Take that Mother Nature

Daddy Colin (me) is officially a hunter. I made the trek to Walmart and bought a hunting license. Then it was off to Kenedy County to hunt on the Kenedy Memorial Ranch. (Google Map Kenedy County to find where we went)

Pat (Step-dad), Hank (Father-in-law), Curt (Brother-in-law) and I went on the hunting trip this past weekend. Pat was a great host and we had a magnificent time. The weather cooperated for most of the trip and everyone got at least one kill. The animals were abundant and plentiful when not being hunted, but once they sensed that we were after them they were very elusive.

We hunted Nilgai, Deer, Boar, and Doves. We got everything but a Dove. At final tally we got 3 Nilgai, 2 Bucks, 1 Doe and 2 Boar.

See below for pictures from the trip. Thanks to Hank for bringing his Camera.

Hunting Trip Dec 2009

The hunting was always interesting and exciting. It was like a mini Safari. The guides would drive us around the ranch in pursuit of the elusive Nilgai. If the Nilgai see you they instantly run and don't stop. So you have to get ready aim and fire in less than 5-10 seconds and in most cases shoot at a running target that is 200-400 yards away. Needless to say we put a lot of lead in the air and only got 3. At one point we were all shooting (up to 3 rounds each for a total of 12 shots) and only 1 Nilgai fell.

This was my first Hunt and maybe Curt's first as well. Hank is a seasoned hunter, but it was his first Safari style hunt and first for the running Nilgai. We were all pretty terrible at first. For Curt and I, we had to get used to the rifles and scopes and the quick draw of the hunt. It was similar for Hank except that his scope seemed to have gotten out of whack causing him to miss (I think I saw him purposely hit the scope on the side of the truck before we went to the range after he missed a few Nilgai so that he had an excuse for missing. jk). On the last day Curt and I were dead on with our shots with 0 misses (after almost double digits the first day). Hank also redeemed himself after missing multiple times with his gun and then pinpoint accuracy with Pat's gun.

Pat was deadly the whole time. The only problem he ran into is that his 270 wasn't enough gun to bring down the Nilgai Bulls with one shot. Or at least that was his theory until a 12 year old sharp shooter proved him wrong by bringing down a massive Bull Nilgai with a 243. Amazingly the 12 year old (Ben) brought it down with an eye shot. The Nilgai was close to 600 lbs.

All and all it was a great trip among family and friends. I look forward to hunting again with them in the future. We were all very appreciative of Pat's hospitality and generosity of sharing such an experience with us.

Santa is not a Runner

This past weekend was our Christmas weekend with my Dad and my Grandmother in Dallas. Although Christmas is an expensive time of year, this one was more expensive than planned and I don't think Santa likes my running.

To start we had our Company Holiday party on Friday night. It was a good time, but the hotel coat check lost my jacket...

The next morning, Lisa, the boy and I drove up to Dallas to see the family, have lunch at El Fenix and exchange gifts. It was a great day and we had a great time seeing everyone. The boy enjoyed playing with his cousins. I think Emily's goal was to get BC to giggle continuously the whole time.

During the day, Amy and I decided to go for a run the next morning and I found a nice trail on Google maps. The next morning we drove to a local park to run the White Rock Creek trail. We made sure we didn't have any valuables showing and that the car was properly locked. The trail was very nice (although it was concrete) and we ran for about 8.6 miles.

We got back to the car and I noticed auto glass on the ground and commented to Amy that it probably wasn't a safe place to park (The glass was not from my car). We got back to the hotel and I couldn't find my room key. I thought I was losing it, but we did run real early, so who knows. Later after showering I realized I didn't have my wallet. I searched the car and didn't find it. Then I called my credit card company to see if it had been used. It had, so I started canceling everything. I guess I had dropped it to or from the car or after the run. I thought I was losing my mind since I lost my wallet and room key. Then I noticed something strange on the passenger side of the car (had not looked at it previously) there was a foot print and a dent and after further investigation I found that someone had pried the door open with a crowbar at the top of the window and stolen my wallet. I was more relieved that I wasn't clumsy or forgetful. I only lost 50-100 bucks and the credit card companies will cover any charges. It is more a hassle than anything else. I will have to drop some dough to get the car fixed. The thing is, I think they were not professional criminals, but people hard on their luck since they only bought Whataburger and Gas before my cards were canceled.

In Summary, Santa is not a fan of running. I lost my jacket that I run in, my car god effed up while I was running and now need new credit cards. Also the elves did not steal my running shoes because Santa knows that running shoes are bad for you and wanted me to run in running shoes. My theory is that BC can sense that Santa is against running (see early post of his picture with Santa).

Reindeer 5k

Here is a pic of me running in my Vibram Five Fingers at the Fall Creek Reindeer 5k. The organizer sent me the picture with the comment "Were you running in socks?"



As you can see in the picture the weather was less than pleasant.

A strange way to show love for Santa...

So we met Santa this year at the local Chic-fil-a. There was a long list of people waiting to see Santa so we added our name to the list and got in line to get some food while we waited. BC flirted with the Chic-fil-a cow and played on the playground.

I was excited to see what BC would think of Santa this year. He was very interested in his beard last year. Our friends were with us and they saw Santa first. They have a little girl who is 2 (just older than BC) and she was quite upset when returning from her turn seeing Santa. Not thinking much of this we continued to wait. I got BC out of the playground area to make sure we were ready when it was our turn. I was just tying his shoes when the elf told us that we were next.

Colin was laughing at me as we waited watching the child before him finish. Finally it was our turn. If I only knew what would happen next. I handed BC to Santa and he freaked out. Enjoy the follow photo. Maybe next year will be better.

Barefoot Colin

I have been bit by the running bug as of late. I don't know what it is, but the last couple of months I started running again. I had sworn off running last year as I decided that it was too harmful to my knees and legs. I even went to the point to buying a gym quality elliptical machine for the house so that I could still do cardio and not have the same wear and tear that running causes. I actually use the elliptical too. I think I have about 400 miles on it so far. That comes out to using it about 3-4 times a week.

About 4 months ago I read an article on wired.com about Barefoot running shoes Vibram Five Fingers (VFF). It seemed to make sense to me. So I did a little more research and found that Luke's Locker was the only local store that sold them. I talked Lisa into going to the Woodlands to try a pair on. I ended up getting a pair (even though Lisa thought I was crazy) and my bug for running began. At the store, another patron asked if I had read "Born to Run" by Chris McDougall. I hadn't, but after some more research online, I decided I should check it out. Thanks to walmart's price war with Amazon I was able to get a copy on the cheap. The book really sold me on barefoot or near barefoot running and that running is not that harmful to you if you don't heel strike.

This isn't an endorsement of VFF's or Born to Run (although I think people should check them out and make their own conclusions), but they have helped me get back into running and enjoying running. I don't know what it is, but I look forward to going for a run and I don't even need my iPod anymore for entertainment.

I occasionally run completely barefoot. It sounds crazy, but it is actually quite comfortable. I have had a couple of mishaps when I have run barefoot in the cold or if it has been raining, so I avoid bad conditions now.

Back on 10/3/2009 I ran the Komen Race for the Cure 5K. My official time was 24:49 (7:59 min/mile). This was my first run in 6 months and I considered myself in decent shape because I did the elliptical. This past weekend (12/12/09) I ran my first 5k in VFFs. My unofficial time was 21:54 (7:03 min/mile). This was a PR for me. I might be biting off more than I can chew, but I am signed up to run a Half Marathon (13.1 mi) on Jan. 10th.

My shoes look something like this.



Link to see pictures from a race on Thanksgiving. GE Run through the Woods

UPDATE: I have been reading up on Barefoot running and minimalist running, and since I am not the most eloquent at times, I would recommend going to the following sites to check out more on Barefoot running and instructions on getting started.

Barefoot Blog and Barefoot Website

Movember is over!

I apologize for the lateness of my update to Movember (11 days after it ended), but I have been waiting for the final tally on the donations and rankings. Movember is officially over and our team in Houston, the Stimulated Bastardos, has finished in first place in the USA with over $81,000 raised. What is amazing for men's health is that we were second place in our company with our Sydney office winning for Australia (note: Movember started in Australia back in the day and Macquarie is an Australian company.) Per capita, our Houston office whooped the Aussies.

Personally I raised $255. I appreciate everyone that contributed to my molestache. One added benefit of your donation is that Macquarie matches dollar for dollar, so for final tally, I raised $510 dollars. It is pretty cool that everyone's money went twice as far. I did not know that this would be the case or I would have advertised it.

I have a confession to make. I did not keep the stache until 11/30. I shaved the hideous beast off my face before thanksgiving. I couldn't chance having family memories and photos scarred by the monstrosity on my face. Plus there are too many youngins that I would see during that time period that may trust me and associate my molestache with safety and I want then to continue to associate it with danger.

Here was the latest pic before I shaved.

Minister Kicked Out???

It may be hard to believe, but on Saturday night, a minister, two stay at home moms and a random guy got kicked out of a local bowling alley after playing only 2 games. You are probably asking yourself, how could four presumably upstanding individuals (Note: a Minister was in the group) get themselves kicked out? Well that's a secret.

Lisa, Stephanie (Lisa's Sister), Jesse (Steph's Husband aka the minister) and I got a free night out on Saturday night while the Grandparents (man that sure makes them sound old, no wonder Grandma Robinson counts her age in half centuries) watched the kids. I had been wanting to go bowling for some time now, so we all went to the local bowling alley that Hank suggested. We rolled in around 8ish to find that the bowling alley had been permanently closed (although they had a sign to play with the pros in January (old sign I guess)). This alley wasn't located in what I would call a nice part of town. If we didn't want to drive anywhere, we had a few choices, Gas station, Tattoo parlor or the liquor store. We chilled in the parking lot for a few minutes to take in the scenery (actually Lisa was Google mapping another bowling alley). Jesse and I kept our heads on a swivel to watch out for any local drug dealers that might approach to offer some product. Eventually we had our coordinates and swiftly left the ghetto.

We got the the bowling alley and bowled a couple of games. We (or I) got reprimanded once for my behavior and then around 9 they kicked us out. Well one hour of bowling gave me my bowling fix for the night, so it was time to go to do something else. "Next stop" (to quote Lisa) was Gulf Pointe 30. We arrived at Gulf Pointe 30 and realized it was not much better than the closed bowling alley (The walkway along the building smelt like someone had been smoking for their glaucoma). We spent the next 15 minutes sitting outside the theater debating on what movie(s) to see (No we were not chillin with the dopers the whole time. I mean there was a minister there). Eventually we decide not to see any movies because the ladies could not agree on a single flick and Jesse realized that if they went alone to a movie (their plan) that we would later be blamed and be in trouble. That was a close one.

We headed back home and returned by 10:30. So to make a long story short, we had a babysitter and only went out for 2 hours.