Morning hike

Steve Knipple and I had discussed a morning hike a week ago. Amazingly, despite the 5 little boys between our two families, it happened! I posted pictures here.

Also, it was really cute at the end of the day. Elijah threw kind of a tantrum so I sent him to his room. Then Rowan and I were eating dinner, and Elijah didn’t want to come out when I opened the door (he just closed it again). After Rowan ate a few bites I sent him to let Elijah out. Well Elijah came to the door and they kind of looked at each other for a minute. Then Rowan gave Elijah a hug! They kind of smiled, and then Elijah came out, ready to rejoin the world. What a sweet boy that Rowan is, I can’t believe he did that. I was very proud.

Friday Feb 16

Elijah has been drawing horses. I can’t tell they are horses, but he says “whorshe!” or “weeo-weeo-weeo-weeo” which is his version of a whinny. Kris said he drew her, copying my cartoon style of sharp lines for long black hair. Neat! Rowan wanted me to read stories this morning, and I didn’t want to because I was composing new chords for the “I’m a little teapot song.” To give it a modern feel I did it with these chords:


I'm a little tea pot, short and stout
E E/G# C#mi B
Here is my handle, here is my spout.
A E C B7
When I get all steamed up, hear me shout.
E G#7 C#mi B
Tip! me over and pour me out.
A C B E


Later I came and read “Teeth are not for Biting,” and Kris read “Diggers,” an old favorite.

Fitness

I always seem to struggle with staying fit. I’ll work out hard for a few months, then summer comes and I figure I’m climbing enough so I don’t need to do it any more. Then in the fall and early winter lazyness rules the day! I found a note I wrote in 2005 on cascadeclimbers.com, and it’s useful to where I am now (again, need to lose weight!):

I lost 18 pounds since March, from 196 to 178. Couple of observations:

1) I tried the atkins diet (I know, start yelling), as I’d had good results with it 2 years before. It didn’t seem to work this time.
2) I went trail running a lot January to March. That got me to 188 or so, but then stubborn.
3) I got frustrated because I was excercising a lot, but not losing any more weight. So...
4) I bought a fad diet book, called “The Ultimate New York Body Plan,” by a cheesy supermodel consultant guy. > I followed it exactly, with the indispensable help of my wife making the assigned meals to the letter. The food was like Atkins, pretty much: lean meat and green vegatables, very little else. 5 meals a day. 45 minutes to 1.5 hour workout per day, for 14 days.

It worked really well, helping me lose 12 pounds by the end of two weeks. Now I could climb a bit harder in the gym, which was exciting. I also found that it was better from a weight-loss perspective to go easier on the cardio workout. More like 45 minutes at 140 bpm, instead of 150-160 like I was doing before with trail running (or higher). I don’t know why that’s true and folks have told me that doesn’t make sense, but it’s an important component (for me).

I’ve decided also that weighing myself every day is a big help, and writing down what I ate. There is a direct link between how much you eat, how much you exercise and weight gain or loss. I am a “master of the obvious” but writing it down and weighing every day keeps me honest.

I am 5’11” and would like to be about 170, so I have a few more pounds to go. It’s actually been a fun journey, though it took reaching a point of frustration to get militant about it and do it right. "

Good stuff to remember!

My socks

So if you read Kris’s blog you know she loves to make socks. She made me a beautiful pair of purple/red socks before Christmas. I wish I’d taken them to Texas and Hawaii to show people. I never saw socks like them! She worried that they were too colorful or something, but I think it’s neat to have colorful socks. They are mostly my “House Socks.” In fact, although I haven’t done it religiously, I’m hoping to establish a ritual whereby I come in the door and the boys help me change into my “House Socks.” It’s kind of like Mr. Rogers. You know how he would come in and change into a sweater and different shoes? My mom said I loved that show when I was little. Somehow I have a deep need to make such a ritual. I think it should also involve a cup of tea.

Another pair of socks is on the way! These are dark green and blue. They are thicker and softer. I got to wear one for a few minutes. It was nice.

One thing you need to think about. If you decide to make socks, be wary of the sheer size of the area between your heel and the point where the top of your foot meets the leg. That diagonal is, frankly, far more massive that you’d expect. Kris had to start over on one pair because of this. Maybe it’s just on me.

Great fun...

Something I can’t help but enjoy, is when someone on a Mac or running Linux has temporary difficulty accomplishing something. I’m basically a Windows user. I ran Linux in college (though Kris pretty quickly became the sysadmin for our machines), but Windows always paid the bills. At work now, more and more people are getting Macs. They are really slick, and I’d love to have a Bash shell again for sure. But we don’t need a new machine and Macs are expensive anyway. So I have to endure lots of philosophy about how easy the Mac is, and why would anyone use anything else, etc.

Now I know about the vaunted ease of use. But it’s surprising how much someone using a Mac looks like someone using a PC. They still get confused or lost in the wrong folder. They still try to save something as a PDF, but there is no such option. The shortcut key doesn’t work as expected, and the long path has to be taken.

That’s the right time to casually say, “Wow, on Windows that’s a lot easier. Funny...” or “Huh. I thought the Mac would be easier to use.” Or, “That’s a very cute animation! I wish my computer had such bells and whistles!” Once Danno chased me out of his office after some of this. I must have struck a nerve :-).