#172 - Wow. My wife is back! - June 7, 2013

Cool thing from the last 24: Katrina sat on the couch with me and watched a basketball game.  It's very different watching the game in the same room with her, but her watching a different screen vs watching it on the couch together.  It has broken a wall of silence.  And the Heat lost by 4 after leading almost all game.

On the same topic, she spent the afternoon working with our neighbor to fix up the little patch of ground by our mailbox.  It's been full of weeds and gravel, but the weeds are gone, the anti-weed fabric is down, the tiger lilies are transplanted, and it's ready for barkdust.  It looks great.

I'm really excited to have her back.

I learned something in my workout this morning, as well: it's probably a good idea to separate my long runs from weight training.  Yesterday I did some weights, ran, and then did some weights.  My run was very difficult, and I gave up at just over a mile.  By contrast, this morning I did only a run.  My legs were a little sore, but I was able to get through it and keep a solid pace.  It ended up at 2.25 miles, 6mph, and I could have gone longer if I didn't need to get the kids to school.  I walked off the treadmill and dove into the pool for 10 minutes, and it was FANTASTIC.  Never done that before, and it was perfect.

So I think weight training days will be running fast days (7 mph, .5 mile is where I'll start), and my long distance running days will lack weights for now.  Interesting to split the two, and I'm curious what it will do to my training regimen.

#171 - Plugging out - June 6, 2013

Cool thing from the last 24: My wife has plugged out.  I'll admit - I just invented that term.  At least I haven't seen it before.  But she is no longer plugged in - she said her goodbyes on FB, finished watching her TV shows, and logged out.

This is interesting because she's very much a technology feast or famine kind of person.  A few years ago, she blogged for a few hours every day for a year.  Now she won't be doing any of that.  It's about finding balance between trying to drink and digest the entire world of available information and letting it come to you.  And it means I'll get to spend more time with her, which will be great.

Exercise milestone: another step up in weights.  Added 10 reps to my heaviest weight set, and feeling really good about it.

#170 - Harvesting the weeds - June 5, 2013

Cool thing from the last 24: Christian was out on a field trip for 2 days this week, and he learned about something called "lemon sorrow".  Which I figured out was "lemon sorrel".  I thought it was analogous to mountain sorrel that grows above 400ft elevation in Oregon, but I was wrong.  Different species, certainly, but likely the same genus.  Christian took Libby out to the pool and started to harvest the lemon sorrel in our pool area.  Who knows?  Maybe they'll harvest dandelions next!

After harvesting, they dried them, expecting them to get even more sour as they were concentrated.  By morning, it was done.

Jake wasn't up for swimming last night, and Aria got stuck doing homework, but the 3 of us were able to be out at the pool.










This week is a week of long workdays - 5am starts and meetings until 4 or 5.  Thur and Fri should be significantly better.

Less than a month before school ends, and summer vacation begins.  So much to do and plan.  My summer list of tasks includes:
1) removal of 2 40' trees from the property.  One is dead and stands next to our power line, and the other is dying and is next to the house (but leaning away from it).  I'll hire someone to cut them down, and then cut them up myself.
2) patch the paint on the exterior of the house (and fill in the woodpecker holes again)
3) trim the branches that brush the power lines along the driveway
4) Complete the clean up of the pool area - misc weeds, leaves, and twigs all sit there now
5) repair the broken pipe in the pool filter system.  This is buried beneath paving stones and a foot or so of dirt.
6) repair the kitchen overhead lights
7) camp a lot with the boys
8) maybe get a week off to go somewhere with the boys and Katrina.  Have to figure that one out.

#169 - Our Nature Preserve - June 4, 2013

Cool thing from the last 24: walking out of the house this morning, on my way to work, it was just after 5am. I walked out the basement door, and saw this creature eating my lawn.

Summer mornings here are loud - bird calls are everywhere.  We spotted some foxes walking through the snow during the winter, and there's a raccoon or badger den in the forest out back.  And sometimes we have visitors like this deer.

Monday was a typical long workday: much accomplished, much still to do.  I was home relatively early, to the kids' dismay.  Aria wanted to babysit (read: watch TV with the other kids and eat popcorn).  So I told her that was fine, and I went to the basement to relax and then run.  The workout was my first ever 2 mile run in my life, I think.  Nearly every day I make some progress - a little longer, a little faster average, trying to take my max pace up from 6mph to 7 or 8.  Good challenge for me, and as I'm able to find a rhythm to it, I find that it's much the same mental game as cycling.

Katrina had gone with Christian on his big year-end field trip.  They got back about 5pm, while Aria was cooking pancakes for dinner and Libby and I were in the pool.  I sent the kids off to bed and watched the Heat obliterate the Pacers in the 2nd quarter.  Then I napped a little during halftime and woke up midway through the 3rd, which I watched until the end of the quarter.  Finally, feeling drained and feeling safe that my team was headed to victory, I went to bed.

#168 - Fire! - June 3, 2013

Cool thing from the last 24: our house did not burn down or sustain noticeable damage from a kitchen fire.  Dinner after church in a late year is always a challenge for us.  By the time we walk in the door, it's 4:45, and none of us eat lunch, so we're all very hungry.  Yesterday was Fast Sunday, as well, so some of us were more hungry than usual.

We had agreed before church that we'd grill burgers and hot dogs for dinner, so I walked in the door, changed my clothes, and got the grill going.  Dinner worked out fine, but afterward we still had some residual "I want fried tater tots" sentiment going around.  So Katrina put our pot of frying oil with a lid on the stove, set it on med-low, and came out to chat with me on the porch while it warmed up.  Eventually, she figured it must be hot, so she went in, took the lid off, and it smoked a LOT.  She put the lid on, the pot "poofed", the lid came off, and the oil lit.  That's when I walked in.  She put the lid back on, turned the burner off, and we opened every door and window in the main floor and basement.  Oil smoke is heavy - it'll make you cough even if you can't see it.  It was terrible.  So we sat outside for an hour while the smoke cleared, no problem.  This morning, the house smells fine, no damage.  One more close shave.

Exercise milestone: 1.5 miles yesterday on the treadmill, and upped my max weight by 10lbs.  Starting to find my zone while running, and feeling overall much more fit and stronger than a few weeks ago.

Jake and I spent a lot of time together camping this weekend.  Here we are, arriving at the fireside on Friday night.  Whaley Lake is behind us.

 Our little camp site.  Christian had his own tent.  Jake and I shared.  Jake claims I rolled over on him.  I claim he snuggled up next to me, so I didn't have any room.  I suppose we're both right.

 After breakfast Saturday morning, we raked leaves around the Nurse's station.  It started with just Jake and me, but this gentleman soon joined us, as well as 5 more men.  We got the entire place cleaned up in about an hour.

After the service was done, there were activities set up for the boys to do.  Christian went on a scavenger hunt, and won!  This is his team and the other team reporting back to the referee's desk.

After a day of camping, running around, and not snacking much, we were all hungry.  Off to Beekman Square Diner.  The boys really like it.  Christian finished that massive burger and his fries and ice cream.

#167 - My super-social kid - June 2, 2013

Cool thing from the last 24: Jake made friends with everyone.  Saturday morning, we had breakfast, and then Jake and I raked leaves together.  Toward the end of the raking, he wandered off, in search of something more interesting.  I looked for him for a while, confident he was safe, but not knowing where that was.  I found him hanging out with another family eventually, and took him to the bathroom to change into his swim trunks.  I let him change in there.  When I walked into the bathroom to check on him, I heard his voice coming from the stalls.  On the right was a man's shoes, shorts, and ankles, obviously seated.  In the left stall, I saw Jake's bare bottom, sitting down so he could pull on his shorts.  He was telling his neighbor about the movie "Wreck it Ralph", who was dutifully saying, "Uh-huh" at regular intervals.  The boy has no inhibitions, and will make friends with anyone, at any time.

We stayed there until about 12:30, swimming from 10-noon or so.  By that time, we were all hungry, so we went to the Beekman Square Diner.  Christian ended up with a huge cheeseburger, fries, and ice cream.  Jake had an order of pancakes.  Both came with ice cream, and they picked chocolate chip mint.  We got stuff, and were very satisfied.  I had a Greek burger, which was both interesting and tasty.

When we got home, the girls were gone, so we watched "The Princess Bride" together.  It's a slow start for Jake, but the boys enjoyed it.  It really does stand up well.  And then I watched the Heat lose.

Busy, wonderful day.

#166 - There. I did it. - June 1, 2013

Cool thing from the last 24: I fixed a car for the first time in my life.  This is a big deal not because I haven't been involved in car repair, but because this time I diagnosed the problem, bought the part, installed it, and it worked.  All of my previous car repair work had been done with my dad.  So that chapter is now closed.  Yes, I can repair a car.  In limited ways, but I can do it.  And Katrina has driven it, so that makes it better.   I'll still consult with my dad on car problems, but I know I can do this myself.

I got home from work - it was 90 and the kids had been in the pool - changed into shorts and a t-shirt, and got to work in the garage.  The part had arrived in the morning, so I picked it up during lunch.  Katrina and the girls were set to go out in the evening, and we were headed out camping, so I had a deadline to finish the repair and get out the door.

I used the new part to see how the tabs worked to hold it in, removed the old one, taking pictures of the wire attachments first, and installed the new one.   I reassembled the fuse box, bolted it to the frame, mounted the battery and its cables, cleaned my tools out of the engine block, and started up the car.  No problems.  10 minutes later, the girls were gone.  Car repair accomplished, deadline met.  This, I can do.

The boys and I finished packing, and off we went.  The camping details will be for tomorrow.

Pic below: the iPhone is a wonderful tool for car repair.  I took pictures of the electrical connections on the fusible link before disconnecting them.  When I installed the new one, I just had to make sure the pictures matched.  Thankfully, Toyota had also marked the cable ends with sharpie in a certain way so I could identify it in the photos.  One terminal is green, the other has the sharpie marks.  The cables on teh other side were also distinguishable in this way.