The countdown continues

We are just 3.5 weeks away from Rock Band! Our family is still arguing a bit over which roles to play - me on the drums, Anna on guitar, Allie singing, and we'll put Ter in the audience.

I aspire to be like this guy on the drums (or is that really me?):

Ridge run results

Today I ran the "Ridge Run" in the Beverly neighborhood of Chicago. The run felt pretty warm - and we haven't had much humidity yet in the spring. The start of the race was VERY humid along Longwood with virtually no wind (it's at the bottom of a hill). The neighborhood really welcomed the runners however, lots of people out on the street, even passing out water and having their sprinklers near the street (thank goodness!) Based on the heat, I really don't think I could have done much better at 53:25 (8:36/mile pace). I placed 294th out of a total of 917 runners. Within my division, a respectable 23rd out of 57 runners.

The night before, the kids and Aunt Amy went to the Original Rainbow Cone. After Anna dropped hers in the parking lot, both kids ate only the orange sherbet and threw out the other delicious flavors.

Burbank, Illinois

Author John McNally has started a blog about my hometown of Burbank, Illinois. He graduated a couple years earlier than me, so a few of the posts weren't totally familiar to me (I don't remember Korvette's). Nonetheless, several posting reminded me of things I totally forgot about. And I didn't know that my old grammar school (Tobin) had been leveled.

Ridge run on Memorial Day

My new hero...

Today, I am a proud father. After trying for many days, Anna has successfully completed her first full song on Guitar Hero! While she was frustrated while practicing, it was no fluke; she completed "Hit me with your best shot" twice. I don't think she'll get to medium for quite a while though - her hand is not big enough to be able to reach the blue button!

My 20-year reunion

Wow - time sure flies! I've recently been notified of my 20-year reunion of the Class of 1988 from Reavis High School. I'm even getting roped into helping organize the event. I'm not sure why it is assumed that senior class officers are responsible for organizing reunions. I'm thinking it was a jaded junior class officer who lost the senior election.

I'm sure Ter and I will attend the event at Georgios in Orland on August 16th this summer. We remember the 10th year reunion - or actually it is a bit hazy.... Either way, it was a good time.

Sportsmanship

From ESPN: women's softball game ends in good sportsmanship.

I'm deciding whether or not to include this as part of a discussion on ethics. Laws and regulations are set to codify what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. After the rules are established, people try to figure out a way to get through loopholes in the law, approaching, but not crossing, the established legal precedents. Often, people try to exploit these loopholes for their benefit. The story is a good example of finding a loophole for someone else's benefit.

Incidentally, I found it interesting that there are no comments from the losing coach in the story.

Lake Run

Today I ran the Lake Run - the feature event of Bloomington-Normal's Lake Run Club. The race is one lap around Lake Bloomington, which makes it 12k (7.44 miles). Despite living here for about 5 years, I have never seen Lake Bloomington and it was pretty nice. It is a weird setting though - the lake itself has a vacation home feel to it, though most of the houses are ridiculously expensive. But once you leave the roads around the lake, you're back in cornfields - just a bit weird.

Anyway, while the temperature was about perfect (50 degrees), the wind was pretty fierce. The race started with the wind at my back, going downhill - this wasn't so bad. Then around mile 5, I turned a corner that wasn't blocked by the big trees around the lake - acres of open cornfields. The wind pushed in your face for the next two miles. What made it worse is that this was the uphill portion of the race. Late in the race, uphill, into the 30 mph wind - not a good combo.

I fought through pretty well and was pretty happy with my time - unofficially at 1:06:00 (about 8:53 / mile). Next, I run a 10k near my sister's house on Memorial Day.