Halloween

So tonight was Trick or Treat night in our town.  A week early, totally lame, but very fun given that it was Lily's first real time Trick or Treating.  Two years ago she was 10 months old and we took her around the Timberland Halloween party.  Last year we walked the Pearl St. Mall during the Munchkin Masquerade.  These were all fun, but this year Lily got it.  She's known for a while now that on Halloween you dress up, and you go out and get candy!  

Halloween is a big deal in our house.  Both my wife and I love it and we get into with decorating and carving pumpkins and all the pomp and circumstance that goes along with Halloween.  One of the things that we were excited about when it came to having kids is bringing back some of the holiday mystique.  Let's face it, after a certain age you like holidays, you have fun participating in them and reaping the benefits, but the magic is pretty much gone.  Well as parents, it all comes back around through your kids.  You should have seen Lily's face when we brought out the Halloween decorations.  It brought me back to when I used to do the same thing with my Mom.

So heading into this year's Halloween we were all excited.  Lily because for some reason strangers were going to give her treats and her parents were ok with this; and Carli and myself because after three years, we were going to start to see the fun stuff really begin.  And that brings me to my point: I'm instituting a global ban on all costumes that are not somehow related back to something scary or magical.  Halloween is about scary stuff.  Judging be the popular costumes we saw while out tonight, it's about super hero's and farm animals.  I admit it, I'm guilty of this myself.  I distinctly remember a Halloween when I was under 10 when I was sent out in a C3PO costume.  LAAAAME.  Look, kids like to dress up.  All kids do, whether it's pretending to be a space cowboy or a princess, it's something that all kids go through and enjoy.  Well, you can be Spider-man any day of the year; what the hell does Spider-man have to do with Halloween?  NOTHING.  So let's build a set of rules to abide by when picking out a Halloween costume.

Tier 1

Classic Halloween

This tier is the can't miss icons affiliated with the holiday.  Witches, scarecrows, pumpkin heads etc...

Tier 2

The Classic Movies

This includes any of the monsters made famous by Universal Studios back in the 1920's and 30's.  Wolfman, Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy...you can't go wrong with these classics.  This tier also includes generic versions of these creatures, so if you just dress like a vampire, zombie etc. 

Tier 3

Modern day horror figures

I admit, Hollywood plays a role in some of these things.  The easiest place to go for a good scare is the movies.  So for this tier, we build off of The Classics and go to other movie characters: Jason Vorhees, Freddy Kruger, Michael Myers, Jigsaw, Pinhead.  Bonus points for how far you go and how realistic you make your costume.

Tier 4

Dead X

Some of my favorite costumes are those that are creative.  I went to a Halloween party one year and she was dressed as "Dead Little Red Riding Hood".  It was great, she bought a Red Riding Hood costume and added a prosthetic slash to the throat and painted her face so she looked like a corpse.  My brother and an ex-girlfriend of his went one year as "Dead Disco Dancers" where they bought bad 70's clothes at a thrift shop and painted their faces to be zombies.  Classic!

Tier 5

Magic

Since there is a certain magical allure to Halloween, we'll allow costumes that aren't scary per see, but deal in magic.  So wizards the aforementioned witch, things of that nature.  Now that being said, I don't want to see another fucking Harry Potter costume. Dumbledore is ok, but it needs to be dead on authentic.  Gandalf is in, but being a hobbit is out.  This tier may need some work to further define it.

Tier 6

The List of Unacceptable Costumes

Anything not covered above so: The superhero du jour (based on whatever film was popular the previous summer), princesses, any Nickelodeon character (spongebob, Dora, Diego, Hannah Montana etc...), any cartoon character in general (unless it's from The Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride), animal costumes (unless it's a dead animal costume, like a cow with a machete in it's head and lots of blood), clowns (unless they are evil undead clowns), hippies, hobo's (unless they are murdering crazed hobo's)...the list is endless.

Look this isn't a science yet.  There are going to be revisions, but the bottom line is, Lily can dress up like Dora the Explorer 364 other days a year.  If when she's a little older, she comes to me and wants to dress up as zombie Dora for Halloween, that'd be great.  But sorry, until then, think of a scary costume, because Halloween is the night of the dead!  C'mon, let's be respectful of that.

Cheerios and stuff

In this day and age, who doesn't grow up eating Cheerios? Dry Cheerios are a baby staple world wide. Well I still love the little fuckers. I eat a bowl a day. Usually at night with frozen wild blueberries and raw sugar. Good times. In fact I'm eating some right now.

Post mortem on the 2008 Boston Red Sox: This may be the first year in a long, long time that didn't end with a World Series title and everyone is pretty much ok with it. It's pretty much universally accepted that due to the injury bug that bit the Sox this year if anything the team may have overachieved. Combine that with two titles in the past four years and the Yankees finishing out of the playoffs and everyone, while still yearning for another WS win, is ok with where the Sox ended up in '08. I'm pumped for one of the best parts of following baseball...the off season Hot Stove! I love seeing where players end up and seeing who the Sox are going after.
My World Series prediction: Phillies in 6. The Rays can't quite get it done after the tough 7 game series against the Sox.

The upcoming election is said to be "The most important election in history" or something like that. Not sure if that's general consensus or if one of the candidates said that to pump themselves up, but I will say this...I can't wait to see if Frank Caliendo tries to pull off a Barack Obama impression should Obama win. Barack is thin and black, while Frank is fat and white. It's a stretch when he impersonates Al Pacino because he's so tubby. He should really stick to characters like John Madden and Jason Alexander.

Is anyone else concerned about the leader of the free world have the initials B.O.? Did Obama get lots of deodorant sticks for birthdays and holidays as pranks from other kids?

I got a haircut last weekend and I hate it. I opted for the Supercuts route and I now understand why they're so cheap. From here on, I'm instituting a worldwide mandate that all men shave their heads.

My ankle is improving, slowly but surely. I'm feeling good about a return to running in two weeks.

Back in the Saddle

The past few weeks have been hard, no question.  I remember when my pal Tiff sprained her ankle and I kept telling her not to worry about it, enjoy the time off, blah, blah, blah...little did I know how bad it sucks.

I got out on the road bike this past weekend and I realized a couple of things.  One, I'm in bad biking shape.  I've been off of the road ride for some time and it was very apparent when I got out there.  And two, It's going to be at least two more weeks before I'm back to running.  While the familiar feeling of tired legs was kicking so was the realization of how unresponsive my ankle is.  I'm skipping all workouts today and I'm going to ice it tonight...baby steps.  

I did register for the Fells Trail Race spring 50k.  Mentally it's helped me remember that I'll be able to do the things I love soon.  It's keeping me from getting down on the lack of cardio.  Working out in the gym has been great.  It's rebuilding my base and I've put on a few pounds of muscle.  But nothing gives you that "whupped" feeling (in a good way) like running or riding.  So I'll be back in the gym tomorrow and the rest of the week, and back on the bike this weekend.  I'm in Phoenix in two weeks and I'm hoping to get in some mountain biking out there and by the time I'm back from that trip...maybe I'll be able to start road running...hope...I hear it's a good thing.

Ode(s) to a Sendentary Mountain Bike

So, yeah, I'm fucking nuts.

I'm writing poetry about missing mountain biking. So for your sanity and mine, pray I heal faster!

(Oh and just a note that no matter how hard I tried I couldn't format this post like I wanted to. So after each stanza of the second poem, there should be a break - sorry)

Haiku

Lonely mountain bike.

Loneliness, single tear (track).

It is not injured.

Rhymey

Champion of dirt and rock,

Clipped into my Sidi's and SmartWool socks,

Now residing in a hallway of locks

And collecting dust from the ceiling.

How long until we ride again?

Until we fly together as dear friends?

Through flowy muddy turns and bends,

Full suspension bobbing and wheeling.

While the swelling comes and goes,

And the pain ebbs and flows,

From my knee down to my toes;

Resolve and spirit with it stealing.

Against the wall my head goes thud,

All I want is to ride the mud

To climb hills and scrape off crud

That collects on my legs and requires peeling.

Alas no more will I cry

A few more weeks will spell a lullabye

For this wretched 'thorn-in-side'

That keeps me squealing.

And then I will mount and go

A few solid weekends, before the snow

Flies about and makes me throw,

You back in the house, for a winter's worth concealing!

Well then!

Shame on me for the lack of updates, and oh what an update there has been. After my last post, I did go out for a nighttime trail run and it went superbly. Got a little lost with my weak headlamp, but it was really fun and I felt good. Two days later and I decide to do it again. This time the plan was a longer run around the less technical loop over at Winnekenni. I was about two miles from and about .5 a mile into the woods when on a downhill my foot must have slipped either into a runoff ditch or a impression in the trail because I sprained my left ankle badly, the pain exploding so hot and quickly that I can't even remember the motion with which the sprain occured. As I lost my balance I fell forward landing on my hands before turning onto my right side and getting abrasions from the gravelly trail from my right shoulder, down to my right hip and finishing up on my right knee. I distinctly remember letting out a howl and then immediately thinking, I wonder if anyone heard that.

Just like after my crash on the mtn bike in May, I shot up off of the ground with little regard to anything that might be wrong. Instinct just sort of lifted me up and I tried to weight my left foot with little success. I looked at my hands and started to pick out the small bits of gravel that had lodged into my palms. I've had light sprains and painful twists in the past so I did my best to walk it off and wait for the initial pain to subside to see if I could continue on...I waited. And waited...and waited some more. Pretty quickly my mobility went away and I could feel my ankle blowing up like a balloon. Time to head home.

Of course I didn't have a phone with me, I mean, that would have been a smart thing to do. So I gimped it the two miles home. Every so often I would try to jog in order to see if it was easing up and maybe then not so bad and also to expedite the journey. However each time I'd make it about 100 feet before abandoning the run in favor for a brisk walk. Each step sending jolts of pain up my calf and giving a sickening squish as my ankle flexed with tendons that weren't tight enough to quite hold everything in place.

About halfway there I shined the beam from my headlamp onto my foot and that's when I knew that this was not something that would heal in a few days. Still with my sock on my ankle looked like someone had stuck a grapefruit inside of it. This realization made me a bit light in the head, but it also made me move. The last thing I needed to do was stand around and freak myself out anymore, I had to get home.

Finally my street came into view. I labored up the stairs to our place and practically fell into my wife's arms. Icing and ibuprofen commenced immediately. It was after 9:00, and the last thing I wanted to do was spend the next three hours in an ER waiting room so I collapsed in a rough sleep and went to have x-rays in the morning. The swelling was about the same but I was relieved that there was no break...just a bad sprain.

So the past week has been a battle against the swelling. I've been icing, popping fish oil, walnuts, berries, anything known to reduce inflammation. I've been taking twice-daily doses of Glucosamine/MSM and eating a ton of Tuna. And it's actually paying off. The pain is much better. The swelling is down, though not gone and the bruising is getting better every day. The picture above does no justice for how this thing looked at it's apex.

So the plan is this: in the gym most days. This week I'm swimming at least twice a day and if the pain continues to improve I'm going to try a spin class. But I'm hoping that by next weekend I can try a road ride. I'm targeting early November for a return to running...road at first. But back on the trails by Thanksgiving. And yes, I'll be going back out at night too. People sprain their ankles when it's light out all the time. I'm not going to give up something super fun because I got hurt once!

(Remind me to come back at re-read that last sentence after my 18th nighttime sprain!)

Try

Time to give it a whirl. I'm headed out for a nighttime run tonight. I was in Phoenix last week and ran twice. My foot was kind of sore one day, but I attribute that more to the work we were doing than to the runs. Heheh...runs.

I know these posts are all starting to sound the same, but I'm starting to feel like a lump. So I'm optimistic that I'll run tonight and it will all be better...I'm ok with not competing again this fall so long as I'm healed and can run and bike for fun whenever I want...which is like every day.

At any rate things in life are good right now. Carli and I are reaching a level of financial responsibility that while we maybe should have been there, oh I don't know, ten years ago, it's good to get there even now. We both love our jobs and Lily is the apple of my eye. Cliche? Perhaps, but if you don't have your own kids, don't judge. Most of you might think that you'd find it annoying when you're updating your blog while your daughter is taking a bath and you hear, "I have to poop!". So you stop typing, go and assist the removal from the tub, quick drying off, help up on the toilet, leave the room (because she needs "privacy"), help back into the tub, get back to your blog for 5 minutes before hearing, "I have to poop again!". But you know what? It's a riot. Having a nearly 3 year old around is great.

I just turned 33 and it has only affirmed my belief that things are better as you grow older. I don't understand the fear of getting old. Every year poses new opportunities to learn and to gather experience. Yes I shake my head and smile when I meet people who were born in the late 80's and are now in the job market, but that's because I have vivid memories from that time. It's not because I wish I was 10 or 15 years younger. I love knowing what I know and being where I am...and I have sympathy for those who can't embrace where they are in life. That must be very hard to not have that confidence...

Anywho, this week is a big test for the foot! I'll keep you all (which is to say no one) updated!

Death Magnetic

Ok, I'm the least qualified person in the world to write an objective review of anything Metallica does. I've loved each album they've put out and defended all their different phases when other fans abandoned them because they're newer material didn't sound like it would fit on Ride the Lightning. I think St. Anger was great and that Load and Reload contained a few absolute classics and when I some day compile my own Metallica greatest hits, I will definitely pull songs from those album's. That being said:



DEATH MAGNETIC IS AWESOME.



Ok, there it is. For those of you who liked their older material better, go buy this you'll love it. If it had come out in the early 90's instead of the Black album old school fans would have had no complaint. Personally I was happy to see them branch off and create different sounding music. People hated St. Anger and I listen to that album way more than I listen to Black or Lightning. It's gritty and different. For some reason, band's are crucified if they branch away from what made them famous. Like it's an insult to their fans or something. People fear change in the worst way. Metallica will always be my favorite band and no matter what they put out I know I'll like it. 9 studio albums have proven that everything they put out is to my liking.

Anyway, if you've ever been a Metallica fan...spin this album, it will knock your socks off.