the notorious flip turn and the pullup
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
One of my goals for this year was to be able to do a pull-up. Yes, I could not do one for 20 years. And as of this Monday, I can do a pullup. Heck, as of this Friday, I can do 2!!! Little steps.

And, today I took a class on flip turns so that I can turn in the pool and not break my stride. Hopefully by spring I'll be able to show off this new skill in some indoor triathlons. I think about 3 months of practice is what's required to do this without it messing with your breath and streamline.

Little steps. Towards? TBD at the end of the year, when I'll pick some races.

Right now 2006 looks like 3 marathons: New Orleans, Some little one in Michigan, and Chicago.

Triathlons.... Chicago is dangerous. I didn't feel like it's all that safe with that many bikers on LSD. The slow people get in the way as you pass them. They need to teach people to stay on either the outside or the inside if they are slow, and to dock them minutes if they are not passing and are in that lane.

A century? I've yet to do a century. Big shoulders swim?

I don't think I want to do the Lake Geneva Tri again - the course is open to through traffic. While we didn't see many cars, there were some.... And there was one nasty turn where you had to come around a curve downhill only to find out that the curve gets real sharp and that there are cars that are being kept at bay by one guy with a sign. I want to be safe, not dead. Need a closed, safe course that's properly paved. I already took a nosedive when my tire got caught this summer. I don't want to do a race where the surface is not geared for racing. So have to do some research.

Distance-wise... Not sure if I'm ready for the big Ironman just yet, but could probably do the 1/2 if I keep this up.

We'll see, won't we?

what now
Topic: On the way to Triathlon
-i haven't gone to swimming in a month.... besides the saturday classes.

-i only ran once, and that was this week.

After running the marathon and finishing the tri season, I feel blah. I don't know if I can ever do an ironman. So then what's the point? I'll never win a marathon. So it's tough to focus. I think I just needed to take a break from the tri schedule to get the work/life stuff organized. I'll pick back up next week, should be a few more good bike days left.

Stillwater
Topic: On the road
I was in Stillwater, MN for work a week ago. It was in full fall color, I should post my cameraphone picture. It was a perfect fall day, sunny and 65 degrees, and I took a detour before getting to the office to historic downtown to look at the St. Croix river. Woudldn't mind coming back to spend a relaxing day there.

I quote my boss last night "we don't aim to create road warriors"

..riiiight.

Next week I'm in bloomington.
The following week, jersey
then I'm going to sonoma, this is on my own accord
then it's jersey again,
DC
and MN.

no, not a road warrior lifestyle at all. Must unpack everything this weekend... AAAAAAAAAA

OH and my boss got fired/resigned the other day. Yuck. She was good and I liked her. Now I'll have no buffer from the people that run my company.

we are in the new house
Topic: on the way to... marriage
well, we are in the new house!

Imagine this: switching my insurance from suburbs to city... SAVED me money! How weird is that? Like, about $15/month! Sweeet!

I love the new house! I can't believe I'm writing this, but: I HAVE ENOUGH CLOSET SPACE. I never thought this was possible. But it is. Even for all my shoes!!! single layer!!! Someone pinch me!

These are our projects for later:
-remodel sliding doors to the outside - right now it's a pain to lock them
-remodel fireplace - not enough room in the built in cabinet around it for a TV
-install a projector screen somewhere in the house.
-build a grill/hang out area upstairs.
-Redo the master bathroom
-Redo workshop in guest room
-install lighting in bedrooms
-run ethernet cable throughout the house and hide the wires. (wireless loses too much bandwidth for what I do for work)

I got a duvet cover... that's too small for a duvet. They are both King... but the duvet cover looks to be the size of a queen. Now we'll wait till people buy us stuff for the wedding to get a new one. Because the one I want is like $300.

only 11 hours till we live in our new house!
Topic: on the way to... marriage
yeeehaw!

and then
Topic: on the way to... marriage
scheduling the maid, buying sheets, adding things we need to the wedding registry. aaaaaaaagh!

1000 things to do
Now Playing: throw down your arms
Topic: on the way to... marriage
Okay, marriage means:

- flying in to town on the weekends to look for a house
-keeping the current house spotless for showings with A SHEDDING DOG, and baking cookies for that enticing smell that apparently induces people to buy - either that or our Realtor really likes cookies and found that an effective way of creating a supply, an endless one if he wanted it to be since he could talk people out of buying the place so that we would have to keep making the cookies. thank god for commission, which makes me think he'll forgo the cookies to sell the place - just kidding, I'm sure he doesn't like my cookies that much.
-negotiating contracts while on business trips in between helicopter rides
-and making arrangements for: gas, condo association, electric, dsl, cable modem (for redundancy), phone, cable, satellite, mail, movers, painter, picking paint colors, searching for furniture and boy is that hard if you are so damn picky like me, buying furniture and arranging for delivery of it, carpet cleaners... and everything has to go in a specific order...

Now trying to pick colors for my office and desperately wishing I spent more time on design when I was in art school... not just painting. I am thinking about picking colors out of a famous painting, like the SCREAM or something, and using it as a pallet. TBD

tesseract
Topic: readings
More reading of Wallace's Infinity led to another side-tour of the world of four dimensions. A tesseract is a 3D representation of four dimentions, the same way we can draw a 3D cube on a piece of paper in two dimensions. Really cool...

Talking to Ben about it, he mentioned something he read... If you are a two dimentional thing, you can "look" at a one dimentional being, or a dot - from one end of a line looking at another, per se. If you are a 3D being, which is us, we can look at a 2d object... What this means is... a 4D being... would be able to look... inside of us? Yeah, swallow that!

Anyway, I've been meaning to find a book to read that is about math and metaphysics, and this is definitely one I like. I still have to read most of Godel Esher Bach and the follow ups to that, but that's different from this. First this, then, when we are moved into the new house, that.

Pandora's box, no pun intended
Topic: readings
I may be opening a Pandora's box, no pun intended, with this question. Everyone who knows me, knows I'm not religious in the sense that I don't follow any specific religion. That does not save me from thinking about, and criticizing religion a lot. I'm reading an interesting book right now, called "Everything and More, a compact History of <><> - Infinity".

And there I read about Prometheus someone I missed in my mythology class in High School. The author, David Foster Wallace, pointed out that he is the original Robin Hood, sort of, suffering for the good of all humanity, and paying for it alone. I wonder if that is where the story of Jesus was borrowed. I mean, Jesus suffered for our sins... Prometheus suffered for giving us fire. He gave us something that he himself would not benefit from. So, is the story about Jesus borrowed from Prometheus? Is that the inspiration? Somewhere I read that all stories are a variation of the same few and that there is no original story because only a few, forgot how many, are possible. So, is the mystery solved? Marketing of a previously not a very successful story, into a brand new religion? The book is not sacrilegious like me, by the way - it's a book about math, and at no point does it compare Prometheus to Jesus. It compares a mathematician to him, that's all. Not a real one, but a stereotype of one, even. So no angry letters from religious fanatics to Mr. Wallace, please. Send them to me so that I can laugh at them instead. Just kidding. Peace be with you.

What to do with all those medals
Topic: On the way to Triathlon


Well well well, I didn't realize what a busy year 2005 has been. I found this shadow box on sale for about $10 at Michael's. What a great way to store and display all those medals. These are all my medals from 2005 so far, excluding my first marathon medal which is getting its own shadow box. So in 2005 I got more finisher medals and placements then in all the previous years combined for running-related things. Just an idea for all you people out there who have medals hanging on a tie rack or a hanger or in a box somewhere - put them on display to remember what you've done so far and what more is possibleThe boxes come with velcro for easy mounting.