Benefits of a Rain or Shine Policy

Recently with the weather we have been having here in California I've missed a couple of runs because of the rains. This was frustrating for me but more so for my training partners who are getting ready for some pretty big events. Their frustration built to the point that they went out last weekend in a pretty good downpour. I saw them run by and thought "ooh I'm glad I am not out there".

It turns out they didn't melt or worse so they instigated a new "rain or shine" policy.

So when I woke up last night and heard rain in the downspout I knew the run was on. I mechanically got myself ready for the run psyching myself up to go.

Fortunately when I stepped outside it had already stopped! So instead of turning over and missing out I went out an had a great run! The smell of Eucalyptus just after a rain is awesome!

I love the benefits of our new rain or shine policy.

Living with a monster!!

As I mentioned in a previous post in January our TV broke and was replaced by a relatively small 17 in TV.

Well a neighbor was over last week when we hosted a poker tournament at our house and noticed our rather paltry TV and mentioned that he had a larger one that we could purchase for cheap.

Being very value conscious we decided to look into this potential deal and on Sunday we went by his place around the block to check it out. It turns out it was a significant upgrade in terms of size and quality so we said yes. Now we have what can only be called a MONSTER TV in our living room, a 50 in TV set with built in stereo. This is a Mitsubishi which originally retailed for $3000 that we got for $200!

We are not huge TV people but I can tell you I cannot wait to rent a movie and watch it on this thing! I am sure we can get used to it and it only took the kids a nano-second of course because Sponge Bob is now 2 feet tall!

Myers-Briggs for Blogs

A colleague at work just pointed me to this site, Typeanalyzer, which claims it can identify the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) of a blog's author by examining his or her blog.

She ran it on my blog cajkzblog and I think it came up wrong!

Here is a summary of the output:

John = ESFP which equates to "Extrovert, Sensing, Felling, Perceiving
“The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells.”

Those that know me are well aware that I have no affinity towards soft fabrics and bright colors and smells (unless they are my own) :)

When I have taken this test before the indicator has come up with what I believe is a correct assement of ENTJ - Extrovert, iNtuition, Thinking, Judgement"

Here is a screenshot of the complete analysis.

Thanks Big Darren (quick post)

Well we are having an amazing visit with my sisters and her kids (more to come). Yesterday amongst other things we had my friend Darren and his family over.

One of the things they learned during his visit was the "fist bump with explosion!"

Here is a video re-enactment:


So now Lea and her cousin Will will do the "fist bump with explosion" after each time they burp!

Thanks big D!

Happy 90th Birthday Mom Mom!

Today is a special day in terms of miles stones. My maternal grandmother (who I lovingly refer to as Mom Mom) turned 90 today!

I've also just figured out that I am gaining on her. In 6 short years I will be exactly half your age so look out!

The kids and I made a couple of videos to celebrate!




The kids alone!



The kids silly!

Yoga mania!

For Christmas I bought Melissa a yoga video so that she could do yoga at home. Now before you say "that's just like a husband to do that" she requested one. I did some research and ended up getting one of the highest rated videos on Amazon from Shiva Rea.

Unfortunately right after Christmas our TV broke and the loaner we have has not yet been hooked up to our DVD player.

This weekend the video was revived and the house has gone into yoga mania. When I got back from my run yesterday afternoon Julia was doing the yoga with the help of a portable DVD player. Lea (who had ridden her bike along with me for 3.5 miles) joined in and they did yoga for about 30 minutes. After Lea bailed out Julia kept going for another hour! She loved it! The first thing she did when she got up this morning was 1 hour of yoga with Melissa! They are hooked!

This is all just part of the yoga mania however. As it turns out Melissa has a way of shaping he world around her and she must have willed a yoga teacher to contact her because we are now hosting yoga at our house 2x per week in our loft. In fact we rearranged the entire space up there so that up to 10 people can do yoga with her new yoga master Mahdu. She came by to survey the space Melissa offered and said that "there are good vibrations here" so I think we are all set! She will even let the kids participate if they want to so the house has gone yoga crazy!

New animal species name - solves age old problems

Recently the kids have been telling me about how they have solved two age old problems in one fell swoop as they say.

They have all told me that if we discover a new animal, which will certainly happen at some point, then it should be called xorange.

This way when you are going through the alphabet naming animals there is an animal that starts with X instead of having to "cheat" a little and say fox.

Secondly there will finally something that rhymes with Orange instead of "cheating" a little and saying "door hinge" the problem will be solved!

I think this is quite clever thinking by the little crew. Hopefully they can apply the same energy and logic to making their beds!

Music Man?

The other day I was riding with the kids in the car and they asked me to put on their favorite radio station (yes they have a favorite) - Radio Disney. I switch the radio over and it was in mid-song with a voice that sounded very familiar to me but I could not place the name.

From the back seat Nicolas pipes up in his little 4 yr old voice - "That's David Ar-chu-let-ta, he almost won American idol" and it turns out he was right on. Now Nicolas probably saw 3 episodes total of American Idol last year so for him to remember the voice and the name of the singer was pretty amazing to me. I chalked it up to an anomaly until the other day he did the same thing again with another artist!

I then realized that he actually does a pretty good job singing songs (often at the dinner table) and he likes to bang on things (not that unusual for a 4 yr old boy I know) and even has taken Julia's violin out of the case (causing much strife).

I then also remembered one of my posts about him enjoying rocking out to Stevie Ray Vaugh last June.

So, maybe he is just musically inclined?

New Year's Resolutions Lived Out?

One of my previously undisclosed New Year's resolutions is to finally get my weight back down to a below 200lbs. I was getting pretty close last year (when it was also a goal) when I hit a streak of travel that had me on the road for 7 of 8 weeks (sorry honey).

Anyway I just got back from a solo run where I started before 6. It wasn't that cold this morning, about 37F but it is very dark with no moon so I did not expect to see people out (literally) and having run all through the winter last year I rarely saw people. Some of the trails I run on are along the levy near our house and it really is so dark you cannot see your hand in front of your face (doesn't help that I wear black running gloves).

All that said I saw an amazing number of people out. From the moment I hit the levy I nearly ran into a couple running with their dog. I crossed over to the other side of the levy and ran past another couple of solo runners. Then when I hit the bridge at the other side there was an entire group of maybe 15 runners who all appeared to be together in some kind of running club.

So I guess everyone was out living out their resolutions. And for my part after a rough start in January I am back on the wagon myself.

How are you doing on yours?