12/17/07 - 12/23/07 sqWeek (30 minutes)

Saturday, 12/22/07 (60 minutes)
Ran at night, on the roads. My legs seemed to hold up fine. Also, it was one less hour that I had to share the house with that killer robot masquerading as a floor-cleaning device.

Friday, 12/21/07 (30 minutes)
I didn't sleep last night because I was trying to get on a more normal schedule, and that was the only way I could think to do it. So I didn't run much.

Thursday, 12/20/07 (no run)
I always have a hard time adjusting my running when I move to a new place. My schedule goes according to some sort of routine, even if the outside observer would disagree. It's very hard to run after dark here, because the my backyard is too uneven and I'm avoiding the roads as much as possible. That means if I haven't started running by 4pm I won't get a full run in.

Wednesday, 12/19/07 (60 minutes)
Ran around the back yard.
I'm trying to figure out why my picture on the header got chopped down. I did not do it - it was all the internets operating of their own accord. Believe me that I would not purposefully crop my own photo down to my crotch.

Tuesday, 12/18/07 (no run)
First: my sister popped one out today. As in, my parents are now my nephew's grandparents. It's name is Bryon Charleston Reed. I had to answer the phone call from North Carolina because my mom was driving. I relayed a quick series of questions from my mom over to whoever I was talking to on the other end, until my mom could be satisfied enough to look back up at the road again. We only sideswiped one traffic cone coming out of the airport parking lot.

Second: My other sister will be coming home on Friday. She now claims to look like this:

I believe her.

Third: I spent the entire day traveling and did not have time to run. While in the airplane I attempted to test my equation for how far you can see around the Earth at a given height when the pilot informed us we were at 37,000 feet. The difficulty was that there was so much atmosphere between me and the horizon 150km away that I could not see a distinct line separating them. I did see a faraway mountain, and estimating rather arbitrarily that it was 5000 higher than the surrounding ground, and holding my thumb up at the end of my arm (to the annoyance of the chick sitting next to me, but it's okay, because she wasn't hot, even though she was trying to be), I figured that 150km was probably about right.

Fourth: My dad hired a robot to clean the floors in the house for him. It lives downstairs, where they're "conveniently" keeping me, as well. If this is my last blog post, let me just say this: BIOTA RULES! YOU CAN TAKE OUR LIVES, BUT YOU CAN NEVER TAKE OUR ABILITY TO OCCASIONALLY BEAT YOU AT CHESS ON A GOOD DAY, BUT NOT CHECKERS, EVER AGAIN!

Monday, 12/17/07 (30 minutes)

I got a call from my Dad this afternoon. My parents don't call me to chat.
"Mark. Where are you?"
"Umm, in my room?"
"Your mother is looking for you at the airport."
"But I'm not at the airport."
"I know. If you were at the airport, she would have found you already."

Very true.

At first I thought they had the date of my flight wrong (I was planning on leaving tomorrow morning), but then I remembered mom is never wrong about anything in a schedule book. I missed my flight and made my mom drive out to the airport, not a quick trip from where we live. Not the most auspicious start to a winter break.

Ran half an hour, because I had to change my afternoon plans to accommodate packing, etc. before tutoring in the evening. I'm heading out to the airport now. There'll be no barefoot running or gym available at home, but no sprinkler heads or chained fences, either.

I'm looking forward to a quiet three weeks.