It's beginning to look a lot like...

well, Thanksgiving anyway. No snow on the ground by Halloween, but close.

Monday

• 7 mile run at lunch with Joe, Todd, JVD and Eric. Faster paced run today.


• Lilly and I built a fort to hid in when mom came home.


• Holly took Lilly to her first "Abrakadoodle" art class at Franklin Elementary. Lilly found a friend Lexie and they had so much fun they didn't want to leave. Lilly brought home some modeling clay - "it's like silly clay!" Here's the artist and her work:
  
  
  


• Holly rode the trainer so I joined her on rollers for a half hour. It really loosened up my legs from all the running I've done as of late.

Tuesday

• 7 miler at lunch with JVD, Eric and Nelson. John started fast and it was a decent pace the whole run. Eric and Nelson said, "See ya later," about 3 minutes into it.


• Lilly likes jumping on the bed also:
  
  
  
  


• We had Jacob and Amelia over for a while after dinner. The kids were more interested in jumping off of the table into the Jumpoline rather than checking out the awesome Lincoln Log house I built. :)

Wednesday

• Reading buddy.


• It was "safety day" at Lilly's swim class. They talked about water safety and even had them jump in the water with sweatshirts on to simulate what it'd be like to fall in with clothes on:
  
  
  


• Talked a little more to Mike W at swim. He said there's always a lap lane open if I wanted to do some laps while Lilly is in class. Cool.


• Holly went for a run (after dinner in the dark) and felt pretty good.


• I took Boo for a walk. They've started dredging out the Rum River. Next summer we'll be able to take our boat up to the docks in downtown Anoka. Certianly a novelty since we can walk there in 5 minutes.

Thursday

• 7+ mile run at lunch w/Todd, JVD and Eric. (48:50)


• Read to Lilly's preschool class. Olivia and Hungry Hen. A little bit of a surprise ending in the last one when the hen eats the fox.


• My own mini duathlon. Rode 1hr on rollers, ran 4 miles. (1:25)

Friday

• 8 miles at lunch w/Joe, Todd, Eric C, Eric H, JVD. J, J and J (me) took the longer loop to make it 8. Eric lost his watch.


• Rode for an hour to Harry Potter with Holly. She did two hours. Good for her!

Saturday

• Ran to the dam and back (13+ miles). The dam is closed so I did the Anoka side there and back. Good run. Listened to Greg Boyd sermons for most of it.


• Worked in the yard. Finally got all the leaves up. And cleaned out of the gutters. The kids "helped" for some of it too.
  
  Tackle her!!!
  
  
  Huge leaf pile!
  
  
  In lockup.
  
  
  Hailey is under the tarp. She thought it'd make a good parachute. It didn't. But she still liked jumping.
  
  


• Had dinner, played puzzles, drank some wine, watched The Illusionist and went to bed.

Sunday

• 2nd time at Mt Olive


• Lilly and I rode a lap in the park. She was bundled up in the trailer. The trailer makes me work hard and go slower which keeps me warm. My fingers and toes were cold by the end (and so were Lilly's). Some cocoa helped.


• Lilly and Holly went to the library and bowling while I stayed home to work from home and to cook beef stew. When they got home we were all working on a computer. I was working, Holly was doing foundation stuff and Lilly was playing PBS Kids. She looks like she's ready for an office job:
  
  
  


• The stew was great! Lilly wasn't. And neither was dad.

November

It's always a shock after the time change. Long shadows at 3? Dark at 5:30? Wow.

Monday

• Holly started her new job at ATK (Commercial Products / Federal Ammunition) today. It is 1.5 miles from our house so she'll save around an hour and a half each day in commute time.


• Woke up and it was 50 degrees so headed out on a bike ride to the dam and back. There won't be that many opportunities left.


• Played in the giant leaf pile. Gave the kids a ride swinging around in circles and played freeze tag and sharks and minnows. The giant leaf pile:
  
  
  


• Holly had a great idea of walking on the trail in Elm Creek in the dark. We saw an owl sitting on a log as we crossed over a creek. It flew away after we spotlighted it. Very cool. Lilly was on the lookout for coyotes.
  
  
  
  


• Made applesauce with the apples Lilly picked off of Grandpa Jerry's tree. Mmmmmm, warm applesauce.

Tuesday

• Left early to vote on the way to work. Realized I left the ignition on in the car after letting the kids listen to "Ain't it great to be crazy" yesterday evening. Luckily Holly hadn't left yet so a quick jump start had us on our way.


• Voted in the morning with Holly and Lilly. We were in and out in 15 minutes. Lilly said I should just vote for every guy named John. I said, "Sounds like a plan...let's just take a look here...for president...uh-oh..."


• 8 miles at lunch w/Eric H and Todd. We went a little early as it worked out for all of us. A political conversation/argument ensued after Eric said he wore black to symbolize his mood after Barack Obama takes away all of his money. :) Conversation left me really thinking that we're all good people and want to do the right thing, we just disagree if the government is the right vehicle to do it.


• Holly said I should go on a ride before her spin class since it was 70 degrees. It was great! Met Neil, Jay and Dave W on the corridor trail and did a lap of "The Local", north edition. Neil got us all to put in an effort going for the finish line on Oxbow Creek Trail. Home in plenty of time for Holly to make spin. Thanks guys, and thanks Holly.


• Played My Little Pony with Lilly and then read stories.

Wednesday

• Woke up and ran 7 miles before the thunderstorm. 60 degrees at 5 in the morning!


• Lilly's swim class. She's on to Little 3s next!


• Waxed the Corolla before winter. Now the 4Runner.

Thursday

• Run at lunch w/Todd, JVD and Eric. From the looks of the clouds when we left the building we thought the end of the world was coming. Turns out it didn't even rain on us. My left ankle hurt a little bit the rest of the day after this run.


• Sharks and Minnows with Lilly and friends.


• 5 mile run with Boo. Boo is such a good dog...he can run right beside me w/o the leash. My ankle bothered me a little bit.


• Lilly and I watched videos on YouTube. I mistkenly played this one thinking it'd be a funny running commercial like this one. Halfway through I asked Lilly if she was scared. She said, "No, let's watch it again!" When Mom got home she heard all about the scary video we watched and wanted to sleep in our bed.

Friday

• Ran 7 miles at lunch with Todd, Joe and Eric. No problem with my ankle. Some thought we were nuts running in "the cold" but I was warm the whole time. And it's gonna get colder.


• Holly and Lilly went to the store while I changed the tire on Holly's bike. She took it for a ride in the dark on Monday and ran over something that instantly flatted her front wheel. She said she was lucky not to go down. Yikes.


• Played Chutes and Ladders. Holly won.

Saturday

• Woke up early and ran my 9 mile route. Used a headlamp for the mile through the park. Not bad. Very quiet compared to a weekday morning.


• Loaded up the car and headed down to visit my Grandma and Aunt/Uncle in Waukee, IA. There was snow on the fields on the way down:
  
  
  


• Ate with Grandma, Jerel and Elaine at Pizza Ranch. Lilly did the "chocolate pudding dance" when she ate her pudding.


• Went over to Grandma's. Elaine and Jerel gave Lilly a Mr. Potato Head set to play with while we visited.
  
  
  
  
  Boo's excited:
  
  


• Grandma's apartment has a game room with ping pong, a pool table, darts and an elevated putting green. Here's Lilly playing golf with Jerel:
  
  
  


• Lilly took a little nap on Grandma's lap:
  
  
  


• Went to church with Grandma.


• Holly, Lilly and I met Chris, Amy Jo, Jordyn, Tom and Teresa at Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was great to catch up with them again. Lilly loved seeing Jordyn (she's 3 years older than Lilly).


• Watched TV with Grandma and crashed on the air mattress.

Sunday

• Woke up and hung out at Grandmas. Lilly kept wanting to wake her up.


• Said our goodbyes and left. It's always hard to say goodbye to granmda. :(


• Ate lunch in Ames with Kecia and Tim. Very good food at Stomping Grounds. Headed over to their house quickly to see the new doggie Mara (Marathon). Boo ran like crazy with her and their older labbie Lucky. Lucky dog is 11!


• Nice drive back to the cities.


• Ran the 8 mile Champlin loop.


• Quesedillas for dinner.


• Webcam talk with Aunt Bee. After a day in the car, Lilly couldn't sit still long enough to see her very well. Whenever Lilly talked she got as close to the camera as she could. Lilly didn't believe Geoff was at the beach.


• Another great weekend.

Skiing???

I just took a look at Skinny Ski and there was skiing at Mapelag this last Sunday (10/26). Probably over a month away here. Probably. :)

Monday

• 8 mile run at lunch w/Todd, JVD, Eric H. Added on the little gravel loop to get 8. Chilly.


• Played with Lilly outside and Hailey came out with her metal detector. Realized the batteries were dead when it couldn't find the car. Kicked the soccer ball around.


• Tied down the boat cover. Hopefully it'll stay tucked in until spring.


• Worked from home. I think work may be a little crazy for a while.

Tuesday

• 7 mile run at lunch. Big group - Joe, Todd, JVD, Nelson, Eric H. Politics talk even on the run. Ugh.


• Lilly and I picked up leaves and Lillys.

Wednesday

• Reading buddy. Freidrich and I talked a lot more today. It's good to have him start to come out a little more.


• Lilly swim class. We had to leave early (my choice) as Lilly was misbehaving. Not fun.


• Hyper-dash in the living room:
  
  
  


• Blowing and raking leaves in the dark. It doesn't work too bad using a head-mounted lamp. We're out of town the next two weekends so yard pickup will have to be in the evenings.

Thursday

• 8 mile run at lunch - me and the mp3 player. Nice crusing run.


• The river is down as the dam opened up on Monday. Lilly played in the mud while I cleaned the sticks and driftwood out of the shoreline rocks.


• 2 hour bike ride on the green bike - through the park, along the corridor trail over 610 and back up the Anoka/Coon Rapids side. Neil called as I was crossing 169 and let me know Dave was right behind me. Waited for him and rode the corridor trail to his house. Had a beer with him and realized if your problems are burning enough vacation time and getting the leaves off your lawn you have life pretty good.


• Had some dinner and raked leaves for an hour. With the yard light it works pretty well to rake after dark.

Friday

• 7 miler at lunch w/Todd, Eric H and JVD. Sped up the 2nd half and it was just me, Todd and John at the end. (49:30)


• Pearl Jam Ten has to be one of the best albums of all time.


• Raking and playing in the leaves with Lilly and Hailey.


• Trick-or-treating. We (Lilly, Holly, Boo and I) met up with "the neighbor kids" (Hailey, Jacob and Mia) and their mom Julie and went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. Lilly was Bat Girl:
  
  
  
  
  
  Hailey was "scream guy with a sword!", Jacob was a "scary clown" and Mia was a "light up princess".
  
  The weather was nice (~50 degrees) and there were plenty of people out. We left the candy out on our porch and only a few kids must have come down because it was almost all there when we came back. It's always a guess as to how many will come down to our houses at the end. Took Hailey out a little longer as she was motivated for more candy and the younger ones wanted to be home.

Saturday

• Headed out at sunup to squeeze in a ride before chores and heading down to Iowa. It was 30 degrees so I decided to duck into Hoglund's woods and do some mountain biking. I was able to stay warm when I was working in the woods and only was cold after I'd pop out onto a paved trail. Rode for 2 hrs and headed home.


• Yard work. Raked and picked up leaves, mowed and fertilized. There's only leaves left in the bed by the river. And then the willow and hackberry will let loose and we start all over.


• Holly and Lilly got back from Erica's baby shower and we took off for Sioux Falls. Took Boo for a walk around Harrisburg and saw a cool sunset reflected off some silos at the end of the street:
  
  
  


• Watched Alicia sing in the South Dakota All-State Orchestra/Chorus concert. Very nice concert.
  
  
  
  Jackie and Lilly:
  
  


• Headed to Sioux Center and watched a "Dirty Jobs" TV show on milking and breeding cows. Mmmmmmm. :)

Sunday

• Woke up early and ran for 1:20. Sandy Hollow and back, to the new golf course, through some new neighboroods, back to the Sandy Hollow trail and back. Probably 11 - 12 miles.


• Jumped with Lilly on the trampoline. She can do a flip:
  
  
  
  I tried one too and didn't hurt myself. It was so fun to play around and laugh with her. It was a very special moment of the weekend for me. Some pics:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


• Alicia's birthday party. She turns 18 just in time to vote.


• A family game of kickball.


• Holy cow, it's 75 degrees!


• Headed home. Lilly fell asleep 15 minutes into the ride:
  
  
  
  Jumped off 169 in Mankato and found a nice tavern/restraunt to eat at ("Tav on the Ave"). Holly had a buffalo chicken quesedilla and I had fish tacos. I love finding local places to eat.


• Got home around 9:00, read stories and went to bed. Fun weekend!

Anoka Halloween Week

Anoka is the Halloween Capital of the world. Don't believe it? It's right there on the web: Anoka Halloween

Monday

• 8 mile run - Mercy Hospital route. Man, I have a sinus headache. I can't wait to have this go away.


• Lilly and I cleaned the leaves off the driveway. Mainly because we wanted a leaf pile. Lilly even ran the blower for a little while. Dropped the leaves off down in the leaf pile then carried a garbage can full of Lilly back up the hill.


• Carving pumpkins! Lilly digging out the slimy stuff:
  
  
  
  Holly's masterpiece (she used a stencil):
  
  
  
  Holly's "mean" pumpkin and my traditional Jack-o-lantern:
  
  



• Mothballed and buttoned up the boat. Now I just need to throw the huge tarp over and we're done until spring. Part of this exercise was torching open the storage door in the lower garage as the driveway sealer people had tarred it shut.

Tuesday

• 1st reading buddy day today with my new buddy Freidrich.


• Lilly's preschool "Fall Festival". Pumpking bowling, goop, Teddy Grahms, leaf rubbings. It was fun.


• Mountain bike ride with Dave, Tom, and Jason. Man Dave has the singletrack dialed. Even in the dark. I kept up some of the time but usually made one handling mistake that would have me off the back. Endo-ed over a waist high log pile twice. Lost Tommy C a couple times and never did see him again after the last one. Dave heard from him on the phone so we knew he was alive. I was really warm the entire night except for the ride home from the woods. Great ride.

Wednesday

• 7 mile run in the morning, a shortened Mercy Hospital run.


• 7 mile run with Joe at lunch. I wanted to try a double day to see how my legs felt. I felt really good and was able to keep up with Joe after I made the mistake of telling him I felt good. We did the last two miles around 5:30 pace.


• Lilly swim class:
  
  



• 4 is Fun! After swim we met Holly at Wilson Elementary in Anoka for a kindegarten readyness class called, "4 is Fun". There were various activities (cutting paper, drawing, matching shapes, storytime/listening, music/dance) setup throughout the school. We had fun and Lilly even saw her old friend Connor from Kindercare.
  
  
  
  A highlight was meeting another girl named Lilly:
  
  

Thursday

• Rollerblading with Bob M. What a great guy. Good to catch up and hear some race stories from inline skating.


• Picked Rob up from the cycle shop and grabbed some beer and BBQ. Watched a little of the World Series and then dropped Rob off. Boo came along to run hot laps with Riley dog while Rob and I shot some hoops on a 8 foot rim. We need a basketball hoop - that was a blast.

Friday

• Did a quick ride to the dam and back early in the dark. It was misting and 45 degrees but I was cooking warm as I overdressed a little. Remembered a ride I did on a summer evening and how different it was to be riding in sandals and cruising along at 5 mph.


• Lilly's preschool conference. It was good news and another reasurance that Ms. SeAnn is a great teacher for Lilly. Some cute stories of Lilly helping other kids.


• 1/2 day vacation (Holly took the whole day) to catch the Parade of Little People. I didn't get home in time to see the parade but was able to walk home with Holly and Lilly.


• Fleet Farm with my dad to get a huge tarp for the boat.


• Grandma and Grandpa Rotach showed up and Holly and I were able to take a quick lap through the park.


• Grandma and Grandpa Plasier, Aimee, Kelsie and Alex came around 7:00.


• Grandma R made us all taco salads for dinner.

Saturday

• Trimmed some branches above the boat and threw the tarp over. Plenty of overlap and now we just have to tie it down.


• Anoka Grey Ghost Run (5K) - I got 9th place with a time of (18:03). 44 seconds slower than last year. Ouch. Really burned my lungs. Went out too quickly and blew up about halfway through. Was able to recover enough to pass someone back for 9th place.


• Green shirts this year. Met the walkers (Holly, Jerry, Kelsie, Alex, Aimee) at the finish. Holly and Kelsie ran the entire 1 mile. Kelsie is doing the 5K next year!


• Lilly, Alex and most of the others stayed for the Grand Day parade. Jerry and I went back to the house and cleaned his bike. Talked about skiing and wakebaording and it had me wishing it was spring instead of fall.


• Bike to the wood park. Me, Lilly, Holly, Jerry, Shonna and Alex biked to the Elm Creek wood park while Aimee and Kelsie drove. Played a bit and biked home. Aimee and Kelsie were able to bike home and Alex, Holly and Lilly drove back. I was warm biking but jeez it gets cold as the sun goes down. Here's a nice pick of fall colors:
  
  
  
  Kelsie and Lilly on the tire swing:
  
  
  
  The group hanging around eating mellocreme pumpkins:
  
  
  
  


• Q-Fanatic take out. College football and the World Series.


• Alex and Kelsie read stories to Lilly:
  
  
  
  

Sunday

• G's Cafe for breakfast.


• Bought a gas powered leaf blower and gave my electric one to Jerry. He thinks Alex might like using it.


• Afternoon bike ride for around an hour and a half. Down the Anoka side of the river to the dam, across the corridor trail to the park, back home the shorter way through the park. It was super WINDY but it wasn't bad until the last leg towards home. I ended up being pretty warm and even stopped and packed my jacket part way.


• Holly and Lilly brought a pizza home from the movie.

Time to Winterize

I think it's time to pull out the boats and winterize them. We're getting closer to the dam being opened up (Oct 27th) and with highs in the mid 50's I'm guessing the boating season is over.

Monday

• 8 mile Mercy Hospital run. I could tell I ran hard this weekend.
  

Tuesday

• Long walk with Boo in the morning
  
• 2.5 hrs on the mountain bike
  • Threw the light on the mountain bike and headed to the park.
    
  • Met Bob Dahl (actually he came up beind me and scared me out of my shorts). He was on his cyclocross bike and took me through some singletrack.
    
  • Right around sundown Bob told me he'd better get going because last year he t-boned a deer riding at night. Whoa.
    
  • Headed back towards Hoglund's woods and saw the man himself coming back from downtown on a popcorn run. Talked a little and he had to get home for a beer.
    
  • By now it's too dark for me to ride in the woods alone (I can't outride the boogie man through the woods) so I head along the paved trail over to Zachary and meet up with the corridor trail.
    
  • I rode the "horse" trail all the way to the dam and it was a deeeelight. My speed was slightly lower and effort was slightly higher than it would have been the paved trail so I stayed nice and warm - almost hot. The night, tunnel vision aspect made it pretty interesting for an easy doubletrack grass trail. Interesting contrast between seemingly wide open prairie sections and sections where I was practically in back yards. I think I've found my new fall ride.
    
  • On to cross 610 and come back home along the Coon Rapids side of the river.
  
  

Wednesday

• Rollerblading for 1 hr over lunch.
  
• Lilly swim class:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• HyperDash and Memory with Holly & Lilly.
  
• Walk with Boo while listening to the final presidential debate.
  

Thursday

• 7 miler at lunch with Joe and Nelson. "We're two fast asians", Joe says. He really wants me to do the marathon next year with him. It would be a good year to do it as I won't be bike commuting until Lilly starts school in the fall. If Nelson does his standard 3 marathons next year Twin Cities will be his 20th. Wow.
  
• Evening ride on the mountain bike. I started in the park riding some singletrack and met Neil to ride the paved trail. As we rode along you could tell the temp had dropped and I was quickly getting cold. We had a laugh as we passed by the ski challet while they were testing the lights on the ski trails. Something like, JayT says, "Hi" and "Can you leave the lights on for us?". We followed my Tuesday ride and rode the "horse" trail from the park over to the dam. I had the idea of stopping by to "trick or treat" at Dave & Diane's house and see how Dave was doing. Great time. A cold ride home that started with trying to hold Neil's wheel back to his house. I think he saw the boogie man and bolted for the barn.
  
  Some blurry Elm Creek pics:
  
  
  
  
  
  

Friday

• 10 mile run over lunch at work. Saw Todd roller skiing in the park.
  
• Walk with Boo. Downtown Anoka from the pedestrian bridge:
  
  
  
  
• Went to bed early as we're all sick.
  

Saturday

• Buffalo for breakfast ride. Neil, Jake Cohen, Paul R, Dave G and I rode to Buffalo and had breakfast at J's Family Restraunt. Nice easy ride. It was great to see Jake and talk some Cat 2 racing with him. He graduated this spring and is a phlebotomist at the St. Cloud hospital. He had a white Cannondale exactly like White Lightning.
  
  
  
  
• Lilly, Jacob, Mia and I went over the landing to drop off the boat trailer. On the way back we stopped at the park to play and found out it was the pumpkin carving contest for the Anoka Light Up the Night parade float. We all teamed up to carve this one:
  
  
  
  
• Anoka Light Up the Night Parade. A great parade in downtown Anoka where the floats are lit up. Neil, Belinda, Rose and Owen came up to head to the night parade. The neighbor kids (Hailey, Jacob and Mia) came along too. Great time! Here's our pumpkin lit up:
  
  
  
  The kids dancing before the parade:
  
  
  
  The pumpkin float:
  
  
  
  

Sunday

• We tried a new church (Mount Olive in Anoka) and enjoyed it. Lilly was excited because she saw Ms. Sarah from preschool.
  
• Holly treated lunch at Panera. Black bean soup in a bread bowl!
  
• Holly, Lilly and I rode to the wood park. After playing at the park and a game of tag we headed home the long way. Lilly rode 18 miles on her tag-a-long. Good job Lilly! Holly and Lilly:
  
  
  
  All of us. We mistimed this one a little bit:
  
  
  
  
• I winterized the waverunner and boat. Jet boats are pretty easy - although I left the oil changes for next spring. Now I just need to get into the storage area under the basement garage to get the storage cover and tarps. When we had the driveway sealed they sealed the door shut!
  
• Amy Xu's 40th birthday party! A good time at Melinda's house around the campfire. Uhhh....