May Update

Greetings. May has arrived, and as usual, I was signing the “It’s Gonna Be May” version of the N Sync song leading up to the new month. April was a quiet month by most standards. Baseball really dominated the family calendar. Edie’s 8U coach-pitch team is in first place with an 8-1 record, while John (and my) 12U team is 0-8 and in last place, though most of the games have been competitive. I even stepped into umpiring a few 10U games for some extra cash, and for fun. I was home plate ump for a pair of games in April, drawing decent reviews from the coaches. I always think our umpires are awful at calling balls and strikes consistently, and I wanted to see for myself how hard it is. (It wasn’t hard.) Their seasons wrap up in the first couple weeks of May, before John’s June tournament team starts up and clogs up every weekend date.

I traveled to Tulsa for work for four nights in mid-April. I can’t remember how many times I’ve been there now for work, probably around ten. This was the first time the company truly tried to get the entire global staff there together. Though not everyone made it, it was a great showing of 125 people or so. Every night was a late one. Not as bad as the Bart days, but I was never in bed before midnight. When we moved to the new house, we dropped our gym membership. I thought simply getting 10,000 steps per day in our hilly neighborhood would be enough activity to keep my weight and health in a good spot. But it clearly was not enough. I hadn’t stepped on a scale in a while, but did so right before I left for Tulsa, and was shocked to see my lifetime high of 274.9 lbs! Disgraceful! I knew immediately I had to right the ship, especially with Alumni coming up later this month. So every morning in Tulsa I got up early and got in 30-35 minutes on the hotel elliptical machine. And then when I got home, I started up jogging. I hate jogging or running. It hurts my ankles and calves and knees to run on pavement. But until we invest in a piece of exercise equipment for the home, it is my only option. Here are my modest numbers for the first couple weeks of outdoor running. I typically jog 100 paces, then walk 100 paces, alternating. You can see since the 17th I’ve really picked up the intensity!

As mentioned, May’s big highlight is my and Edie’s trip up to South Dakota centered around my 25th high school reunion and my speaking engagement at the all-school Alumni event. As of now, there appear to be very few classmates returning. This trip is Edie’s chance for some grandparent time—she is always jealous of how much time John gets to spend on the farm. I may wind up taking most of the week off and traveling about eastern South Dakota with her. Lauren and John sound like they’ll go someplace on their own for some quality bonding time while we’re gone.

Lastly, April 30 was a tremendous night at the Glanzer household for our Minnesota sports teams. First, the Twins beat the Blue Jays 7-1. Whatever, it was a random regular season game. Then, the Wild beat the Stars 5-2 in Game 6 to advance to the next round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Lauren, John and I watched and celebrated after the final buzzer. As John was forced to bed, I flipped over to watch the second half of Game 6 of the Timberwolves-Nuggets game, where the Wolves won and advanced to the second round of the NBA playoffs. It’s been extremely rare to see a Minnesota team win a playoff series over the decades, so for it to happen twice in a matter of hours was something to behold!