comings and goings

yes, yes, i'm still here. this stupid pulled calf muscle is not allowing me to run yet, though. it is feeling alot better, but it's just not ready to do any real work yet. i can jog very lightly for a few steps, but if i try to really run - forget it. oh well, the pains of being old, i suppose...

anyway, even though i've been laid up, the kids have been quite active:
andrew and nathan have been very busy with their 3v3 soccer team. we've played in two tournaments in the past two weeks, and took third place in both. a little disappointing to be honest, but these were very competitive tournaments and the teams we lost to are ones we are familiar with, and they are very good. nathan was our leading scorer this past weekend with 12 goals in 4 matches. we outscored our competition 39-9 in the opening round before falling 8-5 in the semifinals. it didn't help that one of our players was sick and didn't play hardly at all in that game. oh well. these tournaments are really just tuneups for the 3v3 regional championships in clarksville, tennessee on august 13 - 14. we need to finish in the top 5 there to qualify for nationals at the disney complex in january. hmm... orlando in january... what nice thought!
justin's playing baseball allstars and has practice virtually every nite. although his team hasn't been winning too much, he did bat 1.000 in his last tournament. he also had his 9th birthday last week. happy birthday, justin!!
sara is still going to three different dance/gymnastics classes per week, but she hasn't done any competitions lately. she's finally mastered her back tucks and is now getting her aerial carwheels down. she's also started on the balance beam, parallel bars, and vault. she seems to like the beam the best. for me, the beam always seems like the most difficult. i could just imagine myself slipping and straddling that thing. yowsa!

and finally, my tour de france note... doesn't it seem like that at times lance is just toying with everyone else? don't you just get the impression that if he really wanted to he could just accelerate past everyone whenever he wants? like a couple of days ago when ullrich, basso and vinokourov worked so hard to get 15 seconds in front of lance, only to see him eliminate that advantage in practically no time. how demoralizing that must be. he is just so superior to everyone else. i think basso is the only one who would even stand a chance if lance ever really got motivated to crush the rest of the field. man, that dude's impressive.

anyway, my goal is to start running again next weekend. with 5 more days rest, i think i can do it. hopefully that will give me enough training time for the 1/2 marathon i want to do in september. we'll see. keep yer fingers crossed!