The 5k

Our Memorial Day weekend started with a little high school soccer before heading out of C-ville for Richmond. We stayed overnight with Mom and Dad Saunders and got up (for the second Saturday in a row) very early - before 7 this week. We got to Innsbrook, where the 5k for Autism was held, around 7:30. There were quite a few more people than at the West Haven run! There were close to 1000 participants (men, women, children, and some dogs). We picked up our bags, pinned our numbers on, and headed to the Start line.
Since there were so many people, and we know we are not competitive runners, we started moving toward the middle of the pack. This was as the announcer was saying that if you couldn't run a 5 minute mile, you should move back! We obviously kept moving. There were lots of strollers behind us and one of the most ridiculous things we have ever seen. First, there was a woman with her dog in a stroller. But, to top that, another lady had her dog in what looked like a Baby Bjorn. This and this don't even show the absurdity of it. The dog was facing out, its back legs were sticking out of the bottom, and its front legs were hanging in front of it. It looked like it was wearing a diaper. I digress...
So, we were able to keep up a steady jog the whole time, and crossed the finish line together at 32:56. The race results (if the link doesn't go directly to the page, click on Race Results on the left side bar, then use the drop down menu to pull up the 5k Run/Walk for Autism) have The Colonel listed as #342 and The Mrs. listed as #343, but we did finish together and you will notice that our time is the same. You may also notice that a 1 year old and quite a few 5-9 year olds beat us, but I can tell you that most of them were in joggers being pushed my mom or dad!
We were astonished at the # of 90 year olds listed in the last age bracket and really think that there is some kind of mistake. I think we would have noticed that many 90 year olds-even among 900-some people!
So overall, we are happy that we were able to keep our jog on the whole time and we weren't too sore afterwards, but do hope to improve our 5k time in the coming months. We are looking at doing the Clark Elem. 5k in September, but want to get another 1 or 2 in before then.
Sunday and Monday were relaxing. We painted the bottom portion of our bedroom walls. There is a really ugly border that has always been here, that will not come off despite The Colonel's and The Colonel's Father's best efforts. Our only option is to paint over it, but we have cathedral ceilings so that can get tricky. So, we painted from the border down, and will put a plain border over the ugly flowered one. We also spent a little time at our pool (with half of the neighborhood) and took Bailey down to the Rivanna for a little swimming and fetching.


More pictures here.
Back to the grind Tuesday for 8 more days of school.

Our family is growing!

So everyone around us is having babies. (2 cousins, the Tally Zierdens, and 2 bridesmaids from our wedding are all due in September-and there are more) We are not going to give in to the pressure yet. We feel that it would be better for all of us if Daddy were out of graduate school first!
So, we are adding to our furry family. Local friends bred their yellow lab last Spring and we doted on the puppies, but felt that a brand new puppy wouldn't do well on a cross-country road trip. We decided to defer until this Spring's litter.
Finally the eagerly anticipated puppies arrived on Saturday! We received the call around 3 pm Saturday when there were 2 males and 2 females, with more on the way. The littler ended up with a total of 8 puppies-4 male and 4 female.

We went to see them on Sunday afternoon. Now, I admit that they are not necessarily cute at this point. They are kind of rat-like…but give them a few weeks! Momma Annie was doing very well – a bit tired as you can see. We also got to see one of the puppies from last year’s litter that the family kept. She pretty much looks like her momma. They are smaller than Bailey and quite a bit lighter in color.

An added bonus is that both (human) parents are veterinarians, so we have learned a lot about how all of this works. They suggested that we get a female and keep the family line going! It could be fun to do that some day, but at this point, I think having a new puppy in and of itself will be enough of an adjustment. Bailey is 7 years old and is very laid back. She is very content to lay right next to one of us most of the time. She has learned to sleep in and is just a good dog. So, getting up early with the puppy (during Summer vacation) will be a rude awakening.

Bailey is definitely very attached and spoiled, so it will be difficult for her to have another dog in the house. We are hoping that she will become the nice big sister and not the crotchety old lady annoyed by the pup. We will make sure to keep giving her lots of attention and do lots of reading on how to acclimate an old dog and a new puppy.

We do think that we will get a female. We can’t agree on a name yet (which is also true about baby names-not that we need one yet). We spent some time on the internet looking at puppy names and found a few we like. Any suggestions for us? It can’t be a child either of us has taught, or a name that someone in the family is using as a baby name –those are the points of contention so far.

We'll keep the blog updated with pictures. In a few weeks their eyes will be open and they will be moving around more. In June we are going to help take care of the puppies so there will be lots of pictures then. We'll bring our puppy home in July!

In other news, we got up early Saturday (very hard!) and ran in a 2 miler in preparation for our 5k this Saturday. It was the First Annual Starr Hill-West Haven Clinic 2 Miler. West Haven is charlottesville's oldest housing project.

It was great to be in the community-the race ran through the neighborhood. On a funny note, each corner had student volunteers who the Colonel had written up or suspended in the last week! The run started with a huge hill and was generally hilly. We finished 7th and 8th (out of about 45...but really only 20-ish ran) and felt pretty good about our time. This weekend will be a longer run, but mostly flat.

We are enjoying being runners at this point and aren't too achy yet! We haven't decided what our next running endeavor will be. We pretty much know that a marathon is not in our future, but there are 10ks and 10 milers that we may aspire to.

Max's 3rd Birthday

In addition to celebrating Cinco de Mayo on Saturday, we celebrated Tres de Maxo. It seems like he has grown up so fast. He is lots of fun and has no trouble making conversation! To check out pictures and a video -that I can't edit to get rid of the poor shooting I did- click here.

The (not so) Big Race

We've been "training" for a little over a month now and will be running a 5k on May 26th. We've talked about doing this for a while, but wanted to wait for the warm weather. Despite the abundance of races in Cville, we couldn't find one that worked with our schedule...so we will be running the 5th Annual 5k Run/Walk for Autism in Richmond. We aren't getting too ambitious. We have friends who do marathons, and my cousin and her husband do mountain running. We are just starting out with the 5k and may work up to a longer race once we see how it goes. I(R) did some 5ks years ago - the good old Messiah College Love Run. However, it's been a while since either of us has run, so we don't have great hopes of winning or placing. My goal is just to finish in under 45 minutes, since that is how long they will record times! Since it's a Run/Walk, we feel like there will have to be some people slower than us! I have really enjoyed running again and it's something that we can do together. We usually go to the gym separately because our schedules are so different. So, on top of running a race and supporting autism, we are bonding-how sweet. We'll let you know how it goes.

Live, Local Music, part deux

After seeing Carbon Lead last Wed, the Mrs. & I headed out for a great night at Starr Hill. We were there to see our friend, Alex Mejias, open for his old band, Portrait of Another.

The evening started off great, with a little pre-concert dinner with Carol & Trina at local eatery Sticks [I recommend the lamb platter, plus upgrade the rice to include feta; it's worth it]. Then it was off to the concert.

Alex played around 6 songs that night, starting around 8pm; by the way, that's a really early time for a concert at Starr Hill. After Alex played there was some band from Chapel Hill [Tuesday Morning? Morning Tuesdays? Till Tuesdays? Something about Tuesdays...] who were ok. Then came the headliners, Portrait of Another. They're a bunch of UVA guys who are really talented, and they put on a great show.

All in all it was a great night of hanging out with great friends while supporting local music. By the way, we recommend 'Dayspring' on Alex's site and 'Helpless Me' on the Portrait site. Also check out their links for Justin Rosolino, who's a fantastic musician that has played with these guys a lot.

Next up: a possible return to Starr Hill for the Sparky's Flaw show on Friday May 4th...do we have it in us after a long day of teaching the children?

Pictures and video of the aforementioned Carbon Leaf show

K-man et al:

More pictures, including two videos we shot, of the Plan 9 Carbon Leaf show can be found by following this link.

Carbon Leaf at Plan 9 Wed April 25th

Last Wednesday the Mrs. Colonel and I got to see The K-man's favorite band, Carbon Leaf, live and in person...and for free. They were playing at the Plan 9 store before their concert at Starr Hill later on that night.
It was a pretty fun show, or EP as I like to think of it seeing as how they played 6 songs [it was free]. It's an interesting venue for a live performance, as the stage isn't too big and actually ends at the curtain; the band had to be careful or they would have fallen back because there's nothing behind it. There was a pretty good crowd for a 6pm show, with about 30 of 40 people there. One fun side note was it seemed like if you were a Carbon Leaf fan, married and in your 30's with at least one kid, you came to this show. Oh, and you dressed your newborn in Carbon Leaf clothing, like hats and t-shirts, which was pretty cool. It was a nice moment I'm sure for these families, who couldn't make the band's "real" show later on since it started at 10:30; it also gave it a different kind of feel instead of your average rock concert.

Also, standing in the aisles of Plan 9 listening to a band while people are trying to buy stuff is pretty funny. The guy trying to get to the Easy E cd didn't appreciate me standing there in the A-F aisle of "Rap, Gansta." Oh well.
It's been really fun to watch these guys as they've grown over the past 12 or so years. I first met them my freshman year at HSC when I was a pledge moving their equipment into our fraternity. ["Wait, you were in a fraternity?" Yep. I was as fratty as the K-Man. Beta Theta Pi. Good times, good times. But that's for another post some other time, most likely when the Mrs. is out of town and I can post it without her permission...]. Back then they had just started out, and they'd play for us 2-3 times a semester for ~$300 and beer and pizza. Later I got to know them fairly well, as I was social chair and I'd book them [and pay them at the end of the night]. Since then the band has continued to do really, really well. They even won the 'Best New Artist' award at the American Music Awards a few years ago, and they regularly sell out fairly impressive venues.
Their new material over the past two years is great, and it's only a matter of time before they make it even bigger...maybe like Jack Johnson [that's the 3rd shout out to the K-man, which is a new record]. The greatest thing, though, is that they've stayed the same down to earth, humble and nice guys that they've always been. Never too busy to talk to the fans, they're genuinely talented musicians who are also just great people to be around. By the way, the guy in the green, Barry, looks like a Seattle-based grunge rocker in these pictures. He's usually much cleaner.

The next post [ironically the first you'll see] will have a link to more pictures and even some video if we can figure that whole process out...