2008 Round-up

10 years at Children’s – from long haired, bearded part time temp, to buzz headed, tie wearing consultant.

Marathon training – I didn’t admit that I was training for the marathon until nearly the summer, but I started running to my schedule in March. I kept to it, and only missed a few days over those eight months. Prior to this, I had never run eight miles before.

Trip to Denver – I think this was the first time we’d spent an entire night apart since our wedding. Since then there have been a few other sleeping apart occasions, such as:

K’s 40th birthday / N to Baltimore

WoW – I quit around the time that N started raiding. I would not have predicted this two years ago, or even at the beginning of the year.

Colville / Northport – We stayed at Benny’s in Colville for a few days and then the Bed and Breakfast run by Art and Nina in Northport. It was a truly amazing week.

D&D 4e & group – I was one of many to return to the game with the release of the 4th edition. I soon found a solid group and continue to play weekly.

BSG – Season 4.0 and board game. On a related note, I’ve made a project of converting my friends to gamers and intermingling gamer friends with non-gamer friends.

More motorcycle – sometime during the year I realized that I’m not as freaked out by riding on dark, rainy, trafficy nights.

Sports in Seattle – The Mariners were the first team to lose over 100 games while spending over 100 million on payroll. The Sonics moved to Oklahoma City. The Seahawks and Huskies lost 12 games each. While I don’t care about Cougar football, it’s worth mentioning that they lost 10 games.

Growing friendships – It’s been a good year for making new friends and further developing older relationships. Examples include B (& J), L, M and probably T. At the same time, other friendships have faded.

Isolde’s decline and death – this was a sad and difficult time.

N starts bicycling – it looks like her new bike won’t arrive until 2009, but she took her borrowed bicycle to work many times during the summer.

New job – Hurray!

Halloween – dressed up & went out!

N’s Dad’s illness – we were particularly worried about N’s Dad there for a few weeks. He seems to be back on the upswing now and is at home again after a lengthy stay inpatient and in rehab.

Thanksgiving with N's Mom and N's Mom's husband– our first time hosting a major holiday!

Marathon – 3:47:27!

Snow! We spent a lot of time cooped up in the house, but it was kinda nice to laze around during the Christmas week.

Fifteen Years Ago

Fifteen years ago, I was in Mogadishu Somalia.  Christmas dinner was underwhelming (Thanksgiving was much better, probably because we were several miles closer to the kitchen then), and my tank broke its track while turning to avoid a camel.  That was a hassel.

This year was immeasurably better, even though I lost at Scrabble and we're pooping out early.  But then, for someone to win, someone else has to lose, and I think pooping out early on Christmas is pretty normal.  

There's frequently, if not always an odd wind down there.  After the gifts and food, the holiday energy is usually expended.  People usually drag themselves home in the early evening with nothing much to do for the rest of the night.

Snow and Wii in Seattle

For the most part, discussing Seattle's series of snow storms has started to bore me to death, so I won't go in to much detail here.

I'm cat sitting for a few days, and this has given me a mission every day.  Rather than sitting here and going stir crazy, I've put on my snow boots and jogged the 2.8 miles up to my friend's house, fed his cat, played his Wii and then jogged home.  It's been a nifty work-out.  Since I'm not 'in training' for any big upcoming events, I don't mind the variety.

Yesterday I played some Rock-Band.  I particularly focused on the drums, and now I understand a little better what it takes to be a talented drummer.  It is very rewarding to play drums for the Rolling Stones.  Another benefit of the game is that you learn the songs in a way that non-musicians rarely manage.  I'm familiar with some of the transitions to Gimme Shelter now!

Today, I focused on Resident Evil 4.  Like Rock Band, I'd never played any of the franchise before, let alone on the Wii.  It was definitely a rewarding experience.  Like before, the learning curve was notable.

I had been under the opinion that the Hi-Def TV should come before the next gen game system on our luxury purchases.  That may be true, but having just played the Wii on a normal TV, I'm not sure.  More reflection is required.

BSG the Board Game; Humans Win!

My wife and I played The Game again on Saturday, and I have a few observations.

The playing time is listed as 2 - 3 hours.  So far, I don't think we've finished in anything less than 4 hours.  Our playing times have probably been stretched for two reasons:  we're all still negotiating the learning curve, and every game has included at least one new person.  Similarly, we're still working out the best strategy for both humans and Cylons.  Thus, games take longer as we flail around trying to kill each other.

Again, the Cylons nearly manged to get all the humans into the brig.  This time, there were two humans, one cylon and one cylon sympathizer.  The unrevealed cylon was loaded with skill cards and nearly pulled it off.  I was playing Bill Adama, and even as I saw it happening, I couldn't even try to put him in the brig via the Admiral's quarters.  Instead, I managed to grab the presidency (through sheer luck of a crisis card), and found the Quorum card that allowed me to imprison the 'unrevealed' cylon.  The Quorum deck also allowed me to release my cohort so I didn't have to lead the fleet alone.

On reflection, I think the unrevealed Cylon player's strategy was valid, and came damned close to working.

The fleet also jumped early several times.  This underscores the fact that humnas must use the 'add 2 to dice roll' cards on all important die rolls.  We lost 3 population at least once, but we also caught a break at least once, which allowed us to keep jumping.  I also used the 'Motivational Speech' Quorum card in conjunction with the +2 roll card at a crucial point.  We had 1 motivation and 1 fuel at the time, near the end of the game, and would have later lost.

The last thing that helped us win was the not particularly focused strategy by the revealed Cylon at the end.  Had he focused on getting the Centurian boarding party to the end of the track, again, I think we would have lost.  Instead, he barraged the Galactica with the basestars. 

We're all looking forward to play with more experienced players.  Can the humans win throughthe  optimal play of equally experienced players?

Seahawks Beat the Jets

This game felt special in several ways, for one main reason:  this is Coach Mike Holmgren's last home game as head coach for the Seattle Seahawks.  It also happened to be against Brett Favre, former protege of Holmgren's.  It also happened to snow throughout.

The players wanted the win; the defense played very well.  Seneca Wallace ran the offense efficiently and played a tight game.  Yes, he could probably start in this league.  I don't know that he would ever be a great starter, but he's at least in that John Kitna / Trent Dilfer range of competant professional quarterback.  Plus he's more athletic than either of those guys, which gives him a definite edge.

Anyway, it felt good to have an important game to watch.  It was great to have your team play well for an important game.  And, quite importantly, it was great to win that game.

I'm not ashamed to say I was crying (yep, tears flowed) as Coach Holmgren took his walk around the stadium; thousands of us stood and waved or applauded.

This is the sort of experience that makes me treasure my season tickets, even during a 4 - 11 season.

Photo Credit

Schmap.com found one of my pictures on Flickr from our 2006 honeymoon in Maui and asked to use it for for their travel guide. See the Napili Point entry.

Christmas Prep 2008

Every year I have some trouble or other getting everything done for the holidays. In addition to the challenges shared by every other gift exchanging person, both of my parents have birthdays within weeks of Christmas. My mother was born on December 8th, my father on January 6th. As a result, I barely get through Thanksgiving and I need to get her card and gift mailed; just after New Year’s I have to gear up for my Dad’s.

One major piece of best practice is to take a day off early during December, and use that to get the majority of planning and shopping complete. Since that allowed me to finish nearly everything, my stress level is lower, and I’m free to enjoy the next few weeks.

For the first time, Nora and I set an explicit dollar limit for our gift exchange; that helped too. Now, I don’t need to wonder if I’ve done enough.

I’m actually looking forward to getting a tree. That doesn’t happen every year.

Marathon Emotions

Running 26.2 miles is, on a whole, an emotional experience. It started half an hour before the race as I looked out across Memorial Stadium, and my mind drifted forward to the finish.

There were many more moments; since I tend toward the emotional in situations like this, when people lay it all out, give it their all, while others cheer for these, their temporary heroes.

During a long run, you have to be careful. The energy burst from a wave of emotion can drive you up and over the steepest hill, but it will also bury you if you let it. Trust me on this: I lived it during my 21 mile prep run two months ago.

The tallest roller-coaster high came around mile 17. I was fully in the long distance fragile haze of ups and downs, and had recently (a mile and a half prior) seen a friend while listening to “Flying High Now.”

Anyway, it was a period with a moderate number of spectators, and a mom had her four(ish) young kids lined up, watching the race. They were very interested; she coached them all to hold our their hands for high-fives. Excited, I angled over, smiled and delivered high-fives. I was careful to hit all their hands: it wouldn’t do to miss one, not at all.

A moment after, the “Stone Cold” Steve Austin kicked in; another moment later, I had tears flowing down my face, and I angled to the middle of the road, away from other spectators. It was too intense for me, I couldn’t be anyone else’s hero that day.

I don’t think I can properly express how honored I was to have four little fans who cared enough to get high-fives. I wonder if this is something they’ll talk about, or if they’ll even remember. Somehow, I don’t think that matters.

Seattle Marathon Pictures

More at http://chadsmarathon2008.shutterfly.com/