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Friday, August 12, 2011
Wednesday, May 04, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Two Views of Lower Manhattan
Taken from the 54th floor of the Hilton Millennium on 12 February, 2011 at 1:34 & 9:30 AM.
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Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Kickoff
So there seems to be a bunch of interest in this blog again. Let's get it going. The account is here, it's still open, let's start posting.
It's going to be tough this year -- my frantic travel schedule and the city I'm in has destroyed my running, and destroyed Nancy's.
There are 8 weeks to go before this race, we'll be fine. We did it last year, we can do it again. Our bodies remember.
It's going to be tough this year -- my frantic travel schedule and the city I'm in has destroyed my running, and destroyed Nancy's.
There are 8 weeks to go before this race, we'll be fine. We did it last year, we can do it again. Our bodies remember.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Thursday, September 02, 2010
My Tomatoes Are Coming In
Stoked about the big heirloom! Can't wait to try that. I picked it because it was on the ground -- my vines busted down their supports and my garden is insane. Nothing beats a homegrown tomato.
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Saturday, August 28, 2010
Throwback Logo & Ingredients
Pepsi relaunches its classic logo, and a classic sweetner -- good old fashioned sugar...
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Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
Crow Murder, Robbin Death: Call of the Wild
I was outside after dinner tonight. I was helping my wife pack the car before returning to the job that never ends despite the fact that it's deadline is fast approaching.
I was putting some things in the car when the noise of birds squawking, trilling, crying and cawing really caught my attention. I looked up at the neighbor's roof and saw a murder
of about 5 crows along the ridge line pulling something apart (I finally figured out why a crow flock is called a murder...).I realized quite quickly that it was a small bird. It was gory even from my vantage point and the downy feathers of the fledgling were blowing down the roof onto the grass.
I let out an "oh wow!" as my daughter came out of the house and she of course looked up and I tried to block her eyes as I told her that the crows had raided a Robbin's nest -- the parents were flying all over and goign crazy, screaming, as a Robbin does, at the crows -- as a parent I can empathize with their reaction. As I came around the front of our car, I almost stepped on another fledgling, sitting in the grass. It must have been grabbed and dropped in the raid. The neighbors came out and my sons and wife came out and we all saw varying amounts of the scene. My daughter got upset, she's my animal lover, and said "we need to save the baby bird," which stymied me for a minute. I took a large empty flower pot, filled it with some pine needles and put the bird in there. I told her that this may not work and that the baby bird's chances were "not so good." I put the pot up in a tree, wedged in some branches, close to the original nest, and hoped the parents would return. The parents were flying all over and calling out and basically going crazy, but I figured they'd calm down and realize where baby 2 was. I've been watching the adults for the past several days hunting down the worms in our yard like crazy and flying into this tree stand. The chicken may be the closes living relative to the T. Rex, but it's got nothing on the Robbin which is really an exceptional hunter. The Robbins calmed down, we moved away from the pot and the baby bird started to call. Before we knew it it was struggling out of its pot to sit on a branch, and the parents brought it some food -- I saw one sitting on a phone wire with a worm, as my family pulled away. I don't know what will happen to the fledgling. My daughter is very concerned, and I promised to check on the Robbin family in the morning. My eldest boy, and second oldest summed it up best, as I comforted my daughter, saying, at one point, "nature is nature." I thought, yes it is, and it isn't it amazing to see it in all its sublime splendor in the suburbs of Boston as a murder of crows raided a Robbin's nest.
I was putting some things in the car when the noise of birds squawking, trilling, crying and cawing really caught my attention. I looked up at the neighbor's roof and saw a murder
of about 5 crows along the ridge line pulling something apart (I finally figured out why a crow flock is called a murder...).I realized quite quickly that it was a small bird. It was gory even from my vantage point and the downy feathers of the fledgling were blowing down the roof onto the grass.
I let out an "oh wow!" as my daughter came out of the house and she of course looked up and I tried to block her eyes as I told her that the crows had raided a Robbin's nest -- the parents were flying all over and goign crazy, screaming, as a Robbin does, at the crows -- as a parent I can empathize with their reaction. As I came around the front of our car, I almost stepped on another fledgling, sitting in the grass. It must have been grabbed and dropped in the raid. The neighbors came out and my sons and wife came out and we all saw varying amounts of the scene. My daughter got upset, she's my animal lover, and said "we need to save the baby bird," which stymied me for a minute. I took a large empty flower pot, filled it with some pine needles and put the bird in there. I told her that this may not work and that the baby bird's chances were "not so good." I put the pot up in a tree, wedged in some branches, close to the original nest, and hoped the parents would return. The parents were flying all over and calling out and basically going crazy, but I figured they'd calm down and realize where baby 2 was. I've been watching the adults for the past several days hunting down the worms in our yard like crazy and flying into this tree stand. The chicken may be the closes living relative to the T. Rex, but it's got nothing on the Robbin which is really an exceptional hunter. The Robbins calmed down, we moved away from the pot and the baby bird started to call. Before we knew it it was struggling out of its pot to sit on a branch, and the parents brought it some food -- I saw one sitting on a phone wire with a worm, as my family pulled away. I don't know what will happen to the fledgling. My daughter is very concerned, and I promised to check on the Robbin family in the morning. My eldest boy, and second oldest summed it up best, as I comforted my daughter, saying, at one point, "nature is nature." I thought, yes it is, and it isn't it amazing to see it in all its sublime splendor in the suburbs of Boston as a murder of crows raided a Robbin's nest.
Posted via email from TedVilla
Saturday, May 29, 2010
IMG00050-20100529-0813.jpg
Camels hump from I89. Good morning VT!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
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Saturday, May 15, 2010
Saturday, May 08, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Long Run, 4/24
Before you read what follows: I'm toying with the idea of doing the same run that I'm about to describe below, again, in two weeks time -- on 5/8 or 5/9. Anybody interested? Run part or run all -- I would *love* the company. I also love the shared experience of running -- the blog is cool, but it needs to start to expand and we need to build up the culture of running even more, and bring the social into it (something I've loved stemming from the Cherry Blossom 10 blog and race). Let me know about 5/8-9. I published this on my other blog first but wanted to keep the CB10 blog moderately alive.... On reflection, my planned 20 miler was pretty darn tricky given that I'd run 5 miles in the previous 2 weeks. Never one to be deterred by such trifles, I proceeded as planned. David C. came down from Maine, I put on a nice spread Friday night, we carbo loaded, chatted for a bit and hit the sack. We were on the road by 7:50 only 30 minutes late. We strolled to the jump off point and headed out. I started this long run like I do most of them: through the center of town, into Wellesley. Rather than turn around at the bridge or head into Weston, we turned right on Rt. 16 and picked up the Boston Marathon Course. We followed that for the next 7+ miles, through Wellesley Hills, Newton, to Comm Ave and BC. Let me tell you, the Newton hills are no joke. I've driven Comm Ave dozens of time. I never realized though how high those hills are. Starting at about mile 9 on our run, and 17 on the marathon course, there are three, long hills in a row, culminating at Heartbreak Hill at mile 12/20. Everything was going swimmingly the first 8 miles. I took on the first hill with no problem. My legs swelled on the second and I actually walked a bunch of it, running more as I neared the top -- my first sign that yesterday was going to be tough. We met our families at mile 10, dropped a layer, chugged some Gatorade and headed off. I ran Heartbreak Hill with little issue, but all respect to the Boston Marathoners who hit that beast at 20... After HBH we turned left at BC and headed down Lake St. and made our way to the Charles River. The long down was nice for the cardio, but murder, I think, for my legs. We wound our way through Brighton a bit to make it to Soldier's Field Road, dodged some traffic, jumped a guard rail and hit the Charles River Trail. After a hippy, Earth Day, Charles River Cleanup chick nearly took David's eye out with her idiot stick (don't wave around a long wooden pole with a giant spike in it while talking to your helpmates, without paying attention to your surroundings, chuckle-head), we chugged along and met the families at mile 15. By this point, I was done, but I'd committed to the full magilla. I dropped my water pack and on we went. My left leg -- just my left leg -- went into spasm essentially, it wasn't working like I wanted it to nor needed it to. My right leg felt fine. Well, as fine as screaming shins and calves can actually feel, but my left quad was completely shot. I had some stretches where I was trying to stretch, trying to give it a rest by walking, but I was walking, running walking running (and the left leg is far more sore today than the right). David rolled with me, and was an awesome partner. We chugged along, both of us hurting, but me hurting worse, and finished at the Esplanade, right in front of the Hatch Shell. The weather was amazing. The familial support astounding. The running buddy fantastic. The muscle fitness not so great. Could the left leg issue be because I push off on it more since it is my dominant leg? I don't know. Anyway, glad I did it, hoping to glean some lessons from it, and use it to my advantage in a few weeks. Consider 5/8 people, consider it....
Monday, April 12, 2010
Cherry Blossom Race
Ironically, the cherry blossoms were gone. So it was a great race, along a great course. I'm really psyched how well everybody did how much fun we all had working together towards this goal, and have seen, once again the transformative power of running.
Once upon a time we used to gather 'round a keg and get bombed. Now we gather around a race and run hard. So cool, so great. Speaking of transformative, David ran the race of a lifetime yesterday and I've never seen anything like that.
Way to go David, you rocked it, you rolled it, and I'm stoked for you (you also smoked me, and have given me something to shoot for). Nancy, you killed it despite illness and stress, and you did great. I'm really proud of you. Abby you powered through rickety legs, nicely done, and Cheryl you ran despite an injury and a wicked schedule. Lilly, you did great and it was fun to see you -- next time, don't eat the tamale for breakfast on race day. Carolyn, way to go, you got out there and ran despite one of the major, wonderful upheavals of life -- Baby A is adorable -- and you and Dan were awesome hosts. Thank you so much! Well done, I hope you all still use this blog, it'll stay open and you always have a place to congregate and talk running. See you all in a couple of weeks for the "Boston Running Jamboree."
Once upon a time we used to gather 'round a keg and get bombed. Now we gather around a race and run hard. So cool, so great. Speaking of transformative, David ran the race of a lifetime yesterday and I've never seen anything like that.
Way to go David, you rocked it, you rolled it, and I'm stoked for you (you also smoked me, and have given me something to shoot for). Nancy, you killed it despite illness and stress, and you did great. I'm really proud of you. Abby you powered through rickety legs, nicely done, and Cheryl you ran despite an injury and a wicked schedule. Lilly, you did great and it was fun to see you -- next time, don't eat the tamale for breakfast on race day. Carolyn, way to go, you got out there and ran despite one of the major, wonderful upheavals of life -- Baby A is adorable -- and you and Dan were awesome hosts. Thank you so much! Well done, I hope you all still use this blog, it'll stay open and you always have a place to congregate and talk running. See you all in a couple of weeks for the "Boston Running Jamboree."
Saturday, April 10, 2010
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