...for little girls. Another little girl has joined the family! Amanda and Brandon welcomed their new baby girl today. She was born at 6:10 p.m. and weighed in at 6 lbs 5 oz.; 18 inches long. Grandma Toni (this makes 16 grandchildren) said she has a beautiful head of dark hair and that it was an easy delivery for Amanda (for once:-) Oh, and as of now- no name. Somewhat of a Fairbanks tradition to take the baby home without a name. Stay tuned. Next up (Ithink in order of appearance): Sara/Jacob, Kristy/Jeremy, Jenni/Daniel, Eddie/Carline, Jason/Sarah. Did I forget anyone?
Mission Accomplished!
Yes, last Saturday was my 3rd and final triathlon of the season. The previous Sunday I competed in my second tri in Hermosa Beach. My goal was to podium in one and maybe 2 of my triathlons. I'm very happy to report that I placed 3rd in Hermosa (missed 2nd by 14 seconds) and (drumroll please) 2nd in the Pumpkinman- Las Vegas Triathlon. Actually it was in Boulder City. We swam in Lake Mead- what a switch from the ocean. No significant swells and I could see the bottom! For awhile I forgot I was in a race as I became fascinated with the lake floor with all it's rocks and other stuff on the bottom.
The Friday night before the race, Carrie, my best friend from BYU (Hawaii and Provo) drove up from Las Vegas to have dinner with me. I've never met someone with a quicker wit and sharper sense of humor than her. She kept me entertained and my mind off the race.
After dinner she took me to this park where wild big horn sheep come down from the mountains at sunset and graze in the park.
I Want My Own Sign...
Sunday morning I went to meet my best friend from high school for breakfast. She's living in Henderson, Nevada. As I drove through her complex I saw this sign and I think we all know who I immediately thought of! I hear Jason has his own street sign as well.
Happy Halloween
Hope you enjoy the new theme. I'm not sure if I missed some links to family or friends so let me know if you have been forgotten and I will add you.
Eddie
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Pride Cometh Before....
Last Saturday I went riding up Soledad Canyon Road towards Acton on my weekly bike ride. I was feeling pretty good. I had my heart monitor on and could see that my heart rate was low and that I was recovering quickly after each hill climb. I was coming back and as I started up the climb from Agua Dulce Canyon Rd to the Soledad tunnel I could see two riders ahead of me about half way up, and I could tell I was gaining on them. "Wow" I thought. "I really have improved." I didn't quite catch them before the tunnel and they went pretty fast on the downhill side, so I didn't catch them till the top of the next hill. When I did I kind of blew by them and thought smugly that they must be admiring how quick this old man is. I shot down the next hill, under the freeway at Shadow Pines and blew down the road subconsciously thinking to myself that they were dropping behind quickly and admiring my speed, if they could even see me.
I topped the next hill in good time and crossed Sand Canyon road when all of a sudden there they were, passing me. "Well," I thought, "I gave them a good pull and now I'll draft them.". But now I was having a little trouble keeping up with them. I pushed hard and stayed about 10 yards behind (drafting actually really makes me really nervous) as we crossed over the road by Anna Frieda and went under the freeway to the bike path. I passed them again as we went through the gate and noticed that one of them seemed to have a black knee-high stocking on his left leg only. "Kind of weird" I thought. (Regular bike riders only wear the short ankle-high socks and knee-highs are a dead give-away the rider is a novice) but this sock was only on one leg.
After about a half mile they passed me again and I looked closer and realized he had a carbon fiber prosthetic calf. Well, that was kind of humbling. This guy had half a left leg and he was pushing me. Now as I was riding behind him I saw he was sitting over to the right of his saddle and was moving kind of strange as he peddled. I looked closer and this time I realized that his left thigh was only about as big as my arm!! I had to laugh at myself for being such a big schmuck. (That's Yiddish kids, not a swear word.)The only reason I could catch him on the hill is because he was peddling with only one leg. That was REALLY humbling! Pride really does come before the fall.
Baby Boom!
Well, the Risser Family seems to be exploding- so many pregnancies and new ones just arrived. With that in mind, I thought I'd share an interesting piece I've been listening to on This American Life. It's one of my favorite radio programs and I was very happy when I realized that I could stream the programs on my computer. The show available this week is titled Going Big and has to do with Baby College- a program for early intervention for children in developing life skills. The program was based on research showing that one of the biggest factors effecting a child's success in school and life in general was language! The amount of words children were exposed to from age 0-3 years. Not just any words, but positive words were even more productive. These children seem to do better with cognitive skills and non-cognitive (life coping skills) despite socioeconomic backgrounds. If these skills were not achieved by kindergarten, they were very difficult to learn later on.
Because the full program is about an hour long, I usually play the programs on my computer while I'm cleaning, cooking, etc. The part of the show on Baby College is the first 20 minutes so you could just listen to that if pressed for time. To take a listen, go to the website: thisamericanlife.org and then search Going Big (this week the episode will come up on the home page but will it will change on Sunday 10/05).
If you want to listen to a crazy, funny but true comedy of errors story (unrelated to Baby College) search the site for Squirrel Cop and listen to a story of "what could go wrong, did go wrong". One of my favorites.
