Archives August 2008

With my 1500th rep over the past 5 days, one final pull up, I dropped off the bar with little hoopla,  just an invisible pat on my own back, atta boy.  Today was the most brutal of the 5 as expected.  It was made worse by my forgetting to take a pre-workout aspirin to dull the pain.  My hands and back were throbbing the entire routine.  But hey, I did it, I never would have thought I could do it a year or even 6 months ago.  Do I think there has been a major difference physically that enabled me to go from doing one to two 300’s a week to doing five consecutive grueling sessions? Nope, not really, I think it’s all in the head.  It was a matter of just mentally committing to try it.  Like most challenges you face, getting started is the hardest part.  Don’t get me wrong, undertaking this exercise in self inflicted stress and strain was not easy by any means but it also was not as hard as I feared.  There is a lesson to be learned there that could be applied to other aspects of life. 

Wow McCain surprised everyone with his pick for VP, the female governor of Alaska!  I have to give credit where credit is due.  That was a very crafty, smart move to pick a woman as VP to further lure disgruntled Hilary backers to cross party lines, plus she’s good looking and young to boot!  I guess his PR people told him he needed something to counter his crypt keeper appearance.  In the big picture though I don’t think many people really decide their vote based on the VICE presidential candidate.

I finished off the 4th installment of my quest for “1500” yesterday.  I have various aches and pains as a result of this week of strenuous activity.  My lower back is just about toast from all of the dead lifts.  Another unexpected casualty has been my hands. They are very sore from pushing, pulling and holding all week.  I don’t wear my lifting gloves when I do my 300 because I sweat so much during the workout it makes gloves uncomfortable.  I’m wishing I would have reconsidered for this week.   Yesterday as I was finishing up my one handed clean & presses I had a pull in the back on my left leg that went from the lower thigh, across the knee and into my calf.   I’m hoping it was just a mild strain.  Regardless,  nothing short of a heart attack will stop me from getting this last 300 session knocked out.

Last night was our fantasy football draft.  I wasn’t thrilled with them having it on a Thursday night since it took three and a half hours last year.  This year was no different, it was almost exactly another three and a half hour marathon.  I think I had a pretty strong draft.  I was able to make my keeper Marion Barber and only give up a 7th round pick to do it which may have been the steal of the draft.  The only thing I am not too happy about is I have so many Cowboys on my team.  Here is my team:

Tony Romo QB
Marc Bulger QB
Marion Barber RB
Darren McFadden RB
Deangelo Williams RB
Felix Jones RB
Warrick Dunn RB
Reggie Wayne WR
Anquain Boldin WR
Donald Driver WR
Tony Gonzales TE
LJ Smith TE
Adam Vinateri K
Eagles Defense

It looks good on paper to me but you never know in fantasy football.

The labor day weekend will be heavy on activity, light on rest.  We get to start our Saturday morning hella-early by getting up to go time the Labor Day run.  This is the first time we aren’t going to run the manual timing cards as safety net.  I’m pretty confident things should go well but things before a race are so chaotic it’s hard to keep it all straight.  The rest of the weekend will be consumed with painting the office and knocking out the bare minimum of house chores.  I’d love to have a good chunk of Monday free to relax so you can bet I will be busting my ass Saturday and Sunday to make that happen. 

I missed the Obama speech because of the draft but saw parts of it online later.  It looked fantastic.  I can only hope rich America doesn’t buy yet another election this year.  Say what you want about Obama but there is no denying the guy is an inspiring leader and this country could certainly need some inspiration nowadays. 

McCain is as inspiring as a mail box.

http://www.inews3.com/play.php?first=Shawn&last=Duffey

Once again yesterday we got dumped on keeping the various bodies of water around our property intact.  Our land is a soggy mess.  I’m sure it won’t be long until the mosquitoes reorganize from the latest spraying and start their assault again.  They are like the Taliban.

So when I got home last night I heard an odd noise coming from the AC vent, it sounded like it was almost chugging along.  I instantly recognized the sound from the last time our AC died.  It was the sound that is made when the vent below the air handler is filled with water.  So I put on my HVAC repairman hat and took the cover of the air handler off.  I shined a flashlight down beneath the unit and my suspicions were confirmed, it was FILLED with water.  I found this odd since I had pulled the unit apart a few months ago and everything was fine at that time. 

So I pulled out the shop vac and started sucking.  I pulled out 6 or 7 full cannisters of water, close to 25 gallons.  I dropped some bleach in the drain tray and then took the vac outside to suck out the drain line as well.  The issue is caused by more shoddy work.  When they installed the air handler they didn’t take care to make sure that it was angled slightly to force the drain water to the drain.  Instead, it is actually slightly tilted away from the drain.  My theory is the water build up could have been caused by a couple things.  A couple weeks ago I put an extension on the drain pipe outlet to try to route the water away from the compressor.  It’s possible that doing so could have caused just a slight amount of blockage of the flow out of the pipe, causing it to back up.  I also thought that the near constant 90% humidity since Fay just created more condensation than the gimped drainage system could handle. I did install a small wood wedge under the left side of the drip tray to compensate for the angle/drainage issue.  Doing so appeared to tilt the flow towards the drain like it should be.  We’ll see if it works in the long run.

Last night we did some more prep for the cleaning project by pulling any furniture left in the room away from the walls.  While doing so I stepped on a spot on the carpet near the outside wall that was wet.  I asked Ali if she spilled anything and she said she didn’t.  It was a spot that was underneath some storage containers so it was normally a covered area.  No, it wasn’t pet excrement, simply wet from water.  The spot is close to being aligned with one of our external hoses.  I’m not sure if the cause is from the hose or maybe the drenched ground seeping up through a small crack in the foundation.  I’ll have to poke around outside and take a look.

I flipped on the tv in the bedroom just in time to see Bill Clinton give his speech to the convention.  I was sort of hoping to at least catch that.  It was a great speech that gave a ringing endorsement to Obama.  Hopefully it was enough to convince the Hilary backers to not jump ship and vote for McCain.  I also heard John Kerry speak which wasn’t great.  He basically attacked McCain the entire time and while he made some good points,  he sort of came off as a whiner.  It didn’t take me long to realize why I don’t like watching conventions.  They remind me too much of Sunday morning tv church.  Every few seconds the crowd interrupts with cheers and flag waving.  It’s over the top cheesey.  The constant shots back to the crowd were very annoying as well.  I had to question the choice of subjects of the cameramen.  It seemed the vast majority of the people in the crowd they focused on looked like, well, losers basically.  Poor Michelle Obama was getting up and down more than an aerobic class instructor.  She sort of had “scare hair” last night.  The shots of Hilary and her triple chin every 15 seconds during Bill’s speech got old as well.

Last night I woke myself up as I was kicking my right leg violently.  I was in the middle of a dream where I was trying to kick away a snake.

Remember my projections about plunging gas prices in coordination with the upcoming election?  Just look at the gas price widget to the left.  Prices have been dropping daily.  It’s amazing how nice the oil companies can be in order to win political favor.

Jeremy asked me what I thought of the democratic convention so far.  To be honest I haven’t seen ANY of it.  The past couple nights I have been very tired and simply read a magazine before falling asleep shortly thereafter.  I have been reading the recaps of the speeches and stuff and it all sounds fine.  I really don’t need to watch the convention.  It’s not like I am on the fence.  I think fence sitters and Republicans that just want to hate on democrats are the biggest viewers of the event by far.  Jeremy is in one of those camps although he won’t fess up to which.  He offered up this opinion on Hilary’s speech.

jeremy’sIMhandle: your girl hillary was spoutin off all kind of garbage
jermey’sIMhandle: about equal womens pay and rights

When I mentioned to Jeremy how McCain likes to refer to his wife as a c*nt, instead of being offended he stood up and applauded vigorously.

Some people would view the upcoming three day Labor Day weekend as an opportunity to get some extra relaxation time, maybe go to the beach, have a cook out or lay on a hammock.  I viewed it as a chance to work on another item on my list, painting.  Specifically I want to get the office painted as part of our methodical rotation throughout the house, adorning the bare white walls with color.  Last night I wanted to get a head start on the project so I started pulling stuff out of the room.  I got all of the shelving cleaned off and pulled out of the space.  Some of the stuff in there is going to just be pulled away from the wall for painting, specifically our desks and all of the computer/network equipment.  It goes without saying that I need to stay “plugged in”, even during a painting project.  We are planning to paint the office the same color as the guest bathroom, an earthy green that I really like.

I haven’t said anything really about the upcoming Eagles season.  I haven’t been able to see any of the preseason games but the recaps I have read all seemed positive.  Of course it is the preseason and they ALWAYS say things look positive during the preseason.  As a lifetime Eagles fan I have learned it is best to go into each season with minimal expectations and just try to take it as it comes.  This season, like the last 10 seasons hinges on how Donovan plays.  All reports are that he is healthy and looking good.  Unfortunately over the past 5 years he has proven to be less than durable.  Oh well, at least I get to watch them drive me crazy in HD this year. 

Yesterday I did my second consecutive day of 300‘s, yet another first.  I expect the remaining three to be increasingly difficult as the soreness from the prior workouts piles up and multiplies.

I had another weird dream last night that I only remember a fragment of.  Me and some dude had guns.  The dude had an older style gun, it sort of looked like a beretta except it was painted yellow with blue stripes.  My “gun” looked more like a cordless power tool.  The bullets were loaded in the same manner you slap a battery pack into a cordless drill.  We were at the old house at Gouglersville and wanted to find some trees to shoot at.    Every time I was ready to take a couple shots at a tree various dogs kept running into the line of fire, including Nicki.  Finally the dogs cleared out and I shot a few rounds.  My gun made hardly any noise as it popped a few small holes into the side of the tree. That’s it.

Thank GOD they sprayed for mosquitoes last night.  Our property was overrun with them.  Ali said she was attacked during the day yesterday.  When I went outside last night to walk Nicki I flipped on the outdoor spotlight and witnessed no less than 500 mosquitoes on the screen by the light, just waiting for a victim to attack.  It was pretty nasty.  The plane must have went over last night because this morning there was no sign of them.

I had another bizarre dream last night that I only remember parts of.  I was in a suit walking around a high school that also had a mall built into it.  I remember walking around trying to act like I was undercover security.  At one point I was mad when I looked on my shoulder and saw a big huge clump of cat hair stuck to the shoulder of my jacket.  Later I had to take a leak.  Instead of urinals they had a version of a piss trough.  This trough was about a third of the way filled with water.  In the corner of it was what looked an intake/drain to recycle the piss water.  The intake had what looked to be one of those small paper cups you put stuff like ketchup in.  Standing next to the trough, was some custodian looking guy.  He was beefy and had black hair in a buzz cut.  He sort of looked retarded. 

So I started to relieve myself, letting loose in the trough.  As I did the custodian jumped to life and yelled “Sir! Can you please pee at the pee cup?”, pointing to the ketchup cup sort of thing.  I said nothing and just gave him a look of confusion.  I adjusted my angle and pointed towards the “pee cup”.  At that exact moment the bathroom got rushed with people, class must have let out.  All of a sudden I had males all around me, all with their deals out, all pissing at the same time.  I had streams of urine flying by either arm as everyone was aiming for the pee cup.  I remember pulling my arms in tight to my sides to prevent my suit from getting wet.  I finished up as quick as I could and got the hell out of there.  That’s all I remember, I’m just glad I didn’t wet the bed.

Since next week is short due to Labor Day I decided to try to trudge through the daunting 1500 this week.  I don’t want to wait another two weeks to plow through the pain.  Like most things in my life, I ‘d rather get it over with than put it off.  One down, four to go.

I’m pleased to announce that in support of my effort,  Jeremy has vowed to do one pull up a day in a show of solidarity.

We just can not get a break in the precipitation.  Since Fay we have not had a dry day to allow the standing water on our property to recede all that much.  We need about a solid week without rain to dry our property out.

So Ali and I tackled re-screening the torn sections of the lanai on Saturday.  It was a project that I was nervous about.  I figured it was going to be extremely difficult to get the new screens tight enough so they would look like all the rest.  It turns out my concern was unfounded.  Replacing the screens took longer than I expected, pretty much all of Saturday, but it wasn’t all that difficult.  The most annoying part was that most of the sections I had to replace had anchoring cable and hardware on them that had to be removed first before replacing the screen.

Now if I was doing the job myself it would have certainly been more difficult to get the screens tight.  With Ali assisting she was able to pull on the screening as I pressed the spline into place.  The end result was great.  If I walked you out on the lanai I don’t think you would be able to tell which screens were replaced.  The one section I could not do is the top corner section.  Instead I used some screen patches to cover up the small tear in the corner.  I’m hoping that will hold up.  I can now add “screen installer” to my resume right below sprinkler and fence installer.

Even though we spent the majority of the day working on the screens and it was getting late in the day, I still wanted to try to get out to see Tropic Thunder.  We both cleaned up quickly and had a lightning fast dinner at Moe’s Southwest Grille as we tried to make the 7:15 showing.  When we go to the ticket booth the girl said the 7:15 show was very full.  We got seats for the 7:45 showing instead but I had the idea to still walk into the 7:15 movie and see if we could find two decent seats.  The 7:15 show was in a ridiculously small theater.  The only seats available were in the first few rows which would have sucked so I reluctantly marched over to the 7:45 theater.  I was pissed we slammed down our food to make the 7:15 movie and now instead we would be twiddling our thumbs for a half hour.  We had decided to go to the Naples theater instead of the nice Coconut Point theater we visited the last few times.  It didn’t take me long to regret the decision.

This theater is normally quite busy and Saturday night was no different.  Ali and I were thrilled when a group of loud high school kids came in before the movie.  They were swearing and carrying on loudly.  Ali said that she was sure I was the same way when I was that age which I agreed with but it didn’t make it much easier to take.  I whispered to Ali, “THIS is why I download my movies….”  Paying 20 bucks to be annoyed by people just makes little to no sense.  Luckily once the movie started there was enough laugh out loud moments that we didn’t notice the little angels.

Yes the movie was funny, very funny.  Mind you it is jammed full of “adult” type humor with truckloads of swearing, something you might not want to take grandma to.  But it was really, really funny.  Robert Downey Jr stole the show with his portrayal of a black man.  I also was SHOCKED by Tom Cruise’s role in the movie.  He did more swearing in his brief role in this flick then in his prior 25 years on film combined.  I liked hearing Tom talk with a gutter mouth, it made him seem like less of a creepy scientologist.  Unlike many comedies, especially Will Ferrell movies, there were many funny parts beyond what they show you in the previews, Ali and I laughed throughout. We both really liked it, I’d give it a solid A.

I watched a good amount of the Olympics over the weekend.  I wanted to fill up on it since it was all coming to an end.  I was amazed that the men’s indoor vball team won gold.  What a feel good story after the tragedy their coach faced at the beginning of the games.  Watching the men’s indoor game is just incredible.  The speed and the power of the game makes me feel like a toddler in terms of my volleyball prowess in comparison to these guys.  I got to watch a variety of other sports like table tennis, mountain biking, rhythmic gymnastics and more. 

I also tuned in to the closing ceremonies, once again expecting it to be a visual explosion.  It didn’t disappoint.  The closing ceremony was nearly as spectacular as the opening.  The worst part was when London put on it’s brief skit for the 2012 games.  It seemed like rank amateur’s following up after a masterful professional.  How about the mayor of London coming out and looking like a sloppy dope?  Button up your suit jacket, bloody hell.  Everything about these Olympics was top notch which is probably why it translated into the most watched event in TV history.  The Chinese did a fantastic job of putting on the games, setting a standard that is unlikely to be equalled anytime again in my lifetime.  I’m glad I had the opportunity to witness it.   As the flame was extinguished I felt legitimately sad. 

So all the hoopla is over and Barack finally named his VP candidate, Joe Biden. I have to be honest, the choice doesn’t excite me in the least.  To pick a stodgy, old died in the wool Washington politician as the running mate for a candidate that is all about change seems counter productive.  I have read why the selection was made, Biden has a long history of foreign affairs experience, something that Obama’s critics dig at his lack of.  Personally, I’m not that interested in someone that has a long foreign affairs resume because frankly, I think we have done a shitty job for the most part with our foreign affairs, especially over the last 8 years. 

It didn’t take long for the McCain camp to dig through Biden’s quotes when he was an early 2008 presidential candidate, bringing his criticism of Obama at that time back into the spotlight.  “Not ready to lead” will be the phrase pounded into our heads over the next few months.  I would have much preferred Hilary on the ticket, it would have represented the best of both worlds in my eyes.  I’m seriously concerned that the democrats could find a way to actually lose an election where the opposing party has driven the country into the toilet for the last 8 years.  It’s hard to imagine people looking around at the current situation we are in and vote for more of the same.  Brainwashing is a republican specialty though, better wrap your head in aluminum foil until after November.

Yep I knocked out my third 300 of the week, another first in my 300 achievements.   Doing three 300’s in 5 days is physically demanding as numbers two and three have progressively more residual soreness from the prior workouts. My lower back is what takes the biggest beating.  Those 50 dead lifts get more and more uncomfortable as the week goes on.   Right now I am thinking another 900 next week and then maybe try to jump into the 1500 the following week.

 A big salute goes out to the US beach volleyball teams that both took gold at the Olympics.  A big raspberry goes out to the US sprinters that all choked big time and failed to win a single gold medal which is unheard of.  The biggest choke was both the men and women relay teams dropping the baton.  Hell they dropped it in the preliminary rounds when you aren’t even trying to go your fastest, pretty pathetic.