Happy Halloween

Andrea took Megan out tonight, so I got to enjoy a short break. They tried the Mall first, but didn't really like that. So then they visited a friend and just did a few houses, finally ending up at Grandma's house.

Actually I used most of the free time to do a long run tonight. Figured I started the month out with a 10-miler, so I finished out the month with a 10-miler. I got a one week trial with a cheaper health club alternative called Snap Fitness. There is a good chance I could go there for $16 bucks a month. They are basically little clubs in strip malls where you can go to work out. Nothing fancy, no locker rooms, no showers. Just a room with a few tread mills, elliptical, and weights. Cool part is there is one just a block from where I work, so very convenient.

Here are the pictures I promised of Megan the Monster!

Megan and Mom after a successful candy gathering expedition.


So scary! Her smile is just the monsters ruse to draw you in...


Monster Megan on the prowl... look at that tail!

Free Hour

How about a free day? Can't believe November is right around the corner. Time is flying by, faster then it's ever felt in a long time. It seems like I'm going to blink and all of a sudden Megan will be walking and talking. She is definitely starting to assert more of her independence. If there is something she wants, she lets you know. Or if you take something she is fixated on, you will definitely know. It's pretty cool but also tough when she becomes fixated on my computer or trying to get behind the couch.

Friday night we did a little baby sitting for a friend of Andrea. All week we had been getting pumped up for our first ever It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. We were gonna sit the kids down and enjoy it all together. And then guess what happened? Some stupid District 6 debate came on instead, and we didn't get to see it! We don't even vote for District 6 people, what the hell? So lame...

Last night I got out of the house to hang out with my buddy Art. I hadn't seen him in quite some time, so that was great. We saw "The Departed" which was... okay. I wasn't a huge fan of the ending, but it couldn't have really ended any other way. The funniest part of the night was after the movie, we went to a little restaurant for some drinks. It was a little loud, and Art asked the waitress if they had any root beer. She proceeds to start listing off the beers on tap... So he tries to stop her and says, "No, ROOT beers." She stops... say, "Oh! Well... " and then proceeds to list off more tap beers? At this point we are both trying not to laugh, and we both say very loudly, ROOT BEERS! She finally got it at that point and brought over an ICB. Okay, well maybe you had to be there, but it was damn funny at the time.

Still not sure what we are going to do for Halloween. I imagine it will involve getting candy for Megan, so that we can eat it! More importantly though, we will be putting Megan in her costume again, which she has worn a few times so far. It is just adorable, so check back Tuesday for pictures of that.

Century Club

I'm in the century club! If I was in college, you might think I just drank 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes. No... I never actually got around to trying that. (or the Power Hour for that matter). It's not that Century Club I'm referring to... Naw, I'm referring to my own fabricated Century Club - I've finished 100 miles of running in a single month!

Okay, well maybe it's not that big a deal, but it's the most I've ever done by far. Only reason I got that much really is because the 10-mile race was on the 1st of this month. Kinda like cheating almost...

I realized today that there are a lot of new things with Megan that I haven't really reported on. For example, I just found out two days ago that her first year molars are pretty much all the way in. I didn't even know that! I mean, it's not like I go out of my way to go digging into her mouth...

She is very helpful with getting dressed. (or not helpful sometimes). She will put her arms into jackets or sweaters, but will also unzip them. Today she decided to take her diaper off for the first time, yikes! Still not walking, but I think she is starting to verbalize more. Not really babbling, but definitely putting some syllables together. Of course, she is dancing just as much as ever.



Today Andrea made these awesome Halloween cupcakes. They are called "Buried Alive" Cupcakes. Damn were they tasty, I had one tonight. Not sure yet what we will do with the rest, but somehow we have to get them out of the house!

I'm still here!

Lest I get labeled as a weekend blogger, I wanted to get a post up today. It's 10:23, and tonight has a chance of proving to be a very long night. Megan has a REALLY bad cold. She can hardly breath, I feel so bad for her. Luckily, after a good hour on my shoulder, she went down in her crib. Fingers crossed she gets some rest.

Hopefully next few weekends are going to be very full for me, and I'm really looking forward to them all. For the first time in a long time, I'm doing a few things I want to do on subsequent Saturday nights. Now I know, your thinking "But Shawn, you sit around and play video games on Saturday nights usually, isn't that want you want to do?" Well, not really. For the most part, I play video games as time filler. And sometimes, that just gets old. Especially when your just playing World of Warcraft for the umpteenth hour cause you have nothing better to play.

Big thing is that I'm going to try and resurrect my Dungeons and Dragons group, aiming for a first session in mid November. I realized that... although our sessions have been a mixture of success and failure, the group I have are all very good players. They enjoy the character development aspect of D&D, actually trying to give there characters personality. I'm going to be running the campaign again and I really hope to provide some quality character driven adventures. For the next few weeks, D&D is going to be my "thing". Will see if it pays off...

Next up in the life streamline process, canceling cable. That's right, I said CANCELING cable. Okay, so I haven't actually done it yet, and I'm sure it's going to be a major pain in the ass. If I had to bet, I'd put money on the fact that we will be CHARGED money to turn the cable off. I'm gonna miss Comedy Central, but that's really about it. Andrea and I both realized we just don't watch TV very much to be paying $60+ dollars a month for it. I can just get an antenna, some local channels, and I'd still even be able to get Football games in HD (cept for Monday night). I think it will be a good move, and I honestly don't think I'll miss it all that much.

Well blogger went down for awhile so this post took longer then I wanted it to. Thankfully, it's 11:30pm and Megan is still sleeping peacefully. Time for me to get some sleep, I haven't gone to bed before midnght all this week. I'm pretty wrecked each morning, but sometimes I just can't help it! Maybe I'll get some sleep this weekend... (ya right).

My Daughter, the Otter

Capers is an orphaned male sea otter pup who was rescued and rehabilitated in Alaska. He's currently being cared for at Chicago's Shedd Aquarium, but will be on exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo in 2008.

Megan is my newly 1 year old daughter. She enjoys splashing in the bathtub, and will most likely be at the Minnesota Zoo often in 2008.

My Daughter:



The Otter:



Notice any similarities?

Lazy Saturday

For the first time in awhile, Andrea and I don't have any plans today. I'm going to milk it for everything it's worth! Although I did actually shower this morning, I got right back into my PJs. Odds are, I will stay in them all day.

Slow week on the blog, no good pictures of Megan really to share, and not much new going on. I did manage a few more outdoor runs with slightly warmer clothes that I own, but I'm still planning on joining the Y. It's not so much the cold, but I don't really feel like dealing with the snow/wet/weather during the winter months. Plus, maybe I can actually use the Y to do some weight lifting.

In other news, it turns out Bob Seger has a new album out. Not only that, but he is going to be in MN on Nov 28th! Now, as much as I profess to be a fan of Seger, I had no clue he came out with a new album. It was released on Sept 12th of this year, so it wasn't like it's been out for awhile and I didn't know. Luckily my Mom got an email from Ticket Master about him coming to Xcel center, so I got tickets the morning they went on sale.

I last saw Bob Seger (for the first time) at the Target center in March of 96, so I wasn't even 20 yet. I went with my brother, and the tickets we got were just shitty. I tried to trade with scalpers the night of the event, but it still wasn't that good. This time, I hope to make up for that. I got some GREAT tickets, and it is at the Xcel Energy center which is much better for concerts. The tickets I got are for Section 116, row 5, seats 1 & 2.



Currently that row is on resale web sites for as much as $235 bucks, so hopefully this time will be much more enjoyable. Of course, I am going again with my brother, so it should be a really great time. I'm looking forward to it.

Funk Minor

The body is amazingly resilient. Every day I'm glad that after a year of running, my body hasn't completely broken down on me. Tonight during my run, I had thoughts like what if this was my last run? What if something just snapped and I was never able to run again? What if I slipped a disk and my back never let me run? Again... all those fears trying to creep up. And for the record, I don't just come up with this crazy shit on my own. A guy I work with that ran the TC Marathon can no longer run due to back problems.

So speaking of resilient, I ran 9 miles tonight in the coldest weather ever. In shorts and t-shirt no less! It was probably 45 degrees and really windy. Your probably asking yourself, why didn't you just wear warmer clothes? Well... I'll let you pick the answer:

1. I'm a super hardcore runner, who won't let the cold prevent me from running!
   -OR-
   
2. I'm too cheap to buy good cold weather running gear.

I'm pretty sure the answer is B. The 10 day forecast isn't looking much better, so it might just be time to get that damn YMCA membership and stop whining about it.

I think a combination of the weather, work stress, and yes, even home stress has me in a little funk. This funk is by no means on the magnitude of my previous funk. But being that it has been 6 months since that one, I was about due.

I've been kinda disappointed I probably won't hit my goal weight by the end of the year. Actually, I'm not sure if I can actually get down to the weight I want to. No, that's a lie. I can probably get to that goal, I'm just not willing to do what it would take. (i.e. deny myself to even more extremes) It was a pretty arbitrary goal that I basically just pulled out of my ass, so I shouldn't be so hard on myself. But at the same time, I've hit so many other goals, I just want to hit this last one and be done with it. But that's just it... hitting that goal weight isn't "The End", it's just another new beginning.

Alright, enough ramblings from my crazy ass, and on to the real reason you are visiting my blog. Yes, I saved them until the end, so tough!


Megan doing a little Team Speak, talking to my World of Warcraft buddies.


Look out, it's the sock baby!


Ahhh... isn't that cute, L for Love!

I thought it would be fun to compare/contrast these next two pictures. What is interesting, is that they are only a MONTH apart. But she just seems so much taller in the second picture! I mean, her head is almost level with the keyboard now, where she had to look straight up at it before.


09/09/2006


10/16/2006

Thankfully, so far she has only caused something to print twice...

Burnsville Champps = Horrible

Since I don't expect anyone to read this entire post, I'm going to state this first. Don't go to the Burnsville Champps. I will never be going there again and urge you to do the same! Read on to find out why...

Recently Andrea went online and signed up for the Champps fan club. Her original motivation was to see if she could get anything free for Megan's birthday. What she got instead was a coupon emailed to her for a free appetizer. So we headed on over to the Champps in Burnsville today to redeem the coupon.

At the end of the meal, we handed the printed coupon to our server. She came back shortly and said her manager wouldn't accept the coupon because it was "Corporate" Chammps, and they aren't affiliated with corporate. Ahhh... okay, so then why does the web site list the Burnsville location? The server asks if we'd want to talk to the manager, and we said sure.

Now at this point, if we don't get to use the coupon, oh well. We're talking about $6.50 + tax. But then the manager arrived... Mega-Bitch 9000.

This woman starts off by saying, "This coupon is for Corporate, and we are privately owned so we can't honor this." No apology, no attempt to smooth things over. Andrea asks how were we supposed to know? She responds by saying, "The web site should indicate that it's only available at corporate locations. That's their problem not mine." Say what? Now we're just pissed off out of principle, and Andrea asked if she could comp us this time. Her response? "You're not the only one to bring those coupons in, we can't honor them."

Okay, so you're going to stand there and piss off customers to save a buck? I mean, seriously, how much can an order of mozzarella sticks cost them? Let's say the average cost is about $3 bucks. So if 200 people come in with this internet coupon it would cost them $600. Is that really going to do anything to the bottom line? Probably not... but pissed off customers, well that's gonna cost ya.

It's hard to accurately describe the remaining interactions, but this woman was just so horribly mean, it was beyond anything I had ever experienced. I think my brother said it best when I told him about this, "I've seen managers give free meals because the server dropped a fork or something stupid, that's how that business works." He is so right, and I've seen that too. I've had times where they bring out my food with something on it I didn't want, and they will offer it free.

Anyway, I simply will not be going to the Burnsville Chammps anymore, and encourage you to do the same. If however, you'd like to visit one of the "Corporate" Chammps, make sure to visit this link first.

Free appetizer at a "Corporate" Chammps location

Cold Cold Sigh

Things at work have been pretty hectic for the last 2 weeks, causing my stress levels to be higher then normal. If I had any alcohol in my house I would have consumed it by now. Luckily (or unfortunately depending on your point of view) I don't, having recently decided once again I need to be careful with my habits. It's hard to find that good moderation point, so for now I'm just staying clear of keeping any in the house.

I used to really miss the cold when I was living in Idaho. I loved the first few winters back here. Okay, granted the first winter I wasn't working, but still! Cold weather was great. Cold weather meant I could wear big baggy sweaters to hide behind. Cold weather meant it was okay to stay indoors for 48 hours straight. Cold weather was an easy excuse to do nothing but veg out.

Now cold weather means I can't get outside to run or bike. It means exercising is going to cost money, one way or another. Either I get a membership or I buy new winter quality outdoor running gear. Cold weather now just plain sucks! I knew it was coming, I had just hoped it would hold off a little bit longer this year.

That isn't to say, next week won't be better. This is Minnesota after all, we could end up with 60 degree weather all of a sudden. Until then, Andrea has 4 more free passes to the YMCA that I will use up and when those run out, most likely get a membership there.

Speaking of the YMCA, we went tonight and dropped Megan off at daycare. When we came back to pick her up, the guy tried to tell us she took her first steps! What the hell!?!?! DON'T TELL US THAT! Oh man, I couldn't believe it. We rushed Megan home and tried to duplicate it, but no go - so we figure he just meant she took steps with assistance, which she has been doing for quite awhile. Apparently Megan didn't get the memo that she can't take her first steps with anyone but Mom and Dad!!

Happy Birthday Megan!

Today is Megan's birthday! To think, an entire year has come and gone since she was born. I'm so excited to see what the next year brings, and still very scared. No matter how hard I try, I find myself worrying about the future and things beyond my control. On the positive side, I've really learned to quiet those voices over the last year, which can make all the difference. Anyway, enjoy the pictures from yesterdays birthday party!


Mom with Megan in her new birthday dress, that will fit for approximately 1 week.


Megan and Grandpa B playing with hats.


Megan wasn't to sure about the balloons...


She took to present opening like a duck to water.


Megan loves toys with buttons... I wonder why?


Speaking of ducks, here is the cake Andrea got... for FREE.


I'll take this piece!


Before the fun begins...


And the aftermath!

Nothing ventured, nothing gained

Yesterday started out on multiple down notes. First, I tried to get up early and not wake up Andrea so she could sleep in, only to leave my alarm clock on snooze. Opps... Then I got an early morning bike ride in, which by itself was a good thing. But I set my bike down in the drive way and proceeded to get ready to go somewhere, and then forgot I put it there... So I ended up backing up over my bike with my car. Awesome. It wasn't totally ruined, but it looks like the frame was bent enough to get the back wheel out of alignment. I might see if it is fixable, but as far as I'm concerned, that was my last bike ride of the season.

This morning I decided to go on my last long run of the season as well. The weather outside was perfect for a long run, and so I figured what the hell. I ran 13.1 miles at a 9mile / minute pace. Who needs organized events! It was a good way to cap off my out door running for this year. Odds are I will be getting a YMCA membership soon.



Today we are having a small birthday party for Megan. Just Megan's grandparents and my brother and his wife. Maybe next year we will go bigger, but for now we just wanted to have something small. I'll get lots of pictures and post them up tomorrow, but I just figured after the long day I wasn't going to want to blog tonight.

In the meantime, here are some pictures of my attempts at "baby proofing" my basement. For the most part, I think it works well. She can't access any of the wires, various components, or most importantly, my DVD racks. I've had to alphabetize my movies twice lately... Very annoying.

Megan Picture Day

On the drive home from work tonight, I saw something kind of interesting. It was a Corvette convertible, with the license plate "EMBALMR". My first thought was of course, is the guy driving that thing an actual Embalmer by trade? My immediate next thought was, do Embalmers make such good money they can afford expensive sports cars?

A quick google revealed that the average Embalmer makes somewhere between $40-$60k per year. Not exactly big money... I can only assume that perhaps the guy was going through his mid-life crisis after years of dealing with dead people and decided a sports car exclaiming to the world what he did for a living was the best way to deal with it.

Anyway, on to the photos!


Megan doing her normal grin.


She's attacking me AHHHHH!!


Just a cute sleeping picture.


Megan's new prison! It might also double as a method of protecting my DVD's / Components / TV... check back for updates on that.

Emotional Race

Shawn Anderson

bib number:	12168
age:	30
gender:	M
location:	Apple Valley, MN
overall place:	1287 out of 4608
division place:	116 out of 268
gender place:	780 out of 1725
time:	1:28:15
pace:	8:50
chip time:	1:25:49

Now that we got the numbers out of the way, on to the actual post. I was really hesitant to write about something specific that happened during my run today. For starters, it's intensely personal and also because, well I'd hate to ever profess doubts to my atheistic beliefs. But I'm getting ahead of myself... on to the story!

It begins with an item that was in my race packet. There was paper bracelet with 26 lines on it. The idea was to put the name of someone in your life for each mile of the marathon, and dedicate that mile to them. When I started running, for some reason that bracelet came into my thoughts. I thought to myself, who would I dedicate these 10 miles too?

As I went through the list of important people in my life, I tried to think of someone for each mile. It was hard enough trying to think of 10 people, good thing I didn't have to come up with 26! Although it was somewhat difficult coming up with 10 people, there were 2 miles that came to me first and almost instantly: the first, and last.

The first mile, I would've dedicated to myself. This might seem kind of selfish, but I've come to realize how important it is to take care of yourself. No matter how much love you might have for someone else and how much you want to take care of them, you can't do anything for anyone if you aren't taking care of yourself first.

The last mile, I would've dedicated to my Father, Michael Anderson. I can't say why I had the idea that I would want to dedicate the last mile to him, other then the fact that it just felt right. I think he would have been very proud of me and the man I've become, and I know for sure he would have loved being a grandpa. I think about him often when I'm pushing myself hard, and it helps motivate me.

I had these odd dedication thoughts somewhere around mile 2 or 3. I was pushing myself pretty hard the whole run, so by the end I had completely forgot about anything I might have been thinking about an hour ago. I saw the hour-30 finishing time within reach, and I didn't want to lose it, so I kept pushing myself harder then I expected I would. I knew the last 2 miles were going to be tough, but I didn't care.

As I entered the last mile, I was really spent, but still running well. I was tired and knew some final hills were coming up, and I wasn't sure I could keep up the pace I had maintained. As I rounded a corner, I heard some music playing that I instantly recognized: Bob Seger's Old Time Rock & Roll.

For those that don't know, Bob Seger was one of my Dad's favorite bands, and consequently, one of mine as well. I can't really hear any Bob Seger song and not think of him. So of course all my thoughts about dedicating the last mile to him immediately came flooding in... To have those thoughts, and now on the last mile, to hear this song playing, what were the odds?

I came really close to completely losing it at that point. If there was any time in my life I could recall feeling the presence of my Father, it was that moment. Hearing that song when I did was almost like a message from him saying "Great job, you can do it!". My breathing tightened up, and I tried to steady myself and stay focused on the task at hand. When I had regained my composer, I pushed myself as hard as I could. I was going to finish strong one way or another!

My last mile clocked in at 7:30 minutes. The last downhill to the finish line, my watch said I was running around a 6 minute mile. Once the big finishing clock was in sight, I saw the 1:27:00 on it, and knew I was about blow through the hour-30 goal. I had done it!

Thank you to everyone that has congratulated me, helped motivate me, or one way or another told me "Good job" over the last year of my life. And thank you Dad, I love you and I miss you.

- Shawn