cool evening

Work has been so frustrating lately. Such is life. Everyone gripes about work...right?

My Saturday run almost took me down. It was so warm and humid, and my body wasn't used to that. I gave up after just 6 miles and walked the last 2. I actually broke out in a heat rash. Not fun at all. Two other people I know in town were out working that day and also experienced a bit of heat rash.

It is really cooling down tonight. Chance of frost. I still have my windows open. I'm enjoying the last of this cool weather. I'm sure I'll sleep like a rock tonight.

The last few days I've been thinking about the expression of having "the last ounce of energy" sucked out of me. Where does that expression come from? Why is energy in ounces? Hmm...guess I'm always worried about units. The fun of physics.

In any event, I though about that expression because I have no energy. Some days I despise technology. Other days I love it. I battled a rather nasty WordPress hack that attacked a lot of servers in the past two weeks. Loved the challenge. Hated the challenge. It is so easy to sit down, start digging in, and then six hours is gone. Should I be doing something else? Should I care about blogs and such?

Every day I wonder. I'm just amazed at the slim line between sanity and frivolity.

Now, time to get back to the Redwings game, and cool air drifting through my window.

hot hot april

Noon on a Saturday. 81 degrees. I'm going to head out for a run. I hope I don't get dehydrated/overheated. Maybe there is a track meet at UVA. If so I'll be able to get a few glasses of Gatorade, but I don't think there is one. At least I'll refill my water (the track is about 3 miles in to my 8 mile run).

My week felt very unproductive until Friday afternoon when I had some good ideas that worked out really well.

Today I'll watch a bit of the NFL draft, the Redwings game, and a movie or two while sitting around in air conditioning. Sounds exciting...right? :)

server security, choice of goals

I've spent far more time learning about web server security this week than ever before since my hobby sites were hacked last week. I definitely learned quite a bit. I continue to see that people are attacking the site, but it seems secure for the moment.

Between that and work I'm a bit exhausted. The Pistons looked pretty exhausted in the first game of the NBA playoffs but perked up this evening. The Redwings start the semis tomorrow night. I hate the fact that Detroit is in the western conference since I end up staying up till 1am to watch west coast games every now and then. Teams have goals...but do I have a goal?

Currently I'm contemplating setting a goal of 3 hours 30 minutes for a marathon. Not easy. If I choose to set the goal you can bet I'll work to it, but I really tend to spend a long time debating if I want to set it. Last year I set the goal of running my first marathon in under 4 hours and that one went pretty well :)

The reason I'm thinking about the lower time is so that I would qualify for the Boston Marathon. One of the big ones. I should also see if the NYC marathon has qualification times...that is the one I really want to get in to. I've entered in the raffle for that one this year. I think June is when I find out if I'm in.

One can hope. Or one can set goals. Or both. Hmmm....

making the burgers

I like that Michigan Tech made it to the finals of the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest where building hamburgers in the most steps was the goal. Very entertaining stuff for college students. I just wish I could spend time doing this sort of thing! Maybe next year they'll win. Go Huskies.

Good run. Not great.

It sure was early as I headed off to the race. I got there with about five minutes to spare and got my chip on. Off I went. My unrealistic goal was for sub 8 minute miles, but I couldn't quite do it. 8:19/mile. Much slower than last year, but I just haven't been training as much.

I'm definitely wasn't as dead at the end of the race as I was last year. Maybe that explains the slower time :)

I've been trying to deal with a hacked site of mine most of the day. I can't believe people are bored enough to hack tiny little sites on the web. Yeesh. Get a life.

Confessions of a Superhero. 4 stars. Very entertaining documentary.

Juno. 3 stars. Brutally overrated. I think the movie appeals more towards women.

8 mile run

I survived the run tonight. The first four miles were rough. Mentally I just didn't want to run. I really wanted to sleep or watch something mindless on the tube. The latter four miles were better, although I never felt strong during the entire run. I just am not in great shape right now.

I'll take a shot at the half marathon on Saturday morning. I just can't see (or maybe feel is a better word) getting below 8 minutes per mile. If I manage to wake up for the race I'll let you know how it goes.

Last week I started going with a mustache/goatee look. Why? No reason. I've never done this look before (at least as far as I remember). It is very popular in my office right now. Since I'm really lazy about shaving this cuts down on how much face I have to deal with :) I don't think it will last more than another few days though. I'll try to snap at least one shot of my grizzled look before the electric razor goes wild.

up late...stomach hurts

Frustrating day of work. A half dozen different projects ongoing, and every one of them is high priority. Often tough to decide where to put the effort.

The weather has been fluctuating quite a bit here in spring. 82 one day, 42 the next. Last night I woke up freezing and dug out the big comforter (I shut the heat off the other day since the AC was already on last weekend). It won't be as cold tonight.

My stomach has really been bothering me all day. I almost never have an upset stomach. I ate a bunch of curry from a new place on Monday. It sure tasted good at the time. Maybe it left an impression.

I should really be asleep by now, but I am just starting to recover from watching the Redwings play like fools earlier this evening. Series tied up 2-2.

Tomorrow is another day. Sunny and 72. If my stomach has recovered I'll go out for a run after work. Should I do a relatively short run and then enter the half marathon on Saturday morning? Guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow around 6pm as I'm putting on my running shoes.

hot run

I ran on Saturday. It was about 76 degrees. I wasn't used to that heat at all. My first and only run so far this year where I decided to walk a few blocks of it (the 7.5 miler). Much much cooler for the next few days. It always takes a few weeks to get used to the heat...but after that it feels pretty good after a long day of work to relax in the heat.

There Will Be Blood

I usually catch at least two movies (on DVD) every weekend. I've been in NetFlix since a few days after I moved here. Couldn't live without them. Anyway, I really loved There Will Be Blood. The music that went along with it was really well done. It reminded me quite a bit of the late 60's/early 70's sci fi movies where people were often left alone due to world cataclysm and would slowly work their way to insanity. This was the 1920's version :)

I also watched American Gangster. It was good, but a bit of a disappointment compared to the former. How I feel about movies is often dependent on how I feel that day and what I recently watched. Such is life.

Resurrecting the Champ also made it on my list this weekend. Nothing special. On NetFlix you can rate things on a one to five star system. If I give it a one or a two that means I truly hated it. One usually means I couldn't make it past the 20 minute mark. Most movies are three. Decent enough to watch, but somewhat forgettable.

TWBB was a 5. AG was a 4. RTC was a 3.

Now, time to go drink a milkshake.

------- SPOILER ALERT -------

-- Don't view this if you haven't seen the movie --

One point away

I missed out on the big bucks of my office pool by one stupid free thrown tonite. If only Memphis would have held it together for just a bit longer. Such is life. Next sport up: NHL playoffs. At least while the Redwings are still going. I'd watch how the Pistons do, but a few years ago I got sick of how much the refs were controlling who won games so gave up on it. A year later some ref got accused of gambling on games. Go figure. Is football here yet?

I should have gone to the gym tonite but didn't feel up to it. Very lazy. I'll go out for a 10 mile run tomorrow night and then mow my lawn. The latter part of that will probably be more strenuous than the former. I need to build up my mowing muscles.

Time to sleep. If possible. A bit of tossing and turning lately...waking up to dreams/nightmares in which I'm programming. That can't be a good thing.

Exhausting Week, Exhausting Run

It was a really long week with far too much work and not enough fun. But the week is over.

The Final Four get going in an hour or so. If Memphis wins I'll have a pretty good shot and winning our office pool this year. I won it last year. Can I do two in a row without having watched a single college basketball game during the entire year?

I went out and did a half marathon training run earlier this afternoon. I felt pretty good. There is a half or whole marathon here in town in two weeks. Still not sure if I want to run in it. If I do it will probably just be the half. It is a really hilly course and I don't think I'd be up for 26 miles of that. Flat rocks for marathons. Of course, I've only done one in my life, so what do I know :)

Time to go pick up some wine and clean the house a bit. Houses sure can get nasty when you don't get any sleep or free time.

First mow of the season

Spring has arrived. 75 degree day followed by 55 degree day with rain. Up and down. Rain and dry. Mostly dry though. For the past few years I've been getting my lawn mowed by a company, but decided to save myself the bucks and do it myself this year. I have an old manual push mower (I believe it runs at exactly 1 human power) that I'd loaned out to someone else the past few years (after having just used it once). I now have that back.

After a brutal day of work I headed out for the yard. It took about 40 minutes to do the first mow of the year. A good chunk of the time was just cleaning up lots of sticks and twigs that had fallen during the winter.

I'm now exhausted. I need to build up my mowing muscles during the next few weeks as the grass attacks. I also need to go get a weed whacker. Probably an electric one will be plenty for my small yard. Guess that will be my weekend shopping.

April Foolish Run

Running can be such a finicky sport. Some days after a brutal day of work I feel better and better with every step of a run. Sometimes the opposite occurs and each step feels worse than the last. Tonight was the latter.

During the 10 miler my calves were definitely getting tight. Despite stretching they never really recovered from that run. I paid the price when I ran tonight. In a very rare occurrence I decided there was no way I felt up to the full 8 mile run, so I took an alternate route to cut it to 7 miles. A 9:30ish pace. Not bad, but my calves were screaming the entire way.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a bit coolor but sunny. I think I'll go for my 7.5 miler tomorrow. I hope it is the "every step gets better" run.

 After the run I heated up some veggies and opened up some wine. I caught the season premiere of Hell's Kitchen (the Tivo version of course...no commercials). It is a mind numbing ludicrous show, but many nights that is what I need. I also played with NetNewsWire. I have somewhat skipped the whole RSS thing, but am becoming a fan with recent versions of the app (donationware).

As for this blog, I'm still debating what I think of blogger. The email to blog feature has some quirks. I'm continuing to play. Guess I'll tell someone about it one of these days :)