I did it! Check it out: 4 mile time.
That is the time it took me to do my four mile run yesterday.  I finally broke the 7 minute barrier!

I forgot to mention something yesterday.  One of the "eventful" things that happened this last week was that our kitchen faucet broke.  Now, it has been "broken" for awhile, but last Wednesday it broke permanently.  For awhile now (about 3 years) the faucet has dripped.  This has never really bothered me, though, because it was dripping cold water and I don't pay a water bill.  Also, the drip wasn't that bad.  However, on Wednesday morning, I tried to turn the faucet over to hot and it didn't work.  Finally, I tried to force it over and that's when the faucet broke.  It still would not go over to hot, and when I tried to turn it off a steady stream was still flowing out of the faucet.  So, I turned off the faucet valves and we left for the weekend to go watch the new Matrix movie like I mentioned yesterday.  On Saturday, Heather and I bought a new faucet for around $70 and I installed it over Sunday and Monday.  Installing a new faucet wasn't too bad, but removing the old one was near to impossible.  It was fixed to the sink by bolts going down from the faucet, and a nut and washer holding it in place underneath the sink.  The problem was that the nuts were rusted in place.  I worked at them for a few hours to no avail.  The whole time, bits of rusted metal were falling down on my face.  In the end, I was able to remove the faucet because the washers were so rusted that I was able to break them out.  I removed the old faucet and mostly installed the new one Sunday night, but the water attachments for the faucet did not reach the hot and cold water valves.  So, at that point I had to stop for the night.  I purchased some new attachments at Ace Hardware on Monday and finished the installation.  So, Heather and I are now the proud owners of a new faucet!  Too bad we are only planning on living here for another year...

Next Tuesday really should be today.  Why is this, do you ask?  Well, let me tell you:  LOTR The Two Towers Platinum Edition comes out next Tuesday!  That's right ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, hobbits and elves, Valar and Maiar, the moment you have been waiting for is upon us.   Four DVDs of action-packed excitement and soul-inspiring acting and lovely added features along with over 40 minutes of additional footage integrated into the movie.  (If you can't tell, I am excited :grin:)  And then about a month later we get to see the final culmination of Peter Jackson's vision.   How could anyone not be excited?

BTW, THE USED ROCKS!  (I saw these guys in concert at EdgeFest)

This last week and a half have been pretty cool.  I watched Matrix Revolutions last Wednesday night.  I thought it was pretty cool.  Not the movie I would have written, but still a good movie.  I took off Thursday from work, and I already had Friday off from working 9 hour days, so I enjoyed a nice 4-day weekend.  I bought some new dumbells (35lb) with birthday money (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa W.)  I could do too many curls with the 30lb dumbells I already had, so it was time to upgrade.  Heather, Holly (Heather's 13yr old sister), and I went to the Wildlife World Zoo on Saturday.   We all watched Elf later that day.  Will Ferrell is just too damn funny for words.  If you haven't seen them yet, I highly recommend Zoolander and Old School (and of course everyone remembers Mustafa from Austin Powers, right?)  Elf was a funny movie, parts of it were a little too "mushy" for my tastes, but the funny parts were plenty and very entertaining.

Jake's (my li'l bro) Birthday was last Friday.  Happy Birthday again Jake!   I can't believe that he is 7 years old...  

It rained Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week.  The temperature here in Phoenix is awesome right now.

Linkage: Since I'm all hyped up on the LOTR stuff, here is a great link for you all: Encyclopedia of Arda.  This site is an awesome reference for everything inTolkein's universe.  It combines the information from LOTR, the Silmarillion, and other Tolkein sources into a referenced and easy to search database.  Good stuff.

Okay, I've got the pictures of my Tennessee trip up, so I will talk about it now.  I went to Knoxville, Tennessee on business.  I was taking a class at the EPRI-PEAC (Electric Power Research Institute - Power Electronics Applications Center) center in Knoxville.   The class was entitled "Facility Electrical Design Considerations and Issues to Improve Performance."  It was mostly about designing to National Electric Code.   I found it enjoyable and educational (e-mail me if you want more info, most people would probably find it boring...)  Anyway, I flew into Nashville on October 26th around 9PM and proceeded to drive to Knoxville (about 3 hrs away) in the rain.  It wasn't so bad because I had brought two CDs with me, Smile Empty Soul and Fingertight.   My rental car was a Toyota Corolla.  It was a nice car, but could have used a little more power.   I crossed over a time zone on the way and checked into the Signature Inn in Knoxville at around Midnight.

The weather was fairly dismal Monday through Wednesday, but on Thursday (the day I was leaving) the weather cleared up.  Thursday was a nice day, the temperature was around 80 degrees Fahrenheit in the afternoon (per the digital thermometer in the car!)  Because Thursday was the first clear day, I took all the pictures on my car ride from Knoxville to Nashville.  I stopped a few times along the way to get some pictures sans motion.  The first place I stopped I snagged This picture (one of my favorites).  The second place I stopped was along a river.  Here is one of the pictures I took while there.  The rest of the pictures can be seen by clicking on the "Pictures" link to the left and then clicking on the "Tenn Pics" link.

It was an enjoyable trip, but I was happy to get back home to Heather.

Look Ma, Hair!
I am pretty proud of the run I did today.  I almost managed to average a 7 minute mile on my 4 mile run.  I finished in 28 minutes and 3 seconds.  Once I can consistently run 4 miles in 7 minutes (with a little pushing) I will bump my run up to 5 miles.  I think that is still some ways off, but I feel closer now after my run today.
I took a trip to Tennessee last week, and I have pictures.  I am planning on discussing my trip once I have all the photos processed and on the web page to reference.  Well, that's all for now.
Random Link: Cool NASA satellite site