Football Epilogue

I just signed my kids up for one of the first kids oriented uniball floor hockey leagues in the area. This is a fast-paced evolution from old-school plastic puck floor hockey. The game is fast paced and largely non-contact. And importantly, compared to ice hockey, is not nearly as resource intensive (resourse = time, money, equipment, ice, zamboni). There is an adult floorball league in the area. I'm thinking about going and playing in an open night or two just to get more familiar.  In the meantime here is a YouTube video or two I found on the sport and a link to the US Floorball official website:   USA Floorball

What better for warming up the brain than a (continued) game of Monopoly over breakfast? Me having Boardwalk and Park Place! Muahaha :)

The days are getting noticeably shorter and the temperatures are starting to cool. That said, my daughter's soccer season is winding down. So let me ask:

From http://brickellmensproducts.com/blogs/grooming-manual/66267203-top-5-anti-aging-tips-for-men I was originally going to write about the football successes of the weekend. It was a good weekend for "my" teams. Obviously, the Vikings and Minnesota Gophers have a larger stage and it was good to see them win. It was exciting for me to see the Hamline Pipers get their first win over Gustavus Adolphus since 2005 and for the Champlin Park Rebels to beat the Blaine Bengals.  Instead of attempting analyst detail on these games I think I'll go another way. I'm realizing I'm dwelling on something from week 1 of the football season. It was a fact an announcer said and it put who I am in perspective. The oldest offensive lineman in the NFL is 35! That is younger than me (by 3 years at this writing). I don't think this was really the stuff of mid-life crisis generating profoundness. I already know 40 is a matter of months away for me and have had to square with a...

I don't know where I'd be, without your dark and roasted bean and let's not forget the caffeine You pick me up in the morning But keep my up and moving Insides churning, outsides grooving And I take you with a little cream Who am I kidding, a lot of cream And need constant refill it would seem If there there's no Coffeemate to be had Then on to the half-and-half and with a touch of Splenda you taste splendid Although I'd drink you straight from the carafe I used to use a Keurig  machine But I found the portion quite lean So now on the weekend I make a full pot Still that doesn't last as long as I thought In the evening I switch to decaf So I can sleep at night Then awaken again tired and groggy Until I pour another caffeinated flight ©2016

I run anywhere between a 9 minute mile and a 12 minute mile depending on conditions and how I'm feeling. I don't feel there to be much reason to run more than a 5k. I have friends who run a lot more, but I figure I'm a big guy and I might need my knees and hips when I'm 70. I also run into issues when I run too much (and not enough stretching) with sciatic verve pain, aka sciatica , where I can feel nerve pain running from my lower back to the bottom of my right foot. There are also the grade school memories of having to run the mile. For a fat kid with asthma (I'll have to dig up my 4th grade basketball picture for confirmation) this was akin to a death March. Enough so that I seriously question the utility of this tradition along with all the other tests that seem only the elite athlete/gymnasts of those age groups can complete to any level of confidence building satisfaction. "Yep, I still mostly walk and wheeze a 15 minute mile". "Yep, I still...

Salsa from my garden anyone?  I loosely followed this recipe .

The school year has started. The frantic pace of summer with it's figuring out who's doing what and when has been constrained to shortened weekday evenings and weekends. Even those have some semblance of structure. This fall's evenings are thus far inundated with gymnastics, soccer, Lego Robotics, Cub Scouts and piano lessons. It's hard to find time and energy to get a workout in edgewise, but try I must. My son getting ready for the end of days.... or just clowning  around at the local surplus store. One window of opportunity is during my daughter's gymnastics class. It's a 90 minute window of time at the recreation center where I am a member. It's an evening my ex-wife typically has the kids so she'll stay and watch while my son stays home. Recently, he has been expressing interest in exercising more. It has even resulted in procuring some free weights and a bench in my basement.  Knowing this, I called on my way home from work and asked ...

My sister got married this weekend. It was an excellent celebration. I was asked to assist with the ceremony and even became an ordained minister through The American Marriage Ministries  and register with the county to be able to sign the paperwork (anyone need to get married?). It was good and tiring. In the words of my fifth grader who was a junior groomsman, "it's much more enjoyable to be a wedding guest than in the wedding party". More work indeed, but there are few times the family is the center of attention and it was nice to catch up with old neighbors and friends. I did leave the ceremony a little sad though. Sad in realizing that my kids are growing and sad in learning that there seems to be a transition between 2nd and 3rd grade that makes kids notably more bashful. I'm referring to my daughter. The last few years she was a bright spot for me at wedding receptions. Her and I would hit the dance floor and I would twirl her and toss her in our own little c...

I came across this old clipping from the Champlin-Dayton Press of me on the squat rack. My "friend" is my long-time friend Sean.

My kids started school this last week. A very good thing as I think they were getting bored with the summer routine. Summer is anything but a vacation due to having to manage childcare schedules and it seems the pace of things at work hastens and is more chaotic. The end of summer is then, in a lot of ways, a relief. Schedules become more regimented. Activities are constrained to evenings and non-school days. We know what's going to happen throughout the weeks and months with more certainty. Despite this, there is one thing I dread about back to school. All the kids have been off doing their own things and collecting their own sets of bacteria and viruses. Germs that are different enough that back to school results in a concentration and redistribution of what can only be affectionately called crud. This is a roundabout way of saying that I have a cold. It's annoying enough to deplete me yet not severe enough to place me in bed. Only a week is a little early for me to ful...

Our guide from All American Segway teaching us how not to die on a segway. It was beautiful this weekend. There was still a mild sunny warmth of summer, but the humidity and debilitating persistence of the heat had disappeared to reveal the first crisp notes of autumn. It was weather where comfort could be had in both a tee shirt or lightweight pullover. There was enough green to continue to celebrate summer and enough yellowing of leaves to begin stirring the desires for fall thinking; school, football, harvest and Halloween. It was a fortunate day that my girlfriend and I selected for a new experience. One that had been on her bucket list for a time and one that was as simple as a Groupon to give her for her birthday. A Segway tour along the descending portion of the Browns Creek trail into old downtown Stillwater, MN. The tour was comprised of a Segway ride of 3 miles into town, some food tasting and the ride back. Set on the Ominous schedule of a "three hour tour". ...

It's difficult to fathom that 15 years have gone by since the 9/11 attacks. It was a moment of shock and chaos in what had been a quiet life until then. It was also a time of understanding and an end of innocence for the Generation X and Y crowds and predating the millenials, but not without changing their world. While growing up I recall the multitude of people who would say that they remembered exactly where they were when president Kennedy was assassinated. My grandparents remembering where they were when Pearl Harbor was bombed. Such memory was an interesting concept to me. Historical events happened all the time, so why would you remember where you were when these events happened. September 11, 2001 changed that perspective. You recall such events because they change who you are and who we are as a people. They become times to unite and to get remember that we are of the "land of the free and the home of the brave". That is we are free and we are brave and what we ...

I went for a run yesterday on my two mile loop. After stopping briefly at the end of my driveway to talk with my neighbor, who informed me that the city stopped by, I was in need of the sweat, endorphins and clear head that come with a short jog around the neighborhood. Usually the thought of the city stopping by brings annoyance. I have an elderly couple next to me who like to pick nits. I am surely in their sights as I just installed my new driveway and one edge comes closer than comfort to their property line. I also have a morning glory growing in my garden that is engulfing one of the wrought iron wickets that they use to make overly clear to me where the property line is. At this point you should call me paranoid, but they did come out to heckle the work crew on the driveway and I did have words with the neighbor on the property line while planting my garden. I also just realized I'm a little late on paying my water bill so I have a little of my own self justified worry b...