5K Race at St. Luke School

Both Dad and RJ ran their first 5K race. RJ was exhausted at the end ... until he guzzled some Gatorade and saw his first grade friends. At that point he bounced on an obstacle course bounce house for over an hour.

When the final times were in ... RJ measured

RJ was the hare (zoom, rest, zoom, rest), Dad was the tortoise (slow and steady). Next year we are going to try to beat 28 minutes.

The finish line ...

Race Results

Notice that I beat RJ by 3 seconds ... because I wisely started the race in last place so when we finished together, I got the delayed start time deducted from my overall time. I'm guessing I have two more years of being able to keep up.

Men 7 and under

Plc Place Name StartInt ChipTime Gun Time Time min/mile Ag Prix Bib #
--- ----- ---- -------- -------- -------- -------- -------- -- ----- -----
Men 7 and under
046 1/4__ RJ__ 00:00:03 00:31:00 00:31:03 00:31:00 9:59 6 934 324
058 2/4__ HK__ 00:00:00 00:32:31 00:32:31 00:32:31 10:28 7 918 326
060 3/4__ TM__ 00:00:01 00:32:35 00:32:36 00:32:35 10:29 7 914 445
090 4/4__ BO__ 00:00:01 00:37:03 00:37:04 00:37:03 11:56 7 898 356
Men 50 and over
045 4/12_ DJ__ 00:00:04 00:30:57 00:31:01 00:30:57 9:58 50 936 323

Full results: http://www.racetimingunlimited.org/results/slw18rtu.aspx

McLean Community Day at St. Luke

At McLean community day we played games, collected trinkets, kicked a soccer ball, and watched some magic. We also got to see what RJ has been learning in first grade ... as you can see in the video. 320 x 266

Erosion control at Granddad's house

Erosion control at Granddad's house

The boys went to Baltimore to install fake wood steps to control erosion on the back hill. After a lot of sweat, the weeds were pulled, and the steps were installed.

If you look closely in the picture, notice that RJ is holding a broken drill bit. Humm ... not one of Dad's best moments with the drill.

Conference in Boston

Trade Show

Acumatica sponsored a trade show in Boston ... so we stopped there on the way home from Maine. Mom and kids did not have to go to the conference, so a tour of Boston was in order.

Touring Boston

First stop: aquarium. Julia thought the penguins smelled.

Next stop: Paul Revere's House and the Old North Church

Next up: Boat tour

Day 2: Science Center

  

Other Stuff

Dad got to re-connect with his childhood best friend: Chris Olsen. His Aunt from Japan created a fog exhibit, but it was out of order when Mom and the kids went looking for it.

Viewed the city from the top of the Prudential building and played 'I spy' for a while.

Low Lights

Eating out a lot messed with kids stomachs. Lots of clothes needed cleaning. In addition, eating out wasted a LOT of food and Mom hates wasting food.

On the drive home, we stopped by a park in the Bronx ... and cleaned up Julia after puking. We never figured out what was wrong and situation was fixed immediately after throwing up.

Vacation in Maine

Getting there is half the fun

We had a lot of fun. Turns out that the East Coast is well populated. Some notes for next time:

• Never go into Bore 3 at the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel
• Think twice about New York City at 5pm on Friday

Fortunately we had Cars III so RJ could watch it a few times. Julia watched Arthur and took advantage of the iPad.

Biddeford, Maine

We arrived at 11pm, but that didn't stop RJ from hanging out and playing Legos with his friend Emmit.

We had the opportunity to visit Kennebunkport and pose for a picture before dinner.

The Beach

Kids (and Dad) loved the beach. Water temp was 64 degrees. Conditions were ideal for body surfing, especially at low tide.

  

St. Brendan's Chapel

The community saved us a seat down front (yes, we were late) - and the priest included us in the homily. Afterwards, we posed for some pictures.

Heading to Boston

On the way home we spotted a trolley car museum. Since we could not check into the hotel until 4pm, we stopped. We rang a lot of trolley bells (RJ figured that out), climbed poles, and threw a switch (not part of the tour).

  

Fishing on the Chesapeake

Boy's Day Out

The boys got a day out on the Chesapeake on the Devil Heels fishing boat. After 5-7 inches of rain in the prior week, there were parts of the Bay that were a mine-field of navigation hazards, but Captain Doug kept the boat clear. After getting to the Bay Bridge, we threw in some lines in a reasonably good current and caught 15-20 perch using blood worms. Fishing was easy ... at times we would even get two fist on one cast.

We managed not to lose any fishing lines until the last cast of the day. I caught a perch ... but on the way up ... something bigger ate the perch and got hooked. After a one minute struggle, the line snapped ... damn.

Jeff was a solid fisherman ... his early success kept us from giving up and gave Uncle Z something to show off.

After fishing we headed into Annapolis to cruise ego alley.

Bike to Church

Bike to Church Day

Sunday was reasonably cool, so we charged out of the house for the 2.8 mile ride to St. Luke's. The route is quite hilly so RJ was pretty proud of himself when he made it the entire way without getting stuck. The trail was pretty over-grown, so we both ended up getting some scrapes from thorny weeds.

On the way home, RJ waits at the light at Georgetown Pike and Ridge Drive

Hazards of Church

Going to church is getting to be a bit dangerous. After attending mass and picking out a donut with sprinkles, we decided to go outside. RJ sat down in an Adirondack chair on a sunny porch area. In about 3 seconds bees were swarming his donut. Dad told him to be calm so they wouldn't sting him. He was pretty calm ... especially considering he had already been stung twice.

As it turns out, the issue wasn't the donut, but the fact that there is a wasp/yellow jacket's nest in the chair. Next Sunday we're bringing our wasp killer.

Julia and Dad decided to go back and take the picture above. When the flash went off ... it irritated the bees and we nearly ended up with two more members of the family getting stung.