the madness never ends

well as usual we had super busy weekend. the kids and i spent the whole weekend in indianapolis for the first round of the state soccer championships. soccermom was unable to go because of her affliction - called "term paper procrastination" (it was due monday!). we left saturday morning and didn't get home until sunday afternoon. we played poorly in the second half of our first game and went from a 3-1 halftime lead to a 5-3 loss. not good. this, however, is when things got interesting. we went back to the fields later that day to watch a game involving the team we were playing sunday morning. with about five minutes left in the game, we got hit by a hailstorm! wow! it must have dropped at least 20 degrees and added 30 mph winds in the matter of two minutes. we had ice caked on us. it was so utterly ridiculous that we just had to laugh. the kids thought it was great. then we went back to our hotel, got changed, and went out to eat. by the time we got back to the hotel, it was close to 10pm. that's when justin told me his ear hurt. now, if any of my other kids had told me that, i would have just told them to go to sleep and they'd feel better in the morning. but not justin. he never complains. so when he does say something like that, i know it must be hurting him pretty badly (as it turned out, he has an ear infection). of course, i didn't have any tylenol or motrin, so off we went to hunt down some medicine. i found a little minimart not too far from the hotel, and ran in. i left the kids in the van (i could see them from inside the minimart), and turned the interior lights on (this is important later). we got back to the hotel, i gave justin his medicine, and we went to bed. we woke up early the next morning, went down and ate breakfast, and walked outside to get in the van. i pushed the unlock button on the remote. nothing. hmmm. i pushed it again. nothing. huh. i unlocked the door with the key and pushed the button to open the side doors. nothing. this isn't good. apparently, i forgot to turn off the interior lights when we got back the night before. fortunately, we were able to jump it and it seems OK. things got better from there. the boys went out and kicked the snot out of their well respected evansville-based opponents, scoring a lopsided 6-1 victory. as a result of this and other games, we ended up winning our group and qualifying for semifinals, which take place in june. nathan played great in defense, and andrew, although he didn't score, did assist on five of our nine goals. great job, boys!
as for me, obviously i didn't get to do any training saturday, but i did get in 5 miles sunday nite. and i was in weird mood too. normally, i just take it easy and don't push too hard. but for some reason - maybe i was inspired by the boys soccer success this weekend, or even by TGK, robostu, and headdoc - i really ran hard. i finished the flat five in 41:58. and yes, i sprinted like a madman the last 30 yards or so to come in under 42:00! i walked a couple of laps around my neighborhood to cool down and felt good about my effort. yee ha.
there's been alot of talk amongst the "tri-alliance" group about IMFL in '06. i've gotta admit, i've been thinking alot about it also. i haven't proposed it to my wife yet, but i'm pretty sure i'll either do IMFL or IMMOO (wisconsin, for those who don't get the "MOO" part...). IMFL would be great because i'd love to go meet everyone. that would be so cool. but IMMOO just works out better logistically. it's alot closer, the family could come, not to mention i've already done IMFL, etc... but i've got time. we'll see.
finally, i have this to pass along. WARNING! if you get offended easily, do not click it. it is not g-rated. barely r-rated, maybe. but hilarious, nonetheless. click at your own risk!