A good weekend with friends...

For Letha's LAST birthday present of this year...I got her friends (from L to R) Cara, Matt, Baker and Deb to come out and hang with us at our Grandparent's house on Cape Cod. We went to Provincetown and climbed the Pilgrim Mounment. This was the first place the Pilgrims landed in North America.

This is what the stairwell to the top looks like from the bottom.

This is the view from the top of the monument.

It was a good couple of days relaxing. Thanks to all that came to celebrate Letha's birthday, I know her and I had a lot of fun and I hope you did to. We don't get to hang out with a whole lot of friends here in Massachusetts and it was good to have some chill time with some close friends. I wish more people could have come but there is only 1.5 bathrooms at the house.

To Letha, till next year...Happy Birthday!!!

So, have you ever...

run 26.2 miles before? Well, I know I haven't, but I am married to someone who has.

This past Sunday, November 2nd, 2008, my wife, Letha Maier, ran the ING New York City marathon.

The trip started on Friday (Halloween) when we packed up the car, loaded the dogs and drove 3 1/2 hours to NYC. We got there and hung out with McNear and his roommates (thanks for letting us stay with you guys) until about 3 in the morning. . .

Doesn't Drake look like he could use a beer?

Woke up on Saturday and then headed to The Javits Center (convention center) for Letha to pick up her number and chip. We then headed to lunch at Chevy's and then came home for an evening of relaxing.

Then comes 3:45 am on Sunday morning. We decided I would drive Letha down to the library, then park the car close to the finish line and head back for a nap. I got back to the apartment around 6 am and took the dogs to the dog park (to run off some energy). We then headed down to mile 8 of the race, to see Letha for the first of 3 visits along the course.





She came running up to us, with the biggest smile and jumped on me while giving me a huge hug. After giving her orange slices (and getting a quick kiss), she was off and we were going to mile 18 to see her for the second time.



At mile 18 we saw her again, this time we gave her a bag of mini Oreos and a flat Coke. This is where McNear jumped in the race to help her get thru the parts that were the slowest and most boring. McNear ran six miles with her and then jumped out before going into Central Park. She only had a little over 2 miles left to go on her own.

I will admit while I was watching people finish the race, I was worried. I saw so much pain in some of the runner's faces that it would have been unbearable to watch Letha in that much pain. I had seen her in such good spirits before, I was hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Then after seeing COW MAN...



(people wear some weird stuff...there were even Ghostbusters out that day), Letha came across the 26 mile mark. I could see she was in the best of sprits and I was so happy.

I haven't been proud of a whole lot of people in my life (yet). But watching Letha complete a marathon was one of the most amazing things to witness and was very inspirational. She finished almost 12 to 13 minutes faster than she was planning. I know if she would have really pushed herself she could have beaten it by 40 minutes or even an hour. But her goal was to finish...and that she did.

I love you Letha and am so proud of what you accomplished.

So...

I have been up to a lot recently.

First, Drake did only have one testicle removed and is going under the knife again. Thanks Alliance for Animals...or should I say TORTURE for Animals? How hard is it to count to 2? On top of that, he also has some skin issue right now, that we have to go back to the vet for...there's another $100 most likely.

Second, I had fun in Indy while there last weekend. Got to meet Lee and Laura's baby Layla. She's a cutie and has some really beautiful eyes. We had lunch with Shane and McNear before heading up to Anderson/Pendleton area. We did the rehearsal thing and then watched Michael Phelps win his 7th gold medal (thanks to DVR). Then Saturday came and I was the photographer at my sister-in-law's wedding. I had a lot of fun, and would think it would be a great job...lining people up, telling them how to stand and when to get the hell out of the way.

Third, the fantasy football draft is this weekend...looking forward to picking a good team, hopefully.

Last, Justin and Fallon (with Giles) are coming to visit at the end of this month. We hope to have a lot of fun while they are in town.

Poor Drake...

So Drake has had some complications from his surgery. It is possible that they only removed 1 testicle from him. We have to go back to the Vet next week to find out for sure. Right now, we are only hoping that he gets better and that the Doc is wrong. I don't want to take him back to the shady place (Alliance for Animals, a clinic) to finish a job they should have done right in the first place. What's worst (for them) is that now Letha's pissed. One person you don't want on your bad side is a smart woman who (along with me) treats her dogs like her kids. She was a premed major and for fun pokes around at legal stuff.

Still hoping for the best...not just for us, but mainly for the little guy.

Wonder Woman...

lives with me...her name is Letha Maier. My wife is an amazing woman, this is just fact. I just wanted to let everyone know! :-D