Das Mixture

iPhone

A test post from my iPhone. Weird how my iPhone came with a picture of Jessica Alba's booty...

We Got the Beat

Opening Line

You can't survive on ice cream.

Challenge

A much better result this morning as I made my way through the mid-week sets of Level Four of the One Hundred Push Up Challenge. I thought for sure I was going to fall short once again, but I am pretty sure the Beer Gods, of all Deities, came to my aid. Sets of 25-21-21-18-25 means a total of 110 push ups for the day. Behold the Gods of Beer!

House

A random visit to the construction site revealed a few additions to the new homestead.

^Windows! We have windows!

^ And a fireplace.

^ Stanley surveys the kitchen - Hmmm, when is that island going to be installed?

Last Night's Beer: New Glarus Edel-Pils

Listening to: Dracula From Houston - Butthole Surfers

I'm A Wii Tard

Opening Line

We can rebuild him...

Sure, my doctor offered me a bionic knee (I say matter of factly), but I had to decline. Many of you may question my sanity, but consider that if I had one bionic knee, my gait would be horrible.

Todd Is In the House

My Wii character is Wii Todd and ironically is anything but. In fact, this morning while playing tennis, we spanked the the Wii's best without allowing a point in a best of five match. Never did like those beetches, so I revel in every victory.

Yeah, if you don't have a Wii, you are absolutely lost and should move on.

By the way, the Wii cheats in tennis (to no avail of course). For example, the Wii will, from time to time, hit the ball outside of and below the posts/net, but continue play. Uh, cheater! (Update: Vanilla informs me this is legal and I verifed it here) Nevertheless, the Wii will allow both the doubles players to hit the ball - notably if the ball glances off the racquet of the net player (because of my awesome power) the back player will continue play. Cheater, cheater!

Cat Power

I often work at home and have to deal with this:

How is this even comfortable? And he doesn't care. If your feet are in the way - tough. He will just plop down wherever he thinks his spot should be. It wouldn't be too bad if I was barefoot and it was 30 degrees.

Last Night's Beer: Kona Longboard

Listening to: Human Hands - Sondre Lerche & The faces Down Quartet

Space...The Final Frontier

Opening Line

Happy 50th Anniversary NASA!

On July 29, 1958 Congress passed the legislation and President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law!

What We Have Here...Is Failure

Push ups got the best of me this morning. Perhaps I'm not ready to be hanging with Advanced folks just yet. Twelve short on the final set means that on the first day of Level Four Advanced, I am already resigned to repeating Level Four Advanced next week. Ack!

I could technically claim an upset stomach as the reason for my failure. But the reality is that while doing push ups on an upset stomach creates high levels of suckitude, it really did not have much affect on my ability to get through the last set. Damnation.

Home Improvement

I'll let the pictures do most of the talking here:

^ Stanley relaxes on what will become a bench in the shower.

^ Looking out the Master Bedroom window.

^ The view of the "Lounge" from the kitchen. Now most folks might refer to this as a "Family Room" or "Great Room" but we are above all that!

^ Jaclyn hanging out on the stoop - although not much of a stoop.

^ And finally, it's good to have walls up.

Last Night's Beer: BJ's PM Porter

Listening to: When You Were Young - The Killers

Going South to the North

Opening Line

Do you feel lucky kid...

Jaclyn and I spent the weekend in Tampa, FL in order to attend the baptism of our God-child, Sara. I know, many of you may be wondering why in the name of all that is holy would Jaclyn's sister Victoria and her husband Scott, choose us (specifically me) as God-parents. I can only assume that great minds have their reasons.

Poor Sara. As you can see she looks none too thrilled. Of course by this time she had posed for a bazillion pictures with relatives upon relatives.

I have included this second picture as it shows the three of us standing in the spot Jaclyn and I were married, in front of the crosses on the hill at Keystone United Methodist Church.

North and South

Tampa is the home to the University of South Florida, which prompted me to ask the question, why is USF located in Tampa, FL of all places; hardly a southern Florida city, to be sure. The answer is that apparently so many Yankees have moved to South Florida, that anything South of Lake Okeechobee is actually considered the North by true Floridians.

Yes boys and girls, Geography can be fun and confusing.

Challenge

The One Hundred Push Challenge continues. I have decided to repeat Level Four, but am opting for the Advanced sets and will stay on Level Four until I can accomplish everything required for the Advanced Group.

Since Jaclyn and I were up at 4:30 this morning to catch a flight from Tampa to Houston, we'll do our sets either this evening or tomorrow morning.

Listening to: Baby Come To Me - James Ingram

Counting Up

Opening Line

A ricochet biscuit is the kind of a biscuit that's supposed to bounce back off the wall into your mouth. If it don't bounce back... you go hungry!

Digging For Gold

Or at least an answer. Knee surgery is (finally) on the horizon. A date of August 21 has been set. If all goes week, with rehab figured in, I hope to have at least full three months to train for the Disney Marathon (Goofy Challenge). I have no illusions about time and plan to fully take advantage of Disney's liberal time limits.

Challenge

I managed 107 push ups this morning in my quest to dominate the One Hundred Push Up Challenge. Unlike Vanilla, the poster child for "awesome," I am unable to crank out one handed push ups while text messaging all the beautiful people. Hence I am reduced to struggling through the final set wondering, between grunts, if half push ups count.

The wife informs me she cranked out an additional seven bonus push ups during her last set, which means my measly three bonus push ups pale in comparison. That's 233% more bonus push ups. Dang, I gotta stop fooling around with numbers.

Fallout

Some interesting comments to yesterday's Houston Marathon Bloggage. June (Private Blog) has a good point. A friend of mine ran the Houston Marathon several years back when the time limit was only five and a half hours. He finished just a few minutes over the time limit, but was not given a medal. Unlike other Marathons, Houston does not have a published/santioned early start to accomodate walkers. So how is it fair that an individual who starts two-three hours earlier is rewarded for completing the course when another individual plays by the published rules and is denied a medal for finishing minutes after the course closes?

That said, I think the crux of the matter is not whether or not walkers should or should not be allowed to participate in the marathon, but the timing of the annnouncement. Walkers (or slower runners) should participate based on the policy that is published, regardless of the marathon. However, Houston Marathon organizers have consistently looked the other way, and while there may have been frustration and outcry regardless of when organizers announced they were going to enforce the policy (or as they put it, "going in a new direction..."), they could have alleviated the situation greatly by announcing their "new direction" prior to registration opening.

Last Night's Beer: St. Arnold Amber

Listening to: Lift Your Head Up High (And Blow Your Brains Out) - The Bloodhound Gang

Bogus Is As Bogus Does

Opening Line

Boo Chevron Houston Marathon!

The Chevron Houston Marathon has all but banned walkers from the event; prohibiting early starts and refusing to increase the alloted time to finish the marathon. Steve Karpas, the Marathon's Managing Director, said, “The marathon is going in a new direction to formally ask that walkers who cannot complete our race in the stated time limits — or cannot start at 7 a.m. — seek a race with more lenient time standards.”

Randy Smith, a walker and coach of a walking group, says he understands the situation. “People are not being safe,” Smith says. Further, he points out that “After being out there and seeing what some of the people do, I’ve thought, ‘They’re going to have to close the early start.’ ”

Smith may have a point, but runners are just as guilty of being unsafe on the course as walkers and probably more so since there are thousands upon thousands of more runners than walkers. Trust me, having run the Houston Marathon five times, and supported and cheered several other times, I have seen the marathon from many different angles and there is plenty more lunacy happening amongst the runners than the walkers.

Further, Barbara had a good point in her blog about the pace groups. While I have been frustrated with walkers stringing themselves across the course, nothing compared to the 2007 Houston Marathon when it took me more than a mile to get past a pace group that was so large it resembled a lumbering herd of buffalo clogging up a neighborhood street near White Oak Bayou.

I am afraid our hometown marathon is starting to suck. Each year there seem to be more and more policies set forth in the name of making the marathon a better experience or for the safety of all involved. On the whole they are more frustrating than anything and could point to the fact that current organizers are unable to cope with the growing popularity of the marathon.

The kicker is that marathon organizers are offering partial refunds to those affected by the decision. Uh, partial refunds? The decision was made (and published) AFTER people who intended to walk signed up. How is a "partial" refund fair?

For folks who are now shut out of the Chevron Houston Marathon and are looking for a "friendly" race, the PF Chang's Rock "N" Roll Arizona Marathon is the same day. You might also notice this quote from teh web site: "The marathon and half marathon courses are as flat and festive as they come - perfect for runners and walkers of all ability levels."

Listening to: Sunday Bloody Sunday - U2

Just say Moo

Opening Line

Moo!

Yesterday required a day trip over to Austin for some meetings. On the way back, as the sun was settling in for the evening, I opted to greet the cows of Paige, TX. It went something like this: Moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, moo, you get the moo idea.

Sure, a singular "moo" to the entire herd may have sufficed, but I opted for a more personal approach, because that's just the way I am. In fact, to show support for said cows, I ate at Chick-fil-a for dinner.

Many of you may be wondering "WTF" but consider that I have run a half marathon in the middle of North Dakota where the only (vocal) support came from herds of cattle. Hence, the time came to return the favor. Heck, it's the least I can do since invariably they will end up on someone's plate in the next few months.

Last Night's Beer - New Glarus Edel Pils (I swear I am going to change it up)

Listening to: Run To You - Bryan Adams

Iron On

Opening Line

I'll take the empty box for 50.00!

The wife and I were in need of a new iron and were in the same shopping center as a Linens 'n Things, thus we decided to pop over and observe the offerings. For those that do not know, Linens 'n Things is attempting to overcome a recent bankruptcy filing. I don't think it's looking too good.

After looking over the various irons, Jaclyn and I settled on a particular model and I went to grab the box. It was empty. No problem I thought, it is likely the box for the model being shown on the shelf. Hence, I grabbed a second box; empty. A third box was empty as well. For kicks, I grabbed the box of other models; empty. All the boxes were empty - every single one.

Has there been an undocumented crime wave on irons recently? Is the cost of an electronic security tag so great that to prevent theft, Linen's 'n Things is reduced to paying (depleted) staff to remove irons and then fetch them when a customer wants to make a purchase?

Unfortunately, there were no instructions (or staff) anywhere to guide a customer of how an iron might find it's way into a box for purchase, therefore we left and found a nice iron at Bed, Bath and Beyond which by the way, uses electronic security tags to prevent theft.

I feel good as we have done our part to push Linens 'n Things further into banckruptcy.

Push Ups

The One Hundred Push Up Challenge continues with Day Two of Level Four (Semi Pro Intermediate Division). Seven, count them seven, bonus push ups this morn, bringing the total to 97.

Last Night's Beer: New Glarus Edel-Pils (just get used to it)

Listening to: Chicken Shake - Stereo MCs   

Comfort Zone

Opening Line

Dogs in the moonlight

Challenge

I am changing the language of the One Hundred Push Up Challenge. First, because I can and second, well, because I can.

Hence, I will no longer refer to "Weeks" but "Levels." The term "Week" is purely unmotivational and could be considered by some to be a demotivator, "I have to repeat Week Two" is almost like admitting "I was held back in the second grade." For the record, I was never held back in the second grade although the Administration did want to hold me back in Kindergarten because I could not skip. Yeah, to this day I am still retarded.

The term "Level" or "Levels" will be referred to as "Set" or "Sets." This makes much more sense and is consistent to what we are taught from a physical fitness or exercise standpoint.

If anyone else attempting the challenge gets confused by this, I have no apologies whatsoever.

Today's "sets" were good quality. I was able to manage three bonus push ups during the last (fifth) set even though I was fading fast. Sets 1 - 4 were done without interruption, but that fifth and final set had to be broken down: first seven then a few seconds rest (in the plank position); made it to thirteen before another few seconds of rest (in the plank position); then it was on to nineteen and another rest; I made it to the minimum of twenty-two without getting the wobbly arms; yet after a few seconds of rest, the bonus three were likely the kind of push ups that will get me to the next level. They were not pretty in the least and took whatever energy I had left, but they got done.

Me thinks I may well repeat Level Four. I took a peak at Level Five over the weekend and the number of sets increases to eight. Yipe!

Last Night's Beer: New Glarus Edel-Pils

Listening to: Brown Sugar - The Rolling Stones