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July 31, 2007

you're dead

Once again, I appear to be dead.
Unlike last time, this version doesn't look much like me.

July 30, 2007

ghostbusters

We're currently at my parents. I'm trying to "work" from here, although that's already proving difficult. I tried to work most of the day, but my parents like to eat, so there was a lot of running around to eat today.

Our trip out here took about an extra 2 hours because of a wreck on the interstate between lincoln and omaha, and a burger king near Des Moines that apparently only hired retards. And I don't mean just stupid people, I mean the maximum IQ of any employee there was literally no higher than 75. It's a fast food restaurant, yet all of 10 people caused a queue longer than 20 minutes. It was astounding, and enough to make you suicidal all at once.

The rest of the week should hopefully just be me answering emails and phone calls, and otherwise swimming and eating.

July 28, 2007

dora the explorer

This is the current favorite comedy clip by everyone in our house.
We all think it's hilarious, mostly because we've all seen the show.

July 26, 2007

walking after you

phew. I've been very busy all week here at work. It's just non-stop. I'm trying to get everything in order since I'm going to my parents for a week.
Scott and I have been playing pretty much only each other in racquetball for the last 6 months, ever since Chad quit, and Bill went to jail. And we were always amazed at the lack of other players there. We thought we could find someone else there to play, but we have not, until this week.
We saw these two new guys playing around the same time as us, so I said we should watch them once, and see if they were "good enough" to play us.
We know we're not that great, but it's frustrating playing someone much worse than you.
We watched them play a little, and it didn't look real impressive, but they were at least athletic, and making a few shots, so we approached them as asked if they wanted to switch it up and play each other.
They were very much for it, since they were in the same boat, no one to play other than the two of them, which gets boring quick.
The more I watched them, the more I thought, "this could be bad, they don't look that great, and we could look like jerks if we school them too bad"

Turns out, it wasn't an issue.

We played the new guys today, and it was embarrassing, just not in the way I anticipated. Scott played one guy, and I played the other. We both got schooled. I actually won the first game, but I suspect it was a case where he wasn't really giving it his all, and then the second game, he really took it to me, and I only got like 5 points. We played two more, which I lost both, but they were at least respectably close. I got like 9-12 points in them at least, but generally got schooled.
Scott did even worse, he didn't win one game.

He said he's done listening to me about how good we are at stuff. I convinced him to do the adventure race because I thought we would be very competitive in our times. Yeah, not so much.
We did ok, but not great. Certainly not the top 10% like I was hoping.

I guess I just think too highly of myself...

July 22, 2007

protest and survive

Well, the day of reckoning is over, and I lived.

The story starts with me not being able to not think about the race all the nite before, so I got about 2-3 hours of sleep. Got up at 6:30, and we packed up Scott's truck and headed out to the lake.

The firs thing I notice is that everyone else has expensive equipment and clothing, all tailored to just this sort of race. We are unloading our cheap, old bikes, and peasant clothing and equipment, muttering to ourselves about "all we want is to not finish last".
Scott dubs the 3 guys that parked next to us, all with bikes well over $1000 and matching biking jerseys and socks, "team USA"

Our third guy, Kevin, played in the state games volleyball the entire day before, and was totally spent from that, not a good start for our team, 3Techs (I did not get any input into the team name). He actually called us the nite before saying he was cramping up, and if we could find a replacement, do it. Yeah, didn't seem likely the nite before the race.

There are by my guess, about 100 teams here, most are first timers like us, thankfully.
We were told by several people who raced this before that the race went:
run 2 miles,
bike 10 miles,
canoe 2 miles,
obstacle course,
run 2 miles.

So we were prepared for that.
Instead, the first announcement was that the course was changed drastically this year.
Great.
So he says "you need to take everything with you"
We all had running shoes, biking shoes, and beach shoes. I didn't want to use one pair of shoes on any other part of the course, because I just about can't run in the biking shoes, cannot bike in the anything but the biking shoes, and didn't want to run in sand-filled shoes.
So now the biking is first.
I just figure we'll follow the crowd, and worry about passing as the race goes on.
We only bike about 1 mile, and then it's time to run, and I'm stuck in the biking shoes.
2 miles of running in those stupid biking shoes later, we need to bike another 10 miles.
Scott and I are very strong in this, and can pass people, but Kevin is wilting.
In the end of the biking section, we did very well, and definitely finished in the top 25

We got to the inflatable kayak section, which only holds 2 people, so the third person had to get in an inner tube and swim out to another boat and get a token.
Kevin and I kayaked, and Scott swam.
It turned out that Kevin and I were the worst kayakers in the entire race. We got passed by the only team behind us, and could not go straight to save our lives. It seemed to take forever to finish, but thankfully we finished about the same time as Scott so he was not waiting.

Then we had to do, as Scott described it, "a bunch of grabass tasks" on the beach. It involved filling up buckets with sand or water and then carrying them around.
Then it was the last run, which we expected to be 2 miles again, but instead it was only about 1. I was feeling very good, and was able to run te whole way, but both Scott and Kevin were cramping.
So when we realized the run was "run straight out, get a stamp, and run back to where we started" I left them in the middle, got the stamp, and met them as they started back.
An all girl's team did the same, and me and the lead girls from that team ended up sprinting back to the finish line.
As I was racing her, I thought, "I am not going to lose to this girl", and looked back to see that Scott and Kevin were far ahead of her teammates. Since the time is the time the whole team gets there, I thought "I don't even need to beat her" and let her go ahead in the last 10 yards.
She tries to get her team entered as scott and kevin come up behind me, and is very loud about making sure everyone understood she was here in line before me. And the guy entering times is indeed putting her in before getting my info.
But when we gets to taking my teams info, the race director says to him "this guys teams was here before her, mark their time as 3 seconds before hers"
pfffft.
I will post some pictures of the race when I can find them.

In all, I estimate we finished in the top 25. The gold and silver men's times were a full half hour before us, but the bronze men's time was only 10 minutes before us, so I'm curious how far out of the medals we were.

Knowing what I know now about how the race works, and if we could have not had Kevin kill himself the day before the race, I think there's a good chance we could have been in the medal hunt.
But we didn't finish last, so mission accomplished.

Scott and I went and ate a truckload of taco bell, and I went home and went to sleep for 3 hours.

Then I had a small poker tournament, only 10 guys showed up.
But I won that, drank several beers, and generally had a good time.
This was a day to make autobiography.

July 21, 2007

19th nervous breakdown

well, it's 12:30am, and I have to get up in 6 hours to go do this crazy race.
At least I'll be getting plenty of sleep beforehand...

July 20, 2007

my party

ok, we are back in lincoln from Fort Collins.
While the drive back is never fun, I made very good time yesterday.

This think this trip was the most fun trip there since we've moved. I wasn't constantly tired from trying to do too much, for one thing. In fact, I got in a couple naps. That's what I call a vacation!
We went to waterworld, (where I took no pictures)
hiked to horsetooth,

We had a successful block party where we had a cajan boil of sorts.

and saw some old friend's new kids


It was a very good trip.
Now it's back to reality for me, trying to catch up on email, and most importantly right now, prepare for this crazy race on saturday. I'm so not looking forward to it, it's hard to put into words.

Sorry for the large, picture-heavy post, but I got some feedback that I need to post more pictures in the posts, so here we go.

July 16, 2007

take me home, country road

We're in Fort Collins, and I am loving life.
We've had a lot of fun so far, and have 2 days left.
Saturday nite we just hung out and talked.
Sunday we spent the day at Waterworld, and then had dinner at HuHot.
Today, I made everyone hike to the very top of Horsetooth mountain, which everyone initially thought was going to be great, but they complained as we went farther and farther. But we eventually got to the top, and Abby, Ally and I even climbed to the very base of the actual horsetooth formation, which was crazy perilous for me, someone stupid afraid of heights.
Then we had big city burrito again for lunch, and went and hung out with Jeremey and Robin for the evening.

Tomorrow we have a crawfish boil, and then wednesday we'll find something to do at our leisure.
I'm liking

July 11, 2007

we used to vacation

Played some poker tonite, and rather well for a change. It reminded me of how fun poker can be. I hit my first legitimate straight flush in the best possible way. I will reserve that story for the extended entry since most people don't care.

My kegbot flowmeter is having a bit of an interface problem with my microprocessor board, and I'm not sure of the solution yet.
And I think I found a solenoid valve to use, but I haven't pulled the trigger on it yet. I keep thinking I can either make something more elegant myself, but it would be very difficult and would be hard to reproduce. A solenoid valve is very elegant, not the cheapest thing possible, and could potentially cause heavy foaming. So it's a tough choice.

We leave for Fort Collins on in 2 days, woohoo!
It's a vacation, but as usual, I pretty much have every day already planned out. But it's not too hectic, some of the days are planned to just eat and drink.
I should try get in some training while I'm there, but we'll see how that goes.

I have been hitting some good hands, going on a great run where I'm winning 2 out of every 3 hands. This is after just sitting there for almost 2 hours, doing nearly nothing.
i'm playing extremely straightforward, because I'm really just getting good flops to my cards.
I haven't shown a bluff yet, I always have a hand when I play, so I'm always surprised when everyone keeps playing with me when I raise. I guess that's why I love playing with these guys.

We've been playing dealers choice, sortof within the realm of HORSE, so it's either hold'em, omaha, omaha 8/b, razz, stud, and stud 8/b.
The game is called omaha hi, I of course get
A236
A steller 8/b hand, but barely worth playing in hi only.
I even announce, "I have a great low hand, so of course you called hi only"

I can barely believe it when the flop is
A45
I have flopped the nuts here, and even have both flush draws, although I don't want to make the spade flush draw.

Turn: K
Now I still have the nuts, plus I also have the nut flush draw, so I pot it again, and which puts my only opponent all in, and he calls. I know I can't be behind, and he must have the same thing, and/or a set and hoping to outdraw me to a full house.
I was right, he flipped over
KK7Q
So he can outdraw me with another spade, or if the board pairs.

River:5
Oh, great, he got both of his wishes.
The board
A45K5
He made kings full of fives.

At this point, I thought I had lost, and he definitely thought he won. Until someone else pointed out that I had
23 to play on the board's A45, giving me the only possible hand to beat his boat.

This was about the fourth time I have crushed this guy that nite, it was not his nite.

July 9, 2007

headfirst for halos

I said I was jazzed for this, when it was finally released, now I'm even more jazzed.
I need to save my $$ a little before I can get it, but I do believe I will get this phone.

It is looking really, really, really, really, really, really cool.

freak on

I just mailed in my state taxes, finally. I'm not too late am i?

July 8, 2007

saint john

busy busy the last several days.
I've been training pretty hard lately for this race, running and biking. I'm getting pretty sore and generally sore.
We're all really looking forward to a week long trip to fort collins next week, and I could really use the vacation.
I have a long list of things to get accomplished both at home and at work before I go, so it's going to be a crazy week.

But good news is that the kegbot is still coming along nicely, but I am now trying to overcome some mechanical issues. I could have a very interesting result if I can implement all my crazy ideas with user authentication, and pouring mechanisms I want to make.

Been spending the $$ lately on home items, and it's not going to stop since I'm going on vacation, it'll only get worse. sigh.
Oh well, can't take it with ya.

July 4, 2007

milkshake

Yesterday was pretty fun. I started the day off a little tough, by running 1.5 miles, biking 5 miles, and then running another 1.5 miles. That was not fun.
But hopefully I'm improving to where I'll be able to do the race without much trouble.
Then we shot a few fireworks off at our house before heading off to Chad's for his annual 4th of July party, the last one ever at that house, since he just sold it.
He thinks he's going to build a new house, with him being the General Contractor, in less than 7 months. All of us think he's crazy.
Guess we'll see who's right in 7 months.

We had a good time at his party, as usual. Good food and drinks, and many friends.
Got to see the Shelton's who are having a tough time lately. They just had their second kid, a girl, who for completely unknown reasons completely stopped moving and nearly died in Marla's belly about 2 weeks before her due date. She had no heartbeat and no air for almost 15 minutes after they pulled her out. So it's a tough situation that I can relate to all too well.
The new girl, Addison, looks totally normal, but has had some seizures, doesn't eat on her own, and is generally not doing well.
I think the general expectation is some fairly serious physical and mental handicapping. It's a real bummer. But we haven't seen them since she was born, and they were there, so it was good to see them anyway.

My dad has at last started his chemo. He said that it went pretty well, a little nausea but it was controlled pretty well by some other drugs. He said that if it stays like that, the whole chemo regimine should be pretty tolerable.
So that was uplifting news.

Here I'm training as much as possible and still be able to walk, and doing some serious programming on the kegbot. It's coming along great, and I expect to start testing some pours here shortly, then I will be hooking it up to the real deal after that.

July 2, 2007

nevermind

busy weekend.
That bike ride friday nearly killed me. But now I'm recovered, and hopefully will train hard this week, so I can do that ride with no troubles.
I have discovered one issue with my summer planning, and that is that I thought the race was one weekend later than it really is. I thought I was going to be in fort collins for a week of drinking and eating, then have a week of training to get back into groove, then the race.
Instead, the race is the weekend that I come back from fort collins. So I'll have about 1 day to get ready for the race. Yeah, I anticipate great things from me for this race, cuz I'm not going to hold back the eating and drinking on vacation, and I highly doubt I'll do a lot of training while I'm out there.
saturday I finished building the kids new swingset.

Yes, it's all new stuff at our house. Mostly because I insist on buying the cheapest thing available the first time, and invariably, the kids destroy it. So then I have to replace it. Only then am I convinced that we need something better than the cheapest thing available. So now we have a new trampoline and swingset.
I was pretty irritated with it friday nite, because I went to mount the top beam to the a frames, after Aubrey and I had carefully measured and drilled all the mounting holes, and found that the a frame brackets were not spaced apart the width the instructions claimed. And they were off just enough that I could not just drill a new hole to compensate, I would have had to drill two new holes, and then the spacing of the frames would have been too close to the swings.
So I had to get a whole new 4x6x12 and do it again.
So Sunday I turned the first 4x6x12 into a balance beam, just to use it for something.
Maybe I'll turn it into a teeter totter if the balance beam isn't used.

The kegbot is progressing, although slowly. Since there's no deadline, it's easily interrupted. Although no that I think about it, it really should have a deadline of the 'end of summer' because once the semester starts, I'll be busy with my thesis, and won't have much time for the kegbot anymore. Maybe I can make the kegbot my thesis....