Supafly.com

We got back earlier this week from a nice long trip to Georgia. I’ll dig through my photos later and find some good ones to share. In the meantime, check out this photo of my brother-in-law Matt. My buddy Jeff snapped this photo after Matt dominated a surf competition in San Diego.

Matt, the King of San Diego

While other eighth graders are squandering their last summer before high school with mindless video games, Matt is in the ocean surfing like there’s no tomorrow. Matt’s the man!

I haven’t updated supafly.com over the last few weeks because I’ve been inundated with the busyness of life. Here’s my drama:

Thinking About Cars

I had “scheduled service” done on my car and Candyce’s car over the span of two weeks. This was unpleasant. Car owners have a complex relationship with mechanics. Mostly, it comes down to the fact that people don’t like to spend money repairing/maintaining a car they already pay for each month. (Not to mention the fact that we pay for insurance as well.) Plus we’ve all heard horror stories about how greedy mechanics scare you into doing work that doesn’t need to be done.

So when it is your turn to stand in front of the auto repair shop as the mechanic preaches about the hell and damnation waiting for the car owner who refused to be saved,  you can’t help but feel like discouraged. Why me?! Why now?! Although I understood in my head why I had to pay out $1500 to keep our cars running strong, that didn’t mean I had to like it. The only way I can make myself feel better is to imagine we avoided a massive mechanical overhaul that would cost us $5000. That’s a savings of $3500.

Restoring the Kitchen Floor

Eighteen months ago, my dad and I laid the travertine tile in the living room, dining room, and kitchen at the beginning of the massive remodel of the first floor of my home. We had to work fast so my brother could install the baseboards, door casings, and finish the kitchen island. The end result? My brother’s trim work looks great, and our grout job looked uneven and sloppy. After a year-and-a-half of living with this ugliness, I recruited my brother-in-law to help me make all things new.

We cleaned the kitchen floor with soapy scrub brushes and the shop vac. Then we did it again, and again, and again. There was a lot of dirt that had settled in the natural “craters” within the stone tile. If we left that dirt no the floor, our grout wouldn’t adhere and we’d have another problem to deal with down the road. Then we floated grout, let it dry, and then sponged off the excess. I woke up every three hours through the night to put on coats of sealer/polish. By morning, the kitchen floor was so smooth and shiny I wanted to ice skate. Next step? Fix the tile in the dining and living rooms. (See July 2009)

Robber!

I am sad to say that I was not apart of this next story because I was out of town. The location: Seattle Espresso, Tempe. The crime: robbery. A punk kid grabbed the tip jar from the counter and bolted out the door. Richard, the emo-Jesus barista, sprinted out the door and down the sidewalk. Four hundred yards later, Richard is gaining on the thief and shouts to him, “I can do this all day!”

The chase halted 100 yards later when the robber was blocked by a busy street. Now just steps away, Richard shouted a few curse words and yanked the jar from his hands and marched dutifully back to the coffee shop. Richard was greeted by a long line of confused customers. He placed the tip jar firmly where it belonged on the counter, then turned to first customer in line and started taking orders like the whole “I just chased a crook thing” never happened. What a rock star.

Mother’s Day

I wanted to treat Candyce to a tour of the Queen Creek Olive Mill because she’s addicted to olives and sometimes you just have to feed the fire. But they didn’t offer tours on Mother’s Day.

Plan B it is. Candyce, Norah, and I ran 4 miles on the Tempe Canal. What a beautiful run! Later in the morning, Candyce and Norah put on fancy dresses and sun hats and we drove downtown to have lunch at Postino Central. We hung out at Lux and then explored Haus before heading back home to Tempe.

Traveling

We made a last minute decision to hitch a ride with John out to San Diego to surprise Candyce’s family. I enjoyed lounging in the backyard and reading Do You Matter? How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company, a book Jeff gave me for Christmas. Did I mention Life Teen had a staff retreat in Georgia earlier this month? It was fun to have our staff from around the country come together again. Plus, I got to see Mom, Dad, and Grammy. I’m excited to get back to Georgia in next week.

Now it’s time to get along with my day.

My wife is an impulsive photographer. She will carry Norah into the other room while she’s looking for her flip flops. Fifteen minutes later, I get curious and explore the house to see what happened to my two ladies. In the corner of the living room, I’ll find Norah laying on a black blanket by the windows. Candyce will have the camera on a tripod. She snaps photos with one hand while shaking a baby toy with her other hand. I’ll ask Candyce, “Didn’t you come in here to find your flip flops? I’m confused about what is happening here.”

Candyce continues to snap photos and shake the toy and then slowly explains, “She just looked so cute I couldn’t help myself.”

Whenever Norah had on a particularly “precious” outfit, Candyce would carry her outside and trample through our front yard to our neighbor’s yard. Then she would lower Norah onto his flawless thatch of green and start snapping photos. Why? My patchy brownish yard was a raw and savage terrain that was not fit for an infant.

This hurt my self esteem.

That was two months ago. How things have changed! Take a look at the photo below that I snapped over the weekend. The black Jeep in the distance is the driveway belongs to my neighbor, the young doctor who has unknowingly hosted photo shoots with Norah. Sure, you can see a minor shift of texture between the two yards, near the white planter box. But make no mistake, that big ocean of green that covers most of the photo is my own yard.

Greenalicious

I cannot take credit for nursing my yard back to health. I can only take credit for hiring Marcel & Associates to do the job for me. After nearly eight years of home ownership, I recognized that life has changed and I did not have the time to take care of my yard.

Now my yard is ready for a photo shoot with Norah. If any of my friends and family want to take some photos on a flawless yard, just give me a call and we’ll arrange a time.

Yesterday we ran in the Pat Tilman Run in downtown Tempe. Candyce and I trained for a couple months to build up our endurance to finish the 4.2 miles with strength. I knew all along that we could do it, but Candyce had never run in a race that long and had her doubts whether she could run the whole way. Her fear was enough to make our training intense and consistent.

We are the champions.

The run was beautiful. It was exciting to cross the Tempe Town Lake and run through the south end of Papago Park.  I was proud to push Norah in her running stroller because I love my little girl and I want her to experience this kind of thing. (Note to self: start the race with the 7-minute miler because the 10-minute milers are really just walkers who are delusional.)

The stands at Sun Devil stadium were packed with cheering friends and fans. We crossed the finish line with great sense of accomplishment. We ran and we ran hard.

To celebrate, we met friends and family who also ran at La Grande Orange for a festive brunch. There were dozens of other runners there, all sporting their race number pinned to their chest. The place was glowing with pride. This is why I’ve become a huge advocate for these road races–because it builds pride in yourself and in your community. Plus, exercise makes you look hotter and live longer. What could be wrong with that?

I will avoid chastising people who do not exercise, because I understand that it’s difficult to keep exercise as a top priority in your life. It’s rare to find an adult who has exercised consistently throughout their adulthood, that is, unless that someone is a professional athlete. There are just too many big life experiences that demand your attention. My post-college years were active for sure–working in the yard, on the house, traveling–but I wasn’t getting my heart thumping.

Lucky for me, life changes. Candyce and I have been married for two years, and we’ve run several times a week through most of those 24 months. It’s a huge part of our lifestyle together.  We enjoy the weather, nature, and looking at the beautiful homes in our neighborhood. We talk to each other and share about our day. It’s wonderful. For the past seven months, I’ve had the added bonus of buckling baby Norah in the running stroller and pushing her down the streets of my neighborhood. She loves adventures outside of the house, and that makes me and Candyce happy.

Norah bundled up in her stroller on a cool evening, taken in January of this year.

Today we’re not running. We’re relaxing and letting our bodies rest after yesterday’s race. We’re feeling good. …I know that hot summer months are coming and they aren’t the best condition for running. This makes me sad if I think too much about it. Candyce and I have talked about how it will be more difficult to exercise as our family grows in the years to come.  I imagine that our life together may get more complicated as our years unfold. Who knows if we will be able to continue to exercise as consistently as we do today? I certainly don’t. But what I do know is that Candyce and I will always remember these first two years together as being blissfully active. And we’ll always be pressed to recreate this feeling for the rest of our life together.