07/31/04
Thank goodness we have AC now. Yeah Kelly, you rock!

Well, ALOT has happened since my last blog. I’ll try to keep things short and sweet. First of all, we went to Dallas, Texas for Jen’s Mary Kay Seminar. This is the annual event that where they celebrate the accomplishment of the past Mary Kay year.

It is broken up into 5 seperate 4 day events because there are so many consultants that attend. THe whole production is first class, being a a theatre geek in college, I can only imagine how hectic the crew are for 2 and 1/2 weeks!

We rented a minivan and drove with Diane and DAvid Beshears down to Texas. The weather while we were there was OUTSTANDING. We had one of the coolest days in Texas history, it was cloudy during our driving (so no hot sun), we missed the rain the day we left. So we really lucked out on the weather. We stayed with Jen’s Parents during seminar, the Hyatt had a great setup, I just wish that I had more time to hit the pool and exercise room.

Since we arrived a day early for Diane, we were able to go see Nick and Leslie Rae and their son, Evan. I hadn’t seen Nick and Leslie in forever (since 2000) and this was my first time seeing Evan, who is a monster, and a very cute one at that. I also had the pleasure of seeing Nick’s little sisters Katie and Elaine, although, they are not little anymore. After 12 years, people do change just a little…

We dressed up for two nights of awards, the first for our “area” awards and then for the Mary Kay Corporate awards. Jen won the overall award in our area for recruiting, she was the Area Queen of Recruiting and won special recognition for this acheivement. There are pictures on Jen’s Mary Kay Website, jenhiggins .com.

The job prospects have gone from nothing to a bunch! I had an interview on Friday with a company in Oak Ridge, I have an interview with UT on Monday. I have another company who needs to return my call. I got a letter today from the State of TN about a statistics job. Also, The local community college may want me to teach, I have to wait to hear back from them. So things are looking decent at this point. I hope to know something by the 7th or just after.

This month’s running has been pathetic, 6.6 lousy miles. Sheesh. Have a great June and then nothing. On the other hand, training for the Richmond Marathon starts tomorrow. Seeing that we might be in Knoxville, I’m setting my sights on it.

Something has to be done. In other words, we need new coils in our AC unit, so that is a hit when we didn’t need it. Good news is that my grandmother Higgins is back from the hosiptal and seems to be doing very well.

I am awe inspoired by the athletes in the Tour de France. It is amazing what they put their bodies through. Today was the second day in the Pyrennies mountains and Lance and his team has broken just about everyone. I think the crowd favorite has to be Thomas Voeckler. He has been wearing the yellow jersey (overall race leader) for 9 days now and will wear it tomorrow. The courage that this rider has is amazing because just when you think that he is down and out, he comes back to contend. He should be able to keep his jersey for one more day, but after tomorrow the course is on the Alps.

07/15/04
I guess that I should not let another month go by without any blog update. I guess the biggest thing I should update you on is my job search. I still do not have one. Experian told me no, which isn’t too much of a bad thing. I don’t really want to move from the area. I am signed up to be a tutor at UT for the athletic department, so I will be bringing a small amount of money. Unfortunately, I do not have any clients at the time. I guess summer school isn’t as hard… hee hee. I have applied for a number of jobs in the area, some just a short term horizon and some with a little bit longer horizon.

Let’s see now… Let’s go with Eric. Zoom Zoom is now over 1 year old. It is unbelievable how much children grow over a year. It is really phenomenal. Now that he is rugged enough to play with, I am enjoying playing with him and getting him to laugh hysterically. He is really starting to repeat sounds and gestures. For example, he has the wave for “bye-bye” but not the words, but if you make noises, he will try to make those same noises. And he Mobile! He is all over the place. Once he realizes that walking is faster, he will be a mad man. He’s still a good baby, er, toddler in that his demeanor is good when he is alone. He sometimes gets cranky, but that is usually a precursor to either sleep or food.

Now on to Running. Running was going great right up until July. In june I was running twice a week and making some good long runs. Since the Fireball Classic (7-3) I have run not ONCE. If I am going to run the Richmond Marathon, my training would start on August 1st, giving me enough time to get in shape. I would like to start Aug 1st not sucking wind because I am out of shape. With us going to Dallas at the end of the month, I am not sure how that is going to work out. We will see. I also added pictures from the Trideltathon 2004 featuring Gray Lipford and his 2nd consecutive victory. Check it out in my Running section. YAY! I also put up (finally) my Virginia Creeper Marathon blog and some pictures from March 2003!

I have watching the Tour De France religiously the past 11 days. In fact, I even have Jen watching with me and she is learning some biking words, such as Peloton. I am supporting Lance this year, I would like to see him break the record with 6 consecutive wins at The Tour. I am wearing the yellow band as show of support for the Lance Armstrong Foundation for Cancer.