tons of stuff.

i've got a lot going on right now so this post will be a hodge-podge of info. ok, the latest on the triathlon...last night i bumped up my 1-mile run to nearly 2 1/2 miles, through a wooded-like area, in the dark, using a headlamp (pat latuso...eat your heart out) following a long way behind my team-mate "bobbie". i think i almost died... and it took me 24 min...but i must say, never in my life, even when i was running in the Air Force, have i run over 2 miles so that was a huge mile-stone in my mind...ok, next topic. tonight i spoke at awards night for HPC baseball, but on the way there I was starving so i took a break from training and purchased a .99 cent dbl cheeseburger from McDonalds driv-thru. when i pulled up to the window to grab the burger, while making the exchange, the window girl (she looked like she was about 12 years old) dropped my burger on the ground. now i was in my jeep, so that's about a 5 foot drop. i opened my door, reached down and grabbed the bag. i looked through the window at the girl as if to say...."so, you wanna offer me another"..she looks at me and says, "oh, do you want a different bag now?" i was like...you know..this is gonna end up in my blog anyway, thanks for the material, no sense in complaining...see ya. last but not least...tonight i spoke at the HPC awards night...let me just tell you...little kids scare the mess out of me. it was great though...but still....other peoples dirty little kids scare me...just kidding..but seriously.

i'm leaving for australia in just 2 days. i am major pumped! for years i have wanted to make to the land down under and i finally have an opportunity. it's a working trip but it's australia just the same.

Pray for Kari, i'm out a week and that baby is riding loooooow

Road to Triathlon

this is my boy always trying to dress like me. it's bad enough he looks just like me but now he's always wanting to dress like me like me as well. i have to admit though, i don't mind one bit. you may ask, "Lance, why are you dressed that way in the first place?" ok, on a more serious note. for a long time i've talked about doing some type of adventure race or triathlon but i've never committed to just do it. not exactly sure why, maybe i didn't think i could finish. anyway, i finally decided to do an adventure race coming up this september...it's sort of like a triathlon except it's running for 5 miles, canoeing for about 4, and biking for 10. i've never done anything quite like this so i've started my training early and i plan on updating the blog on my progress from time to time. here is the first update. tuesday night i ran my first mile. i figured i could run it like i was back in the military so i started with a pretty quick pace. after the first half mile i thought i was going to die. i plopped through the next quarter mile and walked the last portion. i even got passed by a lady walking (she's recovering from having a baby). i finished in just a hair under 16 minutes. pretty terrible considering i used to blaze through a 2-mile race in just over 12 min. this is not going well. anyway, this picture was taken just before my run on thursday night. i was sore and tired but decided to run anyway. only this time i slowed down just a little, stretched a bit longer and paced myself. i ran the entire mile and finished in about 8 1/2 minutes. quite an improvement.

(i'll be updating you all on corporate sponsorship opportunities later)...just let me know if you want your companies name to appear on Team HPC's race gear.

ANNIVERSARY FRIDAY...5 YEARS!!!

we made it...5 years, and almost 3 kids. kari's been awesome, putting up with me, caring for the kids, working part time, and did i mention dealing with me? anyway, this is a special day and i wanted to go over the top. the week started with perfume, a mackin' watch, Mikimoto pearls from Lee Michaels, a dozen roses, and a filet from Flemings (best steak in town...hands down). everything was perfect...i love you kari.


P.S. also here are a few pics from earlier in the day when dave, adam and i crashed the golf tourny.

29...fatter, slower, and weaker!

my 29th birthday has come and gone. and to tell you the truth, it was great. i've never been the type to feel diff because of a birthday or get depressed or sad cause i'm getting older. my depression sets in when i try and do a push up and nearly burst a blood vessel in my forehead...then my elbow locks up and I end up needing some sort of surgery...that's when i feel old. not because of a birthday. it's like i always say, you're not getting older...you're getting fatter, slower, and weaker. anyway, my father-in-law arranged for someone in the NISD to open the police firing range sunday afternoon so we went and shot about 5 or 600 rounds...it was great (i love my glock .45)..then kari made some of lori latuso's famous strawberry cake and we all got fatter. family, friends, food and guns...a perfect redneck birthday.

p.s. this is for all the parents out there. christian is exactly 2 1/2 years old. yesterday, he decided all on his own that he wanted to be potty trained. so...he is now potty trained and we did nothing!

Here are a few pics from my pizza party last friday c/o Colleen.

pppffftttt!!

so you've probably noticed by now that i hate shaving, which is usually why i'm working the scruffy look...plus kari prefers the ole 5 o'clock shadow. for me shaving is like that time of the week when you have to take out the garbage.....simply necessary to keep from building to large a pile of trash. i just don't like it which is why i only shave about once a week and with trimmers (never a blade). however, my disdain for shaving affords me some neat opportunities. about every other week i get bored with the normal accoutrement of scrufffiness that is adorning my face and i decide to get creative. so i usually shave some type of hyper-masculine hyper-redneck flow into my beard which usually has me looking something like a wrestler/p-ville/lost in the 70's/movie star wanna be. i sport it around the house for about an hour or so with a sort of "bout to bust out laughing" type grin until kari gives me the look. of course under my grin i'm trying to convince her that this is my new "look". i then of course go shave it off, fun over. sometimes if i'm feeling really saucey, i'll leave a mustache and wear it to work for a couple hours the next day. but today is different. my birthday is in 2 days and i've been granted 1 more year in my 20's, plus i don't have any important appointments today so i've decided to sport this "Irish immigrant/wrestler" look. and yes, i'm wearing the shirt you think i'm wearing. Now before you judge me and say, "man, he has way too much time on his hands", just stop and think. it's not that i have too much time on my hands, it's that i'm obsessed with sqeezing every ounce of joy possible out of every moment i have. i want you to ask yourself this question..."is it okay to pass gas in public and then find it funny?" of course not! but i'm not going to let that stop me from getting a giggle when i have the good fortune of hearing the sound of someones relief and i definately won't miss an opportunity to stoop to a level that robs me of just a little dignity...reminding me clearly once again, don't take yourself so seriously. Pppfftttt!!!

vitals

ok, so we've had our share of problems with our live webcast as well as our on-demand sermons...and by problems, i mean it hasn't worked at all lately and our entire archive of past sermons somehow disappeared! thank God we kept a back up. so if you've tried to log in lately and been unable to do so, i appologize...but in our defense, the world of web and online-ness is a crazy crazy world and it's confusing(at least it is to me) and a quite unpredictable...in fact, when one thinks of all the steps that a video must go through to end up on your computer( cameras, camera control, switcher, techy-looking tv gear, computer encoder, cat-5 cable, power lines, local hub, more hubs, more power lines, modem, cat 5, router, computer and decoder, ahhhhh bliss, it's on your screen) it's a miracle the blasted video, or internet for that matter ever works at all...i mean Al Gore invented the thing for cryin-out-loud!!! anyway, it's fixed. today, thanks to brother josh, we switched to a company to host our videos called vital stream, a very reputable company and we are expecting significantly less problems...in fact as we speak, it's 10:22pm and fazha is testing the system at his house...should be up and running for wed night service, but definately by the weekend...Praise Him!!! BUT DON'T QUOTE ME!!! as i was writing that, josh chimed in and IT'S WORKING!!! but like i said, don't quote me...the internet is a crazy crazy world. vital stream pwns!!!!