Football Epilogue

Fresh tracks. For some dumb reason, it's been hard for me to do much writing lately. At least anything beyond personal note taking. I've gotten a couple of hundred words written a few times, but nothing has really inspired or formed any kind of a hook for me to take off on. I've also been in more of an about state of things, which might create some fodder, but also increases my lack of patience for organizing my thoughts, but here I am giving it the old "college try". March has been a busy/fast month as most months feel to be lately. It started with a ski trip to Colorado with my kids. This was the fifth year we've taken a trip, and this year didn't disappoint. We did one day at Arapahoe Basin, followed by a day off while a snowstorm moved through the mountains and then skied a second day at Breckenridge in several inches of pristine powder.  The last couple of years skiing in Colorado, I'm finding I really need that first day to adjust to the altitude...

Gimbal test print. All pieces printed nested simultaneously. I print, therefore I am...finding myself in an interesting mix of hobby and micro-business. Things started a few years ago and really had little to do with 3D printing and more to do with entrepreneurial curiosity and an easy point of entry. My dad, needing some somewhat consumable parts for a tool (pneumatic nailer) found that the only deal around was to buy a bulk pack of what he needed.  As a casual nailer he didn't need the remaining half dozen or so tips and asked if I was interested in trying to resell them on eBay. I forget if I had sold stuff on there by then or not, but had at least expressed interest on what's involved on the selling end. Amazingly, after putting the listing up the parts sold quickly and easily. This spurred curiosity to explore further. I found certain parts wholesaled easy enough to resell. Some did not, or at least access to distributor pricing was restricted to licensed tool dealers. The...

The first lift up. This is going to be a quick one. I took my kids skiing in Montana a little over a week ago. It was a fun trip. The snow was great (at least for a Minnesota skier) and we left the rockies on Sunday sore, but ready for our next outing.  As with my recent flurry of trips, it's a good opportunity to reflect on the food and activity choices. So here's another report card: Item Score (1 to 4 with 4 = best) Notes Water Intake 2 I made sure to drink morning and evening glasses of water. I also bought a case of sparkling water. Intake in normal conditions was likely adequate, but the activity, high altitude and dry air had me feeling dehydrated. Alcohol Consumption 3 This was limited to beers at dinner.  Steps/Activity 4 Two full days of skiing and a decent chunk of time wandering mammoth hot springs. This was well covered Positive Attitude 4 Hell yeah! ...

The view from atop Hyland ski area in Bloomington, MN Compared to the last few years, this Minnesota winter has been hard. The persistently cold temperatures with only one small warm streak in January, mixed with weekly snowfalls has left the state frozen and white. Probably too cold for many of the out-of-town folks who were here for Superbowl LII on Sunday. Indeed I've been struck with a small case of cabin fever as well. However, it should be a time to embrace the winterness and partake in outdoor activities. Early in January I took a trip to Utah. That officially kicked-off my ski season. Utah was awesome. The ski areas are vast and varied. We (gf and I) skied Deer Valley on the Park City side of the mountains and Brighton on the Salt Lake City side of the mountain. I came home ready for more. Fortunately, my kids are now of the age where they are capable skiers. As an added bonus the Minnesota Ski Areas Association  has a program this year where fourth graders ski ...

FOLD!!!  I have a slightly quirky way of dealing with chores or other various manifestations of "adulting" that are required in keeping up my image of being a reputable member of society.  Of the tasks I lament, laundry has to be the lamentyest (I hope Merriam-Webster gives me credit for that word). For the human doing the washing and folding, the act of cleaning clothing, linens, etc. has not changed my in the last half a century or so. In fact the last major revolution was probably the spin cycle.  The spin cycle probably saved numerous people from having their fingers skinned in the roller ring-out process. It also gave one's handier half something to do when the load becomes unbalanced and wet clothes need jostling, but I digress. My point is, you still have to lug your soiled sundries to the bowels of your house (or a hallway if you live in California or other places that don't typically have basements), load the washer, soap the washer, move wet clo...

I may not be on the field, but these games get my heart pumping. I've been helping to coach my son's 6th grade football team. I work mostly with the O and D lines. We had an awesome opening play drive in last nights game and a come from behind win. Here's that opening play TD.

2016 was a doozy of a year. Lots of household names passed away, the election defied arrogant polling and I'm still not wealthy nor famous; although I must admit to some putting sticks in hornet's nests on Facebook in uncanny oldest sibling fashion. I rang in the new year with the kids. We had ample junk food, played board games and watched movies on the DVD player my son bought from Goodwill for $5 earlier in the day. He was hoping it would be a small soldering project, but it turned out to work sans repairs. Finally, we toasted midnight with sparkling grape juice. Around 11 pm I had the kids sit down to do a little 2016 reflecting and 2017 goal writing. My son got right on it. He was grateful in 2016 for the new puppy at their mom's house, learning how to ski and seeing the new Star Wars movies.  My daughter was a little more bashful and I actually wasn't able to get much from her aside from going skiing and getting her pet turtle. I had a few things: ex...

In case you don't know what Festivus is, here's the wikipedia page . And in case you don't know what Seinfeld is, I'm so sorry. We are cele-boteurs of the Christmas tradition. This was the second of the post-divorce Christmases. While new normal has mostly set in, it's still a little bittersweet. There was added bittersweetness this year as both of the kids have pretty clearly transitioned to adolescence in the last year. Toys are less of a thing and the big man in red is definitely mentioned with a tap on the nose. The funny thing is, they both know who SC really is, but neither knows that the other knows. This makes for interesting glances and smiles. My daughter was a little sad to have fewer toys under the tree. I am letting her trade-in on a new toy; again reality is she's outgrown most of the stuff she wants, but probably needs to realize it for herself. One thing there's no shortage of today is cookies. I made use of my girlfriends gift of...

One of these things is not like the other. I took the record cold weather as an opportunity to be Mr. Mom and make some Christmas cookies. I usually make Krumkake . It's a piece of my Norwegian heritage preserved. The only dilemma is it is done one cookie at a time. It requires a few sacrificial cookies to tune the process and then off I go. It takes about 40 seconds per cookie. A few cookies in I also felt I needed a workout. Hence, I grabbed the dumbell and started doing miscellaneous lifts between cookies. I made over 100 cookies so this made for quite the circuit. I tried everything from burpees to wall sits to biceps curls and shoulder presses. Maybe it was a little silly, but I got a good sweat going and had a little extra fun in the kitchen. After the krumkake came gingerbread cookies. This was more fun for the kids as they got to cut them out and do the decorating. Here's that result . ...and my personal favorite Happy holidays and Merry Chistmas!

Not us, but close. taken from http://twincitiesnace.net/ For the family part of my son's birthday, he requested to do a little volunteer work. His class had recently been on a field trip to help at Feed My Starving Children . We had done this before when the kids were younger and it was something he enjoyed. He simply found it fun and helpful. Thus he requested to do it to ring in turning 11. I volunteered for warehouse duty, resupplying the soy and rice needed to make the meal kits. With 14 tables going it was a good hour and a half of moving, lifting, shifting and pouring of the materials. About 35 minutes in I noticed a damp perspiration and the warmth of activity starting and realized I was getting a good workout. In the end it's a great experience and a simple way to get your family and friends and even coworkers working for and helping others.

My son had his birthday party this weekend. He had a Nerf dart gun war in my basement. Most interesting was his big gift from his mom's side of the family; the Terrascout. This toy seems to represent the state of the art. There's nothing like using it to distract me from my work. Check it out!

I want Ice Cream too! Last night my son and I engaged in our new routine. We hit the weightroom at the local activity center while my daughter is at her gymnastics class. The first few weeks went well. I had to cancel some expectations of having a fervent training partner for the realization that he's a kid and wants to explore and do some of the things he wants to do. This has resulted in the dynamic of me performing my workout and him on his favorite pieces of equipment: assisted pull-ups, the StairMaster, the back extensions machine and the cable-cross machine. Yesterday was a little different. His school was having a fundraiser at  Chipotle  and one of those build-your-own frozen yogurt stores,  Yogurt Sundae . I caught him after the dinner part of this combination and promised we'd get the Ice Cream after the workout. I guess the kids really likes the ice cream as he proceeded to complain how bored he was and kept asking to go to dessert during the workout. I...

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 :)

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...

From  http://glovesonline.net Given my quasi-rant from a couple of days ago, you would think I'd have minimal time to waste on baseball. That's simply not true. The game itself has an elegance to it and I see my son hustling and trying his best. He says practices are boring and it's hard, but that also means he's learning to handle himself somewhere besides on the couch. One thing I noticed was the number of balls that bounced in and out of his glove. Essentially, he caught most of what was thrown to him only to have it fall out of his glove. I can imagine this being tiring and frustrating. Then the thought occurred to me that his glove was advertised as "pre-softened", but that it was only "half-fast" pre-softened. The softening makes the glove, well, softer. It allows the hand to squeeze the glove easier to catch, but also there's a little physics to something being softer as well. When a ball strikes a hard surface, the collision coul...