The Snow And The Flurry

Janko Keyboard

2008-12-02T16:49:00.003-06:00

Guest Post #1

2008-09-24T00:09:00.011-05:00

Hello reader(s)! I have been given permission from on high to do the occasional Guest Post, so as to keep you all satiated with tasty tidbits from our lives. It has been rather warm this week (as opposed to the rainy/mid 50s weather we had a few weeks ago) so we went for what might end up being our last sailing adventure of the season. Since, you know, the lake will freeze over at any moment, this being Wisconsin and all. We took our friend Laura and her boyfriend Andrew along, since a lazy day of sailing is better with friends. And snacks.

Dayron Robles

2008-09-16T00:09:00.008-05:00

I think that 110m hurdles world record holder Dayron Robles looks like a Cuban version of my friend Boris.

Tea 2.0!

2008-09-15T23:57:00.002-05:00

I went to Dobrá Tea again, but this time I made everybody go! We sat on tuffets and had a really good time. This time I had the Kyoto Kinen (great! like frothy chocolate milk, except it's tea), Darjeeling First Flush (good, but nothing special, just tasted like tea), and the Memories of Prague (good but nothing special) and I had a taste of the Black Tea Anemone (delicious, definitely something different, not just any old tea). I have to keep track here, otherwise I'll never be able to try them all! Also, I had the hummus again (still awesome!), baba ganouje (served in a similar fashion to the humus, but not as tasty. stick with the humus), side of pita (warm and delicious, but why not get it with hummus?), and the couscous casablanca again (still a yummy dessert!).

Dobrá Tea!

2008-09-01T21:26:00.002-05:00

They opened an awesome new tea house on State Street called Dobrá Tea. It's fantastic. The tea is completely delicious. I had the Ceylon Adam's Peak from Sri Lanka, and Hilary had the Staroborshov, which is great because it looks like beer, but it's way better because it's just cold foamy lightly sweetened tea! They also have a delicious light menu, we had the hummus, which comes with warm pita and veggies, and was hands-down the best hummus that I've had in the midwest. It was garlicky and had what they called "zetta" spice, or something like that. Most other hummus here is just too afraid of flavor. Then we had the couscous, which was a sweetened cold couscous with nuts, and was an awesome dessert. I will definitely be going back. I hope other people do to. We were the only ones there, and granted, it's only been open a week, but this place really needs to stay in business. Even though it's a chain, it's the sort of chain that Madison sorely needs.

Strange Crystals

2008-09-01T21:22:00.004-05:00

I don't know where they came from, but I had this huge thing of crystals growing on top of my bookshelf in my office. Maybe I spilled some magic.

Wildlife

2008-08-22T20:09:00.014-05:00

A Sand Hill Crane, near the new bike path and the train tracks.
	My fish!
	Prize winning veggies at the Wisconsin State Fair
	A fuzzy, prize winning bunny.
	I learned a lot about chickens.
	Really, a LOT.
	Hilary already knew about chickens.
	This is the back of a goat.
	Someone at the Dane Country Airport likes me.
	Barack-a-Roll
	The frat house next door burned down.
	We thought our house was going to burn down too.
	It was scary.
	The ducks lived in the back, I hope their house was okay.
	This is in the UW Arboretum, back when it was winter, which will sadly soon be the case again.
	I peeled an orange into just one swirly piece. How cool is that?
	Winter was pretty, wasn't it?
	This is when I won the Mayor Daley Speed Skating Classic.

The sun is back!

2008-03-10T20:49:00.002-06:00

I biked to work today! The weather and road conditions be damned. But tomorrow it's actually supposed to get above freezing; 46F even! It will be beautiful. And now that we're off daylight savings time, it's much brighter out after work. I can't wait until the snow melts and the very, very, plowed-in bike lanes are uncovered.

Madison Speed Skating website

2008-03-02T09:59:00.002-06:00

I took over the website for our speed skating club from the parent of a kid doesn't skate much anymore. I gave it a big makeover. It's not beautiful yet, which I will work on, but I have lots of fun functionality, like embedded Google calendars and discussion groups. Plus, a lightweight navigation bar that does neat lighting up tricks when you roll over it, without using any cumbersome images. Check it out.

State Champion!

2008-03-02T09:38:00.003-06:00

Woohoo! I won my division at the Wisconsin short track state championship! Now, in case you were wondering, I was not the only person who showed up. However, there were a sum total of 3 people in my division, one of whom had never raced before. The other had raced only once before, and has actually been training by himself and taught himself to skate off YouTube, which shows a huge amount of initiative. I think that's really admirable. But, it meant I did not have any trouble winning. Hey, showing up is half the battle. Also, I did a 10.13 flying lap at practice on Thursday, which is my personal best. Unfortunately, I was unable to recreate those speeds yesterday during the 500m, and I'm not quite sure why.

Grandma E.

2008-02-27T21:46:00.002-06:00

My father's mother died last Thursday, and I went to New York for the funeral. She had been getting worse and worse for a long time, and had really severe dementia. So it wasn't unexpected, and it really was for the best. I don't think I'd describe it as sad. I will say that I learned a huge amount about my ancestry while sitting shiva. It was really interesting to hear a lot of stories about my relatives that come from Hungary. They left just before WWII. Although, not all of them got out. My was one of 10 brothers and sisters. She left in 1939 and came to America. One brother went to Israel (before it was Israel), and the other 8 died in Auschwitz. That I knew, but I learned a lot more about what life was like in Hungary (actually it was Romania, but they always refer to it as Hungary; the border kept changing). Also, there were cool stories about the bakery that my grandfather used to run. When it first opened on 87th street, an Irish woman came in at 6:30am, demanding to know what this place was. After tasting some of the pastries, she ran out into the street, yelling at the top of her lungs that everyone had to wake up, because she had just tasted the most incredible cake ever. She woke up half the Upper West Side at 6:30 in the morning, and some people came into the bakery, saying that they had gotten woken up, and might as well see what all the fuss was about. And that's how the bakery's reputation first spread. Apparently that woman never came into the store again, and my grandfather never found out who she was, but he always wanted to thank her.

Pictures from New Year's Eve

2008-01-03T20:56:00.001-06:00

I went to an awesome steampunk time-travel themed warehouse party on New Year's Eve. Here's a picture of me, and you can look through the album at others who were there: Time Traveler Marty on Flickr

Russian Physics friends

2008-01-02T00:15:00.000-06:00

Tonight I got to hang out with my Russian physics friends! I call them my Russian physics friends, even though most of them aren't Russian, but I think it's a pretty good appelation for the group. Anyway, I really love them and it's a shame that I don't get to see them more. Boris said I should visit him in Sweden, and that they groom ice skating trails on the lakes there! That's so exciting, and I should definitely take him up on that, although Peru is first on the list. We went to see Sweeney Todd. I thought it was great. It was very bloody, and very dark, and very unlike anything else out in the movies today. Then we had fancy Japanese where you take off your shoes, they bring you raw meat and you grill it yourself on a little grill built into the table. Yum. Then, dessert at Veniero's. Double yum. Oh, also I ran into a friend I made recently on the airplane at Sweeney Todd, and I ran into Rachel D from Stuy at Veniero's. One of the best things about New York is how small it makes the world seem.

The LeeVees

2007-12-07T00:59:00.000-06:00

I went to an awesome free Channukah concert tonight. It was sort of a private concert sponsored by the UW Hillel. The band was The LeeVees, which consists of the lead singer from Guster, a guy who plays in a band called The Zambonis which plays only songs about hockey, and two other guys all of whom are pretty awesome musicians. This band exists essentially only during Channukah every year, during which they play a whirlwind tour of the U.S. It was snowing outside, but it was warm and cozy inside. The concert started with the lighting of some Channukah candles. Then they proceeded to play a whole lot of fun, mostly Channukah themed songs. Including "How do you spell Channukah?" They did a lot of musical improvisation as well. Instruments were swapped, a banjo was played. A good time was had.

Indecisons, indecisions.

2007-11-29T00:14:00.000-06:00

I am in the process of getting a new guitar, but I am having a very hard time making up my mind. The best guitar that I've played so far was a Fender ESD-10. Yes, an acoustic Fender. But I had to weigh all the options and look at a million other guitars. But finally I went back to the store thinking, "Okay, if it sounds as good as I remember, then I'll get the Fender." Unfortunately, it didn't. The last time I played it, it seemed like the perfect instrument. Everything I played sounded amazing, all my mistakes sounded intentional. Late finger changes sounded like I meant to be hammering on or pulling off.

But today it just sounded so-so. It wasn't loud enough, especially in the base. The action was still excellently fast, but the strings felt too close together.

I'm tempted to get an Ovation, because they were created by an aerospace engineer who used to design composite rotor blades for Sikorsky helicopters.

But really, I just don't know.

I was feeling down from my lack of decisiveness and initiative. But then Hilary made me go to the gym. I swam. I feel much better. Plus, it looks like I can get a $50 reimbursement from my health insurance every six months if I go often enough, which I intend to.

Stuyvesant Reunion

2007-11-25T22:05:00.000-06:00

Hi school was awesome! It was great to see all the awesome high school people that I have unfortunately not thought about in a long time. I really did have fun though. I brought Hilary along, so I could show her off. The most unexpected interaction that she had was with James Herman, who it turns out is now a neuroscience grad student. They talked about siRNA and rat brains for a very long time.

I rock the Internet

2007-11-25T14:47:00.000-06:00

A guy in my skating club put some videos of my last race on YouTube. Kindly, he only put up the ones where I won. The race was in Park Ridge, IL. Mira claims she went to high school there. 500m video 1500m video

Learning things

2007-10-23T23:11:00.000-05:00

I learned 3 things at skating practice today. 1. Taking two cross-overs in, making a late pivot, and taking two cross-overs out can be pretty powerful. The two in and late pivot keep me from pivoting too long and not powering through the turn. 2. In order to really achieve #1, I have to turn my right foot inwards on the first cross-over, look and lean into the turn. Otherwise, the first cross-over is just being faked, and doesn't really do anything for me. 3. I have to squish down into my straight-away pushes, not pop up. I think I was doing that because I didn't really want to speed up all that much in the straight-away, because I didn't think I could handle the speed in the turn. But doing #2, and setting up the lean into the turn properly, makes me more comfortable in the turn. Then I can use that speed.

Dow American Cup 1

2007-10-04T22:32:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I raced in the Dow American Cup. The first time I've raced in a year. The level of competition was great, at least as high as nationals. It was perfect for getting me back into racing. Here's how I did:

1500 Heat     2:45.693 4th of 5
1500 D-Final 2:45.554 4th of 6
500 Heat      0:50.210 2nd of 5
500 Quarter   0:50.772 4th of 4
500 C-Final   0:51.551 4th of 4
1000 Heat     1:47.261 4th of 4
1000 E-Final 1:56.830 4th of 4

Overall 19th of 27

I fell in my 1000 final, on the last corner of the last lap of the whole meet. Other than that I didn't fall at all, which I thought was a good achievement in and of itself.

I learned a huge amount, just from watching and copying the fast people. At the next practice session in Madison, Tom noticed immediately that I was skating differently, which I was very proud of.

Puppies everywhere!

2007-09-22T11:21:00.000-05:00

Hilary and I are taking care of Corinna's 3 dogs this week. Puppies everywhere!

Time and Space

2007-09-21T00:24:00.000-05:00

I brought a tape measure to skating practice today, so that I could measure out a real track. We haven't had reliable lap times in a while. Then Tom timed me at 33 seconds for 3 laps (from a start). I think his timing is kind of suspect though, because that's kind of fast. But maybe not exceedingly so.

3 hour tour

2007-09-19T23:45:00.000-05:00

1:20 biking + 1 hour ice skating + 1:20 inline skating = 3:40 of exercise that I did today. Getting stronger.

Marty goes running.

2007-09-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

I ran 5.2 miles, both yesterday and today. Here's the route: http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/wi/madison/300740676 I feel pretty good. I signed up for the 2007 Dow American Cup I in Midland, MI at the end of this month. I'm in the B Division because it takes a 1:34 1000m qualifying time to get in the A division. (I've done a 1:42). It's a 7 1/2 hour drive, which will be annoying, but it should be worth it, because besides doing my own races, I'll get to see the really fast people in the A division compete for spots on the USA World Team.

I'm special.

2007-09-16T10:48:00.000-05:00

Hilary got me 4 DVDs and a book and now I'm going to be a spoiled little boy. Mira got me a Star Trek calendar which I then gave to Hilary. Rachel got me pretty flowers and Meag gave me a copy of "Ben Folds Live". My parents are helping me buy a new guitar! Jarett made me his Facebook friend (a friend is the BEST gift!). And also, Tanja called me from London and sung me Happy Birthday which was really nice! Happy birthday for me!

Léo wants to train for a marathon with me, which is really awesome, because even if I don't do the marathon, the training will be really good for me. The skating club's dry-land workouts have wanned, and this will replace that! It was kind of funny, because I had a talk with him last week where he kept going on about how bad marathons are for the body. Then the next day he E-mailed me saying he'd changed his mind and wanted to do one.

Today I'm going to the guitar store to play some guitars, and then later I get to go skating! Yay!

Oh, also, someone in Hilary's program, Lindsey, said she wants to learn to speed skate ... but not until after intramural soccer is over, because they conflict.

Ruth Ruth t-shirt

2007-09-15T10:42:00.001-05:00

Also, I'm wearing my black Ruth Ruth t-shirt, which is my absolutely hands-down #1 favorite t-shirt. I've had it since I was 16 or 17. I never wear it though, because I don't want it to fall apart. But it's my birthday!

Batman socks

2007-09-15T10:32:00.000-05:00

I'm wearing the Batman socks that Christine got me about 6 years ago.

It's my birthday!

2007-09-15T09:33:00.001-05:00

Happy Marty's birthday everyone!

The Cabin

2007-09-12T21:52:00.000-05:00

Last weekend Hilary, Meag, Mira, Jesus and I rented a cabin up at Devil's lake. It was dirt cheap, and really awesome! Mira was sad because it was her birthday, and nobody called her or texted her, except for me, but apparently I don't count because I was there.

The cabin came fully stocked with dishes, cookware, sheets and pillows. There was a stove, but we made a fire in the ring of fire outside and cooked over that.

Mosquitos are everywhere in Wisconsin right now, and it's very annoying. They like me, because I taste good. I'd better drink some tonic water to keep the malaria away.

Skating has started again! I'm excited, but also, really weak. We've been doing dry-land for a few months, but nothing is like skating except skating. This whole not skating during the summer thing doesn't make sense to me. Next summer I'm going to see to it that the club actually has summer ice, and that we have pads and can skate for real.

The 60's were soooo awesome!

2007-07-07T22:17:00.000-05:00

Last night, Hilary and I went on a double date with Rachel and Michael. Michael has a 1965 Ford Galaxy convertible. It's white and it's huge and it's the most fun car ever. And it has none of the things that Cake forbids a car to have (stick shifts, safety belts, bucket seats ... they've all got to go, because when we're driving in the car, they make my baby seem so far).

We got in the '65 Ford Galaxy convertible, and went off through about 20 miles of rolling farmland, to get to the Highway 18 Outdoor Theater. We cruise on in, and since the Galaxy only has an AM radio, we used the little speaker that you can clip onto your car window. Most people at the drive-in were in lawn chairs in front of their cars. But not us! With the top down and the spacious boat of a car, we just relaxed, had some funnel cake and watched the movie!

The movie was Ratatouille, which is so much fun. One of Pixar's best, I think. It was actually a double feature, with Pirates of the Caribbean 3 coming second. But we didn't stay for Pirates, because it was getting late and we had already had a lot of fun, and didn't want to spoil a good thing.

The drive back was magical. The sky was so dark, and I just lay back and watched the stars. The convertible was just so wide open that you could get lost in the sky.

We are the winners!

2007-06-20T00:41:00.000-05:00

It only took about 7 tries, but we finally won a softball game! And I had 4 at-bats and scored 4 runs. Go me. I have to admit, softball is more fun when you win.

Commencement Pictures

2007-06-15T20:05:00.000-05:00

I had a great time at Commencement, by the way! Perhaps the craziest story is that Tanja and I went to a 3am champagne and waffle breakfast!

Tanja met Danny DeVito and Dustin Hoffman at Campus Dance on Friday Night.
But Tanja also found me, so I'm famous by proxy!
Miki, Alice, Dave and Aili at Campus dance! Campus dance is the formal dance the Friday night of Commencement. About 20,000 student, parents and alumni show up.
Brown Commencement/Reunion way outdoes any other school! Yay! In this picture, Miki and I dance!
Saturday Evening. Remember Waterfire? It's as fun an creepy as ever! Providence is so awesome. I miss it.
There weren't any good parties going on (at least not until 3am), so we threw our own dance party on the Andrews terrace. The music was coming from Tanja's little iPod speakers, which you couldn't hear from more than 10 feet away, so people thought we were crazy weirdos dancing to music in our heads! But the great thing about Brown is that no one minds that sort of thing.
Interpretive dancing at our dance party.
Phil was the fabulous organizer of the 3am champagne and waffle breakfast. He's crazy, but definitely made my night. Apparently he works in the Harvard Medical library building where Aili works, and only dresses slightly less crazy at work.
They have this absurd machine outside the V-Dub which has frozen pizzas, burgers and chicken sandwiches inside. When you put money in it microwaves the food and hot disgusting snacks come out the bottom! Eww!
The have a new sculpture on the Upper Green which is this giant flowing house-like structure, made of lots of branches, wrapped around a lot of trees. You can walk inside it.
Sunday was Commencement, and I played with the band for the first time in 6 years. I've been practicing the flute a lot just for this, so I think I actually did okay. Matt (the band director) said I should come back more often which meant a lot to me. That was really nice of him.
Tanja and I ran into Bruno while we were watching an a capella arch sing. He's still fuzzy! But now they have Bruno's little brother, "Cubby". Cubby wears his hat backwards and is a disgrace to tradition. Tanja and I refused to let Cubby be in the picture.
After Commencement on Sunday we were all tired! Hilary and I relaxed on the Pembroke grass.

Jarett went to Italy

2007-06-15T19:57:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you're tired of only hearing about me! Jarett and Stephanie went to Italy! Aren't they cute?

Bring the Marty home, to Brown...

2007-05-25T08:34:00.000-05:00

I'm going to the Brown commencement this weekend, and I'm going to get to see everybody and I'm the most excited boy ever!

Good good.

2007-05-17T16:51:00.000-05:00

With the revised halfway point, we did the warmup mile in 8:53 and the 2nd mile in 6:35. Tomorrow we'll do it the other way at hopefully the same intensity, to see if we got the halfway point right.

The Luminiferous Aether

2007-05-16T14:04:00.000-05:00

I did a slower version of the Michelson-Morley experiment today. Instead of using light beams, I did it with me, running. I had been doing two miles at lunch, and the first mile (just a warm up) usually came in around 7 min 45 sec, and the second mile usually came in around 7 min 15 sec, even though I was working a LOT harder on the second one. It just didn't seem right.

So today I ran my route backwards.
The first mile came in at 9:02 and the second mile came in at 5:59. Aha! So the aether does exist. Or rather, the real problem, is that MapMyRun.com didn't correctly identify the location of my office. It was slightly off, and so the halfway point was slightly off.

Clearly the truth is somewhere in between, like around 6:30. That's good. I'm happy with that right now. It was just a big psychological blow coming in at over 7 min every time, and now that's defeated and I think I can start making some more progress.

Zooming up Hills

2007-05-15T16:33:00.000-05:00

I went on a bike ride with a couple people from work, out to the West. I'd never been out that way. It's all farmland, but with hills. The glaciers stopped right at Madison during the last ice age, and South and East of Madison, it's flat, but North and West, it's hilly.

The ride took us to a place called Riley's Tavern. We didn't stop, but it's supposed to be a cool motorcycle bar, but that accepts people in spandex since the Military Ridge bike trail goes right by there.

So there are some great hills out there and me and one of the other guys ended up racing up a bunch of them, which was awesome. I don't think I've ever gone that fast uphill before.

Spring Chicken Regatta

2007-05-13T01:32:00.000-05:00

I raced in the Spring Chicken Regatta on Saturday. I'm really slow, and I have no idea why. We did 6 races. There were 10 people racing. I came in tenth in four of them. I think I came in 7th in one and 9th in another. I'm under the impression that I understand sailing, but that impression may be wrong.

Hilary's Birthday

2007-05-13T01:25:00.000-05:00

Saturday was Hilary's birthday. I made a pancake-cake. Oh the cleverness of me. I made pancakes, and then I made maple frosting, and then I stacked up the pancakes into a cake, with maple frosting in between the layers.

But then we went to the pirate party! Arrg! Pictures and more to follow. But there was cake there. So we didn't eat the pancake-cake yet. It will be a breakfast cake.

Morel mushrooms are in season here. They are only in season for two weeks a year. I bought some and made chicken with morels. Suprêmes de Volaille Farcies aux Morilles. Like what the people are eating in the painting in Amelie. It was VERY delicious.

Ducklings!

2007-05-13T01:16:00.000-05:00

Hilary with dried shrimp. Gross!
A red-tailed hawk near my office. Majestic!
Ducklings! Cute!

When he's underwater does he get wet?

2007-05-05T17:18:00.000-05:00

Or does the water get him instead? Nobody knows.

But I went sailing today for the first time this year, and I definitely got wet. The water is pretty cold still. But we didn't capsize or anything, and now I'm home and dry and cuddly.

Softball is Lame

2007-05-03T12:53:00.000-05:00

My company has a softball team, which I joined. Our first practice was Tuesday. Now I remember why I haven't played baseball since I quit Little League about 17 years ago. It's boring. I mean, it was fun throwing some balls around and hitting and stuff, but when you're in the field you're really just standing around most of the time.

Also, softballs are not at all soft. They are actually very hard. Who knew?

A Host of Angels!!!

2007-04-30T21:00:00.000-05:00

Wow, I got less than zero work done today! It's not my fault though. We had meetings all day, and then there was cake and then more meetings. And what these meetings mostly consisted of was watching a septagenarian aerodynamicist argue with a septagenarian aerospace engineer about whether or not the various "hosts of angels" mentioned in the bible were really the expanding contrails from a fleet of alien space vehicles as they made an exodus from Earth.

But I lucked out with the weather! It rained overnight, then it stopped and I biked in, and then it rained, and then it stopped and I had cake outside, and then it rained and then it stopped, and I biked home, and now it's raining again! Yay.

I made a bunch of clarified butter. I'm trying to force Hilary to use it instead of margarine. Since she's only allergic to the milk protein, and clarifying the butter removes the protein, it shouldn't kill her ... theoretically.

Oh, yesterday I was elected to the board of the Madison Speedskating Club as the VP of Propaganda. Also, I got a special award and a plaque with my name engraved on it for helping out with the club this year! Super!

Bye, bye winter, hello liquid water.

2007-04-28T20:34:00.000-05:00

Astronomers recently inferred the existence of Gliese 581 C, a planet about 1.5 Earth masses, only 20 light-years away, with temperatures likely in between 0 and 40 Celsius. So, it may very well have liquid water!

Here in Wisconsin we too have recently discovered this thing you call "liquid water".

Not too long ago, Hilary rocks the lake.
Marty conquers the ice.
But wait, what's this? The nectar of the Gods! I call it ... LIFE!!!

New Chair!

2007-04-28T20:21:00.000-05:00

Check it out! The chair I mean. I saw you looking at Jabba the Hutt. The chair is leather. Very comfy. Hilary likes. See her smile.

Ted Leo Diagnosis

2007-04-28T09:19:00.000-05:00

By the way, Ted Leo / RX was awesome. He had Ruth Ruth levels of energy and super tight pants. And the place that they had him play in (Union South / "Club 770") is apparently a cafeteria-by-day / dance-hall-by-night, which is super hilarious, indeed.

The Big Big Mass E-mail

2007-04-28T09:13:00.001-05:00

It's only taken me eight months (or five years in some cases) but I sent a big mass E-mail today telling everyone I know that I'm in Wisconsin! That was painful. I hate those sorts of things because it's sort of an admission that I haven't been dutiful in keeping in contact with people. But, it's done now, and maybe some people I haven't talked to in a while will write back!

Today: Farmers marker (Madison has the best farmer's market in the USA)
Later Today: canoeing ... I will be a canoeist

'Cause I'm here ...

2007-04-26T19:45:00.000-05:00

The past three days it's been raining, raining, and I've been a really good boy and I biked to work every day in the ran and got wet and did it again and today Jon and I ran in the rain. But really, it's gotta stop.

Soon, Hilary and I will put on our boots and march down to the Union South for a Ted Leo & the Pharmacists concert. It will be a prescription for awesome.

What we lack in speed, we make up for in curiosity.

2007-04-25T20:33:00.000-05:00

On Monday, Pat and Jon and I were super lazy, and we started out walking. But that's okay, because we ended up exploring. We found the Pleasant View golf course, and began to jog around that. It started as an exercise in avoiding rich people and lawn mowers. However, soon we found a trail that runs below the power lines on the outskirts of the golf course. I think it's a cross-country skiing trail during the winter. But it was pretty cool and back-woodsy (at least for being so near an office park). It ran along the edge, and also gave us a great view of this big rock quarry which is right next to the golf course. We were up at the top of a cliff, and there was a red-tailed hawk, with some sort of rodent in it's claws, ridge soaring back and forth. I guess it figured it had already caught its dinner, and might as well have some fun for the rest of the afternoon.

Roger D. Launius

2007-04-23T21:59:00.000-05:00

Today I had dinner with Roger Launius, a curator of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. He's a very knowledgeable fellow. His perspectives on how exactly the space program ever got support during the Apollo era (and how the history of that has been rewritten since) are very interesting.

He's also a baseball historian too.

Battlestar Galactica

2007-04-22T14:51:00.000-05:00

On Friday night I watched the first season of Battlestar Galactica (the new series, not the old one). I really liked it. At first it starts out kinda lame, but most TV shows do. By the end of the season it got really good. By the first season, I actually mean the miniseries. It was sort of a pilot season. I still have 3 full seasons of "BSG" (as the cool kids call it) to get up to speed.

Speaking of getting up to speed, I went skating on the 17 mile Capital City Trail today. I had to go slow at first, because of the slower people from the club that I went with. But once they turned back, Chuck and I finished the loop at a good clip. It was so beautiful out today! And people smiled at me and said hello. Hot girls too! What a nice day.

More running, yay.

2007-04-19T16:57:00.000-05:00

Went running again today with Pat and Jon. We took the first mile slower and the second one faster. I got split times this time. The mile marker is around SwimWest, which is a swim club that keeps their pool at 90 deg F. You know, for kids. If they didn't have the pool so stupidly hot I might join since it's right here. But you'd pass out trying to do laps in there I bet. It's just so hot.

Anyway, it took us 15:21 overall, 8:16 for the first mile and 7:04 for the 2nd mile.

So, it turns out that even a seven minute mile is pretty hard right now. But it will get easier.

Maggie Mudd

2007-04-18T23:11:00.000-05:00

Hilary went to California last week, and she went to Maggie Mudd which is her most favorite ice cream parlor ever, because they have soy ice cream, but it doesn't taste like soy at all, it just tastes like ice cream, and it's really good, and she gets to eat it, and she doesn't have to worry about it making her tummy hurt, and it's delicious, and it doesn't even taste like beans!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Searing off years of sloth.

2007-04-18T16:21:00.000-05:00

I ran two miles just now with Jon and Pat. 14:40 for the two, so maybe an 8 minute mile and a 7 minute mile. I could feel years of sloth being seared out of my lungs. Plus I got a little belly cramp. Jon really pushed me at the end, which was excellent. Now I have to bike home in the rain. I need a few minutes to recover, but the longer I wait, the worse the rain will get, judging by the radar.

Skating, Death and Taxes

2007-04-16T12:32:00.000-05:00

Since Benjamin Franklin died on Friday, it's fitting that we quote him:

"Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

I filed my taxes last week, and should be getting a bunch of money back, which is excellent. And of course there's been lots of death.

It's also certain that Marty will go skating. On Sunday I skated the Capital City Trail bike loop

It's a great path. Some intersections. But pretty great for skating overall. Not wide enough in some places. If it were wider it could rival Central Park. It's a very beautiful route on a nice day.

Today I ran two miles with Jon at lunch.

Death and Sunshine

2007-04-14T01:23:00.000-05:00

Hilary's friend Adam died recently. My fish Benjamin Franklin died today. Kurt Vonnegut died. But the sun came out today, and I ran two miles at lunch:

On Wisconsin!

2007-04-12T00:16:00.000-05:00

It's been quite a while, but there's much to report. I moved to Madison, Wisconsin in August! Right now it's snowing in April. Oh what a crazy world. I'm working on hybrid rockets for a small research firm called Orbital Technologies. We're having a lot of fun right now, doing testing of all sorts of different motor configurations. Our company has both the most efficient liquid-liquid rocket engine ever built, and also the most efficient hybrid (liquid-solid) rocket engine ever built. That's pretty awesome. Most of our work is on non-flight weight hardware however, but I'm pushing for us to get into the design of actual flight hardware. I speed skate as often as I can. I went to the Pettit Center in Milwaukee on Saturday in fact, and I did some long track. (Usually I do short track.) I skated 500m in 43.6 seconds. That's not particularly awesome by todays standards. However, consider the following: (1) It was only my 3rd time ever on a long track. (2) I was not wearing clap skates, I was wearing the older fixed style of skate, which I borrowed from someone. (3) That would have been fast enough to win the 500m competition at the 1924 Olympics. :) So I'm fairly proud of that. All the skating programs around here shut down for the summer, so in the meantime (once the snow goes away) I am going to organize some regular inline workouts.

State Championships 2006

2006-03-16T00:35:00.000-06:00

I went down to Los Angeles to race at the State Championships. I took 3rd in my division. That was what I was expecting going in, knowing who was skating. Although, one always wishes to defy expectation. I had some good races and some bad. I learned a few things. I won my last race entirely on strategy, which was most excellent. I posted a complete race report on the Norcal forum at www.norcalspeedskating.org/forums so I won't repeat everything here. At the hotel I definitely made good use of the hot tub. No one would go in with me, so I didn't make good use of it in *that* way. But I was just fairly relaxed about the whole weekend. It helped that Tom did all of the driving. Sunday morning I had a sunrise dip in the hot tub which totally started the day off right.

My Girlfriend

2005-11-15T14:32:00.000-06:00

This is my girlfriend, Hilary. She loves me!

Sutro Baths

2005-11-11T00:04:00.000-06:00

	Once upon a time, in the Northwest corner of San Francisco.
A man named Sutro built a giant bath complex, with over two acres of glass skylight. Salt water from the ocean was brought in by the tides, and then heated. A good time was had by all, until it burned down in the 1930s. Now it's a fun place to explore the ruins!
Behold Naomi. The whole area behind her used to be the bath complex.
Nearby, there are caves to explore. The ground in covered in a black sand.
This island is really close to the shore. It looks like something from Goonies.

Halloween 2005

2005-10-31T23:22:00.000-06:00

Hilary dressed up as the molecular form of HN51, the Avian Flu. And boy were her arms tired.

I did not have time to be creative, so I wore my speedskating skinsuit, a vest, and a pair of chemistry goggles, and said I was a member of Team Zissou (from The Life Aquatic). I'm not nearly as cool as Hilary. I recognize that I was lame this year, which is unfortunate because Halloween in my favorite holiday. I pledge to put more time and effort into it next year. I will be a better person too. Rachel and Charlene are dressed as Ill and Sicker than Ill, respectively.

Pumpkin Carving

2005-10-30T23:17:00.000-06:00

Oooh, vegetables will keep the spirits away!

	First we picked a fine pumpkin from a friendly patch near Point Reyes State Park.
I was the chief designer of the pumpkin, and decided it would make a perfect hobbit hole (for a hobbit to live in). Hilary executed the design.
	A fruit hobbit came to live in the hobbit hole.
Rachel baked the pumpkin seeds.
	Oh no! A Ring Wraith ate one of Bilbo's friends.
It's spooky in the dark!

De Young Museum

2005-10-15T23:06:00.000-05:00

	The De Young museum in Golden Gate Park re-opened today. Hilary, Charlene, Rachel and I went to check it out, but being as it was the most happening party in town, there was a 4 hour line to get in! Good thing we all have super ninja skills though, because we cut the line and snuck in.
Success!

Welcome to my blog.

2005-10-01T23:15:00.000-05:00

This is my web log. You may already be familiar with e, my natural log.