Exercising

I'm very pleased with myself for getting up this morning and riding my bike up and down our hill for 23 minutes. I've worked out a little route that involves climbing 2 medium hills and 1 steep hill. Right now, I have to paper-boy all the way up the steep hill (i.e. weave back and forth across the road instead of riding straight up the hill). It's kind of embarrassing.

Ever since last Sunday, when I decided that Ed and I were going to be backpackers, I've been spurred on by a fear of dying on the mountain to all kinds of amazing feats of leaving my house to exercise. This is the third time this week.

In contrast, during the 6 months between last September, when we went on a monsterous 13-mile, 9-hour hike up and down a 5000 foot mountain in Yosemite Park, and last Sunday, I think my total exercising consisted of 1 bike ride, 1 hike, 3 or 4 walks and a game of tennis which had to be cut short because my neck hurt.

Springtime

Someone is playing 'What Child is This?' on the Carillon Bells outside. Hello, it's March.

I published something!

On Wikipedia.

I corrected a glaring error on the Statement of Cash Flows page. At first, I was hesistant, but Ed urged me to give it a try. After all, everyone's doing it, and it's so easy! So I clicked on 'edit this page' and made the change. I didn't have to log on or register and the change showed up right away. Now I want to do it again.

Sigh. Cartoon network vs. Boston. Round 1.

Who do you think would come out on top? That's a little too easy, isn't it? Take a read: Two Arrested In Marketing Ploy Behind Bomb Scare

So Cartoon Network *might* end up loosing $750,000 while gaining *insane* publicity for it's shows. And Boston looses what little post-big-dig pride it had left.

Notice that the ad campaign has been going on for a week in Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Austin, San Francisco and Philadelphia. Which cities panick and call in bomb squads to five of the devices, detonating two, and investigating for a day before they can figure out that these are in fact not bombs, but shiny pictures of a cartoon character? Sigh.

Where have you been?

I found a website that will make a map of the states you've visited. Here's mine (although I have to admit that I've only been to Missouri and Ohio during an airplane layover and in Missouri I didn't even have to get off the plane):



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Plastic Surgery

Yep, so I have now entered the world of 'plastic surgery'. Of course not in the way that is most common.
The top five surgical procedures cosmetic procedures in 2005 were:

1. Liposuction with 455,489 procedures performed
2. Breast Augmentation with 364,610 procedures up nine percent from 2004.
3. Blepharoplasty (cosmetic eyelid surgery) came in third with 231,467
4. Rhinoplasty (nose reshaping) is the forth most common procedure with 200,924 procedures performed
5. Abdominoplasty (tummy tuck) reported 169,314 procedures

Shockingly Scar Revision is not mentioned, it should be though. With a really good surgeon, it is a wonder what they can do for a really bad scar... I think that it is all those years of practice hiding scars from face lifts and breast augmentations...

However, just when I decided that Plastic Surgery is a really good thing, I heard a sad story of a breast augmentation gone wrong. Somehow it caused a collapsed lung. I had never heard of that before... Afterwards I felt a little guilty. My surgery went beautifully, and it looks as though I will have a beautiful result (very thin knee scar -- I'll post a picture when I have a good after one.

Still, any surgery is risky, I guess it is just a matter of weighing the pros and cons, the risks, finding the best surgeon possible, and probably good follow up care...

anyhow, I was wondering, what is your view of plastic surgery, Vain, or understandable? Would you ever consider it? And if so, just something small, or would you consider something larger, like for instance if you started to develop jowls...?

T Rex

Last night I dreamed that I was being chased around the neighborhood that I grew up in by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. I woke up when he caught me and started to eat me.

dr. appts

Last week, I wanted to go to the doctor for two things. Let's call them X and Y. I naively thought that I would be able to accomplish X and Y in one appointment and I called up my medical facility:

Me: I would like to make an appointment for X and Y.

Person: Okay, I can schedule you on Friday for X. Now, let's see when we can have you in to do Y.

Me: Can't the same person do X and Y?

Person: Yes. Do you want me to find someone that can do both?

Me: Yes, please.

Person: Okay, we can have you in for Y on Thursday. Now about X.

Me: Can't the doctor do X at the same time?

Person: Let me check....yes, she can. Would you like me to schedule you for both at the same time?

Me: YES.

Person: Okay, you're scheduled for X and Y on Friday. Please arrive 15 minutes early.

When I actually went to the doctor, she did neither X nor Y, but instead took my history, listened to my breathing, sent me to the lab for blood work and referred me to another doctor for X and Y. I now have an appointment for X and Y next Monday.

Ed had blood work done last week too and when we got our lab results back, we found out that we both have the same cholesterol level and that it's one point into the 'borderline' range. We've never had high (or borderline) cholesterol before, so I guess I'm going to have to chalk it up to the bacon grease, butter and whole cream that have become staples in our diet since Ed has learned to cook really good food.

Why it's hard to buy gifts for your loved ones

It turns out that when you know someone really well, you tend to think they are more like you than they really are and you ignore information about their preferences. More here.

Halloween

I know I'm a little late for Halloween, but I'm going to blog about it anyway.

Some of our friends invited us over to carve pumpkins and the one we chose was a little too unfresh. We should have been worried when we cleaned him out and found pumpkin seeds with 2" sprouts. But we didn't think he would go this fast:



That's poor Mr. Pumpkin 2 days after we brought him home. We had him inside the house and burned a candle in him one night...I guess the heat really sped up the decomposition process.

In less disgusting news, Ed and I tied with some Uoompa Loompas for 'Cutest Couple' at our church Halloween Party. We went as Salt and Pepper. I was wearing all white with a big 'S' on my chest and Ed was wearing all black with a big 'P'. Most people got it right away, except for some of the PhD-types who were overthinking it too much..("S&P 500? Am I missing something here?", "SP...PS...Are you standing in the right order?")

Internet Addiction

This morning on NPR (possibly last night) I heard a brief story on internet addiction. It was about people who compulsively spend time on the internet. They were including not just your standard Porn, gambling and compulsive shopping in the definition, but also mentioned email checking, chat rooms, and even blogs. They cited how spending too much time online is being considered for official decease classification. And talked about how it can stem from OCD or depression, etc.

The main thing that I got out of the program was to realize that I am definitely not addicted to the internet... Yes, I use it a lot, esp at work, but not compulsively. It also reminded me how long it has been since I posted to a blog (sorry).

Anyhow, while I may not be addicted to the internet, I did realize that I may be becoming dependent on NPR... :)

Food

Ed has become an excellent cook over the past few months. We like to watch America’s Test Kitchen, where they take a common recipe and then make it over and over until they figure out how to make it taste the best with the fewest steps and cheapest ingredients. They usually find that to make really good food, it usually takes some time and some decent ingredients. Most of their recipes we’ve tried (and when I say we, I mean Ed) have turned out really well. We especially like their Chicken and Dumplings, Mexican Rice & Pasta with tomato, bacon and onion (you can get all of these recipes on their website).

The best thing about having an Ed-cook is being able to sit on the couch, mention that I’m craving a Grilled Cheese Sandwich, and Poof! it appears on the table in front of me, just like in Star Trek. Unfortunately, he doesn’t respond as readily to “clean the toilet” or “do the laundry.” Not yet, anyway.

Telephones

Ed and I always try to make the other one answer the phone because the only people who call on our home phone are telemarketers and people from church, who generally want one of the following:

1. To ask us to give an old lady a ride to church
2. To ask us to speak or give a lesson in church or a church-related meeting
3. To ask us to perform an act of Christian service that will be good for our souls, but which is generally inconvenient and hard somehow.

Today we were sitting at our desks when the phone rang. The phone sits between us, so we both pretended not to hear the first three rings. Then Ed grabbed the receiver, dropped it in my lap, said "You answer it!" and ran out of the room.

“Hello?”

“…….Hello?”

“Hello. Can I help you?”

“Hello? This is Mark Johnson. Is Victoria Stevens there?”

“No, I think you have the wrong number.”

“Aren't you Victoria?”

“No. You have the wrong number.”

“Okay…….Victoria.”

He sounded really creepy - like some pyscho in a horror movie. I hung up on him and then sat there waiting to see if the phone would ring again, but it didn't - he was probably just some guy stalking his ex-girlfriend who dialed the wrong number.

Too Hot

Berkeley doesn't have air conditioning. I'm told that in the past it wasn't a problem, but it has been getting warmer in recent years. During the summer, my office got up to 90 degrees on some days (my window faces west). Yesterday afternoon, my office was 82 degrees and the classroom I had to teach in for 2 hours was even hotter. Let's just say that it's hard to keep up your energy level under such circumstances. It's only supposed to get up to 76 today, but my office is already 75, and it's only 11am. I'll keep you posted as the temperature rises:

11:06am: 75.0 degrees

12:01pm: 76.1 degrees

1:04pm: 77.2 degrees

3:21pm: 77.7 degrees

5:19pm: 80.4 degrees

Yosemite Trip Part 3: The Squirrel

After Ed and I made it to the top of Half Dome, we lounged around for an hour and took a little nap. Ed heard some scratching next to him - he looked over and saw a squirrel dragging away the bag of trail mix that was in his fanny pack:



We shoo'd him away, but he kept coming back. We caught this part of his act on video:

Squirrel Thief

A few minutes after this, we heard a guy in another group yell to his friend "Hey! That squirrel just stole your banana!"

Yosemite Trip Part 2: The Hike

Last week Ed and I went to Yosemite to hike up Half Dome. It was a perfect day - clear but not too hot. We got on the trail at 8:07am and got back to our car around 6:30pm. We walked a total of 15 miles and climbed up 5000 vertical feet. It was hard, but not quite as bad as I was anticipating (I was expecting it to be pretty brutal). The first few miles were pretty steep and there were spectacular views along the trail. We took the first picture of Nevada Falls below from the John Muir trail on the way down and in the second one you can see the falls through the trees from the Mist Trail, which we took on the way up.





After four hours of hiking, we got to the dome part of Half Dome. The final part of the ascent looks like this:



You have to hold onto the cables to climb up. You can see the little line of people going up in the picture (it wasn't as scary as it looks in this picture, but it was really hard). (I didn't take the picture above. It came from Kenton Lee's Hiking Page.)

From the top, you could stand in one place and see a 270 degree view of Yosemite Valley and the surrounding area. The valley floor is 5,000 feet down.



This 30-second video pans 180 degrees across the view from the top: Half Dome View (I just learned how to upload videos to YouTube.)

After lounging around on top for an hour, we headed back down. Negotiating the cables on the way down turned out to be pretty easy - you could just hold onto them to steady yourself and sort of run down sideways from post to post (we were wearing heavy gloves). There were a few people trying to hold onto the cables and walk down backwards - very slowly - because they were afraid to face forward and look down. It was pretty steep, but I didn't really get the feeling that I was in danger of falling .

The hike down was much more pleasant than the hike up and we made it back to the car before dark and without any major mishaps. If you haven't been to Yosemite and you ever get the chance, you should definitely go. There is lots to do besides hiking and the views really are spectacular.

A Day at the Races

A horse racing track - Golden Gate Fields - sits a mile from our house. We walked over to check it out and watch some races today. Ed couldn't resist the urge to bet a few dollars, so we studied the odds as they developed before each race and bet the favorite to place or show (to be in the top two or three finishers in the race). We made money on every race - usually small amounts, since we were engaging in a fairly low-risk/low-return betting strategy - and came out $17.75 ahead after five races. After subtracting the $4/person entrace fee and the $8.25 we spent on 2 hot dogs and an extra-expensive Root Beer, we came out $1.50 ahead.

There weren't very many people there, so we were able to go right up to the rails and look down at the horses while they were doing their pre-race warm-up. You can also see the jockeys waiting to hop on:



Here are the horses just after coming out of the gate. We bet on #4 (with the yellow number in the center of the pack) and he won the race:



Some of the races were on the dirt track in the foreground of the picture and some were on the turf, like the race above. In the background, you can see Albany hill with the thick trees on the left (we live just on the other side of the hill) and the Berkeley hills further in the background. The odds and payoffs are on the scoreboard thing behind the horses.

During the second race that we saw, one of the horses crashed into the railing and went down. He was laying on his side and wasn't moving. There were lots of people around the horse and poor Ed was convinced that they were busy putting it out of its misery as we watched. But after a few minutes, it jumped up and trotted off the track like it was fine. The jockey had a mild concusion, but he was fine too.

Here are the first and second place horses at the finish line in the last race we saw:



We bet #5 to place and #2 to show - but we only won $.75 on our $10 bet because there were only 5 horses in the race and these two were the heavy favorites. The jockey in the orange jersey is Russell Baze. As of Sept. 4, he had won more than 9,430 races and also happens to be a Mormon who comes to our ward sometimes. Only one other jockey has won more races, with 9,530 career wins, and Russell will probably surpass him soon (we saw him get one more win today).

Yosemite Trip Part I: Dispersed Camping

We've been planning to go up to Yosemite and hike half-dome for the last month or so. It takes 4 hours to drive there and 10-12 hours to do the hike, so we were trying to figure out logistics - we're too old and lazy to drive for 8 hours and hike for 12 hours without sleep, so I put Ed in charge of finding us lodging.

When I asked him what the plan was the day before our trip, he announced that we would be doing 'dispersed camping'. In the Stanislaus Forest, you are allowed to camp anywhere - if you pull over to the side of the road, walk into the forest, and pitch your tent somewhere, this is called dispersed camping.

I reminded him that we don't have a tent. Also, that I don't want to do my business on a bush in the middle of the night. So he found a couple of campgrounds just outside of Yosemite that looked like they would work. When we got there, however, they were all closed for the season (contrary to what the Forest website indicated.) It was late and we were really tired and Ed was refusing to go back to the nearest little town and pay $100 for a crummy hotel (at that point, I would have been happy to pay $100 for a roof and a toilet) - so we drove down a little dirt road, parked our car, and headed into the forest to find a spot.

We found a little clearing, blew up our air mattress, and slept under the stars. There was a full moon, so we had good visibility - which helped to allay my fear that a bear or murderer was lurking nearby. Just to be safe, I slept with mace under my pillow.

It ended up being really great. It was a warm night, the moon was shining, and the air smelled clean and foresty. Here I am, snug as a bug in the woods:

DMV

The registration renewal notice for one of our cars never arrived, even though the registration expires soon. I made Ed call the DMV to sort it out:

DMV guy: "It looks like we didn't send you a renewal notice. You'll need to send in a check by Sept. 8 or you'll have to pay a late fee."

Ed: "Would we have to pay a late fee, even if you never sent us a renewal notice?"

DMV guy: "Yes."

Ed: "So why didn't you send us a notice?"

DMV guy: "Hold on, let me check."

Waiting, waiting....

DMV guy: "It looks like the problem is that we have an exta space between the name of your street and the word 'street' in your address in our computer file."

Ed: "So?"

DMV guy: "So our computer didn't generate a notice."

Ed: "So can you fix it?"

DMV guy: "No. You'll have to fill out form DMV14 for a change of address."

Ed: "So you're telling me I have to send in this form just to get the space removed?"

DMV guy: "I'm afraid so."

Hiking

This month's hobby-of-the-month is hiking. I got really excited about it after going to REI to get a few things for our 'Camping at the Grand Canyon Family Reunion' with Ed's family last month. Everything at REI is cool. I bought new hiking shoes, socks, a hiking hat and a camelbak.

At the Grand Canyon, we hiked down a mile and a half (it's 9 miles to the bottom) and then climbed back out and my legs were toast. We've been hiking regularly since then and I feel like I'm getting stronger. We've been talking about climbing Half Dome in Yosemite in September. Today, however, I realized how weak I still am. We did a 10-mile hike that included climbing Mt. Diablo (3000+ vertical feet of climbing). I don't think I've ever even walked for 10 miles in a row.

It took us five and a half hours and being the lazy morons that we are, we didn't get onto the trail until 11am, so we did the whole thing in the worst heat of the day (90 degrees) - we went through four liters of water and both got sunburned (I forgot to put sunscreen on the backs of my arms). The descents were really steep and gravelly and it was hard not to slip and slide - I fell once and came down hard on my hand.

By the time we got back, our feet were killing us. Half Dome (which is a 16-mile round trip with 5000 feet of climbing that usually takes 10-12 hours) is looking a lot more scary.