The Not-So-Daily Ramble

It's been raining here the past few days and I haven't been motivated. Today, I was at work for an hour when I received a call from home that Aiden was covered in a combination of rashes and hives. As a result, I'm home again and keeping him under watch so he doesn't scratch a hole in himself.

It's been a little over a month since Angie and I were married. It's been an interesting month as well. Angie started a new job this week (I hadn't mentioned much about the old job she had, but the "powers that be" decided to move her job out of state. To be fair--as much as I don't want to be fair to that company--asked Angie to move; with the kids in the picture, though, it wasn't an option for her to move. I am, obviously, glad she feels that way).

She is working at a job now where she has more interaction with computers than people; for now, I think it's a nice break for her. So far, she's come home with a smile on her face each day, which I take as a good sign.

Aside from Aiden's hives today, the kids have been doing well. They have somehow avoided most of the crap that is going around, thankfully.

Things at my job have been pretty busy, but I'm looking at that as job security!

I have posted a truckload of photos to my Flickr page from the cruise, the wedding, and related things. Also, the 365 project is entering its final month (thank heavens: I'm completely running out of ideas). If you're interested, take a look.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 11/19/2009 09:48:00 AM | Links to this post    

Labels: aiden, Angie, job, update, wedding

This one falls more under the "ick" category even though we've passed Halloween for the year.

This event was visible from my office today. That was one creepy feeling we had in the office today.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 11/02/2009 05:48:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: news, weird

My oldest boy turned 10 years old today.

It is hard to remember life without him (or his little brother).

Sasha, we love you.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 10/21/2009 09:33:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: birthday, Sasha

Here we are just after the ceremony ended onboard the Emerald Princess, October 17, 2009:

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 10/18/2009 06:19:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: Angie, cruise, emerald princess, marriage, scott

Just on the off chance you're not doing anything Saturday morning at 10am (Central Time), you might want to tune into this webcam. It has no sound, but does have a picture that changes every two minutes.

Angie and I will be having our marriage ceremony from 10-10:20am Saturday. Join us. Grab some screen shots. Watch to see if I faint.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 10/16/2009 04:31:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: marriage, webcam

The boys' great-grandmother died this past Friday. Sasha, in particular, is having difficulty with this, as he remembers his Grandma more than Aiden does. For the past for years, she was in a nursing home dealing with dementia and other indignities of age, so the boys didn't see her very often. After arriving home, Sasha was fine until he went to bed. Then he just dissolved into tears. Aiden was less than sympathetic, yelling at Sasha to "Be quiet! I'm trying to sleep!" I told Aiden it was totally fine what Sasha was feeling. His great-grandma's death apparently brought back all the sadness associated with his dog Sheldon's death in Summer '08. I'm not sure which he was crying more for, Sheldon or his Grandma.

Sasha is the more sensitive of the two boys. I'm not sure if it's an age thing or a personality thing. It's not a bad thing, but I do hope that he is able to experience his sadness and move on. Hopefully, he won't dwell longer than necessary and move to the stage where he remembers the fun he had with Grandma.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 10/08/2009 04:06:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: funeral, great-grandmother, Sasha

I know, I've been as bad at blogging this year as I was proficient last year. Meh. The weather has turned to fall here. As usual, it was 75 one day and 50 the next. The boys are doing well in school so far.

Angie received notice that her job is being moved to Chicago. We had figured this was coming sooner or later as the company had asked Angie to move on two or three separate occasions. Angie declined as it would make things very difficult for the family dynamic. I'll add that the company hadn't talked about any pay raise despite the difference in cost of living, but that's my observation.

She is doing well with this news. I felt she had outgrown the job based on her compensation anyway. All in all, I think this will turn out to be a good thing in the end.

We have our wedding coming up in a few weeks...I should say the second attempt at a wedding. All of the planning is done and we're just waiting for the day now. Angie's health has been great and she's feeling good. It looks like last winter's health nightmares are behind her...hopefully for good.

Overall, I don't have many complaints right now...I guess that's another reason I haven't been posting lately.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 10/06/2009 04:18:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: Angie, blog, wedding

Welcome to 09-09-09 at 09:09. What is the significance of today?

Well, I dig repeating dates, so that works for me.

"The Beatles: Rock Band" comes out today.

Apple will make it's latest slew of product announcements today.

Probably some other fun stuff as well. Who knows. I just wanted to work the Beatles and Apple* in there.

------
You older folks will likely remember the Beatles record label was called Apple Corps. Get it? Beatles? Apple? Ah, never mind

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 9/09/2009 09:09:00 AM | Links to this post    

Labels: beatles, numbers, rock band

Angie and I were scheduled to head down to Illinois today to ride some bike trails with a friend of Angie's, but due to an illness in his family, we didn't make the trip. Instead, we decided to try a 20 mile bike ride of our own.

Here's a four minute journal of the trip for something a bit different:

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 8/22/2009 10:49:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: Angie, bicycle, new berlin trail, root river, scott

Last week I took the boys on the "Tale of Two Cities Tour." Thursday, we went to Madison and took a tour of the Capitol building, which the boys loved. On Saturday, Angie and I took the boys via train to Chicago to check out the new glass observation decks on the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower.

The boys did fairly well on Saturday, despite a heck of a wait in line (somewhere in the 75-90 minute range). They enjoyed the train ride and Union Station is just a few blocks walk from the Tower itself. Once we made it through the lines, the kids had a blast on the new observation deck. Here's a quickie video of the trip.

We did have a bit of drama, though. As most of you know, Angie and I had to postpone our wedding due to the slew of medical issues Angie had due to her gallbladder removal. Nonetheless, I started wearing my wedding ring on 03-03-09, the day we were originally going to be married. I'm still not used to wearing the ring. Therein lies the problem.

It hit me when I was standing on the Skydeck at the Willis Tower that I didn't have my ring on. I was also totally sure that earlier in the day I did in fact have the ring on.

Uh oh.

My brain was running backwards through my memory footage of the day. I know I had it on when I left the house and the only time I can remember taking it off was when I put some sunscreen on in the car.

Oh crap.

I took off the ring and put it on my gut as I put on the sunscreen. I'm sure something distracted me and I didn't put it back on. Then (and how my brain popped this out, I don't know) I remembered a small *tink* sound as I got out of the car. I remember looking around as I thought I kicked something. I saw nothing.

Three hours and 90 miles away, I realized that this was the sound of my ring falling off when I stood up. Into the parking lot. Where I was not. In fact, I was, at the moment of this revelation, not even in the same state. How's that for a moment of panic? Powerless to do anything about it.

Angie, of course, picked up instantly that something was amiss. She asked, and I told her. To her credit, no matter what she was actually thinking, she stayed calm and said, "We can replace the ring." At the same time, now all I wanted to do was get back to Milwaukee and look for that ring.

We made the next train (a mere 25 minutes after the revelation hit) and we were on our way. Angie can attest that I was a bit freaked out as to what was going on, but I chatted with Aiden on the way back and pointed out things outside the train window that I thought might interest him.

We made it back to the station and the boys had to make a pit stop. I asked Angie to stay with them while I ran to the car. I looked around on the ground near the car and nothing. Yet, I was still sure it was around somewhere. The same two cars were on either side of us, so I suspected there hadn't been a lot of foot traffic around there. I dropped to the ground and looked under the car.

There it was.

It took a seriously lucky bounce/roll for me. It fell off me, hit the ground and rolled out of sight under the car, thus leaving it protected for the six or so hours that we were gone.

Un.Be.Liev.Able.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 8/17/2009 02:04:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: chicago, madison, ring, sears tower, willis tower

Today, Angie and I took part in the 10th annual Hank Aaron State Trail 5K Run/Walk.



It turned out to be a bit more interesting than we anticipated. It was raining on and off all night, but about 90 minutes before race time, it stopped raining. However, the radar showed it was going to be interesting. Angie and I (along with her friend from high school, Ed) arrived at Miller Park for the race around 7:45a. Of course, it was raining again by the time we got out of the car, but it wasn't too bad...yet.

Around 8:15a or so, the skies just opened up. Then the lightning and thunder started and a decision was made to postpone the start of the race until 9am. The three of us headed back to the car to wait it out. At 9a, the race time was pushed back to 9:30a as there were still some thunderstorms in the area. However, around 9:20a, we noticed everyone in the starting area so we went back over to join the throng (including ten or so of my coworkers who had stayed for the race. One person ran the course at the scheduled start time instead of waiting. He finished in 18:30 and he's a year younger than I am.). The horn sounded and we were off. Ed and some of the coworkers were gone immediately. I ended up in the back of the pack due to a last-minute restroom break :) so I had a lot of navigating to do.

I hadn't loaded the program for my GPS watch properly, so my pace clock wasn't working. As such, I ended up running way faster than I had planning. Instead of my planned 9 minute 30 second mile, my first mile was 7:45. After pulling back a bit so I didn't completely blow myself out, I did the second mile in 9 minutes. This was good as I tend to fade on the third mile and all I had to do was keep a 13 minute pace to beat my goal of 30 minutes. I made it in ten minutes.

My GPS watch sounded the "workout complete" bell at 26:34, however, I was still 100 yards away from the finish line, as I had been boxed out on a number of corners, so I was running wide and on the far side of the road for much of the first half of the race. I suspect this accounts for the difference in the GPS 3.1 miles vs. the start/finish line 3.1 miles. I think "officially" I finished in 27:12 or something like that, good for 301st place (out of >700 runners). This was my best time since 1989 or so and beat my "Storm the Bastille 5K" time by over three minutes.

Aside from screwing up the watch program, I think the steady rain helped me, as it was hard to get terribly overheated when you're constantly being sprayed with water! :) I didn't feel especially great that third mile, but I hear that running hurts, so you're just supposed to push through it!

As for Angie, she walked it in 45:59 and I think she was pretty darn happy with that. My coworkers did pretty well, with our speed demons hitting it between the 18-23 minute range. My bud Bubba finished in 27 minutes, despite having brain surgery to remove a tumor only 15 days before the race. Normally he would have finish in the 23-24 range, but his doctor told him to hold back a bit. Sheesh.

Afterwards, we hung out at awards ceremony at which Hank Aaron actually spoke for a few minutes.


That was cool for me, since I think the last time I was in the same place as Hank, he was still playing for the Brewers in the 1970s. :)

After the ceremony, we headed back to the house to get cleaned up and took Ed out for lunch and stopped at a local bike shop for his expertise on a few things before he headed home.

Of course, by this time, it was hot, humid and sunny. Maybe the rain for the run wasn't such a bad thing after all.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 8/08/2009 05:54:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: 5k run, exercise, hank aaron

As a parent, I hope that my kids will turn out to do something spectacular with their lives.

I guess Aiden is on his way: He came home from the summer rec program and informed for me that he had won the "root beer chug and belching contest."*

I couldn't be more proud.


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* - What sort of rec program did I enroll these kids into?!?!

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 7/30/2009 06:48:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: aiden, summer rec

What's been going on....let's see:

I did manage to complete my first "official" 5K race in 17 years a few weeks ago. My goal was to complete the race in under 30 minutes and I did...with 18 seconds to spare. :) I've been trying to take advantage of the summer in terms of actually getting out and exercising. Overall, it's been a cooler than normal summer here and although that may not be great for some things and therefore good for running and biking. I did do a 30 mile bike ride last night...not quite as sore as I expected today, but I'm definitely aware of my body.

I have the pool up and running, but it's been too chilly for the wimpy adults to dive in. The kids have been in a few times so far, though.

Angie continues to recover. I think for the most part, you could say that she is recovered from all of the nightmares of this past winter. We still have a lot of psychological baggage from all of that and I'll admit any time Angie feels the slightest bit off, I'm hovering around to make sure she's ok.

The boys are done with summer school and have two weeks of the summer rec program left before they are "free" for the last month of summer. Sunday, the boys had haircuts and decided (of their own choice) to go the "buzz cut" route. Results here.

So, I'm sorry that I haven't had much to write about. I have been busy writing, but it's mostly been bombarding my elected officials with my various opinions on pending legislation. I've turned into quite the old man in that regard!

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 7/21/2009 03:42:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: exercise, kids, politics

Since Blogger doesn't let me post to the exact second, I'll have to be content with posting at
05:06 07/08/09.

Maybe later I'll post at
07/08/09 10:11

Man, i need to get out more.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 7/08/2009 05:06:00 AM | Links to this post    

Labels: numbers

Wow, I've been in the "horrible blogger" category this year, haven't I? Ever since the aftermath of The Great Health Crisis of 2009*, I've been lacking motivation to post very often. I was looking at the stats on my blog posts for the past 18 months. Last year, I averaged over 19 posts a month. This year, I'm barely averaging six posts a month over the year. Even that is a bit deceptive as there were posts dealing with surgical updates and the like after Angie's big surgery.

In terms of reading blogs, I'm doing no better. When I go to a blog I used to read religiously, I find I have months of catch-up to do. This isn't to say I'm not interested any longer in what's happening in the lives of my fellow bloggers...I'm just totally without motivation to read them.

Am I becoming a victim of the OCD-like tendencies of microblogging sites like Twitter, where things need to be said in 140 characters or less? Is it something else? I'm not sure. I will say that I do feel a bit badly about posting (and visiting) so infrequently. Even that is somewhat sad, actually. I highly doubt anyone is hanging on the edge of his/her seat waiting to find out what's going on in my life, but I've been at this for over ten years in one form or another, so I'm hesitant to kick it to the curb entirely. I have been better about posting pics on Flickr and even a few videos on YouTube lately, but as for the written word? *shrug* Hopefully, this is just a temporary thing** and I'll get back to the weirdness.

In the meantime, though, I occasionally look at my blog and try to figure out to where all the time in between posts has slipped away.




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* - a.k.a. "all of Angie's medical problems"

** - even by my standards, though, "temporary" is stretching out pretty long here.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 7/06/2009 03:58:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: blogging

This morning for Father's Day, Angie and the boys treated me to breakfast in bed (a French Toast casserole, which was great), some 8x10 pictures of myself with the kids and my dad, and two books on running. This, of course, is in addition to the very cool GPS watch that Angie gave me as an early Father's Day present, since I'm in the process of trying to get my rear in shape.

The watch is something. In addition to the usual stopwatch functions, it can monitor heart rate, distance, speed and handles running or biking.

I'm trying to get ready for a run in a few weeks. It will be my first official race-type-thing in about oh, at least 15 years. I've been looking at one off the books Angie gave me this morning and it's obvious my training has not following the sort of plan I should have been following. Oops. Probably why I've only been doing biking over the past ten days, as I have developed signs of shin splints. This is a drag, as I was really trying to be consistent on the running. Instead, I've been using the cool watch to go on longer (for me, anyway) bike rides of 15 or 20 miles to try and keep up the cardio while I'm resting from running.

Meanwhile, though, I'm definitely enjoying my Father's Day...Aiden is snuggling up to me, as I'm typing this...
...and it's great to be with Angie and the kids today. Happy Father's Day to everyone.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 6/21/2009 11:59:00 AM | Links to this post    

Labels: exercise, family, father's day

I have some water in my basement. Not surprising after all the rain we've had in the past 24 hours. There was a tornado warning at 1:10a this morning. I thought it odd that the warning sirens didn't go off; I found out tonight that lightning had blown out the transformer that runs the sirens. Nice timing. :)

Anyway, at least it's just a little trickle of water and not a basement full of sewage, like some in the greater Milwaukee area are dealing with tonight.


As you can see, the basement is unfinished. It had been finished twice before but over the years it had flooded, so screw it. I'm likely not going to finish it again. Makes clean up easier.

Angie is out with her former coworkers tonight, so I'm just hanging out at home listening to the rain.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 6/19/2009 09:07:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: basement, flooding, rain

The weekend comes and I'm apparently sick. Earlier this week, I had a sore throat and because off that, I went for a throat culture because Sasha has had two cases of strep lately and I wanted to be sure that we weren't just passing it back and forth between each other. The culture was negative, so I thought, ok, maybe it's just allergies.

Then yesterday, it moved from my throat to my head and chest. yeah, it's a cold. It just figures that it would happen on a weekend. I suppose the up side is that I don't have to go anywhere because it's the weekend. The down side is that, well, I wanted to just relax this weekend and it's not as much fun when one is sick.

*sigh*

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 6/13/2009 10:33:00 AM | Links to this post    

Labels: illness

Here's some video from Aiden's "End of the Year Picnic" taken today.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 6/10/2009 08:32:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: aiden, picnic, school

Yeah, I've been lousy about updating. Probably spending too much time reading other sites instead of giving you folks something good to read instead.

Well, lately, I've been working on this exercise thing. Heaven knows why...it freakin' hurts. :) I've been running and biking regularly for the first time in at least 15 years over the past two months. At this point, I'm up to running 3.1 miles twice a week, 5 miles once a week and biking twice a week.

Let's just say, as of yet, I'm not a fan.

Perhaps it's more appropriate to say I wasn't a fan until this week. I took my blood pressure for the first time in a few months. Prior to Angie's illness this past winter, I was pretty neurotic about taking my blood pressure, which was sitting in the "prehypertensive" range of about 130/85 or so. This week I took my blood pressure and it was 105/63. Thinking for sure that was a mistake, I took it again. 106/62. Apparently, what all the docs say about exercise is true. My blood pressure is way down. In addition, my resting heart rate is down from about 80bpm to around 60-65bpm.

Ok, so maybe this is helping. Of course, what I wanted to happen hasn't happened yet: my weight hasn't dropped.* People keep telling me this will come in time, but if I'm putting myself through this, I at least want to look good naked.**


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* - Of course, it could be Angie's fault: She keeps making carrot cakes, which are like crack to me.

** - "American Beauty" reference in case you're not following along.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 6/09/2009 08:47:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: exercise, health

For the past six weeks or so, I've been jogging for the first time in...I don't know...three or four Presidents' terms. Every week I've been upping the distance and today I made it 5 miles (8K). Later this summer, I'm going to try and participate in at least one 5K run, so I want to make sure I can make a decent showing.

I'm not entirely sure my body is acclimated to this exercise thing. :) Part of the motivation for this is that during Angie's illness, I lost 20 pounds...part of that just came off from worry; part of that came off once I realized I was losing weight I started eating a bit better. Angie's cooking again now...and she's a great cook, so I figured I'd better get off the couch.

I guess it hit me that I had better get my ass in shape as my odometer flipped another digit in the "tens place" this year. I'm not sure what distance I'll be working towards (and I'm certainly not going to be running any marathons, iron man competitions or even half-marathons like some crazy people I know!), but I hope that I get to the point that after I do a run like this, I don't feel like Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz when he was first found rusting in the field.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 5/25/2009 05:56:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: exercise

I received a "Change in Terms of Service" notice from Capital One today, stating the company would be cranking up my APR on the credit card I keep for my side business.

I called to ask what the issue was, if I had made late payments or something like that. In fact, I asked "Jeff," the ... ahem...Customer Service Representative (hmmm funny, don't feel like I received much customer service, but I'm getting ahead of myself) "What did I do wrong?" Literally. In those words.

His answer? "Nothing." I asked if another rate was available and he said no. I told him I was going to opt out, which allows me to pay down the balance at the current rate. I then told him that I wanted it noted for the record that I was, nicely stated "rather put out" with what the company had done.

His reply? "I'll connect you with our automated system."

That just pissed me off. Now, I get the fact that Jeff didn't make the policy decision, but if your company is going to hack off a large portion of its customer base, at least attempt to placate the customer.

I snapped, and I admit, it was a childish thing to do. In a rather sing-song voice, I said, "Oh? You don't care? Oh! Thank you so much!" and hung up. I then called the automated system myself and opted out.

Why did this tick me off so much? Because it's one thing to have repercussions to your finances if you skip payments or go over the limit or whatever. Capital One's own representative told me I did nothing like that. Part of the reason listed for jacking my rate (from I think 16.91% to 22.9% or something like that) is the "challenging economic environment" [click the picture below to enlarge it for reading].


I think I've been a good customer to Capital One. The account has been open for over six years. Yet, as Capital One is in business to make money and not take care of the likes of me (and hey, why would they? I'm small potatoes...I get that part...I really do), it is become the position of the company to just jack up the rates on a large number of its customers to try and make up the difference on the bottom line caused by the recent economic down turn.

After this, I did a little research and apparently I'm pretty late to this party. There are a number of people that have been jacked by Capital One (see this link, or this link, or this one for examples) and some articles of advice, like this one.

I guess in the final analysis, Capital One did me a favor, as credit cards can be used for evil as well as for good. I can just imagine what the company would have done to me if I hadn't been paying as agreed on the account.

I cashed out as many rewards points as I could (although since the company seems to only offer rewards at levels of 5,000 points, I will end up losing about 3,200 points, since there is no level of redemption for less than 5,000 points), but I'm still going to get screwed on that as well. I guess Capital One decided that even taking bailout money wasn't enough to allow easy access to its funds.

I probably shouldn't have closed the account, but as the taunt letter from CapOne states, once you have closed it, that puppy is closed! I suppose the smarter thing to do would have been to pay off the balance and not use the card.

Of course, my account was charged an annual fee anyway. Some reward, right? As I saw on another website, Capital One should change the slogan from "What's in your wallet?" to "What's left in your wallet?"

Well, I'm not sure what's going to be left in my wallet, but I know that none of my paltry little pittance will be going to assist Capital One before too long. Zero balance, here I come!

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 5/18/2009 05:21:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: bad customer service, capital one, credit card, opt out, rate increase

Last night, I along with Bubba and his wife, hit the Blue October show in Milwaukee. I know I've said these sorts of things before, but man, I'm getting too old to go to shows for a number of reasons:

1. I get up too early to stay up until midnight...five hours of sleep just isn't enough anymore.
2. I'm too old for the median age at these shows...I just feel like a creepy old guy.

Of course, I'm not as creepy as the "older than me guy" who kept doing the "gorilla arms" pumping to the music all night. You can see his arm-pumping awesomeness in the pic:



There was also a guy there dressed like, well, as Bubba put it, he was dressed like Strongbad. We don't know what the hell that was about.

The band was great as always. The setlist drew heavily from the two newest releases, "Approaching Normal" and "Foiled." Although those are good CDs, I definitely missed the songs that were previously staples of Blue October shows ("Drop," "HRSA," "Independently Happy" and "Razorblade" were among the missing).

[Part of the reason I really dig this band aside from the music is that they really seem to care about the fans. Case in point here.

Today, though, it was definitely hard to get through work...I just need more sleep for my tired old body than five hours.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 5/15/2009 03:44:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: Blue October, concert, milwaukee

How did I miss this? Normally, I'd be all over things like this.

As an aside, happy birthday to my brother.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 5/07/2009 03:46:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: birthday, jason, math

It's not a day off from work, but a day off from running. I have been fairly consistent in my running over the past five weeks (in this hopeless attempt to keep my weight down since Angie is healthy and cooking again; I had lost 20 pounds over the course of her illness). I will run each day for 2-3 days and then skip a day. Typically, I based it on if it's raining or not, thus showing I have not yet progressed to the next chakra of running (where you go out like a bastardized version of the US Postal Service slogan: "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays this courageous runner from the swift completion of his appointed distance." Quite the opposite for me actually.)

Today is my off day. My body is very glad about this, although I am definitely seeing progress. I'm slowly building up the distance that I'm running, having started out with half mile runs the first week. I'm now up to a little over two miles. My cardio endurance is definitely coming up; I don't feel that horrible burning breathing sensation anymore and my heart rate returns to normal fairly quickly after the run. My knees (which just ached the first few weeks) are now with the program as well. I am having some problems with tightness in my calves, but that's about it.

I'm not sure what my "level off" distance is going to be; I'd like to think that I'll work myself up to five miles a day, but realistically, I'm amazed I'm managing the 2+ miles I'm at now. I know I have no plans to run a marathon, half-marathon or anything insane like that (unlike many of the people I work with *ahem* Bubba), but I wouldn't mind running a few 5K runs now and then. That was something I left behind about 15 years ago and it would be nice to think that I'm still able to pull that off.

As for today, however, I'm just going to enjoy *not* running. I'll be quite honest: I don't particularly like running, but I'm of the opinion that I may be able to get more out of it than riding my bike or doing that speed walking thing (which I don't think I could do gracefully).

Hopefully my body will hold out and let me do this.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 5/06/2009 03:33:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: exercise

The weather here looks to be 60-65F for most of the week*. Angie and I are just hanging out at home and not cleaning this week. We did go out for a walk yesterday and I've been running in an attempt to keep the 20 pounds I recently loss off of me since Angie is healthy (and cooking!) again.

Today, I do need to go through some piles of crap here (as I've probably stated before, I'm a "piler": stacks of paper everywhere that I need to go through). Angie tolerates this very well...at least outwardly!

Unrelated question: Has anyone used (or know of someone who has used) the Rosetta Stone language products? If so, how was the experience with it?



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* - understanding that around here the >48 hour forecast is reasonably useless.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 5/03/2009 10:10:00 AM | Links to this post    

Labels: exercise, rosetta stone, weekend

The past two days here have been on and off rainstorms. I was on my way to the zoo with the boys yesterday when the heavens opened and it rained like I haven't seen in quite a while around here. Sasha wisely suggested we go to the museum instead of the zoo. Although we have a yearly pass for the zoo, we headed for the museum as the need to stay dry overruled the need to go to the zoo simply because it was already paid for.

Of course, the boys were primarily occupied with the dinosaur exhibits and the live butterfly area, but it was a good time and they behaved very well.

Today, the rain has been alternating between "nothing" and "downpour" without too many settings in between. I managed to run a few miles without getting wet, although I'll admit that zapped any energy I had for any other purpose today.

All in all, I know this blog has been boring...even by my standards lately. I'm not sure what I need to do to get myself motivated again. Since Angie's illness started I know the blog output is way down, but I felt I owed a post for the three people that still read. Thanks for hanging in with me. :)

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 4/26/2009 05:56:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: museum, rain, zoo

If you're so inclined, Happy Easter; if you're not so inclined, Happy Sunday.

The boys were up early this morning running around the house looking for Easter eggs and sending their respective blood sugars into the stratosphere. The boys used my Flip camcorder to record more of their truly bizarre clips they call the "Puppetastic Puppet Show." Today's episodes involved a stuffed chameleon and a sock puppet.

Yes, it's as weird as it sounds.

Aside from that, Angie and I are just laying low. Her recovery continues to go well. This past Wednesday, she had the biliary stent removed two weeks earlier than planned. This was done as the docs felt she had healed up so well. Angie is still sore, obviously, but is incredibly glad to not have anything hanging out of her body anymore. She has one more follow up appointment scheduled with her surgeon on April 22 and assuming all goes well there, that should be it for doctors for a while. Of course, our surgeon is a pretty cool cat and when we aren't seeing him anymore, we'll probably miss him. :)

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 4/12/2009 07:25:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: aiden, Angie, Easter, Sasha

Well, good news from the doctors today.

Angie had an appointment to check the placement of her biliary stent. The original plan was the docs would decide today if they could cap the drainage bag still hanging out of her. In two weeks, the tube would be removed.

They did the test today and things had healed up so well that the docs removed the tube today. Needless to say, we were shocked. For the first time in almost three months, Angie doesn't have any tubes hanging out of her.

She still has an appointment with the surgeon in two weeks, but aside from that, we think this long nightmare of ours may finally be over.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 4/08/2009 09:41:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: Angie, hospital

Every now and then I have to post something about a weird thing I see out my window at work. Today was one of those days.

This morning, across the street from me was this scene:


You're probably thinking, "So what? Cops pulled someone over." Well, what you don't see here is that it is on the second story of a building...it is supposed to be a pedestrian only area. The driver of the jeep somehow drove up to this area and managed to get his vehicle stuck on a concrete embankment.

I'm not sure how that came to happen, but I have my own ideas. :D

Here's a better wide shot so you get the idea that there were some "mad skillz" involved here:


You can see the road the guy was SUPPOSED to be driving on under the bridge.

| Thoughtully composed by Scott at 3/31/2009 06:39:00 PM | Links to this post    

Labels: weird