Okay, not really Waldo, but my CareLink USB upload device. I swear I spend more time looking for that thing than I do actually using it. I really need to find a consistent place to keep it. The past couple of times, it has ended up under a picture frame on one of our end tables. My wife said this evening that “that’s where it stays!”. That’s not really where it stays, it just so happens that the space underneath that picture frame is just wide enough for the little fella to slide under there, yet the frame is just wide enough that I can’t see it poking out when it’s there. I just don’t know where to put it. I don’t want to store it with the rest of my diabetes supplies, because I need a computer when I use it, and I never have a computer near there. I suppose I could keep it in the basket with all of my iPod cables and such, but I’m afraid it would sink to the bottom and become lost yet again. I just don’t know. Fellow CareLink users, where do you keep yours?

Unrelated “Where’s Waldo” trivia that I learned recently:

- Apparently there’s a movie in development based on the little red and white dude. How they’re going to scrape a plot out of that, I have no idea. Hey, maybe they can just turn it into a 1.5 hour GM commercial like they did with Transformers.

- It seems that everywhere else, it’s known as “Where’s Wally?”, he’s only called “Waldo” in the U.S…which brings to mind a whole host of other questions. Okay, I can really only think of 1 question: Was there already a guy in the U.S. named Wally that got lost all of the time?

This place needs a little light-heartedness, so I thought instead of complaining about injuries, we’d rock a little Meme Monday action…thanks to Hannah (and by proxy, Lee Ann) for the inspiration. If you’re in need of a blog post, feel free to snatch (tee hee) this one for your own use.

1. Do you like bleu cheese? Not particularly. If I order buffalo wings and the restaurant decides that bleu cheese dressing is a better accompaniment than ranch, I can deal with it, but I’m not going to go out of my way to get it.

2. Have you ever smoked? Like regularly, or ever? I have the occasional cigar, but that’s about it.

3. Do you own a gun? Several. But I only like to shoot non-living things (you know, like targets). I don’t really have a desire to go hunting, or to shoot people (unless they mean me harm).

4. Favorite type of Food? Is bacon a type of food? How about “slightly floppy” bacon? That is a type of bacon, and bacon is definitely a food. I think that counts.

5. Favorite type of music? I like Hannah’s answer of “the good type”. Really, it depends on my mood. I have what I like to think is a pretty diverse catalogue. Right now, my favorite type is Pearl Jam on Austin City Limits, because I’m watching it, and it is freaking awesome.

6. What do you think of hot dogs? Fucking love them. Just had one for dinner, actually.

7. Favorite Christmas movie? Muppet Christmas Carol, hands down.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Lately, coffee. Although if it’s really hot, I’ll go with a diet soda. As long as it has caffeine, I’m good.

9. Can you do push ups? A few. The tendons in my elbows start popping after a while, so I prefer not to.

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry? My wedding ring. It pretty much never comes off.

11. Favorite hobby? Listening to music. I have other hobbies, but I usually listen to music while doing them.

12. Do you have A. D. D.? I suppose my wife would drive if I was really drunk, but it’s not her full-time occupation. (see what I did there?)

13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? I wear sunglasses…

14. Middle name? Starr (yes, really.)

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment: I could really use another pillow. Eddie Vedder has an awesome voice. Stop head-butting me, stupid cat.

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink: Okay, but that seems silly since they’re gone now. But since you asked, Samuel, Lenny, and Wolfgang. Can I anthropomorphize anything else for you?

17. Current worry? I’m really quite concerned our TV will die before Thanksgiving. It’s not looking good. And you do not want to be in this house during the Macy’s parade without a functioning television.

18. Current hate right now? Don’t really have one, but I’m still a little irritated at this really close-minded bumper sticker I saw earlier.

19. Favorite place to be? Geographically, I would say Seattle. But only if my wife is there with me.

20. How did you bring in the new year? I don’t really remember, but I think I was asleep.

21. Someplace you’d like to go? Big Sur. I was so close a few weeks ago, but just didn’t have time.

22. Name three people who will complete this. Lee Ann, Hannah, and Harry…and hopefully some of their friends.

23. Do you own slippers? Sort of. I have some canvas Crocs that walk a fine line between slipper and shoe, but I think they’re more “shoe”.

24. What color shirt are you wearing? Red.

25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? I’ve never tried them, but they sound like they might get hot.

26. Can you whistle? I can, but I actually do better whistling inward as opposed to your conventional outward whistle.

27. Where are you now? Couch? House? Cornelius? North Carolina? Turducken?

28. Would you be a pirate? Probably not. I don’t have a clever response to this, I just don’t think I would do it.

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? You never really know what’s going to come out, but I sing in the shower almost every day. Often they’re very strange songs, and I wonder why I’m thinking of them so early in the morning.

30. Favorite Girl’s Name? Meredith. (that’s the name of my favorite girl, at least.)

31. Favorite boy’s name? Julian.

32. What is in your pocket right now? An insulin pump, kleenex, and a receipt from lunch.

33. Last thing that made you laugh? This Geico commercial.

34. What vehicle do you drive? An F-150 Supercrew…which is nice to have, but the longer commute to my new job is getting expensive.

35. Worst injury you’ve ever had? I think something might be wrong with my pancreas…

36. Do you love where you live? I do. I’d like a larger house, but I really don’t want to move away from this area…unless it’s to Seattle.

37. How many TVs do you have in your house? 5, but only 3 that are used regularly, and as previously mentioned, one of them is dying.

38. How many computers do you have in your house? 3 that are used regularly, plus a couple of old laptops that we’re still holding on to for some reason.

39. If you changed your job, what would it be? I guess “Customer Account Manager”, since I just did, and that is my new job.

40. If you were granted three wishes, what would they be? A cure for diabetes, healthy children, and a world without hate. (cheesy, I know. But it would be really nice.)

Tap…tap…is this thing still on???

Hey everybody. So things haven’t really gone as I’d hoped since the last post. Despite resting, icing, and everything, my hip pain really hasn’t gotten much better. I’ve pretty much had to put the marathon plans on hold, since I can’t run more than a half mile without the pain forcing me to stop. It’s very disappointing, but it got to a point where I had to look at things realistically and decide that trying to go forward with the training schedule just wasn’t going to happen.

Also, while knowing the cause of the pain may not have affected the outcome, it would be really nice to know exactly what’s wrong. Unfortunately, since I just changed jobs, I don’t have health insurance for the month of November, and thus can not go to the doctor for a diagnosis. I’m sure it’s one of the many overuse injuries that runners are prone to, but I honestly have no idea which one. Really, it doesn’t matter though, as the treatment for all of them is pretty much the same: rest and reduced training.

I’m now halfway through a self-imposed 2 week rest/recovery period. I felt like before I would take a few days off then run again and re-irritate the injury, so I thought it might be best to stay completely off it for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. To be honest, it really sucks. Running 30+ miles a week is hard, but NOT running is even harder. I see people running, and I just get jealous of them. I’m going to miss the Thanksgiving day Turkey Trot this week, which has been a tradition in our household the past few years. And due to the lack of exercise, my blood sugars have been complete crap lately. Not to mention the $85 marathon registration fee that’s now down the drain…

I’m really hoping that the 2 weeks off will allow things to heal and I’ll be able to start running again after Thanksgiving. If not, at least by then I’ll be able to go to the doctor and find out exactly what the problem is. At least there are plenty of Spring marathons, so if things get better soon, I may be able to get on track for one of those. We’ll see!

Word on the street is that today is d-blog day. So I guess that means I should write on this blog. Perhaps even about the ‘betes. I haven’t really had much time for blogging, what with the new job and related travel and such. I’d like to say it’s also because of the marathon training, but unfortunately I’ve been battling a hip/knee injury so it feels like forever since I’ve been on a “good” run. Come to think of it, the last good run I had was also the last time I blogged.

Also part of the lack of blogging is that I’ve been a little depressed lately as a result of the injury. I feel like I’ve worked so hard to get to where I am now, and yet my body has suddenly decided to hold me back. Not all that unlike diabetes, really. Sometimes you work really hard to achieve really tight control, and something completely unexpected (a bad infusion site, infection, etc.) happens that makes everything up to that point seem like wasted effort. The only thing you can really do is to deal with whatever comes up and move on. Sometimes that means feeling like crap for an entire day after a stubborn midnight high, and sometimes it means having to stop training, ice the pain, and deal with some uncomfortable runs until things (hopefully) get better. In the meantime I’m trying to stay focused on the goal of running 26.2 miles on December 12th, just like I’m focused on avoiding diabetes-related complications down the road. Will I actually achieve either of those goals? I honestly don’t know, but I’m still hoping for the best…

Sorry for the downer of a post. I’ll see if I can find that witty sarcastic guy that normally writes here and get him to scribble something down.

This morning, I ran longer than I ever have in my entire life. And I felt pretty darn good. On top of that, my blood sugars were awesome the whole time! I needed that, because neither the running or the blood sugars have been doing that well lately.
Now, we’re heading up to Maryland for the weekend for a college friend’s wedding. I think Meredith may be driving this time…my legs have done enough today. Hope you guys have a great weekend!

Like any normal person, I usually can’t wait for the weekend. It’s normally a great time to recover from the work week and do things that I want to do on my own schedule. This weekend has been pretty freaking exhausting though. Just a rundown of what I’ve done in the past 3 days:

Friday: Nothing big, just quit the only job I’ve had since I graduated college. It really didn’t “hit” me until Friday afternoon when I was packing up my desk and saying goodbye to all of my work friends. I know I’ll still get to see them, but the fact that they won’t be around every day to exchange sarcastic comments and small talk sort of sucks a little. I think I’ve made the right decision though, and am looking forward to the new job. Oh, and for my last lunch, we went out for a boatload of sushi. Quite literally:

Saturday: Got up at 6am to get ready for the Lungstrong 15k. Since this race was actually very close to my house, I ran to/from the race as well in order to rack up the mileage I was supposed to do for my training (Note: the run there was much easier than the run back). I was actually very pleased with my result, even though it was by no means blazing fast. I kept a 9:56 per mile pace, which I feel pretty good about. I was pretty busy the rest of the day, so I tried to take a nap before lunch, but that didn’t work out. I guess I was still on my runner’s high? Yeah, let’s go with that.

Sunday: We went to IKEA to pick up some new furniture for our living room. We thought we had everything figured out based on our previous “scouting” trips, but we still took forever to decide. Finally made it home with everything, did some minor assembly, and loaded up the old couch/chair/ottoman and took those to Goodwill. I would show pictures, but I don’t really want to get up and I’m not really sure where the camera is, so that’ll just have to wait.

Luckily, I’ve decided to take the next week off to decompress for a bit before I start the new job. I’m looking forward to being able to relax a bit. I’ve got several projects planned, 32 total miles to run, and a wedding in MD this weekend, but it can’t be any more exhausting than the past 3 days. You stay classy, blog readers!

My workout today got me thinking. Of course, before we get too far into this, I should explain…according to the training plan, today’s workout was supposed to be an easy 3 mile run. However, for the sake of our neighbors’ property values, it instead consisted of mowing .27 acres of grass and edging waaay too much sidewalk (one of the pitfalls of having a corner lot).

Anyway, back to why I was thinking. As far as I can remember, every time I’ve mowed our lawn, my blood sugar has gone low. I’ve tried temporary basal rates, having a pre-mow snack, I’ve even taken the pump completely off and still gone low. The only logical entertaining explanation is that yard work is a cure for diabetes. Since I pretty much know nothing about chemistry and the biological sciences, I’ve compiled a list of possible “cures” that I’ve encountered over the years. Those include:

1. Yard Work – I know. I already discussed it. But this is my list.
2. Swimming – Always makes me go low. The pump is pretty much always off, but it still happens. I suppose it’s possible that I’m just so bad at swimming that I expend a ton of energy just trying not to die, but I like to think the water has magical powers. You know, like in Signs where the aliens didn’t like water because it made their skin sizzle? Something like that.
3. Woodworking – It’s a hobby of mine. I’m not great at it, but I’ve managed to build a few pieces of decent-looking furniture. But I think every time I get a chance to work on a project in the workshop/garage, I end up going low. Low blood sugar and power tools? Not a good combination.

Okay, so it was a pretty short list, but I’m sure there are others. What did we learn? Apparently that I wasted 5 years of college. I could have become a landscaper or carpenter and potentially cured my disease. Instead, I paid thousands of dollars for an education, so I could get an air-conditioned office job and pay for health benefits to keep the diabetes train a-rollin’.

What potential cures have you guys discovered? Feel free to leave a comment and share. If you need me, I’ll be in the pool treading water and eating cupcakes.

I’ve been at my current job for over six years. During that time I’ve learned a lot and made a ton of great friends, and I like to think I’ve matured a little bit. However, I’m ready to move on and see where else my career can take me. I’ve been offered (and have decided to take) a job with one of my clients, and I will be leaving my current company in the next couple of weeks.

I’m pretty excited about it. It sounds like there are lots of opportunities for me to grow with the company, as opposed to my current situation of just waiting for someone to retire before I can move up. Also, I’ll get to travel a bit, so I’m looking forward to that. And I get paid more. And one of the best things? They cover all of my health insurance cost. Sweet!

So what does this mean for you? Probably nothing new. The thing that kind of sucks right now is that I have a ton of blog post ideas, but with the transition and everything else going on (horrible time to be training for a marathon), I have no time to write any of them. It took me 4 days just to write this. Nobody told me that quitting a job is more work than just working at one. Even though it’s stressful, I’m kind of enjoying it. “Sarcastic Harry” is making more appearances, so even though other people may hate it, I’m having a good time. So now, when people send me really complex work emails, I just say “This sounds really complicated. I quit.”

Well gosh, look at the time. This blogging thing is really complicated. I quit (for today).

Today I finished week 7 of my marathon training plan. The long run for this week was 12 miles, which actually went really well. I was pretty discouraged after the past couple of weeks, so it was good to have a nice run to make me feel like I actually can do this. I missed pretty much the entire week before last because I was sick, and last week’s 10 mile run was only about 7 miles, as a result of bad blood sugars and my body feeling like absolute crap. I think I tried to come back too quickly from the week of illness, and my body just couldn’t take it at the end of the week. Oh well…lesson learned, I guess.

Anyway, I tried a few things different this week. First of all, I really concentrated on keeping my pace down, as I’ve learned the hard way that starting out too hard is a great way to ruin a long run. Secondly, I switched from carrying just water to water AND Gatorade with me. The Gatorade seemed to help with a couple of things…1) after talking with my doctor, I think my problem a few weeks ago was due to an electrolyte deficiency, so that replaced a lot of those. Because like Brawndo, Gatorade has electrolytes! (this makes much more sense if you’ve seen “Idiocracy”. Otherwise, just ignore me)…and 2) by drinking the Gatorade occasionally (in addition to the powerbar gels every 2-3 miles), my blood sugars pretty much rocked the entire time. What’s that, noble reader? You don’t believe me? In that case, I offer the following evidence:

(That little peak at the beginning is pre-run…I woke up a little low so had to bring that up before I could start running. But otherwise, pretty awesome, huh?)

So that’s where I’m at. I’ve got a total of 25 miles to run this week, so I’m going to rest some more now. Take care!

I know several other D-bloggers have already done this meme (Ninja, Kerri, LeeAnn to name a few), but I thought this would be a good way to pass the time. Have a read, and if you’re inspired, do your own (if you haven’t already). In case I missed it, feel free to leave a link in the comments.

1. I’ve come to realize that my chest-size … is actually rather small for people my height, making it hard to find shirts that fit the way I like without having arms that are too short.

2. I’ve come to realize that my job … is seeming more like “work” every day.

3. I’ve come to realize that when I’m driving … my wife tends to go to sleep. But as long as I can listen to my music, I’m cool with that.

4. I’ve come to realize that I need … all you need is love, right?

5. I’ve come to realize that I have lost … enough to learn from my mistakes.

6. I’ve come to realize that I hate it when … people think only of themselves.

7. I’ve come to realize that if I’m drunk … I should not ride a miniature motorcycle through someone’s yard.

8. I’ve come to realize that money … complicates everything, whether you have it or not.

9. I’ve come to realize that certain people … can’t be changed, but they can be avoided.

10. I’ve come to realize that I’ll always … I’ll be there till the stars don’t shine, till the heavens burst, and the words don’t rhyme…(sorry. got a little caught up in Bon Jovi there.)

11. I’ve come to realize that my siblings … well, I just have the one, but I realize that I should talk to her more than I do.

12. I’ve come to realize that my mom … will never understand the internet.

13. I’ve come to realize that my cell phone … is used for twitter, facebook, games, internet, etc. more than it is used as a phone.

14. I’ve come to realize that when I woke up this morning … I was actually pretty well rested. I should fall asleep on the couch at 9:30 every night.

15. I’ve come to realize that last night before I went to sleep … I thought “I hope our new couch is long enough for me to completely stretch out on”.

16. I’ve come to realize that right now I am thinking … that what I thought would be an easy blog post cop-out has turned out to be quite difficult.

17. I’ve come to realize that my dad … will likely never see this, so I’m going to say that he can juggle flaming koalas while riding a unicycle.

18. I’ve come to realize that when I get on Facebook … I enjoy that brief moment of waiting to see if that notification flag will bring me the actual joy of human contact or the annoyance of some ridiculous application that I’ve never used.

19. I’ve come to realize that today … was neither good nor bad, but reaffirmed that I am ready for a change.

20. I’ve come to realize that tonight … I won’t really accomplish much, but I’ll have a good time doing it (or not doing it, depending on how you look at it.)

21. I’ve come to realize that tomorrow … I will run out of steam at around 3:30pm, just like every other Friday.

22. I’ve come to realize that I really want to … be a dad.

23. I’ve come to realize that the person who is most likely to repost this is … probably bored or out of ideas, or both.

24. I’ve come to realize that life … has its ups and downs, but it’s the total elevation gain that matters.

25. I’ve come to realize that this weekend … I will see how my sick week off really affected my running endurance.

26. I’ve come to realize that marriage … pretty much rocks, if you find the right person.

27. I’ve come to realize that my friends … don’t necessarily have to be people that I see or hang out with all the time.

28. I’ve come to realize that this year … could be pretty good, if everything goes according to plan.

29. I’ve come to realize that my ex is … different, older, but in many ways still the same.

30. I’ve come to realize that maybe I should … try to be more serious. sometimes.

31. I’ve come to realize that I love … to laugh.

32. I’ve come to realize that I don’t understand … close-minded people.

33. I’ve come to realize my past … has taught me a lot about who I do and don’t want to be.

34. I’ve come to realize that parties … often sound like more fun than they actually are.

35. I’ve come to realize that I’m totally terrified … of tall buildings, bridges, and other structures, but I rather enjoy flying.