Valentine’s Blog Soup 2/14/2013

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Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! Here is today’s helping of Blog Soup (r).

  • I know some people who consider Valentine’s Day a bit of a sham holiday, manufactured by the Hallmarks and florists and jewelers of the world to guilt-trip people into buying stuff. So they don’t really celebrate it. And yes, some of them are married. I mostly agree with them. However, we celebrate it anyway. I’m certainly not the best about doing romantic things for my wife, and to me V-Day is a good reminder to cherish my wife throughout the year, not just on holidays.
  • Jenny loves flowers but isn’t too big on chocolates except for certain ones. Reese’s peanut butter cups are always a hit, but she doesn’t like the assorted chocolates that come in the heart-shaped boxes they want you to buy…too many weird and disappointing things hiding inside.
  • To celebrate, Jenny is making us a tasty dinner at home tonight, and then we’re going out Saturday to see the Les Mis movie and enjoy a nice dinner alone. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!)
  • Despite my high hopes for the Cowtown half, I have developed a bit of irritation in my left knee and haven’t run in about two weeks. So I most likely won’t be running Cowtown. Although I hate to admit it, and will smack you if you say “I told you so,” my body doesn’t seem to like the really long distance running. I’ve been fighting minor injury after minor injury for months now – a hip ache, patellar tendon irritation, kneecap irritation, toe joint swelling, and a sprained ankle. Each time something happens, I need to take time off from training, which hinders my progress. It might be time to retire from the half marathon distance and stick to 5Ks and 10Ks. But hey, considering 5 years ago I couldn’t run a quarter mile without terrible knee pain, running a pain-free 10K seems like good progress to me.
  • We are working on plans for this fall and next year regarding work for me and school for the other three of us. Jenny will have clinicals twice a week during all four semesters, some of which could start at 7:00 or even earlier. They could also be on the weekends. Unfortunately, she might not know her schedule until a few weeks ahead of time. This presents a childcare challenge. Both boys will be in school this fall five days a week, Brenden in kindergarten (gulp!) at Bear Creek Elementary and Jonathan still at Colleyville Christian. I’m not sure yet what we will do on her clinical days, but regular class should be covered. For next year, I will probably switch to the 9:00pm-5:00am shift to make sure I get home before she has to leave. Leaving for work at 8:25pm isn’t much fun, but it’s great to get off work at 5:00am and have the road pretty much to yourself.
  • My awesome sister Lisa and I have both learned an important lesson from social media: people want to be entertained, not challenged.
  • Quentin Tarantino’s new film Django Unchained is up for several Oscars. The story of a freed slave turned bounty hunter, it’s part spaghetti western, part revenge tale, part love story, part social commentary, part history lesson, and all Tarantino. Although fascinating and brilliantly acted and filmed, it’s difficult to watch due to its in-your-face racism and brutality. At times I was utterly repulsed by the violence, but at the same time I felt guilty for wanting to shy away from it. The film makes you watch horrifying things that actually happened back in the days of slavery, things that are thankfully no longer part of our daily lives and that are much more convenient to simply forget. So it almost felt like I needed to keep watching to make it real instead of just something I heard in history class.
  • I wonder how many future bookings Carnival will lose over the ongoing Triumph fiasco. On the bright side, this might be a good year to find a deal on Carnival.

Game On

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For Christmas the boys got their first Nintendo Wii games, Mario Party 9 and Just Dance Disney Party. They had played a couple of our old Wii games before (they particularly loved beating the heck out of each other on Wii Sports Resort), so the fam gave them a couple of their own. I added Toy Story Mania shortly thereafter.

Ladies and gentlemen, my sons are gamers, and I love it.

I got my first video game system, an Atari 5200, when I was maybe 6. Jungle Hunt was my game of choice. It was so long ago, the TV I used had a dial to change the channel instead of buttons or one of those new-fangled remotes. Although the systems changed and improved over the years, I’ve been a gamer ever since. Mario and Zelda on Nintendo. SimCity and Super Baseball Simulator 1.000 on SNES. Goldeneye on N64. Grand Theft Auto III and Dragon Quest VIII on PS2. Skyrim and Demon’s/Dark Souls on PS3. So imagine my joy at seeing my sons pick up one of my longest-running hobbies.

No, they aren’t quite ready to smoke you in Call of Duty, but Jonathan is slowly learning the basic concepts of the Wii. Well, OK, sometimes he thinks he’s playing but really isn’t, but give him some time. Brenden, though, is really getting the hang of several of the Mario Party mini-games as well as numerous iPhone games. Now that he’s learning how to read, he doesn’t need as much help with the instructions, either.

Oftentimes Brenden plays alone. Sometimes Jonathan tries to play with him, but I think he’ll be a better gaming buddy in 6-12 months. Sometimes Jenny or I play with Brenden. Once all four of us even played Mario Party at once! It was a bit like heaven combined with a train wreck, but we had a blast. We bought the boys kid-size Wiimotes that fit their hands better than the normal ones and come in bright colors. I’m so excited for them that I stayed up past 4:00am on my night off playing through Mario Party to unlock all the stages for them. I guess that’s the gamer equivalent of staying up all night sewing a dance costume, right?

Although we certainly won’t force them to play, I hope they will maintain their interest as they get older so it can be a way for us to spend time together guy-style: bonding through a shared activity. As they mature, their skills will increase. I will need to go all-out in some cases to beat them. Perhaps someday they will even surpass me, and the Circle of Life (r) will continue.

Their growing interest in gaming also provides another excuse reason to stay on top of things in the gaming world. Brenden and Jonathan surely need a Wii U, don’t they? Gaming is great for hand-eye coordination, problem solving, spatial reasoning, perseverance, and manual dexterity. I’d hate to deny my children any advantage in their development. 😀

Blog Soup 1/26/2013

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Welcome to the first Blog Soup of the new year!

  • I’m on shift 12 of 14 in a row at work. Don’t feel too bad for me, though. I did it to myself. We normally work six shifts in a row followed by a three-day or six-day break. I picked up a trade and a couple of overtime days last weekend, which is why I’m on such a long stretch. It also includes five shifts training a new guy. I am looking forward to some time off next week.
  • Next Thursday I’ll hit my nine-year anniversary in Dispatch. Before I know it, I’ll be having a retirement party and taking my grandchildren to Disney World.
  • I’ve been working on our spring season race calendar. Right now I only have two big events planned, but I might add some smaller events in between. First up is a return to the Cowtown half marathon on Feb 24. As you might recall, Cowtown was my first half marathon last February. I barely missed my goal of finishing under two hours. After a more leisurely and fun half at Disney World earlier this month, I am training hard to break 2:00 next month. I know my body is capable of it. The only question is whether everything will come together to make it happen that day.
  • Our other event is a 100K bike rally near our first house, the Cross Timbers Classic Bike Rally. It starts with a lap on the track at Texas Motor Speedway in north Fort Worth and does a loop through the surrounding area. Jenny and I both signed up for the 100K ride (62 miles). So far our longest ride was 50 miles at Hotter’N Hell back in August, so this one will be a new challenge.
  • I used some Amazon gift cards to get a cool new toy, an iHome rechargeable speaker dock for my iPhone. Why is that cool, you ask? It lets me carry the speaker to any room in the house and listen to my music or Pandora. I’ll mainly use it for listening during a soak in the bathtub (no outlets in the bathtub room) or in the kitchen while hanging out with the kids. It’s maybe a foot wide and has a built-in dock for my iPhone or iPad. For such a small unit, the sound is surprisingly good.
  • Aussie tennis star Samantha Stosur has better arms than I do.
  • I was thrilled by the deep run that young American Sloane Stephens enjoyed at this year’s Australian Open, especially her huge win over Serena Williams. Stephens is developing into a phenomenal player and also seems like a very warm and good-natured person. If she can stay healthy and handle all the pressure, she seems poised to take over as queen of American women’s tennis.
  • I don’t really understand the drama over gun control. The pro-gun people are all worked up because they think the government is trying to take all their guns, which is untrue. The anti-gun people think that tighter gun control laws will keep us safe, which is also untrue. Based on what little I’ve read, the measures being proposed would not have stopped most of the mass shootings from the last 10-20 years. Even if these new measures pass, I doubt they will have much impact. The only way to completely eliminate gun violence in America is to wave a magic wand and make all guns worldwide disappear. Even I don’t think that’s a good idea, even if it were possible.
  • An acquaintance of mine decided to take out $50,000 in student loans to get a master’s in film from a private school in California. Now she can’t find a job but owes nearly $700/month in student loan payments. She set up a crowdfunding site to raise money to pay her loan. Part of me wants to help, but the other part thinks she was unwise to borrow that kind of money to pursue a degree with such questionable marketability. Just thinking that makes me feel old.
  • Screw my man card. I wish I had Lady Gaga tickets for Tuesday.
  • Jonathan had his three-year-old checkup this week. He was very healthy as expected. He measured 90th percentile for both weight (37 lbs) and height (39.5 inches). His language and motor skills are normal. We’re working hard on potty training this weekend. It still amazes me to watch these two grow up.

Happy 3rd Birthday, Jonathan!

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Happy birthday to Jonathan Andrew, who turns 3 today!

A while back, he kept bringing me a red Transformer that turns into a sports car. He could turn it from car to robot just fine but couldn’t figure out how to fold it up and turn it back into a car. So he kept bringing it back to me for help Every. Two. Minutes. Last night, he showed me that he could now do it “all by my ownself.”

It’s amazing to watch these little guys grow up.

Highlights from Disney World 2013

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We survived! Our family trip to Disney World, our first extended family vacation, was both fun and difficult. I’ll cover some of the challenges at the end, but first, here are some of the highlights.

The Boys’ Excitement

We visited Disney World in 2007 for our 5th anniversary and tried the vast majority of the rides and shows, so our focus for this trip was sharing the parks with our sons. As we’d hoped, they had a blast! The crowds were light, so they were able to meet many, many characters and do pretty much every ride and show that interested them. Everything at the parks and our resort was new to them, so our stay was a week-long journey of discovery. Seeing them shoot a bow and arrow for the first time, marvel at the Lion King show and the Pixar parade, meet Buzz and Ariel, kiss Merida, play in the Dinoland and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playgrounds, and ARRRRRR with pirates reminded me what the parks were all about.

Brenden’s favorites included Test Track at Epcot, the play areas, the pirate cruise, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Tom Sawyer’s Island at Magic Kingdom, the resort’s Finding Nemo themed swimming pool, and riding on the bus, preferably in the middle seat in the back row. Jonathan’s favorites included Soarin’ and The Seas with Nemo and Friends at Epcot, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and the People Mover at Magic Kingdom, TriceraTop Spin at Animal Kingdom, both play areas, and hitting on any nearby princesses.

Cars Family Suite at Art of Animation

Last year Disney opened a new value resort called Art of Animation just across Hourglass Lake from Pop Century. We reserved a Cars family suite, which included a separate master bedroom, breakfast area with a table that converted to a bed, living area with a sleeper sofa, two bathrooms, two TVs, microwave, and mini-fridge, plus Cars theming everywhere. As expected, the room was amazing. It provided plenty of space and gave us the chance to have time for ourselves to relax and plan the next day without keeping the boys awake. The boys loved their “secret beds” as well as the Cars decorations both in the room and throughout our section of the resort. Check this photo album for pics of the resort. The resort overall was beautiful and well-designed. I especially loved the airline checkin service, which allowed us to check in for our flight and turn over our four bags and two strollers right there at the resort instead of lugging them around. After a tiring week and a half marathon for me that morning, dropping off the bags lifted a huge weight from our shoulders.

New Fantasyland

Disney has spent quite a bit of time and money remodeling Fantasyland. It won’t be complete until the new roller coaster opens in 2014, but the Beauty and the Beast and Little Mermaid sections are open and look great. Jenny got to meet Gaston (“If I sweat on you, there’s a fee”) outside his new tavern, and we all got to meet Ariel in her new grotto, neither of which we met last time. Both characters were perfectly cast. The new Voyage of the Little Mermaid ride, our primary destination on Day 1 at Magic Kingdom, does an amazing job with animatronics on the characters inside. Rides like this have come a long way from the days of the Spelunker’s Cave at Six Flags Over Texas that I enjoyed as a kid. Beast’s castle sits atop the new Be Our Guest restaurant, which offers a tasty-sounding medieval-style menu but was always too crowded for us to try. Maybe next time.

Disney Transportation

We rented a car last time and were planning to this time, but our friends talked us into trying the Disney bus system instead. We’re very glad they did because it saved us over $200 and relieved us from having to lug two carseats through the airport. Disney’s Magical Express service took us and our bags to and from the airport, and the busses carried us between our resort and the parks with very little hassle. The only times we had any significant wait came at the end of the day when many guests were leaving at the same time, but even then it wasn’t too bad and saved us from having to walk deep into a parking lot to search for our car. Even better, it’s all free.

Garden Grocer

We wanted to eat breakfast in our room for a variety of reasons – healthier food, less trouble, lower cost. A nearby grocery store called Garden Grocer lets you order food and drinks online and delivers them to your resort, where resort staff can take them straight to your room. So upon checkin, we found bags of groceries in our room filled with fresh fruit, bagels, hard apple cider, milk, cheese, and more. No, it wasn’t cheap, but it definitely saved us some money versus $25-30 for breakfast in the resort food court, and it was much easier than trying to eat there with two preschoolers.

Monsieur Paul

To celebrate our anniversary, we enjoyed an unbelievable dinner at Monsieur Paul in the France region of Epcot. Despite my forgetting four semesters’ worth of French and being embarrassingly unable to speak to our server in his native language, we enjoyed one of the best meals we’ve ever tasted from a table overlooking the World Showcase lake. French red wine, beef tenderloin, white truffle mashed potatoes, orange souffle, escargot, and more provided a welcome change from the pizza and french fries we’d been eating in the parks with the boys. They also noticed our “Happy Anniversary” buttons and wrote the greeting in chocolate on our dessert plates.

Disney World Half Marathon

I covered this race in my previous post.

Other Fun Experiences

We met up with my cousin Bryan, his wife April, and their daughter Breanna for dinner at Epcot’s Tutto Italia the night we arrived. They had been at Disney World all week and were leaving the next day, so I’m glad we got to share a meal with them and get some Disney pointers. Unfortunately, the boys weren’t quite in the mood for an upscale Italian dinner after spending all day in cars, airplanes, airports, and busses. But it was still fun to hang out a bit.

We got to meet LOTS of characters, including the Big 5 (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto) both in the parks and at Chef Mickey’s for breakfast. Other scores included Buzz and Woody, Merida, Cinderella, Aurora, Rapunzel, Phineas and Ferb, Ariel, Gaston, Mike Wazowski, and Lightning McQueen and Mater (sort of). And that’s not including the ones I met during the race. We bought the PhotoPass Plus service to get digital rights to all the official Disney photos that their pro photographers took. It wasn’t cheap, but we obtained dozens of great shots that way, including many we wouldn’t have gotten as well or at all without it. Here are links to all of our photo albums:

On our last night we took the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage from Contemporary to the Seven Seas Lagoon to watch the Wishes fireworks show. The boys were acting crazy, so it was a bit stressful for us, but the idea was great and we did enjoy it. We gathered in a conference room for a party beforehand with music, cake, snacks, and drinks plus the chance to take pictures with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Then we boarded our vessel and sailed out for the show. Our pirate captain learned it was our anniversary, so he had the other passengers sing “Kiss the Girl” for us while we danced in the aisle during the voyage.

Challenges

As you parents can imagine, spending a week at Disney World with a four-year-old boy and a two-year-old boy can be a bit stressful, especially with boys as active as ours. Despite the relatively low crowds and short wait times, it was still difficult to get them to act nicely in line and to stay quiet and remain in their respective beds in the hotel. We had a few instances where one of them said they wanted to ride or do something only to change his mind once we walked over to get in line. They are the kinds of challenges you’d expect with boys this age in a high-stimulation, high-structure, low-sleep environment like this. Honestly, looking back, I’m a bit surprised they did as well as they did, especially on the days when we rolled the dice and stayed at the park all day instead of returning to the room for a post-lunch nap. We probably would’ve had an easier time if we’d waited a year or two before attempting such an ambitious trip. However, we did enjoy the trip, and the boys had an absolute blast and are still talking about it. We’ll be back, just not tomorrow like Jonathan requested.

2013 Disney World Half Marathon

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I started alone, like I do for most races, except this time the alarm went off at 2:30am in a hotel room. My wife lay beside me, my children in the next room at the Art of Animation resort. (gotta love those family suites) I tried my best not to wake them as I ate a quick breakfast and gathered my gear.

Getting There

As I left our building around 3:15am, I saw another runner walking toward the main entrance where a bus waited to pick us up. Then a couple emerged. No one was out there except the crazy people who chose to get up ridiculously early to run this race and pay ridiculous amounts of money for the privilege of exercising. It feels less crazy when I know I’m not alone. The lobby revealed several more runners, all surprisingly awake and seemingly resolved to do great things.

I emerged from the lobby and saw a line of over 100 runners waiting to board at least four busses to the starting area. I had no idea so many of the guests at our resort were running this morning. The lure of the race drew us out like hipsters to an Apple sale. The wait to board wasn’t long thanks to the plethora of busses, and soon enough we arrived at the staging area outside Epcot.

Staging

The staging area was massive, and soon I learned why: about 25,000 people were running the half marathon that morning. The American Airlines Center only holds around 20,000. Disney must have secured every bus and every port-a-potty in Central Florida to support this race. I’d never been involved in a race anywhere near its size. The sheer numbers produced lots of energy but also lots of logistical challenges. First we mingled in one holding area, and then they moved us to another holding area lined on two sides with perhaps 100 port-a-potties. Even with that many, they still had a line to use them. After waiting there for a while, we began a trek to the starting corrals of at least half a mile, maybe more. With that many people and a few narrow points in the path, that short trek took about 45 minutes. The noobs in the crowd like me didn’t know whether there were any port-a-potties at the starting line, so I was starting to kick myself for drinking that extra bottle of water before the race. Numerous men and a few women did the Walk of Shame to the edge of a nearby forest where they could pee one last time before the start. I might or might not have been one of them.

Start

Finally we reached the starting corrals and get into position. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy wore running gear on a distant stage next to the starting line. I stood in the first corral (this race had lots of walkers and run-walkers, apparently, because I’m not terribly fast at this distance), and I was still maybe 100 yards from the line. Did I mention this race was huge? Fireworks lit off as each corral started, which was a really nice touch. After a couple of minutes, I finally reached the starting line around 5:35am. Game on.

As usual, the first mile was really crowded and slow. As with any situation with lots of traffic, such as a busy highway, it’s difficult to go much faster than the people around you and a bit dangerous to go much slower. But unlike other races I’ve done, the congestion remained to some extent for the rest of the race, especially in a few sections where the course narrowed. Plus the organizers placed numerous Disney characters along the course, and many people stopped for pictures. Disney races are about fun and the experience of running in the parks and seeing the characters, not about posting a personal best time. So I expected to finish 15-30 minutes slower than my previous half marathon (Cowtown in Feb 2012).

Here are some of the pictures that definitely make up for my significantly slower pace in this race:

Pictures from my 2013 Disney World Half Marathon

First Characters

The first characters I saw were Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Barbosa from Pirates of the Caribbean. They even had a ship. Those who wanted to pose with them formed a line. Then we could have a Disney cast member take a picture with our cameras or simply let the official Brightroom race photographer take it. To keep the line moving, you only got one picture and then had to move on. I don’t remember waiting more than a few minutes for any character. Next came Chip and Dale next to the speedway along with a race car and a beautiful yellow Lamborghini. I decided not to wait in that line. A small but significant detail hung over me throughout the race: I had to finish soon enough to get back to the hotel, shower, change, finish packing, check in for our flight from the hotel, and get to the airport shuttle by 10:00am. So I would have to skip a few of the characters.

Patches of fog hung over various parts of the course as we ran, adding both beauty and spookiness to the atmosphere. (or maybe I’d just spent too much time in The Haunted Mansion that week) I stopped periodically for pics of the runners and the course as well.

Around mile 5 or 6 we reached Magic Kingdom, the highlight of the race for me. Rather than being quiet and deserted like I’d expected, the course was lined with cheering spectators with cowbells, clappers, and signs along with Disney cast members who were happy to take a picture for you. Running in the park so early in the morning with so much support was indescribably cool. The rides weren’t running, but everything was lit up including Cinderella’s Castle. I stopped for pics with Buzz Lightyear in Tomorrowland, Ariel and Belle and Beast in Fantasyland, and Jessie and Bullseye in Frontierland. I also saw Aurora and the Prince from Sleeping Beauty but didn’t stop for a pic. The course took us down Main Street, through Tomorrowland, back through the castle, through Frontierland, and then out through a behind-the-scenes area. Except for a brief stretch through Epcot at the end, this was the only section of the course that’s actually inside a park. Most of the course is on the various roads that connect the parks and hotels to each other.

The Toll

During the first half, I felt pretty good with no pain and decent stamina. But the second half was a different story. I’d spent the week prior at Disney World with my wife and two preschool-age boys, an interesting experience that I’ll blog about separately. (looking back, planning this race for the final day of our vacation wasn’t my brightest move) I was physically and emotionally drained, and I’d only gotten about 3 1/2 hours of sleep Friday night. Plus I hadn’t been able to train as well as I’d planned due to injury and illness. The temperature was in the 60s, which isn’t terrible for running, but with the high Florida humidity made it difficult to perform at my peak. All of these factors caught up with me in the final 6 miles of the race. I kept going, but moving fast became harder, and little aches started popping up in various parts of my legs. It wasn’t as bad as the final few miles of my first half marathon, but still enough to slow me down.

The End

As I reached the final few miles, I stopped for pics with a Green Army Man from Toy Story and Phineas and Ferb, two of the boys’ favorite characters from Disney Jr. I passed by Mary Poppins and Jafar from Aladdin and maybe one other. I stopped for a few more course pics. Some of the local schools sent their bands to play for us on the course, which added some nice music and energy to the race. Enthusiastic spectators continued to pop up in various places, particularly the ones that were easily accessible. Even though they don’t know your name, it’s still nice to have people cheering you on.

We climbed a loooooooong on-ramp and and a loooooong overpass. Finally, the giant golf-ball-looking thing at Epcot called Spaceship Earth came into view, and I knew that, barring a very poorly timed injury, I was going to make it. The miles grew harder and harder, but I pressed on. We entered Epcot through a behind-the-scenes area (I think) and then emerged in Future World to see dozens of cast members cheering us on. The last mile went through the middle of Future World, around Spaceship Earth, and around the fountain, stopping just short of the lake and World Showcase before turning back toward the giant ball. At this point it hit me – I had survived our vacation (it was fun but difficult) and survived this race. This was only the second time I’d ever raced this distance after years of battling asthma as a kid and and leg problems as an adult, and I was about to cross the finish line. A beautiful gospel choir sang for us just before the finish. We weaved through another behind-the-scenes area, came out onto a parking lot, and then saw it – the glorious banner at the end. I tried to pick up the pace for a sprint finish but didn’t have much left in the tank. Finally, I made it, finishing in 2:26:26. Mickey was there giving out high-fives as runners crossed. After that an army of volunteers passed out the finisher’s medals.

Verdict

Overall, I am very glad I ran the Disney World half marathon. The novelty and fun of the race made it worth the high cost, very early start time, and trouble of getting out there. It was a blast. I got some great pictures of the parks, the course, and the characters, including some special ones such as Jack Sparrow and human Ariel. However, right now I probably won’t do another Disney race anytime soon. It was just too big and too early for my taste, especially for a destination race that requires travel. I’m used to local 5K and 10K races that have maybe a few hundred people, races where you can visit the port-a-potty 10 minutes prior to the start with no problem. Those are nice and easy and let me run as fast as my body will allow. However, they don’t let me run through Disney parks and pose with characters, either, so I’m not completely closing the door on RunDisney yet.