No autographs, please

An interesting day today--and hot too. But Sofia and Dylan are both officially working actors. We got to hang out on a real movie set all day, went through costuming, hair and make-up, saw the "street" where part of the action takes place, and ate lunch with the other extras and crew. Neither kid had a part that will make it into the credits, but if they did, it would look like this: Sofia in her role as "young girl on platform waving at train" and Dylan in the part of "young boy waving from window of train."

The film is in Italian and currently titled: Baaria--La porto del vento. The director is Giuseppe Tornatore, who won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1990 with Cinema Paradiso. Cool, eh?

Daddy's little trooper

The "mump" saga continues...

We took Sofia to see a ENT doctor the other day, he took one look at her and said that the swelling under her jaw on the left side is definitely not mumps, but rather an infected lymph node. He prescribed antibiotics right away. We gave her the meds for a few days and had one follow up appointment with him. Then, yesterday afternoon, I took her to another follow up and the doctor said, "we have no choice, we must drain it."

So, daddy's little trooper had surgery this morning--minor, to be sure, but she was given an IV, a general anesthetic and the doc drained 5 cc's of "stuff" from her "mump". She's fine now, she's sitting on the couch here at home watching a movie and the procedure happened about five hours ago.

She'll need to go back and see him in a few days to change the packing and dressing and such, but she's already been given the go ahead to go to school tomorrow...and more importantly of course, go horseback riding.

I know, right? As if I didn't already have enough to do...

So, first of all, happy father's day, if it is appropriate to say so...and thanks to all for the condolences on the passing of Mr. Frey. Funeral is Tuesday the 17th, so if you will be near Pittsburgh on that day...

I mentioned last weekend that maybe we'd relax this weekend. Didn't happen of course. Sofia spent the whole weekend competing--thankfully (for her mother and I) this is the last horse show of the year. She'll spend the summer recharging her batteries and reconnecting with the horses without all the pressure of a looming competition. I've been trying to upload video of her shows, but Firefox ("Fox on the world" as Dylan calls it--so cute!) keeps crashing for some reason. The short version is that she did VERY well, and we are so proud of her. She jumped both days, yesterday she went through the whole course but knocked down the very last jump. Today she did a clean round and then competed in the jump off. She ended up knocking down a bar during the jump off, but not too shabby for the youngest competitor in the under-14 year old category, no?

Anyway, this week coming up is shaping up to be a good one too--we sure have been busy lately. We stayed at the horse club until midnight last night (w/o the kiddos) but I still managed to get up early this morning and go for my run. I cut it a bit short this morning, but I felt really, really good around the six mile mark, good enough to pick up the pace by about 90 seconds per mile. I'm not too worried about cutting the distance short though...I run a big loop and I'm never very far from home, so if I need to I can always get back relatively quickly. But the bigger reason I'm not disappointed is that I'm getting ready to start my train-up for my big fall race.

So, in addition to posting to this blog, taking my classes, working, spending quality time with the family, and doing various other things too (I'm going to take Thursday off, for example, and go SCUBA diving...) I'm "organizing" a race...the quotes are there because it's a virtual race. Meaning I don't actually have to "organize" anything. I realized that in order to keep myself motivated, I need to have a goal. So I was talking to a friend of mine who is a veteran marathoner and we came up with a plan. No pressure to do so, but if you like, you are more than welcome to play along too...link to our blog is here: DAS Virtual Marathon. I'll post about my running stuff on this blog from time to time, I suppose, but I'll be posting much more about it over there. You're welcome to come check it out...and even participate (if not the full marathon, there's plenty of stuff for lesser, shorter distances). It's mostly for my own motivation anyway--so far I have about seven people committed in one way or another. See you out on the trail!

Norman Matthew Frey (1922-2008)

The first time I met my step-father-in-law, Mr. Frey, (or "Ga" as he was known to Natalie, Sofia, Jackie, and Dylan), was almost ten years ago--labor day weekend, 1998. It was my first trip to 318 Waldorf Street...I was being "shown off" to folks in Pittsburgh for the first time. That address would eventually end up on my driver's license, and although technically I suppose I've never actually lived at 318 Waldorf, I have moved away from that house on no less than three separate occasions over the course of the last ten years. Stefanie always called him that, by the way, "Mr. Frey"--ever since she was very small and even after her mom married him thirty years ago.

I always felt I had a bit of a special connection to him, a northern European descendant in the midst of a southern European/Mediterranean (= Italian) family. A waspy-looking fellow who was always presiding over Italian-American style Christmas Eve dinner--and why not? He was the one that did buy the house at 318 Waldorf fifty years earlier after all. Also, the fact that he had been in the Army Air Corps in WWII was something that always fascinated me about him, too. At the time the Army thought that blue-eyed people had better night vision--so they made him a navigator on a bomber out of England. He spent his whole war time experience in the ETO (European Theater of Operations) ferrying VIPs back and forth, so he never dropped any bombs on anybody, but no matter. He answered the call and served his country--and I, of all people, certainly respect that.

But of course, no discussion about Mr. Frey is ever complete without the most important topic. When I met him in 1998 he was already retired, but even so, there was always sports. And I'm not sure that he was interested in much anything else. I know that's not true, but an entry in the Pittsburgh sports hall of fame is not something that someone wakes up one morning and decides that they want to accomplish in a weekend, either.

I'm not sure it really mattered what variety of sporting event, he could get into them all, but definitely baseball was always best. I never talked to him about it, but I bet he could have coached some pro team somewhere if he had really wanted to, what with all the contacts that he made over the years--but I like to think that he chose to stay at the high school (Peabody, where he was Stefanie AND her mom's PE teacher) and college levels (Duquesne University) so he could get the young boys and turn them into men. And not just sports for sports sake, though, mind you. If a player didn't respect his teachers, show up to class, make passing grades--he didn't play. And that's the way it should be, I think.

He was not a man without flaws, of course, as none of us certainly are--but now that his extra innings are over, now that another member of "the greatest generation" has passed...we should all give thanks and hope that we, too, can have as much influence on as many people as Mr. Frey did, through all those years of teaching, coaching, and mentoring.

Good-bye Mr. Frey, good luck, godspeed. See you in the next life.

Recently

Man, we sure have been busy lately. It's horse show season, and as I write this, Sofia is competing for the second time in two days. Yesterday didn't go so well, but we explained to her that as she is the only 8 year old competing in the 14 and under category--she still has many years to get better. Some day the kids will say, "oh no, here comes Sofia, she always wins."

Even so, we try to find time to relax (the kids learned the word "connotation" this morning. Example: "relax" = good connotation, "lazy" = bad connotation. We were actually being lazy this morning, but we called it relaxing instead.) By relax, I mean, of course, that I had finished my 10 mile run this morning while Sofia and Stefanie got ready for the second full day out at the horse show. Oh, well. Maybe we'll relax next weekend. Probably not, though.

Anyway, lots on our plates these days, and I'm really behind in my reading too. I've got Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans: A Brief History, and Measuring Heaven: Pythagoras and His Influence on Thought and Art in Antiquity and Middle Ages, and The Music of Pythagoras, and The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library (were you able to detect a trend?) to read before the end of the month. And that's not counting all three of the books on Shelby Foote, the three books on Greece and the Peloponnesian War, and the two books on historiography that I have in my book basket. I'm already mostly done with the last five on the list, but I've got them all going at the same time. The TV has only been on once in the last three weeks that I can remember, not a bad thing, I think. And that was just last night to watch the Belmont Stakes--we were rooting for Big Brown, but happy to see at least that the jockey didn't run him into the ground.

And then there's work. Here are some press articles from my latest project (a 24 hours visit takes a month and a half of prep work): Tunisia takes its turn in Ward’s PR push and Ceremony recalls WWII fallen in Tunisia. Every logistical aspect of the visit, the band, the airplanes (two of 'em), the vehicles to move all the people around, hotel arrangements, lunches, receptions--the whole nine--all belong to me. This isn't the only thing I do, but it's a big part of it.

Anyway, I guess I should stop procrastinating and write the Wall Street Journal article summary that is also staring at me in my To-Do List (I'm done with that program in September, by the way).

Haven't updated total mileage in a long time, I've had some problems with my iPod, Nike+, I've lost about 15 miles, but I'll count them anyway. Total = 285 miles.

The USAF and the Blustery Day

I've always been a huge Winnie the Pooh fan. This video reminded me of that Winnie the Pooh story. But this is something quite different.

From CNN's iReport site, here's the direct link to it: click here

Also, here's what the videographer had to say about it: " was standing in Arlington Cemetery in V.A when a huge storm was rolling in. I noticed these Air force Airmen standing so perfectly still. As the weather took a turn for the worse, these magnificent soldiers stood there ground. I was truly amazing to see them just standing there as the winds and rain were blowing tress and power lines over. WOW."

Les oreillons

Even someone with even modest French ability might think that they recognize the title of this post. But you'd probably be wrong. Les oreilles means "the ears." But les oreillons is something entirely different.

Sofia started complaining over the weekend about her jaw on the left side. Stefanie and I didn't think much of it, until she lifted her chin and we noticed that she was a bit swollen on that side. Elevated temperature, swollen glands under the face...figure it out yet?

She is indeed vaccinated against "les oreillons" and this might still not be an actual case (the doctor definitely thinks it is), but we're going to keep her out of school for the remainder of the week just to be sure.

Oh, and we looked it up, to be a true case of "les oreillons" you don't have to have bilateral swelling (on both sides of the face), at this point the swelling is just unilateral, confined to her left side...and she's still going riding (of course).

So, some time off from school, lots of fluids, and lots of rest...and hopefully she'll kick this thing, mumps or no, and be back to school next week.

Les Foulées du Lac! Ready? Set! Go!

So, the "half" marathon was yesterday morning. The scare quotes are there because it actually turned out to be 15 miles instead of 13.1. The course was also different (slightly) than the one advertised, which accounted for the extra distance. Additionally, they weren't manning the turn-around during the second lap and neither was there anybody standing at the second water point the second time past. The sponge station was out of sponges the first time I ran by (just a bunch of kids singing, "there are no more, there are no more") and the whole thing started a half hour late.

But I finished. All 15 miles of the "half" marathon. So at least there is that.

I ended up drinking seven bottles of water throughout the course--and still ended up fairly dehydrated. It was just too darn hot. I ended up looking behind me at around mile ten on a long straightaway and saw that there was nobody there. Turned out that there actually were a few folks behind me, quite a ways back, but the hundred some people that were behind me at the start all ended up quitting. Another piece of good news too is that besides the sunburn I have as a souvenir I have zero soreness today, even just one day after. All that training over the last few months paid off in that regard.

So, watch this space for more--this chapter is over, but I've got something that I think is exciting planned for the next several months. Stay tuned...

A good, busy day

Day started, for me, at 6 AM when the alarm went off...snooze for twenty minutes, and then:

I was able to make it through the first 9.5 miles before taking a break. I'm a sweaty guy, so I used that opportunity to switch t-shirts--dehydration is my biggest challenge on these long runs. (Total mileage = 213.2)

Got back home, cleaned up and made homemade pancakes. And then on to music... "band" is what we call it. It's actually a bunch of kids that take guitar lessons--they get together on Sunday mornings and play "Ode to Joy" over and over again. They've also added the theme to the Godfather to their repertoire.

Then, grocery shopping, wash the car, over to the local green grocer, bread from the bakery--and then help Stefanie (who stayed home and did yard work) finish cleaning up yard clippings.

And now, writing this, TV in one ear, kids in the other. A bit of schoolwork, dinner, and then read my book ("Champion Hill: Decisive Battle for Vicksburg" --I'm taking a class on historiography and I'm reviewing this book for the class).

Not an exciting day, but a normal day. Hope you had a nice day today too.

Happy Mother's Day!

11 May 2008--Mother's Day!

Sofia said to me the other day when I asked what she and Dylan thought they should do for Mother's Day that they should wake up before mom and then... jump on the bed and yell: "Happy Mother's Day!" I said, "um, a much better idea would be to let mommy sleep and then make her breakfast." Sofia thought about it for a moment and then said, "that's a much better idea!" So we let mommy sleep and made her pancakes...

Before that though, I went on my longest run yet: 12.3 miles. I got up at 6:30 and the run took about 2 hours. Mileage count is up to 183.59

Here's the route I took:

One of America's finest news sources

Rob Riggle is my hero.

Promotion board results

Hooray!

I think that anybody who would ever read this already knows, but I figured, what the hell, why not post it here too:

What this means: on a list of 500 some people who were selected, I'm number 242. The ranking doesn't actually mean much, frankly. The people with lower numbers got promoted to CW2 before me and everybody with higher numbers were promoted to CW2 after...so no big deal.

What this doesn't mean: that I've been promoted. That won't happen until November, most likely. But getting on the list is the most important thing...the promotion is now in the 'inevitable' category.

Hooray!

As promised--video of Sofia's horse show

Now this is a bit disturbing. The fall occurs at about the 35 second mark in the video. Like I said, she's fine and rode yesterday and today too. The only think that broke was her helmet. Kid, glasses, horse: all were fine afterward. She got up with a face full of dirt (and a few tears too) and then got back up on the horse and cantered out of the arena to a great deal of applause.

Sofia's exciting day

Most important part first: she's ok. The only thing that got broken was her helmet. The only thing that was injured was her pride.

Sofia competed in a horse show today out at the military club. Jumps were set to about sixty centimeters, a height that she doesn't have a problem with.

She started out fine, she was doing really well over the first few jumps. Jump five though was fairly close to jump four...it could have been a double, but they were just too far apart to justify. Nonetheless, Sofia's horse didn't realize this and jumped a few yards too early. The horses knees hit the bar and the horse and rider did a face plant. My friend has promised me the video so you can see for yourself. Once he does I'll try to figure out how to post it here.

Kids...what can you do?

Double digits

10 miles this morning. I set the alarm for 6:00 AM because I knew that I wouldn't have time during the day. And I discovered that this was a pretty good idea--not too hot, sun wasn't quite up yet (and neither were most of the locals...). Mileage count is: 140.23.

Here's the route I took:

Homework

I'm taking a course in computer graphics. My project that I had to do was use Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) to build a table and put three objects on top of it. 1) A shape that can move anywhere on the table top, 2) An object, when clicked, moves around the table top in a predefined path, and finally 3) An object, when clicked, rotates. Pretty exciting, eh?

Anyway, here's the link to my website where I uploaded the stuff: my Nova SCIS website.

Also, it will only work if your browser has a VRML plug-in, but here's a screenshot of what it looks like using Safari: Yay for me.

Mileage = 129.88. I've had to take a few days off to make sure I don't injure myself. I felt a twinge in my right knee...it wasn't hurting hurting (whatever that means) and with an ibuprofen the pain would go away (which means something in there was inflamed) which meant I really needed to take a break for a few days. We'll see how it feels in the morning--keep you posted.

And now we are seven

So Dylan is seven. We asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday, he said he wanted to go to Magic Life because of the water slides...which we did. Pictures to follow, but I wanted to post and let folks now that he had a very nice birthday weekend. We're all a bit crispy, but I won't say that too loud since some of you aren't near anywhere that either a) has a beach or b) has weather that would make going to a beach worthwhile anyway.

Also, in keeping with the recent spirit of my posts--took a 5k jog on the beach. I don't recommend running on that particular beach though. My shoes are now soaked. If you click on the map below you can go the website where I built the map. Ask it to show you the satellite view and you can get an overhead view of the Magic Life resort. Our room was in the building closest to the beach. Pretty sweet.

Oh, mileage count = 115.51

Personal bests (mileage count = 106.99)

Here's the baseline--my current personal bests at various distances. Those of you who've known me a while (if anybody actually is reading this) will know that I was on the track team in high school. I was never very good and/or fast, but the times in parentheses below are my all-time bests. My recent best efforts are the numbers not in parantheses--some will be blank because I don't have exact times or never ran that distance for time back then:

1 mile: 6'46" (5'06") (--just ran the 6'46" this afternoon, which is what inspired me to write this post. The low 5 minute time was the last time I ran competitively in high school.)

2 mile: 14'32" (10'52")

5K: 24'46"

5 miles: 43'42" (34'30")

10K: 54'43"

So...the point is that my longer term goals are to remove the times in parans after I've broken my all-time personal bests.

Also--since the homecookin' of the holidays I've been able to shed 15 pounds and 2 inches off my waist. Wish me luck!

Running milestone number 1 (still part 102.97)

Meant to post this as well...Nike gave me a certificate, I'm now a proud member of the Nike+ 100 mile club. I'm one of only 187,211 other people who have hit this mark...next milestone is 500 miles. Won't be too long, eh?

Here's what my certificate looks like:

Distance training, part 102.97

Shortish long run today, only 5 miles. First half mile was up a hill, next half mile down the other side. I only took one short walk break at about the 3.5 mile mark. Didn't feel especially great throughout the run, but during the last quarter mile I started to feel really good...I upped the pace a bit even. I was actually disappointed when the run was over--I had a lot left in the tank (more than I realized) and could have gone for a few more miles. Which is good since the mileage gets cranked up next weekend, training plan says 9 miles. Although it will be a challenge to fit it in. Dylan's birthday is Saturday, we're going to go to the beach on Friday, and I hope to go SCUBA diving on Sunday. But this is important, we'll see...maybe it will slip to Monday.

iPod mileage says 5.62, MapMyRun says 5.17:

Les Foulées du Lac

Here's the course for the half-marathon. The street map view is a bit weird, but in the satellite view you can see that the whole course is in fact on dry land.

Run! Part 83.86

Did my long run today...iPod says 7.85, MapMyRun says 7...looks like I need to recalibrate the iPod, no? Nice route today too, not too hilly. Feel good now, I only took two walking breaks. And it took me right by the Med:

April 3rd

Several reasons why the 3rd of April is important:

1) Alex's birthday (he's two today!)

2) Christine and Jim's Anniversary (22nd...I think)

3) Amelia's birthday (um, she's probably 30 by now?)

4) My Dad's birthday (I won't tell you other than to say that I'm 32 now and he was 24 when I was born...you do the math).

5) Stefanie and David's Anniversary (yes, that would be us! She's been officially required to put up with me for 9 years now!)

So, happy birthday and happy anniversary to all!

My running gear

So I'm testing out settings and such with flickr. Plus I think it's cool that I was able to figure out how to get this picture of my iPod. Also, the Nike+ stuff is below. Cool, eh?

David's training, part 76.01

Took the kids to music class this afternoon, Sofia had her violin lesson and Dylan had his guitar class. I was able to use the time to do my Thursday run. I said to Stefanie earlier that I noticed at work today that my legs really feel good--got some pep in my step and its because they are getting stronger.

Here's the route I took:

David's running diary part 61.87

I thought that maybe posting my training for the Berges du Lac half-marathon on the first of June (hyper-link is in French, so be careful) might be another thing to keep me motivated...so, with that in mind...here's entry number 1. Probably won't post every day, but I'll definitely do so after my long runs.

To start it off though, here's the starting point.

Gear: Green iPod with Nike+ (coolest thing ever, keeps track of pace and distance--I calibrated it, but it still seems to be off--no big deal since it gives me extra credit!)

Mileage as of today, 31 March: 61.87. Pace info is also way off since it was calibrated on the slow side.

Did a long run yesterday, the iPod said 6 miles, MapMyRun.com says 5.5 miles--like I said, I choose to believe the iPod.

This is third grade, so those must be times tables

Stefanie and I were trying to figure out how to help Sofia learn her times tables. We both had little tricks we were trying to teach her--Stefanie had a good one for 6's and my favorite is the trick with the 9's. Until I remembered how I learned times tables...standing up in front of Mrs. Maclaughlin's third grade class (1983!) and repeating over and over: 6 times 1 is 6. 6 times 2 is 12. 6 times 3 is 18. 6 times 4 is 24. 6 times 5 is 30. 6 times 6 is 36. Again and again and again. And then do it again. And then again. As an added benefit--Dylan is learning them too, seemingly by osmosis.

Glasses

Sofia has been complaining about her eyes recently--headaches and such. So....we had an appointment with the ophthalmologist today. No matter what I say though, she's excited that she now needs glasses. The doctor said that she has to wear them all the time and to enforce that rule, so we'll see. Yay for her!