Friday, August 31, 2007

Carpool #5



Baby Allie came home today. We left Memorial for the journey to Edwardsville which, for those that don’t know, is mostly Highway driving. Half way home, on Highway 255, an unusual event occurred that I would normally take great interest in this.

50 yards in front of us are two cars locked in game of “Road Rage”. They were swerving back and forth over 3 lanes with the lead vehicle keeping the pursing vehicle from passing. I looked at Kelli and said “Seriously, don’t they know we have a new baby on board?”

Naturally I slowed down to 25 mph to let them get really far ahead but what a crazy incident for Allies first car ride. I hope this isn’t a telling sign of our future car rides with her.

Just another day and life in the Carpool.

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Baby Girl


We have a new family member. Allie Louise. She was born at 11:26 p.m on 29 August 2007. Weighing in at 9lbs 2oz, 20inches long.

The nurses let us know Mom had braggin' rights for the biggest baby that day. :-)

All I can say is what an unbelievably exciting and exhausting time.

Kelli was wonderful, never complaining the entire time and had smile on her face the second Allie was introduced into this world.

One last note: This kid is tough. She already raised her head off my shoulders on the first day!! Also hospital foldout chair beds are not comfortable.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Carpool-4

Kelli and I carpooled again today. We have our last and final Baby Class tonight, “Baby Care and Parenting” after work.

So on our way to my work, it occurred to me Kelli was supposed to pay our tax guy for our taxes from April. She hadn’t in 3 months so I did. However, since her farm stuff drug our taxes way down and we weren’t getting a return I told her this was her responsibility.

“Kelli, you owe me money”, I said.
“For what?”
“Taxes that I had to pay for you.”
“Oh.” she shrugged, “How much do I owe you?”
“$100”
She then digs into her purse, pulls out her wallet, she rummages through and finally hands me a $100 Bill. “There. Are we even?”

I looked at her quizzically as this is not a normal routine to have $100 bill just whipped on a whim for us. “What? You said a hundred, right?” she asked

“I guess,” with a confused and scared look as I stuff the $100 into my pocket to bring my total money count I have on me to $101.15.

It just goes to show, I never know what will happen carpooling with Kelli.

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Touring Cyclist Biathlon

I completed the 4.5Mile Run and 23Mile Bike race today.

4.5M Run = 0:36:17 for a 8:27 Pace
23M Bike = 1:21:26 for a 16.9 MPH Pace
Total Time = 1:57:43


This did not get started on the right note. I showed up late and was putting up my bike as the lady was counting down “5, 4, 3, 2, 1!!” I started my watch put the rest of my gear by my bike did one attempt to touch my toes stretch and started running to the start line. I officially started in dead last.

I’ve never done this race before but found it was a very hill course and provided a formidable challenge that I will hopefully do next year. At a few points the hills got so steep I thought my legs were going to explode both on the run and bike. I ended up finishing 62 of 119.

Not great, not bad, but all in a days work.

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Inaugural Clubhouse Triathlon

What a hoot!

I was race director and my wife took over the role as head coordinator because she said she didn’t like the way the race director was making decisions. (I’m so lucky).

My goal was to have a dozen (12) people participate. Our official count was 26 total triathletes with another 4 people who only did certain parts of the event. I better then I expected. I even had shirts made by Kelly Tracy who owns/operates Kelly Tracy Advertising and Design, for a total count of 47 shirts, volunteers wanted the shirts as well.



Credit should definitely go to my Kelli’s family who not only kept the excitement of the race going and filled over half the field, but also had the area/land to do this. There was already a buzz about next year once the event was finished and sitting in the shade eating burgers/brats and drinking beers.

Finish Time
# Name Type Start End Time to (Next) Time to Finisher (First) Finisher
16 Ed t 0:00:00 0:43:49 0:00:00 0:00:00
34 *Tim* t 0:00:00 0:45:30 + 0:01:41 + 0:01:41
19 Evan t 0:00:00 0:47:54 + 0:02:24 + 0:04:05
2 Mike G t 0:00:00 0:49:06 + 0:01:12 + 0:05:17
28 Laura t 0:00:00 0:49:40 + 0:00:34 + 0:05:51
12 Clare t 0:00:00 0:50:16 + 0:00:36 + 0:06:27
26 Kyle A t 0:00:00 0:50:38 + 0:00:22 + 0:06:49
18 Erica t 0:00:00 0:51:10 + 0:00:32 + 0:07:21
24 John L t 0:00:00 0:53:06 + 0:01:56 + 0:09:17
33 Scott t 0:00:00 0:53:08 + 0:00:02 + 0:09:19
23 Joe L t 0:00:00 0:53:21 + 0:00:13 + 0:09:32
20 Grant t 0:00:00 0:53:27 + 0:00:06 + 0:09:38
21 Jackie t 0:00:00 0:53:28 + 0:00:01 + 0:09:39
31 Melissa t 0:00:00 0:53:35 + 0:00:07 + 0:09:46
13 Collin t 0:00:00 0:56:08 + 0:02:33 + 0:12:19
9 Amanda t 0:00:00 0:56:11 + 0:00:03 + 0:12:22
27 Kyle S t 0:00:00 0:59:56 + 0:03:45 + 0:16:07
22 Jake t 0:00:00 1:01:53 + 0:01:57 + 0:18:04
30 Megan t 0:00:00 1:08:13 + 0:06:20 + 0:24:24
11 Christinet 0:00:00 1:12:05 + 0:03:52 + 0:28:16
36 Team D.A.M.r.t. 0:00:00 1:13:53 + 0:01:48 + 0:30:04
14 Andy t 0:00:00 1:13:58 + 0:00:05 + 0:30:09
8 Alyssa t 0:00:00 1:23:05 + 0:09:07 + 0:39:16
15 Deanna t 0:00:00 1:23:05 + 0:00:00 + 0:39:16
17 Emilie t 0:00:00 1:23:05 + 0:00:00 + 0:39:16
1 Larry t 0:00:00 1:23:30 + 0:00:25 + 0:39:41
3 Mikey Joeb 0:00:00 DNF
4 Oscar b 0:00:00 DNF
7 Lucas s 0:00:00 DNF
10 Brian t 0:00:00 DNF
25 Kevin t 0:00:00 DNF
29 Lisa t 0:00:00 DNF
32 Ryan t 0:00:00 DNF
6 Tom b 0:00:00 DNF
35 Jeff DNF


Many thanks to the Volunteers. Congrats to all that completed the event, and we’ll see you next year.
Tim

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

July 4th

Wednesdays 4th of July’s are strange. It just doesn’t feel like the 4th because rather then being in party (or rather fun energetic) mode it’s like a Sunday because you have to work the next day.

What happened strange,…oh yes, it stormed. Not just any storm though. Where I enjoyed the 4th of July day it stayed dry yet had a lot of clouds all around us. This also kept a nice breeze on us the entire day with hardly any humidity which is strange for the Midwest (St. Louis Area) until 7:30 when the weather finally broke, and then it was humid. So that was strange.

Ok second we were eating BBQ, and as mentioned before it was storming all around. Well this was my first time I’ve ever heard Horizontal Lightning. It went right over our head. It was pretty wicked and freaky all in the same breath. A few dogs got scared but the ones who go duck/goose hunting could have cared less, which was kind of funny. A few ladies ran inside, but to hear the lightning travel overhead was quite different.

The guys didn’t go in however. Nope, we were too tough, too macho, and too stupid.

Tim

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Blinds

We got new neighbors. What an emotionally anxious time. Will be they be nice, fun, mean, annoying?

Well, I'll answer the big question; They’re annoying. They officially have not moved in for 2 weeks now and are taking their sweet time painting. What’s annoying is when they leave at night, they leave their back porch light on. This light bulb has to be a 100Watt if not a 200Watt. It's on all night all day and then when I get home around 6p.m. they are painting and the light is off. They leave at 9:30p.m. and the light is on again all night.

The real problem is that is shines right into our bedroom. I’m talking full illumination. Sleep for me is hard. I’m that type that could lie in bed for several hours before falling asleep. So this light is wreaking havoc on me. When I do fall asleep and wake up, I’ll look at the blinds and start waking up, because I think its daylight. My system is all screwed up.

The only small shred of hope is once they move in; they’ll turn it off, rather then leave it on.

P.S. This has not affected my wife, Kelli. She falls asleep with the lights on.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Clubhouse Triathlon

Practice Run:

Train, Train, Train. Three of us did a practice Triathlon I’m putting together at my in-laws clubhouse and all three completed the .25Mile Swim, 4.5Mile Bike, and 2.5Mile Run in under 1 hour, but it came at a toll. 51min and two 57min finishes.


It was a much needed test run.
We determined a flare of some sort needs to be used to signal the beginning of the event vs. the towel that was waved. (It’s hard to spot .25Miles a way with goggles on.)

Also an extra water station should be added, if nothing more then to throw water over the body to cool off.

Last it appears everyone will need a participation medal. Triathlons are difficult. As I said in the beginning… “Train, Train, Train”

Friday, June 22, 2007

Relay for Life

Kelli and I participated in Relay for Life on the team of Koehn(pernounced "Kane") Lawn Care.

At the Relay someone on your team is supposed to walk around the track at all times. I haven’t run in a while because I’ve been sick so after the llumination ceremony I decided to run. After the first 30min, I decided to shoot for 1hour. After the 1hour I was hurting but put in a good fight and go another 15 min of running in for good measure.

When I got back to our Team area, I wanted to get a picture of Kelli and I. Kelli hated getting in this picture because I’m so sweaty. You would think she would be used to this by now.



Fortunately this year we didn't have to stay all night becasue of the prego and got to go home early...12:30 in the morning.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Cardinals Game



Cards Game with the Wilson’s!!!

This was a long game. We left in the bottom of the 9th at 11:15. The game I think went to 14 innings. I’m not sure though I tried keeping up with Ben beer for beer. He won if he felt okay in the morning. If not, we tied.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Bicycle Group Ride


So I was convinced to go on a bike ride with a group.

We meet at the O'fallon Illinois YMCA at 6. As we started I felt pretty good, but then again we were on a flat course. Within 15 minutes we were out in the country climbing hills.

Let me just say this completely and entirely kicked my ass. This group was good and made me look like I was riding a tricycle. So after 30 minutes they were already a good 20 minutes in front of me. Luckily they guy I was with didn't mind taking it easy and we went at "My Own Pace", which was like 15- 16 MPH.

We started at 6 and ended at 7:30 but holy geez I was exhausted. I've got a lot of work to do to even come close to staying close to those guys.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Retainng Wall


I built a 33' X 1'2" retaining wall between Friday and Saturday.

Friday after work, I went to the bar with a coworker for a few beers. My wife picked me up and we carpooled home. I proceeded to mow the grass and began digging the 33' long ditch. Avoiding any leveling, digging was enough to finish the day at dusk.

Saturday was daunting. Kelli and I went to the store to pick up some supplies and pick out the landscaping block. I ended purchasing them from Market Basket for $1.80 per block which was cheaper then I anticipated. I was only able to get 100 bricks on my Z71 Chevy Silverado. I was amazed the truck was so weighted although it was a no brainer considering each block weighed 25lbs.

When I got home, I flattened the dirt, poured and flattened sand and began installing "The Wall". A project such as this isn't so bad if you space it out over several days. I however did this all in one day when temperatures reached 93F with no clouds.

Finally after the wall was complete at 5 p.m. I took a shower and my fingers would inadvertently make a fist(cramping). I would then have to pry my fingers away. I then calculated using 137 bricks at 25lbs a piece is 3,425 lbs.!The joys of completion, the pains of labor.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Finders Fee

I've told friends I have a blog but, not where it is.

Well, Kelli(the wife), found it so now I have to keep it clean.

Or not. ;-|

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Carpool-Day 3

STORY TIME:

My wife, Kelli, and I carpooled again today. We have the second class of three for Child Birth at the Hospital from 6 – 9:30. She gets tired late at night so I like to drive her home so I know she’s safe.

Any who we headed to work and we started off listening to a little country music. It was my donut day (Side Note: The Engineering group I work has a tradition of bringing in donuts every Thursday ever week of the year for the past 8 years. I’m currently in charge of providing a list of who brings on a particular week. On days where there is a holiday on Thursday we move up donut day or back a day, but basically we have donuts every week. If you grab a donut and weren’t on the list, you are now. We’ve tricked a lot of people but they secretly like it. It’s really a cult with aspirations of getting fat). So I run in to get the dozen and a half donuts and I come out and now she’s listening to talk radio. See Carpool Day 1.

That’s fine with me as I know it makes her happy. 30 minutes into the drive I ask her a few questions about the topic at hand, again politics. She answers with some in-depth answers that lead to more questions from me and more in-depth answers from her.

After I pulled up to work, kissed her good-bye, and watched her drive off to go to her work, one thought came to my mind. Kelli is a wonderful person and I enjoy talking to her.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Toilet

FUNNY STORY:

Ok, so I was told a funny story today at work. A guy, who I let remain nameless went “#2” in bathroom slang speak, in the Machine shop bathroom. It is a one toilet and sink room and small.

The individual has a tendency to work late and on this particular late evening he finished his “#2”. He is a rather large individual and I’m not sure how things are done but in his situation as he was explaining it, lamented how he couldn’t just bend forward because he would hit his head on the door.

This lead to the only course of action one could carry out in this unfortunate situation. He stood up, turned around to face the toilet with rear toward the door, bent over and wiped. It was at that precise moment that he heard the door open and heard a woman’s voice shriek in horror, realizing “Oh crap, I forgot to lock the door!”

He stood up looked behind him and saw the door shut. As quickly as he could, he finished, washed his hands and left the restroom only to see a few cleaning ladies in the shop sweeping very quickly with their heads down.

They never looked up as he walked out of the shop area.

Dislikes




Lazy people: Who the hell do you think you are, you can just sit. There is way too much to do then sit in front of a TV. Get off your ass and make the world better.

Constant Complainers: Do not be lazy and a complainer, because you my friend would be better off finding the nearest bridge. Don’t get me wrong, this list is complaining, but as soon as I type I’m done, no more complaining and I’ll probably go out and run a mile or two to forget about it.

People who commit suicide: Ok if you found that nearest bridge and are going to jump, note one thing. You are a selfish piece of shit. Think about your family. How are they going to feel if you’re gone? Why would you want to make them grieve your death? What, you can’t take life, awww, are you going to squirt a few tears? Grow up and start putting in some effort. Effort just happens, by some freak nature, to be therapeutic. So is the outcome of effort. Grow up and face life like the rest of us. We can take it and so can you.

Therapy: I acknowledge it’s good for some, not for me. I’m not depressed, and I don’t think I’m someone I’m not, and my main worries include retirement and feeding my family. Not how am I feeling, or what do I think worrying about retirement means or who am I talking too?

Depression: You want to talk depression. Find someone else, because I don’t get it, it annoys me. Everyone gets temporarily sad. Medication helps initially, but the bottom line is something you are doing, or people you are around in your life cause continuous depression. You know what it is, you just don’t want to face it. Change it. Perhaps, go run a few miles or bike a few miles and think about some goals. Notice nature, and come back. Then I’ll tell you how many things happened bad in life but each is placed to make you stronger. So if you’re depressed you’re letting life beat you, so stop it. You’re better then that.

Games, not having a winner: What kind of B.S. is this? Are you sure our world isn’t being run by people who were picked last in P.E. This makes no sense. It’s part of life and being human to know the feeling of victory and the humility of losing, or becoming a gracious winner, and a humbled loser. Please, you’re screwed up in the head if you don’t think there should be a winner. Maybe seek Therapy. But for love of our posterity, don’t screw it up for them. Also you’re making our generation look like wuss’s.

Carney’s: This should be self explanatory. If not see Austin Powers: The spy who shagged me.

Colds: Where do you come from cold? Causing coughing, sneezing, sore throats, stuffy head. You definitely know how to ruin a weekend. Get bent.

Not Coming to a complete stop: If you knew me in High School, you may remember this was a dislike then, and it still is now. It’s not a four way roll, it’s a four way stop.

Merge Lane Hoppers: Not sure what to call them, but we all know them. They’re the ones behind you riding your ass in the merge onto the highway lane as if you’re the slow car when in fact you’re only following other slow cars. As soon as the grass or concrete barrier is finished and the only thing that separates the Merge Lane from the Highway Lane is the Solid White lines representing “Do not cross”. These hard on’s veer over as if the rules don’t apply to them.
I especially don’t like it when they speed up, but not quite pass your vehicle just as the merge lane and the highway are meeting forcing you to put on your brakes for this fool. Ass munch, drive normal like everyone else.

Road Construction Last Second Mergers: When you see road construction on a two lane road that reduces to one lane. Everyone merge’s into the one lane. Except for these sporadic idiots who see this as not a situation to be stuck in traffic with your fellow drivers, but as an opportunity to screw all the other drivers and save about 2 minutes of sitting time. Trust me, if you think your life is that grand and important that you can’t wait for 2 minutes with everyone else, you especially need to sit and come to grips with reality. I do thoroughly like watching a car creep up and pass everyone and try to merge in front of me just as the Barriers are closing the other lane. My bumper in moments like this is so close the vehicle in front of me there is no possible way they can merge, especially when I start honking. I even more like it when the driver behind me is doing the same thing I do. That’ll show that stupid Road Construction Merger.

The Wave: At baseball games, I don’t like the wave while the home team is pitching, unless I don’t like the home team. The wave screws with pitchers so do it when the visiting team is pitching.
Weight Gain: Why is it so easy to put it on, and so F’n difficult to get it off. Equal, aggregate energy should pertain to each.

Blinker: Hey is your blinker broke on your vehicle. No, then use it, moron. I could of pulled out had I known your were turning, but nooooo. You couldn’t use your blinker. May that happen to you every turn of your driving career.

Kurt Kobain: You poor little dead rocker you. Why couldn’t you have been a generation early. You single handedly convinced everyone, women included to wear grundge. Grundge if you’re not familiar is just as it sounds. You dress in clothing severely lacking cleanliness. Most prominently noticeable are the baggy pants, long baggy shirt, flannel outer shirt, greasy lose hair. Instead of seeing the women wearing low rise jeans, tight low cut shirts and mini dresses like they do now, even it is Ho’ish, grundge sucked and I missed out in High School with what is offered now. Screw you Kurt. Courtney should get the saint award.

Large Sunglasses: Ok, I mean this in the nicest way possible but women, you all look identical now. When referring to identical I’m saying you look like miniature 90 year old women from Jersey with less wrinkles. You look silly, not hip. Stop wearing those glasses.

Sideways hats: Put you’re hat on straight you fairy. Either wear it in front of you or behind you. The only people that deserve to wear there hats sideways are the really old farmers with their just as old hats where it’s slightly cocked one side. I don’t know how this transformation takes place, but they’ve worked hard enough to earn the right to be the sole owner of this trend.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

Sunday at the Lake

Kelli and I spent the night at the clubhouse. It was a nice morning and Kelli decided to clear so moss and seawead from around the dock. Here she is pregnant and pissed that I took her picture being pregnant.


I then decided to walk around and take more pictures of the hoping to catch maybe a deer or turkey. Instead I got side tracked and started playing with the camera. I found the function to set it to Black and White and came up with this crazy picture.


I felt bad for the dog(Sable) so I took another one of her just running around.



Well, it was a fun day. We had breakfest overlooking the lake, got to relax, and picked up some wonderful memories on camera.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Carpool-Day 2


STORY TIME:

My wife and I headed to work on Friday. We were carpooling a second day in a row (Crazy!!), when Kelli said in a voice I didn't at first catch but turned out to be a rather false sympathy voice as she touched my arm. “Hey there. Are starting to feel sick?....you Sicko !”


In so many ways, I just don’t know how to take her.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Carpool-Day 1

So Kelli and I carpooled together today. I normally broaden my knowledge by listening to music by scanning the channels from Oldies to Alternative Rock so really my knowledge isn’t broadened. Kelli broadens here knowledge by listening to talk Radio.

In this particular said morning, we listened to talk radio and politics was the topic. Of all things the continuing topic of why the Republicans are so retarded and will not just let the war go. It’s a failed war that is only hurting the U.S. and they (Republicans) need to start listening to the Democrats.


Also, in this particular said morning, I realized that even if an “OK” Republican were running for office vs. a “Better” Democratic I would never, ever vote for the Democrat because I’m so tired of listening to the same broken record speech’s. It’s one thing to be against the war, but it’s another to throw around statements such as “See there were no WMD.” “See, this war hasn’t helped.”, and create an illusion among our brethren.


Funny, I guess Saddam killed millions of people with ant spray or weed-b-gone, or is now when we say “Well that doesn’t count, that was in the past.” Ok, Mark McGuire, good answer.


Are you really sure this war hasn’t helped? Do you know anyone who has gone overseas? Specifically do you know anyone who has gone overseas and had to walk around the cities? From the few people I know it’s described as “Everyone one is so glad we are there and how much it has helped. It’s like taking the Bloods and Crypts with guns and bombs, sticking them in the same area that is surrounded by normal cities, so it’s an area. Oh and it’s funded by the Rap Word. So, yeah we have that problem too.


Ok, what I really hate is this. Squeaky wheels will always get the grease. The democrats are going to keep complaining about this war only for political aspirations, and completely disregarding the benefit of the United States. Meanwhile more and more people will side just because of the constant barrage of complaining even if it is a small percentage. After all squeaky wheels get the grease. The only upshot is people do have a brain and hopefully those brains are used.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Crash and Burn

Yesterday, my Hard Drive at work crashed taking many work reports, all my run times and training logs, which hurts the most.

Why? So much information most of which could only be described as personally valuable, just vanished. I understand it's really a necessary evil for there is also a lot of useless information gone as well.

It's just too bad there isn't a countdown.