Spirit of Columbus / Wedding Anniversary Weekend Recap

We had a brief glimpse of fall weather last week. It was really nice and reminded me of the time period when Laela and I started dating. We just celebrated two anniversaries over the weekend. Our 16th wedding anniversary was last Friday and the 19th anniversary of our first date was on Sunday. (Yes, of course they are that close together for a reason). We celebrated on Friday by doing the same thing that we've done for the past eighteen years; we have dinner at the Clarmont. The night that I proposed to Laela, we dined at the Clarmont and we went to see "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" at the Ohio Theater as part of their summer classic movie series. Unfortunately this year the Ohio Theater had a production of Wicked going on and I did not have the foresight to either A) order tickets or B) make our dinner reservations at a time conducive to attending the production. Instead, after dinner we travelled East on Broad Street to Franklin Park and took an evening stroll around the grounds. In my haste to get the evening underway, I had not warned Laela beforehand that that was my plan so her footwear was not chosen accordingly. There weren't any movies going on that we wanted to see, so we made our way home and finished watching the Cincinnati Reds put the finishing touches on a 7-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs. Miranda was out of the house, so it was nice to be able to just relax on the sofa watching the game with no commitments or plans. It was the perfect way to spend the evening.

On Saturday I picked Miranda up from her friend's house and my mother came up to visit from Cincinnati. It was a restful, uneventful day. We went out to lunch at Skyline, had subs for dinner, and watched the Reds game. Unfortunately, after the Reds game my mother and I got sucked into watching Remember the Titans. She had the will power to tear herself away from it at 11:00. Me, not so much and stayed up until 12:30 watching it. Ordinarily that wouldn't be an issue but Sunday morning I needed to be up at the crack of dawn because I was participating in the Spirit of Columbus Half-Marathon.

2010 was the third annual running of the Spirit of Columbus Half-Marathon and Relay. It is also the third year I have participated. In 2008, when I started running I had set my goal as being able to run the SoC. In 2009, the SoC dove-tailed nicely with my training for the Columbus Marathon which was being held in October. This year though was a little different. I knew that I wouldn't be able to run the whole thing, so I set my mind on at least participating as a walker. I also enlisted some of my friends to be renegade participants and walk with me for a few miles each. To that end, my mother walked from mile marker one to mile marker three with me, my friend Sarah Cofer walked from mile four to mile five with me, my friends Adam Swickard and Dan Michalec walked from mile marker seven until the finish line. Kristi Hittepole doubled back after completing the entire half-marathon as a runner and met me at mile marker 11 and of course Laela and Miranda met me at mile 12.5 and we finished the race as team Speed Walrus rollin' six deep. I'm really grateful for all of the support that everyone gave me. Those last two miles were tough. I did finish as one of the last ten participants but I finished it nonetheless. It was very bittersweet because I have a feeling that is the last half-marathon that I'll be participating in. Who knows though. Fortune favors the brave, right? Maybe I'll be foolhardy and strong enough to do something else, but we'll just take it one day at a time.

Bukkit Tour: Windy City Day 4

August 23, 2010 - Alarm set 7:55am, girls actually up by 8:20am. We had to get a jump on things this morning because we were headed back to Wrigley Field. On non-game days at Wrigley there are tours available of the facility. You do have to plan ahead and order tickets, so we ordered ours to pick up at will call when we got to town on Friday. We were out of the hotel and onto the subway before 9:00, record time for us. A quick nine stops later found us back at Addison and we were right back at the ballpark. We took a couple of photos outside that we didn't get on game day because there were too many people about and grabbed our tickets. We had plenty of time before the tour started so we walked across the street to the golden arches and got ourselves some breakfast. Who knew you could feed three people in Chicago for under $20. It was the first time we had done so since arriving. The McDonalds was actually kind of cool because there it had Cubs and Wrigley memorabilia all over the place. On more than one occasion I caught myself forgetting my meal and staring at something on the wall.

We made it back across the street and met up with the tour group at the front gate. They led us back into a bar that had a bunch of television sets mounted on the wall and we watched a 10 minute movie about the park. They then proceeded to take us up to the bleachers to relate some of the park's history (and more importantly the rules of the tour). From the bleachers, we made our way back down to the ground level and they took us out into right field. As long as we stayed on the crushed red brick of the warning track we were in good shape, but woe be to he that actually set foot on the grass. (Friendly confines my a$$...) We got to take a bunch of pictures by the brick outfield wall and Wrigley Fields legendary ivy. Interesting historical note. That ivy was installed over the course of a weekend and the ivy that is there are the original ivy that were planted back in 1937. After being on the field, we were walked up to the press box and the luxury suites. We were unable to go to the visitors clubhouse that day because the field had been rented by a private company for an event and there were actually people using it and playing on the field. The tour concluded with a visit to the Cubs clubhouse. Our tour guide had warned us how small it was several times through the tour. We finally we led down into it and boy, was he right. It is a tiny tiny facility for 25 players plus coaches (never mind the additional 15 players who are called up to the bigs in September). We snapped a few photographs and were on our way.

We boarded the subway to take it back into the city. Our plan was to go to the Field Museum next. Laela wanted to go back to the hotel and then grab a cab to go to the museum, but I figured there had to be a subway stop near it and I found one. So I convinced everyone to take the L all the way to the museum. We got off of the train and we didn't really know where we were, so I got out my GPS and punched in the Field Museum's address. We started walking in the direction it told us to. I must've done something wrong because we ended up walking about a mile in the EXACT opposite direction of the museum. We stopped and asked a meter maid where it was and she said that it was about two miles back the other way. Well, I'd had us walking around in the sun for too long at this point to we went ahead and hailed a cab who then dropped us off at the museum.

We got there and went inside and were greeted by Dinosaur Sue. Sue is the most complete, best preserved, Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered. I believe she is the unofficial mascot of the Field Museum and is quite an impressive specimen. The rest of the Field Museum (aside from being in an amazing building) is just like any other natural history museum that you've ever been to. Lot's of dioramas and taxidermied animals. One exhibit that we went into that was rather cool was "Robosue: The T. rex Experience" Robotics and facial recognition technology combined to make animatronic velociraptors, triceratops, and of course a T. rex. Although it is a small exhibit, the technology behind it is pretty amazing. After we went through that we went and had lunch in the basement. It was getting to be mid-afternoon at this point and I was starting to get tuckered out. After lunch we all went to go explore the third floor and I just needed to sit for a while. There were some very comfortable living room style chairs upstairs and I just plopped myself down in one while the girls checked out the rest of the museum. We left at about 4:00PM so we could get back to the hotel, pick up our bags, and then take the subway back to the airport.

We arrived at O'Hare, got checked in, had a quick dinner at the airport Chili's and went to our gate. We were there an hour and a half early, no thanks to the TSA. Since I had finished the book I was reading the day before and Laela had a dead tree edition of what she was reading, she graciously let me borrow her Nook and purchased for me "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman" So I was able to wile away my time at the terminal reading (although CNN blaring in my ear made it a tad difficult to concentrate). We finally boarded our flight back to Columbus which was very uneventful.

Once on the ground, we grabbed the shuttle back to the red lot and made our way home. Indy was very pleased to see us this time and didn't "cool guy" us at all like she did when we came home from our vacation in July. Vacation time is now all wrapped up. Miranda started back to school last Wednesday and I start round two of my treatment. Looks like it's time to settle back into a normal life.

Bukkit Tour: Windy City Day 3

Sunday August 22, 2010 - Today was the big day, the whole reason we went to Chicago. I wanted to make sure I got a chance to go to a Cubs game to experience "The Friendly Confines" of Wrigley Field. We made sure to wake up around 9:00am on Sunday. I arose with butterflies in my stomach because i was so excited. I was dressed in about ten minutes (after tending to my feet....again) and impatiently waited for the girls to follow suit. We wanted to make sure that we were on the subway bright and early so that we weren't late for the game. We didn't want to have a repeat of New York, where the train broke down and made everyone get off and back onto another train which caused us to be late for the game. So with the girls finally primped and prettied up, we set out for breakfast.

Right on the corner by the hotel was a Corner Bakery Cafe. We had eaten in one in Philadelphia and Miranda had French toast that was out of this world. We were all eager to eat there again and had decided on Friday that we would do so on Sunday. So here we were two days later all primed up and ready to go. Fortunately it wasn't terribly busy for a Sunday morning, but it was definitely full. All three of us ordered the same entrée: the French Toast. The only variation in our orders was beverage. Disappointingly, the Chicago Corner Bakery Cafe's French Toast was not nearly as good as Philly's. In Philadelphia they used cinnamon raisin toast and it was almost like a little loaf of bread. Not so in Chi-town. Not only that, but it was barely warm. Don't get me wrong, it was good but it wasn't what we all remembered from Philadelphia.

So with our bellies now full and me with a cup of coffee, we set out for the red line subway. Wrigley Field is a short nine stops away from where we were staying downtown and fortunately we got on our way early enough that there wasn't a crush of Cubs fans trying to get on the train. It certainly got more crowded the closer we got, but it wasn't terrible.

We got off of the train at the Addison stop and could see Wrigley Field as soon as we stepped onto the platform. I was giddy as a school girl. We made our way onto the street and snapped a few photos across the street so we had the obligatory Wrigley Field sign in the background. We crossed the street and walked into the stadium and there was quite the buzz about the place. You could just feel that it was a different place to watch a game than all of the newer stadiums. It was very similar to how it felt walking to Fenway Park. I was expecting the fans to be a little more rabid than they were, but it was also nice not having non-baseball-know-it-all-guy sitting right behind me telling the person he's with everything about baseball (but being wrong about things more than half of the time).

Our seats were in the fourth row of section 226 so we had a fantastic view. It was also nice that the seats were in the shade. It was the most comfortable ball game I'd been to all year. I was actually wishing I had a sweatshirt and was a little envious of the one Miranda had on. Unbeknown to us prior to arriving at the stadium, we were about to witness history. It was Sweet Lou Pinella's last game before retiring and the last time that Bobby Cox would visit Wrigley Field as the manager of the Atlanta Braves (due to his impending retirement at the end of the season). As a Cubs fan for the day, the game was laughable. The final score was 16-5 and I swear, if that was the best effort that Cubs 3rd baseman Aramis Ramierez is capable of, he is a complete piece of crap. I've seen rec league girls softball players put in more effort to field a ball than he did. It was absolutely disgraceful. Wrigley Field is an absolutely gorgeous ballpark and I'm ecstatic that I had an opportunity to see a game there. At least my streak continues. If I come to your ballpark and I'm rooting for your team, you are going to lose and lose bad. The only exception to this rule that I've during the 2010 baseball season is the New York Yankees. They are the only team that I've rooted for that won. I don't think that really counts though because although I was rooting for them on the outside, in my heart of hearts I wanted them to lose.

When the game was over, we boarded the red line and left Wrigleyville. We got back to the hotel and as usual, it was time for me to take a little nap before we went out and did anything else. When napping time was over, Laela had decided that we should eat dinner at the Weber Grill Restaurant. It was Sunday evening and it was absolutely packed. It was a 45 minute wait to get a table, but it was well worth it in the end. All three of us had the same three things on the menu that we couldn't decide on so each of us ordered one of them and we all shared. We ordered the following: the hickory smoked prime rib, the filet mignon, and the skirt steak. The skirt steak is marinaded in a ginger-soy sauce and then topped with smokey grilled onions and peppers. All three steaks were delicious and they were all served with garlic roasted mashed potatoes. I asked to have my mashed potatoes substituted by a baked one. It was quite honestly the largest potato I have ever seen in my life. It was the size of a pee-wee league football and could have been two meals all by itself.

Having sufficiently stuffed our gullets again, we had one more adventure to embark upon for the evening. We wanted to use our City Passes to visit the Skydeck in the Willis Tower (formerly Sears Tower). We arrived at about 9:20 and the observation deck closed at 10:00 so we had made it just in time. Coincidentally, this was the same time and day that we visited the observation deck of the Empire State Building so we were expecting long lines. Much to our surprise there were not that many people there. The lobby was under renovation, so it was kind of beat but after a quick elevator ride up to the 103rd floor, the view was incredible. I love getting to go to the tops of tall buildings at night and getting to see the cityscapes all lit up. The Skydeck also has a unique feature for visitors. It is "The Ledge" which is a glass cube which extends off of the side of the building. You can step out onto it and see right through the glass floor to the street 103 floors below. It is quite the experience. Miranda was really nervous about going into it. We walked in together and her knees were completely wobbly and it took her a minute to adjust to it but she finally gained some confidence that she wouldn't be plummeting to her untimely death, relaxed and enjoyed it. It was a really weird feeling being out there. Don't get me wrong, I had to back into it while looking at the exit sign and then turn around and look down or else I might not have done it either. 10:00 rolled around a little quicker than I would have liked and thus concluded our last full day in Chicago. We went back to the Palmer House, set our alarm for 7:55am Monday morning and went to sleep.

Bukkit Tour: Windy City Day 2

Here we are for our second day in Chicago. As usual, I was the early riser and got dressed. As I was going to leave to get coffee, Laela stirred and asked what I was doing. To my surprise, she hopped up and got dressed to join me. I wasn't going to do anything fancy, just run down to the Starbucks that is in the lobby. So that's what we did. We got coffee, a hot chocolate, and a starbucks milkshake for Miranda. I think she calls it a "cream based caramel frappuccino." I guess it's not as hip to say milkshake. We also grabbed a blueberry muffin, apple fritter, and a cinnamon roll which we all shared. Now that we were all nourished, we were able to get our day started.

Our first stop of the day was the Navy Pier. We decided to walk from the hotel because it's pretty easy to get to. Walk to the Lake Michigan, take a left and follow the path to the Pier. We decided to take the "alternative route" and walk down Michigan Avenue. Well we ended up overshooting the Navy Pier by about 3/4 of a mile and ended up on Northwestern University's campus. After getting ourselves turned around, we finally made it to the Pier. Our friends the Brannaman family relocated to Chicago about a week or two ago and we were meeting them at the pier. They had taken the Metra train into the city. So we up with Brad, Ann, Ellie, Ginnie, and Marty on the pier and started walking. I'd liken Navy Pier to a "cleaned up" smaller version of the Coney Island Board Walk. There are lots of simialar things to do but it's just not as dirty. The first thing we did was walk to the end of the pier and get some photos and after all of the walking, everyone decided they were hungry. We had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern. Apparently there was a Saturday Night Live sketch in the 70's that made fun of it, but I don't remember it. Something about someone yelling "Cheezborger, Cheezborger,Cheezborger!" and that's exactly what they do as you walk in. It was okay, but it wasn't fantastic. That's alright though, I washed it down with a couple of margaritas to get my afternoon going. On the pier there are also a bunch of lake tours available by boat. They looked interesting and it was beautiful weather so we decided to take one of the boat tours. The tour that we decided to take was cash only so we needed to get some money. While Brad and I went to go knock over an ATM the women and children bought some ride tickets at Pier Park went to the giant Navy Pier Ferris wheel. Miranda and Ginnie rode in their own car while Laela, Ann, Ellie and Mary rode in another. We met back up at the end of the ride and went to board our boat. I somehow managed to turn myself around (which became a recurring theme for the entire trip to Chicago) and started walking the wrong way toward the boat. It was about 1:15 and the boat departed at 1:30. Once we realized that we needed to turn around we hastened our pace to get to the boat and made it with just a couple of minutes to spare.

The boat tour was about 45 minutes long and went out on Lake Michigan and strafed the city so that you could get a view of the Chicago skyline. The tour guide was decent but you could tell he'd done it a million times. He provided lots of factual information about the city and the pier but nothing that you couldn't pick up by reading the City of Chicago or the Navy Pier Wikipedia page. It was a real nice boat ride though.

The kids still had some ride tickets left after we did the boat tour, so we went back to Pier Park and the kids rode the Wave Swinger. That had pretty much exhausted the quick things to do at Navy Pier. So with the afternoon still being young the group decided that we'd walk over to Millennium Park and then stop to get something to drink. Turns out that Millennium Park is about 1.75 miles from the Navy Pier. I had underestimated how long the walk was. I got us turned around (again...remember the theme) and had to resort to my GPS to get my bearings. I guess that's the lousy part about visiting a city that you aren't familiar with. We finally made it to Millennium Park and there was a little fountain that you could dip your feet in so everyone sat down to take five. We hung out there for a few minutes but it was pretty crowded and the park rangers made it anything but stress free. Feet only! Sit down! You can't be in the fountain! Relax grandpa, it's just people putting their feet in the water. It's not like they were performing some kind of precision task like open hear surgery.

We still hadn't gotten those drinks yet and after the death march that I led everyone on, the gang was thirsty. So we got back up, crossed Michigan Avenue and went to the Jamba Juice. I had never been in one of these establishments before so i didn't know what to expect. The place was packed. It stands to reason since it was a hot August afternoon in the middle of downtown. the staff was quite boisterous and there was a pretty sizable line. I had just planned on getting a water or a Coke. Well, no dice on the Coke in a Jamba Juice. I'm not really the adventurous type when it comes to fruit drinks or smoothie type things so I figured that I'd just stick with the tried and true orange juice. Little did I know that they'd pulverize a fresh bag of oranges to get me a 32oz OJ and I've got to admit, it was one of the best cups of juice I'd ever had and it wasn't even crazy pulpy. We managed to get a table and "collected" enough chairs so that most of us could sit. So we enjoyed our juices, the air conditioning, and and each other's company.

It had been a pretty long afternoon and as most of you who have been following the blog know, around 3:00 or 4:00 o'clock, I tend to get tired enough to need a nap. I was past due at this point so we all went back to the Palmer House for a bit so that the Brannaman's could look up how to get back to the Metra from where we were at and so that I could lay down. By the time we got back to the hotel we'd walked a solid five miles and I was plum tuckered out. The train left a little later in the afternoon so there was some time to kill. Most everyone went back over to Millennium Park to play in the Crown Fountain but I stayed behind to get some shut eye.

The Brannamans and Behlers parted ways at about 6:00 so that they could catch their train on time. It was great to see them and we're honored to have been their first guests in Chicago. Saturday was a really fun day and it was nice to be able to catch up.

All of that walking makes one hungry, so now that I was rested up we decided to find something to eat. We walked around downtown for a bit but really didn't see anything that caught our fancy that all three of us would eat. We finally happened upon and Italian restaurant called Pizano's. It was a pretty long wait to get a table but the food sounded delicious and the family was finished walking for the day. So while we were waiting we went to the bar. The place was wall to wall people and very loud. They finally called us to get our table and to our surprise they led us to a downstairs portion of the restaurant and it was MUCH quieter. Not only was it quieter, but we got a nice secluded table that was bordered by 2 1/2 walls. Chicago sports memorabilia covered the walls and the Chicago Bears pre-season football game was on television so it was kind of fun. All of us ended up having pasta. How I managed to not eat another Chicago style pizza is beyond me, but we were warned when we walked in that a pizza would take 45 minutes to make and I just didn't feel like waiting that long. I chose the fettuccine alfredo with chicken and it was out of this world. In fact, it was so good and the portion so large that both of my girls ended up sharing it with me. As the meal concluded we decided that we'd like to get a piece of cheesecake for dessert, but our lackwit waiter (terrible service and zero personality) informed us about 10 minutes later that they were out for the day. So sweet tooth unsatisfied we set off back to the hotel.

We went back to our room and started watching television when one of us and I don't remember who (it was probably Laela because she's always full of good ideas) decided that we should go to the hotel's restaurant to get our sweet on. The Lockwood Restaurant is the name of the hotel eatery and it is S-W-A-N-K-Y. I felt like a complete dirtbag walking in wearing my camo shorts and my Thrasher t-shirt, but hey...my money spends just as well as anyone else's. They sat us in a round booth that had a mesh divider right next to the hotel lobby. It was awesome because it gave us the opportunity to do some people watching while we had our dessert. Laela and Miranda each got tea to drink. Laela ordered Kahlua cheesecake and Miranda had some kind of apple and ice cream concoction. I ordered three freshly baked cookies. The were in ascending order of awesome: chocolate chip, macadamia nut, and oatmeal raisin and I washed them down with an icy cold glass of milk. We must've sat for nearly an hour people watching and enjoying each other's company. It was one of those perfect, spur of the moment, unplanned activities that ended up being my favorite non-baseball related experience of the trip. And with that, we made our way back to our room and called it a night.

Bukkit Tour Sequel: The Windy City Strikes Back

First off, I'd like to wish my daughter Miranda Behler a very happy 14th birthday. In this chapter the Bukkit Tour brings us to Chicago for a long weekend. We're here just to visit and take in Chicago Cubs game at Wrigley Field.

We arose bright and early on Friday morning and got to the airport at about 7:30am. Getting my girls out of bed and motivated to get into the car is a task of monumental proportions so I'm very glad we made it to Port Columbus International airport on time. We're travelling light this time and all had carry-on bags. This is the second trip in a week that I've tossed my belongings in my new Seagull Bag and set out on a trip. It's kind of liberating being able to throw all of your stuff in one bag and just going. Port Columbus was pretty uneventful other than the fact that the TSA decided that one of our bags was "unattended" and then had to go through the whole thing. Bye bye shampoo, conditioner, sunscreen, and toothpaste. Our flight left Columbus promptly at 9:15am and we were safely on the ground at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago at 9:30. We were on a small commuter jet, only three seats wide. Miranda sat by herself and Laela sat next to me. It was an uneventful flight; although, leaving Columbus was kind of fun because we essentially followed I-270 and were able to see things like Hoover Reservoir, Zoombeezi Bay, and most of the North end of Columbus from the sky. When we made our travel plans, we made a conscious decision to not get a car and just use Chicago's mass transit system. I believe we made a good choice. We were able to take the subway from the airport to within three blocks the Palmer House Hilton which would be our home for the weekend. The subway ride provided us ample entertainment in the form of a group of six people who had been drinking since the early morning and were on their way to see the Cubs game on Friday. They swayed too and fro on the train like a field of wheat on a windy late summer day. They were loud, obnoxious, and truth be told, and ready to be cast in MTV's next reality show. One of the things that I really love about Laela is that after almost nineteen years, we can just look at each other and know from the look in one and other's eyes what the other is thinking. In this particular case, it was "dumb asses."

Since we had packed lightly, it didn't take long to get settled into our room and get going for the day. We promptly went back out the hotel entrance and got a cab to take us to Gino's East of Chicago. It was one of only two things that I HAD to do while we were in the windy city. Laela and I had travelled to Chicago not long after Miranda was born in order to see the Descendents on their 1996 tour in support of the album "Everything Sucks." One of my enduring memories from that trip was going to Gino's East and getting authentic Chicago Style pizza. What makes Gino's unique is that everywhere you look in the restaurant, people have graffitied their names. Every surface is covered by sharpie or paint marker. I had loved the food there and had vowed to return if I ever ended up in Chicago again.

After we finished lunch we decided to try to take in some of Chicago's sites in the time we had left for the day. We made our way to Shedd Aquarium. From wikipedia: "The John G. Shedd Aquarium is an indoor public aquarium in Chicago, Illinois in theUnited States that opened on May 30, 1930." It was Friday and it was PACKED with people. I'm not a person that is prone to feelings of clausterphobia, but I came pretty close on Friday. fortunately, when we made our way away from the exhibits on the main floor and went downstairs the crowd thinned out. The highlights of the aquarium were in reverse order of awesome: the beluga whales, the smile sharks (Pacific white-sided dolphins), and the sea otters. The penguins were pretty cute too, but the family's favorite was without question the sea otters (although I had an affinity for the sea lions myself). We bought tickets to their water show spectacular called "Fantasea" and it was "Fantacrap." The best part of it was when the lights came back on. Laela, Miranda, and I all had a good time making fun of it while it was going on though. We were smart enough to not sit by anyone who might have been seriously trying to watch it.

When the show was over, Shedd Aquarium was then closed. So we left the building and walked along the shoreline of Lake Michigan. We walked through Grant Park and saw the "Married with Children" fountain, and also stolled through Millennium Park. From their website, Millennium Park is described as: "Millennium Park is an award-winning center for art, music, architecture and landscape design. The result of a unique partnership between the City of Chicago and the philanthropic community, the 24.5-acre Park features the work of world-renowned architects, planners, artists and designers." The Crown Fountain was definitely the most interesting part of Millennium Park for me.

Went back to the hotel to freshen up and by this time we were pretty hungry. So we went out onto Monroe St. and just started walking with the idea that we would just stop at the first restaurant that caught our fancy. We passed a few and decided that we'd just double-back and go to the first one we passed. It was the Grill Room Chop House. It is a steak house that is close to our hotel and the food was amazing. Unfortunately, I had over done it at lunch and wasn't all that hungry so I had a Caesar salad, French onion soup, and crab cakes. Laela had tillapia, and Miranda had filet mingion with garlic mashed potatoes. When Miranda had finished her birthday dinner, she exclaimed that it was the best meal she had ever had.

So that pretty much ended our Friday in Chicago. We returned to the hotel, watched a comedy special and turned in for the night. It was a perfect day.

No New Tale To Tell

Well, here we are a full one week out since I began treatment. Here are my impressions of the first week:

Monday August 9th was my first day of infusion. Other than the Benadryl making me sleepy and the fact that I was there for six and a half hours, I felt no ill effects on day one. Day two I also felt fine (and truth be told started to get a little cocky).

I woke up on Wednesday still feeling good so I thought that I would go on a training walk for the Spirit of Columbus Half-Marathon. I had set out to do eight miles. Everything started out great and the first mile was a breeze. Unfortunately I had neglected to check the weather forecast before I left the house. Really dark clouds rolled in and before I knew it I was walking in a torrential downpour, complete with heavy lightning and thunder. The rain had completely soaked me to the bone within a minuted. Being the dumb-ass that I am, I ignored these as signs that I might want to turn around and go home, so I forged ahead. I walked West on Bethel Rd from Godown Rd to Riverside Dr and back. On the way back, by the time I got to Bethel and Dierker, I felt pretty bad. My feet hurt and my body was starting to get really sore. I finally got home a little over a 1/2 hour later and took a long hot shower. It felt fantastic and I didn't want to get out. I finally did get out and was a complete wreck. I chalked it up to not having trained as much as I should have and that it was just a shock to the system. That turned out not to be the case. For the next two days I had body aches all over like a really bad case of the flu and I was really tired. Lots of Advil and naps.

By Friday morning I was mostly recovered and rode my motorcycle to Dayton to hang out with my good friend Dan and his family. The ride there was fantastic. Rather than taking Interstate 70 West, I took US-42 South to US-35 West. It was a lot more scenic. Lots of long straightaways and fresh pavement. I managed a new speed record for myself too...he he he. I got to Dayton and had no trouble finding Dan's house. We hung out, went out to dinner and then went and saw a Dayton Dragons game at 5/3rd Field. It was a good game but the Dragons ended up falling to the Lugnuts.

Saturday morning we got up and went to have breakfast at a local eatery and then I made my way home. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday was Matsuricon 2010 at the Doubletree Hotel in Worthington. I had promised Miranda that I would take her. So I got home, showered quickly and took Miranda to the con. Miranda had worked for days on her cosplay costume, She had worked on it so hard. I was really proud of her. We got to the convention and went in. She had met a friend from the library there so I was instantly the third wheel. I hung out for about an hour and went home. Saturday evening we went to Val and Kevin's for a party. It was nice seeing a bunch of our good friends again in a relaxed atmosphere. Thanks to Tim for pulling DD duty again.

Sunday we dropped Miranda off at Matsuricon again and Kevin came over to help us transport our new lawnmower home. I also parted with a couple of old friends on Sunday. My 1983 Yamaha Virago 500 and my 1981 CB750k both got new homes on Sunday. They went to Kevin. He's the only one I trusted to make good things happen with both of them and I'm happy that they have a new home where they'll be loved. That Yamaha and I made a lot of good memories together and Kevin was around for most of them so I know she'll get the respect she deserves.

Which brings us to Monday August 16th, my second infusion. It was a much shorter duration this time because I only received one of the three cancer killing drugs. So I was in at 9:00 and out before noon. It was not the six and a half hour ordeal that the 9th was. Today is Tuesday the 17th and again I'm feeling no ill effects yet but I'm not feeling nearly as cocky as I was last week. I'll just wait to see what transpires and I'll let you know next week.

Hump day and beyond

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. My treatment decided that it would punch me in the face Wednesday afternoon. I had been feeling good in the morning (and truth be told starting to get a little cocky about the treatment not affecting me) and decided to take a training walk for the Spirit of Columbus half-marathon. I had planned on walking eight miles. Well, I only got through seven and a half miles and I really started to feel like ass. I got home and I was wiped out. I had figured that since I hadn't been training as much as I should that it was just my body's reaction to a long walk. Last year while training for the Columbus Marathon when I would come home from a long run (16 miles or more) I'd be a wreck and couldn't do anything for the rest of the day. That's how I felt on Wednesday, but the ache was different.

Rather than just the muscles that I used being sore, my whole body was sore. It was like I'd contracted a really bad flu and just had a really dull ache that took everything over. I just didn't want to do anything the rest of the day. I ended up napping for a few hours, got up and just lazed around the house for the rest of the day and finally went to bed at 11:00. On Thursday when I woke up I still felt pretty bad. My appetite was still good and I hadn't had any nausea to deal with as of yet, so that's a plus. Laela and I went out and did a little bit of shopping and then came home. We rode our bicycles to lunch with my mother-in-law at Hunan Lion. That whopping three miles worth of bike ride would end up being all of the exercise I would have on Thursday.

Here it is Friday and I'm feeling much better. I certainly wouldn't say that I'm 100% but I definitely feel good enough to go out grab the day by the horns. I'll be riding my motorcycle to Dayton a little later today and am going to take in a Dayton Dragons game with my friend Dan this evening.

Lucky

I'm still working on my weekend recap. There's just too much to talk about quickly and in a short space, but I wanted to quickly talk about this. For those of you who were at the benefit show on Friday, you may have seen me get up and sing a song with ALL. I wanted to take a second and let everyone know how near and dear the song Lucky is to Laela and me.

The song Lucky was released 1997 on the "I'm the One" single and also included on the soundtrack to the motion picture Godmoney. When we picked up the single we both immediately fell in love with it and over the years it has become "our song." Each of us use it for the ringtone for the other on our mobile phones and I just can't help but think about Laela every time I hear it. The lyrics also seem oddly appropriate given the current circumstances. As always, thanks for reading. The blog is kind of cathartic for me.

Lucky Lyrics
Band:Descendents

Walking home on St. Patty's Day
I found a lucky penny along the way
Put it in my pocket
The one with the hole in it
These days things don't seem to go my day

I know it's tough sometimes to be with me
When I'm predicting rain most every day
Lately I've been right, almost every time
These days things don't seem to go my way

What would I do, if I hadn't already got lucky once with you
If I hadn't already got lucky once with you

So I keep telling myself something's going to change
Maybe I'll get lucky then I can smile again
Cause that's what I want to do
I want a smile for you
I'm waiting for some things to go my way

What would I do, If I hadn't already got lucky once with you
If I hadn't already got lucky once with you
Fuck St. Patty's Day
I'm throwing my pennies away
But I'm holding on to a single lucky charm
That's what I want to do
I want a smile for you
I'm waiting for some things to go my way

What would I do, If I hadn't already got lucky once with you
If I hadn't found you what would I do?
If I hadn't already got lucky once with you
If I handn't-a wouldn't-a couldn't-a, what would I do
If I hadn't already got lucky once with you

If you've got a Facebook account, you can watch me butcher it by clicking on this link. Rob perfoming Lucky with ALL PS: thanks to Stephen for bailing me out by getting me started on the second verse. That's two that I owe you.

"You've just taken your first step into a larger world." - Ben Kenobi

August 9, 2010 - Today was the day that I started the treatment for my condition. I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous about what was going to happen when I got there and completely expected the worst. I've done some research on the medicines that I'd be given and heard some first hand accounts of the side effects so I was fully prepared for a sh!t storm.

We arrived a little before 9:00am and were ushered back into the infusion room. There were about twenty La-Z-Boy Healthcare Edition recliners. They made a giant letter U around the outside walls of the room. Each chair had a tray for books/magazines/laptops. There was also a night stand for lack of a better term and a chair for a visitor. My nurse Rose came over and introduced herself. She is a sweet older lady that made me feel right at ease. I immediately felt a repoir with her and we started joking around. The infusion room is a pretty somber place and I caught a few people cracking smiles while we were having our exchanges. I was clearly the youngest patient in there today by several decades so it made me feel good to be able to make a few people smile. Rose explained the eight different drugs that would be administered to me. The first was benadryl to combat allergic reactions to the first cancer killer, four anti-nausea medications, then the two cancer killing agents, and finally the blood vessel inhibitor. Since I'm not a physician, this is obviously a simplified description of the individual drugs' purposes, but it will suffice for this writing's purpose.

I'm really glad that they had a wireless network that I could connect to because it allowed me to be online for most of the six hours that I was there. I had a few jovial conversations with friends and was able to catch up on some things that I missed over the weekend. I also was able to start working a little more diligently on the blog postings for this past weekend's festivities. Lunch time came and went and we hadn't eaten anything. Finally around 1400 hours Laela went and bought us a couple of bags of peanut M&M's. It was nice. While we were on the Great Bukkit Tour 2010, every time that we stopped at a gas station she and I each shared a bag of peanut M&M's. It was nice to have a little reminder of what a good time we head while we were on holiday.

While I'm only three hours out from the administration of the meds, it'd be a little bit premature to declare "Mission Accomplished"; however, I don't feel bad. Not even a little. The worst part for me was the Benadryl because I hate the drowsy feeling that I get from it. Hell, when we left the doctors office we headed to Taco Bell and I had a chili cheese burrito and two taco supremes all with fire sauce. I'm also planning to try to take a short walk this evening if I'm still feeling up to it.

Rumor has it that the meds will take a couple of days to start kicking my ass so I'll be keeping a close eye on it and writing about my experiences. Thanks for reading.

I'll close with this quote is from the song Brothers and Sisters by John Moreland and the Black Gold Band. It's kind of how I've been feeling since the apprehension about today set in on me last night.

"and if it all goes to hell tomorrow, we'll stand together and raise our hands, and we'll sing"

In the beginning there was bukkit...

First off, let me say that I had an awesome weekend, one of the best of my life. It was so awesome in fact that I can't seem to get all of my thoughts together to gel cohesively so I'm going to need a couple of days before I can compile something worth reading. In the meantime, there seems to be some confusion over the title of the Great Bukkit Tour, so I'd like to lay that to rest.

A little history first....When I took up running, I entered a race in May of 2008. It was the Powell Spring 5k. Miranda and Laela participated as well. On the entry form, there was a place to enter a team name so we wanted to come up with one. At the time Miranda was enamored with the Speed Racer cartoon and wanted to name the team Speed Racer. Laela and I didn't think that accurately reflected the family's less than quick style of ambulation so we asked her to come up with something else. Because of my mustache and the lolrus, Miranda chose the name Speed Walrus. We thought it was hilarious and so it stuck.

The 'Lolrus' is an Internet Meme that started in 2007 with the appearance of the images in the above jpeg. You can read a detailed description of it at the following URL: http://en.academic.ru/dic.nsf/enwiki/4480801. It is actually a seal not a walrus (but that is beside the point). We had stumbled upon it shortly after I had started cultivating my mustache and found it to be quite humorous. You can see the images here http://icanhascheezburger.com/category/lolrus/. Miranda and I would check it every day to see if there was a new funny walrus picture and somehow, walurs ended up becoming my nickname. So, there became a running joke about me always looking for bucket. The girls went out and bought actual metal pails for trash cans, etc. We had also shared it with our close friends so that everyone in our inner circle was very familiar with the Lolrus. It's not just a running joke within the family but also our close friends.

When we found out about about my condition and decided to take our vacation Laela dubbed it the Great Bukkit Tour of 2010. The idea was that the walrus was looking all over the United States for his bucket. I had no idea that there would be so many people who would be reading about our vacation and just kind of assumed that everyone who would read it knew about the walrus/bucket connections. While yes, a double meaning could be read into the "Bukkit Tour" that it was about kicking the bucket, that was not the intention.

I'm glad that so many people enjoyed reading our travel log. I hope this clears up any misconceptions about the genesis of the Great Bukkit Tour of 2010.

Kitty Ears (guest blogger Laela)

Many of you asked about the Kitty Ears you saw the show last night. If you've been following the great Bukkit Tour, you probably noticed Miranda wearing a set of black kitty ears in almost every picture. They are (currently) her signature item. Miranda was the only person under 21 at the show. I wanted to find a way that Miranda would not feel weird about being the only kid there, so I purchased several pairs of kitty ears for our close friends. They worked perfectly. In a group of people that large Miranda could see who were her peeps. If she got lost, lonely, or needed a place to hang out, all she had to do was look for someone with kitty ears. Then she would have someone who would give her some love, support, friendship, or even a coke if she needed it. This all got me thinking about friendship and relationships, and how many people are wearing "kitty ears" in support of the Behler Family.

As you all know, we are in a big old mess of a situation here at the house. Everybody who lives here is feeling a little lost, and everywhere we turn there is some horrible challenge to face. However we are finding that there are more people with "kitty ears" on than we could ever imagine. Many of you put your kitty ears on and came over to clean, I have a co-worker who puts hers on every time she drops by with food. Everyone of you makes it easier for us to deal with the mess.

When Kristi Hittepole offered to put the Benefit together for us, Rob and I were reluctant to accept. We have never looked for a hand out from anyone and it seemed weird to do it now. After much deliberation, we decided to look at it like a party. A chance to get together with our friends and hear some music, and hang out. So Kristi put on her kitty ears and stared planning. This small idea grew, and grew, and grew. It seems that every where she went there was someone else with kitty ears on ready and willing to help. Things grew so big, that it seems that every person we ever met wanted their own set of ears. Friends we haven't seen in years offered goods and services. Kristi, and us, were AMAZED and how many people wanted to help.

The icing on the cake is when ALL wanted to be added to the benefit. Who knew that Chad, Karl, Bill, and Stephen would be to willing to fly half way across the country for us? Not only to give us financial support, but also to give Rob one last ALL concert. It is such an immense gift there are no words to describe it. It was the best show and the most fun I may have ever had.

If you didn't have a pair of real life kitty ears for the show, that doesn't mean Rob and I have not been able to see your kitty ears. There were more kitty ears going on at the Benefit last night then can be counted. It is nice to know that when we get lost, or lonely, need a place to hang out, or even a coke to drink all we have to do is look up, and there will be someone with their kitty ears on. Thank YOU! Each and every one of our kitty eared friends.

Bukkit Tour: The Return

We've been back for a little less than a week, but what an eventful week it has been. The Behler family dance card continues to be full. When we arrived home in the wee hours last Wednesday morning, I thought we were on the set of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. We got out of the car and walked to the front door and the whole flower bed had been landscaped and we had new patio furniture on the front porch. Little did we know what other surprises awaited on the other side of the door.

First of all, I want to give a great big shout out to Paul Burns for house/dog sitting for us and holding down the fort while we were gone. Indy was happier to see him on Wednesday evening than she was to see us when we got home early Wednesday morning, so we know she was in good hands.

Next I'd like to thank Tim Birt, Kevin Krahel, Isaac Harris and Paul Burns (again) for achieving the monumental task of repairing and redecorating Miranda's bathroom. The genesis of the bathroom failure is kind of funny.

A couple of years ago, the diverter handle on the bathtub spigot broke. No big deal right? Laela and I went to the hardware store and bought one of those universal spigots to replace it with. It was about a $15 item. So I go to install it and of course the "universal adapter kit" leaks all over the place. I decided that I'd replace the copper pipe that the spigot connects to and then everything would be good. I went out, bought a torch, some solder, and a short length of copper pipe and some fittings. Please keep in mind that at the time Miranda's shower walls were constructed of molded plastic with a built in soap dish etc installed over "water resistant" drywall. Well, I didn't know that you could by material to protect the wall from the torch, so away I go with the torch soldering the pipe through the small hole in the plastic/drywall. A brief distraction later (I think my phone rang and I checked the caller id one handed), the plastic wall of the bathroom is on fire. I managed to douse the flames with cold cups of water but the damage was done. It wasn't enough to structurally damage anything, but the plastic wall of the tub was ruined. Laela and I decided that we'd tear down all of the plastic and tile the walls. It wasn't until we tore down the plastic that we realized the rest of the walls were also drywall. Since we decided to tile, all of the drywall would have to come down so that the wall was strong enough to support the tiles. At this point the $15 spigot replacement turned into a monumental job and went into the "what a pain in the ass, I'll get around to it later pile." We have a functional shower in the master bath so it's not like we couldn't bathe.

Fast forward to June when we found out the the big scarlet "C" and planned a long family vacation. Kevin and Tim devised a plan to refinish the bathroom and get Isaac to paint it while we were gone;because, hey what teenage girl doesn't need her own bathroom? So while we were out of town Kevin, Tim, and Paul replumbed the bathtub to fix the slow drain, put up concrete board to support the tile, tiled the walls, and installed new fixtures. They also fixed the ceiling drywall and Isaac painted the walls the color that Miranda had picked out to go with her curtains, trash can, and towels. The end result is an absolutely beautiful bathroom space. I haven't even showered in my own bathroom since I've been home because I've been so stoked on the new one.

I'd like to thank Valerie Smith for conceiving and executing with Kevin and Tim the landscaping of the front of the house. It is gorgeous and put together with the Behler family brown thumbs in mind. That'll make it easy on the eyes as well as low maintenance.

Next want to thank my sister-in-law Libby Sullivan for organizing the cleaning of our house. Before we had left she had organized a small army of our friends and family to come over and clean the house from top to bottom. The place looks absolutely fantastic and will help me to not become sick when my treatments start. I don't have a list of everyone that participated but I know that people dropped everything that they were doing and even came in from out of town to pitch in to help for two consecutive weeks.

Words can't describe how grateful we are to everyone that helped out whether you played a big part or a small part, every single bit is appreciated. We certainly have no way of adequately expressing the gratitude we have in our hearts for everything that was done for us. We have amazing family and friends and unfortunately sometimes it takes a bad event to bring everybody together and tighten up the circle. You are all loved by us very much.

So stay tuned, I think I'm going to continue to throw my thoughts out there every week or so and don't forget the big concert/party on Friday August 6th at the Ravari Room. ALL/Legbone/Children of Reagan/Dirty Side Down will be rockin the room, so come on down and say hi. Let's party and raise a glass together.