Beers Of The Year 2017

I just felt like listing out my top couple beers of the year for 2017. I went through my data and found the top couple highest rated beers and tried to remember where I was and how the beer was at the time. These were the best IMO. These are not in any order.

• Hazedelic Juice Grenade - Grist House
• Pink Yoga Pants - Insurrection
• Exquisite Beast - Dancing Gnome
• Surf Wax IPA - Burial Beer Company
• Hoodoo - Voodoo Brewing
• Flesh & Blood IPA - Dogfish Brewing

If I had to pick a #1 beer of the year I would have to wrap that up with the holy trinity combo from one of my favorite breweries, East End

• Partly Clahdy / Chance 'A Shahrs / PA Handshake

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.

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!

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.

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

40TH ANNIVERSARY BIRTHDAY SPECTACULAR!!!

I turned 40 this past weekend so I planned a nice weekend out for the occasion.

Day 1 Friday July 31st

• We first waited out for the Dark Pit amiibo
• Went to the David L Lawrence Convention Center for ReplayFX
• Went to Pappy's

Day 2 Saturday August 1st

• Left to go to the beach
• Arrived at the beach after much driving and traffic
• Swam and beached for a few hours
• Came back via the shuttle to get our Neptune photo
• Had pizza

Day 3 Sunday August 2nd

• Went to Sandbridge
• Saw the USS Wisconsin
• Drove back to Pappy's
• Grilled out
• Had cake

Day 4 Monday August 3rd

• Played frisbee
• Drove home
• Stopped to hang out with the boy and eat food

Yay! Fun! I'm 40! :O

Trail Fest 2015

Apparently I have evolved into a cyclist. My goals is to ride 500 miles this year.

Here are some links to some of the places I go. Hopefully I'll come back and clean this up a bit.



http://www.post-gazette.com/life/recreation/2015/04/04/Cyclists-look-north-to-progress-on-the-Erie-to-Pittsburgh-Trail/stories/201504040012

http://friendsoftheriverfront.org/trails/three-rivers-heritage-trail/three-rivers-heritage-trail-status/

5 STAR TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1007

WESTMORELAND HERITAGE TRAIL
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1010

GREAT ALLEGHENY PASSAGE
http://www.co.westmoreland.pa.us/index.aspx?nid=1008
http://www.atatrail.org/

RTC
http://www.regionaltrailcorp.com/

Mentoring Field Trip and More

It is the time of year that we take our field trip for my mentoring group from work. We meet like every other month and one of the last meetings of the year we do something fun out of the office. I do not know who picked it or how it got approved but I honestly am standing here applauding right now for the people who did make where we went this year happen. Last year we did a tour of the other MSA facilities at Evergreen and Rockpointe. A nice field trip no doubt but still a bit too tied to the work environment. This year we went to Wigle Whiskey in Pittsburgh and then across the street to Mullaney's Harp & Fiddle for some food. Now that is something to get excited about!

I had to find a way to get down there as I was not driving in the downtown area in my car. No way. I thought at first it was only 2 miles away for some reason but it was actually 4. That is a bit too far out for walking. I was told to email some people to try and get a seat in one of their cars but I had a better idea. I'll just ride my bike. I was in the tour the other week. I have a better idea of the streets around here now. It should be no problem. It would actually work out really well as I had to take another trip to the Apple store because when I woke up that morning it turns out my 1 month old iPhone 6 took a dive off my nightstand and was now smashed.

Luckily it was only a half hour job (but cost $116) to get the screen fixed and I was good to go. I was able to get that handled during lunch.

Now I just relax until a little after 1pm and I'll ride down to the distillery. I was able to stay on the sidewalks for the most part and it wasn't bad. I did get to see that they have a section of Penn Ave ripped the hell up down to one lane and everything was dirt. They must be fixing some serious sewer pipe issues or something. Since it was only 4 miles the trip was over soon and I didn't have to wait long for others to show up.


They gave us a free cocktail to start which was delicious. No whiskey burn at all. It was smooth and awesome. The guy led us into the back and showed us all the equipment used to make the whiskeys and even gave us history on Pittsburgh and Prohibition and stuff. It was all pretty cool. We then sat down at these tasting tables and we had 5 different kinds of whiskey to sample from. Also very awesome! Unfortunately I didn't think ahead far enough I guess. I was unable to purchase any as I had no way of taking it back with me on my bike.















I also found out about this Festival coming up that some of my favorite local companies are involved in. Hopefully I can make it to that.

Even though it was only Thursday this seemed like the unofficial start to my weekend this week. On Friday we had to quickly cram in a stop at Sam's Club in Monroeville so we had some food to cook for when my dad got here. Since the boy had friends over the weekend of his birthday, my dad rescheduled his trip to come over to this weekend. We made it home and got the groceries put away before he got here. He actually walked in right during Freedom Friday which was really just Taco Tuesday but on Friday. We didn't get too crazy that night. Ale was even working on the boy's costume. 

Saturday we started early though. My dad took the boy to get donuts and found out the Jeannette Bakery no longer exists then we burned the trash and made our plans for the day. We would show my dad the property in Claridge that we now own, visit Aunt Dee and then go out to Ligonier for food. I read an article recently that the people who now own the old Hollow restaurant (used to be Sleepy Hollow) have reopened and now call it the Steel Wheel Grille at the Hollow. I wanted to take Ale and sit out on the back where you are overseeing the creek. She would probably like that. 

So when we ready we set out. The property was first because it was the closest. We parked on the road and walked up. It looks the same as it did last time I was here, very woodsy. This time however I tried to go as far up as I could. I never went on the back acre this far and I was impressed. Sure lots of trees were falling down but I bet when I moved in and started cleaning this up things would grow again. I had a ton of firewood if I wanted it. I could landscape this to be whatever I wanted. The boy asked if he could build a fort back here. Obviously you can. Have at it boy. 

When we got ao Aunt Dee's she was already outside with Billy. She says she has glaucoma now so that sucks but besides that she seemed to be doing okay. Jed is currently living in the trailer court in Penn but apparently Zippy was still here. We stayed and chatted for about an hour then headed out.

When we got to the restaurant it was not what I expected. Apparently the huge restaurant part is not yet fixed up enough from when it burned down to be open. Instead they had a little outdoor part open on the side and that was the way it was for now. We sat outside and ordered some food. It was good. There were lots of lady bugs flying around and the boy met a friend who was working on his Minecraft costume. I asked the lady before we left what was going on and she told me they just got the permits approved and now they can go in and first thing they want to do is fix up the bathrooms (currently they have 2 port-a-potties and a sink in the parking lot, Ale was not fond of that) and then they'll go from there. I figure give them the winter to take care of whatever they have to do and maybe by the time next summer rolls around we can come back and see the whole thing. 

On the way I also made us stop at All Saints Brewing to fill up the growlers. They were out of Oktoberfest so that sucked but the 2 beers I did get were awesome anyway. 

We watched the Pens win that night against Neal and the Predators. Fleury got his 29th career shutout. My dad woke me up at 7 in the morning the next day as he was leaving. I thought he'd stick around but whatever that's usually when I try to get us out of there when we visit. He seemed very happy for us, his family, and was glad he visited. I was glad too. 

Too bad he didn't stay. Big Ben set a bunch of records and had one of the greatest days in Steelers quarterback history as he won his 100th game in 150 chances (only the 4th QB to do so) and we beat the Colts 51-34. Recap here.

All in all a great weekend. I made sure to note aloud to Ale several times how happy I was. I love my wife and family!

Trilogy - Part X of 3 - Boy turns 11

The boy's birthday was approaching so I had to think of something special to do for him. He wanted to invite his friends over so even though I suck at talking to people I did my best to try and help him get the word out so this can happen. We did this last year with some success. He wanted to make out his own invitations and pass them out so that was good for me. We made 5 and 3 kids actually showed up and only 1 of them couldn't stay for the sleepover, Ayden and Dylan stayed and Gavin had to leave.

Those kids were cool and nice and I didn't have a problem with them. They only broke 2 things, Isaac's bedroom door and someone stepped on a Disney Infinity character. They played games and Legos and hung out in his room and watched videos on the computer. Due to Ale's pregnancy and relaxed dieting rules we even were allowed to order pizza and make a 'real' cake from a box of Betty Crocker. I haven't tasted anything like that in a while. We ordered way more food than we thought we'd need but they ate it all and drank 2 cases of pop anyway.

It was all very nice and I was very happy that Isaac had a good time. He got some Legos and Minecraft stuff and some gift cards so his friends were very nice.

I even got to eavesdrop on some of their conversations where they tried to outdo each other on how late they stay up at night hiding the fact they play games on their phones all night secretly after their parents put them to sleep. That sounds like a boastful claim I would have made back when I was their age.

Trilogy - Part X of 3 - Tim's Tour

I took my biking TO THE NEXT LEVEL this weekend. I signed up to do a 3-2-1 Ride that was held in Pittsburgh on 2014/10/12.

There were 3 options:

1. Rita's Tour - Only 7 miles, not what I was looking for.
2. Metric Century - 62 miles. Maybe a bit much for me yet.
3. Tim's Tour - 25 miles. Seems just about right.

So I signed up for Tim's Tour. I almost didn't. I was nervous. I couldn't get Joel to commit to go with me. I had my co-worker Neil interested but he had plans to go camping that weekend so he couldn't go either. It wasn't like I couldn't do it myself but it'd be nice to have someone to ride with. My main concern was knowing where to go in riding the streets of Pittsburgh. I've never done it before. I don't know where anything is. I wasn't tired of my regular trails but I definitely wanted to go check out something new, the trails down Pittsburgh. This was my chance. I figured they would have to mark it well enough. When I emailed the lady she assured me that 'No one would be left behind'. That was what I needed to hear. I paid my $25 and filled out the form. I found out later that this was a fundraising thing and I had to commit to another $10 but that was okay. They even had scheduled early packet pick-up at the bike shop right by my work, the one I bought my bike at. So I was able to make it to that and acquire my free shirt, water bottle, stickers, race bib, etc. 

I woke up on Sunday and got ready to go. I was a bit nervous as I hate driving down Pittsburgh but with no home Steelers game today there were no problems. I paid for a spot in the lot rather than park on the road and the stupid toll guy tried to give the wrong change but whatever. Since I was early I got to ride around Heinz Field by myself and it was awesome!! This was fun as all hell. It was a little cold in the shadows of big buildings when the wind blew hard but I'm sure my body would heat up once I started riding in earnest and things would be okay. I was already drinking water and had to pee so there was another pre-race situation where I had to find a place to go. I saw other people searching for restrooms and eventually did find an unofficial place to relieve myself. Now it was ride around until we were ready to start. 

I lined up on the road where it looked like everyone else was lining up. Some lady started talking but I couldn't hear her so I went the whole way to the front so I could. I hoped I was in the right place. And WE WERE OFF!!

I can't describe how much fun it was. It was really fun. I tried to stay in a pack but then I saw people moving up. Eventually I figured I better make a move too or I'll get left behind. We rode on bridges and trails and roads. There were easily visible signs where changes in course were required. I slowed down a bit going up some hills but I never stopped or had to get off my bike. I skipped the halfway rest stop. There was no reason for me to stop. I was able to stay in a pack until the last straightaway and I arrived back at Heinz Field in 2 hours and 23 minutes. People were taking our picture and I felt great. I could keep going. I rode around and saw they had some stuff laid out for us but I wasn't socializing. The whole ride was perfectly documented in my RunKeeper app and that made me happy. I couldn't wait to go home and analyze it and tell Ale all about it. I was surprised that it turned out it wasn't even my longest ride at that point. It was a few tenths of a mile short. 

I loaded up the car and drove home, calling the 6 pack shop to have a sandwich ready for me when I got there to grab some beer for the Steelers game. I made it back just in time. What a wonderful experience. I would absolutely do this again. I'd do it again next week if I could. 

More pics
Media coverage

Mario Lemieux 6.6K 2014

2014/10/05



I ran this again. This time I trained more definitively. I could do even better. I went once every 2 weeks for 5-6 sessions to the track at McCullough. I ran for 30-50 min each time. It helped me pretty much run the entire time. I think only 2-3 times did I have to slow down to a walk and even when I did it was only for a couple seconds to catch my breath. I was proud but not unexpectedly so that I crushed my time from last year. This was definitely the best run of my life. I was totally on. I was super happy the whole day after this.

I enjoyed running this course better than last year. It seemed easier and not much uphill. My GPS (and I bet a lot of other people's as well) glitched out going through the Armstrong Tunnel but I went to the website after and fixed it as best I can. I don't know what they are thinking with the 2 Bridges, 1 Tunnel motto though.






















Results

2015
http://www.runhigh.com/2015RESULTS/R100415AA.html

Bib    Place Class Place Name Age City State              Clock Time Chip Time Pace

1067   930   61  Marc Cartwright, 40, Jeannette, PA            39:09        38:52    9:29

1066  2932  281  Alejandra Cartwright, 33*, Jeannette, PA      56:13     1:18:02      1:13:58   18:02

out of 2955

2014

604  1456  106  Marc Cartwright, 39, Jeannette, PA             42:20    39:49    9:43

603  3841  349  Alejandra Cartwright, 32*, Jeannette, PA     1:12:22    1:07:24   16:26

out of 3977

2013

409  2247  137  Marc Cartwright, 38, Jeannette, PA             51:48    48:12   11:45

408  2899  279  Alejandra Cartwright, 31*, Jeannette, PA     1:05:57    1:02:21   15:12

out of 3051

Runkeeper

Ale did great for a person in her condition (which is pregnant). She started to get sick right before it started but then she felt better and walked it. 

Books and How to Keep Track

I feel as though I am reading more books since I went digital. I read a ton of books last year and I'm doing okay this year as well (2014).

First thing you need to do is start a Goodreads account.

Start adding all the books you read and want to read.
Friend me


Then download the program Calibre
It will help you keep track of the ebooks, move them around and put them on your device.


BONUS: Plus the mother of all reading devices was just announced: KINDLE VOYAGE


Finally, read a lot and be smarter.

Biking

I'm starting get obsessed with biking. Ever since I had to (shhhh!) buy the boy a bike so I had one to do the Triathlon with I've been researching and riding on trails more and more. I think I'm going to have to buy myself my own bike soon because my bike is a piece of garbage and the boy's bike is his not mine. It's more of a mountain bike anyway and I seem to require more of a racing bike. I don't want to spend the money but it's fun and healthy and I enjoy riding with the boy and Joel comes out for rides too so there seems to be many good reasons to do so.

Father's Day 2014

There were a few things that threw me off this past week but for the most part it was a great time.

For starters this past week was E3 and there was tons of good stuff going around. The Nintendo event started with Reggie fighting Iwata and that right there was enough for me to call a winner. They showed a lot about the new Zelda and Hyrule Warriors and they finally became available to preorder on Amazon.

There was an incident where a cop punched my car but don't get me started on that. I was kind of upset for like a day after but I have since calmed.

I also got a little irritated trying to convey a lesson to the boy via Ale. Not sure what happened there but I guess it worked out in the end. I'm still not sure.

Besides those downers I guess everything started on Thursday. Since the boy was going away for the next week we had our Father's Day celebration this day. We had an awesome cookout outside and the food was great. I am really liking the grill we bought last summer and I think I am pretty good at cooking on it. We cook pretty much every piece of meat we have in the house when we cookout so we don't waste the charcoal and then we have food to eat for several days afterwards. I invited my mother for like the 10th time to our cookout but like every time but one, she ignored the invitation and did not show up. Her loss.

The boy made me a gold trophy at Penn Pals out of a piece of paper and Ale collaborated with him to buy me a new power screwdriver set so that was good. It's nice to get something useful once in a while. The boy did fail to call me on Sunday but I guess I won't mess with him over it.

Friday was awesome too. I had a tattoo appointment with Danimus. A lot of progress was made on the 'I bleed black and gold' tattoo. It may even be finished the next time I'm in. I guess I will finally be able to show it off. After we were done we even hung out and did some stuff. I was kind of jacked how Dan never acknowledges my texts or anything so I wasn't expecting to do anything but it seems like we are still friends and I should let stuff like that go more easily. He showed me a lot of what he has been learning about beer. Apparently he is at a whole different level than I knew even existed. He's online trading beer and I rediscovered that the Giant Eagle in Irwin has an awesome section of craft beers which would ensure I never have trouble trying something I've never had before. I even got a bunch of new badges on the Untappd app from all the different beers I tasted.

Weird Al got permission from Iggy Azalea to parody her so a cryptic announcement was released this weekend. July 15th the newest Weird Al album will be released.

In 2 separate trips I rode the boy's new bike over 20 miles this weekend in training for the PT Triathlon which is this next weekend (June 21st). My legs were killing me the 2nd trip but I am super happy with the bike's performance. Hopefully the boy really appreciates that bike because it was not cheap. I am happy my bike is still able to be ridden as I've enjoyed the couple times we have gone out together riding. Hopefully that continues.

Saturday after the bike ride I know I worked on and made good progress on my VGDB so that made me happy. I wish I had more time and resources to research and add all these games. I do it because I love it but I do kind of wish on the side that I could monetize it in some way. At lease showcase my skills to an employers that will let me do this would be nice.

The LA Kings won the 2014 Stanley Cup. They kicked ass. They were absolutely the best team.

The World Cup has started in Brazil and we watched Argentina beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-1 in their first match.

On Sunday I got a good few hours in on Watchdogs. That game is pretty fun and for as long as I played it for as much as I did I am still not even that far along. It is an extensive game to be sure.

Besides all that I got to spend a lot of time with my beautiful wife, Ale. I don't know what I'd do without her. We are still moving forward with the house. We do own the first acre of the property and we are still saving up I guess. I am still paying my student loan down and I hope to have that taken care of by the end of this year.

Done with Kennywood

I love roller coasters. I don't like waiting in line after line only to have the ride break and be shut down before I get my turn. That's the only way I can describe my most recent (and probably last) visit to Kennywood Park. I haven't gone for a long time anyway. I know I've taken the boy before but he was just an inch too short to ride anything good. He wanted to stand at the end of the Pittsburgh Plunge and get splashed all day that time anyway. We decided to go this time because Ale's parents we visiting and it seemed like a fun activity to do with them.

First thing I noticed that I didn't like was that they changed the parking lot structure. Used to just be able park anywhere, not anymore. It's pay. The free spots are way way in the back and seemingly insufficient in volume. Now I walk so I would prefer to park in the back but when I see the pay lot is completely empty and idiots are parking on the hillside in the free lot then I think we have a problem.

Second thing I noticed was the entrance fee is back to one price only. You have to pay $41 to get in. That seems like a lot for a regular person. That seems like a whole lot for people that don't intend to ride anything. What happened to General Admission? Ale's mom and sister aren't going to ride anything. Why do they have to pay full price when they are just going to sit on a bench all day? Luckily Ale researched and found so coupons so we didn't get totally ripped off buying admission tickets.

So we are through security now (because that's totally necessary). You walk through that tunnel that takes you under the road and BAM! You're in! At least that is still fun. The boy couldn't reach the ceiling. I remember knowing I was growing the time when I was able to touch it. So they took the Turnpike ride out and put in the Sky Rocket. I say let's jump right in and get in line. So me, her dad and the boy get in line. We wait 35 min. We're at the part that goes up the stairs to the area where you board the cars. We hear an announcement. The ride is shut down for maintenance. Wow that sucks. Should we wait it out or come back later? We were close enough we could see that some guys came over and are working on the brakes on one of the cars. We waited 10 more minutes and then left the line. This wasn't going to be running again soon.

The boy wants to ride the Phantom so we head that way. On the way we did stop and get on the bumper cars so at least we got that first ride under our belts.

When we left that, across the way was the Cosmic Chaos which I have ridden and enjoyed before. The line didn't seem long so we queued up. After about 10 minutes we can tell we will be in the next batch of people to get on. The ride stops and the people get off clearing the way for us. Excitement! Wait what are they pointing at? Where are those employees going? I hear another announcement. Someone yakked on the ride and they are closing for maintenance. Wonderful! We are out of here.

The boy had enough at this point. He starts dragging me towards the Phantom. I see a sign: "Only one car running today. Sorry for the inconvenience". Oh really? I pretty much have no choice. We get in line. About 55 minutes later we are in the boarding area. At this point I can tell 2, 4, 6 people in front of us so that's 3 cars worth until our turn. I also notice in the one working car they have that 2 of the double seats on the cars are blocked off. Their one car isn't even capable of a full load. The boy is really excited. At least this ride is working huh Dad? Don't jinx us boy, I said. Finally we are next. The car pulls in and the people get off. Announcement. Temporarily closed for Maintenance. FFUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCK! I could see disappointment clouding up on the boys face. Someone asked what was wrong and the guy replied something back that didn't seem to serious. In fact, as we all stood there for what seemed like an eternity but was probably just 5-10 minutes, no one looked at anything that I could tell but then all of sudden we hear the 'please board carefully' message. Yay! We can ride now! The boy was fairly terrified but he did it. We even got this cool picture Ale paid $15 for. :|

After that success we walked around a little and saw the other parts of the park. I told them where everything used to be around the park. We rode the train ride. I noticed they have huge dryers outside the water rides now to bilk stupid people of money. We went into the arcade where I explained I spend plenty of time in my younger years. They had almost all of the exact same games, Rampage, Double Dragon, etc. That was kind of depressing. While that was a Golden Age of Arcades some good games have come out then you should probably have here. Did they do nothing but rearrange them every year since then? We wanted to get some food or something but I said I had to at least ride that new Black Widow ride before we left so I went over to get in line solo. You stand almost under it to wait in line and it seems pretty impressive for that vantage point. I was excited. Too bad that 2 rides into my wait they shut it down. That's it, I'm out. Everyone got out of line and I went to find my family by the Merry Go Round. I'm pissed. I want to go. If they new the rides weren't ready yet or whatever they could at least warn you and charge you half price or something. So we left and I had to apologize to her family. This isn't what I expected. This isn't a good impression to show a bunch of people who have never been here before.

It's because of this total bullshit that I will not come back to Kennywood.

Highlights 2013

Well I wanted to make a Top 5 list of the best things that occured in my life this past year but as I was looking for notable events that happened I found way more than 5 things I wanted to remember. Without further ado here is a list of things that happened this year that are memorable to me and a brief explanation of each. This is somewhat in chronological order.

Ear Of Luigi - According to Nintendo after pushing Mario down our throats for 20 some years it is finally time for Luigi to shine.

Data Analyst 2 - At work I have finally been recognized for my hard work and effort and after they retooled the job titles I have been promoted. Long overdue but at least I finally got a noteworthy bump in salary to help pay for the things that have gone up in price in the last few years when they skimped on giving us more money.

Attended 100th Pens Game - I've been to a lot of Penguins games and luckily I have a lot of friends that are fans that went with me. I don't know how much longer I'll have the tickets but I am super satisfied with what I have achieved so far. (add my record here)

May Trip To Argentina - Well I have been out of the country before. This was actually my 3rd trip to Buenos Aires, Argentina in my life but this time we were able to take Isaac. He is now an international traveller. I think this was super good for him to see another culture. Hopefully it sticks with him.

1 Year Anniversary - On 2013-06-08 I have been married to my wonderful wife for a whole year now! How is that not awesome?!

Took Isaac To See Weird Al - This wasn't the first concert the boy was ever at. We took him to see Phish before but we haven't been able to get him to a Weird Al show until now. Unfortunately due to the venue we were not able to meet up with him after the show but it was still a great experience.

Bushy Run Battlefield 250th Anniversary - Despite living only a mile or 2 away and it being around my birthday ever year, I have never been to the Battle Of Bushy Run Battle Reenactment before. We finally made it this year and it was the 250th anniversary to boot so it was a good one. I got some cool swag.

Ale Got Her Driver's License - She failed the test 5 times. I was admittedly not very happy. I couldn't understand how someone as smart as Ale could not grasp the concept of driving. She's still not a pro at it but finally at least she passed her test and is a licensed driver.

Green Baycation - I had on my 'bucket list', if you will, to attend an NFL football game at the holy mecca of football stadiums, Lambeau Field in Green Bay Wisconsin, for several years now. The problem is due to the way they make the schedule the Steelers only play Green Bay once every five years and of course last time they met they played here in Pittsburgh but finally this year it was our turn. I have been pushing this to all my friends for years and it seemed like I had a following but when it came time to put up or shut up, no one came forward. I was disappointed but not deterred. I had to shanghai Ale and take her instead. Luckily the whole trip worked out better than I imagined. We saw Chicago and the game went down exactly as I pictured it, snowy and wow what a game to boot! (link doc and pic album)

PS4 - Sony released a new system. Pretty impressive. I hope they follow it up with some good games. There wasn't really anything good that I craved at launch so I am still awaiting justification. Hopefully Infamous Second Son, Watchdogs and Destiny are kick ass.

Xmas Vacation - I took the rest of the year off after December 20th. Not only for the Green Baycation but to spend time with the boy and play with him and play video games of course. I had a lot of stress this year so it was nice to be off and not have to do anything for a while. Hopefully I can make this an annual thing.

Babbies - To say this was the year a lot of my friends had a baby is an understatement.

• ADELYN MAE WEYANDT  - MAY
• CARTER RYAN MEALS - AUG
• DANIEL MOOK FREY - SEPT 
• ZACK WEIN - OCT
• GALL - NOV 

Health - Also did a lot of things to stay healthy.

• I walked 4 million steps (4,322,302 to be exact)
• Did 10k push ups (10,220 to be exact)
• Read 50 books (52 to be exact)

IN CONCLUSION 
Well if you look at it like that it seems I had a fairly awesome year. Hopefully in my mind I can change my perception to think of this year in these terms and that should help me stay happy and positive. Next year as Ale and I have already discussed won't be filled with as many trips and events as we have been doing because we need to start saving money but I think it will still have some noteworthy happenings going on. Here is a small preview:

Big Stuff Planned for 2014

• Paying Off Student Loan
• Buying Property For Dreamhouse
• Groundhogs Day
• Cartwright Babby :D

2011 Father's Day

It was the weekend of Father's Day again and because I was keeping Isaac an extra day this weekend (Friday into Saturday so I could make sure he went to karate practice) I thought we'd do the Father's Day thing on Saturday since I already had him. My mom cut me out a page from the PT paper about an event going on down Pittsburgh this weekend called LegoFest and I saw a couple people facebooking about it so I decided 'Hey, Isaac loves Legos!' this is going to be our activity this year!!

We got up that morning, had some cereal and went to karate practice. After we were done we went home and had some lunch as our tickets were for the 3-8pm session that day (I printed them on my new wireless printer that ma babby bought for me). Around 2-2:30pm I decided it was time to go so I grabbed all my fully charged electronic devices (I brought my 3DS for 3D pictures, my iPhone for tweeting and facebooking pictures and my Sony camera to take high quality pictures and videos) and we hopped in the car. We had no problems with any traffic or finding the place. We parked and walked towards the David L. Lawrence Convention Center and went in. There were lots of people but we really didn't have to wait that much.

The place was ENORMOUS!! (PIC) The first thing we saw were these little boxes with scenes set up in them and that was pretty neat. Then we saw a huge map of the USA made of Legos all laid out on the floor and although its outline was complete and the east coast was built up the majority of it was blank. I wondered what this was so we investigated. Here you could take a base piece and build whatever you wanted on it, a house, a tower or a weird art thing. Pretty much anything you could imagine that fit on the piece and then when you completed it you took it over to the map and someone would take your genius over and put it in the masterpiece. Isaac built a crazy little house and I think it got placed somewhere in the Kansas/Missouri area.

Some of the other thing we saw:

• An area with life size Lego characters such as the Harry Potter gang, characters and droids from Star Wars, and a lot of different kinds of dinosaurs.
• There were several areas where there was only 1 color brick to build with. I guess Target was a sponsor because in the red brick area they were putting those white dog mascots with the target around their eye on everyone's finished piece. There was a pink section were a lot of the girls were, a dark blue section and a green section. Green is where Isaac spent a good amount of time constructing his awesome tower.
• There were a couple of huge spots where they just dumped a bout a billion Legos out on the floor and you could just wade out there and sit in the middle and build whatever you wanted.
• There was a part where grown-up nerds that probably take Legos way too seriously made some cool scenes, some guy had a car show out of cars he made from Legos, there were a bunch of cool trains and futuristic monorails that Isaac definitely took an interest in, and neat dirt bike track.
• There was an area that had lots of wheels and other parts to make a vehicle of some sort and then you took it over to these ramps where you raced your creation against other peoples.
  
• Another section had high-tech futuristic Legos that had sensors and hooked to computers that you could program to do stuff. They also offered Lego camps there but it's too far away from where we live for us to go.
• The other big thing we did which I didn't think Isaac would want to do was climb one of those big rock climbing walls. I was surprised at his enthusiasm and lack of fear for wanting to do it but I was a bit disappointed he gave up about a 3rd of the way up at the first place he kind of got stuck at. Maybe next time he'll make it to the top.
  
• We also signed up to get a free subscription to some Lego magazine so that will be cool when those start coming for him.
  

All in all it was another fun daddy/son day. We were there for a long time and he got a little cranky at the end so I decided it was time to go. It seemed like the place was already clearing out and there were a bunch of workers taking some of the things down. We walked out through this cool fountain waterfall thing they have and then I drove him back to his mom's. I was sad to see him go but happy we spent quality time together doing something memorable.

You can see the rest of the pics on my fb

Quick Update

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. I have been doing so much (that I probably should have been writing about).

I finally got my new job in December. I moved from my old Miller project group to my new Stores group. I"m finally getting to learn new things and be useful. I love this job. I'm writing SQL and learning Appworx chains and all kinds of things. There's so much to know that somedays I feel like, 'Oh yeah I"m getting it' and then the next day I'm like, 'OMG I'll never ever understand all of this'. It's all okay though. I'm just going to do the best I can and I know good things will happen.

I finally got a new car to replace my beat down Buick. I bought a 2001 PT Cruiser from a junkyard that was totaled. Someone Chuck knows does body work so he fixed it up. It took 2 months but I finally have a sweet car that hopefully won't give me problems for a long time.

And lastly, I am finally back out on my own (w Isaac). It took about a month of constant hard work but we fixed and cleaned up Chuck's old farmhouse and I moved in there. It's pretty nice and big and we like it. It's just nice to be out by myself again. I'm scared about paying all the bills with Lisa still hounding me for money but I can't stop living my life just because she's a freak.

The best part is the #mayvacation is like less than 70 hours from now. I finally get to see and be with Alejandra again. She's so awesome. So many people were asking me, 'What's going on' and we finally get to sit togehter and figure out when she can move up here and stuff.

My life is rocketing off towards good things and I love it.