And Now For Something Happier....

So...  With the Sad post out of the way, I can now move on to the rest of the Holiday Weekend.   Cheryl and I Kicked off our Thanksgiving day with a 5 K Turkey Trot in Cedar Rapids.   I am not much of a runner, so this was mostly for Cheryl.   And She really wanted to run on Thanksgiving... 

It was an Early morning wake up, but Cedar Rapids is not terribly far away and we arrived in plenty of time to find Primo Parking and pick up our packets and shirts for the race. 

There is one bad thing about running the race:  I can't take pictures.   That is right!  Being a spectator is pretty much impossible when you are actually RUNNING the race. However,  Since I do not have a reliable camera anymore,  this takes a bit of the sting out of my photography woes.  

Then again,  Running the race  is not exactly easy.   I got burned by some little girl in pigtails ( not Cheryl!)  There was this young girl ( perhaps 9-10 years of age)  setting the pace for me.   I challenged myself to not be beat by her, but she gave me a run for my money.   I barely passed her in the  final quarter mile of the race.   IN the mean time,  another girl who was about the same age ran past me in the last quarter mile... accompanied by her Dad... who was probably the high school track coach.  ( at least that is what I want to believe)  

I still managed to finish the race with a New PR for the 5 K.   I took almost 2 minutes off my time!   Not my fastest running ever, but I will take it.  

Cheryl won her age group award and got a medal.   We posed for pics by one of the giant Turkeys and headed home.   The plan was to eat a Thanksgiving Buffet at the Casino in Riverside. 

However,  the line was HUGE!   And we decided against it at the last minute.   Instead,   Cheryl decided to Gamble at the slot machines and instead of paying $30 per person,  she WON $30 from the slots.  Yeah Money!

I forgot to mention that after the race,  Cheryl felt like she needed to run more.   So we headed out to Terry Trueblood and run an additional training run.   I ran approximately 6 miles in total for that day. 

Friday was a Bust  as mentioned in the previous post.   But Saturday began with another training run in Muscatine.  Another 6 miles for me.  Cheryl might have run 10.   She decided to run a few miles with me,  choosing to slow down to my pace, of course.  That is a total of 12 miles!  I felt like I was in the Army again!   With Cheryl as the Drill Instructor!

The primary reason we went to Muscatine was  because Cheryl had to set up the Christmas Tree for the Newspaper in Lone Tree, Iowa.   (One of the cities that the news covers.  Remember Lone Tree? ) This was why I had spent all those hours folding that Origami.  I was told that there would be other folks contributing to the folding.. But in the end,  there was only 5 other models for the tree that were not mine or Cheryl's   Good hing I did not slack on the number.

I think it turned out pretty good.   Not as colorful as an Origami tree should be, but I'll take it.  Cheryl snapped a few pics and we went back home to bake cookies and drink beer.  ( Not really in the order.)  

Baking cookies while sampling beer is actually kind of fun.   The sweetness of the cookies is offset by the bitterness of the IPA.  A wonderful combination! 

And that is pretty much where the holiday ended.   I went home Sunday Morning and Cheryl caught up on whatever she had to do to prepare for the following Monday.  Overall, I think the long weekend was more good than bad... Even though there were moments I was prepared to call it and head back to Wisconsin.  In the end,  I got to say goodbye to the cat, and Cheryl no longer has to deal with that situation.  I should also mention that I removed the AC unit,  Changed Cheryl's Oil in the Bean Subie, Attempted and failed to Fix the Steam Vacuum,  and removed the Old Christmas tree from the apartment.  A rather productive visit.    

And this is becoming a long post.   Thanks for stopping in!  And I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and Family.