Journal Entry: Father's Day

This was Father's Day weekend, and we treated it with the respect and gravity such a significant holiday deserves.

On Friday, T-- and I went to dinner at Ole (temporarily my favorite Mexican restaurant, for set-up anyway), and then went back home to wait for her parents to show up. They got in around 7:30, and we talked for a while. We had made tentative plans to go out for a movie Friday night (and let her parents act as babysitters), but T-- was concerned they would get bored, showing up so close to AB's bedtime.

Well, first thing after they came in the door, T-- suggested we go ahead and do Father's Day, so she gave John and I our cards, and handed out presents. John got the first three seasons of Hill Street Blues on DVD, and I got a wireless mouse I wanted and a 3 pound bag of super Twizzlers. The bag is almost as long as AB is tall. Seriously.

Anyway, after that we discussed the movie situation (we had a coupon for free movie, drink, and popcorn that was set to expire that day), and T--'s parents told her she was being silly. So they stayed home and watched Hill Street Blues while we went to watch Kung-Fu Panda.

Fantastic movie. Probably my favorite Pixar movie. Hilarious, with a strongly developed storyline (even for some of the secondary and tertiary characters), good action and great dialogue. And Jack Black, of course, is awesome. There is no charge for awesomeness.

Even though we picked the 90-minute movie, though, it was after midnight when we got home, so naturally I slept in on Saturday. Still, I had to get to the gym before going over to K-- and N--'s for lunch, and it was set to be an early lunch, so I was up by 8:00, and as I was heading for the door, T-- brought up several complications that delayed my leaving by another 15 minutes. I also ended up tasked with getting a coolerful of foods to K-- and N--'s place, when we didn't really have enough ice to keep it cold.

So I called them both but, it being so early, got no answer. I went ahead and went to the gym (which is right by their place), and about 30 minutes in, just as I finished my strength training, K-- called me back and said, sure, I could come by early and dump some food in their fridge.

I went ahead and left then, took the food over and dropped it off, and then decided to try running in their neighborhood instead of going back to the gym. I had been wondering for a while how well my training would translate into real-world running, and it seemed like a good chance to try it out.

There are a few things I hadn't considered, like the fact that the outdoors isn't at all air conditioned, and that everyone in the neighborhood was out mowing that morning (which meant a nasty allergy attack). Worst of all, though, I'd never realized their house had been built in the midst of a damn mountain range. What's a man to do?

No, really, I haven't been using any incline when I've been doing my running on the treadmill, and even the slight elevation of their neighborhood was enough to knock me back a couple weeks in my training. No problem. I'll go back to the gym tonight, get back in where I'm supposed to be (week 5, day 2), and finish up my training in the gym. At week 9, I should be running 25-30 minutes at a time, and then I can start fancying it up, gradually adding things like incline and increasing my speed. That's really been my plan all along.

Anyway, lunch was delicious, burgers and dogs, and we had a fun crowd. Afterward we took AB home for a nap and sat around talking for a while, then headed out to do some shopping (Wal-Mart and Michaels, oh joy), and then out to a kitschy Americana restaurant called Pops! for dinner.

It was good. We had an hour wait which was brutal, but the food was good and the place had a fun feel to it. It was far enough out there, though, that it was easily AB's bedtime by the time we got home. I spent a couple hours played AoC while we watched some more Hill Street Blues, and then got to bed around 1:00.

Sunday morning we went to church, and then T-- grilled up some steaks for us for lunch. They were fantastic. After that, I spent pretty much the entire afternoon playing AoC. Her parents headed home around 2 or 3, and we ordered pizza for dinner sometime around 6 (and it was delicious), but pretty much the whole time I was on the couch playing AoC.

Overall, definitely a relaxing Father's Day. A great weekend all around, really. Thanks to those who made it so.

Other than that, it's just things and stuff.