Phil

This is Phil. He needed images of labels that he created for some Tonka trucks. This was just a quick shot while he set up the subject matter. Our desks are actually connected with a lightbox built into the middle of it. Pretty sweet, I know. I'm just showing the picture because I like it... and not necessarily to put Phil on the spot.

But while we're here, I'll let you know that I hold Phil in high regard. One of the most honest, humble, unpretentious, giving, patient, etc etc individuals I've ever met. Phil is my personal Jesus.

Before/After... Had To

I wanted to post some before/after pics solely because I'm still pretty impressed with the floors and I wanted to show just how different the place looks without the awnings. The pictures on the left were taken by Erica during the inspection... as I was in the inspector's back pocket for most of the day... and I took the ones on the right this morning. Both days were cloudy and raining, so equal amounts of sunlight are coming in through the windows.

So the first floor is primed and ready to be painted... but with what? We thought we had some good color samples, until those samples got put on the wall. Now we're at somewhat of a loss. We're happy with the kitchen and pretty happy with the dining room, but the living room is really giving us grief. Erica wants to paint the trim white, and while that would put the RealSimple stamp on it, I'm a little reluctant as it would be more work and we'd never ever never be able to get that woodwork back... unless we had lots of money to get it stripped, etc. So that's where things stand now.

Oh, and check out that window seat Erica's dad put in. And that chandelier goes to whoever is last to visit the new place. It's looking like a tight race.

Mom Day

I'm beat. We've had the house for less than two weeks and I already feel like the work is never-ending. We're onto the painting now. After that, we might get a lull in the action.

All week I wanted to do yard work. I wanted to cut, trim, hedge. I went out and bought grass stain-less lawn equipment Thursday night but got home too late to fire them up. I, unexpectedly, had to work late Friday night and was once again denied the satisfaction of a freshly-cut lawn. After picking up a few things from the west side Saturday morning, we headed back to the CH only to take off some awnings that were riveted to the side of the house. In the process, I broke a window and what feels like every bone in my two hands. We then worked on the yard the rest of the day... at least the part of the day that contains light. So it was off to Lowes to get paint chips, primer and painting tools in general. Hit Bob's for dinner, picked up a six-pack and went to the task of prepping the downstairs for primer and paint.

We were supposed to wake up early Sunday and get work done before heading to Piqua for Mother's Day. Easier said than done. After sleeping in, I continued to take out old screws, blind brackets, etc, etc but we eventually had to hop in the shower and make our way north.

We picked up my grandma in Englewood on the way there and enjoyed a nice little Sunday in P-town with ze family. Everyone made it so we had some pig and chicken on the grill, some baked beans, some salad, some Coca-Cola Classics. I could've used a nap regardless of what time I woke up.

Got home around midnight and immediately got to bed. Another weekend down. Congrats to all the Indy Mini runners this weekend... Matt and Taryn Elliott, Nick and Chris Koon. I was pretty bummed not to be able to make the trip. Judging from everyone's times, it was a pretty decent morning to run. There was no chance of racing it, but running with some comrades would've been fun. It would've also been the 7th year in a row... a streak that is now broken. I also made it into the "A" corral based off my 2009 time. Now it's off to the back of the line.

And just to note... my dad has now decided to grow a goatee. I can't wait to see this new look come to fruition.

Well, Hello Art Deco

I've been driving down to work for the last month and a half, but the commute has gotten considerably better since moving out of the west side. I know I bitch about that end of town a lot... but it's because there's a lot to bitch about... unless you belong to the Tea Party.

I'll be taking the 17 out of College Hill soon, but I'm in desperate need of lawn-manicuring devices that will be purchased tonight, so the car was my only choice. I got tired of Liberty Street and it's 14 lights, so I started taking the Ezzard Charles exit and I'm glad I did. I turned left off the exit today and while waiting on the light to turn green, I looked in my side mirror to see this gem, sitting all proud and strong.

I can't wait until this is a fully-functioning train station again. It will knock people's socks off and make them wonder why they ever second-guessed such a thing.

1512 Wittekind

These aren't the best shots, but they'll do for now. Above is our new house... a 1939 cape cod nestled in the tree-lined streets of College Hill. It was a lot of work getting to this point and it'll be even more work getting it the way we like... but, so far, it's been worth it.

I had to take a picture of the floors. These were seriously under that nasty carpet. It was as if they refinished them and then immediately put carpet on top. Unreal. We lucked out but are happy for it. Now I just have to get the yard back into shape and dismantle those awnings somehow. The horseshoe pits in the back had me at hello. Now I just need me a horse so that I may borrow his shoes from time to time.

Ze Pig

This was my fifth marathon, but my first Pig. I always had intentions of running it, and the spring of 2010 seemed like perfect timing. Well, due to a whole lotta changes in plans, it ended up being a hometown race and kind of a pain in the ass, schedule-wise. We moved into Erica's parent's basement on the 19th of March and closed on a house in College Hill on the 27th of April. That threw a huge wrench into the running regimen... especially since it was impossible to start a run from the door of the house like I had always done in Columbus. Every run required a drive and if I was going to run on the east side, it required an extra bag so I could shower at work. It all felt disjointed and more of a hassle than it had before... but I was committed.

On top of all this, my race weekend consisted of 1) taking a load over to the new house on Friday night, 2) waking up early Saturday morning to clean the bathroom we had been using, 3) loading up a truck and two cars with boxes of clothes, kitchen stuff and other assorted items from the basement of Erica's parent's house and hauling it over to College Hill, 4) tearing out the carpet and padding on the entire first floor and hauling it to the basement, 5) cleaning the new bathroom 6) jumping in the shower and flying downtown to make it to the expo in time 7) weaving through the expo and finally making it up to dinner at P.F. Changs with my sister who was running the first leg of the 4-man relay 8) picking up some items at Bed, Bath & Beyond, 9) grocery shopping because the fridge was bare and 10) finally laying my stuff out and getting a bag of dry clothes packed for the next day and hopping into bed around 10:30pm. But that's enough excuses... now onto the race report.

The alarm went off at 4:30 and since I had been up since 2:45, it wasn't difficult to crawl out of bed. I got everything together, had my PB&J and headed for Oakley to meet my sister at her place. We got downtown amidst lightning, thunder and rain. Honestly, how common are thunderstorms in the morning? The answer... not at all. We end up walking a ways to the start and got pretty wet in the process. It was just a weird, eerie scene at the start. We only had about 10 minutes to go by the time we got to the corrals, it was very dark and raining hard. It seemed somewhat chaotic, but I wished my sister luck and snuck into the chute.

Even before the race, I didn't feel into it... physically or mentally. I just wasn't there. The impending closing ate up all my attention, the talk of the bad weather all week had me a little bummed and my legs didn't have much bounce because of aforementioned reasons, but the gun went off and so did we.

The temps were around 67º at the start with some decent gusts out of the south, but with the crowds in the first miles, they were negligible. I never really got to take in the course in those first miles as I was trying to find my pace knowing that what I was running wasn't sustainable for the next three hours, but I kept at it. The course was hillier than I'd expected in the first part and that took didn't do anything to boost my spirits as the rain continued to fall. The original goal was 3:05, but I backed off that immediately and decided to stick around the 3:10 pace group because I had heard they were going to back off ~30sec/mi for "the climb" and I thought that would at least save me a bit for the later stages. Well, they didn't. They took 7:15's all the way up that damn hill and I got sucked in the whole way. I did see my brother at the first transition area as he was running the second leg and that gave me a boost for the latter part of the big hill. 49:35 through 6.8mi (7:15/mi).

Once reaching the top, some guy yelled that the worst was behind us. We had almost 17mi to go. I wanted to punch him. I wasn't feeling good at all through these miles which only pissed me off so I pushed the pace a bit. It pissed me off that the 3:10 pace group was right behind me as I knew that leader took these suckers on a suicide mission up the hill and I was pissed that I wasn't running my own race. 1:34:11 through the half (7:12/mi). Miles 6.8 - 13.1: 44:36 (7:06/mi).

The hills kept coming once the long downhill on Erie Avenue was through and they did a number on me. I still tried to maintain some semblance of a pace but it got more and more labored and I felt things slowly slipping away and as I entered Linwood, it was gone... I was ready to go home. 2:23:08 through Mile 19.7 (7:16/mi). Miles 13.1 - 19.7: 48:57 (7:18/mi).

The last section along the river consisted of me walking through the water stops and running in between them. Ended up working out well. I was on my lonesome for a large part of this stretch and had a lot of crowds cheering just for me. Kind of funny. Definitely kept me going. And being able to see the stops ahead on the long straightaways helped me push a little harder to get there.

Coming into town was cool. Great big crowd along Pete Rose Way. That stretch seemed to go on forever. Saw my brother and sister at Eggleston. Shrugged my shoulders and shuffled towards the finish line. I had thought that last mile was faster than what they posted on the results site, but when I compared it to the overall pace of the last section, it wasn't so bad. 3:17:07 (7:32/mi). Miles 19.7 - 26.2: 53:59 (8:16/mi).

What did I learn? To go with a proven plan. I'll probably use Pfitzinger's 18/70 plan. And when will that be? Next spring. I'm going to register for the Boston Marathon with my time from Columbus 2009 (so long as they don't pull a fast one on me and change/implement different standards for 2011) and do some shorter stuff over the summer and plan for a half in the fall... maybe even a couple.

All in all, it was a good experience. The course gets a 10 in my book. You really get to see some of the best this city has to offer. If I would've had a better day, I could've focused more on the surroundings instead of making sure I got back to town. The crowds and volunteers were outstanding. The best I've ever seen. The aid stations were long and full of fluids. The finish area had tons of food and I was able to make my way through it quickly. The swag bag was great. The whole thing was put together really well and I was glad to have run it. I'll be back again, but next time it'll be for fun. Hauling 200lbs up and down those hills doesn't translate into fast times. So the Pig may have won this battle, but the war is far from over.

And there was little time to dwell on it. I spent the rest of Sunday pulling tac board up. My knees felt like they'd been used for target practice by the NRA.