Snakes! I hate snakes.

I have been waiting patiently for nearly 20 years for another Indiana Jones movie to come out. Can you believe that! Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was released to the big screen Memorial Day 1989!! For some reason I thought it was much more recent than 1989—probably because I watch at least one of the three original movies once a year. In fact, when asked, I always state that my favorite movie is: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. There is just something about child labor that I love :). With this in mind, you can only imagine how excited I was to go see the newest of the Indy flicks: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Now, I don’t know if I just had too high of expectations, but the movie was just ok. Don’t worry; I’m not going to spoil it for anyone. I will only give a short list of the pros and cons.

Pros: 1) Characters are still imperfect; 2) Cool stunts and death scenes; 3) They didn’t try to make Harrison Ford look too young; 4) They used a lot of old characters, old music, and those maps with the red lines when they fly from one place to another; 5) It’s still fun to watch

Cons: 1) The stupid vine swinging scene (you’ll see, and you will think it is dumb too); 2) The movie gets a little too lovey dovey near the end; 3) The basic premise of the movie strays a bit too far from the traditional Indiana Jones themes

It is hard to discuss without ruining the movie for those who haven’t seen it yet. All I can say is Kingdom of the Crystal Skull isn’t my favorite of the four, but a true fan still needs to see it. However, you might want to wait until it comes out on video.

Great Success

It’s official, Josh and I completed our first 10K! The Colorado Colfax Marathon came and passed Sunday morning and we survived. In actuality, we not only survived, but were both able to exceed our goals. Josh wanted to finish in one hour and was able to clock a time of 55 minutes. I wanted to finish under 1:15 and was able to run it in 1 hour and 4 minutes.

Overall it was a great experience. It was a lot of fun to run with our friends, family, and co-workers—let alone thousands of other people. My leg of the race started in City Park and followed Colfax from York all the way to Quitman (just south of Sloan’s Lake). Here is a map. It was a strange feeling to actually run down Colfax. It is usually packed with cars, buses, street walkers, etc. On Sunday, the street was full of athletes and the sidewalks were lined with people cheering, bands playing music, and people just taking it all in. Most of the run I was just focused on keeping my legs moving and not dying, but I took a few moments to think about where and I was and what I was doing. That was right about the same time I ran by the Capital. It was very inspiring.

I think the hardest part of the race was waking up so early. We had to be at City Park at 5:00 AM. It was still dark when I was putting on my sunscreen. We parked in the Zoo parking lot and could hear the wolves howling. . . . how crazy is that? It was also really cold when we started the race at 6:00, so I had to wear a long sleeved dry fit shirt under my team shirt. By the end of the race the temperature was in the upper 80’s!!

I usually try to be modest, but I have to admit that I am really proud of myself and everyone who ran on both Josh’s team and my team. Everyone did great!! Hopefully I will have some pictures of my team, the Water Buffaloes, up soon. I didn't have a camera most of the day.

Josh's team was named "This one's for Pete." Note the stylish sweatbands Josh created in Pete's honor.

Mother's Day Madness

According to the training schedule I pulled off of the internet two months ago, Josh and I needed to run 5.5 miles one day this past weekend. It didn’t happen Saturday because we were both tired and the weather was just too weird. It was snowing in the middle of the day while the sun was out. Any way—we decided to do our long run Sunday morning before any Mother’s Day activities. The weather was great; the run sucked. At one point I realized I was on the wrong route and found myself on Federal Blvd. Instead of running down Federal to turn down the next street, I thought it was smarter to run down the alley. Mid-way I decided that was a bad idea on kicked up my pace to get the heck out of the alley. I got back on track and finished the run in an hour and three minutes. That time included a lot of walking (mostly the uphill parts). I think the whole “runner’s high” thing is a myth. When I am running, all I feel is exhaustion. I do feel a sense of accomplishment when I’m done, but that passes pretty quickly. I don’t see myself running much more than 3 miles when this race is over. We are at T-minus 6 days. After our run we went to Josh’s parents house for lunch and what we were led to believe was going to be a short hike. The hike ended up being 7 miles. It took us four hours. It wouldn’t have been so bad if we hadn’t run the same morning; or if we had brought more than one water bottle for me, Josh, and Stanley to share; or we had been mentally prepared for a longer hike on a moderately challenging trail. Josh’s dad wasn’t even wearing hiking clothes. He had on jeans and a button-up shirt. Needless to say, we were all exhausted by the end of the day. Plus, when we reached the top of the mountain, our camera ran out of batteries so we never got a picture of the entire group at the top. Here are a few pics from the hike.

Marian suckling from her camelback--that Josh was wearing

Us at the top of the mountain

View of Denver from Mt. Plymouth

Tequila shots at the top of the mountain (with key limes)

Bologna & Oreos, Emphasis on Bologna

I recently heard a creepy baby-sitting story that made me laugh so hard that I cried . . . and at the same time really wierded me out. It was so good, I have to share:

This story begins in a suburb of Juneau, Alaska. . . .

My sister’s friend Mary was babysitting two of her neighbor’s children. It was starting to get late, so she tucked them into bed and started reading them a story. As she was reading she thought she saw something move in the corner of the room. The two little girls had one of those plastic chains hanging from the ceiling with clips to hang all of their stuffed animals on. The thing was packed full from the ceiling to the floor so she assumed her mind was playing tricks on her and kept reading. A minute or two later she thought she saw the stuffed animals move again. As she started to move closer to get a better look, she saw two eyes blink. She immediately gathered up the kids and ran across the street to another neighbor’s house. They called the police, but found nothing in the house. When the police questioned the kids about what happened, they discovered that the kids knew there was someone in the house. It was a midget they believed to be their secret friend. He had been hiding in their bedroom and the kids had been feeding him bologna and Oreos everyday for nearly two weeks. With this information, the police linked the intruder to an escaped patient from a mental institution three towns away. They later found the suspect hiding in another child’s playhouse two blocks away. His pockets were full of Oreos.

Two Birthdays a Beer and a Bet

Josh and I went down to Pueblo this past weekend for my sister Abby's birthday party. During the 2 1/2 days we spent with my family a few interesting events transpired. On Saturday, we attended a graduation party for one of my sister Anna's old teammates. The party was at a restaurant out in Pueblo West that specializes in pizza & beer. Therefore, I arrived expecting to consume both without guilt. However, I didn't realize that my sister's old basketball coach was going to sit next to me. . . and that he doesn't drink. I think I made him uncomfortable the entire time we were sitting down to eat. It didn't help that the Kentucky Derby was on and I suggested we all order mint juleps and place money on Golden Balls. Hopefully he wasn't too offended. The party was fun regardless. I also didn't feel any guilt because Josh, Abby, and I ran 5 miles earlier in the day. To be honest, I walked a lot, but I still burned quite a few calories. I will be sooooo happy when this 1ok is over, only 13 more days of training!!



On Sunday, we celebrated Abby and Stanley's birthdays. Abby turned 14 and Stanley turned 4. Although the party was for Abby, Stanley still got a few gifts and soaked up some attention. Abby got a lot of nice gifts including a record player. We dug up thirty or so of my parents old records to try it out. . .it was really fun.






Anna also got some attention due to a bet she made with Josh, Abby, and I. She claimed she would have no problem eating an entire stick of butter, and that she would do so for the sum of $20. This amount increased to $26 because my grandpa threw in $5 to see the show and Josh paid an extra dollar becasue he had to write a check.


All I can say is that my sister never ceases to amaze me. . . . She consumed the entire stick of butter in 10 minutes. All 810 calories. I almost threw up watching.

Here is some footage from the scene: