"Drawing Challenged!"

Yesterday evening I had the pleasure of making dinner for my wife and our dear friends. This was my wife’s birthday dinner since it had to be postponed from the previous night so we could attend my daughter’s fabulous event at her school. I had asked my wife what she wanted for her birthday dinner and she replied, “Shrimp scampi.” In previous years I would have opted for the easy way out and ordered it from a restaurant and most likely we would have had dinner with just the family. However; thankfully in recovery I continue to learn it is much better to “experience” life as opposed to just being a mere observer. I was more than happy to cook and as it turns out this is a very easy meal to prepare. I have made this meal in the past but for the life of me I couldn’t remember the last time I prepared this entrée. It is strange how I can vividly remember some things but other things I have a vague recollection.

The meal preparation was indeed easy but I didn’t do a very good job at keeping it hot when it was served. Of course our dear friends were very nice and didn’t complain. My wife does “tell it like it is” and I tried to make her serving a bit hotter by adding additional butter sauce. I think the meal was well received and I am the type of chef that doesn’t it what they cook because of my crazy eating habits. I made my own meal of halibut and I must say this is the second time I have prepared halibut (the first being at Thanksgiving) and both times the fish was excellent. Last night was no exception and hopefully everyone had a good meal.

I did have a very good time last night and after we sang happy birthday we played my “favorite” (not!!) game of Pictionary. (Incidentally I did make the cake but the children did the icing along with the decorations.) I am not exactly enamored with Pictionary because I am “drawing challenged.” I have been “drawing challenged” since birth and have a difficult time getting my thoughts to come across on paper. Last night we had three separate teams participate in the game; “Mommy’s”, “Daddy’” and the “daughters”. This was the first time the “daughters” participated and I must say both of them at the “old” age of 10 years old draw much better than me but I think my son who is 7 years old draws much better than me as well!!!

I don’t know what happened last night but the “Dads” did prevail and I think I am figuring out my strengths when it comes to this game. I can’t draw worth a damn but in some instance it really isn’t about the drawing but “how” the picture is drawn. I am sure that last sentence makes no sense but there was a moment during the game that my stellar partner actually got the right answer even though I didn’t draw as much as a straight line!!! This seemed to be the turning point and yes, the “Dads” won for I think the second time ever!! I would still prefer to play another game but there aren’t any other games that provide so much levity and the laughs were had all night long.

The great evening had concluded and we all retired at the same time. This morning I was up before everyone and out the door headed to the gym. I had a semi-long run of 16 miles to get through before my son’s flag football game. I got through the 16 mile run and I have less than 1 month to go before the marathon. I am not sure where I stand in my quest to run a marathon in 3 hours and 20 minutes or less. I have wanted to run more than 20 miles but last week my calf prevented me and this week I was only scheduled for the 16 mile run. I have 2 more opportunities to run more than 20 miles in the next 2 weeks so I think I will have a better gauge then. I did feel good and my calf didn’t give me any issues. The blister on the bottom of my foot was another story but I managed to get through and was feeling good at the end of the run.

The running session had concluded and I made my way home since we had our son’s flag football game to attend. I love watching both of my children in their respective endeavors. My son is fairly advanced for his age when it comes to sports and he is advanced when it comes to flag football. The coach discovered that it was better to have my son catch the ball rather than to throw the ball. At my son’s age (7) there aren’t many other children who can actually catch the ball and throw in the fact that my son really loves to catch the ball it is a natural fit. Unfortunately for my son and his team they all had a very bad game. They were trounced 33-0 as the other team kept scoring touchdown after touchdown. My son continues to have a great attitude and he is so focused when he is playing. I was watching him during practice and he was in the “zone” concentrating on the tasks at hand.

There were several other children on his team that were content with just fooling around but I could just see that my son didn’t want any part of this fooling around. He had come to play football and he was certainly doing his best. I have no idea what the future holds for my son when it comes to playing sports but he is building a very good base to draw upon. He didn’t seem to mind that his team lost because he did have fun. He is still waiting for his first touchdown and first interception. I do have a feeling this will come and they will come very soon because he is doing his best. It was a wonderful day on the football field in spite of the score.