Poopourri

Time to poop out another post.

I’m playing baseball for the 10th year in a row as an adult (I also played in hs/college. I sucked then too.). “Playing” isn’t the proper word. I think I made it to 3 games last year, and I’ve already skipped the first 2 games this year. Basically, I suck, my arm hurts when I throw, I usually pull a muscle or break a finger or …. I only play because it’s nice to be part of a team and hang out with my friends every once in awhile.

As Jessica may have mentioned, our house is all Star Wars all the time. Star Wars Legos, computer games, light saber battles, movies, cartoons, costumes, sewing projects. We even had Star Wars Easter eggs. And ok, I know it’s just a fantasy, but one thing that really, really bugs me about the Star Wars canon is how easy Anakin gets off. He kills dozens of Jedi children, he blows up whole planets with billions of people, he tries to kill his wife, his son, his mentor … but oh, just because “there is some good in him” he gets full redemption in the end and gets to stand as a ghost next to Yoda, Obi-Wan, et al. That’s just wrong. The way he is portrayed he is just a whiny little bitch, and he gets his ass handed to him by Obi-Wan (who should have finished him off), so he’s not even that great of a Jedi.

OK, I know Star Wars has a plethora of other problems, from stilted writing to dumb plots (“You can kiss your Trade Federation goodbye.”), and that Lucas is trying to make some analogy to the messiah or prodigal son or something, but that whole Anakin thing just really gets my goat.

Anyway, the Jedi Robe Jessica made is actually pretty cool, and Joshua loves it. He’d probably wear it for real, all the time, if we let him. By the way, did you know that the Trade Federation’s main starship is called the “Invisible Hand”? Clever George, clever.

I was quite tired all last week, result of the Cap 10 I guess. But I keep this voice in my mind that says something about being tired all the time … yada etc … rocket sled to glory … shoot from a battleship …. Need to straighten all that out.

At the 1000s last week I got called out (embarrassing) to run with Pete and Richard and I hung ok until the last one when I was toast. It was still a solid workout and I was feeling pretty chipper, until I heard that Gilbert showed my times to the afternoon group and they destroyed them, with Kyle throwing down a sub-3 minute scorcher on the final 1K repeat. Good on ya, afternoon group.

Mt. Bonnell on Saturday with Eric and Joseph and we hammered pretty good. Well I did. Joseph is sooooo smooth he looks like he’s gliding at 6 minute pace. Think that is my longest run since the marathon in December.

For awhile I was stretching fairly regularly, not a lot, but regularly 10 minutes a day or so. I’m not a big believer in stretching and yoga and weights and non-running things for runners (heresy I know), but I think I should get back to the light stretching. My lower extremities feel like dried meat.

Did you see the story about the black coyote? Kind of interesting and it’s sooooooo Aron. He and I have been friends since 9th grade (he’s on the baseball team as well) and we often make fun of him for his insane love of wildlife (“oooooo that’s a beauuuuuttiful womprat!”). Anyway, pretty cool.

I ran the new Chuy’s 5K course today in a tempo-ish sort of way. It’s right near my house so I did a 3 mile warm up, hit the course, then a 2 mile cool down. It’s fargin tough to tempo solo. I did something like 6.10, 5.55, 6.15 over the course, which isn’t bad, but I was struggling that last mile. Hard to believe I ran the Cap 10K faster than that. Anyway, the first mile of the new Chuy’s is uphill, not terrible but definitely noticeable. The second mile is downhill and the third is fairly flat, maybe slightly uphill, or at least mildly undulating. It could be a fast course, but not the fastest.

Judging by the pictures, I probably wasn’t as strong as I remembered at the Cap10. I got my medal in the mail today (8th in my age group). I still haven’t received anything from the Belterra 5k. I’m not holding my breath, though the race director did email me to ask for my address.

My nephew has a blog. I have no idea what he’s talking about. He’s getting his Ph.D from Washington State. He had some rough times (even lived on the street at one point), but I’m glad to see things working out for him.

Look at this guy. What a dork. What else did he ever accomplish? Actually, we have a lot in common. He is seven days older than me, his son his 3 months older than my son, we live in Austin, our first marathon times were mere seconds apart, we both ran a 10K last Sunday (he got 7th in his age group and I got eighth), and uh … he’s a multi-millionaire celebrity athlete and I drive a 95 Protoge. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

Tee ball drives me crazy. I just hang out alone down the fence away from the parents and try to let Joshua have fun on his own. There’s plenty of time for serious ball if he decides he wants to do that. I didn’t start playing until I was in 4th grade.

My kids are awesome. (I’m sure yours are too.) They each have their own special gifts, and that’s not just a hallmark card cliche.

We hired a new guy at work. Um, that’s all I’m going to say about that.