The Price of a Trail Run

As I went on my trail run yesterday afternoon along the Potomac, I couldn't help but think about why I like trail running so much... I mean, it hurts my knees, I have a total of 5 scars on my body that are a direct result of running this trail, and I usually have to tell someone I'm running the trail beforehand in case I break my leg.

What I like about trail running is that for an hour and ten minutes, I am doing nothing but focusing on putting one foot in front of the other. I am not thinking about anything else, and if I do happen to lose my focus, I am reminded pretty sharply by slipping or in some cases, cutting myself.

How much is 1 hour of complete quiet, and complete focus worth in today's world of instant messengers, the BlackBerry, cell phones, and high definition television? In my mind, worth the bumps, bruises and scars I have accrued, though yesterday I got off cheap with nothing at all!

Poker Night

The quest to learn how to play Texas Hold'Em continues. After the game got off to a late start, I lasted a bit longer this time around than the first time. I can honestly say that I'm understanding the game a bit better though I still have a lot to learn about what the potential draws could be based on what's on the table. I'm getting there... but for only second time, I don't think it was too bad.

Prior to the game, some of the guys entertained themselves with the host's Wii as seen below. You may not be able to tell it, but they are playing the new Tiger Woods golf.

We'll see if we can rally up enough people to play again in two weeks and see how I progress...

Georgetown

Nothing made me happier yesterday than seeing Georgetown roar back from 10 points down to beat UNC in overtime of the East regional final. North Carolina missed 21 of their final 23 shots as Georgetown ran away with the game once they sent the game to OT on Wallace's three.

My favorite sound of the entire game... "clunk." To hear it 21 times over the final 10 minutes and well into overtime, including two free throws, was music to my ears.

I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the big man match up next weekend between Oden of OSU and Hibbert on Georgetown, though I hope we can make it through this week of sure-to-be-expected hype.

One final note... for a conference that sent 7 teams the NCAAs this year, should we be a little upset that not a single team from the ACC made the final four? Should we be wondering if perhaps a few of those at-large bids was given to one of the unsung mid-majors?

Just some food for thought...

Tuxedo Day

My friend Jeff is getting married this August and today was the day we were going to pick out a few options for the groomsmen.

Here are a few of the options we looked at. I personally was a fan of the black shirt with the silver vest since we are going with silver as the color of the vests. I'm not sure if that color will look good on everyone, so it comes down to being Jeff's fiance's call.

I really liked this look, but again... not sure if it would look as good on us.

Here are some random shots of Jeff's brother-in-law, Ahmed, and myself assisting Jeff with the process.

I was pretty surprised at home many options there are for tuxedos, with the different style of jackets, vest or cummerbund (does anyone where these anymore?), pattern for the vest, color, black or white shirt, round or square shoes, etc. If you really wanted to turn your wedding into a box of crayons, I suppose you could...

Big Ten and ACC

I didn't have high expectations for the Big Ten. Other than Wisconsin and Ohio State, all of the other teams were seeded lower than 6. So the fact that only Ohio State has advanced is not surprising. The ACC, however, which had been talked up all season, with it sending 7 teams, only has one team advancing to the sweet 16, UNC. All of the high hopes for Maryland, Virginia Tech, and UVA were squashed when all three teams lost in the final minutes of their games to lower seeds.

The big surprise to me is the Pac-10. If USC holds on to beat Texas, three teams will have moved on to the final 16. I'm impressed.

New York and the NCAA Tournament

It seems that the time to blog comes and goes like the tide (and more practically, like the warm weather around here). While the time was easy to come by over the winter holidays, sitting down for a few minutes on the computer when it is not related to work, is very rare. Time has been so limited lately that trying to pull together my brackets for the NCAA tournament and my player list for the NCAA fantasy draft was tough... and those of you who know me really well, I always make the time for the NCAA tournament.

So what has happened around here? For Valentine's Day, I gave Lauren a ticket to The Lion King on Broadway and a hotel room in the theatre district. So, we left Friday afternoon and drove up 95 with all of the other thousands that had the same idea. Needless to say, a 4.5 hour drive took over 6 hours. To say I was frustrated would be an understatement. I feel the same frustration sitting in traffic that I do when sitting on a runway waiting to take off. Helpless.

Anyway, the show was great, and we were lucky to catch the city on a nice weekend in March. The weather was in the upper 50's and sunny which in retrospect is pretty darn lucky considering the weather that moved up the East Coast this weekend. While up there, we also had a chance to catch up with some friends who have a place on the Upper West Side and get a nice tour. Of course, while we were up there, we lost an hour of sleep due to the earlier implementation of Daylight Savings Time (which I think I still have not recovered from). Fortunately, the ride home was much less eventful as we left the city at 2:45 and made it home by 7.

On the note of Daylight Savings Time, I'm still puzzled as to why there was such a mad scramble to implement the DST patch across the country. The law was passed in August of 2005 yet Microsoft was releasing the final patches for Outlook a week before the change in time. Do you remember the paranoia around Y2K that ended up amounting to nothing? I want to know how much productivity was affected by this DST change. I know personally, my BlackBerry did not changeover when it was supposed to, and when I manually changed it, all of my meetings and meeting requests sent from the BlackBerry were an hour off. It took me to manually download the patch from my BlackBerry to get it right. And my brother brings up a good point... what is going to happen when the old DST date comes and goes? How will we fare?

On to my favorite weekend of the year, the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament. Over the past four years, I've either been in Vegas or off from work to fully enjoy all four days of the opening two rounds. This year, I did what supposedly every other college basketball fan does, check the scores throughout the day and leave the office as close to 5 as possible. That being said, there was an interesting article on Slate.com that talks about the myth of lost productivity due to the NCAA tournament. Some consulting company claimed that over $3.8B worth of productivity is lost each year due to workers checking scores or following games online. Speaking as someone who does keep an eye on the games, it is no more distracting to keep an eye on a score as it is to have people come up to you all day long to BS or ask you questions. In fact, I felt like I was able to get more done because I had my headphones on and people would not bother coming up to talk to me.

Anyway, the first two days of the tournament pretty much held to "chalk" as they say with most of the bigger teams winning as they were supposed to. The only "surprise" (in quotes because I picked it), was VCU beating Duke. The second round has been exciting, but again, not too many surprises unless you count Maryland losing to Butler as a surprise. The Terps looked sloppy yet again and consequently lost in the 2nd round. However, currently my Hoyas (I say my because I have always liked them, no matter what anyone else says) are struggling with a pretty good BC team.

I would like nothing more for the ACC teams to all get knocked out and the Big Ten to rack up as many wins as they can since it was downplayed as a weaker conference this year. I guess we'll see just how weak it was during the UNC-MSU game tonight.

More later...

Some Arkansas Pictures

Below are a few of the 100 pictures I took over the weekend documenting all of the memories that were made. Look for the full set on my Flickr site soon!

The First Delay

So far, a storm in Minneapolis has delayed our departure from little rock. What will happen in Memphis?

Tearful Goodbye

Well the time has come for us to say goodbye to our family and hope that we can see each other sooner than the last time we separated. As we left the Tanner's house the overwhelming message was that I was lucky to have found Lauren (which I already knew) and that they wanted to be kept abreast of any developments (which I will). I was happy to see everyone welcome her as much as they welcomed me. If I have come away with anything from this trip, it is that no matter how much time passes, and how much distance separates you, your family is your family and they will welcome you and love you no matter what.

So, as Hot Springs Village fades away in the background I promise you all that we will do a better job staying in touch and make an effort to get together with everyone again soon. And to my grandmother, I wish you a happy 95th birthday and hope that I was lucky enough to inherit your genes. If I am even half as sharp and active as you are, and live the life that you have led, I will be truly blessed.

Now, if we can just get back to DC with the frozen mix affecting the area as I type this. If not, I might have some time in Memphis to upload some photos on a high speed connection. We shall see...

Party Success!

Grandma's party at her home, at lakeshore, was quite the success! All of grandma's friends at the home joined the Clark clan for cake and punch and my aunt gracie on the piano. The crowd was so heavy that my aunt Linda and I could barely keep up with the punch serving.

I think the biggest challenge of this weekend will be deciding what pictures to post of the hundred I have taken. I imagine most of them will sit in a folder for memories, but I am happy to have so many of my family. This has been a weekend to remember and for once, I am documenting it appropriately.

Tonight, the festivities include dinner, and some sort of game or games. The weather has also cooperated as well as the storms appear to have moved off and the sun is now out!

No Internet!

Sadly, with as remote as Hot Springs Village is from Little Rock there is hardly a signal for the Verizon air card, and none of the neighbors have a connection for us to tap into. So, that means no pictures until tomorrow.

On another note, the weather down here is ferocious with the entire area under a tornado watch until later this afternoon. The rain has been coming down in buckets since the wee hours of the night which made sleep difficult.

Last night was a lot of fun reuniting with family that I had not seen in 13 years and others where only 5 years has passed. It seems sad that it has been so long, but it was nice to see that despite the passing time, the feeling of family is still very strong. AND, at 95, my grandmother is still as sharp as a tack which should make her reception today that much more fun!

The Aftermath

Sadly, it never amounts to much around here. Without fail, talk of inches and massive amounts of snow end up with either rain, sleet, or freezing rain. In this instance, what was discussed as potentially "feet" of snow amounted to 4 inches of sleet. I will have to take some pictures so that those of you outside of the area can see what I'm talking about (though now it just looks like a frozen mess), but it is all very unimpressive.

Things I have learned though:

1. Driving on fresh sleet is like driving on sand, except colder
2. If you don't move your car while it is soft, it WILL ice the car in (right Lauren?)
3. I apparently live on an important street because it was plowed pretty quickly
4. Steve and Aurene do not live on as important of a street since it has not been plowed yet
5. The City of Alexandria is pretty bad ass when it comes to school closings... In the 5+ years that I have lived in the area, I have seen them close maybe a handful of times. They did close yesterday, but while everyone else was closed today, they opened 2 hours late.
6. Plowing on interstates leads to blocked on ramps and off ramps which equal bad news for everyone involved.
7. BMWs do NOT do very well in the snow. I passed three of them yesterday on I-270 heading into work that were stuck trying to get on to the highway (see #6)
8. I do not have the appropriate tools to deal with ice on our driveway (see impact of #8 on #2)
9. If someone suggests using kitty litter to address #2 one more time, I will explode. I do not have a cat! Who has kitty litter handy if they do not have a cat?!?

Anyway, with the passage of the storm, it has now gotten pretty darn cold outside. Should make for a fun time trying to rectify #2 this evening. :)

Calm Before the Storm...

Like the weather in the DC area over the past few weeks, things have been relatively quiet around here. Don't get me wrong, it's been ridiculously cold around here, but the weather itself has been boring... cold, cold, and more cold... Consequently, there has not been much to blog about. I missed my chance to talk about how boring the Super Bowl was, or how lame the advertising was this year. I think my favorite ad of the night is a toss-up between the user-created Doritos commercial and the Bud Light wedding commercial. I know the Budweiser commercial with the dog riding on the fire engine seems to have been pretty popular, but that had "cheesy poofs" written all over it as Lauren would say. Sadly, between the commercials and the game, I was ready for bed by the end of the 3rd quarter.

Anyway, since then... the only exciting event has been Steve's 35th birthday. At first I thought he was getting old, and then my friend Noa reminded me that we would be turning 30, which seems just as old. Almost as if I'm in a different generation than Lauren, which has actually led me to look up the definition of Generation X versus Generation Y.

Turns out that I AM from a different generation than Lauren. Generation X officially covers individuals born from 1961-1981. Generation Y is official for those born 1979-1999. Not sure what happens if you're born in 79-81... are you a Gen X-Yer?

Officially, my generation has been defined by events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War, and marked cynicism towards values held dear by previous generations. We've supposedly abandoned the church and have made divorce more commonplace. You can read more about it here. In any case, while Lauren may be from a different generation, we are both in what is considered to be the MTV Generation... some common ground.

Anyway, back to the "storm" in the title... Tonight through Wednesday is shaping up to be one of the biggest winter storms we have had in a few years. While the snow totals have declined significantly since forecasters began talking about the storm last week, we are still anticipating some significant ice tomorrow and tomorrow night. You can read more about it here. As the system continues to develop, we will have to see how the commute does or does not go tomorrow. Stay tuned...

Game two

Well, it is safe to say that we were not quite feeling it in the second game. After a really slow start, the scores ended up as:

Lauren - 81
Brad - 142
Katie - 87
Jeff - 87
Leslie - 119
Dan - 117

All in all, not a bad night considering all of the distractions around us. Too bad it was too dark for pictures.

Game one

Tonight we all decided to go bowling. After bowling a 203 the last time we came here, I wasn't sure how I would do with a larger group. Well, after the first game, the scores are as follows:

Lauren - 110
Brad - 157
Katie - 67
Jeff - 139
Leslie - 121
Dan - 131

Not bad for the whole group. I actually marked in all but two frames. And in frame one of game two I have already spared.

Who knows what game two holds...

Yeah you, in the Lexus

Get off your phone and drive. If I had been able to get my camera out this morning, I would have posted your license plate up on the traffic offenders web site. When you have a mile's worth of open road in front of you, you have no right to chat with your buddy along side a car in the right lane.

It's people like you that get my day to such a maddening start... Let me personally thank you for that.

Cork Soaking

I had to post this because I happened across it this morning and it is by far one of my favorite SNL sketches of all time...

http://www.pistolwimp.com/media/21856/

Enjoy!

24, 8:00am-10:00am

24 is on!

Okay, wow. Can you believe how much 24 has kicked it up a notch this year? Holy smokes! Literally... Suitcase nukes loose in LA?!? Are you serious?!? I have to admit that I'm still struggling to deal with the loss of Curtis within the first four hours of this season, but hey, Curtis couldn't let business remain business, and let his painful past get in the way of doing his job. The big question is, how much more emotional pain can Jack handle at this point? The loss of his wife, all the pain to Tony Almeda, no contact with his daughter or his ex-lover, Audrey... It is a lot for one man to handle... but then again, this IS Jack Bauer, the same man that was able to withstand a knife to the shoulder, a needle to the spine, and could still pull himself together to escape through the sewer.

How many people died last night? Do we have a death count going somewhere? I'll have to do some searching online, but I'm assuming that someone has to be keeping track. Speaking of gruesome deaths, how about the guy getting blown up in the storage container?? I don't think I've seen such grizzly remains in any show on network television.

So, what is in store for next week? How will CTU cope with the detonation of a major nuclear device? Will Jack be back after telling Buchanan that he was done? Most assuredly the answer to that question is, YES. And watching the show in HD... Money. I need to give Comcast a call this week and see if I can work something out before next week's episode for sure.

Anyway, below are some pictures from last night's viewing party with Jeff and Katie. Lauren and Katie amused themselves on the computer while Jeff and I were attentive to our action hero.

Who is the puppet, and who is the muppet?

Stretch your mouth!

Mancation Part I

That's right, the spelling is not incorrect... I said "Mancation."

While the ladies have a nice trip to the Dominican Republic currently on the docket, I am about to begin the planning of Mancation 2007.

Right now, the idea is to plan a trip to the Canadian Rockies and do some hiking for a few days. As the planning continues and we get closer to the trip, you will find blog posts covering the whole sha-bang.

Stay tuned...

Afternoon on Sugarloaf

With the weather in the 60s yesterday, we could not pass up the opportunity to go for a quick hike. So, we decided to head up to Sugarloaf Mountain in Dickerson, MD. Sadly, the mountain is only 10 minutes past work, so the drive from Alexandria was only 55 minutes.

The mountain offers a different array of hike lengths, from a quick, steep .5 mile hike to a long, winding 7.7 mile hike. You can see the different available hikes here. Though it rained a little bit on and off, the majority of the hike was clear, and as you can see by some of the pictures, the sun was out in the background.

You can see the full set of pictures on my Flickr page.

I would definitely recommend Sugarloaf to anyone who wants to go for a quick hike and doesn't want to sit in the car for more than an hour. I'll probably try and get up there after work a few times this spring and summer for a few trail runs given how close it is to WeatherBug.