Mom Who?

Check out the picture I found of the iPhone unboxing. Note the rather large glass of scotch in front of Payro. BTW, I remain very impressed with ye olde iPhone. This is once of the rare instances where a product very much lives up to its hype. Enough of that. I suspect you are all iPhone'd out by now.

Following is a run down of activities that the Solomon 3 have done since their mother so callously abandoned ship for Florida:

-- bought two SpongeBob movies and had our own Film Festival, complete with (burnt) popcorn
-- went to our favorite taco joint and followed it up with ice cream and a monster bellyache (that would be me; the kids were fine)
-- went to two parks and had a kick ball tournament (I won)
-- had a sleepover party
-- breakfast at the Dipsea
-- the coup de grace: Z and I went to All-Star activities at AT&T Park in SF. Unfortunately for the little man, I gave away my tickets to the Home Run Derby and the actual Tuesday game to clients, but he enjoyed today's experience (US vs. World Game and Celebrity Softball Tournament) all the same. Nothing like dad and son at the ballpark.
-- Tonight is chinese food ('cause that's what we Jews do on Sunday nights) and maybe another sleep over.

Tomorrow, is likely more of the same and then the Boss (Wo)Man comes home and house rules return in full effect.

One quick question: anyone happen to know the name of a good local maid service that can get here before 2:00 Tuesday?
Just kidding wife -- kind of.

(Joking aside -- anyone have any tips on how to run a dishwasher or washer/dryer?)

Howard and Payro's Excellent Adventure: Part II

As mentioned in a previous post, whenever Payro and I get together we try to plan as many running adventures as possible. Thursday was our epic evening trail run. Today, we woke up early, said goodbye to the kids (April was kind enough to get a sitter for the morning) and headed over to Angel Island (hit the link; its a very interesting place and visible from our backyard deck) via the Tiburon ferry. First time I've ever gone to a race via ferry; it was pretty cool. I was surprised at the number of runners - expected it to be much smaller. It took us about 10-15 minutes to get to Angel Island, which is where Zevan happened to go to camp last week. "Survivor" camp based on the TV show. Damn kid has such a great life it's not even funny. ANd of course, it's completely lost on him. Kids. But I digress.

The Angel Island race featured four distances: 50k (31 miles), 25k (15.3), 16k (10 miles) and 8k (5 miles). Payro's foot has been bothering him and I am not quite fully back to speed, so we opted or the 16k. Normally, though, we'd likely be looking at the 50k.

Our race had two loops (the Island isn't that big); the first loop had one monster hill right att he start and about 2 miles in total of climbing to kick things off, before leveling off a bit. The second loop was pretty brutal; we repeated the first hill and then climbed to the Summit of the Island. The picture of Payro with his arms raised was taken at the top of the mountain; believe it or not, the grey backdrop is fog. It was a very overcast morning which is really a shame, because the views are spectacular. Normally what you would see beyond that grey wall is a sweeping vista of San Francisco and Sausolito.

For the most part, our pace was somewhere between moderate and easy for the first seven miles but we found another gear for the last three miles. Though these last three miles were downhill, we were working veryhard; I'd guess we were probably going at around 6:40 pace or so - maybe faster. And effort like this requires pretty intense concentration because the trail is rutted and if you go down, you're going to go down hard. We were FLYING and found ourselves passing people who had upwards of five minutes on us. We finished in around 1:37 (note: we *very* rarely run trail races for time. We save that for road races. These trail runs are a different breed altogether and are run entirely for *fun*) which is half decent for a hilly ass trail run such as this.

They had a great food spread at the finish -- trail runs are ALL about the food -- and in the one picture I'm holding a hot bowl of chicken soup. There is nothing better in the world than hot chicken soup and/or chili (the race had both) at the end of a tough trail race. Ok, there are in fact some things that are better than that, but I'm trying to keep these pages relatively family friendly.

So there you have it. Fun times.

Last word: if you like to run, try a trail run sometime in this lifetime. It's a great experience in many different respects.

Home Alone and the Unboxed iPhone Makes Its Debut

So .. April leaves in one hour (the redeye) for Florida to visit her sister. For four days. Leaving yours truly alone with the kids. With one kid who just got five shots (the girl) and is utterly miserable.

Things are about to get interesting at the Solomon's, folks.

Anyone want to take a flyer on precisely how many things I screw up? I might have to live blog the entire experience.

After our epic run last night Payro and I drank copious amounts of scotch and unboxed the iPhone -- finally! Now, I am still not certain if I am going to keep it - I have one week to decide -- but I have to say that it is utterly amazing. I am a big product guy as many of you know, but this one is *really* special. There is no question: Apple nailed it. The hardware is perfect, the UI is incredible and for the most part the software is pretty springy, though I would say that it (the software) is still in beta mode. The good news though is that software issues can be dealth with via upgrades and I very much anticipate seeing what Apple introduces in the next few week in terms of firmware.

I've done a ton of research the past week or so and I think this thing is safe to buy (by that I mean we won't be entirely hosed when Apple comes out with version 2.0). The only element that disappoints thus far is the Internet component; specifically, the network (the safari browser is amazing). AT&T's EDGE network is maddeningly slow, but I add the caveat that my work phone is 3g enabled and sets a pretty high bar. I do not think Apple can introduce a 3G version for at least eight months. If they do it sooner, I will most certainly vomit.

The thing that has pleasantly surprised me the most is the keyboard. It is *much* more functional than I thought possible. If they license ActiveSynch, which I am praying happens soon, this thing will be a killer business device. That being said, I do not think the good folks at RIM need to be staying up at night. Peole are not going to be giving up their Blackberry's any time soon.

I'd write more but have to run - gotta get a crash course lesson in how to dispense aspirin/tyleno to a five year old.

More later.

We Are Alive

In the event anyone is concerned, the running idiots returneth safeth.

Of course, after three beautiful weeks of near perfect weather, a fairly decent storm blew in this evening. Hence, we moved the timetable from our planned time of midnight to a more reasonable hour of 9:45. Note that it was just as dark as it would have been at midnight.

It was just brutual when we hit the trail; howling winds and massive fog. But once we got over the first ridge things cleared a bit. Until we got to the next ridge that is and then the wind/fog started uop again. That's the one aspect of Northern California that never ceases to amaze mel; the weather is capable of changing tact dramatically within a matter of yards. You can drive from Chicago to St. Louis and essentially have the same weather pattern but I can drive from my house to the Golden Gate bridge and experience three different microclimates.

Anyway, the weather was gnarly but we made it for an hour and then we came home and drank scotch (which I am enjoying presently). I must say; an awesome and memorable time; two good friends and running buddies hitting the trails after dark.

Sounds a little brokeback doesn't it?

Anyway, more tomorrow. We have another cool adventure planned for Saturday and for this one I promise a pictorial.

July 4 Festivities

An action packed 24 hours of Fourth of July activities. Highlights included:

-- taking the kids to the County Fair. I cannot recollect ever going to a county fair when I was a kid. What a huge miss; they are as cheesy as can be imagined, but super fun all the same. Carnies barking at you from all angles, lousy rides and worse food and yet somehow it's become one of my favorite family outings of the year. The lowlight: getting stuck (yes stuck) on the TOP of the ferris wheel with Zevan. He was fine, I was scared sh&*less. I have a slight fear of heights and ferris wheels are not my thing. Oh -- and the reason why we were stuck? Because it had to make an "emergency" stop for my daughter, who had to take an "emergency" leak. Crazy rides and loose bladders: that's how we Solomon's roll.

-- went to Muir beach yesterday, which was a madhouse. One of the rare days in which it was actually hot enough (it rarely gets over 80 in our neck of the woods) to get in the water (the water rarely gets warmer than 62 year round). Zevan and I climbed some rock faces and I really think that rock climbing is going to prove to be his sport. He's as agile as a cat and pretty comfortable on steep faces.

- my main boy Payro came to town for a four day visit. For all of you who don't know Payro, he's one of my closest friends, but on top of that, he's my number one running partner. We ran together nearly every day when we lived in Chicago and over the years, we've done some pretty epic runs together, including a marathon, 50k, the JFK 50 miler -- which to date was our most epic run ever -- and multiple trail races of varying distances.

Whenever Payro is in town, which fortunately for me is pretty frequently, we try to come up with an epic run of some sort. Which is probably a good segue for what we have planned for this evening: we are going to run along my favorite trail, the Miwok, all the way up to Coyote Ridge and and down to Coastal. Then we are going to run back down. Gnarly climbing and descending the entire way.

The only twist? We plan to start at midnight.

We'll be running by headlamp and flashlight on some of the baddest ass trails Marin has to offer. And oh yeah, evening is noted for being feeding time for mountain lions and bobcats.

Why are doing this you might ask? As ultrarunners are apt to say, "if you gotta ask why, you'll never understand....." Plus, it will be good practice for our planned 100 miler, whoch we are gunning for in 2008, health permitting.

Let's hope Payro and I return safely from this adventure and in one piece. Stay tuned for a recap tomorrow.....

Vincent Chase Meets Dennis Hopper

Too tired to post much -- weekend activtiies and training has caught up with me -- but just finished watching Entourage. Best line of the show was from Turtle, after Vinnie jumps out of the car to go to the Beach with the hot chick, "Man, if I could just be him for one day." I think most of us guys probably agree.

The other great line was from Dennis Hopper, in reference to living in a cave during the filming of Apocalypse Now (which, I might add, is definitely one of my top five favorite movies. I've probably seen it in excess of ten times and though the scenes with Kurtz at the end are a bit drawn out, it gets better with each viewing), when he says "god was my best decorator."
Great guest appearance by Hopper and if you watched carefully, Howard Stern fans, that was Chuck Zito in the living room watching the soccer game. Anyway, it appears as if I might be wrong; Medellin is looking like a hit.

John from Cinci has officially lost me btw, unless one of you has a strong opinion and can convince me otherwise. Can't say I didn't try on that one.

By the way, on the topic of TV, I do have a great show that both Zevan and I are really into: Man vs. Wild on Discovery. If you are not familiar with the premise, the host, Bear Gryllis, is ex UK Special Forces and in each episode he gets dropped off in an inhospitable locale (Florida everglades, Death Valley, Alaska backcountry, a desert island) and has to find his way out. Each episode he does something out of the ordinary -- pees on his headband to cool himself off while trecking through the desert, eats live salmon right out of the water in Alaska, etc) that really stoke young Zevan. Great show and relatively family friendly. Survivorman on TNT is of the same genre and is also enjoyable though it doesn't appear on a regular basis sofar as I can ascertain.

Lack of good TV won't matter soon though because we are less than a week to go to the Tour, but I'll spare you a ranting on that subject for the moment, as I know it's going to get old soon.

I told my father he's on deadline for an end of the week post, but he appears to be unable to find his muse, so please let me know if there's a particular subject you'd like to hear.

Out for tonight.

(Ps For all of you keeping score at home, the damn iPhone is still in the freaking box. Funny, I can make snap decisions about surgeons, cancer treatment, moving to new cities, buying expensive homes, etc. -- and I make these judgements quickly and without looking back -- and on top of that I capably run a very large division of a major PR firm -- and yet I am completely conflicted about a freaking iphone. Go figure.)

The Things That Ate My House

Happy fifth birthday, Summer Meadow. Hard to believe my baby is getting so old. We had a great party for her at the house this afternoon/evening, replete with jumpie thing. As you can see, the damn thing was just about as big as my house. I thought the party was going to be a little sketchy being that it was in our driveway, but props to April: she really pulled it off, and it was very laid back and super fun. The kids had a blast and the parents had just as good a time hanging out. I must say, we've made some really great friends out here.


Weather here in NorCal has been amazing and overall, it was an awesome weekend. Played kickball with the kids yesterday and then took them on a great hike on the Sun trail, which is a little known and short trail (just under a mile) but it's really cool in that it ends at an Inn, the Tourist Club, that is nestled in the Redwoods in Muir Woods. Attached is a photo from the trail. The trees in the background is the start of Muir Woods.

Got in a decent amount of training this weekend too, including a 24/4 brick for you triathletes out therr (a brick is a bike followed immediately by a run) which nearly killed me and a 2.5 mile masters swim this morning that just about might have ben one of the hardest workouts of my life.

On the topic of training I am thinking an adjustment of my syntroid might be in order as I feel good, but a bit lacking in energy. It's hard to describe but I feel as if I am missing a gear; my workouts just don't have the same "pop" (as my man Phil put it) as they did in the past.

Lastly, we saw the new Die Hard movie and if you are in the mood for an utterly mindless, kick ass Summer action flick, this is the movie for you. I enjoyed it tremendously, though I will be the first to admit I have fairly simple tastes when it comes to movies.

On the topic of movies, the funniest movie of the year, by far, is Knocked Up. iI fyou haven't seen it yet, do so.

And oh yeah. I am almost certainly keeping that damn iPhone. Z and I went to the Apple store this afternoon to check it out and it's just too damn cool. I hear what you said Neil but there's no time like the present.