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.

So feeling better, but still figure I should take it easy, so not exercising, and instead I took a walk and got Dunkin for breakfast this morning. And instead of the usual 2 donuts, I got 3. Then, for dinner got Epic Burger and Buffalo Wild Wings. So yeah, not smart. Traffic is more annoying on Thursdays, and driving both ways for Lucy’s practice is pretty annoying. Next time I have to I’ll just work at the Starbucks down there instead. Or Dom’s, since they’re also open that late. Just have to see what parking is like down there around those times. And now, staying up late, doing some work, but more so just trying to relax a little after a frustrating evening of driving.

Definitely weird going back to places I played ultimate more than 2 decades ago, but this time as a soccer dad. The UIC fields and surrounding areas is so much nicer than when it was brand new and we started using it. It’s turf too. And today Jackson guested with Premier 3 out at Schiller Woods. Seriously, trip down memory lane going back there. But mostly how I remembered it. Although I did just go down Irving Park, so I’m not sure what it was like up Cumberland, which is how I usually went there 2 decades ago. Anyway, time passes. I finished up watching the John Wick series. Watched the 3rd season of The Witcher. Started watching Star Trek: Picard. Saw season 1, but never saw season 2, so starting there although it’s been a while, and I was slightly lost. Still not back 100%, but getting closer.

First of Jackson’s soccer game with his actual coach. And I am looking forward to this year. Really like this guy. Really looking forward to what he can teach the team this year. And hoping we get to keep him. But he put some players in different spots than they’ve been used to playing, trying them out. He’s got them holding shape, and bending a little based on where the ball is in play. He’s got the back line pushing up, a lot, to keep the pressure on. And very active coaching in game. Putting them in the right places. Seriously awesome. Absolutely fun to watch. Very much looking forward to this year. I did make the poor choice of chow mein instead of chow fun for our Joy Yee’s order. Next time. We’ve got 2 more games down there this fall. Otherwise, got another nap in after we got home.

Drove Lucy to school. Worked from home. Exercised. Thinking I should maybe invest in some actual running shoes, like New Balance, since they have wide sizes. Picked up some mealworms from Curious Creatures. Got some Thai food for lunch from TAC. Watched some Star Trek: Picard. Took a nap. Tried a Pumpkin Spice Espresso Martini (it’s good). Just another Monday.

Decided to not do any additional walking inbetween days of Couch to 5K. Just taking it easier. Still doing BetterMe. Already on Day 23, not sure what I’m going to do after I hit day 28. Maybe I’ll just repeat it? Or try out some other workouts? Otherwise, same old same old. Tried on some costumes with Tracy, think we’ve got some plans made. Still have to get a couple more to get I think, and a couple more for Jackson too. Something about Halloween costumes, I like having them. That’s why I need to get on fixing the guest room closet into our costume closet. Think I’ll try for Thursday, when I have to drop off and pick up Lucy from practice. Although I have to bring Jackson since Tracy’s going out that night.

So week 3 of Couch to 5K, and not sure if I'm getting any better. Skipped a lot of the BetterMe workout today, all the hanging leg raises and parallel bar knee raises. Can't hang long enough, and the pull up bar in the closet door frame is super awkward. Also, who has home access to parallel bars? Anyway, skipped probably about 2/3 of the workout. Only had to drive Lucy to/from a cross country meet at Horner Park. Traffic was pretty annoying westbound.

Out for the evening. Dropped off Lucy at swim practice, brought Jackson with. Went to Home Depot and picked up supports and clips for the wire shelves for the costume closet. Went simple instead of a variable height thing. Makes sense because that fits the shelves we still had, instead of trying to buy a completely new system or trying to retrofit the shelves into an inexact system. Anyway, expensive, but I’m hoping to get it up sometime this weekend. Dinner at Chipotle and then down to Whole Foods to see if they had anything and to waste some more time before picking up Lucy from swim practice. Much more productive than driving home and driving back. Next Thursday maybe more closet system stuff, this time for the linen closet that’s also been on my todo list for this year.

Might have gone a little overboard and setup a chicken nugget taste test for the soccer kids. Before they came over after school, I picked up Chik-fil-A, McDonald’s and Wendy’s nuggets and fries. Surprisingly the winner was Wendy’s, as evidenced by the empty containers after I dropped them all off. Super sore after the workouts today, mostly in the obliques for some reason. Don’t really remember doing much with those today, but whatever. No soccer games this weekend. Downloading a bunch of old shows to Plex, astonished what’s available out there. Sounds like Lucy’s came down with something, hoping it’s just the 24 flu like I had, and she’ll be back up and about tomorrow.

So September’s gone. Really sore from yesterday’s workout. I guess all those squats and lunges did a number on my butt. Workout today was way too hard, too many pull ups and dips. Anyway, one more day for BetterMe, and then I’ll have to figure out what’s next. Maybe it’s time to start going back to Movement Wrigleyville. Went out to in-laws for father-in-law’s 75th birthday. Been a while since we’ve been out there. Stopped at a Spirit Halloween on the way out, and Tracy got some costume supplies. I’m hoping to get the costume closet set up tomorrow so I can figure out what I have left to get for my matching costume.