I’ve been swamped at work, and not interested in a computer when I come home. Unfortunately, for about the last two weeks (and some of this week), I’ve had to bring work home, and do work stuff and not fun stuff on the computer at night. On the plus side, the system I was helping out went live this weekend, with one minor snafu related to DNS and the problem related later. So work should go back to being a bit more “normal” and me not being run ragged. Basically, I’ve had to ignore other clients during the day and work on their stuff at night. I’m going to be *so* glad when this contract is over!

I wrote the details about the DNS snafu here, so you can go read it for the details, but basically someone *cough* marketing *cough* switched registrars without telling anyone and without understanding all of the moving parts. Now, somehow, since I figured out what happened (it wasn’t hard if you know how to use whois) I can somehow magically fix it. Nevermind the fact that I’ve only been involved in about 3 DNS entries, and I really have no clue about what other entries should be there, and nevermind that I have other clients that I’ve been ignoring while I was testing and debugging their system before go-live. It’s now officially their week to be ignored. Luckily, they don’t have my cell phone, and I have no intentions of ever giving it to them. However, they do have the home phone since I’ve worked form home for them a few times – Luckily on that end, I have VoIP, and all the numbers I wish to ignore have been forwarded to “the Manhole”, a gay sex line. I don’t have to worry about being called at home by them

Before this turns into a rant on terrible managers (that’s for the next post), I also wanted to mention that Brian bought a bike this weekend, and we’re going out riding. Unfortunately, our out of shape sit bones can’t handle much more than 2-3 miles, and we’re pretty pathetic. We will likely be out riding on the Mt Vernon trail this weekend if anyone’s interested in joining us. I can carry up to three bikes on my car (one in the backseat – mine) and two on the trunk rack, but if you have your own way of getting there, that’s better We don’t know when yet, but the only other plans are dinner for restaurant week at 7pm.

We’ve both (well mostly me) also been doing the One Hundred Pushups “challenge”. I’m doing girly pushups, but I’m up to week three, and I can definitely do more now (26) than I could when I started (12). Brian’s trying for “regular” pushups, but isn’t as consistent.

Also, I’m trying the Galloway training program on Active Trainer to be able to run a 5K in under 38 minutes (12:00 minute per mile pace). I eventually would like to run a half marathon or marathon, but to even register for the local ones, I have to be able to run at a 12 min/mile pace – which I can’t yet. I will be done with the 7 week training near the end of September, and hopefully will have found a 5K to run that weekend I am running the Kentlands 5K on the 30th, so if you want to join me at my snail pace (4mph), please do, it’s nice to have someone to talk to for 45 minutes of torture.

Finally, my birthday is the 22nd and I’ll be the “big” 3-0. Too bad we’re going to be at a wedding in Cherry Hill, NJ so I don’t get to celebrate properly. However, Brian and I have reservations for Morimoto’s in Philly on the 23rd, and we’ll celebrate then. He’s got something planned, as he’s having stuff shipped to me at the office that I’m not allowed to open. I’m really curious now…

I realized exactly how out of shape I was this weekend. Saturday, I helped Lyssa and Bryce move into their new place. Luckily there were about 14 people, and we got it done quickly Several of those were pretty decent sized guys, which was good for the furniture. I helped mostly with the smaller boxes – which were (like mine) full of books Lyssa and Bryce fed us afterwards, then I caught a ride back to my car from Lauren and Steve (thanks guys!) so I didn’t have to ride the metro back. I was sore last night, and bummed around the rest of the evening – doing laundry and that kind of stuff

This morning, I woke up late (forgot to take my allergy medicine) and decided I was going to ride my bike to the library to chcek out a few books – about 10 miles. It was already noon when I started out, but not terribly hot once I started moving and I could feel the wind. Getting to the library is mostly uphill, then coming back is downhill until the very end when there’s a monster hill to get back up to get to my house (on Muddy Branch) I was worried about being able to get back up this hill when I was headed back, as it’s always been a problem for me.

I didn’t even make it to the library. I was about 2 miles short, and I was starting to feel tired. Knowing that I had to basicallly repeat what I just did, I turned around and headed home. I made it to the Kentlands (more than halfway) though. I made it home, but man, was I tired and sore. I’ll have to go out again on a nice day and see if I can actually make it to the library this time

Michael brought my bike up for me before his party this evening, so my bike has returned.

Unfortunately, it has tires that I’m not sure I like. The tires are 700×23C, and I’m used to riding on 700×26C tires. They look entirely too thin and fragile for my tastes. Apparently, they’re very hard rubber and less prone to punctures, so that might be good for me. They also have a bit of a tread to them, whereas my old rear tire did not (my front did). I’ll be going out for a test spin in a few minutes to see if I like them or not. If I don’t, I’ll have to find someone to change the tires for me – I really odn’t like doing it myself.

Michael and I will be riding in the Bike 4 Breast Cancer Pink Ribbon Ride in Greenbelt Maryland. If anyone feels the need to donate to the cause, we have to register by Sept 25, 2004, and tax deductable donations are accepted. We’re not required to get sponsored, but anything you want to donate is welcome. The donation form is the same as the registration form, but there’s a line at the bottom allowing you to say “I cannot ride, but I’d like to ____ Donate ____ Volunteer.”

Michael will definately be doing the 40 mile ride, I think I’m going to be doing the 20 mile ride (just because of time constraints), but I might be able to make the 40 mile ride by that time. If you decide to volunteer or ride, let us know and we can all meet up and ride together.

Yesterday (Aug 22) was my 26th birthday. I wasn’t planning on spending all day on my bike, but that’s what ended up happening. I woke up about 9:30, and I was ready to go out riding because it was such a nice day. I drug Michael out of bed, and as he got a shower (to wake himself up), I looked at Mark’s bike map, and plotted out a few routes – one of them was a 40 mile trip to White’s Ferry and back. I wasn’t sure about riding 40 miles for two reasons: 1) I had other things to do around the house, and 2) I’d never ridden 40 miles before, previously, my longest trip was 30 miles on completely flat ground last weekend.

Read the rest of this entry »