goldendesign

I use a Discover It card as one of my reward cards. It's not the greatest and it is useless overseas but it's not entirely useless, I find myself using the 5% quarterly purchase options pretty often. Restaurants and Amazon/Target shopping usually.

Good, although mildly annoyed. Came back from a dual doctor appointment for myself and my wife, the whole way thinking about making some breakfast so I wouldn't be too hungry during my afternoon run but mother in-law had the whole kitchen taken over. All counters were covered and three burners of the stove were taken up. She's making tomato soup? She's only here three more days but holy shit, I'm ready to have my house back. I appreciate her making food and helping out but this was a single bowl of soup for herself, at 8am. Seriously, tomato soup, for one, while I'm shuffling around trying to at least brew some fucking coffee. *end rant*

We were considering Denmark, Norway, and Germany. Got the furthest with Germany and Denmark when we were really gung-ho. Even had an offer on the table from a German company offering settlement assistance. We ended up backing off as the commitment to another language and being a recently immigrated foreigner was a bit daunting. Seems the climate for immigrants worldwide has taken a turn towards insular nationalism. My wife has already learned, and speaks for that matter, a second language and has played the immigrant enough already. Lyra would be fine as she's young and could adapt quickly. We wouldn't and it would show. Maybe more as partially retired digital nomads when Lyra is old enough to be on her own but for now we're sitting tight.

Health is fairly stable. On the cancer front, I still have tumors in my lungs but two years of scans have shown almost no growth. The Dr can surmise either of two things, either they are not tumors and just scarring in the lungs from something else (they don't want to biopsy) or the tumors are not growing. Either way, he said I am going to go about life. If it happens, they grow, I'll know. Until then, why worry? That's why we're seeing a specialist. I've learned one thing in life, training is what makes you successful. If we can train ourselves to work with the way she's wired, and she, in turn, learns to reason through the impulse and listen to that executive function voice in her brain, then we're better for it. He's very good and Lyra responds to him and we seem to be doing well.

Hello all, Wanted to make a post a week or so ago but got dragged away. Sorry, I haven't been here for a bit, have missed partaking in the not-so-witty banter. Life's been a bit hectic as of late. Here's a small play-by-play if you're interested: (TL;DR at the bottom) MIL has been visiting us from Turkey since November, she leaves this Friday. It's been nice having her around, as much as any elderly mother can be. She's gotten to teach Lyra a bunch of Turkish and they've done a pretty good job bonding. My freezer is literally bursting with complex Turkish dishes that she prepped en masse. Lyra has been doing pretty OK in 1st grade. We got her tested and we are not surprised she's ADHD. We're working with a therapist specializing in ADHD young children. She, and us, have been improving. She "retired" from competitive gymnastics, much to the sorrow of a few gyms that were courting her last year. Although she was extremely talented, some drama at her gym caused her to have a sour taste for the sport. She switched to figure skating and we took it easy, hoping she wouldn't immediately gravitate to a competitive level. And now, 3 months later she's ranked Excel beginner and has a coach working with her. Oof, my wallet. WoGolden started a new role where she's now doing data quality analysis in big HR systems. She's been in HR for her career but always gravitated to reporting and processes rather than employee-facing roles. She's challenged, but happy. As for myself, work has kept me head down on a few massive projects that are technically awesome, but forum boring. Work has also kinda pissed me off so I'm slowly putting the feelers out for a new position. We'll see what we'll see there. As for sport, I focused last year mostly on distance for running and ran two half marathons. Almost bonked the last one due to a mess up by the organizers not having water at the mile 7/9 station. Lesson learned, bring my hydration belt. Now that the halfathon distances have dried up in my area for the season, I'm gonna focus mostly on 10k. The goal by the end of summer is to break 48 minutes. TL;DR Busy as hell but happy and hale. Missed you guys and will try and make a better effort in dropping and being engaged.

The most obvious one I'll tell. On I-75 Southbound heading out near Manatee County, I was with a group of motorcycles. I had left my liter bike at home and had my track bike with me, a 2004 Honda CBR 600 F4i. Had slowed down to answer a text. Surprisingly not the first dumb thing I did that evening, I had run a wheelie across the Skyway bridge, in traffic, so you kind of know where I was in terms of considering safety. Anywho, after sending the text I was a mile or so behind the pack and kicked it up a few notches to catch up to them. I was going about 130 (what the camera I had on the bike recorded as top speed during that time) when an old lady in an Oldsmobile came onto the freeway from the on-ramp and immediately went across all four lanes of traffic. I hit my brakes hard enough to ride endo the bike pretty savagely so I wasn't going the full speed but pretty damn close to 100 mph when she hit my front wheel with her back end. I washed out immediately and went head over heels. Landing head and shoulder first. I was wearing full racing leather and top-quality gear at that. The crash report came back that I slid a bit over a quarter of a mile until friction had me start rag-dolling the last 600 feet. I walked away with a few small abrasions and a hyper-extended finger on my left hand. Bike was toast. I sold all my bikes within the next year. Never really had the want to ever ride motorcycles again.

Nice! I've been going down the AppleTV+ (sailing with the Jolly Roger, not paying for a subscription) and been watching The Morning Show and Slough Horses. I find both excellent too. Highly recommend.

Ohh boy. I remember him and I sparing words back in the LF. His PMs to me got a bit crazy/combative and I blocked him eventually.

I'm good. Hit the 11th anniversary of move-in on Thanksgiving.

This is the type of smart feature that companies should be implementing. Alexa, Google, and Siri miss the cue as they focus too much on how they can be up-selling their clients, us. Every time I implement a new service or technology in my life I look at not what features it has, those drastic bullet points in their sales postings, but at the real quality of life improvements it can provide.

I use wired for most cases. I dabble in audiophile-grade sound equipment. I have several headphones, DACs, and amps that cost far more than any wireless set. My favorites right now are my IEM, in-ear monitors, made by THIEAUDIO, called the Monarch MKII's. They are the chef's kiss of audio perfection. Though admittedly diminishing returns in quality are a thing in audio the Moondrop Blessings are a very close second and easy to recommend for a third of the cost. If I want a bit wider soundstage or an over-the-ear option I keep coming back to Meze 109 Pros. Same, beautiful reproduction and an amazing listening experience. That said, I love the practicality of wireless and use them for sports, late-night gaming sessions beside the sleeping wife, and bouncing around the house doing odd chores.

The answer, as always, already exists. https://people.com/pets/six-legged-dog-for-bullied-teen/

First Half-Marathon is on October 29th. I have 20 days to finish putting in the work before my taper. I did a tempo run on Sunday I was supposed to taper off to a long/slow pace and round out the run at about 8 miles. Ended up keeping the gas on for almost the whole run. Not at race pace, but within striking distance. I felt very strong and comfortable. I've been adding in nutrition in my routine too, gels at the 20-minute and 60-minute mark, and my stomach tolerated well and seemed to really give me a solid foundation. I wasn't struggling to finish the last few miles. Probably a combination of being on a trail that had water stations. The usual long runs had minimal so I definitely felt dehydrated on others, the weather was wonderful at 70*, and the gels. Either way, I think I'm looking good. Goals: A: 1:55:00 ~ 8:50/mi B: 2:00:00 ~ 9:10/mi C: Fucking finish

I'm just trying to pull myself together for the end-of-the-month run rally. I've been chasing 100 miles a month for the past 3 and each time right at the finish I get sick and it derails a run or two. Last month I got 97.75. Crimminies sake.

School has only been in session for maybe 2 months and the lil munchkin has gotten herself and us sick at least three times already. The newest one I feel is my fault though. Went to a one-day tech conference and only after the event my co-worker called in sick with a viral sinus infection. The daft bugger. I'd only been near her for a few minutes the whole day! We prefer not to rove in teams at these things, we see/speak to each other daily. The point of these conferences is to mingle. Guess I did too much mingling!

Utterly wonderful pictures. I am very happy for both of you! Congratulations on the engagement. Please keep us in the loop when you have a ceremony and if you register.

I had to search pretty hard to see if I ever contributed to this year's post. I couldn't find anything so here's a year-so-far update: Running: 667.38 Walking: 208.8

Woke up 5:30 and got out for an easy pace run. Easy Run today as I have my Long run tomorrow, tempo pace for 45 mins then a 50 min easy pace. Barely any sun yet when i hit the bridge.

My dog, Aidan, unfortunately, had to cross the rainbow bridge this week. She's 16 and has been in heart failure for several years. She's been strong and resilient for years on the medications and overall just a happy old-timer. Over the weekend she took a turn for the worst, stopped eating, throwing up a bit, and began to smell sour. Took her to the vet on Tuesday and confirmed the medication for the heart failure has contributed to renal failure. Took her in by myself as there was no way my wife could handle it. This was her first dog and child.

Happened just recently. My music server has about 40k albums and it grows at a pretty good clip. I'll often just have my playlist creator set genre, decade, and song number limit. But occasionally I just hit Random and have it grab a couple hundred songs. Yesterday I was jamming along all happy and wondering who this awesome artist was. Looked at the playlist and saw the guy's name was John Mayall and the album A Sense of Place. Mayall is 80+ years old and that album came out 33 years ago.

I have several jerseys for professional sports. NFL- Buccaneers: Cadillac Williams (24), Jameis Winston (2), Mike Evans (13) NHL- Lightning: Slater Koekkoek (20), Mikhail Sergachev (98), Nikita Kucherov (86), and Oh Captain, My Captain; Steven Stamkos (91) MLB- TB Rays Home and Away Jersey with no names I like certain players, I support their achievements with a jersey. The Winston jersey, however, is an abomination both in style and who's name is on the back. I prefer to forget it is in my closet.

Costco Almond butter and Bonnie Mama 3-berry

Safe and sound. Mostly just heavy thunderstorms.

Yeah, we went from not really worried to battening down the hatches. The last three hurricanes with this path in very hot waters swerved sharply to the East when they got to shallower waters. We will not rule out a near-direct hit. Took off work, kids' schools closed, and no gas in the TPA area to be found. We're deep in the panic buying mode here with all the recent transplants. Charging up my backup ups, prepping the emergency lights/rations/etc., and readying the bailout vehicle. Gonna hunker down most likely.

I have a Capital One Venture card. I booked all my recent my flights there. I'll research other sites, Expedia, etc... I find their prices are comparable, within a few dollars either way, I get miles/points, and I get their concierge service in case of flight changes. This came in handy to our Vancouver flights got rescheduled/canceled 4 times. They handled each for us, adjusting flights, seats, and the works all for no additional charge from my original booking.