Triathlon #3

I decided to compete in another triathlon last Saturday (April 17) down at Lake Mead. This was my third in six months. It was my best performance yet, even though I didn't train for 3-4 weeks prior to the race due to an injury. I placed 86 out of 161 (117/242 overall and 14th out of 24 for my age group) for males in the sprint competition - middle of the pack.

The water in the lake was 60 degrees at start time. I sure was happy that I paid the money (even if it was $50) to rent a wetsuit and avoid symptoms of hypothermia. I swam the same route in October for my first triathlon and this time I was able to shave nearly 4 minutes off of my time. I'm sure the buoyancy of the wet suit had nothing to do with it.

The bike course was pleasant, too. We rode for 20km along Lakeshore rd. Elevation gains were tame in comparison to having to bike up to Boulder City like the Pumpkinman Triathlon.

The running portion went well. I ran along the unpaved shores of Lake Mead for about 1.5km out of the 5km. The remaining distance was on pavement.

I got to carpool with one of my friends who is building up his resume to compete on the USAF's Triathlon Team. He's competing once a month at the Olympic distance (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run - twice the distance I do in the sprints) and puts up some awesome times. You've got to have some stamina for those distances.

Here are my times:
Overall - 1:43:01
Swim (750m) - 20:57
Transition 1 - 4:18
Bike (20km) - 48:23 (15.4 MPH)
Transition 2 - 2:31
Run (5km) - 26:55 (8:41 mile pace)

Here is the link to my event photos and here's another for my friend (I make a cameo in his photos where he is helping me out with my wetsuit).

The Anatomy of a Cow

This was a video from our San Diego/La Jolla visit that we took a year ago. I see a future for Aaron in the medical field

Rachelisms

I don't know what goes on in Rachel's brain most of the time, but it seems like it would be an awesome place to visit. She has a unique and humorous way of communicating things.

Here are a couple of examples:

I just got some new running shoes and decided to get some inserts for them. Rachel saw the inserts and exclaimed "Ohhh, are these comfortable pads?"

Rachel once clarified the mystery of the postscript like this "P.S. is a short way of saying I forgot something."

"Usually animal's bums are under their tails, so it won't be embarrasing for them."


These quotes remind me of a three year-old Danny telling us "Did you know that if you step on a bug it stops moving?"

When Hugs Go Wild

We spent part of this past Sunday enjoying the nice day on the Las Vegas temple grounds. I decided to take photos and videos of the kids when I caught this one tape (memory stick?). I had to share.



Note how Aaron's zombie arms go up at the end of the video. Calling his name out clearly has an effect on him.

Not so much.

Mr. Danny Goes To Work

Thursday was bring your son/daughter to work day. Danny met the age requirement of eight and was the lucky dog that got to head off to work with me at 6:30. He ended up staying for the full 11 hour day. Yes, 11 hours - my plan was to take him home or to school at lunch, but he wanted to stay and do real work.

He enjoyed seeing my workplace, meeting my coworkers, getting to see use some of the programs I wrote and eating McDonalds for breakfast and lunch. I even set him up with a project we've been working on and had him do 'real' work - work that some of my coworkers do for $30+ an hour. Danny cut costs by doing work for strawberry gummis. I gave him one for every 30 features he edited. Child labor is awesome. Actually, Danny is awesome.

Several of my coworkers were impressed with his work ethic. One got particularly excited when he remembered that there are three other Cox kids at home. He suggested I bring them and estimated we could finish a project in a matter of hours. I told him Seth needs to learn English first.

Another said that Danny does more work than one of our GIS Specialists. I thought to myself "Yeah, he's right". Then I remembered I'm a GIS Specialist. Surely he was talking about one of the other two GIS Speciliasts.

This video is awesome. I decided to get some footage of him working on this project. It's a project where we have been working to reconnect a number of residential laterals to their meters. In explaining the project to Danny, I had to teach him about 90 degree angles and how we wanted the lateral to be perpendicular to its connecting water main. The last ten seconds are funny. . .

Baseball Is Here

Aaron and Danny both had their first games of the season. Danny played a great defensive game at 2nd base and Aaron had two singles at his t-ball game.

Here's a video of Aaron's first official at bat:

Aaron At Bat from jean45 on Vimeo.

Note how Aaron started for 3rd, corrected his course and eventually ended up at first. Both of them play on teams called the 'Hot Rods'. As Aaron would say "I like to vrum (revv) around!"

Totally Danny

Big Brother

Danny is awesome. He's like a third parent.

A couple of months back Jean was out in the front of the house with the kids as they rode their bikes and scooters. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Vegas and desert living, a yard can mean grass and trees, but it can also be comprised of rocks, drought resistant shrubs and plants (some people call these 'weeds') and faux dry river channels (miniature arroyos). We have desert landscaping in the front (all business) and grass in the back (all party) - kind of like a mullet hairdo.

I digress.

Seth was crawling around on the rocks and had started to do what most babies do with things that are within arm's reach - stick them in his mouth. Danny witnessed this activity and, with a disgusted tone, addressed Jean "Mom, are you even watching him? He's eating rocks!"

Reading Machine

Danny is a voracious reader. He was recently tested at school and reads two grade levels above his current class. He's been reading the Harry Potter series since Christmas time and enjoys them so much he's on the fifth book. It's so "bad" that we have to go back to his room 1-2 hours after we've done our bedtime routine to tell him to turn off his bed light and go to bed. Probably one of the reason he's already wearing contacts. . . .

Dressed to the Nines

Today was Wear Your Pajamas to School day, the last day of school before Spring Break. Danny and Rachel were excited. Rachel wore some of her light blue pajamas that have horses and other girly things printed on them (I'm a typical boy, so I don't remember what those other girly things are on her pajamas - I don't pay much attention to that kind of thing). Danny wore his standard 'pajamas' which usually consist of a t-shirt and some 'comfy' pants which are athletic, basketball-style, 100% polyester pants. The funny thing is that Danny typically wears the exact same thing to school everyday, he just happens to change into another pair of comfy pants and a t-shirt for bed. If only he knew.

In a lot of regards he's a lot like his Uncle Ryan. Legend has it that he loved to wear his comfy clothes to high school - sweat pants. Inseperable were Ryan and his sweat pants, or so I hear.

Losing Teeth Left and Right

It's as if all of Danny's teeth have been falling out of his mouth recently. Fortunately all of this is natural and not a result of eating too much candy or not brushing his teeth. He's got four permanents in place - they're the middle two teeth on the top and bottom. Seems like these permanent teeth have a special knack for dropping their non-permanent neighbors out of the dental subdivision. Danny now looks like a jack-o-lantern when he smiles.