Click here if you are unable to see the video.

PS- A nerdy side note: This video was shot on my new iPhone 4, edited together very quickly with the ReelDirector App, and uploaded to Youtube directly from ReelDirector. Look for more of these in the near future, hopefully I can get more complicated with them and have them be slightly more interesting than a sleeping baby.

First, we found the tongue ejection button on Cole:

Then we tried to rot his brain with our iPad and the Uzu app.

So far, Cole has survived these early tribulations, and thrives as the most popular thing ever to hit Colombia (Or so you would think by the reactions of women, children, and the occasional street dog.)

Trying to get really good video of this kid is like trying to get footage of Sasquach. Or Al Gore being charismatic. Cole is typically mesmerized by the camera, he will just stop what he’s doing and watch it, halting all screeching, pterodactyl-like laughter dead. I swear I will get good footage of this one in a laugh. It’s gonna happen.

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The days are long, but the months truly are short.

Kiddo just upgraded to a larger size diaper, now he looks smaller in relation but I AM NOT FOOLED. Or more properly, my back is not fooled.

Also, he has a drinking problem. Here he is after a bender:

Lastly! A homemade afghan came in the mail from my Aunt! It was a great piece, seems warm and comfortable. I am green with envy over it.

I hope you have gotten a kick out of this whole deal. I know it has been really fun and rewarding to work so hard towards something. I just hope I do you all, and myself, proud.

Click here if you are unable to view the video. You know you want to. Bam Magera makes a special appearance!

There was a rumor that the race would be streamed online. I cannot confirm if this is a thing that is actually going to happen or not. If there is news about this, it hopefully would be posted on the race’s main page – http://www.toughguy.co.uk. To watch it live, most of you will have to get up damn early, 6am EST and 3am PST. There are 6000 participants, so the likelyhood of actually seeing me (assuming they do stream the race) is VERY slim, and I have no real idea what sort of quality they will put out, but if you are curious, check out the site to see if they put the stream up. I am not holding out much hope for it this late in the game.

It’s happening, people! Want to donate? I’ll draw you a portrait for your troubles!

This is the last time I will be asking for these donations or offering portraits at these rates.

What a surprise this town has been! I have to admit, this might be the most charmed I have been by any place yet. I could almost literally point the camera at anything and get a decent photo out of it. (Which is saying something, as I am a perfectly terrible photographer. My creativity does not extend to cameras or camera related equipment). Maybe because I had no expectations going in, or you know, possibly because I took a two hour spa session at the Thermae Bath Spa (The scented steam rooms were fantastic). But really, it is the most consistent town I have been too yet, evenly beautiful pretty much everywhere in the main part of the city, which is small enough to not overwhelm me.

The aesthetic is likely by design. Surely everyone there works quite hard to maintain the look they have going, but what can I say? I am a sucker for whatever it is they have going on in Bath. As a friend said correctly it was “very British.”

As I type this, I am on my way into London/Paddington, where I will meet up with some people I think I only know loosely through a message board I lurk in but don’t do much posting. It could be a quiet night, it could kill my liver, I have no way of knowing, but I think I will not be trying to write about it immediately afterwards regardless, so my “bath in Bath” is what you get for today.

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It’s happening, people! Want to donate? I’ll draw you a portrait for your troubles!

Turns out, it was a 5:50am to Crewe. Undaunted, I waited patiently for the 8am train in the cold, listening to Hanz Zimmer’s score for the boxing show “The Contender” and visualizing myself finishing Sunday’s race.

The train arrives, and what do you know? It’s a Virgin train. Swanky, roomy and with free wifi at a respectable speed! I am spoiled forever. I’m sending out tweets, catching up with the wife, working on the previous day’s video, enjoying the stunning midlands scenery, seemingly plucked from the minds of virtually all of my favorite fantasy novelists, life is good.

All of a sudden, it’s my stop! I say a hasty goodbye, grab up all my belongings, not thinking there was time to put them away before the train pulled out. A few minutes later I was boarding my next train. One that was hilariously opposite to the Virgin train in every way. No wifi, but that was expected. Oh, and no outlet to plug into. This was also not a deal breaking problem by any means. But the windows, they were quite dirty. And I am not sure how well I can enjoy the countryside in Wales through a layer of grime.

I get out at Shrewsbury and head to the information office to ask what platform I need for Swansea. The agent pointed at the train I had just left. “That one there. Err, the next one is in an hour.”

Awesome. Well, maybe the next train will be cleaner. Where the hell am I? Shrewsbury? I took a walk around, but it was rainy and there wasn’t much to do unless you are shopping. It is a pretty town though, great Tudors architecture along much of the downtown streets, and is apparently the birthplace of Charles Darwin. So that was interesting.

Back on the next train, and thankfully it is much more clean, but after a long ride, nearly to Swansea, I realize this isn’t doing it for me. I am nodding off, don’t have anything else productive to do, and I just feel like heading to Bath, where I had been considering spending a couple of hours at a spa. A “Bath in Bath” I thought would be great fun. So at Cardiff, I hop out and turn around for Bath, which, as many of these places have been so far, is far more striking than I expected. I have a lazy day tomorrow and have to make it into London in the late afternoon, so I think I will do the spa tomorrow in the AM.

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After this was taken, the camera stopped working for the rest of the day. It was a banner day all around.

It’s happening, people! Want to donate? I’ll draw you a portrait for your troubles!