In our household, we have “The List”, and if you want to do anything it needs to get on “The List”, and especially with 2 kids, the “The List” is very important. Now toss in 4 more adults in your house and “The List” goes out the window, unless you are my wife. My lovely and talented wife was able to schedule the whole Christmas Eve and Christmas day including full meals and a church service both days. Now with Lolo and Lola (Grandpa and Grandma in Tagalog), you can't pass up the free in house babysitting. So we didn't! My brother Chris was out and about shopping. Jen and Melanie (her sis) were also out shopping. It was on the schedule for me to run from 2-4 and be back in time for Church at 5.

A few things were left off the list such as the neighborhood luminaries (I have pictures) that needed to be set up for the evening along with a few other minor things. It ended up being that I did not leave until 2:15 and I debated WHERE to run. There is Concord Park, which is very close to my house and is all single track trails. I didn't think that I wanted an arduous run on Christmas Eve and the other strike against it was that even though I have it mapped out for mileage, I wouldn't know until I got home and looked it up. There is Lakeshore, which I have talked about before. I can easily do 2.2 mile laps and they have a little bit of everything (hills and flat) but it's a 20+ minute drive. I could also choose Alcoa Greenway, but again, a long drive and not a loop, so I would have to really know what I am doing before I get out on the course. I need to learn to like the Campbell Station Greenway and the Turkey Creek Greenway (both of which would be congested).

I ended up doing Lakeshore and with the time constraint figured I could do 3 laps without going over in time. This would just mean that I would have to take a shorter shower when I got home. I loaded up my MP3 player with Phedippidations and took off for a nice 3 lap scamper. I know that my first lap was around 18 minutes and change, but my watch has lost the lap splits since I ran… oh well. I did 3 laps, each progressively slower than the previous, but that is okay because I was able to go the 6.6 miles and was not sore for the rest of the evening or on Christmas day. THAT is a good sign. I probably ran the 6.6 in about 58-59 minutes or so… whatever that works out to be pace wise.

I know that I won't be able to get the runs that I want to this week. Although Pete and Janet are coming to town and that might mean that I can get a “super duper” long run on Saturday. Perhaps even run the New Year's 5k and tack on another 8-10 miles. I think that would work out real well. Depends on Church related activities and all that good stuff. I'll blog on the rest of Christmas Eve over on the family site since it deals mostly with E the Elder. I'll need to put my Christmas Loot and stuff real soon. So we will see.

I just wanted to get something out today! I'll have a more descriptive narrative tomorrow… tonight if the kids cooperate. I hear one now…

Cheers!

As I type this part of the message I am listening to a bluegrass rendition of “Children Go Where I Send Thee” and it's pretty swanky! Me likie.

Today is the last work day of the year. A little birdie told me that'll be just a half day as well. So, my plans of running at lunch time have been jettisoned out into space. What this does allow is for Jen and I to finish putting up our Christmas lights up outside. With the kids, it's hard to get that done during the day and by the time I get home, it's dark. Stupid winter solstice! (BTW: the Astronomy Picture of the day showed the same horizon with the sunrise at different locations for the solstices and equinox - very cool!)

Jen's parents, her sister and my brother Chris are coming into town all today, so it should make it nice and cozy for Christmas this year. we'll be going to church on Sunday for “Christmas SML Style”. SML stands for Sunday Morning Light and is the Contemporary Service. This means that we have a Bassist, Drums, Keyboard Player, Electric Guitar, Saxophone and Acoustic Guitar Band along with 2-4 back up singers who perform the music. Powerpoint slides are used during the sermon and typically special music ranges from a solo person to last weekend with 2 acoustic guitars, a soloist and a violin. It's a neat and modern way to worship. The normal Reverend likes to play multimedia clips to convey his meaning. He's played clips from Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Phenomenon, Spirit, Alamo and many more. Appartently “Christmas SML Style” is going to have a Charlie Brown Theme.

I am looking to get in 5 miles tomorrow. I'll download the current episode of Phedippidations, my Fave running podcast and listen to that as I run.

If I don't get a chance to post anymore before Christmas… everyone have a Wonderful Merry Christmas !!!

I just received payment for some freelance research and writing that I did this year. On Radar detectors nonetheless. Anyway, I think I am going to fund a few changes for myself. I think that I am going to Upgrade to the LiveJournal Premium service and then change the tahiggins to planet3rry. I think this won't affect you the reader and it will migrate everything I have established with little to no headache. Also, it will allow me to have 15 pretty pictures of me noggin instead of the 3 that you can sample at this point. It will allow me to show my mood!

Also, I'm looking into some hosting. With the premium LJ I can embedded the LJ much more effortlessly than what I have now over at my section on our family website. I'd probably put my photoblog over there too… it'll free space for Eric and Ryan Pictures!

So that may happen in the near future. I will keep you posted!

Okay, so it's not a Boba Fett quote, but it works. So enjoy

Source of this “version” of Twas the Night Before Christmas can be found here.

Author: Kentaro P Maeda
Email: kentaro@Hawaii.Edu
Date: 1998/12/24
Forums: rec.arts.sf.starwars.misc

I'm sure it's been done many times, many ways,
But here's my X-Mas parody, in time for the holidays

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
(A VISIT FROM ST. BOBAFETT)

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the stars
Things were all right, except for some wars;
The stockings were hung in my smuggling freighter,
In hopes that St. Bobafett would stop by here later;

The clients were nestled all snug in my ship
(They promised 17 thou for an Alderaan trip);
My first mate in fur and I in my vest
Napped, eager for the pay from our guests.

When out on the hull there arose such a buzz,
I checked the ship's sensors to see what the deal was.
I picked up visual scanning and looked into space,
Pressing against the canopy the nose on my face.

The stars in the distance lightened the Falcon in motion,
Making things brighter than a TIE fighter explosion,
When, what to my wondering eyes looked upon,
But an elephant-looking ship, and eight tiny taun-tauns,

With a masked, armored pilot, if I were to bet,
I would in a flash have said it was Fett.
More rapid than speeders, his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

Now, Johnny! now, Ralphie! now Benny, and Gary!
On Irvin! on Frankie! on Richie, and Larry!
To the top of the Falcon! to the ship's quadrant rear!
Now dash away! dash away! dash away near!”

As mynocks onto your ship they will hug,
Whenever you're in the intestines of a giant space slug,
So on to the Falcon the tauntauns they flew,
With a cargo hold of toys, and St. Bobafett too.

And then, on the hull, I heard the beasts walk about
(They smell worse on the inside than they do on the out).
As I left the cockpit and snuck through the lounge,
In the exhaust port St. Bobafett came with a bound.

Accentuating his armor were a red velvet cloak,
a hat, and two gloves (all were blackened by smoke);
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
Careful not to set off his touchy jet pack.

His mask — it was weathered! His cape was all torn!
His boots had small holes, his pants were all worn!
While his bounty hunting skills left much to be desired,
One who gives gifts and good cheer must be admired.

He downed the blue milk and wolfed all the cookies
That were set there for him by me and the Wookiee,
He sure loved dessert, since he sported a gut
That shook when he mumbled, like a certain vile Hutt.

He clumsily sneaked, without right jolly old guile,
So I let loose a sheepish grin, in true Harrison style;
His glance towards me, his salute as I peeked,
Soon gave me to know 'twas not bounty he seeked;

He murmered a bit, that guy so laconic,
While filling the stockings with gadgets 'lectronic.
Then laying his finger aside his trademark mask “T”,
And giving a nod, out the exhaust port he fleed;

Towards the stars he then flew, only without his starship;
His jet pack had fired 'cause the Unlucky One had tripped!
I heard him cry out — though effeminately like Ma –
“HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD– AAAAAAAHHH!!!.”

Fin.
——-
Ken Maeda University of Hawaii-Manoa
kentaro@hawaii.edu http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kentaro/home.html
“Hate… leads to suffering!”
“Kermit the Frog, you are just adorable!”

I have been running celibate for 2 weeks now, until today's indulgence into a 5 mile scamper with Beer Boy. It is amazing how not running for two weeks and then going out at a modest 9:48 pace for the first mile can really affect you. My shoulders were tight and my knees ached, but I knew it was more of my body being lazy than anything else.

Marty was kind enough to help me through the run and we paced off each other, although there were plenty of times that I was struggling to keep his pace. We did run at a pace that we could have a pleasant conversation and were able to catch up on a couple of week's activities of our family.

The weather was cold but not bone chilling. I still wore a LS coolmax shirt, Cotton shirt, hat and gloves. I didn't wear tights, but I did have compression shorts on under my Umbros. Marty got some comments on his tights encased lower section. There were 3 women and a man and at least two of the women made comments to each other at a level that I could hear. I told Marty that they liked he had some fans, he said they were commenting on my legs. I dunno, there is something about those black running tights that make all the right curves the right size.

I didn't have any problem with congestion or anything sickness related. It sucked that I was out of shape to some degree. I had been near optimum running shape just 2 weeks ago, but now I am fighting not to pork out on the delicious candies that are hear at work. The number of calories that I am consuming pale in comparison to those that I expend during the day. This will make Terry a “chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf”.

So, I am not sure when I will run again. I am hoping that it will be Saturday or perhaps Friday, I can get a couple of miles in after work, if we get off work early, although with our company, I will have to make sure that all the cleaning is done, all through the house. I don't want to be on the naughty list quite yet.

Here are the splits for today's run

I just happen to catch the amazing landing of a Midwest flight into Boston. I can only imagine how scary that was for the passengers. In one of my former lives, I used to work for an airline and going into Boston was always something a little crazy especially in winter. Why? because it gets friggen COLD!! That leads to ice… yadda yadda yadda

Anyway, there was some problem with the landing gear and the pilots had to circle the airport for a few hours, to burn off fuel. We all know what a plane full of fuel can do, don't we? The plane came in and there were sparks on the right landing gear. I can only imagine that it must have been extremely scary for the passengers because you never know what may happen. This is also why I WILL NEVER SEAT MY CHILDREN AS A LAP CHILD!!!! Luckily for them, everything looked okay and the plane remained upright and came to a complete stop.

Now, for the airline personnel, this is the Big Dance. This is what you are trained to do and hope you never ever have to use it. The pilots are trained to remain cool and calm and follow the appropriate procedure. The flight attendants have a protocol that they follow to protect the safety of the passengers. They do not go through a multiweek training for the finer points on in flight soda pouring. No, they are there to make sure that you can have fun when you slide down the slide and that you'll have something to talk about when you walk away from the plane.

So, I am glad that everyone appears to be okay. I could tell that I was excited as my heart was pounding. Relax…

It has been 12 days since I last ran. Surprisingly enough, I am not in a bad mood or cranky because I am not running. I probably would do just fine running this week, but I probably won't get a chance to do that until Thursday at the earliest and I can only imagine that work will end early because of the winter holiday (and yes, the 26th is a holiday, the rest of next week are administrative closings)

I had an anonymous commenter on my Holidaze Spirit post and it really got me thinking a little out of my sheltered brain. The first thing that I came up with is that those worshiping santa (for a lack of better term) are not necessarily Christian. They could actually be any denomination, if they chose. But you run into two big problems. First, it's the people who will say that Santa and other traditional symbols are based on Christian believes. Perhaps they were but this country was based on Christian beliefs and now there are plenty of different religions around here. These people will say that a Christmas tree and all the lights and the ornaments are Christian based. Maybe, but there's nothing in the Christian Life Manual (i.e. the Bible) that says that the three wise men put up a christmas tree in the manager and lit candles on it. As a symbol, it's not really christian anymore, if it ever was. It's part of holiday season now a days. Same with lights, also, it's the same with a halloween costume. That's a christian/pagan ritual now commercialized. Christmas lights… same thing. Okay, there is a reference to Santa Claus as St. Nicholas (Night Before Christmas) based on the actual Saint that did similar things that Santa does today. But, with my extensive reference section (i.e. 1980s Holiday cartoons) suggests that Santa is actually St. Nick but as a Mr. Chris Kringle.

Christmas carols, yes, most are Christian… this is Jesus' birth songs. Christmas songs, not so much. Plus, you have to take out the “Christmas Songs” that are really seasonal songs such as Jingle Bells, Walking in a Winter Wonderland, etc. Even RUN DMC's “Christmas in Hollis” references holiday items (christmas tree, snowmen, turnip greens, santa's ill reindeer) but doesn't pin it to one religion. Chanukah songs are few and far between… there's Dreidle (popularized for my generation by the cartoon Southpark) and Chanukah Song Parts I and II by Adam Sandler, who celebrates the people who light the menorah. I know of no Kwanzah songs.

So, I have come to my own conclusion that you can celebrate Christmas, not as “Christ's” Day or “Christos” mass. But you can have Christmas tree and lights, etc… if you choose and if it doesn't conflict with your religious beliefs. Eric's first picture with Santa is at church and I wrote ironic on the back.

One of my favorite groups is XTC and the lead singer and main songwriter's named Andy Partridge and he is an atheist. Funny that a christian guy like me likes a group that sings a song called “dear God” that goes on to say

“but all the people that you made in your image, see
them starving on their feet 'cause they don't get
enough to eat from God, I can't believe in you”

Anyway, they have a song called “Thanks for Christmas” which one of their songs that actually gets airplay.

Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the love and happiness that's snowing down, all around
Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the winter friendliness that's snowing down, all around the world

It's nearer, children's eyes shine clearer now
As they decorate the trees, all across the seven seas
It's nearer, yule log fires burn clearer now
In the winter's frosty air, sing with us and we can share our

Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the love and happiness that's snowing down, all around
Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the winter friendliness that's snowing down, all around the world

It's dawning, Santa's reindeer yawning now
All their festive work is done, filling houses up with fun
It's dawning, here is Christmas morning now
Greatest day of all the year, listen out and you will hear our

Thanks for Christmas

It's such a shame it's only one day every year
Three hundred and sixty-four days full of doubts and fear
You've been saving your love up, let it out, 'cos Christmas is here

Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the love and happiness that's snowing down, all around
Thanks for Christmas
Thank you for the winter friendliness that's snowing down, all around the world

Thanks for Christmas

I do feel bad for those who don't believe and are subjected to the Christmas Militants that insist if you don't participate you're a Scrooge or a Grinch. They are doing anything wrong, theit just doing what they want to do. But now this year when the words “Merry Christmas” are labeled as almost a curse word, although I didn't see “God Bless America” or “In God WE Trust” anywhere in those two words. ANd you know what… I don't want to wish a Merry Christmas, I'd much rather wish a Happy Holiday or Season's Greetings or some other generic greeting like that. Why? Because wishing someone a Merry Christmas is only good for one day! I don't want to be that narrow… I want to wish you a whole bunch of “winter friendliness”. So I hope that you all have a Happy Holiday (which includes a Merry Christmas even if there is no religious significance) which I have been saying for years now.

Boy, I need to get back to running. This other crap is for the birds. I need to blog about intervals and training programs.

Also, this post is by no means any effort to defend or attack Christmas, nor will I really get excited about any pointed comments or references pointing out what I say is wrong. First, look at my references… a pop band and cartoons. Second, I'm not getting paid to blog… now if you want to pay me, I might do some extra research. What I do like are comments like my Holidaze posts… I find these informative to me, it helps me get into the head of others, which in turn makes me think, hence this post. I'm not jewish, in high school we did a passover event. I went to one of my fraternity brother's wedding where there was a pastor and a rabbi. That's about it for my Jewish knowledge. I know no one who celebrates Kwanzaa. I have plenty of atheist friends who celebrate (and don't celebrate) Christmas.

Oh well… man, I REALLY need to get running again… did I mention that yet?

“Thank you for the winter friendliness that's snowing down, all around the world” (Kaspar / Melchior / Balthazar)
Upcoming Races:
01/28 Calhoun's 10 miler (Loudon, TN)
02/18 Strawplain's 1/2 marathon (Strawberry Plains, TN)
03/26 Covenant Health 2nd Annual Knoxville Marathon

I am thinking about abandoning running for the rest of the year. Among other things, I have been fighting this cold for a number of days and am at 8 days sans running. I'll miss out on 4 weeks of marathon training but that will still give me 12 training weeks for Knoxville since I am already committed and paid the money to run the race.

I am just about healed up for all practical purposes. This disease has taken 7 days and $20 of my life away so far. So, it will be nice to get back out and running. The only thing that will stop me is if I cough up ALOT in the morning. A little will be fine and hopefully, running will break up any of the stubborn crap that is hanging around.

Can't say that a lot has happened since the last post. I have really only been trying to heal thy body, so I've been listening to podcasts and reading blogs when I am not working or taking care of the house, etc. Although, I might start some Christmas baking today, if the planets align properly.