I tried as much as I could to not blame the rain for my lack of exercise, but it's come down to either I blame the rain or I blame my own lack of motivation, so rain it is. It's been quite entertaining to read various status updates and twitter postings regarding the rain we've had lately. My favorite was someone commenting that they had seen Steve Carrell in a large wooden boat go by their house. (If you haven't seen Evan Almighty, that joke probably wasn't funny.)
Saturday was one of the most perfect days the man upstairs ever cooked up. Mid seventies, light breeze and no clouds. A perfect day for a 5k race! The Lebanon Strawberry Festival happens every first weekend in June, and Rachel has always wanted to go (show of support for the town she's been employed in for the past 7 years and all that). Circumstances have always been that we have been unable to go, but this year there were no conflicts, so I was signed up for a 5k with no real warning. Of course, the idea was that I should've been running all along and a 5k should be no big deal. To be honest, it wasn't that tough, kind of fun to run through town with both sides of the street filled with people cheering. Granted, they are there to see the parade and eat the "world's largest strawberry shortcake" presented by Mega Foods, but it's nice none the less. I wasn't surprised to hear how many people shouted hi to Rachel as we ran, but I was surprised to hear exclaimations of "It's Jonah!" as Rachel pushed him along in the jogger. I've lived in the mid-Willamette Valley for roughly 7 times longer than Jonah's been alive, and he is more well known than I am. A group of his daycare mates had some prime real estate curbside for the parade. I just checked my time for the race and we came in at a decent 33:08 (200th place!), or roughly 10 minute miles....the same pace I ran Hood to Coast in last summer. Probably could've cut a minute or two off the time, but we slowed down dramatically when Jonah wanted to run the last half mile or so, much to the delight of the ever-growing crowd. Jonah was very proud of the "finisher" ribbon he received, and kept urging us to "run more" after we crossed the finish line. Next year he might be ready for the full mile fun run.
Saturday also featured a return trip to Best Buy to figure out why our "all in one" Kodak printer was more of an "only one," as in "only one ink cartridge works, and it's not the black." When we bought our computer a few years back, we had a spectacularly awful encounter with "Firedog," the tech support group of Circuit City, so I was pretty leery about my first go-round with the "Geek Squad." My fears were temporarily realized when the guy couldn't navigate the menu on the printer read out. He couldn't figure out why the touch screen wasn't scrolling. I had to gently remind him that this particular brand of printer did not have a touch screen and he would have to use the well labeled "down arrow." After that things went rather well, as they allowed us to take home a brand new printer despite not having a receipt. I was worried they were going to charge us a bunch of money to tinker with the thing before telling us it was defective and then make us pay the difference between the current price of the printer and what we bought it for (about an $80 difference, thanks to sales and rebates).
And what beautiful day would be complete without yardwork? My yardwork time has doubled in the past few weeks, and not because I'm putting more effort into my own yard. I'm now mowing my neighbors yard, after she saw us working in our yard one day and asked if we'd be willing to help her out. She's a little older and I'm pretty sure doesn't even own a mower, so I had no problem agreeing to do this, particularly because it might make it easier to sell our house if the neighbor's yard doesn't look like there might be a velociraptor hiding in the front yard. It was a little awkward when I went to mow it the first time and she came out and asked who I was. "I'm, the guy who you asked to mow your lawn 4 days ago," was what I was thinking, but "I'm your neighbor and I figured I'd mow your lawn since I was mowing mine" was what came out. Of course her grass is incredibly overgrown. To my lawnmower, mowing her yard has the same effect that smoking a pack of cigarettes has on the human body....it makes it stink and takes years off its life. If I stay on top of it now, hopefully that problem will be rectified. However, the side of her yard is lined by these giant rose bushes that are impossible to avoid while mowing, even if I employ the self-propulsion/walk alongside the mower while guiding it with one hand" technique.
I will resume the weight loss journal tomorrow, as I intend to run on my lunch break. Weather permitting of course.
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