Cut Short

The Roadside was Absolutely Littered With Cotton

Originally this weekend I had intended to to a 20 mile training run. I was going to run all the way to the Proving Grounds and back. But I got a late start this morning and it was already 95 when I left the house at 8:00, so I decided to cut the run short, and just go up to the abandoned suspension bridge and back, and run of 13 miles.

Giant Bales of Cotton at the Cotton Gin

The cotton harvest has begun at road side was littered with mounds of cotton that had blown out of passing trucks. It looked like a nearby cotton ball factory had exploded. About three miles into my run, as I was passing the cotton gin, realized that I was not even going to be able to complete my shortened three mile run. The heat was probably well into in the triple disgits, my ankle, thanks to the brace was killing me. Because my next marathon is not until the middle of October I decided to call it quits and head for home.

Heading for Home

I has been a number of years since I have to cut a run this short and that is little frustrating. But, it is important to know when to call it quits. Fall can not get here fast enough, I have almost forgotten what it is like to run in pleasant temperatures. I can't wait for January where every day is sunny with a high in the low 70's.

Limpy McHobbles

Last Monday Berkeley came in from the backyard with a very deep gash on one her back legs. It was deep enough that you could see the fascia that cover the muscle. This is third time she cut her self like this, we have no idea what she cutting her self on. She did the same thing in Louisiana, and our backyard now has items in common with that backyard.

Ever since she got this cut Berkeley has been walking around on three legs. Much to her disappointment this means she has been left out of all the runs this week. Fortunately it seems to be healing well and she is starting to put weight on it, but only when she thinks no one is watching. She loves to milk injuries for sympathy, attention and treats. With the lack of run, and the many sympathy treats she has gotten noticeably plumper. This weekend I will start running her again. She is dog with dozens of nicknames and she acquired a few more thanks to this incident. They include “Tripoda”, and “Limpy McHobbles.”

A Birthday Present

Aside from the the beverage fridge the other present that K got me for my birthday was a little 5 gallon fish tank for my desk at work. After getting all the necessary permission to set it up I set it up last night after work. I am very excited about it, I think it is going to look very good, and gives me something to put in the corner of my desk that formerly did nothing but collect papers that should have just been thrown in the trash.

The frustrating thing about new fish tanks is how slowly the set up process goes. I will not be able to fish in there until Monday. It is hard to see in the pictures but I added some aquatic plant bulbs, it will take a few weeks for them to sprout and start to look. The entire set up will probably take about two months before every thing that will go in there is in there. I have learned through hard won experience that the price for being impatient is a lot of dead fish.

New Fridge

Our Cluttered Pantry Where the Fridge Will Go

Lately for our birthdays K and have given each other gifts that improve the house. My birthday is coming up this week. I decided to get a new beverage fridge to to replace the one that I currently keep in the garage under the bench.

Getting the Fridge into the Pantry Required Trimming Back a Shelf

For years we have kept the beverage fridge out in the garage. This is a less than ideal set up for several reasons. First it is just inconvenient to have to go out the garage to get a cold drink. Second, our garage is not well ventilated or air conditioned. From May to September it stays about 100 degrees around the clock. It takes a lot power to keep a fridge cool in such in environment. By moving the beverage fridge into to the air conditioned house I hope to keep the power bill down a little

In Order to Ensure a Straight Cut a Installed a Temporary Guide Rail

The other advantage of doing this is that Krissy will be able to take our old beverage fridge into her new classroom, which apparently will be useful. I will however probably need to scrape the beer logo stickers off it before she puts it in her classroom.

Unfortunately I Was Unable to Get All the Way Through With the Circular Saw

The only place indoors that we could put that made any sense was the pantry. Unfortunately do this would require a little more work than just setting it where we wanted it and plugging it in.

What the Circular Saw Couldn't Reach I Had to Finish By Hand

I had to remove a chunk of the built in shelving in the pantry. This really was not a big deal because the shelves on the back wall are unusually deep. So deep that items often go missing within there depths.

The Hole

On of the great things about owning a home is that I can do things like saw a giant hole in pantry shelves I can do it. There is just something nice about being able to customize your home exactly the way you want it.

Adding a Leg to Support the Remaining Shelf

There is no outlet in pantry so the difficult part of this project was figuring out a way to get power to the fridge. I though about adding a plug into the pantry. However after getting a shock from a 220 volt power supply while working on the pool pump last summer I have lost my appatite for electrical projects. Fortunately I came a much simpler solution.

The Nearest Outlet is Above the Washer

The solution was to punch an extension cord through the wall into the adjacent laundry room. The trick would be doing it in a way that does not look totally trashy.

The Hole for the Power Cord to Pass Through

I came up with a way to run a cord through the wall with only make a small hole that would be easy to patch up when we eventually sell the house.

The Beheaded Extension Cord

In order to get the extension cord through the tiny hole I had to cut the head off it and the subsequently rewire it. This made me smile because in Junior High I once had project to make a how to video tape, a chose to show how to rewire a plug. The memory makes me smile because my brother Nate who was into videography at the time helped me film and made sure that I turned out real nice.

Threading the Cord Through the Wall

The difficult part of the operation was getting a cord through the very small hole in wall. Finlay I cam up with obvious solution of attaching the cord to a stiff lead made of wire coat hanger. Since we no longer go to the dry cleaner it was very hard find a wire coat hanger, fortunately there was one left in the house.

The Installed Plug

Moving the washer out the way to bring cord through I found a major treasure trove of missing socks, apparently when they go missing under the washer is one the places they go.

Rewiring the Plug

This project went very smoothly, a very surprising development. Almost inevitably when I do something like this I mess something up, and then have to come up with a creative solution to the problem I have caused.

The New Plug, Plugged In

Normally projects that I do come out functional but very inelegant. I am so pleased with this project in addition to working like it should it is not an eyesore. A major accomplishment for me.

Painting, the Final Step

Overall this turned to be a great birthday gift. I think it adds a lot to our house. I am already finding it nice to not go out to the garage to get something to drink.

The Final Product

Duke!

Berkeley & Duke

This weekend Berkeley and Zack's best weimer pal Duke came to stay with us. All three dog had a fun but loud time. Although by the end Zack was starting to get a little grumpy as he grew concerned that Duke might never leave. One thing that this weeekend to prove is that two is perfect number of weimaraners, three is just too much dog.

One of the New Blushing Tetras

I continued the restocking of my aquarium, I got three blushing tetras. I had never heard of them before I saw them it PetsMart. It is always kind of exciting when I find something new for the aquarium. They survived the first night which good because it seems like if things are going to dies they will do it with in the first 24 hours. Duke was utterly fascinated by the aquarium, he would sit there and stare bugged eyed at it, occasionally snapping at a fish, I have never seen a dog entranced by a fish tank before, Duke is an odd one.

Weekend

There are lots of sign of the arrival of fall that are cropping all over the place. School is starting up, Monday is K’s first day with students. Football is getting underway, the seemingly endless NFL preseason has begun. Serious talk has begun ad the pennant race in baseball. Halloween stuff if begining to crop up in stores. Unfortunately summer is not showing in the one place that I really desire to see it, the thermometer.

Despite these signs of fall, outside summer shows now sign of releasing the area from its vicious grip. Day after day the sun rises and thermometer being inevitable climb to 110 and beyond. By this time of year I have lost patience with this. I am so tires of the heat, I want to be able to open a window at night, not sweat through a shirt within 5 minutes when I go running, see people on the streets again, and not spend so much on air-conditioning. Sigh, it will be at least a month until things get noticeable cooler, and not until just before Halloween will the weather be what could be called pleasant.

Duke

It is going to be another three weimaraner weekend, but this time instead having a puppy over, we are watching Berkeley and Zack’s running buddy, Duke. Should be fun because all three dogs get along very well. It should however be a very loud weekend as there favorite game is to wildly chase each other around barking at the top their lungs.

We will probably also do something this weekend to celebrate my birthday, which is Tuesday. Hard to believe that I am going to be 28, how did I get so damn old? I am not sure what we are going to do, probably just something low key, most likely having a few people over for a BBQ.

According to my training schedule I am supposed to do a 20 miler this weekend. I am not sure yet if my ankle is up to this. It still a little tender from last Friday’s fall. It is improving pretty fast so I will probably just wait and see how it feels on Sunday morning.

A Rant

Currently I am extremely irked by the American Institute of Certified Planners. The AICP is the organization that dose the professional certification for my profession, As of May I finally had worked long enough as a professional planner to qualify to take the AICP exam. The deadline for applying for the November AICP test is today, the application to take the exam is very extensive, consisting of eight very long a tedious essay questions about my professional planning experience. There is also a registration fee, but nowhere on there website did they mention how much the fee was, so I assumed it was a nominal fee.

This was a bad assumption, after spending over a total of ten hours working on the application, I hit submit, and a screen asking for my credit card information and $450 poped up. How infuriating they only tell you the price after you spent hours working on the application.

Sadly all this mean I have to wait another six months to take the AICP exam. I was not expecting it cost so much. When K and made a budget for the summer, during which she was not brining in any paychecks, we did not include an extra $450. So now I have to wait until May of 2008 to the exam. If I had a little advance warning of the price I would have been able to set aside the money for it.

If you are going to charge that much for exam at least be up front about it, don’t hide the true cost until the last minute. I guess this partially my fault for assuming a organization with professional certification organization would act in a professional manner