furiousBlog - in my diatribe » biking

great day

furiousBall — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:36:47 +0000

Yesterday was a really good one. I had a great meeting with a new client. Taught two great kids piano. Kids had great days at camp. Bubs went over to his buddy Timmy’s house for some lake swimming off of their dock. Viv channeled her inner muse and made some art and then played piano with me. After their Mom picked them up for the weekend, I pedaled over to Rachel and Chris’ lakeside home for some beers and pizza. I definitely need to get back over there with Bubs, Viv, and Abbe with me – they would have had a blast.

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It’s as if all the world has ended and the only thing that survived were kids on bikes…

furiousBall — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:32:03 +0000

I had a decently productive day yesterday – plenty of coding done and did my best to stay cool in this oppressive heat. Bubs got out of camp early due to his arm not being healed prior to the consent for the 1 mile swim paperwork due date. So I pedaled down to pick him up and we headed off to the cheese shoppe to see Abbe and have a midday treat together (some chocolate fondue). I am always smiling when I see the piles and piles of bikes around the Lakes during camp season. And this is a very small bike area in the picture below of Bub’s fishing his bike out of the pile. It’s crazy when the kids are heading from one beach to their next activity. It’s as if all the world has ended and the only thing that survived were kids on bikes…

Later, our good friend and ninja car mechanic Chad, from Chad’s Complete Auto Repair stopped by to work on Abbe’s car. Although Layla (Chad’s adorable little girl) and Viv had fun having a dance party, Abbe’s car is not looking real good. Dead battery (expected and already replaced), two broken belts, and the scary one – a cracked exhaust manifold. We will start the candlelight vigil for Abbe’s car over the weekend.

Movie Review…

Biutiful – wow, after seeing a cornucopia of genres in I Love You Phillip Morris, I would not have guessed the next film I would see would actually top it in number of plot lines so easily – but yep, Biutiful absolutely did this. Bardem is as expected, excellent. He portrays a thug, single father in Barcelona discovering he has terminal cancer. He tries to make peace with every part of his life including making things better for the Chinese and Senegal immigrants he has spent his criminal career exploiting and putting in harm’s way. He also tries to hide his condition from his children and his family (oh, I forgot to mention, his unstable, alcoholic mother of his children is sleeping with his brother). Oh, also, Bardem’s character Uxbal, has the ability to speak with the recently departed. This might sound like a hodge podge of just too much going on – but this is a dense, intelligent movie. It’s beautifully shot (and it shies away from showing the beauty of Barcelona that you might be accustomed to seeing) and unabashedly real. Excellent, excellent film. I have the King’s Speech in my queue, so I’ll reserve my decries of how Bardem and this film were robbed of awards, but wow, this was impressive.

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First Day of Camp!

furiousBall — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 13:20:33 +0000

First day of Medford Lakes Summer Camp is here. The kids are mostly raring to go. Bubs is going to be helping out in the crafts section indoors for the first week of camp until he gets his cast off next Wednesday. We met the arts and crafts directory and assistant this morning and Bubs is going to be in good hands – super nice people and Bubs can be a really good helper. I’m sure come Wednesday Bubs will be ready to get on his bike, try some archery, go fishing, and get in the water… you know all the stuff he was excited about in the big kids camp.

During our trip to Pa, Abbe’s Dad inadvertently backed into my truck and knocked my headlight a little bit. We stopped for a replacement bulb and then discovered we got the wrong bulb even though the part number matched. No biggie though. I’m hoping I can get the right halogen bulb today and then see if Chad can take care of the broken housing on my turn signal (the low beams on the driver’s side is the only thing non-operational).

The other problem I will be dealing with today will be my water heater pilot not igniting. Abbe went to shower yesterday and discovered we had no hot water. After unwrapping the water heater and trying the pilot a few times with no spark, I’m going to have to call in the pros. It looks like it’s the piezo ignitor that is failing. It appears that the previous homeowner replaced it once before. I really hope this isn’t a bigger problem.

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Google Web Fonts v2 Released

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bike ride, cheesecake, and an ice bath

furiousBall — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 12:29:27 +0000

So after discovering I had all of my times wrong for the day, yesterday turned out alright. I ended up riding my mountain bike to and from the Music, Art, and Wine Festival. While there, I of course stopped in and got a chocolate covered cheesecake on a stick from the Carriage Trade Cheese Shoppe; ran into Tim, Mel, Emma, Abbie, and their very big pup, Angus; ran into Viv’s art teacher; and later had a few minutes to say howdy to Dana and the kids. I then pedaled home, got my softball gear on and headed to batting practice. Immediately following practice, we headed over to Wilson field for a pretty decent game. Taking advantage of the hard infield, I knocked a couple of base hits and played pretty well in left field.

I got home and hopped into an (yeeesh) ice bath to hopefully speed the healing of a newly pulled left hamstring (it had been the right side that I kept re-injuring), sprinted into a hot shower, and then studied with Bubs for his language arts test. It felt good to unwind with a glass of wine and Abbe at the end of the day, but another good one for sure.

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The Introvert’s Guide to Marketing With Video

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The Cloud

you’re doing it right

furiousBall — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 12:11:59 +0000

Both a big meeting for a new project fell through (rescheduled for next week) and a big project that I was hoping to win fell through yesterday, but you know what? I had a great day. The weather was absolutely perfect. I rode bikes with my daughter to school in the morning. I did a lot of great work. I found time for a 3.5 mile run. My son gave me some new artwork for my office (it’s a stingray he painted with corks – I love it, looks so Pacific Island-y).

I helped my son study for his social studies test. Viv, Abbe, Bubs, and I rode our bikes down to Beach 3 for a picnic dinner at the lake. Yep, a great day. Something made me feel at the end of the day – you’re doing it right.

After I blathered on about making some changes to my workplace, I never returned to the subject to let you know how these adjustments have worked. For shame. Anyhow, I am extremely happy to report that the ergonomic alterations have truly paid off. I have not had the thumb/wrist pain since switching to an ergo split keyboard and mouse. My neck and shoulder have been feeling much better as well. It took a solid week, but my typing is about the same speed with a few more errors here and there. I bought a yoga ball, but I really needed the large as opposed to the medium (new big one arrives today or tomorrow). But I have been spending about an hour a day on the smaller ball – I kind of feel like my seven year old trying to drive a car when I’m sitting this low at the computer, but it does feel pretty good to change up my seat once a day.

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Like A Boss of the Day
I vow right here, right now, to never use Auto-Tune again. I’m onto something that I think is bigger and better called ‘The T-Pain Effect’. –T-Pain
RIP: Jack Kevorkian – this man served as a lightning rod for a very controversial issue, dying with dignity and I am very grateful he raised the questions he did. Some might call him Dr. Death, but I think he did a lot for passing peacefully.

fun!

furiousBall — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 19:30:30 +0000

What a fun day yesterday. After getting some work done in the morning, I dropped Abbe off at The Carriage Trade Cheese Shoppe for work, and I got home hopped on my bike and had a great time at Bub’s soccer practice.

Viv and I were running the bases at Brooks Field and Viv held the camera on herself to some hilarious results…

That afternoon, after getting more coding done, I picked up Abbe from work, we headed to Jo Ann’s to get her some materials to make hats that we plan on selling to raise money for the Disney Marathon, stopped at Target for school supplies for Van and Viv, and then rode our bikes to PJ’s for dinner. After dinner, we headed to the Sand Stand for ice cream, walked across the bridge to stare at Lake Aetna a bit, and then started to pedal over to visit our friends LarryMac, Sharon, and Tim. Hanging out at Tim’s place was a blast! Tim has a little tiny puppy named Angus…

See? He’s a dainty 160 pound (not yet full grown too!) English Mastiff – so darn sweet. And here’s Abbe vs. Angus in a tug of war… I think Angus wins this one.

Larry brought over his conga and Tim got his guitars out for an impromptu jam – what a blast!

Here’s the three of us making some noise…

Movie reviews…

The Runaways – this movie was decent, and really only flawed due to the acrimonious departures of some of the members of the band. Joan Jett and Cherie Currie’s characters were great, Kristen Stewart did an awesome job as Jett. The shortcomings of the film were the performances were dumbed down a bit (based on the raunch I’ve heard actually took place) and the other members of the band (most notably Lita Ford) were nearly absent from the film entirely. That said, this film was based on Currie’s book about the band and her relationship with Jett and Lita Ford apparently would not be involved with the film.

Small Business/Tech Links…

My banana lovin’ dog

furiousBall — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 15:12:37 +0000

Today, I’ve got myself a nice full plate: finish a couple prototype pages for a big project (somewhat unnamed project, but I can tell you I’m working with BLP and Marty on this one), finish ERDs for Knoxville hospitals project, record video for Jeff Buckley‘s Grace intro for Sean’s guitar lesson this week, send out end of the month invoices, record video for Wilco‘s Either Way for Jan’s guitar lesson this week, run to the bank, short bike ride, hopefully watch a little of the Phillies-Padres game this afternoon, and then watch some of Penn vs. Edgar II tonight (Go Frankie!).

Have I ever mentioned how much Yogi loves bananas? Well, here’s proof, Yogi even turned on his eye lasers…

Yogi approved

furiousBall — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 14:40:03 +0000

Yogi approves of Bubs’ new bed…

I wanted to take a second to congratulate my friends Jan and Tracy who are now officially triathletes! They both ran the Long Branch Tri this weekend, nice job ladies!

my little biker

furiousBall — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:35:34 +0000

Last night, I asked Abbe to take a few pictures of me reading to the kids, because honestly, I never know when Bubs and Viv will outgrow this… I’m hoping for never.

Very proud of my pumpkin, she rode her bike with me to school today… I need to adjust her backpack (because it was dragging on the back tire a bit) but she was so proud to pull up in front of her class all lined up, just like her big brother used to …

50 Best Author vs. author put-downs of all time
Andy Kaufman Meets Howdy Doody – wow, Andy made a puppet feel uncomfortable

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Monkey makes out with a cat

furiousBall — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:10:38 +0000

I’m a busy monkey today, but I wanted to tell you about LarryMac’s recent achievement and give you some links to dazzle and disturb (the 2 D’s).

Check out how cool my friends are…

My good buddy(and client!) LarryMac of Wheelies fame received the citizen of the year award from the Medford-Vincentown Rotary. LarryMac’s Pedals for Progress, is an initiative where new or gently used bicycles are sent to people in developing countries. “I didn’t expect the recognition. I thought they were going to recognize the Pedals for Progress program. It was a surprise. I was speechless and humbled.” Knowing my friend, I can hardly believe he was speechless (ba dum dum ching). Way to go LarryMac!

Internet Anagram Server – thanks Jan
You see? You see now? This is what happens when you legalize gay marriage… Monkey makes out with a cat … you’re all going to burn in hell for eternity.
Rice Paddy Crop Art
Tahiti Joe’s Hot Sauces – excuse me, could you pass the Rectum Ripper please?
Fireworks by PES