Corporate Speak

A survey of office workers found that the use of management jargon by bosses lowers employee morale. Workers said they were particularly depressed by the terms "getting one's ducks in a row" and "thinking outside the box."

My personal favorite is "touching base". That one just depresses me. I know there are other ones, but I can't think of any right now. Lets just say, I'm glad that tomorrow is Friday and that next week is only 3 days long.

Andrea and I are going to try a little challenge starting on the 22nd, the day before Thanksgiving. I don't know exactly what it's called, but something along the lines of the "Maintain Challenge." The gist is, we will both weigh in on the 22nd with the goal of maintaining that weight until Jan 1st. Little does Andrea know, that I have serious weight loss goals from now until then, so I don't think it will be that hard for me... Anyway, onto some pictures:


Megan sitting in her carseat inside. I can remember when she barely fit in there!


Megan and Uncle Scott playing around one night.


Cute, peaceful, sleeping Megan. Scott, if you're reading this, you will be happy to know that Megan is just like you - she loves to sleep on her stomach!

Back on the Wagon

Today I stared at a blank, white wall for 60 minutes. And it was the best 60 minutes of the day. You know why? Because I was running on a treadmill at the time! I went four straight days without exercise, and my body was screaming at me to do something. I haven't gone that long without exercising for quite awhile, so it felt damn good to run tonight. I finally picked a health club to sign up for, right near my house called Fitness 19. I think it's called that because the memberships are $19 bucks a month. But I actually went all out and splurged for the cheaper $9 dollar a month membership. I say splurged, because there was a higher up front-cost. But in the long run, I just couldn't pass up $9 bucks a month for a place that I DRIVE by every day to work. It doesn't get much more convenient then that.

Not much else is knew, this week is looking to be pretty uneventful. I did goto Jim's house for his birthday party tonight. We played some poker and I lost $10 bucks. Actually technically speaking I only lost $8 bucks because that's all I had in my wallet at the time. So I guess I owe Jim $2 dollars that he spotted me... Ya, I'll remember that... Suuuure.

Maybe tomorrow I'll get to bed early... ya... tomorrow will be the night... Definitely.

Nightmares

Picture this: You spend 6 hours coming up with a story. You make up characters, good and evil. You give them stories, back grounds, motivations and goals. You weave this tale and try to come up with "loose" connections for your players so they can feel like they are a big part of the story. So they can feel like THEY are directing the story, and the story isn't direction them. You create dialog between characters in an attempt to "hint" them in the right direction. Sure, I delivered the dialog horribly but I tried. And after all this work to try and make the players feel "involved", I still get a "Well that's not my characters problem, lets keep going."

I probably shouldn't post right now, seeing as I'm in a very cranky mood and tired as hell having only got around 4 hours of sleep last night. We were up playing Dungeons and Dragons until 4am this morning. I don't even know if my brain was actually functioning for the last 2 hours, but that's half the fun isn't it?

I'd love to say the session was a smashing success and everyone had an awesome time, but as always that wasn't the case. I really thought I had prepared well this time. I had cool little mysterious things for each player to be worried about, I had a main plot thread that started with a cool cinematic large scale battle. I had important NPCs (non-player characters) with vague but important quests. Even an unknown bad guy! All these elements I tried to throw in and it still didn't work. The dialog was choppy, the plot was too straight forward, and my attempts to give the characters motivation was lacking. There was bickering, slow progress, and once again arguments about the definition of good and evil. Oh the joys of Dungeons and Dragons.

Perhaps like a lot of things in life, my dreams of the perfect Dungeons and Dragons session is just a pipe dream and actually a nightmare. But I can't give up yet... for where there is a will, there is a way! Somehow the princess must be rescued, the forces of evil brought to justice, and the heroes will reap the rewards!

Unseasonably Warm

Not that I'm complaining, but 71 degrees!? It's got to be some kind of record. Actually I just checked, according to kstp.com, the record temperature is 77 degrees - however, weather.com states the temp right now as 77 degrees! Either way, it's warm out, and I'll be taking advantage of it.

Dungeons and Dragons is coming together nicely for this weekend, perhaps too nicely. I'm slated to have 5 players there now, 1 that is totally new. I wasn't quite expecting that many, in fact, I had kind of hoped for a smaller group of just 3 players. I'm afraid it will become too much with that many players. We'll see how it goes, I still have a goal of making a fun fast-paced adventure.

It's kind of sad, it's only the first week in November, and I'm already thinking about the New Year. Just trying to think about what types of goals I want set for myself this next year. One new goal is vacation planning. I've always been horrible at vacation planning in the sense that, I just don't plan any for myself. 90% of the vacations Andrea and I have gone on, are some place that Andrea wanted to go. Anything else I've done is usually travel related to some kind of video game conference or convention, and those don't really count.

I want to do something big for our 10 year anniversary, which is 3 years out. What that is yet, I don't know. What I do know, is that I need to start planning for it now or it's just not going to happen. I figure as long as I can set the wheels in motion early, I'll be able to figure out what it is I want to do...

As for a Megan update, not much to report. She still hasn't decided to start walking yet and doesn't have much more in the vocab department. Although it has seemed like she has been more vocal lately. I guess the biggest thing is she has really started to get upset when I leave now. If I see her in the morning before work, or after I get home from work and leave the room. This may seem like a "Well ya DUH" type thing to other parents, but it's my first time experiencing what feels like real "attachment", so BACK OFF! It's still new to me. :-)

Remember Remember the Fifth of November

Pretty ironic to put in "V for Vendetta" this morning, only to realize today actually IS the 5th of November. For those that don't know, the movie starts out with the popular Guy Fawkes rhyme.

Last night I went to the Wild hockey game, which we ended up losing. 8 straight home game wins, and they had to lose the one I went to. Figures, the last game I went to they also lost. At least it was a high scoring game (3-4) so it was somewhat exciting. Prior to the game was a minor reunion of sorts. I went to dinner with 3 former college classmates. And on another ironic note, one is a former co-worker and one is a current co-worker. Small world I guess?

Today there are things I know I should do, mainly get my ass outside and run. But I know I'm not going to, because I'm tired and lazy.

Blog update: I would have been INSANE not to take advantage of the weather today. Thankfully that part of me that makes "good" decisions got my ass off the couch and outside for a great 6 mile run. For sure the best decision ever, I hope the rest of the week is this nice.

I was 192 (190 after my run!!) on the scale this morning, which I realize is a "fake" weight, but it's low enough that I'm not motivated to put in that extra effort. On the plus side, I will make up for it this week with this crazy heat wave we are going to have. I'll get outside for runs every night!

Earlier this week, I had the following horoscope:

You're getting serious about where you're going and need guidelines for weeding out the weak. Here's one -- the chief hallmark of a mature being is one who accepts total responsibility for his or her own state.

It has been awhile since I had a horoscope that struck a cord with me, but this one did. Responsibility is such a strange and powerful word. Every day we make choices, and in the end, we are responsible for those choices. And the only person we have to blame or praise for those choices is ourselves. Yet even knowing this, we make bad choices. That is what is so interesting to me. That a rational, logical, intelligent person will make bad decisions.

As far as I've come, I still make bad decisions. Granted, they are fewer and farther between, but they still happen. What this horoscope made me realize, that it's okay to make bad decisions, as long as I take responsibility for them. In the past, I ignored my bad decisions. I completely denied that I was even making bad decisions, and that was my problem. I know now that it's important to embrace the choices I make, good or bad, and acknowledge and learn from them both.

I just wished it wasn't so damn hard to always make the "good" choices!!!!!

There it is

Today we finally had Megan's 1 year check up. It was delayed because our doctor called in sick for our original appointment. Let's just say, it could have been worse? She was 24 pounds and 32 inches today, which puts her in the 90% and 97% percentiles respectively. So she is definitely still a big girl! She had two shots, and she cried but only for a very short time. The worse part was when we had to get her finger pricked for a blood sample. That just sucked!

We also pointed out to the doctor something we've been worried about for awhile now - Megan's lazy eye. Her right eye wanders when she is looking at things far away, or when it is really bright. At first we figured it would just go away, but it hasn't. I find out later that I guess my Mom also had something like that, and had to wear a patch over one eye when she was little. I have a feeling Megan will have to do the same. Here is an example of what I am talking about, we actually brought this picture to the doctor to show her.



Right away the doctor said we should get her in to see an optometrist. I just can't see Megan being okay with a patch over her eye, she would just rip it right off! I guess we will see what happens...

If you've read this far, you get to know the coolest part of our doctor visit. Megan took her first steps! Right there in the little room, Megan took 2 or 3 unassisted steps towards me. It was just awesome! Of course, I can't get her to duplicate it now for the life of me, but she definitely did it. Best part was Andrea was also right there to see it. So now I never have to worry about missing her first steps.

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

End of Summer

The leaves are changing and the cold weather is coming in. Think it will be interesting how every year, Megan's birthday will mark the end of summer. All I know, is I'm super excited about this:



I really hope that forecast is correct for my run on Sunday, that would be just great.

I can't believe Megan is going to be one year old in just a short while. Yesterday morning, Andrea took Megan to Gerten's. They got to do all sorts of fun stuff for free: painting pumpkins, a hay ride, and they even provided free snacks of cookies and apple juice.



Then they headed down to New Ulm to stay the night with Grandma & Grandpa Bieraugel. I took the opportunity to enjoy a night of gaming. Yes, my life is just that exciting, I know.

Tomorrow night Andrea is heading up to St. Cloud for a church leadership conference. Megan and I will be rocking out at home - I'm unsure at this point if we are going to go pick up my race packet Friday night or Saturday afternoon.

Now that Megan is getting older, Andrea and I are not 100% sure on how to handle her eating. What to feed her, how much to feed her, etc. We are trying to expand what she eats, but we really want to stop relying so much on things like crackers and pudding.



I think it's just a matter of trying lots of different things, and keeping lots of healthy options available. The hard part will be not going the easy route and only giving Megan the sweet and sugary things she is already craving. We are planning on trying to get as much advice as we can at her 1-year check up coming next month. In the meantime, she'll enjoy her yogurt, puddings, and honey graham crackers.

Now, back to watching Scary Movie 4!

Megan Dance vol 2

The good news is, I've survived yet another Monday. The bad news is, Megan had what seemed like a minor cold earlier this week. Now I have something too... Megan doesn't seem much the worse for wear, so maybe it won't be anything big. But I've woke up with a really sore throat the last two days. Hopefully whatever it is will be gone by this weekend, but I'm a tad worried...

Anyway, as I promised, please enjoy vol 2 of Megans rock'n dancing skillz.

Hard Lessons

There are some things in life you just have to learn the hard way - by experiencing it yourself. This weekend, I was fortunate enough to have one of those situations. On Saturday morning, I did a 10 mile practice run over the course of the actual 10-mile course. We started around 8am, so the weather was great (no rain!). However, it was a little more humid then the last run I did, so the end result was this:



OUCH! Thankfully, the buddy I was running with said the same thing happened to him the first time he started running long distances. I guess it's like a rite of passage or something. Needless to say, my shower hurt like a S.O.B. I will definitely be bandaging my poor nipples for next weeks race.

After the run, Andrea and I headed to the Edina Grill. Due to a technical error by my henchman Mustafa, I miscalculated the time the run would take, so I caused us to be about 45 minutes late. Tensions were running high as we arrived, but thankfully they still let us in.

As we sat down, we still weren't quite sure how this "free lunch" was supposed to work. What could we order? Where there any limits? Turns out, there weren't any! We could order anything off the menu, and it was all free. And if that wasn't enough, we could also order TWO free alcoholic drinks, EACH!

Well, even though it was still before noon, I'm not one to turn down free drinks. I ordered a "Moscow Mule" and an "Evil Cow". The first drink was a mix of ginger beer, vodka and lime. It was... not so good. The Evil Cow however, was a very yummy chocolate martini type thing. MMMmmmm good. Andrea had a Margarita and Heineken. Nothing like free booze to ease over any left over tensions from the morning.

We started out with some Perogies, little dumplings stuffed with potato and cheddar cheese. They were very good. For lunch, Andrea first eyed the Salmon Mac & Cheese. Apparently, so had a lot of other people because they were out! So she went with a Smoked Salmon Scramble breakfast thing. 20 minutes later, they came out to tell us they were out of that also. Why didn't they just say they were out of Salmon? Anyway, at that point she switched over to the Chicken Enchiladas.

Someone had told me that the Turkey Burger was really good, so I took a chance and just ordered it. The menu described peanuts, jalapeno, onion and garlic all mixed together in the meat... so I was a tad worried. But someone earlier that morning said I should try new things, so I didn't even try to "plain" it up. I just ordered it as is and gave it a try.

Turns out, EVERYTHING was just awesome. The burger was really yummy & spicy all at the same time. I gave Andrea a bite, and she quick had to take another one! The fries were huge thick cut jo-jo fries. The chicken enchiladas Andrea got had to be good, cause she finished it all!

If we lived closer, I think we'd definitely go back if for no other reason to try a few of the menu items. As it is, being that it's 20 minutes away, I'm not sure. Perhaps as a special occasion dinner, as a larger group sometime in the future. I feel like I owe them for all the great free food.

Coming tomorrow... Megan Dance, vol 2!

Megan Dance & my Poor TV

Much better then the hamster dance... Although not very safe for my TV.



Hopefully she will learn "No" soon, so I can get her to stop banging the hell out of my TV screen. For now it's harmless enough, but once she starts slamming toys into it... that would not be good.

How fast is Fast?

I didn't have much time to exercise tonight, but I really wanted to get something in. I took my bike out, only to see that one of the pedals was basically broke. Steve had told me as much, but I hadn't inspected it closely until tonight. In frustration, I put on my running shoes and headed out.

Since I didn't have much time, I ran a quick loop I've run many times, only I tried to run it as fast as I possibly could. What was the result?



Note - I also figured out how to zoom in on my run data, so it's somewhat more interesting to look at.

Mile 1 - 8:14
Mile 2 - 8:00
Mile 3 - 8:01
Mile 4 - 7:47

4 miles in 32 minutes. Yikes... so 2 new accomplishments this week. First I ran the farthest I've ever run, and now I've run the fastest I've ever run. I can't say for sure how much farther I could have gone at that pace. I felt like I was pushing my limits, and that's all that mattered.

This weekend I'm going to be running part of the 10 mile course in prep for the final run. I did that earlier this year with my first 10k and it worked out really well. I just hope the weather isn't TOO bad over the next 2 weeks. I don't really have any cold running gear, so I might have to do some shopping this weekend.

Oh, another side note - I just hit 3 months at my new job yesterday. Go me!

Good with the Bad

There is a cost for everything in life. And as much fun as this past weekend was, it came with it's own cost. For me, it was a huge set back on my health goals despite the fact that I ran 10 miles on Saturday. At the same time, I didn't really stop myself from enjoying the rest of the weekend. This meant lots of food and lots of drinking. By Sunday afternoon I wasn't feeling well at all, and the scale was telling me I gained 5 pounds over the weekend. Ugggh.

It was a good lesson though... I let the pendulum swing too far in one direction. Now I have to readjust and let it swing back too far in the other direction. These next two weeks leading up to October 1st will be tough but good for me. Because I already know that come October 2nd, I'll be wondering what next?

I've written in the past about Andreas ability to get free things. This week is yet another prime example. On Friday, she will be going to lunch as a "mystery shopper" at The Capital Grill. Neither of us have been there before, but she gets to go with a $60 budget and enjoy whatever she wants! Then she just has to fill out a survey of her experience.

Then on Saturday, she got us a free lunch at The Edina Grill. This one might not be "whatever we want", because the point of this one is testing out the new menu. So there might be some specific dishes they want people to try and provide input on. But again, the lunch is going to be free for the both of us. Damn!

Weekend Report One

Before we headed up, Andrea asked me what I was looking forward to most this weekend. On the way home today, she asked me what I enjoyed most about the weekend. My answer to both questions was the same: my run. Too bad I've been posting about running too much, so I won't waste more precious blog space on that.

We got to St. Cloud to drop Megan off with my Aunt for the weekend. Aside from a few initial loud dog barks that scared her, Megan was happy as a clam. As we left, my Aunt was taking Megan in her stroller down the road to get a high chair from a neighbor. As we drove by, I'll never forget what happened. She actually looked at us in the car and waved goodbye. It almost made me stop right there and snatch her back up!

But alas, we had a mission and we had to accomplish it. To Brainerd or bust! When we arrived, we were presented with the best room in the house!



Two feet from the front door AND bathroom. Great for if say, the cabin starts on fire or someone where to drink too much the night before... Luckily neither of those happened, despite my best efforts. (to drink, not start the cabin on fire) After getting settled in, we headed down the highway for some Pirate entertainment.



The classic Mini-Golf & Go-Cart combo! It was a lot of fun, despite the fact that I was the only person in my group to NOT get a hole-in-one. At least I never had my ball get in a position like this:



After a round of mini golf, we headed to the go-carts. I started at the back of the pack, but I wasn't worried!



I worked my way up past a few people without causing any accidents, so that was a good thing.



We headed back to the cabin for an awesome dinner on the grill and some good clean drinking. Little did I know that the Pirate mini golf was just a part of the whole "pirate" theme weekend. Arrrrrgh, rum anyone?



There were many drinking games to be played, the new one I learned this weekend was called "Moose". It was a basic Quarters drinking game (which, oddly enough, I've never actually done).



As crazy as the night got, I don't think there were any major injuries except for maybe a few hang overs in the morning. I didn't do much drinking Friday night because I had my run on Saturday morning. Don't worry - I got my fair share of drinking in the next night. From night-dodging sprinkler systems to hopping in a freezing lake. I'm sure someone got a few incriminating photos. Hopefully Steve won't post anything too bad...

More tomorrow if time permits!

Up North

I had really wanted to get another post up before we headed into our little weekend get away, but it doesn't look like that is going to happen. Forgot how much work is required to get ready for a weekend like this, not to mention packing for Megan to stay with someone else for 3 days!

I brought Andrea's car into the shop last night because it looked like it was leaking anti-freeze in the garage. They called us this morning and told us it was fine, so I guess we have nothing to worry about. I'm going to lay down some cardboard and make sure no new leaks occur. On the plus side, we will be taking her car to the resort this weekend. Should get slightly better gas mileage. Anyway, it's 9am and we still haven't packed 100%, and we have to go pick up Andrea's car now so - have a great weekend, more posts on Sunday!

Perfect Run

What an awesome day out today. I forgot how much I love fall. If only this type of weather lasted longer then a few weeks every year. Maybe with a little luck it will last until October 1st.

I ran 7.13 miles tonight, in 1:05:03. The run was damn near perfect, and I think a big part of it was a new perspective I took.


(ignore the 200+ heart rate at the beginning, the monitor wasn't on right and I had to adjust it)

The first time I posted the graph, it was pace and heart rate over time. This time, I changed it around so it is pace and heart rate over distance. So you can see what my pace and heart rate were at each mile. I like this view better... The first thing that hopefully stands out if you look at this graph is the steady heart rate.

For this run, instead of constantly checking my distance or my pace on my watch, I left it showing my heart rate. I really focused on my heart rate, and keeping it steady. I think this did wonders for my run. Any time my heart rate would start to rise above 165, I would focus on my breathing and keeping a steady running rhythm. I found that I could widen my stride and lower my heart rate, even though I was going at a decent pace. It was all a matter of really paying attention to all the aspects, my breathing, my stride, everything.

The way I was able to keep my heart rate so steady said a lot of things to me. One, it tells me that I am training at the right levels. Secondly, my heart is really healthy right now to be able to sustain such an even pace over a long run. (ignore the last mile - it's all uphill) Last, I think I learned a totally new aspect of running tonight. That paying attention to your body and really focusing can make a huge difference between a crappy run and an excellent run.

I'm excited to run the 10-mile race. This weekend I ran into an old coworker who is an avid runner. I mentioned to her that I was doing the Twin Cities 10-miler, and she was really jealous. She signed up but did not get in this year. She said, out of 5 years trying to get in, she has only got in twice. That made me feel really lucky that I got in this year.

Fantasy Football, week 1

Originally I was going to post about Fantasy Football today, but the performance of my team has prompted me to not even bother. Let's just say, my number one pick got a whopping 3 points. I'll post my team next week and maybe only every other week after that.

Yesterday was the 30 mile St. Paul Bike Classic. The weather left something to be desired. It was cold and misting rain all morning. We tried to make the best of it, and enjoyed free cookies at every rest stop. There were 4 of us biking together this year! Not quite sure we will be able to top that next year, but who knows! One of my friends just recently bought a new GPS distance tracker thingy, that comes with an online service where you can upload your trips. So you can see an exact map of our bike ride here.

This week should hopefully go by fast, as I will be taking my first day off of work this Friday and heading up to a cabin up north in Brainerd. We will be staying at Gull Four Seasons Resort with a large group of people from Friday to Sunday. We are going to drop Megan off at my Aunt & Uncle's in St. Cloud. I'm really looking forward to the trip. The relaxing time will also be filled with some serious exercise, pending weather conditions. Hopefully I will be doing a really nice run and maybe a bike ride on Paul Bunyan trail, which I did last year at the end of August.

Back to watching the Vikings game... They have a challenging season ahead of them, I will be interesting to see how it all plays out. Hopefully they will do better then my fantasy football team.

My daughter the boozer

One more picture today... Megan hitting the bottle.

Megan Update

I went out for a quick early morning run this morning, BRRRR! I think fall has officially started, although hopefully we have a few more weeks of decent temperatures. You know what I've found? Early morning runners are some of the nicest people. Every time I go out before 8:30am, the runners I see always wave and say "Good Morning!". I'm returning the favor and hopefully continuing the trend of early morning runner good cheer.

Megan is 11 months old today. 11 months!! She still isn't walking, but is SOOO close. She can stand on her own for a very long time, as much as 30 seconds or more. She has one new syllable, the "Ba" sound. Every now and then she will throw in some new ones here and there, which is so super cool. She is getting taller by the minute, I swear. Here is a good picture that shows how high she can reach.



Another thing she just started doing in the last few days, is anytime we talk on the phone she will hold up whatever she has to her ears. It's so cute! Hello? Hello Megan?



Today we will probably just relax at home. And then tomorrow morning, bright and early (or perhaps just cloudy and early?) I will be doing the St. Paul Bike Classic with Steve again this year. We each have one other person joining us this year, should be a very good time.

Tech Toys vol 2

Long time ago, when I first started riding my bike I bought a tech gadget to help motivate and push myself. Well, now I'm trying the same thing with my running. Behold, the wonders of technology!



This first use of a heart rate / running monitor was pretty successful. The graph is a bit "perfect" because of the fact that for my first use, I ran on a treadmill. I first had to calibrate the monitor to my "average stride". I choose a 6 min mile pace to calibrate, then ran at that same pace for another 20 minutes. My pace is the lower line. The upper line is my heart rate, which started around 130 bpm going up to 160 and then bouncing between 150-160. At the 20 min mark, I increased my speed to 7 mph, and as you can see my pace went down and my heart rate went up, peaking around 180 until I finished with a little cool down.

Two words: TOO COOL!

Now I'm just a tad worried I'm going to get addicted to it. I'm really excited to use it on my runs around work, and find out how far I'm going and at what pace. I just have to watch myself and make sure I don't try to push too hard. Last week, my training schedule called for 4m, 3m, and 6m. I ran 6m three times instead. This week is my "fall back" week and I'm supposed to be taking it easy. I've already done 2 days in a row of 3 miles, and I'm running again tomorrow night!

I guess if my body is okay and not in any pain, it must be alright with what I am doing. But after this week I'll be starting some of the longest runs I've done. So I don't want to do anything that might cause injury or problems this close to the 10-miler.

Oh ya, speaking of races... In addition to my running this week, I also have the 30-mile St. Paul Bike Classic this Sunday. Pretty sure by Monday next week I'm gonna be friggen beat. Nice.

Poker Night

I guess technically, I could call this my "2nd Annual Poker Night". Not quite sure I could handle more then that every year, mainly because I know I will never win. The tournament tonight went MUCH faster then last year, I'm not quite sure why. I guess part of it was that we increased the minimum bids at a much faster pace. What is really funny to me, is that just like last year, I made it to the final 3 and then went out right away.

The thing I felt really bad about this year, was I went all-in against my brother, and won. (essentially knocking him out of the game) I really didn't want to do it, because it was my brother, and so I said, "I don't want to go all in." and Scott took that to mean I didn't have a good hand (which I did), and so he called me, when he might not have. Ohhh the crazy psychology that goes on in Poker!

As I mentioned, we finished much quicker then last year. We were done by 9pm! That's pretty fast considering last year we were pushing midnight. The other thing we did differently this year was "Winner takes all". No 2nd or 3rd place prizes. The winner went home with $140 bucks, so not a huge amount of money. I heard one of the guys tonight recently played in a game where the winner went home with over $1000 bucks. Little too rich for my blood!

I think everyone had a good time, I just wish Poker didn't have to have so many losers. I actually feel guilty for organizing an event that causes people to lose money... but then I remind myself, that's the whole damn point! Ahhh the burden of a guilty conscious.

Check please

Nothing too interesting happened this week, thus the lack of posts. Last night I tried to do my normal run around the lake near my work, only to find the entire 2.3 mile paved path had been completely ripped up. At first I started running on this soft dirt path thinking "Well, they must be working on this part..." and that I'd be off it shortly. That never happened, and instead I ran the entire thing on this crappy dirt path.

I shifted to a north trail after that into uncharted territory and ran around a different lake that I had never done before. If anything, it only added a short distance to what I normally wanted to do, but it was really nice to get something new in the routine. I'll probably start doing that northern trail more often.

Not much planned this weekend... just a relaxing 3-day. Only exciting thing is Sunday I will be having a Texas No Limit Hold'em night at my place. Looks to be 7 guys this time, should be a pretty fun time. I'll report more on Monday.

Can't believe its Sept already, and this month is just going to fly by. I have things going on pretty much every weekend. Thankfully, the next two weeks of work are 4-day weeks, so that will be pretty sweet. In mid-Sept we are taking a weekend to go up to a cabin on Gull Lake, near Brainerd with some friends. (12 people total?). We are going to drop Megan off at my Aunt and Uncle's house in St. Cloud, and be Megan free for the whole weekend! Should be a very nice little weekend get-a-way for us.

Not much new to report on Megan, she isn't walking yet and hasn't taken any first steps or anything. (trust me, we try!) She has finally got over her fear of the ball-popper game, and enjoys it much more now. She cruises along furniture and is starting to point at things she wants, and moaning. Not really forming words yet, but definitely trying harder to communicate. She is also very demanding of our attention lately, more so then ever before. Often times we could set her down with some toys and she would be fine for a significant amount of time. Not anymore, she wants us to be near her or playing with her almost all the time.

Tomorrow is another long run, and the weather is saying rain. Should be interesting... since I can no longer run at a gym, I might be stuck with a wet run!