Archives January 2013

This was forwarded to me from a friend.  It is an actual profile from a guy on a dating site. and no it isn’t me.  🙂

Begin quote:
I am hoping to meet someone outgoing and with an easy going, go with the flow personality and a very good sense of humor. I am shy sometimes, but warm up quickly to nice people. I love to laugh and, I’m not easily offended. I enjoy finding fun and new things to do. I am a working professional with goals and ambitions and look for the same in the people I meet and hang out with.

I take care of myself, love going to gym and living a healthy life, and would like to meet someone like minded. However; I am not a gym freak (someone who talks about protein shakes and workout routines all day), and I don’t like angry people who get in unnecessary conflicts where ever they go. I’m definitely more of a lover than a fighter 🙂

If you would like to chat sometime and maybe meet, please send me a message. I love making new friends and meeting cool people. I like going out for drinks from time to time, or staying in and watching a good movie, especially comedies.

I actually got a message from a woman over 7’’ tall. So, now I have to say the following:

I never really dated anyone over 5’9’’. I guess I just prefer shorter more petite women. Really tall girls seem like they have man hands. I’ve seen beautiful tall women, but it’s just not my cup of tea… As far as age goes, I will say I generally date younger women, but it’s not a prerequisite, it’s just a preference… I see beautiful women that are older than me all the time. It usually depends on how well they take care of themselves…

Favorite Quote’s:

Sex without love is like food without taste…

I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope and that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.

As shallow at it may seem… This has to be addressed: Plus size = Minus interest

What exactly is plus size:

(plus-size (plus’siz?)

Noun:
1. An extra large or oversize women. One containing a midriff bulge, middle age spread, or a muffin top.
2. Your description says: A few extra pounds…
3. Your waist or hips look like a car tire that’s low on air.
4. You have 10 face shots that were taken from a downward angle. (This is popular among heavy set women with large breasts). They hold their camera phone above their head, and look up at it with their lips pursed and their cleavage showing. It’s interesting, because these same women usually title their profile with “I’m tired of the games…”
5. You look like you should be serving food in a high school cafeteria.
6. I’m not interested…

I can’t believe I have to say this:

If your fat, and your profile says average, but your fat, and on your profile, you have pictures of yourself on your plaid couch with your Chihuahua and a box of KFC, or Burger King Wrappers on your coffee table. Please!!! Don’t send me any messages good or bad. I don’t need or want to see that…

I received a message from a women so hideous today, that I was literally so scared, that I considered deleting my profile, changing my name, and driving to Canada to find a deep cave to hide in!!! Ewwwwwwwwwwww!!! She was bad…

Also:

Please don’t start chatting with me, if your ultimate intention is to force me to adopt “YOUR” hobbies.
For example: If I loved playing cards (I don’t), I would never post a comment like: Anyone I date “MUST” play cards or learn to play cards with me… Some girl I chatted with had a mandate for any man she dates to take up ballroom dancing…Obviously we will want to find common ground and do things together, but that doesn’t mean we should do “EVERYTHING” together! For a relationship to last, it’s important to give each other a little space and accept our differences 🙂

And… A word of advice on our first date, please don’t back the station wagon up, drive in the tent stakes, and break out the baby bassinet…

If you’re the kind of girl who likes to go out on your porch, sit on your aluminum fold out chair, light up your GPC or Magnum 305 cigarette, crack open a can of Natty Ice, and watch your 6 kids play that your collecting child support from 7 men on. Please, take a hike!!!!! As far as photo’s go, please include at least one full body shot and face shot and not from 50 yards away or 10 years ago. I will gladly send my picture/s via email, since POF has quality issues when it comes to the clarity of pictures. No sense in having someone running towards the back exit door on a first date 🙂

If you’re 42 and you look like 102 from over tanning, or you’re simply lying, don’t bother me… A catcher’s mitt with fake boobs attached doesn’t cut it!!! Sorry 🙁

The Hooters Half Marathon is quickly approaching and I haven’t firmly mentally committed myself to doing it yet, which is much the same situation as last year.  Yesterday I took a step towards it by doing some running at the gym.

My running program is ridiculously light compared to “real” runners.  If I am not training for a race I’ll try to run maybe 3 or 4 times a month, normally doing a middle distance run sometime on a weekend. (4-7 miles)  If I am training for a race, I will try to back that up with one shorter run on the treadmill during the week during one of my lunch gym sessions. I also will try to stretch that weekend run to 10 miles.

My short run yesterday was more difficult than it normally would be because I did three sets of deep squats beforehand.  My legs felt stiff, tired and heavy when I got on the treadmill and felt like stopping after the first 1/4 mile.  I struggled along and managed to put in two miles.  I am hoping to get 10 miles in on Saturday.  I never know how my knees are going to react to increasing their workload.

Last night before heading to yoga class I had some time to kill so I stopped at Lowes.  I wanted to grab a couple more LED bulbs to replace some CFL’s that are used in the house.  I prefer the clean, cooler color of the LED bulbs and like the fact that they don’t contain mercury or throw off huge amounts of EMF (electro magnetic field) like CFL’s do.  They do cost a lot more money up front but they are also much more durable than CFL’s.

Yoga class was good.  It was me and 7 or 8 very fit women.  I sweated my ass off as normal and struggled trying to get close to where I should be with certain holds.  Some movements are impossible for me with my flexibility limitations.

I came away from the class feeling more content and peaceful.  I find the owners voice and demeanor very relaxing.  Although most of the spiritual aspects of the class floats right by me I still appreciate the calm it provides others in the group.

I need to get all of the tax info together and sent off to the accountant.  I have several things I am hoping to get done depending on what my share of the tax refund is.  They include having Rhinoshield fix/paint the pool deck, replace the worn to shit tires on the Tacoma and buy the materials to replace the border around the small decorative pond in the backyard.

Today is my step mom Teresa’s birthday.  She has had a rough past 12 months.  I hope this upcoming year is much better for her.

Last night I dipped into the garden again for dinner, grabbing more kale and a head of broccoli.  This is the first broccoli I have actually  cooked out of the garden.  I noticed a big difference in the color and taste versus what I have been buying in the grocery store.  Both were appreciably better coming from the back yard.

Last night I spent some time reading a journal that my uncle sent to me.  He took the time to digitize and OCR the journal my grandfather kept during his canoe trip from PA to Florida when he was a young man.

It appears to be a day to day account of the trip.  I spent about 45 minutes reading and hardly made a dent, it’s very long.  Reading grandpa’s words made me feel like I was back in a time machine in a weird way.

Grandpa’s writing style was not eloquent, it was more simple and upbeat as he described what sounded to be some harsh situations with an adjective or two before moving on to the next topic.

Food is a recurring topic in each days entries with a full description of whatever they consumed for the day.  I found some of the creativity that was used to prepare things like “johnny cakes” to be very interesting.

I wish he would have gone into some more detail about exactly how day to day things like hygiene were handled.  He mentions washing clothes and cleaning up but not exactly how it was done.

His nightly battle with “mussies”, a slang term I never heard of for mosquitoes, was a part of almost every entry I read.  I was surprised that many nights he and his buddy he was traveling with would sleep out in the open with not even a tent around them.  The tent only came out when rain was in the picture.

I read other things that surprised me, like the fact that he was a regular smoker and an instance when he referred to black people with the “n” word, a word that instantly disgusts me when used by anyone in a racist manner.  To be fair, at that time period (1930’s), the word was a normal part of the vernacular.  Still, to read grandpa use it was odd, especially based on the man I knew as a child growing up that seemed to not have an ounce of dislike for anyone.

I have a long way to go until I complete the journal of the 1300 mile trip.  It is pretty fascinating to look through a window that I never knew existed.

After my long reading session Nicki and Sadie were on either side of my computer chair, seated, staring at me.  Nicki was hungry, despite me giving her a small plate of dry food a little earlier.  I figured I would distract them by going out into the dark back yard.

After walking around I went over to the dog deck and sat there.  As I did I just started observing the night sky and the surrounding environment.  I scanned the stars, locking in on the few constellations that I can easily spot like Orion and the Dippers.  I looked with awe at the HUGE full moon that was low on the horizon.  I looked out across the property under the shadow of night and just reflected. I was out there for a long time, at least 45 minutes.

As Sadie sat pressed against me on the deck I thought about how my grandfather laid out under the bare night sky.  I looked at the dog deck and determined I could easily fit one of my inflatable mattresses on it’s surface.  I thought it would be interesting and a unique experience to sleep out there on a quiet, cool, “mussie” free night.  I’d just need to make sure to turn off the sprinklers and motion detector.  I think I’m going to do it.

Tonight I am making my return to yoga class.  I haven’t been there since November I think.  My Wednesday evenings became cluttered with both things to do and apathy for quite awhile.  I am hoping to be able to hit class at least a couple times a month to keep working on my flexibility and to quiet my mind.  Sometimes it just won’t shut up.

I now have seen a few episodes of Catfish, the show about people and virtual relationships.  So far there has been one very consistent theme,  the person that refuses to meet the other has always been a fat mess without fail.  It seems like Facebook has been the primary delivery system for all of this deception.  I am glad I haven’t utilized FB for date prospecting.  I have had enough issues with truth stretching using more conventional cyber dating tools.

Last night I tried to embark again on my normal healthy routine, doing some work in the bar park .

I followed up with a healthy dinner starting with a salad which included red lettuce and kale from the garden.  Desert was a bowl of almond milk thickened up with chia seeds.  I added blueberries and shelled hemp seed for more taste and nutritional punch.

My main entree was broccoli, lots and lots of broccoli.

I haven’t talked at all about a show on my Tivo season pass list that I just wrapped up last night, Last Resort, on ABC.  It was a really well done show.  The premise is a US nuclear sub is told to fire a nuke at Pakistan but it is told to do so through suspicious channels.  They refuse the order and all sorts of hell breaks loose.  If you can find the show on Hulu I would definitely recommend it. I plowed through the final 3 episodes last night despite the clock getting quite late, compelling stuff.

Randall was scheduled to show up somewhere around 8 o’clock Friday night.  I had quite a bit to do so I didn’t mind his eta.  On the way home I stopped first at Costco and then Publix for groceries.  Once I got home I dug right into the various race prep that needed to be done.  As I was doing so I decided to crack open some Bud Light Platinums.

I had not eaten anything up until this point.  After my first beer I could already feel my inhibitions leaving my body.  By the time Randall arrived I had 3 down the hatch and I was in full drunk mode.  As he walked in the door I had my Pandora Cold Play channel blaring since Randall likes to mock the fact that I like Cold Play.

If I wasn’t so drunk I would have thought to play this as he stepped in the door.

I carried on drunk conversation while Randall tried to catch up with a few “normal” Bud Lights.  I found that doing race prep while drunk is not a great idea.  I almost forgot a few important details in the process as a result.  Randall and I didn’t get to bed until after 11, not an ideal bed time when the alarm is set for 3:45 am.

I woke up feeling a bit fuzzy from the BLP’s.  I wound up having to be Randall’s alarm clock as well, knocking on the bedroom door about 15 minutes before we needed to get out the door.

We got on site for the race right around 5am, giving us a full 3 hours of pre-race time to make sure everything was in order.  Despite all that effort, we still had issues keeping the pre-race scene as organized/efficient as we would like.

Once the sun came up Randall hopped into his event photographer role in earnest, using Ali’s camera to take as many pictures as he could.  I was busy scurrying around once all the equipment was set up, kind of making sure things were running ok.  We had long lines at the pre-registration table and the timing chip hand out table.  These could have been mitigated with more bodies and maybe someone on a bull horn trying to get people to stand in the appropriate line.

I drove down to the start line with Ali in the truck, knowing I would need the truck to get me back to the finish line in time due to the multiple wave start we used this year for the race.  First the runners went, then the runners with dogs and finally the walkers, with each wave being split up by about a minute.  Even with utilizing the truck, I only got the finish line up and running two minutes before the first runner crossed the line, a little too close for comfort.

Timing the event went very smoothly, especially compared to all the issues I had the prior weekend with the half marathon.  This was the first time we used the chip times for official placing instead of gun time.  No one seemed to notice the difference.

We got off site somewhere around 10:30.  Ali thanked Randall for coming over and taking pictures.  This was the first time we didn’t stick around until the Humane Society opens at 11 to tour the building.  The race finished with 721 participants, a great number, but actually down from last year by about 60 people.

Once we got home I plowed through my post race crap while Randall hung out.  He had to cut out mid-afternoon so our normal tradition of physical challenges, bike rides or video game marathons just wasn’t going to happen.  Instead I asked Randall if he wanted to go hit the Miromar Outlets for lunch in the SSR.  It would allow for a decent topless SSR drive, food and hitting a few of my favorite outlets.

We ate first, I was pretty hungry by the time I got there.  We ate at Luna Rossa, a decent Italian place with outdoor seating.  So shortly after our food arrives some black guy gets on the mic and announces he is going to be providing entertainment via song.

Well it was awful.  First of all the volume on the sound system was turned up so loud that having conversation with the person across the table from you required that you nearly had to scream.  Second, the guy just wasn’t that good, it felt like we were sitting in on karaoke night where the theme was “music they would play on the Love Boat”.  I am not sure who at the restaurant thought that their patrons would enjoy being serenaded badly by this guy but they were sadly mistaken.  If anything it made me eat faster so I could get the fck out of there.

We then hit our core fav outlets, Oakley, Nike, Under Armour and Adidas.   I picked up some new training pants from Adidas.  I went up a size from what I already had in my drawer at home which are mediums.  The mediums fit my waist but are borderline short on my long legs.  The larges I bought Saturday will almost fall off if I don’t use the draw string but they at least don’t look like “floods”.

I also snagged a nice but cheap ($10) hat from the Under Armour outlet.  I figured it would work out well when I go cruising with Jeremy in his pimped out Hyundai Sonata Hybrid.

Once we got back to the house Randall had to pack up and head back out.  He was going to cheer on his girlfriend at her half marathon on Sunday.  They were heading down to Miami later Saturday night.  I thanked Randall for coming over and supporting Ali’s race .  Hopefully I get to go over there and hang with him sometime soon.

Saturday night I went to see Hansel & Gretel.  In a way it made me think of the Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter movie that flopped badly when I first saw it advertised.  Turning a children’s story into an action movie seemed like an odd transformation. Despite those thoughts going in, I came out of the movie thoroughly pleased.

If you are looking for a movie with complex plot, deep characters and a long storyline, you are in the wrong place.  If you want a movie with lots of head splattering, body exploding, steam punk weapon toting,  hot chick action then this is the movie for you.  I may have dropped a couple IQ points while watching the film but it was fun from start to finish. B+

Sunday was a weird day but certainly not because of the weather, which was just about perfect.  I had a number of things to get done.  I have not had a “normal” weekend for going on 4 weeks so I had a bunch of stuff to handle outdoors. Weeding and tending to the garden was quite tedious after 3 weeks of neglect.  Despite the neglect, the garden currently has a large supply of red lettuce, kale, onions, broccoli and leeks that are ready for harvesting.  I am hoping to freeze a bunch of the broccoli so it doesn’t go to waste.

After weeding I next tackled taking down the Christmas lights that had been up and shining for almost exactly two months.  I am sure many of the people in the neighborhood were wondering why I still had lights on a week away from the start of February.  Well the answer was simply I liked the way they looked.

Taking down the lights is always a bit of a somber experience for me.  This year it was more so than usual because of my new situation.  Sunday in general was a weird day for me emotionally.  I had moments of stupid sillyness like when I recorded this:

or when I made this sign for Nicki.

But I also had various moments of stinging, strong sadness where my mind was dwelling on things that I don’t normally dwell on.  It was a major bummer.

I tried to insulate myself from the melancholy by keeping busy.  I mowed the grass and weed whacked mid-afternoon and then when I took the dogs back to Ali’s place I worked on several things she needed help with until after 7.

On the plus side, I am hoping to get out the weeds now that January is almost complete.  I have 3 weeks until my next race that I have to time.  I am hoping to use these weeks to get firmly back into my routines that help keep my inner demons at bay.

A buddy of mine from the gym told me I HAD to watch a show on MTV called Catfish.  The reason he thought I would like it is because he knows of some of the trials and tribulations with online dating I have experienced.  With the recent scandal regarding the Notre Dame linebacker and his long term “girlfriend” that he never met there has been a lot in the news about this scenario which to be honest, sounded pretty crazy.  Well this show depicts just the opposite, it happens more than you would expect.

In a nutshell each episode is about two people that have been romantic online and on the phone but had never met face to face.  In some instances the interaction had been going on for months, in some cases it has been going on for years.  These people were full tilt into each other with words like “love” and “marriage” being thrown about regularly.

Now of course the show wouldn’t be any good if each person  was being honest in their representation of themselves.  The moment when these people actually meet is pretty damn funny.

Although I haven’t had any virtual girlfriends like this, I can relate to the difference between electronic communication versus face to face interaction.  There are some people that feel like kindred spirits when you are punching out conversations via email or text messaging but when you get face to face it feels 100% different.

Texting and email feels safe and insulated.  Face to face conversation in contrast can make me feel stark naked.

Anyway if you are looking for some pure reality tv entertainment, check it out, it’s on Hulu.

After the fiasco of last weeks half marathon I get to jump into another race this weekend, the Run for the Paws, the race Ali got started 7 years ago for the Humane Society.  The race has really grown over the years and now is the second largest 5K event the running club puts on.

Of course a big race means I need to be on top of my game.  The biggest challenge this year is going to be the stagger start that is going to be utilized. Runners with no dogs will be started before runners with 4 legged friends.  The challenge is going to be collecting the start data which is located close to  a half mile from finish line and getting back to the finish line in time to get everything up and running since the fast people could be at the finish line in a scant 18 minutes.

After this race I get a much needed 3 week break until the next race.  I have several projects around the house that I designated as “winter” projects that need to get done.  Before I know it 85 and humid will be the norm again.

Randall rolls in tonight for a quick visit and to serve as the photographer for the race, a role normally filled by Jeremy.  Unfortunately Jeremy couldn’t make the event this year.  I bought a bunch of batteries and a 32 gig memory card for Alison’s camera for Randall to use.

Typically Randall would stay the entire weekend to be my playmate but he has to cut out Saturday afternoon.  Although I would enjoy his company I also have a ton of shit I need to get done around the house so Sunday will be utilized heavily to accomplish that goal.

Duffey’s hotel is in dire need of  room service with the departure of my dad on Tuesday followed by the arrival of Randall tomorrow evening.  Unfortunately that means I will have to try to get everything done tonight after work.  I have the dogs this evening as well so that means that they will get to see me running around the house in my french maid outfit.

Yesterday on my way back out to the parking lot at the gym I noticed a landscape truck that was pulling a long trailer had pulled in front of my truck (and others) blocking approximately 10 spaces, preventing me from simply pulling forward through my space.  Instead his parking there would require me to back out of my space and do an awkward 3 point turn. It annoyed me.

I found the first thought in my head to be how cool it would be if I backed up, floored the gas pedal and t-boned the trailer, snapping it in half before I would drive away.  Then I thought to myself, “wow that is kind of a violent, aggressive first thought to have”  I did my awkward 3 point turn and left although the image of the destroyed trailer lingered in my mind.

Mind isn’t really flowing today.  Feel like I have a bunch of ideas pushing against the double doors but it has a lock and I forgot the combination.

At early packet pick up one of my friends from the running club whom is actually working in Washington DC showed me this shirt.  She was given the shirt as a joke since she is a republican/conservative whom is not an Obama fan.  She knew I more or less liked Barrack so she offered it to me.  Even though it was a men’s small and wouldn’t fit I took the shirt gladly.

I almost immediately had plans for it.  Fi, a woman in the UK that is one of the few but growing number of women in the bar community, had sent me a t-shirt a few month’s back.  I knew that she was an Obama fan and would probably appreciate getting the shirt.

I checked with her and she was all on board with the idea.  The shirt will certainly have an interesting journey, going from Washington DC, to Naples, to England.  I look forward to seeing a pic of Fi wearing it. 🙂

I am finally having the race correction requests die down.  I heard an update regarding the problem.  Supposedly some of the bibs might have had an issue keeping moisture out of the electronics.  This would explain why the chips worked early in the race but failed at the end when runners (and the bibs) are soaked from head to toe.  They actually have already started selling a revised version of the bib tag with a different style of casing for the rfid hardware, not that it does us much good at this point.  I am hoping they agree to exchange the 500 unused bibs we have for the newer style.

So just in case I had any delusions that I was not an old man, last night it was stamped in stone.  Of course I already have had many old man things popping up the last few years like eye brows/nose hair that require normal maintenance, hairs sprouting out of unusual places like my ears/shoulders and even the middle of my forehead.

I also have a sprinkling of gray hair on top of my head and a bunch more on my chin if I forget to shave for a few days.  However that for whatever reason didn’t bother me as much as what I discovered last, night, gray hairs below the belt line.

I did a double take when I spotted them, changing my positioning, hoping it was just the angle of the overhead light that was casting an optical illusion. Nope no matter which way I turned, a handful of gray hairs were staring at me.  Sigh….

On Saturday morning dad went for coffee out at Ave Maria again while I went for a run.  Dad really enjoys Ave Maria which strikes me as funny since the mentality behind it’s creation is 180 degrees opposite from where dad exists.  Despite the town’s strict Catholic principals, lack of condom sales and a litany of rules that govern the community, he found that he really enjoyed sipping coffee and reading the paper in the shadow of the large Ave Maria cathedral.

While dad was there he saw that there was a rugby game taking place Saturday afternoon between Ave Maria and another local college.  Since dad spent years playing rugby he was very interested to check the game out.  It worked out for me as well since it allowed me to head down to the running store for the last day of early packet pick up for the half marathon.

There was a big crowd of people at the store.  Ali had been there most of the day already.  Eventually she left early to go get the dogs and I closed out the afternoon there.  I passed the time while drinking beer purchased from TGIFridays next door.  By the time packet pick up was over I was feeling beer happy.

I spent Saturday night getting all of the stuff ready for the race.  Dad was surprised just how much stuff I had strewn through out the house as part of this process.  I loaded up the van and then went to bed as early as possible since my alarm was set for 2:45 am.

When the alarm went off I wasted no time shooting out of bed despite the early hour.  I got onto the race site a few minutes after 4am.  George whom is the race director had already been there for at least an hour along with a couple other people.  They already had the tents and tables set up for registration, they just needed all of the timing bibs and signs that I had in the van.

After getting registration set up I dropped off the remaining equipment at the finish line and set up what could be at that point and time.  For a small period of time we actually had a lull in the action, we had everything ready to go and just needed the people to start filing in.  It didn’t take long until the humanity arrived en masse.

Even with roughly 2000 people arriving the registration area remained relatively calm.  Utilizing the bib based timing devices greatly simplified things, the difference was pretty dramatic.   This was the first year that we allowed runners to sign up the day of the race albeit at a very expensive $100 price point.  We actually got 7 or 8 people that signed up on the spot.

I arrived at the start line with plenty of time to spare and had the start line timing equipment up and running with 5 minutes to go.  For the second year in a row, the PA system abruptly cut off at 7AM in the middle of the national anthem, just like it did last year.  I guess someone didn’t learn from past mistakes. The race started about 90 seconds past it’s designated 7:00 AM start time but no one cared.  The start line of a big race is bubbling with enough energy to eclipse a slightly late start.

So the huge mass of runners slowly pulled out, I probably waited close to two minutes until the last straggler crossed the starting mats.  I grabbed the laptop and scurried over to the finish line while I had some other people carry the timing equipment to the finish line since it was going to be reused there.

I had a LOT of things to get done before the first runner came streaking across the finish line a little more than 60 minutes from the start.  I set up three timing systems, one to be used for the race announcer to display runners names as they approach the finish line and two more to collect the runners actual finish time.

This is the only race where I also make sure to have a camera filming the finish line as a safety net in case there is some sort of timing disaster.

I wouldn’t call what happened next a timing disaster, it was more like a timing hemorrhoid.

I was getting reports from John whom I had running the halfway split timing system that he appeared to be getting consistent reads as the runners crossed the mats.  You see this was the first time we ever used Ipico bib timing devices.  I was worried about how they would perform in such a big and long event.  The reports from halfway made me hope that my fears were unnecessary.

As the first 20-25 runners crossed the finish line everything seemed to be going fine.  I was getting finish times popped up as they should be.  Then I had my first finisher cross the finish line without hearing the confirmation chirp from the timing box.  Argh.  Well as larger amounts of runners started to finish we saw a number of them coming through without tripping the timing box.

At first we had people trying to flag runners that we didn’t get a time for but it was happening so regularly I soon realized it was fruitless.  I was just going to have to print the results and when a runner sees they weren’t on the results they would have to come see me so I could manually fix their time.  I was quite frustrated.

I had two timing systems at the finish line to make SURE I would catch all the times.  To have that extra effort prove fruitless was very, very disappointing.  However angry and frustrated I was, I had to make sure I didn’t portray that to runners asking me to fix their time.  I realized that having your time missing on the results is a big deal and wanted to make sure I portrayed my concern with getting it right for every person that stood in front of me.  I think for the most part my efforts were well received.

I spent the last two hours of the race with my nose buried in the laptop making change after change.  In between I had to juggle in the needs of George who was trying to get the awards straightened out, a very important part of this race since there is money involved.  I felt bad that the award ceremony took much longer to get started than normal because of all the fixing I had to do.

I have no idea how many times I had to correct, I lost count.

I also felt bad that my dad had come down to the race and I didn’t get a chance to interact with him at all besides asking him to grab me a cup of coffee.  He saw I was up to my armpits in problems so he just hung back.

I finally got off the race site a little before 11:30 feeling like my brain had been turned to mush.  My reward for surviving the race was going home and digging into the large amounts of post event data work that is part of this race.

I spent pretty much the entire rest of the day trying to fix data, answer emails from runners that noticed their times were also missing and putting away all of the equipment.  Again I did my best to keep all my interaction with runners as positive as possible despite the black mood I found myself in.

Finally I got on top of the immediate requests for assistance and went to Zookies with my dad for dinner.  We sat at the bar and watched part of the Ravens/Patriots game.  We had a nice time and wound up dealing with the wife of the owner of the bar after the young girl that was originally assigned to us was less than attentive.  I had a very unhealthy but tasty fish trio platter.  Originally I was thinking I wanted to get drunk at the bar to soothe my stress from the day, but by the time I got there I was so tired I just stuck to Diet Coke.  I was in my bed by 8:30, exhausted.

On Monday morning I had another round of correction requests that I worked on till dad woke up.  I had felt bad that even though dad had been in Florida for five days and we had done a few things together, he had to spend a lot of time entertaining himself which he did by doing things like reading, hanging at Ave Maria and chilling out.  He told me repeatedly he was quite content to do so since he can’t do it very often back home with 18 acres of responsibilities.

So anyway, since Monday was his last full day here I wanted to do some stuff.  I suggested that we hop in the SSR and drive down to First Watch by Lowdermilk Park for breakfast.  On the way I dealt with another unconventional race related issue.  I was given the credit card of someone who lost it at the race site.  I sent out an email to all race participants asking if either they or someone they knew lost an American Express card.  Surprisingly enough I tracked down the cards owner and dropped the card off at his workplace on the way to breakfast.

Dad and I enjoyed a real nice breakfast there.  I insisted I paid for the meal since dad had paid for so many things during the trip up until that point.  We then headed across the street to the park.  Dad hadn’t actually been to the beach during his visit so I felt it was important he at least got to lay his eyes on the water and sand before leaving.  He appreciated the stop although he wasn’t motivated enough to actually walk on the beach and get sand in his shoes.

We headed back home for a short break before we headed out once again, this time to the movies.  Dad had mentioned he wanted to see Promised Land, a movie about shale fracking in Western PA. (where my dad lives)  I remember seeing the previews for it and wanted to see it as well.  The movie had been out for a little while and only two local theaters were showing it, I picked the 1:35 showing at a theater in Bonita Springs which I went to with Ali once before, years ago.

We arrived a few minutes late and sat down just as the movie was beginning, much in the same manner as when we saw Lincoln up north.  Including ourselves there were 6 people in the movie theater.

I thought the movie was really well done.  It included a great twist in the end that really drove the point home.  Don’t expect to come away from this movie with anything but large piles of disdain for energy companies. It gets a real solid A from me but it will be just as good as a Netflix rental.

I had taken the party van to the movies since I made arrangements to pick up the dogs from daycare in the way home.  I figured dad would like to see them one more time before leaving.  The girls were very excited to get picked up for early dismissal.

Nicki has been doing much better physically since she has been on this new bland diet.  However the downside is that is all she can eat.  The dogs have been raised being rewarded with treats for everything.  That stream of goodies has been abruptly cut off.  I feel bad for Sadie since she is getting the collateral damage because of Nicki’s dietary problems.  We aren’t giving treats to Sadie since Nicki would think she is being punished.

It leads to very uncomfortable moments when I bring the girls inside from doing their business and they sit and stare at me, hoping that the treat boycott is now at an end.  I need to at least get some of the dry food that Nicki is allowed to have to hand out.  It’s better than nothing.

When Ali came to pick up the dogs later in the evening she joined us for food we ordered from Hungry Howies.  Dad had some sort of mutant looking sub and an antipasta salad that he didn’t particularly like.  I stuck with simple pizza.

This morning dad packed up the one small carry on bag he brought for the trip and we headed out to the airport to drop him off for his return flight to Pittsburgh.  Dad is going to be trading temps in the mid to upper 70’s for highs in the low 20’s when he lands.  Why did he want to move back to PA again?

This week I get to jump right back into more race work as Ali’s Humane Society race is this weekend.  I am very much looking forward to getting out from under what has felt like a long stretch of abnormal.

I am anxious to getting back to healthy eating, regular exercise and staying on top of things.

Last night after work I stopped at the running store to grab some more entries for this weekends half marathon.  I am REALLY looking forward to getting the race behind me.  There are a lot of moving parts to the race and this year it is even more so since we are using bib based timing devices, two timing boxes at the finish, a third one to collect names for the PA announcer and another set of timing boxes at the halfway point of the race. I am just a bit anxious about it all coming together.  I need to utilize my lists heavily to make sure I don’t forget anything.

My dad had an interesting day yesterday while I was at work.  He drove out to Ave Maria (Catholic Town) to hang out at the coffee shop there for awhile.  After doing that he decided to visit the casino in Immokalee.  He was there for over 5 hours playing blackjack.  He had some good luck and then some bad but emerged $14 ahead.  He said he enjoyed himself.  I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes back there today.

Last night for dinner dad and I headed down to Zookie’s, the nearest sports bar to me, in the same shopping area as Dunkin Donuts.  The parking lot looked absolutely jammed but I was surprised once we stepped in the door that because of the size of the place, there were still plenty of tables available.

We both had fish tacos and a couple of beers. It was a fine way to spend a Thursday evening.

During the long trip to PA with Sadie by my side I gave more thought to a loose plan I had for another road trip.  I have been considering hopping in the SSR and going for a long road trip, possibly all the way to the Pacific Ocean.  My plan was to do it myself, thinking it would be a great way to really see the country and realign myself.

As I was driving the 3000 miles last week I questioned if I would enjoy doing such a trip more alone or with someone else.  I realized that just having Sadie along made the drive much more bearable despite her inability to carry on a conversation or switch off driving responsibilities.  Just having her riding shotgun with her always on happy meter was reassuring and made me feel like I was sharing the experience.

It made me unsure if trekking across the country with just me, myself and I would be more parts fun/exciting or depressing.  I should make mom come along.  It’s just the medicine she needs.

Speaking of the SSR, the CEL light is on again.  I need to hook my code reader up to it.  Depending on what it reads I may take it to the dealer to get some use out of the extended warranty I paid for.