Today's run was a run of starts, stops and distractions. It's amazing I managed to run it under 20 minutes, actually.

Kris and I went out with Annie for my loop run. She was distracted and distracting. She has to stop at every corner (for training reasons), so Kris kept stopping. Then there was the cars driving, stop lights to cross, skunks (!!) jumping out from behind bushes, the works. Annie was excited, we were not amused.

It seems I can never get to a dentist appointment on time. I don't know what it is, but even when I try really hard, I still end up late. Sigh.

Had my teeth cleaned this morning. I'm fairly religious about my 6 month teeth cleanings. They may average every 6.5 months, but I go nominally twice a year. I was at the dentist about 2 months ago with some sensitivity in my lower right molars. Turned out to be bruised roots from clenching my jaw, and not cavities, so I'm trying not to clench so much.

As a result of said tooth sensitivity, today's cleaning was surprisingly painful. At one point, the dental hygenist (can I just call her the tooth fairy?), jabbed the little hook thingy into my gum between two back molars and pulled. When my gum didn't immediate come out, she puzzled, "Something sticky is in there."

Yeah, my flesh!

The experience reminded me of my dentist/orthodontist from childhood, Virgil Gassoway. My aunt Sonnie was quite enamoured with the fellow, and encouraged us to see him as our dentist. At some point, I think Mom was enamoured, too, so off we went.

For the record, Gassoway had horrible "bedside" manners. When tightening a band on one of my braces, he slipped and gouged the inside of my jaw. I was gushing blood. His response? "Hold still, I'm not done." No apologies, no cleaning of the gushing blood, just a "hold still damn child lest I beat you when your mother isn't looking."

I had more head X-rays with that man than the rest of my life combined. I suspect he'll be the cause of any brain cancer I get when I'm 97.

He was also my first orthodontist. Somehow Chris managed to avoid braces as a child. Beej and I were not so lucky. The deal, however, was that we went to Gassoway. Now, Gassoway wasn't really an orthodontist. He wasn't trained to do any moving-of-the-teeth, only cleaning-of-the-teeth and repairing-of-the-teeth. Actually, he didn't even do those well. He was recently (5-6 years ago maybe?) sued for leaving a broken drill bit in the tooth of a patient and filling the cavity anyway. Ever wonder why mamma keeps buzzing when she walks through the airport metal detector? Blame Gassoway. (not really)

To do orthodontics, Gassoway would take photos and molds of his patients mouths, and take such documentation to orthodontia conventions. What would you do with this mouth, he'd ask. He'd then come back, and adjust the braces or give the Frankel (which, according to my little brother who had one, is just a little less barbaric than head gear).

There's the outside thought that maybe, just maybe, I dislike the man so much because he pulled four of my teeth out (first teeth behind the eye teeth), rather than suggesting space maintainers and roof expanders that later real orthodontists suggested for me. In high-school, I wore a retainer that expanded the roof of my mouth by a 1/4", leaving gaps that, oh, I don't know, say, two teeth could fill. But saying that's the cause of my dislike ignores the incompetence of the man, and the lifelong harm he's caused.

So let's just say he sucks.

Because he does.

This evening, after working all afternoon on a project with Mike, I did not want to go for my daily run. I was supposed to have an SFUC game, but the weather didn't cooperate, and the game was cancelled. So, the daily 2 mile run was on the schedule instead.

As mentioned, I did not want to go on this run. So, I head into the office to start working again on the project. Bella, the short, stinky one, comes up to me and starts pawing my leg. She was so cute, I started petting her.

We often play a game of chase. It usually starts with my getting down into the doggie I-want-to-play position (think: all fours, front paws out in front, butt in the air). When Bella catches on, she'll bay, then run away, usually to the other side of the house. I get up and chase her. When I catch up to her, she bays again. I then turn and run the other way to the other end of the house. She chases me, and bays when she catches me. We then repeat this until either I get tired, she gets bored or Kris yells at me for creating a Crazy Dog.

After a few moments of petting Bella this evening, she got into the I-want-to-play position and started baying. The chase was on!

We chased each other through the house for over 5 minutes. When we were done, I was all warmed up and ready for a real run.

Despite my rump being sore from last night's workout, I ran the set 2 mile loop in exactly 18 minutes. I was pretty happy (considering Tuesday's night run in 19.5 minutes).

Bella the task master. I'm right on schedule with my ultimate off-season training

Today, we received the announcement of the end of an era. Ben and Lisa told us they are moving to Seattle Washington. Ben landed his dream job and it happens to be 850 miles away from where they currently live. Sigh.

I'm unable to express how happy I am that Ben found his dream job. As I'm currently on my way to creating my dream job, I would never begrudge a good friend the same enjoyment of life a great job can create.

Ben will be running a camp. Well, not really. He'll be leading a great group of people that make up

"IslandWood is a unique 255-acre outdoor learning center that provides kids, adults and families with hands-on learning experiences that combine science, technology and the arts."

Damn, I wish I had a chance to go to such a place when I was young. And I almost wish I had kids to send there. (Only almost, because anything more would require actually having such kids all the rest of the time.)

Though I'm really happy for Ben and Lisa, I'll admit to crying when I found out. I'll miss them both so much.

Today was rainy. As a result, there were a lot of accidents on the freeways. And, as a result of that, Kris took over an hour to get to ASA, and G couldn't make it at all. After getting stuck in traffic for 45 minutes and not moving at all, G gave up, called in and went home.

Pat Frost, an ex-MLB pitcher, stepped in and ran the class for us. We started out with ladders. I started well before Kris arrived (mostly because he was taking so freaking long to get to class). I managed to get all my ladders done, and two runs at the T drill before he was ready to run.

Ladders included my favorite LR-RL etc. One leg in, both out. Hop scotch (L R together). Ali shuffle. Shuffle R first (facing sideways, R foot in, L foot in, next square R foot in, L foot in, etc.). Shuffle L first. Facing sideways, R foot in, L foot in, R foot out, L foot out, advance one square. There were a few others in there. The outside foot in horizontally, both feet outside, other outside foot in horizontally, etc. I'm sure I'm missing a few new ones.

Next was the T drill. The T had 8 steps on the base, 3 across the top of the T. I did four shuffling to the left first, another four shuffling to the right first, for a total of 8 runs. Most of my times were around 9.5 seconds, though I had an 8.9 in there somewhere, and a 10, too. P didn't do too well in telling us suggestions like, stay low, use the arms, butt down on the shuffle, don't pop up. On the runs I did things well, I ran quickly. Otherwise, I did only okay.

Next, we had ice skaters & hurdle jumps

Next was box jumps and 180° jumps with weighted ball.

Last was abs. Instead of our regular, brutal G abs, we did 4 sets of 30 seconds of 5 ab exercises. Starting with bicycles, we did swimmers (lying on our backs, arms out sideways, legs out straight in front of us, move feet up and down from 6" to 12" off the ground), then criss-cross (same position as before, holding feed ~12" off the ground, cross them left on top, then right on top, repeat). Next, we had trunk lifts (hold feet up in the air, left hips off the ground), and finally Supermans (or, lie on your stomach, hands under chin, lift head straight up. That's one set. Repeat 3 times. Four times total.

It was neat to have a new instructor. I prefer G, but I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow. Change is often good.