Blog Birthday post. 24 years old. Crazy. Feels like only yesterday I was amazed that it was old enough to vote. This blog has definitely seems some wild times over the years. Anyway, trying to finish off Star Wars: Rebels. Just trying to finish it off, not getting too much enjoyment out of it. Not all that invested. Finally finished off Obi-Wan Kenobi. That felt like a useless series. Saw the trailer for Andor. Now that looks good. Did 2 sessions at Movement Wrigleyville this week. Feeling pretty good. Think I'm a pretty solid V3. My crimps aren't strong enough though. Work from home setup is pretty sweet. Using daylight LED bulbs and bias lighting behind my monitor. Getting too much noise from the data center fans and stuff. Need better cooling so I can close the door. Oh, got a couple more Outlier New Way Shorts in a light blue and a maroon. Love those things. They've got a little plastic piece for the drawstrings, so you don't have to tie them anymore. Strange.

Seriously, 3 whole months without an update? Whoops. Completely spaced on updating here. So Lucy ended up catching COVID on May 8th. Jackson continually tested negative. So far he's still hasn't had a positive test. Finished up watching The Expanse. Pretty good, but sad they didn't get to finish out the book series. Granted it gets pretty out there towards the end. Was pretty good on keeping up with sessions at Movement Wrigleyville up until the trip to Ireland. Then really haven't been for a month, then went back and got a couple flappers (calluses peeled off) on my left hand, so haven't gone back yet. Almost feels like my calluses are all gone. But I was consistently doing V3's before I stopped. So had been making progress. Played Ultimate for the first time in a very long time at the Old vs. Young game at Northwestern. Tracy and the kids came up to watch. Tun and I were the oldest by far. Next youngest was from 2012. Young team looks like atheletes, all tall and stuff. Definitely nothing like the team I played with. Young actually held their own, didn't get blown out. I actually did ok. Actually got a D. Go figure. Didn't hurt myself (no tears or sprains). Right knee swelled up something fierce though. Icing brought it down, but thought it was something worse. It wasn't. Jackson had club soccer tryouts for Northwinds and Chicago City Soccer. Ended up on Premier 3 (which is what he was supposed to be on last year, but I'm guessing got moved up because they didn't have enough to have Premier 2 and 3 last year. But this year, they've got enough. Three of his P2 teammates this year also are moving down. Funny though that Hudson tried out and made P2 this year. So they don't get to play together. Kind of sucks, but after talking to Coach Ahmad, Jackson's got to work on his ball skills. Got a Solo Store Bonfire to replace the fire table in the backyard that was rusting out. It's pretty amazing. Only got to use it a couple of times before it got pretty much too hot to use. Hopefully it gets lots of use this fall. The heat deflector works pretty well. Went camping again over Memorial Day weekend at Buckhorn State Park. DIdn't go up until Saturday, had to get the ranger over to clear out some kids stuff who had setup at our site. Took a while. Chris and Elliot came up and camped with us. Pretty fun. Jackson didn't get a mosquito bite until the last day. Watched Moon Knight. Blainapalooza was fun. Especially because Jackson went off with this friends, and I got to spend time with adults the whole time. Also managed to get rid of a the tiny bottles of Fireball. Found a new favorite cocktail from Cocktail Courier, Five Points Pavilion. Learned how to fat wash liquor (coconut tequila). Watched Severence. Watch that one. Watched The Good Place (some time jumping since Lucy was also watching it and started ahead of me). Kids made it to the end of school. Johnson's organized a beach party on the last day of school. That was fun. Went to Ireland for a week with the Cases. Galway was awesome. Castles are fun to stay in. Company was great. Drank some Guinness and the entire lineup of Spot Whiskey, as well as a Redbreast 21. That's some good stuff. Snuck in to take photos of the Trinity Library. Also checked out the Jameson distillery. But otherwise not that impressed with Dublin, except for Meaghers. Kids stayed with my parents. Went to South Haven, MI for 4th of July weekend where Kelley and Dave and Hudson were for the week. Lucy's been doing Junior Lifeguard Camp at Montrose Beach. Jackson's so far done a Northwinds soccer camp full day for a week, a basketball camp with Hudson for for half days for a week, and just finished up another camp with Hudson at Lakeshore Sport & Fitness full day for a week. He's only got one more P2 Soccer Camp full day with Hudson in a couple weeks, but that's been a lot. Had to drive and drop Lucy off at Nike Swim Camp at Hillsdale College and pick up her and Charlotte later that week when it ended. Did some bourbon hunting while in Michigan because Mythology doesn't distribute in Illinois. Only took an extra hour to get home after dropping Lucy off. Actually made it into the office for the 2nd time since COVID started. It was really nice. Convinced me to get a real work from home space. Tried moving up the 3rd floor, but wasn't good enough. Ended up ordering a real desk and chair from Fully and outfitted what was the LEGO nook to my office now. Today ended up being the first day I worked out of there. Watched The Boys S3. Pretty crazy. So yeah, that's the last 3 months.

Ok, so now to recap the next 2 months of 2022. Got used to being mask optional for pretty much everything. Was going fairly regularly to Movement Wrigleyville 2-3 times a week for 30 minute bouldering sessions. Felt like I was close to leveling up, to V3. Was pretty regularly doing a 10 minute Apple Fitness+ core workout daily, but that started to slip to bouldering off days. Started just walking to Movement instead of driving or biking. Close enough and warm enough that it wasn't too bad. Started playing Pokemon TCG with Jackson and Lucy. Actually learned the real way to play, got a lot of premade battle decks. Got a couple HexClad pans. Started with an 8" to try it out, liked it, so we also got a 12" one. Replaced our non-sticks that were getting old. They heat up pretty quickly, sear well, and are pretty non-stick too. Tried out some edibles, but didn't have a great effect or me. Read the rest of The Expanse novels. Started watching the TV series. Not bad. Made Guinness beef stew for St. Paddy's day, since Tracy made corned beef and cabbage. Had a Dad's happy hour Irish whiskey tasting before the Mom's Trip to Scottsdale. Went to ClimbZone which was pretty cool. Should probably head back there at some point. Had to drive around the city one day for Lucy's tryout with CWAC then dive clinic at LSF at the Illinois Center. That was a lot of driving around the city for an afternoon/evening. Did try Nando's I think for the first time. It was really good. Finally started playing Acron on the Oculus Quest 2. Fun game for the family. Lucy started wearing Ortho-K contacts, so she doesn't have to wear glasses during the day anymore. Had to drive down to a couple follow up appoints with her. Ended up owing a lot in taxes. Took an intro to rope climbing course at Movement Lincoln Park. Need to go back and get certified as a belayer (if I can remember what to do). Did some rope climbing, but prefer bouldering. Went to Long Beach for Spring Break with Tracy's family. Even though it was cool, kids still swam in the outdoor pools. Managed to get out for a date night. Went to the Aquarium of the Pacific. Went to the wedding of Tracy's cousin. Danced a lot. That was nice. Long day to get back because of a 5 hour layover at the Phoenix airport. Turns out Tracy caught COVID, tested postive the Tuesday after we came back. I tested positive the Friday, which meant Jackson couldn't go to his soccer tournament in Indianapolis. But good news, the kids never got it (and we're like 9 days out from my last positive test). We've all tested negative multiple times so I think we're in the clear. Got a bunch Peak Design bags and stuff. I got a Peak Design Everyday Backpack - Ash / 20 for the trip, and liked it enough to get a bunch of other things. Also buying a lot of whiskeys, but I'm easing up since I'm running out of space. And that takes us to May.

Let's recap the first 2 months of 2022. Kids had a little break as teachers had a work stoppage for better protections and practices with the Omicron variant surge. I do wonder if having that mini strike helped prevent a surge by just keeping the kids away from each other for 5 days. Been taking Jackson to his indoor soccer games at the Chicago Fire Pitch on Saturday mornings. Supposedly they're playing up a level, which explains why they're winless, but definitely a stark change from the fall season. I think they're just slow to start, and with the scheduling, there's no warm up, and they start pretty early, and games are only 45 minutes. It does seem like the last 10 minutes or so they seem to come alive. Been trying to take pictures the whole time, not sure how many of them are any good though. Also been getting way too many Dunkin donuts, since it's on the way back from the pitch. Had a bunch of weekends with just me and Jackson, since Tracy took Lucy to a bunch of swim meets, trying to qualify for regionals, which she finally did at the last meet, and swam in 2 events at regionals this past weekend. Had to shovel a handful of times as a couple snow storms blew through Chicago. Nothing too bad though. Been keeping up with weekly sessions at Movement Wrigleyville. Seem to be plateauing at V2. Usually only do 30 minute sessions, about how long my forearms can take. Still enjoying it. Slacked off on the Apple Fitness+ HIIT workouts, but just recently started to get back into it, supplementing with some core workouts (trying the 30 day core challenge). Oh, I started pipe smoking. Well, trying to start. I've only done it twice, sitting on the porch on a sunny weekend, reading a book. Think it'll be my thing. That and I'm trying to get into whiskey again. Starting a small collection. Started up a 2nd cocktail subscription, Shaker & Spoon. More variety but more cocktails (3 x cocktails, enough mixers for 3-4 services), but no alcohol. Some interesting stuff so far. Also finally turned off the alcohol part for Cocktail Courier, so it's just the mixers for that one also. Had a bunch of parties with the Six Families, or at least it seemed like it. Was actually just 2 (Chinese New Year at the Brizzolara's and we hosted a Super Bowl party). Made some layer cakes; chocolate chip layer cake (amazing), cookies & cream layer cake (just ok), banana layer cake (probably the winner). Switched hands/pockets for my phone/keys. Taking a while to get used to it, but getting there. I was having some pain with my left wrist/elbow/forearm. Wasn't sure if it was related to climbing or phone overuse, but decided to make the switch. Got myself a gym bag (Tom Bihn Old School Carry All)) for bouldering. Had a birthday. Tracy made me steak and I got treats from Vanille Patisserie, mochi donuts from 2D Restaurant, and bourbon from Binny's. And that's pretty much it.