I got to stay at home for the third time this year, but for the first time, I didn’t have any extra-curricular functions on the schedule. My first home weekend, for the Carlsbad Marathon, I had a dinner on Friday night and a lunch on Sunday. Two weeks ago for the Diamond Valley/Surf City double, I had to put on a pasta dinner as a fundraiser, which totally consumed me. This weekend? The Pasadena Marathon and plenty of time with my family. Oh, and Jack did something really cool yesterday. Not a bad weekend!
Real quick first, I ran the Pasadena Marathon yesterday. Kind of a so-so performance.
Weekend Kickoff: Hyperbaric Chamber, a 100K Race and the Pasadena Marathon Expo
I kicked off the weekend with a visit to Advanced Hyperbarics with Jack for a session in the hyperbaric chamber. Lucky for me, we watched Monsters, Inc. instead of the Sesame Street counting video he normally picks. Tiff teased me on Twitter about the Sesame Street video, but too bad — I lucked out!
After that, Jack and I went to visit my friend Rachel, who was busy running winning a 100K race (yes, that’s 62 miles!). She was sporting her Operation Jack shirt. Yeah! She was pleasantly surprised to see us and I was pleasantly surprised that I only had to wait about 30 seconds after I got there to see her! We chatted for a minute, then Jack and I headed off to the Pasadena Marathon expo to get my stuff — his first “appearance” at anything Operation Jack-related this year. So, we got a picture.
It’s tough to get Jack to look at the camera. But that’s OK. He’s still awesome!
I Got To Do Some Dad Stuff Saturday
Yeah, that means eating my lunch on the couch in front of the TV, dozing for about 20 minutes, then going out to work in the garage. The mission this weekend was to go through a bunch of old storage boxes I had out there and get rid of old junk. I found some stuff I’ll probably sell on eBay, I got rid of a ton of junk, and I also found some cool memories from my childhood.
The project is far from finished, but I made good progress, which made Tiff happy. And when Tiff’s happy, I’m happy! Here’s the coolest of the cool stuff I found:
The cleats were game-worn by my all-time hero, Brian Downing. The hat was also game worn by Jim Abbott. He gave it to me straight from his head after the last game of the 1990 season.
Ultimate Post-Race Meal
Yesterday afternoon, I went with the wife and kids to eat at Souplantation (Sweet Tomatoes in other parts of the country) with my grandparents. If you’ve been following along, you know I beat my grandma in our 22nd-annual Super Bowl bet this year. And you also know that she woke me up with a hilarious phone call last week in Austin inquiring about this lunch.
Well, post-race, I can’t think of anything better to eat than an all-you-can-eat buffet of food that can actually be pretty healthy if you want it to be. ESPECIALLY with good company! We had a blast, I got full (which says a lot) and all three kids were very well behaved. We really had a great time.
Me with one of my owners at Souplantation yesterday.
After lunch, we went over to my grandparents’ house for a little bit. My grandma picked out some outfits for the kids that she wanted to give us. For 85 55, she does a pretty good job picking things out!
Anyways, she LOVES penguins. At my first race of Operation Jack, the Texas Marathon in Kingwood, Texas on January 1, they gave us a stuffed penguin with a number around the neck. The number indicated what your overall finishing place was. I was seventh overall, so mine had a “7”. Actually, I shouldn’t say “mine” … I should say “my grandma’s,” because I knew I was going to give it to her before I even got it. She was totally thrilled and of course, we took a picture together.
Me and my grandma with her penguin.
Jack Did Something Super Cool!
I’m hoping I can explain this in less than 1,000 words. OK, Jack was in his therapy session last night, and he was drawing on a piece of paper and then running to look at it in the bathroom mirror. He’d get over there and shout what it was with big-time enthusiasm. The first time, it was “TWO!” and then it was “FIVE!”. Me and his therapist noticed the numbers were written backwards, so we watched to him, because we thought he was intentionally writing the numbers in reverse so they would show up correctly in the mirror.
Sure enough, he drew a “10” on a doodle pad and ran over to look at it in the mirror and shout “TEN!” Wow … I was shocked! I had a camera nearby, so I snapped a quick picture. I love the expression on his face … he’s so overwhelmed with excitement!
The 1 wasn’t just a straight line — he made the little whatever you call it at the top go in the right direction. And if you look at the words above the number, they say “Doodle Time” and you can tell they go in reverse. There’s no question he knew what he was doing, and that actually takes some pretty good thinking to make that happen. Beneath it all, he’s a sharp kid. We’re going to keep working our butts off to chip off that outer layer!
I LOVE this picture!
That’s All For Today!
Have a great Monday (if possible). It’s been fun writing about my nice weekend, but tomorrow I’ll be talking about why a nice weekend is so difficult for me.
Great photo.
Oh my gosh, that photo of Jack is so great. I love his expression!
Without a doubt one of the coolest photos I’ve seen in a long time. I definitely give Jack a 10 on his 10. Congrats, Jack!
The picture of Jack looking in the mirror had me cracking up.
This has been the best blog you’ve had yet!!!!
Mom S
The number thing is pretty impressive. When I was in 1st grade, I drew 2’s and 5’s backwards, and couldn’t even tell which way was right or wrong.