As I was checking in at the front desk of the fitness center, the guy behind the desk said, "Have a good workout."

I said in response, "You too."

I hate it when I do things like that.

Woot.

Mike and I went to White River Canyon this morning and had fun in the snow.

 

9:00 PM Friday evening...

Jim to Mike: Do you want to do something crazy tonight?

Mike to Jim: What do you have in mind?

Jim to Mike: Let's cross-country ski into Summit Meadows and camp in the snow.

Mike: OK

 

Woot.

If you don't know the rules of Scattergories, this story won't make any sense. If you've never played Scattergories, you haven't lived a full life.

If my parents challenge you to a game of Scattergories, politely refuse. If you do accept their invitation, you will not win. You will be made to feel silly.

The letter was..."F."

The category was..."Things you shout."

My mom's response was "Fee Fi Fo Fum." That's a 4 point answer. Amazing.

The category was..."Ways to get from here to there."

My dad's response was "Five." As in, there are five different ways of getting from here to there. You can't argue with that logic.

We had a great time when my parents came to visit this weekend. Henry loves them and I have a feeling they love him right back.

 

Stephanie and I are feeling a little bit under-the-weather. In an attempt to mitigate the effects of the sickness onslaught, I'm drinking green tea by the gallon.

Green tea tastes like sod.

Couldn't they (the tea people) come up with a name besides "green" for this particular type of tea? Maybe it wouldn't taste as much like sod if it had a better name.

Might I suggest...

Wellness Tea
Tea of the gods
Yummy Tea
Reciproci Tea
Sniffles Tea
Aye May Tea

Discuss.

A co-worker was kind enough to give me a packet of Starburst today, which I (of course) was excited about.

But, there is more to the story!

I opened up one of the Starbursts (or is it just Starburst, like deer or moose), the one in the yellow wrapper to be more specific. But instead of experiencing the mildly enjoyable lemon flavor (orange is my favorite...come on, it's a color and a fruit!), I tasted nothing short of Pina Colada bliss! Lo and behold, I had been given the Tropical assortment!

Delicious!

Here are the originals. Thanks for playing!

 

Can you guess who these eyeballs belong to?

A prize goes to the winner (or to the one person who actually comments on this blog entry).

Left to Right...Top to Bottom...

& Ignore the very Bottom row (it's a duplicate of the top row).

I only have eyes for you...

 

What makes a Saturday morning?

Sweatpants
Slippers
Warm biscuits with marionberry jam
Coffee

Here's a shoutout to Trent Tompkins...he runs marathons, climbs mountains, loves his family and I feel privileged to call him my friend.

You know that feeling when you're taking your baby and dog for a walk, and you're walking up a hill, and your baby is resting on your belly in his Baby Bjorn watching the world go by, and you notice that his little feet are hitting you in your thigh every step you take, and you realize that you're a dad and the world is good and man alive this baby is tiny and has a whole lifetime of experiences waiting for him? Like when he gets to take his son and dog for a walk, and...

Mike and I took a quick trip to Hug Point on Friday night. Hopefully he'll post more pictures...he's certainly got the photographer's eye.

 

Dressing up for Jesus.

 

It's been nearly a year since I started this blog...

Middle Sister
Mt. Hood
Stephanie
Sam
Weekend recap
Pleasure of physical fitness
New hobby
New skis
Weekend recap
Runners high
My friend Eric
Hi Mom
Weekend recap
No Houston
Carson Michael Tompkins
My own kind of worship
Son of Eric
No Timberline Trail run
Oregon Coast run
Hollywood…Sherwood
Mom is a good cook
Successful summer
Oh sweet! Beans!
CPA
Pumpkin Patch
New England
Hooky with Maddie
Grandma
Sledding with Jen & Trent
Mountain trips
Date night
Sunshine!
Sad movie
Maddie = athlete
Fondue dreams
Ethan David Thompson
Pacific City
Ethan with my wife
Astoria, Oregon
Weekend recap
Corn
Coast hike memory
The Oregon cycle
My eye stings
Pure Luck
Nike
Cream of Wheat
Marathon expectations
Marathon
Diamond Lake recap
Baby

Hallelujah ripped through my veins

I returned yesterday afternoon from a long weekend of running, aching, camping, and itching (not necessarily in that order). On Friday night, Eric, Trent, Mike, Becky, and I drove to Florence and stayed the night at Trent's parent's beach house. Trent, Mike, and I ran the Cape Mountain Trail Run for the second year in a row and had a blast. The only rough section of the run came after I referred to Mike as a stallion and his body had a strange reaction to the compliment (mainly comprised of muscle cramping due to dehydration).

After the race, we stuck around for door prizes and everybody won one except for me. Trent won a free pair of shoes for the second year in a row! He is one wild and lucky guy.

We soon headed back to the beach house to get cleaned up before our drive to Diamond Lake (Eric, Trent, and me).

Ok, this blog is getting longer than I expected and I'm sleepy. So, here is the abridged version...

Arrive at campground
Lots of mosquitoes
Tent is hard to set up
Mosquitoes are hungry
Hang out inside tent
Go to bed
Wake up
Eat breakfast
Mosquitoes
Drive to trailhead
Begin
Mosquitoes
Hiking
Mosquitoes
Running
Mosquitoes
Incredibly hot outside
Mosquitoes
Devils club
Mosquitoes
Lose trail often
Mosquitoes
Somehow entire loop trail is uphill
Mosquitoes
Heat exhaustion
Mosquitoes
Drive back to camp
Eat lunch
Eat dinner
Sleep
Wake up
Drive to Crater Lake
Beautiful
Mosquitoes
Drive back to camp
Nap
Swim in lake
Mosquitoes
Nap
Eat dinner
Sleep
Wake up
Drive home

It was an awesome time! Here are a couple of pictures...

Well, about 24 hours from now I'll be somewhere around mile 8 in my 26.2 mile odyssey.

Pain is my friend. Pain is my friend. Pain is my friend.

In other words, I'm expecting to never use "marathon" and "fun" in the same sentence. Unless, of course, there's a "not" tossed in the middle somewhere.

Instant Oatmeal or Instant Cream-of-Wheat?

I'm leaning towards Instant Cream-of-Wheat.

Discuss.

Woot!

So, Stephanie and I have been doing work around the house over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday evening, I could have sworn I was playing the lead role in the following movie:



Let me tell you why...

1) I noticed a small nest of some sort above our garage door and decided that the nest needed to be removed. I used a broomstick in my attempt to knock the nest down, but only tore the nest open instead. As soon as I realized the nest wasn't the consistency I expected it to be, all of these tiny spiders started raining down on me. I'm not kidding, there were hundreds of baby spiders in my hair. That part in Charlotte's Web with the baby spiders isn't so cute to me anymore.

2) I went inside to grab my MP3 player so that I could listen to music while I pulled weeds. For some stupid reason, I brought a small spade shovel inside with me. While I was turning on the power of the MP3 player, I stupidly forgot that I was still holding the small spade shovel. Okay, by this point, "holding" is the wrong word. "Dropping" would be more appropriate. I dropped the stupid thing right on the cuticle of my big toe. I was in a stupid amount of pain. After a short time spent lying on the stupid floor in the fetal position, I was able to carry on with my yardworking duties.

3) I encountered a new type of weed in my backyard (new to me at least). This weed had velcronic (oh yes, I have just made up a word) abilities. As in, the little barbs on the weed were the "hook" and the texture of my skin was the "loop" in the hook-and-loop paradigm. A very interesting kind of pain presented itself in this particular type of attachment. It was similar to the sensation you get when somebody scrapes their knife across a plate, except instead of just being annoying, there was sharp pain involved.

Wow. When you combine this post with my last one, you might have the desire to stay away from me, lest my bad luck rub off on you.

Let this serve as a cautionary tale...

So, I'm at my desk eating my lunch and the strangest and most painful thing just happened. I'm in the middle of demolishing a tasty taco salad from Kruse Woods Deli while I surf the web during my lunch break and BAM! there is a searing pain in my right eye as ranch dressing catapults off a piece of salad, somehow finding the perfect angle to strike (underneath my glasses) and landing squarely on my eyeball.

Let me just say that what I'm feeling is more than "mildly uncomfortable."

I hope your day is going better than mine.

Hitting for the Oregon Cycle

In baseball, if you hit a single, double, triple, and home run in a game, it is called "hitting for the cycle."

This weekend, Mike and I will attempt to hit for the Oregon cycle.

Saturday - Ski at Mt. Hood Meadows
Saturday evening - hike to Bagby Hot Springs and enjoy a warm soak
Saturday night - camp somewhere in the woods
Sunday - golf at Elkhorn Valley

I was feeling kind of glum yesterday, but as soon as Mike and I started talking about the trip, my spirits lifted and now I can't wait until our Saturday morning departure!

Tonight we begin the process of packing for this trip, which will require an outrageous amount of gear for an overnighter.

A couple of summers ago, I went on a backpacking trip along the northern Oregon coast with Eric & Mike. It was an interesting "wilderness" experience, as half of our hiking was done on conventional trails in the forest and the other half was done on the beach.

This morning, I went for a jog with Maddie and we passed by a lot of kids on the sidewalk waiting for the bus. As I ran past the kids, some of them gave me odd looks, which seemed to ask "Why on earth would anybody choose to run along the road and not on a playground?" For some reason, I began thinking about our beach hike as I ran. I think it was because of what happened just south of Haystack Rock near Cannon Beach...

The three of us woke up early (thanks Mike) to make it around Hug Point while the tide was out. We could see Haystack Rock off in the distance to the north and we began plodding our way along the hard-packed sand next to the receding waterline. We were in a great mood and I seem to recall Eric and I holding hands and skipping along (this may or may not have actually happened). As we approached the south end of Cannon Beach (by Mo's), a schoolbus full of children parked in a nearby lot and all of the kids came streaming out of the bus and running along the beach in the direction of Haystack Rock. Of course, one of the alpha males decided that the kids should race to the Rock. Off they went, sprinting right past us and giving us odd looks, probably because we were carrying big backpacks. They ran and ran as fast as their legs could carry them and we just kept on hiking. After a couple of minutes they were probably 300 yards ahead of us and quickly began to tire out. One by one, they stopped running and you could clearly see that they totally misjudged how far away they were from Haystack Rock. We kept hiking along and within a couple of minutes we had passed by the lead group. It was the classic Tortoise & the Hare story. The kids were seriously surprised that we had caught up to them and a few of them looked so beat that I was afraid they wouldn't be able to even walk the remaining distance to Haystack Rock (about 5 minutes away).

There's no particular point to this blog, so I apologize if you're disappointed. Just wanted to recount a good memory.

Oh, by the way, we each had 7 pieces of pizza and a doughnut for lunch in Cannon Beach. Lunch was followed by one of the greatest naps of my life, as all three of us lounged in the grassy area by the whale (you know the one), warmed by the sunshine and shielded from the wind.

My wife likes corn on the cob.

Well, let me start off by saying that we are absolutely thrilled about our future son. He has been keeping his mama happy by kicking her in the stomach consistently throughout the day.

Last weekend was incredible. I was already riding a high from seeing our little guy move around during the ultrasound. On Friday, I went to Mt. Hood Meadows with Mike and had the best powder-skiing experience of my life. On Saturday, Eric and I went on a really not funless hike in the snow (see Eric's blog for a great trip report). On Sunday morning, Trent and I ran from church to Sherwood under a brilliant blue sky. On Sunday afternoon, Trent, Mike, and I went golfing in Wilsonville. And on Sunday evening, I rested.

I love Oregon!

Ok, so you might remember from a post last year that I have a little bit of Hollywood experience (see blog entry on 10/6/05). I'd like to put this experience to use and offer a location suggestion to the producers of Rocky VI.

Astoria, Oregon

It's got everything you need to make the perfect movie backdrop, from a quaint underappreciated downtown area to a dock along the river that is a resting place for incredibly loud sea lions. Can't you see them cheering (barking) for Rocky Balboa as he runs along the river during a montage scene? If you think about it, the sound of a barking sea lion is very similar to Rocky yelling "Adrian!" in the earlier Rocky movies.

I decided to go to a slightly different part of town this morning on my jog and I had a close encounter with these sea lions. They're considerably larger than I remembered from the zoo. I stopped at the edge of the dock (about 10 feet away from the nearest sea lion) to watch them bark at me and apparently they were a little spooked by my presence, so they slowly (and quite comically) tried to reverse direction and make their way to the water. I shrugged my shoulders and thought, "Well, that's probably the most interesting thing that is going to happen to me today" and then I continued on my run.

Uh oh. I just remembered that Astoria has already served as the backdrop for a movie. Goonies. Man, now there's a funny movie. Scrap the Rocky VI idea.

Here is a picture of the new kid on the block and my lovely wife...

It's been an eventful week! Sarah Thompson gave birth to a healthy baby boy!

Here is Ethan David Thompson...



Here are Ethan's proud parents...



We're all having fun getting to know the little (big) guy...



...Carson included...



In other news, Mike and I went on an impromptu trip to Pacific City yesterday evening...

I'm looking forward to some delicious chocolate fonduezzle this evening!

So lately you might have noticed that a certain group of sporting events are getting a fair amount of television air-time. Some refer to said events as the "Winter Olympics."

I was jogging yesterday and I was trying to think of the greatest athlete of all time. I came to the following conclusion...

The greatest athlete of all time is my dog, Maddie. Seriously. She can play in the snow, play with Jaci (Stephanie's little sister), run 4 miles with me, and still be ready for more. It simply defies logic. I'm considering allowing her to run with my number in the Newport Marathon. She would dominate the field. I would be waiting for her at the finish line with a treat.

I need to get this off my chest...

If you want to see the most depressing movie ever made, you should rent "Angela's Ashes." Seriously, it was so sad it wasn't even fun to make fun of the sadness I was feeling while watching it.

I'm slipping into depression simply writing a blog about this sad sad sad movie.

Stay away from the movie. It will make you feel bad about life.

I do appreciate all of the recent precipitation we've had in Oregon, mostly because it has brought a ton of snow to the mountains. I've had an amazing time skiing this winter.

However, I can't even begin to express to you how grateful I am for the recent sunshine. I'm a totally different person when the sun is out. I hold the elevator door open for latecomers, I hug complete strangers, and I even smile a couple of times a day.

I LOVE THE SUN!!!

When Stephanie and I lived in West Seattle, we would have a date night every Tuesday at Tully's Coffee by Thriftway (at the intersection of California Street and Fauntleroy). Last night, we decided it was time to bring back the tradition (at a local coffee shop). We drove through Old Town, which is in the middle of a massive road construction project, only to find that there wasn't a single locally-owned coffee shop open during the evening. We then drove to the strip mall by Shari's, but of course the little coffee shop there was also closed. We eventually decided that we would head across Highway 99 to the Starbucks by Safeway. The coffee was tasty and the conversation was stimulating, but the surroundings were certainly lacking. I hope that once the construction project is finished in Old Town we'll be able to frequent one of the locally-owned coffee shops that have considerably more personality than the common strip-mall Starbucks.