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It would probably surprise some of my friends to hear it, but I really don't enjoy Bear Pride weekend in Chicago very much. While I love seeing all my friends, I tend to find the weekend a bit frentic. I spend a lot of time saying "hi!" for five minutes here, ten minutes there, but the quality of the interaction tends more to the superficial. And since I still cannot put any weight on my foot, getting around the city was just not going to happen. Thankfully, it was all a non-issue. John invited me to his cabin for the holiday weekend and that sounded just awesome. We packed up early Friday morning, and spent 3 days just grilling out with friends and his family, sitting by the lake, enjoying tasty drinks, and doing almost nothing. I absolutely love going to his cabin and wished I could have stayed a full week. John and his best friend, Frank. Boomer chilling in the backyard looking for squirrels. A 360 degree pano of John's cabin. A beergarita and a book! Driving around central Wisconsin
One of the best things about going out to the cabin is the grilling. The local butcher is phenomenal, and we're always getting extremely high quality meats for dirt cheap. Plus, John's a fantastic cook. One night were prime ribeyes, grilled perfectly medium rare with grilled asparagus. Another night, organic pork chops with risotto. Homemade bratwursts with potato salad and pasta salad a third night. Seriously, I gained a ton of weight and it was worth every spoonful.
Mostly though, I just enjoyed the time hanging out with John. He just found out his assignment to the Chicagoland area is permanent as of June 1. So pretty exciting news, all around.
And of course, I cannot forget to mention that my awesome friend JP spent a couple of extra days in Chicago after Bear Pride weekend was over. He's been crashing here, and while I'm not the exciting (and mobile) ball of energy I usually like to be, hopefully he's had a good couple of days hanging here. He's off to the airport this afternoon to fly back to NOLA.
Everyone have a great (and short) week!
Tags: memorial day weekend, photos
Current Location: home
Current Mood:  happy
Current Music: Beethoven
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So just last March, I left my old volleyball team of The Wrecking Crew and helped start a new team called "I'd Hit That!" While I loved my old teammates dearly, those of us that were moving on did not want to play in a recreational league anymore and were looking to be more competitive. And then I smacked my little bod into the ground a few weeks later and broke my leg into a bunch of teeny weeny pieces. Oops. That being said, even though I'm not playing this seasons I am the de facto team manager. Which is quite the glamorous role, including handling all the paper work, getting consensus for the team name, figuring out jerseys, getting the team registered, getting the sponsor, setting up the team schedule, paying for shit and getting (eventually) reimbursed. At least I'm (mostly) organized. I also had the most say in the team logo, which was designed by my good friend Matt: 
Simple and elegant.More than any other problem caused by my accident, I'm quite bummed that I can't play volleyball this summer. I love volleyball. I'm actually not sucky at it, either. And... maybe I'll recover enough in time to play the winter season. It is something to look forward to when I start physical therapy, hopefully next week. Tags: i'd hit that, picture, volleyball
Current Location: home
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Universe (Shannon Grady)
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So last weekend I finally got to see The Avengers. It was fun, it was good, and I look forward to the sequel. Afterwards, John and I got dinner with my friend Serena and her husband Aaron. A good time was had by all. And Sunday it was windy and dry and hot and sunny. And I watched The Sausage Kings play two other softball teams. Softball. Aaron! This week should be interesting. I have my first doctor's appointment in a month. I'll get an x-ray to see how my foot is doing, and hopefully get permission to start putting weight on my foot. If so, then I can start physical therapy in early June. I'm chomping at the bit. Aside from the broken bones, I can't even flex my foot enough to stand properly. So I've been stretching out my foot in anticipation of rehab. This weekend is Bear Pride weekend. It is usually busy and crowded. I am sure if I go to the bars someone is going to trip over my boot. Moreover, I'm just not mobile without help. As people go out and about and events happen, I'm just not going to be able to get anywhere. And with crutches, I'm going to be tired very quickly. So its off to John's cabin, which I'm really looking forward to. We will have a couple of days just hanging out there by ourselves, and then John's cousin and brother should be joining us. I'll be back around noon on Monday. It'll be a great way to spend the holiday weekend since I'm not too mobile. Boomer is going to love being out there, too. Tags: skoc
Current Location: home
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: The Vines
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Last Friday I tripped on my crutches. There was a food plate in my left hand, and lunch went flying spectacularly everywhere. When I tripped, I leaned heavily on my broken right foot, screamed very loudly and fell on the ground. Then I rolled on my back and yelled some more. I said a lot of naughty words for about two minutes. I'm not supposed to put any weight at all on my foot for at least two more weeks and I could feel why. Boomer came rushing into the living room and paced around me nervously. After a few moments of yelling while in intense pain I decided I should stop being a baby, and actually determine whether or not I had broken my foot again. I thought about it for a bit; its been just over 4 weeks since I had a plate and screws put into my foot and the bones should be fusing quite nicely at this point. Of the six breaks in my leg, only one of them didn't involve a plate and screw, and that was likely the only one that could have been broken again. If it was broken, it was going to hurt if I moved and did anything, and the pain was starting to subside. More importantly, if it was a hairline fracture, which was most likely, with everything else holding my leg together the surgeon probably wouldn't do anything. So I decided to just crawl off the floor and take some Advil and ice my foot for a few hours to see how that turned out. Boomer, in the meantime, realizing that Timmy had not fallen down the well was looking at all the food on the living room floor following my spill. Then she looked at me. Boomer looked back at the food. "Oh, you can eat it," I said. And with that command, I guaranteed I would not have to clean up the floor. Dogs make GREAT food vacuum cleaners. And I'm so proud that Boomer didn't even try to eat anything until I gave her permission. She's so well behaved. At least while I'm there. By that night, although my foot was throbbing I was convinced that everything would be fine. Over the weekend I went full bore, and was out of the house for well over a full day Saturday, and most of Sunday. After watching softball on Sunday, I joined some friends at Sofo Tap. Here's a picture of me with Aaron: 
Having a drink to end the weekend.In sum, my Saturday and Sunday involved breakfast with Joe and Bob, getting Boomer a bath and nail trim with the local groomer, hanging out at the UnderArmor outlet, seeing Dark Shadows, watching softball, and grabbing food with the team and an end-of-weekend cocktail. I was exhausted, and then slept 15 hours. It was worth it though. You can see a few more photos from last weekend by clicking here. I have made a decision of what to do for Memorial Day weekend. It is both Bear Pride and IML weekend. I won't be able to put any weight on my foot, and there's no way I'm going to any of the bars or events even with my foot in a protective boot. There is so much stuff going on and all of it involves dense crowds. I'd be asking for an accident to be involved. Instead, I'm going to go up to the cabin in Wisconsin with John for the 3-day weekend. I think I'm going to like that just fine. [grins] Tags: foot, photo
Current Location: home
Current Mood:  tired
Current Music: Garbage
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So last weekend, I traveled to Springfield, Illinois for my friend Steve's 40th birthday party. Not surprisingly, the trip was very fun and also a little exhausting. Thankfully, John still lives in Springfield even though he's working on assignment in the Chicagoland area during the week. He was kind enough to drive me downstate for the trip. I napped in the car. I nap a lot these days, I've noticed. The trip itself was a lot of fun. There were about 15 guests spending the weekend at Steve and Tim's place. Originally I planned on staying there as well, but because of fatigue issues and concerns about my foot I stayed at John's for the weekend. That being said, it was great to see everyone and I had a wonderful weekend for the time I spent hanging out with the group. 
The birthday boy with his birthday cake An 8x10 collage I made for Steve's birthday
I did not spend the whole weekend in Springfield. On Sunday, John and I stopped by Oregon, Illinois for his nephew's 12th birthday party before returning to Chicago later that night. Slowly but surely, I am seeing more of John's family. [evil laugh] Everything happens at its own pace; it was good to see them for a little bit. I think his Mom likes me, even if we're all just acting like I am just John's "friend." Heheh.
Tags: steve's 40th
Current Music: Metronomy
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So another week and all continues as it has before. My foot continues to heal. Even though I can't put an ounce of weight on my right foot for another month, the sheer fact that I am free and clear of cast so early in the process has really helped keep my spirits up. I have a nice "boot" I can wear when I go out and about. Surprisingly, the most satisfying aspect of the cast removal is that I can now sleep normally, with both feet under the covers instead of having to keep my one foot elevated on a pillow. Recently, I've started having some vivid dreams involving the accident. Not the landing itself. Instead, the dreams all involve the time from when I pulled my chute at about 6,500 feet until right before the landing. It actually makes some sense, the winds had become dangerously turbulent compared to just a few minutes earlier. I do recall thinking at one point during that time as I was being tossed about "Do not panic or you will collapse your chute and die." These dreams tend to be right when I'm on the edge of consciousness, and are very short. I tend to wake up right away, and Boomer the Wonder Dog looks at me with a tired and bored look saying "Dude, go back to bed." So I do. It wasn't that traumatic. ;) My life consists of working at home, and trying to find new and improved ways to carry open cups of liquid while wearing crutches. In other words, it is the little improvements that make me happy. For instance, because I am out of a cast 6 weeks ahead of schedule... soon I'll be able to take showers again. My friends are already rejoicing! But since I can't put any weight on my right foot for at least another month, I ordered a new toy to help me out! 
A shower chair!Yep, this is what goes for excitement in my life these days. [sighs] In other news, I did wander out and about in my new protective boot to watch my softball team, The Sausage Kings of Chicago, in their opening games of the season last Sunday. It was pretty tough watching my team play while I sat on the sidelines. I enjoy being active so I think today is a good example of me having to get used to taking a slower pace this summer. I did take a couple of photos of course. This weekend I am traveling to Springfield, Illinois for my friend Steve's 40th birthday. It'll be a little tiring to travel, but it will be a chance to see more than the four walls of my place! Tags: pictures
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Hiss
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So it has been about 9 days since the second foot surgery for what I like to call "the skydiving boo-boo." During that second surgery, they removed the lovely 20-pound steel cage which had been drilled into my leg. They also reset all the bones and inserted quite a bit of hardware.
So today's doctor's visit was simply to remove my first cast, take some x-rays to see if things are healing properly, and then get a second cast placed on my leg. 
Eight pins and one plate!
It is weird to think I'll have all that metal in my foot for the rest of my life. Going through airport security is going to be hilarious.
After the first cast was removed today, it appeared that the incision sites were healing so rapidly my surgeon decided to pulled out the staples a week or two ahead of schedule. Both the surgeon and the nurses kept reiterating that the abrasions, incisions and ripped off patches of skin were regenerating very rapidly. I took a photo of both sides of my foot. It's behind the cut since the squeamish may not want to see it. ( Behold... my Frankenfoot! )Personally, I think it looks rather awesome. Scars are sexy and butch and all that shit. Sadly, because I have been working remotely full time since just after the surgery, I have not been able to elevate my foot as much as I should. So the doctor lectured me about that, pointing out that my foot is actually more swollen now than it was nine days ago. He also gave me a lovely injection in my back leg and buttocks (it burns!) to help numb the rather intense discomfort I was feeling and to reduce the swelling.
Then I got some very surprising good news. As my doctor looks at my x-rays, he got quiet and thought for a few moments. Then he asks me, even though it has only been nine days, how would I feel about not putting another cast on, and just going straight to a boot? Being a bit slow, I pointed out the last time we talked he said I'd be in a cast for 2-4 months, not 9 days. At that point, he showed me my x-rays more closely and indicated that even though I have six breaks in my lower leg, the nature of the breaks (no splintering of the bone, for instance) and the way everything was put back together in the second surgery has really stabilized my foot. And apparently he can tell from the x-rays the healing is already progressing faster than he thought it would.
Bottom line: I could go back to a second cast for 6 more weeks. However, as long as I'm careful and put zero weight on my right leg, he doesn't think I need a cast at all! If I go out, I will need to wear a 'boot' in order to protect my delicate little foot from being nudged or shifted by accident. Which would likely re-break everything. But for the most part, I'm not even wearing the boot while at home! I can't explain just how happy I was to hear that information. I really feel so lucky with how well my surgery went, how quickly I'm healing up, and how stable my (still) broken foot is with the plate and pins in it!
While I still have a long road to recovery ahead of me, at this point I'll be starting physical therapy in the beginning of June, rather than the beginning of August. It is looking more and more that, barring complications, my recovery is going to be closer to half the time originally planned. My surgeon cautioned that my progress could slow, of course, so I should not get discouraged if ultimately I encounter setbacks or delays. He also cautioned if I am not careful without a cast, I could end up setting my recovery back months from the original schedule. Plus, there is still a noteable chance I'll never walk or run again without a limp. So I have to be good, and I have to be patient, and I have to be careful.
All I know is, 9 days ago I had rods drilled in my leg bones and a cage around my foot. Today, I'm not wearing anything on my foot at all! And my physical therapy is going to start 2 months earlier than planned. This is all great news. I just have to make sure not to trip! Tags: foot, healing, photo, x-ray
Current Location: home
Current Mood:  giddy
Current Music: Said the Whale
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So I've been away from LJ for awhile. Since my last update, I had another surgery on my foot. The good news is that they were able to take the cage off my leg! Before and after the cage! My life got a lot nicer after I had the cage removed. Two wonderful things: I'm not dragging 20+ pounds of iron rods drilled six different ways into my leg all around the place. Two: No more, uh... seepage from the entry points. We'll leave it at that. Pain management has been a surprising issue. To put it bluntly, experience has taught me I have a really high pain tolerance. So I was somewhat surprised to find out after the second surgery that I was not adapting very well that first night home. And I don't deal well with pain meds, because they tend not to work and also give me headaches. So I've been using Advil and after the first 24-36 hours the discomfort has been much more manageable. Because I am a pretty active guy, sitting around all day has been more torture than the broken foot/leg. Thankfully, I had a couple of of activities over the weekend which gave me the opportunity to get out and about. Party time  On Saturday, I went with John to Bob's ( ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.2) aries470) 41st birthday party at Diversey Rock and Bowl. Although I didn't play, it was great to get out and see people rather than be stuck on the couh. Sunday I watched my awesome softball team, The Sausage Kings of Chicago, play a scrimmage against some of our friends on another team. I took a few photos, which you can see on flickr by clicking here. A few highlights below: Photos didn't turn out bad, considering you know... I couldn't move. Ha! I have to admit, both days completely exhausted me. Just getting out to the car, then from the car to a sitting position at each event, and then repeating to get home... it totally wiped me. My foot is a little swollen. But it was worth it to get out and about. So it is Monday and it has been back to the grind for the most part. I work at home these days, and trying to ramp up back to full time. I will have to keep this cast for 2-4 months, and then I'll have 6-8 months of physical therapy. I hope the time passes quickly. This whole "stay at home and do nothing" thing really cramps my style. Everyone have a great week! Tags: foot, photos, skoc
Current Location: home
Current Mood: optimistic
Current Music: No Way Down (The Shins)
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So as many of my friends already know, I had a little mishap skydiving. The non-bloody but grossy photo is behind the cut. ( The photo of the foot. I was defeated. )
I finished my safety and ground instruction class last Friday with no problems. It was too windy to jump so I had to wait until the next day.
On Saturday, the first few hours were also too windy for me to jump, although tandem and certified jumpers could go up in the air. Shortly after 11am, I got the ok since the winds had died down to below 18mph. I went up with my two instructors, went through my pre-jump list and then jumped out at 14,500 with my two instructors. It was beautiful.
I didn't know it at the time, but another bad wind cell came in and they radio'd the plane to hold my jump but it was a little too late.
The jump initially went fine, and then we hit the wind shear at about 7,000 feet. One of my instructors pointed to me to 'pull chute', so I did so. They continued to drop to the minimum safe height. They then went downwind to the airport and landed where they would then talk to me on my one-way radio to talk me into the landing zone.
The winds were really gusty. I was being knocked around a lot and turned into the wind. I knew the chute was stable but that I could still mess things up if I panicked. I looked between my legs and realized that I was moving backwards, which meant the winds had picked up enough so that I couldn't go upwind. Which was something I wasn't yet trained to handle. I also realized I couldn't follow the flight plan to go downwind to the airport because I would then still move away from the airport on my final approach and possibly land in an area cluttered with ground obstacles. So Instead, I did some s-turns and dropped altitude upwind so I could instead land in the flat dirt fields upwind of the landing zone.
When my instructors landed, they realized I was already making a rapid descent and continued to talk me down to earth. I was going to land about 1500 feet or so upwind of the landing zone but the goal was to get me on the ground sooner rather than later. I didn't know how bad the weather actually was at the time (which was good since I wasn't panicking) and I was already doing what I needed to do to get down out of the weather. Plus, now I had my instructors on the one-way radio giving me better instruction on my turns.
Everything was fine, and on the last ten feet I started to brake. I initially thought I misjudged the distance due to bad depth perception, but apparently a down draft also accelerated me into the ground. I was such a novice, I didn't even realize that at the time. All I know is that I braked, hit the ground harder than I would have liked, and rolled a little too late. The winds were quite bad still, and my chute started dragging me. I scraped up my right hand as I was being pulled across the ground and I heard my radio squawk "are you ok? Wave if you are ok!"
I waved to the guys way down by the landing zone that I was ok, and continued to reel in my chute while being dragged around. I thought I might have a sprain but was too busy with trying to contain the chute. When I was done reeling it in enough so it collapsed I looked at my bloody right hand and knuckles and was like "oh man, that's embarassing." Then I looked at my foot, which was dangling at a 90 degree angle to my leg and wobbling in the gusty winds.
I laughed. I had just told everyone I was ok by waving to them, and the one-way radio meant I couldn't update them right away. Oops. And yeah, my foot hurt.
Over the next 30 minutes or so before the EMTs arrived, I called my roommate to take care of my dog, got a friend to drive out to the middle of nowhere Illinois to pick up my car (it was a stick shift), called the office regarding upcoming court deadlines and issues so they would not be left hanging, and cracked a lot of jokes. I took photos, and even processed and cropped them in my phone before I sent them out, because you know.. I'm a perfectionist. Eventually, I helped to cut myself out of my jumpsuit, and then the EMTs got to push me some delicious pain meds which took the edge off.
The Rochelle Illinois ER couldn't help me, so they decided to transfer me to the nearest trauma center in Rockford, Illinois. I cracked jokes with the nurses in the Rochelle ER as they cut me out of my remaining clothes (all of them had to be cut off, nooo!) and then my two adorable (but straight) EMT guys drove me the 50 minutes to Rockford.
Once in Rockford, we tried to reset my still dangling foot. Without anesthesia. It hurt. A lot. When that failed, we prepped for surgery. So finally, over four hours after the start of my little accident, they put me under and reset my foot with an external fixator. I prefer to call it "the fucking heavy metal rod cage on my leg."
I have to say, as bad of an accident as it was, I was really happy with how I handled the situation. The EMTs, all the doctors and nurses at both hospitals, and everyone in general was saying they were amazed at how well I handled pain, how lucid and thoughtful I remained, and how funny (yes witty!) I was during the whole incident. At several points, someone would say to me after I cracked a joke "I can't believe you haven't passed out" or "why aren't you screaming?" The pain was quite intense, but the general impression is that I am a bad ass. The nurses and doctors told me I was one of the nicest and most low-maintenance patients ever. I kept a good sense of humor and a good attitude for my entire hospitalization.
A while after the accident, I found out they grounded flights for 60 minutes or so after my jump until the gusts died down. That made me feel a little better, although I would be the first to point out I still would have landed fine if I had just flared my brakes faster or rolled properly. But I'm not kicking myself in the butt about it.
I'm still glad with how I handled the situation in the air. The weather conditions were a little rough when we left in the airplane, and got a bit worse before I realized it. That being said, I dealt with it just fine.
Most importantly, I am so thankful to everyone that has helped out. Literally, people were calling and e-mailing me non-stop all weekend. On Easter Sunday, I was over two hours outside of Chicago at a strange hospital, and almost a dozen people came in to visit me over the course of the day. Friends have taken time off work to help get me to my subsequent appointments. People keep dropping off food and snacks. People have cleaned up my house. People are fucking wonderful to me right now and I want to hug and thank everyone a million times over.
So next week I'll have another surgery. They'll take this cage off my leg. I will get a cast. I'll wear it for 2-4 months and need 6-8 months of physical therapy. I have multiple breaks in my leg and ankle, and will need some bolts put in as well as a plate on my ankle to help support the load-bearing section of that bone. But it could have been far worse.
It may sound crazy, but if I make a good enough recovery I am going to continue to jump. It was wonderful, I loved it, and I still want to pursue it.  Me resting at home So to sum up, I am in good spirits, waiting for my next surgery on Monday. I am glad that I dealt with the situation well. Glad that I have good friends to help me through the next weeks and months. Glad that while my foot was crushed, my spirit was not. I have a good life, and this accident really made me realize that more than I ever thought it would. Everyone have a great week and do the things you love. And don't feel regrets if they don't turn out the way you expect. It is the doing that matters! Everything else is gravy. Tags: skydiving
Current Location: home
Current Mood: happy
Current Music: Florence + The Machine
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The end of last week and the follwoing weekend were pretty darned busy. ThursdayTo start with, I took a few photos on Thursday night. Walking around The Loop after work, but before it got too dark out. The last photo, of "The Bean" was executed by taking a 4-second exposure and slowly racking out the lens. FridayOn Friday night I got dinner with Joe ( jbear70) and Bob ( aries470) out in the burbs. It had been forever since we had gotten the opportunity to just sit and chat for a couple of hours. We caught up on all sorts of things, I had a few beers, and got to see Bob's new car (he bought a 2013 Ford Focus). I got home fairly late and went right to bed. I had magical plans to go to a spin class at 6:45am the next morning. SaturdayLo and behold, Saturday morning my alarm goes off at 5:45am, I look at it, and said "Fuck that shit!" I didn't get up for another hour. When I did, I looked outside and saw that it was a cold and gray morning, but it wasn't raining. I ended up taking a two-hr bike ride. While it was pretty cold (my hands got numb until I remember I had biking gloves), it was also very refreshing. After that, I went out to the burbs for some batting and fielding practice with my softball team. Then we all grabbed lunch and I snapped a picture of my friends Patrick and Lee. They are happy because they just ate frozen custard. Saturday night John was back in town, since he had been working in Springfield Illinois for the prior two weeks. I decided, somewhat spontaneously, to take John out to dinner. His long-term work assignment to Chicago is still temporary so I am not making the plunge back into a relationship with him at this time. That being said, the end of March is our 3rd anniversary from when we met so I thought we should go out and celebrate. I noted, it can't be our third anniversary dating because our relationship history is a little messy. [laughs] We went to Tango Sur, an Argentinian steakhouse. After we put our name in for the wait, we stopped across the street at a Marquette sports bar for pre-dinner cocktails. John went to Marquette for undergrad so he was in heaven. When we finally went back to Tang Sur for dinner, I had a delicious steak stuffed with cheese and spinach. John had a veal steak. Our appetizers included hearts of palm, prosciutto, and blood sausage! I also brought a lovely bottle of a 2005 St. Martin merlot. At first sip I was thinking "oh crap, this is not good." After we let it breathe for about five minutes, however, it really opened up and was paired very well with our food. French wines can be fussy, but surprising that way. We couldn't finish the bottle, so I offered the last of it to our waiter and/or anyone in the kitchen that might have wanted it. He was so pleased by our thoughtfulness that we ended up getting free dessert. SundaySunday I got up early, went for a long walk with the dog and took a few photographs. The flowers are trying to bloom, but after a brief spurt of warm weather it is back to cold and damp. The flowers are in bloom. After that, I had more softball practice and then brunch with the group. John joined us for lunch. I have to admit, it felt good having him more local. We all stuff our faces with delicious brunchies and then I took a bike ride that evening to work some of it off. MondayToday I was back at work but really felt the exercise urge hitting me on the train ride home. Even though it was getting late, I took a bike ride downtown and back to Rogers Park. Overall, it took about an hour with the pretty bad headwinds. Brisk and chilly. We will see what the rest of the week brings. I'm pretty sore from all the exercise I have been getting lately. As it warms up I am feeling a lot more active, and that's been a good thing. Tags: photos, stuff
Current Location: home
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Simple Song (The Shins)
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Earlier this week I had a follow up eye doctor appointment. As a recap, last August I decided to catch a softball with my face, proving that I can break the lens of a pair of shatter-resistant sports goggles as well as break my nose in three places. While I have 20/20 vision with glasses, I am having significant focusing issues. After my appointment yesterday, it seems that the scarring on my retina is permanent, there is a small amount of damage to the optic nerve, and the muscles around my left eye are weak and not focusing quickly - these issues cumulatively explaining my crappy night vision and depth perception issues. So we're going to wait another 12-24 months to see how much more natural healing takes place and then decide if surgery will be helpful at that point. As to the upcoming weekend, it is just moderately busy. Getting dinner with Joe ( jbear70) and Bob ( aries470) tonight. Tomorrow I have spinning class at the gym, followed by a trip out to the suburbs at the batting cages. Even better, after two weeks away, John will be back in town. Not sure what we are doing Saturday evening. Some friends are going to watch the end of March Madness at my favorite bar, but it'll be pretty crowded and not sure if I'm up for that. Sunday will be actually softball practice on the fields if it is not too wet. Then brunchies.. and maybe some photography that afternoon/evening. Speaking of which, here's a photo from a couple evenings ago: Chicago River (taken from the Van Buren Street Bridge) All in all, looks like a good weekend. Tags: photo, stuff
Current Location: the dungeons of daggorath
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: 1980 (Said the Whale)
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New CameraAbout three hours after the announcement back in early February, I pre-ordered a Nikon D800. The first batches to the U.S. should be arriving tomorrow so hopefully I'll get my first new DSLR in over six years by sometime next week. And yes, I only ordered it with standard shipping since after all this time I don't need the new camera immediately. Someone already posted an 'unboxing the D800' video online and I laughed, this is exactly how I'll be when it shows up. Manuals? We don't need no stinkin' manuals!
So, here's hoping tomorrow I get an e-mail saying "Your camera is on its way!"
Last WeekendIn other news, I had a pretty good weekend. I went to the 25th Anniversary of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Chicago dinner on Friday night. Saturday morning I spent an hour or so at the gym, followed by a St. Patty's day party way out in St. Charles. 
It matches my shirt.On Sunday, I had volleyball playoffs and we beat a number of teams to end up in 7th place out of about 26 teams. Everyone played great, too. Afterwards, I sent out an e-mail to The Wrecking Crew to let them know that I was leaving the team, along with a few other people. We're going to start a new team with a more intense focus and I think it works out the best for everyone. DietRight before Christmas I was the heaviest I've ever been: 196 lbs. When you are supposed to be a skinny 5'7" guy, that's not a good thing. And I have never been fond of my slowly growing beer gut. Thus... diet and exercise. For a few months I mostly limited my net caloric intake to about 1900 calories a day, with some exceptions. After three months I was down to around 182-183lbs. I decided to amp it up, so right now I am exercising more and trying to limit my total "net" daily caloric intake to about 1450 calories. The first week was hard, because I was: (1) becoming ravenously hungry all the frickin' time; and (2) everything has a bazillion calories in it. Plus I am really thinking about what I eat now. A lot of lean proteins, careful with the carbs (but not giving them up because they are tasty, dammit), and a lot of vegetables. Thank goodness I love vegetables. After a couple of weeks, I am no longer getting ravenously hungry and I am pretty much meeting my daily dietary goals. On weekends, I still pretty much eat and drink what I want, but still try to avoid topping more than 2,000 net calories a day. Basically, it is all about moderation. And that's been working great. My goal is to get down to about 170 lbs by the end of summer.  Back in August 2002. I was between 165-170lbs back then.
I ran 3-5 miles a day and I worked out too. Oh, what a difference a decade makes.I was around 170lbs throughout the first half of my 30s, and that was when I felt best about myself. If I don't reach that goal, I'm fine with that too. But it gives me something to shoot for, and will require me to eat a lot better this summer and exercise more, too. Tags: camera, exercise, photo
Current Location: the dungeons of daggorath
Current Mood: chipper
Current Music: Miike Snow
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maxauburn writes: Did you read comic books when you were a kid? If yes, which ones?I read a lot of comics as a kid. My brother was a voracious comic book reader (mostly Marvel), but occasionally D.C. Comics. This would have been around the early to late 1980s. In regards to Marvel, I loved X-Men back then, X-Factor, and the launch of Excalibur. I also read The Avengers every month. I enjoyed Secret Wars and even the less well written and drawn Secret Wars II. On the D.C. side, it was always the JLA and The New Teen Titans. I have distinct memories of eagerly awating each new issue of Crisis on Infinite Earths when the limited series came out. When George Perez relaunched Wonder Woman I do recall reading that every month. I stopped reading comics in college and only recently (with the advent of digital download) got back into reading them. I really don't like the Marvel Universe that much so while I occasionally glance at a comic here or there to keep generally apprised of what is going on, I seldom purchase their comics. I did like when Marvel launched their "Ultimate" line (Spiderman and FF in particular) but overtime I felt those franchises also deteriorated. So now I'm almost an exclusive D.C. reader. I've always loved Superman, especially Morrison's 12-issue limited series "All-Star Superman." I wrote a post about it once the mini-series concluded. I am a fan of all the incarnations of the JLA. I'm not a huge fan of Batman, but as long as he's written well I'm fine with him. Strangely enough, I was convinced D.C. was going to mess up their massive reboot last year, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised. Anyway, if you have a question for me... go here and ask away!Tags: question month
Current Location: the dungeons of daggorath
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Infinite Arms
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I had a good weekend. Well, it was a mixed weekend. I recently learned that the Chicago Park District has open volleyball at the Broadway Park Armory on Friday nights during the volleybal season. So a group of us has been going there on Friday evenings to practice. The people who show up tend to be a lot more competitive and the setting tend to be quite intense for informal games. That being said, I love it. I played a lot better in college, and the only way to improve now is to play against more skilled teams than what I am doing in my current division. After three hours of fairly strenuous play, I felt pretty good. I was also hungry. Thus, a late dinner. Getting dinner at one of my favorite Chinese places in Chicago. John was able to join us for dinner. To the extent it is such, the transition from a long distance relationship to a local relationship has gone really well. We're both pretty independent, extremely busy people. And he's living with his cousin for now, as the job transfer is still a temporary one. We've found that it requires some coordination to see each other on week nights, because public transit and traffic place us a moderate, but not convenient distance from each other. And it is not convenient for him to spend weekend nights at my place, or for me to spend weeknights as his place. So things continue to progress slowly, but this is an excellent example in my mind of that being a good thing for both of us. We're keeping things casual for now, based on the possible temporary nature of his transfer and other issues. Saturday morning I decided that I needed more exercise, and I joined my co-worker Serena at the local YMCA for my first ever spinning class. I "took it easy" in my own words... but it was still pretty rough. It was all over by 10:45a and I think I was ready for a nap. Instead though, I took the dog out for a long 90-minute walk to the beach since the weather was gorgeous. It was our first trip there this year, and Boomer totally loved it!  
Even though it was a nice day, no one thinks to go to the Chicago beaches when it is early March!
Hardly anyone there and we had a nice time.That evening, I don't know what happened but I got extremely nauseated shortly after dinner. I had a migraine headache and um.. some other issues. I stayed in that evening and spent most of it with a bag of ice on my forehead. Or in the bathroom. Gross. It was unfortunate, as Lyle and Ty are moving away to Hawaii and there was a farewell party for them at a bar down in Andersonville. I was sad that I was at home and missed it. Sunday we had volleyball playoffs. Thankfully my migraine had gone away over night. That was good, because the day was a bit frustrating. We showed up on time that morning for our first match and the other team never made an appearance. And while winning the game by forfeit is still a win... the point is we came to play and not win matches by default. We ended up not playing again until almost 3pm. For the second round, we played a really strong team, and lost the two games against them by just a few points each. Because it is a double elimination tournament, we got bumped to the lower bracket and won't get to play again until next Sunday. So after five hours we had 30 minutes of official game play. Yikes! So we'll see how week 2 of volleyball playoffs turn out. This week is pretty busy at work. I'm trying to integrate the gym back into a 2-3x a week event, and I have some professional black-tie affair on Friday that I am dreading. I'm going to settle for wearing my charcoal suit rather than rent a tux. Could be a worse week. Tags: boomer, weekend
Current Location: the dungeons of daggorath
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Perfume Genius
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Friday is here and it couldn't have come sooner! This has been something of a topsy-turvy work week. Staying in the office past midnight some days, then going into work around 6am other days. A lot of emergency projects and once again, too much math and a little bit of programming thrown in for good measure to make the math go easier. And I even wrote a couple of legal briefs and did some research for a (hopeful) legal publication too. Last night things calmed down and I got out of work a bit early. So I grabbed dinner with John at a pizza place in the Wicker Park neighborhood. He's had a far more rough couple weeks than me. His boss is denying his job transfer to Chicago, so we are unsure if he will actually move here or not. He may not know what is happening with that for months down the road; in the meantime, he'll be working both here and in in Springfield for an unknown period of time. Moreover, he may not know from day-to-day which city he will be in. More importantly, though, he found out in the last week that his sister has been diagnosed with a serious condition (which I'm not going to discuss here) but ended up having a full-day surgery on Tuesday back in Springfield. John is very close to his sister and I can understand why - she is one of those extroverted, fun and intelligent people that can light up a room when she enters it. She's going to have a long recovery, I think, and likely a rocky road on the way there. Because of all these events, I think my (non?)relationship with John is going to remain in Limbo for a few more months. Quite simply, I'm ok with that. There is too much uncertainty in his current future, and I think for the next few months his focus needs to be on his job and his family. As I told him the other day, "I know this shouldn't need to be said, but until things calm down for you, just don't worry about things with me." I didn't say that to martyr myself, of course. I said it, because it is clear to me his immediate family and work situation need to be the focus, and John needs to know that I understand that. In other news, a few pictures: Hope everyone has a great weekend. I have a spin class at the gym tomorrow (my first), and volleyball playoffs on Sunday. Here's hoping we play well. Tags: photos
Current Location: the dungeons of daggorath
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: Something I learned today (Husker Du)
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I didn't do very much last Saturday. I organized an event to the batting cages out in the Chicago suburbs. Quite honestly, I was a bit worried about my hitting for this upcoming season. During playoffs last year, I, um, caught a ball with my face. So well, in fact, it smashed up and almost ruptured my eyeball, and also managed to break my nose in three places. Since then, although my vision is relatively normal with my prescription glasses, I have noticed a significant deterioration in both my night vision and peripheral vision. Moreover, the depth perception in my left eye can now be rather circumspect, and every now and then it just gets "tired." And by tired, my left eye will just stop focusing for a bit. It is very annoying, although thankfully a very seldom occurrence. So, I was curious to see how the batting cages would go. I'm left-handed, and left-eye dominant. Although I'm not describing it well, I noticed that my left eye was very 'wonky' while trying to focus on the softballs. The first time at bat I was swinging a lot of air. By the time I left though, I was doing substantially better. For the most part, I am training my right eye to focus on the ball. One of my teammates indicated I should be doing that anyway, it is the eye closest to the pitcher since I bat left-handed. Didn't know that, but as I got into the swing of things (haha! I made a funny) my hitting did improve a bit. So I think I'm going to need more practice since my eyes are simply tracking the ball differently than they did last summer. But since I was never a great hitter to begin with, I just want to make sure I can connect well enough so I can run like Hell to first. Ha! The rest of Saturday I was pretty tired, so I mostly napped and slept. I needed it. On Sunday I was out and about early, and grabbed breakfast by myself at the local coffee shop. After that, I had "second breakfast" with Jason (visiting from D.C.) and Jeremy. I stuck with a small bowl of oatmeal.  We went to Ann Sathers, a lovely Swedish-themed breakfast place.After that, I had volleyball. Sadly, this is the last week of the season, although playoffs are coming up in the next week or so. The games did not go so well, we went 0-4. However, we drowned our sorrow in alcohol. Well, I did. Post-softball fun. Hope everyone has a great week. I can't believe it is already March. MARCH! This year is already flying by. Tags: photos, softball, volleyball
Current Location: home
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: none
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SaturdayLast weekend was pretty busy. My friend Jeremy and I signed up for one of those LivingSocial events where you get on a bus, go to an adjacent state, shoot 9mm pistols and AK-47s, and then stop by a brewery/winery on the way home to drink. Yep, that was my Saturday. Shooting is fun. And loud. Since I grew up in northern Wisconsin, I was comfortable with hunting rifles growing up. I had never, however, shot a pistol before. It was interesting, and I enjoyed the experience. That being said, I really didn't like the fact that pistols are so small and non-bulky. I can see how a lot of gun accidents take place by people not following best safety practices. It is a lot harder to accidentally misdirect a rifle compared to a much smaller, single-handed device. But I got to shoot zombies!  I will destroy ALL zombies. I don't think I slept all that much on Sunday. From the moment I got up until I rested my little head on my pillow, it was a busy busy day. Then, there was "second breakfast" (which I'll call 'brunch') with a bunch of folk visiting from out of town. Jeff, James, Christian and Steven
After brunch, I rushed over to the local Park District Armory to play volleyball. The games did not go so well, but there is always the opportunity to drown the sorrows in beer! Terry, Lee and Patrick being silly right after the games.
Lee, Patrick, Jeremy and Terry at Crew
Patrick kept making silly faces when I pulled out the camera. Thus.. photo montage! After dinner at Crew, I showered, walked the dog, and headed over to John's to watch the end of the Oscars. Got home late, and just like that... poof! Weekend was done. My work week is going a LOT slower. How shocking, eh? Tags: photos, weekend
Current Location: the dungeons of daggorath
Current Mood: busy
Current Music: hiss of the radiator
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It is the end of a lovely 3-day weekend. I greatly enjoyed it. FridayFriday night I went out with some friends to check out open court volleyball with the Chicago Park District at the Broadway Armory. It was a lot of fun, and the groups there are really a lot more competitive than the current division I play in for volleyball. Which was great, because I'm still playing slightly below the level I used to play at, and it was just a blast playing with a more skilled/athletic group of people. I was exhausted by the end of the evening. SaturdayFor starters, Erich ( bookish_cub) was in town visiting for the weekend. It was great to see him and catch up a little bit. Hanging with Erich and Joe (jbear70) Saturday morning. John was also in town this weekend. In fact, within just a couple of weeks, he applied for a job transfer to the Chicago burb of Schaumburg... and got an interim appointment. Hopefully it'll be permanent. I'm excited, but cautious as it may be some time before he learns whether the transfer is permanent. That being said, he starts the new job tomorrow, so he's already moved into a temporary living assignment while here. Hanging with John, Joe, Bob (aries470) and Erich at the Chicago Auto Show. Saturday night was pretty awesome. John and I stayed in, we grilled steaks, made drinks and just chilled out. I hope there are more nights like that in the future. SundayOn Sunday morning we played volleyball and went 3-1. Everyone on the team is playing a lot better this season and having a great time. I dove for a few balls, and I jammed up my hand bad enough that I had to tape it up. I also have a bruise going down the outer portion of my right thigh. I'm just clumsy that way. Kathy got it worse. She's a far better player than I am, and full of energy and fun. She was at the net making a play when she just landed wrong, and wrenched her ankle. Hopefully she'll be better soon. She may have hurt her ankle, but nothing will keep Kathy down for long! Finally, after volleyball, I showered up and headed out for my friend Brian's whirlyball birthday party. Good times with the group. Left: Brian with his birthday swag! Right: Me with my sundae. I ate all of it. It was delicious. Strangely enough, after eating that entire huge-ass sundae (filled with liquor and chocolate goodness), I didn't feel that bad. I slept like a baby though, and I'm now looking into pancreas transplants. That was a lot of sugar. MondayToday I haven't done much of anything. Ran some errands. Going to take some photos tonight. Nothing too exciting. Hope you all have a great week! Tags: photos, volleyball, weekend
Current Location: home
Current Music: laundry machine
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scared
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