Archives April 2012

So I decided late Thursday afternoon that I was going to take Friday off.  I figured with my having the dogs it would be a good thing, plus it would allow me to get a big jump on what needed to get done this weekend.

It was funny how quickly the dogs jumped right back into their routines.  The new furniture didn’t bother Sadie at all, she was quite happy to nap on it just the same.  Of course Nicki, the sensitive one, was more mindful of the different surroundings.  She has not gotten up on the new furniture as of yet.

On Friday I got started on work around the house bright and early, heading outside to weed and attend to other items outdoors.  The weeds were bad since I skipped the process last week.  I also harvested a number of items out of the garden including the last rutabaga, some nice heads of broccoli, 3 good sized carrots, leeks and onions.

Once I was done with the outside work I grabbed the girls and we headed over to Ali’s place.  I had a number of to do’s over there.  I first set up her new TV.  Wow, what an improvement over the temporary 15 inch TV she was using.

Before she left town Ali had bought a cherry shelf unit and a rolling laundry cart, both requiring assembly.  Although Ali could have probably muddled through the assembly process I thought I would save her the hassle.  The shelf unit was the far more challenging of the two projects.

I then grabbed the mountain of flattened boxes she had at the top of her steps and lugged them out to the party van to transport to the one of the community recycling dumpsters.

After I was finished I decided top stop at the Super Target right up the street.  I figured I could kill a couple birds with one stone.  I needed cutting boards for the new dog food stands I was planning to build, a new hammer (gave old one to Ali), and groceries.

I was pumped that not only did I find cutting boards of the correct size, 14″ x 17″, but they were also black, a nice fit since the new stands would be black as well.  Grocery shopping at Super Target was ok but not a great experience.  I didn’t know the layout of the store so finding things took longer than if I was at my normal Publix.  I also found that the selection of items was somewhat lacking in comparison to Publix.

I was able to find the Bud Light Platinum, one of the important items on my list.  Even with buying two cutting boards and a new hammer, my bill with the groceries came out to $100.  Yes my new food budget is pretty minimal.

Friday afternoon I decided to start work on the new dog food stands.  I actually only bought enough black shelving to make one stand at first.  I wanted to make sure it turned out ok before I bought more shelving.

As in most of my construction projects I sort of winged it although I have made two other dog stands in the past so I had a basic game plan in my head.  I pulled my rarely used table miter saw out of the shed for the work.

The biggest issue I had was the shelving was a foot wide so I was unable to cut through it in one swipe.  After making the first cut I had to spin the board around and then get down at eye level and line up the blade with the existing cut.  It worked surprisingly well.

Here is the first table after it was done.  I actually went a step further, later removing the 2″ green decking screws, (all I had), and replaced them with black drywall screws.  I knew the green screws would be like a little pin prick for Ali since she loves when things match.

Friday evening I called my mom and told her I wanted to drop off some of my garden harvest for her.  It also would give her a chance to see the dogs.  Of course the girls were very excited to see grandma as always.

My trip was two fold, I also wanted to stop at the Home Depot in Bonita to pick up more black shelving for the second food stand.  I was quite annoyed when I found that this location does not stock the black variety, only white and natural wood grain.

Saturday morning I decided to pull myself out of bed at 4:30 to head to the club group run.  I hadn’t really thought about it beforehand, but I think I have not done any significant distance running since the Hooters Half Marathon.  There has been a lot going on in my life since then that has precluded running.

I went into the run thinking I would just do the shorter 7 mile run at a pretty casual pace.  Well I wound up running most of the distance with Matt who makes me pick up the pace just because I know how fast he can run.  I wound up covering the 7 miles at about the same pace as my PR half marathon.  It felt pretty tough.

After the run I swung into the near by Home Depot where I got my original black shelving to grab some more for dog food stand number two.

When I got home I attended to the indoor chores that were yet to be done which didn’t take all that long to do.

Later I built the second stand.  Of course it went much faster than the first attempt and I didn’t have to do any guesswork on the sizes of the individual pieces, I just used table number one as my template.

Saturday night I decided to take myself to the movies.  I wanted to go see Hunger Games.  I went to go see the film at the pricier but closer Silverspot Movie Theater.  When I figured out the cost in gas of driving up to Coconut Pointe to see the movie I realized I actually come out a few dollars ahead seeing it locally.

Some people may think it is odd to go to the movies yourself, I guess it is in a way.  A movie is one of those things that is better as a shared experience I suppose, however it isn’t the first time I went to see a flick with me, myself and I.  I am sure it won’t be the last.

Anyway, I had never even heard of The Hunger Games prior to the movie being released.  I had no idea it was a successful book.  However after hearing the premise and the positive reviews I thought it was worth seeing in the theater.

I thought the movie was quite good.  The concept of the poor enduring bloodshed to entertain the rich is one that is actually quite firmly based in human history.  It’s part of the twisted make up of the human psyche.

The film was very well done and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.  It gets a solid A in my book.  Speaking of books, it almost makes me want to go out and read the book version of the film which I hear is better than the movie.

Sunday morning it was nice and crisp out, I figured that was the best time to take the dogs for a walk at the swamp.  We were pulling into the parking lot a few minutes after 8.  I was kind of surprised there were 5 other vehicles in the parking lot already.

I was really surprised when I saw how low the water levels were in the swamp.  Most areas that in January were 4-5  feet deep with water are now bone dry.  As a result we didn’t see any gators until the very end of the walk when we spotted two big adults and one baby.

During the walk my phone rang, I thought it might be Ali.  Instead it was a guy that does race timing, he just started doing it a couple months ago.  He uses the same Ipico equipment I use for the club.  He was timing a race and was having a problem getting the finish times to publish.  I did the best I could trying to help him in the middle of a swamp.  I told him if I was in front of my PC I could give him more direction.  I gave him a few things to try but was not able to correct it over the phone.

The dogs and I enjoyed our walk in the swamp as we always do.  Afterward instead of heading home we went back to Ali’s place for the second time.  I had more things to set up.  Ali had me order an external hard drive for her to use to back up her pc.  She has seen first hand over the years what happens without a good back up.

I hooked up the drive and configured her pc to be backed up weekly.  I then started a full back up.  While that was running I headed out to the living room.  When I set up Ali’s tv on Friday I noticed that all of her shows she set up to tape on the DVR recorded in crappy SD resolution.  I went into the DVR with the intention of switching the shows to record on the HD channels which are up in the 400’s.

Wow the Comcast DVR interface isn’t even close to Tivo in terms of usability.  It is a huge pain trying to figure out how to do things that are dirt simple in Tivo.  After much futzing around I finally figured out how to make the change so Ali’s future recordings will be in crystal clear HD.

The rest of my Sunday was pretty relaxed, I had all of the house chores done.

Late in the afternoon I popped in “In Time”, a Netflix rental that has been sitting in it’s envelope for a few weeks.

The movie premise is one that is quite interesting to me.  The setting is one in the future where human beings have undergone some bizarre rewiring where once you hit the age of 25 you no longer age.  Wow, the fountain of youth, how fantastic would that be?  Well there is one catch.

At 25 a built in clock on your forearm starts counting down.  You only have one year of time to live.

Now it isn’t as bad as it may seem as there is no longer any cash in this future, time is the currency.  So at your job you are paid in time, adding to that clock on your forearm.  You also pay for everything in time.  A bus fare might cost two days, a new car, a few months.

Anyway I found myself very interested as the movie ramped up but by the end I was sort of done with it.  The movie was too long and it just got so silly at points.

They also bludgeon you to death with the, rich people are mostly evil, angle which got to be a little tiresome even for me, someone that mostly subscribes to that theory.

Anyway it was a fine rental but I wouldn’t have felt like I spent my “time” wisely if I footed the bill to see it in a theater.  B+

Tonight I am picking up Ali at the airport very late.  I will be lucky to get home before 11:30.

Last night when I got home I finally got around to moving the SSR into the center of the garage.  Centering the truck not only is more visually pleasing, it gives me full access to either side of the garage.

It was the first time I even started the truck in a week and a half.  Ever since the clutch/flywheel issue popped up it has remained caged in the garage.  I don’t plan to do any significant driving in it until the upgrade/repair has been done which I am hoping is late in the month, during the next credit card cycle.

Last night while I was watching Celebrity Apprentice on Tivo I got to put the new sofa/loveseat through some real world comfort testing.  I utilized one of the recliners as well as laying across both pieces of furniture while using a throw pillow.  Every position was very comfortable.

My immediate furniture needs are small.  I need to pick up a cheap, very small end table to throw on the other side of the sofa and a small lamp to put on my great aunt’s table.  Down the road an oversized ottoman or coffee table would be a nice addition but is not a dire need.

This morning I got up bleary eyed at 3:45 am.  I agreed to pick up Ali to take her to the airport for her very early 6:30 am flight.  I brought the party van so the dogs would be comfortable for the ride. I had to load up a couple things for the girls four night sleep over like their food supplies and Nicki’s bed.

After dropping off Ali I headed back to the house to drop of Nicki & Sadie.  Within 10 seconds of being back home Sadie was out the dog door and surveying “her” backyard, it was funny.  The dogs also gave the new furniture a thorough smell down but had no issues jumping up on it.

I am sure the dogs will have a good time with me during their stay.

I will be busy at Ali’s place while she is gone.  The new tv I ordered for her gets delivered today so I will be setting that up.  I also have an external hard drive on the way to be utilized to back up Ali’s pc on a regular basis.  I also figure I will put together the shelf unit she bought the other day while I am over there.

Ali has been having a real problem with ticks at her new place.  She has now had 5 or 6 she discovered inside , two of them on her body.  Of course this is freaking her out.  The dogs have a fresh application of Advantix that should keep ticks from latching on for a month.  Unfortunately there is no human equivalent unless you want to wear Deep Woods Off like a perfume.

So like I mentioned yesterday I have been scouring Craigslist for replacement living room furniture for a couple weeks.  Originally I was leaning towards getting a big sectional but transportation of something that big would have been a major pain in the ass.

A couple days ago I came across a listing for a leather sofa and loveseat for a dirt cheap $200.  Even though the ad didn’t mention anything about the pieces reclining, they looked like they would.  I emailed the seller and asked if they reclined as well.  He said they did indeed, two recliners in both the sofa and loveseat.

The one obvious wart was a small tear in the one footrest but after seeing I could grab a leather repair kit for $20 if I felt like fixing it, the wart didn’t bother me. Beside the price, which was ideal for my current financial situation, I hoped the two pieces would actually fit in my Tacoma in one trip.

So I made arrangements to head directly up to Fort Myers after work to check out and hopefully buy the furniture.  I got up there right around 6.  The seller had called me en route and already had his 16 year old boys move the stuff out to the driveway for me.

I instantly liked the seller who is a Lee county cop.  He told me how he had his rotator cuff worked on 10 days ago, he hurt it bench pressing.  I quickly discovered we had similar fitness interests.  In addition to lifting weights he also bikes and runs, in fact he ran the Hooters Half Marathon as well, albeit 10 minutes slower than I did.  🙂

So I gave the furniture a quick look over, making sure all of the recliners worked.  In addition to the tear in the one footrest there was some additional scrapes and minor tears on the back of the sofa that look like they came from being pushed against a wall.  Both pieces also looked like they could use a thorough cleaning, something Paul admitted had not been done in a long time.  So I decided I liked the stuff enough to move ahead.

Now typically, all Craigslist transactions involve offering the seller less than he posts on the web site and the seller offering to sell it for somewhere in the middle of the two numbers.  Well although I am pretty sure I could have knocked a few bucks off the price, I felt the $200 was such a reasonable number that I didn’t feel right about asking for a further discount.  I know Jeremy will mock me for this but it felt right to me.  To be honest the guy almost seemed surprised I didn’t lowball him and instead started counting out the ten 20 dollar bills.

I felt even better about giving the guy asking price when he had his two boys do all of the loading of the furniture on my truck.  My concerns about it all fitting proved unsubstantiated.  After putting the tailgate down the sofa fit in the bed.  Then the boys hoisted the love seat over the side of the truck and placed it upside down in top of the sofa. We then utilized two of my heavy duty ratcheting cargo straps in a criss-cross pattern to secure the furniture.

It felt very solid when we were done as it needed to be since I was going to be heading home via the interstate.  I thanked Paul and his boys and headed home. The trip home took awhile since I decided to keep my speed below 65 mph the entire way.

On the way home I left a message for my neighbor across the street, asking if he was available to help me get the stuff off the truck and inside the house.  He saw me pull in the driveway and walked over to lend a hand.

I felt bad asking him to help as he told me his one shoulder was pretty much wrecked.  We did our best to move the stuff utilizing primarily his good arm.

Getting the stuff in the front door wasn’t too bad, requiring us to just tilt the pieces a bit to squeeze into the front door jamb. We dropped the sofa and loveseat in the general vicinity of where they were going.  I thanked Steve for his help, without him the stuff would still be on the bed of my truck.

I didn’t waste any time and moved my “new” furniture into place.  The loveseat was pushed against the wall and the sofa at a 90 degree angle, out into the living space.  The table I got from my great aunt years ago that has been banished to the guest room actually serves quite well as a combo end table for both pieces of furniture.

I then took turns sitting in each recliner.  Mom had sent me an email (after I already purchased the stuff) warning me that I better test the recliners first.  She said in her furniture selling days she saw many units with built in recliners that would not stay reclined with a tall person on them.

Well these recliners do more than just kick up the leg rest when releasing the handle.  They also recline backwards as they also slide forward.  I had absolutely no problem in the reclined position and found that position quite comfortable.

The two pieces fit my space quite well.  However with the new layout the sofa is a couple feet further back than with the old stuff, leaving a HUGE open space in front, perfect for Wii/Kinect activities but a bit awkward looking otherwise.  I need to throw either an over-sized ottoman or a coffee table in that space eventually.

I looked at my new living room layout with pride.  Making the space liveable for a mere $200 is a big win as far as I am concerned.  That was really the only immediate need furniture item I was concerned with.

I Face Timed Ali later to show her the furniture.  She agreed it looked good and fit the space well.

Tomorrow morning I am picking up Ali super early to drop her off at the airport and then drop the dogs back off at the house.  Ali is heading out of town for a few days for work.  Originally she was going to just pay the expensive long term parking at the airport. I told her it was dumb to waste money at this point doing so when I am perfectly fine being her transport to and from the airport.

It will be interesting to see how the dogs like the new furniture.

Wow what a weekend.

Ali was off on Friday and spent the day at home pretty much all day doing the final packing.  When I got home she gave me a rundown of what she did.  She did a nice job of separating stuff, leaving me the core basics I will need.  Despite it being the eve of her moving out of the house we still clung to our Friday night Biggest Loser and pizza tradition, almost like nothing dramatic was happening the following day.

For the most part we didn’t spend the night focusing on it being the last time for this and that, dwelling on that would just have been a recipe for more negative feelings.

We had to prepare to time a race Saturday morning as well.  This was a big race, the third biggest of the year.  Despite it’s size, it got relatively little attention from me leading up to the event because of the other turmoil in my life right now.  We got the car all loaded and ready to go for a 4:40 am departure the next morning.

Because of the size of this race there are a lot of moving parts.  I told the race director Matt that we would basically handle laying out and running the registration area.  This year we were allowed to utilize the lobby of the Naples Philharmonic for registration which was a huge help.  It allowed us to split the registration functions apart, dramatically improving the congestion problems we had the year before. Despite the large numbers of people the pre-race scene was pretty orderly, as orderly as 900 people can be I guess.  I never saw any substantial lines in any one area.

I had some help with getting my timing stuff running.  A guy that already does timing of local school cross country and track meets volunteered to give me a hand and learn the timing system.  Over the years we have had a couple people talk about helping with timing but none have worked out for various reasons.  Well this guy is the first one that definitely has the skill set to do so because he is basically already doing it.  He used different hardware to time things but the mindset is the same.

It will be cool to have a safety net when it comes to timing but to be honest, right now I need the money.  I’ll time whatever they throw at me.  You want to do two races on Saturday and a third on Sunday? No problem, bring it on.

As a whole the race went very, very well.  The only timing issues I had were those related to human error, something at this point that I have come to expect, getting bent out of shape about it doesn’t help.

For the race Matt got a moving truck from a local moving company that he has close ties with.  He was kind enough to allow us to use the truck for moving Ali as well, all we had to do was dump some gas in it after we were done.  After we were done cleaning up from the race I headed out in the truck while Ali drove the Camry.  She had to stop at her new place to hand them the move in check and get the key.

When I got home I didn’t have time to do my normal post race stuff, I had a number of things to get done immediately before people showed up to help with the move.  I had to rip apart Ali’s computer and computer desk and get other stuff ready to go.

One of the first things I had to do was pull the Water Monster off the moving truck so we had room to load stuff.  The Water Monster is a monster water cooler as the name would imply.  Well this sucker is big and relatively heavy.  I wasted no time hurting myself as I tried to wrangle the thing off the back of the truck myself.

Once our help started to arrive we got busy with the moving process.  Since I spent a year or so driving truck for Goodwill I had a basic game plan for how I wanted to load the truck.  Even using my moving experience I doubted we would get all of her stuff moved in the 15 foot straight body truck in one shot.  I was wrong.  Between packing the truck to the gills and utilizing the vehicles that people brought with them we actually got pretty much everything in one shot.

The dogs were funny as we were making trip after trip into and out of the front door.  They plopped themselves squarely in the way, evidently excited to see all of the feet and legs walking by.  Repeatedly we moved them only to have them come back shortly thereafter.  We left the dogs in the now gutted house while our vehicle caravan pulled out.  We figured it would be pointless to bring them along until the new place had the stuff in it.

I was quite nervous about the process of loading stuff into the new place because of the stairs that include a 180 degree turn in the middle of them.

We first offloaded most of the boxes into the garage where the women could shuttle them up and down while we worked on getting the furniture up into the place.  Surprisingly, the steps for the most part weren’t as bad as I thought they could be.  The turn around section was big enough to accommodate most of the furniture without a major hassle.

We saved the most challenging thing for last, the sleeper sofa.  To get this monster upstairs we had to set it on end once we reached the turn around point and manhandle it from there.

All in all we got everything moved in record time.  From start to finish, we utilized less than three and a half hours.  After the last box was unloaded we hung out a bit with the people that helped us.  Thank you Todd, Chris, Christy, Scott, Taylor and Rebecca.

After people left Ali and I headed back to the house, I stopped to throw gas in the truck so she got back before I did.  I was surprised to hear that one of the dogs took a dump in the house while we were gone.  I guess I shouldn’t be though.  Being alone in a house that looks totally different  than what they are used to was stressful I am sure.  By the time I got there Ali had cleaned it up thankfully.

We used the return trip to get a few items left behind like Ali’s 4 bikes and a few other items. We had to put the Water Monster back in as well.  Ali followed me back to the moving company building to return the truck.  After that we stopped at Panera to eat dinner and then Super Target for Ali to load up on immediate need items.  It’s nice that both of these places are about 90 seconds from Ali’s new place.

After dropping off the stuff Ali dropped me off at her place while she headed back out to the house to pick up the dogs.  I told her I would work on stuff like getting her bed back together in the meantime.  Not only did I get the bed up, I threw the sheets in the washer and got her new shower curtain up as well as unpacking more stuff.

The dogs were confused but excited as we lead them up the steps.  The sight of their familiar furniture was welcome.  They both hopped up on the sofa/ottoman immediately.  We let them sniff around the place as much as they wanted.  They still hadn’t eaten supper so we got that ready as well.  For the first time in years, Nicki didn’t finish all of her food, a sign of her dog stress I’m sure.

Ali and I worked late into Saturday night starting the monumental unpacking task.   I had hoped to also get her computer desk together before I left but that didn’t happen.  By the time I got home it was around 11 and I still had to quickly move the bed from the guest room to the main bedroom, get it sheeted and ready for slumber.

I think I closed my eyes a little after 11:30.  I was so damn tired at that point I hardly even thought about the fact this was my first night in the house officially alone.

I slept solidly through the night and actually didn’t crawl out of bed until 7:30 since I had no black and furry alarm clocks to nudge me.  I had to remind myself several times it was actually Easter, a holiday I typically care very little about normally, which this year meant even less.

The first thing I had to do was get the race results up and running, something people are accustomed to seeing a couple hours after the race.  After that I did some work picking up a few items around the house before I headed back out to Ali’s place to resume unpacking work.

I ran into some issues trying to get the computer desk back together, issues that required some additional tools like my drill which I retrieved later.  Eventually I got the desk up together and set up in Ali’s spare bedroom.  It looked pretty decent in there.  We tried to bogart some free wi-fi from neighbors but all of their networks were password protected and my attempts to guess their passwords were unsuccessful.

Later on Easter afternoon Michelle and Christy showed up to both belatedly celebrate Michelle’s birthday and dig into the piles of boxes in earnest.  Michelle is a minimalist and very well suited for the job.  I let the girls worry about where stuff went and I just concentrated with cleaning up the byproduct of their labor, breaking down boxes and depositing them later in the community recycle bins.

Ali got a couple pizzas for dinner and I snagged a 6 pack of Bud Light Platinum and Mike’s Hard Lemonade.  I knew nothing about Bud Light Platinum except I saw an ad for it during the Super Bowl.  To be honest I had no idea why they needed another version of Bud Light.  Well when I saw it on the shelf of the cooler I saw what the difference is, 6% alcohol content!

Most light beers that offer lower caloric numbers also have similar low alcohol volume content.  So if you feel a bit loopy on 3 regular beers you need to drink close to double that in light beer to match it.  Well with BLP you get less calories with high alcohol content, a winner for me.

It pretty much fills the role I used to utilize Zima for.  Zima had a very high alcohol content along with a relatively pleasing taste.  It was my go to “get drunk” beverage of choice when it was in production. Zima was not a reduced calorie product. Well it looks like BLP will now fill that role and maybe even surpass Zima in it’s effictiveness.

I had a total of three BLP’s and that was more than enough to get going.  It hit me pretty hard.  It is on the grocery list for this week.

I stuck around for a little while after Michelle and Christy left.  Ali and I made plans for me to return once again on Monday to go to the Comcast office with her to hopefully get her internet and cable tv set up.

On Monday morning I woke up early on my own, like 4:30 am early.  My mind got focused on all of the stuff I needed to do so I knew laying in bed was fruitless.  It was the first time I took to really take in the new reality of my living space.  It depressed me a bit as I went from gutted room to gutted room.

I figured the best way to keep my mind off of it was to get busy which I did. The great room was the most visually impactful, the huge space occupied by a sole recliner and nothing else.

I fired off the Roombas so they could assist in the clean up process.  I went around the house and cleaned up each room, removing unneeded cables, sweeping out corners and doing some minor rearranging to better utilize what stuff I have left.

I headed over to Ali’s place around 9 so we could go to the local Comcast office.

Ali had tried to secure internet/cable both online and via the phone several times leading up to Monday.  As is par for the course with Comcast, it was a very frustrating process.  She kept being told different things each time she contacted them, it was ridiculous.  Originally she was told she couldn’t get service until the tenants old service expired on Saturday.

Well Ali called Saturday to get it switched and Comcast said the old tenant actually has service until the 12th and the only way Ali could get service was if she walked into a local office with her new lease.  Sigh, so that is what we did.

The Comcast office was a busy place with lots of snowbirds dropping off their equipment before making their migration back north.  We probably waited about 15 minutes to talk to someone.

The guy we dealt with was nice albeit very, very quiet.  He was sort of hard to understand.  Anyway it took awhile but we walked out of there with her account set up and a Comcast DVR in hand.  We were happy that I was allowed to just hook everything up myself, saving Ali installation charges.

We originally were going to rent the gateway internet device but they didn’t have any on hand so we decided to just go buy one at Best Buy. After the first year you have made back your money anyway.  I found the Motorola gateway which pulls double duty as a cable modem and wireless router however it was expensive, like $160.  We could get a regular cable modem and wi-fi router for $50 less.  F it, that is what we did.

After Best Buy we stopped at Sam’s Club, I needed a few items and so did Ali. One of the things I got was a set of heavy duty ratcheting hold down straps to assist in transport of whatever furniture I would wind up with.  I figure I will be piling stuff on top of each other in the bed of the truck so securing the load will be crucial.

I stayed at Ali’s place until mid-afternoon getting both her internet and cable tv/dvr up and running.  Except for some annoying glitches setting up the wi-fi router it went pretty smoothly, requiring only a couple quick calls to Comcast to activate the equipment.  Ali was QUITE happy to be once again plugged in to the net.

We also scored a tv for Ali thanks to a lead from Jeremy, it is a 46 inch LCD for about $200 less than we have seen comparable models elsewhere. It even sold with free shipping.  It’s a great deal.

I headed out mid-afternoon, I had stuff I wanted to get done at the house.  Even though Ali still had a lot to do, for only being in the place three days she is in a real good spot.  It was sad saying goodbye to the girls but they seem to be doing ok in their new spot.  They definitely like all of the tile and the deck that looks out over everything.  They love hanging out there.

I had a bunch of stuff to do back at the house including more clean up and mowing the grass that was looking seriously ratty. I also took another Jeremy suggestion and emptied out the fridge in the garage and turned it off. I now have room in the main fridge for the stuff that was out there.  Plus running a fridge in a hot garage is a power drain that I just don’t have a need for right now.

I also worked on the finances last night.  Man it takes me a long time to crunch the numbers, made longer by reconciling the bank and credit card statements.  I now have a better picture of where I stand right now since our money is pretty much officially split at this point.  The belt will be on quite tight for quite awhile.

One of the things I have been looking to spend money on is some used furniture on Craigslist.  For the last week or so I have been looking for something to put in the great room.  I am amazed how many people put ads for furniture on craigslist but they don’t include pictures of what they are selling.  I can only assume these people are lazy or stupid.

I have seen some interesting options, unfortunately many of them appear to be in Cape Coral which is probably an hour drive for me.  Since I plan to use my Tacoma for transport it makes things more problematic since with a big sectional it would require multiple trips back and forth.

Well I think I have settled on something.  It isn’t a sectional, it’s a leather sofa and loveseat, both of which have recliners built into them, something I was looking for.  The one footrest has a small tear in it but other than that it is in good shape.  It is priced extremely reasonably.  So as of now my plan is to head there directly after work and pick up the two pieces, utilizing my industrial straps to hold the furniture on the back of the truck.

So here I am on the other side of the move.  A lot of people are not only amazed that Ali and I split but even more so with the degree of support and cooperation we have given each other so far in the process.  Ali thanked me repeatedly for all my help which of course I appreciated.  I am glad to see she has a solid starting point for her life reboot.

For my part I still have been trying to not dwell too much on the sad aspects of the situation, choosing instead to focus on what is ahead.  Looking in the rear view mirror too long will normally wind up with you crashing one way or the other.

So I am going into what promises to be a back breaking, busy and emotional weekend.  I am not looking forward to the experience.  I am however looking forward to getting past this landmark of upheaval in the timeline of my life and start on wherever my new path leads me.

Yesterday I talked to mom about getting together for Easter, she said there was a possibility she might have to work that day, believe it or not.  Mom still wasn’t sure if she had to work but she said she really wasn’t into doing anything for the holiday this year.  She said she wasn’t ready to deal with seeing Ali and I in our new reality.  It became obvious mom wasn’t kidding when her voice started to crack as she was talking to me.

Mom said the deal Ali and I are going through has drug back up some of the things that went down when her and my Dad divorced way back in the early 80’s, even though the circumstances surrounding their split and mine are drastically different. Mom also said seeing the pic I posted on Facebook of the gutted kitchen pantry made her sad.  I suppose that imagery was more powerful than I anticipated as Ali told me later the pic affected her in a similar way.

So anyway, it looks like Easter will be a non-event in 2012, not that I care much since the religious significance of the day is lost on a person like me anyway.

So yesterday after work when I got home we almost immediately headed right back out the door in the party van with the dogs in tow. We were heading out to see the actual condo Ali was going to be renting.  We couldn’t see it up to this point because someone was living in it.

It actually was the second time Ali had been there on Thursday.  She went a little earlier to take some pictures and sign the paperwork.

My role was to help determine what will fit where with the furniture we will be moving Saturday.  My first impression of the place was “damn, this is really nice”  The unit Ali is renting is one of two or three upgraded places in the entire facility that has granite counter tops, upgraded appliances and awesome cabinets.  As you can see by the pic of the kitchen, this is no dump.

Since it is a second floor unit it also has sky high vaulted ceilings which really opens the place up.  The main living area is all tile which the dogs will love to lay on to cool off.  The small deck has a nice view of a lake and will surely be one of Sadie’s favorite vantage points.  The master bedroom has a massive walk in closet, probably double the size of what we have at the house. The garage downstairs not only has an opener, it also has a 8′ x 8′ area that will be great for storing things, a small freezer and bike storage.

The only negative I really saw was in relation to the moving process.  Not only will stairs be involved with every trip into the condo, the stairs have a 180 degree turn in them at the halfway point.  Luckily we don’t have a ton of furniture to move.

The dogs seemed to find the new living space quite interesting, giving it an extensive sniff test.  Likewise they found the grounds around the community equally interesting, their noses were working overtime.

One of the things Ali was looking to score was a small freezer to hold bulk food and more importantly the extra food she prepares monthly for the dogs and freezes in glass crocks.  I found her a nice looking unit on Craigslist that was listed for $100.  Ali called the guy and per my instructions performed the standard Craigslist negotiation, offering $75 for the freezer.  The guy said he would do $85, ok good enough.

Since we had the van I told Ali we could just go pick it up.  I hoisted the freezer into the van myself since the old dude had physical issues that prevented him from doing any significant lifting.  It was a bit tough but I used my pack mule strength to get the freezer into the van solo.

At this point the only short term thing Ali will be needing to pick up is a TV.  I have clued her into several good Craigslist deals in that area as well.

Before we got the freezer we stopped at Pet Supermarket to grab some dog food.  One of the things Ali was talking about buying was food stands for the dogs.  At the house I made two stands for the dogs that have been working great for years.  Ali didn’t want to use them at the new place because they are white and would look out of place.  They also don’t match, something I know would smolder for her since she hates when things don’t match.

Well they wanted a ridiculous $50 for just one stand at the store.  I told Ali that was crazy, something we could do without thinking 3 weeks ago but now, it would be wasteful spending.  I told her I can build her a black version of what we have at home and make two of them for less than what they want for one at the pet store.  I just won’t be building it this weekend.

As I mentioned, prior to yesterday Ali was really down in the dumps.  However after seeing how kick ass her new living arrangements are her mood was significantly better yesterday which I was glad to see.

This morning I had a front row view of an amazingly clueless individual at the Dunkin Donuts drive thru.  They were driving an SUV with a handicap plate.  They pulled up to the menu board and were promptly greeted by an employee over the speaker asking, “Can I help you?”  There was no reply.  A few seconds later they asked again, again, no reply.  I then looked more closely at the vehicle and saw they still had their windows up but I could see the old farts leaning over to look at the menu.  Again and again the DD staff asked to help them and still, the window of the vehicle remained up and closed. What the fck?  I mean even with the window up, they certainly could hear the voice on the speaker.

So then the vehicle starts pulling ahead without placing an order.  Instead, they get to the window and place their order there to the DD clerk with a confused look on his face.  Eventually I see a bag handed to them, money handed to the DD guy and the vehicle drives off.  When I get to the window I asked what the hell was going on.  The guy shrugged his shoulders and said he has no idea but after all of that, they drove off before being handed their coffee.

To me, the scariest part of this encounter is this same person that is evidently daft to the complex workings of a drive up window is also entrusted with operating a vehicle on the local roadways.

Oh well.

The next time you see a blog entry I will be on the other side of a tumultuous weekend.  Oh did I forget to mention that on top of moving Saturday we have to get up at 4:30 Am to go time a race that will have close to 1000 participants?  Yea, going to be tons of fun.

Last night after work I made an effort to maintain a sense of normalcy by going out and shooting the demo video for this month’s Bar-barian challenge. It felt good to remove myself for a short while from the upheaval associated with the upcoming separation process.

Last night Ali and I worked some more on packing up items, focusing primarily on our large pantry. Our pantry historically has been stuffed to the gills with stuff.  It was amazing looking at it after we packed it up.  Since a ton of the stuff in there was cooking/baking items I would not be utilizing anytime soon, most of it is going with Ali.

Ali again last night was very sad.  Her demeanor has really flip flopped in recent days.  At first when we decided to split her attitude seemed pretty good, almost excited about the prospect of a fresh start, living in a nice place on her own for the first time in her adult life. She was the one that was worried about me since I didn’t have a good aura at all.

However more recently she has become much more sad about the reality of dissolving something we both worked on for something like 16 years.  Unfortunately there isn’t much I can say to ease her sadness other than to assure her that one way or the other we will both be ok in the end.

I did some more prep for the move by pulling the mattress out of the sofa bed and removing the roll up screen assembly we normally have in the front door.  We need every inch of available clearance and it is almost guaranteed that either the screen track would get damaged or somebody would trip over it if it remained in place, probably both actually.

Yesterday Obama made a statement that lit up the headlines regarding the Supreme Court and their potential to overturn the health care legislation that was passed through congress.  The bullseye line was mentioning that an unelected group of individuals such as Supreme Court justices, should not be involved in determining law that has gone through the full legislative process.  He also mentioned that if this would happen, it would go firmly against past GOP policies decrying “judicial activism”.  For conservatives to support this move would be pure hypocrisy.

One of my buddies, who dislikes pretty much any and all things Obama, sent me the link to the story, presumably because he thought this somehow reflected negatively upon Obama.  Ironically I think it does exact the opposite.  I am glad to see Obama not back down from this fight, something he has done entirely too often during his term thus far.

Let’s not even take the health care law into consideration for now.  How stupid is it that supreme court justices are appointed, LIFETIME positions?  Very.  It makes absolutely no sense why a sitting presidents decision on a supreme court justice can have lasting effects years or even decades after that president has left office.

To me a supreme court justice should be on the same election schedule as presidential elections. They should come in and potentially go out with each administration.

Kudos to Obama for putting a light on the stupidity of our higher court system selection process, regardless of what decision they come to on health care.

After many, many, many months I posted a new blog poll about a subject that typically is tread lightly upon, religion.  Feel free to post your your vote on what role religion has for you in today’s society.  It won’t take long by viewing some of the choices I have made available that personally, I am not a big fan…

So when I got home last night Ali had already resumed the box packing process, working on pulling stuff off the hutch near the kitchen.  I also noticed that she had been crying which instantly made me feel terrible.  I asked her if she wanted to talk about it but she said what I sort of already knew, there really isn’t much to say, it’s just sad.

From a practical standpoint some more good progress was made as we went through another couple rooms.  The mound of boxes is getting quite large.

Last Friday we made arrangements to drop the Camry off at the dealer for a 100,000 mile look over.  It is amazing to me the Camry already has 100k on the odometer considering it was purchased in November of 2006.  The car has served us quite well.

Anyway, ever since about the 65k mile mark I have been doing the oil changes and other routine maintenance on the car to save a few bucks.  However since Ali is going to be on her own we both thought it good to have the car officially serviced at this milestone mileage mark.  Looking at the factory maintenance schedule I saw the car was due for an oil change, coolant flush and a solid overall inspection.  I also told them to swap the spark plugs awhile even though they are not actually due to be replaced until 120,000 miles.

We actually dropped the car off the night before so they would have access to it first thing.  We however made a dumb mistake, telling the service advisor that we didn’t really need the car back until the next afternoon, automatically shifting the Camry down on their priority list.  He told us the car should be done by 3pm.

So as 3pm the next day approached I asked Ali if she heard anything yet, she had not.   Then about 20 minutes after 3, neither of us had heard a peep yet, but Ali was on her way to the dealer to pick up the car. I decided to call just to confirm the car was done, assuming it would be since it was there all day and the work that was being done was minor.

Well I talk to Mark, the guy that promised the car would be done by 3pm.  He tells me they just pulled the car in a little while ago.  I reminded Mark that they said the car would be done by 3.  He acknowledged that and apologized for them getting backed up.  Of course I knew that we gave this loophole by not telling them to do the work asap.  I told Mark that my wife was about 20 minutes away from picking up the car.  He told me that she might have to wait “a little bit”. I asked what a little bit was.  Mark said no more than 15 minutes.  I asked Mark if he could make sure to expedite things as much as possible.

So I called Ali back and told her the car wasn’t done and also told her about the “little bit” wait that was indicated.  Ali was familiar with what a little bit means in dealer talk, it means a long ass wait. I told her she should just go to the grocery store and go home, I would go to the dealer after work to pay for it and we could pick up the car later.

So on the way there about 5:15, I get a call from Mark, telling me the car was done.  WTF, if Ali was actually waiting there she would have been twiddling her thumbs for 90 minutes.   Mark informed he did not do the coolant flush as requested because they found the water pump is starting to leak.  Part of the pump replacement procedure is to drain the coolant so he said it was pointless to do it now.

I was not thrilled to hear about the leaky pump but I was annoyed because if they worked on the car in a timely fashion they would have been able to do this right away, now it was too late in the day, meaning a return trip would be necessary.  Hearing the estimate of $430 to replace the pump did nothing to brighten my spirits either.  I guess the good news was at this point the leak is very minor and not in need of immediate attention.

I was surprised when I went online and searched “Camry Hybrid water pump” and hit upon a ton of people that have had their water pumps start leaking as well, some in as little as 40,000 miles.

So over the weekend I took a look at where the water pump is located in the Camry and initially wrote off the idea of replacing it myself due to what appeared to be very tight quarters.  Well last night the idea of spending that much money, especially considering our short term money outlook, did not sit well with me.

I hopped on Autozone.com and checked out what a water pump (non-oem) would cost me, wow, only $50.  Add in the couple gallons of anti-freeze and some RTV sealant I would need to complete the job I am still under $100, potentially saving myself $350 in dealer labor.   I then found a post on Toyotanation that outlined the steps to replace the pump in a pretty clear manner.

Part of the process is to remove the alternator, the passenger side front wheel and a small cover to get better access to the pump, something I didn’t realize when I eyeballed the job.  At this point I haven’t decided if I want to tackle the job myself or not.  The most invasive procedure I have done on the Camry so far is replacing the front and rear brake pads.  I am pretty sure I could pull this one off though.

So with the SSR potential flywheel problem the most agreed upon advice is to have the stock set up ripped out and replaced with the clutch and flywheel from a Z07 Corvette.  The factory clutch set up in the SSR will be nothing but problematic, one owner has had the factory set up replaced 5 times so far.

There just happens to be a fellow SSRFanatic that specializes in this swap, he has done 15-20 already and has had great success with it.  His shop is located in Plant City, about 3 hours away, close to where the Tough Mudder was held.

I called and talked to the guy yesterday, he was real nice and extremely knowledgeable about all things SSR.  His personal SSR is tricked out beyond belief.

With him being that far away the question becomes how would I get my truck there?  I asked him his opinion on the chances of me making the trip successfully based on the noises the truck is making now.  I told him that the truck still appears to drive/shift normally at this point, I only notice the noise when I am stopped with the clutch in or the SSR in neutral.  Lonnie said it’s hard to say but there is a good shot I will be fine.  If not he said as long as I have AAA (I do) I could always get towed the rest of the way in.

I thanked Lonnie for the info and told him I would be contacting him to set something definitive up.  He said the swap takes about a full day, 8 hours of work.

So my mind is made up that is the best long term solution to the problem, the issues are two fold, money and getting the vehicle there/what to do once it is.

As far as the money goes, I am going to wait and see where my money levels are once Ali is safely moved into her new place.  Once that happens I can make a more sound decision on the money.

As far as getting up there, I initially asked Ali about possibly following me up to Plant City on some weekday.  I’d just burn a personal day.  Ali said she was fine to do it.  I am not sure if I will take her up on that offer or not.

I feel kind of bad asking her to drive all the way up there.  If I did it solo I could just drop off the truck with Lonnie and watch the process take place, possibly picking up a tip or two along the way.  I could also rent a cheap motel room and stay a night if need be.  It could be a fun little adventure.

So we will see what shakes out in a couple weeks.

My neighbor has put me in a precarious situation.  As I mentioned last week, he was having his house painted by Rhinoshield, the same company that did our place that we were/are very happy with.

Well in addition to painting his house, he also contracted with them to paint his entire concrete driveway, the concrete border that surrounds the house, the pool deck AND the aluminum pool cage frame.  It is a TON of work and he is paying a ton for it, double what we laid out almost.

Well the job was supposed to be wrapped up on Saturday.  It wasn’t close to done.  My neighbor had been squabbling with the company over what they exactly agreed to do.  They wanted to do one coat where the neighbor agreed to two coats, the paint used on the pool cage was in question and several other small items.

Well my neighbor had to fly back to Michigan on Sunday and the job was still not complete.  He was holding final payment for the job, you paid a portion up front and then the balance upon completion.

Well he called and asked me for a favor.  He wanted me to hold the checks for him and only present them to the contractors after I CONFIRM that all the work was done and done adequately.  I told him I wasn’t real comfortable with that responsibility since it his money and I didn’t like the idea of saying the work looked ok and then having my neighbor come back down and see things he wasn’t happy with.

He said he trusted my judgement so I reluctantly agreed to be the check holder, quality control inspector.  Originally the job was supposed to be completed Monday but when I checked last night they still had not done anything with painting the pool cage.

To be honest, painting that cage looks to be a job that would be incredibly tedious.  They are supposed to paint the entire cage, both the inside and outside of the frame.  Doing so requires them to tape and mask off each and every screen panel before spraying.  A decent wind will rip the taped paper right off.

Then there is the issue of how exactly they plan to paint the high areas of the cage that are over the pool directly?  Short of bringing in a temporary scaffolding I don’t see how it can be done. It just looks like an awful, awful job.  I am sure the painters hate the sales guy that said this could be part of the job.

I am not really looking forward to playing mediator in the soap opera.

Last night after giving the dogs much needed baths and eating dinner Ali embarked on her first serious session of packing.  I had a few things to take care of on my pc but afterward I figured I should be helping her pack, there is a lot to do.

Her and I tried to be somewhat systematic in the packing process although it is a bit tough to do, especially at first.  It becomes overwhelming when you start to grasp just how much stuff needs to be packed up only to be unboxed again 15 miles away.

For the first time in several days I felt emotional several times during the process.  Undoing things that we have set up together over the years hurts. There was no way I could get my mind to ignore the pain I felt as I took Ali’s medals off the wall or boxed up other personal items that have been part of our shared environment for as long as I can remember.

The dogs were also confused by the process.  Sadie would sit right in front of me, just staring.  Nicki was under Ali’s desk, looking sad.  It almost seemed like she knew something bad was coming.

I did my best to bring my mind back to center and not dwell on the symbolism of the packing process.

We got the office and the dining room stuff she will be taking boxed up for the most part.  We will be going room to room, doing our best to be as ready for Saturday as possible.

I already took next Monday off from work to have extra time to help Ali get settled as well as do the various rearranging that will happen at the house once her items are removed.  It’s going to be hard to keep dry eyes this weekend.

I talked to Todd last night, he called about a new Iphone problem.  I found it odd that he did not mention my separation with Ali even though I did not tell him first hand.  I only told my parents directly, figuring the word would filter down from there.  Well although my dad, mom and sister know, none of them relayed the info to Todd during any of their recent interactions.

He was surprised to hear of the upcoming split but had no real advice to offer based on the 4-5 year plus quagmire of divorce proceedings he is mired in.

Of course the latest surge in gas prices is hammering everyone hard.  I got a front row seat to just how hard that hit can be.  In the span of two days I spent over $250 filling three of the vehicles.  Wow.

In our upcoming separation Ali will definitely be in a much better spot when it comes to transportation. The Camry Hybrid is paid off, gets more than twice the gas mileage of the other vehicles and she is cutting almost 30 miles off any round trip that she will be making with her new address.

The Tacoma is the gas mileage leader in my pack rated at 17 in the city and 21 on the highway, yay.

In contrast I will be maintaining a 13 and 16 year old vehicle as well as the SSR which just developed a potentially expensive problem which I will detail next.  When I add in the insurance and vehicle registration costs of the three vehicles I have a huge vehicle related nut to manage.

Of course the timing of the SSR purchase, as much as I love the truck is not ideal at all based on what is coming down the pipe for me.  Just making the payments for the truck will be enough of a burden.  Well Friday a new potential burden arrived.

I took the truck to work as I do on most Fridays.  As I am now accustomed to, driving top down on the truck still makes me feel better about life as a whole, my personal four wheeled, topless therapist, even with the sharp turns that are now in my face.  The truck seemed to drive just fine while I was out on the road.

Well when I backed into the garage I heard a rattling noise.  At first it sounded like it was coming from the passenger side of the engine compartment.  I actually shot two different videos so the experts on SSRFanatics could give me some opinions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKGp150QYi0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxUrdM_sXa8

As you can hear, it does not sound good.  Immediately all sorts of bad scenarios ran through my head.  The last thing I need right now is another major vehicle repair bill.

When I crawled under the SSR it seemed like the noise was coming right from the junction of the engine and transmission.  The advice I received indicated there was a good possibility it was coming from the flywheel.

Evidently the SSR 6 speeds are factory equipped with an under-performing clutch set up which includes something called a dual mass flywheel.  This flywheel is designed with the intention of delivering smoother starts.  Unfortunately this design is not particularly good at dealing with the 400 HP the SSR LS2 motor put out.  The forums are filled with 6 speed owners that have gone through flywheels and clutches like mad.  It is just a bad design.

Unfortunately there is no way to know for sure until that area is ripped open which is a chore in itself.  If the problem is indeed the flywheel I could pay a shitload of money to have another OEM, poor performing flywheel installed and then wait for the issue to happen again.

However the option recommended to me by other Fanatics was to have a guy in Plant City do a swap of the clutch system with one designed for a Vette, a slightly more expensive solution but a much better long term solution.

Well neither solution fits into my financial jigsaw puzzle at this moment so as a result the SSR will be just resting in the garage until that situation changes.  So much for top down stress relief sessions.

On Saturday Ali was leaving in the afternoon to head to the east coast for her triathlon.  I spent the majority of the time leading up to it doing stuff around the house.  I did pretty much the full boat of chores, including cleaning.  I figure I might as well get used to it.

Once I dropped Ali off for her trip I headed home.  I spent a good portion of Saturday night researching the SSR problem and filled in the rest watching the rest of Walking Dead Season 2.  The show is very good but I suggest you don’t get too emotionally attached to any of the characters, there seems to be very few untouchables, anyone seems to be fair game at all times to be next up for Zombieville.

I got up early on Sunday to make the trek across the state with the dogs to watch Ali’s tri.  Originally we talked about me getting there before the race but that would have just been a mess between leaving incredibly early and trying to find Ali in the mass of pre-race humanity.  Instead I pulled out of the house at a more manageable 6:30 am, figuring Ali won’t be done until 10 am at the earliest since she was starting around 7.

The drive over to South Beach was tough early on as I drove through patches of extremely dense fog.  At points my visibility was dangerously short.  Nicki was driving me nuts, she was constantly up and down on the passenger seat that was already occupied by Sadie.  She was excited to be going somewhere but didn’t quite know why I guess.

As I approached the South Beach area I went over two bridges that already had people out on the bike course.  They had the normal exit I would use closed off, luckily I had the GPS along to help me navigate.

As I entered South Beach traffic was a mess because of the closed streets.  I had intentions of going to the public garage at 7th & Collins.  It took me a long time to get to the garage, carefully navigating the party van through the narrow streets with people buzzing all around.  When I did  finally arrive I was not happy.

I see the 6’8″ clearance sign hanging over the entrance.  I do not know the exact height of the van but I know 6’8″ is pretty damn close.  I rolled down the woman and asked her if she thought the van would fit, she said no.  Great.  I then asked where else there was a public garage.  She said up on 13th street so I headed up there.

Well I saw the same 6’8″ clearance sign on the other garage as well however I also spotted a small public parking lot on the other side of the street.  That will have to do.

By this time I had to take a leak like mad, something I knew I would be unable to do once I had two dogs attached to me via leash.  I locked the van and quickly looked for a place to relive myself.  I found a Starbucks around the corner that had bathrooms “for customers only”.  I grabbed a small coffee after relieving myself.  However as I was walking quickly back to the van I dumped the coffee after one sip, again realizing it would be impossible to drink once the dogs were in the picture.

I leashed up the excited girls, threw my backpack on which contained water and a dog bowl and headed towards the beach.  From a dog’s viewpoint South Beach was a wonderland of smells, they were both wanting to stop and sniff something every few feet.  I tried to humor them at first, later it became maddening.

On top of that, the sidewalks in much of South Beach are narrow and crowded.  I was wrangling the dogs non-stop to try to squeeze past other people without them jamming a wet nose into legs.

Finally I made my way down into Lummus Park, a spot I was familiar with since I played in several volleyball tournaments there over the years.  As we walked into the park we saw a bunch of runners, the elite people were running back towards the park, the not-so-elites were just heading out.  It was a little after 9 am at this point so I thought that if Ali was close to her goal of a 3 hour race that I might see her running out.  The one variable was when her wave started which I had no idea of.

I found a bench along the path that had some shade from neighboring palm trees, giving the girls a good spot to chill out.  I sat there for awhile watching the runners go by.  I was surprised by the half a dozen or so people that noticed my Tough Mudder shirt and commented as they ran by, fellow Mudders obviously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eg62Kbk7RbM

I eventually spotted Ali running towards us and fired up the Flip just in time to shoot some video of her heading out onto the course.  Once she was out of sight I knew we had around an hour to kill so I just sort of meandered about.

As expected, South Beach was once again a spectacular place to just people watch.  I saw all sorts of interesting individuals.  There was the small group gathered around a black guy singing Christian Rock with a guitar and portable amp.  His audience included a chubby guy with a beard that was sleeping along with his full size poodle and her two small puppies.

Then there was the MMA looking fighter dude that was running on the pavement bare footed as he was shooting alternating jabs every few steps. In one store front there was a chubby guy wearing a much too small red, white and blue speedo with matching patriotic top hat and nothing else.

Skateboards are very popular in South Beach.  I saw a bunch of people doing a land based version of paddle boarding.  They were on long boards with a big stick that had a rubberized end.  They did all of the pushing off solely with the stick.  I also saw many people riding skateboards in a conventional manner, the funnies tof which was the guy that appeared to be delivering a pizza on one.

There were literally dozens of blog worthy sightings, I almost wish I had a notepad with to jot down some reminders.

So eventually I spotted Ali running back in.  The finish line was actually up and over the dune on the main beach area, somewhere dogs aren’t supposed to go.  Plus it would have been too hot out in the blazing sun so I thought it best to just stay in the park.  As Ali ran by I told her we would stay put so she could come find us.

It took awhile but eventually Ali returned to where we were, the dogs were of course thrilled to see her.  Ali briefly filled me in on her race saying she got a flat on the bike and then developed stomach cramps during her run.  It was a shame since she really had been training hard to throw a good number up for this race.

Ali said the hotel she was staying at was close by, we could go back there with the dogs so she could shower.  We went in a back entrance to smuggle the dogs in.  The Hilton actually is pet friendly, unfortunately only to pets that weigh less than 20 pounds.  We figured having our 50-60 pound monsters in there for an hour or so would not be a big deal.

Ali’s accommodations were certainly plush with marble floors and granite counter tops and even a bidet.  Unfortunately she said she had issues with a very loud altercation right outside her door at 3:45 am during the night.

The dogs certainly enjoyed cooling off on the marble floor.  I just hung out in the room and enjoyed the view of South Beach from the balcony.

Ali had made plans to join the woman she drove over with and another guy in his training group for lunch.  To be honest I would have been fine just heading out.  I was kind of burned out from managing the dogs. I didn’t want to dampen Ali’s plans though so we wheeled her bike, two of her bags, my backpack and the two dogs to a place called The Pink a few blocks away.

We of course had to sit outdoors with the dogs in tow but we also had all of this stuff.  I told Ali I would load up all the stuff and walk all the way up to 13th street where I was parked (restaurant was on 2nd).  Ali asked if I was sure I wanted to do that as in total I would be carrying three bags as well as maneuvering the bike.  I assured her I would be fine and just told her to order something for me and I would be back.

Well in the first block and a half I stopped 4 or 5 times to try new configurations to carry everything.  What I finally wound up doing was throwing my back pack on my back in a conventional manner.  I then took Ali’s backpack and threw it over my head and under my one armpit, sort of the way some women wear a purse.  I then held the remaining bag in my one hand and used the other hand to guide the bike.

It was not a comfortable configuration as the strap from Ali’s pack was pressing against the veins in my neck.  Adding to the discomfort was the hot sun and sidewalk that got more and more narrow the closer I got to 13th street.  There were many spots where there was barely enough room for one person to pass.  Trying to do so with a bike and three bags in tow basically sucked.

I was getting increasingly angry and frustrated as I trudged along, wishing death upon clueless pedestrians that would not yield their right of way.  I tried to maintain sanity by viewing the journey to the van like a Tough Mudder challenge. It helped a tiny bit.

Finally I arrived at the van and put all of the items inside.  By this time the lot which only had a few vehicles in it when I parked was now jammed with mongers circling about.  I was asked “are you leaving” 5 or 6 times during the few minutes I was there.

So now I started walking back at a much quicker pace since I was now freed of my baggage, the only thing I brought back with me was a water bottle and dog bowl for the girls.  Ali called me when I was at 5th street, saying the food had arrived.  I told her I should be back in a few minutes.

I arrived to a huge veggie burger and a bucket of fries.  It was quite good but I resorted to eating it with a fork and left half of the huge bun along with a bunch of fries.  It was kind of weird sitting there eating lunch with the other members of Ali’s group acting like we are just another couple.  I believe they all know what the deal is so I can imagine it was a bit weird for them as well.

After lunch I asked Ali if we could walk back via the park.  I wanted to stop at the bars they have on the beach to do some muscle ups.  The bars at South Beach are actually the first place I ever saw somebody do a muscle up in person years ago.  I remember thinking how crazy the move was, not able to comprehend how you could do a pull up so hard that you wind up on top of the bar.  I didn’t know when I would be getting back to South Beach again so  I didn’t want to squander the opportunity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvC4XRMGmmk

I did a couple reps on three different spots, the one set of bars had tons of sway in them and didn’t feel good for muscle ups at all.  None of my reps were very clean at all looking back at the video.  The best thing was probably my upper body only pole climb.  Oh well, it was still fun to mark “Muscle ups at South Beach” on the DONE list.

The drive home from South Beach wasn’t too horrible although navigating the van through the heavy traffic is always challenging.  Eventually, after scoring a large DD coffee we were out on the highway heading west.

Ali and the dogs dozed off for a good portion of the journey, all three of them were tired for different reasons. We didn’t wind up getting home until almost 5pm, much later than I anticipated originally.

I spent the majority of the rest of the night working on paying the bills, a process I am getting reacquainted with after letting Ali exclusively handle it for at least 6 or 7 years if not longer.  Doing so has been a real eye opener as I looked in depth at some of our spending, identifying tons of things that we were dropping a bunch of money on.

The grocery receipt was a huge example.  I realized that we were spending almost $60 a month on BIRD SEED.  One box of cereal, $5, my multi-vitamin was an incredible $15.  In two weeks alone over $350 was spent at the grocery store, it is insanity.

Now Ali has never been the type to scrutinize expenditures much, her attitude has normally been we can afford it so we can pay it.  I have always been the one that policed spending.  Admittedly, when it comes to normal spending like this I haven’t done much if any policing just because I let Ali bear full responsibility for the finances.  I was being lazy about it.

Well laziness can no longer be afforded in this area.  After spending a long time plowing through the numbers I emerged from the process thoroughly depressed.  I know we both will eventually navigate our way though this new financial maze but I have a whole bunch of anxiety about how I am going to create that path.  The numbers right now do not look promising in the least from my side.