so my run mojo ain't what i thought

Ha, so I thought that I was Superman, but I'm more like the Our Lady Peace version. Dead. I got the brilliant idea to run 13 miles in a weekend three weeks ago, and by Tuesday I could hardly walk, with apparently what was a re-aggravation of IT band syndrome (look it up in Google, explaining it is tiresome, but basically I'm old and falling apart like a 1,000 year old vampire exposed to sunlight). My butt hurt, my back (left side) hurt, my left hip felt like I'd been hit full speed with a football helmet on the pad - repeatedly, my soleus on the left leg was sore as hell and I developed, later, shin splints and a bruise on top of it all.

So Urban Cow as a half-marathon is out. No time to train - or more accurately, no time to *heal*, so I've emailed the sponsors and said "Please, because I am a complete 'ing moron, change my registration to the 5K." I haven't received a response, but I imagine I'll be allowed to change, if it hasn't already been done, by the time of packet pickup (I suppose I *could* walk it - just so I get my cowbell... but that will take me three hours (then again, what do I have to do on that day anyway?). OTOH, if I do the 5K I'll be done in plenty of time to go to the free massage tables before the half marathon winner is withing farting distance of the finish line. If I walk, all the food will be gone and there's not much eye candy in the part of a race where most of the people are walking...

Speaking of 5Ks, I took about two weeks off from running at all, and ran The Race for the Arts 5K on Saturday. We had a nice cool marine layer come in over the weekend, so I actually ran in long sleeves with my black # 12 Iowa football jersey over it. Now, that's Ricky Stanzi's #er (the starting QB for Iowa this year and the purveyor of the infamous Stanziball (also called "Rick Sixes" when they are intercepted for a TD by the opposing defense), but it is also the former Pittsburgh Steeler QB Terry Bradshaw's #er, and since our jerseys are based on the 1970s Steeler uniform (really really, you can google "Hayden Fry/Iowa uniform" and find a video of Lord Hayden talking about that whole thing), people confuse my Iowa jersey with the Steelers all the time - which is OK, because Steeler fans are everywhere.

I got a shout out at least 4 times during the race "Go Steelers!" and a guy drove by me in his car after the race saying "I still say the Immaculate Reception hit the ground!" (OK, I'm probably getting way too much into football at this point for those of you that don't give a shit about football).

Anyway, a lot of people wore costumes - it is a race that benefits Art organizations, after all - but I've almost always been the only guy in a football jersey in the 5Ks I've run around here (California, outside of pro football, is not that crazy about football, which is one of the things that's Terribly Wrong With California IMHO)... and I mean, that's what recreational 5Ks need, another short, skinny (well, I'm not that skinny) in a giant football jersey looking like he's going to fall over dead at any second running the 5K.

I also wore gangsta length (well, not quite) running shorts this time. I've racked up enough credit at Fleet Feet on J Street that I got a pair of Nike Dri-Fits for $8 and I was surprised that its more comfortable to run in semi-baggies (the Nike ones are more skinny than say Brooks or the other brands) because mine have a tendency to creep up on me in the leg when I run. So I strapped on my iPhone, and actually ran decently considering I'm not training worth a shit, which means I Beat The 80 Year Old Guy to the finish line (he ran a  10:45 mile, and I'll bet he can write his name in the snow too if he can do that). However, a 78 year old guy kicked my ass, so, the universe does restore balance as much as possible.

The ITB didn't act up during the race or afterwards, but I can feel the effects of the injury s lo w in g me down, so this morning I had a consult with an acupuncturist and tomorrow, I get stuck for the first time. I'll do a half dozen treatments and see how it goes. She had me stick out my tongue - Chinese docs learn to read your tongue - and said "Um, you're not sleeping very well and you're very nervous right?" Um, she happens to be right.

Of course, I have this newfound love for beer recently. Now, I've never been a big beer fan, but now I can *drink* it, and I kind of like it. I suspect enough taste buds have finally died that I can guzzle it without ill effect. I hope the needle doc can fix whatever it is that's ailing me - because I signed up for the Northern California Warrior Dash 2010 somewhere west of I-5 near Los Banos. I get to run through muck, crawl under barbed wire, scale obstacles, and leap over fire for 3 miles and then they give you beer. One only, and they urge you to drink responsibly. I plan on wearing my black Iowa shirt so I'll stand out in the crowd when I'm covered with mud (which hopefully will keep me from getting more than 2nd degree burns, right? I have no hop, but perhaps seeing a pile of burning logs in front of me will urge me to jump, um higher).

Oddly, I've lost a little weight over the past month... stress related I'm sure, stress that I'm not going to blog about because, well, everyone has problems. I miss my children a lot, who started school today.  Meredith didn't want to go to school at all... I noted to her (they called after school was over, I'll give their Mom kudos for actually promptly returning my request for a call after the first day of school was over) that "You can have Mom pack your bag for Sacramento, and you won't have to go to school until next Tuesday. But you'll still have to go to school."

She didn't take me up on my offer. She gets to experience the 2nd Hurricane of Her Life this week (she was 3 when Katrina came through Jackson, MS), because Earl apparently is going to skate on by Connecticut this weekend... as a hurricane.

Oh, and I'm taking lessons from another guitarist right now, and the material is totally kicking my ass. Which is a good thing...

return of run mojo

I didn't train nearly as much with the children here as I should have, although I didn't have any scheduled races in mind during those three weeks last month in mind, the plan - such as it was - had me running 2.3 miles each morning during the work week. Well, I sort of end up blowing that entirely off after about the first week they were here, and by the third week I didn't run at all.

No longer needing to drive to work so I could take them to summer school and pick them up at the end of the day, the past two weeks I've been on my mountain bike for the 10 mile daily round trip to work. Since I  hadn't been on a regular exercise sched, the last week of July I just rode the bike - no running. This week, I decided that I'd see how I felt after that week of riding to find out just where the old run mojo, which has been missing since Summer '08 with the knee/hip/whateverthehellkindofinjuryitwas had gone to... and I had a good enough run on Tuesday to say to myself "hey, I think I *can* do and finish - no PR, but finish - the Urban Cow Half Marathon on October 3rd." So, I'm registered and committed, and I have a half-assed training plan - which boils down to running 4x a week - Tue/Thur/Sat/Sun - 3.6/3.6/longrun/3.6 between now and October 3rd.

I really have no idea where my physical conditioning is right now. I've always had a lot of stamina but I know from the couple of 5Ks I've done this year that I'm nowhere near the run shape I was in during 2007 when I finished the CIM marathon. The speed isn't there, but the back of pack isn't such a bad place to be, lots of interesting people in the back :)

To test that conditioning, I decided this morning to see starting with a long run of at least 7 miles to see how I felt at the 3.5 mile point, and go further to a turnaround point if I felt OK. The idea was to set my long runs in the next 6 weeks or so to 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 10 and then taper with no long run on Week 7 with the half marathon on Week 8.

Ran my usual route to the American River Parkway via Sac State, but, surprisingly, the ped bridge over the river is closed between campus and the north side of the river, so I ran down the south side almost to Watt Avenue and back, pulled off a 9 miler. I did not run it fast - the objective was simply to see how I felt after a run of at least 7 miles. Not bad, the plantar fasciitis isn't too bad afterwards either. I'm sure I'll be sore in the morning when I do a 3.6 miler "recovery run" but I feel decent all things considered...

man that was fun

Amazing how quickly three weeks with your children fly by. The original plan until about 5:00 on Saturday was for their mother to fly out on Sunday and fly back with them on the redeye, but, the planes were packed (such is the randomness of flying standby as a non-revenue passenger), so she called me while we were on the way back from the Arroyo Pool and asked if I could send them to ATL on the 11:50 flight yesterday morning, where, assuming they got on the flight here in Sacramento, she would meet them and take them on to BDL (the airport abbreviation for Hartford, CT). They would fly as unacccompanied minors; they'd done this before on a short flight from Savannah to Atlanta but SMF to ATL is a four hour haul (although I honestly can't see that much of a difference between a 40 minute vs. 4 hour flight other than its likely one child or the other will need to go to the bathroom perhaps. Airport mugshot...)

Both of them  have already flown multiples of the times that I've flown in my life going places with their mother (mostly to Savannah) so they are very experienced travelers and know how to behave on an airplane (as well as in an airport). This, however, would be my first time placing the children unaccompanied on the plane by me, and I was very nervous about it... not actually them getting on the plane - I mean, hey, once they're on, the plane buttons up, and flies off, they're not going anywhere LOL but still, I'm their Dad, and I worry about what I can't control when I'm not with them.

I must say the Delta counter staff at the main counter and at the gate made it all very easy. Probably what was making me jumpier during the wait - to see if they would actually get on, and they don't know if they'll actually get seats until about 20 minutes before the flight's scheduled leave time - was having my iPhone 4 (yes, I jumped off the cliff with millions of other lemmings, and I *like* my iPhone very very much) go off about every four to five minutes with updates from the Ex on the seat status. Now, the actual calls aren't the issue so much but in my own twisted sense of humor I used the "Alarm" sound for her cell number and that damn sound will make you jump out of your seat sometimes.

After being a Bad American Parent and feeding them Burger King (hey, they're on vacation, they love Burger King, and they really don't go out to eat that often at home), we killed some time by walking down to the opposite end of Terminal A - where Southwest has its gates - in the 3+ years I've lived here, I've never been to that part of Terminal A, and just as we get to the end, the phone goes off, and Meredith says in a dramatic voice "Mom!" I about dropped the phone laughing, but it was her announcing that they were on the standby list and would get their seat passes.

(As you can see in the picture above and the one below, Meredith got both of her pairs of glasses on Thursday and has been a good girl and not complained too much about having to wear them... except this morning she apparently forgot to put them on when she got out of bed and they were out and about doing errands (I talked to them around lunchtime today). I reminded her and The Ex that if you don't want her to have that wandering eye become permanent, she needs to keep the glasses on. Also, don't you think the above picture makes excellent blackmail material for when Davis is a teen (and I think he's started puberty; he's got a few zits now and its time for the loofah and the Phisoderm, I guess) - "Look, Davis made bead necklaces!").

Gave 'em a big hug good bye at the gate, and I wasn't nearly as teary-eyed as I was last summer seeing them off. Perhaps not seeing them in their mother's clutches helped LOL - but they're so much more grown up than last year. I don't see any reason in future trips for her to accompany them beyond the connecting airport to bring them out.

dorky-ness 101

So... Meredith will start wearing glasses once the ordered pairs from Costco arrive. Yesterday, I took her for her first eye appointment ever, to see the pediatric ophthalmologist at UC-Davis. She's had intermittent exotropia for some time - otherwise known as wandering eye - and The Blonde was able to convince them to work her in for us on short notice, thus using up a huge number of favors in the process (perhaps a trip to Hawaii will assuage the pain of using up all of those favors).

She was a little intimidated about going to the eye MD as she's already spent far too much in the dentist's chair for a kid, but hey, I don't go to the dentist that often and I don't like having people I'm paying and sort of knowing after a few visits sticking their fingers in my mouth either, so I can't say as I blame her, but I noted this would be completely painless except for a brief sting when they put in the dilation drops.

I was very impressed with the efficiency of the ophthalmology eye clinic and we were in and out a lot faster for a work-in appointment than I thought we'd be... arrived about 8:30 for the 8:45, and with drops and all were out by 10:30. The good news is her eyes are healthy, she has great 3-D depth perception and color, and the doc thinks her exotropic has a good chance of going away because... she's mildly myopic (I'm a -12 in both eyes, her mom is -4 to -5, I don't know Sarah's script, Davis is a -1.25L -2.50R) - which is no big surprise, 75% of children born to parents who are both myopic will need glasses - and glasses help in many cases with curing exotropia in children.

So, off to Costco we went for lunchtime pizza and looking at frames, and we picked up two radically different styles and got each in Transitions lenses so she won't need prescription sunglasses when she's outside (I'm a very firm believer in either UV protection for the eyes or polarized sunglasses when you're out In The Light). Pictures are on my FB page. With any luck, the glasses will be in before they leave on the 25th; I've had good luck with Costco filling an order within 7 calendar days. (and no, I'm  not being paid to pimp for Costco).

Anyway, my daughter and I have always been very close "clicking" with each other, which is to say she probably has me totally conned, and we take turns attempting to talk the others' legs off, so we sat and chatted in the exam room and out in the clinic while waiting for the drops to take effect. After the initial exams by the nurse, the MD, and a ophthalmology resident who did the RX, she was moaning "I don't want to be a dork like Davis, he looks so dorky in his glasses." Now this is the part I *love* about being a parent, I really enjoy taking my kids to the doc - even when they're sick or when its something oogy like a shot being part of a general checkup, and I feel like its my job to make sure that they feel comfortable and realize that whatever the outcome of the visit that its just all part of life to be taken in stride.

"Meredith, you're a smart girl, you're cute, you're going to look just fine in glasses, and seeing well is very important. You'll understand what I mean after you put on your new glasses for the first time (her script was -2 in each eye - very mild, but she really blew the reading lines tests up before they got the machine on her face), you'll say "I can see!"".

She still pouted a bit, but then brightened up when I asked her the question "wasn't your brother a dork *before* he got glasses a year ago?" and agreed with the question. "They just *add* to his dorkiness." I noted that was fine, but that she no longer could tease him about being a dork solely on the basis of his glasses as she would soon be a wearer of them as well (she teases him mercilessly; she's incredibly lucky he's so mild natured, because most brothers who weigh 80 pounds - he's 2x as heavy as she is and a head taller, as well as 2 years older - would regular pound the owlsnot out of a mouthy younger sister - he just giggles and laughs at the teasing. Its a good thing, I think).

"I mean, Meredith, I wear *seriously* thick coke bottle lenses when I'm not wearing my glasses. Am I a dork?"

"No dad, you're cool... and you're even cooler because you play guitar (now I just love hearing this and what's even better she frequently comments on this part of my coolness in this area) and you play it SO fast!"

(I have to be careful when practicing with her not to show off too much as she's unfortunately also a perfectionist like her old man. This means she gets frustrated quickly; I try to be supportive by noting the positive things she is doing - which is a lot - and that she's youngest player in her class, by far, and yet is not the poorest player. I've been helping her learn to read music and understand where the notes are on the guitar using the book required for her summer school guitar class. I whip out the hollowbody and play the notes and sing the pitches and names while playing the notes, and also count loudly 1 2 3 4. Apparently that's sinking in somewhat, as last night, after she fell asleep, she started almost shouting in her sleep "1 2 3 4!" I forgot to ask her this morning if she remembers any dreams from last night involving shouting time counts LOL).

Tonight, I'm going to take them to Oshima for the 3rd Thursday jam (could take them next week as The 3rd Floor Jazz Club also is playing the 4th Thursday this month), the jam starts much earlier than Cap Garage so I can have them back home at a reasonable enough hour I won't have to drag them out of bed bitching and moaning about not wanting to go to summer school. Might have Meredith take her guitar to show it to Nayhum and Joel (if he's there). I know both of those guys will be *so* charmed by her cuteness she might get an impromptu lesson/pointer or two (Nayhum, in particular, has the air about him that I think he's really good at working with child musicians and he does summer jazz camps for teens around here).

Back to spectacle type stuff, when I dropped Meredith off after lunch/glasses picking at summer school (she missed her beading class, but there was plenty of time for her to enjoy some recess and catch her guitar class, which is at the end of day's class schedule. Saw Davis playing, walked up to him, and said "Dude. Meredith is going to have to wear glasses now" and he aped one of my favorite expressions and said "*Yeah* man." LOL.

We attempted high fiving each other (I deliberately missed 2x, and said "Oops, I don't think I've got my glasses on").

My little engineer-mad-scientist in the making is into paper airplanes right now. He fished a paper airplane book out of the shelves in the mini-library that's in summer school, and has been doing trial-and-error paper airplane making the last few days. He's not at the Burt Rutan level yet - in fact, most of his planes pretty much suck in term of flying anywhere (but I think this is a paper quality available to him at school and not necessarily a design issue), but he's learning many important design principles.

Moreover, he's fixing his design flaws so no matter how shitty the paper the airplane is made out of is, it flies better. He's *so* geeky and once he gets rolling on a subject, like his father, he just won't shut up (unlike Meredith, who has an opinion on everything and often will speak for Davis when you ask Davis a direct question (he just sits or stands there with a smirk on his face) and talks constantly).

I asked Davis once "Is Meredith your official spokesperson?" and before he could possibly answer she blurts "Yes I am." Last time she did this, I said:

"Meredith, what are you doing to do when Davis heads off to college your junior year in high school... I figure by then, two way video calling on the cell oughta be common, so when he needs to talk to someone, he'll just simply call you, hold up his cell by the other person's face, and you'll do all the talking, right?"

My, its been an interesting visit here at the halfway mark...

they're here...

And they growed, and so forth. The original plan was for Davis and Meredith to be here on the 3rd, but the Non-Revenue Passenger Stand-By Gods did not see fit to provide a plane to Sacramento on Saturday, so they got in - an hour late as a plane in KC was swapped out for mechanicals and an hour late getting to MSP (Minneapolis for those of you who don't know airportese), so they were about an hour late tarmac down into SMF (Sacramento since we're giving airportese lessons here... but KC = Kansas City (I'm too lazy too look up the airport designation for Kansas City right now).

I'd gotten my security pass - ironically from the same Delta counter person that I'd gotten the pass from last July (and she remembered me (that's truly scary if you think about it) - and The Blonde and I retrieved a huge, heavy (and decrepit, the ex has had that suitcase for years and its not really suitable for thrift shop donation at this point, it needs to go to the recycle bin), as she remembered me (that's truly scary if you think about it) suitcase from their luggage story area (as the luggage had gone through on the previous evening's flight), and The Blonde waited in the luggage area of Terminal A, looking extremely cute in shorts and espadrilles while I got electronically frisked and walked to A3 and awaited the flight.

They were the first off of the plane this time (one of the perks of flying non-revenue is often the empty seats are in first class, so they flew first class), and it felt great to hug my kids after having not seen them for a year. Both had grown; Meredith is not so tiny anymore although she's still tiny, Davis has grown so much that when I leaned over to hug him, my chin bumped the crown of his head. He's a stocky kid, and tall for his age, he's going to be basically a much bigger version of me when its all said and done.

While I was hugging, the Ex and her new husband (actually, the same old BF, but they hauled off and got married recently) strolled off the plane. I think we stood there all of 20 seconds; he's a hedge over 6' and didn't say anything - at least until I looked at him and said "Hi Ken, its nice to see you." She handed me an envelope with summer reading and health insurance card info in it, I said "We gotta roll. See you later!" and got the hell out of there. No sense in having any awkward moments.

Do I feel insecure or anything in not being married to her anymore? Um, no. LOL... there's just no reason to hang out. Although if The Blonde had not been waiting downstairs, and since The Ex And Her Husband were going to catch the flight back to MSP as soon as it flip flopped in 20 minutes (which is what they did), we could've grabbed a bite to eat in the terminal, but no matter. I think I would have enjoyed the awkwardness, though. I think I have a rather twisted sense of humor - or perhaps it is irony.

They've also matured a great deal in the past year (well, to be expected when you go from 7 to 8 and 9 to 10 respectively). Davis was *so* surly and whiny at times last year; this year, he's pretty sunny nearly all the time and more outgoing. He's also much more comfortable on his scooter (they brought their scooters in the suitcase) and has taught himself to ride a bike. Meredith's base personality has always been more sunny and outgoing than his; but she has adopted the surly role this year - although I'll take a surly Meredith over a surly Davis any day of the week.

We've kept the time so far pretty low key. I have them in a "fun" summer school at one of the local Catholic schools; he's taking Chess and Lego Engineering and she's taking Bead Works and Guitar. I have been very impressed with the stuff she's brought home so far; its beautiful. She has obviously inherited my Mom's artistic sense (and unfortunately, love of gaudy color, but she uses it well). Tomorrow we are going to a bead show locally (well, perhaps The Blonde and Meredith are, plus a neighbor girl - I'm been pressing Davis for some one-on-one guy time together; I think he needs it with me right now. Meredith has a tendency to monopolize Daddy at his expense). Beyond that, I really don't have the weekend planned out all that much right now...

been a while

Since I posted. My children are here! I'm just not in a writing mood at the moment, my energies are more directed at enjoying them while they're here...

wonder what kind of shark it was

If they actually caught a shark... which is what their grandmother said when I called today. The children are in Savannah for the next week, and they went fishing at the pier on Tybee this afternoon. There are a lot of sharks out at Tybee (not to mention trace amounts of tritium from the Savannah River plutonium plant contamination - plus there's the lost nuclear bomb (sans core) that fell off an Air Force plane a few decades ago during a training mission... but its buried in sand and supposedly if it blew up it wouldn't blow up anyone real good because a) there's no nuclear core (they're pretty sure about that, just like BP was pretty sure its disaster plan would save walruses and such) and b) they think the bomb is buried in lots of sand in deep enough water you'd have to be far dumber than a recently caught shark to accidentally set the damn thing off) but its the harmless variety that pretty much leave humans alone because its much more fun to chomp bait that a human is dangling in front of them.

If they really did catch a shark, it was probably something like a nurse shark. I've seen 6'ers caught at Tybee. It is amazing how damned surprised the shark looks, too, something along the lines of "Oh f*** I can't believe I was that stupid. And now I'm stupid dead."

I will be baching it Wed and Thursday night as The Blonde is off to Portland for some work related crap. She's going to be stuck in classes about 12 hours a day, and unfortunately, the co-worker she's going with is a super conscientious Japanese woman who won't entertain the thought of that Portland might be far more entertaining if they blew off the stupid classes and just went and partayed. So that means I'll likely do a little bike riding or something. I've got to start cleaning Hotel Blonde with the children arriving in 12 days... the guest bedroom needs to be made up, I've got to think of what food I'm going to feed them (since they are convinced that the food pyramid is basically the outline of a slice of pizza).

(I suppose I could do some new You Tube guitar videos. I'm kind of mildly surprised that Punk Rock Greensleeves is over 1,100 views now. Although that's a miniscule amount of views, its probably far more views than the average You Tube video gets).

Its kind of nice to decompress this evening. I was going batshit crazy with work and the possibility I was going to have to drop everything and fly for a court appointment in a certain unnamed Southern state later this week, but, it appears that cloud has blown off over the Atlantic somewhere. With the dissolution of that cloud, I can actually work at a normal pace tomorrow and not be freaked out (I worked over the weekend to get stuff done just in case... stress stress stress but man I'm much more productive on my Mac Book Pro than I was a on PC. The OS is much more efficient).

Well, me thinks its time to put the Mac Book away and practice guitar. Or go to sleep, as I should get up in the morning and once again do a very poor imitation of a runner.