Notival

The Groundhog is mighty. Fear him. Tomorrow he comes out and blesses us as he deems fit. That doesn't make him less of a marmot, but it does give the US media something to do for a day.

It may be that time of year again when I start to look for a new web host. Im having random email issues with this one now. Namely, I can't delete email. Not the worst of problems, but it can be annoying. It may or may not be related to my comments only working part of the time. Maybe if I started a business that depended on the web presence, I would pony up a little more for a dedicated machine with some more guarantees. Right now though, Im pretty much getting what Im paying for.

I went to the gym last night and got on a treadmill. My initial plan was just to go for half an hour and see how that went. I haven't ran at all in a couple years, so was just trying to see from where Im starting.

I wound up on the thing for an hour.
Distance Speed
3 mile 5 mph
1/4 m 6 mph
1/2 m 3 mph
1 mile 6 mph
1/4 m 3 mph

5 mph isn't very fast, but like I said, I hadn't ran in a while so didnt want to push. I was surprised that I could do it for a solid three miles though. I might be able to do 6 mph for three miles if I didnt start with half an hour of 5 mph.

My long term goal is 3 miles in 21 minutes. Im a long ways off of that. And may be too old to manage it. But I can dream.

I also must get new shoes. Maybe today.

It's near time for Ninsi and I to do our taxes for last year. I think we have everything we need now. Doing a quick run through, it doesn't appear that we will be getting a whole lot back this year. But that is better than paying. Still, big returns are more fun.

Spent most of yesterday before the Super Bowl working in the back yard. It's fairly well dogproof now. Now I just need to clean it up and maybe do some seeding so it will have some proper grass.

The tile and granite people have measured our kitchen so we're moving forward with that. I think we're looking at about three weeks.

I should take some pictures so as to post before/after shots later.

The appliance repairman came out yesterday to check out the malfunctioning dishwasher. In his professional opinion, it needs to be replaced. That's good news. It means the home warranty people will pay for the purchase and installation of a brand new dishwasher. Unfortunately it has to be a low-end one.

We could tell them to just send us a check and we could put it to a new upgraded dishwasher, but I think we have decided to just go with the Kenmore. It's not bad. And it will save us a lot of hassle to just go through them. I'll measure tonight to make sure that it fits in the slot where I current washer sits, and we'll probably have them start the process tomorrow. And it should take 7-10 days after that.

We're probably 10-15 days away from new floors and cabinets.

When you are a kid, you dont generally worry about the types of conversations that grown-ups have, except as they directly concern you. I never thought though, that they would be about such mundane things. Mortgages are something utterly foreign to a child, but adults can have complete coversations about them. I find that I can read through the city ordinances for an hour before tearing myself away. It's horrible reading. But somehow gripping. Like a train wreck.

Today, a co-worker and I had a conversation about landfills in our respective cities. Landfills are far from exciting, but the Grand Prairie landfill is way better than the Arlington one.

Did you know that in Grand Prairie, it is against city ordinance to play ball in the street? Any kind of ball. You can't stand in the street and throw a football. You can't kick a soccarball. You and a buddy can't stand in yards on opposite sides of the street and pass a ball back and forth. It's illegal.

My street is full of law-disregarding 12 year old hooligans, it seems.

There are many ways to define insanity. However, replacing cheerleaders with percussionists has got to be worth an automatic trip to the farm. I bet those girls cant play drums. What are they going to do for work now?

Some of you may have seen the 'Robot' ad that GM aired during the SuperBowl. Robot drops a screw, leaves the plant, wanders, jumps off bridge. Well, people complained about it, so GM is going to revise the ad to take out any references to suicide. It's stupid. It's a robot.

So annoyed with all the PC-ness of everything these days.

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I need to win this.

How is it that a restaurant has no salt? Especially a fast food joint? I went to Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch, and noticed that none of the tables had salt or pepper shakers on them. Ive noticed this before at other locations so didnt worry too much about it. So I asked the woman that was giving me my food for some salt and pepper (for the corn on the cob) and she said they had pepper, but no salt. Then she proceeded to give me some packets of pepper.

How can they be out of salt? Is there a salt drought of which I am not aware? Seriously, it's everywhere, right?

In other unrelated, random musings, Penn Square Mall in OKC needs to do something about the parking situation. Growth is good, mmmkay, but you gotta plan appropriately for it, people.

Beware the wives. They can be tricky. And yet, even their best laid plans to create a foul stench in your car can be undone by Old Man Winter.

I went to lunch today, as per the norm. When I got back into my car, I was looking in the back seat to see if I had dropped any peppermints there over the weekend. When I lifted the umbrella, I saw a pie pan. "Pie?" I thought, "When did we have pie?"

I pulled out the pan, and it was not a pie at all. It was an enchilada. "Enchilada?" I thought, "We haven't had Mexican in over a week." I called my loving wife, and asked her if she had left an enchilada in my car recently. She hadn't. It was, in fact, her leftovers from Macaroni Grill over a month ago. It was quite moldy. I think the only reason it was now found sooner due to foul smell was the fact that it has indeed been cold, and it was fairly well sealed. I chose to not discover what it actually smelled like and just dropped it in the trash can at work.

Loving wife, indeed...

This is mainly a public service message to our Dallas area friends. If you ever need an appliance serviced or installed, do not use Ranger Appliance. If your home warranty tries to send them out, request a different company because they seriously suck.

They simply did not show up the first time, and claimed we were never on the schedule. This was after they had called to confirm a time. And Ninsi has gone back and forth with them a dozen times trying to verify that they were actually coming out today. Not yesterday like they tried to do, or tomorrow because they dont actually have any slots today, but magically were able to slip us in.

They aren't worth the hassle. Why are we still working with Ranger Appliances if it is so bad? Because, the other company that our home warranty uses has gone on vacation and we were left with no other option.

Again, for the record, Ranger Appliances sucks.

Valentine's Day was yesterday. So, we did what all romantically inclined couples do. We went to the gym and worked out. Ninsi worked out anyway, I just ran. It wasn't a bad way to spend an hour. And since it was a psuedo-holiday, there gym was very not busy.

After the gym, we just went on up the road to the newly opened Arlington Studio Movie Grill. That may have been a mistake. It was seemingly the most popular place in the South last night. Most of the movies were already sold out, and I had to park aways over in the PetSmart parking lot. Fortunately(?), we bought our tickets online before going to the gym, so we were set.

I wont get into specifics, but the movie was a fine formulaic chick flick. The service provided by the grill though, was nothing short of horrendous. Maybe we just picked a bad night, or maybe they were just totally overwhelmed, but it still sucked. I think Ninsi should write them a sternly worded email.

Then we went home to have White Russian Milkshakes. EOF.

A couple weekends back, when we went to Guthrie, I took the Squid to the mall and a movie. We went to see Night at the Museum, as it was the only thing that the two of us could agree on, since she wanted a slasher/thriller, and I didnt want to watch a piece of crap. Snarky comments about Night at the Museum and crap will be summarily ignored.

We got the theater early and thought we had plenty of time before it started. But we had only been in our seats about five minutes before the previews began. We got Spider-Man 3, Fantastic 4 part II, Transformers, and a couple others. Then the movie started.

About twenty minutes into the movie, it stopped. Then the previews started again. I checked the time, and it was now the actual time the movie was supposed to start. They had simple started everything about 30 minutes early. It made the wait in the theater a little more bearable, but it's still nutty that they did it.

This is actually the second time Ive had this happen. A movie start too soon.

These guys are crazy.

Ninsi and I went to the gym last night. She wanted to do the 8 pm yoga class, and I decided to join her. But I wanted to get in some running first. We were a little behind shedule, so I got to run for 20 minutes, but got 2 miles done in that time.

I had never done yoga before at all. And for a while, it was pertty good. I was still hot from running, and going through the yoga exercises kept my body temp up for a while and I sweated for a good half hour into it. Then I started to cool down. About that time, it got kinda dull. By forty-five minutes, I was bored with yoga. It just wasnt holding my interest. Mind-clearing be damned.

The stretches were good, I could feel those, and I do need to stretch more, but Im not sure yoga is the best bet for me. Maybe if I did the hour of yoga before I went for an hour run would be the best bet. /shrug I'll give it another try and see. Maybe a different teacher would help too, since this woman went fairly quickly through poses, and for those of us that never have done it before, it was a little awkward trying to keep an eye on her to see what she was doing and trying to get the pose right at the same time.

In other news, our kitchen is in shambles. The oven is in the middle of the kitchen, the fridge is in the hallway, and the island is in the dining room. And, we're banned from it until tomorrow, at least.

Im going to buy a tree this weekend and plant it in the backyard. It will be an endeavor that really doesn't do us a lot of good. I plan to get a Live Oak that is only a couple years old. At maturity, it should spread across most of the backyard giving some really nice shade. That maturity will take more than a decade. It will be a nice tree if I can get it to grow though.

So, for that, I believe I need some mycorrhizal fungi. A primative fungus that has a long standing symbiotic relationship with most of the world's plants. I can buy some online, but would rather find it locally so that I do not have to wait. I plan to plant the tree on Sunday. Need to find some fungus before then.

By Sunday, I should be well on my way to one bitchin' tree.

So the kitchen is pretty much done now. The contractors are all done anyway. Ninsi and I still have soem work to do. We have to repaint. The walls are just filty, and a new paint job will really help. Probably will try to start that next weekend. After we get it painted, we'll put up some before and after pictures. Those of you in the area can just come by. You know where it is.

It's Friday, and too early to go home by about three hours. I wish I could though. It's overcast outside and feels real good. I could get quite a bit of work done in the backyard today if I was home. Instead, it will probably be dark by the time I get there. I think I will go ahead and try to buy that tree tonight though and just save myself a trip tomorrow. I'll be in the area anyway. The real fun thing tomorrow is settling up the bill for the kitchen...