Monday, March 29, 2010

Correction for the short loop post

Correction for the previous post!!

After actually doing the calculations, I burned roughly 3000 calories.  I was way off.  I think that's why I was so hungry by the end!  I haven't burned that much in a very very long time  :)

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Wait! HOW far is the short loop?!?

Before reading this, know that I have only ridden my distance road bike about 3 times in the last 4 months--all 9-mile rides.  Also keep in mind that the farthest distance I have ridden in 9 years is 25 miles at one time.  I have just been out of shape on the bike.  However, I am on a road to getting in shape!!  Mentally first of course!

The day started off somewhat slowly.  My alarm went off and all I wanted to do was sleep in.  However, I got up and got ready for my bike ride.  I was supposed to meet at the Bike Barn on Bay Area Blvd for 7:30am.  I did.  I went not knowing what to expect and not knowing anyone there.  It turned out to be over 100 people out there getting ready for a great ride on a beautiful morning.

There are different groups for different average speeds.  First are the racers, then the 21-23 mph, the 18-19 mph, and lastly, the cruisers who go 15-16.  The cruisers usually stop for coffee halfway through and just take their time.  The racers and 21-23mph are too fast for me right now.  I decided to go with the 18-19mph group.  I heard there was a short loop and a long loop.  I felt pretty good going with them thinking I would do about 20-25 miles and be done in a little over an hour.  After all, we had a big day planned (looking at homes and visiting with friends).

I was wrong!!  Once we got riding, I asked someone next to me how far the different rides were and he told me the short one was 44 miles and the long was 65ish.  WHAT THE?!?!?!?!!?  What did I get myself into?

It wasn't so bad for the first hour.  After riding about 18 miles, we stopped at a gas station for bathroom breaks and drinks.  Once we got riding again, we were in the middle of this rural town I have never been in before (Alvin).  We were riding through back country and I was just following the man in front of me.  We were riding in two pace lines with about 12 people in each.  The two people leading "peel off" to the right and left once they have pulled the group for a while (the leaders help "carve" the way through the wind while others can draft off of them).  About 25 miles into the ride, I finally made my way to the front and started pulling the group.  Every now and then I looked down at my speedometer to see we were going 19-20 for a while.

Time to take a left turn and time for me to drink some water.  Where were we at this point??  I had no clue.  After the group turned and I dropped back to the end of the line, I put my water bottle back in the cage and--AAHHHH--it fell out!  Everything in me said to leave it and keep riding but I knew we had to have about 20 miles left and I would really need that water. I turned around, stopped my bike, and picked it up, only to look up and see the group was nearly half a mile away from me!!!  I knew I had to ride faster than them to catch them, mainly because if I didn't, I had no idea how to get home from where I was.

After doing about 21 mph by myself, into the wind, after already riding 25 miles at a pace I have not ridden in years, I was beginning to lose hope of catching them.  That hope was killed when they gradually got further and further away from me.  I was beginning to figure out where we were, when.....YES, GOD answered my prayers!!!!  A few of them had to use the rest room so they stopped at a gas station!!  I finally caught up after 4-5 miles of intense riding by myself.

I was able to ride with the group for the last 15 miles or so.  During those last miles, I didn't have normal mirages of water like people do in deserts.  Instead I could taste the succulent flavor of a juicy bacon cheddar burger in my mouth and see images of hot tubs and couches.  All I wanted to do was get off that bike, sit down and relax for a long, long time. All my 200+ lb self had had for breakfast was 2 small muffins and a banana.   By the time I got back to my car, I had ridden 44 miles with over 2 hours logged on the bike that day.  Needless to say, my legs were pretty dang sore.  Amazingly enough, today is not too bad for them.

Overall, it was a great ride.  I think I burned nearly 1800 calories in 2 hours!!!  At least that's what it felt like :)

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Parties, Pea in a Pod, & Police

Wow, we had a fun-filled Saturday today!  It started off with sleeping in a little bit this morning.  We then went to a friend of ours' house for a birthday party.  Blair Ramby turned 2 and had an airplane themed party (his father, Chris, is a pilot).  When we got there, Gabriel hung out for a bit, slept, woke up, ate, hung out some more and was then ready to go home :)

We definitely messed with his sleep schedule today--not something you do with a near 4-month old.  We got home at 4:30ish and had some time to rest before the next party which was at 7pm.  It was a St. Patrick's Day party so it was "come in your best/worst green attire" kind of thing.  Erin and I looked pretty normal, but our son was far from that :)

We decided to borrow a costume from a friend of ours....a pea in a pod costume!!!  Gabriel was precious and the center of the party.  He came in runner up for best/worst outfit--he won a pair of green lucky socks that will fit him in 6 years :)

On our way home, Erin decides she is going to go 8 mph over the speed limit (48 in a 40).  Not too bad, except for the fact that no one else was around and so we got pulled over!!!  The cop was very nice and could see we were just trying to get home with a sleeping baby in the back seat, so he let us go on a verbal warning.  In Erin's defense, she was telling me a story and just didn't realize how fast she was going.

My little green pea!!


Look how cute!


I guess you can call us a very "green family"  :)

Proud parent of a pea in a pod!!

Friday, March 19, 2010

Check out the ISS

Just a reminder to many....tonight starts a string of nights where you can see the International Space Station flying through the sky.  It all depends on what state you live in, but if you are anywhere in Texas, LA, MS and such, you will most likely get some amazing sightings.

Here is the link:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/sightings/cities/skywatch.cgi?country=United+States

Have fun viewing and let me know if you actually see it.  Remember that it does not blink (those are planes) and it travels at a constant speed.  If you have any questions, just ask.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Gabriel does the ChosMan sign

Erin and I met when I was working at Chosatonga.  At Chos, we have this symbol of a man doing what Gabriel happen to do one day when we were about to change his diaper.  He wasn't even 2 months old when this happened.

This is the ChosMan of Chosatonga

You know he is the son of a true ChosMan when he comes out of the womb doing the Chos-symbol!!!!

Future Chosatonga camper/counselor

He knows where he belongs :)  I just love how cute he is!!!!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Unaware driver slams into rock slide

Some of us have those days where we are not really here on Earth, but rather in another world.  This guy was having one of those days when he slammed into a rock slide that had already happened:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2010/03/15/von.tn.rock.slide.wbir?hpt=T2

Imagine if there were cyclists or joggers on the road!

Monday, March 15, 2010

Blaise William Perryman update #3

Blaise is coming home from the hospital today!!!!  Assuming the oxygen tank at home gets fixed properly, Blaise William will have his first day at home since his birth ,TODAY!!!

We still must keep him in our prayers as he requires oxygen, but at least he is coming home!!!  Stay tuned...I will update you on his arrival!

Saturday, March 13, 2010

You don't think I can do what?!?

Have you ever done something that someone was daring you to do and wished you could take it back?  Something you knew was going to be a bad idea, but you did it anyway?  This happened to me Thursday night....

We were at family dinner (something we do every Thursday with our friends--big potluck essentially).  Matt Coles brought up the idea of trying to consume a large amount of cinnamon at one time.  Large = tablespoon....I said no!  However, I did agree to try a teaspoon of it.  Gerry Emig also decided to take on the challenge with a little bit less than a teaspoon.  Little did I know that it is very hard to swallow this much cinnamon at one time.

Gerry and I had a crowd of 5 or so watching this event in the backyard.  Did you know cinnamon dries up everything in your mouth and throat?  I didn't!! I began hacking up cinnamon and air....the cupcake I ate about 30 minutes before that with chocolate icing, came back up along with some of my dinner.  Yes, I began throwing up in the Coles' backyard while everyone pointed and laughed--I will be honest....I would have been laughing too and was, slightly, as I projectiled some tasty items.

I had cinnamon coming out of my nose as well even later when I was at home.  My thoughts:  I will never again try to swallow a large amount of cinnamon even if somewhere dares me to no matter how much I think I can.  If I ever find myself in that situation again, I will try to salivate as much as possible before hand as it will help lubricate my esophagus so the fine powder cinnamon has help going down.

Yes, I still like cinnamon even after that night.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Spring Forward / Daylight Savings is this Sunday, March 14!!

Don't forget to move your clocks an hour ahead this weekend.  Daylight savings (Spring Forward) is this Sunday at 2 am!!!

Chili Earthquake moves city/shortens length of a day

We all know what kind of destruction an earthquake can do to the surface of a country.  But did you have any idea how much it can do to the rotation of the Earth?  Or how far it can actually move a city?  Check out what NASA reported on CNN.com:

(CNN) -- The magnitude-8.8 earthquake that rocked the west coast of Chile last month was violent enough to move the city of Concepcion at least 10 feet to the west and the capital, Santiago, about 11 inches to the west-southwest, researchers said.


The quake also shifted other parts of South America, as far apart as the Falkland Islands and Fortaleza, Brazil.

The results were reached via global positioning satellite measurements taken before and after the February 27 quake by teams from The Ohio State University, the University of Hawaii, the University of Memphis and the California Institute of Technology, as well as agencies across South America.

NASA scientists have also credited the quake with shifting the Earth's axis enough to create shorter days. The change is negligible, but still worth noting: Each day should be 1.26 microseconds shorter, according to preliminary calculations. A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.

A large quake -- like the one that hit Chile's Maule region -- shifts massive amounts of rock and alters the distribution of mass on the planet.

When that distribution changes, it changes the rate at which the planet rotates. And the rotation rate determines the length of a day.

"Any worldly event that involves the movement of mass affects the Earth's rotation," Benjamin Fong Chao, of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said while explaining the phenomenon in 2005.

Despite the tragedy of the earthquake, which killed hundreds of Chileans, scientists see opportunities to gain valuable information in the aftermath.

"The Maule earthquake will arguably become one of the, if not the most important, great earthquakes yet studied," said Ben Brooks of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii.

"We now have modern, precise instruments to evaluate this event."

From another article on CNN.com about the same story:

He determined that the quake should have moved Earth's figure axis about 3 inches (8 centimeters). The figure axis is one around which Earth's mass is balanced. That shift in axis is what may have shortened days.


Such changes aren't unheard of.

The magnitude 9.1 earthquake in 2004 that generated a killer tsunami in the Indian Ocean shortened the length of days by 6.8 microseconds.

On the other hand, the length of a day also can increase. For example, if the Three Gorges reservoir in China were filled, it would hold 10 trillion gallons (40 cubic kilometers) of water. The shift of mass would lengthen days by 0.06 microsecond, scientists said.

Very interesting.  If we have enough earthquakes in our lifetime we may see the number of days in a year go from 365 to 364.  Maybe, maybe not.  Hope you found these articles as fascinating as I did!

Monday, March 8, 2010

Wow, what a weekend!

We had a very interesting/fun weekend!  Friday night we babysat for some friends of ours so they could go on a date night.  We alternate babysitting so we can still have dates every now and then.  Saturday, Erin and I went to the company picnic for Booz Allen Hamilton. 

We did not know when we were leaving how windy it was going to be!  Erin had to run home while I tried to comfort our cold son :(  After getting him all bundled up, we had a softball game.  It felt great to play softball since I have not played in a while.  When we got Gabriel home, we realized that he had gotten sun/wind burnt.  Wow, we felt like awful parents!

Sunday was a little better.  We were prepared for wind when we went to Clear Lake Park to play full contact football (I did, Erin did not).  Wow, was that fun!!  We had a tent set up with a tarp on the side to protect the women who were there and babies from the wind. 

So you would think I got injured making a tackle or some serious block...NOPE, I sprained my thumb pushing on someone's shoulder to get him further away from the ball.  Yep, just my thumb and his shoulder....and now my thumb is swollen, and for a small period of time black and blue.

Gabriel was showing signs of not making it through a complete mass so Erin stayed home with him while I got my prayer on.  I decided while at church, that I wanted to surprise Erin with some flowers.  She was very excited and close to tears.  I would like to think it was soley because of the gesture, but I think it had a lot to do with a crying baby all weekend and the attempt to conquer a cold all at the same time.  Either way, she liked them!

Extra note:  Gabriel slept for 10 whole hours (we think it's partially because he is sick, but 10 hours is 10 hours no matter how you label it!!!!)!!!!!!

Friday, March 5, 2010

Fear not...not all politicians act on impluse

I know people around the country involved with NASA's Constellation and Shuttle programs have been facing confusing/unpredictable futures.  Even I have questioned whether or not I will be working with Constellation a year from now, because of Obama's actions.

Well, I heard something on the radio and then was shown this article on the internet.  It looks like there are some politicians trying to help out with this situation.  Will they get people their jobs back?  Not sure about that.  Will it help extend Shuttle?  No one really knows.  No one really knows much of anything right now as this all hangs in limbo.  One thing though, is that this article was somewhat reassuring to know people are fighting for us who are "low on the totem pole."  To them:  I (we) appreciate everything you are doing for us!!!

One thing that many people don't know about the space program is that if Shuttle retires as planned right now and Constellation gets canned soon, it will actually cost NASA more in the long run (partially my opinion).  IF both of those happen, the United States will end up relying on the Russians to get our astronauts to ISS.  The price tag per seat...$50 million and could make it to upwards of $100 million, PER SEAT! Sometimes we send 2 up there for a mission.  Good idea Obama!  Let's rely on the Russians to charge whatever it is they want without a plan for the U.S. in place.  Real smart.

At least some people have their heads on straight....

Here is a link to the article:

http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2010/03/lawmakers-bill-extend-shuttle-2015-hlv/

Give it a read...it's interesting.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Blaise remains in NICU

So far I have not heard anything new with Blaise. He remains in the NICU (level 3).  I am asking you to all continue to think and pray for this brave little boy who has only been in this world for a few weeks now.  Let's give him the prayers and blessings to get him out of the hospital and strong like a Perryman!!

God bless and I will update you as soon as I find things out.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Look out for the ISS this week!!

Don't forget about the ISS sightings!!!  You can see it most nights this week.

Go here for your state and city: Click this to choose State & City

With most of the modules attached, it's the brightest it has ever been!!
ISS as of 2/23/10
How cool would it be to work in that lab!

Betsy update #3

Betsy has come home!!  She is at home doing some more recovering and will begin making the daily trips with Trey to see Blaise starting Tuesday or Wednesday.  Thank you for your prayers!!  Keep 'em rolling still because the doctors still don't have a diagnosis for Blaise.

I will continue to keep you all in the loop as I find out updates. After talking to Trey this morning, I can't fathom how tired he is on top of all the stress these past few weeks have brought to him.  It is the persistence of your prayers that are getting this family though this.

He traveled alone to see Blaise today and will be with him until this afternoon.

God bless!