Four Hours? Yeah Right and Got Headphones?

Four Hours to run a marathon? Yeah right. Four hours, you can kiss my grits! I just got back from (surprisingly scenic) Wilmington, Delaware where I kicked the ass of the Christiana Healthcare Delaware Marathon (the only marathon held in the state of Delaware) in a mind numbing three hours and fifty-two minutes. Sure it was raining, windy and when I finished I had blood on my shirt in the vicinity of my right nipple but I pushed through all that and just kept running. And do you know what the best part is? Go ahead…ask. Ok, I’ll tell you. The best part is that I was starving right afterward and gorged on ice cream sandwiches, pizza, and “no juice” added fruit punch. Actually the best part was the Mooks and the Wife cheering me on along the way. There’s nothing like a dog’s kiss to keep you going from mile to mile. Thanks!

The second part of today’s post. Spend $20 and get a decent pair of headphones! You…by the doors to the train today….I don’t want to hear your music! You can spend hundreds of dollars on an iPod and hundreds of more dollars on crappy music downloads but you can spend twenty bucks and get some ear buds that don’t require me to hear every word and every note of the latest Rihiana track being pumped into your eardrums? Look I recently needed a pair for my MP3 and went over to Best Buy. I spent twenty bucks and got a pair of Sonys. I can turn the volume up to 20 and not hear a thing when their not in my ears. Hummm? Look I don’t bother you with my crap and you don’t bother me with yours. Deal?

The Inaugural...Through My Eyes

Words actually escape me when I look back at the events over the past few days and try to sum up what it was like to be at the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States. Besides “moving” and “unbelievable” which a) are not my choices and b) don’t really do the scene justice I would add, “breathtaking”.

Let me back up a bit. Mrs. Bloggerman, who some of you know and even more of you love, worked her butt off for longer then either of us care to remember to get to this day and as a reward for all of her BST (blood, sweat, tears) she had entry into a number of the celebrations and events in honor of the inaugural. I as her husband was allowed to come along for the ride and enjoy the moment along side of her (now I know how Bill Clinton feels).

I won’t go into all the details but I do want to share some specific moments with you (Another post tomorrow will feature a link to all the pictures). The first is the inaugural swearing in ceremony from the US Capitol Building. We were very lucky to receive tickets to a “seated” area of the ceremony instead of the general admission standing areas that stretched from the Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial (a distance of over 2 miles long by more then a ¼ mile wide). In order to get through all the extra tight security we had to get up very early.

5am: I was up and out from our hotel room complete with bleary eyes and a hankering for coffee. Instead, I went out to see if I could pick up a commemorative copy of the days’ Washington Post. I backed off when the guy on the corner wanted $2 for it. My feeling is if I can’t pay 50 cents, it’s not worth it. That is until I decide I really want one and have to pay $8 on line. Oh well.

530am: We headed out for the 6 block walk through arctic DC to the gathering point for the buses that would take us down to the ceremony. A quick note here, most people had to walk through all the security, we were very lucky here again!

6am: We got to the staging area and made a v-line for Starbucks which was open and kicking complete with a line of customers at least 25-30 people deep. Armed with coffee and a bathroom break we headed outside to wait in line to get on the buses.

730am: We finally made it though security and on to the buses. We were fortunate to have the Secret Service set up a screening zone at the hotel so we didn’t have to go through with everybody else on the Hill.

830am: Even with a police escort it took nearly an hour to make a 5 minute trip because of all the pedestrians and visitors. It was still quite a site to see so many people out (many more then you’d see on a regular work day)

920am: We’ve now made it past all the gates and into our seats. I can’t believe how close we are. I’d estimate we were about 30-50 rows back from the platform above the Capitol where the ceremony was being held. We could make out the presidential seal on the podium (through the 2 ft of bullet-proof glass. We also could see close up on one of the jumbo-tron screens. The production team had video showing people already lined up back at the Lincoln Memorial.

10am: It is really cold and we’ve been out for almost 5 hours now. However the musical introductions have begun and a choir from San Francisco has started. They are pretty good.

1045am: It’s now only 15 minutes away from the start of the program and we’re getting really excited. Which is good because it actually seems to be getting colder as we go on. Congress has just been sat in the risers behind the stage

11am: The rest of the introductions begin and the crowd (now completely filled in the entire length of the Mall make the loudest sound I’ve ever heard when Barack Obama is introduced.

12pm: President Obama takes the oath of office and gives his inaugural address (follow this link for the video of the event from the White House website). The picture is the one at the head of this post.

1pm: With the events on the Hill over, we head back to our buses (with a quick stop in the port-a-john). The good news: we had over 100 port-a-johns to choose from as this was one of the best part of the event logistics. The bad news: the buses we came over on seemed to have lost a chunk of seats or picked up people that weren’t on them on the way over because we got 2 of the last seats on the last bus. While we were waiting to get on we got passed by all sorts of vehicles, from motorcycles and other buses, to horseback and pedestrians. But it was all worth the wait because the buses proceeded back, we followed the President’s parade route (the parade started about an hour or so later) down Pennsylvania Ave and dropped us of square in front of the White House. Everybody along the parade route was waving to us and excited....I don’t think they really knew who we were but ok.

130pm: We headed back to an hotel a few blocks over to view the parade from one of their suites and get ready for the evenings events.

I’m only going to touch briefly on our experience that night at the “Biden Home States Inaugural Ball” which was both of our first inaugural ball experiences. Besides being able to say we were in the same room with the Vice President (for 6 minutes) and the President (for 3 minutes) there is not much worth writing home about. Except of course for the natural beauty of Mrs. Bloggerman and her stunningly handsome husband.

I will close with this thought (which I’m appropriating from Don Imus’ show this morning). There were over one million people on the Mall for the swearing in but not one arrest. The feeling over the course of the Inaugural events was one of happiness, celebration, and joy. Nobody (in any of the events or areas I was in) was short or yelling at somebody else. If you were in line at an ATM and one of the two machines wasn’t working, we just waited and chatted with the people around you. I’m under no misconception that this mood will last in this town or that we won’t be back to business as usual in DC come tomorrow, but for a few days we had “hope” and a vision of the future of things to come. And that by itself was worth the frostbite.

Bloggerman out!

Muni Meters, The Airing of the Shoes, and Gang Green

The words of the weekend were fun, fun, and traffic. First a hardy congrats to Josh and Rebecca on their weekend nuptials and to Uncle Leo for turning 98 years young today. Celebrating those two events were key tenets to the Bloggerman family’s weekend of fun in the Big Apple. Now settle in for the (fairly lengthy recap)

Friday: The Drive Up
We left in the mid afternoon and really cruised through most of the drive until coming to the George Washington Bridge. I find it hard sometimes to detect how much traffic a roadway has when there is a toll plaza involved. Sometimes there’s traffic just into the tolls before it breaks away afterwards. This was not one of those cases as the traffic on the bridge and the Cross Bronx Expressway was heavy the whole way...still we made it to the beautiful Andrew Hotel with time to spare before the rehearsal dinner. The dinner was at the very nice Pearl East restaurant where the drinks not only freely flowed but the food was very artfully prepared including the pictures here of my sake glass and the edible goldfish (sea bass dumpling-steamed). A good time was had by all and we headed back to the hotel to get some rest for what promised to be a great (if not long) day coming up.


Saturday: Run, Drive, Eat, Drive, Eat, Drive, Sleep
Saturday found your hero (that’s me) getting up for his Saturday Run. Actually I got up about 30 minutes before my alarm was set to go off as the clock in the room was not yet reset to show the end of Daylight Savings Time. So instead of getting up when my phone was set to go off at 630am, I awoke at 6am, looked at the room clock next to me and thought I overslept by 30 minutes. Lovely. The weather outside was the kind of stuff that made you wish you had a personal windshield wiper built into your hat (misty) but I set off for a tour of Great Neck and the surrounding neighborhoods on foot. When I got back to the room, Mrs. Bloggerman and I set out to get her nails done (I found my way on another walk...can’t stand the smell of nail polish!) and then we headed out to have a look around a NY landmark, Fortunoff’s to look around. Upon seeing the copious amounts of X-mass decorations featuring the NY Mets and the NY Jets...I almost want to convert...but then again...I’d miss saying things like “Hag Samach....now go away!" We departed for the drive into NYC to meet up with the “Ageless Wonder” Uncle Leo and my Cousin Anne. We had lunch to celebrate Leo’s 98th birthday. I can’t believe how good he looks and gets around. I think we’d all consider ourselves lucky to even see that age much less be in the kind of great physical shape he’s in. The dining spot was the Fairway Cafe, and I also want to thank Mitchell London (the owner of the joint) for coming over and saying hello. He knows Leo and Anne well as Leo is a regular in the Upper West Side eatery. Mitchell was kind enough to warm us up with a pot of his REALLY good, fresh hot chocolate that was so rich; we didn’t even need the food!

In the middle of this wonderful meal, I had to go out and feed the Muni-Meter. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure of using one of these contraptions, I’ll summarize. Essentially, there is one “meter” that covers a number of street parking spaces. You park, feed your money into this meter and get a printed receipt with time you must move your car/feed more money. You put this receipt on your dashboard and walk away. A few things here: 1) most regular parking meters in NYC run 10 min for 25 cents, these muni-meters run 50 cents for the same time. What’s the deal!?!? Why can’t you get the same rate as traditional meters? 2) it was pouring out. When I put the first receipt (50 minutes) on my dash, I wasn’t worried about getting ticketed for going over time because you couldn’t even read it thru the rain-slicked glass. Was I ever surprised when I came out to find that one of NYC’s parking officers (meter maids) had actually wiped my windshield off to see the time left on the receipt, WOW...that’s dedication.

Mrs. Bloggerman and I said goodbye to Leo and Anne and headed back towards the Island with a quick stop in Queens to Marshalls to scope out some great deals on Mets and Jets merchandise. She found some running clothes (love the bright green skort) and I picked up a nice heavy Mets sweatshirt and some new lounge pants. Back to the hotel to get showered and dressed for the mainstay event of the weekend, the wedding.

Held at a local synagogue, it was beautiful and very classy. The shul itself was very interesting and looked very gothic inside with a large wooden A-frame shape inside with high vaulted ceilings and exposed beams. By contrast the social hall downstairs was very modern and accommodating. Both proved to be appropriate backdrops for their different functions and helped make the ceremony feel solemn and the reception...well like a party! The bride and groom were beautiful, the band was great (except for butchering “Summer of ‘69” by Bryan Adams) and the food was devoured....extra credit points for supplying chicken wings at the bar while we were waiting on drinks and Doc Brown’s soda with the corned beef during the cocktail hour!

Sunday: Gang Green Puts the Screws to The Rams
Note: The Andrew Hotel was great except for the guests that complained about my shoes hanging out the window. First they were there to air out so I could wear them yesterday (same ones I had run in the day prior) and second they were securely tied and latched and were in no danger of going anywhere and thirdly, mind your own damn business!

Sorry Debbie. Stefanie has now been elevated to official “Mistress” status. Both with your pending nuptials and her delivering kick ass seats for yesterday’s Jets game your role with the organization is being reconsidered. Stef, Mrs. Bloggerman and I all headed down to the swap in Jersey to watch Gang Green play the Rams yesterday. Stef (and her friend Cortez...who also gets big ups...and needs them!!!) secured us seats 14 rows off the field in the end zone. As you can see Bloggerman had a great time even though it was freezing (with those famous Meadowlands swirling winds). Adding to the enjoyment was the Jets thrashing St. Louis 47-3. It was 40-0 at half time and about the only disappointing things we encountered was missing out on the free “Cheesecake Heads” given out by ESPN 1050am radio (I did grab a beverage coozie) and finding that the Carvel stand had already closed by the time we visited at the end of the 3rd Quarter. No helmet sundae for me! (There will be a few more things from this game in tomorrow’s entry). A little more tax-free clothing shopping in Jersey and we hit the road for home. By the way...gas in Newark, DE was $2.01 for regular. I filled up the Toaster for less then $25!

4 hours….we don’t need no stinking four hours!

In fact take those four hours and return 25 seconds of them back to their original owners. That’s how confident I feel about this transaction.

Yeah confident….sore but confident as I not only set a PR on a course I had no business PR’ing on but also managed to see something that I never thought I’d see in my running “career”. As I crossed the finish line at the 2008 Frederick Marathon, my watch read 3hr, 59 min, and 35 sec. So not only did I break my PR set last month in DC by about 5 min but I broke through the 4 hour marathon window (barely!).

The course was very tough, especially the back end. If you care to look, here’s the elevation chart and my version of the course from Gmap Pedometer. The front half of the race is fairly flat and scenic, rolling through small neighborhoods and historic homes before coming back to the Fairgrounds. The second half however went out to the more industrial section of town and then down a long stretch of highway where we hit the two “Monster” hills before returning back to a newer neighborhood up on the ridge.

The people were great but none greater then the mighty Boigs who came out to support me (even if they missed me at 15), feed me the night before, and even give me a lift home. Thanks for the support. And thanks to Mrs. Bloggerman for getting stuck in CA and not being able to attend. For those of you keeping score at home, she’s missed the last 2 marathons and I’ve set PR’s at each!

I think I’m taking the summer “off” and just running for fun until the fall comes around. We have Baltimore in October and will hear about entry in to NYC (November) in mid June. If I don’t get in there I may do Marine Corps (late October), San Antonio (November) or Las Vegas (early December) as my fourth this year….we’ll see.

The Bar is ALMOST Done

I have to preface this with "Almost" because we have three more steps to go. I will get to those in a moment. First off we are getting closer. This past week the bar was prepped, stained, and varnished. The drop cloth has been removed and the wine fridge was installed (pics on all this coming later tonight).

My loving wife, Mrs. Blogger, helped me complete the toughest job of the whole project, the top of the bar. Sunday morning we cleared off the dining room table (which was no small feat in and of itself) and loaded up the top and a few boxes of old baseball cards. We glued over 500 cards to to the top and then put two layers of "mod poge" on top to help seal them down. (see pics)

Now this brings me to what's left to do. I realized that the varnish on the top would take forever to build a thick coat (after putting on 4 already). We went over to the craft store and found "pour-on latex finish". This will produce a thick, clear surface that is roughly the equivalent of 50 coats of varnish.

The second item that needs to be done is to post molding around the top of the bar which will not only make the bar look better but also help create a "frame" for the latex finish and prevent it from running off and over the sides.

Thirdly small 6" supports need to go between the service top and the top to give it a bit more stability.

All of this will be accomplished by the end of next weekend and final pictures and plans will be posted at that time.

Until then....