Week #43: Sweeping the Ice!!

I tried my hand at curling this week. Ever since watching the last two or three Winter Olympics, I have been intrigued by the sport of curling. Last February, I had a curling conversation with my friend Mark and he mentioned that the Milwaukee Curling Club has an open house in October. It was a long way away, but I waited patiently for my curling adventure to begin. Months and months later it was game on! My daughter and I met Mark along with many other curling rookies to give this sport a try.

I am here to tell you, it is a great time! We went in teams of four. The MCC (Milw. Curling Club) members started us off easy. Just getting used to the ice, then practicing a basic "stone" or "rock" toss, followed by different angle throws, and finishing up with sweeping in front of the rock. My daughter started "trash talking" to Mark and I that she was the best at tossing the rock. She did tell the truth as the third video will show. Although, when it came to sweeping, that was my time to shine. I found out that I am a natural sweeper, yet need more work throwing the stone into "the house".

The members of the MCC were very nice people and helped explain to me their history and the rules of the game. In fact, the MCC is the oldest operating curling club in the United States. They were founded in Milwaukee even before Wisconsin officially became a state. I wish them well and hope to one day continue my curling. My daughter wants to try it again next week. We'll see on that one.

Pictures above are curling with my daughter and our curling friend Mark.

Week #43: Additional Video

My daughter throwing the stone into the house. What a natural!

Week #43: Part II Additional pictures Cowboy Stadium

Pictures above are of the steel lattice work (you can see the Texas Rangers stadium in the background), Cowboys locker room, the 50 yard long HD screen, Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders locker room, and a statue of Tom Landry at the stadium entrance.

Week #43: Part II Bonus Entry ... How 'bout them Cowboys!! (stadium, that is)

I already knew that I was going curling this week and did not need an additional thing to do. However, I was in Dallas for work and figured that there had to be something to see here. I snuck out of a meeting, grabbed a taxi and was off to see the new Cowboy Stadium.

I took a tour of the stadium and found out a lot of interesting facts. The saying, "Everything is bigger in Texas" definitely applies here. It is the world's largest indoor stadium. The field is 5 floors below street level and raises over 7 floors above it. They set an NFL record with over 105,000 people attending the home opener against the NY Giants. This is the house that Jerry (Jones) built! It cost $1.4 billion and counting. They have the world's largest HD TV screen (and there are 2 of them at 1080 pixels, or something) and weigh 1.2 million pounds with 30 million LED bulbs in each of them. The world's largest retractable doors are also in the stadium. In the old Texas Stadium, there were 54 concession stands. In the new Cowboy Stadium, there are 854. Jerry has the world's largest suite, stretching from end zone to end zone with a small "war room" on the 50 yard line (which is sound proof with tinted windows so he can go crazy and swear during games without the cameras seeing him). If you rent a suite, a 22 inch pizza is $60 bucks and a bottle of Jack Daniels is $300 bucks!! You can fit 2 1/2 of the old Texas stadium inside the new Cowboy Stadium. In fact, you could put the entire Statue of Liberty (including base and torch) on the 50 yard line and STILL be able to close the roof. You can rent out every room in the stadium except Jerry's suite and war room. This really is the house that Jerry built. In fact, they bought all their steel for the stadium from Luxembourg because most US steel comes from Pittsburgh. Jerry didn't want to do anything that would help out the city of Pittsburgh. One last interesting tidbit, The Jonas Brothers played at the stadium a few weeks ago and asked if they could play their XBox video game "Halo" on the world's largest HD video screen. They were told it would cost $4,000 an hour, so they said they would book 2 hours. Crazy place indeed.

Pictures are: outside stadium, 50 yard-long HD screen, ceiling lights in a party room shaped like a football (with the lights shaped like football laces), press box, suite, Jerry's suite (with war room below the 00:0 lights), and the new Cotton Bowl trophy.

Week #42: A is for Awesome, Z is for ZUMBA!!

Plan B was a lot of fun this week! My wife and I were supposed to take our first Hot Air Balloon ride this week. Unfortunately it was too windy to take off. I called my friends Brian and Jennifer and took them up on their Zumba offer.

I had never heard of Zumba until Brian brought it up as an idea for me a few weeks ago. "You should try this ... 'Sounds good to me' I replied." Well, it was on like Donkey Kong! I showed up at Brian and Jen's house on Friday and Jennifer and I were off to Zumba. Brian showed up later at the gym with their young children in tow. You can't take pictures or videos at the gym, so Brian had to use his kids as props. He had to fake like he was taking a picture of them, while videoing me getting my groove on.

It was a good time! Zumba is part salsa, part meringue and a little bit rock and roll. Zumba is the nation's fastest growing fitness craze. You dance, swing your booty around and get "jiggy with it"! It is a fun workout!

I have to tell you that there are not many dudes who groove on Zumba! There was only one other man amongst the 80 people that night. The work-out takes place 4-5 times a week with about 100 people in each session. Men are welcome, but not encouraged. My friend Brian described me as "an awkward dandelion in a sea of roses."

Tonight's workout was not in the main gym, so Brian videoed one in the back with sound and the other through a mirror without sound. You really can't understand the vibe of Zumba without the music. Yet, my moves are impressive none the less. Photo above is with my Zumba mentor Jennifer.

Week #42: Additional Videos

Both videos have me grooving, one with sound and one without. I am the only dude there (dressed in black). The video without sound is in the play room, with people playing air hockey in the background. It is hard to understand how much I am grooving it without hearing the music.

Week #41: Marathon Man

Commitment! That is what it takes to run your first marathon. Personal commitment, time commitment, and most importantly my family's commitment for putting up with all the training. Most people who know me, would never expect that I'd be the one running a marathon!

Running a marathon was something I had thought about doing for many years. My goal was to finish one before my fortieth birthday. This was my last year to reach that goal and this happens to be the year I push my boundaries.

A few years ago, I ran a half-marathon...and then I stopped running! When I told my friend Brian that I was going to run the Chicago this year, he said I was crazy! He mentioned that a marathon is not like running 2 half marathons, it's more like running 10!! I am here today to tell you, Brian spoke the truth. My favorite shirt (that I saw a runner wearing) along the course said it best ... 13.1 is half of NOTHING!! 26.2 miles is a loong way! People are not built to run that far.

Due to the weather, it was a tough start (it was below freezing at the beginning of the race). But I was ready to do this thing! I was running (as was my nephew) with my closest 45,000 running friends. The crowd was awesome. It was estimated that there were over 1.5 million people lining the streets. The crowd really brings the energy out of you.

I had three personal goals in running this race: 1) Finish 2) finish under 4 hours 3) finish in 3:50. Check, check, and check! All of the past marathon runners I talked to warned me not to start the race too fast. I would end up hitting the wall between 20-24 miles and slow down to a stop. I didn't really listen. With so many runners, the first 2-3 miles are very slow. Mile1, I ran in 12 minutes, mile2 10 minutes, mile3 8:40, mile4 7:25. Not very consistent. My original plan was to run with the Nike 4:00 hour pace runners, but 5 miles in I found myself with the 3:40 people. I figured I will "hang" with these guys as long as I can. Much to my surprise, I hung with them the whole way! I finished in 3 hours 38 minutes! Finished in the 5600's which works out to the top 12% of marathoners! Much much faster than I ever thought I could do. My relentless training finally paid off. I started running on June 16th and ran 4 days a week (rain or shine) for a total of 396.51 miles of training(not like I kept track or anything). This marathon puts me firmly above 400 miles.

One day later, as I write this my ankles, knees, shoulder and legs ache. Stairs are still not my friend. The pain will go away soon, but my sense of accomplishment will be with me forever!

Pictures above: My nephew and I right before the race, crowd before race, Kenyans, and post race exhaustion

Videos: Me running past my brother and wife (I am the runner in all black). Don't worry about my brother on the audio, he didn't miss his son. He ran by about 15 minutes later.

Second video is post race slow walk.

Week #41: Additional Videos

First video, running through the streets of Chicago.

Second video, Elite Kenyon runners at approximately 13.1 miles (half way there) in 1 hour 1 minute

Week #40: Down On The Farm!

I tried my hand at farming this week. Surprisingly, I had never been on a real working farm before. A colleague of mine knew someone, who knew someone, whose parents have a family farm in southern Wisconsin (near the Illinois and Iowa borders). A few weeks ago, I gave Steve and Nancy a random call and introduced myself. I asked if I could stop by and help them out on the farm. They said it sounded like a good idea and they would be happy to show me around.

Nicer people you could not find! We had a great lunch when I arrived with slow cooked beef, mashed potatoes, squash, gravy, corn and a relish tray (all either grown or raised on the farm). I told them that it felt like a Thanksgiving meal! I had a great time visiting with them and learning about all the hard work that goes into farming. Their farm has been in Nancy's family since 1890, spanning four generations so far. It has been passed on from daughter to daughter to daughter. There must be something in the water here. Great Grandpa only had daughters, as did Grandpa and Dad, Nancy also had two girls and now she and Steve are proud grandparents to a lovely granddaughter (you didn't think it would be a boy, did you?).

Steve was going to let me ride the Combine machine and harvest some corn. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate and it rained all week. Sadly, there was a huge hail storm a week ago in Lafayette county that destroyed many acres of corn, soy beans, pumpkins, etc. I couldn't believe the damage that hail can do. The crops were shredded up, homes with most of their paint ripped off, windows shattered... it was eye opening. Thank God, Steve and Nancy had hail insurance (I didn't even know there was such a thing).

Steve and Nancy showed me their farm, complete with Holsteins, acres and acres of corn and soy bean, etc. I also got a tour of the local grain elevators (huge!), two dairy farms and other local attractions in Lafayette County. They mentioned that there were no stop lights in the entire county (God's Country indeed). The first dairy farm we visited had about 200 cows with each getting milked three times a day. I was surprised how much they had in those udders. It was udderly amazing!! 150 pounds a day (or 50 pounds a go) for the big ones. I was able to milk some cows the old fashioned way and one cow with the new high tech method. It was quite efficient. I found out that life on the dairy farm includes some really long hours! They milk the cows 24/7 and 365 days a year. Three shifts a day per person which includes long nightime shifts. I had to drive 5 hours round trip for my farming adventure, but it was well worth it!! Great, great people that I plan on staying in contact with. They even invited my entire family back to visit next year and you can bet on it ... we will take them up on their offer! I am looking forward to doing it all over again with the kids next time! Thanks again Steve and Nancy!!

Pictures above: Corn harvesting, grain elevator, severely damaged corn (from hail), the male cow "The Vindicator" ... cool name and their dog's name is Bullet. The video is of me getting my milk on!

Week #40: Additional Photos

Photos: Milking old school style, VERY pregnant cows, a huge milking operation, a just-born calf (maybe two hours old), an almost born calf's hooves seeing daylight for the first time, a house built during the civil war (coincidentally, there is a man named Robert E. Lee who lives down the road...who would have thought that he would settle so far North?). Hills and hills of feed for the cows, a liquid manure "lake" that is over 16 feet deep, and lastly Steve and Nancy's beautiful Holsteins.