Running Songs - Sunday & Monday

Here are my running playlists for Sunday and Mondays.

Sunday

1. Le Freak by Chic
2. Funkytown by Lipps, Inc.
3. I'm Gonna Be by The Proclaimers
4. My Girl by the Temptations
5. Never Surrender by Corey Hart
6. Pop Muzik by M
7. She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Canibals
8. Something About You by Level 42
9. Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles
10. Your Love by The Outfield

Monday

1. Breakout by Swing Out Sister
2. Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
3. I'm a Believer by The Monkees
4. Monday, Monday by The Mamas and the Papas
5. Nasty by Janet Jackson
6. Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel
7. Stayin' Alive by The Bee Gees
8. Take it Easy by The Eagles
9. Viva La Vida by Coldplay
10. We Built This City by Starship
11. We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel
    

Running Songs - Friday & Saturday

My current playlist for running on Fridays:

1. All I Need Is a Miracle by Mike and the Mechanics
2. Beat It by Michael Jackson
3. Jack and Diane by John Mellencamp
4. The King of Wishful Thinking by Go West
5. Money for Nothing - Dire Straights
6. Wake Up Little Susie by Everly Brothers
7. Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' by Michael Jackson
8. We Didn't Start the Fire by Billy Joel
9. Wild, Wild West by The Escape Club

My current playlist for running on Saturdays:

1. Alive and Kicking by Simple Minds
2. All Summer Long by Kid Rock
3. Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird Medley by Will to Power
4. Come on Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners
5. Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears
6. Girls Just Want to Have Fun by Cyndy Lauper
7. Jive Talkin' by The Bee Gees
8. Kiss Me by Sixpence None the Richer
9. The Long Run by The Eagles
10. Puttin' on the Ritz by Taco
11. Stars on 45 by Stars on 45
12. You Might Think by The Cars
    

Up in 3D

I had to wonder, "How good can a movie about a floating house be?"

I saw Up in 3D tonight with my daughters. The answer to my question, "Excellent!" It is full of whimsy, humor and is an all-around terrific story. With the exception of a few overdone action scenes, I would describe it as the perfect floating house movie. Now that's saying something.

Definitely worth seeing!

Running Songs - Thursday

Here's my running playlist for Thursdays.

1. Centerfold by J. Geils Band
2. Dirty Laundry by Don Henley
3. Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone) by Glass Tiger
4. Hey Mickey by Toni Basil
5. Invisible Touch by Genesis
6. Rock Me Amadeus by Falco
7. Shattered Dreams by Johnny Hates Jazz
8. Things Can Only Get Better by Howard Jones
9. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go by Wham!
10. Walk of Life by Dire Straights
11. West End Girls by The Pet Shop Boys
    

Running Songs - Wednesday

A general shuffle of all songs or a genre of songs just doesn't cut it when you are running. You just don't want to have to mess with pressing skip. To eliminate this problem, I made a running playlist for each day of the week.

Running Wednesday

1. All Summer Long by Kid Rock
2. The Climb by Miley Cyrus
3. Hippy Hippy Shake by The Georgia Satellites
4. Human by The Human League
5. Kiss by Prince
6. Lean on Me by Club Nouveau
7. Lonely Ol' Night by John Mellencamp
8. The Reflex by Duran Duran
9. Rumors by Timex Social Club
10. She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Canibals
11. Top Gun Anthem
12. Walking On Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves
    

Landen Riding Video

Here's a better video of Landen riding his bike without training wheels than the one I posted a few days ago.

New Personal Best

I set a new best time for running a 5k (3.1 miles) today. My previous best time was 24:40, which I ran in the Nappanee Apple Festival race last September. I started off pretty well today and decided to go for a new best time. I ran it in 24:09.

Today's run stats:

• Average heart rate: 168
• Maximum heart rate: 175
• Fastest quarter mile time during the run: 7th and 9th ones at 1:53
• Slowest quarter mile time during the run: 11th one at 2:04
• Weather: 62 degrees and cloudy, there was some wind.
• Final tenth of a mile time: :36
  

This chart shows each quarter mile time of the run (adding up to 24:09.) The blue line shows my average pace at each point of the run (starting at 8:14 minutes a mile and dropping to an average pace of 7:50 at the run's finish.)

The map shows where I ran. The numbers one through twelve show where I was at each quarter mile split.
I usually don't like to backtrack when I run, (it's a quirk) but I was trying to avoid the wind so I backtracked a lot.

How Old Should My Kid Be to Teach Him to Ride Without Training Wheels?

How about three years, two months?


Landen learned to ride without training wheels today in a matter of minutes. Since his birthday on March 15, he had ridden his bike (a Specialized HotRock 12) a total of 66 miles with the training wheels on. So he definitely had some experience. Landen also had mastered balancing his Razor Scooter, which I think helped him know how to balance the bike. The Balance Buddy handle we used made it easier to get him started, but he caught on so fast we probably would have been fine with out the handle.

He's already ridden three more miles without the training wheels. Here's a video (not all three miles - just a half a block.)

Second Grade Chapter Book Read Alouds - Ranked

Last week each student in my second grade class ranked their top five favorite chapter books that I read aloud during the school year. I totaled their rankings giving 5 points for a 1st place vote, 4 points for a 2nd place vote, etc.

Here are the results from their rankings. (Sorry for the blank space. Scroll down a ways to see the rankings.)

Rank	Title	Author	Poll Points
1	Where the Red Fern Grows	Wilson Rawls	60
2	Miles to Go	Miley Cyrus	57
3	Holes	Louis Sachar	38
4	The Tale of Despereaux	Kate DiCamillo	38
5	Shiloh	Phyllis Reynolds Naylor	28
6	Poppy	Avi	26
7	Summer of the Monkeys	Wilson Rawls	23
8	My Side of the Mountain	Jean George	18
9	The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane	Kate DiCamillo	15
10	Stone Fox	John Reynolds Gardiner	13
11	The Best Christmas Pageant Ever	Barbara Robinson	13
12	Wayside School (series)	Louis Sachar	12
13	Junie B. Jones books (series)	Barbara Park	9
14	Weird School books (series)	Dan Gutman	4
15	Flat Stanley	Jeff Brown	3
16	The Incredible Invention of Hugo Cabret	Brian Selznick	2
17	Scholastic Chapter Book Biographies	Peter Roop	2
18	Now You See Me . . . Now You Don't	Dan Greenburg	1
19	Ready Freddy – The Pumpkin Mystery	Abby Klein	0

In the many years that I have done these end-of-year polls, Where the Red Fern Grows has never finished anywhere but first. Although it was way closer this year than usual, probably in part because I just finished Miles to Go.

Edward Tulane should have finished higher, but I read it a LONG time ago and I think they kind of forget after a while. Also, many students really enjoyed the Wayside School series, but if I separate the three books it's hard to get consistent votes for them since students are only voting their top five overall books. I don't think lumping the three together gives perfect results though either - it sort of takes away from voting for a certain book.

I also read Holes last fall. It must have held up pretty well. It is REALLY good!

Relate post: Steve, Kylee and Makenna rate the chapter book read alouds

Book Review: Miles to Go

Miles to Go is Miley Cyrus' newly released autobiography. I read it to my second grade class and just started reading it to my eight-year-old daughters.

I enjoy biographies. Learning how someone climbed the ladder to success is something I find very interesting. Miley Cyrus' life story is far more interesting than I imagined it would be. If you just figured that Miley got the part as Hannah Montana because of who her dad is . . . I think you would be right, but not because of who you think her dad is - it's better.

From a low, low, low that I think a lot of people can identify with to an incredibly fast change (that happened oh-so-slow,) Miley's story is fascinating. Miley's anecdotes and corresponding commentary show a wisdom way beyond her years. Any girl who is a fan is bound to be positively influenced by reading Miles to Go. I highly recommend it. (And there's really no reason that boys wouldn't enjoy the book as well.)

There are two other people groups that I would strongly encourage to read Miles to Go .

1. Moms of child stars. Reading Miles to Go would offer them plenty of solid advice on how to do this job well.
2. Dads. I challenge any dad to read Miles to Go while pondering what kind of dad he wants to be and not be challenged to do some things better. I was.

There were two or three parts I skipped when I read the book to my second grade class. They just got a little too grown up for that setting. I will likely read these parts to my daughters though and tackle any discussions they bring about.

I think most anyone would enjoy this book (if they like biographies at least,) but here are some people that I think in particular SHOULD NOT MISS reading this book.

• Tilly
• Carly
• Emma
• Rob
• Stephanie

I Got What I Wanted

Goodbye truck. . .

hello minivan #2.

It's really nothing fancy, a 2003 basic model Town and Country with 86,000 miles on it. I traded in my truck and wrote a not-so-big check to pay the difference. It will set back our goal of paying off our house by one month.

The major advantage is simply that our family will fit comfortably in both of our vehicles now. The Dakota actually was a good truck (other than the gas mileage) but it was not so good for a family with three kids.

I had posted my truck for sale on Craigslist last week, but didn't get a single e-mail of interest. (Our hope was to sell the truck now, then go with one vehicle until August.) It was starting to look like we were going to have to go the trade route with my truck, and if that was the case we figured we might as well do it now rather than later.

We bought the van at the same place we bought our blue 2000 Dodge Grand Caravan, (minivan #1. - and the VAN I'VE BEEN WANTING) from Nappanee Auto Sales in the L.J. Wagner parking lot.

We're really not that picky about our vehicles. When we bought the Caravan six years ago, we spotted it on the way home from McDonald's and said, "Hey, that one has doors on both sides."

The new van? We actually spotted it the other day on the way to Taco Bell and said, "Hey, that one has captains chairs in the second row." (Our main criteria this time.) We bought this one the same way, but we waited a few days and ended up eating supper at Dairy Queen tonight instead of McDonald's. We stopped and asked about it on the way to DQ and bought it on the way home.

We're mostly just picky about not paying too much for a vehicle.

Our new Town and Country meets our criteria and we're super excited to have it, even though it isn't "anything fancy." Actually, I think that's part of what excites us about it.

Predictions

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

"Kris is the next to go."
Steve Gall, predicting the contestant to leave American Idol's round of 11 on March 12, 2009.

The Beatles ended up doing OK and so has Kris. I'm pulling for Kris to further shame my prediction and win it all.

Bad News

Hacienda does not give out free Frisbees with their kids' meals anymore. This will limit the demand for the Frisbee holder I invented.

The Last 15 Movies I've Seen

Here are the last 15 movies I have seen and how I rate them on a scale from 1 to 10. (A 4 is sort of my baseline for didn't really like, but didn't really dislike it either.)

• High School Musical 3 - I did like it. I give it a 6.
  
  
• Garfield: Tale of Two Kitties - It gets a solid 5.
  
  
• The Lake House - Uggg. I'm being kind with a 3.
  
  
• Bolt - I saw it in 3D and thought it was great. I also rewatched part of it with Landen and it held up well. I'm sticking with an 8.
  
  
• Enchanted - It was pretty good. An even more solid 5 than Garfield.
  
  
• Ella Enchanted - It's not my type of story. A 4.
  
  
• We Are Marshal - I liked it pretty well, and give it a 6.
  
  
• Slumdog Millionaire - This is one of the best movies I have seen. I give it a 9.
  
  
• Coraline - I did not like this one at all, only the claymation gets it a 3.
  
  
• Marley & Me - It was fine, a 5.
  
  
• Pearl Harbor - I liked this one quite a bit. It gets a solid 6.
  
  
• EdTV - I like the premise of this movie, but did not like the movie, a 3.
  
  
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - This might have been good if I would have seen it in a theater surrounded by 10 year old kids cheering on the turtles throughout the show, but I wasn't, so it wasn't. I think I'm being nice with a 3.
  
  
• Hannah Montana: The Movie - I liked the movie and enjoyed my company even more. It gets a 6.
  
  
• The Negotiator - (Spoiler ahead.) I liked it OK, but found it a little frustrating. It was filled with things that wouldn't really happen - like all the cops just leaving after their raid and Danny not getting arrested at the end. The end reminded me of Mystic River, which I also found frustrating. I give it a 5.
  

New Tree

Some Recent Pictures

Recent Writings About Nappanee

My Google "Nappanee" search alert brought an interesting blog post and a travel article about Nappanee to my attention recently.

The Besch family was in town for a few days recently getting their RV worked on at Newmar. Google has let me know about quite a few families who are getting their RVs worked on in my hometown - but the Besch family had an extraordinary visit in comparison. Read about it here.

There was an interesting article in the New York Times travel section recently about the northern Indiana Amish community. The author visited Mullet's Dining in Nappanee and spent half the article detailing his visit to this establishment. Lucky guy, I live here and have never been to any of the Amish dinner places.

Nike+ Vs. Garmin Forerunner 305

I have tried out a couple new running gadgets this spring. The Garmin Forerunner 305 is a watch-like device that uses GPS to track speed and distance. The Nike+ system uses a shoe mounted accelerometer to track speed and distance using an iPod.

Accuracy:
The Forerunner 305 is much more accurate than the Nike+. You can calibrate the Nike+ (which I did using the accurate distance from the forerunner.) However, I found that once calibrated, the Nike+ will give inaccurate readings if you run at a different pace than usual (over 10 percent off.) The Forerunner is consistently accurate to the extent that any variations between runs are unnoticeable.

Coolness:
The Nike+ should win this. It has a nice voice that tells you about your run while you're on the move and has a cool website that it uploads your running data to - on which you can compete in challenges with other runners. The Nike+ blog widget was fun to add to this site as well. However, the battery in the Nike+ shoe sensor is not replaceable. So if the battery dies a new $20 sensor must be purchased to continue using the Nike+ system. My first sensor lasted about 10 miles (a couple weeks in February.) I thought maybe I just had a dud, so I bought another one. The second sensor lasted about a month this spring for an additional 25 miles. That is not fun or cool. I am not buying another Nike+ sensor.

Usability:
Both products work quite well. The interface for the Forerunner is not as advanced as the Nike+ interface on my iPod Touch (way not as advanced.) But even though the interface is not especially slick, the Forerunner is easy enough to use and does way more than the Nike+.

Features:

Nike+

• It has work out settings for Time, Distance or Calories. (You tell it your goal for the run and the Nike+ will verbally let you know your progress.)
• It stores your run history on the iPod and on the Nike+ website.
• It will play your music for you from within the Nike+ app on the iPod. (Although, I found this feature to be limited compared to the iPods normal music playback capabilites. For example, I couldn't figure out how to get the Nike+ app to shuffle a playlist. I got pretty tired of 80s tunes that start with 'a'.

Garmin Forerunner 305

• It tracks 32 different types of data that the unit can display during a run. (I just use 6 - time, distance, heart rate, average pace, pace, and calories burnt.)
• It comes with a heart rate monitor, which is very consistent. It is comfortable and works great.
  
• It can actually lead you back to where you started if you get lost. I don't usually get lost in Nappanee, but I do see how this could be useful.
• It has a backlit display.
• It has alarms that can be set to alert for time, distance and heart rate. (I have mine set to ring every quarter mile and every nine minutes.)
• It has training options to help you keep a certain pace. You can also setup a workout to race against one of your earlier times for a specific run.
• It has nice charging cradle that works with USB or a regular electrical outlet.
• It downloads run data to your computer, where software stores all your run data. Sweet!

The Garmin Forerunner 305 sells for around $175. The Nike+ sensors are around $20. The Forerunner 305 is by far the better value. The Forerunner does more and does it better. I was on my way to spending over $100 on Nike+ sensors this year. If the battery trend continued, I would have had to spend that every year to keep the Nike+ working. While the Forerunner 305 was more expensive to start with, it is rechargeable and should last for years and years and years with no additional cost.

The Garmin Forerunner 305 is way better than Nike+ and probably way less expensive in the long run as well.