Christmas week Wrap up 2008

Well, it's over. Another Christmas come and gone. I can't believe the year is almost over. It seems like it was just August. Actually, today feels a little bit like spring. The snow has all melted, and it is raining now. And flooding. Not near us, but a lot of flood warnings are out for the Chicagoland area. I'm sure next week everything will freeze again.

Christmas Eve was a weird day. Jenn had to work, which seemed odd, and the day started with some snow, then some melting of snow, then it was 12 degrees by 10pm. We went by Jenn's cousin's house to get together with her side of the family. It was nice, though the place that they ordered food from screwed up. They had made some food, as well as bought some from somewhere else, so we still had plenty. The kids got some toys (you can never have enough), I got an Amazon.com gift card, and Jenn got a shirt that she has to return. I've already gone to Amazon's site to see what I want to buy. I need to narrow it down now.

Though my son was worried about being able to fall asleep, they both did fine. We managed to get them to wait until 8am to go downstairs and open presents on Christmas morning. I'm still not sure how we did that. They ripped open all their presents and were both happy with what Santa gave them. We went to my mom's house that night and got even more gifts. I have a lot of gift cards to use which is good. The problem is always figuring out what the best deal for my gift cards is. I want to get an external hard drive. Ours is small, and full, and if the hard drive on the desktop blows up I don't want to lose all of our pictures.

Jenn gave me a Flip video recorder. I've been playing around with it and I'm sure I'll be posting some videos with it soon. I know you can't wait!

This weekend has been spent putting things together so far and helping my son play Wall-E, Lego Batman, and Lego Indiana Jones. He needs help with some of the harder tasks; it has nothing to do with me wanting to play the game at all. Actually, I was just playing the Indiana Jones game while he was in bed. I had to make sure he didn't miss any secrets. Really! The best part of the Lego games is that you can bust anything and get some coins. See a plant; smash it. See and wheelbarrow; smash it. It's kind of fun.

This afternoon I spent at least 2 hours putting a castle together for him. It's made up of Lego-type pieces, 550 to be exact, so I didn't finish it. I was getting frustrated, and Jenn knew it, so she told me to take a break so we could eat dinner. She knows I'm not good at building things.

Now we are relaxing. The kids are both asleep and we are watching TV. Jenn is watching a video she got from her sister as I type. It's called The Spirit of the Marathon. Since I have no desire to run one, I don't have the spirit required to watch it closely.

I am off of work until December 31st, which is nice, but I also need the rest. I've been staying up too late; I'm too old for that.

Have you all recovered from the Christmas holiday?

Race Wrap Up: Am I Dry Yet?

As I mentioned in my last post, I had a race this weekend. I was concerned about it because it was the longest I've ever run; not to mention race. My goal was to make it to the end. As the medal to the right shows, I did that. My secondary goal was to finish the race under two hours. Deep down I wanted to finish around 1:45, but I kind of kept that to myself. I wasn't sure if I could keep up that pace for the entire 9.5 miles. So, How did it go? Well, I can sum it up in two words. Very wet.

If you are not in the Chicago area you may not know we got a lot of rain this weekend. On Friday night through Saturday morning we got about 3 times more than we normally get for the whole month of September. I probably should have run in one of those cool suits that the swimmers wore in the Olympics. I don't think I would have looked out of place.

I knew it was going to be a rain or shine race (I asked when I picked up my packet) so I was prepared to get wet. As I mentioned in my last post, I wished for it to rain so I could keep cool. Now I know what people mean when the say, "careful what you wish for." Jeez.

When I went to bed they were calling for rain overnight and through the day but I was not prepared for the volume. I knew it was going to be bad when I nearly got stuck in an intersection due to flooding. At that point I sent Jenn a text message and told her to avoid that intersection when she came later with the kids. I also told her she should probably stay home. I didn't want her and the kids to get drenched waiting for me to drag my butt through the race.

When I got my packet they had said 1000 people had signed up for the races and walk that were scheduled. Only about half that amount actually showed up; I don't blame them. Especially the walkers, the money they raised still went to charity, so why get drenched and sick? The other 500 of us were stupid. I mean dedicated! Yeah.

I was soaked by the time I was 30 feet into the run. It was great! Actually, after about 20 minutes of getting poured on it didn't matter any more. It was almost funny in a way. Until I'd pass by someone who was outside pumping water out of their house. We ran through the residential area of Arlington Heights so I saw a lot of that. At the same time, though, a lot of people came out to cheer people on, that was nice considering the weather. It did kind of keep me going at times. Especially when I got to around mile 7. My legs were really getting tired. I think if they had their own freewill they would have taken me behind one of the houses and beat me silly. But, I am the master of my own body, so I kept running.

I did walk a few times, but only when I went into use a porta-potty, whenever I took some water, and when I ate my Sport Beans. Those things helped a lot. I highly recommend them. Mostly, I ran the whole time. I am very happy about that. Now, would I have been able to do that if it was 80 degrees and sunny? I don't know. It would have been very tough, and a lot slower. If I run this race again next year we may find out. Hopefully I will be better prepared.

I did get a nice surprise at the end. Jenn and the kids were waiting for me at this finish line. Soaked, but still cheering me on. That was a nice way to finish. Look at the nice picture they took. See, I told you it was rainy. Oh, and I did get under 1:45. Probably because I was sick of getting rained on.