degree burns on portions of her left palm along with some burns on the fingers. Needless to say, it's been a rough week.

Fast forward to today, 2 doctor visits, codeine spiked Tylenol, and numerous scary bandage replacements... And we've survived. All things considered, Megan has been quite the trooper through this whole ordeal. I haven't seen her cry once, not even the night Daddy climbed into bed with her to read some bed time stories, only to accidentally lean on her hand, resulting in a popping of the largest blister on her hand.

This is actually the first time Megan has been to the emergency room. Statistically speaking, it probably won't be the last either. But it was still a horrible thing to happen and it came at a time when things were starting to pick back up.

So where is this positivity I promised? I don't know... It sure as hell isn't this weather. I swear, snow and rain were the last thing I needed to add to this week. Can I just get a FEW days/weekends of nice weather? PLEASE!?! Work is okay for the most part. We made revenue goals last quarter, so that means some profit sharing this month. Can't complain about that I guess.

Last weekend was something nice at least. I was able to spend some time with my Grandparents and Scott and Val. They came over on a Sunday afternoon and got to see Megan and then we headed out for a nice lunch. Megan was great and I was glad she got to spend some time with her Grandparents. We don't see them enough.

In other news, my grandparents are getting a lap top and internet! I'm sure the traffic to my blog will be shooting up soon. I promise more positivity and lots of pictures of Megan just for you Grandma!!