Bumpuses!!!!!!

Geez, 2 down! First Don Knotts, now
Darren McGavin. I never watched Kolchak back in the day ('cause I was what, 6? Something like that), but I love him in A Christmas Story.

The big question, of course, is who will #3 be?

RIP, Mr. Furley

Wasn't much of a fan of Andy Griffith, but I loved Three's Company. But then, what young boy of the 70s didn't like looking at Suzanne Sommers in short shorts? Well, Don Knotts did, that's for sure!

Don Knotts, TV's Ralph Furley, Dies at 81

Running update

So I’m now in my 4th week of pretending to be a runner, and I think it might be getting easier. Maybe. Not that I can run a significant distance yet, but I do seem to be able to run for slightly longer periods. I’ve worked out a route from the house that covers about 2.25 miles, and I can do it in at or under a half hour. I’ve continued the “interval” training plan I started on, but have moved away from the original plan of 10 minutes of a walking warm-up, 15 minutes of a 30 second jog/30 second walk pattern, 5 minutes walking cool-down. I’m now jogging longer (I haven’t had a watch with me lately, so I’m going by strides) and walking roughly the same amount (again, strides I’m trying to keep a 4-1 ratio, jogging 200 steps, walking 50).

That all changes, naturally, when I’m at the gym. Then I tend to do the “Interval” setting on the tread mill for 30 minutes: 2 minute walk, 2 minute jog, repeat as necessary.

I’m also thinking of shifting my intermediate goal. Originally I was going to run the Beat the Bridge 8k race on May 21st...now I’m thinking a better option might be the Over the Dam 10k the weekend before. It’s in Coulee Dam, Washington, best known as the home of, well, the Grand Coulee Dam. The run starts in town, loops around one side of the river, then runs across the dam and up another loop.

The advantage of this run, other than the cool “running over the largest concrete structure in the world” part, is that it gets me up to the 6-mile “long run” mark that the marathon training plan hits at the end of the first week. And it gives me two weeks between the race and starting the marathon plan to recover and start increasing the mid-week mileage (the marathon plan starts out at 3 miles a day, T-W-Th, then 6 on Saturday the 10k plan ends off with 3 on Tuesday, 2 on Thursday and 5.5 on Sunday [not counting the 6.2 on race day]).

Of course, since I twisted my ankle yesterday in the back yard (an injury made all the worse because I did it stepping in a hole I dug) I won't be running for a few days...stupid ankles...

Next update will be Friday or so when my new toy shows up!

Very cool illusion

Colors are cool. Too bad the instructions are so small...

Dick Cheney was unavailable for comment...

Man's Elbow, Mistaken for Squirrel, Shot

It's rare to find an elbow with a bushy tail, but then they grow 'em weird up there in Michigan.

Cartoon Protests Deadly in Afghanistan - Yahoo! News

OK, is it just me or are the headlines around this whole Prophet Mohammed cartoon thing kind of misleading? I mean, it sounds like it's a bunch of 'toons protesting something. Or like the cartoon itself is protesting "Deadly in Afghanistan", which might be a movie or TV show or something. In any case, here's the lastest headline: Cartoon Protests Deadly in Afghanistan

And a fine quote that earns today's "gee, you think?" award: "Senior Afghan officials said al-Qaida and the Taliban could be exploiting anger over the cartoons to incite violence, which spread to at least six cities in a second day of bloody unrest in Afghanistan."

Life imitates "My Name is Earl"

Arcade Claw Offers Live Lobster Prizes - Yahoo! News

"Working a joystick and a pair of buttons, Margel lowers the claw, clamps it around the lobster and attempts to lift it out of the water. But the lobster fights back and escapes before he can deposit it in an opening and down a chute into his possession. "

It's like Randy trying to get the rat out of the game, only in this case it's a lobster. And the lobster isn't humping a Grover doll.

Insert Penis Joke Here:

Rep. Boehner Elected House Majority Leader

I'll start you off...

The new house Majority Leader is a hard act to follow!

We've really got our hands full with Rep. Boehner...

Now that he's been elected Majority Leader Rep. Boehner has been acting like a total dick!

Mid-life crisis strikes.

Well, that's my excuse anyway.

So this coming December I turn 40. And that's one of those milestone years where people can buy you cookies that say you're older than dirt. (They work quite nicely if you turn 50 too, as my sister found out a few weeks ago).

Not usually being one to ponder my own mortality, something about this milestone got me started. That or the fact that my friend John has been talking about aging and the fact that we're now almost old. One of those. Anyhow, I decided it was time to do something I'd never done before. Something I'd always said I wouldn't do because it was crazy...I'm going to run a marathon.

And I'm outing myself here on the interweb thingy so that the three and a half people who read this blog will keep me honest.

I'm aiming for the Portland Marathon on October 1st. This race has several advantages over the Seattle Marathon: first, it's not three days after Thanksgiving, so the chance of a huge turkey-induced mid-race nap are lessened. Second, it's in Portland, so the chance that anyone I know will be running along laughing at how much I suck will be lessened. Third, it's relatively flat.

OK, that last one is actually the number one reason. When I looked at the Seattle marathon map and talked to a friend who has run it I realized that this city has a bunch of hills, and the course is apparently designed to climb all of them. Most importantly, it climbs up Madison from Lake Washington, an altitude gain of somewhere around 5,000 feet. The Portland marathon, on the other hand, appears to be run on a 26-mile-long mattress made of marshmallows and gatorade. Or maybe that's just wishfull thinking...in any case, it's relatively flat, as you can see from the graphs below (the Seattle marathon people don't chart the elevation gain because, well, that would scare everyone away).

Portland Marathon Elevation Chart



I haven't started "training" per se, since I don't think you can call wheezing on a tread mill for a half hour "training", but I am starting to run a bit. And I have a plan, thanks to a guy named Hal Higdon who apparently knows something about running.

My intermediate goal is the 8k (5 mile) "Beat the Bridge" race in May, so if you're in Seattle and would like to join me, let me know. And if you're a runner and have any tips (other than "you old fart, just give it up") send me those too!