changes and a request...

some minor tweaks to the site today. an upgrade to blogger layouts, which makes surfing through my paltry archives more efficient. the use of one of the google reader widgets (the use of which i attribute to curlysu's technical savvy) that allows me to easily point to some interesting reads without actually cutting and pasting a link to a real post (hence allowing me to be even more lazy) - see "noteworthy posts" over there on the sidebar. a font change. heck, i even added a link for the first time in a while - i am perhaps the last bloggist (i don't feel worthy of decribing myself as a blogger) not using bloglines. yet some things remain the same. the same perhaps-confusing header image and tag line (just a product of my enigmatic mind - not a reference to any song or movie as some may have thought). the same stark-white background. and the same sense of not-very-witty self-deprecation...

on a very different note, i'm after some help from the tri community out there. it seems my event schedule doesn't look beyond june 17th of this year - although i'm still contemplating a repeat performance of the boulder backroads half-marathon this fall. i'm thinking of perhaps maybe considering another out-of-state race - preferrably late-summer to fall, olympic-tri or half-marathon, and vacation-like north american destination - but being a relative newcomer, i'm not particularly familiar with the relative merits of the many events out there. so, if any of you out there in blogland have any suggestions - i'm game.

bolder boulder 10k...

i remember thinking about the bolder boulder many times in previous years, and thinking - that 10k sounds like a long race. must be something to get through it. so i guess it says a lot about where i've come in the last year and a half as a runner and an athlete that today's race never felt like a big deal... just another sunday morning run.

this was actually the first 10k race i've done. yes, i wrapped wildflower up with a 10k and did a half-marathon last fall, but this was my first 10k. and because it was my first, i didn't have a qualifying time to enter for the qualified-time waves - which meant i went with other non-qualified types in a wave well behind all the other blogger types out there today. seriously, no sand-bagging intended bold...

the day was warm, the sun intense, i failed to wear a hat and didn't drink enough water. but it was a good run. i felt pretty good in spite of my continued lack of training (i really have to turn this training rut around). and unlike bolder, i ran faster than my estimated time - although to be fair, i estimated 7 full minutes slower. maybe there's something to be said about low expectation!

for the record, i finished (unofficially) in 51:17, which is about 3 minutes slower than a time that i would really be happy with. so i've got my work cut out for me this summer. at least i have a point of departure - and a qualifying time for next year's run..

when best friends go away...

tonite has been a tough night for me. ian and i just got home from a going-away party. a party for friends - for a family - who have meant so much to me over the last 9 years...

i first met kathy in october of 1998. i was in grad school and had just landed a great internship. she and her husband greg had just moved to colorado fresh off a year in australia working on the venues for the summer olympics. kathy and i got along, but we weren't close at first - although i respected her from the moment i met her.

fast-forward a couple years. when my boss left our former place of employment and started his own firm, kathy and i were the first to join him, and did on the same day. she and i lived through a lot of work before she left the office a couple years ago...

but my friendship with kathy and greg so far surpasses that. they were two of the few that i still keep in touch with who were at my wedding. kathy is (literally) responsible for my addiction to gardening. kathy and greg were always an integral part of the supper club that we had going for a while. kathy was my lunch companion for years. they were the ultimate dog-sitters, and picked up our pup the night that ian was born (and, hence, were the first to know that ian was on his way into this world). they were there when we buried blu. and they were the first (and only) i called when i discovered k's cheating. for nine years, kathy and greg have been by my side through good and bad...

and now they leave. they're going home - within spitting distance of both families, and armed with some adorable twins. i'd be the biggest, most inconsiderate jerk if i didn't support them. of course i do. they need this. and i've been bracing for this for a while, but still...

for me, this sucks. two people who have been by my side through all the good and the pain of the last 9 years - they're leaving. i've gotten used to people close to me going away, but this is different. because kathy and greg - they are part of me. they are part of that community that i wrote about in my last post. that community that is small and shrinking...

as i wept tonite as we drove away from the party, ian asked me if i was sad. yes, sweetie, i am sad. i'm not, daddy - he said. because he knows only happy times spent with them. and through my child's eyes i realized what we need to hold on to. the happiness of times spent with good friends. because we're not given an infinite amount of time, we have to cherish the times that we have...

when a house is not a home...

since i moved into my new place several weeks ago, i've been struggling to make it feel like mine. this is a great house with lots of little quirks that also needs plenty of work - except the work that i'd really like to do is more than cosmetic. and since i made the unexpected decision to rent again (after a painful house-selling and aborted-house-buying experience), i'm not exactly at liberty to make more-than-cosmetic changes...

i did get the landlord's okay to do some minor work to the garden and paint the interior of the house. and given my spring-induced need to garden, well - that's been completed. a couple new shrubs, a bunch of new perennials, and the house has a new street presence. unfortuntaley, this is colorado and i'll be long gone before anything has grown to any reasonable maturity. but at least i got to get my hands in the soil...

as for the painting... i'm having a bit more difficult timing motivating myself for that task. yet this house really needs some attention. ian's partially-orange, partially primer-white bedroom is screaming for some attention. the crap-brown living room needs some love. the neon-yellow dining room isn't exactly matching my decor. and the stark off-white kitchen leaves my appetite longing for something more, well, appetizing.

the thing is, i already have the paint. a nice golden rod color (light on the golden, heavy on the rod) has been chosen for the living room. a nice slate blue for the dining room, and a very-boy sky blue for ian's room. and a sage-green for the kitchen. all mixed, purchased, and sitting in the basement.

meanwhile, i just can't bring myself to tape off the trim, move the furniture, and paint. all my framed photos and artwork sit on the floor, waiting for a home on freshly-painted walls. i cringe every time i enter poor ian's room and see the patchwork paint job. and i stay away from cooking in the kitchen because it begs not to be cooked in...

one of these weekends - maybe even weeknights - i'm going to get my butt in gear and start taping. because i know that once i start i'll finish quickly and feel much more at home in this temporary house.

an entourage of one...

the thing about living in colorado, we've got some tri-blogger celebrities 'round here. and because i happen to be related to one of them, i occassionally have the pleasure of mingling with some of those celebrities. like say, for instance, bolder. it's almost enough to make one part of the entourage...

carrie and bolder came to town and decided to meet at my house, since i conveniently live a couple doors from city park and a nice, shady, 5k+ loop. we managed two loops, with was huge for me. still recovering from the onset of allergy season, i'd been mostly unsuccessful on my solitary runs this week - barely able to make it through 3 miles on friday. but tonite, with the company and conversation and pace of our favorite bloggers, i felt strong throughout the 10k. and that bodes well, considering we've all got this little race next weekend. i think i'm learning that running is much more enjoyable when i've got someone to run with. just need to get out and recruit...