Longhorn in Paradise

OK. Pursuant to my last post, it is increasingly difficult for me to concentrate at work, so I decided it was probably time for an update to Longhorn in Paradise. I am quite certain that my recent lack of posts has caused most people to give up hope and stop checking in, but I'm ok with that. I just have to win them back. And since nothing HUGE is going on in our lives right now, I'm sure I will be able to focus more time on this endeavor. Gots to set priorities. So many things to get peeps caught up on. Where to start???

Triathlon -- What an awesome time that was!! Greg, Rene and Bill joined me down in Zuma for the event. We all woke up at the crack of dawn...well, dawn hadn't even started to crack actually as we departed around 4am. I'm quite certain it was easier for me to wake up since the stories I heard of the goings on the night before at the Brown house lead me to believe that Greg and Bill may not have gotten much sleep. The odor from the PC and the comparison Greg made regarding Bills snoring (A wooly mammoth eating a muskrat I believe is how he put it) were just two of the clues. haha But, we got off without issue and headed down/up/over to Zuma. The weather was beautiful! Not a cloud in the sky, warm, but with a bit of a breeze. I probably would have died if it had been hotter, but just came close with the weather we had. The Pacific Ocean was a balmy 59 degrees as we started our swim. I was in a group called the "Clydesdales". We went off with the group called "Thunderthighs". Guys were complaining about how insensitive the nomenclature was, but I tried to stay focused on how to keep warm. Contrary to popular belief, this thick layer of fur on my body does not insulate me from cold. Anywho, swim went great once I caught my breath. Did my best not to get lapped by the 14-29 year old girls that started 5 minutes after me...there is photo proof that I got out of the water about 2 steps ahead of the first finisher in that group. :-) Bike was VERY hilly. Advertised as "gently rolling hills", they turned out to be violently rolling mountains. Not cool, but I made it. Once again the transition consisted of Team Knight giving me grief about my tight outfit, offering me beer and generally giving me grief (Did I mention that they made me a sign that said "Go Dork!") The run was very rough. My legs were exhausted, the heat had really turned up and I just generally don't like to run. But, I made it to the end in a respectable 4 hours and 9 minutes placing me 12th among my Clydesdale compatriots. Not too shabby for a first timer, but I can definitely do better. I will MOST definitely do this again. Great time!

Knight Family Visit -- What an awesome time that was!! I truly cannot vocalize how great it was to have all these people I care so much about milling around the house every day. I would get up and go downstairs and just get a huge smile on my face. I think everyone really enjoyed themselves. Besides the usual going to the pool, sitting in traffic, drinking beer, sitting in traffic, playing cards and sitting in traffic, here was the agenda during the visit:

Thursday - Kat, Carrie, Craig and I went to the Dodgers vs. Pirates game. Craig and I had to drive 2 hours to pick up the tickets, but it was definitely worth it! Our parking pass put us, literally, right next to the stadium. We had to take like 20 steps to get to the gate. Kat wanted to take a picture of that more than anything! Tickets were about 20 rows up right at the Dodgers on-deck circle. We were right behind Tommy Lasorda!!

Friday -- The whole group went on a private tour of the Fox Studios. We got a behind the scenes of the whole lot and learned quite a bit about how movies/tv shows are made, etc. Did not have any celebrity sitings, but we did see a life-size mold of Tom Cruise. Man is he a small dude!!

Saturday -- The Bartkowiaks and Stinchcombs went to Magic Mountain to get their fix of Roller coasters. I, of course, stayed home and watched College football. :-)

Sunday -- What a great day! Early morning wake-up call as we loaded up the van and the jeep and headed up to Santa Barbara. What a beautiful drive!! Up the Pacific Coast Highway, the weather was perfect, great parking, warm water (relatively), good grub. Just a perfect day.

Monday -- The dread of heading back to work the next day and seeing everyone leave was partially aided by the fact that it was my birthday and people were finally being nice to me. :-) We hung out at the pool, drank some more Coronas (I think we finished off a truck load during the week) and then had a mini birthday party. Fun had by all!

And that leads us to today I guess. I have so much exciting news to impart, but cannot at this time due to circumstances beyond my control, but I hope to be able to reveal things in the next week or so. So, stay posted!

OK. I am exhausted from typing. I have tons more great pics I need to post for your viewing pleasure and will do so at the next available oppty. Thanks for your patience.

Much love to all!

jak

One of my favorite lines from the movie airplane is when Stryker is trying to land the plane and he is talking to himself and says "I've got to concentrate...concentrate..concentrate...concentrate. I've got to concentrate...concentrate...concentrate..concentrate. Hello...hello...hello...hello...echo....echo....echo...echo." Pretty frickin' hilarious. Hopefully everyone has seen it because it does not translate very well to the written word, but man it was funny.

Anyway, the point is that with the college football season underway, it is becoming increasingly more difficult for me to stay focused at work. Especially with the UT vs. Ohio St. game coming up this weekend. Number 1 vs. Number 2 for the first time during the regular season since 1996. In Austin. Should be an amazing game. I would have gone, but decided to sell my four tickets on e-bay instead. Got about $1600 for them. Not a bad consolation prize. :-)

For Labor Day weekend, the Knight family flew to Houston (courtesy of Mom K) to spend some quality time with my older bro prior to his deployment. We got to meet his new wife and stepson and had a great time. Feeling better about his decision to head over to Iraq. Not excited about it, but at least understand his reasoning. BAsically he is tired of the Michigan winters and wants to go to a place where the sun shines every day. ;-) Good enough reason for me.

Hagen had a doctor appt. today and he has gone from big to average. He is 50th percentile in height (25"), weight (14lb 12oz) and head size. So, I have decided that there is no time like the present to start lying about his age. Someone asked tonight how old he was and I told them he was 1 month old. They couldn't believe how big he was! I mean, I much prefer that reaction to the know-it-alls who take a look at him and say "aw..what is he, about 3 or 4 months?" Hmph. Actually, he is still a stud who is long and lean with an attitude. He is a real straight shooter who has upper management written all over him. (The Bobs, Office Space). "Yeah, I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you there." (Lumberg, Office Space) Note to Browns...you guys REALLY have to see that movie.

Alright my loyal blog aids...that is all for tonight. I am going to try to do some book work tonight, so go check that out too.

Much love to all!