10. No matter how hard you hope and try it will inevitably rain at least once turn your summer trip to Florida.
9. Shell beaches are way more uncomfortable than sandy beaches.
8. It never fails someone will get into an argument if your trip involves teenagers.
7. You will get burnt even if you have sunscreen.
6. Churros are basically chew sticks of Cinnamon and sugar.
5. Always jump in the single riders line as it likely will be extremely shorter than the main lines.
4. Loss Of Use is a big con by rental companies to try and get you to purchase their insurance coverage (your personal insurance will cover it).
3. Security screening @ the airport @ 5 in the morning is a breeze & moving walkways in airports are not rides, move.
2. Saltwater + Blackberry = Corrosion + $50 for a new blackberry.
1. Witnessing and trying to help out after a 4 car accident that left a father & 2 kids losing their wife/mother can really put things in perspective.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Florida Vacation Day 1!!!
We left Cincinnati @ 7:30 am to make our flight @ 11 am. We took off on time & landed 10 minutes early. Melissa made a comment that "Airplane Seats Are Quite Rooming Having Lost +30 lbs. We picked up the rental car and were off to pick up Nick & Alex to go to the beach. We got to the beach and headed into the warm water. It was great to be on vacation!!! We hung out at the beach for an hour before heading for dinner, because it was close to 6 PM. We had dinner at Crabby Bills. Back to apt. for some shut eye! More to come!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Adventures in Dog Sitting
So the munchkin's crazy illnesses resume. If you recall when we first got her she had hookworms, coccidia and giardia all in the first month we had her. We've also made a couple of donations the ASPCA poison control hotline because she has gotten ahold of something she shouldn't.
Our adventures with her health have continued this past month. Three weeks ago we noticed April was peeing much more often than usual on our walk. I'd heard from someone at work that if dogs do this they often times have UTIs. So we took her to the vet, got a UTI dx and started treating her with antibiotics. We also found out from the vet that she had two types of oxylate crystals in her urine which could lead to stones in her bladder. Sometimes the crystals are a product of the UTI, sometimes stones.
Two weeks later, we broght back another urine sample and the vet called within an hour and said one type of the crystals had cleared up but she still had calcium oxylate crystals and she wanted to bring her in for a urine culture (they get the sample right out of the bladder somehow) and an x-ray of the bladder to check for stones. I asked if it was normal to have a dog so young have stones and she said no but normally dogs this young don't have crystals either. So we made an appointment to take April to the vet Monday for the testing.
In the meantime when we were playing with her on Sunday we noticed she had a little cough whenever we got her running really fast. We didn't think too much of it but it concerned me enough to mention it on Monday as I was dropping her off. I figured it might be allergies or possible a collapsed trachea (which is very common in small dogs - not harmful).
I got a call from the vet a few hours later and was happy to learn that April did not have any stones in her bladder! We have to wait on the results of the urine culture to determine how to further treat the UTI symptoms. Yahoo, no surgery!! However, the vet tech asked a couple more questions about the cough and conferred with the vet and came back and told me she has KENNEL COUGH. I asked how she could have gotten this, she has had no exposure to dogs in the past month and she received the vaccine a couple months ago. After some more discussion we determined that she got it at the groomer the week before and I learned that the kennel cough vaccine does not provide 100% protection from the disease.
At this point I was a little panicked. We are going to Florida in 3 days and had made an appointment to drop her off at the PetSmart pet hotel, I knew they would not take her now. As I was asking the tech if she thought they would take and her and wondering what I was going to do, she started to tell me that the techs at the vet's office will often board client's dogs for them while they are away. I asked if she was one of the ones that does it and she does and if she was available this weekend. She was and she has two dogs as well. Although the kennel cough is very contagious she was not worried about April transmitting it to her dogs since they'd both had the vaccine and she had such a mild case. She told me a bit about her dogs and we made arrangements to drop April off tonight.
I was a bit apprehensive about leaving April for this trip but when we got there and she started to play with the other dogs I felt much better. She was running around and exploring and in general just having a good time.
We are headed to Florida in the morning and as much as I am going to miss the dog, I know we left her in good hands. I cannot wait to relax and have some fun in the sun!
Our adventures with her health have continued this past month. Three weeks ago we noticed April was peeing much more often than usual on our walk. I'd heard from someone at work that if dogs do this they often times have UTIs. So we took her to the vet, got a UTI dx and started treating her with antibiotics. We also found out from the vet that she had two types of oxylate crystals in her urine which could lead to stones in her bladder. Sometimes the crystals are a product of the UTI, sometimes stones.
Two weeks later, we broght back another urine sample and the vet called within an hour and said one type of the crystals had cleared up but she still had calcium oxylate crystals and she wanted to bring her in for a urine culture (they get the sample right out of the bladder somehow) and an x-ray of the bladder to check for stones. I asked if it was normal to have a dog so young have stones and she said no but normally dogs this young don't have crystals either. So we made an appointment to take April to the vet Monday for the testing.
In the meantime when we were playing with her on Sunday we noticed she had a little cough whenever we got her running really fast. We didn't think too much of it but it concerned me enough to mention it on Monday as I was dropping her off. I figured it might be allergies or possible a collapsed trachea (which is very common in small dogs - not harmful).
I got a call from the vet a few hours later and was happy to learn that April did not have any stones in her bladder! We have to wait on the results of the urine culture to determine how to further treat the UTI symptoms. Yahoo, no surgery!! However, the vet tech asked a couple more questions about the cough and conferred with the vet and came back and told me she has KENNEL COUGH. I asked how she could have gotten this, she has had no exposure to dogs in the past month and she received the vaccine a couple months ago. After some more discussion we determined that she got it at the groomer the week before and I learned that the kennel cough vaccine does not provide 100% protection from the disease.
At this point I was a little panicked. We are going to Florida in 3 days and had made an appointment to drop her off at the PetSmart pet hotel, I knew they would not take her now. As I was asking the tech if she thought they would take and her and wondering what I was going to do, she started to tell me that the techs at the vet's office will often board client's dogs for them while they are away. I asked if she was one of the ones that does it and she does and if she was available this weekend. She was and she has two dogs as well. Although the kennel cough is very contagious she was not worried about April transmitting it to her dogs since they'd both had the vaccine and she had such a mild case. She told me a bit about her dogs and we made arrangements to drop April off tonight.
I was a bit apprehensive about leaving April for this trip but when we got there and she started to play with the other dogs I felt much better. She was running around and exploring and in general just having a good time.
We are headed to Florida in the morning and as much as I am going to miss the dog, I know we left her in good hands. I cannot wait to relax and have some fun in the sun!
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
2 Days Till Florida!!!
Well, Melissa and I are off to Florida in a few days. April is staying at a Vet tech's house since she picked up Kennel Cough from somewhere! It should be a fun trip. We are going to go to the beach and do a bunch of fun things with Melissa's brothers, Nick and Alex. We have decided that we are not taking a laptop for either one of us and we won't be checking work emails either. After these past 2 days at work I need this vacation. Our website hosting company was hacked leaving our site vulnerable and causing issues to any end users that tried to access our site. It has been a real headache seeing as how I haven't been able to do any real "work" for 2 whole days.
This weekend Melissa and I watched the US Open that we had tickets to but chose not to go to. It's a good thing we didn't because with all the rain delays we likely would have missed a lot of golf. I was introduced to the Jello Caramel Pudding snack this weeked. We saw the Chocolate and Vanilla version on The Biggest Loser and the sugar free variety with some whipped cream on to makes for a 80 calories snack that is pretty good. I'ld say try it some time, its good! Well we will try and post some from Florida but we just might be having too much fun to be able to post. Talk to you later.
This weekend Melissa and I watched the US Open that we had tickets to but chose not to go to. It's a good thing we didn't because with all the rain delays we likely would have missed a lot of golf. I was introduced to the Jello Caramel Pudding snack this weeked. We saw the Chocolate and Vanilla version on The Biggest Loser and the sugar free variety with some whipped cream on to makes for a 80 calories snack that is pretty good. I'ld say try it some time, its good! Well we will try and post some from Florida but we just might be having too much fun to be able to post. Talk to you later.Saturday, June 20, 2009
Old Navy Tank Tops
Today Old Navy had women's tank tops on sale for $2 each!!! None of mine fit anymore since I've lost so much weight. We got there at 8:00 just in case it was crazy like the $1 flip flop sale had been. We were first in line and by the time they opened there were probably 30-40 people waiting but it was pretty much a non-event. We got right in grabbed what we needed paid and got right out.
I replenished my stock for $20 bucks!! I love Old Navy's sales.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Thoughts on the Sunburst...
This past weekend Melissa & I ran the Sunburst 10k and I wanted to say a few things to go along with this events passing. First, I was really mad at myself for having walked 1/8th of a mile around mile marker 5. I thought I had failed since I couldn't run the whole race from start to finish, like Melissa did but I got to thinking and realized something. I realized that last year I could only barely run 1 mile before I had to stop and walk because I was so out of breath I couldn't breathe. When you look at my walk in that light, I would say that it doesn't seem so bad. Second, Melissa and I both blew our times from last year completely out of the water by improving on our overall pace times by approximately 2 whole minutes, which is quite an accomplishment. Third, and this sort of goes along with my first comment, Melissa and I ran this race "together."
What I mean by that is last year we needed each other to keep the other going in the race and not giving up. This year we decided that we didn't need to run together and that we could both run at our own pace and I believe the fact that we finished the race and that we were within a couple minutes of each other shows how much we have both grown as runners and as people/competitors as a whole. Finally, if there is ever any doubt about whether or not either one of us can do anything, I think the picture to the right says it all, enjoy the other pictures from this weekend below.
What I mean by that is last year we needed each other to keep the other going in the race and not giving up. This year we decided that we didn't need to run together and that we could both run at our own pace and I believe the fact that we finished the race and that we were within a couple minutes of each other shows how much we have both grown as runners and as people/competitors as a whole. Finally, if there is ever any doubt about whether or not either one of us can do anything, I think the picture to the right says it all, enjoy the other pictures from this weekend below.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Melissa's Sunburst Experience
Today's race day began with a flurry of activity. Greg and I knew we had to get up at 6:00 am in order to get everything together and to be in front of the College Football Hall of Fame for the 10k this morning. We got up, showered and got dressed in record time (for us) and rushed out the door at 6:50 so we could get to downtown South Bend for our 10k, which was set to begin at 7:45. By the time we got down there of course there was no parking available (because the gun time for the 5k was 7:15), so we ended up parking in front of the house my Dad lived in before he moved to Florida, which he is currently renting out. As we made the mile trek to the Hall of Fame we ran into the runners beginning the 5k and had to cut down a couple different streets to avoid the onslaught of people! We got to the Hall of Fame and took a couple of pre-race photos so we could remember the race and then got in line and we were off!
Of course Greg was gone like a shot out of the starting gate. He tends to run faster than I do so we've decided we will run separately for these races so we can see how we do time wise. I expect he will always be faster than me, after all he is 8 inches taller than I am! As we got going I also got caught in a glut of people that were going a little bit slower than I generally pace myself at and it took me about the first 1/4 mile to be able to get to the outside so I could find a group of people that was running at my pace so I could effectively pace myself. I was very excited when we got to mile marker one and I realized I was really doing this. Granted we've been running 6-7 miles every Sunday for the past month but to actually be running a distance in a real race was an incredible feeling for me. This was also where we went up our first hill. I was dreading the hills since last year this was the part of the 5k that totally killed us (other than not being as in shape as we wanted to be). I went up that hill like a champ and continued the run down the St. Joe river enjoying the scenery and thinking about the finish line. Around mile marker 3 the guy that was leading the actual marathon passed us with his 2 cop escort. It was neat to realize I was running with elite athletes! As we were running through some of the South Bend neighborhoods it was fun to see the families on their front lawns cheering the runners on! My favorite yards however were the ones where the sprinklers were placed at the edge of the yard so you could run through it and cool off slightly. The next couple of miles were fairly uneventful until I reached the point where we made the turn up the hill that nearly killed me last year. I ran up it with no problems and nearly cried as I realized how far we have come in the past 5 months. We have really worked for this and I felt incredible. When I got to mile marker 5 I knew I was really going to run the whole thing and I sped up. There is a point where you make a turn and all you see ahead is the Golden Dome of Notre Dame and it was an awesome feeling to be able to run towards it and know that I was going to end up running across the 50 yard line at Notre Dame stadium. From this point forward I picked up my pace a little bit and started running faster towards the stadium. As I approached the ND tunnel I reached a full on sprint and flew through the tunnel out on the field. I could see the finish line and there was Greg with the camera waiting for me! I ran across the finish line and all I could do was just hug him because I was so proud of us! This was quite a contrast to last year when I felt so awful after the race I didn't want anyone to touch me.
Greg's parents were there to greet us but as I looked around the stadium I couldn't see them. So we loaded up on some post race fruit and popsicles and ventured into the stadium to find them. When we finally spotted them we realized they brought our puppy in with them to greet us! It was so great to see her after our run. She greeted us with lots of kisses and love. We sat back listened to some music, enjoyed our snacks and watched some of the marathoners finish before we took April back out on the 2 mile trek back to the car.
All in all it was a great race. I was kind of disapointed in the mile markers, they did not do a very good job of marking them so you knew clearly which race they were for which was a little frustrating. I loved the Meijer post race food and look forward to coming back next Spring to run again!
Of course Greg was gone like a shot out of the starting gate. He tends to run faster than I do so we've decided we will run separately for these races so we can see how we do time wise. I expect he will always be faster than me, after all he is 8 inches taller than I am! As we got going I also got caught in a glut of people that were going a little bit slower than I generally pace myself at and it took me about the first 1/4 mile to be able to get to the outside so I could find a group of people that was running at my pace so I could effectively pace myself. I was very excited when we got to mile marker one and I realized I was really doing this. Granted we've been running 6-7 miles every Sunday for the past month but to actually be running a distance in a real race was an incredible feeling for me. This was also where we went up our first hill. I was dreading the hills since last year this was the part of the 5k that totally killed us (other than not being as in shape as we wanted to be). I went up that hill like a champ and continued the run down the St. Joe river enjoying the scenery and thinking about the finish line. Around mile marker 3 the guy that was leading the actual marathon passed us with his 2 cop escort. It was neat to realize I was running with elite athletes! As we were running through some of the South Bend neighborhoods it was fun to see the families on their front lawns cheering the runners on! My favorite yards however were the ones where the sprinklers were placed at the edge of the yard so you could run through it and cool off slightly. The next couple of miles were fairly uneventful until I reached the point where we made the turn up the hill that nearly killed me last year. I ran up it with no problems and nearly cried as I realized how far we have come in the past 5 months. We have really worked for this and I felt incredible. When I got to mile marker 5 I knew I was really going to run the whole thing and I sped up. There is a point where you make a turn and all you see ahead is the Golden Dome of Notre Dame and it was an awesome feeling to be able to run towards it and know that I was going to end up running across the 50 yard line at Notre Dame stadium. From this point forward I picked up my pace a little bit and started running faster towards the stadium. As I approached the ND tunnel I reached a full on sprint and flew through the tunnel out on the field. I could see the finish line and there was Greg with the camera waiting for me! I ran across the finish line and all I could do was just hug him because I was so proud of us! This was quite a contrast to last year when I felt so awful after the race I didn't want anyone to touch me.
Greg's parents were there to greet us but as I looked around the stadium I couldn't see them. So we loaded up on some post race fruit and popsicles and ventured into the stadium to find them. When we finally spotted them we realized they brought our puppy in with them to greet us! It was so great to see her after our run. She greeted us with lots of kisses and love. We sat back listened to some music, enjoyed our snacks and watched some of the marathoners finish before we took April back out on the 2 mile trek back to the car.
All in all it was a great race. I was kind of disapointed in the mile markers, they did not do a very good job of marking them so you knew clearly which race they were for which was a little frustrating. I loved the Meijer post race food and look forward to coming back next Spring to run again!
2009 Sunburst 10k Done & Results Are In!!!
| Well this morning we ran in the 2009 Sunburst 10k race. Melissa and I did well. I finish the race in 1:03:52 (would have been shorter if I hadn't walked a 1/8 of a mile. Melissa (who ran the whole think :-) way to go honey) ran it in 1:06:35. I am so proud of both of us for completing this race. This was a goal we set out to accomplish at the beginning of the year and I was scared it wasn't going to happen along the way, but I am very happy that we stuck with it and completed the task. | ||||||
| Bib | FName | ChipTime | Overall | Sex Pl | Div Pl | Pace |
| 3268 | Gregory | 1:03:52 | 852 | 478 | 68 | 10:18/M |
| 3269 | Melissa | 1:06:35 | 926 | 423 | 94 | 10:44/M |
Monday, June 1, 2009
RedLegs 5k Results & Overall Progress
Well we finished our second race of the year and are ready for the Sunburst 10k next week. Check out our times compaired to the Flying Pig 5k.
| Position | Division | Division Place | Sex Place | Name | Time | Pace | Difference |
| 1314 | M -30 - 34 | 144 | 863 | Gregory | 0:29:53 | 9:39 | :29 |
| 1572 | F -25 - 29 | 170 | 598 | Melissa | 0:31:33 | 10:11 | :28 |
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Redlegs 5k Race Day!
 |  |
Monday, May 25, 2009
Memorial Day Weekend
This weekend Melissa and I had a lot of fun. Saturday we went and did not participate in the recession by going to Old Navy and buying flip flops for $1.00 each. Next, we went to Trader Joe's to buy some salsa and a few other things. After that we went and picked up our registration packets for the Redlegs 5K. We have the Redlegs 5k this weekend and then next weekend we have the Sunburst 10k, I am so excited!
Sunday started off with Melissa & I running 7 miles in preparation for our Mini-Marathon in October. After that we went to church and then Subway for lunch. We then watched Transporter 3 and then went to Cheeseburger In Paradise for dinner with a friend of Melissa's from Buffalo. She brought her 2 grand daughters with them who you can see in the picture to the right. This is always fun since she brings us a case of the best beer from North America, Labatt's Blue Light. We also got Troyer Farm's cheese puffs, Bison's Chip Dip, & Sahlen's hot dogs.
Monday, we went to Play it Again sports and picked up some free weights and a medicine ball. We have decided to turn our former spare bedroom into a workout and exercise room! We keep you updated as to it's progress. We managed to get April out for her walk before it rained and we will be running inside a couple of miles to finish out our weekend. Tonight's dinner consists of our usual weekend favorite, blackend salmon, sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Zip N Steam
Another nifty product we have discovered is the Ziploc Zip N Steam Bags. Since we both work we try to take as much of the guess work out of "what's for dinner" as we can. I can't count the number of times Greg is on the other end of the phone at work asking that question! We discovered these nifty little bags when we were watching The Biggest Loser and decided to give them a shot and we love them.
You can pick them up in the grocery store and prepare them a week ahead of time. We use them for steaming our veggies. We pick up 5 dinners worth of veggies at the grocery store, package them up in the bags on Sunday and pull them out and throw them in the microwave for the amount of time it says on the bag and bam in 3-5 minutes fresh steamed veggies and they haven't lost all of their nutrients. This makes one third (every meal must consist of three items - not sure why, it's just always been that way - Greg even notices when I don't have a "third") of the dinner planning a piece of cake!
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Fun Weekend!
Melissa & I had a great weekend. Yesterday, we started out the day by going to Dream Dinners which is a place where you can go to order pre-packaged meals that you can freeze and then pull out of the freezer, defrost, and the cook and serve. What happens when you go is you don't just pick up the food and leave they have several stations set up for you to prepare the food yourselves! Melissa and I had a blast and loved doing this. We ended up with about 12 - 15 meals which will help out tremendously when Melissa is working late hours at her job next month. We will let you know how they come out.
After that we made a trip to Old Navy because we both needed another pair of pants due to our recent weight loss. I was happy to find out that the size 38 pants that I put on were too loose, so I had to try on a size 36 which fit! It has been a long time since I have put on a pair of pants that are size 36 and have them fit. Then we placed some bets on the Preakness, darn Rachel Alexandra and Mine that Bird :-( & came back home to rest for a little bit.
After watching some TV we went out to ride bikes at a local airport which has a 5 mile loop and we figured we could do at least 2 laps without a problem. After doing 1 lap we decided that we would only do one more lap which turned out to be a sign of things to come. Before we left it was nice and sunny outside with nothing on the radar. Around mile marker 8 the sky started to get really dark and we tried to pedal faster back to the car but we didn't make it. Luckily we found a nearby doorway to a local business that we could hide under from the rain. The main reason we were hiding is Melissa had her body bugg on which cannot get wet and if it did we would have to replace it. So being the nice guy that I am I told Melissa to stay there and I would pedal back to the car and come and pick her up. I was almost back to the car when the sky decided to open up completely soaking me, it sucked. We finished the day with some blackened salmon, corn on the cob, and sweet potatoes.
Sunday morning we went out and practiced for the 10k in June by running 6 miles straight, the most we have ever run straight. We were able to do it and it was a breeze and we both made great time. Melissa and I should be right on target for the Sunburst 10k. We then went to church, stopped by Subway for lunch and came back to the apartment and while Melissa took April on a walk I decided to make good on my promise and took back the spare bedroom since it has had a disassembled bed in it and we haven't been able to use it for a while. I am happy to report that I am typing this post on the newly relocated desk in the clean up spare bedroom. Tonight we are having ribs for dinner, YUM! Talk to you soon.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Long Time No Blog...
Hello everyone, sorry I haven't blogged in a while. This week has been a complete one. First, I completed work on my company's intranet site, which was launched for beta testing this week to the sales team. I have also started working on a website that combines the company I work for with another company that many might not put together. I can't comment on it now but I will be able to after June 1st, which is how soon I have to make the site live, wish me luck :-)!
Second, we signed up for the Sunburst 10k run, which means there is no turning back now ;-(. I wouldn't turn back now unless I was injured. I find that if I do not run in the evening I miss it! We have been running 5 miles every Sunday for the past 2 weeks and this Sunday we are bumping it up to 6 miles, 10k by the beginning of June won't be a problem! Third, we have also started walking the dog early in the morning. This gets her an early morning walk that should tire her our for the day and it get us a little extra exercise in the process.
Lastly, I want to comment on the ongoing issue of Barack Obama speaking at Notre Dame's commencement. While I do not agree with many of his policies and beliefs I do think that you should not disrupt the importance of the day. If someone feels the need to protest they should either do it peacefully before or after the event. You could even do what someone did when Bush spoke at my commencement in 2001 and silently pray the rosary with your back turned toward him during his speech, I sat 25 feet from this person. It's the celebration of 2-4 long, hard, and challenging years of college, celebrate and enjoy the day and don't let Mr. Obama ruin it for you. More to come this weekend...
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Morning Walk
This week we've added to our early morning schedule. Since it is starting to get warmer out we've decided to take April out for early morning walks. This is a great way to start the day with an early calorie burn and get the puppy's exercise in. She is still a little confused by the early walks, she is accustomed to getting up and going right out. This morning she had to wait until we put our sneaks on and ready to go and she was going bonkers while she waited. Wish us luck on this endeavor, neither one of us enjoys the mornings so this is going to take some adjusting too. We aim to start this about 3 days a week and work our way up to 5.
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