Sarah Palin

A coworker sent me this (I am pretty sure) 100% authentic screenshot of Sarah Palin's facebook. Read over the ENTIRE thing. If you don't laugh out loud at least once, I don't want you to read this blog ANY more.

Edit: Picasa is being dumb, here is the URL. You can zoom in on it while in my picasa album.
http://picasaweb.google.com/adam.ricklefs/IAmBoring?authkey=a_lkBRFbcRw#5251955700189043778

I need to friend Bill Clinton (see his comment below).

Paying Bills

What does it say about modern society that, when faced with paying a bill manually, I feel particularly overburdened? Writing their name on an envelope, writing a check out, walking out to the mailbox to send the bill. Ugg - it is almost enough to make me want to just not pay it.

On a side note, what does it say about ME that instead of starting this out with "what does it say about me...." I try to blame my own laziness on society? If I think hard enough, I can probably blame most of my issues on society. :)

Hooray Internet bill pay.

Garage Painting

Since my wife and I are planning on eventually moving to Phoenix, we're slowly fixing up our house in preparation for the move. As part of this process, we completed one of the last major tasks that I have wanted to do since we moved in - we painted the garage.

Our garage had been rather dirty because of some overspray when we painted our cabinets, so a nice coat of white paint on the walls and tan on the floors was a welcome sight. The process involved:

• Taping off everything that I didn't want painted (garage door etc)
• Spraying the floors with my airless paint sprayer (it took 5 gallons)
• Taking off all of the plastic to get out of the garage (we had taped ourselves inside)
• Sanding down any paint that had been left over on the floor
• Scrubbing the floor with a prep acid wash
• Rolling on the epoxy paint

It honestly makes me tired just typing it out. I am still a bit sore, but I will be fine prior to my marathon run.

Here are some pictures of the process:

Fort Collins Trip

As I stated previously in one of my run posts, I was in Fort Collins, CO a week ago visiting my sister and mom. My sister is a sophomore at Colorado State University.

We had a great time. We visited the New Belgium Brewery, took a drive around Estes Park, and visited the Stanley Hotel. Here are some pictures of the trip.

A view of the beer that I tasted (for free!!) and some random tanks.
I believe these were (from left to right): A coffee infused beer, a cherry infused beer, a semi stout, and a summer unfiltered wheat.


HEY! No dorking around near lift trucks.



Ok, maybe a little bit of dorking around (My mom, sister, and wife). But still, not TOO much.



Sexy is as sexy does



My wife and I in front of the hotel (The Stanley Hotel) where Steven King thought of the book 'The Shining'



A random Elk that had wondered into town.

9/28 Run

0 miles. Bummer. I'm still giving my leg a rest. It is getting better and I think that I'll be able to log the last week of my marathon training.

BareNaked Lip Sync

These guys are funny. It is a lip synced version of BNL's "Sound of your voice".

There goes the weekend

My TV shows are back on. So, as it stands right now I am watching the following shows each week:

The Office
CSICSI Miami
Survivor
Dr 90210
John and Kate Plus 8
Real Housewives (if it ever starts back up)

That means that I almost always have some TV show that I could watch. Throw in a solid 3 or 6 hours of football a week and it seems like I have fallen into some old habits again. Either way, I am ok with that as long as The Office continues to be as good as it was last night. Shoot, even CSI Miami was good and not nearly as cheesy as it normally is!

Why I run

I have been asked on numerous occasions why I run. Before I can answer I am usually presented with a statement about how it is ridiculous how far I run on a regular basis. For the most part, I agree with them that it is a bit ridiculous. However, I like to do it and honestly don’t care what other people think (for the most part). Either way, I think that I owe a lot of people some sort of explanation. Well, maybe I don’t – but I wanted to post it on here anyway – lucky you.

First, I want to clarify that I don’t run for the benefits of being healthy. I will be honest in saying that initially this was the case. I needed to get into shape so that I didn’t become big like my dad and his dad. I have never played any organized sports so I don’t feel a great urge to work out for work outs sake. More often than not, I work out to better facilitate my running habit. So, why do I run?

I run mostly because I can. I love the fact that I can push my body to the limits of its design (sometimes beyond those limits) if only to see where those limits are. I also love the fact that through my own sheer will, I can train my body to accomplish something that I previously could not do. Running 26 miles at an 8:00 mile pace will be a great example.

I run because while I am running, I can clear my head of almost every thought imaginable. While running, it usually takes so much effort that I honestly don’t think about anything. Not about family, friends, work or otherwise. Just my feet pounding the pavement.

Most importantly, I run because it is my own time. Running is “Adam time”. While running I don’t have to answer to anyone. Not that I like to be away from people, but I like the solidarity that a long run gives. My wife knows that if I have to run 10 miles, I will be gone for 1:20. I don’t golf regularly, I don’t have much ‘guy time’, so running is the closest thing that I have to my own personal retreat…. And I love every second of it.

Vodka – Yes Please

On Wednesday night, the team went to a vodka bar called Red Square in downtown Denver. It was a fun bar / restaurant. I don’t know how many vodkas they had, but it was a LOT. They had an entire three column menu page listing them out. Needless to say, the group comprised of teammates and friends/relatives of teammates did our best to sample each and every one of them. The specialty of the bar was their flavor infused vodkas. They take fruit or other flavors (dill or garlic anyone?) and add them to the vodka. I have to say that these, while sometimes girly, were good!

I had wanted to go to the bar since the last time that we were in Denver, however we didn’t get the chance. It lived up to my high expectations. The infused vodkas were great and the regular vodkas were smooth. In fact, because the infused vodkas weren't full strength, you could down 8 or 10 shots and feel like a rockstar! So, if you ever find yourself in Denver, look up Red Square and ask for a carafe of Pineapple vodka and a plate of pickle chasers. Each carafe has 10 shots, so make sure you bring some friends.

Ewok?

I was sent another client email funny that absolutely has to be posted. Now, I am not sure what this little guy is, but he (she?) is included within the signature of a client that I work with.

My guess is that it is an Ewok, but I’ve also had guesses of an alpaca or a llama. I’ll let you be the judge:

Week of 9/23 Runs

9/23: 5 miles, 9:10 pace. Tough run as it was only 1 day after a good 20 mile run. Although, after I was finished, I felt a lot less stiff.
9/24: 2 miles, 8:00 pace. I cut this run short and officially decided that I have to stop running for 1 week to let my foot heal. While I haven’t mentioned it much – even on this blog – my foot / ankle / leg has been hurting quite a bit as of late. I tweaked it a bit during my first 20 mile run which was over two weeks ago. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better while still running on it so I am going to take it easy for a bit and ‘trust my training’ for the race on 10/12.
9/25: No running today. Grrrrrr

I'm Flying!

The team recently went indoor skydiving. It was FUN. I really like the lack of the possibility of dying that regular skydiving has. It was honestly a bit harder than I thought it was going to be – but I guess that is expected with anything that I have never done before. Although, it was just FALLING, so maybe I am just really uncoordinated. I mean, I’ve never had much trouble falling before.

The wind speeds were clocked at around 105 mph while we were in the tunnel. It wasn’t nearly as loud as I thought that it would be. If anything, it seemed like a really windy day. Or, if you have ever rode a motorcycle, it was very similar to highway speeds without a helmet on.

Here are some pictures of me while flying. I’ll spare everyone pictures of the team as they shall remain anonymous.

Cabbies

How do these guys make money? Specifically, I'm talking about the taxi drivers that wait at the airport. I mean, here is how I see their day going...

5:00am: Get to work and get in line
6:00am: Get first fair. Make $10 in tips
7:00am: Get back into line at airport
...
...
Repeat maybe 5 times a day.

So, these people are making MAYBE $50 a day in tips - probably less. Do they get some sort of hourly wage or something!? I certainly hope so. Because if not, I'm going to start tipping 400%.

Fall

Today is the first full day of fall. Fall is undoubtedly my favorite season and probably the thing that I am going to miss most after we move to Phoenix. Oddly, the thing that I like most about fall isn’t the colors, the change in temperatures (although that is a close second), or the fact that football season is well underway. The thing that I love most about fall is the smell. I love the smell of the leaves changing or the smell after the first frost. It almost smells crisp. I am almost always training for some random race, so I usually get the opportunity to spend a lot of time out and about – noticing the subtitle changes in the season.

I mentioned previously that I am very smell sensitive. Not that particularly bad smells bother me all that much (I’m a guy after all), but I defiantly notice smells more and (as Barry said) I associate memories with smells. So, as fall approaches, I am going to take every opportunity to enjoy it as much as I can. Since this will be my last one, I need to get as much out of it as I can!

Here is a picture of the tree in my front yard from last fall! Love it.

English is Awesomest

Why is it that encapsulate starts with an “E”, but incorporate starts with an “I”? It is no wonder that I can’t spell anything.

Tasty

Female employee: You've never had Krispy Kreme donuts?
Male employee: Nope.
Female employee: Ohh. They are so good!
Male employee: Really?
Female employee: Yeah, they're better than sex!
Male employee: Hmm. You must be doing it wrong.

9/21 Run

20 miles, 8:45 pace. Today's run was in Fort Collins Colorado which is at about 5000 ft elevation (according to wiki). The first 15 miles or were fine, however I did notice the elevation a bit more than I did on my previous high elevation run. It is probably because I was running at a full min/mile faster. The last 5 miles were a bit more tough. I needed to stop twice to catch my breath which was a bit frustrating.

I always laugh a bit that my Garmin GPS watch always seems to end up on these even pace times. I report in this blog exactly what the watch says....

Yup

My dad once sat my sisters and me down and told us, "Girls, if you don't understand men, you're thinking too hard."

Week of 9/15 Runs

9/15: 5 miles, 8:15 pace. I could really tell that I didn't run much this past weekend. I really had to throttle back the pace to avoid running too fast. Hopefully that is a good sign.
9/17: 5 miles, 8:00 pace. This run went ok. My leg was bothering me again, so I didn't push it much.
9/18: Didn't get a chance to run this day. I was up too late winning so much money from the casino that if I were to get up and run, I would have only had about 3 hours of sleep. No me gusta.

100 Things

I recently saw a blog where the author posted 100 random facts about himself. I thought that it was particularly interesting - even though I had never met the guy before in my life. Since that time, I have been compiling a list of facts about myself. I found the process of creating this list rather fun. It is quite introspective and really gets you thinking about your life's net sum of experiences.

I may update these from time to time, but for now here they are!

1. I started running and exercising in general after a physical where it was discovered that I had high blood pressure.
2. I have a battery powered blood pressure cuff that I purchased as a result of that physical.
3. I have only had one physical in my life.
4. I’ve run 2 marathons and am training for my 3rd.
5. Each of my marathons has been in a different state.
6. I have not completed any organized half marathons, 10k, or 5k races.
7. However, as part of my training, I have run the half marathon distance over 20 times.
8. As a result of my running, I lost over 35 pounds.
9. I’ve nearly been hit by a car 3 times while running.
10. One time while running, a car got so close to me that I ended up with my hands on the hood of a car.
11. I was not in any organized sports while in high school.
12. I was, however, in concert band, jazz band, marching band.
13. Respectively, I played timpani and snare drum, trap set, and the quads.
14. I am the first member of my immediate family to graduate from college.
15. My college education was entirely self funded.
16. Correction: My college education is being entirely self funded. I am still paying on my student loans.
17. I was a Computer Science Major at Iowa State University.
18. I considered becoming a meteorology major.
19. I have seen three tornadoes in person.
20. I am Caucasian, but was a minority in my major.
21. My high school was 99% Caucasian.
22. While in high school I worked in a ‘factory farm’ hog confinement.
23. I’ve castrated hundreds of pigs.
24. I’ve accidentally tattooed my own hand while tattooing pig’s ears.
25. Luckily the tattoo was on the palm of my hand so it eventually wore off.
26. I’ve accidentally injected myself with iron supplement.
27. Pigs need to have an iron injection within their first two days of life otherwise they will die of anemia.
28. I’ve watched a baby calf being born and was the first thing that it ever saw.
29. I’ve also helped pull a stillborn calf out of a cow.
30. I’ve had my hand inside of a cow up to my bicep.
31. I have a mole on my right middle finger slightly smaller than the size of a dime.
32. Doctors say that if I have it removed, that joint will likely no longer move.
33. My right foot is a full size larger than my left foot.
34. While I was in high school, I lost my drivers license for 90 days.
35. I have never received a speeding ticket.
36. I have however, gone 135 m.p.h. on my motorcycle.
37. I fell off of this motorcycle twice.
38. Both times I was going less than 15 m.p.h.
39. I have gone 165 m.p.h. while in a NASCAR race car.
40. I was a passenger during the Richard Petty Race Experience.
41. I have restored a 1948 dodge ½ ton truck.
42. It took me the entire summer between high school and college.
43. I painted a 1979 Chevy truck bright yellow.
44. I have only owned three cars in my life.
45. Two of those cars I still own.
46. The third car, which was the “Night Rider” car, I wish that I still owned.
47. Last year I worked in 14 states.
48. The only time that I have been outside of the country was walking across the Mexico border.
49. The first time I saw the ocean was on my honeymoon.
50. I have always said that I wanted to do three things in life: Drink water from the ocean, be worth my weight in gold, and be weightless in space.
51. I have only completed one of these items.
52. Ocean water is much saltier than I ever imagined it would be.
53. I work as a management consultant for a large consulting firm.
54. During my 5 year tenure, I have only been on three projects.
55. The ‘average’ project lasts approximately 6 months.
56. My official titles have included “Analyst”, “Consultant”, and “Manager”.
57. I stayed in a hotel 108 out of 365 nights last year.
58. In fact, it is probably over 108 nights because nights purchased with frequent stay points are not counted in the total.
59. I buy a postcard at each location that I am able to travel to that does not cost me any money out of pocket.
60. At last count, I had collected over 30 postcards.
61. I have been interviewed by the FBI.
62. It was in my living room.
63. As an indirect result of the interview, one of my former bosses is now a special agent with the FBI.
64. My maternal grandfather has been married or common law married 7 times.
65. My paternal grandfather has been married once for over 50 years.
66. Both of my grandmothers have passed away.
67. My parents are currently divorced.
68. My dad has been divorced twice.
69. I haven’t talked to his second ex-wife in years.
70. I have a little brother and a little sister.
71. We are each 4 years apart and therefore only went to school together when we were in elementary school.
72. I am currently married to my best friends little sister.
73. Of the 4 years we dated, nearly two of them were a long distance relationship.
74. I have, not including relatives or my wife, at most five or six people that I consider very close friends.
75. A number of those people I work with.
76. I have scores of people that I consider casual acquaintances.
77. I was, however, voted “most outgoing” my senior year of high school.
78. I also was voted to have had the “biggest breakup”.
79. I only drank to the point of drunkenness once before I was 21.
80. The town that I grew up closest to has a population of 120.
81. My dad’s mailing address is still listed as this town.
82. I am amazed to this day how many stars you can see on a clear night whenever I am back.
83. The town that I went to elementary school in has a population of 700.
84. The phone system used 4 digit dialing until I was 10.
85. The town that I went to high school in has a population of 2,000.
86. My high school graduating class had 65 students.
87. The house that I lived in until I was 12 had a wood burning stove for heat in the winter.
88. Yes, the house did have running water.
89. No, the house did not have cable TV.
90. I have been on national TV three times.
91. I have never been on the radio.
92. My favorite band is Bare Naked Ladies.
93. I have never seen them in concert.
94. I have only been to four concerts in my life.
95. The last physical CD that I purchased was over 5 years ago.
96. It was a Bare Naked Ladies CD.
97. At this time, I’ve only purchased 16 songs on iTunes.
98. My first iPod was purchased in the 2nd half of 2008.
99. I can build my own computer.
100. I finished the basement in my house.

Case of the Mondays

I have been in a funk as of late. I am normally a pretty upbeat guy, but during the last 2 or 3 days I seem to be more impatient and frustrated than normal. Fortunately, my personality isn’t built for extended bouts of being pissy, so I can rest assured that soon all will be right with the world. Until then, I apologize to everyone if I seem a bit short!

Call back later

Never done this, but I can see it happening in my mind......

While my office does have actual offices rather than cubicles, I can still hear everything that goes on in my neighbor's office...I love it when his fiancé calls to talk to him about "critical" wedding details and he says "I can't talk about this right now, I'm pretty tied up with work here" then clicks back over to his buddy from college so he can continue their conversation on the football highlights video they are both currently watching online.

Chicken Dinner

Winner winner! Last night I played craps for the first time and won – won big actually. I won the most that I have ever one at a casino. I bought in for $40 and walked away with over $250. The great thing is that I didn’t expect to win because I was trying to learn how to play craps which made the win all the better.

The one thing that I learned is that you need to have a bit of money to be very successful at craps. That is, during some of my big runs, I had over $40 out on the table at any given time. If someone were to roll a 7, I would have lost every bit of that money. However, I didn’t loose, I won HUGE.

Now, I need to decide what to spend my winnings on. Of course, my wife thinks that this is ‘our’ money (even though I used my own personal money to start) so I may have to put up a fight in order to claim it. One of those iPod touches is looking VERY tempting right about now…..

Over sleeping

Why is it that when you oversleep, and get MORE sleep than you normally would have, you wake up even more tired? I slept an extra hour today because my STUPID phone alarm didn’t go off but woke up frantic / sleepy. What the crap!?

Good thing I am one of those bizarre individuals that gets up around 6:00am normally anyway.

KC Fall Parade of Homes

My wife and I love to look at expensive model homes. In fact, we’ve done this twice a year for the last 6 or 7 years – starting one random weekend when we were in Colorado Springs visiting my mom. We are currently in the middle of the Kansas City Parade of Homes so my wife and I took the opportunity to pretend like we are rich and tour some of the mega-houses in the southern KC area.

We went to 5 or so homes ranging in price from $850,000 to $1,700,000. I always think to myself “what do people do in order to be able to afford these houses!?” Doctor or lawyer often comes to mind. But then I am reminded that even the CEO of the plunger company is likely a millionaire – so I am sure that even the richie rich occupations are as varied as any other neighborhood. To be honest, I can’t help but hope that there are a few here and there who are business consultants. Hey, it could happen!

Here are a few pictures of the houses that we viewed.

Most of the houses were huge and decorated quite well:


Additionally, they were all landscaped. About 1/2 of them were ON golf courses.

What I am buying

Counting Crows - Accidentally in Love.

That should be a pretty good running song I think. I'm going to add it to my running playlist.

Born Lucky

I had a most definitely abbreviated conversation with a friend late this past week that we will most certainly pick up next week as well as the next time that we see each other face to face. The conversation had multiple tangents, but centered on giving back to the community (or giving back to society). I’m not sure that she realizes how much she got me thinking. In fact, I normally don’t think about anything while I am running (more on that later), but I even allowed myself to spend most of the two hours that I ran yesterday thinking about what we had discussed.

The person I was talking with is very involved in charitable organizations. VERY involved. I am not as much involved if at all. We discussed that she has been very involved from an early age while I was not very involved at all. Part of my reasoning for this, at least internally, is because I grew up with little means in a very small community. It has been my experience, right or wrong, that people who live in urban areas are more civic minded than people who live in rural regions.

What got me thinking was when she mentioned that ‘everyone in this country is VERY blessed just to have been born here’. I had honestly never thought of that before. That is, I realize that I work hard for the things that I have - however, I haven’t thought much about the things that are provided to me purely because I am here and not somewhere else. Moreover, once you start believe in an almost original sin mantra of being, one must really try to determine how far you want to go. So, since I know someone who gives nearly all of their free time and 50% of their net wage to charitable organizations, should I give more? I can’t say that I work any harder than a garbage man, so should I donate my ‘excess’ wage to help society as a whole to the point that I am not making any more than said garbage man? My old car was working just fine but yet I bought a new one. Should I have stayed with my own car and donated the remainder to a meals on wheels program?

Of course, these examples seem to be rather extreme (if not a bit asinine) but I think that they illustrate my point very well. At what point are we, as privileged individuals, hording too much of our wealth? Or, for that matter, spending too much of it on unneeded luxury items. What is that magic threshold that tells me “Adam, you make $XXX. You should be donating XX/3.”? I mean, even my church publishes a handy tithing table to “remind” me how much I should be donating. Help me out red cross!

So, what did I learn as a result of this conversation? First, that I probably need to give back more. At first this will likely mean monetary donations. Later, my time will likely be lent to help the cause. Second, never get into a social awareness conversation with someone who has a philosophy minor. You can’t ‘win’. I promise.

9/13 Run

12 miles, 8:48 pace. I could certainly tell that I hadn’t ran in over 3 days, I came out of the blocks super fast and had to force myself to stay below a 8:00 pace. That said, I took my time once I got it under control. I let myself walk a few times when I felt that I needed to drink and even stopped to talk to someone in their car who needed directions. My leg didn’t hurt while running, although it is a bit sore today (the day after). It is something with the bone behind my shin bone… fibula.. tibula??... whichever is not the shin bone. Either way, I don’t think that it will slow me down.

Funnies

Boss: Then Megan* and Elizabeth* can review it.
Lisa: Don't you mean Courtney*?
Boss: Oops! Excuse me. You're right.
Lisa: I know; We Americans all sound alike.
Boss: No, not really. I do the same thing with my kids.
Lisa: Are they all the same gender?
Boss: Not at all. I've got three of them--one of each.
Lisa: Okay. One's male and one's female. What's the third one?
Boss: (silence)

IT guy: Your laptop is not booting up because you have a stuck function key. What happened, anyway?
Rep (refusing to make eye contact): Yeah, I ... uhhh, think I dropped something on it.
It guy: Like what?!
Rep: Ummm yeah, well, like my fist.

Home is where you make it

I wanted to announce one of the worst kept secrets thus far. So, to ‘officially’ announce it, my wife and I are moving to Phoenix this spring. We have actually known for some time that we were going to move, but have only started telling people within the last few weeks/months. The reasons for the lack of notification are various, but it will likely suffice to say that the timing just wasn’t right until now. So, as soon as I can get transferred, my wife’s school year is over, and we can sell our house, we’re moving!

You often hear the saying “home is where you make it” and never give it much thought. However, as I was getting off the plane yesterday, heading HOME it really became clear for me. My wife often times makes fun of me because I notice smells more than most. She claims that I smell my food before I eat it (I don’t see how people don’t do that) and am overly sensitive to one smell or another. I think of this every time that I fly home, because as soon as I step outside into the Kansas air (well, Missouri at that time, but whatever…) it even SMELLS like home. The air smells fresh or crisp or moist, and the leather of our car permeates all of my senses to the point that all my cares melt away.

I was wondering last night as I drove home if this will ever be the case in Phoenix. Will my bed still feel as cool and inviting? Will my house smell like home? Will I have to catch myself when I refer to it as Phoenix vs ‘home’? I expect that all of these will fall into place, but I am sure that it will be an adjustment.

So, if “home is where you make it”, then I’d like to say that family is who you love. I love my wife and would do nearly anything for her, including move to the desert, so she is my family. The primary reason that we are moving is to be near her family so that we (my wife and I) can increase the size of our family. So, I’ll start to post more and more about my thoughts and feelings as well as the current status of our move. It should be an interesting ride!

I haven't forgotten

As I sit here in the airport, waiting for my flight back home watching McCain and Obama put a wreath on the twin towers site, I can’t help but become a bit nostalgic – if not a bit patriotic. On this day, 7 years ago, I was in Ames, IA watching the Today Show (eating frootloops) getting ready to go to yet another day of classes.

Directly (for me at least) there are many changes with the way I travel on a regular basis as a result of 9/11. Airport security has certainly been increased to the point that it often times borders on the asinine. A great example of this was when I saw a girl in a sun dress getting scanned with a hand wand metal detector. She didn’t set off the larger metal detector – so who knows why she was actually flagged since she certainly didn’t have any metal hiding in her underwear or something…

I honestly can’t even believe that it has been that long ago. You don’t really grasp the phrase ‘time flies’ until you are staring down these major milestones (The movie Toy Story is over 11 years old!?). While I am not certain what the future will hold, I can admit that I have enjoyed the last 7 years, and hope that the next 7 will be just as fun.

Week of 9/9 Runs

9/9 Run: 5 miles, 8:40 pace. What I thought was just normal soreness was actually more of a bit of an overuse injury. I’m going to test it tomorrow and see how it goes.
9/10 Run: 4 miles, 9:00 pace. (8 miles was target). Today unfortunately I didn’t finish my expected mileage. I didn’t feel like doing the extra 4 miles was worth the ‘risk’ of prolonging my minor ding in my ankle.
9/11 Run: 0 miles. One of my first “missed” days. In fact, I just looked back and it WAS my first missed day. Bummer. HOWEVER, I do think that resting is better than pushing it just to get mileage in. We’ll see how it works!

Husband Manual 101: Chapter 3 – When to fold them

Chapter 1
Chapter 2

I am pretty sure that it was Kenny Rogers who sang the song that said “know when to hold them… know when to fold them…..”. The same applies to wives. Chapter 3 of the husband manual will focus on which arguments are worth sticking out, and which arguments are just not worth the effort to ‘win’.

For example, often times guys will be inclined to argue about little things that don’t matter: Signaling before changing lanes on the highway, the proper way to stack groceries in the car, flipping between channels on the remote, how one party or another makes the bed, etc. The manual will show that, as a husband, prior to committing to an argument you need to do a cost/benefit analysis on the negative side effects of ‘winning’ said argument. That is, if you win an argument about which type of cheese goes best on tacos, what do you get other than the satisfaction of winning? Usually just a cranky wife that either complains about other things all afternoon or worse yet – doesn’t say a word for the next 24 hours.

The manual will also show that some arguments are worth sticking out – even if only to not look like a pushover. Just like the supreme court, sometimes forfeiting a seemingly mindless argument sets a bad precedent. Identifying these situations during the heat of the moment is arguably difficult, but the manual will systematically work to teach all husbands to look for the following red flags:

• Anything that involves shopping or spending money


• Anything that discourages the consumption of beer


• Anything that infringes on time spent watching sports


• Finally, for every 2 arguments you just shrug off, randomly fight back with all of your might on the third. Again, you don’t want to seem like a pushover.

The manual will show that even if only arguing for 1/3 of the arguments contradicts itself, she’ll never even know the difference. After all, let’s be honest, other than these specific subsets of activities, does much else matter?

Flight Delays

My patience is a funny thing. I normally don’t like to be late and will get very impatient if anything is standing in my way. Unfortunately, this often times means that I get rather cranky with people when they are doing their best at one thing or another. On the other hand, I’ve started to grow more and more patient with the airlines and their constant delays. I’ve really tried the whole “put yourself in their shoes” approach which seems to be paying dividends.

For example, yesterday morning, my flight was delayed by 3.5 hours going to St Louis. By in large, I was not too overly upset about the delay. The first 2.5 hours or so, were due to a pretty bad storm that was rolling through Kansas City. As much as I would LOVE to think that the airlines can control the weather, this is probably not the case. I will say however, one thing that really DID get me a bit frustrated was after we waited all of that time, we had the pleasure of being pushed off by the gate tug only to have one of the engines not start up. I think that it probably had a case of the Mondays. After an hour of jostling around, I was on my way.

The thing that interested me most (and honestly prompted this blog post) was the other travelers and their reaction to the delay. You could really tell what type of a person everyone was by how they reacted to the delays. You had the type A personalities that were bossing the flight attendants around etc… IN FACT, a few of them even tried to get off of the plane once we found out that there was an engine issue. You had the people who complain about the situation and how the airline should have been able to do something about it. And finally, you had the people who were so tired because they had been up since 4:00 who didn’t seem to mind a bit.

Maybe that is the real reason why I didn’t get too fired up about it. I hadn’t had my coffee yet!

9/6 Run

20 miles, 8:29 pace. Today's run was perfect weather with sufficient execution. The temperature was around 55 to 60 with no wind. I really hope that these will be the conditions during the race on 10/12. I have no reason to think that the 80+ degrees that the Chicago Marathon faced last year will be repeated again.

That said, the run started out a bit tough. I am never sure WHY this is the case, I can only do my best to trudge through it. I did, and around mile 5 or so, hit my stride and never looked back.

The one interesting thing during this run was that I had to pee - BAD. Of course, because I run in an urban environment without a shirt on, the options to relieve this condition are fairly limited. So, I did the only thing that I could do... I peed on a bush a bit off of the main road that I run on. It was on Sprint's world headquarters campus, so I did like the fact that I was able to stick it to the man in my own little way.

To buy or not to buy

I have a bit of a dilemma. As stated previously, I recently was promoted. I’ve been saying for the last 4 years that I was going to buy a nice watch when I made Manager. Well, I made manger, but I am having a case of cold feet. I think that the main reason is because I want to purchase the watch at the left. An awesome watch to be sure, but it is rather pricey. I mean like “oh wow, why the hell did you spend that much on a watch” pricey.

The thing about luxury items is that there is always a ‘good enough’ option that makes me take pause. For example, I have 3 or 4 watches at home that tell time just fine. If anything, I am sure that I have a digital watch lying around somewhere that would actually tell BETTER time than the one at the left and above. So, I am torn. I honestly am not sure WHY I am this torn, but I’ll keep everyone posted on whether or not I actually pull the trigger. I’ll likely do it over Thanksgiving if I actually do. Until then, I'm stuck ogling the pictures of watches online and reading the Vintage watch experience blog that Francis Phua keeps updated.

Reason #390

...that it is awesome to be a guy:

You don't have to worry about buying millions of different types of clothes. Dresses, capri pants, shorts, dress pants, sweaters, button downs, tshirts.... makes my head hurt. AND, don't even get me started on shoes!

More Client Funzies

To follow up from examples one and two, here is another gem of an email signature that was sent to me by a friend who works at the same client:

The three email rule is in effect: If an issue takes more than three emails to resolve, please pick up the phone and call.....

I wonder if that applies to me sending emails like the ones that I send frequently due to lack of response:

XXXX:
Were you able to take a look at the following?
Thanks!
Adam

Credit where credit is due

I've already said it in an email message today, but I'll give Palin credit where credit is due. She did a really good job with her speech last night. Now, that doesn't mean that she'll get my vote, she just did a really good job of stating her opinions.



Unfortunately for her, I don't agree with most of her opinions. Furthermore, I think that she needs to be careful to not sound entitled to the VP position. Often times during her speech she started to sound a bit snarky towards Obama. (Again, it could be argued that people think this only because she is female...)

Either way, kuddos to her doing a good job. I honestly didn't want to see her fall TOO flat on her face. She seems like a nice enough person - even if she DOES want to teach creationism in schools.

Week of 9/2 Runs

9/2 Run: 5 miles, 8:07 pace.
9/3 Run: 8 miles, 7:58 pace. Light mist today making for a really good run.
9/4 Run: 5 miles, 8:35 pace. Moderate rain making for a wet and sometimes cold run.

McCain & Milf '08

I have to admit, I didn't come up with that, but I laughed out loud when I saw it at first. So, lets be honest, I think that it is what at least some of the guys are thinking.

Will this mean a bit of difference in the long run? Probably not (it shouldn't) but it will be very interesting to watch how it all plays out. From what I have heard on the radio and on TV, voters go either one of two ways. Either they applaud McCain for his very progressive choice, or they chastise him for so obviously trying to go after the Hillary voters. I think that my friend Caroline said it best when she said "I don't care, I'm still not voting for McCain". I think that probably sums up my thoughts as well.

I will say that I think that it is very sad that so much focus has been placed on her family life. None of the other candidates have had to put up with any of the types of questions that she has had to answer. For example, can she still be a good VP while raising 5 kids - one of which is special needs. The answer can be debated, but Obama certainly hasn't had to put up with these questions - neither has McCain - who has SEVEN kids. But, as stated before, that still won't get me her vote :)

On a side note, Nick sent me this VERY funny John Stewart / Colbert clip about Palin.

Wedded Bliss

Memo to couples getting married at 3 pm on a Friday: There is no chance I am attending the ceremony. Memo to couples with a 5 hour break between wedding ceremony and reception: I am showing up to the reception plastered. Memo to couples getting married on a holiday weekend in the summer: I hate you.

Sidenote to my married/engaged/taken friends. Please, for the love of god, stop telling me I'll find the one when I'm "not looking." I am always looking and you know what, you were too when you met your "soulmate" and slept with him in a drunken state the first night you met him.

I realized today that I'm that weird roommate from craigslist. Both of my roommates are relatively normal 9-5ers, light drinkers, and mild mannered people. I get drunk on tuesday afternoons, sleep all day, and have lax standards about personal hygiene. Fuck it, I like this apartment and I'm not leaving.

Sparkle sparkle

Today I had my twice yearly dentist appointment. Needless to say, I am a very good customer. I would like to think that I’ve helped him make a number of boat payments or payments on his kid’s 529 plan or something. Overall, I really like him and his upfront style. He is just older than me (mid thirties) and seems to be able to relate well. My wife, however, does not like him. She thinks that he is a very arrogant guy who swoops in and out like he owns the place. I, of course, am always quick to remind tiff that he DOES own the place, but that he beside the point.

One thing that I have always enjoyed / found interesting is how he hires mostly younger cuter dental hygienists. Normally this would be a good thing. However, do some quick thinking….. This person does nothing but scrape crud off of your teeth – all the while, trying to hold on a conversation with you while looking at your tonsils. If anything, I’d like my hygienist to have a bit of ‘life experience’. That is, I’d like her to have seen so much stuff that my minimal crud looks awesome compared to some of the people that they see. Makes sense right!?