Snakes on a plane.

Yeah thats all I can say. "snakes on a plane...." Why is that you might ask? B/c the last two days have been ab-so-freaking-lutely crazy. Let me break it down for y'all

August 9th 7:10am
I walk down stairs to leave for work and am troubled by an unfamiliar sound that is EXTREMLY loud. as I come around the corner I am greeted by what is a pretty terrifying thing for any homeowner (i.e. sucker) to behold. What was it? Well to be frank it was roughly 1/2" of standing water on my kitchen floor and a large area of my carpet that was very very squishy. I can now make out the sound and its the sound of massive amounts of rushing water coming from my mechanical closet. I open the doors and I swear it was like that scene in the second ring movie where the mom opens the door to the bathroom and water is everywhere in the room. Everywhere and you just cant figure out where the water is coming from. SO I just stood there for probably 10 sec. in shock. Just staring at all this water thats well everywhere. Finally I was able to figure out where the water was coming from so I start trying to shut some of the valves to get the water off. I finally get the water off and there I am. Soaking wet and looking at toshi's food dish floating across the kitchen floor. I walked upstairs and told lisa that I wasnt going to work today and briefed her on the sitch. I went back downstairs and started to try and clean things up. Fast forward to about 10:30 when the floor is close to pretty much dry and I start making my way to find the replacement tank I need. Meanwhile lisa went to grampas and got the wet/dry vac and the carpet wet vac and was pulling gallons and gallons of water out of the carpet. I think 15 gallons was our best estimate at one point. And ya know what. thats a whole lotta water and the carpet is still really wet. SO around noonish I roll back into the house and start working on getting this tank installed. I had been warned to get good wrenches and to make sure the pvc was supported well so that it didnt break. Now you know I wouldnt be talking about this if it had gone smoothly! HA! yeah I was screwing it in BY HAND and the piece it screws into cracked!!!!! ARGGGGG I was 1/4 turn to far which means I was a 1/4 turn past being done. SO then I had to cut the pvc out go to lowes and buy pvc to re-create this jacked up joint the builder put in. I think it came as a big surprise to me that I actually got the right pieces and got it all glued together and working - With no leaks!!!!! SO its about 3:30pm now and I am wiped out. The kitchen is dry but the carpet despite lisa putting a smackdown on it is still really wet. SO that was it for the day. The high side of this is that I was able to get the whole thing fixed for roughly 55 bucks. Versus what a plumber would have charged to come out and fix it for me. SO thats good. SO that ends that day.

August 10th:
Ok so today the carpet is still pretty wet and Lisa was talking to a co-worker and he basically told her we should call our insurance company and find out what we should do b/c if their is bad enough water damage there is a good chance for things like mold or walls being weekend and what not. SO we talked and I was like ok. SO today at 4pm im meeting a guy to get an estimate of what the damage is from our catastrophe yesterday. Worst case scenario its really expensive and we turn a claim into insurance and are out our deductible plus we get the added bonus of getting a 10% per year surcharge for the next 3 years. SO yea! Dont you love insurance. Something that penalizes you when you use it. ITs AWESOME!

SO im leaving work early today to meet with the guy and i will let you guys know whats going to happen. On the good side if all the floors are ruined it might be a good time to upgrade! who knows.

Cheers!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Whats up?

Ok well its been a little while since my last post and I dont have a whole lot to say so I will try to be brief and since I know everyone misses my bulleted lists of updates they are back again today! SCORE!

Training -- Sucks! been busy this week and only trained 2xs so far. Might do a brick tonight not sure but I need to either today or tommorow. Might have a race on tuesday 2mile run, 10 mile bike, 2 mile run so short and sweet.

Work -- Has been very hectic and thats all I feel like saying. Oh I got my new contract which means raise and more bragging rights so WOOT. side note I discovered where the term "woot" came from today. It originated from old dungeon crawler games and was the shortened version of "wow loot." hence WOOT!

Games -- totally wrapped up in oblivion and having the best time with it. Such a great game and well worth the cost of admission.

Baby stuff -- go see my baby page I posted today as well.

Life in general -- Vacation has been booked! w00t w00t!!!! Lisa and I will be going to Daytona the last week of july for vacation and using our time share which is super duper cool and we are totally excited about it. Its bitter sweet as its out last vacation without kids which is exciting on both sides of the coin. SO needless to say we are both very jazzed.

Well thats about it for now but I hope everyone is doing well.

Cheers!

Ok i know its been awhile....

Ok I know its been awhile but I've seriously been pretty busy. But ok here are some pics from a few weekends ago when lisa sara and I went to MI to see Rich, Beck, and Ash. Here you will notice Sara and me on the quads. This was a ton of fun and something that we will have to do again. Just in case you cant tell Sara is on the right and I am on the left. And yes just in case you were wondering we did take these fine machines off some sweet jumps!



Here we see Rich and future moto crosser Ash kicking it two up style on a quad. Ash loves riding with her daddy and its probably good that she was there with him to keep him in line as he latter admitted to me he thought he was riding with a broken or bruised rib from a trampoline stunt the night before. You so crazy!



So there ya go some quad pics. SO what else is new. Well work has been pretty busy and I am very tired. We have been working hard on getting things ready for scout (check scouts blog if you have not recently) and I have just been trying to keep my head above water. Now I know some of you are thinking -- hey what happened to all that training you were doing? Are you still racing? Well yes and no and yes I guess. My problem is finding events that I can do which limits me to saturdays instead of the day most events are on which is sunday. This knocks me out of about 90% of the events that are taking place close to me and schedule conflicts take care of another 5% so as you can see that leaves next to nothing for me to do. I do however have a duathlon on the 27th of this month that I plan on doing.

2 mile run
10 mile bike
2 mile run

SO thats all thats on the hopper at the moment. However I am making future plans which include the air force marathon this year and the florida IronMan next year. Thats right im signing up (or at least trying to) for an iron man. More details when I actually get confirmation which wont happen till november. SO my big race is over a year away but thats how much time it takes to plan and prepare for something like this. SO im glad im taking my time.

Gaming: Playing oblivion still (love it!) I finished the fighters guild and am now working through the assasins guild which is a lot of fun. I might take on the main quest sometime soon. Just not sure. Other than that playing burnout for 360 which rocks! and after watching ringu zero last night I want to play fatal frame 3. SO we will have to set that up and go with it soon.

Well thats all for now.

Cheers!

W00T W00T!!!!

Ok I have launched a second blog. No this one is not dying this one is very very much alive. However this new site is dedicated to scout. Who's scout you say? Scouts my baby which means Lisa is pregnant! Yes it is an exciting time however this is not the venue for such topics as I have set up an entire site just to document the pregnancy SO bounce on over there and check often as I have lots of stuff to put on there so I will be posting frequently to both.

http://v2-0.blogspot.com/

You go now!

Cheers!

Quick Update!!!!

Well the unthinkable has happend. My po-dunk town has crawled out from under the rock that it was under and discovered a little thing called DSL. Yes thats right DSL is finally available in my area and on Monday night I ordered it!!! Im so jazzed and we got a killer deal so thats cool as well. It will be so nice to have net at the house so that we dont have to run to panera at like 8pm b/c lisa has to send an e-mail or check on something for work. Also I got wireless gear coming so that should be pretty cool as well. I will finally have a nice little home net and yes I know like surround sound this stuff has been available for like ever but hey not in my area so there. Also its pretty cool since lisa, sara, and me all have wireless laptops so the wireless part will be nice and the main tower will be hard wired in so thats set as well. The only component I dont have quite figured out yet is the xbox 360. Not sure what to get to make that work and its a low priority to lisa which means I either need to get it online for free or dirt cheap. SO thats whats up with me. On the family side my folks should be in scotland right now. If you didnt know they just moved their to be missionaries for 3-5 years. Still waiting on my e-mail from them to say they got their ok but that should be coming. Well thats all for now.

cheers!

All faith is now lost in humanity

Ok a few months ago I happened upon a trailer for a movie that at the time I thought was a spoof on the crappiness that is modern day hollywood. The name of the movie was of course "snakes on a plane" The trailer (watch it now) Just seemed to campy to me and the idea too ubsurd to be an actual movie and from the original site I found it on seemed like someone with some time on their hands and some vid editing software made a really campy trailer for a really out their movie starring Mr. Samuel L. Jackson. Much to my shagrin (yeah I said shagrin) i discovered this morning that its an actual movie and its actually coming out this august and it actually looks so bad that it might be worth watching. Here is the story. Mr Jackson is like an fbi agent or something like that transfering a guy to prison I think on this plane. Or the guy is a witness it doesnt really matter in any event the bad people of the world want this guy dead so their plot is to release like 100 deadly snakes on a plane (hence the movie title) and figure that the ensuing havoc will kill the mark as well as everyone else and any trace of their plot. WOW. dude lets all just say it for a second

deep breath

"snakes on a plane"

I just cant say it without laughing. SO anyway i have no faith in hollywood anymore, not that I really did to begin with but hey yeah thats my thoughts on snakes on a plane.

In Other movie news I have seen two movies recently that were rather good. first up was silent hill -- which up until the ending I absolutely loved and then the other was Final Fantasy VII: Advent children Which I also absolutely loved. These two movies can be summed up in two words:

FAN SERVICE!!!!

OK not the creepy hentai type of fan service but like "dude you people have been loyal to (insert franchise here) and even though we said we would never do anything like this here ya go enjoy!" If you have never played Silent Hill 1 or 2 then you can still really enjoy the movie but a lot of it just wont have the same kick for you as it did for lisa and me. As far as Final Fantasy 7 goes if you have never played the game then like I wouldnt bother watching the movie. Yes its that simple. Unless you are watching it simply to be wowed by the absolutely breathtaking and life like CG it will be a waste of time. Heres why. Their is little story development at all. Why you might ask???? Hmm maybe its b/c its the continuation of a game that already had a huge story to it and they figure that 90% of the people watching the movie would have played the game at least once through and know the story very well. I will give an example of why I think its a waste if you have not played the game. the movie is pretty long like 1.5 hours and in the last like 20 min we are treated to the whole gang from the original game as they rush in to help cloud in the final fight. However they dont try to tell you who any of these people are. Why? B/c they assume you already know. IF you were just watching the movie I think you would be really confused as to who all these new characters were and I dont even think they said their names at all. But I loved FF7 the game and loved the movie! Thanks Squenix!!!!

Cheers!

Sup

Ok since some people have requested a new post here we go! Things have been pretty slow in that I feel like all im doing is working which is kinda blah since its so nice outside. SO what am I working on at work.

Web Caches. These things are on their last leg and need a lot of babying. Also our web filter which keeps all the kiddies from getting to pr0n is not working so well and needs some attention. On top of that I have a whole host of other things that needs to get done so there ya go. Although I have discovered something. If I plan to work on a big project one day guess what happens that day? A major outage or catastrophe and that keeps me from doing what I planned. However if I dont plan on doing anything the network stays pretty quiet. Are you getting my correlation? SO I have to tell you that most days I feel like if I dont plan on doing that much of anything im actually doing more for the network than if I were to plan on tackling a major project. Funny how life works.

SO whats up with training and races?

Well I had a race last week that I missed for a couple of reasons one being really crappy weather but I will do the next one I thinks in a month or so. Other than that the race calendar is very very quiet. 90% or races are on sunday so that rules out a large group of opportunities for me. There was an international / olympic distance tri that I wanted to do but its on the 27th of may and lisa and I are going up to michigan that weekend so that one is out which leaves only 1 other major race for the rest of the year. Its on july 15th and oh yeah did I mention that its a half ironman. Just in case you dont know what that means let me break it down for you

1.2 mile lake swim
56 miles on the bike
13.1 miles on the run course.

thats 70.3 miles covered in one event. I would be lying if I didnt say that scares the crap out of me. Thats so long and this race has time cut offs for each course so if you cant make it to the cut off you get yanked from the race. :( that would not be cool. The other drawback is that its really expensive. The entry fee alone is around $170.00 plus we would have to get a hotel room the night before so it would be a pricey event. SO I told lisa its up to her. If she says yes then I really really need to get my butt in gear and start working harder to make this happen. If she says no then I will just focus on some of these little races at wright patt and maybe some of the time trials there as well. SO we shall see. Oh had my first longer run of the year yesterday. 5.5 miles! Felt alright but got really dehydrated.

SO hows things at home? Well Since lisa has not been feeling well lately ive taken on the majority of the house work on top of what I already was doing. SO Saturday I spent all day on the yard mowing, raking, weeding, mulching, etc etc. SO im still sore from that. Last night she had a meeting so I worked on laundry and still have some left to put away. And tonight I will work on cleaning the house as it totally needs it.

Gaming life in Franklin -- Still finding some time to play. Lisa and I have been working through Champions and Dang thats a long game which is kinda rare for the hack and slash dungeon crawler. I really like this one and I like my character. Im a dark elf shadow night named aerylyn and I have this super cool spell that summons a skeleton warrior to help out in fights. We call him skully and he rocks. SO we have been playing that quite a bit. Other than that Im still working on oblivion and will be for a really long time. Almost done with thieves guild quest line which has been a lot of fun. However im currently getting spanked and think I may need to adjust the difficulty slider a bit to make this more fair. No im not a wuss but I cant handle 3-5 enchanted beasts and a high level wizard all at the same time. Its just too much.

SO thats whats up with that.

Cheers!

Lets hear it for sound! Surround Style!

Ok well im not proud of this but I have been the owner of a surround sound home theater system for the better part of 2 years now. Well ok thats not what Im ashamed of, what im ashamed of is that fact that for one reason or another I have never been able to hook up the rear channel speakers so I have never had the joy of the "surround sound." That all changed last night as I hooked up the 3 rear speakers (no Im not confused my sytem is a 6.1 setup) as well as the optical input from the 360. SO now I have surround sound for my movies and for my 360!!!!!! Ok so I popped in Oblivion and WOW. My TV has pretty good speakers but this is just freaking cool! At one point I was standing outside in the rain (this is in game people) and I could hear rain drops all around me. IT was AWESOME!!!!! I cant wait to get into some better situations like caves where i will be able to tell where people are by the sounds they are making. SO in short captain obvious says "hey boys and girls surround sound kicks regular stereo sounds butt!"

Cheers!

Same ol Same ol

That pretty much sums it up. I dont have that much to say about things as this past week has been pretty slow. I recovered well from the Tri and will more than likely do arace next tuesday. 2 mile run 10 mile bike and then another 2 mile run. Its at wright patt and will work very well for me to go there after work. SO thats cool. SO I need to spend more time on my bike. On a side note though I have now swam a mile straight in the pool without stopping. And then I did it again yesterday! SO thats pretty cool. Other than that lisa and I started playing Champions of Norath return to arms (thanks jason!) and Im still playing oblivion. Thats about it. Oh I am getting totally excited about silent hill which opens this weekend!!!! I think lisa and I will go see it on saturday maybe at the lebanon theater! Should be cool!

Cheers!

Im still ALIVE!!!!

Well the tri is over now and I feel pretty good. Here is my post race wrap-up!!!!

Winning time for the whole event was 1:02:32 my time was 1:26:51 which gave me a finishing place of 99th overall and 11th in my age group out of roughly 300 participants. So its not too shabby a finish for my first tri in 7 years. Yes 7 years. SO here is the tour in pictures. Also I would suggest clicking on some of the pics for a better view. Enjoy!


Here I am at the start of the swim. If you look close you can see me in the lane on the far left all the way at the top crouching down getting ready to enter the water. Yup thats me with all kinds of ambition and oh guess what I just realized??? I forgot to use my inhaler at all. Yes its at this moment that I realize that breathing is going to be an issue for the next hour and a half. IF you look really closely you can see an expression on my face that basically means "oh crap im an idiot!"


Ok just keep looking for the purple swim cap b/c thats me. They totally botched the swim start and really didnt release people well. This can be seen by the fact that their are 6 swimmers in this shot including me. This is not the way it was supposed to be. And as a result I got pretty beat up in the water.



Here I am a few meters later coming to the wall and getting sandwiched by a couple of other swimmers. The one on the left im trying to pass and the one on my right is trying to pass me. This was just not working.



Here I am basically stuck because their are too many people around me and I cant get under the rope to get to the next lane. However it is a good pic of me treading water waiting for a path to clear. If I look annoyed its b/c I was.


This is a great shot of a guy I just passed trying to swim over me. WOW that was fun.



Ok so the swim is over and here I am coming off the bike. IT was soooo freaking cold that I could not feel my fingers at all. My second transition was awefull almost 4 min in the transition area b/c I couldnt do anything. I had to get sara to unbuckle my helmet b/c I couldnt do it and some random guy saw me struggling to get my shoes on and offered to tie them for me. IF he had not done that I would not have made it out of the transition. To look at the pic you wouldnt know that it was like 28 degrees outside but it was. I just wasnt prepared for the cold.


Ok here I am at roughly mile 3 of the run (a 5k is 3.1 miles) I felt surprisingly good during the run and really cranked it out despite being really tired and thanks sara those gloves totally helped me feel better. I loved the run course it snaked throughout the miami campus and was really fast. SO that was a great way to finish.


Speaking of finishing heres the line. WOOT! I did it!!!! SO thats the tri in pictures. All in all im happy with my finish. It was my first in a long time and a good learning experiance. Also it helped me identify my weak link which is the bike right now and I feel I can improve that quite a bit. like a lot. SO thats cool. Im already pumped for the next event which I have not found yet but am totally looking now. Again thanks to everyone who has supported me in this process through gear help or just a kind word or even those few who came and froze their booties off to watch me. Thanks everyone your great!

Cheers!!!

Last day before race

Well its friday and that means the race is tommorow!!! I am excited and scared all at the same time. SO what kind of pre race prep am I doing you might ask? Well their is tons to do actually.

First thing this morning I checked the weather forcast for oxford OH on race day. The outlook is not so good. Between 8-10am the high temp is supposed to be 35-37ish and factoring in winds of roughly 15 mph (yikes) gives me a feel good temperature of about 27-29. WOW do I wish that was in celsius and not farenheit. SO its going to be really really cold. This is really throwing a wrench in my works b/c right now my race clothing is all designed around hot weather and keeping me cool SO I might have to alter it some as my top right now is a ultra cool sleeveless singlet. I will either have to put a jacket on to keep my chest warm or swith to a long sleeved cold weather jersey which I will not like in the run at all. SO I have that to think about. Next up I started to work on my pre-race checklist which I will list for your viewing pleasure. After I printed out draft one my first thought was "dang thats a lot of crap to take." SO here it is.

Misc. Clothing
º Post Race Clothing
º Singlet
º Tri-Shorts

Swim Items
º Cap
º Goggles
º Spare Goggles
º swimmers Ear

Bike Items
º Cycling Shoes
º Floor Pump
º Helmet
º Socks
º Spare Tube
º Sunglasses
º Tire Levers
º Water Bottles
º Wrench Set/Tools

Run Items
º Running Shoes

Everything Else
º Camera
º Champion Chip
º Directions to Race
º Energy Bars
º Energy Drink
º Garbage Bag
º Race Number Belt
º Towel for Transition Area
º Transition Bag
º Walkman/CD Player/Ipod
º Water
º Wrist Watch

Its amazing how much gear you need just to do one event. I guess its not that bad though if you think about the fact that its really 3 events crammed into 1.

SO what do I have left to do today.

1. Stay hydrated. - Im only drinking water and gatorade today
2. light workout - im thinking a nice 30 minute easy spin on bike
3. Shave my head - my hair is soo long
3. Shave my legs - yeah i do that.
4. Mount my bike computer - yeah I still have not done this
5. get my gear together and packed
6. final tune-up on bike - get my gears working like butter!
7. good night of rest - i have a feeling this is not going to happen.

I will probably make a final weather check but I doubt its going to make that much of a difference and thats that. Well for everyone who has been following me on this wish me luck and I hope I have some good news when I post again.

Cheers!

3 days to go

Hi every-o-n-e todays blog topic is brought to you courtesy of my inhaler. When the going gets tough the tough shoot meds in aerosol form directly into their lungs so that they can breath easier! Albuterol ask for it by name!

SO seriously ive got 3 days left till the tri and things are picking up. I ran 2 miles hard yesterday at lunch and basically did a run to failure type of run. Why you might ask? B/C thats how I plan for the last two miles of this tri to go. Mile 1 of the run will be recovery and transition from the bike. Then mile 1.5 will be fast (I hope) and then the last .5 will be, if I can, an all out sprint from my old days of running 800's in track. Of course this is just a plan and subject to my bodies approval.

After I got back from work I made it out on the bike for the first time and yeah im sore today but not as bad as I thought I would be and the bike is running like a dream. Shifts really well and my aero tuck is surpsingly comfortable. I can totally hold it for 30-40 min.

Today I did another timed 400m swim. All I gotta say is I needed some good news and I got it today -- 7:32 for my 400m!!!! I tried swimming it two ways. One more power and flailing about and one more calm and slower strokes but better form. Well in true Knodel fashion flailing about won as my better form time was 8:50. SO I feel good knowing how it is that I am going to be swimming this sat. I also feel goood that if nothing else I have dropped my time by like 1.5 min since I started swimming a month ago -- not to shabby.

Now onto what I know about the race. Well a lot of info has been e-mailed in the last day or so and one peice is the current participant list. right now their are roughly 240 people signed up with registration closing friday night. Out of those 240 that I know of currently their are 13 guys in my age group which is 25-29! SO thats pretty cool and to my surprise I am right with most of them in the swim time and even on the lower end. Hopefully I will have the hootzpuh to keep up a solid pace throughout this whole thing and who knows maybe I will make the top 3 in my age group. That would be pretty cool.

Dont know if I will get out on the bike today although I really really need to. Their is always the indoor trainer which totally sucks but what else can I do. I still need to get some more actual bike miles in so that I can do my final tune up maybe tommorow night to have my bike in tip top shape for sat.

I hope this is not all that boring for most of you and I should have quite a few good pictures after the weekend so that you guys can see what all my hard work got me!

Cheers!!

Best Quest Ever!

Ok I almost wrote a post that was going to basically say I was hosed in my current game of oblivion Oh yeah and just in case anyone was confused --

The elder scrolls IV Oblivion is the 4th game in a series of Role Playing computer games made by Bethesda Softworks. I am currently playing this game on my xbox 360 and anyone who reads this post should know that I am not speaking about myself but my character in the game. SO no I have not personally been turned into a vampire and no I have not gone wandering around the country side killing other vampires and stealing gems from magicians. This is in the game people!

-- end disclaimer--

Ok so when I played morrowind (the game before this one) I basically made the decision that I would not go back on a save. Basically if I made a bad decision that was life and I should not use a previous save to get me out of a bind b/c thats not real life. SO that being said last week while playing I was turned into a vampire (in the game people in the game) This might sound cool at first as you get tons of status bonuses however the down side is that if you dont feed everynight you become a crispy critter in the day light -- ANNNNNDDDD since shops are only open during the day as well as most everything else in the world this makes life really hard. also makes it hard to travel as you can only travel a night. SO I set out to find a cure for vampirism. This quest ended up really being a lot of fun and a total struggle all at the same time. However last night I finished it and I had a real sense of actual accomplishment and like I had cured myself and that it actually mattered. This is a really rare feeling in a video game but it does matter b/c now I can go anywhere and do anything again without fear of burning up while outside. Also this quest has got one of the best glitches in the game attached to it and that is at the end of the quest you get a reward of 500 gold. which is a lot of gold in the game for one quest so far. Well the glitch is that as long as you keep asking about the reward you keep getting it. SOOOOO in about 45 min time I went from having roughly 640 gold to 1.5 million gold. In short. Im set for money for the rest of the game which is a really nice feeling and im no longer a vampire which means that people will once again talk to me and that the vampire hunter that was on my tail will have to find someone else to hunt now! Yes the game is that deep and that cool.

Back to reality. 4 training days left till T-day. today I plan to swim and then get on my bike after work. I think I need to try to ride everyday this week even friday regardless of the weather b/c as luke pointed out yesterday the weather might not be ideal on sat. and I will not be able to use that excuse in the race. Tommorow I will probably set up my transition area in my garage and then do a brick with a transtion to start working on that. Time is running out and hopefully I will be better prepared then I feel right now.

Cheers!

1 week to go

Well its one week to go and I am not feeling as good about things with the Tri as I had hoped I would be at this point. SO I think my focus is shifting a little bit although im having problems getting my mind around the concept of "just doing it for fun and not caring about time" that just does not work for me. I mean I enjoy doing this type of thing but not really while its happening. Its like 5 min before the start or even the night before I feel like an idiot and resolve to not sign up for anything else again. Then as soon as I cross the line its like whens the next one. SO who knows. although I think I am going to still keep my original goal of 1 hour 20 min im becoming less confident that I can hit that. Here are my primary concerns

1. really bad swim workout today - just couldnt get breath cycle down - 400M felt really hard today.

2. I still have not ridden my bike more than just around the block. (this is really bad)

3. I never thought I was going to do anything sparktekular in the run to begin with and now its shaping up to be my strongest leg of the event. This does not make me happy since I anticipated it being my weakest section and I dont feel that I have made big improvements in the run.

4. transistions. WOW still have not practiced this but I need to.

I originally thought I would do a longer brick tommorow like a 10 mile bike and a 3 mile run. Now with the swim feeling worse im thinking I will bike to the Y (7miles) swim (8-1000M) then bike back (7 miles) That should be a pretty good workout if I can make it. Mostly dependant on the weather.

Wish me luck!

Cheers!

Brief Update

Well Chris, Kerry and Jenny are up for the week and we are having a blast with them. That pretty much sums up whats going on. I have not had much time to train at all which is not good but thats life ya know. Also my hopes of an Ironman I fear are waning. I was diagnosed with excersice induced asthma a number of years ago but I can honestly say it has never been a real factor to me. However with my increased cardio load that I have been putting on myself I am really struggling to breath comfortably not only while working out but just in day to day life. Also I had my first non-excercise related asthma attack on monday. I woke up with a great deal of pain in my lungs and a feeling that I just could not get any air into my lungs. SO I have been to the doc and got a new inhaler. Hopefully that will help some although I need to get into the habit of using it more often. Even now Im feeling short of breath. SO April 8th is still on the horizon but I dont know whats going to happen with a longer distance. Death is not my ultimate goal in all this so just be thinking of me. I just pray that I can get this back under control.

Cheers!

...and then I fell into Oblivion....

Well it happened this past sunday I got the automated call from gamestop that my pre-order of The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion would be in and ready for me to purchase on monday!!! I was soooo excited as this has been one of the biggest games I have been looking forward to for the xbox 360 and one of the big reasons I wanted to get a 360 in the first place. Unfortunately I have gotten this game during one of the worst weeks possible in that We are doing major "spring cleaning" and so most of my time is consumed by chores around the house. In fact I took a personal day off of work yesterday and spent most of the day cleaning and doing chores. This is how my week is pretty much going to look leading up to the weekend when Chris, Kerry, and Jenny!!! arrive. (side note. Chris you may want to extend your vacation b/c once you see oblivion well yeah your going to want to stick around longer! and kerry im sorry for whatever impulses chris leaves our house with ^_^ ) SO anyway I did get to play for a few hours tuesday morning and WOW thats all I can say. The intro is awesome. I started playing around 8 am and I did not finish the "intro" stuff till about 10. I then ran around a little bit and killed some wild dogs and started to make my way on my first quest. SO why did it take so long? whats so wow about it? If you care read on if you dont thanks for coming by and I will catch you next time.

Why the intro takes so long and the WOW factor.

First off let me say that I have NEVER played a game that gave you so much control over how your character physically looks. Im not talking armor, hairstyles or tatoos im talking full on control of how your character looks. Oblivion uses a series of slider bars to allow you to customize every feature of a persons face. I have to say that there are at least 30 aspects of the face you can change. That combined with the like 6-8 character classes and that each one can be either male or female and you can spend a TON of time creating your character. I spent probably a good I dunno 45 min on mine. I had a pretty specific idea of what I was going to pick and what she, yes she, would look like. I picked a female wood elf b/c I like elves and high elves are tooo pretentious and dark elves, well lets just face it dark elves just look mean all the time and are not very pretty so I chose a nice wood elf. My only complaint of a characteristic I could not change was the ears. I had a very specific Idea of how I wanted the ears to be and seeing as it was an elf ears play a big part in the appearance and that was not something that I could change. however im still not complaining b/c aside from all the physical facial changes that could be made you also can choose hair style and color. skin color, age, and complexion. SO there are a TON of ways to customize your character and I feel like oblivion has made good on the promises of fable in that I doubt you will find many people playing a character that looks like another one. Now if you dont want to spend the time you can take the defualt or you can hit the random button and it will randomly assign attributes and create a unique character. ITs soooo cool. I still think that I will probably grab a pic of myself and see if I can recreate myself into the game as a playable character. It seems very very possible to me. SO to anyone who says their are no next gen games on the 360 I say phooey! Oblivion is definitly where its at.

Now onto the WOW

Ok like I said I just got started but so far the intro sequence with the NPC's was fantastic and the first dungeon you crawl through it a ton of fun. In Morrowind you basically got dropped off in the middle of a town and pretty much everyone experianced the same feeling for the first 5 min or so which was. ummm like what am I supposed to like ummm do??? Oblivion is totally diff. You hit the ground running and within the first minutes you have a weapon and you are fighting your way through rats and goblins. Collecting items casting magic and in general having a great time. The environments are fantastic and the lighting is amazing. Im not sure yet but while I was underground I had to use a torch for light and since torches are consumable I think the light it provided slowly diminished as the torch was wearing out. However you dont really notice since its soooo gradual your eyes get used to the lesser level of light. SO cool! SO then I finally made it out of the intro dungeon and out into the real world and well it was the middle of the night and it was soo dark I could hardly see anything. It was really overcast so the moon and stars provided little light and I didnt really feel like using all my torches up so I decided to use the wait feature and basically rest till morning. Well I awoke at dusk and got to see a sun rise which was pretty awesome and then I saw something that was just plain cool. Deer. yup I know this should not be that big a deal but animals in games are almost always hostile or they dont care that you are there. Well these deer were not like killer demon deer. They were normal deer out in the morning grazing and when I crested the hill they became aware of me and instantly took off. I gave chase and for a minute or so just enjoyed running after the deer and no I had no intention of killing them. but like I said it was just cool to see passive life in the world that reacted to me being there. Now onto my new best friend -- Mr. Compass. Ahh one of my big complaints with morrowind was sometimes it was hard to know where you were going. However thanks to the addition of the compass as soon as I was out of the dungeon I knew where I was going thanks to a little pointer arrow that is helping me along my way. SO thats really cool. SO far all my major complaints against morrowind have been fixed and that is really cool. I totally cant wait to play this more and hope to get a little bit of time with it tonight maybe. Otherwise it could be saturday till I get a chance to play it and that would just suck. But hey once I get the house spotless I should have some more time. I will post more thoughts as I play through.

cheers!

WOOT!!!!

Ok most of you know that my ipod's little drive crashed about a month ago and I decided I would attempt the repair as the cost of the repair is around 200-250 with all the shipping. I got my drive today and thanks to the help of Josh Highlands blog I was able to succesfully yank the old drive and put the new one in. I ran apple updater and then reloaded all my tunes. took less than an hour and I am so jazzed! Its nice to have my little workout buddy back and its been a lonely time without it. SO for anyone out there with an ipod I am now qualified to do drive and battery replacements as I could have yanked the battery while I was in there but mine is running just fine.

In other news I did a swim workout today and I swear I felt like I was sinking the whole time. It amazing how much your attitude can effect a workout. I had so much against me today it was not funny. first up I was feeling really really tired. Second im feeling kinda stressed about a number of things so my mind was not in it. Third there is usually nobody but old slow people in the pool at the Y and that was not the case today. In lane 1 was a girl who has obviously done a lot of swimming. Her form was unreal. It was like she was hardly trying and yet she seemed like she was floating on top of the water and effortlessly gliding over it. then lane 2 was me. I felt like the only part of my body out of the water were my head and shoulders. And I felt slow next to her. Then in lane 3 was a guy I have seen around before. Im pretty sure he does Tri's as well and his form was not as good as lane 1 girl but he was still a lot faster than me. Had a much better stroke and a lot more power behind his stroke than I do. Sigh so on both sides of me I had people reminding me how slow I was which was yet another mental downer. SO I did my full workout. 200 - 400 - 200 but I felt like crap through the whole thing and couldnt wait to get out of the pool.

SO I had some bad and some good. I choose think about the good today.

Cheers!

Things that alter time? A little primer on Transitions

Ok so I think by now anyone who followes this blog knows that I am training for a Tri and yeah the amount that I am posting about it should be a pretty good indicator of how much time i am spending thinking and planning for it. Ya see I dont just want to finish. I want to race competitively. I feel that im in the shape right now that I could just do it today and finish in a somewhat respectible time. But like I said I dont want that. I want to win. Now im not dillusional and I dont think for a minute that I would actually win my age group although I would like a top 10 or even a top 5 finish. Just something I could be a little more proud of. SO that being said Im in talks with my sweetie about doing a half iron man in july. Yup their is one in Muncie Indiana which in case you were wondering is home to the national model aviation museum so I can tell from that its a happening town. SO the deal is to see how I fair in April before I commit to another race and thats fine with me. Its less than a month away now. SO to get back to the title of this post I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out where I am at now in terms of how long it would take me to finish so that I can figure out what I need to do to make that time faster. Well so far I am only discovering things that are going to add time. The first one is the transitions. I totally forgot about these, probably b/c I dont like them! You see in a tri you have 5 total splits that factor into your time:

total swim time = time spent in pool
T1 = the first transition and the time it takes to get out of the pool and onto your bike
total bike time = time spent on the bike course
T2 = the second transition and is the time it takes to get off your bike and out to the run course
total run time = time spent on the run course.

Ya see most people dont realize that the clock never stops in a Tri. And you can lose a TON of time in the transitions. The first tri I did I was given the wrong start time and I showed up about 1/2 hour before the swim start! I had no time to prepare my transition area and b/c of that my T1 time was awefull as I was digging through my bag looking for shoes and sunglasses and things like that. Their is so much that goes into your transition plan and I really need to start practicing that as well. Im hoping for transition times under 2 min for both transitions. Ive been reading tips for how to make them go faster like dont plan on wearing socks b/c its hard to get socks on wet feet. Those are the type of things im evaluating to help make my transitions faster. but mostly I just need to practice. SO unfortunately what this means is optimistically I have just added another 4 minutes to my total time which may not seem like much but when you are thinking that you are around 1:18 min and want to go under 1:10 min and you realize you have to add 4 minutes to your total time it can be a bit of a downer.

SO other than that I have been playing pokemon fire red on the game boy thanks to steve. Its so nice to have the gameboy when lisa is doign something like beathing the final boss for xenosaga ep2 for like the 12th time and yeah im a little bored with that now so I can still snuggle up to her and play a game that I want to. SO thanks steve. Other than that last night I broke out morrowind and played it very briefly as I am anticipating oblivion. Cant wait! And we have started to play silent hill 2 again but we are starting with born from a wish which is a pretty good side story I think.

thats all for now
Cheers!

More adventures

Well their has come a point in my life where I have realized WOW when I have kids they are going to love me b/c I will try and in most cases succeed at fixing anything. I would say one of my strenghts as a person is spelling. HAH gotcha you thought I was serious oh man to see the look on your face! It was priceless. NE way seriously though I really am good at problem solving and figuring out solutions to problems as they present themselves. This is one thing that made me a fanstastic bicycle mechanic and which helps me as a net engineer. However I rarely get to use a hammer to solve a network issue and in the world of bicycle maintinence in salty florida a hammer is your best friend. SUBMIT SUBMIT!!!! sorry. again to get back on track I was just thinking about the work I am doing on my bike and how many people have no clue how to do that and then I was thinking about the fact that I am going to attempt my own Ipod repair. The drive has been ordered and I intend to crack the case on my ipod and replace the drive. Most sane people wouldnt even consider the thought of doing that yet I feel I have a roughly 95% chance of success in this repair. I guess im either really good or really stupid. I guess its just kind of weird as you get older to look at the skillsets you have and how broad they may or may not have become. SO that was my introspective moment for the day! woot.

Training update. I have litterally gone insane in that I now think its a good idea to wake up between 6-6:10am instead of 6:50 so that I have time to swim in the morning before work. Why would I want to do this??? B/c it will free up my afternoon workout to be better split between cardio and weights. I have seriously lost my grip on reality. In short training is going well. I need to get my bike done. I need to spend time in the saddle and not on a excersize bike but the real thing. I need to get my aero tuck down and efficiant. At least its not a long race so I can stand being uncomfortable for 30 min if it makes me go faster.

Now if you have been paying attention at all you will notice I have not mentioned anything about the run. I have been running a lot over the winter and I am really worried about the run. I feel its my weakest segment of this tri and I still have a really bad taste in my mouth about running and over training in running. SO I have to balance my fear of injury with the reality that I need to spend some time actually running not just on an elliptical machine but time on the track.

Game update:
Lisa and I are still working on finishing xenosaga. We beat the game a long time ago but now we are trying to finish the game. SO what we are working on right now is stealing a rare item from the final boss (when you beat the game you get to go back to the point right before you beat the boss and save). we need to do it about 14 more times in order to complete a certain quest. SO that kinda sucks and takes about a 1/2 hour each time. The good side is we are getting really good at it so hopefully as our characters level and what not it will go faster.

I cant wait for Elder scrolls Oblivion! That game is going to be so awesome!!!

Aside from that I have more games to play than time to play them so it should be a good summer even though thats a usual drought in games.

Well thats all for now.
Cheers!

BOOO to barnes and nobles and starbucks!

Ok so lisa needed to do some work tonight and as we still have no internet in the house we were forced to go out looking for a network to hop onto. First we headed to borders where we discovered they were closed b/c they were in the process of moving. Next we went to Barnes & Nobles where we discovered that you had to pay to hop onto their wlan. BOOOOO!!! I was also able to pick up the signal from the nearby starbucks where I discovered again you had to pay to use their net. BOOOOOOO! SO now we are at panera sipping coffee and using their free wlan. Its also doubly good b/c they have two great big comfy chairs by a gas fireplace so we are all nice and taosty warm. SO thats cool and this is a first for me as I have never gone somewhere and used a computer totally wireless. SO again I love my new little chiyo chan SHE ROCKS!!! Well thats all for now oh yeah wait I swam this morning and did a 8 min 20 sec for the 400 which means im getting faster after only 3 workouts! I really feel like im settling into a rythm faster and not struggling to breath as much. Well thats all for now.

Cheers!

Its not about the bike

Ok kudos to anyone who can figure out where my title came from!

Anyway as the title says this post is not the promised upgrading the bike post as I have yet to recieve any of the goodies I ordered earlier in the week but I am hopefull that when I get home tonight there will be a nice box from nashbar and then my new adventure will begin. SO since im not talking about that heres a quick rundown of what I have done training wise this week:

Mon.
1.Swam 100, 400, 100
2. workedout with lisa did some lifting to help repair those muscles and then did maybe 20 min of cardio

Tues.
30 min on the bike followed directly by 5 min cool down on the tread mill. This was my first mini-brick and im glad I am doing them

Wed.
35 min on the elliptical machine. It was a great workout

Thurs.
1. Swim 100, 400, 100 I timed my 400 and was shocked at my time 8 min 50 seconds!!!!!!! This kills my 16 min projected time and I know feel good about doing the swim in under 10 min since my second time out I beat it by over a minute! WOOT WOOT WOOT!!!!

2. Out with lisa again. Lifted and did around 25 min of cardio between the treadmill and the ellip.

Fri.
30 on the bike and another 5min on the tread mill makes brick #2 I think this is going to be awesome for my transisitons and I might even write into a tri mag offering it as a tip because its so easy to do.

SO thats how training is going. I really feel great and I feel like im really doing things smart for a change. Most of what I am doing is zero impact on my body so besides some sore muscles which really are not that bad im virtually in no discomfort at all which is a really nice change for me.

Game updates:
Elder scrolls 4 has gone gold and will be in my hands on march 21st!!!!!!!!!! Im sooo excited I cant wait.

Other than that things are going. I have had a crazy day and a crazy week at work and the only reason I am writting this now is becuase I really do need a break and a chance for my mind to recover from the "chicken with its head cut off" state that I have been in this morning. SO thats about it for me for now.

Cheers!

Training update - Swimming

Well I have a feeling that my blog is going to have a slight shift over the next month or so as I discuss the various things I am doing to train for my event in april. Just to refresh everyones memory its a 400m swim a 13 mile bike and 3 mile run. I feel pretty comfortable in both the bike and run seperatly but its when you put them together that things start to get hairy. Also the only thing I have done over the winter is lift and run so I am a little nervous about my muscles getting re-acclimated to the bike. And then their is the swim.

If you have ever watched pro-swimers you might for the briefest moment think. WOW maybe we are designed to spend some time in the water. Then again if you look at people like me and the rest of the world who dont fall into that 1% of the populace you would have this re-action. Oh my what is that hurt sick or dying thing doing thrashing around in the water. Well thats how I feel most of the time with the swim leg and I feel its my weakest area. However I am going to try and change that this time. How you might ask. Here are my primary workout goals

1. Spend a lot of time in the pool. At least 2 pool workouts a week till the tri.

2. Get back on the bike! I want to try and do some 20 milers before the race.

3. DO some brick workouts probably on my saturdays. (a brick workout is when you ride hard on the bike and then transition to a run just like in the race. Why is it called a brick workout??? b/c when you get off the bike and start running it feels like people are throwing bricks at you. ^_^ )

SO in the start of my training today with a good 5 weeks to go I decided to try and see just how much endurance I still have with swimming since I have not been in the water for like a year. Well I did a warm-up 100 and then I decided to just go for it and see if I could do a 400. Well I did it. I was not fast by any stretch but I did it and I still had energy left over which is how I wanted to feel. I then took a minute to catch my breath and did a cool down 100. this will probably be my workout this week then next week I will go to a 100 - 500 -100 then the following week I will do a 200 - 400 - 200 then the week after that 200 - 500 - 200 and after that I will have to see how I am doing. At that point I might stick with the distance and try to increase speed. or I might jump to a 200 - 600 - 200 b/c if I can swim that for like 2 weeks and feel pretty good then the 400 swim in the race should be like a cake walk which is what I want.

I think my end goal is going to be to come in under 1 hour 20 min. Heres how im breaking down my times

16 min in pool. ( i think this can come waaaay down)
40 min for the bike (this is going to depend on me and the course)
26 for the run. Now I know what you are thinking and yes I know if I add all those up its greater than 1 hours 20 min. Its actually 1:22:00 but I am hopefull that I can shave time off the swim and the bike. Their was a time I could do 10 miles in around 24 min on the bike and their was a time I could run a 5k in 18:00 pretty easily so I am hopefull that I can shave some time. I do not think I will be in any real "competitive" area in terms of finishing but you never know. Most people in my age group are healthy and dont have a bum leg but I have a lot of experiance and I know how to run properly and I know how to bike so who knows. Can we say cinderalla story????

Now I have to give a shout out to my sponsors!

My wife lisa for always believing in me and not telling me that I am too old for this type of thing or that it costs too much money. And also for not laughing at me when I get my race clothes!!!

Sterling Clay for letting me borrow of whole mess of goggles from him that are defecting in one way or the other and no longer good enough for him. However I have finnaly found goggles that dont leak for me which is like WAAAAHHHHHH so awesome. Now if I can just find a replacement strap

Bike nashbar for not being a very successfull mail order company and having lots of old stuff that was exactly what I wanted on closeout b/c most other people have moved on. I seriously ordered three things from them today and no other mail order or online companies had any of it at there prices so I LOVE YOU BIKE NASHBAR!!!!!!

My wife lisa for letting me pursue my dream of the ironman and again not telling me im too old or too fat or whatever and being supportive.

Stay tuned for my next update "The first transition -- making my bike work the way its supposed too."

Cheers!

The downside of Funk

I think I am starting to feel the effects of the winter weather as it seems to not be able to make up its mind over if it should be warm (oh please please please stay warm) or if it should be frigidly cold. At least this winter was not as bad as last year and I think I shoveled my driveway maybe 2xs so thats not that bad. Im just totally ready for things to be warm again. I need this badly. Top 10 Reasons I strive for warmth:

1.) Possible beach vacation with my sweetie this year! If I ever get enough vacation time that is.

2.) Races are much more fun when its warm then when you are cold. Man I hope april is not cold

3.) Riding a motorcycle is more fun when its warm than when its cold

4.) I just enjoy being outside in general but not when its cold.

5.) I have a great pair of sandals that are just cyring out to me from my closet

6.) My tan is really fading and needs to be re-charged!

7.) Winter coats are bulky and just get in the way whenever you go some where

8.) My dogs are really really shaggy and need a haircut but If we get them one now they will freeze

9.) I want to get blizzards from dairy queen and not freeze to death while eating them

10.) and lastly Warm weather is the bomb bizzle.

SO there ya have it I think I have made a pretty good argument as to why it should instantly turn warm and no longer be cold. Oh well guess Im going to be waiting at least a few more weeks till we get a consistant warmup and hey think of me on april 8th as I jump out of the pool at around 8:15 am and hop on a bike soaking wet in what will probably be 40 degree weather!!!

Cheers!

My new laptop!!!!

Well as promised I took a couple of pics of my new laptop and well I put a 360 controller with a couple of them for size reference. Just to clarify its an Averatec 1000 series laptop with a 10.6" widescreen and it weighs a scant 3.5 lbs with battery.

So there ya have it. And yes I did name it Chiyo chan and it rocks and I have to say I think it looks sweet next to the 360 controller. Well thats it for now. Oh yeah I signed up for a sprint triathlon in april. SO I now have some motivation to start training a little harder and to get some time in the pool. The distances are 400m swim -- 22 KM bike -- 5 KM run. Im really excited about it as im starting to not feel as weak as I have been in the past. Although my right leg is still much weaker than the left I am doing what I can to strengthen that and I can tell its making a difference.

Cheers!

I got it!!!!I

Well it took a bit of time and a little convincing but I got my new laptop and am actually blogging wirelessly on it right this second. So this is my first wireless entry and my first entry from my new laptop. Pictures are coming maybe by tommorow I hope. Other big news is that my ipod is at this point officially dead. I have run several of the diagnostics and it passes most everything however occasionally the hard drive test fails and I get basically a fatal read error. SO it looks like the drive in it is toast and I am thinking now that perhaps the flash based mini and nano's are a better way to go then the hard drive based units as hard drives dont really like to be moved while they are spinning. well dinner calls but hey if anyone wants to get me a black ipod nano i wouldnt turn it down ^_^

cheers!!

And Friday makes 15

yes not only was friday the 1st anniversary of my blog it was also the day that I was involved in my 15th yes thats a big one followed by a big fat five -- 15th car accident. And in the spirit of me and my life it had to be something unusual. SO as I was sitting at a red light In my (still brand new to me hyundai tucson) I was rear ended by a guy who just was not paying attention. He has totally jacked up my bumber and now I have to take my car to get repaired. Now you might be thinking hmm doesnt sound that bad. Well as I was pulling off the road to get things like insurance info and check damage the guy who hit me RAN. yes thats right he fled the scene. SO there I was all alone with a jacked up bumber waiting for the cops. SO that totally blew and I would write more but I need to restart my computer again b/c my ipod is totally not working. Do you hear that payton. this is at least the 3rd time that I have had to search through forums and look through stuff b/c my ipod just forgot what it was supposed to do as in it lost all my music and then no longer would sync with my pc. SO thats what I am doing now. Trying to resurect my ipod again.

Cheers!

1st Birthday Evuh!!!

Thats right peoples today my blog is officially 1 year old! I cant believe I started this over a year ago and that I still regularly post to it and that my posts are probably longer than most people care to read! WOOT for me! SO thanks to everyone who stops by and reads and thanks also to all those who leave comments as they are always appreciated and help justify my poor existance in this thing we call INTERNET.

Ok so heres my funny thought of the day and it really shows the difference between being support and being an end user.

If you are an end user calling support you pray you dont get voicemail

If you are support calling an end user you pray you get their voicemail

Seriously im not joking. Most of the times I do callbacks I just sit and hope that they dont pick up the phone. SO anyway just a little something to think about.

Cheers and thanks again for reading!!!!

My shout out to RP missions

Ok I got a question from Payton over what RP missions is and so I thought I would give a quick shout out to all my homies over in BEAVER FALLS!!!! yeah thats right theys be kickin it ollllll skool doing mission work the way its meant to be, overseas and out of yo comfort zone but with established churches so yo work aint in vain yo.

Ok more seriously RP missions is really awesome and proof that through God one person can make a dramatic difference and impact a large number of people. Matt Filbert is the head of RP missions and he does in a part time setting what most missionary organizations have a whole staff and buildings to accomplish. The amazing thing about this is that it totally keeps the cost of trips down since very little if any administrative costs are built into what you have to fundraise which is generally unheard of.

SO whats my connection to this whole thing?? Well lisa and I went on our first trip to scotland in 98. then we had a weee hiatus and came back with a vengeance to lead a team to Norhtern Ireland in 2002 and then we went to japan for matt in 2003. Also since 2001 we have been opening our house up as a geograpically neutral venue for the annual RP missions team leader training. Which is used as a way to help prepare people who might lead trips the following summer and answer any questions they might have.

SO in a nutshell thats RP missions.

Cheers!

Yeah im here so keep your nick knacks on!

Ok yeah so I know I have not posted in a little bit, but im still not as bad as some people (coughlukecoughdennycough) so there. Well what has been up with me. Well a lot actually this past weekend we opened our house to what is now becoming an annual event which is The RP missions team leader training weekend. This is the 5th year that Lisa and I have opened our house up for this event and this was by far the largest turnout that we have had yet. At one point in time we had I think 22 people in our house and 18-19 spent the night on friday and saturday night. SO needless to say their were sleeping bags everywhere!!! It was a really good time and again Lisa and I are always Glad when the Lord give us the opportunity to use our house for him. Aside from preparing for that and getting the house ready for that we have also been preparing for the newest resident in the Knodel house and she arrived yesterday evening. Thats right Lisa's sister sara moved in with us last night and will be living with us for an undetermined amount of time. Were really excited to have here at home and pray that its a great experiance for her. Ok so thats life stuff what else. Oh yeah I have a request in for a new laptop!!! I have talked to a couple of people about it and until it gets the final approval im going to hold off on posting that much about it but I think it will be uber kewl and I have already come up with what I will name it if I get it -- Chiyo Chan -- SO if that works out then I will finnaly name my pc and give it the name of -- Sakaki San -- If you dont know what the significance of either of those names are I will give two clues. One they are from the same thing. two use google. Ok so hopefully I will get the approval on that and get to order it soon as my laptop is essentially worthless at the moment. what else is up oh yeah Saw the official Silent Hill Trailer the other day and WOW it looks like its capturing the spirit of the game in a great way so I am even more excited about april!!!!!! Oh and I was searching around the net some and found out they are also in pre-production for a fatal frame movie!!! Someone is paying attention! But for some reason us movie makers dont want to use Japanese actors for japanese roles. Think memoirs of a geisha which as I am reading had a mostly chinese cast and little japanese representation. Which is really dumb and reminds me of the old westerns where the indians were often whiter then the cowboys. Anyway guess I will end on a game update since I have not done one in awhile

Xbox 360
Still working on kameo (2 hours) and Perfect dark(2 hours) when I get time. I think we have played more hexic than either one of those games. I just need more time!!!

Xbox
DOA3 and DOAU are taking up my time here but I have not touched either in a month

PS2
Xenosaga 2 owns me right now and Lisa and I are playing that to death. However its good but no where near the caliber of the first one. I really hope they go back to some of the earlier mechanics for the 3rd and final game in the series - clocked time 35 hours

PSx
still kinda fiddling with FFIX when I get the time however I just picked up Chrono Cross (brand new mind you) and so I think after xenosaga im going to try to get lisa interested in that one so that I can play through it in a shorter period of time then say a year.

GBA
made a huge breakthrough in Legend of Zelda and now I feel really dumb. Also somebody coughstevencoughdennycough has still never let me borrow one of a thousand pokemon games that he has. SO someday I might play one of them as well.

Ok so there ya go that was a pretty long post that summed up everything thats pretty much going on with me. SO hope everyone is doing well and I will post again this week I promise.

Cheers!

a;ldjfaetihidadg;l;k ^_^

Ok so yeah im back and wow i am wiped out. Totally annihilated is how I feel. SO much for vacation time. I joked with lisa that I think this whole thing is a consipiracy by my job to make me willingly forfeit vacation time b/c since I have worked for MDECA my vacation time has been either:

1. Impossible to use b/c of how we accrue it
2. used for something other than vacation
3. used on a vacation that blew goats.

That pretty much sums up my "productive" use of vacation time over the past 5.5 years. SO oh well I just continue to live at my desk and rot. Just kidding im not rotting im just tired and not in a the best of moods. Its funny though b/c I got a call today to do a job shadow for a kid in HS and im like ok Ill show him whats what. he he he. But seriously let me try to put together at least a couple of coherant thoughts. Ok Yes I am back from arizona. No gary it was not a retreat and their were no illegal or controlled substances also it was not Sara Baker. WOW guess what their is more than one girl named Sara in the world. Sorry not trying to be harsh its again the tired that is doing this. Anyway Oh and by the way the grass on my berm could still stand to be a little shorter so tell the horse to come back. Oh yeah and Steve let me just say that the prices your rec center charges are insane!!! can I say that one more time they are insane!!! like im looking at it and it would probably cost me more to come and climb at your joint then to go to a real gym. And sorry but most gyms are in the 10-15,000 sq ft range plus another 4-5k for bouldering. I seriously dont know what they are thinking. 30 bucks for a belay class then another 15 for a cert!!! who do they think they are????? Ive been climbing for 6 years now and you want me to take a written test! what so that you know I can write belay on and on belay. Sorry venting. Its just dumb thats all and I swear if I go and steve doesnt let me set a boulder problem im going to scream until he does. SO if you want to see Chris Sparky Knodel or Ruki or whatever you want to call me scream like a little girl till Im blue in the face and get my way just let me know and I will tell you when I am going to Steves wall. ^_^ but be forwarned you might have to skip paying a bill just to get in the door to see this oh so dramatic event.

Sorry I know I went off on a tangent but ya know. I guess I can always go outside for free and thats what I have been doing for the last year. Ok again trying to stray back to some type of coherant thought wave. The trip yesterday felt long. IT felt like we were traveling all day and I guess we really were. Left Sara around 9:45am and got to my house about 9pm so yeah that was a pretty freaking long time. However the flight was made nicer by two of my bestest friends. Mr Gameboy and Mix master Ipod. Ahh its so nice to be able to totally drown out everything around you and kinda forget that you are in a bullet shaped coffin traveling around 450 mph roughly 5 miles above anything safe to stand on. And when you think about the fact that the only thing keeping you in the air is the Bernoulli principle well my friends thats pretty scary. That and the fact that your pilot has a hmm 70% chance of being either: (woot 4 lists)

1. drunk
2. hungover
3. asleep
( i still dont know which is worse. Vote with your comment!)

Is also comforting. So needless to say physics held up and my arch nemisis gravity did not prevail therefore we landed safely in columbus last night and then made the drive back down to drizzly dayton. SO thats pretty much the update. This week is going to be INSANE IN THE MEMBRANE and so im really trying to catch up on rest at work before I go home b/c I think thats going to just as bad as work. Oh well I will try to post again this week something with a bit more perc to it.

Cheers!

More on whats up

Well this post is going to be a little more umm I guess superficial as talk a little about what AZ has been like for me. Well first off It does not feel like I am in the dessert. It feels like im in some controlled and created disney reproduction of the dessert thats in say canada. I say this because its been pretty darn cold here and Im not just talking about at night b/c yes I realize the dessert is cold at night. Im talking about during the day when its getting up to the mid 50's. Not really dessert to me. SO anyway I think the scenery here is really pretty. If you know me then you know I adore mountains and the mountains here I think are really pretty. Also their is lots and lots of good rock around here which is driving me crazy. Im just feeling the itch to get my monkey skills on! ^_^ SO anyway I have gotten to go for one run so far here and It was a good 3.5-4 miler I think. It was really nice and came at the end of a day when I really really needed a run so that was cool. SO now I have run in the dessert. However luke I still kept my shirt on b/c it was that cold and it was during the sunset which was on one hand really pretty but on the other not conducive to tanning. SO I dont think you have to worry about that. We have been to a couple of the local eateries like taco bell / pizza hut (the greatest juxtiposition of a restuarant for me and lisa) and a local mexican place which every one seemed to think was really good. then last night we went to Tastee Freeze and got Ice Cream and I still need to go back and get a pic outside of it so that I can feel apart of that great john mellon cougar camp song. Well I think we are getting ready to shove off so just be in prayer for us the days are long and hard but they are really great at the same time. SO thats me signing off.

Cheers!

yes I am alive

Ok I know it has been like forever since I last posted. What like 2 weeks or so??? But things have been pretty crazy for me. I had a project at work that was asked of me and well yeah its nothing that I have ever done before so I had to spend quite a bit of time in research and then learning that most of my research really didnt do anything for me and in the end I just had to figure my way through it. But my deadline was last friday and yeah at about 3:40pm I finished up what I was trying to do. And GASP it all worked so boo yah. Anyway Saturday was spent packing and cleaning and Sunday the whole gang flew out to Arizona. We got to see Sara quite a bit on Sunday afternoon early evening and then went back to our apartment which I must say is really really nice. Then yesterday we got started at the center. SO far I am really impressed by this place and really really happy that Sara came here. Everything is Christ Centered here and a large majority of their model for recovery is trusting in God at the core and relying on God for strength and not your eating disorder. I wondered a lot about what this week would be like if it would be a lot of screaming and crying a lot of blame shifting but its not. Its been so educational to me so far and I have to say I have learned a lot about myself and its helping me to realize some of the missing components that I have over looked in my own life. SO its really awesome. Its not about blame here and its not about pointing fingers. Its about taking ownership for what you have done and forgetting abougt the things you had no control over and I think thats really great. SO I have to go as we are getting ready to leave for day 2 but I just wanted y'all to know that things are going in my opinion really well and Oh yeah Sara is looking really good as well. Take care

Cheers!

Silent hill update

Ok I have mentioned this before but they are coming out with a silent hill movie and it looks like the release date is now april 21st!! I cant wait for this movie to come out and if its anything like the teaser trailer its going to be really good. If you have played any of the games than you will probably see a lot of familiar sights in the trailer and if you havent then you will probably think its pretty creepy! So watch the trailer and tell me what you think!


Cheers!

Happy B-day to me

Well yesterday was my birthday and well I cant say it was the best one I have ever had it started out kinda rough but ended better so it was not all that bad. Luke and Steve came over and we played some 360 and some regular xbox (burnout is lots of fun) We also played a number of regular games like zonk, apples 2 apples, and scattegories. I managed to lose at everythign we played in true B-day spirit. However I didnt just lose in most cases I was annihilated, yes true oh my gosh you just got spanked by the ownage fashion. SO yes that was fun ^_^ Seriously it was I like playing games and whatnot and am not hung up on winning which is good since I tend to lose a lot. SO quick rundown

Burnout (no one really wins since we were co-op'ng crashes)

DOA 3 -- got spanked by Luke playing Brad Wong of all people. It was so embarassing especially since he was all "I totally suck at this game and have not played it in a few weeks" right before our match started. I think we played 3 - 2 round matches and I won 1 round. Yes 1 round, thats all.

Apples 2 Apples -- Ok I was not in last place but pretty far back. the object is to get like 10 cards. steven and lisa both had 9 and I cant rember which one Won. I had like 5 and luke had either 5 or 6 I think. SO at least someone else was down there with me

Zonk -- OMG spanked. Thats all im going to say. their was point in time where I thought I would not get any points before luke won and it was pretty close to that.

Scattegories -- did ok in this but didnt win.

SO games suck. J/K it was a lot of fun and I got burger king for lunch and Ci Ci's for dinner which was very very nice. Today my body is asking me why I abused it so much by shoving so many calories down my throat and I have no real good explanation cept it was my b-day and thats ok with me. SO what did I get for my b-day????

highlights:

A headset for my cell phone. Lisa got this for me and I have to say its probably one of the best gifts she's ever gotten me. It really choked me up. I know it sounds dumb but its something that I have wanted for a long time but never told her and its something gadgety which she usually shys away from unless I give a specific suggestion. I love the brand name of it (body glove) which means nothing to most of you but was HUGE in the late 80's early 90's and its still cool in my book. SO to me the gift rocks on so many levels b/c the thought put into it was HUGE and the gift scored HUGE as well. SO thanks so much sweetie you take good care of me. It was just really cool and it means a lot to me.

a new wallet. Ok my old wallet was basically a hand me down from a friend. It was new when he gave it to me but I rescued it from being trashed as he was packing for college. No it was not hideous my friend was just and idiot. It was a pretty nice black leather wallet that he got for like christmas or what not. Well after 10 years of service it was time to retire. SO my sweetie got me a sweet new one and I like it a lot. Again she just picked one out and scored big! you go girl!

Perfect dark Zero for x360. Thanks Sue now I have two 360 games and b/c of this steve is now fully on board to house sit for me in the next couple of weeks.

Sony earbuds. Ok I will put more of a write up of these later maybe after today when I get some good time with them. Anyone who has an ipod thinks those little buds are the bomb but if you read around it turns out they are pretty sucky and I have been very dissapointed in the lack of responsive bass that they output and since bass is a key and critical component of the music I listen to I consulted my personal audio engineer (my bro jason) for a suggestion of buds. He told me about a pair of sony's that he said rocked the free world and since I dont live in an oppresive communistic country I said SA WEET! SO thanks to Paul for scoring me the buds. I can not wait for my run today which I will leave for when I finish this post to try them out. Like I said a review will follow.

A big @$$ shot gun style reciprocating saw with blades that are like 8" long. Ok I have to tell you I have no idea what to use this thing for but it rocks. The only time I have ever seen one used was in the old 80's skateboard video "The search for animal chin" In it Tony Hawk and the rest of the Bones Brigade (yeah I have sk8ed forever) used a saw just like mine to cut the roof off a caddy and make it a convertible while they drove through the dessert. SO if anyone would like to have their car magically transformed into a convertible right before your eyes I can provide this service. If thats tooo extreme for ya I can also cut sun roof holes in cool designer shapes like a circle or a kidney bean. Or if you have a little sibling who is troubling you just threaten to have me come over and cut their bike in half and that should get them flying straight in no time.

SO thats the majority but I got other stuff too but this is getting long as it is. Biggest b-day surprise would have to be that headset for my phone but the second has got to be my b-day card from Grampa. It is probably the funniest b-day card I have ever gotten and its just awesome. I think I will have to hold on to it for a long time.