I spent most of this week at Notre Dame University attending AYOP. AYOP stands for America's Youth on Parade and it is the premiere event for Baton Twirlers and Flag Corps. My daughters were competing in some twirling and some flag corp events. This was a new experience since all of the competitions that I had previously attended were much smaller. There were kids here from all over the country and different parts of Canada.

There were some very talented groups in attendance. The groups ranged from very large to very small and every where in between. With different events every day, it was pretty chaotic most days but the girls had a good time and learned more about an activity that they enjoy.

My wife had to work this week so I was a solo dad at AYOP and that was a challenge. The girls have to have different outfits and hairstyles for their different events. I am very grateful to the mothers of other members of our corp that took pity on me and helped with the girls hair throughout the week. The families in our Corp do a really nice job of helping each other out and I really appreciate their help this week.

My girls are already looking forward to next year.

I have had issues with blisters every year that I walk the 3-Day. Last year in San Diego was my worst and this spring with my new shoes I have been getting some in places I had not previously. I used to use Body Glide on my feet every time I walked but that was not working very well. I must not have been putting enough on because I was still getting blisters. Well I decided to change tactics this past Sunday when I went out and so far the new strategy has been successful. Two walks and no blisters. Even with the 11 Miles on Sunday I was blister free. This time I used a strategy that I had heard others use but had not tried. I spread a generous layer of Vaseline on my feet wherever I knew I got hot spots or blisters. When I felt that it was wearing off, about 6-7 miles, I stopped and re-applied and it worked great so far. It felt a little strange at first when I started out but that did not last. Going to keep doing this all year and see if I can make it through the 3-Day with no blisters this year.

I have wanted to take a look at the iPad since it came out and finally got a chance to take a look at one today. It is an interesting device but I have decided that I will not be getting one. I can't justify having multiple devices with 3G accounts so I will have to stick with my iPhone for now. I am hoping that they will announce new iPhones and tethering this summer and that will make it easier to use my Macbook Pro when I am away from home. There are a couple of places I go with regularity that do not have any WIFI access and that limits what I can do when I am there. I still use my Macbook at my Desk more than away but it is nice to have the ability to take it with me as I go other places.

Training for the 3-Day

Well the weather here in Wisconsin has been pretty hit and miss. We had some very awesome weather and things have kind of gotten cool again so I have not been walking as much. I did get a couple of good 10 Mile walks in the first two weekend of April but have been a little lax since then. I hope to get back to some longer walking this weekend but the weather may not cooperate and it may rain all weekend. We'll have to see what the temp is like. If it's not too cold I will do some training in the rain.

Podcasts

I don't listen to that many Podcasts with any regularity. I used to listen to Geeks and God every week and really looked forward to it but they stopped producing weekly Podcasts last fall as they are working on a new project. I was really surprised to see that there were a couple new podcasts when I checked out the site the other day. The original guys had a special podcast to publicize efforts to get more people so sponsor children through Compassion. They also were announcing that the Geeks and God Podcasts would be back on a Monthly basis with new hosts. The new hosts have all been active members of the Geeks and God Forums and I am really looking forward to checking out their podcasts as I have some spare time this week. Will let you know what I think.

This year I decided that I can't rely on just sending out e-mail to get donations like I have in the past.  I need to branch out a little so I am putting together some 3 Day Business Cards with Donation information on them and I am going to post them on posters in public places that have spaces like Grocery stores and Libraries and maybe some other Businesses.  I just ordered my Business Cards today and am going to work  on my posters this week so that I can get them out in public as soon as the Business Cards arrive.  I have posted a picture of my Business Card Below.  Will post later to let you know how this is working.