2006 Chateau Ste. Michelle - Gewurztraminer

My brother and his family came over this afternoon. It was a great time letting the kids get together and run around the backyard. Morgan also had a play date today. Tony brought Vinnie, their Australian Shepherd, with them. The dogs got along amazingly well. We grilled some burgers and sat around the kitchen table and caught up on life. The weather outside was perfect, so there was a great breeze blowing through the house. The kids were in the backyard running between the play set and the trampoline. Abby brought a nice bottle of wine to share. It was a 2006 Chateau Ste. Michelle - Gewurztraminer. It reminded me of a Reisling. It was a light & sweet wine. I hate drinking by myself, and since Michelle dislikes drinking alcohol for the most part i don't tend to drink as much. I'd probable go through a lot more of my wine collection if my parents were closer or if Tony and his family came over more. Hopefully that is something that we can coordinate in the future.

All - in - all it was a great weekend.

The Day After…

I went to see the orthopedic doc yesterday evening. Good News, there isn’t anything structurally wrong. The long and the short of things are that the quad muscle connects just under the knee cap. The tendon that connects the muscle got aggravated and then became inflamed. The inflammation is what is causing the pain. I was prescribed some anti-inflammatory medicine and told that my body will tell me how much I can do. He said that there shouldn’t be any issues with doing the bike ride – but to listen to my body. If I am in pain, then I will want to stop… he he – like I needed an excuse.

So I guess at the end of the day it is good news. I’ll take it easy for the next few days. I think I will get back on the bike this weekend and go around the neighborhood, nothing too stressful really, just enough to get the joints moving. The loop around the neighborhood is 1.5 miles so a few laps is really easy to do. Depending on which way you start the laps there 1 hill specifically that kicks your butt. What I did last time though was ½ of the laps went in one direction (the harder way) and the other ½ I went the other way.

I just received the Deloitte Cycling uniform today. This year they went with a good manufacturer for cycling clothing (Voler). The uniform is the normal lycra / lightweight material that most cycling gear is made from. I am conflicted about what to wear the day of the ride. During the spring I have been wearing the padded cycling shorts (lycra) but had a pair of baggy shorts over them. It looks kind of silly, but it works. I have been thinking about not wearing the baggy shorts since I don’t see anyone else wearing them. I don’t know – I am a little self conscious. Maybe I just need to get over it. Most everyone that I saw last year all had the spandex outfits – when in Rome.

Cranky

I am feeling pretty cranky today.

We were feeling pretty good after Michelle’s baby appointment yesterday. The doctor decided to use the in office ultra-sound machine and got the information that she wanted. Awesome, that means that we didn’t need to make the weekly second trip to Frederick for another appointment.

WHOA! – Not so fast… A couple days ago I started having knee pain in my left knee (my good one – heh). Sunday evening it was a little swollen, nothing terrible though. I am use to a little knee swelling (especially as the weather pattern changes). It was really tough to sleep Sunday night. I just couldn’t find a comfortable position. I dealt with the pain throughout Monday. I have a pretty high pain threshold. That has been a comment I have heard from a few doctors.

This morning I made the decision to trek my happy self into the Urgent Care (ugh – another trip to Frederick). After a fairly short wait, I was taken back to be checked out. The mystery question was asked – “What did you do?” There is the question. I am not sure what caused the pain to start or the joint to swell. It wasn’t as if there was a cause & effect that happened. So they took an X-ray and the doctor thinks that it is tendonitis. He wrapped it in an ace bandage and told me that I should see an orthopedic doctor sooner than later.

Ugh! This is just what I needed about 2 weeks from the MS bike ride. I am scheduled to go see a Ortho doc tonight, so I will just have to wait and see what he has to say about training…

Isn’t life just a boat load of fun?

Quote for Today...

There are a ton of different blogs that I read on a fairly regular basis. On one of the blogs i read today there was a quote that struck me as quite funny...

"When I was your age, Pluto was a Planet... "

More of a chuckle than a laugh, but still...

Another year gone...

This week has been a blur. Not that there was anything too exciting going on, but life was just busy. Between driving back and forth to Frederick for doctors appointments and testing and meeting all of my work requirements I think we were run ragged.

My birthday was this past week. Tuesday the 22nd benchmarked my 34th birthday. This had to have been one of the most low key birthdays to date. Don't get me wrong, I am not looking for a huge celebration, but with everything else that has been going my birthday ended up being an after-thought. eh - it was what it was. That evening, the girls and I had soccer practice. While we were gone, Michelle made chocolate cupcakes (in lieu of a birthday cake). After dinner I went for a short bike ride. While I was gone, Michelle and the girls iced and decorated some of the cupcakes. That was a nice surprise to find.

I love cupcakes :-)

Well i am about out of steam for tonight. I am hoping to write tomorrow after my training ride. I will have to ask Michelle how I post pictures up.

Almost a month...

Well, my desire for this blog was to write more often than I have been. It has been a month (almost) since i last wrote. Things have been really hectic around our household. We have the new baby coming. My wife's doctors appointments have gotten out of control. They seem to be on a snipe hunt. I feel like they have it stuck in their craw that there is something a-skew about the pregnancy. Maybe there is - maybe not. So far the tests have come back within normal limits. It is physically and emotionally draining on all of us. I am finding it irritating because I feel like it is taking the luster off what should be an exciting time.

The office has been great with letting me shift my schedule around as needed. I am now working from home 3 days a week. This has been extremely helpful. Shuffling all of these responsibilities has been taxing. It will be worth it in the end so long as "Logan" comes out healthy and beautiful. Heh - The name Logan is still a point of contention between the wife and I. Hopefully this will be one of those things that will stay if I don't give up ;-)

Training for the MS bike ride has been slow going. I am looking forward to the ride. I wish I had more time in my schedule to work in some more rides. I have been trying to attend the shop rides. The shop i bought my bike from has rides that are 30 - 35 miles long. I find these rides important because a 30 mile ride is exactly what i am signed up to do on May 17th. The bike i bought is performing pretty well. I am really looking forward to getting another saddle. The one that came on my Bianchi is very unforgiving. I am riding with padded cycling shorts. I even spent the extra money on a better pair. After the last long ride (34 miles) I was quite saddle sore. The whole biking thing turned out to be more expensive than i anticipated. My objective was to get something better than low end and nothing as nice as high end. I think i did that. It just ended up being more than i thought.

Well that is enough for this evening. I will try to be better about writing. It seems to prove theraputic in a way.

Busy, Busy ….

This weekend was one of the busiest that I can remember. It started on Friday with Elizabeth’s birthday. Unfortunately I had to work a full day. We let lizzie pick any place that she wanted to go to dinner. So Once I got home, we left for Frederick to meet my brother and his family at the Japanese Steak House that she has picked the last couple of years. It is a pricey dinner, but the food is GREAT.

Saturday we had our first soccer game. It was a bright and Sunny day. The flip side of that is it was unfortunately cold. I think the biggest issue was that it was really windy. After being out there for 2 hours (length of both kids soccer games) we were more than ready to get out of the cold. We spent the majority of the remaining day cleaning the house. It was in desperate need of it. We planned to have a my brother and a few neighbors over for pizza, cake, & ice cream (since we didn’t do cake on Lizzie’s birthday).

Saturday evening as we watched a movie, I brought my road bike in and installed the cycle computer. The computer has 8 functions, but basically there are 2 functions that I was really looking for. 1- Odometer, so I can track how far I am riding. 2- Cadence, so I can judge how fast / steady I am peddling.

Sunday was another great day. I started out the morning by going on a ride. Just outside of Charles Town they have redone one of the big roads that traverse between Charles Town and Martinsburg. One of the nice things they had incorporated was a paved bike trail off to one side of the road. It was a great opportunity to try out my new cycling shorts and bike computer. The ride was nice, chilly, but nice. All in all I rode about 10.5 miles. I averaged about 11 miles / hour. It was a shorter ride than I anticipated, but with the weather, it was long enough. I am still looking forward to the 30 mile MS bike ride. We had the dinner and Cake Sunday night. It was great to have so many friends and family around. Everyone had a good time.

Mighty Penguins!

We had our first soccer practice tonight. Okay, well the first one was last week, however, it was raining so the practice ended up being a meet and greet with the kids. Today we actually took to the field and ran through some drills. We finished practice with a scrimage. It was a good time. I am an assistant coach for Elizabeth's team. I thought it would be fun to get involved with the kids more. This seemed like a good way. It will get her more active and give us something special between us. It should prove to be interesting. I haven't played soccer since I was her age (about 4th grade).

Long and the short of it is I had a good time tonight and I am looking forward to the (short) 8 week season.

What goes around...

Its been a few weeks since i have written. There has been so much going on.

The cycling has been slow going. This is an expensive hobby. The Road bike was expensive and unfortunately all of the accessories that go with it haven't been any better. The biggest difference I have encountered between the Road bike and my hybrid bike has been the comfort of the seat. The road bike is built lean and mean. The seat is very aerodynamic and has no padding (Can we say saddle sore?). I have been on the hunt for cycling shorts. The problem is that I am not one for spandex. I have found out that they make 'baggy' cycling shorts. They are primarily designed for mountain bike riders, but I think I will get some use out of them as well - Once I am able to find a pair that look nice, fit, and don't cost $100.

The road bike I bought is a 2007 Bianchi via Narone. The bike frame is made using aluminum alloy. It has carbon forks and chainstays. It has Shimano 105/Ultegra mix gearing.

The shoes i have are Sidi. They are kind of strange, which is the way the cycling shoes are supposed to be. They have a stiff bottom which helps transfer the most power.

The weather hasn't been too cooperative. Cold and windy make a bike ride pretty miserable. This has made training pretty slow going. I really hope that the cold weather breaks soon and that the warmer weather brings some good opportunities to ride more.

I have the MS bike ride coming up on May 17th. I am planning on doing the 30 mile ride and striving to be ready for the 60 mile ride. We'll have to see how that goes.

No better time for a change...

So I know it is a little late for a new year’s resolution, but i think of this as a late start on a promise I made to myself. As i rang in 2008, I found myself almost 50 pounds heavier than i wanted to be. I joined the Army in 1995. My Army career was uncommon. It lasted till October 2000 and interestingly enough It started out pretty hard core and got progressively easier with every base i went to. The military enabled me to stay in pretty good shape. I am sure staying lighter was easier between working out an average of 5 days a week and being 8 years younger. So anyways back on track. I decided this year I would loose some weight, but more importantly get into better shape. I currently have 2 great girls and I am expecting a new little boy in the next couple of months. I feel it is important for me to be able to keep up with them. I have been getting slower with every pound I pack on. I have old man aches and pains. I need to loose weight and better yet, I need to get into shape.

I am not one to hit the gym. I just never could get into that. I decided to bike ride. I have been interested in doing the charity bike rides, but never really looked into it much. The company I started to work for in February of 2007 has a lot of incentives for getting fit. They have a cycling group that does a lot of the charity rides (specifically the MS Bike Ride - more of that later) and they offer a fitness subsidy that has helped purchase my Road Bike.

So...

This blog will end up being a little bit more of what I am into and the experiences i am going through vice a "dedicated" blog on Vino.