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!!