Kinda funny.....sort of...but not really!

So I still follow the Denver news more than the SLC news. I have more interest in the denver sports scene compared to here, and I could care less about all of the "Mo" news that dominates the headlines. Infact I am boycotting KSL.com until they remove the Life of Gordon Hinkley DVD advertisements, he was the Mo prophet who died...IN JANUARY! But I digress. My eye was drawn to an article in the Rocky Mountain News this morning about how if Denver hits 90 degrees or higher through Thursday they will break a weather record for most consecutive days above 90 degrees at 18. That record was set in 1874 and tied in 1901. So once again I consulted the farmers almanac and found that at the SLC airport, the last day we didn't hit 90+ was June 13th, or 45 days ago! That's right 45 days! When I said it was hot and my grass was dieing I wasn't kidding!!

Mousie, Mousie....GET OUT OF MY HOUSIE!

Imagine this scanario, I get up to let the dog in for the night and what to my wandering eye should appear but a tiny little mouse running in fear. I squealed like a frightened little girl and pranced and danced around the room on my tip toes screaming a mouse, a mouse. Ok, so it wasn't quite that bad....but I'll never admit to how bad it really was! I watched it run by the dog food and I was pretty sure he was hiding back there. I got Bridget armed with a broom and me and my mop and we started moving stuff out of the way. We found it hiding in the bricks that lift the dog food off of the ground. We tried to trap it, but it jumped at us and I swear I heard it growl, hiss, and viciously bark at us. Then it essentially ran right between us as Bridget dropped her broom and squealed, but it ran into our kitchen pan drawer and was trapped. We again tried to remove one thing at a time and I grabbed a big cover to a veggie tray thing and as the mouse tried to bolt....I trapped it. Bridget slid the lid across the kitchen we made a one way exit out the back door. It worked and he scampered out into the night. We did some looking around and found that there was some enticing dog food on the floor so we cleaned all of that up. We decided, while it was nice that we saved the life of this mouse....we are going to set some traps around to see if we have any more little furry surprises! What worries me a little is that I am used to seeing mice come indoors for the winter, not in the middle of summer. This makes me wonder if we have more uninvited guests.

Look at those beady little eyes!

1000 Plus

I just eclipsed 1000 miles of biking for the year! Yippie, hoorah! So I went for a 21 mile ride today, it was kinda crazy windy out there today. When I was going east/west the wind would gust and move me about a foot into traffic....sort of scary. But when I had the wind at my back....Lookout! I was flying! I intended to ride a little further, but when I had to ride straight into the wind for mile after mile I just broke down...even though I knew it was going to be fun to tun around with the wind at my back.

I also started cutting back my training for the big race (2 weeks from today), it's called a taper. So this past week I cut my training to 85% of normal. This upcoming week I think it is down to 75%, it's gonna be sooooo nice, since at 85% I thought it felt like I was on vacation from training. The idea is not to overwork yourself before a big event and the gains from killing yourself in the few weeks before a race are probably so small they outweigh the risks of injury....if that makes any sense.

Making my own Butt Paste

So my son has had a crazy bad diaper rash this summer. It is horrible, he screams bloody murder every diaper change because it hurts so bad. It is also itchy, he is always scratching his bum, even scooting across the floor like my parents cocker spaniel used to do! So we have tried so many combinations of things I can't hardly remember - diaper cream, hydrocortisone, triple antibiotic, athletes foot fungus cream, prescription Nystatin. He has also gone diaperless for a few afternoons outside, no luck. So we took him to the doctor today who suggested we try this home made remedy: Maylox and Vaseline. So I picked up the ingredients at the store today and got home and went to work. The Maylox is runny, the Vaseline is thick and they mixed like....surprise surprise....oil and water. The doctor suggested putting the concoction in a blender, but I couldn't do it I couldn't bring myself to ruin the blender. I figured even if it came clean I would know that I mixed Butt Paste in it. So I was on the phone with Aunt Melissa while I was mixing this mess and she had a few good ideas that I tried. First she suggested putting the mess in the microwave for 10 seconds. That softened up the vaseline a bit, but another 20 really did the trick. Then she suggested using an electric hand mixer. Easier to clean, and only the metal beaters came into contact with the Butt Paste. That really worked! I was able to get something resembling paste, and it couldn't have come at a better time since the boy had stinky pants!

You may be asking, why Maylox? The doctor said it had something to do with nutralizing the acid in his poo which was maybe causing the problem. We'll see if it works! We also got another prescription, this time Bactroban...but I think that is a second option not to the homemade Butt Paste.

Ahhh, the rain!

After nearly 40 days with out rain we finally got some much needed moisture today. This afternoon we just got buckets and buckets of rain for about an hour here at the house. There was such a downpour that the gutters were overflowed and the rest of the afternoon was downright MUGGY! We still managed to get up to 93 or 95 degrees in the late afternoon, but I'll take that as long as there was some moisture along the way!

And as we speak another storm has just moved in. The rain is coming down so hard that the satalite signal is down on the TV (always a good sign of a heavy rain or big snow). After my post the other day about how dry it was here I had been doing some work on the lawn. I raked the dead areas to try to clear some of the dead grass, which is supposed to allow more water to soak in. And then I aerated the dead spots with my 2 pronged aerator (I only did the worst of the worst because that is a particularly crappy job). So hopefully all of this work combined with all of the rain will pay off! Of course We could use a weeks worth of these daily rainstorms....but I'll take what ever I can get!

The Pickens Plan

I wanted to hear what people thought of T. Boone Pickens? So he is an oil man, he's made a fortune on oil, #207 on Forbes list of the 400 richest people....net worth of $1.5 Billion plus from oil and energy investments. He has also launched a national campaign called "The Pickens Plan" which you can check out at pickensplan.com. He basically wants to harness the wind across the center of the U.S.. His famous quote is that "the Unites States is the Saudi Arabia of wind power" and that "Building wind facilities in the corridor that stretches from the Texas panhandle to North Dakota could produce 20% of the electricity for the United States at a cost of $1 trillion. It would take another $200 billion to build the capacity to transmit that energy to cities and towns. That's a lot of money, but it's a one-time cost. And compared to the $700 billion we spend on foreign oil every year, it's a bargain."

So is he going to pay for this or are the taxpayers? I like his plan in terms of harnessing wind power, you know that I augment 100% of our power bill with wind credits, but I get a bad feeling about his interests. It seems to me like he wants to push his plan and then he will rule 20% of our energy output in the future. Then what if he wants to control the price and set it to whatever he wants, won't he be exactly like the existing oil controlling nations of the world...the ones that he is trying to create or reinforce a general disdain for? Perhaps more research is necessary on my part....Hmmmmm, what do you think of the whole issue?

First tank down

We finished off the first tank of gas on the new Prius today. We finished with 48.5 miles per gallon! After fueling up we drove over to our friends house in the city and I managed to get 55.3 MPG average for there and back home. Maybe if we get it off to a good start, Bridget will be able to keep it higher during her commutes. She was giving me all the pointers on how she drives the car. Apparently she now knows every hill and every spot where you can coast and get 100+ MPG....if you don't get it right she will mock you! Just a warning!

The best news of all, Bridget reports that she really loves her car. She said she really liked the old one, but this one she LOVES! She says it is much more entertaining to drive as she tries to maximize her MPG. She is happy if she keeps her average the same on the way to work (apparently more uphill) and then increases the average on the way home. She has already said she wants to get better than 50 on this tank. One other great point about the Prius is that it recommends the cheap gas. Both of our VW's (well her old one) requires premium gas and when you put the cheep stuff in there is a noticeable difference in both power and smoothness. So the cheap stuff is a nice change of pace. I tried to talk Bridget into a Honda Metropolitan with a side car for the kids...she shot me down even though they get 100 miles per gallon. And they don't make a side car either, there were some holes in my plan!

I Love Dr. Horrible, his 3 act musical superhero saga is only available until SUNDAY! So if you have not seen them, now is your chance. The 3 part saga is only online for 1 week, and tomorrow is the last day. After that look for a supposed DVD in the future as well as a download for a nominal fee. But for today and tomorrow it is FREE! So check it out and see what all of the hubbub is about.

Since I am so depressed about the state of my lawn and it's massive burn spots I decided to look at the weather and see when it last rained. The last day the SLC airport received rain was on June 11th, or 37 days ago. And it only rained .03 inches that day. The average daily high temp has been 93.54 degrees with 18 of those days being 95 degrees or higher!

The Utah Division of Water states that 65% of Utah's water goes toward watering lawns! And as much as 50% of that is lost through evaporation. Now at least I know enough to water in the early morning and overnight when there is no sun beating down so intensely, but I'm still not having much luck. They also state that you need 1/2 inch of water applied per irrigation, and they suggest watering once every 3 days in June, July, and August. I have these massive dead spots and I water every day twice a day....Hmmmm.

Funny things a 4 year old can do!

I was out mowing the lawn tonight and Bridget was playing with the kids. She realized that she had to use the restroom and went in and did her business. Only after it was too late did she realize that there was no TP in the bathroom. So she called Sydney and told her to go downstairs and bring her back some toilet paper. Sydney says "OK Mommy" and runs off. Bridget is stuck sitting there and realizes that this is taking forever...this can't be good she thinks. Just then Sydney re-appears with some TP. 2 squares to be exact! Bridget laughed and asked her to go downstairs and bring up a whole roll, and she did. Reminds me of the Sienfeld where Elaine is stuck in the public restroom without and toilet paper and asks if her neighbor can "spare a square."

So is the lesson:
A. Check TP stock before you go
or
B. Never trust the work of a 4 year old

Our new number

I mentioned a while back that we got a new phone number, well apparently the one we picked was formerly owned by a Spanish only speaker. We placed our number on the do not call list, but we still get sales calls from Spanish speaking only sales people. Well tonight I got one and answered it, and from what I could gather the lady on the phone called me a woman. Now I haven't been called a lady on the phone since I was in junior high, I was sort of shocked so I just hung up on her. Guess what? She called back! This time she called me sir, and said something else in Spanish. Then asked if I spoke Spanish. I said no, and she hung up on me! The nerve! Don't they know who they talking to? Don't they know that I am a famous rapper (man I've got some schnazzy dance moves!)? Or a famous football player? Or a famous NFL kicker? Maybe they should just Google me and see how famous I really am!

Google your name and respond to this post with the number of hits. I have 44,600,000

Mountain Biking

I went mountain biking yesterday with some friends. It was pretty cool, it had been waaaaaay to long since I had ridden any trails....I think 8 or 9 years! Anyway, it was a cross training session for the running club that I run through Partners In Medicine. The lady that helped me organize the ride suggested this trail and told everyone that if you could ride a bike you could ride this trail. I don't know if that was exactly true, since 2 other riders were pretty new and were having trouble. I kept staying back to make sure they were doing OK, then I got the feeling that I was in the way. So after one of their rest breaks I just went off on my own. I rode all the way to the top and sat down and waited.....and waited....and waited! After about 20 minutes I started asking strangers if they had seen 4 women riding on the way up. Finally one guy said he saw them headed back down the mountain. So I left the top and flew down the mountain, and I met them pretty much at the trail head. I guess there was a different trail somewhere that led you to a parking lot, that is where they went. I took a trail that led me to some old ruins right next to a river, when I was sitting there by myself for a few minutes it was actually very peaceful!


I almost forgot the best part! In order to make it in time I more or less had to dump the kids in Bridget's lap as soon as she got home. So on my way I was feeling a bit guilty and decided I would bring her home an ice cream shake. So I picked up 2 shakes on the way home, and got to the house at about 9:30 PM. Much to my surprise (extreme sarcasm there) she was already asleep in bed. I even turned on the lights and tried to wake her up, but no she was already out. So guess what? I got 2 ice creams! I probably completely offset the wonderful exercise I just did, but whatever...it's ice cream it's always worth it!

Long run volume III

So today was supposed to be 10 miles. It was hot, I've been eating a lot of junk lately, and my foot killed before I even started. So I wussed out and only ran 5. Once my foot was warmed up I felt OK, but trying to run on an empty stomach is also kind of pointless. I really overslept, so I tried to rush out as quick as possible to avoid the heat. It wasn't like it was super hot, it was about 80, but that morning sun is soooo intense at 9:30 AM it really get's to me.

Anyway, we'll chalk this up to a bad overall week. Next weekend's run will hopefully go a lot better!

New Prius

Well after nearly 2 weeks of sharing 1 car (Bridget taking the car to work leaving me stranded with my bike....if you call that sharing) we finally got our new car. So for those who haven't heard it is kind of a cool story. So I called every dealer in Utah asking for a new Prius, all told me it was a 4 to 6 month waiting list. So I expanded my search to neighboring states, and found a dealer in Pocatello, Idaho who had one. The dealer did have a waiting list, but this Prius that he had coming in was ordered by another customer and it shipped from Toyots with cloth interior instead of the leather interior that they ordered. So this person said they had waited all this time, they decided they wanted to wait for the exact car they ordered. So on the day I called the salesman said he did have one coming. We had to wait the 2 weeks, but that is much better than waiting 4 or 6 months...did we luck out or what?!

So we drove up to Pocatello, about 175 miles from home, and picked it up lastnight. We hit some nasty traffic and didn't get to the dealership until 7:30PM....they closed at 8PM so I have a feeling they were less than thrilled to see us. But they were nice enough, and we did all of the paperwork and junk and then got out of there. It was pretty slick and went quickly overall.

I got to drive the Prius home, Bridget wanted to spend some time in the car with the kids since she has been working max hours lately. So I got to drive it and push all of the buttons and play with all of the gadgets. It's a nice ride, comfy, smooth ride, and I averaged 45.4 miles per gallon while goin 65 - 80 MPH!

Since it was 12:30 AM when we got home, and Bridget has already left for work I had to pull a generic picture from the web. This is what our car looks like, minus the black tinted windows. The color is called Silver Pine Mica, it's cool.

A case of the Blahs

From time to time I go through the blahs. Everything is just blah, boring. Seems like my whole existence is actually...blah. Part of it is being trapped in the house with no car. See, the downside to biking to the rec center and then putting in a tough workout, and then biking home is that I am really wiped out for the rest of the day. And without a car I feel like doing nothing. I know that if I had a car it would be sitting in the driveway for 90% of the time...but if I wanted to go to the store or go run an afternoon errand it wouldn't be such a major ordeal. I'm tired of the major ordeal....blah. Our new car is in and ready to be picked up, trouble is Bridget's work schedule. Blah, blah, blah all of it. So I spend my days playing with the kids, staring at my empty e-mail in-box, jumping to this blog searching for comments, and wishing everything weren't so blah. I feel like I need a hobby, I have my guitars but right now I feel so blah on that too. To steal a line from the movie Office Space - "sounds like somebody has a case of the Mondays." Except everyday is Monday lately. Blah humbug.

My little princess turns 4

Sydney had her birthday party yesterday, and she had a blast! We had about 9 kids and 11 adults plus us. Quite a turnout for the little princess. That was the word of the day, Princess. Everything was princess themed, each present, the cake, the table cloth....everything! She really had a great time, one minute she was chasing her friends around the backyard....the next she was having a tea party under the apple tree! Here are 2 pictures, one is of her in her new Princess Aurora dress and the other is when she opened her princess Belle Barbie doll...the look on her face really says it all! Also notice her new hairdo!

Long Run, Vol. II

So today was my second long run, 8 miles. I was really unsure given my limited advances over the course of the week and the fact that it hurt all day yesterday. The first mile KILLED! I seriously just about packed it in and called it a day, but I still feel like I need to test my foot to see if it will hold up to a half marathon. So I did set out with somewhat of a plan, I was going to go slower to see if I could go the full 8 miles. It actually seemed to help, and I have devised a race plan for the Utah Half Ironman based on this slower pace. I guess it is not really a plan, I'm just going to try to take a little off of my swim and bike so that I can hopefully go at a slower pace on the run....which will all hopefully add up to a faster overall time than if I go out and kill it on the bike but leave nothing in the tank for the run.....which leads to runs like the last triathlon which I am still worked up about!

Anyway, in painstakingly painful detail here is today's run (minutes per mile):
Mile 1 - 9:26
Mile 2 - 9:21
Mile 3 - 9:30
Mile 4 - 9:27
Mile 5 - 9:32
Mile 6 - 9:34
Mile 7 - 9:31
Mile 8 - 9:21

When I run my shorter runs I try to keep around the 8:20 per mile mark, so going closer to 9:30 per mile feels quite slow. But it worked and I did all 8 miles non stop, and besides being hot and thirsty it wasn't so bad. After that first mile my foot felt great, but it is starting to ache now...won't be long till it feels like I'm walking on glass shards!

Ahhhh July, it must be TDF time

I love the Tour de France. I've been hooked for 5 or 6 years now. And I love the Versus network, because they show abbreviated versions of each stage with all of the highlights. However, I learned last year that blogging about the TDF is about as exciting as watching paint dry....or blogs about my foot.... So I'll keep my TDF thoughts to myself this year.

And Oh yeah, my foot hurts. I am supposed to run 8 miles this weekend, I'm going to give it a try tomorrow. I mowed the lawn today and it killed. I think it is all of the unevenness of the lawn that makes it hurt. Anyway, I'm getting fed up with the foot. I'm going to cut it off, a home amputation would probably hurt less than the constant pain I'm in now! But, you'll have to wait until tomorrow to hear how the run goes. I know you'll probably lie awake with baited breath wondering how it is going to feel and hold up...well you'll just have to count some sheep and wait!

Happy 4th of July...now go blow off some fingers!

I really dislike the way my idiot neighbors celebrate the 4th of July. They must spend a fortune on fireworks that they light off till nearly 2 AM! It drives me absolutely crazy. I know it is bad karma or whatever to wish bad things upon somebody, but if just one of them blew off a finger or something maybe they would stop. My backyard is turning a nice shade of brown from the ridiculously high heat and lack of rain...I'm sure one of their fireworks will land in the yard and start it all up! That would be fun. Then they leave all of their used fireworks in the street, always a nice look. And I guarantee that on Saturday I'll walk through the backyard and pick up a handful of red sticks that used to belong to fireworks. I hate it I tell you! I sound like a grumpy old man, shaking my fist at those darn punk teenagers. But I really despise it. Why can't they go watch fireworks at any of the various city displays, you know the ones that spend thousands and thousands of our tax dollars on? They are going to be a million times better, and it won't keep me up all night! I'll report back on Saturday, but I'm sure it will be the same as it has been for the last 2 years....and considering they have already started shooting them off over the past few nights, I'm sure it is going to be just awesome.

CNN stole my blog!!!!

Just yesterday I posted about the LZR suit that is the "talk" of the U.S. Olympic Swimming trials. Well low and behold, I wake up this morning and find a CNN video report about the suit. Interestingly enough it contains much of the same info my blog entry did. Hmmm, conspiracy theory? Is "the man" coming after the little guy? Read my blog below if you have not already, and then watch this CNN video. I think this Chris Lawrence fellow reads my blog and thought it would make a good story, he should give me royalties or something!

Own a LZR

Anyone keeping tabs on the US Olympic swimming trials? I am, but I'm a geek. Anyway, if you haven't heard there is all of this controversy over a swimsuit. It is made by Speedo and it is called the LZR. They created it with the help of NASA, and people wearing the suit have broken 40+ world records since the introduction of the suit in early 08. Now you too can own one, well you can preorder one (delivery in October 08). The cost, only $550 for a full suit like this:
They have bonded the seams together with frickin laser beams (spoken as if you were Dr. Evil, from the Austin Powers movies) so that there are no seams to create drag. They are so tight it takes 2 assistants to help you get into the suit, and it is literally an inch by inch....centimeter by centimeter sort of thing. On Sunday night NBC did a little piece about Natalie Coughlin who said it was a pretty humbling experience to have to stand there naked for 30 minutes while 2 people crammed your body into the suit! To read more out it, or to order yours today click here!