PLANET3RRY

For Christmas, we received a juicer… Yes, one that we saw on an Infomercial… No, not pitched by the Late Great Billy Mays. We felt this would help us have a healthier diet by being able to drink the blood of fruits, vegetables and anything else that would fit in there.

We very much enjoy being vegetarian vampires. And with our juicer we get 30% MORE juice than leading competitors! But what about the wate/by-product/pulp of the victims? 3 words: Soups, Smoothies and Casseroles! We have been trying number of fruit-vegetable combinations and this leads dorectly to the point of this post, which I am getting to… Eventually.

I’ll save some of our recipe/combinations for later and focus on one fruit, Canteloupe. A nice light and rwfreshing part of the melon family, it makes a nice compliment to any juice. The Younge LOVES canteloupe. Well he like All melon regardless of type. All he requests is that they be cut into near bite-sized pieces… If too big he’ll just cram it in his mouth and if too small, he’ll just take a handful in there. Today we went to the grocery store and picked up a Canteloupe. Given what he ate today as cut fruit, I should have gotten 2, maybe 3.

For afternoon snack he had his first helping of Canteloupe and some strawberries.
“Daddy, can I have some of that fruit-What’s it called again?”
“Canteloupe”
“Yeah! Canteloupe. And strawberries. But no grass… On the strawberries.”
“Okay.” I cut him a couple of pieces and quickly realized it would be wise to go ahead and slice the whole melon, at least into strips which would easy to juice.

Later, he asked for another snack and I felt myself in the middle of a Monty Python sketch…
“Daddy, I want some more, uhhh, stuff.”
“What stuff?”
“I want some more mayonnaise.”
“Some what?”
“More mayonnaise.”
“You want more…. Mayonnaise?”
“Yeah, like we had today, with strawberries with no grass.”
“Ooh, you want some canteloupe.” I said thinking how in the hell the translation between the two. I could find no logical connection…
“Yea, cant-tee-loot”
“Sure,” I replied cutting couple of pieces for him. Not 2 minutes later, I found myself in a strange strange situation.
“Mayonnaise is my FAVORITE!” exclaimed The Younger, cramming in a “Younger” sized morsel in his mouth.
“You mean canteloupe.”
“Yeah, canteloupe!”
When he finished that piece, he asked for some more.
“Daddy can I have some more mayon- What this called again?”
“Canteloupe,” I replied not even pausing with what I was doing… as if mayonnaise and canteloupe were one in the same.
“Yeah. It’s my favorite.”

We will see if it sticks… I do know that The Younger knows that 3 is 3 and not 5.
###
Review of The Younger’s sandwich, a BLT with some canteloupe, coming soon.

[This was written on New Year's Eve...]

Our household has been without internet since September as a way to cut spending. Also at the end of September, we turned off our home phone AND our Cable. Although, we have not totally become TV free in our household, we have made that step to stop the crap that Hollywood can only seem to reproduce time and time again. And if there is anything news worthy, we do have the internet via our mobile phones (My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Palm Pre) and my work. I do now have the Palm Pixi (which I call ‘Pi-11′ to soften the tinkerbell connotations of the phone…. disclaimer: my most recent phone was a pink Katana II, so having a phone that “sounds” girlie is nothing compared to one that “looks” girlie) [uh, where was I], which I can access my email and web and a bunch of other cool stuff that I could only do if: I borrowed My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Pre or be at work.

Now that I am on a forced vacation… December 28 through January 1st, because the University of Tennessee is in its annual “administrative closing” cycle, this meant two things: More Kid Time, Less internet. My BRILLIANT Lovely and Talented Wife suggested that I go to the Library and work “1/2 day” to maintain some normalcy in our household. Both The Elder and The Younger are on their Christmas Holiday Winter Whatever Break and so with everybody home that is just a recipe for Clutter and Chaos. So, a few things had to happen for me to get to the point where I could work 1/2 days. 1) I needed a place to work with Internet Access 2) I needed a place conducive to getting real work done 3) I needed a place that I could work and then when I was done working, I could run. yes, I said RUN. As of me typing this blog entry, I have not run since December 3rd, but there is hope on the way. I need am INTERVENTION from this not running.

The place that satisfied ALL these conditions was the Knox County Public Library… 1) I can get internet access, 60 minutes with a library card, 2) It’s quiet in the library and you can really “buy” anything… but does have some strange personalities that roam through the collections and 3) The Farragut Branch is really close to my house AND adjacent to the Campbell Station Greenway! So, 2 weeks ago, I signed up for my library card… which means that now the The County and The Government is following my every move… wait, don’t they already do that?

Since my “real” work has actually been full of legimate work, thanks American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, I have had little time to do the things that I used to do mainly at work: Blog and Trade (stocks/options). So that is what I have been doing this week… well, when I wasn’t sitting in the waiting room of The Clinic.

Seems that the other day, in one of those simple instances… like putting down a cup of coffee… strange things happen in our world which follows the rules of Physics. Seems that I was able to apply enough Force (F) which was enough to break (coeffiecent of adhesion) the handle of the mug into two (n) pieces which cause one of the pieces to interact with my hand, namely the knuckle of my right hand’s middle finger (FU). Following Newtonic Rules of Motion, it was the ceramic piece which ceased to be in motion once it came into contact with my knuckle. Seems that about an inch (1″) of flesh was enough to stop the ceramic piece’s motion, however, it caused an incision to open in my hand (OWWIE). Noah would have been excited because with the blood, it was like the parting of the Red Sea. (I put the wrong person down, just to check to see if you were reading this… everybody knows that Abraham parted the Red Sea). Being a guy, and previously been certified in Red Cross First Aid, even to the First Responder level, I knew that I needed something… and a beer was not that thing. It was direct Pressure (P), and I applied that in a millisecond (ms) of the cut. At this point, I wasn’t sure of just how big the cut was, but I knew that it wasn’t going to be pretty. My Lovely and Talented Wife was in the next room and hopefully not engrossed too deep in a game of Five or More to hear my body hit the hardwood floor as I bled out.

I made it the Laundry Room, which is also our First Aid Triage Room and our Pharmacy. I was now faced with a dilemma… I couldn’t get the band-aids (please don’t sue me) bandages with one hand incapacitated and the other one engaged in self-preservation. I tried for about 30 seconds, before I called out, “Lovely and Talented Wife, I need your help!”. I was met with an immediate response since I NEVER ask for help, even if getting help is EASIER than the way that I am doing it. So, with the calling for help, she was like a cat hearing the can-opener, except… no tasty treat. Surprisingly we were able to get the bandage on with little problem. There wasn’t much blood, but there was “sinking” of one of the flaps of the skin. I didn’t think that I needed stitches, but still followed (yes, dear) my wife’s request of trying to call the doctor. But given that it was 7:30pm on a Sunday, I had no chance of being seen. That meant, if I wanted stitches, I would need to go to the Emergency Room. Seeing that I 1) I did not have a head injury or 2) a gunshot wound, the chance of being seen in the Emergency Room before Sunrise, was slim to very very very slim. I decided to do my own First Aid handy work and try to survive the night.

Although I was never a Boy Scout but rather watch MacGvyer in the 80s (and had the hair at the time), I was able to fashion a split for my finger using a bandage, prewrap, athletic tape and popsicle sticks. And it worked, just peachy! No duct tape needed (darn!).

The next day, once the kids were up, I had some full frontal reality. In about 10 minutes, they must have hit my finger at least once if not TWICE! (and once was enough). I decided that I would be going to “The Clinic” so that I could get it looked at by a ‘professional’ and see if I really needed stitches. The Clinic didn’t open until 2pm though and I didn’t want to go to my PCP because that place is full of sick people. At least at the clinic, they are doing mainly tests at time of day. After a 2 and 1/2 hour wait at the clinic… I walked out with a metal splint on my finger, which was a nice upgrade to my home-grown splint. All it cost was the price of a co-pay.

### Fast Forward 2 weeks

I guess now I have to play catch up on my blog. The good thing is that I have a smart phone now which makes texting, browsing, etc SOOOO much easier. So, now I still have to figure out my running calendar this year!

The past 2 weeks have been pretty busy for me… and I am going to post an abbreviated post while I work on the more lengthy stories about our Adventures!

Flying Monkeys: I finished the Harpeth Hills Flying Monkey Marathon in the SLOWEST time ever for a marathon, a 5:31:58. I am not upset with this at ALL. Because you have to remember that I ran this on 11/22/2009 and the last time that I had ran was on 11/06/2009 because of sickness! I was in a good mental (other than being a marathon maniac) form for the entire race, I almost had to be in order to survive. My legs weren’t all that happy with me though… I don’t have the audio recorded yet, but am working on the outline of what I want to say about the marathon.

The day after the marathon, we flew to California (LA Area) for My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Sister’s wedding. We missed our first flight which left the rest of the day to waiting lists and mayhem, but we finally made it to California, after a couple of stops across the country. I was there, not only as part of the wedding family, and that The Younger was the Ring Bearer in the wedding, but I was shooting parts of the wedding events where the “professional” photographer wouldn’t be. There was actually a time where I filled in for the Professional Photographer while he was busy somewhere else. I brought Stella (my Canon DSLR) and AV-1 (1980s 35mm SLR) along with my hand held digital camera. The fun part was being the Interviewer for Melanie-In-Law and Joe-In-Law for a pre-wedding interview. So, I had my camcorder with me as well! I am now in the process of consolidating my pictures along with My Talented and Lovely Wife’s pictures so that I can send the Married Couple their pictures.

Work has been keeping me busy as well. I am in the process of creating another database that looks at ARRA construction and so I have been in the trials and tribulations of getting that worked out as well because on Thursday, I am traveling to Washington DC for work as well, 2 days of workshops. More airplanes…

I do have a race this weekend, the Reindeer Run 5k, this is one of my normal annual runs that I like to do. Usually since it follows a marathon in November, I don’t always run as fast as I “think” I should run it… but the door prizes are usually pretty good. It’s just a matter of winning some of them!

My Running in September took a HUGE hit! And right in Marathon Training too. My total mileage for September was 4 miles. That’s right FOUR miles, just the same number of letters as the letter “four” which is one more than 3 and one less than 5. Why? Why you ask on how, in weeks 5-8 of marathon training that I would be held back to only 4 miles. Two main reasons: Self-Deprecating Attitude and Injury.

I’ll address the Self-Deprecating Attitude (SDA). Coming off of the Flying Pig Marathon in May, I thought that I would be more excited on continue some maintenance runs during the summer, so that come August 1st, I’d be ready to go for the Niagara Falls International Marathon. Well, a couple things happened, that while none by themselves were bad things, combined, they really threw me off. I hate to imagine what would of happened, if I wasn’t on my meds and that’s more for those around me.

One factor was that our Our Reliable and Resourceful Au Pair moved out of the house to live with her fiance. The effect that this had was the disappearance of Terry Day: A Near 4 Hour Excursion Time for Me to Do What I Need to Do at My Own Pace, which pretty much killed my Weekday Mid-Distance runs. I could have done them after the kids were in bed, but after working all-day, then coming home and doing the whole kid thing, it wouldn’t be until 7:30 or when I would get the first chance to relax and so often I would be too tired to want to run, knowing that I only had a little time to work on some of the stuff at the house. Since I was tired at night, I would try to catch up with things in the morning, thus making me late for work, so instead of working out at lunchtime, I would make up the time at lunchtime, since I couldn’t make it any other time, or be forced to take personal time for it.

Another factor was finances. During the summer we decided/ forced to move to a stricter budget. While we could still pay our bills, every month were still coming up short for stuff like Groceries and Gas (which would be put on a credit card). So we started making some difficult cuts to our lifestyle and one of them was to forego the Niagara Falls Marathon. Since we were going to going to California for Thanksgiving for a Family Wedding, the tickets for that alone for 4 were over $1200, not to mention the drive to Nashville and parking. That’s a rather sizable chunk, especially we knew we would have to pay for hotel in Cali for our stay… also having to pay for Food and a Rental Car and Wedding Incidentals. I was pretty darn bummed that I wouldn’t be able to do the Niagara Falls Marathon since you ran in two different countries! The Free Entry Fee ($60) was insignificant to the cost of the hotel, travel, etc. However, the ever fun Flying Monkey Marathon fit very nicely with our California Trip. We could drive to Nashville the weekend prior to the trip, I could run the marathon on Sunday and we would already be there for the flight out. We’d also be able to use our Priority Club Points (Holiday Inn Family) to stay in Nashville for Free. So the only increased cost of the race would be the entry fee and the residual cost of training.

The “residual cost” of training was offset on the morning of September 18th, when I was getting some eggs for the refrigerator in the Garage. While trying to get to the fridge, I stepped on an electrical cord with my left foot, which I knew from the pain (and I have a high pain tolerance) that it was cut. But Fridays are French Toast Days for Breakfast and it’s wildly popular in the household. If there is not French Toast in the morning, there is alot of crying and begging and upset people in our household. When I came back in, the heel of my foot was tender, but when I did the “Take A Regular Step too See How Much Blood Is There” severity test, there was hardly any blood at all. I thought that I was home free. HAH! Good one there.

The injury that I sustained was an approximately 2 inch incision on my left heel which was near where my foot stride initially lands. This means that all my weight would land it first, ouchie. Another characteristic about the cut was it such an angle that it only cut into a couple of layers of skins. Having thicker skin on my feet, along with the angle, the cut didn’t penetrate very far, which is why there wasn’t much blood visible with the initial testing. Also the angle was good that it didn’t penetrate too far to mess with any of the muscles or ligaments in the foot, else I would be really screwed and not in Fun and Exciting way. I went around the weekend as usual but my foot was hurting. After 2 days, I inspected the injury, and there were 2 pieces of skin that were flapping around which was the source the sharp pain. So, I broke out my Time-Life Book Series on Home Surgeries and with a pair of toe nail cutters (don’t worry, they were sanitized) I took off those flaps of dead skin. The sharpness went away, but not the pain.

Now that it was in the week, I went though a regiment of bandaging up the wound with antibiotic and kept as clean as I can keep the bottom of my feet. The gash was starting to heal and there was about an 1/8″ wide opening that still needed to close up. I was asked if I had needed stitches, but that wouldn’t have worked that well because the gash was too wide, and it didn’t go very deep either, it’s just that the heel has tough skin and doesn’t grow back very quickly, especially when you walk on it. Things were going well… until I showered.

Although I wasn’t stinky anymore, the shower had softened up the area and the tenderness was back! It had been about a week or so since the injury and now I was back at Square 5: I was beginning to be able to put full weight on it. Now, I couldn’t and that pretty much shot running the weekend of the 26th. With another round of bandages and antibiotics, it was around Sept 30th, that I could finally put my full weight on my foot and walk normally. It had healed up enough that only pressing on my heel with significant force, that I could feel the injury. So, on October 2nd, I ran for the first time since September 12th, when I ran with Brian Wilson, my friend, not the Beach Boy or Canadian President.

The cool thing about making my entrance back into running was that this was the first time that The Younger was coming to run on his bike. Since he mastered riding his bike without training wheels this past June, I have been itching to take just him running. I wasn’t sure if he’d last the 2 miles, but he did just fine. I was running with Brian again, his class was finished and he was leaving that morning. I stayed home from work to spend a little time with him and his wife Dori before they left. The Younger only crashed once, but that was because he got to close to me and hit my leg, causing him to crash… ego hurt more than anything. So, I’ll be able to take him on other excursion with him and just his bike in the future. Later that day, he was a little tired and was constantly hungry!

So with those 2 things doing a double-whammy on my running, I ended up with 4 miles of running September and so far this month, I have 2 miles in October. This weekend is the World Wide Festival of Races, and I have ALL intentions to complete the Half-Marathon distance! I have 6 weeks until race day, and so, I need to play my cards carefully, so that when it comes to the marathon, I won’t be too destroyed. The Flying Monkey Marathon isn’t known to be runner friendly with the hills. But Me Likey Hills!

September was a pretty busy month! I tell you there was LOTS of stuff going on and yet the 2 things that were non-existent, which of course are two of my favorite things are Blogging and Running. But here’s what went on the rest of the time:

Labor Day Weekend

It’s been 20 years since I graduated! And thanks to Facebook, it would have been 20 years since I got in contact with some of my high school friends. Being from a small graduating class from Saint Vincent De Paul High School (now closed) in Petersburg, VA, there weren’t a whole lot of people who attended college with each other. During my 4 years at Longwood College, there were 3 of us from my class and I can’t remember, if there were any other from future classes or not. Anyway, there are ALOT of my graduating class that I have not seen in 20 years… and with the help of Facebook, most of them I just haven’t seen in PERSON in 20 years. Of course, there is Patrick who is 1/2 a world away riding horses on the Mongolian plains, visiting Tibetan Monks not because some rock band said “go save them”, and going back to Bangkok, Thailand to do some secret government thing… my Morse Code is stale since it’s formally “dead” but it was some like “club, bang-bang, americans, uh-oh wife Jennifer is coming, later.”

So with 20 years of anticipation, we headed to Virginia to visit my High School Alma Matter, and in doing so, I unleashed a Antiquity-Maelstrom in my workshop as I was trying to find great crap treasures that would bring back fond memories when I could ligitimately call myself a “Saint”. I found my yearbooks (of which I just had seen weeks ago) literally the last 30 seconds in the house. No, seriously. My Lovely and Talented Wife was calmly describing what I should do about being prepared and vigorously get to the van so that we can leave on time. I had my yearbooks, some photo albums, soccer schedule, letterman’s jacket, a vintage (circa 1983) memo from the school copied on the mimeograph machines (that patented “blue” color) and some other crap stuff.

I do have to admit that I was a little bummed that not more of my class or the classes around ‘89 wasn’t there, but I still had a great time regardless! But then again, had there been that would have taken away from seeing the people there and getting to chat with them! My Lovely and Talented wife had a good time as well, luckily most of “Terry being Terry” stories happened at Longwood… I think the next reunion will have a broader announcing range to make sure that those that Aren’t In The Know, In The Know.

The next day, I was really excited to go visit St. Joseph Elementary. This is where I did my time from Grades 1-7 and then 8th grade at Gibbons High School before Bollingbrook was bought and St. Vincent de Paul was created at Bollingbrook’s old campus. And who better to visit the Elementary school with than Jason Turner, the future lead singer of Jaymo and The Barbarians, if I had my way. Jason and his wife Kim (who went to Longwood during my time) plus his two girls joined forces with me, My Lovely and Talented Wife, and The Elder and The Younger. For the most part, things were pretty much the way they were… same lockers but with about 20 more coats of paint, the step in hallway that was broken and fixed was still a different shade of fading, the clocks in the hallway were still there, but since replaced with newer faces.

It was pretty amazing that while we walked through the room Jason and I were to reminisce about the classroom Teacher for that room, what subjects we had, and other crazy stuff that went on during the course of a year. We were also amazed that they had shortened the long hallways, they were not nearly as long as they were 20 years ago.

Another big change was that the Sisters of Mercy Daughters of Charity [ed. thanks to Pete for the correction] were no longer living there, so the Convent for the nuns are now just regular rooms. It was highly unusual for use to go into the Convent area during my 8 years there, but the few times that I did cross that barrier it was to go to the chapel that they had there.

Some of the more strange places that I wanted to see where the old book room, where they stored all the books from year to year. It was always a spooky place being a small room in a semi-hidden alcove near the Cafeteria. The other place was the closet underneath the stairs, where we could purchase office supplies, which now that I think about it, I have been an Office Supply Junkie for years now. I was even challenged one morning while buying a number of the wedge/arrowhead style #2 Pencil erasers on whether my mother (who worked as an aide there for a few years) knew of this. “uh-yeah”

The cafeteria had not changed, well, except that since the Russians are no longer the enemy and “that” cold war is over, the Emergency Shelter (read: fallout shelter) signs weren’t as predominate as before. There’s a huge underwater mural painted on the (again, shortened) hallway at the cafeteria. And I did the standard pose by the small counter with a tray, as-if I was in line for another round of hot dogs (unless it was pizza day).

All the kids played outside on the asphalt playground, just like the good ole days. Not sure if they still have Nerf touch (sometimes tackle) football games out there, but a few things were a little different, such as the modern playground with the soft rubberized matting. Back in my day, it was all asphalt and we liked it! The green fencing that is around the windows of the cafeteria is showing it’s age. Back in 7th grade when I was figuring out that not all girls are icky and filled with cooties, there was one that I would “show off” by doing some acrobatic football catches INTO the fence while she was at lunch. Flowers might have worked better, but I was on a limited budget, plus girls weren’t “that” cool yet.

Lavelle Hall was a stand-alone building that the high school used for classrooms as well as serving as the High School Library. Although we only had high school classes in that building for 1 year, it was easy to remember most of the classes that we had there. Now, the upstairs is a St. Vincent/Gibbon memorial room in the main room, while the other classrooms are being rented out as needed. The entire downstairs is being rented out to an after-school program these days. Another big change that was the gas station/garage that was right next door to Lavelle Hall is gone…

One strange event was that Randy, the coordinator for the tour, found an ALIVE Opossum in a trash can. Apparently, the varmint made it in, but couldn’t make it out, so it was just lying in there eating the food and waiting for a slow and rather boring death. I commented that “In East Tennessee, we’d take that home and fry it up real good like”! We took the trash can, that was in a wooden holder (hence it couldn’t knock it over), and took it to part of the schoolyard that we could tip the can over and it would have to move in a way as not to be pissed and attack us. The Younger HAD to know what was going on, so never wanting to miss any sort of time to educate, I had the kids stand about 10-15 feet back and I tilted the garbage can to where the could see in, but it the Opossum was going to make a break for it, it wouldn’t scare the bejeezus out of the kids. The kids haven’t talked about it since, so it Opossum must not be as cool as other things like Fire Trucks, Trains and Legos.

We definitely enjoyed ourselves and it was nice to be back everything. Even my old house at 1810 Varina! Hopefully next time we make it that way, we can catch up with a bunch more people!

Stay Tuned! More on September to come!

I am looking forward to my race tomorrow… although I don’t necessarily expect wonderful things to happen, it will nice to be in a “race” to get the “race mentality” back. That is what might be lacking from my inability to finish putting a plan together and sticking to it.

Speaking of running, I cranked out 9 miles in the afternoon heat on Tuesday. This was a complete violation of the 10% Rule, which is something that I really don’t hold to as a “Rule” but something more like a measuring stick. Given the heat, the lack of training and the benefit of experience I knew pretty much my plan of attack when it came to running those 9 miles. I knew that I wouldn’t last in terms of running because I hadn’t run much… or really… none at all this month and the heat and humid was pretty bad… not horrible, but not a walk run in the park. With a bunch of running broken up with strategic walking, I managed the 9 miles in about 1:45 or so for an average 11:40 min/mi. I had planned to run about 3-4 miles on Thursday but Plan A was shot-down by Scheduling Scud Missles and Plan B was botched because of Propoganda and other disillusionment tactics. But tomorrow… Scholar’s Run 5k with a cool down run in the wooded area behind Maryville College.

###

The Elder starts school next week. Yes, Tennessee starts early. But don’t worry, even WITH the extra early start Tennessee is usually battling Alabama for a couple of things besides on the 3rd Saturday in October and that is usually who is NOT the last on the list for Healthiest State and School Test Scores. In East Tennessee, they don’t really have “snow days” mainly because of the changing climate, it doesn’t snow here anymore and if it does, it’s melted by noon. No, we have “Flu Days” and “We Are Predicting Ice In the Morning Days”. So, while we start early, we get out a little earlier, but we have our reasons!

And while The Elder is going to school for the first day, I will be flying to Rhode Island. I am going to RI for business and will only be there overnight. I have a presentation on Tuesday morning for a bunch of OSHA officials. I would try to explain it, but you’d get a bruise from when your head would hit the keyboard.

For the past 3 weeks, our household has been under viral attack. And from reading some blogs and Facebook updates, there seems to be alot of it going around. It first started with The Elder becoming lethargic, decrease appetite and then a big fever. What is tricky about the virus at our house is that it was simulating a 12-24hr virus. Roughly every 12 hours, the fever would come, break and then subside to the point where the patient was feeling MUCH better, only to have it come back again.

And it didn’t last just 1 or 2 days, no, this was a 5-6 day bug! And not sure about the incubating period either, because it seemed to be that The Younger’s ailment did not manifest until AFTER The Elder was feeling much better. This way, instead of having TWO side kids, you get ONE side kid for twice as long. yay. whoopie…. bleh.

This past week was The Younger’s turn for being Down and Out. Actually he started earlier in the week… maybe Tuesday or so. Each day, high fever, but not “too” high. Well, except for when My lovely and Talented Wife said that The Younger had a temperature of “105″ and I about peed my pants. She calmly said “oops, I meant 101.5″. Okay, so I did have a little leak. As a statistician, I have a degree (haha) certifying that know the proper techniques to manipulate numbers to make them say what I want them to say. And while in some cases 105 and 101.5 might not be statistically different (unless you want them to be… wink wink), when it comes to core body temperatures, you don’t [I'll use the word "Clown" here, but I am thinking of something allot less... entertaining] around.

The Younger was already a little nuclear power unit as it was when the fever was at it’s peak. There was about 30 minutes when I just set my coffee on him to keep it warm. But (thankfully) there was never a time when we needed to toss him into a tub filled with ice. The Younger did get some nasal congestion which The Elder did not. It could be that The Younger does have a lower threshold for allergies, so it may have been a result of that. And the cutest thing, in all this sickness, was The Younger talking with a stuffed up nose.

“Dabby, I neeb my mebicine”

and while there was some amusement in hearing him snore, I wasn’t happy that he wasn’t getting good air. But now, he is better. So, I imagine that it will one of the adult’s turn to get sick… stupid virus.

###

Like I had mentioned in a previous post, may have been last month, was that I had was (or that I had) recording some audio for my podcast Gravity@1053′, which I did, But since I didn’t get it posted, things have changed, so I need to re-record some audio and will get something posted “soon” (which means, maybe later, maybe never, but I want to).

###

As much as I would LOVE to run in this weekend’s 5k, I am just not ready. In fact, I haven’t even started training for anything… partly because that training plan that I have been “talking” about for months now… is still just “talk”. OH CRAP! I just remembered… this is a SPECIAL 5k this weekend! It’s the Scholar’s Run 5k! It’s the ONE race that I have done EVERY year since I became a runner in 1998. I can’t just DUMP it. Oh, just GREAT! I sure hope that I can still preregister. maybe I can do it online or something. be right back…

[INTERLUDE]

10 minutes later…

Okay, so I CAN register on-line through Wednesday and it looks like it will be $15 plus a fee, which I assume will be less than Day-of-Race which is $18. So, I will register tonight after I make sure that things are in order for me to run it. This way, I will still be eligible for the Triple Crown Door Prizes at the Reindeer Run in December, which is a good thing.

Saturday was a freakishly short day. I think it was because we had an appointment in the mid-morning, which meant that you couldn’t do a whole lot, then by the time we got home, it was quiet time.

After quiet time, we headed downstairs to the new Kids Office. Well, The Elder went off to play a Lego game on the computer and The Younger went into the Work Shop with me.

He started to pick up the free weights and dumbbells that we had. Picking up a 12 lb dumbbell (1/3 of his body weight) and placing on the bench about stomach-height. This body is going to be strong, but we are going to need to work with him to help him cope with some anxiety issues.

Just before I went outside, I was relocating a few things in the Kid’s Office and so during a pause break in the game that I was assisting The Elder with, I said…
“I‘m going to move the Refrigerator”

The Elder, without missing a beat and who was already running in the direction of the bathroom, raised his finger into the air to reinforce his statement, “I’m going to Move… to the Bathroom!”

My Lovely and Talented Wife both started to laugh which The Elder overheard and asked, “was that funny?”

Given that my blogging is as lean as it can get… I shutter just to think of what my numbers of visitors might be… I probably when from 15 to 2. But Never fear, somewhere there is a blog post or even a podcast of my thoughts (now that is ALSO pretty scary).

Things here have been WAYYYYYYY busy. It’s hard to think that June is almost over, but thinking of all that went on… it would need to be over, just about. So… what have I done? Yeah, what HAVE I done?

To start off the month, My Mommy turned 60! And let me tell you… she is aging gracefully! She doesn’t look at day over 42. If I remember correctly, I made some Gluten Free cookies for the kids, for her birthday. NO WAIT! She bought cake for the Dynamic Duo which was Gluten Free from Earthfare. The Elder loves chocolate, which was the flavor of the cake slice (big enough for two to share) and he will eat chocolate and get as excited as I do with Chocolate. However, he will pace himself when it comes to eating chocolate (he gets that from his mother). The Younger, on the other hand, has no self-control with chocolate… and will eat any chocolate that is either not protected by an electrical fence, armed guard or a force-field.

Hence, two days after the cake arrived at the house, it was gone. Mysteriously… I put on my Sherlock Holmes hat and grabbed my magnifying glass and headed to the kitchen. It seemed that whoever had consumed the cake has left clues… yes, CLUES in the form of crumbs. I paced up and down the kitchen alternating stroking my chin and gazing into the air with rubbing my temples and looking at the ground. There had to be some more clues.

I decided to interrogate question the residence of the household. Questioning myself was easy and satisfactory.

“Did you eat the cake? No. Are you Sure? Yes. Okay, thanks. You’re Welcome.”

How polite I was to myself but the answer had to be elsewhere. I came across The Younger, who is known for his climbing prowlness on to the counters, and asked him a few “easy” questions about that brown streak near his mouth.

“Did you eat the cake?” I questioned.

His reply was a simple, “No.”

“Well, then, is that dirt on your face?”

“No.”

Now, I had to start thinking outside of the box in the questioning… The Force was strong with this one.

“So, where you eating poo-poo?” This line of questioning is tough for any male to breakdown from the sheer low-brow approach.

“No,” he chuckled, “I didn’t eat POO-POO!”

“So, you were eating cake!” Check…

“Yeah.” Mate.

“HEY, THE ELDER…. THE YOUNGER ATE YOUR CAKE!!!” And I made a dash for the front door!

So just a few days later in June… The Lovely and Talented Wife earned one more mark toward sainthood with another year of marriage in the books. 13 if you are playing from home. And right on our anniversary we had a visit from my Grandma Boots and Cousin Bobbie-Jo. They are from my biological dad’s side (who had MS and passed in 2006). Not to be confused with Grandma Higgins who is the Mommy to my Step-Dad Pete, who you see commenting around here from time to time. He’s going to be 60 this year… and he doesn’t look a day over 144.

So, it was great for them to see the kids and eat dinner and all that funstuff while they were here. We signed up Bobbie-Jo on Facebook, which was way fun. Jen cut her hair, or at least fixed her hair. I think my hair might be technically longer, I dunno. There’s a picture on FB.

Then, there was a crazy week when NOTHING in my schedule was staying to the plan. I am not sure what happened… some planet was probably in Retrograde or something. Who knows. But then last week… which may have been that crazy week (because I lost track) was getting ready for the

Tellico Sprint Triathlon which was to benefit ASD Athletes.

Speaking of ASD Athletes… we had a request from the IRS for more information. They received in on the 15th of this month, so HOPEFULLY, we’ll know around July 1, if we are 501(c)(3) or not… which we will be! So, the Triathlon was an experience… a good experience and we are going to be the beneficiaries NEXT year as well! I’ll probably do the Triathlon story in a different post.

But NOW, ASD Athletes is about to submit a Grant Request for $20,000 for our certification program that we want to start! That’s technically what I should be doing “now”, but I didn’t want this blog post to be looming on my mind while the last part of the grant is being worked out.

I am not sure if I have even ran this month. I still need to send in my entry form for the Niagra Falls International Marathon as well as make up a plan for it as well. I do have the pictures developed from the Flying Pig Marathon and can post those soon.

I thought that last week was going to be a little different. I thought that I was going to have time to do things such as the Flying Pig Race Report, State of the Planet3rry Universe, weird and kooky Silly things that kids do and say, Expo 10k Race Report ft, dPeach, and many other award winning blog posts. Instead… nothin’. Well, except for the celebrity video, while although side splitting funny, not to much on the “content” category. So now I write, YET another short post to let people know that I am alive… if you were keeping score at home.

So, shooting for posts this week that might be titled: “Dinner with Peaches, the people not the food”, “Thermodynamics: count the calories”, “Call Columbo, Scooby-Doo or Sherlock Holmes… there’s a mystery leak in the basement”, and “The Elder, a Doctor and a Camera all in the same visit”.