golf cart update

I added a back seat to the golf cart a few weeks ago. We now have enough room for 4 or 5 people. The seatbelts were delivered so that is the next thing that I will add.


We took the golf cart to the park and it was very popular. All the kids wanted to play on it which was ok but I didn't give any kids a ride because of the liability. -Bill

Emma the Texan

Emma was home Monday and Tuesday with a fever, which meant we watched a lot of TV together. Meaning, a whole lot of Spongebob Squarepants. Sandy, the squirrel on the show, for those of you not familar with SbSp, is from Texas and lives in the ocean - don't ask me how. Well, after a day of Spongebob, when Lauren and Bill got home from school/work, Emma greeted them with a loud "Howdy Y'all" - I laughed so loud. That's my Texas girl.

Yes...I did it!

After months of training, the half-marathon finally happened! My goal was just to finish, preferably before the 4 hour race limit. I was shocked when I crossed the finish line with an official time of 02:19:03!! I couldn't believe I ran 13.1 miles, let alone run it at an average pace of 10:30 minutes/mile. My best friend Heidi came in from Seattle to run the race, and she set the pace for the first half of the race, pushing me and encouraging me to keep going. We got mixed up in a chaotic water station at the half way point, and so we split and met back up at the end of the race. She had an impressive time of 02:07:08. This was both a first time race for us - I am so glad that I did it.

It's the Final Countdown...in more ways than 1

In less than 48 hours, I will have run more distance in one period than ever before. This is from a girl who despised running, who up until training remembers the distinct moment when Coach Donley forced me to run the quarter mile in high school track, thinking that would be the death of me. And now, I loosely utter the words "I ran 5 this morning", not thinking much at all about what I just said. I may be obsessing over this slightly, but I never thought I would make it this far, or anticipate that I would show up on Sunday morning. Thankfully, I had my partner in crime, my best friend Heidi, join me in this adventure, which kept me honest and running. I can't wait to see that finish line.
We have another countdown occurring at the Clark household. Emma has gone 1 week at school with no potty accidents. This, too, has become a slight obsession. Emma has had #1 mastered for some time, but had no interest in using the school bathroom for #2 - yippee for us and laundry :-) Well, she has come home everyday in the same outfit and her teachers are giving her so much praise, that she is so proud of herself. She shows me her daily sheet and points to all "P" notes - which means sent to the potty and SUCCESS. She even gets smiley faces when it's #2. Isn't life grand at 2 years old?!?
And I don't want to leave out Lauren. She is working on her addition tables at school. Brilliant. She brings home papers where she writes in the number in each square and what they equal. 1 + 3 = 4, and all that good stuff. She's also learning about fractions -two halves make a whole, three thirds make a whole, etc.

New Car...

I have been looking for a car since Saturday and it is never a fun ordeal. I finally picked one that I liked and negotiated a good deal. It is a used 2007 Nissan Altima. I did get a 7 year warranty on it so I don't have to worry about any more car issues for a while. I coolest thing about the car is that you don't have to use the key to start it. As long as you have it in your pocket the car will start. -Bill

13 days until 13 miles

13 days and counting until the 3M half marathon. I can't believe it is almost here. I look at the race map everyday, since I have it posted in my office, and I am still amazed that I will run 13.1 miles. I've been running in the neighborhood most days, with a recent run of 7 miles under my belt. I plan to run another long run this weekend, then smaller runs next week in anticipation for race day. If you look at this picture, I start at the top and run south, following the yellow line.

Our new boat.

We are now proud owners of a boat. Well not only 1 boat but 20. We are part of the Volente boat club. It give us access to 20 boats that range from a fishing boat, a sailboat, pontoon boats, bow riders and even wake board boats. All we have to do in set up a reservation and then we can have the boat from 8-1 am or 2-8 pm.

If you are planning on visiting let us know and we will make sure to reserve a boat so we can take you out on Lake Travis.

Bye Trailblazer. Thanks craigslist

After almost 8 good years the Trailblazer is gone. It was making a funny noise in the rear of the car and when I took it to the shop they said it would be $1,800 to fix it. Since it had 100K miles and was maybe at best worth $3,000 I said it was time to go.

Saturday morning at 11:30 they called to tell me the bad news. I told them to put it back together and I was coming to pick it up. At 12:30 I put an ad on craigslist to sell the car stating that there was hail damage, a strange noise in the back and it had 100K miles. Within 5 minutes, 2 people e-mailed me wanting to buy it. I picked it up from the shop at 2:00, came home and washed it and it was sold and out of the driveway by 4:00.

It was a little faster than I anticipated and now my only mode of transportation is a golf cart. Luckily Jessica and I can carpool until I buy something lightly used and inexpensive. -Bill

New Dice

I have my first new accessory for the golf cart. A pair of dice! My neighbor Geoff brought them over. Today Lauren and I did our first work on the cart. We installed a speed chip that makes it go 5 mph faster. It only cost $5 on ebay. what a deal. Next will be a rear seat that should come sometime next week -Bill

The New Golf Cart!!

Here are some pictures of our new golf cart. We just had it delivered today. The girls were very excited and so was I. We drove it all around the neighborhood and also went off-roading at the park which was the girls favorite part. Thanks to craigslist and ebay and the fact that people love to buy junk from other people. Without that I would have never been able to buy this. -Bill