Adelyn Grace Grant

Here she is - she's super adorable.

I'm an Uncle!

Adelyn Grace Grant - Welcome to the world and more importantly, welcome to our crazy family. She was born 7:50 AM this morning, 19.5 inches long, and is 6lbs 14oz. I can't wait to see her in 5 weeks.

Run for Money

This morning I ran the Parkersburg News and Sentinel Half Marathon. Well, I really didn't have a chance competing with the elite runners. This race is also the Road Runners Club of America's national championship, so didn't really too many of them, well I beat a couple of the ladies. However, I ended up coming in first out of Wood and Washington county. I won $200. That's pretty cool. So my prize list from competing consists of a rice cooker from a 8k in Korea, a Maglite from the triathlon this past July and now $200. I guess, I won't become a professional running any time soon.

Sadly though, I also ran the slowest time for a half marathon, but then again this course has been tougher than any course I've ever run. Not too bad for training for 5 weeks. I'll found out my chip time tomorrow, but my clock time was 1:23:21.

$1100 Brick

This past weekend I assembled my new computer and then realized that I didn't get a graphics, but I purchased a new 8800 GTS (the only reason I said this is to indirectly say I spent a butt load of money, $300). When I pressed that shiny power button, all I got was the sound of some fans trying to start and that's it. Sadly, my computer is an $1100 paper weight. Actually, it's in a lot of pieces all over my desk. With any luck, I'll call the vendors this week and see what the issue is. I think it's either the motherboard or the power supply.

Anyway, I'm doing fine in my new apartment. It doesn't smell like rotten potatoes. However, I found out that my old roommate packed away accidentally my old container of onions. Yeah, I feel really bad for him. Hopefully, the moving company will drop of his stuff quickly.

It's Here

I've waited since 11pm to get the final book in the Harry Potter series. I originally waited at Borders, but after an hour and fifteen minutes after midnight I drove to the local Walmart store. I walked in, got a copy, purchased it and then walked out. Total time spent - maybe 5 minutes.

So, I'm home now and I shall begin reading. See ya.

Harry Potter

Is there anymore I should say? This past weekend I ventured to the local Regal cinema to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - by myself. Yes, it was a little strange; I drove up to the theater on Saturday night but eventually drove back home chastising myself for wanting to see a movie by myself. Sunday, however, I said screw it and went to the theater. The theater itself is rather small compared to any of the new megaplexes, but it served its purpose. The movie I thought was quite fun to watch.

Also, I finished my most recent book, Perfume by Patrick Suskind. It was a really enjoyable read.

But now I'm ready for midnight on Friday. I will be in line to purchase and read the last of the Harry Potter books. I'm actually thinking about staying up until I finish it. What I really want to do is try out my new coffee grinder and French press (I don't drink enough coffee to justify a coffeemaker, yet I've spent more money on the grinder and press than a coffee maker. Well, that was my justification. Also, I can make a lot of tea at one time).

So what I'm saying is, don't try to call me on Saturday. I'll be sleeping. Well, or I'll be working.

New Shoes

I have replaced my Five-Ten shoes that I purchased a year and a half. I really wanted to purchase a pair of North Face shoes, but they no longer support my shoe size, size 7. Subsequently, I purchased pair of Salomon XA 3D Pro's. They're more comfy than my previous shoes. Plus, I think I look gnarly in them.

Tri-ing Hard

On July 10, I attempted my first triathlon. It was fun. When I finished I compared how tired I was to running a marathon. All my marathons have been more exhausting. I'm not sure if it's more grueling than a half a marathon. Maybe, I didn't push myself hard enough. Anyway, what did I learn? My weaknesses are the same ones I identified earlier - swimming and biking.

I was able to get out of the water in under 15 minutes for the half mile swim. The main issue is that I never really got comfortable in the water. My head was constantly above water trying to site the buoy. Also, it really takes time to get use to swimming with lots of people in close proximity to yourself. Once I got out of the water, the biking was my weakest section of the race. My thighs stayed tight for several miles until I could get them feeling okay. I only made up a little time on the people in front of me during the 17.1 mile ride.

Luckily, I've practice many bricks of biking to running and it paid off. I was able to pass quite a few people in the 10K run. The first 3 miles were downhill which allowed my legs to get acclimated to the ground. The second half was pretty good too.

Overall, I clocked in around 2 hours and 5 minutes. Hopefully, sometime later this week I'll find out my actual time. Nevertheless, I was able to capture 2nd place for my age group. Oh, I got a nifty flashlight. The only reason I know I came in second in my group and got my gift was because another person I worked with stayed for the awards ceremony. I had left to drive the 3 hours back home instead of wait around. I don't race for prizes. I race against myself.

Here is a picture of Pat who I work with at GE Plastics.

I celebrated my efforts by running a 12 miles the Monday after the race. 5 weeks till the half marathon in Parkersburg. Now, this is a real half marathon. I'm shooting for a 1:30 time. It's a slow time, but the course is a real doozie! Hills, hills and more hills.

Happy 4th of July

Well, it was an uneventful day but it was nice to have some solitude. Is solitude the word I'm looking for here? It doesn't seem to fit, but anyway, I did 4 tubs of laundry, went running, read my book about Korea, bbq some brats and drank 2 beers. Yes, 2 wheat beers. One from Sam Adams and the other, my personal favorite Oberon.

Right now I'm listening to the fire crackers that the locals are shooting into the sky. This is the only time they can fire them off because we're in a lull between thunderstorms.

Oh, this is something random. On my way home from Michigan, I purchased some Reese pieces candy. Well, I found two extra in my cup holder so I tossed them out of my window. When I finished my run today, I noticed a trail of ants to one of the candy pieces. It's pretty amazing to watch ants. I was curious how much of the peanut butter they had gotten out so I flipped it over and saw they had carried off 90% of the soft peanut butter. The hard shell was all that remained. So, I found this pen on the ground and broke the shell into tiny pieces so the ants could carry them back to their lair.

I also located the second Reese pieces candy and put it near the ant opening. I was mesmerized with the ants. There was this one ant that was carrying a large piece of shell back, but it was going the wrong way. It seriously, went 10 inches in the wrong direction before heading back in the right direction. There was also another ant that had taken it upon itself to take a very large piece back. This ant was larger than the other ants. There are the little worker ants and then there are the Arnold Schwarzenegger types. They really can move material. Anyway, this ant started moving this piece of candy that was 10 times the size of its body; the candy wasn't just the shell, but it also had peanut butter. I'm guessing it was over 10 times its body weight. Well, Arny here started moving it, but he kept moving around the candy so he really didn't go anywhere. Well, lucky for Arny, another beefcake ant came over and helped him out. It was quite fascinating.

Now, what the neighbors thought about the guy who lays down after running and talks to the ground I can only imagine. Maybe I should have been an entomologist (studies insects). I just Googled "study ants" and maybe I should have studied myrmecology.

It's a Brick

When I came home from Michigan this past weekend, I turned on my computer to check email. However, I didn't get the normal beep sound that you get when the computer properly boots. So, I turned it off and turned it back on. Nothin'. Uh oh. This doesn't sound good. I turned it off and opened up the case. Sadly, a cord had fallen where the cooling fan for the CPU operates. Subsequently, my CPU fried in seconds when I turned it on the first time. At least, it will only cost me $41 to fix it. Well, hopefully, it fixes the problem.

Nevertheless, I'm waiting patiently for July 22, so I can build my new computer. This is where I usually rant about the specs and how awesome it's going to be, but I'll save you the agony. Instead, I'll torture with my thoughts about the iPhone. It looks awesome, but no 3rd party apps is a little annoying. Also, the EDGE network blows for data retrieval. Heck, the network was already reported down today because of heavy usage. Personally, I love the silky Blackberry 8800. Now that's a true working person's phone. My phone contract is over now, but I'm going to hold out a little longer to see what comes out next year. Plus, my Sony phone has served me well so far.

Oh, this weekend is the sprint tri. I should be tapering, but instead I ran 12 miles today. Oh well. If anyone wants to get me a gift buy me a bumper sticker that says "Wanna try a threesome?" and above the words are a symbol for each part of a tri.

Practice Makes Perfect

I have about 3 weeks until I try my first triathlon. It's a sprint, 0.5 mile swim, 17.1 mile bike, and 10K. It seems sorta daunting to do all three things back-to-back-to-back. Two of the sports I'm not too familiar with doing, but I've made great strides to transform myself into a triathlete. This at 9am morning I did all three events to get a pulse of how well my training is paying off. I think I did pretty well. I swam a mile, rode 16 miles, and ran 8 miles in about two and half hours. Surprisingly, I wasn't too tired after all this. Actually, I think if I could get the biking down, I could complete a half Ironman this year if I continue to train. Yet, it's better not to hurt myself just because my body felt good on this practice triathlon.

Whitewater Rush

I had an awesome whitewater trip down the Lower New River. Some dancing while listening to Pat Sweany and his band, some drinking (one of us had too much), some white water rafting, and overall just a great time. Here are a few pictures. I'll post more after a nice nap.

What's Good? This is Good.

Oh, I forgot to say that yesterday for my birthday I had vanilla ice cream covered with Gold Grahams and chocolate syrup. Yummy!

Oh, on another note, yesterday, GE signed the papers to sell the Plastics business to Sabic for a cool $11.6 billion dollars. That would have made a nice birthday gift. I'm curious how things play out for business.

28 and Still Rolling

This morning, I let myself sleep in until 9:30. I slowly got myself together because I knew I would have a long day. I was out of the apartment a little past 10. I was ready to spend the next few hours biking. The first couple of hours weren't bad at all; quite enjoyable actually. The hills in West Virginia ensure you don't cheat yourself of a good workout. Around mile 26, I took a right at a town called Elizabeth. What I didn't notice that turning right took me south instead of north back to Mineral Wells. I saw signs of of the road, but didn't really notice the "South" marking on it. Well, that was until I rode another 6-8 miles. Shit. Let me ask somebody where the heck I'm at. Yup, just as I feared, I've been riding the wrong direction for a while.

So, I turned around and started peddling back in the right direction. Around mile 40, my legs started to ache that peddling in first gear hurt. Also, I didn't realize that the largest hills were on the way back to Mineral Wells. I thought I would never make it back. However, I did find some salvation from a laundromat. What?!? What's inside everyone of these places other than washers and dryers? Vending machines. The food that I packed was long gone and I was getting the shakes from a lack of nutrition. I pounded a Pepsi, a snickers and a pack of Combos in 5 minutes and continued. Luckily, I was at the out skirts of Mineral Wells so I knew my journey was about done. However, there was one more troubling incident. There is a small hill near where I live. I was in a higher gear and attacked the hill. If I could keep up my momentum while changing to lower gears I would conquer the last hill and I could coast home. For some strange reason, the bike refused to the lowest gear. Instead of stopping, I tried to climb up. Usually, I could get up the hill slowly, but at this point my legs were at the point of complete exhaustion. Bam! Double charlie horse in my thighs. Luckily, I was able to unclip from the bike and prevent myself from falling over.

Nevertheless, once my legs had recovered, I clipped back onto the bike and finished the last mile as hard as I could. When I finally got back home, I opened the door, propped the bike inside and collapsed to the floor. It felt good to get off my legs. Then I realized I needed to get to Walmart so I could pick up ingredients to make chicken stir fry.

I've promised myself I will do a full Ironman by the time I'm 30. If you're wondering, I rode a little more than 50 miles today. In a full ironman on the other hand a person has to ride 112 miles and then follow that up with a marathon. Nevermind, that before the bike section you have to complete 2.4 mile swim. I can't wait to do this.

I'm alive. Really, I am.

Just a quick note to say that I'm doing well and I'll be returning to my blog shortly. The past few weeks have been hectic; my OMLP program is over and I've been interviewing for my off program position. In addition, my new responsibilities in my current role has kept me busy. Yeah, yeah, we're all busy I know. Since my last entry there have been several moments where I wished I captured on my blog. However, that urgency would pass I would find myself doing something else.

Running Season Means It's Spring

Today, I ran my second race of the season. Unfortunately, I'm not in shape to run let alone run 5K races competitively. Nevertheless, it's to be out and see people from work engage in something other than work. The only negative about today's race was the 70+ degree weather, but it was better than last week - 25 and snow. Oh, the benefits of global warming. And no, I don't think Al Gore is a godsend when he masquerades as a tree hugger. Buying carbon credits is a load of crap! A few engineers at work thought about using this same scheme. Incorporated ourselves and promise that we will never construct a coal plant (coal gasification or traditional) and then sell the carbon credits to people.

Hey, Al here are some simple things you could do. How about turning off the lights or switching to another type of bulb - the high output LEDs are pretty spectacular. Or better yet, how about downsizing to just a couple of houses and I mean houses, not mansions. Hell, using the same plastic bag for cookies 15 times is more functional that buying carbon credits.

All right, I've vented enough for tonight! Later.

Combo

Lately, I've had some great combo foods. This isn't your run of the mill stuff you find at your local Applebee's. I think it's what helps me tick. First, I had bananas and Jif crunchy peanut butter. That's it, nothing else. Oh, it was so good. I'm not sure how much I like bananas because I don't eating them when they're really ripe. I kinda prefer the chalky mylanta consistency. Maybe I should try plain flavored Tums and peanut butter. Mmmm, doesn't that sound tasty.

Okay, my next combo is Kix and fresh strawberries. It's much better than that crappy Special K cereal with dehydrated strawberries. Yes, I've tried it. No, I wasn't try to lose wait or watch my figure. I was looking for something healthy. Oh, that reminds me I think I'm going to try to buy one new gimicky packaged food every time I go grocery shopping.

My final combo I recently ate was rocky road ice cream with sourdough pretzel bites. All I can say it's really really good. Go out and try some!

Comic Books

I still read comic books, well I read manga. I just found out that Ah My Goddess is nearly 20 years old. -_-;;

In addition, I like reading the Dilbert comic strip. It reminds me of work.

Wow, I really have nothing to say... I guess I'll finish my laundry.

Yeah for Me

Yesterday, I swam 1825 yards (1.67km) or a little over a mile in the YMCA pool. After my vacation to Chicago I caught a cold and lost some of my stamina. I took almost two weeks off from running, swimming, and weight lifting. The first time I jumped back into the pool, swimming 50 yards proved difficult. Luckily though, I was able to get my strength back fairly quickly.

Anyway, here's a little tale about my day today. I walked into the bathroom. Squish! Squish is a such a bad sign when you walk into the bathroom. I turned on the water and saw that the rug was I standing on was saturated with water. I knew where the source was coming. Earlier in the morning I had started a tub of laundry and the water from the washer had poured onto the floor. At first I thought the drain pipe had come out, but that wasn't the case. Instead, I think the drain line had some frozen water in it because later on when I poured water down the drain it didn't back up. At least I had a jump start on washing the bathroom floor.

Just $3.75

A few days ago I received in the mail from Dominion power a little piece of insurance. Well, that's how they put it. First, they make it clearly known that the gas line that run to my house is my responsibility and for a measly $3.75 I won't have to pay for any repairs on my gas line. Okay, that sounds fair enough. However, I don't take anything at face value. So, I did a little thinking to see this past this illusion. I really want to call Dominion and talk to one of the service representatives, but I'm confident they'll either hang up on me or won't be able to answer my question. I mean for $3.75 they should be able to answer 3 questions for me. Number one, how many people are serviced by Dominion. That should be an easy question to answer. Number two, what percent of people actually sign up for this safety offer. Finally, the most difficult question, what percent of gas lines fail on a yearly basis. I think with this information you can figure out the profit that Dominion gets people to pay. This illusion is just like the extended warranties that are offered on anything you buy. Most of those extended warranties are dollars to the bottom line to the company that sells them. There are of course some items that are worth the extended warranty.

This brings up the time when I had a land line, the company service rep called asking me to sign up for a special international service plan. I was cordial and listened to the offer. Just a simple $3.95 monthly fee and then I would be entitled to a discount rate on my foreign calls. It sounds good until you compare it to a $20 phone card with no maintenance fee, a 15% tax per call, 1 minute rounding, and 6.5 cent rate to a cell phone. Well, I did exactly this. I asked the service representative I would sign up for her "offer" if she could do one thing for me. I merely asked her to calculate my break even point in the number of minutes I would have to use a month in her offer compared to my phone card. Unfortunately, she couldn't and then I told her to call me back once she figured it out. I'm afraid I haven't heard back from her.

Yes, I am a nightmare to service representatives. I ask them for opinions while I cooking. I take the phone into the bathroom while I take a number two and read a magazine. I've cleaned my apartment. I've done a bunch of things while they call me. Usually in the end they want to hang up. Oh, my favorite is when they're done with their pitch is to ask them I didn't hear that very well could you explain it again. Believe or not they will.

Oh, if you're wondering. I didn't sign up for a Dominion gas line protection plan.

Let Garbage Come Forth

So I don't have a damn thing to say today. I really don't. Has my existence come to this? Just babbling rambling on the world wide web. Now, that's just a silly word - world wide web. It's sounds archaic. Well, other than using the www for websites (technically we don't even need that because all those www equal some static IP address number - just changed by some DNS server.) most people don't talk about it terms like this. I guess Web 2.0 is the more proper term.

Oh, here's something geeky. So I'm still playing Battlefield 2 and the server that I play on the most is sponsored by a clan. Mom and Dad, don't worry this clan isn't like a gang or anything. Nevertheless, they asked me to join up with their group. I was like, "Huh? Maybe." The fun part about this group is that they're all over the world. So I can hear the proper British swear words in full force. It's funny to hear them talk about their kids, playstation 3, and going fishing.
It's hard to imagine other real people playing games. Well, these games are truly for the geeky. Oh, don't worry there's drama too. I was listening to some of the guys talk about another clan and how about so-and-so left the clan because he wasn't happy and joined another group. Geez, it's still a video game.

Don't worry, this weekend was a blast -getting ready for tax season. Thank goodness for Turbotax. It's the best $40 spent.