At 6:15AM this morning my phone rings.  Luckily I was already up because I got up stupid-early to work out, but I didn't really feel like talking to strangers at that hour and my caller ID said "No Caller ID" so I let it go to voicemail.  An hour later my phone rings again; again "No Caller ID".  This time I'm in my den catching up on e-mail so I decided to answer it.  "This is Ben." I said, like I do.

"Good afternoon, may I speak to Ben Score?" the chipper female voice said.  "Well, it's 7:15 in the morning here and this is Ben" I replied, suddenly regretting not letting it go to voicemail.  There was a long pause as she tried to grasp that "7:15 in the morning" means that not everybody she's calling is east of Iowa, and then she launched into reading her script, offering me a free subscription to CIO Magazine.  I let her finish, then politely declined. 

First of all I get too many magazines already; my reading stack goes most of the way towards the ceiling and I rarely make a dent in it.  Secondly I'm not that favorably inclined to a so-called technology magazine that can't figure out time zones.

Thanks Sprint

I'm about thisclose to dumping Sprint as our corporate phone provider.  Their customer service isn't that great but the real issue is that the coverage here at my house is terrible.  I'm lucky to get 1 or 2 bars in my house; I have to go upstairs to my guest room to get any semblance of reliable connection.  You can tell the people in my neighborhood who have Sprint by the way - when I go for my evening runs I often see a one or two people sitting out on their front porch talking on their cell phones.  It's possible they wanted some privacy or thought they'd enjoy a pleasant Hawaiian evening, but I suspect that most of them have to go out there to get a decent signal.

I could go out on my front porch I suppose, but lately my neighbor's noisy teenagers and their friends have been holding court out there in the evenings.

Ballroom Bling

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to attend a ballroom dance event at the Sheraton Waikiki.  Cat, Dawn and some new friends were there along with a couple of hundred ballroom dance enthusiasts. Far from being slow and boring the music was uptempo, the dancers were great and everybody seemed to be having a great time.

Interested?  There is a much larger community of ballroom dancers in Hawaii than you might expect.

• Hawaii Ballroom Dance Association
• Dance Lessons in Hawaii

Today's Workout Plan

Today is a gym day and a run day.  For the gym it's weights (back and biceps today) and swimming.  I've been trying to swim at least 2-3 times a week; I'm keeping an eye on next year's triathlon season.  For the run...I'll try to do another 5.5, as I did on Tuesday night; we'll just have to see how my legs feel.

Random Stuff

• Don't tell SteveB but for the last few weeks Firefox 3.0 has been my default web browser.  TIP: If you're going to use Firefox be sure to add the IE Tab Add-in for those occasional websites that require IE to work properly.
• Cat comes home today after more than a week visiting family on the mainland.  I think that means there is more yoga in my near-future.
• Facebook has a new look and despite a lot of hand-wringing from folks...I'm fine with it.

Quote of the Day

"Americans will put up with anything provided it doesn't block traffic."
            -Dan Rather-

-B-

Siri Lindley is an accomplished triathlete and she has a very good presence on TV but her commentary is a little suspect.  She's the color commentator on the HyVee Triathlon on NBC and she's telling us that the swim segment is the most crucial element of the race.  I realize she can't blow off a segment of the race while she's trying to broadcast it but I think everybody who knows triathlon knows that you can't win triathlon in the water.

In fact, I can't remember the last time that the person who came out of the water first ended up winning the race.  Not Chrissie Wellington or Macca at Kona last year.  Not Mirinda Carfrae at Iron Girl.  Luke McKinzie won Honolulu and was at least a minute back when he got out of the water.

"The swim really is the most critical part of the triathlon" says Lindley.  Sorry, but I just don't agree and the race results don't agree either.

In fact, her advice on this could be detrimental to some athletes.  You can't win triathlon in the water but you CAN lose it.  How?  By leaving your race in the water.  If you really believe that you HAVE to get out of the water at the front you could push yourself too hard on the swim, spend that segment on the feet of people you have no business being with, and blow all your energy on the swim.  You need to be able to get out of the water feeling good and ready for a strong ride.

Swim your race and make sure you're ready for a great ride and a great run.  Time and time again we've seen athletes come out of the water minutes behind the leaders and still make up that time and win with a great ride and/or a great run.

-B-

P.S. First out of the water at HyVee was Andy Potts, followed by Hunter Kemper and Brian Fleishmann.  None of those three finished in the top 5.  The race was won by Rasmus Henning who came out of the water 9th - 42 seconds behind the leaders.  In the woman's race Sara McLarty had a 28 second lead out of the water and finished in 15th place nearly 7 minutes behind the winner.

So twice in the last couple of weeks I've tried to buy Apple products only to be foiled by bad customer service.

The first, and most serious, offense came at the Apple Store at Ala Moana 10 days ago:

I stopped by intending to buy an iPod Touch and a Mac Mini.  I was going to drop nearly $1100 in their store.  Had my debit card in my hand and everything.  I walked into the store, looked around, and spent nearly 15 minutes just browsing, standing, looking around watching the various iPeople walking back and forth and none of them ever even acknowledged me.  The problem with that is that they let me talk myself out of the purchase.  By the time I finally tracked one down (and I had to go basically force myself upon one of them) I had decided against the iPod Touch.  I still bought the basic Mac Mini but that was it.

The second happened today.  I was in a K-Mart to get a couple of household items and decided I'd get a little iPod Shuffle to run with.  I wandered into the electronics section and the only K-lerk in the section fled her station the moment I strolled in.  I found the MP3 player section, saw iPod Nano's but didn't see any Shuffles.  I stood there at the display case looking around for an employee who could tell me if/where they had iPod Shuffles for 5 minutes or more before I just gave up and left.

Apple Gear Attempted: 3

Apple Gear Purchased: 1

Not very impressive.

-B-

Jim Calloway and Laura Calloway (no relation) have each posted really nice things about my book.

Laura's Review is here.

Jim's comments are here.

I have to say it's humbling and flattering to hear that other people really like the book!

-B-

I should be sleeping but I want to exhaust myself first so that I don't just lay there and think.  Don't ask.

Restaurant Review - Rainbow Lanai

So the folks were in town last week and we did a lot of sightseeing and eating out.  Some of the places we ate were great (Mariposa!) and some were not so great.  The last place we ate before I took them to the airport was the Rainbow Lanai at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.

The hostess greeted us and was warm and friendly.  The location was nice and validated parking was free. It was fairly pleasant until we actually sat down.  Our waiter was friendly but not terribly fast - surprising as the restaurant wasn't particularly busy at the time.  Generally I tend to lay that on the back of the house, but he was even slow with the drinks which made me think it wasn't entirely the kitchen at fault.  We ordered sodas and iced tea so it shouldn't have been a big challenge, but a minute or so after we ordered I went to the Men's room and when I returned, several minutes later, I was surprised to see that the drinks still hadn't arrived.

The menu is broad and they have a fairly large buffet for $34.  Dad had the buffet and, with a shrug, admitted that it was "buffet food."

I ordered the New York Steak with mashed potatoes and mom ordered a hamburger (she's mostly vegetarian these days but makes exceptions on occasion).

The steak was a fine example of relative value.  It was $38 but it certainly didn't taste like a $38 steak - honestly it tasted like a Sizzler steak.  The steak was cooked well and plated nicely so whomever made it apparently knows how to cook, but it seemed to be a very cheap cut of meat with almost no fat (important for flavor) which made it fairly bland.  And despite the scattering of peppercorns on the plate the steak itself was not well seasoned.  I think I could have gotten a better steak at Outback Steakhouse for a few dollars less.

Speaking of the peppercorns, they had a tendency to roll into the mashed potatoes and to be honest it was fairly unpleasant to be partway thru a mouthful of mashed potatoes and suddenly encounter a peppercorn - which was a little sharp and harsh in flavor and texture.

The vegetables on the plate were fine - though they required a little seasoning as well.

For dessert I gave a nod to a dear friend by ordering the cobbler.  It's a banana-mango cobbler with vanilla ice cream on it and was the highlight of the meal for me.  It was actually quite good; the fruit was nice, the ice cream was good, the cobbler "crust" was warm and good.

Overall I'd give Rainbow Lanai about a 3.5 out of 10.  The food was mediocre and overpriced (welcome to Waikiki!), the service was friendly but not very efficient and the decor of the restaurant seemed a little too much like patio furniture for a restaurant where dinner for 3 is easily going to approach $100.

Fitness

Two weeks of travel and guests have really set my fitness back.  I haven't been working out much and I've been eating out A LOT.  No surprise that I gained a few pounds back.  So it's nice to be back in my own routine.  Went for a short-course run last night, and today did some core strength work and stretching.  I'll be running again tomorrow and hopefully each day for the rest of this week as I start to build back up.

Quote of the Day

"Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier.  The way it actually works is the reverse.  You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want. "

-Margaret Young-

-B-