Feeling Patriotic.
I hope everyone had a super stellar holiday! We managed to keep ourselves relatively busy here in Chicago...
Tuesday after work Mike and I headed down to the Taste of Chicago to meet up with the crazy and fabulous Leah/Jason tag team. Naturally, I got stuck working late (we closed at 3 and I wasn't home until 5--blah)...so by the time I got back, we had one foot out the door to leave again. The sheer volumes of rude and obnoxious people managed to escape me from years past...the Taste is just...well...ridiculous. Imagine a mob of people, with screaming kids, angry moms, over-agressive stroller pushers, friends looking for the rest of their group, dropped rainbow cones with kids crying, big ass turkey legs doused in bbq being juggled, messy pieces of pizza, ignorant folks not paying attention, but talking on their cell phones, etc. etc. Simply said, it was some fun chaos. We stuffed ourselves silly with turkey legs and pulled pork and chocolate covered frozen bananas, drank beer and listened to the Grant Park symphony. Dice and Mouse arrived shortly thereafter for the firework festivities.
It was an impressive sight. Better than I remember them being in Chicago...It was all fabulously patriotic (Star Wars theme and all). And as mother nature would have it, the fireworks ended just as the sky was opening up with some storms. Awesome. Walking home in the rain...not so awesome.
Dice, Mouse, Mike and I eventually found refuge in our condo...only to have a stranded Leah and Jason stop by a few minutes later. So...what better way to pass the time than to drink more beer and chat it up?!
Excellent times.
The Fourth of July was certainly productive. It started off strong by sleeping until noon (nothing more American than that, right?). Whoever said sleeping in was overrated must be an insomniac. We peeled ourselves from bed, eventually had some food, Mike napped, I did some Soduko and then we headed down to the beach for an open water swim.
Finally.
Everytime we've planned on a OWS it's either been storming like hell or the beaches have been closed to treat bacteria in the water. I've been determined to get at least ONE in before my first tri (have I mentioned it's this Sunday? Cause it is!!). And yesterday was THE day it was going to happen.
The swim went well. I covered just under .4 miles according to Google maps...took around 25 minutes. And considering I had to stop every 10-15 strokes to drain water from the goggles I was pretty pleased with myself. Needless to say, I won't be wearing Mike's OWS goggles during the tri, I'll rely on my trusty speedo ones. Glad I had the chance to test 'em out before this weekend. But the water was perfect and with the sunshine I couldn't have asked for better weather. Open water swimming is more challenging than I thought it would be, so here's hoping to a successful swim portion on Sunday.
The rest of the 4th was spent organizing my closet/dresser drawers and donating old clothes. For dinner we headed up to mouse's place for the best homemade lasagna I've ever had. Dinner...wine...and apple pie a la mode...all while watching no less than 50 firework shows on the western horizon. It was amazing...all the little neighborhood and suburb spectacles off in the distance (the view from her place is fantastic). And with a full belly and a smile, I fell right asleep last night, feeling all warm, fuzzy and patriotic inside.
Not too much else is going on. Just trying getting myself mentally prepared for this triathlon and coming up with an effective race plan. Luckily my mentor group over at the BeginnerTriathlete boards has been stellar on this front.
...and thanks to this same group, I haven't been flipping out about my half ironman decision. I can totally bust out 70.3 miles in one day...right?! :) If only I can convince Caru to take the leap for the Florida 70.3...
We have 10 miles on tap for tonight with the speedy kids and it looks like we'll be joined by Dice and Mouse (yay for me being the slowest person in our group!). I'm hoping it won't be ridiculously hot outside. Especially since we plan on firing up the grill after we're done running.
And so with that update, I'm going to leave you with two spectacular pieces of information...
1. By Christmas 2008, Chicago will be the home to a Chick-Fil-A. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EXCITED THIS MAKES ME, PEOPLE!??!?!? I adore Chick-Fil-A. I am really psyched about this...
2. THE CURE IS HAVING A WORLD TOUR AND THEY'RE PLAYING CHICAGO THREE DAYS AFTER MY BIRTHDAY. It.is.so.on.
Mmmk...that's all...Happy Thursday, everyone!
Tuesday after work Mike and I headed down to the Taste of Chicago to meet up with the crazy and fabulous Leah/Jason tag team. Naturally, I got stuck working late (we closed at 3 and I wasn't home until 5--blah)...so by the time I got back, we had one foot out the door to leave again. The sheer volumes of rude and obnoxious people managed to escape me from years past...the Taste is just...well...ridiculous. Imagine a mob of people, with screaming kids, angry moms, over-agressive stroller pushers, friends looking for the rest of their group, dropped rainbow cones with kids crying, big ass turkey legs doused in bbq being juggled, messy pieces of pizza, ignorant folks not paying attention, but talking on their cell phones, etc. etc. Simply said, it was some fun chaos. We stuffed ourselves silly with turkey legs and pulled pork and chocolate covered frozen bananas, drank beer and listened to the Grant Park symphony. Dice and Mouse arrived shortly thereafter for the firework festivities.
It was an impressive sight. Better than I remember them being in Chicago...It was all fabulously patriotic (Star Wars theme and all). And as mother nature would have it, the fireworks ended just as the sky was opening up with some storms. Awesome. Walking home in the rain...not so awesome.
Dice, Mouse, Mike and I eventually found refuge in our condo...only to have a stranded Leah and Jason stop by a few minutes later. So...what better way to pass the time than to drink more beer and chat it up?!
Excellent times.
The Fourth of July was certainly productive. It started off strong by sleeping until noon (nothing more American than that, right?). Whoever said sleeping in was overrated must be an insomniac. We peeled ourselves from bed, eventually had some food, Mike napped, I did some Soduko and then we headed down to the beach for an open water swim.
Finally.
Everytime we've planned on a OWS it's either been storming like hell or the beaches have been closed to treat bacteria in the water. I've been determined to get at least ONE in before my first tri (have I mentioned it's this Sunday? Cause it is!!). And yesterday was THE day it was going to happen.
The swim went well. I covered just under .4 miles according to Google maps...took around 25 minutes. And considering I had to stop every 10-15 strokes to drain water from the goggles I was pretty pleased with myself. Needless to say, I won't be wearing Mike's OWS goggles during the tri, I'll rely on my trusty speedo ones. Glad I had the chance to test 'em out before this weekend. But the water was perfect and with the sunshine I couldn't have asked for better weather. Open water swimming is more challenging than I thought it would be, so here's hoping to a successful swim portion on Sunday.
The rest of the 4th was spent organizing my closet/dresser drawers and donating old clothes. For dinner we headed up to mouse's place for the best homemade lasagna I've ever had. Dinner...wine...and apple pie a la mode...all while watching no less than 50 firework shows on the western horizon. It was amazing...all the little neighborhood and suburb spectacles off in the distance (the view from her place is fantastic). And with a full belly and a smile, I fell right asleep last night, feeling all warm, fuzzy and patriotic inside.
Not too much else is going on. Just trying getting myself mentally prepared for this triathlon and coming up with an effective race plan. Luckily my mentor group over at the BeginnerTriathlete boards has been stellar on this front.
...and thanks to this same group, I haven't been flipping out about my half ironman decision. I can totally bust out 70.3 miles in one day...right?! :) If only I can convince Caru to take the leap for the Florida 70.3...
We have 10 miles on tap for tonight with the speedy kids and it looks like we'll be joined by Dice and Mouse (yay for me being the slowest person in our group!). I'm hoping it won't be ridiculously hot outside. Especially since we plan on firing up the grill after we're done running.
And so with that update, I'm going to leave you with two spectacular pieces of information...
1. By Christmas 2008, Chicago will be the home to a Chick-Fil-A. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW EXCITED THIS MAKES ME, PEOPLE!??!?!? I adore Chick-Fil-A. I am really psyched about this...
2. THE CURE IS HAVING A WORLD TOUR AND THEY'RE PLAYING CHICAGO THREE DAYS AFTER MY BIRTHDAY. It.is.so.on.
Mmmk...that's all...Happy Thursday, everyone!
Labels: July 4th, Swimming, The Taste of Chicago is Insane, Triathlon
posted by Iron Jayhawk at 8:22 AM
6 Camper Comments:
I'm not a camper anymore?
Oh goodmness, this i sljgn nad I am drunk. I tink it s good!
Amacinv! i got the word verifitiotn! Yya2
Did someone say Chik-Fil-A?
I'm putting it on the calendar.
Are you serious about the chik-fil-a? Where did you read that???! Very exciting!
A Chik-Fil-A in Chicago?! How SWEET! I don't have to go back to Colorado Springs to have one of their awesome chicken sandwiches. I knew that this was a great idea to move here....and even more reason besides the obvious.
The Cure tour is even more SWEET!
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