Sleep is overrated

It's 10pm and I don't want to goto bed yet. Why? Because it's Friday damnit! As expected, the rest of this week was pretty uneventful. Okay well not completely. I happened to notice over the weekend, some water under our water heater. Prior to that, I had noticed that some of the laminate tiles outside the laundry room were warping a little bit. Turns out it has been this slow leak that we didn't pick up on until now. End result? Had to get a new water heater this week.

Ugh, just another reason owning a house can sometimes suck. Someone tell me home ownership is all worth it in the end? Please? It's hard to see it sometimes. Andrea and I started making a list of "Everything we'd probably need to fix if we wanted to sell this house." It ended up getting LONG and just saying it all out loud made me groan at how much it would probably cost for it all.

So where was I? Oh yes... I bet you're wondering what a guy with no hobbies does to fill his evenings now. It's quite scary actually. I started reading about RPGA. What's that you ask? It's the Roleplaying Gamers Association of course! Out of raw boredom, I thought maybe I'd sign up or whatever and try to get free stuff out of the deal. They even have an online test to become part of the "GM Program". Turns out, I'd actually have to show up at some random hobby store where someone is running an "official" RPGA game and ask for a "sign up sheet". I decided that was way too much work, and my strangeness has it's limits. The last thing I need is to start aspiring to achieve "Grand-Master Level GM".

At least it's Tuesday!

As Andrea and I spend the evening discussing the merits of vacation, my 4-day weekend comes to a screeching halt. Not that the weekend wasn't great, but as always, way too short.

Indiana Jones was... umm... so anyway, Dungeons and Dragons finally on Sunday night! I'd say it went about what I expected, but not exactly what I had hoped it could be. One of the players couldn't show up until later in the evening, so we mostly just wasted time until then. I suppose it's my own damn fault for being the only one that actually likes to role play, as opposed to roll play. (if you don't get that... oh well) It also doesn't help that I know the rules back to front, and I cringed every time a rule was broken, ignored, or otherwise randomly changed. (I was even guilty once myself) I guess that's what I get for being a DM and memorizing all my source books. I'm already planning my triumphant DM return in '09. AD&D 4th Edition anyone? Why YES, it IS my birthday in 16 days now that you mention it!

Monday was a strange day... started with an early morning run, in the sun. Very hot, and so I wanted to get Megan out for her first bike ride. My neighbor let me borrow his bike carriage. Got Megan all ready, sunscreen everywhere, shorts and T-shirt... Wait? Where is the sun? Why is it so cold? QUICK, coat, blanket! Despite the drastic change, we went for the ride anyway. Megan had a great time. I stopped after a short distance to make sure she was doing okay. I went to open the cover and she immediately said NO, and grabbed to put it back in place. Obviously, I should get one of these for more rides!

Is that Air Megan? Or is she just excited?



Megan helping Daddy, obviously I'm not going fast enough.



All ready to go! (minus the blanket and coat which came right after)



We only rode a few miles (6) in total. Going up hills against the wind with her in tow was a bit hard. We went to a local park where a pot-luck was going on that our neighbors were at, and then I just rode around Apple Valley, stopping at another park for some more play time. The cool part about going to a park in the bike carriage, was that when it was time to go, Megan was excited to leave instead of crying or being mad about leaving.

Not much else on tap this week. Andrea is having a friend of hers over this weekend, I'm having a friend over the following weekend. That same weekend is also a half marathon I just signed up for, so hopefully this nice cool/sunny morning weather holds out for awhile.

Errr, what was that?

That... that was a pigeon. It's funny how you can have this great idea for a blog only to completely blank when finally sitting down to write. I blame the massive headache I woke up with this morning.

It was from a combination of a few things: dehydration (most likely the main cause), calorie deficit, and too much sleep. They all added up to one nasty pain upstairs. So I did what any normal person would do waking up with such a large headache. I took two Excedrin and went for a 10 mile run.

Okay, so maybe not the best solution, but whatever. It worked, my headache was gone by the time I got home. But the first mile or so was rough. Every step shot pain from my temple down through the back of my eyeballs. It was fun, really!

I know I haven't posted much about Megan's recent progress - and trust me, there is TONS! But it's hard to post the good without the bad. On the positive side, she is picking up new words all the time, and will often attempt to say new words when asked. Some of my favorites are "awesome" (ahh-dum) and "rainbow" (bane-boo). She even recently put two words together, "more bubbles". Aside from words, she can identify and say a large amount of individual letters and is even recognizing written words like "up" or "mommy".

On the negative side is her frustration. She still gets very frustrated being unable to ask us what she wants or what she wants us to do. This results in her striking out, quite often at me. And let me tell you, that little girl packs quite a wallop. The 2 year old hitting factor is a well known part of the terrible twos, but that doesn't make it any easier. I don't think there is going to be any quick fix to her hitting, so for now I'll just focus on preventing it and communicating with her why it's wrong. I'm not 100% sure on the timeout factor yet, some "experts" say it just isn't effective before 3. I can only hope this hitting phase is short lived - it only started a few weeks ago.

Anyway, at least it's only Saturday, and 2 more days off to enjoy. Tomorrow will be Indiana Jones (which by all accounts, should suck hard) and... drum roll... DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS! Yes, finally after a month of hoping for a first session as a player, it's finally going to happen. I think the 4 other people I play with have the worst combination of weekend jobs possible, making it damn near impossible to get time to play together. I suppose it doesn't help, I have no other hobbies right now either...

Pictures, quick

As the lines between negativity, apathy, and daily survival blur together in my head to the point where I can't even focus... Let's stick to some pictures and save the good stuff for another day shall we?

This weekend, Megan and I enjoyed some quality alone time, as Andrea was down visiting her parents helping with a garage sale they were doing. Friday night we hit the park and gelato, while Saturday morning we had a fun time at a local free "family fun days" at a Lakeville school. In reality, it was an attempt for some local businesses to connect to the community with some not to subtle advertising mixed in. Overall there was a lot of fun for the kids. Not to mention, TONS of free food. From Perkins mini muffins, to Subway, to Domino's pizza.

Megan was excited to go, as I talked up the morning events. She had her car keys and purse ready!



Megan playing musical dots with help from Grandma. (Grandma helped a lot that day!)



This next picture requires an explanation, before people think I just like to torture my daughter for picture amusement. Megan saw this thing and WANTED to go inside. She even waited in line for her turn, and she NEVER waits her turn. When the door was opened up for her, she ran straight inside... Once the money started going, she just kinda froze up, but didn't freak out or anything. After it was turned off, she seemed to have had a fun time and grabbed a hand full of dollars on her way out.



Megan was also chasing the school mascots (Cougar and Panther) around, making the cat sign and growling sounds.



Sunday brought a big surprise for me... You see, I had this grand idea to try fixing my garden this year. I mentioned it to my Mom, and next thing I know she and John show up at my door step with a tiller, top soil, and some flowers! So what the hell, we dived right in. I took back seat to the gardening masters and just kinda went along with the flow.

Not a true before picture, as the garden itself was completely over run with tons of grass/weeds.



Megan even added some help, carrying over the flowers.



The finished product... Do I qualify as a gardener? Hardly.



Check back in a week, see if anything survived. And for the record, I am now the proud owner of a hose. I won't even get into what a fiasco that was...

What makes the world go round

I said I was going to talk about my bike ride of last weekend, but now I'm just not motivated. The ride itself was an experiement to see if I could do some kind of half drive-half bike commute to work. Overall, I'd say the experiement failed. The ride was way to hard for something I'd want to do, and the alternatives were not appealing. I could drive a full 12 miles, then bike another 9? My normal commute is 18 miles... so I'd save 6 but spend 9 biking. Hmmm, maybe. Anyway, here is the route I did (there and back):



In other news, I've been starting to take some new perspectives on work lately. I think for awhile there I was getting caught up in the overall importance of it all. Because for the first time, I was at a job I actually somewhat enjoyed and wanted to stay at from a long term perspective. But it's quickly come apparent to me that I need to take a step back from all that, to get back to where I once was. Work is nothing more then a means to an end. I had those thoughts as far back as 2005, and I just need to get back to that. I'm going to live a large percentage of my life in a cube working on shit that has no baring/meaning/importance, and I'm okay with that. Because it's just what I need to do to provide the things my family needs.

I've posted my thoughts about money before so I guess I should stop rehashing the same old shit. I guess I just find it odd that 3 years later, it's just the same thoughts running through my head. What does that mean? Does it mean I hate how our society works? Does it mean I'll never be content working within the system? Or does it simply mean that no matter what I think, I'll forever be a slave to that system?

God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

Tuesday Picture Day

Megan went to bed tonight without any fuss. Not that she is particularly fussy about bed time, but she likes to fight it like any normal kid. When we put her to bed, she usually comes out of her bedroom anywhere from 1-4 times until finally going to bed. My Mom watched her over night on Saturday night and asked, "Is she always that good with bed time?" Apparently so!

Just wanted to get some pictures up of recent days. Nothing special in particular, just a few fun shots.

Here is a picture of that night I mentioned a few days ago, about Megan and I just playing around on the floor one night. We ended up falling asleep together, it was great.



We got some of those Flavorice sticks recently. They were a bit too cold for Megan, but with some minor help, she was eating them in style.



Just a cute shot of Mom and Megan.



Megan was very excited when she found out we were going to see Grandma Gayle.



If you're keeping tabs on my Exercise Log, which I know everyone does! You might have noticed I actually did something OTHER then run this weekend. Yes, my first actual bike ride of the summer. It was a bit rough, but fun. More on that later this week.

5:51

The first 4 day weekend is here, and what happens? I get a cold that hits me first thing this morning. Seriously... wtf? What on earth did I do to deserve that? Oh well, I'm not going to let a little thing like that stop me from having fun this weekend.

Last night was the Twin Cities 1 Mile run. Sort of a silly event, but a lot of prize money to be given out. I settled on a goal of 6 minutes, and was able to do 5:51!!! That time puts me REALLY close to the top 10% overall. (220 out of 1893) And to think... $10,000 dollars was a mere 1:51 within my grasp.

Before the run, I had a small dinner of pasta and one garlic bread. I sort of regret that decision, but the timing of the event (7:30pm) made it so I couldn't go all night without food!

During the run, I was afraid I was pushing to hard. I started out near the front of the pack at something just above a 5 minute pace. I knew obviously I was going faster then my body could handle but figured, what the hell, it's only 6 minutes right? Somewhere around the half mile mark I figured I was done for. In other words, straight up quit.

Somehow I kept going, even though I dropped my pace down hard. Then I saw the finish line and bursted with every thing I had left.

After the run, I felt sick to my stomach. I got a bad metallic taste in my mouth, which my friend explained to me was lactic acid. I have no clue how the body works under these situations, so I had to do some goggling today. One of my toes started burning as well, turns out a blister formed + popped all within that single mile. Not quite sure how that happens.... Maybe it was just there all along and I didn't realize it.

It was a fun time, and now I have to wait until Saturday to find out if I get selected as one of the 400 people for the TC 10 miler. My odds are about 1 in 5 to get selected, not too bad really.

Now, if only I could find some way to stop checking my damn work email while on my 4 day break!

uncustomized-post-template

It's past midnight on a night I thought, "Hey, I bet I could get some extra sleep tonight." I decided to go ahead and start tinkering with my blog layout, updating to use the new templates. I then proceeded to spend 3 hours getting it tweaked to just how I want it. The last 45 minutes were spent fixing this lame thing where the comments link was no longer right justified.


See how that looks? Compared to how it looks down below? Ya... so I get a bit obsessed sometimes. It ended up requiring that I stick the aforementioned title of this blog post somewhere deep in the bowels of bloggers junk.

I'm not done tweaking the layout yet, because I think it's time for a new header picture. It might take me awhile to find something new that I like, but by the end of the weekend something should be up.

In other news, this is just the sort of thing that happens when you don't find a replacement hobby. Putting aside my World of Warcraft playing wasn't that big a deal, but I still haven't found something else to do in it's place. I've tried a few video games, they've all been meh. I pored a bunch of time/thought into creating a D&D character for a campaign that may or may not even happen, to be run by someone else, while spam emailing everyone trying to make sure the first session happens. Last weekend I went to three movies on Sunday.

Blarg, why must I do everything in extremes?

On the plus side, there have been a few nights of extra sleep, and lots of fun time with Megan and Andrea. Last night, around 8:30pm, Megan just laid down near me down stairs while I was on the couch. So I jumped down and laid next to her and we talked and played. Then I moved her to her bedroom where we drifted off to sleep together, with her hand resting on my cheek. That was undoubtedly the highlight of my day.

Piggies as promised

I'm sorry for using my blog for my own selfish purposes. :-) Here are some pictures as promised... besides, it's the only reason anyone comes here anyway!

Let the 4 day weeks begin

Survived another week. Not sure why I say it that way, it's not like my life is some kind of war zone. Yet some times it feels like a battle is raging... somewhere.

Quoting Wiki-pedia, the only source for information these days:

Over the past twenty-five years, there has been a substantial increase in work which is felt to be due, in part, by information technology and by an intense, competitive work environment. Long-term loyalty and a “sense of corporate community” have been eroded by a performance culture that expects more and more from their employees yet offers little security in return.

Translation? Work people to the bone and then get rid of them when they are no longer useful.

Fact: I've been the lowest rung on the corporate ladder for 10 years (come June)
Prediction: I'll probably remain the lowest rung on that ladder for 30 more (if I can even last that long?)

Fact: I've never been fired, laid off, or otherwise given any indication that my job was at stake. (I've even survived lay offs)
Prediction: I'll probably be fired, laid off, or otherwise let go at some point in my life.

Fact: At every single job I've had, I've had ZERO of the skills actually needed for the job.
Prediction: I can probably adapt to any job as needed in the coming years.

Why do none of these facts or predictions make my stress any less? You'd think that by now, I'd have a good sense of my career "path", yet it's clear to me that in fact, there is no such thing.

Work is not a path I feel a need to walk down, it's a path I'm forced to walk down. The fact that human existance in our life time is centered around work, money, collection of wealth/meaningless things just makes me depressed. I don't want to be a part of that system, but there are no alternatives. (aside from winning the lottery?)

I don't know where I was going with this rant, other then the fact that when you start to spend only 3 hours a night with your family you start to question the point of it all. Existing only for the weekends is not good by any stretch, but sometimes it feels like that's all I have.

Enter the 4 day work weeks. For the next month, I've lined up some days off so that I have to be at work only 4 days every week. It includes two 4-day weekends, and I'm looking forward to it. I probably should be taking more time off work, but for whatever reason, I find myself in a situation where I have to "burn" time off. Meaning, if I don't use it, I'll lose it. Pretty sad, I know.

If I could survive on half the income I make, and work half the time, I would. Too bad that's not really an option either. Maybe I need to start doing the research now into the career "path" I will actually retire with. Because despite Peter Gibbons question of "What if we're still doin' this when we're 50?" My answer isn't quite the same as Samir's response of "It would be nice to have that kind of job security."