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Monday, June 30, 2008

Bad customer service examples

Here's two of many possible examples of bad customer service:

1) I was buying bear spray at Sportsman's Warehouse.

"What's the difference between that package," I said, pointing at one, "and that one?"

"Well," said the unhelpful staff member, "they're different brands."

2) My manager ordered Potbelly subs to be delivered for our meeting. When they were 20 minutes late she finally called to ask what had happened to the order.

"You're on Dupont Ave.," said the unhelpful staff member. "I don't know where that is."

So you just won't deliver the order?!?

Sunday, June 29, 2008

Unhealthy eating

Probably one of the most unhealthy snacks I've ever sat down to eat on multiple occasions are pretzels dipped in cream cheese. Very yummy, but a pretzel can really scoop up a lot of cream cheese.

I like pretzels to snack on, but they are very dry. I do not want to choke, nor faint.

I also really like jelly beans. For awhile I loved the Starburst brand jelly beans. Now I really enjoy the cheap jelly beans a person can find at the gas station. My favorite fake fruit flavor is orange. I believe my brother Joe and I agree that a person should eat all of one color before moving on to the next, but disagree about the best order. I usually eat the oranges last because they're the best.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Reed Organ

My family has an old reed organ that was orginally my great grandmother's. It was built in the 1890's, I believe. It's old, anyway. My dad refinished it a handful of years ago. I saw one identical to it in an antique store in Buffalo last year. I really like antique stores and will probably rummage through it again this year some morning when I'm awake and my travel mates are still sleeping.

A person must pump pedals with their feet to blow air through the reeds to create the music. As a kid this was a lot of fun. As an adult, not as much fun, but different. The sound is a little bit irritating, too. I prefer the sound of a piano. Very unique instrument, however.

I took piano lessons for 10 years and got pretty good at it. I don't play much (at all) anymore but would like to have a piano again to pick it back up. I also played clarinet in band for many years through high school and got pretty good. I don't want to pick that back up. I donated the clarinet to the Lupus foundation a move or two ago. Maybe someone with Lupus or their offspring is playing it as we speak.

Friday, June 27, 2008

So long, farewell

Well, the plan is to leave tonight between 6pm and 7pm. We'll stay the night at Al's Oasis/ Oasis Inn in Oacoma, SD. We are big fans of stopping to eat at Al's Oasis. In fact last fall V and RR bought gift cards for the Force and I for X-mas.

We have an Impala rented, after much headache and little assistance from Eforce. Let's just say the whole ordeal involved multiple phone calls back and forth, me talking to two different car places, questions that should have been asked NOT being asked, etc. But it's all good. We wanted an Impala for a good price and we have it.

All my stuff is packed, and anything I've forgotten I haven't realized yet. Everything should fit into the car like it did on two trips last year, but the car's not loaded, so again, we'll see. We'll (I'll) probably load everything up when I get home from work, hopefully by 5:15p.

Our plan is to climb Francs Peak (no, there is not an apostrophe) and Darton Peak. We'll stay Saturday and Sunday nights at Jay and Kim's cabins in Buffalo, like we have multiple nights on multiple past trips. Ralph is the old man who lives in the RV at the cabins, or at least he did last year. His daughter-in-law (or granddaughter-in-law) paints rocks to look like animals. I bought an owl one from him last 4th of July. Then in September when we were back I commissioned a matching owl. I've always wanted a piece of commissioned art. I'm not sure if any more rock-buying is in my future for this trip.

We'll probably stay a night or two in Tensleep, WY (tiny) and Meeteetsee, WY (teeny tiny). There's a big rodeo in Tensleep on the 4th that we might try to be at. We'll see how big it really is for a tiny town, but it was being advertised all the way back last October during hunting season.

I'd thought about having scheduled posts appear every day while I was gone for the entertainment of anyone checking in, but alas, that just didn't happen. I'm running out of time to make it happen, so I really may not post until 7/14/08. I may try posting/checking email/internet hopping from various hotels/coffee shops/other outlets along the way, but no guarantees.

Have a good holiday all! Good luck at Afton for anyone running!

Thursday, June 26, 2008

A present for myself

I decided to get myself a present for my 30th b-day (coming up in August).

I thought about a trip to Mexico for a couple days of lying on the beach, but realistically I don't have anyone to travel with and would get bored pretty quickly by myself.

My puppy was born on Sunday, 6/22 and will be ready for me to pick-up after 8/10. I'll probably drive out there on 8/13. I'd originally planned on getting a puppy later in the fall, but this is just how it worked out. My b-day is the 11th, so it actually coincides with that quite nicely.

The litter has 5 females and 5 males, and I have a deposit on the first pick of the males.

I talked with the breeder, who lives in Brookings, SD, yesterday and while at the vet he learned all the pups are healthy. Unfortunately the vet, who was new to the practice, docked the tails of all the puppies to the incorrect length: instead of being 2/3rds the original length as the standard is, she docked them short and stubby like German pointers. Because of this I'll get a discount. The puppy is full breed and will have limited registration (can't be bred or shown in some situations). The incorrectly docked tail would make the puppy "undesireable" for showing anyway (if not completely ineligible for showing--not sure of the specifics). That's all fine.

I'll have pictures in a few weeks. 5 day old puppies are little blind blobs.

Weight training...

I've got to do it.

My garage has turned into a workout room (or at least half of it is). I'm going to pick up some dumbbells when I get back from Wyoming and start doing more weight training. EForce traded me his weight bench for an iron (long story).

In the mean time I decided I was going to do push-ups and aim to do 100. Yeah right. I did my initial test last night only to find I can not do even one real push-up with strict form. Not to seem pessimistic, but I doubt I'll be able to do 100 push-ups in 6 weeks. So should my goal be to follow the program with strict girly-push-ups (on the knees) until I can reach 100 and then switch over to real push-ups? I'd have to think that if I could do 100 sgp's that I'd then be able to do at least a handful of real push-ups.

Z Health

Forgot to add that now that I have finally purchased my Nike Free's I need to set up an appointment with my friend Mike T. Nelson to work on mobility using Z Health. I've worked with him before and it really works and makes a noticeable difference right away. Check out the web page for more info. I've known Mike for 6 years now and he's a great guy, so if you're an athlete looking for ways to improve, check him out.

Confounding product review

Throwing all proper methods of experimentation aside, I'm going to offer up my review of two products that I began using simultaneously, so take my experience for what it's worth.

I've been meaning to buy/try a pair of Nike Frees for a long time (years). But they're kind of pricey for me to just try, so it was an item that stayed on my to-do list pretty much long term. As I've been obsessed with attempting to clear the list for the last month or so (since I have nothing else to do) I finally bought a pair. A few years ago I could easily go to the Nike web page and even design my own colors and everything. The last few months however I had a hard time even finding a pair. I'm not sure if they are discontinuing them, re-designing them, or what. If they are being changed/eliminated, I certainly didn't want to pay much money for a pair, so I search Ebay and bought a "minimally used" pair for $20 (including shipping). The web site cautions about being sure to increase a person's use of them over a period of time to "acclimate" to the reduced support the shoe offers, but I've never been a fan of that, so I jumped right in. Wearing them around (like I am today at work) all I notice is that they remind me of the $5 Target slip-on shoes I lived in for many years as a teenager. Very comfortable. I did a 10 mile run in them last weekend and I notice I run with a much lighter step. When I ran 10 miles the next day in regular shoes I felt more "clumpy". I haven't been extra sore or had new muscle soreness. I did notice on Monday morning getting out of bed my feet bottoms were a little sore for a few minutes until they "stretched" out, but that happens occasionally regardless. I also had a little knee pain on Monday during the day, but again, I leave for Wyoming tomorrow and before any race or big trip I ALWAYS have weird phantom pain that is nothing really; probably just me being extra in-tune with my body as I prepare for an event.

My treadmill is great thus far. Just wish I had more time to use it this week. It's a MUCH better treadmill than my old one is all ways, so I don't foresee it causing me trouble.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Treadmill Days 1, 2, 3

Day 1 (6/21/08): Yippee! New Treadmill! I did a 10 mile run at 6.7mph. I took a 20 minute break to do a bear spray clinic in the back yard. We used last years bottle (which two people in our group have) to test the distance it sprays and the cloud pattern. Results? The bear spray shoots about 25ft with neutral wind. The cloud is actually quite large, which is good, since the Force has bad eyes. His and V's bottles only last 5 seconds in contrast to me and RR's bottles which last 9.2 seconds, with only 30g more liquid. Is it concentration of the bear spray per second of shot?

Day 2 (6/22/08): 10 mile run at 6.7mph. Took 2 x 5min breaks to collect money to buy bear spray and to acccept delivery of a weight bench from Eforce. I got my fan set up, but I still was sweating like a hog. Post-run we did another bear spray field test, doing a brief spray of mine to analyze the cloud size. We determined it's a little narrower of a cloud, but still sufficient, especially coupled with the long spray time availability. We determined we'll carry two of the larger cloud/shorter time and two of the narrower cloud/longer time bottles.

Day 3 (6/23/08): I'm down to my last two episodes of Season 6 of "24" (about 84 minutes or so)and I'd really like to finish up before leaving for Wyoming. I was going to walk on an inlince for at least one of the episodes last night but ultimately decided to skip it. Why? Well, I only got 3 hours of sleep Sunday night, I work 45-50 hours this week before leaving, we've decided to leave Friday night instead of Saturday morning and we'll be picking up the rental car Thursday night. The departure time change means I lose two evenings of getting ready to go other than packing, and as I have a work meeting on Wednesday night I am especially crunched for time. I decided I'd get more benefit by changing the rental car reservation and sleeping than I would from 45 minutes of walking at an incline.

Total treadmill miles: 20.

*Actually, I was told that as the floor model the treadmill received 46 miles logged, so in all actuality the number is 66, but I am going to ignore that and not really mention it again.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

More details on the treadmill

I headed over to Northstar Fitness this afternoon to see what I could find. I spent probably 1 1/2 hours there with Dean the manager who was very knowledgeable and helpful. We literally walked around and talked about every treadmill and covered the differences, the bonuses, the drawbacks of every model of every brand they carried.

The Precor I am getting was a floor model that currently has about 46 miles on it. Big whoop. I saved $700 on it being a floor model. What's better is that they can deliver it tomorrow! I thought for sure I was going to have to wait until I was back from Wyoming, but nope. I'll be able to give it a run all this week before leaving, assuming I can find the time.

My garage is going to turn into a workout room I believe, and I'll park my car in the driveway. Now I just need some weights.

Friday, June 20, 2008

My new treadmill

My new treadmill is being delivered tomorrow! Must mow the lawn now before it gets too late, so I'll add more details later.

Monday, June 16, 2008

DNR orders on the treadmill

My treadmill never did fill out any DNR paperwork, so until today I have continued to attempt to resuscitate the poor darn thing, futile though it may be.

As I was running on Friday night I heard a weird sound. Not the weird sound that I had fixed by reapplying silicone goo to the roller-thingy every 3 hours or so, but a weird ripping sound. I heard it once, but then noticed that every 4-20 footfalls or so I could feel that the bed felt "funny". I recognized right away that my treadmill bed must have cracked where it was uneven (from the windows) and that occasionally my footfall must hit the belt in just the right spot and for just the right amount of time that the belt was scraping over the crack and that the belt was starting to fray. So I ignored it.

On Saturday morning I took a look at the belt and realized that there WAS a tear in it--about 2" long. But it wasn't causing much problem, so on I ran.

About 10 mile into Saturday's run I heard yet ANOTHER new noise. This one was also directly related to the speed of the treadmill, but it was fairly quiet so I ignored it.

It got louder. I turned up the t.v. volume.

Finally it was too loud to ignore. I stopped the treadmill and manually turned the belt to look at the rip. It was now 8" long, which was long enough that there was a gaping wound and the belt was wrinkling up and not riding completely flat to the bed around the cut. What was happening was this: on each pass around the bed, the ripped area was scraping against the plastic piece that covers the electronics of the treadmill. As the rip grew larger and bulged up, a larger amount of belt was scraping past (hence the increase in volume). I thought immediately of Kel's suggestion to pull out the duct tape, so that I did. Alas, the duct tape caught on something while passing through the belt's rotation, and didn't last.

The way to fix it? Well, remove the plastic cover from the front of the treadmill, of course!

This is the point on Saturday morning that I realized that my treadmill was living on borrowed time. Sure, it wasn't dead yet, but every additional measure seemed to be just buying a little more time without taking into consideration the QUALITY of the life I was giving my treadmill. How long could I run on a treadmill with exposed mechanical and electrical pieces?

I unscrewed the plastic piece and used a couple of screwdrivers to raise it about 4" which should be plenty of room to allow the bulging wound to pass. Unfortunately the belt was catching on the frame, so this didn't help. My run was over at 11.5 miles.

I faced the truth today while talking with a co-worker who is also a runner (who can't believe that I run almost exclusively on a treadmill or that I have done "long" trail runs--a euphemism for the ultras. Good luck Tonya at Grandma's, where she will come close to breaking 3 hours). She told me I should replace the belt. Once I started describing the treadmill as it stands now, I think we both were able to see the truth: the treadmill is dead; repair is not the answer.

Now I plan to attempt to throw it away in my local garbage can over the next few weeks.

The electronics are still good... in fact they were replaced under warranty at the beginning of April. Any suggestions for what to do with the working parts?

Here's a picture of the treadmill post-silicone-solution. Notice footrail and endcap missing from right side as well as the black-icky silicone spray backsplash on the garage floor back from the roller junction. This is what happens when silicone is applied as the treadmill is moving. Also notice the 8" rip.


Here is where I started the autopsy. Notice the Y-incision.


With the belt removed the bed can be examined. Notice the area that is completely worn away. My footfalls must have been traditionally off-center to the left for it to be worn like that. Notice the area in the center of the worn spot that is indented (it's the more yellow central area). There is a slightly rough edge to it which must have been what originally started the tear.



Cause of death: Over-use, plain and simple. While the treadmill-as-window-storage was not a good idea to the overall health of the treadmill bed, I think the signs point that repetitive pounding ultimately finished it off.

Beware of the water

On Friday morning I was chatting with a co-worker and took a drink out of my water bottle. As I swallowed I felt a tightness in my chest and it really hurt as it was going down. "Wow," I told Shannon, "that hurt!" I immediately (within 3 seconds) started to feel lightheaded and dizzy and realized I was going to faint. I started to sit down and may or may not have made it to the ground before I passed out. I did hit the right side of my head on the floor hard enough to leave a mark, but not hard enough to hurt. I came too within about 10-15 seconds. I sat up and tried to regain my bearings, but within 30 seconds I was down again. By this time my co-workers were able to get a couple of our surgery nurses over to look out for me. My doctor came out of the laser room and when she found out what happened said right away that it was a Vasovagal syncope. Basically it means I fainted.

I laid still for about 15 minutes before attempting to get up. I was sat up and immediately the world started swimming again. Because a good amount of time had passed and I was still feeling poorly, the decision was made to call the paramedics and have me checked out. I was taken via ambulance to Fairview Southdale where I was given an EKG (normal) and IV fluids.

(Now, I TOLD the paramedic in the ambulance that my normal resting heart rate is in the low-mid 40's, but he obviously didn't listen because my heart rate "fell" from the mid-50's during the exodus from my workplace to the low-40's relaxing during the ambulance ride he decided he'd better give me an IV. He also said that he was concerned about dehydration although I had told him that I had already drank going on 50 oz. of water by the time this happened at 9:30a. When I arrived to the hospital 3 minutes after he started the IV, the nurse said, "well, may as well finish up the IV since they've already charged you for it.")

I've fainted 4 times in my life now: First time was at Bemidji University giving blood in 1996. I gave the blood, felt fine, was standing around the table snacking because I was not allowed to leave for 5 minutes, when all of a sudden, BOOM. Second time was at Northwest Airlines Bldg. C in 1998 (where I worked at the time). Again I had given blood, felt fine, standing at the table, when BOOM. Third time was in Washington DC in 2004 when I was constructing an IKEA bookshelf. I was hammering in the LAST nail (really) when my hammer hit my finger by mistake. It didn't even really hurt, but started bleeding and I calmly started rinsing it under water at the sink. I felt myself getting light headed and laid down on the kitchen floor, halfways aborting the fainting. I was still passed out in a quasi dream state, but at least I didn't hit the floor. And now number 4, fainting after drinking water.

Should I stop drinking water?

My $400K bathroom



My upstairs bathroom in Anoka is finished now and it looks GRAND! We decided it is a $400K bathroom in a house of lesser value. After RR customized the new countertops, I decided to have him replace the base throughout the bathroom; the moron who originally trimmed it out used casing instead of base and it looked dumb. We bought the painting and the bathmats for a housewarming gift for the Force. I can't wait to live in this house.

The easiest of weekend updates

My running update is the least complicated of the weekend:

On Friday I did 15 miles at 9min/mi. After finishing I did a 4 minute shower and raced out the door to Home Depot to buy 37" of base shoe 5 minutes before they finished so RR was able to finish my showcase bathroom in Anoka (pictures to follow).

On Saturday I did 11.5 miles at 9min/mi. I was planning on a solid 15 miles, but, well, situations arose with the treadmill (pictures and more lengthy story to follow). I did about 8 miles of mountain biking at Savanna Portage State Park.

On Sunday I did a 5 mile hike on my own, followed up with a 9 mile hike with the Force. Today I notice that my shins feel like crap. This is from walking on paved and gravel roads which was probably 60% of the miles I did. I run up on the balls of my feet and walking flat did me in.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Yardsticks

I like yardsticks.

I know that sounds weird.

I currently only have two of them. I got them at the Home and Garden Show in January, and technically one is Vanessa's. She forgot it at my house, so it obviously wasn't too important to her. I will give it back to her if she really wants it.

I used to have a mess of yardsticks; I think a "mess" is what a person should call a group of yardsticks. I realized too late that I'd left them all in my utility room when I moved from my townhouse in Shoreview to a rental place in Roseville this time last year.

I also had two dowels, that may or may not have been an exact yard in length, but they were close enough. I also had at least two of the 4-H yardsticks that I refer to as "cubic yardsticks": you know, the ones you buy at the 4-H place at the state fair with the leather strap? The state fair is a great place for yard sticks, as I think it's the safety barn where you get the neon yardsticks.

I left those in Shoreview, too.

I will admit that my mess of yardsticks did survive multiple moves with me, for no practical reason, as they really aren't that convenient to measure much.

If you are baking a cake (which I don't do) and need to know if your pan is 9" x 16", no one is going to pull out a yardstick.

Point of all this is that I pulled out my yardstick to measure something, but for the life of me I no long remember my point.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Anatomy of a Treadmill

If you had asked me 24 hours ago I would have told you that my treadmill had died. It just recently started making a HORRIBLE clicking noise that I had been unable to identify or successfully eliminate.

A week ago I would have told you that I knew my treadmill was going to die as I had just cancelled my gym membership. Although Lifetime Fitness is 1/2 mile from my house, across a parking lot from one of my offices, and all my friends belong, I just wasn't going to continue to pay $64/month for a membership I don't use regularly. I quite often get to work before 7am and I cannot consistently get to the gym before work. I also have no intention of going right after work. Although that time is convenient for me, it's also convenient for about 1 gazillion other people who crowd the place between 5p and 7p. Due to my early work hours I also can't consistently go later at night.

Back to the treadmill. Since I realized I had inadvertantly created a "trail" treadmill, either the treadmill bed has flattened back out some or else I had become accustomed to running a little off-center. I am solidly immersed in Season 6 of "24", although due to a busy life it's taking me awhile. I also have 5 seasons of "Curb Your Enthusiasm". All was going well until the horrible noise.

Here's some treadmill analogy as I identify pieces. I don't know if my terminology is consistent with Horizon's terminology: The footrails are the side pieces where you stand (straddling the belt). The end cap is the plastic piece at the end of the footrail that hides the innerds/moving pieces. Then there's the roller that's inside the end of the belt and the axle of the roller that connects the roller to the mysterious other inner workings.

How do I know all this?

The noise, a completely new noise, started about a week ago. It's very loud and very suggestive of something being seriously not right. It's loud enough that it is not easily drowned out by turning up the volume. It is centered about 6" up from the end cap on the right side and sounds like it's something clicking under the footrail. It's related to the speed the belt is moving (faster clicking with faster belt movement), yet the noise doesn't seem to be coming from anywhere near the belt or another moving part.

On Sunday when I first heard the noise, I started by folding up the treadmill. I noticed that the underside of the end cap was cracked, probably from storing uninstalled windows on it last winter. (Note: hanging a shirt on the treadmill=O.K. setting multiple windows on treadmill= not O.K. ). Even though this was just 3 days ago, I honestly don't remember if I was trying to straighten the crack and accidently pulled it off or if I just decided to yank it. Either way, off the endcap came.

Now I could see the roller and the axel. The end cap was NOT causing the noise as I thought it might have been (the crack clicking). I grabbed "Liquid Wrench" and started spraying. I sprayed the "air bubble" cusioning thing under the footrail (even though this was a good 2 feet in front of the noise)--no effect. I also sprayed towards the underside of the footrail at the point of the noise, even though it didn't look like there was anything under the rail--no effect. Finally I sprayed the axel/roller junction (6" behind the noise)--Voila! If I sprayed it for a solid 5 seconds the noise stopped!

Back to running.

The noise started again 2 minutes later. Shoot. Another soaking with Liquid Wrench. Quiet. Noise again after 2-5 minutes. Repeat x many. After Sunday's run I completely loosened the belt, reapplied silicone belt stuff to the entire bed and re-tightened it just in case, even though the noise did not seem to be generating from anywhere except one specific point underneath the footrail. I did not check and see if that helped.

Hence why as of yesterday I thought I would have to get a new treadmill. Stopping every few minutes to spray down the treadmill is not very convenient.

I decided to give it a try last night to see if the belt lubricating helped. Nope. I decided it would be reasonable to stomp on the footrail at the noise point. I stomped hard, multiple times, with as much weight as I could muster. The noise did not stop, but I saw that the foot plate had half slid off. So I stopped the treadmill and slid it the rest of the way off. Underneath was essentially just flat bed, previously covered by the rail. There were a couple of screws, one of which was loose, but after analyzing it I saw the screws just held plastic pieces onto which the rail is slid-on to and connected. Again, not causing the noise.

There's nothing at the "noise spot" causing the noise!

All of this to say, I decided that Liquid Wrench lubrication, while stopping the noise for a short time, must not be the most effective lubrication. I took the silicone belt oil, squeezed some on the roller/axel junction, and was able to do a 68 minute run with no noise.

Any thoughts?

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

New shoes

I got a pair of Inov-8 Roclite 318's. I have a pair of 315's that I've used a lot--well, relatively speaking: I did the 100m + 3 (50K) = you do the math. (about 191, since Trail Mix was a "short" 50K). It's very easy to keep track of shoe mileage when you only use the shoes for races.

These shoes (the 315's) were very comfortable from the moment I put them on. I bought them the week before I left for Wyoming over Labor Day, about 2 weeks before Superior. I considered wearing them in the Cloud Peak Wilderness, but ultimately decided I should wear my Vasque hiking boots that are heavier with more ankle support.

I've rethought that. Why on earth should I wear heavier shoes while climbing/hiking on average 8-15 miles per day at altitude? The rocky terrain isn't THAT much more rocky than Superior, and my shoes did my feet fine for that (relatively speaking). I have good ankles that are not prone to rolling and my feet aren't that fussy.

This year backpacking/hiking/climbing in Wyoming (Darton Peak and Franc's Peak, most likely, as well as day hikes in the Bighorns and Absorkas) I am going to try to go lightweight. The 318's, from what my patience for research as been able to figure, are essentially the 315's + Goretex.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

Anoka before pictures and exterior pictures












Here are some "before" pictures of some of the rooms in Anoka before painting was completed.


Here's the basic layout: When you come in the front door you are standing in the entryway. You can go upstairs to the 2nd floor or downstairs to the lower floor. The lower floor is a walk-out. From the entry way you can see through some railings into the living room, which has a vaulted ceiling and is open along the hall way of the 2nd floor. (This is where Eforce will have the strippers dance as the guys watch from below). The 2nd floor has three bedrooms and a large full bathroom. The lower level has Eforce's private space, a shared open living room, and the kitchen and laundry. There's also a 1/2 bath downstairs, too.

I love the floor plan which is very unique and very open.

Last week (and the MS150 "recap")


This is the laundry room that was too small for my washer and dryer which were to be installed on Friday afternoon, forcing me to have the delivery men leave with the appliances, necessitating an emergency trip to Home Depot (after having already been there TWICE that day) who had no washer and dryer small enough, leaving me no choice but to run to Menards and purchase some higher end front-loading models, meaning the Enforcer now has nicer appliances than I do. All of this ultimately resulted in me missing the MS150, as getting this property ready was number one priority.

I did raise over $300 for the MS Society. They will get their support money; they just didn't need to support ME over the weekend.

Truth be told I woke up Friday morning considering not going; the appliance situation just cemented everything.

Last weekend I decided I was going to run 10 miles every day until we leave for Wyoming; that lasted 3 days.

I worked at my job every day last week M-Th, leaving my house at about 6am. I went straight from work to Anoka to clean and work on the house every evening, staying until 11:30p-midnight every night but Monday (when I left at 9:30p and got home to watch hockey while running). By Friday morning I was beat. I wanted to do the MS150, but also knew I had a lot that still needed to get done both in Anoka, at my house, and in my life in general.

On Friday I spent 10.5 hours at Anoka or running to home improvement stores. I spent two hours installing blinds, cleaned and cleaned some more. I also spent 5 hours over there on Saturday. Obviously if I had been biking all that work would have been done this coming week, meaning another LONG week for me that I'd like to try to avoid.

I did run 10 miles today (9min/miles). I also mowed my lawn and spent about 5-6 hours cleaning MY house from top to bottom.

Pictures from Anoka (after)

The gold room is the Enforcer's room. What do you think about the french doors that we had installed for privacy? And the color is a very warm color, perfect the bachelor pad. The only color I enjoy more in the house is the upstairs bathroom(also pictured). The color is Amber Coast, and you can't tell, but with the black shower curtain the effect is very stunning.

I can't figure out how to format the pictures and my typing and I am not going to figure it out for this post. Sorry.

I have a couple of angles of the french doors. It's such a traditional look and really is an upgrade.

All the paint in the house is fresh. The color choices were made by my friend/carpentry contractor Randy, who has an amazing eye and outstanding workmanship.

The ladder picture is my attempt at "art".


The Enforcer moved in on Saturday.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

MS150 support

Please see blog entry dated 5/27 regarding my participation in the MS150.

Donate online to support me!

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Call me Nostradamsa

I got home from Anoka about 9:30p last night planning on jumping on the treadmill for a 10 mile run. I realized that the hockey game was just ending, or rather it was just going into overtime as Pittsburg had tied it up. Although my intention was to watch 2 more episodes of "24", I found that I was being drawn into the stress of the game, as if the Penguins didn't win their season would be over.

Yes, I was cheering for the Penguins.

I've noticed that it seems that if a team doesn't win within the 1st 10 minutes of sudden-death overtime during the play-offs then the game almost always ends sometime deep in the 3rd OT. With that in mind I decided to run while watching the game, knowing that if the game ended before I was done I'd be a little "off" in my "24" episodes; I like that 2 episodes from beginning to end constitutes just shy of a 10 mile run.

Sure enough, the game went on and on. We got into the 3rd OT and I just started assuming the game would end when I was done running. If it hadn't, well, I probably would have gone to bed. With about 6 minutes left in my run a penalty was called and I thought, yup, this is it.

With 1 minute and 40 seconds left in my run the Penguins scored and won the game. Between my last 2 minutes and a 2 minute cool-down I had just enough time to watch the final player interviews and turn the treadmill off with the broadcast credits rolling.