Berwyn, PA

Friday's class was on genetics, and how different foods adjust the expression of your genes. Whether or not fiber actually affects the cell wall in a way that sends a message to the cells DNA, to adjust how much HDL or LDL actually leaves the cell, is up for debate in my mind. The guest speaker talked in detail about how fiber was good for cholesterol, until I asked about specific mechanism. That's something I'd like get a lot more information on, and be able to share on my new blog: www.simplerootstohealth.com

After class, which ran longer than any of the other guest speakers, I dropped Maddog off at Kiki's house so he could hang out with Sunny for the weekend. Kaz and I headed out a little later than planned, but made decent time and got to Berwyn, PA in time for a late dinner with Amy and Paul. 

Saturday was relaxing. Got some reading done on the deck. Made breakfast. Went for a hike/walk/run. Kaz ran, I hung out in the hammock after a short hike and read. Amy walked the dog, and Paul took pictures. All the pictures below are by Paul Reitano. Check out his blog for more excellent pictures. http://www.paulreitano.com

Sunday included some napping, a little more reading, eating, and then we went to "circus school." Check out their website, PhillyCircus, and if you're interested, have a go at it. We took the intro class as Kaz and I had never done anything like that. Amy is a regular and so we were going to watch her practice, but decided it'd be cool to try it out too. We did very basic stuff on the ropes, the trapeeze and the silks (which is like the ropes, but you can split it, and it's much softer). It was a lot of fun and actually harder than I thought it was going to be. Then we went out to dinner and had some really good food and drinks. 

Monday we left Berwyn around noon and stopped by Carpenter State Park to go for another run/walk/hike. It was perfect weather all weekend. Cool, crisp and gorgeous. Got back Monday evening and picked up Maddog. I'm not sure he was ready to go home since he was having such a good time with his friend. All good things must come to an end, I suppose. But only so new good things can begin. 

Run, bike, no swim...

Friday was a big day! We had class like usual, but it was a guest speaker who talked about antioxidants. I found it quite interesting. Not everyone in the class was as excited as I was, I guess. I asked a bunch of questions, out of curiosity, and to keep the speaker a little more on track. Unfortunately, he was little scattered. He was rushed time wise and skipped a bunch of probably good information, but it was still interesting. Then we went to an Registered Dieticians Association (RDA) conference on campus and saw a few more lectures. There was close to 40 RD's in attendance, plus my 2 professors and a few other students.

The first one we saw was about fresh water fish vs farm raised fish. Which again, I found quite interesting. There was a point he was making about ocean fish raised in a pen, which I don't really know much about, but he was pointing out the flaws of this based on fecal and ammonia build up. So I asked the question when he was done, about how they deal with those same issues in the farm raised fish. He completely avoided the fecal build up part, and talked about how they add lime to the water to neutralize the ammonia. My follow up question should've been on what chemical by products are produced when these two chemicals combine, and if that affects the fish, but didn't think of that until too late.

He also heralded the idea that they can increase production of farm raised fish to meet demand so we don't over fish the oceans. This was a valid and understandable benefit of farmed fish. But the idea that the fish have water flow pumped through the pond, because there's not enough room to swim, and how they add "miniscule" amount of hormones to the water to affect the sex of the fish, because males grow bigger and are therefore more profitable, doesn't sit as well with me. Along with the genetic manipulation and cross breeding for size, and heartiness has to have some downsides we may not realize yet.

There were several other talks, one on starches, and another on GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) and GAP (Good Agricultural Practices) discussing food safety in developing countries. I actually introduced the speaker about GMP/GAP. I stepped out of my comfort zone and stood up in front of this crowd and welcomed the speaker and briefly described his background. With this, and asking a couple questions of the speakers, at the end of the conference I met with the internship coordinator at VCU, which was great. Hopefully we'll be able to meet up sometime soon and discuss some opportunities.

After completing some homework Friday night, it was the weekend! Saturday was pretty relaxing. We all went for a short "run." Kaz, her two dogs, myself and maddog went to Powhite park and did probably a mile and a half jog through the park. Maddog kept up most of the time pretty well. He was pretty tired at the end and exhausted the rest of the day. He needs more practice. My calves are pretty sore today as well, so I guess we both need more practice.

Sunday I did a bunch of food prep. Made some tomato-garlic butter, and some salsa, as well as some egg "muffins" for breakfast for the week, and some cookies. Then I went for a short ride to meet some friends at Belle Isle, and hung out for a bit before heading out for Sushi dinner with different friends. I'll detail a little more of the food prep in my other blog under recipes, which will be up shortly! Look for that on Facebook and Blogger and Twitter. I'll do a soft launch later this week and let you all give me feedback. Hope everyone had an exciting weekend!

November chill

The cool air is here to stay. It's been low 40's in the morning and mid 60's in the afternoon. I don't think it gets much better than that. Last week we were all hunkering down for the Super Storm Sandy, but we luckily got away with not much more than some rain and wind. It came and went and we got lucky, unlike a lot of folks farther north.

Tuesday night I studied for my Wed. test, as well as carved a howling wolf pumpkin while watching a quirky movie called "Everything is Illuminated." It's about a young man who goes on a trip to find out about his grandparents and his past. Wed. was Halloween! We went out to dinner for a friends birthday and had a great time catching up after my test in counseling class. Thursday I studied for a test in BioChem, and after the test of Friday I got a few volunteer hours. Dinner and a movie with Kaz on Friday night was great! We watched 180 South, which is about a few friends, taking almost 6 months to get down to Patagonia to climb a mountain. The scenery in the movie was just breathtaking, and the idyllic life of no responsibilities was fun. Climbing, surfing and exploring.

There was some shenanigans at work on Thursday for our "Fall Festival" aka Halloween party. Pumpking carving contests, lots of sugary foods and silly pictures. 

Riding on Saturday was awesome! Just over 60 degrees with a decent breeze made me keep my arm warmers on the whole time. No personal bests this time, but it felt good, even though my lungs weren't accustomed to the cooler, drier air.  Sunday was like spring cleaning. Nice weather. Lots to clean. Getting rid of the clutter that had been piling up the last few weeks, or months... Fixed my cars loose lighter socket which had been bugging me for way too long. Cooked a butternut squash soup, which is amazing! I realize I should've taken some pictures along the way to share. Next time. And yes, there will be a next time.

Check out the links and hit the like button on my Facebook! My new site should be up by next week!

Sherando Oct. 2012

33 miles of dirt. Mostly single track with some fire road climbing and a short stint on the Blue Ridge Parkway. 5k+ feet elevation change. 6k+ calories burned. Awesome ride! We left just after 7am. Me, Carter and Nate were psyched and ready to roll by 9:30. Nate on his 29er, stiff fork, single speed bike. What a beast! Nate destroyed us going up the hills, but I crushed it on the way down. I was loving my long travel on the gnarly descents.

We stopped for "lunch" around 1 after Carter lost a bolt to the cleat in his shoe, but after some jerry-rigging with some twigs, it seemed to work out just fine. That was our only malfunction. No flats, no bent rims, no bent derailleur hangers. Everything worked as it should and nothing needed replacing, refilling or fixing. It was weird, but I'm not complaining. Today you'll have to click a link to see the ride map, as my phone lost GPS signal and didn't capture the second half of our ride. Carters phone worked the whole time though, so here's the link: http://www.endomondo.com/workouts/veuGmVojiXI

At the point where we got on the BRP, we met a lady that was finishing a hike. She had come from PA with her family, as she told us they do every year, and offered us a beer since they were finishing their weekend and had a lot left over. We initially politely declined, and then changed our minds after she told us it was Spaten Oktoberfest. We carried them with us until the finish, and graciously enjoyed a victory beer. We stopped in Charlotesville on the way home for some dinner, and got home around 9:45pm.

Luckily Maddog got to stay at Kaz's house with her dogs and use the doggy door, so he didn't have to wait for me to get back from riding to go out. I promptly went to bed and woke up a solid 10 hrs later. It was awesome!

Fall fun

Maddog's birthday, Kiki's birthday, disc golf, biking, Avett Brothers concert and hanging out on the river with Kaz and the dogs. All in a weekends work. Good stuff.

Pumpkin picking and Folk Festival

Ah, Richmond. You've got some really fun events. The Folk Fest may be the best. 5 outdoor venues playing Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday. All kinds of music, from bluegrass and country to "kosher gospel" to Ethiopian music. Every one being entertaining at worst, or completely captivating. My friend Chris came down for the weekend and joined us for pumpkin picking and the Folk Fest enjoyment.  The weather could not have been more pleasant. Cool, sunny, low humidity. Jeans and long sleeve shirts, and then crisp jacket weather after the sun went down. Absolutely gorgeous! And the clouds were amazing. Jet stream streaks crisscrossing the sky. Great weather and October festivities with the best of people makes for the best of memories. 

Kaz and her pumpkin

Kaz and Chris

No pumpkins were hurt in the making of this picture

Endless pumpkins

Folk fest Sat pano

Folk fest Sun pano

Awesome clouds!

Blue Mtn Disc golf

Friday's Nutritional Biochemistry test was a little tough, but I think I did okay. Then my group members from a different class got together and took some video for our "counseling" project. If it's any good, I'll post it here. It's just to practice being a counselor. A lot of it is pretty common sense stuff, but it's a class and we have to learn it.

After school, I dropped off Maddog at Kaz's place and headed up to Andrew's house in MD. Saturday morning Andrew and I hopped in his new ride and drove up to Blue Mtn Ski area where they have a couple disc golf courses. We've been there before, but not in a couple years. We hadn't ever played the "valley" course, which is at the bottom of the mountain. We played it this time, and it was quite good. Lots of fun, lots of variety. Then we played the "skyline" course, which we'd played before, and was the main reason to go. We rode the ski lift up the hill, and played the course, which winds its way back down, along the ski runs and through the woods. It's really a great time. Watching the disc glide, seemingly forever. It's breathtaking. And with a colorful fall backdrop, it was spectacular!

We got back into town, close to 10pm after the 3.5 hr drive. Our philosophical discussion on Buddhism and all things ethereal made the drive fly by. With our brains and bodies tired, we watched a little SNL and then I slept like a rock. Sunday, the plan was to play some more disc golf, but since it was raining, and we had such a fantastic, and also relatively strenuous... yes, disc golf can be strenuous. Especially when you're hiking a ski slope, and trudging through the woods to find a lost disc. So Sunday we sat around around, ate and played video games, and then watched football. Really manly stuff.

I left around 3 to beat the Redskins traffic, and got home in record time. I went to Kaz's to pick up Maddog and have dinner and catch up on each others weekends. Check out some more pictures from disc golf by clicking on the link below.  I'll post a couple videos soon!

I forgot to mention, all the pictures were taken with the iPhone 5. The panorama feature is pretty sweet as you can see in the one above, and a few more in the photo link. Very cool. 

Blue Mountain Disc golf Oct. 6, 2012

Warrior Dash

Mud run fun! Kiki, Kaz, Jen and I did the Warrior Dash this weekend on Saturday. Since it was wet and muddy, and none of us has any kind of waterproof camera, there are no pictures. But just click on the link above and imagine our faces... covered in mud and smiling! It was a great time. Once we got there. It was a bit of a "cluster" trying to find parking. Peoples cars were stuck in the muddy parking lot. We were all there for the mud, but controlled mud, and we wanted to be in it, we didn't want our cars stuck in it. After some extended traffic wait time, we parked far away from the mess and walked a little ways in. Other than that, it was a good time. The sun came out as we started, and we had a blast. No injuries besides a couple cuts and scrapes and we all finished. That was the goal. Accomplished.

Sunday we did a little car shopping. Kaz's car is on it's way out unfortunately. It's a great car (gotta love the Forrester), but time to be retired. We met up with Kirk and Lisa and Luke and some other friends for dinner and that was awesome! It was great catching up with them, and meeting Luke, and seeing some JMU folks I hadn't seen since well before graduating. Can't wait to do it again. I'll post a couple pictures when I get them. Great weekends abound. This month will include out of town disc golfing, Richmond Folk Festival, Sherando riding and whatever other adventures can be had. Looking forward to it.

Oktoberfest

Nutritional Biochemistry resumed on Friday. So we got our tests back and I did pretty well. And way better than the average. So that was nice. Got into more cycles of energy molecules. Krebs, Cori, Glycolosis... ect. Lots of very detailed, foundational material, but nothing you really use as a nutritional counselor. Luckily, I happen to find the foundational molecular stuff pretty interesting.

For dinner we went to Karen's mom's house, and helped move some furniture and work out some computer problems. Saturday was a full day of cleaning and general maintenance stuff like getting a hair cut. But Sat. night was Oktoberfest, 2 blocks from my house, so we went and hung out with friends, listened to um pa music and watched stein holding contests.

Sunday morning we attended a "meditation group" which was interesting. The weather was the best, and it was something I might do again, but perhaps earlier in the day and closer to my house. We'll see.

Then got in a ride with Carter and a guy named Nate, who had a single speed stiff (no suspension) bike, who left Carter and I in the dust. It was fun(ny) trying to keep up. Good times. Ice cream with Kiki after the ride was perfect and then a relaxing dinner and silly movie with Kaz filled Sunday night. Doesn't get much better than that.

Banff Mtn Film Fest Class Canceled

I had set my alarm for class and woke up ready to go, but as I was getting ready, I got an email from the professor that class was canceled. I was looking forward to going because we were to get our test grades back, and I was thinking about staying after class and checking out the schools big gym facility. Oh well. So I had an extra 4 or more hrs to do whatever I wanted!

I took Maddog to the disc golf course first, and we had a great time. The weather was just incredible. Cooler but sunny. Awesome. Dropped Maddog off back at the house, and hopped on the Blur for a ride around the city trails. Clocked a little over 14 miles in 2 hrs. Pretty good time for me. And still gorgeous weather!



Made a Trader Joes run and stopped by Performance Bike shop and got some more chain lube and cleaner. Dinner and a movie with Karen was a great time. Saturday we went to the Farmer's market. Always good stuff there. And looked at the art festival. Couldn't afford to get anything there. Oh well.

Banff Mtn Film Fest was on Saturday night. We were rushing around trying to get there by 6:30, and ended up being about half an hour late. When we walked in, we were pleasantly surprised that the show started at 7, and we were exactly on time. Awesome!


Sunday I got a little reading in for school and a little clean up around the apartment. Not nearly as much as I should've for either, but still working on it. Decorated the work cube wall late last week which I'm really liking. Just some 4x6 pics of recent trips and memories.