Busy Bee

Well, I'm supposed to be less busy in the summer, but it's been a full week or so since I last blogged. Oops!

Beth had a great time at her camp last weekend, and I had a great time hanging out at my parent's house Friday through Sunday. It was a nice father's day gift because my sister came up from Maryland on Saturday. The four of us (dad, mom, sis, & me) went out to dinner on Saturday night and church Sunday morning. It was just like the good old days!

I got some solid 45-50 minute runs on Saturday and Sunday and reminded me of how hilly, yet nice it was to run around my house. I wish I would have been more dedicated to running in the summers and off seasons around my house. But, it's always easy to look back and wish you did more.

On Monday, I plopped down on the couch and watched the U.S. Open 18 (actually 19) hole playoff between Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate. I'm not a big golf person, I maybe go once per year, but I love watching majors on Sunday (and Monday!!) when there's a close match among the leaders, especially when it's someone like Tiger Woods. The mental challenge it poses is awesome and I love to see how the people react under the pressure. I really admire Tiger Woods and what he has accomplished just like I admired Michael Jordan and others. What made it even better was that Tiger was going up against my other favorite golfer other than Woods--Rocco!!

Why would I root for him? Well, because we're both products of Hempfield Area High School in western PA!!! So, I always check the leaderboards in tournaments over the years for Rocco. He's had a few top 10 major finishes and has won a few tournaments over the years, but it seems like his back issues always held him back. It was neat seeing all the interviews and how he was just loving the opportunity and making the most of it!

I did my second bike ride on Tuesday and went for 65 minutes and averaged 15 mi/h. That was solid. Tuesday night, I had a fastpitch softball game somehow with all the rain during the day. I was pitching and had a MISERABLE first inning. I walked a guy and hit two guys. Somehow, I ended up only giving up two runs. But, the awesome part was, that was all I gave up for the game and we won 3-2. That was satisfying to come back from that rough first inning. It also was nice to go 2 for 3 against one of the tougher pitchers.

Then, yesterday was my birthday. The big 3-1. All in all, I'm pretty pleased with where I'm at. I'm around my high school weight and cross country times. Also, I'm getting into swimming and have a WONDERFUL wife who is the best in the world. Not much to complain about.

My big present for my birthday was a new laptop. I got some Best Buy gift cards for Christmas, but really didn't find anything I wanted then. So, I asked for all Best Buy gift cards for my birthday and put them together with the old ones and got a laptop. The young Best Buy worker who waited on me was shocked that I could hold on to gift cards from Christmas. He said he would have spent them the next day!! It worked out pretty well. It's a 17" monitor and has 3GB of RAM. My big goal is to use it to watch some sports online. My current laptop doesn't meet the specs on ESPN360.com, so this should be better. Also, it has a numberpad on the laptop. That's awesome with all the number crunching I do. Here's the picture from the best buy website of it:

This morning, I set a PR in the pool. Actually, many PR's since I split each 100. I hadn't gone long (for me, at least) in a while, so I did a mile (1650 yds) with the goal of trying to hold on to 2:00/100yd pace as long as possible. I almost did it, surpisingly. I was 28:01 through 1400 yd and ended up at 33:15 for 1650yd. I'll take it. Just over three weeks until triathlon #1. We'll see how it goes.

Hopefully I'll be writing again soon!