7 miles was fun:
Michelle and I had a fantastic run lats night! Weather was 95% perfect. Temperature must’ve been in the low 70s, sun was setting, and the humidity was dropping by the minute! Michelle actually had a weight class at the gym from 5 to 6, so by the time we ran at 8pm, she was pretty tired to begin with. I envy her drive, and I actually forgot that she had already expended a great deal of energy in that class. We were supposed to take the first mile easy and then progress into a sustained, fast clip. I boo boo’d and started us off without taking into consideration our previous plan. Sorry Michelle! Irregardless, we had an awesome run! We did sub 9 minute miles, averaging 8:54 per mile. It was awesome. Felt like cruise control from mile 2.25 to mile 7! Thanks, Michelle, for converting me into someone who enjoys the challenges of running (MOST of the time)!!

SOB:
Real excited to see Sean this evening at Abdella’s! If the weather front that is approaching actually stays north of us, like they said on the news this morning, we should have weather good enough for wakeboarding! Only did it once, and that was last year. I hope to try it again and get past my fears of going up and through the wake this time! Michelle didn’t have that fear when she first tried it a few weekends ago! Sean is visiting Michigan from Arizona to spend some time with his family and do some fishun up North, near Ludington, and probably some other locales. He’s pretty excited to see us, too…I hope.

Car:
Did I mention that I LOVE the Saab? It’s a damn nice ride. I love getting into it every single time I start a new road adventure!

August trip:
So, Michelle and I had planned to go to Traverse city the weekend of August 22-24, to spend a bit more time up there. We went for a day this July 4th, and thought we’d go alone and spend some quality time running, shopping, and hopefully doing some sea-kayaking (one of the reasons we want to go up there). It should be awesome. In the meantime, I started looking at alternative vacations, like surprising Michelle and taking her to Mackinac Island and actually staying there. Wow, what a shock. I think the cheapest place up there is about 170 per night. Hell no… not really, but man…not a great value. So I started looking online to find a place we could fly to, somewhere different, somewhere new? My research yielded Myrtle Beach, SC. Michelle actually went there when she was 14, so she wouldn’t really remember it. I found two roundtrip tickets leaving late Friday (6pm) and returning late Sunday (10:45pm)…that would give us two full days plus some time on Friday night to check out the strip and maybe catch a cocktail. The tickets were only $320, and that’s for the both of us! The hotel was going to be about 180 for two nights, per my buddy, Gord’s, suggestion. Captain’s Quarters. We’d just have to find a car for two days. Thought it’d be great. I guess I forgot the scope of the original idea. We wanted to go back to Traverse City, enjoy it longer and also try sea kayaking. So, Traverse City it is. That was our first goal, and we should stick to our guns. Thanks, Michelle, for keeping me “in check”! Oh, and we’ll get a chance to take the Snab on a road trip!

Running:
I tried to set a record this morning for 3 miles, but I guess it was a bit too early or too cold (62 degrees) for me. Strange, though, as I set a 6 mile record last week, on the same course, for the most part. It’s the new outdoor course I’ve made near my gym. I start near the gym, run down a hill, into apartments, back out to the road and into a Catholic cemetery which is very beautiful and peaceful. I run for as long as I feel necessary in the cemetery and head back to the gym. I usually have to run around the gym parking lot or sidewalk for a while to make up the remaining mileage. I think the hills on the road killed me this morning! I would LOVE to have had the same drive I had on Friday morning at Stony Creek instead of the gym road course… I would have possibly done even better, since the hills at Stony aren’t even close to the ones near the gym. All in all, an awesome run for me: 23:14 for 3 miles.

Check engine light:
The check engine light went on at some point during the day on Sunday. It stayed on until this morning. On my way to the gym and on my way to work, the light was off. We have a service appointment on Friday morning at 7:30. We still can’t program our HomeLink^TM rearview mirror with our garage door opener. We had no problems programming the Buick Rendezvous, and it’s HomeLink^TM, so maybe something is wrong with it. We also have something wrong with our OnStar VIU as reported by the OnStar tech we called on Sunday. There are a few small, horizontal scratches at the bottom of the trunk that Saab said they’d buff out, and last, but not least, the driver door vibrates when there is a decent amount of sound coming from the door speaker. It has something to do with the seals, the way the door closes, or the way the speaker is mounted. When you push on the door with a little pressure, or pull on the door handle, the vibrating (bzz bzz) goes away. Should be an easy fix. So far, the car is awesome, though. Absolutely!

Skoo:
Slacker, slacker, slacker. I have a presentation today in class, with my group, and I’m still not done with my slide or three or with finalizing the actual Powerpoint file. I’ll get to it today, though.