jimsjournal
| Coloring a map -- 07/17/04 |
jimsjournal |
||
|
Yeah, so I went almost a whole week without updating. I was just too busy. Sorry 'bout that. Last Sunday (as I had noted in my entry for that day) Nancy -- despite hating flying -- flew to Chicago along with her mother and assorted other family members for a niece's wedding. She successfully survived the flight there, the wedding, some sight-seeing on Monday, and the return flight on Tuesday. In fact, she says that since she was able to make it through these flights, she thinks she might be able to fly with me somewhere for a vacation sometime. (We can't do it this year but I'd really like to get back to England again with Nancy, not to mention visiting some of the places in Europe where I've been on business travel and have wanted to visit with her someday. The funny thing is, since I switched job roles last year from teaching and developing courses to doing editing and quality assurance on courses, my business travel has dropped off to almost zero -- the only travel I've done the past year or so was that conference in Las Vegas back in January.) Where did the week go? I worked from home on Monday and put in a bit over eleven hours. (I think I booted my laptop around seven a.m. and shut-down about quarter past eight in the evening, but I took a breakfast and lunch break, did some laundry, etc., didn't just sit there working for thirteen hours.) I actually went to the office three days this week -- recently I've been showing up about once a week. My second-line manager was in town and she held a working lunch meeting. I had been figuring on leaving the office around five but a three o'clock meeting with my manager didn't start until almost five and so I didn't escape until almost six-thirty. Wednesday I made sure that I left before five-thirty because I wanted to run at the Wednesday night run at URI. I managed to get there on time and did the one mile run and then the three mile run. Thursday back to the office, got in early, before seven, but I had an eye doctor appointment in the afternoon so I left a little past one o'clock to go home. Nancy drove me to my appointment and picked me up later because he gave me those dilating eye drops that leave you with that totally-stoned look and make sunlight way too bright for driving. Yesterday I worked from home -- started at six a.m. -- took a break to drive Nancy to her eye doctor appointment, bringing the laptop so I could keep working in the waiting room -- brought her back home, plugged the laptop in and kept right on working. Took a lunch break and then back to work. Finally shut down a little past six, hopped on my bike and went off for a bike ride, somewhere around ten miles. At no point did it seem that I had enough time to write an entry. Jill and I went off to run in a 5k race this morning -- the 10th annual Celebrate Summer 5k Run -- in the Snug Harbor neighborhood neat East Matunuck State Beach. I have run this race several times, most of them with Jill. When the race began she told me not to let her hold me back, that I should run at my own pace. I told her there was little danger of me running faster than her. She said she had done very little running and what little she did was only a mile or two, she's mostly been roller-blading. Well, that may not be a sport-specific activity -- the way to become a fast runner is to do lots of running -- but eight miles of roller-blading (on the bike path) will certainly strengthen leg muscles and build stamina. By the time we were in the second mile of the race, she was telling me I should pick up my pace. *grin* This race has a terrible feature -- at just a tiny bit past two miles you pass the finish line -- not cross it, just pass it -- then you continue running for half a mile (the first part up a slight but long hill) and make a turn in a cul-de-sac and come back along that half mile to the finish line. (The good part of this is that the last quarter mile is slightly down hill.) Ah, well... I finished... and did it at around the same pace I've been running at URI (i.e., a bit quicker than my plodding pace along the bike path). I am not going to run in the Narragansett Blessing of the Fleet 10-Miler this coming Friday. Nope. No way. Not this year. (Maybe next year?) However, there's a four mile race coming up in two weeks that Jill and I are going to run and Mike says he's going to run it and I think his father will too. A family race. Cool. If I keep working out maybe I will actually be in better shape by the time of the CVS Downtown 5k in September -- actually, just eight weeks from now (Time Flies!). I'm home alone. Jill just took off to meet her boyfriend and Jeremy is working. Nancy and her sister Janet had gone on a three hour cruise (feel free to insert the Gilligan's Island joke of your choice) of Narragansett Bay to see the Tall Ships -- stopped home briefly to change clothes and then went to Narragansett to serve as a docent for a wedding at the Towers. (Maintained by historical society for the town, available for weddings and parties, etc. -- each such event requires two attendants or docents to keep an eye on things, etc. -- and Nancy and I have become involved -- will do an entry on this sometime with pictures of this fascinating historic building.) Six p.m. -- think I'll post this, throw in some laundry, read for a little bit, weed some of the vegetable garden before dark, and then find something to eat. I've also got maybe three or four hours of work to do this weekend (i.e., for work) else I will be swamped on Monday and will head into another hectic week. Two things before I close.... First, you really have to check this out; it is very clever and amusing: "This Land" -- a political satire staring Bush and Kerry. And, second -- got this from Jill -- create your own U.S. map with the states you have visited colored in. Here's mine... create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks. |
||||
|
