Out of North Face Race

Well, I spoke with a few doctors and I guess I am going to do the responsible thing and pull myself out of the North Face race this weekend. Running a half marathon on a muddy trail with 22 stitches in my shin probably isn't the wisest thing in the world. I sure don't want an infection. Not the end of the world, but I am kind of pissed off at myself. And I'm really not sure how I am going to get through the next nine days of no activity.

Woe is me.

Whatever, me. Could be far worse.

So - now that I'm looking at being a bit of a couch potato - anyone have any good book recommendations?

Whoops I Did it Again (Warning: REALLY GNARLY PICTURE BELOW - TREAD WITH CAUTION!)

Well, I fell again. This time at - yes, you guessed it - CrossFit. I was doing box jumps and kind of missed the box. And I got an owie in the process. Kind of a bad one, too - 22 stitches. Which beat my old record by two.

Anyway. I have no one to blame for this but myself.

Kind of not stoked.

Thanksgiving Day Weekend.

Well, a nice weekend was certainly ha by all. We did more activities than I can count: a Turkey Trot; multiple trips to the pool; the Little Girl got a hat; a day trip to San Francisco; some excellent restaurants; the Little Boy got xalle to the torah in honor of one year to his bar mitzvah and oh - we beat that team from Ohio.

WE BEAT THAT TEAM FROM OHIO!

Wow was that an exciting game. I really thought we were going to blow it in the end but the Maize and Blue prevailed. It's been too long a time.but boy was that sweet.

Filthy Fifty

I promise not to post every single CrossFit workout but a few stand out as particularly gnarly. Among them includes the Filtyh Fifty, which was our post-Thanksgiving workout this morning. This was made especially hard after several bottles of wine and a 10k in my legs. The workout, which is for time (mine was 30:40) includes: 50 Box jump, 24 inch box 50 Jumping pull-ups 50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood Walking Lunge, 50 steps 50 Knees to elbows 50 Push press, 45 pounds 50 Back extensions 50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball 50 Burpees 50 Double unders

Happy Thanksgiving

A nice Thanksgiving is being had here in NorCal. We woke up early today and per our tradition, ran the Indian Valley Turkey Trot. The kids, Wife and Grandfather ran the 5k (the Little Boy ran 25 minutes; the Girl 30!) and I ran the 10k (47 minutes on completely shelled CrossFit legs, which wasn't half bad). The Grandmother, who's sporting a brand new shiny knee, was our cheerleader extraordinaire.

Anyway, there's so much to be Thankful for this, and every Thanksgiving that I'm almost not sure where to start:

-- my fabulous Wife, my (generally) terrific Kids and our entire extended family
-- the absolute greatest friends in the world
-- continued health and the ability to keep moving forward in a positive way
-- for a wonderful job, great bosses and the best colleagues in the business
-- being lucky enough to love in an amazing town in the best State in the country
-- the freedoms that we all possess and probably take for granted
-- for each and every one of you reading this blog - and I means that deeply and sincerely

I could go on, but I think that covers all the most salient points.

Happy Thanksgiving, all.

Go Blue

I confess to having a pretty severe man crush on Brady Hoke, the new Michigan coach. I had expectations for a successful season but I did not expect to be 9-2 at this stage of the season. Nor did I expect that we'd put a flat out whupping on Nebraska. Not did I expect that there'd be talk about us representing the Big 10 in a BCS bowl.

But here we are. It's exciting as hell and I feel like after three years in the desert, I can finally say it: Michigan is back.

But.

There's a very big But and it's not necessarily the one that belongs to Coach Hoke. We have one very big hurdle yet to get through. We must beat that team from Ohio. It's an absolute must; NO Michigan football season can be deemed a success unless this is achieved.

But I'm a big believer. And I simply cannot wait until Saturday.

GO BLUE.

Another Nice Weekend with Friends

We had a very nice weekend with our friends the Wiley's, who were visiting from Chicago. They are contemplating a potential move and I'm hoping they liked what they saw from our fair corner of the world. We had a very nice time wit them, but one of the nicest aspects of the weekend was how fast friends our two daughters became. They are just about the same age but have never really met before (or if they did, they certainly had no recollection). It took them the better part of five minutes to warm up to one another, they had a sleep over night two and have been already emailing one another throughout the day.

Things like that just stoke me.

Today we headed to Saratoga, CA for a swim meet that was in our friend Uncle Rob's backyard (almost literally). It was great seeing Uncle Rob - the kids adore him - and the little girl swam fairly well, considering it was a cold, wet day.

All in all, a good time hopefully had by all.

In other news, the long Thanksgiving weekend is almost upon us, and none too soon. I could use a break.