Pregnant

I just learned that we are about four weeks pregnant. We’re so excited about having a new member of the “flock” join us. At four weeks, the kid is barely visible – about the size of a poppy seed. This is am image of what a baby looks like at this phase, of course not actual size. Our due date is late October or early November – we’ll get a more accurate date later in the pregnancy.

We found out the day after my birthday, which was fitting in a way. Laura got a positive home pregnancy test result on Tuesday 2/24 and her doctor confirmed on the following day. A round of excited phone calls ensued – beginning with parents and eventually growing to the extended family. It’s great to see how excited our extended family is about the new addition.

It was also fortuitous to have our good friend Geoff in town for a conference on Wednesday. We had the chance to tell him in person, and I had a drinking buddy to celebrate with. He’s going to be the godfather…partly a joke among us, as we like the ring of “fairy godfather” for him. Also pretty serious about it, because he’s a person we want our kid to be around growing up.

This has been a good occasion to reconnect with a bunch of people I’ve lost track of. Also, I think being a dad will be great! (Not easy, but very rewarding.) Laura’s going to make a good mom and we’re both really hapy about the news.

Oblivion

I’ve been enjoying my post-christmas vacation time, mostly by catching up on playing Oblivion. This was my first time completing the Shivering Isles expansion main quest, which was lots of fun.

Tonight we’re going to have Brandon and my brothers over to hopefully play some music together. It’s been a good vacation so far, with more to come as we look forward to our NYC trip next week.

A Sane Christmas

Christmas has come and gone, and sanity was preserved throughout. I enjoyed seeing all three parts of the family together for the holiday. It was also good to see so many of our friends that we don’t often get to visit with. It’s good to have a time of year when we are nudged to be together.

This was my first Christmas season as an atheist, and I found it surprisingly refreshing. I’m not one of those militant atheists who put up silly plaques in public parks that deflate the mystical spirit of the holiday season. What’s the harm in a little mythology to go with the holidays?

No, what’s refreshing is that I didn’t have to do anything for God this season. I focused instead on family and friends – tangible people whom I love and who have meaningful relationships. No worrying about angels or demons, no more guilt, just plain old simple what’s-in-front-of-me to be concerned with. Christmas might have its mythical narratives but it ends up being about good things, and that’s what matters to me.

Work = Crazy

I haven’t posted to the ol’ blog in a while, because my work has been crazy. I’m working feverishly on developing a high-profile internal web site that makes IT services available to roughly 15,000 people. My timeline is extremely aggressive and my contracted developers are making little headway. THis leaves me in the unfortunate stuation where I am coding the application mostly on my own.

Some of the hazards of coding include long hours, strained thinking to keep all the concepts cohesive in my mind, coming up with random insights at inconvenient times (in bed, doing yard work, etc..). Besides those strains, the toll long hours of computer use takes on one’s body can be annoying – aches abound from not moving around and from typing so much.

But I’m excited about the project, and the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming visible. I’m probably a week or so from finishing the large majority of the coding, and will make minor enhancements to the system as users test it out and identify gaps.

On Friday I finished work on a major module that handled editing content. The next module will handle the process of approving content changes in the web site. Tonight I am fighting the urge to go in to work tomorrow to get a head start on the week’s work. My thoughts are on RMI (remote method invocation) and how to structure parts of the system I am building to work together effectively.  WIsh me luck!

Race Day

We just got back from the 5k race, and things went pretty well. My previously stated goal time was 32 minutes, and I managed to pull in a 31:41 time – so just under what I had been hoping to run. More importantly, my first race gave me a feel for how the whole race thing works. It was actually a lot of fun (of course not how I would have described it at mile marker 2, but I think that’s pretty normal). Race kitsch was a long-sleeve T-shirt.

At the finish line!

I ran the first mile at my fastest-ever time of 9:06, which was too agressive. I pretty much ran 11 minute miles after that, with a nice burst at the end. I found myself relying much more on my breathing than on my heart rate monitor – not quite what I was expecting.

Laura and I are off to eat out with Laura’s mom and her fiance to celebrate their recent engagement. We’re so excited that they’re taking the next step – this has been the best thing for Laura’s mom that I remember in the time I have known her. Good day!

Saturday

Finally made it to the weekend. We slept in after playing Spore until after midnight last night. Ah, the wonders of Spore – it’s cute, but interesting enough to play without noticing time go by. It’s dangerous. After we got up we had some exciting cleaning action for a couple hours and now it’s time to chill and enjoy the day off.

Last Run!

Tonight was my last training run before my first race. I ran well, someplace between tempo pace and easy pace. Provided I haven’t pushed myself too hard, I should have a great run on Sunday. Wish me luck!

Working on the Weekend

This has been a record-setting busy weekend. Yesterday I spent most of the day at work, trying to figure out how changes my stakeholders made last week to a big project would impact my development team. The developers are meeting with me on Monday morning – so the weekend is prime time for me to get my act together before I need to explain the changes to the development team.

Today I am getting in my long run of 8 miles, going back in to work for the afternoon and doing some cleaning in the evening. Maybe I’ll find a way to blow out of work early once or twice next week when this change gets under control.

I’m glad I don’t have to pull this kind of schedule often in my job. It’s hard to imagine having to do this frequently.

26.2 Miles

My long-term goal is to run the Hudson-Mohawk marathon in October 2009, and my reading on the subject of marathon running says I should be running a base level of 25 miles per week before I start training. The training for a marathon typically is about 4 months, which would put the ramp up starting next summer. So I have about 6 months to build a really solid endurance base.

I think I’m off to a good start. This week’s mileage will approach 20 miles and my recorded training since early July will break 100 miles on my next run. Tonight I ran a good time at a fairly low intensity, hitting 11:30 minutes per mile pace on a roughly 5k distance. I think this makes my goal time 35 minutes for my 5k next week. I am definitely not an Elite, but I am looking forward to stretching my legs and posting a time I can be proud of. (Note that 5k is about 3.1 miles.)

This is the start of a wonderful, crazy thing for me. It’s a long way from 3.1 miles to 26.2 miles. John Bingham, a well-regarded running coach and author, famously wrote: “The miracle isn’t that I finished. The miracle is that I had the courage to start.” I’m looking forward to that start.

Beautiful Run

Today I started off my week with a nice slow run. It was a nice evening to be out. The sun was setting, so the sky was an orange color. Orange like the exercise drink I bring along on long runs. The air was crisp, just cool enough to get my nose running a little. This was one of those slow runs where it feels good to be moving and to be outside.