Duf’s Blog

This is my box.  I have had this box for at least 30 years if not longer.  I have no idea where the box came from, who gave it to me or anything else about it’s origination.  I just know it’s my box.  I have a long pattern of holding on to material items for incredibly long periods of time.  This box, my 7th grade camouflage t-shirt and 20 year old lunch box are all good examples.

As you can see my box is adorned with stickers, mostly of NFL teams.  When I was young I had a great idea.  I wrote a letter to each and every team I could get an address for and asked them if they could send me stuff.  Looking back, I am curious how I actually got the addresses to send the letters to since the internet was not around.  Anyway as you can see, several teams responded to my request.  I have stickers from the Saints, Cowboys, Eagles, Broncos, Redskins, Oilers, and one baseball team, the Orioles.

When I started actually receiving these items back in the mail I can’t describe how excited I was.  Getting an envelope filled with stickers and a letter on official team letterhead was more than enough to blow the mind of a kid that just hit double digits in age.  I’m not quite sure how I decided that my box would be an appropriate item to adorn my prized stickers.  All I know is the stickers and the box have been with me forever. Based on the Broncos 1977 AFC Champs sticker my approximate age at that time would have been 10.

Nowadays the box just sits quietly on my computer desk.  For years it has housed diskettes that I no longer need/use.  It also has two expired credit cards as well as the ticket to the Eagles/Panthers NFC championship game I attended.  I need to repurpose the box to hold more valuable items since it holds such a sentimental value to me.  Perhaps when I kick it my ashes could go in it, that would be cool.

This weekend I have more office work from home projects to straighten out.  All week I have been struggling with issues at work, my brain hurts.  Ali is going to be gone a good portion of Saturday so I should have plenty of time to work on stuff.

We might go for a run on Sunday.  Last night I felt a slight twinge in my right ass cheek, surely from my heavy dead lift / power clean session.  I am hoping I am twinge free before I run again.

Ever since I went back to Planet Fitness, home of the lunk alarm, they have had an issue.  By the back door of the gym that leads to the dumpster area, there is a small notch where they have a few pieces of equipment.  That area has always stunk.  I remember back when I rejoined talking to the owner about it.  He said something about how he was all over the management company to get it taken care of.  The smell was distinctly that of sewage.

Well the smell has never gone away and gym staff has tried to address it by putting multiple air fresheners back in that corner which did nothing but make the smell mutate into french vanilla sewage.  Well the past couple days the stench has become more powerful, you could smell it walking in the front door.  The staff had towels around the base of the rear door held down by 25 pound plates, additional stationary air fresheners and a staff member patrolling the area regularly spraying even more air freshener.

You can imagine how disgusting this combination smelled.  I saw somebody up on a ladder looking at pipes in the ceiling.  Hopefully it’s gotten bad enough that they actually address it.  If I owned the place I would be going ballistic on the property owners.  Exactly how many people are you going to sign up if they start to dry heave as they take the tour?

Yesterday at the gym I did some stuff I don’t normally do, power cleans and heavy dead lifts.  A power clean is when you start with a barbell on the ground and wind up with it at shoulder height in front of you.  In one powerful move you bring the weight off the floor and snap it up to your shoulders while dipping your legs a bit.  I did three sets of eight and that was plenty for me.

Dead lifts are a staple exercise in the 300 but they are with a relatively light 135 pounds.  Yesterday I pushed the weight all the way up the 260-270 pound range, doing three reps at the max weight.  It felt good to see an impressive looking amount of weight on the bar and be able to get it from the floor to upright.  However doing heavy dead lifts also can be an express ticket to back pain if you aren’t careful.  It felt good to do these core power moves.  I hope to rotate them into my routine more regularly.  Doing a 300 pound dead lift would be a nice little feather.

All week I have been screwing around with ISA 2006, changing things during the day and then seeing if they work after hours.  I STILL do not have it working.  I have no reason to implement ISA 2006, what I have in place works fine.  But now I am taking this as an insult to my technical prowess, I have to get it working just for personal satisfaction.  I had one small victory last night after I successfully was able to ftp out to the internet through ISA.

  Tonight I am going to mom’s to return her laptop.  Last week her windows install got corrupted somehow.  I reloaded it with the system restore cd’s but I have to get it reconnected to her dsl connection.  I’m going to score a free dinner out of the deal.

I moved the web cam to the top of the grill.  I see that Sadie is working on her tan. 

We have had credit card fraud committed against us twice in the past couple months.  The first time was on Ali’s account that is used for her business.  Not only did they charge bogus items, they also changed the billing address on the card.  Now this past weekend we received an email from American Express about some possible shady charges, including $700 to Dell!  Ali called up and got it cleared up but regardless, it is quite disturbing.

I wonder how strongly the CC companies pursue these cases since they are so numerous?  I would have loved to pursue this person myself.  It wouldn’t be that hard to do, find out what address the Dell computer was going to and you have your criminal.  People that do this are absolute criminals and deserve every ounce of punishment the law allows. 

The next question is where are they getting the CC information from?  Ali and I both use our CC’s freely on the internet.  You never know if one of these vendors has been hacked and in the process exposed your info.  Hell CC info can be stolen by shady clerks, waiters or even skimmers.  I had one situation a year or two ago where a waiter casually padded the tip when he ran the CC, assuming I wouldn’t notice.  People are dirt bags.

I tried to roll out ISA server 2006 into production last night.  During my initial testing last night I was able to ping to and from our branch networks, connect to the internet and open network shares.  Stuff seemed to be working.  Well this morning there were fires everywhere.  People signing on to the network could not do so, it would just sit and spin.  I was unable to connect to our web host via ftp either despite having a rule in place that would clearly seem to allow such access.

I have found ISA server 2006 to be a royal pain in the ass to configure.  The rules which seem logical and simple to create just do not work as they should.  I am getting quite annoyed.

Our weekend once again started very early as we had another 5K to time.  Once again it was COLD with temps in the mid 40’s to start.  The race was small with around 300 registered runners. Timing went well.  We had a few issues but they were all related to human error during the registration process.  It always amazes Ali and I how something that appears to be so simple as registration can get messed up as much as it does.  Even with the race starting at 8am we were cleaned up and out of there by 9:30 which is great.

Once we got home I finished my post race processing, web site updating and equipment clean up.  While Ali retreated to the bedroom for her customary post-race nap, I was ready to dig into installing the retractable screen door I bought earlier in the week.

I came to the decision to try a retractable screen door when I recalled that our neighbors had one.  Originally I had plans to screen in the front landing of the house.  The purpose was to allow us to open the front door and let air flow through the house.  Both Jeremy and Randall said they didn’t think it would look great when they were over in January.  Plus that option would involve considerable expense and effort to complete.  A retractable screen costs a fraction of the money, is easier to install as well as being removable.

Installation of the screen was a bit of a pain in the ass for me.   The main body of the unit that conceals the screen is held in place with two wood screws.  The problem is they are like 1/4 inch from the top and the bottom.  They are designed to screw into the trim around the door frame.  Well attaching to the top was no issue but screwing into the bottom was for two reasons.  The trim on the door does not extend all the way to the floor, there is a small gap that is filled with grout.  The hole in the screen body line up right where the wood met the grout. So I drilled my pilot hole into half grout, half wood.

Secondly having the hole so low to the ground made drilling the hole and tightening the screw a pain in the ass because you could not get on the head of the wood screw straight on.  In no time I stripped out the phillips head screw.  I went into the garage and got one of my own high quality wood screws with a star head fitting.  Using this sort of screw allowed me to get more torque and get  the bottom attached.  It was still less than ideal in my eyes but the assembly felt secure on the door frame.

I had a second issue when it came to cutting the track the screen slides on.  The directions were not very good at all and I wound up cutting the track shorter than I should have because of the unclear picture.  I was pissed since I knew that it wasn’t like I could go to Home Depot and just buy more tracks.  After some reevaluation I came up with a way to still utilize the tracks without sacrificing functionality of the screen door. After overcoming that hurdle the rest of the install went well.

Then the big moment of truth came.  I opened the front door and pulled the screen door across, and BAM instant big window!  It’s awesome.  At first glance it almost looked like there was nothing there at all.  In fact when Ali awoke from her nap she was going to come yell at me for leaving the front door open until she realized the screen was in place. 

I showed the dogs their new portal to the front yard.  The weren’t sure what to make of it at first but I am sure over time they will enjoy having an unobstructed view out the front of the house.

 Having the front door open in conjunction with the slider that leads to the lanai let a wonderful breeze flow right through the house.  Both Ali and I were very pleased with the end result.  Can’t beat it for $139.

We decided to continue to take advantage of the temps that had warmed considerably from their chilly 40’s in the morning.  Ali and I spent a good portion of the afternoon working out in the yard.  We weeded and harvested from our garden collecting lettuce, carrots, broccoli, beets and our first ever home grown peas.   We also transplanted a number of things around the yard and Ali trimmed up a few of the landscape areas that were damaged from the cold temperature.

I also was able to do the final rearrangement of the sheds now that the lawn sweeper was out of my hair.  Things look much better.  However the very final step of the garage clean out will involve relocating the generator to one of the sheds.  If the Moto Guzzi was history it would be a piece of cake.  The bike has two strikes against it and is walking on thin ice.

After our yardwork session we wrapped it up nicely by enjoying an alcoholic beverage out on the newly resurfaced deck.  We sat out there for almost 45 minutes just taking things in, appreciating how much we love our property.  It surely isn’t fancy, isn’t spectacular but it is significantly improved from what we bought back in 2001, thanks almost exclusively to our own labor.  We like our little piece of the planet, even after being there for close to 10 years now.

Sunday was another pleasant day.  I had most of the housework done in the morning.  The rest of the day we again enjoyed the weather and hung out.  We noticed that our tax refund hit our account over the weekend.  I celebrated by buying a couple items online I had been waiting on from cyberguys and Duluth Trading.  I anxiously await my first pair of fire hose jeans. Since I appear to have improved our water quality the money can be directed towards a few smaller projects as well as possibly paying off a decent chunk of the remaining Camry loan.

Today Ali and I have another post work running date scheduled, should be fun.

Here is a view of the retractable screen door courtesy of my Trendnet wireless cam which is sitting in the dining room area today.

Last night when I pulled into the driveway there was a SUV waiting for me.  It was the guy that saw my lawn sweeper ad on craigslist.  I took him through the house to get to the back yard.  Sadie was all over him, constantly jumping up.  I could tell he was less than thrilled with it.  Even when we got outside she continued jumping up on him despite me telling her to cool it.  She was more excited to see this stranger than me.  Finally I took the dogs back inside to give the guy a break.

After undergoing the standard craigslist negotiation where you never pay the asking price (I dropped $25) the guy said he would take it.  Getting the sweeper into his SUV was a challenge.  I had to remove a piece of the sweeper in order for it to fit, which it barely did.  It’s nice to have the sweeper out of my hair, extra floor space in the shed and $100 in my pocket.

One of the shows I enjoy is Celebrity Rehab.  I find it entertaining to watch celebrities half heartedly try to get clean.  One of the cast members this season is Mackenzie Phillips.  I find her rather annoying and her looks at this point are almost Medusa-like. She has had a pretty wretched life filled with drug abuse and the shocking incestuous relationship with her father.

Well in the episode we watched last night Mackenzie got the bad news that her dog of 14 years was in real bad shape and should be put down.  They actually took the cameras into the vet office and showed Mackenzie crying her eyes out as she gave her beloved dog a final meal of ice cream, his favorite.  It not only flashed Ali and I back to our horrific experience when we put the cats to sleep, it was compounded with projecting if we had to repeat that scenario with our dogs whom we love so dearly.  Mackenzie couldn’t be in the room when the dog was actually put to sleep, a cowardly move in my book but she is enough of a mess as is I suppose.  By the end of the show both Ali and I needed some tissues.

Ali went on the web site for the hotel in Aspen that we will be staying at.  It turns out the place is ultra-pet friendly, no limitations at all.  It also seems quite luxurious, on the site it says prices START at $250 a night.  So now we are thinking of another dog included road trip this summer out to Aspen and back.  Should be fun.

This weekend we have a race to time tomorrow morning.  Once again it’s going to be f’ing cold which makes the process pretty miserable.

I grabbed one of those sliding, retractable screen doors at Home Depot.  I hope to get that installed this weekend. 

36 degrees at the house this weekend.  I am SERIOUSLY tired of the huge serving of cold weather this winter.

Last night after work I met up with Ali to do a run.  It was my second workout of the day.  I had completed my normal lunchtime weight training session earlier.  It was a bit cooler than I anticipated with temps around 60 with an annoyingly strong breeze.  I just had a t-shirt and shorts.  Ali actually looked at the weather forecast and brought more appropriate clothing.

 We ran a route that I hadn’t run in years.  We also ran further than I have in years, nearly 5 miles.  I felt pretty damn good throughout the run.  The only problem I had was late when I could feel that it was time to cut the nails on my bent up toes.  If the nails start to get any length to them one of my nails cuts into the adjacent toe, making it bleed.

Ali said she felt good through out the run as well.  After a quick stretch I hopped in my truck and headed home.  I have been enjoying doing training runs with Ali again.

Hopefully tonight after work someone is going to be coming to buy our lawn sweeper.  I bought the sweeper a couple years ago when I saw it on sale at Home Depot.  I thought it would be nice to be able to sweep up the excess grass clippings that come during the rampant grass growth of summer.  The sweeper worked as expected but it was just more hassle than it was worth.  

The sweeper is big and takes up a lot of space in the shed.  Getting rid of the sweeper is a key part of my Camaro rearrangement plan.  Hopefully he shows up and takes it.

Last night I was playing WoW.  I was in a 5 man random group going through a dungeon.  My role in the group was the “tank” the most important role in a group. A tank is the guy that gets everything to attack him and not other members of the group.  We were about halfway through the dungeon when my buddy Charlie logged on.  He asked if I wanted to run through some stuff with him. 

I initially told him I would when I was done with the dungeon I was in.  It is generally poor WoW etiquette to just bail on a group, especially if you are the tank since tanks aren’t that easy to find.  However after a few minutes I decided I would rather be running through dungeons with Charlie than a bunch of four strangers.  I could have just simply left the group without a word.  They would have all been left scratching their heads and probably cursing me out for leaving in an unannounced manner.

Instead in a flash of brilliance I typed in “DIARHEA OH NO!” and then left.  I was laughing my ass off as I saw the sentence flash up on the screen.  I figured if nothing else it explained my hasty departure and gave them a few chuckles along the way.

It still makes me laugh now as I read it back. 

I have written several times about how good the new SyFy series Caprica is.  I actually got Jeremy into it after we watched an episode when Randall and he stayed over at our place.  The show is so damn good that I thought I would try get Ali to watch an episode or two.  Even though the series is a prequel to Battlestar Galactica it is far from just a sci-fi kind of thing.  The show is compelling with a great story line and interesting, complex characters.

Ali basically dismissed the show as something only I would be interested in based on the BG roots.  I was hopeful that if she sat down and watched the show she would get as hooked as I was.  I did my best to try to explain some of the back story to tie together some loose ends for her.

Ali has done similar things to me, encouraging me to watch some shows that she liked.  Most recently I started watching Modern Family based on Ali’s endorsement, it’s f’ing hilarious.  I thought I could repay the favor by turning Ali on to a fantastic show like Caprica.

 Well despite watching two episodes she still is not sold on it.  She told me it isn’t something she would be compelled to watch.  Oh well I gave it a shot, it’s her loss.

Yesterday I spent almost the entire day troubleshooting complications with adding a second, dedicated, high speed internet connection for our office.  I sat in my office in complete silence for hours just trying different things to fix the problems.  Finally as the day was winding up I started to make some headway.  I now have pretty much all of the issues squashed.  I hate when I can’t figure shit out.  I develop severe tunnel vision until I do.

I was reviewing my blog post from a year ago.  One of the topics was Eric from Biggest Loser going on Oprah to talk about what a loser he was for regaining most of the weight he had lost.  I was annoyed with big fat Oprah offering up her own advice for weight loss, advice she obviously doesn’t follow herself.

Well it just so happens that I watched an Oprah show with Ali last night that had another loser on it, Kirstie Alley.  Kirstie was joking about her weight loss soap opera of the last decade or so.  Once again Oprah, who still is as big as a house started throwing out the diet advice.  I had to laugh out loud at the hypocrisy of it all.  At one point Kirstie proclaimed that she was actually quite healthy, claiming her vital statistics were all quite good despite weighing at least 250 pounds.  Yea that’s a great message to send out to a nation that is already bursting at the seams with obese citizens, you can be fat and healthy!!

Oprah should NEVER do another show on healthy living. It’s like having a child molester give parenting advice.