Weekend - just a little late.

It was an interesting weekend. Friday night the lovely Francine and I ran in the American Cancer Relay for Life. Actually, it was mostly people walking, so we designed a loop that was a bit longer and less crowded than most of the people were walking, and ran up and down along the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids. Ran into Nasreen and Bret, so I finally got to meet him. Found out that the slight muscle pull I had in my calf was worse than I thought.

So, our next shift, which started at 5:00 a.m. was spent just walking. Tried sitting in the hot tub at the Y and letting the jets massage my leg, but it still didn't help much.

Came home and did laundry, leaving most of it (including clean sheets) on my bed so I could go up to my mom's for a while. Grandma had a slight stroke last week, so she's at my mom's for a while. Maybe forever. Figured I should go visit and take her some flowers. Good move.

I had a late breakfast, so I wasn't very hungry when I got to Mom's. She offered to fix me something, but I figured I could wait. Grandma, however, was more persistent. "Have you had dinner?" "Not yet Grandma, but I'm not very hungry right now." She offered to have mom fix me something. We visited for a while. Mom came in. "He hasn't had any dinner, you know!" she told Mom. That exchange had Mom getting us both a drumstick (the ice cream kind, not the chicken kind) and putting the topic to rest for a little bit. We visited a while longer. "Are you sure you're not hungry?" "Hmmm... You know grandma, maybe I am getting a little hungry. Why don't we go out in the kitchen and see what's happening?" Well, that finished that discussion.

Dad and I were in the livingroom a little later. THUD! A redheaded woodpecker smacked into the picture window. It was the last thing he ever did. (I'm trying to work a joke in here about him breaking his little wood pecker, but it just isn't working.)

I came home to a surprise. In my refrigerator was a note. "Fresh strawberries, hand picked by Carly and Francine" in 7-year-old handwriting. COOL! And the laundry I left on my bed was folded and the sheets were back on the bed. There was no note about that, so I'm figuring the 7 year old had nothing to do with that one. It was pretty nice though.

Sunday I went to Richland and measured the course for Lindsay's Race, a 5K and 10K race held in honor of Lindsay Cornelius, who died in a car accident around 10 years ago. Came home and went to see "Pirates of the Carribean" with the lovely Francine. Then we went to The Melting Pot for some cheese fondue and some really good salads. Came home and sat on the grass talking and soaking up the sunshine.

Busy weekend. Fun weekend. Accomplished a few things, had some fun, reconnected with family. Nice.

New Projects

It's been a fun May. Not much writing, but major movement in good directions. I registered a couple new websites and will be starting some new ventures. One of them is marathonminute.com. Every week starting June 13, I'll have a one-minute long "Marathon Minute" on WOOD Radio as part of our Grand Rapids Marathon promotional material. It will also be podcast on marathonminute.com, and on the Metro Health Grand Rapids Marathon site.

It's not just about running. It's about personal achievement. It's about working toward any big goal and the things we overcome to do that. It's about making your life better after listening to it than it was the minute before.

I'm working with some great people over at WOOD Radio doing production.

Once every three weeks or so we'll do a bigger podcast which will be linked off WOOD's website as well as on marathonminute.com. It will be about 10 - 15 minutes with some of the people who have stories to share. I don't know where it's all going, but I do know it's going to be a great trip. Check back for more details as they happen.