New Orleans

The 12 year high school "reunion" was held by Lamar, George, Jon, Alex and I in New Orleans April 19th-22nd. I got up at 4:15 in the morning to catch my early flight. Lamar and I arrived first and we started off early with a slushy form one of the many alcoholic slushy stores. We walked up and down Burbon St. to get an idea of where things were and then headed over to Decatur and looked at some restaurants and souvenir shops. We had some crawfish, which were delicious, but are quite a lot of work for not a lot of meat. Alex joined us a few hours later at a random bar we had stopped in.

Alex and Lamar started getting loud and jokingly argumentative almost immediately, which I just found hilarious and took me right back to high school. It was great! Afternoon activities and dinner and music watching ensued before George and Jon arrived later that night. When they did finally get into town, we continued on the strip and got some more drinks and food. The first night ended, after unknowingly getting late night breakfast at a gay breakfast place. At 3:15 am central time and I headed to bed right at the 24 hrs awake mark. Needless to say, I was tired,  but happy we all made it to NOLA.

As I think back on our trip, I was going to try and recount most of our adventures, in a cronological order, but we went to so many places that there's no way I'm going to get the order right, and it really doesn't matter when, before or after, we went to one place or another. We went to a whole lot of restaurants, bars, music venues, shops, and stores. To name just a few: D.B.A., Spotted Cat, B.M.C., Maison, Blue Nile, 13, Cure, Stanley's, Mena's Palace, Superior Seafood, Blacksmith Bar, Toute de Suite, Cafe du Monde, The Dungeon... and those are the ones I knew the names of or remember. We stopped in many other places for drink or a bite to eat and then continued on our way to see the sites and sounds of New Orleans.

We saw Sylvester Stalone making a movie, and Lamar might be our next big star. He might get left on the cutting room floor, but he definitely made a guest appearance in one scene.

We took the steam boat tour, a horse and carriage ride to learn some history and the ferry across the river to see Algiers point and breakfast.  We stopped in the casino a couple times to watch people throw some money away.... I picked up a couple touristy souvenirs like coffee from Cafe due Monde and some hot sauce as well as some local artists stuff, and brought back some of the famous pralines. 

It was an awesome trip and I look forward to the next one. Be it Boston, or Chicago, or whatever other city we might decide on. Here's a few more pictures of NOLA! Link

Primal mud run

I haven't forgotten about the rice and agave posts, but I've been pleasantly busy with several things. This past weekend was another fun filled, action packed adventure. With some tame disc golf on Friday and a bit of exploring around Bryan park where I hadn't been before, and then dinner at the food cart extravaganza. Unfortunately, the food cart dinner was lackluster, and also caused some mid-night bathroom runs. Not cool.  Before the food took effect, we stopped by Babe's and I saw this sign on the bathroom door.

Saturday morning was filled with preparations for the Primal Mud Run. I really can't do it justice, so just check out the whole set of pictures. I've put a couple here just as a teaser. It was a ton of fun! 9 people in total including my buddy Scott from NOVA, Karen and Jen, a bunch of people from Richmond and a guy from Florida who took and posted all these pictures. Thanks Vic! 4 miles of running broken up by all kinds of interesting obstacles, from monkey bars, to mud pits.

Sunday was a rest day. Went to the dog park, and then the green house to pick out and plant some vegetables. Dinner was some grilled fish, peppers and onions and a sliced sweet potato, which was amazing! And for dessert, a grilled banana. Yup. Leaving the banana in the peel, just throw it on the grill, and let it warm up and get all gooey inside. When it's done, you remove it from the peel and add some super dark shaved chocolate on top while it's hot. Melty, sweet goodness!

Unbeatable weekend. Next weekend will be spent in New Orleans and I'm sure that's going to be a great time too. I'll have to make sure I keep better track of my camera so I can post pictures earlier rather than later.

A running start

April gets off to a good start! Bouldering on Friday on the Blue Ridge parkway. Of which I don't have any pictures since I forgot my camera in someones backpack, D'oh! And didn't have my computer to get anybody else's pictures. So those will be forthcoming. Here's a few pictures from bouldering (Thanks Chad!):

Blue ridge pkwy

My car with roof rack in use

If you can't get enough of my pictures, look here. After bouldering we drove down to Lynchburg to Liz's house for some grilling and a bon fire! Stayed up pretty late watching the fire die and the full moon rise with good wine and friends.

Bon fire! Marley, Liz and Chad

Me with mason jar as wine glass

bon fire embers and full moon

Saturday we went for a hike. Little windy at the peak, but nice weather and a good 'rest' day after bouldering. Although we did climb one boulder along the way. Saw some trillium flowers, some crab apple trees almost flowering, and trees flaking away. All the pictures in this post were taken with my iPhone, hence the lower quality. :-( I should get my point and shoot back soon. I got my camera back now! Wohoo! Just in time for next weekend too.

Trillium

Crab apple

flaking bark (haven't found the tree type yet)

Sat. night Liz and I went to dinner and then to Jimmy on the James for a drink and music. Sunday I drove home on the "back roads" of Rt 60 for a scenic drive home. Then Karen and I grilled out and had dinner on the deck as it was another gorgeous evening. Fish, veggies, acorn squash and eggplant! I've never liked eggplant before, but grilled, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and I was converted. It was excellent. Monday I took the optional day off and went for a ride. Then took Maddog to the park for a couple hours and met with Lamar, Kathy and son for dinner.

Softball begins!

Last Wednesday, we were supposed to have a practice softball game. A scrimmage really. No officials, just have people come out and work the kinks out, dust the rust off, warm up... whatever you want to call it. So we got out there, and had maybe 3 people bat before the lightning rolled in and the downpour started. So we did not get to have our scrimmage.

Last night, we had our first official, recorded game, and it was really obvious we NEEDED that practice game. It did rain a little bit last night too, but not as much and there was no lightning, so we played through the first inning in the rain. And it was a long inning... they scored 8 runs before we could get the 3 outs we needed to get a turn at bat. And that didn't go well either. We batted 4 people and got no runs. It was rough. But the rain let up and we played through. If nothing else, we're consistently inconsistent. We had a few new players since last year, but our overall skill level hasn't changed much. We ended up losing both games, but at least the second game was a little closer. I don't now if they just got tired of running around the bases so much, or hitting the ball so far, but we seemed to be doing better towards the end, minus a few blubbing errors on my part.

I know we figured out some spots where we need help and will make some adjustments on the field and batting line up for next week and we'll be a little more prepared as far as what to expect from people and the team as a whole. It was still fun and I had a good time playing. Softball is a place I can really find a zone and have a singularity type focus. There is nothing else when the pitcher throws the ball. It's all instinct. My ears only hear the crack of the bat and maybe someone yelling where to throw the ball to. My eyes only see the shiny neon green softball, and my body is ready to move. Time slows... and then the moment is over. It's amazing! 

I wanted to get a few pictures last night, but when it started to rain at the beginning, I put my phone (which was going to do camera duty) in a plastic bag so it wouldn't get wet. Next time. Next weeks game is an "early game" which means I'll be able to fall asleep before 11:30pm like last night. We're always looking for spectators, and early game days we usually go out for a drink or bite to eat after, which is always a good time, so if you're in the West End area, you should come out and support us!

The Shared Experience of Absurdity TED talk

Netflix has some TED talks now, which is really cool and they have them grouped into things like "Smart Laughs" and "Defying disease" and other interesting sounding topics. Under "Smart Laughs" I watched one called The Shared Experience of Absurdity by Charlie Todd while eating dinner tonight, which was hilarious! It starts off very absurd. But the message towards the end is fantastic. Much like Mark Sisson, it's all about play. Do things that are fun, for no reason at all. It's about 12 minutes long. You should watch it. 

April Fools day

Thankfully Madison doesn't know too many tricks, so I don't live in fear on this gorgeous Sunday. I'm typing this outside on my front porch; late afternoon enjoying the sun. Went for a run today since our "big race" is in a couple weeks. Still only did just over a mile. Might have to up the distance mid week and try and do a couple miles next weekend. And the beard is no longer. I had let the beard run wild for about a month straight and now I'm back to normal.

Beard before

During

After

I am most of the way through the book Quitter now, and along with close peoples encouragements, the seeds of inspiration are being planted. I won't go into detail now so I don't over think and create barriers which may or may not be there.

I've had a couple question on food related topics which I've so far neglected to respond to. Mostly because it seems there's already good write ups on the internet, but I need to research these things on my own and practice writing up concise, accurate posts. Otherwise, my posts all end up being the same "what I did this weekend posts."

First throw landed right under the basket.

And I will do that again here. :-) Disc golf on Friday morning, where I nearly got a hole in one... maybe next time. Then later that day Maddog and I met up with Karen and her dogs and went to the Wetlands for some dog play time.  Then we got some tasty sushi dinner with sake and good conversation. Saturday ended up raining a little in the morning and also a thunder storm in the afternoon so it was good we didn't go camping. But we did end up grilling out and eating a slew of delicious vegetables and fish. Two good days!

The weather should be nice this week and I'm planning on riding in as many days as I can. Now that sundown is after 7:30pm, I'll start riding my mountain bike and hitting the trails on the way home instead of just the usual road riding to work and back.

Look for posts on agave and brown rice vs white rice in the near future. I'll leave you with some more random pictures from the neighborhood along with my tomato plant that's flowering.