Weekend of shout outs, singing in the scallops

Randall was scheduled to show up somewhere around 8 o’clock Friday night.  I had quite a bit to do so I didn’t mind his eta.  On the way home I stopped first at Costco and then Publix for groceries.  Once I got home I dug right into the various race prep that needed to be done.  As I was doing so I decided to crack open some Bud Light Platinums.

I had not eaten anything up until this point.  After my first beer I could already feel my inhibitions leaving my body.  By the time Randall arrived I had 3 down the hatch and I was in full drunk mode.  As he walked in the door I had my Pandora Cold Play channel blaring since Randall likes to mock the fact that I like Cold Play.

If I wasn’t so drunk I would have thought to play this as he stepped in the door.

I carried on drunk conversation while Randall tried to catch up with a few “normal” Bud Lights.  I found that doing race prep while drunk is not a great idea.  I almost forgot a few important details in the process as a result.  Randall and I didn’t get to bed until after 11, not an ideal bed time when the alarm is set for 3:45 am.

I woke up feeling a bit fuzzy from the BLP’s.  I wound up having to be Randall’s alarm clock as well, knocking on the bedroom door about 15 minutes before we needed to get out the door.

We got on site for the race right around 5am, giving us a full 3 hours of pre-race time to make sure everything was in order.  Despite all that effort, we still had issues keeping the pre-race scene as organized/efficient as we would like.

Once the sun came up Randall hopped into his event photographer role in earnest, using Ali’s camera to take as many pictures as he could.  I was busy scurrying around once all the equipment was set up, kind of making sure things were running ok.  We had long lines at the pre-registration table and the timing chip hand out table.  These could have been mitigated with more bodies and maybe someone on a bull horn trying to get people to stand in the appropriate line.

I drove down to the start line with Ali in the truck, knowing I would need the truck to get me back to the finish line in time due to the multiple wave start we used this year for the race.  First the runners went, then the runners with dogs and finally the walkers, with each wave being split up by about a minute.  Even with utilizing the truck, I only got the finish line up and running two minutes before the first runner crossed the line, a little too close for comfort.

Timing the event went very smoothly, especially compared to all the issues I had the prior weekend with the half marathon.  This was the first time we used the chip times for official placing instead of gun time.  No one seemed to notice the difference.

We got off site somewhere around 10:30.  Ali thanked Randall for coming over and taking pictures.  This was the first time we didn’t stick around until the Humane Society opens at 11 to tour the building.  The race finished with 721 participants, a great number, but actually down from last year by about 60 people.

Once we got home I plowed through my post race crap while Randall hung out.  He had to cut out mid-afternoon so our normal tradition of physical challenges, bike rides or video game marathons just wasn’t going to happen.  Instead I asked Randall if he wanted to go hit the Miromar Outlets for lunch in the SSR.  It would allow for a decent topless SSR drive, food and hitting a few of my favorite outlets.

We ate first, I was pretty hungry by the time I got there.  We ate at Luna Rossa, a decent Italian place with outdoor seating.  So shortly after our food arrives some black guy gets on the mic and announces he is going to be providing entertainment via song.

Well it was awful.  First of all the volume on the sound system was turned up so loud that having conversation with the person across the table from you required that you nearly had to scream.  Second, the guy just wasn’t that good, it felt like we were sitting in on karaoke night where the theme was “music they would play on the Love Boat”.  I am not sure who at the restaurant thought that their patrons would enjoy being serenaded badly by this guy but they were sadly mistaken.  If anything it made me eat faster so I could get the fck out of there.

We then hit our core fav outlets, Oakley, Nike, Under Armour and Adidas.   I picked up some new training pants from Adidas.  I went up a size from what I already had in my drawer at home which are mediums.  The mediums fit my waist but are borderline short on my long legs.  The larges I bought Saturday will almost fall off if I don’t use the draw string but they at least don’t look like “floods”.

I also snagged a nice but cheap ($10) hat from the Under Armour outlet.  I figured it would work out well when I go cruising with Jeremy in his pimped out Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.

Once we got back to the house Randall had to pack up and head back out.  He was going to cheer on his girlfriend at her half marathon on Sunday.  They were heading down to Miami later Saturday night.  I thanked Randall for coming over and supporting Ali’s race .  Hopefully I get to go over there and hang with him sometime soon.

Saturday night I went to see Hansel & Gretel.  In a way it made me think of the Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter movie that flopped badly when I first saw it advertised.  Turning a children’s story into an action movie seemed like an odd transformation. Despite those thoughts going in, I came out of the movie thoroughly pleased.

If you are looking for a movie with complex plot, deep characters and a long storyline, you are in the wrong place.  If you want a movie with lots of head splattering, body exploding, steam punk weapon toting,  hot chick action then this is the movie for you.  I may have dropped a couple IQ points while watching the film but it was fun from start to finish. B+

Sunday was a weird day but certainly not because of the weather, which was just about perfect.  I had a number of things to get done.  I have not had a “normal” weekend for going on 4 weeks so I had a bunch of stuff to handle outdoors. Weeding and tending to the garden was quite tedious after 3 weeks of neglect.  Despite the neglect, the garden currently has a large supply of red lettuce, kale, onions, broccoli and leeks that are ready for harvesting.  I am hoping to freeze a bunch of the broccoli so it doesn’t go to waste.

After weeding I next tackled taking down the Christmas lights that had been up and shining for almost exactly two months.  I am sure many of the people in the neighborhood were wondering why I still had lights on a week away from the start of February.  Well the answer was simply I liked the way they looked.

Taking down the lights is always a bit of a somber experience for me.  This year it was more so than usual because of my new situation.  Sunday in general was a weird day for me emotionally.  I had moments of stupid sillyness like when I recorded this:

or when I made this sign for Nicki.

But I also had various moments of stinging, strong sadness where my mind was dwelling on things that I don’t normally dwell on.  It was a major bummer.

I tried to insulate myself from the melancholy by keeping busy.  I mowed the grass and weed whacked mid-afternoon and then when I took the dogs back to Ali’s place I worked on several things she needed help with until after 7.

On the plus side, I am hoping to get out the weeds now that January is almost complete.  I have 3 weeks until my next race that I have to time.  I am hoping to use these weeks to get firmly back into my routines that help keep my inner demons at bay.