The 43

I'm running the Wasatch Back again this year, and I'm starting to get really jazzed about it. Just one little issue -- I'm not in the same shape I was last year, and I'm a little nervous about it. Last year, I seemed to just have more time to run and the weather wasn't quite as unpredictable. Then I was slowed down by a cold last week. I made it out tonight and ran 60 minutes -- which is my best this year and I was happy about it and felt pretty good -- but now I'm worried I'm accidentally tapering a few weeks too early after not getting out in several days. I was a little lighter last year too, and though I've lost about eight pounds since Easter, I still feel a little slower. (It didn't help that after my hour run, I was so hungry when I got home that I ate a ham and cheese on rye with some chocolate milk. It's a lot of protein, which is good, but more calories than I needed). The van I'm going to be in is filled with more experienced runn...

Littlest is turning 4 on Wednesday, and though this is a happy occasion, it is accompanied by our last truly psychotic week of the school year. Besides getting the house ready for 10 4-year-olds on Saturday for his party, there's swim lessons and soccer and car repairs and playgroups and Little Gym and ordering a cake and work and co-oping at school and ... well, you get the point. I'm amazed and a little scared about how fast this school year went, but a small part of me thinks summer can't get here fast enough.

I love our DVR, even though it's ultimately nagging and nagging me. The DVR is wonderful to record shows that I wouldn't otherwise get a chance to watch live (and you can forget about setting the VCR anymore; I don't think I even remember how). However, I am so backed up on shows I haven't gotten to, it's frustrating -- I just don't have time to watch all this (especially when the DVR is catching more and more shows I've set to record each week). Right now, I have two episodes of "Friday Night Lights" (from November), six of "Caprica," two of "V" (I'm at least catching up), at least four hours of tornado specials, some MLB Network stuff and Ken Burns' whole national parks miniseries just waiting to be viewed. The frustrating part is, I don't want to watch this much TV, and I certainly don't have time every night to camp out and watch 2-3 hours of shows. So I procrastinate to avoid procrastinating in other areas o...

I was at the park with Eldest yesterday and felt a twinge of jealousy -- age 6 is definitely a cool age. We got to the park, and almost immediately, Eldest met a kid his age and became friends. He does this so naturally: Finding a new playmate quickly and easily. I think this other boy might have been about 8 but was Eldest's height (kind of an advantage of him being so tall). The two played the entire time we were at the park. I was sitting on the bench watching them wander away from the playground to a small grassy embankment above the exercise playground (this park is actually the playgrounds of the grade school near us). The two of them were exploring, making up an elaborate story in their pretend play that also involved clues (Eldest brought two of these "clues" home -- parts of a broken Frisbee). Besides being impressed again how easy Eldest makes friends, I couldn't help but be a little nostalgic. Eldest's imagination was on overdrive, but it was purely ima...