And then, you get a Dyson Vacuum from your wife for a present. Of which, your wife is excited to give to you. And you, all thirty-three years of you, is excited to get. What a life I lead.

Here are the men:

SWIMMING		TRACK
Distance (LCM)	Time	Distance (Outdoor)	Time	Factor
100	00:47.50	100	00:09.72	4.89
200	01:43.86	200	00:19.32	5.38
400	03:40.08	400	00:43.18	5.1
800	07:38.65	800	01:41.11	4.54
1500	14:34.56	1500	03:26.00	4.25

And the Women:

SWIMMING		TRACK
Distance (LCM)	Time	Distance (Outdoor)	Time	Factor
100	00:52.88	100	00:10.49	5.04
200	01:55.52	200	00:21.34	5.41
400	04:01.53	400	00:47.60	5.07
800	08:16.22	800	01:53.28	4.38
1500	15:42.54	1500	03:50.46	4.09

Sources: Swimming | Track

It's interesting that the women are faster runners in the shorter distances (100, 200,) than the men, but men are faster in the longer distances (800, 1500). The 400 is just about a dead heat. The first reason that comes to mind for the difference is the upper body strength of women. Sprinting in swimming requires significant arm and shoulder strength. Perhaps men are more evenly built between the upper and lower parts of their body?

to this:

In the second shot, you can see that there was a bay window that was removed and replaced with two regular windows. Our best guess is that when the street was widened, the sidewalk was moved closer to the house and the bay window was a casualty. The other small discoveries included (original?) brown paint, and a whole lotta bug nests and spiders behind the tiles. This is all in prep for the insulators coming this week, and new lakeshore fern (siding) the following week.

And of course, every hard day has to end with a relaxing beer or two:

You can see some more shots of the day here.

Stephen had the pleasure of living in our attic and walls for about 36 hours. I don't think he liked it. At least, he told me as much through hisses and teeth chomping when I finally met him face to face. The tricky little guy snuck into the hole left by our broken gutter. Dad and I did a fine job replacing the wood that fell down with the gutter.

Turns out, we did too good of a job since Stephen, who snuck in when we weren't looking, couldn't find a way out. He scratched, clawed, and explored every nook and cranny in the house. Up walls, down walls, in the ceiling, below the floor, all over.

Kris did some hunting herself and found a small Havahart live trap, and I set it up with some peanut butter and put it in the attic. I left it on the insulation and crossed my fingers. I checked on it this morning and found it tipped on its top, set off, with no Stephen inside. So I cleared off the insulation, found some old, empty mouse poison cases and an old cane. So I through the poison cases away and used the cane to prop up the insulation and clear a nice spot for the trap. Then I left for a run.

I entered the house after my run and listened. (Stephen was most active when we were away.) I hear a bunch of clunking from the attic. Success! He wasn't too pleased with me though. But I did have a heart and let him go in the schoolyard across from the house. The first thing he did was bolt for a puddle of water, took a few hits, and then to the nearest tree and he was gone, (but not forgotten.)

I found that walking home from a long week of work on a Friday night. Guh. Shortly thereafter, we noticed water damage to the walls in the closet directly under the roof with the now defunct gutter. I carefully peeled some pieces of plaster off, and saw the sun! Yup, no insulation whatsoever in the closet. More plaster started to fall away on its own.

I was comparing energy consumption with friends who noted that their bills were half of ours with twice the house. Hmmm...something's not right here. So I took the last years worth of our energy bills and compared them to the national average. We scored a 2.8 out of 10. Ouch. I followed some links and found a home energy efficiency inspector. We met this morning and talked about all sorts of issues with our house. He had two tools that were quite revealing.

The first was a thermal imaging camera. The results were like results promised by X-ray goggles promised in kids' comic books. We could see studs, beams, and the immense lack of insulation in our second floor. The only way you can see the beams is b/c they are a different temperature than the insulation between them. On our second floor, our beams were lost, and the lathe behind the plaster showed through. Meaning: No Insulation Whatsoever. Ugh.

His second tool was a big blower that he put in our front door. He used that to put a 50 Pa pressure difference between the inside and the outside. At that pressure difference, every minute there was 3800 cubic feet of air blowing out of our house. With all that air blowing out, laws of physics say there has to be air to replace it. With the fan on, air was streaming into our house through "thousands" of holes. We could feel drafts throughout the whole house; windows, doors, wall outlets, and the gaping hole in our closet. Turns out, the target for a house is to get lower than 1000 cfm. A recent award winning house in Wisconsin reached less than 300 cfm. We've got a long way to go.

So now we turn to removing the old siding, blowing in insulation upstairs, and then layering more insulation to the outside and reside the house. Throw in a new porch at the same time and it'll be a busy summer. Looks the like reroofing project is on hold.

Bottom line, when purchasing an older home, get a home inspection that includes thermal imaging. It may cost a bit more, but worth it.

We didn't get the forecasted 12-inches, but the rain, ice and three inches that we did get was enough. Ugh. (Nevermind the blast of arctic air expected over the next few days.)

I was joking with the neighbor that she fixing her snowblower and Kris getting skis should've sealed the deal on winter and everything should melt immediately. Come on Murphy, where the hell are you?

Here's the observed weather from today:

• HEAVY SNOW
• SNOW
• LIGHT SNOW
• FOG
• BLOWING SNOW

Kind of sums it up, no?

According to the National Weather Service, as of 6:52 PM, it snowed 11.2 inches today; a record. Add the 1.5 inches from yesterday, along with 58 or so inches since the first of December and you've got 72.1 75.1 inches total for the season. That puts us exactly four ONE inch behind the season record of 76.1 from 1978-79. Keep in mind it's only February 6. It snows through April here, people. That's another two full months. Don't forget there's extra day at the end of February this year, too. Add the fact that it's snowed a measurable amount on 54% of the days this winter so far. It's like Mother Nature could sneeze tomorrow and another four inches could just fall down just like that. That record is as good as gone.

UPDATE: For all my moaning and groaning, I didn't have it as bad as these poor folks: 800 people trapped on Interstates

Today's forecast is for a high near 20°F. I'm psyched. At first blush, that's not even close to freezing, but a day after closing schools the high was +4° (low was -8°) with wind chill factors in the -30 range, the sixteen degree difference is huge. It's like going from 70° to 86° in the summer. BIG difference. So imagine how I must feel when this weekend's forecasts are in the 30s. It's a regular heat wave, I tell you. This is how the weather messes with your mind and convinces you that 50 degrees is a good thing.

And let it be known that I very much enjoy where I live. Because if it weren't for the winters, the summers wouldn't be summers. And summer in Madison is just about the best it gets.

Downtown crime has been on the rise. From home break-ins, to late night assaults, and even unsolved murders, there is concern that Madison isn't so great. Many point the finger to the number of alcohol licenses in bars and restaurants in the downtown. So the City developed a plan to limit the number of licenses and reduce the bar density. The plan freezes the new licenses in a one-mile area downtown and hopes to reduce the number of existing licenses. Proponents cited less crime, safer students, and law-enforcement cost savings. Opponents argued that bars will be over crowded, house parties will increase and become more dangerous, and enforcement costs will increase. Despite a year-long debate, the plan was approved in a 2-1 margin earlier this fall. (Official ordinance)

Fast forward to last night. The Alcohol Licensing Review Committee (originators of the plan) approved a large sports bar and restaurant within the square mile outlined in the density plan. It's in a new development, on a site that had a popular bar in it (Madhatter's). This bar is to be located on the other end of the block, away from the State Street area. But that brings it one block closer to the two largest student dorms on campus, directly across the street from their dining hall. The restaurant will have two floors and have a 550-person capacity. Original plans had an 800-person capacity. Also part of the development is student housing for 1,000 residents. So that means that more than half of the students living directly above the bar will be able fit in the restaurant.

The best part is the closing line of the Badger Herald article:

...[the restaurant's] license was unanimously approved under a few provisions, with several committee members wishing the Brinks good luck.

On Christmas Eve in 1967, Astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission captured the above image of the Earth rise over the moon. Never before had people seen the Earth for what it was, a beautiful yet fragile piece of something larger than only few people had ever dreamed to imagine.

In the NOVA documentary "To the Moon" chronicling the NASA efforts to beat the Russians deeper and deeper into space, they touch on the power held in the image and the selection from Genesis the astronauts chose to speak to the world.

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness...And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

And then, just today, the Japanese space administration released high definition images of the same Earth rise from their spacecraft Kaguya. Still amazing in 2007 as in 1967.

NOVA spent fifteen minutes on the power of the image. What's the potential of the Earth rise? What if they blew it up and put it behind podiums in powerful places? Places like the US Senate and House of Representatives, or even the United Nations? Does the speakers' messages change?

Visitors to this year's Munich Oktoberfest ate 11 oxen and drank 500,000 liters of beer (4,260 bbls) in the first two days, the organizers of the world's biggest beer festival said.

The city was blessed with glorious sunshine on Saturday and Sunday when it staged two grand processions of decorated beercarts, Oompah bands, folk groups and waitresses in Dirndl dresses to mark the opening of one of the world's most famous festivals

Overall, 6,000,000 liters of beer are consumed over two weeks. One million people partied on opening weekend. However, if you do go, you may want to go easy on the beer before hitting up the haunted house:

And one drunken 22-year-old Swiss man who visited a ghost train, one of the attractions at the Oktoberfest, got so scared by a mechanical ghost that he literally punched its lights out.

Be sure to check out their pictures.

How does the service work, exactly? “We get the customer's vehicle home so they don't need to take a cab back to their car in the morning, remember where they left the car, pay for any tickets or towing fees they may have received and most importantly, so they don’t drive drunk,” explains Campbell. “Our drivers use folding mopeds to get to your location. Upon meeting you at your vehicle they will fold their moped up and store it in a travel bag which goes in the trunk of your car. Once you reach your destination, your driver will hand you the keys, unfold the moped and be off to the next customer.”

The woman poked one side of her lemon slice with her folk. Then, she gently squeezed her lemon onto her lunch without one stray spray of lemon juice. Simple and sweet. Rather, sour, in this case.