Catching Snowflakes

February 21st, 2011

Dude, it’s so much easier to catch’em in a blizzard!

Urban training

February 20th, 2011

Boston marathon training has kicked off in full force these past couple weeks.  Our long run this past weekend was 17 miles.

I find 17 miles to be that point in which your body starts screaming at you, it begs you to stop and then you suddenly remember why you told yourself you would never do it again at mile 21 of the race.

Di and I are running Boston together.  I guess I didn’t realize until yesterday that she ran ONE marathon.  ONE…and made it to Boston. Pretty cool.

Needless to say, we have been doing a lot of running in the city.  We have been doing a modified hill workout in parking ramps downtown.  If you want to feel hardcore…try sprinting up a ramp at 6:00 am then do it again and again and again.  That will do it.

What has been great is our long runs.  Not that I didn’t know this before, but we live in such an amazing city.  Our runs have started off by the lakes, meander though beautiful hilly neighborhoods, straight through the heart of the city and then we run along the river.  What else could you ask for?

OK, besides warm weather.

Murphy the goat

February 11th, 2011

So, along with everything else that is not being tended to with our household that seems to be swirling and whirling these days…the DOGS have made claim to a bit of madness.

I have not trained Murphy. The dog I got on a Surly buzz.  Nor has anyone else in the house.

That damn dog eats almost anything in sight.  I swear it has the dog version of pica.  If you don’t put it away, it is toast.  Good life lesson, unless you are a pair of Dad’s Lucky jeans.

Here is the latest of the trageties…

Cost for a public school library book: $9.99

I wish it could!

February 10th, 2011

Today marks the year anniversary of my dad’s death.  What a year it has been.  Everyone has grown, changed and morphed their ways in order to cope with his loss.

Yesterday, KP was hang’n out with his buddy Joe.  They were asking funny questions of Joe’s magic 8 ball.

Then KP shifted gears and asked, “Will my Grandpa come back to life?”

The reply on the ball was “Nope, not this time.”

In a disgruntled voice he said, “OH MAN!”

What a perfect question from a six year old who loved his grandpa so very much.  How I wish that magic 8 ball would tell us all he would be back.

The void is huge, the hole is deep, life has shifted and that is the way it is.

We all miss him.

Dad, cheers to you today.  We miss you, we love you and we have not forgotten you.

I love you!

Where have I been you ask?

February 9th, 2011

Gone, on so many levels.

My Sponsorship Coordinator position at the City of Lakes Loppet was so much more than I anticipated.  In fact, I am pretty sure it was one of the larger projects I have sunk my teeth into in a while.

It was one of those projects that you thought you wanted to shiv yourself in the temple most of the time and then you got over the hump (then you had to get over another one, oh and another one) and finally as you were rolling on home, you got to see all the hard work you put in pay off.

The entire Loppet weekend ended up being a huge success.  They had record attendance, races filling and spectators that added up into the thousands and thousands.  It was something to behold.

Here is a little clip of the most popular event, the Luminary!

Did I end up skiing in any races?  No.

But, I did end up Ice Bike racing. And, took LAST!  Dead last.  First time in my life, that is a humbling experience and may go hand in hand with this project.

I am going to tell you this…I learned a lot about myself on this go-round and I met some really great people.