Goooaaaallll?

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So, the World Cup final is tomorrow. Not that I have been following it. Have you? I do see it on many more tv screens than I did four years ago, but that may have more to do by my current location than increasing overall popularity.

Soccer (or football) is like most any sport - much more fun to play than to watch. My brother and I played soccer as kids, and my Dad both played and coached. Now my niece is playing on an advanced select team, and is playing the unenviable position of goalie. As kids, we sometimes went to Seattle Sounder games and even saw them make the playoffs.

But I can no longer sit down and enjoy watching a game. A big reason of course is that there is so little scoring. The long, loud shouts of "GOAL" are probably so dramatic because they are so infrequent. They have even introduced a ball that doesn't fly true in hopes that the goalies won't be able to stop it. From what I've seen, it hasn't helped much.

So, the games are pretty boring, but the real reason is the all the dives the players take, feigning injury at the slightest touch. After writhing in (mock) pain and getting a penalty called on the other team, the bounce up and usually even forget to even limp to complete the act. If they spent as much energy trying to score as they do on their acting, they wouldn't need to make a funny-flying ball.

Ah well, the rest of the world seems to love it. And I watch plenty of stuff other people find boring. I've mostly given up watching golf, but I try to catch as much of the three weeks of Tour de France coverage. Now that is some good stuff!

But again, playing is more fun than watching. I think I'll dust off the bike tomorrow and go for a ride.

Eating locally

I finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver last week, and it is a great read on an interesting topic. Even if you only read the first chapter, it would be worth your time.

Barbara Kingsolver and her family move from Tucson to Virginia and decide to get their food as locally as possible. As one synopsis puts it, the book is "their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it." The book chronicles their first year of being locavores, and includes not only their own experiences, but lots of information on the environmental damage and resource waste behind our normal eating habits.

One of the major points is that we have lost most all our connection to how our food is grown. It all just shows up shrink-wrapped in our grocery store. Most of us have little clue about how far the food has traveled, what chemicals were introduced, or even what the plants look like in the wild. Another point she makes, which is something I have thought about in the past, is that most people (including me) no longer know when fruits or vegetables are in season.

Growing up, I remember that some fruits and vegetables were only in the store at certain times during the year. Now you can get asparagus almost any time of the year. But to make this happen, the vegetable often crosses half the world before it makes it to your table. According to the book, "Each item in a typical U.S. meal has traveled an average of 1500 miles." Another odd statistic that shows how little sense it all makes - we export 1.1 million tons of potatoes while we also import 1.4 million tons. When all the transport of food across the world is considered, there are far more calories of energy used to produce food than are actually contained in the food itself.

The organic food movement has also taken a good foothold in the market. People are concerned with what kind of pesticides and other chemicals are used in growing their food, and what kind of health risk they pose. The chemicals not only pose some risk to us, but also can sterilize the soil so that it no longer will produce. Just this morning I saw an article, Coming Soon to Your Strawberries: Newly Approved Carcinogenic Pesticide. Methyl Iodide is used to "induce cancer in cell-culture experiments" and has been shown to "bind to DNA and cause mutations", yet it has been approved to be used as a pesticide in 47 states. California has its own approval process, and they are deciding whether it can be used here.

There are many reasons to try to eat more locally, more organically, and getting to know the farmer that grew your food. People do it to reduce pollution and oil consumption, to eliminate chemical pesticides in their diets, to support their local community of farmers instead of shipping their money overseas, and for the simple fact that fresh produce tastes so much better than the well-traveled, shrink-wrapped version.

Not many of us have an acre of free land to grow our own vegetables, but even people living in cities are carving out small areas to grow some food. An article in yesterday's Seattle Times details how much a woman living 15 minutes from downtown Seattle has been able to do. At our own home, Matt is currently making pasta sauce from tomatoes and basil grown in the backyard. The pasta will probably be served with a salad using lettuce from the garden as well.

This is only a small portion of their harvest. They have enough tomatoes that they can give them away or even trade them to a neighbor for firewood.

There are varying degrees that people participate in this local food movement. Some of the above mentioned authors are even grinding their own grain and making their own cheese. Whether you grow some of your own food or just change your habits slightly, the impact can be pretty staggering. From the book,

"If every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we would reduce our country's oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week. That's not gallons, but barrels. Small changes in buying habits can make big differences. Becoming a less energy-dependent nation may just need to start with a good breakfast."

I've enjoyed several books by Barbara Kingsolver, and I found this book to be a great mix of interesting stories and enlightening information.

Quote of the day

A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools.

~ Douglas Adams

Front page

So, Tami calls me on the 4th of July and asks, "What's it like to be on the front page of the Business section?" Uh, what?

There was this article in the Sunday Seattle Times called Stressed out are running for their sanity, helping retailers. It talks about how more people are running and participating in events these days, even during a recession. Actually, that maybe more people are running because of the recession, and the running industry is benefiting.

So I guess the picture that accompanied the article was a shot of the start line of the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon. And there I was in the front row.

click to enlarge

Kinda weird, kinda cool. I did get a business degree, but this is probably the only way my picture will ever show up in the business section.

Happy 4th of July

By the numbers

A couple of interesting numbers (at least to me) about the Seattle Half Marathon last weekend.

A recent article in Running Times quoted some statistics from Running USA about the growth of half marathons. In 1990, there were 303,000 finishers and the ratio was 75% male to 25% female finishers. In 2009, the finishers had grown to 1.1 million, and the ratio was now 43% male finishers to 57% female finishers. Apparently the gender flip (more women finishers) occurred in 2005.

Out of the 17,608 half marathon finishers at the Seattle Rock n Roll Half Marathon, 12,572 were women, a whopping 71%! Pretty amazing. For the full marathon, it was almost a 50/50 split. The half marathon is starting to sound more attractive for a number of reasons.

There are calculators online that will help predict finish times at various distances based on one of your recent races. One of them is here at marathonguide.com. Basically, you can plug in your finish time at a 5k and the calculator will spit out predicted finish times all the way up to the marathon. It assumes that you put in the necessary training and takes into account that you will run a slower pace at a longer distance. Obviously, the closer the distance you plug in, the more accurate the prediction.

After the half marathon, I plugged in my finish time to see what the predicted marathon finish would work out to be. It spit out a 3:51:36 marathon finish. But more interestingly (again, probably just to me) is that if I plug in the finish time I ran at the Carlsbad 5k in April, it spits out a half marathon finish time within a couple of seconds of what I ran in Seattle. I guess the thing is pretty accurate. I didn't even need to run the half marathon - I could have just plugged in the numbers and asked the race director for my medal.

On a side note, the half marathon was another well run event by the Rock n Roll folks. No complaints, other than the escalating costs of future events. The best part of the finish area was something sponsored by Nutrilite. They had a station where you could soak your weary feet in an ice bath. They had these plastic sleeves you put your feet in so your feet stayed dry and the ice bath could be reused. Oh, man it felt good on the weary feet. I have often imagined walking into the ocean after a marathon to numb my overworked muscles. This was the next best thing. If only it was a little deeper so you could get your whole legs in.

Oh, and if you are interested to see what the Seattle half marathon course looks like, here is a course preview video from the website.

Can you hear me now?

Maybe it is a good thing that I didn't jump in line to be an early adopter of the iPhone 4.

By now, I'm sure most of you have heard about the reception problems people are experiencing. There is a stainless steel band around the body of the phone that acts as the antenna. This was supposed to provide improved reception over the last model. However, if your hand touches the black line on the side of the phone, it appears that it crosses the antenna up, and cell reception all but disappears. If you haven't seen it already, this is one of the videos that demonstrate what happens

This is a rather major design flaw, especially when you are touting the design's improved reception. And what is Apple's response to consumer complaints? Essentially it "You're holding it wrong. If you can't stop holding it wrong, you can buy one of our protective cases (for $29)."

Gripping any phone will result in some attenuation of its antenna performance with certain places being worse than others depending on the placement of the antennas. This is a fact of life for every wireless phone. If you ever experience this on your Phone 4, avoid gripping it in the lower left corner in a way that covers both sides of the black strip in the metal band, or simply use one of many available cases.

Other, cheaper fixes have been suggested, including covering the line with electrical tape, or by surrounding the antenna with one of those yellow Livestrong rubber bracelets. Apparently there has been an increase of visits to the Livestrong site lately. 

Now, Apple has released a new excuse/reason for the signal drop off if you touch the black line - "you never had that many bars in the first place". Portions of Apple's letter read:

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don’t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T’s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone’s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

So...the reception has never been that good, even dating back to the last two iPhone models. I might buy this since AT&T's coverage has not been very strong. But you've only made this "stunning" discovery with the new model, and only after thousands post videos demonstrating the reason for the signal drop. And we're to believe the software that (incorrectly) calculates the signal strength is somehow made more accurate by touching the black line on the antenna? Yeahhh....

Of course, every phone or electronic device has problems and glitches. But their responses to the first problem (you're holding it wrong) sound like the old joke about a man who visits a doctor, complaining that his arm hurts whenever he moves it a certain way. The doctor’s response? “Stop moving it that way.” 

And their new  software glitch announcement doesn't explain why the signal drops when you "hold it wrong". If the software update lowers the bars for all iPhones past and present, is it just lowering expectations. Disneyland is the master of this. When you get in line and the sign says "1 1/2 hour wait from here" and it only takes an hour, most are happy about the savings of 30 minutes, rather than irritated at waiting an hour for a ride. Is Apple hoping that people will now say "look how great the iPhone performs with only two bars!"  

And the conspiracy theorist in me thinks, "hmm, has Apple been masking AT&T's poor coverage this whole time since they were locked in an exclusive agreement?" And now it has been announced that the iPhone will be available on Verizon's network in January, so maybe Apple is less concerned with burning the bridge with AT&T and trashing the strength of their network.

Whatever. Apple will continue to sell hundreds of thousands of iPhones in the meantime. I wouldn't turn one down, and who knows, I may end up getting one after they redesign it for Verizon. But imagine the "I'm a Mac" ads that would be on tv if Microsoft responded to glitches like Apple has recently. I can already see John Hodgman as PC saying "just put some black tape or a rubber band on it. Problem solved!" And having him sitting at a table with an adding machine surrounded by paper, saying, "Ah, I see where the software calculation went wrong. I forgot to carry the one. Can't believe I didn't catch that"

Quote of the day

A Facebook post from my cousin Andy:

"2 things I learned from this past weekend. 1. Always follow through 2. Don't plan on doing well with 3 hours of sleep."

Sounds like marathon morning.

The trip home

Oh man, what a week.

I was in Seattle for nine days, and of course it wasn't nearly enough. Trying to fit in visits with as many family and friends as possible made the week fly by. I had just a few firm plans set up before I arrived, but the days (and nights) filled up rather quickly. I wasn't able to fit in visits with everyone, but that just means I need to visit more often.

The one difficult appointment was Monday's divorce hearing. It was a day I was dreading, and I am glad I was able to set it up early in the week. It was no easier than I imagined, but I do have the beginnings of closure now that it is over. Rather than head straight for the bar to drown my sorrows, I went for a five mile run along Alki Beach. The ocean always seems to help wash away some of my troubling thoughts, and it felt good to just be moving forward rather than sitting still.

I was also able to talk through the hearing and the last six months of limbo with some close friends, and that helped greatly. I still have difficulty understanding and explaining it all, but just saying aloud what is in my head seems to point me in the right direction. I am blessed to have the continued support of family and friends.

Impromptu plans filled the week, and it was so wonderful to see everyone face to face. You can keep more or less up to date through blogs, e-mail, Facebook and the occasional phone call, but nothing can replace the hugs and random threads of conversation of being there in person. I had wonderful dinners with several friends during the week, and even squeezed in a run around Greenlake with Tami on Wednesday.

Saturday was the half marathon spent with the "Angels" (I'm Charlie), and we all gathered later that afternoon for a BBQ. Friends who weren't able to meet during the week were there, and Amy and family even came back into town for the day just to be there. The clouds we were so happy to see during the run that morning, parted so we could spend the afternoon in the sun. It was a great way to wrap up the day and the week at home.

I come home more tired than when I left. There was plenty of wine and too little sleep mixed in with all the visits. But I return with my mind a little more at rest, and with a soul soothed by the warmth of family and friends. And as great as my time in San Diego has been so far, and the wonderful friends I am surrounded with down here, Washington is still "home".

Seattle Rock n Roll Half Marathon - Lucky #7?

Now it was just minutes from the start. I didn't bring any music, and since no one was feeling very chatty, I spent the last moments stretching and thinking about whether I was ready to tackle this time goal. I was not fully trained, but I felt like I had enough miles on the road in the past couple of months to give myself a shot. But a week at home with friends and family made me feel five to ten pounds heavier. And I wasn't too sure how well the wine and a short night sleep were going to sit on my system.

My current best time at a half marathon was 1:55:36 recorded at the Bellingham Bay Marathon in October of 2008. I ran another half a couple months later in Seattle, and was only 30 seconds slower. I have been running on a semi-regular basis since then, and have improved both my 5k and marathon times, so I thought I could meet or improve my PR. The pace group I chose was for a 1:52 finish time, which I though was about perfect - an improvement, but not a huge leap I hadn't put in the training for.

After the Star Spangled Banner (always gets me), the gun went off around 7:00am. Each corral of runners were sent off separately with about a minute of space in between. This is a great way to do things as it eliminates much of the log jams at the start and enables runners to get into their pace relatively quickly. Since I was following a pacer, I didn't have to concern myself with speed and just had to play follow the leader.

At about mile 1, there was an inflatable guitar player sponsored by Brooks. Brooks has teamed up with the Rock n Roll series, and the long-legged archway was on the San Diego course as well.

One of the bloggers I follow has also teamed up with Brooks running, and she was at the expo on Friday. I stopped by, but missed seeing her there, but I did catch a glimpse of her at the side of the road just before we crossed under the guitar player. Frayed Laces (as she is called on her blog) recently qualified for the Ironman Championships in Kona, Hawaii this year. Whenever I think "I don't have time to train", I read how much she fits in and I remember that I can make it happen.

I would check my watch every so often to see if we were maintaining the desired pace, and Tim was like a metronome, never more than a few seconds plus or minus from the desired pace. The course is relatively flat in the beginning, so hitting the pace immediately was not too difficult. I ran in Tim's shadow for much of the way, but would speed up a bit when we reached the water stops. I still prefer to walk for about 15 seconds in order to drink without choking. Tim and others have the drink-on-the-go skill, so I would play catch up after each stop.

The day was about perfect for the run, overcast and much cooler than the heat of last year's marathon. Even so, I made sure to pour a little water on my head at each water stop. They also hand out a performance drink (Cytomax) at the water stations, but after one sip, I decided to skip it. It just didn't taste very good, and I didn't think it would sit well on my stomach. After my difficulties in San Diego, I decided to stick to water, a salt packet, and a gel for fuel.

The road tipped upward around mile 4, and Tim held a steady pace. It probably wasn't quite goal pace, but it was close. It pushed me a bit harder than I probably would have otherwise, but it wasn't too bad. The thing I noticed the most was that his pace felt slow once we reached the top. I think I typically speed up on the flats after a hill, keeping up the increased effort instead of easing off to rest. By maintaining pace, it felt easier than normal, and I probably kept a little bit more in the tank for later.

Miles 6-9 are right along the shores of Lake Washington. The street is tree lined as well, so it is an inspiring place to run. There wasn't a bald eagle this year, but I did see a blue heron gliding above the road. Our pace group seemed to grow as we went along, so if I was running in Tim's shadow it was actually a bit crowded. There were actually two groups running together, as our pace was the same as the full marathoners shooting for a 3:45 finish. After one of the water stops, I pressed ahead just a bit and it was much more wide open. I know he was just on my heals because several spectators would comment, "the 1:52 (or 3:45) pace group is just behind you".

The road climbed again around mile nine and I pulled back into the pace group. There was a short, but very steep section to get us up to I-90 and the tunnel into downtown. There was a DJ playing music in the tunnel, but like last year it was blasting so loud it was hard to find the song within the noise. Once I reached the light at the other end, and with most of the climbing behind us, I decided to pick up the pace at mile 10 and see what I had left in the tank.

I was feeling pretty good at that point, not great, but in control. The course heads into downtown with great views of both Safeco and Qwest fields. The marathoners had rejoined the course after their out-and-back on the floating bridge, and the 3:15 pace group passed by at a good clip. But I seemed to be passing a good number of the half marathoners on my side of the road. Once we hit downtown, there were more spectators lining the streets, and with the finish line within reach (for the half marathoners), the energy level kicked up a couple of notches. There was one last climb onto the Viaduct, and though I was feeling pretty good, I was really glad I wasn't heading north with the full marathoners this year.

Off the Viaduct and back on the streets, we made one last turn for home. The road to the finish is in front of Qwest Field, and it was jammed with folks cheering us on to the finish. I still had something in the tank, so I picked it up for the sprint to the finish line.

I crossed in 1:50:35, cutting five minutes off my previous best. It was one of the more enjoyable races I have run, one of the few where I really felt in control, but pushing myself just enough. I probably could have gone a little faster, simply because I didn't feel completely smoked at the end, but the half marathon felt about perfect.

I had no reason to expect a PR, especially with the way I have been endulging and not sleeping this week. I am sure I have the pacer to thank for giving me a smooth start to launch off from. I can definitely see using a pace team again in the future.

And starting tomorrow, I start to take things more seriously. It feels great to have a good race when you aren't expecting it, but it also makes me excited to show up on race day prepared to do my best. I am training for the Long Beach Marathon in October, and have hopes of participating in a Half Ironman next spring. This will take not only more specific training, but also taking better care of myself away from training. I am definitely due for a detox.

Getting to another start line

The day started much too early, as it always does on race day, but it was a bit tougher than average this time around (mostly for self-inflicted reasons). In trying to fit in visits with as many friends as possible while I was in Washington, Tami and I went out to Diane's Friday night before the race. Diane was part of our great book club, and a few of us wanted to gather again to swap stories and catch up. And like most clubs, there was some wine involved.

We had a great time catching up, but even at three hours or so, it was much to short. But we had a race to run the next day, and a spaghetti dinner back at Tami's to carbo-load with. I ended up staying the night there so we could drive in together. We stayed up longer than we should have, and consumed a glass or two too much wine. But I was on vacation!

I was awake an hour early (2:30am!) and couldn't get back to sleep. This is not too unusual for race day, but this time it was the wine rather than pre-race jitters. The shuttle busses from Seattle to the start line were running from 4 to 6 in the morning, and I think we hopped on our school bus around 4:45. This put us at the start line with almost two hours to kill before the gun went off, but there have been enough horror stories of runners missing the start that we didn't want to take any chances.

Cherie and Wendy joined us about 20 minutes later, and we began the pre-race rituals of - checking in our stuff, stretching, visiting the porta-potties multiple times, and making any last minute adjustments before setting out. There is also lots of chatting with other runners, mostly explaining our team name and race day shirts. They are usually good for a laugh and a great converstation starter.

There was a VIP area sponsored by Brooks that included flush toilets, and more importantly, very short lines. You could get a "backstage pass" for VIP access by buying some Brooks shoes and apparel a couple of weeks before the race.

I was really tempted, especially since I run in Brooks shoes, but since I was running with several friends, it seemed wrong to be separated in my own gated community. But next time, I may need to do it. Even a couple of hours can seem too short a time when the bathroom lines are as long as they are.

There were approximately 27,000 runners toeing the line on Saturday, and 39 corrals in all. As I mentioned, I was planning on running with a pace group, and this put me in corral number 6. I was listening to John "The Penguin" Bingham speak at the expo, and he mentioned that people have much more fun the further back they are from the start line. I think there is some truth to that. In other races where I have been more mid-pack, the atmosphere is more like a party, with lots of smiles and excited chatter. Most everyone around me in corral 6 were all business. Very little chatter and determined looks rather than smiles.

The pacer (sponsored by Chuckit Racing) was named Tim and he welcomed each of us into his little group. There was nothing identifying us, so I'm not sure how many were in our pace group, but I would guess we started out with about fifteen runners. Each runner introduced themselves to Tim, who said he was pretty chatty, but would almost certainly not remember all our names.

Almost time to start...

Half the effort, twice the enjoyment

Tomorrow morning is the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon and Half Marathon. I will be running the half with three of my original running friends. We have been to many races together from 5ks, to marathons, to spending 30 hours in a van together running a 189 mile relay race. These are the people who held true to those late night promises that "we should start running", and we have continued to push each other to greater distances and larger experiences.

We all ran the inaugural event last year, two of us running the half and two running the full marathon. We are all running the half this year, so it will be more about fun than pushing our limits. We aren't at the point where we can just roll out of bed and run a half marathon, so it will still be a challenge, but the half marathon is a completely different animal. It is less about survival, so it is much easier to stay in the moment and enjoy the day. The first part of the Seattle course is also much more scenic, running along the edge of Lake Washington before heading downtown, and there is sun in the forecast. Should be a beautiful day.

I would like to knock a few seconds or minutes off of my best time, but I really don't know what the day will bring. My training for the marathon three weeks ago was half-hearted, but it may be enough to be reasonably prepared for tomorrow. But I also don't feel completely recovered, and a week at home with friends and family have definitely increased the intake of good food and spirits.

I am going to try running with a pace group tomorrow. A pace-group leader tries to run a consistent pace through the race to arrive at the finish line by a certain goal time. The leaders carry a small sign aloft with the goal finish time, almost like a tour guide trying to keep the flock together. Most marathons have pace groups these days, and there are several groups to match goal times for both half and full marathoners. Though I have sometimes kept them in sight along the way, I have never tried starting and finishing with a pace group. Since I have a desired goal, but it is pretty speculative, I thought it might be fun to experiment this time around. If I can stick with them the whole way, I could knock about three minutes off my PR. Should be interesting.

Though we run different paces and have different goals, my friends and I will join together at 0'dark thirty tomorrow morning to support each other as we cross another start line (and of course cheer each other on to the finish). It is said that the real work is the months of training, and that race day is the reward, the celebration. But of course the celebration is that much better with friends by your side every step of the way.

Random Washington goodness

Taken during one of my walks this week. Click to enlarge.

The ocean has its pull, but a summer walk through the pines 

does something good for the soul too.

My not-so-smart phone

I started carrying around a cell phone when I was in construction. Since I was out in the field each day and would need to get in touch with my crew and boss, it made sense to get one. Of course once you get a cell phone, it is hard to imagine life without one. We have become used to instant access to friends and family, and it sure makes meeting up much simpler. Gone are the days of "I will meet you at the glove by Safeco Field at 3:30". Now it is "I'll call you when I get close." Of course it has probably made it easier for people to be late since they can get in touch at will.

When I changed to working in real estate and mortgage lending, I upgraded to a smart phone. For the first year or so, I carried around a simpler phone, a PDA to keep track of my calendar and contacts, as well as an electronic key to get into homes for sale. By upgrading to a smart phone, the three devices could be reduced to one. But what finally pushed me to "simplify" was being stood up when meeting a new client at a house for sale. I waited for about a half an hour before giving up. When I made it back to the office, I found an e-mail from him saying that he wouldn't be able to make it. The time stamp on the e-mail was the same as the time we were supposed to meet.

It became apparent how dependent on e-mail most people have become for their primary form of communication. The client had my cell number (though I did not have his), but instead of calling me to tell me he had to cancel, he sent an e-mail. Of course I was already waiting at the meeting place when he sent it out. The bonus of e-mail access in the field (in addition to the one device vs three devices) finally pushed me to upgrade to a smart phone. And then of course, it became hard to imagine life without it.

Many of us have moved rather quickly from "needing" cell phones, to needing mobile e-mail, to needing internet access in all places, and I am no different. My smart phone was nothing like the current Apple and Google phones with their endless apps. It was a much simpler Windows Mobile phone, but I had the ability to get online to check e-mail, traffic, ball scores, and Google for the random questions that pop up from time to time.

But the phone stopped holding a charge, and even the new battery I bought only lasted six months. I had a simple back-up phone that I would carry when running or biking, or any other situation where I thought I might drop the phone, and this is what I have been using for the last six months or so. I definitely miss the additional internet and e-mail bells and whistles, but the simple phone does have limited internet access on board that I can use in a pinch. What I really miss is having my calendar and the ability to take easy notes.

So most people know that the new iPhone hits the stores today. It sounds like there won't be many available right away, so there was no temptation to go stand in line. But I am tempted by the phone. The iPhone has become the one to chase, and the new version sounds like a good update. But Google is coming up fast with their own "so much more than a phone" device, and even Windows is launching a new system in November that looks pretty good.

The other thing that makes me hesitate is (for now) the iPhone is only sold at AT&T. I have been with AT&T for a little over four years, and I am still locked into them until November. I have not been too happy with their coverage, and it doesn't look like they are doing much to improve it. They seem happy to spend money on Luke Wilson to promote their red herring campaign. "Verizon has us totally beat with 3G coverage, so we will just show you the map of our slower, older service and hope you don't notice."

With millions of new iPhones clamoring for bandwidth to stream video, etc., the already weaker system may get overwhelmed. AT&T has also jacked up the early contract termination fee from $175 to $325, so it makes it even less tempting to risk whether the iPhone will be able to do all it says it can (though Verizon has made a similar fee increase).

So for now, I will probably sit on the sidelines and let the early adopters check out the new iPhone. I am sure there will be a flood of user reports over the next couple of months to let me know how the phone and the network perform. In the meantime, my phone won't be quite as smart, so I am going to have to dust off those brain cells that used to keep track of dates and appointments. And carry a pen and paper to capture those occasional "brilliant" thoughts.

Sacked out

My parents are dog sitting for my older brother this week, so they are back up to a two dog household again. My brother's dog (well, really his daughters' dog) is a Schnoodle, a cross between a Schnauzer and a Poodle. This small, zippy dog is quite the contrast against my parents' large, loping lab. I am not generally very fond of small, designer "purse" dogs, but my nieces' dog is actually pretty cute and reasonably well behaved. She does not have small dog complex and feel the need to bark constantly like other cat-sized dogs.

We were watching the Mariner's game on tv the other night, and the Schnoodle decided to hop up and join us. She almost immediately sacked out, worn out after busy day of zipping around the house.

This is a shot from above her. She is flat on her back, paws up in the air with her hind legs propped up on the back of the couch. Rotated, it looks like she is sitting up watching the game with us.

Ahh, the dog's life.