Record Driving Time

Record long that is. It's bad enough that I only spend a couple of hours at my destination and hardly get anything done. Driving three hours out and back staying with barely enough time to say hi. Don't be fooled when I say I'm going on a cool work trip. I raise the pointlessness of all that time by taking the long route. I think I missed a total of three exits this time on the drive to St. Louis because I wasn't paying attention (no, not while taking pictures). But really, I only learn from my mistakes. Seriously. I've learned more in the new job by having to fix problems every day than I did in college trying to learn systematically. I now know pretty well how the interchanges between 270, 70 and 55 around St. Lois work and the wrong time of day to drive them!!
Our office is in Maryland Heights, if that gives you any idea how incredibly off course this picture places me.
More stupid things Kevin learned... It has really bugged me recently that "pay at the pump" pumps are NEVER labeled so you only find out when the annoyed cashier says so on the loud speaker. So I've finally gotten in the habit of thoroughly checking out any pump before hand so that I can make a sarcastic comment (I know) to the attendant about the missing notice. To my surprise, I noticed this sticker on every pump at one station this weekend. Not to be robbed of my bitterness, however, I noticed that the LCD screen says "Begin pumping, OR insert credit card". LIARS!!!

Game Day

It's already that time again. Tonight's game was the third of Bethany's softball season. I don't have the stats up yet, but they are coming. Didn't seem possible that a game could be played in the certainly soaked field. It took me an hour to dry out and that was just 5 seconds in today's freaky rain.

Last night was just a fun opportunity to watch my first game of the season with friends and play catch with the kiddos. Tonight, I actually had a job. Babysitting Trey and Michael :-)
Thanks to Dave's help, Trey barely got 200 yards away from the dugout! :-) And since Michael was taken care of by the rest of his team, I got to spend some close and personal time with Kolben (not pictured)...and his dinner.

I'm a good driver

On my last AWANA hurrah, I was ego filled to hear a child speak the words "You're a good driver!". I had one simple job. Ferry zip-line gear from from one end of the line to the other at the Camp Good News cookout. This requires wheels because of the gulch between the ends of the line. The ride is fun enough by yourself, but I soon realized that it is better to share...and freak people out. You can't tell from the video, but there are lots of chances to make people who skipped the zip-line wish that they had not. OK, to be honest, for every "you're a good driver" there were five "I'm never ridding with you again".


This is my last activity with the AWANA kids. I've decided to move on or take a break. Miss you guys alot! Maybe see you later down the road.

Site seeing

While Peoria is my favorite home base (like I've had others), it's pretty obvious that seeing new places and trying new things is one of my favorite things to do. It occurred to me recently that I had one of the busiest times ever seeing and doing stuff I don't normally get to do. In a four week time period, I was in Colorado, St. Louis, Moline, Champaign, Canton (emphasis on the activity) and Indianapolis. It's an easy blessing to take for granted, especially with a busy schedule. But I am grateful to be able to experience so much. And the summer has only begun! Back off, I know it's not technically summer yet.

The most recent interesting place was close to home. Noah's cubical down the street at DeKroyft-Metz. Good stuff man.

It's a wedding year

It seems like marriages come in groups every other year. The blog has only been around long enough to see one of those years (7 weddings). A couple of years before that was an entirely different generation of church friends moving on. So far, I can see three weddings this year. Anyone want to update that??? :-)

Josh tried to sneak in to Peter and Kelli's wedding party with his matching outfit.
I was paying attention so well during the wedding that no pictures were taken of the couple....sorry. I think someone else got some good photos though :-) Someone else got some good texts. Smooth.

Studs. All of 'em.

Alyssa looks like she'll need dramamine the next time she dances with Wes. Spin 'er man spin 'er.

Now THIS I can do.

Loooong weekend

Started with another temporary welcoming of the Harms back to the hood. Gotta stop getting my hopes up that they will be moving back from Texas since their time away usually gets extended not long after. Mr. B and his wife hosted once again as we got to hang with the local Bethany crowd and enjoy updates about the balmy weather we're (not) missing out on down south.

It turns out that convience is traded off with quality when you send a 2nd grader to do your photography for you. She did a good job though.

This one turned out nicely!


Party at night, then party in the morning with the breakfast crew. Two of my favorite people (out of a few hundred faves), Larry and Donna, were in the kitchen with me cookin' up the eggs Jed style.
And when I feel like it, you'll get to enjoy the wedding photos :-P

Cloud Update

Yup, still there. And still awesome.

Pictures are in!!

The folks running the Indy mini spent alot of money getting a complex system of cameras, data and other technology synced together in order to provide runners, who paid alot of money to run this race, with real photos from the ground and air. And in less than a week, those photos are now available. Below is the best one I could find from the photos they provided to me. Soooo exciting. Drum role please.....



What a rip off.

It's Sundae!

A bunch of 4th graders invited me to their ice cream social today for lunch. Feeling pretty guilty right now since I'm blogging and not jogging it off. Miss Grey organized this sugar rush, apparently right after popcorn time. I wonder if their parents know about this...

Natalie had the most glorious use of topping goodness with this mound consisting of everything on the table except bananas.

Thanks guys!!

Cooking With Nan

I predict that within the next decade, Nan is going to have his own restaurant or cooking show. Seriously, he loves to cook like I love to slack and over plan. Last weekend (that's right I didn't forget) Nan invited a bunch of people to test four different meat dishes on. A couple of lamb, pork and a beef one. Delicious.
Holly thought so. I know Holly's mom taught her manners, but not sure where they went. :-)

After a long day of my first time on a bike, it was so nice to have this great meal and conversation. Thanks Nan.

We Won!

The big day came much too soon. About three hours too soon. But the 40 degree weather made it easy to forget about the five hours of sleep. The Indianapolis Mini-Marathon is run by 4,000 5k and 35,000 13.1 mile participants. This TV spot from last year has some cool little clips. This started out as a great idea for some motivation to exercise last fall but didn't seem so great after a spring of zero training. The most I had accomplished was a 7-mile jog last week. Others had similar let-downs in dedication.

I luuuuuv new places though, so seeing downtown Indy and 35,000 people lined up behind the starting line was pretty neat.
Aaaaand the same scene, behind the starting line 30 minutes after the gun - not so neat.

These nice gals gave up their positions a couple of groups ahead of me to help me keep pace with a similar pace I expected.

We had our own medical staff!! Thanks for coming all that way to cheer us on Tara and Amanda!

Don't know what it is with me and pictures of these things.

Lots to see along the way. A few miles were along the river.

That's right, 37 minutes for the first mile. It's all in the pacing :-)

The race takes you along the 2.5 mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The entrance was pretty sweet.

The speedway by itself was pretty sweet. Totally felt like Speed racer. My pace runners parted ways from me at this point, around 7 miles.

Mile 10 was when I knew I would make it all the way, but 12 was the relief point where I knew I could run as fast as I could and not pass out. Legs weren't doin' so hot, but who needs those after the race?



Pete, Joanne and Ben had some pretty swift times below two hours. The other ladies and I were pretty happy with our sub-three-hour times. For stalkers like me, check out the official time lookup. With the race completed, it was time to thaw out and go home.

The medical staff finally got to "treat" someone. Couldn't find anyone willing to do this for me though.

We are very grateful for Peter's organizing of the whole thing, giving us an opportunity to experience something new, fun and challenging. And to his family for putting up with us for a short night.

Indy Mini

Race time in 8 and a half hours. The convention center where Indy Mini runners pickup packets is as big as an airport. And we're stuck to out phones just like in an airport.





Pete's training program was a brisk walk downtown.


Lovin' it. Good night!

It's Gettin' Real

Long story short, Ryan, Wes and I took a field trip to Lacon for the final license printing. That little bitty "M" takes so much paperwork. Sorry, the song was stuck in my head.
In case you're interested, here's some fun vid from the safety course. We look like we're going slow because...we are. Hey, you can't do a whole lot in first gear, back off.

The votes are in

The consensus is that there had better be bikes in our garages when we get home. I think Ryan will be the only happy camper though.

Wild Hogs

Class time in the motorcycle safety course. I've recently sat in high school desks and they were much more comfortable than these. We squeezed in to them quite snuggly. Yet another tip that I could lose some weight.

Yes, it turns out that most of us were the ones in high school making jokes about what the teacher just said. We do have a teach who laughs with us though this time. Pictured here is team "Wild Hobbs" cramming for the exam. Josh is in team "Crash" to the left.



Friday was all classroom, which was convenient with the rain. This beautiful morning, however, we are about to check out the bikes.