managed to get a shot of myself at the zoo, as well.

well, i put in my 40 miles this past saturday on the bike.  sunday we went to the san antonio zoo to celebrate Mother’s Day.  my goal this weekend is to go fishing. of course, after i put in my customary 40 miles.  my goal for the summer is to wear out my bike’s tires.  perhaps one of these days i’ll take my boy out for a spin on my boat if the sun decides to sleep in.

so the first time i was out cycling, i saw a tarantula crossing the tarmac.  the second time i went out i almost ran over a decent sized ribbon snake.  saturday, hiking around the neighborhood with Ryter i almost stepped on a tarantula.  today, out for a stroll with the fam, we came across yet another tarantula.  never before have i witnessed a wild tarantula.

MPLS has been down all morning, at work.  none of the 20+ offices can get to the internet and some of the offices’ phone systems are crippled as well (VoIP).

so i’m going to try and get some people to ride at least 42 miles this saturday.  the two extra miles are to make up for not attaining the 40 mile goal last weekend.  if i can’t find any brave souls, i’ll just have to be an army of one accompanied by my playlist.

Sunday is Mother’s Day; Lindsey’s first.  tentative plan is to go to the San Antonio zoo.  i think it would be a blast for everyone!

got a couple of fly rods out the other day, but i’m not sure when i’ll be able to get out there on the water (somewhere/anywhere).  i would feel kind fo guilty spending my “free” time fishing without my family (they can come with, but how much fun would they have watching me flail around in the water?).  at least with cycling i get some exercise and blow off some steam.  maybe fishing could be my way of meditating?  i’ll have to see how the boss feels about that. =)

no updates.  just thought i’d post a couple of photos.

my wife and son returned home to me after a 10 day vacation visiting family.  i’m glad to have them home as i was getting a little worried about constantly talking to myself.  it’s been a little busy at work the past week, and since i didn’t have anyone to come home to, i’ve been bringing my work home with me.  this weekend we’re revamping the IT services in the Austin office and this past weekend i was on call (although, there wasn’t a single incident).

my buddy Thomas had a birthday bash to celebrate his 31st name day.  i decided i wanted to get to the party, and back, using my bicycle.  after all, if Lance can ride all around Austin, why can’t i?  well, it’s a 17 mile ride in each direction.  sounded daunting at first, but i had just done my first 15 mile stretch in a few years just a few days before and i was confident there wouldn’t be any issues.  the ride there took me a couple of hours because i had used google maps’ bicycle directions and had to stop every 10 minutes to check my course.  the way back took right around 1.5 hours going the way i would have with a car.  great party and great personal achievement.  i hope to do a total of 40 miles this weekend.

below is a picture of my booger at the airport on the way back home.  he’s gotten huge in 10 days; got to love that HGH doing its job.

so i found yet another place to share my photos.  it’s much easier to administer than SmugMug and much more intuitive than Flickr.  it is my pleasure to introduce to you Zenfolio.  you can click the “photos” link at the top of this page to peruse the galleries.  the “Family” and “Friends” groups are password-protected to keep things a little more mysterious.

i’ve been slowly falling off my “diet” wagon for a few weeks now.  i’m maintaining my weight, because i’m riding my bike more often nowadays, but i don’t like the fact that i’m not dropping any poundage.  i got a text from a good friend today asking if i knew of a good exercise routine.  i’ve been out of that particular loop for eons now, and could not help him.  however, that inspired me to throw a routine together for myself, which i have shared with my friend.  i was supposed to start today, but i didn’t.  these things take time, folks.  one step at a time.  don’t want to overdo it and burn out too fast…  so i’ll start tomorrow.  hopefully.

soooooo, whatchoo been up to?  me?  not too much, just some chores around the house.  it’s nice now that there aren’t any exams to study for or papers due.  nevertheless, there’s never any rest for the wicked.

i wanted to finish A Clash of Kings before the second season of Game of Thrones started, but alas, i failed to do so.  i stopped reading the book for a long while, but now i’m back in the saddle and looking forward to knocking this book out sooner than later.

got down to 190 the other day, but then we visited some relatives for Easter, here in town, and according to the scales this morning, ate two pounds of Easter eggs.  i’m thinking about riding my bike to work in order to help the wallet from looking anorexic and to get below the 180 mark.  thinking is 50% of doing, right?  it’s not far, 7 miles or so, but it’s the heat on the way home that has me sweating the idea (ha!).

Ryter went swimming fro the first time this weekend.  he enjoyed every minute of it!

hope everyone had a great long weekend, i know i did.  i relocated all of my photos from Smugmug to Flickr.  it’s much cheaper to host my photos on Flickr, but it makes things a little harder, initially, for all of you.  you will need to go to Flickr.com and click the “Sign Up” link in the top left corner.  Then, just sign in using your Yahoo, Google, or Facebook username and password and follow the instructions to create your very own Flickr account (free).  Once you’ve created your Flicker account, and have logged into it, click on the “Contacts” link (at the top, in the middle of the screen).  You will notice a search box that reads “Find a person” (far right, middle of the screen).  in that search box, type the following and click on the search button: VainFX
you will now be presented with a list of people named “VainFX” (only me).  to the right of “VainFX,” you will see a link that reads “Add as contact.”  click that and you will be prompted with a dialog asking me if i’m a friend, family, or you can select both.  it makes no difference how you categorize me.  click the blue “Add Contact” button and you’re done.  i will be notified that you added me as a contact.  if i recognize the name, i will add you to my contacts and you’ll be able to see all my non-public photo sets.

i have my review today at 2pm.

school is that much closer to being done.  i opted not to attend the graduation ceremony since it’s 4 hours drive from here and will be oh so boring.  c’mon,how many graduation ceremonies have you been to where you didn’t wish it was about 8 hours shorter?