PLANET3RRY

Here’s some new math for you…

26.2 +26.2 = Bronze

Okay, maybe there are too many numbers there. Let’s Try again

+ =

How about that? I know that maybe one or two people will know exactly what my two equations mean. Some of you might have a clue, some of you might have an idea and the rest are scratching your heads saying “I’m outta here, this dude is WHACK!”

If you happened to hear my last Gravity@1053′ Episode #21 when I said that I had Fall Marathon plans and those changed pretty quickly last week, that is the equation above. I know it’s not like ordering from the Picture Menu at McDonald’s but it’s pretty obvious right? No. You need me explain? Really? You Sure? Okay… Really?

OKay, (math) class has begun:

The first picture is the logo for Harpeth Hills Attacking Flying Monkey Marathon which is my Marathon de L’automne. How can you just not like the Monkey?

The Second picture is of a marathon that My Lovely and Talented Wife found for me. I bet she is kicking herself now. The second picture is the “graphic” I found for the Rutledge Marathon, a brand spanking NEW marathon in our local area (within 100mi). The Catch? It’s one week before the Harpeth Hills Marathon.

So what is a dude to do? Buhhhhhhhhh, RUN both… DUH!

So, what it would look like is run the Rutledge Marathon on Saturday November 15th, then the following Sunday November 23rd run Harpeth Hills. No, I am not crazy, okay… well, maybe just a little. So that segue right to the meaning of the last picture.

That last picture is a 8bit picture from Marathon Maniacs website. Running both marathons would qualify me for the Bronze (most entry) Level of the Marathon Maniacs.

So that is the news from Planet3rry Headquarters: Two marathons, Back-to-Back Weekends, certified Maniac. You’ll be able to follow my training and I may even make a Widget in Wordpress just for this Glorious, Magnificant, Outlandish attempt. Next thing I’ll tell you is that I am going to run an Ultra…

Just a couple of shots taken while walking to dinner…

Of course, I am making a reference to the Country & Western song:

“Goin’ Through The Big D”
Written by Mark Wright, Ronnie Rogers & Jon Wright
Recorded by Mark Chesnutt

It’s our annual trip to Dallas and once again Marianna (aka Greek Chickie) will not be there this year. Her excuse… this year is: “She out of the country”. Come ON! First weather, then a sudden death, now out of the country (and IRAQ to boot). I’m starting to get the hint… fine! Maybe NEXT year then. But hell you might be in OUTERSPACE or something outlandish like that.

For Past Dallas Trips, you can click the links to see all the fun and excitement we’ll be getting into:

2007 Dallas… in a Nutshell

2006 Dallas in 4 Acts: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4

2005 The One With the Baby Bjorn

2004 Jobless in Dallas

This year, the set up is that our Resourceful and Reliable Au Pair will be watching the kids here in Knoxville with help from Grandma while we are in Dallas. So, that’s a cross country stress we don’t have to worry about. However, we are going to be at a different hotel (Sheraton) than before (Hyatt) and so this is going to A) Cause more stress because I have to learn this new hotel and surrounding area and B) Give me a Chance to learn something new because of the new hotel, plus there might be more Stella action in this part of town. But for the most part I should be Upped on MK Enthusiasm, so it should be too big of a problem.

As the unofficial Pro-Am photographer of the Kalicak National area. I was really hoping to have a new lens this year, but a guy can dream, right? I’m just hoping that the lighting is better in this hotel because in the Hyatt’s ball room, the light just Suckity-Sucked with a big fat Suck-a-tude. If you really want to know how I felt about the lighting, I’ll kindly tell you in an email. If you didn’t want the yellow tones of the lights, you had to Flash (and not the naked kind) the hell out of your subject.

So, here’s to hoping!

Also this year, I will be partaking in PAINTBALL again. I am not sure if we are going to be at this place: http://www.gatsplat.com again (probably so). If we are, there is a webcam there that you can see all the action, and even control the webcam as well. I don’t know what I will be wearing this year, but it will be lighter in color. And it’s not like I am going to be totally unconnected while I am in Dallas, so I’ll probably post an update or not.

Here’s the latest, but not the greatest episode of Gravity@1053′, if you don’t already subscribe with a podcatcher/media player (e.g. iTunes, Media Monkey, Juice, etc).

In this episode, I am unveiling my 2008 Fall Marathon Selection. However, it will be modified slightly, so this ended up being a short episode because of that. Didn’t want to ramble on and on about the marathon when it was going to change some. So here is the episode. I am going to post the “update” on my fall marathon next week.

[ed: Podpress is not working for some reason... and I don't know why, so there is no player in this post for this episode at the current time. You'll have to click the link above.]

Wednesday night I actually got more sleep than usual. I was in bed by 11:30 (okay, it was really close to 11:30) and after a couple of games of Solitare on the Palm TX, I was alseep. The Kids woke me up around 6:30, but I got up made oatmeal and then somehow was able to get back to the bed for some more sleep.

So, I am thinking I may have had around 7 hours of sleep. Too bad it wasn’t consectutive.

My foot is much better today, I can actually put just about all my weight on it and instead of being in pain, I can just “feel it”. My finger is better too, so now typing doesn’t hurt and I don’t have to wear a bandaid that mashed extra keys when I type.

It was a fairly straightforward day, I had a decent day trading today and took some profits on some positions. I will be requesting the money that is dogearred for Elijah on Friday, so I can get that sent in.

I threw together an episode of Gravity. Mainly because I had worked on part of it, but thanks to My Lovely and Talented Wife, that has all changed for the fall marathon training. I didn’t want what I had to go to waste, so ir’s a short episode (10 min) and it trails off after the announcement.

Next week, I’ll post what I am going to do since I will be in Dallas next week and then training will start on August 4th for my marathon. I’m not sure how much internet access I will have next week and I wish that I could get my camera phone to send posts to my “secret” blog email and I would MoBlog.

Stella’s lens covers are on order, but not sure if they are going to make it or not. It’s not that I am too nervous because I can always purchase one from the local camera store. You never can have too many Lens covers when your Father in law is involved. Someone asked how that happened. We were talking and I had gotten pictures off of Stella and she was in the chair. He went to change chairs to better see the computer and knocked it off with his butt.

So is everybody ready for Friday?

I am actually injured on two of my appendages. Don’t worry it’s not THAT appendage, but my two injuries are rather annoying.

The first and less severe is a cut across my index finger. It’s right on the tip, so when I type something with my right index finger like “Y U H J I or N” it hurts. In fact, half of typing the word “hurt” hurts. Oi.

The second and more severe injury is VERY annoying. It’s a good thing that I am taking a break in running because the injury is on the bottom of my big toe. It’s about dime size and is really gross. You wanna know how I did it? I didn’t think so. So here’s what happened. I’ll get you a picture if you want!

The kids love it when we play Hide and Go Seek. In fact, it’s really Hide and Scare the Bejeezus Out of The Kids… and that’s the part they love. The Kids will count to 20 (or somewhere close) and I try to go as fast as I can to hide somewhere in the house. Typically, The Younger will peek to see in which direction I am going. Cheater.

So when I hide, I try to find a place that’s in the open but concealed (like behind a door) so when they get close to me, I can jump out from behind the door and scream “BOO”. I know that I do it right, if The Younger falls over after the Scream. In either case, Both kids love it and laugh hysterically and want to do it again, over and over again.

So there are only a limited number of places to hide. One of the better places to hide is behind the Master Bed, there’s a limited amount of space, but very concealing. So that’s what my “target” spot was going to be. there about a 2′ wide space there between the bed and wall. Enough to laydown on the floor and be concealed, but not a whole lot of room to move around and get in there. It’s actually easier to roll off the bed and drop down into the crevass.

So that’s where I was headed.

I run down the hall and cut into the bedroom. I only have a few seconds to hide and to do it stealthy as to avoid detection of my location. So I run and bounce off the bed. In a Jackie Chan-esque move, I lept off the bed, laid my self out flat and side down the side of the bed to my hiding space. I think I had pulled it off, but my toe hurt since I had hit the metal floor vent.

It took the kids a couple of minutes to find me but they did. They Screamed and Laughed and it was time to hide again. So I dashed out of the bedroom and down the hall into the hall bathroom and into the shower, pinned up against the wall so they couldn’t see me. I can hear them trying to figure out where I must have gone.

While listen to them try to find me, I see a spot of blood on the bathtub. Huh, looks fresh. Listening to the kids roam around, not finding me and then I look down. Woah! A small pool of blood has formed and then I realize that my foot hurts. Oi! As I am in the shower hiding from my Kids, the pool is getting larger. It’s probably about the size of a half dollar. I am slowly bleeding to death hiding from my terror-seeking kids, the irony is that this is a great hiding place so much that when I’m passed out from blood loss, no one will find me.

So, now I need to hurry the kids up and let them find me so I tend to my wound. But I wasn’t going to let this good opportunity to mess with The Kids.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?” The Kids call from the Kitchen. The Hall Bathroom is located in the middle of the house with the Kitchen on one end and bedrooms on the other and being in the tub made for a weird echo-y sound.

“I’m in MOMMY’S ROOM!” Patter Patter Patter from Kitchen to the Master Bedroom (It is my room too…). I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the Kitchen!” Patter Patter Patter from the Master Bedroom to the Kitchen. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in The Playroom!” Patter Patter Patter from Kitchen to the Playroom. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the Living Room!” Patter Patter Patter from the Playroom to the Living Room. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the The Tent (in the Kid’s Room)!” Patter Patter Patter from the Living Room to the Tent. I’m not there.

“DADDY! WHERE ARE YOUUUU?”

“I’m in the The Hall Bathroom” Patter Patter Patter from the Tent to the Hall Bathroom. The little pool of blood is about the size of half my foot now. The price I pay for amusement. As The Younger approached the Shower Curtain, I pull the curtain back and yell, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!” Laughs ensue. And of course, they wanted for me to hide again, but I needed to inspect the damage. Thankfully, I had a hose that I could wash my foot off to see the injury… ouch. As I went back to the Master Bath where there were some first aid items there, I could see spots on the carpet where I had been.

Oh, and I decide not post any picture of my toe. You’re Welcome!

So it’s been healing for the past couple of days. I want  to say that it’s better, but it still hurts. I do put a bandage on it everyday, but I could not imagine having to run on it. It would be a right bloody mess! So, I need to let my foot heal so that it’ll be ready for the massive walking in Dallas next week and then the Fall Marathon training starting the week after (Aug 4th).

After cleaning up the carcass of the lens filter, I think that Stella is okay. I can see something in the view finder, but it does not come up on the pictures. I’ve tested most of her features and she seems to be okay. It’s just that right now, she is lens naked and so I better get my lens covers (from Amazon) before we leave for Dallas next week or I will have to shell out an emergency $20 to get a cover for the lens.

I had wanted to have a new all-purpose lens for her this trip to Dallas, but not this year… however, I probably will still be the unoffical photographer for our National Area again. This year was supposed to be the lens and next year was supposed to be the SpeedLite.

Well, at least Stella is okay.

Chance of FREAKY ASS RAIN 100%

It was in the mid 90s today with a feels like 98Fish and I know that this is nothing to get excited about it. Trust me, I’m sleeping as I type this. However, the guys at work love this stuff. So in the morning, I get the lowdown on the forecast for the day. Mid 90s, Chance of Rain 30%.

And that’s what it was like until 3pm when there was a sudden clap of thunder and it was still bright outside. For the rest of the afternoon, it was speculation on what was going to happen. The chart showed big red sploches on it, but it wasn’t cloudy.

Around 5pm, it got a little bit cloudier and the wind picked up. I left work and in 1/4 of a mile it was pouring rain.

And like the weather in East Tennessee, it can be pouring down raining at one place and dry just a few miles around

And just 1/4 mile away, it changes… again.

I stayed on the Interstate for quite a while. I wanted to go to the Kroger because there is a creek that gets Freaky Wild when it rains and so even though I didn’t have Stella, I wanted to get pictures or video. Just so happened that My Lovely and Talented Wife called and I went to Kroger on a dinner run. While I was in the store, the storm passed, but there was some lightening action going on when I came out.

After being that “Weird Guy filming in the Parking Lot” for a few minutes, I did get some lightening on digital.

See what My Lovely and Talented Wife’s Father did to Stella last week?

On a side note: Do you like my Mouse Pad?