BAM, outta here

The Battle at Midway is probably now my favorite race. This was the second year of the race but the first time I was able to race it. I was looking forward to it for a while and am already looking forward to next year. And it's not just because it's in my backyard and I happen to like where I live. The setting is beautiful and home field advantage is nice but the race is also very well organized. St. George will always be a nice destination race and Emmett's Most Excellent Triathlon in Emmett, ID will always have a special place in my heart for obvious reasons but if you are looking for a great triathlon I recommend checking out BAM.
Look at the swim setting. Could there be a prettier place to start? There could certainly be a warmer place. With the long and cool spring we've had water temps were still in the 50s. The swimmer in the red sleeves is Casey, passing on a "warm up". We were twins in our wetsuits until he decided he's too much of woos to go sleeveless. Not warming up didn't seem to affect him (see photo of him waving below).
Here I am coming out of the water. I was a little worried about starting in the fourth and final wave that it would be too crowded on the course but it wasn't bad at all. The 6:30 start time meant that the air temperature was not going to help my feet defrost. I had a pathetic first transition (over 4 minutes) as I tried to get all the sand out of my toes and then thought I might be able to rub feeling back into my feet. It didn't work.
The bike course was fast, not much climbing. Thanks to Ann and Scott for the cheers at miles 2 and 17. And also rescuing the racer who seemed to be suffering from hypothermia. Thanks to the Johnson clan for honking at mile 13. And thanks to my wife and kids for at least thinking of me at various points on the course, including as I rode past our front door at mile 11.
The run course is the most spectacular. It's held at Soldier Hollow and the same trails from the Winter Olympics. You can see there is a lot of up and down but not huge elevation gains. The climbs were mostly long and gradual but the descents were steep and short so it was hard to maintain any real fast pace. The start of the run was a very strange sensation. I have done a lot of things with cold/frozen toes. I think I inherited the circulation of my Great Grandma Fife. But I have never run with entire frozen feet. Each step I wondered if I was actually wearing shoes. At mile 2 I started to get some tingling sensations that grew until the point I thought my feet were either on fire or I had hundreds of little rocks in my socks. I had to stop for second and take off my shoe just to make sure it wasn't the latter.
Yes that is Casey standing on the 1st place podium. At it wasn't just our age group, he was the 1st finisher of the citizen race. There were three race categories, Professional, Elite, and Age Group. You can see the results here. I was satisfied with my 7th place out of the 45 finishers in our age group. Next time I won't bother trying to clean my toes. Oh yeah and I'll try to train.
Casey was lucky Ryanne was in town. I told him that if he wasn't trying to show off for his woman he wouldn't be nearly so fast. Just wait until you've been married six years and your wife no longer seems to be impressed. BTW, congratulations to the happy couple. They set a date for October since we last saw them.
I went home and grabbed Jack and went back to Soldier Hollow for the awards ceremony. He loved getting a new hat and eating pizza at the finish line. He looked pathetic though because his dad was in charge of sunscreen and got it all over his eyes. People were wondering why he had tears streaming and yet didn't seem to stop smiling. Which brings me to my final thought on the day. If Baby Sunscreen irritates kids eyes just the same as any other sunscreen then what is the point in buying Baby Sunscreen? Kudos to the marketing department at Baby Sunscreen for selling that. I thought it was like Johnson Baby Shampoo, no more tears. That was very far from the truth. The bottle says "Pediatrician Tested". What the heck does that even mean? I have some stuff in my bag that says "water and sweat proof". That seems like a better sunscreen to me.

belovesjd

We leave for Portland tomorrow for Brian and Jackie's wedding. Several weeks ago I mustered up the courage to ask the happy couple if I could be in charge of the wedding mix CD. My prayers hadn't been answered that they would ask me on their own. Their excuse was somewhere between I couldn't be trusted and they had already asked one of Jackie's sisters to do it. I put on a brave face and said that was just fine, I'm thrilled to only be a groomsman.

After rushing home last night only to see the Lakers being absolutely blown out I needed a distraction from the destruction. So I decided to make a mix anyways and give it to them as my gift. Sort of a "see what you could have had" move. I post it here as a type of audition for future business. Note: I only do first marriages. No fair divorcing just so I will make you a mix.

I previously made a mix, Love Songs That Aren't Gay, for Beth that I used as my base. Basically that just means no Chicago (or Richard Marx). It starts out by looking at The First Date (Blink-182), moves to the I love yous (Frank Sinatra), discussing falling in love, more in love, and the power of love (The Queers, Lifehouse, Huey Lewis), looking forward to marriage (Beach Boys), then I just got lazy and started throwing songs together. I posted a playlist on the right but couldn't find most of the songs you probably don't already know. Here's the full breakdown of belovesjd:

1. First Date - Blink 182
2. Something Stupid - Frank (and Nancy) Sinatra
3. The Power of Love - Huey Lewis & The News
4. Today I Fell in Love - The Queers
5. Hanging by a Moment - Lifehouse
6. Wouldn't it be Nice - The Beach Boys
7. You're the Only One - The Mr. T Experience
8. We Belong Together - Ritchie Valens
9. Eight Days a Week - The Beatles
10. When You're Next to Me - A Mighty Wind
11. If I Could Make a Livin' - Clay Walker
12. Circle of Love - The Steve Miller Band
13. I Melt With You - Modern English
14. Something There - Beauty and the Beast
15. Without You - Dixie Chicks
16. Inches and Falling - The Format
17. Thank You - Dido
18. You'll Be in My Heart - Phil Collins
19. Happy Together - The Turtles
20. I Will Follow You Into the Dark - Death Cab for Cutie
21. Forever and Ever, Amen - Randy Travis

*Disclaimer: do not over analyze any lyrics, I certainly don't pay close enough attention to lyrics to hold up to any scrutiny. Beth pointed out to me that one of the songs I selected for the short list was actually not a love song at all and actually quite sad if you pay attention. All these years I thought it was a sweet song, thanks for ruining it.
*Second Disclaimer: for those of you familiar with the work of my younger brothers, no fair judging. No mix can hold up to works like Michael's Winter Formal 2005 or Brian's Everybody is Singing.

Happy Birthday Babe!

What trumps between Mommy's Birthday and Father's Day? Answer: depends who you ask. If Mom's Birthday falls on Father's Day who gets breakfast in bed? Answer: turns out nobody does. Well Jack did get his bottle in our bed. But who wants breakfast in bed anyways? I can't think of anything I'd want less in my bed than try to eat a meal. Who gets a raw deal by still having to change diapers on the special day? Answer: both of us. Real Answer: Beth, my diaper quota is a fraction of hers. Who gets to go shopping for themselves while the other is assigned the new t.v. for years to come? Answer: neither. Real answer: whatever Beth wants. Who is incredibly blessed and fortunate this beautiful June 15th? Answer: I hope both, but I'm pretty sure I'm the lucky one with the better deal.

Happy Birthday Beth! We love you!

Happy Late Mother's Day

It was the perfect storm . . . .

1. Lakers are playing* in the Finals and it's Euro 2008
2. It was Mother's day recently
   
3. Pawning some furniture off on the almost newlyweds
4. It's Beth's birthday on Sunday
5. It's what my Commander-in-Chief would have me do with my tax rebate. Who am I to argue when the country needs me?

All that equals one new T.V.

I can't wait to see what Beth gets me for Father's Day.

*I use the term "playing" loosely. If they hadn't won last night there was a chance I wouldn't get to watch a single game live.

2 weeks and counting

We just got back from Lily's 2 week Dr. appointment. Everything is going great. She's almost back to her birth weight and is content and sleeping well. Since the beginning she has gone at least 4 hours between feedings at night so Beth has never had to get up more than once. She sleeps all the time (I forgot that's what they do) and very rarely has fussy moments. When she does cry it is soft and pitiful, I have a feeling that won't always be true.

Here's a few photos from the past two weeks. We had lots of good help. My parents were here for almost a week, then my sister was nice enough to extend her stay a couple days to help with Jack while I had work and school obligations. Beth's friends also came to visit while the rest of the family partied away at the river.
Lily got one of those bad diaper rashes/infections that can happen when on antibiotics. We took the excellent advice of Beth's cousin, Amber, and made sure to dry her out good with a hair dryer. Lily absolutely loved warm air blowing up her skirt. She would lay there with the most contented look on her face.
Lily was glad to see her Grandma make it back from a week at the river.
A little less excited to see her brother again. Yes Jack, we've previously established your sister has eyes.
Sunday dinner at the Heber House. Jack, Anna, and I took a walk to see the horses.
"Good times with Uncle Morgan" was doing great business.
I have to point out how excellent my wife is looking. She's already lost a lot of baby weight and is even wearing her old jeans. Why isn't my baby weight doing that?

Lee Child's Nothing to Lose

I started this review last week while filling time waiting for the baby. With Nothing to Lose hitting the shelves today I thought I should finish it. Is it weird that I now do book reports by choice? I guess it helps when you read the book by choice.

You might be asking yourself "but John, if the book just came out today how could you possibly write a review?" Well for some unknown reason the book is published a full 2 1/2 months earlier in the UK. Luckily someone I know just started working for a UK based company and picked up what was going to be his father's day present on the trip. Of course in true Emmett fashion the father's day present was going to be slightly used after giving it to myself first for father's day. Instead it was slightly used when it was given to me for father's day. It was then slightly more used when my father in law got it for father's day. I know Lee Child is English but I still couldn't make any sense of the 2 month delay. It can't be too hard to change "kerb" to "curb" and "tyre" to "tire". It's not like it was written using the metric system and had to be converted over.

Every year I look forward to the next Lee Child novel and catching up on the adventures of the main character, Jack Reacher. There's a lot of good authors out there but my two favorite characters right now are Jack Reacher and Mitch Rapp (who I blogged about previously). When my dad told me he and my mom were going to London and were looking for suggestions on where else to go (as in other countries) the only thing that I could think of was to be sure to stop at the bookstore. I was super excited to get to read it before it hit the shelves here. Like a legal form of bootleg.

I came across Jack Reacher three books ago in One Shot. I really really liked it and in the book there was a casual reference or two to the his past and I remember thinking I sure hope there are books that talk more about that. Sure enough I dug through my father in law's boxes of books and found The Enemy. That drove me to the internet and I found a gold mine, 7 Jack Reacher novels I haven't read. Cha ching! I proceeded to read them all before the next one came out.

Nothing to Lose had one thing going for it immediately, it was longer than the last book. Not by a lot but anything will do. The last book was over much too quickly. The other thing Lee Child's books have going for them is Jack Reacher. It's hard to define why he is so likeable. He's not overly funny or clever like Myron Bolitar from Harlan Coben's novels. He's not incredibly cool and personable like Dirk Pitt in Clive Cussler's novels. He doesn't have the talent and international intrigue of Gabriel Allon in Daniel Silva's novels. He certainly isn't a national hero like Mitch Rapp. Simply put Jack Reacher is the man.

Reacher hasn't contributed much to the GDP since leaving the Army. He's jobless and homeless. A loner and a drifter. However, he is extremely tough and quite huge (6'5'' 250 lbs). So tough that in a fictional world the only guy I imagine giving him trouble in a fight is Jason Bourne. But only Bourne from The Bourne Identity, not Supremacy or Ultimatum when Jason Bourne was David Webb.

I think it is Reacher's overwhelming sense of justice that make him so likeable. It ticks him off when anyone is being taken advantage of or if somebody is getting away with a crime. He won't stand for it and he's really good at stopping it. The best line from the book came from the pretty little sheriff Reacher teams up with when she tells him "You're not a one man justice department." Girlfriend, you obviously don't know Jack Reacher. He's the judge, jury, and executioner.

Nothing to Lose doesn't disappoint. It opens with four guys trying to bully Reacher out of town which was a huge mistake, for them. You get plenty of classic Reacher moments like every minuscule detail about each cup of coffee and the vessel he drinks it from. There are 3 or 4 moments where you stand up and punch the air in satisfaction as justice is served and someone finally gets what's been coming.

I did have a problem to a degree that I haven't had before in Lee Child's books. There was an underlying theme that to me seemed a lot like European propaganda. I'm curious to see if the American version was changed at all and if anyone else got the same feeling as I did. That might explain the 2.5 month delay. The issue was Army deserters. Child didn't come out in support of desertion but his comments on the current situation in American military seemed to condone it. This bothered me but thankfully it wasn't dwelled upon.

Overall I still recommend it and anything else featuring Jack Reacher. 4.5/5

First attempts at family photo

Jack's first act of rebellion was not cooperating in the family photo op before we left the hospital. First he wouldn't put the water jug down. Then we had to identify everyone's ears. Jack did decide he wanted to give the baby some love. Unfortunately his version of "gentle" was learned while handling our dog, not quite good enough for a newborn.

Rest of Hospital stay

After hanging out with us for a couple hours and getting her first feeding (which went really well) Lily was off to the nursery to get cleaned up and checked out. The monitors showed that she was having respiratory stress, breathing at over 100 breaths per minute when normal is under 60. She also wasn't getting ideal Oxygen levels. I'm not going to embarrass myself by trying to use medical terminology, I'll embarrass myself with my poor man's explanations. The oxygen in her blood is measured by sticking a red light thingy on her foot and somehow converting that into a percentage. The number should be above 90 but hers was in the mid 80s. I'm sure there are those that know what I'm talking about anyway.

First the nurse put her on oxygen with a giant space mask like helmet. She did calm down a bit and her oxygen levels went in to the normal range but after an hour she still wasn't getting enough air on her own. The Dr. decided to put her on CPAP. This is short little tubes inserted into her nose to force air into her lungs. The way they hook it up looks like a head gear contraption from her Orthodontist. I chose not to take any photos of her with these things. Not a site I wanted to remember.

Once she had the CPAP it was off to the special needs nursery. Since she wouldn't be able to nurse while hooked up the respiratory devices they hooked her up to an IV. I elected to walk out of the room at that point which turned out to be a really good idea. They poked her anywhere and everywhere to try and find a spot, including both sides of her head. The Dr. also chose to start her on antibiotics just in case it was pneumonia or some other kind of infection that was causing her distress. Initial thoughts were she had some fluids in her lungs, some sort of pneumonia, or her lungs just hadn't fully inflated.

Skipping ahead 48 hours she got to come home with us with no worries. It was a nervous couple days but she ended up being just fine. The next morning Dr. took off her CPAP and said the x-rays showed that her lungs just needed a little extra help to inflate fully. She still had to stay in the special needs library until she was weened off the IV, the heated bed, and passed respiratory tests like breathing normal in a car seat. At least we could then pick her up and Beth could feed her.

Tuesday afternoon Jack made his first trip to the hospital. He, like most everyone else, wasn't allowed in the nursery so he had to watch through the window and really didn't get to see her until we were released. He was interested but mostly interested in anything other than what he was currently doing. Here's some more photos from the rest of the hospital.
Beth smiling at Jack outside the nursery.
Jack trying to catch a glimpse of mommy's baby.
Here she is all hooked up with monitors and the IV on her hand.
Jack was happy to be relaxing in bed again with his mom. Especially if she has a Cheez-Its and a drink.
Looks like Grandma made a trip to the vending machine.
Wednesday waiting for Lily to be let out.
Finally we can roll her down to our room.
So cute. She seems to like her binky.
Poor little beat up feet.
After she was changed into her first outfit.

Hospital Portrait

First glamour shots found at:

http://www.utahportraits.com/hospital/index.php?action=view&BabyID=052608lae

Introducing Little Lily Ann

Well she made it and we couldn't be more pleased. Just look at her, isn't she the best?


The adventure actually began last Thursday, May 22. That afternoon Beth had a Dr.'s appointment and she was already dilated to a 3.5. First progress in three weeks since she first dilated. As the afternoon wore on she started having regular contractions, about 5 minutes apart. We dropped Jack Jack off at Grandma and Grandpa McEuens (thanks!) around 5:00 and headed to the hospital. To make a long story short after an hour and a half she didn't progress past a 4 and the contractions didn't worsen so we got the boot.

The nurse suggested a dollar movie and returning later that night if she felt any different. After a light dinner and walking around the mall Beth didn't feel any worse and certainly didn't feel like a movie, even though the 11:15 showing of Indiana Jones wasn't sold out yet. We headed home and Beth slept like a baby, allowing me to sleep like a baby. All things considered not a bad night.

For the next three days we were on the edge of our seats but Lily was in no hurry. Everyday Beth would have a period of an hour or more with discomfort but then it would subside. We past the time with a movie (Indiana Jones which was just what you'd expect from an Indiana Jones movie, lots of fun with a little weird), walks anywhere and everywhere, house preparation/cleaning, cursing Kurt and Jordan for having their baby before us, visiting Kru McEuen and putting on the "we're so happy you had your baby when you're not even due for 10 days after us" face.

Monday morning Jack left for Logan and Memorial day festivities with Grandma and Grandpa Emmett who had flown in the night before. We were treated to an as usual excellent Memorial Day breakfast hosted by Scott and Ann. We resigned to the fact we would have to wait for the induction scheduled for Tuesday morning. That afternoon with no Jack, no chores (at least not in the rain chores), and golf on T.V. it was a foregone conclusion that a nap was not too far behind.

About 2:00 Beth started feeling uncomfortable. Shortly before 4:00 she thought we should go to the hospital. Just as I was driving through town and thinking to myself that I am about to set a speed record for driving the canyon a sheriff pulls in behind me. Son of a gun! I finally have the perfect excuse and before mile 1 have a cop in tow. After a couple miles of the speed limit he pulls me over, proceeds to tell me my registration is expired, I explain that actually it isn't I just haven't put the new sticker on and it will have to wait a little longer because we are on our way to the hospital. He was cool, told us to be careful and sent us on our way. I was careful. I didn't obey the speed limit per se but the canyon was crowded with Holiday traffic and I'm no idiot. I don't want to be that guy that crashes his car with a pregnant wife on the way to the hospital.

At 4:30 Beth gets changed and starts with the barrage of check-in questions. The nurse then checks her and sure enough she's at a 7 or 8. Yay! Beth was so relieved. Dr. Paul administered the epidural about 5:30. Beth's Dr., Dr. Broberg, was conveniently already at the hospital and came and broke her water. 10 minutes later he returned and started putting on his battle armor. Apparently it was already go time. Much faster than with Jack. At 5:45 it was time to start pushing and at 6:05, Lily popped out. She was a day late but just in time for shift change.

She was just beautiful. She looked 100% confused but healthy. Her stats were 8 lbs. 3 oz. and 19.5 inches. Beth was awesome, I sure love my girls.

I will eventually get to the remainder of the story. In answer to your questions: No this isn't the end, yes there is an end, and yes I could have made it longer.

Swim Swimmin Swimmer

In an effort to make sure Jack at least liked the water before we hit summer we've made a conscience effort to take him the pool at least once a week. Now we've created a monster, a health risk to himself and others around. He likes step into the pool before we can even get our shirts off or run the deep end and try to jump in before we can get there. It's fun to watch but also a little frightening.

He loves it. Yesterday he was whining and I asked if he wanted to go swimming. He immediately started laughing and ran to get his swim diaper. Last week while the carpet cleaners were working I picked him up and asked him where we should go. He started pointing and I followed his finger all the way to the pool. Once we got there I tried to explain that I didn't bring the pool key but he didn't want to hear any excuses.
"Can I jump to daddy? What do you think?"
"Can I swim to daddy? Well that's a little harder."

Not for the faint

I heard about this from some family members who were at the track meet but I just came across this photo and article. Don't look too closely if you have a weak stomach. Apparently at BYU for the high school state track meet a photographer was in the WAY wrong place at the WAY wrong time. That didn't stop him from snapping a couple more photos.

San Jorge Triathlon

There's something about a picture of this kid that immediately adds likability to a post. This was taken after a pit stop where he picked out a new Chevron toy car. Actually he picked out the truck with farm animals in the back but in an effort to curb any cowboy tendencies I grabbed the Woody with surfboard on top. He seemed to like it just fine. You may also notice that the DVD player was within reach of his toes. That was a mistake. He likes pushing buttons with his toes.This was my 4th annual St. George Triathlon. It almost didn't happen. The combination of lack of training and the proximity to Beth's due date was making it easy to bail out. The night before we left I got pretty excited as I looked at my times from the years past. Beth decided she would obey the Dr. and stay home which was a drag. Part of the reason the Dr. said she shouldn't go was because if she went into labor in St. George our insurance wouldn't cover it. I was pretty sure he didn't know what he was talking about and confirmed with Altius the next morning that we would be covered. After that Beth was an easy sell (as long as she didn't have wake up early and drag Jack along to watch the race).Check in was both good and bad. The bad part was they reminded me and Casey that we are turning 30 (ugh) this year by tattooing it on our calf. The good part was it gave us an excuse to take a picture of our calf:) Actually the good part was the haircuts. The race has always encouraged participants to buzz their hair. This year they were giving out $5 bills to anyone who took advantage. I asked the girls for a #2, they took a minute to shave off my grown out #4 and handed me a crisp Lincoln. It's fun to be paid for the same haircut you plan to give yourself the next day.We then joined Casey and Ryanne at Olive Garden for some carbo loading.

I don't have any pictures from the actual event. If the website ever puts some up I'll insert them here.

The race itself was wild. The course has changed a little here and there but not much. My times from 2005-07 were 2:40, 2:39, and 2:35. After crunching the numbers (busier with school-add 2 minutes, busier with work-add 1 minute, borrowing dad's "old" bike-subtract 2 minutes, added step in transitions-add 1 minute) I set a target time of 2:37. The added step was checking phone messages to make sure Beth wasn't in labor. I thought about adding a minute for one year older but the winners are traditionally from my age group (30-34) so that was a push.

That all went out the window when I got to Sand Hollow Reservoir. The sun wasn't even up and the wind was consistently blowing with gusts between 20-30 mph. The lake was whipped with white capped wind swells. Say that seven times. And it was unusually cold water, for the first time I regretted the sleeveless wetsuit. At least the violent waters and head winds provided an excuse for a slow time.

As I walked down to the water to warm up I had my fourth "D'oh" moment. The first three were 1. Where's my bike pump? 2 Where's my water bottles and gu? and 3. Where's my sunglasses? #4 was the most disturbing, where's my swim goggles? Luckily the tri community rallied around me and provided me with their spares. It turned out that warming up wouldn't ever happen so I walked back out of the lake to wait for the start. Despite the conditions I remembered why I love these races as soon as my face hit the water. My swim (1.5K or .92 miles) was 33 minutes which was a full 6 minutes slower than my previous worst. The way the course was set up you swim along the lake to the boat ramp which meant the majority was against the wind and swells. I swallowed quite a bit of water but at least the cold temperatures have kept the boats off this spring and it didn't taste too bad. Friends of mine that were racing Sprint distance in later heats said the pontoon rescues boats were coming in with 15+ people per run. That help explains all the DNFs. Apparently it was at this point that the race organizers cancelled the swim portion for the Sprint (I was doing the Olympic). The Sprint Tri was now a Sprint Duathlon. Not to be confused with the alpine sniper event, the Biathlon.

The bike (40K / 25 miles) and run (10K / 6.2 miles) went fine. The desert winds created some interesting sand drifts on the roads that were tricky to navigate. At one point I had to stop and raise the seat on my bike because I failed to tighten it down enough when I raised it that morning. By mile 8 it had lowered several inches and I was now lowriding and burning a part of my quad I'd never used before. My total time was 2:50 which was disappointing but considering the conditions I guess I'll take it. The best part was I felt really good afterwards. Next stop Battle at Midway and then it's onto the inaugural Irvine Stake Tri.

After the race it was lunch (see separate post), relaxing while Jack napped at Kathy and Ruben's (thanks for letting us stay at the casita), and then homeward bound.
The fifth "D'oh" moment happened on the way home. Last year we flirted with $90 fill ups and it looks like $100 is just around the corner.
I'd like to take a moment, swallow my pride and pat Casey on the back. My padowan apprentice has become the master. He's come a long way from this picture taken at St. George two years ago. Yes that's a mountain bike, yes it's a girls bike, and yes it has a kickstand. I taught him humility that summer of 2006. He switched to Sprints the next season and started racking up the podium finishes. This was his first Olympic distance race in while and I took this picture before he picked up his 2nd place plaque. Way to go buddy. When I got to the first transition area and he was already gone I thought to myself "I should make a goal not to get lapped by him on the run". Mission not accomplished. I was at mile 3.05, about to finish my first lap, when Casey comes sprinting by to finish. Casey, I didn't mean what I said as you went by.