The Men Date...

Since Fanny jumped ship and headed out of the country last month, MKO and I have taken advantage of the opportunity to get to know the Cuban a bit better. While he can't sling back a Yuengling as good as our Fanny, he has surprised me lately by keeping up and being a hell of a lot of fun. The three of us have taken to "man dates".

Our last man date was last night. Being that maven that he is, MKO and I were invited, along with three other guys to join the Cuban at a reception to celebrate public servants - I am not a public servant. Anyway, we meet up and this reception wasn't half bad. It was held at the Old Postal Museum near Union Station. To our surprise the food was good and the beer and wine was free. The six of us closed that mother down! This new character that joined our group was hysterical....made me laugh, and that takes some effort. Hes a little older than me and single, so hes talking up a group of 40-something women. The only funny thing about this story was as me and the other four guys are standing in a circle talking (while hes trying to score come granny-stuff) we hear him say "anal probe". Well, goes without saying that it went downhill from there. As the ladies were getting up to leave however they made one final gesture; one offered him the rest of her beer...really! She actually handed him a half-empty bottle of beer - who does that?. This dude looked normal to me, not like he was having the DTs from lack of alcohol.

After the reception we trekked over to the Irish Times to chase our beer down with more beer. it all, it was fun. MKO and I departed for home and as we were getting on the train I realized that we were all on a man date. No one was "looking" for anything, rather just a group of guys hanging out. We're totally getting our nails done tomorrow...LOL

Random stuff

I'm trying the facial scruff. Not really sure if I like it or not, opinions welcome...

One for Steph...

Whoever said it wouldn't work....was correct...lol

A Great Weekend...

As indicated in previous posts, I traveled back to Cincinnati this past weekend for the Flying Pig Half Marathon. It is not my intent to hop all over the country running in random races, but I did this one for two reasons. First, to support my niece in her first real run and second, to return to the city that symbolized my first real step into adulthood.

The Race: This is Ash and I the day before the race. Look at that smile, the poor child is so unaware of what awaits her the next morning. Being a good uncle however, at her insistence, went a nice pub just east of Downtown for a few drinks...you know, to prepare. Still trusting that she knew what she was doing as far as training for the race, I heeded her advice and enjoyed a icy cold beer. It was a great afternoon. We ate, drank, and I doled out advice on race "preparations". Saturday evening my family started to roll into town. It was pretty low key, mostly chilled, had some dinner, then watched some TV. I'm not sure what I was nervous about, but I didn't sleep at all that night, maybe 2.5 hours. Up at 4 am, Ash and I headed downtown for a 6:30 am gun. It was a bit brisk, but we were "in it to finish".

The race was a bit more intense than I had imagined. I have been training since Chicago last year, so my race pace is just under a 9 minute mile. Ash's was a bit slower, but pretty good for her first race. The hills were much more intense than I had imagined they would be. We literally ran up hill from mile 3 to mile 10. It was at mile 5 that she confessed that she really hadn't been training as she had previously stated. Determined, we kept our mantra that we were going to finish either way.

Once we hit mile 10 and realized that it was "downhill from here" we were relieved. Here is us between 10 and 11 (don't we look remarkably fresh?). In the end we did very well. We finished the race in 2 hours 44 minutes.

I am so proud of her. For someone that had never run more than 4 miles in her life but ran 13.1 non-stop up hills out of sheer determination and ambition, I am in awe.

Here's to Ash!!!