Mountain Warfare Training Challenge

Mountain Warfare Training Challenge

The date is announced. May 19th.

I'm excited!

Cruel To Be Kind -- Nick Lowe

Oh, I can't take another heartache,
Though you say you're my friend, I'm at my wits' end!
You say you're love is bona fide,
But that don't coincide with the things that you do
And when I ask you to be nice, you say

You've gotta be
Cruel to be kind in the right measure,
Cruel to be kind it's a very good sign,
Cruel to be kind means that I love you,
Baby, you've gotta be cruel to be kind.

Well I do my best to understand dear,
But you still mystify, and I want to know why.
I pick myself up off the ground
To have you knock me back down again and again!
And when I ask you to explain, you say

You've gotta be
Cruel to be kind in the right measure,
Cruel to be kind it's a very good sign,
Cruel to be kind means that I love you,
Baby, you've gotta be cruel to be kind.

Well I do my best to understand dear,
But you still mystify, and I want to know why.
I pick myself up off the ground
To have you knock me back down again and again!
And when I ask you to explain, you say

You've gotta be
Cruel to be kind in the right measure,
Cruel to be kind it's a very good sign,
Cruel to be kind means that I love you,
Baby, you've gotta be cruel to be kind...

What did Pandora find me, today?

I love Pandora.

I'd never find any new music without it...

Vienna Teng

Better

1. Kids
2. Christmas
3. Weekend
4. Guy let me merge into his lane
5. Gym
6. Chocolate
7. Other relatives
   
   some things still stand, though... Although, "bitch" might have been a bit harsh.

Sucks

Random order. Adjacent lines have nothing to do with one another.

1. Work
2. Idiots
3. If you're going to just sit in your car, for God sake, put it in park so your damn backup lights aren't on when you're not even ready to pull out.
4. Relatives
5. Flat tire
6. Christmas
7. The six pack of socks came in a ziplock bag. Why would you want to close it again? It's not a nice bag.
8. Alone
9. Bitch
10. Primal scream

All Better

No more, please.

Did I Mention I Was Sick Again?

Yup. Sneezing and sniffling. No fever or headache, this time. Just the nose thing.

At least I no longer have to feel guilty about getting my Dad sick, since he got ME sick. Bastard...

Missing the point on spinach

I've seen several articles and blurbs lately about how spinach is not all it's cracked up to be, as far as it's calcium levels go.

Here's the story. Spinach contains quite a bit of calcium. 1/2 cup of the stuff contains 122mg or so. That's been pretty good news, as 1/2 cup of spinach is like 10 calories... You'd have to drink a 1/2 cup of milk to get the same amount (and, more calories).

Now, calcium absorption comes into the story. Spinach has some compounds that bind to the calcium, decreasing your body's ability to absorb the mineral (calcium is a mineral). According to the University of Hawaii research scientists, you only absorb 6mg of that 122mg of calcium. So, go for the milk.

Here's just one of the little articles that I found; Is that Food REALLY a Good Source of Calcium? You get to read this one because it's available online. The others were in print magazines. Men's Health being one of them.

I understand the spirit of what they are saying and recommending. They just need to look at it from the other direction. They've come up with an elaborate method of replacing the calcium lost from the bones, rather than helping us to keep the calcium that we have.

They're forgetting the other critical role that spinach and other veggies play. Spinach keeps you from pissing the calcium that's already been absorbed, away! An acid/base imbalance forces our bodies to sacrifice it's calcium to combat blood acidosis. Why not stop the acid/base imbalance, rather than merely give our bodies more calcium to work with.

A couple weeks back, I posted this: The Big Calcium "Problem"

While milk, itself, is relatively close to neutral on the acid/base scale, cheese is a big offender. The irony is that cheese is often touted as a great source of calcium... Kinda reminds me of the American proverb "Give a man enough rope, he'll hang himself."

Sand Challenge & 30 Minute Beach Cleanup

Sand Challenge again today. Pretty fun time. Then, the same guy had a 30 Minute Beach Cleanup. Tons of kids and high schoolers even showed up to cleanup the beach for 30 minutes. We got a lot of stuff, but I didn't find anything interesting. Just trash.

The guy who organizes both does so much. I don't know where he finds the time. He's also got pet shelter and rescue projects going on all the time. Plus, I'm assuming he works...

Happy Saturday.

Sometimes you've just got to go with the flow

Work's been crazy and my personal life has been non-existant.

Cook
Eat
Work
Workout
Work
Drive
Sleep

I've got a pile of DVDs from Blockbuster Online, just sitting there. It's hard to watch them when other things have to be done. Luckily, it seems that I get to keep them forever for my $18 per month. I've got some good ones waiting. Hopefully, I'll have some time this weekend.

As for work, I've been stressed because things have been almost about to happen for weeks now. Big printer projects, just waiting to install, any day now. Every day, I keep my day free, only to find the project pushed back again every day. That's time wasted and plenty of stress, because that means I have to push tomorrow's stuff off on the assumption that I'll be able to do my main projects tomorrow (even though I won't...).

So, today, I decided to just go with the flow. What's the worst that can happen? (it's actually bad, but what are you going to do?)

Just trying to be happy. Keep the smile on. Christmas is coming. I've got it better than most. I just need to find a pub with darts and a decent beer and I'm golden.

Feeling Better/Sounding Bad

I'm one of those people who sounds like crap even when I'm feeling much better.

My voice stays rough for days. I sniffle for a week. I feel fine.

Today, I feel fine. Yesterday, I was 80%. I even squeezed in a light workout before my work party, last night.

The Boy Who Called "Dad"

Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad? Dad!

My God. The boy never really has anything to say after he gets my attention. He just starts every sentence with "Dad" to make sure I'm paying attention. But, then he rarely follows up with anything. So I start to tune it out. By the end of the weekend, I'm done. I can take no more "Dad."

The worst is when he's in the back room and calls me. I feel bad not going, but when I get there, it's for nothing. "When's lunch?" "What time are we leaving?" "Look at this." Enough! Get up and walk to me!

Laughing & Pointing (It's at me, right?)

When you're a teenager...


















When you're an adult...
















When you're a guy...

I definately HAVE the cold

This sucks. Day off work. Day off working out.

Getting a cold...

nothing more to say.

Chick Flicks

I'm sort of a sucker for chick flicks. Although, I'd prefer some action and romance, to get the best of both worlds, comedy, drama, and romance are all cool, too. I'd like to say my motives for watching these movies are purely for what it does to her. But, as there's no her here, I can't really use that as a cover, can I?

I prefer movies that walk the line between chick flick and guy flick (The Princess Bride, Silverado, Last of the Mohicans, Tristan & Isolde, etc.). But, sometimes, at the rental store, a true chick movie catches my eye. Truthfully, it's usually a girl on the cover that catches my eye, but it's enough to get me to pick it up, read the back, and give it a shot. Someone bright figured out how to get guys to watch movies. Use pretty girls to advertise them. Genius.

Last night, I watched The Family Stone, which had not one, but two beauties in it (maybe more, depending on your type). Rachel MacAdams and Claire Danes. Very nice.

I think they call this an ensemble cast. That means lots of people with no clear cut leads, right? I like these movies. It's a home for the holidays movie. I like those. It's a nostalgia movie. More good. A movie about a big family. Like those, too. Arguing, yelling, laughing, romance, etc. Good stuff.

This post has become a ramble with no clear cut point. Why do I like chick flicks. Because they have romance and I don't, I guess. Same with the big family get togethers, coming home, nostalgia, etc. I want all that and never really got all that.

Of course, I don't have all the stuff in the traditional guy movies either (death, destruction, street racing, womanizing, etc.). But, I'm pretty sure I don't want that stuff.

The Sand Challenge

Ren and Traci (my someday-to-be-ex-in-laws) have often raved about The Sand Challenge, down in Long Beach. I'd always meant to give it a shot, but for me, simply doing anything the first time, is a challenge in itself. Shy and lazy, printing off the directions and figuring out what time that meant getting up was almost enough for me to quit. In fact, The Sand Challenge has been on my calendar for months, if not years. But, today, I was strong. I went.



Ren, knocking out the pushups years before I ever
got off my lazy ass to do any myself.

I thought I was going to be late, but I got there just in time. Justin Rudd, our leader, welcomed me in and made me feel right at home before starting the ass kicking.

I'll be honest. I had preconceived notions and I figured this to be a one-time thing. That, I'd never go back. I thought it would be a lot of long, long runs and useless ab work. Instead, it was a lot of short and medium runs, with lots of breaks (more like pauses). But, the running was surrounded by plenty of other activities, making the whole experience a blast. I don't like to jog, I don't like to "go running." If I'm not weightlifting, I want to be sprinting, running hills, climbing, doing calisthenics, etc. This was all that.

It all started with the warmup jog, some pushups and light leg stretching. I don't really stretch much, except after lifting, but when in Rome. I was actually surprised that my hamstrings were as good as they were. I'd given up my hamstring stretching to focus on the hip mobility work. I haven't stretched my hamstrings in a year. I was able to do far better than I could have a year ago, with my almost daily stretching. Thanks, Bill Hartman! Bill's advice on getting my hip flexors better to lower my squat seems to have really helped in a lot of areas. Enough about Bill.

After our little warmup, the running started. Running on soft and dry sand is really hard. I've run down by the water, which is hard enough. This sucked. I watched the others from cues, but everyone had their own style. So, I lumbered along. I found myself near the front of the pack, which had me worried that I was going to fast. My first time, while all the others had done it before. But, it didn't feel too fast, so I kept it up.

I won't go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that each leg of the run was tough. Sand running isn't so easy. I'd say each spurt of running was 1/4 to 1/2 mile long. Not too bad. We ran from destination to destination. Run to the wall for some stretching. Run to the stairs for stair running. Run to the drinking fountain (that was a popular one). Run to up and over the sand dunes.

Once we were at the dunes, it got really fun. Paired in teams, we did relay runs down one dune, climb to the top of another, come back and tag your partner, breath really hard while your partner does his/her turn, repeat. Five rounds of this was really tough. I fell down during this 'event." In fact, it was one of those falls where you can feel yourself falling in slow motion.

It took a long time to actually fall. For that long time, it almost seemed that I might not really fall. In my mind, there was still a chance that it was a mere stumble. My legs went faster to try to get under my body. Faster. Faster. Then, down into the sand. Ear full of sand and everything. It felt dramatic. I was the only one to fall, but Justin assured me that everyone does it (sure...).

More running to new dunes, more relays, water fountain, body weight squats and split squats. Then the longest run was back to our base camp for a finisher of abs, pushups, and stretching. Ab work sucks. I do plenty of ab work, but never crunches and bicycles, so this was by far the worst part for me. Ouch.


Not my shoe, but a fair representation, never-the-less.

Justin was nice and friendly.
The other victims were nice and all very supportive. All levels of fitness, so no one was out of place.
I got to see two bulldogs (never seen one except in cartoons). I thought they'd look mean, but they were more alien looking. Kinda cute.
It was a beautiful day at the beach. Sunny, cool, breazy.
I got a great workout. No equipment, either. Shows what can be done using the world around you.

You may or may not know, but in May, I'm planning to do the Mountain Warfare Training Challenge, so I figured that I'd better do something other than lifting, here and there. Whenever I mention the MWTC, people ask me how much I run. Now I don't have to say zero anymore.

In the end, I had a blast. I plan on doing the Challenge again, in two weeks, when I'm kid-less for the weekend, again.

Weird Thing

I'm at the bookstore. I see a book called 'Bad Cat.' A book of pictures of evil looking cats. I flip it open. It opens to page 59. The evil cat's name? Roland.

I Hate Working Late

...and on Friday, too!

Random Kid Stuff

Had my kids last night.

Tony lost his first front tooth on my watch (it had been loose for a long, long time). I was relieved, as it was creeping me out how it just hung there.

Allie is reading a lot and fast. It's amazing. I remember when I was her age and started to read and read and read. Used to stay up all night reading. In the last she's read more pages than some adults I know have EVER read. She's reading Inkheart or Inkspell (can't remember). I'll read it after she finishes.

Kids can sit in the bath for a long, long time. Prune hands.