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Sittin’ and readin’

brian — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:06:42 +0000

The past two weeks Isaac has been very interested in sitting up. Ok, maybe not sitting fully under his own power, but being propped in the corner of a chair. Of course he also is interested in lurching from a sitting position onto his face which combined with his new ability to scooch means we can’t leave him unattended. Being able to put him in his Pack ‘N Play has been very nice as it gives him something else to do in addition to laying on his playmat.

I fell over but my giraffe was there to catch me

They won’t let me ride the cat so this sock monkey will have to do

We’ve been reading to Isaac every day and for the most part he just sits quietly in our lap and stares at the book or possibly off into space. Last week he finally showed an interest in holding a book on his own. He managed to hold it like a real book for a little while before tipping face first into it.

What this?

Kitty!

These pages are hard to work!

Finally, last week we had some friends over for a wine tasting. The Sheldons spent the night for the first time in many months and Theo and Max got to read Isaac a book at bedtime. Theo did an outstanding job reading “That’s Not My Dragon” while Max read “Little Blue Truck” complete with animal and horn sound effects.

Bedtime books

Theo reads to Ias

Little blue truck goes BEEP BEEP BEEP

Return of the Beach Wedding

brian — Fri, 10 Aug 2012 18:04:54 +0000

Our second beach wedding of July was between our longtime friend Emily and our new friend Jeff. In addition to the beautiful weather and scenery, the wedding was special for us because we performed the ceremony.

Susan was the actual officiant courtesy of a 1 day license from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Brian used his booming voice to help conduct the ceremony. The day started with a boat trip out into Ipswich Bay from the dock at Shea’s Riverside restaurant.

After arriving at the sandbar (thankfully at low tide) the boat crew set up the chairs and tables. Voila! Instant wedding! After the ceremony and some great picture taking opportunities we took the boat back to the restaurant for the reception.

Below: Susan on the deck at the restaurant. Susan on the sandbar serving the wedding site.

Toledo Half Marathon and New Goals

brian — Fri, 18 May 2012 11:44:55 +0000

Back in September of 2011, Susan found out her Marine Corps Marathon time from 2010 qualified her for the Boston Marathon. I had not been nearly as good as Susan about keeping in shape since the USMC Marathon and decided if I trained with her through the winter I could get back in shape and help Susan train over while putting in long, cold winter miles. With this in mind I signed up for the Toledo Half Marathon in April 2012. Somehow I also managed to convince my little sister to sign up as well. The Toledo Half was just 6 days after Boston so it would be a good chance to be on the same training cycle as Susan, run with my sister, and see our family in the area.

Fast forward to November and a particularly nice stretch of weather. During the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving I ramped up my mileage way too quickly — something I warn every one of my friends about — and ended up causing a stress injury to my left ankle. When my ankle was still sore after walking or slowly jogging as little as 2 or 3 miles in February I knew my hope for a fast half marathon was not going to be possible and I decided the best thing I could do was to get to work losing the weight I had gained after USMC and running a very limited schedule to prep for Toledo.

April 22 was a clear and cold morning in Toledo. The temperature was 45 and winds were from the north about 5-10mph which is a bit cold for standing around but very good running weather. Everyone headed over to the race site where we met up with my sister’s friend Allyson who Susan and I knew from Leslie’s wedding. It was Allyson’s first half marathon and her estimated pace was about what I wanted to run to test the recovery of my ankle.

Brian and Leslie pre-race

We started out at around a 9:30/mi pace for the first 3 miles or so. That seemed a little fast so Allyson and I backed it off to a 10:00/mi pace. The course starts out from the UT Campus, through Ottawa Hills, before heading over to Wildwood Park. Mom and Allyson’s husband Pat were waiting for us in Ottawa Hills to cheer us on.

Brian and Allyson happy at 3 miles

Once through Wildwood we turned down the bike bath for the final 4 miles to the Glass Bowl. About mile 10 Allyson’s knee started to act up and we backed off the pace a bit. Allyson had a goal of running 2:15:00 and we were on pace for that easily even slowing down so we both coasted on through the finish line. Leslie came across shortly after us and set a personal record for her improving her old time by over 15 minutes. GO LESLIE!

The three smiling finishers

My race experience couldn’t have been any better. The pace seemed very easy and I was able to hold a consistent pace. Most importantly, there was no pain in my ankle. It turned out to be a gorgeous, pain free run through some very pretty parts of Toledo with a great running partner. Susan and I will almost certainly be back to run the full marathon in Toledo as it was a really pretty and fast course and we have family in the area. My final time was 2:13:42 which was nowhere near a personal best but it was a great step in my injury recovery.

I’ve decided that my new goal is to qualify for the Boston Marathon just as Susan did. I was jealous watching Susan run Boston and decided I really want to share the experience she had. My fitness level is quite a bit away from being able to qualify. The first Boston I’ll have a shot at qualifying for will be Boston 2014 when I will be 40. I’ll need to run a 3:15:00 marathon to qualify and given that my personal best is a 3:55:51 I’ll have to do some serious work to qualify. Now that I’ve shown I can run longer miles without pain I’ve started back to an organized running program and am up to 25 miles a week and my weight is down 15 pounds since February.

My goal this year as an intermediate step to qualifying is to run a 1:35:00 half marathon at the BayState Half Marathon in October. That gives me about 24 weeks to keep putting in miles, losing weight, and having a great season of running!

Mega Mascot Madness 2011

brian — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:54:21 +0000

Here’s the standard disclaimer and first paragraph from last years post:
Ever since approximately 1995 my friend Mike and I have been entering an NCAA bracket based on what would happen if the mascots were forced to battle each other. The discussion is always fairly comical and it gives us something interesting to root for in the first round since our own serious picks go in the tank early. If you’re looking for a new way to be interested in round 1 of the tourney, feel free to use our choices in your pool. We guarantee you won’t win any money with these!

Except that we were wrong. A friend entered the mascot picks into an upset pool and won largely on the strength have having the St. Mary’s Gaels (and their beefy mascot Gael Force One) in the elite 8 plus having the ever powerful Duke Blue Devils win it all. So we won’t guarantee you won’t win money with these picks, we just find it extremely unlikely.

On to the picks!

EAST

UTSA Roadrunners eat Alabama St. Hornets (play in game)

From the roadrunner wiki page:
Roadrunners are omnivores and are opportunistic. Their diet normally consists of insects (such as grasshoppers, crickets, caterpillars, and beetles), small reptiles (such as lizards and snakes, including rattlesnakes), rodents and small mammals, tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, spiders, snails, small birds, eggs, nestlings, and fruits and seeds like prickly pear cactus and sumac. The lesser roadrunner eats mainly insects. Roadrunners forage on the ground and, when hunting, usually run after prey from under cover. They may leap to catch insects, and commonly batter certain prey, such as snakes, against the ground.
Geococcyx is the only real predator of the tarantula hawk wasps.

Ok, this bird kicks butt. Never underestimate a roadrunner versus lizards and insects.

UTSA Roadrunners crack OSU Buckeyes

The bird just beat up hornets, I think it can handle a nut.

George Mason Patriots shoot Villanova Wildcats

UAB Blazers cook Clemson Tigers (play in game)

This years mascot hopes will largely hinge on UAB’s performance. They are the Blazers and their mascot is a dragon. Unless they run into Gael Force One (which they don’t) they are a lock to the final 4. GO UAB!

UAB Blazers beat WVU Moutaineers

Princeton Tigers eat Kentucky Wildcats

Xavier Musketeers shoot Marquette Golden Eagles

Indiana State Sycamores exist over Syracuse Orange

For the first time in the history of the mascots a tree is advancing out of round one. Syracuse did themselves a major disservice changing from the Orangemen to the Orange. Men cut down trees. Colors… well I think we’ve decided if you can’t do better than a color for a mascot you’re not getting very far in our tourney.

Washington Huskies over Georgia Bulldogs

The Michael Vick matchup of round one. In poor taste, yes, but someone had to say it.

UNC Tarheels stomp LIU-Brooklyn Blackbirds

Round of 32

Patriots shoot Roadrunners

Blazers fry Tigers

Musketeers cut down Sycamores

Tarheels tame Huskies

Sweet 16

Blazers cook Patriots

Musketeers shoot Tarheels

Elite 8

Blazers defeat Musketeers

WEST

Duke Blue Devils over Hampton Pirates

Yar! What be that off the port bow? HOLY $&*%! DEVILS!

Tennessee Volunteers shoot Michigan Wolverines

Memphis Tigers maim Arizona Wildcats

Oakland Golden Grizzlies over Texas Longhorns

A final four team from last year with a kick butt mascot returns! Give me a giant golden grizzly bear in a fight every time!

Missouri Tigers eat Cincinnati Bearcats

See last years column. A bearcat is some sort of weird made up animal. We give the nod to the actual animal.

Bucknell Bison trample UConn Huskies

Penn State Nittany Lions eat Temple Owls

SDSU Aztecs defeat N. Colorado Bears

Round of 32

Duke Blue Devils steal souls from Tennessee Volunteers

Oakland Golden Grizzlies defeat Memphis Tigers

Missouri Tigers cull the herd of Bucknell Bison

Aztecs over Nittany Lions

Sweet 16

Duke Blue Devils over Oakland Golden Grizzlies

Poor Oakland with a tough draw this year. Even a fierce golden animal is no match for a demonic force. On a positive note we won’t have to have this final four pick eliminated in round one again this year.

SDSU Aztecs over Missouri Tigers

For those of you keeping track at home in the past three rounds the SDSU Aztecs have defeated Nittany Lions, Tigers, and Bears. Oh my!

Elite 8

Duke Blue Devils defeat SDSU Aztecs

Montezuma, you’re not in Tenochtitlan anymore.

SOUTHWEST

BU Terriers chase Kansas Jayhawks

Illinois Fightin’ Illini beat UNLV Runnin’ Rebels

It’s an adjective battle! Fightin’ >> Runnin’ so Illinois wins.

Vanderbilt Commodores crush Richmond Spiders

Morehead State Eagles eat Louisville Cardinals

USC Trojans beat VCU Rams (play in game)

USC Trojans beat Georgetown Hoyas

Purdue Boilermakers sledgehammer St. Peters Peacocks

I always love seeing who Purdue draws. It’s always amusing to think about a battle between an ironworker with a sledgehammer and some other object. In this case Purdue Pete has to battle a Peacock. Pete wins.

FSU Seminoles over Texas A&M Aggies

Always a debate whether Aggies are armed humans like ranchers on the range or just farmers. In this case A&M’s mascot is a border collie. Indians defeat border collies.

Akron Zips over Notre Dame Fighting Irish

Notre Dame always inspires a great deal of debate come mascot time. Are they violent Irish people? Are they leprechauns? Are they drunk?

This year they drew the Akron Zips who were originally named for Zippers (a major industry in Akron, Ohio in the 1900s). They have changed their name to the Zips and now have a kangaroo for a mascot. In the end we chose Akron for three reasons:

1) We think a kangaroo could outbox a leprechaun.
2) We’ve been in our share of Irish bar bathrooms late at night and let’s just say it’s clear sometimes the zipper wins.
3) We hate Notre Dame

Round of 32

Fightin’ Illini beat Terriers

Commodores defeat Eagles

Trojans beat Boilermakers

Seminoles defeat Zips

Sweet 16

Vandy Commodores broadside Illinois Fightin’ Illini

Navy versus dugout canoes? No contest.

FSU Seminoles over USC Trojans

Seminoles have access to gunpowder historically. Two thousand years + gunpowder is a huge advantage.

Elite 8

Vandy Commodores over FSU Seminoles

SOUTHEAST

With this exception of St. Johns this entire bracket features armed humans, humans, and animals so we decided to fight it out gladiator style one on one in a huge pit.

Arkansas Little Rock Trojans over UNCA Bulldogs (play in game)

Arkansas Little Rock Trojans over Pitt Panthers

ODU Monarchs eat Butler Bulldogs

Old Dominion’s mascot is a lion.

Utah State Aggies beat Kansas State Wildcats

Utah State’s mascot is a giant blue ox. Plus there is historical precedent for ranchers/farmers defeating wildcats.

Belmont Bruins defeat Wisconsin Badgers

St. Johns Red Storm beat Gonzaga Bulldogs

Much like Syracuse did themselves a disservice, St. Johns got a ton stronger when they went from the Redmen to the Red Storm including a new mascot, the Thunderbird. SJU is the clear favorite in this bracket of animals and humans.

BYU Cougars over Wofford Terriers

I guess being a desperate middleaged Mormon housewife is not against the honor code. Oh, you mean they’re fierce cats? Well they still defeat terriers.

Michigan State Spartans phalanx UCLA Bruins

UCSB Gauchos chase Florida Gators

We determined that these South American ranchers are not heavily armed but were resourceful enough to take care of animal issues.

Round of 32

Trojans over Monarchs

Bruins beat Aggies

Red Storm over Cougars

Spartans defeat Gauchos

Sweet 16

Trojans spear Bruins

Red Storm over Spartans

Elite 8

Red Storm defeat Trojans

FINAL FOUR

Duke Blue Devils defeat UAB Blazers

In the end the demonic force is unstoppable, even for a dragon.

St. Johns Red Storm beat Vanderbilt Commodores

In the end the Naval Commander and his ships are taken out by the Red Storm/Thunderbird/mystical creature.

Finals

In an otherworldly battle between the Duke Blue Devils and the St. Johns Red Storm we like Duke to win it all (as we always do). It’s a shame, because we don’t really like Duke but it’s hard to argue against their mascot unless they run into something from the priesthood.

Until next year, happy tourney time!

Digging out

brian — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 16:59:56 +0000

I’ll admit it. The snow is wearing on me. I’ve enjoyed the best local snowshoeing I’ve experienced, but the storms just seem to keep coming with no respite. Susan has been driving my car to work since it’s all wheel drive, but today was the day to dig her car out just in case I needed to get somewhere during the day. I snapped a few shots of the situation.

We’re luckier than most because we live on a state route, the plows actually remove the snow rather than just plowing it onto our sidewalk. Even so, the pile on our sidewalk is nearing Jeep height.

Not nearly as bad as most of the town

All the doors on the back of the house are buried in 3 to 5 foot drifts or iced shut so to get into the back yard I had to use snowshoes, hop a fence, and walk through the church yard.

Snowshoes required

A lot of our friends are having ice dam problems leading to leaks in their roofs. While we don’t have any leaks thanks to replacing our roof last year, we do have an ice wall that stretches from eaves to ground. When I took this shot my head was above roofline.

Ice dam? Try ice "waterfall."

Snow Day!

brian — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:06:28 +0000

By noon on Tuesday, it became clear that we were going to get hit with a good amount of snow on Wednesday. Susan managed to rearrange her schedule so she could do her conference calls from home and we’d have a nice snow day around Newburyport. We were hoping that we’d get enough powdery white stuff to have a good snowshoe adventure at Maudslay as well.

We went to bed shortly after midnight and it had not started snowing yet. I woke up around 3am to the sound of snowplows warming up outside our bedroom window. Since we live on a US highway access road we are both blessed and cursed by snowplows. Looking at the window I saw a lot of wind and an inch or two of snow down.

By 7am when I got out of bed we were up to 8″ and by the time I got outside to shovel at 8:30 we were up to 12″ on the front walk and back yard.

First shoveling

Back yard

About 11:30 Susan was done with her morning calls and the snow was still coming down hard. We decided it would be too difficult to dig the car out to get to the state park so we decided to strap on the snowshoes and walk around town instead. We took a walk down to Bartlett Mall, walked around the pond, back up High St. to the bike path, and back home. When we got home I shoveled one more time while Susan made me cocoa. 12:30pm as I write this and we’re over 16″ with 30″ drifts in the back yard. My best guess is one more shoveling in a few hours and I’ll be done until morning.

Willow tree at Bartlett Mall

Beej with pond, fountain, and courthouse in background

Valley Forge? No, just the flag and monument on Bartlett Mall

Rhododendron and row of trees

Snow ninja! Wrong color, honey...

Who shrunk this street sign?

Along the bike path

Choo choo!

Home again

mmmmm cocoa

Brian’s September Update

brian — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 22:13:54 +0000

September was a good month for me. On the work side of things I put in more hours at the crisis center than I have in any previous month. I got to work with many new clients and also got to be involved in the grant reporting process for the first time. Additionally, I did my normal share of court days. It’s a good thing I put in a lot of September hours because we’re going to be travelling so much in October I won’t be able to keep up that schedule.

On the fitness front, September was also an awesome month. We raced in two different races (see previous blog entries) and had a great time with both of them. Marathon training continues to progress well. September marked a new high for me with 193.3 miles run. I ran 23 of the 30 days which works out to an average of running a 10k every day.

September also marked a weight loss milestone for me. On September 6 I weighed in at 192.4 pounds which is the least I’ve weighed since running my first marathon 10 years ago (and the least I’ve weighed since being married). On September 23 my average weight went to 191.4 which is a 40.1 pound loss from my peak of 231.5 back in 2005. I’ve tried to find pictures of me at 220+ pounds but as far as I can tell I didn’t let anyone take my picture. The closest I found was me at 213 pounds on a hike with Susan. I then took another picture of myself in the same tank for comparison. I shudder to think how I looked at 230 pounds…

What a difference 22 pounds makes

I don’t really have a weight loss final goal. I’d like to get to 186.5 so my BMI (despite its limitations) will be in the normal range. I haven’t been actively dieting or counting calories once I got below 200, either. All the weight loss this season has been due to exercise and generally good eating habits. I’m hoping my body will settle in at a nice natural weight as I continue to exercise.

October should be a fun month. We will be going to the Grand Canyon in the middle and at the end will be racing in the USMC Marathon. We’ve been specifically training for this since the end of June and we’ll finally get to see if we can run our goal time of 3:45:00.

This Old Roof

brian — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 23:25:58 +0000

One of the (frightening) joys of owning an antique house is that whenever you do work on it you’re never sure what you’ll find. Our exploration back in 2008 of the floor and walls when we were running ductwork for air conditioning was mostly innocuous with finds including very large beams, hidden shelves, and several hidden ceilings. Central Air Part 1 and Central Air Part 2.

This years task was to put on a new roof. The old one probably had another year or two of life left on the shingles, but all of the flashing on the skylights, chimneys, and roof vents was starting to go. Rather than pay someone to get up on the roof this year and pay them again next year we opted to have the work done all at once. It was unclear what shape the boards would be in once we got the shingles off and this is what it looked like once we did.

Front of house

Back of house

The front of the house appears to have original boards from 1712. Even if they aren’t original they are very old as they are hand planked. They are all 18 inch (or more) wide and run the entire length from peak to eaves. I shudder to think what wood like that would cost if you could even find it nowadays. While it was in pretty good shape the ends had started to rot and the roofers were worried about how the nails would hold. We ended up putting down a new layer of wood over the original roof.

The back of the house has wood that runs horizontally and is much newer than the front of the house. The neat thing is that while it is newer, it is still made up of individual planks from a pre-plywood era. Also, since they didn’t have plywood the entire roof is tongue and grooved in order to make a solid sheet. I was thankful that despite there being some valleys in back the underlying wood was good and did not need to be replaced. That large of area with that number of holes would have cost some major additional dollars.

Looking back at my attic photos from the AC installation, I noticed the roof boards from underneath look like the ones on the front of the house. The roofers solved this mystery when they pulled back one of the boards and noted an entire other roof (original wood plus really, really old shingles) under the planks in back. Whenever the newer planks were put on, the roofer decided to leave the previous layer of shingles on and just board over the top of it. This also explains why we had no major leaks in back despite the fact there were some obvious shingles missing. Apparently two roofs are better than one.

In the end the work went as expected with no major problems other than needing to put new wood up front. We have a new roof with 30 year architectural shingles and new flashing around all of the openings on the back of the house. It may not be the most glamorous repair to have to do, but it was still interesting to see what a 300 year old roof looked like.

Training Update 4/12/10

susan — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:09:56 +0000

Brian:
Week 10 tri training update. Swim: 4950m. Bike: 20.7 mi. Run: 17.3 mi. Hiking: 3 hours. Highlights: Fast 7+ mile run, great swims, first hike of the season. Lowlights: Still struggling with motivation. Looking forward to this upcoming week — 7.5 hours of biking planned!

Susan:
What week is it? Got in an 8 mile run on Monday at the Minuteman and a 6+ mile run on Thursday before tackling the Welch/Dickey trail hiking with Steve and Beej on Sunday. Good glute workout!

Pulled the trigger

susan — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 20:02:14 +0000

We’ve both been considering some races for the fall as we’ve been training through the summer. Here’s the confirmed lineup.

Brian is competing in the Lobsterman Triathlon in Freeport Maine, recommended by our Ironman dentist and Triathlon magazine as “the” Olympic distance triathlon to do in New England.

To continue reliving my 2000 season, I’m running the “Around Cape Ann” 15 mile race on Labor Day as a marathon tune-up. This race – and Brian – kicked my butt 9 years ago, but I’ve been doing more hill work this time, so hopefully it will be less painful. I also pulled the trigger and registered for the Bay State Marathon on October 18. Maybe I will even be one of the 38% of runners who clock a Boston qualifying time!

Of course we’re both registered to run the Disney Half-marathon with Leslie in January.

It’s incentive to keep putting in the miles and laps, even when it’s [finally!] hot, like this week! Although I have to say that Brian’s ocean swims, even for 1200m+, seem like a much smarter idea than my 18-mile runs when it’s 95 and humid.