100 Posts

I saw on my buddy Terry's blog that he's posted 100 times since he started his blog. I had no idea how many times I had blogged, so I checked and found out that this is my 102nd post. For some reason, 102 just doesn't roll off the tongue like 100 does. Plus, there are no pictures with "102" to be found anywhere.

I'm sure Terry will pass me up very soon. I agree with him, it's hard to blog all the time. Maybe my life is boring and I don't realize it. I guess ignorance is bliss.

First Day of Training

I kicked off my training today for the next marathon. I'm planning on running the PF Chang Rock-n-Roll Marathon in Phoenix on January 18th. The Carlsbad Marathon is Jan. 25th, but Sharon's birthday is the 26th and I don't want to take up her weekend with my marathon.

Anyway, I ran 3 miles today and the knee is a little sore. I didn't run at all last week on my vacation. Hopefully it just a little weak from not keeping up my training.  I'll run again on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday this week. Normally I'd run on Thursday instead of Friday, but I have my 2nd Coaching Network Session Thursday morning at 6AM. So running is out on Thurs.

It looks like my brother will be running the marathon with me, which I'm really excited about. I think we're running together on Saturday. Now, if we can just get my dad to run with us we'll be set.

Back to Work

Today was my first day back to the office in two weeks. I was on vacation last week and the week before I was traveling to Seattle, WA and Vancouver, BC.  It was actually kind of nice to get back into the swing of things and get caught up on all the stuff I've been missing for the last two weeks. 

Oh, and I got two orders today too, which was kind of nice! Maybe I should go away more often.

Visit to the ER

Last week I took off work to spend some time with the family before they start school again. The boys start this Monday (DJ's senior year). We went camping at Lake Jennings which is about 20 minutes from home and on Monday night after an unprofitable day of fishing, we got back to the campsite, ate dinner and sat around the campfire. After eating some smores, Jessica's asthma started getting pretty bad. She had used her inhaler a little more than normal for about a week or so and I'm sure the dust and smoke from the fire weren't helping things much.

Anyway, about 8:30 she was very short of breath and had a lot of tightness in her chest. She wasn't handling it well and to be honest, neither were her parents. We rushed her to the Grossmont Emergency Room (I got to drive fast without Sharon hassling me) and even though they had an average wait time of 6 hours (brutal), they got her in for a breathing treatment in about 10 minutes or so. That helped quite a bit. 

Then they took her for a chest x-ray and then back to a room in the ER for some blood work.

We would have been able to leave shortly after that, but her blood test showed that her potassium levels were very low. So they hooked her up to an IV and gave her 2 units of potassium. 

We got there at 8:40 PM and we checked her out at 5 AM. At least the Olympics were on TV, which Sharon and I watched while Jessica slept. 

She's much better and after her follow-up appointment with her regular doc on Thursday, we feel we'll have a good handle on it moving forward. I'm grateful that God's hand was on her and she came through with no lingering problems.

Pacific Northwest

I'm in Seattle this week on a business trip. I got up here yesterday after sitting on the plane for an hour before takeoff, due to some "instrument irregularity". We flew over Mt. Saint Helens and it was actually spewing ash, which was pretty cool. The weather is incredible and the sun is actually expected to be out all week. It's supposed to rain on Saturday, but I'll be gone by then. I'll be driving up to Vancouver, BC (in Canada) on Wednesday and coming back to Seattle on Thursday for another meeting before heading home on Friday.

Here's a picture of Lake Union at night. My hotel is right across the street from it and I can watch the sea-planes take off and land during the daytime. One of these days I'm going to bring Sharon with me. (We'll see Jess. Maybe you too.)

First meeting of the week went pretty well. 4 more to go and I'm heading home. I'm a wimp. I miss my family! This will make 3 weeks straight (except for Sunday).

Update on the knee

About 3 weeks ago I tried to run 2 miles and my knee hurt for 10 days. Well, I had a doctor appointment scheduled for Wednesday of this week, so I went for a short 2 mile run on Tuesday to see if there was any improvement. My knee didn't hurt. My legs were tired from not running, but the knee didn't bother me.

I went ahead and went to the doc. I had them do an x-ray, but it came back fine. He scheduled me to see a sports medicine doctor, but that appointment isn't until Aug. 18th. I figure, if the knee is fine at that time I'll just cancel the appointment.

I ran again this morning; 3 miles with some uphill and downhill portions of the route and no knee pain. Hurray! It looks like I'm back in the game. I missed it.

Family is coming home tonight!

Jason has been staying with Granny for this last week and he comes home this afternoon. Sharon and Jessica will be at the church around 1 or 2 AM (as long as the bus holds up) and DJ should be home some time tomorrow. My mom (the Granny mentioned above) will be here for the weekend too. So, it should be a nice 2 days.

I miss them. Unfortunately, I have to make a business trip on Monday and I'll be gone all week. Unbelievable.

Well, while they were gone I put new tile in both bathrooms, my dad painted our master bath and I installed a new exhaust fan/light and put in an extra electrical outlet. I got a lot done, but I would have rather they were here with me.