The Weatherman

First, the injury update.  During the marathon I noticed that I had some left calf pain but the pain had dissipated by the end of the race and was completely gone for 2 days after the race.  Once the initial muscle soreness left me, I noticed that my left calf was strained.  About two days after that my Achilles Tendon became very sore and a little swollen.  Well, over a week later and I’m still suffering from Achilles Tendonitis (my own self-diagnosis).  I’m using a lot of ice, some Aleve, and now Arnica (thanks Mike).  If the pain/swelling doesn’t subside this week, I’ll either go for acupuncture or a doctor.  This is keeping me from running, so I’ve joined a gym and started some cross training (which is probably a smart thing to do anyway).

July 4th was Nate’s birthday and it was absolutely beautiful up here.  My parents, sister, and brother-in-law were town for the weekend so they got a good dose of a nice Seattle summer weekend.  The highlights from the weekend included an Argosy boat cruise through the locks, the West Seattle 4th of July Children’s Parade, and of course Nate’s Birthday party.  We had a few of the PEPs families over plus John/Kim and family for a BBQ.

This weekend we have a Sounders game and West Seattle Summer Fest – pretty exciting.

The BubbleMan was in the Junction tonight doing a bubble show.  Zach is right there in the middle of it all.

Watching the BubbleMan.

Nate on his birthday.

Zach helping with the gift opening.

Nate likes his Handy Manny toolbox.

Illegal fireworks we can see from our house.  Yes, those are not legal!

One more shot of the illegal fireworks.

Yeah, I know, I haven’t written much in a while…nothing on Facebook either.  No real excuse…just busy.  Zach and I took a trip down to the Bay Area to see my grandparents and the following weekend we drove down to Eugene in the new car.  Oh yeah, we traded in the Acura TSX for a Honda Pilot.  I must say, the Honda Pilot is pretty awesome vehicle – probably my favorite so far of any car we’ve owned.  Steph drives the Pilot as the minivan is mine 

I also performed my longest run ever of 18.5 miles at the end of May.  That was longest until my marathon on June 27th, which is coming up very quickly.  I’m in the final preparation stages…all that means is I need to taper off in my running – the last two weeks are all about recovery and healing.  I can do that.

Here are some photos from our recent trip to Eugene.

Not often do you get a 2 year old to pose as well as Nate did.  Great shot of Nate and Auntie Jan.

Nate is a hangin.  We took the boys to a bounce gymastics facility where they had open play time.  This really wears them out.

Oops, Nate fell down.

A mid-air Zach.  It’s tough to get in-focus shots of Zach since he moves so quickly.

Grumpy Nate on the swing.

Goin down the big slide.  Check out that smile!

A pano of the Tokyo skyline..I forgot to put this up a while back. Click on it for a bigger version.

In other news, we took the boys to see Up this weekend at the movie theatre.  Aside from both kids wanting to sit on mommy’s lap, they were both very quiet and good in the theatre.  We made it through the whole film.  I think Steph was the most excited as she finally made it to the movies – it’s been a while.

Yesterday was nice also.  I finally had a long run where it didn’t rain.  Plus it was the first time I’ve run 13 miles.  It hurt but I feel good today.

Today we went to Seward Park in morning and I did some gardening (weeding, composting, mowing) in the afternoon.  I also did this while downing a rum and coke (good gardening drink), a few Bob’s, and finally some wine.  Yeah, I was little drunk, but have since recovered to write up this blog post.

Here are some photos from our trip to the park.

Nate pretty happy throwing rocks.

Let’s throw a stick now.

Diggin for that special meal.

Look out Tim Lincecum.

You tell me.

Yes, Spring does happen in Seattle.

Nate isn’t always happy.

A nice morning at the park.

The other night Nate had one of those 20 month old moments…you know, crying for no reason for 30 minutes.  Anyway, it wore him out and he fell asleep on the couch.  I captured this photo of Nate right before trying out for the Stray Cats.

That is one tired boy.

Of course, I need to throw up a photo of Zacher playing around the house…what a ham.

Zach posing for the camera.

After a snowy weekend we’ve had some very cold weather in Seattle – lows in the 20s and highs and 30s and 40s.  But, on the good side, we’ve had some very clear weather.  This morning I captured this panorama on my way to work.

View of the Olympics from West Seattle (click to see larger image).

We are supposed to get rain this weekend.  No other plans but to go running.

The first Seattle Sounders FC game is on Thursday and we have season tickets – can’t wait.

This weekend we had a planned 80 minute run for Team N Training.  We met at Golden Gardens (in North Seattle) at 8am.  On the way up the temperature dropped from 40 degrees to 36 degrees and it started snowing.  Fortunately, the snow stopped for the duration of the run.  I ended up running for 90 minutes which was probably about 30 minutes too long since I was just getting over a nasty chest cold.

As for the snow, it snowed some on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday…just a little each day – enough to cover everything with a thin layer.  Tonight the temps are supposed to drop down to the mid 20s (already 32 outside) so things should be nice and frozen in the morning.

I also picked up a new camera bag.  I had the following requirements:

* good balance between weight and size

* carry a laptop

* carry my camera body with a 70-200 f/4 lens, 17-55 f/2.8, 50mm f/1.8, flash unit, accessories, ipod, and plenty of other little storage.

* meet carry-on requirements

* provide a tripod holder as an option

I first picked up the Tenba Shootout small backpack.  What a little beast.  This thing had some girth.  It was pretty thick, heavy, and not very comfortable for me.  On top of that, my Dell D410 (small) laptop did not fit into the laptop opening.  So I returned that bag.

It was now between a Kata R103 and a Crumpler (either the Sinking Barge, Customary Barge, or Whicky and Cox).  Glazer’s Camera had the R103 and the Sinking Barge.  Both were very comfortable.  The R103 met all of my requirements whereas the Sinking Barge lacked enough camera space.  So I went with the Kata R103.

I’m very happy with the bag.  The camera gear I listed above easily fits in the bag – I could even add my 12-24mm f/4 if needed or I could swap out the 70-200mm for my 300mm f/4.  Laptop and power brick easily slip into the laptop holder.  It has plenty of accessory pouches (FYI, one is hidden inside large lid) for stuff like charger, cables, ipod, headphones, etc.  I still have room remaining for other small items and I could even fit a paperback book in there.

As for the rest of the weekend…it was pretty quiet.  Since the temp never went above 40, we stayed indoors for the most part.  Nate went to the camera store twice with me, whereas Zach was happiest at home with mommy.

Let’s talk about potty training…Zach has finally turned the corner and it’s all about candy.  Everytime he goes potty he gets candy as a treat…not a bad deal.  He has figured out that going 3 to 4 times every evening gets him lots of candy.  Uh-Oh!  Now we are using fruit and nothing to get him to use the potty.  Anyway, he’s going to the potty on his own without prompting so I’m hoping we have turned the corner on peeing while awake.  Next step:  poop on the potty!

Jan and Mike came up last weekend to visit their nephews.  Aside from lots of drinking (I think Mike and I set a new record) we spent a very nice day at Seward Park.  Seward is a park on Lake Washington – basically a peninsula that sticks out into the lake.  It’s covered in forest and has a very nice path around the rim of the park.  Afterwards we had brunch at Charlestown Cafe – yummy!  Later that evening the adults went for drinks at Shadowland and dinner at Jak’s – yes, we took a cab home.

Paul got to go to the Seahawks game on Sunday (club seats on the 34 yard line).  All I can say is that Qwest is the loudest stadium I’ve ever been in!  But, the Seahawks still lost….Yippeee!  My Niners did win.

This weekend we are getting our kitchen and dining room painted.  I’m also hoping to do some yard work tomorrow as it shouldn’t be raining.

Looking at the lake through some leaves.

Cool shot using 300mm lens.

A motley crew walking toward Zach and I.

Always happy throwing rocks in the water.

Nate playing at the lake (I really like this shot).

All of the photos were taken with my 300mm – very sharp and it opens up a lot of possibilities when photographing.

On Saturday, the West Seattle Junction businesses hand out candy for a few hours.  So every year we get the boys together for some photos and a round of trick or treating.  Zach is a little speedster so we end up getting separated from the group pretty quickly, but we made it to all of the businesses and both boys were good during the walk.  Here is a quick shot of Nate and Zach.

Nate had taken about a 40 minute nap before this…He was really tired.  In fact, when we got home, he slept for another 3 hours – very unlike him.

On Saturday morning and Sunday morning, we worked with Zach on peeing in the potty.  He went through 3 pairs of pants/underwear on Saturday, lots of time on the potty, but no success.  On Sunday, we skipped the pants/underwear and let him go naked.  HE FINALLY DID IT!!!  He peed in the potty.  This was his first time ever.  Later he wet himself and peed on the floor…but, no matter, we’ve made progress.  Daycare is working with him as well so we’ll just continue the training next weekend during the day.

Yesterday I got out for a few hours to go on a hike.  I went up to Twin Falls State Park outside of North Bend.  The trail runs along the south fork of the Snoqualmie River.  I took some shots along the way.

Large waterfall.

View through the trees of the river.

View of the upper falls.

Looking for Brad Pitt.

It was nice to get out on a trail for a few hours – can’t wait to take the boys.  Actually, lots of people were taking their toddlers and infants on this trail.  I think Zach would tire out – we probably need to do some practice runs on the trail along the Cedar River.

Yesterday we made our annual PEPS group migration to the Remlinger Farms pumpkin patch in Fall City.  The drive out was beautiful with the leaves changing, some broken clouds, some sun…perfect mix.

The pumpkins were all looking good this year – not many rotten pumpkins and good assortment of healthy pumpkins.  Many different sizes to choose from.  Zach found his pumpkin pretty quick – that only means we had to carry it around the rest of the time.  We also ran through the corn maze with all of the boys.

Now for the photos.

Children of the Corn (err Pumpkins – corn is behind them).

Hammin it up with his HMB pumpkin hat.

Tractor and hay bale trailer that takes you to the pumpkin patch.

Zach playing in the mud…I mean…looking for that perfect pumpkin.

Nate found his pumpkin.  Daddy said that he could have it if he could carry it back.  Nate didn’t get a pumpkin.

Morning farm shot.

After the pumpkin patch we invaded Fall City Cafe.  Props to them for quickly accommodating 9 adults, 5 toddlers, and 3 infants.

So I’ve been a bit busy with work trips over the last two weeks.  From Sept 16th to Sept 18th I did a quick trip to Baltimore.  I had no time to tour around as I arrived late on the 16th and flew out at 6:15am on the 18th.  We stayed at Henderson’s Wharf and had dinner at the Black Olive (highly recommend it).  Here is a shot of the neighborhood near our hotel – very Boston-like.

I came home for a short stay and flew to Ireland on the 20th.  I left on the 9:45pm British Airways flight to London-Heathrow and then took Aer Lingus over to Dublin.  This was my first flight on BA and I was very impressed.  The only problem with the flight was the fact I drank too much before hand.  Not a bright idea.

So before I left the house that evening I had a couple of glasses of wine with Steph.  I had to check in bags at least 2 hours before departure so I had 2 double gin and tonics in the hotel bar.  You would think I would stop at that point.  Nope, I had two of the little bottles of wine on the plane.  Yep, I was pretty toasty…and really dehydrated.  I made it through the flight but not without some discomfort.

I worked in Dublin from Monday to Thursday.  We met with two companies while there.  The first company setup a private party at the Guiness Brewery – including a private tour.

After dinner we had drinks in Temple Bar at Gogarty’s where we could listen to some traditional Irish music.

On another night we had dinner with many of our Dublin coworkers.  I also went running one day in Phoenix Park – had to get some exercise while out there.  On Friday I flew to London for a day.  Steph and I had spent 8 days in London back in 2004 so this wasn’t my first visit.  It was absolutely beautiful in London so I decided to spend most of my time outstide.  I walked through Parliament Square (think Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Stree), to Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, and then down to Thames and over to Tower Bridge.  I probably put about 4 to 5 miles of walking in during the afternoon.

So why did I go to London if I’ve been there?  Purely to meet up with George (good friend from College) and her family (Dermid and Max).  Fortunately I was able to see them Saturday morning before departing for home.  George and Dermid have a wonderful 4 month old name Max.  I got a ton of smiles – he was a charming little chap!

George lives in Richmond – suburb southwest of London (not far from Heathrow).  It is the greenest community in London with many parks.  Here are some shots along the Thames.

The flight home was uneventful – just long.  It was great to see Steph and boys – it is very tough to leave them for so long.  Today was went to Grady’s one year birthday party so Zach and Nate had on their birthday clothes – they even posed for some photos before we left.

BTW, these might be the first pictures of them together where someone isn’t crying!