Pacing

I did a 250ish meter open-ocean (sea) swim this week (it is hard to judge distance in open water (I rely on wikimapia's measurement tool)).  This gave me a happiness boost because I am getting my pacing, form and breathing rhythm better balanced.  Plus, the visibility was great so I had entertaining fish to look at.

In other news, here is the legally-required comment on family life:

Summer Media Buy

Given the horrible taxes here, we generally make a major purchase of DVDs, books, etc. in the summer.  This also helps with making the long drives easier on the kids.  So far, I've spent less than last year, which I consider a good thing.  Of course, the relaunch of the DC universe and Daughter #1's affinity for comic books makes this a difficult goal.

Schizo updates

Again, another mashedup post, rattled off days after the events.  You're welcome.

First, as it required, the incredibly trite stuff:  My new fitness routine has been producing decent results.  I've lost middle fat, while retaining my previous strength levels, so hooray.  My approach consists of alternating days of weights and interval training, with practice sessions for my micro-triathlon thrown in.  I need to learn to pace myself on the swim.

Second,  I had episode one of 'the talk' with the girls.  Supplemented by the very helpful book It's Amazing.  Thanks to the activity box precedent, this was extreemly easy to pull off.  The kiddos were used to the idea of hanging out with Dad to learn cool new stuff, so it wasn't much of a stretch.  There was none of the stereotypical freaked-outishness that tradition calls for.  I believe it was a success.  As as side point, I find the book to be a little text heavy for the age, but still give it 5 stars.

Third, we had to cancel our weekend excursion plans because of recent events, which was simultaneously very natural and super weird.  The dialog went something like this:

Me:  Sorry kids, we can't go to Tyre because there was a bomb in Sidon so we have to stay home.

#1:  Well, why is that a problem, can't we just go around?

Me:  Not really, we would have to go through Sidon to get to Tyre.  We can still do fun things though, like go to the beach.

#2:  Did someone drop the bomb out of a plane?

Me:  No, they built it on the ground and then blew it up there.

#2:  Oh, that's interesting.

On the one hand, this is waaaay easier to deal with than the bombs of 2005 or the war of 2006 (which #1 does not really remember being close to).  Still, I half of me finds it totally normal to be changing my weekend plans because of bombs, and part of me still finds that very foreign.

In the end, we compromised by going to a beach that was half-way to Sidon and had a wonderful time.

Healthy

Today, I introduced my oldest daughter to strawberry custard pies from McDonalds.  It was well received.

About 2 days in my head

I really thought there had only been a couple of days since my last posting, but the date stamps claim it has been a week.  I better get cracking or I will loose whatever momentum I have.

This week we found out that it will be very unlikely that I will be able to see my parents at all during our trip to the US this summer.  I'm not really looking forward to letting them know that, but it is the reality.  I am fairly confident they don't read this blog very frequently so I should have a few more days before the news hits.

As far as the kids go, I've been excercising fatherly duty #47 and brining home lots of new movies for them to watch.  Turns out Daughter #1 loves the Final Fantasy series, which even I thought would be too much for her.  I must say though, the motorcycle usage is really making me reach for my credit card.  As a side point, I am gaining a great appreciation for Japanese film tropes such as: Gaya, demon germ particles, super beings who start out good and then fall, etc. etc.  The artistry is quite stunning though.

Just this morning, Daughter #2, in her not quite well pronounced English mized with Lebanese inflection came up to me and said:

I really like how Hayao Miyazaki draws men's hair.  He does a really good job with that.

Naturally, I responded.  That's true but I like Sephiroth's hair too.

She then countered with someone else, but I missed who she preferred because we were behind schedule and the little weasel still hadn't put on her socks.

On a completely different topic, if my stakeholder caves on the 'having of the third child' issue, and it is a boy, I will push for serious consideration of the name Sephiroth.  If he doesn't like it, he can shorten it to Seth.  It is probably a good thing she doesn't know this, as it would not enhance my initial bargaining position.

Up to Speed

Blogger made me log in to my dashboard before posting a comment on another site, which presented me with the official date of my last post – two months ago. That is rather jarring but not wholly incredible. Much has happened since then, so I will attempt a wrap-up post in hopes that it might get my blog fires going again.

First, cello has been a bit rocky. I persuaded my teacher that I was ready for the Thais Meditation by Massenet, for which, shockingly, I was not actually ready. Who would have thought? After a month of denial, I am now working much more successfully on a different piece. My teacher keeps claiming that I keep ‘cutting’ the notes. He was somewhat amused when I told him it was his fault for not assigning me something from the Baroque period. Teachers love these little humorous moments (or so I am told).

Second, the kids have been doing well, although they have been up to their ears in vacation days lately. They don’t get any more for the next two months, so I suppose it all balances out eventually. They have been really enjoying their horseback riding lessons. Until last week that is. Daughter #2’s Shetland pony tried to buck her off and ended up kicking Daughter #1’s horse in the neck. No good came of this for anyone. Pause for a moment to ask yourself if you have ever seen a Shetland pony buck. I didn’t know if was mechanically possible. Turns out that it is.

Third, I have sort of become a gym rat. For various reasons, I am somewhat emerging from an intensive 10 week gym program, which was facilitated by MA (thanks honey). It was quite intense, and very time consuming (possibly impacting my Massenet situation) but generally successful. While my routine is technically over, I seem to have settled into a much higher level of gymliness than was my previous baseline.

Also, as a side-point, MA has become rather blog famous. She has had several people (strangers) recognizer as ‘that blogger’. One of which told her that she was famous, so that must make it true. Anyway, her blog is awesome and updated daily.

Finally, there is a new dance teacher at the local studio, so I am going to try and get MA interested in re-enrolling. She is still put off by the appalling narcissist we had last time.

Time to register

The summer festivities we are interested in have started opening their various registration periods, so we have be clicking, faxing and in some cases, getting relatives to hand-deliver forms.  So far, so good.  Looks like the summer will be fun all-around. 

While we were looking for activities for the kids, this gem popped up:

2011 Ballwin Triathlon

I think this can fairly be categorized as a 'fun run' level triathlon, but I'm excited about participating.  I've wanted to get into triathalons but there aren't very many in my neck of the woods.