Another weekend here

Perfect weather today Saturday for... working at the office.

I did play golf yesterday Friday afternoon so I'm making the time up. Yesterday was great weather too. Shot a 91. I'm now going to get a handicap started.

Watching season 3 of The Office, which show was recommended to me. So far its pretty funny. Surprising how I can miss 5 years of a show on TV. I guess watching TV is not that important, with the exception of Monday Night Football, Seinfeld reruns, Morning Joe, Jay Leno on occasion, Flip That House, Diners Dives & Drive-Ins, L A Ink, and my favorite Man v. Food.

I took a guitar lesson last Wed. so I've got to work on those skills this weekend in preparation for the next one.

I'm going to Houston for a mediation on Tuesday, leaving here on Monday. So I expect to be at work tomorrow as well to get ready to be out of town. Lots of little urgent things to get on.

Fine Weekend

Looking back at what I wrote Thursday, I did play golf on Friday afternoon with 5 other people. I figured out why you always see so many carts. Lots of people at the country club have their own carts.

It was a cloudy day with a little mist of rain, but I figured if I didn't play then it would not happen. A good decision. I birdied the first hole to get off to a good start. Again fatigue set it as it was a long day swinging. Conditions were wet, cool, windy so I didn't hit the ball very far.

When I got home, I had to take a short nap to recover. Sarah went out that night so I watched some of my new show The Office on DVD.

Saturday I slept late (for me) and came to work and worked on my tax returns. We had dinner at home Sat. night. Susan & I watched the Hangover on DVD. I had seen in this summer in the theater (still had the stub from June 7).

Sunday I went to church but did n't play with the band. I went for a bike ride about 15 miles afterwards and hung out at home in the afternoon. I got a new book from the library, washed the car and we watched the Amazing Race together last night.

In recovery

Today is Thursday and I think I've just about recovered physically (Mentally too?) from the Marathon last Sunday. Monday a co worker noticed I was walking a bit funny. Tuesday was better than Monday (didn't have to take extra Tylenol) and Wednesday I was thinking about doing it again.

Like I heard about having a baby, you don't do it again until you forget how it felt the last time.

I also heard that kidney stones for a man was like the pain of childbirth for a woman. A female friend quipped that "every man should have 2!"

I'm glad to be in town this week. I went to a Team McAllen cycling meeting yesterday to find out more of their schedule. I learned a lot about the organization - my first meeting.

Tomorrow, I'd like to play golf in the afternoon if the weather will cooperate. It was rainy today - unusual...

Saturday no plans. Sunday I'd like to get back to play with the church band. Its been a while - before Christmas. I'm planning to take some more guitar lessons from the local master, Brooks. I saw him around Valentine's Day playing in the HEB grocery - a typical gig for him.

Austin Marathon

I completed the Austin Marathon yesterday, yesterday, Sunday, February 14. Completed it in 5 hours, 29 minutes. Kristi & I ran the whole way together, and for the most part did great.

The course was a bit slower that I anticipated. I heard about the hills but expected that it would not be a big deal. My friend Frank advised that my goal time of less than 5 hours was ambitious, given the hills. I didn't believe him. Silly me, since he's the guru of running marathons.

As it turned out he was right. We ran the 1st 20 miles in less than 4 hours, but the last 10K was slow, lots of walking, slow running, some stopping to stretch. But we got it done, she ran ahead the last 200 M at my urging and finished at 5:28 about 40 seconds faster.

I was the walking wounded back to the hotel. Spent! I only had about 40 minutes after getting there to check out, so I grabbed a 20 minute nap and then a quick shower and change. I realized that I needed some food, having had none that day until 2:00 pm and 26 miles later.

One chicken fried steak later, I was feeling much better. I caught the blue van to the airport and got back to Harlingen at 10:00 p.m and drove home, getting home at 11 and straight to bed. I did make it to work today at 9 so that was pretty good.

Catching up

One of the items that I intended to do today was to work on my tax return information, and, by necessity, my personal filing. So I planned to start at 3:30 and pick up a quick dinner so I would be energized and not spend other time cooking dinner, cleaning up and so forth.

It worked great! Exactly according to plan. I've now cleared off the top of the desk and cabinet. I've purged about a quarter of past files. I've completed the tax organizer and have a list of questions to work on.

The real key was to plan ahead so that I had the energy. It seems like it's hard to get much work done at home in the evening. Just not a lot of energy left sometimes.

FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa

There are three official FIFA designated tour companies that have World Cup tickets to Team USA matches. They are: Destination Southern Africa, Cartan Tours and Great Atlantic Travel.

I was in Germany for World Cup 2006. Why not continue the tradition in South Africa?

Brazil in 2014- I'm there!

Edinburg 10K

I ran the Edinburg 10K today - a final warm up/wind down for the Austin Marathon next weekend. It was a late start at 10:30 a.m. and so it was warmer - got up to 70 F. Kristi and I ran together at what seemed like a quick pace. We finished at clock time 1:01 which was likely chip time of a few minutes faster.

Afterwards, we drove up to Kingsville where now I sit. This is a traditional weekend for us to visit with David's birthday and David and JoAnn's anniversary (51 years!).

Tomorrow is Super Bowl Sunday. We may just watch it at home. Monday will be here soon enough.

Austin trip

I have returned from Austin for the Wind, Solar and Renewable Energy seminar. It was at the Austin Convention Center which is a nice large building on East 3rd St. near I-35 downtown. I went with co-worker Ignacio and we arrive by Southwest Air on Tuesday. We lunched at PF Changs after checking in early to our hotel. the Hilton Garden Inn was quite nice, a high rise a few blocks from the Conv. Center.

The seminar was informative. We are ahead on wind energy, in fact a little too ahead. The transmission line capacity from the rural areas to the urban "load" areas is still behind the time. Solar energy still is waiting for an Arab Oil Embargo to get it kicked off. If/when this catches on, it should help the manufacturing and high tech industries.

Dinner was a highlight. We went to a place I had never been but always wanted to go, Ruth's Chris Steak House. We had a most enlightening discussion about the Catholic Church and church in general. I enjoyed it a lot. Afterwards we met the two owners of the restaurant in the bar. There were signed Masters flags by local Austinite Ben Crenshaw and a signed Tour de France jersey by Lance Armstrong. The owner ( who kind of looked like Ben Crenshaw) said when they got that jersey from Lance in 1999, they had no idea he'd win 6 more.

I got back to McAllen today about 1:30. It was a long trip from 7:15 am when I got the shuttle from the hotel. Sarah and I went to a Date with Dad dinner this evening. Most of the girls there were under 11 so not many teenagers ( and no boys she lamented). But we did have fun.