Charli

I just got these pictures from my sister and I just had to post them. This is my niece Charli, I call her Chuck. She is one of five nieces, all the others seem to have normal feet. Just look at the size of those feet!! I figure once the growth spurt catches up with her feet, she could be well over 7 feet tall. I'm sure she would be a "shoe" in for the NBA. Karen get her a basketball as soon as you can!!!!

Oh, wait a minute, I just saw the ears. Well she can probably get those fixed, it shouldn't affect her career too much as long as they get it done soon.

Utrecht, Netherlands

Hi Everybody,
It’s been a really long time since I’ve blogged. For some reason I couldn't get inspired to write. Maybe it was that good old winter blues syndrome. I guess that can’t be the excuse since winter in London is an awful lot like summer in London. Rainy and just cold enough to make you wish it was warmer. Anyway, I've decided to change things a little so that I'll blog more often. No more thinking, oops I mean no more huge, long, information filled blogs. Hopefully, I can show a few pictures, tell you what I think is probably happening in them and then move on. Each will have a theme (possibly maybe sometimes, but probably not really) and hopefully all entries will be short.
To start things rolling, Cheryl and I visited our friends Candice and Dirk in Utrecht, Netherlands last November. We had a great time even though I managed to get food poisoning in Amsterdam and Cheryl managed to break her thumb while riding home on a borrowed bicycle. (Cheryl, I told you it was broken;).

Almost everybody rides a bike here. I never thought I would see so many bikes in one place. My question is how would you ever find your bike, especially if you were the first in that day. If this was in the states, you might think that only the bikes on the outside were ever ridden, the ones on the inside were long forgotten about and were left to rust in this bicycle graveyard.

I'm pretty sure that almost all of these are used on a daily basis. It was actually difficult getting into the bicycle lane during rush hour just because of all the bicycle traffic. Still it was a great way to get around.

I tried to take a few pictures of the people we saw on bicycles while we were in Amsterdam one night. My camera really doesn't like to take pictures at night, either that or I was starting to feel the effects of the food poisoning. Never, ever eat hamburgers in Amsterdam, ever.

This is a typical family bicycle that you see around Amsterdam. I saw a woman riding one of these with 3 kids and a small dog in the basket, while she was talking on her cell phone. Now that would have been a great picture.

Cheryl and I will be in the Netherlands again in a couple of weeks. She will be participating in the Rotterdam Marathon on the 13th of April. More about that in the near future.

Ok that's all for now. Check back soon as I intend to update a lot more often.

Cheryl in London

Hi All,

Cheryl has made it to London for the start of our European Holiday. Well it took some doing, had to pay a few bribes, but I was able to really do it up for Cheryl's arrival. I had these guys escort Cheryl and I from the airport to the small cottage that we are staying in this week. Somehow our photographer left us out of the pictures, go figure.

Of course that was just the beginning. Next came the fireworks over the River Thames.

So all in all it was quite a nice start to Cheryl's visit. Sunday we went for a drive in Surrey and Sussex, that's where the castle pictured above (Arundel Castle, home of the Duke of Norfolk) is (it was sure nice of him to let us stay there for the week).

On Monday I got the city to stop time for a bit so that we could explore London a little more leisurely than most tourists.

Tower Bridge

London City Hall

The Swiss Re Tower (also known as the Gherkin, really I didn't make that up) and the Tower of London.

White pelicans in London.

Cheryl and I took the tour at the Tower of London. This is Yeoman Warder Mitch giving the tour. If you come to London, take this tour. He somehow made all the executions and imprisonment sound entertaining while giving a lot of information about the prisoners, murders, and the torture that took place. Check out the links above to get more history.

After the tower Cheryl and I decided to head for the Savage Gardens. Enough said!

Not the savage gardens but close. This is the back of St. Paul's Cathedral.
We had dinner at a Gorden Ramsey's pub called The Narrow. Very good food, I had the Hereford Beef in Beer Pie and Mash. That and a beer or two and you can't go wrong.

Tuesday I went back to work while Cheryl explored the Tate Modern. We met up for dinner at the Rock and Sole Plaice. If you ever want fish and chips in London, this is the place. I have had a lot of fish and chips while I've been here, nothing else even compares.

After dinner we went to see Avenue Q at the Noel Coward Theatre in the West End. It was a fantastic show and another don't miss whether you are in New York or London. Oh yeah, Thanks Mel for recommending this so long ago on our last visit to New York. Don't let the muppets fool you, this is not a show for the kids.

Anyway, that's all for now. Cheryl and I are off to Paris on Friday, Amsterdam on the next Thursday, and then Munich the Thursday after that. Should be fun.

(There really were fireworks that first night but they were for the Lord Mayor's celebration, Cheryl's arrival might have been a coincidence. The fireworks pictures from above were actually taken the week before at one of the many Guy Fawkes celebrations that took place all over the city. Guy Fawkes day is a little like Independence Day in the US just without the Independence bit getting in the way. Great fireworks all over London all weekend.)

Cheryl's Marathon

!!!!!!!Way to go Cheryl!!!!!!!!

Hi All,
Well you probably have all heard by now that Cheryl finished the running of the 32nd Marine Corp Marathon.

This is Cheryl around mile 12 looking great.

Approximately 30,000 runners signed up to take part in the Marine Corp Marathon. There were 20,677 finishers of the marathon and 2692 finishers of the 10k option. Cheryl's times are below. As you can see she did a fantastic job.

For those interested the link below shows Cheryl's time compared to other runners.
http://www.runpix4.com/mcm07/42/finord.php?LastName=4765&lan=&aset=0

One more link from the Washington Post video coverage of the finish. Look for the clock to say 4:40:22 to see Cheryl cross the line.

By the way this is Cheryl's second marathon. She ran the Chicago Marathon way back in October of 2001. She says only one more marathon is in her future and that would be the London Marathon in April, that is if she gets in through the lottery drawing.
So now it's picture time. First of all there were an awful lot of people there cheering for the runners.

Cheryl is pretty much dead center in this photo behind the person in the light blue top and cap. Click on the picture and you can see her a little better.

Amongst this mass of humanity were a few special cheerleaders. We refer to them as Cheryl's Cheering Squad, boy can they make some noise. These are the nieces, Maddy, Betty, and Nan.

Great signs!!!!

Betty

Nan

Maddy

They even arranged for a band to play for Cheryl when she ran past. They probably played for some of the other runners as well since they were there and had a little time on their hands.

Cheryl might be in this picture. Let me know if you can spot her. I haven't been able to pick her out.

Ok, we don't know anyone in this picture but I was amazed at how fast the runner in dark blue appeared to be going.

Apparently all the runners were suppose to get one of these in their post race sponsor bags. I'm not sure what happened to Cheryl's.

This is Cheryl after the run looking pretty good. Finally a picture with me in it, sort of. I'm the one on the other end of the phone.

This is most of the rest of the family cheering squad that followed Cheryl around the course. That is my brother Joe in the back and my Mom and Dad amongst the nieces. Sister-in-Law Debi is taking the picture.
Special thanks to Debi and Joe for taking all the pics. My mom's pictures are still to come. I'll post them when I get them.
Everybody feel free to post your comments to Cheryl on this page.

Congratulations Cheryl!!!!!!!

Huge Day, I Mean Really Big

Hi All,

As many of you know, Sunday the 28th of October, 2007 is a huge day in and around Washington, DC. The 32nd Marine Corps Marathon is taking place and Cheryl is running.

That's 26.2 miles or 42.195 km.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Go Cheryl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I thought this would be the perfect time to let her know how proud I am of her for doing this. The training and dedication she has shown in preparing for this event was monumental. Working full time, managing all of our bills and finances, taking care of two sometimes wonderful dogs, and putting up with a husband that is off working somewhere in London for months at a time is pretty remarkable. She also manages to swim 3 to 4 days a week and bike to work the majority of the time. So in my own simple way, I just want to let her know how much I appreciate all of her hard work, dedication, and love. I miss her and really wish I could be there at the finish line.


So since I can't actually be there in person I will stalk her over the internet. I mean keep track of her running times as she passes certain points in the run. Everybody who wants to can do the same by going to this site and filling out a small form. Free updates will be sent to your cell phone and/or your email address. More information on the run can be found at this website.

Hopefully, friends and family that are in D.C. will take a lot of pictures and email them to me so I can post them here next week.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Go Cheryl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!