Mud Run

We did the USMC Mud Run in Columbia SC last weekend. The kids did a race designed for their age called the pollywog and I have video’s for anyone that wants to see them. Just send me an e-mail and I’ll send you the links. I didn’t make the video’s public since this is my first experience with youtube. I uploaded the pictures to picasa if you want to see them.

The Mud Run was 4.2 miles long and had 32 obstacles that included everything I could think of. Some of them were a rope swing, 5, 10, and 15 foot walls, the grinder, the weaver, and countless hills and other logs at various heights and requirements to get through mud. It was a lot of fun and had to be completed with a four person team. I was on a team with some guys from church and LaDonna was on a women’s team with some girls from church.

Anyway, I’m going to start updating the blog again and there may be short entries, but I’ll try and be more frequent.

Tiling

Our kitchen floor was coming up where the contractors didn't glue it well. So, LaDonna had been pushing to install tile in the kitchen. I started ripping everything out and moving in to various parts of the house. LaDonna and the kids went to Kinston to get out of the chaos of living with everything scattered and no oven. Some neighbors came over on Friday afternoon to help lay the tile and we finished up around 9:00. I decided to surprise LaDonna and do the bathroom while she was gone. So, I started ripping everything out of the bathroom around 9:15 on Friday and finished up at 11:00. I laid the tile in the bathroom on Saturday afternoon and finished around 4:00. Of course, I took Sunday off and LaDonna and the kids came home Sunday night. On Monday, I grouted the kitchen and the bathroom. We moved all the appliances back in the kitchen on Tuesday and finished the bathroom on Wednesday. I still need to install quarter round and add one more coat of sealer to the grout. I'm happy with how it turned out and couldn't have done it without my neighbors. There are some pictures on my picasa site and the link is http://picasaweb.google.com/Mark21900/051710KitchenFloor?authkey=Gv1sRgCNrSjYPK5NfsowE&feat=directlink

Baby Snake

I was out in our front yard today and must have scared this little snake as I walked past. He tried to make a run for it, but I caught him. Our kids love torturing any insect/animal they can for as long as we'll let them. Several have lost their lives from being dropped or kept in a plastic container too long. We have one not so smart (because I'm not supposed to say "stupid" anymore) lizard that Lonna pulled part of his tail off last summer, yet we still see him hanging around often and all but asking to be caught and tortured.

Anyway, back to the snake. The kids weren't home when I caught him, but I took this video of Bryce playing/torturing him when he got home.




Update: Lonna came home from school and the first time she held it, the snake wrapped it's body around her fingers and she screamed. Once I assured her it scared and was trying not to get dropped, she was okay and loved holding it.

Some other information about the snake - It's about a foot long, not venomous, and is called a Ringneck Snake.

http://www.herpsofnc.org/herps_of_NC/snakes/Diapun/Dia_pun.html

Triathlon #2

Last Saturday I did another triathlon. It was a 750 meter swim, 15 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. I did it with two other guys from the ward and LaDonna brought our kids and the other familes came as well to cheer us on. My goal time was 1 hour and 40 minutes and I comleted it in 1 hour 38 minutes. This was the first open water swim and it lived up to all the rumors I had heard about open swims. I got kicked, I kicked a couple people, I got crowded out and I cut off some people. The swim was quite the event alone and I was tired coming out of the lake, but on to my favorite event, the bike. My transition was a little slow and I even took the time to put on some carmex, like chapstick, with sunblock. The bike course had more hills than was advertised and there were a some tight turns that caused at least two accidents. I finished right about the time I expected and knew I had a shot at my goal. I started the run and felt okay. I was trying to catch the two guys in my ward since they started six minutes before me. I thought I may catch them on the bike, but I never saw them. I caught the first guy about halfway through the first loop. As I came to the finish of the first loop, LaDonna told me that the other guy had just passed. I looked for him and saw him in front of me, but didn't really have the energy to catch him. So, I just kept the same pace. About a third of the way into the loop he started to slow down and I caught him pretty fast. I talked to him for a minute and then kept going. This was the prefect distance for me right now since I could barely swim the required distance a couple weeks before the race. I do want to keep working on my swimming and see if I can do the Olympic distance next year. Right now, I'm going to keep training and am thinking about doing a 10 mile trail run in November. I'll keep riding my bike with a guy in the neighborhood and hopefully keep swimming at least twice a week. There are pictures of the event on my picasa site if you're interested.

Ozzy

Ozzy is the name of our new dog. We caved to the pressure of the kids, mainly Bryce. We have a plan that I'll share when I have some more time the reason the time was right. But, for now, Ozzy is a Rotti/Australian Shepard mix. He is 3 and a half months old and is about 25 pounds. There are pictures on picasa if you're interested.