catching up...

Well, maybe this won't be every day. I must admit, I didn't think about it much this week, and not, consciously, until earlier this evening.

Ran Tuesday and Thursday with ST, and they were good two-lappers around Green Lake. Nice weather, for late January, and good times, around 55 minutes.

N had his first guitar lesson on Thursday and he's making good progress on learning what he was given for homework. K wants a smaller guitar; she got out her full-size acoustic and thinks it is too big for her (which is probably correct).

The weekend runs were less than and more than I expected, respectively: Saturday's six miles were unexpectedly difficult, at least the first half, but rallied in the second half and finished strong. Nice chatting with Susie along the way. Sunday's eleven miles with Joan were great; we ran at a pace slower than my usual but faster than her usual and talked the entire way, around GL, down to the Burke-Gilman trail, up around UW and back through Ravenna. Finished before the rain kicked in, too.

Eric starts on the basement on Tuesday. We got more stuff cleared out of there late this afternoon, and it's in pretty good shape. Lots of dried-up latex paint to go to the curb on Tuesday with the trash.

monday, monday...

Yesterday's run - six miles, or two laps around Green Lake - was a little bit painful due to Saturday's stairway mishaps. I did it, though.

Today - a holiday - was a much better day. Felt much better than I did yesterday, and got a few house-related things done and spent time with the kids. Nate and Finn and I played a round of mini-golf in the afternoon.

Back to work tomorrow.

ouch...

Started, as officially as one can, marathon training for an early May event - the Eugene Marathon with my friend Krista. She's raising the bar by setting her sights on a 4-hour finish. We'll see.

Five miles today, and six tomorrow. Today's route was hilly, tomorrow's will be flat.

Frustratingly, I slipped down not one but two flights of stairs today. Taking the compostables out this afternoon, I slipped on the steps on the north side of the house. It's been raining and so the stairs are slippery. Landed on my elbow. It'll be sore, but fine. Then early this evening, heading downstairs at Joy's house to see Sophie, having a sleepover with Miss V, I slipped on their basement stairs, landing on my backside.

We'll see how I feel in the morning. A bit of wine, a bit of Ibuprofen. I don't feel so bad right now.

what if we built a giant wooden badger?

Tonight we started the boy on his formal humor education, with a viewing of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." He didn't like the ending, but enjoyed the rest of it. Probably was distracted at the two of us reciting lines along with the movie. He'll be there soon enough.

hmmm...

It's Thursday. Thought it was going to be an everyday thing. Let's not be too hard on ourselves, shall we?

Spent two days this week in the Sieg Hall machine room, a scene straight out of "Brazil" with its make-do cooling setup, since the main cooling unit's gone belly-up. Noisy, crowded, disorganized, but did good work over there, deploying ten new machines and readying almost twenty machines to be repurposed.

Didn't run on Tuesday -- too much rain -- but ran today and it felt pretty good. Started thinking about a training plan to get me to an early-May full marathon, either Vancouver or Eugene. Krista R. suggested Eugene, and it's supposed to be a flat and fast course. It'd be nice to run with her again; we ran, albeit briefly, at the Rock 'n Roll half marathon here last year.

Started making plans for Strawberry over Memorial Day weekend, too. Richard Thompson, Loudon Wainwright III, Crooked Still... those three, alone, are worth the trip.

a 'normal' saturday... more or less

My first run of the new year with my running group, and it was really nice.

I've been experiencing some issues - a little pain, more soreness than anything - with my left knee, and after some online research, decided to pick up a knee strap.

It appears to be the right solution; my run today was pain-free.

I ran a little slower than usual, but I wasn't really concerned with my pace today; I wanted it to be a pain-free run. Running with JB, I found that she and I have many common musical interests.

Run: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/22024298.

a boy, a guitar

No, he's not playing yet, but 11YO Nathan would like to learn.

Was watching the recent episode of "Spectacle with Elvis Costello" which featured Richard Thompson, Alain Touissant, Nick Lowe and Levon Helm. Richard played Shoot Out The Lights and at the end of the first bit of Richard's guitar solo, Nathan said "THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO DO!"

Quite the happy parenting moment, I must say.

Up for a run in the morning, with new tights and a knee strap - we'll see if this helps.