Observations on Diego: i've seen too much

Over Christmas break we found out that Maggie is a fan of Diego from Go Diego Go. Grandpa Evanson had DVRed a bunch of episodes. After seeing a couple of episodes, Maggie asked for Diego almost every day.

i may be projecting my own feelings onto Maggie, but i think that she at least likes Diego more than Dora. i feel a little better about that. Diego has animal stories and she can be quite cute as she says and signs all of the animal names. Her dancing and singing to the music is pretty good too.

Laura and i had avoided those kinds of shows for a long time; not having cable and much less TV in general made it easier to avoid the 30 minute commercials for kids. But now, Maggie's hooked.

To keep Maggie content from time to time, we have checked out a few DVDs from the library. I have seen too much Diego. ¿how do i know? i know because i have questions, queries and complaints about the strange place Diego comes from.
- gravity is SLOW: rocks, branches, ropes, and animals take FOREVER to fall.
- BRANCHES are DANGEROUS and apparently quite loosely connected to trees: i have seen parrots, marmosets, chinchillas, sloths, kinkajous (and possibly other animals too) barely escape these perilous limbs, and i haven't seen that many episodes.
- Diego is not very bright and needs more parental supervision: Adults are hardly ever around and for some reason and Diego is not the sharpest kid. Apparently he's to slow to realize that it's easier to get down a SNOWy slope with a SNOWboard than it is with a telephone. (idiot!)

And i keep waiting for the real animal lessons to kick in. i am a biologist after all.

Diego: Baby kikajous are afraid of harpy eagles!
Why?! Because harpy eagles EAT baby kinkajous!

or ¿how about this correction?

Diego: Help get the baby mountain gorillas out of the net before the poachers come back to cut off their hands to sell as ashtrays!

well, maybe those lessons won't happen anytime soon.

in the week or so before our requests for Diego from the library came up, Laura tried to find some episodes on YouTube. She didn't find any real episodes, but rather an abundance of odd Diego and Dora iterations.

i've seen a few video mash-ups, and have never been very impressed. i don't really like the music much, but i must say that this one isn't bad. they really synched up the audio and the video. watch for a bit. Laur and i got a chuckle out of it.



0z iEiO

oh..

and officially... i beat the 80-year-old by almost 6 seconds... not that that makes me feel A WHOLE LOT better

Official times

Here are the official times. I'm going to put them into that earlier post, but here they are for now:

	Finish time	Rank by Age	minutes per mile
Mom	45:06.6	1st of 1	14:32.9
Dad	38:59.14	3rd of 6	12:34.8
Dave	28:34.5	9th of 22	9:13.2

Things i forgot to include about race day

i knew that i wasn't going to get my personal record for a 5k, but i did want to do well. of course race day felt a little jinxed.

i stayed up late a couple of nights last week to work on my thesis, and i think that helped me to catch the cold that my girls have. i started getting sick Thursday night, and on Friday the sore throat and stuffy nose were settling in.

The best part was Friday night. it was our family's worst night's sleep in two months or more. the girls weren't settling down and were restless all night. Laura and i didn't really get to sleep for the night until about 1:45am. i was back up trying to feed Maggie and get her back to sleep around 2:30. i think i was up again with Maggie between then and 6:00am (the night was one big blur), but for sure we were all up and out of bed with both girls at 6:00am. Laura saw every hour on the clock between the two girls, and by 6:00am she decided that she and the girls were up for the day.

Laura was good to me and let me go back to bed and i got some sleep between 6:30am and 8:00am. i was still asleep when my parents showed up to get to head to the starting line together.

the day wasn't completely jinxed. at least the rain and coldest temperatures waited until after the race was over. even with the less that ideal conditions, my race still felt pretty good.

Rex Lee Run 2010

in 2009, i skipped the Rex Lee 5k for the first time since 2002. this year i was back on the track. i wouldn't say i'm a big fan of running or racing, but the Rex Lee Run is for a good cause (cancer research), it's close to home(right here on BYU's campus), and i can use it as an excuse to be more motivated with my weekly exercise.

today was my 8th time running the Rex Lee Run, my 9th 5k race and my 10th race ever. (somehow in 2003 i managed to do a sprint distance triathlon -- i just didn't know any better. i competed in the clydesdale category - i.e. fat guy category)

i started the race as usual - way too nervous and wondering how i was going to push myself through to the end. the crowd was typical - old, young, strollers, and at least one obviously pregnant lady. i saw the typical mix of former roommates, classmates past and present, neighbors new and old, and former students of mine. the course was slightly different, but followed the general path around the outside of campus. the race started a little late, and i walked around the outdoor track with my parents a couple of time before heading to the starting line out on the street just to keep warm. the rain didn't come until they were handing out the prizes to the winners.

i ran about as fast as i could, but didn't set any personal records. i wasn't sure if i could have pushed myself more while running, but after crossing the finish line, i felt spent. by my watch, i ran the race in 28'42". i'm content enough with that time. we'll see what the official time is next week. my best time was in 2005: 24'47". my slowest time is just over 30min, if we don't count the year that i ran with my nieces who were in the 12-and-under category (40min).

Items of note for today's race:
- my parents joined me for the race. Mom even ran in honour of one of her co-workers who's fighting breast cancer.
- Dad finished around 39 minutes (official time to come)
- Mom finished around 45 minutes (official time to come)
- Dad won THIRD PLACE in his age group: 65+
- Mom won FIRST PLACE in her age group: 65+. Now she has run the race 3 times and has a gold, a silver, and a bronze medal.
- Mom was the ONLY woman in her age bracket to run the race. The gold still counts! don't forget that she got out and did the race.
- The first place winner in my dad's age class was 80 years old.
- that same 80-year-old beat me, even though i did average a 9min mile. (¿how did i get beat by an 80-year-old?)

now i just have to cross the next hurdle. usually at this point in the year, school/work get busy and i take a slight break from my exercise regimen. by slight, i generally mean anywhere from one month to six, seven, eight, etc. months of sporadic exercise. most years it takes a long time to recover mentally from the 5k because i don't have an immediate goal and i'm not sure what to do next. i find excuses to not train as regularly. i'm hoping that i can keep going with my training, and keep my fitness levels up. maybe the idea of the 80-year-old beating me will keep me motivated to not have a break.

it was good to run the race again. it was good to run with my parents. i was a little sad the the weather was too cold for Laura and the girls to come and at least be a part of the crowd. overall, it was worth the time and effort, and i enjoyed at least some of the running and ALL of the finishing.