My secret is out

I accepted a new position at a small startup company last week. So Friday I turned in my notice. Now word is starting to filter around the office. I'm getting some mixed reaction, but generally positive. The less positive are the people looking at me like I'm jumping out of the Titanic in the only lifeboat. Everyone else is generally optimistic for me and I've gotten a lot of nice comments. Plus, everyone keeps joking that I could always come back.

Book of Questions

Question 139: Would you rather spend a month on vacation with your parents or put in overtime at your current job for four weeks without extra compensation?

Answer: In most circumstances I would rather spend time on vacation with my parents. We get along well enough and I find myself missing them more as I get older. I guess it is also the idea of time passing by.

Now if I were to rephrase the question to ask under what circumstances I'd rather work than spend a month on vacation with my parents, I'd answer that if I couldn't take my family with me, I'd rather stay at home and work. Were I to be parted from my wife and child for a month at this stage of the game, I wouldn't go. To a large extent that also applies to work. If I had to depart from home for large stretches of time I would seriously look into a new career. You just can't say that your family is the most important thing to you and then disappear like that.

Registration for the Chicago Marathon is closed?

Up until last year I've spent each of the last five summers training for a marathon. The last two were attempts at Chicago. My wife and I got together a group of friends in June and started the Non-Runner's Marathon program. It's a program designed to take someone from "I can run for a half-hour" to "I can run a marathon". It's effective in its stated goal, but with such an abbreviated training curriculum, it is tough to recover if you become injured. We generally had a week or two to make sure that folks were interested before they signed up. This year we opted to start our training earlier, and it's a good thing that we did. Registration for the marathon closed even earlier this year. Even with our earlier start we had to get everyone to commit after just a week or two of running. There are some benefits of doing it this way. Everyone has a financial commitment to their training program. But I'd still like to have given a little more leeway in terms of time in case it turns out to be a bad fit.

Embarassing weekend update

The weekend had all the hallmarks of a good weekend. I did a long run with friends. We went to a BBQ. We visited with friends. I passed out in yoga. I got to run a 10K. We had a lazy day at home. Yep - one of these things is not like the other. And one of them definitely doesn't belong.

I was in the afternoon yoga class. Midway through the standing series of postures I found my vision clouding. I thought I'd just stand there and take one set out, but my body had other ideas. A couple of seconds later I woke up a little disoriented. I thought it had been some sort of dream. I ended up taking off the rest of the standing postures but recovered in time for the sitting ones. In retrospect, perhaps I was a little dehydrated or my blood sugar was low or my electrolytes were off kilter. I don't know exactly what happened, but I'm glad that the only thing that I hurt was my ego.

Passing out through off the rest of my weekend. I backed off a bit in the 10K, jogged through the 5K, and napped through some of Monday afternoon. I'm most of the way back now. I just need to make sure that I make rehydration a real priority for the next few days. The other thing that I'm starting to doubt is whether dieting is a sensible thing to do given my activity load. Between the running and the yoga and chasing around a toddler, I may need to increase my caloric intake especially in the form of carbohydrates.

Book of Questions

Question 111: If your parents became infirm and the only alternative to bringing them into your home was to put them into a nursing home, would you do so? What about a brother or a sister who had suffered a permanently crippling injury and - other than your home - had nowhere else to go but a convalescent home?

Answer: I would take them into my home if I felt that I could adequately care for them. Most likely I would have to move from my current home into something much better laid out for a person with a disability/infirmity, but it's a sacrifice that I would be willing to make. However, there is the caveat that I would need to feel that I could adequately care for them from a physical and financial standpoint. If I didn't think that I could adequately care for them, then a placement in a nursing or convalescent home would make more sense.

This is something that we in my family are starting to have to address. My parents have already made arrangements at a nursing home that offers care in varying stages from basic housekeeping all the way up to 24-hour nursing care. This was their decision but if they decide that they don't want to do it and want to move down here, then we'll look at other arrangements.

Early mornings are for the birds

The past few days Oliver has been getting up earlier and earlier. Up until now, my wife was able to draw upon the power of motherhood to get him to go back to sleep until a more humane hour. But Oliver has become more resistant to her motherly wiles and insists on getting up and going downstairs. Mornings are my responsibility, so that means that I'm getting up with him and plodding downstairs for breakfast. Amazingly though, all of these early mornings don't translate into me getting to work any earlier. I just hope that this early morning stuff keeps up when I need to take Oliver running with me in the mornings this summer.

Where everybody knows your order

The past couple of days I've been able to go to the counter in the food court at lunch and say "The Usual" and have my lunch prepared for me. This has never really happened to me before. I guess I might be the only South Beach dieter who asks for a fiesta salad every day with beans instead of rice. That or it's my winning personality.

Book of Questions

Question 149: When did you last cry in front of another person? by yourself?

Answer: I last cried in front of my wife when I got back from taking the cat to the Humane Society. I'm still convinced that I made the right decision, but it was one of the hardest things that I've had to do. It was one of those moments when I had to own up to the fact that I'm not as good of a person as I want to be.

I last cried by myself yesterday (more properly I teared, but let's not split hairs). I was reading Jamie Wakefield's blog. Jamie is a Magic writer and player who lives in Vermont. His early writings were about his struggles to become a good player and featured his wife, the Lovely Mare, and his friends prominently. A couple of years ago, he dropped out of Magic to play Evercrack. A significant part of that decision was that Everquest was something that he and the Lovely Mare could do together. A couple of years ago Mare was diagnosed with Ovarian cancer. This past weekend she passed away. I didn't know Mare personally and have never met Jamie, but I felt sad. I guess in part it's because I put myself into his shoes and try to imagine what it would be like to be in that situation.

Diet update

I'm down to 185 lbs and I've plateaued somewhat. Other than water, I haven't lost any weight in the past week. And honestly, I'm okay with that. I feel better and my energy level is up. I think I look better too. I like the way I eat when I'm pushing 205, but I like the way I feel when I weigh 185. I think what I'll do in the near term is to maintain my diet and increase my exercise. If I start losing weight great, but that's more of a side goal than a main goal.

Book of Questions

I was flipping through the book the other day and came across these two questions.

Question 78: If you knew that in a year you would die suddenly, would you change anything about the way that you are now living?

Question 140: Would you like to know the precise date of your death?

It seems that the two are interlinked by providing you a deadline (ha!) by which to fulfill your life's ambitions. As the window would get shorter, there are a lot of extraneous things that I do that wouldn't make sense to keep doing. For example, dieting doesn't make a lot of sense if your health is not a long term issue. I'd probably get a new job as I enjoy my current one, but I don't have the feeling that I'm making a difference. I'd still exercise as I get a lot of satisfaction from doing so. I would spend more time with my wife and child. I'd like to have more children, but I wonder if it would be responsible to do so if I wouldn't be able to parent them.

The question about how would you live your life differently is trying to ask why you would spend your limited time on earth doing some of the things that you do. I guess the reason that I do most things that I do is that I either enjoy them or that they enable me to enjoy the other things I do. I'm not really crazy about doing laundry, but I do it because it enables me to go out in public without too much shame. But there are other things that I don't do that I would do if I only knew that I had a short time left. I'd tell my wife that I love her. But I don't do that because there's always time. Until there isn't.

The two questions also deal with the idea of predestination, an idea I disagree with. If I was faced with the knowledge that I was to die at a certain time, I'd do everything I could to cheat death. If my health was an issue, I'd make some serious changes. If I was going to be hit by a car, I'd stay home that day. I would not go gently into that good night. Especially if there was something that I could do to avoid it. If it turned out that my actions ended up bringing about my death so be it. At least I could say I went out swinging.

Procrastinator no longer

... at least as far as registering for the marathon. Yesterday I registered for the Chicago Marathon. At first I was putting it off in the vain hope that my wife would be able to get me a free entry. When that fell through I just put it off to a time when it would be more convenient. I finally decided to register last night when I checked the site and found that there were 34,000/40,000 registered. So now it's official. I'm going to do it.

Now I just need to do the training. Egad!

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Update: Everyone who is training with me is signed up for the race. Now's let's get it done.

Chasing our tails

Yesterday I came home early to make sure that my parents made it to their train on time. After I got back from dropping them off, my wife and I went to the County office so that she could renew her plates. Oliver and I spent some time playing on the escalator (I know, I know) and outside in the fountains while my wife waited in lines, went to get new plates, found out that she needed something else, tried to give them something else, found out that she needed something from the city, and gave up in utter frustration.

Your government at work.

Review: Buffy Season Three

Season Two ended with Buffy sending Angel to hell and her subsequent running away. Season Three begins by bringing Buffy back to Sunnydale where she had to earn her place back into the group. She spends the first part of the season trying to get over Angel only to have him come back from hell. The waxing and waning of their relationship forms the core of the narrative in Season Three.

But Season Three doesn't revolve completely around Buffy. The surrounding cast is each given their own chance to shine. Willow, Xander and Giles each has an episode where they take a more crucial part of the story. Even Cordelia is given a chance to show some depth (well, for Cordelia, anyway).

Season Three introduces Faith (Eliza Dushku), the anti-Buffy. Faith is a Boston-bred slayer from Southie. She's everything that Buffy isn't - crude, aggressive, promiscuous. She's less into the Spiderman view of her destiny ("With great power comes great responsibility."). She's more like "Power! Cool!" The pairing of these two slayers provides the second main thread of the narrative.

The central villain for Season Three is the Mayor. The Mayor had been referenced since Snyder arrived at Sunnydale High as a bad guy. The characterization that Joss Whedon came up with was both memorable and a let down. I could totally picture this man as the mayor of Sunnydale, but I had a hard time picturing him as a threat even at his most threatening. He also wasn't given a lot of motivation for being a bad guy. I never got a feel as to why he wanted to do the things he'd done. His missing motivation made it hard for me to think of him as anything other than Opie gone evil.

Review: United 93

One of the best things that can be said about Paul Greengrass's feature is that it really put me inside the mindsets of those involved in responding to September 11 -the confusion in the air traffic control centers, at the FAA, of the military, and most importantly on United 93. After watching 24 where the government has an unparalelled level of techonological omniscience, it was hard to watch this movie and see the communication breakdowns that led to the paralyzation of the nation's response structure. The FAA and the air traffic control centers were dealing with so many planes in the air with questions on each one that it was hard for them to track all of the aircraft. The military was ready to respond but was unable to get clear rules of engagement and had limited strength. It turned out that the only people able to act were on the actual plane itself.

The movie is able to portray all of the people without making anyone out to be explicitly evil. The people at the FAA, the air traffic control towers, and in the military are good people trying to do their best to cope with an unusual and frightening situation. The terrorists are blinded by their cause. The passengers all have moments of weakness but in the end are stirred to action in order to try and save their lives. At one point, Greengrass intercuts between shots of the terrorists and passengers each praying in their own way.

The last part of the movie was done extremely well. As the some of the passengers resolve to take control of the plan, others start calling friends and family to tell them that they love them. On the one hand, you have the edge of your seat tension as they get ready to go and on the other hand you have the despair of the passengers who called loved ones to tell them that they loved them. Even as I knew the outcome, I hoped that they would take control even as the plane spiralled into the ground. I had to sit for a good few minutes after the screen went black before I was ready to get up and leave the theater.

Weekend update

Friday night, I met up with Paul, Sarahlynn, Ellie, Oliver, and my wife at Red Robin for dinner. We had a nice dinner where the kids were behaving themselves and we got to talk. After dinner, I passed a bunch of people protesting outside the Des Peres Theater. I successfully made my will save and didn't yell at them. I do think that it would be fun to protest the protesters some time. I really get that feeling when I pass the people protesting outside of Planned Parenthood every week.

My parents were supposed to call from the train when they passed Alton, but I didn't get the call until they were pulling into Union Station, so I was late picking them up. In the car on the way home I laid out my schedule. In the morning I'd run my race and then go running while they took Oliver to Gymboree. Then he'd nap and we'd hang out for a bit. Sunday they'd watch Oliver for a bit while my wife and I went to yoga, and then we'd hang out. And then Monday they'd hang out with Oliver while my wife worked and then I'd give them a ride to the train on Monday.

My plan worked like a charm on Saturday. I ran my race doing a SR (season record) 48:22. After the race I went home, got dried off, put Oliver in the car, pointed them in the right direction, and went off for my run. After we finished, we met up with them at Gymboree and walked up the street to go to Bread Co. We went home and put Oliver down for a nap (eventually). While he was napping, I got a call from a friend who wanted to go running on Sunday. We decided that 1:30 would work. We ran out to do some errands and then came home and grilled steaks. As Oliver was going down for the night I ran out to the store and bought the stuff I needed to make flourless raspberry torts. My father helped me make them and I had one before blearily drifting off to bed.

Sunday morning, I got up early to take care of Oliver. We had breakfast and went to the park. After the park, we came back home and found my wife up. We hung out for a while until my parents got up and soon it was time for yoga. My wife and I were able to go at the same time because my parents were here. It was a good, but exhausting class. When we were finished, we stopped at the grocery store for lunch. We brought it home and ate on the deck. After lunch, I got dressed and went running while my wife worked Oliver down for a nap (eventually). I went for a run with my friend and then got home. It took a little longer than I'd thought, but it was good. I hung out with my parents while we waited for Oliver to wake from his nap. After he woke up we went out to dinner at Fitz's. We sat outside and had a good dinner. After dinner we went home and let Oliver play for a bit before it was bed time. My wife and I worked him down to sleep. After he was sleeping my parents told us to go and get out and see a movie. We tried to get into the Da Vanci Code at the Galleria, but it sold out two people in front of us. Instead we saw United 93 at the Chesterfield Galaxy. It was a very good movie. Then it was home to bed. I was quite happy to go to bed as soon as we got home.

Book of Questions

In college, I stumbled across the Book of Questions. It's a book filled with 200 thought/discussion provoking questions that asks questions across a whole range of topics. I thought I'd ask myself a random question and post the answer here. If anyone wants me to ask them a question, chime in in the comments.

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Question #95: If by sacrificing your life you could contribute so much to the world that you would be honored in all nations, would you be willing to do so? If so, would you do so knowing that someone you thoroughly disliked would receive the honor while you went unrecognized?

Answer: I wouldn't. The honor and fame are not important to me. The only way I'd do it is if the lives of my family were at stake. I know that there are people who do this all the time like soldiers, but I don't think that I could be one of them.

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Question #29: Have you ever hated anyone? If so, why and for how long?

Answer: Yes, I have. I've been a geek since I could stumble. I spent most of my grade school years as a sort of outcast. There were only 30 kids in the class and I wasn't one of the cool kids. In a sports-centric culture, I wasn't good at sports. I was one of the smartest kids in my class and knew all of the answers. I was the butt of a lot of jokes. I was very unhappy and I blamed the cool kids for my being an outcast.

It wasn't really until high school that I stopped hating them. Once I got to high school, the pool of kids went from 30 to 700. I still wasn't one of the cool kids, but in a class of 700 it wasn't that big of a deal. I found my niche and was a lot happier. With some perspective, I could understand why I hadn't been accepted. I was able to move on. I reached a peace about where I'd been.

Parental Units

I got a call from my folks yesterday. They are coming down for the weekend. We had planned on them coming down this weekend, but earlier this week, they had called it off so that they could stay in Chicago in case my other brother needed them. But they weren't going to be called upon, so down they come. I haven't seen them in a couple of months. I'm looking forward to seeing them.

Flush with the knowledge that my parents were coming down and that the house was a mess, I did what any responsible child would do. I went to bed early. I hadn't intended to go to bed early, but I took on the task of putting Oliver to bed and wanted to properly role model how to sleep. Yes, I had put him down before I snoozed off. My wife woke me an hour or so later, but the prospect of sleep was just too tempting. But something in me wouldn't let me sleep, so I got up at 4:00a and went downstairs and cleaned. I did some laundry and the dishes. I picked up and straightened. And when everyone else got up and about around 6:30, I had the house more or less in shape. The rest of the cleaning will take place after Oliver goes down for sleep tonight and before I go to pick them up from the train.

Now that my parents are going to be here this weekend, we can adjust our schedule slightly. I was planning on racing and then going for a run tomorrow with my marathon group. It would have meant Oliver missing Gymboree, but now he doesn't have to. My wife and I were planning on going to different yoga classes on Sunday, but now we can go to the same one. We didn't really have any other exciting plans, but now we can plan to do something with my folks.

Scheduling myself

One of the nice things about committing to run a marathon is that it gives me a focus for scheduling myself. I know that I have to make time to run four days a week. I know that I have one night a week of D&D. I know that I want to go to yoga twice a week. I know that I want to spend as much time with my family as I can. With all of these constraints, it just becomes a matter of fitting it all in. And then once it's all fit in, it's just a matter of optimizing my time so that I don't fall behind.

New nephew

I've got a new nephew. My sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. Mom and baby are healthy, so good news all around. I'm going to stop by the hospital later tonight and see the new arrival.

Vehicle and Animal Night rescheduled

Last week, I wrote about Vehicle and Animal Night at the University City Childhood Development Center on Highland. As you might expect given our recent spate of inclement weather, the event was rained out. We got a flyer in the mail earlier this week that it had been rescheduled for tonight. It sounds like a lot of fun. I'm only upset that I still won't be able to take Oliver given my other commitments. C'est la vie de gamer.

Oliver at the grocery store

In our family, I've been tasked with grocery shopping. It's something productive that I can do when my wife is nursing Oliver or putting him to sleep or both. I actually like going to the store although I shudder when I get the final bill. And sometimes I take Oliver with me if my wife is napping or otherwise needs a moment to herself.

Usually Oliver is quite happy to sit in the upper basket. He'll sit up there, smile and wave at the other customers like some sort of toddler spokesmodel. Occasionally he'll get fussy, but he can usually be calmed by giving him something to hold. The next few minutes he'll hold the item aloft like a trophy. "By the power of BEANS!"

Last night, Oliver didn't want to sit in the basket. So instead we had to get the car-cart. Whoever thought of that was a genius. There is just enough to do inside to distract your toddler when the cart comes to a complete stop. And he can still see you so that when you do stop, he can look back at you to say, "Let's go!" There were a couple of close calls as Oliver was not good about always keeping hands, feet and torsos inside the vehicle at all times, but we managed to escape without incident. My only complaint is that the car-cart corners like it's on sails. Come on, people - a little performance.

Blogger cattle call

I got a note from a friend, asking me to send him the address for my blog (Hi, Mike!). As I sent it out, it occurred to me that I might have other friends who blog. So if you are a blogger and a friend of mine, let me know what your blog is so that I can blog roll you.

Feeling hot Hot HOT

On Sunday, my wife went to a Bikram Yoga class. While not perhaps strictly enjoyable, she liked the class. So not to be outdone, I went for a class myself yesterday afternoon. Given my propensity for perspiration, I prepared by drinking prodigious quantities of water all day. By the end of the day, I knew that I was well-hydrated. If the class turned out to be a bust, I figured that at least my kidneys had already gotten a full workout.

I got to the studio 15 minutes before the class was to begin. I signed the forms, paid my money, and went into the locker room to get dressed. I opted to wear a pair of biker shorts and a dri-fit running shirt. I picked out a spot in the back of the class, laid out my mat, and lay down on it. The class was relatively big - I'd estimate it to be about 30 students. The class was mostly women, but there were four or five other guys in the room. It was hot in the room, but the heat wasn't really oppressive. It was more like how the bathroom feels after a long shower, but without the steam.

The first part of class was standing postures. I felt okay about these, but in a lot of cases I had a hard time keeping myself balanced on one leg. I'm sure that there was a lot about the postures that I was missing, but I did as best as I could by listening to the instructor and looking around at the other students. The second part of class was the ground based postures. Again, I did my best, but by this time I was starting to get a bit fatigued. Many of the postures were familiar to me as variations on runner's streches. But the variations were enough that I wasn't sure that I was doing it right. By the end of class, I was tired and soaked, but it felt good. I didn't weigh in immediately after class, but I was still down four pounds of water weight this morning.

I liked the class, and I think I'll go back. I'm not sure how to work it into my running schedule. I definitely don't want to do it immediately before my long run on Saturday and I don't think I can do a running workout and a yoga class on the same day. I'm thinking that what I might want to do is to go on Sundays and one other day. What other day that would be, I'm not certain.

Ick! Plateau

I feel like I've hit a weight loss plateau. I'm currently solidly in the 180s, but I haven't seen any movement on the scale that isn't directly attributable to water in some time. My activity level remains high - I'm running 3-4 times per week in preparation for marathon season. But I feel like I'm in a rut.

So today I'm going to go to a Bikram Yoga class. During River to River I talked to Duzzy about it and he recommended it. He said that it really helped his running. I'm actually a little nervous about it as my super power is that I sweat like no one else. Voluntarily going into a hot box for exercise seems like a recipe to turn me into a raisin. But if it works and I keep it up, I'll gain additional flexibility while cross training myself into better shape.

If nothing else, I'll get myself trained for summer in St. Louis.

Weekend update

It was a very lazy weekend. We crashed early on Friday putting ourselves to bed at the same time that we put Oliver to sleep. It was fine because early Saturday morning was the Chevy's 5K. It was a good race with good food afterwards which we all partook of. I learned a lot during the race about running with a toddler and/in a running stroller. After the race, we took Oliver to Gymboree for a Play class followed by a Music Class. After the class it was time to go home for lunch and nap. Oliver and I spent the afternoon together as Mommy went for a massage and dinner with her mother. I got him to sleep and did some work around the house until my wife got home.

Sunday morning I got up to take care of Oliver, but my wife decided to join in the fun and so we got to play together all morning. My wife went to a Bikram Yoga class while I took Oliver to the park. After the park, we came back, had snack, and played for a bit until it was time for his nap. We did the book part of nap and started to go down for the nap when I realized that he had a present for me in his diaper. We started to change the diaper when Mommy came home and thoughts of nap left his mind. After lunch, we all went upstairs and napped together. Then we got up and had a snack and played some more. We had made some plans with friends but when it started getting late we decided to grab some food. We were going to go to Saleem's on the Loop, but it seems that it is not open on Sundays. We ended up eating at Fitz's which was nice. Our server was very accomodating to our odd South Beach Phase One style requests. After dinner we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and Target so that my wife could buy her mother a can opener and buy herself some clothes. Oliver and I spent the trip to the store in the toy section and only ended up buying a $2.00 boat that Daddy wanted. We got home in time to put Oliver to bed. After he went to sleep we started watching the end of Buffy Season Three. We're almost done, but still not quite there yet.

Every time I think I'm out, they suck me right back in

Saturday night, my wife went up to see her mother and her sisters as an early Mother's day thing. While she was gone, Oliver and I spent some quality time together. We did some Mother's day shopping, played in the park, had dinner, and then I went to put him down for the night.

Now Oliver has had mixed success with the whole toddler bed concept. Some nights he spends the whole night there. Sometimes he starts out there and joins us in the middle of the night. And sometimes he never makes it there. Also, some nights it takes a longer period in order to get him down. Sometimes it's twenty minutes. Sometimes it's an hour. Considering that mommy usually takes care of bed time, I thought I might be in a world of hurt.

We started with books. We read through six or seven of them. And when I say "read," I generally mean that Oliver flipped through the pages looking at the pictures and pointing out the ones that he knows. "Dog." "Cat." "Truck." "Sheep." Meanwhile I'm trying to talk about the pages before he flips to the next one. Some books we have to go through a couple of times before he's satisfied and some books I start the opening lines and he puts them away. Sandra Boynton does really well with "Doggies," but not so well with "Hippos Go Berserk" or "But Not the Armadillo."

After we finish with book time, it becomes Night Night time. This is an indeterminate period where we gently encourage him to lie down and go to sleep on his bed. His job in this period is to resist sleep in any manner possible, getting drinks of water, getting out of bed, and getting into a standing position on his bed. Eventually he winds down and settles into bed.

So I've finally gotten him to settle into bed and I'm about to do my silent Castaway impression and slink out of the room when he reverses out of a perfectly acceptable sleeping position in his bed to curl up in my arms. Houston, we have a problem. Ok, I think, no problem. I'll just hold him for a minute to let him settle and then place him back in bed. A minute later, he's back in bed and I'm about to cast off when the reversal happens. Two minutes later, he's back in bed and the reversal happens. At this point I have a sneaking suspicion that he's just not destined for the toddler bed and so I pick him up and lie down on my bed. He crawls off of me and into a perfect sleeping position on the bed. Out like a light.

You win some. You lose some. But regardless of his end sleeping destination, I have made Sleep!

Summer running, had me a blast

I was looking at my running goals for the summer. If I end up hitting my goals and work on my endurance, I have an outside chance to qualify for the Boston Marathon! But in doing so, I need would shatter my marathon PR by well over an hour and a half from 5:00 to 3:10. So either my goals are too aggressive or my previous attempts at marathon running were not so good. As it is, my current 10K time from the St. Charles run would predict that I could run a marathon in 3:45. I'll get a good gauge on my progress soon. This weekend is the Chevy's 5K and next weekend is the Science Center 10K. If I'm running the 10K in 45:00 or the 5K in 22:00, I'm in good shape to look for Boston.

Ask and ye shall receive

The other day I said that I wanted to be put into a position where I could be successful at putting Oliver to bed. Tonight I get a chance as my wife is going to go to a LLL meeting. She'll be gone until well after Oliver is already asleep *crosses fingers*. This time I won't be replacing Mommy or functioning as a stand-in. Wish me luck.

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Success! It took a half-hour, but in the end Oliver went to sleep.

Running stuff

My wife did end up getting a spot in the Chicago Marathon (just for her), so it looks like we're going to be training again for it this year. I'm going to record all of my running related posts on the Doyle's Running Club blog. I've got up some information now on my proposed training program for this year, shoes, clothes, and stuff. I may end up referencing over there from time to time.

This Saturday is the Chevy's Cinco de Mayo 5K (my guess is that FleetFeet was already booked to run a race the weekend before, so this was the best that Chevy's could do). This race is a lot of fun. First of all it's a 5K so just about anyone of any running prowess can run it and finish. Second, Chevy's has food and drink afterwards for the runners. I like this race as it falls at the beginning of the summer running season, so it's a good mark in the sand with which to set training goals and to measure progress as the season progresses.

Anyone out there planning to run this one?

The heavy

Every once in a while, when my wife gets fed up with trying to get Oliver to go to sleep, she brings me in. I know that I'm some sort of stopgap before she's ready to deal with him again. I understand that sometimes she just needs a minute to clear her head or go to the bathroom or something. I can't helping feeling though that bed time with Daddy is not some sort of punishment. "Behave or you get your father."

When I'm set up for success, I can be successful. I was able to take care of Oliver when my wife was out of town. A couple of times I've put him to bed when my wife was out at a friend's house. I don't do it the way Mommy does it, but it's effective. I just don't feel like most of the time I'm put in a position to succeed.

I guess the upside is that I don't have to do it very often. My wife is generally in charge of bed time. But as we start to transition away from nursing to sleep, I'll be more involved. And I'll need to be successful.

Parental superstitions

My wife and I were out for a walk last night. While we were talking, she said, "And I can't believe you blogged about the toddler bed. Why didn't you wait a week or so to see if it took?" On the one hand, I agreed with her, but on the other hand I was a bit disturbed. We're reasonable, logically minded adults, but we're trying not to name the Boogeyman for fear that he'd show up. But I know why we do it. We do it so that we can pretend that we have some control over the uncontrollable. We can encourage Oliver to decide that he likes sleeping in his toddler bed, but if he doesn't want to do it, there's only so much that we can do.

What parental superstitions do you have?

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As an aside, we're now 1.5/3 in nights that Oliver spent in his bed. Monday night, he ended up sleeping in our bed. Tuesday night, he started in the other bed after a long night of getting him down and got transferred to our bed in the middle of the night. Maybe I shouldn't have awoken the Toddler Bed Boogeyman just yet.

Google responses

"Mandatory circumcision"
Circumcision is apparently on mandatory in the case where custom demands it. There does not seem to be any medical reason that circumcision would need to be performed. There was a concern that it might be more hygenic, but even that has been alieviated by the medical community.

"Ogre's cards"
Ogre's cards is one of the premiere spots in town to play Magic. That said, I've never been there. I just check their site, http://ogrescards.com, occasionally to see if there is anything interesting going on in the St. Louis Magic community.

"Chicago Marathon"
"Chicago Running or runner"
I'm planning on running the Chicago Marathon this year. My wife was given a free entry and we want to get in shape together. We've never actually run the Chicago Marathon at the same time. Once I got injured and once she got pregnant. Third time's the charm?
If I were a Chicago runner, I'd try and tie into one of the organizations that put on events in Chicago. CARA is one. Another would be the Chicago Hash.

"diaper sighting"
I'm not quite sure what the searcher was looking for. The ethics of letting your child run pantless? The perils of accidental diaper flash (ala thong flash)? Or are they really having a hard time finding diapers? The world will never know.

"waldo shirt"
"Where is waldo fabric"
"Official buy where's waldo shirt"
I got hit a number of times by fellow Waldo fanatics. I'm sorry to say that I can't tell you where to find a Where's Waldo shirt. But to all of the aspiring entrepeneurs out there, there is a market for Waldo parafanalia.

"hate moss"
I like you too.

"underfeet"
I guess this is what happens when you have two toddlers?

"regnef"
"regnef high"
I posted on this earlier. Apparently the now surely dooced teacher has taken down his blog, so we'll only get to read reports of what it said. Good luck finding another position teacher man.

"Meatball all covered with cheese song"
I've posted my version, but if you'd prefer the "official version" you can go to www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/ontopofspaghetti.html.

"hey its that guy law and order"
Law and Order appears to be a veritable cornucopia of HITG spots. It's the Murder, She Wrote of the 1990s and 2000s. And with 14 shows, the franchise is still going strong.

"church songs thankful"
I wa especially thankful for church songs after Oliver was born. As a "devout" atheist it was a bit troubling to have to start prostheletizing him in the crib, but when it's Christmas time and you don't know any other songs, you do what you can.

Weekend update

It was a busy weekend. Friday night we went to Paul and Sarahlynn's house to play a How To Host A Murder mystery with Scott and Jessica. My wife and I did a good job coming up with costumes at the last moment. While we played, Oliver and Ellie had a good time playing together. We had a good time.

Saturday morning Oliver and I did two sessions at Gymboree. In the car on the way home, he crashed and stayed asleep as I put him down in our bed for the rest of his nap. While I was away, my wife got the last bit of cleaning done in the house for a baby shower that we were hosting later in the day. I got sent to the store to buy ingredients for punch. When I got back, I helped out a bit and then it was time to go. Oliver and I joined Paul and Ellie at the park to play while the shower was going on. Oliver and Ellie had a good time at the park playing on the slides and swings. At one point Oliver decided that he wanted to play on the big kids slides. So he wandered over to the other playground and jumped right in. He did a couple of the larger twisty slides and had a great time. After the park, we went back to Paul and Sarahlynn's place and hung out for a bit. Oliver fell asleep on the way home. He woke up when we got home and played for a bit. Then we headed to S&P's house for a BBQ. We hung out and talked with friends for a while before it was time to go home. Oliver crashed in the car and went right to bed.

Sunday morning it was my turn to do breakfast. After breakfast we went to the playground near our house for a bit. He played with another girl from the neighborhood. After they were done playing, Oliver and I went back to the house. Mommy was still tired, so I got on my running gear and we went for a run. He must have been tired because he didn't make it to Forest Park. He ended up sleeping in the stroller for the entire trip around Forest Park, back home, and for an hour afterwards. When he woke up, we went to Chevy's for lunch. At Chevy's, he had a good meal of beans and salsa. After lunch, I dropped Oliver and Lisa back home and ran a couple of errands. When I got back it was time for dinner and then it was bed time.

He's a big kid now

A couple of days ago, my wife brought home a toddler bed that her sister didn't need any more. While we were banging around the house this weekend, Oliver came across it, went to it, crawled in and pretended to sleep. My wife filed this away for later.

Last night, Oliver was acting tired, so we started the bed time routine a little bit early. But it didn't take. Oliver was happy to sit in our bed and chatter away. My wife turned to me and said, "I wonder if he'd sleep on his toddler bed." Taking my cue I went in the other room, grabbed the bed, and hauled it into our room. We picked a spot of open wall not too far from our bed and put the bed down. Oliver went right to it and laid down. Eventually, my wife got him to go to sleep. He got out of his bed a few times, but demonstrated a definite preference for his own bed. He slept in his own space from 8:30-4:30 and then joined us in bed for a while.

We haven't set up any rules on his bed. I think we're opting to let him sleep where he wants to - if it's in his bed, fine, or ours, fine. In some ways, I'll miss having him in bed with us, but in other ways I'm happy to see him happily ensconced in his own space. For now anyway...

Parents as Teachers

My wife and I have regular visits with Angela, our parents-as-teachers (PAT) coordinator. The sessions that we have are generally pleasant. Angela arrives at our house at 7:00 am which is right after Oliver has finished breakfast. We sit in our living room and talk about what a good child we have. We tell her about all of the things that he is doing. She plays with him for a little while and tells us things that we can do to help his development. And then she's off to help someone else.

At first, I didn't see the need for the PAT meetings. When Oliver wasn't doing very much, it didn't seem as necessary to meet. But now that he's talking and moving, it's nice to hear 1) that he's progressing well and 2) that there are things that I can do to help him grow. I'd recommend for other parents to get involved in PAT if it is offered by your school district.

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The school district is sponsoring a vehicle and animal night this Wednesday from 6:00-7:30 at the early childhood development center on Kingsland. They are going to have big vehicles (fire trucks, semi, garbage truck) for the kids to climb around in and a petting zoo. It just sounds like a lot of fun.

Interlude

Saturday morning, Oliver woke up bright and early. I trudged downstairs to make breakfast and take care of morning playtime. He was a good eater at breakfast and the morning was going smoothly. Around mid-morning, I noticed that he was looking a little tired and rubbing his eyes. "Aha" I thought and headed upstairs. My thought was that a little mommy milk could be parlayed into some extra daddy sleep. We tried, but it wasn't to be. However, Oliver was more than happy to snuggle between us giggling and laughing as we hugged and tickled him. When we'd go to stop, he'd say "Mo... Mo..." and we'd tickle him some more.

Later, I was thinking about it and I realized that it was a moment of true happiness.

Movie Review: Jarhead

9/15/90 - Troops arrive in Saudi desert.
1/17/91 - Operation Desert Shield becomes Operation Desert Storm
2/24/91 - Troops move on Kuwait and Iraq.
2/28/91 - President Bush orders a cease fire.

On the one hand, four and a half months seems like a remarkably short time for a war. On the other hand, for the guys on the ground it was a very long time. They remained in "a constant state of suspicious alertness." But there wasn't anything to do. They patrolled. They drilled. They did everything that you do in war except for fight battles. Four days after they moved in, the war was over. This movie is about one of these platoons.

Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a high school graduate who was "stupid enough to sign a contract." After a bad stay in boot camp, he is assigned to a scout/sniper platoon to which he turns out to be well suited. Then Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the first Gulf War began. The movie shows us what it was like to be a grunt at the front waiting for the war to begin.

The cast as a whole is very good. Jake Gyllenhall is effective as Swofford. The other actors are distinct enough characters to emerge from being just a number. The direction avoids many of the flourishes that lesser directors use that detract from the story.

In many ways the movie is a post-modern war movie. In most war movies it is the guys on the ground who are the real heroes, but in this particular conflict they didn't have much to do. Following the usual template of a war movie (see Full Metal Jacket, Heartbreak Ridge), our hero would be thrust in to combat, prove himself under fire, and return home to his loved ones. As the audience expects to see that, so Swofford expects to live that. But it didn't happen that way.

Movie Review: King Kong (2005)

There is no getting around it. King Kong is a very long movie. My butt fell asleep while I was watching. At one point in the movie, one of the characters references Conrad's Heart of Darkness. At the time, it seemed especially apropos considering that until this point I felt like I was on a slow-boat to China. Were ... we ... ever ... going ... to ... get ... there?

The story begins in 1920's New York. Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is a good-hearted vaudevillian whose theater is shut down. Carl Hemsky (Jack Black) is a fraudulent movie producer who needs an actress fast for his movie as he has to flee the city ahead of his creditors. Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) is a noted writer who is producing the screenplay for Carl's movie. On the voyage, Jack falls for Ann.

The voyage ends as the ship washes on to Skull Island. The initial foray onto the island proves disastrous as they run into a tribe of savages and their subsequent escape from the island is foiled when one of the savages sneaks on board the boat and kidnaps Ann. Ann is set to be sacrificed to Kong but she manages to charm him enough to avoid death. Meanwhile the men come back to the island attempting to rescue her from certain doom. Eventually she is rescued and Kong is captured and the scene shifts back to New York.

The relationship between Ann and Kong is nicely developed, but the relationship between Ann and Jack is not developed as well. Jack is given plenty to do, but he never quite emerges from the shadow of the big ape. As such the romance rings false. Other peripheral characters are given time to emerge from their stereotypes so it's not a question of bad writing. The CGI is well-done and there are a number of stand out sequences.

I enjoyed the movie and I'd recommend it to my friends, but I'd also recommend some judicious fast forwarding through the initial boat trip.

Recruits are signing up...

I talked to some friends last night and I may have some recruits for Doyle's Running Club 3! The idea is to start early (very soon) to train for the Chicago Marathon(very far away - October) so that the group can take its current running distances (very short) and amp them up to marathon distances (very far). The advantage to beginning training early in the year is that you can plan for a gradual training program that allows for your body to adapt to the distance and not break down.

I've used the Non-Runner's Marathon as a training guide before. It is good at taking a running novice and preparing them to complete the marathon. The advantages of the program is that it is short (16 weeks) and doesn't take a lot of time (4 runs a week). But it leaves you with very limited options if you should become injured during the program.

I think instead that we will use a variation of a Hal Higdon novice program. It runs 24 weeks and has a number of mini-cycles in it. It also has the same time commitment in terms of running four days a week. I'll post a link to it, or recode the table for later.

Are you interested in running Chicago this year?

I've thought about it...

... and I just don't like St. John's. I've been a patient a couple of times. I've visited friends and relatives who have had children there. We considered giving birth there. But I just don't like it.

Coming out of his eyes

This morning Oliver was extraordinarily easy to snooze. It didn't occur to me until later it was because he couldn't physically open his eyes. They had been gooped shut. When Oliver gets a cold, there is some amount of sneezing and runny nose. But what makes colds really special for Oliver is when he gets the discharge coming out from his eyes. It's not pink eye because he doesn't really show any other symptoms. No blood-shot eyes. No fever. Just really fun head cold.

A day off doesn't go as far as it used to

I started my day off at the usual time. Oliver bulldozed over me to get out of bed. I took him downstairs and made breakfast for the two of us - banana, bread and egg for Oliver and two eggs for me. As he was getting done, I made some eggs for my wife. I helped her get him out the door and by 9:00 I was on my own for the day. So what fun and exciting things did I do? I did some laundry, cleaned up around the house, did the dishes, went for a run, went grocery shopping, and made dinner before picking Oliver up from day care at 2:30. In other words, I was just about as responsible and productive as I am on a normal day. I will say, though, that going for a run in the middle of the day was pretty nice.

Baselining

The past week I've been trying to gauge my baseline for my summer training. This past weekend I ran the St. Charles 10K in 49:38. Before that I ran a 5K by myself in 23:48. Yesterday I did an 800 in 2:32 and a 400 in 0:67. But the nice thing is that in all of these runs, I see how I could have improved. So these times are currently a little soft. And I'll be doing my training on top of that.

There's a 5K this weekend downtown at Union Station. I haven't decided if I'm going to run it. But next weekend I'm doing the Chevy's Cinco de Mayo 5K and I'll have a better gauge on my time for the 5K than I do now. The only thing that'll be different is that I'll likely be running with Oliver in the jogging stroller. The following weekend is another 10K that I want to do. It's seeming like 2006 will be the year of the races.

A few of my favorite things

If you asked me what my favorite articles of clothing are, I'd tell you that I really like a pair of sweaters, some of my baggy jeans, and a t-shirt that my wife bought for me. The sweaters are pretty large and hang loose on me. Now that I've lost some weight, my jeans fit the same way. In some ways I think that I prefer wearing these clothes because they disguise a body that I've grown accustomed to thinking is fat and out of shape. I know that when I dropped down to 170 the first time through South Beach I was much more apt to wear clothes that didn't hide my body.

The t-shirt reads "Geek" on the front and the back. When it's as plain as the nose on your face, why try and hide?

Mental Health Day

Tomorrow I'm taking the day off from work. I know that I'll spend part of the day cleaning up the house and part of the day cooking. I'm planning on going for a nice relaxing run. I'll pick Oliver up from day care and run by Gymboree. I may stop by Schnucks and rent a movie.

Boy, I better get up early or I won't get all of my relaxing in.

Training group?

While my wife and I were out for a run on Sunday, we had an odd conversation. We are planning on running the Chicago Marathon this year. But the years that we've had our best success is when we had a group of people to train with. However, this year two of our training buddies are becoming new mothers and will subsequently unlikely to take up a strenuous training program. We haven't seen much of one of our other training buddies. And the other training buddy is currently nursing a knee injury. Given the relatively small number of people who would be interested in training for a marathon, we could end up training with one of the groups associated with Fleet Feet or St. Louis Track Club. But we'd rather train with friends than strangers.

Anyone interested?

It's great to be a redhead

After all of the years of hating my hair color and putting up with threats to be beaten like a step-child, I've finally begun appreciating my red hair. For one thing, redheads take a long time to go grey. First we have to go to brown and only then on to grey. I know it'll happen, but I take some measure of comfort in knowing that it won't be for a good while yet.

Don't you hate it when...

... someone recognizes you from school and you can't place them to save your life? That happened to me at the Kingdom House run on Friday. Someone said, "Didn't you go to Wash U?" We played the My Uncle Bob is from Texas Game for a moment and didn't find a match. Then I moved on to finish registering for the race. The thing is that I'm usually very good at recognizing faces but poor at putting names to faces. But for the life of me, I couldn't place her. Is this a sign that I'm getting older?

Weekend update

Friday night we had some dinner with friends and watched back episodes of Alias. It was a good time, marred only by the fact that Oliver had trouble going down and so we let him stay up while we watched.

Saturday morning I got up and ran a 10K at St. Charles CC. I ran a good race finishing 49:38 or about 8:00/mile. It felt like a good race and gives me a point of comparison for later this summer. I met my wife and child at a rummage sale at a neighborhood school. I took off with Oliver for Gymboree while my wife stayed behind to get the bargains. Poor Oliver did not make it as far as Gymboree before crashing. I turned around and went home. Oliver and I took a nap together for the next hour or so while my wife did some cleaning. After our nap, my wife and I continued doing some cleaning while entertaining Oliver. It is really nice that he is getting to the point where he can entertain himself somewhat. It's also scary as there were a couple of points where we went to look for him only to find that he had gone downstairs. He's a good stair climber, but we still prefer to have someone keep an eye on him when he's on the stairs.

Eventually we got cleaned up and headed up to my mother-in-law's place. Oliver crashed in the car on the way up and we let him sleep in the car when we got there until he woke up on his own. Inside, I made some dinner and we watched some draft coverage until it was time to go to the trivia night. This trivia night was entirely based on TV. As a group we did poorly finishing well out of the money. We talked outselves out of a couple of answers but by and large weren't even close to being in contention. But it was a good time regardless. My wife and I will have to skip the one the week following as we will be hosting a baby shower.

Sunday morning I got up with Oliver and played with him while mommy and grandma got some sleep. They got up a few hours later and then Grandma took Oliver too see her mother. My wife and I went out for a run. Once back in the house I gathered up my stuff and went home. I had a 10K to go to later that afternoon for Kingdom House. I went over to the race ahead of time and watched the Everyday Circus troop. Getting there early was a good decision as the sky opened up during the performance, but let up by the time it was over. The 10K ended up being a bust as the racers got confused at a turning point and skipped a healthy chunk of the course. Oh for a lack of a volunteer! I finished the now 4M(?) race in 30:00. Afterwards I went home and got cleaned up. I headed out to run some errands at Sam's and Lowe's. By the time I got home it was close to 7:00. I ordered some Indian food and went out to pick it up. I went home, watched MI-5, did laundry, and turned in early.