Mama Nico Date Night

This weekend was the first in a while where didnt have anything we HAD to do.  Saturday morning, I headed to CrossFit to photograph a weight-lifting competition.  In the past, that hadn't really been my thing.  "Lifting weight just to lift weight?  Ugh, spare me..."  But, something that I have come to understand is that it's almost impossible to do CrossFit right without a solid base in some olympic weight lifting.  Snatches, cleans, jerks, deadlifts, etc. allow one to build functional strength, which allows one to do "work" (whatever that may be) easier.  Also, no one thinks it's cute when I announce, "Yeah, I am not going to do that... "  Plus, a lot of my adversion to olympic lifting has been that I just haven't done any of it.  So, I have no idea what it is supposed to look like, feel like, etc.  For example, I just sort of lumped cleans, jerks, and snatches all into a category called, "shit I can't do."  But turns out, that it's actually cleans and snatches I can't do (due to the absence of any protective cartilige in my left knee... also, I never regained full range of motion on that knee after two knee surgeries).  I can do the end part of a clean and jerk (the jerk part).  So by shooting a lot and paying attention, I am starting to get a feel for how these moves build real strength.  Am I going to be cleanig and jerking in some competition?  No.  But I am starting to get a real appreciation for how important these moves are.

If you are interested in seeing some of the photos I took, click here.  The good news is that it's fairly easy to shoot meets... just shoot in continuous mode and model out your settings.  The bad news is that it could be a lot better if I had better glass (lenses).  I could *easily* drop $500-$1000 on some lenses that could get me much further shooting action shots in low light.  But I will try to make do until I get that kind of gear.  

That said... Nico and Dave went to the Family Fun Fest at Hollywood Park on Saturday morning.  We were under the impression that there would be a firetruck (there wasn't).  It was relatively disapppointing.  When I got home, Nico and I ended up snuggling and taking a nap.  When we woke up, we rode over to Petersen Park for a play on the playground.

 Sunday, we rode up to Highland Park (a suburb just northwest of Chicago), which should really be called "Super Swankville".  There is a relatively famous place for breakfast there (called Walker Brothers Pancake House).  We had a delicious breakfast... seriously, Dave and I both had to narrow down our choice to one of about five different things we wanted.  Afterwards, we strolled through an art fair that was going on.  Seriously, here are snatches from two different conversations I heard:
"Well, the place had a gourmet kitchen, so you know I was set.  That was pretty much all I cared about."
"It was so strange- the other day, I went to pay for something and pulled a ruppee out of my wallet.  I hadn't been to India in years."

Both of these make me want to start a tumblr called "rich people problems".

Sunday after our nap, Nico and I went out for a little date night.  We started by taking the bus to the train and getting some dinner in Irving Park.  Then we found a new playground and ended the night with some ice cream at Margies onn Montrose.  It was really fun.