Another Duty Weekend

Hello, well another duty weekend completed! It was a little busier than usual, called in at 1030 pm on Friday night and stayed until 2am Saturday, then called in at 0630am on Sunday until 1000 am or so. At least they were spread apart! While working I was thinking to myself when I'm a civilian I would be making at least $600 or so for coming in for those days, not going to be too bad at all! Have I said lately that I can't wait to retire and start working on a second career? haha. Shayna went to support one of her friends in a figure competition and enjoyed the heck out of La Jolla, CA. She said that it was absolutely beautiful, I'm glad she had the opportunity to go hang out with the girls for a weekend, we all need that every now and then. This upcoming weekend we are having another paintball war on Saturday and then I'm golfing on Sunday morning, hopefully I'll break 100 strokes this time! Well that's about it for this week, I'll write more next week.
Dave

Number 13

Hello, well it was a great weekend! Friday I drove down to Anaheim/Huntington Beach, CA for the Disney 1/2 Marathon. I met one of my good friends, Mike, for the race. It was nice to see him since we ran our first 1/2 Marathon exactly 4 years ago! I was worried checking into the Hilton and my room number was 313, I'm kind of superstitious and thought it was going to be a problem! I don't have any pictures from the race yet, they'll be on the next entry. Shayna didn't come down with me because it would be too much of a downer watching Mike and I happy after the race, she still isn't 100% for running yet, it'll come! We hit the Dodger-Giants game at Dodger Stadium on Friday night. The first picture was funny because that police command vehicle was parked out in front of the entrance to our section of the stadium, we called it the "Ghetto Section"! We sat on wooden benches and ate all the food we could, which was included in the price, so you could imagine the lines and smells by the bathrooms. Honestly I wouldn't have wanted to be in any other section, the people were really a lot of fun and really into the game, great experience. You can see in the second picture I'm wearing a Dodger hat, although I'm a die hard Reds fan. I called the wearing of the Dodger hat a form of life insurance! It worked, I'm alive! There were a couple of Giants fans sitting in front of us that went through absolute hell during the entire game, good on them though for coming out to support their team. The last picture is taken from the parking lot, LA is in the background. Saturday we went golfing at Meadowlark Golf Course in Huntington. Challenging course, beautiful, but it was the longest game of golf known to man, just short of 6 HOURS! It was packed. Mike and I did so bad that we stopped keeping score at hole 13 or so. We met some nice locals there also, great day. Sunday we woke up at 3:30 in the morning to head out to the race, yep 3:30 in the morning. We were lined up and ready to start at 5:15 when the race actually started at 6:00. Great weather, 60s with cloud cover. My personal best for 1/2 marathons is 1hr 43min, I finished this one in 1hr 46min, I felt great the entire race and afterwards. Mike started the race with an Achilles injury and it held him back the entire race, good for him for pushing through though. We went out and had some beers later that night and then laid out on the beach on Monday, where I got an impressive sunburn. Wind, cooler weather and cloud cover is a bad mixture, it was a ninja sunburn, didn't feel it happening at all. I'm really glad to be home with Shayna and am looking forward to the Army 10-miler in DC toward the end of October. My cousin from Pennsylvania and my brother from Florida will be coming to compete, should be a good weekend. Well that's about it for this entry, take care.

Dave

Lemoore or Afghanistan?

As you can see by the picture on the left I was pretty confused this past week. I couldn't figure out if I was in Afghanistan or Lemoore, CA? It was hella hot! Running during the day was definitely out, so I was getting up at 0445 to get a good run in, not good when I ended up staying late at work due to being on duty. Very long days. The strange thing is that today the high is 77 degrees, I was actually able to run at 2pm with no problems at all. Next Sunday is the Disneyland 1/2 marathon, really looking forward to that. My friend Mike is coming out from Virginia. We're going to see the Dodgers vs. the Giants on Friday at the stadium in Anaheim, CA, Saturday we are hitting the links somewhere to play the best golf of our lives (yeah right!), Sunday is the race and then Monday we are going to recover from the run and the hangover! This blog was part of a research project of a person in London. It was cool actually doing a phone interview with her. It's going to be nice to see her finished project, she had some interesting questions. I'll post some excerpts from the paper when I get a copy. Shayna's next competition is on 16 OCT. She'll be doing the bikini competition this time so she can work up to the figure competition again. I can officially say that I'm married to a bikini competitor! woohoo. Well that's about it for this week. I'll be posting the next article late next week due to being out of town. Take care.

Dave

Hello

It's been a good two weeks since the last post. I had the opportunity to be the department head for a week and I really enjoyed the challenge of keeping everything running smoothly, I feel that I did a pretty good job and that's satisfying! Now I'm back to being a regular staff OR nurse and that's a good thing also, nothing to worry about except taking care of the patient and making sure that everything is done safely and efficiently. 404 days left in the Navy as of today, hopefully it continues to fly by, I'm sure it will. Been in touch with Andria our realtor in Jacksonville, FL and it looks like we'll be in great shape when it comes time to buy a house out there, probably around June or so. The prices keep falling on the homes there, it's nice being on the other side of a crappy economy, at least we'll get a fantastic deal on a nice home. 2 weeks until the Disney 1/2 Marathon, I just finished a 10 mile run in 1hr 25min, so I think I'm ready. Not a whole lot of pains to speak of, just the norm, knees and back a little sore nothing major though. It's going to be a really nice weekend. I'm meeting up with an old friend, we both ran our first 1/2 marathon in Virginia Beach back in 2005, I can't believe 5 years have passed already! We are planning on going to the LA Dodger, SF Giants baseball game on Friday the 3rd of September, on Saturday hitting the golf course, Sunday we're running the race and then Monday recovering from the hangover! haha. Shayna is going to stay home, she really doesn't want to be surrounded by a bunch of runners when she is not able to participate herself, it's a bummer for her and I understand. Shayna really enjoyed her first competition experience and is hitting the gym twice as hard now for her next one in November. She looks fantastic! I'm very proud of her and am in awe of the dedication and focus that she possesses. Well that's about it for this post. I'll have a picture of something on the next one. Take care.
Dave

Fun Day

Let me explain the picture! I just finished winning a challenge through Nike+ called the Kandahar Kup and the helmet was the trophy. The sticker on the front of it is the Afghanistan campaign medal. Myself and 3 others that were deployed to Kandahar last year decided to have a race to see who could hit 500 miles first, or who ran the furthest in a year whichever came first. The 500 miles were completed in 9 months, not too bad. You should see the insane challenge I'm in now, same criteria just running with a bunch of insane runners. We started on 11 JUN, two runners are already at around 350 miles leaving the rest of us mere mortals in the dust! I golfed this morning and shot a 109, unfortunately that is my norm. I am going to get a new set of clubs in October, maybe that will do the trick. Shayna is going through one Hell of a week, being the week prior to her competition. She has to eat and drink very little to get the muscles to pop out for the stage on Saturday. I think she will do very well. That's about it for this week. Take care.
Dave

The Worst Drivers

Shayna and I went to Morgan Hill, CA yesterday for her 2 mile open water swim this morning. She did great for her first competition finishing in 1hr 5 min! Fantastic! On the way there and back I was thinking about the State with the worst drivers, from my perspective. I came down to California and Virginia in a tie for first. The closer you get to Los Angeles the further in first place California goes! I just want to say to all the drivers in California, the left lane is for PASSING and the right lane is for SLOW drivers, or ones doing the speed limit. It's really not that hard! Traffic problems in this State would decrease exponentially if people would just follow that simple rule. I'm really proud of Shayna and she looked like she had the "high" that you get from completing a goal. She finished in the middle of the pack of seasoned swimmers which is saying a lot about how she did for her first competition. Nothing much planned for this week and I have duty again next weekend, have I said how much I hate my current work situation lately? haha. It's going to get better in September/October when we gain 2 OR nurses, I can't wait. Well that's about it for this week. Take care.

Dave

Nothing New

I was going to post a picture of what I do during duty, basically just sitting on the couch watching movies and playing video games. Yep, 42 and still addicted to video games! haha. It makes time fly by. I'm sure that Shayna is bored to death when I have duty, which is every other day and every other weekend. It should get better in the September/October time frame, when we get one or two more OR nurses on the watch bill, thank you Lord! We'll have some more pics for you this weekend, Shayna has her 2 mile lake swim competition this weekend, she's fired up for it and I'm sure she'll do fine. Pretty much how I run, run to finish not win! haha. Well that's about it for this week, I'll have a better entry next weekend.
Dave