A great weekend ... for me and the girls

Sam and Tika had another NKF tournament this past weekend. They drove down to Richmond for the tournament on Sunday. The competed in weapons, Kata and sparring. Both Sam and Tika won their divisions in Kata bringing home trophies that Sam described as "almost as big as me". Sam also placed second in sparring and Tika placed third in her division in sparring. They both were happy with their Kata performances and only mildly disappointed with some of the refereeing during sparring. Next up for them is a trip to Las Vegas in a couple of weeks for a weekend tournament.

While the girls were in Richmond I was in Victoria, BC. We flew out to Seattle on Friday and then drove to Victoria for the weekend. Found a GREAT hotel called the Magnolia which was near the inner harbor and some great restaurants. I managed to get a nice run in Saturday AM - running around the harbor to Esquimault. Sunday we drove back to Seattle, staying in one of the classic old hotels in downtown Seattle. I have had lots of time to get out and run as well as walk around to see the sites in downtown Seattle (pic on the left is looking out over the water from near Pike's Place) - an afternoon at REI and another at Pike's Place Market where I managed to find some cool stuff for the girls (pic on the right was taking in one of the market buildings). I found a couple of hole-in-the-wall places to eat, getting some great smoked meat and fantastic homemade sausage. Even though it has been a bit cool it has been a great few days. Heading back to DC tomorrow to get ready for the Cherry Blossom race on Sunday.

I will post some pics over the next few days

.... cu

A Great Book ......

My running friend, Blanche, loaned me a few books a couple of months back. They included A History of the World in Six Glasses, Kite Runner and Eat, Pray, Love.

All three books were EXCELLENT, for different reasons, but for me the best of the bunch for me personally was Eat, Pray, Love. The writing was great, it was structured in such a way that may it easy to read in bits (even though I would stretch together an hour of bits at a time since I could not put it down) and Gilbert's experiences that she talks about within the book were also very personal to me. It is a book that should be required reading for anyone that has struggled with relationships but I would recommend for anyone as it is a great read.

Next on the bookshelf: Three Cups of Tea; then A Thousand Splendid Suns (from the author of Kite Runner) and John Adams.

Hope you have been enjoying your reading as well.

.... cu

Today was more fun ....

Not sure if it is the fact that it is Spring or that it was at least sunny but today's run was more fun. So far since Atlanta I have not run more than 5 miles so today was a "lets see how we do at 6 and a bit".

I got up a little later than usual - and when I did and I saw that it was 25 degrees outside I decided to wait a bit. Finally at 8:30 and 28 degrees I decided that I better get out or I was going to waste my entire day. So off I went. I did my usual 10K circuit around Brambleton and Broadlands. It is nice as it has some trails as well as hills so a good variety. The first mile or two was tough but then the "just run" kicked in and the rest was fun.

It was a casual run - a 9:30 pace but it felt good. Kind of nice given that two weeks tomorrow is the 10 miler. Now I know I can run it - the only question is how fast. Well I have two weeks to enjoy some more runs before then - and I know I will.

.... cu

Spring Running ...

Well I guess technically it is not Spring running yet - that will not kick off until tomorrow morning - so I guess it really has been winter running. None the less it has not been fun to date. Not sure if it is the "winter weight" from spending more time in the gym lifting (ok also spending more time eating bigger meals as well) or if it is just the irregularity. One day it is nice in the morning - low- to mid- 40's and just slightly cloudy but the next 4 days is wet and cold. Wet and cold is not fun to run in. Add to this that I have the Cherry Blossom 10-miler in just over 2 weeks and the frustration just grows. Oh well - I guess this will just be a race to run for fun and to finish rather than any expectation of improving my times.

Hey - if I am lucky it will be sunny for the next two weeks. LOL - ok it was worth a positive thought.

I hope your day is sunny.

.... cu

Happy St. Patrick's Day

OK - yes I am on a roll for posting - but I wanted to say Happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone and I did not want to mix that up with Kris's birthday. I was in Richmond yesterday so I did not have a chance to post Kris's birthday wish.

Yesterday was an interesting one. The trip to Richmond was for work - a quick visit to the Federal Reserve - but with driving down and back and lunch and everything it made for a full day. While I was in Richmond Tika texted me. She had just spoken with her counselor at school about planning courses for next year and of course getting ready for graduation in 2010. She was all excited since her counselor had suggested that VCU would be a good school for her. In the nation it is a top 5 ranked art school and she has the grades for it. I was pretty excited because it literally was a mile from where I was and I know it is a good school and reasonably close by. We talked about it more last night and she has a couple of others in mind so we will start looking at SATs and applications in the coming months.

So - a funny story - we were in DC on Saturday afternoon and I needed a coffee so we swung by the Starbucks in Chinatown. We sat down and there was a paper sitting there. Now this was Saturday at maybe 4 PM. I saw the paper and it just struck me funny - so I had to take a picture. Maybe it was a "timing" funny - funny at the time.

Have a GREAT St. Paddy's day and be safe.

.... cu

Happy Birthday Kris

Happy 15th Birthday to Kris!!!

Yesterday was Kris's birthday. I actually celebrated with her Sunday. Well celebrated with her, Sam and her friend Bree. It was a GREAT day - some cookie baking, which she wanted to do for her friends (they like my cookies); some shopping and lunch; and of course CAKE! Since Kris is taking German this year I decided to challenge her with a German Birthday greeting on the cake I made for her. She liked that :-)

One more big birthday this spring - with Tika's coming up in about 6 weeks - 17 years old - YIKES!

..... cu

Creating more noise ....

I am truly not certain if it is a good thing or not but hopefully the topic will get some interest and people will start talking.

So now you are thinking - "What the heck is he talking about?" I got a e-mail from one of our marketing people today and Renay San Miguel (former CNN host) was looking to talk to someone about some recent changes within the Cybersecurity arena within the Federal Government. I had spoken to Renay once before so I had no issue talking to him. It was not a long conversation this time but he did use some of the ideas I put out there - always nice to see. If you want to check out the article follow this link - TechNewsWorld Article Link

Have a great day .... cu