Bikes BCBSNC et al Stuff

Greetings once again Earthlings. Today is 29 January and I feel like crap. Our special today is sinus infection with a post nasal drip side and pressure headache for dessert. I knew this was coming. Yesterday I had a bike ride all planned out. I had my outfit on, my water bottles topped off with Gatorade and my heart rate monitor was just warming up. As I made my way out of the neighborhood I waved to Karen and the kids as they were returning from a visit with Karen's sis-in-law's family. I think I made it 200 or so yards past the front of our development before I turned around and headed home as that's how long it took for the good Karma to drain from this ride. Right before I started to ride, dark clouds came in quickly. What was a high of around 56 degrees F started dropping. I wasn't feeling particularly good, but didn't feel bad enough to not ride. Common sense more than Karma told me to turn my ass around and go home. The thought of being 15 miles away from home on my bike in the rain at 40 degrees while getting a cold started to sound like the ill-advised plan it was. For the record, I've been working out quite consistently for the past 5 weeks. I've been been doing some runs of up to four miles, bike rides as far as 30 miles (in temps of less than 50) and a couple of half miles in the pool. I've lost about a dozen pounds and I feel a lot better.

Karen has started working out again also. She and I ride our bikes inside several nights a week and the mind always feels better after using the body. Karen has a tough job and I don't know how she keeps her sanity every day. The boys are both challenging albeit in different ways. David is now two and three quarter years old and is testing his limits by way of testing our limits. By and large David is a joy to be around, but he conducts rather obvious experiments to see just how much he can get away with. Karen has the patience of Job and it is a good thing she does. Camden is now coming up on five months old and is doing very well. As a refresher, Camden was born with only one kidney, but all subsequent tests have indicated that the other kidney has assumed its full responsibility and he's doing fine. I think it's more apparent to Karen than it is to me that having a second child is a greater task than simply two times the effort of the first. When we had David and he had times of being all consuming there was no other entity also demanding care. With Camden's arrival, Karen has had to learn how to spread her time as necessary by priority and I know that's very challenging at times. I have always loved my wife and the greatest surprise is that she contines to grow and develop with the boys in beautiful - although sometimes challenging - ways. I love you honey!!!

Work at BCBSNC is going well and I'm starting to get a grasp on my place in the Blue universe. The people continue to be outstanding teachers and the company really gives you the opportunity to take ownership of your success. Part of the benefits package at BCBSNC are various educational opportunities and I plan to exploit those opportunities in the near future, so stay tuned for more details.

All in all the family is doing well and we miss anyone that reads this page. As Camden becomes more portable we plan to travel a little more this year visiting family and maybe even a Summer or Fall vacation. Thanks for taking the time check in on us and give us a call sometime.

We Three are Four and Au Revoir IBM

Hello again everyone. Haven't really published any details since Camden's arrival, but as you might be able to guess, the two are related. Camden's arrival was not the textbook delivery that David's delivery was and his first couple of months have been a bit more of a rollercoaster ride. But all should be happy to know now that Camden is doing fine now and is well on his way to becoming his brother's best friend.

Everyone wants to know how David is taking to his new brother and we couldn't be more proud of David's welcoming attitude. Sure, every now and then he tries to poke out Camden's eyes, but nine times out of ten he is "tickle-ticklng" him or giving him soft kisses on his head. Watching the love and closeness beginning to develop between the two is another one of God's gifts that we are thankful for every day.

Everyone also wants to know how Karen is doing. I'd be lying if I said the additional workload didn't show in the tiredness of her eyes, but what shows more in her eyes is the joy she gets from the love of her sons. Camden has recently become aware of those around him and when he smiles at Karen it's like watching a thirsty person come upon an oasis. The last couple of months have been rough on Karen because - as is always the case - the new little ones don't start out with any schedule or regimen. I don't know what I'm getting her for Christmas, but if I could magically transport her back to the Four Seasons in Maui for a day spa, I would. She deserves it. I love her so. She is the best mother and wife any one could ask for.

I think most of you are now aware that I ended my career at IBM/Lenovo on 7 November 2006. I made it nine and a quarter years and I wish I had made it ten, but it simply wasn't to be. I started with BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina a week later on 13 November 2006. The change has been tougher than I would have thought. I went from being the fearless foremost expert at what I was doing to Mr. Green Jeans in one week. I know I'll regain my expertise and tenure, but right now I feel like a fish out of water and I miss my old friends. I have made a concerted effort to stay in touch with my old crew... Alan, Brinda, Vincent and their continued friendships are helping. I must say that I'm pretty much in awe of the talent of my new colleagues and I'm sure that new friendships are forthcoming.

It's almost time for our year end wrap-up note and Karen and I really enjoy putting that together. We're hoping that 01 January 2007 is much less uneventful than 01 January 2006 was. If you're reading this, you're likely either family or friend and I'll tell you now that we miss you. As the kids get a little older we're looking forward to visiting and being visited in this next year so we'll start the New Years' resolutions off early with that thought. Type to you soon.

Camden Thomas Preis

Camden Thomas Preis

Born: September 3rd, 2006 at 5:02 PM

Weight: 7 pounds, 10 ounces

Height: 19.5 inches

Looks like this.

Margarita, Roach Motel and Floyd Landis

...and five months later... First a little context. I decided to make meself a margarita before I commenced typing tonight. I've got 65 dollar-a-bottle tequila mixed with 99 cents-a-bottle sweet and sour mix. Just didn't feel like heading down to Lowes Foods for the mixer. Somewhere during my 30 to 40 mile bike ride with the group tomorrow, I'll regret this drink, but in the mean time and in between time let's enjoy shall we?

Everyone wants to know how Karen is doing. Let's see... it's August, she's completely pregnant, enjoying being over the poison ivy that attacked her about three weeks ago and is recovering from our vacation. Let's expand on each thought. It's now early August and July left much of the nation with record high temps. The outlook for the next few days portends some relief, but if not Karen might insist on no anesthesia for me during my near future vasectomy. Regarding the poison ivy, we think the dog got some PI oil on him and then transferred it to Karen. She was really in tough shape for about three weeks but has comnpletely recovered now. And then there was vacation.

Long story short we ended up in North Myrtle Beach in a roach motel during perhpas five of the hottest days of the year. Add to that a total of 13 adults and 15 children under the age of 11 and you start to understand how the 65 dollar-a-bottle of tequila came into being. It was really nice to see all the Pearson folk, but truth be told the accomodations mixed with the hellish temperatures and Karen being eight months pregnant took their toll and we ended up leaving after four days instead of the planned six. It probably wasn't the wisest of decisions to go at all, but the lure of quality time with family is strong for Karen, so if she got thrity minutes of close time with her siblings or neices or nephews then she would tell you it was worth it. I'd buy another bottle of tequila and get back to you.

Seems everyone wants to know my opinion of Floyd Landis these days and that's a tough one. As a rational scientist I have to admit that all the evidence points to exogenous introduction of testosterone. As a cyclist with a heart that can spell Mennonite I have to plead, "Say it ain't so Joe". The real problem I have is that regardless of the outcome, the outcome casts an even darker cloud over cycling than it already had hanging over its head in recent years. Take the case where he is guilty. This would simply confirm the widely held suspicion that doping is de rigeur in professional cycling and the ill effects are obvious. Now, take the unlikely case where he is indeed innocent. The problem here would be that the process of winning the Tour de France would be: amass the smallest amount of time to pedal one's ass 2,200 miles around France and then assemble the best legal defense team to defend the victory in the courts, WADA etc. Screw that! So I leave you with these thoughts. Ride your bikes. Wear your helmets. Don't cheat. Don't ever give in to redefining what is right and wrong.

Tweak and Toe Update

As you can see, I'm playing around with the format of the web site. I hope it's a little easier to read. Need to find some way to seamlessly incorporate graphics into what is by design a stark looking home page. I do have plans to re-do the entire site including restructuring all the galleries chronologically, so please be patient. A lot of little projects got pushed out while my toes were healing.

Speaking of toes, I did get a good report from the doctor on February 1st. All of the pieces of the larger bone in the big toe of my right foot had stayed where they needed to be and all was well. Then I painted the dining room earlier tonight. Think I might have spent a wee bit too much time up on the ladder. It hurts again and it has swollen up again. Wonder if I broke it - again. I can ride the bike; that was definitely good news. BUT project paint the dining room must be completed first. All I have to do tomorrow is touch up the cut-in and peel the tape. I LOVE peeling the tape.

Coming up on 2 AM so I better get to bed for now. I talked myself into feeding the PDP the signal from my laptop via S-Video. Boy was that disappointing. Wish my ThinkPad had DVI-I or HDMI out, but you can't have everything now can you?

Update to the picture gallery

For all of you picture freaks out there, the gallery has now been updated. Karen hates the new format, but is at least happy I updated the picture gallery. I suggest starting in January '06 gallery and working backward until you get to the pictures you recognize as having been seen before. So now I am down to reformatting the site and starting to edit videos down and get them posted here also. Stay tuned.

Skype

OK boys and girls it's time for kewl new software with Jim. The word for the day is Skype. "So what the hell is Skype?", you say? I say, "Potty mouth!", then follow up with, "It's a chat client." But it's a lot more than just that. It's a text chat client, it's an audio chat client and it's a video (beta) chat client. Here's the Skype business model. The SW is FREE! If you've got Skype and your buddy has Skype, you can text, audio and video chat for FREE regardless of your coordinates on the blue marble we call Earth. Did ya hear that? Free communication from Skype-mate to Skype-mate! It gets better. Let's say I'm sitting here on my ThinkPad and I wanna call someone on a POTS (plain old telephone service) land line. Then you Skype Out. Skype Out means you pay $.017 per minute continental and some other paltry amount for international. At essentially a penny a minute, I decided to throw ten bucks into the tip jar before I got my drink. I was impressed to say the least. As I said earlier, the audio quality was amazing. But what was really cool was that I was just sitting there talking into my ThinkPad and getting great phone service. I usually spend between 8 and 14 hours a day in front of my ThinkPad. Now to have a phone wherever I have a network connection, that rates pretty high on my neato scale. Now, if you wanna take the next step, you can Skype In. For twelve bucks for three months or $38 for a year, you can buy a Skype In phone number and you can receive phone calls right to your PC.

So there ya go. If you've got a desktop PC, head down to RadioShack and buy a $6 microphone and plug it in to the mic jack or the line in jack. If you've got at notebook PC, odds are a mic is already incorporated into the keyboard area. Set up a Skype account, install the software and enjoy the kewl.

PS - Regarding the toes, the next x-ray is scheduled for Feb 01. Still hurts, but nothing agonizing. Thanks to everyone for all the offers of help, rides to work and help in general.

Ouch.

For those of you that have read the year end note, the irony is pretty apparent. As the note closed it said we were looking forward to the new year, bla, bla, bla and then followed it up with a PS informing everyone that I had broken my toe. So here's the details...

Karen and I were about to watch a movie an I ran upstairs to get a Clif bar as my movie snack. The upstairs isn't lit in the evenings as David's bedroom is upstairs. The Clif bars were in the room over the garage where the Christmas tree was and thus we had that room cordoned off with a 28" high baby gate. For those of you that know me well, there's only one speed at which to execute and that's full (fool?) speed ahead. As I went to dash through the doorway I hit the baby gate. Unfortunately, the baby gate was on the near side of the doorway meaning the lips that prevented the door from swinging fully also kept the baby gate from moving inward at all. In less than a half second my face was in the carpet on the other side of the baby gate and my feet were now about five and a half feet in the air. It scared the hell out of me, and for a brief second I though, "OK, I've had a spill, but don't think I'm hurt." Turns out I thought too soon. In the second half of that second, the baby gate then collapsed out and away from where my head was leaving my feet to free fall into the floor. The carpet made little difference.

The next day I went to the urgent care center and had an x-ray and in the absence of a radiologist was told that it looked like I had fractured the big bone in my big right toe. The urgent care physician also instructed me to go see an orthopedist ASAP which I did.

The orthopedist did not have good news. The official news was that I had splintered the large bone in my big right toe in at least three places and it appeared that I had also fractured the small bone in that same toe. They also said it was entirely likely that I had broken other toes, but that was not of real concern because unless it's the big toe they really don't do anything for "also broken" toes. Regarding the broken big toe bones the Dr. advised me to take this seriously as the big toe plays a pretty important role in balance and weight bearing.

For the time being, the pain is being managed by some pretty strong stuff called Percocet. No walking or driving or - they actually told me this - no child care if I take two.

I have to go back February 1st for a status check. I'll find out one of two things after this visit. 1) Fragments are staying where they need to be and the bones will heal fine or 2) the bones are not healing in the position desired and, most likely, surgery to correct or better the situation.

I'm pretty depressed about the situation right now and not by way of self pity. Karen now has the joy of caring for two boys each day and her days weren't walks in the park to begin with. I tried going to work this past Monday and aggravated my lower back while at work on crutches. Tuesday and Wednesday I was almost completely immobile.

If I end up not having surgery, then this will all be over by the end of February and we'll see how it goes with running and cycling. I was looking forward to a new schedule of working out in the new year before all this happened and now that's been pushed out quite a bit. I had even done a couple of rides before the new year so that I wasn't starting from zero on January 1st. I've started from less than zero before and I'll do it again. It just gets harder as you get older as most of you old farts know!

I'll hang in there. Pray for my wife, not me.

W. Is An Idiot

OK, so it's been a while. What's new? Well, I've actually worked out two days in a row!!! Bought a new watch for training - hoping that would provide some momentum. The momentum so far has only been that I've worked out for two days in a row. The watch is really cool. It's the Polar RS200sd. It has a foot pod that measures distance - that's cool! I'm trying to figure out a couple of things like reporting and recording of my workouts at the Polar site. The manual is about 100 pages so give me a little time here. If figuring out the Polar account and uploading proves to be too much of a hassle, I'll start blogging my workouts here.

I am now a certified Project Management Professional, a.k.a. PMP. Got my certification at the end of August. Eight years experience plus a $3,500 boot camp and Viola! I actually enjoyed the class a lot and learned quite a bit. It put a lot of experiences in context for me and gave me some much needed validation for things I was already doing. It's a very serial and logical discipline so it very much up my alley.

Karen, David and I are getting ready to move into our new house next weekend and we are very much looking forward to that. I swear there are two baby elephants living upstairs from us at present and there simply is never a moment's peace and quiet. We were supposed to close tomorrow, 28 October, but it was evident to us that that was unrealistic about two weeks ago. Closing is now looking like Wednesday of next week. For those of you that are close family or friends you already know how trying the last several months have been for us. The culmination of my work, the new house, the New Bern house completion efforts, Karen's accident and my certification have left us quite thin. No complaining here, just saying it's been a tough last 6 months. I have declared 2006, "The year of the recliner". That is unless I decide to do an Ironman distance event...

So as I mentioned before, the house in New Bern is finally complete and on the market. I think the effort was more than we estimated, but in hind sight, we'd still do it over again. With that said, I also think if we could go back in time 15 months knowing what we know now, we would easily shave off about 10% of the total time. Bum Phillips once said, "Hard work and good times go together. It's just that the hard work comes first." Amen, Bum.

Saving the best for last. The Zoop report. Yes, we have new pictures coming soon so stay tuned. It may be another week or two, but we have all kinds of new pictures of the wiggle monster. He is walking and talking. Karen and I are now very much aware that not only are we not in control, but we didn't have it when we thought we did. Seriously, David is doing very well in all areas. He is the joy of our lives and, God willing, we'll make him a little sister next year.

So that's all for now. Our new address will be 608 Gravel Brook Court, Cary NC 27519 after next week. I have no idea what our phone number will be, but if it changes and you need it you can always use the Preis directory to get it. Take care, God bless and George W. Bush is an idiot.

DMT Cycling Shoes Suck!

Gallery III has been added! So I finally got off my ass, pulled the pix outta the camera and have published them. Didn't know until recently that MY FREAKIN' UPLOAD SPEED IS ONLY 56Kbps!!! Talk about a crawl fest!!! Any way, they're posted.

DMT Cycling shoes suck!!! I put that in the metadata associated with this page. Hope I get as many hits as Google. I can dream. Why, you ask? Wife buys me $245 pair of cycling shoes in 2001. I put less than 2,000 miles on them. The soles delaminate from the lasts. For $245 I figured I'd get, "We'll send you out a new pair right away Mr. Preis!". Wrong. Sent them to the losers at Bicycle World USA who weren't even apologetic. Asked them to overnight 'em back so I could do a big group ride I was looking forward to. Didn't happen. They delaminted again about a month ago. Morons at Bicycle World USA sent me a note with the name of the current distributor - which they ALMOST got right. Tried them and got, "Well our policy is one year warranty bla, bla, bla..." Planet plagued with morons. OK guys here's a clue - If someone coughs up nearly $250 for a pair of cycling shoes and they freakin' fall apart you send them new ones!!! I'm almost certain it's in the ISO manual. Oh by the way from someone that has admittedly impossibly high standards, the first pair of cycling shoes I ever bought in 19 EIGHTY NINE are still in use today; soles and lasts still 100% attached. They were Shimano's. Do you think I learned my lesson and went out and bought a pair of Shimano's? You betcha.

Pixpourri

New Pictures of David!!!

Pictures of "That Old House"

Work and Starting Down the Yellow Brick Road to PMP

Gotta hurry up and type this before I have to change the date. Another 16 hour day at work today ended with the news that another very long day was likely tomorrow. So I figured the best thing to do was to not sleep and provide some fodder for both regular visitors of my site.

I thought this rocked. WARNING: It's for the digerati so if 19th century Mennonite needlecraft is your thing, we might have a disconnect. I have no idea where I find this stuff. I should try that back button sometime, eh?.

I plan to start a section of the web site devoted to studying for the PMI exam which I need to pass this year. I figured that I would create my own informal, but complete, studyguide in HTML and then create some neato whizbang things like practice/self tests with PhP and JavaScript. I will also edit my JavaScripts to read images from all my pix on the server so that the ticker of images you see on my home page has greater breadth. And, uh, oh yeah I need a navbar on all my pages. How lame am I.

Oh well, the Tylenol PM is kicking in; that's Latin for I'll need electric shock to drag my ass outta bed tomorrow morning. Uusally it's less than 30 seconds from the time I crack my eyes open until I have toothbrush in hand. The exception is the morning after a Tylenol PM. Anyone got a defibrulator on 'em? Yes, it's that bad. Hmmm... Coin toss time. Should I a) go make a seriously strong bloody Mary and fall asleep on the couch whilst waiting for the Girls Gone Wild info-mercial and guarantee misery tomorrow or b) go straight to bed and toss and turn for several hours before realizing it's 5:00 AM which is when I usually get up. I'll letcha know tomorrow.