Another JAM-PACKED weekend... with more Santa!

Saturday was Toys For Tots drive at the station and the morning crew was there early for the cold shift in the morning.  It was 20 when we showed up and 30 when we left, but thankfully sunny with very little wind... But that is getting a little ahead of myself...

I knew the weekend was going to be packed, so I had to get my long run, 15 miles, in on Friday.  So I changed at work and ran to Summer's preschool. Dawn came and picked both of us up.  It was chilly with temps in the lower 40s and a stiff headwind.  But got it done and then time to get the weekend started.

Friday night I took Dawn out for her birthday.  It has been a tradition to go to The Elevator. I started taking her there back in 2007.

Saturday was the Toys For Tots drive and Summer got to meet Santa again! If you missed the last blog entry where we met Santa (and Evan got VERY upset) just click here. Lots of fun at the Toys for Tots drive.  Summer picked out some toys to donate as well and a HUGE thank you to everyone who came out and donated.  I was at the station while Dawn and the kids went to breakfast.

After breakfast I helped Summer her advent calendar at Home Depot.  This was our first Saturday craft building and it was so much fun.  Then Dawn took the kids to her friend's house for cooking making while I got busy in the kitchen myself.

I had a big order for Balm By Buck and I needed to make hundreds of lip balms: vanilla and mint.

Then I had to make a bunch of the hair/skin balm tins.  I LOVE cooking all the beeswax because the house has this sweet honey smell.  This is what they look like after I make my blend of balm and it is still hot.

Then the waiting process of them cooling. 

Sunday was packaging holiday boxes and restocking the website.  I accidentally made a mistake and I made the lip balm recipe waaaaay to large, so for the next two weeks I am including some bonus lip balm in orders for $10 or more. Feel free to stop by BalmByBuck.com to check out the options! All said and done, I spent about 20 hours on this order and it turned out fantastic!

Grab the coat! It is going to be cold all day long with high temps in the lower 30s and wind chills in the teens and 20s all day long. We will see a lot of sunshine with just a few passing afternoon clouds. Mostly clear tonight with patchy frost and low temps in the teens. We will see a few more clouds on Thursday with highs in the upper 30s. We warm even more on Friday with highs in the mid 40s and mostly cloudy skies. A few rain showers may sneak in here Friday evening, but most of us will stay dry until the weekend. Rain showers likely for Saturday then falling temps and the chance of some snow mixing into the rain later in the day. Cold and cloudy on Sunday with highs in the upper 30s. We have an approaching low pressure system for Monday and Tuesday and the track will determine our temps and ultimately the type of precip. If the storm tracks south then it would mean more snow for Central Ohio because will stay on the cold side of the storm. If the storm tracks north then we will see temps surge and we will see rain followed by some light snow. Timing is coming into better agreement, still not great, but this looks like mainly a Monday PM and Tuesday AM system. Stay tuned because it is still too early to dive into specifics. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

We met Santa! Quick Thanksgiving recap & look ahead...

We went to meet Santa last night!  Summer had this magical sparkle in her eye when she spotted him.  I got a short video of it and I want to hold on to that video forever.  She just starts pointing to him and saying "Look!" and it was so magical.  Evan was not as excited, but once we got a family shot then he was fine sitting on Dawn's lap instead. But before we get to Christmas...

A quick trip back to Thanksgiving.  We had both sides of the family together at my mom's house.  Here is a photo of the cousin's on my mom's side of the family that came back.  We had a total of 42 people... so you have to feed them and my mom made EVERYTHING.  It was so good. 

This is most of the main course.  A couple of the smaller dishes had back-ups to put out once one plate would run out.  My mom is amazing.  I have no idea how she managed to get it all perfectly hot at the right time.  

Our dessert plates are just as large as the main course plates, so there is a lot of dessert.  Cherry pie and black raspberry cobbler were my favorites. 

So naturally... I had to run it all off...I worked Thursday and Friday morning then we drove up to Cleveland to Dawn's parents.  The kids didn't nap in the car so while they took an afternoon nap I went out for a run and found a really nice bridle trail.  Pretty flat, but I want to go back and run the hilly sections more often.  Despite the recent rains it was not too muddy and I actually ran the whole thing in my road shoes: Altra Duos.

Finding a restroom along the trail is ALWAYS a plus! 

Saturday was THE Game against the team up north.  So we geared up for the game.

Lots of smiles and cheers with a win for Ohio State.  

We went out and looked at the holiday lights, but MAN it was chilly.  Fun trip up to Cleveland and we also got to enjoy some leftovers. Candied yams were just as good, if not better, reheated.

Here is a fun GIF of the kids and Dawn last night just after seeing Santa.  Love these three so much.  This is a very busy time of the year and I love capturing moments like this because they will be so big and grown up in a matter of no time...

Speaking of no time... Sunset keeps getting earlier and earlier.  I know some people want to make Daylight Saving Time a regular thing year-round, but that, IN MY OPINION, is a waste of time and resources of our politicians. If we decided to keep DST year-round(a new push from some legislators) then that means the sunrise today would go from 7:38AM and sunset would be 8:38AM.  Sure, the sunset would be 6:06PM.  In a couple weeks then the sunrise would be nearly 9AM...  Adjusting the time of sunrise/sunset will not extend the amount of daylight. Rant over.

More sun on the way for your Thursday! Grab the shades and the warm jacket today because our temps will start in the mid 30s and warm into the mid 40s with lighter winds with sunshine and a few clouds early and later today. More clouds tonight with lows in the mid-lower 30s. A few showers possible early Friday, mainly south, then slowly decreasing clouds through the second half of the day with highs in the mid 40s. More sun on Saturday with highs around 40. Clouds return on Sunday with a slight chance for a few spotty showers. Highs reach into the lower 50s on Sunday and more 50s on Monday, but scattered rain Monday. The cold front bringing the rain will pass during the morning hours on Tuesday. So Tuesday will start damp with mild temps, but falling temps and we will drop into the 30s and eventually 20s through the day Tuesday. As temps fall we could see a little wintry mix. Much colder Wednesday with highs in the mid 20s with high pressure trying to bring us some sunshine. Have a good one!
Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Friendsgiving, black raspberry cobbler, helicopters, night runs

First off, Happy Thanksgiving!  I got out for an early morning run today.  Totally overdressed, but with the winds 20-30 mph this morning I figured I would have felt colder.  I have been battling a cold and I feel fantastic, but my voice has sounded not so fantastic.  So I went for a run to hopefully break things up some and power through it. 

We had a Friendsgiving with some of Summer's preschool friends and I made a black raspberry cobbler.  I have just a couple bags of the berries left from the family farm.  Little known fact: we had a sizeable black raspberry farm as kids.  Lots of the work was done as a family and we used the money for family vacation.  

Still needed a little more time... But MAN was it delicious! 

We also put up our Christmas tree.  I told Summer that we could put it up if the living room was clean.  Every year it is the fastest cleaning job you can watch.  Amazing! 

So when I was in college I worked at the Holiday Inn on Lane Avenue.  Some of you may remember it for Hineygate.  It was the HUGE tailgate that the hotel would throw for the home Buckeye football games.  One of our security guards is now the Lieutenant and Unit Commander for the Columbus Police helicopters.  I had not seen Jack since my time at the hotel until we had a 10 year reunion of when the hotel closed and was sold to Ohio State for dorms. We currently live in the flight path of the helicopters  Jack invited me out to the helipad to show the kids helicopters.  We live in the flight path of the helicopters and when they turn around and head back into the city Summer always runs to the window to watch them. We got an awesome tour.  Summer was very shy and nervous at first.  She got to sit in the cockpit of one in the hanger to see how they fly them.  Here is Jack showing here all what all the instruments show for the pilots.

We got to watch them change shifts in the air so one would take off and the next one would land so they are always in the air.  If there was an emergency then they would not be able to get to the scene fast enough if they tried to power up and go, so they are always up when conditions allow them to fly.

Evan went too and he liked watching them fly, but he didn't get quite as excited as Summer.  When we were driving home she said "Oh My Gosh, that was so cool. Day of fun!" HUGE thanks to Jack for inviting us out to check out the eyes in the sky.

Since we are in Thanksgiving it gives a great excuse to have some fun with augmented reality on Good Day Columbus.  Love the turkey dressed up accordingly to the conditions. Get it?

Much quieter weather for your traveling and shopping for Thanksgiving today and Black Friday tomorrow.  Clouds will be hard to part during the next couple of days, so the sunglasses may be needed from time to time, but mostly cloudy skies will dominate the sky.  Winds will be a little breezy early today and then become lighter through the day.  Highs in the mid-lower 40s today and mid 40s tomorrow with light winds for Friday.  Rain returns for Saturday.  Rain will be on and off through the day, but the majority of the day will be wet with a light breeze and highs in the mid 40s.  Rain will continue Saturday night and wrap up early Sunday.  The clouds will break a little midday Sunday then more wintry mix showers possible late Sunday and into Monday.  We will warm up a little midday Sunday, lower 50s, before the colder air pushes in quick for the evening Sunday.  Cooler next week.  Highs near 40 for most of next week with a slight chance of a light wintry mix Monday, dry Tuesday, and a few showers possible Wednesday.  Safe travels and have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Fuzzy Fandango 50k, holiday fun, & Thanksgiving forecast

Finished my first ultra marathon!!! I only took one photo during the event, this one. The race organizers added an extra optional hill. It was called the Cherry on Top. If you ran up the steep hill then you got a free trucker hat. When running up Mike and I noticed a friend, so we conquered the hill with her. We didn’t HAVE to run the hill, but we all did and a nice prize for doing the extra effort.

Fuzzy Fandango 50k, with 5500 feet of vertical gain. My New Year’s resolution was to run an ultra and I finally did it!

Sunday morning I helped emcee the Let Me Run FallFest 5k. So much fun watching these kids run their first 5k.

I love whipping up breakfast in the morning.  I told Dawn that I was going to take a full week off of running so that meant I had time in the morning for a top notch breakfast for the fam.  

Summer and I decorated the house and did a grand illumination to test them out.  The kids loved it!

We had a holiday shoot at work for some commercials this week.  Team photo!

And I took the kids out for some of the fun stuff this time of the year. Yesterday we went to the main library and checked out the trains and read some books.  Then we went out to the airport to watch the planes take off and land, but it was windy and chilly and it started raining so we went home for nap time.

I got a call in the afternoon and came back in to fill in for the dinner time shows.  Fun getting to see the night-side people.  We rarely cross paths.

A little damp to start your Friday, but sunshine breaking through later, so grab the sunglasses.  The early light rain will mainly be for the southern half of Ohio and will continue moving south through the morning hours and clouds doing the same.  So sunshine will try breaking through the clouds through the afternoon with temps staying in the mid 40s all day long with a light northerly breeze. Dry and chilly for Friday night football for the high school playoff games.

We start Saturday dry with even a little sun then clouds start moving in from the south.  Our morning temps will be in the upper 20s, so frost possible in the morning then we warm into the low-mid 40s.  Rain will move in around midday and we will have on and off light rain tomorrow.  The bulk of this rain will be riding up through Eastern Kentucky into West Virginia and Pennsylvania and we will be on the far western edge of the system.  So some scattered rain showers for the afternoon and areas to the north and west that are colder will see a little snow mixing in at times.  A light breeze out of the north as well will make it feel cooler.  So a damp, chilly, and breezy Saturday afternoon. The whole system moves out by Saturday night and then some dry weather will move into the area.

 We then will be dry and chilly on Sunday with highs in the mid 40s and partly cloudy skies.  More sun Monday and warming to 50.  Back into the mid 50s on Tuesday with increasing clouds and rain sneaking in here later Tuesday.  Some scattered showers  possible Wednesday, mainly early.  It will also be windy late Tuesday and Wednesday.  Thanksgiving looks dry with partly cloudy skies and highs in the mid 40s. Great travel weather around the region for a few hundred miles on Thanksgiving. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

So long Halloween... Hello November snow!

Thursday could be an interesting day for Central Ohio!  More on this shortly...

Halloween went pretty smoothly for us.  Well... if you like heavy rain all morning then wind chills in the 20s and 40-50 mph wind gusts.  Thankfully it was dry by trick or treat, but boy was it soggy and nasty.  We did do as much trick or treating as we could in the neighborhood before the cold air finally caused Summer to toss in the towel.  We got rid of most of our candy then brought the rest into work to share. 

We dressed up the kids in skeleton pajamas.  Trying to get a good photo of two energetic kids proved to be next to impossible.  This was about as good as we got.  Perhaps we let them eat too much candy. HAHA!

Saturday morning I took part in the second annual GRRR 50k.  A few people ran the whole thing, but since it is the Glade Road Run Relay, we had most people run it as a relay.  

My team was Team BAM: Bridgett, Andrew, and Morgan.  There was no actual baton, but that didn't stop me from finding a stick...

For our team to do a hand-off.  It's a great run.  It is all for fun for our group.  Kinda like an end of the year hoorah.  No medals, no prizes for how fast you go.  We did get some hats though to remember our fun day. 

Remember, remember a wet start to the fifth of November. The morning rain today will be light and move out by lunch. With the leaves on the ground, be careful coming to a stop today because wet leaves will give you less grip on the pavement. The clouds break up this afternoon for some sun and we only warm a few degrees up to 50. Tonight we stay clear and low temps dipping to around 30. We could have some patchy frost and fog forming overnight. Mix of sun & clouds for Wednesday with highs in mid 50s. Wednesday will be the warmest day on the extended forecast. A strong cold front on Thursday passing over Ohio early will result in falling temps and we start with rain in the morning and then transition to snow throughout the day. It will start transitioning to snow in Northern Ohio first and then Central and Southern Ohio through the afternoon and evening. We are still more than 48 hours out, but right now it looks like Northern Ohio could see up to a couple inches of snow. Central Ohio would be mostly rain then switching to some light snow with up to an inch of accumulation. If temps fall faster then it would mean more snow, but if we stay warmer then less snow. Stay tuned and we will update more as we get closer. Much colder for Friday and the weekend. Highs in the upper 30s on then lower 40s for the weekend. Low temps in the 20s for Friday and Saturday morning and then lower 30s for Sunday morning. Another light rain/snow mix possible later Sunday into early Monday. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

Fall fun, pumpkin carving, and wet Halloween...

We got out yesterday for a bike ride.  Evan rode in the pull-behind trailer that I got from a family member.  Summer ended up riding as well and we went out to see a dog park, but sadly only a couple of dogs for us to watch.

The only "long run" I have done since the Columbus Marathon was a 4 mile run on Saturday with Columbus Westside Running Club.  I have a hip/groin/quad strain.  I had it before the marathon, but that aggravated it a little more.  I have the training done, so trying to rest up and lay off the running.  The Fuzzy Fandango is now only a week and a half away, so I want to be as close to 100% for my first 50k (32 miles). 

It is looking wet, chilly, and windy for trick or treat, so we have been doing a couple trunk or treats with the kids so we can get the most out of the holiday.  Woody and Jessie had a great time. 

We had a pumpkin carving contest at work, so I did the script Ohio.  I also did matching pumpkins for the kids.  The big yellow pumpkin that I grew seemed perfect for a big Toy Story logo as well. 

Rain is on the way in, grab the rain gear!  Today we are starting cool, cloudy, and dry, but rain moving into Ohio.  There may be a couple of spotty showers before lunch time, but most of the steady rain will move in for the afternoon and evening. Highs today in the lower 60s.  Tonight we will see some scattered rain possible, but not as consistent as the afternoon today.  Temps do not cool down much and we will see overnight lows in the upper 50s. 

 Halloween will start damp then rain will pick up during the late morning and midday.  Some heavy rain at times and even a few rumbles of thunder possible.  Our cold front looks to swing through during the afternoon.  This will push the steady rain to the east and some hit or miss rain for the rest of the day with quickly falling temps and winds picking up.  By the evening our temps will be falling into the 40s with winds around 15-20 mph and gusts 30+ mph.

So trick or treat looks to be damp, chilly, and windy. The chance of rain during the day goes from 90% midday down to about 40% during trick or treat.

As temps continue to fall into the 30s Thursday night we could see some snow trying to mix into the rain. No accumulations expected. The wintry mix will be gone by daybreak Friday, but still breezy and much colder with lows in the lower 30s and wind chills in the 20s. Friday and the weekend will be chilly with morning temps in the lower 30s and afternoon high temps in the upper 40s. Mix of sun & clouds on Friday and Saturday then more sun by Sunday. We bounce back into the 50s next week. Have a good one!

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael