Gainesville Rock City

We made a pilgrimage down south to watch Daniel's brother J become Dr. J. this weekend.

It's the first time we've been back to the 'Vill since his wedding two years ago and the last time we'll go until Daniel invents something cool enough he can get at least the water filtration plant named after him.

Of course we had to make a pilgrimage to the Center of the Football Universe.

Daniel stood barefoot on the very grass where Tim Tebow may have bled some of his blood.

J is ready to take on the world.

And things just went downhill from there...

But J did in fact graduate and it was all very distinguished, etc.

And it was great to see the 'fam.  Plus I saw mine earlier in the week.

One thing that I get asked about in Wisconsin is if there are alligators just hanging around in Florida.  Yes.  Yes there are.

Death in a Major Key

Because we wanted to squeeze just a little more vacation out of our vacation, Daniel and I traveled to Chicago this weekend to sing at the Midwest Sacred Harp Convention.  For those of you who don't know what Sacred Harp singing is- and I would have counted myself in this group this time last year- you get together with a bunch of other people and sit around and sing old-timey hymns in four part harmony.  Pitches in the scale are given shapes (which is why this style is also called shape note singing) so you sing through the song using the shapes first and then using the words.  Each person takes a turn selecting a song and leading it. Here's Daniel leading.  I didn't lead anything.

The thing that makes Sacred Harp "interesting" (the preferred pejorative) is that it is about singing to God, not performing for humans.  Therefore, the most prized qualities of a Sacred Harp singer are loudness and enthusiasm not finesse or intonation.  I think it's best described as a combination of church choir and marching band.  The other fun thing about the songs in the Sacred Harp hymnal is that they are almost all about death- eminent or otherwise. Click here for a more through "official" description of what Sacred Harp singing is all about.  

Here's a good example of a song being done by a Chicago group in 2007.

Although Sacred Harp singing is popular in the south, the whole thing feels very "Midwest-y" to me.  This prompted me to think about a few ways the Midwest is very different from where I grew up- Florida.

1. Beards - Beards are not a big thing in Florida, but men in the Midwest seem to pride themselves on having impressive facial hair.  And while I thought that growing a beard was about keeping your face warm in the winter, evidently even your facial hair needs special protection from the elements.

2. Potluck - If you were going to have a large group lunch when I was growing up, it would be pizza.  Or if you had the audacity to ask people to bring food, they would all show up with Publix rotisserie chicken and chocolate chip cookies.  Not so in the Midwest.  Someone made a huge dish of barbecued ribs for lunch - two days in a row.  And- defying stereotype- every potluck I've ever been to has had plenty of salads and vegetarian options.

But yeah, sometimes people make some weird/nasty stuff.

Credit: Toothpaste for Dinner.

Even that might be too spicy for the people from St. Paul.


3. Events at places that look like Hogwarts - Watch out, UF, The University of Chicago will give your lovely vine clad halls a run for their money.

I got in a nice run through the campus yesterday morning and checked out all the pretty Gothic style buildings.  Not a place I'd like to go to school, though.  UC is infamous as The Place Fun Comes to Die.

4. Perception of temperature - Yesterday in Chicago it was rainy with a high temperature of 64, which was universally pronounced as being far too hot.  Note that the average high in Orlando in January is 72.

5. Central air conditioning - Okay, so a big part of the last one is that everything in Florida is air conditioned.  I think they even passed an amendment to the state constitution that requires chicken coops to be air conditioned.  But people, please, 64- with or without AC- is not hot.

6. BratFest - And the multiple alterna-BratFests.  Some things cannot be parodied.

So what are the quirks of the place you live?  Got any hobbies that are hard to explain to your friends?  Going to a BratFest or other sausage-related event this Memorial Day weekend?  Have a special serviceman/woman you are remembering*?  Hope you are sleeping in! 

My family will remember my cousin Chris who was killed in Iraq 2007.  

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Sadly, the traveling part of our vacation is over, but luckily I don't have to go back to the work part of reality until after Memorial Day.  Rather than do a blow by blow of the entire trip, which is kind of boring for you and for me, here are the highlights of Vacation 2011: The Mid-Atlantic Edition.

Best part of vacation:

Seeing my wonderful family- both the family that shuffled me onto this mortal coil and my family-in-law.  Thanks for the great time!  

My mom and dad plus D and I by the fountain in Duke Gardens.

Runners up: Being warm and wearing shorts and sleeveless tops. (It's currently 52 and windy in Madison).

MVP of the trip: 
Our car, which allowed us to add 2k miles to the odometer without complaint.

As a side note, this car has made one round trip from Miami to Virginia, one round trip from Miami to San Fransisco, one round trip from Miami to Albuquerque + one trip from Miami to ABQ, one round trip from ABQ to Las Vegas, two round trips from ABQ to Ft. Collins, CO, one trip from ABQ to Madison via South Dakota, three round trips from Madison to Tennessee, a big trip around the Great Lakes last year, and this 2000 mile jaunt.  Way to go, red Honda.

Best meal:
Watts Grocery in Durham.  Didn't hurt that we had good company.  Thanks again, Sarah, for making reservations and meeting up with us.

Runner ups: Med Deli in Chapel Hill and Which 'Wich in Johnson City.   I'm a sucker for grilled vegetables and feta cheese and basically any kind of hot sandwich.

Weirdest food:

Four words- seafood nachos in Cleveland.  

 Oh yes I did.  Shrimp + pineapple + Velveta-like white cheddar goo + carrots + corn + peppers + cabbage + sour cream.  It was wild.   However, this is one of those cases where I hoped the food wasn't raised locally.

Runner up: Deep fried pickles and jalepenos at Top of the Hill.

Best news:
Seeing my college roommate and hearing about her success running the grueling academic job application gauntlet and being hired at her first choice university.

Runner up: Hearing that her husband found a post doc near her university (J- Lamar is going to start at NRL this fall!)

Craziest tourist attraction:
The Museum of Appalachia.  It was part Little Norway, part House on the Rock.  This place was a collection of everything old from the Tennessee/ North Carolina area you could possibly imagine down to the last bone saw and Coke can ukulele.  And it was overrun with peacocks.

Runner up: The Zorb in Gatlinburg.  While there was no way I was going to roll down a hill in a giant bubble, I thought the concept was- insane.

Best graffiti:

Old candle smoke writing in Mammoth Cave.

Worst graffiti: All the writing on every surface of every house in Cades Cove.  It was terrible!

Strangest Historical Re-enactment:

The kids from the inner-city school carrying the Stars and Bars, re-enacting Pickett's charge in Gettysburg.  Daniel said he wasn't sure what he thought that meant about American society today.  Probably that it's universally true that kids like to yell and run.

And now for a final random mish-mosh of pictures:

Inside Mammoth Cave.

At the Old Mill in Gatlinburg, TN.

Black bear on the trail up to Clingman's Dome.

From the parking lot at Clingman's Dome.  Unfortunately
the Smoky Mountains lived up to their name, and I couldn't
 get a good picture from the top.

Montecello.

Gettysburg.

Whew.  I feel so blessed that we are able to take a vacation like that and even more so that I have a few more days off to do laundry, stock the fridge, run errands*, and otherwise do what needs to be done before I start back to work on Tuesday.

Got any exciting vacation plans for the summer?  What's the longest car trip you've ever taken?  Anyone else wonder if it's ever going to get warm here in Madison?

*Like replacing the laundry detergent and bleach that was stolen from us while we were gone.  Very strange because 1.Whoever it was didn't bother with the dryer sheets and 2.In the almost three years we've been here, we've never had anything stolen before.  

7pm still counts

As the post of the day.

Daniel and I took a road trip to Chicago yesterday to attend a Sacred Harp workshop and singing this weekend and just got home a few minutes ago.  It was a fun trip, and I'm glad we went, but it feels too soon to have to get ready to go back to work again tomorrow.

Hope you all had a fun/relaxing/productive weekend!

Christmas vacation show and tell part 2

We're going to Disney World

Having grown up in Orlando, people always ask if I used to go to Disney all the time.  Ummm... it's like $100 a ticket so... no.  I've probably been more times than the national average, but that puts me at about 4-5 vs 1.  But when we were visiting my parents, looking for something to do, we saw that The Grand Floridian (one of the Disney hotels) was displaying a 6ft tall gingerbread house that people could visit for free (the magic word).

  Because none of us had been out to Disney in 10+ years, we decided to ride the monorail past the Magic Kingdom around to all the hotels.

While at the Polynesian, we saw a mother duck and her (probably robotic- nothing at Disney is actually real) cute baby ducklings.

We also drove over to Downtown Disney and saw the giant lego figures and ate Ghirardelli ice cream, but the place was packed so I didn't get any pictures.  In fact, the Magic Kingdom was so busy that a couple days people were turned away because the park was full.  In the words of the guy working the monorail at the Contemporary, "You don't want to go to Disney on the day there's a line for Small World."

We did a few other things- shop in TN, go to a play, see True Grit- but most of the rest of the trip was family-related.

We had Christmas dinner with my dad's side of the family.

Here's a "would have been good" picture of my brother and I and our significant others that I ruined by goofing off.

We spent New Year's with Daniel's family and saw his brother and his brother's wife and his dad's parents

It was a great trip, and I'm thankful that our job/school schedules allowed us so much time off. Even though I had a hard time going back to work Monday, I truly felt rested and ready to go after two weeks of relaxing family time.

Workout
Weights + 30 min easy elliptical at the gym yesterday.  I'll say it again, I love UW with no undergrads!  This morning I'm going to try running on our treadmill again.  I thought our downstairs neighbors might be gone, but alas, they are not.  But the weather isn't too horrible, so if they complain I'll just get dressed real quick and finish up outside.

TGIF!

Christmas vacation show and tell part 1

Manatees
When it gets cold enough in FL, Manatees that normally live in the Indian River move into Blue Springs, where the water stays a constant- warmer- temperature.

Manatee Hot Tub Time Machine?

Because the water is clear (and the area is probably smaller), Blue Springs is the perfect place to see them.

The best picture I got was Lindsay Lohan Manatee with her tracking device:

We did this once before when I was in the 8th grade, and back then you could actually walk down to the water and pet the manatees (Manatees as a rule have type B personalities.), but someone probably tried to ride on one and you can't get down to the water to touch them anymore.

One thing that hasn't changed is a huge tree that got hit by lightning.

Note the little kid posing in the background.

Same tree, 15 years ago:

Which answers the question, "Do I look the same as I did at 13?"  Yes.  I do.

Workout
I love UW when the undergrads aren't around!  The gym has been dead every morning.  I will be sad when the New Year's Resolution-ers get back in a few weeks.

Yesterday I ran 7mi on the treadmill doing treadmill track workout #2 from Training Plans for Multisport Athletes.  I started the intervals at 8.0 and worked up to 8.5.  I really like these workouts.  They make the time fly by, and are definitely tough enough to satisfy resolution #4.

Right before vacation I had a reader ask about running outside during the winter.  I definitely do it, but I've found that it doesn't work well for any kind of quality workout.  It's just too hard to get going when it's really cold and there's ice and snow on the ground.  As for what to wear- I'd say the closer you get to 0 (or below) and the longer you plan to be out- you should try to wear as much as possible.  Up to a down jacket, if you've got it, put it on.  Here's a post where I mention what I wear when it's really cold.  For me, the hand and toe warmers are the thing that make the biggest difference in my comfort.  Dr. TriRunner also has some excellent posts on winter running.  

But I'll be warm and toasty inside today because it's a strength training day with maybe a little elliptical depending on the time.

Mississippi

Thanks for all the comments about my long run pacing.  I guess everyone fixates on some part of their training and worries if they're doing it right.  I'll just keep doing what I've been doing.  Plus I have a half marathon fitness testing race that should help me determine if my goal race pace is realistic or not.

I've been back for more than 10 days.  The statute of limitations for making excuses for not posting is up.  I don't think this is going to get that long, but I was sort of afraid it would, which has been my excuse for not posting up to this point.

So here goes...

Two Saturdays ago (July 11), 50 some kids and 12 leaders piled into 9 rented minivans and/or SUVs.  I drove a black Chrysler Town and Country.  We took two days to get to our site (kind of near Gulfport, MS), stopping the first night at a church in Memphis.

Sunday afternoon we had orientation and learned what group we would be in and what project we would work on.  Fortunately for my pale, pale skin I was placed in a group that was going to work on flooring inside a house.  Half of my group was from my church and half was from a church from Austin, MN.

The first thing I will say is that the organization that put together our trip, Next Step Ministries, seemed to have great rapport with the community we were serving.  This was the second (I think) summer NSM was working in this community, and every interaction I saw between the staff and residents was very positive.  It seemed to me that the residents felt like someone was finally helping them five years after Katrina came through and that the NSM staff was interested in engaging with residents to solve problems- not just showing up to "do some stuff for the residents".  Obviously I was only there for a week, but I got a very good vibe from the staff/resident interactions.

Our accommodations were what you would expect if you've ever been on a service trip.  We slept on the floor, we showered in a trailer, we ate whatever was on sale at Costco.  Those weren't my favorite parts, but it does give the whole experience a "summer camp" type feel.

My group really worked hard to finish our project.  We re-floored two bedrooms, a utility room, a bathroom, and a hallway in a house that hadn't been cleaned in... well... let's say they gave up when that whole Monica Lewenskiy thing went down.  The couple was elderly, and I'm sure they did the best they could, but it was pretty gross.

Important life lesson: Never put carpet in a bathroom.  That's all (mold, pee smell) I will say about that.

But we floored:

 
We sawed

We moved a lot of stored junk

Including this guy, which was cool, but not what we wanted to find stashed behind a full bookcase!

And interacted with the residents and their family (including pets)

Friday was supposed to be a beach day, but we got rained out.  Pretty sad because some of the kids had never seen the ocean before.  I think the MN group actually went back to the beach for a little while on Saturday because it was sunny.

As for us, Saturday we packed up and made the hard drive back to Madison.  It took 17 hours, which I think is pretty darn good for a 9-vehicle caravan of high-schoolers.

So it wasn't your typical vacation, but as with all the other trips I've done, I had a good time, and I'd definitely do another one.