SUMMER!

Yes despite all the mosquitoes and extreme heat this is my favorite season. what to do what to do....

Farmers Market - buy fresh tomatoes, corn, basil and plants to start your own garden.

Veggie Garden - some dirt, some plants, some water and a shotgun to deter veggie stealing critters

Peach milkshakes from aformentioned fresh produce from Farmers Market

Tomato, basil, mozzarella, olive oil, sea salt. again Farmers Market (that's why it's listed first).

Riding bikes all summer like McCauley McCaulkin and Anna Chulmskey in "My Girl". I mean, I mean Dennis Hopper and Peter Fonda in Easyriders! yeah! To the drug store to buy candy and ice cream

Ice Cream - chocolate and coffee for me please. In my Buddha bowl and with my titanium spork.

Beach - probably my favorite place to be

Swimming laps outdoors - put spf on your back

Mosquitoes and ticks - crush every single one of them

Driving in convertible - but not a Sebring

Eating fish and crablegs

Grilling

Canoeing / Kayaking

Summer movies - may i suggest Kung Fu Panda 2 in 3D? skadoosh!

Any other suggestions? what did i forget? mention in the comments!

Save your knees

hey, save your knees, go biking or swimming. your orthopedist will be sad.
(couldn't fit a sticker on any of my swimgear)

Patagonia Shorts

Looks like my Patagonia Shorts are starting to break in nicely!
check out the fade line where my t-shirt covered the top part of my shorts.
Patagonia stuff lasts for a long long time! I still have stuff from the early 90's. And the thing is, when they do start wearing out, you still want to keep wearing them. I had to stop wearing these in public when people started dropping coins in my cup of coffee...

shadowcat

It is so rewarding to eat veggies that you grow yourself so we are trying again this season. Last season was disastrous, with all tomatoes stolen by creatures in the night, not one single fruit of our labors tasted. The season before that was great with tons of tomatoes grown and eaten by ourselves.

This year we are putting everything in containers, theoretically having the ability to move the veggie plants around to fool the veggie predators. I might even make spikes to keep them away from the veggies once they sprout, maybe even spray them with diluted hot sauce. I will not let some little creatures get the best of me!

We are also getting more ambitious with our garden contents. TWO types of tomatoes: German Johnson and Cherokee Purple, zucchini, gooseneck squash, pickling cucumbers and of course some basil. And no, you cannot have any. grow your own. it's very easy.

Happy Asian/Pacific American Month!
Huh, this is the first time in my life I have ever heard about this.
Well move over Cinco de Mayo

Setting Goals

Apparently one of the keys to achieving your goals is to define your goals and your deadline for reaching them specifically. For example instead of saying you want to get in shape, you should say you want to bench press a maximum of 250lbs by July 1.

Another key is to tell people of your goal so they can encourage you (or harass you) about meeting your goal.

oh and make that first step a baby step so you will be encouraged not discouraged.

So here are three goals I'm setting for myself today. Nothing huge but to ultimately lead to bigger things.

1) ok whew! Just tested my baseline number of pullups. 18. not great. I think at my peak I could do about 28 straight. So my goal is to do 30 straight by June 1.

2) whew! pushups -33, the kitten got in the way. Ok my goal for pushups by June 1 is 50 straight.

To achieve this goals I'm going to do more pushups and pullups each day and also test my max periodically.

3) To help get my creative juices flowing, everyday I will fill one 5.5 x 8.5" sheet of paper with sketches and ideas. If it is nonsense, so be it. If it is one huge doodle to get the page filled, so be it. It will be practice in producing creativity.

Now I'm going to write these goals down (hey maybe on my sheet for today!) and also add the New Year's Resolutions to it.

Oh and one last thing. Please give me feedback on my blog by leaving comments. It's easy and the only way I'll ever learn.

A rebuttal to a commenter

I decided to make a blog post rebuttal to a comment on my blog that caught my attention. It caught my attention because it was the first comment on my blog in over a year.  It reads:

Anonymous said...

Well - you've got the SwimOutlet.com posting ads on your blog. Good for you. One comment on this YOU JUST NERDED UP SWIMMING! How the hell do you do that? And "What can I say about SWIMHATS?" seriously man...just get in and swim.

Let me address each vicious accusation:

1) I welcome Swimoutlet.com to advertise on my blog. Please send me swimgear to test including briefs, goggles, and swimhats. I indeed ordered my Speedo Solar briefs from them and found good price and received product in reasonable time. 

2) "...nerded up swimming..." And by the way, my favorite American president who was never president Benjamin Franklin apparently invented swimfins. 

3) "...swimhats..." Yes, swimhats, now referred to as swimcaps by the commoners. As referenced to in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales by the Milliner:

"...praythee able seaman, allow me to craft a swim hat from the finest sheep's bladder and place it upon thy crown so verily thy noble ringlets remain unsullied by the vengeful sea..."

WHO LOOKS STUPID NOW?

Just Add Water: Swimming Update and Gear Review - Speedo Solar Brief, Air Seal Tri goggles, Swim Cap, TYR flippers

To be honest, 99% of this post's purpose is to get rid of the thong image on the top of the last post...only to replace it with an image of a Speedo swimsuit. Hmm. Oh well.

First the swimming update. I've started swimming up to one mile the last couple swim days. I think at this point that's the most distance I need to swim right now and it's better to focus on technique and swimming faster. Also, warming up my shoulders beforehand seems really important or else the first 8 lengths or so don't feel so good. I also can't get the hang of a flip turn right now. Lots of things to work on.

One thing I like about swimming is that you really don't need to have a lot of gear or spend too much on gear. But sort of like running, it is possible to get hyper equipped. I don't want to. The following is a list of what I've been using.

1) Speedo Solar Brief - This is about the most minimalist suit you can wear to the pool. It holds everything in place and allows you full freedom of movement and minimal drag. I have virtually no complaints except I wish it was made in the USA. Yeah, you can wear your boardshorts or whatever but I'd rather not put up with all that drag. Available for $28 bucks or less. As a newbie to lap swimming I learned that chlorine can wear your suit out so I'll be interested to see how long this suit lasts.

2) Speedo Air Seal Tri Mirrored goggles - before I tried these goggles I figured goggles were all about the same. These are pretty awesome goggles. They are designed moreso for open water triathalons and fitness swimmers rather than indoor racing. Compared to traditional goggles the lens offer a wider field of view and have air filled gaskets to seal to the face rather than using the foam gaskets. The ones I'm using have mirrored lenses which are great for glare but when used indoors make everything much darker. But I like the effect - kinda like wearing shades indoors. The adjustable headband is doubled through the goggles to distribute the tension over more of your head.

The main issue I have with these goggles is that the larger lens means the eyecups cradling the face are a little larger, perhaps too large for my face sometimes. When I tilt my head out of the water to breathe, sometimes the twisting motion can break the seal and allow a little water in. In reality it's not much of a problem. Usually I have to adjust other goggles while swimming due to fit or fogging. I usually can keep these goggles on without any adjustment until I'm done with my laps.

3) Speedo Swimcap - what can I say about swimhats? If you shave your head or have a short haircut you can do without it. It keeps my hair tucked and also seems to offer some hydrodynamic benefits. A little talcum powder makes it easy to put it on.

4) TYR flippers - a good tool to train your legs more. I use it to practice the butterfly stroke otherwise I wouldn't move anywhere. I don't like the extra torque it can put on your knee so I probably won't use this as a training tool with other kicks.

So don't worry too much about the gear. Get the basics and get out there.

Around 2/3 of the Earth's surface is water. So it seems like a good idea to know how to swim.

If you need some swimgear, consider these links. I would get a commission if you buy through these ads.
Speedo Air Seal Tri Mirrored Goggle