Yes, I am referring to the 2nd amendment to the U.S. Constitution that NRA fans everywhere are sure that Obama is going to tred all over on his way to the Oval Office on January 20th, 2009.  Gun sales have been off the charts when all other retail sales are slumping.  However, Obama is not the reason I found myself literally shoulder-to-shoulder at the gun store yesterday.

Wednesday morning at 6:00am I was awaken from a dead sleep to the house alarm going off.  Once I shook the cobwebs I turned it off and quickly checked if either of the boys were out of bed… they were not.  The phone rang and it was the security company asking if everything was OK.  I replied that I did not know but asked if the lady would hang on while I checked.  I gave the phone to Heather and bravely went downstairs and checked all the rooms, closets, and bathtubs for a guy in a hockey mask with a chainsaw.  It turns out I forgot to check the porch door before going to bed and it had blown open slightly.  We thanked the lady at the security company and get everyone back in bed.

As I laid back down I said to Heather, “I am buying a gun this weekend” to which she said, “OK”.  With that settled I met up with my brother and headed to the gun store.  I bought a safe that you have to enter a four-digit code to open that keeps the gun safe from curious hands but easy to get to in an emergency.

Moral of the story… if you plan to sneak into my house as a joke make sure you clearly identify yourself when you hear me coming down the stairs.

Part of the marathon training schedule that I am using has a once-a-week cross-training day in it.  The idea is to do something that is cardio training but not as hard on the body as the contant pounding that running is.  I have chosen to ride a bike at a the local fitness center.  Today was an hour and I very aware of some muscles that I was not aware of when I got up this morning.  I rode for the hour, made it 15+ miles without actually moving, and burned 630+ of the calories that I consumed yesterday.  It was a long hour but at least they have televisions on the bike equipment so I was able to catch up on the latest news.

JR and I ran the annual Gobble Jog in Marietta this morning.  It was a bit brisk when we got there but it was a great temperature by race time.  They were saying over the PA system that they were expecting 4,000+ people to run the 5k.  Personally I wanted to finish in 26:30 since my last 5k was 26:50.  The course was not too hard other than a long constant hill from about mile 1.75 to 2.30 or so.  I had to walk twice in the last mile but was able to still finish in 25:30 setting a new PR and making it harder to set a PR next time.  To celebrate I am going to pig out on Turkey and all the fixins in a couple of hours.

I am updating the “Marathon Training Schedule” static page here on my blog as I work through the training. So far so good.  I joined a gym last night and the owner was kind enough to do a 4 month contract at her 12 month standard rate since I only needed the membership for the marathon training.  If you need a gym in the Cedarcrest/Seven Hills/Bentwater area then I would recommend Anytime Fitness (listed as Acworth for some reason) based on my experience with the owner so far.

Last night we had our Thanksgiving practice run.  We fried the turkey to perfection and then 8 adults and 4 kids picked it clean.  The 16 pound turkey never knew what hit it.  I ate way too much turkey and paid for it today but will probably do it all over again in 2 days.  I think we have 12 adults and 8 kids coming over to feast with us.  The place will be a mad house but it should be fun.

My pastor and I are running the Gobble Jog 5K Thankgiving morning.  This should make the gluttony we will do later that day no quite as bad.  Marathon training is underway.  This is not going to be easy, but when I cross the finish line on March 29th and become one of the 0.1% of Americans that will finish a marathion this year I think it will be worth it.

This Thanksgiving we are having a huge bash at our house that will be for 20+ people.  Basically we invited over people that did not have family that they planned to travel to see for the holiday.  We are getting a smoked turkey from our favorite BBQ place and we are going to deep fry 2 turkeys.

Since I have never fried a turkey before my brother asked if we should “practice” ahead of time to make sure we knew what we were doing.  I thought this was a great excuse for having 2 thanksgiving feasts in the same week.  So, tonight we are having a couple of friends over and practicing thanksgiving.  We have all been salivating all day knowing that there some fried turkey goodness in our near future.  Hopefully I will be able to get over tonight’s feast in time for Thursday’s.  Cows are so lucky with the whole multiple stomachs thing.