November started out with one of my favourite activities. Another obstacle race! This was a smaller local one. It was advertised as a 5k race through a 4x4 truck park, but it was probably closer to 2.2 miles. But they had lots of great obstacles. First half of the race was a back and forth zig-zag through a very large field. Lots of tires and hay bales to climb over. And then it was into the woods for some decently tough trail running. By that point in the race I had I’d estimate a 30-45 second lead on the next closest runner in my heat. Unfortunately I didn’t properly taper my workouts in the days leading up to this race. On Thursday I did a big workout involving a lot of posterior chain work. Boy was my lower back feeling it during the race. It didn’t hinder me too much on the front half, but once we got into the woods and the hills it slowed me down. Lower back started cramping up and I’d have to take 5-10 seconds at the top of hills to stretch it out. I still finished first in my heat and second overall, so I’m more than happy with that performance.
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More Home Repair
My kitchen is a disgrace. I hate it. I loath it. I frequently debate boarding up the kitchen and just claiming my house doesn’t have one. At some point it really does need to be torn down to the studs and subfloor and rebuilt almost from scratch. To that end, I’ve avoided putting almost any work into it. Then I saw a really good deal on a decent stove at Lowes in their scratch and dent section. Then by talking to the guy about it, he gave me an additional 10% off. So I got it. Now... if I’m pulling out the stove, that means I should really re-do the electrical line that goes to the stove. The old one wasn’t installed very safely, and it ran back to the old fuse box instead of the new circuit box. So okay, we’ll run that line. And as long as we have the stove move, we should really move the floor register for HVAC that for some reasons is under the stove, so yeah, we’ll move that to another part of the floor where it will actually do good. Okay, now I have an old hole that I need to cover that the old vent was at. As long as we’re doing that we may as well put down new tile. My old sheet vinyl tile had been torn up by my previous dog in an an early--and undesired--attempt to help at the demolition phase of the kitchen renovation. And as long as I’m putting down self-stick vinyl tile, let’s make it look a little better and put it down on a bias (and more much time consuming to put down). Of course this means the rubber cove moulding under the cabinets needs to go. And as long as we have new tile down, let’s finally put down some new quarter round at the base moulding. And so no one accidentally tears up the tile with their toes, let’s put down some nice stained wood transitions on the doorways.
I love home improvement, but as any of my ex-es will tell you. Project creep will be the death of me. Oh, and don’t mock the color of my kitchen walls... I hate them too.
Carolina and Meet and Greet
Five years!?? Can you believe this is my fifth year at the Carolina Renaissance Festival? I’m in a very strange position that Carolina very much feels like my home festival, but it’s not my festival. In that I mean it’s a Gold team show. I only get to do a couple weekends because Jef is away with the rest of Blue playing at Sarasota (very near his house and wife).
But what a welcome they always give me. I had an amazing time, and can’t thank everyone enough. After the sixth weekend (my first) it was time for the meet and greet. So we hopped over to a local bowling alley, where I finally took the time to bowl at a meet and greet. I definitely wasn’t the top score, but I was happy with how I did. The real fun was an hour or so later when we played laser tag! Okay, granted my team didn’t do so well. I blame the abundance of FPS gamers on the other side... they’re like killing machines I tell you. I probably would have been more effective for me time if I had snuck back out to the bar and had a drink. At least then the other team wouldn’t have been scoring points off me!
Final weekend was gorgeous! I remember very cold closing days. I even remember one closing day--I think it was two years ago--where our final R-Show of the year was rained out. I don’t mean that we performed in the rain. Or that we had to tell people that it was raining too hard and there wasn’t enough people... I mean that absolutely no one showed up! It was that bad. Not so this year... absolutely beautiful! I would love a send-off like that every year!
Thanksgiving and Louisiana
And for my third year in a row I got a chance to perform in Louisiana. This year I got the first two weeks of our three week run. So I was down there with Ronn and Riki again. Unlike previous years I didn’t drive down for Thanksgiving weekend. I flew down Wednesday night and was picked up by the ever gracious Riki. Whom I believe got into town just a few hours before me. And we did we do as soon as I got there? We hit the French Quarter of course! Many of our rennie friends were performing a vaudeville/burlesque show as Accidental Circus. We caught lunch with Vince and his girl, and then went off to see the show. I’ll tell ya, by the time we left the bar and got back to Roberts, LA (an hour away) I was ready to pass out!
Thanksgiving at the Haeusers was something to behold as always. I slept in a little bit--missing morning mimosas--again. And then got up for my annual Thanksgiving workout. I spent about 40-60 minutes doing a CrossFit style workout in the front driveway. It’s become somewhat of a tradition, and it’s also a tradition for everyone to give me grief about it for the next three days as well.
The meal was divine, and just like last year we headed out into the woods for everyone to try their hands at everyone else’s firearms. I really should write down all the guns I shoot when I shoot them. I really enjoy shooting. But I’m not nearly enough of a firearms expert to remember or even recognize the weapons I fire. So let’s just say I shot some handguns and long guns and leave it at that, okay?
Oh... and foam guns! I was introduced to a great little game called Cash and Guns! You all get to play the part of bank robbers who have successfully stolen the loot. But now you have to divvy up the cash. And how do you do that? With guns! It’s a lot of fun, and you even get little foam guns to use. Hard to explain the game play, but check it out!
