Vacation Day 5 – June 30, 2009

Got up early and spent the day doing mostly touristy stuff. We started at the Arch early enough to beat the crowd. I’ve been surprised at how few people we’ve seen on vacation, short lines everywhere. The view was great and the trip up/down was cramped but not awful.

We headed out to the Botanical Gardens for a few hours and walked around. It was a pretty decent day weather-wise, but after a few hours it warmed up and my blood sugar crashed. We headed back to the Loop District to get lunch at Blueberry Hill. Got a pretty tasty burger there and the place had a nice group of displays, everything from Beatles dolls to Cardinals memorabilia.

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After lunch we were both pretty wiped out, so we headed back to the hotel to nap/cool down and then spent an hour or so catching up on email and 1000+ RSS feeds. We then headed across the street to the stadium. It was a beautiful night for baseball and a really good sized crowd (37k+). Albert Pujuls knocked out two home-runs including a 454 footer. Several former White Sox (Aaron Rowand and Juan Uribe) and now on the San Francisco Giants, so we rooted against the home team. It’s a really great park and should look sharp on TV for the All-Star game in another week-and-a-half. There was a guy sitting next to us who had drove from Pittsburg to see the game, he is hitting four games in four days and then on to a few west coast games. Nice way to spend a few weeks in the summer.

June 30, 2009 | Filed Under personal | Comments Off

Vacation Day 4 – June 29, 2009

Back on the road with a four-hour trip to St. Louis. The drive was beautiful and went through the Hoosier National Forrest. We headed directly to the Loop District since we couldn’t check in for a couple of hours. We had a good lunch at Fitz’s (mighty solid root-beer and creme soda on tap) and stopped at a Subterranean Books (nice bookstore with a small but decent selection). We walked around most of the Loop District as well as finding a branch of Left-Bank Books which was also small but hosted an appropriate collection of books.
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After finding our way around the city (a lot of which looks like a bomb struck recently, pretty run-down city) we checked in to the hotel. The hotel room was nice and had a great view of the city and the stadium. We walked around the area and couldn’t locate anything decent for dinner (it was down to Hooters or Hardee’s), but we did see a guy try to break into two cars and shadow someone into the entrance of a condo. We holed up in the room and ordered some miserable local pizza. The special included a salad that was (no kidding) a pile of iceberg lettuce with a few strands of cheese on top. The food was a low-point in St. Louis and we spent a lot of time looking for anything better.

June 29, 2009 | Filed Under personal | Comments Off

Vacation Day 3 – June 28, 2009

Got up fairly early and made the trip to Louisville. It was an easy 90 minutes on the road and we made it in time for breakfast at the North End Cafe. We hit the local Half-Price bookstores and after loading up on McAllister’s sweet tea, we headed out a bit south of the city to the Zappo’s outlet store. The store portion is tiny compared to the massive warehouse. It looked the length of two football fields. It’s not the fancy space out in Las Vegas where you can take the tour, but Jen and Paul found a few decent deals.

The day was flying by so we headed back to Paul’s house and started preparing for dinner: 1+ lb porterhouse steaks, grilled corn, grilled potatoes, grilled salmon and a salad. It all turned out great. After watching two episodes of ‘Freaks & Geek’s', we headed off to sleep with mighty-full bellies.

June 28, 2009 | Filed Under personal | Comments Off

Vacation Day 2 – June 27, 2009

Had a pretty awful night of sleep. I rarely sleep well for the first couple nights of vacation. It’s a big mental adjustment trying to get my brain to relax. We slept in pretty late and then headed out to walk around the area. We headed west towards the canal walk and the state park. We caught a nice film about Alaska at the Omnimax theatre. I can watch nearly anything in Omni format. It was a good way to get out of the heat for an hour or so.
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We grabbed a late lunch at Rock Bottom Brewery and walked around Circle Center Mall before heading back to the hotel to catch a nap before the Indian’s game.

Had a good time at the Indians/Mudhen’s game. It was a bit warm to start, but we had decent seats and it was a good crowd, not obnoxious. Victory Field is a nice park and within walking distance of the hotel. Hard to beat.

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Having a good time on vacation so far. We’ll see after a couple more days. I either get freaked out by the spare time or I fall into it hard and never want to go back to work.

June 27, 2009 | Filed Under personal | Comments Off

Vacation Day 1 – June 26, 2009

vacation_loop

Heading out of Skokie around 6:00 am and made it through the city with no issues. It was a smooth trip until reaching Merrillville when we saw a notice about an accident on I65. The interstate was closed several miles south so we took a detour through Crown Point down state road 55 and picked up I65 again in Roselawn.

Just a bit south of Lafayette we stopped at Jen’s friends house who was home working at her parents farm. I really miss the space in Indiana. I like being able to look out for miles in the distance over farmland.

After a short visit we were back on the highway. After a stop at Max and Erma’s we hit a couple of Half-Price bookstores and a children’s bookstore. Good thing that we’re driving this vacation since the trunk will likely be loaded with books by the time we get home.

We checked into the hotel and watched a bit of the White Sox/Cubs game before heading out to Bazbeaux Pizza. I only went there once in college, but I was able to take the folks there when they had the family reunion in Indianapolis and everyone seemed to like it.

We walked a bit around the Mass Ave area after having a pretty decent pizza at Bazbeaux. I like the area, it’s laid back and pretty casual. There’s a little jazz tavern called ‘Chatterbox’ here that I like. Indy’s downtown area seems to be doing a bit better than it was the last time I was there, maybe three years ago. We decided to finish off the night at ‘Dave & Buster’s', playing air-hockey while catching the replay of the Sox game.

June 26, 2009 | Filed Under personal | Comments Off

TD09

Tough workout, not that great in terms of productivity. Woke up around 2:30 am and never got back to sleep. I think that my body is ready for a nice break, I’m hurting all the time. Tomorrow I may have enough time to hit the gym before we leave on vacation.

planks: 2×45 sec
chins: 3, 2
barbell row: 135×5 (two sets), [165x10 | 135x10] (strip set)
close grip pulldown: 7×6, 9×6, [11x12, 8x10] (strip set)
close grip cable row: 10×8, 12×10
dumbbell bench: 70×6, 85×10
front plate raise: 45×20

June 25, 2009 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off

Father’s Day 2009

Had a nice trip home this weekend for Father’s Day. Mom found some photos of my grandparent’s that I really liked so I got them scanned.

I really like this photo of my grandparents at the Indiana Dunes. I think it was from when they were both in high school or just out.

Gram and Grandpa Peres at Indiana Dunes

Also from high school, my grandfather and a friend of his skipped school one day and made a road trip to Vassar College. They’re wearing their Roosevelt High School sweaters.

Grandpa Peres road trip to Vassar

I like to remember my grandfather like this. He had a habit of working outside until tired and then taking a nap. He makes good use of a wheelbarrow.

Grandpa Peres wheelbarrow nap

June 25, 2009 | Filed Under personal | 1 Comment

TD08

Really painful workout, my legs were really wiped out by the time I got to squats.

hip crossover: 2×15
planks: 2×45 sec
leg press: 150×8, 170×8, [250x10 | 180x15 | 135x10] (strip set)
leg extension: 95×20 | 70×10 | 45×15 (strip set)
squat: 135×8, [180x8 | 135x12] (strip set)
barbell curl: 60×8, 70×15
zottman curl: 25×15
seated calf raise: 70×15

June 24, 2009 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off

TD07

Good upper-body workout this morning. I was in pretty burnt-out by the time I left. Two more workouts before leaving on vacation. I should be exhausted enough physically to make the best use of the recovery time. By the time vacations are over, I’m usually jumping at the chance to get back in the gym.

incline flys: 30×12, 40×12
flat bench: 135×8, 165×6, 215×5, [255x6 | 215x5 | 135x10] (strip set)
cable crossover: 5×12, 7×6
incline bench: 135×8, 165×10
machine press: 70×8, 100×10 | 85×10 (strip set)
chins: 3, 3
negative dips: 4×10 sec
push ups: 20
medicine ball rotation: 20x (two sets)
medicine ball situps: 20x (two sets)
planks: 2×45 sec
tricep pressdown: 12×15

June 23, 2009 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off

TD06

So my planning was off, and I’ll only hit 9 days before leaving on vacation.

Calf lifts hurt more than almost anything. The difference is that the pain is located to such a small area, but it gets extremely intense. It’s frustrating because the pain hurts well before I feel exhausted. This was also the first time I’ve gone for 20 reps on squat. Next time I’ll hit a heavier weight, but my calves where shaking and it was hard to concentrate on the reps.

standing barbell calf raise: 95×20, 115×20
one-leg calf raise: 20 (two sets)
seated calf raise: 45×8
squats: 135×20
overhead reverse lunge: 45×7
one-leg barbell deadlift: 45×10
bike: 10 min

June 22, 2009 | Filed Under lifting | Comments Off