#WInning
0Perhaps the rapture really happened and I’m living in a heavenly alternate universe? How else is it that all of the small-market sports teams I cheer for can be doing so well at the same time!
My football Packers decided to turn on the afterburners late last season, and–thanks in heavy part to a miraculous Vick/Jackson-led Eagles comeback in East Rutherford against the Giants–snuck into the playoffs a six seed and emerged Super Bowl champs earlier this year.
In the months following, my baseball Brewers put some new pitching puzzle pieces in More >
LC Day 244: Hello, Eat Local Challenge
0September 2, 2011
The first of September brings many things. The first day of school, my aunt’s birthday, the anniversary of the death of the last passenger pigeon, the greatly over-exaggerated reports of the demise of summer. And once again the Eat Local Challenge rears its delicious head (of lettuce? broccoli? radicchio?).
I volunteer for the group and helped last weekend with the Eat Local Resource Fair, a gathering of local vendors and organizations looking to promote the local foodshed. Held at the Urban Ecology Center, the event attracted more than 400 folks interested in sampling cheeses, bread, ice More >
The Anti-PR, or Storm the Bastille
1Every year in July thousands of revelers take to the streets in Milwaukee for Bastille Days. And every year, thousands of those revelers put on their running shoes and walk, jog, skip, dance, or run in the Storm the Bastille Fun Run. All these years I’d been attending Bastille Days, I never once participated in the run.
Until last night.
The route is city all the way, as local law enforcement closes down portions of Wisconsin, State, Broadway, and Milwaukee to name a few.
Going into this race–ahem, I mean fun run–I had no More >
Downtown Milwaukee Night Out
0A great highlight video for downtown Milwaukee. First spotted on Mike C.’s blog.
The 10k
0I laced up my running shoes this past Saturday and ran the Runzing IV Fun Run in West Des Moines. It was my first race since I tried a 5k last November and it went pretty well. My thoughts are as follows.
- Don’t be hurried when arriving. The morning was crummy with rain and thunderstorms moving through the area. I slammed some coconut water and a rice cake with almond butter about 45 minutes before race time. My racing partners and I then cut it just a tad close arriving for the start of the race. No time for real
Beer Running 2011 Update
0I had noble intentions at the beginning of the year to run 1000 miles over the course of 2011. This plan derailed through the first several months–I was sick three times this winter with two colds and one bout of the flu. I took a ten-day sailing vacation in the middle of April which made jogging impractical and even hurt my running temporarily by affecting my arch in some way (I was barefoot or in flip flops for almost the entire time).
Here’s a Dailymile graph showing my weekly mileage for the last 26 weeks (click the image to enlarge):
LC Day 111: Island Time
1Once you get used to island time, it’s a mighty struggle adjusting back to reality. That’s the position I found myself in on April 21 after returning from a ten-day jaunt around the Virgin Islands.
A college classmate of mine–I hadn’t seen him since college days–had chartered a sailboat and invited his Facebook friends to join him. So I did. Our 36-foot vessel was named Elbereth, presumably after the Tolkien character from The Silmarillion. Elbereth had seen some miles in her years, but she turned out to be a very pleasant and comfortable More >
LC Day 93: Tread Lightly
0Most items I buy are pretty easy to find locally. The one exception would be auto parts. I’m now pushing 160,000 miles on my Jeep Grand Cherokee which I purchased brand new back in February 2000.
One of the upsides of owning a car for a long time is not having loan payments. One of the downsides? Lots of routine maintenance kicks in after a while. Right now my Jeep is in need of quite a bit of this work: brakes (still More >
LC Day 82: Old Milwaukee
0May 2, 2011
Today I’ve got the windows open in my office, I’ve got kale plants growing outside on the balcony, I’m sporting a slight tan, and Cinco de Mayo* is three days away. That can mean only one thing–time to blog about something that happened on March 23! This was a fun evening, visiting several local establishments for great food, drinks, and company.
Machine Shop Facelift My friend Marcus joined me as we made the first stop at INdustri Cafe (524 S 2nd St) for an #MKEFoodies event. Even better? Beer was provided courtesy of More >
LC Day 80: Local Challenge – Iowa Edition
0April 26, 2011
When traveling is involved, buying local can take on a whole new dimension. While it’s easy to avoid well-known chains, it can be tricky to identify locally-owned out-of-town establishments. I put my Local Challenge (LC) to this test recently when visiting Des Moines.
Good Eats The trip started with an evening in Iowa City to visit friends Geoff and Betsey, in town from Kansas City and watching Marquette tear it up in first-round NCAA hoops action. Accompanying them were several pounds of assorted K.C. barbecue from Oklahoma Joe’s (the one in the gas station). Who am I to More >
