Check me out! I'm blogging from the road! Laura and I are at the hotel in Boston, hanging out waiting to meet up with a former co-worker of mine from when we lived here before. We SLEPT IN until almost 10 this morning! It was awesome! The weather is windy and showery, but it's great to be back in Beantown.
After our meeting with my friend, we'll just hop on the T and see where it takes us. Today that'll probably be out to BU where Laura went to school. Later today we may meet up with another friend of mine who lives in Seattle and works for the rowing shell manufacuturer Pocock, and who is out here with them to display and sell boats. After that, who knows, there is so much to see and do here, or we may just enjoy being here and walking around.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
bulky update
A little bit of everything, at least from my perspective...
Downstairs bedroom - Painted! And ceiling fan installed! And shutters installed! The room looks nice, but the ceiling fan smells of new electronics. Normally I like this smell as the item comes out of the box, but the smell always fades. Not so with this fan. Every time you turn on the fan, the room stinks like new electronics. This is probably not a good thing. No solution yet determined.
Boston - We are going there tomorrow! It's been over four years since we've been out there, which is a year longer than Laura lived there. That's just too hard to belive. We called that place home for a while, and then moved away from it. I could live there again, absolutely, if it weren't for the 3000 miles that would be between my and my friends and family. I was really hoping to race at the Head of the Charles Regatta, but my club could not get an entry this year. It's a very popular regatta, usually they have to turn away anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of the people who want to race. They "only" have room for 950 boats to race over the course of two days. That's all right. No, no, that's fine. I'm only in the best shape I've been in in the last 10 years. And I've only taken up rowing again with a team of really fast, eager, and aggressive guys who love to row. I'm sure we can recreate that again next year, when I'm busy raising my first kid. Racing aside, we are really excited about going to Boston, checking out the sights that were famaliar to us, eating a lot of good food, and just soaking it all in again.
Rowing - two races over the last two weekends, Petaluma and here at the Port. Didn't win anything, but they were still good rows. The last one beat the crap out of me. I rowed in a four man boat, and our average age was something like 32. We had two competitors, one of which we, expectedly, blew away early on, but the second which we knew would be tough. Marin has a rowing club full of very fit, very fast rowers of all ages, many of whom also have previous national or Olympic experience. Oh, and they area supported by very rich club members. So the four man boat we were chasing had an average age of 60, and we only beat them in the raw time by 20 seconds over a 3 mile course. With their age handicap of almost two minutes, they blew us away in the end. You might say that's pretty sad that guys twice our age could do so well. That's what I said at first. But I'm trying to let the moment inspire me to get faster as a rower as I get older. It hasn't sunk in yet.
The other funny thing about having gotten back to rowing in the months since April is that I've managed to loose 16 pounds. Didn't really mean to, it just worked out that way. Now my pants don't fit right any more. Guess I have to eat a couple extra cannolis at Mikes.
Work - Can't seem to finish the things I start. Every time I run a test or work through a problem, I just seem to end up with more questions, no answers, and less time. I really want to make a discovery here soon and close up this project I've been wokring on for ... crap, for a year now.
Home - Too many projects going on there as well. I guess I finished painting the downstairs bedroom, but I'd really like to get some other stuff done as well. Especially before the kid comes along. Maybe I'll have more time when the rowing season ends.
Movies - A couple weeks ago we went out and saw 500 Days of Summer. It's not your typical love story comedy, it's engaging and funny, and I recommend it. Last weekend we also OnDemanded (is that a verb yet?) Away We Go with John Krasinski and Mayah Rudolph. Also a good movie, maybe not as sharp as 500, but heartwarming, funny, and entertaining.
Well, that was kind of a boring update. Sorry. Wow, the links weren't even that exciting. Well, more to come after Boston. Ciao for now.
Downstairs bedroom - Painted! And ceiling fan installed! And shutters installed! The room looks nice, but the ceiling fan smells of new electronics. Normally I like this smell as the item comes out of the box, but the smell always fades. Not so with this fan. Every time you turn on the fan, the room stinks like new electronics. This is probably not a good thing. No solution yet determined.
Boston - We are going there tomorrow! It's been over four years since we've been out there, which is a year longer than Laura lived there. That's just too hard to belive. We called that place home for a while, and then moved away from it. I could live there again, absolutely, if it weren't for the 3000 miles that would be between my and my friends and family. I was really hoping to race at the Head of the Charles Regatta, but my club could not get an entry this year. It's a very popular regatta, usually they have to turn away anywhere from 1/3 to 1/2 of the people who want to race. They "only" have room for 950 boats to race over the course of two days. That's all right. No, no, that's fine. I'm only in the best shape I've been in in the last 10 years. And I've only taken up rowing again with a team of really fast, eager, and aggressive guys who love to row. I'm sure we can recreate that again next year, when I'm busy raising my first kid. Racing aside, we are really excited about going to Boston, checking out the sights that were famaliar to us, eating a lot of good food, and just soaking it all in again.
Rowing - two races over the last two weekends, Petaluma and here at the Port. Didn't win anything, but they were still good rows. The last one beat the crap out of me. I rowed in a four man boat, and our average age was something like 32. We had two competitors, one of which we, expectedly, blew away early on, but the second which we knew would be tough. Marin has a rowing club full of very fit, very fast rowers of all ages, many of whom also have previous national or Olympic experience. Oh, and they area supported by very rich club members. So the four man boat we were chasing had an average age of 60, and we only beat them in the raw time by 20 seconds over a 3 mile course. With their age handicap of almost two minutes, they blew us away in the end. You might say that's pretty sad that guys twice our age could do so well. That's what I said at first. But I'm trying to let the moment inspire me to get faster as a rower as I get older. It hasn't sunk in yet.
The other funny thing about having gotten back to rowing in the months since April is that I've managed to loose 16 pounds. Didn't really mean to, it just worked out that way. Now my pants don't fit right any more. Guess I have to eat a couple extra cannolis at Mikes.
Work - Can't seem to finish the things I start. Every time I run a test or work through a problem, I just seem to end up with more questions, no answers, and less time. I really want to make a discovery here soon and close up this project I've been wokring on for ... crap, for a year now.
Home - Too many projects going on there as well. I guess I finished painting the downstairs bedroom, but I'd really like to get some other stuff done as well. Especially before the kid comes along. Maybe I'll have more time when the rowing season ends.
Movies - A couple weeks ago we went out and saw 500 Days of Summer. It's not your typical love story comedy, it's engaging and funny, and I recommend it. Last weekend we also OnDemanded (is that a verb yet?) Away We Go with John Krasinski and Mayah Rudolph. Also a good movie, maybe not as sharp as 500, but heartwarming, funny, and entertaining.
Well, that was kind of a boring update. Sorry. Wow, the links weren't even that exciting. Well, more to come after Boston. Ciao for now.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
go home, want to
REALLY WANT TO GO home right now. Just thought I'd say that. Work is dragging on today, and I have at least 1 hour to go.
In other news, and since I seem to have nothing else to talk about, my lip, knee, and elbow are almost totally healed following my bike accident. My ribs are another story. They have been sore in some way pretty much every day since the accident. This is not a suprise to me given the fall, and it makes rowing a little more difficult since the rowing motion requires lots of muscles that attach to ribs.
And so you'd probably say that I should just not row for a while while things heal up. Well, yes, that would be the smart thing to do, but I am also trying to qualify for a seat in a rowing race in Boston that my club would like to go to. We are likely to enter only one "eight" (an 8 person boat, that is), which means that only eight members of our team will be competing. By my count, there are 12-14 people who would like to go, which means that only the top 8 will make it, which means I need to stay in shape and keep competing within the club so that, hopefully, I make it into that boat. Which means that every day I try to balance the work out with the relaxing and recovering, which it turns out is not straight forward.
------
In other, totally unrelated news, the wife and I watched the 3rd Pirates movie on TV the other night (it was on, we weren't necessarily looking for it). Afterwards I wondered, will they dare make a 4th? And so I looked into it today, and sure enough, it's in development. Seriously. Oh, and the Pirates franchise has made something like 3 billion dollars world-wide. No joke. That's a LOT of pistacios.
The other crazy thing is to look at how sought after that Depp guy is. He's literally got 4 movies in post-production (including a Tim Burton version of "Alice in Wonderland" where he is the Mad Hatter), and another 15 (yes, f-i-f-t-e-e-n) In Development, including a remake of Don Knott's "Incredible Mr. Limpet" and "The Lone Ranger", in which he is signed up to play Tonto.
The whole movie / acting thing sure looks like a lot of fun from the outside. If I had to choose another line of work, I'd like to consider that one. But then I think back to that one play I did when I was a senior in high school, and I remember just how awkward, and really bad I was, and I go back to doing my engineering work.
------
I'm sorry I complain so much. I need to accept the fact that I've got a pretty good life, and just move on with being a productive person.
In other news, and since I seem to have nothing else to talk about, my lip, knee, and elbow are almost totally healed following my bike accident. My ribs are another story. They have been sore in some way pretty much every day since the accident. This is not a suprise to me given the fall, and it makes rowing a little more difficult since the rowing motion requires lots of muscles that attach to ribs.
And so you'd probably say that I should just not row for a while while things heal up. Well, yes, that would be the smart thing to do, but I am also trying to qualify for a seat in a rowing race in Boston that my club would like to go to. We are likely to enter only one "eight" (an 8 person boat, that is), which means that only eight members of our team will be competing. By my count, there are 12-14 people who would like to go, which means that only the top 8 will make it, which means I need to stay in shape and keep competing within the club so that, hopefully, I make it into that boat. Which means that every day I try to balance the work out with the relaxing and recovering, which it turns out is not straight forward.
------
In other, totally unrelated news, the wife and I watched the 3rd Pirates movie on TV the other night (it was on, we weren't necessarily looking for it). Afterwards I wondered, will they dare make a 4th? And so I looked into it today, and sure enough, it's in development. Seriously. Oh, and the Pirates franchise has made something like 3 billion dollars world-wide. No joke. That's a LOT of pistacios.
The other crazy thing is to look at how sought after that Depp guy is. He's literally got 4 movies in post-production (including a Tim Burton version of "Alice in Wonderland" where he is the Mad Hatter), and another 15 (yes, f-i-f-t-e-e-n) In Development, including a remake of Don Knott's "Incredible Mr. Limpet" and "The Lone Ranger", in which he is signed up to play Tonto.
The whole movie / acting thing sure looks like a lot of fun from the outside. If I had to choose another line of work, I'd like to consider that one. But then I think back to that one play I did when I was a senior in high school, and I remember just how awkward, and really bad I was, and I go back to doing my engineering work.
------
I'm sorry I complain so much. I need to accept the fact that I've got a pretty good life, and just move on with being a productive person.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Black Bear
Oh my goodness, I can't believe I didn't say anything about this until now. Laura and I saw a Black Bear last Sunday night. It didn't see or didn't care about us as it walked past about 100 ft away from us. We were sitting at a little fire pit outside of a restaurant at the Northstar ski resort near the north end of Lake Tahoe where we were spending the weekend to celebrate Laura's birthday.
We were just hanginout out AND chatting, and when I happened to glance a little to the right I noticed a bear walking down off the hill beneath the gondola and heading towards the plaza around us. It was kind of surreal because it wasn't something I expected to see, despite the fact that we were definately in his / her house, and not the other way around. So I casually said to Laura "Hey look, a bear." Laura was up and out of her seat in a fraction of a second, and it didn't take much more of that second for me to finally understand that her move was a really good idea.
We walked about 10 feet over to the front door of the restaurant, probably so that we would have something to hide behind if the bear came towards us, which it did not. The poor guy was just looking for something to eat. The bear sauntered across the plaza and up near the windows of another restaurant. People inside that restaurant got out of their chairs and went to the window to watch the bear, almost like a scene from a zoo. Something must have spooked the bear (maybe all the people running up to the window to check him out?), and he turned around and jogged back towards the hill from whence he came.
The whole encounter was over very quickly, and no one was harmed. It was all very cool and strange, and perhaps lucky for those of us who saw the bear and lived to talk about it. It's so sad that a person can go to the forest to get away from the city, but not expect to see wild life like the bear.
-----
Anyway we had not been to Lake Tahoe in a couple years, so it was a real nice get away for us, even if it was only for a couple days. The choice to stay at Northstar was kind of a whim; Laura had heard about this new "village" of theirs, and we chose to go check it out. It's quaint, lots of little shops and eateries. The 1 bedroom "condo" we stayed in is located such that you could literally ski in and ski out, which would be totally awesome ... it it were winter, there were snow on the ground, and if I was a competent skiier.
Otherwise the area was generally pretty quiet, which was very nice. There were quite a few mountain bicyclists around because Northstar opens up their "slopes" to the downhill bikers in the summer time. Of course I think this looke like a ton of fun. I'd like to do it, by given my recent accident and definate novice status in the off-road bicycling world, I think it'll have to wait until 1) I actually have my own bike and can develop some skills, and 2) I'm not madly trying to get in shape for a rowing race in Boston.
And so it goes on...
We were just hanginout out AND chatting, and when I happened to glance a little to the right I noticed a bear walking down off the hill beneath the gondola and heading towards the plaza around us. It was kind of surreal because it wasn't something I expected to see, despite the fact that we were definately in his / her house, and not the other way around. So I casually said to Laura "Hey look, a bear." Laura was up and out of her seat in a fraction of a second, and it didn't take much more of that second for me to finally understand that her move was a really good idea.
We walked about 10 feet over to the front door of the restaurant, probably so that we would have something to hide behind if the bear came towards us, which it did not. The poor guy was just looking for something to eat. The bear sauntered across the plaza and up near the windows of another restaurant. People inside that restaurant got out of their chairs and went to the window to watch the bear, almost like a scene from a zoo. Something must have spooked the bear (maybe all the people running up to the window to check him out?), and he turned around and jogged back towards the hill from whence he came.
The whole encounter was over very quickly, and no one was harmed. It was all very cool and strange, and perhaps lucky for those of us who saw the bear and lived to talk about it. It's so sad that a person can go to the forest to get away from the city, but not expect to see wild life like the bear.
-----
Anyway we had not been to Lake Tahoe in a couple years, so it was a real nice get away for us, even if it was only for a couple days. The choice to stay at Northstar was kind of a whim; Laura had heard about this new "village" of theirs, and we chose to go check it out. It's quaint, lots of little shops and eateries. The 1 bedroom "condo" we stayed in is located such that you could literally ski in and ski out, which would be totally awesome ... it it were winter, there were snow on the ground, and if I was a competent skiier.
Otherwise the area was generally pretty quiet, which was very nice. There were quite a few mountain bicyclists around because Northstar opens up their "slopes" to the downhill bikers in the summer time. Of course I think this looke like a ton of fun. I'd like to do it, by given my recent accident and definate novice status in the off-road bicycling world, I think it'll have to wait until 1) I actually have my own bike and can develop some skills, and 2) I'm not madly trying to get in shape for a rowing race in Boston.
And so it goes on...
Thursday, August 27, 2009
bike crash follow-up
The bloody lip is finally healed. It actually healed up quickly, the only weird part was the scab that formed (on my lip) and looked really ugly for a couple days. It's funny how I've found other bruises on myself that I didn't even know I had in the days since I fell. My front tooth behind my lip was sore, but finally last night and today, after a week, it's starting to not hurt any more. The worst part of it all is turning out to be one of my ribs (I think) on my right side. It started hurting last Friday and got steadily worse over the weekend. I really don't think it's broken, but it's definately bruised. And the back side of the same rib hurts as well, which I'm still not sure is sinply because of referred pain, or there is a possibility that the seat of the bike I was on may have actually hit my back and pushed me forward as I was falling down. Good times.
Plenty to do at work, which of course means I'd rather be somewhere else. Plenty of projects to do at home as well ... stain the new hutch for the bathroom, paint two round tables for the living room, strip and paint the coffe table and entertainment center, paint the downstairs bathroom and bedroom, buy and install ceiling fan in the office, texture and paint the garage, put up cupboards in the garage, install vent fan in the garage, install knobs and pulls on cabinets in the bathroom and laundry, and my personal worst example of procrastinating, the one about which I am most terribly embarrased, MAKE A HOUSING for my damn bus destination sign. Not sure why I felt the need to list these all out here. Sometimes it seems like the only way I'll ever get to them all is to take a couple weeks off of work to get them all done. But we all know that never seems to work out in our favor. Maybe if I lived in Europe and had five weeks vacation time available to me every year. Of course I'd also be paying 50% taxes.
Speaking of money, anybody know how to earn more of it? Ha! I've got goals of paying things off, and they aren't being reached very fast.I'm not saying I want to be filthy rich, at this point I'd be happy to just be even.
Off to eat lunch now.
Plenty to do at work, which of course means I'd rather be somewhere else. Plenty of projects to do at home as well ... stain the new hutch for the bathroom, paint two round tables for the living room, strip and paint the coffe table and entertainment center, paint the downstairs bathroom and bedroom, buy and install ceiling fan in the office, texture and paint the garage, put up cupboards in the garage, install vent fan in the garage, install knobs and pulls on cabinets in the bathroom and laundry, and my personal worst example of procrastinating, the one about which I am most terribly embarrased, MAKE A HOUSING for my damn bus destination sign. Not sure why I felt the need to list these all out here. Sometimes it seems like the only way I'll ever get to them all is to take a couple weeks off of work to get them all done. But we all know that never seems to work out in our favor. Maybe if I lived in Europe and had five weeks vacation time available to me every year. Of course I'd also be paying 50% taxes.
Speaking of money, anybody know how to earn more of it? Ha! I've got goals of paying things off, and they aren't being reached very fast.I'm not saying I want to be filthy rich, at this point I'd be happy to just be even.
Off to eat lunch now.
Friday, August 21, 2009
bloody lip
It's really quite amazing just how many times during a short conversation my teeth bump into one another. I suppose I am noticing this today because yestarday I fell off a mountain bike while riding with coworkers in Fairfield, and although the fall looked pretty bad, my face and specificaly my teeth were there to stop me. Thank goodness my teeth are ok (as far as I can tell so far, anyway). All in all the result is pretty minor, and other than the sternum pain from where I also hit the handlebar as I went ass-over-teakettle, I feel pretty good, and count myself as lucky.
Here's the key: I'd already accepted the fact that I am a novice mountain bike rider, and on many occasions yesterday I got off and walked the bike. Except for one. I walked over a steep down-graded rock, then watched as two of my three buddies completed the rock while still on their bikes. Not wanting this to be the end of it, I had to try again. Which I did. And I fell. It's very strange watching a rock come rocketing towards your face, and not quite knowing what the hell is going to happen. Yes, I am very lucky. And yes I will ride again, but the next time around I won't make a second attempt on a feature or trick that I know I can't do.
Here's the key: I'd already accepted the fact that I am a novice mountain bike rider, and on many occasions yesterday I got off and walked the bike. Except for one. I walked over a steep down-graded rock, then watched as two of my three buddies completed the rock while still on their bikes. Not wanting this to be the end of it, I had to try again. Which I did. And I fell. It's very strange watching a rock come rocketing towards your face, and not quite knowing what the hell is going to happen. Yes, I am very lucky. And yes I will ride again, but the next time around I won't make a second attempt on a feature or trick that I know I can't do.
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