Thoughts....

So, back from a week in Denver at corp HQ training center for a little Cisco beat down. I'm sitting for the CCDA exam in a few weeks and thought a bootcamp would be helpful....all I can say is selling the stuff for the last decade vs. actually diving into the technical surface (emphasis on surface because the bottom is a few miles down) was a helluva lot more than I bargained for. It took me 3+ nights to figure out subnetting....and it's still not automatic....CIDR isn't too bad now that I've kind of figured it out. And don't even let me get started on routing protocols. Let's just say I'm not all that confident going into this test. Happy thoughts, right? Who can tell me what the network address, first and last host address, and broadcast address for the following:

171.25.63.20/25

On the bike front, things are ok....I never thought I'd be so twisted up bio-mechanics wise at 39 than I am....I'm seeing both a PT and a chiropractor (and the co-pays absof*ckinglutely SUCK, btw) once per week, stretching about 30 minutes per day and now starting to throw in some core strength building stuff. The plus side is that my back pain in the morning isn't as bad as it was this summer (it's still there but it doesn't take an hour to loosen up). The down side is that I feel like I'm spending an inordinate amount of time trying to get it back in shape.....and I'm ACTIVE!!! I ride my bike all the time and race a bit. I don't eat great, but it could be worse. How bad would this be if I was the proverbial couch potato???

On the home front, the kids' bathroom is just about done. I need to case out and paint the window, add some accessories and get my tools out of there. Give me one good day and she's in the books. I do need to finish up the guest room as well since I stole some of the closet to make room for the new vanity. Next project hopefully will be the master bathroom. And I really, really, REALLY need to finish up the lingering baseboard project. While I really don't want to replace any of the baseboard heating covers, I don't see any way around it. No one seems to make the end caps for the ones we have. Bummer that.....

Time to go finish stretchin'....then back to subnetting....let me know when you figure out the answer....

October observations....

I'm sitting in my hotel room in Denver on a break from a Cisco class that I'm incredibly under-qualified to be taking but hoping to make the best of....while I should be head down in the books right trying desperately to make sense of SONA, IIN, and the core, distribution, and access architectural modules, I needed a break....so here are some random things....

My cyclocross season FINALLY got underway after two false starts this past weekend at Gloucester. Due to some piss poor scheduling on my part, I was rewarded with back of the pack starts with 100 fellow weekend bike racers. Luckily for me, the back pain has begun to subside just a bit and I managed to finish 27th and 24th respectively over the weekend. Of course no good deed goes unpunished....I dropped my Blackberry in a puddle on Saturday so I'm without a phone while my warranty BB gets shipped to the house. Makes for staying "in touch" interesting...

I had the pleasure of sitting next to a couple of German kids apparently visiting the States during my flight out to CO...too bad they hadn't showered in about a month...nothing like some quality BO to experience for 4+ hours!

The class I'm taking is a bootcamp ahead of a certification test that I'm looking to take in the next couple of weeks. I feel so completely out-matched on this thing....trying to stay positive and focused and hoping that the light bulb moment happens soon or I am screwed come test time!

Miss my kids and can't wait to get back home!