Triathlon Sunday

I heard so many positive comments about my blogs, and specifically about my triathlon workouts I felt inspired this morning. So we took the kids swimming for about 30 minutes or so and then I hit the lap lanes while Bridget stayed with the kids and played. I swam 1500 yards in 24:20, which would be a new personal record but I don't really trust my lap counting. It was particularly questionable considering I had already lost track at 150 yards (3 laps), however I do try to round down to the lower number...for example if I am confused as to if I am at 250 yards or 300, I'll go with the 250. Anyway, so then I helped get the kids all dressed to go home with Bridget and then hit the bike. I was definitely UNINSPIRED on the bike, so I opted for 10 miles instead of 20. I was still on the bike for 29 minutes and 45 seconds, a pretty hearty workout on its own. Then came the big highlight, I ran 3 miles in 25:05 (8:21 per mile)! I felt great on the treadmill, I really considered going for 4 miles but then I thought why push my luck.

Then I came home and ate the remaining sushi we got yesterday. Sydney was very interested in trying some, but I was too hungry and I snarfed it all up. I did tell her that the wasabi was frosting and gave her a pea sized taste. Her eyes got big and she started saying "no, no, no" and then she spit it out on my plate. Then she took off running to her room to get her water glass. I'm not all mean though, I gave her a sucker after she was all calm. A sucker for a sucker I always say!

The Best Damn League Ever

Here are the final standings for the Best Damn League Ever, the fantasy football league I started this season. I mostly put this post up so I would be able to go back and see the final order for next years draft in August....this way I won't lose it!

*1. My team of Whoop Ass 7-7-0 .500 1351 L-2 6 29
*2. Cackalacky Opposums 8-6-0 .571 1389 W-1 1 7
*3. Steel City Maulers 9-5-0 .643 1508 L-1 4 12
*4. Blue Meanies 10-4-0 .714 1518 L-2 2 37
5. Fear Factory 7-7-0 .500 1145 L-3 3 83
6. Horizon Hawks 5-9-0 .357 1140 W-2 7 84
7. The Crazies 4-10-0 .286 1262 W-2 8 31
8. InSane Dominance 6-8-0 .429 1348 W-4 5 21

Best of 2007

Everywhere you turn now you see a best of 2007 list so I created a list of the best blogs on my site. Vote for your favorite by selecting the appropriate month on the right and then searching for the correct date and thus the correct post. Vote and let's see what the best blog entry of 2007 was!

Fantasy Football Finale

Another year of Fantasy football has come to a conclusion. I was in 3 leagues this season, I finished in FIRST place in two of them and 5th place in the other. I won the 2007 Security League Champion, for the second year in a row! That is the league with the people that I used to work with in New York. The Utah Utopia were 13-3 and won a close championship game over the Rochester Warriors 55-33. I also won The Best Damn League Ever, the league that I started with some friends and family. I had a much more nerve wracking experience on the way to the finals in that league. I didn't clinch a playoff spot until the final week of regulation and then I had to beat the #1 team in the league, the Blue Meanies, in the first round and in the finals I had to beat the Cackalacky Opossums...a team I had lost to twice in the regular season. I won the championship game 152 - 91, and finished that season with 9 wins and 7 losses. I was 8-7 in the third league, I made the playoffs but lost in the first round. I did win the 5th place game, but was a little disappointed how that season turned out.

Back to Reality

We are home in SLC now, was a VERY nice trip to Colorado....although it always seems to go by so fast, I can't believe it was nearly a week. Seemed more like 3 days to me. So the Hot water didn't blow up while we were away! The Furnace and most importantly the new thermostat worked perfectly at keeping our house at 50 degrees while we were gone and had it at a nice 65 when we got home last night. So today has been filled with cleaning and putting things away, we just dumped everything in the living room when we got home. The kids have been playing with new toys and I've been trying to sort things. I'm going to go to the rec center today when Bridget gets home from work, the daycare is closed until the 2nd. I think today feels like an elliptical day, although I could swim....Hmmmm what is a guy to do! Well I guess that is about it for now. Thanks to everyone for making our trip so great!

Colorado

Well we are basking in the Colorado happiness! We love it here and am having a great time. Yesterday we went to Dinner and a movie with my college roommate and his wife. We went and saw I am Legend, a movie about a disease that takes over the world and Will Smith fights to find a cure. It was s good movie, just be prepared for zombies, we didn't know about the zombies. It is a good movies as far a s zombie movies go, but when you aren't expecting them and then all of the sudden there they are.....really made for a stressful viewing experience. After the movie we went to Elway's Restaurant. It is a high end steak place owned by John Elway, it was really good...but really pricey!

This morning I went for a 40 minute run around Broomfield, and then when I got back we had Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Melissa. It was great! Kids got a lot of cool toys and we made out like bandits as well! So that was 1 Christmas down, 3 more to go I think! This is going to be a good trip!!!

She's gonna blow!

We had a scare with the hot water heater last night, and it may not be over yet. But let's start at the beginning of the story. About 2 weeks ago I turned up the temperature on the hot water heater because I kept running out of hot water during my showers (I told you I had a problem!). Then we installed the new shower head, and since it uses less water the hot water lasts longer, part of the beauty of it! Anyway, yesterday I went in to turn the temperature back down and noticed a puddle on the floor. I figured it was because I had mucked with the temp and if I turned it back down things would be OK. So I did that and went back a few hours to check on it and all was dry. I figured I would try the pressure release valve to see if it worked and to make sure that there wasn't excess pressure from the raising of the temperature over the past couple of weeks. Well that was my mistake! I flipped the little lever and water started coming out, I flipped it back and it was stuck open! It wasn't gushing, but it was dribbling. Our water heater is at least 12 years old, and every where you look it is rusty and looks like it was the worlds original water heater.

So Bridget and I consulted the water heater experts, Tom and Melissa, and decided that we should maybe go price out a new one just in case this one was about dead (always better to do ahead of time rather than after the basement is flooded!). The experts at Home Depot said a new water heater started at about $300, and install began at $250 but you needed to do 5 things in addition to that $250 including pulling a city permit, installing earthquake straps, installing an expansion chamber, paying for all of the new fittings and flexible connections, and something else. Anyway after all that was said and done it would be closer to $400 to install a $300 water heater.

Faced with that looming expense we decided to at least try the $5 fix and replace the pressure relief valve. This was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. First off I do not own a great pipe wrench that could bite into the pipe that goes from the valve to the ground. I tried and I tried, and I cussed and I cussed. So I went on to plan B, I thought If I could just get the valve off with the pipe attached I would just buy a new pipe and be done with it. Well the pipe was about 4 feet long, and spinning it all the way around wasn't going to happen. So I got my pipe cutter and managed to cut the pipe down to about 2 or 2 and a half feet long. That seemed to be prefect until I started to spin it around, when it got to the top it hit an air duct! So I thought "no big deal I'll just cut the pipe again" well my pipe cutter broke about half way through the new cut! So I went to plan C, I removed the air duct! From there I was able to spin the pipe which was attached to the relief valve and removed it easily and put on the new one lickity split! Reassembling the air duct was painless and it was fixed. The floor was pretty much dry when we went to bed, and was still dry this morning. We are keeping our fingers crossed that all is well in water heater land, but I still think that the whole thing needs to be replaced at some point.

The Eco-Geek strikes again

Well I told you a few blogs ago that I was headed to The Home Depot to buy a new shower head. Well I finally got around to it today and we are all hooked up now and saving water! So we went with a Delta H2Okenitic shower head. I also bought a cool little in line toggle switch that shuts the water off at the shower head, making soaping up (body first, then hair!) guilt free. Anyway, the shower is pretty nice, and at 1.6 gallons per minute there is a noticeable difference in the amount of water being used. The industry standard is 2.5 gallons per minute, and the current lowest flow head is .5 gallons per minute! However we were interested in finding a shower head that didn't force the water out into a "stinging mist" and our new one is pretty good.....for your upper body. I noticed that when I stood at the far end of the tub it was a little misty and a little hard to wash a specific area like your knees or feet, unless you could somehow get them above your head and near the shower head!

So I am encouraging each of you to try a new low flow shower head. I want to see some other low flow shower heads out there and I want each of you to buy one and try it out and write me a review. Earth kudos to the person that gets the low flow head that performs the best! Here are a couple that we should try: the Bricor B100 Max 1 GPM, and the Real Good Shower Head 1.4 GPM.

Perfection

So I am trying to fix one of my vices to help save the planet. I am known for crazy long showers, I am a slow shower person. Something about being in a quiet, peaceful, warm place that...I don't know....makes me not want to get out! Anyway I saw this commercial about conserving water and just how much savings there could be. This type of showering is typically called "Navy Showering" (click to see a nerdy guy demonstrate), I guess it is used on Navy ships that have limited water supplies. So I gave it a shot, first time I got all wet, then shut the water off, and then soaped all up. I ran into a problem though, I shampooed first and then the soap ran into my eyes. So I washed the rest of myself with my eyes shut and stinging with soap. The second day I tried I figured I'd shampoo last, this worked well....but I forgot to wet my shower puff ball thing so I didn't get much lather to work with. The third shower was just right, no soapy eyes and lots of lather. Only problem is that I froze! By the end of my shower my fingernails were purple and I was shivering! I told you I was a shower connoisseur, so I really miss the standing under the hot water for a few minutes and just relaxing. Well, I suppose things will get better as I get used to Navy Showers, hopefully my body will stop resisting it!

Today I am off to The Home Depot to check out their shower heads. I figure if I am going to make this commitment I better go all out, and since we need a new shower head downstairs I'll look for a new water saving head, maybe with an on off button or something. I read a few articles that said they have made big strides in water saving shower heads, no more showers that are fit for misting your houseplants one article said. Anyway, I'll let you know how that turns out!

Having Trouble

I am having trouble with my diet this week, and I don't totally know why. My hunch is that it has to do with Bridget's schedule. This past month has been VERY stressful for our family as Bridget has essentially been non existent. I think the added stress has finally taken it's toll and I've just cracked a little bit. I think Project 1/1/100 may be in doubt, I might need to change it to project 1/30/100, which doesn't have as nice of a ring to it! I'll keep plugging away though, no sense in giving up now!

Funny Traffic Cop

I saw this while I was working out today, it was on CNN and it looked funny. I came home and while I was bored I looked it up and I found it. See it here, it really cracked me up! I could have been a little loopy since I was running on a treadmill though!

Now we are in for it

Aiden is clearly the early riser of our group. He has no problems waking up at 6:30 AM or....EEEK...earlier! Our only piece of mind was that he was locked up in his crib and the worst he could do was yell until I couldn't take it anymore and I dragged my carcass out of bed. Well, he has recently been practicing his best Evel Knievel impression...He was nearly climbing out of his crib and plummeting to the hardwood floors. Obviously Mama wasn't having any of that (I said "let him do it, it will toughen him up"...She said it would put him in a coma...tomato tomaaaato) so we sold the crib last night. My worst nightmare was now a reality, I had dreams that he would be in my room at 4:30 AM waking me up. Well hopefully the first night in his "Big Boy" bed....a.k.a twin mattress on the floor....was an indication that things weren't going to be so bad. He slept until 7:45 this morning! He had a little trouble going to sleep last night, and is currently putting up an epic battle over his nap time....but all in all things went good. We are scouring Craigslist and the classified ads for a more permanent mattress for him as he is currently using our guest roll out bed mattress. We are hopefully going to look at a set tonight, but they have been in storage for a while so we will have to monitor the smell factor closely!

Elfed!

The Browns got Elfed! Visit www.elfyourself.com and then send me a copy and I'll paste it up here for all of our friends to see. It is HILARIOUS! Bridget says she is the spunky elf, and Sydney's just looks freaky cause the face is so perfect. Check us out by clicking here! Might need to do it in Internet Explorer, I couldn't get it work with Firefox.

Frosty the abominable snowman

Check out this snowman I made with Sydney today. He is taller than me! I think he is about 6'5" tall, and I think I got a hernia lifting the middle section into place! Sydney gave up before the first ball was rolled, so it is really my creation. The stove pipe hat, button eyes, carrot nose, corn cob pipe, and red scarf are all from a snowman kit Melissa gave us a couple of years ago when we lived in Rochester. I used rocks for the buttons and pennies for his mouth. I really wanted to take a picture of Sydney next to him, but she kept yelling "Daddy can we go in now I'm frozen!?!"

From Wired Magazine

Star Wars-Obsessed Rocket Geeks Build and Launch an X-Wing Fighter

Mary Jane Irwin 11.27.07 | 12:00 AM

The Force must be strong with these geeks. (It would have to be.) This is an actual, working Star Wars X-Wing, built by the San Diego Tripoli Rocket Association. Of course, in this context "actual" means it exists and "working" means it's able to get off the ground. At 23 feet long, it's impressive but not the kind of craft you'd want to take into battle against a Death Star. Sure, the R2-D2 beeps, but the laser cannons don't work.

Amateur rocketeer Andy Woerner led the 2,500-hour, $7,000 effort to get the thing airborne. His 40-person crew of doctors, mail carriers, construction workers, and other Star Wars obsessives labored without a blueprint, guided mainly by memories of George Lucas' magnum opus, scaled-up measurements taken from a 15-inch model, and their own high midichlorian counts. The biggest challenges: figuring out how to make the hinged wings lock into attack position and ensuring that all four class-M rocket engines would fire at the same time.

They did, but seconds after liftoff the fighter pitched wildly and blew up - just like Red 10. And Red Leader. And Biggs (poor Biggs). The wings, built to the proportions of the model, just couldn't take the force. "We were afraid the wing panels would fold up," Woerner admits. On the bright side, prior to its flight to oblivion, young Rebels got to clamber around the cockpit. "We do this for the kids," Woerner says. Because, you know, it's not like these guys are geeks or anything. By the way, the club's next project: a Klingon D7 Battle cruiser. And if this one blows up, well, that's how the Klingons like to go out, anyway. K'plah!

Strange side effects

Lately I've been noticing some side effects to losing weight, some of them are a little odd and I would have never have expected. Like here is a weird one, the necklace that I have worn for 8 years now, well it hangs lower now. I guess I have lost some neck girth, who would have thought of that? Another odd one, when I shower I now use less soap. That one I guess is sort of a no-brainer, there is less of me to wash....but who ever thinks about that happening. I kept using the same amount of body soap and I was noticing that I had a lot of bubbles left, one day it dawned on me that I could probably use less soap now! Of course there are all of the added health benefits to losing weight, but there are a lot of little things too, and when you figure them out they really make your day! There are a ton of expected things like wearing smaller clothes and feeling more confident, but who would have thought a smaller neck and less soap. Kind of odd, yet fun at the same time!

The Biggest Loser

One of my favorite shows on TV is nearing an end. There is only 2 weeks until the live season finale. The transformations that these contestants have made are really tremendous, if you have not seen the show I would really encourage you to watch the finale in a few weeks. That finale will show tons of before and afters, which are the best part of the show. I believe that the show lasted 16 weeks and some of the contestants are in the 120 pounds lost range. The most I have ever seen in a finale is 214 pounds lost over the course of a season! That is so amazing, but I wonder how they do at keeping the weight off after the show when they need to resume real lives again.

All I know is that when I work out on Wednesday's this show has provided me with a ton of inspiration. I learn cool little diet and exercise tips, and in a way I find myself working harder so that I can look better than the contestants!

Something to look forward to, on New Years Day a new Biggest loser will start....Couples Biggest Loser!

Gearing up

So our holiday season is in full swing. We've got the house decorated with lights, we've got the gingerbread house built and all decorated up, and we even have presents ordered. Well not all of our Christmas shopping is done, but we do have a dent in our lists. Here are some pictures of the gingerbread house and of the Christmas lights. The first picture is of the full light display, the second is of the big light bulb driveway lights.....those are new this season! You can also see a Santa, a Snowman, and Candy Canes in the first picture (they are the blobby things).

Saturday Triathlon

I did a rec center triathlon today. Not that I would have done one outside, but it was snowing like crazy anyway. So I started off with a 1500 yard swim (26:29), and I did that 1 minute faster than last time I timed a 1500! Then I rode the stationary bike for 20 miles, which took a little less than 50 minutes. After that I hopped on a treadmill and did 3 miles in 27:00 even. It was a pretty good triathlon by my standards. There was a guy who was swimming next to me in the pool, he commented that I looked like a great swimmer! He said my stroke was very fluid and smooth, and that I made it look effortless!! He made my day!

Then I came home and shoveled 8 to 10 inches of snow! And it's still coming down!!

You have to see Waitress

Waitress is a new release (Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2008), and I say it is a must see. I don't want to give away the plot, but I thought is was very original, funny, and one of those stories that really draws you in. Jena is a waitress and makes these amazing pies, she names them after different events that are going on in her daily life. Here are some of the best:

—I DON'T WANT EARL'S BABY PIE: Quiche of egg and brie cheese with a smoked ham center.

—I HATE MY HUSBAND PIE: "You take bittersweet chocolate and don't sweeten it. You make it into a pudding and drown it in caramel..."

—I CAN'T HAVE NO AFFAIR BECAUSE IT'S WRONG AND I DON'T WANT EARL TO KILL ME PIE: "Vanilla custard with banana. Hold the banana..."

—PREGNANT MISERABLE SELF-PITYING LOSER PIE: "Lumpy oatmeal with fruitcake mashed in. Flambé of course..."

Anyway, go get it, rent it, watch it enjoy it. When you are done go looking for those recipes, if you find one let me know cause I can't find them! And the really do look good! I think they subliminally planted the idea of pie in my brain, cause tonight I made Bisquick Impossible Pie!!!

Doing something good, squared

So I don't know how I stumble across these sites, but I found another one. This is called Free Rice, it is a vocabulary challenge where each correct response you give donates 20 grains of rice to needy people. So I thought is was sort of a gimmick or something, and I have not researched where the rice really goes or if there is rice going ANYWHERE! All I know is that it was pretty challenging! I just donated 1000 grains of rice and finished with a vocab level of 29. Think it is easy, think you know a lot of big words? Give it a try, regardless of where the rice goes or who pays for it....it is a challenge. I want to hear your scores! Try it here Free Rice

Project 1/1/100 update

Ok, so I was scared to step on the scale this week. So I skipped it. My goal this week is to have a perfect week in terms of eating, hit all of my workouts, and fit in a few yoga workouts in the evenings. So far so good, although it is only Wednesday. Yesterday I swam, I am becoming pretty confident in the pool! Yesterday I swam 100 yards 10 times in a row at 1 minute 40 per 100. The first 3 I swam in 1:30 the rest were all around 1:35. Well #7 was at 1:40 exactly, but I picked it up after that one. I also did some drills and of course warm up and cool down. I turned in a 2000 yard workout in the end! All flip turns as well!!! Today I hit the elliptical machine and busted out 50 minutes. I tried very hard to increase the levels, and all in all I feel like I did really good. Tonight I'll do some yoga, I have a new DVD from the library that focuses on the core (abs and back) as well as some general stretches. I did it the other night and while it wasn't my favorite it did the job. I ordered the killer yoga DVD for my birthday, but I am still waiting for it to show up. It seems like I have found all of the levels of yoga, I tried one from the library that was really relaxing and focused on the stretching, the killer DVD makes me sweat like I just ran a marathon, and the one I currently have is right in the middle. Anyway, project 1/1/100 is back on track and I am hoping for a big week of weight loss! I'll keep my fingers crossed anyway!

Still more turkey

Gettin sick of Turkey yet? I am, I've had some form of turkey for the last 4 days...and more to come today, 5 straight days of turkey. Next time I am going to cook a ham, so I can complain about having too much ham! My sister makes turkey enchiladas with her leftovers and I found a decent looking recipe for it, but it didn't look very healthy with all of the cheese, sour cream, and olives. So I found another recipe for turkey chili, and AMAZINGLY I had all of the ingredients in the house. Well most of them, was missing a can of tomatoes and green chilies. We'll see how it turns out, it is in the crock pot right now. And most importantly...I used all of the turkey! No more turkey leftovers, unless there is leftover chili. Hmmmmm, didn't think of that. Maybe I should look up a recipe for what to do with leftover turkey chili!

Turkey day meltdown

I think I turned into the biggest turkey on Thanksgiving. I ate a sensible dinner, followed by 2 more servings I think. It was bad. Then my sister left town and we had a TON of leftovers. That translated into a big leftover turkey dinner on Friday and another on Saturday. The good news is that I am back on track starting today, mostly because there isn't much left to eat! I fear my goal to lose my 100th pound by new years day is out of reach though, but I am not giving up on it I just need to get to work on it. I'll keep you posted. I have delayed my weigh in by a day to give me a little time to work off some of those feasts. We'll see tomorrow if the goal is still within reach. Anyway, I found this good article about the holiday eating stuff and getting back into the swing of exercising. I like this line the best "This shouldn't come as a surprise: Thanksgiving is not the green light to a six-week indulgence that precedes the waddle back to the gym Jan. 2."

Cold Turkey 6K run

My nephew, Ryan, and I ran in the Cold Turkey 6K run this morning. 6 kilometers is about 3.72 miles. The race started at 10 AM, despite the late start is was still FREEZING! It was about 25 degrees at the start. Ryan is on the cross country team at his high school, and is a very speedy runner. He finished with a time of 25:12, which comes out to 6 minutes 46 seconds per mile! He is supper fast! He finished in 34th place overall out of 792 racers, 29th male, and 6th in his age group. Pretty studly if you ask me. As for me I finished in 33:35 (9 minutes 1 second per mile) which was good for 224th overall, 152nd male, and 27th in my age group.

Unfortunately our turkey wasn't so lucky as to be holding a sign, so we are going to eat him! I did learn a valuable lesson in turkey buying, get one frozen ahead of time. We had to buy a thawed one yesterday and they were 3 times the price! My sister Liz is doing the cooking and later today we are going to stuff our bellies with the typical Thanksgiving feast. Although I'll have this wonderful thought in mind: Between Thanksgiving and New Years day the AVERAGE American gains 7 pounds!

Go Broncos

Hey hey hey, how about them Broncos? That was one of their best games last night. My favorite part was the fact that they didn't even try to get into the red zone so that they could sputter and kick FG's all night. Nope they bypassed all of that with 4 touchdowns of 40+ yards! Their defense appears to be playing better, especially against the run. The Titans have some decent running backs, and to limit them and contain Young to 72 yards is a pretty big improvement. Now, every team left on the schedule is less than .500 which doesn't mean much, but at least we can say the toughest part of the schedule is behind us.

New Thermostat

Yesterday I installed a new digital thermostat in our house. I am excited as it is a nice upgrade over the 40+ year old one that was on the wall. So I figured I would play it safe and kill the power to the furnace, I guess I didn't want to get zapped. Then I went downstairs to get some tools and noticed the smell of natural gas. Of course with the kids in the house I started to panic that I was going to blow up the house. But I figured out that when I shut off the fuse to the furnace the pilot light went out, and when I was reading about how to relight the pilot it said some gas left in the lines might escape and to give it 5 minutes before trying to relight it. So I went back upstairs and installed the thermostat, it was really simple on our house since we don't have air conditioning...heat only was 2 wires to connect. Then I re-lit the pilot light, turned power back on to the furnace and it was up and running. It is pretty cool that you can program the furnace to come on at certain times and then shut off at certain times to cool off the house. The thermostat was programed from the factory with a set up that save an average of 33% on heating bills in a typical house. It drops the temperature down to 60 at night, but warms it back up to 68 at 8 AM when the kids and I usually get up. We'll see how it goes, at least it should give us a little bit of flexibility in our house and hopefully it saves us some energy and money too!

Why can't Santa be Jolly?

I laughed when I read this, is this really what it is coming to? You can't say Merry Christmas anymore. You can't even put up red and green lights anymore, all white ones are now PC but a little racist if you ask me. The city of Ft. Collins isn't even putting up Christmas trees this year, but snowflakes instead. Now Santa can't say "ho-ho-ho" cause he is going to offend every woman within earshot? I think we are taking all of this a little too seriously and it is taking the fun out of Christmas.....Oh, oops.....I mean the Day On Which Some People Choose to Exchange Gifts and Be Merry....you know D.O.N.W.S.P.C.E.G.B.M. Kinda catchy, don't you think? Maybe Festivus is the way to go, and I'll start out with the Airing of Grievances! It's a Festivus MIRACLE!

Ocean's 13

It was great! We both liked it, and if you have seen 11 or 12 I think you would like 13 too. Although, there were parts that really made me want to take a trip to Vegas.....I would be interested to find out how much of the payroll was paid for by Vegas. There is a fictional hotel in the Movie called "The Bank" which gets computerized into the Vegas skyline, it looked so real we had to do an internet search to see if any new hotels had been built on the strip. Anyway, good movie, go rent it!

Movies

We have been on a real hot streak with movies lately. It all started with Mr. Brooks a couple of weeks ago. Kevin Costner plays a creepy killer guy, and does a good job with the role I thought. Then we saw the new animated movie Rattatouille it was actually pretty good. I don't know if it was the best animated movie, but one of the better ones in recent memory. Another animated movie was Meet the Robinsons, great movie for kids and adults. I thought it was original and had a creative storyline that wasn't all cliche. Last night we watched Shrek the Third, and while it was good it wasn't great. Our family watches Shrek 1 and 2 so much that I think the DVD's are starting to get holes warn into them. So we were eagerly awaiting this release, and it really left me thinking it was just so-so. Over the weekend we watched the final 9 episodes of The Sopranos. Bridget and I were in agreement that is was a pretty good ending to the series, easily better then the conclusion to Seinfeld a few years ago. The "ending" for Phil Leotardo was great, but I was disappointed to see Silvio go. I thought the final scene which got so much press was actually pretty cool, I like the many possibilities that the writers let you believe were about to happen.

Tonight we are watching Oceans 13, the Oceans 11 and 12 movies have been one of our favorite movie series. Again, as with Shrek, we have high hopes for this one. I'll let you know what we thought of it.

Why 29 was really #1

My 29th year on this planet was hands down my best year. I started the year "retired" but really came into my own starting last November. I started becoming a regular at the local rec center, so much so that it is almost like Norm from Cheers now. Of course that led to the whole weight loss thing, you know that pesky little 80 pounds that I have lost this year. The kids and I have found a good groove and have been going to weekly playgroups, getting them (and me) out and seeing other people. I have been organizing the run club through Partners in Medicine which has also brought new friendships and a good outlet for some running. Ahhhh running, in August I completed a marathon in Park City. I also competed in 3 triathlons over the summer, the most I have ever ran in one season.

When people tease me about being 30 and now I am an old it doesn't really phase me too much because I don't feel old at all. With all of the weight loss and all of the exercise and races I feel younger than I did at 25. I think the old saying "you are only as old as you feel" is really true. I don't feel old and I feel like I am just entering my prime.

So what can you expect out of me for the 30's? Well first off I want to continue to be the best husband and father I can be. I want to really make strides in my triathlon races, I'd even like to win one here or there. I want to continue to get out there and make new friends and be active in PIM. And I want to be sitting at this computer at 35 and 40 telling you how each year is my new best year. To keep improving upon an improvement sounds like a great goal to me!

Weekend Plans

This is going to be a fun weekend. It is my "birthday weekend" according to Bridget since she has the weekend off and my birthday is on Monday. She is on call on Monday as well so she won't be around for the actual day. So I don't know what she has planned, but usually she leaves it up to me. I might ask her to make me some lasagna and mashed potatoes for Sunday night dinner. On Saturday I'd like to do another triathlon workout like I did last weekend, 1500 yard swim, 20 mile bike, and 3 mile run. Except I'd like to run 5 or 6 miles instead. I was thinking I'd go for a mountain bike ride this afternoon, if I can find a trail. Other than that I don't think there are any big plans. We have a standing invite to a poker game on Saturday night, but the host is making 2 day marinated ribs and I think that might be too much of a temptation since Sunday's are my weigh in day. We'll see, could be fun and last time I played I was so close to getting my money back or actually taking home the pot. We do a $10 buy in and then the 2nd place player gets their money back and the 1st place player gets the rest. I finished in third last time....maybe I should go just to try to redeem myself!

Lance is the man

Lance Armstrong ran the NYC marathon in 2006 and after crossing the finish line said he would NEVER do that again. Despite his team of world class pacers, he still did not enjoy himself. He did however beat his goal of 3 hours (2:59:36) which is just nuts for your first marathon. Well he ran is again on Sunday and finished in 2:46:42, which was barely 40 minutes slower than the overall winner. A lot of people don't know that Lance was a triathlon prodigy when he was a teen, so he had some running in his background. However at 2:46 he is doing 26.2 miles in 6 minutes 20 seconds per mile! That is truly amazing for a non professional racer. I really can't think of anybody else more inspiring, overcoming cancer, 7 consecutive Tour De France victories with out doping, and now he is dating an Olsen twin! What a stud!

Busy Monday!

Lots of posts for you today. I have one about Project 1/1/100, one about the CSU vs. BYU football game, and this one which contains my first attempt at a stop motion video. Stop motion videos are created by taking a bunch of photos of a subject and making small changes in each photo. Then you play them and it makes it look like the subject is moving. Gumby and the California Raisins are prime examples of stop motion animation. Anyway, here you will find Quicksilver breakdancing...and keep in mind I have never tried this before and I didn't even do trial and error on this project, this is literally my very first attempt at this. So the Quicksilver action figure was part of the cake that Karen made me for my Birthday (he was supposed to be superdad, how cool is that!). So here he is dancing......


Give me your reviews, thumbs up or thumbs down. One star or five stars?

CSU vs. BYU game

So at least CSU beat the spread! BYU was favored to win by 21 points and the final score was CSU 16, BYU 35. 19 points, HA take that BYU! We had a great time, our seats were awesome. We were about 5 rows up and right in the corner of the end zone. We had a good time going with our friends Ryan (CSU grad 2002) and Jason and his wife Beata, they are from the East coast but Jason loves Mountain West Football from watching all of the Thursday night games that the conference used to play before they signed on to their own network (Don't get me started). We were nearly the only people tail gaiting in the parking lot, and I'd pretty much promise we were the only ones drinking beer! When we got to our seats we were the only people in Green while the rest of the Stadium was Blue and White. Anyway, here are some pictures from the game.

Project 1/1/100 update

So I am still right on track to lose my 100th pound by Jan. 1st, 2008! I have really been working hard and staying focused, and the results are still showing up on the scale. So I am a mere 20 pounds above my goal, with 8 weeks left to go. I need to maintain about 2.5 pounds per week to hit that mark. Since my marathon I have lost 25 pounds which is hard to believe at times (especially on a Monday after my day off!). On Sunday I weighed less than I did when I graduated college! I constantly worry about hitting a plateau and failing to meet my goal, but at the same time I feel like I keep increasing the intensity of my workouts and maintaining proper caloric intake....hopefully that plateau thing won't happen.

Check out this workout on Saturday. For starters I got up at 5:30 AM to do this, and was one of those sickos who were waiting for the Rec Center to open it's doors at 6:30 AM (I got there at 6:25). So I swam a 1500 straight, no stops, all flip turns in 28 minutes. Then I rode 20 miles on the stationary bike, 59:30. Then I ran 3 miles in 28 minutes, 9:15 per mile. I was originally shooting for 6 miles, but I was pretty beat so I decided on 4. But then I ran into time constraints cause Bridget and I had to drive to Provo, UT for the CSU vs. BYU game. Regardless it was a GREAT workout, and I am happy with my triathlon progress.

Halloween aftermath

Here are some quick pics of the pumpkins. I carved the Frankenstein too early so he was really wilty. You can make out the bat pumpkin that Sydney helped me carve. And the ghost pumpkin was carved on Halloween day, so he was pretty fresh. We also had them lit up with our cool new pumpkin lights in them that change colors from red to blue to green. Pretty cool! I also put a few pictures of our ghost milk cartons. They were inspired from a magazine, and turned out pretty cool. They got a lot of comments.

Cheerleaders make me laugh

This is exactly what not to do as a cheerleader. I think in the cheerleader handbook this is rule number 1, don't run behind the banner when the team is ready to run through it. I love it when they play the hit over and over and over again.

Sports

So the Red Sox won, Yippie. I feel kinda guilty though, it looked like the varsity football team versus the nerds, geeks, dweebs, and lameos from gym class. I feel bad for the Rockies, but at the same time I don't think the Arizona Diamondbacks or the Phillies or even the Padres would have fared any better. The tables might have been turned had the Cleveland Indians finished off the Red Sox, but that just didn't happen.

So the Red Sox Parade is today and I'm sure you are waiting with baited breath to see Johnathon Paplebons dance. He is known for his legendary dances, he did a "Riverdance" type of jig on the infield at Fenway Park after the Sox won the ALCS. There is supposedly going to be a dance stage set up for him, and Josh Beckett said if the Sox won he would join him for the dance. Should be good!

The Broncos have a way of breaking your heart don't they? They get the ball with about 2:30 left in the game and down by 3. They drive all the way down to the 4 yard line and with about 30 seconds left what do they do? They run a QB sneak? What the heck, what gives? Why not try a roll out pass, which the MNF crew said the Packers were giving up a LEAGUE LOW 130 QB passer rating, possibly giving Cutler a clear lane to run it in that way. The Denver offensive line was pushed around all night by the Packers D line, so yeah running right up the gut sure sounds like a good play.

Then, when is the NFL going to do away with it's overtime format and adopt one similar to NCAA football? Overtime was all of 6 seconds with an 82 yard bomb past the badly burned Dre Bly (we paid how much for his "shutdown" services). I don't really know if Denver could have countered with a scoring drive of their own, but it would have been nice to at least let them have a shot at it.

On Saturday Bridget and I are headed to Provo, UT to watch the CSU Rams face the BYU Cougars. I am going to try to find some paper sacks so I can cut eye holes in it. It is going to be ugly, but at least I get to see them play once and a while. Since the Mountain West Conference signed an exclusive TV deal with CSTV and The Mtn. network televised games have been few and FAAAAR between, it really stinks.

Sydney's Knock Knock Joke

This came out of nowhere, but I think the quality really speaks for itself.

Sydney: Knock, knock daddy
Me: Who's there?
Sydney: Chicken poop
Me: Chicken poop who?
Sydney: Chicken's gonna poop on you!

I don't know where she gets it, but she laughed a big deep belly laugh!

Pumpkin Tips

I just took a look at the Pumpkin I carved 3 days ago and it is already starting to wilt away. It probably isn't going to make it to Halloween. I just read this tip on preserving your pumpkins, spray the heck out of it with WD-40. Coats the pumpkin and keeps the moisture in. They also said petroleum jelly would work, but since I hope to go through my life with out coating ANYTHING in petroleum jelly...I think I'll try the WD!

Oh, and of course don't spray the pumpkin when the candle is lit inside it! Bad idea!! I have some cool new LED pumpkin lights, so no need to worry about flammable issues!

100 million bulbs

No, that's not how many bulbs I have planted for spring flowers...that how many Compact Florescent light bulbs have been sold in the US! That is equivalent to taking over 700,000 cars off of the road!

A quick education in light bulb usage. On a recent Mythbusters they tested if it was more efficient to leave your lights on if you were just going to leave the room for a few minutes, or if it was better to turn the lights off after you leave the room every time. A light bulb uses more power to start up than it does to stay lit. So here are some rules to remember-

Standard incandescent: turn off even if you leave the room for just seconds.
Compact fluorescent: turn off if you leave the room for 3 minutes.
Standard fluorescent: turn off if you leave the room for 15 minutes.

While checking into some "green" things I came across this, it's kinda fun. Bubble packaging is not the most environmentally friendly packaging, so this is a way to relive your youth and keep the planet free from bubble wrap. Try it here and be a kid for a few minutes....try the Manic Mode!

Rox vs. Sox

So this is it this is how I feel. I have been doing a lot of soul searching about whom to root for and who I want to win the series. I loved the Rockies when they made their debut in Denver in 1993. I watched diligently as Eric Young hit a lead off home run in their first ever game at the old Mile High Stadium. I followed them in their 1995 season when they went to their first playoff series against Atlanta. I even have a brick outside the stadium across 20th Street that reads "Christopher J Brown, a Devoted Fan." But after I went to college I really stopped following all of baseball. Of course it didn't help that the Rockies were cutting their payroll and finishing with winning percentages below .500 for 6 consecutive seasons (2001 - 2006).

Then along came the Red Sox, while living in Rochester I started rooting for the Sox just to irritate my neighbor who was a die hard Yankees fan. During the summer months I couldn't walk past him without hearing "how bout those Yankees?" Then of course the miracle comeback of 2004 when the Sox were down 3 games to none in the ALCS. They of course made the comeback and won the World Series. In 2005 Bridget, Sydney, Sean, Katy and I went to a game at Fenway Park in Boston. That cemented it for me, I was hooked. I had never seen fans so devoted to baseball every seat was full, the fans chanted in unison, they watched every play and even knew the opposing players names as they chanted "you suck". It was great, then on the way out I stood in line and tried on a replica World Series ring from the previous year, it was awesome. Since then I have been hooked!

So I thought about it this way for the series, my favorite team in all of sports are the Broncos. I'll cheer for them if they are 0-13 or 13-0, doesn't matter to me who they play I always want them to win. They are my team. I have to say that my baseball team is now the Sox, so I really want them to win. Although I want them to have a good 6 or 7 game series, that way they win at Fenway and the Rockies will have won at least 2 games in the series. If the series were between the Rockies and the Indians I'd be pulling for the Rockies 100%, but when you pit them against the Sox I just can't bring myself to root against my team. GO SOX!

Weekend Plans

We have a pretty laid back weekend on tap. We are huge fans of Tim Burton's: A Nightmare Before Christmas which is showing in 3D for a limited 3 week engagement. We are hoping to get a sitter tomorrow night and go see it. On Sunday we are going to a pumpkin carving party! We still need to get our pumpkins, but I think everybody wants to carve one so we'll have to get 4. And as for tonight we are going to watch a movies called The Hoax, with Richard Gear as a writer who makes up his entire story while doing an autobiography on Howard Hughes. We'll see I guess, it looked pretty good.

I must be flipping crazy

I have a breakthrough to announce! It really only means something to those few readers who used to competitively swim, but anyway...I have learned flip turns in the pool! I started working on them about 2 weeks ago and this morning I swam 4x500's all with flip turns. Well I messed up 1 of those turns cause I tried to sneak one more breath in, and was thinking I would crash into the wall if I tried to flip. I think this is a pretty cool accomplishment because I think it is harder to learn as an adult than as a kid. I equate it to being like skiing and learning as an adult vs. as a kid. A kid beginner has no regard for their body, they just go and crash and look half out of control most of the time. Adult beginner skiers ski with caution and prefer to go slow enough so that when they crash it doesn't hurt (or hurt the next morning more importantly!). A kid swimmer flips and swims like a fish, adults worry that they are going to drown themselves and/or snork up a bunch of water. Anyway I am excited because I think it looks a lot less amature in the pool, although I am not totally convinced that I am faster at it than open turns....that will come though. I guess I did time a 100 the other day and I was 3 seconds faster, but that was just one attempt at it and not very scientific.

Next thing you know I'll be sporting a speedo! I know, scary thought!!!

I love Hardees!

Hardees restaurant has tortured us for a few years with menu items like the Monster Thickburger, which weighs in at 1,420-calories and is made up of two 1/3-pound slabs of beef, four strips of bacon, three slices of cheese and mayonnaise on a buttered bun. Because a buttered bun is essential on a sandwich like that, but that is another topic for another day. In an attempt to top themselves and bring their big guns (or bellies) Hardees just released their new breakfast item today. Man it sounds good. Check out the new Country Breakfast Burrito -- two egg omelets filled with bacon, sausage, diced ham, cheddar cheese, hash browns and sausage gravy, all wrapped inside a flour tortilla. The burrito contains 920 calories and 60 grams of fat. And don't worry you can make it a combo with tots and coffee. I love the line in this article that says: "That's all before 10 o'clock in the morning,"......yeah that's because at 11 in the morning the heart attack begins.

Shouldn't there be some form of corporate responsibility in selling foods like this? I thought McDonalds was bad by polluting their salads with bacon and cheese and super fatty salad dressing. I think that these companies should be able to come to a compromise between a food item that will sell to the masses and still be in the ballpark of healthy.

Best cure for TMJ I have ever heard of......

A dentist in California has found a great way to treat TMJ in his patients. He waits until his female patients are under sedation and then he massages their breasts in order to ease the pain. Yeah right buddy, nice try! Needless to say his license has been suspended, which has him crying because how is he supposed to feed his SEVEN children. What a sicko!

Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize today for his efforts to publicize the climate crisis. For those keeping score that is an Oscar for "An Inconvenient Truth", An Emmy for creating Current TV a network devoted to the environment, and now the Nobel Peace Prize. That's pretty amazing stuff for a guy who made his name in politics. The former vice president and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change jointly won the 2007 Peace Prize for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for fighting it. He has announced that he will be donating his portion of the award money to The Alliance, a non-profit group that he founded to help spread the global warming message.

The website Draftgore.com has nearly 200,000 signatures on their petition to get Gore to run for president. The Website also took out a full page ad in The New York Times to bring attention to their cause, see it here(PDF file).

Halloween Costume

So the Votes are in and there is a tie! 2 votes for a policeman and 2 votes for a knight. Who voted for Shrek? Here he is, costume just arrived today:


So the Votes are in and there is a tie! 2 votes for a policeman and 2 votes for a knight. Who voted for Shrek? Here he is, costume just arrived today:

Yoga insanity

So I don't know if I picked a particularly challenging Yoga DVD from the library or what, but this stuff is crazy! So I based my selection off of reading user comments on Amazon.com, and this DVD was geared toward athletes so I thought it was perfect. Basically here is the scenario when I do this workout, I follow along for 9 minutes and then I can no longer even hold myself up anymore and have to stop. I think I may just do a section of the video per day since trying it all leaves me a quivering pile of mush. And who said yoga was relaxing? Oh my gosh no, at least not this DVD! We are going to try a more relaxing yoga next time, not one for athletes or toning or tightening anything....if that is a byproduct, fine but not as a main focus.

Baseball Post

So this has actually turned into a great October of baseball for me. I claim the Red Sox as my favorite team in baseball, and they swept the Angles in their opening round playoff series. They start the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Indians in a few days. But it would be lie if I said I wasn't also following the Rockies. What an amazing streak they are on, winning 17 out of 18 games and in the process sweeping the Phillies out of the first round playoff series. I even read stories in the paper that when the Broncos fell pathetically behind Chargers on Sunday the fans started to yell "Go Rockies"....What? Could this be? Has there been a cataclysmic shift in Denver sports allegiance? I think the Mile High City is pumped to see the Rockies having an impact in October for the first time since 1995. I also think the Arizona Diamondbacks should be very afraid of the Rockies right now. I don't think there will be a sweep in this series, but I really think the Rockies have a shot....that is if they play Rockies baseball of the last 18 games and not Rockies base pall of the prior 15 seasons!

Project 1/1/100 update

So I didn't want you to think that I was not writing about my weight loss goal because I had given up on it or anything. I just didn't want to overdo it and make everyone sick of reading my blog since it is all I ever talk about.

So just as a refresher, Project 1/1/100 is my weight loss goal...to lose my 100th pound by January 1, 2008. I started my weight loss quest in November of 2006. Then I lost 75 pounds by March 2007, I gained 20 of those pounds back during the Marathon training. I found it very difficult to properly nourish myself during that training, anyway that left me 45 pounds to lose before 1/1.

Yesterday was 5 weeks into Project 1/1/100 and I am proud to report that I am down 17 pounds! Leaving me 28 pounds left to go, and 12 weeks to do it in. I just keep working at it, keep chugging away and so far everything seems to be working well. I am trying to keep my exercise varied, I am even going to try some Yoga this week!

Weekend Plans

What's on tap for this weekend you ask? Well not a ton, but we should still have fun.

Tonight we are going to Sydney's friend Michaels 3rd birthday party. Michaels parents, Ryan and Claire, both graduated from CSU and are going with us to the CSU vs. BYU game in November. Ryan is a 1st year resident in pediatrics.

Tomorrow we would like to finish planting bulbs in our backyard gardens, but the weather may not cooperate with that as it is supposed to rain all day. We are also going to go to the Children's Museum, they have a new exhibit with robots!

And on Sunday we are going to try our hand at Melissa's Indian Chicken recipe. We are also going to watch the Broncos, hopefully they will have some better results than they have in the past few weeks!

Hope your weekend is going to be as good as ours, let us know what you have planned for the weekend.

Poll

I felt like doing a poll today on my blog, I just don't know what for? Initailly I was thinking about one on the Broncos, but I am still too worked up over their 2 recent losses to get anything constructive out. Then I thought about baseball, seeing as how the Rockies are really making waves....but I don't really know if that makes for an interesting poll. I try my best to stay away from politics so that is a no go. Compost doesn't work very well for a poll, unless the topic was will it compost....still not very exciting. Weight loss and exercise is a tough one to make a poll on as well. Just not a ton of ideas going through my head today I guess. I just got one, it may not be strong....but it is something. Since I just ordered Aiden's halloween costume today, let see how well the readers know our line of thinking in halloween costumes.

Brain Eating Amoeba

Just when you thought it was safe to swim in a lake up to your nose. Along comes a brain eating amoeba that goes in through your nose and eats your brain. How crazy is that? Here is the article. I guess it attacks boys more than girls, and young rather than old. It really sounds like science fiction, but it is real....scary stuff.

Operation Can Scam

Straight out of Seinfeld circa 1996, a smuggling ring was busted in Michigan for taking pop cans from Ohio and cashing them in. When they were busted they had over $500,000 in their possession! I guess it was actually some retailers in Ohio who could take cans that consumers returned to them and turn around and sell them to the people who brought them to Michigan. The State Police director in Michigan says this type of fraud accounts for 13 million in losses each year! Charges filed were maintaining a criminal enterprise (felony with 20 year max sentence) and fraud (felony with 5 year max sentence). Oh Seinfeld, you magnificent bastard (a line from the show), if you only knew what you started 12 years ago! The only thing missing was the mail truck that Kramer and Newman packed full to drive their cans to Michigan.

Finished with our trip

Today I gave the camper a good cleaning and let it sit in the sun for a few days to dry out. Should be all clean for next trip! I have also uploaded a ton of pictures to my picture site, www.browntography.com there are new pictures under each person as well as a bunch of scenic photos under the Utah Slideshow. And finally, during the trip I dropped my digital camera and broke the LCD screen. I was majorly bummed to put it lightly. Today I checked into Canon's repair site and they said my repair would be free since it is under warranty! All I had to do is pay for shipping, so it is on the way, hopefully I'll have it back in a few 2 weeks or so.

Fruit Flies

I need your best remedy for getting rid of fruit flies. We had some before we left for vacation, but we took extra steps to make sure that we cleaned everything up and didn't leave anything out while we were gone. We got home expecting it to be bug free, nope! They were still here. Now it seems like they are going crazy again. We cover our fruit so that they can't get to it, and we keep our trash can lid closed...still get them though. Some of the web stuff I have read says to find the source where they are breeding and eliminate the source, but that is what we thought we did before the trip! Also seems like a lot of sites recommend making a trap with cider vinager and an empty 2 liter bottle. I guess that is my next route, unless anybody has a better suggestion.

Composting is a bunch of crap!

I don't really mean that...well I sort of do. I have not kept you very up to date on my compost heap that I started on Earth Day back in April. Well....actually a lot has happened to my compost heap. For starters I moved it. What a pain in the neck that was, it was located under our plum tree in the corner of our yard. Problem was it never got any sun. So I moved it to another corner now it gets equal time in the sun and shade! Then today I made the biggest effort yet! So I removed all of my clippings, scraps, leaves, etc out of the composting pen. I took it all the way down to the dirt. Then I soaked the ground and added about 8 inches of my compost back in then I soaked that layer. Then I added 4 parts soil and 1 part cow manure to make a dirt layer. And I soaked it. Then another layer of clippings, another of soil, another clippings, another soil, another clippings layer, and then topped it off with a nice layer of soil. I soaked it all at each layer, we had a ridiculously dry summer here so I developed another theory that my compost heap didn't get any water. So now that I have all of this done I am hoping that the heap will take advantage of the next week in the 90's and heat up and start doing it's thing. I might leave it alone till next spring, although I have read that you can turn it in the winter. I am going to bag my leaves from the upcoming fall to use next composting season. So for now I think I am done composting...it is all wait and see I guess!

See Ya!

Next week you will not be receiving any wonderful posts from me, because we will be taking a trip to scenic Moab, UT. We are going to check out Arches National Park, and Canyonlands National Park. Should be a good trip, and our first extended trip with our pop-up camper. Hopefully we will get some cool pictures for you, see ya next week!

Take on Peyton

I found this cool NFL trivia game where you take on Peyton Manning 1 on 1. It isn't too tough and occasionally you will see a repeated question, but it is still fun. I just drummed manning 52-14! I have had it lock up on me a few times especially at half time, but it seems to work better early in the morning and late at night. Check it out here, and see if you have the NFL knowledge to beat Manning.

Update I just beat him 44-6!

The Biggest Loser

One of my favorite shows returned to TV last night. The Biggest Loser is a reality TV show where contestants compete to lose the most weight both as a team and individually. The first shows of the season aren't the best ones, but later in the season you really begin to see these shells of former people working around. Past contestants have lost over 200 pounds, mind you they started at 400+. If you are trying to lose weight, or think you might want to but lack the motivation...give this show a try you might get really inspired. I know I did last season!

The show comes at the prefect time, right with the start of Phase II....Which I am officially renaming to Project 1/1/100, which stands for 100 pounds lost by January 1, 2008. I lost 8 pounds last week, which was way too much, I was shooting for 3 and will continue to do so. But I guess losing extra isn't all bad, but it was more than I'd like to see...slow and steady wins the race!

Fit Day

I found this really cool web site for keeping track of what your nutritional, exercise, and overall goals. It is called Fit Day, check it out here. I used it religiously when I lost the 75 pounds mostly because after my weekly weigh ins I would rush to the computer enter my new weight and check out the graphs. It made the weight loss seem more concrete. You can type in the foods you ate, entering the info off of the leable is best but time consuming. Most of the foods on their system are pretty close. I also like the way it shows you your nutritional breakdowns of protein, carbs, and fats. Overall I think it is a great site, and it is free. If you are looking to drop a few pounds check it out.

Phase II

Many of you have read on my blog that I have lost some weight recently. I lost 75 pounds from November 06 to April o7. Then I decided to train for the marathon and found it difficult to eat well and run so many miles. So this week marked the beginning of "Phase II" of my weight loss plan. And this time Bridget is joining me! This makes it so much easier because you have the support and help of another person. So of those 75 pounds that I lost, I gained 20 pounds back. But 15 of those came in the month of April when we had 3 sets of out of town guests back to back to back. I gained 5 pounds a week because of poor diet and reduced exercise. So If you took out those 15 pounds I really only gained 5 pounds during my marathon training. That 5 pounds could very well have come from the week after the marathon where we were eating out a lot and I was not exercising one bit, trouble is I didn't step on a scale around the marathon so I have no idea. Anyway, I am set on losing at least 40 pounds by Christmas. That comes out to about 3 pounds a week for the next 17 weeks. I have stepped up my workouts at the rec center this week and have been watching what I eat.

Leave it to the scientist in Bridget to measure our food. It actually isn't as painful as I thought it would be. I have been measuring everything I eat, and it is amazing how much more I would eat before measuring. For example, Cereal. I would sometimes fill a bowl with probably 4 servings, and wouldn't think anything of it. Problem is I do that for everything! So weighing is giving me a better perspective of portion sizes, and also allowing me to see that I can survive off of the correct amount of food.

We will keep you posted on our hopeful success!

Ah-Ha

Hal Higdon, who is an expert runner, running coach, and the author of the training program I follower for the marathon had an interesting take on post marathon training. He says "Some experts suggest resting one day for every mile you run in the marathon, thus 26 days of no hard running or racing! Others suggest one day for every kilometer, thus 42 days rest."

Perhaps this explains why I hurt so much after running 4 miles on Monday! Duh, I am supposed to be resting!

The Park City Marathon had roughly 8 miles of downhill to the finish line, then I read this..also from the Hal Higdon site: Hill courses, particularly those with downhills near the end such as Boston, do more muscle damage than flat courses like Chicago.

Ouch

So today (wednesday Sept. 5) is 11 days post marathon. I have tried to run a few times since then and each time I return hurt. I think my body is rejecting running for a while! I ran 3 miles at run club last week and my feet were killing me which is a pre-marathon injury I had called plantar fasciitis which is a sharp pain that shoots from the heel through the arch of the foot. It wasn't so bad, every step felt like I was running barefoot on broken glass...yeah not so bad! Then I ran on Monday with Bridget. My hip just started killing me toward the end of the run. So bad that I couldn't even finish. It still hurts today and I have not run a single step. Bridget says that one is called hip bursitis. Bridget asked a fellow doctor who has done a few marathons and she said that she only does 1 per year and then takes a solid 3 months off from running after the race. She does other exercise instead of running, then she gets back into things after a nice rest. I think that is the direction I am headed. I even tried the Elliptical trainer at the gym today and could barely manage 25 minutes with my hip, so I rode the bike for the remainder of my workout with no problems. I just can't ride an exercise bike every day...I'd go nuts! Our swimming pool is closed for yearly maintenance until Sept. 17th, so swimming is out for a while. I think I may swim a lot this winter instead of run. Well I am sure this is boring you by now as it seems sort of rambling. I'm going to go now. Ok Bye!

New Photos

After a long hiatus from updating my photo site, I finally got some new photos up. We went to the Red Butte Gardens this morning and got some good pictures. Sydney had a blast running around on the paths, they had some large snake topiaries that kids could actually run through. Aiden spent a lot of time in the stroller, but he got out toward the end and played on these giant stone lizards in the kids gardens. Enjoy the pictures, even a short video clip of the kids playing chase. Click here to check them out!

Interesting Info

I found this article today and kind of laughed to myself. Several years ago I heard that it was "safer" to sign your credit cards with "see photo ID." So I did, and then it turned into an experiment of sorts. Stores would rarely even look at the back of the card, rarely did they ask for ID. I have been rejected at the post office, they actually made me sign my card in front of them....as if a crook couldn't just do that since they didn't ask to see any ID. So that was fine then I got new cards a while back and I didn't write anything on them. I know this is probably not the best practice, and I think I'll be signing them as soon as I am done with this post. But after months of using an unsigned card, I have not had a single request to see my ID or see a signature. Crazy!

Percoset and Vodka

You may have seen this article floating around. It really highlights some great parenting. This lady was too drunk to drive so she let her 5 year old son handle the steering while she ran the gas and break pedals. The other 3 year old brother was just in the backseat crawling around. When questioned by the police the mom said she had taken a percoset with some Vodka, her usual combination "when the children acted up." She need to win the parent of the year award for that one! Needless to say the kids are in protective custody while she is in jail. The best part of the story was when the 5 year old was asked if he would ever drive again and he said "oh yeah, I want to be a race car driver when I grow up!"

Using your brain....OPTIONAL

I'm sure this isn't news to many people, it is all over the news and is providing some much needed comic relief in an otherwise depressing news day. I first saw the story on CNN and have watched it several times. This is a Miss Teen USA contestant from South Carolina giving an answer to the question about a fifth of Americans who can't find the U.S. on the map.

The first part of her answer is about how many Americans don't have access to maps, thus they can't be expected to find the U.S. on a map. While it is a stretch I suppose it is the best part of her answer. The second part of her answer about the education system helping South Africa, the Iraq, and the Asian countries doesn't even make sense! Her use of the phrase "such as" is quite comical since it comes before the countries she is about to list...and after just for dramatic effect I suppose! At one point if you watch her eyes you can actually see a short circuit and smoke comes out of her ears. It's hard to see but it is in there!

And to think as a young beautiful woman she will probably have her choice of men while she is dating, she'll probably marry some hunk and then......they will breed! There will be little miss teen South Carolinas running around, maybe when those children are school aged we can send them to places such as South Africa, the Iraq, or one of the Asian countries so they can get a map reading education...such as......

Marathon Summary

The marathon went well, I experienced a whole new level of pain and I think that is probably the last marathon I'll be doing. At least until I forget how much I hurt the next day! I feel pretty good today though, at least I am up and walking around. The first 6 miles of the race were really good, I felt like it was just another run. I was hitting my pace perfectly and nothing hurt. Miles 7-10 were pretty good, but I had to make an emergency pit stop at a porta potty....My stomach bug attacked again. Miles 10 through 14 were just OK, I had some cramping in my left calf and by that point lots of muscles were just starting to hurt. Miles 14-about 20 were the only part of the course that I had not seen, that was a BIG mistake cause they were all straight up (nearly 1000 feet of elevation gain!) and then straight down (especially mile 14-17, I called it "hell on earth"). Bridget's sister Melissa joined me at mile 16 and ran the rest of the way with me, that was a big surprise cause she was only planning to run 2 or 3 miles with me. Bridget met me at mile 10 on her bike and rode with me, but she crashed at the finish line and missed me crossing it! That's why you shouldn't ride and talk on your cell phone! She was doing 2 miles an hour though so she didn't get hurt. Miles 20 - 26 were very interesting, I'd go from hurting so much that I didn't want to take another step to getting a big adrenaline rush and feeling like I was on cloud 9 with no pain at all. I've never had that happen before, but it was kinda cool.

So here are the stats, although keep in mind that the goal was to finish this one...not set any records. I did throw away my time goals because I had such a hard time calculating everything. So I finished in 5 hours 15 minutes 54 seconds, 319th place out of 384 that finished the race. There were 6 people who started the race but did not finish, and one person who had an error in their timing since their time is at 33 hours +. There were also 47 people who signed up for the race and then didn't do it (I was close to being one of those people about 2 months ago)! My minutes per mile average was 12:02, fastest mile was about 9:56 and slowest was 14:31.

And Oh yeah, my nipple got rubbed off and I had a big bloody spot on my shirt! At least I didn't notice till someone pointed it out at the finish line.

Best moment for me was at mile 20 Bridget's parents were there cheering and Sydney ran along side of me for 20 or 30 feet, I picked her up and gave her a big hug!

Reading

I always feel guilty about not reading very much, then I saw this article. I don't quite know how it made me feel since I fit the average....and I don't think that is a good thing. Sadly I bet I only read 2 books a year, maybe a smidge over the average....but still not good. I always have good intentions, but I suppose I prefer tv's and movies. Again that is sad to say, but probably closer to the truth than "I don't have the time" or "reading puts me to sleep." I feel like I should read more books, but I just don't have that drive yet. Maybe it will grow as I get older or something, I guess we will see.

So what about you, how many books do you read in a year?

Busy preparing

D-day is quickly approaching. My marathon is on Saturday, and I'm not sure how I feel about that. I am getting very excited and nervous at the same time! I have ran over 330 miles in preparation this summer, and am on my 2nd pair of running shoes! But there is this part of me that just wonders what it is going to be like and how it is really going to feel at mile 22,23,24...... Aside from those aspects I am trying to eat lots of carbs and drink plenty of water. Hopefully I can load my muscles with water and glycogen and by on my way.

Besides preparing myself mentally, and physically I also need to prepare the house for Tom, Karen, and Melissa. They are coming to watch the race! Thankfully I started cleaning before we left on our trip to Colorado last weekend, so I really don't have a ton to do. I also need to mow the lawn, and Bridget advised me this morning that we need a roto-rooter. Our front yard, where our sewer pipe runs to the street gets clogged with tree roots from our 3 cottonwoods in the front yard. And to top it off, Bridget is on call tomorrow so I'll have to make all of those preparations on my own!

Sports heros to look up to.....

Is there anything good going on in the world of sports right now? In the NFL you have the Michael Vick dog fighting case. In the NBA you have a referee pleading guilty to 2 felony charges that he bet on games on which he could change the outcome on in his favor by calling fouls. Steroid induced Barry Bonds broke the home run record in Major League Baseball.

It is hard to pick out which of those is the worst of the worst. Two guy's cheated, and another ran a despicable illegal enterprise out of his home. I suppose Vick's case would be the least offensive to his sport because it actually has nothing to do with football, but supposedly it was entirely financed by his $130 million dollar contract he signed a couple of years ago. The NBA referee had a good racket going on, I don't know how he got caught, but my guess is that it had been going on for quite some time. I guess he had bookies telling him to influence the game in favor of one team, and then they would all place bets on that favorable team. And then there is Bonds, who's personal trainer is currently sitting in prison for refusing to testify that he gave Barry steroids. Then he goes and breaks on of baseballs most prestigious records.

I don't know....What do you think?

Last dose of the triathlon

The results were posted today for the West Valley City triathlon. I finished 3rd in my age group, but there were only 3 of us. I was 15th overall (out of 42 people), with a time of 1 hour 22 minutes 4 seconds. Although I am confused by those results as I was only passed by 1 person on the run, and nobody passed me on the bike. And like I said in the other post, one of the spectators said I was in 4th place after the bike. So I don't know where those other 10 people came from that supposedly passed me....but I guess I will just have to let it go. I was pretty skeptical of their timing system, no timing chips were used, just a lady at the finish line pushing a button to record your time. Kind of sketchy if you ask me!

It is hard to compare these results with my other 2 triathlons of the summer because all of the data I have for this one is the run time (which came from my wristwatch) and the final overall time. And there were 3 more miles on the bike ride.

Anyway, that race will haunt me all off-season and make me better. I'll be thinking about those walks while I train and maybe next season I'll emerge as a better triathlete. But if you think about it I didn't really train at all for these races. I never did any back to back workouts, I never trained on the bike and was only in the pool a few times. This winter will be good for triathlon training as I'm not going to do any marathons next season, so I can focus on triathlons exclusively. It will be great, you'll see!

WVC Triathlon

Whew! It is nice to sit down for a minute and catch my breath, it was non stop action all weekend! So Saturday kicked off with my alarm going off at 5:15 AM. That gave me enough time to eat a little breakfast and get to the rec center for the triathlon. I had a little road rage incident while driving, that didn't seem to help things. If anything the road rage got me all fired up, maybe a little too much. So the swim was 400 yards in an indoor pool, my lane had 3 people in it and I was the first one to start. Being so fired up from the road rage I swam the first 100 yards in world record pace....I was literally a torpedo in the pool. Problem was after that first 100, I had 300 more to go.....oops! I slowed down considerably, and managed to finish. I quickly got on the bike and I really kicked some butt. I passed a few people in the first 2 miles and then there was nobody. I thought for half a second that maybe I was in first place cause I was flying and not catching up to anybody....not even a rider on the distance. I finished the bike and one of the spectators told me I was in 4th place, Bridget told me after the race that the first 2 guys were in and out 5 minutes before I got there. One of those guys had a $5000 Cervelo time trial bike, I had a hunch he was going to be fast....but sometimes you never know these guys have $8000 invested in the top of the line equipment but then they don't know how to use it.

All was fine, I had recovered from my less than ideal swim and was now out running. Yep, all was fine in my world....for about 1/2 a mile. Then I walked, then I ran, then I walked again, little more running and then one more walk. I was disappointed with that amount of walking, I was VERY confident that my marathon training would pull me through this dinky little 5K. Guess not, cause I was beat. I only counted 1 person passing me on the run though, but it was hard to tell at the end because they had 2 different distances for the triathlon going on at the same time.

So we didn't stick around for the final results so I still have not seen my time yet. I had to boogie cause I was going fishing with some friends as part of my Guys' Night Out club. We went to the Provo River around Park City, Heber City, and the Sundance area. We had fun, I was the only one to catch anything....but I would hardly call what I caught a catch. One trout was just barely bigger than my fist, the other was only about 6 or 7 inches. I set them free and told them I was looking for their bigger brothers! It was fun though, I hadn't fished since I left Ft. Collins in 2002!