South Park

No, not the cartoon. I mean the neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

I kind of kicked off the summer in North Park with that triathlon so it's kind of funny that I am winding down the summer with a 5K in South Park.

I've never been here before but it's another huge park that has so many things going on in so many places it would take a long time to check it all out. We started at the fairgrounds. What did we start you ask? Get this, the Xtreme Air 5K. Yes this is another 5K but what is different about this one is that in the course of the 5K there are 12 inflatable obstacles in the way that you must navigate through. As soon as I discovered this I was like 'Yes!'. This looks fun. I was not disappointed. Saturday Oct 1st was probably the funnest day of the year for me.

Having anxiety I wanted to make sure we got there in time but as I have discovered in the past, we left a little bit too early and had to sit around for a while before my start time of 9:15am hit. Before I left I noticed around 9am that no one who had left in the 8am wave had come back yet. (The start was right next to the finish) A couple people did come in before I took off but that got me thinking what the heck is going on that it takes people over an hour to run a 5K? I would soon find out.

The most horrible thing that has ever happened to me happened (I'm exaggerating) and I don't know how I didn't get more upset about it then I did. When it was finally time for me to start I got in line and got my Runkeeper app ready to record this. I swear I hit the button then shoved my phone in my pants. I did not discover until after I finished that I failed at this task. This is the first run ever in the modern age that I did not accurately record. Only because I knew when I started, when I finished and the distance of a 5K was a okay with this for my records. I am disappointed I don't have a map of the route I ran because I will never be able to figure that out but it's not the end of the world.

I started out and immediately got stuck behind a couple of gigglepigs. Apparently there were people that somewhat took this seriously and some that didn't care all that much. I did not see too many people running. It was jog to the next obstacle, take your time getting over it, then walk to the next one. Well as far as I was concerned it was a 5K so I was running. I don't care what everyone else did. There were at least 2-3 obstacles where there was actually a line and I had to stop and could not proceed because there were people in there not getting through very quickly. A couple were super muddy and one had a huge puddle of water. I had to go back and run and jump so I could clear it.

My main concern the whole time was getting an awesome video of me coming down the last slide. Ale ran around the last obstacles and was able to get that for me. She is so awesome!

I got a medal and the t-shirt came after you finished which was weird. I thought for a second to go again but we just left instead.

We went down the street to a local place which was pretty good. Gil's Diner. We got breakfast there and then I looked up breweries. The gods shine on me! We are literally 3 miles from Spoonwood brewery and it opens at 11:30am. This was awesome! We hung out a while and then drove up there.

I thought it would be a little sad for me to be in the parking lot of the brewery 5 mins before they open but it was all good. There was literally already a line of people. Like 5 cars were waiting. They opened the door and we walked right in. This place was nice, and big!

We got a spot at the bar and I told the lady samplers of your first 5 beers on the menu. Let's just do it that way. They have excellent beer! This place is definitely in my top 5. I only brought one growler just in case. I didn't expect this but I would have to get another one here. I will probably never be this way again so I need to cash in. The growler is high quality. Fancy lid. They even have a machine that fills them. You just put the bottle in it, close the door, pick which beer you want and boom. This pipe comes down and it just goes like zoop and it's full up to the millimeter.

Except for my GPS driving me back up through the city instead of back the way we came this was the most excellent day. I would say this is the best day of the year for me. I was so pleased with how everything went, I was happy and I knew it. I do not get like that often so it was super nice.

September 2016 may have been the best month of my life

I had a bunch of stuff scheduled for this month. I did not know how much was really going on though. Around the middle of the month I was like 'Damn'. I decided I should write this all down and make a blog post about it. I tried to put everything that I could recall happening here.

• Got tattooed
• Hung out with Danimus
• House related
• Met with builder
• Scheduled lot evaluation
• Got loan preapproval
• Got an ultrasound on my neck due to weird, scary pains
• They say they found nothing
• Went to Danny's 3rd birthday party
• Saw WEIRD AL at the Benedum
• New Weird Al cartoon, Milo Murphy's Law, came out
• Went to the PT Fall Festival parade
• Pax's first parade
• Boys got their picture in the paper
• I biked a bunch
• I ran even more
• Steelers 5K
• Best time ever!
• Greensburg 5K
• Even better time!
• Post race after party with free beer!
• Gabby 5K
• She's not dead!
• Went to my first BEERFEST!!
• I drank a ton of new beers (not only at this event but all month in general)
• Went to the eye doctor
• Took Pax to his 18 month doctor appt
• We paid our school taxes for the year
• Finally paid off the loan for our property
• Went to a ton of new restaurants
• Michael's Neighborhood Griddle
• Ricks
• Abruzzi
• Hugos
• Checked out the new bike shop in Greensburg, Flat Tire
• Watched the first presidential debate
• Steelers season started!
• Bought tickets to go to Joe Louis arena
• Started bingeing Luke Cage
• Got a new credit card with the fancy, secure chip in it
• Got myself the new iPhone 7

The best thing didn't happen until Oct 1st so I will write that into it's own post. 

TRIATHLON (For real this time)

JANNEY AND THE Y TRIATHLON @ NORTH PARK
2016/08/07

RESULTS

I tried to do a triathlon before when I was not as in shape as I am now and it was not the greatest experience. I did it though. What sucked was they had to cut the swimming part out because the pool at the PTHS was under construction. In the end it kind of really didn't count as a triathlon. I had to do another one to actually be able to say I did one. One day I looked online and found this one.
I was super anxious about doing this. I wanted to but my stupid brain kept coming up with things to be nervous about. I almost didn't sign up but Ale encouraged me so I decided I was going to give it a shot. I can't tell you how happy I was when we finally pulled in and they waved us into a parking spot. We were here.

I signed in and the lady gave me a little gift bag and an entire pack of swim caps. If anyone needs one I got em. I found my racing number in the transition area and set up then went to the pool and waited for my heat.

SWIMMING 700M
The few people that I talked to all hated the swimming part. I know this was going to be my worst event. I can't tell you the last time I went swimming. Luckily it was not over open water. I could always touch bottom if I got tired so that's something to keep in mind going forward if I do this kind of event again.
The pool itself was magnificent. I don't think I've ever seen a pool this grand. It is 50m across so 14 times down and back ugh
I tried to think of it as 7 up and backs
I was raising my hand and counting out loud for the 7 "laps" so I could stay on track

1. I was fine
2. Started stopping already
3. Powered through thinking if I can get to 4 I'm over half done
4. Would take a few strokes then run out of breath, I could tell I probably wasn't doing so great at this point
5. Followed guy who passed me. I was close behind him the whole time, He made some more distance but it wasn't a ton, I was keeping up so it made me feel not too bad.
6. Next to last one. Same pattern: 2 strokes, run out of breath, start hopping on one foot forward as I took a few breathes, repeat
7. Last one, I can still see others swimming, I'm not last

I got right out when I was done and asked the girl what time she wrote for me and I saw 45:31
I started the 2nd heat which was 25 min in. 1st heat went at 7:30am, I went at 7:55am so really I did 20:31.
Results say I took 25:34 for the first leg so I estimate it took me 5:03 to run out of the pool, around a cone at the back by the announcer lady then out to the transition area and then me getting dressed. I guess that sounds right, I did take a long time to make sure my feet were good.

BIKING 12M
I had to stop right away to put on my gloves because I just carried them with me. I think I went slow the first lap because I did not know where I was or how much I needed to pay attention to turns.
My first lap around I was following someone who was finishing and I wrongly started following them off the main course luckily I realized it and cut right back over. After that I was good.
The uphills really felt like they slowed me down and I was dragging. It seemed like the first half of the course was uphill. A lot of people passed me which I am not used to riding the bike trails by myself. There were some people with some all-pro bikes I tell you. I wish I had an extra $5K to buy one of those.
I made up good time on the down hills. That's where I passed the most people. It seemed like the back half of the course was downhill.
There was a marker thing to run over which I made sure to do every lap. I thought I saw people missing it so that threw me off but I keep doing it. That was good because there is a page on the results that show that information.
I also got confused with the exact distance and amount of laps. I knew we did 4 but I was trying to figure it with my GPS as I went and it didn't seem like it was going to add up. I ended up just figuring when I pass the end and I have a close miles ridden that's the time I should go in. (It was 5 laps)
It was also weird with the staggered starts because I could already see people running and people I saw when riding I couldn't tell how good I was doing at all.
I was looking for Ale when I got to the crowds but I never saw her which made me kind of sad.
I think I rolled in at 11.93m and back to my stall. I didn't need to change this time. Just take off my helmet and gloves.
Results say I took 52:21 for this leg.

RUNNING 5K
Again I was off kilter at the beginning because I wasn't sure where the trail was or anything. I wasn't that bad though. There seems like a nature trail winds all around the grounds of the park and that's where we were running. There were lots of white arrows painted on the ground and there were lots of girl folk pointing and cheering as you went by. The only thing that sucked about this trail was there were plenty of sections where there were nothing but big rocks and tree parts. It was not very conducive to running in my opinion. Mountain running maybe. I actually kicked a rock and bit it at one point. The next day I had a nice bump on it. I got right up but someone was behind me and saw it.
I think I stopped a few times when I started running but I think when I got over half way my last wind must have kicked in and I even went faster and finished good. Either the new socks were the bomb or the blister things worked because I had no trouble whatsoever with my feet. The last 3/4ths of a mile finally went on to the road and I motored pretty well. I passed one more guy and finished! Yay! There were ladies right at the finish line ripping your chip off immediately which was pretty funny. They really wanted them back.

I also must say in addition to the pool, the bath house is amazing too. It's huge and the showers were nice and hot.
This is one high quality park that I feel bad it's so far away because I would definitely take my family here again for a picnic or holiday.

Well I did it. It was hard but I did it anyway. Maybe I'll come back next year.

Trail Extension

I went to ride the other day and I took the PT Cruiser using the brand new bike rack my dad found in his garage. It uses ancient strap and buckle technology which can be confusing but if you mess with it long enough it does actually work.

When I got to the trail I saw something new right at the start. There was a picnic table and a new sign. My goodness what was the news?!?

Future - Trafford thru Murrysville to Export

Oooh What does that mean?! I knew they'd be extending the trail sometime in the future. When I first started riding this was pretty much immediately after the part that took it to Delmont opened so I've never know the trail any different than how it is now.

They're coming FROM Trafford TO Export? That seems confusing. Where the heck is there currently a trail in Trafford to come from? How long will this take until we can ride on it? Most importantly, where will the Penn Trafford connector section be? There is no way they cannot have at least an extension that hooks us in to the main trail if it the main trail can't actually go that way. Now I don't want so many people on it that a person can't reasonably ride their bike in safety but I feel everyone would enjoy it and it would get lots of traffic from PT people if we had access. I'm probably going to have to give them money and join so I can somehow have a say in this. I'm sure there have to be PT people already trying to sway someone. There were also some maps and brochures on the post so I just need to mail that in now.

I thought about how cool that will be when it happens for a large stretch of my bike ride and that was nice.

That was until I found someone's phone. It was on the ground in the tunnel right before the mile 4 marker. I wasn't even planning on going that long but I was feeling good. Plus I devised a plan for next week to finally ride the entire length of the West Penn Trail. I'm going to park at the parking lot I found at the 5 mile marker and go to the end and back however long it takes me. So I figured if I"m going to start at the 5 I should ride the other half of the trail up to the 5 so over the 2 weeks I hit every part of it.

Anyway so I go through the tunnel and I see a snazzy electric portable phone. I don't know if my first thought was 'Screw it' because I did ride by but something stopped me and I turned around and grabbed it. It wasn't broke or anything so I put it in my pocket and kept going. So then I started thinking about what I was going to do and how. I figured when I got done riding I could just find a likely contact and call it to see if they could get a hold of whoever this was but then I thought 'No'. I don't want to go through dudes phone. I'm sure its nothing but what if hes a weirdo or a closet cheating freak or mafia or who the hell knows what. I yelled out at a few people I passed asking if they lost a phone but no luck.  By the end I was decided to just drop it off with the cops.

Of course that was an affair. How stupid am I to go walking right up to police and give them me to beat up or whatever? They were right on the way home though (after my GPS took me in the stupidest circle I ever took) in the basement of an old brick building with this locked steel door and camera and stuff. I rang the bell and just as I thought no one was coming and 'Should I just leave it here on the ground' some (obviously) big, bald cop opens the door and I'm pretty sure he just said 'What?' gruffly and not "How can I help you?'. I just said Lost and Found and handed it to him. I said I found it on the bike trail and he took it and I bolted. Hopefully whoever lost it got it back.

Trail Fest 2015

Apparently I have evolved into a cyclist. My goals is to ride 500 miles this year.

Here are some links to some of the places I go. Hopefully I'll come back and clean this up a bit.



http://www.post-gazette.com/life/recreation/2015/04/04/Cyclists-look-north-to-progress-on-the-Erie-to-Pittsburgh-Trail/stories/201504040012

http://friendsoftheriverfront.org/trails/three-rivers-heritage-trail/three-rivers-heritage-trail-status/

5 STAR TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1007

WESTMORELAND HERITAGE TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1010

GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1008
http://www.atatrail.org/

RTC
http://www.regionaltrailcorp.com/

Trilogy - Part X of 3 - Tim's Tour

I took my biking TO THE NEXT LEVEL this weekend. I signed up to do a 3-2-1 Ride that was held in Pittsburgh on 2014/10/12.

There were 3 options:

1. Rita's Tour - Only 7 miles, not what I was looking for.
2. Metric Century - 62 miles. Maybe a bit much for me yet.
3. Tim's Tour - 25 miles. Seems just about right.

So I signed up for Tim's Tour. I almost didn't. I was nervous. I couldn't get Joel to commit to go with me. I had my co-worker Neil interested but he had plans to go camping that weekend so he couldn't go either. It wasn't like I couldn't do it myself but it'd be nice to have someone to ride with. My main concern was knowing where to go in riding the streets of Pittsburgh. I've never done it before. I don't know where anything is. I wasn't tired of my regular trails but I definitely wanted to go check out something new, the trails down Pittsburgh. This was my chance. I figured they would have to mark it well enough. When I emailed the lady she assured me that 'No one would be left behind'. That was what I needed to hear. I paid my $25 and filled out the form. I found out later that this was a fundraising thing and I had to commit to another $10 but that was okay. They even had scheduled early packet pick-up at the bike shop right by my work, the one I bought my bike at. So I was able to make it to that and acquire my free shirt, water bottle, stickers, race bib, etc. 

I woke up on Sunday and got ready to go. I was a bit nervous as I hate driving down Pittsburgh but with no home Steelers game today there were no problems. I paid for a spot in the lot rather than park on the road and the stupid toll guy tried to give the wrong change but whatever. Since I was early I got to ride around Heinz Field by myself and it was awesome!! This was fun as all hell. It was a little cold in the shadows of big buildings when the wind blew hard but I'm sure my body would heat up once I started riding in earnest and things would be okay. I was already drinking water and had to pee so there was another pre-race situation where I had to find a place to go. I saw other people searching for restrooms and eventually did find an unofficial place to relieve myself. Now it was ride around until we were ready to start. 

I lined up on the road where it looked like everyone else was lining up. Some lady started talking but I couldn't hear her so I went the whole way to the front so I could. I hoped I was in the right place. And WE WERE OFF!!

I can't describe how much fun it was. It was really fun. I tried to stay in a pack but then I saw people moving up. Eventually I figured I better make a move too or I'll get left behind. We rode on bridges and trails and roads. There were easily visible signs where changes in course were required. I slowed down a bit going up some hills but I never stopped or had to get off my bike. I skipped the halfway rest stop. There was no reason for me to stop. I was able to stay in a pack until the last straightaway and I arrived back at Heinz Field in 2 hours and 23 minutes. People were taking our picture and I felt great. I could keep going. I rode around and saw they had some stuff laid out for us but I wasn't socializing. The whole ride was perfectly documented in my RunKeeper app and that made me happy. I couldn't wait to go home and analyze it and tell Ale all about it. I was surprised that it turned out it wasn't even my longest ride at that point. It was a few tenths of a mile short. 

I loaded up the car and drove home, calling the 6 pack shop to have a sandwich ready for me when I got there to grab some beer for the Steelers game. I made it back just in time. What a wonderful experience. I would absolutely do this again. I'd do it again next week if I could. 

More pics
Media coverage

Mario Lemieux 6.6K 2014

2014/10/05



I ran this again. This time I trained more definitively. I could do even better. I went once every 2 weeks for 5-6 sessions to the track at McCullough. I ran for 30-50 min each time. It helped me pretty much run the entire time. I think only 2-3 times did I have to slow down to a walk and even when I did it was only for a couple seconds to catch my breath. I was proud but not unexpectedly so that I crushed my time from last year. This was definitely the best run of my life. I was totally on. I was super happy the whole day after this.

I enjoyed running this course better than last year. It seemed easier and not much uphill. My GPS (and I bet a lot of other people's as well) glitched out going through the Armstrong Tunnel but I went to the website after and fixed it as best I can. I don't know what they are thinking with the 2 Bridges, 1 Tunnel motto though.






















Results

2015
http://www.runhigh.com/2015RESULTS/R100415AA.html

Bib    Place Class Place Name Age City State              Clock Time Chip Time Pace

1067   930   61  Marc Cartwright, 40, Jeannette, PA            39:09        38:52    9:29

1066  2932  281  Alejandra Cartwright, 33*, Jeannette, PA      56:13     1:18:02      1:13:58   18:02

out of 2955

2014

604  1456  106  Marc Cartwright, 39, Jeannette, PA             42:20    39:49    9:43

603  3841  349  Alejandra Cartwright, 32*, Jeannette, PA     1:12:22    1:07:24   16:26

out of 3977

2013

409  2247  137  Marc Cartwright, 38, Jeannette, PA             51:48    48:12   11:45

408  2899  279  Alejandra Cartwright, 31*, Jeannette, PA     1:05:57    1:02:21   15:12

out of 3051

Runkeeper

Ale did great for a person in her condition (which is pregnant). She started to get sick right before it started but then she felt better and walked it. 

Biking

I'm starting get obsessed with biking. Ever since I had to (shhhh!) buy the boy a bike so I had one to do the Triathlon with I've been researching and riding on trails more and more. I think I'm going to have to buy myself my own bike soon because my bike is a piece of garbage and the boy's bike is his not mine. It's more of a mountain bike anyway and I seem to require more of a racing bike. I don't want to spend the money but it's fun and healthy and I enjoy riding with the boy and Joel comes out for rides too so there seems to be many good reasons to do so.

Father's Day 2014

There were a few things that threw me off this past week but for the most part it was a great time.

For starters this past week was E3 and there was tons of good stuff going around. The Nintendo event started with Reggie fighting Iwata and that right there was enough for me to call a winner. They showed a lot about the new Zelda and Hyrule Warriors and they finally became available to preorder on Amazon.

There was an incident where a cop punched my car but don't get me started on that. I was kind of upset for like a day after but I have since calmed.

I also got a little irritated trying to convey a lesson to the boy via Ale. Not sure what happened there but I guess it worked out in the end. I'm still not sure.

Besides those downers I guess everything started on Thursday. Since the boy was going away for the next week we had our Father's Day celebration this day. We had an awesome cookout outside and the food was great. I am really liking the grill we bought last summer and I think I am pretty good at cooking on it. We cook pretty much every piece of meat we have in the house when we cookout so we don't waste the charcoal and then we have food to eat for several days afterwards. I invited my mother for like the 10th time to our cookout but like every time but one, she ignored the invitation and did not show up. Her loss.

The boy made me a gold trophy at Penn Pals out of a piece of paper and Ale collaborated with him to buy me a new power screwdriver set so that was good. It's nice to get something useful once in a while. The boy did fail to call me on Sunday but I guess I won't mess with him over it.

Friday was awesome too. I had a tattoo appointment with Danimus. A lot of progress was made on the 'I bleed black and gold' tattoo. It may even be finished the next time I'm in. I guess I will finally be able to show it off. After we were done we even hung out and did some stuff. I was kind of jacked how Dan never acknowledges my texts or anything so I wasn't expecting to do anything but it seems like we are still friends and I should let stuff like that go more easily. He showed me a lot of what he has been learning about beer. Apparently he is at a whole different level than I knew even existed. He's online trading beer and I rediscovered that the Giant Eagle in Irwin has an awesome section of craft beers which would ensure I never have trouble trying something I've never had before. I even got a bunch of new badges on the Untappd app from all the different beers I tasted.

Weird Al got permission from Iggy Azalea to parody her so a cryptic announcement was released this weekend. July 15th the newest Weird Al album will be released.

In 2 separate trips I rode the boy's new bike over 20 miles this weekend in training for the PT Triathlon which is this next weekend (June 21st). My legs were killing me the 2nd trip but I am super happy with the bike's performance. Hopefully the boy really appreciates that bike because it was not cheap. I am happy my bike is still able to be ridden as I've enjoyed the couple times we have gone out together riding. Hopefully that continues.

Saturday after the bike ride I know I worked on and made good progress on my VGDB so that made me happy. I wish I had more time and resources to research and add all these games. I do it because I love it but I do kind of wish on the side that I could monetize it in some way. At lease showcase my skills to an employers that will let me do this would be nice.

The LA Kings won the 2014 Stanley Cup. They kicked ass. They were absolutely the best team.

The World Cup has started in Brazil and we watched Argentina beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 in their first match.

On Sunday I got a good few hours in on Watchdogs. That game is pretty fun and for as long as I played it for as much as I did I am still not even that far along. It is an extensive game to be sure.

Besides all that I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful wife, Ale. I don't know what I'd do without her. We are still moving forward with the house. We do own the first acre of the property and we are still saving up I guess. I am still paying my student loan down and I hope to have that taken care of by the end of this year.

Isaac's First Taste Of Fail

Last night was pre-test night at karate class and I'm sad to report that Isaac will not be testing for his gold belt this weekend. I'm pretty sure this was one of his first tastes of fail and I hope he learns to not like it.

I did my part to help him as much as I could. For the last 2 weeks I made sure he was practicing all the time especially on days before class. It is helpful for him to have it in his mind before he goes I noticed. The Saturday this started (which probably would have been the 11th) he had the worst class of his life. He got yelled at constantly, repeatedly had to do push-ups and Mrs. Romano even asked him to sit down as he didn't seem like he cared or knew what the heck was going on. I had a talk with him at this point about what he was going to do. I found out that his mother (*shudders) hadn't be taking him to class for the last 2 weeks she had him. I think I detailed this before. Anyway he followed that up with the two best classes I've ever seen him have and I thought he was on track to earn his belt.

I have noticed that when we start practicing he never actually punches, he just raises his arm up and same with kicks. He also just moves his legs forward taking a regular step instead of properly going into a stance (legs wide apart, knee bent). Usually I see this and tell him about it and he does a little better. Apparently this was one of the main things that kept him from testing. I made him go and ask what the problem was. I felt it was a good idea to teach him that. Can't learn from your mistakes if you don't know what they were.

I didn't watch it go down. I sat in the car. I felt I gave him all the tools and assistance he needed at that point and it was up to him now to perform. I didn't want to be a distraction for him as he always seems to look at me to see if he thinks I think he's doing well or not. Well he didn't. He went about it all lackadaisical and it ended up biting him in the butt. All in all Master Romano clipped 9 kids this time and I saw several run over to their mommy's crying about it when they discovered it was them. Isaac was very disappointed in the car. I had sweetened the pot with promises of rewards if he did well and I don't think I like this but it seemed he was more upset about not getting the rewards than not earning the belt.

I keep getting asked 'Why push him to do this if he doesn't like it or want to do it?' and I have to answer like this: He's 7 years old. He doesn't know what he wants. When he's 10 or 12 or 15 THEN he can pick what he wants to do. It's my decision as his parent to do what's best for him. I made the decision to enroll him in karate because I discovered through research that it :

• Builds character, discipline and self-esteem.
• Teaches respect.
  
• Gives him an activity to do so he isn't sitting around the house on the couch playing video games all day everyday or getting into trouble because he's bored with nothing to do.
  
• Related to that, it's good exercise. It helps build his muscles and gives him self-control.
  
• He gets to hang out with and talk to other kids doing the same thing.

I stand by my decision. If someone else can come up with a alternative solution that provides as much benefit as this then I would definitely listen, if not then stfu. Anyway he's paid up until November of this year so he might as well get used to it. In life we all have to do plenty of things we may not want to do. He needs to acknowledge that and learn to develop a way of dealing with it. I will not see him cower and avoid this things. I want to teach him to conquer and overcome these types of obstacles. It's going to be a tough road ahead due to this setback. Now he's stuck doing the same things for the next 3 months and that's going to be hard to keep his interest. Also with his mother finding it easier herself to give in and not take him. I can't go over there everyday when she has him just to ensure that he gets there. I don't know what he does or doesn't do over there but it seems like the work I'm doing with him gets undone to a degree. I hope that is not the case. I want Isaac to be prepared for life and know what he needs to know to succeed and most importantly be happy and although it's hard work and I get confused and depressed sometimes wondering if I'm doing things right or if I made a good decision I know that at the end of the day I am doing a good job and I will do my best to continue that. Hopefully this setback will actually end up being a good thing and he will learn some valuable life lessons that will help him in the future.

Hiiiiii-ya!!

Isaac started karate lessons through the PT community program this week. He has it every Tues & Thurs for 4 weeks. For some reason I have been gung-ho on him doing karate for a while now and I'm glad we finally got this chance. What I'm even happier about though is that after both classes so far he has run up to me when it was over and exclaimed how much he LOVES karate!!

He seems like he is the youngest one in the whole class and he's not doing all the things right yet but he is learning. That's what this is for. It's good for him for many reasons. He will get exercise out of it and be physically fit and healthy and another main reason is learning discipline. He will learn to follow the strict commands of his Sensei. He will learn to sit up straight and tall. He will learn to be confident in his responses and actions. This is what I was hoping for and it seems I hit pretty close to the target on this one.


We'll keeps tabs on this one and see how it progresses.