A few months ago I was shredding a GIANT box of olde reciepts (we used to save every receipt we ever got).  There were so many that I began just stuffing them into our shredder by the fistfull.  We have an industrial size shredder that I got for $20 at the Ann Arbor Reuse Center.  It has a 1/4 hp motor in it and does a heck of job.

So there I was, merrily shredding away, when all of a sudden the machine stops dead with a horrendous screech.  Yes, you guessed it.  The key.

I have to give the thing credit for getting that far into a brass key before giving up.  I still don’t know why we would keep the key in a bag filled with receipts.

Do you think I can still get my deposit back from the bank if I hammer the thing flat again?

I’m sorry if you felt we were laughing too loudly, but asking us “Do you think you are at home?” is not really the best way to bring the subject up.  In fact, it makes you look like a cranky old man.

In actuality, I am home.  I grew up here, I live here, I pay taxes here.  I don’t know where you are from because you weren’t polite enough (or brave enough) to tell us your name.  So, yeah, I do live here and laughing is not a crime.

In the future, if someone is disturbing your morning Metamucil at the diner, you could turn around and say something polite like “Excuse me, your laughter is getting pretty loud and its difficult to enjoy our own conversation.  Would you mind keeping it a little quieter?”

See how nice that is?  If we responded harshly, then you could come back with your standard grumpy old man statement.

Instead, you chose to skip all protocol and jump right to “grumpy”, causing us to laugh even louder, talk loudly about the crank behind us, until you are so annoyed, you stomp off out of the diner, probably running over people in the parking lot.

By the way, if I ever see you in there again?  I’m going to request a seat next to yours.

One more thing.  Take off your damn hat when you are inside and at the table.  Do you think you are at home?

The other bar I have heard alot about on the web.  The name is just odd.  I guess it was meant to sound like “crunchy”.  I have always wanted to try it.  As it turns out, its like a Nestle Crunch bar, only with 10 times more rice.  So its very light and has a strong rice taste to it.  Once again, I am hoping for no melamine.  According to this pdf document, it has satisfactory levels of melamine.  I’m hoping that means zero.

So that’s it for today.  I think I’ve eaten enough chocolate this morning.  Please pardon me while I continue with my post-Thanksgiving coma.

The 10K was as 10:30 am (awkard start time!) right after the 5K which was at 9:30.  We actually had to wait a bit until the last of the runners were moved to the side of the course.  The 5K had abut 5500 runners and we had 663.

We watched the 5K runners start and then come back in.  One thing that really shocked me was how much everyone was bunching up in the finish coral.  The people crossing the line had about 5 feet of distance after the mats before they had to stop dead.  It looked like there was about 30 yards of people just standing waiting to move.  A couple things were holding it up: 1) Only two buckets for race chips and 2) a racing group with bright orange shirts were all congregating in the finish coral.  I wish I could remember the name on the shirts, but they sure didn’t understand that they were a roadblock.  Everyone had to squeeze around their group.

While we were inside waiting, a woman yells out on her megaphone “The 5K is gonna to start, so get out there and start running”.  I suppose there was a better way to say it, but she didn’t look like the kind of person that was interested in something like that.  A better way: “Attention 5K runners.  The 5K is about to start.  Please proceed to the starting line.  Good luck!”.

I was pretty chilly at the start of the race (35F) and by about mile 3 I was roasting my ass off.  I wore my running pants and running jacket, with a short sleeve shirt underneath.  I wish I had something in between the heavier pant and running lycra.  Still too bashful for lycra (where I know people at race), but it was too cold for shorts.

As usual, I started out too fast, slowed in the middle, and dragged myself to the end.  I really felt miserable.  Such a contrast to the last 10K.  It pays to train right I guess.

I missed most of the mile markers.  There were almost no people on the course (they were all cooking dinner I guess).  There was a bar near the end where tons of people were standing outside with their beer.  A few people sat on their steps and smoked as we ran by.  There were alot of empty buildings.  I wouldn’t want to do that race at night.

My running buddy beat her 10K PR and finished under an hour for the first time.  I was very proud of her!  She’s going to be very fast.  :)

After-race food?  I give it a 2 out of 10.  Boxes of bananas, whole oranges, and one box of the world’s driest generic granola bars (gone by the 1 hr mark in the 10K).  Little plastic cups of a strange orange drink (they looked like specimen cups).  A sign that said “please take only one item”.

And then the strangest thing: medals.  I never got a finisher’s medal for a 10K before.  It was kinda sad that the people with the medals stood at the end of the coral yelling “Medals!  Get your medals here!”  Somehow detracted from the sense of reward.

The race shirt was a long sleeve cotton shirt with the turkey cartoon on the front.

So, at least I PR’d (by a hair).  Would I do this race again?  Not likely.   Looking forward to the 5K in December.

Not much else to report except this:

You can see that I was quite a bit heavier in New Haven on Labor Day.  And I had a few bumps in the road due to the trip to Cape Cod and Halloween.  These things happen.

Mostly, I just cut back the calories to about 1500 a day and tried to get out running more.  It was really hard at first because I was so hungry.  I spread out my lunch during the day and that helped.  Now I feel like I have eaten too much if I am not hungry for breakfast when I get up.  I think if I am not hungry at lunch time, it means I have had too much to eat the day before.

I missed alot of data in the past month or so, just because I’ve been a bit busy.  But my weight was 176.0 this morning so I am still doing ok.  The class reunion is Saturday night and I’m pretty happy that I will not be “the guy who got fat”.  Well, at least I won’t be “the guy who got fat and stayed fat”.  :)

Today we got a box from an Ebay auction.   It was 16 pounds of Lego blocks that my wife for my son for Christmas.  She paid alot of money for them.  The seller has perfect ratings.  Perfect.

When I opened the box, I could immediately smell the stale smell of cigarrette smoke.  You know that smell.  Like when someone has smoked in their car for 10 years and then they try to sell it, and leave the windows open for a day to “freshen it up”.  I had hoped it was just the box, but it was indeed the bags of Legos themselves.  Blech.  We sent a note asking for our money back.

I don’t get it.  Smokers never seem to realize that everyone can smell the smoke on them.  Even when they shower.  Even when they eat mints.  Even when they leave the windows open.

I used to work with this guy who was surprised when I knew he had just come back from a cigarrette break.  “Wow, you’ve got a really sensitive nose!”  No, its just that all your clothing and every pore of your body is saturated with cigarrette tar.

For those out there who are smoking a cigarrette and reading this?  You stink and your cigarrette stinks.  You may not know it because all of your nose hairs are covered with tar, but you do stink, and everyone around you thinks you stink, but just don’t tell you.  Everyone.  Everyone you walk past, everyone you sit next to.  Heck, even the guy who sits in the stall after you do, knows that you smoke, because quite frankly, your smoke -stained clothes smell stronger than poop.

And so do you.

I ran last night at the park with my running buddy.  We started late in the day so it was already dark when we started.  The park closes at dark but you can park there and go run anyway because most of it isn’t gated (and they really don’t care anyway).  We saw a couple other people out running, but they had no lights and were just running in the pitch black.  I’m not sure I could do that because the monsters would get me.

Not as cold as it was the other night, but it was in the 20’s to be sure.  By the end I was feeling a little warm, but I think I was still dressed ok.  Short sleeve shirt over a long sleeve shirt, lycra, running pants, nigh jacket, THICK gloves, and my Headsokz.  I pull the Headsokz (Headsock? singular?) down later in the run because it was too warm.

That’s the trouble with cold runs.  Your face is freezing but if you wrap it up, it gets all sweaty and then its even colder.  Annoying.  My face was cold and kept tucking the Headsokz around my chin to keep it warm.

We ran 6.5 (about) miles and decided to stop there because we have a 10K on Thursday.  I think this will be another cold and drizzly race.  The race is at 10:30 which is an awkward time for me to race.  And we have to run home quick afterwards to deal with Thanksgiving dinners.  Crazy race day.

No run tonight because of Scouts.  Rest Tuesday and Wednesday?  I haven’t been running much.  Maybe a small run on Tuesday.  I’m having a terrible time finding time to run these days.

I was in the shower at the gym today and in walked a guy who I went to high school with.  It was very awkward.  I wanted to say “Hey, good to see you.  How have you been?” but it just didn’t seem the right moment since we were both naked.

(Thank you, everyone, for suffering though 1000 posts by me, especially this one.)

Why does8 oz of cheesecake outside your body, weigh 3 pounds inside your body?

I had planned to bring the running gear but dropped it at the last minute.  This was not a running town and there was no gym.  Just as well, I had zero time for it anyway.  And also not much room in the luggage because I wanted to do it all as carry-on.

Last night I went running for the first time in 10 days.  6 miles, 8:40 pace, which was surprisingly fast to me.  I figured I would be dragging a lot more than that!  It was incredibly warm out last night, about 60F.  Today I am running at the park with my running partner.  She joked at 10 miles (I think) so we’ll see how far we get.  The wind is really high today so I’m wearing the warmer clothes.  I always underdress for the park, thinking it will be warmer than it is.

I’m signing up for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving (10K).  Its been a long time since I ran this one and the course is totally different.  Oh, did I mention I ran this in High School?  I did.  I ran one mile every morning to train for it, and then ran the 3 miles (it was the 3 mile version in those days) for the first time that morning.  21:11, and I felt like I wanted to die.  I would kill for that time now.  :D

So this morning I have some cooking to do and some unpacking to do.  Then some running.  :)