Saturday Marathon

Sniff. Sniff. Ben’s been in Chicago with the orchestra since Thursday. We miss his jokes, his ability to empty the refrigerator in two gulps and most especially his Tarzan calls. And man, the dishes are really piling up in the sink. Hurry home Ben!

Today was the Salt Lake Marathon and it ruled the day. The race literally shuts down the center of the valley as the runners wind their way to the finish line. Hansie’s soccer game was canceled because of it and Xander’s started 1/2 hour late. My father-in-law never could make it through the barricades and declared that the race organizers “should be decapitated!”

Still, I love to see running rule the city for a day. America is so captivated by spectator sports and I like participation!

Xander and I set out early to cheer Erik on. He ran the 1/2 marathon.


Xander at soccer with his good buddy Porter…

We battled still more traffic to get Stefan up to the U. I dropped him off and parked a 1/2 mile away. By the time I reached the building and raced up the stairs I could hear the first strains of his Bach Concerto. I leaned my ear against the door and followed every note; it was fantastic!

Still, Stefan was nervous until they handed out certificates. He took his, dropped his face to the floor and walked off dejectedly. OH NO! I caught up with him and with a twinkle in his eye he handed me his certificate with a perfect score. He deserved it. I’ve never seen Stefan work so hard on one piece.

And then back to his day job as a soccer ref.

Miss Mary and I did errands all afternoon and in an almost inconceivable act of thoughtless cruelty we walked into the house with a cupcake for Mary and neglected to buy one for Gabriel. Sweet Gabe burst into tears, “Did you forget you have a little boy who loves cupcakes?”

Really, I had no choice. As Erik said, it could have been a defining moment of Gabe’s childhood. I buckled Gabe into the car and we fought still more traffic to retrieve the last lion cupcake before the bakery closed. It was so completely worth it.

As I was taking the above photo Erik was gently reminding me that I had, “30 SECONDS TO GET READY OR WE’LL BE LATE AND WE WON’T WIN THE PRIZE!”

Our young and beautiful friends had a “How to Host a Murder Party.” As you can see, we dressed for our parts and had a crazy, silly, delicious evening. All the men are runners(our friend with the pipe ran his first marathon today– he was still feeling a bit ill), so we had to discipline ourselves to concentrate on the mystery and not chat about running all night.

We were all simply despicable characters, but it turned out I was the murderer! Heh, heh, heh, and I look so innocent….