No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
So I finished up my swim the other morning, showered off, and then hopped into my car, eager, as usual, to get to work (just can’t wait to start another day of educating 150ish eager young middle schoolers). As I started to pull out of my parking space, this guy stopped his car right behind me. Then he opened his door and got out. I was thinking, “What the heck is this guy doing?” in an irritated, I’m-in-a-hurry-here kind of way, so I beeped my horn at him in my irritation. Next, he knocked on my window, and I’m wondering, what the heck is up with this guy, but when I roll down my window, he hands me the water bottle that I had set on my car and forgotten about. “Thanks,” I mumbled sheepishly, feeling like a complete and total jerk. Here’s some random guy who goes out of his way to help me out, and I beep my horn at him. Definitely not my finest moment.
Half an Ironman is Better than None
Anyone who knows my lovely wife, Katie, probably also knows that she’s been working hard for the past few months training for a half ironman. If you’re not “in the know” this event consists of a 1.2-mile swim, followed by a 56-mile bike ride and a 13.1-mile run, which, as you might imagine, presents quite a challenge. Anyway, she was very excited to complete her event last weekend and become an official “Half-Ironman.” I think it’s pretty cool, too, though I have to say that I’m not all that impressed with the title of “Half-Ironman.” After all, when I completed a sprint triathlon (which was essentially ¼ of what she did) I got to be a “Tinfoilman,” which I think is a pretty cool thing to be (as opposed to a “One-Eighth-Ironman, which just sounds kind of lame). Since Katie has now done this event, I’m tempted to sign up for one myself, but I’d like to be known as something better-sounding than a “Half-Ironman” so I come up with a list of possibilities, which include, in no particular order: Leadman (sounds kind of slow and heavy), Nickelman, Manganeseman, Copperman (kind of cool for AZ), Zincman, Molybdenumman (try to say that fast three times in a row), Silverman (too sleek?), Cadmiumman, Tungstenman, Platinumman (probably too much), Mercuryman (definitely too fast for me), Uraniumman (too radioactive), and Plutoniumman (ditto). I’m not sure which one I like the best, but several sound better than “Half-Ironman” – at least to me.
Kitchen Nightmares
Every once in awhile, we have a “staff lunch” at school where one of the teams is supposed to bring in food for everyone else. Personally, I kind of hate the whole idea, because it’s a hassle when I have to bring in food, and when I don’t bring in food, I don’t really like to eat what’s brought in, partly because we don’t eat until 12:45 or so and I can’t make it that long without food, and partly because you never know what’s going to be brought in, and it’s often kind of a mish-mash of random selections, so who knows what you’re going to get, and though I’m not all that particular about what I eat (really, I swear I’m not) I do ride my bike home from work, and eating a bunch of random food right before a workout just isn’t a good idea – for a variety of reasons that I really don’t need to get into. So I generally abstain. Anyway, this week was our team’s assigned week, so I figured I’d pull a fast one by volunteering to bring in the paper plates, bowls, napkins, etc. since all that involves is making some purchases (and as it turned out, it didn’t involve even that since we have a whole bunch of surplus stuff in the office that’s up for grabs, so all I really had to do was go and get it together (although there was some grumbling about the fact that the paper products were plain white and didn’t really have a proper “holiday/Halloween motif” which some people actually care about – not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s so far away from anything remotely important to me that I have a hard time relating) but then that wound up not getting me off the hook after all, because someone decided we didn’t have enough desserts for everyone, so since I wasn’t really bringing anything in, I was “volunteered” to bring in Halloween cookies, and I didn’t really feel like I could refuse, so I agreed to do so. Which left me in a bit of a quandary, because I don’t really like to make cookies (I leave that to Katie and Connor – both of whom enjoy cookie-baking immensely) plus, I really didn’t want to have to make a trip to the store to get cookie ingredients. Which meant that I would need to make sugar cookies, since we had all the ingredients already. Now I don’t particularly like sugar cookies, but I wasn’t going to eat them anyway, so that was acceptable, but who knew making sugar cookies could turn out to be such a hassle? It wasn’t that bad doing the whole “mixing of the ingredients” steps, but when I got to the part where I actually had to make the cookies, the whole rolling out the dough, and using the jack o’lantern cutter-outer, and spatulaing the cookies up and onto the sheet, and cooking the cookies till they were done parts were actually kind of tricky. Yes, I used flour to coat everything (after Katie took pity on my pitiful first attempts at rolling out) but the dough still tended to stick to everything it touched, so I was fuming and complaining, and Katie and the kids were mocking and laughing, and I continued to fume and complain, and it took way too much time and effort to wind up with a couple of batches of pretty pitiful looking pumpkin-shaped sugar cookies that probably won’t even get eaten. And if it turns out that they sit on the table and nobody takes any, I’m going to feel really bad – like really, really bad – like total failure bad - so I’m hoping people take pity on the pitiful pumpkins and eat a few so I don’t feel like a complete and utter failure.
That’s all for this edition, so until next time, may your random acts be kind, may your cookie dough cooperate, and may your mercury remain safely enclosed in whatever thermometer you might have hanging around.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Rodents, Mold, and a Really Big Mountain
It’s been a really, really long time since the last posting, and I have absolutely no excuse, so without further ado, here we go…
Think Snakes on a Plane” was scary? How about Gerbils in the Bedroom?
Connor has two gerbils that he loves dearly (and to his credit, he takes really good care of them). Unfortunately, these two little rascals (Snake-eyes and Stormtrooper) managed to escape from their cage this week. Apparently, there was just the tiniest bit of a gap in the seam of their cage, and they managed to squeeze their way out so they could embark upon a little adventure. We didn’t discover they were missing from their cage until Katie and I were getting ready for bed and she exclaimed, “There’s a mouse!” which made me laugh (not exactly sure why), and she repeated, “There’s a mouse that just went under our bed!” which made me laugh even harder (really, I don’t know why I found this amusing) and then she got down on hands and knees to see if she could see the mouse, and then she thought, wait a minute, maybe it isn’t a mouse, maybe it’s a gerbil, so she went to check on Connor’s gerbils, and sure enough, the gerbils were missing from their cage and it was actually one of them she saw and now a mouse at all (not sure if it was Snake-bite or Thunderstorm). So Connor and Katie and I spread out around the bed and started poking and prodding and grasping as we attempted to capture the gerbil, who was running here and there, and darting in and out, until finally, Katie managed to grab her by the tail and returned her to the cage. Which left us with one gerbil still on the lam. We searched the house high and low, but no luck, so we all went to bed. Unfortunately, the gerbil was in our bedroom, and since gerbils are nocturnal, we spent the rest of the night listening to the gerbil skitter and gnaw and do who-knows-what-else that gerbils do at night when we’re all trying to sleep. Meanwhile, the cat also heard the gerbil skittering and gnawing and who-knows-what-elseing, so she spent a good portion of the night knocking on our door asking to be let in so she could have a little midnight snack. It got so bad that sometime around 4 a.m., Katie finally gave in and let the cat in – she didn’t ever catch the gerbil, but she did meow a lot. Needless to say, neither one of us got much sleep that night. Fortunately, Katie managed to capture the gerbil the next morning when it tried to join her in the shower and she was then able to chase it around the toilet and into a well-placed Trader Joe’s bag. So I guess all’s well that ends well.
Leaky Faucets
A couple of weeks ago, we decided to replace our very old, very loud, no-longer-functioning-effectively dishwasher. Unfortunately, when the guy went to put it in, he discovered that the drainage pipe under our sink was leaking, and the walls and cabinets were soaking wet. So we called a plumber, who fixed the pipe, but he discovered that the soaking walls/cabinets were infested with mold. So now we’re in the process of figuring out what to do and how much insurance will cover and all that fun stuff. The good news is that it looks like this might be a good excuse for Katie to finally get the kitchen update she’s been hoping for. The bad news is that it looks like this might be a good excuse for Katie to finally get the kitchen update she’s been hoping for. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.
World’s Toughest Road Marathon
That’s how they billed the inaugural Mt. Lemmon Marathon that was held last weekend. 26.2 miles starting at the bottom of the mountain, just past mile marker zero on the Mt. Lemmon Highway, and continuing up, up and away (from 3,000 feet to around 8,500) all the way to Summerhaven (with a little bit of an out-and-back at the end thrown in for good measure. After completing the event, I’m going to have to say that it was definitely the hardest marathon I’ve ever done. I hung in pretty well through the first 15 miles or so, but once we hit the 7,000 foot mark, I started finding it very difficult to breathe. And the hills just kept on coming. So I did a lot of walking up the hills (at a pretty decent clip, though) and ran when I could on any downhill portions (there actually are a couple of these close to the end – thank goodness). All in all, though, it was a great day. The weather was perfect, the views were spectacular, I managed to finish in under 5 ½ hours, and my lovely wife was waiting for me at the top when I finally rolled in. I don’t know if I’ll do the full again next year, but I’ll be sorely tempted to come back and try the half (starting at Windy Point) to see how I can do on that.
That’s all for this edition, so until next time, may your rodents remain securely secured, may your mold remain mildew-free, and may your mountains remain molehills.
Think Snakes on a Plane” was scary? How about Gerbils in the Bedroom?
Connor has two gerbils that he loves dearly (and to his credit, he takes really good care of them). Unfortunately, these two little rascals (Snake-eyes and Stormtrooper) managed to escape from their cage this week. Apparently, there was just the tiniest bit of a gap in the seam of their cage, and they managed to squeeze their way out so they could embark upon a little adventure. We didn’t discover they were missing from their cage until Katie and I were getting ready for bed and she exclaimed, “There’s a mouse!” which made me laugh (not exactly sure why), and she repeated, “There’s a mouse that just went under our bed!” which made me laugh even harder (really, I don’t know why I found this amusing) and then she got down on hands and knees to see if she could see the mouse, and then she thought, wait a minute, maybe it isn’t a mouse, maybe it’s a gerbil, so she went to check on Connor’s gerbils, and sure enough, the gerbils were missing from their cage and it was actually one of them she saw and now a mouse at all (not sure if it was Snake-bite or Thunderstorm). So Connor and Katie and I spread out around the bed and started poking and prodding and grasping as we attempted to capture the gerbil, who was running here and there, and darting in and out, until finally, Katie managed to grab her by the tail and returned her to the cage. Which left us with one gerbil still on the lam. We searched the house high and low, but no luck, so we all went to bed. Unfortunately, the gerbil was in our bedroom, and since gerbils are nocturnal, we spent the rest of the night listening to the gerbil skitter and gnaw and do who-knows-what-else that gerbils do at night when we’re all trying to sleep. Meanwhile, the cat also heard the gerbil skittering and gnawing and who-knows-what-elseing, so she spent a good portion of the night knocking on our door asking to be let in so she could have a little midnight snack. It got so bad that sometime around 4 a.m., Katie finally gave in and let the cat in – she didn’t ever catch the gerbil, but she did meow a lot. Needless to say, neither one of us got much sleep that night. Fortunately, Katie managed to capture the gerbil the next morning when it tried to join her in the shower and she was then able to chase it around the toilet and into a well-placed Trader Joe’s bag. So I guess all’s well that ends well.
Leaky Faucets
A couple of weeks ago, we decided to replace our very old, very loud, no-longer-functioning-effectively dishwasher. Unfortunately, when the guy went to put it in, he discovered that the drainage pipe under our sink was leaking, and the walls and cabinets were soaking wet. So we called a plumber, who fixed the pipe, but he discovered that the soaking walls/cabinets were infested with mold. So now we’re in the process of figuring out what to do and how much insurance will cover and all that fun stuff. The good news is that it looks like this might be a good excuse for Katie to finally get the kitchen update she’s been hoping for. The bad news is that it looks like this might be a good excuse for Katie to finally get the kitchen update she’s been hoping for. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.
World’s Toughest Road Marathon
That’s how they billed the inaugural Mt. Lemmon Marathon that was held last weekend. 26.2 miles starting at the bottom of the mountain, just past mile marker zero on the Mt. Lemmon Highway, and continuing up, up and away (from 3,000 feet to around 8,500) all the way to Summerhaven (with a little bit of an out-and-back at the end thrown in for good measure. After completing the event, I’m going to have to say that it was definitely the hardest marathon I’ve ever done. I hung in pretty well through the first 15 miles or so, but once we hit the 7,000 foot mark, I started finding it very difficult to breathe. And the hills just kept on coming. So I did a lot of walking up the hills (at a pretty decent clip, though) and ran when I could on any downhill portions (there actually are a couple of these close to the end – thank goodness). All in all, though, it was a great day. The weather was perfect, the views were spectacular, I managed to finish in under 5 ½ hours, and my lovely wife was waiting for me at the top when I finally rolled in. I don’t know if I’ll do the full again next year, but I’ll be sorely tempted to come back and try the half (starting at Windy Point) to see how I can do on that.
That’s all for this edition, so until next time, may your rodents remain securely secured, may your mold remain mildew-free, and may your mountains remain molehills.
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