Cry baby…

June 15th, 2009 by EndorphinsJunkie No comments »

So I just back from my honeymoon last week and our flight home was a nice segue back into reality.  We had flown to our destination first class and were treated like royalty the entire duration of our stay… we could not have asked for better weather, food, drinks, or company.  What better way to equip for the stressers of work the next day than the most obnoxious flight home…

Lets begin with the woman sitting next to me…. her and her husband (6 foot 5 inches, 500 lbs about) had wanted to sit in first class but the airline “messed up” and they were now seated in coach.  Her husband in row 5 and her at the window seat next to me… although not as big as her husband, she was also not a small woman.  As her ass took up residence on half of my seat, I wondered how miserable and disgruntled she would be during the flight.  After exchanging some nasty words with the flight attendant, I didn’t think she was too bad…. fairly pleasant considering the circumstances.  Until it was time to deboard the plane… then she actually shoved me out of the seating area and into the aisle in an attempt to rush off the plane… unfortunately for her… there were still about 15 rows of people in front of us still waiting.  I was a little annoyed…. but… this was nothing compared to the family sitting in front of us…

Family of 4… Mom and Dad, daughters age 3 and 1…. daughter age 3 watching a DVD very loudly with no headset… it was no mystery that she was watching Sesame Street… I could hear Bert and Ernie and that damn Count droning on and on…. One—ah-ah-ah, Two—ah-ah-ah….. Meanwhile, daughter age 1 is crying… she has been crying since the moment they got on the plane and to my despair will cry until the minute we land.  About half way through the flight, 3 year old daughter starts to cry… Mommy decides that laughter is better than tears so to incite some laughter starts to tickle her daughter leading to the desired laughter… however this is that loud shrieking high pitched laughter that one emits when being tickled….

Now, pretend that you are on this plane for a minute…. the flight is 3 1/2 hours long…

When we landed, I was so happy to be home, I almost kissed the ground…. Parents, please drug your children before bringing them on plane rides if you know that they will be disruptive…. I love kids, but there is always a line somewhere…

No comments »

Posted in Uncategorized

Call the Landlord!

June 5th, 2009 by Just Call Me Lungs 3 comments »

Back in November I became a first-time home owner.  Thanks to the National Association of REALTORS®,  I bought into the hype that “It’s a Good Time to Buy.”  Sure, it’s only a condo, but it’s all mine and I get to do what I want with it.  Well, to the inside…although, I can’t knock down walls, or my upstairs neighbors might fall through the ceiling.  And I can get new windows…but only a certain type.  But I foiled their rules about outside changes and got myself a doormat.  Yeah!  Take that!

houseinhands

Being a new homeowner means that I’ve had a lot of work to do.  When I moved in, all the walls were one generic color.  The carpet in the bedroom, while newer, was an ugly shade of blue.  There was an accordion door on the closet.  And the light fixtures, well…lets just say I didn’t want my kitchen looking like a high school cafeteria.  And the utility closet…just…nasty.

And so, with the help of a small army of friends, I went to work.  Got new carpet installed.  Removed the accordion door.  Painted every room.  Threw out the nasty stuff in the utility closet.  Put in new shelves in various places. Put up stuff on the walls.  Replaced all the outlets, switches, and light fixtures…well, I didn’t…I actually just watched (thanks Jones)…but I went to home depot to buy the stuff!   Cleaned all over the place. 

What I DO miss about being a renter though is having a landlord.  Toilet not working?  Call the landlord.  Squirrel in the attic?  Call the landlord.  Drippy faucet?  Call the landlord.  The landlord was good for so many things…but guess what?  Now I’m the landlord…I gotta call myself.  It’s kinda like at work when I run into a problem and the solution the help manual give is “Call your Network Administrator”…but that’s me!!!

So now I face the problem of having my entire shower re-tiled and 2 walls replace due to water damage and mold.  One day water just started pouring out of my wall every time I turned the shower on…like a mysterious waterfall.  Turns out the pipe was messed up.  Hey landlord, call a plumber!  Oh wait, that’s me…darn!  And so I must call the plumber, insurance company, must get quotes, must schedule contractors…must do it all.  But hey, that’s what I signed up for.  I’m a “homeowner” now…me and my 1%, the bank and it’s 99%.   I think I should be able to call the bank and have them come do the work…they own most of it anyway.

I wanna hear your homeowner horror stories, and how you made the decision to jump from renter to buyer!  Or are you really a landlord with some great tenant stories? Share below!

3 comments »

Posted in Life, Living in NJ

Tags:

The Best…ever.

May 27th, 2009 by Banks 2 comments »

Butter vs. Margarine,
Paper vs. plastic,
White vs. wheat,
Big mac vs. whopper,

All subjective, all part of Americana. You pick a side and you defend it to the point where the plastic user wouldn’t use paper if it they had to wipe with it. The same goes for sports.

The great debate in sports is who’s the greatest. Season in, season out, all teams and athletes strive for that number one spot. Which brings us to our topic of discussion today, class – WHO IS THE GREATEST ATHLETE OF ALL TIME?

Digression – I got into this because the NBA playoffs, for once, are actually interesting. Many nail-biting, buzzer shot winning, overtime games (in case you haven’t been paying attention) and the buzz surrounding a possible Kobe/Lebron finals has got me thinking about the best, of any sport, ever. Funny that basketball fits in here because….

Michael Jordan is the greatest athlete of all time. Period, end of story…Sshhh.

What? Is that really so hard to believe? Go ahead; keep shouting at your screen how much you think _________ is so much better. NOW QUIET DOWN FANBOY!

Sure, back in the day dude/dudette was legendary, and Tiger Woods and Lance are great now, among the best ever in their sport…but Mr. Jordan transcended his sport. Think about it, how many times do you hear Tiger Woods compared to Michael Jordan as opposed to other great golfers like Jack Niklaus? Kobe and Lebron play against each other, but even then who are they really playing against?
Great athletes get endorsements, Jordan gets his own sister brand complete with his own logo from Nike. Great athletes win championships. Jordan wins 3 in a row on 2 separate occasions and gets the MVP award every time.

Still not convinced? Credentials: http://www.bestbythenumbers.com/2006/07/athlete-number-23-michael-jordan.html

And just like the ball in the hands of “His Airness”, here’s the game-breaker…in the movie Space Jam when the MonStars stole the talent of 5 NBA players (2 of whom are among the 50 greatest all time) and challenged the Looney Toons to a game a basketball to wager their slavery at an alien theme park – Bugs and company recruited a retired baseball playing Michael Jordan 2 years removed from the sport of basketball to save them all…and they won (sorry if you didn’t see it) They could have had ANYONE, they took Mike.

He had his own McDonald’s burger AND his own song. Just last night, when the NHL wanted him to show up in a Chicago Blackhawks jersey, he had them remove the Reebok logo (Reebok produces all NHL jerseys) and they did so willingly.
Only fitting too that on the night that he was inducted to the basketball hall of fame in 2009, his former college team the North Carolina Tarheels won the NCAA championship (then again, they were only playing Michigan State. What?)

Since you can’t possibly provide any evidence to counter my assertion feel free to try me on my other picks: Butter, plastic, wheat, Big Mac.

How’s that cake taste?
Banks
PS – We’re officially on Twitter @isthereanycake

2 comments »

Posted in Athletes, Debates, Facts, Sports

Tags:

Lactic Acid + Garmin = Good Times

May 13th, 2009 by Just Call Me Lungs 3 comments »

“Lactic Acid!!!”  Back in high school track and cross country this was one of our favorite battle cries and was trudged through tortuous workouts.  If it don’t hurt, it ain’t working…or so our thoughts were back then.  Our workouts were hard and fast, but in the end they paid off.  Some of my personal bests include a 4:56 mile, 2:07 half mile, and 17:31 5K.  Not that those are wow, super-speed world-class times, but they’re not too shabby either.

trackshoes-smallWell, high school is far behind me…well, not that far…I’m only 29…but the speed of those days is behind me.  Or is it?  Yesterday was my first speed workout since…well, since high school.  I’ve started a new training program to get my half marathon time down to my goal of 1:44.  Up to now my best is 1:50:27.   That time was at the Long Branch Half Marathon – 2008 edition.  So it’s been a year, and I’m ready to chase after that new goal.  I’m hoping to get there by the Virginia Beach Rock N Roll Half Marathon on September 6 I’m doing with Team in Training.

So back to the speed workout.  My workout was to be a 5 minute warm-up, followed by 7×400M repeats with a 2 minute jog in between each, followed by a 5 minute cool-down.  I was wondering how I was going to do this without a track.  So I’m poking around my Garmin, and BONUS!, it can do interval workouts…complete with warm-ups, cool downs, and “rest” time in between intervals.  AMAZING.  I was so excited to get out there and do my thing…to see where my body was.  It even does like countdown beeping when you’re almost done with an interval or a rest period, and a little “finished” jingle at the end.  I LOVE MY GARMIN!

So my final times for the 400s were 1:35, 1:29, 1:28, 1:37, 1:30, 1:37, 2:05.  I had to just run the last one normal  because my thigh started to twinge a little.  But I was definitely impressed with myself…I haven’t run that fast in ages.  I’m definitely looking forward to my training over the next 15 or so weeks, and I’m looking forward to the race.   The lactic acid definitely made itself known last night, but all in all it was a good time.

3 comments »

Posted in Running

Tags:

Running in the Rain

May 5th, 2009 by Just Call Me Lungs 8 comments »

This past weekend I ran the Long Branch Half Marathon (www.njmarathon.org) in Long Branch, New Jersey.  It was the wettest half marathon I’ve ever run…the only other wet one being when I ran the same race last year.  But lets be honest…running in the rain is what we used to love to do as kids, and now you can do it as an adult without anyone thinking your crazy.  They just think you’re crazy for running a half marathon.  Perhaps we are crazy, those 9,000 of us who were out there in the rain, but if so, than I’m OK with it.

Last year I ran a 1:50:27, a PR for me.  This year?  2:55.  1 Hour, 5 minutes slower.  You’d think I’d be disappointed.  You’d think perhaps that I got injured during the run.  You’d think I wouldn’t want to let people know my time.  Well, you’d be wrong.

This year I had the honor of helping my girlfriend achieve her PR in the race.  Together, through almost 3 hours of rain and wind, we pushed through it all to help her knock 21 minutes over her previous time.  That, by anyone’s standards, is an amazing feat.  What made it even more amazing was that in the 14 weeks we were training, she missed 2.5 weeks due to sickness, one week due to vacation, and struggled throughout with a resurgence of asthma.  But through it all, she stayed focus and positive, and I’m proud to say she kicked some butt!

See, happiness in running is not always found through your own successes.  Sometimes, and probably the luckiest of times, happiness in running is found through someone else’s achievements, through someone else reaching their goal.  I was proud and excited to help her reach her goal, but not only that, I actually was able to enjoy the race.  I wasn’t huffing and puffing and hurting and struggling to reach a new PR for me.  I was able to run easy, and take time to enjoy the simple act of running.  I was able to fully appreciate the beauty of 9,000 mostly complete strangers coming together for one purpose, one goal…to cross the finish line.  Sometimes when you’re too focused on yourself, you miss the bigger, and oftentimes greater, picture. 

Take the time to help someone else reach their goal.  Through their achievement, you too will feel like you accomplished something great.

 

“A life isn’t significant except for its impact on other lives.” 
 - Jackie Robinson

8 comments »

Posted in Running

Tags: