Author: ryan

  • 2023 April Checkup – Spring Break & half-marathons!

    2023 April Checkup – Spring Break & half-marathons!

    Events

    Spring Break 2023, Tara and I checked out an AirBnB in Millersburg. It is a house built out of containers, and the layout shows why you may not want to build a house out of containers. The stay was really cool though.

    It was a pretty relaxing stay, although my runs through the hills of Holmes county were pretty tough. Lehman’s was pretty cool too.

    A new restaurant came to Kenton, the 101 Smokehouse in the old A. E. Roby building. An extension of their food truck service, the restaurant serves various pulled meat dishes. It was really good, although our waitress was a little stressed.

    The last weekend was a whirlwind of activities. On Friday we went to Akron for Grace’s dance recital, and then on Saturday I ran my 6th half-marathon in Columbus with a time of 2:22. Monday was a trip back to Akron, but that’s a story for the May check up.

    The half-marathon was a pretty fun run, although the DJ at mile 12 was just plain evil. When you’re getting close to the finish line of these big races, you’ll hear an announcer cheering on the runners. Well, at mile 12, where you take a right to head down to the finish line there was a DJ doing the same thing. You may think this isn’t that big of deal, but when you’re running and you hear that, you think you’re close to the end. In this case, you turned right and found out you have almost a mile to go.

    Miles Traveled: 1,102

    Geekiness

    The Krogers in Dublin had self checkout carts!

    As you walked through the store, you scan items before placing them in your cart. It must have a pretty sensitive scale in it or some other mechanism to detect unscanned objects. I tried putting items in the cart without scanning and this just made it angry. The cart turned red and started beeping at me. At the end of the shopping trip I paid at the cart, put my groceries in bags and left the store. Pretty slick, and I didn’t have to talk to anyone at the store. I don’t think they’re used very much, there were probably 20 carts available and I didn’t notice anyone else in the store using them.

    April 2023 also marked the 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi!! I had finished the half-marathon that morning when I noticed it being played that day, so of course we had to see it on the big screen. And it was glorious.

    Movies

    • Murder Mystery 2: Adam Sandler and Jennifer Anniston’s attempt at a Knives Out mystery. It didn’t hit that level, but it was better than the first.
    • Up in the Air: Kind of depressing movie that I knew nothing about. Apparently it had 6 Oscar nominations, including best movie, best actor in a leading role, and 2 for best actress in a supporting role. Who knew?
    • Cocaine Bear: Did this live up to the premise? Almost… The ambulance scene sold it for me.
    • Super Mario Bros.: What can I say, one of the best video game movies released so far. I’m not going to say the best, that goes to Mortal Kombat, but it’s up there.
    • Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: This was a movie that gave me a throwback to the fun movies of the 80s. Smart, funny, witty, and an exceptional cast. I so hope it gets a sequel!
    • Return of the Jedi: Except for the CGI crap added, this still holds up as a great, fun movie.

    TV

    TV I watched (number of episodes in parenthesis):

    • Cheers (14)
    • Coupling (1)
    • Parks and Recreation (2)
    • The Bad Batch (1)
    • The King of Queens (2)
    • The Love Boat (1)
    • The Mandalorian (7)
    • The Neighborhood (1)
    • The Office (4)
    • The Office Superfan (3)
    • Wings (6)

    Health

    • Average Steps/day: 15,848
    • Most steps in a day: 32,530
    • Min steps in a day: 12,073
    • Resting Heart Rate: 50bpm
    • Average Time Asleep: 7h 35min
    • Miles walked: 137
    • Miles ran: 71
  • 2023 March Checkup

    2023 March Checkup

    Welcome to my first checkup post. It’s more of an extension of a journal, just more public. And it will be a hoot to check it out in 10 years to see how the early ’20s were going for me.

    Running be cold.

    The best news of the month came from Taco Bell with the return of the Volcano menu:


    “The return reintroduces the Volcano Burrito, Volcano Taco and the option to add Lava Sauce on any item.”


    Events

    There were a few big events in March, starting with the Anna High School production of The Sound of Music with the talented Carly Rogers in the lead role. We followed that up the next week by traveling to Sheridan High School to watch Top 20 before. Well, that and to see Sheridan’s show choir perform Pac-Man Fever. That day was finished out at Easton, where it was way too cold to be walking around but I still needed to get some arcade gaming in. The next day we were able to go to Ridgeway and see Ridgemont’s production of Once Upon a Mattress with the amazing Jillian Kearns in the lead role.

    Tara and I ate out at Ralphies with mom & dad and Jerry & Carole. We also ate at Jalapeno’s in Ada, Ralphies (again), and Pizza Hut.

    Mom had a doctor’s appointment at the James, where a robot made me a cafe mocha:

    Miles traveled: 839

    Geekery

    The network card died in my Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh a year or so ago, but I was able to replace it in March.

    Now I can listen to 80s on it again!

    Movies

    Movies I watched:

    • Down (or The Shaft) (2001) – What do you get when an elevator goes homicidal?
    • The Big Lebowski – Now I understand all of “The Dude” talk, plus I know the importance on how a rug can tie a room together.
    • RRR: This was THE BEST EXPERIENCE I’VE HAD IN A THEATER FOR YEARS! The movie is on Netflix, but I don’t think it’s the same thing as seeing it on the big screen. If you do watch it, use the subtitles and not the English audio. There are portions of the movie that just won’t work very well if everyone is talking English. The movie is 3 hours long, but is worth it!
    • The Breakfast Club: March 23, 2023 marked the 40th anniversary of that fateful day of detention.

    TV

    TV I watched (number of episodes in parenthesis):

    • Beavis and Butthead (1)
    • Cheers (6)
    • Modern Family (1)
    • Newsradio (1)
    • Parks and Recreation (2)
    • The King of Queens (5)
    • The Mandalorian (1)
    • The Office (8)
    • Wings (19)

    Health

    • Average Steps/day: 14,892
    • Most steps in a day: 19,943
    • Min steps in a day: 12,080
    • Resting Heart Rate: 48bpm
    • Average Time Asleep: 7hr 14min
    • Miles walked: 140.2
    • Miles ran: 58.1

    Potpourri

    Here are the current songs in my morning commute playlist:

    • Monday: 9 to 5 (Dolly Parton), Don’t Stop Me Now (Queen), Unskinny Bop (Poison)
    • Tuesday: Just Like Paradise (David Lee Toth)
    • Wednesday: Let’s Go Crazy (Prince), What’s My Age Again (Blink-182), American Idiot (Green Day)
    • Thursday: Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey), Working for the Weekend (Loverboy)
    • Friday: Couple Days Off (Huey Lewis and the News), Nothin’ But a Good Time (Poison), Party Hard (Andrew W.K)

    (I don’t have a long commute.)