Thursday, April 17, 2008

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.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

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 --


Tuesday, April 8, 2008

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.

Saturday, April 5, 2008

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.

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

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.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

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 :)