Notice anything different?

I logged on as Leah today to put up a proxy post and what did I find? Google was forcing me to switch our blog over! Finally! So, switch we did and now I can post as me (Jason) on the fancy new Google blogger. Thanks Google, you're the best (and please be nice to us when you assume control of the planet).

Yesterday we worked from home so as to try to shed the exhaustion that had been plaguing us early in the week. It was great. We were able to sleep in until 8 and didn't have to either ride or walk 6 extra miles. It was definitely a welcome rest. But, since we didn't make contact with a car at any point yesterday, it made having to go to the Jewel more problematic.

You see, we wanted to make a specific meal for tonight's dinner guests (we do love to entertain) and that required specific ingredients not found at our small product market. That meant that we needed to go to the Jewel which is about one and a half miles away. Should we walk there? Or ride our bike? Nay, we had a better solution. We ran the errand. Literally.

Since we had a four mile run on the docket anyway, we decided to just run the 4 miles and end up at the Jewel. Then, after shopping, we only had to walk home from the Jewel which isn't so bad. It was all very exciting. I love multitasking (like, for example, I'm clipping my toenails as I type this).

As far as the run went, it seemed a little harder than it should have been. I mean, we were rested so it should have been easier, not harder, right? For the first mile we were trying to figure out why we were breathing harder. Maybe it was that we didn't walk so much? Maybe we are just hitting a down point in the early training? Maybe we suck? And then as the first mile clicked over, we discovered the real reason: maybe it's because we started off at an 8:42 pace? Yeah, that's probably it. It seems that we were well rested indeed as our legs didn't think they were travelling that fast. After that first mile:

mile 2 - 8:42
mile 3 - 8:43
mile 4 - 8:12

That last one was pretty surprising as, although I was breathing a bit harder (and got a bit of a stitch), the leg turnover didn't feel any faster. Pretty nifty, I think.

So, a fast run from us and - more surprisingly - a fast start. We generally get off to a 9+ minute/mile start at the fastest. Whatever...works for me.

Today we take our day of rest (we biked into work today) and tomorrow we only have a 2 miler, so we're going to be getting plenty of rest before the big 7 miler on Sunday. Also, Cubs at Cardinals today.

Go Cubs!

She Winks

Looking Ahead

I should be looking at my work....but I'm working at home today (I slept something like 10 hours last night!) and instead found my Pfitz book and am looking at that and talking to the lovely stepmom vit gmail-chat.

Ok, but my point is that Jason and I are interested in running the CDC 1/2 marathon on August 12th. I worry about doing races during training season because there is alway some kind of run or workout that I don't want to miss due to racing. But I calculated what week of the schedule it will be and it looks like it'll be week 9 in the book...which has 15 miles with 12@ MRP in there. Which would mean that a race could be *perfect* for that day. Since we would want to do the 1/2 marathon a bit faster than our Marathon Race Pace I think taking the total mileage from 15 to 13 would be ok. Plus, if we find the 8min/mile too much we can still get in the race pace miles. I had a very hard time with these workouts last year....as in I didn't do them. So maybe being in a race environment will help with that.

To Much Everything Not Enough Food

I know better!

I know that if I don't eat enough, I am going to crash and burn. Well that happened last night during our 5 mile run. I have been mentioning that we are taking the train and so walking downtown and home in order to get to the train station. This isn't going to be a problem I don't think, and we do have to mix it up with some biking....but it got to me last night. During the day I had one slice of toast with peanut butter, some ritz crackers with pb, non-fat yogurt, string cheese and the Classic Cafe salad at Panera (the classic cafe is lettuce, onions, and tomatoes)....so in other words not enough. All filler and nothing in there that will help with exercising. Where are the carbs I ask?

Plus I knew that the not enough sleep was goign to catch up with me so I was a bit sleepy before we headed out. So we go. I'm starving about 1/2 mile in. We make it about 2.5 miles and I have to stop and walk. Jason being the perfect hubby that he is stopped to walk with me (when the tables are turned....I will meet him at the end). We walked for about three blocks and then started running again. We went for a mile, walked a block, then ran back home. We got stuck at some lights along the way as well. So our final time was 51:26. Boo.

All good lessons learned though. (hmmm....I did run out of peanut mms at work this week....hmm....I'm saying it made a difference and will be sure to have some on hand for this training cycle...WHAT...it's got nuts & chocolate...all good things).

VIVA

See, this is what I get for not running faster

Hey all, this is Jason posting under Leah's account since, for whatever reason, blogger won't let Leah switch our site over to new blogger and won't let me log into old blogger. Whatever.

Okay, so, if we recall last year's Chicago Marathon, we remember that Leah came in at 3:45:41 while I came in at 3:57. Who knew that our time difference would have lasting repercussions?

The Chicago Marathon has changed up the Preferred Start corrals from previous years. Now there are, after the super-fast people, start corrals A-D. A finish time under 3:55:59 lets one starting Corral C (Leah) while a start time of less than 4:00:59 gets one into Corral D (Jason).

Woo Hoo, we're both preferred!

Oh, wait...damn.

So, because I couldn't run 2 minutes faster, either Leah has to start back a corral from where she deserves or we have to start apart. Both options sort of suck. The solution to this little problem? Well, I just have to qualify for a better start time by running a half marathon in under 1:45:59. I think this is doable as I ran a 1:48 in the last half marathon and we started out pretty slow. The overall pace I need is about 8 minutes/mile, so if I just made sure to start out at about an 8:30 pace and then kept increasing my speed, I'd probably be able to knock off that extra 3 minutes. At our last half, the first mile was 9:38 and our last was 7:39 so, if we smoothed that out a bit and started out at 8:30 and then jumped to 8 minutes, I would gain one and a half minutes just in the first two miles. Then I'd have 11 miles to knock off another 90 seconds (7:51 pace for the remainder).

I'll also have run lots of speedwork since then with the Pfitz plan, so I should be faster than in '06. Well, regardless, I think it's doable if I have a clear time goal.

So, look for me in the Chicago Distance Classic. Anyone else running it?

I'm Flippin Tired!

Yesterday we had day in the usual Jason/Leah fashion that everyone has come to love. The evening started off with us taking the 4:54 Metra from Wheaton to the City. Of course the plan was to get to the city aroudn 6pm, walk to Mike & Barbs, run, Idol etc etc. All of a sudden our train stops moving and the conductor comes on and says something like, "Folks, I'm sorry there is a freight train stuck in front of us....we'll be moving soon", followed by, "Hi Folks, I'm really sorry but it seems that the freight train is having mechanical problems we'll be on our way soon." Thirty minutes later we were moving. For those of you that know me, know that I don't like my schedule to be thrown off AT ALL. I was so annoyed.

Due to some speedy walking though we got to Mike and Barbs only about 15 minutes late.
We all changed and headed out for a run. Oh and then there was some wind. We walked over to Oak Street Beach and headed north from there. The wind coming out of the north made for some fun miles, but I have to say it's been awhile since I have gone running on the lakefront path and it was super awesome to be back. We went over the bridge at North Ave to try and get some kind of break from the wind.

During the last mile we pushed it pretty well with a 7:45 min/mile. I know that I'll have Lactate Threshold runs coming up in about a month and half and I don't want the speed to be so mysterious when the time comes to run it. We did the total run in 34:27 which isn't bad. I was a bit out of breath, but I think due to the last mile.

After the run we headed back to the Kansas condo and the fabulous duo made us dinner AND after watching American Idol gave us a ride home! Thanks again you guys, we had a great time! I am hoping to use the two this summer so I can drop my stuff off at their place and get long runs/speedworkouts/LT runs done on the lake front where I don't have lights to worry about. Hopefully this works for them as well. Come on MARATHON TRAINING.

This morning I wasn't so happy as I had to use every single fiber of my soul to throw myself out of bed. Not enough sleep and hard runs make for one tired Leah. Tonight it's a quick walk home, 5 miles and then relaxing and to bed early!

I also have a send a shout out to my good friend Bridgette who signed up to run the Chicago Marathon this year. Her first one. I am so freakin' impressed with this girl on a daily basis that I know she's going to do a fantastic job training and running this race. I have known her for 10 years, since my first day on the IU campus (oh my god we are old) and she never ceases to amaze me. Nice job girl. I can't wait to give you all my tips and tricks to run this race! You are going to be fabulous.

All Lit Up

Finding Pennies

I got an e-mail saying that the marathon would be closed by the end of the month.....SO that's a nice 220 dollar twist to put into this month's finances (we owe the IRS some cash)....BUT if you look hard enough....

I'm the only Old Blogger Left

Well I don't understand why I can't switch my account over to the new google blogger deal. I tried to do the claim my blogs or whatever and it doesn't know my blogger account, but it does if I just try and log into Old Blogger. And it made Jason switch over so now he can't post on the site. He is currently looking for a "help me" e-mail address but as usual in this day and age there isn't much help. AUGH. Whatever.

Anyways, yesterday was our usual busy Monday night. We got to work around 10am and then I worked straight until volleyball at 6pm. We lost all three games in really bad fashion. Bad team communication or something. Whatever.

We got to the train station with about 10 minutes to spare at which point I thought it would be a great idea to grab a 440z Diet Coke from the White Hen. We head downtown (I read a great part of my book. FANtastic chase scene!), we walk home, we get home around 10pm. We put in a pizza and I sit down to "just watch the start of the Boston marathon" I had recorded during the day. And along comes 1am, a great finish to the ladies race, another fantastic finish by Cheriot in the men's race.

The alarm goes off at 6am. Yeah. I woke up at 6:09, the first time I have gone through a snooze in a long time. So a sleepy morning lead to the usual, "why don't we just walk" conversation so we left the bikes at home again this morning.

So a busy and full Monday night leaves Leah a bit sleepy and groggy on Tuesday morning. Tonight it's to Mike and Barbs for a 4 mile run with them and then some American Idol.

Chicago Runners at the End of a Saturday Night

Weekend Roundup

Well my plan to get a cool 20 in this week happened!It's been awhile since I have done that which has been required of me in the running sense as I always find reasons not to do it. It's raining. It's cold. I don't wanna. I have a headache...you get it.

Saturday morning we did a 4 mile run coming in at 35:50. We ran downtown again to catch the train out to Wheaton to get our car. After getting home we cleaned up our apartment which was a disaster zone. I don't know how it happens, but our place ends up looking like a college dorm room. It's tough to keep up with it as we are frequently not in our apartment. We wake up, eat breakfast, are then gone for 12-14 hours, come home, go back out to run, back to eat and then crash into bed. The dishes get put on hold till "tomorrow", the stuff that gets put on the table "just for now" stays there for days.

Saturday night we headed over to the RunningJayhawks and OutofShapeGuys' condo for someone's birthday :-) Someone thought it would be a brilliant idea to do a power hour (one shot of beer for a minute for an hour)......after realizing we didn't have time we decided to just go for 20 minutes.....yeah...that was a bad idea (and if by bad you mean spectacular). After some drinking and snacking we headed over to the Gorilla Tango Theater for their show Bye, Bye Liver which is an improv/interactive drinking game. Very funny. I laughed hard :-)

That night when we got home we thought it would be a great idea to order some pizzas....after eating some of that we headed to bed. Got up latish, I made a big breakfast, Jason went out and finished his paper route while I started to organize our office room. I shouldn't be put in charge of this though because when I find a box of pictures I find the need to look at all of them. I found old pictures from high school and early college days and a spring break trip that Bridgette and I took...it was fun looking through all of those and I realized how I don't have any more paper pictures. All of my photos now live on my computer....funny how things change.

After the Cubs game on Sunday we went for our 6 mile run. I felt "ok" which was to be expected after my Saturday evening, but still came in averaging about 8:50 min/mile which was nice to see. This week our schedule will be roughly the same :

Tue : 4 miles
Wed : 5 miles
Thur : 4 miles
Sat : 2 miles
Sun : 7 miles

On Tuesday we are going to go to the Kansas Mafia's meeting place and have those kids join us for the four miles before watching American Idol. This works pefectly for us because we get to run on the lakefront path while leaving our bags and stuff at their place. Whee!
We'll also be adding in some biking this week as the weather seems to have made a turn for the better. We'll bike on Tuesday and Thursday and walk tonight, Wdnesday and Friday.

Red

Chicago Wins Olympic Bid!

It'll be fun watching what happens with this.
It would be so exciting to have the games in our city!

Adjusted Planet

When it's Friday the 13th...you...?

Watch the original Friday the 13th of course. Being good little people working for The Man we have comcast digital cable.....which means that we get all kinds of free movies on their On Demand stuff. So I was looking through it and this week they have Friday the 13th...which I am embarresed to say I have never seen. I am Halloween girl through and through.



Seriously, for those of you that have seen it :

• Kevin Bacon getting killed will now have me looking under my bed each night before I go to bed
• GREAT ENDING! I screamed like a little girl.

For those of you that haven't....it's good. It's one of those great bad movies. Horror movie fans it's a great one.

We did run too! After our walk home and our Friday Garretts treat (they now have a Garretts in Ogilvie Train station) we went for a quick two mile jog around then neighborhood. Today it's 4 and tomorrow it's 6, putting me at a cool 20 for the week.

Reunited

Weiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday Janet was still in town and so Leah wanted to hang out for a bit with her and chat and what not. Since I figured they were going to be talking about boys and hair and nail polish and all that, I decided to head over to Mike and Barbs and take advantage of their hospitality.

They have really good hospitality. It involves nachos, beer, and Weiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii. Especially the Wei.

Anyway, so we worked yesterday and did all that stuff (and Leah might have good analysis stuff going on. shhhh) and then took the train into downtown so she could meet Janet over at Rockits for food and drink and, I suppose, pillow fights. Whatever women do. Apparently they have good dinner food, although I couldn't quite understand what Leah was saying (something about pretzels with meat in them, or meat pockets, or she stuffed her pockets with meat...not sure).

Anyway, while she was over there I was talking with Mike about carburetors and drinking beer, and then we took a bunch of stuff apart just to put it back together. After that, we picked a few fights with random people. You know, guy stuff. But pretty soon Barb came home from work and we had to stop punching each other and Barb made nachos. Awesome.

After we finished eating, Leah and Janet came over and we all played the Weiiiiiiii! I'm fairly certain it's the greatest video game system ever invented. Wait, check that, the greatest thing ever invented (including the human race). I'm constantly amazed at how well the game responded to moving the controller. Bowling and Tennis were awesome since I played both in high school (I managed a 187 in Wei Bowling for the high score, although I don't like to brag. Leah was invincible in Tennis), but Boxing was a little trickier. I know I was boxing furiously, but the little Mei character was a little slower on the uptake. Janet had the best method for Wei fighting and managed to KO here character, where I only won by decision. Oh well.

And then back home. How do we know the night was meant to be? There was a bus waiting for us when we reached Chicago Ave. Awesome.

I like fun Thursday nights. It takes the pressure off of trying to have fun on the weekends.

Go Cubs

Chicago or Abandoned Town?

A sad day around these parts

I was very sad to discover this morning that Kurt Vonnegut, who was probably my favorite author, died at the age of 84. While 84 may sound old, and it is, he never seemed that old. Even his last book, "A Man Without a Country," seemed like the writings of a younger man, albeit one who had been deeply hurt.

As he says in his last book, he lost his sense of humor. It makes me sad to think that he died without his defining characteristic, his keen wit.

I'm not really sure what I would consider my favorite Vonnegut book, but I think I could narrow it down to a few:

"Slaughter House Five" is the ultimate classic and the first many of us read. I do love this book but freely admit that I have to re-read it as it is fairly involved and I can't recall it well enough to consider it my favorite.

The funniest is almost certainly "Hocus Pocus". This book isn't mentioned all that often, but it's incredibly funny. Check it out.

Probably my favorite is "Cat's Cradle." I thought this was a brilliant anti-nuke book and is still relevant today, even after the end of the Cold War. Besides being scary and all that, it's also really, really well written.

The best all-around book might be "Breakfast of Champions" as it gets high marks for just being weird and funny and good. Not my favorite, but up there. No, wait, the best all around is "Timequake." That book was awesome. I forget why, but I remember loving it.

And finally, the one I didn't like: "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater". I didn't like the message, I didn't like the characters, and it went against everything I believe. Lots of people love this book, I didn't.

If you've never read a Vonnegut book, you're definitely missing out. Go. Read and prosper.

So long, Mr. Vonnegut, you'll be missed.

I'm Back Bitches

Well well well. Were you all wondering where the Leah who goes out to run even if she doesn't feel like it has gone? Well I was! I was getting so tired of whining about the weather and how tired I was and how really, I could play catch up next week, or the next day or whatever.

Jason and I are now walking to and from the train station since I am going to still be whiney about biking in cold as I hate it, so that is about 6.4 miles of walking a day. After getting home last night, it was raining and chilly and unpleasant, but I put my running clothes on anyway and headed out.....and I felt it. You know that feeling when you are running that brings back all those warm and cuddly feelings about running like "how it's really a part of who you are" and "my gosh running so flippin fantastic". We did 5 miles in cold wet windy conditions and felt good. Coming in at 44:11 makes for another run with sub 9 minute miles.

Tonight it's dinner at Rockit and then I'm thinking 2 on Friday, 4 on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. I would usually do the lower amount on Saturday but we are probably going to be metraing it back out to Wheaton for one more weekend of having our car....someone didn't finish his paper route. So will want to use to run to get us to the train station.

Next week we start adding on distance and start the push to get to 35 miles a week to be ready to Pfitz our way to Marathon time!

Needing Coats in April

Photos of the Day

I spend a lot of time outside walking to and from the train (or biking) so perhaps I should look around a bit more. Hence, I'm going to try to take a picture everyday. I'm not a great photographer, but I do love to take me some pictures and I guess they say that practice makes perfect...or at least helps.

Here's one from yesterday and stay tuned later for one from today. I'll have a link on the right hand side of the blog to get the album of all photos of the day. Enjoy.

3 Miles Quick and Clean & Walking in Snow

Yesterday we had an early day getting up around 5am and getting into work around 6:30. We drove because we had the car in the city over the weekend due to Jason's paper route. This was good because we were able to leave at 2:30pm, walk home and then go out for a nice little run.

We had some checks to deposit (which are going right back to the IRS) and so we did that on the way. The miles were something like 9:15, 8:55 & 8:35. I am surprised with how nice sub 9 minute miles have felt. Frequently these past few weeks, I have looked at my watch and been surprised with the time for the mile splits. Usually after getting back into running after a few month hiatus as was our February and March we aren't running these kind of mile times that easily. Maybe we are getting faster and stronger....if so then I am saying Kudos to the big break I took. Maybe it helped...or I have turned into a running rockstar. I actually like option two as then my dream of being a rockstar doesn't have to be over.

This morning we walked again to the train instead of taking our bikes because the weather is atrocious and although I was just as cold and as wet as I would have been had we taken the bike it's still easier to walk. I cannot believe how bad the weather is here in Chicago. It doesn't look as if it's going to let up for the next few days with snow showers on the menu for tomorrow as well.

barf.

The plan is to do 5 miles tonight when we get home. We'll see if the plan and the weather can coincide.....nasty.

IT CANNOT BE THE MIDDLE OF APRIL! THIS IS STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

alright. time to work and dream of spring flowers (oh wait...it's April Showers not April Snowshowers)

Opening Day & New Book Review

Well although the Cubs lost & it was fre-ezing out, it was still a great day for a ballgame. Jason and I got to Wrigleyville around 10:30am and headed to Bernie's for a few beers and then over to Yakzie's to try and catch my mom's old friend Jan. WXRT always has a live broadcast on opening day and Jan and her husband have been going for the past 10 years. We pushed through the crowds and they were at the front of the stage. I haven't seen them for almost 2 years since my mom left for Florida so it was great to catch up with them a bit.

Jason and I had seats in the 500s which weren't too bad actually. If we would have been over about 3 seats they would have been perfect and taken away the pole that was somewhat blocking 3rd base. The Cubs lost, but unlike all of their games last year they had some exciting plays. Soriano scored from second on an infield hit which was awesome. Dempster was lights out in the 9th which was nice to see after his self destruction last season.

So I'm saying the Cubs are going all the way this year (I also said that the Bears and the Colts would be in the Superbowl....although I also picked Kansas to win the whole NCAA tourny and we see how well that turned out). But it's a new season and so the glass is half full for now.

I have a new review up at http://52books52weeks.blogspot.com covering A Blistered Kind of Love by Angela and Duffy Ballard. Also the coolest cousin Lisa has started a blog tracking her readings. She is a K-8 librarian and does a ton of reading and has *great* reviews (well one so far as she just got started). You can check her out at http://notesfromthestacks.blogspot.com

Girls Night Out

on Saturday night turns to Leah's Day In on Sunday.

Wow. I went to bed at 4am on Sunday morning. I have "grown up" and rarely see past midnight anymore. Needless to say I wasn't going to go run 6 miles as me and my couch became good friends. Oh well. I hardly ever go out so I'm going to say I'm not really in training yet. sigh. I am a bit upset at myself, but I had a great time and I saw friends that I haven't seen in years. Lots of gossip and girl talk and beers makes for a fun time.

Today Jason and I are off to the Cubs opener! I am so excited to have my boys back in town and very sad that don't live in the neighborhood anymore. It's going to be like 35 with snow flurries....perfect. I mean who doesn't want to watch baseball in that kind of weather.

So Go Cubs. and I'm back on the running/biking tomorrow.

Running as Transportation

This morning we ran with a purpose. Not the sort of "run with a purpose" where you just run really well. No, we literally ran with a purpose. The purpose was to get from our apartment to the train station, so we could take the train out to Wheaton to get our car.

No, the run was definitely not the figurative "run with a purpose." After a night out at the bar where the beers had a suprising kick (we're definitely out of drinking shape), neither of us felt much like running, especially at 9am. But, if we ran in the morning, we could get the car home early in time to watch the Cubs win, which they did. 6-3. The Cubs are now 3-2 which is a nice little start.

So we gutted it out and it ended up being fine. Happily, the wind was at our back. After running and then watching the Cubs, it was time to start my paper route. Awesome. Basically, I just picked up about 1500 papers and drove around to various bars and coffee shops and left papers for people to read. The Heckler is a free paper, so people can just pick it up and read it. We're about halfway done with the route, but we'll be done by the time the Cubs open at Wrigley.

If you happen to be in Chicago, grab a copy of The Heckler and look for my name. I've got two articles in the paper, my first official published pieces, although it's hardly shakespeare.

We couldn't finish the whole route since Leah had to get home to get ready for Girls Night Out, which is what she's doing right now, out with her friend Becky. I'm having tired and cold guy's night in, as our apartment is freezing (in April, mine you) and I'm pretty much exhausted from a busy week. Yep, I'm a wild and crazy guy.

Okay, enough rambling. Go Cubs.

The Paper Boy always rings twice

Your favorite runners now have a paper route!

(yes, a paper route)

I've started writing for a paper called The Heckler. Perhaps some of you have heard of it. Obstensibly, it's The Onion for the Cubs but, as I'm sure none of you need to be reminded, the Onion is written by satirical geniuses. So, while The Heckler does fall short of The Onion's standards, it's still one of the only places to publish humor articles about the Cubs and I've started writing for them. Well have to see if they actaully publish any of my articles, but I'll certainly mention it if they do and everyone can read my brilliant Cubbie satire.

Oh, right, the paper route. Well, they need people to deliver these papers to local coffee shops, bars, and the like, so I've volunteered to do it (since they pay and I need all the money I can get). So Leah and I will be driving around delivering papers. It's my first paper route!

But wait, we need a car. Damn, it's in the suburbs and we have to deliver on Saturday...does this mean driving home in Friday rush hour traffic? Oh, come on readers, you know us better than that. Okay, so we have to run 4 miles on Saturday anyway and so we're going to run to the train station, go out to Wheaton to get our car, and then drive it back when there's no traffic. It's brilliant!!

Speaking of running, we did our first serious post-bike ride run yesterday. After our 3 mile bike ride we changed into our running clothes and went for a 5 mile run. It ended up going pretty well as we finishing in 44 minutes and change. Not running on Wednesday was a very good idea as we were both much less tired for our run yesterday. I'll admit that my legs are pretty tired today, though. Happily, we walked to the train this morning instead of biking, so our legs got a bit of a rest (slightly, anyway).

Speaking of running (again), we ran into Josh Wednesday downtown at the train station. Either he takes the Metra in from the north side or he was just passing through. Josh? Anyway, always good to see ol' Full Metal Lunchbox.

And finally, to speak of running for a third time, we won't be running tonight. Our friend Janet from Grad School will be in town and we're going to head to Small Bar to say hi. She's currently out at Berkeley getting her PhD in Science Education and is going to be around for a couple weeks. Whee!

Okay, I think that's it.

You can stop reading now.

Bye.


(why are you still here? You can go. Live your life. be free.)

52 Books in 52 Weeks

I am starting a new project.

Jason and I have started taking the train to work and I blew through a book in about 3 days. I was wondering if it would be possible for me to read on average a book a week. Some should take longer and others should take less......so I started a blog to keep track of what I'm reading and to include reviews of the books when I'm finished.

I'm already done with one! So come check it out at

http://52books52weeks.blogspot.com

A Nice Bike Shop & Too Out of It

Last night we got to the train station at about 6 pm. On the way home the day before I had noticed a bike shop on Fulton and thought they might have been open. I wanted to get the piece for my tire as I am already convinced of being hit by a car and I don't think I need to facilitate that happening with my front tire flying off.

So we stop at the bike shop and I run in to tell them what happened to my bike and the guy tells me to bring the bike in so he can look at it. I chatted with one of the other customers while the guy working there, put a little piece on the tire and told me I was good to go. I asked how much I owed him and he said not to worry about it. I realize that the piece probably costs about 25 cents, but it's still nice to have such nice customer service. I would recommed Get a Grip Cycles for all of your cycling needs.

With my bike newly stabalized we headed home. We headed WNW.....with a 30mph wind that was WNW....wait...that means it's right in my face. It was really really hard. I realize that I sound whiney and whatever. But I am not a bike rider. I don't have fancy pedals or speedy anything....I do have lots of gears though and so I was almost in the lowest gear I could be in and still make forward progress.

We finally made it home, and I started to find running clothes. Then I felt dizzy. Then Jason looked at my hip where I had falled and was astonished by how swollen it was (he said I wasn't symmetrical anymore). Then we decided not to run. It was freezing out. We were exhausted, I was diagnosed with unsymmetricalness.....it wasn't going to happen. Which is fine. I don't want to be run down and overrun before we even get this party started.

So yes. We will run 5 today, probably none tomorrow since my old friend from Grad school is in town, then maybe 4 on Saturday and 6 on Sunday. We'll be two miles short of my plan, but up 24 miles of biking (I think we'll walk to the train tomorrow). I hope then to repeat the schedule again next week, and after that start increasing the distances. The biking distance will not change, so I am hoping that my body get accustomed to it.

Um.....It's April

Did someone forget to let the weather people know that it is in fact April 4th and that the snow flakes I dealt with on my morning bike ride or the 35 degree temps is actually not necessary.

blech.

Where did I put my winter running gear?

Straight Up or With a Twist?

The title here is either a line from Sex & the City...or a multiple choice answer to how do you like your runs.

If you are one LeahC, then apparently you like your runs with a twist. (and yes I am watching Sex & the City...we own them and now that I have watched one episode for fun on a Sunday afternoon, I feel the whole series begging to be watched)

The last two days we have biked to and from the Metra station and although it's only 6.4 miles a day, it's more than the zero we were doing before. Needless to say I was a bit worried about our afternoon run yesterday since I wasn't sure how our legs were going to hold up after the said biking. To my delight and suprise everything held up really well. It was one of those nice spring evenings with some rain but not cold out so shorts and a t-shirt are doable. Jason and I were moving along at a nice little clip coming in around nine minute miles or a bit less, with not too much effort. We get to the corner of Augusta and Ashland and just miss the light to cross Augusta and so I turn west onto Augusta and all of a sudden I find myself slipping.

And by slipping I mean, my entire six foot long angular body is being thrown (and twisting...see I knew I could tie that title into this) into the air. I immediatly think that what is going to happen in the next less than a second time is not going to be good. BAM goes my upper thigh/butt area...and then BAM goes my face....

onto the concrete.

not. good.

I lay there for a second waiting to see blood everywhere....but I seem to be ok. I get up slowly and walk a few steps before my eyes well up. I never actually cry, but mother of god is my face and leg hurting. We walk for about a block and then we continue on. I figure I am going to be in pain whether I walk the mile home or run it slowly.

I put ice on my face and hip last night which seemed to help the swelling. My face is noticably scraped up and my leg is very scraped up and sore. sigh. Well life would be less exciting if I wasn't involved :-)

Five miles on the menu tonight.

"Fixing" Bikes

Last night on the trek home late at night we were having a fine ride until I looked down at my front tire and noticed a long metal thing sticking out from the axel. We pulled over and the metal thing that goes through the axel to keep the tire on has lost one of it's ends and so it's not staying in place. I would guess that this piece on the bike is for keeping the front of the bike from falling off the tire or if there was a flat, I would guess that you loosen this so you can pull the tire off. Given that I have a mountain bike with very knobby tires it seems that the bike will not pull loose from the spoke since the knobbyness gets in the way of the brakes. Shit. This really needs pictures, but my camera battery is dead.....Maybe you bikers out there know what I am talking about. I just lost one end of that piece (it must have fallen off) and so there was nothing keeping it on the bike.

Since I am biking on the flat city streets it wasn't a bit deal, when the gizmo would fly almost all the way out, I would kick it back in with my foot and keep riding. We got home with no accidents and then looked through our tool box to try and find something to put on the end to keep it in place. It looks like an ancor (for like when you are hanging pictures) will work fine until I can get to a bike shop this weekend. We'll see how it holds up this morning and I can always go to a bike shop out in the burbs if it's just not going to work. If I were seriously mountian biking I would be more concerned, but 3 miles on city streets is just about the opposite of that.

This morning I had a nice discovery, if you do sleep to the first snooze alarm, the coffee is already done, so you don't have to stare at it dripping and waiting for it to be done.

I had a funny phone conversation with my advisor yesterday....for those of you who know me know that I talk fast..... :

Advisor: Hi Leah
Leah : Hey Advisor, sorry I didn't get this to you sooner. I was home sick last week.
Advisor: oh it's no problem
Leah : Yeah, I think I just spent too much time travelling in a metal tube.
Advisor: OH WOW, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leah : uh....?
Advisor : Oh wait, what did you say?
Leah : I was just saying that I think all the travel caught up with me.
Advisor : Oh, I thought you said you were expecting.
Leah : face flushes.....uh...no...i wish...maybe when we have better insurance

HA! It was really funny as then I had to go on to explain what I had been working at and I was trying not to laugh for the rest of the time.....at least I know that if that does happen he'd be happy and not mad that it happened before I graduated :-)

CHICAGO CUBS BASEBALL IS ON THE AIR

Today's the day people.....time for my beloved Cubbies to do something more than the disaterous 66 wins of last season. Remember to keep your eye on http://goatriders.org for all your Cubbie news, notes and comments. The site has been newly updated and prettied up so make sure to check them out. And I'll leave you with this...my favorite song of the season

Baseball season's on the way
Well you better get ready for a brand new day
The Cubs are gonna win today

CHORUS
They're singing, Go Cubs go, go Cubs go
The Cubs are gonna win today
Go Cubs go, go Cubs go
Hey Chicago what do you say?
The Cubs are gonna win today

They got the power, they got the speed
To be the best in the National League
Well, this is the year and the Cubs are real
So come on down to Wrigley Field

CHORUS
We're singing now Go Cubs go, go Cubs go
Hey Chicago what do you say?
The Cubs are gonna win today
Go Cubs go, go Cubs go
Hey Chicago what do you say?
The Cubs are gonna win today

Baseball time is here again
You can catch it all on WGN
So step your feet and clap your hands
The Chicago Cubs got the greatest fans

CHORUS
Hear them singing now Go Cubs go, go Cubs go
Hey Chicago what do you say?
The Cubs are gonna win today
Go Cubs go, go Cubs go
Hey Chicago what do you say?
The Cubs are gonna win today.

--Steve Goodman

GO CUBS!!!!

Morning Bike Ride

Well we did it. Day .5 bike ride done and done.

This morning we decided to take the somewhat later train than what we will usually take since we will be here late tonight for volleyball. I am so proud of myself because I was up within 3 minutes of my alarm going off....that's right....I didn't even make it sleeping to the next snooze button! This is big for me as me and the snooze button have a special relationship and by special I mean it get hits very hard most mornings while I continue dreaming.

The bike ride took about 18 minutes but we missed a lot of lights and I get a big scared in traffic and so tend to take my time getting around the giant buses, so this could cut down to probably about 15 minutes. This ride is about 1/2 the distance that our old apartment was from the train station and so very much more doable. We are still working out what to do if we have a very tough workout in the evenings. I am also hoping that by the time true marathon training comes around the biking will have gotten very routine. and let's face it 3 miles of biking before a run really shouldn't be an issue.

We'll see how this week goes, but I got through 5.5 chapters of a new book I am reading so I am loving it already.

One Week Down

Well we kept to our schedule this week. Completing 20 miles of running, 11 miles of biking and even 3 miles of walking...oh and 6 blocks of lugging laundry...that has to count for something!

It feels great to be back on a schedule again. We are going to repeat what we did last week running wise, but will be adding in 6 miles of biking a day. I did notice that the weather a couple of days this week is going to be in the 30s so we might just walk to and from the train station since it's not too far.

Our run today went fantastic wih 5/6 miles under 9 minutes and 2 out of those 5 under 8:30. We had a nice little rain shower at the end of it, which was actually really nice. I love running through April Showers!

Here's to a new Spring and a new running season!

Busy, busy Saturday

Hoooooooly Crap, we've been going today. Go go go go go.

go go go go go.

Go.

Well, okay, we were going. Now we're watching basketball, drinking beer, and making dinner. But before 3:30, we didn't sit down for anything more than breakfast. What did we do? What didn't we do, I think you mean.

We set an alarm for 5am to get up and beat the laundry rush over at the wildly popular Village Laundry. Ah, but when is 5am not 5am? When the power goes out and you incorrectly set your alarm by a full 12 hours, that's when. In other words, the alarm didn't really go off at 5am and we didn't get up until 7. No problem, we'll just try out Retro Wash. It's slightly closer anyway nd it's never full. The only downside is the lack of free dryers, but who cares? The stress of the Village Laundry during peak hours is too much to take. So we lug our laundry the three blocks to the laundry place (our car is out at the train station in the suburbs) and...we're the only ones there! Whee!

Of course, what we didn't realize is that Retro Wash is some sort of front for the Ukrainian Mafia¹. It has to be. No one is ever in there, no one works there, and none of the machines work. It's highly sketch. What's more, the same guy (wearing a track suit, mind you), walked back and forth outside past the front windows...oh, I don't know, 20 times. He came in, got quarters from the change machine, left, and continued to casually walk past the front windows. It was...weird.

Then, since the dryers didn't work so well, someone had to get more money for more quarters. Since Leah didn't want to be left alone in the highly creepy Retro Wash, she went to the cash machine. Upon leaving, a car apparently started following her and honked at her multiple times, eventually following her into the gas station where the ATM was located. Freaky? Um, yeah. She made it back okay and we finished the laundry, but that's the last time we use that place. I know a friend of ours likes it, but it's not our style. We like our laundry equipment to work.

So, it's 10:00 and we're back home. Breakfast? Pancakes. Hell's yeah. Thank you Mrs. Buttersworth.

And breaktime's over. Having allowed our apartment to turn into a festering swamp upon returning from vacation, we decided to clean it up before it was too late. For the next 2 hours we cleaned and cleaned and the house looks great. Do we rule? In a word, yes.

But wait, there's more. Leah needed cross-stitch materials. It's all she's been talking about since Tuesday (well, that and Sunjaya's hair). We also had to take in the rent, so we decided to hope on our bike and bike across town to the rental agency and then over to Jo-Ann's Fabric. That's right, Jo-Ann Fabrics, mecca of crafty crap. It was about 5 miles or so out to the rental agency and it was a really nice ride. I think my bike has gotten better having sat in the house unused for the last 10 months. I guess it needed the rest. Then it was to Jo-Ann Fabrics for the cross-stitch goodness and...

What the hell?

How can they not have any good cross-stitch stuff? Seriously, they have 10 aisles of yarn and one little, tiny corner of cross-stitching stuff. It seems Leah had arrived at the cross-stitching crazy 25 years too late. Pity.

We were saddened but there was still much to do. We biked back home and threw on our running shoes. We were scheduled for 2 miles so two miles we would do.

side note: did you know every tri-athelete is better than me. My legs felt like leg-Jello after getting off that bike and 2 miles might as well have been 10. How do people do it? And swimming in addition to biking and running? That's just stupid. Tri-people are insane.

So we finished the 2 miles in 17:30, a nice time.

And...scene. The morning/afternoon of constant movement ended at 3:30, just in time for a late lunch and a tiny nap.

So it was a busy day, but it was an awesome day. Tomorrow we've got 6 miles scheduled and that will complete our first week of pre-marathon training.

Oh, and incidentally, two days until opening day for the Cubs. Go Cubs!!!!


¹ For all those in the Ukrainian Mafia reading this...I kid, of course. And we love your perogis.

Take My Own Advice

Well well well. I commented on Joe's blog the other day about how good it was for him to take the day off when he wasn't feeling well...blah blah blah...

And what did I do yesterday. After feeling uggy all week, I came home at noon, slept from 2-5 and got up and thought it would be a good idea to go out for a run cause "I didn't feel THAT bad". Yeah. made it about 2 miles out and walked home. After getting home I proceeded to be horizontal on the couch watching reruns of Law & Order Criminal Intent and SVU.

I feel a ton better today though so I think all that sleeping helped for something.

No running today but we are going to walk home from the train station which is about 3 miles. Tomorrow it's some biking and maybe two miles thrown in and then 6 miles on Sunday.

Happy Friday!

Run Run Run Till Her Footsteps Take Her Miles Away

Hahaha. See what I did there. Oh I am SO clever.

Anyways. Yes.

We've been running.

It's been great getting back into it! I think what happens when we have been on such a hiatus from running is that we lose our rhythm and so when we go ok, let's go three miles easy we, or at least I, forget what an easy pace is. So on Tuesday we went 3 miles and had the last two miles under 8:30. Yesterday we went 5 miles coming in at 44:something....in other words averaging under 9 minute miles. But I was just running I wasn't trying to do anything fancy, I wasn't running with music, I was just going.

Today we have 4 miles on the schedule. Then the plan was 2 miles on Saturday and then 6 miles on Sunday. I might get rid of the 2 miles on Sunday because Jason and I are going to be doing a lot of biking on Saturday. Starting on Monday we will start biking downtown and taking the train to Wheaton where we leave our car and then driving into the lab from there. So Saturday we are going to bike downtown and get monthly passes (cause then we have to take the train) and then we are going to bike all the way up to Linoln and Montrose to drop off our rent check and then back home....this should be about 20 miles or so of biking.

I just realized that leaving the car in Wheaton has some drawbacks.....well only one that I can think of. I was going to be brilliant this year and on Sundays drive downtown and park since the meters are free on Sunday and leave my car there and then we could run on the lakefront path and have post run swims at the beaches and not have to take the bus home......hmm.....well that's just a problem looking for a solution. I'm sure we'll figure something out....or just take the bus home. Hey, if you don't like smelly people don't take public transportation :-)

Alright. It's Thursday people. Woot.

Three Weeks, Three Vacations - (3)

We got back to Chicago around 10pm on Sunday night. I worked for about 14 hours on Monday morning on the materials concerning the Washington D.C. trip that would be happening during the week. We got up around 2:45am on Tuesday morning and it was back on it. We HAD planned on taking the CTA Blue line downtown, transfering to the orange line and getting to Midway.....but then when a Cab went by and honked...well we decided to go that route instead, especially considering that I will be reimbursed for those charges. Jason and I were so tired that we were both asleep on the plane before it took off and woke up when the wheels hit the ground in Washington. I never sleep like that on a plane, and neither does Jason so it just goes to show how exhausted we were.

Washington D.C. 2007

We got into Washington around 9am and took the Metro to our hotel where we were able to check in immediatly. After we checked in, we went for a really long walk, going around the White House and towards the Washington Monument. At this point I realized how nice it was and decided that it would be a good idea to go for a run....so it was back to the hotel, into running clothes and then back out to the Mall. We ran to the Capitol building and then realized that we were a bit tired and so walked/ran back to our hotel.

That night we had a fancy dinner with the rest of the group on trip where I met a girl from SLAC who was awesome. It's very rare to meet cool physics people and even rarer to meet cool physics girls. It's always weird meeting people that are a lot like you and "get" your sense of humor. I am a bit on the weird side, but new SLAC girl seemed cool with that.

The next day it was off to meetings on the Hill. The first day I had 5 meetings all of which I was the primary on. The primary leads the meeting and so on. The first meeting was a little rough as I was really nervous, but my secondary said it added to the charm :-). The rest of the meetings went really well and it was a really fun trip. My last meeting I was with a girl that was a constiuent of the district so after our meeting they wanted to take us to have our picture taken in front of the Capitol and then give us a tour. My secondary had a meeting right away though....BUT Jason happened to meet me outside and so we got our picture taken and we got a tour of the Capitol building including some time watching the floor discuss some issues which was interesting.

The next day was a full day of meetings, but I had a bunch of really really interesting ones. First off I got to meet Danny Davis who is my representative. I went into his office and most of the offices have these maps of their districts. I looked at the map and I was almost 100% sure that I didn't see my neigborhood on there. So my big plan of going, "Hello sir, it's wonderful living in your district" failed as I didn't want him to go...."I don't actually represent that area...." However, he's a great guy and it was really fun to meet him. I then was able to meet a guy that has an American Advancement for the Association of Science (AAAS) fellowship. He was really interesting and super nice. It was nice to have met him as it's a good contact to have if I decide to try and apply for one of those fellowships......which is my current plan.....must. graduate. first. At another meeting we had a really good discussion of education and the problems with the math and science programs and how is all this money going to help that problem.....good discussion there.

On Friday I only had two meetings and a late flight so Jason and I spent the whole day walking around D.C. We went from Capitol Hill to the FDR memorial back through the Lincoln Memorial and the Vietnam Memorial and then back to the hotel for our luggage.....and then to the airport to wait for our flight.

After getting back to Chicago we decided to take a Cab home. I have lived in Chicago for just about 27 years...well ok, like 21 considering I was in Bloomington for 6 of those years...but you get the point. I told the Cab at Midway that I wanted to go to Damen and Iowa and he goes down the Stevenson.....PAST DAMEN....all the way downtown.....to Augusta....back to Damen and then over to Iowa. I always tip cabbies really high as my dad was a Chicago Cab driver many years ago, but I tipped him nothing AND after arguing with him about why he went the wrong way (he kept saying that I didn't know what I was talking about...didn't I know how far south I was when I was at I-55? I told him that it didn't matter how fucking far south I was, there was no need to go any farther EAST...anyways) I called and reported his cab. I don't know if anything will happen with that but...cest la vie. I was pissed. I had been traveling for 3 straight weeks and I did not need a cabbie to go so far out of the way and then tell me I was wrong about directiosn in the city.

Well that concluded our Washington D.C. trip. It was a great time and I am really looking forward to possibly moving into the political sector of science...we'll see.

What's Happening Now?

Well just a quick break from my vacation reports for a quick what's going on now in the Leah Jason world.

After getting back late on Friday we had a wonderful weekend in the City. It was wierd to be out of our apartment for the three straight weeks and so it made being home so much better. On Saturday we went to pick up the Baby Kitty from my friend who was babysitting her. We call her Aunt Becki as she owns the sibling of our little Dagny. Dagny was spoiled at her Aunt's house (no I'm not a crazy cat lady...yet) as she got fat full food and wet food every other day. At home it was back to Iams dry food...YUM! Saturday night Lisa came over and we had dinner and watched some creepy mysteries on TV. After she left we caught part of the Peyton manning SNL and I have to say that the commerical from the beginning was one of the funniest things I have seen on TV in awhile. I thought the rest of the show was ok, but that first skit took the cake.

On Sunday we went down and watched the Shamrock Shuffle. We had a sign that said, "Shuffle Harder" which I think people thought was funny when they saw us at about mile 2 and less funny when we had moved over to mile 4. Being runners we know that it's fun having people scream for you instead of just standing there and clapping and so we yelled our little hearts out. Nice job runners! After the race we hung out with Mike and Barb for a bit and got to play the Wiiiiiiii, which was beyond fun! They can look forward to us being at their apartment often :-)

The rest of Sunday saw me on the couch as I wasn't feeling too good. And then Monday it was back to work. I have been running a bunch of Monte Carlo jobs (well my advisor has while I have been gone) so I am going through all of them and checking them and making sure that all looks ok.

and today....TODAY people.....Jason and i are going running.

I have made a plan to get us back up to 35 miles a week in the next few monts. We are going to take it slow and steady, so that our bodies will be ready to battle with Pfitz come June. So today, just three miles. I'll post my running schedule here in the next few days.....just to keep me honest.

Stay tuned for pictures and stories from Washington D.C.

Three Weeks, Three Vacations - (2)

I took a LOT of pictures in the Bahamas. So to get the most out of them I uploaded them to Picasa. Click on the albums within the posts for a big set of pictures from that particular day of the trip!

On Saturday afternoon we made our way to the Bahamas. We had a flight from Tampa to Miami and then from Miami to Nassau. All was fine on the way to Tampa, but we had a scare in Miami when after everyone was seated on the plane and it looked like we were set to go the captain came on and said, "I'm sorry folks, but one of our baggage handlers noticed a problem with the aircraft. WE are going to check it out and we'll get back to you." He comes back a few minutes later and says something like, "Well we have found that it's a major fuel leak so you all will have to go back to the terminal and wait till it gets fixed OR we find another plane". My question at this point was why was a baggage handler noticing fuel leaks....you would think that would be part of their pre - flight routine. Anyways, we took off about 2 hours late, but in the end it was a problem. We jumped in a cab to go to the Nassau Yacht Haven where my dad and stepmom were waiting with cold beers and dinner.

Bahamas 2007 : Day 1

The first day we made our way from Nassau to Allen's Cay (Cay in the Bahamas is pronouced Key). This sail would be the longest of the trip at about 30 miles. Jason and I have tended to get sick on the boat in the past and so we took some "not so drowsy" dramamine. We were in fact not so drowsy and not sick at all which was nice. During the sail we even saw some dolphins jumping in front of the boat! They were quick little buggers though and so we didn't get a good look at them or any photos.

Once at Allen's Cay we immediatly headed out for some snorkling which is my favorite thing to do in the islands. Unfortunatly the seas were a mess and we ended up with more water than air down our snorkle tubes so it wasn't all that much fun. Allen's Cay also has a beach there that is loaded with iguanas. Nothing else is there except these big giant lizards that come running AT you when you arrive. I guess they are used to the humans feeding them and so are expecting some kind of grub from all that arrive.

That was just about all that we did that day. After a yummy dinner made with the pressure cooker it was off to bed for the sailing clan.

Bahamas 2007 : Day 2

The next day we headed to Hawksbill Cay which was about 20 miles from where we were. We had another great day sailing. Enee Marie is a great sail boat! She's fat and tubby and not too rocky and rolly. At Hawksbill we had our traditional setting the ancor beer and then headed ashore. Here the beach was truely unbelievable! There was a hill that you could climb on shore which gave great views of the surrounding area. On the walk up there was a mailbox in which you could leave a picture or a story or whatever and the name of your boat. It was crazy interesting to look through the book and see what people had left for you to read. At the top of the hill there is this little stand of stones all piled up nice and neat. I guess when Dad and Sue had been here a couple of weeks earlier there was a big lizard on the top of the pile, but no luck for us.

After our hike we went for a bit of a walk around the island although there wasn't terribly much to see. Then we went for our daily snorkling where although there wasn't much to see, I did see some schools of fish along with a tiny brown sting ray type thing. Back to the boat for snacks dinner and a wonderful sunset closed out the day at this amazing location. Tomorrow it would be off to what ended up being my favorite place that we saw.

Bahamas 2007 : Day 3&4

The next day we left at about 8:30am and headed about 10 -15 miles to Warderick Wells. This island and area of the Bahamas has been a nation park for a long time so there is no fishing and so on when you are in the waters that the park encompasses. As you sailed into the park, you call ahead to get a mooring ball and so we were lucky enough to get what ended up being the best ball in the area. You navigate down this channel type thing where there are shallows all in the middle of it....like a 'C' shape. We happended to be right by the beach and so we had a short dingy ride into shore. On shore you could check your e-mail and there was a little book shop. They also had kyacks your could rent along with this beach bike thing that looked fun.

The first day that we were there, we headed ashore and took one of the trails to check out The Sound or the giant deep part of the Atlantic (all of the Bahamas are super shallow...like in the 5-10 meter depths). It was a beautiful hike and at the end there is this big pile of wood that has a lot of boat names on there and the date. We didn't drop any piece of wood, but we did use the pile to hold our camera so we could take a picture of the two of us.

After the hike we headed back to the boat and this is where the funniest part of the trip happened. I happened to see some kind of big ass fish in the water, so I grabbed my snorkle gear and jumped in to check out the scene. Hanging out under our boat was a group of fish, I would say maybe about 25 of them. They were BIG fish with yellow tails and I was doing totally fine until they turned and started coming at me. I got my ass out of the water so fast! I told Jason, "get in there and see if they bite!" and he said, "Kay" and he jumped in! He also had the fish turn on him so he jumped out of the water before the big giant fish came at him....of course in the end they ended up just being yellow tailed whatever and weren't dangerous or anything....but damn were they scary looking.

Warderick Wells Hike

On the second day Jason and I took a long hike around the island and met Dad and Sue at one of the Beaches where the trail let out. It was amazing out and the landscapes were so cool. I took a lot of pictures on this trip so that is why there is a separate album here. Along the path of the trail there was a cave type hole in the ground with a ladder heading down into it, so we were able to climb down and check it out. It was called someone's hideaway or something like that. Once we got to the beach we met up with Dad and Sue who had sandwiches and beer to give us. We hung out on the beach and were lazy. While Jason and I were in the water Dad was making friends with some of the local lizards. I came back ashore and was able to get some good pictures of the little guy who ended up eating out of our hands. It was one of these curly-cue tailed guys who's tail had been cut off. Make sure you check out the photo album for pictures of that little guy.

Bahamas 2007 : Day 5

After Warderick Wells we headed to Compass Cay. We had a bit of an issue ancoring that day, but we got it on attempt number 3. After we ancored we were wondering if we should go snorkling. I said, why not even though I was a bit tired. So we got in the digny and headed out. It was a REALLY long dingy ride and I was starting to think that it wasn't going to be worth it once we got there. But boy was I wrong!!! We saw an amazing assortment of fish. I got a bit worried at one point because the current is really strong and I got pulled a bit farther away that I would have liked too. I am a fairly strong swimmer so I made it back without any issue. I went around where Jason was and we just a huge assortment of fish. 50 of this kind and 50 of that kind. It was looking inside an aquarium! All of a sudden Dad goes, Leah Jason there's a sting ray over here. So we headed over to where he was and saw the most amazing thing. A big giant sting ray just flying through the water. They are so graceful when there are swimming. We watched him until he tucked himself away. Really really amazing!

Bahamas 2007 : Day 6&7

From Compass Cay we headed to Staniel Cay which would be the end our journy. We weren't leaving yet for a few days, but we were going to stay at Staniel as we had a flight from here back to Nassau where our flight to Chicago was leaving from. For those of you James Bond fans, this is where the movie Thunderball was filmed.

We had some more problems ancoring on this day.....and maybe just everyone should shut up :-) I kid. The very first thing we did was head to Thunerball Cave to go snorkling. My dad kept telling me how wonderful it was and there are a lot of fish and yadda yadda yadda. You can feed the fish as well and so we brought a little bag of bread to give them. I could not believe how many fish there were! You stick your face in the water and they are all over you like white on rice. It looked like when you were swimming as if you would be pushing them out of your way. You swim into this cave which has sunlight coming in through the top of it and it's absolutly breath taking! The best snork of the trip was saved for last and just as good as when they were trying to describe it to me over the phone.

That night before we went to bed we were noticing some lighting way off in the distance and haha isn't that kinda cool. At about 2am my dad came and told us to close all the hatches as it was starting to pour (I am a VERY hard sleeper!) Everyone gets up to check out the weather and it is BEYOND crazy! It's so so windy and the boat has turned itself around (I don't understand how the ancor didn't pull up since were behind where we put it in the first place....luck I guess). We turned on the radio and listened to people talking about some powerboat that had gone blowing through a field of boats. It is very very rocky and rolly and I head back to bed to lay down. I think I was starting to fall back asleep around 4am at which point there was some big giant loud banging on the hull right in our cabin. That snapped me right back up as I thought...I don't know something had hit it so hard that there was now a hole in it. We figured out the chain to the ancore must have gone under the boat henc causing the loudness in our cabin. I finally fall back asleep a bit later. Needless to say everyone was very tired the next day and naps were taken by all.

The winds were still up the next day and so didn't go snorkling. We did go check on our flight and have a beer and watched some basketball in the bar that was there. That evening we had a nice dinner at the Yacht Club.

And then we departed. We left Staniel Cay on this super tiny airplane. 6 people could fit on it....two of which are the people flying the plane. The flight ended up being early, but no early flight to Chicago so we had about 8 hours in the Nassau airport. We had a cramped flight back to Chicago....but it was so so nice to be home.

I miss my dad. I really do. But man this retirement thing that he chose to do, is really amazing. It's such an amazing place and the freedom to just go and see whatever the hell he wants to is understandably desireable. Plus, this getting to go to the Bahamas and only pay for my airfare...is pretty nice :-) A big thanks to Dad and Sue for housing us for the week. Can't wait till BVI!

I love you Dad!

Three Weeks, Three Vacations - (1)

Well well well Jason and I are back home again in Chicago and wow is it weird to be away from your home for 3 solid weeks. Packed in those three weeks we had a week at my mom's house, a week in the Bahamas and a week in Washington D.C. which was more of a business trip for me, but as it was so awesome I'll go with vacation.

I have some pictures here within the posts, but will have (hopefully) Picasa Web albums up with more pictures soon. (Picasa = free, iWeb=better...but not free). You can click to enlarge the photos.

To save you from reading a really really really long post, I figured I'd break it up into three just really long posts. So here we go. Enjoy.

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The vacation started off for us at about 2:30am on Friday, March 2. I had been reading in the papers for the weeks leading up to the trip that planes had been grounded for 8 hours for de-icing and blah blah blah. Which was great I was thinking as when we left Chicago we were literally walking in a snow globe. We walked to our car which was parked near Lisa and Evin's and on the way to the train to drop off our coats since we wouldn't be needing them in the upcoming weeks. After the car window breaking incident we decided to leave the car by Lisa's so they could keep an eye on it (and move it in case street cleaning occured).

There was no need for me to worry about our flight because even though we did have to go through deicing and it was horrible in Chicago we only took off about 20 minutes late. After arriving in Tampa, we decided to take our rental car to visit my Grandpa who lives nearby in Temple Terrace. My Aunt Donna and Uncle Ken were there for the week helping them clean out their garage. In the upcoming months we are hoping that Grandpa and his wife, Georgia, will move into some kind of assited living facility. Georgia has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and it's getting to a stage where it's probably unsafe for them to be living without help.

After the Boca Del Grandpa visit we headed on down to Sarasota. We met my mom's husband, Ken, at the Sarasota airport and headed down to North Port where she is currently living. It was a GREAT reunion with my mom. I saw her for Christmas in 2005, so it had been a long time since I had seen her. This going from a woman who had big family dinners about every other weekend, so it's been tough going so long without seeing her.

Of course there are consequences for not keeping up in contact. In the past 18 months my grandparent's health has deteriorated to a point of....I don't even know how to describe it....total and utter confusion. My grandmother has Alzheimer's and my grandfather has been diagnosed with mild-moderate dimensia. In the time that I was in Florida we had to put my grandmother in a locked unit nursing home. That actually happened on the Sunday of the Sarasota marathon and half marathon so it ended up being good that I hadn't signed up for it since I was up to bat to help out. I took my mom to the nursing home while my uncle took my grandmother. My mom was really upset, understandably, so I was happy that I could be there to help her out on the day.

Alzheimer's is the absolute cruelest disease that I can imagine. It's horrible for the people going through it (although I guess my stepmom's dad used to say, "You get to make new friends everyday and hide your own Easter eggs."), and it's horrible for the family. Everyone dies, we all know that, but this is different. This is lots of people being in misery for many many years. It was very tough for me to see my grandmother in the state she was in. She was always so beautiful and so neat and put together and so to see her in the opposite state of that was hard. I hope that the facility she is in now will help with the problems.

ANYWAYS.....none of that was fun per se, but again I was thrilled to be able to help out while I was there instead of hiding here while people are going through tough stuff alone.

So onto the vacation part.

On Monday we met up with Lora and Haight for a Reds spring training game. It was a blast to be watching baseball again and I have an even bigger hunger for the Cubbies to be back home in Chicago (Jason is currently watching a Cubs Spring training game on TV and might have peed a drop when he realized they were on TV today). The Reds game was a good game as well with the Reds coming back from 5 down to win 9-8.

While we were in Florida my grandfather was living with my mom. One of the things that he can still remember how to do fairly well is play chess. He used to be a monster at the game and was still able to take Jason for most of the games they played while we were there.

My mom and Ken live about 15 minutes away from a really nice beach and so we spent an afternoon there while people were working. That day it was actually pretty cold out though so we didn't spend much time there and didn't go into the water at all.

The day before we left we went to Siesta Key which is one of, if not the, coolest beaches I have ever been too. The sand is like snow it's so fine and it white white white! We did go swimming here and Floridian's crack me up. A lot of, "Oh my god I can't believe you went it the water! It's so cold out and the water is freezing." The temperature down ther was in the 80's and the water temp was low 70s. I'm used to swimming in Lake Michigan in the summers when the water temp is in the...oh I don't know....50s....60s maybe? The water was amazing and it was a beautiful day at the beach. We had to cut the day short however because I needed to attend a meeting telaphonically and so we headed to the nearest Panera and staked out a corner to hang out for a couple hours. I got a Skype account and it was a really nice way to join the meetings. My mic didn't work, but I didn't have any questions so it wasn't a big deal.

After that we headed to my cousin's school to pick her up from the after school day care program. She is 7 and so incredible cute. I told my Aunt and Uncle that I would take care of the kids that day and so Jason and I took them to the beach. They live right across the street from a beach, which is awesome. Miranda (the youngest) is a really good swimmer and not too scared of anything. I taught her how to do somersaults and handstands in the water. After the swimming Miranda and Micky (the middle child) buried themselves in the sand and went on a beach long game of tag with Jason while I stayed back to chat with my Aunt and Uncle.

After that is was back to my mom's to pack. We had a great time visiting my mom. Of course I miss her so so so much. I am hoping to make these trips to visit her more frequent. A week of relaxing and having mom cook for you...and admitting living in a bit of a lunatic house with my grandfather asking me every day when I was taking him to see his wife and take her home....but cest la vie....We had a great time! Oh yeah...this is a running blog...we ran about three days while we were down there for about a total of 10-12 miles. Didn't feel great, but not horrible either.

I love you mom!

Click here for the full album from this part of the trip :

Florida 2007

We're HOME!!!

...but only for today.

Jason and I returned home last night from a 16 day vacation to Florida to visit my mom and then onto the Bahamas to live aboard my dad's 40ft sailboat for a week. It feels great to be home, but it's short lived since we are off to Washington DC tomorrow morning with another early pre-7am flight.

I will have a long (very long) write up of our vacation coming within the next week. Given that I haven't had internet for about 16 days aside from quick e-mail checks I have a ton of work to do for this Washington trip. I also plan on reupping my .mac account so I can show you all the amazing pictures from the Bahamas.

So in short....stay tuned....just a little while longer. I promise amazing pictures and fun stories.

The weather in Washington D.C. this week is going to be un-freakin-real. It's going to be in the 60s and 70s so aside my very businessy suits, I'll have my faithful Brooks and running shorts. This year I'll have Jason with me to keep me company on the runs which will be fun.

With that I'll leave you with this picture, taken from an airplane that we took from a small island in the Exumas back to Nassau where our flight back to Chicago was taking off from.....this plane sat 6 people......yeah....it was REALLY small. This is where we spent 8 days...yes the water really is that color...there is NO photoshopping on this.

We find ourselves in the Bahamas

The land of sun and blue seas in the Bahamas is beyond my greatest expectations. Sure they tell you that the water is really blue, but goddamn....IT REALLY IS!

We had a great time at my mom's house although much of it was sad due to my grandparents state...more on that later. We have been in the Bahamas since Saturday night. We have sailed the last three days and now find ourselves in Warderick Wells (or something like that) it's a natural park, and when I get a chance to post pictures as usual it's not going to do it justice.

I have abandoned running for snorkling and saw some GIANT sized fish today under our boat. Then they saw me in the water and came at me at which point a firecracker found it's way up my ass and I found myself safely aboard the boat.

Stay tuned for pictures from the small latitudes.

Greetings from the Land of Sun

A quick check of weather.com...

Hey, it's not even that bad in Chicago! Current temp of 23 with a feels like of 11, but a high of 34. In fact, it's going to be in the 40's by the end of the week. That's not bad at all. I think everyone should be pretty happy with that weather, given that it's early in March.

Of course, I suppose it isn't 65 like it is here in Florida. You know, it's funny. It's 65 here and everyone around me here at the Panera is all bundled up in sweaters and sweatshirts. Seriously, the way people talk, I'm half expecting to see someone walk by in a parka. This Florida weather makes you soft, I tell ya. And I've already got a slight sunburn and everyone keeps commenting on how red my forehead is already. Okay, I get it. I'm losing my hair. Everyone look away from the forehead. Nothing more to see here. Yeesh.

This moderately cool weather was great news for Haight who is running the Sarasota 1/2 marathon. We ran yesterday in 80 degree heat with 200% humidity and it was pretty damn tough. Today was much, much easier. Head on over to Haight's Hangout and congratulate him on running the 1/2 marathon we decided to pass on.

Speaking of which, it was a great, great decision on our part to not sign up for the 1/2. Because we are out of shape? Well, we are, but that's not what I'm referring to. No, the problem is that Leah's grandmother is having lots of trouble right now and we need all hands on deck to help take care of both of Leah's grandparents. In fact, I'm the one writing this as Leah is helping admit her grandmother to a new facility as we speak. It's not a good situation for anyone and *nobody* wants to have to worry about a race right now. If we were signed up we'd either a) have wasted a 100 bucks or b) be running a race with no one to watch, all the while feeling guilty that we weren't helping. So, in the end, we were lucky to not sign up early.

We have been running, though. So far we're working ourselves back into it after not running for a couple weeks before vacation by running 40 minutes when we wake up. We're not speedy as we are running just over 4 miles in those 40 minutes, but it's really, really, really nice to be running in shorts and a t-shirt. We plan to run every day and hopefully by the end of the week we'll be feeling sharp again.

Other than that, we're just having a great time visiting with Leah's mom and stepdad and later today we're going to go visit Leah's awesome cousins who (whom?) we haven't seen for 14 months. Think a 7 and 12 year old might have changed a bit in 14 months? I hope we recognize them. Whatever the situation and complications and frustrations, it's always great to see family.

Let's see, what else? I've been getting by ass kicked in chess by Leah's grandfather and stepdad. You know, chess was a lot easier when I played my friends in high school. Ever since I got to college, everyone I've played has known "strategy" and crap like that. It's not enough to just be smart anymore, I need to actually know how to play. Well, that's not going to happen as I only have a passing interest in chess, so I guess I'm going to have to swing by the local elementary school to feel good about my chess skills again.

Oh, and this is cool. Our article in symmetry magazine also made it to the front page of the Fermilab page, www.fnal.gov. That's the very, very main page of the entire lab and our names are in the lead in paragraph for the story. So now every experimental physicist in the world can know that I won over my wife by blowing stuff up. I suppose I won't be asked to work on hardware anytime soon.

And finally, yes, our site was down for awhile. It wasn't just you. Well, it might have been you, I suppose, but it probably wasn't.

Okay, that's all I've got. Time to go back outside into the warmth where I will be wearing sunglasses. Sunglasses!

Oh, and Go Cubs (currently 0-2-1 in ST. yep, these are the Cubs)