Clogged
The drain for my washing machine (and kitchen sink) is completely clogged. Impressively so. I even snaked the drain. Twice. When snaking the drain doesn't work, well, I just don't know what to believe anymore. Maybe the problem is more that 25 feet down. I'm certain that I need fancy optics, but something tells me Julie won't go for it...
Following my first, ill-fated attempt to fashion an aqueduct using an old shower curtain and a poster tube, I got a temporary fix in place. I've duct-taped the washing machine drain hose to a garden hose. Thus far, operation Thirsty Python has worked well and is holding strong.
Traveling
No time for drains now though, we're off to Green Bay, Wisconsin for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon. Julie is in the elite category this time! She'll be trying to win the full marathon (though, she would claim that she's just trying to run under three hours), and I'll be trying to survive the half.
Taperitis
In the two weeks before a big race, runners will typically enter a training phase called "tapering" or "the taper". It's a time where you run a bit less to store up some extra mojo for game day. While you're tapering, the world becomes a dangerous and threatening place. All of your co-workers are suddenly sick, you develop all of these little twinges in your knees, and so on. Some of us even start to worry that we'll forget how to run. Most of this stuff is in your head, other parts are real, and it's pretty difficult to sort the two out. It's also really easy to give yourself a real problem by medicating an in-your-head problem.
13 days before race day, I rode my bike to work. In the process, I strained something in my right leg (just above my right knee, in the quad, vastus lateralis). I basically didn't run for the rest of the week, but the cure was awesome. Eventually, I fixed the entire thing by stretching my hamstrings.
I was amazed. I've had problems in that spot for years. Hours of sitting inert at a desk had almost certainly given me tight hamstrings, but the pain had never been enough of a problem to bother looking into. After a couple days of stretching, not only had the biking problem gone away, but the old stiffness when I tried to squat vanished completely as well.
I was pretty amazed. Unfortunately, I didn't run for about a week, and now I'm pretty sure I've forgotten how to run. Training was going pretty well before though, so hopefully I'll be big and strong this weekend.
Pivot Attack!
We stayed in a Days Inn in Kansas City prior to departure. When I used their webs to visit my blog, I was greeted by the following message.
This is the internet equivalent of being approached on the street by a pirate (the kind with an eye patch, a parrot, and a gold tooth) and being asked for my banking information. It's the sort of thing you might expect to see while surfing for Norwegian porn. But this was on my blog! And my blog is hosted by Google! What gives?
My first thought was that some joker had compromised the hotel's wireless network, and was doing some kind of man-in-the-middle thing on Google-authenticated sites. Then I thought maybe it was this pivot attack thingy where some hacker subjugates a 3rd party element on the website and uses that to run their nasty evil code. In the end though, I just decided that viddler was probably messed up and my four leaf clover videos were causing problems.
However, the lesson is, don't type in your password just because the computer asks. Especially if it's ---
Eep! Julie's out of the shower. Got to go!
Following my first, ill-fated attempt to fashion an aqueduct using an old shower curtain and a poster tube, I got a temporary fix in place. I've duct-taped the washing machine drain hose to a garden hose. Thus far, operation Thirsty Python has worked well and is holding strong.
Traveling
No time for drains now though, we're off to Green Bay, Wisconsin for the Cellcom Green Bay Marathon. Julie is in the elite category this time! She'll be trying to win the full marathon (though, she would claim that she's just trying to run under three hours), and I'll be trying to survive the half.
Taperitis
In the two weeks before a big race, runners will typically enter a training phase called "tapering" or "the taper". It's a time where you run a bit less to store up some extra mojo for game day. While you're tapering, the world becomes a dangerous and threatening place. All of your co-workers are suddenly sick, you develop all of these little twinges in your knees, and so on. Some of us even start to worry that we'll forget how to run. Most of this stuff is in your head, other parts are real, and it's pretty difficult to sort the two out. It's also really easy to give yourself a real problem by medicating an in-your-head problem.
13 days before race day, I rode my bike to work. In the process, I strained something in my right leg (just above my right knee, in the quad, vastus lateralis). I basically didn't run for the rest of the week, but the cure was awesome. Eventually, I fixed the entire thing by stretching my hamstrings.
I was amazed. I've had problems in that spot for years. Hours of sitting inert at a desk had almost certainly given me tight hamstrings, but the pain had never been enough of a problem to bother looking into. After a couple days of stretching, not only had the biking problem gone away, but the old stiffness when I tried to squat vanished completely as well.
I was pretty amazed. Unfortunately, I didn't run for about a week, and now I'm pretty sure I've forgotten how to run. Training was going pretty well before though, so hopefully I'll be big and strong this weekend.
Pivot Attack!
We stayed in a Days Inn in Kansas City prior to departure. When I used their webs to visit my blog, I was greeted by the following message.
This is the internet equivalent of being approached on the street by a pirate (the kind with an eye patch, a parrot, and a gold tooth) and being asked for my banking information. It's the sort of thing you might expect to see while surfing for Norwegian porn. But this was on my blog! And my blog is hosted by Google! What gives?
My first thought was that some joker had compromised the hotel's wireless network, and was doing some kind of man-in-the-middle thing on Google-authenticated sites. Then I thought maybe it was this pivot attack thingy where some hacker subjugates a 3rd party element on the website and uses that to run their nasty evil code. In the end though, I just decided that viddler was probably messed up and my four leaf clover videos were causing problems.
However, the lesson is, don't type in your password just because the computer asks. Especially if it's ---
Eep! Julie's out of the shower. Got to go!
Comments
I wonder if Sophie will snake the drain while we're gone?