Moving to a new platform...

...at least to try it out.  I've decided that the limitations of blogger.com are a bit annoying, so I've set up a new blog on Tumblr.  Check it:  http://pantalonasenfuego.tumblr.com/

When I post to the new blog, it updates Facebook for me.  Good stuff.

Halloween 2010

Milestone

Ran 10 miles yesterday.  Around 6 miles, the "runner's high" kicked in, felt great.  That turned south around mile 8.5, when I really just wanted to be done as soon as possible.

Average pace of 9:48, so good time overall.  Cardio capacity was more than adequate.  Some soreness in right hip, but otherwise ok.

Weight is fluctuating like mad now, from 175 up to 179, mostly depending on the amount of water I'm drinking.

Ah, scale....why do you tease me so?

So after completing my longest run ever this Sunday (8.25 miles), and knocking out my fastest 10k split (59 min), I was hoping to see some good numbers on the scale.  I broke a plateau and saw some numbers I hadn't seen in a loooong time...but in a good way.  179.8, which means only 9.8 pounds to go.  However, the scale quickly rethought it's morning gift, and switched to 180.0.  I don't know why this is such a sticking point for me, mentally-speaking.  But it is.

Still, Nike+ is happy with my progress: 

Upload

http://my.nike.com/philgrad

a runner am I?

Flash back to six months ago, and (barring a short stint during my freshman year in high school) any time prior in my life.  I have always hated running.  It hurt, I wasn't particularly good at it, and my metabolism was such that I didn't need to burn big chunks of calories.  Plus, I was pretty good at swimming, and that hurt a lot less.

Now flash to the present.  I've been running for just over 3 months.  When I started, I couldn't do a mile without significant pain and wheezing.  After a short build up, I strained a quadricep and had to lay off for 3 weeks.

That all behind me, and a more sane training regiment in place (thanks, Nike+!), I ran the farthest this weekend I've ever run in my life:  10 k (6.2 mi).  And it felt...good.

Now, I haven't actually lost much weight yet.  My lower body has definitely started to change shape, but I think I'm doing more with muscle refinement than with fat burning at this point.  I just started combining nutrition monitoring (via iPhone app Lose It!) with my Nike+ training tracker.  We'll see how that goes.  There is something addictive about knowing that 6.2 miles gives me an additional 800 calories of eating/drinking to play with  ;)

Now, about the shoes.  I am in love with my Nike Free Run shoes.  $85.  Light as a feather.  They simulate barefoot running, so in theory my ankles, feet, calves and knees are getting stronger as the shoes do not provide much in the way of support.  They are purely there for cushioning.  I should cross the 100 mile mark early next week, so I will continue to update as I go along.

Emmie and Shrek ears

Int'l festival at TGP

How to torment a toddler

Emerson:  More oatmeal, Daddy, peez!

Me:  Peas?

Emerson:  No, *peez*?

Me:  Oh, *peez*

Emerson (giggling now):  No, PEEZ!

It's called diction, young lady.  In this house we do it right.

To be fair, at this point Marantha intervened, noting that Emerson was only 2 and I should stop...doing whatever it was that I was doing.

Family pic in the backyard

Break o' Day tomatoes!

A sad tail...

Clyde has been a part of our family since we moved to St. Louis.  We picked him up from a Pyrenees rescue near Springfield, MO, and he kept Marantha company in a (somewhat scary) new neighborhood while we adjusted to urban life.  He has kept squirrels at bay for six years now, patrolling our yard (to the point of wearing paths through the grass) and

Two years ago, Clyde started having seizures.  This came out of the blue, and M and I both dug in and learned a lot about idiopathic epilepsy in dogs.  We got very lucky in that Clyde responded beautifully to phenobarbital.  Despite taking enough at a time for us to need a DEA waiver (seriously), he adjusted to the dosage within a couple of weeks and we witnessed no grand mal seizures in two years.  About a week ago, he had a big one, so we took him to the vet.  Blood work came back within normal bounds, so we increased his phenobarb slightly.

In the past six months, we had noticed an increase in balance problems, stumbling, and even a couple cases where he just fell down, unprovoked.  I had chalked these up to a combination of arthritis and  his seizure meds.

Night before last, he had another grand mal, and was extremely disoriented afterwards.  I ended up sleeping downstairs with him, because otherwise he started howling and barking.  This morning, he had a grand mal at 4:30, followed by a serious of cluster seizures.  These weren't grand mals, but focal--just his head was seizing while he stood up.  We counted 7 or 8 of them.  After the grand mal, he was terribly disoriented, and I think blinded for a short while.  He jerked away if I touched him, and was mostly unresponsive to sound or visual cues.  He refused water as well as ice cream (I read yesterday that after a seizure, it was good to give a little vanilla ice cream to help stabilize the depleted blood sugars).  This is a dog that used to eat bricks.  He's always hungry, and always thirsty.

M helped me carry him downstairs--no mean feat, considering she is 5 1/2 months pregnant, Clyde weighs just south of a buck-twenty, and our stairs are original from the house built in 1897.  He wasn't happy about the process, but we got him loaded into the car and I ran him out to Webster Groves Animal Hospital.  He had two seizures in the car, another one in the parking lot, and another one in the ER.  Vet techs muzzled him and helped me get him out of the car, but he freaked out and wouldn't stay on the stretcher.  We ended up walk/dragging him into the exam room.

So now, he is doped up, and they are trying to stabilize him.  The vet is concerned about the change in behavior over the past few months, and thinks it is possible that the balance issues coupled by the "breakthrough" seizing that there is possibly a slow-growth mass or tumor that is causing all of this.  An MRI would be the next step, but that is approximately $2500.  Where would that leave us?  If positive for a tumor, we wouldn't elect to do brain surgery (if it was even operable) or chemo.  If negative, we're back with idiopathic epilepsy that isn't managed well pharmacologically.

Best case scenario now is also pretty bleak.  Upping the phenobarbital dosage is the next step, with a potential further step of adding potassium bromide.  Those things (singly or jointly) might stabilize him, but for how long?  Could be a day, or a week, or three years.  What is certain is that we have a toddler now, and a baby on the way.  Our ability to cope with this situation, should it recur, is rapidly decreasing.  And of course, there is the horrific thought that Clyde might hurt himself or one of us accidentally.

I wasn't expecting this, and now that I'm facing it I can hardly believe how much it hurts.  But I don't think this is a good quality of life for him, and it certainly isn't for us.  I never wanted this decision to be about money, but of course that has to play into it, too...

Another funny

I've been off of running the past few weeks due to some quadriceps pain, and Emmie has seen me with ice on my knee. Yesterday in the garden I misjudged the height of the fence when stepping over, and cut a gash across the same injured knee. Seeing the cut, Emmie exclaimed, "Daddy, you need to take a break from running!"

In rare form

Emmie had her first baseball experience this weekend with the extended family at Busch stadium. She is still talking about the cheesy fries...

Beatty siblings and kids

Emmie's second birthday

Dora cake!

Garden is starting to produce...

Emmie values her Easter eggs

Yeah, I went to the Final Four

Dr. Emmie says "Ahhhh"

she can be a little demanding...

Driving Emerson to daycare the other morning on my way to work.  I was flipping through my iPod, trying to find something that was age-appropriate and suitable for my commute at the same time.  Emmie was letting me know her opinion from the backseat.  "No, no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO, NONONONONONONO"

"Sweetie," I said, "what's wrong?  What do you want?"

There was a brief pause while she considered this.  Then she answered.

"Kid's music!"

Uhhh....I guess I need to update my playlists.

At this point (19 months), she can sing--mostly on-key, although sometimes over-enthusiastically--several songs, including her ABCs, Ring around the Rosie, Baa Baa Black Sheep, Pop Goes the Weasel, Twinkle Twinkle, etc.  She also counts to 12 (why 12?  She has a clock puzzle that has the numbers 1-12).

What we've found most impressive, however, is her ability to use descriptors for concepts.  Walking to the garage the other morning, we passed a decrepit, rotting pumpkin that had been a decoration around Thanksgiving and never made it to the compost heap.  She pointed at it and told me, "Old pumpkin."

I picked her up the other morning and said, "You're getting to be such a big girl."  To this she nodded, lower lip stuck out thoughtfully, and said, "Uh huh.  Heavy."

Unexpected snow

View from my office towards the Arch

She would rather eat broccoli

One bit of hamburger. 20 bites of broccoli.