Word Association for June 19th

Here's this week's word association.

1. Hook :: Captain
2. Ringer :: Dead
3. Hoodwink :: Con
4. Football :: Game
5. Out of the way :: Hurry
6. Skull :: Crossbones
7. Enough :: Already!
8. Scholarship :: College
9. Ruin :: Old
10. Lawyer :: Trial

Lazy Weekend

After the craziness of last weekend, this weekend I sat around and pretty much did nothing.  As you can imagine, it felt wonderful!

I did get out and have a little fun.  On Saturday, I went to see Man of Steel.  I certainly enjoyed parts of it, but on the whole I thought it was the triumph of special effects over characters.  Too many fights not enough character development.

Sunday I went to my ultimate Frisbee pick up game.  We actually had a good sized crowd out for it being Father’s Day.  I guess enough of the guys said this is what they wanted to do for their special day.  We had 7’s, first time in a long time.  They actually put a guy on me who hadn’t played before, but who had my stamina.  I hated it!  Now I know what everyone is complaining about.  My team managed to take our game to universe point after being down by 6 at one point, so that felt good.

And I spent lots of time working on my review blog.  In fact, I found out that they will get upset with you even for scheduling too many posts in a day.  No, they didn’t shut anything down, but they were asking for word verification.  I took the hint and backed off a bit.

I’m calculating, and if my calculations are correct, I’ve about three weeks posts to schedule before I am done with that project!  Maybe I get it all done before I leave to spend the 4th with my family.  I would be ecstatic if that could happen.  Either way, the end is in site, and I can’t wait!!!!

Weekly TV Recap for June 15th

Melissa & Joey – My DVR didn’t get the memo that there were two episodes, but fortunately I’d heard.  I knew how they were going to catch the guy in the first one, but I still loved it.  And the second?  Way too fast for me, but still pretty funny.

Royal Pains – They are setting up the soap for this season between Hank’s pain pill addiction and Divya’s pregnancy.  And this neighbor will be an interesting twist as well.  Wonder how long they are going to play out the mystery of Boris’ “death” and all it means.

Necessary Roughness – So how will TK still be on the show with the focus moving elsewhere.  Plus both kids are gone.  They are really streamlining the show.  The Hawks were one of my favorite parts, so I wonder what I will think of it after the next few episodes happen.  Certainly interested in seeing more of John Stamos and wondering how much David Anders will be around.

Burn Notice – I felt so sorry for Michael at the end of the episode.  I completely get where Fi is coming from, but it was hard to watch.  Still rooting for them to get back together in the final 11 episodes.  Great use of code there to save her life.  How much of the show will take place in South America and how much will take place back in Miami?  Certainly looks like the gang will be heading south to help at this point.

Graceland – I have a feeling this will be much less case of the week but some longer stories with the biggest story of all being what is Mike’s trainer hiding?  Those are the only two I’m feeling any connection for at the moment, but they’ve also had the biggest screen time.  Didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as last week, but I’ll keep watching.

Summer League Week 2

And on Monday, I had my second summer league game of the year.  So if you are keeping track, I was running for three days in a row for various things.  Sure am thankful my legs are used to it these days.

In fact, my legs weren’t that sore from the weekend on Monday.  I did notice a bit of shin soreness, but it wasn’t that bad, which made me thankful and happy at the same time.

Anyway, it was a very hard fought game.  Neither team got up by more than a point in the first half.  Usually they were ahead, sometimes we were ahead.  They took half at 9-8 and scored right away at half, but then we came back to tie it up.  And we had some very long points, too with lots and lots of turn overs.

This kept up until we got to 13’s.  Then we just couldn’t get it together and they scored 4 in a row to win 13-17.

On a personal front, I was not as much a part of things as I was the week before.  One point in the second half, I successfully got the disc and passed it on again.  However, a couple points later, my defender swapped a disc down before I could get it (although I would argue that I couldn’t have gotten it given his position at all, but others would say I should have gone to the disc).  Then after a couple of turns, my guy took off and sprinted down to the end zone.  I did my best to catch up, but he scored easily on me.

Oh well.  We are at 50% right now, so I’m still happy.  Next week our game is on Thursday.

However, I got a compliment after the game.  One of their players, who I’ve played against for years, said something to me about being faster.  I must admit, while I do still have endurance over speed, I do feel like I am getting faster.  Still, I was thrilled with that.  Definitely helped my ego after the point where I got scored on so badly.

Word Association for June 13th

Here's this week's word association.

1. Rubbish :: Pile
2. Court :: Jester
3. Bangs :: Hair
4. Affinity :: Connection
5. Wholesome :: Clean
6. Jessica :: Rabbit
7. Trumpet :: Band
8. Treatment :: Medical
9. Happening :: Place
10. Pain :: Gain

Camp Pendleton Mud Run 2013

Originally, when I planned to do two mud runs on back to back days, I planned to stay down closer to Camp Pendleton in between and not go home.  All that flew out the window when Spencer, who was supposed to do them both with me, wound up having to work in between.

As it turns out, he decided one was enough for him, so I headed down to Oceanside late on Saturday, but not as late as it would have been.  As originally planned, I stayed with my friend Ian who is stationed there.  And he ran it with me.  Well, sort of.  He took off at his own pace at the start and beat me by half an hour.  Still, it was nice to have someone waiting for me at the finish line this year.

And I had a blast.  I love how getting to the mile two marker always seems too early these days.  The rest of them feel about right, but I always have a hard time believing I’ve made it to mile 2 by that point.

This year marked the 20th anniversary of the mud run, and they added some new obstacles, including a small mud pit probably around mile one.  Of course, the water levels are so low that both of the water crossings were dry, which was a bummer.  Anyway, they added a rope wall and hay bails and an over/under section.  And they still had the classic mud pits and the walls, although the second wall seemed higher to me this year.

I was definitely tired by the time I finished.  In 24 hours, I’d done 10 miles of mud run.  But I recovered quickly after a good lunch.

And I finished in 1:28.  Yes, about seven minutes slower than last year, but last year I was training for Tough Mudder, so I was doing a lot more running by that point in the year.  Frankly, I was thrilled with my time considering how under trained I thought I was.

Afterward, we went back to Ian’s to clean up and then met up with some of his friends from church for lunch.  Then we cruised the coast a bit before I packed up and headed home.  It was a nice, relaxing afternoon.

The day would have been perfect if Spencer had come like originally planned, but overall it was a great day.  I’m ready for next year!  And considering last year I wasn’t feeling the same way, that’s saying something.  I’m sure it ahs to do with having someone to run it with this year.  Although some year, I’d like to do it with the people I sign up with again.

Spring Gladiator Rock n Run

As I mentioned last week, this was a two mud run kind of weekend.  So on Saturday, on only two hours of sleep, Spencer and I headed down for the Gladiator Rock n Run in Irvine.  We arrived in plenty of time and proceeded to get ready and go.

This was a four mile mud run with plenty of obstacles.  We jumped into ice cold water.  We crawled through mud a couple of times.  We ran across an old air strip.  And we crawled through the longest mud pit they could build – set a world record in fact.

However, I wasn’t exactly thrilled with that mud pit.  The barbed wire they had for us to go under was too low.  I love getting muddy, but I like to keep my face out of the mud.  It really irritates the eyes if you go all the way under.  Sorry, but so low I have to do that takes all the fun out of it.

There were some other hard obstacles, especially the dumpster dive.  But I made it through that one this year.  I tried the big wall at the end twice as well, but I just couldn’t quite make it over this year.  Last year, I did it, but this year I just kept sliding.

I got pretty scratched up, which is funny because I don’t remember it happening.  But I’ve got a scrape on my elbow and knee and several scratches on my legs.

Clean up was a joke again.  They had some company there promoting their soap, but they gave us hardly any time to get clean and hardly any water.  I still had quite a bit of mud on me when we were done.  But we survived.

Yes, some complaints.  But overall it was fun.  I’ll be seeing them in Pasadena in September.

Weekly TV Recap for June 8th

Melissa & Joey – I’m kind of surprised they didn’t have Mel and Joe dating a divorced couple before now.  It was actually a very funny episode.  And the poor nephew.  I could see his sub-plot coming since everyone would think staying at home means isolation, but it was pretty funny.  Especially when he created a school with kids too cool for him to sit with.

Burn Notice – I hadn’t heard about the mini-Heroes reunion with the two guest stars on the show.  I’m surprised they’ve jumped ahead like that, but I think it is going to work well for them.  And I’m very curious to see how this all wraps up since we know this is the final season.  For that matter, I wonder if it is a split season or if we’ll get it all at once.

Graceland – Okay, so it probably would have helped if I had sat down and watched it all straight through, but it was a bit hard to track who all the characters are, the agencies the work for, and their relationships to each other.  Still, this one has promise with the creative way the main character was thinking on his feet.  I’ll definitely give it another few weeks at a minimum.

Fighting a Cold

It’s been a while since I had a cold period, and even longer since I had one that ended with a bad cough.  But that’s just what I’ve caught this time.  Last week, I was fighting off the cold, and this week I’m coughing like crazy.  Actually, it’s not that bad during the day, but as the sun goes down I can feel myself stopping up.

As a result, I haven’t been running much outside of ultimate Frisbee the last two weeks.  It’s frustrating because this is the big weekend with two mud runs back to back.  I really wish I could have gone on my long run last week and a run at all last night, but I’m trying to rest up to knock this things out.

I am feeling better each day, so hopefully I can get rid of it soon.

Of course, my lack of sleep certainly didn’t help.  From Saturday to Tuesday night, I was not able to fall asleep until sometime between 2 and 3 AM.  That made for a very tired Mark come Wednesday, one who almost didn’t come into work at all.  Fortunately, I have slept better the last couple of nights and am feeling better in that department.  Hopefully I can get enough sleep over the weekend even with everything else going on so I don’t wind up making myself worse.

Summer League – Off to a Great Start

Monday night was my first week of summer league for the year.  And here’s a twist – we won!

It really helped that they only had 7 people for the first half.  My friend Luke showed up at half to give them one sub.  We had enough for two full teams, so we were able to run and wear them out.

We did stay very close for the first half.  It was tied more often than not, but we did take half at 9-7.  Then in the second half we really took off.  I think it was 17-11 or something like that at the end.

It was a typical first week where we were all getting used to each other to a certain extent.  However, I was able to get open and get the disc several times.  I only dropped it once, and that was one I had to jump to even touch it was so far over my head.  And I successfully passed it on the rest of the time, although a couple were thanks to good hands by teammates.

We had fun, although winning does help with that, too.

Here’s hoping it will be a good, fun season whether we win or lose the rest of our games.