Betterment

So in addition to Personal Capital the other investing tool (other than my legacy accounts at USAA, which I have been reducing to limit my capitol gains exposure and to lower my overall cost (which I figured out from Personal Capital's Fee Analyzer and Investment Checkup ) is Betterment (https://www.betterment.com/) or better yet betterment.com/invite/danielbuchholz (since that is a win-win link, you get the cool features of Betterment for a 6 month for free, so do I (for a month), not that their fees are bad). Betterment is one of several "Robo-Investors" that have little to no personal contact, using questionnaires to determine what the ideal risk is for the investor and then giving them the tools to execute a portfolio based on that risk profile.

So there are always going to be people out there that will tell you that any fee's are bad and to avoid them at all cost, putting the entire sum into market tracking ETF (the current main love of most PF people is Vanguard, with their low entry cost, low fee on the ETF's). But I think that there are a few features of Betterment that offer some value to everyone but the most motivated investors:

• Tax Loss Harvesting:
• Betterment automatically will take advantage of market losses to sell assets that have lost money and buy and equivalent asset, allowing you to realize the loss
• https://www.betterment.com/tax-loss-harvesting/
• Automatic Re-balancing
• In addition to spreading your investment across multiple assets (to give you an acceptable level of diversification) they will also re-balance your portfolio if it strays significantly from your ideal ratio (if it hits more than a 3% aggregate difference). It will also invest any additional money you put in to bring the investment ratio back to your target. 
• https://www.betterment.com/portfolio/
• No transaction fee (but there is a cost)
• While they do charge a baseline fee (currently .35% for 0-10k, .25% for 10k-100k, and .15 for any amount above 100k) any additional costs for the features above (and for putting new funds in or pulling them out) is rolled into that baseline fee.
• https://www.betterment.com/pricing/

I think this Robo-Investor trend is pretty neat (I am a technologist after all) and it makes getting into investing a lot easier for the novices to journeyman level investors.

The one feature that is lacking and may cause me to defect to another Robo-investor is a lack lack of options for UGMA/UTMA (Uniform Gift/Transfer to Minors Act) to put my kids money in. I do use a 529 for my kids (my state plan allows for me to deduct from State taxes so that works for me) but outside of some initial large gifts to my kids that went into the 529, the rest goes into their personal account. But savings accounts are a joke so I have at least some of their money now as "sub" accounts on my Betterment account (another neat feature, you can create multiple investing goals, all with different target portfolios).

It's all about the content

In recent years (and moreso lately) the so called "serious" readers have shown themselves to be extremely shallow. While I as a lowly SF and Fantasy reader have always been looked down with on disdain (because of course SF&F cannot be real or serious...), there is now 2 categories of readers that now rate lower than the hard copy SF&F (and all the other categories that the literati choose not to label real books) readers, digital and audio consumers of fictional media (as opposed to the hard copy consumers of fictional media).

Digital reading is the effective future of all significant reading in the country. The explosion of e-readers and tablets in the past 3 years has caused a radical shift in how readers now consume their fiction. But the die hard's argue that reading is not just about reading, but the feel and texture of flipping a page and smelling the book. To that I say BS. I have been reading electronically for over a decade (all the way back to using my palm pilot to read books from my favorite publisher, Baen) and all it has done is make reading more convenient. In my pocket or bag instead of having a handful (or less) of books I can have them all in one convenient package. One in which I can place bookmarks, share passages and easily conduct searches for particular items. But making reading easier doesn't seem to be a factor to those who fetishize the physical consumption of media via an anachronistic manner, and who choose to mock and revile those who choose to embrace the new system (in part driven by fear as they see a system that has been around for all of recorded history).

And then there is the lowest of the low. Audiobook listeners (or readers IMNSHO). While I do agree that there is one concept in audiobooks that needs to be destroyed, the evil abridged book. This is quite an acceptable means for a reader to consume (which of course is completely not different than reading) a story. Let's face it, we all have seem people reading in places where it was really against their interests to do so (walking, in dangerous environments), and this is the completely acceptable medium to reclaim that time while remaining situationally aware (I run all the time listening to audio books, but I never have it too loud and I always retain my most important sense, sight because of the audiobook). But apparently books must be relegated every sense to the serious book person, and somehow having the words delivered to your ears lessen the message. We will just pat them on the head and enjoy the boon of technology.

Sorry physical media consumers (aka "serious" readers). You have, as we say in the government world, become OBE (Obsolete By Events). Enjoy your rapidly diminishing world as the rest of us continue to get our horizons broadened. How you get the content in the end is irrelevant, all that matters is that you are getting the content.

LASIK

Also titled, "Oh My God, I can see!"
I have by far the worst vision in my family (I was -8.5 to give people who wear contacts some perspective. I needed a special waiver to join the Army because of my visions). But, I will be the first to admit that the concept of LASIK terrifies me. I don't like the concept of touching my eyes (though in the 8 years since I have worn contacts that phobia has decreased) so the very idea that a blade or laser is going to cut open my eyes and then burn off pieces of my cornea? shudder to the max. I have thrown a live grenade and I think that I would rather do that again before this whole concept.

But the idea of wearing glasses (not contacts since I would be too paranoid about sanitation issues) for the next year while deployed to Afghanistan? Terrifying. To think that there could be some moment where I would need to see and potentially not have my glasses scared me enough to finally overcome that fear.

I had been researching LASIK for years, never coming up with sufficient pro's to outweigh the potential con's for me to take the leap. With the deployment the balance finally shifted and I moved quickly. 4 days after final notification I visited the Lasik PLUS location in Alexandria, spent the following weekend mulling it over and on Sunday I took my contacts off for the last time. I was also influenced by the fact that my Doctor had performed some 65,000 of these operations, so I figured he was up to the challenge of dealing with my horrendous vision.

The following 3 days reinforced my decision, as I spent them wearing glasses per the directions of the doctor. By Thursday I was seriously ready to not wear glasses anymore (and the thought of a year of them was very unpleasant). So I was a torn person as I had my brother drive me out and drop me off at Lasik PLUS location in Tysons. After they performed all the tests again (all for them double, triple or how-ever many times checking things out to get it right) in 2 hours I was brought into the operating room, spent less than 10 minutes in there total (weirdest part was having my vision grey out as they applied the suction to the eyes prior to the cut) and then I was done, several thousand dollars lighter but already able to see far better than I could ever recall without glasses/contacts. Another of my brothers picked me up, drove me home and, per the doctors directions, put on a sleep visor, popped some Advil and took a long nap (2+ hours). Gotta love being forced to take a nap, twist my arm why don't you?

After the nap I could see an immediate difference. I continued to follow the post-op directions, putting in eye drops at the specified time (god I hate eye drops) and being fastidious about wearing sun glasses (for the first day even indoors). The follow-up the next day had them finding that my vision was 20/20 in one eye and 20/30 in the other (which surprised even them, since they had to go so far to get to that point than for the average person). I still have halo-ing to some degree as of 6 days past the event, but that can be accounted for by the significant swelling that this surgery produces (and there is mild chance I will always have some, but my night vision sucked anyway, with glasses or contacts I had halo-ing there as well).

God, we live in the future where a short time under a laser can make the (near) blind see!

Kinect

I feel like I am slowly heading into the future. The Wii was an incremental device (same with PlayStation's Move) where I still had to have some form of device in my hands. Now all I have to do is wave (or speak aloud).

Now that I have had 2 weeks to play with Wii-killer device? I can definitely say that the odds of me using the Wii for anything except the odd Nintendo specific game (like Mario Cart) are exceedingly low. I actually booted up the Wii last night just to get a comparison and there really is no comparison.

I have tried 4 different Kinect games and am blown away. And so is my GF, one of my long term friends, my ex-roommate and (this is important) my parents. It really is intuitive system, easy to figure out how to use and interact with it. Though most of the games are more focused on children (Kinect Adventures, Kinect Play) games like Dance Central are basically killer apps. Watching my parents dance to Lady Gaga's "Poker Face"? Pretty much made the system pay for itself (particularly when my Dad beat my Mom by almost double).

And really, anything that get people up off the couch and moving? It is a good thing for America. I have yet to use Kinect and not break a sweat.

Chicago Urbanathalon

"Don't cross the streams. Why? It would be bad." - Ghostbusters

Too bad the people that run this race didn't pay attention to this directive, as, for the first time ever at a running event, I had across the flow of runners coming back from another part of the race. This is a bad idea. Along the lines of never, ever do this.... This may be the worst managed race I have ever been to, with awful pre-race communications and very few volunteers on the actual course.

Overall however it was a lot of fun. I was dirty, sweaty, bruised and bloody by the end of the race, but it was very fulfilling to cross that finish line (even if I needed a boost on the final wall). My final time was 2:15. If it was just a 10 miler (total distance was 9.75 miles) I would be quite sad with that time, but given the obstacles I find it tolerable.

And the obstacles were fun and challenging (mostly)!

• Obstacle 1: The concrete beam - not even a challenge. The Big tire - oomph. First try had me "wiley e. coyote"-ing down the side. After stepping back and figuring out I slammed myself up and then crawled over (losing one of my pins holding my number on). The little tires - not even an issue.
  
• Obstacle 2 - jersey barriers to go over, police barriers to crawl under. This was an apparently endless set of 3 of each. It was quite an endurance exercise, since you had already run 4+ miles at that point. I cut my finger at this point.
• Obstacle 3 - Crawl over cars - aborted because it was unsafe per race officials. Marine High Hurdles - whoah... There we 6 of these. I think everyone knew I was going over them (based on my war cries). A very ouchy process of hurling yourself at the target and hauling yourself over. Very proud I did these right.
• Obstacle 4 - Some sort of high/bear crawl under net - too easy for a guy who has done military low crawls for 1-200 meters. Monkey bars - Short and quick. Only holdup was some chick who froze on the last bar in front of me.

And then my left hamstring locked on me and I lurched .5 mile, stopped to pee and then moved onward.

• Obstacle 5 - Lots of stairs. Lots!!! Another holdup due to poor traffic control and obsticle management. lots of standing around in crowds moving very slowly.
• Obstacle 6 - The final obstacle. Car - Half stomped over one. Then tried to be all police show-y and slide across the next, failed and got stuck, so more clomping. Bus - Climb over net then back down. *Yawn* to anyone who has been in the military (and by that I mean Army and Marine). Wall - I did fail on the first attempt and was not too proud to accept a hand from a neighbor to get over.

I wore my Vibram Five Fingers for the race. There were about 20 people also wearing them (apparently our secret club acknowledgement is to say "nice shoes" to someone else wearing them. I learned this by the repeated call of that from the people who passed me). My feet are somewhat beat up even on Monday but in more of a just overstretched/tight perspective.

This was the first race that I have ever personally traveled for (since DC has so many great races nearby). Not sure I will do this again in the near future, but it was a lot of fun and a great way to hang with the family (3 of my 4 brothers ran it (see above pic) and the respective wives and GF's (including my GF H) came in addition to our parents.). We ate our way across the city (pizza and other assorted foods) in celebration.

Bad Blogger...

yeah, whatever. So I am a bad blogger. It's not like I haven't done some cool stuff in the past 3 weeks. I went to Vegas, drove to the Grand Canyon, ran a Half Marathon (Wilson Bridge Half Marathon) and done my usual Army stuff. And of top of that I have to write academic stuff for my courses at NDIC. I have some cool stuff in the next couple of weeks (most notably a very cool trip to Chicago with 3 of my 4 brothers to compete in the Men's Health Urbanathalon) that should get me stirred up. I am probably going to do something on the half marathon, that was an interesting and good race.

I blame Twitter and Facebook. Those sites make it so easy to post little vignettes that it seems to disturb writing in a larger terms.

eBook War

Anyone else entertained by the firefight that occured this week? Mostly spurred on by our friends at Apple introducing the iPad you have a book publisher (Macmillan) that choose to try and strongarm Amazon to increase the list price for their books (from 9.99 to 14.99, a direction that I abhore) because that is what Apple was going to list stuff for (for their reader software on the iPad). So Amazon simply chooses to delist all McMillan's books (something like 1/6 of their inventory).

And then the authors get involved....



Now I get it, the traditional contract for authors is based on gross sales (yes, I know it is more complicated than that). But ebooks simply cost a lot less to produce and distribute.



Of course I find myself torn to be on the side of a retailor that is incorporating DRM into everything they sell (ebook-wise.... oddly I choose Amazon for MP3's since those are not DRM'd). But really? $15 for an ebook? That I cannot lend to a friend, prop in my bookcase, resell or even technically own (and what if the retailer goes away? DRM pisses me off). I like the authors and I kind of sympathize with them, but there is a world of distance between and ebook (now, DRM'd and all) and a physical book.



Now I feel the urge to go buy some non-DRM'd books. Thank god Baen (my favorite SF publisher) sells them direct to me at a really reasonable price.





Full disclosure? I own a Kindle 2 and if I ever do by an iPad, it will not be a first gen one....

The year in books (2009)

This was the year of Tech. Kindle 2, audiobooks. Amazing how few paper books I have read.

• Revelation Space - Alistair Reynolds - Interesting read. Very heavy SF. Deep future and some interesting twists and turns.
• On Basilisk Station - David Weber - Yes, a re-read. I love the Honor Harrington series. Sooooo much.
• Crusade:Destroyermen - Taylor Anderson - Second book of the Destroyermen saga. Very interesting alternate world that they get inserted into, aiding on race against an aggressive other race, while still dealing with some Japs who came with them.
• The Honor of the Queen - David Weber - More Honor Harrington.
• You Suck - Christopher Moore - A cute little vampire romp. Had some great lines "crazy monkey sex" (AB)
• The Short Victorious War - David Weber - More Honor Harrington
• Field of Dishonor - David Weber - More Honor Harrington.
• Flag in Exile - David Weber - More Honor Harrington.
• Honor Among Enemies - David Weber - More Honor Harrington.
• Pandora's Star - Peter F. Hamilton - Ready good beginning of a series. 400 years in the future with widespread wormhole tech. (AB)
• In Enemy Hands - David Weber - More Honor Harrington.
• Echoes of Honor - David Weber - More Honor Harrington.
• One Second After - William R. Forstchen - Very interesting story. The bad guys detonate EMP nukes over the US and the short and long term effects on society. (AB)
• Ashes of Victory - David Weber - More Honor Harrington.
• Maelstrom: Destroyermen - Taylor Anderson - Third book. Further tales of the WWII destroyer thrown into another world.
• War of Honor - David Weber - More Honor Harrington.
• The Lost Fleet:Relentless - Jack Campbell - More tales of the Lost fleet. Very entertaining Space Opera.
• At All Costs - David Weber - Latest of the Honor Harrington saga. I hadn't read this one before. Very much enjoyed it!
• The Dreaming Void - Peter F. Hamilton - 2nd Book of the Series. 400 years in the future with widespread wormhole tech. (AB)
• Mazer in Prison - Orson Scott Card - Prequel to the Enders Game series. Very interesting set up. Too bad it was a short story. (AB)
• With the Lightnings - David Drake - Lt. Daniel Leary (How can I not like a series with a guy who shares a name with me?) RCN series. A lot more political intrigue than my normal books. But fun.
  
• Weapons of Choice - John Birmingham - 1st of the Series. mid 2020's fleet is dropped into the beginning of WWII. And then bad things happen. (AB)
• Designated Targets - John Birmingham - 2nd of the Series. Not sure if I am a fan of the way that the author jumps forward a couple of months/year between the books. 6/18 (AB)
• Final Impact - John Birmingham - 3rd of the Series. Not sure if I am a fan of the way that the author jumps forward a couple of months/year between the books. 6/18 (AB)
• Lt. Leary, Commanding - David Drake - Lt. Daniel Leary RCN series.
• The Far Side of The Stars - David Drake - Lt. Daniel Leary RCN series.
• Judas Unchained - Peter F. Hamilton - Another story in the Pandora Star Universe.7/19 (AB)
• The Way to Glory - David Drake - Lt. Daniel Leary RCN series.
  
• The Strain - Guillermo Del Toro, Chuck Hogan - Pretty interesting first book. I really enjoyed it and look forward to the next book. 8/26 (AB)
• The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - I was actually pretty entertained. Tragic love story... 9/30(AB)
• The Lighter Side - Keith Laumer - Classic SF Short stories. Very entertaining. 9/15
• The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi - Sequal to Old Mans War. Neat premise and an interesting tale. 10/6
  
• Of Fire and Night - Kevin J. Anderson -Book 5 of the Saga of the Seven Suns. 10/12 (AB)
• Metal Swarm - Kevin J. Anderson - More of the Saga of Seven Suns 10/21 (AB)
• Galactic North - Alastair Reynolds - A couple short stories from the Revelation Space Universe. 10/30(AB)

Who buys DVD's anymore?

I recently wracked my brain and tried to remember the last time I bought a DVD (or BluRay or HD-DVD... pretty much any physical disc). As you can see above, I used to buy them... A lot.... (I probably have around 1500 disc's.... mainly Anime). I don't count games (since you pretty much have to buy them in disc form) but I think it came out to be the middle of last year (where I bought a collection of my of my favorite TV shows). I also can understand people with little children (who have the ability to watch the same show something like a billion times) or special excemptions for shows that you just love (like women and "Pretty Woman", "Sex and the City", etc).

But with all the options out there (Netflix, Tivo, etc) who really needs those physical discs cluttering up their environment? I know that I (and a couple of people I know that used to buy a lot of stuff) have seen our activity slow to a trickle....

Kindle 2

So I have been an e-book reader for a long time. Way back when I was pounding through e-books (mostly DRM free stuff from my favorite publisher, Baen... Anytime I can buy 5 books for 15 dollars and use a device I had already (normally a Palm or MS PDA) it is a great thing). I decided to join the Kindle wagon with the release of the Kindle 2. 2 weeks (due to a bad zip code on my package) it arrived. I happily loaded the 177 DRM free ebooks that I already had and was ready to rock and roll.

And less than 24 hours later? This....

But I will give Amazon credit. They had the replacement in my hands in barely 24 hours!

Netflix on Tivo!!!

You got Tivo in my Netflix. No... You got Netflix in my Tivo.

So while I was always kind of interested in the Netflix Watch Now option, I must confess that I haven't really used it too much. Then they put it on my Xbox360... and I was impressed. Then it appears on my Tivo... and I am estatic that it is there. (I of course had been following these plans for a while, ever since they were announced.).

Though I must say that I am now somewhat disappointed.... I played around with it for all of a 15 minutes before it crashed... and then it crashed again. Very disappointed that Tivo would release something that so reeks of "beta".... This is not a polished product if it has crashed (luckily a "soft crash" where it boots me back the main menu, not rebooting the Tivo (which can take upwards of 5-10 minutes)) both of my Tivo's (a Series 3 and a Tivo HD) as well as my brother's Tivo HD. Not cool. Hopefully they are using the data from us 'chomping on the bit" early adoptors and are getting a fix ready shortly. Because overall, from the few minutes that I saw? Really cool.....

Maps? I am in the Army, I don't need no stinking maps..

Oh wait, I am a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army, and as the saying goes, you can't get lost without LT.

So I am really missing my super-cool car that (STILL) remains in the shop... with my 2nd favorite feature (the first being the wonderful mileage that my Prius gets) being the built in GPS system. Which would have been bloody useful today as I wandered around Atlanta, in search of the Coca-Cola Museum (I was fine, I had directions and everything... until repaving of I85 caused that exit to not be available, nor any of the other ones for 3 miles... which is a lot in a major city like Atlanta). After much wandering I finally found some of the roads that matched what was on my directions and I was finally able to find the place.

Then of course I dead-reckoned a course that would take me straight to I-20 and went through some of the neighborhoods that had me VERY intent on not stopping (I got there eventually but I felt extremely concerned (and I know enough to be concerned about certain neighborhoods, this wasn't some suburb boy driving through an urban area, this section was Sketchy based on my extensive visits and living in urban areas))... Though that is a risk that a GPS would not have saved me from, it comes up with some VERY (read, not the safest) interesting routes at time.

BTW, Love you Coca-Cola! Free admission for Military! Y'all are awesome!!!! So I got to taste the drinks of the world, wander around a place dedicated to one of my favorite non-alcoholic beverages (trust me, based on the amount of Coke products I consume its like Mecca for me) and even got a nice little souvenier when I left (little coke bottle).

Computer Woes

My poor desktop died (luckily it died right when I was going to get a laptop, for my upcoming time (or as my boss calls it, vacation.... yeah right, not sure what sick world spending a summer in Georgia (me, who was put on a saline IV twice last summer) is a vacation) in Georgia.... )
Then of course I, being a good computer geek decided to make it my project to fix it.... first I learned the power supply was blown. no problem, its happened before, I actually had spares laying around. Then it looks like the power supply decided to kill the motherboard. Off to the toystore, I mean computer store, that lovely Microcenter store.... Which meant a new video card (tech has moved on.. okay). And then more memory.... So some 300 dollars later I now have a functioning computer and have the stuff I need stripped off the old hard drives. Oh well, at least its a more powerful computer now... mwahahahah....

All this for a computer that at the very least I won't be using for the next 7 weeks...maybe even 20 weeks....

And the QB is Toast!

Congrats to the Navy for the Satellite intercept! I used to work for the Aegis PMO and am proud they were able to hit it (and REALLY happy they didn't miss... that would have been seriously embarassing). I remember reading the specs for the SM-3 and being heartily impressed.

Though I laughed at the response of the Chinese, "“China is continuously following closely the possible harm caused by the U.S. action to outer space security and relevant countries,”... This from a country that also did an intercept of a satellite... however it was in a high orbit and that debris represents far more of a threat to the interational community than this one where the objects will break up on re-entry.

Swoosh!

Thats the sound I will be making in another 36 hours. (hello 3 days of skiing in VT. I am so excited)

Love: My new cabinets. They look fantastic and I am seriously excited to see the end result when I get back on Sunday.
Hate: the fact that I will be without countertops and sink for ~3 weeks. Curse you procrastination (though until the new gear is in place they couldn't really measure).

So excited that Apple released a new version of the iPhone. Say goodbye to $500...... They finally released one that is useful to me.

And I am SERIOUSLY EXCITED that WGA and their opposition finally looks like they came to resolution. And that Lost is back!

No cable (AKA why Verizon and Comcast Suck)

I feel like I am a pawn in the great cable wars. I think that the animosity between Verizon and Comcast has hit a new high with both of them heading into the traditional areas of each other.

This came to a head this past week as I arranged for Verizon FIOS to be installed instead of my crappy Comcast service (overpriced and with bad service). So first step, they try to disconnect my cable and Comcast has locked the box (only noticed after waiting for 4 hours as the tech tries to find Cablecards for my Tivo's). So after wasting a day I have a bunch of Verizon equipment (though not sadly the CC's) that doesn't work sitting in my place.

Then on Thursday I was offsite at an alternate location (where I found this awesome hole in the wall Korean Restaurant, but thats another tale) the tech came back, unhooked my cable (with the assistance of a bolt cutter) but now I have nothing in my place. After several furious calls I finally have a tech arrive today (though he was supposed to be here yesterday (another 3 hours off)), got my SD cable boxes up and running, internet and telephone operational. However I still lack 4 cablecards that I require to actually get my beloved Tivo's working. Completely unacceptable..... Now I need to start figuring out what I will get them to offer me to make up for the 11 hours that they wasted of my time with a non-operational setup remaining.

This is so a coder's fault

From Facebook:
only from the raw results of computer programmers do you get fine sentences like this.:

just scored 1940 points for you's team. you's team
now has 28880 points and is a Scholar. Play TV Trivia >>p

Apps on Facebook are being popped out so fast that things like QA are like dirty words.

Embarassed for others....

never lend your GF a computer that has had many more users than yourself for prolonged periods of time without wiping it first. It cuts down on the awkward emails that come in when she is sick and using it out of boredom.. Particularly when she thinks that you have been the sole user of said machine...

And then emailing back and desperately asking not to be told the specifics because then you will be pondering which of the potential users did access those sites…

Fun (or not so fun!) with Physics

While at Kings Dominion the GF and I ran into someone with a tenious grasp on physics (far beyond the wonderful comment that my mom made earlier this week.... "What goes down must come up".... hehe.... that will be a common line for us for quite some time to come).

They have a number of water slides there, and the one I wanted to try was called "Night Slider" - "the world's tallest enclosed dark tube slide". Sadly due to this womens misunderstanding of cause and effect I was unable to give it a whirl. Apparently right at the bottom you come off and keep heading down the water to slow you down... but this woman had the misfortune of standing up immediately upon hitting the bottom, which immediately caused her to flip over and onto the ground by the slide (solid concrete mind you) and slid for some 20 feet. She tried to play it off but my GF stopped her and pointed out that her shirt was ripped, then she saw her backside(major road rash, though it was hard to see since she was a black woman and luckily wearing a t-shirt). I only saw some of it, and then had to dodge her BF as he barreled down the stairs to join her. In the end it looks like she can chalk up the shirt, an couple of days/weeks of bandages (luckily her BF was a paramedic so she should have good help in that area) and one massively hurt pride/embaressing story to tell (or to desperately pray that it never gets mentioned again).

Sadly the ride was closed for the rest of the day so I didn't get my chance to try.

Allright...

who authorized the rain on a day I just wanted to chill in the pool? Even after taking yesterday off (the joys of federal employment, many sick leave days) I still want to just relax and try to get my neck to return to normal (though my brilliant idea to go for a 7.5 mile run yesterday can't have done it good). On that note, I am doing very well in my training for the MCM.... Many more miles than last month.

Is it wrong that I am in shock (and amused) that someone actually commented here? Shout out to Dan at conservative futurist for actually stopping by (mainly because apparently he shares my penchant for worrying about a nuclear attack, hence what led me to his site in the first place... it must be why we are both fans of Jericho).

I have decided to go to the one of the Blogger Happy Hours.... This one in fact, run by inowpronounceyou . Particularly since my GF is working that night, so it seems like a good excuse to knock a few drinks back before starting, as my friend PW would say, a "carbpocalipse" before my APFT the following Sunday... Me and Mr. Atkins will resume our friendship next week (mmm... meat.....)