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I've lived in downtown Madison since 1995. I've loved every minute of it. The different lifestyles, protests, bars, University, and even my work were just steps away. At one point, we joked that we were a one-car, four-bike family. There just wasn't a need to have a 2nd car for us; sometime it would sit for several days at a time.

When we decided to grow up and buy a house, our search wasn't yielding much in the downtown that we could afford. It was the height of the market, and anything worthwhile was getting snapped up and (now) ridiculous prices. Then one night, a house come on the market with an open house the next day. Since it was close by, we went over to check it out. The outside looked pretty bad.

But, when we went to the open house the next day, much of the interior was remodeled. We wanted it badly. After a 2nd walk-through that same day after the open house, we put in an aggressive offer with a quick turnaround. Within six hours, we had an accepted offer. A month later, we moved in.

In the five-plus years we lived there, not one room hasn't been improved. The entire exterior was replaced and improved. We grew from a family of two to three, hosted numerous friends, trained long hours in the basement, but ultimately grew out of its quaint size.

We were so naive about owning a home, let along a hundred year-old one at that. From a leaky roof to asbestos siding and a rotting porch, we learned that nothing is square, plumb, or otherwise is as it should be expected.

I didn't think I'd be emotional as I got as we cleaned out the last of our things last night. Going from room to room, it hit me just how much energy, blood, sweat, and tears where shed maintaining and updating our first home. Lots of memories are tied up in each drop (sometimes gallons) of those blood, sweat and tears.

It's bittersweet moving. Bitter because we'll be further from the downtown we love, but sweet because a new owner will enjoy this one as much as we did. Her excitement at the closing today reminded us of the excitement we had.

Good bye house, we'll see you again soon.

After a battery of tests & monitoring, it turns out that I'm completely healthy. Here are the details.

After I turned in my Holter monitor, I met with a cardiologist that specializes in heart rhythms. We talked through various things and the bottom line conclusion is that I need to keep my blood-volume up by staying hydrated and salinated. Rare is it that a heart doctor recommending to eat salty food, or even add some, if necessary. The other conclusion is that I'm getting a bit older and my body doesn't react as quickly to sudden changes in pressure. That, and my lower blood pressure (averages 100/70) makes me predispositioned to dizzy spells when standing.

We reviewed my monitor results, which showed no abnormalities, but did reveal a healthy heart. My highest heart rate was 168bpm during my run and my lowest was 31bpm(!) while sleeping. That's one beat for every two seconds. The doctor said that was a good thing to have that low of a rate while sleeping.

He did order an echocardiogram just to be sure, which is a sonogram of my heart. It was really cool. You can see all the valves, chambers, aortas, and veins and how they all work together during a "beat." During the test, the technician turned down the lights to see the screen, and had me lie down - perfect conditions to see how low I could get my heart rate. From what I could see on the screen, it was under 40bpm for most of the procedure. Fun!

Before the echo, I stopped by the lab to get my blood drawn. I just got those results back and they show that I'm continuing to get healthy. Note that I lost 35 pounds in late 2004 and started triathlons in 2005.

I postponed my bedtime tonight to get Facebook commenting active here on RobbyB.com. Feel free to comment away on each and every post. I would love to hear your feedback, and it should be a lot easier now that it was in the past. Enjoy!

The image above is my chest covered in sensors that connect to an "Intelligent Holter Monitor." (I'd hate to have one of the dumb ones.) It been checking on things inside my chest for the past day, with one more day to go. Anytime I feel dizzy or light headed, I push a button on the data collector (on my waistband) and record what I was doing at the time. I'll turn it back in on Wednesday, and then meet with a heart rhythm specialist next week to go over the results.

For my run this morning, my chest was a different kind of lumpy with the sensors under my shirt . (Normally it's just my love handles.) Kris thought it looked like I had a bunch of piercings. I think it blows away my normal chest strap and that it would be really cool if I could just get my Garmin to communicate with it somehow. If it was really intelligent, it would communicate via ANT+.

Here's some updates:

Health: My stitches were taken out a week ago. The chin is still sensitive if I knock it into something, and the scar tissue will make it a bit of a bigger scar. Shaving will introduce some new challenges. I saw my regular doctor the next day and he completely blew me off. "Some people have a tendency to faint," and "Don't stand up so quickly" were direct quotes in response to my questions about what happened. So that was my last visit with him.

I got in to see a physician's assistant yesterday and he ordered a bunch of lab (blood) tests as well as a Holter monitor. After I wear that for 48-hours, I will review the results with a heart rhythm specialist. The thought is that since my resting heart rate is well below normal (like ~40 bpm), I might experience times where I don't have a beat for 3-5 seconds. I don't think that's the case, but who knows?

Evotri: We're getting a new sponsor, which means there's going to be a new toy in the house soon! Can't wait for it to get here, even though I won't have any time to play with it.

Everything else: Life right now is crazy! I'm in El Paso later this week, then announcing at the Centurian Wisconsin, then the heart monitor stuff, then vacation, then we pack and (fingers crossed) close on our current home, all the while look for a new home to move into. Don't forget about the day job!

I did the typical thing on Facebook and posted a photo of stitches in my chin without providing any real explanation on what happened:

Then, I posted a picture of the gash in my chin with a equally cryptic message about "Wando's catching my face."

As expected, it yielded a bunch of questions, so here's the story: Every now and then, I have experience a vasovagal syncope episode. Plainly, I faint. We were at Wando's, the second bar in a nine-bar pub crawl. I had spent the previous two hours inside at the Memorial Terrace drinking one beer. I was on my second at Wando's when we were discussing the merits of a horrible movie that was on the TV. When, all of a sudden, I felt dizzy, nauseous, and thought that it would be good for me to sit down. Next then I know is that I'm looking up at the ceiling with my wife and a friend looking down at me. By the time I came around, 911 had been called, and ice was already on my chin. Except from suffering from a major case of embarrassment, I felt fine.

From what Kris could see from where she was, I took a stumble forward that she thought was part of a joke but then I proceeded forward and hit the tile floor with all my weight on my chin. She freaked and several folks suggested getting CPR started. Thankfully, a nurse was on hand and confirmed that I was indeed breathing and didn't need it. (Phew!) The ambulance was there promptly, confirmed the need for stitches and offered a ride to the hospital. So, for the first time ever, I'm in the back of an ambulance on the way to the emergency room.

The constant theme of the afternoon was my low heart rate. It was consistently below 45bpm, which caused all the doctors and nurses to confirm that I was an athlete. But, what it really did was add to the complex question, "Why is an healthy, fit, 35 year-old male fainting for no reason?" The simply neuro tests showed nothing wrong, so they did an EKG and that came back normal. (My heart rate was at 37bpm when they hooked me up to the machine!) In the end, I came home with three stitches in my chin, some small chips out two teeth, and a jaw that feels like I got into a fistfight.

I've had similar episodes happen twice before. Once in high school that I had completely forgot about, and another about five years ago while waiting in line at the airport. We've replayed this most recent scene over and over again and can't find anything out of order. I was relatively hydrated (urinating twice while at the ER), not hungry, and not hot. The only thing I can blame is the really, really, bad movie.

For the second year, I got to announce at the start and finish lines of the Madison Marathon. One of my favorite parts is the start of the kids race. Kids from 4 to 12 years old can run as fast as they can three-fourths of the way around the Capitol Square and cross the same finish line that one of their parents may be crossing later in the day. They even get a medal! And, oh boy, do these kids race! They just love to go fast! So, it was great to see the newspaper run an article specifically about the kids race and highlight that thirty entrants used the race to run 26 miles, read 26 books, and complete 26 acts of kindness.

Bonus was the picture take right at the start. Can you pick me out?

© Samara Kalk Derby/State Journal

A night to remember, for sure. In case you didn't hear, Osama bin Laden is dead:

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

via boingboing