My employer, Shared Marketing Services, Inc., sponsored a group of us in the 2004 Race Judicata, a co-ed/team 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) walk/run competition, put on by the Chicago Volunteer Legal Services Foundation. All that really means is that they paid our registration fee for us, there was a monetary incentive for us to place in the top 2 (which we didn't :), and the company prez, Rick, showed up to cheer for us! Young's cousin Charlie took a few pictures, but not many. There may be a couple more added later. Fun time! Unfortunate that a couple of the girls we had been training with couldn't run with us - Luann had just switched jobs, and Lisa's foot was acting up - but the group that did run had an awesome time - though painful, of course! :)
Friday during the day I had very little planned for the evening. I expected to go to the Havard's to jog with Robert-Michael and make some final arrangements for dog-sitting for them. I also made some last-minute plans to briefly join a group of friend's celebrating Allison's birthday, who I've gotten to know recently through a Lenten faith-sharing group. They intended to continue the celebrations later into the evening watching basketball, but I had a number of missed calls from Charles, so I ducked out halfway through. I'm also not much of a March Madness fan, which I know is blasphemy. :) Charles is a neighbor of mine with no steady employment who bikes around the neighborhood and near Notre Dame asking people for money and collecting cans and any scrap items he can recycle or pawn. When I first met him, he readily accepted prayers from me and a few friends, and told us how important smiling is as we parted ways. I've never given him money in the num