20080526

Memorial Day 5k results

It is that time of year again. Our little borough had their 2nd 5k run and I took part. 240 people took part in this years run. There was some concern about whether or not I would be able to run this year. Earlier posts went over the process of recovering from the injury after the Thanksgiving Day 5 miler. And as recent as yesterday I was limping from having pulled something on my hip. Happily this did not cause any problems and I was able to finish running. Since my training was interrupted these last few months I had very modest expectations for my performance. Just getting out there was a victory. That said, I did better this year than last! My time this year was 31:06 minutes, more than two minutes faster than last year. My average pace was almost exactly 10 minutes a mile. This is very encouraging for my hopes to continuing to improve my times. If the aim to improve a few minutes year over year is modest when compared with the results of the top runners in this race. The first place mens was almost exactly half my time. The top finishers in my age bracket are ten minutes faster. So I have a ways to go before my name has a chance of showing up on those lists. Wish me luck!

20080524

and here are some pictures...

Here are some pictures of our little one.


Hanging out in the airport in ones pajamas.


Helping Dziadek (Grandpa) in the garden.


"Tell me again how this becomes soup?"


If they can eat this stuff, can I?


"Ok, now poop!"


"What else needs watering? I know, the same plant I have been watering all afternoon!"


The work day is done, now we play! Please note that he has moved from throwing pebbles to throwing small boulders. Not a surprise, as they make much better splashes.


"Ok, I let you out of your pen but that does not mean you can put your cold nose on my belly, no matter how much I may giggle."


"What do you mean its not zoned for this structure?"

20080516

Home is where the heart is

And since my wife and son are with her family in Poland for another two months, I am feeling a bit homesick today. The rainy weather we are having is not helping too much either. We do get to talk via Skype occasionally and email fills in the gaps, but it is not the same as being able to be in the same room as them.

Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying this time to myself. I have seen movies in the trheater on my own for the first time in years. I am burning through those netflix movies I know my wife has no interest is watching. My schedule is mine to mis-use as I see fit, which is always a nice thing. Laundry, dishes and cat litter still get done so it is not like a vacation from life or anything that liberating.

The language experiment seems to be paying off. Polish words are already entering his vocabulary and his pronuciation, in general, has been improving. He had been using just the start or ending sounds of words when I left and that has already started to improve such that more of the other syllables in longer words are getting incorporated.

One story for this past week comes from when they were visiting friends of the family and he got to play with the pet hamster. The full two hours they were there he carried this thing around. He gave it rides in the wagon, pretended to feed it from toy dishes and giggled like only a three year old can when it ran up his sleeve. And he has asked about it every day since the visit. I think it is the first animal he has had direct contact with that is that much smaller than him. He has been around cats and dogs since being born, but even the small ones come up to his waist and can knock him down if they are too friendly. (Keep in mind we have a 20lb cat named China that really is half his size and she can knock over full grown adults if she decides to flop down in your path. We used to put his growth in fractions of the cats size to keep it in perspective. He is now almost equal to 2 China's.) So I can only imagine what he is thinking as he finds a place in his mind for small pets that are more on his scale in terms of size. *sigh* Really wish I could have been there for it. Hopefully we will get to visit that same family when I go back in July, and it will still be as much fun for him.

I hope to get some pictures posted from my recent visit.

*smiles*