Work Recharge Day. Did my exercise, leg day which was pretty hard. Then wasn’t looking forward to the ruck today, but rewarded myself with Dunkin on the way back. Watched another episode of Secret Empire, really want to finish it up. Packed up. Left after Lucy got home. Took a while to get here. My old school route through Hyde Park was a poor choice due to the presidential library construction. And I get to correctly say, Thanks Obama! Had our usual Arby’s on a road trip. Great place at Saugatuck Lodge. Gonna be a good long weekend.

Ugh, missed two updates in a row. Time flies when you’re having fun. Spent the weekend in Saugatuck with Jackson’s friends’ families. Good times. Stayed in a rental house right in downtown which also had a huge pool, so that’s where the kids were pretty much the entire weekend. Did get out to the beach one day, dragging the boys kicking and screaming, and turns out they had fun. Got ice cream a couple nights. Grilled one night. Lots of talking and drinking late into the night by the pool. Brought only 3 batched cocktails, a half bottle of clarified pina colada, jungle bird, and Five Points Pavilion. Also rediscovered my love for fudge thanks to a Kilwin’s close by. Anyway, back to the grind tomorrow. Supposed to start Couch to 5K tomorrow. And it’s going to be hot out. Also didn’t exercise the entire weekend, so the BetterMe workout is going to hurt tomorrow.

Started Couch to 5K. Pretty easy start. Hoping I can keep it up. Picked a pretty hot day to do it. BetterMe workout wasn’t too bad, still a good workout. Just core. It’s the arm or leg workouts that kill me, since I don’t really exercise those at all. Finished Secret Invasion last night. Started Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Season 4 tonight. Still trying to get back into the routine of things with the kids back in school.

So the BetterMe workout today was really hard, compared to anything that came before it. Seriously included a minute of narrow pull ups, followed by a minute of wide behind the neck pull ups. And 3 sets. After no build up to that at all. Seems incongruous. Anyway, safe to say I didn’t come close to doing the full minutes on those. I guess things to aspire to. Went out to lunch with Tracy on her day off at Social Club Chicago. Quiet on the beach today. Brought my iPad Pro and did some work while we were down there too. I really should just head into the office more often to work.

Really not used to daily exercise. Did a BetterMe workout and did day 2 of Couch to 5K. Not necessarily a super hard workout, but still, super tired. So glad I'm taking tomorrow off. And I'm only 3 days in after like 4 days off. Tomorrow is off because I'm donating blood. Apparently I missed setting a reminder to make an appointment when I became eligible to donate again, so happy they had openings tomorrow.

Another successful Power Red donation. Takes about 30 minutes for me from when the needle goes in to when it comes out. Also happy that Nutter Butters were back in the recuperation area. Also stopped by Tous Les Jours on the way home to pick up some treats. Took the kids to soccer practice. Watched a little of Jackson’s, and I’m pretty excited about the new coach. I’m hopeful for the season. Finished up Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. I could keep watching that until he ends up president. Just read that there’s a Ding Chavez series in development. Wonder if that would backdoor into a Rainbow Six series? Would be interesting to see.

Dinner at the Grady’s last night, and a little too many cocktails with Champagne, think I can’t hold my bubbly. So that’s why I missed posting last night. Also yesterday dropped and picked up Lucy from her Cross Country race at Horner Park. She ran. I, on the other hand, haven’t run since Thursday. So way off schedule, again. Tried making cereal milk panna cotta for the Grady’s yesterday, but it never set. So I added more gelatin today, and it’s more set now than this morning, but still hoping it sets up some more. Took Jackson to his soccer game today down at the UIC fields. Haven’t been down there in maybe 19 years. All turf now, and lots of condos and bars and restaurants. Quite a bit different. Went to Midnight Circus tonight. Always a good show. Biked up and back. Including Jackson.

Alright, new week, another chance to get back on schedule. Another rough BetterMe workout, lots of push-up variations this time. Finally did Day 3 of Couch to 5K, even though it was raining. Used my new Merrell Fly Strike GTX since they’re waterproof. I’m guessing I’m not doing it right, since my running intervals are at an 8 minute pace. Good workout either way. Started the 3rd season of The Witcher. Going into it with a vague recollection of what happened, considering I finished Season 2 back in February 2022.

Watched the Wonderlust (September 12, 2023) Apple Event this afternoon. Probably going to upgrade watch and phone again. Probably go Apple Watch Ultra 2 and iPhone 15 Pro in Natural titanium color (hopefully they’re color matched). But not for a couple of months. Only did a BetterMe workout today. No ruck. Drove Lucy and Spalding to swim practice yesterday and today. Nicer that it’s later, less traffic. Also opened my bottle of Malort today and had a Hard Sell. It’s actually a decent cocktail. Definitely going on the menu for the halloween party.

Cleaned the washing machine today. For getting things clean, it sure is disgusting. The drawer dispenser for detergent was moldy, the drain pump filter smelled absolutely awful. Then ran a Tub Clean cycle with CLR which took 1:30 and the rinse and spin to clear it out. I gotta do that more often than however long it’s been. New week for the Couch to 5K program. Right knee made a lovely clicking sound at a couple points during the run. Hope that’s not a bad sign.

Took the Crosstrek in for service, and it totally makes a difference. Car feels like it’s running smoother. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking. Took the time to get my exercise in, walking to and from Bond Coffee Collective. Also did some actual Pokemon GO on the go. Spun stops, explored KM, hatched some eggs, did a raid. Apparently I need to activate Activity Sync every time I switch accounts. Used to be enabled across account switching before. Picked up some Jolibee for the kids. Went to the Blaine Open House, got some clarification on Jackson’s homework, and celebrated Serafina’s birthday. Pretty busy Thursday.

Stayed up way too late last night, for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I blame it on going to the Blaine Open House and a birthday party after, and not having that down time. Or, I just got too much sleep (which means just the right amount of sleep) and I needed to go back into a my normal deficit. Either way, pretty tired today. Still got my exercise in. Turns out the MacBook Air we have can't run Fortnite, and I think I'll just start using it more myself. Not sure what for, but why not. Curious what normal battery life might be on it, compared to never worrying about the iPad. Remember, this is I think the last Intel MacBook Air, so it's like 3 years old at this point? Almost tempted to get a new Apple Silicon one when I refresh my tech stack later this fall, but just unnecessary. Tried carbonating milk today. Not good.

Got a HDHomeRun Flex Duo yesterday, and set it up in the data center, and with the Antennas Direct ClearStream FLEX only picked up a couple channels. So I moved it to the office today and I get all the available broadcast channels. Set it up in Plex and I’ve got live TV again. Crazy. And only a relatively small one time price. Figured I’d be good with old school ATSC 1.0 since there’s no NextGen (ATSC 3.0) broadcasting in Chicago, well, except for channel 26. Went to Serafina’s birthday party at ClimbZone. Watched a lot of The Witcher.

Jackson’s soccer team got a win today, first one in a while. And they wore white. Got Joy Yee’s for the 2nd week in a row, so easy since he played at UIC fields again. Other than that watched some live NFL. A nice pretty lazy Sunday.

Did the updates to my Apple devices today. Not sure what if anything I notice yet. Nothing’s jumping out. Maybe stacked notifications for iPad, but that’s about it that I’m noticing. Looking forward to using continuity camera the nice time we have a family FaceTime. And I have to figure out a Call Poster for myself. Other than that, back to exercise and eating leftovers. I forgot to mention that a month ago was this blog’s 25 anniversary. Crazy.

Legs were sore this morning, thought it was just from the workout yesterday. But turns out I’m sick. Not sure what, might be the flu. Running a fever too. Feels like the flu. Hoping it’s a quick 24 hours like usual. So pretty uneventful today.

Yeah, think it was just a 24 hour flu. Feeling much better today, still not 100%, but better. Did a walk to do some returns, so got some air and exercise. I’ve started trying the hair wash every other day, to not dry out my long luscious locks. I went 2 days and it got too oily, so every other is the limit. Working my way through the John Wick series, just started up Chapter 4. It is crazy to think that the first 3 at least has been a week or two. I’m guessing the 4th there’s some sort of time jump, so he could heal. At least I hope so.