Have you ever seen a goose, kissing a moose?

Happy birthday to me!  I actually forgot my birthday was even close to happening until I looked at our electronic calendar about a week and a half ago.  It’s amazing how little birthdays mean the older you get.  At least this year I actually know how old I am, 38 which is more than I can say for some years.

So I’ve entered Alexander in his very first running race, the Boys Town Memorial Day Run on May 25th.  We’ve been talking with him about entering a race at some point just like daddy does and I’ve been casually looking at some of the kids races that are out there.  I think just about all of the kids runs are a mile long which is just a little too far for him at this point since he isn’t super athletic, so I figured we wouldn’t be doing it all that soon but while looking for races that were being held on days that don’t have to work I came across this one which offers a 400 meter run (about a quarter mile) for younger kids which is just about perfect for his ability level.  He’s pretty stoked about it, getting to wear a race number and getting a ribbon (Maybe a medal?  It was vague) at the end like I got for my races and he wants to go out and do some training runs with me.  In fact he was super pissed that I didn’t take him along when I went out that night, but it was starting to rain and I didn’t have time to get him ready before it started pouring.  I’m glad he’s excited about it, I really hope to get him interested early in it so it can possibly grow into a lifetime love of exercise and good health which is the most precious thing anyone can possess as they get older.  I’m under no illusions that he is going to turn into some sort of elite athlete or anything, the boy can’t walk and chew gum at the same time and seems much more interested in non physical endeavors than he is with running, climbing or any kind of sports which is fine.  I just want to have some fun doing something together and show him some new things.  I’m going to run his race with him and after all the kids races are done I’m going to do the 5 mile race while he hangs out with Jessica.  Hopefully it’s a good experience for everyone.

We did our first official family camping trip on Sunday and went out to Wagontrain State Recreation area a few miles east of our house. We’ve done some yard camping last year which I don’t count because we have electricity and wi-fi and I can go inside to sleep in bed when my back starts to hurt or I’m cold. I checked the weather over and over and over in the days leading up to it, and every time they assured me no rain and nice weather so I traded some time with another guy and took a few hours of vacation so I could get out of work 5 hours sooner than I normally would have and hauled butt down to lake with enough crap to live for a week. We had just enough time to get the tent set up, get the air mattress filled up and cook a batch of hot dogs before a line of heavy thunderstorms rolled through, one after the other until after dark, killing any good time available to do any swimming or exploring or cooking smores which was kind of a bummer. We ended up watching Star Wars Episode 3 on the ipad and being cold and damp the rest of the night. In the morning our plan was to cook breakfast there but it was 48 degrees and we were all cold so we left everything there and drove home and cooked our breakfast on the stove at home. Then we went back out and packed everything up and came home. The tent held up well though, we stayed dry for the most part except in the absolute strongest parts of the storm where we had to hold it up to keep it from collapsing in on us and it snapped a line that was holding the rain shield on and let some water in the window. I think in the future this year we will just do the yard camping again, its a lot more enjoyable and easier and when you inevitably forget something you can just walk in and get it.

I’ve always wanted to play a musical instrument, but I’ve never had the dedication to actually sit down and do the practice that it takes to actually be any good at it.  I’ve had guitars laying around that I noodle around with but I can’t really play anything recognizable much past the skill level of a stirring rendition of Yankee Doodle Dandy.  In fact, the cheap acoustic guitar that I had sat around for so long without being touched that it dried out a bit and the bridge pulled itself halfway off and I only just saw it recently, it’s probably been like that for several years.  No use fixing it, I’m just going to toss it since it’s cheap junk anyway.  I did recently get a baritone ukulele with some of the bonus money that I got for working at Duncan for 10 years, it’s been on my want list for some time but not enough to actually spend any money on it.  Since I had a set amount to spend for anything that I wanted on Amazon and I couldn’t get that money in cash I picked one up.  I went with the baritone instead of just a standard uke because it’s just pretty much the same as a standard guitar without the bottom 2 strings so I could switch back and forth to a certain extent without relearning what little I did know.  After toying around with it for a bit I’ve decided that I want a real guitar again so I’m going to save up and use my fun money on purchasing a Little Martin LX1 backpacker guitar.  Jessica is of the opinion that I am super lame for choosing this particular instrument since she is bit of a music snob and only douches use backpackers, but I am of course going to have to disagree with that assessment.  I’m not going to tour with the thing to go play live shows in Nashville, I just want to lay around and plink on it and for that I don’t want the size (or expense) of a higher quality full size guitar.    I may be a douche for using it but she married a douche so she got the worse end of the deal.  Anyway I thought I would share Alexander and I giving our stirring rendition of Down by the Bay.  We’re a little rusty because we hadn’t practiced it at all in a couple weeks so I was not as smooth as I had been when it was fresh.