Day 7.023: Super drive

I started the day making a rug city with E5N1 (I look forward to sharing it with you in due course) and I'm ending it watching a big football game (on TV) in Portland. In between, some games with the girls and some computer problems. Oh, and four hours in the car. Quite a day.

Day 6.232: Morning run at the boat launch

This morning I went down to the Corning Trail to do a time trial in place of the race called for in my marathon training schedule for this weekend.

When I arrived it was barely light and fairly quiet down there. I did a one mile warm up and then my 10K time-trial. By the time I was done (an hour or so later all-told), it was getting light and busy.

There were people launching boats - yes, at the boat launch! - and I also grabbed a quick photo of my start/finish line.

The run was quite good.  Enough people around to make it not completely solitary, but not enough to cause any issues.  Then it was home to shower and off to work.

Day 6.198: Oasis family fun: then and now

I was up early for a long run. It was a beautiful morning - the temperatures were only in the low 50's when I set out and the sun was just coming up. 18 miles later it was still nice - although warming up significantly.

After breakfast, we were keen to spend some time outside, but a hike was not really on my list, so we decided to try the mini golf at Oasis Family Fun Park in Troy. We'd been there once before, but that was in 2009 - before the kids were at an age where they could focus on an activity like that for very long. The photographic record shows that we did try - as well as that I really did sit in a tiny kid's size paddle boat because two year old E5N1 was feeling left out:

Today, despite the rapidly rising temperatures and gradually diminishing patience, we had an excellent time - playing all 18 holes with five balls:

We all had a few good shots and a few fun moments to mix in with the abject failures - so everything you can hope for in a round of mini golf then!

Day 6.155: The karate kid (and Mr Mymonki)

One of Exile #4's birthday presents was an introduction to karate. She's quite keen.

The hand-art is not karate war paint, but was left over from school field-day which happened earlier.

Paint on....wash off.

Day 6.114: May the 4th be Derby Day

E5N1 was pretty excited when he heard about the "May the Fourth Be With You" event at a local library a few weeks ago. It appealed to his interests and his goofy sense of humour - so there was no avoiding that. In the end he and Exile #4 entered a competition each and they spent a pretty good hour or so doing various Star Wars activities while Exile #3 settled down with a book.

In the early evening, we were invited over to some friends for a Kentucky Derby gathering. Grilling, sitting outside, a few mint juleps and ten minutes or so gathered inside to cheer on fairly randomly selected horses in one of the shortest races I've ever seen.

We had to reflect on the differences with the only horse race that most British people that know nothing about horse racing watch each year - The Grand National - and have to say that that a two minute flat race is a whole lot less stressful to watch than a 9 minute steeplechase!

It was a lovely evening - we sat outside until it got dark around 8.30pm, and the company of 8 adults and 11 children was very convivial.

Day 6.103: Boo! (Rushing in Dortmund)

Surprise!

In case a hunk of meat, a glass of beer and an ashtray wasn't enough to tip you off, I'm in Germany. Specifically, yesterday at least, in Dortmund where I managed a very pleasant 5 mile run out of the city center and back.

Tonight, I have been driven out of the city because a hotel room could not be found for love or money (well, for a reasonable sum of money - I didn't try the other) due to a sporting event taking place there tomorrow evening.

When we left, there were crowds outside all the bars watching a German team beating a Spanish team at football, mostly wishing it was going the other way as the two biggest domestic rivals of tomorrow's game's teams met in what this town's crowds will be seeing as the warm-up event.

Day 6.096: Party like you're six!

As promised, here are some pictures from E5N1's birthday party on Sunday afternoon at Afrim's.

He had a great time - on the bounce houses, during the organized games on one of the indoor soccer fields, eating, opening presents and generally goofing about.

Exile #4 also joined in the fun - having one of the most hotly contended one-one-one soccer competitions.  During sharks-and-minnows E5N1 was more interested in acting like a shark than actually tagging anyone, but that was fine too!

Day 6.024: Go Dolphins!

So, we just finished watching the Super Bowl. Actually, we came as close to missing it as we have done in quite a few years - we had made no plans to watch with anyone, so it was going to pass us by, when we heard rumours of a power-outage. Now that sounds like interesting television...!

Anyway, we switched it on, then got sucked into the drama and the will-they won't-they, then the power was restored and we got sucked into the drama and the will-...yeah all that. I love a good fight-back by the underdogs!

Earlier in the day Exile #3 completed painting this model for a school project about the bottlenose dolphin. 

I'm very happy to have it sitting on the desk for a few days until it goes into school. I think she did a great job, even though she insists on calling it "paper m'shay" when we all know the correct term is "pappiay mashay" - the word you choose to make all french-sounding is all important!

Day 5.276: Fire safety (and planking)

Exile #4 and E5N1 tried the planking challenge at the marathon expo last weekend.

This week has been Fire Safety Week for E5N1 at school. The best moment was on Wednesday when he came home determined to sing his song for everyone.

You'll have to imagine just how cute it was - delivered to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

Listen now this is no joke
Before a fire there's always smoke.
If you smell it, go outside.
Never find a place to hide!
Stay down low and crawl away
Fire trucks are on the way.

I dropped one of our guests off at the station to spend part of the day in NYC before flying back to the UK tonight. Exile #3's godmother is here until Sunday afternoon, so we will have a bit more time to show her the delights of Upstate New York in fall tomorrow.

Day 5.274: Fun and games

On Saturday when the kids were told they needed to spend an hour outside before we could watch some Doctor Who, I ended up suggesting they play pétanque - and they did.

Always good to encourage the five year-old to throw heavy metal balls around.  Outside.

In a quieter moment on Sunday, Exile #4 challenged E5N1 to a game of Gobblet - a rather good four-in-a-row game with a surprising degree of complexity and strategy.  Exile #4 is fiercely competitive and no slouch at these kind of games.

We were all surprised when E5N1 beat her.  Even more so after the third game in a row.

Our latest guests arrived this afternoon.  Exile #3's godmother and her friend have been travelling around New England and made it this far for a visit before returning to the UK.  They were immediately put to work solving Rush Hour puzzles and playing card games.

In the end, only school-night bedtime saved them from the onslaught!

Day 5.227: Play hard

I spent part of the afternoon playing volleyball with my colleagues.

It looked a little like this:

Flickr user: Breyten Ernsting

but without the crowds, other games or competence you can see here.

This evening, after dinner we took a constitutional walk around the neighborhood which turned into a stumble in the dark - wow the evenings are getting dark early now! Then, after the kids went to bed, the four adults in the house played a bit of Rock Band - and yes, we played hard!

Day 5.207: Summer guests set 3 of 4

I did a long run in the humidity and rapidly rising heat this morning. When I got home, the Olympic tennis was on and the rest of the morning we watched a few events from yesterday and today.  This afternoon we watched the 10,000 m final live - as a runner it's fascinating to realise just how fast they are going as they run their first slow laps when it looks like they are just jogging around the track.

This evening our latest house-guests arrived. Unlike our visitors from the UK, these ones had a short journey and will only be here for a few days.  Still, I'm sure they will cause something of a stir while they are here!

Day 5.041: A dose of UV

It was a beautiful sunny day today (if a little cold) for the Presidents Day holiday, but the only UV light we sought out was the black-lights in the bowling alley.*

Exile #2 and Exile #3 had some good form.

Exile #4  also had some excellent moments and E5N1, well, he just did things his own way:



Most importantly, everybody declared it a good time - and this is how the scores ended up:

* Actually, the kids did have some outdoor time and presumably a minor UV top-up later in the afternoon.

Day 5.020: Soccer football

E5N1 was keen to play after we got back to the car from his tricycle ride on Saturday. He said, "Let's get the football out and kick it!"

So we did.

Later, he explained to his sisters what we'd done at the park, "We played soccer-football," he told them.  He's obviously more sure of what language I speak than he is of the girls.

In fact, I'm probably just as conflicted - especially when I'm talking to them.  Five years and twenty days have taken their toll on my linguistic purity too.

Day 4.356: 13.1

"13.1" is the answer to yesterday's cliff-hanging question, but really it is more significantly about something else that happened today.

We had a slow start despite not having a particularly late night, so we were not far past breakfast when I left under blue skies to the university campus in Albany to run my first half-marathon.

I had a good time.  The weather started off amazingly kind - warm and bright - although the wind got up during the run and caused some issues.  Still, I had a good race.  I ran it 5 minutes faster than I'd set out to do.  Actually that meant nearly hitting my first 10K race pace and running much faster than my first 5K despite having to keep the pace up for 13.1 miles.

I saw friend, colleague and marathon runner T there who has had his blog name at least since Day 17.  I also managed to thank Jen in person, through whose blog I had found out about the race while reading one of her restaurant reviews.

When I got home E5N1 was still in his pajamas, but Exile #4 was dressed and willing to step outside and point a camera at me in my race gear.

It seems I ran 98.7 miles in December.  If I keep this up* I can hit 400 in January.




* Yeah - I won't be attempting that!

Day 4.346: XPF

I went for a six mile run this morning. Just as well really, because I seem to have spent the rest of the day eating.

Because we are 'observing' the 'holiday' of Christmas Eve tomorrow, today was virtual-Friday at lunchtime, so we had a group of nine at Sushi X where we - true to the concept - had as much as we could eat.

Then, this evening we capitalised on having a babysitting offer to go out for a date-night.

When Exile #2 explained why she wasn't eating with the kids, they tried to imagine where we might go:

E5N1: McDonalds?
Exile #3: Chili's is nice?!
E5N1: Wendy's?
Exile #4: No...that other place...next to L.L.Bean...

She was right as it turned out, although whether she influenced the decision is moot. We went to PF Chang where the gluten free options are good. We shared GF Mongolian Beef, GF Buddha's Feast and the flourless chocolate dome. The Buddha's Feast is really just a pile of steamed vegetables - but it was a nice counterpoint to the sticky salty sweet deliciousness of the beef.

All very good and I promise to run some more miles soon.

Day 4.343: Crazy days

I'm a little tired. This week is looking crazy at work and there are a load of things that have to be done at home before the weekend. Combined with that, I'm training and hoping to be up to running a half marathon (weather and health permitting) on New Year's Day.

And of course that's on top of the rocking...

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Hopefully I'll muster up some at least vaguely interesting content this week, but as the header says, "You get what we get and you don't get upset!" or words to that effect.

Day 4.340: Holiday bowl

It was our work holiday party this afternoon. In a change from the hotel parties of past years, we went to Spare Time bowling this year. It worked very well (for me at least). We had three games, food, drink, a grab-bag gift swap and a lot of fun - including the side game which resulted in a fastest bowl of 23.46 mph (suffice it to say I did not challenge anyone in that competition).

My scores were 90, 92, 122 - which is not only fairly respectable for such an occasional bowler, but also a huge break with my tradition of going steadily downhill from the middle of the first game onwards!

Day 4.335: As long as I can...

When I saw the doctor, she seemed a little concerned that my plan for the winter was to "keep running outside for as long as I can."

I know that it's not even winter yet and it's going to get more difficult - and almost certainly impossible at times - but so far running in December seems to be going OK.

Day 4.323: Counting down**

I'm not very tall.

Actually that's something of an understatement. I am 5'6" or perhaps 5'5" - it seems to vary from day to day - or possibly according to who is doing the rounding.

I was also short (similarly so) when I was in my early twenties. At that time, former Chancellor of the Exchequer, Nigel Lawson (who now sports the rather wonderful title Baron von-Lawson of Blaby*), had lost a lot of weight in his early 60's and looked rather saggy as a result.  In conversation with a friend we concluded that if you're going to lose weight you really need to do it before you're 40 (that probably seemed quite old to us then).

That conversation has popped into my mind a few times over the last few years.  At least partly because I turned 40 and was trying to lose a little weight.  Originally I was aiming for 155 lbs - that is the top of the 'normal' range for BMI for a 5'6" tall adult - later I decided that 150 lbs was a more honest target - the same position for me if I am admitting to being only 5'5" tall.  Which I'm not. Obviously.

I recently dipped below that line - which is good.  The first half of the weight loss was all diet, the last part, has been my exercise regime (mostly running in the end).  I didn't lose it before I turned 40, but I didn't miss by much.

I can also report that the exercise is also having a beneficial impact on my LDL/HDL ratio, so my doctor is reasonably happy - as long as I keep going!






* I made up the 'von-' but the rest of it is true. Having lived nearby in my youth I can also reveal that Blaby is pronounced like baby with an added 'l'.

** This post was originally numbered 4.321 due to a clerical error - maybe that influenced the post title - and maybe the content!