I’ve started running on a full tank of enthusiasm. Since the start of May I have already run a 5 mile race and a 5K race. I was able to beat my personal record for the 5K earlier this month, but I’m hoping better it on the 31st. My current best is 27 minutes, 27 seconds. The race was a horrible morning to run; 40 degrees and winds steady at 20 mph gusting up to 30-40 mph. The thing that saved me was that I knew this race was only going last less than 30 minutes. The course of the race was a loop and the first half was against the wind. I figured that it was good to get the tough part of the race over at the beginning. Unfortunately, the wind decided to shift and the last half of the race was run with a cross wind so it was difficult just to stay on the road. I’m hoping Sunday will be better weather and allow me achieve my goal of running the 5K under 25 minutes.
I’ve grown to enjoy running outside rather than in the basement on the treadmill. Once I got going outside, I found that my old Timex GPS had crapped out on me. I discovered this during my runs when the GPS would just turn off. To me the GPS was a prerequisite to running outside. I need to be able to measure my progress and the GPS allowed me to instantaneously see my pace and distance. I would complete my run and then immediately log the distance and the time it took me to track my mileage. Without knowing these metrics for my runs, I was lost. I picked up a Garmin Forerunner 305 and found this to be leaps and bounds over my old GPS unit. The Forerunner hooked up to the computer and allowed me to automatically upload my information to Running Ahead. I no long have to enter things by hand but just click the mouse a couple times.
I’ve made the crazy decision and signed up for the Twin Cities Marathon this October. I thought that I wouldn’t run another marathon soon, but as I started running races I remembers how much fun the first 18 miles of the 2004 marathon had been. Again, I’m looking to improve on my previous time and am developing a training plan based on my current running time. I’ve been running anywhere between 25 and 30 miles for the past month or so. This morning I did a 12 mile run before work and felt like I could just keep going. The biggest challenge I’m facing is understanding what my limits are. I’m testing the waters with a speed workout or race each week. It seems with each workout I finish, I still feel that I have some left in the tank. Once I get this figured out, I’ll be able to set my goal time for the marathon. Until then, I’ll just slowly increase my speed until I can’t go anymore.
Life
forerunner, gps, race, running
This is the time of the year I hate. It finally hits me that the grass is indeed growning and I need to commence the weekly mowing along with starting a list of all the other yard work I try to ignore. My wife is excellent at gently reminding/asking me subtly when I am going to check items off the list.
Over the time that we’ve been in our house the yard has always been a challenge. Last year we started getting this little blue flowers coming up in the yard. I thought it was a renegade from the large gardens that we tried to kill our first summer in the house. This year though the small patch has blossomed into a significant portion of the backyard. After talking about this in passing with my dad, he warned me, “It’s creeping charlie and it’s tough to get rid of.” This is how the war begun.
I cut the grass for the first time of the year and laid down the first layer of herbicide that is supposed to be safe for grass but kill my creeping Chuck along with any othe week we have.
I’ll keep everyone posted on the status of the war and each of the battles.
Life
creeping charlie, lawn
As always, I take long absences from posting and within that time there are significant changes in my life. I think the last post I made was announcing Dos and how extremely excited Michelle and I are about it. Aves is even starting to talk about our baby is coming soon. For some reason, he’s says the baby is still driving here but he’ll be here soon.
In one of my last posts, either here or at Bundle Of Chaos, I discuss how the new baby was a stubborn one. Michelle did some research online about elective ultrasounds and where we could get one done in the cities. We ended up choosing a place whose office was down in Bloomington. It seemed odd walking into a regular office building to get an ultrasound. When we walked into the office there was a gentleman sitting behind the desk on the phone telling the person on the other end that he couldn’t tell the sex of the baby until 20 weeks and even that was difficult. Once he hung up, he handed Michelle a couple forms to fill out and then proceeded to give us a bunch of freebies from various baby formula companies (Similac, Enfamil, etc). The coolers and carrying cases and free samples were well appreciated. He said that hospitals and doctors won’t hand this stuff out but he is more than happy to. (I think we came out ahead between how much the ultrasound cost and the freebies we got) After completing the forms, we went into the ultrasound room which had a giant projector that displayed the ultrasound on the wall. This time the kid was more accommodating so we found out that Dos is a boy. We were excited to finally be able to start weeding through baby clothes and decide on the decor of the nursery.
Also in this time, I finished up my MBA after 3 years of going to classes. It’s great not having to go to class twice a week and worry about when I am going to get a paper written. In the midst of my last semester I participated in interviews on campus and was offered a job with a new company which I accepted. I started with the new company in early January where I’m still trying to figure out what I want to be doing. I let it slip that I had some Access knowledge so they have been utilizing me for that for the first month. Hopefully this is just a short term because I’ve been there and am not 100% pumped about being back in there. The compensation does make it easier to stomach though.
With all the new found free time, I’ve taken up reading and running again, the two things I missed most when I went back to school. Even though I did plenty of reading for school, it wasn’t the fun reading that I loved doing before. As a graduation gift to myself with the grad money I received, I went out and bought a Sony Digital Reader. I had done a bunch of research over the course of a month before I graduated. MobileRead was the site that I found extremely helpful. They had a wiki that had a comparison chart of all the devices that are available and features/compatibility. One of the biggest challenges that digital readers face is the different formats. There are four or five common formats for ebooks and no reader can handle all of them. The book industry followed in the early steps of the music industry in that most firms require some sort of DRM on its books. I’m hoping that the book industry realizes what the music people have seen that DRM is not the answer. This DRM further complicates the formats because a digital reader can read the format but not when it has DRM around it. I’ve ended up finding a very helpful program, Calibre, that solves the format problems by converting the books I want to one of the formats my reader can handle. I see this as a perfect chance to catch up on all the “classics” I’ve never read. Many of these public domain books are available through sites like Feedbooks, Manybooks, and MobileRead. I have also stumbled across a couple authors that are doing some progressive things with digital distribution. I think I’ve discussed this enough for now, but it the topic may return under the Dork category.
Sorry for the “too much tech detail” in a post that I meant to catch you up with what I’ve been up to. Back to being able to do the things I like: running. I’ve taken up running again. The treadmill in the basement has started getting significant amount of use since I’m still a sissy runner and refuse to run outside when it is below 50 degrees. The new employer also has a fitness center onsite so I am able to jump on a treadmill and run for a half hour in the middle of the day. For me, this is great since I can get away from what I’m doing for a bit and come back refreshed for the rest of the day. I am even so dedicated to this running that I’ve signed up for a 5k race in May. I don’t have any doubts that I’ll be able to complete the race but now I’ve set the goal of running my fatest 5k ever. We’ll see how quickly I can get back into my training but I’ve made some good progress in the two and a half weeks I’ve been running. To tie back to the tech, Running Ahead is an awesome site that I stumble across to help track my workouts. I’m excited to try it is its integration with Google maps. I can plot my run on the site and then it will calculate the distance.
Life
Piggy tailing on Jason’s post, Michelle and I are expecting our second baby. Dos, as I am lovingly referring to it is due on March 19. We are extremely excited along with both our families.
Life
I’m not big on car washes. I’m not sure if it’ me s rebelling because
of my childhood. I remember my dad always telling my brother and me to
get car washes when we were filling up the Plymouth Acclaim as
teenagers. Car washes are usually purchased only after my black Saturn
has become a dull black/gray. This week though my car got a nice $480
car wash.
On Tuesday morning the car wouldn’t start. It was a great way to start
off a Tuesday morning after the long Labor Day weekend. I’ve had
problems with the Saturn starting previously but it usually would start
after sitting for little bit. We took our other car and planned on
dealing with it later that evening. When we got home from work, I
exhausted all my car troubleshooting skills which consisted of trying
to start the car while swearing. This usually worked but this time I
was left with a grinding engine. I called the shop and lined up a tow
truck to come by and pick up the car. It was late in the evening so the
shop wasn’t going to look at it until the next day.
At work the next day, I get a call at 8:00am and I’m surprised the
mechanic was already calling me. The first thing that went through my
mind was that he went out and the car started right up. Forturnately,
this was not the case. Rethinking this, I would have preferred if it
started. He was calling to get more background info on the car. As I’ve
previously revealed I have an in depth knowledge of my car and how it
functions. I told the guy on the phone that I turned the key and it
sounded like it was trying to start but it wouldn’t fire.
A couple hours later I get another call from the mechanic. I answer and
he proceeds to tell me that the starter went out. The starter was about
$300 for parts another $90 for labor, then there was a $48 diagnostic
fee. In addition, he had to do an oil change because gas has gotten
the oil. He also mentioned that a tire rotation could be done sine I
requested a tire rotation with the preceding oil change but at that
time the wear on the tires necessitate it. So by the time you add in tax and all the total was up to $510. I was in shock but needed the car fixed so I said “Ok, when is it going to be done.”
Between work and class that night, Michelle dropped me off so I could pay and head off to class. I was able to use my prepaid oil change card so that knock $30 off. I was happy to be done with the transaction since I hadn’t fully figured out where this $500 was coming from to pay for it. I think that’s why God create plastic, right?
I walked out into the parking lot and headed to my car. As I approached my Saturn, I noticed that it had a shine that I was unfamiliar with. As I got into the car, I noticed the dash didn’t have the usual layer of dust and fuzz either. So for $480, I not only got a new starter I also got a heck of a car wash. I wonder at what dollar amount does the mechanic think, “The least we can do is give him free car wash”. Or was my car so dirty that the mechanic couldn’t stand it.
Life
I remember someone telling me this right after Aves was born. I didn’t think this was possible but it is. We’ve had a couple great weekends in a row. This past weekend we spoiled the little man immensely. We bought a giant play kitchen for him. The thing showed up at our house in two big boxes on Saturday. We waited until he went to bed to unpack it and get it together. I’m not sure who was more excited about it: me or him.
When he woke up on Sunday, Michelle did the diaper changing while I got the camera. When he walked out to the living room his only response was “Ooh, ooh, ooh!” as he pointed at it. He immediately dug into playing. He could move things form the drawer to the cabinet and back again all day long.
The other thing we got him was a small leather chair. He crawls up on it, sits down, then climbs down. I’m not sure if he realizes it’s a chair rather than a climbing toy.
I really don’t care as long as he is giggling.
Life
It seems that in times of stress I always come to needing an anchor to maintain my sanity. It seems that the journal has served this purpose well. I bet if you go back and look at the history of entries you will find many dead spots in the timeline. (mind you, I have not gone back to look) I would suspect that the posts start up during a hectic/stressful time. I think I just need an outlet for this stress. It also seems that I strive to find ways to relax. During these times I also find myself watching more TV, playing more video games, etc. It feels as if I get more enjoyment out of these during stressful times.
I’m not sure if it is because I’m trying to avoid the stress or release it through these activities. I think the activities release teh stress overall. The best thing to cut through all the stress is having Aves come running over to me and give me a hug. Unfortunately, this is not always possible when I have class until late at night. But this cuts both ways, it is so much harder when all he wants is his mom and his response to me is ” Go away, Daddy.” Most time when this happens I can easily write it off as the boy being a toddler but it sucks even more wehn all I want is his hugs.
Life
Why is it that I’m running into a hell of a time with jobs. It seems that people do not view the fact that I’m getting my MBA as a positive. It seems I’m stuck in a very odd place. With the usual political crap that goes on at a large corporation, I feel that I’m getting lost in the shuffle. I need to find a bridge job between the one I am in now and the post MBA I’d like to have. The problem is that each bridge job I’ve talked to people about they bring up the fact that I probably wouldn’t want to be in the position after I complete my MBA. I try to explain to the people that I’m looking for a challenge and improve my skills, but all they hear is “MBA, he is going to leave after he’s done”.
I’m growing tired of the lack of clarity that management provides. The do not provide any guidance on anything. No one will tell me where I stand on the totem pole. But all the feedback I get is “You are doing a good job, keep doing what you are doing.” The nly benefit I’m seeing is that I’m one of the first asked to take on more of the same old boring work. That’s not good when I hate the work they ask me to take on.
Life
This evening was a banner evening for horrible customer service.
Last weekend my father-in-law and I installed a new ceiling fan in a bedroom. We ran into a few issues but nothing major until we went to screw in the lightbulbs. One of the sockets was broken so we were unable to screw in the lightbulb. I read through the warranty document and it said that the manufacture would send out replacement parts at no cost if there was something wrong. I called the 800 number and explained my situation to the woman on the other end of the phone. Her response was “We don’t send out new sockets or electrical parts. Go back to Menard’s and exchange it.” I asked her why her about the part of the warranty that said they would send out new parts. “We do that if it’s not an electric part. If it’s any wiring you have to take it back.” I was skeptical that Menard’s would be able to help. When we arrived at Menard’s, I thought my customer service luck turned around. I walked up to the service desk and the woman told me to go over to the fans and the salesman would be able to help me. Once we located the fan model we had at home, he opened up the box and dug out the light fixture. While he was digging through the box, he apologized for the trouble we had. Once we got all the pieces he apologized again and told us to have a good night. I was amazed by how easy this was. Unfortunately the night of custmer service was downhill from there.
Our next stop was at the new Target store in Maple Grove. We went there just to check out the new store. It had just opened on Tuesday so it was amazing to see how neat and uncluttered the store seemed. We did end up getting a sweater for Mr. A and some other random items. We only has a couple items so we hit up the express lane. The cashier looked at me and said, “I can’t help you.” I gave her a quizzical and she just repeated “I can’t help you.” It wasn’t like she was uncapable, she was in the middle of finishing up a transaction. I said “Okay?” and headed further down the row of lanes to find someone who was able to help.
The next stop was Gamestop. I wanted to take advantage of a deal they were running for trading in games for Guitar Hero III. This should have been a 5 minute deal, but took around 30 minutes for clerk to finish the transaction. She asked me my phone number no less than 4 times during the ordeal. Finally she asked me to write down my number so I wouldn’t have to ask me every time she needed it. During the first 10 minutes, she was entering my info in their new computer system. She and another worker spent a good portion of that 10 minutes discussing the horrible new system and how much they hate it. The last 20 minutes was the clerk trying to figure out why some bonus credit wasn’t being allowed. She kept repeating that if she can’t get it to work that she would have to do it manually. In the end, she called another store and found out that she couldn’t use all of the bonus credits in one transaction. She was apologetic, but still frustrating that it took that long for a 5 minute transaction. Hopefully I’ll be able to get in and out when I pick it up.
Since we had done a bunch of running, it was getting late and we still needed dinner. BW’s carry-out was what we decided on. I called them up and tried to place a simple order of 8 boneless wings and their dynamic trio. The 8 boneless wings was not an issue, but the trio was hard. When I ordered the trio I heard dead silence. She placed me on hold for a minute. When she got back on the line her response was “All we can find is the Naked Tender so do you want that?” I had given up at that point and just ordered the tenders with one sauce.
So that was my evening of bad service. After the first two stops I was annoyed with the lack of service, but by the time I had finished with BW’s it was just comical.
Life
