Watching my brother Asa wrestle in his first meet was painful. Not that painful, because I wasn't actually wrestling, but painful to watch the little guy get turned into a pretzel. He joined wrestling to get in shape for soccer, a goal that Ian has said is honorable and stupid. Those of you who may not have seen Asa since he was but a little kid should imagine someone built like me, a little shorter and a bit skinnier. He wrestles 125 lbs and should really be wrestling at a lower weight, the thing is, there is no mass for him to lose. At the same time that he's wrestling, I'm watching all the other kids out there, the ones with muscles particularly. Dad and I were thinking of ways to bulk Asa up, maybe strap some muscle somewhere on his upper body. I don't know. It reminds me of getting thrashed in 7th grade when I wrestled. It sucked. At least with two pins (that's being pinned, not pinning) under his belt, there's no place for him to go but up.

Thanksgiving. A time for family, a time for fattening. I've been hanging out with the family this past week/weekend. Ian and Leah came back from Mac on Wednesday and we have been feasting for the past 72 hours. Fat, fatty fatty fat fat. Sooooo good.

I've been starving for vertical excitement in Ames, so I took it to a new level yesterday. Alpine tree climbing! Taking Chad's ice axes, I used them to scale up the side of a large cottonwood tree. It's tree climbing, just as we all used to enjoy, but EXTREME! It was going well for the first five minutes and then while executing a sweet cross over move with my left axe, I yanked it out of the tree and smashed my head. To explain the situation better, imagine watching someone smash a hammer into the center of his forehead while stuck on the side of a huge cottonwood
Yesterday Ian and I went rock climbing in Ames, outdoors. What's this you say??? No rocks in Ames you say? Well you're right, excepting the railroad bridge there are no rocks. So, we climb the railroad bridge. Yee haw! I'm UNSTOPPABLE!!

WEll, Living History Farms was a good damn race. I had so much fun that I thought that I'd take up running seriously again. Boy was I wrong. It just sucks to run without the motivation of a team or near term goals. It's like summer miles for no good reason. Anyway, the race was run, creeks were crossed, mud was slopped, thongs were worn, and chili was eaten. A hell of a day in November. Today I'm hoping to get out on two wheels and enjoy the cycling weather while it's still decent out. It's supposed to get shitty for tomorrow so i'll save running for the colder crappier days when cycling is just a no go.

Cheers to all. Happy thanksgiving.

Well, I went for my first winter run yesterday. The temperatures weren't so cold, but the wind, she was a howlin'. To the uninitiated, it might seem like a damn fool idea to go outside in a blizzard, but the grizzled veteran of the Midwestern freeze-fest that is winter running knows it to be a walk in the park. Besides, I'm training for the potentially adverse conditions for the Living History Farms Race.

The forecast for today has the high temperature at 25 and the low tonight should be about 5. Hmm, it makes me ponder exactly how dedicated I am at this point. I guess it will give me a crack at my first frosty beard of the season.

Well, most of my gloom and doom have passed. Jennifer and I have already signed a lease on an apartment in Philly. It's (supposedly) in a nice neighborhood near the University of Pennsylvania. The selling features were: nice wood floor, two big bedrooms, cool landlord and proximity to Ethiopian restaurants and farmers market. We'll see all of this for ourselves when we get there however.

"Living History Farms; The Race" is coming soon to a town near me. So far I've got Tim Pavlish and Bo Rydze. The fun will only increase with more members! The race date is November 19th and the food is on me. Additionally, we are provided with T-shirts featuring the living history farms logo and then we get to eat as many donuts as we can stomach!

Come on down!!!

If you want more info, just call me! Also, I'm lonely so, just call me!

All good things must come to an end. I was riding high on the super-duper MIAC Meet-up with the ol' Cross Country Boys. Alf was back from China, Pete flew in from the west coast and the usual suspects, Paul, Ben and Derek were around for the fun. Many beers were consumed and then some frolicking, if we can call it that, ensued. Pete decided that there had not been enough "dog piling" going on recently. We quckly remediated the situation. Oh yeah, Mac did a good job at the meet. Roscoe and Dylan ran fast as hell and I was inspired, almost, to make a comeback onto the running scene.

Then, the very next day, after helping set up a halloween display in my parents front lawn, I decided to go for a run. It was halloween night and the kids were out. I was feeling genki so I decided to cruise. My parents' neighbor, Chad, was heading out of the house and I offered to take his dog on a run with me. As it turned out it would be the dog's last run. Tensing, named after the legendary Sherpa, was a really good dog, a Visla obsessively dedicated to his owner. Tensing was attentive enough to be taken for walks without a lead, or so I thought. When once I had taken my parents dog, Rudy, for a walk, Chad had told me that Tensing was so good as to not require a lead for running. True enough, he stuck right by Chad's side when they went walking in the mornings. Unfortunately, I didn't have the same sort of magnetism and while running homeward along a relatively quiet street Tensing, who was following me a few yards back, veered into the street to avoid some trick-or-treaters and was hit by two cars. The first car shocked him and caused him to yelp, at which point I saw turned around to see him laid out by a second truck. The people who hit him in the second car were very kind and drove us back home at which point it became clear that he was no longer breathing, nor was his heart beating. I tried CPR, but because of a dog's large mouth, you have to blow through the nose and seal the mouth completely. It didn't work out.

So, from a pretty good week, it has turned into a funky, shitty one. I gotta get out for another run, but it's gonna be difficult.