Half-Marathon – Check

Thanksgiving morning Jill and I finished our longest run ever (13.1 miles), and we did it with just under 10,000 other crazy people at 7 in the morning.  So while most of my family that had flown in town was in a warm bed, we were standing outside in 40 degree weather in shorts!

We ran very strong and the race was put together very well.  Next stop 26.2?  Our official time was 2:12:11 2:10:48.

Thank you for everyone’s support during these past few months.  Now we just need to find another race that is organized so well for March / April for our Marathon run… suggestions?

Weekend in New York

This past weekend I traveled to NY to visit my brother-in-law. We, of course, had excellent food and plenty of New York pizza. While we were there we went to a Knicks game, and sat somewhere in the roof. The picture below shows how high we really were. The Knicks lost the game, but it was great to be there for opening night.

The next days was the NYC marathon, and after a bit of navigation we made it to the finish line. We had a great spot and were able to see Lance Armstrong, and the winners arrive to the finish line. Below are the few pictures my phone was able to grab. The finishers looked pretty strong and it is a strong argument for me to run it, but than I am reminded that they are used to being chased by Cheetahs.

FYI – All the pictures above were taken with the Pearl built-in camera.  Not too shabby.

The Mighty Pearl

This weekend I upgraded / replaced my old Blackberry with the newest creation – the BlackBerry Pearl.  First off, I replaced my other phone after the microphone died and it couldn’t help itself from hour glassing for 2-3 hours at a time (usually when I was lost out in the backwoods of Illinois.  So, I didn’t replace my phone because I didn’t like the old design, but was forced to due to natural selection.

My first thoughts are as follows:
The Bad New First….

• The back piece is too thin.  Every time I hold the phone to type the back depresses more than it should, and makes me a bit nervous on its ability to sustain violent blows from its new user.
• The buttons are a bit software, and slightly smaller.  This makes typing a bit of a challenge, but I hope it is just a learning curve given the new device.
• 3 crashes in 4 days.  Not too inconvenient given that it comes back within a minute, but still something we need addressed.

The Good Stuff…

• Fast – Wonderfully fast compared to the old BlackBerrys
• The roller ball is quite responsive and allows for some nice navigation.
• The push / pull services are excellent (note these may have always existed, but I was not introduced until recently)

My latest add-ons are:

• Google Maps (Live Traffic feeds, Satellite, wonderful)
• Google Chat
• Push Weather services (multiple locations)
• [Know of any others, please pass them along!!]

• The bluetooth functionality is great – super easy file transfer with my new MB.
• The ability to setup the phone as a bluetooth-modem to the MB is AWESOME.

Overall a good experience.  I will update this post with any new experiences….

James