Here's a scan of Manhattan from Jersey:

And here's your basic shot of a subway coming into a station... they come in faster than I expected, and are about 5 times as long as expected.

Here's a quick summary of the trip, since we're still in the middle, and i'm sleepy. First is a video from Jersey of Manhattan, which is way bigger than I expected.

This is the outside of the place we stayed in Jersey, our friends Tracey and Joe.. it has a basement, which was nice and cold, just my kind of sleeping arrangement temperature.

This is a building at Ellis Island. Due to time constraints, we could only visit here, or the Statue of Liberty, which we could not go up, so we chose the former... much better decision, it was really interesting, and I learned a lot. This building is the main one that people first went through to go through the very extensive screening processes.

This is an old church in the financial district, which since 9-11, very limited vehicle access, nice for tourists on foot. Just really liked the way it was framed. New York is hard to photograph, because it's all too big.

Old Francisco

Been a little while... quick summary.
Went to San Francisco for my youngest cousin's wedding, was able to spend the day in the city, before going to the wedding the next day. I think the highlight for me was the cable car museum. It was totally free (perfect price) and I learned tons, I'm practically a cable car expert now.

This building is where they house the cars on the top floor, and have the motors moving the cables on the ground floor, and underneath, are the giant wheels that point the cables to each of four lines in the system.

Inside the building... each cable is one continuous loop. Each one will stretch about 100 feet in it's lifetime before it needs to be replaced, and they handle this by having wheels at the far end of this picture able to move further away from the motors.

Jen just really liked this purple house, it was pretty cool, I must admit. We did a lot of walking, which was pretty tough the week after the San Diego Rock 'n Roll Marathon.

Man, that chocolate ice cream from the Ghiradelli's Chocolate factory sure was good.

On a side note, went to the mall today, looking for a man bag. I only found one, for 49.99, so I was unsuccessful on my mission. The item of note though, is that in my going from store to store, I realized that the stores that I would buy my clothes from 10 years ago, are not the same ones I would go into today, because I'm too old for it. Ouch.
I also walked into the Apple store, which was an odd experience, because everyone that worked there I completely distrusted, as if they were about to try to swindle me. I don't have pictures, cause I think they would sue me or something.

So, if you look closely, you'll see that these specially scissors are designed specifically to open the type of packaging that it is, in fact, packaged inside. I sure hope whomever decided on the packaging knows about the amusement it has given to me.

Wii're on the road again

So, we bought a Wii (which is much more fun to say out loud) and it's pretty sweet. Even Jen plays it, so I pretty much have the most awesome wife ever. We had to search for it on Sat, eventually finding out that Best Buy would get some on Sunday morning, so we got there a little early, had to wait in line for about 30 min, and then it was mine!
Also in the news, my friend, Gerry, is in the middle of a cross county drive to Floriday, taking the roundabout way, and is posting lots of pics about it each night of his trip, pretty neat stuff, you should check it out at http://www.moneysocal.blogspot.com

Where's ET going to phone to?

Well, went to look at our first condo on Sunday. It was weird, because it was nice, it was a nice price, most of the things that we didn't really like about it were fixable, neighborhood looked good, but it was the first one. You can't get the first one you look at, right? But we don't even know what questions to ask about it to determine if it's good for us or not. Just an odd feeling. Plus, do we even want to do it? There's pretty much no chance for us to be able to have Jen stay home with potential babies, which we would like, but do we want to have babies in a place with a shared washer and dryer that both leave marks on our clothes? Do we want to deal with all the hand washing of dishes, more than we usually deal with without having a dishwasher? If we try to find a better place to rent though, we'd end up spending not too much less than we would if we bought one of the cheaper condos, and then not have the tax breaks that homeownership comes with.
Ugh, this whole thing is pretty frustrating. It kinda feels like either way we choose, we lose in one way or another.

It's a wonderful town?

We've set the date for our vacation this year, right at the beginning of July. Off for a whirlwind tour of New York, Boston, and Cape Cod. We are going to try to catch a Yankees game and a Red Sox game, so we can mark off 2 more Baseball Stadiums from our list. Other main things to do is see just how big Central Park really is, climb up to the top of the Statue of Liberty, eat real NY pizza, bagels, and a hot dog from a street vendor. I would mention using the Subway, but that'll happen without us really trying. We'll go see a Broadway show, go to the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater on Sunday night to see ASSSSCAT! with Amy Poehler. There's an Ice Cream place in Cape Cod (or do you say 'on' ?) we saw on FoodTV once that Jen has been to. We'll fly to NY on Thursday night the 3rd on the redeye, spend the first part in NY, then rent a car and drive to Cape Cod. One of the best parts is that Jen has friends in both places, so we don't have to spend a dime on our sleeping arrangements! Very lucky. We're both pretty excited, me because I've never been there, and would like to get real pictures with my eyes of all these things I've seen other people's pictures of, and Jen because she has been, many times, loves it, and can't wait to show it all to me.
Some side goals that would be fun to add...
Buy a fake Rolex from a guy carrying them in his trench coat
Get mugged
Yell at a cab "eeeeeeey, I'm walkin' heea"
Try to beat some guy on the street with three cards on a cardboard box
Go to TRL and scream with the teenagers for the next big music star
Go to the top of the Empire State Building and eat a banana (sometimes my humor is too subtle)
Find the most embarrassing and stereotypical New York tourist hat and wear it all over town
Tell a Yankees fan that I love the Red Sox... and run away
Tell a Red Sox fan that I love the Yankees ... and run away
Ask a typical New Yorker where in the world they have these Philly Cheese Steaks hidden

Luckily, I still have a good 2 months to think of more.

Get ready for something super fun, and a great way to use up time. Yikes!
http://www.addictinggames.com/magicpen.html

High School pays my bills

Well, we talked to a person about getting started towards buying a home. Numbers were presented, different scenarios were discussed, and thoughts started. It's all very complicated, but it's mostly possible, which is an exciting thought. I'm sure nothing will happen in the next month, but we at least have the first step accomplished. Pretty exciting. Not much else, pretty busy day today, lots of people getting into accidents, which is good for me, not so good for the people. I've learned a few important truths in this business.
1. overall, you pretty much get what you pay for with car insurance
2. Volkswagens and Audis will start falling apart after a few years
3. German cars in general make things way overly complicated
4. Japanese cars in general are direct, to the point, and as the techs say "make sense"
5. Most people who hit your car in a parking lot, never leave notes with their information
6. Teenagers at San Clemente High School have overpriced cars, and have no idea how to drive them properly
7. Most people think I'm trying to swindle them, or am lying to them in some way
8. Mercedes drivers and Audi drivers are very picky, BMW drivers are not as much
9. People inspect their cars after it's been repaired about 100 times more closely than when they actually bought it, because they (incorrectly) assume that cars come from the dealer in perfect condition
10. If you tell a customer it will take 4 to 5 days to repair, all they hear is the 4... so you always tell them 6
But, I still like it.

Superbowl.
Well, here I sit, just about to go to bed, and I decided to add a quick post. Sure, it looks like the previous one, the one that had sat here way too long, but it's totally different. Exciting, and new.. like the love boat. Messed with the Mini today a little bit, couldn't get it to start. I'm going to order a new distributor cap, rotor, wires, and plugs, and see how it is after that. I also need to take the battery to work one day and charge it, because it is totally dead. Went to a sweet party in BFE, I mean, San Dimas last night, was a good time overall, I even was able to get a little Guitar Hero in the mix. Just saw an awesome commercial about some Gas-x strips, where the guy with gas is in some sort of job interview situation, and everything that's said sounds to him like it's related to gas. My favorite line? An assistant comes in and says something to the effect of, "your son rip is on line toot". I don't really understand why someone would want to take Gas-x. I mean, farts are awesome, and will always be funny.

Superbowl.
Unless the Cowboys are in it, I'm watching more for the ads than the game. This time, the game was more exciting than the ads. I liked the talking baby, even though I can't remember the company the ad was for, I thought the godaddy.com one, telling us to go to the website to actually see the commercial was lame, and makes me want to never use godaddy.com. The Budlight ones with the fire-breathing, or flying ability were totally predictable and lame.
I was stoked though that the Pats lost. I don't really care that the Giants won, but that the Pats lost is awesome.

Martians don't take responsibility

So I was helping to pass out the training shirts to people on Saturday at the kickoff meeting with the new season of Team In Training. I noticed something very entertaining about guys in general. For some reason, they feel like less of a man if they are wearing a shirt that, by the label only, are too small. The shirts are really big, so when someone comes up, and wears a large usually, and we tell them that the medium will probably be perfect, they refuse to take it, and will only take the large, without even looking at it. I had one guy, literally say to me, "No, I am extra-large". So, I gave him an extra large... he comes back about 30 minutes later, and wanted to switch. He was the only one though, the rest insisted that they were not going to wear a medium. Funny. I've noticed the same sort of thing working in collision repair... guys won't say that they were following too close, or misjudged the size of their car in a parking garage. They'll say that the person in front of them stopped too quick, or that they put a post in a bad spot in the parking lot, or that their brakes failed. Overall, guys say that it's not their fault. Women, on the other hand, will readily admit when it was their mistake, and have no problem wearing a size smaller than their usual.

The singularity

So Jen came back last night, after being gone for a week long vacation tour of Arizona, visiting friends and family. Back in the day, which was a Wed (Thank you Dane Cook for that one), when I was single, I hated it. But now that I'm married, I learned last week that I hate it even more. Even if Jen and I are in different rooms doing different things, it's still so much better than being without her. She's a good one, and I'm glad that I was reminded of how lucky I am to have her. Now, you might think that I'm writing this to gain points with her, but she doesn't actually read my blog, and if I were to ask her if she knew how to find it, she wouldn't know, I'm sure. So this is just because it's true!
Side note, I bought Guitar Hero II for PS2 on Saturday, after playing it over at my friend's place. Man, it's so awesome. I'm going to be so good at it. I can't wait to get home tonight and rock out!

Running Elvi

So, at the San Diego Rock n Roll Marathon in June, they are trying to set a world record of Running Elvi. Currently the record is only at 48, which seems oddly low, but anyway...
They listed an email address of someone who would make a custom jumpsuit out of the good running materials. I just got an email from her, and they only cost $100. So, if anyone wants to donate to my running as elvis cause, let me know, I'll tell ya how to get the money to me. Awesome!

Let's play compute, dude.

So, I'm in the beginning processes of new computer time. Gonna build my own, or at least try. Gerry did most of the building of this one, but I think I might be able to handle it. So, I got a computer magazine, rating all the stuff out there, and I'm discovering that things are pricey. But, I am getting closer and closer to really needing to do it. This one is still running Windows 2000, not even XP, and I'm getting to the point that new stuff, like the gaming mouse I got, and the gaming keyboard I want, aren't able to be used to their full potential because of the age. Plus, my itunes won't let me download any more stuff because I need the latest version, which doesn't run on Win2000. Time to start saving!

Well, here's a great picture of me in the middle of the OC Marathon. The look you see is of someone who actually isn't all too sure that what he's trying to do is even possible, and that the decision to attempt to do this thing might have been the dumbest thing ever. Of course, that all changed the moment I crossed the finish line, but that story has been told.

Now this one, is of me finishing the Arizona Rock n Roll Marathon, with an amazing 2 1/2 hours shaved of my previous week's race.
Ok, so this one is actually of me finishing the half marathon, and no, not in 3 hours. That's the clock time, started when they shot the gun in the first place. Since we were in Corral 23, we had to wait for 22 other corrals worth of people to start before us, which took about 30 minutes. So, I finished in just under 2:30, which I had set for myself at the start, so I was happy about that.

5 hours, 29 minutes, 47 seconds

So, I'm now a marathoner, and it was awesome. Here's a little summary of the OC Marathon 2008...


We had to get up at about 4:30, after a very restless night's sleep (it's hard to make your brain stop working the night before your very first marathon), and be down in the lobby by 5. We all checked in with our Team in Training coaches, and got on the buses to the start area. They were good, old fashioned yellow school buses too. Of course, I made Jen sit in the back row with me, and although I wanted to start a chant of "front of the bus sucks" like in elementary school times, I wasn't so sure the other people were ready for that quite yet. We got to the starting area, still dark outside, and hung out and waited until start. There weren't too many people there at that time, so it was fun to watch all the people show up. There was quite a few of them, too. A number of groups too, the largest was probably this group of Koreans. They did a group warm up before we started, complete with someone blowing a whistle to coordinate their jumping jacks and other warm ups. Pretty cool. Made our way into the starting corral, they made announcements, did the national anthem, and we waited. The buildup was pretty exciting, knowing that these past 5 months of training were all going to be put to the test in minutes. They started the handbike people first, and then we were off. Our group was pretty close to the front, so the first 4 or 5 miles was mostly spent hoping nobody was going to run up behind me without looking and run me over. There was a band out in front of Mariner's Church in Irvine, playing a Police song when I went by. They had a sign out front that read "Run like hell, then come visit us". I had hoped that meant there would be other bands, but alas, that was the last one. From there, we went around UCI, through some neighborhoods, and across a foot bridge over the 405. That part was cool, people on the freeway driving by were honking at us all, and that section was also part of where we had been training each Saturday. Just past that, we got to a part where we had a choice to turn right or left. Right was for the half marathon, and left for the full. Since the full cost more, I could have gone either way, so that right turn was pretty tempting, especially since it was at mile 8... I either had 5 miles more, or 18 miles more. I took the left. That part was also where we had trained, and I think that's why my mind sort of zoned out. I don't really remember that part, up to about mile 11 or so, which is a bit weird to have a section of five and a half hours no longer in my head for the most part. At mile 11ish, we got on the toll road, 261, which was closed for us, and went up past the Marketplace (which will always the be Tustin Marketplace to me) until about mile 14. It was at this point that my mind was experiencing the biggest conflict. I was just past halfway, had eaten my halfway snack of a Payday bar (the most delicious food I had ever eaten, at that moment of my life), and fully realizing the truth that I was only halfway done. It was also at that point that the 5 hour pace runner and the pack following her, passed me. I had set a rough goal of 5 hours for myself, not a strict one, just a round about one. Still, it was somewhat disheartening to see that pass me by, with no chance to catch it. So, I pressed on. The crowd was thinner at this point, I pretty much saw the same 10 people, they would run past me, I would run past them, and so on for a few miles winding along a trail in a new neighborhood that didn't look like California at all. It spat rain a little bit, but nothing special. At about mile 18, we were around the old El Toro Marine Base, wide open space, clouds, wind, a bit chilly, and lots of pains in the legs, hips, and feet. I trudged along, stopped for the porta-potty, and at around mile 20, the 5:30 pace person and her group caught me. At this point, I made a decision that I was going to keep up with them as best I could, unless I physically fell down. I quickly found that my pace was just a bit too slow for that group, and I slowly fell back. This was nearly a crushing blow, until I saw that this group stopped for periodic walk breaks. I ran past them, with the thought that maybe I could just keep my slow run pace the rest of the way, and they would just leapfrog me. Well, that didn't last long, and they caught me on my next walk break. From then on, I stuck with them. At about 21 1/2, I got my fourth wind, and I felt great. I was tired, yes, I hurt, but I was able to run, so I did. At mile 23, I snapped this picture..

It was at this point that I truly, and whole-heartedly, believed that I could do this. Thinking on it afterwards, I feel that maybe, deep down, I didn't actually believe I could finish a whole marathon. But at this mile, I had to take a picture, because I felt it. I didn't think I could, I knew it, I knew that I was going to finish no matter what. I really can't explain the feeling. At this point, the entire rest of the group running with the 5:30 pace person had dropped off, except for one other person. By mile 25, she told us her part was done, and the rest was up to us. At about 25 1/2, the guy I was running with, named Alfred (who, 7 months before weighed 250 lbs, and I would say now was at about 175, after deciding he was gong to get in shape, lose weight, and run a marathon) got a cramp and had to walk. I offered to walk with him, he said to go on, and so I did. At the ending, we followed a road that went up and over the 5 freeway, hit the 26 mile mark, made a left, then another left, and then the finish line. When you get to the crest of that hill over the freeway, at the same time you can see the 26 mile marker in front of you, and the finish line on your left. At this point, I couldn't even tell you if my legs hurt, or if they felt no pain. I wasn't paying attention to that at all. A girl who had been part of our training group was just in front of me, so I caught up, and we went across at the same time. 5 months of training every Saturday morning, of running and going to the gym during the weeks, raising as much money as we could for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, running until I didn't think I could any longer, then running some more for 5 and a half hours, feeling my shoes digging into my feet, it all came to one point. Actually, it came to one line. The feeling of crossing a marathon finish line is completely indescribable. It isn't my results (789 out of 1052 isn't going to break records), it isn't the bragging rights (less than one tenth of one percent of the population has done it), it's that it was just me against me.. and I won. I did more than I thought I could.

And you know something... I wanna do it again. And I will.

Today, two days later, my joints are fine, my muscles are a little sore, my feet are fine. We're doing a half marathon this Sunday in Phoenix (chump change) and then we'll see which one is next, and keep the training going. There's more to write, side stories and all, but I'll save that for another day.

OC Marathon Course Map
Click that, if you dare, to see exactly what Jen and I will be doing tomorrow, at exactly this time. And yes, even if it's raining, we'll be out there. We're packing up now, getting ready to go down to the hotel. We've got the race expo to attend, and our pasta dinner and team meeting tonight. We have to meet in the lobby of the hotel at 5:00AM and head out to the race start.
Hopefully the hotel has free Wi-Fi and I'll try to make a post tomorrow after it's over, but we'll see if I have enough energy left to even type.

Ever see a brilliant idea, and have two thought? First, why didn't I think of that, second, what can I think of that's just as good?
Here's one of those.
Wants for sale
Basically, this couple makes paintings of things they want, sell them for the amount of the thing, then spend the money on that thing! Like a painting of a slice of pepperoni which sells for 3 bucks, and they go buy the slice!
Man, I gotta start thinking!!!

We watched this movie last night, to pass the time until turning on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin Eve for the 5 minute countdown. (By the way, it was somewhat painful to watch Dick, he's getting old, and I don't remember if he's had a stroke, but it kinda looks like he has) Anyway, the movie, well, it definitely was movie length, and it did utillize actors, and there was dialogue, and I'm sure they used movie cameras. I'm sure someone wrote it, and I'd bet there was even a production company involved. But, ummm, that's about it.
It's not that I hated it, it just was really hard to follow who the characters were, which is pretty much the main thing. And, since it's a spy movie, they decided that to add to the secretive feel, everyone had to be whispering, all the time. So it was tough to understand everything that was said. Matt Damon, he did a good job of playing his character, but it just wasn't enough. So, I'd say to pass this one up.

I also have Snoop Dogg's Father Hood marathon on the TV today in the background, and it's a pretty entertaining show, so far.