Just before Kelly’s second “run of her life” she and Nicole posed for two photographs. It was a bright sunny day, so Nicole let Kelly wear her sunglasses for one of the shots.
Yes, it’s a composite. I’m getting good at Photoshop.
Cleaning out the armoire to make room from the new iMac. Found this photo tucked away in an envelope. Scanned it and put it in iPhoto. Now safely stored on 3 different hard drives.
The four of us went down to Lenox Mall to ride the pink pig, go to the food court, and visit the Apple store. I had a Schatzki incident which caused some delay and landed me back in the car for about 30 minutes. I insisted the girls ride on the pink pig, but it closed as they walked up to it. So two strikes for me: no food and no pig.
Claire and I had a nice visit to the Apple store where I decided to buy the new operating system, Leopard, and the new version of iLife ’08 which includes iMovie. I figured this was a pretty cheap way to get a new computer (upgrade our older one) and that the girls would enjoy YouTubing movies even more.
Taken by iMac with Built In Camera
Alas, the new version of iMovie does not support the older iMac. Processing movies is the most computing intensive thing we do, and the latest version needs the faster processors. Strike 3.
So what does one do with 3 strikes? Get a new Macintosh, of course!
Danny called Wednesday morning with bad news. Instead of being underway home for Thanksgiving, he had just been in an accident. Looking to buy gas for the trip, he crossed under a bridge between two access roads. Trying to see the gas price just ahead, he did not see the red light. He entered the intersection as an SUV came from the left. Both drivers veered to avoid each other, but the back wheel well of the SUV grabbed the front bumper, ripped it off, and spun Danny to the right.
The SUV was going about 40 mph and fortunately Danny, having just turned from a previous red light was only going about 20 mph. Any faster, and Danny could have been broadsided on the drivers side. So for that we’re thankful.
After managing a police report, dealing with the insurance company, and getting the Jeep towed, Danny hopped on a Greyhound bus. Nicole came in from Athens later that evening, so all of the family piled into the van and drove down to the airport (also a busport) and picked Danny up about 11:30 pm.
As we turned in about 12:30 a.m., I said to Kathy, “It’s good to have all the kids back in the nest.”
Archive still shot:
Photos from Kelly’s last race came in on the Cross-Country website.
What do you think Nicole is yelling here? (See more in Stonegate Gallery.)
Last year Kelly’s final meet finished with the run of her life. She did it again. At some point Kelly is going to run into physics and not be able to keep making such extraordinary improvements, but she isn’t taking physics this year.
Kelly’s coach told her she could break 22 minutes this meet and wanted to see her finish with a 21 minutes and something…. 59 seconds would do it. Kelly did not think she could break into a 21 time, but her coach insisted she could.
Nicole and I took Kelly out for her last race of the season while Kathy took Claire to a soccer match. As we approached the course, I asked Kelly if she thought she could medal again. (She had gotten a 3rd place medal two weeks prior in an “open” race in Gainesville, which was great.) Kelly did not think so because this JV race would include all the local schools.
Now that’s what she said, but I think she had plans to go all out. I’ve never seen her sprint out of the start the way she did. She set up in the front of the pack early and by 1 mile, she was running third. As the rest of the 5K went on, she held the third place behind number 2 Parkview and number 1 Brookwood. In the last 100 yards, Samantha (who is with Parkview and co-illustrated The Bad Y2K with Kelly seven years ago) made a dash from fourth, surprising Kelly as she passed her. Kelly turned it on, and the two sprinted for the finish, Kelly passing Samantha and securing third place for the team. So the top four were Maroon / Orange / Maroon / Orange.
While we do not have a final time in yet, it appeared to me she finished at 21 min 15 seconds. She shaved off another full minute from her best time of the season! It was really another great run, and Kelly again surprised herself, her coaches, and her friends.
The three of us stayed to watch the varsity team and cheer them on. Nicole and I positioned ourselves at the finish line to count how many girls finished with faster times than Kelly’s. Including both JV and Varsity, Kelly finished number 7 for Brookwood girls and number 18 over all.
Kelly is already talking about trying to get to state next year. So goodbye 22 and goodbye to another great season!
Kelly dressed up as an 80’s Punk Rocker and Claire dressed up as “black and white.” She reminded us of Edward Scissorhands. We did not have as many visitors as past, perhaps because of the time change delay and church trick-or-treat parties. Or maybe it was the drought.
I was sitting on the screen porch. Warm, sunny Friday afternoon. Doing a mac5 disaster recovery test. All of the sudden bird noise escalated in the River Birch just next to the porch. I got up to see what was going on. I counted no less than 6 bluebirds, 1 bluejay, 2 cardinals, 1 red headed woodpecker, a multitude of little finches, and a squirrel all swarming around in the same space. They all seemed to be yelling at one another. I couldn’t tell who was yelling at whom or why. The bluebirds were investigating an old birdhouse, but it is Fall, so I don’t know why. This all lasted for about 10 minutes.
Things are quieter now.
Kelly was invited to run with the Varsity team in the Wendy’s Invitational in Charlotte, NC, substituting for one of the runners who was ill.
The course was tough with some steep hills. One down slope was so steep many runners fell. One guy hurt himself so bad he had to go to the hospital and came home in a hospital gown.
Kelly reports she felt great on her run and was doing well. She started out fast (normally she lags on purpose) and passed more than half of the runners on her team. Because there was no display time clock that she could see, she had to guess her time based on what she heard someone calling out. She wasn’t positive but she knew she broke 23 and may have broken 22. Either way, she thought “I’m going to get runner of the week.” She was very excited.
It took several days for us to get the official times from the people running the meet. Kelly *did* do really well. She finished 11th on her team with a time that was very Varsity like. She also destoryed 23 with a final of 22 min 20 sec. Sure enough she got a Runner of the Week t-shirt for having made such a great improvement.
So does she have her sites set to beat 22? Of course… and now she’s even whispering, “I wonder if I can break 20?” Shhhh….
Kelly and Jessica got one of the highest grades in their class for this video parable about a selfish bird that gets a second chance to help others with their problems. Madison and Claire both played key roles.
What I like about this video is how Kelly and Claire have applied many of the things they’ve learned using a video camera and iMovie. The fast talking hummingbird interacting with the regular talking ostrich is well done. The stop-motion intro credits are very clever. Nice use of slow motion and backwards time. Even a good sound track! 5 Stars! (And an A.)
