Memorial Day Weekend

This has been an interesting weekend so far ... myself and Laura had a great Saturday, coffee in the AM and then a quick run to Costco which presented an interesting shopping experience. We were there to pick up some groceries etc but as we walked through our local Costco Laura saw a rack of sheath dresses. We looped around picking the last few things that we needed and then Laura wanted to go back and look at the dresses. Laura does not have an easy time finding a dress she likes and that fits well but these looked promising. She was a little hesitant but I encouraged here to try one on ... as you can see.

As you can see in the background people thought she looked good as well She liked the dress so much she ended up getting 3. You can see the videos of Laura trying on the other dresses on our YouTube channel -  a grey one and a beige one.

Big kids at play

Tired Shoes ...

My tired running shoes after yesterday's race

Tired ... but happy

Todays Race

Today was definitely an early morning - rising at 4 AM to head to Fredericksburg for the Marine Corps Historic Half Marathon.

It should be no surprise that logistically this race is well organized. They had arranged to use a commuter lot 3 miles from the race start and shuttled people there. When I made it to Warrenton at around 6 I was quickly able to get on a bus and head to the start in Fredericksburg - it was flawless.

The race itself was a good race - I had a plan and stuck to it ... mostly. The biggest part about this race is after running 10 miles you get to face the biggest hill. It only rises 150 feet but it does it in about a half mile. And then you get to face a couple of smaller hills. So needless to say the end of the race is brutal.

The weather was good at the start but was a bit warm by the end - but running through the old neighbourhoods of Fredericksburg is great. The people were all out cheering, kids high-fiving and lots of water and the occasional sprinkler.

I did not know how I would do on this race since I had a great Cherry Blossom but had not trained hard since then. I had a goal to finish with a pace under 8:30. Well I finished with a 8:26 pace finishing in 1:50:32 and putting me 780th of just over 6,000 finishers. I was pleased. The cold beer after helped too :-)

Utah Trail Running

Wednesday was a great day to be in Utah. The weather had been warm but it was dry. A few rain storms had rolled through the mountains so they cooled a bit which was ideal for running the local trails.

I left Sandy and drove to Little Cottonwood Canyon Trail. The trail starts at 5400 feet above sea level and pretty much goes up from there. Of course I am not fully acclimated to altitude running so adding a 1000 foot climb over 2-1/2 miles made the run ..... interesting.

The trail itself is a great trail for running or mountain biking. The run or ride up is challenging and the way back down is even more challenging.

Hopefully the little bit of altitude training on the road and in the gym here in Utah will help my run in the Marine Corps Half-marathon on Sunday.

Warm run at Altitude

Had a good run this AM - getting ready for the Marine Corps Historic Half on Sunday. It was great to be running at a higher altitude - with a great view.




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Location:Towers cutoff,South Jordan,United States

Happy Mothers Day

I think I can say that Laura had a wonderful Stepmom's Saturday with the girls. We had a nice picnic, hiked Sugarloaf Mountain, and had ice cam at a local creamery. The girls also had gotten Laura some exercise equipment and a nice spa style robe - which she looked very cute in this morning. It was a very fun and relaxing day.

Now we get to celebrate Mothers Day - and we both want to thank our Mothers for everything they have done for us and our children.

Myself and Laura often talk about the profound impact that our Moms have had on our lives. We both know that who we are as people have been influenced by the lives we lived as youngsters and young adults and our success in our professional and family life today stems from that. It is for that reason that we are ever thankful for two wonderful Moms.

So for Audrey and Kaye (decided to be safe and go alphabetical) we both want to say thank you and we love you both.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY

I also want to add an extra Happy Mothers Day for my wonderful wife who is more than a stepmom to Martika, Kris and Sam (and me). I love you baby!


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Laura's Other Day

The title is a little hard to explain but if you have followed us for a while you will know that there is a Laura's Day in my calendar. It is a day that I get to spoil her - a little more than usual.

Today however is a little different. We started this last year where the girls decided to make the Saturday before Mother's Day Stepmom Saturday. Mothers Day, to all of us, is a really important day and Laura and I always felt it important that the girls spend it with their Mom spoiling her. Well last year the girls wanted to take Laura out to show her that they appreciated her and all she does for them - and thus was born Stepmom Saturday.

I wanted to let Laura know that I do truly appreciate everything she has done for Martika, Kristen and Samantha. You are there when they need you - willing and able to talk to them at a level that I cannot. Helping me figure out what I can do to best make them successful in their lives. I know they also like it when you occasionally spoil them and spend time with them away from me. It is nice to see that if I disappear, for even half an hour, when I come back you guys are just laughing and smiling, and even though I suspect it is at my expense, it still makes me smile.

So for all you do for the girls, for being the best step-mom in the world - we wanted to say ....

HAPPY STEPMOM'S DAY

We all love you

Nice to see success

Many years ago I met a young man who trained with me at our dojo. He was a young guy that was driven and smart and one of those guys that you knew would succeed. Well last night while we we getting supper ready my daughter showed me a web site for two musicians who go by the name Tritonal. Their homepage showed a photo of the two guys and she asked if I recognized either of them. At first I knew the one guy looked familiar but I could not place him. When I saw a second picture I knew right away who it was.

Reading how they got together was interesting but it showed me two things .... with drive you will find your passion and you will manage to be successful with having that in your life .... but also that the world is becoming a much smaller place thanks to the Internet. Everyone has heard the latter said many times but to see it in action ... two guys with similar ideas and drive who go from disjoint lives in Virginia and Texas now traveling internationally and bringing their music to their fans - kind of inspiring.

The power of the Internet ... in real life.

Congrats Dave


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Some days are extra nice ...

Most of you will know that I am not someone that complains about my life. Frankly I feel I have very little to complain about. Yes I have bad days but on the big scheme of things I am a very fortunate person - wonderful kids, a supportive family, a very good job that I enjoy, very good health and of course a wonderful wife.


Yesterday my wonderful wife made my day extra nice. After she came home I left my office upstairs to go to see her so we could chat and relax and I could start making supper and I was greeted by a beautiful orchid. I love flowers of all kinds but orchids just seem that little extra beautiful.

This morning when I woke I went downstairs to do a few things while Laura was at the gym ... and this time I was greeted by two beautiful painted wine glasses. Now I am not a big painted glass person but these are fantastic and very meaningful. Today is the anniversary of the day that I proposed to Laura. I had taken her to Ottawa for the annual Tulip Festival -tulips are her favourite and I love them as well. So to see two wine glasses painted like tulips was very meaningful.

Thank you sweetheart for the little things that you do ... for remembering those special days ... and helping me to think about them as well. It are those special moments that make me smile.

Happy Birthday Tika!!!

Today is Tika's Birthday .... ok I will not do the ... hooray, hooray, hooray ... ok I did


Seriously Tika, I am so proud of you. You have grown up to be an amazing person ... full of life ... facing challenges ... and being your own person while doing all of it. I know some of the challenges are tough and that require you to step outside your comfort zone but I know you can do that as well and you showed us all that this weekend taking on your first road running race.

For those that did not know, Tika and I did a race to support the National Capital Lyme Disease network. It was a 5K around the beautiful National Conference Center in Leesburg. The course was very much an undulating one with one really good long hill. We saw a few people we knew there including Hollis and Ben who we may have gotten a little competitive with. Tika did great for her first race ... finishing in under 29 minutes (we do not have an official time but it was something like a 28:40). She was very excited when she registered and got her bib with number 487 - which we interpreted to mean she was running "for #87" (and she was wearing her Zigs which Crosby is a spokesman for).

After the race we headed out for a coffee and then with her two sisters we headed to DC to try a vegan restaurant that she had wanted to try. Cafe Green is fantastic. They had a brunch style menu and we tried a few dishes and all were good but the blueberry pancakes and the tex-mex hash were great.

Afterwards we headed down to the American Art Museum. Sam is not a big gallery or museum person but I think everyone like the video gaming exhibit at AA. I also love this museum, especially the link to the Portrait Gallery and the 3rd floor hall pictured that used to be used for storing patent models.

For her birthday treat Tika wanted to head to Sticky Fingers. She loves the place and her argument for going there is if I bake her cupcakes or a cake she will eat it all but this way she will only have one. I was ok with the argument since it is her birthday. SF holds up to its winning of Cupcake Wars every time we are there. It is fantastic - we just love the place. One can see why people do not believe that these are vegan treats.

Overall we had a great day and a good one to end her teen years. We even saw some surprising things ....

This is as unique as Tika

Happy Birthday Tika! We love you!

Caps vs Rangers

Yesterday we had a team meeting at work. Here in DC there are 4 of us. We are fairly spread out right now so we make sure to sync up in person regularly. Yesterday as we had lunch one of the guys suggested we try to get tickets to the Caps-Rangers game at the Verizon Center. Well I had never been to a good 2nd Round play-off game so with my forgiving wife's blessing we got 3 tickets for the 3 that wanted to go.

The show part of the game

Grant it is was not cheap, the seats were good as you can see below, and it turns out we did get to see almost two whole hockey games (just about 5 minutes short of it as it went to 3 overtime periods).

Action on the ice

The game was good but after 5-1/2 periods I think everyone was just wanting someone to make that final tally. The Caps/Verizon people had called DC Metro to make sure the fans would have a way home and Metro extended their opening to 1 AM. Even with that a lot of us were wondering if that would be enough as it approached 12:10.

It was a great way to spend an evening but unless the Sens (or the Predators - and I would take La) are in a playoff game I think I will keep my watching at home