It’s bad enough that World of Warcraft has been out for as long as it has and that it’s still extremely buggy and unstable (from what I’ve been hearing – I haven’t been playing that much lately). But their patching system uses this annoying BitTorrent based crap which basically kills my connection. Generally speaking, I’m fine with peer to peer applications and file sharing and what not, but it should be done at my own discression – not for something that I’ve already paid for, that I continue to pay for on a recurring monthly basis, and for something that I have to download in order to play something for which I’ve already paid for. Why should I have to donate my bandwidth so Blizzard can save money by not buying more patching servers and bandwidth to distribute the patches themselves? Grrr…

Seeing as this site is ending up more about me and less geared towards triathlon community in general (which is where I was planning on taking it but was really too lazy to create anything), I’m going to move this blog from its current home to here, under my “primary” domain. No point in paying for an additional domain just for this. Please update your bookmarks when you get a chance. I still have this domain for a couple more weeks until it expires, so you have some time. Thanks. :)

Yesterday, the toenail on my right big toe split in two horizontally and partially fell off. I say partially because the right side didn’t completely fall off, so I’m left with a toenail of which the upper left portion is gone, but the other pieces are still there. It’s hard to explain, but it’s kind of gross and odd looking. This is the second toenail that I’ve had issues with since I started doing triathlons.

Now I understand why some hard core runners just have their toenails removed completely. They really don’t seem to serve much purpose. If it didn’t look weird and I wasn’t worried about how painful it would be to rip them off, I’d consider getting that done.

With inkjet printer prices being as low as they are, it pains me to shop for a new inkjet cartridge which usually ends up being a significant percentage of what a brand new printer itself would cost. My HP 932c was out of color ink and a new HP cartridge was going to cost me $30 for the 19 ml one and almost double that for the “full” one. While walking around the mall, I saw a kiosk for Island Inkjet and stopped by to see what they had to offer. They offered to refill my cartridge to the full amount for only $20. I figured what the hell. A full cartridge for 1/3 the price? I might as well try it.

I came back home and installed my newly filled cartridge in my old printer. It had all sorts of streakiness and what not when it was printing though. Despite performing “cleaning” operations on it from my PC (who knows what that actually does), I couldn’t get it to start printing correctly. Skeptical, I took a look at the information sheet that they gave me along with my refilled cartridge:

Problem: I have run 2-3 clean cycles and still have streaks.
Solution: Remove the cartridge from the printer. Fill a small dish with 1/2″ of hot tap water and stand cartridge upright in water for 5 minutes. Wipe dry gently, re-install and run through one clean cycle.

I honestly didn’t expect anything to really happen and that I be taking a trip back to Island Inkjet to ask for a refund. But I did as they suggested, and voila! I now have a full color ink cartridge for a significantly less price. I’ve only printed out a couple of things since then so I can’t speak for the longevity of their ink, but so far so good. If you’re in the market for some new ink, it might be worth a shot.

Dear Noodles & Company,

Shame on you for being extra greedy. As if it’s not bad enough to charge your customers $6 for pasta which you’re probably paying $0.25 per serving, now you’re going to start cutting your dessert portions in half? Is the $1.48 that you were making on that 1/2 cup of rice krispies really not enough? You feel the need to now make that one 1/4 cup?!

You’re now on “the list” of places that I’m boycotting. Congratulations. Instead of making a little bit more money per serving of one of your desserts, you’ve now lost the entree, dessert, and drink profits from me and whomever else I would happen to be dining with at that time. I will be sure to pass the word of your greed along to others so they too will avoid your evil ways.

May bugs and roaches infest your inventories and may you die a horrible, lonely, and poor death.

Sincerely,
Me

Ugh. This week has been crawling by at a snail’s pace. I’m leaving for a weekend trip to Chicago tomorrow. I can’t wait until this day is over.

The weather here is overcast, cold, windy, and just generally miserable. I can’t wait for Spring. The winter never really bothered me before but that was probably because I just sat on my fat behind and didn’t care about what was going on outside. I’ve been wanting to do longer workouts, but the thought of riding on my trainer just isn’t appealing at all. And I really hate getting dressed in layers and layers of clothes to go running outside. I just want to be able to run in shorts and a t-shirt. Is that so much to ask? One of my good friends is in San Diego, of course, and calls me on a regular basis to let me know how nice it is out there. Bastard. But I’ll be in the Caribbean before too long, so he’s going to get his!

I’ve still be thinking quite a bit about Dylan this week. A few of my friends were hit harder by the whole thing and I was almost feeling guilty for not feeling as bad as they had. I suppose that I really only knew him and interacted with him for one year as opposed to my other friends who knew him for two or three years (or more) in that capacity. Still, he’s probably the closest person to me that I’ve known that’s passed away. I was reading his obituary yesterday and just found out that he was supposed to get married in just two months. Having just gotten engaged, that really hits close to home. I hope his family and fiance are all hanging in there. :(

I wish I would have posted this first part of my post soon after it happened. Frankly, it just doesn’t seem like I’m doing the occasion justice clumping these topics together. But I’d like to clear my head…

Last Friday, Carol and I got engaged. I know I had posted that we were talking about it a couple posts ago. And this probably came as a shock to some of you who know me a little better seeing that I got divorced not all that long ago. But things just felt so right between us. You know how you can know someone for years and not really feel like you know them, while other people you can just meet and feel like you’ve known them forever? Well, the more I’m with her, the more I know that we were meant to be together. We just go together plain and simple. I’ll spare you all the details of the engagement (mostly because the alpha male in me doesn’t want to get into the embarrassing details). When I’ve been talking to people about it on the phone, I’ve actually had her describe the evening instead of me. It just works better that way.

So, it was a wonderful weekend. My bonus and raise hit my bank account last Friday, I signed up to do another Ironman this year, and I got engaged! Here I am floating on cloud 9 thinking that the world is wonderful and everything is grand… and then the phone rings. It’s a good friend of mine. I haven’t talked to him in months, but I can immediately tell from his voice that something is wrong. After an uncomfortable “long time no talk”, he spills it on me – one of our friends from college was killed this past Friday in a motorcycle accident. It literally sent chills down my spine. Just eight months ago, we had all hung out in Daytona Beach together for a bachelor party and enjoyed our time together as reunited college friends. The idea that he is no longer with us is just surreal. I wasn’t even that close to him, but he certainly wasn’t a stranger by any means. And if I’m feeling as bad as I do right now about all of this, I can’t imagine what his family, closest friends, and his fiance are going through right now. I’m just sitting here in shock at the thought of it all. Something like this certainly puts things in perspective. Suddenly, nothing else but life itself seems all that important.

I don’t know what else to say…

Dylan, you were a good man… We’re going to miss you.

My Ironman Wisconsin Community Fund checks are in the mail. Looks like I’m a go for Ironman #2. *gulp*