Here I sit, yet another week between posts. I've been struggling with the direction to go with my blog. In my mind, I see my blog as a windowed view into my life. The question is, does the window have blinders? For a long time, I feel like I've put filters on my posts based on "who might read this?", "what will they think if they do?", "will their opinion of me change?". I've come to the conclusion that this line of thinking has just killed my motivation to write anything at all.
You know what I've decided? Who the fuck cares. It's my blog, my thoughts, if someone reading it can't handle it, tough. It's who I am and that's all I know, and all I have to offer! So expect to see more posts 'round here. I might even change up the look and feel or... heaven forbid, even change my entire blog name!
In truth, the change to the blog isn't the only thing I'm needing to make. I've been struggling with motivation in other areas as well, particularly my running. The status quo worked for the weight loss, but it's becoming painfully obvious that staying motivated during "maintaining weight" is a much bigger mental challenge.
Finally, I need to make changes in other areas as well. From working on getting Megan to bed at a normal time (i.e. not 11pm), to getting to bed at a normal time myself. I've been staying up until midnight a LOT lately, which I know is not healthy. Just because I CAN handle staying up until midnight, doesn't mean I SHOULD be. I know that it effects my mood, which then effects my decisions, usually resulting in bad decisions. (i.e. not exercising, over eating, or spending too much time on World of Warcraft).
In the spirit of change, I even did something different at work today. Someone I work with has, in my opinion, put in a lot of effort recently. Practically doing the work of 2-3 people. I decided to make sure this effort was noticed and wrote up an "employee recognition" email to my boss. My little attempt to do something without my own interests in mind.
Have to cut this short, dinner is ready!!!
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Staying Positive
Or trying to anyway. Aside from work, things are great. I just haven't been motiviated to post, as mentioned previously. I suppose the best news is about our roof, insurance company, and neighbor. Basically all three are positive!
Our neighbor is on board with getting the roof replaced, and he actually owns a large scale construction company and has contacts that will be able to do the job at a very good price. On top of that, our Insurance adjuster came to the house on Tuesday and agreed that there was significant hail damage and that everything will be covered. Things have worked out with the best possible outcome!
I got out to see Harry Potter this past weekend. It was okay, but I can totally see why my brother gave me the report that he did. It really was just a bridge movie, and it didn't seem to have much plot of it's own. I also got two good runs in this weekend before this crazy heat wave.
If all that wasn't enough, I also finally reached the maximum level in World of Warcraft! Yes, a huge goal, I know. I got a little crazy over the weekend and just got it done so now I can relax a little and start to enjoy the new things I get to do at the maximum level. Basically there is a small group of people I'm playing with, that my co-worker introduced me too. So now I get to join them in some of the things they do within the game. Should be lots of fun!!
But work... oh work... why must you ruin it all?
Our neighbor is on board with getting the roof replaced, and he actually owns a large scale construction company and has contacts that will be able to do the job at a very good price. On top of that, our Insurance adjuster came to the house on Tuesday and agreed that there was significant hail damage and that everything will be covered. Things have worked out with the best possible outcome!
I got out to see Harry Potter this past weekend. It was okay, but I can totally see why my brother gave me the report that he did. It really was just a bridge movie, and it didn't seem to have much plot of it's own. I also got two good runs in this weekend before this crazy heat wave.
If all that wasn't enough, I also finally reached the maximum level in World of Warcraft! Yes, a huge goal, I know. I got a little crazy over the weekend and just got it done so now I can relax a little and start to enjoy the new things I get to do at the maximum level. Basically there is a small group of people I'm playing with, that my co-worker introduced me too. So now I get to join them in some of the things they do within the game. Should be lots of fun!!
But work... oh work... why must you ruin it all?
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Where does the time go
Despite the many strikes against me - going on 5 hours of sleep, stressed out about work, a complete lack of motivation... I somehow managed to push out an 8 mile run tonight. I seriously wanted to quit after 3, but managed to keep going. Might be my last out door run for awhile, it looks like a heat wave is headed our way.
I'm back to that "I don't feel like blogging" attitude. Most nights I feel like I'd rather be spending my time either exersizing, spending a few hours with Andrea & Megan, and unwinding with World of Warcraft. (level 66 if your curious, still 4 more levels to go) On top of all that is of course the fact that I have nothing to post about.
How about some more good news? I just found out I didn't get selected for the Twin Cities 10 miler. That sure put a damper into my spirits regarding running and training. It can be really hard to put the miles in, when you don't have something your working towards. I'm still going to try and shoot for my yearly goal of 1200 miles, but I'm not really doing the math yet on how close/far off I am to that goal. I know I'm in the right ball park still...
The latest stress is our home owners insurance. If you remember, I mentioned before how our insurance company just decided to drop us at random. The problem is, we need to get our roof replaced. It's 14 years old and had the hail damage from last summer. Why did we delay? Why did we sit on this? I don't know, so please don't ask. What we do know is that our neighbor already put in a claim and got his insurance check. But at the time, he told us he didn't want to replace the roof, and so we were like "Okay thats fine..."
Thus the problem. Now that our insurance is dropping us, we have to get a claim in to get an insurance check AND get the roof replaced within 6 months. That means I'll have to goto the neighbor and get him on board with a roof replacement. What if he doesn't want to? What if he blew the insurance money he already got? Or even worst case, what if our insurance company refuses to play nice and not accept our claim?
Blarg... I don't know what to think. I do know one thing - Andrea and I have learned we don't want to live in a twin home. Moving is on the agenda, and I can see it happening within the next 2-3 years. And when we do move, it will definitly be a single family unit. Anyway, going to stop thinking about it now and go space out with World of Warcraft!
I'm back to that "I don't feel like blogging" attitude. Most nights I feel like I'd rather be spending my time either exersizing, spending a few hours with Andrea & Megan, and unwinding with World of Warcraft. (level 66 if your curious, still 4 more levels to go) On top of all that is of course the fact that I have nothing to post about.
How about some more good news? I just found out I didn't get selected for the Twin Cities 10 miler. That sure put a damper into my spirits regarding running and training. It can be really hard to put the miles in, when you don't have something your working towards. I'm still going to try and shoot for my yearly goal of 1200 miles, but I'm not really doing the math yet on how close/far off I am to that goal. I know I'm in the right ball park still...
The latest stress is our home owners insurance. If you remember, I mentioned before how our insurance company just decided to drop us at random. The problem is, we need to get our roof replaced. It's 14 years old and had the hail damage from last summer. Why did we delay? Why did we sit on this? I don't know, so please don't ask. What we do know is that our neighbor already put in a claim and got his insurance check. But at the time, he told us he didn't want to replace the roof, and so we were like "Okay thats fine..."
Thus the problem. Now that our insurance is dropping us, we have to get a claim in to get an insurance check AND get the roof replaced within 6 months. That means I'll have to goto the neighbor and get him on board with a roof replacement. What if he doesn't want to? What if he blew the insurance money he already got? Or even worst case, what if our insurance company refuses to play nice and not accept our claim?
Blarg... I don't know what to think. I do know one thing - Andrea and I have learned we don't want to live in a twin home. Moving is on the agenda, and I can see it happening within the next 2-3 years. And when we do move, it will definitly be a single family unit. Anyway, going to stop thinking about it now and go space out with World of Warcraft!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Not so lazy Sunday
Because I ended up doing a somewhat intensive run Friday night, I delayed a long run until this morning. Got a solid 12 miles in at a decent pace. Actually, I didn't monitor my pace the entire run. This goes back to when I first started using the heart rate monitor. Instead of constantly checking my pace or distance, I was only checking my heart rate. The goal being to keep my heart rate below a certain level. It seemed to work out much better, as I never felt like I was running too hard.
Although I mentioned seeing Harry Potter this weekend, my brother reported that it was only mediocre. Good, but nothing special... So I compromised and went to see Die Hard 4, because everyone seemed to enjoy it, and Andrea wanted to see that more then Harry Potter. It was a fun movie, a bit over the top a times, but still fun. The jet scene at the end was really the last straw for me where I went, "Okay... come on, that is just TOO much." It was like Bruce Willis just wanted to make the most macho, big explosions, huge stunts movie that he could. And in that regard, he succeeded.
Speaking of my brother... I haven't heard how the rest of his move went. I only helped for about 3 hours on Thursday night, I didn't stick around for the unpacking. For the most part, they planned to just unload the back of the truck into the garage/living room and then slowly bring stuff in over time. I did get to see the place they are moving into, and it is very nice. I think the change will do him good, and the extra space will help. Hopefully they will have us over once they've got everything settled.
Rest of today I'm going to rest and play some World of Warcraft... My character is level 64, so just 6 more levels to go. (70 is the maximum) Should take somewhere around 6-8 hours per level, so only about 40 hours to go! A simple work week, no problem!
Although I mentioned seeing Harry Potter this weekend, my brother reported that it was only mediocre. Good, but nothing special... So I compromised and went to see Die Hard 4, because everyone seemed to enjoy it, and Andrea wanted to see that more then Harry Potter. It was a fun movie, a bit over the top a times, but still fun. The jet scene at the end was really the last straw for me where I went, "Okay... come on, that is just TOO much." It was like Bruce Willis just wanted to make the most macho, big explosions, huge stunts movie that he could. And in that regard, he succeeded.
Speaking of my brother... I haven't heard how the rest of his move went. I only helped for about 3 hours on Thursday night, I didn't stick around for the unpacking. For the most part, they planned to just unload the back of the truck into the garage/living room and then slowly bring stuff in over time. I did get to see the place they are moving into, and it is very nice. I think the change will do him good, and the extra space will help. Hopefully they will have us over once they've got everything settled.
Rest of today I'm going to rest and play some World of Warcraft... My character is level 64, so just 6 more levels to go. (70 is the maximum) Should take somewhere around 6-8 hours per level, so only about 40 hours to go! A simple work week, no problem!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Sun and Rain
It's always tough going back to work after a long break. This week is no exception, as work continued to stress me out. The blow has been somewhat lessoned by the fact the company is doing well enough to give everyone bonus checks. I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.
It finally cooled down enough to do an outside run and what happens? It rains on me! It wasn't too bad, it must have only rained for about 5 minuted at most. Directly after the rain, it was pure sun shine, no clouds, very nice. I would have liked to go longer but needed to get home in time for dinner.
Tonight Andrea is having a Mom's club business meeting at our house, so Megan and I have to stay down stairs while the women folk do thier thing up stairs. Not like that's very different from our typical evenings, other then the fact that I'll get to sneak up stairs for fruit & cake.
I completely forgot that the newest Harry Potter comes out today. Not sure why they picked a midweek release, needless to say, I won't be getting around to seeing it until this weekend. My brother is going tonight, so I'm sure he will give me the low down tomorrow. I am helping him move for what must be the third time. (third times the charm?) They are moving into some very quality town homes in Burnsville with another couple and one other person. There will be a lot more space and 2 floors seperating the guys loud TV's / late night video game playing from the bed rooms. Should be nice for anyone living there trying to maintain a semi-normal sleeping schedule.
Not much else going on this week or weekend, so don't expect much in the way of blog posts. Don't see much point to wasting good blog space with me rambling on about nothing much at all. Wait... that's just what I did. Okay, enough of this, time for video games!!
It finally cooled down enough to do an outside run and what happens? It rains on me! It wasn't too bad, it must have only rained for about 5 minuted at most. Directly after the rain, it was pure sun shine, no clouds, very nice. I would have liked to go longer but needed to get home in time for dinner.
Tonight Andrea is having a Mom's club business meeting at our house, so Megan and I have to stay down stairs while the women folk do thier thing up stairs. Not like that's very different from our typical evenings, other then the fact that I'll get to sneak up stairs for fruit & cake.
I completely forgot that the newest Harry Potter comes out today. Not sure why they picked a midweek release, needless to say, I won't be getting around to seeing it until this weekend. My brother is going tonight, so I'm sure he will give me the low down tomorrow. I am helping him move for what must be the third time. (third times the charm?) They are moving into some very quality town homes in Burnsville with another couple and one other person. There will be a lot more space and 2 floors seperating the guys loud TV's / late night video game playing from the bed rooms. Should be nice for anyone living there trying to maintain a semi-normal sleeping schedule.
Not much else going on this week or weekend, so don't expect much in the way of blog posts. Don't see much point to wasting good blog space with me rambling on about nothing much at all. Wait... that's just what I did. Okay, enough of this, time for video games!!
Sunday, July 08, 2007
The End
Of the weekend! Due to unforeseen circumstances, we weren't able to get out to see Live Free or Die Hard, but that's okay. I'll probably hit it up on DVD when it comes out. The end of the weekend unfolded as one long relaxation event. I got one minor run in, and that's really about it. Tonight Andrea and I capped off the weekend with some beer and pizza, something we haven't done for quite awhile.
Thursday night we headed out to the YMCA for some family swimming. The bad news is that the family pool was closed! There was one lane of the lap pool available for open swim, so we made the best of it. Megan had a great time, I think we will plan another swimming event soon.
Friday we had made plans for Megan to be babysat between 10am-noon. We ended up using the time to watch the movie Shooter, which we had from Netflix. It was a pretty good movie, nothing too spectacular.
On Saturday, Andrea's parents came up for a visit. It was good to see them both, they brought up some sandwich fixings for lunch and stayed until Megan's nap time. Today, I had planned on getting a nice long run in, but decided on skipping in favor of... sleeping in.
In other news, I've finally taken the next step in some goals I set for myself earlier this year. You might remember how I mentioned about biking trails I wanted to check out. Obviously, the key to that is having the ability to transport my bike to said trails. I finally got around to being able to do that, thanks to my friend and old college roommate giving me a car bike rack he wasn't using.
Now that I have it hooked up, I think I will actually start to plan some trips and get some long bike rides in. I'll probably wait until this heat wave ends and it gets a little cooler outside.
Thursday night we headed out to the YMCA for some family swimming. The bad news is that the family pool was closed! There was one lane of the lap pool available for open swim, so we made the best of it. Megan had a great time, I think we will plan another swimming event soon.
Friday we had made plans for Megan to be babysat between 10am-noon. We ended up using the time to watch the movie Shooter, which we had from Netflix. It was a pretty good movie, nothing too spectacular.
On Saturday, Andrea's parents came up for a visit. It was good to see them both, they brought up some sandwich fixings for lunch and stayed until Megan's nap time. Today, I had planned on getting a nice long run in, but decided on skipping in favor of... sleeping in.
In other news, I've finally taken the next step in some goals I set for myself earlier this year. You might remember how I mentioned about biking trails I wanted to check out. Obviously, the key to that is having the ability to transport my bike to said trails. I finally got around to being able to do that, thanks to my friend and old college roommate giving me a car bike rack he wasn't using.
Now that I have it hooked up, I think I will actually start to plan some trips and get some long bike rides in. I'll probably wait until this heat wave ends and it gets a little cooler outside.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Vacations Rock
Maybe I should take more of them? A few days ago, something very strange occurred to me. I was reviewing my available vacation time at work, and it dawned on me that I had achieved something never previously done before. I had reached the MAXIMUM allowed saved up vacation time. That seemed crazy to me, as I'm the first one to take time off when I have it. I feel like this must mean something... but what it means, I'm just not sure. I think for now, I'll just assume it means I need to TAKE MORE VACATION!
That's just what I'm doing this week, and so far it is great! So much fun, I can't even cram it all into one post I think. Tuesday was my brothers 26th birthday. Due to some miscommunication we almost weren't able to join him for dinner, but our other engagement was called on account of rain. That made our choice for us, and we headed to Olive Garden.
After that, the rain stopped and we went ahead with our other plans, which was to visit the Family Fun Night at Hayes Park, part of the July 4th festivities in Apple Valley. It was a lot of fun, Megan got to dance, jump in a bouncer, and most fun of all, check out a petting zoo! (pictures below)
Yesterday we enjoyed the movie Transformers. I can't say enough good things about this movie, it was by far the best movie in 2007. I'm going to see it again, no doubt. After the movie, I got a good (and very hot!) run in over to my Mom's, where we had a wonderful 4th of July BBQ. No fireworks this year, besides, they are a tad overrated anyway.
If all this wasn't enough, somewhere within the next half hour, my brother is coming over to babysit for us! Andrea and I are going to get yet ANOTHER movie in, Live Free or Die Hard. Talk about fun filled vacation, and it's only Thursday!!
Check back later this week for even more reports, and some news on some of my year goals that I'm working on.
Megan & Grandma with some clowns. She didn't seem afraid of them at all.
Megan enjoying the jumper.
Megan introduces herself to the baby calf.
And then gives him a nice pat down.
Megan really liked the little goats running around, she got so excited when they ran up to her.
It's hard to tell, but that big llama swung his head around... I swear he was either gonna give Megan a big kiss or try to take a bite out of her! She didn't even notice it...
That's just what I'm doing this week, and so far it is great! So much fun, I can't even cram it all into one post I think. Tuesday was my brothers 26th birthday. Due to some miscommunication we almost weren't able to join him for dinner, but our other engagement was called on account of rain. That made our choice for us, and we headed to Olive Garden.
After that, the rain stopped and we went ahead with our other plans, which was to visit the Family Fun Night at Hayes Park, part of the July 4th festivities in Apple Valley. It was a lot of fun, Megan got to dance, jump in a bouncer, and most fun of all, check out a petting zoo! (pictures below)
Yesterday we enjoyed the movie Transformers. I can't say enough good things about this movie, it was by far the best movie in 2007. I'm going to see it again, no doubt. After the movie, I got a good (and very hot!) run in over to my Mom's, where we had a wonderful 4th of July BBQ. No fireworks this year, besides, they are a tad overrated anyway.
If all this wasn't enough, somewhere within the next half hour, my brother is coming over to babysit for us! Andrea and I are going to get yet ANOTHER movie in, Live Free or Die Hard. Talk about fun filled vacation, and it's only Thursday!!
Check back later this week for even more reports, and some news on some of my year goals that I'm working on.
Megan & Grandma with some clowns. She didn't seem afraid of them at all.
Megan enjoying the jumper.
Megan introduces herself to the baby calf.
And then gives him a nice pat down.
Megan really liked the little goats running around, she got so excited when they ran up to her.
It's hard to tell, but that big llama swung his head around... I swear he was either gonna give Megan a big kiss or try to take a bite out of her! She didn't even notice it...
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Mom's Club Picnic
At the last minute, I remembered to bring my camera along. Actually, we were already out of the driveway and Andrea remembered. The crappy part is, I didn't charge the batteries, so I was only able to get a couple of pictures. Thankfully, they were all pretty good ones.
Megan playing with one of the lawn games we brought, Ladder Golf.
Megan showing the older boy the obviously easier way to throw the bean bags into the holes.
We had two tables full of food, and one person making hot dogs on the grill. There was more then enough food for everyone.
Megan and I enjoying the swing.
Posing with the party viewable in the background.
It was a great event, Andrea did a lot to organize and bring it all together. No kids were injured and everyone had a fun time. We were exhausted after we got home, and so enjoyed the rest of the day just relaxing.
Today will be much of the same, although I got a short bike ride in this morning and hopefully we will visit a park this evening for something fun to do. This last picture was taken a few days ago by Andrea. She came into Megan's room to find her having done this all by herself.
Megan playing with one of the lawn games we brought, Ladder Golf.
Megan showing the older boy the obviously easier way to throw the bean bags into the holes.
We had two tables full of food, and one person making hot dogs on the grill. There was more then enough food for everyone.
Megan and I enjoying the swing.
Posing with the party viewable in the background.
It was a great event, Andrea did a lot to organize and bring it all together. No kids were injured and everyone had a fun time. We were exhausted after we got home, and so enjoyed the rest of the day just relaxing.
Today will be much of the same, although I got a short bike ride in this morning and hopefully we will visit a park this evening for something fun to do. This last picture was taken a few days ago by Andrea. She came into Megan's room to find her having done this all by herself.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Come get some
Ya, I know I haven't posted since Sunday. Thought maybe I would try to sum up my week in as few words as possible.
Monday: Work, no exercise, world of warcraft
Tuesday: Work, bike ride with Steve, world of warcraft
Wed: Work, 5.75 mile run, Red Lobster!, world of warcraft
Thur: Work, 8.1 mile run, blog, world of warcraft
See a trend there? Slightly... Maybe I'm playing too much world of warcraft, I can't really tell. Andrea says I need my personal fun time, but I just feel like I'm neglecting my fatherly duties, spending time with Andrea and Megan. Granted it's been a little too hot lately to do much, but maybe I should make more effort to plan family events during the week. Ah well...
Tonight's run was excellent. Perfect run weather. As I said, I did 8.1 miles - the cool part was my last mile. According to my monitor, I ran it in 7:13. Not a bad pace for an 8th mile. To put that in perspective, imagine running the length of a football field in 25 seconds, 17.5 times. (after already running 7 miles!). The real question would be, could I keep that pace up from start to finish of a 10k?
I know I haven't posted much in the way of pictures lately, so I'll make up for it this weekend. We have a very fun Mom's club picnic event planned for Saturday morning, and I will FORCE myself to remember my camera and take some pictures of the event to share with everyone. Andrea has put in a ton of effort to organize this event, and it's looking like there will be a great turn out. Weather forecast is also looking good. I hope it all comes together wonderfully!
Monday: Work, no exercise, world of warcraft
Tuesday: Work, bike ride with Steve, world of warcraft
Wed: Work, 5.75 mile run, Red Lobster!, world of warcraft
Thur: Work, 8.1 mile run, blog, world of warcraft
See a trend there? Slightly... Maybe I'm playing too much world of warcraft, I can't really tell. Andrea says I need my personal fun time, but I just feel like I'm neglecting my fatherly duties, spending time with Andrea and Megan. Granted it's been a little too hot lately to do much, but maybe I should make more effort to plan family events during the week. Ah well...
Tonight's run was excellent. Perfect run weather. As I said, I did 8.1 miles - the cool part was my last mile. According to my monitor, I ran it in 7:13. Not a bad pace for an 8th mile. To put that in perspective, imagine running the length of a football field in 25 seconds, 17.5 times. (after already running 7 miles!). The real question would be, could I keep that pace up from start to finish of a 10k?
I know I haven't posted much in the way of pictures lately, so I'll make up for it this weekend. We have a very fun Mom's club picnic event planned for Saturday morning, and I will FORCE myself to remember my camera and take some pictures of the event to share with everyone. Andrea has put in a ton of effort to organize this event, and it's looking like there will be a great turn out. Weather forecast is also looking good. I hope it all comes together wonderfully!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Ups and Downs
Clever title eh? Yesterday was full of them both. The day started out on such a high note. Megan slept in until 8:45, and I timed it JUST right to be in her room, standing over her crib as she opened her eyes to greet the day. It put her in such a great mood to see me first thing, I couldn't help but get in a good mood as well.
We headed over to Grandma Gayle's to drop her off for the afternoon, so we could enjoy our day at Valleyfair. I think we ended up making it to Valleyfair around 11:30, maybe just a little bit after that. Went on a few rides and I did the Power Tower a few times. Then we headed over to lunch at 2:30pm.
Lunch was okay, nothing special. Dried out chicken sandwiches... but hey, it's free right? Turns out the free food wasn't the highlight of lunch though, as my company had a drawing for prizes and I ended up winning!! I got a $150 dollar gift certificate to Target! It was like getting your cake, eating it, and getting another whole piece to boot.
After lunch we headed back into the park, but Andrea and I had different ideas of what we wanted to do. Maybe the heat was getting to us a little bit too, but we ended up splitting up to do our own things. I wanted to hit the last 2 roller coasters, Wild Thing and the new one, Renegade. Andrea wanted to watch a comedian magician inside this theater thing that I've never actually been in.
Turns out the line for the Renegade was unbearably hot, long (30+ minutes) and the ride itself wasn't all that. Sure it was fast and twisty, but I really like the free fall feeling much more (I did the Power Tower 5 times). The Renegade was all about being the only coaster with a turn on the initial down slope. To me that was just more of a distraction then anything else.
On top of that, the magician Andrea saw turned out to be not that enjoyable either. Cheesy jokes and not that entertaining. Add that to the heat, me being late to our meeting place due to the long line on the Renegade, and you have a recipe for disaster. We had a nice good argument on our way home, only to realize we were both just kinda of pissed off that what we did ended up not being that enjoyable.
Oh well, gotta look at the positive side. At least I got in for free, free lunch, and $150 dollars to boot! Can't complain with that.
We headed over to Grandma Gayle's to drop her off for the afternoon, so we could enjoy our day at Valleyfair. I think we ended up making it to Valleyfair around 11:30, maybe just a little bit after that. Went on a few rides and I did the Power Tower a few times. Then we headed over to lunch at 2:30pm.
Lunch was okay, nothing special. Dried out chicken sandwiches... but hey, it's free right? Turns out the free food wasn't the highlight of lunch though, as my company had a drawing for prizes and I ended up winning!! I got a $150 dollar gift certificate to Target! It was like getting your cake, eating it, and getting another whole piece to boot.
After lunch we headed back into the park, but Andrea and I had different ideas of what we wanted to do. Maybe the heat was getting to us a little bit too, but we ended up splitting up to do our own things. I wanted to hit the last 2 roller coasters, Wild Thing and the new one, Renegade. Andrea wanted to watch a comedian magician inside this theater thing that I've never actually been in.
Turns out the line for the Renegade was unbearably hot, long (30+ minutes) and the ride itself wasn't all that. Sure it was fast and twisty, but I really like the free fall feeling much more (I did the Power Tower 5 times). The Renegade was all about being the only coaster with a turn on the initial down slope. To me that was just more of a distraction then anything else.
On top of that, the magician Andrea saw turned out to be not that enjoyable either. Cheesy jokes and not that entertaining. Add that to the heat, me being late to our meeting place due to the long line on the Renegade, and you have a recipe for disaster. We had a nice good argument on our way home, only to realize we were both just kinda of pissed off that what we did ended up not being that enjoyable.
Oh well, gotta look at the positive side. At least I got in for free, free lunch, and $150 dollars to boot! Can't complain with that.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Rocky Start
This weekend is off to an interesting start. Earlier this week, Andrea's mother was in town for some surgery. She is at home now recovering, and Andrea headed down to help out and visit. She dropped Megan off at the back up child care center on her way.
I got a phone call around 10:45am that Megan had thrown up. She didn't seem sick and wasn't showing any other signs of sickness, but they have a policy that if a kid throws up twice, you have to come get them. So this phone call was the "warning" call. Then at 12:15pm, they called again, Megan had thrown up again.
I emailed my boss to say I had to leave work early and headed out to pick her up. Honestly, I didn't really mind. Now that I have access to work from home, it really was no big deal. I didn't even actually take sick time / time off. Megan seemed just fine when I got there, and she feel asleep on the way home.
Shortly before getting home, I ended up getting hit by a very severe thunder storm. You couldn't even see more then 15 feet out in front of you. Traffic slowed to a crawl, but luckily I was just about to exit. After getting home, I got Megan settled in for a nice 2 hour nap and started working from home.
Now she is just fine, so I have no clue what happened at the day care. She is eating fine, just had a ton of gold fish crackers and pineapple. My guess is she just drank too much milk and started bouncing around or something and it came back up. Oh well...
We just got done with an early evening bath, and she is happy as a clam. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will go more smoothly, mainly I'm worried about weather conditions for Valleyfair tomorrow!
I got a phone call around 10:45am that Megan had thrown up. She didn't seem sick and wasn't showing any other signs of sickness, but they have a policy that if a kid throws up twice, you have to come get them. So this phone call was the "warning" call. Then at 12:15pm, they called again, Megan had thrown up again.
I emailed my boss to say I had to leave work early and headed out to pick her up. Honestly, I didn't really mind. Now that I have access to work from home, it really was no big deal. I didn't even actually take sick time / time off. Megan seemed just fine when I got there, and she feel asleep on the way home.
Shortly before getting home, I ended up getting hit by a very severe thunder storm. You couldn't even see more then 15 feet out in front of you. Traffic slowed to a crawl, but luckily I was just about to exit. After getting home, I got Megan settled in for a nice 2 hour nap and started working from home.
Now she is just fine, so I have no clue what happened at the day care. She is eating fine, just had a ton of gold fish crackers and pineapple. My guess is she just drank too much milk and started bouncing around or something and it came back up. Oh well...
We just got done with an early evening bath, and she is happy as a clam. Hopefully the rest of the weekend will go more smoothly, mainly I'm worried about weather conditions for Valleyfair tomorrow!
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Insurance is a scam
Today ended up being nice for an outside run. A little windy, but cool and no humidity. I was glad to get outside, as work has me all out of whack. For the first time, I'm getting past some of the red tape / middle management in order to get my job done. Sometimes I feel like I'm making more enemies then friends, but at the end of the day at least I can feel proud of what I am working on and feel like I am really putting my best effort into it. I can't control how other people approach their job, I can only control my own approach. Reminding myself of that can sometimes be exactly what I need to stay positive about it all.
I came home to some unfortunate news. Andrea was on the phone with someone as I walked in the door, and the look and tone of her voice indicated it was not a pleasant phone call. Turns out it was our home owners insurance company informing us that they were dropping us. Since I didn't field the call, I don't know exactly how they defined the reasons for dropping us, but Andrea specifically asked if it was because of our recent claim, and they said no. It makes me wonder if that is just a standard lie that the insurance companies tell people when they drop them for making a claim.
To be honest? I'm glad they dropped us, they have sucked from the very beginning. Not sure if I ever blogged about the time they sent us a letter telling us they were dropping us, only to follow up with a letter saying it was a mistake. In between those two letters Andrea spent all this time and effort to find us new home owners insurance. Hopefully that will end up being time well spent, as we will probably go with the company that Andrea originally did all the setup with.
Anyway, long story short - stress sucks, but I think we'll be okay. We have Valleyfair coming up this weekend, and that should be fun. I'm looking forward to the new roller coaster and hitting up the Power Tower a bunch. I just love that ride.
I came home to some unfortunate news. Andrea was on the phone with someone as I walked in the door, and the look and tone of her voice indicated it was not a pleasant phone call. Turns out it was our home owners insurance company informing us that they were dropping us. Since I didn't field the call, I don't know exactly how they defined the reasons for dropping us, but Andrea specifically asked if it was because of our recent claim, and they said no. It makes me wonder if that is just a standard lie that the insurance companies tell people when they drop them for making a claim.
To be honest? I'm glad they dropped us, they have sucked from the very beginning. Not sure if I ever blogged about the time they sent us a letter telling us they were dropping us, only to follow up with a letter saying it was a mistake. In between those two letters Andrea spent all this time and effort to find us new home owners insurance. Hopefully that will end up being time well spent, as we will probably go with the company that Andrea originally did all the setup with.
Anyway, long story short - stress sucks, but I think we'll be okay. We have Valleyfair coming up this weekend, and that should be fun. I'm looking forward to the new roller coaster and hitting up the Power Tower a bunch. I just love that ride.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Weekend of birthdays
And not mine! I almost forgot that we had a busy weekend of multiple birthday parties to attend. Last night was a surprise party for Steve who was turning the big Three-Oh. In a strange set of connections, Steve's good friend Brenden's brother's wife is in the Mom's club with Andrea. One of those "wow it's a small world" moments. The dinner was catered by Olive Garden, and was absolutely yummy! Chicken parmesan, pasta alfredo, salad & bread sticks! I did my best to try and help eat it, there was just so much! Needless to say, I ate more then a few servings... Megan was dripping sweat after two hours of running around, so we opted for an early exit, before cake was served. Probably a good choice, all things considered. Came home and gave Megan a cool bath.
This morning I tried to work it all off with nice long run. I ended up doing a solid 11.8 miles before it got too warm this morning. I was 180 on the scale after my run, so I guess I was able to run off my over indulgent choices from last night. I think I'll be able to keep it down this week, although those are always my famous last words.
Tonight is birthday party number two, Lily, the daughter of our friends Jim and Jenny is turning 2. It should be fun, they have some type of water events planned. I'm sure Megan is going to have a great time, I'll have to come back with some pictures later tonight.
Forgot my camera, but luckily everyone uses digital cameras these days. Some pictures taken not by me:
This morning I tried to work it all off with nice long run. I ended up doing a solid 11.8 miles before it got too warm this morning. I was 180 on the scale after my run, so I guess I was able to run off my over indulgent choices from last night. I think I'll be able to keep it down this week, although those are always my famous last words.
Tonight is birthday party number two, Lily, the daughter of our friends Jim and Jenny is turning 2. It should be fun, they have some type of water events planned. I'm sure Megan is going to have a great time, I'll have to come back with some pictures later tonight.
Forgot my camera, but luckily everyone uses digital cameras these days. Some pictures taken not by me:
Friday, June 15, 2007
All Safe
Got the news from my Mom around noon today, Scott & Val were able to get into thier apartment about 11:30pm last night. Everything was safe and the cats were just fine. Just a minor bad smoke smell throughout all the buildings I'm sure.
Tonight I went to see Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I thought it was an awesome movie, the second best comic book movie / sequal of the year in my opinion. (first place still going to T.M.N.T). My only issue with the movie was that it was to short! I liked it enough to go buy the first one on DVD for $9.99.
Also bought the expansion to World of Warcraft finally... Just means I'll be playing even more WoW in the coming weeks. Speaking of which, think I will go get started now.
Tonight I went to see Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. I thought it was an awesome movie, the second best comic book movie / sequal of the year in my opinion. (first place still going to T.M.N.T). My only issue with the movie was that it was to short! I liked it enough to go buy the first one on DVD for $9.99.
Also bought the expansion to World of Warcraft finally... Just means I'll be playing even more WoW in the coming weeks. Speaking of which, think I will go get started now.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
The Roof is on Fire
A rainbow that was visible from my driveway recently.
Unlike previous years, I specifically decide NOT to make a blog post on the actual day of my birthday. Instead, my birthday has come and gone, I am now 31 years old. Tonight, I had the family over for some order out food and ice cream cake. Little did I know, the visit would have much more going on then just my birthday...
If you've been watching the news at all tonight, odds are good that you've seen the story about an apartment complex in Burnsville that is currently on fire. Click here to view the story on KSTP. What you might not know, is that this is the apartment complex that my brother Scott, wife Val and their roommates live at!
Thankfully everyone is safe, and the actual apartment they live in is pretty far from the heart of the fire. Odds are the apartment they are in is fine, perhaps with smoke damage depending on how bad its traveling through the building. Right now I'm mostly worried about their two cats, who are stuck in the apartment. I really hope they are okay!!
We tried to enjoy dinner here as best we could, and Scott and Val were in good spirits all things considering. To think that they are moving out of those apartments in just one month!! And to have this happen, what are the odds? In my brothers words, "Hey, it was my day off, something bad had to happen." They might stay with my Mom tonight, I don't know if they will let people back in tonight. Even if they do, there still might be smoke in the building that would make it very hard to stay there.
I'll post tomorrow with updates on the situation, I told them to call me tonight with any updates. They just left about 20 minutes ago and were planning on stopping by to check out the situation. I guess putting out the fire was hampered very much by the 90 degree weather today, making it hard for the fire fighters to do their job. More updates tomorrow!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Busy, full, fun, not over yet!
Title sums up my weekend! Took today off as my "birthday" day off. I'd imagine most people tend to take a day off for their birthday, I know it's become more or less standard for me. I think companies should just institute a policy where everyone gets to take there birthday off as a bonus holiday.
Friday night we dropped Megan off at Grandma Gayle's to go see Oceans 13. For the most part, another crappy sequel. I'm starting to think this year of sequels is going to just end up being the year of flops. Saturday was mostly relaxing for me. Andrea attended a "Growth Track" class at River Valley Church. I really don't know much about it. Overall she said she was glad she went, so she must have enjoyed it. Then we visited my sister in law at a fund raiser she was working at, outside Sam's Club in Apple Valley. For the 2nd time, she is doing the Breast Cancer 3-day 60 mile walk. They were able to raise an amazing $2,000 dollars!
Sunday was jammed packed as some old college friends were in the area to go to the MN Zoo. They stopped by with the newest addition to their family, 6 week old Mackenzie. We enjoyed a nice grill out for lunch and caught up. Their older daughter and Megan warmed up after a little bit and had a great time together. After that, we attended a birthday party for a boy in the Mom's club. Very full day, especially for Megan who ended up sleeping through the birthday party! She woke up at the end to get some ice cream.
Here are some pictures from the weekend, and a very cute picture of Megan in her "new" chair. Apparently this chair belonged to Andrea when she was growing up.
Megan definitely likes new babies... No I'm not hinting at anything, and don't ask us!
The girls playing together after a little bit of getting to know each other.
Enjoying some goldfish crackers together.
Megan in her new rocking chair.
Friday night we dropped Megan off at Grandma Gayle's to go see Oceans 13. For the most part, another crappy sequel. I'm starting to think this year of sequels is going to just end up being the year of flops. Saturday was mostly relaxing for me. Andrea attended a "Growth Track" class at River Valley Church. I really don't know much about it. Overall she said she was glad she went, so she must have enjoyed it. Then we visited my sister in law at a fund raiser she was working at, outside Sam's Club in Apple Valley. For the 2nd time, she is doing the Breast Cancer 3-day 60 mile walk. They were able to raise an amazing $2,000 dollars!
Sunday was jammed packed as some old college friends were in the area to go to the MN Zoo. They stopped by with the newest addition to their family, 6 week old Mackenzie. We enjoyed a nice grill out for lunch and caught up. Their older daughter and Megan warmed up after a little bit and had a great time together. After that, we attended a birthday party for a boy in the Mom's club. Very full day, especially for Megan who ended up sleeping through the birthday party! She woke up at the end to get some ice cream.
Here are some pictures from the weekend, and a very cute picture of Megan in her "new" chair. Apparently this chair belonged to Andrea when she was growing up.
Megan definitely likes new babies... No I'm not hinting at anything, and don't ask us!
The girls playing together after a little bit of getting to know each other.
Enjoying some goldfish crackers together.
Megan in her new rocking chair.
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Off again on again
Made it through this week relatively unscathed. Had some late night meetings at work on the first half of the week, but I was able to weasel my way out of having to attend them today/tomorrow. Worst part of the week was having to go 3 days without a run, and in hind sight, I guess that's not that big a deal.
Once again I find myself struggling with blogging... It feels like all my posts lately have been filled with fluff. A little bit of "I did this, I did that, Megan's growing up" yadda, yadda, yadda. Not really posting about what thoughts are occupying my brain on any given week.
Obviously work occupies my thoughts a lot, and I of course have those fears about posting too much about work. Especially posting my "real" thoughts about work... Last thing I'd want to happen is to get fired because of my blog. I worry about getting fired for enough other reasons, last thing I need is one more.
Then of course are my thoughts about my health and exersize, which I feel like I've just beat to death. Who wants to read about the fact that I'm constantly struggling with my stupid 180 lbs weight goal, or how I go up and down 5-7 lbs every week. I could post for hours about how frustrated I get sometimes with healthy living, how I get so pissed off when I make bad decisions. But who wants to read about me complain about all that crap?
Finally of course are all my thoughts about my family, my friends, life, happiness, and the rest of it all. If you can't tell, I basically stopped posting about that stuff. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm afraid of sharing my honest thoughts. I know that I've become a very different person over the last year. I've become more judgemental, I seem to have less patience, and sometimes I worry that I've become a bitter person.
I'm 30 years old, turning 31 shortly. What the hell do I have to be bitter about? I don't know... But still, some days it just seems like I just don't really see any good in the world.
Once again I find myself struggling with blogging... It feels like all my posts lately have been filled with fluff. A little bit of "I did this, I did that, Megan's growing up" yadda, yadda, yadda. Not really posting about what thoughts are occupying my brain on any given week.
Obviously work occupies my thoughts a lot, and I of course have those fears about posting too much about work. Especially posting my "real" thoughts about work... Last thing I'd want to happen is to get fired because of my blog. I worry about getting fired for enough other reasons, last thing I need is one more.
Then of course are my thoughts about my health and exersize, which I feel like I've just beat to death. Who wants to read about the fact that I'm constantly struggling with my stupid 180 lbs weight goal, or how I go up and down 5-7 lbs every week. I could post for hours about how frustrated I get sometimes with healthy living, how I get so pissed off when I make bad decisions. But who wants to read about me complain about all that crap?
Finally of course are all my thoughts about my family, my friends, life, happiness, and the rest of it all. If you can't tell, I basically stopped posting about that stuff. I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm afraid of sharing my honest thoughts. I know that I've become a very different person over the last year. I've become more judgemental, I seem to have less patience, and sometimes I worry that I've become a bitter person.
I'm 30 years old, turning 31 shortly. What the hell do I have to be bitter about? I don't know... But still, some days it just seems like I just don't really see any good in the world.
Monday, June 04, 2007
There and back again
So much for weather predictions! All that doom and gloom rain, and Saturday morning turned out to be perfect. The run was awesome, felt great the whole time. Even better, Megan and Andrea were waiting for me at the finish line!
Turns out the numbers were in alphabetical order, so I was number 8. Normally the lowest numbers are reserved for the competitive runners, so it was funny to see such a low number. What was REALLY funny, was somewhere around mile 10, we ran by a couple of young kids, probably 7 or 8 years old. The one boy looks over to his friend and says, "Look, there's number 8!" like I was some kind of special runner. We got a good laugh out of that.
This was also my first awarded "medal" event. Kind of fun to get something like that... Normally all I have is the race bib which I usually throw away at some point. Maybe I'll keep the number 8 around for awhile. This race was dedicated to Megan, so I got a picture of her wearing the medal. The rest of the weekend I pretty much wasted away, playing World of Warcraft. Maybe even a tad too much... But hey, sometimes excess can be fun too.
Sunday morning I talked with my Mom who had some bad news to share. My uncle Jeff has been fighting liver cancer for awhile, and the initial treatment was not effective. Today he is starting chemotherapy. I don't have a good sense of how serious it is right now, probably because no one wants to think about some of the possible outcomes. All we can do is think positive, and hope the chemo does it's job. My thoughts go out to Jeff, and the rest of my family during this tough time.
Turns out the numbers were in alphabetical order, so I was number 8. Normally the lowest numbers are reserved for the competitive runners, so it was funny to see such a low number. What was REALLY funny, was somewhere around mile 10, we ran by a couple of young kids, probably 7 or 8 years old. The one boy looks over to his friend and says, "Look, there's number 8!" like I was some kind of special runner. We got a good laugh out of that.
This was also my first awarded "medal" event. Kind of fun to get something like that... Normally all I have is the race bib which I usually throw away at some point. Maybe I'll keep the number 8 around for awhile. This race was dedicated to Megan, so I got a picture of her wearing the medal. The rest of the weekend I pretty much wasted away, playing World of Warcraft. Maybe even a tad too much... But hey, sometimes excess can be fun too.
Sunday morning I talked with my Mom who had some bad news to share. My uncle Jeff has been fighting liver cancer for awhile, and the initial treatment was not effective. Today he is starting chemotherapy. I don't have a good sense of how serious it is right now, probably because no one wants to think about some of the possible outcomes. All we can do is think positive, and hope the chemo does it's job. My thoughts go out to Jeff, and the rest of my family during this tough time.
Friday, June 01, 2007
What was that?
Oh yes, blogging. Something like that... I just never really got motivated to blog this week. Mainly because I've been playing more World of Warcraft, but also because I haven't had anything interesting going on.
Truth is, I've not been in a very good mood this week. Is it possible for someone to get the summer blues? I don't know... I'm just trying to stay focused on my goals for now and try not to worry about it.
Right now, I'm just worried about rain in the morning for the half marathon. I don't want to run in the rain, but I'll do it if I have to. Anyway, maybe I'll report about it on Sunday. In the meantime, enjoy this cute pictures of Megan.
Megan got some new summer PJs recently.
Megan doing head stands!
Truth is, I've not been in a very good mood this week. Is it possible for someone to get the summer blues? I don't know... I'm just trying to stay focused on my goals for now and try not to worry about it.
Right now, I'm just worried about rain in the morning for the half marathon. I don't want to run in the rain, but I'll do it if I have to. Anyway, maybe I'll report about it on Sunday. In the meantime, enjoy this cute pictures of Megan.
Megan got some new summer PJs recently.
Megan doing head stands!
Monday, May 28, 2007
All Good Things
Must come to an end! The weekend was pretty good, probably the only bad part being the Pirates of the Caribbean movie. I ended up seeing it Friday night with my bro and posse. This was by far the worst of the 3 Pirates movies, and overall just a horrible flick. The best part was when the goddess in human form morphed into a 40 foot goddess in human form. Ashton Kutcher's line, "Wow, that is one Super Hot Giant Alien!" from Dude, Where's My Car immediately came to me. (which was probably a better movie). I recommend Ask a Ninja for further analysis of the Pirates movie.
Saturday I helped a friend move in the morning. It went great, very fast and easy. Worst part was that we could not fit the queen size box spring into the upstairs at the new place. Mom was watching Megan that afternoon while Andrea was out to lunch with a friend, so when I got home I went for a quick run since Megan had just went down for a nap. I enjoyed World of Warcraft the rest of the day!
Yesterday was typical lazy Sunday. More World of Warcraft and resting. We ended up watching "The Prestige" last night, which I also did not enjoy that much. I thought the ending was too stupid and/or not well built and unconvincing. Sure, I can suspend belief as much as the next person, but a movie has to do it in the right way for that to occur.
This afternoon, Andrea and I enjoyed a quick lunch date while Mom watched Megan again. We originally had plans to go all fancy because we have a $20 gift certificate to McCormick & Schmick's. Turns out they weren't open for lunch today, so we just went with Major's and DQ for dessert!
Thought I'd end today with a recent picture of Megan waking up in the morning:
Saturday I helped a friend move in the morning. It went great, very fast and easy. Worst part was that we could not fit the queen size box spring into the upstairs at the new place. Mom was watching Megan that afternoon while Andrea was out to lunch with a friend, so when I got home I went for a quick run since Megan had just went down for a nap. I enjoyed World of Warcraft the rest of the day!
Yesterday was typical lazy Sunday. More World of Warcraft and resting. We ended up watching "The Prestige" last night, which I also did not enjoy that much. I thought the ending was too stupid and/or not well built and unconvincing. Sure, I can suspend belief as much as the next person, but a movie has to do it in the right way for that to occur.
This afternoon, Andrea and I enjoyed a quick lunch date while Mom watched Megan again. We originally had plans to go all fancy because we have a $20 gift certificate to McCormick & Schmick's. Turns out they weren't open for lunch today, so we just went with Major's and DQ for dessert!
Thought I'd end today with a recent picture of Megan waking up in the morning:
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