Mom's Party

Mom hosted a little shindig at the Thorntown Public Library for the family and a handful of friends since a lot of people didn't get to go to Las Vegas. So it was great to see a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time, eat some pretty tasty food, and do a little socializing. The library is pretty awesome now that they've done all the remodeling and additions, and it worked perfectly for the gathering. I'll have to put some photos up whenever mom gets some to me.

Now that I'm married, there's nothing better to do than blog.

And that is my reentry into the world of spilling your guts for anyone who wants to read about it. As you can see from the comments on the six months of writing below, that's not too many. But those of you who do, you're great, really. So, let's see, what's new?

1. I retired from running.
Don't expect any more marathon updates or anything crazy like that. Running and I are over. I can't control myself. I went from about zero running for a few months to nine miles in one day after about four or five weeks. And then I broke down like always, because zero miles to nine miles is overdoing it. I can't run in moderation, so it's over for good.

2. We are settled into the new house.
We've been here long enough to have almost everything put away. We've made a couple of painful payments and stuff is starting to break. Joys of homeownership, right? Anyway, it's awesome. I'm sitting here with the windows open, the breeze at my back, and some unnecessarily long grass within my sights. I'll get to it tomorrow.

3. We got married last week.
Katie and I are official. We flew to Vegas, waited for the families to arrive, and did some gambling. (And then we went to the blackjack tables... ba dum cha!) Really tho, the wedding went well, the ceremony was nice and short. The champagne was cold. After we put the family back on planes, we drove a rented Mustang convertible to the Grand Canyon and did some hiking. Then we went back to Vegas to catch our plane and lost a lot more money that night.

Anyway, I think three complete topics is enough for today. Don't want this to be like running. I'll try to post something else before the end of the year... if anyone is still reading.

Marathon Update: Week 1

Thursday, July 10: 3 miles

Saturday, July 12: 5.5 miles

Week Total: 8.5 miles
Grand Total: 8.5 miles

Oh yeah... we moved!

I completely forgot to post an update on the move. We got mostly moved in, thanks to a lot of help from family and Jeff... (Thanks, Jeff.) Then Katie's parents and brother visited for 4th of July weekend, so I wasn't on the computer much. They helped us with a few home improvement projects and let us show them a few of the cool places in Indy before heading back to Iowa. We also hosted the monthly family game nite last nite with my mom's family. So, all my relatives on that side got to come down from Boone County and get a look at the new place. They also got to participate in a rousing game of DVD Family Feud (which the men won 804-295, despite being outnumbered four to eight). Now that we've got an empty house for a while, we can start hanging up some pictures and making the place a little more ours instead of just a place to put our furniture!

Here's a few photos of the house I took over 4th of July weekend. It's messy and not set up, but I'll go ahead and insert them into the posterity of the Internet.

Indianapolis Monumental Marathon

Indianapolis has a new marathon this year on November 1. Straight from their website, "The Indianapolis Monumental Marathon Course highlights a number of great buildings and features in our beautiful and convenient Indianapolis downtown including: the Indiana State Capitol, the Arts Garden, Lucas Oil Stadium, Circle Center Mall, Monument Circle, a number of federal monuments, the Cultural trail and the Mass. Ave. District. We are also happy to showcase several interesting and lovely neighborhoods including the Old Northside, Fall Creek Place, Meridian-Kessler, Butler-Tarkington and Broad Ripple."

I ran the Chicago Marathon a few years back, and the thought of doing something that's happening for the first time is pretty cools, so I decided I'm going to give it a shot. It's pretty late to get into the training schedule (most of the shorter schedules run around 18 weeks, and there are about 16 weeks til the race), but I think I have one modified to get me ready for the race. The route map on the marathon site is super low res and sucks, but if you compare it to Google Maps, you can figure out where it's going. They also posted a video of the route, for those of you familiar with Indianapolis:


I'll do my best to stick to the program and try to update my progress here once a week or so. Anybody else wanna join me?