During a moment of what might be referred to as “incredible stupidity”, I agreed to take part in the annual Wasatch Front leg of the Ragnar Relay, otherwise known as the Wasatch Back. Upon first glance this may seem like an excellent way to get in shape for the summer, but after further inspection you’ll find that it’s most likely a death sentence for a lazy slug like myself. Considering the fact that the last real endurance training I’ve done was about 15 years ago, I’ve definitely got my work cut out for me. And as if that wasn’t enough, I had to go and drag my wife into this mess as well. I suppose this way we can at least die together though.

For those who are unfamiliar (don’t worry, I had no idea what this thing was when I agreed to it), it’s basically a race that makes you pray there will be someone waiting at the finish line with a gun for you to shoot yourself with. The race begins in Logan and then winds 190 miles up the backside of the Wasatch to end somewhere round about Park City (Course Map). The race takes the better part of 2 days and we’ll be running straight through the night. Each of the 12 team members gets 3 legs of the race for a total of around 15-20 miles and spends all of their non-running time packed into a couple minivans which follow whomever the current runner happens to be. Basically it’ll be 2 days of tired, cramped, smelly hell. Fun, huh?

This is a happy pre-death picture

Anyway, the main point of this post is to solicit support from our dear beloved readers. Emily and I have joined up with several friends from my new job to be on one of two “Cancer Teams” that will be running the race. The main difference between a regular team and a “Cancer Team” is that all of our entry fees will be going to the American Cancer Society. The only downside to this is that the entry fees/donations for the Cancer Teams are much steeper than are those of the regular teams and this is where you, my dear readers, come into the picture. Emily and I are humbly asking for your monetary support in the way of donations to the American Cancer Society as we train for this brutal ordeal. Please feel free to donate as much or as little as you can and be assured that all donations will go to the ACS in the form of one lump sum donation that will be put together by the members of our team. Emily and I will need to come up with $700 for our part of the donation so every little bit helps. The only thing we can offer in thanks is the hard work we’ll put into trying to survive this thing as well as a promise to have someone post pictures of our limp and lifeless bodies located wherever we happen to collapse between Logan and Park City. Thanks in advance for your support and prayers for our survival. We’ll need em.

Donate for Mike

Donate for Emily

Bus to Beelzebub Team Donation

Or you can donate via PayPal below and we will include your portion with our team donation.

Well, after about 4 and a half months, I’ve found work again. I’m now working for an internet marketing consulting group down in the Thanksgiving Point business park. My new employer is called PMI and I’m working in the consulting group helping clients with their online marketing (both retail and affiliate marketing). My client base is a little different than what I was used to working with at Omniture, but the environment is good and I’m part of a good team. We’ll just have to see how things go as I spend some more time and get more involved. Either way its good to be working again. Many things are overrated in this world, but paychecks are not one of them.

The twins and I decided to make a tent in the front room a few weeks ago and the following pictures were the result (not sure why we didn’t get any pictures of the exterior). Anyway, this is us chillin’ in the tent. Jack has apparently been watching too much BET or something cause I’m not sure where the gang signs came from (probably Hailey). I’ll have to beat it out of him (and her) later.

For Christmas this year Jack got a new Batman cape as well as a nifty new headlamp. He now combines these two items to become Bat-Jack. We’re not quite sure yet if he’s a super hero or a super villain due to the fact that half the time he wears his costume he’s up to no good. At present though we’re giving him the benefit of the doubt.

On a mostly unrelated note, one of the jobs that Jack as adopted as his own is the job of helping to make and deliver my lunch to me each morning. Although his cape isn’t required to perform this job, he does take it quite seriously and I’ve seen him slide violently towards the “villain” end of the scale when his job doesn’t go exactly as planned (meaning someone else helps or we forget to let him perform his job due to being in a hurry).

We just hope that he’ll eventually decide to fight for good.

In late January we got to spend a long weekend up at the cabin. It was a nice relaxing weekend of movies and playing in the snow. Rarely do we get to spend time up at the cabin without having other family up there so it was fun to spend the weekend sitting by the fire alone. When we first arrived we spent the first couple hours getting “parked” and getting the cabin to a livable temperature. After turning the water on and getting the fire going, I then had to head back outside (around 10 at night) to get the van into the driveway. Although the road up to the cabin was plowed, the driveway itself was not so I had to head back out with a shovel and a flashlight to dig a path so that we could get the van off the main road. It took an hour or so, but eventually I was able to get a parking area dug out and after a couple runs, I was able to get the van pulled in.

The rest of the weekend was a lot of hanging out and playing in the snow piled up in the yard. As you can see from the pictures below, we had to improvise and use a knee board for a sled. It actually worked pretty well once the snow was packed down. After the girls had had their fill of the cold, Jack decided to take a walk up the road. Jack and I had a nice little walk to the top of the road and got to chat a bit about life and stuff. I obviously love all my kids and love to spend time with them, but I must say that I get excited thinking of all the fun guy stuff Jack and I will get to do together as he grows up. On the way back down the road Jack’s legs were a bit tired so he road on my shoulders back to the cabin. It was a great weekend.