.: bistan.net :.

I’ve really pushed the envelope with running this month: 87.26 miles for September — more than double my average and double the previous month.  That’s like from here to Atlanta.  I was scheduled to run over 100 this past month, but it is incredibly easy to renegotiate the terms of my training plan at 5:30 in the morning.

Even with the renegotiations, I’m consistently running five days a week totaling over 20 miles a week.  I’ll drop a few runs this month due to travel, but I have four races scheduled.

I think in the next month or so, I’ll start incorporating other routines into my overall fitness plan.  Perhaps I’ll go back and finish hundredpushups.com or a similar program.  I really hate running and I really hate exercise, but I want to live past retirement age so I’ll keep going for now.

So after the accident, we finally made it to the bowling alley.  Kimberlie and I have only been bowling together twice before — once on a double date and once with the neighbors.  Bowling just isn’t our thing.  If we feel like bowling, we have a Nintendo Wii to keep us entertained.  Mackenzie didn’t really care for it much either, but as you can see from the pictures below, Tristan LOVES it!

I hope your weekend was enjoyable as well.

Sunday morning, I woke up at 6:00 am and prepared for my morning run.  My training plan prescribed a five miler.  Each morning, I run past two gray cats.  They never get scared or run away (although sometimes they scare me because I don’t expect to see them).  One of the cats is missing a back leg.  As I rounded the corner onto the street that they sit on, a car comes by and hits one of them.  The driver killed the three-legged cat right in front of me!

Although he was dead, I did attempt to locate the owner after my run.  I must say that it is strange ringing someone’s doorbell at 7:00 on a Sunday morning.  I didn’t find the owner, but I did find the neighbors who had been caring for the cat.

After that, I went home and told Kimberlie that Sunday wasn’t going to be a good day.

Tristan has been being a great kid lately behavior wise.  He earned most of his magnets on his responsibility chart, so we decided to take him bowling as a reward.

We headed south on 41 towards the much-nicer-than-Macon bowling alley in Warner Robins.  As I was stopped at a red light, some idiot rear-ended me and knocked me into the car in front of me.  Once again, my CR-V (which is not even two years old) is All Boomed Up.  The at-fault driver didn’t even have a driver’s license.  Let’s hope he has insurance.

I may post damage pictures later.

The second birthday party didn’t go quite as well as the first.  It rained . . and rained . . and rained.  And we were outside . . . on a farm.  A farm with a really fancy playground.

This weekend was certainly a busy and interesting one.

Saturday, we had two birthday parties — one at a skating rink and one at a farm.

Below are pictures from from Jameson’s party.  Jameson is a little girl in Tristan’s kindergarten class.  We didn’t know her or anyone else at the party, but we always try to go when he gets an invitation from a friend because 1: it helps meet people and 2: we usually return the favor.  Sometimes these parties are fun and sometimes not so much.  The one yesterday was great.  Before I start critiquing the party like its a new restaurant, I’ll just say that it was an enjoyable time for all of us.

This was Tristan and Mackenzie’s first time roller skating.  It was also the first time I have been in almost 20 years!

Stay tuned for Saturday Part Two and Sunday.  Desperate Housewives is coming on so they will have to wait!

I ran the Labor Day Road Race this morning for the second year.  The course goes from the Forsyth Road Dairy Queen to Central City Park, up and down the hills of Vineville Avenue (and the other 5 names the street is called along the route).

I completed the course TEN minutes FASTER than last year.  It is the toughest 10K course that I’ve ever run.  I was still 31st in my age group.

I’m several weeks into a half-marathon training plan.  Last week, I ran 21 miles.  My mileage is supposed to steadily increase until November.  I’m not sure if I’m going to tackle a November half-marathon or just wait until January when I’m scheduled to run the Disney races again.

Click on that last picture and check out how sexy my legs are getting!

I can’t think of many phrases I hate hearing more than “But I just . . .”.

Any sentence that starts with “But” is most likely an argument or a whine.  I don’t want to hear either. If the phrase is injected in the middle of a sentence, the person saying it most likely assumes that you don’t want to do something, yet is still attempting to justify their request.
Argument example:
Homeless man: “Got a dollar?”
Me: “No”
Homeless man: “But I just need . . . ”

Whine example:
Tristan: “Can I stay up 10 more minutes?”
Me: “No”
Tristan: “But I just . . ”

Assumption example:
Law student: “I know you’re at lunch, but I just need . . .”

I really can’t think of an example where you could use the phrase “but I just” in a statement that I want to hear.

“I’m sorry, but I just . . .” (they aren’t really sorry)
“I know I shouldn’t, but I just . . .” (they knew they shouldn’t)
“I don’t mean to interrupt, but I just . . .” (they meant to interrupt)

I initially planned to write more about my least favorite phrase, but I just have better things to do.