SPOYLD1

Saw someone with that license plate tonight. Why would you put something on your car that is basically saying something negative about you? I mean, I guess one could argue that "spoiled" isn't a negative thing...

Anyway, thought I'd get a post up tonight before the weekend hits, because there is a good chance I won't find any time. Why? Because we have big memorial weekend plans? Naw, nothing like that. It's Alterac Valley weekend in World of Warcraft! Bonus honor points, so I'll be doing that all weekend. I need about 25,000 honor points. If your lucky, you can get around 1,200 points per hour in Alterac Valley. That translates to about 20 hours I have to get in...

How was that for a paragraph you probably a) have no clue what I'm talking about and b) could absolutely care less?

In other news, someone at my work place has started an official company sponsored Running Club. I signed up mainly for the free wicking T-shirt. On top of that, they will be sponsoring up to 3 races a year! Considering some of those races can be as much as $40 dollars a pop, I saw that as a great way to get something I would have done anyway for free. We will probably have one sponsored event this year, so I might actually have one last competitive race to train for.

Now... to see if Megan will let me watch the Vikings game. So far, it doesn't look good. She's crying and yelling at me wondering why she can't watch her cartoon movies. It's football season Megan, there might be more of this!!

8 years

Where does the time go? I know I'm not the only person that feels like the older you get, the faster time seems to go by. Why is that? One person explained it to me this way: The older you get, every year is a smaller percentage of your life. I thought that was an interesting way of looking at it.

Today is mine and Andrea's 8 year anniversary! I felt kind of bad when I came home tonight to wish her happy anniversary, only to use the words "8 long years". I didn't mean to imply they have been long, but more to my own amazement that it has been 8 years already.

If I had to break down my life up into discrete parts, I would consider this the 5th act. Each act being separated by the major changes in my life. I'm pretty sure I can see act 6 coming. Maybe not soon, but it's definitely on the horizon. It's like your life has these decision points that are the major factor in what path the rest of your life will take.

When your younger, you don't quite realize you are at those major decision points. You just make them because you have to. As you get older, it seems like you finally start to realize the major choices and how much impact they really will have. There is no doubt in my mind that I wasn't fully aware of the impact Megan would have on my life, but I made the decision anyway. It was the best decision I ever made, and now I know with much more certainty what having another child would mean to me, my family, and really, the rest of my life.

At the same time, it kinda sucks when you realize that no matter how many experiences you have to draw from, hind sight will always be 20-20. And even when you think you are making the perfect decision, there is always a chance that when looking back, there will be something you wish you had done a little differently.

Budget for Happiness

It's been a long week, and at the same time, a short week. The memorial services for my Uncle Jeff on Tuesday were very well done. The only way to sum up the entire day is "All of the Above". It was sad, it was happy, it was strange, it was emotional. I saw some people who, in my mind have always been part of my "Family" but for various reasons, I hadn't seen in many many years. The saddest part for me was obviously seeing my Mother in so much pain. On top of that, just being sad that a funeral is the only thing that would bring us all together again.

The rest of the week was work work work. Couple of long nights, but I still managed to get 3 runs in. It takes a little more effort, but I can do it! One more run tomorrow morning and then a day of rest.

Andrea sent me a very interesting article at work this week. I really recommend reading it:

Here's how to budget for happiness

It basically says what I've been thinking for a long time. Happiness = Experiences. It's also a big part of why it is so easy for me to save money. I've never really got much "joy" out of material purchases. Sure, I have my big TV and my fancy computer, but that's really all I need. Here is the best line from the article:

So write down your values and goals, and ways to achieve them. The list will not only give you a road map for spending your money, but also spending your time.

How to spend your time... What have I been posting about again and again on my blog? How to spend your time... There in, lies the rub. If Happiness = Expierences, you need to know what experiences will make you happy. The article captures that:

When planning a vacation, for example, use the goals as a guide but choose specific experiences you enjoy. A trip to Europe to view famous building architecture is a fine vacation, but might be a mismatch for an avid hiker and nature lover.

So what am I a lover of? What specific experiences do I enjoy? If I can't even answer that, than how can I hope to plan a vacation that will be an worthwhile experience? It seems like the answer is you have to take a risk to try something new, and see if you enjoy it.

Our cruise trip is a perfect example of this. On paper, it sounded like a great time. The reality was that it wasn't exactly the experience I was looking for. I wouldn't ever do a cruise again, unless it was a cruise built around some other experience I might enjoy. (maybe some kind of phyiscally active exursions?)

I'm not quite sure, but I think I have a starting point. Now to just find those experiences I know I'll enjoy, maybe mixed in with a few risk at something new I might enjoy.

Grey Monday

I'd rather have the rain then the blazing heat. Still not the perfect weather, but a step in the right direction. Despite the fact that I got a bike ride in this weekend, I still didn't get use out of the bike rack on my car, which was sorta the whole point. Suppose I'll put that off yet again...

Megan seems to be getting taller by the minute. She still hasn't figured out how to climb over the DVD barracade, but it's coming. The latest is that she knows how to reach around to the back side of the downstairs gate and lift the release lever. Luckily it is pretty loud when she does this, so we can rush over.

I'm going to try and use the next 24 hours to forget about work and once again, focus on the important things in life. I'm remembering my attitude about my first job at Micron, and how it ultimately burned me out. The belief that *I* had to fix everything, and that EVERYTHING was my responsibility because there was no one else competent enough to get it done or do it right. I need to turn that off. I need to just go in, put my time in, and go home. It's very hard for me to turn it off, but if it doesn't happen, I can see myself getting burned out all over again.

In the meantime, enjoy some pictures of Megan.



Megan's future is so bright, she has to wear shades. (again!)


Just lounging around Sunday afternoon.

Runner Pretends to be Biker

I need to start my blog off on a more serious and sad note. You may remember that I mentioned my uncle, Jeff McMorrow, was going through cancer treatment. He passed away on Friday morning. I don't think I can even use the typical "lost his battle" with cancer, because honestly, it wasn't even a fair fight. It hit him very hard and fast. At least my family can find solace in the fact that he did not suffer long. Jeff, you will be greatly missed. And to my family, my deepest sympathies. Memorial Service information: 2 p.m. Tuesday, August 21, 2007 at Cremation Society of Minnesota, 4100 Grand Ave, Duluth with Rev. Bridget Strudwick officiating. Visitation 1 hr. prior to services.

This morning I had planned on going on a long bike ride. The weather made me rethink my plans, but at the last minute, I was invited to join a group of bikers. Our neighbors had invited us over for dinner, and the husband mentioned they were going out for a ride in the morning. I figured, sure sounds like fun. This way, if it did start raining, I would still be close to home.

Little did I know what I was getting myself into! We biked down to a meeting spot across from Walmart in Apple Valley. Everyone was on very decked out road bikes with the full gear, clothes, pedal clips everything. I got slightly worried... but figured, hey, I can run 12 miles for an hour and a half, I can handle this right?

WRONG.

The pace they were going was way above my abilities. Even drafting the back of the pack the entire time, I couldn't manage it. I was able to keep up for an hour, and then all of a sudden, I just looked up and I could hardly see the group. I tucked my tail in between my legs, turned around and headed home. Nothing like a little spanking to put you in your place.

On the plus side, it does go to show that if I do in fact want to do some kind of long bike ride event in my life (60 miles? 100 miles?) I obviously actually need to train for it. Just because I can run long distances doesn't mean I can bike long distances. Lesson learned, the hard way!

Terrible Tuesdays

The most annoying thing lately is how work is getting in the way of my exersize. Even getting stuck at work by 30 minutes puts me in a mood where I just can't bring myself to goto the gym, because it just means I'll end up delaying dinner and not have as much time at home. It's been happening a lot more recently, tonight I was at work until a whopping 5:20pm.

Now, I know a lot of people that work a lot longer hours then me. But I pride myself on maintaining the 40 hour work week, and not an hour more or less. I get paid for 40 hours a week, so I'm going to work 40 hours a week. Don't ask me to wear more pieces of flair.

The result of all this? Aside from my increased stress levels and growing desire for a screwdriver? A weight of 189 lbs. What's the big deal about that? I don't know, other then it bothers the crap out of me, and I'm not doing anything about it. The funny part is, it's not like there is any REAL difference between 189 and what I want to maintain, 180. Physically speaking, they are the same. Health wise, I'm sure it makes no difference. Yet I'm still so pissed off that I can't maintain the 180 weight.

So what to do? Do I completely give up calories due to my decreased exersize? Do I give up family and "me" time in order to get more exersize in? Do I try and change things around and exersize in the morning instead of at night? (historically, that has NEVER worked for me, so I'm not even sure I can consider that as an option) All I know is I need to change SOMETHING and everytime I resolve to do that, something happens to break down my resolve.

Too Hot Weekend

Let me start off by saying thank you to the people offering vacation spots. It's nice to know that if push came to shove and I needed to get away for awhile or risk going mental, I have a few options!

I'm sitting here with a massive headache, that's my own fault for not planning ahead. I went for a long run this morning and didn't take any Excedrin afterwards. We then proceeded on a road trip and an afternoon outside in the sun. It all compounded to give me quite the headache. Luckily, we are safe back home and the Excedrin is already kicking in. Man do I love that stuff.

Mostly stayed inside this weekend to escape the heat. I ended up not even leaving the house on Saturday! Some thunderstorms blew through on Friday night around 3am. It was the worst storms we've had in quite awhile. I don't think it was the sirens that woke me up, but the overall sounds of the storm kept me up for awhile. Very annoying, and caused me to be very tired the next morning. At least it was a bit cooler today, hopefully it will stay that way.

Today we made a quick trip down to Lafayette to goto a Church Picnic. It was nice, but I didn't realize Megan's grandparents would be working so hard. They got to see Megan a little bit, and when the heat started to get to us, we had to head home. I also got to see the new Bieraugel house being built... Maybe more on that later this week! Here are a pair of pictures from today:

Megan looking cool as we head out on our trip today.


Megan enjoying her first ever root beer float. Might have set the bar a little high having your first ever root beet float with 1919 Root Beer, straight from the keg.

Blogging from a distance

Tonight is a new first for the ol' blog. After over two years of blogging from the same place, I'm changing it up! I'm actually over at my brothers pad right now enjoying the movie Hot Fuzz on HD DVD, blogging from his lap top. Nothing like a new location to make things interesting.

Last night we went out for dinner for my Mom's birthday. I won't share her age on my blog, but it was pretty funny when her Mother told her she was offically old enough to move into some assisted living. I don't think she took it very well.

So works got me freaking out, I hit a breaking point today. Luckily I was so focused on a task at hand I was able to get through the day without causing myself or others around me any bodily harm. I really need a vacation... Just don't know when it's going to happen. 3 weeks vacation, sitting around doing nothing. Think it's time to plan something.

Speaking of that, I'm thinking it's time to go on that long bike trip I've been wanting to do since I put the bike rack on my car. It probably won't happen this weekend, but maybe the next one.

Time to go! Thanks for the monkey.

Halloween in August

Feels like I'm always saying this, but time always seems to be going by faster these days. Being August already is just another example. Not that I haven't enjoyed the summer, in fact, it's been quite enjoyable over all. Our mini Duluth vacation, the decent summer movie line up, winning $$$ at Valleyfair, all very fun. I think the plan would be to end on some kind of high note and do something at the end of this month for our 8 year anniversary. We've already had one potential offer to babysit Megan for a weekend, so we'll see what happens.

I got in an excellent run this weekend. A new distance record for me, 15 miles! It was a bit rough, and I still had a slight headache this morning. I think that was more my fault for not hydrating enough. I'm hitting the water today to try and make up for it.

In other news... a World of Warcraft expansion has been announced. I should have figured that as soon as I got back into the game and reached max level, this would happen. I'm getting to that point where I've invested enough time to want to keep going... Shucks!

Anyway, I haven't posted any pictures of Megan in awhile, so I'll end with those. Including some previews of Megan's Halloween costume for this year. She has to grow into it just a little bit, but she has 2 months.

Just chilling like the monkey she is. Climbing on everything...


"No Daddy, I'm not trying to get at your DVDs... Really!" *bats her eyes*


Her new costume... Can you tell who she is?


Maybe we should actually buy her this movie before Halloween so she knows.

Nuts & Bolts

Where's the beef! I actually had something going on Wed night and last night I was just so stressed out, I wanted nothing more then a few hours of World of Warcraft and an early bed time. Wed night, Andrea and I went over to my brothers’ new apartment to watch 300 on High Def DVD. Strangely, no one had seen it yet but me. My brother must have just been really busy around the time it came out and never got around to seeing it in the theaters. Everyone enjoyed it, and Andrea said it was "the best movie she had seen in a long time." I was a bit surprised at that reaction, but then I realized that the movie is 90% hot half naked guys walking around... Maybe not so hard to understand. :-)

Yesterday was just very stressful at work. We have so much work that needs to be done and not enough time to do it. Or not enough time to test it properly. Instead of giving us more time or scaling back the work, they just keep pouring more on. Everyone has a breaking point, where you just have to stand up and say SOMETHING. As if that wasn't enough, we also had a company meeting. You see, our CEO is leaving the company. He is taking an even higher position in the parent company.

Before I go on my rant, I need to clarify my true feelings about CEOs. I love CEOs. I admire CEOs. Without CEOs, I wouldn't have a dime to my name. I thank every CEO I've ever had for giving me the opportunity to put money in his pocket. Because without someone willing to spend their entire life building and running a company, I wouldn't have a job. Having said that, the life of the grunt is starting to make me wonder.

After his goodbye speech, I was reminded how much of a cog in a machine I really am. Hell, not even a cog. More like... a washer. No matter how good I can do my job, it's hard to convince myself that it has any real effect. The machine will keep rolling along, ideally making lots of money, and keeping me employed for a long time. But even if I'm the best damn programmer, things can change in a heart beat. That's the part that keeps me up at night.

Consider my experiences, driving my thoughts: (or as I like to call it, "The Facts")

My first company did layoffs in 2001 and again in 2007. I found out the department I worked for at my first job was completely off-shored, so even though I survived the 2001 layoffs, I most likely would have been gone on the second round.

My second company off-shored the department I worked in shortly after I left. (and some even say, as a direct result of me leaving)

How long until my current job is off-shored? Some programmer in India who can work twice the hours for half the pay? How long until I'm obsolete?

Change is Good

Here I sit, yet another week between posts. I've been struggling with the direction to go with my blog. In my mind, I see my blog as a windowed view into my life. The question is, does the window have blinders? For a long time, I feel like I've put filters on my posts based on "who might read this?", "what will they think if they do?", "will their opinion of me change?". I've come to the conclusion that this line of thinking has just killed my motivation to write anything at all.

You know what I've decided? Who the fuck cares. It's my blog, my thoughts, if someone reading it can't handle it, tough. It's who I am and that's all I know, and all I have to offer! So expect to see more posts 'round here. I might even change up the look and feel or... heaven forbid, even change my entire blog name!

In truth, the change to the blog isn't the only thing I'm needing to make. I've been struggling with motivation in other areas as well, particularly my running. The status quo worked for the weight loss, but it's becoming painfully obvious that staying motivated during "maintaining weight" is a much bigger mental challenge.

Finally, I need to make changes in other areas as well. From working on getting Megan to bed at a normal time (i.e. not 11pm), to getting to bed at a normal time myself. I've been staying up until midnight a LOT lately, which I know is not healthy. Just because I CAN handle staying up until midnight, doesn't mean I SHOULD be. I know that it effects my mood, which then effects my decisions, usually resulting in bad decisions. (i.e. not exercising, over eating, or spending too much time on World of Warcraft).

In the spirit of change, I even did something different at work today. Someone I work with has, in my opinion, put in a lot of effort recently. Practically doing the work of 2-3 people. I decided to make sure this effort was noticed and wrote up an "employee recognition" email to my boss. My little attempt to do something without my own interests in mind.

Have to cut this short, dinner is ready!!!

Staying Positive

Or trying to anyway. Aside from work, things are great. I just haven't been motiviated to post, as mentioned previously. I suppose the best news is about our roof, insurance company, and neighbor. Basically all three are positive!

Our neighbor is on board with getting the roof replaced, and he actually owns a large scale construction company and has contacts that will be able to do the job at a very good price. On top of that, our Insurance adjuster came to the house on Tuesday and agreed that there was significant hail damage and that everything will be covered. Things have worked out with the best possible outcome!

I got out to see Harry Potter this past weekend. It was okay, but I can totally see why my brother gave me the report that he did. It really was just a bridge movie, and it didn't seem to have much plot of it's own. I also got two good runs in this weekend before this crazy heat wave.

If all that wasn't enough, I also finally reached the maximum level in World of Warcraft! Yes, a huge goal, I know. I got a little crazy over the weekend and just got it done so now I can relax a little and start to enjoy the new things I get to do at the maximum level. Basically there is a small group of people I'm playing with, that my co-worker introduced me too. So now I get to join them in some of the things they do within the game. Should be lots of fun!!

But work... oh work... why must you ruin it all?

Where does the time go

Despite the many strikes against me - going on 5 hours of sleep, stressed out about work, a complete lack of motivation... I somehow managed to push out an 8 mile run tonight. I seriously wanted to quit after 3, but managed to keep going. Might be my last out door run for awhile, it looks like a heat wave is headed our way.

I'm back to that "I don't feel like blogging" attitude. Most nights I feel like I'd rather be spending my time either exersizing, spending a few hours with Andrea & Megan, and unwinding with World of Warcraft. (level 66 if your curious, still 4 more levels to go) On top of all that is of course the fact that I have nothing to post about.

How about some more good news? I just found out I didn't get selected for the Twin Cities 10 miler. That sure put a damper into my spirits regarding running and training. It can be really hard to put the miles in, when you don't have something your working towards. I'm still going to try and shoot for my yearly goal of 1200 miles, but I'm not really doing the math yet on how close/far off I am to that goal. I know I'm in the right ball park still...

The latest stress is our home owners insurance. If you remember, I mentioned before how our insurance company just decided to drop us at random. The problem is, we need to get our roof replaced. It's 14 years old and had the hail damage from last summer. Why did we delay? Why did we sit on this? I don't know, so please don't ask. What we do know is that our neighbor already put in a claim and got his insurance check. But at the time, he told us he didn't want to replace the roof, and so we were like "Okay thats fine..."

Thus the problem. Now that our insurance is dropping us, we have to get a claim in to get an insurance check AND get the roof replaced within 6 months. That means I'll have to goto the neighbor and get him on board with a roof replacement. What if he doesn't want to? What if he blew the insurance money he already got? Or even worst case, what if our insurance company refuses to play nice and not accept our claim?

Blarg... I don't know what to think. I do know one thing - Andrea and I have learned we don't want to live in a twin home. Moving is on the agenda, and I can see it happening within the next 2-3 years. And when we do move, it will definitly be a single family unit. Anyway, going to stop thinking about it now and go space out with World of Warcraft!

Not so lazy Sunday

Because I ended up doing a somewhat intensive run Friday night, I delayed a long run until this morning. Got a solid 12 miles in at a decent pace. Actually, I didn't monitor my pace the entire run. This goes back to when I first started using the heart rate monitor. Instead of constantly checking my pace or distance, I was only checking my heart rate. The goal being to keep my heart rate below a certain level. It seemed to work out much better, as I never felt like I was running too hard.

Although I mentioned seeing Harry Potter this weekend, my brother reported that it was only mediocre. Good, but nothing special... So I compromised and went to see Die Hard 4, because everyone seemed to enjoy it, and Andrea wanted to see that more then Harry Potter. It was a fun movie, a bit over the top a times, but still fun. The jet scene at the end was really the last straw for me where I went, "Okay... come on, that is just TOO much." It was like Bruce Willis just wanted to make the most macho, big explosions, huge stunts movie that he could. And in that regard, he succeeded.

Speaking of my brother... I haven't heard how the rest of his move went. I only helped for about 3 hours on Thursday night, I didn't stick around for the unpacking. For the most part, they planned to just unload the back of the truck into the garage/living room and then slowly bring stuff in over time. I did get to see the place they are moving into, and it is very nice. I think the change will do him good, and the extra space will help. Hopefully they will have us over once they've got everything settled.

Rest of today I'm going to rest and play some World of Warcraft... My character is level 64, so just 6 more levels to go. (70 is the maximum) Should take somewhere around 6-8 hours per level, so only about 40 hours to go! A simple work week, no problem!

Sun and Rain

It's always tough going back to work after a long break. This week is no exception, as work continued to stress me out. The blow has been somewhat lessoned by the fact the company is doing well enough to give everyone bonus checks. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.

It finally cooled down enough to do an outside run and what happens? It rains on me! It wasn't too bad, it must have only rained for about 5 minuted at most. Directly after the rain, it was pure sun shine, no clouds, very nice. I would have liked to go longer but needed to get home in time for dinner.

Tonight Andrea is having a Mom's club business meeting at our house, so Megan and I have to stay down stairs while the women folk do thier thing up stairs. Not like that's very different from our typical evenings, other then the fact that I'll get to sneak up stairs for fruit & cake.

I completely forgot that the newest Harry Potter comes out today. Not sure why they picked a midweek release, needless to say, I won't be getting around to seeing it until this weekend. My brother is going tonight, so I'm sure he will give me the low down tomorrow. I am helping him move for what must be the third time. (third times the charm?) They are moving into some very quality town homes in Burnsville with another couple and one other person. There will be a lot more space and 2 floors seperating the guys loud TV's / late night video game playing from the bed rooms. Should be nice for anyone living there trying to maintain a semi-normal sleeping schedule.

Not much else going on this week or weekend, so don't expect much in the way of blog posts. Don't see much point to wasting good blog space with me rambling on about nothing much at all. Wait... that's just what I did. Okay, enough of this, time for video games!!

The End

Of the weekend! Due to unforeseen circumstances, we weren't able to get out to see Live Free or Die Hard, but that's okay. I'll probably hit it up on DVD when it comes out. The end of the weekend unfolded as one long relaxation event. I got one minor run in, and that's really about it. Tonight Andrea and I capped off the weekend with some beer and pizza, something we haven't done for quite awhile.

Thursday night we headed out to the YMCA for some family swimming. The bad news is that the family pool was closed! There was one lane of the lap pool available for open swim, so we made the best of it. Megan had a great time, I think we will plan another swimming event soon.

Friday we had made plans for Megan to be babysat between 10am-noon. We ended up using the time to watch the movie Shooter, which we had from Netflix. It was a pretty good movie, nothing too spectacular.

On Saturday, Andrea's parents came up for a visit. It was good to see them both, they brought up some sandwich fixings for lunch and stayed until Megan's nap time. Today, I had planned on getting a nice long run in, but decided on skipping in favor of... sleeping in.

In other news, I've finally taken the next step in some goals I set for myself earlier this year. You might remember how I mentioned about biking trails I wanted to check out. Obviously, the key to that is having the ability to transport my bike to said trails. I finally got around to being able to do that, thanks to my friend and old college roommate giving me a car bike rack he wasn't using.



Now that I have it hooked up, I think I will actually start to plan some trips and get some long bike rides in. I'll probably wait until this heat wave ends and it gets a little cooler outside.

Vacations Rock

Maybe I should take more of them? A few days ago, something very strange occurred to me. I was reviewing my available vacation time at work, and it dawned on me that I had achieved something never previously done before. I had reached the MAXIMUM allowed saved up vacation time. That seemed crazy to me, as I'm the first one to take time off when I have it. I feel like this must mean something... but what it means, I'm just not sure. I think for now, I'll just assume it means I need to TAKE MORE VACATION!

That's just what I'm doing this week, and so far it is great! So much fun, I can't even cram it all into one post I think. Tuesday was my brothers 26th birthday. Due to some miscommunication we almost weren't able to join him for dinner, but our other engagement was called on account of rain. That made our choice for us, and we headed to Olive Garden.

After that, the rain stopped and we went ahead with our other plans, which was to visit the Family Fun Night at Hayes Park, part of the July 4th festivities in Apple Valley. It was a lot of fun, Megan got to dance, jump in a bouncer, and most fun of all, check out a petting zoo! (pictures below)

Yesterday we enjoyed the movie Transformers. I can't say enough good things about this movie, it was by far the best movie in 2007. I'm going to see it again, no doubt. After the movie, I got a good (and very hot!) run in over to my Mom's, where we had a wonderful 4th of July BBQ. No fireworks this year, besides, they are a tad overrated anyway.

If all this wasn't enough, somewhere within the next half hour, my brother is coming over to babysit for us! Andrea and I are going to get yet ANOTHER movie in, Live Free or Die Hard. Talk about fun filled vacation, and it's only Thursday!!

Check back later this week for even more reports, and some news on some of my year goals that I'm working on.

Megan & Grandma with some clowns. She didn't seem afraid of them at all.


Megan enjoying the jumper.


Megan introduces herself to the baby calf.


And then gives him a nice pat down.


Megan really liked the little goats running around, she got so excited when they ran up to her.


It's hard to tell, but that big llama swung his head around... I swear he was either gonna give Megan a big kiss or try to take a bite out of her! She didn't even notice it...

Mom's Club Picnic

At the last minute, I remembered to bring my camera along. Actually, we were already out of the driveway and Andrea remembered. The crappy part is, I didn't charge the batteries, so I was only able to get a couple of pictures. Thankfully, they were all pretty good ones.

Megan playing with one of the lawn games we brought, Ladder Golf.


Megan showing the older boy the obviously easier way to throw the bean bags into the holes.


We had two tables full of food, and one person making hot dogs on the grill. There was more then enough food for everyone.


Megan and I enjoying the swing.


Posing with the party viewable in the background.


It was a great event, Andrea did a lot to organize and bring it all together. No kids were injured and everyone had a fun time. We were exhausted after we got home, and so enjoyed the rest of the day just relaxing.

Today will be much of the same, although I got a short bike ride in this morning and hopefully we will visit a park this evening for something fun to do. This last picture was taken a few days ago by Andrea. She came into Megan's room to find her having done this all by herself.

Come get some

Ya, I know I haven't posted since Sunday. Thought maybe I would try to sum up my week in as few words as possible.

Monday: Work, no exercise, world of warcraft
Tuesday: Work, bike ride with Steve, world of warcraft
Wed: Work, 5.75 mile run, Red Lobster!, world of warcraft
Thur: Work, 8.1 mile run, blog, world of warcraft

See a trend there? Slightly... Maybe I'm playing too much world of warcraft, I can't really tell. Andrea says I need my personal fun time, but I just feel like I'm neglecting my fatherly duties, spending time with Andrea and Megan. Granted it's been a little too hot lately to do much, but maybe I should make more effort to plan family events during the week. Ah well...

Tonight's run was excellent. Perfect run weather. As I said, I did 8.1 miles - the cool part was my last mile. According to my monitor, I ran it in 7:13. Not a bad pace for an 8th mile. To put that in perspective, imagine running the length of a football field in 25 seconds, 17.5 times. (after already running 7 miles!). The real question would be, could I keep that pace up from start to finish of a 10k?

I know I haven't posted much in the way of pictures lately, so I'll make up for it this weekend. We have a very fun Mom's club picnic event planned for Saturday morning, and I will FORCE myself to remember my camera and take some pictures of the event to share with everyone. Andrea has put in a ton of effort to organize this event, and it's looking like there will be a great turn out. Weather forecast is also looking good. I hope it all comes together wonderfully!

Ups and Downs

Clever title eh? Yesterday was full of them both. The day started out on such a high note. Megan slept in until 8:45, and I timed it JUST right to be in her room, standing over her crib as she opened her eyes to greet the day. It put her in such a great mood to see me first thing, I couldn't help but get in a good mood as well.

We headed over to Grandma Gayle's to drop her off for the afternoon, so we could enjoy our day at Valleyfair. I think we ended up making it to Valleyfair around 11:30, maybe just a little bit after that. Went on a few rides and I did the Power Tower a few times. Then we headed over to lunch at 2:30pm.

Lunch was okay, nothing special. Dried out chicken sandwiches... but hey, it's free right? Turns out the free food wasn't the highlight of lunch though, as my company had a drawing for prizes and I ended up winning!! I got a $150 dollar gift certificate to Target! It was like getting your cake, eating it, and getting another whole piece to boot.

After lunch we headed back into the park, but Andrea and I had different ideas of what we wanted to do. Maybe the heat was getting to us a little bit too, but we ended up splitting up to do our own things. I wanted to hit the last 2 roller coasters, Wild Thing and the new one, Renegade. Andrea wanted to watch a comedian magician inside this theater thing that I've never actually been in.

Turns out the line for the Renegade was unbearably hot, long (30+ minutes) and the ride itself wasn't all that. Sure it was fast and twisty, but I really like the free fall feeling much more (I did the Power Tower 5 times). The Renegade was all about being the only coaster with a turn on the initial down slope. To me that was just more of a distraction then anything else.

On top of that, the magician Andrea saw turned out to be not that enjoyable either. Cheesy jokes and not that entertaining. Add that to the heat, me being late to our meeting place due to the long line on the Renegade, and you have a recipe for disaster. We had a nice good argument on our way home, only to realize we were both just kinda of pissed off that what we did ended up not being that enjoyable.

Oh well, gotta look at the positive side. At least I got in for free, free lunch, and $150 dollars to boot! Can't complain with that.