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Most people know this story already, but for the few who don't know/don't care, I will re-iterate it one more time.
My nickname in college was 'slug'.. not very original but it fit me. I worked slowly at things, but I got it done. Usually the slowness was due to procrastination, but that's a whole other story.
Anyway, I discovered in the early 90's that 'Limaceous' means 'of or like a slug', and I thought that was cool. Anyway, the Latin root of that word is Limax, which is what I changed my online user name to, and now I've been using it for more that 15 years, going on 20.
How exciting is that? | comments: Leave a comment   |
| | Current Music: | Johnny Cash IV - The Man Comes Around | | Current Location: | work | | Subject: | Ffuts | | Time: | 04:21 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/smileys/smile.gif) peaceful |
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| I'm starting to feel more back to normal now. I still have some soreness, but not like it was earlier in the week. All I can do is keep plugging forward and make sure I don't relapse. It frustrates me that when I try to stretch how much my stomach prevents me from making a full stretch. I cannot remember the last time I was able to do a sit-up. It's almost like I have a stop block that prevents full motion... which it what I really have.
Karate has suddenly got tougher now after my last promotion. I'm expecting to think more about what I'm doing instead of just going through the motions.. and I'm really loving it. I feel like I'm exercising my mind in addition to my body. I can't wait to see how much tougher it gets. As I move closer to black, I become more aware of how much I have left to learn. Wow. I'm also going to go to a Tai Chi class tonight. I've been looking for a way to focus/meditate to help with the stress, and this may be it.
Not much more to say except that I was mistaken yesterday about the Tour de California. They came through yesterday. I saw the aftermath as I went over part of the course they followed yesterday. I saw three bicyclists off on the side of the road. I'm guessing flats since they didn't seem to be scraped up at all from falling. Still, that was kind of cool. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Janis Ian - Folk is the New Black | | Current Location: | work | | Subject: | Ooooh... water | | Time: | 01:22 pm | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/smileys/hot.gif) thirsty |
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| I think I've seen the sun a couple of times today, but it wasn't visible on my drive in this morning. That might have been due to getting to work before sunrise. I experienced flooded roads this morning, something I haven't experienced for probably close to 6 or 7 years, which was the first year we were in our last rental. I remember trying to get our of our neighborhood was incredibly difficult due to the flooded roads... talking about a foot of water or so. To those of us who don't deal with it on a regular basis, it adds a bit more fun to the commute... especially when one splashes up beside you. I know I "bottomed out" a couple of times driving through water this morning, but it was drivable. Going home will be interesting, though.
Tomorrow the Tour de California people come through our neck of the woods. They've had signs up about the upcoming road closures. They'll be by between noon and 2pm, so it's not going to affect me. I'm glad for their sakes that they're not going over Mt Hamilton this year... it's got more snow that it's seen in a while. In the meantime, we have more of the wet stuff, and it's supposed to last for a while. No complaints here. I'm hoping that it'll relieve some of the drought conditions we've experienced. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Well, back in Northern California and it's supposed to be raining all week. This is wreaking havoc on my knees. As some people already know, when I went hiking a week ago, my right leg (the one I injured 20 years ago) decided to buckle on me on a pretty steep part and I ended up falling and almost slid off a "cliff" (I think it was roughly 15 feet to the ground, probably less. I didn't go down below to measure it) As a result, the knee swelled back up and I didn't have full range of motion for almost a week, although I was able to walk "normally." It finally cleared up about Thursday of last week. However, my left leg decided to start giving me trouble on Saturday. Did I mention that it's been raining almost constantly since I got back from Southern California? So, now I have a swollen left knee and don't have full range of motion in it either.
I'm sure this comes from favoring the right leg for a week (unconsciously, of course). I'm just tired of the constant pain, not only from the legs, but also my back and neck. The warm weather can't get here soon enough for me. I'm going to try and do some exercise this week so that I can be in shape for the next marathon or whatever comes my way, and I need to lose some weight before riding roller coasters at the end of March. What a fun time to be me. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| My last week in Southern California for a while. It's been okay this week, although I wish there was more I could contribute. My part, unfortunately, requires on a bunch of other parts happening first. They aren't happening, so I'm not happening.
My wife called me up this morning. She had been reporting that the kids were a bit more cranky than usual. As it turns out, that 100% natural (or maybe it said 100% juice) juice that we bought wasn't completely all that. Turns out there was Red 40 in it for color. So my kids were getting a bit of what I should be putting in my car. Hopefully by the time I return on Friday, they will be back to "normal"
I haven't made it down to the beach yet this trip. I'm going to try to get down there at least once to do some walking. Maybe tonight after work, or tomorrow. I found a kite store down here so I'm going to stop by tonight and see what I can see. Ah well. | | comments: 4 comments or Leave a comment |
| Yup... I'm back in the LA area again. Only two days this week, and five next week. We're supposed to get rain sometime today, which will be good for our dry state. I'm starting to look ahead to Spring Break and beyond. I'm debating whether or not I want to take some time off then and really deplete my vacation reserve. I get nervous if it falls below 20 hours. My mom's going to be gone, so one of us will have to stay home to watch the kids... and we might just make it both of us and go somewhere. No decisions have been made yet.
Other than that, I'm looking for a new event that I can train for. The Bay to Breakers is in May, but that's a bit far out. I don't know if I can find something sooner or not. Here's hoping. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'm back on the road again starting tomorrow morning. Down to LA for two days this week, and five days next week, with a weekend home in between. Not much really to talk about beyond that.
I tried out Microsft Songsmith for the first time over the weekend. I'm a bit ambivalent toward it. I played my Native American Flute into it to see what chords it would produce. It did a fairly good job of putting chords to the music, but some of the selections made me scratch my head. Also, trying to adjust anything is not as easy as the videos make it seem. Also, there's no way to really get a 'written' score of what you want since it seems to be produced for the YouTube set who like making videos of themselves doing all sorts of things. I still have about 5 hours left to go on my free trial, but from what I see so far, I don't know if I'll pay the $30 to get the "full" version.
I've been tasked to produce a couple of pieces for our handbell choir. One's a Christmas piece and also doing a piece for bells/chimes and Native American Flute. Maybe when I'm sitting around my hotel room this week I'll feel the urge to get started on these. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | The Celts Rise Again | | Current Location: | work | | Subject: | Weekend Post-Mortem | | Time: | 02:32 pm | | Current Mood: | content |
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| It was a full weekend. We were pretty busy at the garage sale on Saturday. I think our longest lull was about 5 minutes the whole day. Still, the morning managed to drag. Did I mention how much I hate garage sales?
After I went and picked up the signs that I'd posted, we had a quick lunch before heading over to the church to meet our new pastor candidate. He's a pretty nice fellow... and he impressed me by remembering my name after only hearing it once. And for once, I wasn't doing anything to stand out in the crowd. Based on what I heard him say in that meeting, I was leaning toward accepting him as our pastor. I took the kids home after that, and I pretty much rested and blew off steam until church the next morning.
When I got there, I found out that I was going to play bells in a different spot from where I rehearsed last Sunday. It only threw me for a second... it was the spot that I'd rehearsed in three weeks before... so it didn't take me long to adjust. We got to hear the candidate do the children's sermon and the sermon. He was quite an engaging speaker, and I could see listening to him week after week. After the service was over, we voted after hearing the final report from the nominating committee. The final tally was 324 yes, 3 no and 1 abstain. I would say that most people thought the same way I did.
So, now we have a new head pastor, who will start in May. As a result of how long the day went, I was unable to get over to the QRP meeting, which made me a little sad, since one of our members had just passed away from cancer. Bell practice really wasn't anything special. We got to play a couple of new songs and I didn't have to stay on the bass bells the whole time.
I'm glad now to get back to the 'relaxing' environemnt of work... although I head back to Southern California on Wednesday again. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| My wife's working all nights of the weekend so I'm going to be on full kid duty. It wouldn't be so bad, except that Mom talked me into helping her with a garage sale Saturday morning. Not my most favorite thing to be doing. She feels that she needs to have one every so often to get rid of stuff. After we finish cleaning up from that, we're heading over to the church to meet our new head pastor candidate. This is a big deal because the process takes a long time to select one (two years), and if we don't like him, it won't take as long since the ground work is done... but we'll see.
On Sunday, I'm playing with the bells in church and we get to hear our pastor candidate preach. Afterward, we will have a meeting to decide if we truly like him. I get a few hours to relax after that before bell rehearsal that evening. So, if you don't see me in my usual virtual haunts, you now know why. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Today's my son's birthday. He turns 8 today. I've hinted in the past about his really bad birth and all that has ensued afterward. Although the lawsuit's far behind us, it's still hard to talk about. I choose to focus on the here & now anyway.
The only way you would know that he had a rough start is his trach scar, and if he removed his shirt. Other than that, we have a very healthy 8 year old and he's normal... or as normal as someone can be with me as a father. Tonight we'll be heading over to my parents' house to celebrate, after he goes to the Wednesday church program for a while. His choice. He wanted to spend part of his birthday there.
That said, I'm heading over to Whole Foods later to get some naturally made cupcakes for him to take to school tomorrow. All is actually okay with the world today. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Wow... I just had to share this. I was looking for my latest issue of Banjo Newsletter last night since I hadn't finished reading it, and was having trouble locating it. The last time I remember seeing it was last Friday after I'd returned from errands. My wife was in a whirlwind cleaning mood on Saturday, so I suspect (as does she) that it got accidentially thrown in the trash. (I know some of you would think my wife did it on purpose)
So, I emailed Banjo Newsletter today to tell them what had happened and to find out where I could buy another copy in Northern California. As it turns out, there's only one shop in Berkeley that carries it. However, they offered to send me another copy, free of charge, with the promise that I never let it happen again.
This publication, although it's been around for 30 years, isn't very big (how many banjo players do you actually know personally?). So, for them to do this is a really big thing. I was very impressed by this and it gives me a good feeling to realize that there are still some people who actually believe in customer service. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I just went back and checked my latest entry, and I see that the link I posted has already disappeared. Ah well... for those who were curious, it was simply stating that I completed the PF Chang's Rock n Roll Arizona Marathon in 6 hours, 59 minutes and 31 seconds. Injury report consisted of two burst blisters on the bottom of my feet (the one on my left which burst at 24 miles also burned my toes), plus a quarter-sized blister on the side of my right foot. I also had the usual aches in my legs that comes from walking 26.2 miles. A trip to the Cracker Barrel for some sustenance and a trip to the hot tub at the campground helped ease some of the pain. I had no problem on the drive home the next day, even though my car does not have cruise control. I will pause now while you gasp.
As for this week, work is going worse. I'm starting to think about looking for other employment either in the company or outside. I know it's the wrong time to do so, but I'm starting to feel like I did when I worked for that firm at the end of the last decade. Waking up is getting harder, and I find all sorts of reasons to procrastinate leaving for work... not to mention that I look for excuses to be gone from my desk. All adds up to not a happy camper. I have been assured that it will get better, but I'm not confident at the moment.
I had a lot of fun at bell practice last night. We brought back a piece that we played about 7 or 8 (or maybe even 9) years ago, which is one of the most fun pieces I have ever played. When we finished, I was winded, but very happy. The director won't let me play the whole bass part by myself... something about drawing the focus to myself rather than the group, and especially on Easter... how unreasonable is that? She said that she might let me do it for the concert, though.
So, as usual, life is full of ups and downs. At least there were two ups in this post. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Glen Velez - Rhythm of the Chakras | | Current Location: | work | | Subject: | Back to the Grind... | | Time: | 09:50 am | | Current Mood: | ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/growf/smileys/surprised.gif) awake |
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| While I was traveling, the internet connection was spotty, at best. I did try a few times to connect to LiveJournal, only to find my connection time out.
So, for those who haven't heard, I did it.
I'm still a bit sore, even today. However, I'm on the mend and feeling very good. Now, it's back to work and the rolling of the eyes will commence again. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| Well, I was right. According to my front page, it has been five days since I last posted. I'm glad my sobriety didn't go the same way as that... I believe it's six years this week since I last had a drink.
Today I've been spending getting ready to drive to Arizona tomorrow. So far, all I have managed is getting a load of clothes in the wash. I did make it over to the bank to get the money to finance my trip, though. So things are going well. This afternoon I'm going to spend unloading the car and taking out all my daily essentials to get it ready for the trip, and then I'll pack what I can into it. My goal is to leave Livermore between 5am and 6am tomorrow, and making it down to Phoenix at around 7pm local time. If I'm lucky to make it in much before 7, I can run by the expo and pick up my number. Otherwise I'll have to do with with everyone else the next day.
The marathon starts at 7:40am MST on Sunday. My bib number is 9571, and there is usually a way to track a racer (runner? walker?) by bib number on their site, although it's no there yet. The site, for anyone who's interested, is right here.
I'll be hopefully posting on things that happen over the weekend, but I'm not sure how much air time I'll have. The KOA where I'm staying is supposed to have free wireless. I'll find out when I get there. Until next, be safe. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| | Current Music: | Spooky yelling in the corner | | Current Location: | home | | Subject: | It's a new subject | | Time: | 05:45 pm | | Current Mood: | satisfied |
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| | Day off today... yes, it was planned. If everything works as arranged, I get every other Friday off. Thus, I spent it running errands. I picked up a couple more pairs of running socks and some shot blox from the local running store in anticipation of Phoenix next weekend. I also did some of the more mundane things like going to the bank and picking up pet food. Pretty much ran around and did stuff that I can't do the other workdays. That said, I'm not planning on doing much this weekend except walking 6 miles tomorrow and maybe get to work on my backlog of electronic kits. All in all, pretty satisfying day today. | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| Hm. Third day in a row. This might be a trend. Probably will end before the end of the month.
I found a book for my wife at the library today on quitting smoking. The only reason I found out about it is that there's a companion game for it on the Nintendo DS.
I picked up my kids from bible school last night, first time I've done that all year since I've been traveling on most Wednesdays. I got to see people I've not seen for a very long time. That was nice.
While I was there, one of the eighth graders approached me and asked if I would be coming back to teach bells soon. She said it was a lot less fun without me.
When I decided to go out walking, it was a bit too cold for my liking, so I skipped it. My ankle's hurting quite a bit anyway.
When I was at the library picking up the book, I was almost trampled by 30 preschoolers. They were there on a trip to the library, and I was between them and the door when the library opened.
That is all. | | comments: Leave a comment |
| I'm going to see if I can't write a little something each day. I notice that my life is not as exiciting as most of the people on my freinds list. Most of them have loads to say every day about what's going on. Me?
I had karate yesterday in which I learned a different way to look at my forms and it blew my mind. Thankfully my forms haven't suffered much, yet.
I picked up another new shaving mirror. Hopefully this one will last better
I shot baskets with my son, and he beat me 20-18 with alternating shots.
I played Ticket to Ride - the card game last night against my wife and was spanked thoroughly. I found with two players, you should take a LOT more destination tickets. I had so many cards left over it wasn't funny.
I then proceeded to fall asleep on the couch and didn't get up to go to bed until 1:30.
What excitement! | | comments: 2 comments or Leave a comment |
| I feel my life is so insignificant that I usually don't feel like sharing anything that's going on. Part of my silence is due to the lawsuit we went through a few years ago after my son's birth. I learned then not to share, and it's become difficult to try and share anything. So, here's another rundown of what's going on.
My kids are now on gluten-free diets, and we're all following the Feingold diet plan. This is to help me as much as it is to help my kids. Already, my son's screaming meanies have been coming less often. My daughter's showing up as being more outgoing as well. In myself, I have noticed that I'm less likely to fly off the handle for little infractions around the house, and I don't raise my voice as much as I used to.
I'm going to walk a marathon on the 18th of January in Phoenix. I've been training for this since the half marathon I walked by in October.
I'm still employed, and travelling a lot to Los Angeles for work.
My wife's still smoking. She is going to try and quit again sometime soon. I do everything I can to support her.
I'm still grossly overweight, but I'm working on losing again. I think BMI is a total crock and there should be no merit placed in it.
Other than that, we're all getting older and I'm noticing my eyes are not as strong as they used to be, although I still only need reading glasses... although they're progressive now.
I took the fall off from bells, but am planning on joining them again in the new year. In the meantime, I've been playing my banjo off and on and just enjoying playing music for myself and not other people.
That's about all at the moment. I'm sure more things will come up that I may feel like sharing. | | comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
| | It's incredible what procrastination can do. I haven't posted since September, and I haven't told about the wonderful adventures on our vacation, such as almost hitting two bison, white water rafting in a hailstorm... exploring ice caves... ugh! I think I need to do better about such stuff. Anyway, I hope that everyone had a wonderful new year... and we'll have to see what 2009 brings us. Me? I'm going to walk a marathon. | | comments: Leave a comment |
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