Update Medley

Birthday
I may have hinted that I would talk a little about Betsey's birthday in my last post. We had an excellent evening with Betsey's mom, dad, godmother, sister and sister's beau. We watched our wedding video with much less solemnity than with my folks, but I'm glad I've had both experiences. It's nice to know the video is versatile enough to be entertaining for all types of audiences. Rated PG for excessive kissing shots.

The food at Big River is always excellent, even if their web site is horribly pretentious, slow, and loud. If you invest enough time, you'll eventually find out where to click to look at the menu. Can you pass this test of stamina set forth by the plating gods? Probably, but I feel sorry for the odd person with dial up that wants to get this kind of information from them.

Found: One Friend
I occasionally represent my company at career fairs. At the last one I ran into Brett representing his company. Now Betsey and I have been lamenting the fact that we haven't seen Brett since basically we started dating, so with excitement I excused myself from my current conversation and attempted to catch up. At first, our man was too busy for anything after the career fair, but later in the day he came around and made our day by inviting Betsey and I out to beer.

On the way out of the career fair to pick up Betsey, Brett asked, "So where do you want to go?"

"Do we have a choice?", I asked.

We smiled and continued on to our old haunt. It was so nice to catch up and see Brett. Nicer for me than Betsey was having entire conversations in CS metaphor. I hadn't done that in years and it was as awkward and funny (ho ho, not ha ha) as ever.

Anyway, this is clearly the best development of 2008 to date.

10 Legs and 4 Hearts
I once again teamed up with Ben and Hayward for a run to the covered bridge and back. This time it wasn't raining and we were joined by Brad. I hadn't run since I last went in the rain, and I'm still sore a couple of days later. Getting back into the swing of things is harder than I expected. As soon as my hip feels normal, I'll be out running again. Here are the stats from our latest run:

Distance: 3.34 miles
Time: 32:44 min
Pace: 9:48 min/mile

Fastest pace (set by Myles) 6:15 min/mile

Return of the Lyrics
On my old blog, back in the day, I use to put up lyrics to my song of the moment and explain how it related to my life. I received many a comment from the friends that bothered to read that it was their favorite section. Well, I don't think I'll be putting that much effort in again, but I'll try to provide a lyric and a google link to what I'm currently listening to from time to time. The motivation for the lyrics will of course change. Inspiring, clever, sad, happy, or just about anything will serve as a good enough excuse for the link. The only assurance is that I've heard it recently and enjoyed it.

"Inaction is a weapon of mass destruction"

Next Stop: Twilight Years (and Night Blindness)

Today I am old. Old enough to be considered a responsible driver for insurance purposes. Please mourn with me the passing of my carefree, car accident-ridden youth.

Sunriver

My first chance to bring any news since our annual trip to Sunriver. We go every year at the invite of our friend Andy, who uses it as a four day birthday celebration. We (Andy, Julie, Nate, Brian, Lindsey, John, Rachel, John, and Dave) all came together to play board games, real board games, card games, video games, watch crazy movies, and make the most of they skiing, snowboarding, and ice skating that is available in the area. With so much snow hitting the area, many of the usual routes were closed or severely delayed. The crew from our home town ended up taking the long route, which was remarkably all clear roads until outside of Bend. While we added several hundred miles, we only added about an hour to our estimated travel time given the weather and open routes at the time. This time around it came several weeks late because many people had other engagements. I have a feeling this will become more the norm as we all become older. So this year, it coincided with the Super Bowl. I didn't really care much about the Super Bowl. I rarely do. What was important to me, was to get the opinions of my friends about one particular ad. Apparently, it wasn't the worst, which is, I guess, better than last year. During the Super Bowl, I shoveled snow so we could get the car out early in the morning to get back, so I made the most of it. Unfortunately, I did not get to snowboard or ice skate this year, but it was nice to just relax.

During the trip, we found my OSU ID in the car, so I can start running indoors again. Despite that, last night I went running with Ben, who is on the Hood to Coast team. We ran three miles in the rain with his dog Hayward. It was a good run to the old covered bridge and back. It also made me more thankful to have the indoor facilities available to me.

I received a new computer and flat screen monitors at work. I'm pretty stoked about the new setup, and I think it will help me get more done. I'm pretty excited about it.

There's a special persons birthday coming up around the corner. We should have some family fun to report on that day.