Hi All,

Sunday, February 17th to February 23rd: 25.4 miles

I modified my running schedule due to work (which is a good thing):

Tuesday night: 7 miles, 20F, windy, no stops, about 8:30 pace
Thursday night: 7 miles, 20F, calm, no stops, 8:23 pace
Saturday afternoon: 11.4 miles, 36F, calm, no stops, 8:25 pace

I amped up my long run. I could have run more ... I just keep on going like the Energizer Bunny, I guess.

My new job at Kodak office on the IT Help Desk is interesting. Their help desk is designed for high and critical priority calls and handles a lot more people with more apps and accounts. Kodak has a lot of online FAQs so that users can handle a lot of their support. I have listened to calls, received training and slowly got my accounts up and running. I handled two tickets on Friday; one via email and one by calling the customer with an answer to her question. Next week I am told that I will answer some live calls with someone listening to help me. The drive on Route 31 is 33 miles one way.

I am still finishing up the kitchen. I am laying down contact paper in the cabinets and drawers right now. I will be rehanging the cabinet doors this week. Then the bathroom will be last, but not least.

I watched War from the RedBox at Wegmans in Newark. I have been watching action movies lately.

Both the Newark girls and boys basketball teams have made it to the quarterfinals in their respective Section V tournaments. The girls bracket link is here. The boys bracket link is here. I hope to catch both finals (if they make it that far).

I am still converting my VHS tapes (ST-DS9 and ST-Voyager right now) to DVD. I ran into quite a string of bad DVDs (10 or so) this week. Either that would not even load or would not close after the write. I have changed to another brand of DVD-Rs. The first two were good.

Today I am headed down to Ithaca for Michael's Wind Ensemble concert. The concert will be held away from Ithaca College at Cornell University's Bailey Hall. According to Michael, it will be loud ... he will be wearing earplugs.

Keep running, Doug

Update: I am back from Ithaca. The concert was awesome. Bailey Hall is a horsehorse auditorium with a balcony built especially for musical concerts. The last piece was Circus Maximus by John Corigliano. Here is a quote from the program:

"The Circus Maximus of ancient Rome was a real place - the largest arena in the world. 300,000 spectators were entertained by chariot races, hunts, and battles. The Roman need for grander and wilder amusement grew as its empire declined.

The parallels between the high decadence of Rome and our present time are obvious. Entertainment dominates our reality, and ever-more-extreme "reality" shows dominate our entertainment. Many of us have become as bemused by the violence and humiliation that flood the 500-plus channels of our television screens as the mobs of imperial Rome, who considered the devouring of human beings by starving lions just another Sunday show."

Back to the concert - there were trumpets, snares, trombones, etc stationed all around: behind, to the left, to the right and on the balcony. The trumpets heralded like the Roman trumpets. The climax in the sixth movement was quite loud, the climax at the end was punctuated by a shotgun blast.

Hi All,

Sunday, February 10th to Saturday, February 16th: 31.2 miles

I ran four times this week keeping to my every other day running schedule:

Sun: 7.2 miles, 28F, a little windy, snowy, no stops, 8:32 pace
Tue: 7 miles, 20F, a little windy, no stops, 8:13 pace
Thu: 7 miles, 36F, calm, no stops, 8:10 pace
Sat: 10 miles, 36F, a little windy, no stops, 8:31 pace

I have good news ... I have a job. I will be working at Kodak office on State Street through Adecco starting Monday. The pay is $3.75/hr less that I was making at ITT through TCN so if something else comes along I will seriously consider it.

I am getting along in the kitchen. The drawers are done. I finished painting the back of the cabinet doors. I painted the walls with the casual blue that I used in Michael's room. It looks pretty good. I will look into putting down contact paper in the drawers and cabinets.

I got out a bit tonight. I went to see the Newark girls basketball (number 3 seed) team play its opening sectional game against Brighton (number 14 seed). Newark won 75-33. Section V, Class A sectional schedule link is here. It was a joy to watch the Newark girls pick apart their opponent. They play the same style of tenacious defense that Newark has played for years. The Newark boys are 20-0 and start their sectional games on Tuesday. Section V schedule calendar link is here. I must say that I like the girl's link much better. It was updated with Newark's win within hours, the boys link doesn't even have the team names or where and when the games are!

I am getting more adventurous in the kitchen. I made scrambled eggs with turkey and cheese this morning. Those of you who are cooks may laugh, but for me ... well ... a cook I am not.

Well, it's time to head upstairs to put another coat on the front of the cabinet doors.

Keep running, Doug

Hi All,

Sunday, February 3 to Saturday, February 9: 25.5 miles

I ran three days this week keeping to my usual every other day schedule.

Mon: 8.5 miles, 34F, calm, no stops, 8:10 pace
Wed: 7 miles, 32F, calm, a little freezing rain, no stops, 8:17 pace
Fri: 10 miles, 36F, calm, no stops, 8:21 pace

Relatively good news on the job front. Thursday, I had an interview at EK office on State Street for a Desktop Support position. The interview went really well. They had a hands-on test, a laptop with network issues. I solved 3 out of the 4 problems: network card disabled, DHCP not set, network cable not connected. I couldn't set the EK proxy. But I think I passed the test. I also got a call from Ajilon about a Desktop Support position at Wegmans on Friday.

I went to a Rochester Fun Raisers Happy Hour at the Airport Holiday Inn on Thursday night with a friend, MK. We talked for a while, then mingled. It was OK and I had fun.

The kitchen is going well. The upper cabinets are 95% done and the bottom cabinets have been started. I scraped and sanded the doors at a friend's house on Tuesday. They need to be painted along with the walls (a Casual Blue, I think).

Karen is home from Houghton this weekend for a short visit. She was over to visit Blackie and Inkie.

The NY Giants pulled off the upset, 17-14, against the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. The game was quite good. Links from SI.com and sportsline.com. The ads were pretty good also.

I have been on a DVD watching tear lately, watching The Brave One, Pirates of the Carribean: At World's End and Ratatouille at the Redbox at Wegmans.

Keep running, Doug

Hi All,

Sunday, January 27th to Saturday, February 2nd: 30.3 miles
Month of January: 126.4 miles, I ran 16 out of 31 days, 7.9 mile average

I ran four times this week keeping to my every other day schedule. I was lucky and avoided the high winds on Wednesday and the ice on Friday.

Sunday: 9.3 miles, 32F, calm, 2 stops, 8:19 pace
Tuesday: 7 miles, 42F, calm, tried energy gel, no stops, 8:03 pace
Thursday: 7 miles, 28F, calm, no stops, 8:04 pace
Saturday: 7 miles, 32F, calm, tired, slushy, no stops, 8:22 pace

This week I painted the ceiling in the kitchen, removed the cabinet doors for sanding, and started painting the cabinets on Saturday. I quickly found out the painting the cabinets will take longer than I thought. There is a whole lot of area to paint inside the cabinets! The first coat of the upper cabinets took about 8 hours. Then I went for a slow run and shoveled the driveway. I am quite beat from all the exertion today.

No news on the job front. No word from either Cornell or Ginna. I applied online to Zotos in Geneva. I worked there for 6 months back in 1999. I also applied online to Ultralife in Newark again when the job was reposted.

I saw a post on Runner's World about Idiotic Things NON-runners say about running. It's pretty true. I don't really think it's much of anything to go out for a 7 mile run (at a minimum). It's just something that I do every other day. Non-runners think it's amazing, something they could never do, weird, etc ... depending on the person.

Keep running, Doug