The mind is a terrible thing to challenge

Happy 2009, goodbye to bloging

2008-12-31T10:00:00.002-07:00

I hope everyone has a great new year filled with prosperity, luck, happiness, and all of that other good stuff. I hope that each and every one of you has success with your resolutions/and goals for the new year.

For what ever reason, I am the type of person that needs constant reassurance and positive feedback or I just shut down on what ever I am doing. This holds true for blogging as it does for just about everything else. As an example, I went to my parents house in August and my dad made a comment about how I said I was getting all skinny, but then when I crawled into the hot tub with him he commented that I looked as fat as I always did. I have not been right since, weight loss has taken a back burner, and my exercise regimen has suffered as well. Anyway, I don't want to dwell on that...but it is just an example of how I need to feel good about what I am doing in order to keep up with it. I would get really discouraged with the comments on my blog, 14 posts with no comments was enough to push me over the edge of no return. This problem is further exasperated by the fact that I have a lot more time on most days that others do, and I'd be checking my blog 5 or 6 times a day and would get dejected when there were no comments.

So this is the last post on my blog. Hopefully everyone understands, and know that I wish nothing but the best for all who occasionally glanced my way. That goes for family and friends. Good luck to all and Happy 2009!

Of course the ultimate coup de grace would be to leave a comment about my post about not leaving comments. I can't say that I will never check in and see if there is anything there, but it's not going to be a regular thing. So feel free, just know that it may be sitting in cyberspace collecting dust for days, weeks, even months as I resist the urge to check for comments in OCD way I do things.

Guess I shudda taken a left at Albuquerque!

2008-12-19T09:08:00.004-07:00

I'm off to Albuquerque today! I'm headed to The Land of Enchantment to watch my CSU Rams do battle with the Fresno St. Bulldogs. The game is on Saturday at 12:30 PM Mountain time on ESPN (watch...look for me!). This will be the 3rd bowl game that I have traveled to, I went to the Holliday Bowl in 1997 and watched CSU beat Missouri and in 1999 I went to Memphis to watch the Rams lose to Southern Miss. This year's matchup against Fresno is going to be a tough game, they seem to be a good team. The Rams success will hinge on their running game, and supposedly Fresno has some injuries to their Defensive line. Regardless, I'll be there screaming my head off along with my partner in crime....Nick. Nick's wife called me up around Thanksgiving and said she wanted to surprise Nick with the trip, so for the better part of a month she and I plotted and planned this secret trip. We sprang the news to him on Wednesday night, she even went behind his back and got him the day off on Friday for traveling...he had no idea! It was great! If you were to record that conversation, you could play it and use it as an example of the definition of flabbergasted. He was so surprised, I couldn't tell if he was crying, or just on the verge of it. In my mind I'm going to run with the idea that he was bawling his eyes out, but trying to hide it in a manly manner!

Hopefully the two of us won't be returning on Sunday with the same crying but trying to cover it up reaction from the game! Tune in and see!!!

Guitar Hero

2008-12-15T09:36:00.004-07:00

So I commented a while back that Guitar Hero is my new favorite. Well I am still lovin me some Guitar Hero. The way it works is the game plays a song and a pattern of colored dots flows along the bottom of the screen. You try to push the corresponding button on the guitar controller in time with the colored dot. Anyway, there are slow/ easy songs and very fast crazy finger flying songs. I found this comic somewhere and it seriously made me laugh....if I was drinking anything at the time I read it I would have snarfed it out through my nose, that's how hard I laughed. I think it is a serious sign that I'm a GH addict!

Fantasy Football bust

2008-12-15T09:31:00.003-07:00

This past weekend was the first round of the playoffs for fantasy football. 2 of my 3 teams made it to the championship bracket, and both teams bit the dust HARD! In my league of former work friends from Rochester I got whooped so bad it is embarrassing. In my defense two of my top running backs were injured, that never helps. In my league of friends and family, I lost to my best friend Nick. I beat him in the championship game last season, so I suppose I can at least feel good that he may go on to win it all next weekend. I still hate to lose though!

Breakfast with Santa

2008-12-13T11:54:00.002-07:00

We went to Breakfast with Santa this morning, here are some pictures to enjoy!

Cool Quote

2008-12-09T19:58:00.002-07:00

This came from the December 9th episode of The Biggest Loser. I think it is a pretty powerful quote for anybody who has ever fought the battle of the bulge, or simply tried to lose a few pounds. Anyway, here it is:

"Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels."

Ahhh, kids

2008-12-08T17:26:00.002-07:00

So I think this is a funny story....maybe it will make others smile. So I had the kids in the car today and we were leaving the grocery store. This pickup truck turned in front of me and proceeded to take 2/3 of the road and he had plenty of time to move over to his side of the road. I yelled "move that piece of sheep truck outta my way!" Of course I didn't say sheep, I said a different 4 letter word that started with S. Then from the backseat I hear Sydney say "Daaaaaaaaaaaad, you don't yell. You have to use your words, and you have to say please!" I said "oh, really.....so if I said please move your piece of sheep truck, then he would have moved?" And she said, "well maybe but you also shouldn't say sheep!" I laughed and said, "well if I shouldn't use the word sheep, you shouldn't use it either!" She went on to continue the lecture about how we don't yell at our friends and that we always have to use our words. What a smart little sheep she is!

Bowling struggles

2008-12-07T14:22:00.002-07:00

We went bowling this morning with some friends, I took the opportunity to practice my hook ball. Yeah. I stink at it! Well I guess I should clarify, my ball has a wicked break to it....I just can't control it! It heads toward the right gutter and then breaks all the way across the lane and hits the 7 pin (far left corner pin). So I tried moving to various dots at the start, but never could get it dialed in. It is hard to work on consistency and moving around to different boards. Anyway, I bowled a game and a half with all hook balls, and then I gave up and went back to my straight ball which was working extremely well today!

So I guess in conclusion I'm not ready to break out the curve in league play quite yet. Maybe next year if I keep on getting the practice in. Check out this guy, he is a professional bowler who uses a two handed grip. It is completely legal and starting to catch on. I tried it today and got even more of a wicked spin on the ball, but that made it even harder to control!

Christmas Lights

2008-12-04T21:17:00.002-07:00

I was really busy all day hanging lights....What do you think?

Ok, Ok, my lights look like a yuletide log compared to that. But I really did hang up some lights today. Looks pretty good! Then Bridget, Sydney, and I worked on the Holiday tree (I don't know if it is acceptable to say Christmas Tree)....seeing as I am the most wanted man in Utah, I should really watch what I say!

New Obsession

2008-12-04T08:53:00.003-07:00

Guitar Hero. Those are the most important two words in my dictionary right now. I got it for my birthday from Bridget's parents. I pretty much play it as much as I can all day long. I get annoyed when I have to stop, but when I do stop I am still walking around singing the songs! As for the kids they can raise themselves right? House chores....you'd be amazed at how much I am willing to stumble over and how high you can pile dishes in the sink! Ah Guitar Hero, why am I not playing right now????

Back from Colorado

2008-12-01T23:10:00.002-07:00

Back from Colorado, and now I need to get my BUTT in gear! Bridget and I were talking in the car trip across Wyoming that I have not taken a complete week off of exercise in nearly 2 years! Well that little vacation is over...got to lose those Thanksgiving pounds before they become permanently attached to my body. I am a little nervous that I'll only be able to make it 30 minutes tomorrow, but I'll press on and get through the full 50!

My Kids Rock

2008-11-20T16:52:00.003-07:00

I Firmly believe that my kids are the cutest ever...this just confirms it for the world! Aiden and Sydney do The 3 Little Pigs. Listen very closely at the end right before the credits, Sydney utters a great line!

Smartest Girl Ever

2008-11-20T11:36:00.002-07:00

We went to Sydney's school today for parent teacher conferences. This was the second conference, and this time they had test scores. Now, we have always thought she was pretty bright....but the test scores confirmed it! She scored well above average is the verbal and reading areas, and did pretty well in the math sections. All of that was on a test that was administered in the first weeks of school and was meant to measure her baseline of knowledge before starting school. Her results were so good that the teacher asked if this was Sydney's first year of preschool, or did she do a year last year. She was almost shocked when we told her this was her first go around. The teacher said that the middle and end of the year tests should only improve and her scores could be off the charts. It's pretty cool stuff, and we are so proud of her!

Picking up spares

2008-11-19T13:04:00.002-07:00

I've been doing some real improvement to my bowling average. I started today at 126, and I bowled a 145 in the first game, and then a 140 in the second. Unfortunately, I lost my ability to pick up spares in the third game and had a dismal 105 in the 3rd game. That gives me a 130 average for the day, still above my season average...so that should go up a little. All day long I was putting the first ball in the almost perfect spot, but seemed to leave 2 or 3 pins EVERY TIME! It was very frustrating, I wanted and needed those strikes! In the first 2 games I was having a lot of success with those spares, in the last game not so much. Ahhh bowling, it's all fun until I get to that 3rd game!

Meh, whatever

2008-11-16T18:47:00.001-07:00

From the AP:

LONDON — At least someone is excited about "meh." The expression of indifference or boredom has gained a place in the Collins English Dictionary after generating a surprising amount of enthusiasm among lexicographers.

Publisher HarperCollins announced Monday the word had been chosen from terms suggested by the public for inclusion in the dictionary's 30th anniversary edition, to be published next year.

The origins of "meh" are murky, but the term grew in popularity after being used in a 2001 episode of "The Simpsons" in which Homer suggests a day trip to his children Bart and Lisa.

"They both just reply 'meh' and keep watching TV," said Cormac McKeown, head of content at Collins Dictionaries.

The dictionary defines "meh" as an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring. Examples given by the dictionary include "the Canadian election was so meh." The dictionary's compilers said the word originated in North America, spread through the Internet and was now entering British spoken English.

"This is a new interjection from the U.S. that seems to have inveigled its way into common speech over here," McKeown said.

"Internet forums and e-mail are playing a big part in formalizing the spellings of vocal interjections like these. A couple of other examples would be 'hmm' and 'heh.' "Meh" was selected by Collins after it asked people to submit words they use in conversation that are not in the dictionary.

Other suggestions included jargonaut, a fan of jargon; frenemy, an enemy disguised as a friend; and huggles, a hybrid of hugs and snuggles.

Stupid Leaves

2008-11-14T14:52:00.002-07:00

I hate leaves (this time of the year). Always falling off the tree, never all falling at once...instead prolonging the agony over weeks and weeks. I mow my fallen leaves, and just as I get them pretty well under control...a big gust of wind and more leaves on the lawn. I already think I have some form of OCD when it comes to the lawn, I like it just perfect....then the stupid leaves fall and drive me CRAZY!

31 is the new 25

2008-11-13T12:42:00.002-07:00

My birthday was yesterday and I had a great day! Wednesday is my bowling day and I had 3 games above my average! Going into the day my average was a 122, and I bowled a 135, 156, and 145 and my season average was boosted to 126! Pretty good! Then the rest of the day was business as usual. When Bridget got home from work she asked if I wanted to do anything. And we discussed how we had a birthday dinner on Sunday so on my actual day we were just going to be good and not do anything. Funny how things change when push comes to shove. So we got a baby sitter and went to my favorite place in all of Salt Lake City.....Brewvies! We split some lethal nachos (1/2 order) and some pizza, it was yummy....but not a good part of any diet! We saw Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, it was pretty good. It was a little sappy and love storyish for my taste, but we had already seen Burn After Reading which was the other movie playing.

It was a great birthday, thanks to everybody who called and sent cards and e-mails. My 30th year was great, I wouldn't have changed a thing, and I'm looking forward to a fantastic 31st year! And NO, I don't feel old yet...still very much young at hart!

Prolific poster

2008-11-11T09:53:00.002-07:00

I know this is the second post of the day, but I've had 2 cups of coffee and I have a halfway decent caffeine buzz going! I read this article a few days ago, and it really must have bugged me cause I keep thinking about it. The article is called de-bunking 5 recycling myths. And number 5 is the one that seems to me distressing me. It talks about how most recycling centers place plastics in the regular landfill, so recycling plastic is essentially pointless. There are only a few recycling plants in the country that had the technology to sort the different kinds of plastic (involves a machine that uses optical sorters and infrared light to instantly identify the chemical composition of a container, then a puff of air directs it into the right pile). Once this technology becomes more widespread I guess the recycling of plastics will become more feasable, but it is a little disheartening to learn! Doe is mean we stop putting plastics in the recycling bin, no keep it up!

Not going to make it

2008-11-11T09:18:00.002-07:00

So I was supposed to hit a weight loss goal tomorrow, and sadly I'm going to miss it....for sure....not even close! Yeah. Um, so Halloween really killed me, I don't know why because I've been able to resist in years past....but not this year. It was a chocolate induced coma for days on end. I was also sick for a couple of weeks, kept me from exercising and from eating well.

But the good news is that I feel 100% now, and I'm back at it. I am trying to have a great 2 weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, and then rolling from there. Maybe my new goal will be Christmas or New Years? I'll have to think about it!

I didn't want to keep any of my devoted readers guessing what happened, figured I'd better just come out and say it. But I keep at it and keep working at it, I guess that's the way it is going to be for the rest of my life.

Sydney learning

2008-11-06T09:09:00.003-07:00

Sydney is learning to write her name. Check out how close she is, her y's look a bit like t's....but she is only 4 and she is supposed to be able to do this at the end of her pre school year, not 1/4 of the way through! She is BRILLIANT!

Prius Update

2008-11-06T08:59:00.002-07:00

Last fill up the Prius has 51.4 MPG average! I was worried it was going to go down because I gave the car an oil change and I replaced the oil with conventional oil. I wasn't sure if it came from the factory with synthetic oil or not....so I wasn't sure if that change would result in a drop in MPG. My friend Justin says cars come from the factory with a special "break in" oil, but he didn't know either if it would be regular or synthetic oil.

Anyway, we still love it and we're still getting great mileage!

We Voted!

2008-11-04T20:15:00.003-07:00

For the first time ever, Bridget and I voted. It was kind of cool, I'm glad we decided this was the year. And it was really easy! Just slide in the card they give you, punch a few buttons on the screen and wala I was done. And even at 6:00 PM there was no line, I was worried about that after work voting traffic.

I have a voting story to tell, but I think the voting etiquette says you aren't supposed to talk about voting things too much. So I guess I'll keep my story a secret...although it is funny because Bridget gave me a bunch of grief over my voting strategy and then she did what I was going to do, but she talked me out of it. Silly girl!

Last of the Halloween fun

2008-11-03T15:37:00.003-07:00

I got these pictures from Madalyn, the organizer of the bowling league I'm in. They are obviously some more pics of me in my awesome costume, now I can say award winning costume!

Candy induced coma

2008-11-03T09:47:00.003-07:00

Enough said!

Pumpkins 2008

2008-10-30T21:47:00.006-06:00

We went to a pumpkin carving party tonight, and as been the trend lately we were the hit of the party! Well I should say our pumpkins were. And by our pumpkins I really mean my pumpkins since daddy ended up carving 3 of them! Sydney saw me looking up patterns on the internet this afternoon, and decided she wanted to pick her own too. I steered her away from the Disney princesses, yes there are Disney princess pumpkin carving templates! So here they are in no particular order:

Aiden's Vampire

Sydney's Kitty Cat

My Mummy

Bridget's Jack Skellington from Tim Burtons A Nightmare Before Christmas!

Here is the Jack Skellington template I went off of:

I am the pumpkin carving master!

Guess who's #1 now!

2008-10-29T12:59:00.002-06:00

As if there was ever any doubt......I won first place in the bowling league Halloween party! The prizes were pretty lame, I'm not sure it was worth the embarrassment...but I won! I had my choice of a wind sock, some flowers, and a Halloween plate. I chose the plate, I don't know what to do with it, but I chose it.

Claire won second place with her bowling pin poodle skirt, she chose the flowers.

Strangely, I bowled better with the skirt on..it was my highest game of the week. After they announced the winners I changed, and bowled two crappy games! I half considered putting just the skirt back on, but I couldn't bring myself to do it!

Halloween Fun

2008-10-25T20:46:00.004-06:00

Worst idea I ever agreed to! I am supposed to be June Cleaver and Bridget is Ward. We wore these to a Halloween party tonight and we were the hit of the party! Definitely the best dressed couple at the party! Although on the drive across town to the party I was mortified, I refused to even look out of the window and I was really wondering why we didn't drive my car with the tinted windows! I think the worst part is that I have to wear this getup to bowling on Wednesday, any predictions on if I win one of the prizes for best costume?

Claire made the skirt for me, and the apron, and the pearl necklace. I found the shoes and shirt at Goodwill, and we found Bridget's entire "Ward" outfit there as well. I styled Bridget's hair for her, I used about a gallon of hair gel...it was awesome!

New Maserati

2008-10-25T10:59:00.002-06:00

I was driving around downtown yesterday and I saw a guy on a test drive of a new Maserati. The window sticker was visible to me when he was next to me at a light so I was checking it out. 12 miles to the gallon in the city and 18 on the highway. Now I realize that people don't buy a car just for fuel economy, but this car didn't look like it was anything special. I would expect a new pickup to get those kind of numbers, even my 5 year old VW gets better mileage than that. Then there was another interesting tidbit on the window sticker, an environmental scale. I couldn't read the fine print, but it was a scale with a triangle marking the center which I'll assume meant average. This Maserati was about 1/3 of the way to average, so I'm guessing it has a pretty crappy impact on the environment. But for an entry price of $114,000 I guess I was asking a bit much for this car right?

Click here to get yours today!

In recognigition:

2008-10-23T15:49:00.006-06:00

I just wanted to jot a little down about a great local triathlete, BJ Christenson. BJ works at my favorite local running store, Salt Lake Running Company. Last time I was in there he was super helpful and gave me lots of advice about the cramping issue I had in the Utah Half. I actually saw him run in the Shark Attack triathlon 2 years ago, I think he was on a relay team and he was the runner...he flew past me so fast, he must have been running 5 minute miles (seriously). It really isn't fair though he has legs that are 6 feet long each, his stride is equivalent to 3 of mine I'm sure of it! Anyway, super nice guy and somewhat of a triathlon legend here in the SLC area.

He competed in the Ironman Kona race this year, his second time I think. This is the ultimate triathlon, at the birthplace of the sport. I would say it is like a triathletes Graceland or something. Anyway he finished 129th out of 1736 and 21st in his age group. I think the amazing part are his times broken down by sport. Like his swim for example, 2.4 miles in 1 hour 25 seconds. That is really frickin fast! His bike was an average of 20.68 MPH for 112 miles, while that may seem slow one has to factor in the LAVA effect....riding through the lava fields of Hawaii in stiff winds and excruciating heat and humidity. And finally the run, a 26.2 mile marathon after 6 hours of hardcore exercise, and he completes in in 3:06:07, or just over 7 minutes per mile.

I think of BJ as an inspiration and one who's every move should be copied. Like I said earlier he is a super nice guy, step into the Running Company and he will be more than willing to answer your questions, and it will seem like he really wants to help.

Here is a race recap if you are interested.

Funny

2008-10-23T10:20:00.002-06:00

Sydney came into our room last night and said she was cold and wanted to put on a sweatshirt. Bridget got up and took her back into her room and tried to tuck her in and as Bridget is walking out of the room Sydney yells:

"it's sweltering hot in here!"

Busy little bees

2008-10-21T15:42:00.002-06:00

So it's been a hectic few days around here. Over the weekend we stayed in Park City, I was asked by the U of U department of Peds to talk to the spouses of the new residents. I think my talk went pretty well, this group of spouses didn't complain about the hours or the system nearly as much as my group of spouses from 2 years ago. Then on Sunday we went over to Ryan and Claire's house for the afternoon and ended up staying for dinner. Bridget, Claire, and I all solidified our Halloween costumes. It is nice to have a seamstress at my disposal! Claire is going to make all 3 costumes, and they should be pretty funny (especially mine). Then on Monday we went over to our friends Robyn and Brett's house for Monday Night Football. The game was a horrible disaster, but the company was pretty good. Brett ran for student body president at Colorado State University, he may be the biggest CSU fan I have ever met! Oh yeah speaking of CSU, we went to the CSU vs. Utah game on Saturday. Again, horrible game (for CSU that is) but the company was pretty good. We sat behind some drunk CSU frat boys who drove all the way from Ft. Collins. I have no idea how much they had to drink....but my guess is a lot. They made the game entertaining when it got out of control on the scoreboard. They actually made some good choices and left a little early, they were starting to pick fights with some Utah fans....too much more and it might have developed into a real brawl. About 1/2 of them tried to go sit in the Utah student section during halftime, but according to them the cops were standing in the portal and wouldn't let them in without seeing their tickets. Ahhh, those were the good ole days! But seriously, no good could have come from that!

Random thoughts

2008-10-16T09:46:00.002-06:00

Why is it that in the diet world you can be rolling along on a perfect pace and then you have a bad eating day? Why can't every day be just perfect and then the dieter would reach the goal faster?

I bowled a 94, 143, and 180 on Wednesday. Why can't every game be a 180, wouldn't that just be easier? My average is up to a blistering 124, up 7 points since I bought the new ball.

Is it normal to have a list of house projects that is so long it leaves the owner of that list so confused about even where to start! Most days I think of "the list" and just write it off as too much work for that day...but still on other days I deem a project as too little, so I better not even start it!

Preschool Songs

2008-10-13T16:30:00.002-06:00

Here is the new song that Sydney has learned for "insect" week!

Bowling Ball Bag

2008-10-12T21:21:00.003-06:00

My friend Claire, one of the 3 bowlers on my bowling team, is also quite the seamstress. She made this bowling ball bag for me, I think it is pretty AWESOME!

It is so cool for the following reasons:
1. Somebody can take a pile of fabric, or a roll, or whatever and turn it into a usable thing.
2. It has a skull with bones made out of bowling pins,I think it strikes fear into the hearts of the 80 year old women I bowl against on Wednesday mornings.
3. Retro glitter styling, sort of pimps out the whole bag.
4. Bowling pin zipper pulls, c'mon that is too cool for school.

Sometimes I make myself laugh

2008-10-09T18:21:00.003-06:00

Last week sometime Travis Henry, a former Denver Broncos running back, was arrested in some drug trafficking scheme. Anyway, they released him from jail today and put him on house arrest with an ankle monitor. I was reading about this on espn.com and I came up with a pretty witty comment, I said:

"Why did they put him on an ankle monitor? If they didn't want him to run they should have just told him it was 3rd and 1!"

I crack myself up

Weight Loss Update

2008-10-08T08:40:00.002-06:00

About a month ago I blogged about my weight loss plans and set a goal for myself. Check it out here if you don't believe me! Unfortunately since that post we went on vacation for a week, this hurt my plan...but didn't kill it totally. I had to re-adjust my numbers a bit since I gained weight on that vacation to my parents house.

I am down 8 pounds since that vacation, and have 5 weeks to lose 21 more pounds. That comes down to 4.2 pounds per week, which is more than I would like to shoot for...but it is doable....maybe not enjoyable, but doable.

So like I said in that original post, I'll keep you posted on my progress since that creates a little bit of accountability on my part. And hopefully my post on November 12th will read 100 pounds lost!!!

Nothing to say

2008-10-06T15:41:00.003-06:00

I was trying to think up something clever to write about today, but I got nothin'. So I thought I'd just write about nothing, and fill some space as an experiment to see if you would read it all the way to the end. Well, did you?

Sometimes you just don't know....

2008-10-01T16:18:00.002-06:00

Sometimes you just don't know how nasty something is until you actually get around to cleaning it! Let me explain, I use my car almost everyday to haul the kids and get around. I finally couldn't take the mess in the back seat, the kids toys and wrappers from crackers, and God knows what else. I started by taking out all of the toys, there was some real interesting stuff back there. I found 1 whole chicken nugget, I think it was from Sonic because it was ring shaped (don't know what part of the chicken is a ring...but that is for a different blog on a different day!). I also learned that Aiden must not like Craisens, because there were a ton of them on the floor in front of his seat. Then there was layer upon layer of cracker crumbs. Our portable snack of choice are crackers, convenient, tasty, and the kids will always eat them.

After the trash and toys were gone I went to work with the vacuum. It seemed to take forever but I finally vacuumed the whole car....the amount of dog hair in the cargo area was unreal, it looked like one of those small yippie chihuahua dogs exploded. Then there was the smell in the car. Kinda like a mix between sweaty feet and really bad cologne! I busted out the Fabreeze, shot every inch of fabric and then closed all of the doors and let it bake in the sun for a while. I don't know why I did that, it just seemed like the thing to do! After an hour or so we were ready to roll and the car was great! It looked good, smelled good, and I had a clear conscience that there wasn't some sort of a cracker wrapper monster coming to life in the back seat!

Oh so close!

2008-09-29T23:42:00.003-06:00

I am competing in an NFL pick 'em league, all you have to do is pick the winners of each game as well as assign a point value to each pick. The stronger you feel about the game the more or less points you assign. It's late, I don't know if that makes sense...but I digress. So I was in 1st place after all of Sunday's games...by 1 point. I had Pittsburgh to win the Monday night game but only had 1 point to bet with. I added up the other players points and figured out that if everybody bet on the Steelers I'd lose, even if I bet on Pittsburgh. So at 6 PM I switched my bet to the Ravens, trying to get the upset. Once the game starts your bet is locked, so once it started I checked and I made the right play....I was the only one within reach of winning that bet on Baltimore. Everyone else had their bet on the favored Steelers.

The game was defensive and at half time Baltimore was up by 10, and things were looking good. Then in the matter of 15 seconds of the 3rd quarter Pittsburgh scored 2 touchdowns and completely took over the game. But all was not lost, the Ravens scored late in the game and sent it to OT. Then in OT they won the coin toss, everybody knows that if you win the coin toss your team wins 98.6% of the games! Well they choked, punted to the Steelers who proceeded to kick an easy field goal to win the game and steal my Pick 'Em victory. However, all was not lost since my Father in law came from 3rd place to 1st and won this weeks cashola!

Silly boy

2008-09-26T08:56:00.004-06:00

Last night we had a kinda crazy dinner. We usually eat around 6, but we had a parent teacher conference at 6:30. As usual I didn't get dinner prepared early enough so the kids and I ate about 1/2 of dinner then went to the conference then came back to finish up. Aiden was in his high chair and clearly he was getting pretty tired, rubbing his eyes, not eating, and overall whiny. Then he started saying "I want cake and Ice cream, I want ice cream!" We tried the ever popular "you have to clean your plate, eat all of your food first"...but no luck, he wasn't eating. A few more minutes went by, and the he busts out this gem "I want to go to Chili's!" Bridget and I looked at each other and started cracking up. We told him that we were staying at home and that he had a good dinner in front of him (Chicken, Asian noodles, green beans, and milk) we'd have to save Chili's for another day. I guess I'd rather have him say Chili's than McDonalds or Red Robin.

On another note Sydney's teachers LOVE her. She is so smart and her teacher said she is going to start helping the other kids in the class! She is going to be a preschool teacher at only 4 years old. Brilliant!

Handy Tips From The Biggest Loser

2008-09-25T14:58:00.000-06:00

The Clarance Rant....again!

2008-09-23T17:27:00.003-06:00

On the way to pick up Sydney from school today my neighbor Clarance flagged me down. I was already on the verge of being late to pick Sydney up...and I half thought about just getting in the car and driving away. But no, I'm a nice guy. So he asked me to mow his lawn again. Today. As in right after I got home from picking up Sydney. I told him that today was no good because Bridget was working and I had nobody to watch the kids. This seemed to make him mad, his tone quickly changed. I told him that tomorrow evening I might be able to do it, I'd have to check Bridget's schedule. He didn't like that idea because he wanted to throw the grass clippings in the trash, and tomorrow (Wednesday) is trash day. So as I was leaving he said "I guess if that is as good as you can do, it will have to work." I thought the nerve of this guy, as if it was my job to mow his yard on his schedule. He now has his daughter and grandson living with him, and his grandson drives a car so I am assuming he is old enough to mow the lawn. And he has complained to me that they are living with him rent free, and don't do any chores. Well duh, make them mow the lawn! So now I am on Clarance patrol, ignoring his phone calls and not answering the door when he rings the bell 5 times....I'm sure it's not obvious at all when I tell the kids to Shhhhhhhh, but leave the TV blaring Go Diego Go!

I also swore last time that I wasn't going to mow his lawn after I had to buy a new blade for my mower after mowing his 6 foot tall weed patch. I almost asked him if his mower was running, but I didn't want to get into it with him since I had to go get Sydney. If I am 1 minute late to pick her up they are on the phone calling, last time I had messages on my cell phone and the house phone!

Me, just about to lose it!

Home

2008-09-22T09:17:00.006-06:00

We are back from our trip, and we had a great time. The kids did really well at my parents house (imagine a 4 and 2 year old in a house filled with lots of glass antiques and a new flat screen TV precariously placed on a stand that was NOT kid friendly). Anyway, we had a lot of fun and it was a usual vacation that went by really fast.

Now it is back to the grindstone with my weight loss goal. Sadly the vacation was not good for that. While I did run 3 times, I'm not sure it was even enough to counter act the horrible eating I was doing! So I'll work hard this week and get back into a healthier lifestyle.

I feel like Jabba the Hutt today!

Running in the Great Northwest

2008-09-17T14:52:00.005-06:00

Since we've been here on vacation I've been on 2 runs, and I hope to get 2 more in. Each time I embark I just get lost in the beautiful scenery. A part of me wishes I lived here all of the time so I could run out here every day. Think about it, the temperatures are never too hot or too cold, a little rain never hurt anybody, and the Discovery trail is AMAZING!
Here is a cool bridge that is about 4 miles from my parents house on the trail.

Check this out!

2008-09-12T20:10:00.003-06:00

It's hard to take pictures inside of a car, at dusk, with no flash, and at a distance that won't make everything all blurry. Anyway, this isn't the best piece of photographic work...but the point comes across pretty good still. I filled the Prius up with gas for the big trip in the morning and wanted to show the MPG before I reset it. 55.2 MPG over 361 miles is what that picture says. Normally Bridget will go over 500 miles on a tank of gas...maybe 520 miles per tank she says. So the 361 on this tank wasn't a full tank but was probably close to 2/3 of a tank...again I ain't no math wiz (Bridget has already banned me from teaching the kids anything more than addition and subtraction, probably a wise choice since I got an F in 4th grade math...darn long division!).

Vacation Haiku

2008-09-12T15:01:00.002-06:00

Off on Vacation
So much fun, we have no plans
A true week of rest

What do you think? Write your own and the best one will get a postcard from the Washington Coast!

Lance is back too!

2008-09-09T18:00:00.003-06:00

Reports surfaced yesterday, but I refused to believe them. Then today an article in Vanity Fair magazine confirmed that Lance Armstrong is 100% sure he is coming out of retirement to race in the 2009 Tour De France, and 4 other big professional races. I am still skeptical, kind of wait and see....will believe it when I see it. He still needs a team, and another rumor was that he was going to team Astana....who was not invited to race in the 2008 Tour de France because of 2007 doping scandals. Astana really doesn't make sense to me anyway since they already have Levi Leipheimer and Alberto Contador two top GC contenders on the team. Adding a third would be rough because you would really be asking the team to spread itself thin to protect 3 guys.

Anyway, I hope the news is true and I hope he lands on a decent team. Salary shouldn't be a factor since he has said he will ride for free and just wants to ride to raise (more) awareness for cancer research and cancer issues.

Football time is back!

2008-09-09T13:38:00.003-06:00

Just on the heels of my last race was the kickoff of lazy day Sundays! Yes, I'll admit it I can sit on the couch and watch 3 full football games back to back to back....nearly 12 hours of football. And I have stupid fantasy football to blame for this! On Sunday I watched the Dallas Cowboys versus the Cleveland Browns, who cares right? Well I had like 4 players on my FF teams, and I got sucked in! On the fantasy front I am in 3 leagues this year, one with some former co-workers from Rochester, another with friends and family members, and a new one which is a keeper league (meaning I get to keep 2 players each year). I did pretty well this weekend 2 out of my 3 teams won. Then to top it off on Monday night my Denver Broncos completely embarrassed the Raiders. I was debating that adjective, embarrassed, I was going to go with dismantled, outplayed, outclassed, destroyed....all of which fit so it was a tough choice!

This upcoming Sunday we are going to be visiting my parents in Port Angeles, WA. I'm not sure which games I'll be able to see, but I'll keep my fingers crossed that the Broncos will be on. And because I am such a geek I just checked the TV listings and found that they aren't on. So sad. Now I'm all depressed. Guess I'll have to go shine up my 2 championship trophies from last season, yes this brings joy back into my heart!

The Final Push

2008-09-08T08:21:00.002-06:00

Since triathlon season is over for me, I decided I need a new goal to keep me motivated to exercise. And I find that I do better with my goals if I share them with you the reader, that way I feel accountable. So in November 2006 I started losing weight, I began that journey at an even 300 pounds. I lost weight and then I lost some more, all the way down to 206 pounds in April 2008. Over the past few months my weight has yo-yo'd in part because of the triathlon training...I find it hard to eat fewer calories to lose weight and still train hard. Now my focus can be totally on losing weight, and I want to make that final push to 200 pounds...or 100 pounds lost. I figured my birthday in November is a good goal, after all that would be the best present to myself!

How am I going to do it? Any good goal needs a plan, so here it is. Just restricting calories doesn't work for me, neither does just exercising...I need the proper combination of both. So the exercise part has been pretty constant this year, as evidenced by the exercise log at the bottom of the page. But I think I am going to mix it up a bit since I got stuck at a weight and couldn't break through that plateau. So I am going to add some weight lifting, light weights with lots of reps. This is certainly a difficult thing for me to do, I get in a weight room and become a typical muscle man and try to lift as much as possible as many times as possible. Not only do I end up hurt, but I add bulk muscle which I don't want. So I have to stay away from that as much as possible, and as demasculating as I think it feels! I am also going to keep up with the cardio, probably adding more elliptical machine to my workouts because it doesn't hurt my foot as much as running and burns a lot of calories.

As for the diet part I have been pretty successful with restricting my calories. I also have to eliminate all temptations from the house, I can be strong...but only for so long! Sadly I do best when I get into a grove, I eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch and then have varied dinners. It isn't exciting, but it works for me. When I reach my goal I need to develop another plan about how to maintain that weight, although when I said earlier that my weight was yo-yoing, it was within a 10 pound range which I think is OK.

Anyway, you be reading about my hopeful successes and my progress on my goal. I have 66 days until my birthday, or about 9 weeks. I have about 23 pounds to lose to get to 200, leaving me 2.5 pounds per week which is a very doable goal provided there are no plateaus! Wish me luck, throw me some support, and keep me on task, I need YOUR help too!

Two flats and I'm done

2008-09-06T16:02:00.003-06:00

So today was my final triathlon of the season, the Camp Yuba tri. It was an Olympic distance, 1500 yard swim, 25 mile bike, 10K run. Everything went well in preparing for this one, my foot is feeling about 85%, I slept really well in the camper the night before, I ate a good breakfast, got my transition area all set up, and I even got my wetsuit on without any issues. The race got underway and I had a great swim. I felt slow at first, but once I found some open space (on the outside again) I swam well. I kept looking up to see where I was going and I kept seeing fewer and fewer people around me. Bridget said that there were 3 people who finished well ahead of the rest, but that I was about the 10th person out of the water! I ran up to my bike, changed into my bike shoes, put on my helmet and took my bike off of the rack. I head a weird sound and took a quick look....I had a flat back tire! I don't understand how it happened, I rode my bike from the campsite to the rack earlier in the morning, and I topped the tires off with air at the campsite. So it was flat and I walked around the transition area looking for a pump. I found one, but didn't want to just take it so I waited for the owner to finish their swim. I hooked it to my tire and as I pumped the air just poured out. I had no tubes, so I asked people nearby and one guy gave me tubes and a couple of tire levers. I changed the flat tire, filled it up, and was on my way....I probably lost about 15 minutes. So I rode like a madman on the bike, I was catching people and flying by them. At about mile 18 (I don't know the exact mile because my bike computer wasn't working either) my front tire made the sound like it went flat. I pulled over and there was a puncture and it was slowly leaking through a puncture that I fixed earlier this year. I was able to ride a few more miles and then on a steep downhill the tire officially blew out. It was pretty scary, I thought I was going to crash at first because I was going very fast and when it popped the bike really began to shake and shimmy. So now on my second flat tire of the day (again no repair tools) I started walking. I was very fortunate to make it to a police officer who was hanging out watching the race. He gave me a lift back to the race HQ, he had a truck for my bike. I handed in my time chip and told the official timer that I withdrew from the race.

It really stunk. But I was safe, no crashes and no injuries. I am still pretty disappointed, but honestly 2 flats is a lot to overcome. One other thing, even if I had the proper tools with me I would have had only 1 tube for a repair...so I would have been screwed anyway. I think it will be nice to think about this disappointment all off-season, and then UNLEASH my fury at the Icebreaker Triathlon in March 09!!

Liquidation sale

2008-09-04T20:26:00.004-06:00

Just call me Dealin' Chris! I put up 3 more things today on Craigslist and KSL.com, and bam! 2 are sold already! Bridget and I talked about selling the glider/rocker chair in Aidens room that was being used as a clothes storage station. That sold in about 2 hours, for $40 to a young couple expecting their first child (soon, by the looks of the lady). On a whim I also decided to put Bridget breast pump on just to see if it would get any action. Bridget said she was just going to throw it away because she didn't think anybody would buy a used booby pump. That one was on the net for less than 30 minutes! It sold for $95!! Not bad for something she was just going to toss! I was also leery of the pump because there were already quite a few up there already and they ranged in price form $60 to $120, so I thought the $95 was closer to middle but it might end up sitting there for a few days. Luckily it didn't and our new house fund continues to grow! One word to strangers out there as a word of caution~ you should always be very cautious about used breast pumps, diseases like Hepatitis, HIV...basically any blood borne disease...can be spread from the pump, the hoses, the bottles, etc. If we had any of these diseases obviously we wouldn't have sold the pump, but since Bridget is clean and healthy we figured it was OK. The good doctor made me put that in there before anybody ran out to look for a pump online!

So what do you have for me to sell? I am on a hot streak, I might go look for more stuff now!! Here Buddha, Buddha, Buddha!!! Just kidding!

Our beloved St. Bernard Buddha, on a hike last week. Doesn't he look so noble!

107

2008-09-03T13:05:00.003-06:00

I joined a bowling league today through Partners in Medicine. So I'll be bowling 3 games every Wednesday morning. Today was the first games, and I think I was a little rusty. First game I had a 98, second game 135, and the wheels really fell of on the 3rd game...I was in the 80's I think. Anyway my average was 107, everybody was talking about handicaps, but I didn't really get what they were saying, something about subtracting something from 215? Anyway, I figured I would just show up and bowl! And the good news was my team were all about the same as me, so it wasn't like I was the weakest link or anything. I think we bowled against another team...but I don't know if we won or lost.

The best part is they have daycare for the kids, so I got to pawn them off for a little while. And the bowling ally was smoke free, and everybody seemed pretty nice. I think they all may be doctors, spouses of doctors, or have some other connection to the medical community. It was fun, can't wait till next week!

10,000 B.C.

2008-09-01T22:07:00.003-06:00

Yeah so on my run today I eclipsed the 10,000 minutes exercised this year. 10,000 minutes translates to 6.94 days of straight exercise. I think that's pretty cool, but I have no idea how that compares to other people who workout?

I have my last triathlon of the year on Saturday. It is an olympic distance race in south/central Utah. The race specifics are 1500 yard swim, 25 mile bike, 10K run. I really hope to finish the season strong, but all I can do is give it my best.

Foot update. If you ever develop plantar faciitis remember these words....Strassburg Sock. It is an awesome looking contraption that has velcro straps that essentially keep your toes bent up and your arch under tension while you sleep. It is uber sexy! But it really works, my foot is drastically better than it was for the Utah half which I think is feeding this renewed optimism for this race on Saturday. I ran 5 miles today nearly pain free, it even feels better than it did after I took a month off from running earlier this summer.

Oops!

2008-09-01T00:19:00.003-06:00

I had a whole new look to my blog....for about a day and a half. Then it crashed! That's what I get for using a free blogger template! Oops, so back to the old blog...till I get really tired of it and learn how to create my own template.

Cool Time Lapse

2008-08-31T16:51:00.002-06:00

Here is a cool time lapse of Obama's speech from last week, I think it it is pretty sweet!

A change, but why?

2008-08-30T11:43:00.002-06:00

No I'm not talking about my new blog appearance...but not too shabby, eh? I am talking about soda. Pop. Coke, well more specific diet coke since I haven's had a non diet coke in a few years. 2 weeks ago I decided to axe diet cokes from my diet. No real reason. It was a little expensive, especially when not on sale. People talk about an athletic advantage if you don't drink soda. I don't know if I buy it. It's not a caffeine thing, since I still enjoy coffee when ever I have the mojo to make it. I don't know, I suppose I just got tired of it! I guess I'm weird or something.

Back to that athletic advantage I mentioned, obviously a big thing in my life. But when you hear people tell you "you shouldn't drink soda because of the carbonation" or "because of the caffeine". I have read that carbonation may lead to a little GI distress, but what ever I'm over that. I figure a little GI distress will just help me run faster....so I can get to a porta potty sooner! This article pretty much sums up everything from carbonation to caffeine to regular sports drinks and cites lots of research on the whole issue.

Maybe my subconscious reason is to wean myself off of it and then drink some on race day (September 6th, Camp Yuba Olympic Triathlon) and hope for a boost? I don't know, but I did like one of the suggestions from that article of mixing Coke 1/2 and 1/2 with a sports drink. That way I get the carbs, the sodium, and the electrolites. I might give it a try this weekend on my longer run! We'll see!!!

Funny

2008-08-28T09:40:00.002-06:00

No words necessary, the picture says it all!Michael Phelps, the early years.

And so it begins!

2008-08-27T20:49:00.002-06:00

We got home from a camping trip today and managed to dump all of our stuff in the middle of the living room floor. Ordinarily the clutter will stay there for a few days, but this time something different happened. We had a return of THE MOUSE! Bridget and I had it trapped, then it escaped, then we cornered it again...only to have it escape again and run down to the basement! We chased it and cornered it again, and finally caught it in a tupperware. I took the mouse for a drive and released it by a ditch more than a mile away from our house. Anyway, after all of the excitement our entire house looked like a prison cell that had just been ransacked by guards looking for shanks or drugs or something!

So we started the purging process. I listed 3 items for sale on Craigslist and on KSL.com. I know 3 items doesn't seem like much but it is a start. I put up my beer making kit, our bread machine, and a kid carrier frame backpack. Eclectic grouping of stuff, no? Hopefully we'll have some luck selling our stuff, and we'll have a lot more stuff to put up. I might just become the kingpin of Craigslist and KSL!

The big 3-0-0

2008-08-24T20:40:00.002-06:00

Well I went out and killed myself today in 90 degree heat, and for what....?.....so I could reach that 300 miles ran milestone! I needed 6 miles to do it, and I didn't get out nearly as early as I wanted to. By the time I made it outside it was nearly 11:30 AM, which pretty much makes it too hot to run here in the desert. But I'm young, and I'm dumb so I went anyway. I started the run listening to one of my favorite Foo Fighters albums (Dave Grohl (lead singer for the Foo Fighters) has seriously one of the best rock and roll screams of all times)(yes, I did use parentheses inside of parentheses)...anyway, all was good until the batter died on my mp3 player. Yeah, pretty sweet. I was only about 2 or 3 miles in. So I finished the rest of the run with just me and the cars and the exhaust. And oh yeah the wind, I hate the wind.

In other news the final triathlon of the summer somehow got moved up 1 weekend from the time that I registered for it. It was supposed to be on the 12th of September, now it is on the 6th. That's good news and bad news, good news in that I'll be able to stop running for this year all that much sooner...the bad news is I have 1 week less to prepare. I don't know how much preperation I need, but the more the better. Although when it is done, I am planning on taking a running break until March 2009 or so. Lots of swimming and biking for me this winter! Hopefully a long hiatus will fix the plantar faciitis that still bothers me every day. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

The violent world of water polo

2008-08-21T16:07:00.004-06:00

I had no idea water polo was a particularly violent sport. Then I read this article on ESPN today, really an eye opener! I played inner tube water polo in college, it was violent...trust me it was (extreme sarcasm). The most violence I saw was pushing down really hard on a foes tube and watching them flip over. But when one of the assistant coaches for the U.S. water polo team says:

"First time, let me move your ear guard. Next time, I'm breaking your ear. Maybe knuckles in the eye, see if they panic. When it gets bad is when people try to take the eyes out. That wakes you up, when someone does that to one of your teammates. Then, when you get your chance, you take your shot and send that guy to the hospital, too."

Wow, what is this, prison rules water polo? Apparently what goes on under the surface of the water stays under there....unless you lose control and become blatant, then the ref steps in. "I've had my eyes gouged, [testicles] grabbed, gotten stitches," American center Ryan Bailey said. "There's tons of stuff that happens." You even hear about some centers who have been the recipients of uninvited prostate checkups. (Think Chevy Chase singing "Mooooon Riverrrrr" in "Fletch.")

Stinking cute kids

2008-08-20T14:54:00.002-06:00

I'm sorry, I can't resist....I think my kids are the cutest kids in the world. There are lots more on my website if you want to see more safari pictures.

Are Wii having fun yet?

2008-08-19T13:33:00.002-06:00

Yes Wii are having fun with our new Nintendo Wii! Bridget and I are getting better at some of the Wii sports like tennis, bowling, and golf....a game Bridget surprisingly likes! Although we both got up yesterday and complained that our right shoulders hurt! The kids even get in the act by cheering for either Mommy or Daddy. It is really fun to get to play with Bridget, we are really enjoying this lighter schedule that she is on. Good times, if you don't have one you should get one!

The Job

2008-08-17T10:39:00.002-06:00

I know 90% of you already know about this job, so this post is really for those 10 percenters out there. Here's the big news....Bridget got hired by Loveland Pediatrics (Loveland, CO)!!! While she won't actually start working until July 2009, it is a very good feeling to know where we will be moving to and that we'll be so close to home. There are lots of things that she needs to do before she starts doctoring out there like get her Colorado board certificate, round up a slew of insurances, pass a background check, and all of that professional sort of stuff. Oh yeah and she also has to finish up that pesky little residency thing she is doing now here in Utah.

Loveland really offered her a "dream" opportunity. The money is great, the benefits are equally great, they offered her some student loan repayment, they pay for moving expenses, they even pay for the family to fly out a couple of time to shop for houses! Bridget fit in really well with the other doctors as well, I know that that was easily more important to her than all of the other stuff combined. She is so excited to start, that she wants me to put a countdown timer on my blog until she starts work!

The end is in sight, putting behind all of the grueling years of medical school, residency, and the moving around from state to state. We are very excited to settle in to a place where we are hopefully going to stay for the long haul. It's going to be great and another exciting chapter in the lives of us!

Olympic Expectations

2008-08-13T17:10:00.005-06:00

Do you ever find yourself watching Michael Phelps swim, and then watch ANY other Olympic event and just assume that person should win as well? He makes it look soooo easy. Last night he swam for 2 more gold medals, 2 more world records, became the most decorated Olympian....ever, and so on and so forth. Then they cut to ladies gymnastics, and my mind just expected them to win easily, and they didn't. They had balance issues, and unfortunately they occurred on the balance beam. Oops. Maybe Michael Phelps should have competed, he probably would have won gold. Just think of it, he's got those size 14 flippers he calls feet...he could miss the beam by a foot to either side and still grab hold with those babies. They also made it a point to say that he was double jointed in his knees, that's got to help out in gymnastic flexibility!

While I'm talking Olympics, I don't understand what the fuss is over China using a stand in for a 7 year old girl who sang in the opening ceremonies. Apparently the people that decide this sort of stuff deemed she was unfit for tv viewing. The way I see it pretty much everybody I know, myself included, is unfit for tv. Have you looked at people on tv lately? They are all so fake looking! From news anchors, to sitcom stars, reality tv people, movie stars, musicians, the whole lot of 'em. I don't think I know anybody that is tv worthy, I know I wouldn't enjoy seeing myself on tv...all I know is that I look like a giant dork when I see myself on home videos. Maybe we should just clone Michael Phelps, he seems to be everywhere and on every commercial anyway. Think about it, Live with Michael and Kelly.....Good Morning America with Michael Phelps, your local evening news with Michael Phelps. Michael Phelps stars as Indiana Jones and the Slime Creatures From Outer Space. Survivor Beijing with Michael Phelps versus himself 16 times over. Biggest Loser Michael Phelps edition, he would have to lose the remaining 1/2 an ounce of body fat that he currently has or be subject to elimination. Ahhh, I could rant all day...but I think I'm done now. I feel better. Phelps as a Blogger, another way he is WAY better than me.

Back at it

2008-08-12T13:09:00.004-06:00

Still a little gimpy (read as incapacitated and sore beyond belief) I tried the rec center on Monday. I rode the recumbent bike for 30 minutes and it was really great! My legs felt good and I even raised the resistance a bit after 15 minutes and still felt good. Then I stood up. Thought I was going to die. My legs were screaming in an octave that makes dogs howl...and me too! Anyway, a good nights rest and I was back at it today. I tried swimming today and it went great. I did 1500 yards, just to kind of loosen up. I felt so good I swam a timed 300 just to see, and I finished 40 seconds faster than my last recorded 300 on swimplan.com. Pretty good!

I guess it feels good to get back into the swing of things, although I think I'll wait a few more days to try running. Maybe Friday? As for my foot, it feels great. I think the 13 miles of pain must have either fixed the problem or tricked my pain receptacles. But I think it will be back, I just like to be hopeful!

Now What? (half ironman recap)

2008-08-10T20:09:00.003-06:00

Well the Utah Half Ironman has been and gone, and I survived...sort of! So the day started off as usual, I slept like crud the night before and woke up feeling semi groggy at 4:30 AM. We went to the start line and got attacked by MILLIONS of mosquitoes in the transition area. The people who put on the race were fairly discombobulated, disorganized, and what ever adjective you would like to use that starts with dis. Anyway, my sister in law Melissa drove out from Colorado to race with me, so I had a partner in crime for all of this. They told us we were going to have wave starts, well if waves mean guys and girls then I guess they did that....would have been nice to do waves of 50 or 100 or something. Instead I started in the middle of the pack, got frustrated when I kept getting kicked and elbowed. I finally found a decent spot and swam most of the race on the sides of the crowds. I used 90% all arms, no kicking and still finished in the middle of the pack in my age division....what would have happened if I kicked, I might have been in the top 3! So after the swim there was a long run to the transition area, was especially bad for me and my bum foot. I gimped my way to the bike and off I went. My goal on the bike was to keep it at 21 MPH average. I know it sounds funny to limit how fast you go in a RACE, but I was trying to save some juice for the run. The bike was 56 miles, and at the halfway turnaround point I was averaging 22 miles an hour, so I slowed down a bit on the way back and finished at 21.5 MPH, pretty good considering I think I could have averaged 24 considering the wind was at my back for the return trip! Anyway, I got off my bike and I was more tired than I thought but still doing pretty good. I stole one of Melissa's 32 ounce Poweraids and chugged it (I ran out of drink with about 15 miles left on the bike) and off I went on the run. The run was surprisingly good...for about 1/4 mile. My foot felt OK, not 100% but still runable. Then at 1/4 mile the course had a hairpin turn and when I made it BOTH of my legs cramped at the SAME TIME! I tried to walk it off, no luck. I had to sit down and stretch out my cramping quads. They stopped and I took off slowly and tried to resume. Every 1/2 mile or so, or everytime the course had a turn in it they would both seize up. At 4 miles into the run a found Bridget on the sidelines and asked her what I should do. I was looking for her to tell me it was OK to quit or that it wasn't worth hurting myself. Um no. She told me to get out there and keep running. During our little pep talk I was sitting stretching my quads. So I tried running again, feeling a little dejected that my wife, the love of my life, wanted to KILL me on the run! About a tenth of a mile later both legs seized up again. I slowly chugged my way to the 1/2 way point and again I had the perfect chance to quit but passed it up thinking that if I returned to the transition area without crossing the line I'd be divorced before we returned to SLC! The final 6.5 miles were nothing short of brutal. My legs hurt so much, I had to sit and stretch...sometimes just sit and ponder life and curse at my hurting legs. But I am proud to report that I did make it, although I was no where near where I thought I would finish, and the time was horrible. I made it, I suffered, I got a cool medal, in retrospect I am glad I finished....don't think I had a good enough time to do another half ironman again anytime soon.

As for Melissa, my sister in law, she finished the swim 16 seconds faster than me and finished the entire bike course and then decided that she had enough. Melissa also admittingly didn't train at all for this race. She rode her bike twice and swam once, and that was it except for her soccer leagues. She had a good time, and she looks a lot happier than me today as she can move around freely and appears pain free. I on the other hand say "oh shit" every time I stand up and start moving!

Above, me approaching the finish line...the pain is about to stop.

Above, I grabbed the kids at the finish...they crossed with me!

Finally, the finisher medal. I did it, don't think I'll do that again...so this one is special!

Comments

2008-08-07T13:58:00.002-06:00

One of my favorite pastimes is to read online news stories and then scroll to the bottom of the article and read the readers comments. I read an article about a guy here in SLC who tried to attack his family with a Chainsaw. When the chainsaw wouldn't start he picked up a weed whacker which also wouldn't start. When that failed he got in his car and tried to run them over, problem was it took him long enough to get the keys and get in and get it started that his family walked inside and called the cops. I realize the subject matter isn't funny at all, but the outcome is kinda funny...c'mon admit it...anyway, the comments of the story were pretty funny. One person commented that is why he does yearly maintenance on his yard equipment, "they always start on the first or second pull". Another person posted something about devine intervention, that a "higher force" prevented the yard equipment from starting. One person responded to that comment and said the higher force was called oxidation. Another called the higher force fouled spark plugs. And a third person said it was high gas prices, cracks me up!

Well I guess I better get going. I was having trouble with my chainsaw the other day and I just couldn't get it started. I pulled and pulled the cord an it just wouldn't go, so I had to use the weed whacker, but again it wouldn't start, so I had to drive to The Home Depot....I couldn't figure out why my family was running away from me as fast as the could.

More Sunflowers

2008-08-06T09:52:00.002-06:00

As the sunflowers keep coming out I keep getting reminded of what I planted! I forgot that I bought a package of purple sunflowers, and when they started popping out a couple of days ago I thought something was wrong because they were black as night. I took a couple of pictures today, but they are clearly turning more purple than staying black. Anyway, it's funny to me that I forget what I planted and where I planted it....so when it comes up it is a big surprise!

Less than a week

2008-08-03T09:07:00.003-06:00

6 days and counting down until the BIG race. I am really nervous. First thing is first I need to get my diet under control....quickly. The trip to Loveland really threw me into a tailspin, and somehow seemed to justify a few extra days off since we have been home! I don't know how that works, but it did! I ran 4 miles on Friday and was completely useless for the rest of the day and most of Saturday in terms of my foot. I really don't know how it is going to hold up for the race and what is going to happen to me post race. My taper schedule calls for me to do light runs and bikes as well as swim everyday. I think I might skip the running, unless I do some short 2 mile treadmill runs.

We'll see I guess. I am nervous to say the least, but I have a plan and I'll just have to stick to it and see how it goes!

My Sunflowers

2008-08-02T11:03:00.003-06:00

A while back I posted about my sunflower seed that I planted and I was very concerned that I got them in the ground too late and wouldn't get any decent flowers....check them out today! They are about 6 feet tall and the sunflowers are just starting to come out.

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

2008-07-28T14:16:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-07-27T22:18:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-26T11:41:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-23T17:49:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-07-22T21:52:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-21T10:34:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-20T22:41:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-07-19T08:42:00.003-06:00

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.

2008-07-17T13:59:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-07-16T22:45:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-15T19:28:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-15T09:14:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-13T09:55:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-11T08:52:00.002-06:00

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

2008-07-09T17:40:00.003-06:00

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

2008-07-07T14:33:00.004-06:00

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

2008-07-06T09:54:00.004-06:00

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

2008-07-05T15:27:00.002-06:00

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!

2008-07-04T13:12:00.003-06:00

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!!!!

2008-07-02T17:52:00.004-06:00

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

2008-07-01T10:21:00.004-06:00

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!

H....E.....Double Hockey Sticks

2008-06-30T08:52:00.003-06:00

Take a look at this weather outlook for Salt lake City this week:

That is gross. It makes me sick just looking at it. We'll see how accurate it is, but if it hold true this is going to be a crappy hot week! Sometimes I think the "experts" make it worse than it actually will be....or do I make it out to be worse than it actually is? Anyway, if they overestimate the high temps then they will be heroes cause it wasn't so hot. Same in the winter if they say it is going to be -5 all week and it actually only goes to +20 degrees everybody is happy cause it wasn't so cold. Guess I have to keep watering the lawn like crazy so it doesn't "all" die, I bet I have 15% sunburned lawn today....by the end of the week I'll be at 25%!

Long Runs

2008-06-29T11:29:00.002-06:00

If I am to partake in the Utah Half Ironman I need to be sure my foot is going to hold up. So each weekend I am going to do 1 long run, and.....sorry....you have to hear about them! So today was supposed to be 6 miles, poor route planning on my part made it 5. Foot hurt quite a bit at first, but by mile 1 it was feeling great. When I got home I stretched and iced and medicated and it feels pretty good now. So step one, the 5 mile test....passed! Next week we'll see how the 8 mile test goes (with better route planning!).

One other tidbit that I am sure everybody cares deeply about, I am going to buy new running shoes today, hopefully that will help with the foot pain. I'm going to try a new brand...maybe the old brand had some weird pressure points that are contributing to the foot pain. It's a thought anyway. I also had a good week in the weight loss department, the lighter the better!

Friday Fun

2008-06-27T08:23:00.003-06:00

Ok, so for those of you that haven't heard my wife was in a car accident on Wednesday night, she is fine...her car not so much. It is totaled, hopefully. We are still waiting to hear from the insurance company, I really don't want a car that has extensive accident repair done on it....I don't think they ever drive the same. Anyway, this has FORCED me into more bike riding since she is now driving my car. So yesterday we just tried to hang out at home, but we just got on each others nerves (the kids and I). Today we are going to try to avoid the lengthy down time, and since Bridget is working all day and all night and half of tomorrow....we really need to stay happy all day!

So here is the plan, we are going to ride to the rec center where I am going to ride the stationary bike and run on the treadmill. Then we are going from the rec center to an afternoon showing of Disney/Pixar's new movie Wall-e. Should be fun, hope I'm not crazy for taking 2 kids to the movies by myself! Then I'll bike us all home. Total round trip will be about 17 miles, plus the 12 or so that I'll ride on the stationary bike! At least it is only supposed to get to 88 degrees today, so it should be a little cooler (100+ degrees on Sunday!).

Bike commuting at it's best!
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Update: so about 30 minutes after I made this wonderful post I got a call from the insurance company and I have to meet them this afternoon....right in the middle of what was going to be our movie time! So that idea might be scrapped as well as the ambitious bike ride. So sad. Hopefully we can get the car situation squared away quickly so we can return to life as normal.

Great, now what?

2008-06-25T18:30:00.002-06:00

I did a little more jogging today, and my foot is still bothering me. I am following doctors orders and starting it off gradual...even slower than he recommended. Still hurts. I need to get some miles under me if I am going to run a half marathon in 6 weeks. It isn't going to be easy. My hope now is that when I buy new running shoes on Friday, maybe that will help. Other than that I am at the mercy of the Plantar Fasciitis gods I guess. I am still icing, still stretching, I tried easing off of the ibuprofen (only made it hurt more), and I have been a little not so good on the strengthening exercises I am supposed to do...mostly case they make it hurt more. So I guess my thought are to finish out this season and then take a few months off from running and hope it heals. Aarrrrrgh! It is so frustrating!

Back to the grindstone

2008-06-24T08:56:00.003-06:00

Well with the last triathlon in the rear view mirror, my sights are set on the next adventure. That would be the Utah Half Ironman Triathlon (1.2 mile swim/56 mile bike/13.1 mile run...aka 70.3-total of all the distances) on August 9th. I did a little research last on last years results and found out that this race is filled with extremely good triathletes. The guy that won my age group last year ran the 13 miles at 7 minutes per mile or something insane like that. So this is one of those races that I just want to go out there and finish. I am also going to prepare a little better, something tells me that not running for a month really didn't help my run last Saturday. Yesterday, I am proud to report, I began running again! Since I can't just jump right back into it full steam...I decided to do 2 miles. While there was a little pain it was much better than before, and I finished the 2 miles in 17 minutes fairly easily...And that was after riding 15 miles on the bike!

I've also been doing a lot of research in biking stuff. Everything these days is carbon fiber, lightweight...strong...EXPENSIVE! Anyway, I came across an interesting comment that it was much easier to take weight off of the rider than it was to take weight off of a bike. So another focus besides running, is going to be dropping a few extra pounds. I'd like to be as light as possible for the race, it's not rocket science.

Finally I need to work on my hydration. I was so thirsty by the time I started the run that each aid station I was drinking too much water and Gatoraide. I was craving it so much I couldn't help myself. Problem was I drank too much and felt sick while running and my belly felt like it was all bloated and sloshing around. I hated that feeling. Anyway, I plan on working on hydrating while riding the bike (I drank a small water bottle during the race, but I feel like I needed at least one more). I had a couple of GU packets as well, but I really didn't feel any different before or after taking them. Pre race meal might also be something to looks at. Pre race hydration? Hmmmm. As you can see I have a lot of preparations to make before August 9th. Keep your fingers crossed and send me some motivation, I could really use it right about now!

More Cowbell!

2008-06-21T18:22:00.002-06:00

Perhaps inspired by Will Ferrell on Saturday Night Live, the medals for the triathlon were actual working cowbells!

Anyway, back to the race. So keep in mind it was my first Olympic Triathlon, first open water swim, first 10K race, etc. So lets start with the swim. Nerves, nerves, nerves...that's how I'd explain my swim. I was very nervous and anxious. In the end I turned out the fastest 1500 yard swim of my life! 23 minutes and 16 seconds is a personal record I do believe. I was pretty shocked at that time cause I felt like I was all over the place...I don't think I can swim in a straight line to save my life when there are no lane lines to stare at! The 23:16 was good enough for 1st in my age division and 24th overall.

Transition one was also hectic, I wasn't sure how stripping off my soaking wet wetsuit was going to go and if I was going to be a little loopy when I went from swimming horizontal to standing upright and running. In the end, it took me 2:06...which this was odd also put me in 24th place (I've never seen a race rank the transition times!

The bike was kinda weird. I started out strong and felt good. Then I hit these two hills that are back to back and I swear the wind was in my face the whole time. Then I turned a corner and hit a long flat section and I swear at that exact moment the wind shifter straight into my face! I mumbled to myself that I was done, I really wished at that point that I was entered in the Sprint race! But after a few minutes I regrouped and things went better. I averaged 21.8 MPH, and finished the 24 miles in 1 hour 8 minutes and 20 seconds....good enough for 17th overall and 1st in my age group.

Transition two was pretty standard. I racked my bike and changed shoes. I left for the run in 1 minute 19 seconds....good enough for 29th overall and again first in my age group. Again it is so strange that a race ranked the transitions, odd, but kinda cool.

OK, so for those of you keeping track at home, in my age group I finished first on the swim, first on T1, first on the bike, first on T2. Pretty good right? Well then came the run. The major downer and disappointment of the day. I finished the 10K in 1 hour 9 minutes and 2 seconds, which is a dismal 11 minutes 8 seconds per mile. All I remember is it was hot, there was a decent hill right off the bat, and my first few steps were met with a feeling that I was running on empty. So over the course of the run I gave up a 6 minute lead over the guy that won my division, and a 12 minute lead to the guy that finished 2nd in my age group. On top of those losses I then spotted the age group winner 17 more minutes and another 14 for the 2nd place guy. So yeah, I was disappointed. I thought I was going to run better, but I guess I bonked....I seriously had zero energy and took LOTS of walking breaks.

So I finished 3rd in my age group, unfortunately there were only 3...the 4th guy didn't show up. So I won a medal, although it was sort of by default.

But I suppose I could always say, at 2 hours 44 minutes I finished 3rd and just leave off the part about there only being 3 in my age group!

1 vs. 84

2008-06-19T09:05:00.003-06:00

So I am racing the Cache Valley Triathlon this Saturday and I am getting more and more antsy as the day draws near. There are a lot of firsts in this race, it is my first Olympic distance race, my first open water swim, my first 10K run in a race, and probably some other firsts too that I can't think of. They have closed the entries, so I now know that there are 84 people entered in the Olympic race. Of that 84, I think there are only 4 in my age group...that is if they go 30 - 34 year olds. That means I only need to beat out 1 dude to be in the top 3 in my age group, but that's not really my goal....I'd rather finish in the top 15 overall. I am nervous about that as well though, because I have a theory that the Olympic race has many more experienced triathletes than the sprint races...so the quality of my competition could be greater than I've faced before. Another goal that I have is to average more than 23 MPH on the bike, that would be insanely fast...but I rode the course last week and I think it is entirely possible, I just need to pedal my little legs off! And of course we'll keep our fingers crossed with my foot. I have only jogged twice in the last 4 weeks, it felt pretty good both times so I am hopeful. Anyway, I'll have the cheering squad with me...armed with the camera so hopefully we'll get some good pictures!

The Tiki Room

2008-06-17T21:17:00.003-06:00

Sydney had her dance performance tonight, it was really cute. Take a look, she is under the letter T on the sign in the background. Hope you like it!

Fathers day

2008-06-15T21:08:00.003-06:00

Just when I start to think "what a bust" this fathers day was, my kids go and save the day. It doesn't matter if I got a fathers day gift (apparently I was supposed to buy my own?) or that Bridget had to work for 30 hours in a row starting at 7 AM on fathers day, or that the only people I encountered were at Home Depot...and that was even limited since I went through self checkout. So even though I coached them on what to say and do, they are still cute and this little short video is better than any gift....but I would still take a Cervelo P3C Carbon Fiber triathlon bike with Zipp 808 wheels! I guess I'm only about 8K away from that gift though!