YouTube TV Guide Finally Updated

After I had almost given up on having my YouTube TV guide update it finally updated. I now have the new guide and it is so much better on the Roku device. I can see what shows we have set to record, information about the show, and overall general improvement with how the guide operates. It took a few months for the update to finally arrive on my YouTube TV guide where Carrie has had it on her profile for a few months. A slow roll out from YouTube TV to users it would appear.

I like the new update and happy to finally have it on my account. It might just be me and my eyes, but the font seems to be a little smaller. I did not find a spot to increase the font, but I think it will be fine the way it works. The guide is not bad in the picture I snapped of it today although it is on a larger TV so it looks good.

Short update for this week and mainly calling out that I finally got the new update. Hopefully we will see more updates and changes from YouTube TV in the future. This was a much needed update just to be able to see what is playing, recording, and read the description without going to the show. 

Progress Report for February 2022 Working Out... Did Better on Quantity but Dipped on Length

Another month down in 2022 and here is my status update for working out or more specifically riding my bike. February 2022 was really good for me with consistency of working out. I worked out twelve times throughout the month. I am still targeting Ally Love for my live events on Sunday mornings at 11 am CDT. I met every single Sunday with Love event for February with at least one going as long as one hour. It felt great and I love the energy Ally brings to the rides, so that helps to keep the process fun and new each week. Plus, she likes to change up the music and what we are doing each week, so that makes the rides fun and something I look forward to each week. Each time I have done one of her live classes that is an hour, I never look forward to the ride as it starts the hour long ride, but so grateful once I am finished. She helps to motivate and keep us focused on what we need to do during the ride.

During one such ride I hit a high of 337 for my for best output. This happened to be the 60 minute ride, so no wonder it beat all of my other outputs for February. Still, I had a good time and look forward to continuing the live rides in March too.

As I mentioned, I worked out consistently for 12 days through the month of February. I kept on my target days as planned except for the last week of the month, but sometimes it is needed to modify workout days if something else is happening on that particular day. I have had prior months where I had to change my target date for working out every day, so it was good to get my target dates in for workouts and not have to modify.

I still have plans that once the weather improves (i.e. no snow) that I will start running at least once a week to increase the workouts per week to four. I have not run in over a year, so I am looking forward to including that into my routine. The current plan is to introduce running on Saturday mornings which would mean I would be working out back-to-back days, but I think it will be good to do and help with my overall workout process.

One thing I did during February was to cut out all alcohol. I did not post about this previously or hint that I was going to do this during the month. It was primarily to see how much weight I would lose by not drinking beer or any liquor. Granted, I did without any beer through February, but I did not necessarily change what I ate. Which is to say that I was not eating great for most of February.  I went from 264 on February 1 to 258.2 on February 28. Not bad for only giving up beer, but I was hoping to be more. Carrie and I plan to further target our eating habits in the next week or so where I will once again limit what I drink, but more importantly what I put in my belly each week. I could tell I had lost a few pounds as clothes started fitting a little better, but still a long way to go for my health.

Reviewing my monthly stats are not too bad. I was hoping my average ride time was going to be higher for February, but it is right around 17 minutes per ride. I was hoping to be up around 30 minutes per ride, but while I got workouts in each time, I had some that were shorter than I had hoped as we were heading to places, other plans, etc., where I had to notify my planned ride. As I mentioned last month, I also usually do a cool down after each ride, so that helps to skew the numbers. 

I like that Peloton sends out these notices after the month is over to give a break down of how I did the prior month. To think that I biked 106.7 miles during February is a good feeling, but I think I can continue to increase these numbers as I continue my biking experience. Calories burned is interesting too int his monthly stats report. Of course that is offset by what I eat outside of cycling. During February, I did not do beer, or alcohol, but as I mentioned, I continued to not eat very well, so while I had 5,737 calories burned from bike riding calorie intake was not great during the month.

Something I keep saying I am going to try is to do portion control. I have a bad habit of eating everything on my plate when we go out to eat. I remember my parents when they would go out to eat, they would always split their plate or immediately do half and take the other half home. Good examples for me moving forward on my path to getting older and not able to lose weight as fast I did when I was younger.

Until next time, enjoy your bike rides and workouts…

Progress Report for January 2022 Working Out... Dipped a Little with Holidays... Reading and Biking

A pat on my back... I have been sticking to my regular workouts the past few weeks. In fact, in January, I worked out every week for my three workouts as I had planned. I did have to adjust days, but I was able to stick to my days and get the workouts done. I have no issue moving my workout days, so it worked out well. So far in February, I am off to a great start for this month.

I worked out a total of 13 days during January. I am feeling good on the bike and can ride for almost an hour without any discomfort. As the weather begins to change, I do intend to start walking/jogging at least once a week too. Hoping to start this new process in March or April. I really enjoyed jogging when I was doing so much of it not too many years ago. It felt good and I enjoyed the process. My dog, Oliver, enjoyed it too as he knew that the days I would run, he would get a walk. 

My best workout for January was a "Ally with Love" Feel Good Ride on January 23. I achieved my best output during the ride. I felt good throughout and did another workout following the 30 minute ride. The Sunday rides are almost always live rides for me while the other two days that I ride are typically recorded, scenic, or just ride sessions. I look forward to the live rides on Sunday and rode in the largest live group I have been a member of in early February with almost 10,000 people in the ride. It was fun and a lot of high fives throughout the ride to me and from me as I did my ride. It was fun!

You will usually find me on the bike on Sunday mornings at 11 am doing my live ride. Almost always with Ally Love although sometimes another instructor does the 11 am session, it usually is Ally Love. So fun and she keeps the energy of the workout, so it makes the whole process fun.

A further look at my monthly stats from January see I did a total of 22 workouts during January. I worked out for a total of 391 minutes in January for an average of 17.78 minute workout of my 22 workouts. Typically following a ride, I will do a five minute cool down, so the average is skewed a little with those extra workouts. If I take the days I worked out (13) and the 391, that comes out to an average of 30 minutes each workout... which is correct. As I have started February workouts, I have started to extend my workouts to 45 - 60 minutes although this sometimes depends on time or when I start the ride.

I like the total miles traveled of 98.3 and calories burned of 5,395 during January. I use my Apple Watch to monitor heart rate, so I think the calories burned are as accurate as possible. I feel good looking back on my stats from January and feel confident in my progress eleven days into February.

I continue to read while I bike which has been enjoyable. The main point is that I can read for 30 - 60 minutes and the riding of the bike while reading keeps me awake so I do not fall asleep while I ride. Reading while I bike has been a new task I started back in early January and I really enjoy the process. I typically read on the Tuesday/Thursday workout days leaving the live ride to focus on the instructor instructions.

On a side note, if you have not been watching the news, the Peloton brand is struggling. The brand has been struggling the past few months and it looks like they will be purchased by another company. So far the companies in the hunt of buying Peloton include Apple, Amazon, and Nike. It will be interesting to where Peloton is at in another few months. Peloton has a large following of customers and fans, so I do not think the brand will be broken but hopefully if it is purchased it will include new features or benefits.

Keep riding and see you in the bike routes...

Progress Report for December 2021 Working Out... Dipped a Little with Holidays... Reading and Biking

December 2021 working out was a little less than I had expected, but only one day fewer than I had done in November 2021. So, overall, not bad, but I could have used a few more days of working out. When I went back to work on January 3, I noticed some of my work pants fit a little more snug than they had prior to the holiday season. So, I am still working on getting back into the swing of things. I only worked out 9 days during December as indicated to the right. I plan to increase my workout to the three times a week and stick to it moving forward. If I need to adjust my days, that is not an issue, but I need to make sure to stay with my plan of working out three days a week. Taking more than three days off from riding is almost like starting over when I ride again. 

My plan for February 2022 is to completely remove alcohol. I know from past experience when I do this removal, I lose all kinds of weight and really feel a lot better. So, come February 1, 2022, I will be going the month not drinking beer or any alcohol. Yes, I know the Super Bowl is in there, but it seems like a good time to go without and try to get my body feeling better. More on this as February approaches and my status.

Overall for December, I did well with working out. I spent 189 minutes working out during December and traveled 43.7 miles as tracked through Peloton. While the calories burned looks really good, it does not help that I also would eat whatever I wanted and have beers. So, I am hoping that February will help get me back into better exercise with better results and also eating better too. Doing so for a month will help me and I am hope that during that month I will get to the point where I like it and continue to eating trend into March.

Carrie and I have both done this type monitoring with our food intake and alcohol removed from diet, but it has been a few years. We both plan to eat better and remove fast food from our routine when working. Most of it comes from it being so easy to pick up something to eat instead of spending time to prepare lunch or dinner which is healthier than Quarter Pounder with Cheese from McDonalds.

In regards to my bike riding, I am starting to feel better on the bike. I enjoy my rides and look forward to riding the bike. My backside still gets sore, but it is getting better. I am riding regularly 30 minutes on my rides. I will plan to continue 30 minute rides through January and then increase to 45 minute rides for February. I am taking the slow approach and gradually moving back into where I was at back in early July 2021 with riding. I still have issues with sore knees or stiff legs the day after riding, but I do feel much better than I do when I was jogging on a regular basis. Yes, I still have plans to start jogging at least one day a week although at this point, that will likely not occur until probably May or June.

One thing I have started as of about two weeks ago is to read while I bike. I have started reading again and reading a lot. I find it helpful to read while I am biking as it completely takes me out of my head and I can focus on the content of the book instead of my journey of riding. More on this later in another post later this month as I continue my reading journey. I do enjoy reading and riding whether I am doing instructor led or solo bike rides, it has been a good journey and makes the process fun.

Watch for another update on my exercise status in early February. Enjoy your biking, jogging, or whatever exercise you are doing.

Progress Update for One Month Mark of Bike Riding and Exercise... A Starting Over Approach

When I posted back on October 31 that I was starting my exercise routine again (see post), I posted the total workouts I had done as I started that process. I plan to do monthly updates each month to show my progress. At the end of October as I was starting a regular routine, I was at 275 total workouts. I planned to ride three times a week. I did not meet that goal exactly, but I did manage to get a workout in at least once a week and usually more than once a week, but it depended on what was happening that particular week.

As of today, December 5, 2021, I have 290 workouts. I averaged about ten minute rides for my workouts during this time. I am still battling the fatigue of getting back into biking and struggling with my backside hurting from the seat, but it is getting better. I know the more I ride the better it will get. For the first month, I was keeping my rides anywhere from 10 - 15 minutes. This past week, I have started doing longer rides at 20 minute workouts. I plan to stay in 20 minute range for a few weeks before expanding out to longer rides.

Started November at 275 workouts... A month later, I am at 290 workouts.

It feels good to be back on the bike and getting some type of routine going in terms of exercise. My plan for early morning workouts did not go very well as I struggled to get up those extra 30 - 40 minutes early to get on the bike, so I decided for now, as long as I am riding, doing so after work will be enough for me. I make sure that during the week when I get home from work, I do not do anything else, but go straight to change and get on the bike. That helps to not cause loss of focus on doing the ride. Sometimes other evening events interfere, but I am working through trying to plan for those so I can change days or get up early and workout.

My long-term goal is to work in a jog for my workouts giving me four days a week to exercise. That will likely not happen again until sometime in the spring at this point. I am happy to report that after a year of owning the Peloton Bike (see post from November 15, 2020) I am back to using the bike and plan to make it my routine moving forward. Regardless of whether we are traveling, tired, etc., I plan to keep some form of exercise in my weekly habit. Once the habit stops, it is so difficult to get it started again and I do not want to restart this process of becoming accustom to the bike in the future.

Until next month with another update from my exercise, have a great workout and see you on the virtual trails of Peloton!

New CIO for Washburn University as of October 2021

Many of you already know, but I have a new job at Washburn University. As of October 2021, I am the Chief Information Officer (CIO). In July 2021, our CIO announced he would be leaving Washburn to return to the east coast to work. I asked about being interim CIO and in the middle of July it was announced that I would be the interim CIO for Information Technology Services (ITS). 

I learned a lot in the few months while I was interim CIO. I wanted to make sure that by being interim CIO that I could still apply for the CIO position and I was told that was not an issue. So, I started working on updating my resume. Carrie put me in touch with a company she had heard great things from others about helping with their resume, so I reached out to Grammar Chic, Inc to start the process.

I already had some vacation scheduled at the end of July, so by the time I was able to connect with Grammar Chic to discuss my resume, I was on vacation and already doing the interim CIO stent. I had sent them copies of my resume which I had been using for for whole career and I thought it was good. After going through the process with Grammar Chic, my resume was completely reformed and it is so much better! I would highly recommend Grammar Chic to help with your resume and cover letter.

I could not be more excited then to be the CIO for Washburn University. I am learning new things everyday and dealing with new challenges each day too. On October 5, 2021, I was announced to the campus as the new CIO.

While I do not post a lot about work on my blog, I wanted to post an update to document and share the news with those I have not been able to talk to about my recent career change. I want to thank my family and friends who helped me with this change along with the encouragement. I would also like to thank the ITS staff I work with and those that gave me advice on the process. 

Yesterday, Carrie helped me clean out my old office in Bennett Computer Center to throw out old items and move paperwork to my new office. While I had been working out of Morgan Hall room 215B since the first part of August, I am now completely out of Bennett Computer Center and it feels good to be done with the move. Carrie is encouraging me to have my new office painted, we are buying pictures for the new office, and once it is painted, we will go back to hang the newly acquired art work. 

I do plan to keep at least an annual update to this space on my job and progress. I look forward to providing my expertise and passion for Washburn University in this new role. I could not be more grateful for the opportunity.

Where Has October Gone and What is Next?

Is it hard for others to believe we are in the middle of October? It seems like a blur the past year and half and it only keeps going faster through the days and months. Before long it will be 2022 and I will be talking about it being hard to believe we are half-way through 2022. Wow! I know time seems to speed up as I get older, but I could use it slowing down just a little. 

Speaking of things going by fast, baseball season is nearing an end. The regular season ended just two weeks ago and we are into the playoffs. I am having fun watching the games although I really do not have a dog in the fight, but enjoy watching the games. Of course football season is chugging right along. Not anywhere near where I thought the Chiefs would be at this point in the season (2 - 3) so we need to be careful or we might end up missing out on the playoffs. The start of practices started for college basketball and here before long we will have the first games of the 2021-2022 season. I cannot wait!

We are preparing for another camping trip. Like our first time we went back in April, this will be a chilly camping trip. We are excited and looking forward to a few days outside. We are planning to take Oliver, but with it being 39 degrees on Saturday morning when I am writing this update, I am a little concerned it might be too cold for Oliver. We will have him in a sweater and fires going every night, but he has been shivering just about every time we let him outside here the past week or so and today is the coldest it has been thus far. So, we will see how he does on our camping adventure. Carrie and I cannot wait to get out there to camp and relax. We are taking lawn games to play during the day and look forward to just relaxing for a few days. 

Overall, a relaxing weekend and I am looking forward to a lazy Sunday with football, naps, and grilling in the evening for dinner. Oh, I do have to mow Sunday morning. Our yard is doing great after over seeding a few weeks ago. The bare spots in our yard are now covered with nice green grass. Keeping the watering going and hopefully through the winter months and the grass will still be in the yard. In the spring, I plan to work on the flower beds in our front yard to get them looking presentable. There is always something to be done.

The end of October, Carrie and I are hoping to connect with a friend for dinner and then pop into Lawrence another weekend to meet my Uncle and Aunt for dinner that we have not seen in a long-time. We are also trying to line up a time for Javier to come visit us in November for Washburn football and hanging out, so hopefully a lot more to write about as October ends and November gets started. There I go again putting us into November and making the months fly by…

Until the next time, have a great week!

How Do You Automate Your Blog to FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Others?

 

Like most everyone else on the internet, I have social media sites on a variety of platforms. I use Twitter almost exclusively but for various reasons I also have accounts on FaceBook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Flickr. As I get back into posting regularly to my blog, I am trying to work through the processes of automatically posting to various sites. The sites I have focused on include Twitter, FaceBook, and LinkedIn.

When I was blogging on a regular basis a few years ago, there were different options for auto posting to Twitter and FaceBook, but the services I used before either stopped those options or services such as FaceBook no longer allows for posting to profile but only to a page. So, I created a page on FaceBook and still not really sure what I am doing, but it seems odd as people have to subscribe to the page in order to see the posts. I am simply trying to reach my contacts on FaceBook so they can see my posts that may not normally check other social media sites or following my blog. FaceBook has made the process of sharing content to your own profile a little complicated. It seems odd to me that in order to automate sharing content to FaceBook that I have to do so to a page and not my profile. 

I did find some services that allow for sharing that cost money, but this is a personal blog for fun and I am not interested in paying for any services. I am using IFTTT to post to my FaceBook Page as well as to my LinkedIn profile. I also use dlvr.it for posting to Twitter and just realized I have it set up to post to LinkedIn too. I will probably leave it for this post to see how it works as I set it up earlier this week and had not posted anything to see how it works.

So, with this post, I am checking how various automated postings work that I have tried to change. I am looking to increase followers on various platforms. Finally, I am looking for feedback from various bloggers I follow to get their input on auto sharing to various social media sites. How do you share your content and automate that process?

I look forward to seeing how this works to my social media sites. I am also interested to hear from other bloggers on how they share and automate their site sharing. Please feel free to comment directly on this blog post or on the various social media sites where this is posted.

Update on Riding Peloton Bike, Working Out, and Struggles Have Gone Through to this Point in my 23 Day Riding Streak

 

After getting our Peloton bike on Friday, November 13 (see post), I have been working out daily with a streak of 23 days. I have biked everyday since getting the bike. Some long rides (45 minutes), a few medium length rides, and then a few short rides too. Overall, I have felt great during all of my rides. The first week, or week and half, my behind hurt from the seat (saddle). That eventually went away and do not notice sitting in the saddle much any more. 

What is hurting right now are my legs. Even during a 20 minute ride, my legs start burning and doubts start cropping into my head that I am not going to be able to finish the ride. I can barely push the peddles which made me wonder if maybe I am riding too much or too long of rides each time I ride. So, Friday, I did an easy ride of only about 15 minutes. It worked! Saturday, I did a 45 minute (see stats) ride and felt great! It was a tough 45 minute workout that was intense, but I felt really good throughout the ride. Later in the day my legs did hurt, but it was a good kind of hurt letting me know I had done a good workout.

One thing I have been battling is that my left foot becomes sore during a ride. Almost as though it falls asleep. I have looked for answers and might have found what is happening, but I have not done anything yet to fix the issue. For my bike rides, I wear special shoes with cleats that snap into the bike peddles. I think on my left foot the cleats might be up too far on the sole of my feet. I have no issues with my right foot, but left foot becomes uncomfortable on longer rides. So, I am going to try and move the cleat up, or down, to see if that resolves the issue.

I plan to keep my daily streak going. As we get back to "normal" later in 2021 (hopefully) I know it will take planning on my part to either make sure I get up early and ride or ride after getting back from an event. But, I think I can keep it going and keep the streak going. 

The picture on the left is my new profile picture on the Peloton site. Snapped it Saturday, December 5 prior to my 45 minute ride. I figured I had my previous picture as posted in my November 15 post since Carrie took that picture that it was time to post a new picture. 

Happy riding and be sure to connect with me if you are a Peloton member. As of today, I am following 15 and have 14 followers. It is fun to connect with others giving high fives in rides and receiving high fives as I ride.

On another note, today is my mom's birthday so wishing a big Happy Birthday Mom!

A Lot of Happenings and Updates... From September 2019 to October 2020

Intro

Busy time the past few months... which means no updates from me on here. I will see if I can catch up as I think through what has happened from 2019 to now. My last update was following a trip Carrie and I made to Minnesota to see the Royals play. While a lot has happened since that trip, I will cover some of the happenings briefly. Of course now we are all trying to do the best we can with COVID-19 affecting all aspects of our lives.

The fall semester had me finishing up my second to last class for the Masters of Communication and Leadership. A busy semester in the fall as I started my class after getting back from our trip to Minnesota which required a group project. Overall, the process went well and I enjoyed the course plus it put me one step closer to my final semester and Capstone project to be decided, researched, and written. Ultimately I finished my coursework and graduated spring 2020. However, like everyone else, we did not have a formal graduation and really not much of a celebration. Still planning to hold a party at some point to celebrate my accomplishment.

Tap That Topeka and Sports at Washburn 2019

At the end of September after returning from Minnesota, we attended the 2019 Tap That Topeka. Always a good time, in 2019 we had another wonderful time. Sampled so many great beers and made some wonderful memories. This was our forth time to the beer festival and it is so fun. They moved it to be the evening which is much better so we do not roast in the summer sun. With COVID-19, the event was canceled. It was planned to be July 2020, but the whole event was canceled for safety concerns which was the right choice. Hoping they will have Tap That Topeka in the summer of 2021 and all of this is behind us. More information is available at the Tap That Topeka web site.

Throughout the fall and (part of) spring semester, we were attending sporting events at Washburn. Again this year we had season tickets to Washburn Football. We had a fun time at the games and always fun seeing family and friends at the game. Last year Greg and I decided to split tickets for Washburn basketball games. We made it to a lot of the home games although my class during the fall semester took me away from some games. No football for Washburn of course for the fall 2020 season. We have had some beautiful weather and sitting outside in my back yard, I think of all our great times at Washburn tailgates and football games. Again, hoping fall 2021 is much different and we are back at sporting events. I cannot image being an athlete and not being able to play.

King Biscuit Blues Festival 2019

Thinking back to King Biscuit Blues Festival (KBBF) 2019 seems so long ago. Really missed not going this year and had fun sharing pictures, memories with friends and family when it would normally have occurred which would have been October 8 - 10, 2020. So, instead, I will review our time at the KBBF 2019 event.

Javier, Corrie, and Carrie were all able to join this year. We had a large time listening to great music, hanging out with family, and friends. As I recall, the weather was great for the KBBF 2019. 

Thur Set List KBBF 2019

I managed to take pictures and keep them of the set lists for two of the days. The first day had fun artists performing. My favorite from the first day (Thursday) was Ruthie Foster. Much better now that we start a little later (noon) instead of 11 am which we did for a number of years and then finish a little earlier too. We used to get done around midnight each night, but now it is usually 10:30 or 11 depending on how late the last act performs.

I sure hope we can go back next year. I did spend the time it would have been this year (October 8 - 10) listening to lots of blues music. I listened to KBBF playlists I had created in previous years for acts playing each of the previous four years. Made for good memories and spent some time on the patio one nice day listening to songs and remembering the previous years.

The other set list I have is from the Saturday, October 12 list. Kate Brothers are always good and did not disappoint this time either. A good day spent all three days listening to music. Again, hard to believe that we did not have KBBF 2020 this year.

Maple Leaf Festival

As I was reviewing events we did in the end of 2019, I remembered we went to Maple Leaf Festival in Baldwin, KS. We always enjoy our time to the Maple Leaf Festival. We went with Greg, Erin, and Brenda. The weather was perfect although we did not buy a lot, we looked around at a lot of items and enjoyed the outdoors. Another even that because of COVID-19, we were unable to attend Maple Leaf Festival 2020 as it was canceled. Hoping this one will be back in 2021.

Chiefs Football and Champs!

Jack, Tim, and John at Chiefs Game

What a year to be a Chiefs fan! I had the opportunity to go to a Chiefs game on December 1, 2019 with my brother Tim. Of course, he got perfect seats for us right on the 50 yard line and would not take any money for them... I did buy beers for us during the game though. 

It is still hard to believe that the Chiefs won the Super Bowl but it feels so good when I remember! We were 12 - 4 during the regular season 5 - 3 at home and then 7 - 1 on the road! Wow! Hard to believe that we watched on February 2, 2020. Had little idea what the rest of 2020 would look like for us with a huge SB win for our Chiefs.

I watched the Super Bowl on February 2, 2020 at Greg and Erin's with family and friends. Carrie was sick this day and unable to attend. You might recall that in 2014 when the Kansas City Royals went to the playoffs, Carrie was sick that first day and we had one of the most epic games in Royals baseball to come back, win, and go on to play in the World Series. So, it was probably an omen for Carrie to be sick for the Super Bowl as we did need a miracle to come back and win that game. I recall going into the fourth quarter and we were all pretty sad bunch watching the game. That all quickly changed and game over with Chiefs winning it all. Fun memory to remember and it seems like so long ago with everything going on.

New Years Eve off the Hook

Brenda, Carrie, and I New Years Eve 2019

For the first time in I do not recall how long, we decided to have a New Years Eve party to finish out 2019. Who knew that it would be the last party we could have for a while. We invited a number of our friends and family to attend. We had a lot of fun to bring in the New Year. 

We did all the normal things on a New Years Eve celebration. Drinks (lots of drinks), food, conversation, and games. We played games with small groups and games with everyone attending. A few of us played games until almost 3 am. I did finally have to stop drinking and say I was going to go to bed... I might have received a little grief from my brother-in-law, Greg, but he did not want the night to end as we were all having so much fun. 

See all the pictures from our New Years Eve 2019 celebration on Flickr.

Wine and Friends Trip to Fredericksburg, TX 2020

During the summer of 2019, Corrie, Javier, Chuck, Melissa, Carrie, and I all had the idea of meeting up in Fredericksburg, Texas in January 2020. We picked out a VRBO place to stay. Had a wonderful time. So much so that we are planning to do so again this year pending any restrictions that might be in place come January 2021. We took a lot of memories from our trip with 111 pictures during our trip. Some great pictures in the group and wonderful memories of spending time with friends in Texas.

We are planning another trip now for January 2021 by going through to make our selections for where to stay. We think we want to stay some place different than we did last time. I expect a lot more pictures and a lot more stories... I will try to record where we go this time around so I can write it here and note our favorites. 

Oh, I did forget to mention that we did sign up for two wine clubs which has been fun getting wine in the mail about every three months. This is the first time we have ever signed up for a wine club and we did two of them while in Texas. We had wine shipped back years ago from California when we visited wine country, but had never signed up for a wine club. So fun! It is obvious we need to drink more wine though as it is starting to collect in our dining room wine cabinets.

Quick Trip to Lincoln, NE

Took a quick weekend trip to Lincoln, Nebraska to see a band with Greg and Erin. This happened on a weekend about a week after we had returned from Texas. A friend of Erin and Greg was the stage manager for Blue Man Group, so we went up to see them and enjoy the town. I had never seen the Blue Man Group and had a really good time. I think we hit just about every brewery and drank a lot of delicious beers. For a quick get away, and again not knowing this would be one of our last get a ways for a few months, it was a lot of fun.

More on Sports, Kansas Basketball, Washburn, and March

When I started this post back in early February, I thought we would be enjoying sports, like usual, throughout the spring season. March Madness was about to begin, Chiefs had won the Super Bowl, and baseball was about to start. Greg and I had our season tickets for Washburn basketball games and still had a few games to attend. The first part of March looked to be a regular start of March Madness with basketball starting.... and then just about the time all the tournaments were starting, everything was canceled. Some games resumed, but eventually all games were canceled and the difficult decision was made by the NCAA to cancel all tournaments including the NCAA Tournament. 

I cannot image what it was like to be an athlete during this past year and then having the season canceled. Essentially going the rest of the spring season without sports and then student athletes, and professional athletes, not knowing what the summer or fall season would look like for sports. We all went about five months without any sports at all. It was difficult for a spectator, but again, I cannot imagine how it felt for athletes not being able to play. 

Here we are now in October and closing fast on the end of 2020... which we are all ready to have end... Sports are happening now but with limited fans, or in the case of baseball, no fans at all. We started seeing sports again in July as cases of COVID-19 began to decline, but now we are seeing cases increase again with our highest single day totals since the pandemic began. We will see where we go from here with sports and hope we can continue to have sports in our lives and everyone one of us stays healthy and safe during these trying times.

COVID-19, Working from Home, and Lack of Exercise

No doubt that COVID-19 rocked all of our lives. It has changed how we live forever and no where is this seen more than in our work lives. We were very busy at work getting everyone ready to work remote for our faculty, staff, and students and eventually everyone in ITS was working from home. We did this for for about three solid months. In June, I started going back full-time with only one other person from my office going in with me. Everyone else and much of the campus was working from home. 

Working from home was fun the first few weeks. Get out of bed, put on a nice shirt, brush my hair, and get ready for the day. No travel time needed and had everything I needed because I was at home. After a about a month of this setup, it started to get old for me. First of all, the first few weeks I sat at our table in our family room basically all day long and my back started hurting so bad I could barely walk. I had to make sure I took breaks in order to get up from the table and at least walk around, go outside to play with Oliver, or basically get away from work. 

I found myself working more at home because I could get up in the morning, start working, and then go into the evening hours continuing to work because it was all right there on-line and ready for me to do any time of the day. We had a lot happening between about end of March to the beginning of June, so there was always something that could be done and always something that needed to be done.

For most of the time working at home, Carrie and I would have an adult beverage at exactly 5 pm every night of the week. It got to the point where I could not wait for 5 pm to happen so we could have our drink. This happened during the week and weekends and often times would not only have a drink but continue to work while I had a beverage. We were eating in a lot with Carrie doing the cooking so things were good. 

Slowly, I noticed that after the first month when I would join an on-line meeting my neck was thicker, rolls in my throat were starting to really show. In June when I finally started going back to work and had to start wearing pants appropriate for work, I found that my regular work pants no longer fit. Yes, I had been eating and drinking with no exercise for so long that I had outgrown my regular work pants. I was left wearing jeans which were a little too big when I first started wearing them back in February and now were a little snug.

As the months progressed through the summer months, Carrie and I started to order more on-line for delivery. Again, not much exercise happening but we had slowed down on having beverages every night starting a 5. We agreed that we would only have beverages on the weekends and not every night of the week. This helped a little as I could get back into my work pants again and did not have to throw them all out and buy new. 

I also started running during this time which was good. I ran for about eight weeks and then I got lazy and basically stopped completely. I have not run in so long at this point, I would have to start over. I could start again as I truly enjoy running, but I have found that my knees are very painful. Hurts to go down the stairs when I get up in the morning and lately my right knee hurts if I kneel and put any weight on my right knee with sharp pains going through my knee. So, not ideal, but I think it is from running. So, I do not plan to run any more. More on this on a future post about exercise plans.

Now in October, we are fully back in the office at least for my area. Other areas of IT are working remotely, but for our area, we need to be on site to install computers, meet with our customers, and keep the campus going as there is on site instruction and work to be done.

Graduation

Virtual Graduation from Washburn University 2020

I did it! I graduated! Not the ending I, or anyone who graduated in 2020, expected, but it is where we were at at the time. I saw my name scroll across on a virtual graduation. Shared some pictures, texts, and emails with friends who graduated with me. Still hoping to have a party eventually in our back yard to celebrate my accomplishment, but that will wait for another time and might just be a party to have a party.

I graduated with a Masters in Communication and Leadership from Washburn University in May 2020. It took me four years to complete taking only one course each semester. The first year, we were not offered any summer classes, but I believe the other summers we did have summer classes we were able to take which helped speed up the process to graduation. Overall, I really enjoyed the process and the courses. Being all on-line means lots of writing in forums for thoughts and discussions with fellow students; it also meant lots of papers with papers being required in every one of the classes. Sometimes with multiple papers required for one class. 

I think the discussions and papers helped me to understand the content and made some lasting connections with students in my classes. With others being in the classes from Washburn I knew some of them already, but this was not only discussing with them in discussion posts, but often times doing group projects with them too.

I am happy to be done. After I graduated in 1999, I never thought I would go back to school. I am so happy that Washburn University created and approved the Masters of Communication and Leadership as it was exactly what I needed and fit perfectly with my expectations for the program and career. 

Wrap It All Up to End this Post

A lot has happened since my last post as outlined above. I was sidetracked in doing posts to my blog with finishing school, work, and then COVID-19 affecting our lives. I post this to catch up with some of the things that have happened since my last post, as I mentioned, but also to help get me back into the swing of posting on a regular basis. My goal is to post at least once a week from this point forward... might not be long posts, like this one, but at least once a week is my goal. See how it works out and looking forward to regular posts again.

Be safe and connect with your friends and family as often as possible.

Middle of October and Only a Few Months Left in 2020

Where has 2020 gone and where have I been? I look out at my blog as see the last time I posted was September 28, 2019. Wow! Time has flown! I admit, February 2020 through about August 2020 seems like a blur. COVID-19 started and caused a lot of issues with all of our lives. 

Well, this is a short post to say I am going to start posting to my blog again. I am going to set aside time to write mainly because I enjoy doing the updates. Watch for new posts in the coming week and I am planning to be posting on a regular basis on a variety of issues. Who knows, I might even get back to posting about grilling again as that has not been happening much either.

I hope you are staying safe! More posts later and I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Workout Six Days Past Week Including Running and Jazzercise... Feeling Great!

For the first time I worked out everyday this past week except for Friday. I started Jazzercise a few weeks ago and love it! It is a good mix between runs to do something different. I wear a Garmin Forerunner 210 that uses a heart band to monitor the heart. This works great for running and I have used it for a few years now and love it! Using it for Jazzercise was not working too well as it only monitored my heart rate but not overall exercise.  So, this past week I purchased a foot pod for the Garmin. I have really enjoyed using it not only with my runs as it shows cadence and stride, but it is also working well for Jazzercise workouts too.

The above report is from a run I did today. It was very warm out for the run. I am closing in on the end of the Couch to 5K training. I am now doing a five minute walking warm up, running for about 20 minutes (varying each day), and then a five minute cool down. I have one more day for week 7 and then just three days left in the training finishing up with day three of week 3 hopefully next weekend.

Below is a Garmin Connect record from Jazzercise using the foot pod. It looks a little odd because it says distance is .75 miles and then average pace is 0.8. Not sure how accurate it is in terms of calories burned during training, but I like it better than having nothing at all.
I know that using the foot pod will work very well the next time I have to train indoors. Unless I was on equipment that could sync with the Garmin (such as the cycling bikes at the gym), there would be no record of distance, pace, etc. Now, I will be able to get that data even when training indoors without satellite. I am excited to give that a try too.

Overall, the running is still very enjoyable. I usually run with headphones listening to either new music, Royals games, or from my music library. I look forward to running and feel great following the run. During these longer runs, I do not always look forward to it in the middle of the run. I can hardly wait for it to end or sometimes question whether I will be able to finish the run. Those are the times that usually when I begin to question, I find that I am almost done and the timer goes off to stop.

The best part about running on a weekly basis is the joy that it brings our dog, Oliver, who gets excited when I begin to put on my running gear. Carrie tells me that while I am running he is running from the windows in the back to the door crying because he cannot wait for me to get back so we can go on a run. Truthfully, this is part of the drive for me to run multiple times each week. I love how excited Oliver gets for me to go running and then when we finally go walking following the run. I did try taking Oliver one or twice previously on the run and while he did well, it is now way too hot for him to go along with me. Today, I only took him on a short walk around the block as it was already warm by mid-morning.

The best part about running on a weekly basis is the joy it brings our dog Oliver.

I have not been doing great with eating although. I still eat basically what I want and continue to enjoy beers from time-to-time. That said, I have managed to lose about five pounds since I started this process. If I can keep up working out six days a week, I think I will continue to lose weight. I do eat alright through the week as Carrie is watching what she eats and that follows through to what I eat too. It simply has not been a focus or goal of my workout each week.

A few years ago, I was heavily into using MyFitnessPal which worked great! I used it religiously for three or four years. It worked well and I enjoyed it. Now, I only let it track my calories when synced with running. I am not using it to track calories consumed. Carrie is using this to track her calories and I know I have a number of friends currently using it too. It does a great job and I highly recommend the web site and/or app.

Until next time, happy training....

Week Four of C25K is Done and Ready for Week Five

Running continues. A few of the scheduled running days the past week or so I missed as busy with other things. Trying to get back on a regular routine this week. A great run this morning with beautiful weather and I felt overall pretty good throughout the run. I just finished week four of the Couch to 5K. I believe it said as I finished week 4.3 that I was half done.
I have noticed that during the walking piece of the program, my shins are hurting a lot. I plan on doing increased stretching before and after each workout. I usually spend about five minutes stretching legs, arms, and body. However, I think I need to spend more time as my shins really hurt toward the end of the route. They do not hurt much during the running segments though which seems odd.

My average pace is still not that fast, but I do have to take into account that the start and end of each run is a five minute warm-up or cool down. Plus the walking between each segments. I can see that my average page is gradually going down as I get farther in the program. Just a few short weeks ago I was averaging 15 minute a mile pace. Now, the last few have been in mid-fourteen min mile. So, I continue to improve as I get farther into the program.

The days I have scheduled to run continue to be Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. The difficult part are those times when in the evening on Tuesday or Thursday we have something else planned. A few times I have been able to get up early to run on those days, but usually bed feels too good and there is no desire to get out of the warm bed to go into the cool morning run. That I think will get better though as it continues to get warmer and if I have a need to run in the morning it will be a little easier to get up and do so.

The good news is that I am still enjoying running. Except for a few a aches and pains during or after a run, I feel good. I enjoy the whole process. I enjoy how good it makes me feel to know that I finished the run. I can also see that it is helping in my everyday mobility where I do not get "as winded" going up stairs or walking across the campus.

The best part is how excited my dog, Oliver, gets when he sees me putting on my running gear. He knows and he begins running around whimpering because he knows when I get home I will take him on a walk. As much as I feel motivated now to go out and run, I think a large part in doing so is knowing how excited he gets and how much he loves going on walks that helps to motivate me to continue this process.

My plans for when I finish this program? Well, I plan to run a 5K in September/October. Other than that, I just plan to keep running. I have a gym membership which I have not used in a few months by physically being in the building, but possibly after I finish this training program I will start frequenting the gym. I want to keep running throughout the years, so at some point I will need to be in the gym when I cannot run outside.

Until next time, have a great run!

First Week of Back into Exercise Done and Thinking of Future Runs

I ran three times this week. I was supposed to run today, but decided to move it to Tuesday instead. Celebrating Carries' birthday today with good brunch and then a movie. So, I decided to not get up early to run.

Last week when I started this process, I said I would run a different route. Well, for the most part I ran the same exact route I have been running the past three years. It is a habit and I like the route. So, instead of trying to change it up and run a new route each time I got out, I will likely stick with this same route.

My first run of this process. It went well. I felt good after wards. My legs were killing me the day after. It went very well though and I felt motivated to get out and run again to keep the process moving.
The second run also went well. I decided to take my dog Oliver with me. Thus, a slightly adjusted route. I ended up only taking Oliver about halfway as he went number two once which I was carrying with me like a respectable pet owner. So, I was doing the Couch to 5K with the leash in one hand and a bag of poop in the other. Oliver was starting to drag behind as I would run and I was headed back toward the house. I decided to go ahead and take Oliver home and I would continue on. Overall, he did very well. He was exhausted following the run. It was his first run of the season (or ever) too, so I know he will need to ease into the running too. Granted, I cannot take him on many runs as it continues to get hot. See how he does though.

Final run of the week was Thursday morning. We had plans that evening, so I got up early to go running. I did not take Oliver on this run. I really enjoyed getting up early and running. I need to do it more often as it really feels like it started the day right.

Other than not running today, it was a good start to the process. I will be out running again on Tuesday and look forward to progressing back to being able to run a solid 5K without stopping.

Spring Break Already... Enjoying Piano Class and Practicing During the Break

At the mid-point for piano class with break in classes next week. I remember years ago when I was a student it seemed like Spring Break took forever to arrive. It would never get here and then it was over before I knew it. Being older, the semester seems to have flown to this point. That's right! We are on Spring Break next week. No class! No, that does not mean that I should not touch the piano at all. Exactly the opposite, I should use the week to focus on what we have learned. 

When we get back to class on Monday, March 21, we will review for our mid-term which we will have on March 28. We will also begin selecting a piece which we will play for our final. For the final, we can take in our own piece that we want to play and the instructor will read through them to see if it would work for us to play. Or, she will provide suggestions in the class which we can play. The final in the class will be playing the piece that we practice and work on from this point to the end of the semester.

Tonight in class, we just started the chapter on starting to play cords. Yes, we just started it and it all seems Greek so far after the first night of discussion. We will focus more on cords and how to read those on the staff after we return from the break. Here I am still struggling with reading the treble clef and we are going to add in playing cords with the left hand. Things are about to get interesting!

Although I still feel lost for some of the discussions such as sharps and flats, I do feel like I am learning how to read notes. Some of it makes sense, but so much still seems fussy and like I will never figure it out.

Last night I practiced the piano playing songs that we had to play in class for tonight. Carrie told me that it sounded good when I was playing. I will make a goal to record some of my playing of the final piece to post for you to hear. That is obviously a few weeks out before that will be posted though.

Do you have a piece you would suggest I play for my final? If so, please post in the comments to share your suggestions.

Continuing to Use Safari App on iPhone for FaceBook Access and Still Working Great!

It has now been three weeks since the change from no longer having a FaceBook app installed on my phone (see previous post: Switching from FaceBook App to Web Site Only). After three weeks, I am still loving the change. Now, I have not noticed a huge change in battery levels for the phone where it lasts all day or even an extra 15-20% of the day, but it has improved how I use the phone for FaceBook activity. The change has allowed the ability to be more connected with FaceBook contacts and not feel as tethered to my phone each time the alert went off with a notification.

Notifications

The first thing I did a few days after going to no app on the phone was to enable email notifications for various events on FaceBook. I still wanted to know when an event happened, but not necessarily receive it on the phone as a notification. Instead, I wanted to change it so that those notices would come through via email instead. Making this change to a no-app phone allowed me to control which notifications (via email) I see and how I interact with those notifications.

The other improvement by making this change has been notifications through the web site via the phone. When a lot of notifications would be received on the app, the FaceBook app would display all notifications including those that had already been viewed. It would take a while to scroll through the list and look at each notification. With the web access, this is no longer a problem. It only displays those events which have not been viewed.  Thus, if there are ten notifications, only those ten are displayed making it very easy to see each notice. I have had has many as twenty-five notifications since changing to this method and even with as many as 25 notifications, it was very easy to get through the entire list.

This is an improvement if you ask me as it is event difficult to see which notifications have been checked access FaceBook on a computer. Any notification is displayed and scrolling has to be done to get through the list sometimes and difficult to see which ones have been read or not. Possibly a setting that can be changed, but nothing I ever found to make notifications work better in the app and only display those that had not been viewed.

Future Use

For now, I plan on continuing to use this method to access FaceBook. It is easy and not always reaching for my phone each time the alert goes off for FaceBook. Looking at notifications, I do see much higher notifications since going go this approach. It could be argued that is where the 15-20% battery increase comes in that now instead of reaching for the phone each time the alert goes off, I am now only reaching for the phone when there are many alerts. Or, by knowing what the alert is by reading it in email so I do not have to check each one as I would with the regular alerts.

What Has Been Your Experience 

Have you done this switch? What have you experienced since making the change and removing the app? Share your experience in the comments or why you switched back to the app.

Test Two is Done in Beginning Piano and Still Feeling Test Anxiety... Have a good feeling though

Going into the test tonight, I did not feel good about how I was going to do. For once, though, coming out of a test, I feel like I did really good. Not sure if that is good or bad. We get the results back on Wednesday night.

This was a test in my beginning music class over chapter two. Starting to get deep into reading notes and then also needing to be able to know where the notes are on the staff. The test tonight was a combination of needing to be able to recognize whole, half, and quarter notes. But it was also again doing a test with the instructor and having to know where the note on the second line of bass clef is located on the keyboard.

The weekend was spent trying to memorize and prepare for test two. However, it was really spent procrastinating by working on updating the web site, watching basketball, and basically doing anything but trying to study. Thus, I went into the test tonight not thinking I was going to do very well. That "good feeling" was not there and did not have high hopes for doing well in the test.

Instead, I came out of the test feeling good and looking forward to Wednesday when we get the results. Now, it could be a different story once I get the score back on Wednesday and find out how I did. Wondering what I forgot or did not notate correctly on the staff. Oh, so many things that could have gone wrong, but I feel so good about the test.

After I finished the test and headed to the parking lot to meet Carrie, I realized I was sweating like a pig. My shirt was actually damp from where I had been sweating... for a test in piano. Memories of how anxious I would get when taking tests all comes back each time we do a test in the class.

Still having a lot of fun in the class and looking forward to see the results Wednesday.

Have a great week!

Another Test Coming and Trying to Remember Bass Clef

Not a bad week of class this past week.  We are deep into the second chapter and really focusing on reading music on the pages.  This is where it starts getting a bit confusing as we focus on the notes.  The right hand is not bad for me as at least I can find my way through figuring out the notes.  The left hand though still needs a lot of work!

We have our second test coming up a week from Monday.  I will miss class Monday as I will be out of town, but I worked it out with our teacher.  We are reviewing on Wednesday night when I am back at class for our test the following Monday.  I imagine we will have to play something again for our test and then of course memorization and demonstrating that on the test will be required.  

Before now and the test, I need to focus on memory skills for the left hand or bass clef. I have not problem remembering treble clef with "Every Good Boy Does Fine" and FACE. For some reason, the bass clef is not coming as easy with "Good Boys Do Fine Always" or "All Cars Eat Gas".  Again, I know it is time that I need and simply memorization of those sayings and as we continue to work on the treble and bass clef I will start to recognize the lines and spaces as notes.  I have started to do so on the treble and will continue to work on the bass clef.

Overall, I am happy with how the class is progressing.  I am learning  lot and simply need to put more time into the memorization process.  It is crazy to think that in a few short weeks it will be spring break and we will have a week off of class.

Happy music playing and have a great week!

Success on First Test and Piano Class Continues to Next Chapter

A good week for piano class!  We got our test back and it was good!  Granted, this was a test on the back of the chapter, but still, it took some memorization, and then extra credit for the timeline.  I got a 93% on the test and then 15 out of 20 points on the extra credit.

The test, I missed a few simply by my wording of the answer on two questions.  One question, I simply miss-answered.  So, that was the 93% on the test.  The extra credit, well, as I mentioned in my  post Monday (Follow up Following First Test in Piano Class), I completely mixed up the composers for the different periods.  Still, I got the correct names of the periods and dates correct.

Overall, I was happy with the result of the test and extra credit.  We are now well into the next chapter and learning even more about quarter, half, whole, and other types of notes.  This is starting to bring back memories from my childhood years taking piano and zoning out when we would talk about the notes.  Nope, I have to stay focused and practice.

For Monday, we have homework (of course) which I will work on today and tomorrow.  We have to transpose a new song we are learning to read in class.  Still, we are not learning the exact notes yet on the pages, but learning how the process will work and how to read both right and left hands with different notes.

It is getting interesting and I continue to see the progress in my learning... even though it seems like we have a long way to go!  We are only on chapter two and lots to learn.

Another Week Down of Piano and a Test Monday

We have our first test in piano on Monday.  Wednesday, we spent the class period reviewing for the test.  The test will consist of demonstrating that we can play various notes that are called out, knowing the finger pattern for both hands, and being able to play a melody.  For extra credit, we will need to be able to give the history of the piano along with instruments created during various periods of time.  We should also be able to list composers for the different periods too.  Thus, I need to spend time today and tomorrow studying to make sure I can get those extra credit points.

Wednesday we did also spend time learning the major chords.  I do not have a problem with them at this point except for G major which is difficult to key.  I am trying to practice the chromatic scale daily and then also include practicing the major chords each day too.

We did schedule to have our piano tuned which will happen this week.  It will be easier to practice on our piano here at home with it actually in tune.  Not all keys are out of tune, but it does hurt the ears on those that are badly out of tune.  We are using the same person that tunes the pianos at Washburn and was recommended by my teacher.  Looking forward to having the tuning complete and be able to play with the right tune here at home.  I would not say having it out of tune has stopped me from playing here, but not sounding right has me wondering at times whether I am playing the chords correctly.

More updates after class Monday on how the test goes.