10yrs together

It will be 10yrs this saturday that Lily and I have been married.  I tried to scan in some of our more classic photos, but they were really terrible to look at as a scan.  SO here is the last 6yrs highlights since we went digital.

Photos

This showed up at my home a few hours ago as my gift.  MTB, SWEET!!!!

AB

Project Backyard update #2

I'm almost done, one more area to plant. Then next week it's landscape fabric, water lines and rock groundcover and I'll be done. The above are some updated pics'.

Last week my daughter Izabella turned 7.  We had her birthday at the ranch she is going to do summer horse camp at.  She got to ride for 2hrs.  I threw together a green marble fondant cake.  The top is colored coconut.  The flowers were made by Izabella out of gum paste and colored with an edible pen.  She wanted to try out the pens.  Here are some pic's. 

I've been running when I can or when I'm not worn down.  When this project is over I won't know what to do with all the extra time.

AB

 
 

I’m know I‘m old, but how do you know?

I received and email today where my friend Pam stated she was old. This was a comment made after Pam went out to 2nd Saturday in Downtown Sacramento this past weekend.


Since my Monday workload just wasn’t holding my attention like it should this got me thinking, i.e. wasting time. I wondered just how do you know your “Old”. I know I’m old, (I just do OK), but how do you know.

Before I reveal my thoughts on this globally important issue I must state that yes Pam you are old but so am I, (that was for you Vans, BoM Unite!!).

Here is my list of how to know your old:

You’re married.

You have no reason to go into trendy clubs/bars, (see #1 for the reason why).

You like Bon Jovi.

You’re waiting for neon colors to come back in style.

You remember when chest hair was sexy, (I’m waiting).

You find yourself saying, “Remember when” a lot.

You remember Tab soda.

You pass up sex for sleep.

Staying up late is 10pm.

You remember eating fast food everyday and not gaining weight.

You like 80’s music.

You think grey hair is “distinguishing”.

You can no longer run with your shirt off.

You remember being able to do anything on 4hrs of sleep.

Current fashion trends make no sense to you.

You remember when kids played and I don’t mean video games.

You walked or rode a bike to school.

You played Atari.

One of your all time favorite movies is one of the following: Foot Loose, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Breakfast Club and Weird Science.

This is in no way a complete list; please feel free to comment with additions or disagreements you may have with the list.

AB

Back on track

Well after weekends of labor I’m about done with my backyard renovation. Beside the trip to the Big Ditch, I’ve done little running of late. This was mostly due to my injury and then the backyard project. When I did run I was usually too broken down from the digging, etc to go far. Between the constant physical work and planning I was pretty drained mentally and physically.

This Friday I should complete the path and patio. The flagstones are dry set in sand over a gravel base. Instead of fill sand for the joints like I did in the backyard pre-home addition. I’ll be using polymeric sand this go around. When you wet the polymeric sand it hardens like mortar, (nice). This should be my last back yard renovation. This is the 2nd time in 10yrs I’ve had to renovate my backyard.

All that will remain to complete the project is a little more planting, a drip system, low voltage lights and ground cover. Lily and I also bought a HUGE 6ft fountain at Potteryworld that I have to hook up. (Ok so I still have a lot to do, but the labor intensive stuff is done).

My plan now is to get back on track with some consistent running and recover my lost fitness. A plus to all this work has been a little boost to my muscular strength. You don’t know how weak you are till you try to dig and shovel for days and hours on end.

I will probably pass on the Auburn 50K in favor of training. The Canyons are calling for me to go run them.

In June my next training group will be starting up. I’m becoming anxious for this to get going. The structure the training group gives me is helpful to me. It will be interesting to see what the new group will be like. If you or someone you know is interested check here: Fleet Feet Fair Oaks

Tahoe Rim 50 mile will be my next event as I build to the Wildest 100K in August.

Here are some pictures of what I’ve been up to:

Here what things looked like early on, you can see one messed up backyard:

Then it changed:

This is the BBQ patio add on, the installer is a stud:

The rough lay out of the stones, the big ones are 3-4ft wide and F*^n heavy:

What I looked like at the end of each day:

This weekend I'll have some great pic's of the finished patio and walkway.

AB