Archives 2011

On Friday we had an appointment for the dogs to have their teeth cleaned.  Much like human beings, bad dental hygiene can lead to all sorts of problems for canines as well.  The vet said that Nicki’s teeth were actually ok but Sadie was put under for a full cleaning.

Ali called me on the phone sounding upset after I got back from lunch.  She was sitting there with Sadie after she came out of the procedure.  She was knocked out cold still although her eyes were open and her tongue was hanging out of her mouth.  After Ali sent me a picture of Sadie I understood why she was upset, she looked dead.

She asked if I wanted to come over to help Sadie snap out of it.  At first I said I couldn’t because we were short handed at work but then I made arrangements to come over for a bit.   By the time I got there Sadie had started to wake up but she was very groggy.  She was swaying her head around and was unable to stand up, her rear legs weren’t working quite yet.

We sat there with her for awhile as the cobwebs started to clear, it was weird seeing her that way.  Eventually we got the green light to take her home.  She still couldn’t walk so I carried her out to the front seat of the car and placed her carefully inside.  Ali thanked me from coming over.  Sadie’s teeth look much better, she has a superstar dog smile now.

On Saturday I left the house early for my trip up to Siesta Key to play in another volleyball tournament.  If you follow my blog you know that my last tournament was a scant two weeks ago and I had a very poor outcome, not winning a single game while playing with Jeremy. Ironically, this time I was playing with Tabby who has been playing a lot with Randall, including two weeks ago when Randall and he beat us.

Siesta Key  is one of my favorite places to play.  The beach is wide, beautiful and covered in powdery white sand that is decently packed to assist in more effective jumping.  I got on site about 7:40.  Tabby showed up maybe 30-45 minutes later so I singed us in ahead of time.

We had a an usual pool arrangement where the entire division was a total of 6 teams but it was going to be played on two nets.  This meant two things, we would be playing more games than normal in pool play (5) and we would either be playing or reffing every game which can be a good or bad thing depending on your point of view.

I have known Tabby for awhile but I never have played with him.  Our first game was against a couple young kids, one 16, another 20.   They both were not great ball handlers but they had that some good natural talent and of course speed/energy.  The first part of our match was pretty even however we dominated the second half of the game and won rather easily.

Our next match was against what I thought was the best team on the net even though they lost their first match. They surely had the most skilled player on the net.  His partner seemed to have pretty decent skills as well.  Again the game was pretty much even half way through. However this time it was Tabby and I that self destructed, making a string of unforced errors that allowed them to score 11 of the last 13 points.  We moped back to our umbrellas after the poor performance at 1-1.

Our next game was against a team that was just formed that morning.  They were both guys that used to play regularly but hadn’t in awhile.  They were rusty as you would imagine and we beat them easily to reach 2-1.

Our next match was big, they were only taking the top 3 teams to playoffs and we were playing the only team that was undefeated, the old crafty guys, who were sitting at 3-0.  These guys were by far the most interesting team on the net for me.

They were exactly the type of team that has given me fits over the years, solid ball handlers, with good ball placement and just overall smart play.  The one guy was particularly interesting for a couple reasons.

I heard from the young guys that he coaches volleyball.  He has some sort of weird issue that prevents him from straightening his arms in the way a person would typically bump a volleyball.  Instead his elbows are kept at an almost 90 degree angle and he did all the arm movement from his shoulders.  It was something I don’t recall ever seeing before.

Bob was unique for another reason, his sound effects.  He made a long groaning noise after almost every contact he had with a ball.  His serve was the craziest of all.  He would let out a very loud and long groan at the same time as he made contact.  On top of that as he followed through with his serve he would bend at the waist, winding up with his face down towards the sand. Despite being  weird looking and sounding, his serve was actually pretty effective.  Since he was left handed it moved from right to left consistently.

Tabby and I knew we had to really tighten up our game to minimize unforced errors.  We also had to be ready to move to run down balls that were going to be placed where we weren’t.  It was midway through the game where we really started to click.

The old dudes served Tabby almost exclusively since the few balls I got a chance at were put away.  Tabby did an excellent job of passing well which in turned allowed me to give him good sets to hit.  We wound up blowing out the old guys 21-12. They were very flustered considering they were undefeated going in. We now sat at a respectable 3-1 with one more pool game to go.

We were playing two guys with shaved heads who also were 3-1.  We jumped out to an early 8-3 lead when the shorter, chubbier of the two said, “You win, I am starting to cramp up”  That was a first for me, I never won a game via a cramping forfeit before.  Well it was a weird way to end the last game of pool play but it put us at 4-1.

The bald guys would have made the playoffs even with the forfeit but he later said they were just bailing totally so now we suddenly had a 5 team division.

Their forfeit meant the last game of pool play between the old guys and young guys did not affect the playoff scenario.  The old guys beat the youngsters pretty easily.

So they way it worked out with only 3 teams in the playoffs Tabby and I had a bye in the first round and the old guys had to play the young guys all over again.  It was sort of appropriate for the weird way the day had went.

The team that I thought was the strongest and beat us lost to every other team somehow.  The bald guys forfeiting gave the kids a playoff berth they wouldn’t have had otherwise.

So anyway, old versus young part 2 was looking like another old guy win.  Late into the game they had a 3 or 4 point lead.  Well the kids, who had played progressively better as the day progressed, hustled their ass off and actually managed to beat the old guys.  The game ended when Tabby called net on the one old guy on a hit.  It was funny, the guy didn’t call it on himself which I guess makes sense.  You knew he did it because he hardly protested on the call.

So now the finals were all set, us against the young kids.  However once again early in the game the cramp bug bit the other team, hard.  The 20 year old started developing horrible cramps in his quads.  We gave him far beyond the two, two minute timeouts a team is allowed during a game to try to recover. We would have much preferred to play than win by default.

One of the spectators just happened to be a massage therapist.  She came out and worked on him for awhile.  After 20-25 minutes he was drug off the court with a person under either arm, he was done.  Another win by cramping forfeit.

A friend of the non-cramping youngster offered to step in and play a game just so there was at least a real game taking place.  Tabby and I said that was fine since the outcome of the division was already officially decided.  I believe the guy normally plays A.

Tabby and I were still in the groove and we beat them in the make believe finals by a comfortable margin.  Except for the occasional missed serve, we were hitting on all cylinders.  By this time I had complete confidence in Tabby’s ability to get me a decent set more often than not.  It made a huge difference.  I was now approaching sets aggressively and hitting the ball authoritatively.

Both Tabby and I hustled our asses off running down a lot of balls and winning many more of the long rally points than we lost.  It felt great to be executing so well after having the wheels fall off two weeks ago.

After we collected our prizes for first we were challenged to two more matches.  Groaning Bob grabbed another partner, hoping to avenge his earlier loss to us.  Unfortunately we sent Bob home unhappy as we once again won rather easily.

There was one more challenge  offered up to us and once again we took care of business.  I was pretty tired by that time and said that was enough.  I felt fortunate both to win and to escape without major injury.

Tabby and I reflected on our day of solid play,  it was very satisfying.  I had not had a day where I felt that good hitting the ball in years and years.  For me, the high I get from volleyball is hitting.  Our BB win means the next time Tabby and I play it would need to be in the A division, a click up skill wise.  If we played as well as we did Saturday I have no doubt we could do well in A as well.

I cleaned up my stuff and said my farewells to Tabby.  He was staying overnight since he was also playing co-ed on Sunday.

The drive home was fine except for the swarms of  love bugs I drove through that left the front of my white truck looking almost black.  It was pretty awful.  I grabbed subs from the nearby restaurant on the way for an easy dinner.

Ali congratulated me on my success on the court.  She knew it made me feel much better after the way the last tournament turned out. You can see the latest tips, nicknames and results here on the volleyball section of my web site.

Saturday night we watched The Kings Speech.  The movie interested me not only because it was award winning, it dealt with a subject I struggle with, speaking.  Although my regular lack of enunciation is frustrating and embarrassing at times, luckily for me I don’t have to speak in front of entire nations.

I thought the film was very well done even though I did fall asleep briefly laying on Ali’s lap.  Hey, I had a long day.  I’d give it an A-, check it out for sure.

Despite busting my ass out on the court all day Saturday I actually felt intact enough to do a training brick Sunday morning.  Ali is limiting her activity so her ribs can heal but she came along.  She walked around the park while I rode my bike on the roughly 12.5 mile out and back bike route.

I decided to take my low tech and heavy Dawes road bike out.  I hadn’t given it an extensive ride since I had both wheels and the cassette replaced.  The bike felt better than it ever had.  I was able to pace 18 + mph for the ride, a very solid number for me.

After I got back it was time to hit the pool.  Again Ali was being careful so she used the kick board I bought her recently to put in 800 meters ( a lot of kicking)  I swam a solid 1200 meters in 25:20.

The park was dramatically less full than the last time we were there a couple weeks ago.  We didn’t hang around after eating lunch, I had a bunch of stuff to get done around the house.

Again, since Ali is trying to heal her ribs there is a lot of stuff she shouldn’t be doing right now.  I had no problem picking up the slack, it just meant I had a very busy Sunday afternoon where I knocked out all of the indoor and outdoor chores in a span of three hours.  I actually would have had time to work on replacing the two torn screen sections but I ran out of motivation.  Plus, my right knee by that time had started to swell up a bit so I didn’t need to push it any further.

I have been watching a lot of Dexter lately.  I think I need a break for a bit.  I find relating to a serial killer that only kills bad guys a bit mentally taxing.  Ali actually seems to enjoy the show too.  Quite often she sets her magazine down to see what is going on and she has a basic understanding of where we are at in the storyline.

I will leave my thoughts on the killing of Bin Laden to it’s own entry, deservedly so.

Ali’s road rash from her bike crash has been healing up nicely.  However she has had off and on pain in the right side of her chest since the incident.  Initially we figured she just bruised something.  It had been feeling better until after she got bumped around on the mower on Wednesday.  She was really hurting so she went to an urgent care yesterday afternoon.

The doctor who examined her also works in the ER.  She said that she was pretty sure Ali has a crack in the cartilage that connects the rib bones to the sternum.  Evidently it is a pretty common injury when that area suffers a severe impact.

The diagnosis sort of explains the roller coaster Ali has been going through.  Her chest would feel ok but then after certain activity the pain would reappear.  You basically just have to allow yourself to heal which I read can take anywhere from 6-8 weeks depending on the severity.

Ali was both relieved to at least get a professional opinion on the injury and frustrated at the prospect of having to severely limit the type of activity she does for the next month.

Last night I burned the midnight oil and finished up season 2 of Dexter last night via Netflix streaming.  It is really a well done show.  I liked the way they wrapped up the season.  Now I have to rely on dvd copies of the next 3 seasons that Randall has secured to continue the storyline.

I am getting annoyed with the local Hess station that I buy my gas at.  They also have self serve Dunkin Donuts coffee there.  In the past couple months they have done a piss poor job of making sure the coffee is flowing during the morning rush hour.  I went in today looking for my traditional Friday cup (other days I typically brew my own in my office)  They didn’t have one drop of coffee available.  I was annoyed.  If they keep this up I will need to find a more reliable source of GO juice.

I am playing in a volleyball tournament on Saturday at one of my favorite places to play in Florida, Siesta Key. Siesta Key Beach is a wide, powdery white sand beach.  For volleyball I like it because the sand is generally packed so I am able to jump better off it than the deep, vert sucking sand that can be found elsewhere.

I am playing with Tabby.  Ironically Tabby was Randall’s partner in the last tournament.  It’s been a bizarre case of partner swapping.   All we need is for Jeremy to play with Tabby sometime to make it a complete three way swap since both Randall and I will have played with both of them as well as each other.

Tabby is an older guy like me that plays a lot of ball.  He is an all around solid player. I expect our results to be better than my last outing as a result.  I am still suffering from some spotty knee pain that started on Monday. I think with the help of my best friend, Advil, I will be able to grind it out through the day.

Last night after work I shot 3 separate videos.  One was my last attempt at the April Bar-barian challenge, the other two were how to videos for two possible future challenges, The Bender (a Jeremy concept), and the 50-50, an abbreviated version of my world famous 50-50-50.

Yesterday I finally followed Jeremy’s advice and bought a new, non-toxic leeching water bottle.  He said he had his best night of sleep in months as a result.

I can’t tell you how I relieved I was that Obama released a copy of his OFFICIAL birth certificate.

I do feel bad for Tea Party members as now there is a huge hole in their lives, since this was one of the most import aspects of their existence – the idea that Obama was actually a muslim, alien, nazi, socialist that was born somewhere else.  Well at least they can drop one thing off the list.

I also offer my personal congratulations to Donald Trump for taking full credit for Obama finally releasing the document.

What a f’d up world this is.

Yesterday Ali was off work.  She also is going to be able to take off Friday.  Her work schedule is finally swinging more in line with what it was supposed to be when she started contracting.

Ali was able to get the grass mowed yesterday since she was off.  It was quite nice to come home to a unjunglified yard. She also had the time to prepare a different type of dinner, stuffed peppers.

This meal was extra special because the peppers came from our garden.  Ali told me that when she was preparing the meal she was looking for the sticker on the peppers to pull off.  They looked so good she forgot we grew them ourselves.

I never ate stuffed peppers before in my life even though I recall my mom preparing them over the years.  In general I am not a big pepper fan.  I was more open to trying them out since we grew these peppers ourselves.

A lot of times peppers are stuffed with some sort of hamburger like concoction.  Ali stuffed ours with a combination of rice, beans, corn and some other stuff.  We also opted to not put any tomato sauce on them.  The stuffed pepper was good after I hit them with a bit of salt to spice them up a bit.

We have at least a half dozen more peppers growing right now so we will have to come up with some more creative recipes.  I am thinking maybe making them again with veggie crumbles and tomato sauce next time for comparison.

I am approaching the end of season 2 of Dexter.  I am thoroughly enjoying the show.  Jeremy and Randall were spot on with both their comparisons of Dexter to me  and knowing I would like the show.

I read that there will be an estimated 2 BILLION people that will tune in to see the Royal Wedding.  Wow, what a statement about humanity.  I am doing my part to buck the trend.  I couldn’t even tell you the names of the couple.  All I know is the dude has a bad case of premature baldness. I won’t watch a single second.  I could care less.

So I set my alarm for 5 am so I could head up to Fort Myers first thing this morning to get my 100 foot roll of super screen.  I arrived a few minutes before the official 7 AM open time but the door was open.

While I was waiting for the woman behind the desk to enter my order I looked at some of the other cool pool cage parts they sell.  The one that caught my eye were special pool cage screws with vinyl tops.  Besides the screening, another problem area are the screws used to hold a pool cage together can become a rusty mess over the years.  These special screws are supposed to practically eliminate that issue.  I may look into replacing my screws eventually as some of mine are pretty rusty already.

The transaction was smooth.  I drove around the side and loaded up my expensive, but hopefully worth it 100 foot roll of super screen.  I even had time to fill up the truck with gas, grab coffee and still be in the office before 8 am.  It’s always nice to start off your day in a productive way. I didn’t mind the extra driving to save $40 in shipping charges.

My right knee was feeling better yesterday but I woke up this morning with it feeling sore again.  This usually means I have something loose in there that is moving around, causing inflammation.  Hopefully it all sorts itself out by Saturday.

So I was ready to order my 100 foot roll of super screen yesterday.  I was about to enter my CC number when I saw the shipping cost for the roll, nearly $40.  Well I noticed that the place is based out of Fort Myers.  I called them and asked if I was able to just come to their place and buy a roll over the counter.  They said sure.  So my plan is to get up early some day this week and go there before work since they open at 7am.  It will only cost me $10-$15 in gas.

Last night after work I met up with Ali to do a short run.  It is the first real running Ali has tried since her bike crash.

As we were walking to warm up I all of a sudden started to feel some pain in my right knee, great timing.  I told Ali my knee was hurting but I would see how it felt once we started running.  Surprisingly, it didn’t really bother me much while running the two miles.

When I got home it was a different story.  When I emerged from the truck the knee was now painful enough to invoke a slight limp.  It hurt all night long.

It feels better this morning but I think running is off the menu the rest of week especially since I am scheduled to play in another volleyball tournament on Saturday.  I know from past experience that vball on a gimpy knee is no fun at all.

Yesterday I brought the hard drive from the bedroom Tivo to work.  The reason was I have a hdd duplicator at work.  I wanted to use it back up my Tivo drive to another drive for a rainy day.  After all it isn’t IF the drive will fail, it is WHEN the drive will fail.  A Tivo works a hard drive extremely hard as it is constantly writing to it as it records live tv.

The duplicator makes creating a safety net for my Tivo (or any hdd for that matter) very easy.  I put my original drive in one slot, the back up drive in another and hit one button.  In about a half hour I have a perfect duplicate. It’s pretty damn sweet.

My World of Warcraft playing time has been scaled way, way back.  There are many weeks when I hardly play at all anymore.  When I do play it typically isn’t more than an hour or two.  Well right now my focus when I do play has been leveling my rogue.  My rogue is a butt ugly, dwarf female that I named Triplebagger.

A rogue is a class that is all about being a pain in other player’s ass since they have the ability to be invisible, allowing them to almost always get the jump on unsuspecting players.

With most classes I am a pretty miserable PvPer (player versus player).  However with the rogue I almost will go looking for trouble.  Even if I can’t successfully kill another player I can surely annoy the piss out of them, disappearing into the shadows afterward.

As I have been leveling Triplebagger she has had a very successful track record of killing enemy players when the situation arises.

Last evening was particularly satisfying.  I was out questing in the middle of a desert.  I had just had a fight with a scorpion that knocked my health down considerably. I was sitting down, eating food to regenerate my health.

All of a sudden a troll shaman drops out of the sky and starts attacking me.  I use some of my defensive abilities to get away temporarily but I drew aggro from two additional scorpions as I fled which did me in.

Well of course this pissed me off.  So after I resurrected I flew around the area looking for the shaman.  I was pleased to see he was still around and working on the same quests as I was.

I proceeded to kill him 4 different times, belly laughing at his corpse after each kill.  You just don’t want to piss off a rogue.

Did you know one Coconut Junior has 420 calories?  Ali was sent 4 boxes of these by her mom for Easter.  Remember that eat bad food early tip?  Yea, these should be enjoyed with your morning coffee.

So after doing our Friday pizza/tivo thing I had to get everything ready to go for the sprint triathlon on Saturday morning.  The hitch mount bike rack that I ordered from Amazon arrived on Friday.  While I watched Biggest Loser I put it together.

The rack comes with a “no wobble” bolt that you are supposed to use to attach it to the trailer hitch.  I tightened the bolt up nice and tight and felt the rack, it felt nice and tight as well.  However when I took a look at it from behind I noticed the rack had a slight left lean to it.  Hmm, I figured I must not have it in there quite right so I removed it and installed the bolt again, same thing.  Then I tried flipping the bolt around and still, it leaned.  Now this was annoying.

I fought with it for awhile, trying to lean against the lean as I tightened the bolt, employing washers and a few other tricks to try to plumb the rack, none of it worked.  So I just tightened it up and figured I would worry about it later.  The next day at the tri I saw a number of other vehicles with hitch mount bike racks.  Guess what, they almost all had the same slight lean.  I am theorizing that the lean is a side effect of the way the no wobble works, pinning the male part of the bike rack against the wall of the hitch.

When I was getting stuff together for the race I couldn’t find my GPS.  I looked everywhere it normally would be with no luck.  The last time I had it was on Monday.  It was in my gym bag in case Ali and I went for a run.  Well this sucks.  The GPS comes in handy on the bike and the run to help me be aware of my pacing.

Ali said I could use her GPS since she wasn’t participating in the race.  Her GPS is much newer/better anyway.  It still didn’t make me feel better about misplacing my Garmin. (I later found it under my desk at work)

Ali’s GPS has a triathlon mode that allows you to hop from event to event, including your transitions.  The only problem with it is when it is in that mode the display shows your total time and distance but does not show pace.  I am pretty sure there has to be a way to make it show the pace but I didn’t have the time to F with it.

After going over my mental checklist in my head and with Ali, I hit bed, hoping to grab a solid night’s sleep.

The race started at 7:30.  I wanted to make sure we got there early.  We left the house about 5:30 which allowed us to get on the race site shortly after 6 am.  The new bike rack did a nice job of keeping my Trek secure up I-75 at 75mph.

I got signed in and marked up first.  They write your race number on your hand, upper arm, calf and shin so they can easily identify you as you cross the finish line.  Getting there early meant we had choice of spot for my bike.  I opted for the second rack from the bike area exit on the one side so I had room to pile up my junk beside the bike instead of jamming it into a smaller area in front or behind it.

After getting set up all that was left to do was wait.  We walked into the olympic pool area where the swim would be held.  It is really a nice facility. Ali did this tri last year, it was her first one so we were familiar with the layout.  The 400 meter swim is performed by swimming the eight, 50 meter lanes in an S pattern.

Some other people we knew started showing up including Christy who was doing her first complete sprint triathlon ever.  She was very nervous prior to the race.

About 7:10 they had a pre-race meeting.  I was glad to see they learned from last year when they had no loud speaker and tried to shout directions to the participants, this year they had a PA system.  They made some changes to the running course which are for the better.  Last year a chunk of the run was on a grassy path behind some of the buildings.  This year the run is all on sidewalk/road which should make for faster times.

Finally race time approached.  When you signed up for the race you were supposed to estimate what your 400 meter swim time was.  I put 8:30 since I regularly do 8:15’s in my water park training.  They then line everyone up based on that time.  The theory is by doing this it will minimize the amount of people getting swum over in a log jam of fast/slow swimmers.  I was number 44.

They start the swimmers off every 20 seconds, three at a time.  It took 5 minutes until it was my time to hop in the water.  On GO, I hit the button on my watch and start down the lane utilizing my patented free style side stroke freak show.  Well the other two people in my group immediately leave me in their dust.  It was like they thought it was a 50 meter sprint.  By the end of the first lap they were probably at least 10-15 meters ahead of me.  It made me feel really slow.

Despite being embarrassed out of the gate I kept plugging away, pretty confident that they would gas and I would catch them.  For a good portion of the swim I managed to have room around me.  I was passed a few times and I passed a few people.  One of the disadvantages of my freaky swimming style is it works terribly in situations where there are a lot of bodies because of the big sidekick I like to use.  So I found myself many times basically just dragging my legs through the water when space was tight.

I didn’t try to fly through the swim, choosing instead to just keep a steady pace.  I emerged from the pool at almost exactly 9 minutes flat.  Navigating the human traffic is more than likely the cause of the higher than predicted time.  I also question if the lanes at the water park are a full 25 meters long, those 50 meter lanes looked awful lengthy.

As I got out of the pool I heard Ali cheering for me.  I actually was slightly dizzy as I emerged and staggered to my left for a bit.  i regained my balance and started the barefoot jog around the parking lot to the transition area.

One of the big problems I have had in the two tri’s I have done so far is slow transitions.  I really wanted to try to knock some time off my change overs.  Unfortunately I f’d up the buttons on the GPS so I didn’t get an accurate transition time.  All I know is it still felt too slow.

Part of it is my choice of attire.  Many triathletes compete in a one or two piece tri suit that is suitable for all of the events.  When I entered transition I had to pull on socks over wet feet, put on my bike shoes, pull my baggy bike shorts over my lycra swim suit, put on my helmet, and sunglasses.  Originally I was going to put on my bike jersey as well but I felt things were taking too long as is so I decided to just go shirtless.

I got off to a slow start on the bike as well.  It took me at least a 100 yards of screwing around until I could get my left foot clipped in.  Once I did that I ripped open a chocolate Goo packet and sucked that down for energy on the ride.  I bet I didn’t get down and pedaling hard until a couple minutes into the bike segment.

On the ride out the wind was mostly to my back which was nice.  I utilized the aero bars on my bike quite a bit to try to maximize my speed/effort formula.  In typical riding I don’t use the bars much because it is an uncomfortable position, mostly because the frame of the bike is too small for me.  Since Ali’s GPS didn’t show my pace I just tried my best to pedal at a level that would allow me maintain what felt like a decent speed without totally gassing my legs for the run.

There is one tough portion of the ride, a decent size overpass.  On the way out I was able to clear the bridge pretty easily.  On the way back it was much less fun since I was more fatigued and was now going into a decent headwind.  I passed a few people in the last few miles back to the college.  As I was coming back in I passed some of the good triathletes heading out on the run.

This time the transition involved ripping my helmet and bike shoes off  and quickly lacing up my New Balance running sneakers.

As I started the run portion I ripped open my second packet of Goo and inhaled it.  The stuff tastes good and definitely seems to give me a little kick in the ass.

The first half mile or so of the run is always the worse.  My legs were protesting the running movement after 12 miles on the bike.  I just tried to keep my stride at a steady pace.

As the run went on I started feeling better.  I was only passed once by a short, but speedy hispanic guy. I passed probably at least a dozen people during the run.  As I turned in from the loop and back towards the finish the sound of spectators at the finish line helped pull me in as I accelerated towards the end.  I crossed the line just over the 1:24 mark which translated to an official time of 1:19:06 with my 5 minute delayed swim start.

As I crossed I heard the cheers of Ali and other people from our local triathlete group that had already finished.  I was tired but not exhausted.  A bottle of water and a bagel and I felt much better.  Ali congratulated me on the race, it was definitely my best performance of the three I have participated in.  My run segment was a respectable 26 minutes and change, not bad after logging the swim and bike legs.

When I crossed the finish line I forgot to stop the watch until maybe a minute later.  Even then it read 17:30 something.  At first I thought they messed up the results but I later figured out that it was me fat fingering the buttons on the watch during the race.  The only things that I know the accurate time of is the swim, the run and maybe the 2nd transition.  Unfortunately the race wasn’t chip timed to get these numbers for me.

I got some small satisfaction when I saw the two people in my swim heat that shot out in front of me finish behind me.  I beat the male by probably at least 5 minutes and the woman by 20 or so. You can see the full results of the race here.

Ali and the people from the tri group wanted to help run Christy in to the finish. Ali said she thought she would be able to jog a short distance despite her brush burns so I told her I would man the camera.  It was great to see Christy trucking to the finish with all of that support.  Ali said jogging that short distance didn’t feel too bad.

Christy was all smiles as she crossed the finish line, she said she had a great time.  That was good to hear.

We hung out for a little after the race, it’s always nice to unwind and take in your accomplishment after an event.  I was pleased with my overall race, I finished 48th overall out of 122 finishers.

We loaded up the bike and pulled out to pick up mom on the way home.  Mom had three bags of stuff packed and ready to go.  When we got home the dogs, especially Nicki, were beyond excited to see my mom, they just go nuts.

Despite completing a tri  first thing in the morning I had an agenda of items to get done outside.  Ali’s mobility is hindered with her various abrasions so I told her I would handle everything.

I spent a lot of time in the garden first weeding it and then cleaning it up.  After harvesting a couple more heads of cauliflower I yanked most of the plants out since the bugs were going crazy on the leaves at this point.  I also harvested three red onions, a bunch of broccoli and a number of tomatoes.  I tried to organize and clean up some areas, especially the tomatoes.  I put a wire cage around a couple plants and surrounded some others with a circle of wooden stakes.  I bet a spent over an hour just in the garden.

I buzzed around the yard attending to various items for a couple hours.  When I was done I cooled off with a dip in the pool.  The 80 degree water that mom declared as “too cold” felt great to me.  Sadie certainly enjoyed getting splashed by that frigid water.

For dinner Saturday night we had salmon patties that mom had prepared at home.  We also took the four or five heads of cauliflower and mashed them up.  Mom seasoned them and I worked the hand mixer to mash them up.  She added some butter, salt, pepper, some skim milk and a little bit of olive oil.  They really turned out well.  it is amazing how similar they are to mashed potatoes in consistency and taste.

We watched my latest Netflix rental, Red.  This was an Ali request. It’s odd for her to request an action comedy.  The film has a strong cast with Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfuss and Morgan Freeman.  It was an entertaining flick.  All three of us enjoyed it to varying degrees.  I’d give the film a B to B+ rating, well worth a rental.

I was the first one up Easter morning thanks to Sadie bothering me at 6 am.  Ali had Easter baskets out on the island for my mom, me and both dogs.   When I looked for a basket to make up Ali’s basket all that was left was a leather Xmas basket with Happy Holidays embroidered on the front.  Oh well, it would have to do.

After everyone was up and about for awhile we opened up our stuff.  My basket had a bunch of M&M stuff in it.  I filled Ali’s with peanut butter eggs, Peeps and a gift card.  The dogs got treats and stuffed toys, just what they need, another toy.

Easter has always been pretty much a wash out holiday for me.  If you take the Jesus is risen part of it out and don’t have children to boot, it is just a lack luster holiday.  To be fair to Easter, no holidays really put a spring in my step at this point of my life.

After opening the baskets there really wasn’t much to do until we had our lunch time Easter dinner.  I decided I wanted to at least do some moderate exercise so I jumped in our pool and swam a little more than a 400.  After that I attended to several indoor chores after which I found myself suddenly feeling very sleepy.  I retreated to our bedroom and took an unexpected two hour nap.  My brother and sister called while I was asleep and I slept right through it.

I woke up just in time for the big meal of vegetable lasagna which we enjoyed out on the lanai.  It was a good meal but felt like a pile of lead in my stomach, the lasagna is a very heavy entree.

After we got done cleaning up we got mom packed up and ready to go.  Mom was going home with a bunch of food.  On top of left over lasagna and mashed cauliflower we loaded her up with a bunch of stuff from the garden including tomatoes, broccoli, swiss chard and more.

I took mom home in the party van so the dogs could come with.  She had a few chores she needed done around her place.  One of them was planting the Easter plant we bought her outside.  She brought around her shovel and I opened the back screen door.

All of a sudden Sadie goes shooting out the door, evidently she had been eying up a squirrel that was near by.  I ran out after her, calling her off, I was worried she would shoot off into the parking lot.  After about 15 yards I caught up to her, she was standing there sheepishly, knowing I was angry.  It was a lose/lose for her. Not only was she going to get yelled at for taking off, the squirrel escaped easily up a tree, thank goodness.

I grabbed her neck/collar and told her that was naughty.  She slinked back with me to the door and went inside.

I wrapped up mom’s various to do’s in around a half hour and was on my way back home.

Mom wasn’t in the best of moods during her visit.  She had a horrible night of sleep, according to her, because she had some ice tea at lunch time. Mom also gave very negative reports on her general state of well being both physically and financially.  Of course none of this makes me happy.

I find myself getting frustrated when I hear this.  For literally decades I have been on mom about her health or specifically her lack of attention to it.  I can see the end result of this neglect first hand.  The bad thing is it is a very slippery slope.  You do less and less because stuff hurts, in turn you become weaker and less flexible which just accelerates the decline.

The smoking, which is bad enough because of it’s health hazards has come back and bitten mom in the ass in other ways.  Her smoking is part of the reason she did not qualify for insurance after she lost her coverage from her job.  It also is a HUGE chunk of money to spend each month for someone that is in a negative cash flow situation.

Now mom is no dummy, she realizes it makes no sense to be wasting money on cigarettes in her current situation, yet she can’t stop.  I am often baffled how mom and I are so different on our outlook on our health,  since personality and mindset-wise we are so similar in other ways.

I sometimes wish I could just snap my fingers and get her to snap out of it. Since she has all of this free time it just makes no sense to me why she wouldn’t take advantage of it by working on her health.  It’s nothing but a win all the way around.   I love my mom and want her around as long as possible.

When mom was over she noticed that one of the screen panels on the back of the pool cage was torn AGAIN along the spline.  When I looked closely I saw a SECOND one was starting to tear as well.  I was annoyed.  I had replaced these sections at least once before, if not twice.

I have attributed the routine ripping to the low quality screening that is sold at a place like Home Depot.  I had heard about a product called Super Screen awhile back.  When I went on their web site they have a picture of 800 pounds of concrete supported by a super screen panel, impressive.

This stuff is supposed to be very strong and not suffer from the brittleness of cheap fiberglass screening after a few years.  Of course like anything of higher quality, it isn’t cheap.  A six foot wide, 100 foot long roll of the stuff will run me around $250.  This would be enough to redo the entire back of the cage, twice.

I already got the ok from Ali to pull the trigger on the purchase.  The purchase would be in the same line of thinking as the granite counter tops, Rhinoshield paint job and concrete landscape borders, pay more, get more.  With as much wind as we get out at our place I think it will be a worthwhile expenditure.

My mood has not been good at all the last several days.  I am having a tough time shaking it.  I also had my first violent dream in a while last night, at least the first one I can recall for awhile.

I was out doing a training ride with Ali and another member of our running club.  I was lagging behind because some parts of my handle bars were loose.  I was trying to fix it while riding.  The other guy was getting annoyed I was lagging behind so he slowed down and started to give me advice on how to go faster.

I told him in an annoyed way that I didn’t need his advice, my handle bars were f’d up.  Again he tried to give me advice and again I told him in an even stronger way with a few expletives that I didn’t care about his advice.

Well my expletives pissed him off.  He got off his bike and physically challenged me to a fight.  Furious, I get off my bike and assume the ready position.  The guy charges me with fists cocked.  I snap my left foot up and crack him right across the face, dropping him instantly.

As he is rubbing his face I yell at him one more time “I don’t need your advice…” before getting back on my bike and riding away.

Yesterday I did my first running since the tough interval workout Ali and I did two Mondays ago.  I wanted to make sure to get some running in to make sure I was good to go for the triathlon on Saturday.  I did 5 miles on the stationary bike and another couple on the treadmill.  I felt half decent.

Ali will more than likely be relegated to being my cheerleader on Saturday.  Last year this event was her first ever tri.  I like this one because the swim is in the pool, snaking back and forth the eight 50 meter lanes to give you the 400m swim. I plan to push pretty hard.

Yesterday I got the title to the Camry Hybrid.  We actually paid the car off a few weeks ago. I was patiently waiting for the title to arrive which it never did.  I called up the credit union and asked how long it should take for us to get the title.  The rep said that I should have been sent a letter with instructions after paying off the loan.  He said nowadays almost all titles are the electronic variety.  He said all the bank does is notify DMV that there is no longer a lien on it.  After that I had to pay a few bucks to have the DMV print  the title.  Well since I work in a DMV office that was pretty easy.

We paid the car off about a year and a half earlier than the original loan term which is always a good feeling.  For now the money that was budgeted to that payment is being accumulated towards a down payment on a 2012 Camaro.

On the way home I came upon a big area of smoke surrounded by lots of flashing lights.  There was a 26 acre brush fire a few blocks from our place.  I was lucky to be able to get by on the road as I heard that they closed the road later.  It was far enough away to not be a threat but close enough that the air by our place smelled strongly of smoke.

We had a big harvest from the garden last night for our salads, in addition to the spinach, arugula, swiss chard and tomatoes, we picked our first ever green peppers.  I have tried to grow peppers many times unsuccessfully.  The three peppers I grabbed looked absolutely perfect. Certain parts of the garden are starting to look pretty ragged.  Evidently the caterpillars have discovered the smorgasbord,  I am going to hit it with insecticidal soap this weekend.

In a weird way I am kind of ok with certain areas of the garden flaming out.  I still have those three additional raised beds that I need to get in the ground.  I have been waiting for the stuff we have planted in bare ground on the right side of the garden to expire.

We made our Easter plans with mom last night.  We are going to pick her up after the triathlon so she can stay Saturday night before our Easter meal on Sunday.  Should be fun.

I think it is hilarious that Donald Trump has been declared the current front running GOP candidate for president.  I mean hey, I like Apprentice, I’ve watched it for years.  I have had many good times in Trump owned casinos.  Hell he even likes Howard Stern.

Even so, I think it is a joke that he is being considered as a legitimate presidential contender. I mean come on, can this actually be for real?  I think Obama would dance circles around him.  Trump is used to being king of his little kingdom, that is worlds apart from being a president in the 21st century.  If he is the best the GOP can throw out there the righties are in for a world of hurt IMO.

I left work early for the second time in a few days yesterday.  We were getting picked up along with 4 other couples via a van/limo for a trip over to Fort Lauderdale.  A very affluent and generous member of our running club was treating us to a tour and dinner aboard The World, a privately owned cruise ship.

The drive across the state went pretty quickly, we had a number of good talkers in the van which is always good for me.  My attempts at speaking were not very easy, I am in one of those cycles where verbal communication can be a struggle.  We knew everyone on the trip except for a guy that worked for Doug’s company and his wife.  He however knew me from timing races, he is an avid and very good runner.

So we pulled up to the ship, it looks like most cruise ships I have seen before, big and impressive.  After flashing our photo id three different times we were allowed on board.

Doug began giving us a very comprehensive tour of the ship.  It was pretty amazing imagining living day in and day out in this floating mini-city.   Pretty much every need you can think of is addressed in a luxurious manner.

At first I was a bit tentative taking pictures, I didn’t want to seem like a country bumpkin on his first trip to the big city.  However as the tour went on I took more pictures.

There were a number of jaw dropping things in the ship.  I was particularly impressed by the pool in the one restaurant that has a “plug” suspended above it.  When things get rocking they drop the plug into the pool and it becomes a dance floor.  The back wall of the restaurant also has the ability to open up where it serves as a dock for various water sports. It’s amazing.

Another stand out was the row of outdoor lounges/beds on the top deck.  If you so desired you could actually sleep under the stars.  If you need anything there is a personal phone right next to you.

After the tour we made our way to one of the many restaurants on board, a Japanese place called East.  We all sat down around a large round table.  I drank a couple things I typically never would, hot green tea and red wine.

During the meal a rather odd topic was brought up, my abs.  Doug often participates in the 6AM Saturday morning club runs.  Evidently at one of these he must have seen me post run with my shirt off.  Doug is an incredible runner, he leaves me in his dust despite having close to 25 years on the dial more than me.  He was commenting that despite his intensive training he still has a little bit of muffin top around his middle.

From the abs comment we moved on to discussion about my pull up bar and freshly constructed parallel bars along with questions about my routine.  Honestly it was kind of embarrassing, yea I am in decent shape but I am no Jack Lalanne.  References to my abs were brought up a couple more times during the night.

Ali’s wipe out on her bike was another big conversation maker since some of her multiple bandages were visible.  Ali was sheepish about admitting that the wipe out was actually caused by a runny nose but it made for some good laughs.

After a very nice dinner we headed down the hall to a lounge where a a guy was playing the piano.  We hung out and talked for a bit.  Before we left a woman stepped up and sung a couple songs out of the blue.  I assume she is a regular.   It was sort of bizarre, she sung “Summer time” in her opera style singing voice.  She then sung that Anthony Bocielli song in italian that everyone recognizes but noone knows the name of. She did this by reading along from a book  which I thought was pretty impressive.

It was getting late, after 10, so we agreed it was time to head out.  On the way out we went through the lobby where a live band was playing.  I pointed out to Matt, who is a professional musician, that there was an unused trumpet on the band floor.  Without hesitation he walked up, grabbed the horn and started playing mid-song with the rest of the band.  It was pretty unbelievable.  He is a very talented trumpeter.   It was a great way to put an exclamation point on our visit aboard the world.

Everybody had a really good time and we thanked Doug for his generosity.  It was quite interesting to get a peek at that sort of lifestyle.

We piled back into the van for the drive back home.  Despite it being late, the conversation in the van kept up for the entire way home although very few words left my mouth.  I was pretty pooped.

The driver delivered us to our door about 12:15 am.  As we started towards the house I was not sure if I should be tipping the guy or not.  I probably should have I guess but by the time I came to that conclusion it was too late.

After a high speed shower I was out cold by 12:30.  Needless to say I am dragging today big time but it was worth it.  Our trip to The World will go down as one of our most unique Tuesday evening activities of all time.

If you want to see all of the pictures I took go here.