Swimming for Japan

The swimathon that my kids put together over the weekend to raise money for disaster relief in Japan was a big success.  We started with a ‘carb-loading’ lunch for them (spaghetti noodles with butter and parmesan), then headed to the pool to do good for the world.

They started off strong and enthusiastic, and stuck with it until they reached their goal of 100 laps.  Mom and dad chipped in for a few laps when the team got a little tired, but they rallied with a late charge and finished strong.  The bickering factor was low, which is a big measure of ‘success’ for a family event these days.  Everyone slept very well that night, so we’re thinking we may need to come up with more reasons to swim to wear out the kids on the weekend.  They raised a total of $240 for the Red Cross, and we’re very proud.  Hopefully building the foundation for a life of helping others.

In completely unrelated news, my wife and I actually went out on a date without the monkeys Saturday night, which included the movie The Lincoln Lawyer.  Two big thumbs up.  We’ve been pretty disappointed with many of the movies we’ve seen lately, but this one was really, really good.  I had forgotten that Matthew McConaughey can actually act after all the horrible movies he’s done over the last few years.  This one and The Fighter are the two movies we’ve seen fairly recently that are worth your while.

The weather over the weekend was ugly, but I managed to get in my two planned runs – 3 miles on Saturday and 6 miles on Sunday.  I wasn’t feeling it when I headed out on Sunday, but I thought of several fellow bloggers who are dealing with injuries right now and would kill to be able to run, gave my brain a kick in the ass, and got after it.  Really good run with very little pain at an 8:15 pace.  Maybe my legs are finally deciding to play nice with the rest of my body.