Second to last XC race

A few of her teammates said they were going to try to run with her... and they did... at the beginning at least.

Her two best friends, however, hung with her and shadowed here for the first mile... running on each shoulder. She knew she had to make them hurt to shake them so after the first mile every time the course went uphill she hammered it and began to stretch out a lead on them. It worked, and she took 15 seconds off her PR as well!

One more race: the city championships!

(One of her teammates was in the port-a-potty when the race started so he had to make up a lot of ground... I think he still finished top-20!)

Me

A long, long, time ago ;-)

Kiersten's epic Xterra!

Here's a video I made from Kiersten's epic Xterra at Camp Eagle...

On the links

Kees plays the 8th hole... with just one club... and it has Snoopy written on it... and dang if he didn't play it better than I could!

More Ike damage here: 50-80 feet of beach lost!

Wow... the hurricane's powerful storm surge sheared the fronts off dunes, leaving them as vertical as cliffs. Portions of the islands lost between 30 feet and 50 feet to erosion caused by storm surge and some lost as much as 80 feet, according to recent estimates by local scientists.

Green tree frog!

I walked out the front door and found a green tree frog on the porch which the kids caught and fed crickets. After thinking about it Kees felt bad for Senor Frog and decided to let it go. I've never seen one that close and it's a pretty exotic-looking animal.

First game!

Kiersten's first volleyball game, and within a couple of minutes she had a perfect bump for a teammate which resulted in a score! Apparently tiny girls can play volleyball ;-)

Button!

Here's our little Siberian Dwarf Hamster, Button (as in "cute as a button!"). She's only about three inches long and weighs only 1oz. (32g)!

They supposedly run up to 5 miles a day and I wouldn't be surprised if that's true because from what we've seen (and heard) it appears that she runs on her wheel all night long!

And best of all: she doesn't stink or bite, like lots of rodent's do!

XC #2

Well... things went much better this time... Kiersten took 2 1/2 minutes off of her last race and moved up 7 places, almost in the top 10. As always... she was the fastest at her school and got a cool medal which her teammates all admired. She needs to take off another minute... lets see how it goes!

Dance time!

It's invitational dance time again... where little kids dress up like big kids and learn how to waltz and tango and stuff ;-)

Gotta admit, though... they do look cute!

After Ike

Thank goodness the storm was guided north by a cold front that moved down the state and we were spared the brunt of the storm... unfortunately Houston and Galveston were not so lucky.

Contraflow routes opened on I-37 for evacuation

For the first time the I-37 contraflow evacuation routes will be opened... southbound lanes will be reversed to carry two lanes of northbound traffic in addition to the three northbound lanes.

The troops arrive in Corpus Christi for hurricane Ike!

C-130's are flying in almost every 90 minutes to bring troops and to evacuate people with medical needs and disabilities. The National Guard is rolling in as well with troops to aid where necessary with medical triage or evacuation.

It's getting serious.