Recently in Madison Category

Wow. Winter sure did arrive in a big way, eh? For those not fortunate enough to be located in the land of frozen tundra, allow me to share a few of our fair region's weather events: moderate temperatures abruptly turned to bone-chilling cold, accompanied by strong winds, wrapped-up with an awesome dumping of super powdery snow.

Needless to say, FiFi has been less than impressed. I've been shoveling a path and circular area for her to use; the winds have been covering it with blown snow. I've had to coax her with copious amounts of treats, and I've been crating her during the day to avoid coming home to "presents."

And while I don't know if anyone will appreciate this photo, it makes me chuckle - here she is "doing her business" in the cleared-out area:

She's giving me a look that seems to say, "Why did you move me here? Why are you forcing me to be out in this cold weather? And, most importantly, why are you taking my picture right now?!"

When I woke-up this morning, my digital thermometer showed a temperature of -6F... nice. To Feef's credit, I was able to get her outside without too much hassle. Once back inside, she bolted for her favorite spot - the recliner with the Packers fleece blanket on it. She burrows herself into it, gets completely covered, and then growls if you try to move or disturb her. She loves this thing (I uncovered her to get the picture)...

The cold weather and recent dumping of snow means that I've been running on the wonderful dreadmill... lucky me. I had to use it on Thursday, Friday, and this morning. I think I'd rather be water-boarded than to spend 40 minutes on a treadmill. They're so incredibly boring, and for some reason, my quadriceps always ache after I finish using it... I must change my stride/gate while on it.

The good news is that I've been staying extremely consistent to my plans - haven't missed a workout since 1/1, and haven't eaten anything bad since 1/1. I'm rock solid right now, and have dropped 17.4-pounds and 3.9% bodyfat since 1/1. I guess that's what happens when you're as strict as I've been - 900-1000 calories per day (primal foods: grilled lean meats, grilled non-starchy vegetables, no sugars, and no more than 1/2-cup of black beans). I've been running 6 days per week and cycling 4 days per week. TRX workouts take place 3 times per week.

So, with my diet and workouts in solid form, I was a bit nervous to accept a ticket to the Badgers hockey game - the notion of some pretzels, popcorn, or nachos could've been tempting. Alas, they didn't even appeal to me, and so I enjoyed the game with my co-worker Dan. Here's where we sat:

The Badgers absolutely routed the UAA (University of Anchorage, Alaska) with a score of 4-0. Thanks again, Dan, for the ticket! I appreciate it!!

I spent today helping a friend that I used to work with at the MidTown Pub; Evan needed some new tires for his Tahoe, so we placed a call to my other friend Dan (Newhart episode flashback? No?) from Topel's Towing & Repair. Dan was able to get Evan some excellent tires at a great price, so we drove to Lake Mills this afternoon and I mounted and balanced the four new tires (Dan was the only one in the shop and was also on wrecker duty; he was called-out on towing jobs twice while we were there).

Here are the nearly bald tires that we removed from Evan's Tahoe:

They were like slicks - I don't think there was even 1/32" of tread on them!!

Here's one of my old "friends" from my days as a technician... the Coates 20/20 pneumatic tire changing machine. Back in the day, this thing was an absolute beast! It's still more than capable, but I suspect newer versions are even better:

And the fruits of our labor - new shoes on the Tahoe. There's nothing like new tires on a vehicle... they ride quietly, smoothly, confidently, and have such a great "feel" - it's truly awesome, even when it's not my vehicle that has the new tires. :-)

We finished-up the work at just over an hour-and-a-half, then waited for Dan to return from a towing job. Evan settled his bill and we trekked back to Madison, where I had a little friend waiting for me back home. Care to guess where she was waiting for me?

That's right...

And here's what we're doing right now:

So there you have it... the past few days - bad weather, good dog, staying on target with the diet, a hockey game, and new tires for a friend. Not bad. Not bad at all.

My boss, Steve, is raising money for the Livestrong organization in honor of his wife who passed away from cancer about 18 months ago. While I never had a chance to meet her, I've heard nothing but truly wonderful things about her from many people; she had wanted to participate in the Livestrong Challenge, which is a 5K race held in Austin.

Since she wasn't able to do the event, Steve is carrying out her wish by assembling a team of people that will train, fundraise, and travel to Austin this fall. Each person on the team is raising money for the event, and each person will be responsible for their own travel expenses (no fundraising money is used for travel or entry fees). To date, the team has raised more than $5,000.

As a "last push" for the Livestrong challenge, we hosted a fund-raising event at The MidTown Pub in Middleton.

The folks there are absolutely superb - they literally bent over backwards to accommodate us and went above and beyond to help us put on a really outstanding event. Joel, Jamie, BK, Quinn, Stacey, Jeremy, Evan, and countless others took fantastic care of everyone in attendance, and they donated so many wonderful items for us. Thank you!!

The event was scheduled to begin at 5:00pm last night. Steve and I arrived early to hang-up some banners, post signs, arrange seats, and prepare the patio. The weather was absolutely perfect, if not a bit sunny... but, it sure beat the alternatives! Here's the entry way to the patio, where we set-up our event. Livestrong was kind enough to send banners and signage for us to use:

Here's BK (on the left) and Jamie pouring ice on some of the beverages that we had available for the event. Thank you to Frank Beer, Wisconsin Distributors, General Distributors, UWP, and L&L Food Services for helping us out with food and beverages. Jamie did a great job of arranging the event and lining-up the providers for us.

We arranged a table near the entry to the patio so that as people entered, they could purchase food, drinks, and tickets. We had a ton of great prizes available, all compliments of local businesses - there were some really great items available, including a Dell Netbook from TDS.

With everything prepped and ready to go, there was only one thing left to do - pose for a picture while things were still calm. :-)

Here's Steve (my boss and friend), Jamie, and me, standing near the grill. Jamie whipped up some excellent burgers and incredible brats, and he did it while baking in the hot sun all afternoon, with nary a bit a shade. The guy is a trooper!

We had a chance to sit and chat with a few folks before things became too busy. It was nice to grab a seat in the shade and catch-up with some of our co-workers. I'll admit that I was a bit nervous that we might not have anybody show-up... especially when 5:00pm rolled around, and there were only a few people on the patio.

But, before I knew it, the patio was jumping. There were people everywhere - our friends, co-workers, acquaintances, MidTown patrons, and passers-by filled the patio. We sold a ton of food and drink tickets, and people were really excited by the contests. Here's Shana (a coworker and friend of ours) with her son as they purchased some food tickets:

The food was a hit with everyone - as I walked around, I heard nothing but compliments on the chow, but that's no surprise, considering we were at the MidTown Pub. Their food is really good in general, and it's impossible to not enjoy a freshly grilled burger or brat. Here are a few more happy patrons - this is Kate, the daughter of my coworker Brian:

And her younger brother, Michael - looks like they're both enjoying their hamburgers. Nothing beats a satisfied customer. :-)

And to go along with the great MidTown food, we had the super fine folks from Bloom Bake Shop in Middleton generously donate a few dozen cupcakes and a gift certificate to our cause. Their cupcakes are fantastic - I'm definitely a HUGE fan - and folks raved about them last night as well. Here's a picture of the few that remained; I only had one, believe it or not! Thanks again, Annemarie - you're definitely a star!!

With folks fed and "hydrated," we fired-up a competition. We used a children's golf club, a driving mat, and marshmallows to conduct a "longest drive" contest in the parking lot. Each contestant got 3 swings with the club, and the person who hit their marshmallow the farthest won a Polar Heart Rate monitor, compliments of Orange Shoe Personal Fitness.

Here's Dan, one of the contestants, taking a swing:

The contest was a success - we had a bunch of folks participate, and it was really a fun thing. The kids that attended made great "clean-up" helpers - they'd chase down the marshmallows and throw them into the woods for the critters to munch on. Andy C won the contest and took home the Polar Heart Rate Monitor.

Here's a shot of the patio, as it filled-up. Again, thank you to everyone who attended and supported the event.

At around 8:00pm, we held the drawing for our prizes, which included:

• A Dell Netbook, compliments of TDS


• Capital Brewery Clothing, glassware, coolers, and koozies, compliments of Capital Brewery


• Tattoo Gift Certificates, compliments of Ultimate Arts


• Cupcake gift certificates, compliments of Bloom Bake Shop


• Badger Football tickets and t-shirts, compliments of MidTown Pub


• Golf balls, coolers, and a rolling duffel bag, compliments of TDS

The grand prize winner of the netbook was, ironically, the nurse that assisted Jodi (Steve's wife) throughout her illness. Talk about a good omen.

The event continued-on until around 9:00pm, at which point people began to head for home. I had a chance to sit down and chat with Dan and Tara, who made the trek all the way from Lake Mills! Thank you!! And I also had a chance to chat with my cousin, Leanne, my Aunt Linda, and my uncle Warren - all of whom drove down from the Randolph area. Thank you!!!

I felt bad that I didn't have much chance to socialize with everyone that I had wanted to - the time literally flew-by. I wolfed-down a plate of meatloaf at around 9:30pm, chatted with Dan, Tara, Leanne, Warren, and Linda, and then cleaned-up the patio for a bit. What a whirlwind.

All told, we raised a lot of money for Livestrong, all thanks to the generosity and support of our friends, families, coworkers, and our awesome sponsors. I don't know what else to say - it was a great event, and I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves as much as I did. To everyone who participated, thank you for coming down and helping us out. To our sponsors - thank you for the generosity. To MidTown, especially - thanks a million. Let's hope the Livestrong race goes as well as the fundraiser did!

Cheers, and hats off to everyone.

What a day - I successfully completed my very first skydiving experience; a solo jump, nonetheless. It was so incredibly awesome - words cannot do this story justice, but I'll do my best to explain.

A few months ago, the MidTown Pub folks decided to get a group of people together and go skydiving. They had found approximately 20 employees and "regulars" that were interested in trying it; I was one of the 20, and the only one who wanted to do a solo jump (everyone else wanted to tandem jump, meaning that you jump while tethered to an instructor).

The differences? A solo jump is like driving a car; a tandem jump is like riding in a car. A solo jump requires that you take a 6+ hour class; a tandem jump requires about 30 minutes of instruction. And, with the tandem jump, you can free-fall for up to 30 seconds; with the solo jump it's limited to about 5-7 seconds. A solo jump also counts as a jump toward earning your skydiving license.

So, I paid the fee for my solo class, and arrived to the Seven Hills jump school at 7:45am sharp. The weather looked gloomy, to say the least.

Our class began right on time; we started with the legal stuff (aka, "you could die during this and you choose to take the risk on your own."). From there, we learned about the components of a parachute "rig" (pilot chute, bridal, bag, canopy, lines, slider, risers, harness, reserve chute, etc), and how each component functioned.

We then went to a simulator to learn how to enter and exit the airplane.

Believe it or not, when you exit the airplane, you step onto that small metal ledge above the wheel, while hanging onto the red/white strut. You then slide your hands into the white section of the strut, step completely off of the platform, and then "check-in" with your instructor as you hang from the strut by your arms. The instructor will yell "Skydive!" at which point you let go and arch your body backwards as much as possible, while yelling "arch-thousand," "two-thousand," (etc) and waiting for your canopy to deploy.

We practiced this several times, and were quizzed about it over-and-over. The arch is extremely important.

We then went back into the classroom and spent a tremendous amount of time learning about malfunctions and problems, and what to do in the event of either taking place.

A malfunction cannot be fixed; the solution? Release your primary canopy and pull the reserve. A problem can usually be corrected (twisted lines, stuck slider, deflated end tubes) - your goal is to fix it before you hit 2500 feet; if you can't, then you go into emergency procedures (release chute, pull reserve).

This part of the classroom took a really long time, and included a lot of repetitive drilling to help commit it to muscle memory.

From there, we learned about maneuvering during your ride; how to pull on the toggles, use the brake, flare the canopy, and how to approach the landing zone.

By now, it was time for a lunch break; I had a nutrition bar while the rest of my class (about 12 people) had pizza. After lunch, we briefly reviewed a few items from earlier, and then practiced the "PLF" (Parachute Landing Fall). This was the hardest and most painful part for me...

They really want you to try to land-and-roll onto your shoulder, rather than try to perform a standing/running landing. Try as I might, I couldn't keep my head from slamming into the mat when I jumped from a small platform and attempted to roll. I actually tweaked my neck/shoulder after the second sample/training PFL. I was nervous about the landing... There was no way I could do a good PFL without hitting my head on the ground. I was also nervous about landing on my feet - the last thing I needed to do was injure my knee, ankle, hip, or foot...

We were then quizzed and tested in 1-on-1 sessions with jump masters; they gave us all sorts of scenarios with malfunctions and problems, while drilling the processes and reactions into our brains. We learned about obstacle avoidance, emergency landing, approach angles, and so on.

After the class was over, I received my jump ticket - this red ticket gave you access to the airplane; lose it, and it was game over.

By now, it was after 2:00pm, and we were ready to jump. I got put into the last group of jumpers (there were four groups of us, 3 per group), which meant I'd be jumping at around 5:30pm... argh. Three-plus hours of waiting wasn't going to make me feel any better, but it did give me a chance to practice a bunch of things and to watch people as they jumped.

And then the weather stopped cooperating... the wind speed went above 14-mph, which is the limit for solo jumping as a student. And, worse yet, when the speed goes above 14-mph, there's a 1-hour waiting period before you can attempt to go out again. If the wind speed stays below 14-mph for the entire hour, you're good to go. If it exceeds 14-mph, it's time to wait again. We waited until about 4:30pm before the first group could go out...

Each group of 3-people requires about 1-hour to 1.25-hours to complete their jump. With any luck, I'd be jumping by 7:30-8:00pm. At least I had plenty of time to find my gear and get all set...

I needed a size "Medium" jump rig and a "Large-Tall" jump suit. The medium rigs were popular, so I had to wait to get one until some of the first jumpers landed. And, as luck would have it, they began to land at about 5:00 - here's one of the first folks coming in for a landing:

Long story made shorter, the three groups all went out - one of the people had a problem during his jump and ended-up in a cornfield about 2-miles from the landing zone... he was OK, but it didn't do anything to make me feel confident! I talked to folks about the landing and got some good hints/tips, so I felt better about the landing.

A rig became available, and I suited-up. After being outfitted and checked for safety/rigging/etc., I had to go through a simulator test where you're hanging about 2-3 feet off the ground and the instructor tells you your primary canopy has failed; the simulator allows you to feel what it's like to cut away your primary canopy and deploy your reserve. Here I am after getting out of the simulator (my helmet was a touch too small, hence the scrunched looking face):

I received 2 additional safety checks from separate instructors, and then got the "OK" to proceed. A quick radio check (you can hear your ground spotter via a small 2-way radio that is secured to your arm), and we were making our way to the airplane... no turning back!

We left tera-firma at approximately 7:00 on the dot. The plane took us to just under 4,000 feet, and the first person in our group exited the aircraft. He had some trouble with the platform, and hung-on to the strut for too long. The instructor had to push him out and away from the platform/strut. The plane circled around to approach the drop zone and I was up.

I was surprisingly calm and at ease. I didn't feel queezy, or anxious, or nothing. It was surreal - I was confident and excited. I asked my jump master, "Do you have my pilot chute?" He confirmed that he did. He then opened the door to the aircraft, and held one hand on my rig. He instructed me to "Standby," which means "step out onto the ledge and slide your hands out to the white zone.

The shock of the 100-mph wind was amazing. I was also too tall for the platform/wing, and my rig got hung for a bit on the wing. I had to crouch down super far to begin my slide out to the white zone; it was a little unnerving, but I was ready. Once in the white zone, I stepped completely away from the platform, hung for a second, looked at my instructor and shouted, "CHECK-IN!" (meaning I was ready) Here I am, hanging on the wing strut after shouting the check-in.

He replied with "SKYDIVE!" at which point, I released my grip from the strut and tried to arch my back while yelling "ARCH-THOUSAND!" I say try, because I didn't do a very good job of arching... here you can see me yelling the "ARCH-THOUSAND!" but not arching... :-) It looks as if I'm screaming, and I am, but I'm screaming what I'm supposed to be screaming - the "arch-thousand!" count.

And here I am, about 2-seconds into the free fall, failing to arch; you can see I'm more or less on my back at this point...

So, because I didn't arch, I went onto my back, which is bad - it makes for a more pronounced "opening shock" (which is when your canopy catches the wind and opens). I also only got to about "three-thousand" on my count by the time my pilot chute pulled open my canopy. Here I am in the middle "opening shock" - the primary canopy is just beginning to open/deploy; the lines are tight, and the pilot chute is above me, pulling everything out of the rig so that it can deploy.

The opening shock was extremely anti-climatic. The chute opened, and I immediately checked for shape and control; I had both, so then I checked for twisted lines and to make sure my slider was in the correct position. Everything was OK, so I released my toggles and gave a pull on both toggles to flare the canopy - this helps fill the tubes with air so that you can turn and brake, and also tells the ground spotter that you're OK. Here I am (way in the distance), making a slight right turn at about 3,500 feet.

I drifted my way down from 3,500 feet, practicing turns, S-bends, and flares per my ground spotter's directions. The fall was so serene, peaceful, beautiful, and fun. It was dead silent - no noise, no wind noise, nothing, just pure bliss; save for the crackle of my spotter on the radio. At 1,000 feet, I began my approach to the landing zone; at 500 feet, I went perpendicular to the landing zone per instruction, and at 250 feet, I faced into the wind for maximum lift. I applied a little bit of brakes, steered my last little bit toward the landing zone, and then at 50-feet, put my knees and feet together and prepared to flare (stall) the canopy.

As you're falling, you're doing two things - falling "down" via gravity at about 16-18 feet per second, and "moving" into the wind at about 15 miles per hour. The goal is to keep that momentum steady until the last 8-12 feet, at which point you flare the canopy, which stops your forward motion and you drop straight to the ground from about 3-feet.

It worked perfectly, but I forgot to bend my knees, so I ended-up sliding a bit on my butt - at least I didn't have to do my dreaded PLF! And, the landing was super smooth/soft. Success!!

I gathered my canopy and lines, and made the short walk back to the classroom; I had nailed my landing position within about 10 feet of where I was supposed to be - winning!! Here I am, all smiles, with my canopy bunched-up and in hand.

I waited for the last jumper and our jump master to land, took off my rig, and then debriefed with the jump master. I immediately knew what I had done wrong - rig got held-up on the wing/door and I didn't arch enough. Other than that, a great jump. I got my first jump certificate:

I hung around for a bit to get my pictures from the plane, and then headed back to the house, where some hungry cats were waiting for me. I fed them, fed myself, and then made this entry. :-) I can't wait to do it again - it was so many things all at once - peaceful, calming, fun, liberating, and beautiful. After 25 instructor assisted jumps, you can earn your A-license, which allows you to do your own free-falls rather than using the pilot chute to automatically open your canopy. 1 down, 24 to go!

If you've ever considered going skydiving - DO IT. It's so incredible. It's nothing like I had imagined (I thought it would be like falling from a high-dive or riding a roller coaster) - it's not like anything I ever expected. My stomach didn't go into my throat or into knots - it was so relaxing. Sounds odd, but it's true. Blue skies, my friends!

Ok, Ok - I apologize a million-times over for taking so long to post pictures and details of the new place. It's unlike me to have been in a new house for 2 months and to not have posted any real information about it, but I've been super busy with updating the new pad, along with everything else...

So, without any further ado, here's the new pad. It's located in the Madison area - I have less than a 10 minute drive to work each day, which is really nice. I had posted a picture of the outside in an earlier entry, so I'll re-post that picture here (all other pictures are "current" as of today):

As you can see, it's an older ranch-style house. It has a nice-sized yard (it takes about an hour to mow in total), but doesn't have much by way of landscaping... I believe the neighborhood suffered some type of tree sickness, as it appears that a majority of the yards have recently lost very large trees. My backyard has three bare areas that I'm guessing once hosted some large trees; now there are only remnants - ground-up stumps and dead grass.

There's a nice deck on the back; it's not huge, but it holds my grille and patio table without any troubles. I also mounted some LED rope lights around the perimeter of the deck - it adds a nice amount of light at night, along with some ambiance.

Inside, the house has a very distinct 70s look and feel; there's lots of dark-wood trim, harvest gold kitchen counter (and wallpaper), and plenty of shag carpet. But, it beats an apartment, and I've been slowly but surely updating the interior.

When you walk-in through the front door, you enter into the living room:

You can see the TV and soundbar are mounted; the new subwoofer rests in the corner. I bought the matching loveseat to my couch, along with a leather recliner and ottoman. Here's another view of the living room, from the dining/hall area:

You can see the large window - it's a huge picture window, which (along with all of the other windows in the house) was replaced a year ago with fiberglass, double-pane, gas-filled energy efficient windows. They're super nice - quiet, cool, and great.

From the living room, you walk into the dining room, which has my new pub-height table. The table measures 42"x54" and expands to 54"x54" (it has a built-in leaf system).

You can see some of the deck and backyard, along with my new light fixture. I pulled down a dingy old (and noisy) ceiling fan and replaced it with an oil-rubbed bronze fixture. Here's another shot of the dining room (from the kitchen):

And speaking of the kitchen, here it is, in all of its golden-rod/harvest gold beauty... the cabinets are the classic dark wood deals as well, but they offer a ton of storage space:

All of the appliances were literally brand new when I moved-in; the refrigerator still had all of the styrofoam blocks inside of it, the dishwasher had the sample pack of detergent hanging from the rack, and the stove looked as if it had never been used. So, while it's dated, it's in great shape.

On the back side of the kitchen is a large laundry/mud room, complete with a utility sink and a ton of storage space (a full closet and another cabinet):

Here's a view from the other side of the laundry room. I'm not sure why they put in a stacked washer/dryer - there's plenty of room for two separate units. Oh well, beggars can't be choosers, right?

The garage is located just behind the laundry room, and is huge - it's an extra-deep, 2+ car garage, complete with an epoxied floor:

Back inside the house, there's a hallway that runs just off from the living room/dining room area. There's a linen closet in the hallway, just across from the spare bathroom, which looks like this:

The bathroom has a full-sized shower/tub, which is nice. I replaced all of the hardware (towel bars, lighting and faucets) with oil-rubbed bronze units. I'll show some before/after pictures at the end of this entry.

Across from the bathroom is one of the bedrooms. This one is completely stuck in the 70s - the carpet is shag; the window shades are gold, and the light fixture is an awesome fishbowl-looking unit. But, the room houses my biking gear and I'm sure it doesn't care how new/old the carpet and hardware is. :-)

At the end of the hall are two bedroom doors - one is for the guest room (again, classic 70s window coverings, shag carpet, old ceiling fan):

And on the opposite side of the hallway is the master bedroom:

I updated the ceiling fan in the master bedroom with a new Hunter fan, complete with a remote control. I also mounted my smaller television to help clean-up the look-and-feel. You can see my clothes-drying rack, complete with workout gear (shirts, shorts, riding bibs, etc):

As you can sort of tell from the last picture, there's a bathroom off the master bedroom. It's slightly smaller than the hallway bathroom; it has a walk-in shower and a small vanity:

I installed the floating shelf and also replaced all of the hardware (towel bars, lighting, and faucets). Here's a picture looking "out" of the bathroom - you can sort of see the new light fixture and faucet, both of which are brushed nickel:

And last but not least, there's the large basement. You've got to love ranch-style houses... they all have these massive basements, and while this one is unfinished, it's no slouch. They epoxied the floor and walls, so it's really easy to clean and take care of. It has a bunch of built-in storage under the stairwell, but I didn't take photos of that.

And there you have it! That's the new house, in most of its glory. I've got plans to replace the ceiling fan and lighting in the spare rooms, and at some point I'll pull down the wallpaper, but that's about all that remains on my "to do" list. Whew!

I'm having a house-warming party with my co-workers later this week - it should be a good time. I'll be eating "clean" and won't be imbibing - as I mentioned earlier, my pants are fitting quite snug at the moment thanks to the debaucherous weekend with my friend from Arkansas... :-)

Oh - and here are the before/after photos that I took of various items. Here's what the dining room fixtures looked like before and after:

And the master bedroom ceiling fan:

Here's the bathroom towel bars before/after:

Check out the awesome "hanging chain" lights that I replaced in the spare bathroom:

And finally, here's a sample of the hallway/entrance lights that were replaced:

Not bad, eh? All told, I replaced:

2 ceiling fans
7 light assemblies
3 faucet/drain assemblies
7 towel bar/towel hanger assemblies
23 light switches and plates
28 electrical receptacles and plates
2 smoke detectors

Whew.

It's been a busy week! In addition to Amy and Riley being in town, another friend of mine from Arkansas took a visit to Wisconsin and I played host. BJ was a guy that I worked with for a number of years while at the bank; we hung out quite regularly and I even stayed at his house for a few months. We lost touch for a while, and then got back in-touch last year. I extended an open invitation to him to check out Wisconsin, and as luck would have it, the stars aligned and he was able to spend a week or so "up north."

He arrived on Tuesday night, and we promptly made a stop at the Capital Brewery for some pizza and a Wisconsin microbrew. We also met-up with Amy and one of our other friends, Jenny. We made a full night of the brewery, and I think BJ was duly impressed with his first true Wisconsin beverage and a proper pizza.

Wednesday morning came along quickly, and after changing the oil in Amy's Tahoe and wishing her well, she departed for her parent's house. I went for a run and then BJ and I hopped in the car and headed down to New Glarus to tour the infamous brewery.

We weren't able to take the in-depth tour that I took with Nat; we did the self-guided tour, which took about an hour or so. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the full "hard hat tour" that I took last year, but it was good, nonetheless. After the tour, we sampled a few of the beverages while sitting in the brewery's tasting garden, which was absolutely beautiful.

After sampling their offerings, we headed into New Glarus, where we visited the infamous Glarner Stube (home of the midwest's largest urinal) and took a stroll through the town. I then suggested that we head back to Madison to take a walk up-and-down State Street, and to check out two Madison staples: The Old Fashioned and The Memorial Union.

We hit the Union first, where the weather was unreal - mid-80s and sunny, with a slight breeze. The view was spectacular.

Here we are, enjoying a New Glarus Spotted Cow:

After sitting at the Union for a bit, we made our way up State Street to the Old Fashioned, where BJ was introduced to two Wisconsin delicacies - a proper "Old Fashioned" (whiskey sour) and a Sheboygan Bratwurst. The Old Fashioned received a mediocre reception (truth be told, I'm not much of a fan, myself), but the Brat was commended for being "much better than a Johnsonville brat from WalMart."

We stayed downtown for a bit longer - walked around the capital square, toured a bit of the University area, and then headed home.

On Thursday, we got up early and went for a decent bike ride - we rode from the new house to some of Madison's bike trails, eventually winding our way around to John Nolen drive. Again, the weather was unreal - mid 80s, sunny, light breeze. Perfect for riding and running.

Following the workout, we jumped in the car and headed for Waterloo to tour the Trek factory.

We almost didn't get to tour the facility; Trek only offers "tours" on Wednesdays - we missed it by a day. They did allow us to tour the museum, which was neat. We got to see all of the various Trek road bike models, including a bunch of Lance Armstrong's Tour de France rides. One of the neater bikes was this model from the mid-90s, which suffered a broken chainstay from a crash. Despite the break in what may be one of the most critical areas, Lance powered his way to a crushing 10-minute lead/win over the rest of the pack.

As we were leaving the museum, we spotted a super sweet Honda CB400T Hawk - this vintage 70s motorcycle was super awesome looking - a real tribute to the cafe racer bikes of old:

Following the Trek tour, we drove over to Jim's Cheese pantry and purchased some of their infamous cheese curds along with some 15-year old cheddar and various other dairy delectables. Jim's has a large mouse in-front of the dairy; we posed for a quick picture with the little fella:

From Jim's, we drove to my old hometown, where we took a spin around the lake and saw the "major" sites - the brewery, the square, and some of the neater old houses. It was getting late into the afternoon, and we were both starting to feel peckish, so we headed back toward Madison for some pretzels, popcorn, and a boot at the Come Back Inn.

Not sure what to do for dinner, we made the decision to get pick-up some brats and to have a little cookout at the house. We swung through Jacobson Brothers, grabbed four Bavarian beauties, some Claussen Bakery buns, and some chips and salsa.

We also made a quick stop along East Washington Avenue to snap a picture of a little-known, but super important landmark and modern day music icon - Smart Studios. This little red brick building was responsible for recording such albums as "Nevermind" by Nirvana and a handful of Garbage albums, along with countless other game-changing musical works.

From East Washington, we headed to another game changing institution - the Greenbush Bakery. I had to show BJ what a true apple fritter looks like (notice the can of soda for size reference):

Upon arriving home, we fired-up the new fire pit and enjoyed a Capital Blonde Dopplebock, the brats, and eventually the fritter (what's sickening is that I usually eat one of those by myself... it was good to share it rather than scarf it by myself):

Friday morning arrived, and once again, I hit the road for a run - I had to do something to try to burn-off some of the eighty-billion calories I'd consumed so far. With a few miles under my ever-tightening belt, we headed to Milwaukee to tour the Miller brewery. They have updated their tour since my last visit; it was a much better tour than I remember. Here are a few pictures of the tour:

The free tour took us about an hour to complete, and included three free sample tastings. Neither of us felt much like indulging, so we only had one as we filled-out surveys and sent some complimentary post cards to folks:

From the brewery, we headed down to Water Street, where I introduced BJ to yet another legendary Wisconsin delicacy - the Friday Fish Fry. Despite some super awful service, the fish fry was pretty tasty. I had the lake perch:

And BJ went with the traditional cod:

Both were really good - I'll do a full review in a separate entry. Following the fish fry, we made a short drive down to Chicago Street, where we hit another Wisconsin summer staple - Summerfest!

I believe we hit the grounds at about the perfect time - there wasn't much of a line for tickets or for entry; we breezed through the entire process in less than 15 minutes, which is a miracle. I believe it took me at least an hour to get through the line last year.

Once inside, we walked a few laps to help get our bearings about us, and to help work-off some of that fish fry. We stopped to listen to the occasional band; BJ visited the Sony PS3 truck/demo, and we drank a boatload of soda and bottled water - it was 90+ and sunny!

We watched a few good bands, including "The Heroes Lie," "Middle Class Rut," "Sevendust," "Crash Kings," and "Goo Goo Dolls." We didn't watch much of the last three, as it was getting really late, and we were tired of standing/walking - I'd say we watched about 15 minutes of Sevendust, and about 10 minutes each of Goo Goo Dolls and Crash Kings.

We snuck out of the fairgrounds at about 11:00pm, grabbed a burrito for dinner, and arrived home at around 2:00am. Talk about a full day!!

Saturday was our last day, so I had to make sure we ended on a high note. We hit Williamson Street for some breakfast at Wallaby's Cafe. I had a pancake (my pants will not fit any more); BJ had a skillet. Look at these bad boys:

From Wallaby's, we made our way up to the Capital Square where Madison's great Art Fair on the Square was taking place, along with the infamous Farmer's Market.

The square was absolutely packed with people and vendors - it took us a solid hour of plodding behind slow-moving strollers, lane blocking grannies, and screaming kids to complete a lap of the event.

It didn't help that the temperature was well into the 90s, the humidity was hovering around 100%, the sun was relentless, and there wasn't a breeze to speak of. Sweaty, frustrated, and still full from breakfast, we decided to trek up to Wisconsin Dells.

I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the weekend; our Dells trip was rather uneventful - we walked up and down the old downtown strip, took a spin through the newer attractions, and visited a few of the novelty shops. I tried to talk BJ into buying a pair of moccasins, but he claimed he didn't have a need for them.

From the Dells we headed back to Madison, where we stopped-in at the Sprecher Brewing Company for some dinner. Ooops - I lied; I took one final picture while at Sprecher... they have an amazing patio area complete with fire pits, covered bars, and a stage. The evening's entertainment came by way of a band called The Mustache - a funk tribute band, where every member was sporting a classic 1970s mustache.

The band was totally awesome - I loved them. They sounded great, the music was excellent, and they were really fun to watch. The patio was packed, which made it difficult to spend any time watching them; we felt bad "hogging" a table to watch the band... which is why luck was on our side - a coworker sent a text inviting us to a "neighborhood bonfire" at his house, so we hopped in the car and drove to Fitchburg, where we closed out the evening with a really nice bonfire and some great company.

We arrived home at around midnight, watched a little television and called it a night. BJ hit the road early this morning, and apparently just arrived home, so all ended well.

What a weekend. I'm sure to have gained at least 15-pounds, so I'll have to hit the diet and workout routine hardcore again. It's a shame because I was doing really well, but it was worth it to fall off the wagon while showing an out-of-state friend the finer sides of Wisco.

I have a house guest for the weekend.

Amy came up from Arkansas to visit her folks and her sister (who is also visiting from Colorado), and she was kind enough to bring Riley along. I spent Friday evening with Amy and her family - we had a cookout and caught-up on things; it was a super nice time, even if it was nearly 100F outside!

On Saturday, Amy and Kelly drove in to Madison so that Kelly and her son could go to a birthday party. Amy dropped them off at the party, then came to the new house, along with Riley. The cats aren't too sure if they like Riley or not, but thankfully they all get along without incident. I wouldn't say they'll be exchanging any Christmas cards this year, but things could be worse. :-)

Amy and I had a cookout, with some absolutely phenomenal steaks from Wyttenbach Meats, a sweet potato, and some stellar grilled asparagus. After dinner, we took Riley for a walk (I think her ears just perked-up again), then went to a local pub for a beverage. Amy had to run to pick-up Kelly by 8pm, so it was an early evening.

Riley is staying with me for the weekend while Amy and Co. head up north to her parent's cabin. I'm pleased to report that Riley slept like a dream last night - no whining, no whimpering, no roaming around. She hopped into bed, went under the covers, curled-up into her usual "hot pocket" position, let out a groan/sigh, and slept the entire night.

We woke-up at about 6:15, went for a walk, had some breakfast, and then I went for a run. We're now sitting on the couch watching the Early Show on CBS. Plans for today: bike ride at 10:00am, followed by taking pictures of the house (for the blog), and that should be about it.

Enjoy the holiday weekend!

I swear I'm getting very close to posting pictures of the new pad - it'll probably be next weekend when I have everything in place and worthy of presentation. I've got a few small tasks to complete first (mount TV in bedroom and update faucet in spare bathroom) - then it'll be picture/tour time.

With that little primer, you'd be correct to assume that I've been working my tail off at the new place. In the past few weeks, I have: replaced most of the overhead lighting fixtures, replaced all of the bathroom hardware and faucet (soon to be faucets) (including lighting), installed a new ceiling fan in the master bedroom, mounted the TV and soundbar in the living room, installed LED lighting around the back deck, organized everything imaginable (kitchen, pantry, linen closets, etc), installed a subwoofer in the living room, put together a new headboard/footboard, put together a kitchen table and 4 chairs, and a few other things that I'm surely forgetting... I also bought a loveseat and a recliner - both are nice additions.

I still need to find a sofa table and a console table for my entryway, but other than that, I think everything is just about set. Whew.

In addition to running myself ragged around the new place, I rode a 30+ mile bike ride on Saturday to benefit Multiple Sclerosis research and followed it up with a 6 mile run (the Achilles is feeling nearly 100%). While transitioning between the ride and run, I spotted what I thought/felt was something really amazing - I saw a single ant dragging a dead worm across the parking lot of my workplace.

Why was it amazing? The little guy was so determined; the worm was easily 6-times his size, yet there he was, pulling and dragging it across the bumpy lot without fail. He'd stop every few feet, run around a bit, and then get right back after it. Call me crazy, but it was a little inspiring. The pavement had to be 90F (it was nearly 80F and super sunny outside)... who knows where he started dragging that thing from or how far he had to go?

I watched him for a minute - I found myself cheering for him, almost wanting to help him out, but I figured if I did anything like that, he'd give up and take off. So I just observed. And, I filmed him for a bit - if you're as easily intrigued as I am, feel free to take a look at this 1 minute video from the phone (if you don't see a "Play" button, just double-click on the image and the video will start):

Edit: apparently Internet Explorer doesn't understand the HTML for embedded video, so here's a direct link to the video for download.

I was finished riding, running, and ant watching by 2pm, so I headed to the house, made a nice lunch and then went to my first Mallards game of the season. I joined my aunt, my cousin, and my cousin's nephew for a beautiful evening of baseball and wonderful conversation.

The game was completely sold out by the time we arrived; our only options were to purchase a $5 "standing room" seat, or a $32 Duck Blind (all you can eat/drink while standing in Right Field) ticket. We opted for the standing room seat and by the beginning of the third inning, had scored some awesome seats on the first base line.

One of the ushers told us that if no one claimed the handicapped seating by the third inning that we could help ourselves to a seat. No one needed the seats, so we took advantage of the offer, and wound-up with these incredible seats:

Not bad for five bucks, eh?? I was an especially cheap date, as I've been determined to stick to clean eating for a full month, so I had two bottles of Diet Pepsi, and that was it. No beers, no brats, no curds... it was insanely tempting to indulge, but I didn't.

The game ended by 9:00pm, and I was home and in bed by 10. Woke-up early this morning, went for another 30-mile ride, followed by a shorter run of 3-miles (recovery run). Then I hit Menards for some house stuff and spent the rest of the day working around the house.

I guess that's it for now... nothing terribly exciting. Stay tuned for some home pics!

Well, it was bound to happen sooner or later. WIth as absolutely friggin' terrible as Madison drivers are, I knew I'd eventually have an incident while on the road. And my time came yesterday at lunch.

With my achilles tendon growing better by the day, I've been increasing my run distances slowly but surely. I've also given-up on waking up early to go run during the week - I'm just not a morning person, and I can't bring myself to consistently rise and run by 6:30am each day. So, I usually run during my lunch hour, which means I have to venture out in the downtown Middleton area.

Yesterday's weather was absolutely beautiful - mid 70s, light breeze, sunny and mild. A perfect day for running. I was about 3.5 miles into my route when I approached an area that has several restaurants, which means there are several driveways/entrances to parking lots. I've mapped my route so that I never run "with" traffic - I'm always running "against" it, so that I can better see people as they turn into and out of driveways and intersections.

So imagine my surprise when I suddenly felt like I had been tackled from behind and scooped up onto a hard surface. One second I was running, the next I was hitting something hard. My left hand went instinctively behind me to help catch my fall and I heard a "crunch" followed by a horn honk.

It scared the living daylights out of me, and I sprung straight up. I had been hit from behind by a car that was turning left into the entrance of a restaurant's parking lot - see the diagram of what happened:

The car didn't knock me down - it scooped me onto the hood (partially). When I sprung up, I spun around and saw a lady in a white Kia sedan on her phone. I gave her a "what the heck just happened???" type of look as I got out of the way. Once clear of her car, I stopped and stared at her and said, "What the hell are you doing?!"

She was on her phone, and much to my surprise, she honked at me again and then took off, honking her horn the whole time. As she sped off, I took a swing at the side of her car with my fist, and managed to get a solid hit in the left rear corner.

I couldn't believe what happened. I also can't believe that I wasn't aware enough to get her license plate or anything - in fact, I'm not even 100% positive it was a Kia sedan. Everything happened so quickly; it was an unbelievable experience. Thankfully, the only bad things that happened were my left palm is nice and bruised from hitting the hood:

And I've got a small, perfectly circular cut in my leg, near the back of my knee from what I assume was a license plate bolt. I'm guessing that's where the car first hit me from behind. How I was "scooped up" is beyond me - I probably should've been knocked down... I can only assume that she wasn't going more than 3-4 miles per hour because there's nothing else that hurts or shows any injury.

My co-workers laughed at me when I went back to work yesterday and sat at my desk like nothing was wrong. My boss even said, "So wait - you just got hit my a car, and here you are sitting at work?" Yeah, I guess so. :-)

I did also do the Capital bike ride last night, and was pleased to be surrounded by a bunch of friends from work and some really cool dogs. One of my project team members did the ride last night and then brought her dog, Piper to say hello. Here's Piper (he's a 3-year old Visla):

And here's Piper with his owner, Carrie (my project team member) - she's an organizational readiness analyst who has helped us with communications and organizational change management for one of my really big projects:

And then there were these two random buddies - a cute greyhound named "Nola" and an awesome Neopolitan Mastiff named "Madison." They were super sweeties.

According to their owners, Nola got her name because she was rescued from New Orleans, Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina; and Madison is a 6-year old, 200-pounder. Crazy!

I believe it's the Boy Scouts who use the motto "Be Prepared." I say that I believe it's them because as a youth, I never actually graduated into the Boy Scouts. I did spend time as a Cub Scout, but never progressed beyond the Bobcat or (at best) Tiger Cub badge.

If memory serves, the last official event of my short-lived Cub Scout career was the infamous Pinewood Derby car race. And, from what I recall, my block-shaped-bares-a-striking-resemblance-to-a-school-bus entry didn't fare too well. I chalk it up to sculpting and building the thing with a limited set of tools and assistance (the family tool box doubled as our dinner flatware drawer).

So, for what it's worth, I can't feel too bad for often going "unprepared" into certain situations. But there's no excuse for what I managed to do on Saturday.

If you'll recall from my previous entry, I had planned to ride an easy 20-mile loop on Saturday, and to go for a 1.25 - 1.50-mile run. I say "planned," because when I awoke at 7:30am on Saturday morning, I was immediately disheartened by a light, but steady, misty-sort-of-rain. Argh. I don't mind running in the rain, but I really despise riding in the rain.

So, I checked a few weather websites, saw that it was going to continue to mist until around 10am, and made the decision to forge ahead, but that I would ride my Trek instead of the Cervelo. The Trek had spent the entire winter mounted to the trainer, so I felt it deserved a little road time. I prepped myself and my ride, and hit the road.

At right about the turnaround point (9.5 - 10 miles in), I felt as if I had lost a significant amount of control over the bike. Steering was sluggish and my speed was dropping. I looked down and sure enough... flat tire. My second flat ever (knock on wood, as that's an amazing record for 3+ years of riding). Sigh... looked as if I'd be patching my tire from the side of the road - in the rain. Nice.

But (and here's where we tie-back-in to the intro), in my haste to depart the apartment, I had forgotten to transfer my tool kit from the Cervelo to the Trek. And, for some inexplicable reason, I had chosen to leave my phone at home as well. There I was, 10-miles from home base, no tools, no phone, and a flat tire. Awesome.

I didn't want to hoof it 10-miles, given the situation with my Achilles, so I made the decision to ride on the flat for as long as I could. I honestly believed the tire would eventually completely dismount itself at some point, but any mileage in the saddle would beat the alternative. So, I rode at a gingerly 5-6 mph until I arrived at my first hill.

The hill proved to be another obstacle; the act of climbing caused the front wheel to "wash out," and by some stroke of pure luck, I managed to unclip from the pedals and prevent tipping over and disgracefully crashing at a very low speed. Thanks to the close call, I decided to take a new approach to my return trip - I'd ride the flat sections and walk the hills.

After the first hill, my Achilles was on fire, thanks to my cycling shoes and the cleats that sit under the front part of the foot. When walking, the cleats effectively "crank" your toes upward, which stretches your Achilles, which caused me great discomfort. Joy.

It took me over an hour to return home (it should've taken about 30 minutes). And once I returned home, I drove to the bike store and purchased a second tool kit, a new front tire, new tubes, new patches, and a second tool bag for the Trek. I'm confident that I'm now prepared, should I ever encounter a similar situation in the future. Live and learn... here's a picture of the dead tire and tube:

While installing the new tire, I realized that the now-flattened tire was an original tire... circa 2001. Wow. I should've replaced that thing a looooong time ago. Truth be told, I actually replaced the rear tire earlier this winter, when it flatted while on the trainer. I figured (correctly so) that the trainer had worn it out (trainers generate a lot of heat in tires and cause them to prematurely wear); I should've replaced the front as well. But, some $140 later (tools, tire, tubes, bag, portable pump), I'm good to go (or so I hope).

I wasn't able to run yesterday; and my Achilles was still quite sore this morning, so I opted to rest it. I did manage a 25-mile ride (on the Cervelo), so all was not lost. :-)

And, for the second act, I present another bit of wisdom: Never Take Anything For Granted.

Again, I mentioned in an earlier entry that I've been working on the new house, and that I had been busy updating the electrical switches, outlets, and hardware. Well, like most houses, the new place is loaded to the gills with 3-way light switches.

What's a 3-way light switch? It's a "system" that allows you to control a single light (or outlet, or ceiling fan) from multiple switches. For example, you might have a light switch in your dining room that will turn-on or turn-off a set of lights in the kitchen; you might have another switch in the actual kitchen that controls the same set of lights, thus allowing you to control the kitchen lights from either location.

3-way switches aren't difficult to figure out; it's a simple parallel electrical circuit. What does make things tricky is when you're dealing with 30+ year old switches that don't follow the same configuration as today's switches. Add-in some "interesting" electrical wiring work, and things can get complicated, especially if you assume things.

And that's what I did when swapping out the old 3-way switches for new ones. Yes, I thought it was odd that on any given circuit, I would encounter wires of a variety of colors - the standard wiring code says that a black wire should be the "hot" wire (always has power, from the breaker, or supplying to the load (eg: a light/outlet/etc)), the white wire should be the common wire, and bare copper should be the ground.

When dealing with a 3-way switch, you have to introduce a fourth wire; a "traveler" that links the multiple switches, and conventional wiring methods usually define that traveler as being red in color.

Well... my new place had black wires connected to red wires, white wires connected to red wires, and some inexplicable others including tan wires and striped wires. Wow. Someone got creative at some point.

I had also assumed that the switch configurations were the same between the old and the new switches; the "brass" terminal should have been the "hot" terminal; the other two terminals should have been the "traveler" terminals.

And, as soon as I had finished swapping all of the 3-way switches and activated the breakers, I quickly discovered something was amiss. The switches didn't work in any manner or fashion that they should've. Everything was all jacked-up. Ugh.

So, I tried troubleshooting, but because I was flying solo and didn't have any extra wire for continuity testing, nor did I have a volt meter with me, nor did I have the energy to run up-and-down the stairs to the circuit panel 300+ times while testing, I called it quits. I put in a call for assistance, and thankfully, my friend Jed obliged my request for assistance.

He came over today, and together, we managed to sort out the wiring mess. After 2-hours of troubleshooting, tracing wires, tracking circuits, and continuity testing, we solved the mystery of the 3-way switches. Thank you, Jed - I owe you a huge debt of gratitude!!

Here I am, working in the garage, attempting to troubleshoot 2 different sets of 3-way circuits.

Based from what we learned today, I'm confident that I can troubleshoot any 3-way circuit, no matter how complex it is; however, let's hope that I don't have to use those skills ever again. :-)

After wrapping-up the fix-it work, we stopped at a small microbrewery called "Gray's Tied House" for some late lunch; I stayed true to my diet plans and had a grilled chicken salad, some iced tea, and a MGD 64. Jed had some amazing looking wings (honey garlic) and a beautiful porter. Alas, I stayed strong.

And finally, upon returning to the craptacular apartment tonight, I prepared my meals for the week (lunch/dinner: 6oz grilled chicken, 1/2-cup black beans, 1-cup broccoli), and then kicked back with my new Kindle. I'm digging the little thing - it's so light (about 8oz), and despite not having a backlight, is amazingly clear and easy to read, even in dim lighting.

Here's a photo of the Kindle from about 30 minutes ago. The only light sources in the room were: the television (about 10 feet in front of me), and a very slight hint of sunlight from a quickly-setting-sun. You can tell it was fairly dim in here from the grainy nature of the photo:

And so, there you have it. With any luck, I'll be able to jog tomorrow. Enjoy your week!

What a busy week; one that was filled with ups-and-downs. I'm not even sure where to begin, so I'll go in chronological order, starting with a diet/bike/exercise update.

I had been sticking true to the updated diet and workout plans - things were going really well in the kitchen, I wasn't having any urges or desires to eat poorly, even when my coworkers brought in a massive box of donuts and parked it in my cube:

I'm proud to say that the donuts didn't phase me - I skipped them and didn't even indulge a single crumb. It probably helped that I had been riding the bike quite a bit; for some reason, I don't feel like eating poorly when I'm really hitting the exercise plan hard. Perhaps it's related to that infamous "endorphin rush" that exercise nuts (present company included) often refer to?

Speaking of biking... I spent last weekend test riding a new bike called the "X-Bow" from Ridley. Ridley is a rather legendary bike company from Belgium and they make some outstanding road bikes, tri bikes, and cyclocross bikes. Cyclocross bikes are a bit of a "hybrid" - they combine a road bike with a mountain bike to provide a blend of ground clearance, off-road capability, and on-road performance.

I had been contemplating a potential cyclocross purchase for some time... all of my road bikes are a bit "delicate" to serve as daily riders/commuters, not to mention a bit pricey to leave sitting in a bike rack for hours on end. A nice cyclocross bike seemed like a good fit, and the good folks down at Cronometro lent me the use of a Ridley for a week or so.

After putting on 100-ish miles, and using it in every possible manner imaginable, I returned it to Cronometro and decided to wait on adding another bike to the stable. Why? I wanted to love the bike. I really did, because on paper, it seemed like a perfect fit. But, after riding it repeatedly, I didn't find myself feeling as if it suited my needs. I never got comfortable on it, and I never felt "at home" on it.

When I ride the Cervelo, everything feels "natural" - as if the bike is an extension of my body. The Ridley didn't offer that same feeling... Maybe I'm not a cross-bike kind of guy? It was somewhat disappointing to pass on the bike, but I'm convinced that it wasn't meant to be.

This week also marked my joining the Capital Brewery bike club, and as a newly minted member, I participated in two group rides. The brewery hosts 3 rides per week: Tuesday evening, Thursday evening, and Saturday morning.

I rode on Tuesday and Thursday night; the weather was gorgeous and a nice group ride after work seemed like a great idea. So, I ponied-up my $50 membership fee, got a complimentary Capital Brewery bicycle jersey and mug, and partook in the rides. After each ride, people gather in the Bier Garten for drinks and conversation. I met some really cool people, had a good time socializing, and managed to get a few extra riding miles in, which never hurts. Here I am on Thursday after our ride - you can see my road bike in the background:

On one of the nights, someone brought down their Newfoundland dog, and he was an absolute beast of a creature. They said he was "just over 200-lbs," and I don't doubt it - he was mammoth. I wasn't able to get much of a picture of him as he was a young dog and quite "active" - he didn't seem to enjoy posing for any pictures, despite the many pleas from patrons of the Garten. Here's a head-shot of him, next to someone's belly... not sure who that is in the picture (it may have been "Dan" - a guy from the ride that I met), but the dog's name was Lewis:

And for my last comment about diet and exercise, I managed to seriously injure my achilles tendon, and haven't been able to run since Wednesday night. Talk about bad luck.

The achilles started to feel "odd" during a run on Monday, but I chalked it up to carrying the extra weight, compliments of my "month of irresponsible eating" from April. I kept running on Monday and Tuesday, and it seemed to be bothersome but not debilitating. On Wednesday, I went out for a 5-mile run and with about 3 minutes remaining, I felt a massive burning sensation in my right ankle/achilles area. I couldn't put any weight on my foot, so I hobbled home, angry about what had just happened.

I wrapped my achilles, iced it, and limped into work. I tried to stay off my feet all day, and regularly iced the achilles. By Wednesday night, it was no better... On Thursday, it felt even worse; I was limping with every step, stairs were a nightmare, and ice wasn't doing much to help.

For some odd reason, I could ride a bike, and it didn't hurt at all... so, I rode the Capital ride, which in hindsight was a poor decision, because come Friday morning, my tendon was extremely tender - worse than it had been on Wednesday or Thursday. So, I did absolutely nothing on Friday, Saturday, or today.

After 3 days of rest, my tendon feels much better; I guess the rest is helping, but that same rest has resulted in my diet sliding completely off track. And by "sliding," I mean, "slipping, sliding, crashing, burning, and exploding" just like when a car would run-off the road in a cheesy 1980s made-for-television police drama movie...

How bad has the diet been? Well, let's see... there was a fritter, some fish fry, some soft pretzels, lots of cookies, some pizza, and even some Culver's. Oh man... no wonder my pants are fitting so snugly. I managed to consume nearly 15,000 total calories over the weekend; talk about disgusting. :-(

Although, I did have a stellar dinner on Saturday, compliments of some grilled bison from my boss's "Big Green Egg" smoker/grill. He invited me over to check out the infamous egg and to sample a few prized beverages with him and another friend. For those not familiar with The Big Green Egg, it's more or less the Mercedes of wood burning grills/smokers.

It's made from 2"-thick ceramic, which means it will heat-up and hold heat like nothing else. My boss uses it to smoke briskets, pork shoulders, turkeys, and so on, and he said that he can go 14-15 hours on a single load of wood (when smoking). That's unreal! Here it is, in all of its glory (and heft; the Egg weighs-in at more than 200-lbs):

We fired-it up on Saturday, adjusted the vents, and within 20 minutes had a grill that was registering a rocket-hot 700F. We threw on the steaks, along with some asparagus, and before you could say "Doctor Seuss," the Big Green Egg had produced a perfect bounty. The steaks and food were so awesome that I forgot to take pictures... trust me when I say it was out of this world.

We finished the evening with a few of Steve's finest beverages - a 25 year old Scotch (I'd bet a bottle of this cost as much as my mortgage) and for comparison's sake, a 21 year old Scotch (think 2 car payments). I'm by no means an aficionado, but both were really good. Here's a photo of the 25 year old:

And finally, I spent the better part of today prepping my new living quarters. Yep, I'm moving again, but this time, I'm truly excited because I absolutely will not have to deal with inconsiderate neighbors and intolerable noise-levels. How so? Well....

Yep, I found a house to rent. It's an 1800-square foot ranch, with a huge garage, and a full basement (unfinished, but the basement is entirely epoxied and is absolutely spotless). It's got a new roof, all new windows and doors, brand new appliances (the refrigerator and dishwasher have never been used), and the furnace is about 2-years old.

I scored it from the aunt of a co-worker. The co-worker's aunt is stationed in Spain as a government contracts employee, and she'll be working there until around 2015. My co-worker lived in the house until October of last year, but then got married and moved to her new husband's house. As luck would have it, I was able to secure the house early so that when the lease on my craptacular apartment expires, I can move-in to the house.

I've been getting it ready by cleaning, mowing, and updating the inside of the house; the owner has agreed to allow me to replace all of the electrical components (switches, outlets, fixtures, fans, lights, etc) - she's paying for the parts, and I'm installing them. Why? Here's a before-and-after shot of the light switches from one of the bathrooms:

Before (switches from the 70s; I attempted to clean them several times prior to this photo):

After:

Not a bad improvement for less than $20 in parts, eh? It's amazing what an enhancement the "little things" can make - the house feels like "brand new," all through a simple update of some switches and outlets. It's been great working at the house for the past few weekends - I can get away from the apartment for a few hours, and I've been able to move small items ahead of time, which should make the official act of moving less painful.

And while I did try to stay completely off my feet this weekend, I did walk for a bit; I had to use my new mower:

That's a Toro 3-in-1 Recycler that my good friends from Topel's helped source and supply to me. It's an absolute dream mower - starts on the first pull, makes short work of the large yard, and somehow manages to make mowing fun. I'm sure the novelty will eventually wear off, but I'm really enjoying it for now.

And that's all for now. I'll chat more in a bit - my goal is to start running by Tuesday or Wednesday and to get back on the diet wagon. Here's to hoping for a good week.

I recently stumbled across an interesting and fun blog called "The Healthy Everythingtarian". I found it while searching for information about Tera's Whey Protein Products, and discovered that I may have a female "twin" living somewhere in Madison...

The blog's author appears to have experienced some dramatic weight loss thanks to changing her lifestyle (started running and eating more responsibly) and now shares her experiences online, along with some interesting recipes and stories. Many of the stories resonate with me, as they often feature temptation, conflict, and redemption. Sounds familiar, eh? Now, if she reviewed fish frys on top of all of that, I'd really be spooked. :-D

Anywho... a few days ago, she posted something about eggs and eating them for dinner, and as luck would have it, yours truly was enjoying an egg dinner, so I felt it appropriate to share with you my very favorite egg recipe. You can eat it for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or whenever - it's so tasty, super filling, and extremely good for you. So... without further ado, I present my "anytime eggs" dish:

Ingredients:

1tsp Macadamia Nut Oil (or less)
.5C chopped frozen spinach, preferably organic
.5C black beans (prepared "clean" from scratch - see end of entry for details)
2oz turkey breast (Applegate Organic); or substitute small grilled chicken breast
4oz grilled asparagus (optional, if available)
3 egg whites

Directions:

1. In a medium, non-stick skillet, add 1tsp (or less) Macadamia Nut Oil and heat over medium-low heat. Pan temperature should register no higher than 300F.

2. When oil is heated, add the chopped spinach and cook until tender. It does not have to be "fully cooked" before proceeding to step 3.

3. As spinach begins to become tender, add-in the black beans (this is .5C of black beans - there's a lot):

4. Allow the beans to begin to "warm through" before adding the turkey (or chicken). Again, there's no need to worry about "cooking" any of the items at this point, as they're all pre-cooked. I usually grill 8-10 chicken breasts at a time, so I have plenty available for use, but tonight I felt like using some herbed-roasted turkey breast, so I diced it up and added it to the beans and spinach.

5. I then added 4oz (about 4-5 stalks) of leftover asparagus from last night's dinner. I added this just a minute before the next step to insure that I didn't overcook the asparagus. There's nothing worse than overcooked asparagus!

6. Add the egg whites, and season to taste. I'm really digging the Penzey's California Pepper, so I applied it quite liberally to the mixture. You can use as many egg whites as you'd like; I've made this with as few as one egg white, and with as many as five - it just depends on how hungry you may be. Three are quite filling.

7. Stir/scramble the mixture until the eggs are cooked through. It usually takes about 3-4 minutes with my pan/stove combination - your cooking time will vary. Try to not overcook the eggs; you don't want them to be "browned" - they should be fluffy when done.

8. Plate, and top it all off with a little hot sauce, if you'd so like. My favorite hot sauce as of late is Uncle Frank's Extra Hot sauce. It'll set your mouth on fire, but there's just something about it that I love.

Here's the finished product:

I apologize for the poor photos - as you know, I've been using my iPhone to take nearly every single photo on the blog, as it's so convenient. I didn't color-correct, adjust levels, etc, because I'm lazy. :-) I'll break out the old dSLR and Canon L-glass at some point to get some more "accurate" and "truly inspiring" photos at some point.

Nutritional summary: 1 serving (as prepared above)
272 calories
5g fat
665mg sodium
38g carbs
24g fiber
5g sugar
40g protein

Not bad, eh? And trust me when I say that it is f-i-l-l-i-n-g filling. And tasty, too. :-)

Try it and let me know your thoughts!

** "Clean Beans" recipe **

1-lb dry black beans (Goya or any brand will do)
5 bay leaves
1 bell pepper, quartered
1 onion, quartered
3 cloves garlic, minced
Ground cumin (to taste; I use a lot)
Ground black pepper (to taste; I use a lot)
Cayenne pepper (to taste; I use about .5-tsp)

Rinse the beans thoroughly, and add to a large, plastic container that provides approximately 3x the volume of the rinsed beans. Add all of the remaining ingredients and fill the container with water, until the water covers the beans by at least 2". Store/soak in the refrigerator for anywhere from 8-24 hours. Top-off with water as necessary to maintain 2" of coverage at all times.

When ready to cook, pour the entire mixture into a large stock pot (or dutch oven), and bring to a boil. Allow to boil for 5 minutes, then reduce to a very slow/light simmer. Skim any "scum" that forms.

Cook until beans are al dente; don't over cook them! It usually takes about 1.5 - 2.0 hours for my beans to cook in a Le Crueset 7Qt dutch oven.

Drain any excess water, remove the pepper, onion, and bay leaf remnants. Enjoy. The recipe will yield approximately 20, 1/2-cup servings; each serving delivers approximately 75-85 calories, most of which is protein and slow carbs (lots of fiber, no sugars).

And best of all, this recipe doesn't use bacon, fat, or extra calories, and yet they're super tasty. I make a batch of these once every 8-9 days, and store them in the refrigerator for use with just about every meal.

Is there anyone out there who feels like this winter season has dragged on relentlessly? Wow. I'm so ready for the cold, damp, dreary weather to go away once and for all. I realize this is Wisconsin, and that it gets (and remains) cold for quite a while... but, enough - ok? Uncle! Uncle! Uncle!

It doesn't help that we've recently had a few quick "breaks" of warm weather - I believe we hit the high 50s last week, with some low 50s on Saturday of last week. I took full advantage of that warm weather by firing-up the primary road bike and hitting the roads for a nice 30-mile ride:

Nothing beats getting outside for a good ride in nice weather - it's liberating and invigorating. I love how quiet my bike is, and I enjoy the fresh air, the sunshine, and of course the speed and responsiveness of riding on a real road surface. As I mentioned earlier, the trainer hasn't been too terribly bad this year, but there's nothing quite like riding in the great outdoors, especially when the weather is so perfect.

But, being the tease that she is, Mother Nature didn't gift us with nice weather for too long... nope, because while last Saturday was stellar, Sunday was dreadful - rainy, cold, and windy. No riding outside... and my run was anything but fun. Ick.

Thankfully, I was able to take some refuge from Sunday's dreary weather - a group of us went to the Milwaukee Bucks game and saw the Bucks take on the New York Knicks.

As you can see, the weather wasn't too appealing... but, we avoided most of the bad stuff by stopping at Saz's restaurant, snagging a free parking spot, grabbing a pre-game beverage and snack, and then riding their complimentary shuttle bus to the Bradley Center. You can't beat that service! The bus drops-off and picks-up directly in front of the Bradley Center. No parking fees, no traffic fights, just a quick 10-15 minute ride from Saz's to the center. Nice!

Once inside, we were pleased to discover our seats were pretty stellar:

We were about 15 rows from the court, and I was amazed by how incredibly strong and conditioned NBA players are. Holy cats - those guys are tall, lean, and ripped - they looked like huge blocks of muscle flying up and down the court... You can't really appreciate their conditioning until you see them in person; the television doesn't do their speed and strength any justice.

The Bucks ended-up beating Carmello Anthony and Amar'e Stoudemire (of the Knicks) by a score of 100 to 95. Turned out to be a decent game!

After the game, we took the shuttle back to Saz's, then headed back to Madison, where we grabbed a late dinner at a local Irish pub. All-in-all, a good day/weekend.

This weekend is shaping up to be rather dull - nothing really going on. I transported a dog from Coloma, Wisconsin to Edgerton. He was a super nice little guy named Paxton. He rode like a true gentleman - calm, quiet, and perfect.

It was an early morning transport; I had to leave the apartment by 7:00am to meet the other transport driver in Coloma, so I waited to ride/run/lift until I returned to the apartment. Spent 2 hours riding the trainer, an hour running in the freezing cold (it was 27F with 15mph winds), and an hour lifting weights at the gym. Exciting, eh?

I've got a massage scheduled for tomorrow afternoon - my calves have been killing me (cramping heavily lately, especially while sleeping), so I'm hoping a little massage therapy will help some of the adhesions and knots. Other than that, it'll be more of the same - ride and run in the morning, massage, and then a semi-cheat meal. I'm going to make a garlic- and onion-stuffed turkey burger with mushrooms and sprouted wheat bread. I'm really looking forward to it!

I used a slice of the sprouted wheat bread (it's 100% whole grain with less than 1g of sugar per slice - loaded with complex carbs and protein) for my afternoon lunch today, which consisted of 2 slices of Applegate Farms nitrate-free turkey breast wrapped in 3 egg whites mixed with chopped spinach and topped with cilantro-and-garlic salsa. Yum, and it came in at exactly 250 calories. A perfect post-workout lunch, for sure.

My current apartment, while conveniently located, gorgeously appointed, trendy, and perfectly sized for me, isn't quite all it's cracked-up to be, especially when it comes to controlling noise between the units.

Without exaggerating one tiny bit, I can honestly hear everything that takes place in both apartments on either side of me, including: normal conversation (clear as day), coughing, toilet flushing, any kitchen activity (drawers/cabinets opening and closing, microwaves open/closing/beeping/running, garbage disposal running, water being turned on/off, pots/pans being moved, refrigerator door opening/closing), any television programs, music, and so on.

It is not pleasant at all - I know more of the nitty gritty and intimate details of my neighbors' lives than I ever would care to know. And I am not exaggerating at all - I know exactly what kind of Girl Scout cookies the one couple ordered; what their tax returns were; where they're planning their vacation; what they have for dinner each night; their cell phone bill, and so on... it's ridiculous.

I've tried everything imaginable to reduce the noise, but nothing works. I've got a fans, a humidifier, an air purifier, I leave the TV on a lot more than I'd like to, I use my iPod, I've used ear plugs... it really stinks. Granted, I am sensitive to environmental noise, but this is ridiculous - the walls are literally made of a single layer of 1/2" drywall, direct connected to a single 2x4 stud, with a very thin (1-2") layer of fiberglass insulation between the units. Impact noises and all frequencies are easily transmitted - think of the cheapest hotel you've ever stayed in, where you could hear everything between the walls, and that's my life, 24/7.

So at night, it's especially fun for me to try to fall asleep... I'm not into taking any type of sleep aids, so I've searched desperately for a sleep solution. After much trial and error, I finally found two items that work incredibly well - I've managed to get several nights' good sleep lately, and I'm convinced it's because of these two miracle items:

It's my iPad and the Nightwave Sleep Assistant.

My iPad is loaded with iHome's Sleep application, which is essentially a fancy alarm clock that has a "sleep to music" function that I've loaded with a soundtrack called "Tranquil Nights and Peaceful Sleep sounds." It's 80-minutes of calming, soothing, interference noises - mostly running water, like from a slow moving, babbling creek in a very quiet wooded area. It plays for 80 minutes, then slowly fades out. At about 10-minutes prior to my desired wake time, the alarm function kicks-in; it slowly fades the volume up over 10-minutes, so there isn't that abrupt "jar-you-awake" sound that most alarm clocks deliver.

The Nightwave is simply awesome - it uses a calming blue light to help you fall asleep; it "pulses" in a breathing pattern that is supposed to help calm you and help you relax and sleep better. It really does seem to work - as soon as I try to match my breath to the rhythmic brighten/darken patter of the light, I quickly fall asleep. I'd say I'm "out" in less than 10 minutes on most nights.

I've been using this system for a few weeks and am thrilled. Well - I'm not thrilled that I pay more for my rent than I do my mortgage and am left to suffer with unacceptable levels of noise (the management company isn't willing to do anything, but did "test" the noise between units and confirmed my complaints)... but, at least I'm getting a little sleep. :-)

...is not a certain "brand-name" in your cup. No sir, contrary to what that catchy little jingle might want us to believe, commercial coffee is truly awful - I can tolerate it during an emergency, but much prefer a java that has been carefully and painstakingly roasted by a local entity.

You may recall my extreme fondness for Berres Brothers Coffee, which is a local roaster/purveyor of some mighty darn good coffee. They're based out of Watertown, WI, and if you haven't yet tried their offerings, do yourself a huge favor and go buy some. I'd recommend the Highlander Grogg and the House Blend. Both are absolutely fantastic.

So I didn't think I'd be able to find a better coffee than what the good brothers had to offer, and that was fine by me. But over this past weekend, I stumbled across another local roaster by way (of all things) of a small beer tasting that was held to benefit local arthritis research foundations.

I served as the designated driver for a group of friends from work for the "Festiv-Ale" event, which was held in Monona this past Saturday. While there, I drank my fair share of diet coke and water, but I also discovered some truly stellar coffees from Just Coffee Cooperative.

They were invited to serve coffee at the event, and they brought along two brews: Bike Fuel and Revolution Roast. This little shop carefully air roasts all of its fair-trade, organic, small farm grown coffee right here in Madison, on East Wilson Street, and man, they do a great job. The Bike Fuel was phenomenal - unreal with how delicious it was. I must have downed 5-6 cups of the stuff in less than an hour.

After a few trips back to the coffee pot, I started talking with Josh, one of the company reps, and he happily shared info about their business, their philosophy, and their mission, and I really liked what they do. They try to be 100% transparent with their business and focus on treating everyone fairly - from the grower, to the importer, to their employees, and to their customers. That's an idea that I can stand behind and support.

So support I did - I went to the local grocery store, located their coffees, and bought a few:

Truth be told, I bought the Bike Fuel on Saturday night, and have been drinking it nearly non-stop ever since. So, earlier tonight, I returned to the grocery store and re-filled my stock, while adding a few new flavors to try. I can't wait to sample them all!

Each package features some of that transparency that Just Coffee tries so hard to promote - what other coffee vendor/roaster/seller shows you this type of detail?

I'm digging the closely controlled supply chain that's as direct as possible, and I appreciate the detail about where each dollar goes along the way. I'm also really digging the coffee itself. If you're looking for a truly tasty cup of coffee that boasts some of the highest quality, direct from the small farmer, organically grown, locally roasted flavor, give Just Coffee a try.

Now the real trick will be trying to balance my two coffee loves - both the Berres and Just Coffee are really "one of a kind" in terms of quality and flavor, and both are quite honestly the best coffees I've ever had, so how do I decide which one to brew each morning? I guess that's a nice dilemma to face, and should make the mornings a bit more tolerable.

Happy (early - really early) St. Patrick's Day!

Madison hosted a slew of festivities this weekend to support the upcoming holiday, including the Shamrock Shuffle, which consisted of a 2-mile walk, a 5K run, and a 10K run to support The Boys and Girls Club of Dane County. The race started and ended on State Street, and despite the fact that it was a chilly 30F at race time, the race was an enjoyable event. So many of the participants dressed in Irish garb - there were Leprechauns, kilts, St. Patricks, and dozens of people wearing all kinds of crazy green getups. It was really entertaining.

My time wasn't too great... I could only manage a 53:54 time (8:41 average mile), which was good for 332 out of 795 of the 10K racers. I'm so disappointed by my recent "slowdown" while racing - my legs remain uncooperative, sore, and generally feel heavy and thrashed. I'm fairly certain it's due to over training, but taking a few weeks off isn't an option - I remember taking a single week off last year due to my surgery, and the following weeks were almost back-breaking. So, I have to keep moving.

Once the race was finished, I headed back to the apartment where I hopped on the bike and trainer for an hour or so. Believe it or not, I'm not dreading the trainer as much as I did in years' past, primarily thanks to the Turbo Crank training program that I downloaded a few months ago. It's such a great program - solid workouts, some variety, and I think it's delivering results.

I then hopped into the shower and made my way back downtown, where I met my cousin Leanne and her husband Jeff. No, we weren't there to protest or march around the square, but rather, to watch the Madison Saint Patrick's Day Parade, which was held on the capitol square. Jeff and Leanne (whom I really, really, really enjoy spending time with) secured a superb location from which to watch the festivities; we were in the sun, which helped keep us warm, and totally blocked from any wind, thanks to the buildings around us.

Here are a bunch of photos from the parade, starting with the beginning of the parade, which featured what appeared to be a 1952 - 1954 Chevrolet police car:

The UW marching band (well, part of it) wasn't far behind. Although, no green? Someone's getting pinched. :-D

And speaking of bands and lack of green/Irish spirit, what the heck was this guy doing in the parade?? (Truth be told, he sounded pretty decent)

Ok, this is a bit more inline toward keeping with the spirit of the day:

There were a few dogs making their rounds as well, including these two guys - that's an Irish Deerhound in the back, I believe - I love those guys!

There were plenty of bagpipes and drum bands, all of which sounded great. I'm not sure why, but I really like the sound of bagpipes. Honestly!

I was surprised by the number of Irish dance schools in the area; this was just one of four or five dance schools that marched (and danced a bit) in the parade - check out the Irish curls:

And finally, a few odds-n-ends made their way into the parade, including this super cool contraption that looked like a mini-ferris wheel. It was entirely powered, steered, and controlled by the guy's momentum and movements - he'd climb around inside of it, sit on certain rungs, lean a certain direction, and so on, all to make it move or stop. He was really amazing:

The parade was a bit long - I want to say that it ran nearly two hours - and, it featured more candy and beaded-necklaces than I've ever seen. The parade participants were literally covering the streets in candy. We joked that there should be a dentist's office in the parade to hand-out business cards... and there was!!! Genius!

The parade also had a lot of political overtone to it; I realize there's a lot of change and history taking place in Madison these days, but I wasn't sure if the parade was the best choice of venue for folks to share their positions about the recent legislative actions that have taken place (for the record, I'm 200% against the Walker agenda - it seems as though this is a personal battle for him, and it's been quite underhanded and full of what I would consider to be unfair practices). But, the folks were all very cooperative, friendly, professional, and peaceful, so in the end, it was AG (All Good).

After the parade ended, Leanne, Jeff and I went to the Old Fashioned for a late lunch/early dinner. I had a super excellent grilled chicken salad; Jeff had some incredible baked mac-n-cheese, and Leanne had a scrumptious sandwich. I did indulge in one beverage - a warped speed scotch ale - and it was unreal. Oh so good. But then I stuck with water and Diet Coke, so all was not lost.

We scored an ideal seat, near the front window, and talked for nearly 2-hours. It was really enjoyable, and I was shocked to see that it was nearly 4:45pm when we got up to leave. I was certain I'd have a parking ticket on my car (I plugged the meter in the ramp for 2.5 hours), but the luck of the Irish came through - no ticket to report!

So, there you have it. Not a bad weekend. I just returned from the gym where I lifted some weights and am about to eat a late dinner (the usual: grilled chicken, black beans, tomato, and broccoli).

You may recall from an earlier entry that Mother Nature recently dealt me, Wisconsin, and most of the country a weather-defeat by way of the "Storm of the Century." Well, the tables have turned, albeit ever so slightly, as we saw the mercury start to rise and much of the snow melt away. And that should be good, right?

For the most part, yes. But, as science 101 reminds us, water may take three forms: solid, liquid, or gas. And, as snow melts, it converts to liquid form, provided the temperature stays above 32F. So, at night, when the temperatures drop to below 32F, all of that wonderful melting snow quickly turns to ice - much of it "black ice," especially on sidewalks, as I discovered just the other night.

In my never-ending neurotic state of worrying about my weight, I decided to take a late night stroll to help work off a few extra calories that had been consumed earlier in the evening. And while returning back to the apartment I managed to encounter some black ice on the sidewalk, most of which was hiding underneath a shallow puddle of water.

I took a brief step onto the ice and immediately went completely sideways. In less than a second, I was lying on my side - my hip was hurting, my ribs were hurting, I had bitten my tongue rather impressively, and I had managed to knock the wind completely out of me. I stuck-out my tongue and realized I couldn't take a breath in. So, I tried to jump straight-up, but my hip and ribs didn't think that was such a great idea. I rolled out of the puddle and got on all-fours; I eventually caught my breath, spit out some blood (compliments of my now throbbing tongue), and took an inventory of my parts...

I gingerly stood-up and hobbled back to the apartment, where I immediately checked for broken bones. Nothing seemed broken, but boy oh boy, was I sore. I fired-up the internet and looked for information on rib injuries - the suggested course of action: RICE... Rest Ice Compression Elevation + immobilization. On went the compression gear (tights + top), along with an athletic wrap, and two large packs of ice. I managed to sleep on my good side and didn't move much throughout the night. Score another one for Mother Nature...

The next day was awful - I couldn't walk, I couldn't breathe in; my ribs felt like I had a knife in them, and my hip had a bruise the size of a notebook. Nice. I worked from home that morning, but was so uncomfortable while sitting that I decided to hobble into the office as my desk has the capability to raise up so that I can stand and work. Oddly, I felt good when standing; awful when sitting.

When I returned home that night, I did some more research about hip/rib injuries and an old familiar trick surfaced - the ice bath. I drew a nice, cool bath (about 55F) and took a soak. I sat in it for 20 minutes or so; that's all I could handle - and immediately noticed an improvement. I threw on the compression gear again, applied some fresh ice packs, and suffered through a poor night's "sleep."

The next morning, I was as stiff as a 100-year old barn board, so I decided to work from home again. I had several conference calls planned and had to create a boatload of documentation for my projects, so it worked out without much hassle. I took 4 additional ice baths as well - each one seemed to help a little more than the previous. And by the next morning, I felt really good. My hip felt almost normal, and my ribs were greatly improved as well.

By the next morning, I took one last ice bath and went to work, where I was able to maneuver around without much difficulty at all. I popped a few ibuprofen and even managed to go for a light jog, which was promptly followed-up with 2 more ice baths before bed.

I woke-up this morning and felt really good - good enough to ride my bike on the trainer for a few hours and manage a 45-minute jog. My hip feels like it's at 95%; my ribs at about 65-70%, but definitely manageable. I give full credit for the rapid and miraculous recovery to those ice baths. While not enjoyable, they seem to have helped quite a bit! Score 1 for Steve and the ice bath! Take that, Ma' Nature!

All clutziness aside, I broke-down and bought an iPad. I couldn't resist. It's pretty cool, although, I must admit, I think the iPhone is better as a portable information device. The iPad is slightly too big to be truly portable, and slightly too small to be a truly productive device. It's great at certain things - browsing the web is easy, reading an eBook is amazing, and checking e-mail is a breeze. But aside from that, the iPhone does everything the iPad can do, and it does it as well, if not better than the iPad.

Here's a picture of the new iPad; it's next to my Logitech 880 remote for size comparison:

And here it is, with a Kindle eBook on screen:

There are also a few cool iPad specific applications out there, and I'm sure that as it matures and iOS continues to advance, the iPad will truly come into its own. But for now, I'm still a bit "on the fence" over it. I want to like it, but it hasn't wowed me as much as I hoped or thought it would. I'll give it some time.

A couple of random items for you... I've been super unbelievably busy with work - I've got a major project that's about to launch into production, so things have been crazy. We've had several all-day planning sessions and I've been putting in some extra hours to keep up with other projects that I'm involved in as well.

I mentioned in an earlier nutrition-related post about the benefits of cinnamon - it's been proven to lower people's blood glucose levels, reduce cholesterol (LDL - the bad stuff), and has shown itself to be anti-inflammatory. Sounds like good stuff, eh? Here's the catch - most of the supermarket cinnamon isn't true cinnamon. And most of it is quite old, which is bad because as cinnamon ages, it loses many of its positive effects.

Most cinnamon that folks buy is actually cassia, which is a close-relative of cinnamon, but may not be as effective as ceylon, which is considered true cinnamon. Ceylon is very expensive and is much more difficult to locate - it's grown primarily in Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Brazil, and a few other locations.

I've been using ceylon-based cinnamon in my morning coffee, which is an amazingly sweet, flavorful, and "mild heat" cinnamon. The only downside? It's a bit gritty as ceylon doesn't lend itself to a fine grind, but with enough stirring and swirling of the coffee cup, it's not bad. Only the last drink is a bit "sandy," but I suffer through it. It tastes great, it just doesn't have a nice mouth-feel.

Well, today, I stumbled across an amazing discovery. I had just finished running and riding, and was getting ready or breakfast, when it struck me - why not try adding cinnamon to my cereal? Hmm. Might be good; might be bad...

I've been following my modified diet fairly well; I binged as planned during the Superbowl, but have otherwise been strict and true. I've really come to enjoy "slow carbs" like black beans, lentils, and select no-sugar whole grains. I've been eating Fiber One for years now, and truly enjoy it, but wow - with the addition of cinnamon it just became INCREDIBLE.

I took .75c of Fiber One (90 calories) and added 3/8th cup of unsweetened vanilla Almond Breeze (15 calories). I sprinkled-on about 1/2-tsp of cinnamon, stirred and took a taste - eureka!!! Just like cinnamon toast crunch, no lie. Wow. It was like candy - so incredibly good. Give it a try!

You may be hesitant to try the Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla but trust me - it's awesome in cereal. There's no way I cold ever sit down and drink a glass of it by itself, but when added to cereal and/or coffee, it's incredibly delicious. Seriously! And, it's about 1/2 the calories of skim milk, and doesn't contain lactose or sugar. Win.

So, try it - fire-up a bowl of Fiber One, add some Almond Breeze unsweetened vanilla, and sprinkle with true cinnamon. You will be amazed!

In other news, I went ice fishing for the first time ever. Well, I didn't really fish, but I did accompany Dan to his ice shack, and I did watch him fish for a bit. Here we are, making our way to the middle of the lake - he certainly picked a remote location to claim his stake:

So remote, in fact, that we actually got stuck (in a 4WD Jeep Cherokee, nonetheless!). A quick bit of shoveling and we were back underway. We arrived at the shack in no time; I was shocked to see the snow was completely cleared from the shack. Dan said it's because his shack is black, and the black absorbs heat, which causes the snow to melt as the shack creates a hotspot on the ice. Interesting!

There's Dan, getting ready to fire-up the heater, which runs on propane and did an excellent job of heating the shack. While it wasn't "hot" inside, it wasn't uncomfortable by any means. After lighting the furnace, Dan went out and drilled a few holes so that he could place "tip-ups," which are essentially unmanned fishing poles. The tip-up has a flag that flips-up if/when a fish bites the bait/hook/line that is suspended from the tip-up. He uses an electric auger to drill holes through the ice (which was about 2-feet thick) - it went through the ice like a hot knife through butter.

With the tip-ups placed and the furnace lit, there was only one thing left to do - "jig" for some fish from inside of the shack. The shack has a small hole in the floor from which you can fish with a smallish pole. Dan also used a sonar finder to help give him an idea of whether or not there were fish in the area. Here he is setting it up:

The sonar was super cool - we could see fish swimming in the area, and while no fish were caught, there was one significant bite - Dan said the fish felt "like a tank." It would've been cool to see a monster fish get reeled-in, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. No worries; any time spent with Dan and Tara is good time, so I was happy just to be along for the ride.

And finally, I think I'd really like to get an iPad. I wasn't a fan of them at first, but after spending time with the Kindle application, I can really see the benefit of a nice tablet like the iPad. Unfortunately, the one that I'd like to get costs just under $700... and, there's a new generation of them that is due to hit the market in April... but man, they sure seem cool. I really do just need to win the lottery...

I spent my Sunday riding from Madison to Eau Claire with a newfound friend - a "hitchhiker" of sorts, if you will. His name was Bryce and he was the perfect traveling partner; quiet, relaxed, grateful, and really fun. I was lucky to spend 3 hours with him in the 'ole car.

What?! "Steve picked-up a hitchhiker? What next?"

Here's me and Bryce, riding along, somewhere on I-94 north of Tomah:

Not quite what you may have pictured, eh? Hehe.

I had an opportunity to help a group of rescues transport five (5) dogs and one (1) cat from various locations in the south to a rescue and/or final homes in Minneapolis. It was my first-ever venture with transporting a large group of animals as part of a multi-leg "tour." It was pretty interesting, and the folks who coordinated the trip did an amazing job of lining everything up.

It started with an e-mail from the transport coordinator that was re-posted on a message board at my workplace. The e-mail begged for volunteers to help drive/shuttle these dogs and cat - they really needed drivers to cover the legs from Illinois through Minneapolis. I looked at the available legs and the approximate timeframes and figured, "eh, what the heck? I'll give it a shot."

So, I e-mailed the coordinator and volunteered to drive from Madison to Eau Claire. The only problem was that the Prius can only accommodate one or two dogs at the most, but I had nothing to worry about as the transport had lined-up at least two vehicles per leg to help accommodate the six furry passengers. It also turned out that the Madison legs were covered, but they asked if I could drive from the Wisconsin Dells to Eau Claire. I said, "No problemo," and prepared to meet the other transport drivers in Wisconsin Dells at around 12:15pm on Sunday.

We met at a convenient location near the interstate, figured out who would transport who, swapped leashes, handed-off paperwork, and prepared to hit the road. Here's a few of the other volunteers from the transport - I believe these folks drove from somewhere in central Illinois:

Bryce, my passenger, was a lab-mix of sorts and appeared to be 2-3 years old. He was surrendered to a shelter in Georgia because he was supposedly "uncontrollable" and "wild." If he was wild, I'll eat my shoes. He may have been one of the sweetest dogs I've ever met - an absolute gentleman in every respect.

He immediately jumped into the car and sat respectfully near the back hatch. I sat down next to him and snapped a quick photo of us together. He's about 45-50lbs - perfect size.

The weather was awesome, and the traffic was light, so the trip went really quickly. According to the GPS, I drove about 145-miles with Bryce by my side. I had him tethered to the inside of the car with a carabiner and a 4-foot leash, but he really wanted to sit in the passenger seat, so after a few miles I decided to let him ride shotgun with me. He curled-up into a classic "dog ball," rested his head on the armrest, and snoozed away. I'd pet him every so often, talked to him a bit, and enjoyed my time with him - I really do miss Monica, Regis, and Riley... dogs are simply awesome.

Before I knew it, we were in Eau Claire, so I started telling Bryce about what was going to happen next and that I was going to miss him. He sat-up and tried to talk a bit - I think I got him a little excited...

We met-up with the next shuttle drivers just north of Eau Claire, I bid Bryce farewell (along with the other four dogs that rode in the other vehicle), and headed back to Madison. The trip back went just as quickly - 175.8 miles later and I was back in Madison - total mileage roundtrip? Just over 350. But well worth it. I'll definitely do this again - it was really rewarding and enjoyable.

The only unenjoyable part? Dealing with AT&T's horrible cell coverage. Man, are they awful - AT&T has to be the worst cell provider on the planet; if I didn't love the iPhone so much, I'd drop them in a second (and probably still will when my current contract expires). Here's what I saw for signal strength during 75-80% of my trip along I-94 from Tomah to Eau Claire (look in the upper left corner):

Only about a year until I can switch to a reputable, reliable cell company like US Cellular.

I managed to pick-up a cold earlier this week and I chalked it up to everyone and his brother from my workplace being sick. If I didn't know better, I'd posture that my office is actually an infirmary filled with salaried patients who are carrying and sharing things like walking pneumonia, whooping cough, and countless other infectious diseases - everyone is coughing, hacking, sneezing, wheezing, and looking just miserable. I tried to fight it as best I could - I washed my hands a dozen times a day, wiped down every shared surface with Lysol wipes, used hand sanitizer, doubled-up on the vitamin C, but I still caught something... ugh.

To make matters worse, Mack (one of the cats) also came down with a really nasty cold as well. She'd been sleeping nearly 24/7, coming out only to eat a little, drink a little, and every so often to stare at me with her "I'm so miserable," look. We actually sat staring at each other for a number of minutes - me on the couch, sore throat just scorching; her on the floor, eyes running and green goo coming from her nose.

And then the humidifier kicked-on, and I wondered, "What if the humidifier made us both sick?"

It didn't really dawn on me that the humidifier could've been the culprit until that very moment. I pulled my Lasko humidifier from storage just a few days earlier, filled it with water, and set it to "high." About 2 days later, Mack was sick. About 2 days after that, I was sick.

So, I busted out the internet and did some research. Turns out you're supposed to clean a humidifier pretty regularly - like at least once every 2 weeks. Whoops! I'd never cleaned it (although I got it in January of last year, used it for 2 months, drained it, and then stored it in a box until last week). Hmm.

I learned that you're supposed to use a bleach/water solution to disinfect the tank, the reservoir, and any areas that hold water. A white-vinegar/water solution used after the disinfecting will help break down any scale or crusty mineral build-ups. And, you're not supposed to "run" the humidifier with either solutions in place - you disassemble the humidifier, clean it, rinse it super well, replace any filters, reassemble it, and enjoy the clean humidity.

So, I set about cleaning the dickens out of the humidifier and was shocked to discover how gross the inside of it was. I took time to wash everything with soapy water prior to using the bleach solution, and I used a toothbrush and some srubber pads to make certain I removed any crud from every visible area. I soaked the reservoir and tank in the bleach solution for an hour or so, rinsed everything, and then repeated the process with my vinegar solution.

A quick trip to Menards yielded a new filter (and for just $4.99). I reassembled everything, filled it with fresh cold water, and fired it up. It certainly smelled more clean, and now, 2 days later, both Mack and I appear to be doing much better. You might want to take a moment to clean your own humidifier - it's pretty easy and if it helps keep you healthy, it's worth the effort. Oh - I also learned that a lot of the commercial treatment products/additives may be harmful to your health, so if possible, take the time to use the soap, bleach, vinegar approach.

Here's my nice clean humuggity machine:

I also cleaned the rest of the apartment from top to bottom - windows, cupboards, floors, light switches, the refrigerator/freezer, the stove/oven, dishwasher, and so on... Everything was moved, vacuumed behind, and thoroughly cleaned. It's so nice to have a clean place!

And finally, speaking of cleaning, you're all aware of my efforts to manage my diet/exercise/performance/composition ratios. I've talked about a bunch of plans and so on, and for the most part things have gone really well. But I'm trying to perfect and extract the last few bits of performance from myself - I know my ideal racing weight, but it's really difficult to maintain it. I usually undereat for a period of time, then overeat for a day or two - rinse/lather/repeat. It's really frustrating.

So, a while back, I bought a book called Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald. I read it, loosely mapped a plan, but never really followed it - I just didn't quite "get it" at that time. Matt is an elite coach and athlete, but I couldn't buy into his theories - I was convinced that eating less calories was the key to maintaining my racing weight (based on his theories, I would've needed to double my calorie intake to maintain my ideal racing weight). His theories seemed counter-intuitive, and my body is pretty calorie adverse - I can perform really well on a small number of calories; adding calories causes my weight to rise and my bodyfat percentage to increase as well.

It's terribly frustrating, because most nutritionists, coaches, etc. all preach that "carbs are king" for endurance athletes, and that endurance athletes of my size would need to eat around 2800 calories per day, just to maintain their current weight. I can all but guarantee that if I ate anywhere near 2800 calories per day, I'd balloon up by 20-30lbs in no time flat. Apparently my metabolism hates me.

Well, he recently came out with a follow-up book called Racing Weight: Quick Start Guide - A 4-week weight loss plan for endurance athletes, and I was intrigued. I read some reviews about it and decided to give it a visit.

While many of the underlying principles are identical to his original book, he has modified the approach, so I decided to give it a go. I sat down a few weeks ago to read the book cover-to-cover and to map out an appropriate plan. Some of the theories are still complex, but this most recent book offers more of a "step-by-step" plan which I found really interesting and (potentially) helpful. Here are some of my calculations in progress:

I've been following the plan "to-the-T" for just over a week, and so far, so good. I have absolutely no cravings for any of my normal vices (donuts, cookies, cake, popcorn), and my composition figures appear to be starting to head in the right direction. We'll see how it goes as time progresses.

Strap-in folks, this is going to be one heckuva long entry - don't say I didn't warn you.

Story 1: The Bitter Break-up

They say that all good things must come to an end - be it a meal, a vacation, or in some instances, a relationship. And, sadly, I must report the end of what was at one time a very beautiful relationship - my love affair with the Tyranena Brewery.

Yes friends, I've officially "broken-up" with that infamous Lake Mills microbrewery. After the events that unfolded last night, I've vowed to never patronize their location, never purchase any of their beverages (be it from the brewery, a bar, or the grocery store), rid myself of all Tyranena-branded clothing, and never participate in another one of their events.

Why? What happened? I believe that I, along with many other folks, were effectively cheated on by the brewery. Here's how the story goes.

The brewery has what's known as a "mug club" that is a fairly exclusive "club" with some cool benefits. Members of the mug club purchase a limited-edition, hand-made, ceramic mug for $50 from the brewery, and for the period of one year, can enjoy $4 refills from the brewery via their personalized mug. Your mug stays at the brewery, and any time you come in for a beverage, they grab your mug, fill it with your beverage of preference, and you get about 1.5 pints for $4. When you're done, they wash it and return it to storage. At the end of the year, you get to keep your mug, and you're given a 1-day window/opportunity to renew your membership for the next year by purchasing another $50 mug (new design and all of that fun stuff).

It's a pretty exclusive club, as I've mentioned. So much so, in fact, that they hold a lottery drawing for the few available slots that open up each year. To enter the lottery, you must travel to the brewery and officially enter your name into the drawing. This "registration period" opens on Thanksgiving and closes on New Year's Eve. You're allowed to register yourself once per day, and you must do so in person - you can't have someone else register you; can't do it online; etc.

When I learned of this club, I decided to register. So, I made many, many, many special trips to Lake Mills for the sole purpose of registering my name as many times as possible. All told, I believe I registered nearly 20 times between Thanksgiving and New Year's. And, it's not a short trip for me to travel to the brewery - roundtrip, it totals at just under 100 miles. That's nearly 2,000 miles that I put on, all with the hope of having a fair shot at gaining entry into this club.

Complicating matters even more, the brewery holds the club drawing on a Saturday night in January, and you must be present at the moment they call your name, or you lose your opportunity. The drawing was held on January 8, 2011 from 7:00pm to 10:00pm. There were 9 slots available, and they drew the names approximately once per hour, on the hour.

Sounds like a fair system, eh? The more often you go to the brewery, the better your odds. And, since the names were to be drawn "at random," you should have a fair shot at getting in. Ah, but that's where you (and I) are wrong.

As 7:00pm approached, I watched the owner of the brewery get up from his table, navigate through the huge crowd, walk to his office, and return with a large mug that was filled with registration slips. I figured he would take it to the stage (where a band was playing) and begin the drawing.

But he didn't. He returned to his table and started fishing around in the mug, pulling out registration slips, examining them, showing them to his table of pals, and then either leaving them out of the mug, or placing them back into the mug. After fiddling through the slips for about 10 minutes, he carefully walked to the stage where the singer took the first few slips from the mug and "winners" were announced.

I turned to my friends, who were as dumbfounded as I was. We couldn't believe what we had just seen. We tried to justify it by thinking that the owner must have been "filtering" people that he knew weren't there. But, when the second drawing approached, he did the same thing, but this time, he kept digging through the registration slips until he found the slip that appeared to belong to someone sitting at his table... when he spotted it, he showed it to the girl who "owned" the slip, who nodded, and surprise - the slip went back into the "hat."

Wow. So much for a fair shot. We were all so upset by what we had seen that we debated an immediate departure, but decided to tough it out for the final drawing. And surprise, it went exactly like the other two... rifle through the slips, nod/shake your head as he looked at them, and "draw" winners... ugh. I felt as though I had been sucker-punched. It was simply unbelievable.

I can't confirm that he was actually "hand selecting" winners from the hat, but I can't figure out what else could've been happening... like I said, if he was pre-filtering non-attending folks, why? Why wouldn't the singer just reach in, fumble around, call a name, and if the person wasn't present, repeat the process until they found someone who was actually there? It all seemed pretty fishy to me (and my friends)...

We left, and I promised to never support, visit, patronize, or mention the brewery ever again. When I returned home, I rounded-up my brewery apparel and threw it in the trash. Seriously. Call me overly dramatic, or call it sour grapes, but that whole experience left a really bad taste in my mouth.

Story 2: Taking Temperatures: Is it that difficult?

After last night's fiasco at the brewery, I felt the need to get out this morning and run. Really run - like Forrest Gump run - to get some of that anger out of the 'ole system. So, after feeding the cats, I took a peek at my indoor/outdoor weather station and saw that it showed 15F. A little chilly, but not unbearable.

I then turned-on the television and tuned to the local weather station, which showed the outside temperature was 8F. Hmm - now, that's a variance... Confused, I fired-up the computer, went to weather.com, and saw that they were reporting 12F. Alrighty, then...

I decided to go with the "average" temperature and dressed for what I believed was going to be a run in 12F weather. Yes, it was sunny, and there wasn't any wind, but 12F is still pretty nippy, so I put on a wool t-shirt, a wool baselayer, and my very favorite Sporthill 3SP jacket. I put on cold-gear tights, my baclava, gloves, and then hit the road.

Within the first mile, I was sweating like crazy. Not good. I unzipped the jacket, lifted the baclava, and removed my gloves. That helped a lot, but I was soon too cold, so I put the gloves back on and pulled down the baclava. So that's how it was going to be... oh well. I soldiered through the cycles of being too warm followed by being too cold, but I almost fell over when I ran past one of two banks and saw that their temperature gauge was showing 32F. Really? 32F?

As soon as I returned home (9.7 miles later), I flipped on the television and the computer... here's what they showed (this was at about 11:30am).

My weather station is first - the outdoor sensor is on my deck, in the shade:

Up next is the televison - here's what NBC Channel 15 was reporting for Madison's current temperature as of 11:34am:

Here's what Weatherbug was reporting via my phone - this temperature sensor is about 2 blocks from the apartment:

And, to prove I wasn't making-up the bank's temperature reading, I hopped in the car and took a quick spin to document their temperature reading:

Followed by the other bank that I run past - look at the "swing" between the two banks:

And last but not least, here's what my pathological liar of a car was showing:

Really? With all of the technology that's available to us these days, we can't even take an accurate, consistent temperature reading? It's no wonder the weather-guessers have such a bad rap... I personally believe it was about 20-25F outside, based on how warm I felt on my run, but what do I know?

The Elusive White Whale & The Most Useless Signs in Wisconsin

Speaking of running, every so often, I've spotted an unbelievable vehicle that I've tried to tell people about but always failed to convey how impressively grotesque this vehicle was... words simply couldn't do it justice. It was my elusive white whale - a tale of lore - non-existent or under-appreciated without a photo to document its existence.

So imagine my delight when I spied the white whale while I was running around taking photos of bank temperature signs. :-)

Folks, I present to you what may be the most filthy car in existence. A 1990s Mercury Sable sedan, filled literally to the roof, with garbage - mostly coffee cups and mail.

As mentioned, I've seen the car several times over the past 1.5 years, but it's always been while I was running and didn't have a camera with me. I've seen it mostly at fast food restaurants, gas stations, and parked alongside the road. And, believe it or not, but I've seen the driver, who appears to be an otherwise "normal" looking person - if I saw him in the office, I'd never dream that he was driving around in what is literally a dumpster.

The last time I saw the white whale (my nickname for it), the garbage was about "headrest high" - there was still a gap between the garbage and the roof. But today, it appeared to be almost completely filled. I wonder what'll happen when it really does run out of available space?

And finally, I present to you the most worthless road signs in all of Wisconsin:

I swear to you that not a single person in this state believes in following any posted speed limit. Everyone speeds and tailgates like the dickens... there's a school zone near the apartment that has a "your speed is:" radar thing, and I've never once seen it show less than 33 mph (speed limit is 25; 15 when children are present). I see it every day - cars fly through there without regard for the speed limit... and if I'm in front of them, traveling at 25mph, it's guaranteed that I'll be tailgated, flipped off, brighted, and on two occasions, passed.

The kicker? I was running through the school zone area yesterday and I saw the radar thing show a speed of 38mph. I turned to look, and sure enough, here came a minivan, barreling through the school zone. I kept running and saw a cop was sitting in the school parking lot, radar gun in hand. "TAKE THAT!" I thought to myself, certain the cop would bust the speeder.

Wrong again. The cop just sat there. The van slammed on its brakes as soon as it saw the cop, nose dived, and then crept past the cop as if it hadn't been speeding. The cop was sitting literally 10-15 yards "beyond" the speed readout sign, so he HAD to know the van's speed.

As I ran past the cop, I held both hands up in a shrug and said, "REALLY? NOT SPEEDING?" The cop looked at me, then looked back down the road. Nice. I'm going to wager a wild guess that had the speeder been anyone other than a suburban mom in a minivan (like say a kid, or a person of color), that there would've been a citation issued.

Gotta' love it.

Oh, and speaking of love (and irony) - as I was taking the picture of the speed limit sign this morning, I spied this sitting immediately in front of the sign:

Perfect. Speeding + drinking + a major city street = WIN. You've got to love Wisconsin... or at least the awful drivers.

Wow, where did the year go? It seems like only yesterday I was writing a blog entry about the Madison-to-Chicago 200 race... and that was in June or July. I guess time really does fly when you're having fun. Now if only I was having fun... :-)

Actually, I can't complain much (although it doesn't stop me). 2010 was a pretty decent year, all things considered. I'm lucky enough to have a job, a roof over my head, decent health, and a great network of friends - yeah, I guess everything is pretty much A-OK. It doesn't hurt that Sirius hit $1.69 today, either.

It's been a few days since my last entry; not much has happened, but I'll do my best to bore you with the mundane details of my uneventful holiday season. My offices were closed on Friday, December 24, so I had arranged to hang with Dan & Tara and to spend the night with them at their home. Due to some major miscommunication, plans fell through and I found myself stuck in Madison without any food in the apartment (I planned to grocery shop upon my return), and absolutely nothing open.

I understand it was Christmas Eve and all that jazz, but I honestly drove 40+ miles around Madison looking for something that was open and found nothing. Not a single gas station, not the WalMart, not the Woodmans, nor the Cub, nor Copps - nothing. Well, there were some Chinese restaurants that were open, but they were either slammed or completely dead (never a good sign)... and I'm not much of a fan of Chinese food, so I passed on them all.

So, I returned back to the apartment and enjoyed (not exaggerating) my last 1/3 cup of Fiber One cereal with 1/3 cup of water (I didn't have any milk or Almond Breeze) and a small bag of frozen peas for dinner. Making matters worse, I didn't eat much earlier in the day, as I was planning to eat dinner in Lake Mills. And to serve the final dagger - both of my obnoxious and inconsiderate neighbors were having raucous parties, so I got to listen to competing Christmas tunes and drunk people screaming loudly until about 3:30am. Fun. And people wonder why I dislike Christmas... (and my neighbors)

Things were quickly salvaged by Christmas morning, and I found myself over at Dan and Tara's where I enjoyed some of Dan's signature egg nog French toast (it was delicious) along with some good company. Dan's sister (and her husband and son) were in town, so we all hung out at Dan's parent's house and caught-up with each other. It was really enjoyable, and thanks for the gifts - you guys didn't have to get me anything!

I left Lake Mills so that I could catch-up with my Aunt, Uncle, cousin (and her husband), my cousin-in-law (and his son), and Parmilla (and her husband) for a late dinner. Parmilla is a person that I met back in the late 1990s when she was a foreign exchange student/guest of my Aunt and Uncle's. I hadn't spoken with her or heard from her in 12+ years, so it was a shock when I received a voicemail/invitation to meet-up with everyone for dinner.

Truth be told, I was a bit nervous to meet-up with everyone as I've not been getting along with the family for a while now, but it was extremely great to see Warren, Linda, Leanne, Jeff, David, Lee, Parmilla, and Daniel. I really - honestly - enjoyed hanging out with them, and I need to keep in better touch with them. They are all such wonderful people; they "get" me, they "accept" me, and I really appreciate their honesty and "realness." Here we all are at dinner - one of the waitstaff from the restaurant was kind enough to snap our picture (lighting was dim, so photo is blurry):

We talked non-stop until around midnight and then called it an evening. I really did enjoy seeing everyone and it was great to catch-up with Parmilla (who is now living in the US with her husband, Daniel). Lots of good stories were shared, plenty of beverages were consumed, and I personally believe that I nearly cleaned the kitchen of all available food - a good night, for certain.

I spent the rest of the weekend recovering from eating way too much; did a little snow shoeing, a lot of running, and a lot of riding on the trainer. I had to work during the week between the holidays, but it was OK as nearly everyone else was on vacation so I was able to get a lot of things wrapped-up thanks to the quiet nature of things around the office.

On Tuesday night, I was invited to celebrate Dan and Tara's wedding anniversary, so I joined them and the family at the 1855 Saloon in Cottage Grove. We had a good dinner, great conversation, and a really enjoyable time. Here's Dan's brother-in-law, Mark, sharing a (lengthy) story about having to retrieve a vehicle from a shop in Watertown:

We called it an evening at around 9:00pm; we all had to work the following day, and I was trying really hard to not overeat... I had an excellent grilled chicken salad - the food from the 1855 appeared to be good; the desserts looked incredible, but alas, I was good and took a raincheck on the sweets.

On Thursday, Amy stopped by to attend a hockey game along with our friends Jed and Jamie. Jamie won some really killer seats to the game (along with a parking pass - score!), so we agreed to meet-up at Jordan's Big 10 Pub for some appetizers before the game. Here we are in our booth, enjoying some cheese curds, some guacamole bites, and some mozzarella sticks:

Jordan's has some awesome fried goodies, I must admit. I tried to be good and had a soup and salad, although a few curds did manage to fall into my mouth along the way... :-)

We headed over to the Kohl Center for the game, which Wisconsin handily won. They literally trounced Massachusetts in a 5 to 1 romp; there was tons of scoring which kept things really interesting. Here's the view from our seats - thanks again to Jed and Jamie for the tickets!!!!

And here we are, in our row:

We called it a night - we actually left the game a few minutes early - but not before heading over to the Come Back In for a beverage and some of that infamous popcorn. The stuff is so good, but oh so evil - it's pure crack, I swear. I could eat their popcorn every single day and be completely happy. It doesn't help that they cook it in oil and load it with butter and salt...

For New Year's Eve, I hung out with Amy at her parent's house and got to play some Scattergories, just like old times. It was really fun, I truly enjoyed it, and I really appreciated hanging out with everyone at the house. Thanks again for the hospitality!

New Year's Day started with a really chilly 8K (5-mile) race called The New Years Day Dash. It was hosted at the local Quaker Steak and Lube (wings/beer/burgers/sports bar) and kicked-off at 11:00am.

Oh - I forgot to mention that the temperature dropped dramatically on New Years Day... it was 48F when I left Amy's parent's house at 11:00pm the night before, and it was a whopping 6F when I left the apartment to start the race... that's 42F lower in just 12 hours' time! And, to make matters worse, there was a super strong wind - averaged 20+ mph, with gusts to 35mph. Nice! Here are the weather conditions as recorded just before the race started:

I ran to the race, as I live about 2 miles from the Quaker Steak, and by the time I arrived to the race, my face was thoroughly frozen. Everything else was plenty warm, but the portions of my cheeks and nose that weren't covered by my "one piece" hat/face/neck warmer thingy were literally frozen.

I ran the race - started near the back of the pack (to avoid direct windshot) but quickly found myself working my way to the front. The wind was so strong that many people were literally walking, leaned fully forward, and cursing the wind. I was able to chug through, and thanks to my Sporthill 3SP windproof gear (jacket and pants), I never once felt the wind against my torso or legs. That stuff is worth its weight in gold, I swear! One single layer of the Sporthill 3SP gear is rated to 0F, is windproof to 35mph, and waterproof. Yet it breathes. It's amazing - buy some.

Finished the race in 65th place with a time of 39:23, for an average pace of 7:53/mile. Not bad, especially given the conditions. Here's a shot of my number and some of the cold weather gear - the Sporthill jacket is on the far left; my head warmer-thing to the right, and my super toasty gloves to the right as well.

After the race, I ran back to the apartment, rode the trainer for a few hours, and then took a nice warm shower. I watched the Rose Bowl over at Dan and Tara's house, ate way too much food, and then called it a night.

Well, that's it for now... enjoy your 2011, best wishes to everyone, and I'll be back with another story sometime soon.

...er, or how about, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade?" Nope, still not quite right... let's try, "A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water." (quote by Carl Reiner)

So what's with all of the cheesy sayings and quotes? Well, if you haven't yet heard, good 'ole Wisconsin got a semi-decent helping of the white stuff today. While the weather-guessers were calling for 8-12" in our area, I think we'll only end up with around 4-5" when it's all said and done. Areas north of here have reportedly gotten closer to the 10-12" amount.

Rather than fear and dread the snow, I decided to embrace it in a number of ways. I started by running in a 10K race called the Jingle Bell Run/Walk. The race was held this morning at the Vilas Park Zoo, and basically consisted of a lap around the Arboretum. The race went fairly well; I finished it in 49:26, which was good for 60th place out of 318 finishers. I was 11th in my age group (I think there were 57 people in my age group).

The weather was actually quite nice for the race; if not a bit warm. There wasn't any wind to really speak of, and the temperatures were hovering in the mid-30s. It was so warm, in fact, that I had to partially disrobe at about the 4-mile mark... I took off my "outer" gloves (some wind/waterproof/insulated Pearl Izumis) and my fleece sweatshirt (a super lightweight but ridiculously warm "One More Mile" shirt). I also rolled-up my hat to let some heat escape from the 'ole bean.

After the race was done, I headed back to the apartment and cranked out a few hours on the trainer. I discovered a really cool training program called Turbo Crank, and it's actually helped take away some of the dread that I associate with the trainer. The developer of the program posted a link to it on a triathlon site, along with a discount code that dropped the price to around $10; I figured it was worth a shot. It actually makes the indoor sessions tolerable!

With my running and riding done for the day, I was looking forward (sort of) to helping a rescue group transport a German Shepherd by driving the dog from Madison to Black River Falls this afternoon. But apparently the dog was scared to death of men, so the rescue group called me at the last minute to say they didn't think it would be a good "fit" for me to transport her. Combine the man-fear with the bad weather, and it was unlikely that the transport would've been a fun experience.

So, with nothing on the radar for the rest of the day, I decided to go check out the new Johnny Depp movie, The Tourist. I was partially disappointed with it; it wasn't nearly as action-packed as I thought it would be, and it was incredibly predictable. If you're contemplating it, I'd probably save it for a rental.

The movie ended at around 6:00pm, and when I left the theater, I was greeted with a few inches worth of really dense, wet, and heavy snow covering the car (along with everything else). I had my doubts about how well the Prius would handle the snowy conditions, but it did shockingly well and was very stable; almost "confidence-inspiring."

After leaving the movie, I swung over to Fontana Sports where I scored some snow shoes. A few people from work had been talking quite regularly about snow shoeing and how fun it was, so when I heard we were due for a massive snow storm (earlier in the week), I did a some research about snowshoeing online and decided to give it a shot. Thanks to a very helpful (and patient) employee at Fontana, I wound-up with a set of Atlas 925 snow shoes:

Pretty cool, eh? So much for the old "tennis-racket-style" snow shoes that I pictured whenever I heard people talk about them. I guess technology reaches even the most primitive of activities. :-)

I also bought a pair of "gaiters" and a pair of trekking poles. The gaiters are guards that go over your shoes/boots and run up to your knee to help prevent snow from filling your shoes/boots as you walk. The trekking poles are basically like ski poles, but not as robust (or lightweight) and aid with stability when you're covering uneven terrain. Here's a shot of the whole enchilada:

I didn't dare put the actual snowshoes on while indoors because they have these pretty wicked "crampons" to aid with traction. The crampons are basically steel "teeth" that bite into the snow/surface as you walk so that you don't slip and slide. Here's a closer look at the bitey little things:

With the snow falling at a steady pace, my new gear was just itching to go on a maiden voyage, so I headed out into the "blizzard" (the news stations were referring to the storm as a blizzard), eager to see how the new kicks would perform.

And the survey says: "Fun. Cool. Interesting. Different. Effective." I walked in them for about an hour and a half and really enjoyed the experience. I can vouch for their effectiveness - they easily got me through some deep snow with minimal "sinking" and they provided an awesome amount of stability and sure-footedness. They're sort of like 4-wheel drive for your feet. They also provided a pretty stellar workout; despite it being just 20F outside and with a super strong wind, I worked-up a bit of a sweat during my hike. It didn't help that I was wearing two layers of wool shirts, an alpaca/fleece 1/4-zip pullover, an Arcteryx jacket, and a Northface shell... (I like to layer, if you didn't yet notice)

I enjoyed being out in the falling snow - it was both peaceful and beautiful, thanks to the extra wet nature of this particular snow fall. Trees were "frosted" with snow, and with a very heavy cloud cover, nearly everything appeared to be glowing. I walked through a neighborhood and saw this neat looking house, along with some holiday decorations:

After the walk, I returned to the apartment, where I discovered my door lock had frozen solid. I couldn't insert the key more than 1/8-inch before it hit solid ice. UGH!!! So, I took off the snow shoes and walked over to a local bar to see if they had a book of matches. My plan was to heat the key with the matches and hope that it would melt the ice in the lock. I took off the snowshoes and walked the block to the bar; walking in the snow without the snowshoes was definitely a much slower prospect.

I returned with a book of matches only to discover that my idea was virtually worthless. It was so windy that the matches burned-out instantly; all that resulted was a smokey/charred looking key and 20+ expired matches littering the area in front of my door. UGH #2.

I knew there was a small gas station not too far from the apartment, so I put on the snowshoes once again and trekked my way (another mile) to the PDQ. Thankfully it was open (it was around 12:00am), and just as thankfully they had lock de-icer. I bought a container of it along with a Bic wind-proof lighter (for back-up) and trekked back to the apartment.

I'm happy to report the de-icer worked perfectly, and after 3-shots of the stuff, I was able to get into the apartment. Win!

Unfortunately, I'm wide awake, and it's about 1:45am... so, I decided to fire-up this blog entry. I'm also enjoying a glass of hot tea (decaf) and a water. I can hear the snow plows tearing around outside - my guess is those folks will be up all night and well into the morning... At least I've got company, eh?

Howdy, folks! Sorry for the delay in providing an update on the weekend's events - the daylight savings change appears to have wrecked havoc with my internal clock; I found myself falling asleep on Sunday night at around 8:00pm, and I was extremely busy with work yesterday, so I'm just getting a chance to update the 'ole blog now (during my lunch hour).

Not much to report other than I ran another half-marathon on Saturday and then went on an awesome bike ride with a co-worker on Sunday. No fish fry updates - I've been working with a nutritionist to help level-out my diet a bit, and as such am on a rather strict and structured plan through Thanksgiving. So far, so good - not many cravings, added a few calories, and am seeing some subtle improvements with recovery and body composition.

So, about that half-marathon. I was really nervous heading into it because my legs have been so sore, especially for the last five-to-six weeks. I had cut-down on my long runs in an effort to help recover, and while it probably helped my legs, it made me a little uneasy about the race... I'd normally like to be averaging 45-50 miles per week going into a half-marathon; I think I was closer to around 35 miles per week. But, they say it's better to be slightly "undertrained" than "overtrained," so I took my chances.

The half-marathon was held in Lake Mills, and was managed by the Tyranena Brewery. For those who are paying attention to my online diary, you'll no doubt recognize that name - they hosted an awesome bike ride a few weeks ago and have also become one of my favorite local breweries.

Truth be told, I wasn't much of a fan of Tyranena's beverages until just a few years ago. And quite honestly, I never really enjoyed beer at all until around 2007 - for some reason I hated the taste, the smell, and everything else about it. I'm not sure what changed, but I slowly grew to "tolerate" a lite beer every so often... and then I got into appreciating the more complex beers: bocks, dopplebocks, cask-conditioned ales, Scottish ales, and eventually (gasp!) imperial pale ales. Somewhere along the line, I rediscovered Tyranena's offerings and really took a shine to their Rocky's Revenge and some of their speciality/seasonal offerings (Oktoberfest, Shaggin' in the Woods, and "Spank Me Baby" (odd name, fantastic beverage)).

So it turns out that Tyranena not only crafts some fine beverages, they also know a thing or two about sponsoring and hosting athletic events. The bike race, as mentioned earlier, was absolutely stellar, and this weekend's foot race was no different - it was superbly managed in every respect. Rob, Stacey, and the rest of the Tyranena crew definitely deserve a massive round of applause for their hard work on these events!

I loaded-up the car on Saturday morning and made my way to Lake Mills, where I was shocked to find cars lined-up on the Interstate's exit ramp - all of them were waiting to exit the Interstate and make their way to the brewery. Apparently the 1700 participants (900 in the half-marathon, 800 in the one-sixth-marathon) all planned on arriving to the race about an hour early, just like me. :-)

Rather than take the prescribed route to the brewery, I snuck my way down some side streets and scored a good parking spot while dodging most of that long line of cars. I grabbed my registration packet, adorned my race bib and timing chip, and did some light stretching. The weather was cool - about 40F, but sunny, and there was just a slight breeze.

The brewery had an excellent DJ on-site; he was playing great pre-race music, and folks really seemed to be enjoying themselves. The pre-race atmosphere was calm and relaxed - there wasn't any confusion or uncertainty; another testament to Tyranena's organizational skills.

The starting horn sounded at 11:30am and I, along with about 900 other half-marathoners, took off for our 13.1-mile trek around Lake Mills. We headed down Mulberry street to the town square, then headed west toward the north side of Rock Lake. I started about mid-pack and chuckled to myself for the first 4 miles or so... I was getting passed by a bunch of folks, whom I could only assume had no idea about the hills that awaited them...

We exited North Shore park and made our way into Shorewood Hills, which is an upscale neighborhood on the northwest side of Rock Lake and features some respectable hills - 4 large rollers, to be exact. I passed about 150 people in those hills - the very same folks who raced past me just a few miles earlier. :-)

I was averaging about an 8:30 mile and was feeling good. My legs were doing well, which was a pleasant surprise.

We left Shorewood Hills by way of Korth park, then made our way to the Glacial Drumlin trail. The trail took us past the south end of Rock Lake and dumped us out on the southeast side of town, near the industrial park. We weaved around the industrial park for a bit before heading east on Highway B. From Highway B, we turned onto Tyranena Road (Highway V) for about 1.5 miles, which brought us back to the brewery.

I finished in 1 hours and 54 minutes - good for #309 out of 859 finishers. I averaged 8:43 per mile - not great, but not awful. I had really hoped to stick closer to my 8:30 target, but considering how I had been feeling for the previous few weeks, I was content with the result.

Post-race conditions are usually what define the success or failure of an event for me, and here's where Tyranena excels - they know how to take care of the participants after an event. As we crossed the finish line we were guided into a "recovery tent," which featured tons of post-race-friendly food options, mylar heat blankets, Gatorade, water, and our finisher medals. It was such a smooth operation!

Here's the inside of the tent, just as I entered it:

Here's one of the food/snack tables:

And the ever popular peanut butter sandwich and cookies table (of which I didn't partake!):

I regret to report that I didn't induldge in any of the post-race offerings, other than a bottle of water and the finisher's medal. I had planned to consume a recovery drink following the race (Hammer Nutrition's Recoverite), and then I was going to meet-up with the Topels for some dinner, so I passed on the goodies. Here I am with my medal and my Recoverite:

As I made my way out of the tent, I was tempted by the thought of walking over to the general public tent, which featured a lasagna dinner and complimentary Tyranena beers, but alas, I was determined to stick with my nutrition plan. It was especially difficult to pass up the post-race meal because the DJ was playing tunes and people were obviously having a good time. Here's a quick shot of the crowd as I made my way to the exit:

When I got to my car, I snapped a quick customary "post race" photo of my race bib and gear. You'll note the bags of pet food beneath my stuff - the Tyranena race also served to benefit both the Jefferson County Humane Society and the Lake Mills Food Pantry. The brewery requested that in addition to paying the entry fee that participants donate a few food items for the Food Pantry - which I did - but I also decided to donate a few bags of pet food to the Humane Society, too. You've got to take care of the homeless dogs and cats!

After leaving the brewery, I went to Dan's shop where I worked on my car (oil change, transmission fluid flush, tire rotation, and so on), and then joined Dan for dinner at the local Mexican restaurant. Dan was on wrecker duty that evening, so we called it an early night and I headed back to Madison.

For Sunday, I had vowed to follow a "proper" recovery plan after the half-marathon and do nothing but rest and maybe "enjoy" an ice bath, but with the weather being as nice as it was (65F, sunny, mild breeze), I couldn't pass up the opportunity to sneak-in a final bike ride with my co-worker Dan (not the same Dan from Lake Mills). We had planned to do a ride the previous weekend, but things didn't work out... thankfully we were able to get together this weekend!

Dan had heard about a bike trail that ran from Madison to Monroe and included a journey through a train tunnel. It sounded odd but intriguing, so we met-up at Dan's house at around 1pm and hit the trail, headed south.

After riding about 18 miles south of Madison, we arrived at the tunnel's entrance:

It was pretty interesting - the temperature outside of the tunnel was a solid 10-degrees lower than it had been on the previous portion of the trail. Granted, it was shady in the area, but it was odd that the temperature was so drastically different.

We turned on our lights (and phones for extra light) and proceeded through the 1200-foot long tunnel, which was absolutely pitch black inside. It was cool and a little eery.

Here we are making our way to the other side of the tunnel:

I have to admit that I wasn't sure what to expect on the ride - I wasn't sure why Dan was so excited to go see the tunnel, but after visiting it I'll be the first to admit that the tunnel was extremely neat. Dan read that the tunnel was built in the mid-1800s, which made things even more cool. I'd love to go back through there with better lighting so that we could see what the inside looked like. With our minimalist lighting, we didn't get to see much other than a small patch of gravel directly in front of our tires. The sound of pigeons cooing around us was a bit unnerving because we didn't realize they were pigeons until after the fact. They sounded a bit like ghosts... :-)

Here we are on the other side of the tunnel - you may recognize Dan from previous photos/entries - he also did the Tyranena Bike Ride with us (back in October):

With daylight fading quickly, we decided to turn around and head back to Madison; when all was said and done, we had covered just over 35 miles - not bad for a final ride of the season, and definitely not bad for an early November! Not what I had planned for a "restful kickoff to recovery," but it was definitely worth it.

When I got home, I donned my compression recovery gear, had dinner, and went to bed extremely early. Not a bad weekend, and even though I didn't do a fish fry, I didn't really miss it too much (nor did I crave it). ;-) I'll do my best to catch-up on some fish frys over the winter, but I really want to focus on good nutrition during the off season, so the reviews might not be as frequent as they were last year.

Enjoy your week - I'll check-in again soon. I'm looking forward to a quiet week (light exercise only (swimming, lifting) - no running until Friday).

Greetings, folks. Hope everyone had a good weekend. I had a rather busy weekend; it started on Friday evening with swimming sinking for 45 minutes at the gym, followed by a trip to the grocery store to stock-up for the weekend/week. I've discovered that my favorite time to go grocery shopping is at around 9:00pm on Friday nights because there's no one in the store, and the stores are fully-stocked in preparation for the weekend rush. I can get in and out of the stores pretty quickly, and parking is plentiful, so it's a win-win.

I woke-up early on Saturday with the intention of going for a bike ride and a run, but the weather didn't seem to get my memo... it was cool with a moderate wind and a light rain, so that meant no riding outdoors. The alternative was the trainer, which I absolutely dread using, so I sat and stared at it for a solid hour before forcing myself to crank out a boring 1.5 hours on the thing. I'm not looking forward to winter...

After the ride, I hit the road for a run - I've been running shorter distances for the past week in an effort to rest my legs a bit, so yesterday I decided to resume some normal mileage - managed to get just over 10 miles in, and I missed most of the rain.

Made an awesome egg sandwich (english muffin, 4 egg whites, 1 slice apple smoked turkey bacon, 1 slice of 1% sharp cheddar, 1 Tbsp garlic roasted salsa) and then headed to the library for a few hours. I returned home only to find my neighbors in the midst of UW badger game parties, which meant my apartment was incredibly "noisy" - I could hear both neighbors hootin' and hollerin' clear as day. Joy.

So, I decided to go to the movies, where I saw The Social Network - a movie about Facebook. I'm not a fan of Facebook, but I really enjoyed the movie - it was well made, interesting, and it kept my attention for the full 2 hours. Win.

Today, I woke-up early and once again cursed the weather. It was raining pretty steadily and I had a race planned for this morning - a 15K run that's put on by the UW Running Club. I don't really mind running in the rain too much, and upon quick glance of the thermometer, I saw it was 55F, so I figured all would be ok.

I loaded-up the rain gear, filled a water bottle with my pre-race fuel (EFS with .25 scoops of whey protein), and hopped in the car for the short drive over to Werner Park, where the race was being hosted. I grabbed my registration packet and then went back to my car, where I waited for the race to start.

And that's when the light sprinkle turned into a downpour. Buckets of water seemingly fell from the skies. And it wasn't a comfy summer rain - no sir, this was your typical "bone chilling fall rain," and to make matters even better, a 15mph wind kicked in. This was looking a lot like my triathlon conditions from a few weeks ago... joy again.

I waited until the last possible moment before getting out of the car and making my way to the starting line, where I was greeted with a 10-minute wait for the start of the race. The race was a bit disorganized to say the least... which was a shock because I figured the UW would know how to run an event.

The whole experience was weird - picking up my packet was complicated and time consuming, complete with a super long line (for no apparent reason). The race started late for reasons unknown. The actual start was unusual - some random guy walked up to where everyone was milling around, and without a bullhorn or anything like that simply yelled "GO." I think everyone was surprised to see the first few runners taking off, because there was quite a "hiccup" to the start - people were turned the wrong way and didn't see other runners leaving, so they got bumped into/run over a bit.

And so I ran 15K (9.6 miles) around the Werner Park/Mendota Hills area, and I must say that whomever designed the course was both unimaginative and sadistic. Hills galore - and not just small/medium hills, mixed with a lot of "repeating loops" - we ran many of the same roads several times, which is super annoying to me. I hate running "laps" in a race - I'd rather see as much new scenery as possible while out and about.

The race ended - my time was 1:16 (oh, they also didn't have any timing system, so my watch kept my "official" time). Not great, but not bad. Here I am in the car, soaked to the bone and feeling rather chilly:

After the race, I drove over to the local farmers market to buy some bison, then headed back to the apartment. I debated between taking a shower or loading-up the bike and joining my favorite local bike shop for their final group ride of the year. The skies were clearing, so I opted to go for the bike ride, which was supposed to be an "easy 30-mile route at a comfortable pace."

Turns out it was slightly longer and slightly faster than I initiall thought it would be. Our small group did a 45-mile route that we rode at an average pace of 20.7 mph. And, to make my legs feel even better, there were plenty of hills. :-)

And, despite the mercury showing 62F, it felt like about 45F for some reason (probably the damp air + wind). We finished the ride with a cup of coffee at the local coffee shop, and then I headed back to the apartment. I was starving - all I'd eaten so far was my pre-race drink, a post-race recovery drink, and a Hammer Gel (compliments of Collin, the owner of Cronometro - thanks, Collin, I owe you one!!) while on the ride... total calories: about 375.

I can't say enough great things about the Cronometro guys - Collin, Scott, Andrew and the rest of the crew are just fantastic folks to deal with. They've done a great job of helping me out with warranty items as well as with general maintenance and purchases. If you're ever in need of some bicycling equipment or some excellent service work, go see Collin and the guys. I'm definitely going to do some more of their group rides next year as well.

Once at the apartment, I fired-up the shower and soaked myself in the warmest water that I could stand. I made some dinner (bison steak, roasted broccoli, black beans, and a scoop of corn) and am now sitting on the couch trying to warm up. I'm still freezing!

The blaze orange hat was in my race goodie bag - it says "UW Running Club Fall 15K." It may be the best thing I've ever received in a goodie bag! And last but not least, I'm also watching the shoot-out between the Packers and Vikings - holy cats have there been some big throws so far!

Enjoy your week - I'll check-in with you later on.

Oh - I almost forgot to ask about this... while in the Dells last weekend, I spied a totally awesome motorcycle, but I have no idea what model or year it is. It's obviously a Harley, but I cannot determine the model or model year. If anyone has any ideas or info, please let me know!

Ok, so I don't know if this rant will be hauntingly good, but as it's been a while since I've done any public complaining about something that is (in all likelihood) very insignificant, I felt it was time. And, truth be told, this is actually two rants in one, joined by a common topic: pumpkins. Here we go.

There's a semi-upscale mall located near my workplace. It's a "promenade" type mall that, upon first blush, appears to cater primarily to upper-class, middle-aged women, as evidenced by the roster of stores: Ann Taylor, Bath & Bodyworks, Chicos, J. Jill, and so on. I can't imagine the mall is doing terribly well; every time I drive through the area, I'm hard pressed to see more than a handful of cars, and foot traffic appears to be light at best.

So, imagine my bewilderment when The Bruce Company (perhaps the most expensive nursery/landscape/outdoor equipment dealer in the area) started to fabricate and build what appears to be a "halloween tree" complete with hundreds of carefully placed pumpkins, in the center of the mall's "roundabout."

I can't begin to imagine what it had to cost the mall management company to have the thing fabricated and built, let alone what they're spending on security for the thing. Oh, that's right - you heard correctly: security. They post a guard at the pumpkin tree every single evening, and the guard stays there all night to ensure that vandals don't smash every single last pumpkin in the tree.

Perhaps my assumption that the mall isn't doing well is unfounded and inaccurate? I mean, the tree had to cost several thousand dollars (maybe as much as $10k, as it took a full week for them to build it), and they must be spending thousands of dollars on security... I'd love to know if there's any measurable return on that investment.

And, speaking of pumpkins, I was listening to the radio yesterday when one of the newscaster folks shared a story about a shortage of pumpkin pie filling. Apparently, there's one farmer who is located just outside of Peoria, Illinois that is responsible for supplying more than 90% of the pumpkins that are used to make pumpkin pie filling - for the entire United States.

There's a shortage because he had a bad pumpkin crop last year, and as such, the processors were in short supply of pumpkin and had to scramble to find additional suppliers.

The maddening part of this story isn't that there's a pumpkin shortage. It's that the professional newscaster mispronounced the word pumpkin throughout the entire 3-minute story. Instead of saying puMPkin, she said, "pun-kin." And she didn't just say it once, she said it at least 31 times.

31 times? Yep - I started counting every single use of the word "pun-kin" in her story; it was like nails on a chalkboard. "Punkin shortage," "punkin supplier," "punkin processor," "punkin pie filling," "punkin patch," and so on. And, like Cool Whip on the proverbial punkin pie, she also mispronounced "Illinois" - yep, added the dreaded "noise" to the end of it.

So... if you can't find any punkin pie filling this year, blame it on the farmer from Ill-in-noise. And, if you absolutely must have some punkin pie filling, maybe we could get the local mall to donate a few of the punkins from their punkin tree.

Over and out.

As mentioned in the fish fry review (below), my friend Nat from Arkansas came to visit this weekend. It was super awesome that he was able to make the trek from Arkansas to Wisconsin - he's started a new business venture, so his time is incredibly scarce right now. The fact that he was able to make it up to Wisconsin was excellent, so I made sure to plan a "best of the best" weekend.

Nat flew in to Milwaukee late on Thursday afternoon, so I took off from work at about 2:00pm to go pick him up. First things first: some quality Wisconsin pizza, along with cheese curds and of course, a Wisconsin micro brew. After escaping the airport (and Milwaukee traffic), we set our sights on Jefferson's legendary Ken's Town Inn Pizza. I gave Dan and Tara a call to see if they could join us, and as luck would have it, they were available, so we agreed to meet at Ken's for some grub and good conversation.

We arrived to Ken's at around 6:30pm and were pleased to find the place just moderately busy. We easily scored a great table in the bar area, ordered a few $1 Supper Clubs, and caught-up on things.

Nat knows of my blogging penchant, so I suggested that we take a photo of us holding a beverage at every single event/place we visited over the weekend. It all starts here, at Ken's:

Dan, Tara, and their kids arrived shortly after that photo, and we promptly ordered some food. Dan, Tara and I were starving; Nat had grabbed a light bite at the Chicago airport, and the kids were more interested in finishing their homework, so we decided to order three pizzas (two small, one medium) and some curds. Ken's has some excellent curds - they're surprisingly good, so when they arrived, I snapped a quick picture and then we destroyed them:

The pizzas arrived shortly thereafter and while they were good, they weren't as great as they've been in the past. The sauce was a little heavy, and the bottoms were a little burned. Oh well - even bad pizza beats most other good things, so we didn't complain too much. Here's our pizza feast:

After devouring the pizza, we decided to head to Lake Mills so that Nat could take in his first "brewery tour" of the trip. So, we hit the Tyranena Brewery for a beverage in their tasting room - not quite a tour, but the spirit was in the right place.

Not the greatest photo (it's always quite dark in there), but you get the idea. We chatted with Dan about the Aztalan indians and their role in the Rock Lake pyramids, survival in this climate, and the carnivorous nature of fish (Dan's really knowledgeable about local history, hunting, fishing, and general survivalist-type subjects). It's always great to visit with Dan; it was even better to have Nat along to participate and share in the conversation. After a few hours, we bid farewell to Dan and hit the highway.

While driving back to Madison, I asked Nat if he had ever sampled a "boot," to which he responded, "I don't believe I have - rugby players used to drink from their shoes, but I can't say that I've ever tried a boot."

With that, our next destination was determined: The Come Back In for a boot of microbrew. We were fortunate to find a good parking space and even luckier to find a place at the bar. We grabbed a few bowls of the complimentary popcorn, ordered a boot of New Glarus Naked, and snapped the obligatory photo (backlight = bad photo, sorry):

We spent a lot of time catching-up on things at the CBI, and we also had a chance to chat with some of the staff, all of whom are super friendly and fun to be around. I think I ate about 39 bowls of popcorn while there... not real good for me, but the CBI pops a mean corn. With the clock pointing far into the evening hours, and my belly overly full with popcorn, we decided to head back to the apartment. We had a busy day ahead of us, so rest was definitely the best order of business.

Friday morning came and I hit the road for a run. I pointed Nat toward a local bike/walking trail, and was happy to hear that he managed a 5-mile journey - not bad! With the miles under our belts we hopped into the car and headed toward New Glarus for a "hard hat" tour of the New Glarus Brewery.

It's become a tradition that we tour a brewery whenever Nat's in Wisconsin, so I scored us some reservations for the limited-availability hard hat tour at New Glarus. The tour is held once a week, on Friday afternoons, and is limited to 15 people. It's sold out for months in advance because you get to tour the brewery with one of the technical staff, look "behind the scenes," meet the owners, and sample some of their "R&D" beers along with a bunch of high quality local cheeses.

We met the tour group at the 'old' New Glarus facility:

That's where it all started, back in 1993, when Dan & Deb Carey decided to start mass production and sale of their beloved home-crafted brews. Dan is a master brewer, of which there are just a handful in existence. Our tour guide gave us the details as to how it all started, and as to why the brewery has insisted that its beer never be sold outside of Wisconsin (quality control - they can carefully monitor how far it travels and under what conditions).

It's called a "hard hat tour" because you're required to wear a hard hat. The tour literally takes you into the production areas, so the hats help protect your gourd from any falling items and also serves to identify you as a member of the tour. Here's Nat and I, complete with our New Glarus hard hats:

After some background information, we headed into the first brew room, which houses two copper vats that came from a small family-owned brewery in Germany. These are a rare find, as they're 100% hand-hammered copper; such devices are no longer manufactured because it's so time consuming (approximately 30,000 hours per vat) and expensive. Dan was able to score these from the failed German brewery and bought them for scrap value because the German brewmaster that was selling them was pleased that Dan would actually use them in production. They were disassembled, crated, loaded into a ship, and sent to the United States, where Dan and his crew reassembled them here in New Glarus:

These two vats produced 100% of the New Glarus brewery product from the 90s through 2007. They're still used today, but primarily as R&D vats and limited edition production vats. The majority of the standard New Glarus brew is produced at the new facility in one of the four copper-clad (but stainless steel) vats.

We were shocked to find someone inside of the vats - Dave was inside of this vat, cleaning it, as it had just completed a batch of an "unplugged" limited edition beer earlier in the morning.

From the "kitchen," we made our way through the rest of the old facility, where we saw their pre-world war II era grain mill (it still grinds all of the grain they use today), their old bottling line (it processes 16-bottles per minute), and their old quality control lab. We got to see the old cold storage tanks as well, which were impressive nonetheless:

While we were there, the crew was bottling and packaging Raspberry Tart, which is a sparkling ale. It was pretty neat to see the bottling process; after spending an hour or so at this facility, we headed to the "Hilltop" facility, which is their brand new $20-million brewery.

We made the short drive through New Glarus and reconvened at the brewery's main entrance. Here's what the new place looks like:

Before resuming our tour, Deb Carey came out to introduce herself and to share some information about the brewery with our group. It turns out that she created all of the design and architectural elements of the new facility, and she's also the person responsible for the artwork that you'll find on their bottles. She talked with us for about 10 minutes before resuming her normal duties as a co-owner/manager. Here she is talking with our group:

After bidding farewell to Deb, we made our way into the new facility, where we saw their four new vats. As mentioned earlier, these aren't solid copper like the old ones; they're copper clad, with stainless internals. The stainless internals are easier to clean, and hold-up better to constant use. Look at these monsters:

What struck me as so interesting about the New Glarus Brewery was that the place is spotless. Not just "clean," but surgical sterile clean. You'd be hard-pressed to find a speck of dust or dirt anywhere. I guess it goes without saying... "cleanliness is next to godliness."

From the cooking area, we headed through the rest of the facility, where we saw their yeasting machinery, new cooling tanks, new bottling line (the new one can process 100+ bottles per minute), and their "small sample batch" areas. Here are photos from each of those areas:

After seeing all of the production facilities, we headed into the Quality Control center, where we learned that New Glarus employs more QC-related people than production employees. Dan & Deb are obsessed with quality and consistency - they triple check every single detail and personally oversee most (if not all) of the production aspects. It's probably one of the reasons their product is so fantastic.

Our guide, Dan (not Dan Carey) is one of the QC folks and we were impressed with is knowledge of not only beer but science and chemistry. He was rattling off tons of information about metabolic rates of various yeast strains, chemical reactions as related to yeasts and hops, cryogenics and so on. Here he is showing us one of the tests they perform as it relates to yeast content:

I took about 20 additional photos while on the tour, but I don't want to bore you with every single detail, so I'll stop here. Suffice it to say that this tour was by far the best tour we've ever seen - the level of detail and the amount of information was staggering. If you'd like to take an in-depth tour of a brewery, look no further than the New Glarus hard hat tour. It's well worth the $20, just be sure to sign-up well in advance!

The tour concluded with a beer and cheese tasting - here's the cheese table, which featured six local cheeses, each of which was designed to be paired with one of six New Glarus beers:

And here's our tasting table:

The tasting flight included everything from Cherry Tart to two of the R&D beers, one of which was described as having notes similar to those of a "wet horse's saddle blanket." Despite that less than appealing description, we braved a taste - here's Nat pouring a small sample:

And it was pretty good! The odor was a bit "unusual," but it didn't have a bad flavor by any means. And, it went really well with this ultra-exclusive cheese:

I think I was more excited to have the opportunity to sample that Dunbarton Blue cheese; I'd read about it in several magazines, all of which raved about its earthy flavor and ultra-exclusivity. The folks who make it are extremely picky about where and how it's sold, so finding it is quite tricky. Nat agreed that the cheese was stellar - we both loaded-up on it before heading back to Madison.

On the way out of town, we stopped that the Glarner Stube in New Glarus so that we could see the midwest's largest urinal. Apparently it's quite a site, and I figured it would make for a good story, so we stopped in, ordered a quick drink, snapped the obligatory photo:

...and then checked out the restroom (at separate times, of course). I'm not sure that it was all that impressive - to me, it seemed like a standard urinal with really huge sides. I had pictured something taller/wider - this was a bit of a disappointment. But, oh well - it was just a urinal, after all. It was a popular site, however. While we were there, several groups came in just to check out the urinal. Go figure.

We headed back to Madison, where we made a quick stop at Brennan's market so that Nat could pick-up some cheese to take back to Arkansas. I also grabbed some "zip dip" to snack on, along with some fresh blueberries for my breakfast cereal. If you've never been to Brennan's, it's quite the place - they have an incredible selection of farm-fresh produce, cheese, and meat, and they allow you to sample nearly everything prior to buying it. Here's one of their many cheese coolers:

With pockets full of cheese, we decided to head down to the UW Wisconsin's Memorial Student Union to enjoy the wonderful weather while getting in a dose of people-watching. The weather was fantastic - the temps were in the low 60s, with just a slight breeze. Unfortunately the sun was setting, so we enjoyed a quick beverage and snapped the obligatory photo before the light ran out:

With respect to the rest of the evening, as you saw in the entry below, we hit Cahoots for some mediocre fish, and then called it an early night. Saturday would prove to be a monster day.

I woke up at around 7:00am, went for a run, and then we ventured in to Middleton to visit the National Mustard Museum:

The National Mustard Museum recently moved to Middleton; it had previously called Mount Horeb "home." I'd visited the store portion of it once before, but had never toured the museum, so I figured it might be fun for Nat and I to give it a quick "once over." Besides, when else would Nat be able to boast that he had toured the National Mustard Museum?

The place features a ton of mustards from around the world, most of which are available for sample and/or purchase:

They even have a mustard vending machine:

We ventured down into the basement, which is where the museum is located. It's primarily a collection of mustards from around the world, organized by region/location, along with a small movie theater that plays mustard-related movies/commercials/information. One of the best parts of the museum, though, were the old mustard advertisements. Most of them were from the 20s and 40s, and one of our favorites was this one:

Some of those ads were absolutely hilarious - they used language like "beguiled" and "epicore" and phrases like, "men deserve a hearty meal and will appreciate your thrifty nature." It was an absolute hoot to browse through them all.

With the museum thoroughly explored, we headed west, toward Black Earth, where we had a date with a wiffle ball field. Along the way, we spotted something "unusual" along the highway, and it almost caused us to have an accident. Not from traffic, but from laughing so hard.

We spotted these halloween toilets at a local farm:

We saw them, kept talking "as normal," paused and simultaneously started laughing. We both said at exactly the same time, "We have to turn around and see those again." So, we pulled a safe (and legal) u-turn to go back and inspect the hallowed stools. What a genius yet quirky idea. I loved them:

After seeing those, we decided the rest of the day would be a "bonus" - things couldn't get any better. But, little did we know...

We continued on along Highway 14 and within a few minutes arrived at Rookie's Pub in Black Earth, which is home to a regulation wiffle ball field. What is a regulation wiffle ball field? Well, it's basically a scaled down version of a baseball field... the outfield fence sits at 81 - 105 feet; the bases are closer together, and pitchers "mound" is 42-feet from home plate. Seems like it would be a great place for a bachelor party or something like that. The field had been rented out to a group for the day, so we snapped a quick photo and hit the road:

Where were we headed? Well, if you hadn't already guessed, the theme for this visit was "Oktoberfest," so we were headed to Wisconsin Dells, where their Autumn Festival was in full swing. And part of that festival included a brewery festival, wherein thirty Wisconsin microbreweries would be in attendance to handout samples of their wares.

We made our way through the downtown area, found the park where the festival was located, stood in line with a few thousand people, ponied-up $35 for a ticket, and scored a tasting glass:

And with that, we were thrown "into the mix" - the place was insanely busy with beer enthusiasts from around the United States:

To say it was absolutely crazy in the place would be an understatement. We had no idea where or how to begin, so we started with some cheese - Carr Valley Cheese was there with a bunch of cheese samples - all of which were available for purchase. We sampled the various types and selected a bag of curds before moving along:

With curds in hand we decided to just "dig in" and sample a few brews. I really like these types of events because it gives you an opportunity to try things you might never otherwise be willing to order. For example, I'd never dream of ordering a pint of "pumpkin spice ale," but thanks to this festival, I tried a 2oz sample of it and discovered that it was incredibly delicious - in fact, it may have been the "best in show" beverage for me.

All of the breweries in attendance had one thing in common: they were from Wisconsin. That's right - 30+ local breweries, all gathered under a single tent. One of the breweries that attended is a favorite of mine: Lake Louie. They're located in Arena, and crank out some seriously delicious and crafty offerings. They also have a sense of humor, as evidenced by their slogan:

In addition to the creative slogans, there are some equally creative "costumes" and "accessories." If you'll recall from my report from the 2009 Quivey's Beerfest, there's an invention known as the "pretzel necklace" that consists of a large string fitted with dozens and dozens of pretzel twists. Well, the folks at this festival stepped things up a notch (or two) by including cheese dip on their necklaces (a pint-sized cup of dipping cheese), string cheese, gummy pretzels (for the sweet tooth), and summer sausage links. Talk about serious.

They also crafted some unique accessories, including this cowboy hat as fashioned from a Miller Lite box. How in the world they accomplished this is beyond me:

We wandered around the festival, sampled a few New Glarus offerings, tried some true microbrews (Rush River?), and then took a stroll around the craft fair, where I spied this cute little guy taking a breather:

We thought the crowd would eventually thin out, but it never really seemed to slow down. It was hard to navigate our way around the fest and we were growing tired of fighting the crowds (plus we were getting hungry for some "real" food), so we snapped the obligatory picture and headed out in search of some grub:

As we made our way down main street in the Dells, we stumbled across a bar/restaurant with a rather unique name... Now, before you get upset by the name, it's not what you may think. The story goes that the owner's name really is what it is. I'm not going to post a picture of the place on the blog - you can click here to see the sign; the place has been a Dells institution since 1947 and draws tens of thousands of people every year. Despite the "backstory" it was a bit odd being in that place, so we took one quick photo and continued on our search for some food:

Our search eventually landed us at Moose Jaw Pizza Company, which is a Canadian-themed "up north" type of place, complete with some rather uniquely outfitted delivery vehicles.

I think Nat questioned which one was the "butt" - nice... :-D We really enjoyed the pizza, which included an order of beer bread. The bread was super dense, slightly sweet, and perfectly chewy. Along with the pizza, it made for an excellent feast. If you're ever in the Dells and in search of some quality pizza, be sure to check out this place. Here's a picture of our delectable pizza:

We raced back to Madison with the hope of meeting up with Jed & Jamie so that we could watch the Badger game. Jed and Jamie were going to be downtown with friends, so Nat and I did our best to meet up with them. Turns out they were at Jordan's Big 10 Pub, which is located about a block from Camp Randall. To say it was a zoo would be an understatement:

Nothing like trying to watch the Badger game with a few thousand of your closest and rowdiest, drunken college student friends... We did manage to find Jed, Jamie and Tony, so it was a good time, even if it was loud and far too busy. These places must make an absolute fortune on game day weekends - the line to get a drink of anything (soda, beer, wine, whatever) was ridiculous. I stood in line for a solid 20 minutes before getting service, and they must have had 30 bartenders working the outdoor area alone!

Here we are with our prized beverages:

We tried to stay and chat with Jed and Company, but it was just too crazy. It didn't help that the Badgers were up 21-0 while we were there, so we decided to head up to the square to see if we could find a more comfortable environment in which to watch the game. We eventually settled on The Old Fashioned, which is located on the capital square.

Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of The Old Fashioned, primarily because I found their fish fry and cheese curds to be a supreme disappointment, but they had seating available, and it is a bit of a Wisconsin institution, so we swung in and grabbed a seat at the bar. Here's the obligatory photo:

We did order some of The Old Fashioned's homemade potato chips, and I'm pleased to report that they were quite tasty. They were served piping hot and included a side of ranch. Think "kettle chips" but not as crispy, and you'll get the idea of what they were like. We stayed at The Old Fashioned through the third quarter, and then decided to head down to one of the campus establishments so that we could get the true "university experience."

We decided to try Brothers, which is more or less the epitome of the "hey, I just turned 21 and want to go hang out at a college bar where everyone will think I'm really cool" college bars. Believe it or not, we managed to score a seat at a small table, where we had a clear view of the televisions and didn't have too many obnoxious college kiddies to deal with.

For those not familiar with the outcome of Saturday evening's Badgers vs. Ohio State game, the Badgers pulled a major upset and beat the #1-ranked Buckeyes. When the game ended, Brothers (and most of Madison) erupted with celebration. Here we are at Brothers just as the Badgers were sealing their victory with a last minute interception:

For those daring enough to download a video, I shot a quick video of the post-game celebration as well. It's in QuickTime format, so you may need to download a player or plug-in from Apple to view it. I like the crutch that's "dancing" - it makes me chuckle every time I see it.

College kids are a crazy bunch, and we quickly started to feel a bit "out of place" so we decided to leave Brothers and find a more adult location for one last hurrah before calling it a night. The fine folks at the MTP took excellent care of us (as always); Nat and I took a final picture, paid our meager tab, and bid farewell to the MidTown Pub:

We went back to the apartment, watched a little AppleTV, and then went to bed. I forgot how great the air mattress is - I really missed that thing. I may have to leave it aired-up so that I can sleep on it from time to time... Shiloh seemed to miss it, too - I found him sitting on it every time we returned back from our travels.

Nat's flight was due to depart Milwaukee at 2:30pm today, so I woke-up at about 8:00, went for a run, took a shower, and then fired-up the car to take Nat to the airport. We made a quick stop at the farmer's market (I needed a few tomatoes) and another quick stop at Culver's for a final dish of that infamous frozen custard.

We made great time to Milwaukee - just about an hour and a half from Madison, thanks to a light traffic load. There wasn't any wait at the airport either, so Nat was able to quickly check-in and make it to his gate with plenty of time to spare. He just sent me a text to report that he made it home safely, and that Tanner (his dog) was happy to have him back at the home.

Talk about a great weekend, if not one filled with a bit of over-indulgence. I think I probably gained about 15-pounds, thanks to the gobs of bad food and drink... but, it was worth it. I hadn't seen Nat for quite some time, and he and I were/are good friends thanks to our time together at the bank. We talked about another visit - perhaps for the Milwaukee Mile next year? My waistline and cholesterol should be recovered by then... :-D

Nat - if you read this, thanks for stopping by to visit - I hope you had a great time. And to everyone else who helped make the weekend such an enjoyable success, "Thank you," as well. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get some rest!

To borrow from the opening of a famous novel, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

And that pretty much sums up this past weekend - a really horrible time (the disappointing triathlon), and a really excellent time (Green County Cheese Days).

My friend Jed and his wife Jamie are both from Monroe, and ever since I returned home to Wisconsin, they've been raving about the cheese curds from the Green County Cheese Days. We've gone on several "quests" to find comparable curds, but as good as some of the curds have been, none have met the high bar as set by the GCCD curds.

Now... the problem with GCCD curds is that they're only available for one weekend - EVERY TWO YEARS. That's right - the GCCD festival is held every-other year, which means curd lovers have to wait a whopping 730 days before they can enjoy the infamous GCCD Optimist Club curds.

I made sure to plan my weekend around the GCCD festival; I woke-up extra early on Saturday and went for a short run. I had the triathlon on Sunday, and yes, I should've rested, but I feel better if I get up and move around a bit. So, I did 3 easy miles of running, took a shower, and then headed down to the Monona Terrace to watch another airing of Michael Feldman's Whadya' Know radio show.

I love the show for a number of reasons, not least of which includes the free donuts they give you before the show:

There wasn't much of a crowd on this particular weekend; I'd estimate there were maybe 60-70 people watching the show, which meant I was able to grab a decent seat near the front of the theater.

I only stayed for the first hour of the show - I had several other errands to run before heading down to Monroe, and time was of the essence. I left the show just after hearing the weekly memo, and made my way over to one of the local bike shops where I purchased some Nuun electrolyte tablets and a new water bottle.

From the bike shop, I took off toward Watertown, where some delicious coffee awaited my arrival. I stopped at Berres Brothers to pick-up some of their scrumptious Highlander Grogg and House Blend coffees. If you've never tried their stuff, do yourself a favor and pick some up - it's amazingly smooth coffee. It's so good that I also grabbed a cup "to go."

From Watertown, I back-tracked to Lake Mills so that I could take a quick bike ride with my friend Dan. We had planned to ride our bikes to Delafield last week, but a surprise back injury prevented Dan from going. He wanted to get out and ride for a bit, as he was feeling better, so I stopped by and we rode for about an hour on the Glacial Drumlin trail. It was a nice, easy-paced ride; the weather was fantastic, and it was great to hit the trail with Dan for some good conversation and relaxation.

With the clock showing 3:00pm, I loaded my bike into the Prius and made my way back to Madison, where I showered, changed, fed the cat, and hit the road once again. I pointed the car south, toward Monroe, and let Jed know that I was "on the way."

Jed responded with an invitation to a friend's house - he and some other folks were enjoying some food, drink, games, and fun in the backyard of a friend's house in downtown Monroe. The house was apparently just a few blocks from the Green County Cheese Day epicenter.

I arrived to Jason's house (Jed's friend) at about 5:00pm, and was immediately welcomed and made to feel "at home." The hospitality was incredible - they had pulled pork sandwiches, brats, cheesy casserole, apple-pie pizza, chips, and a bunch of other really good food. I offered to make a donation for the grub, but they'd have none of it - I was told to dig-in and enjoy. Talk about great folks! Thank you Jason & company!!

After stuffing my gourd, a group of us decided to head down to the festival. As we were leaving, I snapped a quick picture of Jason's backyard - complete with two bagg-o games:

As we walked closer to the square, the crowds began to grow. Monroe isn't a huge town by any means, but there were people everywhere. I guess the festival attracts tons of people from all around the state; I was getting excited.

We quickly located the "ticket line" so that we could purchase what are referred to as "the golden ticket." The cheese curd tent requires you to exchange tickets for curds; $4 gets you one ticket and one ticket gets you an order of cheese curds. After standing in line for 10 minutes or so, I scored a couple of tickets:

And with tickets in hand, it was time to... stand in line again. Yep - there were two separate lines, and the line to acquire the actual curds was incredible. The tent had about a dozen serving lanes, and each lane ran at least 100+ people deep. We waited in line for our curds for another 10-15 minutes. The pay-off was worth it:

Here's a close-up of the curds:

And here we are, enjoying those succulent curds:

I feel bad for not being able to recall the name of the lady to my left, but that's Tony in the middle, Jamie, and then Jed. We inhaled those curds, and for good reason: they were spectacular. Easily the very best cheese curds I've ever had.

What made them so good? Everything. The cheese is incredibly fresh - the curds were made that morning. The batter is unbelievable - if it were applied to a piece of cod, it would rate as the best fish fry ever. That batter is then perfectly fried; the curds aren't over-cooked, nor are they under-cooked. There wasn't a hint of grease anywhere, and the curds finished with a slightly salty taste - oh so superb.

Here's a sneak peek behind the curd-assembly line; look at the bowls of curds, sitting in batter, awaiting their turn to bathe in that hot oil:

As excellent as the curds were, I sort of wish I had never tried them, because now I have to live with the curse of having to wait for another two years before I can enjoy them again. Words and pictures don't do those curds justice - they're so unbelievably good.

With our bellies full of curds, it was time for us to... walk around and sample some more curds. :-) Monroe is not only a beautiful town, it's also the Mecca for cheese manufacturing - some of the state's (and country's) best cheese comes from this area. Cheesemakers abound, and they all convene on the gorgeous downtown square to sell their goods.

We entered into a massive tent, where there were approximately 10-12 cheesemakers set-up, all with free samples available for the hungry masses to taste:

After sampling several dozen varieties of cheese, I settled on three purchases:

These cheeses were all reasonably priced; I think the most expensive "chunk" that I purchased was $5, which is quite a bargain given the high quality. That's not to say that all of the cheese there was cheap... Take this $1800 wheel of cheese for example - I'm not sure who would buy such a beast, although I sure would like to be their friend:

With my supply of cheese firmly in hand, we continued to make our way around the festival grounds. There were beer tents, bands, a carnival, crafts, authentic swiss yodeling groups, and all sorts of other interesting activities taking place. You'd be surprised to learn that Cheese Days is quite a fun event - it's easy to see why so many people flock to the area for the festival.

Jed was quick to point out a local bar that's famous for its Limburger/onion/rye sandwich. I didn't have the heart (or stomach) to try it, but I did wander in to check it out. While there, I snapped a quick photo:

On my way out of the bar, I spied a Saint Bernard, complete with the iconic "keg" around his neck. He appeared to be on a mission of sorts (perhaps he detected a stray curd), so the photo isn't that great:

The sun was starting to set, the temperature was beginning to drop, and it was getting late. I had thoroughly enjoyed my time at the GCCD festival and I really enjoyed hanging out with Jed, Jamie, and their friends. The entire event was really awesome - everyone was friendly, accommodating, and just plain "great." So, despite not wanting to leave, I forced myself to call it an evening. I bid the crew farewell and made my way back to the car, but not before doing two things: getting one final order of curds, and snapping a picture of the town hall:

Thanks again to Jed, Jamie, Jason, Tony, Matt, and everyone else for the wonderful time, and thanks to Green County and the city of Monroe for hosting such an excellent event. I've already started to count the number of days until Cheese Days 2012!

Folks, I'm somewhat upset to report that I did not attend this year's annual Great Taste of Madison.

I thought about attending, almost to the point of fantasizing myself silly over it, but ultimately decided against it for a couple of reasons: there would likely be a ton of people that would eventually get on my nerves; the food is always sub-par (mix "tent" cooking + cranking out a ton of food and what would you expect?); the cost to attend would be a bit outrageous when weighed against the net experience; and, the weather was a bit chilly.

The news stations and newspapers covered the event in great detail and really made it sound like "the place to be," but at $5 for parking (minimum), plus $5/drink, plus an average of around $4/food item (most of which is deep-fried), it just didn't make sense. So, I stayed home for all of my meals this weekend, which is actually a good thing - I've been sticking to the diet really well and I've had zero cravings for anything bad. I credit the focus on low-glycemic load foods for my stability. :-)

I had to make a new batch of black beans today, and man, I can't get over how much I love these things. They don't look real good while cooking, though:

But they taste absolutely amazing. Plus, they're easy to make and are really, really good for you. Here's the recipe:

16oz bag of Goya Black Beans
1 green pepper, cut into quarters
1 onion, cut into quarters
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp black pepper
4 Tbsp minced garlic
3 bay leaves
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
A few pinches of kosher salt

1. Wash the beans carefully - I like to use a salad spinner; I put the beans in the basket, rinse them with a ton of water, and then spin them to shake out any particles.

2. In a large sealable plastic container (I have a 4-qt Lexan container), add all of the ingredients, and then fill with water until the water is about 1" above the height of the beans.

3. Place the beans in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Check them periodically and add water to keep the level at least 1" above the height of the beans. I usually have to top-off the water 2 times.

4. Transfer the entire contents of the plastic container to a large stainless steel pot or dutch oven.

5. Bring the beans to a boil and allow to boil for five (5) minutes, then reduce heat to a very slow simmer. Allow beans to simmer for about 2-hours. Keep water level just at "bean level" - I usually have to top-off with warm water once.

6. At the 2-hour mark, check on the beans - you don't want them to get mushy... they should be just ever-so-slightly firm. Remove them from the heat and strain them when they have an "al-dente" consistency. Pick out the bay leaves and any really large pieces of peppers and/or onions.

7. Enjoy. I usually eat .5c of cooked beans at dinner - I hit them with a little pepper for just a bit more "kick," but it's up to you as to whether or not you add any additional seasoning.

Aside from making beans and eating at home, I managed to take advantage of the weather by riding 200-miles this weekend and running a bunch.

Not bad for a 3-day weekend's worth of riding, eh? :-) True, it was chilly - especially in the early morning hours, but I know that fall/winter are coming so I'm trying to sneak in as much outdoor riding as possible.

I rode about 75 miles on Saturday - left at 7:00am (temperature = 49F, with a strong westerly wind) and got back in at about 10:45am. I rode 75 miles on Sunday - same deal (7:00am - 10:30am) but the temperature was nicer and there was less wind. And I finished things off with a gentle "cool-down" 50-mile ride today - left at about 9:30am and got back in at 12:45 or so.

Why a "cool-down" 50-miler? I ran a 10K race in Randolph today - the same race I ran last year on Labor Day - although my race absolutely stunk. I did too much riding and running on Sunday, so my legs weren't as rested or fresh as I would've liked for them to be. I think my finishing time was 52:13 - about an 8:30 mile pace... not great by any means.

As evidence of my tired legs, consider that my time for this race last year was just over 45-minutes... so, I was 7 minutes slower this year - ugh!!! I think I got 4th or 5th place, but there weren't as many participants this year, probably because it was raining cats-and-dogs (complete with countless lightning bolt strikes). I didn't get any photos from the event because of the rain (and I forgot my phone... that'll happen when you leave the house at 5:15am), but here's the customary race bib follow-up photo:

They changed the race course this year - it was run nearly entirely in-town - Randolph is so small that we had to run two laps to hit the 6.2 mile mark... That's ok, though, as the race benefits the local humane society, and I'm always happy to help a group that supports animal welfare.

Let's see... what else took place this weekend? I saw the movie, The American with George Clooney. A lot of folks complained about the movie being "slow" and "boring" but I found it rather enjoyable. It had a definite "foreign" feel to it, and there were a lot of subtleties to it. If you're looking for an action-packed "shoot-em up" film, look elsewhere.

I saw the movie at the phenomenal Sundance 608 theater in Madison; man, I love that theater. All of the theaters are big, comfortable, feature excellent sound and picture, have reserved seating, and allow you to bring in food/drink (including beer if you so desire).

And lastly, the cats (Mack and Shiloh) have been especially rambunctious lately - they chase each other around all of the time, ambush one another, and have taken to biting each others' necks (nothing major - one of them will get a little too wild and the other will let out a yowl before they retreat to their respective corners for a breather). Here they are just a few minutes ago in one of their infamous neck-fights... and they're sitting about 10" from my head.

It's back to work tomorrow - hope everyone out there had an enjoyable (and more exciting than mine) Labor Day Weekend.

Don't really have any good, concise stories to share so I'll just do a brain-dump of sorts... we'll start with training, eating, and recovering.

It's no secret that I probably have some type of eating disorder... I love food - looooove food. And I really seem to love the foods that are just awful for me - donuts, cookies, cupcakes, fish fry, fritters, popcorn, and peanut M&Ms all come to mind as some of my favorite "binge" foods. Without exaggerating in the slightest, I could easily eat a dozen donuts in a sitting, or 5-6 huge cookies, or pounds of deep fried fish.

So I force myself to stay away from these foods, but about once a week, the cravings get the most of me, and I go on a massive food bender. I track every single thing that I eat on Livestrong, and after a day of pigging out, it'll be nothing for me to have consumed 7,500 calories. Not real smart, and not real good for me...

I then get angry with myself and vow to stop eating badly, and along with the internal lashing that I dole to myself, I crank-up my training efforts while becoming extremely strict with my diet for the rest of the week. Immediately following my binge day, I'll usually do a massive "brick" workout (60+ miles on the bike, followed by 10+ miles running) with the hope that by spending 5 hours working out I'll undo some of the damage that my pig-out caused.

And that leads to over-training, which leads to me being ridiculously sore, which when combined with the low calorie intake for the rest of the week leads to me wanting to eat more to help with recovery, and thus the cycle repeats itself. I can't give myself time to recover because I know that a binge is just around the corner, and so I'm always in a state of hurt... In an effort to treat the hurt and to aid recovery, I use all sorts of "crutches" - recovery drinks (glutamine/protein/carb blends), compression gear, glucosamine supplements, and so on. Rather than treat the symptoms, I need to address the issue and get back into a more realistic regimen.

I've gone back and looked at my old training and diet logs and discovered that as soon as I started to ramp-up my running (to 8+ miles per day), my binges became more frequent and severe. My theory is that running 50+ miles a week while eating around 800 calories per day for 6-days out of the week must deplete something and cause an imbalance of some sorts (highly technical terms, I know), which leads to my monstrous cravings for really bad food.

Prior to the 50+ mile/weeks, I was able to manage my diet really well. I didn't have such crazy cravings and I was able to be responsible. So, after this season's racing is over (I have a few big-distance races remaining), I'm going to rollback my running to around 4 miles per day.

With any luck, that'll help with the cravings, will cause me to eat more responsibly, will ease my overtraining pains (my back is a wreck, and my knees/hip flexors are always killing me), and should result in an all-around better situation. I'll still try to maintain a 800-1000 calorie/day diet, but by reducing my mileage it should be easier to manage over the long-term.

Granted, I won't be in "half-marathon" form all year round, but I'll definitely be in "easy 10K" form, which will allow me to get back up to a half-marathon with 5-6 weeks of training should the need arise. I'm also going to pack on more biking miles, because biking seems to be a lot easier on the body than the 50+ mile running schedule.

We'll see how it goes.

Changing gears to topic #2...

As I didn't have to work this weekend, I took a trip to some of the local farmers markets, as well as a trip out toward Black Earth for some sweet corn. I stumbled across this family farm that has the absolute best sweet corn I've ever had in my life - it's literally like candy - you can eat it 100% raw and it's still unreal.

I bought 4 ears of this heavenly sweet corn for an unbelievable $1.50. The folks that run the stand are super nice and very knowledgeable - I asked a bunch of dumb questions about the differences between sweet corn and "field corn" and they happily shared their knowledge with me. I also asked how many acres they tend to and how much of it is sweet corn vs. field corn; they pointed to the field 5 yards from where I was standing and said that they usually plant their sweet corn "within" the field corn.

They go "about 9 rows in" and plant "3-4 rows" of sweet corn, which they then harvest completely by hand. They can pick about 100 ears per hour per person, and they pick it each day, early in the morning. The corn that I bought came from this very field just earlier in the morning:

From Black Earth I made my way back to Madison where I hit a few farmer's markets. I scored some Bison tenderloins, some locally grown chicken, dirt-grown tomatoes, organic mushrooms, and some freshly made pretzel rolls. I scoured the markets for some asparagus, but alas there was none to be found. Oh well, I still had the makings for a really nice dinner... but what to have for dessert? How about grilled peaches? I stopped by Brennan's and grabbed a peach and a pint of blueberries (for morning cereal use).

I roasted the mushrooms, along with some Penzey's Spices California Pepper for a flavor boost.

While the mushrooms were roasting, I brought a pot of water to a boil for the sweet corn and also preheated the grill. While those were coming up to temperature, I made a glaze for my peach - I took 1.5 ounces of Appleton Estates 12-year spiced rum, stirred in a tablespoon of brown sugar, and reduced it over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes. I finished it with a touch of local honey and left it to simmer, until I had about 2 tablespoons of liquid left.

I salted and peppered the Bison and threw it on the grill for a total of 6 minutes, which brought it to an otherworldly medium rare (123F). I let the bison rest as I boiled the sweet corn and sliced a tomato. I cut the pretzel roll in half, warmed it in the oven for a few seconds, and was ready to dig-in:

6 ounces of grilled Bison tenderloin = 200 calories
6 ounces of roasted cremini mushrooms = 60 calories
1 large ear of boiled sweet corn w/ butter spray = 180 calories
1 pretzel roll = 190 calories
1 medium tomato with Mrs. Dash salt-free seasoning = 33 calories
Total calories = 663 calories

A little more than I would've liked to have eaten, but I (you guessed it) rode and ran a lot today, so I'll be OK. I washed it all down with a Diet Root Beer from Point Brewery (man, that's some awesome root beer), and then dug into my dessert - a glazed and grilled peach with 1 tablespoon of my brown sugar/rum/honey glaze (total 179 calories):

So, even with my monumental dinner feast, I'm still sitting at 1,278 total calories consumed for the day (Recoverite formula following my workout; cereal + protein drink for lunch; and then this dinner), with 3,812 calories burned.

Changing gears again: I saw the movie Inception with Leonardo DiCaprio, and while it was decent, it was incredibly long. I found myself wishing it was over after about 2 hours. Yes, it's intelligent and really well produced, but it got old after a bit; or at least it did for me. I did get to watch it at one of the best movie theaters ever, the Sundance 608 theater at Hilldale. That place is awesome - reserved seating, always nice, perfect sound, and a more mature crowd.

Shifting again: I bought Apple TV for the apartment. I figured that since I don't have cable, I could justify spending a few bucks on the Apple TV unit and renting a season of Man V. Food in HD - the unit and season rental cost about what 2 months of cable would cost...

The Apple TV unit is pretty neat - it allows you to upload all of your iTunes and MP3 files to it, so it not only plays movies and TV shows, it'll play your music as well. It also has a photo album system for your pictures and a bunch of other things. It's pretty nifty and despite only being 720p resolution, the image it produces is fantastic.

And finally, to bring it all home, I finally finished mounting my TV and soundbar, and I believe the apartment is about 99% set-up. I'm not totally crazy about this arrangement, but it seems to work:

That's it for now. I'm sitting on the couch with the windows open, enjoying the nicer weather (71F, low humuggity), watching a really dumb show on ABC, reading Men's Journal, and crafting this blog entry. I'll catch you later this week.

For reasons unknown, I thought it would be a really good idea to pick-up a part-time job... at the time, I thought that I had a lot of "free time" on my hands, and that I might enjoy something like cooking or bartending, so I put out the feelers and eventually landed a part-time job cooking food at a local restaurant.

...and that "career" lasted about 5 weeks.

Folks that visit my blog know that I love food and love to cook, so it seemed like an ideal opportunity for me to combine something I loved to do with something that would pay a little bit of money and get me "out of the house."

But what many folks may not appreciate (myself included) is how much more challenging and different it is to cook in a "commercial" environment than it is in a "home" environment. I certainly under-estiamted the skills required to cook during a busy breakfast or lunch - when you've got 80-90 people ordering all sorts of different things all at once, things get crazy in no time. And I quickly went crazy - I couldn't keep up with orders, I forgot things, I obsessed about things that didn't matter... and after this past weekend, I hung-up my spatula.

I really enjoyed the experience; it was interesting to see how things work in a small kitchen and I very much liked the people I worked and interacted with. They tried to show me tips and tricks, but as one of the guys put it, "You can't be as detailed oriented as you are and hope to survive as a short-order cook." I think he was right.

It also didn't help that I worked primarily on weekends, which meant that my schedule would go something like this:

3:30am - wake-up, dress, stretch
4:00am - go for a run
5:25am - return from run, take a quick shower, feed cat
5:55am - drive to pool
6:05am - swim for 20-25 minutes
6:35am - rinse off at pool, dress
7:00am - work at part-time job
3:30pm - finish part-time job, head home
4:00pm - hop on bike
7:00pm - return from bike ride, shower, feed cat
8:00pm - eat, rest, watch TV

(Repeat for Sunday)

Definitely made for long days and short weekends, and got to be rather stressful. I also noticed that it took a toll on my legs - something about exercising for 5 hours each day and then standing on your feet for 8 hours straight didn't work out too well.

Part of me wishes I could've "cut it" as a cook, but ultimately it's for the best. I'm a better patron (and part-time fish fry critic) than I am a cook. :-) So now it's back to the normal weekend routines, which should be nice. And the next time I get to thinking that I have too much free time on my hands, someone pass me a book or a puzzle instead.

It looks like I'm officially a "tree hugger" - all I need are some Birkenstocks and a few more Phish songs on my iPod.

Why?

I bought a Toyota Prius. I almost can't believe I typed that; let me explain what happened to prompt this purchase.

As most of you know, I had been driving a gorgeous (but large) Chevrolet pick-up truck. I found it at a local dealer with really low miles, loaded with options, and more or less in perfect condition. I installed a Line-X bedliner, detailed the heck out of it, and planned to keep it for a long time. It was nearly ideal - it could hold my bikes with ease, it was comfortable, it had a great sound system, and it ran like a top.

But, it was nearly impossible to maneuver the thing around town and it was really impossible to park it in my new garage - I literally had to have the front license plate of the truck touch the front wall of my garage so that I could close the garage door (and even then I only had about 1.5" of clearance behind the truck).

Every time I parked the truck in the garage, I went through a 5-8 minute "dance" that involved me pulling-up as close to the wall as I possibly could, jumping out of the truck to check my distance, inching forward a bit more, jumping back out to check, and so on. It quickly grew old. Before you suggest that I hang a tennis-ball to mark the ideal parking location, know this: the ceiling in the garage is 15+ feet high.

It also grew old trying to find parking spots - whether it was at the grocery store, the parking garage at work, or at one of the many ramps in downtown Madison... parking that beast was always a chore, primarily because the turning radius was so poor. I've never done as many Y-turns in my life as I have over the past six months or so.

So, I put the truck on craigslist, and wouldn't you know it, but I sold it in just two days to a super nice couple from Mount Horeb. They picked-up the truck early last week, which left me without a vehicle. The weather was nice, so I didn't mind biking to work, nor did I mind walking to get groceries and other things.

I didn't know what kind of car I wanted to buy... part of me wanted a station wagon (Audi A3, Audi A4 wagon, VW Jetta Wagon, or VW Passat Wagon) because I'd be able to put a bike or two in the back and still have room for other things like a small toolbox, a small suitcase, and so on. The Audi options offered all-wheel drive as well.

Part of me wanted a sedan (Chevrolet Malibu, Subaru Legacy, Saturn Aura, Ford Taurus, or a Ford Fusion) because it would be practical, roomy, and there were plenty to choose from.

Part of me wanted something really fun (Mercedes Benz E350, Mini Cooper S, Subaru WRX STI, or an older Corvette).

And then I stopped to think about how I "really" used my vehicles; truth be told, I hauled my bikes in the truck on exactly two occasions... I didn't really use the 4WD feature... I didn't use the back seat for anything other than holding groceries... but I did enjoy the low monthly payment (I got a really good deal on the truck and loan), and I did spend a ridiculous amount of money on gas every 8-10 days ($65 per fill-up), and I did hate parking it.

So it was evident that I needed something that was affordable, got good mileage, could haul some cargo if necessary, and would prove to be reliable and, if possible, slightly fun.

Purely on a whim, I searched for used Toyota Priuses, and wouldn't you know it, but I found a 2009 Prius at the local Toyota dealer - a one owner car, loaded with options, certified-pre-owned (which meant it came with a 100,000 mile warranty from Toyota), and with a decent number of miles. I checked Carfax for the car's history and it came back clean - the records showed regular maintenance, no accidents, and all looked good.

So, I haggled on the price, got an excellent deal, and an excellent interest rate. As mentioned, it's a 2009 Prius with "Option package 5," which means it has: voice-activated GPS navigation, JBL premium sound system with iPod interface, Bluetooth, automatic climate control, leather seating, and a few other items I'm forgetting. The original sticker price was $29,855. I got it for about half of that, and it came with Toyota's certified-pre-owned hybrid warranty, which gets me a really nice extended warranty.

After getting the car home last night, I washed it and set about detailing it. Here it is, sitting in the garage (in which it fits nicely), getting ready for a good buffing:

I taped off the plastic and rubber trim so that I could really get after things with the buffer. Once the taping was complete, I clayed the car, buffed it with Meguiar's #101 and #201, polished it with Zaino Z-PC, washed it again, and then applied 3 coats of Zaino Z2 (with ZFX) and finished with a wipedown with Zaino CS (Clear Seal). I dressed the tires, cleaned the interior, and treated the leather. The whole process spanned two days (I started last night at around 6pm, worked on it until around 11pm; woke-up and rode/ran this morning (7am - noon); then finished the detail at around 7pm this evening).

I snapped two quick photos - the lighting was bad, so I'll take some additional photos in the near future.

And here's some of the fun stuff from inside - the touchscreen computer is pretty cool - it serves as the climate control center, information center, and navigation hub. Check out the mileage I've gotten so far:

Here's a picture of the entire "dash" area - the layout has most of the items in the center of the car... it's going to take a bit to get used to it.

So there you have it. I'm a tree-hugging hybrid driver. :-) And while it's not the most exciting car I've ever owned, I should enjoy the lower car payment and the incredible fuel economy (most of my trips are in-town at speeds below 40mph, which is where a hybrid shines). I predict I'll spend about $30 on fuel every 3 weeks (versus $130+ with the truck).

And finally, as I was driving to take a photo of the car, I witnessed an accident in downtown Middleton. Further proof as to how poorly people drive around here... picture this: it's 80-degrees outside, it's sunny, there's not a cloud in the sky, the pavement is totally dry, and there's barely any traffic. Perfect conditions.

A Buick SUV, heading east on University Avenue in the right-hand lane, suddenly decides that it's going to cut across three lanes of traffic to turn left at an intersection that doesn't allow left-hand turns. The driver cranks the SUV violently to make the turn (I'm guessing they were speeding as well), and next thing you know, I'm watching a SUV roll on to its side and slide before coming to a rest. I just shook my head and stopped - the traffic in front of me stopped as well...

...sort of scary.

Even scarier is that I cross that intersection every single day while running.

Here's the aftermath - just as I was taking this picture the tow-truck got the SUV right-side-up... I was so angry - I wanted to get a better picture, but this is the best I could manage.

You've got to love the drivers around here. Truly, truly awful.

No fish fry reviews - sorry. The 'ole waistline needs a serious break from that Friday night ritual, so I've been actively avoiding that temptation.

I did however attend a Mallards baseball game last weekend with my friend Dan and his family and we had a blast. Dan and Tara purchased some awesome seats that were located literally behind home plate:

Not a bad seat for $7!

The game quickly became a lop-sided trouncing as the Mallards went ahead of their opponents (from LaCrosse) in the second inning to the tune of 9-1... So, we had to find other sources of entertainment and the most obvious option was to watch and shout along with a Mallards staple: The Beefstick Guy.

He sells a variety of items, but as he climbs up and down the stairs and makes his way through the seats and bleachers he shouts, "Peanuts, sunflower seeds, caramel corn," (and then with heavy emphasis on the "EE" and with the crowd of 7,000 people joining him) "bEEEEEEEEEEEfsticks!"

You'd think it gets old... but it never does - the whole crowd yells along with him and before you know it, you're joining the crowd. I figured I'd take a picture with his legend:

I also took a picture with Dan; upon review of the photo we promptly noticed two things - one, we're getting old, and two, we got "photo-bombed" by a little kid in the background... classic!

The night quickly came to a close and was capped-off by some fireworks and live music. We weren't able to stay for the music as Dan was there with the entire family (including his nephew who was visiting from New Jersey), so we watched the fireworks for a bit and then called it a night.

In other news, I'm continuing to get the apartment "in order." I got a magnetic knife holder and a few Victorinox Fibrox knives:

And, I finally got around to mounting the TV on the wall... what a difference that made. I'm waiting on one more component to arrive and then I'll be done with the set-up of the living room entertainment pieces (and I'll be able to get the last cardboard box out of the area).

I also bought a "cat sitter" DVD (I'm embarrassed to admit it) to help entertain the cats a bit. At the old apartment, the cats enjoyed watching birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and other critters as they scavenged bird seed from my upstairs neighbor's (aka "Psycho") porch. Here, they don't have that luxury, so I hoped the DVD might be a nice diversion from time to time. Turns out Shiloh loves it:

...Probably the best $5 I've ever spent on a DVD.

And finally, here's one last shot of Shiloh sitting on his favorite toy. I'm not sure why he chose to sit on it like this, but I thought it would make a fun picture.

I realized that I forgot to include some additional details from last week, so consider this a "pot-luck" entry of sorts...

If you'll recall from a previous entry, I stopped by Art Fair On The Square last week, and saw some really neat artwork. One of the artists that really stood out was this guy - he had these mean-looking dogs and cats featured in his work:

I would've loved to buy some of his stuff, but if I recall correctly, he was asking $3,000 or $4,000 for that painting... yikes! I realize it takes talent to conceptualize and create something like that but wow.

And speaking of wow, we (Mark, his friends Chris and Brenda, and me) donated a few bucks to a charity so that we could get our pictures taken in some crazy hats. I chose this viking number -

Our group photo was taken and posted somewhere online... I've managed to misplace the URL, so I guess I'll never see the fruits of our donation. Something tells me it's not a big loss.

Changing to another subject, I met some really nice folks (Kevin and Kelly) down at the MidTown and we got to chatting about documentaries; turns out we had all watched the "Beer Wars" documentary (I mentioned it here in a previous blog entry). One of the things they did in Beer Wars was demonstrate that nearly all light beers taste identical, and that when challenged, even the most die-hard beer fanatics couldn't tell the difference between 3 beers in a blind taste test.

We decided to give it a try ourselves, and the fine staff at MidTown proctored our test - they set-up 4 blind samples of light beer for us:

We blind-tested the 4 beverages; I took time to smell them, inspect them, cleanse my pallet between samples, and everything imaginable to try and better my odds of guessing correctly. Kevin and Kelly did the same; we all laughed heartily at how difficult (read: impossible) it was to differentiate between them.

As you can see, I received a perfect score of 100% misses. While Kelly and Kevin both correctly identified Miller Lite, Kevin was the clear winner with 2 correct answers. I encourage you to try the test for yourself - it's really quite funny/ironic/eye-opening.

Speaking of funny - it's been a while since I've posted or shared something from failblog.com and/or icanhascheezburger.com... as if trampolines weren't dangerous enough, check out this handy work:

Sorry for posting two entries in a single day, but wow - today was a good day in every sense of the word.

It rained cats-and-dogs last night - some areas around Madison reported 6+ inches of rain in the 'ole rain gauge. I don't know about you, but I sleep really well when there's a good rainstorm. So, with the A/C blasting cold air, the rain pouring down, and with a cat curled up near me, I slept like a million bucks. It's been a long time since I had a good nights' sleep (too many things going on - the mind races all night).

I woke-up extra early to ride the trainer for an hour or so; watched the news, felt refreshed, had a good sweat going, and felt really good (I normally dread the trainer). Had the usual breakfast (.5c Fiber One, .25c Skim Milk, 1oz fresh blueberries, supplements, and coffee), then hit the "Beltline," only to find that traffic was non-existent. I easily made my way over to Fitchburg, where I had an early morning Trigger Point/Deep Tissue massage scheduled.

My legs have been trashed lately (probably due to overtraining), and I figured a massage might help loosen them up and recover a bit. The therapist did an absolutely amazing job on the 'ole levers - and while moments of the massage were quite painful (especially the calves), I felt awesome afterward. I hopped back in the truck, drove to work without any traffic once again, and had a great morning of work - got tons of things done.

At lunch, I stopped at a local farmer's market and scored some super fresh local sweet corn - 3 ears for $1.

Near the end of the day, Phil (co-worker) and I went to a local market where we scored some really good cheese (English Hollow Cheese??), some produce, and some Wild Blue Popcorn kernels. I figured I would try my hand at air-popping some corn in the microwave.

I drove home and went about making dinner. I had fresh, organic, locally sourced chicken, fresh locally grown sweet corn, and a fresh, dirt-grown, locally sourced tomato with some roasted broccoli, a Diet Root Beer (from Point Brewery), and 1 Tbsp of an all natural BBQ sauce:

I used my new favorite seasoning for just about everything: Mrs Dash. It's salt-free, and the Chicken seasoning is amazing, as is the "Extra Spicy" (use it on veggies), and the "Table Blend" (use it on tomatoes and eggs).

Best of all, I enjoyed this guilt-free, 364 calorie feast out on the deck, because the weather was incredible - mid-70s, no humidity, sun in just the right place, iPod playing some good dinner music... bliss.

I'm still out on the deck now (at 8:30pm), enjoying my air-popped popcorn (it's super good; hit it with some Mrs. Dash as well) and browsing the web. I really wouldn't mind if today never ended - it's been a good day!

I had to take a work-related trip to Chicago yesterday, where I had an opportunity to visit our corporate headquarters. The HQ is located in the heart of downtown Chicago - on LaSalle Street, near the Washington Street intersection. It's a gorgeous area; I really do enjoy big cities.

I arrived a bit early for my meeting, so I grabbed a seat at the Starbucks "patio" that was located in front of our building, settled-in, did some work, and took a few minutes to do some quality people watching.

So much personality in the city - the buildings are majestic, the shade makes things seem more inviting, and the hustle and bustle makes you feel like being active - like you should be working harder. And work harder you'd have to if you wanted to live in downtown Chicago - I almost choked when I saw the hourly parking rates for the ramp I had to park in... $27/hour!!!

I made my way up to the 40th floor of the building and was stunned by the incredible views. One of the folks pointed-out this awesome "green space" that sits atop the City of Chicago's City Hall building:

Apparently that rooftop is indeed part of city hall - pretty impressive.

The meeting went well and wrapped-up at around 5:30pm or so. I then made my way over to IKEA where I bought a desk and a bookcase for the apartment. The desk turned out to be a major failure - it's far too large for the apartment, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it.

But the bookcase/entertainment stand seems to be working well:

The stand measures about 6' long and stands about 32" tall. Within the next few weeks I'll mount the TV to the wall and shuffle some things around. With any luck, I'll also sell that small 13" TV in the lower left corner of the photo, and will find a place for that box in the lower right corner of the photo. I can't wait to be 100% settled-in.

Now... does anyone need an oversized desk that's never been used? :-)

If you'll recall from my previous entry, I was contemplating the idea of heading to Summerfest. Well, after much deliberation, I decided to make the 80-mile drive to Milwaukee and check out Summerfest 2010.

The adventure began with the fight to find a parking spot, and after 20 minutes of driving around looking for lots with open parking spots available, I settled on one near the festival, ponied-up $25, and... got door-dinged by some moron who flung his door open and directly into my passenger door. I was in the truck when I heard that sickening "thud" noise - I looked over at him and all he could muster was a feeble "sorry." Ugh.

From there, I made my way to the ticket window and paid $15 for an entry ticket, then stood in a long line so that I could get frisked by some Neanderthal who when finished frisking me asked, "Do you have any illegal drugs or weapons on your person?" Um, yeah - I've got a whole boatload of drugs and a couple of Uzi's in my pocket... seriously?

Once inside, I made my way over to the US Cellular stage - it's one of the companies that I work for/with on a daily basis, so I figured I should see the stage and snap a photo (and I have no idea who the two random folks are in the middle of my picture - they just walked through as I was taking the picture).

The neat thing about Summerfest (and particularly the USC stage) is that the entire event is located quite literally on Lake Michigan - the shoreline is just a few feet away from the grounds; I took this photo from the "other side" of the USC stage:

Since there wasn't a band playing at the USC stage, I decided to walk around for a bit and check out some of the smaller stages, the vendors, and the various food stands. I stumbled across this tropically-themed stage where a band was playing some really catchy music. I have no idea who they were, but they attracted a decent crowd and they were fun to listen to. I stuck around for about 15 minutes or so, then grew tired of getting bumped into by drunk people while being cooked by the sun (there's not much shade at Summerfest).

I continued walking around the grounds, where I passed twenty-odd food vendors... and eventually settled on getting a "sampler platter" that consisted of cheese curds, chive fries, and mozzarella sticks. All for $9.

I found a seat at the Harley Davidson stage where I snapped this photo of the sampler platter:

After devouring most of that plate (it was actually quite tasty), I walked around for a bit more - I was thirsty and needed a beverage ($6 for a bottle of Lite!!!!), and I still had another section of the park to check out. I thought about taking the sky cars - they have these mini-gondolas that run from the north side of the park to the south side of the park - but decided a picture of them would suffice and a walk would do me better.

I quickly started to realize that Summerfest isn't as great as my mind likes to remember it... it's expensive, it's hot, it's crowded, the crowds are annoying, and there's far too much "downtime" between acts. And, for some strange reason, they schedule most of the bands to play at the same time; for the most part, all of the stages run on a 2-hour schedule, so at noon, all of the stages are "live." Then at 2pm, the stages are "live" again; 4pm - live; 6pm - live; 8pm - live; 10pm - live. Why they don't stagger them so that there's always a show going is beyond me...

I spied some kids playing chess - I thought the huge chess board was pretty neat:

Having covered the grounds end-to-end, I was ready to sit down and settle-in for a band or two. The Counting Crows would be playing the Harley stage, so I figured I'd go over there, stake out a good seat, and wait for the 10:00pm show to start. Two bands played prior to The Crows - the Nick Howard band and Katzenjammer. I took a decent photo of Nick Howard (who was actually quite good):

Katzenjammer played next - they're an all female group from Norway (I believe) and they were sort of neat because they all played all of the instruments at one point or another - pretty talented group to say the least.

And finally, at 10:00pm, The Counting Crows started their show. Blurry photo - I was standing on a bleacher seat getting bumped by dozens of people.

And I stayed for exactly one song. Modest Mouse was playing next door on the Miller Lite stage; I checked them out for a second, but their area was even more packed than The Counting Crows area was. And so, after driving for 80+ miles each way, spending almost $140 on parking, ticket, and food, and sitting in the hot sun for 5 hours, I left early.

Just as I was leaving, the fireworks began:

And they carried on into my drive home - a "gang" of motorcycle riders were in front of me as I left the grounds and for some reason or another we got into a "heated discussion"... I think they weren't moving for anyone and were busy revving their engines and trying to look cool... so I honked at them to get them moving, and they took exception to it. So, we had a little chat. And then a traffic cop came over and told them to move along and told me to leave them alone. Fine - in fact, I'll leave Summerfest alone all together next year. To say it was a supreme disappointment would be a major understatement.

Summerfest is a "free" concert that tests your patience, your wallet, your resolve, and your cardiovascular and digestive systems... I ate way too much junk food while there. :-)

So, yeah - next year, Summerfest will be a big "no go."

Finally, in other news - I bought my first Blu-ray DVD this weekend: Batman: The Dark Knight - and all I can say is "WOW." I'd never seen a true Blu-ray picture before... it's absolutely unbelievable. I cannot explain it and do it any type of justice - the colors are so vivid, the contrast amazing, the motion looks almost 3D, and the sound will blow you away. I tried to take a picture of the experience, but it's not going to be fair... trust me that you need to get a Blu-ray player if you haven't already.

Woke-up at 7:00 and hit the road for a 65-mile ride today, followed by a nice 7-mile run. I wanted to beat the wind (it's due to get windy today) and heat (it was in the low 80s when I finished the workout). Took a shower, threw on a pair of shorts and am now sitting on my deck, enjoying a bowl of Fiber One with blueberries and an Optimum Nutrition Strawberry Whey protein shake while listening to some music and reading the WSJ on my laptop.

Ahh.

Apologies for the dark photo; it's super sunny today and I'm sitting in the shade so the contrasts are all messed-up...The deck measures about 180 square feet (10'x18') so it's got a decent amount of room; it offers a fair amount of privacy, thanks to the solid walls, but still allows you to enjoy the outdoors. Wonderful.

I might hit Summerfest tonight... it ends tomorrow and I'm thinking it might be fun to go check out a few of the bands there.

Oh man, what a friggin' week it's been. I can't tell you how happy I am that the weekend is upon us and that it's a "long weekend" to boot. I definitely need some time to rest and relax!

I moved this week; it's hard to believe that I've been in Madison for a full year now. Seems like only yesterday I was in Austin. But, time flies when you're busy and having fun - definitely experiencing both of those scenarios with the new job and life here in MooTown. So with a year under my cheese-filled belt and the lease expired at my old apartment, I decided to find a new apartment - one that didn't have a crazy old lady as an upstairs neighbor...

And I found just such a place; smaller than the old place, just as expensive, but newer and (hopefully) a lot nicer. Bonus: no upstairs neighbors to wake me up at 4:30am as they vacuumed or did laundry - I'm on the second floor. Yay.

The moving process began about 3 weeks ago, when I started to pack-up the "non-essential" stuff. I packed "off-and-on" for about 10 days, then really turned-it-up and got to some serious packing during the last 10 days of June. I also cleaned the heck out of the old apartment - I absolutely didn't want to sacrifice any of my security deposit, so I made certain the old place was operating-room-clean.

June 30 arrived and by 5:00am I was wide awake, ready to get moving. Jed helped me pack-up the U-Haul on the previous night (thanks, Jed - I really owe you one!!!), so all that I had to do was deflate the air mattress, throw the cats into their crates, grab my cooler from the refrigerator, and head over to the new place.

And that's where things went sour. The cats (god love 'em) absolutely hate their crates. I knew this, which is why I woke-up so early - I had to be out of the old place by 9:00am, so I figured 4-hours would be plenty of time for me to get them into their crates. No such luck... they're wise little kitties, as they heard me move the crates into the bathroom.

They instantly sprung from the air mattress to the top of the cabinets in the kitchen, where they sat for 3+ hours, refusing to budge despite my best efforts to coax them down. I tried playing it cool - ignoring them; I tried putting out some "wet food" for them; I tried throwing turkey to them... nope, they were on to my plan.

So, with 15 minutes to go, I grabbed a big bath towel, climbed up onto the counter, and snagged Shiloh. As I was stepping down from the counter (with Shiloh screaming/yowling/yelping like he was possessed), Mack sunk her teeth and claws into my leg - beating me like I owed her money. She was apparently upset that I was "harming" Shiloh.

I flung her from my leg, which was now gushing dark red blood, only to have her "box me in" to the kitchen. She was "halloween cat" (arched back, hissing, swatting); after a brief stand-off, I lept over her and ran for the bathroom, where I closed the door and flipped Shiloh into his crate. He was not happy.

But I still had Mack to capture, and I was pretty certain she wasn't going to play fair. After chasing her around for a few minutes and taking some heavy battle damage to my ams, I had Mack in her crate. I locked the bathroom door, raced over to the manager's office of my new apartment, picked-up my keys, and raced back to the old apartment where I was able to check-out just in the nick-of-time.

I put the cats in the back of my truck (in their crates, of course) and drove to the new place, where I proceeded to unload the cats and the rest of the stuff from the truck. I then drove back to the old apartment, picked-up the U-Haul, and made my way back to the new place, where I was supposed to meet another friend who was going to help me unload the U-Haul.

Well, due to some extenuating circumstances, he wasn't able to make it on time, so I began unloading the U-Haul myself. I had to return it by 3:00pm, or I would've been charged a significant late fee. So, I hustled up and down the 24 stairs that connect the ground floor to my new pad. The new place is about 20-feet above ground; it's nice for views and TV reception but it stinks for moving!

After about 100 trips up-and-down those stairs, I had everything out of the U-Haul, save for the "big stuff:" a couch, the grill, the bed, and my brand spanking new 55" Samsung LCD television.

My friend was still M.I.A., and time was ticking down, so I unloaded everything by myself... I used the ramp to slide the couch down from the U-Haul and into my garage; I carefully slid the TV and grill down the ramp as well. I slipped a moving blanket under the mattress and box spring and slid them down the ramp and into the garage - pure genius if I do say so.

And just as I was wrapping-up, my friend arrived and we raced back to the U-Haul center where I returned the truck at exactly 2:59pm - a full minute ahead of the due-in time.

We drove back to the apartment, carried the big stuff upstairs and then went out for a bite to eat. I think I went to bed at around 2:30am that night.

I've spent the past 2 days cleaning and organizing the place... I've still got a ways to go - I need to mount the new TV to the wall, figure out what to do with my furniture, determine where to place cat boxes, and eliminate some unnecessary crap, but I'm making progress... I went from this:

(notice Shiloh doing his best impression of "Where's Waldo?")

...to this (sorry for the dark photos; I took them this evening at around 11:30pm without a flash):

The new place is much smaller - it's only about 800-square feet (compared to 1200+ square feet for the old place), and it's only a one-bedroom, so I'm having to get creative and efficient with my organization.

Here's a shot looking "in" to the living room from the kitchen:

Those windows open to a large deck that I absolutely love - I scored a cheap, used patio furniture set from a co-worker and can't wait to sit outside with a cold beverage and my laptop, enjoying a nice summer's evening.

Here's the massive flight of stairs that I've really started to hate:

At the bottom of those stairs are two doors - one to the left that leads into my garage, and the one straight ahead that leads outside. It's nice not having a shared hallway/entryway like the old place did. I won't have to listen to people coming and going at all hours of the day/night.

At the top of the stairs is a small "intersection" - hallway to kitchen/living room is to the left. Bathroom is the first door on the left; laundry room straight ahead; bedroom to the right.

Here's the bathroom - I found the shower curtain on Overstock.com and just bought the rugs from Bed Bath and Beyond today.

And here's the bedroom - it's a bad picture because it doesn't show much detail... there's a huge walk-in closet to the right, along with a big "nook" that currently holds my other TV (37" Panasonic LCD).

I've also got my bikes in the bedroom, and I love the 10-foot high ceilings with the tall windows. I get a phenomenal breeze here - I've yet to turn on the A/C. Granted, the sun does make things a bit toasty in the late afternoon, but the view and breeze makes it all worthwhile.

I only wish the place had more storage - I don't have a pantry, nor do I have a linen closet or storage closet... I've got a large 1-car garage (it's more like a deep, 1.5 car garage) directly below my apartment that has some storage in it, but aside from that, there's not any extra space.

I'll be happy when everything is all set to go - I'm hoping to mount the big TV to the wall this weekend, find places for everything else, and arrange my furniture in an intelligent manner. I'll share additional photos when everything is all finished.

I still need to buy a bunch of stuff - night stands, a desk, some bar stools, a book shelf, and so on... moving is expensive! But, the great things about the new place outweigh the costs: I'm upstairs, I have a total of 3 neighbors (which I've yet to hear a peep from), I get a great breeze/view, and my television reception is stellar. And, I've got my own private entry and my own garage. Woo Hoo.

I am draggin', though... between the packing, moving, unpacking, cleaning, organizing, running, riding, swimming, and working, I'm about ready to collapse. Speaking of which, it's 12:38am and I've got a long day of riding/running/organizing ahead of me tomorrow.

Unless you've been living under a rock or in a cave (or just don't care about technology), you've probably heard all about Apple's new iPhone.

And that means you've probably also heard about how ridiculously difficult it is to get one - when the phone was made available for pre-order on June 15, it literally crashed both Apple's and AT&T's web servers - their systems couldn't keep up with the demand for pre-orders. AT&T's web servers took several days to recover from the hit.

I tried to pre-order a phone on June 15, but didn't have any luck; by the time I was able to login to see if I could even attempt to place an order, Apple had sold out of phones and was predicting that the next batch would be available by July 14. AT&T announced that it wouldn't be offering any phones for sale in its stores to "walk in" customers, and worse yet, pre-ordered phones wouldn't be available until late June at best.

I wasn't too concerned; my current iPhone (the 3G) has served me very well - it's been ultra-reliable, handy, and I've really enjoyed it. So, if I had to wait for the 4, no biggie.

Well, then I started visiting forums and reading the preliminary reviews. People were getting their phones earlier than the official launch date (today - 6/24). People were reporting that Apple stores would have anywhere from a few dozen to a few hundred phones available for "walk in" sales (people who didn't successfully pre-order).

So last night, at about 8:55pm, I decided to race over to the Apple store in Madison to see if there would be a line of people. With new Apple product releases, the faithful (or nutty, depending upon your point of view), often camp out the day before the product launch. Apple was going to open its stores at 7:00am on 6/24/10 to offer the new iPhone for sale.

When I arrived at the store, there was a line of about 10 people - these folks were committed to standing in line, overnight, for at least 10 more hours... just for a phone. I figured there was no way I was going to spend all night in line; if anything, I would come back early in the morning and re-check the line - but I wasn't keen on that, since I wasn't sure if the store would even have any phones available.

I didn't sleep much last night and found myself wide-awake at 4:00am, so I hopped into the truck and took a spin down to the Apple store where I found about 200 people waiting in line. YIKES!!! "No thanks," I said as I turned around and drove back home.

I had another opportunity to drive past the Apple store at noon and again, the line was massive - at least 200 people were still waiting. I was doomed - no shot of getting a phone today, but oh well.

And then at around 4:00pm, I checked the Macrumors.com website to see if anyone had information about the Madison Apple store's stock of iPhones. And wouldn't you know it, someone posted at 3:15 and stated that they had just left the store. There were apparently "at least 400 phones" on the counter. I figured, "What the heck, I'll go check the line once more." So, a 4th trip to the Apple store led to me standing in a relatively short line of about 100 people.

The line was divided into two groups: "Reservations" (meaning you had a pre-order) and "Walk-in" (meaning you might get lucky enough to get a phone). I stood in the "Walk-in" line and was immediately annoyed by the guy in front of me - he wouldn't stop fidgeting, shifting around, craning his neck to see "how much longer" the wait would be, calling his buddies and saying, "Dude, this line is so long - it's not moving - the other line is flying, but this line is slow," and so on...

He even started pestering the Apple store employees, whining about how slow our line was moving, wondering why it was taking so long, and all sorts of other annoying stuff. The staff was getting perturbed, as were the other folks in line. He tried to talk to me a few times and I dismissed him with a, "Complaining about the line isn't going to make it move any faster - it is what it is."

Well, after about an hour and a half of waiting, I was 4th in line - only 4 "walk-ins" to go and I'd be in the store. An employee came out and looked perplexed. She studied our line and then went back inside. Now we were getting nervous, and the annoying dude was really starting to redline - I thought he was going to explode like a piece of popcorn... he was bouncing up and down, rocking back and forth, and repeating, "No, no, no, no - don't run out, no, no no, no - don't run out."

She came back out and asked the first person in our line how many phones they were buying. "One." She asked the next person. "Two." She asked the nervous guy. "One - just one - all I need is one." She asked me. "One." Then she went back inside.

She came back out a third time and said, "We might have enough for you. It's going to be close." Well, now I started to get nervous... I was so close - but yet so far.

Thankfully, after another 15 minutes or so, I was inside of the Apple store with this sitting next to me:

According to the associate who was assisting me, I scored the 3rd-to-last "walk-in" phone they had. There were seven phones left when they asked how many phones we needed - oh man, that was close! I feel bad for the other folks that were standing in line behind me.

The purchasing process was painless, quick, and very enjoyable. Apple had their system down to a "T." I was in and out within 10 minutes - they managed the entire transaction from a modified iPhone of their own (it had a barcode scanner and a credit card reader built-in to it), e-mailed me the receipt, established the AT&T service, and sent me on my way.

I got the phone home and here are some comparison shots to the iPhone 3G. The old phone is on the left, the new one on the right:

And here they are stacked on-top of one another (new phone on top):

And the desktops compared, side by side (old phone on left, new on right):

And finally, a sample web-page (old phone on left, new on right):

So, what are my initial impressions (not that you care)?

The phone feels heftier and more solid than the old 3G - it just has a more "precise" feel to it, even though it's lighter and slightly smaller than the old 3G.

The screen is definitely much improved - the text is sharper, the colors are more accurate, and the feel is better.

The speed is greatly improved - applications launch instantaneously. The extra storage capacity (32GB vs 16GB) is appreciated - I was nearly out of room on the old phone, so now I've got some space to grow into.

And that's about all that I've tested so far. The camera is supposed to be much better (it includes a flash and will also shoot HD video), but I haven't snapped any photos with it yet. Maybe I'll break it in on a fish fry tomorrow night... :-)

Would I go through the trouble to buy it again? Hmm. I don't know. It is just a phone, afterall - it's not going to change my life, make me run faster, or help me win any popularity contests... it is a nice piece of hardware, but I don't know if it's as revolutionary as the hype has made it out to be.

So long as it serves me as well as my old iPhone did, I'll be happy. I guess that's all that really matters.

So I was minding my own business late last week when I received an e-mail from the Majestic Theater - Zane Lamprey, comedian and host of Three Sheets was going to be playing a show on Friday, and tickets were still available.

With nothing else on the evening docket, I figured it would be worth my time to make the short drive downtown to check out the show. The Majestic is a storied theater that's located about a block from the capital building - it's also not too far from The Great Dane or the Monona Terrace.

Problem #1: I didn't have a ticket to the show. The box office opens an hour prior to show time, so I figured I would get into line early and buy a ticket. Just as I was nearing the box office window (the line wrapped around the block), a guy walked by asking if anyone needed a ticket - he had an extra and wanted $10 for it. I flipped him a $10, got the ticket and saved myself $11 (face value on the tickets were $20 + $1 service fee).

Once inside, I quickly found a small two-top table in an ideal location - dead center of the stage, about 15 rows back, directly in front of the sound board. Win! Problem #2: I didn't have anyone with me, so I wasn't sure how I would "hold" my table while using the restroom or grabbing something to drink... and that's when a waitress came by and asked if I needed anything to drink. Win! I probably should've bought a lottery ticket as well!

So, I had my beverage, and a great table. The place was starting to fill up; the music got a little louder, camera crews buzzed around (they were filming the show for Zane's latest television series called "Drinking Made Easy"), and I was.... getting tired.

The show didn't start until 10:00pm, and I've come to realize that I may be too old for such late night ventures. The first comedian, Marc Ryan, got onto stage promptly at 10:00 and did a great job - he entertained us for about 25 minutes, and then introduced the second "comedian," Steve McKenna.

Steve didn't do much other than drink a handful of beers and tell a few jokes. But, he did bring out Zane's "drinking character/buddy," Pleepleus.

Pleepleus has developed a bit of a cult following; Zane usually takes the much smaller, stuffed-animal version along as he tours the world and then strategically places him in various shots/scenes during filming. I'm not 100% familiar with the entire story behind Pleepleus, but I believe it's a vague reference to "getting that monkey off your back."

So, by around 11:00pm, Zane came onto stage (there was a minor set change after Steve finished), and by now I was really getting tired. The crowd was also becoming quite rambunctious and a bit restless. Zane came out and the first thing that people "demanded" was that he imbibe a bit:

Zane told a few jokes, shared some stories, and then transitioned into an educational bit about various alcoholic beverages. It was really quite interesting - he talked about various types of wine, whiskeys, beers, and so on. But, he was really losing the crowd... I wasn't sure what to expect from such a show; it became clear that most of the people there didn't really want to be "educated" about the fine differences between an Anejo and Reposado Tequila.

And so, I left early. I was simply too tired to hang around, which was a shame because I also scored a free pass to the "meet and greet" after the show. I think I would've passed out had I stuck around much longer - by the time I got home, I could barely keep my eyes open. I guess I'm not much of a party animal these days. :-D

So, I'm glad that I went to the show; I just wish they wouldn't start them so late! Had the show started around 8:00 or 9:00, things would've been perfect. But alas, I'm just an old fogey - the kids probably enjoy those later start times.

I spent the rest of the weekend doing the usual: riding and running. I've found that I seem to run better after a ride... not sure why that is, but my legs feel better when I run immediately following a ride. In fact, I'm pretty certain that my Saturday morning ride (65 miles) helped me recover from the Chicago race.

My legs had felt pretty sore all week; I didn't run on Sunday or Monday, and then I ran "lightly" on Tuesday through Friday (averaged about 5 miles per day). But after my Saturday ride, I felt brand new - I ran 9 miles without any problems or difficulty. It's so odd... I also got one heckuva sunburn on my arms - I forgot to wear sunscreen... yikes!

I rode and ran this morning (45/10, respectively) and have spent the rest of the afternoon lounging on the couch, reading a book and "watching" a little television. The cats have been keeping me company - here's Shiloh as he sits next to me:

And Mack has been watching/hunting a chipmunk that keeps running around on the patio (if you look carefully, you can see her behind the bike):

I've been debating dinner options... I'm still not certain what I'll have. Nothing really sounds good, and I'm not terribly hungry, but I've only had a bowl of Fiber One and a protein shake today, so I should eat something... pizza? Thai? Sandwich? Argh - nothing sounds good.

So, I've lived most of my life in Wisconsin... as such, I've eaten my fair share of brats - in fact, there's a story that involves me, seven brats, and a fourth of July celebration, but that's best saved for another time.

But as much as I consider myself a true "Sconnie" (Wisconsinite), I'd never heard of Bratfest until this year. Apparently, it's been taking place since 1983, and has really "taken off" in recent years. What started as a small bratfry in a grocery store parking lot has transformed into a record-setting 4-day festival that includes 200+ music acts, a carnival, fireworks, and over 200,000 brats served.

I met-up with Jed and his wife Jamie (sorry if I'm spelling her name wrong!), and promptly made my way over to the "heart" of the affair - the brat tent. Bratfest does a smart thing and sells their brats at a reasonable price - $1.50 will get you your choice of: a brat, a veggie brat, a hot dog, or a soda. For $3.00, you can get the infamous "Double Johnny" (two brats on one bun).

In addition to the intelligent pricing scheme, the logistics of Bratfest are excellent. They can move a ton of people through the lines without much delay - we stood in line for maybe 45 seconds, placed our orders, and were walking away with a bag full of brats in no time. Ballparks and other events should study this festival - the efficiency is top notch. How do they do it? Here's the grilling station, affectionately known as "Tastyville" - they had about 50 people grilling brats non-stop on more than 20 5-foot-long grilles in this area.

With brats and beverages in hand, we made our way to one of the three music stages, staked out a spot, and listened to a few bands. My only issue with the entire event stems from the music - the sound systems weren't loud enough (we could barely hear the band), and there wasn't enough seating available. Other than those two minor gripes, the event was quite enjoyable. Here's me and my brat, listening (sort of) to a band:

We stayed until about 8:30 or so; the festival closed at 9:00pm. Definitely a good night - it's always great to see Jed and Jamie; throw in some brats, beverages, and bands and you've got a winning combination. Speaking of winning combinations, it looks like Bratfest is on track to break another world record - as of last night, they had sold 172,600 brats, and only need to sell another 36,000 today to beat their previous best.

Learn more about Bratfest here - there are some interesting stats!

Sorry folks - no fish fry review this week as I had a 20K race first thing on Saturday morning, and I didn't want to be loaded down with a gut full of fish. I did enjoy a nice "carb load" on Friday night, by way of a bison steak, a sweet potato, some grilled asparagus, tomatoes, and a nice huge bowl or two of popcorn.

The race came about with short notice - I discovered it purely by accident on Tuesday of this week and was fortunate enough to secure a spot in the race. The race began at 9:00am on Saturday, with the start and finish lines located at a beautiful park in Monona.

The race course consisted of one lap around Lake Mendota for a total of 20K (or 12.45 miles). About 950 people entered the race; I thought about carrying my camera to snap some pictures along the way, but decided against it as I didn't really feel like lugging a camera around for nearly 13 miles of running.

The weather was nice - mid-60s at the start, sunny, but incredibly windy. And by "incredibly" I mean sustained winds of around 20mph, with gusts in excess of 30mph. There were a couple of times where gusts of wind literally stopped me in my tracks - I nearly fell over and/or came to a complete stop while running. It was brutal at points, for sure.

Wind aside, the race went well, although I need to remind myself to stop lining up near the back of the pack during the start of a race. I spent the first 3-4 miles weaving in and out of people, which was tiring and aggravating. By around mile 5, the herd had thinned and I was able to settle-in to my normal 8-minute mile pace.

Only surprise of the race was a rather unique "aid station" that was set-up around mile 9 or 10... two guys set-up their own table with cups, but rather than filling the cups with Gatorade or water, they had them filled with beer. I started laughing as I approached and saw their sign. I thanked them as I ran by, but declined a "cold one" - there was something about drinking a beer while running that didn't seem too wise.

I finished the race with a time of 1:44:15, which was good for #278. Not too bad, I suppose, especially given my bad choice for a starting position and the strong winds.

Here I am at the finish line, just after completing my race:

The park was really quite cool - it was huge and gorgeous, and it even had a small pond/lake in the middle of it. The race directors arranged for a band to play after the race, and they also had after-race goodies, including pretzels, trail mix, fresh cut fruit, animal crackers, and of course: beer. I just don't understand the fascination of drinking a beer after a race, but as the saying goes, "When in Rome..."

I had about 1/4 of a cup and wished I hadn't. Normally I would enjoy a frosty beverage, especially on a gorgeous sunny day, but like I said - after expending about 2,000 calories worth of energy a beer just doesn't "hit the spot."

I stuck around to watch the band for a bit:

Then I headed back to the apartment and rather stupidly went for a bike ride. Holy cats - that wind was ridiculous on my ride... I almost got blown off the road (literally) so many times that I lost count. Riding with the wind at my back, I averaged 32mph. Riding into the wind, the best I could muster was 8mph! It was absolutely insane!! I called it quits after 20 miles, admitted defeat, and fought my way back to the apartment.

When I got home, I refueled with one of my favorite post-workout meals:

1 cup of Fiber One cereal, .5 cups of Silk, some blueberries, and a strawberry protein shake. 250 delicious, refueling calories.

I joined my friends the Topels for dinner in Delafield - it was great to see them, and we had a tasty dinner at the Delafield Brew Haus.

Today, I lounged around for far too long, and then went for an 80-mile ride - I love riding out here because it's so gorgeous:

After my ride, I went for a 8 mile run, and then cleaned the apartment... nothing too terribly exciting, I'm afraid. Dinner tonight was a bison burger with a sweet potato. I'm counting down the days until Friday - I'll definitely hit a fish fry!

I ran the semi-infamous Crazy Legs Classic race today. It's an 8K (5-mile) race that starts on the Capitol Square and finishes on the 50-yard line of Camp Randall Stadium (home of the Badgers football team). The event attracts about 20,000 people and is more of a party than a race... take for example the pre-race "gathering" - I met some friends (Jed and his wife Jamie) at Genna's Lounge (a bar):

The place was packed at 9:00am with people that were running the race. And everyone was drinking bloody Marys, beers, and even mixed drinks! I was a bit surprised, to say the least. It was great to hang out with Jed and Jamie (I'm spelling her name wrong - apologies!) and some of their friends from Jed's workplace. We socialized for about an hour or so before making our way out to the Capitol Square to line-up for the race.

The race started at 10:00am with the fastest runners leaving in group "A." I was in group "W" - quite a way from the front pack. Next year, I'll request a faster group, because I spent the majority of the race trying to weave my way in and out of people as I passed them. Here we are, "in line" and waiting like cattle to hit the starting gate.

After about 20-25 minutes of standing in line, we were near the starting line. The starting line was really cool - it was filled with Badger players who were high-fiving everyone and wishing them luck. The marching band was there playing music, the cheerleaders were rooting for everyone, and Bucky was wishing everyone well. I didn't get a great picture because we were already starting to move, but you'll get the idea:

The bigger guy (#68) was obviously a lineman for the Badgers frontline... :-)

Once on the road, I tried to get a few photos, but none really turned out too well. We went from the square to Langdon Street, past the Memorial Union, up Observatory Hill, down through the dormitory area, around the hospital, under University Avenue, and then into Camp Randall. Here are a few shots from the race:

That's Langdon Street, near the Memorial Union.

And here's the "back side" of Observatory Hill:

And here's the finish line area. I tried to take a photo at the actual 50-yard line, but my iPhone camera goofed-up and the photo didn't turn out at all. :-(

I finished the race at about the 40-minute mark (update: results were posted - my official time was 40:45 and I finished #3141 out of 20,450). Not a great time by any means (about an 8-minute mile pace), but with 20,000 people to deal with it wasn't a bad race. My hat is definitely off to the Crazy Legs organizers - they know how to run a race. Everything was well organized and easy to follow, and they managed the huge group of people with absolute perfection.

Following the race, there's a big party at Camp Randall, complete with bands, brats, beer, and all sorts of goodies. I stuck around just long enough to take a few photos, including this shot of the spectators:

After snapping a few photos, I ran the course in reverse back up to the Square (people were still running the race, and after hearing "you're going the wrong way!" about 300 times I removed my race number), where I took a stroll through the Farmer's Market.

It was quite nice - not too many people as the weather wasn't great - and I scored some bison steaks from a local farmer, along with some organic tomatoes, all for less than $15. I also got a picture of the capitol with these about-to-bloom tulips:

So, all things considered, not a bad Saturday morning. I ran just under 11 miles, had a decent race, picked-up some bison, and am now relaxing at the apartment. The weather is supposed to be crummy tomorrow as well, so I'll probably be stuck riding the trainer. Argh.

Happy to report that the weekend treated yours truly quite well. It started with a decent fish fry (review will be coming shortly) and ended with some gorgeous weather. I had a chance to hang out with my friend John from Minneapolis - it's always great to see him, and it's even better when I can combine a visit with a trip to a local brewery.

On Saturday, I met-up with John in Potosi, WI. Potosi is near the Iowa/Wisconsin border - it's about 1.5 hours south west of Madison. John was there diving in a flooded mine shaft (John is an accomplished SCUBA diver) and invited me to drop by and check things out. So, I hopped in the 'ole truck and made my way down highway 151 to Potosi.

I arrived at about 3:00pm, just as John and his dive buddy were surfacing from their dive. Here they are, coming out of the water:

The area that they're exiting from once served as the main entrance to the mine. From what John said, the mine flooded in the 1960s; it provided both copper and lead back in the day. John said they had to swim about a half-mile into the mine before they got into the actual tunnels. It sounded really interesting; he also provided me with a DVD that of dive footage from the mine - I can't wait to check it out.

Here's John exiting the water - check out that diving rig:

He uses what's called a "re-breather" - that's the large thing that's hanging on his back. A re-breather captures the expended air bubbles as you're diving, cleans the carbon monoxide from the air, salvages any remaining oxygen, and then uses a chemical reaction to create new oxygen. It's all computer controlled; it allows you to dive for longer periods of time without having to carry several extremely large oxygen tanks. It's a cool device, but is extremely pricey (and quite complex).

Here's a closer-shot of the dive rig:

He wears a dry suit so that he can dive to some incredibly deep depths without getting too cold. Under that suit, he wears an electrically-heated jacket/pant suit as well. It's a really cool set-up.

Finally, I mentioned that John had some video footage of his last dive to the flooded mine. He also has an amazing video camera set-up... check out this crazy contraption:

So after leaving the mine site, we headed into Potosi for some dinner and a brew, compliments of the Potosi Brewery. The Potosi Brewery has been around since 1852 - it's one of the older breweries in the area, and from what John was saying, the brewery just recently re-opened, thanks in part to a government grant. The place was apparently left in shambles after closing its doors in 1972; the new owners have done an amazing job of restoring the buildings, which include a museum, the brewery, a restaurant, and a gift shop.

Here's the outside of the brewery:

When you walk in to the brewery, you cross over a glass covered portion of the floor; the glass shows the spring that feeds the brewery's water supply. It's pretty neat:

The bar's no slouch, either - it's very nicely done:

We took a seat at one of the tables and promptly ordered some cheese curds, some root beer (which Potosi makes onsite), and an Imperial Pale Ale (also made onsite). The curds arrived after a short wait - they were ok; nothing great... a bit greasy and slightly over cooked.

After wolfing down the cheese curds (I had ridden 45 miles and ran 15 earlier that morning), I ordered a grilled chicken salad. John opted for a grilled cheese with chef's vegetables. The salad was super good - one of the best I've had:

It was extremely fresh tasting; the chicken was perfectly prepared, and the veggies were crisp and of extremely high quality. John reported that his grilled cheese was excellent as well - it looked incredible. We chatted for a bit and then called it a night. John had a 5 hour drive back to Minneapolis; I had a 1.5 hour drive back to Madison, so we called it good.

Finally, I mentioned the weather - wow, what a gorgeous weekend we had. I woke up fairly early on Saturday morning and hit the road for a nice ride, followed by a good run. I threw on the compression recovery tights and socks in anticipation of Sunday's weather, and thankfully I wasn't disappointed...

This morning, I was greeted by a beautifully sunny morning, with temperatures in the high 50s, light winds, and not a single cloud in the sky. Donned the bike gear and hit the road - I had planned to do another 45 mile ride, but the weather was so incredible that I just kept going. Here I am at around the 55-mile mark:

It was so nice to be out on the open road rather than stuck on the trainer. One of the best things about living in Madison is that you can go from city to "middle of nowhere farmland" in about 10 minutes, as evidenced by this picture from the bike:

I made my way back to the apartment and was surprised to see that today's ride spanned 65 miles. Not bad, especially for such an early-season ride. My legs felt pretty good, so I hit the road for a short run. I didn't want to overdo things, so I kept the run on the comfortable side. I'll get up tomorrow morning and do my normal circuit.

So, that's about it - the weekend in a nutshell. I'll crank out a fish fry review tomorrow; we hit the Alchemy Cafe on Atwood - not a bad place!

I mentioned that I've been trying to reset my diet - so far, so good. I did eat a bit of pizza yesterday and may have had a donut or two, but all things considered, the new meal plan seems to be working well.

I also mentioned that I've been addicted to documentaries, and that I recently watched a movie called "King Corn." Well, one of the things they talked about in King Corn was the impact that corn has had on livestock and consequently our nutrition. They compared a cut of grain-fed (aka corn) beef against a cut of grass-fed beef - the grass-fed beef had about 10% of the fat that the grain-fed beef did. The grass-fed beef was also free of hormones, antibiotics and other undesirable stuff. It takes longer to "finish" grass-fed beef (the cow is more active and isn't ingesting insane amounts of sugar), and as such it's more expensive to purchase, but the result is better for everyone.

So this past weekend, I set about finding a local farm that raised grass-fed beef; I didn't have to look far - turns out there's a small farm about 30 minutes from the apartment that raises organic, grass-fed, free-range cattle (along with ostrich, buffalo, poultry, and pork). I stopped in and purchased a couple of beef tenderloins, some chicken breasts, and some organic, locally grown vegetables.

I waited until tonight to sample the grass-fed beef, and all I can say is: wow. It was excellent. The farmers told me that grass-fed beef cooks faster than grain-fed beef and instructed me to cook it to "no more than 125 degrees." I followed their instructions and all went well.

Here's my plated dinner:

There's a small, organic tomato (20 calories), 4oz of roasted broccoli (25 calories), 6oz of roasted mushrooms (40 calories), 6oz of beef tenderloin (240 calories), and 8 spears of asparagus (40 calories). A grain-fed portion of tenderloin would've come in at 410 calories - the difference all stemming from fat content.

So, if you have an opportunity, I'd strongly encourage you to locate a local farm that offers grass-fed meats. You'll cut down on the amount of fat that you ingest, you'll support a sustainable, locally operated business, and you'll enjoy a wonderful meal.

I almost forgot to include details about Phil & Shawn's Superbowl party from last weekend and what a great time we all had. Phil and his wife, Shawn have a lovely home just outside of Sun Prairie that they share with their three daughters. They invited a few folks over to watch the game - I was lucky enough to be invited and really enjoyed it.

Why? Well, for starters, the game was entertaining and engaging, although I must admit I didn't watch it as closely as some did, and I also managed to miss a lot of the commercials... bummer. But my reasons were valid - there was a ton of awesome food, and when I wasn't busy munching on all sorts of goodies, there were plenty of new folks to chat with - Phil's friends and neighbors were in attendance as well, and they were all a lot of fun to hang out with.

I guess I wasn't the only one who wasn't tuned-in to the game as much as I should've been:

Quite a mix - adults, kids, infants, dogs, Mark... (ha!)

They put out a great spread of food - everything from sausage and peppers to a warm beer-cheese dip to pumpkin bars... one of my favorites was this monster cookie that I believe was a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, covered with a cream cheese frosting. Yummo.

And as easily as I could have eaten the entire cookie, I only had a half of a slice, so I tried to be good. :-) I also sampled some incredible peanut butter/chocolate bars, and a mess of other tasty things.

Of course, the other secret to a good Superbowl party can be found in the fridge... you have to love being in Wisconsin:

Lots of New Glarus offerings, along with MadTown Nutbrown Ale, Rathskeller Amber, Founders Proper, and the 'ole standbys of Lite and Leine's.

Despite all of those offerings, Phil had us try one of his favorite beverages: Grappa. From what I understand, it's a brandy liquor that's made from the grape remnants of the winemaking process. It smelled like pure gasoline, but it's one of Phil's favorites, so we had to sample it. In the end, it wasn't horrible, but I probably wouldn't ask for it by name... I'd much rather stick with something like this:

(That's Phil in the background asking if anyone would like some more Grappa)

So, all in all - a great party. The game didn't turn out too badly, either. Thanks again Phil - I can't wait for the next Superbowl party (although I'll probably pass on the Grappa).

Fish Fry tomorrow... I'm just sayin'...

Moving north has had its advantages (fish frys, cheese curds, donuts, etc), but it's also had its fair share of disadvantages (snow, cold, bad drivers, etc). And with last week's blizzard event, I came face-to-face with one of the biggest disadvantages: running in the snow.

I don't mind running when it's cold out, but when mother nature serves a healthy dish of icy and snowy goodness, running becomes not only difficult, but dangerous. As soon as we knew for certain that snow was imminent, I made sure to sneak in a long "final" outdoors run.

The day of the blizzard, I ran indoors on a treadmill (our office has a nice gym available for free), and I was immediately reminded of how much I loathe treadmills. Grinding out six or seven miles on a treadmill is pure torture - it's so boring and dull, even with headphones and a television. After the third mile, I would've given anything to be running outside... but, with 16-18" of snow covering every passable surface, my wishes were unlikely to be realized.

So, I trudged out 3 more days on the dreadful treadmill... in the meantime, I looked for solutions to help me get outdoors to run again - I looked at snow shoes, trail running shoes, slip-on spike systems - you name it, I looked at it. None of the solutions got rave reviews from online sources; fewer fit my shoes (size 13). I was growing desperate...

I had stumbled across an article about using sheet metal screws as replaceable spikes, but was afraid to try it for a number of reasons. After careful consideration, I ventured to the local hardware store and bought a handful of 3/8" long sheet metal screws. I placed 10 screws into each shoe (6 on the front, 4 on the heel) and gingerly stepped into them. I didn't feel anything sharp or pointy, so I donned the rest of the running gear and hit the outdoors.

Success!! The screws worked like magic. They gave me ample traction when the going got rough; they worked best on icy or hard-packed snowy surfaces. On dry sections of sidewalk, they're a bit noisy and you can feel that the shoe isn't completely "normal," but it's not uncomfortable by any means. Winner, winner chicken dinner!!

I've done 5 runs on the current set of screws, and it's looking like I'll have to replace the screws with some fresh ones. Although, to be honest, the sidewalks were about 98% clear today, so I may run without the spikes until the next snow storm hits. Here's what the screws look like after about 45 miles of use:

It's amazing how well that $0.70 solution works, especially when it's compared to other solutions that cost upwards of $40. It's also refreshing to know that when the next snow storm hits that I won't have to spend too much time on the 'ole dreadmill. :-)

We're off to a fish fry tonight, so stay tuned for an update later on!

... and the fireplace is anything but delightful... (the apartment has a fireplace, but it's not in use)

So, for those who may not have heard, Madison (and most of Wisconsin) got socked with a true blizzard last night! The weather-guessers are reporting that we've had 16-inches of snow so far, with another pile due to arrive today.

Here's what it looked like from the living room this morning at around 8:00am.

Nearly everything is closed, which is quite unusual as Wisconsin can usually deal with a lot of snow. Even the Metro Bus was delayed; malls are closed, as are all of the schools. But my workplace is open, and since I live about 3 miles from the office, I decided to venture in.

Finished my bike ride (on the trainer, in the living room - I'm not quite that crazy to ride outside), and then laced up my new winter boots. Bought these a few months ago - people laughed, but who's smiling now? My feet are nice and warm, and dry, even after trudging through a solid foot-plus of snow. :-)

Thank goodness for underground parking! The car was clean, dry, and toasty warm - they keep the garage at 65F, so there was no dealing with any scraping or "digging out." Did have a tough time getting up the hill that leads you out from under the building; it was pretty icy. These poor folks didn't fare as well:

The most treacherous part of the commute was the apartment's parking lot - seriously! The roads weren't too bad, but they were pretty empty. This is University Avenue, which on any other day would be packed with cars. Today it was packed with snow and not much else:

Normally, dealing with a lot of snow isn't too much of a challenge, but what's going to make this storm interesting is that they're calling for gusty winds that'll start this afternoon - gusts up to 50mph, with steady wind speeds of around 30-35mph. Blowing snow = large drifts, and the drifts can create a real headache.

It's been a little breezy today - here's what the stoplight near my office looked like as a result of "light" winds.

Combine all of that snow with gusty winds and falling temperatures, and you've got a recipe for an unpleasant environment. It's currently about 30F outside, which isn't too bad, but the temps are dropping. They're saying it'll be a low of around zero tonight, and tomorrow's high temperature is supposed to be 8F. Yep, that's EIGHT. 8F with super windy conditions, and the windchill should hit about -20F.

I may have to run on the treadmill tomorrow. :-(

Anyway, I made it in to the office - here's our parking lot:

I have to laugh - I just overheard someone who came in from outside say, "It's not too bad out there, I've seen worse." Gotta' love it.

Has it really been more than two weeks since my last blog entry? Wow, I guess it has been! Time flies when you're busy with things; I apologize for not posting an entry for so long.

So let's get caught up. First things first: I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, and that the turkey was tasty, the stuffing scrumptious, and the pie perfect. Mine was, well, interesting... but more on that at a later date. I need to relax a bit and look at things objectively, but let's just say that I won't be heading north of Madison or over toward Fitchburg for any events of any type in the foreseeable future.

But enough about that. What's been happening? Well, I'll tell you what hasn't been: fish fry. Yep, you heard that right. We've taken a break from gorging ourselves on fish each Friday because it's been setting us up for an entire weekend of bad eating. So, an executive decision was made: we're taking a small hiatus from fish frys.

In other news, many of you may recall that I have a favorite radio show that's hosted right here in Madison and is called "Whatdya' Know with Michael Feldman." I've been to a few live showings and have always wanted to participate in the show, either as a contestant or as a "contributor" by way of a funny story or odd-ball question.

I had my chance to participate two weekends ago, when Michael chose me to play in the Whatdya' Know Quiz. The quiz usually occupies the last 15 minutes of each hour of the show (it's a 2-hour show), and it works by pairing an audience member with someone who calls in via telephone and correctly answers a qualifying question.

Once the "team" is identified, Michael asks up to 5 questions from categories that include: current events, people, places, science, odds-n-ends, and "things you should've learned in school had you been paying attention." The questions are usually quite random and odd, but most folks seem to win (thanks to Michael's guidance toward the correct answers).

Winners take home a "treasure trove" of prizes that are usually as off-the-wall as the questions from the quiz. It's the highlight of the show, so if I was ever to be selected, there was certain to be pressure to perform.

Well, I was selected and I bombed. Michael usually walks around the audience looking for volunteers to play the quiz, and tons of people raise their hands. I raised mine and he immediately walked over to ask my name and where I was from. Ok, no problem. Then he asked for "one good reason why you should play the quiz."

Now... this is where you can shine or bomb. I had dozens of witty replies prepared - everything from, "because it'll make a great blog entry" (thus setting up a segue to a discussion about my blog) to "because I'm not wearing underwear" (thus setting the tone for a wacky dialogue)... I'd practiced my response for years.

But, when the time came, I choked. I mumbled something about the Badgers football score and that by winning the quiz it might motivate the team. Michael looked at me as if I was from another planet, and from there it went downhill.

I tried making a few jokes; poking fun at myself, suggesting a cheesy name for my team, and so on, but it all failed. ARGH - nothing like bombing on a nationally broadcast radio show.

That's me up on stage, playing the quiz. I was paired with a gentleman by the name of "Mac" from Ohio, who was on a crummy cellphone connection in his garage - he was hard to hear. I was also incredibly distracted by Michael's computer screen - it was constantly being updated with information about the telephone lines (via an Excel spreadsheet). And, I could see the answers to each of the quiz questions - Michael held the cards in a way that I could easily read the correct answer...

But, I didn't answer a single question. I felt guilty for being able to see the answers, so I let Mac, Michael, and the audience sort of "fill-in" the blanks. I was a miserable contestant - boring, uninteresting, and a complete downer.

Alas, with the show running out of time, we won the quiz, and my treasure trove included this little bounty of goodies:

The haul included some concentrated cherry juices (tart cherry, cranberry mix, blueberry mix, and one other), the Whatdya Know home game, and an eclectic mix of greeting cards from a fabric museum in Missouri.

Other than that, there's not much exciting news to share... I ran a 10K race on Thanksgiving morning, called "The Berbee Derby." I did pretty well - there were about 5000 runners; I finished 460th, with an average pace of 7:56/mile. Not my best time, but it was only 32F and incredibly windy - I think the steady wind speed was about 18-19mph.

And finally, I ventured out to a "Black Friday" event early this morning... a local sporting goods store had advertised Smartwool socks at 50% off, and since they're some of my favorite socks, I figured I'd grab a few pair.

Came to discover that the "sale" only included "select" styles and sizes from a specific rack... so, after standing in line for more than 30 minutes with six-pair of socks, I was told that none of my selections were on sale. And so continues my luck... :-)

The company that now employs me is a pretty cool place for a number of reasons, but perhaps one of the best things they do is place a big emphasis on the importance of maintaining a proper "work-life balance." They do a great job of recognizing people's hard work and efforts, and are extremely supportive of everything, especially team-building exercises.

So, each department is allowed a budget for team-building activities, and as the "new guy," I was tasked with planning a group outing/event for our department. After floating several ideas out to the group, we decided to tour Taliesin, which is Frank Lloyd Wright's home, studio, and school - it just so happens to be located in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

We selected October 21 as our "outing day," booked tour tickets, made lunch reservations, called "dibs" on some of the company vans, and cleared our calendars. The 21st came, and off we went. We started the day with some donuts, bagels, coffee, juice, and milk at the office, then hit the road.

The weather wasn't too cooperative at first; it was warm (mid-50s) but rainy... and we were all a bit scared by the general condition of one of our vans - it looked a bit "urban" to say the least.

That's Phil in the front seat; he's inspecting some of the van's safety equipment. I'm not sure if he did that because I was driving or if because the van didn't do much to bolster our confidence?

The drive to Spring Green is relatively short - it took about 40 minutes to travel there, and thanks to the fall foliage, the scenery was absolutely beautiful. I forgot how lovely it is when the trees are changing color. Here we are at the entry gate to the Taliesin visitor center.

Taliesin is pronounced "Tahl-EE-ess-in" and it's Dutch for "Shiny Brow." Mr. Wright's parents were Welsh, and he apparently knew a few words here and there, so he selected Taliesin as the name for the 600 acres on which he built several homes (for himself, his parents, and a few of his aunts), his studio, a farm, and eventually a design school.

Contrary to popular belief, he did NOT build "The House on the Rock." That structure, while located within close proximity to Taliesin, was actually built by Andrew Jordan, Jr, and is an interesting story by itself... You can read more about the story over at Wikipedia.

We spent some time in the gift shop, then headed over to the school. The tour folks don't allow anyone to take photos of the inside of the facilities (probably because the place is quite rundown and in dire need of restoration), so the photos that I took are all from the outside.

Here's the school facility, as seen from our tour bus:

The school features a large social/gathering room with an upstairs study/library, a theater, a dining hall, a design/learning studio, presentation rooms, and dorm rooms. Believe it or not, the school is still in operation today... I say that, only because none of the buildings are heated, and none of the buildings have doorways with any type of threshold.

FLW was big on incorporating nature and surroundings with his work, so he did things like source all of his building materials from local resources (local to the property), and to really focus on making the structure be "one" with the landscape - his buildings followed the landlines; he didn't clear a site and build on "flat" land. He also liked to carry outside elements to the inside, and that's why there aren't any thresholds on his doorways - he felt a threshold created a dividing line... so, as such, there are gaps of an inch or more under every door. He also liked to use unrefined rock as flooring, on both the outside and inside - hence, no "sealing" under doorways.

Here we are, about to enter the school's entertainment hall:

The students were all in Arizona, which is where "Taliesin West" is located; it's a satellite school where the students study during the winter months. The interesting thing about this school is that it's more of a "community" - the students are required to contribute efforts as laborers for the community by assisting with farming duties, cooking, cleaning, and caring for alumni members who come to visit or may still reside at Taliesin. Interesting concept, to say the least.

The students also help with designing commissioned projects, which turns out to be a good thing. FLW, while a talented designer, placed a preference on "form" over "function." As such, many of his structures haven't aged real well; although many have. It seemed to be hit-or-miss... this particular building appears to have held up well - check out the date on the cornerstone:

From the school, we headed over to his residence, which incorporated his living quarters, his primary design studio, his entertainment areas, and a farm - all in one building. The building survived (well, portions of it did) three fires; that's another interesting story to say the least... it's massive and very cool, but alas, very rundown.

Here's part of it, as seen from our bus:

And here's the parking area - the architecture is so cool:

We spent a good hour and a half inside of his home, and then wound-up in the backyard, where we were allowed to take a few pictures. This is a photo taken from the mezzanine of FLW's bedroom:

Pretty spectacular, eh? FLW was big on having "uninterrupted views" of the surrounding nature - he didn't want to look out from any window and see another structure. I'd say "mission accomplished" in this case.

Here's a view of part of the house and the back courtyard:

And one more:

The tour came to an end, and we made our way over to The Old Feed Mill in Mazomaine, where we enjoyed a nice group lunch. After lunch we drove back to Madison and called it a day.

For those that may be interested in learning more about Frank Lloyd Wright and Taliesin, check out the Taliesin Preservation website, and if you have a chance, take a tour. It's really quite interesting stuff.

What a week. Work has been absolutely crazy; didn't have much time to do anything all week, so when Friday came along, no one had to twist my arm to lead the way to a fish fry.

Decided to head down to Belleville to check out Borland's Tavern. I had been to Borland's about 15 years ago and really enjoyed it; I hoped it would be as good as the 'ole memory bank made it out to be. Belleville is about 15 miles south of Madison - about half way to New Glarus, and aside from Borland's, there isn't much else in the town, so if the fish wasn't decent, we'd be hiking it back toward Madison for dinner.

After the short drive south, we hit Main Street Belleville and there she was - the familiar Borland's sign. Shining like a beacon, beckoning us to come on in and sample the fish.

We walked in and everything was exactly as remembered - the bar with the old fashioned stools, the fluorescent lights, paper placemat/menus, the paneling; this place had all of the ingredients to be fantastic!

The Borland's menu is fairly limited - it's first and foremost a bar - we didn't see any cheese curds on the menu, so we ordered an Old Fashioned Sour and the fish. Borland's offers one type of fish: deep fried cod. Take it or leave it, thankyouverymuch.

The Old Fashioned arrived and it was...... well, a good effort.

Can you spot what's wrong with the Old Fashioned? That's right - no muddling, no cherries, too light on the bitters, and far too heavy on the whiskey. They did use Squirt, so the potential was there. Thankfully it was only $2.50.

Shortly after we finished sampling the Old Fashioned our plates arrived. I was starving, as I didn't have a chance to eat anything at all on Friday (thanks to work being ridiculously busy), so I went with the "double order" of fish.

What you're seeing here is: six pieces of fish, a huge side of coleslaw, some bread, and an order of fries. But you came here for the review, so let's get on with it. The fish was absolutely great (or at least my plate was). Yes, it was breaded (loses points), but the breading was light and crisp and didn't overpower the fish. The fish itself was excellent - light, flaky, moist - all of the things you'd expect or want from great fish. My only complaint is that it wasn't all you could eat, although that's probably for the best - I would've probably run them out of business if it was.

I skipped the slaw (I'm not a slaw fan), so nothing to report there. The bread was great - most likely homemade, very soft, slightly chewy, and delicious. The fries were excellent as well - I have a feeling Borland's knows their way around the fryer because the fries were perfect.

With the belly full of fish, it was time to call it a night.

Saturday night brought a Badger hockey game - found some tickets via Craigslist and ventured over to the Kohl Center to watch Bucky do battle with the Colorado College Tigers. The seats were pretty phenomenal - right behind the goal.

During the warm-ups, the players rifle the pucks toward the goal and a lot of them miss, which results in the loudest "WHACK!" noise you've ever heard as the puck flies into the plexiglass barriers at about 100mph. It was a bit unnerving to say the least, but sitting a few rows from the ice made the flinching worthwhile. Here's the Zamboni in action:

The game started and it was pretty cool - the action, the speed, the tenacity of the game - it's quite a fun time. Got to see a few scuffles, including this little tiff... I wish I knew hockey rules a little better - the game would've made more sense.

Here's Bucky during one of the "halftimes" - I'm not even sure what they call the downtime that takes place between the three periods.

The Badgers wound-up tying the Tigers: 1 to 1. The game was a lot of fun, though - there'll definitely be more hockey games in the future!

Rather than fight the masses that were leaving the Kohl Center, it sounded like a good idea to hit the local watering hole for a beverage. Nothing to really report from here, other than I saw my first "stein" - check out this monster:

That's a 5-liter stein, next to a "normal" 1-liter stein. There was a group of guys that staggered in to the bar and wanted to order a boot, but because the bar was so busy, they were out of boots and suggested the stein. All I can say is - WOW. The thing is massive. I'm not even sure how they picked it up, since it's ceramic and had to weigh 20 pounds empty!

Finally, had a chance to ride the bike outside today; the weather was gorgeous, if not windy. It was sunny, in the low 40s, and a perfect day to hit the road. 2 minutes on the trainer seems like an eternity; 2 hours on the road, on the other hand, feels like 2 minutes, even when it is cold and windy. I'm not sure how many more opportunities there will be to ride outdoors... and that makes me a bit sad.

So there you have it - not a bad little weekend. Oh, and for those scoring at home - there were actually 4 Bs (if you count the beer in the stein).

Happy October, folks! Although I don't know how happy things can be when the high temperature so far has been about 50.000F! The past few mornings have been especially chilly - during one run earlier this week, the thermometer said 34F. Nice!

Work has been busy - my projects are in full tilt mode; phase one of one of the projects is due to launch next week and there's still a ton of things to take care of, so I kept my head down most of the week and focused on getting as much done as possible. We sent nearly 2700 "grid cards" out on Tuesday alone - that was an interesting day!

So, when Friday came and the opportunity to eat two - yep, you heard right - two fish frys came about, I jumped at the chance. First stop was to the local watering hole - Paul's Neighborhood Bar. We had heard the fish at Paul's was phenomenal, so we stopped in for lunch to check it out.

Unfortunately, the fish fry at Paul's doesn't start until 4:30pm... so, we were "stuck" with having to find an alternative. I spied a baked cod special for $6 and decided to give it a try. The fish was great - but the plate was doused in butter... argh.

And as if covering the fish, the potatoes, and the beans in butter wasn't enough, they serve it all with a side of butter. You have to love Wisconsin.

The good news is that the fish was quite good. I sandwiched it between a few napkins in an attempt to soak up as much butter as possible, skimmed as much butter off the potatoes as possible, and enjoyed the lunch.

For dinner, the crew hit Norm's Hideaway Bar and Grill, which is located on Lake Koshkonog, just outside of Fort Atkinson and not too far from Busseyville.

Some coworkers had told us about Norm's, and after checking with a few other sources, Norm's earned a shot at being reviewed/rated by The Friday Night Fish Fry Fanatics.

The place sits literally "on the lake" and has a great northwoods/rustic feel to it. The only downside is that they allow smoking inside, but thankfully it wasn't terribly busy and therefore it wasn't terribly smokey.

Here's a shot of the bar area - we sat here for a bit while waiting for a table to open up (it's first come, first served for seating, and you order all of your food/drinks/etc at the bar).

The bartenders were friendly, fast, and helpful. We chatted with one of them for quite a bit - she gave us some tips about the food, and later shared some appetizers with us.

While waiting for our table, we ordered some appetizers - white cheese curds and mini corndogs. They were pretty tasty - the curds were good; not homemade, but good.

A table opened up, and we ordered fish - I was the only one to go with baked fish, and decided to try the Fiesta Poached Cod. It was three pieces of poached cod, topped with a roasted garlic salsa and served with potato pancakes. It looks odd in the photo, but trust me when I say it was absolutely delicious. The fish was light, flaky, flavorful, and tender. The salsa and potato pancakes were great as well. The potato pancakes weren't as good as the ones from Palmyra, but they were a close second!

Other fish orders included Walleye, which earned rave reviews (no photo, sorry!) and the deep fried cod, which was extremely tasty. The fried cod was served nice and hot; it was lightly battered, moist, delicately flavored, and not the slightest bit greasy - not even after it sat for a while, which is a great indicator of a well-fried piece of fish. And, it was $9 to boot - talk about a bargain!

We'd highly recommend Norm's Hideaway - great fish, great location, friendly service, and outstanding value. It's definitely worth the 25-30 minute drive from Madison.

I woke up this morning to weather that was, well, not so great - low 40's and raining. So, it was time to break out the dreaded trainer. I don't hate the trainer at all; in fact, I really like it, but I don't enjoy riding on the trainer because it's quite boring. Nothing like riding on a bike treadmill for an hour or so.

The other thing that scares me about the trainer is that I'm still not convinced that it's OK to use a carbon fiber bike on the trainer... the bike's bottom bracket seems to "flex" a lot while riding, and that makes me nervous - I'm afraid it's going to crack or become damaged. I really need to get a second bike for trainer/commuter use.

After riding for 70 minutes, I hit the road for a run, then went over to Oktoberfest at Quivey's Grove. Quivey's Oktoberfest is quite an event - they invite 35 microbreweries to their grounds (Quivey's is a restaurant) and for $30 you get a small tasting glass and the chance to sample as many of the microbrews as you wish.

The event is quite popular - it sells out months in advance, and people arrive early to get in line - this is the line, nearly 30 minutes before the event was due to open, and with the weather not being real friendly (rainy and cold).

Once inside, it was a madhouse. People everywhere, all eager to try the different microbrews. Tried a bunch of different offerings - some were really good, others not so much. Quivey's did a great job of thinking of just about everything - they had this ingenious little "washing station" where you could rinse your glass between tastings. So simple, yet so effective - a horse trough, some PVC pipe, and a garden hose.

There was even a band that played a nice variety of music; mostly "rockabilly" type music, but they were pretty decent. The funny part of it was they kept stopping the band so that the Badger football game could be played over the PA (the Badgers won, by the way).

Quivey's also had food offerings that included bratwurst, soft pretzels, pulled pork, chicken sandwiches, and cheese curds. Tried the pulled pork sandwich (absolutely phenomenal) and a brat (decent, but not amazing). But perhaps the coolest thing at the event were these pretzel necklaces. Here's Jed showing off his edible neck ornament:

With nearly 1000 people crowded into the tent, a belly full of pork, brats, and microbrew, and the weather not giving any sign of getting any warmer, it was time to call it a day. Headed back to the apartment and am sitting on the couch, watching some football. Hope you're all having a good weekend - we'll see you next week.

Here's one final shot of the people inside the tent at Quivey's. If you look really closely, you can see some of the breweries around the perimeter of the tent.

Can you believe that September is almost behind us? It seems like just yesterday when we were celebrating the 4th of July... it's incredible how time literally flies by.

Speaking of time, I'll keep this entry brief; for those that are keenly aware of my blog and past entries, you may recall a post or two about a book and author that I stumbled across some time back while listening to Michael Feldman's radio show. The book was called The Omnivore's Dilemma and it was by Michael Pollan. The book was amazing; everyone should take the time to read it because it really will open your eyes about food - where it comes from, how it impacts us (economically, environmentally, nutritionally, and so on), and how there are responsible and irresponsible ways to produce and consume food.

Anyway, Michael Pollan has a new(ish) book, and he stopped by Madison to promote it. He spoke to a group of about 7,000 people at the Kohl Center on Thursday night, and as luck would have it (and time allowed), I was able to stop by and check him out.

The "show" was free - just had to park, walk in, and find a seat. It lasted for about 2 hours and it was really interesting, as you can likely imagine. Apparently the new book, In Defense of Food has caused a stir - it's got people taking sides for a number of reasons, which is probably good because it ultimately means that people are reading the book, digesting the message(s), and feeling strongly about it. I managed to score a copy of the book at the show - autographed and all - for $9. A nice find, for sure, and I've just started to read it so I'll report back on it when I finish it.

Having spent Thursday night with Mr. Pollan, Friday night was just around the corner, and that meant another fish fry was in order. The crew decided to try Christys Landing, which is located on the western "coast" of Lake Waubesa. It's a tricky place to find by car; by boat it would be quite easy.

Christys has an unusual layout - it's similar to The Stamm House; you enter at the "bar level," with all dining taking place upstairs. There's a hostess who waits at a makeshift hostess station near the bottom of the stairs, and when you're ready to eat, you walk over and request a table from her. She takes you upstairs, where there are about 10 tables and just two waitresses.

Upon being seated, we ordered some onion rings and cheese curds - the crew was starving, and the service was a tad on the slow side, so we "over-ordered" in the interest of staving off our hunger as quickly as possible.

Here are the curds and the rings:

As you can tell from the photos, the appetizers weren't anything special by any means - just your standard "from the freezer to the fryer" Sysco offerings. But, they were cooked well, and being as hungry as we were, they did a fair job of satisfying us. We placed our fish orders - cod all around, and also ordered an Old Fashioned (as is tradition).

The Old Fashioned wasn't muddled (strike one), and didn't come with olives (strike two). Despite these two strikes, it wasn't bad - the crew thought it was a decent effort, but definitely not noteworthy.

We also sampled the chicken chili, and were pleasantly surprised - it was extremely hardy, with huge chunks of pulled chicken and just the right amount of zing. Despite the great chili we were still a bit nervous about the rest of the dinner... the service was slow, and with the exception of the chili, nothing really "stood out" as spectacular.

But alas, our concerns were for naught - the fish arrived, and it was outstanding. Here's the fried cod with cheesy home fries (red potatoes with onions) - sorry for the bad photo... iPhone... you know how it goes...

And here's the cod with curly fries:

The fish was easily top three quality fish - huge, thick cut portions of cod with a perfect beer batter, all flawlessly executed - no grease, no odd taste, just fantastic fish, plain and simple. Served nice and hot, the fish was delicate, "meaty," and flaky without being crumbly. Excellent job on the fish, for sure.

The curly fries were delicious as well, but the final pleasant surprise were the home fries - boiled and grilled red potatoes, mixed with onions, peppers, and cheese - yummy. Very good.

The bread basket was also great; the first round of bread included mostly wheat and potato buns; the second round featured Asiago cheese-enhanced rolls.

Value was great - the plates of fish were $10.95 and included salad/soup. We'll definitely go back to Christys.

Have a good week, everyone. We're still working on the new site (wisconsinsupperclubs.com); it'll be a few weeks before it's up and running, so until then, you'll have to suffer through fish fry reviews here at geekysteve.com... :-)

First things first - I realize that most of you are getting tired of reading about fish frys and biking and running, so it's time for a brief announcement: the fish fry crew has decided to venture out and start our own website, dedicated strictly to reviewing fish frys and supper clubs. We purchased a new domain name and I'm in the process of putting together the site. It'll be a month or so before things are up and running, but keep your eyes open for the new site - it's called www.wisconsinsupperclubs.com. It's got "place holder" text there now, but as soon as we can figure out how to organize the site, lay it out, and get some Google AdWords running, we'll have it live.

So, with that said, it's time for another fish fry review. :-)

The crew hit The Stamm House in Middleton, and despite looking good on paper, it failed to deliver. In fact, it may have been one of the worst fish frys ever. Why?

Simple - the fish was icky. There's no better way to state it than "icky." It had the most ridiculously strong fishy (and not in a good fishy way) taste; I'm pretty sure that even the worst cafeteria fish would blow away the Stamm House fish. It took a lot of ketchup and a lot of lemon to choke down their fish. Ugh. So disappointing...

It wasn't terribly greasy, and it was breaded quite nicely. But aside from that, it was downright awful. The restaurant itself was pretty cool - lots of history, lots of charm, good service; but that was about all they had to offer.

Didn't do too much on Saturday - went to Johnson Creek and bought a winter jacket (!!!), then went to the Come Back Inn to watch some football, and prepare for my triathlon. ;-)

I did the Devil's Challenge Triathlon today, which is held at Devil's Lake State Park, just outside of Baraboo. The park is beautiful - here's a shot of the lake about an hour before the race started:

The weather was cool at 7:00am - about 50-ish. By race time (8:00am), the temps were in the low 60s, so it wasn't too bad. Here we are, getting ready to hit the water - I think the race started about 30 seconds after this photo was snapped:

For some reason, that photo is just hilarious to me - I look like a 1930's bomber pilot with those goggles on. :-) So, the race went about as I expected - the swim was terrible (go figure), and it was complicated by tons of seaweed and extremely shallow water. Here I am coming out of the water, with my wetsuit already about half-off:

That wetsuit was more trouble than it was worth - the water wasn't too terribly cold (72F) - it really slowed me down in the first transition... it took me over 4.5 minutes to get out of that wetsuit and onto the bike. I don't know how the other guys change so quickly - most folks were done with their swim transition in 2 minutes! Anyway, with the wetsuit off, it was time to head out on the bike:

The bike course was super hilly - just what I like. The first 2 miles of the ride are essentially up a steep hill. I passed dozens and dozens of people on that hill - some people were throwing up, others were crying (men and women alike); it was pretty odd. I'm so glad that I torture myself each weekend with a super hilly 60+ mile practice route. :-)

Finished the bike section pretty easily - here I am coming in from the ride, running my bike back to the transition area:

The bike transition went fairly well, but I'm still quite slow in transition... my T2 time was nearly 3 minutes; for comparison, other guys did it in under a minute. UGH!!!!

I ran well, despite the hilly run course, and finished the run portion (3.1 miles) in just over 23 minutes. I felt really good during the entire run - I could've kept going without any trouble, but time was up and here I am coming across the finish line:

I managed to finish in 1:30:07, which was good enough for 161st place out of 620 people. In my age group, I finished about middle of the pack - 24th out of 46. The transition times literally cost me 5 spots in my age group alone... if I would've had an "average" transition time, I would've finished 19th out of 46. I really need to fix those!

So, that's it for now... oh, almost forgot - celebrated the finish with some breakfast at Mr. Pancake in Wisconsin Dells:

Yum! Time to be good again - cold weather is coming, and that means I'll have to curb the binge eating on the weekends. :-(

Early review - surprise!

Started the weekend by attending special party at my favorite bike store, Cronometro; they had a bit of a customer appreciation/new product line introduction gala, and it sounded interesting, so it was over to Willy Street to check out the party and to check out the Ridley line of bicycles.

Ridley reps were there, which was cool, because Ridley has a great line of "Cyclocross" bikes that have caught my eye. I'd love to get another bike to use for commuting to and from work, riding on trails, and using on the trainer during the winter. I really liked this model, the X-Fire:

Unfortunately, that bike is quite a bit out of my price range. As shown above, that bike runs right about $6,000. Yikes!! Thankfully, there are some that are a bit more affordable, like this interesting Crossbow model, shown here with a fender kit and the latest Ultegra components.

After spending about 30 minutes oggling the new bikes, chatting with folks, and sampling some Belgian beverages (Ridley is based in Belgium), it was time to head out for the fish fry.

The crew decided to hit Toby's Supper Club, which is located just outside of Madison, on Stoughton Road. The place received stellar reviews from several web sites, although some of the folks from work warned us that it might be a bit "local" or "townie."

The place is tiny - hardly bigger than an average living room - and as such, was absolutely PACKED full of people. We arrived at around 7:30pm, and the place was jumping - we could barely find a place to stand while waiting for a table. And while there were obviously a bunch of "locals" there, the crowd was friendly and enjoyable, and thank goodness for that - check out how packed the bar was:

The entire time that we sat at the bar, the bartenders literally flew around, multitasking like crazy. It was nothing for them to be filling two drink orders (mixing several drinks at the same time), while making change for someone at the bar, and taking a new drink order from someone in line. And they never once missed a beat - it was pretty fun to watch them work their magic.

Toby's has a unique ordering system - while seated or standing at the bar, one of the bartenders somehow notifies a waitress that you'd like to order food. Out of nowhere will appear a waitress, who takes your order, and tells you that she'll get you once the table and food are ready. With so many people stacked in the place, we found it hard to believe that this would actually work, but it did.

Our wait was long - about 2.5 hours - but well worth it! While sitting at the bar, we started off with the customary cheese curds, which were solid. Top 3 rank for curds, for sure:

We generally prefer a battered curd to a breaded curd, but the cheese in these curds was so good that it made up for the non-battered-nature. The ranch was also spectacular. Curds = WIN.

And before we knew it (the clock had struck 10:00pm), our table and fish were ready. The table was outfitted with the customary Supper Club fare: a veggie bowl and a bread bowl.

And then came the fish. Toby's offers: Baby Pike, Cod, and Lake Perch. And the prices are more than reasonable - no more than $13 for a plate. Here's the cod:

It was superb. Unbelievably good - easily Top 2 fish. Why so good? Once again, the fish is breaded, which is normally not a point-scorer for us. But, the breading is light, the fish is fried perfectly (not a hint of grease anywhere), and it's served piping hot. The flavor is unreal - the fish is the actual star of the plate; it's not overwhelmed by breading or spices, or anything unusual. Simple = good, and Toby's cod is GREAT.

Here's the combo plate (Lake Perch on the left, Baby Pike on the right):

Just like the Cod, these two offerings were stellar and beyond compare, and for the same reasons as the Cod. Lightly and perfectly breaded, expertly fried, and packed with wonderful, yet delicate fish flavor. Well worth any wait, plain and simple.

And the service was equally fantastic - our server, Rhonda, was great - super fun, helpful, and tolerant of our boisterous crew. Here's me and Rhonda:

We called it a night and left Toby's content, happy, and raving about how incredible the fish was. We'll definitely be back!

Saturday morning came much too early, especially given there was a 54-mile bike race in Fort Atkinson that I had entered. It's called "Ride the Rock" and it benefits the local literacy council (I think). The race started at 8:30am from Jones Park in Fort Atkinson. Here we are leaving as a group to start the race:

The race went horribly. I've discovered that I absolutely hate bike racers - they're some of the most self-centered, inconsiderate, unnecessarily aggressive riders on the planet. I was basically run off the road within the first few miles of the race by the "teams," all of which were trying to jockey for position by literally elbowing and bumping people out of the way... all within the first 3-4 miles of a 54-mile race. Really?

Factor in that the race wasn't a sanctioned event and that it was basically a charity ride, and it's just all the more silly to risk crashing and wrecking your bike, breaking bones, or causing harm to other people. Yet these guys don't apparently care... you'd think they were trying to qualify for the Olympics or something. To heck with that. After I hit the gravel, I let the group get ahead of me, and I rode out the "race" without worry of getting in a wreck.

Unfortunately, the group will always ride faster than a solo rider, by a pace of around 4-5mph. So, within the first lap (18 miles), I had completely lost site of the pack. That was fine by me. Here I am passing through a little town on my second lap:

And here I am at the finish line, giving a solid "thumbs down" to the group. The race was generally well organized, the course was well marked, and the support crews were good, I just wish my "fellow riders" shared some of those qualities.

So, yeah - no more bike races (or more specifically, bike racers) for me. I'll just enjoy my triathlons, where the emphasis is on the individual's effort, and not impacted/driven by mob mentality.

Interesting title, I know... but it sums up the weekend and might (?) make some sense... Had another busy weekend - with the weather being as nice as it has been, it only seems reasonable to try to accomplish as much as possible, even if it requires a finely-tuned schedule. It's only a matter of time before these beautiful 75F days are a distant memory, and brutal cold + tons of snow become a harsh reality.

The weekend started with the customary fish fry. This time our crew hit The Old Fashioned, which is located on the capitol square in downtown Madison.

The Old Fashioned is a bit of an institution - it's known for its huge selection of locally brewed beers, great drink menu, and diverse menu that features burgers by number. The bar certainly didn't disappoint; we arrived at around 6:00pm and were informed that the wait for a table would be approximately 30-45 minutes. So, we bellied-up to the bar - check out the numerous taps:

They have approximately 150 different locally made beers; 30 or so of which are available on tap. We tried a few offerings from The New Glarus Brewery, primarily because they were on special. We were also pleased to find that The Old Fashioned apparently knows how to honor the drink from which it's named - they muddle their cherries, which is key to a great Old Fashioned:

While waiting for our table, we decided to order the "Number 3 Cheese plate," which featured Ghost Chevre cheese, which is a nutty-flavored soft cheese, along with some 16-month Gouda and some 10-year Cheddar. The cheese plate was awesome:

We were eventually seated, and promptly ordered some cheese curds. Cheese curds are a yardstick by which we evaluate a restaurant and its fish fry "package." The Old Fashioned's curds were obviously homemade, but despite that, they failed to impress. Sure, they looked great:

But in reality, they were super greasy, relatively flavorless, soggy curds that oozed grease with every single bite. The batter barely even stuck to the curds - that's how greasy they were... Truly disappointing, even more so when you consider the cost: $7.

We ordered a round of old fashioneds to try and wash down some of the grease from those curds. And once again, we were disappointed. The old fashioneds were ok, but they weren't spectacular by any means. Average, at best. Cory from The Oakcrest still holds the honor of making the best old fashioned.

Soon after downing our old fashioneds, the fish arrived. Baked cod for me, and deep fried cod for the crew. We had high hopes for The Old Fashioned's food - it received good reviews from friends and from internet sources. But yet again, the result fell quite short of our expectations.

Here's the baked cod:

Notice how miniscule those pieces of fish are??? They're barely bigger than the lemon wedges. The flavor was ok, but it wasn't anything spectacular... it was also greasy (too much butter) and slightly overcooked. Definitely not worth $14, that's for sure! ARGH.

Here's the deep fried cod:

Notice how dark it is? Yeah - they way over-fried the fish, and as such, all you could really taste was the super-done batter. They also served far too many of those greasy onion strings with the fish; perhaps The Old Fashioned could go lighter on the greasy sides and focus more on properly cooking their main dish (and serving a more reasonable amount).

All-in-all, I would not recommend The Old Fashioned for to anyone looking for a good fish fry or decent curds. Truly underwhelming, overpriced, and simply not worth the long wait and high price.

At least there was a friendly little guy waiting outside as we ate:

And with the sun setting, the capitol building looked fantastic - picture perfect:

After the disappointing dinner, we called it a night. Good thing it was an early evening - with Saturday's forecast calling for calm winds, clear skies, and temperatures in the high 70s, I was anxious to hop on the bike and put some miles under my tires. Woke up fairly early on Saturday morning and hit the road for a 77-mile ride. It was absolutely glorious. I stopped at around the 65-mile mark and snapped a quick picture:

After the ride, I went for a quick 3-mile run, just to help loosen up my back and quads. I find that by running after a ride I feel so much better the rest of the day. If I don't go for a run, I tighten-up and feel really stiff the next day.

With 80-miles under my belt, it was time to head out to the Taste of Madison. This annual event attracts several thousand people, several dozen local restaurants, and several dozen bands from all over the country. In past years, I remember really enjoying the event - there were tons of local restaurants, good bands, and reasonable prices.

This year, there were too many chain restaurants (Red Lobster, Abuelos, Little Ceasars, and so on), the prices were too high (most "samples" were $4 each), and the bands weren't too interesting. Candlebox was there on Saturday night, and while they were interesting, it wasn't a "great" concert by any means. :-(

So... here are some photos from the event:

A bunch of people, for sure.

Tried some Buffalo Chicken Pizza from Toppers - it was ok. Nothing great.

Tried some Sesame Chicken from Hong Kong Cafe - meh.

Tried some fried mac-n-cheese bites from Bluephies - they were decent. The cookie dough eggrolls were also decent (no picture, sorry).

Enjoyed watching the cooks prepare food for the throngs of rabid eaters.

Tried some Bruschetta - once again, meh - so boring and tasteless.

Got a free hug from two really stinky (BO) kids. Had to give them credit for their ingenuity, though.

And wrapped-up by watching Candlebox play a mediocre show on the WJJO rock stage. At least the weather was gorgeous, and once again, had a chance to hang out with Jed and Jamie (friends from an old job), so it wasn't a complete loss. Although, speaking of loss... I managed to lose my very favorite sunglasses! UGH!!

Sunday was a relatively uneventful day - rode the bike about 25 miles, went for a run, and then ran errands the rest of the day. I've been craving waffles like nobody's business, and was lucky enough to find a "classic" waffle maker (non-Belgian) at Tuesday Morning. It made some really killer waffles:

Nice and crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside - perfect and delicious. The batter was a whole wheat/rolled oat combo that was fantastic. Roasted some bacon, scrambled a few eggs, and had a glorious Sunday night dinner (of breakfast foods). I'd normally worry about the number of calories associated with such a feast, but the fuel was put to good use - I ran a 10K race the next day in Randolph, to help benefit the Dodge County Humane Society.

Here I am (in the orange shirt), running my way to a 6th place finish, with a time of 45:21. That's one of my better 10K times - my previous best was over 50-minutes!

Upon returning home and resting for a bit - my legs were cramping like crazy during the race - it was over to the local triathlon supply store for a new watch. My Garmin GPS watch has been a bit unreliable lately - it doesn't want to "take" a charge, and it goes dead quite often, so I needed a back-up. I scored this Timex Ironman watch for a really reasonable price:

I really like it so far; it's nice and light, waterproof, and it allows me to "rest" my primary daily watch - the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean.

Finally, check out this other recent score:

Several stores were running crazy specials on Pepsi products this week, so I took full advantage of the deals. The sodas ranged in price from $1.77 - $4 per case. Made a few trips, but it was worth it - there shouldn't be any soda shortage for quite some time!

I'm a bit late with this update; it's been a busy week - lots of things going on at work that have been taking a tremendous amount of time and effort. Had a busy weekend last week, and it started oddly enough on Wednesday night with a trip to Lake Mills for some pizza.

Went to the Blue Moon restaurant, which occupies the space once held by Anna Maria's. Anna Maria's was a great, great, great pizza place. Man, I miss that pizza. So while at the Blue Moon, it only made sense to order the pizza; the hope was that it wouldn't disappoint... and while it wasn't horrible, it wasn't anything like Anna Maria's pizza. To add insult to injury, the service was quite possibly the slowest and most painful service I've ever endured. It took nearly two hours to get out of there... and the place was virtually empty. Wow. Never again.

Friday included a fish fry (of course). Rather than try something new, the Friday Night Fish Fry Fanatics decided to revisit a favorite - The Avenue Bar. And, we're happy to report that the fish was once again stellar. Started with a bowl of Hungarian Beef Noodle soup, and it was unreal. Wow - so good.

And followed-it up with the usual - beer battered cod with fries. Yummo!

The pictures simply don't do the fish justice - it's so amazing. I think it'll be difficult, if not impossible, for any other establishment to knock-off The Avenue's fish. If you're ever in Madison on a Friday, be sure to check out The Avenue. You'll be glad you did.

Saturday included what else - lots of running and riding.

The Middleton Good Neighbor Festival was underway, and it included a 5K run that started and ended at The Capital Brewery. For some odd reason, the city of Middleton had placed barricades along University Avenue, which led me to believe the road would be closed come Saturday morning. I also figured the Capital Brewery wouldn't have much parking available, so I decided that rather than drive and try to fight traffic/parking, I'd just walk and/or jog the 2.5 miles from the apartment to the Brewery and then do the 5K race.

So, I woke-up about an hour early, got dressed, and started my walk toward the Brewery. The race started at 9:00am; I didn't hit the road until about 8:30am... so, that meant I had less than 20 minutes to walk 2.5 miles. Nearly impossible, so I decided to run to the race.

Got to the race with about 5 minutes to spare. Thankfully it was only about 45F outside (in August!!), so I wasn't overly warm... The race started and 194 of my fellow runners were off!

I finished in under 22 minutes, which was good enough for 31st place out of 194 people. Not bad! I was pretty happy about that. I didn't spend much time celebrating, though - I still had some more running to do. I finished off my run-filled-morning with an 8-mile loop around western Middleton. Total miles covered by foot: 13.9.

Hopped on the bike and took a 35-mile spin through the countryside; it was 11:00am or so and the temps were still in the low 50s... and the wind was absolutely brutal - gusts of up to 30mph, with a near-steady northerly wind of nearly 20mph. Not fun.

After all that running and riding, I was ready to unwind, so it was over to the Come Back Inn for a beverage. The CBI has these excellent authentic German glasses; I ordered a "Totally Naked" from The New Glarus Brewing Company - it was oh so glorious:

From the CBI it was over to The Oakcrest for some Mahi Mahi. How a tiny, little hole-in-the-wall bar can cook such amazing food is beyond me! Their burgers are unreal, their steaks are amazing, and their Mahi Mahi is unbelievable. This photo is blurry (it's so dark in there), but trust me when I say the food is really, really superb.

Also happened to have the best Old Fashioned ever, compliments of Cory - a young (21 year old) bartender who provided some of the best service I've ever had at any restaurant. He made great conversation, mixed a mean Old Fashioned, and served a killer plate of fish. Here's Cory working his muddling magic:

Hit the road first thing on Sunday morning - rode 67 miles, did a quick little jog, and then rested for most of the day. Hit the Great Dane for dinner - I had a burger, but my dining partners were a little more adventurous- they enjoyed a chicken pot pie and a brat plate:

And finally, went to this little Taqueria tonight for a burrito - and it was incredible. It was also huge, but cheap - just $4 for this monster:

Their salsas were amazing as well; even bought some to take back home. I can't wait to try it on a breakfast taco and/or some turkey wraps.

This weekend will include some more bike riding and then there's a 10K race up in Randolph that I think I'm going to enter. We'll see how it goes. Oh, it's also "The Taste of Madison" this weekend, so since it involves food, odds are pretty good that you'll be reading about it during next week's update. :-)

By now you know the drill - it's Sunday night, I've got a bunch of food pictures to share, so let's just get on with it.

Started Friday night by visiting Kavanaugh's Esquire Club.

Astute followers of my blog will recall that I visited Kavanaugh's not too long ago... well, it's so good that a second visit certainly wasn't going to hurt my feelings. So, the fish fry crew made its way to Sherman Avenue for some Esquire Club fish.

The Esquire is always quite busy, especially so on a Friday night, so we bellied up to the bar and enjoyed a few Spotted Cows while waiting for a table to become available. The bar at the Esquire is your typical "Supper Club" bar - oval-shaped, dark wood with heavy chairs, and tons of people gathered around it.

After a forty-five minute wait we were shown to our table, where we ordered the house specialty - all you can eat Ocean Perch with fries, and the beer battered Cod with cheesy hashbrowns.

I've got to give credit to the Esquire - despite the fact that the place was packed to the gills (pun intended!) with people, they get the food out at a record pace. Within a few minutes of placing our orders, the fish arrived. Here's the Ocean Perch:

And here's the cod:

Both were amazing by their own right. The Ocean Perch has a wonderfully delicate fish flavor, features a corn-bread breading, is served piping hot, yet has no hint of grease. It flakes nicely when cut - it's really great fish.

The Cod was delicious as well. Slightly more mild in flavor; flaky, moist, tender, and wrapped-up in a crispy beer batter. Really, really good - and unfortunately, not eligible for the "all you can eat" promotion. :-(

I downed about 3-pounds of the Ocean Perch. It's so good.

Went for a long (64-mile) bike ride on Saturday morning; the weather was cool - in the low 60's - and windy, so it wasn't a terribly enjoyable ride. I fought a 20mph headwind for about 50-miles worth of riding, and boy, talk about frustrating. It literally sucks the life from you - it's relentless and disheartening, but, it makes for stronger legs, so it's not all bad. Returned from the ride and went for a quick 5-mile run. Calories burned: 3700-ish. Nice.

After all of that riding and running, I was ready to refuel. So, as a fan of sweet corn, it only seemed natural to venture over to Sun Prairie for the Sun Prairie Corn Festival. For $1, you get into the festival, and then for $6, you can get a "tote" that the good people of Sun Prairie will fill with as much corn as the thing can hold. What's not to love?

Apparently, I'm not the only person who really enjoys corn on the cob... While the SPCF people have a heckuva system down for getting folks in and out of the corn serving area, there was still an impressive line:

Now this is what I like to see:

With an empty tote in hand, we made our way into the barn, where we were ushered to one of a dozen or so people that were ready to fill our tote with freshly picked-and-steamed corn. Here's the corn as it's coming into the barn (hot out of the steamer - they steam over 70 tons of corn in a single weekend):

With the tote full of corn (they fit 10 ears in our tote), you make your way over to a "shucking table" where the husks are removed and the corn cleaned and prepped for buttering:

Once your cobs are shucked and buttered, it's time to make your way out of the barn and to the "salt tree" - certainly not good for the blood pressure, but it sure is an ingenious system:

And the net result of all of that work:

YUMMO!!! We left the corn barn and made our way up to the "beer tent," where we purchased a few Miller Lites, found a place to stand, listened to some music and ate some corn.

While the corn was outstanding, we managed to wolf down another one of my favorites, beer-battered cheese curds. These were from "Wittenberg's Blue Barn" and they were outstanding.

Oh so good. Aside from being a bit windy, the weather was nice - it got into the low, low 70's... just crazy for August weather. I always remember July and August in Wisconsin as being hot, humid, and semi-miserable. This summer has been anything but - it's been cool, and downright cold on some days. I think the high on Friday was 65F!

With our bellies full of corn, it was time to trek on down to Oregon to meet the newest member of Jed's house - Rocco. Rocco is a baby Boxer, and he may be one of the cutest little guys on the planet!!!

So cute, and maybe a tad-bit naughty. But in his defense, he's only 11 or 12 weeks old, so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt. It's obvious that he loves being around people - here he is waiting and watching as Jed cooks some shrimp:

Jed and his wife Jamie made some awesome Shrimp Tacos with an out-of-this-world avocado salsa; while our bellies were still a little full from the corn fest, it was hard to say no to this incredible feast. (That pile of red sauce is homemade salsa with habanero - yummmmmm!)

And, we washed it down with a delightful pineapple upside down cake. I'd never before had pineapple upside down cake, and I must admit - I'm a fan. I'm sure it's not very good for you, but it's so good that it's well worth the calories (and guilt).

We chatted for a while, watched a few episodes of Man V. Food (what a fun show), enjoyed playing with Rocco, and then called it an evening. Rocco was obviously pooped - here he is, wishing us farewell (look at those cute but oh-so-heavy eyes):

Woke up this morning to 50F temperatures (again, it's ridiculous!!), waited a bit for the weather to warm-up, and then went for a shorter ride (35 miles) and a shorter run (3 miles). Spent the rest of the day running errands and hanging around the apartment, and am now waiting for Entourage to start.

I've got a 5k race next Saturday, so that'll be fun.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. I can't believe it's Sunday night already - almost time to return back to work... the weekends definitely go by too fast. This weekend was a pretty good one - lots of things happened, so let's get started.

I've decided to enter another triathlon, which means I have to start swimming again. Argh. Biking and running - no problem. I'm regularly biking 70-ish miles at a time, averaging just around 23 mph, and my runs are doing great as well - I just finished a 13-mile run today, at an average of 7.5mph. So, those are fine. But swimming? I hate it!

So, I started taking swimming lessons. I found a great swim instructor who lives in Portage, so I snuck out of work early on Thursday and drove up to see if she could help my horrific swim stroke. We hopped in the lake and she took a look. The initial verdict? She claims I'm not that bad, but I'd disagree. We worked together for about an hour and I learned some great drills, tips, tricks, and exercises from her. It was well worth the drive - she was super knowledgeable and helpful, and I think I'll be making a few more trips before the race.

Friday brought about another fish fry, this time compliments of The Mid-Town Pub. It's located just a few blocks from the apartment, and it got decent reviews from people, so it was worth a try.

They have an odd menu/system - there's all you can eat fish offered from 3:00pm - 7:00pm; otherwise it's a "one plate" dinner. Got there at about 6:00pm and ordered some cheese curds; they weren't anything special - typical "drop n fry" frozen curds that probably come from Sysco. Sad, but I'm becoming a curd snob...

Look familiar? Yeah. They're pretty much the same exact curds as one can find at: The Avenue Bar, The Oakcrest, and Paul's Neighborhood Bar. Decent curds, for sure, but once you've had great curds it's hard to get excited by run-of-the-mill curds.

The fish came out after a lengthy wait, and it was decent. Beer-battered cod with fries. No other side options. Very mild flavor, decent batter. Better than some, but not as good as The Avenue Bar or Jordan's.

Unfortunately the service was so slow that there wasn't much chance to take advantage of the "all you can eat" offer, as it took nearly an hour for the first batch of fish to arrive and another 25+ minutes for the second batch. By then the window for all you could eat fish was closed, and I was bored and aggravated, so it was time to leave.

Saturday morning saw a welcomed change: I got rid of Charter and got AT&T U-Verse. U-Verse is "TV by IP" - everything comes to your home via a fiber optic internet connection. So, my television comes via fiber optic to my phone line, and then into a mini computer/gateway. The gateway then transmits the TV signal to the television. It also broadcasts a wireless internet signal for my laptop (so I get my internet connection via fiber optic - fast!!!), and if I had telephone, it would go through the same device.

The signal quality so far is fantastic, and the services appear to be much better than Charter's. Charter was a disaster from the start, so I was glad to make the switch. It's slightly less expensive as well, so that's a bonus.

With U-Verse installed, I went for a quick bike ride and run, and then hit the road for the Packers vs. Browns pre-season football game. Mark, my friend from work, has season tickets and wasn't able to use these tickets, so it was the perfect opportunity to see a game.

Did some tailgating before the game with Dan and Tara:

Scored a decent parking spot near the stadium for just $20, and traffic was light, so we had time to enjoy some snacks and beverages prior to the game. Our modest tailgate was nothing when compared to some of the other set-ups at Lambeau field... this one was particularly "interesting" -

Once inside the stadium, Dan's alter ego came out:

They had handed out pom-poms but Dan, not having spent time as a cheerleader, obviously didn't know how to properly use the pom-pom. That's ok - I think his interpretation was just fine!

The seats were awesome. We were in the south end zone, in row 60, but, our seats were on the aisle and, they were the very last row in our section, so we had a built-in seatback, thanks to a concrete wall. We also enjoyed a wonderful breeze; the weather was in the low 80's, sunny, and humid, so the breeze was definitely welcomed!

The Packers more or less dominated the Browns (go figure); we saw a touchdown early in the first quarter - it happened in "our" end zone, so that was cool - here's the touchdown (not that you can see much, but it gives you an idea of where the seats were).

We were also seated next to some younger folks; I think they said they were from Utah, but I could be wrong - maybe only one of them was from Utah... They were cool guys, and it was fun to hang out with them during the game. Here's a shot of the rowdy bunch:

With the game well in control of the Packers, we were desperate for some additional entertainment, so when the opportunity to Polka struck, Dan and Tara jumped at the chance:

And after the game ended, they fired-up some "YMCA" by The Village People, so here's Tara and I doing our interpretation of that timeless classic:

The Packers won, 17-0, and rather than sit and fight traffic, we decided to hang out and tailgate for a few hours to allow for the roads to clear. Since it was a night game, that meant we didn't get back to Madison until well near 3:00am... a late night indeed, and as a result, today was quite lazy, aside from going for a 30-minute swim and the 13-mile run (as mentioned earlier).

That's it for now. If you're able to take advantage of it, check out AT&T UVerse - so far, so good. Great picture, great internet signal, a small DVR, flexibility, and decent pricing.

Well food fans, it's been another full week, so let's just jump right in and update you on the weekend's eating results.

Friday night: Hit Jordan's Big Ten Pub to check out their fish fry. There had been numerous write-ups about this place; some great, some good, some mediocre, so there was a bit of hesitation about trying it. Happy to report that the experience was fantastic! A very solid fish fry, complimented by two surprises: the cheese curds and the old fashioneds.

Background info first; they don't accept reservations, and there isn't a host or hostess to be found anywhere. It's strictly first come, first served, and normally that wouldn't be an issue. However, this past weekend Madison played host to The Great Taste of the Midwest, and as part of the festivities, Jordan's was one of the sites that was hosting a few of the microbreweries that were invited to attend the Great Taste event. So, that made for a rather packed establishment - finding a table proved challenging, but we were seated in a booth after about an hour or so.

We ordered the cheese curds, and I'm happy to report that these curds were excellent. Definitely top notch curds - obviously handmade; squeaky yet chewy, and perfectly battered. All of today's photos are from the iPhone, so apologies for the poor quality!

Jordan's has an impressive selection of Friday night fish entrees - there were three kinds of baked fish available, fried cod, fried perch, shrimp, and about a half-dozen sandwich options. I decided to be "good" and ordered the Cajun-grilled Walleye. It came with a salad, which was delish; I chose onion rings for my side. Check out this monster slab of Walleye:

The fish was great. Once again, it wasn't all you could eat, but it was tasty! The onion rings were excellent as well. Thankfully, my dining partners weren't afraid to order the good stuff - the fried cod was every bit as tasty and excellent as the walleye:

And, as mentioned - there were a few Old Fashioneds consumed, including this Old Fashioned Sour:

We learned something new on Friday night - the key to a good Old Fashioned Sour is two-fold... a good sour has seven shakes of bitters, and the fabricator must "muddle" the cherries and sugar prior to adding any liquids. Oh, and you use Squirt as the sour. So, I guess that's a "three-fold" key. Regardless, I'm not a fan of the Old Fashioned, but Jordan's Big Ten Old Fashioned were pretty amazing. I wouldn't hesitate to order one in the future.

Saturday featured bad weather in the morning - heavy rains - that ruined my iPod Shuffle... I tried to sneak out for a run during a brief sunny spot, only to get caught in a massive downpour 15-20 minutes later. Try as I might to protect my iPod, it fell victim to Mother Nature and died. ARGH.

And, as luck would have it, just after my iPod was wrecked by the weather, the sun came out and the weather was gorgeous. 90F and not a cloud in the sky. Go figure. Someone really hates me.

So it was over to the new Thai place to try some of their grub. Egg rolls, steamed dumplings, and chicken Pad Thai. All were excellent! No grease, good flavor, great service, and good value - win, win, win.

Here are the photos (egg rolls, dumplings, Pad Thai):

After downing some Thai food, it was time to hit the highway - picked-up some cheese and some coffee from Beres Brothers (their Highlander Grogg is unreal). Ran a few more errands and then headed over to Paul's Neighborhood Bar to watch the Brewers game. Paul's is near the apartment and is a pretty friendly place with good food, good service, and great prices. They also serve breakfast, which seemed odd - a bar that opens at 6:00am to serve breakfast? Wow. But, who am I to argue or question things...

Started the evening with some cheese curds and deep-fried mushrooms:

And wrapped it up with a cheese burger (add lettuce, tomato and onion) and cajun fries:

So good. There's nothing like good, greasy bar food. Unfortunately, that little event counted for an ungodly amount of calories, so on Sunday morning I hit the road on my new bike frame - yes, the local shop came through and warrantied my beloved Cervelo (although there was a fee for assembly).

I did just over 70 miles (burning 4500 calories), and then finished with a 5-mile run (burning 580 calories). So, by 11:00am on Sunday, I was back to "calorie neutral."

The new bike frame is wonderful - I was quick to love on the Seven, but the Cervelo is really an awesome bike. It's so fast - it accelerates and climbs like a friggin' race car - it really does. And, I believe Cervelo tweaked the ride quality a bit with the '09 version (my replacement frame is a 2009 model, rather than a 2008) - the ride was a bit more smooth than I remembered it, and that was a welcomed surprise. It wasn't nearly as velvety as the Seven, but it wasn't as bone-jarring as the '08 ride.

Upon closer examination of the new frame, it appears as though Cervelo changed the seatpost geometry and diameter, which may explain the smoother ride. Here's the newly reconditioned steed, in all of its glory:

And a close-up of the revised seat post structure - it tapers to a narrower diameter at the top (27.2mm vs 31.7mm) to improve ride quality and (I'm guessing here) improve aerodynamics slightly. The seat stays are still pencil thin - it's ridiculous that they can hold-up while being so thin.

While out on the bike, I stumbled across a farm that was selling fresh sweet corn - they had a picnic table set-up in the front yard, along with a bucket that you put your money into. A dozen ears of corn were $3.50... so, I picked-up a few ears, dropped a few bucks in the bucket and enjoyed some delicious sweet corn. To say that "in season" sweet corn is addictive is an understatement - this stuff is so sweet, so tender, and oh so good. I could very easily eat it every single night - add a very light sweep of butter, a pinch of Kosher salt, and a shake of pepper, and you've got an unbeatable treat.

So there you have it. Jordan's = Win. Ha Long Bay = Win. Paul's = Win. New bike frame = Win. Corn on the cob = Win. The only downside was losing the iPod to the rain... but, I guess you can't win them all. Catch you next week!

So as I mentioned in an earlier entry, my beloved bike has suffered a fatal injury - the bottom bracket cracked, and the bottom bracket is an integral part of the frame. Any problems with the bottom bracket, and it's a "no ride" situation. And, since my bike is carbon fiber, it cannot be repaired - it has to be replaced. There's a chance my frame will be covered under warranty, and I hope it is, because I simply cannot afford to replace the frame - there's no possible way I could beg, borrow, or steal enough money to cover the replacement cost. :-(

Here's what a cracked bottom bracket looks like:

Carbon fiber - so light, but so fragile. It's got me absolutely sick.

The shop that's looking at the frame and working with the manufacturer to get it covered under warranty was kind enough (or should I say evil enough) to lend me a bike to use while mine is out of commission. Normally, I'd be grateful and ecstatic to receive such a generous offer, but the shop lent me a bike that is so awesome, and so much farther out of my league that I'm now genuinely even more upset that I ever had the opportunity to ride such an incredible machine.

The bike is a custom-made Seven Cycles bicycle. These beauties are handmade by true craftsmen; the attention to detail is unbelievable, the ride is indescribable, and the look is absolutely drop-dead sexy. As the bike sits here in the living room, I can't stop looking at it - it's so gorgeous, but the beauty is more than skin deep - there are some serious brains behind this fabulous figure.

Look at that beauty. So elegant - a combination of titanium and carbon fiber - it's truly marvelous. The roads around here, as you're well aware, are barely passable. They literally beat you into submission - the expansion joints feel like canyons, and potholes abound. Stop paying attention for a second and you'll likely be slammed back into reality when your bike pounds into a crater-sized road imperfection. Whenever I'm on my "regular bike," I dread the roads - I can't wait to get out and into the country, where the roads are smooth(er) so that I can focus on riding without worrying that I'll be bounced off my bike or jarred into a crash.

Well, believe it or not, but the loaner bike handles every single road imperfection with absolute aplomb. I put 80-some miles on the bike this weekend, and it made every road feel like a brand new stretch of perfect pavement. I was shocked - I couldn't believe that our crummy roads could feel so nice.

I was able to maintain speed without worrying that I'd hear a "snap" or a "pop" or some other unsettling sound. Seven's engineers are pure geniuses, and I don't pretend to know the first thing about road bike geometry or tuning, but I'm confident that if Bentley built bicycles, they wouldn't be able to hold a candle to Seven's stuff.

It's crazy to think that I'm so excited over a loaner bike that doesn't fit me properly and that is completely out of my price range, but it really has been a "ride changing" experience. If I had a Seven ID8, I wouldn't have to spend hours trying to map "smooth rides" - I could just go out and pile on the miles. It would be glorious.

Look at the attention to detail - not only is their logo perfectly machined into the rear stay, those welds (on titanium no less) are impeccable. I took 100+ photos of the bike - a bike that's not even mine! I won't bore you with them, but wow - this thing is amazing in every respect.

Part of the secret to the ID8's awesome ride is its ingenious integration of carbon fiber in some key areas - namely the seat tube and seat stays. From what I understand, these aren't high stress areas, but they carry a tremendous benefit when it comes to damping and cushioning. Combine the carbon fiber in those areas with a slightly longer chainstay, and it makes for a truly magical ride. I did 70-miles on Sunday alone and for the first time ever, I didn't feel "beat up" after the ride. Yes, my legs were a little tired, as I averaged 20.7 mph on the ride, but the rest of my body was feeling fresh.

Here's a shot of the carbon seat stays:

That's some seriously cool-looking carbon. Here's a shot of it on the seat tube:

It's so slick! The sum of the little details all add-up to one seriously awesome bike. Awesome to the power of incredible. I'm not normally at a loss for words, but this bike has really impressed me - I wish I'd never ridden it, because now I know what a "real" performance bike should feel like.

The ID8 does have one minor kink in its otherwise perfect body - this particular frame doesn't seem to climb or accelerate as well as my current bike does. What does that mean? Well, on my bike, when I really crank on it to accelerate or climb a serious hill, it goes. There's no "softness" or "cush" - it just goes. With the ID8, I found myself struggling a bit with acceleration and climbing steep hills. Part of it could be the gearing (this ID8 demo bike had a terrible gearing configuration), but part of it I suspect is a result of the emphasis on the super smooth ride. It's a minor, minor complaint - barely worth noting - but I couldn't continue to gush. :-)

I'm guessing that if I were to ever be able to obtain a Seven, and it were indeed custom made for me, I'd be able to have them build-in a little better acceleration and climbing responsiveness. Sigh, and that's why life is so cruel. I'll only be able to dream and wonder what it might be like.

Here are some final pictures of this wonderful machine - I'm dreading the minute when the shop calls to either give me bad news (that I have to return the bike) or really bad news (that my frame can't be warrantied). Sigh...

Look at that beefy bottom bracket - no shot it'll ever crack!

And the frontend - so strong, yet so forgiving. The fork absorbs road imperfections without sacrificing handling and agility. The head tube? Forget about it - bulletproof.

Look at those welds - pure magic.

I've never wished more in my life that Santa really did exist! So amazing, and I'm truly envious of anyone that's lucky enough to own one of these magnificent machines. Until you've had a chance to ride one, it's understandable as to why you might not be able to fathom why I'm so giddy about the Seven ID8. It's truly a masterpiece, and my hat is off to everyone at Seven. Keep on doing what you're doing!

With the chance of riding my bike slim to none, I slept in a bit (until around 8:00-ish) and then hit the road for a long run. After wracking-up a little more than 8 miles (I ran for about an hour), the bike was loaded into the car and I made my way down to the bike store to see what they'd have to say about the crack that I discovered in my bottom bracket last night.

Thankfully the shop is open seven days a week; I showed the crack to one of the mechanics on duty. He looked at it for a while, threw out a few ideas, and ultimately said the shop would have to show the damage to Cervelo. So, I'm bikeless. Ugh. During the best part of the summer, the best time to ride, and about a month before I hoped to do another triathlon. Yay me.

With the bike dropped off and my heart broken, it was down to New Glarus to check out the brand new facilities at the New Glarus Brewing Company. Apparently the beer business is good for the fine folks in New Glarus; they just opened a $20-million dollar facility a month ago, and it is quite amazing.

That's just a small section of it... I've yet to take a tour of the New Glarus Brewery; that record didn't change today. There was a huge group of Harley riders that arrived just seconds earlier, so once again, it was a quick spin through the gift shop and then back to the road.

Why the rush? Well, you all remember Jed - one of my friends from "the good 'ole days." Jed is a fellow cheese curd aficionado, and if there's one thing that he's been adamant about it's how great the curds from the Monroe Cheese Days are. He swears they can't be beat, but unfortunately for me, Cheese Days only take place once every two years. Turns out the Green County Fair was taking place this weekend, and Monroe happens to be in Green County...

Paid the entry fee and sought out the cheese curd booth. Within minutes, there was a small container of curds and some New Glarus Naked sitting in front of me:

The curds were.... good - really good. They tasted a lot like a grilled cheese sandwhich, which was a bit of a shock. They had a buttery flavor to them, the batter was fairly thick and crunchy, and they weren't really too greasy. Very good curds.

With the belly full of cheesy goodness, it was time to stroll the fair. Here are a few highlights:

Hung around the fair for a bit longer, then went back to Madison. Enjoyed an old familiar feast for dinner:

Pizza Pit! So greasy. So bad for you. But so good. Not to worry, I'll work it off this week... and I vow to eat better all week.

With any luck, I'll hear from the bike shop by Tuesday or Wednesday. Until then...

And they're called potato pancakes. And they're from The Nite Cap Inn in Palmyra. Yummo!!!

Mark, my friend from work, convinced me to drive to Palmyra for fish on Friday night. Fully aware of my quest to find the best fish fry in Wisconsin, Mark was certain the Nite Cap Inn would be a successful venture. Turns out he was partially right.

Truth be told, he raved about the potato pancakes and said that the fish was "decent." So, we hopped in the car and drove an hour to Palmyra, where we easily found The Nite Cap:

The Nite Cap is a true Wisconsin Supper Club. Definitely attracts the older, local crowd - I saw more than a few Brandy Old Fashioneds being served up. We put in our name and had a seat on the porch. While sitting on the porch I spied this little gem:

Within an hour or so, we were seated and ready to dig in. Here's Mark as we prepared for the feast:

Notice the Old Fashioneds? Yeah, when in Rome...

So on to the chow. The fish? The baked fish was unreal. Easily the best baked fish I've had in quite some time. It was light, wasn't slathered/covered/drowning in butter (in fact, it was totally dry), flaky, flavorful, moist, and seasoned with a great mix of herbs and seasoned salts. Oh, so good.

The fried fish was average - nothing too great to write about. Good, solid fish, but not amazing.

The potato pancakes: WOW. WOW. WOW. I've never been a huge fan of potato pancakes but these were beyond amazing. I simply can't explain them - they had a great flavor (mix of potato, onion, and mild seasoning). They were crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. No hint of grease anywhere. We ate dozens of them, and I could've ate dozens more. Holy cow.

Turns out (after chatting up the waitress) that the potato pancakes are an old family recipe that involves a meat grinder (for shredding the potatoes and onions) and some 100+ year old cast iron pans. Whatever the secret is, it works. They're so good.

So after dinner, I was happy:

...but full. So, it was off to ride and run this morning. I managed to get in a ton of miles this morning - I wound-up literally in the middle of nowhere, so I took a few photos of Wisconsin's gorgeous (and ample) farmlands:

I rode for about 3 hours, then took a quick run to help loosen up the back. Spent the rest of the day cleaning the bike, only to discover a major problem with my frame... I'm lucky it didn't break. I believe the repair shop over-torqued the new bottom bracket that I bought from them, and it appears to have cracked my frame. If that's the case, and they won't take responsibility for the crack, I'm out a *lot* of money for a new frame.

Carbon fiber can't be fixed - it has to be replaced, so that means I'd need a new frame... and that would stink big time, because I can't afford to buy a new frame. I'm going to visit with the shop tomorrow and will see what they say. I'm not sure I'll sleep much tonight... the idea of spending 3 mortgage payments worth of money on a replacement frame has me feeling quite ill. :-(

Happy to report that this past weekend was quite enjoyable - got to do a bunch of fun things, ate some great food, and generally had a good time.

Kicked things off with fish fry at The Avenue Bar.

The Avenue Bar is located on East Washington Avenue, near Ingersol Street, and has been around for quite a while - I want to say since the 1960s. It has become a bit of an institution; on any given weekday, you might find the local politicians having lunch alongside mechanics and housewives. On Friday nights, the place is absolutely crazy - it's not uncommon to find people waiting 2-3 hours for a table.

Despite having reservations, there was still a 20+ minute delay/wait. But the wait was worth it - upon being seated, cheese curds were ordered and they arrived promptly. I'm not sure if I mentioned this earlier or not, but I'm becoming a bit of a cheese curd snob... battered curds are worlds better than breaded curds. The Avenue features battered curds:

I had heard and read a lot about The Avenue's fish fry, and to be honest, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it or not. Some people raved; others said it was greasy. From what I had seen on the plates around me, the fish looked solid, so I decided to order a few extra pieces of fish - the only downside to the Avenue is their fish is not "all you can eat" - $11.50 gets you 2 pieces of fish with sides; extra pieces are $2.50 each. Not cheap, but that's the price you pay for good fish, I guess.

And I'm happy to report that the Avenue does indeed have good fish. In fact, I'd place it easily in my "top 3" fish fry places. Absolutely fantastic fish:

The beer battered, deep fried cod was thick cut, perfectly fried to a golden crisp, and delicious. The fish was flaky and fresh, very mild, very "meaty" thanks to the thick cut, and spectacular. I could quite easily stop searching for "the best fish fry" and just settle in to The Avenue Bar. But, alas, I owe it to myself (and my fellow blog followers) to keep searching.

After fish, it was over to The Greenbush Bakery for a....

Apple fritter. Check out that monster. So good. But, it gave me fritter poisoning - I ate too much on Friday night and wanted to die. It definitely made it very difficult to get up and go for a bike ride on Saturday morning, but with 5500 calories of food sitting in my gut, I had to do something, so I forced myself out of bed at 6:30am and hit the road.

60-ish miles later, I was feeling a little better, but I was also freezing. It was unbelievably cold on Saturday... when I hit the road at 6:30am, it was 51-degrees. When I got back at around 9:00 and went for a quick run, it was still below 60. And it was July 18th!!! That's unreal.

A small group of us went to see another production of Michael Feldman's Whadya' Know show, and I actually got on the air. I asked the question, "It's July 18 and I'm wearing long underwear. Why?!" Michael asked me if I was wearing long-johns or just a long top - I confessed it was just the top. Nothing too exciting, but fun, nonetheless.

From the radio show, it was down to State Street, where Maxwell Street Days were taking place. Fought the crowds and eventually landed in Dotty Dumplings Dowry, where I had an ostrich burger and a "fried sampler."

The burger was great! I'd never had ostrich before, but it was super good. Tasted just like beef, but with a fraction of the calories. 6oz of grilled ostrich is 160-calories.

The sampler included fried mac-n-cheese, onion rings, cheese curds, mushrooms, and fries. I tried a couple of each, mindful of my Friday night binge...

Bummed around Madison the rest of the day and then hit La Bamba for dinner. La Bamba is known for being an uber-cheap restaurant that caters to the late night, drunken university crowd, but for some reason, they closed their State Street location (which perfectly fits the bill for the above mentioned crowd) and now have only east side and west side locations. The west side location is about 5 minutes from the apartment, so it made sense to stop there for a late night dinner.

Steak burrito with lettuce, tomato, onion, and hot sauce. Yummo. And just $5. Not bad.

Woke up Sunday morning and went for another long ride - 60-ish miles. I've found a good set of roads that run from the apartment up to Waunakee, toward Mazomainee, and back. There are some killer, killer hills, and the traffic is fairly light, so it's a good ride. I got a bit of a late start on Sunday morning, and wanted to go to the Come Back Inn for breakfast, so I rushed back, hopped in the shower and then raced over to the CBI for some grub.

Turns out there was no need to hurry; they serve breakfast until 2pm... oh well. Ordered "The Big Breakfast" - 2 pancakes, 2 eggs, 4 slices of roasted bacon, and some breakfast potatoes. Washed it down with some fantastic coffee and was absolutely in heaven:

Went back to the apartment and felt so guilty about breakfast that I hit the road for a run. I don't normally like to run after having ate something, but wow - I had a fantastic run. Nearly 8 miles at an average pace of 7:11/mile. I've never done that before; maybe before my next race I should "fuel up" with some CBI breakfast!

With the better part of the day done and not wanting to sit around the apartment, it was over to Warner Park to watch a Madison Mallards game.

For $12 a seat you can get into the "Home Plate Club" - the first two rows of seats located directly behind the catcher - and it's quite a good deal. You're literally 5 yards from the catcher/batter/umpire, in a reserved seat, and it's only $12!!

The camera angle didn't really do the seats justice; I had to sneak the lens between the chain links on the fence, so the angle is wrong - trust me when I say the seats were close!! It was Susan G Komen day at the game, which is why the Mallards were in pink jerseys and hitting with pink bats. They auctioned the bats and jerseys after the game, with all proceeds benefiting the Susan G Komen organization.

Started the game off with some pork nachos (I'm a glutton, I know it!!!):

And they were superb. The chips were crisp, the pork was slightly sweet and perfectly smoked, and the nacho cheese was spicy but not out of control. And, they were reasonably priced at $4.

The Mallards have a nice little set-up, actually. Just behind home plate is a food court area that features several different food venues, a couple of drink venues, a souvenir stand, and a bunch of picnic tables:

Sat and watched the game for a bit - I'm not quite sure what division of baseball the Mallards are in, but it was a fun game to watch. Yeah, there were a few errors here and there, but it kept things interesting. Only one inning ran "long" - I think it was the 4th or 5th. Otherwise, things moved quickly and the Mallards did a great job of keeping the crowd entertained. Here's the Quench Gum truck driving around and shooting t-shirts:

Bad picture, I know - the sun was in the wrong spot... I did score a decent picture of one of the mascots, Millie:

While the nachos were good, you can't really go to a Wisconsin game (of any type) and not have a brat... so, it was back out to the food court for a garlic brat and some hand-dipped cheese curds. They looked great:

And, I'm happy to report, they tasted as good as they looked. I love having long arms, because I can take pictures like this without any assistance:

That's a happy (but getting fatter by the inning) me, enjoying that brat and curds. I really, seriously, need to stop binge-eating on the weekends. I'm completely out of control. But everything is so good... it's hard to sit at the apartment knowing that there are places like the Greenbush, Culvers, and so on all within a stones' throw... I'm hoping that I'll get my fill of these places and then settle down.

So that's it for now. Lots of food this weekend, lots of miles on the bike and by foot, lots of calories, and lots of good times. Rumor has it this Friday's fish fry will come by way of Palmyra, so stay tuned.

Oh yeah, almost forgot - the Mallards won - they beat the Eau Claire Express 9-7. There was even a home run.

Alright, I've calmed down a bit, and am going to give this entry one more try. If it fails anywhere along the way, you won't be reading this, and I'm shutting down my blog for good. I can't tell you how maddening it is to spend nearly two hours on an entry only to have this horrible software wreck the post and mess-up the pictures. So without any further ado, here we go...

Q: What's the only thing worse than a Texas driver?

A: A Wisconsin Road.

Q: What's the only thing worse than a Wisconsin Road?

A: A Wisconsin Sidewalk.

I'm dead serious when I say that Wisconsin roads are the worst roads I've ever driven on. And it doesn't make any sense to me - Wisconsin property taxes are through the roof, and yet the roads make even the worst dirt roads from Arkansas seem as smooth as glass.

And it's not just side roads or back roads; nope - it's I-90, I-94, The Beltline, East Washington Avenue, University Avenue - all of the "regular" roads. They're awful! I challenge anyone to try to drive on those roads with a cup of coffee (without a lid). You'll burn and/or stain yourself within the first 100 yards of driving, I guarantee it. Potholes, heaves, ruts, missing sections that are more than 10" in diameter - it's unreal. And people just fly over these crappy roads like they're driving down a Californian boulevard...

And the sidewalks? Forget about it. I really am surprised that the cities around here haven't had their pants sued off over the poor quality of the sidewalks. It's not uncommon to find sections of a sidewalk that stick up 4-6 inches higher than the previous and/or following sections. Chunks of cement are missing from the sidewalks; rebar is exposed - it's ridiculous. I smell a letter or six in my future - I just have to figure out who to write to with my observations and complaints about the road and sidewalk quality (and lack thereof).

To give you an idea of just how bad the roads are, I had to spend nearly $300 fixing my bike last week as a result of the bad roads. The potholes are so many and so big that I wrecked my headset. I put on more than 3500 miles on my bike in Arkansas and Texas without incident; my first 100 miles in Wisconsin cost me $300. Unreal.

Ok, rant over. Now let's talk about work. It's going well - still busy, and my projects are cranking along. I've been becoming more familiar with the layout of the building - it's 13 stories in total and has some cool features, but it is a bit tricky to navigate at times. My office is on the third floor, where there are 17 conference rooms alone - the main conference room that we use overlooks the entryway/atrium:

As I mentioned, my "office" is on the 3rd floor, but it's not really an office. Most of the building is set-up as a big cube farm, and there aren't many real offices to speak of. Executive-level management has offices along the window sides of the building, but most everyone else is in a cube. Here's part of our cube farm:

I'm in the second cube on the left, and my workspace looks like this:

Nothing too exciting. But, I did manage to score a nice new HP laptop and a new HP 19" LCD, so that's nice. Our cubes are also near one of the half-dozen or so break areas that are on each floor. These break areas are pretty great - each has several refrigerators, vending machines, filtered water, "Filter-Fresh" coffee machines (the machines custom make you a cup of coffee on demand), pizza makers, iced tea, and so on. Everything is free except for the candy machines. Here's what a typical break area looks like:

Oh, there are also free newspapers and magazines in the break areas as well - it's nice to be able to grab a quick peek at the headlines or to look at the "weekend" section of the paper to find something to do.

We also have our own full service cafeteria, complete with a full kitchen that offers a full menu, along with daily lunch specials. Rumor has it that Monday's Sloppy Joes and Friday's burgers are fantastic; I haven't had lunch there yet, but I do stop down fairly regularly for a snack. Here I enjoyed a Diet Coke, a Vitamin Water, and a yogurt:

I usually grab a snack like that (they also have things like fruit salad, fresh fruit, cookies, and so on) about once or twice a week - it's a nice change of pace and only costs $2.05. Here's what the main entrance to the cafeteria looks like:

The building also has a free, full-service health club, but I didn't take any pictures as there were people working out in there, and I would've felt weird snapping a picture of them. So, as you can see, the office is a pretty decent place.

I've also managed to make friends with a few folks at work, and one of the coolest people that I've met there so far is a guy by the name of Mark. Mark is a few years older than me; he grew up in the metropolis of Palmyra, and we've managed to hit it off. We go to lunch and/or dinner fairly regularly, and it's always a good time. He's got a bunch of senior level project management experience, so with any luck I'll pick up some tips and tricks from him as well.

Last week, we decided to grab a late lunch at Roman Candle Pizza on Williamson Street. It was the day before our Fourth of July break started, so we left work a little early and grabbed some 'za. It was fantastic - they have a "firecracker sauce" which has a little bit of a kick to it, the crust is reminiscent of a New York pizza, and the toppings were fresh and tasty.

While enjoying our pizza and Spotted Cow, we kicked around the crazy idea of running over to Summerfest to catch Judas Priest. So, on a whim, we hopped in his 1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee (lovingly nicknamed "Nitschke") and drove over to Milwaukee. We managed to find a parking spot (for only $20) near the festival grounds, and within a matter of minutes were walking the Summerfest grounds.

We stopped by the US Cellular stage, where I believe Le Disko was playing:

And then we headed over to the Harley Davidson stage to see an aging Rob Halford and Judas Priest perform. The show as loud, bright, and entertaining, even if we couldn't really see the stage from where we were standing... there were thousands of people crammed into the stage area, and mullets were everywhere. This photo is the best I could do:

It was pretty fun to watch a classic band like Judas Priest crank out some familiar hits, and they didn't sound bad at all. With a better sound system, they probably would've been really fantastic to watch, which is surprising when you consider they're all probably in their sixties.

On Monday night, with the apartment still in complete disarray, I learned that my friend John was in town and that he wanted to get together. John brought his new dog, Teddy, down with him to visit, so it was over to Lake Mills to check-in with John and to meet Teddy. Teddy is a wonderful dog - a German Sheppard mix of some type, and he's super sweet and docile. Here he is sitting and waiting patiently for a treat:

And here's John holding Teddy like a baby - told you he was docile!

Had a nice dinner with John; we went to Ken's Towne Inn Pizza in Jefferson, where we enjoyed half-priced pizza night. John is such a great guy - it's always fun to chat with him, and I'm looking forward to hopefully spending more time with him as we now share a closer proximity to one another.

This past weekend, it was down to the Capitol Square to check out Art Fair on the Square. Ended up meeting with Jed, one of my old friends from a previous job, his wife Jamie, and Mark and his girlfriend Karen.

We had a really good time, despite the fact that there were probably 30,000 people jammed around the Capitol all looking at overpriced art. I say overpriced, but it's really just because I can no longer afford to buy anything cool... For example, there was an artist who had some awesome paintings of various animals, but at $150 for a small print, I just couldn't justify buying anything.

Here's what part of the square looked like, as shot from the steps of the Capitol:

The weather last weekend was awesome - low 80s, low humidity, and lots of sun. And after spending far too many hours in the sun, it was over to my favorite place for some refreshments and lunch:

Yep, that's The Great Dane Brewery. Enjoyed a sampler platter of seasonal and newer beers and then wolfed down a seared tuna salad. All in all, a perfect day. Sorry, no food pictures from The Great Dane - I forgot to take photos as the conversation at the table was too much fun.

You will be pleased to know that I did score some pictures of the fish fry from Flannery's on Friday night. Flannery's is a german-style pub that's located in New Glarus, and came highly recommended by a coworker who knew of my passion for a good fish fry.

Here's Flannerys from the outside:

Started off with some cheese curds, which were ok - not nearly as good as the curds from Ken's Towne Inn.

After the curds came the soup - a delicious french onion soup, complete with nice big hunks of whole wheat croutons:

And then there was the fish: fried haddock, which was very lightly breaded, fried to perfection (no excess grease), and perfectly flaky and light. Quite easily the best fish I've ever had. Believe me that this picture doesn't do the fish any justice; it was really dark inside Flannery's, and my iPhone doesn't talke the greatest pictures:

That big hashbrown-like thing on the left is called a "Rosti" (pronounced "Roosty"). It sounded interesting, but in reality, it wasn't very good. It was very bland and flavorless, despite featuring shredded potatoes, egg, onion, peppers, and cheese. It literally had no flavor at all... but the fish was excellent, so it didn't really matter.

With my belly full of fish, I had a wonderful bike ride on Saturday morning - I rode nearly 50 miles (two laps around the lake, a lap around the capitol, followed by a spin out to the airport and then back down to the campus area) and ran 8 miles. I figured that with all of that exercise I could treat myself to some Greenbush Bakery donuts:

Two cake donuts (blueberry) and an "Oreo donut" - it had crumbled Oreos on top and a buttercream filling, and was heavenly.

I felt guilty after eating 25,000 calories worth of donuts, so on Sunday I rode the bike up to Mazomainee (about 38 miles) and followed it up with a 6-mile run. My gut still feels overly stuffed - I need to stop eating so irresponsibly, but there are so many good things to try that I can't resist it. I really need to get things back under control, though...

So, that's about it. I hope this post "works" - if not, I'm going to be really upset! Stay tuned for more food photos and stories...