Interesting weekend

Dear James, Daniel and Emily,

Hard to put a finger on the feeling of the weekend.  Lots of family time, what with kids baseball, family birthday parties, plus helping with yard projects.  But also some other things happening: World Cup, yard projects, long periods of relaxing do-nothing time.  So probably the most relaxing overall weekend we've had in a while, despite all the work we did.

Sports

Enjoyed the overall World Cup game of USA versus Ghana.  Just an excellent game overall, very hard played.  Not happy with the outcome, but the US team cannot exactly go home feeling they didn't give their all.  Overall, I guess not entirely unexpected, the US team had been flirting with this for 2 weeks, giving up the early goal and having to fight their way back into the game.  I am not nearly enough of a soccer fan to be able to say what the team missed other than starting the game with more focus.  But it was fun to watch the game.

James & Daniel's baseball games went well.  Daniel continues to enjoy himself out there.  And after some momentary rebellion last week regarding practice James does seem to enjoy the games.  He actually hit well with the new pitcher.  I think he gets a little frustrated playing 3rd since the team just doesn't have a sense of throwing the ball around so he never actually got to touch the ball on defense. 

Family Time

We had some good family time.  2 family movie nights (Imagine That and Star Trek), and Dennis' birthday party.  I have added some pictures from Dennis's birthday party to Picasa, although there are some more on our phones that need to be added.  Plus the boys were still able to get their share of video game/computer game time.  And we had some family time getting the yard picked up (although that family time consisted of us having to yell at the kids to get them to do their assigned tasks and do them correctly).

Health

Still plateaued in the low 180's, but feeling good, so I figure it is just a matter of time and persistence there.  Felt good this morning with the 3.5 mile run, feeling good about the new plan of picking up the pace gradually, trying to increase the distance within the same amount of time.  I also mapped out a new walk for my off evenings.  Probably going to test it out tomorrow night, it's a good 2-2.5 miles with some up and down hills for a change.  I am still pondering when to try running on what is currently my off days, figure I should keep up the alternation for at least another month, let my legs get their rest while I work into form.