Mutated, No Mast, Super Speedy, Signage, Last swim
My co-worker came across this cool Iphone app called imut8r that allows you to turn someone into a freak in a couple minutes. I had fun Friday mutating myself, the dogs and even Ali although she won’t let me post hers. For a 99 cent app it is amazingly powerful. There are literally thousands of monsters you can become with the many combinations available, highly recommended.
Saturday was yet another bust ass day around the homestead. The woman that does the house cleaning was supposed to stop by in the morning to look at the house. She got tied up and rescheduled to come by in the afternoon.
Ali did most of the tractor mowing before she had to head out to go into work for a few hours. I got on the tractor and finished the regular mowing and then headed into the back yard to finish that as well. I managed to get the tractor stuck four or five times during the process as I tried to mow down the ditch as much as possible. Pulling the tractor out of the ditch with nothing more than my two hands wasn’t much fun since my back was very sore from Friday’s 300.
Later in the afternoon the kids next door came over to play with our dogs and then head into our pool for a bit. The girl actually tried to put a bathing suit on Sadie which didn’t stay on very long. Sadie loved having two kids in the pool with endless energy. She chased them around the edge for a solid half hour.
The cleaning lady pulled up mid afternoon to survey the house. She was obviously spooked by the dogs although I assured her they were harmless. I took them both outside where they barked the entire time. The dogs will add a layer of complication to the process. Instead of being able to have the woman and her crew come and go as they please we will need to make sure Ali is around to corral and control the dogs, otherwise Nicki would be barking constantly and Sadie would be up in their face.
Vanessa asked me how often I was thinking I would use her. I initially said maybe every 6 weeks or so. She said that with the dogs she would recommend doing it once a month. My 6 week idea came from the schedule my buddy uses with her. However he is a minimalist with no pets and zero clutter. His house basically looks like a model home.
On the positive side she said we didn’t have much tile which cuts down on the scrubbing they have to do. On the negative side we have a lot of “stuff’ sitting around which adds to the cleaning time. What they do is an initial deep cleaning where they clean just about everything you can imagine from floor to ceiling. This deep cleaning costs around double what a normal cleaning does because it is so extensive.
I liked what I heard. The idea of having the house professionally cleaned on a regular basis is appealing. If after having it done a few times I decide it isn’t worth it I can always stop the service. Ali of course is all for it, she loves the idea of doing less cleaning. Ali is too busy this week so our first deep cleaning probably won’t occur until next week sometime.
Another one of my Saturday projects was sign creation. I wanted to make two signs, one for a big community yard sale we are planning for mid-November and another one for the neighborhood email list. I used plywood left over from the hurricane shutter project. I painted the signs pure white to provide the best contrast with black letters. I finished up the email list sign, complete with mounting it towards the end of the road. The yard sale sign hopefully will be wrapped up after work during the week.
I had a surprise Saturday afternoon when I saw a 7 foot long narrow box show up by my front door. It was my new HDTV antenna. I popped the box open just so I could grab the instructions to look them over. Of course you need a pole to mount an antenna to.
Later in the weekend I went to Home Depot, Lowes and even Best Buy looking for an antenna mast. I struck out at all three places. I found this very odd. OTA antennas are pretty popular nowadays due to the outrageous cost of cable, I didn’t anticipate not being able to find a pole to mount one on. I had to once again turn to the internet and grabbed 15 feet of antenna mast and some mounting hardware off Amazon.
Sunday morning Ali and I had to pry ourselves out of bed to time another race. This race is unique, it encourages runners to come in costume since it always is held right around Halloween. Ali and I got into the spirit ourselves and dressed up for the race.
Ali also planned to run in the race so her costume had to be tolerated for 5 miles of running as well. She went with an old cheerleader costume we had in the Halloween bin. It looked cute on her. I went with the venerable Jason mask teamed up with my throwback Randall Cunningham jersey and bucket hat.
Timing of the race went fine although we had some problems due to it being a run/walk event. We had some people that were walkers that mistakenly were put into the running division which skewered the results until we discovered it.
Ali had a tremendous race, crossing the finish in less than 45 minutes which translated into a speedy 9 minute mile pace. On top of that her and the girls went back out to do another 5 miles as part of their half marathon training regimen.
Ali and I drove separately to the race because she once again had to run into work for a bit. I went home and unloaded the truck as well as performing the post race duties. By the time Ali got back I was just about finished up.
She was totally exhausted and even though we planned to go to the water park, she asked if she could lay down for a bit to take a nap. I didn’t mind, it gave me a chance to shoot my last Bar-barian challenge videos for October.
I had made one attempt earlier in the month at the challenge which was max continuous push ups and got 42 reps. I figured since it was Halloween I would dress up for this last attempt. I dug out my Spartan costume, complete with sword and shield and headed out to the dog deck. I managed to get three more reps this time which I was pleased with, for a total of 45.
There was a side contest as well where you do diamond push ups instead of the regular variety. Diamond push ups are harder, you bring your hands together so that the space between them more or less forms a diamond. They emphasize the triceps more than the chest. I switched into my Jason mask for the second set. Going to failure just a few minutes prior definitely affected my diamond push up number but I still managed to do 34 of them which was decent for me.
By the time I got done processing the video Ali was ready to head to the water park. This was the last day the water park was open until Christmas break. I have come to really enjoy spending part of my Sundays there and was a bit sad that it was coming to an end.
The place was very empty, even with temps in the upper 80’s. I wanted to do another 1600 swim session. Ali was still feeling wiped out from her run so she decided to just work on her tan instead. I stopped briefly after the first 800 to spit in my googles, they were fogged up badly and it was annoying me. After less than a minute break I was back at it. I did each 800 meters in 17:30 or less which was a good time for me. After my swim we just hung out for awhile. We didn’t hit any of the water attractions, both of us felt glad to just unwind for a bit.
After the water park we hit Lowes. Like I mentioned, the primary intention was to grab an antenna mast which I struck out at. However we also grabbed materials to start our winter garden. We grabbed a variety of vegetables, some compost to amend the soil and a couple dirt cheap clearance plants, some of which were as cheap as a dime, yes, a dime.
When we got back home it was late in the day. I just dumped the stuff in the garden for the time being. Getting the garden ready will be another to do list for the week.
Our Sunday night was busy as well. Ali made a huge salad that we will be able to consume during the week. We also did the bills, dishes, and laundry right up until bedtime. The weekend flew by.
Ali and I were mapping out the weekends for the next 2-3 months. It seems like almost every single weekend has something going on until late January. Next week we continue the string with a sprint triathlon in Boca Grande. Let the fun begin.