Well, we did it. Katie and I (and Scott and Becca) ran our first 5K today. It was the Snowflake Shuffle and let's just say I'm glad it was designated a walk/run. I don't even know what our official final time was. Somewhere around 47 minutes. Not a time I'm particularly proud of.
Why?
Starting Friday at midnight, we got hammered with snow. This may not always be a big problem. Heck, many people have run in snow without problems. But this is our first organized run. Up to this point, all we'd done is run in what are otherwise ideal conditions. Those being either a treadmill or the occasional outdoor run in which it was nice and clear. We were not at all prepared for what happened here in Geneva.
The roads were horrible. Sure, they had plowed and salted, but the last time was a couple hours before our run began. Honestly, considering the conditions, the "pace car" for the race should have been a snow plow. I'm not kidding here. It would've made total sense and would have given those plows we were seeing on the road with their blades in the "up" position some purpose.
The reason why the snow was such a problem is because I have bad ankles and my body has a tendency to overcompensate when it knows there is some kind of danger that threatens my ankles. I have a very overprotective body that I cannot control at all. It's a bodily sixth sense. So my body began to overcompensate for what were perceived to be potential slips and twists and turns and my calf began to cramp up as a result. Katie had a similar problem.
We did have fun despite the real and perceived peril and we will do it again. But I think we need more outdoor and inclement weather training before we do the Super Bowl Shuffle 5K (PDF) in February.
Here's a shot of the four of us post-race. You can tell it was immediately post-race for Katie and I by the looks on our faces.
Welcome to another fine (albeit snowy) Snippet Wednesday. I'd also like to wish a Happy Hanukkah to all my Jewish friends out there! Shalom!
Celebrations On the topic of holidays, I have to apologize to some of my family. My recent spate of non-posting led to me not wishing some happiness to my family members. Back on November 21 was my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! And Monday was my brother's 32 birthday. Happy birthday, old man. I love you all and am sorry.
Run Yesterday morning, due to bad planning, I didn't get to work out. I was dragging all day long. I could've worked out in the afternoon, but I just didn't feel like it. Wow, I've become a total morning workout person. I need to do it to stay awake. Anyway, so I made up for it this morning by running. Took a completely new route through the neighborhood and kept at it despite the dusting of snow we received overnight and the biting cold outside. I ran 3.09 miles total and that final 1.09 felt incredible. If I'd had more time, I think I could've kept going another couple miles without a problem. Of course, when I actually do have the time, I never feel like keeping going. Know what I mean? Oh, and in case you're wondering why the oddball distance, that's when I happened to get back to my driveway and it also balances my total run distance in the Nike+ GPS app at 26 miles even. Yep! I've almost run a full marathon (never mind that it took 9 or 10 individual runs to get there; we won't mention that).
Tweets I Tweeted something today about some topic or other, blah, blah, blah. But it seemingly resonated with a few people as I got replies back from a couple friends that, when viewed in the mentions column of Tweetdeck, looked like this...
Yeah. I totally am. ;-) (no ego there, eh?)
Egypt In response to the retiring of both the Indiana Jones and Prince of Persia lines of LEGO sets, the company has released a whole new series called Pharaoh's Quest. Sure, they may not be 100% faithful to Egyptology, but they're pretty darn cool. You can never have too many mummies!
And for those of you who watch The Walking Dead, there is a figure in one of the sets that I think is a total brick doppelgänger for Shane. Uncanny, ain't it? Well, yanno, for being non-contoured and yellow and really small and all that.
Slider Someone at work brought in some White Castle Sliders for their lunch. We had been talking about it before he got them and I mentioned that I haven't eaten a Slider since I was about five years old. Considering I turn 36 on Sunday, that's a helluva long time. He thought it necessary that I try one again.
Well, that box arrived and I took one whiff and realized exactly why it's been 31 years since I've had one. I call it Gag-Reflex-Inducing-Scent or Eau de Crap. My sense of smell is still struggling to recover.
About five years ago, Katie and I finally made the jump to owning a TiVo. Well, two of them actually.
Now, we can't imagine our lives without them. I can't even remember what it was like to constantly set our VCRs for shows we wanted to watch and constantly swapping out tapes and trying to remember what was on each of them when we wanted to go back and watch them.
Life was so primitive.
But the best part of owning a TiVo, or any DVR for that matter? Fast forward!
Sure, we could fast forward through recorded shows on our VCR, but being able to do it during semi-live TV? Ohmigod. It's so fantastic! We will intentionally not watch a show when it airs live for about 15 minutes on a half hour or 30 minutes on an hour show. Why? So we have enough gap on the airing so that we can fast forward through all the commercials.
And during campaign season, it's an absolute sanity saver!
We have a couple of particularly heated battles going on right now in the State of Illinois for the Governor's mansion and one of our U.S. Senate seats. The two running main candidates for Governor are Pat Quinn (incumbent, somewhat) and Bill Brady while the two vying for the Senate seat are Alexi Giannoulias (sp?) and Mark Kirk.
These candidates are fighting tooth and nail and pulling out every stop in the book in their quest to make the other look like a complete assclown by dragging their name through the mud and slop and excrement and any other nasty substance you can think of. You remember how dirty the 2008 Presidential campaign was? Compared to these two races, that was a gentlemen's duel.
Guess what? It's working. I think all four of them are jackasses and I don't want any of the four of them in office.
Sadly I have little choice in the matter. The two-party system that exists in this country makes it impossible for any third-party candidate to be a viable option. Hell, in most cases, we never even hear of their names.
I wish just one of them would come out with a simple, generic ad in which they say, "Hi, my name is Bobby Dunleavey [not a real candidate... I think] and I'm not Bill Brady or Pat Quinn." Honestly, at this point, that might be enough to sway me. I seriously don't want any of the available candidates to take office.
Or maybe I'll just start a write-in campaign for Dave2.
At least I know what to expect from him...
[please don't hate/sue me for using your graphic, Dave]
Katie and I are signing up for our first ever fun run!
It's scheduled for the day before my birthday. If I survive, I can really celebrate my birthday feeling like I've done something cool. If I die, I never have to turn 36 years old. Yay!
It's a mile from our house. I don't really have to worry much about travel or parking or lodging or anything. And it's so close, we can actually practice on the planned route.
The route map, oh the route map. Speaking of route, if this route map (PDF) doesn't sell you on the race, nothing will. C'mon, is it seriously that difficult to create a Google Map Mashup and make it publically available and link or embed it on the site?
Yesterday, Katie and I were part of the 2010 Chicago Marathon! Yep, we dressed in our workout best, headed into the city, and raced around from point to point along the 26.2 mile course laid out throughout the city.
Of course, we did this to cheer for our friends and take a bunch of pictures and, later, go out together for dinner. Run it? Are you nuts? We left that to Eric, Michelle, and Kim. We're not masochists.
We started the day by racing to the 13-mile marker around 200 S. Wacker in hopes of seeing all the people we were hoping to cheer for. We did manage to find Eric just as he was passing, but could not find Kim or Michelle.
Then we headed to just south of the corner of Jackson and Halsted near the 17-mile mark. There we found Eric again, but Katie also saw the infamous Kimbot! She was just passing us as Katie yelled "Kim!" and Kim turned and moaned "Apgars!" then came over and practically collapsed in our arms for a giant, sweaty hug during which she said "it's so horrible out here." We tried to stifle a little giggle as it really wasn't the time despite the humorous way in which she declared it. Then someone took our picture together and she was off.
[photo courtesy of Kim; not that I asked, but I think she's okay with it]
Still didn't find Michelle, though. Where was she hiding?
Our final stop was on the bridge before the final turn right under the 300m To Go sign. There we saw Eric and Kim as well as a coworker of mine and her boyfriend.
And, yet, still no Michelle.
I think she was avoiding us. *sniffle*
If anything, I'd say my one complaint was the lack of a well-planned out way to get from the bridge to the finish line area. Everything was blocked off and guarded. To traverse the 300m from where we stood to the finish line would've been nearly a mile of walking.
We said fuhgeddaboudit and headed to the River North area and dined at a place called Dos Diablos. Quite tasty Mexican food, if we do say so ourselves.
But we did have a lot of fun at the Marathon and watching everyone run was quite inspiring. People of all ages and sizes were racing. Enough of a variety that I'm convinced I could actually run it with the proper training. Doesn't mean I will, just that I believe I could. I do think Katie is interested in training if not for a full marathon, then definitely for a half.
Maybe I'll become a race-day journalist! That can be my contribution.
Well, maybe not. Enjoy the photos all the same.
If you can't see the Flash slideshow above, click through to the Flickr album.
I've discovered something, baths suck.
After getting home from the Marathon, Katie and I decided to clean up. She opted for a shower while I took my first bath in probably five years.
No, don't misread, this was not my first time bathing, just my first bath. I much prefer showers. And I have several reasons why...
Baths are dirty. How do you clean yourself when what you just washed off of one part of you is now floating in the water you are still using to clean another part? This gets me thinking about public swimming pools and hot tubs. Those things have gotta be festering with flith. In many cases, they're exposed to the elements so who knows what happens then. Plus you get a ton of different people using them without water being changed. Sure, they "chlorinate" them clean, but you're only allowed to use so much chlorine before it becomes harmful for a human to use the pool. So if the chlorination isn't strong enough to be harmful to humans, can it truly be powerful enough to kill off our filth? Just sayin'.
You get cold quickly. Not all of you gets covered at all times. Especially when you're my size. Always something exposed. And the whole water displacement thing gets me every time. Overfilling is a constant worry.
It's boring. I can't sit there and use my iPhone because I'd probably drop it in. We don't have a TV in the bathroom. I don't want to read a book as it will find a way to get wet no matter how "dry" I might be. And, not being a kid, I can't exactly drop a bunch of Star Wars figures in the tub to play with anymore. Well, I guess I could, but I'd be locked up and the key thrown away rather quickly.
Would you like a Snippet Wednesday recap of my morning from hell? No? Then you might want to stop reading now.
Still here?
You asked for it.
Heel As I was walking around this morning getting ready for the
gym and work, I discovered a pain in my left heel. It's pretty normal. I have this chronic crack problem (heh heh) with my heel. It tends to get a lot of dead skin in the form of a callous and then it cracks. I do take care of it and use a Ped Egg to get rid of it pretty regularly and douse it in lotion. But, no matter how much work I do to it, the crack always comes back in the same spot. It doesn't matter what I do, it never permanently goes away. And it can be pretty painful every so often. So I put some Neutrogena Cracked Heel cream on it and decided I was going to ride a bike at the gym instead of run to give it a break. Strike 1.
Book When I ride a bike at the gym, I'm actually able to read while I work out. Obviously not while running or using an elliptical machine... so
much bouncing around that I'd get a headache. So I thought, "Great! I really want to keep reading my book, Gods Behaving Badly," only to discover I'd left the book at work the night before. Strike 2.
Clothes So I pack my stuff and head to the gym. I get a locker and go to unload my stuff only to discover that, of all things, I forgot to bring my pants for work. Seriously, WTF? Of course, this means I had to shower at home and reduce my workout time. Yay. On the way home for my shower, I realized it's probably a good thing I'm heading home because I also forgot to pack a set of clothes for yoga at lunchtime. Strike 3.
And I'm outta here like the Cubs pennant chances.
If you want to ensure just how "outta here" I truly am, here's one more for ya...
Music Speaking of leaving stuff at work, I downloaded some music
to my computer this morning that I was really looking forward to listening to today on my iPod. Of course, I left my iPod at work. No new music for the Kevvy Kev today. Strike 4. That's like a Super Out, isn't it?
I know I don't usually do a TUA in concert with a Snippet Wednesday since a TUA really is just a Snippet. But since the Snippets are on a theme and this is totally unrelated to that theme, I thought why not.
If there is one good thing to come from today, it was my first experience with Yoga Nidra.
It is, by definition, "yoga sleep" and comes from meditation. Our yoga instructor decided to try this with us today per a suggestion I gave her. And I'm so glad I did. I feel so ridiculously relaxed right now. I have to pick up an audio version so that I can introduce this to Katie.
Wow. I'm pretty sure that's the longest I've been neglectful around these parts.
You know it's bad when both your wife and your mom have taken notice
of the fact that you haven't blogged in a long time and are actually a
little mournful about it.
I know it's a very off-day, but I hope you don't mind some snippets. Given I've missed the last two Snippet Wednesdays -- and even the last two potential Snippet Thursday: The Reckonings -- I don't see it being a big deal that I do it now, right?
Rest And on the 14th day, they rested.
This past Sunday marked 13 consecutive days of exercise for Katie and me. As you know, we've been working out weekday mornings for quite some time. Well, a couple weekends ago, we started exercising on weekends as well. Two really long walks in a row now that the heat has calmed down a bit and a 20-mile bike ride this past Saturday. That one caused us to be a bit sore, so we took Sunday off. And we're back at it again this week. All five weekdays so far. Not sure what will happen this weekend. We'll have to wait and see.
Camera I guess it was a good thing I distracted myself with exercise this past weekend. I was feeling a bit naked without my trusty Sony D-SLR. My friend Eric was shooting a wedding and asked if he could borrow it. This is the first time my Sony has not been with me or at least somewhere I knew he should be. I felt a bit "off," if you get my meaning. Nothing was quite right until Monday when I got my camera back -- in perfect working order -- from Eric. Gah!
Beans
But not having my Sony around gave me time to play a bit more with the camera in my new iPhone 4. It's a nice camera. Not perfect by any stretch, but nice... and far more portable. And what's really nice is the automatic geotagging I get in my iPhone photos when they're uploaded to Flickr.
Of course, even this isn't perfect as the geotag of this Jelly Bean photo would indicate. Apparently, I found myself some jelly beans to photograph in "a mysterious place with no name" in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean near the western coast of Africa.
Guess it's a good thing my passport finally came in the mail, eh?
Bloody Katie and I are tearing through True Blood seasons 1 and 2 on DVD right now. We got free video-on-demand of all episodes of season 1 from Amazon and season 2 came in from the library but is due back soon. Funny thing was a conversation between Katie and I as Bill and Sookie were having sex and he bit her, drawing blood down her neck...
Katie: [jokingly] "Edward would never do that to Bella!"
Me: "That's because Edward is not a real vampire. He has no fangs. He couldn't if he tried."
Heh.
Chiro Speaking of conversations, this happened at the chiropractor's office the other day. We finally discovered how old he was.
Me: "You're not even in your thirties!?!?"
Him: "You were born in the Seventies!?!?"
I get it, I'm old.
Lamb The other day, a coworker and I were coming in to work together and she told me about a book she just started reading. She wasn't sure if I'd ever heard of it because it was, to her, a pretty unknown author. Turns out it was Christopher Moore's Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal. Only like my favorite book of all time. It took some work to not hug her right on the spot.
Hunger Speaking of books, on the very strong recommendation of @DownWithPants and @Amanda234, I began readingThe Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. It's the first in a three-book series and, so far, it reminds me a lot of Takami's Battle Royale (loved the book, hated the movie) and Bachman/King's The Running Man (loved the movie, haven't read the story). And I don't have to wait between books as the final book in the series (Mockingjay) came out this week. I hate waiting. I'm not a patient person at all.
Katie and I signed up for two months of Bikram Yoga (read: the hot, sweaty stuff that Sting loves to do; aside from sex with Trudy, of course).
Katie has been wanting to try yoga for quite some time since I've been loving it for two years now. But it can be expensive (mine is a very cost-effective class through my workplace, but she's not eligible to participate) or limiting in terms of class times available especially with Katie's constantly changing work schedule.
However, the other day, a friend updated their Facebook profile with information about a yoga studio in Naperville near where I work that was offering two months of unlimited classes for under $50 via Groupon. How can you say no to that? The price is amazing. So we both signed up.
And I'm dreading its start.
Immensely.
Me + heat no makey a happy Kapgar.
We're becoming fitness nuts. We're hoping to do Bikram at least a couple times per week plus our five mornings per week of working out at the gym. And I still do my regular yoga one day per week.
We'd damn well better lose a ton of weight!
I ran into a friend the other day and as we're all wont to do, I asked him how he was doing.
His reply? "I'm alright. The rest of the world is all wrong."
Sorry this is going out
so late in the day. I know I've "ruined" my brother-in-law's day by not having it posted in a manner that allows him to read it from work. Oh well. Snippet Wednesday and I are officially failures!
NCIS I was so ticked off this morning when I logged on to Twitter and saw that somebody had ruined the "shocker" ending to last night's NCIS: Los Angeles. Didn't even put "Spoiler Alert" on the Tweet. Just all right there for the world to see. ARGH!
Sir The other day, I was walking around during my lunch break
with my camera snapping a few photos when I saw a couple of high school guys doing the same thing. We kinda did the whole "fellow photographer" nod in passing. But, later, we actually crossed paths and spoke. I said "hey" to them and they said "hello, sir" to me. SIR? Me? Christ, am I so old that a couple guys in ragged camouflage and Jonas Brothers haircuts are calling me "sir"? Damn.
Running Okay, week one of morning workouts yielded 7.5 miles of
running. Week two yielded 7.25 (I had trouble on Thursday and we didn't run at all on Friday; just weight lifting). But so far this week, I've already run 6.5 miles and Katie's at 7 miles. Woo hoo! Katie actually hit 3 miles yesterday. That's awesome and I'm so proud of her. And we've still got two days of workouts left.
Speed I was putting some stuff in the attic yesterday when I decided to dig out some of my old office toys that I had stashed away. On occasion, I had purchased a Lego set or two and some of them were stored away when I got tired of looking at them. Well, I decided I wanted to find my Speed Racer Lego sets from a couple years ago for use in a Stormin' Norman idea I had. I looked everywhere in the attic and couldn't find them at all. I looked in a few other non-attic places and zilch. I have no clue where they could be. How do Lego sets up an disappear? Madness I tell you!
Potato I love when classic toys make comebacks. And one such toy
has been the good ol' Mr. Potato Head.
He saw a resurgence thanks, I believe, to the Toy Story franchise of
movies. And then they started doing specialized tie-ins to other movies
and whatnot such as Star Wars (Darth Tater, Spudtrooper, and
Artoo-Potatoo), Indiana Jones (Idaho Jones and the Taters of the Lost
Ark), and Transformers (Optimash Prime and Bumble Spud). Well, I
discovered last week, when checking out Jon Favreau's Twitter account,
that they have a Tony Starch Potato Head for Iron Man 2. Way
cool. My office mate picked one up for her desk which has prompted me to
dig out my Darth Tater. Yeah, another reason I was up in the attic.
Challenge I think I might have to pick some slightly easier
lyrics for next week's Kapgar Photo Scavenger Hunt. I'm having trouble
coming up with photos and I'm the freakin' guy who picked the clues.
Sheesh!
Yesterday, after giving it a full night of charging, Katie's iPod crapped out. And I don't just mean battery death, the entire unit was showing no life at all. We were at the gym and she was trying to use it for working out and... nada.
The reason we're pissed at Best Buy is that Katie had seen signs of the iPod going down the crapper and she described them to me. I took it into Best Buy's Geek Squad for warranty repair and they said they could not replicate any of the symptoms that I was having right there on the spot. I tried to explain that they were intermittent, they didn't happen all the time. They said sorry and that they could do nothing about it and refused to help me.
Now here we are, outside her warranty period and stuck with a dead iPod. Simply because Best Buy refuses, like always, to listen to their customers who know better about what is happening to their own electronic devices.
I know some people scam them and this is what they're trying to avoid. But when I am trying to explain a problem and then get that teenaged, pimply-faced, asshat Geek Squad fucknut looking at me like I don't know what I'm talking about (yeah, I'd LOVE to know what "extensive training" he went through that qualified him as an EXPERT on such matters) just pisses me off.
To anybody reading who may ever buy a gift for Katie or I down the line, please NO BEST BUY GIFT CARDS. We would much prefer a Visa or MasterCard gift card that gives us the option of choosing where to spend it. PLEASE!
If I can help it, I'm done with that place. Ever since the "Geek Squad" started, the holier-than-thou mentality in that retail hellhole skyrocketed through the roof. And it's only gotten worse since Circuit City stores closed down giving U.S. customers pretty much a single dedicated source for electronics purchases.
After the death of the iPod at the gym, Katie and I made the painful decision to listen to the radio station that was playing over the PA. It's some crappy suburban Chicago top 40 station that I just cannot stand.
And how'd they annoy us this fine day? They played that God-awful "Summer Nights" or whatever it's called by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John from the Grease soundtrack.
Simultaneously, Katie and I groaned and looked at each other and said "oh Christ, no."
If anything good came of it, it's the reminder that my wife has never seen nor ever wants to see Grease and anything related to that movie makes her ill.
This morning I woke up no less than eight times and I'm not entirely sure which ones were real and which ones were dreams.
The first one I remember was about 4 a.m. to pee. Pretty sure that one was real.
Then I woke up to my alarm. I think that was real, too. But I snoozed it.
Then I remember laying in bed back-to-back with Katie and we were holding hands when I woke up. Doesn't sound like something we'd achieve comfortably. So I'll mark that as a tentative no.
Another time I heard Katie talking to somebody on her side of the bed and I heard a man's voice responding. I spun around and saw nobody there. I shook Katie to ask her what was going on and she said she was talking to my brother. She has had weird conversations in her sleep before but never have I heard a second voice in the mix, so we'll consider that one a pretty definite no.
A second snooze wake-up call. Pretty real, I think.
I also remember waking up and showering and dressing and getting back into bed but on Katie's side and we turned on the TV and watched it. Considering I woke up again after that and was not fully dressed like that, we'll nix that one too.
I woke up to the sound of carts crashing around and then two women I work with pushed shopping carts full of used clothes into my bedroom and put them in a pile under our window. They informed me that they were donations for me to take to Goodwill. I told them they couldn't put them there because that's where we put all our dirty and clean clothes and they'd all get mixed up. When I finally got up, I looked and saw no clothes against the wall at all (not even our own), so I'm pretty sure that one's fabricated by my head.
Then I got a third snooze alarm.
So I woke up, showered, dressed, and here I am... wishing I was back in bed to make up for all the sleep I lost in all those "wake ups."
Be proud of us. This gym thing is taking hold.
Katie and I have been to the gym five times since last Friday. Tonight will be #6.
But if there's one thing I've learned, it's that my iPod Shuffle desperately needs a new mix of music. It's been a while since I updated it. Gotta work on that. Soon!
In addition to my resolution to take part in that Photo365 challenge, Katie and I are making a vow to get back to the gym. I did a little running at the gym on Monday and, afterward, it felt like my foot was going to remove itself from my ankle involuntarily and leave me forever. So I'm not really counting that one so much.
But, tonight, we both went to the gym. After getting past the regulars who asked where the hell we've been, we worked out. I mean actually worked out and got a pretty decent workout at that.
And we're going to try to do it more regularly. We need to. We're going to be in a wedding a year from March and we want to be so sexy walking down the aisle that people forget who the bride and groom are and just pay attention to us the whole night. Isn't that what all good groomsmen and bridesmaids are supposed to do, after all?
Oh, and in case you want to see the Day 1 photo for Photo365, it's below...
Speaking of resolutions, did you make any for this New Year?
Six days in now, have you completely broken them yet?
Well, here's one resolution I hope doesn't get broken anytime soon via my friend (well, no, not really, he might have something to say about that claim) Craig Ferguson. He's resolving to learn Spanish.
Here he is announcing his resolution...
And here is his first night truly attempting to follow through on the promise...
Well, we did it. Katie and I (and Scott and Becca) ran our first 5K today. It was the Snowflake Shuffle and let's just say I'm glad it was designated a walk/run. I don't even know what our official final time was. Somewhere around 47 minutes. Not a time I'm particularly proud of.
Katie and I are signing up for our first ever fun run!
