The Not-So-Daily Ramble

The first video blog of the year.

Knowing how poorly I kept up with that last year, it may also be the last video blog of the year. One never knows.

Even for me, I've been slacking off here, so I thought I'd make a holiday appearance.

We had the Smith clan at our house today for the Christmas festivities. Angie and I got each other the exact same gift (Nook Tablet) without any prior consultation and neither of us had mentioned that we wanted one. We're referring to this as the "Nerds in Love" syndrome.

The kids had a blast and we had Chinese food a la "A Christmas Story" as that has become our family tradition.

Definitely nice to have everyone at our house today and nice to have weather in the 40s (sorry, I'm not a fan of winter, so white Christmases are not my thing).


I'll try to get the now-super-de-duper overdue report on our trip (uh, 2.5 months ago) posted soon.

Merry Christmas, y'all.

I still owe you a journal of my recent trip to Honduras, Belize, and Mexico and the rest of the cruise, but

It's 11/11/11 at 11:11!


My brain just exploded.

It's been almost two weeks since the marathon and I ... I think I am broken. I think it was the marathon.

Granted, it takes a few weeks for your body to recover from the "holy crap, what did you just do to me?" feeling, but the runs I've done since the long race have been horrible. I feel like I'm slogging along in combat boots. My legs have been pretty tight and just don't feel "right."

I suspect that things will get back to whatever-passes-for-normal...I just hope it is soon as I have this half-assed idea that I should do another marathon while I'm still trained up.  I hear Indianapolis and Kansas City have one in November....

This morning was the 31st Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon.

I had put in the miles, running through winter storms, spring rains and summer heat, with the hopes of completing the marathon in under four hours. The other day, I suggested that although that was my goal, that if I were to be in Vegas and the oddsmakers were taking bets on this, I said to bet against me.

That bet would have paid handsomely.

The first half of the race (literally through 13.1 miles) had me running at sub-2:00 and all was going to plan.  It was literally as I started the second half of the race (just after entering Milwaukee County after zipping around Ozaukee County) that I felt weird. My fingers started tingling and I got a bit dizzy.  The weird part about this is when it happened in the race. At or after 20 miles? Sure, I can see that. However, I've done the 13.1 mile distance a dozen times and with the exception of the experience at the Summerfest Rock & Sole Half Marathon in July, I've done it without issue. The problem that day was the intense heat and humidity. Today? The conditions were damn near perfect. And yet, as my friend NJ says, you put in the miles, you have the endurance and you still sometimes bonk on race day. That's what happened to me.

I was running with the 3:55 pace group in hopes that I would still have a little wiggle room for when I started to fade. I just didn't suspect I would fade as hard or as fast as I did. By mile 17, I was having to walk stretches and then jogged on as long as I could.

The pace groups kept passing me: First 4:00, then 4:05, 4:10, 4:15, 4:20 and 4:30. By this time, I was pretty depressed as I wouldn't have minded missing the goal by a few minutes, but as it ended up, this run slaughtered me. I crossed the line at 4:39 and some change. I went from at 8:50 minutes per mile pace at mile 13 to finishing at a 10:40 minutes per mile.

Coming into the finishing chute, however, I saw my family there. Sasha leaned over the railing and gave me a "high five" as I passed. I can't tell you how much it meant to me to have Sasha, Aiden, Angie and my dad there to see me finish.  The time was disappointing, but I finished the marathon. I avoided the dreaded "DNF" (Did not finish) tag. I got my finisher's medal. My son told me he was proud of me. I saw my friends who had finished the marathon (as much as an hour earlier) standing there waiting for me.

All in all, I guess it was a pretty damn good day after all.

No, this isn't another post about the Lakefront Marathon. Just some cool pics I took this morning of MIlwaukee's actual lakefront. We had strong winds overnight, which whipped up the waves on the Lake Michigan shoreline pretty well. Just for reference, the lighthouse pictured below is 53 feet tall.

I have run close to 1,000 miles since this wild idea about running a marathon came into my head.

In less than three days, it's my first shot at running 26.2 miles...without stopping, that is: the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon.  The route begins at 7:30am in Grafton, Wisconsin, and ends in Downtown Milwaukee. My goal is to run this thing in under four hours. I am well aware that this is a rather ambitious goal: In 2005, the men's average completion time for a marathon was 4:32:08*; I'm going to try and best that by at least 32 minutes. With any luck, I will cross the finish line at approximately 11:30am.

I have no idea if I am going to do it. Frankly, if you were in Las Vegas, I would tell you to bet against me finishing in under four hours. I have been told time and again by other runners that the goal should be simply to finish the first marathon** and not to worry about a time.

Yet, I am going for a time.

Truth be told, as long as I finish when the course clocks are ticking (under 6.5 hours), I will be satisfied; each minute under 6.5 hours will make me that much more satisfied. Should I manage to break my four hour goal, I'm going to be damn near ecstatic.

If you're interested in seeing how I actually do during this run, you can sign up for email updates on my progress or watch my Twitter account.

It should be interesting.

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* - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marathon

** - This, of course, assumes that I will want to run another marathon like all the other crazy people do.***

*** - Of course, there is this little specter in my head that wants to run the Quad Cities Marathon in the future, but maybe I'll just settle for the half-marathon.

This morning was my last marathon build-up run with the Badgerland Striders. It was "only" a ten mile run today, as I am now in the taper period prior to the run, which is only eight days away.

To say that I'm wishing this was over is a bit of an understatement. I think it's more of the suspense prior to the race and all the unknowns: Will I get a time that I'm happy with? Will the weather cooperate? Will I even be able to finish? Will I be able to keep up with the pace group I plan to run with? Will I be completely shot after this race? Will I even want to run again after next Sunday?

Next Sunday will be one of the most challenging days I've had...at least for that time while I'm running. Even though I am very excited to be taking part in a marathon, I have a lot of anxiety over how it is going to go.

Stay tuned, I guess....

Today was the longest run of my life...well, so far at least. This was the final "super long"* run prior to the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon which happens 22 days from today. Ironically, enough, the run was 22 miles.

It was cooler and less humid today than last Saturday's 20 mile run and it was a better run overall. Don't get me wrong, it still egregiously sucked. I think it clocked in at about 3:30 or so. That's actually somewhat bad news for my unrealistic goal of doing 26 miles in less than four hours. Yeah, I knew that was going to be tough back in April when I signed up for the marathon.  I have been doing my long runs at the 9:09min/mile pace, but I will admit that I haven't been as diligent about doing the intervals as I should have and as it turns out, that may make the difference in meeting -- or rather not meeting -- the four hour goal.

The next two weeks will be glorious by comparison as I am heading into a taper. Next week will be a few 3-5 miles runs during the week and a 14 mile run on Sunday. The long run the week prior to the marathon will be about eight miles.

Then October 2, 2011, the run will be 26.2 miles.

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* - my term

Throughout my life, one of the meaningless fleeting thoughts that occasionally crosses my mind is 'how old am I vs. how old was *such and such a celebrity* when s/he died?'

Here is another great spam.

*sigh* ok. Here we go:

On July 30, I took the running on the road, so to speak. Angie and I traveled to her hometown of Davenport Iowa for the 37th running of the Bix 7. This was by far the largest run I've participated in. Approximately 18,000 people participated in the events surrounding the Bix. It is part of the Memorial Jazz Festival that commemorates the life of jazz pianists/cornetist/composer (and Davenport native) Bix Beiderbecke.

The Bix 7 is a hilly course and of course it was hot and humid on the day of the race.*

I was starting in the fourth corral back (much to my annoyance). Angie did manage to find me among the crowd however:
It took me 4+ minutes to clear the actual starting line when the gun went off. It was amazing to see the masses of runners surging up the Brady Street hill.
The course was lined with spectators, plenty of bands and very kind residents who were stationed out on the course with sprinklers, hoses and even a few "slip & slides" (including one really big one at the turnaround spot on the course).  There were no water-related issues such as happened a few weeks earlier with the half-marathon I did in Milwaukee.

My biggest problem was that I started in the back of the pack and had to work my way around people that were more in the "fun run" category than the "running this trying to get a good time" folks like me.** I finally found some room to run around the 4.5-5 mile mark, but I didn't get in under at hour like I had hoped. I did cross in the finish line in 64 minutes, though, so the time wasn't horrible by my goal.

Once I crossed the finish line, I had my finisher picture taken and met up with Angie and her stepdad, Tim.
Once I met up with them, they pointed out to me that I had suffered a bit of a physical mishap related to not putting on Body Glide or other protective barriers before the race started. Notice the blood staining my nice Wisconsin Marathon shirt.

Amy Winehouse was found dead today.  Since this will be beat to hell all over the news, I'll just point back to this post I made in 2008. I'll admit I was wrong on the timing.

This is a few summation of the past few weeks, broken up into sections with musical soundtracks. Please play the music along in your head while you read.


i. Crash Into You - Dave Matthews Band
Well, if there is one thing I've learned from my marathon training is to watch your back.  Two weeks ago, I was out running on an off-road section of the Oak Leaf Trail with a few guys from work. We had hit the two mile mark and since we were going to run four miles that day, it was our turnaround point.  While the other guys circled ahead, I slowed and then start backing up when I was hit from behind by a guy on a bicycle.

I understand this is a multi-use trail and one does see bikes all the time, but this asshat did not call out his approach (the "On your left!" or some variant) or signal with a bell or horn. Just plowed into me.  According to the guys, he was moving at a pretty good clip when he clocked into me.

I stumbled across the trail, into ankle-deep mud, and hit the brick retaining wall. I had a scratch down my leg and ankle from where his had hit my leg.  I was stooped over with my hands on my legs looking down, not so much because I was hurt, but because I was pissed. I literally did the "count to ten" thing before looking up.

The guy that hit me flew off his bike and had made an impressive splash into a full mud puddle. He got up and just picked up his bike and walked away without saying a word. Did not apologize, did not ask if I was ok... just started walking away.

I continued the run back with the guys and a slighter quicker pace than the first two miles -- despite the throbbing ankle and back from where I was hit, the adrenaline was doing its thing apparently.

Morale: If you're on a bike and approaching runners, don't assume you've been sighted or otherwise sensed. Signal the runners.

ii. Hot Time...Summer in the City - Lovin Spoonful
On July 10, I ran in the Summerfest Rock 'n Sole Half-Marathon and 10K Run. If you live in Milwaukee or Wisconsin or follow running at all, you probably heard about what happened. It was friggin' hot and humid on the day of the race and it was rough going for the runners.  I finished the run before it was "black flagged" or halted. It was my slowest half marathon time at 2:08:53, but I was also pretty damn happy to finish at all as it certainly was the toughest conditions in which I had run that distance.

Since I had been watching the weather all week prior to the race, I knew it was going to be a bit of a tough one and it certainly was all that I expected and more. I had been hydrating like crazy the few days before the race and I think it worked out well. Although I didn't feel great during the run, I certainly didn't feel as badly as some of those I saw on the side of the roads getting oxygen and IVs.

Morale: Running in the summer is fine; running half-marathons in July is a bit kookier than I plan on doing again.

iii. Been Caught Stealing - Jane's Addiction
I noticed some weird pre-authorizations showing up on my bank card and after a day or so, it was obvious that somewhere along the line, my card information had been compromised. No, I didn't sign up for Netflix six times in the course of a day, nor did I buy a ton of designer clothing on some fancy-shmancy website. My favorite, however, was the pre-authorization for Aeromexico tickets.

I stopped by the local branch of my financial institution and much to my shock, everything was handled in one fifteen minute visit. My old card was zapped, all the disputed charges eliminated and I walked out of there with my new card in hand.

Morale: Uh, don't leave your card numbers around? Only shop at reputable websites? I don't know what the morale is, as I don't know where the information was compromised.

This past weekend, we took the kids down to Iowa for the first time to visit with Angie's parents. At the same, time, we didn't want them getting too hyper prior to the trip, so we didn't tell them ahead of time.

I covertly packed some things for them in a suitcase and put it in the car the day prior to the trip.  When we were ready to go, Angie told the boys we had to "run some errands" and that they should grab a few toys and head to the car.

I will admit, we made it 40 minutes out of town (long than I thought we would have driven) before Sasha asked, "Where ARE we going?" Angela raised a hand and said, "Don't worry about all that," which only caused him and Aiden to wonder more, so we finally told them. They were happy and surprised for the little adventure.

A few hours later, we crossed the Illinois-Iowa border at the Mississippi River on Interstate 80 and stopped just over the over the bridge...and then I saw more bugs in one place than I think I have ever seen. It was the caddisfly hatching season and it was pretty unbelievable (In fact, I cut short a planned 7 mile run to just over four miles over the weekend as I was just eating too many bugs on the run).

We made it to the hotel without issue (aside from a car caked with caddisflies) and then had the unenviable task of trying to get the boys to settle down to sleep. Sasha spent about 45 minutes tossing and turning on the bed like a bag of snakes while Aiden kept complaining about Sasha stealing the covers.  Eventually, though, they succumbed and slept.

The following morning we stopped at Angie's parent's place. Her mom has had some health challenges, but has been doing extremely well lately. It was great to see her looking and feeling good.  Angie's dad took the kids to a nearby park with water slides. We hung out with Angie's mom and ran some errands.

The kids were wiped out Saturday night and had a much easier time going to sleep.

Father's Day meant we had to head back home, but we were able to spend more time with Ang's parents before we left. We even got Aiden to smile nicely for a family picture.

And now for something completely different...I ran a 5K race this morning. It was the Salus Wisconsin Corporate Challenge, which was held at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. I had the support of Angie and the kids as they were able to join me.  I was part of a 16 person team who participated from my company.

The last time I had run a 5K was in 2009 for the Hank Aaron State Trail 5K run. At that time, I posted what was my personal best time of 27:12 over the 5K. So that was my time to beat. Of course, I've been running much more since I did that race, but still, there was a bit of pressure for a personal best.

The weather was great for the race: mostly cloudy and mid-50s. This wasn't a huge race: Only 403 registered runners for the race; there was also a fun walk/run for people, but I don't know how many were registered for that.

One of the guys on our team was shooting for a 23 minute race, so I figured he'd be good to try and follow -- at least for as long as I could.  The race started and we were off through the grounds of the Harley Museum and off onto Canal Street and the Hank Aaron State Trail.*  I knew I was going faster than I was used to running; for the half-marathons I run around a 9 minute mile, but since this was significantly shorter than the 13.1 miles of a half-marathon, I figured I could suck it up for the 25 minutes.  I looked at my watch at following my pacer (my coworker) and I was at a 7:30/mile pace.

Somehow, I managed to hang in that neighborhood for the majority of the race. At about the 3 mile mark, I was passed by another coworker, who was busting his ass. At that point, I threw it into "sprint mode"** and charged after him.  I don't think I got that blessed "runner's high" that people talk about, but I had the "runner's  oh-sh!t-everything-hurts" going on instead.

Sasha saw me first coming towards the finish line and the family cheered me on as I crossed the line at 23:45, one second behind my coworker, Jason (the one who blazed by me at the three mile mark, at right in the picture below).

One of our teammates finished in the Top Ten for all racers with an awesome 18:20 (5:54/mile) time.

So far, I've had pretty decent luck in the races I've done this year: All have been personal bests for the distance.  I'm sure my string of bests will run out soon, but I think I'm doing alright for an old fart.

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* - Not the same part of the trail from the aforementioned 2009 race.

** - I like to refer to it as "I think my heart is going to explode" mode.

This past weekend, I ran in the Wisconsin Marathon in Kenosha, Wisconsin.  I participated in the half-marathon, as I'm sure as hell not ready to run a full marathon yet. This was my second race at that distance and although I will never be someone that will ever win one of these races, I have this thing where I want to do better every time I try.*  My time from the first half-marathon was 1:55:28 or something like that, so that was the time to beat.

The weather was great: Sunny and about 50 degrees at 0700, when the race started. I had a good pace (8:28/mile) going through the first ten miles and then I pretty much hit a wall. About the same time, the clouds rolled in and a wind kicked up off the lake.  I felt like I was running through glue. Although I wasn't having any problems with my cardio, my legs were just shot.  Nonetheless, I did manage to creep in a bit faster than my first half-marathon. My official time was 1:53:44 (8:41/mile).

One of the thoughts I had around the Mile 12 mark was "if I feel this crappy at 12 miles, how in the hell am I going to run 26 miles in October?"  Granted, I was running faster for this race than I suspect I will run the full marathon, but it's not that much slower.**

I have 144 days to train for the marathon and my "official" training doesn't start for another month, but this weekend's race really reminded me of how far I've yet to go.

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* - At least until my body refuses to allow me to do so based on age...I figure I have 3 or 4 years left max before my times start going down instead of up.

** - I am planning on trying to run it in under four hours (9:09/mile); as I pointed out in an earlier post, I have no idea if this will be possible, but that's what I am going to shoot for.

Fresh off of beating my personal goal at the South Shore Half-Marathon a few weeks ago, I decided to do something (which in my mind I still consider) stupid: I signed up for the Milwaukee Lakefront Marathon in October.

Angie is teasing me about the fact that even training for the half-marathon, I kept claiming I would never run a full marathon.  I guess this is one of those "Bucket List" things for me: I want to do one and "thank you very much, good night!" cross it off the list and never think of it again. Admittedly, I want the bragging rights more than I want to run the race.

So far, my longest run has been 16 miles, so between now and October, I've got to figure out a way to crank out those extra ten miles without completely blowing myself out.  Complicating this a bit is the fact one of my ankles is a bit pissed at me for all the running lately. I actually had an x-ray done this week to rule out a fracture, but that was negative. I believe the doctor, but it sure doesn't feel negative.

Nonetheless, I now have another goal to beat. I have no idea if I will be able to pull off what I'm going to try in terms of completing the marathon in a certain time.  One of my running buddies tells me the goal is to merely complete the first long race; of course, I have a goal set for myself. It's based on the goals I had for the half-marathon (finish in under two hours and finish in the top half): There are 3050 spots available in the marathon and I hope I can finish in the top half and hope I can do it in under four hours. This means I've got to average 9:09 minute miles over the 26.2 miles of the course.

I have no idea if these goals are even remotely obtainable, but I plan to find out. It is entirely possible I'm going to crash and burn on this, have a horrible time, finish last or get the dreaded DNF (did not finish). At the same time, for me, it's good to have some sort of seemingly impossible goal to try and beat.

My body is still flipping me off in terms of this idea (my ankle, is leading the charge on this score), but I have six months to train for this. I have [wisely/stupidly/?] signed up for three additional half-marathons and a seven mile run prior to the Lakefront Marathon.  I'm running about three times a week now and will start the "official" training program 16 weeks prior to the marathon in June.

Hopefully I'll still have legs to walk on when this is done.

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Lakefront Marathon Website

LFM Facebook page

LFM Twitter page

Yesterday, April 9, I ran my first half-marathon. Although realistically my goal should have been to just finish the run, I had a specific goal in mind: Run that sucker in less than two hours.  Never mind the fact that a) I had never run 13.1 miles before* and b) I didn't know if I could maintain a 9:10/mile pace for that long.**

The weather turned out to be just about perfect for a longer run: Cloudy and low 50s.  Three of my friends from work decided to waste a Saturday morning along with me. The race started at 8:30am and for the first mile it was the usual chaotic jostling around as the initial jam at the starting line moved along. After that, coworker John and I set off at a reasonably fast (for me, anyway) pace through the first four miles. We were averaging about 8:30/mile pace and I mentioned to him on mile 5 that "we may have made a tactical error here" in terms of our pace.   Right about that same time, the lead runners passed us heading back the other way (as the course was a loop).

As I got closer to the 9th mile, I was still hanging around 8:30-8:45/mile pace. I started to realize I was ahead of my two hour goal and at that point, I was hoping I would be able to hang on and not have some sort of colossal collapse in my remaining mile times.

At Mile 12, I was chanting to myself in my head "the faster you finish, the faster you can stop running" and "this is what you trained for" and all sorts of other things that normally I would ridicule were I not in the midst of a run.  I was definitely feeling it by then and was thinking to myself that I had no idea how people could actually run a full marathon (26.2 miles).

Once I could see the finish line, I started looking around for Angie and the boys. I saw them about 100 feet from the finish line and it really did mean a lot to me that they made it down to see the finish.  My finish time was 1:55:28.

Afterwards, the four of us from work commiserated briefly on the run and took a few pictures before we all headed off to clean up.

Frankly, I'm amazed that I did as well as I had hoped I could. I know I owe a lot to Mark and John, who have run with me for the past two years and helped me get to this point.  Now the hard part: I am registered for another half-marathon later this year, but I'm not sure that I will be able to do any better than what happened yesterday.

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* - prior longest run was 12.0 two weeks ago

** - I hadn't managed that to date

Ok, so I don't post spam (or anything else) much anymore, but I loved the tortured first paragraph of this fine, fine phishing attempt:

I love the part where "she" claims she has "$7.1 million USD lying somewhere."   As in, "Oh biscuits, I've misplaced the car keys again."

In my last entry, I mentioned that I will be doing a half-marathon later this year.  In the time since my last entry, I (and my equally crazy friends) have decided to do an additional half-marathon which is one month sooner than the previously scheduled one. So I have just shaved one month off of my training time. Oh, and I'm going to try and run the previously scheduled one as well. We'll see how that goes.

Along those lines, I've been running for about two years, but haven't really seen any sort of weight loss. Angie convinced me to try using one of those calorie counter things and admittedly I pooh-poohed that idea at first, but for the last ten days or so, I've been using it and it is making a serious difference. Since I started watching the portions and the calories (and have not ceased to wonder at how much I must have been actually eating previously), I've lost six pounds. Ideally, I need to lose 40 pounds, based on my BMI, but I'm not sure it's possible. In order to get my BMI into the "normal" range (as opposed to the "overweight" category), I need to lost 31 more pounds.

We'll see how this goes.

Of course, I don't see any difference in the mirror, but there is a lot to get rid of and I suppose it will take some time before I start seeing changes...as long as I stick with it.

For whatever reason, I had it in my stupid, stupid head to sign up for a half-marathon this year. Of course, the longest race I've gone recently is 5K (3.1 miles) and the half-marathon is 21K (13.1). It's funny because last year, I had thought that the idea of running this far was utterly ridiculous, especially for fun.

In any event, in order to be able to finish this is less than the time it would take to walk it, I've been running throughout the winter...also something I've never done previously. There were days that I (along with equally insane friends) have been running through snowstorms, bitter winds, and temperatures more suited to polar bears.

I still haven't run the distance I need to do in the race later this year, but I'm getting close. Today's run was 11 miles and that's basically within striking distance of the 13.1 miles I'll need.*  At least Spring is almost here and with it weather better suited for this sort of thing has been making an appearance.

Of course, doing this sort of exercise would make one think I'd be losing weight, but so far, the increased hunger seems to be outweighing any caloric burn these longer runs are having.

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* - Tell that to one of my ankles, which appears to be a bit pissed off with me right now.

The past few weeks in Wisconsin have been, to say the least, interesting. The state's new governor, Scott Walker, is proposing a budget repair bill to patch a shortfall in the state's current budget. As proposed, it would require public employees to pay more for health care and benefit coverage. In addition, the unions representing these employees would not be able to engage in collective bargaining (save for police and firefighters).

At the State Capitol in Madison, there have been (at the time of this writing) two weeks of protests against the proposed agreement. In addition, 14 State Senate Democrats have literally left the state rather than vote on this bill. [20 Senators are required for a voting quorum on budget bills. Since there are only 19 Republicans in the majority, at least one Senate Democrat needs to be present for any vote on bills that contain a financial component.]  As of today, the Senators, including my State Senator, are reportedly in Illinois, doing heaven knows what, leaving one chamber of the Wisconsin Legislature virtually paralyzed.

The Democrats have said they will return when the Governor removes the collective bargaining aspect from the budget repair bill, claiming that union rights will be destroyed.  The Governor states that removing the collective bargaining will contain costs for the end of the 2009-2011 Wisconsin budget, which is facing a budgetary shortfall of over $100 million.*  In addition, Wisconsin is estimated to have a $3.6 billion budget deficit for the 2011-2013 budget period. Governor Walker has said tax hikes are out of the picture and so the budget will have to be balanced through spending cuts.

In the meantime, Facebook (or at least that part of it that I am exposed to) has gone insane. Along with the articles posted (pro and con on the Governor's proposal), people post their opinions, which have varied from the benign, to the "Ban Union Thugs" and "Governor Walker is a Douche" groups.

On my own Facebook account, I posted a number of articles (without editorial content) about what was happening in Madison. The comment wars were incredible and in once instance caused someone to have a complete meltdown and threaten another commenter.**  Apparently, I'm not the only one that has experienced this, as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's lead article today was on friendships taxed by the budget issues.

I just decided it wasn't worth it.

Although Facebook was great for keeping in touch with people, it became a bit much. So I'll stick with my smaller audience here.

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* - I have my opinions on how that budget shortfall occurred, but that is beyond the scope of this rant.

** - The second commenter was baiting the first, but still....

Happy Groundhog Day!

We took a huge shot to the gut from one big bad-ass blizzard over the past day. The latest video blog deals with a pretty impressive amount of snow.

If you are viewing this via email or mobile device, go here for the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYqUgHlzO98

I know I still owe you a more serious video blog from last week but I have some audio editing to do on it, so I will throw something else your way instead:

[If you are reading this on a mobile device or email go here to see the video]

You had to know I would post now, although this isn't as cool as 11/11/11 @11:11 will be.

Still, I like all the repetition. I can't wait for 33/33/33@33:33!

I had hoped to post our next video blog today but Angie asked me to hold off a few more days. I will explain this when I post it...she just wants to talk with someone about the content first, otherwise it is going to spoil a surprise.

In other news, the four of us spent most of the weekend together. Today was a homework day and Angie and I were helping the boys with their respective homework assignments and watching the NFL playoffs (at least, I was...I don't think Angie saw a down). I'll admit I turned it off with 1:45 left in the game, ostensibly because it was dinner time, but also because I thought the Packers were going to lose at the last minute. :)

I don't really know how this work week is going to pan out, but my Spidey Sense is telling me it's going to be a big week or a really busy week, so I am going to wind things down here to make sure I get to bed at a reasonable hour. Five a.m. comes awfully early.

I'll admit that even taking six days off from blogging didn't seem to be enough after finishing my 365 project last week.  I probably could have taken a month off, but here I am.

Angie and I will be working on another video blog tomorrow...probably will be posting it on Sunday and this topic will be a bit more serious than the last one. I'll leave that as a teaser, rather than posting a spoiler.

For tonight, although it doesn't really count as a video blog, here's an adventure starring Sasha in the kitchen.

Well, with the 2010 365 blog project behind me, Angie and I decided we would try some video blogs this year. I don't know how often we'll do one...probably when we have something worth doing.*

So let's just do one and get rolling.

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* - Our definition of "something worth doing" anyway.

As you might have figured out by now, I have been attempting a "365 post" project in 2010, where I post an entry a day.  It has been more daunting than I expected and I am glad to be done with it, frankly.  I also didn't post anything about my intentions earlier on the off-chance I screwed it up (hey, it happens).  On a technicality, I have screwed it up a few times by hitting "save" and not "publish," but I'm sticking with the idea of "spirit of the law" not "letter of the law."

As for next year, Angie and I are going to try and do a bit of video blogging. We'll see how that turns out.

Thanks for hanging around here this year. See you in 2011.