Vancouver USA Marathon: Day 2

I can't remember who at this point, but someone yesterday discovered the that the start time for Alex and my races were different, and not just by a little bit, but by two hours.  The full started bright and early at 7am, while the half wasn't until 9am.  After giving that a little thought, it occurred to me that I then get the chance to chase Alex for the first part of his run.  It also eventually occurred to us that based our finish time goals, we'd be crossing paths near the end of the race, which would be pretty cool.

Steph had prepared a pace chart during the car ride last night and had settled on a few points to see the two of us.  But, none of those were during the first two hours of Alex's race.  Mostly that was because the course was along the main drag going west out of vancouver, which according to the point maps was also the only road going out that way.  But after walking to the start line and waiting for Alex to come off the line, we agreed that we'd give it a shot.  Steph and I didn't have anything else to do and I think if I was willing to drive, she was up for the try.  So, after seeing Alex pass us a block into the race, we walked back to the hotel and jumped in the car.  From there we just started driving, waiting to see what was open and how the traffic cops would direct us.  The streets were pretty empty and the main road wasn't in fact closed.  Instead, we could see that there was a row of Orange comes along the sides of the road.  Huh, does this mean the runners are sharing the road? Indeed that was the case.  The folks directing traffic didnt stop us at any point and then we found ourselves catching up to the back pack of the runners, which was full of people already walking.  There was only about 1000 runners in the marathon, and we were far enough in that people had become spread out.   We slowly cruised down the street and eventually we spotted Alex chugging along.  I slowed a bit, rolled down the window and yelled something like "let's go Alex!" I could see in my review mirror that after doing a double take, he tipped his head back and had a good chuckle.  

We parked a little further up and cheered him on again around mile 5.  This was an out and back section of the course, so we hung around a bit and watched the leaders go by before heading back into town.  That got us to the main city square, which was both the start and finish line with about a half hour to spare.  

I wasn't sure what to expect of the course.  I hadn't done much research on it.  I rarely do for my races, with the exception of figuring out if the course is hilly or full of trails before signing up.  I had read that it was fairly flat with no more than 80 feet in elevation gain.  That proved to be true off the start line.  We toured through the city before heading east out the city.  At this point we encountered a few hills both up and down, but nothing too bad.  What I didn't know was that this was not the last I'd see of these hills.  The next one I came upon was steep, but short incline.  We hit the top, came around a slight bend and then started downhill.  At this point I could see a train a going by along the road at the bottom of the hill.  After a few more strides, I could see the road start to veer toward the tracks.  Really?! Is there serioulsy going to be a train blocking out path? And sure enough, it was.  I got to the bottom and not only found a group of runners already waiting, but Alex was one of them.  This was about mile 20 for him, so much earlier than I expected to find him.  But the train had already held him up for a couple minutes, and would take another minutes before it finally passed by.  I'm not sure if that brief break helped our hurt us, but it's got to be one of the more unusual things I've had happen during a race.  

Since we still had 6 miles to go, I decided not to run with Alex, which he was fine with.  Instead I took off, although I passed him a couple more times on out and back pieces of the course, which was pretty cool.  As I'd later figure out, I had started the whole race going to face, doing miles two through four at a thirty second a mile pace faster than I should have.  In the end, this really wore me down, with the last couple miles ending up much slower.  Well, that and the long, double hill that we hit at mile 24. That was a killer.  

I crossed the finish line in a respectable hour thirty six and then heard Alex's name announced got more than two minutes later.  That's a nice park of a small race, having some calling out names as you cross the line.  If the downside of the race was sharing the streets with traffic, the hills and the lack of any timing system out on the course, it was balanced by the smaller, but not too small, size, good views and a great finish area.  There was plant of food and drinks for the runners, the brew fest was going on right there and a farmer's market as well.  

Alex and I got our fill of food at the finish festivities and then walked back to the hotel to clean up in preparation for the brewfest.  I don't know that we expected to stay that long since it was a smallish area only about twenty five breweries.  However after getting in and finding a place to sit down, we easily passed the next four hours lounging in the sun, sipping beers and chatting the afternoon away.  We would have stayed longer, but hey had to shut down at four.

Not content with that, we walked back toward the hotel, we bumped into a brewery, which we couldn't just walk past.  We stopped in four a couple beers and sat and read trivial pursuit cards for a couple hours.  Again, just relaxing the day way.  At this point we were hungry, so we jumped into the car and headed into Portland to Deshutes, which is the largest of Oregon's many breweries and a place Alex and I both wanted to stop.  We had a nice meal and a couple more beers.  From there I recommended Rogues distillery and tap room. I'd been there a couple months prior and like it.  A few times during the trip, Voodoo Donuts had been brought up.  Similar to Mojo Monkey in St Paul, this was a place of crazy donuts.  But in this case, they were open at night, catering to folks like us thinking a giant donut covered in breakfast cereals or peanut butter chips of bacon would be a good idea.  I ordered some giant concoction full of chocolate frosting, said peanut butter chips and something else I cant even remember now.  I got just past halfway through and was done.  Someone Alex found space in his stomach to finish it off.  

And that would be it for the day?. The clock struck twelve and we were done.  It was a long, but good day.  It was fun to not only run with Alex, but get to cheer him on from the sidelines?. And to finish it off with a brewfest in the sun and brewery hopping, you couldn't ask for more.  My head did nap appreciate it the next day, but that just a minor inconvenience for a great day.

Vancouver USA Marathon: Day 1

Right on the heels of writing about not traveling and the experiences of being at home with the kids for ten days, now I'm off for a short trip.  I'm here in Vancouver WA, which is not to be confused with the city of the same name north of our border and also not even close to that more famous spot.   In fact, we're directly across the river from Portland, OR and therefore at the southern most part of Washington state.  

But why?  Well, to run, of course.  Some time ago, Alex and I started talking about races for 2015.  He eventually suggested Vancouver USA.  After doing some research on where exactly it was, having the chance to hang out with Alex for the weekend along with a beerfest happening on the grounds of the finish area, I quickly bought in, but only at the half marathon distance for me.  While he committed to the full, I just wasn't going to start my training in the middle of winter.   And besides, a half ends up being a good warm up for a full later in the year.

But just before the trip, Alex calls me up earlier this week and asks if i wanted to go to the US Open.  Whaaaa?  Well,  as it turns out,  it was being played just two hours north of here just south of Seattle.   And as someone with PGA credentials,  not to mention contacts, he could get us in free.   Watching golf isn't the most enjoyable thing, but it would keep us from walking all day and out of the breweries.   So, why not.

After a good flight out, a flight made better by getting a free upgrade, I made it to Portland.  I retrieved the rental car, then retrieved Alex and Steph, and then without wasting any time, we headed straight to the course. 

While I've only been to one golf tournament in my life, I have been on plenty of golf courses.  And this one, Chambers Bay,  was one of the more unusual.  Right on the sound, it had the look of a British open. Dry, brown, long grass, no trees and lots of undulating hills.  But with those hills came some great views overlooking the whole course as well as the harbor.  The free tickets we got hooked up with were for something called the Trophy Club, but is was on the opposite end of the course and up a big hill.  Gazing out across the dusty paths winding through the course, we just couldn't stomach what was likely a mile plus walk.  Perhaps if we had gotten there earlier and we're allowing ourselves some beers, that would have been a great spot to sit on a porch and overlook the whole tournament.  But this was, after all, supposed to be our down day, so that amount of walking was voted down.   Instead, we found a perch above the eleventh faraway to watch the last five groups come through.  Nothing notable, but it was relaxing.  In fact, the most notable thing about the whole afternoon was the commentary on the course.  

Looking out over the 11th fairway

What's going on here!

We actually stayed a little too long, not driving out until 6:30 and still having to eat.  We debated on where to stop, needing to balance speed with a good pre-marathon meal.  We settled on Red Robin, which while not great, was good enough.  After polishing off our sandwiches, burgers and bottomless fries we finally started our two hours drive back at 8:30.  The drive was fine, although we were all pretty pooped by the time we got back.  

We accomplished our main goals for the day though: we mostly stayed off our feet, we skipped the temptation of Portland's huge brewery scene and got to see a US Open.  And so with that, we were off to bed to rest up for the race.

Not in Denmark: Day 10

Sorry, I was too busy You Tube surfing last night to write a post.  I was too taken with various classic rockers versions of Hendrix's Hey Joe.  But, you know what, it was another one of those days that was fairly normal and without any great thoughts to share.  Today, though, is the day it all ends because tomorrow will be back to a house of four.

Now that Ann has returned from visiting her Danish heritage, where does that leave us?  Well, back to normal would be the obvious answer.  But something finally hit me today.  Throughout Ann's trip abroad, something's been itching at me.  I couldn't place it and instead mostly focused on how this time alone with the kids was not the harsh disaster that we'd like to stereotype it as.  We all continued to get up, get on with our day, talk and laugh, and go to bed.  Rinse and repeat.  And all without drama.

It was after a text Ann sent last night about some things that needed to be in place for Evan's first day at Discovery Club this summer that things started to click.  Honestly, it was a helpful reminder, but while she didn't want to offend and joked that she couldn't turn off her mom gene, there was that small sense (in a complete unoffended way) of not needing that assist.  Nothing more came of it until this morning as I was driving away after having gotten Evan off to DC without incident.  I was like, wait I know this feeling, there's something oddly familiar about this.  That it's, I've done this before!  With that, it all came together.

That oddly familiar feeling?  I haven't had it for two years, but it was the feeling of being part of the daily routine.  I had been doing it for ten years prior, whether it was getting kids ready, dropping them off, picking them up or helping with homework.  It was everyday though.  And then nothing.  And so, I had this sudden realization of why this past 10 days had been comfortable.  I like being part of that routine.  It may not sound like a big deal, but the idea of getting up, going to work and coming home, all without any interaction with everyone else's day is either something that's either so new that I'm still getting used to it, or it's just not the roll I want to play.  I think after two years of this new routine, I'm going with the latter.

Admittedly there's been a feeling of disconnect for a while now, but why I didn't think of having the opportunity to reverse that going into this trip, I'm not sure.  As typical, I'm a little slow on the uptick.  Guess we'll see if we can somehow keep this going through the summer.

Let's not go too far with all this though.  It was only today when I happened to glance at the mailbox, with the mail door slightly ajar that I realized I hadn't checked the mail in ten days.  Or that I only put away clothes that Ann left hanging to dry just yesterday.  I can't tell you how many things are still sitting around that I wan't to sweep away into their proper place before Ann got back.  I felt like I could never get ahead of the cleaning and picking up.  Look, I don't want all of it, I just want some of it.  As my family knows well, I'm big on being even, everyone with their equal share.  I start to twitch if it's otherwise.

And so with that as my big realization, I'm glad to have Ann back.  It's been fun and busy, yet an uneventful ten days.  Likely not as interesting as Ann's travels through Iceland and Denmark.  And if you're wondering, because I am, I'm sort of surprised I had no fits of jealously over her doing her thing without me.  Sure, I would have loved to have been there, but I was OK with not.  Anyway, we've got Ireland and Scotland coming our way in a month.  Or maybe I was just too subconsciously taken with revisiting that lost sense of involvement at home.

Not in Denmark: Day 8

Eight down, two to go.  And to what end?  I got nothing.  Just a series of vignettes that will serve no purpose other than to show a mundane Tuesday and the things that go on here in St. Paul.

What am I drinking?  Sixteen ounces of a double IPA from Evil Twin brewing.  Why anyone thinks it's a good idea to put 16 ozs of a 9% beer in a can is sort of beyond me.  But, I kinda like it.  Well, I'm most of the way through it, so of course I like it!  And besides, Summit did one earlier this winter.
And what am I watching?  The Warriors thoroughly dismantling LeBron James and his JV teammates collectively known as the Cavs.  After watching the Blackhawks win the cup last night after a very enjoyable Stanley Cup final, I've decided one black eye basketball has against it is that there's no comparison to the utter give-at-all-costs play of hockey.  Man, those guys just play so hard, so physical, yet crazy skills, all the while skating a free flowing game devoid of any penalties.  It was just a great show of sports at its highest point.  So, it's sad to think that countless more people are watching this game of dudes running up and down the court jacking long range shots, never to battle for something more creative, hard fought or beautiful.  And so I'm celebrating this occasion by putting my Sennheiser cans on to listen to a little music.

Then what am I listening to?  Mikel Cronin, who I presume 99% of the populace has never heard of.  That's fine.  I dig him.  To support that feeling, I finally bought some tix to see he and his band play live at the Turf Club later this summer.  With Ann and I missing both key festival concerts this summer (Rock the Garden because of my trip to Vancouver WA and Eaux Claires because of Ireland), I felt like we had to redeem ourselves by getting back to the clubs.  I also bought us into seeing the Kills at First Ave, and if we should feel the itch, the option to see Mates of State on July 1st is an option to.  Got to rock!

Of course, the next question is what I'm eating.  Since I spent the prior hour working on updating our financial reporting on Mint because that's so much fun, I worked up an appetite.  So along with my Molotov Lite Double IPA, I'm snacking on graham crackers, which I decided a while back are awesome.  Not overly sweet, crunchy and not horrible calorie wise.  I feel like its a win-win.

My miss of the day?  Well, I re-discovered that doing kid's laundry is not the same as doing my own.  See, I don't worry about what I leave in my pockets, because outside of random receipts, there's nothing there! (I have this feeling of Ann doubting and laughing at me from afar)  But the boy and his clothes?  Different story.  We just got Cailin an iPhone and one reason I felt OK about it is that she's shown herself to be remarkably responsible with her iPod for the past four or so years.  With this iPhone now in hand, she's generously gifted her iPod to her younger brother.  And a week into having this nice piece of technology , what does he do?  Leaves the thing in his pocket, which he deposits in his hamper, which I mindlessly toss into the wash.  And as I ask him where it is when he goes to bed, he say in the pocket of his shorts from today, which of course immediately I know means it's currently spinning at high rates of speed drenched in water because that's where all his dirty clothes are.  Ah, crap. Apparently, I don't wash kids clothes enough, or I've just gotten lucky in past tries.  The good news in all of this is that the boy got lucky too.  I pulled the shorts out of the wash, immediately found the iPod and it flashed me the home screen like nothing had happened.  That wasn't what I was expecting.  But, I'll take it.  Just to be sure though, and at Cailin's suggestion, it's now sitting in a bowl of rice overnight to hopefully suck all the moisture out.  Whew.

What else?  They came to work with me for a while again today.  And otherwise, they made it again on their own all day long. Evan had a baseball game tonight where he had a great night in the field with a couple of put-outs and a fly ball catch, which he was super excited about.  But, he also struck out swinging three times, which caused him to proclaim himself the worst hitter ever after the game.  Something to work on, I guess.

And with that, I submit.  Those are my meanderings for the the day.  No deep thoughts on being home alone.  Once again, the kids have been great and they've made it easy on me.  So, time to proof read and then off to bed.  I hope you found this bearable and maybe someday it'll make somebody chuckle.

Not in Denmark: Day 7

I miss my lady.  It's true, I'm man enough to admit it.  What, I'm supposed to admit it?  OK, then perhaps I'm not devoid of emotion after all.  Wait, what, this was supposed to happen sooner than seven days in?  It seems I can't win, even if the argument is only with myself.

It's been a long time since Ann and I spent this amount of time apart.  I can think of when I was in China several years ago, but in that case I was the one traveling and often distracted.  Before that...wow, back in college while we were still dating and she spent the summer in Japan?  In that case, my emotions hadn't calcified yet, rather that hadn't even yet matured.  If I remember correctly, I was kind of a baby about the whole ordeal.  Ah, the 20 year old me.  (My notoriously bad memory is likely leaving out three or four other situations that likely debunk this whole post)

Anyway, it's been a while since it's been a while.  Last night, I sat down thinking about what to write and after a few minutes simply decided there really wasn't much to say.  Even with Ann gone, it was kind of an ordinary Sunday.  And you don't want to hear me yammer on about whatever the kids were doing or about my aching body.  It's just not that interesting.

But today I had that first real strong tinge of missing Ann.  I joked about it earlier, but it is a curious thing that it happened seven days in.  Honestly, I can't decide if that's too long, about right or irrelevant unless we're talking weeks.  I mean I got nothing on the military spouses.  Regardless, the feeling wasn't anything in particular, rather it was about everything.  It was simply about her not being here.

I discovered early on in her trip that this wasn't going to be the trips of yore where watching the kids got tiresome quickly and you wanted the other person back just to help out and give you a break.  Its tough to tag-team when your corner is empty.  But now the kids are older and aren't as needy, at least in the physical sense.  And frankly, given no option but to help themselves, they tend to help themselves.  So instead, here I am, here to make sure they get fed, don't melt their brains by staring at the screen too long and otherwise make decisions on where they can and can't go.  Wow, nearly 9 and 13 and that's what its come to.  What'll I have to provide when they're 14 and 18!?!  Keys to the car, I suppose.

I don't know that I'm unique in this feeling.  Ask Evan, and I think he just misses his mom.  Cailin?  We'll I'm sure I'm cramping her style, so she's probably missing her enabler.  But hey, at least no one argues about who gets to sit next to mom at dinner.

None of this should take away from the fact that Ann's off doing something really cool, and shouldn't have to think twice about being gone for 10 days.  That's nothing compared to the memories and experiences she taking in.  But these are interesting times; you're given the chance to step back and appreciate things we sometimes take for granted.  Whether it's love, marriage or just companionship, I think that given long enough they become foundational.  Super important, not forgotten, but just there.  I don't know, I kind of feel like Homer Simpson writing that... "Marge, I need you!"  I'm mean, what do you say next, "I now appreciate our marriage more after you left for 10 days"?  Well, Homer only lasted a day, so at least I've got that going for me.

Well, I'm going to go with the simplicity here.  I'm going to embrace the simplicity of the feeling and say that I miss the embrace, the closeness and just feeling one another.

Not in Denmark: Day 5

Day 5... is this hump day on this 10 day un-journey?  Kinda feels like it.  What can I say about it though.  My favorite word of the day is "Jimmy Queen."  With Cailin off at a sleepover for the night, it was Evan's turn for some ice cream, but the boy who loves him some ham and bacon Jimmy John's, a simple DQ meal wouldn't cut it.  So we compromised and the Jimmy Queen was born... JJ sandwich, cheese curds from DQ and a blizzard to top it all off.  He was a happy boy who stared intently as his sandwich was made, and then happily devoured it at home, extolling the greatness of the ham, bacon and bread as he pulled everything apart.

The rest of the day though?   Just a simple two hour run this morning followed by shoveling three yards of dirt, as well as the moving of a couple hundred pound logs.  Nothing like a little hard labor to make the body ache.  Why?  Hmm, I'm sure there's a good answer out there somewhere.

Otherwise, I let Cailin be free for a night.  She's sleeping over after a couple of nicely done days of watching the household.  Not that I couldn't quibble with a few things, but she dealt nicely with the boy while transitioning suddenly from a planned out school day full of friends to being confined to the house.  It's interesting what a transition like this does to a kid's attitude.

Evan clearly misses his mom.  I'll be interested to see if it keeps on or subsides in the coming days.  He's been pretty psyched about his new iPod, which was bequeathed upon him after Cailin got her new phone and willing passed along her prior device.  What that's meant is that he's been glued to it every chance he's gotten, instead of getting outside and moving around.  But, he's mentioned more than a few times each day how he misses mom and wishes she could be home.  I even caught him slyly trying to Facetime her around 5pm our time... or sometime past midnight her time.  Time zones apparently aren't an obvious thing to a near nine year old.  I probably shouldn't remind him that Ann and I are both leaving for Ireland in a month's time.

And now it's time to put this aching body to bed.  Well, maybe not the body as a whole, but the left leg specifically that I'm supposed to a half marathon on next week-end.   Grin and bear it.

Not in Denmark: Day 4

Today was the day that I wondered if, perhaps, I gave the kids a little too much freedom.  It was day two of being alone and on this fine day, the sun was shining and the whether was just begging for outdoor activities.  They had proposed to me last night that they'd do a bike ride down to Crosby Farms and then over to Summit to visit me for a root beer.

For those not familiar, the Crosby Farms area is down the hill from us, running along the Mississippi for a few miles.  It's not more than a half mile from the house as the crow flies, and has got a series of paved trails through a wooded area punctured every now and again by small ponds.  That doesn't sound so bad, but the steep hill that you've got to bike down and the two busy streets that need crossing gives a slight pause when thinking about a nearly 9 and 13 year old on their own.

But, initially, it was just that, a pause.  And then it's, OK, be careful and let me know when  you're leaving and then again when you're on your way to work.  OK...I made that last part up.  Cailin, often more the adult, decided it would be a good idea to do that.

There's really no point in setting this up any further because they made it there, biked around and then over to work just fine.  The only trouble they ran into was someone honking at them while crossing West 7th.  Cailin assures me they followed the signs and crossed appropriately, but it does give a shred of doubt to creep in.  And that's really all it takes to second guess yourself.  How much latitude do you give kids at that age?  Out for a ride?  No problem?  To a park they've been to before?  Sure.  Dealing with traffic?  Ummm.

My judgement was that they've got to eventually get out and learn, and they're both pretty responsible.  Can I control others?  No, but we deal with that every day.  You can't keep 'em cooped up for ever.  And besides, they needed a little adventure to spice up their day alone.  Although, the reviews from each was that the ride was kind of boring.  But, coming to Summit was the highlight of the day at that point.

I will say that I really like not only being close, but having a company and job that the whole family feels a connection to.  Cailin proclaimed this job the best I've had and that she really liked coming down.  I think it's just the free root beer, but it's more than that... it's comfortable.  The company is small enough that they can get to know the people, and unlike prior jobs, Summit has a presence in the community.  From walking in the Grand Old Day parade last weekend, to seeing our logo around town to participating in Feed My Starving children at the brewery, there's an atmosphere that everyone is drawn to.  And I think they get a kick out of Mark (Summit's founder) coming in a talking to them.

Now, it's not all wine and roses.  I gave them each a job to do and neither completed it before I got home, so we had a little discussion on thoroughness.  But, that's minor.  We rebounded and built a fire in the fire-pit where we roasted some Kielbasa for dinner and the S'Mores dessert.  A good way to finish up a beautiful day.

S'Mores by the fire

Oh and one mention of Ann, who made it to Denmark... she had a beer and kinda liked it!! O-M-G!!!  I must be winning.  For every beer I shove at her and ask her to smell, she's finally developing a taste.  Ha!  Now, I just need her to steal that cool Jacobsen glass she had her dark lager out of.

Not in Denmark: Day 3

It would be easy to go on about the challenges of the children, but I think some reflection is in order.  The past couple years has brought a sizable shift in how Ann and I spend our time relative to the kids.  That's mostly driven by Ann starting her own business, which has meant working from home and not surprisingly, working fewer hours as she builds.  That's allowed her to spend more time with the kids, and while that's not by accident, it's in some ways a 180 degree shift from what was the prior norm.

That prior norm lasted several years and got to be a habit.  And as most habits go, they become comforting and tough to break.  While Ann seems much happier in the role she's playing, admittedly, two years later, I'm still trying to adjust.  But while that's an interesting post on its own, it's the other shift that I've been thinking about: the almost complete disappearance of business travel.

For the most part, Ann or I traveling was never a burden.  But, sitting here on Thursday, just about four nights in, I've been struck by the complete difference in what's involved with being home alone with the kids for a few days.  It's been a while, I guess.  I'm sure there's been more, but I can only think of a couple instances, and each were only a couple days.

Obviously, it's a continuum.  As kids age, they become less dependent on mom and dad, or at least dependent in different ways.  While I don't have to scrub them in the bath, they now scrub us for money and rides.  Intellectually, that's not surprising.  But, but, but... it still kind of is.  Thinking about the days of yore, the days St Louis every couple weeks with Detroit sprinkled in, I can remember being "done" after three days alone.  It just got mentally tiring.  And I think Ann often felt the same way.  But, here I am, four days in, and it's kind of business as usual.  Yes, both kids seem to be reeling from not having a school day's worth of activities or having their friends around, and there's aggravation relative to that.  But now?  You come home, make dinner, eat, hang out, and send 'em to bed.  All with very little drama or extra effort.

Now, I can't go any further without giving Cailin her props.  The boy is not the easiest to babysit, especially all day long on a rainy day.  And he let that be known today, even throwing a tantrum with mom on the other end of a Facetime call... yeah, nice work dude...now she won't want to call anymore.  But, from what I can tell, Cailin mostly held her cool and dealt with it.  She would have rather not had to of course, but she did her job and there's kudos to that.

So, while maybe every once in a while, I miss the younger version of the kids, this week is not one of them.  They'll do chores, they take of themselves, bed time is easy and we can have a conversation over dinner.   And after all that, I can relax, have a beer and not feel drained.  Now, I do recognize that if continue with this laissez-faire approach, it will come back and bite me.   They are kids after all and do need, and quite rightly deserve, some diversions from the boredom of hanging out in the house all day.  I remember what it was like.  There were only so many re-runs of the Dukes of Hazard, the Fall Guy or the Price is Right that I could watch every morning.  I'll have to get to work on that and figure out some weekend activities.  Each of their closest friends are out of town this weekend, so it looks like I can't simply send 'em away and will instead have to try.  Ah, where's a good pool when you need one?  Dad and his stupid racing weekends!  Doesn't he appreciate his new role as our weekend getaway now that Nana and Papa's pool isn't an option?  So selfish.

Well, I'll sleep on it and I'm sure stumble into something suitably fun.

Not in Denmark: Day 2

Thanks to Instagram, this is what I now know about Iceland: it's gray, the land is grassy and muted green, there's lots of water, and a fine meal is served on a cafeteria tray.  Apparently, I MUST visit there.  I'm skeptical.  Although, I did see a picture of Ann and Katie in a steaming pond with drinks in hand.  That looked good, although I wonder if they have to worry about prehistoric organisms crawling through their toes.


What, I'm being unfair?  Instagram is not a complete window into foreign lands?  Ah, wait until I get to Ireland in a month, then we'll really see what Instagram can do!

Well, here on the homefront, we've survived day 2.  A bit more attitude floating through the air today, but all is well.  I think we'll need to ratchet up the "help out around the house" bit tomorrow and see if we can blow the top off the "life is unfair", "my summer vacation totally sucks" and "woe is me" perspectives on life.  It'll be a fun little game.

I did try a new approach to instruction this morning by telling the 8 year old what his and his older sister's chore was for the day, wondering whether the message could even compete with the trappings of the screen in front of him and make it to his sister's ear two hours later when she'd likely wake up.  Amazingly, it did and not only did he convey the message, but he was the only one who managed to complete his piece, which was nothing more than folding and putting away his share of the clean clothes in the basket!

That's not to suggest the first half day of summer vacation on their own was a complete win for the boy.  From what I can tell, he did fib his way into additional screen time and extra breakfast.  But, when the person in charge decides to sleep until 10:30, then my sympathy is fairly low.  So, we had a little extra instruction tonight on the responsibilities that come with being in charge, which was predictably met with "how is this summer vacation if I can't sleep all day!"

Tomorrow, I'm predicting a battle over friend time.  Each have gotten pretty used to having friends over after school and on weekends.  And as summer is apparently one big weekend, I'm to understand that not hanging with a friend every other day is a total buzzkill.  The sleep over question has been posed by Cailin, and with a friend who I can't even say whether I've met.  She tells me I have.  But, she's got so many of them, that I can't even come close to keeping track.  Ann mentioned that I should only let this happen with trustworthy and stable friends.  But, she forgot to leave the list of who that encompasses.  So, I think I'll default to them all being unstable and deal with the blowback.  Why can't she hang out for a couple hours somewhere?  Why a sleep over?  Girls.  Grmph.

I traded an email with Ann this morning about Cailin's new phone, but otherwise Instagram is all I got.  No news, or contact for that matter, must mean they're having a good time.  The boy misses his mom however, so we'll try to encourage a Facetime session.

Well, off to bed.  I need to improve my going to bed time and be the old man that I am.  11pm is just not good for me.  Much too late.  These weary bones need more rest.  Or maybe just more whiskey.  

Not in Denmark: Day 1

Ann's gone!  The kids have taken over!  The house is coming down!  Armageddon!!!  Good times.  

Sometimes I wonder if that's the preconceived notion of what's going to happen around here after 10 days of an Ann-less household.  She is, of course, currently basking under the midnight sun in some geothermal spa thingy in the arctic nether-regions of Iceland.  Soon to be on here way to her native homeland of Denmark.   Maybe she'll be re-assimilated.    

All the while, we simpletons debate whether to go to baseball or an end of year party.   The party won out, which meant I got to go to Dairy Queen and have the most-awesomest blizzard.  I think we all won.  Well, except for maybe the baseball team and my pocketbook.  But, man that Jurassic blizzard with peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookie dough was outstanding.  I love me a good blizzard.  

Anyway, Day 1 in the Ann-less household was a success.  Business as usual.  Nothing to see, nothing to report.  Except that Cailin momentarily thinks we're the best ever because we gave her the news that she could get a phone...finally.  She's shown to be responsible with her devices and with her being out and about more often, at least I finally feel a strong need to have better contact.  Man, how did we ever survive without cell phones!  Better yet, how did we ever survive without immediate answers!!

So this begins a ten day reverse blog, where the written action is far, far away from the travel.  From here, we'll tackle what it's like to not be traveling while someone else is.  We'll tackle the trials and tribulations of life without mom, Ann, lunch maker, emotional blanket (btw, I managed to successfully navigate a teary-eyed 12 year old last night after she discovered she was getting a C in math.  That's quite devastating for a girl who prides herself on her mathematical smarts and ambitions for the A honor roll.  But, with little prodding, she talked herself toward a deeper understanding of the problem, which wasn't necessarily a lack of hard work, but instead not taking a good approach to really understanding the subject matter.  Paul would be proud. )  

More to come...

Evan, after biking to school on his last day of 3rd grade