Sorry It's Been So Long!

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't posted in a while. I have been pretty busy. Having been out of town for 3 weeks straight, Melissa & I needed a few days to "veg out" to recharge our batteries. Fortunately these came during weekends in which the weather was less than great. Work has been a little hectic with our new website that we have coming online at the end of the year. I have been coding like crazy and have been coordinating several people collecting and entering data into our new product database. I can't wait to unveil it and it will blow our current website away!

With the upcoming seasons change that means that College and Pro Football are right around the corner. I love this time of year since I get to watch the Fighting Irish on Saturdays and the Bills on Sundays courtesy of our discounted NFL Sunday Ticket (IN HD). I hope both teams do well this year and speaking of the Bills we have started watching "The T.O. Show" on VH1. Watching the show gives me the opportunity to see a lot of places I know. It has also begun to make me homesick for the great place we call Buffalo. My wife's father thinks I am crazy for loving the city so much but what can I say?

Since the MLB 5k (pictures to the left) is over the next race that we will begin training for is the Niagara Falls International Mini-Marathon. I plan to twitter about my progress during the race (as I do during most of my races) and will post our times and hopefully some photos from it when we are done. Well, hope this post has quenched your thirst for posts for now. I will post some more this weekend.

Running with April & Shoulder Injury

This past week I've started running short distances with April so we can burn off a little bit more of that puppy energy on our walks. I've been running with her no more than a half a mile 2-3 times a week. I figure I will work her up to a mile. She is little so I don't want to wear her down too much!

The training had been going well until this past Saturday, although I didn't know anything was wrong until Sunday. At some point during our Saturday run I sprained my shoulder when I was running with her. I was in so much pain Sunday that I couldn't even lay down without my shoulder bothering me. I had a hard time sleeping Sunday night and when I woke up Monday it was no better so I made an appointment with my doctor to have it looked at. I was looking to avoid a serious injury before we begin our half marathon training. She diagnosed me with a sprain and gave me some exercises and some pain killers to help me get better. I guess I need to get more focused on strength training if I'm going to run with my little running buddy!!!

MLB All-Star 5k Results are In!!!

Well the results are in and I finished at 31:21.  Here is a link to the results.  More to follow as I now have to drive back to Melissa and April in Cincy, cya soon guys!.

MLB All-Star 5k is Tomorrow!!!

I am so excited for the race tomorrow. I am wearing one of the new RFD chips for timing so I think that will make the times get reported much faster (at least it did for the Sunburst 10k). I should probably be in bed by now and I think I am going to get some sleep. I'll post the MLB All-Star 5k results asap! Wish me luck & night!!!

Random Thoughts While On The Road!!!

As I traveled across 3 states today and my way towards St. Louis for the MLB All Star Game 5k I started having random thoughts and ponder on them and I thought I would share them.
1. Shouldn't someone fine either the trucking company and/or the truck drivers for all the shreds of tires that litter our roadways?
2. There should be another qualifier for being labeled "International" for airports. A couple flights to canada shouldn't cut it for the Terra Haute Airport.
3. When you are a kid 70 miles on a car trip seems like an eternity. As and adult, anything under 300 doesn't seem that bad and on most major highways 70 miles is 1 hour of driving.
4. Why the hell are there so many dam weigh stations on the side of the road if the are not going to be used & even if the are used I only ever see one cop car the usually so if someone is transporting something illegally are you really going to shut down the weigh station and take off after him/her?
5. DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT drive 10 miles under the speed limit in the left hand lane and then give me a dirty look as I and my fellow motorist fly by you. You are not doing some sort of public service, JUST MOVE!!!

Sent from my Blackberry^®

Car Troubles & MLB All-Star 5k Run Against Cancer!!!

Yesterday afternoon on my way home from work my car started to shutter and the S.E.S light came on so we did some research online and found that a Po303 error (thanks to AutoZone) was a cylinder 3 misfire. We also found out that 75% of the time replacing the spark plugs fixes the problem so I bought new plugs (trip number 2 to AutoZone) and returned home to put them into the car, however when I returned home I found I didn't have a long enough ratchet extension to get to the spark plugs to take them out. I returned to AutoZone (trip number 3) and was able to get them out of the engine finally but found that that was not my problem. I asked the knowledgeable clerk behind the counter where he would take it if it was his car and he mentioned a place in town called Cook's Auto Service. I called them and set up an appointment for an early morning drop off. I was told he would get to Dx'ing it later on today but might not get to fixing it till the end of the day or possibly tomorrow. I was anxious and figured I would call at 11 am to see if he had looked at it yet and he said, "Yep it's fixed!" Now I would have been ready for a fight because he fixed it without getting approval for the repair but when he told me the number $150 I was ok with the speed repair, considering the amount it could have been. We picked it up this evening and everything is running smoothly. Now I am OK to go out of town this weekend to run in the 1^st MLB All-Star 5k Run Against Cancer in St. Louis. I will post the results of the race after I complete it!

Saturday Tour Around St. Louis!!!

After our plan to surprise Aunt Nett was a success, Melissa and I planned on having a fun day site-seeing around St. Louis Saturday, however the rain we got tried to make us make other arrangements. The rain did finally subside and we were off to visit the Arch, the St. Louis Science Center, & Union Station. Before we started sightseeing we went to a local pub in Laclede's Landing for lunch and then we were off to be screened by security twice and then on our way up to the top of the Arch. Knowing that Melissa is claustrophobic I was surprised that she was able to make it up to the top of the Arch. Once at the top of the Arch I pointed out the several downtown landmarks to Melissa and we hung out for a little bit and then we left the Arch for the Science Center.

We rode the Metro to the Science Center and we had a little bet about where to get off to be the closest to the Science Center since my sister said we should drive to the Science Center. Turns out our idea was better since we didn't have to walk very far (2 - 3 blocks) to get there and the money we would have paid to park would have been more than our subway tickets. Melissa is always fun during a museum/Science Center visit since she is big into interesting things like science and history. We saw several exhibits and did the traditional Science Center thing by purchasing some freeze dried ice cream :-). After leaving the Science Center, we went to Union Station to see the Fudge Makers make fudge and to do a little shopping however we arrived shortly before 6 so shopping was pretty much out of the picture. All in all, it was a great trip to St. Louis, Melissa and I had a great time! I will post pictures from our trip soon.

Happy 80th Birthday Aunt Nett & SURPRISE!

This July 3^rd Melissa and I set out early in the morning to travel to Columbia, Illinois to see/suprise my Aunt Nett for her 80^th birthday. My mom was the only one who knew that we were coming to visit. It took us a little under 5 & a 1/2 hours but we made it. We went and checked into the hotel room rested for a bit and then got changed for the party. We showed up to the party, not even my sister knew we were coming and we walked in the door and my Aunt Nett was talking to someone so I had to wait a minute until Jennifer pointed her to me and said who is that. My Aunt Nett spotted me and started to cry and said, "Oh Gregory, I haven't seen you in ages!" We talked for a bit and I got to see my Uncle's, Bill & Larry, and several other aunts and uncles that I hadn't seen in a long time due to not having much vacation.
After the party, we went and saw Jennifer's new house and I took Melissa for a tour around Waterloo. I showed my old grade school, Ahne's Bakery, the post office, our old house, and several other local landmarks, there are not many in Waterloo :-). We then went back to the hotel and partook in a St. Louis tradition, Imo's Pizza! I would say that my listings of pizza would be:

1. La Nova Pizza & Wings - Buffalo, NY - Link.
2. Imo' s Pizza - St. Louis, Mo area - Link.
3. Bob & John's La Hacienda - Buffalo, NY - Link.

It was a close race between Imo's and Bob & John's but I think this recent taste test put Imo's on top. More to come tomorrow.