Living without a Cell Phone

While I wait for my warranty replacement phone to arrive, I am somewhat flabbergasted at how entrenched that evil little device has become in my daily routine. Here are some of the roles it plays:

• Alarm Clock: Without my phone, I don't wake up on time.
• Weather Report: My phone dictates how I dress for the day.
• Calendar: Reminds me when I need to be somewhere
• Flashlight: Allows me to pick clothes without turning on lights in the bedroom, waking up my wife.

Once I get on the bus, I have other uses for my phone:

• Email: I get a jump on work-related topics before I get in, read personal email, delete SPAM...
• Kindle: or I will read a book to pass the time
• Social Media: What's life without Reddit, Twitter, Google Plus, and Facebook, right?
• News Reader:  Feedly to the rescue
• Camera: capturing moments of life...

Of course, the phone has its general phone-like features:

• Phone: Yep.. what it was designed for
• SMS: Although I don't use this too often these days.

While I'm working,

• PagerDuty Application: What emergencies have happened at work?
• Jira Browser: Looking at opened issues, etc.

When I'm driving,

• Maps or Waze: Show me how to get there
• 4Square: Tell me where to eat

When I'm running or biking,

• MyTracks: Where did I go?
• DailyMile: Log what I did

So when I look at the $500-600 price tag for a new smartphone, I start to think that maybe it's not such a bad deal. With a typical lifespan of 2 years, that's $1/day. Still, there are things my phone can't do:

• Deal with water
• Avoid fall damage
• Remind me not to leave it behind (unlikely as that might be)
• Play with my children
• Have a date with my wife
• Fix the front-steps of my house
• Mow the lawn
• Clean the pool
• Visit with family
• Practice my guitar (as horrible as I am with it)
• Run!

The all-in-one device is convenient, and maybe too much so. The last couple of days have been eye-opening; I spend too much time with my attention on the screen rather than the environment around me. It is too easy to grab for my phone when I need to look something up or need a distraction. Instant gratification is the rule instead of the exception. Time to change that.

Distracted and Awake, Barely

I should be in bed right now. In fact, I should have been in bed two hours ago, but I was distracted. It was a quiet night following a hectic day, and I took advantage of it. I watched some television with Meghan, drank a little scotch that I received for my birthday, and descended into our basement to hack on my computers for a bit.

I fully intended on simply coming down here to write up a blog post, but once again, I was distracted. The SunFire server log reports were telling me that SSH was receiving a lot of illegal login attempts. Easy enough to resolve, right? Just log in, install Shorewall, and configure. It turns out that my configuration-foo is a bit rusty, and I needed to spend time browsing through examples and manpages before I came up with something that works to my liking. That's life, though. With so many different things to learn, skills to obtain, experiences to gather, how can you really expect to remember it all?

An hour later, I can move on to brag about my sons. Connor, now eight going on twelve, has learned how to do a back-dive off the diving board! He was a little apprehensive, but he trusted his teacher and was resoundingly successful! He was so proud of himself, and I couldn't have been happier to share in his experience.

Not to be out-done by his brother, and perhaps because Connor did pull off the backwards dive, Ryan conquered his fear to do a front-dive off the diving board with a little bounce! He had figured out how to do the lean-over dive but was frustrated with continuing to do what the kids call a "scaredycat". It's slightly painful belly-flop with your hands and legs extended toward the surface of the water so you resemble a cat being thrown into the pool. Prior to Connor's success, Ryan fussed and cried about the attempt, so his subsequent success was a big deal! Again, I couldn't have been happier to see it happen!

Nora has also earned accolades as a walker! She is no longer bound to the earth by all fours, rather hobbles around the house in an unsteady gait on two feet! So proud! Our children are growing up so quickly!

Since this is a fitness blog of sorts, I may as well report on my own swimming today. I took advantage of my "day off" of running (due to running my runstreak at midnight this morning), and hit the pool for some easy laps.  My legs definitely enjoyed the time off. I swam mostly in freestyle at a relaxed pace with a butterfly and breaststroke thrown in for good measure. I ended on a fifty meter sprint, enjoying the rush of water! If there were a swim plus marathon duathlon, I'd be all over it!

All is Quiet

Except for the droning of the server fans, all is quiet in the house. Finally. Work on Monday's is generally a catch-up day, where people who didn't get their high priority tasks fulfilled are asking, "When will it be done?" There are always high priority tasks that need to be done yesterday, but you need to take it all in stride in as a Support Engineer. Set new expectations, communicate, and hopefully keep things running relatively smoothly. Sometimes the ride gets a little bumpy, but by and large, it feels good to be helpful.

That sometimes means that you get out of work late, like today, and you run behind with almost everything else. I tried to stop by Pad Thai restaurant to pick up dinner, but when I got there, I learned it was closed on Mondays. The backup plan was pizza at Red's Savoy — back to downtown Saint Paul on 7th Street. What was supposed to be dinner at 6:30 PM turned out to be dinner at 7:30 PM.

We had no groceries in the house, of course, so with all three kids, I ran errands. First stop, REI for a new headlamp - mine isn't all that bright, and the battery life is questionable. A few minutes later, I had a Princeton Tec 150 lumen headlamp (that could last up to 110 hours!), Gu gels, and a couple pair of Injinji socks. (I tried the socks on at home, and didn't really like the fit, unfortunately. They were VERY low-cut styled.)

Off to the grocery store (Target) we went. I didn't realize how much time was burnt just trying to keep Connor and Ryan under wraps. Ryan is constantly moving, and Connor just likes to push his buttons to see how long he can keep it up. At least Nora was a patient little angel... yeah right. She twisted around in her seat to grab things out of the cart and throw them about. At 10:30 PM, I was happy to call it a night. We arrived at home, fought over who would help bring in the groceries, and listened to Ryan scream and throw a fit over bugs circling the backyard light. "He's six," I have to remind myself, "and tired."

Off to bed the boys went, and soon Nora followed. The groceries put away and a cold beer in hand, we finally had time to relax and slow down. Hopefully, on-call will be a quiet night tonight. I'll probably try to wake up and fit a run in before I go to work tomorrow. I enjoyed my afternoon run today, hitting the hills of Saint Paul, but I generally like to keep that activity to the mornings. It's cooler, and generally the production issues just don't surface until mid-afternoon. It's nice making that afternoon run, since someone at work can usually cover, but it's also nice not having to ask for that help.

Let's see... Eleven days down. I still haven't formulated a real plan regarding my pre-40th birthday 100 miler, but getting in daily miles and one or two quality workouts a week is going to have to suffice for now.

Upgrading to Wheezy

The blog post will be abbreviated today on account of the software upgrade on my sons' eMachine. The last update was May of last year, and now that backups are done, it is time to become current. Long have passed the days of my Debian development, but I remember all of the valuable lessons of package management, systems installations, and upgrade dragons. Hopefully, this one will run smoothly.

Meghan, the kids, Peter, and I visited a few houses in the Stillwater and Lino Lakes area today. We fell in love with one house, newly on the market. Hopefully our house, which we recently reduced the asking price for, will sell quickly now. We spent our lunch at Red Robin for burgers, fries, and and rootbeer. I tried their Blue Moon shake, which had beer, orange liquor, and ice cream.  Pretty tasty!

I still haven't run yet today, but I'll get a late night one in after Nora goes to bed in the next hour or so.

She's Walking! Almost!

My little baby girl, Nora, is starting to walk! Last night, Meghan and I encouraged her to walk between us, and wouldn't you know it, she did excellent! She's been standing on her own for some time now and walking along the furniture. She hadn't yet walked to get from point to point. With our help, at almost 13 months of age, I counted nine steps of a good, solid, balanced effort!

Today, I did more of the same, just to see if last night was a fluke, but she walked without hesitation to me. My heart swelled up with pride. This afternoon, while we celebrated my 39th birthday in Big Lake with my parents, and she blew kisses to everyone. It's moments like these that makes being a father so fun!

We did have quite a bit of fun at the lake today. The boys swam with their cousin Ben, and I threw Ryan into the air a few times. Nora was getting a little too brave for my comfort, and Ryan gave me a scare in the inner-tube. Everyone walked away unscathed and with my thanks to Ryan's swim teachers at the YMCA.

I'd write more about it, but I need to get to bed soon. I did manage to get a run in around 1930CDT: a loop around Lake Como from my house. I changed the route a little, and the direction of travel, just to mix it up. I'm starting to feel the stress of running every day with sore calves, shins, and hips, so I plan on a short 1-3 miler tomorrow, easy pace. The foam roller did its job tonight, and hopefully tomorrow I won't feel like a truck hit me in the side.

A Showing, a Movie, and a Loop

Saturday is generally a day for household chores, family events, or
just plain laziness. Meghan let me sleep in until nine or so, getting
up with Nora at 0730CDT, which covered my laziness for the day. After
that, it was a constant "Go" mode. We all needed to be out of the
house at 11:00 for a 11:15 showing. I took care of the kids and
straightening up the upstairs while Meghan took a short break - well
deserved - and took care of some last minute details.

We packed everyone, including our dog Peter, into the van and took a
short trip to McDonald's for breakfast, then sat in the van parked
half-a-block from the house to wait. Showings generally take 10-20
minutes, and Nora was having her nap postponed for the event. We
wanted to get back into the house and get her to bed as soon as the
visitors left.

When we did get back into the house, it was "quiet time" for Nora, so
I packed up the boys and we watched "Despicable Me 2". It was a
surprisingly good movie, and the boys enjoyed it thoroughly. For some
reason, I was exhausted after the movie and took a cat-nap on the
couch. It was short-lived, at best, and I soon needed to get up and
cook dinner. I made an old favorite, a tomato soup meat sauce and wide
egg noodles; simple but delicious. Nora enjoyed it, but was
over-exhausted and promptly brought upstairs for a nap.

After the boys were settled in and getting ready to go to bed, I threw
on my KSOs and ran an easy loop of Lake Como from my house
(approximately 7 miles in about an hour). I played around with some
FOSS software on my Android phone for the run: GPSLogger and
Pedometer, both available from the FDroid market app. GPSLogger has a
very simple controller display, with no visual map or charts to speak
of. I like it in that it seems to save battery over MyTracks and other
run logging applications. I still need to download and view the GPX
track, so it'll be interesting to find out how accurate it is and how
best to tune its settings for my use case.

Pedometer didn't work at all. Apparently the accelerometer is
unavailable when the screen is locked, and it doesn't appear to be
override-able. This brings up a beef I have with some of the Android
settings. There are applications we need running with resources we
need access to, even when the screen is shut off. Consider trying to
be as frugal with your battery as possible, where you don't need to
watch the screen to "use" an application. This simply needs to be
improved. There was a setting in the Pedometer application to keep the
screen awake, but I was already running at 30% battery when I
started; I needed it for the GPS.

In any case, it's high time that I do a proper backup of the data on
this phone; my next chore. Like my computer, it's a part of my
life. Without the data on it, I would be lost, or at least I would
suffer a major setback. Scary, huh?

End of a Season

The large conference room was packed full of bodies today, as we discussed the changes and their impact with this month's upcoming release. I had pulled up a folding chair next to the western facing window and gazed periodically at the scene unfolding below. Most of the leaves on the trees have fallen, but a few hung tenaciously to their perches, fluttering golden defiance to the wind.

Few people were about, a lull prior to the lunch rush. On the sidewalk, the workers for the City of Saint Paul had begun framing out the ice rink foundation in front of the famous Landmark Center. "Winter already," I realized in wonder. Where did the time go?

Nora,hanging out

A mere four months prior, we welcomed our newest child to the family. Nora is already eating solids and rolling around the floor. She's not quite mobile, but the day will quickly come when she realizes her potential.

Connor and Ryan at Pine Tree Orchard

Ryan has been enjoying his first two months of Kindergarten, and is amazing Meghan and I with his reading skill. Already devouring first level reader books, he has an uncanny ability to work out brand new words. Honestly, what is his teacher going to do to keep him engaged?!

Connor is improving by leaps and bounds in everything he applies himself to. Recently, he has joined the YMCA swim team and has already competed in his first swim meet! It is a lot of fun to see how far he has come in the last year alone.  Both boys are in scouts, and Connor has started his Catholic education with CCD classes.

Meghan is recovering from childbirth and enjoying her new tread-climber, a cross between a treadmill and a stair climber. She despises it less than the elliptical that has taken up space in our house for a few years, relatively unused. (I hated that thing, too.)

Connor's Second Swim Meet

I'm recovering from a late season training injury, after accomplishing most of my goals. It didn't seem that long ago when I was nervously asking myself if I was ready for Moose Mountain Marathon, only to have completed it forty five minutes faster than my previous attempt. Awesome-sauce!

The question begs, "What next?" My training and running dropped off precipitously following Moose Mountain due to laziness and then injury. A calf-muscle strain has left me side-lined for a couple weeks now, and getting started back up has been a challenge. My free-time has similarly disappeared due to volunteering for the boy's Cub Scout pack and Connor's swim team.

Next year's goals include completing a few 50K and couple 50 mile marathons in preparation for a 2014 100 miler. I'd like to be strong enough to avoid injury and fast enough to stay in the middle of the pack, realizing that I've got a long way to go before I'm competitive. No idea which races I'll be signing up for, but I'm also planning on working in some volunteering time. Like I had stated above, I stretched myself a little thin this year, and the flu prior to Zumbro 100 this April knocked me out from that possibility. As John Storekamp stated, "You don't want to be the reason someone DNF's." Definitely not!

Cement Making Silos near the Mississippi

Now is a good time to think short-distances and cross-training. Running to and from work becomes a bit of a challenge in the winter, having to plan out clothing drops, etc. I'll likely ride the bus into work on Monday morning with all my gear and lunch supplies for two days, then run home Monday evening. Run in to work Tuesday morning and bus home. Bus and swim on Wednesday, then repeat the bus/run pair on Thursday/Friday. The tread-climber, as much as I hate to admit it, might be a good substitute for hills/hiking; something I could focus on for a week or two at a time.

Matthew Patten has issued a Winter Challenge that sounds like fun! Not sure how it'll work just yet, but stay tuned!

Tired all the Time!

Baby Nora at seven weeks!

The Walstrom house has been full of diapers, bottles, and a crying baby, but her cuteness makes up for the mess and lack of sleep!  Nora is our third child and first girl and will have the honor of always being our little baby.

Initially, our little peanut would have at most two ounces of formula, and she would be up every 2-3 hours. She's now drinking six ounces, which really amounts to seven when you've added the formula, and sleeping anywhere between 4-6 hours. Occasionally, we get luck and have an entire night of sleep!

Meghan has been a real trooper, and we've had some real moments of stress due to the lack of sleep. I'm starting to see light at the end of this tunnel, and Meghan has been noticeably more relaxed and rested. Of course, "rested" is relative these days.

Ryan (5)

Connor and Ryan have adjusted well to live with a baby, though we do have lots of reminders to, "Be quiet. Your sister is sleeping!" They have been enamored with their Nintendo 3DS games, with Ryan making some outstanding leaps in proficiency. Most of these games include in-game written instructions on how to play as you progress, teaching you new techniques and strategies. Ryan has been amazing me with what he can recognize and understand. When you have real motivation, you can accomplish amazing feats!

Connor had a similar experience, though I attributed it (and some Ryan's growth) to a different gaming platform, the Leap Frog product line. Their games are specifically designed to teach reading and arithmetic, whereas the software companies that create games for the Nintendo line of products generally focus on entertainment. If you're looking to purchase a digital gaming system for your 3-5 year old, concentrate on Leap Frog, or shop specifically for titles on the Nintendo platform that focus on education.

Ryan (5) and Connor (7)
in the Rocket Ship Slide

The common thread here is that education needs to be fun! Speaking of fun, Connor and I will be attending an overnight Cub Scout camping experience this weekend at Camp Phillipo in Cannon Falls, MN! I think I'm more excited than he is, and Meghan is terrified about being home alone with Nora and Ryan! If anyone wants to come over and keep Meghan company, take Ryan off her hands, or just watch the kids for a few hours so she can catch a nap, I'm sure she would be very appreciative!

Take care, and have a great weekend!

Plantar Fasciitis?!

More Injury News

As if I'm not having enough trouble with injury, pain, and running. Now, it appears that I have Plantar Fasciitis in my right foot. The pain is excruciating! It looks like I'll be backing off the mileage, just as I started getting into it. I've been icing nightly and bought an ice pack for work. Rolling my foot on a tennis ball provides a bit of relief, and the pain seems to be localized near the heel and instep more than anywhere else on the foot.

I'm sure this is all due to my barefoot running, which places more stress upon these muscles. I did run in my racing flats this morning, and my KSOs this evening. The New Balance MT101s I used at Afton are also minimalistic in nature with little cushion. Perhaps I'm hurting myself more than necessary here. Time for a cushioned shoe with zero drop and perhaps a little arch support while I heal? Newtons need not apply!

Hopefully, I'll be able to bounce back from this one faster than the Achilles tendonitis, which by the way, is healing relatively well, even with my double day today -- a run commute of five miles in one direction, ten mile round trip.

Tomorrow, by necessity, will be a rest day. Funny how I don't own a pair of arch support shoes any more...

Baby News

Meghan has turned in a little early tonight to catch a little early sleep, and Nora's due for her next bottle at 00:30. She's a little firecracker, that one, and she's left Meghan and I a bit ragged. We're making due, and things are getting better on a daily basis. The old habits and tricks for taking care of a baby are coming back, as are the memories of those really difficult nights.

Meghan found a new style of bottle that seems to be performing really well, the Avent bottles. They're sized and shaped more closely to a breast, have two holes instead of one, and have multiple vents that allow air to pass into the bottle. They're touted as helping babies with colic, which thankfully Nora does not have. She hasn't spit-up on me since the switch, so they're definitely worth the investment!

Anyway, time to turn in -- after a quick snack. All of this running has been sapping me of much needed calories!

Humidity, What Ya Gonna Do When It Comes For You?

Tuesday's humidity was oppressive, and today looks like it will be just as bad. Stepping out the door just prior to nine o'clock to let out Peter has me thankful for air conditioning. I cannot imagine living in a house without it. First world problems, I know. Unlike yesterday, I have not yet gotten my run in. I stayed up a bit later last night taking care of Nora while Meghan had a "Girls' Night Out" with her sisters and mom; she needs more of these, I think. She came home in good spirits and wanted to try sleeping upstairs again instead of the recliner.

I didn't set an alarm, and woke to help Nora sleep once around midnight. I Meghan this morning on the reclining couch again, with Nora in the bassinet. She had come down at two because her hips were bugging her again from SPD, Symphesis Pubis Disorder, something women often have in the last part of their pregnancy as the hormones in their bodies prepare them for birth. Their ligaments and tendons loosen up to allow baby to pass more easily through the birth canal. For Meghan, this problem started much sooner than normal, so she's been sleeping in a recliner for the last six or so months.  You think that might be nice, but it's not really all that comfortable compared to a bed.

It's now almost 13:00, and I've yet to run my mile to keep the "secret" #runstreak going. Honestly, I would like to keep my training schedule on track with a half-hour run, but mid-day on one of the hottest days of the year does not appeal to me at all. I'll do some stretching and maybe fit in a run around Lake Josephine later this evening, maybe after the temps come down a bit. Tomorrow's run will be early morning again, with a short run for Friday and the Afton 25k Trail race on Saturday morning. I'm a little nervous about the race, though I probably shouldn't be. I want to treat it as a training run for Moose Mountain and run the pace I expect there, sub-six hours for 26.2 miles or 14 to 15 minute miles. Given that I train at 9 minute miles as an Easy pace, I'm going to count on the hill climbs to slow me down to a walk.

The diet is still on track, for the most part. I need to pick up some olive-oil Helman's for my tuna and salmon lunches to avoid the vegetable oils. Yesterday's meals looked like this:

Breakfast: 4-egg Omelette with broccoli and cauliflower. Coffee. Coffee...
Lunch: 2 cans pink salmon, Helman's mayo (2 tbsp - has gluten/pressed oil - couldn't avoid it), green onion and celery. Cantaloupe. Water.
Dinner: Polish sausage and sauerkraut, peaches, 1/2 cup rice.

Today, breakfast was also a bit of lunch:

Breakfast: 3 fried eggs, bacon, cantaloupe, coffee.

No idea what lunch or dinner will have in store for us, but I'll be sure to bring some proteins along to the Stokes' house. It's Anna's birthday celebration today, as well as Independence Day, so there will be much partying and swimming.  Enjoy your day off!

Trying Hard Not to Stay Up

Nora Vivian Walstrom

Newborn and New Schedule

I'm trying hard not to stay up late at night, and here's the reason why... Our little princess has her own schedule, and we bend to her will. Who else can instantly change a family than a newborn child? Nora is no exception, and we couldn't be happier for it. I was told by numerous folks that she would have me wrapped around her little finger on Day One. I don't think I resisted beyond the first minute.

With Nora's arrival came a priority shift and schedule re-organization for me, namely the time slot in which I can run! There is no remaining doubt, I must use the early morning hours to do it. Meghan is taking the two night-time feedings, and I'm picking up the morning feeding. I need to do my run when Meghan is still on "bottle-duty". That way, I don't risk forcing her to wake and attend Nora while out on a run. Two weeks of Personal Time Off (PTO) at work has made this transition much easier.

I suppose it was time for me to officially flip from a night owl to a "morning person", especially if I'm going to take this whole "ultramarathon" thing seriously.

Paleo!

The other big change in my life is committing a diet change, choosing a Paleo diet over the high-carbohydrate, cereal grain focused, American diet. I've been waffling on this for some time, partly because of the general inconvenience of it all. Cereal grains are in everything. I don't know how my celiac friends manage!

Make no mistake, it is a commitment, eating healthy and free of gluten, but I'm hoping that I am making a positive change in my life and setting a good example for my family. The change is all my responsibility, since I do the majority of cooking in the house. Meghan does not woff, ant to have to cook every meal, every day, though I might be able to convince her to pick up one or two.

A huge challenge is deciding what to do with all of the pasta, beans, flour, and other cereal grain derived foods in the house. Perhaps a little outreach on social networks will result in a good home for the food, though perhaps I wouldn't be doing them any favors on principle alone.

Eat Like a Dinosaur!

One thing I wanted to accomplish with this change in diet was to benefit my family's health along the way. I may not be able to convince my children and wife to give up glutens entirely, but if I can get Connor and Ryan excited to cook food, the transition might be easier. I found an excellent cook book, targeted to children and families, that addresses this very thing.  It's called "Eat Like a Dinosaur" and it's written by The Paleo Parents. We bought the Kindle edition, and the plan worked! Connor has been very excited to make his own food and help me out in the kitchen.

With that, I should close the browser and head to bed! Off to run tomorrow morning for two hours! (It's too late already!)

Fall Reflections

Tablets and Computers
So many things to do around the house and in life; just need to take it one day at a time, one task at a time.  Right now, I'm staring at a potential two or three hours backing up hosts and upgrading a workstation and server in my basement "server room" (which is really a table with a couple computers, a printer, and a really old monitor). I love having AndriodVNC, Xvnc Server, and XDMCP/X11 to get a remote desktop on my tablet.  Seems to work pretty well, though I would appreciate a working CTRL key from the keyboard to my remote session.  The same goes for ConnectBot, which has yet to incorporate the more traditional user interface.  For the most part, I think the Andriod 3.0 on the Asus Eee Transformer TF101 Tablet is pretty solid.

Yesterday was a bit of a lazy day...  Wait, no it wasn't!  Yesterday morning, I sat on my work laptop monitoring and managing GovDelivery's digest email process.  We're growing fast and upgrading clients from our older infrastructure to the newer one, and as a result, we're finding quirks with the environment, database, and software.  It's nothing we can't manage, though.  Tor, my boss, and Jesse, my coworker, both put in extra time this weekend, as well as our DBA Joe, developers Billy and Jim, and Systems Engineer Ben.  We have a pretty solid team, and they're able to pull together some effective solutions when we need them most.  I'm really feeling that this team has gelled together well in the last few weeks.

An Afternoon Break
...was in order, and Meghan's sister had a great idea in bringing the families to the Sever's Corn Maze, which sits right next to the Canterbury Downs race track and casino.  Meghan wasn't feeling well, so I took the boys down to meet Katie, Izac, and Maizie.  We arrived around 16:30 and had until 18:00 to run around and explore.  The entrance fee wasn't cheap, so if you plan on taking your family down, give yourselves more than 90 minutes, and remember to bring cash if you want to feed the animals, fling pumpkins ($2/3 pumpkins), shoot corn ($2/3 ears), ride the ponies ($5/person), or ride the Super Slide ($2 a pop).   Food wasn't necessarily cheap either, about what you would expect at a tourist attraction.  When asked what their favorite part of the day was, both answered emphatically, "Feeding the parakeets!" I think the corn pit was a close second, though.

Running, of Course!
After getting the boys fed, cleaned up, and in bed, I changed into my running gear and headed out for a quick run. I'm starting to enjoy my runs again. With this runstreak, things have gotten a bit monotonous. I can only run the same 1.2 and 3.2 mile loops in my neighborhood before I start to get bored. I tried mixing it up last week with a run out at Battle Creek Park just east of the River and south of I94 on Highway 61. I was in no hurry and didn't sweat the details, just enjoyed exploring the park for a couple of hours. Battle Creek has some challenging hills, though nothing terribly long or tall. You get some of the feel that you might have on the Superior Hiking Trail, so this will be a good place to throw in some hill repeats over trees and roots. I only saw a few mountain bikers on the trail, and ran into a group of young adventurers looking for caves. There was one young pre-teen out on the trails all by himself. He was wearing a helmet and backpack, and seemed to be enjoying himself, but I couldn't help but wonder where his parents were. Where was his riding partner? If this had been my son, he would had a serious one to one about safety. There are too many creepy people out there to leave your childrens' future to chance. In any case, I cranked out a 2.44 mile run in a little over 18 minutes, showered up, and turned back to the computer and work.

Back to Work
I spent the night on cleaning up and improving a Perl script hack to purge out queue directories we use to send transactional messages for digest users.  We had come up with a useable quick solution late Thursday night, but when scheduling it through cron, I found it taking far too long.  I also wanted to make it a "real" script in that it needed a "--help", "--verbose", and "--no-act" options, as well as a way to effectively parse input from STDIN.  I like xargs, but if you can avoid the forking cost when examining thousands of files, it's bound to speed up dramatically.  I also found a simple way of cutting the run time by a large factor; I was feeling pretty good about myself.

Dr. Who, Torchwood, and Entertainment
Meghan and I watched the season finale of Dr. Who as I was hacking in Perl; it was awesome!  I will give no spoilers, but I have to say that I'm continually impressed by the quality of acting, the solid story telling, and the engaging format of the series. I can sit down to any of the Dr. Who episodes and watch it as if I had never seen the series before, and fully enjoy myself. Unlike the new Torchwood: Miracle Day, I don't need to invest eight or more weeks into following it. Meghan and I both agree that the change in format is not as enjoyable as the solid one hour episodes with the threads of relationship between previous and following episodes that BBC favors. The American produces seem to think that the only way to gain a following is to make a huge production out of things, make it into a miniseries. I hate miniseries! I'll be happy when this whole T:MD thing is finished. I don't know what I would do without having my DVR, though. I just don't have enough interest in television these days to stay pinned to the couch at the big Network approved viewing times. Yay, technology!

Right now, I'm trying to rub out some dried hot peppers out of my eyes!  Yeouch!  I'm making some home-made, from scratch chili using dried chilis and a five pound top round roast that needed to be cooked.  It is really starting to smell wonderful, but it has another couple hours to cook in the oven.  The stovetop burner is a bit too hot, even on the lowest setting.  I could pull out the slow cooker, which might be a bit more energy efficient than the stove at this point, but I don't want to clean yet another set of dishes. It'll turn out, and paired with some home-made corn bread, I trust everyone will be satisfied. My parents are coming down for a visit, and Meghan is busy shopping. The boys are playing Wii and DS, and the sun is traveling quickly across the sky. Sooner than I would like, our weekend will be over.

I suppose its time to scrounge together some sort of lunch. Mac-n-cheese, maybe.

A Week in Review...

I've cracked open the computer for leisure time for the first time since Wednesday night! What a challenge it was at first to unplug, since there is always a couple dozen things that need to be done at work, and a half-a-dozen things to do personally. Right now, I'm sitting on the bleachers at the YMCA indoor pool while my two sons have their respective swimmigng lessons. Connor in Rays, for the 4-5 year old children, and Ryan in Pike I, for the "just beginning". It's a good time for reflection over the past week while watching their progress and encouraging them to have fun and pay attention to their teachers.

The week itself started with Easter Egg Hunting at Maime and Papa's house at around 15:00 on Sunday. Ellie, Ben, Connor and Ryan all thoroughly enjoyed the thrill of finding so many eggs! Connor created a new variant of the "Freeze Tag" game called "Super Mario Brothers Freeze Tag". He was Mario and Ben was Luigi, each with a special power. Mario with freeze ball, and Luigi with fire ball. The rest of us ran around like loonies while Connor froze us, and Ben thawed us! There was more to the game, complete with sound effects, but I think you needed to be there to really enjoy it! I enjoyed visiting with my family and being able to rest on the recliner while they played with their cousins and catch a few winks. At 19:00, we packed it up and headed down to Grammy and Papa Stokes for a quick visit. It was a busy Easter, to say the least.

Monday at work seemed pretty normal. Sunday morning I had put in some extra time to stage and hopefully finish a long standing project. I fleshed out the final touches by the end of the day, but I didn't want to execute anything without having a full day to iron out wrinkles. I wouldn't get the chance. That very night, a 4:00 AM on-call page started my day in a firestorm. By 9:00 AM, I had already put in five hours of work on about 2.5 hours of sleep (My mind was racing as always, and although I had gone to bed at 23:00, I recall looking at the clock at 01:30 and thinking, "WHY CAN'T I SLEEP!?"). I finished the day by a little after 13:20 and took a long nap at 14:00, the same time as Ryan.

It was Tuesday afternoon, and my youngest son made a milestone with his third birthday! He is growing up so quickly, and I don't simply mean stature. His vocabulary and curiosity grow as well. He's a counting madman and is learning to sing songs in tune! The kid has a natural talent for pitch; his mother is quite proud. :) His birthday was low-key. We ordered McDonalds for the boys, had cake and ice cream, and opened presents. He liked gifts and couldn't wait to play with them outside in the light of day.

They had to settle for playing with their hand-held games. Both of our kids have absorbed technology as if it were second nature. We have two of the Leapster platforms, the Didj and the Leapster 2. It didn't take long for both of them to understand the basic of side-scroller games, and the Leapster platform is excellent for providing education as well as entertainment. Connor is learning to spell and read with X-Men Wolverine, and Ryan is learning his shapes, numbers, colors, and letters with Diego and Finding Nemo. If you have kids, these are definitely the toys that I, as a parent, have no qualms letting them play.

I was hoping that Wednesday day would find me finishing that long-time project, but it was a day of putting out fires again. I didn't leave until late, but when I did finally arrive home, I was able to switch gears quickly. Meghan went to Katie's for her "Mom's Night Out", and I worked on Taxes. I have used TaxACT Online for the last few years with great success. I couldn't find a couple of documents, so I had to hold off finishing until Thursday morning. To celebrate and unwind, I mixed myself a white russian and waited for Meghan to return. It was still hard to unplug from work, but I tried my best. It was, after all, the beginning of my first real day off in months, and it was a welcome event.

When she did arrive, we talked a bit about running, family, and other things that we were thinking about. I really value our evenings together, as I do our daily family dinners around the table. It would be two nights before we would have the chance again, as I would be in Wabasha with Adam Schultz-Lowe running with him in his effort to complete a 100 mile marathon in a single day (stay tuned for a blog update on that one alone).

Thursday morning found me making a few phone calls to finish up with taxes and pack for my trip. For such a short week, so much happened. I am so thankful it did. Stay tuned! (Pictures to come.)

Ribbit, Ribbit Green Frog

I came up with the following song when Connor was three, partly because I was tired of singing "Bah, Bah Black Sheep".  It became an instant favorite, and I've sung it to both boys nightly since then.  When Ryan was inconsolable on the emergency room bed, getting his eyebrow stitched back together, I sang him this song.  When he wouldn't sit still for the hair stylist, I sang it again.  Try it out!  You won't be disappointed in your child's reaction.

Ribbit, Ribbit Green Frog

(Sung to the tune of Bah, Bah Black Sheep)

Ribbit, ribbit green frog,

have you any flies? (*Slurp, Slurp*)

A dozen or two,

I tell you no lies.

They're crunch and they're good

and I eat 'em all the time.

You can have some,

you can have some of mine.

Ribbit, ribbit green frog,

have you any flies? (*Slurp, Slurp*)

A dozen or two,

I tell you no lies.

-- Chad Walstrom, 2006

When is a Holiday Ever a Vacation?

I know, I know.  A Holiday is no guarantee that you get to relax and kick up your feet.  It is simply a time when you're not expected to go to work -- unless you're on-call, that is.  This season was no exception.  November and December are pretty much non-stop for our family.  Not only do we have three major holidays within 45 days of each other, but we also have no less than six birthdays.  Our children aren't really school age yet, but Connor did have a holiday concert as well.  I can only imagine what our calendar is going to look like in a few years.  Add on top of that my wife's fan-girl trips to other states to see a certain group of British musicians, and life's been pretty full-up lately.

I guess I shouldn't gripe much.  I knew what was going to happen over these two months. We've been pretty fortunate lately.  I've found a job that not only do I like, but pays well, includes a team of exceptional talent, and challenges me day in and day out.  I managed to leave behind a position that wasn't really going anywhere for a product that was seen as the black sheep.  I hated leaving my friends behind to deal with it, but I liked my sanity more.

I've accomplished quite a bit in this last year with respect to running, which I'll cover in another post.  There are friends out there who don't care much for the details, and I get pretty geeky when it comes to things I like.  The short of it is that I had a great year, finished a bunch of fun races, made some new friends, and over-trained!  I'm recovering and expect to enjoy some new races next year!  I may even enter a duathlon or triathlon!  Hopefully Grandma's will be on the list!  We shall see!

As for things I didn't accomplish this year?  I didn't get my SCJP, nor did I hold a conversation in Chinese.  Not bad, really.  I did get a new job, learn some new stuff on my guitar (very beginner-level stuff), and of course ran my ass off.

I hope your year was a fruitful one for you, and if not, I hope this next one will be!

Cheers,

Chad

My First Christmas with Meghan

It's a late night here in Minnesota, or an early morning, if you prefer.  The Xmas season is at an end, and none too soon.  If I had any more Xmas, I'd probably lock myself away from the candy canes, wrapping paper, and fruit cake. OK, maybe there wasn't much fruit cake this year, but there certainly was enough family and festivities to keep me and my girlfriend running from one corner of the `burbs to the other.

Yes, this was my first Xmas with my girlfriend, Meghan, and yes, we did put on a lot of miles.  I mentioned my father's 50th birthday in one of my earlier .plan's, so I'll follow up.  It was a lot of fun.  We visited with people I haven't seen in many years.  College years have a way of separating you from your High School youth and those you knew.  It's really awkward, sometimes, trying to pick up conversation topics with old acquaintances and friends, but not at this party

Meghan blended right into the crowd, having a pretty good time for just meeting everyone, my family included.  My brother-in-law entertained us with his strange sense of humor and his constant joking.

We spent the night there with the intent on watching "The Fellowship of the Ring" in Elk River the next afternoon as a birthday present for my dad.  The snow ruined plans, since Mom needed a driving companion for her shopping in St. Cloud.  We rescheduled our movie outing with Dad for the following Friday and headed down to Maple Grove to do a little Xmas shopping before Marya's Holiday Dinner.

As a last minute decision, we watched the movie anyway.  It was excellent! Don't listen to the nay-sayers and hard-core Tolkien fans who play the movie down.  It was very well crafted and followed the book quite respectfully.

With a movie under our belt, we made our way to Marya's for a two course meal, and a couple matches of "Battle of the Sexes".  Many of my friends from the school days in Duluth showed: Gep, Paul, Dave, Wade and Karen, Mikey and Marine, Jessica, and one of Marya's friends (forgive me for the late night brainskip).  The guys beat the girls two games to one, but they were both very close games.  All in all, no one was physically harmed and only a few threats were carried out.

On Sunday, we made our way back up to my home town to spend the day with my immediate family.  How can you turn down prime rib, wine, and family?  Not to mention pie, ice cream, and presents!  Ellie entertained us, like always, with her toddler innocence, and Chris battled for a close second with his comedic relief.  I made out like a bandit with gifts, scoring a home brewing kit among other things.  I can't wait to start my first batch.  Meghan found the de-facto standard anime classic, Akira, in a special edition two disc DVD.  Needless to say, we'll be watching that soon (today, by the calendar).

Sunday night ended with yours truly crushing the opposition in a game of "May I", a multi-deck card game that takes HOURS to play.  It has simple rules, but it is accompanied by plenty of strategy.  If you're interested, send me an email asking for the rules.

Monday, we found ourselves on the road again, this time on the way to Meghan's parents' place.  It was a fairly relaxed night, with dinner, a nap, and a few drinks.  We missed midnight mass on account of a few sleepy family members and a few glasses of whiskey.

We didn't get a chance to sleep in this morning, since the rest of the family was soon to arrive to open gifts.  It was a fun and relaxing day.  I helped install a new garbage disposal and move some furniture -- who can blame her parents for taking advantage of the extra bodies around the house.  Anyway, it was a really nice time.  She has a wonderful family.

Almost done here.  Sometime around six o'clock, we rounded up our stuff and headed over to my Uncle's place for my Mom's larger family get-together.  We arrived shortly after their dinner was finishing up, just in time for drinks (we're good at that), presents, and conversation.  I was able to thoroughly embarrass Meghan by introducing her to EVERYONE (almost) on my Mom's side of the family.  Everyone was in a good mood, and it was wonderful being able to see everyone again.

All in all, it was a very eventful, wonderful, and tiring long weekend.  This .plan file obviously reflects that.  I'm in great need of sleep right now (as the original writing of this .plan will finish sometime around 01:30 December 26, 2001).  Tomorrow, I receive a pre-op visit to the eye doctor before scheduling Lasik surgery next month.  I have plenty of work to keep me busy at the IMA tomorrow, and I plan on relaxing with my Meghan over dinner and anime. ;-)

Sorry about the length of this post, but it was something that needed to be done.  I hope your holiday season has been as eventful and fun filled as mine.

Peace,

^chewie