Spring

There's a line in the movie "IQ" where Meg Ryan's character says, "It's spring. Everything goes through an upheaval in the spring." Well, I guess spring has come early at my house, because despite the snow we had last week:

• My dishwasher is to the point now where the dishes have to be absolutely pristine when I put them in if I want them to be clean when I take them out. I'm not sure why I still run the thing.
• Our fireball truck is crazy. Sparky couldn't get the key to turn in the ignition the other day. Apparently we do weird things when we turn keys, because last year with our minivan we not only couldn't get the key to turn, but we got the key stuck and had to get the whole ignition replaced. Our fingers are crossed that it won't happen with the truck.
• Most importantly, the bottom fell out of my iPod mini. Seriously. It just fell out. Now, I've had it for almost four years, which I hear is like 102 in human years. They don't even make minis anymore. I'm guessing it's time to let it go, but I'm having a hard time. I always have that thing with me, and I've grown quite attached to it. We've had a beautiful relationship. Sure, there was that rocky patch when it had trouble syncing up to iTunes, but we worked through it.

So anyway, this is going to be an expensive spring. We've picked out the new dishwasher and are ordering it today. We're praying that the truck gets over its dislike of our keys, so we don't have to pour money into a 16 year old truck. And the iPod. Well, of course I have to get a new one. Can you picture me without earbuds in my ears? I'm thinking of getting either a Nano or an iTouch. Obvously, the Touches are cool. But they're more expensive and quite a bit bigger, which could be a pain when I take it running. Anyone have any thoughts?

Fun With Weather

I have discovered the best way to get your weather forcast in Kitsap county. My neighbor, Matt, has a blog called Forecasting Kitsap. He is a high school senior who I suspect will someday be the weather guy for one of the local channels. The kid has been saying he want to be a weatherman when he grows up for as long as I've known him (8 years now!) He has already had some amazing opportunities, including writing this blog for our local newspaper, The Kitsap Sun. Check it out. Even if you don't live here, he has some video clips that are fun, especially the football one.

Bumble Bee 5k

My Brother-in-law had a bunch of us run the Holiday Bowl Bumble Bee 5k together when we were in San Diego. It was a beautiful race along the harbor. What wasn't so beautiful was the mile markers. They were invisible, so we had no idea how far we were along the course. At one point I saw my sister-in-law with a video camera. As I was waving to her, I thought, "Hmmm, I wonder how much I have left?" 5 seconds later, I turned a corner, and BAM! Finish line. I had a kick of about 3 seconds. I definitely had too much left in me at the end. Usually in the afternoon after a race I'm like a toddler in the car at 5 pm - I can't stay awake for anything. But we went to the beach after the race and well, I wouldn't say I was a bundle of energy, but I wasn't dead to the world either. Here's a picture of the crew and some quick footage. Look for Thing 1, and watch as I almost mow over the guy ahead of me at the end. Who stops just after the finish line?

Thing 1 ran the race - his first 5k! He finished 22nd out of the 54 in his 12 and under age group, with a time of 27:16. I was so proud of him. I finished 10th in my age group out of 51, with a time of 24:17, which I was not so proud of. I was hoping to be under 24:00 at the very least. But it was fun. Thanks for suggesting it, Tim!