Jason’s Bachelor Weekend
Jason’s Bachelor Weekend
This is a quick chronicle of my most recent trip to Baltimore, MD for Jason’s Bachelor weekend. The adventure started on Thursday morning when I left early for the airport only to find that my flight had been delayed and I would be getting Big B in the evening. Having ready access to my laptop allowed me to kill the time drafting reports for the office. When I arrived in Baltimore I quickly discovered that my luggage was still in Chicago and didn’t clear customs in time. The folks at United Airlines offered to deliver to Jason’s place on Friday afternoon or to ferry it out to Deep Creek Lake. I opted to wait at the airport until the next flight for Chicago dropped off my luggage. Jason met me and we headed over to Safeway to grab some food for the weekend. While cruising the aisles of Safeway, Jason found the ultimate in terms of subs, a Super-Sub. It was huge.
On Friday morning Jason’s dad picked us up and we headed towards western Maryland and stopped at Sideling Hill for lunch. The geology of the rock folding were cool. It would take the three of us to devour the sub. By mid-afternoon we were in Deep Creek Lake and headed over to a place I have always wanted to visit, Swallow Falls. It was under light rain that we hiked on both sides of Swallow Creek. Along the way we checked out Upper Muddy Creek which is the tallest fall in Maryland. A little before sunset we headed over to the house we rented in Deep Creek Lake. It was at time point we started what was to be one of the many highlights of the weekend, playing Kings. One word of advice is to pick your beverage wisely. After playing a couple of rounds of Kings we had burgers and beans for dinner. This was followed by a couple of more rounds of Kings. A couple of hours before sunrise we all headed to be.
We all started Saturday morning possibly a little tired and hung over. Breakfast took the form of strong coffee, scapple, sausages and scrambled eggs. Much of the day was spent taking it easy and we paused the day for a pizza lunch (three large pizzas) We would need some physical activity to work off the meal. Some of us watched while other played ladder ball which is a game where you throw two golf ball attached by a string over to a three rung ladder. We played a couple of rounds of kings as we waited for the steaks, potatoes and aspargus to cook on the barbeque. Once dinner was over we would played more rounds of kings until the wee hours of the morning.
On Sunday morning, I drank twice as much coffee as I did on Saturday morning possibly due to a hang over or most likely being tired. We checked out of the house at noon. Dom, Adam and Eddie headed back to Baltimore. Dave, Mark, Jason and I headed over to Swallow Falls for an afternoon of hiking. I’m really glad we made the second trip as the recent rain had transformed Swallow Falls, Tolliver Falls, and Upper Muddy Creek fall into a torrent of water. Another highlight of the weekend was the hike the Herrington Manor. Along the way Jason found his first geocache. I hope that this starts a tradition.We attempted to find another one near Herrington Manor but ran out of time as the GPS reception in the cedar was bad. A little before sunset we started our trek back to Baltimore and made a quick detour for dinner.
On Monday, Jason dropped off very close to his office. I took the light rail north to the REI store in Timmonium. Today would be a geocaching day. I headed in an easterly direction over to Loch Raven and found a couple of good geocaches. Late in the day, I attempted to find a geocache near Jason office which involved wading across a river but bailed due to time pressure but hope that I get another attempt at next time. I closed out the evening with some swing dancing.
I was up early on Tuesday morning with the goal of finding a couple of geocaches near the hotel. The two I found were in cemeteries which were easy to find and well presented. By mid-morning I checked out of the hotel and headed over to Jason place to chill before my flight. (Thanks again Jason!) At this point, I did something that I really had to do and that was to take a run which helped loosen up my back. It felt good to run along the Inner Harbor in a light misting rain. A little before rush hour I headed over to the Inner Harbor to catch my flight to Detroit.
It was an awesome weekend…
2009 Baltimore Half-marathon adventure
Very soon I’ll start my second Baltimore adventure and thought I would take a moment to write about my most recent one. For much of the summer and fall the people I train with on Wednesday night at the Running Room had been gearing up for the Ottawa Army half-marathon race near the end of September. Coach Phil had designed a training program so we would peak for around that time. I was able to continue the program for another week. As I was heading down to Baltimore I knew that I probably should have done two more 12-13 mile long runs but if I had done so I would not be racing on fresh legs. I spent the final week detraining and allowing my legs to recover. This is a phase of training that I don’t enjoy as you cut back on your training volume and one feels grouchy.
On Thursday, before the race I picked up race packet and like the new system where you pick up your race number outside and then head into Raven Stadium to pick up your gear bag and t-shirt. Friday was spent giving my legs some more time to recover for the pending race. On Saturday morning, I got early and started the fueling routine of eating part of a book of Vector cereal. Jason drove me quite close to starting line area which was great. Thanks, Jason. If I’m lucky may be I can convince him to run the 5km race next year. I spent about an hour chilling at the Raven Stadium before eating my pre-race Clif bar. The idea was to stay relaxed while waiting for the race. About 40 minutes before the start, I headed over to the Inner Harbor to do my warm-up run followed by stretching. With about 15 minutes go I headed over to corral #1 to find a good starting point. After the national anthem was played we started on our 13.1 mile journey by heading north-west over to Patterson Park. The weather started to deteriorate in light rain which reduced one’s traction. On the uphills you would slip backwards and on the downhill you would slide forward. One of the race highlights was running in Clifton Park. A second highlight was running a loop of Lake Montebello before heading over to John Hopkins University before heading south to finish at Camden Yards. I was pleased with the way I finished as I had medical complications along the course. When I started off the racing I was sweating which is not a good thing. I had a migraine and severe stomach pain for much of the race. I was tempted to stop in at the medical tent at the end of the race but decided to pass. In the end, I was pleased with my time and place as I improved on my performance over last year and am looking forward to doing the race in 2010.
While in Baltimore I was able to do some geocaching in Falls Road area. I found a couple of geocaches in Falls Road Park before heading over to Robert E. Lee Park which has an awesome running trail network as well as mountain bike trails.
Three more runs to go…
As I type this blog I realize that time is running out. This a good thing. I only have three more workouts before I do my half-marathon in Baltimore next Saturday. I’ll do my usual 40 minute run along the Rideau Canal tomorrow night. The Friday night swing dancing and Saturday night contra-dancing don’t count as workout. On Sunday morning, I’ll do a 10 mile easy long run. On Tuesday or Wednesday I’ll do my final workout which will most likely be quite peppy. I’m looking forward to next weekend for a whole host of reasons. It caps off my fall training season which has been more intense than usual. I will be able to see my good friend Jason and his fiance.
Wordabble — A graphical view of its first year
This blog entry builds on my last blog presenting some statistics from Wordabble’s first year of operation. Below are two graphs which present the number of words for a given day and the number of points attainable for a given day.
Some statistics on Wordabble’s first year of operation
Wordabble recently celebrated it’s first anniversary of operation and so I decided to calculate some statistics.
Words
Total number of words: 66,021
Fewest number of words per game: 19
Maximum number of words per game: 444
Average words per game: 178
Standard deviation: 73.3371
Points
Total number of points: 941,160
Fewest number of points: 127
Maximum number of points: 7,513
Average point per game: 2,550
Standard deviation: 1239.993
Happy Birthday Wordabble
Today, I achieved two goals one of which was expected and the other a surprise. 365 days ago I played my first game of Wordabble which is a word game that Jason Lancaster and Adam Douglass released a year ago for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. I’ve played every day and enjoyed the 300 word games almost as much as the games when there are fewer than 100 words to find in the 5×5 grid. There is one mystery I discovered today that I have been waiting for quite some time and that is, what happens when you find all the words. Today was my chance when there were only 19 words to find. I can say with a smile that it was worth waiting 365 days to see what was behind the magic curtain. Over the past year, I have earned 281,268 points with an average score of 771 points per game and in theory played for 56 hours which I think underestimates the actual time. I close by thanking Jason and Adam for a year of challenging fun.
Almost Wordabble’s first birthday
In 15 days or so Wordabble with celebrate its first anniversary of operation. It is hard to believe that 349 days ago Jason sent me an email at 11:30 pm to say that he and Adam’s game was available for sale on the iTunes Appstore. With 30 minutes to go it would be a hard challenge to beat either Adam’s or Jason’s score for the day. I can say with a smile on my face, that I have enjoyed all the games that I have played. I’ve enjoyed the 300 words games as much as the frustrating ones where you have to find under 50 words (Argh!). Over the year, I have learned many news words and probably used the familar ones too often. I’ve also used Wordabble as a way of testing my mental acuity each day. There is still one challenge that I have to overcome and that is to discover what happens when you locate all the words. I know that something mysterious or magical happening but I’ll have to keep playing to find out. I’ll close out this blog by thanking Jason and Adam for almost a year’s worth of daily challenges.
Hiking Old Rag
A little while ago, I achieved one of my goals for 2009 which was to hike Old Rag mountain in the Shenandoah National Park with Jason. Three years ago, we had hiked up Old Rag and set a personal speed record for reaching the summit. This year the circumstances were a little different as both Jason and I would be hiking after three nights and two day of intense swing dancing as part of Charm City Swing’s Lindy500 weekend. We would be hiking with tired and possibly sore legs. This was a good thing as it allowed us to have a more relaxing hike. The trip was made more special as we would be hiking with Jason’s parents, two of his sisters (Heather and Tracie), Bill, Heather’s friend and Jason and I. We all assembled at Jason’s place at 7:30 AM and were headed south a little after 8:00 AM. At around 11:30 AM, we started the hike from the upper parking lot and hiked for about an hour before stopping for lunch. The terrain is a gradual climb. Over the course of the hike, we would climb 2,286 feet and hike just under nine miles. For this trip, I decided to pack along some new technology which I am still experimenting with, a Garmin Forerunner 305. Every couple of seconds the watch would record a GPS reference point. The next two pictures are the route we took courtesy of the GPS watch.
By early afternoon we would all reach the summit and it was time to rest our legs. As the hints of a sunset started to appear we took some pictures and started our descent. But before doing so Jason and I had to have a picture taken close to where we were photographed a couple of years back. It was good to record this moment. The descent was a little slower than the ascent as we were hiking with tired legs. By early evening we were back at the van. Bill, Heather, Jason’s mom and I headed down to the stream to dip our feet into the cold water. It felt refreshing. I’ll close this point with two pictures courtesy of the GPS.
Lindy 500 — Baltimore
100th Wordabble game — Nov 16 2008
Today I played my 100th game of Wordabble. Each day has been a lot of challenging and rewarding fun. I can say with certainty that my vocabulary has increased as I continue to learn more and more obscure words. When a Jason and Adam at introduced the finger-dragging with auto-entry I found I could play the game faster. Another feature that has become more valuable over time is being able see what words I have missed as I use it as a learning vehicle. I would like to take a moment to take about a couple of the more entertaining games. In the first I was able to make use of most of the urology terms I have learned a couple of years ago. In the other game I was using my knowledge of the various conponents of the heart and lungs. I can say that I have enjoyed each days whether it had 200+ words or less than 100 words. In the high value games it was frustrating to find 50% of the words. When there were fewer than 100 words I would scratch my head and wonder if that four letter jumble of letters was indeed a word. In most cases it would be an obscure word that I would park away for future reference. I’ll close off this entry by thanking Jason and Adam for my first 100 days of fun playing wordabble.
