Dan's 16th Birthday

Daniel wanted a few friends over for his 16th Birthday.

I bought 7 pizzas.  Between our family and all those teens it was gone by the next morning.

The Cake.  No I didn't make that, but I'm thinking I could have done a better decorating job.  I wasn't happy with the decorations especially since I paid a professional company to do it.  However the cake was super tasty.

The mess I found when I came down the stairs.  This mess was on every counter in the kitchen, it took over an hour to clean up.

Daniel opening his gifts.  What I thought was hilarious is that he asked for a STUFF gift card.  If you don't know what STUFF is, it's a consignment store nearby.   Daniel loves to get brand name clothing there for cheap!

Daniel is super excited to be 16.  First thing he said is, "Now I can date."  yes now Daniel you can date.

Delusional ??? I think not.

Three weeks ago I noticed our Left front hubcap was missing from our car.  I was bummed out because now our car looks a bit odd and not as nice as it could.  Also hubcaps have the purpose of preventing major amounts of dirt and rocks to get inside your tires so I really should get another one.

I figured I would never see the hubcap again and never looked for it because of the many miles I travel all over the city in a day who would think they could find a hubcap.

I went for a long run on Saturday since I'm training for a half marathon.  I was scheduled to run 9.5 miles so I had become super anxious during the week.  For some reason my last few long runs have caused some anxiety in me.  I am fine emotionally once I get started, but leading up to it I'm over thinking about how hard it is to run that far.  Maybe my emotions were wacky, I'm not sure.  Just read on and you will understand.

So here I was on Melrose Ave. about 2 miles into my run and I was about to turn onto Camp Cardinal Blvd. when I thought I saw a shiny thing.  Sure enough as I got closer it was a Toyota hubcap and I knew it was mine from a rectangle 1 inch scratch that I had put on it from running into a curb 3 years earlier when I slid around a corner on a very icy street.  I had scratched up the hubcap and popped the tire.

When I was about 5.5 miles into my run I saw Jason.  He had ridden his bike to find me, to make sure I was alright and encourage me along.  I told him about finding the hubcap and I asked him to go get it.  He said, "We will get it after your run is over and you can show me right where it is."

After the run I was exhausted, but determined to get my hubcap back.  We traveled to the place on Melrose where I had seen the hubcap.  He stopped the car and I got out.  I walked up and down in the same area I had seen it.  NO HUBCAP could be found.  NOTHING.  I was ticked.  So I walked even further back in case I had forgotten where I really saw it and then walked all the way to the corner of Camp Cardinal Rd. and still no hubcap.

Jason said, "You must have been delusional and thought you saw it."

Really I dreamed that up.  I think not, but one will never know.

HR = SS?

Several years ago, SEIU tried to organize all the non-union professional and scientific staff members here at the University of Iowa. The attempt failed miserably because most of us are pretty happy with our jobs and don't feel the need to have union representation. One of the primary reasons I voted against the measure was that it was never made clear how the SEIU would be able to adequately represent the needs of a bench scientist and say, one of the law librarians at the same time. We have different needs professionally and it would be difficult if not impossible to meet both needs without having to make unreasonable demands. Times may be changing.

The Human Resources department has been growing disproportionately to the workforce and instead of being an intermediary between us and the administration, has become, in the eyes of many, the paramilitary arm of the administration. For several years there has been a low level battle raging between HR and the two big unions we have here on campus. HR pulls underhanded tricks to fire (largely unsuccessfully) people the administration considers to be problems. Sometimes the terminations are merited and the terminations are not disputed by the unions. Two of the people they have attempted to fire within the past year are the former and current president of one of the unions. One of the terminations was accomplished by HR simply reclassifying job titles and telling the individual that his job was no longer a position at the University and therefore his service was not needed. The current AFSCME president was also terminated by HR for a likewise ridiculous reason but due to union intervention had his job back within a week.

So here is what is bugging me. For the past year, HR as been undergoing a big reclassification process for all the Professional and Scientific staff. They claim that it is to more adequately represent the actual duties being performed by staff members and to help more closely align our salary structure with the market (which market? The academic or the biotech one? They won't answer that question.). I understand and even applaud their attempts. Currently there are three classifications in my job family which are very broad. The problem is that they are essentially demoting many researchers. People like me who are managing labs and taking on a lot of the day to day responsibility of running the lab, training everybody, ensuring that policies are being followed, etc... are being lumped with everyone else who may be doing the same type of science but don't have any management responsibilities. Personally, I don't care what my job title is but the problem is that the salary cap is going to be adjusted lower. This means that within a couple of years, I will most probably be at my salary cap. I cannot afford to be 45 and topped out. HR is giving individuals the opportunity to appeal their reclassification (I already have done so) but from what I understand, there is not a lot of hope that we will actually be bumped up where we should be. My point in all of this is that if HR simply rubber stamps denied on all the appeals, they are going to be looking at the currently unorganized staff standing up and joining a union which will in the long run cost the University more money. If the University really wants to save money, they need to stop rubber stamping longevity raises and stick to merit based raises. More importantly, the UI needs to stop building more buildings for which there really isn't a need. We are grateful to all of our donors but perhaps we need to say, "no, we can't afford to match your donation right now." Or perhaps we should ask our donors if they would be willing to use their donation to fund scholorships or endowments not just buildings.

I could rant on forever but this is much too long as it is. There are several additional issues involved here - one was reported on NPR yesterday - but I will save them for another day.

Gaelic Gallop Race--Dyersville, Iowa

Friday was a gorgeous day in Iowa. Temps in the 50's. Then came Saturday. Saturday was miserable. Temps had dropped to the mid 30's. Winds picked up to 20 to 30 m.p.h. with wind gusts reported at 40 m.p.h. I was scheduled to run the 8K (5mile race) but when I stepped out of the van to the freezing temps and the wind smacked me in the face I quickly decided that 2 miles would be the furthest I would run in it. So the first thing I did was change my race with the registration guy. Brenden came along to take pictures, but seemed mad the entire morning that he wasn't running. He has chosen to take a break from running so his legs will feel better. Brenden did take a few pictures of us. Here is one of him throwing a baseball in the gym we were in.

Scott ran in the Leprechaun Leap race and placed 5th. That race was scheduled to start at 10:15a.m. and since the race people started the race early and I was in the bathroom, I missed him running completely, so there are no pictures of him running. I was ticked. Jason was with him thank goodness.

Alyssa, Jason and I all ran the 2 mile race. Here are our results:
Jason was 56th out of 274 total people racing.
35th of 91 Men. 4th of 10 Men in the 40-44 age group.
His time was 15:50 so that's a 7:55 minute mile!!

Alyssa was 262nd out of 274 total people.
26th of 27 girls in the 13 and Under age group.
She was 174 out of 183 females.
Her time was 24:59 so this means she ran a 12:29 minute mile. Not too shabby for a First ever 2 mile race. This is the furthest to date that Alyssa has ever ran.

My time was 17:42, so this means I had an 8:51 minute mile.
I was 123rd of 274 total people,
7th of 29 women in the 35-39 age group.
65th of 183 Women total!

Reasons to do this race next year:
The course was well marked.
There were police men to control traffic
Volunteers to tell you when to turn around
chip timed so race results are accurate

Reasons to NEVER do this race:
This race was so unorganized and you couldn't hear any announcements ever. No one knew what was going on, when the race was starting or anything.

Only 4 port-a-potties outdoors, and 3 bathrooms indoors total for 562 race participants, many others there for the children's race, supporters and volunteers. I would guess there were around 700 people there. That's 1 bathroom per 100 people=LONG LINES.

Food was minimal. Fruit that ran out before everyone had some. Thank goodness I was in the top third to get food. They had bottled apple juice, but again ran out halfway through the 2 mile finishers. So none of the 8K people received those. Then they had orange drink from McDonalds. EWE, really. How about Gatorade or something similar?

Two different racing start times for the children's races were printed between the website and the actual race brochure, and that caused confusion between volunteers running the race, and people in the race.

Race results took two days to post even though they were chip timed.

Shirts are SUPER UGLY, to see them closer double click on one of our pictures. I wouldn't wear this shirt as a nightshirt. I'm sure it will get donated for sure. Why anyone would design a shirt with a Jersey Shore guy is beyond me. This was a St.Patrick's Day race, there should have been either a Leprechaun or a Shamrock on the shirt, or even their Gaelic Gallop logo. And they chose bright neon orange for the shirt color. WHY?

No door prizes and I'm seriously not sure why. There were 29 race sponsors. I'm sure most of the sponsors MUST have just given money and the Race director must have pocketed it. Because the race director did absolutely nothing for all these race participants. When Jason put on that indoor triathlon he only had like 6 sponsors and had lots of prizes to go around.
The distance from Iowa City to this race was not worth it.

So as you can see a Race NOT WORTH DOING. The race director needs to seriously make some changes for the better.

Trying to push the puppy post off the top of the page.

Saturday was my first race of the season. It was COLD! The air temp was about 30 but the wind was gusting to 30 and 40 mph. I haven't really been training like Michelle has so I only did the 2 mile race. My goal was simply to break 17 minutes (I am slow). I actually did better than I thought I would and finished in 56th place out of 200+ runners over all and took 4th in my age group with a time of 15:50. That's right all you young punks, this 40 year old ran at a sub 8 minute mile pace. I felt great when I finished and realized that I could have easily done a 5K (unfortunately, the only other option was an 8K and I am not ready to run that far). There is hope for me yet to break 25 minutes for a 5K. I am excited about the upcoming racing season. I have already signed up for a 5K in May and an olympic distance triathlon (The Lake Geode Challenge) in July. I will get a few more races sprinkled in there including another sprint triathlon and a couple more 5K's.

Michelle and Alyssa also ran the 2 mile race with me (I can't remember their details) and Scott ran a 400 M race in which he placed 5th.

I would really like to get a dog.

My friend Tracy has two Labs. She decided to have them have puppies. The litter had 9 puppies and they are all adorable. Yesterday most of us had the opportunity to go see the puppies. There are 3 black, 1 chocolate, 1 tan, 3 cream and 1 white. Below is Jared with the Mom.














































I would really like to have a dog. I have listed all the Pros and Cons and even after all of that I still feel having a Dog is a great decision. I just hope Jason says YES!

PROS
A running buddy
A companion when everyone else is at school or work
Someone who loves me unconditionally
Cute

Adorable

Cuddly
Teaches you to be more responsible
You can get new carpet and furniture!
Friend for LIFE!
You are able to give a great home to a wonderful pet so they don't go to a bad home.

You can get great exercise because you have to walk your dog.

You can tell your dog ANYTHING and they won't share it.

When your feet are cold they can lay on your feet to warm them.

You get to try out all kinds of air fresheners to help with the dog smell!

Cons
They make a lot of messes so you have a lot of work.
You will have to get up in the night to take care of them, let them outside to do their business.
It's like having a new baby all over again.
Sometimes your favorite items get chewed up
They can stain your carpet
They can ruin your furniture (that doesn't matter because all our furniture is old and UGLY anyway.)

Walking the dog in the rain or snow.

Vet bills

I don't care about all the cons in the world and I know there are many.

Here is my contract for all to see: I, Michelle, am willing to do WHATEVER it takes, WHENEVER is needed to raise a happy, loving, well trained dog so that this new addition is happy in our family. I do NOT expect anyone to do anything to take care of this NEW pet. I am taking 100% responsibility for Her, knowing that even though the children say they will take care of her, that they will most likely change their mind within a week or two, so I'm signing up for all of it.

many things going on

This week has so much going on.

First the dreaded taxes. I have an appointment with the accountant tomorrow to get this done and over for the year.

Why I can't stand taxes:

a. It takes me forever to add all the receipts from my 3 different jobs (teaching aerobics, nanny, and Pampered Chef) and get it all categorized and organized. I need a computer program for this. I've been doing it by hand for 13 years.

b. It takes usually 2 hours for the appointment. I really don't want to give up two hours of my life unless I'm in a Spa.

c. The cost for the accountant seems to go up every year and that I'm never happy about. I know the costs for everything is rising, but we just don't have it, and it cuts into the amount you get back, so it bites. Wish I could do it myself and I would except it might cause me heart failure with how hard and stressful it would be. So I'm grateful for my accountant, just not his cost.

2. Caleb started Driver's Ed finally. This is great, except for the cost. It was $375 and to me that is outrageous. This is the main reason it's been this long getting Caleb into that. I have been saving up. I think driver's ed should be offered through the schools, but here in Iowa it's only done privately, you don't have a choice.

3. I'm running more and that's good. My knee was hurting last week, but this week seems to be a bit better. Each week I have a further distance to run to meet my goal for training. This week was 8.5 miles. I barely did it, it was super hard.

4. I love ice cream. The current flavor in the house in Mint Chocolate Chip. I could eat this stuff every day, but I'm not sure if my body would agree.

5. Jason, Scott, Alyssa and I are running in a race on Saturday. It's called the Gaelic Gallop and it's in Dyersville, Iowa. There is a 5 mile and a 2 mile race. Both are chip timed so we will all know our results quickly after running and they will be accurate results, as long as the chip on our shoe works. I am doing the 5 mile race. Jason and Alyssa are doing the 2 mile race. Scott is doing the Junior Leprechaun Leap (not sure of the distance on that). Brenden and Jared will be along for taking pictures and cheering us on. Brenden isn't running right now, he is on a break, I'll explain in the next paragraph why. After the race and the post race activities there is a St. Patrick's Day parade at 1:30, we will hopefully stick around for that.

6. Brenden is having growing pains. His legs hurt really bad when running. I cannot remember the technical name the doctor gave but the doctor told him to wear knee braces, take ibuprofen and back off on running for a while and do lots of stretching. Brenden hasn't ever liked to stretch much, so hopefully he will do more of that now to relieve some pain. Hopefully he will feel better soon so he can be back to running since he likes it so much, and he's great at it.

7. Jared has an infected toe, so it's back to the doctor today to get that taken care of. Our family seems to be prone to ingrown toenails and we've tried all kinds of things. I should buy Epsom salt in bulk from all the soaking we do.

8. Next week is Spring Break and I have only 5 classes instead of 14!!!

9. The weather is actually scheduled to be nice next week, like in the 50's and 60's. What a great week that will be.

10. Because Spring Break is next week I'm sure the children will all find tons of things to do, so I'll have plenty of posts next week!

Alyssa has as new blog

Check it out here

www.alyssabob.blogspot.com