Rain Rain Go Away

After a rainy week wreaked havoc on my training schedule it looks like Mother Nature has it in for me again this week.  Luckily this week is full of shorter runs (4, 6, 4, 5k) so I can always head inside to the dreadmill if necessary.  Our 2nd race of the year is Saturday in Marion.  It's a 5k to benefit the K9 program of the Marion PD.  We get to hang out with the Morrow cousins on Friday night and Saturday after the race. 

Saturday afternoon we get to hang out with Eric, Kendra, Cassie, Mom, Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa in Vinton.  The family has been cleaning out Great Grandpa's house since he moved into the Lutheran Home a couple months ago.  We're gonna help for the afternoon. 

Beyond that we're still trying to pick out paint colors for the main floor of the house, still trying to get organized and order wedding pictures for the empty frames that are dotting our house, still doing yard work when it isn't raining, and still watching the Cubs play horrible baseball when I get the chance. 

Have a great week everybody.

I Scream, You Scream, We all Scream for.....Scream 4???

What a fast moving week!   I got in my first bike ride of the year on Tuesday afternoon, the weather was perfect and the ride went really well.  However, it left my shins extremely weak and sore, thus ruining my runs on Wed and Thurs.   I rested those days, dosed with Ibuprofen, iced my shins and by Sunday I was good to go.  Got my 10 mile run in last night, not super fast but it went well.

It was a busy week around the house too.  We got a new shower head, the old one was breaking down, the new one has 7 different settings!  We got new curtains for the back room, no more dealing with the vertical blinds.  We hated that we either had to have them all open or all closed.  The curtains allow us to mix and match as needed.  We also updated our "fixtures" in the back room, no more brass light switch plates or vent covers!  Now if we can just find a replacement door handle for the sliding glass door that room will be completely devoid of brass.  Our goal is to replace all the brass throughout the house, one room at a time. 

We also started trying to find the right paint color for the back room.  Our new curtains and our furniture are a dark chocolate brown(Bison Brown according to Behr).  We don't want the room to be too dark and so are leaning towards a lighter wall color.  The big catch is that one wall of the back room extends into the kithcen and therefore the backroom color will be the accent color for the kitchen.  We picked up a bunch of paint swatches on Friday night, and on Saturday we picked up 3 sample cans on Saturday, all three were fail.  One was too dark, one was too light, and the third which we thought was more purple ended up being Very pink. 

Back to the drawing board.  My guess is we'll end up with a light blue or gray, a slight outside shot at a green(the back room is currently a green, but too neon for Lisa's taste), or maybe a light purple.  No rush on this project so we can keep trying our hand at this.  Hopefully the color samples, minus the pink, can find their way into a different room in the house.

Amidst all these projects, Lisa and I found time to head to the theater for Scream 4.  The Scream franchise is one of my favorite movie franchises.  Scream 1 makes my top 5 movies of all time.  I enjoyed Scream 4, I was disappointed in some aspects.  I felt they missed some opportunities at humor, etc...  They also left out some things from the formula of the past movies.  But they did have some really great nods at the past movies, there was some decent dialogue, and the scares were well timed.  After seeing 4 I decided to re-watch the original last night.  It was just as good as I remembered.  The score for the film was GREAT, the dialogue was hilarious, the plot moved quickly, the action was great, etc...  I enjoyed how dated the original was as well. 

In the opening scene Casey Becker is getting ready to watch a video not a DVD, Randy works in a video store, cellular phones were just distributed enough to be a plot line, as opposed to 4 where they were everywhere.  In one scene there was an Indigo Girls poster on the wall, and Ricky Lake was a valid reference during the movie.  So in conclusion Scream = A+, Scream 4 = B- 

Everyone have a great week!

Amazing Weekend

This past weekend was amazing.  The weather was perfect.  I got in an 11 mile run at sub 9 min/mile pace, got the house fan uncovered, the screen in the front door, the garage cleaned out, the deck furniture unpacked, the snow blower put away, got to enjoy a great Nadas concert after grilling out with good friends, tried Lagomarcinos chocolate malts and they were delicious, and got to spend the rest of the weekend just vegging out. 

This week should be pretty laid back too.  I've got a 5, 8, 5, 10 mile week with good weather forecast for 3 of the 4 runs.  I've got 2 bike rides I'm supposed to do, only good weather for 1 of them, I may rearrange the schedule accordingly.  Our yard work goal for the week, get the flower beds raked, weeded, and preen applied before the next batch of rainstorms on Thursday and mow for the first time this season. 

Our other project list - finish organizing the basement, figure out where all our new picture frames are going to be hung, and figure out how to replace the stupid vertical  blinds in the back room with something more convenient and less noisy. 

We are staring down a 4 week stretch of being home, and we already have been home for 2 straight weeks.  I think this is the longest stretch without staying out of town that we have experienced since graduating college in 2004!  We do have a day trip to Marion on April 30th for a 5k race but the rest of the month and past mother's day is all at home, what will we do with all this extra time on our hands?   I see some minor league baseball games, grilling out, playing catch, Lisa trying to teach me tennis(again), relaxing walks, catching up on movies, and a lot of naps in our future!   As always, Have a Great Week! 

The Blitz

The nice weather is here, and it looks like its here to stay.  The long runs last week went very well, this week is the start of triathlon training.  I'm going put off at least half of my swimming workouts until I get through the half marathon.  I've registered for Copper Creek Tri, Eric is approaching it as a no train tri again and this time will probably beat me, but I registered as a Clydesdale class this year, so maybe I'll have a chance to place... 

In other news, baseball season has begun, which means fantasy baseball has begun.  For those of you that watch How I Met Your Mother, remember The Blitz episode?  Well I've been struck by a similar curse.  For the last two years Joe has drafted his fantasy teams from the car, over the phone without much help, needless to say his fantasy teams have not been good, and he has been the guy that gets destroyed by injuries, early and often.  Well this year, Joe carved out time to be in the draft room for the entire draft, away from distractions like St. Paddy's day Parades, Hangovers, Wives, Childrens etc....  needless to say his draft went much better this year, he consistently "stole" the players I was targeting and apparently passed the injury curse onto me.  There has been 4 days of the baseball season and between my two teams I have lost Matt Holiday(both teams) to an appendectomy, Brian Matusz(both teams) to an oblique strain, Evan Longoria(Oblique), Brandon Morrow(Elbow), Brian Wilson(Oblique), Carlos Zambrano is having numbness in his pitching hand, Jorge De La Rosa has a blister on his pitching hand, Stephen Drew(Oblique).  If anyone is adept at voodoo, can you help me lift this curse?  I have a title to defend.

In happier news, The Nadas are coming to Davenport this Saturday!!!!  If you are in town, come out for a good concert at the Redstone Room!