Whew, heating up outside already.  Despite the punishing weather, we got in our share of outdoor activities this weekend.  I kicked it off Friday by sitting down at the Brooksider with the boys all evening.  OK, I’ll grant you that may not be considered an “activity” by most.  But it was, in fact, outdoors.  Meanwhile, Donette was wrapping up a week in Chicago.  She had been there since last Friday starting the first week of her NEW JOB!!!  I’ll let her fill you in on all those riveting details.  All I know is we’re a two-income family again, WHEW!!  Myself and my creditors are quite excited.

Donette returned from her travels late Friday night, and then she got up very early (before even myself) and headed off for a 12-mile run.  She is definitely ramping up the mileage in preparation for her upcoming 1/2-marathon in July.  Personally I think it sounds a bit aggressive, but then I’m not a runner so what do I know.  She didn’t get home from that endeavor until around noon, by which time I had accomplished pretty much nothing at all.  Well, you know, the Royals were coming on at 1:00 and I didn’t want to get wrapped up in anything before that and…  Yeah whatever.  Gunsmoke was on, ’nuff said.  When she finally showed up, she rallied me off the couch and we headed down to Kelly’s to show some support for one of her fellow fund-raisers.  Not so hard to get out for that event honestly;  I like Kelly’s, the game was on TV, they have good a/c…  Yeah it worked out well.  We hung out there until the game was over, then rolled back inside our circle for some dinner at Kin Lin’s.  I really do enjoy that place, although I will readily admit few share that sentiment.  Matter of fact, Donette isn’t overly fond of it, she just humored me this time I guess.  Case in point, she wasn’t too keen on her dinner Saturday.  I liked mine though!

Sunday I got up early and biked down to Union Station to join Munkirs participating in the City of Fountains bike ride.  We’ve done this one a few times in past years, but were going to take a pass this time until they announced some event changes.  They had a 50-mile option this year which sort of fit in with our training schedule so we figured what the heck.  They also introduced staggered start times, which definitely worked out better.  The only downside to that was, being on the longest route, we had to be there signed in and ready at the unholy hour of 07:00, yuck.  It was a good ride overall.  Fifty miles felt about right, and the route was nice with the exception of an ill-fated jaunt down the Brush Creek trail.  Hmmmm thirty riders crammed onto a sidewalk for three miles…  Yeah let’s scratch that part for next year.  Another nice addition was that they spray-painted the fountain numbers on the street as you passed each one so you could glance over at them.  It’s pretty easy to forget you’re supposed to be actually touring the fountains if you’re just riding along.  It was kind of interesting actually;  If you REALLY cared the numbers corresponded with a booklet they handed out at the start and you could read a little history on each.  I figured I was doing good to just look over and acknowledge “yep, that’s a fountain.”  In all we passed 45 different fountains along the way, far more than I would have guessed were it not actually documented right there on the street.  When we got back to Union Station they had a nice little picnic set up and Donette joined me for lunch.  That was a nice addition too, although I really would have opted for a shower at that point than a lunch.  Still fun.  We went home and both sacked out for a while after that, then I got up and watched that marathon Royals game.  After they finally won, we ran up to 75th Street for some dinner and called it a weekend.