Thursday, November 22, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving!!

It is Thanksgiving day and time to reflect on what we have and what we have to be thankful for. For me I always turn my thoughts to those away from home and loved ones. Those who stand on the front lines protecting me and my family from evil. Those who willingly put themselves in harms way so that I can relax in my warm home and safely break bread with my family and friends on this day.

I am thankful for our men and women in the Armed Forces who are standing tall for our freedoms. I am also thankful for the men and women in law enforcement across the nation who left their warm home and loving families to patrol our streets and keep us safe.

Each Thanksgiving I set aside a plate in remembrance of those men and women so that I do not forget the sacrifice they have made for me.

God Bless those men and women and God bless America.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Back to Reality

It is time to return to reality, and of course my work. I tried to get work to keep sending me a paycheck, but they wanted me to actually show up. I though that was pretty narrow minded of them.

The trip to Europe was nothing short of amazing. I cannot possibly begin to journal it all on one sitting. The photo to the left is my lovely bride and I at Park Guell in Barcelona Spain. My favorite place in the entire trip was Barcelona. During our travels we visited Italy (Florence, Rome, Naples), Greece (Mykonos, Santorini, Athens), France (Villafrance, Monaco), Turkey (Kusadasi) and Spain (Barcelona). We spent a lot of that time on a cruise ship with several extra days spent in Spain. What a trip!!

I must confess that in spite of my good intentions, I only ran twice the entire trip. i do not know how those that travel a lot get their runs in. One on my runs was on the treadmill on the ship while it was at sea. That was just short of a treat. It takes a lot of concentration to keep your footing on a speeding treadmill while the floor is moving with the sea waves. That just added to my dislike for spending too much time on the "dreadmill". I had really hoped to get more runs in, but the schedule was just to busy (read I was lazy) to get them done. Now that I am back to work it is time to get back into it.

Of course 2 weeks on a cruise ship did not at all equal to any weight gain on my part. If you believe that then I have some swamp land for you. I am finding the motivation hard to come by. It might be that I need to find myself a spring race to train for. There is nothing like a good race to get motivated for. I have been considering lately on backing off on my mileage and training for a shorter distance. Something in the 10K range. Wit that I would up my cross training and get some weight lifting in. I have never been a big fan of weight lifting but really need to work on my "chicken arms".

Tomorrow however is a new start...