It was just a few days ago that I mentioned that I was a little down for not being able to complete one of my goals for the year. Funny how life goes sometimes. Last Thursday Logan came home with some information from his school about a 5K and a 1 mile race coming this Saturday to help raise money for his school.
Now my knee has not agreed with me at all this summer and that is the main reason why I am not able to run. I have not ran or played racquetball for a couple of weeks and my knee has felt better recently but I have not put it to the test.
So we all decided that it would be fun to run the race this Saturday (today) together as a family. We didn't do the 5K race we only did the mile. And I am proud to say that my knee did not hurt at all and that I felt pretty good running.
So I am calling my goal of racing a 5K COMPLETED. Sure, I only ran a mile race but it was a race none the less. And I didn't think that I would be able to run at all so I am calling this good!
It was so beautiful outside that I had to go and give my knee a try and go out and run. And surprisingly there was little to no pain! So I might reach that 5K goal yet!
Happy Saint Patrick's Day from both my favorite X-Man and I!
Yeah, I like Banshee.
So who is this strange and colorful clad superhero? His name is Banshee and stars as one of the first class of X-Men in the upcoming summer movie X-Men: First Class.
Yup. I am a geek.
But I love every single centon!*
So I went on my first run of the year today. The weather was nice and mild and the sun was out so I wanted to get out and take advantage. My run was both expected and unexpected. I was more tired than I thought I would be but that was to be expected. What I didn't expect is that I was not huffing and puffing and tasting blood during the run. I did as much as I normally did last summer so I think with some training I should be all set to run the 5K at the end of the summer. Hopefully I didn't just curse myself.
I think playing racquetball a couple of times a week the last three weeks has really helped with my conditioning. I do look forward to playing racquetball, much more than I do going out and running. I am not all that competitive when I play. Don't get me wrong, I want to win but I want to have a good time above all. So I will laugh at myself and my partner when they (I) do really stupid things.
I remember when I played a couple of years ago I got hit in the back with the ball. Jonny was returning my serve and I was in front of him with my back turned and KAPOW! It hit me so hard that my gum flew out of my mouth! Not only did it make my gum fly out of my mouth, it also sent my head springing forward violently too. In fact, I was able to catch my gum in midair. We couldn't play after that we were laughing so hard. It reminded me of when Michael Bluth kept losing his gum in Arrested Development.
Speaking of things that make me laugh. I love these guys...
I still like getting snail mail and when I came home yesterday I found a letter from my Aunt Margo. And I knew exactly what it was! Every year for the Superbowl she makes a little board with a bunch of squares with each one of our names on it. She has done this for the last couple of years, I have even won one of the major prizes and few years back. I think I got some pretty good numbers this year. I know I look forward to this yearly tradition.
Thanks Margo! I'll get over sometime...
Well, I finished the last two Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. I think I am going to count them in my resolutions but I don't think I will count them all. Since they are pretty easy to read I will count them as one book. So I am done for the quarter! HUZZAH!
I am looking forward to Spring. I am getting a little antsy about my goal for running. I have not ran since last year (that really sounds like a long time ago) and I really want to start.
I still have my buddy Randy to walk with.
Logan has his first Pack meeting the other night. He has been going to Cub Scouts the last few weeks but this was the first time he has to go with all the other Scouts. I think he was a little intimidated by the whole thing but he did enjoy himself. My family and I are very blessed to live in the neighborhood that we do. We have fantastic Scout Leaders and we have fantastic neighbors. I am not a big social person, if I could I would stay home in my house and not have to leave. Social get-togethers like these and other Church-related meetings are typically not my thing.
But for some reason, this place is different. I look forward to seeing my neighbors and I look forward to associating with the kids and the young people. Perhaps it is because they make me feel young. They also make me want to be a better person. Either way, I am incredibly blessed and lucky to have my family be here in this place.
Today has finally come and I cannot tell if I am excited or if I am nervous. Either way, I have puking butterflies in my stomach because today is the Halloween Hootenanny featuring the Gruesome Twosome!
I have no idea what to expect from the show, the crowd or from the weather (it is supposed to rain). All I know if that I will have a good time. I think I prepared enough by listening to Alice Cooper non-stop this last week and I grew out my beard a little bit. All I have to do today to prepare for the show is figure out what I should wear and then put some oil in the car and pump up the tires.
I have not been running as much as I used to so I had to find something that will motivate me some. A couple of weeks ago it was the Top of Utah marathon and I have decided that I will run the 5K race next year. This will give me sufficient time to train next summer. I also checked the results and found that most of the people run the marathon or half-marathon but few run the 5K. If I had raced using my time of my pre-test run, I would have placed 17th overall and 8th in my age category.
The last few days I have been in contact with my favorite artist Alan Davis and I have been redesigning the forum for him. I am not a huge fan of web design work but at least you can see your work progress as you make changes. I had to upload a new banner that Alan designed and sent me and I had to move a ton of topics and reorder the threads. I then uploaded a new look and I had to do some tweaking. Overall I am pretty happy with how it looks. You can view it by clicking here.
I am so lucky that I am in such close contact with my favorite comic book artist. I have to admit that I geek out when I get e-mails from him.
I hate it when I sit to blog and all I do is just stare at the computer screen. I have no idea what to blog about today so I guess I should just ramble on...
I am giddy. It is official, I bought the tickets today. On October 4th I am going to the Rob Zombie/Alice Cooper concert and I am really looking forward to it. Speaking of Rob Zombie, I noticed that no one commented on my Rob Zombie blog. Did I scare all of you away with my strange taste in music?
This morning my dad called in sick to work so I am working by myself. This did give me the opportunity to go out and run whenever I want and I really needed to take advantage of the weather. It is only supposed to get to about 67 degrees out. So around noon I went for my run around the temple. I am glad I went when I did. About an hour after I came home it started pouring out. And for the first time in months, I am wearing jeans. Not shorts, but full length jeans.
I had a real good day yesterday at church. We had some excellent speakers and I got the opportunity to teach the 12-14 year olds. These are the same girls that I spent Girl's Camp with so I knew what I was getting into. Sure enough, the girl's called me by my nickname of Dr. Pepper. I told them that they really shouldn't call me that in church and I think that made them feel bad, that is until I told them that they should call me Brother Dr. Pepper. The lesson went great, I am very impressed with the youth, I wish I was that strong at that age. I asked one of the girls to say the closing prayer and she gave such a sincere prayer that really touched me. She also told me that I was a great teacher and gave a great lesson. I also had a good time at choir practice. A former member of the ward was there and it looks like he will be coming back to our ward. It was great to see him and I am glad he is back.
And of course, you cannot have a blog without pictures.
These are my dad's old, old glasses. Logan totally reminds me of Elton John.
I know what you are thinking. TWO Random Ramblings in one week?
I just have a lot to say and some of them I wanted to say last Monday but I didn't want the blog to run to long.
Wednesday was Logan's first day back at school. He is now in the 2nd Grade! No longer is my kid a new child in school, now he is a vet in school. He likes his new teacher (which is good considering she is very professional and takes schoolwork VERY seriously) and he likes his fellow schoolmates.
This is Logan in the morning. He looks a little apprehensive doesn't he?
He looks much better after school.
Yeah, he is back to normal alright.
So I did something this morning that I didn't think I would ever do. I have to admit that I was motivated by my fellow blogger and cousin Jaimee and her first 5K race. I even went as far as making a goal to run a 5K this year or the next.
But curiosity got the better of me. Maybe the better saying would be curiosity killed the cat since I am dead tired.
I ran a test 5K run today. I went to the the Logan River trail where it is nice and shaded and is 2 miles long and I marked off where 3.1 miles would be, plugged in my iPod with some running music and hit the trail. I wasn't impressed with my time (29:23) but hey, it was my first "race" and I am still alive although I feel like those cats. We'll see when I do a real race.
By now you know that my favorite football team is the New York Jets. Last year they hired a brash and outspoken coach in Rex Ryan and I know he can rub people the wrong way. But I love the guy. The Jets are in the new season of HBO's Hard Knocks. The show is a reality sports documentary television series produced by NFL Films and HBO. The series follows the Jets through training camp and provides an in-depth perspective of the team's preparation for the upcoming season. As the viewer you get to watch all the team's inside jokes and pranks, players' family matters, and position battles. The series especially focuses on rookies' adjustments to the NFL, usually with the team's highest draft selection and an undrafted or journeyman player that looks to make the team.
I am hooked. Not only because it is the Jets but because of how candid the series is and what it is really like to be on a professional football team. I will warn you, it is pretty colorful in terms of language. Rex Ryan tells it like it is. If you like football I highly recommend checking it out. HBO has a censored version of the first episode streaming off of their website. You do have to register with HBO first but I used some fake info so I can watch the episode for free. I have only watched the first episode and after I finish this blog I am going to check out the 2nd one.
I am happy that the weather has cooled down the last week or so. I went running today and it was not as hot as it looked. There was a gentle breeze which cooled me down and the wind was at my back. Luckily the wind was not kicking up so it didn't affect my asthma.
Speaking of running, I want to give a shout out to fellow blogger and cousin Jaimee for running and conquering her first 5K! I am very impressed, she used the Couch to 5K program and stuck with it and accomplished her goal in style. You can read about her Run for Glory by clicking on the linky.
Speaking of 5K races, I have decided that I will take the plunge and run a 5K.
What was that? Didja hear that?
That was the sound of Kristy hitting the floor.
So yeah, I am going to do it. Probably not this year (unless I can find one in October) but I will the next. This will keep me motivated through the winter to keep myself in shape. Hey Jaimee, we should run one together! We'll do one in Utah and then one in Colorado.
I go out running with my iPod (I don't care what people say, I would die from boredom if I didn't have it while running!) and I was listening to some Offspring and I found another track that I forgot to blog about. It really captures the essence of them. Take a listen, I think you will enjoy it.
One of the reasons I need to keep running is because Kristy keeps making these delicious desserts. Look at this bad boy!
Packed with tasty calories.
While we were at the reunion we were chatting about... ...I don't know how we got onto the topic but I told the story of the time I really embarrassed myself in one of my Political Science classes at Utah State University. It was about halfway through the semester and my professor pulled me aside and said that I really need to participate in class. She told me that I should add to our daily news conversations. We would take the first 15 minutes of class and pick a news item and talk about it and it usually ended in laughter. So I thought maybe I could make a funny since everyone else was doing it. Cloning at the time was a hot topic and one student brought up how clones would be beneficial to society.
My class had a few conservative students that were really against cloning of any kind and things were getting a bit heated so I thought I would say something which I thought would relieve the tension. I raised my hand and my professor proudly called on me. I said something like this:
"I believe that producing clones would be extremely beneficial to our society. Aside from the medical and science breakthroughs, it would be a boon to the entertainment industry, especially the movie industry."
Good use of Clones in entertainment.
I got every one's attention since I was using my announcer voice so it sounded like I was serious.
Bad use of Clones in entertainment. See below for more info.
"Clones could be used as stunt people without having to worry about securing and protecting them. Hollywood could really let things fly, imagine how real movies would look if we used clones instead of trick photography using stunt men and special CGI effects. It would definitely make war and horror movies feel and look real."
*sounds of crickets*
Yeah, no one laughed. No one said a word. I was humiliated. And I am sure I disgusted a few of my fellow students who thought I was being real. I never participated again, that is until I made an off-color remark about how ratings in the WNBA could improve.
Shirts and skins.
Again I was treated to complete silence, I could hear crickets in the distance. But everyone knew deep down inside that I was right. They just didn't want to admit it.
Speaking of clones, I am reading Spider-Man: The Complete Clone Sage Epic. I just finished volume 2 and I have already preordered Volume 3. I think there will be six or seven volumes in total. And let me tell you, I am a bit surprised.
For those that are not geeks, don't know, the infamous Clone Saga will go down in history as one of the WORST Spider-Man stories and with good reason. Basically, the Spider-Man that most of us grew up reading was revealed to be a clone and "our" Spider-Man was shipped off and replaced. What made this story even more outrageous is that sales were so good of this controversial storyline that Marvel's Marketing Department demanded that this storyline be stretched out as much as possible. The original Clone Saga was only supposed to take six months (about six issues total of each Spider-Man comic) but the creators made it last YEARS. Fans reacted and quickly stopped reading the book since it was going nowhere and for what they did to Spider-Man. It was an interesting concept but the story escaped and spun out of control. Spider-Man's sales plummeted and have barely recovered almost fifteen years later. And Marvel has never spoken about it again. They didn't reference it anyway.
Until now.
I have to admit that the first two gigantic books have been entertaining. Some good art along with some really underrated writing. But I heard it just gets worse from here. It is like a train wreck, I just have to look and be a witness. Call me a sicko if you want but I just have to read this whole horrible story.
I had a real nice day yesterday, much better than I thought it was going to be. It was also quite busy which was good since I really didn't have time to even miss Kristy and Logan.
Yesterday, early in the morning I had a meeting at the church which only lasted about an hour. I also got a phone call late the night before to substitute a Primary class. For those that don't know what a Primary class is, it is a class (like Sunday School) for children. We have a lesson, we sing music and have an activity. I used to teach in the Primary for almost two years before they asked me to participate and serve elsewhere in the Church. So I came home and prepared my lesson but had to go out again and collect offerings for the Church as well.
It was great to be with this children again. I taught my old class of kids who are five years old and I realized how much I missed them. I am impressed with how much these kids already know and how well behaved they are. They are so willing to take part and are so sweet. I really wish that I was their teacher again and was thankful and happy that I got to see them again. Our neighbor's daughter was very shy when I first met her and now she is quite talkative; not the shy girl I remember. She remembered me and recounted what I taught her months ago which totally surprised me. And she sat beside me whenever she could. At one point she asked if she could sit with her brother and I told her she could and when she found that he was not there she happily came back over to me and sat down.
After Church, I walked home and was ready to cook me up some dinner when I checked my messages and found that my sister had invited me over for dinner. She grilled up some chicken and made her famous potato salad so I definitely was heading over. It was a nice evening and dinner was fantastic. We talked and looked up some old friends on Facebookand I played around with my cute nephews. I came home after a very nice evening and ate some Bottlecaps and read some comics before heading to bed. Not a bad day at all. And to top it off, the Blackhawks and the Celtics won.
The only bad thing is all the canker sores on my tongue from those Bottlecaps!
I am trying something new starting today. Well, I am trying two new things today. I am working an earlier shift and I am starting a new diet called The Chocolate Milk Diet.
Seriously. The Chocolate Milk Diet.
Does it sound too good to be true? Yes, in a way it does. The key thing is that you still need to eat healthy and you still need to exercise but if you add Chocolate Milk to it, you may get some amazing results. I would settle for less-than-amazing results. If I only lost a few pounds, I would be extremely happy.
So why does the Chocolate Milk Diet work? There are 4 things that make it work and I will briefly go over them here.
1) Calcium
A recent study has found that calcium actually impedes your body's ability to absorb fat. Chocolate Milk is an excellent source of calcium and your body absorbs it easier when it comes from milk.
2) Vitamin D
Vitamin D helps your body get calcium from your food. If you don't have enough Vitamin D, your body may not be absorbing all the calcium that enters your system. Chocolate Milk is usually fortified with Vitamin D.
3) Endurance
Chocolate Milk surprisingly (well it surprised me) contains electrolytes that keep you hydrated, more than water. It will give you a much-needed boost for your workout.
4) Protein
You need muscle to burn calories and fat and the more muscle you have the more calories/fat you will burn off. Chocolate Milk is an excellent source of protein.
So how do you get started? The experts recommend consuming 3 glasses of Chocolate Milk a day. They recommend drinking 1% Chocolate Milk. You wake up in the morning and drink your first eight-ounce serving of chocolate milk. Then a second before you exercise you down your next glass and then right after your workout you drink your last glass. If it's your day off, just pattern them for morning, afternoon, and night.
I recommend that you read the full article about the diet here. It shows the science behind the reasons and goes in more depth than I did.
I am pretty excited to give this a try. When I get off work I am heading home and drinking my second glass and then going out for a run and then come home and drink my last glass. I am planning on giving this a whirl for the next two weeks. We'll see how it goes.
