Bits and pieces

So, it's been a long time since I've sat down to blog.  I've often thought of topics to write about over the past few months, but then get distracted and don't sit down to get my thoughts out.  One of the reasons is that I'm finding it hard to keep up with technology as I age.  Kye, the tech guru, thinks I'm completely dumb if I can't remember something computer-related after being shown how to do it once.  I need directions, written down, step-by-step for most things computer related these days.  He recently put a new thingy in our computer- a CPU or driver or something.  This made us have to reinstall all our programs, etc.  When I wanted to add new songs to my iPod, it was about a 3 day process: had to install iTunes, had to locate where my old songs were stored, etc.  And then something happened and songs I had never even heard of, from artists I would never listen to were put on my iPod!  Then I had to start from scratch and erase everything from it and begin with new playlists, etc.  It took forever and I got very frustrated my the process.  All I wanted was a couple of new songs - it shouldn't have been that difficult, right?  Anyways, even signing into my blog today was difficult.  I couldn't locate the link to create a new post.  Eventually I discovered that I have multiple google email addresses and I had to pick the correct one to sign in!

Enough computer talk...Here are some highlights of what we've been up to lately:

I raced yesterday!  Let's backtrack a bit.  My last race was back in October (Des Moines 1/2 marathon).  After that race I decided to join the local running group.  I really felt a need to be around other runners because my family just doesn't understand when I talk "running" and they don't like coming to my races.  So, I've been running with the We Run group since mid-October and I've met a fabulous group of people.  They run all year round, so I've braved the Iowa winter and have managed to keep the majority of my running outdoors.  A member from the group talked me into doing the Amana Freezer 5K yesterday.  I've never raced in the winter and wasn't sure what to expect for my time.  I haven't done much speed work the past few months so I went into the race thinking I'd be happy with anything under 26:00.

Final sprint - didn't want the young girl next to me to beat me :)

It ended up being a beautiful January morning.  The sun was out and race temp was 40 degrees. I pushed myself hard and my heart rate was sky high, but I finished with a time of 24:22 on my watch.  This race was a bit odd because they had chip timing, but there wasn't a mat at the starting line to cross to start the chip.  It was only gun start timing and chip finish time.  Therefore, my official time was 24:34 but they didn't subtract out for the delay in start.  Anyways, I was happy with my time and effort.  My age group (30-39) had the largest field and I ended up getting 5th in that group.

A total of 6 runners from We Run were there and it was so nice to not be at a race alone.  I had someone to hang out with both before and after the run, making the event much more enjoyable.

Oh, I also found it fun that this race offered the option of getting a long sleeve cotton t-shirt or a meat bag.  I registered too late for the t-shirt option, so this is what came in my "meat bag"

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Haden sunk 3 baskets yesterday!  While I was at the race, I missed Haden's basketball game.  It was his 2nd game of the season.  Last week, all the kids were so excited to get the ball that they didn't really stop to aim their shots and not many went it.  Haden has improved so much since last year.  I could tell he was more into the game because when it's his turn to sit out he's still watching the game and cheering on him teammates.  Last year, he would just chat with the other kids on the bench and never really paid attention to the game.

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This thing has consumed too much of my time lately. 

It all began when Haden got his hands on a Rubix cube back in November.  He was intrigued by it and wanted to solve it.  He and Kye began learning the algorithms required to solving the mysterious cube.  It amazed me how quickly Haden was able to memorize the movements.  I kept telling him that he's not allowed to be smarter than me.  We ended up with 2 new "speed" cubes at Christmas.  At this point, both Haden and Kye knew how to solve the cube and began having races.  Soon after, I was intrigued.  Truly, I didn't want them to think that only boys were smart enough to do this :)  I had Kye begin teaching me the algorithms.  I'm now able to solve the cube, but I haven't memorized all the moves like the boys have.  I still need my "cheat sheet" to help me solve the final layer.