Snuck away

I snuck away for a few days from this here blog. lol.. I'm back, fret not.

To recap, on Tuesday, I went for a run, and I got 2.9 miles in. It was probably the most humid run I've had since last summer. Wow. It wasn't particularly hot, just humid.

Wednesday was a rest day (legitimate!) and I went out to the local ballpark. It was an absolutely perfect night to take in a baseball game. There's really not a bad seat in the place (cliche, I know), but we upgraded (unofficially) our already really good seats just a bit and sat near a couple other people we knew for a view like this:



(Does this count for Foto Friday?)

Like I said, a beautiful night for it. If I could do that every night, I probably would.

Thursday I had severe motivational issues and wound up taking the day off from work, after not a lot of arm twisting from my wife. It was a quiet day around the house, but I did go for a run, and finished a whole 5K. I felt no knee/ITB issues during this, nor do I feel any after-effects today.

My ITB feels pretty solid right now. I'm going to keep the Galloway thing going, and try to keep all my runs around 3 miles for the next week. After that, we'll slowly increase the mileage and see what happens.


Anyone have any plans for the weekend? I'm not really sure what all is going on, but it's the weekend, and that makes it great, no matter what.

Keep on rockin', everyone!

Long weekend!

Well, I did make it back from my trip. Thoughts from the road are as follows:

I got an EZ pass for the trip. Not that I really needed it, but I thought it would be fun and cool. It was.

I know my wife doesn't want to hear this, but I really had a blast. I fought the trip tooth and nail before I went. Once I got there, I really didn't want to leave. I could go out and do my own thing at night, and that was that. No real schedule after work, so I could just go work out at the hotel, and then go out and about.

Plus, I wound up sleeping diagonally in the bed, so that was pretty cool too. And no one stole the sheets. :)

And that's the end of my trip report..


So, Saturday was a 4 miler in absolutely beautiful weather. Sunday was a 3.5 hill run, with weather that was slightly not as good, but it was still pretty awesome. My ITB felt pretty good, which is really nice. I'm going to try to keep upping the quantity of runs I do for a while, and then work on lengthening one of them.

I've got to say, having nicer weather to run in is just so awesome. I love it.


Monday was a self-prescribed day off. A couple of us from work went up to Cooperstown for the day. Here's a photo montage..

This is outside of the baseball hall of fame, our main destination for the day:


This is a shot of some of the plaques in the hall of fame:


My wife views this room with the plaques (the actual hall) as her own personal hell. It is analogous to me being confined in 'Jo-Ann Fabrics'. She was absolutely thrilled that I found people to go with, so she never has to step foot in here again. (Now, I think that's a bit extreme, but what can you do?)

This is where we went for lunch, a place called 'The Pit':



After the hall of fame, we went to Brewery Ommegang. This is their building:


After an informative tour, we sampled all of their beers, plus a couple of special ones. The 'Hennepin' was my favorite, until they got to this 'cave-aged Abbey Ale', which is a bottle of their 'Abbey Ale', which had been stuck in a cave for 11 months. I'm thinking of telling my wife I need to dig a cave. That beer was phenomenal.

The ending note of the beer sampling was this:



It was a special beer, not ever bottled, made for the inauguration. They dubbed it 'Obamagang'. I thought that was pretty funny.


Today, I'm back to the grind. Keep on rockin', everyone!

Rambling post

Friday night was week 1 of the dice baseball games. I wound up going 2-3. Interesting game, very fast paced. I was glad that the people I was paired up with weren't totally hardcore about it, as some of the guys in the league are.

Saturday, I went out for a run about 3pm. It was in the low 70s and was really really humid. Disgusting. I wound up doing 4.5 miles, and was absolutely drenched at the end.

Sunday, I went out for a little over a 5K.. Dunno, probably 3.2 miles. I left the Garmin at home as it was sprinkling a bit, and I've already had enough issues with the speakers. (Although, the speakers seem to be coming back to the land of the living. Go figure).

Both runs were decent, I felt pretty good. My legs just felt tired, but a good tired. Not a painful sort of tired. As I've been banging out about 5 runs a week the last couple of weeks, I think that should be expected.

Saturday night/Sunday morning a case of my bad sleeping reared its ugly head. This has been happening a lot lately. Essentially, I go to sleep for a half hour to 45 minutes, and then I wake up entirely uncomfortable. My legs are tweaked, every muscle is tight. I can't go back to sleep, and I usually get up and watch TV for a few hours. Talk about a waste.

Although Saturday night wasn't a complete waste. I watched the second half of Darkman II: The Return of Durant and the first half of Darkman II: Die, Darkman, Die.
I always liked the Darkman movies. I hadn't seen them in a while, so it was kind of fun.

But, back to the sleeping thing. I don't know if the leg action is related to my running. I don't know if running helps it or hurts it. I worry about the latter, that my muscles are tired and tense and then go nutso in the night. Sigh.

I had a similar issue Sunday night, but I skipped the TV thing and was able to fall back asleep after lying there for an hour.

Saturday night, I had a host of new beers. I'll save that post for later today or tomorrow.

One of the local places to watch concerts is shutting down, so that just stinks. Kind of bummer news on the weekend. They'll be open for a little while longer, so I'm debating trying to squeeze one more show in. GWAR is going to be there.. I've never seen them. Maybe...

I was glad to see Mike Mussina win his 20th game yesterday. Good for him. Last year was a long and arduous year for him. To bounce back and get 20 wins, that's just awesome. It will be interesting to see if he hangs it up on a high note, or if he goes for a 2-3 year deal in order to win 30 more and get to 300. If he does sign on, which team will he sign on with? So many questions.

Well, I really should get to work. I'll be back later..

Beer Stein Night

Went and got my beer stein giveaway at the ball game last night. I use the term 'stein' very loosely. It was really a small plastic mug. Sigh.

Nice night for a game.. been really wonderful weather this summer, all things considered. I scored a free ticket, so that was cool.

The game dragged on quite a bit. Took 3:20 to finish the game, and it wound up being 2-0. Lots of long pitch counts, runners on base, etc. Just was very very sluggish.

.....Good thing I started out the night with:


Cooperstown Brewing's 'Old Slugger'. It's a Pale Ale, and it's the first beer I think of when I think of the Cooperstown Brewing. The beer has an amber color, and a medium amount of carbonation. There's some spice in the flavor, and it has a very dry finish. I'd say it's more of an English-style pale ale.

The Cooperstown beers aren't my favorite, but they're not too bad. It's a good way to start the ballgame, and then switch to something involved in a drink special. I haven't tried the stout or porter flavors yet. I generally view those as more suitable to wintertime, but I'm willing to give them a try at any point. :)

I was jonesin' for some nachos at the game, but my buddy had enough to eat, so I went without. When I got home, my wife had some leftover nachos in the fridge from Moe's. Totally awesome!


Needless to say, no running occurred. Tonight.

Billy Wagner

So, Thursday was to be either a rest day or a cross-training day. After the track workout on Wednesday, I figured I should either bike or relax.

One of my friends here at work asked if I was going to the baseball game. It was about that point where the scale began tipping towards a rest day.

Turns out that Billy Wagner, the injured Mets closer was doing a rehab start. OK.. I'm game.

We went down to the game early and grabbed a bite to eat. Unfortunately, there were no Cooperstown beers to be had. That was sad. No beer report for you today. :(


The stadium announcer indicated that Billy would not be starting the game as previously thought. (boo!) Instead, he would come in as a reliever and pitch for either an inning or 20 pitches, whichever came first (yeah!).

So, Billy came in for relief and threw a perfect inning. Here's a pic:


He looked good.. It was fun, and good to see a major league guy.

It was also fireworks night. Here's a picture


That's all for now!

Thursday pictures

Thursday was another trip to the ballpark... woot!

Warmed up with a bottle of this:


Cooperstown "Back Yard". It's a pleasant IPA, with decent hops. Nothing like that Hoptical Illusion, but not too shabby either. I did enjoy it, and would certainly get another.

Home team had an 8 run inning. I was curious what they would do with the scoreboard had the team hit 10 runs. Each inning only has one digit for runs, and it's an electronic scoreboard.. But, I'm just that kind of guy who would think about these things.


While there, I noticed this phenomenon..



What you see there are pretzels and such just laying on the ground. The disgusting part is that the kids who owned these items would just pick them up and eat them. Repeat. I guess I could understand if they had some paper towels or such underneath.

One of my friends at the game noticed this too.

I dunno.. maybe it's just me (and him, since he noticed too).


It was also fireworks night. Here's a picture:







After I got home, we tried a sampler of Van Gogh melon flavored vodka:





I really enjoy the Van Gogh vodkas. This was no exception. A very nice watermelon flavor. Not a 'Jolly Rancher' sort of watermelon, but real melon. The vodka was very nice and smooth, goes down without a problem. The Van Gogh page discusses mixing it with melon liqueur, grenadine, and OJ for a martini... I don't know about that. It would certainly work, and it would make a great 'top shelf' martini.. but, I think you'd lose some of the flavor of the vodka and couldn't appreciate it as much.

Van Gogh has a gin, as well, but I can't find it around here. Sigh.


That's all I have for pictures right now, and it's time for me to go get some more coffee..

Slacking Tuesday

Well, Tuesday has come and gone. I had intentions of going for a run, but.......

I slacked off. Sigh.

What really happened was this... I was talking to a friend at work about what baseball games we would go to locally, and we both decided to go that night. Plus, it was two for Tuesday....


Beautiful night for baseball.. Most any night is a good night for it, though. I've decided on what I want to do when I grow up (read: hit the lotto so I can go do this). I'll be an usher at the local ballpark. That sounds pretty good... show people their seats, point people to the bathrooms, etc. (All while taking in the game).

Everything that is wrong with baseball isn't wrong at the local park, thankfully. The games start at a reasonable time so kids can go. The players walk right up to the kids looking for autographs and sign their baseballs. I saw one kid, probably 6 years old, getting an autograph on a Post-It pad. The player signed that, then gave him a batting practice ball. The kid looked thrilled. There was another kid who seemed a bit 'awkward'.. probably 15 years old or so. He got a few players to sign his baseball, and after every one, he was just beaming. It's just nice to see.

My friend brought his daughter and his nephews to the game.. They were very well behaved. I always worry about watching 3 kids while he's off buying hot dogs or whatever, but they are absolutely no trouble. They're there, just watching the game.

It was also fireworks night after the game:

El Duque

Got home and went for an easy 2.5 miles with my running buddy. It was hot, but not as humid.. The second half of the run was very labored, but we made it. Unsure of whether we're going tonight or not. The weekend probably won't have any workouts, alas. Big excitement there.. something for everyone to look forward to reading about on Monday. :)


So, yesterday, as I went for coffee, a friend of mine mentioned that Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez was going to have a rehab start at the local minor league team. The curiosity gnawed at me for most of the day, and I finally decided that I'd go. So, after my run, I showered and hurried over.

It was a zoo. Holy shmoley. After I parked, I trucked over towards the box office. Someone I knew from work saw me and was saying "hi". She asked if I had my tickets yet, and that immediately set off warning bells.. She then said "well, I heard they're sold out". grrr..

Well, turns out that they had 'standing room' tickets, for a mere $4. Awesome. I'll take one. I grabbed a sub and a 'Nine Man Ale', and proceeded to wander through the stadium, looking for my coffee buddy. I didn't find him, so I found a spot to stand and proceeded to eat & drink my dinner.

El Duque came out and the crowd seemed into it. Turns out it was a record crowd for the stadium. That's really good, given that events which I think should be big deals are generally ignored by the area. The stadium is often very very empty.

He got the first two outs pretty quickly, and he had his high leg kick going. Then, the wheels fell off. He labored through the rest of the inning, and gave up two runs.

I decided at that point, hey, there are still some empty seats, I'll go try to snake one. I ran into my coffee buddy, and he had a couple near him, so I was good to go. I pulled out my phone, ready to take a snazzy picture of El Duque for posting here on my blog and......

He had been pulled.


What?!

Turns out, in the first inning, he had hurt his foot. So, wisely, the manager pulled him.

And, that is why there is no cool picture of El Duque for you to see here.


It turned out to be a wonderful night for watching baseball. The home team lost, though. Interestingly enough, one team member that I think is pretty useless hit a 2 run homer. Of course, as the last out in the bottom of the ninth, he got back to his usual form and whiffed it.


Slept pretty good last night, but I'm dragging this morning.. have to turn in earlier tonight.

13 Seconds

Well, it was a pretty light workout night for me last night. My body thanks me.


My wife and I went to a somewhat local park and biked around for about 3.36 miles. (Wouldn't you know it, I forgot my Garmin! Grr.. had to map it with MapMyRun). Afterwards we sat down, ate a couple of subs, and polished off a bottle of wine. We did go biking for another 1.04 miles afterwards, yielding a total of 4.4 miles.

What wine you may ask? I'm glad you asked that! We had a bottle Kat Knapp White. It's a very sweet wine, and tastes a lot like some of the Niagara wines in the region. It's not ice-wine-sweet, but certainly sweet. Has a nice apple juice color to it. We picked up the bottle a few years back, and decided to bust into it last night. Good decision.


So.. 13 seconds, you ask? What's the point of the title? Well, I was trying to think of something to write about that might be somewhat interesting.. Yesterday, I decided to go give blood.

Giving blood is something I started doing last year. Truthfully, I wish I had started 10-12 years ago. I don't know why I didn't do it. But, I am doing it now, and that's what's important. Perhaps, now that I'm older and wiser, I see the value of it.

Back to the story.. I took my manager and a co-worker down with me. 6 months ago, my manager had hinted she like to 'race' giving blood... so, I kept that nugget in the back of my mind. We got all checked in, hooked up, and off we went...

I turned in a respectable 5 minutes even for shedding my pint. Wouldn't you know it, she turned in a 4:47. She beat me by 13 seconds! Sigh. (My co-worker put in 9 minutes and change.. we didn't tell him it was a race)


I watched a bit of the All-Star game last night.. I decided to turn it off after 9 innings.. Good thing, as it went past one in the morning. Glad to see the A.L. came out on top again. :)

Monday monday

Well, I got home and jumped right into doing my pushups. I was between weeks 2 and 3, and it was time to do another exhaustion test.

I don't know if it was the 4 hours of sleep I had the night before, the long day at work, or the fact that I'm a weakling (probably choice 3), but I barely eeked out 27. It still puts me in the rightmost column for week 3, so I'm happy about that. I am very worried about being able to do the week, though. :(

Ugh.

My running buddy came over, and we clocked 3 easy miles. She's got a lot on her plate now and used the time as a venting session. I feel bad for her. One of the stressful topics is her upcoming bridal shower.. I did mention that "this is why guys don't have showers".

I mean, seriously. I can't imagine that.. who gets invited? "I can't invite so and so, because so and so doesn't want them".
Guys are just guys. "Yeah, sure, bring him along." Worst case: "Yeah, sure, but we might be low on beer.. grab a 12 pack on the way if you would"

None of this registry stuff, either. I can't imagine guys saying "Gee, why are you registered at Target? Shouldn't you be registered at Pottery Barn?". Instead, it'd be: "Here's some scratch.. Sorry I didn't have more to give you. Next time we go out, drinks are on me.""

Craziness. Pure craziness.

I also watched the Home Run Derby.. I don't usually, but felt like it last night. What a show by Josh Hamilton. A shame he didn't win, but a very very impressive show.

Sporting thoughts from the weekend

Where to start, where to start...

I guess I'll start with the Celtics. 2-0, baby! We did our best to give the game away.. Hopefully we won't do garbage minutes in the 4th quarter any more.. finish all 48 minutes at full intensity, don't give the Lakers any breathing room. But, we did win. I'll take it. Apart from the disaster in the second half of the fourth quarter, I thought the guys played superbly.
Now, if we can go to L.A. and steal one, we'll be in great shape.

Regarding an earlier post about Joba, apparently Cashman did ask Joba what he wanted to do- if he wanted to be a starter or a relief man. Joba chose the former. If I were Cashman, I'd not present the choice. Leave 2 solid arms in the bullpen, and figure out a different solution for the starters. But, they didn't ask me. I wouldn't have traded Ted Lilly a few years back, either. But, yet again, they didn't catch me at home when they called soliciting advice.

The Belmont was run, no triple crown, yet again. 30 years now. Don't know what to say. The horse I was pulling for in the Kentucky Derby, Denis of Cork, put forth a decent showing again.

On the local front, I went for a run on Sunday morning. It was 10:00, and the weather was at 78 degrees, with a guesstimate humidity of 80%. It was disgusting. I ran a little over 4 miles, but mixed in some walk breaks in there. The humidity and heat just sucked the energy out of me. I even ran with my iPod for a little extra boost, but it didn't help. Maybe I should have tried some different tunes. (I was listening to Rush's "Rush in Rio" album.)

That's about it for now!

Joba

So, last night was Joba's first start.

It went as well as I thought it would. Call me a heretic Yankee fan, but I have always thought that the make-Joba-a-starter was a bad move.

Last year, Joba was in the low minors, if I remember right. Now, they're trying to make him the starter which saves the franchise. Isn't that a bit much?

I'm just an armchair sports fan, so I'm just pontificating here with nothing to back it up.. (but, isn't that what most sports writers do anyways?)

Anyways, I think we're robbing Peter to pay Paul, so to speak. We take a highly effective arm out of the bullpen, and put him in the starter's group to save the starters. Well, isn't the bullpen now lacking? Of course it is. Mariano is great, but after that, what's left?
Wouldn't we do better trying to groom Joba to take over for Mariano?

Perhaps though, maybe Joba is pushing to become a starter. I really haven't seen any articles talking about what Joba wants. Maybe what he wants doesn't really matter.

Last year, I remember Joba doing some relief work where he threw 30-40 pitches. Towards the end of that, he looked absolutely gassed. Maybe you approach being a starter differently than being a reliever. But, with him hitting triple digits as a starter, I can't believe that doesn't affect you somehow. Rather than just blowing the ball by everyone, you are supposed to use deceit and be crafty and such, throwing some change-ups and such.

Oh well, I wish him and the team well. I really do. I'd love to have people say, "Remember when you said it was a bad idea, and now he's a 350 win, multi Cy Young award winner?" We'll see how it all goes on his next start.