Video: Star Wars Weekends Legends of the Force Parade and Show

This video is most of the Legends of the Force Parade and scenes from the post-parade show.  Thanks to the Feel the Force Premium Package (costs extra) we had a nice curb-side view and were escorted to the front of the stage for the show.   Poor camera work is a result of trying to take photos of R2-D2 and Chopper (from Rebels) together.

Other Star Wars Weekends Posts:
Star Wars Weekend 2015 Day 1
Star Wars Weekend 2015 Day 2

The Comeback!

I haven't run a race since the Rock and Roll New Orleans Marathon on January 25^th. If you follow this blog you know this is a long time for me. I have a good reason for having nothing on the schedule. I unfortunately had to have a hysterectomy on March 9^th. The good news is that the surgery went well and my life will be much better going forward. The bad news is I wasn’t able to run at all for 4 weeks. Just walking. Basically I have had to start completely over in my training and it has been tough.

Two days after the surgery I could barely walk down my driveway and back without being completely exhausted. This was very frustrating for me since just before the surgery I had run 13 miles! I slowly kept adding distance to my walks and was regaining my strength but still wasn’t cleared to run and frankly I had no desire to run either. I was worried. I was worried that I would never get back to the marathon. I did something you should never do. I went to the internet. I found so many stories about people not being able to come back from this. I also found stories that people came back stronger than ever. (I of course ignored those). I was finally cleared by my doctor to start running again after 4 weeks. The first run was nerve wracking. I was terrified. I ran on the treadmill to control my speed and to be able to stop if I needed to. I ran 3 miles and I didn’t die. I felt like I might. I went super slow, but my comeback had begun.

The last three months have been all about getting back in shape. I put on 5 lbs and I’m still struggling to get rid of all of them. It has been a tough road, but I’m up to 14 miles for my long runs and my speed is looking better than last summer so I’m pleased with that. Some runs are great and some are really bad. I need to remember that I had to start from square one, but it’s hard to remember that.

My first real test is this weekend at the Rock and Roll Chicago half marathon. This was my goal. This is my only legacy race, meaning I have run every one of them. I wanted to keep my streak intact. I am so ready to race and am excited but also nervous. I really hope this goes well because I have five, yes five, full marathons set for the Fall. A bit aggressive? Yes! But I have missed it so much!!

 

 

July Charity of the Month: UNICEF US Fund for Nepal Earthquake

Charity of the Month is the way Team Tizzel is helping to support some very worthy organizations. As part of this program, we dedicate a post to a charity that we will sponsor through the month by donating Holly's training run money.

June: We sponsored Feed My Starving Children to help provide meals to needy kids around the world. We donated $130 plus a matching gift to FMSC through their online link at FMSC.org.

July's Charity:

UNICEF US Fund: Aiding the Nepal Earthquake Relief

http://www.unicefusa.org

You may have noticed we are a little late announcing this month's charity. In all honesty we did not have any ideas of what organization or fund to support so we kept delaying the post until we could make a decision. We picked the Nepal Earthquake relief efforts due to watching a show on The Travel Channel.

Thanks to the magic of On Demand we binge-watched Big Crazy Family Adventure. The show documents a family (husband, wife, and 2 sons ages 7 & 3) taking a three month journey from Western Canada to India via Korea, China, Tibet, and Nepal without an airplane. The first 5 days were by canoe. We thought these people were nuts! Beyond that, we really enjoyed watching all the highs-and-lows of travel play out and how well they all took it in-stride.

Bruce, the father, is a guide and photojournalist by trade and had visited Nepal and Everest Base Camp before. He had such great love for the area and respect for its people. You could tell this was definitely being passed onto the eldest son. During one of the Nepal episodes they flashed up a memorial message for the victims of the earthquake. The April earthquake killed over 9,000 people.

Learn more about the earthquake click here.

To donate, click here to go to UNICEF's Nepal link.

 

 

Chain Livin': The Hot Dog Boat and some Randoms

We've lived on "The Chain" for 13 years and finally had our first experience at a hot dog boat. These floating fast food counters are converted house boats that anchor in high-traffic areas to sell food and non-alcoholic drinks to passing by boaters. We've always wanted to stop at a hot dog boat but could never find one when we actually needed one. Usually they'd show up after we passed their anchor point and we'd already ate lunch by the time we passed back. Other food boats we've seen on The Chain include the pizza boat and the ice cream boat.

Bub's is one-of-two hot dog boats we've seen on The Chain this year

Docking was relatively easy and the crew working the boat was having fun. We ordered hot dogs and fries and ate them a bit further down the lake. The food was good but hard to manage condiment packs and napkins in the breeze while the boat was rocking. The next time we stop at a hot dog boat will either be when we are in dire need of food or a water or if we have a guest on board that wants to enjoy this novelty.

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We came up with a name for our pontoon boat last year and developed a graphic to stick on the back. Of course, we finally got to applying the decal this year. We bought the graphics pretty inexpensively from buildasign.com. Dave messed up the first order and bought a non-transparent background graphic. We fixed our error by ordering a few transparent stickers the second time around. We decided a windy day was the perfect time to adhere a 18x18 sticker to the boat and in the process screwed up both the transparent stickers. The next day we went back out and applied one of the old non-transparent stickers vs. ordering more and waiting two more weeks to do this project. We will replace it eventually......

Going back into the Camera Roll history on the iPad reveals some of the inspiration behind our design. We wanted it to have the 50's Retro/Googie style which meant a lot of different shapes and use of multiple fonts. "Toon-In Lounge" and the TV is part homage to Disney's Hollywood Studios' bar the Tune-In Lounge. "Toon" was also a reference to the fact that our boat is a pontoon boat and "Lounge" because our seating configuration is lounge chairs.

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Dave went to Wal-Mart unchaperoned and arrived home with some unneeded things. One such thing was a $5 bubble gun that promised "bubbles inside bubbles". This thing actually worked. Of course he had to set up the GoPro and film it.