It's Flying right at us!!!

I don't know why the B2 Stealth bomber makes me giddy. Maybe because it's freekin maximus awesommus! That was really done just to make it harder than normal to read, in your mind and ....

no seriously driving home today I see it swooping in over the mountain range from the east. The afternoon sun lights it up perfectly. At one point it looks as if it will fly right over the strip and then it swoops back to land at Nellis. Man! Had I stayed in the commissary 10 more minutes, I could've seen it up close because the landing strip is right next to the comsy. I've never seen it land up close. Shakes fist at the aquascum 2000 for no good reason!

Such a cool profile shot of it STEALTH

Like a Steel Trap!

Tonight I had an old Batman episode on in the background while I played some insane puppet game with my daughter. At one point, the Riddler has Robin tied to a rope with his hands bound behind his back on a building's ledge with two henchman about to film it. Suddenly Batman appears on the roof top and yells, "Robin!" The Riddler cuts to the chase a pushes Robin off the side. After 3 seconds of Batman getting his Bat-r-rang ready he tosses it down and says "Robin! Bite it with your teeth!" The Riddler is foiled as Batman slowly pulls Robin up while he dangles from the bat-r-rang like a caught fish. Robin is an acrobat after all right. That's a totally sanctioned manuever right?

Holy Polygrip Batman! On the roof, Robin says "I sure am glad I take such good care of my teeth!" And Batman says, "Yes Robin. If only all of Amer....." then he's cut off by the Riddler drawing riddles in the sky.

I'm glad I never really liked that show. Incidentally, the dentist called me today to ask why I wasn't coming to my appt to see how my scaling and planing turned out. I finally told them, look you told me the laser treatment was 400 in the waiting room, then when I get in the room, the hygienist says oh I can get them to do it for 200. I said, " I don't need car salesmen tactics! "( sorry beezer! lol) Sometimes you have to shoot the messenger. I used a rubber bullet though, jeez. I'm glad I didn't take the laser treatment, especially after I found an article on the ADA website that states there's no evidence that laser tx reduces periodontal bacteria. Way to rip people off Shadow Mountain Dental clinic.

56,000 stinky feet

28,000 people ran in the Las Vegas Rock N Roll marathon today. I want to say the cost of entry into the race was $145 bucks. That's some serious dough no?!! It's also a lot of money in running shoes that only gets bigger. Wowzers! I hope a fair amount of that money is going to charity. Reading some of the reviews, some people were really disappointed in the race saying it was boring after the strip, meals cost too much, and organization was poor. Honestly, I think the strip is lame. I couldn't understand why you'd want to run down there unless it was at night. On the website, I saw a video of Scott Jurek out at Red Rock Canyon doing a quick press bit. Would've been really cool to have seen him out there at RRC. I'd just want to yell his name and give him a fist pump or something!

Liz brought a nifty little blood sugar tester home the other day. I had gone back to sleep after getting Asa off to school, so all I had to eat in the last 12 hours was some chai tea with a teaspoon of honey. My level was 78! Yay!!

In May of this year I started keeping track of what shoe I would run in. I totaled up everything last night and found out some interesting items. I would not have guessed that I ran the most miles in my Nike Frees. Out of a possible 6 pairs of shoes, the Frees led by over 100 miles. They are retired now since I have ruined them by getting crazy and shaving the heels off them, but they gave me 230 miles worth.

The other interesting item is that of all my running miles only 20% was done in my vibram five fingers. In fact, the only real minimalist shoes I have are the vibrams and Brooks Mach 11s. Together they only account for 40% of my mileage! I am not such the minimalist runner it seems. With that said the Mach's are a favorite shoe for me right now. With only 130 miles on them, I should be good until next spring when the new crop of minimalist running shoes come out.

Badwater

In the November issue of Trail Runner, there is an interesting story written by runner Ricky Gates. In it, he and fellow British mountain runner Martin Cox take an orange VW bus named Orange and travel the west side of the US doing races and sightseeing along the way. They've been racing competitively for a while and they are both fascinated with 'ultrarunning' from a perspective of simply "why?" Why run for 30+ hours?

Martin had read Born To Run and this perhaps prompted them to make a stop to the Badwater Basin to simply run in it, to feel the essence of this place, to feel the heat, and throw out their question to the universe.

Here's a snippet from Gates's story

"I began to gather that the Badwater Basin is a Mecca, of sorts, for the seekers of suffering. Because of the heat, altitude gain, or sheer distance (135 miles) the race represents the ultimate ultra not only to Martin, but many ultrarunners as well.

"That's the point isn't it" To suffer" he asked. "At a certain point," Martin explained, "running ceases to be about running anymore and becomes, quite simply, a means to an end."

"And what end might that be?" I asked.

"For some, it's endorphins. For others, it's simply the act of going fast. For ultrarunners, I'm convinced, it's suffering. Suffering can teach you more about yourself than a psychiatrist."

As I progress in my running and think about why I do what I do and consider the motivations for training versus enjoying myself, this current of thought in the story resonates with me. There are no epiphanies yet however.

Interestingly, Badwater is about 3 hours away from me. Perhaps I should try to visit this place now while I'm so close. I could even run for a little bit now that's it's winter. Maybe I can work it into our CA road trip next year. "Just a little bit out of the way babee!"

Bunch of Smokers

I recently rented a couple of movies. An Education and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Who knew that there were rumors of Carey Mulligan from An Education playing the role of Lisbeth Sander in the American version of Dragon Tattoo. If you've seen both, you have to admit that would be fairly interesting to see Mulligan slip into the role of Lisbeth Sander. If Ellen Page were taller I bet she could do it, or maybe Jenna Malone. But then again Malone is Rocket in Sucker Punch which is maybe too close.

An Education starts off being a great coming of age adventure. Like I told my friend, I'm a sucker for smart, cute, and a British accent. But it ends in a way that just made me ask, "that's it?" Someone should have gotten shot at least. I kid, but the movie reminded me of Up In The Air which was fine but was just ok.

Dragon Tattoo started off a little slow for me, but picked up soon enough. Who did it? Who killed this woman? Who is the killer? It keeps you nice and hooked all the way until that almost familiar point in Silence of The Lambs when you suddenly realize who the killer is and what's about to happen. The movie definitely gets intense with it's sexually violent scenes. The killer's final monologue describing what he enjoys most about killing women is very chilling and disturbing. The item that sets this movie apart from others of its kind , is the relationship between Lisbeth and Mikael. That two people can have sincere intimacy without a lot of backstory, being content for what it is.... you don't see this in American movies much.

I just heard the 20th Century Fox march come from the TV in the living room. And then I heard the opening sound of the movie. I immediately knew what movie it was. Predator! hahahaha in one note!

But the one thing these two movies had in common? everyone smokes in them. So much frakkin smoking going on. Not good movies to watch if you're trying to quit. I'm just sayin!

Tangled

I saw Tangled. My friend in Colorado told me he took his daughter to see it, so I figured mine was finally ready to go. The first time she went into a theater, she did not like it all, even candy couldn't persuade her. She really enjoyed herself this time, though those rec-folding chairs are still a bit big and want to swallow her up.

I was pleasantly surprised. I honestly thought it would be kinda lame from the previews. I really liked the musical score and that always carries a lot of weight for me. You can tell Pixar had something to do with this one versus say Bolt. (I like Bolt btw) The scenes with the floating lanterns were awesome as were the action scenes. Best character though for me was Maximus the horse. He acts more like a dog and that's probably why he appealed to me so much.

Macho

Occasionally I get comments on my youtube channel saying something to the effect of "you sound gay". One person was specific enough to peg me as a certain person from the village people. I will have to study this video so as to maybe not mislead people...perhaps.