Monday, July 31, 2006

Back from Daytona

Well last night @ about 11:15pm lisa and I got back from our vacation so I thought I would give a quick wrap up of how things went.

Sunday: Sara took us to the airport and we got out on time and with a bonus. We got bumped to business class without having to pay for it which meant swanky seats, better snacks, and we got to sit together which was not going to happen with out previous seats. We got into Orlando early, like 10am and made our way to Hertz rental car where we were surprised by what we got. I was expecting a Ford Focus or something like that which although I dont like focus' very much im fine with them and thats what I was expecting. However we got a Red Pontiac Vibe which made lisa very happy as she likes Fun red cars on vacation and I was excited to get to drive a car I had not driven previously. My final thoughts are I was pretty impressed with the vibe and only had one minor complaint about it that is really nothing at all. SO we made the 1.5 hour drive to Daytona and got to our Condo which was not ready for us yet. SO we walked around a bit and sat and read and around 2ish we got into our room which was FANTASTICKY. The condo was larger than our first apartment and better equipped too. It had a bedroom with TV and king size bed. A huge bathroom, kitchen, and living room with another tv. A balcony that overlooked the ocean and man it was just really nice. SO the room was a major hit! After we got unpacked Lisa and I were both really feeling wiped out so we just chilled in the room and watched the movie Gattaca (one of my personal favs) and then I made dinner and I think we just sat on our balcony and read.

Monday: First real day out in the Sun having fun! Got some good laying out time and just hung out around the pool and ocean. Walked around to some of the local shops and what not. Also went grocery shopping for food for the week at publix. I miss publix its like the best grocery store ever.

Tuesday: Again started the day out right by laying out and chilling by the pool. Around noonish we made our way up to St. Augestine and hit the two outlet malls there and WOW they were huge. Much much bigger than I remember so we were their for a really long time. We got taco bell for dinner and when we got back I think we went and did some more reading by the pool in the coolness of the evening.

Wednesday: Well it seemed that all the walking from the day before was a little too much for Lisa as her foot was really hurting her. SO we decided that wednesday was just going to be a chill day. A do nothing day. SO we spent like all day by the pool. I laid out most of the morning and early afternoon then joined lisa in her covered "safe" zone for more reading. Why was she in a covered safe zone. well it turns out that its not good for pregnant woman to significantly alter their body temp very much. Even a few degrees can be hard on the baby inside so lisa was hiding from the sun most of the vacation. However today that backfired. A small building was basically blocking the sun from Lisa where she was sitting however as best we can guess the suns rays were bouncing off the beach and reflecting off our books so that we both got more sun than we had anticipated that afternoon. Lisa got burned pretty good and I got rather crispy myself which is really rare. However we both felt safe and out of the sun so Lisa had no sunscreen on and I had not re-applied since the morning. Live and learn, the sun IS out to get me.

Thursday: I think we pretty much just stayed inside most of the morning as lisa was not too keen on getting any more sun for a little while and I was fine with that as well. Also her foot was still not feeling that great. However this was also great b/c we just snuggled up on the sofa and watched TV. We did some walking around in the afternoon. We went venturing for a place to eat dinner and went to Bennigans and it was pretty good. Then we went to see "The Devil Wears Prada" which I thought was pretty good and lisa liked it too. Whats awesome is that the movie theater is on the beach about a block down from our hotel so we walked back to the condo on the beach after the movie and that was nice and romantic.

Friday: Another Slight hiatus from the sun. We decided to do some more local shopping and drive around a bit. Tried to finish up souvenier shopping and then went to this little italian place we used to go to when we lived in daytona. Its called the italian villiage and oh my gosh. They have amazing calzones there but they were a bit different from when we used to get them. The difference is they are about 3xs the size they used to be. They could have easily lasted 3 meals each for us but after two we were out of time and had to throw away the remainder. : ( very very sad.

Saturday: slept in and then hit the pool deck for one more great day of kicking back and takin names. In the evening we got dressed up a bit and played some mini golf and then on impulse went to denny's (does anyone ever go to denny's not on an impulse???) so this was pretty funny as our waiter totally forgot about us or I guess I should say decided to ignore us b/c the cooks were yelling at him to pick up our food and bring it to us -- but he just kept walking by them and doing other things. Finally another waitress noticed us both eyeing our food in the warming racks and asked if we needed anything. We explained and she got us our food. Then my drink became empty but still no visit from our server since he took our order so I went up to the counter and asked for a refill. Needless to say their was no tip given that night and I even explained why to the girl checking us out so that it was understood. SO we get back and decided to go for a walk on the beach. We heard that every saturday night they have fireworks off the pier (which is about .5 miles from our hotel) and I kid you not. We walked out on the beach got our toes wet and BANG! they started going off! We had no idea when they were supposed to happen but we just happened to be there at the right time. So that was really pretty to see fireworks over the ocean.

Sunday: Ok I love our current church but the PCA as a whole can be iffy and in florida it can be downright bonkers so i was not really looking forward to church. We decided not to go to the church I went to while at school and opted for the other PCA church. WOW had it changed and for the better. SO church was really nice. Then we scooted back to the condo and hung out on the deck till about 3:30 but not before getting one more walk in on the beach. After that we got down to orlando fine and checked in and all was going well until a pretty big storm hit orlando and delayed everything by about an hour. SO we got in later than we would have wanted but it was still a good time.

SO to sum up we had an amazing time and we totally needed this. It was just 1 solid week of "chill" and we both just kept commenting on how relaxed we felt and just how laid back it all was. SO I can't complain about a thing it was just total wonderfullness and was a great last vacation before Kaiya comes in november.

Cheers!

Thursday, July 20, 2006

7 days without sleep makes one (very freaking tired) weak

(if you have not checked out the v2.0 blog go there now!)

Ok yeah so I just dont sleep anymore which combined with me ramping up my training efforts is leading to, well, not so good results. I am wiped and I was making jokes this morning that were in retrospect not very funny but at the time I thought they were hilarious. SO I think vacation is coming at a good time. I just want to sleep through the night again. Last night consisted of us going to be around 10:30pm (which is not usual) and then around 1am I got up b/c I had been having a dream that my sweet pregnant wife desired a chocolate chip cookie. Silly me I actually got out of bed and started to go get her one when I realized -- you fool! we have no cookies! -- and that was the start of another restless night. I think I woke up every hour on the hour if not more until my alarm went off. SO not a very restfull night of sleep thats for sure. SO how is training now that I am commited to a marathon? Well im still trying to split things up between my 3 major disciplines and I am finding that I feel as though I am just kinda spinning my wheels. I need to formulate more of a plan and actually stick with it. I need to have workouts scheduled so that I dont just show up at the gym and go hmm I think ill do this or that today. I think that will help me achieve my goals better than the haphazard means I have been using so far. Other than that I am sore. I am running more now that I have in a long time in anticipation of the marathon and just trying to be smart to ward off injury which would be a bad thing. Other than that its really freaking hot which I like but the humidity is officially much much worse here than in florida so I feel I can complain about it. Its pretty nasty.

Other items of noteworthyness:
Lisa and I leave for vacation this sunday morning and are headed for Daytona Beach where we are going to take advantage of our newly acquired TIME SHARE. lol so that should be nice. We are both feeling burnt mentally and physically and if im going to feel burnt I want to at least be tan dangit! SO it should be a good time. We dont have much planned right now but we do hope to go snorkeling perhaps and just take it easy. Maybe some midnight walks on the beach would be nice as well! anyway we will be there for a week and im bringing my little ps1 and hope to get to play a lot of chrono cross as I like that game alot. Should be a really good time and I will be there in just a few days!!!!!!!!

Trying to think of what else is cool or what not. Oh yeah I have another race set for the end of september. This event is a team tri and the honorable Daniel Hickey has agreed to be my race partner. I fear his youthfull vigor will squash my seasoned veteraness and he will kick my butt, however thats ok b/c its a really neat event that starts with a 3 mile canoe in a two man boat (hence why its a team event) then a 20 mile bike and a 5 k run. My bike is far superior than anything dan will get to ride but he is a much stronger run then me (and I will have just run a marathon 2 weeks earlier) so Im expecting him to be the fast one even if I drop him on the bike I think he will either catch or more likely pass me on the run. But just the nature of this event is going to be fun. SO look for more details later on that.

well I have some work to do so
Cheers!

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Taking the plunge

Well I did it. I signed up for the Air Force Marathon today and now I have a few months to train and get back into marathon shape. Im pretty excited for a couple of reasons.

1. Ive been dying to do a long course race and this should take me somewhere around 3.5 - 4.5 hours to complete and although it will just be one event its a good mental booster b/c once I complete a marathon it will not be this impossible task.

2. This is my chance to stick it to the man, and the man in this case is the Air Force. Ya see ever since I was a wee lad I had one dream. Go to the Air Force Academy - become a fighter pilot - and finnaly fly the biggest fastest hunk of junk on the planet -- The space shuttle. Thats right kids my dream since I was little was to be a shuttle pilot. SO anyway long story short the airforce said I was not good enough for them b/c of regulations that were written in the 40's and are in many ways no longer applicable. SO here is my chance to show the Air Force that I am in fact good enough and that I am not the cripple they made me out to be.

Yes I know that not a single person hosting the event has any idea about this or even cares they are just happy that I am running in it. But for me its just a little personal score to settle.

Cheers!

Friday, July 07, 2006

Skankware

Since labeling things _______ ware seems to be all the rage right now I have come up with my own and that is Skankware. My definition:

Any piece of software that seems attractive enough to buy, however once purchased, does nothing but bring your system down and leave you with all sorts of nasty viruses that you cant get rid of.

Example: AOL is total skankware.

alias terms could also be ho-ware.

Im thinking about actually submiting this to Wikipedia as they have no definition for Skankware currently.

cheers!