Friday, December 28, 2012

Jeopardy Tryouts!!!

It is that time of the year again!  I got an email yesterday telling me that they were opening up auditions again.  I have yet to hear any type of result from doing the online auditions, but it is still fun to try to be a part of the show. 
If you want to try out here is the link.  All you have to do is answer 50 assorted humbling questions to test your knowledge.  My test time is 8:00 pm on Jan. 9th.  I know I it makes me a nerd, but I really like the show and would LOVE to be on the show some day!

Monday, December 24, 2012

2. Host a Gingerbread party

Melissa already wrote about our gingerbread party here



I just need to share this picture.  Charlie loved his gingerbread house so much he leaned down and just took a bite out of the top of his house.  He didn't pick it up or anything, he just leaned down, opened his mouth and took a bite.  It was my favorite part of the day!

44 goals down!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

53. Read Plato’s Republic

After about 8 months of working to get through this book I have finally finished it.
The only reason it was on my list is because the first time I read it I had no clue what I was reading.  To compound it even more I was taking a philosophy class at NIU and had to feel even more foolish having to try to discuss this book and to write papers about it. I had such a poor understanding of the content that I depended on Melissa to read portions of the book to me and discuss it as we went along.  It was horrible and embarrassing all at the same time. This time I took my time working through it and have a little better understanding of what is happening in the book.
That is all.
43 goals down!

Monday, December 3, 2012

25. Swim 1 mile

I don't know if I was encouraged or puzzled, but swimming a mile this morning wasn't as tough as I thought it would be.  My morning started with a 5:00 wake up from my alarm clock.  I had everything laid out and ready to go so I was able to be moving in the van by 5:15.  I have learned from past experience that if I don't have it all set up and ready to go, then there is a good chance I will not go.  But go I did.



After changing I got into the pool at 5:31 and began to swim. The pool is 25 yards long which means that I had to swim 1760 ÷ 25 = 70.4 lengths of the pool.  After experiencing the Icebreaker Marathon I knew that being accountable to count to 70 wasn't going to happen.  Instead I broke it down to 4 separate 400 yard portions.  Each time I would swim two lengths (down and back) I would count it as one and would count 8 of those which would equal 400 yards.  I did that four times and then was left with 160 yards to cover at the end.  For that I just did four more trips down and back getting me a total of 1800 yards.  I'm not going to lie.  I was basically doing side strokes for the whole time.  Any other stroke would have tired me out way too much, but I got it done.

When I was done I just hung onto the edge of the pool.  I didn't stop at all during the mile swim and this was my first break.  It was then that I began to realize just how tired my legs were.  During the swim I just focused on having big kicks to get me through the water and wasn't thinking about how they actually felt. 

The recovery wasn't really that bad.  I got out and sat on the bleachers for a few minutes then went and changed and headed home.  Not a bad morning, until....

This happened on my way to school:






I should have known that was going to happen after seeing what locker I had used at the pool.



I was 2 miles into my ride to school when I heard a hissing noise from my front tire.  Upon further inspection I discovered that there was a piece of glass that punctured the tire.  That meant that I had to walk with my bike for the remaining two miles to school.  Luckily for me I left pretty early so I wasn't late, I was just flustered.  Also luckily for me, I have the best wife in the world who stopped by my school and picked up my tire and took it to get a new tube so I could ride home!

I finished with my favorite drink in the whole entire world.  This stuff is amazing!


Tonight at dinner I told Melissa that this may become my new Monday morning routine.  Well minus the flat tire.  I had a good time and really felt confident that I could do it again.  

42 goals down!