The June Round Up
I’ve had a busy couple of weeks. Between running, working, and those other little things that come up… well, y’know…
This quasi-drought it killing my garden. It sucks. Sure, I can pump water on it all day long, but the moisture bakes out of the soil in less than a day anyways. Some of the plants are doing okay — after they get established, they flourish because they can get their roots down deep enough — but the seedlings are slow and suffering. If I get even a dozen carrots out of the patch this year, I’ll be surprised.
I spent a couple hours building Claire a sandbox the other day. We had looked at a couple of the plastic doo-dahs, but I figured it might be nice to rough one together that attached directly to the swing set. It’s not huge. A little less than five square feet and two medium sized bags of sand are pretty much all anyone needs to have a little fun in the sun. And besides, I’m running out of yard space.
Less than two week until Vegas. Yeah! That’s all I’m going to say about that for now, besides I’m wondering if my data plan covers me down in the States: Twitter, anyone?
If you saw the odd collection of Flickr photos that showed up the other day — and we’re wondering — it was our annual general meeting for work on Tuesday. As such — and traditionally — we host the board on a tour of local agri-food facilities. So, yeah, I spent the day between a egg farm, perogy factory, and micro-brewery… with sampling at each.
We’re training for hill in my running clinic these days. Last night we ran down to Terwillegar Park (in the river valley) and ran the trail hill six times. Counting the two clicks there and two clicks back, that made for nearly nine kilometers of pain. Yet, it pales in comparison to the fifteen kilometer run I completed on Sunday morning. Did I mention I’m starting to feel a gentle blend of pride and insanity?
As well as the sandbox, our spoiled little girl also got herself a new trike in the mail yesterday. Karin revved up the credit card and ordered a slick little red, green, and yellow tricycle via the intarwebs. Dad got to assemble it, with the help of his daughter who was very eager to take it for a spin. That said, until we get her a helmet she’s confined to the deck and backyard. Apparently she woke up this morning, tugged on Karin’s arm and said: “Mom. Bike?”
We were in Terwillegar Park on Father’s day. (Claire got me some new running gear by the way! Shorts and a shirt.) I was slightly hobbled, still recovering from my morning fifteen, but the dog needed a stroll. Anyhow, some canine agility group was doing a fundraiser down there and for a couple bucks would take any dog through their (temporary) course. Of course, Sparkle gave it a whirl. That said, her biggest obstacle is not climbing, running, jumping, or any of the challenges. Her biggest challenge is her distractability. Talk about lack of focus: Run-run-run do-a-jump now-wheres-brad-wheres-brad run-run through-the-tunnel now-wheres-brad-wheres-brad-wheres-brad and so on…
Claire has officially entered into the Princess Phase. As in, anything that has a picture of a “pin-sess” on it wins. Princess diapers, princess toothpaste, princess everything… And actually, it’s working quite well as a motivator for behavior and potty training. So, I’m not really fighting it.
All that said, it’s looking like it might be a (relatively) quiet weekend. I mean I’ve loved the little gatherings and parties that have happened over the last few weekends — and the one that’s happening at my house tomorrow is a wedding shower and I’m confined to the basement (or something) — but I could really use some quality time with my books or video games. I mean, c’mon, I’m only ten hours into Final Fantasy VII and I’ve had on the PSP for nearly three weeks.
But then, what’s the chance of any sort of calm these days?









