July 31, 2007 by jon.

What a wonderful day.  First off I got up and ran about 3 miles.  Wasn’t quite as easy as yesterday, but it was still nice to get out.  Oh, I didn’t tell you.  I went 5 miles in Colorado’s rarefied air yesterday and it was great.  I spent about $230 in running clothes and accessories earlier in the day due to the issue I mentioned in the Day 2 post.  I was annoyed and I just had to get out.  I did and it was fun with no problems from the altitude.  Today I felt it a little more, but I still enjoyed the run.

After that was done we had plans to go with Jodi and John and family to the mountains.  We did the Georgetown Loop, stopped off at a silver mine and then did some rafting down Clear Creek. This was all put together in the Rail N Raft Package from Mile Hi Rafting.
What a blast!  And only $50 a person.
The train ride was something different to do and we enjoyed just relaxing a bit.  The silver mine tour was a stop off of the mine.  Anyone who knows me knows that I get a kick out of history.  So riding a historical railroad and then touring a silver mine was about the best thing I could do.  Photos will follow soon.
Then we went rafting.  Jodi & John’s family went in one boat and we went in the other with the “Rookie” guide.  Eva was in her first year of guiding and did a great job.  I’ve had a few rafting guides and I thought Eva did well making it fun and tried her best to get us wet (Which is what Robyn wanted).
The best part was watching the kids.  Brad was in the front with me.  He was nervous when we first talked about it weeks ago in Illinois.  To see him take a leadership role just made me proud.  Robyn also joined us in the front and just held on.  She screamed a lot but it was screams of joy.  She kept asking Eva if she could go swimming.  So when we were all done, I grabbed her and dunked her about 1/2 way down.  She loved it.

Take a look at some of the photos that the rafting company took.  We’re the first 12 photos or so in the group.
Rapid Image Photo Aboutus Page

Our friends on the other hand weren’t as comfortable.  John and his son Drew couldn’t get in synch when paddling which wasn’t a problem….until the end.

At the last rapid (The Twister) our boat went first.  These are the photos on the site.  This was the biggest rapid on this stretch and was challenging.  Eva guided us well and I think we responded quickly to her directions.

Then the other boat went through and we could tell they were in trouble.  They were too far to the other side of the river and heading to some big rocks.  To make a long story short, they got stuck sideways against the rocks and had to bail out….notice the last three photos in the slideshow.
BTW - We all had a good laugh when viewing the photos from a safe and dry living room.  Something to be said about looking back on something and laughing.

We finished the day by taking in some Mountain Pies from Beau Jo’s.  If you haven’t been to Beau Jo’s yet, you’re missing something.  Excellent pizza.

I must say this day probably is pretty high on my all time list of fun days.  It was just a kick to do the different activities and to do them with good friends.

Posted in Activities, Running | Print | 1 Comment »

July 30, 2007 by jon.

What?  The NY Times is publishing an Op Ed that talks positive about the surge and everything going on in Iraq?  You gotta read it to believe it.  Looks like they think the surge is working and that we shouldn’t pull out our troops just yet.

A War We Just Might Win - New York Times

Posted in Announcements | Print | No Comments »

July 30, 2007 by jon.

You thought I would forget about posting today so you didn’t have to read about the on-going saga of our vacation.  Not a chance.  I just had to update you on what happened Sunday.

Started out with rain.  Lot’s of it.  Nebraska got hit pretty good overnight and it was still sprinkling when we left around 8:30.  The van’s wipers were kind of old so we thought we’d stop and get some new ones.  Who would have thought that gas stations no longer carry windshield wipers?  We stopped at two different ones and both said no.  When we asked them where we could find some wipers we were told Wal-Mart.  Of course.

So we ended up getting underway a little later than we hoped, but in the scheme of things, not a problem.

In an effort to not bore you any more, I won’t post a mile-by-mile account of our trip.  Nebraska is pretty boring and even the eastern part of Colorado all looks the same.  We did cross in to Colorado around 12:30 local time (Having just crossed the time zone line about 5 minutes before crossing into Colorado).

We pulled into our friends house around 3:30 or so.  About a 7 1/2 hour trip.  Not bad.  We continued with Prisoner of Azkaban (7 more chapters!), did a few more ad libs and the kids still got in a movie (Chicken Little).

No, the real story starts here.  Remember that one of the main reasons we came to Colorado was so I could run in the Wild West Relay with the HRH Denver office.  We timed our vacation around this race and I’ve been working up to it in training over the last few months.

Well after arriving at our friend’s house and relaxing for a bit I thought I’d get an easy run in.  You know, something at elevation just so my body can get used to it a bit.  I went in the car looking for my running bag and it wasn’t there.  Panic!  I tore apart the car but it’s hard to hide duffel bag full of running clothes.  It just wasn’t there.  Later, when piecing things together with Kala,  I figured out I left it in our bedroom.  You see I had two running bags.  One with my shoes and clothes and the other with my “Gear”.  Hats, GPS watch, first aid kit and so on.  I had grabbed the gear bag and I’m missing the clothes one.

Now I am in Colorado with no running clothes.  I do have my old pair of running shoes because I thought I would bring them along “Just in case”.  But…No orthotics.  What a mess.  I’m missing my primary shoes, running shorts, shirts, underwear, socks, running pants and some long sleeve shirts and a sweatshirt for after my night runs.  I’m also missing my “Stick” a sort of stick with rollers that I use to loosen up my calves before and after running.

I left a panic stricken call with our neighbor last night.  I asked if he could possibly break into our house and mail me the bag.  He called back today.  He tried, but no luck.  See we got in through our window well a few months ago when we were locked out.  After that event, I moved the lock a bit on the window so it couldn’t be jimmied.  Guess I did a good job because actually two of our neighbors tried but couldn’t get in.  I guess that’s good, except it doesn’t solve my current problem.

It looks like I get to go shopping soon….

BTW - If you read our Vacation Log Day 1, you’ll realized that I knew I had forgotten my warm up pants as we were pulling out of our street.  If I had just decided to go back to get them I probably would have tripped over the duffel bag and all this would have been avoided.  Ugh!

Posted in Running, Announcements | Print | No Comments »

July 30, 2007 by jon.

I posted our first video to YouTube this morning. I tried a pretty innocous video to start with. Just to be safe.

So here is one of Brad hitting a double that he was able to stretch into a triple. Let me know what you think and I’ll upload some more.

You can also view the clip on our Video Page.

Jon

Posted in Baseball, Announcements | Print | 2 Comments »

July 28, 2007 by jon.

  Can you really call this the first day of vacation?  On the  one hand, I don’t have to go to work today, but on the other I wouldn’t have had to anyway.  So is today vacation?  Sure, why not.

  So, Captain’s Log Vacation, Day 1.

  We started our trip today.  It was a cloudy and muggy day.  A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step (Or something like that).  Just how do you begin a story that is interesting to only yourself?  In trying to keep this from being a blog of someone’s photos from vacation that no one wants to see, I want to make it intersting…but it’s not.  Or It Snot.  However you say it.

  Anyway.  We started driving, and driving, and driving.  Actually it wasn’t that bad.  8 hours after starting we were in the big town of Lincoln Nebraska.  Home of the Nebraska Cornhuskers.  (BOOO, HISSSS!)  Talk about an uneventful drive and I liked it that way.  Only a few stops for potty breaks (We still have younger ones) and one gas and a couple of food excursions and that was it.  Boring.

  The highlight of the day was eating dinner at Hu Hot.  We’ve been waiting for this all year.  See I had Hu Hot when I visited our Omaha office over a year ago and loved it.  Last year when driving to Colorado I introduced the family and they too loved it.  (A little too much, we all got stomach aches from eating too quickly)  Hu Hot is not in Illinois so we had to wait a year until we could visit again.  It was worth it. 

  So what is Hu Hot?  Think of Mongolian BBQ on steroids (No Barry Bonds in sight).  You pile high a bowl of meat, seafood or veggies, add noodles and top it with any of a bunch of sauces. 

Brad liked the Teriaki, I was partial to the Thai Peanut sauce.  I can’t spell the sauce Kala had and Robyn was sans sauce.  Then give the whole concoction to the chefs.  They cook it in front of you on sort of a grill in the round. 

So cool and very tasty.  Then when you finish, you can go back for more.  That’s where we get into trouble.  It’s easy to think you can fit more in.  And did I say it was tasty?  Only one stomach ache this time between the four of us so I think we are learning.

   I think that’s enough for the first Log/Blog of our vaction that hasn’t started yet.  You may be asking yourself, “Do I really get the pleasure of reading this enthralling piece of literature for every day of their WHOLE vacation?”  My answer is NO.  Are you kidding?  My intention is to vacate, not stay on computers.  And you surely don’t want to read about nothing more than we woke up late, drank some coffee, took a nap and then went to bed.  That’s what I intend to do some days and while it will be tremendously pleasurable, I assure you reading about it won’t be riveting.  I’ll only Log/Blog when something interesting (At least to me) happens.  Lucky you.

  Before I forget, vacation stats:

• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book on CD while we drive) 2 chapters down
• Semi’s that honked - 8 (No, Kala wasn’t hanging her leg out the window, we would have got more if she did.)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (Walked by it at Barnes & Noble and couldn’t pass it by) Kala read 2 chapters in no time
• Hu Hot - 4 full tummies
• 5 Mad Libs
• So far we’ve forgotten - 1 Pair of warm up pants for Jon for when he runs in the mountians.  (May need that)

   I’ll leave you with a Mad Lib that we came up with:

An opera is a dramatic play with Pretty music, in which all the characters sing instead of Spitting.  The first opera was done in Italy in 1600.  In Milan, a bunch of Nurses got together and put on the first opera.  Everyone thought it was Lumpy.  Now operas are done in Rome, New York and even Hu Hot.  Famous operas are “Carmen,” “The Volleyball of Seville” and “Romeo and Robyn.”  Opera singers are either sopranos, contraltos, tenors, baritones or Crickets.  They are usually big and Sleepy, and when they finish singing, everyone shouts, “DUH!”  Italy has invented many wonderful Shoes, but personally, I like pizza better than opera.

  Courtesy of Robyn…

Posted in Family, Activities | Print | 1 Comment »

July 27, 2007 by jon.

  Yesterday I thought I would get in a run since I have yet to complete one this week.  I traveled to Richmond and tried to get one in on Wednesday but bowel problems cut that one short (nuff said).

  So when I got home from work yesterday I thought I would get out even though it was almost 80/80.  (Eighty temp and humidity)  Not too smart.

  The first half went ok even though I was going slow.  The second half of the out and back sucked!  I stopped probably every 4 or 5 minutes and had to walk.  It just seems like I had no energy and my clothes were wringing wet.  I can’t tell you how much I hate to run in humidity.  It always seems to slow me down.

  I’m glad next week’s race is in Colorado where it is dry.  Bring on the elevation any time but no humidity.  I don’t know.  I’m a little worried about the race.  I don’t feel like I got enough workouts in but too late for that.  Due to travel timing in in a forced taper which is probably good anyway.  When I arrive on Sunday I’ll probably do an easy run as well as one more before Friday and the race.

  Still, I hate humidity and can’t wait to run in the dry elements again.

  BTW - My new shoes did better yesterday.  I’ve been wearing them around to break them in and it’s seeming to help.  It’s the little things that make me happy.

Posted in Running | Print | No Comments »

July 27, 2007 by jon.

  Russell pulled through surgery just fine on Tuesday.  The doctors are confident that they got all of the tumor but their pretty sure Russell with have to undergo chemo just to make sure.  He is recovering well and maybe even went home today!

  Thank you for your prayers and keep praying for him and Karen and Brian and Garrett (Brother).

Posted in Prayers and Praises | Print | No Comments »

July 23, 2007 by jon.

  I just found out that a friend’s son will be undergoing brain surgery tomorrow morning (Tuesday).  Russell had lukemia when he was much younger but recently passed his 5th year of being in remission. 

  For the last few weeks Russell hasn’t had much strength and has been kind of lethargic.  The doctors did a CAT scan and found a tumor at the front of his brain.  I just spoke with Brian and he said if you need to have brain surgery, removing something from the front is the best place because it’s the most accessible.

   Obviously right now there is not much more information.  All I ask now is prayers for Russell for healing, for the doctor’s skill and strength for the family.

  Thanks

Posted in Prayers and Praises | Print | 1 Comment »

July 22, 2007 by jon.

  Well I did it again with different results this time.

  I ran three times within 24 hours to again train for the Wild West Relay.  I started at my nemesis Johnson’s Mound   on Saturday morning. 

 Except this time there were no kids cheering me on.  My butt was dragging.  I don’t really get it.  I felt ok (See below), I ate better than last week.  (Last week Arbys the night before, this week Beef Stroganoff) and had a better night sleeping.  But I still had a hard time getting up the hill. 

  For some reason on Friday the sockets where my legs join my pelvis in back starting bugging me.  Pretty annoying if you ask me.  Almost like a pain in my butt if you know what I mean except it was both sides.  Plus I also had an upset stomach most of the day.  I downed quite a few Pepto’s

to try and keep it under control but 5 trips to the bathroom left a “Raw” behind.  (Vaseline does the trick to keep from rubbing when running) 

  Now that I think of it, I do know why I had a worse time on the hills Saturday….Duh!

  Then came Saturday night.  For some reason I have it in my mind that I have to do better than the previous week.  So I went 5 miles this time.  I made it but it wasn’t comfortable.  Please see the above for the varioius maladies plaguing me. 

  Before the afternoon run I went to pick up my new shoes at Dick Ponds. 

 

  The Asics Gel Kaynos.  What surprised me was that a 4E width was still pretty snug (Foreshadow warning…..).  I still purchased them in the hopes like all other shoes, they’ll stretch a bit.  

  So here comes Sunday morning…Today.  Yesterday’s gastro problems are gone, but I slept pretty poorly last night.  Got my rear out of bed and out the door and trudged through the miles (Of course, had to do 5 again).  Around 1.5 miles I notice my right middle toe was rubbing.  I tried to ignore.  (Get an idea where this is going???)  By the time I got home both middle toes of both feet were in pain.    I wasn’t limping but it sure was not fun.  Looks like my sock was so snug against my foot that it couldn’t move although the toes were.  Friction was created and rubbing commenced.  FIRE! 

  Two nice big blisters on the toes and I can’t wear shoes without band-aids today.  That’s what I get I guess. 

  What does this all mean?  Well, I did 15 miles in 24 hours.  The first five were all hills, the same as last week.  I think I’m as ready as I can get for the relay when living at sea level.  Two weeks until the race and next weekend is travel time so I won’t be able to do this kind of training again.  (Which may not be a bad thing).

Posted in Running | Print | 1 Comment »

July 22, 2007 by jon.

  We had the (Last) ball game of the year yesterday.  Robyn’s team finished the softball season with a bang.  Only 7 out of 12 players showed up but they played with enthusiam.  Of course we don’t keep score so there is no telling how they did.  Robyn had fun and that was what mattered.

  She played Second, Short Stop, Catcher and Outfield  (Although outfield in this league is standing in the shortstops back pocket).  She did pretty good.  Had a hit every time at the plate too.  I think she only struck out once this whole season.

  It was fun watching her grow in the game.  Her throwing was getting better altough her batting remained about the same.  You see dad pitches a little faster than the coaches so when she hits off of me, it goes farther.  Not so in the game with the coaches.

  So now what?  I think we’re done for this year.  Brad doesn’t want to play fall ball and I don’t blame him.  Last year got to be a little long.  He may or may not try out for Travel Team.  We’re still discussing.

  As for Robyn, sports are done for now.  She may try cheerleading again once school starts, but we’ll see.  There always is Piano which she is pretty good at.

Posted in Baseball | Print | No Comments »

July 17, 2007 by jon.

In an effort to get ready for the Wild West Relay, I ran three times between Saturday & Sunday. I got the estimated times that I’ll be running during the relay and I thought I’d better start simulating race conditions (As best I can). My times should be between 10-11AM, 9-10PM & 4-5AM. These are just estimates and it could be hours either side of that.

My first leg is the hardest even though it is just over 3 miles. It is mostly uphill. As in Colorado Up Hill.

I start around 5900 feet and gain almost 400 feet. Did I say it’s at elevation? Of course my second leg starts at 9100 feet and the third at 9400. (Last two legs are fairly level or somewhat downhill)
So I went to Johnson’s Mound again to my favorite hill (Ant hill more like) and did some repeats. I actually did better this time compared to last week. If you remember, I only got in 3.5 repeats. This time it I finished 6 repeats. Maybe it was the cooler weather, maybe the Shot Bloks or maybe just the fact that the kids were cheering me on.

As you can see the hill is pretty short. I counted a repeat as a climb up the longer slope, decend and then climb the shorter slope and then descend the longer slope. A repeat is about .7 miles so not too bad.

I went home, hung up my shoes, helped at Robyn’s softball game and then went running again. This time 4 miles along the Fox River. Took a while to get going, but once I was moving, nothing was stopping me. I was kind of surprised at how good I did feel..

Then I got up Sunday morning. I was helping with a conversion at work so we couldn’t go to church in the morning, but I did get a break and went out for a quick run. Again, another 4 miles running North on the river. I was sore, but not too bad. I did run a pace a little faster than the night before so bring on the relay!

Plans are to repeat the whole thing one more time this weekend then call it good for the relay. Not much I can do to get acclimated to the elevation anyway.

BTW - Total for the year is 248.2 miles and 190 on my shoes (Asics Gel Evolution II). I am starting to have my shins talk to me so I went in for another pair over the weekend. The Evolution is now in the III version and when talking to the clerk, I mentioned that one day I would love to have a shoe last more than 150 miles. Around that point my shins start to hurt on every pair I’ve had for the last 4 years.

Well she suggests a shoe that is not a stability model since I already have orthotics. She suggests the Kayano 13 which is more cushioned. The reasoning is that the stability shoes have less cushioning and wear out quicker. The Kayano will have a lot more so hopefully it will last. We’ll see because they are quite a bit more expense. Stay tuned.

Posted in Running | Print | No Comments »

July 17, 2007 by jon.

Last Friday was the first time my family ever joined me on a business trip.  I had scheduled one to HRH’s Moline office to coincide with the John Deere Classic.  :-)  Can you say a little golf?

Well Thursday I was in the office taking care of a few things while the family went poking around Moline.  I guess they found a mini-golf course (Robyn had 2 holes in one!) and the kids spent a lot of time in the hotel pool.  After work, we took Kala to the airport.  She flew to Denver to celebrate our good friend Rachelle’s 40th birthday.  So that left me and the kids.

Connie from the Moline office was nice enough to ask us over for dinner.  They lived across the river in Iowa amidst the corn fields.  It was a beautiful neighborhood and a good way to kill a few hours.

On Friday, Connie had set aside a few tickets for us to the John Deere Classic.  This was the first time the kids had ever seen a golf tourney.  Cool stuff according to Brad.  Robyn thought it was ok, but it was a lot of walking.  We ended up parking in VIP Preferred across the street (THANKS Connie!).  When we got there, we started just wandering around.

I was impressed, I didn’t have to tell the kids but once about golf course manners during a tournament.  They were quiet when they should have been and clapped at the appropriate times.  We walked down 9 and sat at the 8th green.  Then walked past the driving range and to 17 where the HRH tent was.  Again, THANKS Connie.  We had lunch at the tent (Tent is too small a word, it was more like a mini-lodge with a door, windows, sink & bathroom.  In other words, the kids could be kids with out being told to be quiet.

After lunch, we walked down 18 to the clubhouse and then ended up following Zach Johnson unintentionally.  We went down 1 and 2, hurried over the 3rd green which was a par 3 and watched Zach come through.  We stayed there for a few more pairs and then cut 4 and went to 5 where of course Zach was again.  We saw some great golf and some not so good golf.  I shouldn’t talk because I would never get close to how those guys were playing.

In all we hit portions of 10 holes on a beautiful course and saw golfers like Zach Johnson, Jesper Parnevik and Kirk Triplett.
A stop at the Merchandise shop and we were on our way home.

You see, Robyn had a softball game at 6:00 so we needed to be on the road.

The kids slept a bit in the car until we got home.  A quick bite then on to the game.  Coach Rob was short handed in coaches so Brad helped on the field and I was bench coach.  Robyn did well.  She bruised herself a little sliding into third and got quite dusty, but in all, had a great time.

We had another game on Saturday so it ended up being a pretty busy weekend.  Robyn got a hit every time she was at bat except for once.  I think she really likes this game.

Kala landed in O’Hare Sunday and our weekend was done.  I had fun with the kids and I think they had fun with me….maybe.  Anyway, it was good to spend some time together and let Kala go have fun in Denver.

Posted in Activities, Baseball | Print | No Comments »

July 14, 2007 by jon.

Kala and I were lucky enough to be able to see a pre-screening of this movie about 5 hours before it was release. (7:00 pm on Wednesday) And yes, people were in line for the midnight show.

In preparation for the showing, we re-watched the first four films. We never noticed the differences before between directions when viewing them individually but when viewed within a few days of each others, it is glaringly apparent. Like Hogwart’s Castle looks to be in a different place from movie 2 to 3. Obviously, Dumbledore was played by a different actor after Richard Harris passed away. (I liked Lee’s character better) Also, just the camera angles and the use of lighting differed between movies.

That being said, I must say, this is the best Harry Potter film yet. The plot followed the book for the most part, but it was able to keep moving and not get bogged down. The director did a good job of pulling in little details like why Snape doesn’t like Potter without focusing too much on them. The movie flows well and the special effects, while awesome, don’t distract from the general feel.

Order of the Phoenix begins with Harry using magic outside of Hogwarts. It then delves into how he was able to stay at the HQ for the group fighting Voldemorts army. I only had two problems with the movie. It doesn’t show enough of the true Order of the Phoenix which was made up of the adults. I guess to keep the movie to 2 hours 20 minutes, it didn’t have time to. The other problem is how they didn’t use the term Dumbledore’s Army until Dumbledore used it himself after the fact. If you didn’t read the book, you may not have caught a key part there.

Other than that, the fight scene in the Ministry of Magic is amazing. The viewer is also introduced to new characters like Luna Lovegood who begins to play more into the movie (But she really isn’t introduced well). Also new is Professor Umbridge who quite truly steals the show.  I did enjoy how they developed Neville’s character.
This was the most entertaining sequel movie that I have yet to see this year. (Including Pirates of the Caribbean, Spiderman, Fantastic Four and Shrek) Certainly worth the price of admission…Oh wait, I went free.

One last thing. The Goblet of Fire was a very dark movie and there were some disturbing scenes. Because of that, we wouldn’t let our kids (10 & 8 ) watch it. Order of the Phoenix still had the Dementors and a few other scenes that might make a child cover their eyes, but overall it was lighter to watch and would not trouble the kids near as much. We’ll probably take ours soon.

So if you see only one movie this summer. I recommend Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

BTW - I am waiting patiently for the new book (Deathly Hallows) but I can wait a bit. I may even read the others again before reading the new ones.

Posted in Activities, Announcements | Print | 2 Comments »

July 13, 2007 by jon.

Here’s something interesting.  A crew that climbed Everest wore a Garmin 305.  Pretty much the same model I use to run with.  You can read about it and see the evelation tracking on thier blog below.
MBlog: IMAX Crew Tracks Mount Everest

Posted in Announcements | Print | No Comments »

July 9, 2007 by jon.

  Now that I got your attention…I did get a job offer, or actually, I was asked to do a volunteer position.  Anyone who has read this blog for any amount of time knows I get a kick out of weather and report daily precip to a site called CoCoRaHS.  Well, they asked me if I would be the Kane County Coordinator for volunteers.  I guess there is getting to be enough volunteers that this county needs someone to help out.

  I said not right now.  I have to get through a few things at work and some travel and if they still needed help after summer was over, I’d be glad to step in.  I was kind of surprised with Tim (Illinois State Coordinator) said they would wait.  I guess they’re not as hard up as I thought. 

   Oh, here is a good article on how CoCoRahs got it’s start.  I remember the Ft. Collins flood that they are talking about.  Matter of fact, the bookstore I was working at was contacted by the CSU Library to help replace some damaged books.  Kind of brings this to home for me as I went to school in Ft. Collins and the flood area was near there.  Kind of neat to be able to volunteer on something now that might help give warning to an event like that again.

Posted in CoCoRaHS | Print | No Comments »