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Crazy Phone August 30, 2007

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My phone is crazy. It has a history of resetting itself at random times, especially when I am waiting for a call. Well now it has gotten worse. When I make a call (only while up in Colorado) it works fine… as long as I stand still. If I move at all the call tends to drop, my phone loses connection with the network and it starts to wibble for a couple of seconds. Sometimes it recovers, sometimes it needs to be reset before I can make a call again… Gues it it missing Houston!!!

Training at Altitude… August 30, 2007

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… sure is harder than at sea-level.

I am up in Colorado (Fort Collins) for training this week. The training is not physical training, but work related training. Last night I took a drive down to Boulder (about an hour drive) and went to train with the local branch of our Capoeira group. It was fun to see the local group, although almost everyone I know was not there, except for Leomar, who was teaching the class. Anyway, I very quickly found how much harder your body has to work when you are not used to the altitude. Both my lungs and muscles felt the strain, and today I ache like I had worked out twice as long and twice as hard as I actually did!

I knew this would be the case (being harder to train) but it is one thing to know it and another to experience it!

A Trip of Characters… August 16, 2007

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We went up to DC last weekend to visit Sherwin, Mum Mum’s brother for a couple of days, as well as to visit DC and to get away from work for a couple of days. The trip was fun and relaxing although my feet were not happy with me, what with all the walking we did around the sights and museums. That aside, we met some really interesting characters. Here is a quick recap of the idiots we saw;
  • Inflated Ego Traveller – After checking in, we were in line at security. The line was taking a little longer than usual (something to do with a military dude and inefficient operators). There was a guy further back in the line and he starting talking very loudly… ‘This is ridiculous, It should NOT be taking this long. What is the HOLD UP?!?’. Not exactly what he said but you get the jist. There was a TSA agent there and he told the guy to tone down. The guy then asked (and not nicely) if they could use the other line and the TSA agent’s response was a simple ‘NO!’. That shut him up, although he did grumble the rest of the way!
  • Helpful Father – In the same line, there was a family in front of us. Mother, father, two kids (both young), what I figure to be the nanny and her kid. The father walked through the metal detector, leaving mum and kids behind and just stood at the other side. He did finally come back to hold the hand of his daughter, but the mum was left to handle all bags and the stroller by herself. I gotta admit that she was remarkably efficient, but still, the dad could have been a little more helpful.
  • Baggage Claim Expert – Arriving at DC we were confronted with one of the worst baggage claim areas I have ever seen. There were at least 2 or 3 flights coming out on the same carousel, and there were several empty ones beside it. The carousel was so busy that it would move for 10 seconds, then stop, restarting about 15 seconds later. After 20 minutes of this a guy decided to speak up. He had good suggestions about removing bags that had been there for ages to allow space for other bags. Unfortunately the airport workers did not agree. Soon after, our flight was moved to a different carousel where we very quickly got our bags. On our way to find the taxi stand we saw that the guy had been pulled aside by two TSA agents, and was later joined by a cop… he was not in for a good time!
  • Flight Attendant on way home – So I got upgraded both ways, but even though Mum Mum should have been on the list, she was not. On the way up I gave her my seat and I took the first class seat on the way back. After the doors close there was still a spot open in business. Turns out that the occupant decided to move back to an empty row in coach to stretch out. I had asked the attendant if she could allow Mum Mum to move up if the seat was empty, but she was all ‘OHH, I can’t do that, only the ground crew can do that’. After takeoff, I get my drink and some cold cuts. At that point I ask if she could bring a drink back to Mum Mum. She was all offended, but finally agreed, although was keen to remind me that Mum Mum could buy a drink ‘back there.’ She then told me that I should have given my seat up to Mum Mum, and was stunned when I told her I already had, on the way up.

I am sure I have missed one or two, but those are the main ones, apart from the incredible amount of idiots in DC who could not share the pavement.

More photos will be uploaded soon.

Little Functional Update August 7, 2007

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Added more book list functionality. I can now add books that I want but have not yet bought (as opposed to those sitting on the bookshelf waiting to be read) and for the books not yet released that I want to buy when they are released (mainly so I can keep track of them!!)

Finally, I get a round in… August 5, 2007

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Not without some rain, but we did manage to play, and finish the round. When the rain came, it was a heavy drizzle, which was amazingly cooling while it lasted, but the humidity did increase afterwards.

We played at Hermann Park, and having not played in well over a month, hitting an 87 is not bad, even on that short course. There were two holes where I had a bad tee shot, and tried to do too much with the second, which resulted in a triple and quadruple bogey, but other than that I played really well, and ohh… I again have Celebrex to thank for allowing my back to not cause me loads of pain!!!

As you can probably figure, I have been having lower back problems, and Celebrex seems to be the only thing that is helping at the moment.

1000 Miles in 6 days! August 5, 2007

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Trip to Plano, then day trip to Austin for Cheryl and Jay’s wedding, all in 6 days… and that does not include the trip to Port Arthur on Saturday… poor car is road weary, and all I can say is YAY for Celebrex… my back would never have survived without it!!!