Here's Lookin' At You, Kid

Just sitting back and relaxing today after a busy Saturday. It started off with the combined 5th birthday bash for Lily and her buddy Connor. It was controlled chaos, but went off great. The kids had a blast and I once again avoided serious injury while helping hold the pinata aloft. One of these days I'm going to take one in the stones. Afterward, we went to Hannah's last indoor soccer game of the winter. With her Uncle Matt, Aunt Tricia and cousins in attendance, Hannah had a hell of a game. She scored a goal, played some solid defense, crashed headfirst into the boards (none the worse for wear), and played some terrific goal. We're still trying to figure out what's happening for the spring outdoor season. Looks like our fall team was split up and I'm not coaching anymore, but I'm not quite sure which team Hannah's on yet.

After soccer, Matt and I came home while the team went out for pizza and went out on our respective long runs. He did 12 and I did 20 in exactly three hours. The good news is I felt really strong throughout, even in the last stretch when I normally start really dragging. It was in the mid-30s out, but I ran in shorts anyway and just felt like I had a lot of energy. My shin and my super-tight IT band didn't bother me at all, and I even felt good afterward. It was very encouraging as I head into the last month of training. Next Sunday, I plan to drive into Newton to run the hills of the Boston Marathon course. I'm going to park at BC at the end of the hills and run them backwards into Wellesley and then go back up the regular way. Should end up being 10 or 11 pretty hard miles. After that, I have one last 18-miler and then wind it down to 10-13 before marathon weekend.

It looks to be a crazy week ahead. My brother will be in town for a rare visit on Tuesday as he's got some work in the Boston area, so it'll be good to hang out with him for a few days. And then my mom flies back from India at the end of the week, so I'll be picking her up at the airport Friday. Then I'm hosting my fantasy baseball draft here on Saturday morning, followed by the running of the hills Sunday and a trip to take the girls to see their grandmother.

Check the bracket:

• Sad news from the hockey world: Walt Poddubny, former NHLer and member of the hockey All-Name Team, died this weekend at the age of 49. I remember him as a good player on some of those awful Maple Leafs teams of the mid-80s.
• I spent much of the weekend watching March Madness games. So far, I've still got all my Final Four picks alive: Memphis (who I picked to win), Villanova (finals), Oklahoma and Kansas. Let me say that I know absolutely jack squat about college hoops and made my picks in about five minutes Thursday morning. But it's fun to watch the games. There was some great OT games happening simultaneously Friday night that ended with Siena winning (yay) and Florida State losing (boo).
• Meanwhile, college hockey is moving into its tournament starting next weekend. BU beat UMass-Lowell, 1-0, last night to win the Hockey East title. BU is the number one seed in the whole tournament of 16 and will play Ohio State next Saturday in Manchester, NH. UNH got an at-large bid and plays North Dakota at 2 p.m. Saturday, so hopefully they'll knock off ND and do some damage.
• If you're the parent of a girl, you're probably very familiar with Dora the Explorer, the Nick Jr. cartoon character who's a huge hit with the young'uns. Apparently, folks were getting all worked up because it appeared a new "sexier" version of Dora was about to come out, but it turns out the older Dora is pretty benign-looking. No worries: You can always vent about those slutty Bratz girls.