Crazylegs 2008

I think I've run about 6 editions of the Crazylegs Classic. The 8K run is one of my favorites. This year was a new experience for me b/c we had a team with our life group, appropriately named Team LG. I wasn't sure if I'd be able to run b/c I thought I broke my toe the week prior. But the pain got better each day, and by Friday night I was pretty sure I'd be able to run. My alternative was to walk with Katie and Melissa, but I just didn't want to do that.

So Brian and Melissa picked us up to start the day, and we took our first pic waiting in line for the shuttle that took us from Camp Randall to the start line at the Capital Square.







Katie and I look like the forecast called for 35 and windy
---- oh wait, it was!!












And at the finish,
Team LG was victorious.


For those of you keeping score at home, I ran 41:03 without any training. Katie loves it when I don't train for my races.

New (First) Outfit

I have to admit how much I'm looking forward to dressing my son. I've always been interested in fashion, and those adult outfits in kids sizes are just the cutest thing I've ever seen. So Katie and I decided we should go out and get a first outfit for Baby Boy. Tori was with us, and we had fun looking through Baby Gap and H&M's selection of infant clothes.

I ended up picking up this outfit: a cute baseball-looking shirt with blue sleeves and a brown pair of pants that can be rolled up into shorts. I'm very excited to get Junior into his first set of clothes.

20-week ultrasound

I haven't written about our pregnancy on the Game Plan b/c I had a couple other (out of town) people to tell personally. It's kind of a long story which I can't (and won't) get into. But now it's officially on the blog - we're having a baby, due date August 28.

To all my readers (if there's any besides my 2 moms, let me know), you can keep updated on our progress here, at the Game Plan. This has proven to be a very reflective time for Katie and me. Discussions are different. Planning is ambiguous. But the excitement is high. It's been amazing to see Katie's belly grow with the development of our child.

Seeing our baby for the first time on the ultrasound is a moment I'll never forget. It practically took my breathe away, and it felt like time stopped for 2 seconds.

Calling it a child or baby has been our way of conversation for the last 4 months. Well that changed today! We had our 20-week ultrasound today at 3:15. After 18 weeks it's usually possible to see if it's a boy or a girl.

In the room, the sonographer was going through all these measurements of our baby, similar to the last couple ultrasounds. She measured the head (5cm diameter, 17cm circumference), arms, spine, internal organs. One of the most amazing shots was the 4 chambers of the heart. The heartbeat was 150. She said she had to chase the baby a lot - very active. Then she said, "And that's a boy not afraid to tell everyone he's a boy." There it is - we're having a baby boy!!! !!!

!!! !!! !!! !!! !!!

I can't write without a smile on my face! I'm so excited to see what's next. Now I don't want to wait. Sitting here, I just want to get to the first week in September and hold him.

So stay tuned for pictures and stories. Who knows... maybe Baby Boy will get his own blog. But until then, he'll have to be the star of dad's blog.

Say it ain't so, Billy Joel

I understand that we all get older, and the music we listened to gets more and more "out of date." But like a good bottle of wine, it gets better with time.... right? (Rhymes are flowing today.)

In high school a good friend of mine, Jason Jobke, always listened to the Oldies. He was raised on it by his parents, and so we listened to them so much that the Oldies really grew on me. The summers of 1993 and '94 were filled with nights of shooting pool in his basement, playing basketball in his driveway, and driving to McDonald's at all hours of the night to the soundtrack of the Oldies.

On a different musical commentary, I've never been ashamed of my love for 80's music. A genre in and of itself, the Monster Ballads will always take me to a good place. The music I grew up on was Bon Jovi, Van Halen, the Police, and even AC/DC. Elton John and Billy Joel were classic musicians, not to be confused with the Oldies. NOT TO BE CONFUSED!!!

Yesterday I'm driving home from the club on a beautiful sunny day, and I do the quick scan of the stations to find some good music. I flipped (quickly) through the Oldies station and had to double back to confirm what my ears were telling me. Billy Joel is on the Oldies station!! "Movin' Out" was certainly a catchy tune, and I guess you can even say it "sounds" Oldies, but Billy Joel on the Oldies station is like hearing Def Leopard on the Country station.