Prairie Fire Marathon

Somewhere in this throng of people are many friends and my brother. They're getting ready to run a half-marathon. Me? I'm standing around drinking cappuccino and taking photos. I've been training for awhile now.

Walking It Old School

I forgot to charge my Zune last night. How was I supposed to exercise this morning without music? Not possible, I say! Good thing I still have a walkman lying around. I popped in a couple of double-A batteries and fired it up. It worked great! Going retro saved me today. Thank you, antiquated technology!

Doin' the Hustle!

Today was a fantastically busy day! It started off with the 1st Annual Hornet Hustle at the Kansas Coliseum. This was a fundraiser for my daughter's school in an effort to raise enough money that we can stop having to sell wrapping paper, cookies, candy, etc. They seemed to have a great turnout with over 300 participants so I hope it did the trick. Stephanie G. did a great job pulling it together with the help of so many others. My brother drove 2 hours to join our family for the event which was great. He's a cross country coach so he gave us some really good advice being this was our first run ever. We also were lucky enough to get to hang out with the Running Lawyer, and we also saw Oz Runner from just up the street. Good people all around us! Everyone did a great job, and I'm proud of the entire group. We're already looking forward to next year's run where we'll all be in better shape and run farther than this year.

After the Hornet Hustle, we hustled out to the farmer's market to buy some sweet corn for my son's birthday next week, but sadly, the season is over and there was none to be found. But we didn't walk away empty handed. Absolutely not! We left with a large jar of honey, a jar of apple butter, a jar of Elderberry jelly, and a jar of Pepsi jelly made with real Pepsi (bought some Diet Pepsi jelly for Mom & Dad). They had Mountain Dew jelly, Code Red jelly, and other flavors that we'll try another time. Before we left, my daughter and I were watching a magician and he gave her the honor of pulling out a LARGE nail he carefully hammered into it. That's something she won't forget, and he let her keep the nail, but only after I insisted he wipe it down first. We grabbed a quick lunch and hustled home to take an afternoon rest.

We wrapped up the day by hustling over to Applebee's then hustled to McLean Park for a free movie in the park. They were showing "The Princess and the Frog". The weather was great and you can't beat free, especially when they throw in free popcorn, free lemonade, free sno-cones, and free popsicles. What a day! One I'd hustle to do all over again.

Evening Stroll

Morning Walk

Morning view. Road of seclusion. Except, road construction has made this a major thoroughfare. All serenity is gone until they get that roadwork done. Let's expedite the project, huh guys?

New Beginning

For some reason, I was looking through my junk e-mail today and ran across a newsletter from Kim Komando. It was talking about the "Cool Website of the Day". This site was a free fitness tracker. It's called www.HotCal.com and it's exactly what I've been looking for. It keeps track of my exercise and how many calories I burn as well as everything I eat during the day and how many calories I take in. I entered my current weight and my weight loss goal and how fast I'd like to lose it. The website does the rest. It lets me know how many calories I can have each day to meet my goal and so much more. It's my new favorite website and there are some changes I'm making in my life today. Not only did I find this site today, but Oprah had Dr. Oz and Bob Green on the show today to discuss the serious threat of diabetes. There was so much good information in that show and a lot of it really hit home. Lades and gentlemen, get ready and stand aside. Change starts now.

Going for the Record

Amber has this toy that hooks around the ankle of one leg and she swings it around and jumps over it with the other leg. It has a counter on it so she told me she's going to break the world record. I think she got pretty close, until "Andrew got in her way!" Brothers can be "so mean".

Walkin' Shoes

Amber has been suggesting we take a walk every night after dinner. Thank goodness she's there to push us because this guy needs the exercise. She's a good motivator, even though I hate every step of those two miles. It'll get easier, but not before it gets cooler. It's already pretty warm in the evenings...at least to me. It's gonna be a long summer. I need to check my calendar to find out when fall begins.