Two quick notes.

First, Thaumatrope published another one of my twitfic stories today. I woke up to the notification on my phone. It was nicer to wake up to that message than when I woke up to the lawnmowers out in the neighborhood. You can read it here. It doesn't take long.

Also, Jenn had a nice little incident at the treadmill at work today. It's better if you read it for yourself where she explains her klutziness. (Yes, that's a word!)

C). It was really warm here today. No, I mean it. I don't think we cracked 80 degrees, but we got awfully close. Tomorrow we are supposed to hit 81 degrees. I know it won't last too long,but it will be nice. I might have to turn on the A/C tomorrow!

New Look!

I tried out one of the new templates from Blogger. What do you think? I was happy that I could find one that had a sun theme to keep with the name of the blog. It's not too bad. I'm sure I'll tweak it some more, but I don't have too much time. Jenn is already checking on me, making sure I get off the computer to get the kids in the shower while she's gone.

Speaking of Jenn, she and her friend Suzanne started a new blog about their adventures in training for a marathon. Jenn is training for the Chicago Marathon and Suzanne is running in the San Francisco Marathon, which makes sense since she lives there. Go check it out, tell them I sent you. This is Suzanne's first blog so make sure to tell her I said to say 'Hi.'

I've been a bad blogger lately, I know. It's been a busy time, as far as you know. I did take my first photography lesson this week. It was a three hour one-on-one session. I learned a lot about the basics of photography and how to make the camera do what I want it to do. When I get a chance to take another lesson I want to learn more about composition and stuff like that. But, this was the perfect start. I took the lesson from Russell Lowe who is a local professional photographer. He knows more about this than I can ever hope to, but he was good at making it easy for me to understand. If you are in the Chicago suburban area I highly recommend him for lessons or photography.

Okay, I really need to get the kids, and myself, cleaned up. Enjoy the last bit of the weekend!

A decade and-a-half, minus one

Fourteen years ago today Jenn and I were married. I know I am lucky, but for Jenn it's like she hit the Mega Jackpot.

Har.

I'm kidding of course, it's pretty much the other way around. I was lucky enough to meet her in college and still can't believe my luck.

We don't really have much planned for today since it's a weekday, but I did pick up something special for dessert. That's the most important meal of the day anyway, am I right?

Don't expect me to get all mushy here, it's not for your eyes or ears. I think you understand.

I'll be back tomorrow!

It's been a busy weekend!

As you know, Jenn ran the Chicago Marathon this weekend. Unfortunately, an injury caused her to stop at the halfway mark. She was not happy, of course. The day before the race when we took the dogs to the boarding place she pulled something in her left leg. She was limping the night before the marathon, which is never a good thing, but she went out that morning anyway. She put a lot of time and effort into getting ready for this, there was no way a simple muscle pull was going to stop her. I give her a lot of credit for that, I would have wimped out immediately.

We all stayed downtown that night, and since the hotel was on the race route, we all went out to see her at the 2.5 mile mark. She was already limping a bit. Again, not good. But she kept going. I left the kids with the grandparents and went out with Jenn's sister, cousin, and her sister's boyfriend and hopped on the train to go to the 8 mile mark. She was still running, but now she asked me for some of the Aleve. She was limping a bit worse, now. But she said she wasn't going to stop.

At this point we went back to the hotel since the 12.5 mile mark was only a few blocks away and I could meet up with the kids again. Before we got there Jenn sent a message asking us to pick up a knee brace for her. That was new, and certainly not a good sign. By the time we saw her she was limping much worse. The new problem arose in her knee on the opposite side. At this point Jenn said she may call it at the halfway point if the brace didn't help. We all thought that was a good idea. About ten minutes after we saw her she sent me a text saying she was stopping. Her knee now hurt more than her other leg. Based on how she has been walking the last two days, it was a good decision.

We are all proud of her. She tried her best. Heck, she tried period, much more than I would do for a marathon. That's just crazy. Not to mention she raised over $1200 for Children's Memorial Hospital. So, can you join me in a chant of:

"Way to go Jenn!"

Thanks.

In other news...

You may have noticed a new widget on the right side of the blog. See it? Well, about three weeks ago the someone from the Schmap Guides sent me an e-mail saying one of my photos on Flickr was short-listed for inclusion in there new Orlando Guide. They asked if I would be interested in allowing them to use it. So, I checked them out to make sure they were legit and then agreed. What the heck? So, turns out they chose to use mine, as well as several others. But still, it's kind of cool. Oh, you can go here, then bring your cursor down to the Epcot and watch as the pictures change on the upper-right. One of them is mine. Just look for my one by Mike. I think I'm the only one with that name there. So, that was kind of nice.

There's more, but that is all the fun stuff for now. I need to go make dinner. Sloppy Joe's, anybody?

Edit: Turns out you can get my picture from the widget, too. You need to scroll over the map to get to Epcot then click "photos" and you can scroll through them. Not much easier, I know.

Marathon Weekend

It's the marathon weekend. And, I don't mean it's a long weekend. Well, it is a holiday weekend, but that's not what I mean either. Should I just get to the point?

This is the weekend that Jenn is running the Chicago Marathon. Sorry, The Bank of America Chicago Marathon. I need to make sure I get it right, just in case the FTC thinks there is some kind of blogging shenanigans going on.

Today Jenn went downtown to get her racing packet at the expo. I was supposed to go with her, but I ended up napping. I've been a little under the weather the last two days. I think I got it from Jenn since she had a bad cold about two weeks ago. At least it's me and not her!

Tomorrow we head downtown in the morning to drop off the dogs, come back out here to take our son to basketball, come home and get everything together, then go downtown again to get to our hotel. Yes, I know, we live in the same area as the marathon, but it's not easy to get there that early and Jenn wants as much sleep, and as little stress, as possible on the morning of the marathon. Plus, the hotel is part of her birthday present that was a few days ago. I mean the night's stay in the hotel. I didn't buy the hotel for her.

On Sunday, when it's going to be in the 30s(!), Jenn will head to the starting line, and the kids and I will go outside to see her run past the hotel just past the two mile mark. Then I'm going to go off with her sister and cousin and try to get glimpses of her throughout the race. I'm sure Jenn is happy it is going to be so cool the day of the race, but I'd like it to be a bit warmer. Say, 20 degrees or so. Seventy-five would be perfect!

Right now Jenn is watching The Spirit of the Marathon to get all psyched up to run the race. I'm here typing on the keyboard because I have no spirit for the marathon. It's too long. Way too long. The human body wasn't designed to run that far. That's why we invented cars. And before there were cars we made animals take us where we wanted to go.

So, to sum it up, we have a busy weekend. Not sure when I'll be back, probably not until Monday is my guess. I may have to carry Jenn around the house after she is done and I can't type while doing that.

Have a good weekend!