I had an extremely difficult week last week, but my weekend totally made up for it. It was the best weekend I’ve had in a long, long time. Sleep, plenty of quality time with my family, a fair amount of time with some good friends, no travel and a pretty good race. What more could I ask for?

First things first, I ran the Orange County Marathon yesterday. I posted a race recap here. It was a great day with a bunch of friends and relatives coming out to support Operation Jack. I have to give huge thanks to my brother-in-law Andy and his wife, my sister-in-law Jacqueline, who got their kids out of bed and drove a good 80+ miles to participate in the 5K. They looked pretty good in their shirts!

Just in case this is your first time here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic, so I’m trying to run 60 marathons to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m on track and through 23 of them. Just 37 to go. Maybe.

I talked with a runner named Lance Haney last week who wants me to run in Memphis with him on December 4. The problem is, I’m running Las Vegas on December 5 and I’m not taking that off my schedule. So, adding Memphis would bump me up to 61 and make for another long weekend. He really digs what I’m doing, though, and wants me to head out there and try to pace him to a BQ (he needs a 3:10:59 or better).

This is the deal I worked out with him: He set up his fundraising page at operationjack.kintera.org/lancehaney. His thermometer goal is set to $3,000 and we’re both going to push this. If he hits it, I’ll make it 61 for the year, not just 60. So we’ll see. I’m trying to run 60, or maybe 61, marathons this year.

Family Weekend!
I had a great, great time at home this weekend. I think this is how the rest of you live and I can’t wait to get to 2011 and do this every weekend. I didn’t have to travel, I got to sleep in (until 7 a.m.!) in my own bed on Saturday, and I got to do cool things with each of my kids.

I got to play games with Benjamin, go to his track & field practice on Saturday morning, work with Ava on her swing skills in the back yard (and develop a severe allergy attack from the pollen or grass out there), participate extensively in Jack’s therapy sessions, work with Ben and Ava to help them cook their own blue-box mac and cheese, go to a family brunch at IHOP, watch Sesame Street with Jack in the hyperbaric chamber on Saturday, dish out a time-out or two … it was an awesome weekend.

I even found time to do dishes, fold laundry and change lightbulbs. Yesterday, when I got home from the race and showered, I just sat there on the couch with Tiff and Jack in the playroom chilling. Tiff said she was bored. I loved it. I don’t normally get to do that this year. We relaxed with a steak dinner after the kids went to bed. I got to go for an easy, quiet run on Saturday morning while the sun was up and others were out for a slow, weekend jog.

Life is good. The time I spend away really makes me appreciate what I have when I’m home.

Friends Too!
I didn’t realize how many people I know until I ran a local race. I must have seen a good two dozen people I know at the marathon yesterday. I don’t see many people I know when I’m on the road, so this was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, there were a few people who were at the race who I didn’t see at all and I was totally bummed about that (that’s you, Erin, Jaritt, Ben F. and Toni).

After the post-race brunch I went to with my family, I headed over to another meal with some runner friends of mine. At IHOP, I ate three pancakes, hash browns, three eggs, half my wife’s sandwich and half of her hash browns, so I wasn’t very hungry at that second meal. I was wired, though, because I had five cups of coffee at my brunch. I had a good time with my friends, and while I didn’t eat, I did have two more cups of coffee.

I’m A Loser. I’ll Admit It.
My dad and my stepmom registered for the half several months ago and I’d been talking up a storm about how I’d beat them with my time in the full. Even heading into the race, I didn’t think they’d complete their 13.1 faster than 3:15. But they went 2:53 and all I had was a 3:06. So I admit it. I was slow. They beat me.

Ice Cream Streak
Tiff hooked me up with some peanut butter frozen yogurt from Golden Spoon yesterday. That’s why I love her so much. Or maybe it’s because she has such beautiful hair. Whatever the case, my streak is up to 92 days now. I’m only 18 short of tying my record of 110 days, 19 short of history! I’m feeling pretty strong, but you never know what’s going to happen over the course of three weeks. I’m pretty confident, though.

That’s All For Today
I write my blogs the night before. I woke up at 3:51 naturally Sunday morning. It’s 9:51 as I type. That means it’s pretty much time to call it a day. I think I got enough out of this one. Have a great Monday, everybody. See you back here tomorrow!

Seeing history, meeting history, seeing Operation Jack supporters, sleeping in two fleabag motels and exhaustion that actually caused me to fall asleep on one of my flights. Yep, another weekend of Operation Jack is in the books, which means it’s time for another weekend recap blog.

First, of course, I ran my third consecutive double. Finally, I only have one marathon a weekend until late September. YES! This stuff is exhausting. Whose great idea was this, anyways?

On Saturday, I really didn’t like the Country Music Marathon in Nashville (recap). Yesterday, though, I LOVED the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon (recap).

Contest For This Week
I’m not going to do the “pick my time” contest I normally do this week. Instead, I’m doing a contest with my dad. The Orange County Marathon is this weekend and he’s running (I use the term loosely) the half and I’m running the full, of course.

You all know what my time range is going to be for the full. He’s taken stats on his treadmill workouts and last week, he did an 8.02-mile workout that projected to a 2:59:41 half marathon. I think he’ll be slower than that, because it’s five miles farther, plus it’s outdoors, not on the conveyor belt. In fact, I think I’m going to beat him, period, and he only has to go half the distance.

So we’re still finalizing a bet, but we’re going to tie the contest into a bet and that’s what it will be this week. I’ll have full details tomorrow, but this was my heads-up!

Quick Pasta Dinner/Silpada Fundraiser Reminders
We’re having a pair of fundraisers this weekend. We’re having a Silpada party on Friday and a pasta dinner on Saturday. I’d love to see you at one (or both) of the events!s

Seeing History
I saw the site of the Oklahoma City bombing and the memorial that has been constructed. I spent a lot of time talking about it in my race recap. It was pretty incredible. What a tragedy, but what a unified city. I highly recommend running this race.

Meeting History
So I’m sitting there in the airport in Dallas, waiting at a gate where there was a flight to San Francisco before my flight to Oklahoma City, and I heard the voice on the PA say, “Will San Francisco passenger Ryan Hall please re-check at the counter?”

If you’re a marathoner, you know who Ryan Hall is. If, not, I’ll tell you. He’s the fastest marathoner in U.S. history. He ran a 2:06 in his debut in London in 2007, he dominated the field to win the Olympic Trials in New York City later that year and he’s been the fastest American finisher at Boston in each of the past two years. He’s an incredible runner, but on top of that, he has great character and is really easy to root for.

So anyways, I looked to see if it was that Ryan Hall. It’s a more common name than Sam Felsenfeld. But it was that Ryan Hall. So I stood a little ways away and let him take care of his business. I wanted to snap a picture with him, but I didn’t really want to bother him. I can imagine how annoying it must be for him to get pestered all the time.

He saw me looking his direction when he walked back and he was shaking his head. I was kind of bummed and asked, “Not in the mood to take a picture?” But he said no, he noticed my shirt from the race that day and was just saying bummer about the weather.

From there, we chatted about a bunch of stuff for a good 20 minutes. I don’t think someone can fake character for that long, so I’m pretty convinced he’s all he’s cracked up to be. Amongst the things we talked about:

– He sleeps nine hours a night, plus takes a two-hour nap in the afternoon. “I just can’t function without my nap,” he said. I jokingly told him he’s missing life because he’s only awake 13 hours a day.
– He was pretty happy with his run in Boston. He was a minute faster than last year, and he said there’s not much you can do when somebody catches a flyer like Robert Cheruiyot did with his 2:05:52.
– He laughed about how close my marathon PR is to a sub-3 (3:00:05). He totally understood why I started charity running after obsessing about those six seconds. “It’s so much better to make something happen, huh?” Yep, totally. He can’t imagine 60 in a year, but I told him it’s not like I’m running 60 2:08s. He thinks I’d be faster if I only ran two a year. I think he might be on to something.
– He has a grandfather who lives near me and he’s totally familiar with my running routes to the point that he was able to identify the name of the local high school I run by.
– He told me I really have to run London someday. I told him I’ll do it as soon as I find a sponsor.
– We were talking about his teammate Josh Cox’s half marathon in Nashville on Saturday. I thought it showed the level he’s at when he referred to it as a 67 and not a 1:07. I’ve never heard anybody refer to a half time as a number minutes instead of the hour and minutes.
– I told him he needed to watch his back, because I stayed within an hour of him in Boston and I might catch him. Duly noted.

I asked a woman to take a picture of us and she did. She knew I was going to Oklahoma City, so she asked me if I was running the race on Sunday and I told her I was. She asked him if he ran marathons, and he said he did, so she asked if he was running Oklahoma City, too. He said he wasn’t, that he was on his way to San Francisco.

She started talking about her daughter, who runs half-marathons and is into the whole “marathon” thing. She’s trying to get her son into running, too. Hall and I kind of looked at each other and grinned a little bit because she had no idea who she was talking to. That woman ended up sitting next to me on my flight, so a little bit later, I told her who that guy I took a picture with was, and that she needed to tell her daughter she had a conversation about running with Ryan Hall and didn’t even know it. It was pretty funny.

Fleabag Motels
You know what’s worse than your motel needing to have a security gate? Your motel having a security gate that doesn’t work and stays open. That was Nashville. There was some shady guy in front of me trying to scrounge up cash to pay for one more night. Oh well, it’s just a bed and I made it out of there safely!

In Oklahoma City, there was a guy at the check-in counter trying to get a quarter, nickel and dime for 40 pennies, so he counted them all out. I checked into my non-smoking room, but it had a terrible odor, because somebody smoked in there the night before.

After the race when I went to take a shower, the hot water wasn’t working, but the lady at the front desk swore it was going to come back on any minute. I didn’t have time, so I just started taking a cold shower, which is a miserable thing to do after your second marathon in as many days. About 5 minutes into the shower, the hot water came on, which was a relief. I told the woman the hot water came on when I was checking out, and she was excited, because nobody in the motel had a cold shower all morning.

I guess that’s what happens when you get a room and rental car for $65, including all taxes. I’m kind of enjoying these little dives, though. Makes me glad to know I’m not wasting much money when I make it out alive.

Yay! OJ Supporters!
I got to meet up with a few Operation Jack supporters over the weekend, which was nice. I saw an old fraternity brother of mine, Will Rigdon, who’s pretty excited about what I’m doing. I also got to meet his wife, Nancy. They both ran their first half marathon in Nashville on Saturday! Awesome!

I also caught up with Laura Sullivan in Nashville, who I met in Mississippi in January. She inadvertently found Operation Jack through a Google search and has been a loyal supporter for quite a while. We chat a little bit here and there and it was good to see her again.

And then there’s Ally Phillips, who I saw for the third straight weekend. I also saw her in Catalina in March. Ally’s great … yeah, that pretty much sums her up. Her husband is a pretty cool dude, too. I got to see him again, too.

That’s All For Today
Like that wasn’t enough. I ramble too much when I write my blog on the plane. Tomorrow, I’m posting what I ate last week. A lot of you wonder how I can run marathons when I just eat garbage like In-N-Out and ice cream. But I think I actually eat fairly healthy. I’ll let y’all be the judge.

Normally, weekend recaps are the subject of my Monday blog. But since the Boston Marathon was yesterday, my weekend didn’t end until I got home late last night, so I’ll go with the weekend recap as my theme today. I’m warning you in advance, though — there’s a lot of pictures in here, because I told a lot of people over the weekend that I’d put them in the blog.

Real quick first, though, I ran the Charlottesville Marathon and struggled with a 3:21 on Saturday (recap here) and I ran the best race of my life yesterday in the Boston Marathon (3:03, recap here). It wasn’t my fastest, but it was my best. Period.

Also, I snuck in a really brief blog about my wife yesterday. If you support Operation Jack and what I’m trying to accomplish, please take a minute and read what I wrote. She means the world to me and she’s a behind-the-scenes rock that Operation Jack wouldn’t be possible without.

Oh, one more plug I have to make. I’m running seven marathons in seven states this month. Since 7 is the number of the month, I’m trying to collect as many $7 donations as possible. I’m not where I want to be yet, so if you can spare the cost of a cheap lunch to support a great cause, check out the fundraising page or read the update I sent to the Facebook group at the beginning of the month.

OK, so here was my weekend. I hope you’re entertained by the truth, because it’s easier to write than fiction.

Thursday Night
I took the family out to Souplantation (Sweet Tomatoes, depending on what part of the country you live in). My kids love it and I had to leave them for four long days, so I wanted to have some fun before I left. We had a good time, and that night, I left for the airport to catch a red-eye. I only got about two hours of sleep on the flight. Bummer.

Friday Morning & Afternoon
I was heading to Charlottesville, Va., through Atlanta. In Atlanta, my flight was overbooked, and they offered 400 Delta Dollars to anybody willing to add five hours to their layover. I did this and now I’ll be able to take Tiff along on a future trip sometime. It eliminated my nap I was planning on in Virginia, but it gave me a chance to leave the airport and visit my mom, who lives in Atlanta.

I hadn’t seen her since December, so she was excited to see me. We went to lunch with her husband at a Chinese buffet. It stank in there, but the food was pretty good and it was nice to visit, albeit briefly. Oh, I also got two free meal coupons from the airlines, so I picked myself up a breakfast sandwich and a frozen yogurt waffle cone. Beautiful. While I was walking to get my cone, my brother called me and told me he scored tickets to the Red Sox game on Sunday. Double beautiful.

On the flight from Atlanta to Charlottesville, our flight attendant on our puddle jumper told us it was her first flight and asked us to bear with her. I’d MUCH rather hear that from the flight attendant than the pilot!

Friday Evening
Here’s where I get to give props to my fraternity, Phi Delta Theta! I was a Phi Delt at Kansas State, and in Charlottesville, home of the University of Virginia, the Phi Delts supported me. They ran a 5K on Saturday that benefitted the Virginia Institute of Autism and they did so wearing custom Operation Jack/Autism Awareness/Phi Delta Theta shirts. They hosted a pasta dinner at the house on Friday night, so I went over and met the guys and had a nice time.

I stayed in a total fleabag motel. I meant to take a picture of the room, but I didn’t. It was pretty gross, though. I knew better than to go barefoot in the room, so I walked around in my socks and they got dirty.

Saturday Morning/Afternoon
After running the race, I went to Waffle House. I’d never been. And I’m probably not going back. I wasn’t impressed. Food was blah and I would have totally rather gone to IHOP. But I tried it and I no longer have that curiosity.

After that, I went out to Monticello, but they wanted something like $15 for a ticket just to walk around on the trails there. So I left, because I didn’t have a ton of time. But it’s a very beautiful location.

Before I hit the airport, I made good use of a coupon I got in my goodie bag.

Saturday Night
I wanted to watch the Mets-Cardinals game on Saturday, but it started 15 minutes before my flight left Charlottesville. I had a layover in Philadelphia, got into Boston, took three T trains and then a shuttle to get to my hotel. I called Tiff, unpacked, got a little bit of work done, then went to get some pizza. I came back, ate my pizza, called Tiff again and talked for a while, then called it a night and crawled into bed and watched the last hour of the Mets-Cardinals game. Yeah, that one went 20 innings.

Speaking of my layover in Philly, I had an interesting experience in the men’s room. I walked in, and there’s a man using a urinal shouting, “THIS IS PERSONAL! THIS IS PERSONAL!” He was just talking to himself, peeing. I was a little leery, so I went way to the far end away from him, and he started saying something else, and I noticed he had a bluetooth in his ear.

Note to dude: Wrong place and time to have that phone call.

Sunday
Got up, took an ice bath. Went to town and met people for breakfast. Went to the expo. Went across the street and met people for lunch. Went straight to Fenway to meet up with my brother and my friends Mike and Katherine. Went straight to meet people for the pasta dinner. Went straight to the hotel and about 13 hours had passed since I left. How did that happen?

Two cool notes about Sunday:
1. I was sitting at lunch and a guy came up to the table out of nowhere and asked me if I was Sam. Well, Sam I Am! He told me he’s been following along and he admired what I was doing and he asked to take a picture with me. I thought that was pretty cool. And I took the picture, of course.

2. Our seats at Fenway were standing room only ON TOP OF THE GREEN MONSTER! Does it get any better than that? I don’t think it does.

Monday
We’ve been over the whole “Boston Marathon” thing that I ran yesterday. After the race, I had lunch with my brother, my friend Mike, and four other people I want to make a quick mention of.

One was a friend named Brittany, who used to be one of Jack’s therapists when he was 2 and 3. She moved back to Boston, so she came to the lunch on Sunday, then came out to the race with a homemade sign! Her parents also came out to the race and they also joined us for lunch on Monday.

Also, I had a great time meeting three new people, Danielle, Melissa and Sarah. They posted pictures on Twitter on Sunday night of a sign they had made for me. I was blown away, because I had never communicated with them at all. I know what I’m doing has a “wow” factor, which is why I’m doing it, but I don’t view myself as anything special, because to me, I’m me, and all I’m doing is making use of what I’ve been given. So when I saw that picture, I was pretty floored. I got in touch with them and insisted that we find a way to meet up. So they came out to lunch after the race and we had a good time chatting for an hour or two (I lost track of time).

And then I went home. Finally. I missed my babies.

Kansas is the anti-Vegas. It’s a great place to live, but you wouldn’t want to visit there. Well, of course, unless you’re me. I moved away 10 1/2 years ago, but my heart is still there. I was fortunate enough to be able to head there this weekend. Oh, and I ran a couple of marathons and went to Dallas, too.

Just in case this is your first time here, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 6 1/2-year-old Jack, is severely autistic. I’m trying to do something to make a difference in his honor, so on top of working full-time and doing the best job I can as a parent and a husband, I’m trying to run 60 marathons in 2010 to raise awareness and money for a charity I’m a part of named Train 4 Autism.

I’m on target so far, having completed the first 18. If you want to read about what pain feels like, you can check out my race reports from Saturday’s Olathe (Kan.) Marathon and yesterday’s Big D Texas Marathon.

The Running Is The Easiest Part
The logistics are tricky, and I’m really reaching a point where it’s tough to be away from my wife and kids. When I’m gone, I call up several times a day to say hi and see how things are going, and it’s really getting tough. It’s fun to see new places and meet new people, but it’s a lot more fun to play handball with Benjamin at his school than to get a text from Tiff telling me she played handball with Benjamin at his school. I’m the one who teaches him how to play that game well. I want to be there.

I guess Tiff and I knew what we were getting into, and we still believe very strongly in what we’re trying to accomplish. I talk about a lot of the positives of Operation Jack and the fun experiences I have, but in case you’re wondering if this is difficult and if it kills me to be away from the family so much — yes and yes.

If I Must Travel, It Might As Well Be To Kansas
I went to Kansas State University and lived in Kansas City after I graduated. I really love that part of the country and feel like I’m a Kansan at heart living in California. That was my first stop of the weekend, since I ran Olathe (a Kansas City suburb on the Kansas side of state line) on Saturday. In my book, it just doesn’t get any better than Kansas. I felt more at home than I do in California. It was wonderful.

I got to catch up with a good friend/mentor, have lunch with some good friends from college, see the places I used to shop at with Tiff when we first got married and visit with some of my pledge brothers and see one of their farms. Throw in a marathon, playtime with a pit bull and lunch at a GREAT barbecue restaurant named Oklahoma Joe’s and I’d call it a pretty solid 22 hours.

I got to hang out with another old college friend in Dallas and spend some time catching up, which was also fun. I get homesick when I’m gone, but if I’m going to be gone, it’s nice to last spend quality time with quality people.

I Hate United Airlines
I had a lousy experience flying to Virginia three weeks ago on United. They made me check my carry-on even though there was space in the overheads just because I was in seating group No. 4. I really, really hate them, but I think the feeling is mutual, because they seem to hate all of their passengers. They don’t even give out peanuts!

I swore I wouldn’t fly them unless I really had to, but I really had to this weekend (American’s rates from Dallas were ridiculous). I had a repeat of my incident being in seating group No. 4 flying back from Dallas yesterday. I had to check my bag, and when I got on the plane, half of the overheads were empty. I asked the flight attendant when I got on the plane if I could hold on to my bag, be the last person on the plane and put it in one of the empty spots if there was one. She said no problem.

Of course, by that point, the guy who took my bag already put my bag on the ramp down. I asked him if I could walk the eight steps down to grab it and he told me no. I’m sure it would have been way too much for him to walk down those steps, too. So I got to wait at the baggage claim last night when I got in instead of heading straight to my car. That’s exactly what I wanted to do. I wasn’t tired or anything. I only flew three times this weekend, I only ran two marathons, plus I got a whopping 10 hours of sleep between Friday and Saturday night! I was only 19 hours into my Sunday when we landed.

My United Airlines Crew On Friday Was Not Smooth
So on my flight to Kansas City Friday, I went on (oops) United and switched planes in Denver. On our way in, we encountered some fairly rocky turbulence. Normally, they’ll tell us that we’re beginning our descent and we need to discontinue use of our portable electronic devices. Well, we were way above the 10,000-foot level they typically tell us to power down at, yet they abruptly told us to shut down right while we were going through that turbulence with no explanation. Not very comforting.

A little bit later, we were coming close to landing so the pilot told the flight crew to cross check and prepare for “an excellent” landing. In all the flights I’ve taken, I’ve NEVER heard that announcement as anything other than to “cross check and prepare for landing.” The “excellent” adjective seemed pretty odd, and even if you’re used to flying, you probably don’t want to hear anything out of the ordinary, especially during rough patches. This, too, was not very comforting.

But the part that was smooth as sandpaper came about five minutes before landing. There was no announcement necessary, but for whatever reason, the flight attendant came on and announced to us, “in the event of an emergency landing and evacuation, please leave your carry-on items behind.” ARE YOU KIDDING? They tell you that at the beginning of the flight when they go through the emergency card, but five minutes before landing? Again, I’ve NEVER heard that at the end of flight. And again, that was not very comforting.

We didn’t have an emergency landing or evacuation. I’m pretty happy about that, because I didn’t want to leave my carry-on bags behind.

Sometimes Small Gestures Mean A Lot
On the rental car shuttle in Dallas, the driver saw my Olathe Marathon shirt, so he asked he if I had run a full marathon, and I told him I had. He asked me if it was my first, and once he did that, the cat was out of the bag and Operation Jack came up in the conversation fairly quickly. He was impressed and asked my name so he could track my results, so I gave him an Operation Jack flyer.

He read it and later asked me about Jack and how he was doing and what our routine is like. I answered all of his questions and we chatted during the ride. When we got to the rental car area, he was unloading bags for passengers and collected a few dollars from some people. We were chatting and I was about to go, and he pulled out his wallet and gave me a $5 bill. “Normally, customers tip me, but I want to tip the customer this time. I think it’s great what you’re doing.” I graciously accepted it and was beaming on the inside. $5 isn’t going to make or break Operation Jack, but it sure did make my day.

Quick Housekeeping Items
Two quick things:
1. I’m making a gentle fundraising push in April to try to raise money in a painless way. I’m running seven marathons in seven states this month, so I figure that 7 is the lucky number (well, it’s been the painful number so far, but that’s a different story). So, I’m trying to raise $7 donations. Take a look at the April update I sent to the Facebook group if you haven’t already seen it.

2. We’re going to have a pasta dinner on May 1, the night before the Orange County Marathon, at Buca di Beppo in Irvine. I’d love to have as many of you there as possible. For more information, follow this link!

That’s All For Today!
Like that wasn’t enough. Have a great Monday, everybody. See you tomorrow!

Wow, what a great weekend. I didn’t step foot in an airport or a hotel room, and by 11 a.m. Saturday, I had zero obligations until work this morning! I know, that’s the story of most of your lives, but for me, this was a rare weekend, and a breath of fresh air.

A couple of things first. I ran my 16th marathon of the year on Saturday, winning the Train 4 Autism Marathon Series, Race 1. My 3:23:56 was probably the slowest winning time in the history of marathons, but the race was a wonderful experience. If you read the report, you’ll see why sometimes a finishing time is really inconsequential. It was an awesome day.

Also, just a quick plug to something I’m pushing for (and I guess that’s my privilege, since it’s my blog!) … this month, I’m running seven marathons in seven states, so I’m trying to get as many $7 donations for Operation Jack as possible. Check out what I wrote … please!

OK, Tiff. You Were Right.
I had planned on going to the Red Cross on Saturday afternoon to donate platelets. It’s tough to schedule time to do that, and I thought I had a great opportunity to get my way down there without impacting much that afternoon. Tiff thought it would cut into time I could be spending with Benjamin, but I thought I’d still have plenty of time left over.

We got into a little bit of an argument, but I pushed off the appointment to have a crazy fun day with Benjamin. The result? A crazy fun day with Benjamin. And I guess it helps my recovery to not deplete myself of platelets.

On Saturday morning, Ben had his first day with a track and field program put on by the city we live in. He was starving afterwards, so we went for a recovery meal.

We were both totally full after that meal. I don’t know how that happened. I’m always satisfied, but never full, after I eat at In-N-Out. But from there, we went to RoadRunner Sports to get him fitted for some running shoes. He spent some time with the Shoe Dog.

We ordered a pair of shoes for him and they should be in soon. I was such a proud papa at the running store. I felt like a dad giving his son his first Playboy. Of course, I didn’t get in any trouble with Tiff for this.

After RoadRunner, we went and picked out a Mother’s Day present for mama, then went and saw a movie called How To Train Your Dragon … in 3D! We continued to overeat on popcorn and we enjoyed the movie. I don’t know how an 8-year-old views that movie. But there’s a part of it geared towards adults that focuses on the dad eventually accepting his son for his son’s strengths and interests, not just on whether or not the son chose the path the dad had hoped for. It was nice seeing that with Benjamin.

Later on Saturday, after I spent a little bit of time watching Butler beat Michigan State, I went to Home Depot and got 250 pounds of new play sand for Jack’s sandbox. I worked with Ava (she wanted to help, so I let her think she was helping) way past dark and I messed up my back shoveling all the old sand out and putting the new sand in. After getting another 250 pounds Sunday morning (I underestimated how much I needed), Jack was excited when we finally let him play in the sandbox again.

So in other words, for a good chunk of time, I got to be the dad I haven’t really been able to be too often on the weekends this year. It was pretty nice.

You were right, Tiff. Thank you.

Jack Loves The Arches
This is pretty much a cheap excuse to put a picture of Jack in here. But I took him to McDonald’s yesterday afternoon. He had a blast on the playground for about an hour, which gave Tiff some freedom to get the house ready for our family Easter dinner.

These Were Incredible
My sister-in-law brought cupcakes to the Easter dinner yesterday. They were amazing. Normally, the frosting is what I’ll remember from a cupcake. This time, though, it was the cake. It was a lemon-flavored cake with a vanilla pudding filling. The filling soaked in to the cake, so it was moist and INCREDIBLY DELICIOUS. I was raving about them for a few minutes, and I don’t think she could tell if I was serious or not, but she joked about me blogging about it. Just ask Lisa Hernandez what happens if you jokingly dare me to do something.

So here you go, Kelly. You made the blog. That and $1 will get you a small cup of coffee at McDonald’s.

I Love Spring Break!
I’m not on spring break, because I have one of those “job” things, but Benjamin and Ava are out of class this week, so they stayed at my in-laws last night for a sleepover with their cousin. Peace … and … quiet! (For us, not them!)

Here are a few miscellaneous pics from yesterday. I asked her if she had anything she wanted me to post and this is what she gave me. So here goes.

That’s All For Today
I’ll be back tomorrow, same bat time, same bat channel. I’m pulling for Butler tonight. What can I say — I have a mad crush on Cinderella!