Training Log

Course:..............Time:-----Distance:.....Date:

Faun Lake............42:06 -----5.5 .........4/18/07

Nutting Lake.........29:34 -----3.5 .........4/19/07

Nutting Lake.........27:40 -----3.5 .........4/20/07

Rangeway loop........96:01 -----10.5 ........4/21/07(thought I was having a stroke)

Nutting Lake.........28:37 -----3.5..........4/23/07 It was hot

Bedford neiborhood...33:38 -----4.1..........4/25/07

Nutting Lake-plus....40:45------4.5..........4/26/07

Groton 10K...........44:41------6.2..........4/29/07 (PR) Annual Race

Nutting Lake.........29:45------3.5..........4/30/07 Recovery run

Bedford neiborhood...33:57------4.1..........5/1/07 Another recovery run, still sore from Sunday.

Nutting Lake.........29:41------3.5..........5/2/07

Faun Lake............46:34------5.5..........5/3/07

Nutting Lake.........29:25------3.5..........5/4/07

Cranberry Bog........80:36-----10.0..........5/5/07

Wow! 36.3 miles last week. I don't think I have done that many since High School--except for that Summer day right after High School ended when I did 40 miles in one day as part of the MS charity run across the state of Washington.

Nutting Lake.........28:51------3.5..........5/7/07

Bedford neiborhood...34:31------4.1..........5/8/07

Nutting Lake.........28:52------3.5..........5/9/07

Nutting Lake.........27:12------3.5..........5/10/07--(PR)

Faun Lake............42:37 -----5.5 .........5/11/07

New Carlisle loop....87:11-----10.54.........5/13/07 3:11 too much time!

Nutting lake.........31:39------3.5..........5/14/07 Recovery from above lackluster performance

Bedford Neiborhood..33:20-------4.1..........5/15/07

Nutting lake plus...37:17-------4.5..........5/16/07

Nutting Lake........28:05-------3.5..........5/17/07 Ran with Matt

Faun Lake...........41:01-------5.5..........5/18/07 Ran with Ross (PR)

I should note here that this time is more than one minute faster than my previous best time for this course. I have run this course more than 45 times. In fact, this pace is better than what I did last year in the Groton Road Race. So, I am either improving or just trying much harder.

Looks like this is becoming a blog-within-a-blog. How meta is that?

I didn't run over the weekend due to having a cold, plus it was rainy and dreary all weekend.

Nutting Lake........28:00-------3.5..........5/21/07 Still have a cold, whatever.

Bedford Neiborhood..36:15-------4.1..........5/22/07 Ran with Matt, his girlfriend made his legs weak.

Bedford Neiborhood..32:05-------4.1..........5/23/07 Ran alone

Note: I have actually been running most days, but have neglected to enter it.

Nutting Lake plus Bedford 55:30---6.0.......6/01/07--Really stinking hot. Ran with Ted, he had wanted an easy run and was not happy. Sorry Ted, I really did not expect it to be so stinking hot.

Cranberry bog....9-10----78:30........6/03/07--misting rain cool and nice.

Nutting lake......3.5----28:28........6/04/07--Raining cats and dogs, deployed band-aids (you know where)

Middlesex cc----4.3......36:44........6/05/07--Hot and muggy, felt sluggish

Bedford neiborhood---4.1...35:40......6/6/07--Ran with Ted, really nice day.

Bedford neighborhood-4.1...31:25......5/4/09--Stopped to give an old lady directions

Faun Lake.....5.5.....42:20.....7:42/mile....5/8/09

Kurt Vonnegut, RIP

In Rememberance I re-read Harrison Bergeron today. It is quite good. I guess he (largly) didn't let his left wing crankery get in the way of good writing. This should be noted with approval. I've read and enjoyed a lot of what he wrote, but at least with his novels, afterword, I couldn't really tell you what they were about. In this respect they are much like dreams: They make sense while you are having them, but when you wake up the details fade and whatever parts of the plot you remember make no sense at all. One thing which I always thought he said, but it could have been someone else... Something to the effect that he continued to smoke in the hope that cigarettes would eventually kill him. This because he would never get up the nerve to just shoot himself in the head. I always took that as a fairly brilliant way to deflect the constant nagging he must have gotten to quit smoking. In fact he lived to be 84 and didn't die from a smoking-related illness. Here is Harrison Bergeron.

Our day at Disney Animal Kingdom

Before we went on this trip, I had heard of Animal Kingdom but didn't know anything about it. In fact, the first bit of information I saw was a brochure, used for planning our visit on the night before we went to that park. Animal Kingdom closes at 5:00 in the afternoon, which is much earlier than the other parks close and yet it seemed like we did more in that day than the days when we went to the other parks. We went on a safari and saw lots of big African animals--like elephants, giraffes, hippos and rhinos. Also in Africa, we saw an animal show with lots of birds flying around doing tricks. We saw an insect's life show in the tree of life and then got wet in the Kali Rapids river ride. This wetness was just a taste of things to come as right after lunch, we all got drenched in a sudden downpour while waiting in line for the Finding Nemo show. The show was only around 30 minutes long, but when we came out of it, it was a bright sunny day and we finally all got dry. After that we did the Himalaya adventure and then some kind of walk through a park where there were animals, like giant bats, at various places along the trail. dbp

Himalaya Adventure

Disney's Animal Kingdom is divided into sections: The Asia section is dominated by a Himalayan mountain. From far away and from up-close, it looks very real. Of course there is a ride and a back-story. The area approaching the mountain contains a Himalayan village. The plot of the ride is that a railway was made through the mountains so that it would be easy to approach Mt. Everest, but the Yeti doesn't like his territory invaded like that. While on the roller-coaster ride, the monster tears up the tracks, leading to hijinx! If I recall correctly, Surenna didn't want to be in this picture, but was a good girl and did as she was asked. Jemma on the other hand did not want to be in the picture and was not a good girl about it.

The Tree of Life.

The Tree of life is a sort of centerpiece of Disney's Animal Kingdom. Several impressions: It is huge. It is molded so that there are the images of animals embedded in the tree, much like the way fossils are embedded in rock outcroppings. Of course there is an attraction in the tree--a sort of insect based 3-D film (with special effects) The special effects relate to the film. So for example, in the film some insects spray acid toward the crowd and water (not acid) sprays out of the seat in front of you. It is kind of like seeing the Rocky Horror Picture Show, without the kinkyness. dbp

2nd Disney update

Our main PC is old and prone to locking up when I post pictures, so please have patience if you are waiting to see Disney pictures. Oddly, Surenna's Mac Mini which is, unlike this computer, on our wireless network works faster and better. I will try and use our PC though since I wouldn't want to prevent Surenna from importaint stuff like playing games on the Hanna Montana website. Also, if my readers want to see all the Disney postings without all of the non-disney introns, please just use the search function: In the upper left corner of the page you can enter a term (such as Disney) and then click onto 'search this blog' and it will return only those entries which contain the word you choose. dbp

Disney blogging update...

I have gotten so far behind in posting on our Disney trip that I think I will just randomly post pictures which are interesting rather than going through the whole trip in chronological order. Partly, I have lost interest in the project and partly I have just forgotten a lot of the details now that it has been almost two months since we were there. dbp

The joy of old bias, seemingly vindicated

The news radio on the way to work made note of the following story:

(Geneva-AP) March 28, 2007 - UN health agencies are recommending that heterosexual men undergo circumcision. They say there is "compelling" evidence that it can reduce their chances of contracting HIV by up to 60 percent.

Considering how simple the procedure is and how great the benefit, this would seem to be the classic case of 'low hanging fruit'. I had sometime in the past, just out of idle curiosity, researched the topic. My take-away opinion was that the procedure was at worst pretty much harmless and at best seemed to decrease the risk for some pretty vile urinary illnesses. I also came across today a study looking at bias in decision-making when the decision would have an effect on the decision-maker. From the latest Science News

People who suffer damage to a brain area that generates compassion, shame, and other social sentiments apply coldly rational thinking to hypothetical moral dilemmas, even those that involve terrible personal loss, a team of neuroscientists finds.

And of course, those of us who lack brain damage (who are you saying lacks brain damage?) do not apply coldly rational thinking when it involves themselves. Now, I am either circumcised or not, but one thing is clear. I didn't have anything to do with the decision and in fact it was so routine when I was born that there really wasn't any decision-making being done. dbp

Blogging out of order again, but still...

After visiting Disney, we traveled to the other coast of Florida to visit my parents. While we were there we had to go to the beach and it just happened to be a cold and blustery day, with rain. Still, one cannot keep a five year old from enjoying the surf. Or playing in the sand. dbp ps. Thanks to my mom for the photographs she sent--which I scanned.

Major Appliances--Major Headache

The latest Bleat reminded me of our last appliance delivery/nightmare. When I was in Canada earlier this year on a business trip, the washing machine broke. My wife had noticed that the clothes were coming out "really wet, and it was taking forever to dry them". It is a front-loader and the drum was not rotating at all, which would account for the wetness. We still cannot account for the clothes not being soapy or still dirty as well as wet. A quick check revealed that the belt was fine and it was the motor which was shot. Normally, I would at least price-out the cost of a new motor, but this machine had been throwing about a quart of water out the bottom per load for the last two years. Yes, I had tried to figure out where the water was coming from and had found that it was coming from the tank itself. I was somewhat shocked to find that the tank was plastic when the drum was expensive and shiny stainless steel. In any account, the leakage wasn't much of a problem since it just seeped through the laundry room floor and dripped into the unfinished basement floor, where it would eventually evaporate. So, the day I got back from Canada (I came in on a redeye and arrived at Logan around 7:00AM) I went to Sear's and purchased a fancy machine. It was a floor model, which saved some money and ensured quicker delivery. I payed to have them install the new machine and cart-off the old one. What they ended up doing was leaving the new machine in our living room and leaving the old machine right where it was. It seems that they could not turn off the water faucet valve which feeds cold water to the machines and so gave up and left it as is. As you might suppose, I was not at home when this 'delivery' took place. I guess high tech options like kinking the hose while making the transfer or just shutting off the house water were too high-tech to be viable options. It all worked out for the best and I will explain how, later--gotta go to work now. Later: It worked out for the best because the rubber feet of the machine were totally wrecked. I suspect they slid-around the floor model from time to time and wore off the rubber. Since I had the old machine still there, I took it's legs off and luckily they fit onto the new washer. I imagine it would have been a total hassle to have got Sears to replace the feet and it really was very little effort to make the swap. dbp

Some Birthday Party Videos

Somehow, I think that if we had sons instead of daughters; the kids at the party would have mumbled their way through a version of "Happy Birthday" and that would have been the full extent of the singing. dbp

Surenna's Birthday Party at the Acton Bowladrome

We all had some fun doing candlepin bowling. It is a New England style and is slightly different from 'normal' bowling. The pins and balls are different (smaller) and even though you get three rolls per frame, there has never been a perfect (300) game bowled. dbp

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I am only very slightly Irish by heritage, but this kind of meal feels like soul-food to me. dbp

More Magic Kingdom and then a midday break...

We could have spent a whole day on Tom Sawyer's Island, but better things lured us away. We left the Magic Kingdom early so that we could take a bit of rest before returning for the evening pirates & princesses party. Ahhh, The Wilderness Lodge. Our home while we visited Disney World.

Day 2: We go to the magic kingdom

It started out to be a little drizzly, then it cleared-up very nicely. We didn't end up taking all that many pictures in this part of the day. We spent most of the day in the corner of the park which contains Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain and Tom Sawyer's Island. When you see Splash Mountain from the outside, it appears to be just a thrilling drop. In actuality, the ride is really long and features several drops inside of the mountain and lots of scenes from the Brer Rabbit motif. Quite amusing from a retro-standpoint. Thunder Mountain has a couple of things going for it: As a roller-coaster, it is very gentle and thus a good beginner one for the nervous. If you focus on the 'engine' car of the roller coaster train, it is easy to imagine that there is some maniacal engineer up there taking us through curves and drops at absurd levels of speed. I just couldn't stop laughing.

More internet troubles...

I had all day yesterday off but couldn't post because I could not connect to the internet tubes. The problem seems to have fixed itself now that I have to go to work. dbp

We ate at the 1900 and met Cinderella

First, the mouse came around to greet the girls Later, Prince Charming came around and charmed all of the girls... Surenna is shy, but does let the prince kiss her hand. Dahlia poses with the prince. Jemma meets royalty She always was a sucker for a man in uniform... Finally! The woman we all came to see! After some arm-twisting, I agree to pose with the girl. By the end, we were all very tired and ready to go to bed. dbp

Technical Problems...

I am doing all the posting today from Surenna's mac mini. I cannot seem to get internet connectivity from the PC today and so I reloaded all the pictures back into the camera and then connected the camera to her computer. There are some little differences in how the computers work, like I cannot get a thumbnail preview of picture files, so it is a little tricky to photoblog. dbp

The End Of The First Day At Disney.

At the end of the first day, we had scheduled a dinner with Cinderella and friends. We decided to drive to the Grand Floridian, where the dinner was, and we got there early. So we hung-out for a while in the lobby. Surenna seemed bored by all the elegant opulance. We sat at the round table on the right hand side of the above picture by the elevator. There was a band playing jazz on the 2nd floor balcony. dbp

Excuses for not getting-on with the disney blogging...

So, I expected that I would get a lot of Disney posting done this weekend; maybe even the rest of it. No such luck. Saturday, I took Dahlia to her learn to skate program--she needs to learn to glide. Then, I needed to bake in preperation for a late lunch at our in-laws. First, I got a huckleberry pie going: Vaishali made the crust dough (which is always very easy to handle and comes out tasty), which I rolled-out and filled: 1 Quart of frozen huckleberries 1 Cup of white granulated sugar 1/2 Cup all purpose flour 2 Tablespoons cornstarch I toss all of the above together in a bowl and as the berries melt, the various powders and granuals stick to the huckleberries. Bake at 400F until it looks done. Once the pie was in the oven I started in on the pizzellies: Cream 1 Cup of butter (two sticks) with 1 1/2 Cup of Granulated sugar, add 6 eggs and 3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour and 4 teaspoons of baking powder and 2 tablespoons of anise extract. Cook iaw pizzelli maker instructions. I also roasted 1/2 pound of coffee before all the baking: --Pre-heat oven on convection bake to 466F. --Put in the beans on a baking sheet (with raised edge) which is large enough for the coffee to be in a single layer. --I roast for around 12 minutes. I look for the beans to be just starting to get glossy and be the color of mahogany. It smokes-up the house, but is well worth it if you like really good coffee. The coffee crackles and throws-off a papery skin, so you will need to sort of thresh this off before storage. It is a mess, so do this step outside. Just pour the coffee back and forth between two bowls and blow at the pouring stream. The papery parts will blow away leaving clean beans. If you do this step inside, your wife will kill you, and you have no excuse since you were warned. dbp ps Why didn't I do the Disney posting on Sunday? I have good reasons, but if I post about them, the question will come up: Why spend all that time on the excuses post, when in the same amout of time, you could have just done the real posting? pps. Belated happy birthday to my sister Mary: It is on the first day of the month, right after the shortest month--I always remember too it late to send a card.