Randomosity

Fun in the dirt

2008-10-16T19:17:00.007-04:00

Recently, I found a great deal on a 4-wheeler for Gauge. It is a 50cc Bombardier. Since Skyler already has a dirt bike and now Gauge has something to ride I have been trying to take them out riding as often as possible. We have access to a large open field nearby -less than 2 miles from the house- that we going riding in.

It is very convenient for the days when you just want to go out and ride for a little bit and them come back. Free time is very limited these days as Tiffany and I are both taking classes and I work full-time. So any time I can get out in the dirt and go riding with the boys is time well spent.

Skyler is getting pretty good on his motorcycle and always gets excited about going to ride. He is getting more comfortable going a variety of terrain. I remember the first or second time went riding and he drove straight into the ditch full of water. It took him few more sessions to recover from the trauma of that day.

Gauge had a couple of issues at first controlling the 4-wheeler. Because the footprint of the front wheels is fairly wide for him, he really had to use his upper body strength to turn it. Now he jams all over the place like he has been riding for months.

It is difficult for me to put into words how much I actually enjoy being out there with them. Even though I don't currently have anything to ride, they are always happy to share. They like me to ride with them, or be the first to test out some new terrain for them.

Sometimes, I just hang out and watch them. It is cool to see their personalities come out as they go speeding across the field with larger than life smiles on their faces.

Born to rock

2008-04-29T21:00:00.005-04:00

Skyler pictured here celebrating his 10^th Birthday with his new ROCKBAND setup for XBOX 360. Skyler on vocals, Gauge on drums and their friend Roman on lead guitar (slightly out of the picture). It was a pretty rocking party and the kids thoroughly enjoyed jamming out to many of the songs that were around before I was born.

Pictured here are me and Skyler taking his Birthday motorcycle for a spin. This thing is pretty awesome. It is a Honda CR-F70. A great bike for him to start out on and a cool little toy for me to pop wheelies on (If he decides to let me ride it by myself).

Fenced in

2008-04-29T17:50:00.007-04:00

Obviously, it has been some time since I last posted. I thought I would put together a quick entry to show one the projects I have been working on. It is not programming project; but a home improvement project. After driving all around the neighborhood and researching online, I finally decided what kind of fence I wanted to build along the sides of my house. I really liked the idea of cedar. It is durable, it smells good and it is naturally resistant to insects.

I also didn't really want knots. They are not horrible, but given the choice I preferred to get boards without. While I like the idea of a privacy fence I did not want a 6 or 8 foot fence blocking all of the light that comes in my yard. I decided on a 4 foot fence with decorative caps. I also chose to accent the top with fascia and a cap along the top. The pictures here really don't do the fence justice. I am very proud of it and can now keep the dog in the back yard.

Flash your friends

2007-07-20T11:17:00.001-04:00

David Stiller (Quip) has co-authored a book. I felt like it was my duty as a friend to help promote it. I pre-ordered my copy a few weeks before it was released and received my order quickly after release. So, if you are into Flash or just want to show your support, go get your copy today. If you buy online use this link Foundation Flash CS3 For Designers. Even though I have not read it yet, I look forward to doing so and expect it to be great. Don't hesistate; go get a copy because I said so.

Once in a while

2007-07-05T07:18:00.000-04:00

Every now and then I will jump on the technology bandwagon and buy the first version of some new piece of hardware. The iPhone was one of those times. I was anticipating the release of this sweet device since I first watched the the keynote. Fortunately, I had plenty of time to contemplate purchasing the device or waiting for a later release.

I feel like I made an informed decision. By the time it was ready for purchase I already most of what it could and could not do. While I think $600 is way more than a phone should cost, I also think to stay on the leading edge and have the newest stuff you are going to pay a premium (that's my excuse).

Here is a list things that are good and bad about the phone. For any iPhone junkies about there, most of this will be old news. For the rest of you, you might learn something.

Pros:
- Visual voicemail (see a list of each voice mail and choose the one you want)
- Built in google maps with squench zoom features
- POP3 / IMAP mail client access
- Very intuitive contact management features.
- Full blown safari web browser
- Nice iPod interface

Cons:
- No GPS. This would be a great addition for the google maps.
- No external storage (mini SD, micro SD, CF, etc.)
- Edge only, no 3G network. When browsing the web or google maps you can see why higher speed would be nice.
- No SMS multicast. For the life of me I cannot figure out how to send a text message to more than one recipient.

The list of features above is not complete but points out items that I specifically like or dislike about the phone. I am still looking for a nice case for it. I am scared I am gonna drop it. I want a case that doesn't completely ruin the appeal of the streamlined look of the phone.

Today is your Birthday

2007-01-16T07:29:00.000-05:00

On this day, some 38 years ago my brother made his way into this world. Whenever we talk it is a constant reminder of how time goes by in life very quickly. One day you are six years old riding your bike and the next thing you know you are teaching your six year old how to ride a bike. We don't talk nearly as often as we should. It is always nice to touch base and see how things are going on the opposite side of the US. Which reminds me... ...I need to call and tell you, "Happy Birthday, Bro".

Welcome to the Circus

2006-11-27T11:26:00.000-05:00

The Holiday season is upon us and the added stress is reason enough to write about it. This is a particularly busy time of year for many people and the DiCensos are no exception. In addition to the normal chaos associated with Halloween, followed by Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas, followed by the New Year, we are lucky enough to have a slew of family Birdthay parties and school/work schedules that conflict with just about everything.

It is certainly a juggling act and one I am proud to have not lost all of my hair over, yet! Over time I would like to be able to relax a little more during the Holidays. Maybe take a 2 week vacation to Europe or something. Luckily, Tiffany will have Christmas off this year. Which means she will have to work next year.

Happy Birthday, Gauge

2006-11-26T18:50:00.000-05:00

Gauge Zeller DiCenso recently turned 6 years old. He was very excited. He invited everyone in his Kindergarten class. We must have had 20+ plus kids and 40-50 people total at our house. We did the DiCenso family tradition of beating kids with a stick. I mean, the kids beating a Pi�ata with a stick. We did it a little different this year. Since there were so many kids and some of them were a little older, I had the kids pick their choice of light sabers from Skyler's collection to hit the Pi�ata with. Because the light sabers were made of hard plastic, they did not do as much damage as a wooden stick had done in previous years. That gave many more kids a chance to hit it.

Tiffany baked him a Lego cake. He loved it. While the cake slightly resembled a melted lego, I was still impressed with the way it turned out. Good job, Tiff. Gauge is heavy into these Lego racers called Tiny Turbos. He will make each one according to the directions, then take the pieces and recreate a hybrid car from many other pieces. It amazes me to see the creativity of young, brilliant minds.

Happy Birthday, Gauge. We love you!

Heterogenous linked lists

2006-10-05T14:47:00.000-04:00

I am taking this OOP(Object Oriented Programming) class right now. So far most of the stuff has been pretty familiar to me. I have never had much experience working with linked lists. That is part of the reason I took this class. Not that I plan on using them for my job or ever again after school, but many of the classes I have to take depend heavily on them. So, I decided to become very intimate with them.

"What is a linked list", you ask? Well, A linked list is the concept of using memory pointers to link a bunch of items together. For example, if you wanted to maintain a list of names that could grow or shrink you would probably want to use a linked list. The programming language I use at school is C++. In C++ they force you to learn how to manage lists the hard way and then show you the built in stuff to make your life easier. So, for now we have to change up all these pointers and take caution not to produce memory leaks. In many programming languages you have more modern techniques for building lists of items the can grow and shrink as necessary.

Now for the heterogenous part. That just means mixed or not of the same kind. So, an example might be a list of animals. Some are cats, some are dogs and some might be penguins. Building and managing these lists can become a huge pain in the arse. It is not so difficult to loop through all the items in the list. Adding, removing and sorting is where things start to get a little rough.

Sure, it seems simple to just say I want to move item 1 to item 3. But in reality you would have to take into account if item 1 was at the front of the list, if item 3 was at the back of the list, carefully repoint them to their new 'next' and 'previous' items and finally repoint their former 'next' and 'previous' neighbors to the updated location of the items now that they have moved.

Hmmm... kinda like the hassle of trying to change your address in the US. They always seem to screw something up. They keep sending mail to your old address or send it back because they don't have a forwarding address on file.

Anyway, I made 3 separate attempts at getting a sorting algorithm to work. On the 3^rd I finally got it. I was not correctly repointing the neigboring items in the list. Kind of like if you move and don't tell anyone. Well, then how can anyone get a hold of you? There is an idea! Needless to say I finally got it, learned from my mistakes and decided that next time I would steal someone else code rather than figure it out for myself.

So, thats it. If you came to this page from a google search on linked lists hoping to get some free code, sucks to be you. Keep searching. Check out the Linked List basics on Stanford's site. They even have a cute little clay-mation video example. Reminds me of Mr. Bill from way back in the day.

Go code yourself into an infinite loop.

Can I get a witness?

2006-08-24T07:39:00.000-04:00

On my way to work this morning (approx 6:45am), I came up to a stop light. At this particular light I have to make a left turn. It is not uncommon for me to come upon a red light. This happens to be a fairly busy intersection. I am an observer; I always look around at other people driving and see what's going on outside of my vehicle. So, as I come to a complete stop and look to my right, I see an older man in a small pickup truck.

His behavior catches my attention. I notice him swinging his right arm forward and back. His arm is lifted up such that his elbow is level with his shoulder and his arm is bent at 90� about his elbow. Similar to a defensive tactic used in basketball to fend off would-be interceptors. As he motions his arm back and forth, I am considering the possibilities. Maybe he has a fly in his truck and he is trying to wave him out. Maybe he is exercising/stretching. Maybe he is practicing his right hook. Whatever it is, it looks weird to the uninformed onlooker.

After dismissing his behavior based on my lack of information, I accept what he is doing and lose interest. But not to be forgotten so soon the arm waving man is now edging up near the vehicle in front of him. It is one of those release and reapply the brakes such that is produces a jerky motion. "Okay, you have my interest again." After only a few seconds of the edging forward, he resumes the arm thrashing briefly.

As if this were not enough to draw in the average curious mind, he stops the arm swinging. Turns his head rapidly to the left, then to the right, then stops. he picks up a bible from the seat and starts reading aloud. Maybe not actually out loud, but at least so that the words being read from the page could also be read from his lips. No longer can I dismiss this behavior as normal.

The light turned green and we both proceeded in our predetermined directions. "Good luck to you, sir. I hope the bible helps, I think to myself." Seriously, that kind of behavior disturbs me. Mostly because I can't explain it. I don't behave like that. I can't understand what could make someone behave that way. Mental illnes is one of the toughest medical conditions to correctly diagnose. I just wanted to ask him what was going on.

Back to school

2006-08-20T19:39:00.000-04:00

It seems like every time I turn around I am going back to school. Once again, I have decided to go back to school. I actually really enjoy school; the hard part is having a full-time job and a family and trying to go to school. I am sure I am not alone. Some of you guys out there are undoubtedly in a similar situation. I remember back in high school I couldn't wait to be out of school. It is funny how things change. If I could quit my job and go to school full-time, I would. However, then I would have to give up the cool house, toys, sell my car and move into a cardboard box. That would not be cool.

Life is this very delicate balancing act. If you disrupt the balance everything can come tumbling down. But, it always seems easier to work your way back up again. I can think of at least 3 times in my life where I went from having money saved and everything was going smooth, to depleting my entire savings to cover some financial crises and being upside down. But each time I bounced back quicker than the time before. Life is funny like that. It is like once you have really learned the lesson, you are permitted to jump ahead (kinda like video games =]).

Anyway, I just wanted to share my academic endeavors with you loyal readers. Keep in touch. Let me know your thoughts.

Ain't that the truth

2006-08-04T18:11:00.000-04:00

Amanda Yeager brings up some good points in a recent blog entry. She talks about rememering who you are, being that person and being happy about it. To piggy-back on her thoughts, I would have to agree. It is too easy to get caught up in the have and have-not of life. The more material things you have, the more you have to complain about. Like when something breaks or gets stolen or lost. It is important to take a step back and just appreciate everything for what it is.

I have a lot to be thankful for and often fail to recognize that. I have wonderful family and friends who should be reminded that they are appreciated. I have a good job, doing work that I enjoy. And I have many of the things now that I always wanted when I was a kid. It just took 30 years to get them.

I am a driven person and I am constantly striving to reach the next level in life. But, to what end? What is my final goal? It is hard for me to slow down and enjoy the scenery.

Coincidentally, today is my 6 year wedding anniversary. I am also thankful for that. It has been a rough road at times, but the longer you drive it the better you understand the bumps, twists and turns.

In honor of Mrs. Yeager's words and to twist the words of AC/DC, I say, "For those who know they rock, I salute you."

An eye-opening experience

2006-07-10T15:12:00.000-04:00

A couple of Thursdays ago I took Skyler and Gauge to a family members Birthday party. Tiffany had to work. We left the party around 9pm. It was raining heavily outside. The whole trip was only about seven miles back to my house. After turning right from Elbow Rd. onto Centerville Tpke. I noticed traffic was stopped about half a mile down the street. I stopped behind the two cars in front of me.

At this moment a few things crossed my mind. First of all, I thought that maybe I should turn around and take another route home. On second thought, maybe I should get out and see what the problem was. I chose the second.

Intially, I did not see why everyone was stopped. Moments later I realized there had been a bad collision involving two vehicles. One had run off the road and the other was sideways, blocking traffic in both directions. "Is anyone hurt?" I quickly called out. A nearby observer said "yes, I think that vehicle has somebody injured in it." I turned around to a mini-van that was blocking both lanes to see a man hanging out the passenger side window, facing down.

Next, I called out "Does anyone here have medical experience?" A man answered "I am a Fireman for Virginia Beach Fire Department." I said I would help him and asked what we needed to do. He said we should secure the man's spine and remove him from the vehicle. I agreed to assist. A nurse had also been stopped in the traffic and offered up some gloves. After donning the vinyl gloves, we proceeded to remove the man from the vehicle.

The man in the mini-van was older. He had gray hair and thin skin. His body was limp. He was unconcious. The fireman had to dislodge the man's foot from the underneath the steering wheel to enable his removal from the vehicle. I supported hid torso/upper half of his body. The fireman carried him from the waist down. His chest seemed to collapse as we moved him. As we layed him down on a tarp on the asphalt that the bystanding nurse also provided, we determined that he had a weak pulse. He respirations were very shallow. Thank God, he was alive.

A random voice called out "Are there any other people in that vehicle?" We did not see any but had not thoroughly checked. After returning to the vehicle, we noticed an additional person in the passenger seat. She had been hidden by the man laying out the passenger window and the passenger side wreckage that was caved in over her seat. She was also unconcious.

About this time a police officer arrived at the scene and asked me several questions as to why I was taking people out of cars at the secene of an accident. I explained that I was assisting the fireman and would stop if he would rather do it. He asked me to go ahead and help get the woman out of the van. Her seatbelt was jammed. I ran back to the police officer's car and asked him for a seatbelt cutter. He obliged. I ran back to the van and handed the seatbelt cutter to the fireman. He cut the seatbelt and lifted the woman out of the seat and in to my arms. Once again, I carried the torso/upper body and carried her from the waist down.

We laid the woman next to the man on the tarp. She was not breathing. She had no pulse. While noone at the scene had a CPR mask, the nurse placed several 2x2 gauze pads of the woman's mouth and initiated CPR while I did chest compressions. Nothing! We could not revive her. She had a significant injury to her head.

By this time several other medical and police personnel had arrived on the scene. The medic in charge of operations stood over me while I did chest compressions. I was explaining to him everything that I knew about hat had heppened. I asked him if he needed my assistance any further and he thanked me and said his crew would take over from there.

I had blood all down the front of my shirt and pants. I could smeel the blood on my clothes. I was still a little bit confused as to what had just happened. I went back to my car a drove home. It took me about an hour before I could sleep.

The next day I read in the paper that the man lived with some broken ribs. The woman was pronounced dead at the scene. I still see pictures in my mind of the scene. It doesnt really bother me I just see vivid details that did not seem apparent at the time. I still think about it everyday. I thought I might share my experience with you guys...

...you never really know when your life is going to end. One minute everything could be totally fine and the next it could be gone. Make your peace. Rebuild those bridges and learn to forgive.

The arrival of many things

2006-06-20T12:59:00.000-04:00

Today, three packages are scheduled to arrive. First arrival should be the control decks that Langdon and I ordered about 8 weeks ago. The second package should be my new Klipsch surround sound speakers that I ordered last week. I ordered two in-walls for the front, a center channel and two in-ceiling for the rear. Not my ideal choice, but given the layout of our new place, it was the most practical solution. Third package will be the furniture we ordered for Skyler and Gauge's rooms. We ordered some unfinished alder wood furniture with plans to finish them ourselves. Next week, my new Yamaha rx-v2600 receiver should arrive. I already received the HDMI cable I ordered last week. I still need to get a 15 foot component cable. Hopefully, I can schedule the wiring for the speakers some time next week.

Material things

2006-06-19T08:20:00.000-04:00

I always feel a little selfish when I add items to the list of things I want. Recently I have wanted a few new things and have been trying to ignore the urge to just go buy them on impulse. Here are a few of things I wanted to buy this year and brief explanations of why I want them. Also, I have listed the potential drawbacks for these purchases.

1) Kids wakeboard: I like to go wakeboarding with my friend Alex as often I as I can. Sometimes, Skyler and Gauge go with us. Skyler really wants to try wakebording but is way too small for the adult size wakeboard that Alex has. However, since I dont own a boat, I am not sure how much use the wakeboard would end up getting used.

2) Boat: Since I have been going out on the water with Alex I have really had a craving to buy a boat. I have always enjoyed water-sports and just cruising around on the water. Wakeboarding is an awesome rush kind of like snowboarding. On the downside, boats are expensive and I don't really have place to keep one.

3) 4-wheelers: For about a year and a half I have wanted to buy a couple of 4-wheelers for the kids. I think they would have an awesome time riding them. I always loved riding motorcycles and other terrain vehicles when I was younger. Once I buy the 4-wheelers I will also have to buy a trailer to haul them a around on. Also, I don't really want to take the kids an hour away to go ride them and I don't know of any place they could ride them by our house.

Besides these things, my second monitor at home has recently started to give me a bunch of problems. it doesn't want to turn on after being off for an extended period. It has a pink haze to it and seems unrelated to current settings setup. If I replace one I almost have to replace both to keep them as a matched set.

I know, there are kids starving in 3^rd world countries and I am worried about dual monitors and a boat. Like I said, I feel guilty for being selfish but I work hard and I like to play hard too. Besides what is the use of working really hard if you can't enjoy it?

Go Gauge, go!

2006-05-15T20:36:00.000-04:00

Recently, Gauge reluctantly made the leap from toddler style, training wheel, bike riding to full fledged free wheelin. Not only am I very proud of him for his no training wheel accomplishment, he is extremely proud of himself. Gauge said, "I think I am going to trying lots of new things now." Gauge is not the fast action, extreme sport daredevil that Skyler is. Gauge is more reserved and slower to try new things.

On the day of his accomplishment I said to him, "I think today we are going to take your training wheels off." He replied, "I am not going to do it, and you can't make me." Little did he know in just a few hours he would be cruising without training wheels. After much coaxing and negotiating, I finally convinced him that we would do it together. He finally gave in but was still pouting and very hesitant.

At first he was leaning on me entirely. It was like he still had the training wheels on and I was the training wheels. For at least an hour, I held him upright as he peddled down the street and back up. We worked on a little thing I told him (A little bit of lean and a little bit of turn). This was to get him used to being able to turn without being in the full upright position as with training wheels.He finally started to get the hang of it. I could finally let go of him for a few seconds at a time. That was about as far as I got with him on the first day.

On the second day he was very excited to get out and try again. This time after only a few minutes I could let go for several seconds. One major obstacle for him was that he wanted to keep looking back at me. You can imagine the trouble this might cause a new rider. Not to worry, as we quickly over came that.

By the end of day two he was able to ride the entire length of the street with me running by his side to help him when it was time to turn around.

On day three he had even more enthusiasm as the thought of going out and riding his bike. He quickly remembered everything he had learned to that point and was ready for the next challenge. On this day we started the turning. It was little tought for him at first be we kept saying to each other, "A little bit of turn and a little bit of lean." Bingo! He got it. Day three was the day that he could ride down the street, turn around and come back.

We still have to work on him being able to get started all on his own. He can do about half of the time by him self. He has no problem dropping the bike and jumoing off when he wants to stop, though

My littlest man is growing up... ...Go Gauge, go!

Walt Disney World�

2006-04-24T08:13:00.000-04:00

We have been back from a our Disney trip for about two weeks now. The trip was pretty awesome. We all had a good time. While I am certainly not a professional vacation planner, I have some tips if you plan to take your family to Disney.

Tip #1 - Buy a good disney vacation book

Buying one of these planning books that are available at all major book stores really helps you to manage some of your vacation expectations. You can get an idea of what the cuisine and cost are on different areas of the parks. You can make reservation for breakfast, lunch and dinner including character dinners for your kids(These were pretty cool). You get an idea of what parks have what rides and the height requirements for those rides; in case you are bringing small children.

Tip #2 - Book your trip in advance

Take the time to plan out your trip and decide where you want to stay and when you plan to go. If you end up staying in a disney resort, they provide transportation to all the parks andwill event pick you from the airport (very convenient). You can save a lot of money if you reserve your travel and lodging in advance. We waited too long and it cost us about twice as much. It will save you a great deal of frustration, some serious coinage and help to ensure that you can make the use of your valuable disney time.

Tip #3 - Prepare to work

If you are are making a family trip to disney and want to get the most out of your stay, you will likely be trying to schedule some character meals and hit all the major attractions. This will require a little a effort on your part. You will be doing a lot of walking (sometimes running) to make it from one place to the next to catch the next showtime or event. Disney has a pretty good show schedule. If planned correctly you can just about bounce from one show to the next; hitting a few rides on the way as necessary. Wear comforatble shoes and bring your sunblock.

Tip #4 - Take advantage of the fast passes

These little babies are major time savers. Basically, you just go up to the fast pass machine for a certain ride or attraction, insert you park pass and receive a voucher that will allow you to bypass the line for a given ride. There are only two little catches to the fast pass. The first is that you should pay attention to the listed fast pass time for that ride. Some rides are so busy that the ride time might be 3 hours in the future. The second catch is that you cannot get another fast pass until the time arrives for your first pass to be active. So, you can see how getting fast pass to go on a ride 3-4 hours from now might screw up the rest of your ride plans for a few hours.

Tip #4 - Relax

After all, you are on vacation. Take in the sites. Go out and eat somewhere you would't eat at home. Give yourself some downtime. It is worth taking a day to just hang out by the pool. You will appreciate it later.

Overall, the trip went well. We did not experience any major disasters. However, Skyler and Gauge decided they were gonna fight for practically the whole trip.

What's going on?

2006-04-19T08:30:00.000-04:00

It seems commonplace for people to become lethargic when it comes to keeping their blogs and websites up to date. I am certainly guilty of it at times. However, I try to post a blog entry at least every one to two weeks. Most of the time people say that there is just nothing to write about. For me, it seems like I always have things I want to write about but don't seem to have the time to shape the entry into a well formed, readable and intreresting post. It is very often that I also want to add photos to my entries but I don't want to break down and use FlickR and I haven't had time to roll my own photo solution. So, somewhere in between all that lack of time and whatever else slows me down, I post the periodic entry and move on with my life.

Anyway, there have actually been a lot of things going on. Here is a snapshot:

Work has been pretty busy for me for the last couple of months.

I have been working with Langdon to build our arcade cabinets.

The new appliances we purchased for our new home have been a nightmare (I almost blogged about it)

We are still trying to get moved in to the new house completely.

I have been working on building a new desk for my home office from scratch

We just took the kids to Disneyworld for a week.(I will post about it and show a couple of photos)

These are all of my excuses for not getting everything else done that I want to do.

Angry at the system

2006-03-27T10:14:00.000-05:00

I took Monday, March 20^th off from work to spend the day with Tiffany. Even though we had the weekend off together, we rarely just get to hang out together. The plan was that we would take the kids to school and the babysitter for the day and head out to do some furniture shopping or whatever. In general, we planned to just cruise around.

Unfortunately, the following series of events will prevent the relaxing day off from taking place. One thing that has come up lately is the fact that we have moved from Chesapeake to Virginia Beach. W had planned to keep Skyler at Greenbrier Primary and let him finish out the year. After all, he has been there since kindergarten and the school only goes up to second grade. So, technically he is a senior. In Skyler's excitement he shared his recent move with his friends a school. Once his teacher caught wind of the move, she promptly sent home a letter stating that we needed to update his profile information with the school.

Fair enough, we would update his info card and send it back in. Gotcha! Now she had our new residence info on file she made sure to notify administration of the out of district move and requested that we contact administration to get special permission to keep Skyler in the school for the remainder of the year. Additionally, we were led to believe that this was no big deal and because it was so late in the year, Skyler would be able to finish out the year.

Administration would not allow it. Tiffany took Skyler to school and then took a trip over to the administration office. The first lady basically told her, "You don't live in this city any more and therefore don pay taxes for your child to attend school here. He will have to leave school today." Tiffany asked to speak to the supervisor. Reluctantly, the woman agreed.

While much nicer that the previous woman, this supervisor woman was no more flexible. Tiffany said, "it seems to be in our child's best interest to finish out the school year here. It is already into the final 9 weeks of the school year." She went on to say, "It says here on your request form that you offer paid tuition as an alternative. I would like to explore this further." "We don't actually offer that, it is just a generic form that we use.", said the woman. After much back and forth, the woman agreed not to make him leave school that day. He could stay until Friday and finish out the week.

That being said, Tiffany called me and asked if I could go to the new school and get the necessary enrollment information. I did. After doing so, we decided we needed to find a good way to break the news to Skyler. Something besides, "Hey, say goodbye to your friends because you don't go to school here anymore." Keeping in mind that he has no idea that he will even have to change schools this year.

We decided to go pick him up for lunch. We figured we would let him pick anywhere he wanted to go for lunch. He chose Joe's Crab Shack. He said he wanted lobster. Why not? Lobster it is! On the way to the restaurant we explained the circumstances to him in a way that we though would make sense to him. We encouraged him to try and enjoy the rest of the week. We said to get whatever he wanted from the lunch menu and get a snack if he wanted, too. We told him to get the numbers of his friends that he might want to invite to his birthday party in April.

He took the news very well. He almost seemed excited to try something new. What a huge relief. I was terrified that he might freak out and not be happy at all. So, we finished our lobster lunch and took him back to school.

At this point, it is nearly one o'clock in the afternoon and we have to pick the kids up from the sitters in 3 hours. Tiffany decided to go to the Treasure's office with me so I could get my business license for the City of Virginia Beach. That process should have taken 15 minutes. Instead, it took 1.5 hours. I had to make trips 5 between 2 buildings and 3 rooms to complete the process.

Whew! What a day. After a quick trip to The Home Depot(I don't even remember what for)we finally went and picked up the kids. Meanwhile we have to figure out how to get the kids to and from day-care now and the bus-stop.

Sometimes, the system makes me angry.

[Lowers head in dissapointment]

2006-03-21T07:43:00.000-05:00

I spent a decent amount of time trying to come up with a title for this entry. It seems I neglected to read all the information regarding the Shamrock 8k this year. Last year I picked up my race packet the morning of the race. This year that was not possible. Long story short, I did not run. Sure I could have run anyway. I could have shown up, with no race number or time chip and run. Then I would have not officially been in the race. Shoot. I can unnoficially run at home anytime I like. So... ...that sucks. A lesson to be learned for sure. Pay attention to details!

Month #3, Week #2: Training complete

2006-03-13T12:52:00.000-05:00

I have officially completed my training schedule for next week's race. I got up to a distance of 6 miles and my best time was about 7:55(MM:SS) average per mile for that distance. Even though my training is over, I still intend to run this week. Not as far, but hopefully I will make couple of short runs and try to get my time down.

My goal is still to complete the 8K in 40 minutes or less. I think I will be able to do it but I am a little bit nervous. 8 minute miles for 5 miles is a pretty aggressive pace for me.

After 10 weeks of training, I am happy to have stuck with the training schedule even when it got really tough. I doubt I will run next year, but who knows. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

Month #3, Week#1: A new appreciation

2006-03-06T10:17:00.000-05:00

This was the first week that I have ever run 6 miles. I have a new appreciation for long-distance runners. It just seems so difficult to condition your body to run such long distances. I am burning about 120 calories per mile. So, if you do the math, that is about 720 calories per run. That is almost a third of an average diet for someone in my height and weight catergory.

Should I be eating more? I am not sure. I know I have lost a few pounds. Plus, I am not drinking beer or any alcohol while training (except on my Birthday). I have noticed that many pairs of my pants have some extra room in the waist now.

I only have one more week of official training. After that I may just try and do a couple of short runs to cut my pace time down. Either way, in just 11 days I will have to put all this training to the test. If I can hit 40 minutes for the Shamrock I will be completely satisfied. if I come it at 42-43 minutes, I can live with that but wont be as happy.

Month #2, Week #4: A test of endurance

2006-02-26T21:18:00.000-05:00

This week was unusually tough for running. For no reason in particular, I struggled to make my 5 mile runs. The weather was cold, but not too cold. Scheduling time to run was difficult, but not impossible. Motivation was low, but not non-exsistent. Maybe the combination of all those things made the experience tougher than it needed to be.

My toughest challenge lies ahead. I will now begin 6 miles 2 times a week for the next 2 weeks. I have never trained to that distance. I realize it is not exactly a giant leap for mankind, but it will be a significant accomplishment for one Noah DiCenso. I honestly believe that I need to be running 3 days a week instead of 2. It seems like when I run a Mon/Wed schedule, the 4 days off until the next run is too much time. I am gonna try and squeeze in a 3^rd run day this week. I probably won't run full distance. In fact, I may just try and run for speed on the third day and just go for 2 miles. I hope I don't over-do-it this close to the race.

Surprise, you are old!

2006-02-20T17:36:00.000-05:00

Friday started out as a normal day. I got up and went to work like I always do Mon-Fri. I had to attend a 3 hour meeting on base to gather requirements for our current project. When I came back to the office, I apparently missed an opportunity to score a free Birthday lunch from some bros at work. "Dang it! Next Year!" Then I attended another meeting that lasted about an hour and 30 minutes (Grrrh). By this time it was 3:30pm. That is time for me to leave.

Two things that set this day apart from a normal day. First, I got to head straight over and pick up the keys to the new house after work. Second, I was hooking up with Langdon after that to work on our sweet MAME cabinets. So, despite a day full of meetings and a missed lunch opportunity, the day was bound to shape up.

Sure enough, after work I called Tiffany to meet me at the new house to see it together <3. That went well. I will give more house details later. Afterwards, I called Lang and headed to his place for some serious wood working action. Shortly after I arrived, we realized that we needed to exchange the slotting bit he picked up for a different one. That kind of sucked. Oh well, off we went.

After having to go back and forth between Lowes and Home Depot to get exactly what we needed, I received a call from Tiffany. I almost didn't answer it because we were in the middle of wrapping up our purchases. However, I did answer it, just to hear "The dishwasher is broken and there is water all over the floor, can you please come home"? I agreed, and said I would be there in fifteen minutes. After hopping in Langs VIP parked vehicle we cruised back to my house.

We arrived at my place and I swiftly made my way to the front door. Lang wasn't far behind. After entering, I headed straight to where the puddle of water should have been. Only, there was no puddle of water. I asked, "Did you get the shop vac out?" Tiffany said, "Umm, uhh". "Did you get the shop-vac out", I asked again? The reply was similar. As I headed closer to the dishwasher to inspect the faulty equipment, I was startled momentarily frightened by what happened next. A group of people jumped out from behind the wall and yelled, "Surprise!!!".

Tiffany had tricked me. Langdon had tricked me. All of these people were in on the trick. I was dressed like a bum. I had been prepared to do some wood working, not for a surprise Birthday Party. It took at least 15 minutes for it all to sink in. Jeez, I am dense sometimes.

What an awesome surprise. Many of the crew I know from work and their wives came out to participate. You guys did a good job. In fact, a great job. I thank you all for being there and making my Birthday that much more wonderful. I thank you Tiffany for masterminding the whole plan (and whoever helped you). It is not every year you turn 30. What a great 30^th it was. Thanks again.

Month #2, Week #3: Ten miles to go

2006-02-19T20:10:00.000-05:00

I only have 10(5x2) more miles to run before I start 6 miles 2 times a week for 2 weeks. Unfortunately, I came to realize some basic facts this week. First of all, my 7:22 mile was not correct. Second, five miles is harder to run than four.

As for the first fact, here is the scoop: I estimated that the loop I have been running was a mile. It is actually .92 of a mile. That kinda sucks; sucks in this context equals significant impact on my actual lap time. I came to know the real distance thanks to Cameron. So, I guess it is his fault. Actually, Cameron let me borrow his Garmin Forerunner 201 GPS watch. It was awesome. I was able to accurately determine the distance of the loop I was running via GPS.

"What was your actual mile time", you ask? It was really 7:52/mi(MM:SS) according to Garmin. I am a little disappointed, but it is still under 8 minutes per mile. That pace will keep me on track for the Shamrock. Once again, my goal for the shamrock is to run the 8K in 40 minutes or less.