Vote early, vote often.

Crappy picture, but the message is clear: I voted today. I've got the first part of "vote early, vote often" figured out. I have some calls into Acorn to set up the second part.

The early voting line was LONG. The voting station was inside of an old mall and the line to get in snaked all the way through the mall. I had hoped that it would only take half an hour or so, but it took around two hours.

The really shitty thing is that since I am in Kansas, McCain is leading by 30 points. That means that for every Obama vote, McCain gets two. Ouch. I had to keep telling myself that I owed it to myself to vote no matter what.

I slept with Joe Biden

I’m currently in St Louis for work staying in the downtown Renaissance Marriott. While I am here, since Missouri is a swing state, we are bombarded by ads from both sides of the isle. However, this morning, when I went to have some breakfast I was told that Joe Biden was in town and was staying at my hotel! So, I looked down on the ground to find 15 cop cars parked out front. When we left the hotel, there were 10 or so black Chevy Suburbans parked in the entry way while the same number of secret service / security guards were milling about.

I told Tera at the time – I still get a bit star struck whenever I see anything like that. Now, in all fairness, I would have gotten just as star struck had it been McCain, but I will admit that it was cool to know that I was pretty close to the person who will in all likelihood be the #2 in charge very soon.

And who knows – I could have slept with Joe. After all, he does have REALLY good teeth.

Visio

I need to download Microsoft Visio for my job. I need this to create org charts, flow charts, process flows etc. I need to obtain some sort of special permission to download it. I didn't previously need special access, however that is an entirely different post.....

The ironic thing? I just found the escalation process for obtaining access to download. The file format? Microsoft Visio.

Watch out for planes, they are everywhere!

Prior to listing off the airport flight delays each morning, CNN Headline News shows a photo similar to the one at the left. In this photo, each dot represents an airplane in flight.

The question I have is - how is this helping me? As I looked at this photo very early this morning, I thought to myself: "This has nothing to do with delays, but it does help with me personally avoiding mid air collisions. Something that is especially important since I can't fly planes...... and I'm on the ground."

So, as I am sure is the case, when the CNN producer of Headline News reads this, hopefully they will take these comments to heart and save me the 20 seconds. After all, those seconds could be better spent showing the YouTube clips that they are so fond of. Or, for that matter, they could focus on the knee high leather boots that Robin Meade is so fond of:

Dewey Readmore Books

I grew up in a small town. Therefore, I always get a bit excited when anyone is from within 200 miles of northwest Iowa and even remotely recognizes the small town that I spent 17 years of my life.

Recently a story ran on the Kansas City news as well as national news about a cat named "Dewey Readmore Books". The story told of the cat who was put into the book return slot on a cold night in 1988. The library took the cat in and let it live among the books. Kids would play with the cat, the librarians would push him around on the book cart, and the farmers would even cozy up to him during the winter months with a book. Wait farmers?

Dewey Readmore Books was from Spencer, IA. Which, according to Google Maps is 53 miles from Pocahontas, IA where I spent my High School years. I am never amazed at how small of a world that it is. Who knew a town of less than 12,000 people would make the national news for something other than a school shooting.

Of course, if you can do easy math, you'll realize that Dewey was nearly 20 years old. He passed away this past year with quite honestly more fanfare then I ever expect to receive. I'm not sure what the conversion rate is in kitty years, but I gotta think that he lived a pretty good life.

Sometimes they just repeat

Yeah, we've had a lot of the same conversations before. It is OK though - it is like watching a movie that you haven't seen in a long time. Like Titanic! You know the boat sinks eventually, but you can't remember when Kate Winslet gets naked. So, you watch the whole movie waiting in anticipation which makes it totally worth it.

Regret

Obama late last week took two days off from the campaign and visited his ailing grandmother. You can look at this from two sides. On the one hand, as long as he doesn’t show up to any rallies without pants on, he really should have this thing locked up. It is his to loose. So, hiding away for a few days isn’t the worst strategy. On the other hand, you say that running away to Hawaii comes at a very inopportune time. He should focus all of his energy at the task at hand.

It should come at no surprise that I am in the former category. I think that he has every right to take the time that he needs. In fact, I respect him a bit more because of it.

I personally try to live my life with as few regrets as possible. For the most part I have been successful. However, one regret that I have is that, when my grandmother was sick, I didn’t drop everything and visit her. I am not delusional as to think that me being there would have done anything for her, however it would have done a lot for me. She was there for me while growing up and is (was) very special to me.

So, I support you Barack. I am glad that you were able to visit someone important in your life during their time of need. God hope I have someone who will do the same for me.

Happy Birthday Blog!

A year ago today, I was up past 2:00am for a work maintenance cutover and I started this blog. I honestly can't remember if Nick suggested it to me first, or I first suggested it to Nick - but either way we both have blogs now.

As I write this, I have 1400 blog views, 252 posts, and 238 profile views. Not sure that I am all that interesting, but that hasn't stopped me from writing before! So, all of you can continue to look forward to the blog posts no matter how stupid or rambling in nature! Lucky you!

Thats what she said

The Office is by far my favorite show. (Shows that I will not name in fear of giving up a man card follow that on my list of favs....) The Office is my fav probably because I see a lot of myself in Michael Scott. He likes to have fun, is fully dedicated to his job, is always thinking of the best for his team, and on occasion can't find the words to say what he means. Hopefully I am more the first three than the last one.



Michael often says "that's what she said" after an phrase that has the words "huge", "long", or "hard" in them. During this week's episode, probably one of the funniest (if not the most obscene) opportunities presented itself:



Michael Scott: [bangs rubber toy gavel] The hell is that?

Phyllis: It's the only gavel I could find.

Michael Scott: It squeaks when you bang it...... That's what she said.


See also post on reason #8 it is awesome to be a guy. That is all it takes.

Time for a new home computer

Today I get my new work laptop. Horray! As a result, my office transfers all of my old data onto the new laptop. Unfortunately, this takes a significant amount of time. Usually 4 to 6 hours. As I try to get any kind of work done on my beast of a desktop computer, I am further reminded that I probably need to get even more serious about getting a new home computer. If I would have had to get anything done on my home desktop for any period of time, I know that I would have lost my mind within the first day.

So, while I'm not sure WHAT I am going to get, I do know that I am looking at laptops with a long battery life and a relatively compact size. To be honest, a fast version of my old work laptop would have been just fine. (Note, I did say FAST version).

I think that I am going to try to catch a good deal the day after Thanksgiving. However, this DOES usually mean getting up at the ass crack of dawn and waiting in line to get the best deal. I am not sure that it is worth it, but I am pretty cheap..... so I'll probably do it either way. Maybe I'll start the day off with 4 or 5 mimosas. Not a fan of bloody marys. Which makes me wonder about mimosas.... If I drink a 6'er of them, does it cancel out the fact that they are soooo girlie? Probably not, but that has never stopped me before.

Book Review: Crashing Through

Nick mentioned Robert Kurson’s Crashing Through when he first bought it and it immediately caught my interest. The book follows Mike May, blind since the age of 3, through his quest to regain his vision.

The book starts out really bouncy. Every other chapter is set in present day while the alternating chapters are set at some point in the past. One chapter tells about the explosion that caused Mike to lose his vision, one chapter tells about an appointment that he has with an eye doctor telling him that he could possibly regain his vision. It was a bit confusing to follow at first until you were used to the back and forth.

The first half of the book walks you through Mike’s relative independence living as someone who is blind. He has a wife, two kids, and a GPS company that he is trying to get off the ground. The book makes a very specific point to prove that he is has never been afraid to put his head down and ‘crash through’ any obstacles. This is also the case when he is told that he could possibly regain his vision.

He, of course, does regain it as part of a stem cell and cornea transplant. The interesting thing that REALLY makes you think is that he has a very hard time distinguishing specific features of things. His vision isn’t fuzzy, he just can’t see details. He can catch a baseball fine, can locate door knobs etc, but faces seem completely blurry to him. Through many tests and specialists, it was determined that the reason is not with his eye, but with his brain. The portion of his brain that determines faces essentially shut off due to lack of activity for 40 years. Unfortunately it was also determined that he could not turn it back on.

Very interesting to think about.

This book was the best book that I’ve read in a long time. So good that I read it in about 2 weeks – a new record for me. As a result, I gave it 5/5 Shakespeare heads. A can’t miss!

Cross Training

My leg is still bothering me when I run, so in the words of Fergie, I’ve been up in the gym just working on my fitness. And by that, I mean biking on the recumbent bike. It has been going pretty well. On 10/21 I knocked out a pretty solid 15 miles and on 10/22 I biked a quick 8 miles. I don’t feel like I’m getting nearly as good of a workout as I do when I run – and I REALLY don’t like it as well as when I run – but it is something to do while my leg heals.

On a side note, I have postponed my doctors appointment because my leg has really been feeling quite better. I can do almost everything BUT run without any pain. I have my fingers crossed that come mid November I’ll be able to handle some form of running without any pain.

Palin on SNL

Sarah Palin made a few appearances on SNL this past week. Overall she was VERY funny. However, I’ve heard mixed results on whether or not she should have gone on there. One side is saying that it made her more down to earth and relatable. The other side is saying that it made her even MORE down to earth and relatable – when she needs to be looking more presidential.

On a side note, Palin is now the biggest liability on the McCain ticket. This is especially important to note because that means that Pres Bush is number TWO. The poll said that most people don’t think that she is presidential enough. I agree with that – but honestly don’t think that future failures (Palin) outweigh ones that have already been actualized (Bush).

Here is the vid of the funniest part of her appearance:

Reason #8….

…it is awesome to be a guy. Guy humor. You don’t have to think about it very hard, normally it is really easy to replicate to other guys, and more often than not, girls don’t really get it.

It is a humor trifecta!

Mute!

I mentioned this in passing during my previous post, but I have officially lost my voice. I can only speak in raspy deep grumbles or soft whispers. This, of course, comes across as great comedy to my team. Lovely. The real kicker is that other than my throat feeling a bit odd, I don’t feel bad in the slightest.

Hopefully it gets better soon. It is funny how you take advantage of one of your senses until you are unable to use it (effectively). The same happens to the sense of smell when I am sick. I can never seem to remember how bland everything tastes without being able to smell.

On a side note, tonight I am going to try my leg on the bike. Hopefully it goes well. I’m going to try to knock out a quick 10 or so miles and see how it goes. If it is fine afterward, I am not going to go to the doctor. If I can’t get it done, I’m going to schedule an appt for the first time that I am back in KC.

New Work Laptop!

This coming Friday, I get a new laptop! My firm provides new laptops on a semi regular basis which seems to translate into every 2 or 3 years. I am certainly due. I believe the specs on this current laptop are: 1.75 Ghtz with 1 GB of RAM and a 60 GB HD. Not exactly a speed daemon, but to be honest it gets the job done. That isn't to say there isn't the occasional protest on behalf of the laptop here or there in the way of a blue screen or black screen, but it normally serves the purpose.

However, my new machine should be QUITE a bit better - even if only in my head. The specs are said to be a Core 2 Duo 2.0 Ghtz, DVD burner, 2 GB of RAM and a 80 GB HD. Honestly, I am hopeful that the Core 2 Duo will help the battery last a bit longer than it does now. When I first got my laptop I could go nearly 3 hours (2 if watching a DVD), but that has dwindled to only 1.75 if I am lucky. My goal would be to get a solid 3 hrs of DVD watching so that I could finish a movie with time to spare while on long flights to visit the in-laws.

On a side note, I'm starting to actively look for a replacement home computer. I think that I am going to try to get one the day after Thanksgiving to try to get the best deals. Let me know if anyone has any recommendations!

Kansas City Marathon Volunteering

This past weekend, my wife and I volunteered at the Kansas City Marathon. I ran this race last year and, since I had just ran Chicago, thought that I would volunteer this year.

Overall it was a great experience. We were stationed on the finish line from 6:00am to 10:00am. This meant that we needed to get up at 4:30 or so in order to get ready and make it downtown on time. Well, let me restate that. Being there by 6:00 meant that my wife needed to get up at 4:30. I was not up until 5:00 and was out the door at 5:15. (Which is of course reason # 13 that it is awesome to be a guy).

We were stationed at the timing chip removal section which meant that we got to see everyone who finished even before they received their finishers medal. Everything went about as I expected it would - however I did notice that a few chairs down from me a guy had puked his guts out after finishing the race. Also, I didn't expect to yell so much that my voice went horse. I still can't really talk to this day - opps.

A friend of ours ran the full marathon and was somewhere around the 20th person to cross the finish line. He finished in 2:55 - which is a crazy fast time. I believe that it is 6:50 miles? I would say that there is no way that I could run that fast, but there is still hope!

443/486 Miles

91.1% or 443 miles out of an expected 486 miles.

I completed 91.1% of the mileage that I had hoped to run using Hal Higdon's marathon training plan. Not too bad to be honest. I was on track to be over 100% if it were not for my slight injury towards the home stretch.

My goal for the next race is to not only run a 3.30 or below, but to also complete over 92% of the anticipated runs. *fingers crossed

Good 'ol Calm Iowans

Angry customer on phone: Where are you located at?
CSR: Iowa.
Angry customer on phone: I outta come there and kick your ass!
Calm CSR: With all due respect sir, bring it. (hangs up)


Receptionist on phone: No, sir... No, but you can leave him a voice mail telling him how much you hate his guts. I hope you have a shitty day too, sir.

Chicago Marathon Pictures

Lots of running posts this week. Hindsight I probably should have collapsed all of these posts into one massive post but I guess this works too. (There is one more waiting in the wings...)

Here are some pictures of the race from last Sunday. I'm still trying to figure out which race I am going to do next. If I can heal my ankle by Thanksgiving, I am going to run the turkey 10k in PHX. If not, then I am going to continue to train and will likley run another spring marathon (or two). Right now, the Fargo, ND race seems to be the most likely.

Political Jokes

Ah yes, 'tis the season for political jokes. Here is a good one that my dad sent me. Granted, he sent it to my client email - which I am STILL not sure how he got..... But I digress. :)


I was talking to a friend's little girl, and she said she wanted to be President some day.

Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, 'If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?' She replied, 'I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people.'? 'Wow - what a worthy goal,' I told her. 'You don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow, pull weeds, and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food or a new house.'

She thought that over for a few seconds 'cause she's only 6. And while her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, 'Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?'

And I said, 'Welcome to the Republican Party!!'..... Her folks still aren't talking to me.

Massage Envy

A dangerous thing happened last night. I went to Massage Envy for a sports massage to help sooth my aching muscles from the race…… and it WORKED. That sets a very bad precedent. Now, anytime that I am sore from running, I am going to want to go there and get a bit of a rub down. Not to mention the fact that you can sign up for a monthly plan for $50 per month that gets you a 1 hr massage every month.

The funny thing is that the masseuse was very stereotypical to what I think a really good deep tissue masseuse should be like. Bernice was probably 45, eastern European, and had hands that could likely crush mine. I’m not sure what that means about my normal stereotypes about massage therapists – but I do know that it means that I am a wuss that could get crushed by Bernice.

Husband Manual 101: Chapter 4 – I’ll be home at 7

Chapter 4 of the husband manual will focus exclusively on wives uncanny knack to remember times, due dates, etc whenever least important for husbands. This is particularly the case when husbands go out on their own to a fun event while their wives are either not invited because of the audience or because of the social awkwardness (a group of guys watching football). Rest assured, if there is an event that she is not invited to and you tell her what time you’re going to be home and you’re late, there will be consequences.

For example, the manual will describe how to tip toe the mine field that is the following conversation:

Husband: Don’t forget, I'm going out for drinks after work. I’ll be home at 7:00.
Wife: Sounds good!
(later that evening at 7:23)…….
Wife: Where were you?
Husband: Having drinks, I told you that earlier.
Wife: Why weren't you back when you said?
Husband: What? Like 23 minutes makes a huge difference??
Wife: I didn’t know where you were!
Wife: ……..
Wife …….. (dirty look)

Never, EVER say any time without the phrases 'about', 'around' or 'approximately' in front of them. The previous evening could have been saved had the husband just used one of these simple phrases. “I’ll be home around 7 or so. But, it may be later, I don’t know.” This also goes for calling wives back or sending emails to remind her of things. Never lock down on a specific time. If anything, try to give yourself a few hour window so that you are neither early or late. That way you will always be covered.

So, whenever possible, be as vague as possible. Learn to use the terms “later tonight”, “pretty early”, “as soon as I can” as interchangeably as you would normal times. It doesn’t make sense, but women never do. As soon as men learn that, the better off we’ll all be.

Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Chapter 1

Chicago Marathon Race Report

As stated in my abbreviated post, the race did not go as well as I would have liked. However, don’t confuse that with me not having a good time doing it. I did have fun, just not as much fun as I would have if I would have been anywhere close to my goal time. Goal time was split down the following: 3:30 – perfect conditions. 3:40 – OK conditions. 3:45 – slowest to be called an OK race. Seems sorta funny now. I'll post pictures later in the week when I get back home. Here is a play by play:

Nick and I got to the starting coral around 7:00ish. The size of the race really started to hit me at that time. The official count of 33,033 people started to get into the various corals. (There were over 12,000 no shows) I was a bit frustrated because I was in the “open” coral where there were no pace groups to speak of. So, I had to try to catch up to a pace group in order to run with it. Little did I know that it wouldn’t have mattered in the slightest!

The race got started at 7:55 with the elite runners. Nick and I were able to get to the start line about 11 minutes later. Not too bad based on some of the 25 to 30 minutes that everyone was predicting. The first 10K or so went ok, however I never did fall into a very good rhythm. I think that this was mostly because of all of the runners. There were so many people there!

Around mile 11 or so the running crowd thinned and I was able to finally start to run my own race. However, this only lasted for the next 5 or so miles at which point I just completely ran out of gas. I think that I could probably blame a number of things, but I’d prefer to just say that it wasn’t a good race. I basically hobbled along watching my 5K times go from a 3:35 overall pace of 25:00 per 5K to an eventual 4:05 overall pace of 35:00 per 5K. Sucky……..

I am not sure why I didn’t do as well as I anticipated. After all, I have been able to run 20 miles at 8:35 pace in the past. The likely contributors in order of factor were:

• The heat – it was the 3rd hottest Chicago Marathon on record. Official records say 84 by 11:00am.
• Jostling for space – I wasn’t able to get my stride until half way through
• Going out a bit too strong at first
• My foot / lower leg was still acting up

Either way, I will certainly try again. I’m going to try to maintain my cardio fitness via the bike while my foot heals. Besides, I finished 7367 out of 31,401 finishers. Nothing to throw a stick at.

Chicago - 04:05:49

That was my time for the 2008 Chicago Marathon. Sucky time. Bad / hot race. Details to follow! :)

Here were my split times:
5K 0:26:13 - 26.13 5k
10K 0:51:29 - 25.16 5k
15K 1:17:12 - 25.43 5k
20K 1:42:49 - 25.37 5k
Half 1:48:21- 05.32 5k
25K 2:09:04 - 20.43 5k
30K 2:40:23 - 31.19 5k
35K 3:15:38 - 35.15 5k
40K 3:51:00 - 35.22 5k
Finish 4:05:49 - 14:49 last XXX k

Literally? Not really.

Adam "Pacman" Jones, corner back for the Dallas Cowboys, recently got into a bit of trouble. Ok, he got into a some MORE trouble. Previously he had been suspended for the entire 2007 NFL season for getting into a fight at a Vegas strip club.

This time, Pacman got into a fight with his OWN bodyguard. This bodyguard was hired by the Cowboys to protect Pacman from himself. They got into a fight inside of a bathroom but it honestly doesn't seem that Pacman will get into too much trouble this time.

When Jerry Jones was interviewed about the incident, he was quoted with saying: "he is literally up high on high wire without a net". NO! He is NOT literally up on a high wire. If he were, that would be quite bizarre and a little risky. Seriously, the word literally is used WAY to much these days.

Ouch

Instead of icing down my legs after a long run, I think that after the economy gets done with my investments I’m going to have to start icing down other areas of my body. Gosh, how did we get here?? As recent as 12 months ago, everyone was living high on the easily available money where as now.... everyone is praying that they will have enough money to retire.

Everyone loves to tell me that I have lots of time before I retire. Honestly, I do have loads of time. More time than I would like. However, what happens to the people who DON”T have loads of time? I feel for them. When I am 50, I hope to have over $1,000,000 saved up for retirement. (Closer to $2,000,000. So, based on the shitty returns as of late, I would have lost $300,000 in value. I can’t even imagine that.

I work with people who are less than 10 years away from retirement. Granted, I think that the market will come back and all will not be lost, however I am curious to how long it will take. Hopefully it is not TOO long. I am not sure that I can take much more!

40 firsts

In keeping with my previous post as well as Tera's post on firsts, I wanted to submit my own list of firsts. I originally authored this list with the intent of having 50 firsts, I must concede that I must have only done 40 distinct things in my life. I have been writing this list for a few weeks now and it seems that these are the only ones that I can come up with. So, if you think of a 'first' that is not on the list but should be - let me know via a comment! I'll certainly do my best to answer it.

1. First computer was when I was in 7th grade. My dad was taking night classes and needed it to write papers.



2. First computer program that I wrote was shortly there after.



3. First username: SuperStud



4. First email address: SuperStud@hotbox.com. I couldn’t make that up if I tried.



5. First time I pulled an all nighter was in cub scouts at the YMCA. Lock ups were a really good time. I have never pulled an all nighter for school.



6. First time that I knew what I wanted to do was…. Never? I still am not sure what the heck I want to do.



7. First kiss was in 8th grade.



8. First girlfriend was Katie Nedved. I believe that she has 2 or 3 kids now – and is divorced.



9. First best friend was Steve Girman. Unfortunately I have completely lost touch since High School.



10. First date is hard to pin down. I couldn’t drive for so long so, what counts as a ‘date’??? The first ‘real’ date was probably in high school.



11. First time I drove a car I was 10. My dad let me drive his truck from our house to my grandparents house (with him in the truck).



12. First ticket was when I was in 10th grade. It was for driving without a license. (Made it 5 years – not bad!!)



13. First car I owned was a 1984 Pontiac Firebird. I bought it when I was 14.



14. First motorcycle that I owned was a 1989 Yamaha YZF.



15. First motorcycle accident was in Pocahontas on the courthouse square. It was in December, so there was salt and sand on the streets. I turned the corner and the bike slid out from under me.



16. First loan that I took out was for my 1999 Chevy Cavalier. I still own the car to this day.



17. First car that I fixed up was a 1979 half ton Chevy truck. I fixed this one up with my dad.



18. First car that I restored was a 1948 dodge half ton truck. I fixed this one up with my grandpa. It still has the flat head straight 6.



19. First time that I had a ‘real’ job where I paid taxes was when I was in 11th grade. It was at a hog confinement.



20. First time that I owned stock in a company (not part of a 401k or part of an employee stock purchase plan) was June of 2008.



21. First cell phone was when I was a sophomore in college.



22. First time on company provided health care was when I got my current job.



23. First NFL game was in 2003. It was in a corporate supplied box.



24. First time outside of the country was when I was in college. I walked across the Mexican boader.



25. First time I saw the ocean was on my honeymoon.



26. First time I road in a helicopter was also on my honeymoon.



27. First time that I had cable TV was when I moved to college. I had satellite TV starting when I was about 10.



28. First house that I bought was in Overland Park, KS. I purchased it in the summer of 2005.



29. First time that I moved out of state was in 8th grade. I moved to Colorado and lived there for a little under a year.



30. First funeral that I went to and was truly devastated was my grandmothers. I was a pallbearer.



31. First R rated movie that I saw in the theatre (that I remember) was A Few Good Men.



32. First CD owned was Snow – Informer. Don’t hate.



33. First car stereo had 600 watts and 2 12” subwoofers. I thought that I was very cool.



34. First ‘official’ concert was Dave Mathews Band. I was in college.



35. First roommate was Eric. He was 6’ 8” tall and was a super pot head. He flunked out of school.



36. First time I entered a bar and bought a drink legally was on my 21st birthday in Kansas City with my mom. It was at Harrah’s casino if I remember right.



37. First wedding that I was in was my own.



38. First time that I actually listened to a doctors advice with my whole heart was when he told me in 2006 that I needed to exercise more.



39. First time that I ran over 5 miles was sometime in 2006.



40. First time that I ran over 10 miles was during the summer of 2007.

Week of 10/6 Runs

10/7 - 3 miles, 8:43 pace.
10/9 - 2 miles, 8:29 pace.

Last runs before the race. My leg wasn't 100%, but it will be fine for the race. After the race is over I'm going to switch to the bike for a few weeks to see if it can heal but I can still maintain my cardiovascular fitness.

Feel like $100

A friend that I work with yesterday was constantly saying: “today is a great day to be alive”. Or, at least I think it was something to that effect. As I look outside today, I think that I may have to agree with him. The weather is gorgeous, it is bright and sunny, there is a fall crispness to the air, and the leaves are probably as close to full color as they will get. (On a side note, that same friend is having a horrible day today, so here goes trying to cheer him up….)

So, today really is a good day. Most importantly, with the economy ready to kick me in the junk each and every day, it is nice to enjoy some of the little things that are free each and every day. Try to find something that makes you happy that is unlimited at no cost. There is truly nothing better.

To build off of a list that I recently read, here are my favorites today:

• Knowing that someone somewhere loves you no matter what
• Running and having nothing to think about
• Hugs
• Crisp fall weather
• Deep burgundy leaves
• Bright blue skies
• When someone gives you a complement without even realizing it

New Pet Peeve

When someone responds to an important email with the wrong answer (because they misunderstood) immediately but then takes hours / days to respond with the correct answer. Annoying!

Home Lovin'

A friend of mine recently posted some reasons (and then some more reasons) why she loved Austin, TX. Some particular entries of note were that :

• Flip flops are appropriate everywhere.
• It is weird, keep it that way.
• A cool breeze on a hot day.

I was meandering around the blogosphere and I found someone else who loves where they live - Minnesota. Shocking? Probably. This just goes to show that you can love pretty much everywhere if you associate good memories with it. Some examples of MN lovin' were:

• Winter snowstorms after which people cross-country ski down the middle of city streets.
• Northern lights.
• Random Fellowship.

My brother in law quoted Dave Matthews with: "Turns out not where but who you're with that really matters, that really matters". The older I get, the more I believe this to be the case.

Marathon Schwag

Honestly, I'd be just fine with a medal, but I found this blog posting from Runners World quite interesting....

http://opensource.runnersworld.com/2008/10/whats-the-best.html
I'm easy to please: my favorite post-race freebie is a coooold beer. Or multiples, really. I'm not picky and have yet to turn free booze down. The might be the college student side of me talking though, rather than the runner! ----------
At the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, all finishers were given a Tiffany Necklace (complete with the box)! The Necklace had 2 women runners on it, and the back had NWM SF 07 with the Nike Logo. I haven't taken it off since last year! One of the best parts is that the Necklace's were handed out at the finish line by Firemen dressed in Tuxes!
----------
At the Akron Marathon, they give away free Brooks running shoes to all finishers. In my case, the store did not have any of the available choices in my size. Instead, I was able to upgrade to a higher dollar shoe with nothing required of me. I thought this was phenomenal of both Brooks and the local running shop.

American Royal BBQ

This weekend my wife and I went to the annual American Royal BBQ contest. Each year, Accenture has a booth where they serve grilled meats, beer, etc for the entire office (~250 people). It is a blast. Nothing is more Kansas City than the worlds largest BBQ contest.

Here are a few pictures of the event. Because of my promotion, I now have to cook which was actually quite a bit of fun as well. After I had cooked, ate, and hung out for a while, my wife and I wondered around where we got to see some of the usual debauchery.



The BBQ sauce cap was stuck on so tight that we just ended up cutting a hole in the top of the lid! More than 5 guys tried to open it without any luck....


This bus had license plates from Iowa!

10/4 Run

6 miles, 8:45 pace. Back on the waggon! I was able to do 6 miles in relative comfort. I still had pain while running, but it didn't change my stride which is supposedly the most important thing while running with an injury.

I am really glad that I was able to get out there now because on Sunday, I was actually a little sore from doing only 6 miles. I'm really going to focus on getting 'quality' miles in this last week in prep for the big race!

T-6 days....

Ruminations

More funnies from the crew at Ruminations.com:

The spell check on my email tried to replace "Oktoberfest" with "Soberfest", nice try Outlook, you are waaaay off.

Why is it that everyone over 45 thinks anyone under 25 is synonymous with tech support?

I miss the Clinton Administration. While the president was getting with interns, the vice president was inventing the internet. Now those guys got shit done.

My buddy hooked up with this random cute chick last weekend...They get up in the morning and he throws on a vintage 1989 Cleveland Browns T-shirt to give her a ride home...she responds "Cool shirt, that's the same year I was born".....Nice Josh, real nice.

Giving a presentation on my laptop, I was unaware that I had auto-signed in to AIM with yesterday's away message "Where the f*ck is the remote?" When some kid IMed me, PowerPoint minimized and I had to nosedive across the room to get "Did you check your butt?" off the screen. Thanks asshole, out of context your horrible 5th-grade joke becomes an APB to the entire room that I must be in dire need of a proctologist.

When you get your first corporate job, think of a new screen name; your coworkers don't need to know that you were 2hOt2HaNdLe in high school.

Week of 9/30 Running

Still not running this week. So, I missed a 4 / 3 / 4 run. My big toe developed a huge cramp over the past few days. It is likely due to lack of use, so I am really trying to force myself to walk. If the weather is nice this weekend (and it is supposed to be) I may try to run on it even if only for a quick 5K. Wish me luck - I am honestly starting to get a bit nervous that it won't be completely healed for the race. 10 days and counting....

Andy, Akiva, Jorma...... ANDY!!

I have used the term awesometown as part of my regular vocabulary for some time now (as do other friends). However, I quite honestly didn't realize that it was FROM anything.

It is from a video that Andy Samberg and his crew put together a while ago before he was on Saturday Night Live. Honestly, I think that he is one of the funniest people on SNL now. That is, when Tina Fey isn't 'guest' appearing for her Sarah Palin impersonations. Here is the video. I ALWAYS laugh during the roll call. "Andy here, and I love a good sandwich. So, if you have a sandwich, come roll with me!!"

Advanced Voting

I live in Johnson County Kansas. Not the most progressive area to be sure, but we do our part. On that note, I was pleasantly surprised when I double checked the absentee / early voting options in my area. http://www.jocoelection.org/voters/AdvanceVoting.htm#1

If you are too lazy to go the URL (you were too lazy weren't you!?), it says that I can vote during normal business hours starting on 10/21. I can even vote the two Saturdays before 11/4!! Since I travel for work, it is very important for me to have these options. In fact, when I retire, I think that I may volunteer to help staff one of these. Since I only vote every 2 - 4 years *hangs head in shame* it is very important for me to get my vote in.

So, if you have to be out of town on November 4th like I do. Check your county's voter site - they may have some pretty good options so that your vote counts!