A video to watch, a new book to read, and only like 3 weeks to go!

Sorry for the missed update last night. Do you just ever have one of those days? I don't know why but yesterday was like that for me - just sucked for some reason. Work was OK but just got home and didn't feel good. Not sick or anything, just tired and grumpy and all I wanted to do was go to bed. So I did. I didn't run, didn't blog, didn't do much of anything except lay in bed, watch a couple shows on TV. An all out no excuses lazy night.

Good thing I worked out on Sunday then huh? You can see my run/walk in the graph above. Ran and walked a couple miles, then spent a bunch of time walking at a steep incline at a pretty high speed which was a good workout for the muscles that I'm sure I'll be using quite a bit on St. John. I'm glad Ashley went with me on Sunday because she really convinced me to go and although it wasn't a super great run or anything I was on the treadmill for just about an hour. The whole time I was watching "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives" on the Food Network and just watching all of these amazing (yet almost disgusting in their greasiness and size) burgers, ribs, and other great fattening yet delicious food. I guess this motivated me - but surprisingly got home and didn't end up eating too much. Otherwise we had a good weekend, got a LOT done around the house (still lots to do!), and went to the Batavia Chamber of Commerce awards dinner where Ashley's company (Batavia Enterprises, her family run business) won one of the big awards - so that was nice. Also, Ashley's dad bought both a heart monitor w/ watch and Bulls tickets in the silent auction and promptly gave them to me which was extremely nice!! Thanks Mr. D! I'll have to try out the heart monitor this week and let you all know how it works.

So like I said yesterday was a "nothing" day which I really can't have too many more of considering how soon the race is! Today I decided to get my workout in over lunch, and decided I'd swim instead of run. I headed over the the Y and was pretty much the only one in the pool. Swimming is hard! I mean I have always been an OK swimmer and everything but I've always just swam around for fun. When you are just in there doing laps you get tired really fast! I would do 2 pool lengths and then have to rest for a long time. I used this time to do some stretching and other exercises though, and overall think I got a pretty good workout in. Probably ruined it w/ some pizza for dinner though (damn food!!!! you are my arch nemisis!). I'll get back to the treadmill tomorrow night and will be sure to update. Was looking like I could run outside until about 7 p.m. tonight. Currently I'm looking out the window in our office at an all out winter blizzard w/ crazy winds. So crazy in fact that there is a pile of snow in our garage just from a tiny crack that is in the door.

So I logged on to www.on-stjohn.com today to find a great interview with Homer Hickam. He is a really good writer and a really interesting guy that lives on St. John much of the time. He wrote the very good book "Rocket Boys," based on his life growing up in a small coal-mining town. He and his friends started experimenting with rocketry and he became so knowledgeable and educated in the field that he went on to work for NASA, building rockets, training astronauts and the like. The movie October Sky was based on "Rocket Boys" and is also very good. Anyway, this also interested me because my parents at one point had struck up some email correspondence with Mr. Hickam and had really enjoyed his responses. They even took my grandparents down to the annual "October Sky Festival" in West Virginia (I think), and had a chance to meet Homer, who shares a remarkable amount in common with my own grandfather (both science writers, familiar with space travel and astronauts, etc.). They apparently had a great time and found Mr. Hickam to be a very friendly and interesting man. Anyway, after hearing all this from my parents and reading "Rocket Boys" it was fun to see the interview posted - check it out. He's got a new book out, "Red Helmet," which apparently begins and ends on St. John! I just logged on to the local library website and placed a hold on one of the first copies that comes in. Hopefully I'll get it in time to take down on our trip! Must be pretty good as the reviews so far on Amazon are all 5-star.

One more thing for you all to check out tonight. I got this in an email today (yes, I know sounds sketchy!), but apparently the band/guy known as Five For Fighting (a great musician AND good hockey name) is helping to raise some money for autism research, etc. All you need to do is visit this link, and check out the video to help:

http://whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/

Hey, if you're reading this you're not doing something else - take a second to help out this cause by watching a video - now THAT is easy.

Well.. only like 3 weeks left now and I can barely wait to take off for St. John. Brett called today and said he talked to a nice lady down at Low Key Watersports in Cruz Bay and is setting things up for us to go on a beginner dive Monday after the race so that should be lots of fun. He said after talking to her he can't wait to get to St. John. Ashley takes off EARLY tomorrow morning for San Diego with her dad. She'll be gone for a WHOLE WEEK! What am I gonna do w/ myself?? Well I guess that will mean lots of extra workouts, housework, and hanging out w/ the pets who will also be missing her like crazy. I LOVE YOU ASHLEY - travel safe and have a great time, I can't wait for you to get home (and you're not even gone yet!).