More workouts and my first iPhone "glitch"

First things first. So far, I've been amazed by the iPhone in the 4 weeks that I've owned it. I've never owned an Apple anything before and much of that has been deliberate. My daughter has an iPod Shuffle, but I've always stayed with Windows compatible MP3 players that support drag-and-drop and also support WMA files as well as MP3. I don't like the requirement of an intermediate piece of software with my MP3 players. I had some of the same concerns about the iPhone, but I've gotten over it because the darned thing has been so amazing to me.

I've been a software developer for the past 24 years and my impression over the last month has been that the iPhone has the best user interface of any piece of software or hardware that I've ever used. I haven't opened any manuals because everything is so intuitive.

So, this morning, I've been working remotely in a coffee shop. I had a tele-conference call early in the morning. After that call, I started to do an update to take my phone from V2.2 to V2.2.1. While this update was occurring, I got a phone call. Apparently, the phone and iTunes don't recognize that you shouldn't proceed with an update if the phone is in use. I was talking to two colleagues about some software design when I suddenly realized they were gone. I wanted to get them back, but the phone was locked by the update. So, I unplugged it from its tether cord, hoping it would revert to its normal functionality. (Yes, I know that's not the smartest thing to do, but I was in a panic at the time.)

HUGE MISTAKE!!!!

The phone simply died and wouldn't do anything. I had to do a restore to its initial settings. Luckily, iTunes has a synch capability, so I thought I could simply restore everything from my last synch. But, for some reasons, it thinks that 16 installed (and free) apps that I've added to the phone are not authorized, so I have to start all over with those apps. It seems like everything else was restored though.

Even the best technology isn't perfect, and yes, I know that unplugging the phone during an update wasn't the smartest thing, but I wanted to get back to my phone call.

Workouts? I ran 6 miles in the rain last night after work. It was about 40F and calm and I really enjoyed the run. I was going to run outside again this morning because the temperature was supposed to stay in the high 30s all night. But when I got up this morning, it had gone below freezing in our town. So, I ran 5 on the treadmill before work because the roads weren't safe. I'll run another 9-10 tonight after work.

I'm really struggling with my time management right now. I'm working my "day job" for 32 hours per week. I teach skiing all weekend. I normally work 16 more hours per week for a software start-up. But, right now, I'm simultaneously working on software development for them and I'm working on a grant application. The grant application work is on top of the 16 hours. Right now, I'm working about 75 total hours per week between all of these. So far, I'm holding up to the workouts and the workload, but this will continue through March. As I've mentioned before, it's better to be over-employed than under-employed these days, but it can be tiring.

As much as I love skiing, I think I'll be happy when this ski season comes to a close and I can focus my weekends on Western States training.