Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I would like to wish everyone a very Happy 2008! I'd also like to send wishes for a very successful 2008 to all of you!

New postings of my Christmas, 2008 Spring Schedule and New Year's Eve will be up later this week!

Happy Holidays

I wanted to with everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Chanukah, Happy Ramadan or any other Holiday you may be celebrating this Holiday Season. Currently I'm in New Mexico celebrating the holidays with Kelly's family. There are views of the mountains out of every window! The views motivated me to blog and thank everyone for reading my blog and leaving comments. I'll be sure to post lots of pictures over the next couple of days. Enjoy the time with your family and loved ones! ...........Frank

Beware of the Hot Tub

A friend of mine read my posting about using the hot tub after running and pointed out a very important point. After you run it is important to ice everything versus putting heat on your muscles and joints. You can actually injure yourself more by applying heat. I should have typed that after we finished running we iced everything down and later that night we got in the hot tub. Anyway I would like to thank Bridget for the input/advice. Thank you!

12 miles down 1.1 to go!

Sunday, December 16, 2007. Long Run training Day. Kelly and I have less than a month to go for our half marathon. Sunday's are the days we go out for out long runs to practice for the race. A half marathon is 13.1 miles. A few months ago that number seemed HUGE. To be honest, it looked HUGE on Sunday. Kelly saying we're going to run 12 miles sounded HUGE. Two hours later, 12 miles was complete! Wow, I could have run an extra mile yesterday, so I'm excited for race day to come. We're going to go out and run between 13 and 14 miles after Christmas just to get the milage in one time before the race on January 13th.

Quick Tip: Our condo complex has a pool and hot tub. I used to get in the hot tub after running. Over the last couple of long runs, I've been getting in to the tub before I run. I get in the tub, stretch, then go and run. The hot water helps to loosen up all of my joints and muscles. I've noticed less pain by the end of my runs. This will be continued pre race/run ritual.

Back in Ohio

Last week, i was back in Ohio. I was in the state to work with Rodger. We had jobs in Columbus and Athens. We were the keynote speakers at the kickoff luncheon for the OASFAA Conference (Ohio Financial Aid employees). We then headed to Ohio University to give two training/employee development seminars for college employees. There were about 400 people at the Financial Aid Luncheon. We spoke to about another 200 people at Ohio University.

Being back in Ohio gave me a chance to see a lot of my friends. I also got a chance to catch two division one Men's basketball games. The Ohio University staff took us to the game between Ohio University and St. Boniventure and my best friend Scott took me to the game between Cleveland St. and Youngstown State. Both games were blowout victories for the home schools.

So, one week lots of friends and lots of traveling. Phoenix to Cleveland; Cleveland to Columbus; Columbus to Athens; Athens to Cleveland; Cleveland to Phoenix!

Enjoy the pictures and the stories below!





Pictures from the OASFAA Conference. Rodger and I gave another great show. We had people in tears and on their feet when we closed the presentation. It was snowing outside, so we made up a song (about 5 minutes of planning) about financial aid to the music of "Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!" It was my first time ever singing solo infront of that many people.






Pictures from Athens, Ohio and Ohio University. It snowed both days we were in town; about 4 inches. The Ohio Bobcats won their basketball game 77-59. We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express and it was very nice! We now know why the commercial says people feel so smart for staying at the hotels.


My good friends Teresa and Brian welcomed twins boys to the world about two months ago. It was my first time seeing the twins, Cole and Caden. Cole is normally on the left in pictures and Caden is on the right.

It does rain in the desert!

A week ago I got to see something that rarely happens here in the desert. Two days of consistent rain! We got almost 2 inches of rain. There was a lot of flooding, just check out some of the pictures below. The one is of the courtyard outside of our condo!