Around You

It's a beautiful mornin' ahhh
I think I'll go outside a while
An jus' smile
Just take in some clean fresh air boy
Ain't no sense in stayin' inside
If the weather's fine an' you got the time
It's your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day
Either way
It's a beautiful mornin' ahhh
The Rascals

Unlike the song above the weekend in St George was fairly nasty weather wise with rain and snow and wind. And while I plan to go outside and take a walk this morning I think a beautiful morning is a bit of stretch. It was a pretty chill weekend here in southern Utah. Got to meet the new campers, had to say goodbye to some old favorites and ventured back into the Mormon church for a second week where I did just what I did the week before curse more than your average church goer and shoot more baskets than your average church goer as well.



I am really starting to adore my Saturday mornings here. Not only do I get to miss the stop sign hike that many of the campers do I get to play basketball. And yes my true love is volleyball but make no mistake growing up I was head over heels in love with hoops. A lot of my best youth sport memories came from playing hoops and it's just fun again and we all know Jimmy loves himself some fun.



Speaking of fun and basketball, this pretty much sealed Saturday being as good as it gets for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmmnA8WVqW8

I used to think that St George was pretty much cursed when it came to me watching Terp games but apparently that curse was lifted. Must be all that cleansing in the church gymnasium.

Saturday night was graduation and movie night. The movie was Valentine's Day and while going to a chick flick would have completed my transformation from Friday, I had to put my foot down and say no can do. I do think around 20 people made the trip to the movie. I got a little sidetracked with the campers in this picture and found some live music in town. Now I would love to tell you that I discovered some fabulous new band in Utah but truth is they really sucked. But it was fun to see them, shoot a little pool, and hang with some good friends. And I happen to really like this picture as well.

Today's blog song comes courtesy of of one of my truly best friends in the world and without a doubt my all time favorite teacher, wonderful trivia teammate, and one of the few that shares my passion for college basketball, Paul Schwartz. Of the many wonderful things that have happened to me in the last few years, near the top of the list is reconnecting with Paul, my high school English teacher, after not knowing where the other was for close to 20 years. All this creative blogging I do can be traced to his English teachings. I know he is laughing when he reads that. Just for you Paul. Go Mount St Marys, Go Wisconsin Badgers, and Go Terps!!! And for the record A Girl Like You is my favorite Rascals' tune.

Sunday was as it always is. Hard on me. I did pass on a chance to make a day trip to Vegas with many of the people pictured above. I'm trying to avoid that place on weekends this trip. I took the whole day off from exercising which was needed. My knee really cooperated with me Saturday and feels back to its normal level of slight discomfort and not the uber-post slots hike level. It's all good from a soreness level and no major pains to report. After stop sign I am headed to the big pool in town to work on triathlon swim. Check the course for the bike and run and start to build a transition strategy for the changeovers. Thanks to Tiffany for helping me out here. Not quite ready to rip off 30 miles on the bike, but confident ten miles is coming soon. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and send me some sunshine I am running low. Peace, Jim