Summer Funs!

We'll, we had a lovely July 4th weekend.   Nico and I went to the park on Friday afternoon. He's really getting into having muscles and stuff- so he worked on learning how to do the monkey bars. I think he's plenty strong enough- he just needs work on his technique.

On Friday, we were set to bead up to Evanston to grill out with friends. They have a daughter who is 1.5 years old and is just about the cutest thing ever. Another couple with a boy about the same age came over and the kids hung out together. It will be fantastic in about four years when these guys just run around the neighborhood together.  I've been working on a couple of photography deadlines lately. I spent most of yesterday doing that, when Dave and Nico drove to check out an old school arcade. Apparently when they were in Louisville a couple of weeks ago, Nico was introduced to pinball- which he loves. So he basically got to play to his heart's content. 

Spring and Summer

It's been busy here. 

Hey guess what I learned?  Teaching in quarters is actually harder than teaching in semesters.The quarters feel so much shorter than semesters.  I am very much looking forward to not teaching for a couple of months.  Biking to and from work every day.  Hanging out with my boys in the evenings.  Picnics at the Lake. I have even made my list of things I want to do this summer.  It's pretty crazy. I think in the next couple of weeks we might be able to go strawberry picking.  STRAWBERRY PICKING!! 

The good news is that summer is ramping up a bit.  The weather has been nice-so we've been outside a lot more.  We got a new law guy and got the grass cut for the first time since last summer. We were totally those people.  Meh. 

Nico is getting pretty funny lately.  I know I have said it every age since he was born, but THIS age  is my favorite.  We're getting to the age where it isn't all about him all the time.  Case in point: we have started reading The Little House in the Big Woods.  Which is kind of a departure from most books he likes... there aren't many pictures, and its not about super heroes or fireman or police men.  So that is nice.

Also, we have started trying to broaden what he watches... he still likes Lego shows and such.  But he's starting to sit down for things like Ken Burns' The West.  He's also starting to get into playing a lot by himself.  Of course, he is also starting to get very dramatic.  His new thing is lay on the floor and claim to be too tired to ________________.  It's not annoying.  At all. 

Other than that, I have started to do olympic lifting at my gym.  Remember when I had three knee surgeries in college?  Remember when I also had an ankle surgery in 2010? The result was that I hadn't gone down into a full squat (hips below knees) in like 15 years.  And when I started CrossFit, I skipped any day that had snatches (taking the bar from the floor to overhead) or cleans (taking the bar to shoulders).  The full movement results in hips below knees (which was a no fly zone for me).  But then I found out I could modify the movements to the power position (which is standing mostly up) and love them both now.  One of our coaches has been doing a fundamentals class once a week which is pretty great. 

I'm terrible at them.  It's largely a function of the way I approach mastery of movements... which is to do something thousands of times not till I get it right, but until I never get it wrong. I think my movement is getting decent with cleans, but snatches are an absolute disaster.  In fact, last week, I racked myself in the chin with the bar.  And then about 10 minutes later I caught myself on the top of my own head.  My own head.  I don't even understand how that happened.   

But it's pretty fun.  Now that the weather is nice, Dave and I are looking forward to playing outdoor soccer again.  Just gotta find a team. 

I'm baaaaaaaaaack....

Well hello there!!  It's good to see you.
As promised, I have returned from the hiatus- with a mixed record as to what I did with my time.  Before Thanksgiving, I had gotten down to within 5 lbs. of pre-nico weight, but I undid a bit of that when we were in Texas over the holiday.  I went to the doctor (to get some meds reupped) and was weighed on his "official" (read: bullshit) scale.  He confirmed that since August 7th, I had lost 18 lbs.  This works out to be about a pound per week.  The upside to this that my left knee is feeling great- which is a departure from what it usually feels like.

Moreover, I am getting so strong.  Case in point: we do a lot of pull-ups in CrossFit.  I have never been able to do a pull-up and have always had to use the black band (think of a very large rubber band that you loop over the bar and put your feet in.  Then you step off the box and your weight is somewhat supported by the band).  In order of support, the colors are: purple, black, green, blue.  Since I started CF, I have been on the black band, and have tried a couple of times to go down to the green, but could not get the pull-up.  But the black band has felt really easy the last couple of weeks... like not even a workout.  This week, just for grins, I gave it a go and was able to get a couple of pull-ups.  It was fantastic.  I'm not sure I could do a whole workout with just the green band (yet), but it's nice to have that as a measure.

Last night I went to an Olympic lifting class for the first time.  I am starting to really like a couple of the movements (power cleans and power snatches), but my technique is a hot mess.  So I went to the class to do a little work and just get in a lot of reps.  It's totally like goalkeeping... where sometimes the only way to improve is to do 100 punches over the crossbar.  It is what it is.

So that is great.  The trade off is that I am sore all the time these days.  And I have a lot more muscle... so clothes just do not fit.  Not only the ones that I already have but most the ones I'm looking at when I go shopping.  But I guess that is a good problem to have, right?

In other news, I am looking (on my desk) at a complete second draft of a paper that I have been working on.  Today I will be sending it to my old boss at the FSU COM, for his comments and remarks before we submit it for publication later this month.  Which is fantastic.  I don't know if I mentioned it or not, but I got another publication last month (November).  Back in the spring, I helped one of the FSU COM students with a paper he wanted to submit for a patient safety award.  Well, as I left, he was working on getting it published.  Back in October our old boss (the third author) sent me a note that it had been published.  So, make that two publications since I have been in Chicago.  Isn't that cool?

I have about a third of the lectures for my Winter Quarter class edited.  I still need to record and post them, but I like the progress so far.  I am experimenting with "flipping the classroom", where I record my lectures and my students view them on their own time.  Then they come to class and we work on problems together.  For statistics??  I think it could be really good.

More later.