Nov 26
2009

Today’s thanksgiving so it’s time to give thanks, mentions, and praise for another year. This year I’m thankful the following:

Family and friends

Although the family is all spread out, I’m thankful to have each of you in my life, and thankful that Skype is there to help keep us together. There’s nothing quite like playing peekaboo over the computer with my nephew, Orson or listening to Nathan’s ukulele or guitar strumming or seeing Dad in England every week.

I’m also glad to have so many excellent friends in my life, who’ve really helped through some very rough patches.

Moving forward

It has been a rough few years, but I’m thankful that this year, particularly this fall, I feel like things have finally started to move forward. I’m thankful that I’ve been accepted into the Master’s of MIS program and look forward to meeting new people. I”m thankful for starting this personal training stuff. I feel better than I have in a long time. (At the moment I’m feeling a little beat. The Thanksgiving Power XT aerobics class was pretty tough.) I’m also thankful that I finally went and talked to a therapist a little and read some surprisingly comforting books on grief at her suggestion. They’ve helped a lot, and I feel much better about where I’m at in the process, etc.

Orchestra

I’m thankful for finally finding an orchestra in the community that I can play in for fun. It feels good not to have my viola just starting at me like I’m letting it down anymore. Now we both get to go out and play. I’m thankful also that the orchestra is not overly competitive or anything either. It’s good to be playing in a group for fun. I’ve missed that these past years. I look forward to whatever we’re playing next. Hope it’s good.

My bicycles

I’m thankful that Dad got so into riding his bikes, because it’s helped me want to ride as well. There’s something so much more fun about riding on two wheels in the open air than riding on four in an enclosed car. Plus, it’s good to see the world from a different angle sometime. Although, I’m also thankful that my car seems to be working again and consistently.

Christmas vacation is nearly here

I’m thankful that today is Thanksgiving, since it means that soon it’ll be Christmas, and I’ll be getting to see most of my family (maybe all, if Matt will come out). I can’t wait to see everybody.

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.

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Nov 23
2009

I recently purchased Judith Jones’s The Pleasures of Cooking for One, mainly because I’ve been wanting to cook at home more, but also have no idea what to do w/ the food I buy from the grocery. This week I started with her recipe for a whole broiled chicken, which I’ll then turn into other things throughout the week, including chicken stock. The chicken turned out really good. I was pleasantly surprised what rubbing a chicken down under it’s skin with lemon peel, shallots, scallions, olive oil, and tarragon could do for flavoring a chicken. This afternoon I skipped home for lunch and tried her shirred egg and chicken liver recipe, which was kick ass.

What I’m enjoying most though about the cooking is how simple and yet tasty most of these meals are. Tonight I’ll probably try making the Welsh Rabbit recipe. I’ve been wanting to make Welsh Rabbit since I got back from England. It was on of my favorite meals I tried over there.

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Nov 16
2009

Last Saturday I had my first full week of training: gravity machine class, pilates, and 30 minutes of personal training. I was only able to ride my bike to the Saturday class. Thursday, I was worried about being late because the class is at 6, but the reality was that riding in the car took forever and the traffic drove me pretty nuts. Riding my bike to the classes seems to make me feel much better than being stuck in traffic and at the lights. Of course stopping at a red light on my bicycle just feels like a chance to take a little breather, as opposed to being stuck in the car at a light and feeling like traffic isn’t moving, and I’m going to be late.

The classes so far have reminded me to constantly work on my core when sitting. It’s also already making a difference in my riding, because by focusing on my core my lower back, and my arms aren’t getting sore or stiff.

Tonight begins full week number 2. I had my gravity training tonight and rode my bike out and back, which always makes me feel better. It just seems odd to drive to go exercise. Plus I firmly believe that more drivers see people commuting places by bike the more they’ll get used to the idea of bicycles on the rode. I want cycling around places to become normal. Not to mention I love not having to buy as much gas. Tonight was actually chilly enough to wear my arm warmers out to the gym. I was warm enough after exercising that I didn’t need them on the way back.

Anyway, the working out is already making me feel better, and I’ve been using the daily plate feature on livestrong.com to help me figure out how much I should be eating and if I’m making good dietary choices.

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Nov 9
2009

The Last of the Mohicans (1992)

Running always, except

When racing canoes and shooting.

Movie that thrills.

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Nov 8
2009

Friday I had my first one-on-one session with trainer. I also rode my bike there and back for first time at night. The ride had just enough element of danger to make both exciting and fun. Please realize though I’ve made sure to be as lighted as possible. I’ve got 2 high powered front lights, blinky lights at the end of handle bars, and a bright tail light that flashes as well. I felt comfortable with the ride and like I can commute comfortably.

The training was eye opening. I had no idea, but I had been doing basic lunges, etc incorrectly for awhile. I know I will learn a lot doing this. I already feel better than I have in months. Hopefully, I’ll be feeling pretty good and ready for Christmas vacation and any potential hiking, skiing, running around after Orson.

Today I ran out to my favorite section of Orlando where my favorite bike shop is locates, Orange Cycles. Sadly, shop was closed, so I took a walk around the neighborhood. Lots of fun older style architecture in the neighborhood, took some photos, then headed out to Lakeland to ride around the lakes out there. Good ride, bit windy though.

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Cool house I saw in College Park area of Orlando.

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Sign for the Publix in College Park Orlando. Retro section of town.

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I liked the trees on the sidewalk creating a little tunnel.

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Lake Morton in Lakeland.

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Nov 5
2009

Tonight was my first pilates class. As expected nobody bites. I’m not sure why I’ve always found the idea of exercise classes so terrifying, but they make me anxious. Maybe it’s just a call back to elementary school PE, which was fairly horrific. Stupid Mrs. Wilson with her pantyhose under her shorts.

But tonights class was enjoyable and far from terrifying. I didn’t feel completely judged or totally uncoordinated. Actually, it was comfortable.

As part of this journey into better health and weight loss I should state my goal. I need to lose at least 42lbs to return to a healthy weight for my height and size. So there’s the goal; now I’ve got to work on making it happen.

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Nov 3
2009

So I’ve decided that I can’t keep wandering lost in gaining personal fitness and weight loss; I’m starting personal training. Today I met with Christine and set up training. I’m hoping that this will be the shot in the arm I need to accomplish my fitness goals. I want a change. I need a change.

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Nov 3
2009

Bright Star (2009)

Keats dies; Fanny cries.

Film lacks exposition/punch.

Brown is an asshole throughout.

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Nov 2
2009

I went out to Florida Southern College in Lakeland this afternoon to take some photos. Why Florida Southern? Because the campus was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and actually contains the largest collection of Wright buildings in a single area.

I got a bit of a late start on the day. I can only blame laziness and re-watching Ghostbusters II for it. I managed to find downtown Lakeland all right. Cute downtown area, will have to explore it again. I missed the signs for the school, so it took me a few u-turns to find the campus. Then it turned out I spaced my SD card for my camera and wound up actually having to find a drugstore to pick up a media card. After that though I managed to make it back to school before sunset, during the golden hour of lighting.

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The chapel on campus.

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Covered Walkways

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Chapel later in evening

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More of the chapel

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The library.

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Classroom area on campus.

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More of the campus.

The campus is well worth seeing. It’s distinctly Wright and distinctly American. In Wright’s work, I always feel you can see how he has created patterns and architecture out of nature to create his buildings. The natural world becomes formalized lines and motifs. He reminds me of some of the ancient art of the Celts. At one point it had become popular in their art to take traditional animal motifs and then style them in such a way as too barely recognize the animal that it originally represented. (I got to see quite a few examples of this in the British Museum.)

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Details on the chapel. Each of the squares including little bitty ones, were colored glass.

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Sundial on campus

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Detail of awning of building.

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Performing arts mountain and tree like awnings.

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The buildings practically blend in with the scenery around them.

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Covered area between buildings.

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The pedestals the covered walkways sit on.

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A Tree on campus I liked. You can see the covered walkways in back of it though.

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I liked the way the light was hitting the building.

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There's actually a plant growing in the tower.

Today I wanted to work on  my photography and play with manual settings, aperture and shutter speed and depth of field. It’s good sometimes to go to take photos by yourself too. No one can rush your setups, but the light. I also planned to work on creating some more fake miniature photos.

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Miniaturized Library.

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Miniaturized campus at sunset.

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Miniaturized chapel.

Across the street from the campus is a little boardwalk area. I ran over there just around sunset and grabbed these shots.

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Bridge on boardwalk.

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Flower near the boardwalk.

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Sunset on the water.

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Another shot of the sunset.

I know I’ll be back to the school and Lakeland. I really like the lake areas in Florida in general, but another plus for Lakeland is the bike lane that goes all the way around the lake and another bike lane that connects to some sort of Florida cycling trail. I’ll have to bring my bike out there and check it out next time.

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