so I am currently in Vancouver, British Columbia at the Sylvia Hotel. It's sweet because its right outside of stanley park and i am going to get up in the morning to run through the park along the ocean. i have already seen like a gazillion runners today, which is very exciting. this morning i ran in Hope, which is where the movie rambo (spelling?) was filmed, but unfortunately i havn't actually seen the movie so it wasn't that exciting. i tried to find a track in the town but was very unsuccessful. i did get to go down a fire pole though. anyway, i hope you all are having fun running at pig farm. and you should tell everyone who ran in cfalls congrats...and tell clare that she is amazing. my hero. hehe. happy spring break!

Janna and Jacob, First of all. I'm envious. Stanley park is an great place to run. The trails can go forever. Be sure to look for the sun, and keep your eyes open. If I remember there can be some squirrely trails in the center of the park. As far a Manhattan and Cooper Union. Clare is going to be running in Central Park, which has to be within 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile from downtown Manhattan. It's kind of a weird fate kind of thing. Now I'm just trying to figure out the Canadian twist to the whole fate thing. Have fun. And stay out of the riptides. Bill

pretty much just running and homework for me! fun , huh! anyways, i better go start on my awful homework! Loni

just got back from california today. It was really fun... I actually got to relax for once. We went to san francisco on thursday, and walked around all day. None of the parents came, which was nice, so we got to do whatever we wanted. My girl cousins went shopping, and the rest of us went into china town and looked around for quite a while. I was looking for some good tea, which is impossible to get around here, so i went into this little tea shop that advertised free samples. As soon as we went in, this old Chinese guy came up to us and demanded that we all sit down (he wasn't just being polite... he actually was quite forceful). There were five of us there, and we all sat down at the long bar that went the length of the shop. He turned out to be a really cool guy. He made us call him "Uncle Gee", because he claimed to be 75 years old. I didn't believe him. He looked 40. I guess that says something about the power of tea. Anyway, he started making us different kinds of tea, and we all sat around for over an hour just tasting teas. It was actually really interesting. and it worked, because all of us ended up buying quite a bit of tea from him. And his tea was not cheep (one of them was $115/lb). after that we walked down height street, which was an interesting experience. I've actually been there about a year ago (during last spring break), but I didn't really get to see anything last time. my car had just been towed, and I was trying to find the bus schedule so i could get to the impound before it closed. Other than san francisco, the trip was pretty straight forward. We didn't really go out to eat or anything, which is too bad since there are some really good restaurants there. On tuesday we went to the coast and stayed there for a couple of hours. It was in the 70's the whole time, but there was a cold breeze, so it wasn't really the weather to go swimming. Instead, I just sat around in the sun and got a terrific sunburn. There was a really cool area where I could have run if I was able. It was a huge park that went up into the hills that surround the bay area. The first couple of miles wouldn't have been too fun, since they were crowded with people, but after that, it would have been really cool. It went up a fairly steep trail that was shaded by ancient trees all around. most of the trees were "bay trees", (the same type of plant that produces the bay leaves that you use for cooking. except you wouldn't want to eat these ones.) and there were some pine trees as well. At the top, you could see the entire bay area since it was one of the highest points in the area. It was also surprisingly clear... no smog or haze. On the way back down, the trail followed the path of a small creek that slowly wound down the mountain (or hill, depending on how you look at it). The trail had lots of little bridges and walls... it would have been very cool to run on. The only downfall was that there was poison oak all over, so you had to be really careful not to go through it. Oh, and i lost my ipod on the flight out, which really annoyed me. So that's pretty much it. I expect a full report from everyone else now. -Jacob

I have to ask... What is sea lice? Is that like swimmer's itch? I've never had it, but my brother did, and it didn't look fun. too bad about the sinus infection... I'm sure the plane ride didn't help too much. I had a cold when I was flying once, and I couldn't hear for two weeks afterward. I was never able to pop my ears, so it felt like my head was going to explode the whole time. I spent most of the trip with my fingers in my ears, trying to even out the pressure. It didn't work. Hopefully I'll be able to run this week... my knee has felt good all week, so things are looking good. We'll see on monday...

well, I read about a lot of the injuries, but I cannot say that it's the most thrilling book that I've ever read... It's a bit dry. I'll go through it again tonight to see if there's anything else that catches my eye. Like i said before, my knee has been feeling really good all week... I haven't run on it for over two weeks now, so it should be getting better at this point. I purposefully left all of my running stuff at school so that I wouldn't be tempted to go out and test it... It was tough to not run while in California, but fortunately, I only had crocs with me, which aren't the greatest running shoes. Anyway, I'm looking forward to trying it out again tomorrow. I'm sure I won't be able to run at the meet on tuesday, since I won't have enough practices, but will I be able to run on saturday?