My mother died in an automobile accident last week while on vacation in the Philippines. She went to support her oldest brother (my uncle) who was running for mayor of his town (Bauan).  She was coming back from Manila with her sister & nephew (who was driving). It was nighttime, my mom was sleeping in the back seat of the van while her sister was ( Read more... )

What a great weekend! The weather was absolutely gorgous out. mystress was in for the weekend. Saturday I picked her up from ORD, dropped off her things, and headed out on our bikes. We rode to the Lake, down Lakeshore drive, stopped by Navy Pier, headed south, and ended up in Chinatown for Bubble Tea. We also picked up some exotic saki's, a pinapple wine ( Read more... )

I made a deal with myself earlier in the year that I would run the Chicago marathon if I could run 10k, by April 1st. Over the weekend, I ran 10.5k (1/4 marathon) in 47:02. I was always a decent runner, a result more of circumstance than natural talent. When I was little, my family couldn't afford a bicycle, so I would just run along side my ( Read more... )

I went for my annual blood screening a coupla weeks ago. I started drinking green tea at work in an effort to lower my Iron (via tannin complexation) b/c my iron generally runs high now that I eat flax & oats regularly. The Iron dropped from 160 to a more reasonable 108. There were several parameters that were "out of spec" for me particularly, ( Read more... )

[x-posted to gym_goths]
After about 6 months of owning a Blendtec Total Blender, I still think it's worth every penny spent. It's pricey, but I've made up the cost in time saved and more healthy eating ( Read more... )

Hopped off the ICE at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, stowed my luggage in one of those 24 hr pay lockers and went directly to the venue where Frank & Justin were playing. I made it only for their last song, but that's ok. I'll see them play in Zurich Thursday ( Read more... )

Monday, I met up with Ian & Bruce (the Captain of his Flight crew) for Italian food, then coffee, beer, & Glog (in that order).[0] We exchanged travel stories and had general conversations about American life ( Read more... )

Made it to ORD without incident. I was lucky enough to sit next to a nice woman who was on her way to Jakarta via LHR. She was with a 2 year old. I was worried about the crying, but the little girl just slept. She was muslim and we commiserated about how AA screwed up our meal preferences. We both had little or nothing to eat. I have more than half ( Read more... )

Well, that was an expensive mistake. The replacement passport cost $160, not counting time off work, and miscellaneous expenses ( Read more... )

I think I have really lost my passport, not misplaced it ( Read more... )