South Park

No, not the cartoon. I mean the neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

I kind of kicked off the summer in North Park with that triathlon so it's kind of funny that I am winding down the summer with a 5K in South Park.

I've never been here before but it's another huge park that has so many things going on in so many places it would take a long time to check it all out. We started at the fairgrounds. What did we start you ask? Get this, the Xtreme Air 5K. Yes this is another 5K but what is different about this one is that in the course of the 5K there are 12 inflatable obstacles in the way that you must navigate through. As soon as I discovered this I was like 'Yes!'. This looks fun. I was not disappointed. Saturday Oct 1st was probably the funnest day of the year for me.

Having anxiety I wanted to make sure we got there in time but as I have discovered in the past, we left a little bit too early and had to sit around for a while before my start time of 9:15am hit. Before I left I noticed around 9am that no one who had left in the 8am wave had come back yet. (The start was right next to the finish) A couple people did come in before I took off but that got me thinking what the heck is going on that it takes people over an hour to run a 5K? I would soon find out.

The most horrible thing that has ever happened to me happened (I'm exaggerating) and I don't know how I didn't get more upset about it then I did. When it was finally time for me to start I got in line and got my Runkeeper app ready to record this. I swear I hit the button then shoved my phone in my pants. I did not discover until after I finished that I failed at this task. This is the first run ever in the modern age that I did not accurately record. Only because I knew when I started, when I finished and the distance of a 5K was a okay with this for my records. I am disappointed I don't have a map of the route I ran because I will never be able to figure that out but it's not the end of the world.

I started out and immediately got stuck behind a couple of gigglepigs. Apparently there were people that somewhat took this seriously and some that didn't care all that much. I did not see too many people running. It was jog to the next obstacle, take your time getting over it, then walk to the next one. Well as far as I was concerned it was a 5K so I was running. I don't care what everyone else did. There were at least 2-3 obstacles where there was actually a line and I had to stop and could not proceed because there were people in there not getting through very quickly. A couple were super muddy and one had a huge puddle of water. I had to go back and run and jump so I could clear it.

My main concern the whole time was getting an awesome video of me coming down the last slide. Ale ran around the last obstacles and was able to get that for me. She is so awesome!

I got a medal and the t-shirt came after you finished which was weird. I thought for a second to go again but we just left instead.

We went down the street to a local place which was pretty good. Gil's Diner. We got breakfast there and then I looked up breweries. The gods shine on me! We are literally 3 miles from Spoonwood brewery and it opens at 11:30am. This was awesome! We hung out a while and then drove up there.

I thought it would be a little sad for me to be in the parking lot of the brewery 5 mins before they open but it was all good. There was literally already a line of people. Like 5 cars were waiting. They opened the door and we walked right in. This place was nice, and big!

We got a spot at the bar and I told the lady samplers of your first 5 beers on the menu. Let's just do it that way. They have excellent beer! This place is definitely in my top 5. I only brought one growler just in case. I didn't expect this but I would have to get another one here. I will probably never be this way again so I need to cash in. The growler is high quality. Fancy lid. They even have a machine that fills them. You just put the bottle in it, close the door, pick which beer you want and boom. This pipe comes down and it just goes like zoop and it's full up to the millimeter.

Except for my GPS driving me back up through the city instead of back the way we came this was the most excellent day. I would say this is the best day of the year for me. I was so pleased with how everything went, I was happy and I knew it. I do not get like that often so it was super nice.

September 2016 may have been the best month of my life

I had a bunch of stuff scheduled for this month. I did not know how much was really going on though. Around the middle of the month I was like 'Damn'. I decided I should write this all down and make a blog post about it. I tried to put everything that I could recall happening here.

• Got tattooed
• Hung out with Danimus
• House related
• Met with builder
• Scheduled lot evaluation
• Got loan preapproval
• Got an ultrasound on my neck due to weird, scary pains
• They say they found nothing
• Went to Danny's 3rd birthday party
• Saw WEIRD AL at the Benedum
• New Weird Al cartoon, Milo Murphy's Law, came out
• Went to the PT Fall Festival parade
• Pax's first parade
• Boys got their picture in the paper
• I biked a bunch
• I ran even more
• Steelers 5K
• Best time ever!
• Greensburg 5K
• Even better time!
• Post race after party with free beer!
• Gabby 5K
• She's not dead!
• Went to my first BEERFEST!!
• I drank a ton of new beers (not only at this event but all month in general)
• Went to the eye doctor
• Took Pax to his 18 month doctor appt
• We paid our school taxes for the year
• Finally paid off the loan for our property
• Went to a ton of new restaurants
• Michael's Neighborhood Griddle
• Ricks
• Abruzzi
• Hugos
• Checked out the new bike shop in Greensburg, Flat Tire
• Watched the first presidential debate
• Steelers season started!
• Bought tickets to go to Joe Louis arena
• Started bingeing Luke Cage
• Got a new credit card with the fancy, secure chip in it
• Got myself the new iPhone 7

The best thing didn't happen until Oct 1st so I will write that into it's own post. 

TRIATHLON (For real this time)

JANNEY AND THE Y TRIATHLON @ NORTH PARK
2016/08/07

RESULTS

I tried to do a triathlon before when I was not as in shape as I am now and it was not the greatest experience. I did it though. What sucked was they had to cut the swimming part out because the pool at the PTHS was under construction. In the end it kind of really didn't count as a triathlon. I had to do another one to actually be able to say I did one. One day I looked online and found this one.
I was super anxious about doing this. I wanted to but my stupid brain kept coming up with things to be nervous about. I almost didn't sign up but Ale encouraged me so I decided I was going to give it a shot. I can't tell you how happy I was when we finally pulled in and they waved us into a parking spot. We were here.

I signed in and the lady gave me a little gift bag and an entire pack of swim caps. If anyone needs one I got em. I found my racing number in the transition area and set up then went to the pool and waited for my heat.

SWIMMING 700M
The few people that I talked to all hated the swimming part. I know this was going to be my worst event. I can't tell you the last time I went swimming. Luckily it was not over open water. I could always touch bottom if I got tired so that's something to keep in mind going forward if I do this kind of event again.
The pool itself was magnificent. I don't think I've ever seen a pool this grand. It is 50m across so 14 times down and back ugh
I tried to think of it as 7 up and backs
I was raising my hand and counting out loud for the 7 "laps" so I could stay on track

1. I was fine
2. Started stopping already
3. Powered through thinking if I can get to 4 I'm over half done
4. Would take a few strokes then run out of breath, I could tell I probably wasn't doing so great at this point
5. Followed guy who passed me. I was close behind him the whole time, He made some more distance but it wasn't a ton, I was keeping up so it made me feel not too bad.
6. Next to last one. Same pattern: 2 strokes, run out of breath, start hopping on one foot forward as I took a few breathes, repeat
7. Last one, I can still see others swimming, I'm not last

I got right out when I was done and asked the girl what time she wrote for me and I saw 45:31
I started the 2nd heat which was 25 min in. 1st heat went at 7:30am, I went at 7:55am so really I did 20:31.
Results say I took 25:34 for the first leg so I estimate it took me 5:03 to run out of the pool, around a cone at the back by the announcer lady then out to the transition area and then me getting dressed. I guess that sounds right, I did take a long time to make sure my feet were good.

BIKING 12M
I had to stop right away to put on my gloves because I just carried them with me. I think I went slow the first lap because I did not know where I was or how much I needed to pay attention to turns.
My first lap around I was following someone who was finishing and I wrongly started following them off the main course luckily I realized it and cut right back over. After that I was good.
The uphills really felt like they slowed me down and I was dragging. It seemed like the first half of the course was uphill. A lot of people passed me which I am not used to riding the bike trails by myself. There were some people with some all-pro bikes I tell you. I wish I had an extra $5K to buy one of those.
I made up good time on the down hills. That's where I passed the most people. It seemed like the back half of the course was downhill.
There was a marker thing to run over which I made sure to do every lap. I thought I saw people missing it so that threw me off but I keep doing it. That was good because there is a page on the results that show that information.
I also got confused with the exact distance and amount of laps. I knew we did 4 but I was trying to figure it with my GPS as I went and it didn't seem like it was going to add up. I ended up just figuring when I pass the end and I have a close miles ridden that's the time I should go in. (It was 5 laps)
It was also weird with the staggered starts because I could already see people running and people I saw when riding I couldn't tell how good I was doing at all.
I was looking for Ale when I got to the crowds but I never saw her which made me kind of sad.
I think I rolled in at 11.93m and back to my stall. I didn't need to change this time. Just take off my helmet and gloves.
Results say I took 52:21 for this leg.

RUNNING 5K
Again I was off kilter at the beginning because I wasn't sure where the trail was or anything. I wasn't that bad though. There seems like a nature trail winds all around the grounds of the park and that's where we were running. There were lots of white arrows painted on the ground and there were lots of girl folk pointing and cheering as you went by. The only thing that sucked about this trail was there were plenty of sections where there were nothing but big rocks and tree parts. It was not very conducive to running in my opinion. Mountain running maybe. I actually kicked a rock and bit it at one point. The next day I had a nice bump on it. I got right up but someone was behind me and saw it.
I think I stopped a few times when I started running but I think when I got over half way my last wind must have kicked in and I even went faster and finished good. Either the new socks were the bomb or the blister things worked because I had no trouble whatsoever with my feet. The last 3/4ths of a mile finally went on to the road and I motored pretty well. I passed one more guy and finished! Yay! There were ladies right at the finish line ripping your chip off immediately which was pretty funny. They really wanted them back.

I also must say in addition to the pool, the bath house is amazing too. It's huge and the showers were nice and hot.
This is one high quality park that I feel bad it's so far away because I would definitely take my family here again for a picnic or holiday.

Well I did it. It was hard but I did it anyway. Maybe I'll come back next year.

Post DNC convention thoughts

So despite all we know (that the DNC colluded with the Clinton camp to ensure she won and screw over Bernie and the voice of the America people) I guess now I need to decide which is more important:

A) do I want to vote in defiance of the 2-party system to begin making changes in that direction since I am not FOR either presidential candidate (they are the two most unliked, untrustworthy candidates ever thrust upon the America people, why in the world do one of them deserve to win the presidency?) As long as we are restricted to two major parties we are only limited to choosing from either side of the same coin and that does not a democracy make.

or

B) is it more important to ensure the backward-thinking hate-filled agenda of Drumpf never gets any where near the White House [See for yourself: 2016 REPUBLICAN PLATFORM]? The key thing here is the appointment of several Supreme Court justices.


Let's make this 100% clear, I don't trust either candidate. I would never in million years vote for reality star, con man Drumpf. He is not anything close to resembling a presidential candidate and I tremble thinking about what circumstances currently exist in our country that would lead people to believe he should get their vote for this office. It seems to be the best way to describe this is with the old saying: 'Cut your nose off to spite your face'. He has no plan but to yell at and mock anyone that disagrees with him on any point.

On the other hand I have no desire to vote for Clinton either. Although I have not completely shut the door on voting for her if only as I said to keep Drumpf out this is only like a 20% chance. It will not be my fault if Drumpf ruins everything because I didn't vote for Hillary. It will be the DNC's for not selecting the appropriate candidate. She will say anything to get elected. I don't trust anything that comes out of her mouth despite the pressure Bernie and our revolution has put on her campaign to focus more on the America people instead of the Wall Street corporations. Does she not realize she should step down for the good of the nation? Of course not she lives with the rich people not us. She has no clue what is going on outside her little 1% bubble. How many scandals will it take? How many have we had already and the election hasn't even happened yet?


This is tough.

Cartwright Family Holiday #1 2016 is a Success!

I wrote a blog in January about my new idea for a holiday. Well I've worked on it since then and implemented my idea. I am happy to report it was a great success!!

It began with great enthusiasm that quickly turned to frustration. When I announced the idea to everyone it was a hit! Everyone liked it and wanted to get involved. When I said we need to plan something and get together etc that's when no one seemed to care.

Plan A was to go VA Beach. La was on board she was ready to rent a house for us all but unfortunately no body wanted to put up the money for it. That idea quickly fell through. I learned to not count on my sister or father in these situations. They were a great disappointment to me. (perhaps now they will bounce back since they see I'm serious and this is a successful thing)

Ale's parents were also fans of the idea and they actually scheduled their vacation to come up and see Pax around the holiday so they would be here for it. Plan B was to go to Miami since their flight was going through there. I did my research and it was doable but it would cost a lot. We decided we wanted to move out of Chuck's and build our dream house a little more than this vacation so we couldn't spend that kind of money at that time. Plan B was scratched.

Plan C was find somewhere closer that doesn't cost a lot and isn't far. We researched places like Ocean City, etc and ended up settling on Erie, PA. It met the requirements. There was a beach. It was close. There were breweries. There were bike trails. At the beginning of March we booked our room and Ale's parents booked right next to us. We were set!

I grew excited as the time approached.

On June 4th while Ale and I were in the living room all of a sudden someone poked their head in the room. Ale's family was here!

Ale and I continued to work the next week while her parent's watched, played with, spent time with Pax. They loved him. They missed him so much and he loved seeing his Abus in real life!

After we all got to see the Pittsburgh Penguins hold aloft the Lord Stanley's Cup for the 4th time in history after defeating the Sharks in Game 6 on 2016/06/12, it was time to party! First thing is first though, time to shave off this damn itchy playoff beard!

 

I still had to login to work and accomplish some things before we went on Monday but in between I was able to help get everyone packed and the car loaded. (The car's gas mileage really goes down with 2 bikes strapped to the back) Ale's parents left earlier than us because they wanted to stop at the Grove City Outlets but we met up with them around 7 pm for a fancy dinner right by our hotel. We got rooms next to each other which was nice. The whole hotel was pretty cool. I'd come back here again. No real complaints. The boy loved the pool. I know at least one day he hung with some girls staying here for several hours.


I rode my bike at Presque Isle State Park. The boy and I rented a jet ski and rode around on Lake Erie for an hour. I was able to hit 2 breweries and a bunch of other nice restaurants. We spent one day at the local water park which was fun. We got some souvenirs. I saw some turtles. We swam, we relaxed. We enjoyed our holiday vacation to the max I think and everyone was happy.

Although on Friday we headed back home we were not done yet. Saturday was the big cookout. We had to hit some stores to get a few things. I secured a sweet cornhole set for party entertainment. All our family came but I was stupid with the invitations and a lot of other people had other plans so not everyone I wanted to be there made it. I still barbecued for 13 people though so it was still nice.

Again I think the first annual Cartwright Family Holiday went well. We planned sufficiently and everything turned out great. I can't wait for next year in Asheville!

What Do You Do?

What do you do when someone continually fails you? How do you react? What do you say to them? How do you stress the importance of what you need enough to make them care? What if everything else is fine but some small stuff? What if it's something that to anyone else would seem insignificant but to you it regularly affects your life, your relationship with this person, your sanity? What if you're not good at dealing with any type of conflict? What if this person keeps coming back with the same bullshit excuses that were already dismissed as 'not applicable' a long time ago? What if they get mad at you for bringing it up? What if they constantly tell you that it's something you need to deal with on your side and not a fault of theirs at all? How many times do you need to hear that before you start to believe it? How many other things are on them that they have convinced you are your own fault? How can not living up to expectations be okay for one but not the other? How do you honestly determine where the onus goes? How can you ask for help? What do you do if issues have been discussed but they continue to happen? What if you give your all to them but you don't feel like you're receiving that back? What if you do see flashes of the caring you need but at critical times it's just not there for you? What if deep down you know where this persons head/heart is at but their actions can betray this? What if this misalignment causes such internal confusion that trust is lost? What if taking a little heat is okay for them every once in a while but it kills you? What if you can tell things don't have the same importance level to them as it does to you? How do you help them see what you see? To feel what you feel? To understand the way you understand? What if your feelings don't move them? What if it keeps happening over and over and over again? How much is too much? What if it drives you crazy and you can't get back? How do you deal with this?

What do you do?

Be Like Marc

I've been searching for a place to dump things like this and although I haven't found the best place yet at least I can start here and make updates until I find somewhere better.

Marc does not care about nor does he want to hear yours or anyone else's opinion on the following things. If he does that will immediately be deleted and ignored.

• Award shows
• Sarah Palin
• Your dog (or pet in general)
• Ted Nugent
• Kim Kardashian (or anyone associated with this family)
• That famous person that literally no one talked or cared about anymore until they just recently died
• Wendy Bell [added 2016/03/30]
• Pokemon Go

Think about how big the universe is for a second. Now come back here and read this list. You see what I'm saying? You've wasted your time just reading this much now please go do something that matters to somebody.

*I reserve the right to add anything I want to this list at any time. 

America Great

I'm sorry I just don't understand what is being asked when you hear that we need to make America great again. I have a few questions:

• What does that mean exactly? Be specific as possible.
• Why stop at America? Why not make the entire Earth great?
• How different would you be if you weren't born in America? Would you still want to make America great again if you were born in Russia or Japan or would you want to make that country great?
• Does making America great also diminish other countries? (a finite amount of greatness available)
• What has America done for you exactly that you owe it your time and effort ensuring its return to greatness?
• At what point was it great and at what point did it stop being great?
• Do we know the cause of its decline in greatness? What exactly?
• How will you know when it is great again? What measurements are you using exactly?

Thanks for your time. 

Politics 2016 part 1

The rise of Bernie and people who actually think Trump would be a good president have been fascinating me lately. I wanted to make sure I wrote down some of my thoughts during this period because believe me, there are many. I read so much and I feel I know a lot but there's still a ton of stuff out there to digest. You can't say anything on the internet because someone can always find something that contradicts what you said and no one can fact check everything. The justifications of some of my Facebook friends for endorsing Trump are downright ridiculous. There is no way in the world we can let that guy win. Although surprisingly I do match up on a lot of the issues with him the fact remains he is not a 'presidential material' type of person and this is obvious to anyone who has ever heard him speak. He is racist and a braggart and a spoiled rich bully. No matter what other circumstances there are, when you get to this part you should know to stop and write him off. For god sake's they talked about the size of their penises in the last debate. WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED TO HEAR?!? This is not supposed to be an entertainment show that's goal is the highest ratings! This is supposed to pick the next president of the United States!

On the other hand you have Bernie Sanders. I'm proud to have known about him prior to his rise in this election cycle. I will be the first to admit that he has had some slip ups and in no way do I think it's possible that he going to be able to accomplish even 50% of the things he talks about but that is not the point. The point is that he has these ideas when no one else has. The point is that these are ideas that the American people agree with and have not heard from any other candidate in a long time. The point is other civilized countries have these things going on and we do not and our standard of living is suffering because of it. People will say they are crazy but they are not. We have heard crazy for so long from everyone else that now sane is being pointed out as crazy but I repeat, IT IS NOT! The billionaires are running the show and that is a fact. Nothing else can be fixed really until that can be stopped and it's good Bernie has made that singular issue the focus of his campaign. I trust no one else to do that. I am seriously getting emotional thinking about it. I can't believe people are listening to him. I can't believe his message is getting through despite the massive media blackout on his campaign.

No matter what happens the mainstream media acts like it's been over the whole time and Hilary is a shoe-in. Bernie keeps winning though and you hear almost nothing about it. Not unless you're looking for it. It's amazing if you think about it. How can so many people be for this but you never hear anything about it? (Hint: think billionaires) Even the Democratic party themselves are crooked. You can tell Hillary has spent the last couple years dotting her i's and crossing her t's to get the proper people in the proper places to be able to handle getting her to where she wants to be. Bernie is still here even with that going on too!

I made my first 2 political donations ever to this man and I will probably give again if he can keep this up. I can't imagine a world where one of these rich, war-hawk jabronies win. It will be a continuation of the same old. Take away our rights little by little. Rich get richer. Poor get poorer. More divide. More war. More environmental destruction. Attacks on women's rights. Cops killing our citizens with impunity. I can't live like that anymore. None of us should have to.

It's not just Trump either. Everyone on the GOP side is an obvious sleazeball. Clinton is no better. She talks a good game but she is a liar. Her past actions prove that. Bernie has been nothing but consistent his entire life and it's wonderful he has the chance to give this to the world. That they are finally seeing it. I seriously can't believe he's come this far. That it's happening. He could fix everything. (At least he can start us on the path to fixing everything) This can only happen if everyone votes. The higher the turnout the better chance he has and that is obvious from what I've seen so far as well. I don't know what else to say. This may be the greatest thing to happen during my lifetime and I'm proud to be a part of it. Go Bernie! Save America! Save the world!

#FeelTheBern

Pax Is 1

Pax has turned one year old. We did it! We were able to take such good care of him that he is still alive one year later! We are super proud! I don't think I've ever been happier. Every time he looks at me I have to smile and be happy because I want him to smile and be happy too. It's a nice positive feedback situation to be in for sure. I think I have done a half decent job recording his life progress so far in my database. He will know things like; the first time he rolled over, sat up, stood, hold his own bottle, climbed the stairs, took steps, took a sip of beer, etc, etc. We also probably have 5 billion pictures and videos of him. It's ridiculous really. Everyone loves him because he is so cute. I can't wait to see how this next year pans out. What else will he do / learn? All I know is that I will do all that I can do be the best parent possible for him.

Date Night for a Cause

This weekend went pretty well. It was Valentine's Day and Ale's birthday. I found that the Westmoreland Heritage Trail (WHT) was holding a fundraiser and because it was on Feb 13th I thought that would be an airtight argument on why we should go. Due to my introversion I rarely thrust myself out there for strange events I don't know anything about but I needed a date night plan and I wanted to help the cause so in this case I was able to successfully overcome.

We picked up the tickets at the Lamplighter a few weeks prior and then just waited. Besides my mom playing silly babysitting games there was no drama. The event was held at the Delmont Fire Hall. I've never been there but I guessed it was probably like most other fire halls and I was correct. It was filled with folding tables and chairs. I mean packed in there. It was a pain to have to get up and go somewhere because you really had to squeeze around.

I had every intention of participating in the fundraising part but I didn't really do anything. They had baskets you could buy tickets for and they ran at least 3 50/50's as well. I'm sure they made a bunch of money which is good. We tried to sit as far away from everyone as we could. Our table did seem to end up being the table of the stragglers. We didn't really talk to anyone at all.

The food was fine. We were starving so maybe that had something to do with it. Chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes and a piece of cake. Wow has it really been that long since I had mashed potatoes? It was cash bar so I did grab a couple drinks while we there.

The main thing we were waiting for were the professional comedians. They continued to advertise it like that without saying who they were. That was such a broad definition it was funny. That turned out to be okay too. The first guy I never heard of Ray Zawodni. He was all right. The headlining guy I heard of Mike Wysocki. He is always on the radio on DVE. He was funnier. I am pretty sure I laughed a bunch of times.

I was getting super tired towards the end and I wanted to leave. They were still doing stuff when he finished his set but we were out of there. We had to stop at Walmart and get some stuff before we went home. Not a perfect date but at least a realistic one. Ale seemed to be pleased by everything. I wanted it to be awesome as hell for her and I felt she found it acceptable. Now I have some time to come up with another idea for our next date.

It's getting better - Home Automation

I have this lamp that you have to lean over this table to turn it off and on. I was getting sick of it and it got worse when there were babby toys everywhere and you couldn't even stand close enough to reach. Isn't there a way I can just turn it off and on with my phone? I checked the internet and two days later I had a possible $20 solution in hand; Orbivo S20. You plug it into the wall and plug the thing you want to control into that. The set up did take a minute as one confirmation messages did not make sense but it wasn't too hard to figure out. There's just a big button on the app to turn it off and on. Beauty!

There are also options for timers and countdowns. So far I like it a lot. I am all about the home automation thing.

Fly Day?

I decided this day that since Americans as a whole are overworked and do not get enough paid time off and most of the holidays we do get off are some sort of religious or governmental in nature that we should define our own family holiday with our own rules and customs for us to celebrate independently of whatever else everyone is doing. Cartwright Day if you will. Are you with me so far? Good.

I said it should probably be in summer because although adults can take a vacation day, children can generally not miss school. It should also be in a month that typically does not already give us another major holiday. I boiled it down and came up with June 15th which like a birthday can be celebrated on that day specifically and/or can be deferred until the weekend.


I don't have everything figured out yet but I think it's a good start. So far there is no mention of trees, cake, candy, flags, turkeys, cards or poles. The boy wants to call it FLY DAY for some reason but let's see what else we can come up with. I have a few suggestions below. I got a good response from the rest of the family and I think it has been suggested that we go to the beach for the inaugural holiday. La will rent us a vacation house for 4 days, June 10th - June 14th. Let's make this work!

Potential Names
Fly Day
Cartwright Day
Festival of Beerjuvenation


Core Values
Relax
No work
No major chores
Everything gets postponed today and that's okay because it's your time to relax
Massage / Spa
Beer
Beach