Turkey Trot Down...

...Jingle Bell to go.

On Sunday I ran in the 38th annual Peoria Turkey Trot at Detweiller Park. I finished 5th in my age group and 56th overall with a time of 30:05. This was a 4 mile run whose course had a one mile climb and a one mile run on turf. I did not have a lot of experience running on either hills or turf going in and it cost me. In fact, the little training I did do on hills here in town actually caused me to injure myself (upper quad strain on my right leg) which I then aggravated halfway up the hill in the race. The injury forced me to walk for about .5 mile, and I had trouble getting a good stride going on the turf. All in all I cannot complain at all about my overall performance...5th isn't too shabby.


Nigel and I stretching.


Coming through the trees to the home stretch.



Next up is going to be my last race for the year, the Jingle Bell run for arthritis. It is a 5K fund raising race for arthritis. I would like to thank everyone who has helped out by contributing to the cause through me. I have two weeks until the race and would love some more help...so, if you can and are interested please click here.
I also have a link to my donation page to the right on my blog.

Cheers

Another Day...

...another gem. God I love my co-workers. They say the darndest things.

We were discussing the counting of inventory, and use of calculators when one of the night "supervisors" said this..."I don't use a calculator. My head is more accurate". When I questioned this logic he defended his position by stating that calculators are made by humans and therefore have human error built into them. Let's ponder this for a moment.

Human error built into them.

His head is more accurate.

Is he not human?

Did I mention he miscounted one item by 113 and came up with 6x7=35. Can you even imagine how far off those numbers would have been had he used a calculator?

I could write a book on all the wonderful things he says on a weekly, if not daily, basis. However, it would get a bit tiresome and I think some of you may think he needs a helmet. Instead, I will share a few from time to time for a bit of humor.

I am pretty excited about tomorrow. I get to go have lunch with an old friend from high school, who I have not seen in about 15 years. Very exciting. Then the Robinson family is having dinner with the Yoder's at their home. What a good day! Perhaps I shall go to sleep now to make the day come faster.

Cheers

The Second Stupidest Thing I Have Ever Heard

A while ago I shared a story about a conversation that rattled around in my head, and drove me absolutely crazy. Click here for a refresher. Well, I have a new one. It is more of a statement than it is a story, but it rattles just the same.

One of the policies that we have at work is that all of our drivers must call in every morning and report on their status. It is therefore very common that I field calls from a driver or two. Today was no exception. The following is a direct quote from one of this mornings calls. "Somehow a sign got caught under my truck, and I have been dragging it down the road." Somehow!?!? I have an idea, do you?

News flash:

Date line Central Illinois. Reports are flying in across the region of suicidal road signs. Apparently signs, feeling unappreciated due to drivers total disregard of them and their message, are hurling themselves in front of oncoming traffic. One startled driver commented, "All I know is suddenly I heard a weird scraping and grinding noise".

Seriously! Somehow a sign got caught under your truck, really?

Four days until my Turkey Trot and two and a half weeks until the Jingle Bell run for arthritis. Don't forget to check out my web site...I would really love your help.

Superman runs for arthritis.

Cheers

Brotherhood of the Traveling (under)Pants

Todays run brought more hills and with that more traveling underpants. I did make an interesting observation, however. My drawers seemed to go the same direction as the hill. Up the hill, up the...well you get the idea. Unfortunately I ended my run with an uphill climb. My warm down was not comfortable.

A little over one week to go until my next race. On Nov 23rd I am running in the Peoria Park Dist Turkey Trot. It is a four mile run and includes a pretty sizable hill, thus the hill training. I am pretty excited about this race as it to be my first cold weather run. Fortunately I have had some practice lately in the cold. Maybe I will go extreme and start training in the freezer at work.

Tomorrow is a pretty big day for Nora. Her class is having their reading celebration. They get to have this special day because they have read over 500 take home books since the school year began. All the kids get to go to school in their pjs, bring their favorite stuffed animal, and spend the day reading. Not a bad deal if you ask me.

That's all folks!

Twelve And Counting....

...I hope.

I am thrilled that I have had 12 consecutive posts with a comment. They are mostly from from my parents and MIL, but hey, most of my readers are family. So, no need to split hairs, right? Keep 'em coming, please.

Did anyone catch my implied Larry King tone from the last post? I was going for completely random, unconnected thoughts with absolutely no segue. Who better to channel than the "King"?

I am currently watching an episode of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel. It revolves around the removal of abandoned mobile homes. It is both hilarious and frightening at the same time. It can best be described as one long 12 year old boys joke. The episode title is mannequin factory. Check it out if you find it in re-runs.

We had our very first parent-teacher conference on Monday. I was a very proud parent before, but now...wow! My Nora is the best!!! She is right on line with her reading and math and has very good handwriting. The thing that made me the happiest was the teachers comment about her creativity. The teacher cannot wait to see the creative twists Nora will add to their projects. She is a very creative little girl and is not afraid to do her own thing. Socially she has no issues. She loves her classmates and they love her.

We are nearing the end of our room re-model. It looks like a room. Yahoo!

Cheers

I Don't Wanna Jinx Myself, But....

....I have had eleven consecutive blogs with at least one comment. Do you have any idea how happy this make me? I am so very proud of you, my loyal Chrisophiles, for reading my blog and taking the time to leave the occasional comment. Let's keep it rolling.

Observations:

Michigan Won! That was not a typo. Michigan Won! They beat Minnesota today 29-6, and maintained possession of the Little Brown Jug. Click here for a little history.

I have found the answer to a question posed in a Saturday Night Live spoof commercial. In said commercial they were advertising a new food product. It was all flash, no substance and never named the food. When asked what this wonderful food was they would just answer, "It's not yogurt". Wanna know what it is? It's Gogurt. There are no live cultures, a bunch of unpronounceable items, a healthy dose of high fructose corn syrup and more sugar than a can of Coke. Nope, it's not yogurt.

Dose any one still have a rotary phone? Better yet, remember the first "touch tone" phones. You know the ones where you would push the button and then hear the click, click,, clicking of the number dialing. Those were awesome.

When and why did conveniences become necessities? The particular one that is driving me up the wall is the leaf blower. I gave one of these modern wonders a whirl on Wednesday. It took me 15 minutes to clear a space that took me under 5 minutes with a good ole rake. Do not get me started on the fact that it cannot clear thick layers of leaves and the fact that once you get the leaves air borne the wind tends to deposit them wherever it sees fit. I did find one use. They are so loud that you cannot even hear yourself think, which as bizarre as my thoughts tend to be....

Michigan 29 Minnesota 6 Still awesome!

Home remodeling is fun again. Nora and Nigel are both old enough now that Robin and I can get in a few mostly uninterrupted hours of work. Makes a huge difference. We, and by we I me mostly she, have been fixing our front room.

Before:


Pretty wallpaper


Even better walls underneath.

After:



Give us a day or two more...we are not quite done.

Anyone know what time it is?

Yeah, you know.

Cheers!

Glutton For Punishment

Apparently I enjoy pain and discomfort. I went for my afternoon run today and decided I wanted to do a little hill work. A big advantage of hill training is that it allows you to simultaneously work on aerobic, anaerobic, and muscular fitness. My upcoming race has a pretty sizable hill toward the finish and I want to be prepared for it. Also, I like the change of pace. Anyway, back to my run. When I hit these hills it was not enough for me to just maintain my pace. No, I had to pick up the pace, and I do not mean going from a gentle jog to a nice run. No, I needed to jump up to my finish the race kick. What is wrong with me. My hammys, calves and glutes are going to be killing me tomorrow. You know what the kicker in this whole ordeal was? My drawers were not cooperating. They were traveling uphill just as I was...if you get my drift. Do you have any idea how hard it is to maintain your pace and stride while trying to get your drawers to travel back downhill? Not to mention how silly you look to those around you.

Now for something completely different...

I have declared tomorrow and every subsequent Friday to be Superhero Friday. From this time forward I shall don a superhero t-shirt for work. Last Friday was the Green Lantern and tomorrow shall be Superman.

Martini time

Cheers

Nora's Big Game

This past Saturday was a very big day for Nora and I. Before I get into why it was such a big day I will give a little back story for those of you who may need to be brought up to speed.

A few years ago my Dad and I began a tour of the Big Ten in an attempt to watch Michigan play in all the different stadiums. We have been to several and have really enjoyed seeing the campuses. This year we were to attend the Penn St game and the Purdue game. We made the Penn St game with Brett. That was a ton of driving in a weekend, but worth every second. Their stadium is amazing and the fans were really into the game. We were in the upper deck and when the fans started jumping the the whole structure would bounce and pulsate. It was awesome.

This past weekend Dad and I were supposed to take in the Purdue game. Unfortunately for him he came down with a horrible cold and was not able to go. Fortunately Nora was willing to step in and take his place. That's right, I got to take Nora to her first Michigan football game. She and I were all decked out in our Michigan jersey's and Michigan hats and ready for a great game. We had a nice drive over in the morning. We got there just in time to see the Purdue marching band parade into the stadium. She really enjoyed that. Once in the stadium she really enjoyed seeing all the fans there and being all caught up in the excitement. I had a great time watching her take it all in and explain various aspects of the game to her.

My favorite was on the occasion of Purdue's first punt to Michigan. I explained that Purdue did not move the ball far enough and would have to kick the ball to Michigan. Nora then said, "Oh, then our guy has to catch it and run for a touchdown, right?". I said that is the idea, but it rarely works out that way. Wouldn't you know...Michigan returned the punt for a touchdown. That touchdown put the Wolverines up 14-0. It was a very exciting start to the game. In the end Michigan did lose, but Nora and I had a great time, and that was the most important part to me.


Getting ready to go.


Here comes Purdue.


The Wolverines getting ready.


The halftime show was cool. Check out their big bass drum.


Go Blue!