Twin Cities Marathon - Go Chris Go!

On Thursday I will be winging it towards Minneapolis to join Cathy and all the gang she has been living with for almost two weeks. Chris will be joining us as well and as long as he is going to be there, he is planning to run the Twin Cities Marathon on Sunday.



The best part is that the marathon course will take him within a couple of blocks of US! Right around mile 3 and a half or so. You can see the course here.

It will be nice to stroll over and watch him run by. Then of course we will jump in the car and try to catch him again a couple more times along the course.

This is Chris in the Boston Marathon this past April. We went and cheered him along. Here he is slowing enough to shed clothing as he passes us. (Click on the photo to enlarge.)



Our mantra is "Go Chris Go!" as he runs by. Cathy sewed the letters on the shirt that he is wearing so other people all along the course would yell the same thing as well and encourage him. We're looking forward to cheering him along.

The Twin Cities Marathon bills it's self as "The Most Beautiful Urban Marathon in America".

Go Chris Go!
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Fall Is Coming

When I was outside with the Cable Guy on Saturday, I was wandering around the yard and noticed that there was a little bit of color starting to appear in the trees.

I thought it was pretty.



As I was looking around for some more fall color, I thought I saw some in the back yard. As I walked up to the crab apple tree I realized the yellow color I was seeing from far away was actually the fruit ripening.



The crab apple tree is just left of center in the fore ground, just in front of the grapes. (By the way, that's horseradish in the lower right corner. We'll have some fun with that around Thanksgiving.)



We don't do anything with the crab apples. The little critters get them all to themselves. I understand, however, that they are good to add to apple cider for a little extra zip and also serve as pollinizers in apple orchards.

Aren't you glad you asked?
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Mr. Chain Saw

I think my bones will be tired tonight!

About two weeks ago, hurricane Ike blew through Ohio and caused some problems. Numerous areas were hit pretty hard. Four people I work with at the studio lost electrical power for up to five days. They lost all their food in their refrigerators and freezers. (In case you don't know... Ohio was the second hardest hit state behind Texas from hurricane Ike.) It's true. I believe that 84 of the 88 counties in Ohio were declared Disaster Areas by the governor...

Here on the North Coast of Ohio, however, we were spared any real hardships. There were tree branches blown down and our neighbors had a tree blown over, but no power losses. As a result of the storm, our neighbors had some tree work done this week and they asked me this morning if I wanted any of the wood. Since we have lots of campfires, I said "Yes."

Before you can do anything, you need breakfast! (Just so Cathy knows I'm not eating Pop Tarts or ice cream for breakfast...)




Scrambled eggs, bacon and toasted English muffins. Raspberry jam on the side, of course.

After breakfast, here is the situation I faced.




Tree branches cut up and stacked around the trees in our neighbor's front yard. You can see my trusty lawn tractor and cart in the background, ready for action.




Once filled, it was off to the back campsite area for storage. I made six trips with the cart full.




I hauled all the cut up wood back to the campsite as well as some bigger pieces that needed Mr. Chain Saw!



This is where the wood goes.



Job completed!

Below is our camp site with the wood from our neighbor's (that was already cut up) stacked up. Of course, you have to have a camp fire while you are out at the campsite.



As I was packing up things and heading to the house... I noticed there were STILL some blueberries on the bushes. This of course advances the "All Time Record" to almost October!!

WOW!



Ralph was with me most of the day. She doesn't like the chainsaw, but she does like eating blueberries.



Since I started off the day with breakfast, lets end it with dinner. Grilled tuna, (2 minutes each side.) There is also some grilled zucchini and whole grain rice. The tomatoes are from our garden with fresh mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinegar. YUM!



Alas, Ralph is a tired puppy, as I am! Ralph is sleeping, and I'm ready for bed as well.



Good nite!
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Hi Mom!

Ralph has been telling me that she misses Cathy and can't wait for her to come home. I told Ralph that Cathy doesn't get to see a lot of Uma or Anika and that she will have to wait a little while more. Ralph said she would, but wanted to let Cathy know she misses her.



Ralph is such a good dog.
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The Cable Guy

The Cable Guy came to our house today.



No, not Jim Carrey or even Larry, but Dave, the cable guy from Time Warner. Our internet service is provided by our cable company and recently, it has been spotty at best. So I called for service and they came last week and said they needed to replace the cable from the street to the house. Dave came today to replace it.



Here's Dave at the front corner of the house checking things out. He agreed it definitely needed replacing.



After Dave cut away the old cable, he ran new from the street and made the final connections. It's a long run to the street. Over 125'. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see the new cable arching out to the street.



Here's Dave. job complete and bringing his ladder back and the old cable he cut away. He said it was spliced together in three spots and had different sizes of wire mixed together. Good job Dave. Thanks for the service and hopefully our internet will be more reliable.
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Friday Night Date Night

It's a little lonely here on the North Coast of Ohio tonight. Cathy's been in Minnesota for a week now and is really enjoying her time there, although I know she misses me being with her, as I miss her being here with me. I'm so glad she can be there for this time and soon I will join them and get to hold Anika and play with Uma and see what Joy and Sach have done with the remodeling of their new house. I'm also looking forward to seeing Nirmal and Suresh. It's always so nice to spend time with them.

Tonight, Ralph and I worked on getting the computer back to a more healthy status. I mostly worked on the computer and Ralph lay at my feet while I rebooted the computer about two dozen times trying to coax it back to life. At this point it looks like the patient might recover. I was prepared to reinstall the operating system, but a few updates and patches and things seem to be pretty good.

Apart from that, the Presidential Debate is going on in the next room and I am listening with one ear in that direction.

Tomorrow after work, I will do some more testing on the computer and see if there has been a full recovery.

Next Friday night, however, will be Date Night in Minneapolis! I'll be looking forward to it.

Till then, sleep well.

My Computer's Sick

I'm glad to get this post up tonight because last night my computer almost died and was on life support! I had a problem with Norton Anti-Virus and contacted the tech support people and they tried to help but managed to mess up Windows so bad that the computer would not boot into Windows.

Nothing.

No go.

No internet. No email. No news.

But tonight I was able to coax Windows into Safe Mode and make some progress. We're not 100% but at least I'm able to make this post and then it's off to bed.

Maybe tomorrow will be better.