Big Saturday evening out with the fam. And risky, with no grandparent support. Don Pablos is nice because the mexican is good and the restaurant is loud. We got a nice corner booth that made it easy to lockdown the mobile Aves. Emme enjoys being a big girl in the high chair these days.
Andrea set up a surprise dinner for Paul Carriere's birthday. The Caplans, Kindzia and I were in on it. We arrived at Canoe early and were seated as Paul arrived. His reaction was priceless as he realized we were there. Great company and dinner for a great guy. Thanks to Andrea for getting all of us together.
I haven't seen Joe Elswick in way too long. He looks great and has been working out a bunch. We met at a The Great Wall Chinese Restaurant up on Powers Ferry. Great catching up. Horrible hearing about Vic... she's had a headache for 3.5 years... and, no, I'm not talking about Joe. An actual headache for 3.5 years. They're trying a million things to get rid of it but so far none have worked. Just horrible to hear about them going through it. But great to hear about their three little girls. I remember when they were tiny! Thanks for lunch and thanks for the time today Joe E... I really enjoyed it!
We had a very enjoyable dinner at LaPaz with Mom (my mom). We brought Ava and Emme and they were both pretty good. Food was good and we had a lot to talk about. Mom's in town on business and was able to break away. We're glad she did. Her team of about 1000 employees now runs all of Army contracting for the US... a budget of $8 billion. She's big time. Whenever I look at my business stuff I chuckle at the lack of scale when put into this perspective. We worry about her traveling all the time. She's almost never home... always in the air. She held Emme for a long time and Emme was cool with it. Ava treated the table candles as birthday candles and tried to run through the entire restaurant blowing them all out. Luckily, DoDah's pretty fast.
At about 4pm Kendy, Mom, Matt and Knox converged on our place. About an hour and a half later Beep & Ball arrived to watch Ava and Emme while the rest of us went to La Paz for some dinner. My Mom's in town from San Antonio on business so she came a couple days early to meet Emme and visit with Ava. Great to see her.
Mom's in town so we headed to South City Kitchen. Beep & Ball made it. Sara was there. Matt, Kendy and Knox. We brought Aves. Sr. made it out too. Good meal and nice to see my mom again. Aves got hopped up on biscuits and sugar buzzed it all over the place. Knox threw beans across the table. Aves took note and threw a biscuit across the table. Aw, they're learning.
The fam's at Don Pablos on a rainy Saturday. They ignored us in the beginning. Then served our appetizers within 30 second of our entrees. And the food was fairly crappy. But the booth next to the window on a rainy day with the family was just right!
We took Aves out for a date with Aidan. Los Hermanos is just great mexican. We got a massive round table. Afterwards we headed to Marc and Leslie's to see their finalized renovations... it looks great. And to play with their Wii. Fun evening... thanks guys!
Marc, Leslie and Aidan joined us at El Matador tonight. Great time. After the meal the little ones romped all over the restaurant. Ava loves Aidan! We'll get them together again soon in a place where we can let them play a little more.
Aunt Joan is in town for Kendra's baby shower so we headed out to dinner at Wahoo in Decatur. Matt, Kendra, Sr., Mom, Terp, Ava and Joan were there. Joan's first time meeting Ava. Ava was beat... she had skipped two naps already... but she stayed up the entire time... clearly exhausted... batting her eyes for three hours... poor little thing! Heather and I had an alcohol arms race to decide who would drive... or, better put, who wouldn't drive. I won... Heather drove home. Food was great. We sat outside and the background noise was perfect... Ava could yell and nobody cared. Sr. picked up the tab... thanks for dinner big guy!
Good lunch with Mark. He recently left the Army and is working for a company doing consulting. They develop using the Agile methodology so we talked dev management. Good seeing you Mark!
Friday tradition... mexican food. We both had the same thing... Burrito Al Carbon... grilled steak burrito. Ava let out a single yell and was great the whole time.
Friday night tradition... mexican food. El Matador in Tucker. Good food, as always. We know the people there and then know Ava, which is cool. There was a clan of 40 kids and parents taking up one big ad-hoc table. Very loud. But Ava took it like a champ. After than we hopped into traffic and went to Best Buy and Target. Now I'm getting packed up for tomorrow's ride. It's gonna be chilly!
Good to see Alex from All3Sports.com. We ate at a cool italian place near the shop, I forget the name. Alex is always interesting to talk to. He comes from a technology consulting background and is now working hard at All3. Thanks for lunch and the time Alex! Best to Jill and baby!
I don't think I'm betraying too much if I mention that we talked a little about blogs. Alex gets it.
He's letting me borrow his Cyclops PowerTap power meter. I'm going to compare it to my Polar Power System to calibrate it. The PowerTap is generally more accurate than the Polar and I've never had much confidence in the Polar's numbers. It's good at giving me workout-to-workout consitency, but not good at giving me Joe vs. Lance numbers (Lance always wins those, but I like to know by how much).
The plan is to get my power plan in place before IM Fla so that when I put the Zipp and Hed Carbon wheels on, don the Quintana Roo wetsuit and the Cervelo P3 I know how to use the force... not abuse it. It's all about pacing and power meters help you do that better than heart rate.
On the way back from the meeting I saw a Blue Competition Cycles car! Phil mentioned that he reviewed one of their bikes recently and that they're located in Norcross! Small world! They make a bike called the Blue Competition T-12. Nice looking!
Big thanks to Stew for getting Anna, Keith, Dana, Bill, Joel and I together for pizza after the workout today. He sent out an email titled "building friendships" a little more than a week ago and it got us started on the path to doing more stuff outside of training.
It's funny how countless hours on bikes, runs and swims bonds people. As I drove away from our dinner I noted that I haven't felt this comfortable around a group of people in years. With this group I just feel comfortable and enjoy the time.
Heather and I went to eat at Monterrey's with Dana and Chris. Chris is in the real estate finance business and was kind enough to let me pick his brain for a while. He knows his stuff and was a huge resource. Thanks! After a few Coronas we all agreed that brass tacks rule and tree huggers suck. Good to get out for a social night with Heather. Ava's great, but a little adult company is a nice change of pace. Monterrey's is a nice little mexican place on LaVista. It's almost always packed. Good time... we've got to do it again sometime.
The lovely Heather accompanied me on a date night to El Matador, our usual Friday routine. Robin took care of Ava. We made it to the restaurant at about 9:30PM... a little later than the normal 6:45. Good dinner. We're both tired but very happy that we still like to get out. I don't think either of us had any worry about leaving Ava. None of that "first time away from baby" stuff. We've left Ava at home with folks before. It just feels natural. Not sure what the big deal is. One of the ladies who owns the restaurant has been checking in with Heather's pregnancy for a while. She gave Heather a second look on the way in but didn't ask if she had delivered. Heather's clearly not as pregospherish but is still deflating. On the way out I told her that we had Ava. She was excited and wants us to bring her back, which we will to keep the Friday Mexican Date Night tradition going. To expand it, actually. I enjoy spending time with my wife. After her wonderful work with Ava I love and respect her more than ever. She's amazing and I'm lucky to have her.
Mark and Connie were in town so Heather, my father and I went out to dinner with them. Always nice to see them and great that we were able to spend some time with them in a small group. As the nature of a large, distributed family often dictates, there are usually large groups around when we see Mark and Connie. Always interesting to spend time with them one-on-one... or three-on-two as the case was tonight.
The food was good and the environment very comfortable. Great interior design and dim lighting. A large selection of foods. I think everybody enjoyed their plate. We had a big round booth. Heather ate too much and got jumpy. When she eats a bunch her stomach and Ava compete for space. I think Ava wins and sticks her foot into Heather's rib cage. Uncomfortable for Heather and she gets squirmy.
It's Heather's birthday weekend so my father had a gift out in the parking lot. A great piece of furniture. We put it into the minivan.
Mark enjoyed checking out the recent damage on the minivan. Heh. Honestly I hadn't looked at it too closely yet. The front left quarter panel is bent up too.
Good luck and happy travels Mark and Connie. The next time we see you we'll have Ava with us.
We had dinner at The Oyster Bar. We sat outside. A fairly rambunctuous sidewalk full of activity. I had a couple oysters. And a caesar salad. Our table was tiny and barely held everything. As Freck said, "very European." It was a good meal within walking distance of our hotel.
Great dinner with Beep and Ball and Heather at Sage. We were the first ones in the restaurant and stayed until it was bustling. Good food and great company.
Fat Ass 50k/30mi Trail Run
