RandomFailure

Today fell into a “weird” day all before 2:00pm.

First, my assistant at work gave her notice.

Second, I was reading a machine translation of a Japanese patent. This was something from another planet. The translation included phrases like “the terminal stations that were boiled” (not usually done with cell phones) and “judges whether there is any kana which became the time of day to which transmitted power is changed” (that’s OK, I have no idea what that means either).

Third was the woman at a nearby table at lunch. I was on Joe’s II for pizza (the one in the 1700 block of Chestnut; the map is close), and this woman had a large table all to herself with papers spread everywhere. It was somewhat noisy, but this woman insisted on conducting her business in a very loud voice. I guess that’s better than the men who talk on their cell phones while in the restroom. (Does this happen in the Women’s too?)

Finally, on the bus ride on the way home, those of us towards the back of the bus were treated to a couple arguing, with the woman basically ripping the man a new one and using plenty of “colorful” language.

I was a bit surprised to find a story about rappers dissing Cristal on the front page of the Phila. Inquirer this morning (see their story). I mean, most people I know don’t shell out $300 for a bottle of champagne. (My wife has groaned about my spending on Araujo cabernet, but that’s another story.) And most of the people likely to be reading the article won’t spent $300 a bottle or can’t afford $300 per bottle. Does it really matter what Jay-Z drinks? Are people that devoid of the ability to think that they’ll blindly do what celebrities do? Hmmm… I guess that’s a rhetorical question after all.

That aside, is this really something that belongs on the front page of a newspaper, above the fold? Is this an example of the type of fluff we’ll be seeing from the new owners of the Inquirer? I hope not.

Since I hadn’t raced since Broad Street, it was about time to get out and race, just to see how things were. And I hadn’t raced a 5K since the fall, so I figured this would be interesting. Then I looked at the flyer again, and had thoughts of a very crowded event, like on Mother’s Day. So I headed out early; so early in fact that it took less than 15 minutes to get there from South Philly (love those empty highways at 7:30 AM).

So I registered and did a short warm-up run. As I was looking for a spot to stretch, I saw the Kenyans. And I knew the day was shot. Then I saw Kevin G and Mike C from NERCC and talked to them for a little bit. Stretched, and then went on the “pre-race find out what’s still too stiff” jog. And I saw Ian and Veena R, who just kicked some serious arse at Grandma’s Marathon, qualifying for the Olympic trials!

During final warm-ups, I saw Cecily Tynan and her baby jogger, complete with number on the baby jogger. Made a mental note not to finish behind her (personal pride in not wanting to finish behind someone only a few months removed from having a baby and running with a baby jogger).

Started out with Kevin G. Opened in 6:10. Not bad, and I was feeling good. Oops, thought that too soon. Started slowing down heading towards the turn, after I saw the Kenyans on their way back. (Damn those guys are fast! More on than in a moment.) Hit the turn at 9:20, and mile 2 was 6:30. I could feel myself getting slower, mostly due to the heat and that I was once again in running no-man’s land by myself. The only good thing is that only one or two people passed me after the turn. Hit the finish line in 20:18, or something like that – about one minute off my PR. Not that I was expecting to PR.

I checked the results online today. Before I tell you how fast the Kenyans went, make sure that you’re not drinking anything; I don’t want to be responsible for you doing a spit-take at your monitor.

The results are online at: http://users.erols.com/runadvte/. You can see the winning time of 14:09, and that the first seven were all at 14:33 or under. And FYI, Simon Wangai, #5 overall holds the Broad Street course record.

As for me, at least I finished ahead of Cecily, albeit barely.

Played poker with the guys last night, the first time in about 8 or 9 months. We’re timely that way. Being the first to go out has taught me that I kinda suck at this. I’m not in it for the winning (same thing with running), but being a little more competitive would be nice (again, also like running). Maybe it’s not so coincidental that I run with these guys. At least you don’t get sweaty playing poker…

When I got married, I also became a step-father at the same time. Victoria just turned 7 a few weeks ago. Needless to say, I have a learning curve in being a father.

And, in perfect RandomFailure style, I managed to pull a doozy last week. Karen put Victoria to bed just before 9:00. I went to give her a hug goodnight, and she felt like horsing around a little. First there was the hug where she wouldn’t let go. If you don’t think that’s a problem, try standing up with a 45 pound child clinging to your neck.

I escaped the ersatz (no, I didn’t need the thesaurus; it just came to me) headlock and we were play-chasing around the bed. Victoria got back onto her bed, and I grabbed Blanket (her security blanket, cleverly named “Blanket”) and dashed about 6 feet away from the end of the bed.

Victoria was pouting and wanted Blanket back. I told her she’d get Blanket if she would lay down. She then playfully threw Spike (the stuffed dog) at me, whom I caught. I then threw Blanket back at Victoria.

She was kneeling on the bed and leaned forward to grab Blanket and lost her balance, smacking her chin hard into the raised footboard of the bed. She sat up, her eyes welled with tears and then she screamed in pain, crying. Then her chin started bleeding. A lot.

I rushed over to Victoria, telling her to tilt her head back while I put my hand under her chin to stop the bleeding. I yelled for Karen who came rushing downstairs. First a few tissues (bad idea, I know), and then we applied a washcloth. Karen picked up Victoria, who now bravely held the washcloth to her bleeding chin. We took another look (it was bad) and knew we had to go to the hospital. Karen put jeans on Victoria and took her down to the kitchen and put ice in the washcloth.

I ran upstairs to put sneakers on, and we raced out the door to the Emergency Room. I drove like a loon to get there ASAP. After dropping them off at the emergency entrance, I managed to find a parking spot on the street and sprinted back to the hospital, practically knocking people over. (Since I’m a runner, I can move when I need to; people looked at me like I stole something.)

At one point while we were waiting, Victoria was sitting on my lap and she said, “I guess I should have listened to you.” Very perceptive child, she is.

It turns out Victoria needed 4 stitches, which were removed this morning. We returned from the ER a little after 1:00 AM, so it was about one hour per stitch.

Lesson learned: don’t mess with Blanket.

I am fully aware that a stale Web site is equal to a dead Web site, with blogs being of particular importance in the freshness category. Yet, I still managed to not post anything for almost three months to the day. Why is that? Well, there has been a lot going on.

I moved into a new house on March 23, so that meant packing up the computer a day or two before then and unpacking it I forget how many days later. Moving could have gone smoother, but for the mistakes that I made: not starting packing far enough in advance, not paying someone to pack up stuff like dishes and books, and not letting the movers take more stuff (I figured I could handle a bit by myself since it was only 4 miles).

Things were made a bit more complicated by a surprise wedding shower for Karen on March 25. This entailed receiving a lot of stuff. Which, on top of my moving in, made the house a mess of boxes. Plus, if I had known what she (we, really) would have been getting, I wouldn’t have moved some of the stuff that I did move.

Then I crazily decided to pick this year as the first year that I would prepare my taxes myself. While TurboTax is convenient for filling out the forms, they rip you off by not letting you e-file for free when you buy the CD. Bastards.

Karen and I got married in Las Vegas on April 22, with a short honeymoon there as well. Wonderful time. Pictures to be posted, possibly someday.

This was following by getting Karen and Victoria moved into the house (still an ongoing process).

Then came my sister’s wedding in Florida on May 20. Followed by a business trip to Silicon Valley after Memorial Day. And then our housewarming/wedding party here at the house on June 3.

To say that I’ve been “crazy busy” (to borrow a phrase) is a vast understatement. Now back to the semi-irregular posting schedule.