What the buff????

All right, I started utilizing the web service, Linked In. At first I thought it was kind of spammy so I avoided it. You get invites from people that want to add you to their network. My first few were from people that left P&G and I figured they just wanted to stay connected to leverage as business opportunities in their new jobs. Well, I started getting them from more ligit folks, Fuji included, so I signed up. I realized a ton of friends actually use it so I started adding people as a means to stay in touch. I recommend it to anyone on here too. It really makes you start considering how far you are from Kevin Bacon... man, I should get Curt Gummer on here so we can prove the connection... He's Meryl Streep's nephew that I know that puts me 3 from Kevin, and therefore all of you only 4, and anyone you meet, 5... so everyone is 6 degrees from Kevin Bacon. I digress.



But what the buff, I was looking at Fuji's connections and saw the screenshot below.


Yup, that is my name in the middle... but, that is my wife's name and then my mom's name on his connections. Freaking A!!! Neither of them are on my connections!!! Jenn, I can sorta understand, they at least talk on occasion. But come on Mom!!! I'm your freaking son. At least send me an invite?

We had a plumb good time

Weekend, top 25% - I need to keep track to make sure there are actually some that fall in the bottom 50% to make sure the statistics work. I bet, we all think most weekends are good.

Friday, had our official marathon celebratory dinner at Andy's which is in my top ten list of favorite restaurants. They have a great casual/cool atmosphere and awesome food. Plus, despite the new smoking laws, you can still have a hookah. We ran near Andy's about 8 times during training and I kept saying we're going there after the marathon and I'm going to smoke. That we did. The Bertlin, Chrissy (Bada$$) and Jason, and Ryan (Bada$$) joined us. Random group but we had a great time together.

Saturday, I began the plumbing for the kitchen and bath. Honestly, the hardest part of all this is the design. It seems pretty easy to get the stuff to flow down, and it is, but venting the pipes is difficult, especially with codes governing how far certain pipes can go horizontal. I worked on the design on Thursday quite a bit while reading a pretty good handbook I grabbed off Amazon. Then Saturday morning I reviewed it, tweeked it for a couple hours and did a take-off to figure out all the pieces I would need at the plumbing supply store. I went to the supply house and filled up a box with fittings and grabbed about 100 feet (no exagerration) of various PVC pipe diameters. I'm only doing the sanitary lines right now, the supply lines (copper) are cake to work with so I need to get the plastic stuff in place first.

My old neighbor, Mark, who basically built his house, came over to help in the afternoon. We modified the design a bit and then started tearing into it. We first realized we needed to get the tub in place which went pretty well. My measure 9 times, cut once philosophy seemed to work and it fit snuggly into the new bathroom. It sure opened the space it had been sitting in (where the old bathroom was) since the notorious Jenn sitting in the tub in the back of Walt event of a couple months ago. Once in place, it definitely made the whole project seem like it is starting to take shape. Also made me realize just how small the bathroom will be, YIKES! No surprise, but when you have been walking amongst walls with no drywall or fixtures, it really makes things seem big. The same thing is going to happen with the kitchen once we start installing cabinets. Both are going to be extremely functional though for the space we are using. Plus, I'm glad the bath is small, less wall tile to install. :-)

Anyway, after the tub was in place we started into the new bathroom drain connections. We didn't seem to get much done but we really did. Basically joined 4 connections and then realized we needed to rework one connection, which I did on Sunday morning, and then realized the old way was the better way. Unfortunately, the problem with plastic, there isn't much turning back. So, I had to go rebuy the same fittings and do it over again. No big whoop. More pissed that they were the most expensive fittings in the whole system. Wasted about $50. I might save them for the modern sculptures I plan to create after this project.

The rest of the day Sunday I got a most of the downstairs bath done with the exception of a few connections that should be easy. Then it will be onward and upward, which means I am just getting closer to actually tapping into the existing lines. Yikes. At least copper is on the horizon which means I get to have fun with a blow torch.

Official Bada$$

A few months ago when we were in SLC I sent an email to dooce to try to arrange for a quick meet up because it would be Jenn's dream to meet her, or at least to meet chuck. As I wrote this stranger an email and mentioned that we were in SLC for a ski trip and that we would likely run by her house during one of our training runs I told her "Even though we seem like bada$$es because we ski and run marathons, we really aren't." Well, I guess now, I take that back. We just ran a marathon at a respectable pace for a first timer so at least in the near term I am classifying Jenn and I as official Bada$$es.

I'll admit, that holding hands across the finish takes some points away (see Fuji's comment on Jenn's blog) but it's pretty hard to say "no" to the request to do that as you pass mile 26 with 4 other people you toiled with through long gruelling training runs for the past 6 months. Especially when you shared such intimate stories with them about their colitis and their time in Nam.

The picture here is particularly funny though and I think sums up our experience. We had a ton of fun during the race. I mean a ton!!!! The crowd, the bands, the signs were inspiring and enjoyable. All that just made it a blast. But this picture cracks me up. The girl in the distance, Shannon, trained with us as well, although she was/is already a registered Bada$$ for completing a marathon before. But look at how intense she is compared to Jenn and I. Buff, no wonder she moved on ahead of us shortly after this picture and we didn't see her again. She finished about 7 minutes in front of us. She also might have just been annoyed by "Eye of the Tiger" radiating from my Ipod's external speakers.