Spring is definitly upon us. The pollen is coating our cars and our nasal linings! This year seems to be particularly bad.

Yesterday, I went for a bike ride with John. We threw our bikes into my car and drove down to the [url=http://www.njskylands.com/pkkitt.htm]Sussex Branch Trail[/url] off of Waterloo Road in Byram. It’s a pretty flat trail built on the railroad bed that used to exist here. Although there were quite a few interesting looking side trails, we didn’t venture off the main path because John has a hybrid, not a full fledged off-road bike.

We stopped at one point to admire a small waterfall near the beginning of the trail. As I looked down into the ravine carved by the stream, I noticed what looked like two onld ropes coiled around one another. As I looked more closely, I thought I saw them twitch a bit. Apparently, we had interrupted two water moccasins in the act of getting it on! They were pretty far away from us so presenting to immediate danger to us, we snapped a couple of photos with our cell phones. I don’t they came out very clearly, so I haven’t posted the photo.

I’m sure any number of folks wandered by those two throughout the day, completely oblivious to the danger.

We’re planning on doing some more riding along these trails in the future.

It was great to get out and get some fresh air even though my eyes were rather dry and uncomfortable by the time I returned home.

I turned 35 last week. This year’s birthday was not a big deal to me. No parties or major fanfare. I guess it’s mostly because we’re so wrapped up in the excitement of my wife’s pregnancy.

We visited our friends John and Kath on Saturday. After dinner, Kath brought out her work of art [url=http://www.oninohana.com/gallery/Don/ninja_cake.jpg?offset=]ninja cake[/url]!

On Sunday, Robyn took me and her family to the [url=http://www.grandchalet.com]Grand Chalet[/url] for birthday brunch. The breakfast food was great. This was also where Robyn and I got married over 4 years ago. It was nice to be back. After brunch, we went back to Jay and Patty’s house for cake. I ate way too much cake, as usual.

I was thinking tonight on my way home from work about just how much I have driven to get to training since I moved to New Jersey about 12 years ago. I began training at the [url=http://www.bnyd.com]Bujinkan New York Dojo[/url] soon after I relocated. I settled in April, so I guess I probably began training there on a regular basis in June or so. After I got home late tonight (didn’t go to class – in part due to the fact that I needed a haircut, in part due to the high gas prices and part laziness) I was kind of adding the miles up in my head. Here’s what I came up with:
[list]
[*] average 50 miles to/from training from wherever I was living at the time
[*] average of 40 BNYD classes each year
[*] 6 additional trips to NY each year
[*] 200 additional miles each year for travel to other training events
[*] all multiplied by 10 years
[*] 2 years of monthly seminars in NY
[/list]
This comes out to about 52,000 miles over the past 12 years.

I would say that this is a conservative estimate. Although there was a period of 20 months or so that I did not train in NY on a weekly basis, I was attending a lot of seminars in this period and going to the BNYD for monthly seminars.

What’s more amazing than the number of miles I’ve driven is the amount of time to make all those trips. At .5 miles each minute (an average of 30mph), this comes out to about 70 days of driving!

In an effort to make my blog cooler, I’ve added the popular “Lightbox” photo viewer to the top of the main page. It’s a work in progress, so if you’re one of the few people who read this, let me know if you’re having any problems. I’ve seen some general [url=http://www.brainjar.com/css/positioning]positioning[/url] weirdness with IE and it looks like there are some [url=http://css.somepeople.net/zindex]Z-index[/url] issues in Firefox. Of course, everything works great in [url=http://www.opera.com]Opera[/url]…. The problems are caused by the positioning bugs in IE compounded by wedging this into my existing style sheet. I’ll get them worked out in time.

This is a Cascading Style Sheet work of art by [url=http://www.cssplay.co.uk/menu/lightbox.html]Stu Nicholls[/url], but I’ve made some minor changes. Clicking on the images will bring you to the PHP Auto Gallery page for that photo. All in all, it seems to work pretty well and it looks snazzy.

[list]
[*][url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0937404675/bujinkanmartia0b/]Droidmaker[/url] – I heard about this book some time ago on the [url=http://www.twit.tv]This Week in Tech Podcast[/url] and I finally picked it up a couple of weeks ago when I placed a large order at Amazon. If you’re interested in technology, computers or film making (I like them all!) you will find this story intriguing and thoroughly involving. I’m about half way through the book and enjoying every minute. The only complaint I have is that the author does not go into enough detail about the technology that goes into making these techniques happen. Perhaps he thought it might bore the more casual reader. Personally I would like to have known more about the development of early CGI models and motion control camera rig motors. Maybe I’m just weird like that….
[*]The Gunslinger Series – I waited for Stephen King to complete this series so that I could read the entire thing without having to wait years between each episode. It’s got its high points and its low points, but generally I’m liking the story and characters. I’m currently on the third installment.
[/list]

Last Saturday I went to a day of the Arnaud Coursegue seminar in New York that was sponsored by Anthony Lucas. My experience this time around was better than last year’s. As Arnaud had mentioned in his email to some NY area folks, he had received a few complaints of too much talk at least year’s event so he was going to try to let the taijutsu speak for itself this year.

Arnaud was kind enough to put together a small booklet covering some of the things Hatsumi Sensei has been talking about so far this year in relation to Shinden Fud

Yesterday was an exciting day of new things.
[list]
[*] As mentioned in my previous post, we had an apointment with our doctor in the AM for a new ultrasound. It’s always exciting to see baby pictures!
[*] I picked up our [url=http://www.oninohana.com/gallery/Don/crv.JPG]new Honda CR-V[/url] from the dealership yesterday
[*] When I got home with the new car, there was a FedEx tag on the door indicating that they had tried to deliver our new laptop. I hopped in the car and drove down to the FedEx depot to pick up the package.
[/list]

Obviously, the other two items pale in comparison to the ultrasound, but my first new car in 9 years and first new laptop in just about as long are kind of cool, too!

This morning we had our last visit with the fertility specialists at [url=http://www.rmanj.com]RMA[/url]. It was both a relief and a little sad. We’ve been “patients” there for almost two years and 90% of our experience has been positive. There have been ups and downs for us, but the doctors and nurses have been excellent througout. The sheer numbers of people who come through RMA is amazing. The waiting rooms are usually full for morning bloodwork so at least we knew we weren’t alone in going through what we were experiencing.

Now we will begin seeing Robyn’s regular OBGYN to monitor her pregnancy from here on out.

Pretty much anyone who reads this (if anyone does actually read it besides me!) will already know that Robyn is pregnant. After what seems like forever and a million visits to the fertility specialists, we got the news back in mid-January. Now begins the long wait….