Our Bold Adventure Continues

Last year at this time I filled this blog with my somewhat arcane knowledge of Thanksgiving , thanks to the work I did on my master's thesis. Most everyone I know has heard this information now, so I won't rehash. I'll let a few years go by, and assuming I'm still in the blogosphere then, I'll let 'er rip again. This year I'm focused on family, and how nice it is not to travel -- which in many ways is an oxymoron since we have no family here. I'm focused on what a nice place Boulder is to call home, and I'm not just saying that because it was 70 degrees and sunny today. I'm focused on my new hobby of running, and how I never thought I'd be one to plot when I could squeeze a run in. I'm focused on the fact that I was a moron for waiting until the last minute to go to the grocery store, but I'm enjoying the smell of baking sweet potatoes. So I'm focused on some good things. But also, it seems I'm NOT focused in some important pl

Woo hoo! I ran my first road race this weekend, a 5k. That's about 3.1 miles, for those of you who don't speak metric. Not far by some standards, but considering that 12 weeks ago I hadn't run since I was 17, it's far enough. Here I am, in the second row with the blue pants on. Not a great photo, but it's all I have. The woman with the short hair on the right is our coach, Pam. It all started with the Avon Walk . After a spring and half a summer of long-distance walking I was completely over the idea of walking as serious exercise. It takes too long -- who has five hours to walk 20 miles each weekend? So running was the next logical thing to try. I trained through a local store, Fleet Feet , and a program called No Boundaries specifically for new runners. I had two coaches and a group of ten or so folks to run with each week. I enjoyed the training more than I thought I would: it turns out that running is fun. It took a coach to show me that I was trying to go to

Election Day morning: O: Daddy's getting on a boat. Me: Oh, really? Okay. What kind of boat is daddy getting on? O: He's going to a boat for Rock Obama. Me: You mean daddy's going to VOTE for Barack Obama? O: Yeah. Election Day afternoon: M: Where's the line? Me: What line? M: Rock Obama and John McCain are in a race, so where's the line? Me: There is no line, sweetie. M: But if they're racing and tonight we'll know who wins, there must be a line. Me: It's not that kind of line. They're not really running like mommy goes running. M: Then how are they running if they don't know where the line is? The day after the election: O: Now that Rock Obama won he gets to dress up and be president. Me: Dress up? O: That's what the president does, he dresses up. Me: Oh. I see. What else does the president do? O: He just dresses up and talks. Me: I see. O: Will John McCain get to be president next time? Me: Oh, you want it to be fair. No, sweetie, he proba