1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the
participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.
Boxing

2. North American landmark constantly moving backwards. Niagara
Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of
the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for
several growing seasons Asparagus and Rhubarb.

4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside. . Strawberry.

5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside the
bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small,
and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the
entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off
at the stems.)

6. Three English words beginning with dw. Dwarf, dwell and dwindle.

7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar. Period, comma,
colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation
point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned,
processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh. Lettuce.

9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with 'S'.
Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes,
stockings, stilts.

Quiz for People who Know Alot

This is a quiz for people who know everything!

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the
participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving
backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for
several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every
year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear
inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is
genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the
bottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters 'dw'
and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name
at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen,
canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning
with the letter 'S.'

Another Day; another run.

FR and I got the marriage license today. We had a very nice dinner with friends tonight. My brother should be arriving shortly. And tomorrow at 12:15 we have the ceremony.

See no panic.

It's been 54 weeks since my last post (confession?). Ran 8+ miles today. It made me feel so good I think I'll run again tomorrow.

We bought a new Wii game today. Wall*e. Fun so far.

Tomorrow is a study day after I run. I'm taking an Estate Planning course. Very interesting stuff. Point of information for today:
1) Get an Advanced health Care Directive (to pull the plug or not - ie. Do you want to be kept alive as a vegetable until everyone is in the poor house)
and
2) Get a Will (especially if you have kids).

After months of training I completed my Marathon with flying colors. Now I'm getting back into stained glass. I cut out all the pieces for a new project. A little more grinding and it will be ready for the lead and finish. I'm going to try a new product for holding it all together. We'll see how it goes.

Well it's been a while. I've run 2 halves and am in the tapering period for my first full Marathon. FR and I are traveling to San Diego for the Rock-N-Roll Marathon in June. 20 miles is my longest run and my coaches tell me I'm good to go. So we'll see what we shall see.

I've created my first stained glass design from a photo. Tomorrow I'll make an enlargement or the picture and then it's glass time.

My brother sent me this UTube piece. Made me laugh out loud.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Y4keqTV6w


Hope you enjoy it too.

I may have committed myself to doing a Marathon. My running buddy is all excited about doing the San Diego Rock-n-Roll. He says we have 14 weeks to prepare and that with our solid half marathon base we can get there. I told him that if I have a solid 18 miler (I've never run more than 14 miles at a stretch) under my belt by 4/20 and am feeling good, I'll sign up for the marathon. My girlfriend is supportive but thinks I'm nuts. She is, of course, correct as usual.

Did my 4th half in 6 weeks. Did I mention I'm tired? I'm not planning on running any more halves until April 22, La Jolla Half. Yesterday's race was a trail run with a 1400' elevation climb in the first 5 miles and then up and down for another 500' and then downhill back into Avalon. My time was nothing to write home about but I didn't have big expectations. My running partner for this race is 10+ years younger than I. I think she could have done it faster. She starts faster and I end faster. Whatever.

One of my Goals this year was to set a new personal record of 2:11 which was 2 minutes and 25 seconds better than my previous best. Well today I ran the Carlsbad half marathon and shattered my PR. I ran a 2:10:43 according to my watch (still waiting for the official time). My running partner was trying to get me to slow down so I won't set such a hard goal for next time but I wasn't having any of it. I wanted to break the 2:11 and I did it!

Happy New York New Year! Being early risers that's what we always celebrate.

May this year be a health, happy, prosperous New Year for you all.

Completed project installed. The sail boat in the left left is mine too.



Hope everyone's holdiay was grand. We had a no muss, no fuss, trip to Phoenix. We ate too much and received lots of neat gifts. I received several stained glass tools, so that I can keep a spare set at the cabin (no more schlepping). Mostly it was good to see family. Several of the Tucson contingent couldn't make it for one reason or another but it was good to see everybody else.

Now to prepare for the end of the year and setting goals. I already listed some. Here are a few more.

Get the office set up properly so that it is a better work space for forestrane and me.
Get rid of the clutter
Get my desk organized
learn GlassEye 2000
learn Photoshop Elements

Well, hello from Phoenix. We had an easy drive from Long Beach yesterday. M&D have been filling us full of good, fattening food. We went to the glass store here in town yesterday. It is a very nice store with some really cool glass. My mom still wants the long (15" by 78") panel. She picked out a pattern that I'll need to adapt. We'll have to see how it goes. I only bought one square of glass. forestrane pointed out to me after we left that the prices were very high. She's absolutely correct. My normal couple of stores may not have all of the glass types that this store had but the regular supplies are a lot cheaper in LB (isn't that amazing?!).

At 4:30pm we head to my sister's for Christmas Eve dinner. Then a short sleep before I get to see how my parents like their Christmas present.

Happy Holidays to one and all!

Reflections:

2006 has been a good year. I ran 12 half marathons with a personal best of 2:13:25 and a single 10K with a personal best of 60:30. I completed a beautiful stained glass piece for the front door and my largest single piece todate for my parents Christmas present. Work is going fine. Family is good and forestrane is fabulous.

Goals:

Run another 12 half marathons. (I have 5 set up so far.)
Stay injury free
Get a new Personal record - 2:11
Get 30 stained glass ornaments done well before Christmas
work up a design for the kitchen side door (5 large panels)
Take one of my photos and turn it into a stained glass piece
Get into the HiPO group at my Company and do well

Project complete!

The next step is almost complete: 90% complete with the soldering. Still left, patina, installing the hardware to hang it, and clean up.

Work is progressing. Everything is cut and ground. Now to finish the foiling, add a lot of solder to hold it together, frame it, and voila!

Hooo Woooo. I completed my 12th Half Marathon in 2006 on December 3rd! I think it was my 4th best time ever - 2:14:22.

Oh well, enough frivolity, back to cutting glass.

This is the piece that I will be doing for my parents. This is a pattern from Glass Eye 2000, "Poppies in the Rockies" CKE Publications.



My stained glass choices are a little different (cause I can't find some of the glass used in this piece). I've cut out all but three colors and started grinding the pieces. Progress is being made every day.

Talked to my Dad last night. They are expecting a large stained glass piece for Christmas. Ekkk. Okay, my mom started it with wanted a piece for the window on the side of the front door. She couldn't really tell me what she wanted, so I forgot about it until my sister mentioned that that's what they wanted for Christmas. While I was waiting for her to get me the dimensions, I decided to talk to the parents as this would be kinda personal and be installed in their house.

15" by 78" (yes, 78" - 6'6"). Way bigger than anything I've made before. I don't even have a work space that big. Way to big to transport in our car without serious support. Plus my parents are very security conscience and are concerned that someone would just break the glass and so on, and so on.

So then we talked about putting it behind a double pane piece of glass (looses a lot in pop). Making it as three pieces with wood supports. Lots of ideas, none that really sounded great.

So I suggested a piece for their master bath which has a huge window that looks out into the backyard. Hit, sent a couple of pictures. So now I'm working on my biggest single piece yet. Spent about an hour in the stained glass store today getting glass and printing the template. Wish me luck.