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I’ve been really busy lately, especially on the weekends. This past weekend was Jason’s 1st Holy Communion followed by a party at our house, followed by the Blue & Gold dinner w/ the Cub Scouts. I was so happy when that day was over!

Then on Sunday I decided to take a day to myself and work in the garden. 5-1/2 hours later I was done for the day. In that time, I dug 2 new beds, moved some retaining bricks, turned over the herb garden, harvested my compost from last year, and cleaned up the front lawn. I didn’t take any week 3 garden photos ’cause I thought the camera was broken - it’s dying, but still works. Won’t be long before it’s dead, though. Anyway, after the seeds exploded out of the ground, they seem to be slowing down now. I plan on moving the plants into the garden on Mother’s Day.

I’m in my final week of wingate testing at UB and I can’t wait to be done! Hopefully the report will be written up soon after and I can see if my time was worthwhile. Monday was a VO2 Max study, Wednesday (tomorrow) is a single wingate, and Friday is an endurance test. Then, Jason & I go camping for the weekend!

Anyway, back to work…

This entry was posted by Eric on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Friday night / Saturday morning were supposed to be beautiful for sleeping, but once again the kids had a different idea. Saturday I was up with Morgan at about 3:30, maybe 4:00. She was cling-y and eventually got sick. Luckily, after cleaning her up, we were able to fall back asleep for a bit. All I remember was waking up and Becca and Jason were downstairs, watching TV while Morgan & Laura slept on one couch, and I on the other.

After we awoke and dressed, we all went to Reinstein Woods for some Earth Day celebrations. The kids did a few crafts, while I picked up materials on energy conservation, composting, and other “save the Earth” things. The only new thing I read about was a water garden, which basically takes runoff (from driveways, rooftops, etc) and directs it to a garden. Interesting concept, but I’ll stick with our rain barrel (which I’ve been using to water the garden since it rained last week - still 3/4 full). This was our first trip to Reinstein Woods, and we look forward to returning. Here’s a photo of Morgan getting a close look at a painted turtle:

We saw plenty of ducks, Canadian geese, a few minnows, and a beaver lodge. There’s a few beavers living there, according to one of the volunteers we asked. However, finding a turtle coming out of the pond and getting a close-up was the highlight of the trip.

When we got home, after a quick lunch, we took a siesta and avoided the crazy hot weather here in Buffalo. Then I did more work in the garden, while the kids played in the backyard and Laura worked in the kitchen. Saturday night I took care of tedious business things, like entering credit card charges into QuickBooks and paying contractors.

Sunday Andy and I went for a little 2-mile run, then extended the trip by walking a bit. We were walking along this trail by 2-mile creek and when we looked up, there were 3 deer standing less than 30′ from us. After contemplating what to do, we continued on the trail, getting closer to the deer until we passed them and continued on our way.

When I finally got home & cleaned up, I got to work on a project that I’m doing for Steve. The hardest part of some jobs is just gathering the information together - this job was particularly easy, but without the proper login information, I had to put it on my server, only to move it later. Instead of spending too much time looking for the passwords & URLs, I figured I’d just move it tomorrow.

Now it’s dinner @ the in-laws, then fighting w/ the kids to go to bed at a reasonable time, because it’s back to school for them tomorrow. As for me, I have a resting week at UB, only having to do 4, 30-second bouts on the wingate bike. Next week we’re tested again, then DONE. Thank goodness - this study is a long one!

This entry was posted by Eric on Sunday, April 20th, 2008 at 4:24 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

This weekend we made our annual pilgrimage to Moore’s Sugar Shack in Freedom, NY. I’ve been joining Laura’s family for who-knows-how-long, going for an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast at this sugar shack. Historically, Laura’s brother and I attempt to eat our age in pancakes (mind you, he’s 7 years younger than me, so he has a significant advantage). I failed last year, only managing to down either 17 or 18 before giving up. This year I showed restraint and stopped at only 5. I can’t believe I ate that many in the past.

On our way home, we ended up doing some geocaching. We attempted 3 caches, and found 1 of them. I knew there was 1 we wouldn’t find, as the last 3 log entries were a no-find. However, another that we tried I expected to come up with. GPS reception was decent, but the area was pretty busy. Bottles, leaves, and a decaying deer were all fun things to find, but no geocache. It was frustrating, especially since I knew the container that we were looking for, and I’ve seen the published photos of it.

This entry was posted by Eric on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 11:19 am and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Wow - what a long week! I’m so glad it’s over. At least the weekend is starting, although that doesn’t mean any more free-time than during the week.

I was so happy when I finished my training at UB today. While it’s getting easier, the number of sprints I have to do keeps going up, so in the end, it’s not any easier. Today was 5, 30-second sprints again. Next week is 6. I do this Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I also try to get to the gym those days to lift weights. I made it Monday and did a quick shoulder & bi’s routine, but skipped Wednesday. Today I did chest & back, and finished with abs. That would have been enough for me, but throwing wingate sprints on top of it was really hard! Our plyometrics class on Tuesday and Thursday was also pretty rough this week. Jim really pushed us…

Yesterday was nice & warm, so the kids got to get outside for a bit and ride bikes, scooters and drag out other stuff. This also gave me a chance to get into the compost bin, since its no longer frozen. Wow - the compost I have is amazing! I can’t wait to get it in the gardens. It’s fascinating putting banana peels, jack-o-lanterns, egg shells, lots of coffee grounds, apple cores and all sorts of stuff into a bin, then stir it up every now-and-again and get compost out of it.

We bought our seeds today, and I may start setting up the table in the back of the house where we’re going to try to start our vegetable plants from seed. Last week I drew a quick sketch of the backyard & where I want to plant all these veggies. It should be interesting, considering how small our yard is.

Tomorrow’s going to be a crazy day, with Laura and I trading kids on & off running here & there. I’ll be at Tops most of the day, collecting food for the St. Paul’s food pantry with the Cub Scouts. Becca gets to visit Lindbergh for the first time as they’re having a fun fair tomorrow.

Sunday should be a little calmer before we wrap up the weekend the same as always: dinner at the Bishops and relaxing in the hot tub.

This entry was posted by Eric on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 8:43 pm and is filed under Family, Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

It’s been 2 weeks since I last ran, and I wanted to get out again, especially since the weather was pretty nice this weekend. Pretty nice in March in Buffalo is not snowing. Yesterday was about 33 but today topped out at 50, so I got out & did my usual 3.5 mile run. It was a little windy in spots, but overall an OK run. My pace was quicker than last time, 9:05 vs. 10:06 but it was a much shorter run. I wish I had someone to run with, as my pace the first mile was fast at times.

Other than that, Friday night we went to a party at a friends house & had a really good time. We played on the Wii a bit (now Laura wants one) and simply enjoyed good company. Many of the people I regularly workout with were there - it was strange seeing them all dressed up (ie: wearing pants).

I spent much of yesterday working on a project for Steve, then went to mass after dinner. This morning, after realizing April is just around the corner, I spent some time planning the garden for this year: picking out vegetables, figuring out planting dates, and sketching where things should go. This should cost us very little, as the only thing we’re buying is the seeds and some potting soil. Other than that, we’re using what we have around the house.

That’s it for now - going to the Bishops for dinner. I guess that should go on Twitter, eh? I still don’t know how to use Twitter the right way, but if you want to, follow me here.

This entry was posted by Eric on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 4:21 pm and is filed under Family, Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Our house has been a miserable place lately because we’re all sick. It started with Becca last Wednesday, when she had a fever. That lasted a couple days, so Saturday AM she went to the doctor. Turns out she has an ear infection. Typically this is OK, but Thursday Jason was complaining about his ear, and Friday mine was hurting me. So the other 2 went to the doctor, and they both had ear infections. You know what’s coming next… yep: we’re all screwed up. We’re all on antibiotics, and we’re all miserable.

I’m normally a miserable person, but make my ears hurt whenever I move, hear any noise or feel vibrations and I’m even worse. We really need some nice weather so we can just open up the windows and let some fresh air inside. This is a long winter! I want spring!!!

This entry was posted by Eric on Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 12:59 pm and is filed under Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.