My Dad & My Marathon

As Jaime has alluded to, I owe two subjects to this blog, so here goes...

First, the bad: I recieved a call on January 5th from my sister saying that my dad had a stroke, though it didn't seem too bad. He was talking and alert, and everything seemed to be not so bad. Later that night, my brother called me saying that things got worse, and so Jaime and I flew up to MN first thing in the morning. When we got there, my dad was no longer responsive, and all indications said his brain was gone, though he was still on life support. Fortunately for us, he had a living will specifying he did not want to be kept alive in this way, so we did not have to make any extremely difficult decisions. He now lies at the Camp Ripley military cemetary. And I'm getting too sad to write anymore about this...

http://www.legacy.com/startribune/obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonID=100883019

So Jaime and I were up there for the week supporting and getting support from family and friends. Although the circumstances sucked, it was nice to reconnect with the family, both immediate and extended.

So we ended up flying back on Friday, which was two days before the Houston Marathon, which I had decided to try for my first marathon. Because of the prior week's circumstances, I missed out on some of the training I should have been doing, but I decided to give it a shot anyway.

I was pretty impressed with myself for the first 10 miles or so, keeping pace to qualify for the Boston Marathon (which is 3 hours 10 minutes for my age, and is a great accomplishment in the running biz). But soon after that, at about mile 12, my legs started stiffening up. This has never happened to me before on my training runs, so I'm not sure if it was because I started out too fast or because I hadn't done anything physically active for the past week and a half. So anyway, by this time, I was really wishing that I'd signed up for the half marathon instead, but it was too late for that. I pressed through, stopping every mile or so to stretch my legs and walking through the water stations (which I should've probably done the whole race). Along the way, I was very moved by the amount of support people were willing to give complete strangers running the race (like me).

Finally, at about 3 hours 47 minutes I finished. By this time, I was just extremely happy to be done, but I think my time was decent as well, so I'm very happy with it. The rest of the day and the next couple days were pretty painful in my leg muscles. A couple guys I know who also ran ended up taking the next Monday off of work, which I was seriously considering.

Here's a nifty little thing the race organizers set up regarding my individual performance:

http://www.runpix.info/hou08/42/finord.php?LastName=marshik&lan=&aset=1

Scones

We were recently in Minnesota (see blog entry on that later) and one of the good things I came away from that trip with was an amazing scone recipe from Charlie's wonderful Godparent and renowned spitfire, Jeanne.

These scones were the most delicious, mouth-watering baked goods I had eaten in ages - not to mention they were scones! If you've never had a scone, they are almost always ill-fated to be dry, tasteless, flour-packed little wedges of sadness. But THESE, these were magnificent. Moist, taste-filled, delectable little tidbits of happiness. A much-needed happiness indeed.

Charlie's sisters and I debated about who would get to take the scones home to eat and who would get the last morsel. I did not win out, but now I am the owner of the recipe and let me tell you: ...my scones do NOT taste the same as Jeanne's.

Sure, I've never made scones and after having tasted my fair share of chalky ones, I should expect that mine would be less-than perfect on the first go. The batch I made was relatively moist and they certainly were tasty, but I've got some practice to do. There must be some secret to whipping them up.

So, H-Town, get ready for some scones.

ps: Thanks to Jeanne for a great recipe for delumptuous scone snacks!

The Houston Marthon - A Retrospective

We still owe you all words on the Chevron Houston Marathon that Charlie ran on 1/13 (and EP5K for Jaime). Pix to come as well - we're a little behind on the times.

Bottom line: Charlie finished 26.2 miles in an amazing and jaw-dropping 3:47 hours after a week of no training.

I am so proud of him I could spit! Well, maybe not spit, maybe cry instead, but still - P.R.O.U.D spells Jaime!

ps: I finished my 5K without stopping (main goal of the run) in about 28 mins or so. Yippee!

The Foo

It was a Tuesday night, January 22, 2008; chilly, dreary. The terrain was treacherous: downtown Houston during post-work rush hour. Behind the wheel was the infamous Beth Wilke, the other occupants: The Marshiks and John Wilke. After a few near-misses with other vehicles for the first attempt at a parking spot, we found ourselves secure in an "event" lot - thieves. Off in the distance was the Flying Saucer pub, a sight for sore eyes. Thank goodness for Ace Pear Cider on tap. Much beer and a jaegar shot later (gross), we drove again toward the Toyota Center to park for the Foo Fighters concert. $20 for event parking?!? No way jose. How dare they! Parking in the adjacent ramp for $5? Absolutely.


We took a couple silly pix (seen below...soon) before heading in to the general admission, floor area. The arena had a good amount of people in it, but was by no means packed. This meant Beth and Jaime could run free amongst the other onlookers and shout "Dave Grohl! Dave Grohl!" (seen below at the concert, pic from the Foo website) like giddy schoolgirls...

...which reminds me of how John Wilke (and Charles) wanted Beth and Jaime to don a "Flying Saucer waitress" outfit ala super-short plaid miniskirts and skimpy tops. Good luck with that boys. Somehow the mixture of Flying Saucer beer, jaegar shot, Smirnoff Ice and "arena" wine didn't kill Jaime until the very end, so she enjoyed the concert immensely. It was only after the concert when she decided to sprint up the parking ramp to the car that she realized the trouble she was in. Needless to say, she slept the entire way home and was very happy she didn't have to work until late the next day. Beth felt some of the same pain...

It was a great night, even if it was "fun on a schoolnight". Party on.

Actively Composting

Hey all! We received our comost bin in the mail about a week ago and we've been slopping in our table scraps, etc ever since. Mmmm, scraps. It's kind of fun, I have to admit, and so far it's been quite easy. Let's see how well the bin turns our scraps into good soil...stay tuned for that one. I think Charlie bought some worms too for the bin so they churn that goodness up even faster - start munchin' and poopin' wormies!

That is all.

Saving the Earf

In case you weren't aware, Charlie is on a quest to save the planet, little by little. He's dragging me along for the ride - not kicking and screaming, mind you, but I do have a hard time breaking bad habits. It's because of him, however, that I eat healthier (we're into Organic foods these days), exercise (still working hardest on getting that one to stick), recycle everything and even now we've started composting.

Sure, composting isn't a new idea by any means but we are new to it. The compost bin is on it's way to our house as I sit at my desk and write this. Last night the practice of scraping all of our leftover food & scraps into a ziplock bag commenced. A few stinky onions, a pomegranate rind and a mango peel later, let the decomposition begin! I'm kind-of excited to start making some good compost/soil/gardening material on our own. With so much of our food, etc that we waste it only makes sense to use it for something good - so we'll see how this endeavor suits us.

To recap, these are the things we're doing to be more "eco-friendly"; you can do them too!:
1. Replace most of our lightbulbs with the more efficient kind, compact fluorescents! They come in flattering color tones to suit your tastes. Don't worry, your house won't look like a garage!
2. Compost our miscellaneous waste (can include hair-like from the vacuum cleaner with all of your dog sheddings, food scraps) .
3. RECYCLE RECYCLE RECYCLE (cardboard from those frozen meals and pizza boxes, plastic bags and wrapping materials/styrofoam, yogurt cups). Just make sure your recycling company takes the materials you wish to recycle - we can't get glass recycled here in Houston, it's verboten due to lack of demand for glass. C'mon H-town, get with it!!
4. Fuel efficient cars - both of our clown cars get at least 28-30 mpg on the city street, mid 30s on the highway. Not bad.
5. Conserve energy - Turn off the lights, computers, TVs etc at the power strip or unplug them when they're not in use. Our new TV and dish network system takes 5 minutes to boot up if you shut it off and that's annoying, but killing the planet is even more annoying, so we do it.
6. Keep your thermostat low in the winter, high in the summer. Use a programmable thermostat people! Luckily for us we're frugal with our A/C and keep our house at a toasty 80 degrees in the summer and ...well, cold in the winter. A couple of degrees can save oodles of CO2 emissions and also save money on those energy bills! We are fans of blankets for warmth and sweat for a cooling mechanism - embarrassing but true.

Please be kind to the earth and help us do our part to save the poor lady from our badness.
Peace out.

This message brought to you in part by:
The Marshiks
"The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook: 77 Essential Skills To Stop Climate Change" (David de Rothschild) http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Global-Warming-Survival-Handbook/dp/159486781X

2008

Happy New Year!!
Last night Charlie and I brought in 2008 with some good friends (John, Nujoud, Beth, John, Toby, Tanner and various others) at the Wilke Winter Wonderland new year celebration. Party hats, poppers, champagne drinks all flowed throughout the evening as we ate snacks and played Rock Band on their new PS3 gaming system. Yep, you heard me correctly: Rock Band. It's this game where a bunch of people can play different instruments in a band together - Guitar, Lead Singer, Drums and Bass Guitar (if you have a 2nd guitar). So we jammed out on what is now my new favorite instrument - the drums - and sang terribly. It was so much fun!

We didn't forget to kick it old school with MTV Jams '99 and a little O.P.P. (Yeah John Wil-ke!), so don't you fret :) Dance Party Wilke house was also in full effect - even if it meant just Beth, John and I were throwing our hands in the sky, romping around their living room. Charlie did join in for a little dance action, which was key. At 3:30 am we finally headed home (since Beth said "F-you all, I'm going to bed"...no, just kidding - but she did go to bed.) - Jaime was DD and Charlie was his usual Chatty Cathy self after he'd been boozin' it up all night. I think Wilke found a new favorite drinking partner in Charlie...and who could blame him?

Anyhoo, 2008 started out great. So don't hate.

We hope you all had a safe and happy New Year celebration - see you soon!