I feel a pain in my…

Knees, back, neck, hips and well everywhere. I am notoriously inflexible and this year while training I want to make a strong effort to increase my range of motion and limberness. Towards that end I went to a physical therapist to get some pointers on proper stretching along with a list of areas to consentrate on. Since then though I have been hurting which to some extent I expected but the level of discomfort makes me believe that I might be pushing/pulling my stretchs to far in an effort to make noticable change.

Try Tri Three

Last year I signed up for the Chicago Triathlon but I was really too busy with planning the wedding to really train all that much. Running was also giving me a lot of trouble since I had done some damage to my tendons in my legs while training for the 2005 Chicago Triathlon.

After some much internal deliberation I have decided I am going to do the 2007 Chicago Triathlon. This year though I am not going to try to better my overall time rather I am going to train with flexibility and overall health in mind. If there is one portion I would like to improve it is the swim where if I can get comfortable in the water and finally figure out that breathing bit I would be happy with whatever my overall time works out to be.

Anna, who prompted my thoughts on doing the triathlon, also will be training this summer for the sprint distance.

Mystery Date

Every once in a while Laurie and I have a mystery date, this entails one of us planning an activity while leaving the other person completely in the dark about where or what we shall be doing.  Laurie does a much better job at this since I get very anxious about whether she will enjoy herself.  This last Sunday Laurie planned for us to learn to curl of which I remained completely unaware until we ended up in the parking lot of the Chicago Curling Club.  We had arrived earlier so while talking in the car she told that she knew nothing about curling other then that it was played on ice.  I started to explain that one player pushed a stone down the ice towards a target at the other end while his/her teammates broomed in front to make it go where they want but she thought I was pulling her leg.  Her disbelief did not last long after we went inside to begin our lesson.

  

Curling is much like I had described to Laurie in the car but a little trickier to play since there really is a certain finesse to getting the rock to go exactly where you want, without making it blow past the target.  I think most of the people taking the class, of which there were a lot especially considering there was a Bears playoff game on, though some people just never got comfortable walking around on the ice.  It was a lot of fun and it is too bad that it is not something you could just pay per play.  It is a club and to be able to use the ice and equipment we would have to join which if it were closer we might have at least considered.

78 E. Washington

If you live in Chicago and you have not gone to the Chicago Cultural Center you are missing out on a great resource. The galleries have rotating art exhibits and it is open free to the public. Not to mention the building itself is an architectural treasure with Tiffany glass inlays and domes. Additionally, there are free concerts and inexpensive or free classes in numerous subjects.

We went down on Saturday and ended up getting instruction on how to knit which after my frustration last weekend was immensely helpful. I should have known from past experience that I am not one to learn from books and tend to do much better after seeing it done in person. In a couple weeks I am going to go to knitting circle that takes place at Goose Island Brewery because nothing says knitting like a cold beer.

Justin Timberlame

Occasionally I hear that Justin Timberlake song “Sexyback” and honestly I can not change the station fast enough. Whenever I tell people this I get almost uniformly the same response which boils down to Timberlake is a genius and the album is amazing. Since everyone seems to think the opposite from me I am willing to give it a try, so I borrowed the album and gave it a listen all the way through. I have to say “Sexyback” is the best song on the album and I still hate it. Overly repetitive beats and annoying modulated voice do not translate into good music.

Why the 13th?

Every month on the 13^th Laurie and I celebrate an anniversary, though we are not sure what the date correlates too.  It could be when we meet in December of 2004 or our first date in January of 2005.  Either way it has only been two years since we started going out and we have already been married for three and half months.  It seems like things progressed so fast but at the same time it feels so comfortable like it is the way it has always been.

Manly Man

There has been a resurgence in the popularity of knitting in recent years which has prompted the appearance of high-end stores selling specialty yarns and teaching classes for all these knitting knewbies. Why am I talking about knitting? Well rather then watch the Bears game I went to one of these shops to pick up some materials for one of my latest interest.

Lets see if I can remember the thought path that got me to thinking about knitting as a possible pastime. I used tartan in reference to plaid and Laurie questioned whether tartan was the pattern or the plaid sash warn by highlanders, it happens to be both. This got me searching for the tartan pattern that would correspond with my Welsh last name and even though I never found it I learned that Welsh last names are first names. Rather then children taking their fathers surname, they take their fathers first name as thier last name sometimes with an “S” added. That would make tracing back a family tree just all more interesting, that is one of my fathers’ interest not mine. So the tartan cloth is made on looms thus exhibiting the grid pattern which I feel so drawn towards. While looking at looms and other methods of textile manufacture I came across knitting as an alternative to the loom in way create and huge variety of patterns from a small number of stitches. ADHD much.

So as I mentioned earlier I picked up some materials and Laure had borrowed a how-to book from one of her co-workers and last night I gave this knitting thing a try. Now I never expected it to be easy but I also did not think it was going to be so hard. Once I get some of the basics down I am sure it will get easier but it was very frustrating. Should have known better since I have seen how angry my Mom can get at a ball of yarn and she has been doing this for years. Well I will keep at it and maybe one day I will get the hat made for Laurie that I promised her.

Popeye and I

Last year I took sailing classes at Northwestern University, a birthday gift from Laurie, and it truly was a lot of fun.  Now I am trying to figure out how to get back out onto the Lake this summer.  I am not in the market to buy a boat at this point in my life and at this point I have only skippered a 420 which a roughly 14 feet long.  Contrary to what I believed buying a sailboat is not that costly, it is paying the dock/storage fees.

So I have two routes that I could go in order to get back on the water: get a membership at Northwestern up in Evanston and/or beer can racing Wednesday nights.  The membership is pretty reasonable and all their small craft is included at no extra cost.  The beer can races, which supposedly happen on Wednesday evening, are regatta races and the boat owners need crew so this would allow me to get experience on larger craft.  If I ever wanted to get a sailboat of my own I would definitely want plenty of experience on 18-30 foot sailboats.

        That is a big “IF” and more the likely is not going to occur in any foreseeable future.

Hello world!

Third try is a charm. I had a blog on livejournal which was ok but I abandoned it then joined myspace and honestly the site just looks so cluttered it so I have no desire to continue there much longer. A friend of mine Jeff jeffunderscorekao.wordpress.com blogs here and I liked the look. I am going to bring in my back catalogue of post from livejournal and give this another go.

Finally a good job

It is really nice to be at a firm where they really appreciate what I am able to contribute to the office. I spent too many years working for bosses that really treated me poorly from not paying me regularly to not trusting me to draw anything correctly. My self respect and confidence really took a beating from these experiences but that is starting to come around.

Where I am at now I am starting to get some more important projects coming my way and my bosses are not afraid to compliment a good design or idea. Could have used this sort of job 4 years ago when I graduated from college but I am happy that I have it now.