tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26471657339995212572024-03-14T00:55:19.347-07:00Marty MaynardOn it - like a duck on a junebug...Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.comBlogger139125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-76047706015944137672012-12-28T12:38:00.000-08:002012-12-28T12:38:08.916-08:00Hot lap around New England<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A lot has happened since my last post and as usual, I didn't manage to capture any of it here. Anyways, life happens I guess, so I'll drive on. Nancy and I are currently in Connecticut visiting our friends Natalie and Shaun and meeting the recent addition to their family. From here, we're driving up to Hartford to visit my old college buddy Luke and from there, we're headed to Boston for a NYE/house warming party at my buddy Colin's new house. So, should be an exciting end to 2012.</div>
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Here are some pictures of Natalie and Shaun's 2-week-old baby - Olivia.</div>
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I'm still pretty nervous holding new borns.<br />
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Nancy seems like more of a pro.<br />
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Little smile.<br />
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So, we'll finish up this lap around southern New England on Tuesday, then it's back to reality. We do have a lot of snow in the Rochester area right now, we just got about a foot two days ago, so I've been able to ski quite a bit in the last week. I'm definitely looking forward to some racing coming up soon.<br />
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This is my neighbor's car yesterday morning...that couldn't have been fun to dig out.<br />
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Until next time...<br />
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Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-82693672942328116452012-10-11T14:07:00.002-07:002012-10-11T14:09:12.695-07:00Free Fall...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s been six months since I updated this blog. I started this blog to capture the craziness
of what had, at the time, seemed like a unique journey of attempting to live
the life an international sales guy while also trying to live the double life
of a competitive endurance athlete. I
say “at the time”, because at that time, it did seem frantic and chaotic, but I
have come to see over the past three years, that I hadn’t seen anything yet. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here’s a bullet-point list of the activities/events that
that have occurred since my last blog post:</span></div>
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<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Flower city duathlon – had OK race, then got a
flat about ¾ of way through race, then Nancy saved the day with a spare so I
was able to at least finish.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Work trip to Netherlands, Belgium and Germany</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">½ marathon in Brooklyn – awesome race all
around, ran with Jamie and Andy Schild, set PR by three minutes, then hung out
with Nancy and brother-in-law Doug in Brooklyn.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Memorial day trip to Ocean City, MD with Nancy’s
extended family where we laid Nancy’s Grandfather to rest in the dunes near the
beach house that he owned there.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Corp. Challenge in Rochester – really good race
for the people that ran, lack of my companies involvement was a huge letdown,
team finished 2</span><sup style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">nd</sup><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">, missing a trip to Germany by 3 minutes</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">3-week work trip to Netherlands, France and
Georgia – Nancy met me in Paris which was awesome all around – we celebrated
our 2</span><sup style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">nd</sup><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"> anniversary there, not too bad at all!; Trip home from
Georgia took a bit of a left turn as they say and ended up taking 35 hours</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Eight hours after getting home from that trip,
drove to Buffalo for my buddy Drew’s bachelor party</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Went to Adirondaks the week of July 4</span><sup style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">th</sup><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">
with Nancy’s family, rode up whiteface, ran up marcy, drank a bunch of scotch
with Doug, Mitch and a few other friends</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Went to Colin’s bachelor party in ADK’s – went
white water rafting…that was interesting…we also found an interesting way to
utilize a wheelbarough…</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Went to Chicago with friends - went to Wrigley
Field for first time, great city, great DEEP DISH pizza!!</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Our friend Mitch’s wedding in Canandaigua and my
niece Megan’s 1</span><sup style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">st</sup><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"> birthday.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Colin’s wedding and associated events</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Work trip to Netherlands, Belgium and Georgia</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Drew’s wedding in Buffalo, then chicken wing
fest, then LL Cool J – you read that right – all in one weekend</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Foot injury – again, but a different area of
same foot</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Work trip to Netherlands and France</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">My buddy Berger’s bachelor party in Syracuse</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 7pt; text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Bourbon Chase relay running race – 12 person,
200 mile running race through Kentucky-</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">Foot injury made for a little more stress than I would’ve hoped, but
overall, it was an amazing experience.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All of these events are worthy of their own blog post, but
given the quick succession of all of them, and given that throughout this
entire period, there was the matter of going to work on the few normal days I
had and trying to keep my head above water , there wasn’t much time to reflect. After spending last weekend in Rochester at
home, dog-sitting for a friend and spending an actual weekend afternoon doing
nothing, no obligation other than watching football, I came to a realization –
I can push myself beyond what I ever thought possible in terms of lack of
sleep, insane work trips, ski/bike/running-type stuff, making it to important
events with friends, etc - but the pace I’ve been on is unsustainable and just
isn’t making me happy or healthy in the long run or really good at
anything. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’m
not sure where the next few months will lead, but I’m proactively trying for
for a few less stamps in my passport and a lot more days in one timezone. Hopefully I’ll be updating this more
frequently and hopefully I can re-cap some of the events above in more detail,
because a lot of that stuff (LL Cool J withstanding) was pretty awesome and
extremely memorable experiences.</span></span></div>
Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-4666810976245773192012-04-24T16:44:00.001-07:002012-04-24T16:44:28.263-07:00Training vs. working out<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I haven’t updated this blog in a while and it’s been even longer since I
wrote about anything sport-related, so I figured I’d break silence on that
front. The main reason, as mentioned
back in February is that I have been recovering from a foot injury called
Plantar Fasciitis. I had never heard of
this before I went to a foot doctor, but it turns out that it’s common among
people from all walks of life. Many of
whom, incidentally, all wanted to provide guidance to me on how to get rid of
it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Thankfully, there are a few guys I know who have had issues with this
and also happen to be skier/runner/cyclist types.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, three guys I know through skiing
have all had this issue, are all doctors, and one of them is actually a foot doctor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, in that respect, I got some really sound
advice right away from people who knew where I was coming from.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, I was able to attack the issue
directly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It started with resting it -
no weight bearing workouts for the month of February.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was awful, nothing but a spin bike for
an entire month in what is usually my favorite time of year (ski racing
season).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile, I took a slight leap
of faith and registered for the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May hoping this would
be straightened out by then (more on that later).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In March, I started to mix some easy runs 3
times a week and gradually increased mileage and frequency over the last 6
weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Over the last 3 weeks I’ve been
able to do some intervals and tempo running, and last week managed to log about
55 miles for the week along with a couple easy bike rides.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s still not 100% from a pain standpoint and I’ve been taping my foot
before every run.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, I have been
able to get back to training again and not just working out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may seem like a subtle difference in
wording, but it’s a big difference from a mental standpoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you’re just working out, you have to
force yourself to workout, when you’re training for something, I find myself
having to force myself to take rest days instead. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every workout has a different purpose at this
point whereas in February and early March the only purpose for working out was
to burn some calories – I was just going through the motions trying to be
patient.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This Saturday will be my first competitive event since Eastern Canadian
Champs in early Feb and I’m beyond amp’d about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m doing the Flower City Duathlon, which I
did two years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m not really sure
what to expect from a result standpoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am definitely not at the fitness level that I usually have after ski
season, but it will be nice to put a race number on and see what happens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My big goal this spring is the aforementioned half marathon in
Brooklyn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I agreed to do this race with
Andy and Jamie Schild a few months ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jamie just moved to NYC and the three of us decided to do a half
marathon in the spring and a full marathon in the fall (the first for all of
us).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until about 4 weeks ago, I wasn’t
sure what goals/expectations to set for it since I hadn’t run more than 6-7
miles at any given time and hadn’t done any intensity at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, after the last few weeks, I feel
like I’m on track from a training perspective and am hoping to have a good race
there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I guess “good” is relative, but
to put it in quantifiable terms, I feel like a 1:23 half marathon is within my
reach at this point.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This time would
also automatically get me into the 2013 NYC marathon without having to rely on
a lottery entry, so I guess maybe it’s a little arbitrary, but since I’m
writing it on the internet, I guess that makes it an official goal.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After the half marathon, I’m not really sure what my next goals will be, I
haven’t had much of an opportunity to bike due to the travel, but I would like
to get some bike racing in and definitely want to try mountain bike racing this
summer, so we’ll see. For now, I’m just
happy to be training again and not just working out.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-89068184590651281022012-03-09T11:42:00.004-08:002012-03-09T12:21:32.182-08:00Sleep comes at a premium sometimesLast week may have been the nuttiest, 8-pounds-of-sh*t-in-a-5-pound-bag, week that I've had to date. My week went as follows:<br /><br />- Sunday - woke up at 4am to go to airport. Flight cancelled, and rescheduled for red-eye to London. Went home for a few hours and was back at airport at 11am. Thanks to Nancy for shuttling me back and forth!<br />- Monday - Landed in London at 5am after sleeping for maybe 25 minutes while sitting upright, washed face, brushed teeth and tied tie, in airport bathroom, and went directly in to all-day meeting, went directly from meeting back to airport and flew to Dusseldorf, landing around 10pm local time. Slept in hotel room slightly bigger than a closet and it was glorious!<br />- Tuesday - Customer meeting on Tuesday morning, after which, I managed to pay a speeding ticket (yes, apparently it's possible to get speeding tickets in Germany and I am now a veteran of one), then was back at the Dusseldorf airport at 4pm. Flew to Munich, then Tbilisi.<br />- Wednesday - Landed in Tbilisi at 5am local time, slept for about 90 minutes and went back into a round of all-day meetings, workout, typical Georgian dinner. Slept a full night in hotel.<br />- Thursday - meetings all day. went back to hotel at 5pm, thinking I had 2 hours before dinner, went to gym, 35 minutes into workout, got phone call that a very high ranking customer wanted to meet me and to be ready in 15min, did my best superman impersonation and was back in a suit 14 minutes later ready to go. Went right from meeting to dinner. After dinner, packed and slept for 1.5 hours, left for airport at 2am local time (5pm Thursday EST).<br />- Friday - flew from Tbilisi - Munich - Newark - Rochester and was back in Rochester by 530pm.<br />- Saturday - woke up 5am, went for run, drove to Buffalo to meet some friends for a tour of the Southern Tier Brewery, which was a blast.<br /><br />I think I've been recovering from all that for a full week, but am starting to feel somewhat human again. I guess the positive of the insaneness of the itinerary above is that I don't think I ever adjusted to any timezone because I basically slept every other day. Not something I'm looking to repeat, but I did re-adjust quickly.<br /><br />On a different note, my foot is starting to recover and I've been able to run a little and may try riding on the road outside this weekend (since it's supposed to be 60F), so not much to complain about here.Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-25835150482386050062012-03-09T11:19:00.004-08:002012-03-09T12:21:08.414-08:00The "dash"First, I'd like to say thanks to everyone who sent e-mails, texts, notes, phone calls, tweets, facebook messages and any other form of communcation that we're using these days to express condolences. It really meant a lot to me to have such a great group of friends and family.<br /><br />One final note - at my Grandfather's funeral the pastor mentioned something I hadn't thought of previously. When you look at a tombstone, there's a lot of information on there (name, hometown, date of birth, date of death) and he brought up an interesting point - a person doesn't get to choose his/her name, hometown, date of birth/death, there's only one piece of information that's typically printed on a tombstone that's within the control of the person it belongs to, that's the dash ("-") between the year that person is born and the year they died. In part, it makes you realize that there are a lot of aspects of life that are completely out of your control and there are aspects that are 100% within your control. Then, there's a gray area where the right decisions given the right circumstance presents an outcome that could have been vastly different otherwise. I had a baseball coach once that told me once 85% of life is just showing up on time and seeing what's going to happen (which was hugely helpful when I was going to grad school using the "just keep showing up" motto). However, that other 15% of life is a pretty crucial piece. One of the lessons I learned from my grandfather was that you don't always get to choose the challenges that you are faced with, but you always get to choose how you react to those challenges. Perhaps successful people are successful in part because they're better at compartmentalizing what's in their control and what isn't. I'm probably not making much sense with this nonsensical rambling, so I'll wrap it up...I guess the main philosophical point that I took away from the pastor's speech that day is this - don't waste time and energy on the things you can't control, but instead focus on making the most of your "dash". Easy to say I guess, but something to think about...Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-27363863863702043922012-02-19T14:23:00.001-08:002012-02-19T15:49:37.442-08:00A life to hang your hat onThis morning around 930am my grandfather passed away. Words cannot describe what he meant to me, even some of my closest family members probably don't know how close we were, and as I type this post, there are tears running down my face, and I'm not going to try to hide it as I write this.<div><br /></div><div>I had a history professor in college who made us read the NY Times obituaries everyday for a week and do a report on that. At the end of the week, he started the next lecture by reading the eulogy that he gave for his own father and it began with "my father's obituary won't be in the NY Times, but for the people that knew him and anyones life he touched, it was worthy of it, so I'm going to read to you what should have been in the NY Times this morning..." With that in mind, here we go:</div><div><br /></div><div>My mother's father lived a tremendous life. He went to Niagara University and was a graduate of the first ROTC class from that school. He became an officer in the US Army and was a proud veteran and married my grandmother in 1951. After his ROTC commitment was up, he left the service and became a career chemist. He and his wife had two daughters, who each married and had three children, a total of four grandsons and two granddaughters. </div><div><br /></div><div>Some variation of that will probably be in the local paper in Lewiston, NY tomorrow. What isn't captured there is the true legacy he left behind...</div><div><br /></div><div>When I was growing up, I always looked up to Grandpa Fulson as the toughest man I knew, a "man's man", the type of guy that generated respect and deserved it. Some of my most distinct memories of him were:</div><div>- I think I was 8 or 9 and he took me out deer hunting on a really cold day. He must have fed me a candy bar every 20 minutes that day and we were making a ton of noise. In hindsight, he had a better chance of winning the lotto than he did of shooting a deer that day. He had clearly made a choice that day to be a grandpa instead of hunting. Today, I still love hunting and a lot of it is because of him.</div><div>- The first time he saw me catch in a baseball game he told me, "you catch a great game, but you'd be smarter if you stuck with being a shortstop, that gear's the tools of ignorance." I could tell by the tone in his voice though, that he was really proud that I went the "tools of ignorance" route. He made the trip to Rochester for my senior day at RIT and that meant so much to me, more than I ever told him.</div><div>- Most importantly, when he met Nancy for the first time, he pulled me aside and said -"Well, she seems really smart, so I can't figure out why she's with you, but you better not be an idiot" - again, I knew he was really proud, and when I called him to tell him we were engaged, hearing the pride in his voice was one of the greatest moments of my life.</div><div><br /></div><div>So much of me is from him, other than my terrible sense of humor, if I can be half the man he was, I think I'll be doing great.</div><div><br /></div><div>My view of him has never changed, but my view of what toughness was changed as I got to know more about my Grandfather.</div><div><br /></div><div>At first, I thought he was so great and tough because he was an army veteran and loved to hunt and fish and loved the Buffalo Sabres. While he still always loved all those things, I then saw what real toughness is and what it really means to be a man. When his wife of 55 years fell ill with Alzheimer's and ultimately forgot everything, he never complained, or asked why this was happening. He just had the attitude that "this is what I signed up for". He was being a loving husband to the very last second. He was truly the most courageous and compassionate person I've known.</div><div><br /></div><div>So, while, his obituary won't be in the NY Times tomorrow, he led a life to hang his hat on and that's enough for me and everyone who knew Frank.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm positive that he'd be pissed off at me for making such a big deal about him. I'm pretty sure he'd just have anyone that reads this do the following - the next time you're in a bar, order a martini with olives, the next time you watch the sabres, make sure to shout extra loud at the TV when they're not back-checking with "toughness", and the next time you think of "the greatest generation, you think of remember his friends that didn't come back from Korea".</div><div><br /></div><div>Here's to finding peace and solace. I love you Grandpa. And the Sabres won 6-2 today.</div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-89511618580141362862012-02-10T13:56:00.001-08:002012-02-10T15:02:16.419-08:00Big league racing in Quebec<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15_U_pDNM89qOSMxrEvGcLYWtS9TWOdPOR65z__-4n44tyRPn8ye-xL1FLCM-E1kqzM_CFmAdhiLoO7gl90ZUQWLk-HzsFHjoPqDE3Q6WQgCnHe0x7F1EZscLH0Bdc4UCjJ2pYTfIoJoF/s1600/crash.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><div>Last weekend was supposed to be my 3rd crack at the Lake Placid Loppet. Due to snow conditions, that 50km race was cancelled. Given that almost every race we were planning on has been cancelled to date, Jason, Chad and I scrambled to find somewhere within driving distance to salvage something out of what's been a brutal winter for snow. Anyways, we were delighted to find that Eastern Canadian Championships were being held last weekend in Gatineau, QC, which is about the same drive time as Lake Placid. The events would be a 15km individual start skate race Saturday and a 30km mass start on Sunday. Due to work travel and the abysmal weather, this would be my first time on snow in two weeks. Not exactly the preparation that you'd like to see going into a race with some guys that were racing on the World Cup in Europe a month ago. But, if there's one thing I learned in my years playing baseball in the Northeast (and it took me almost all of my 21 years of competitive baseball to figure this out) is that you can't control mother nature and the sooner you deal with that, the better. We were the only Americans that ventured north of the border for the races and the organizers and volunteers definitely went out of their way to make us feel welcome. When I lined up for the start in the 15km skate race, the annoucer introduced me as "Marty Maynard from Rochester Nordic Racing in the US, put your hands together for our first international competitor", then repeated the same in French. Or at least I assume he did, for all I know, he could have said "look at this idiot American, he's about to get destroyed by this course and our fast skiers!". I digress.</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSwLrQHOwNsB2l_tPPPZoidPxy44y8SC0MMMrj4IZHi1M8KJZhadr7MHhZrhEWlg8wDhVyfTU2IrUE2Pj4yDuri4XB0jYa7UjDHKdVemN9alCpSmBy2hWZuJ7B2j7LjtvEHVMyW9OJkYD/s320/boys.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707629310504216642" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px; " /></span>Chad and I after the 15km skate race. <div><br /></div><div>The skate race went pretty well considering everything, I felt like I skied pretty solidly for the first two laps (we did 3 x 5km laps) and faded a little on the last lap, but overall, it was a pretty decent race on a legit certified world cup course. The course was hilly, there was one climb that was about a full km uphill followed by a terrifyingly fast downhill, other than that, the rest of the course was a lot of rolling hills, it was almost never flat, but it was a fun course to ski. On the big downhill, I hit 34 mph during the race according to my GPS. That might not seem fast compared to alpine ski racing, but when the skis on your feet are about 50% the width of your feet, not attached to your heel, and you're also trying to step around a turn, it can get a little hairy.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg15_U_pDNM89qOSMxrEvGcLYWtS9TWOdPOR65z__-4n44tyRPn8ye-xL1FLCM-E1kqzM_CFmAdhiLoO7gl90ZUQWLk-HzsFHjoPqDE3Q6WQgCnHe0x7F1EZscLH0Bdc4UCjJ2pYTfIoJoF/s320/crash.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707633957222764050" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 216px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">This is not a staged photo, this is from the aforementioned downhill. This is the sh*t that happens when you get one of those downhills wrong kids! Anyways, I managed to stay upright, on Saturday and finished ok. I also had a nice ego boost due to my starting position - because I have no ranking at all in Canada, I was seeded well before all of the fast skiers (at the back of an interval start). I think I caught and passed the entire McGill Nordic team of 8 skiers in the first 8km. I hear it's a good school, but not so sure they're really putting in the training hours based on what I saw. Of course, if I were to start at the back of the pack, the top skiers would be saying the same thing about me, so it's all relative!</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Sunday was a 30km classic mass start, which is the longest race I've done this year and the longest classic race I've ever done other than the Tug Hill Tourathon several years ago, which I wasn't really racing, more trying to finish. Anyways, I have documented several times on this blog that I'm not exactly a master tactician when it comes to classic skiing. On top of that, since none of us were Cross Country Canada members, we had no points and were stuck on the very back row of at the mass start. With like 100 guys in front of us, some of which looked a little sketchy (they types of guys that if it were a bike race, you'd make sure you were never following their wheel), the focus for the first few kms was simply not to break any equipment and get some open tracks to ski in. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0hDaBSUPRGtenC71TZEOcA728xu6YJVq2xW6s5ibKmosuEKfsZ0ebyGtwXADw7EOHuf0ZCOcd80fFy6ZamIMpgwuchWszY71Jv9FYQPvPjW4rXw4WHIOwZ-8_QnzhhMvSZzchWa_nJ5pj/s320/classic_mass_start.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707629409679371842" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div>I'm on the left, Jason's on the right in the same RNR uniform on the back row of the mass start. Right after the gun went off a guy in front of me went down, which would be one of several pile-ups on the first lap (we used the same course as the previous day, but 6 laps this time). On top of the bad starting position and suspect classic technique, I've been having some serious issues with my foot and classic skiing seems to irritate it thoroughly, so I wasn't overly enthusiastic when people started crashing everywhere, but was able to settle in eventually. </div><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiR_nrfukpvtGXDvgFkm-As-HNMkJKFgL301J_tNB86VtFrx-8fjurHvWR1ozibCvjCLYFLKXGafOubuO0y695YcHcP91nVTZB09Qs_Rpj9ElVy1fecPdb_8rC7ltT_GnaQZpgCxDc09d3/s1600/marty1.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 254px; " src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiR_nrfukpvtGXDvgFkm-As-HNMkJKFgL301J_tNB86VtFrx-8fjurHvWR1ozibCvjCLYFLKXGafOubuO0y695YcHcP91nVTZB09Qs_Rpj9ElVy1fecPdb_8rC7ltT_GnaQZpgCxDc09d3/s320/marty1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707629530248953282" /></a>Here's a picture of me during the classic race courtesy of Musicianonskis.ca. There were parts of the course that I felt I skied pretty well and some other parts where I was a little "trainwreck-ish". Oddly enough, there were a lot of sections that I felt pretty strong with my classic striding and actually tried to drop the group I was skiing with about 22km into the race on one of the long gradual hills. The last two laps were really painful however and I never was able to put out maximum power with my lower body due to my foot. I managed to drag myself around the course 6 times and probably even looked like I knew what I was doing at certain times, but I know I'm capable of a lot better given the right circumstances. For example, there were guys that I beat by 2-3 minutes in the 15km skate race that were over 5 minutes ahead of me in this race, so that's ridiculously frustrating on a multitude of levels.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4xdJSAsUX5YyUPINyGuu_uptUWIzn7D-AEpP_uTxpoNzV_e202KWLH9F-XWifCctIeYO2se6BnlohGhswu81qpFUU6qq-MLfHrmH2TTrmCh0G1mvpSS9wmpSlDqELIpDZ_sUQmvvvyQ9r/s1600/kowbell_crew.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4xdJSAsUX5YyUPINyGuu_uptUWIzn7D-AEpP_uTxpoNzV_e202KWLH9F-XWifCctIeYO2se6BnlohGhswu81qpFUU6qq-MLfHrmH2TTrmCh0G1mvpSS9wmpSlDqELIpDZ_sUQmvvvyQ9r/s320/kowbell_crew.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707629476016223778" /></a>Left to right - Libby, Nancy and Anne. These three were out support staff in feed zones and ringing cowbells. It really helped to hear the cheers amidst all the "allet allet allet" calls from the French Canadian coaches. </div><div><br /></div><div>Overall, the weekend was a great in a lot of ways. First, it was great to finally get a full weekend of racing in, and the atmosphere at these races was outside of anything I've experienced in ski racing except for maybe West Yellowstone. They had more volunteers dedicated to parking cars than we have for total volunteers at races in the US, even the big races in the US. Everything was very professionally run and well supported. Additionally, as I mentioned above, the courses were legit and impeccably groomed. Probably above and beyond all those reasons, it was great to race with Jason and Chad this winter in that type of setting and it was also great to have a weekend with the full crew of wives/girlfriend. We definitely lucked out to be able to do these races and I'd absolutely go back next year or to other events at this facility.</div><div><br /></div><div>Unfortunately, the downer of the weekend was the realization that my foot isn't getting better and this isn't going away. Especially in the classic race, I was essentially racing against a big league field at 80% and that's a recipe for getting your arse handed to you in any sport, and xc skiing is an especially painful sport when you're not at your best. I'll write about my foot in a separate post because this one is getting too long. </div><div><br /></div><div>This weekend definitely made me realize once again how much I love skiing and ski racing and appreciate the experiences I've had over the years and look forward to more experiences down the road, even if that has to wait until next winter.</div><div>This was a very positive weekend and I can't stress enough how awesome it was that Nancy decided to come up and see me race. We also batted .1000 on the feed zone hand offs!</div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0hDaBSUPRGtenC71TZEOcA728xu6YJVq2xW6s5ibKmosuEKfsZ0ebyGtwXADw7EOHuf0ZCOcd80fFy6ZamIMpgwuchWszY71Jv9FYQPvPjW4rXw4WHIOwZ-8_QnzhhMvSZzchWa_nJ5pj/s1600/classic_mass_start.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSwLrQHOwNsB2l_tPPPZoidPxy44y8SC0MMMrj4IZHi1M8KJZhadr7MHhZrhEWlg8wDhVyfTU2IrUE2Pj4yDuri4XB0jYa7UjDHKdVemN9alCpSmBy2hWZuJ7B2j7LjtvEHVMyW9OJkYD/s1600/boys.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></div></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-33331955829682781132012-02-07T13:59:00.000-08:002012-02-07T14:32:58.809-08:00Breaking silenceI haven't updated here in a while due to a wide variety of reasons. I've been on the go as usual - in January, I went back and forth to the Netherlands twice and took a quick trip to Prague. This hasn't been a typical winter compared to the last few winters due to the lack of snow - very little racing and a lot of cancellations and scrapped travel plans. I did manage to get in one solid weekend of racing this past weekend in Quebec, which I'll be writing about later this week.<br /><br />Wait, what's that? I'm considering doing two posts in one week? I haven't posted in over a month? Unfortunately, I have some additional time on my hands as I'm dealing with an injury for the first time since college (also a separate post). It's nothing serious, but I guess it won't get better if I don't rest it. Since sitting still is probably the thing I'm worst at, I'm not really looking forward to this, but maybe I'll finally get past the first two lessons on my Russian Rosetta Stone and update this blog a little more frequently.<br /><br />I will tell one story in this blog post (which thus far has been about absolutely nothing). About 4 weeks ago, Nancy grandfather sadly passed away. By all accounts, he led an amazing life and will be remembered fondly by anyone that knew him. I'm very thankful that I was able to get to know him over the last ten years and he was able to make it to our wedding to see his grandaughter get married.<br /><br />On a slightly less serious note, he also loved to wear bowties and owned like 50 different bowties. His memorial service was in northern Virginia two weekends ago, and as a tribute, several of his family members wore bowties to the gathering. I was flying home from Europe (the Paris airport was an entirely different adventure) and flew into Washington Reagan airport about 1pm. Nancy's father and brother picked me up at the airport, threw a cup of coffee in me and I was at the memorial service wearing a bowtie (only because Nancy's brother knows how to tie one) within 60 minutes of touch down. Touch-down to bow tie in 60 minutes, that has to be a record.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjohTGqPwSUyhfRR2k03YOfM5LqXcCcmG010FIvf7YIHRZcGftMkVfJvepJrPnO3alLW-BHWUJJ4UlvlQJT023gURLmm6bGjLLfHWg90kPuducQFpnJN7Cfr2C-lFCz62xa8NJjGH606VL_/s1600/bowtie.JPG"></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGebg_cgIjmnEAzdAfC1GB4p1ZKr1NK2n4km8dKfJdWx8i4OAxEFSynTFfElMqSMtL762-a6jsj0us6-HE7GSYLyu3m0t1Nr4AeqQ9FTjBRM6t-YiK1PwJxd1nj2N30vh8ZbCcysjOKZEQ/s1600/bowtie.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 239px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5706520693170128610" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGebg_cgIjmnEAzdAfC1GB4p1ZKr1NK2n4km8dKfJdWx8i4OAxEFSynTFfElMqSMtL762-a6jsj0us6-HE7GSYLyu3m0t1Nr4AeqQ9FTjBRM6t-YiK1PwJxd1nj2N30vh8ZbCcysjOKZEQ/s320/bowtie.JPG" /></a> The bowtie adds a very distinguished look if you ask me.<br /><br />More to follow later this week.Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-12813165834038762582011-12-24T03:40:00.001-08:002011-12-24T03:49:13.333-08:00Home, happy and thankfulI just got back from another trip to Netherlands and Georgia. It was a relatively uneventful trip overall, busy with work almost constantly, but I guess this is what I signed up for. I will say that it did feel different being away from home so close to the holidays. Thankfully, the airlines all came through for me and I got through the 25 hour trip back from Tbilisi smoothly. <br /><br />I have the next week off from work and am really looking forward to staying home and in one place for a little bit. I have a feeling that 2012 might be crazier than 2011 if that's possible, but for the next 9 days, I'm not going to worry about that. I'm going to enjoy being in Rochester and hopefully get some skiing in, although there's still nothing on the ground here. I'm also looking forward to the next few days of seeing some of the friends and family in the area. Overall, I just wanted to quickly say that I'm back in Rochester, happy to be here and thankful.<br /><br />Happy Holidays!Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-68686382244162859902011-11-29T09:37:00.000-08:002011-11-29T13:45:45.525-08:00West Yellowstone recapAs I said, his post would come in rapid succession following my previous post. <br /><br />After getting back from Philly on Sunday, I headed to West Yellowstone, MT on a plane leaving at 6am Monday morning. Every year there is a massive ski festival that takes place in West Yellowstone the week of Thanksgiving. It's a common gathering point for passionate XC skiers of all ages and abilities to start the season and this would be my first time participating in the festival. I am relatively certain that I saw more XC skiers last week than I will see the rest of the year combined. <br /><br />The trails were in mid-winter conditions and the weather was pretty good throughout the week. Basically every day I was there was pretty much the same - get up, eat breakfast, classic ski for 2ish hours, shower, eat lunch, relax for about two hours, skate ski for 2ish hours, eat dinner and go to sleep early. It was definitely the type of groundhog day I could get used to! Also on the trip was my buddy Jason and several of the RNR juniors as well as Duncan and two of his kids (who are high school skiers for HF-L), so there was a decent contingent from the Rochester area. <br /><br />This week is also the first SuperTour races of the year, which is essentially the highest level of racing in the North America, the top skiers in the US and Canada are on the World Cup in Europe, so the SuperTour is basically the Triple-A series for nordic ski racing. For the top skiers in the US that aren't on the USST, these races were huge as the winner of the overall series for the first two weekends, gets an automatic starting spot in the next World Cup series, so there were a lot of people specifically trying to peak for these races. There were also a lot of other skiers like me that were there mainly for training, but jumped into the races to get a hard workout in and get the first races of the year out of the way. There were 3 race options throughout the week, however, I only opted to race once as the main thing I wanted to get out of the week was a maximum amount of training volume. The race I opted for was a 15km skate race on the 2nd to last day of the trip. As far as the actual race it was pretty much what I expected - painful - it was the first race of the year, which always hurts; it was at 7,000 feet altitude; and I was doing the race after skiing about 4 hours each of the preceding 4 days, so I didn't put a lot of stock in the result of the race. It went ok, and I felt like I skied pretty well, but was definitely feeling the effects of the week. Nonetheless, it was good to put a race bib on and go for it. It was also a really cool atmosphere with so many people out on course watching the race and cheering for everyone. The course seemed pretty brutal, there were two big hills and the rest of it was constantly rolling, so not a lot of rest, but definitely a good course to put in a hard effort on.<br /><br />Overall, the week was a success as I skied over 18 hours, hopefully made some technique improvements and competed in super-competitive race on tough course. In addition to that, it was also great to be in the same place as so many people that are as passionate about skiing as I am and to remember why skiing is so awesome and why we spend so much time roller skiing, hill bounding, trail running and, for me at least, so much time on treadmills the other 7 months of the year! <br /><br />Ok, enough of my banter, here are some pictures from the week:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCIYz6dgvMLaxY2FAtWXF2Nkuv_2DoKBlwMy9zLW-xUrViKw3Uj7O3ATOj0HlxGZfd8QCvsdbUo2_vSTuX-DYWvTNnNhK8brbIiPZ0aNfZc-XN9x2kDCmmQk_roQqY-m9VJ0VIhq3WrMZ/s1600/J-G-S.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 239px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680474672579406354" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdCIYz6dgvMLaxY2FAtWXF2Nkuv_2DoKBlwMy9zLW-xUrViKw3Uj7O3ATOj0HlxGZfd8QCvsdbUo2_vSTuX-DYWvTNnNhK8brbIiPZ0aNfZc-XN9x2kDCmmQk_roQqY-m9VJ0VIhq3WrMZ/s320/J-G-S.JPG" /></a> Jason, Stefan (former RNR junior, now a sophomore at the Air Force Academy) and Gavin (junior at Pittsford).<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuifT5-0mtkceM5Qk3_bLqwpBJjKUfnQUGjrQPtHbUi8Ji9N39qT1Ir5mZEs7Ytc284zP5x_q8hKZWM6-rU5_EuQvduJyR9d7P6O3sDSdO4ipynWgv6c_5yXVVlJxB8vXdiDcZnZdtoOgS/s1600/RNR_group_pic.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680474541420482306" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuifT5-0mtkceM5Qk3_bLqwpBJjKUfnQUGjrQPtHbUi8Ji9N39qT1Ir5mZEs7Ytc284zP5x_q8hKZWM6-rU5_EuQvduJyR9d7P6O3sDSdO4ipynWgv6c_5yXVVlJxB8vXdiDcZnZdtoOgS/s320/RNR_group_pic.jpg" /></a> This is the full Rochester group shot except for Jason (who took the picture).<br /><br /><div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdrTPtRT4gklSNCVOfU0cboJCV0JmwuzCnlMvDZxGssJbBd0QZ1iCt-Hewq4F0vJ1J77varp2lo0ERS1fsA1Rtlejwu6900mto3BDlupyRfbGGm8VU9qsWWZZPv3kaRArgbJ8oxZ9ONcB/s1600/DSC02257.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 302px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680474234458372146" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIdrTPtRT4gklSNCVOfU0cboJCV0JmwuzCnlMvDZxGssJbBd0QZ1iCt-Hewq4F0vJ1J77varp2lo0ERS1fsA1Rtlejwu6900mto3BDlupyRfbGGm8VU9qsWWZZPv3kaRArgbJ8oxZ9ONcB/s320/DSC02257.JPG" /></a> Jason trailside after the race on Friday. The sun was out almost every day and I don't think I've ever seen a sky so blue. I guess there's a reason they call it Big Sky country.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiWHkRS4pzrXGjNrqPeoqRDHtwlOxtXrf5k7HAyVAFAPkOVizK-rY2ewuMvI0hxcdLP3Noa4nFboju-_cjZ7RMFqOTVO96d2rk24O2RMlrD0Ya3QcF-wNsxnmBBkRKl3Xt8vx5ESqEV3o8/s1600/DSC02239.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 298px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680474162548014306" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiWHkRS4pzrXGjNrqPeoqRDHtwlOxtXrf5k7HAyVAFAPkOVizK-rY2ewuMvI0hxcdLP3Noa4nFboju-_cjZ7RMFqOTVO96d2rk24O2RMlrD0Ya3QcF-wNsxnmBBkRKl3Xt8vx5ESqEV3o8/s320/DSC02239.JPG" /></a> Jason in the 15km race. All of the race pictures were taken on "Telemark Hill" (coutesy of Mike Wojick). The hill was really steep near the top.<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT17xZjTU2tugyeQPkcF2E-zIYTu3P7CfpMbxuoWmafH_lZpVS5wm3tuouTg5CJY-Ch2Bj4_qcCIpuiVOi8muNjMTsvaLCCHYAL3auixgZhnjBNh3skqFguOkWSKfN-fKvggSECiEkq5a0/s1600/DSC02247.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 241px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680474094522793602" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgT17xZjTU2tugyeQPkcF2E-zIYTu3P7CfpMbxuoWmafH_lZpVS5wm3tuouTg5CJY-Ch2Bj4_qcCIpuiVOi8muNjMTsvaLCCHYAL3auixgZhnjBNh3skqFguOkWSKfN-fKvggSECiEkq5a0/s320/DSC02247.JPG" /></a>Me on the hill. Notice the dude with the Middlebury ski jacket and purple scarf. Not sure what that face is all about.<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0DLlmL7aAgHpT5xBKe_jT8467hknslXuVUJYY_np27mzFBkb7rSsiTmNmZekMVrbKmqotGM3ri6tcBYDrrARFcOkISEXjCsZ8xEFxY8974VS_-QIHxzxNKrDh_i6sexFueykWzPY4Pqs/s1600/DSC02248.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680474018221655970" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho0DLlmL7aAgHpT5xBKe_jT8467hknslXuVUJYY_np27mzFBkb7rSsiTmNmZekMVrbKmqotGM3ri6tcBYDrrARFcOkISEXjCsZ8xEFxY8974VS_-QIHxzxNKrDh_i6sexFueykWzPY4Pqs/s320/DSC02248.JPG" /></a> I know what that face is all about, this part of the course really hurt!<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHZHLaufb6cC1_ld8huhmHH3W_IFkHOI6kjLCXDqoOlmmVg9-KNAVHFIox5hYoiniybU0T32mrsvs32iG2yZyrLGzkcK3LAF-245I8QLfcoHnICdp6kLwEiLg823djhIQiNKjpFv5Pe39g/s1600/DSC02244.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680473936325089762" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHZHLaufb6cC1_ld8huhmHH3W_IFkHOI6kjLCXDqoOlmmVg9-KNAVHFIox5hYoiniybU0T32mrsvs32iG2yZyrLGzkcK3LAF-245I8QLfcoHnICdp6kLwEiLg823djhIQiNKjpFv5Pe39g/s320/DSC02244.JPG" /></a> Gavin was the only junior from Rochester to race. It was his first 15km, and he couldn't have picked a tougher course to make his debut on, but he hung in there and fought hard.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAPNhKNCR1-SRA_ue97GcoyHVpFO0tTwZx5wA-TvKi8JDeXXOFuATCVNnVfAsj2u1-KscwnYUv8qQ2LnnyFXq4TPDYk1v3VXpLZ0NC7qcvfXsAVNv6OZz9K-Mn4zaNc_0InwvxA9UcjktK/s1600/DSC02261.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680473812970376514" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAPNhKNCR1-SRA_ue97GcoyHVpFO0tTwZx5wA-TvKi8JDeXXOFuATCVNnVfAsj2u1-KscwnYUv8qQ2LnnyFXq4TPDYk1v3VXpLZ0NC7qcvfXsAVNv6OZz9K-Mn4zaNc_0InwvxA9UcjktK/s320/DSC02261.JPG" /></a> Here's the trailhead.<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj00XlAmwm5eCXpL6-O_Hi8T_YdfZwiInQPei8Ewe-QKZrUl3lJRT_tuAsD_8Qho88zz1nDOP_IJVS8ij_A6YEi9yQITQhGND1MPw8ENRFWYY_wqNS1TVNMHEKByCJBrLAMsSPRXfffUO7j/s1600/DSC02262.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680473729276044130" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj00XlAmwm5eCXpL6-O_Hi8T_YdfZwiInQPei8Ewe-QKZrUl3lJRT_tuAsD_8Qho88zz1nDOP_IJVS8ij_A6YEi9yQITQhGND1MPw8ENRFWYY_wqNS1TVNMHEKByCJBrLAMsSPRXfffUO7j/s320/DSC02262.JPG" /></a> A picture from the parking lot outside the trailhead.<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvayVJDDQNwl4xtyrP6WdXIi4sxGLDwDD4QOJOZIxjoWc7r1hAjAuOGnNDqTMDNE0VRumuagNNON85JGwdUY0AjCKaWVz5Uh9l6CkzIOPq5Ku8xlaBb663NYOxCOwrIGbBU4pG47OPi7D_/s1600/DSC02265.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680473630215724226" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvayVJDDQNwl4xtyrP6WdXIi4sxGLDwDD4QOJOZIxjoWc7r1hAjAuOGnNDqTMDNE0VRumuagNNON85JGwdUY0AjCKaWVz5Uh9l6CkzIOPq5Ku8xlaBb663NYOxCOwrIGbBU4pG47OPi7D_/s320/DSC02265.JPG" /></a> The day after the race (Saturday) I was set to fly home around 1:30pm and wanted to squeeze in one last distance ski. So, I convinced Stefan to head out for a skate overdistance ski with me starting at 6am. As you can see, it was a little cold (that's not a typo and it's not in Celsius). Once we got going, it was an awesome ski and we saw the sunrise, which was pretty impressive. One of those skis that reminded me of why I love to ski so much (generally speaking though, almost every time I skied all week I was reminded of that). After the ski, Stefan gave me a ride up to Bozeman and I flew home without incident. When I arrived home however, it was 55 degrees out - that's 75 degrees warmer than it was in the picture above. Think about that - I flew to Rochester, NY (not exactly a place known for it's balmy temperatures this time of year) and it was 75 degrees warmer than where I started my day. Not sure if that'll ever happen again. </div><br /><div></div><br /><div>I feel really lucky to have been able to go on this trip and am very excited for the winter to come. Now, we just need mother nature to cooperate a little in the Northeast and get us some snow!</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-125104234897094992011-11-24T12:10:00.000-08:002011-11-29T09:31:31.864-08:00Wedding season finaleOk, these next two posts will come in rapid succession because I've been very busy being very busy and haven't had time to post here.<br /><br />Two weekends ago was my brother John's wedding in Philly. Nancy and I went down to Philly on Wednesday night and stayed with our close friends the Schneider's for a couple days before the wedding festivities kicked off. In addition to frightening a few dogs in the Schwenksville, PA area that saw me roller skiing around Scott's neighborhood, we also spent some great time with them and went to a Bela Fleck and the Flecktones show. We also drove an hour each way to go to a beer store in Allentown, PA, which may sound like a long way to go for beer, but it was like Beers of the World on steroids, defintely worth the drive. It was a great time all around.<br /><br />Moving on to Friday night, we had the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.<br /><br />Saturday was the big show - the ceremony was at 2pm at a church in Media, PA and the reception was at a very nice country club in West Chester, PA. If was a very nice day and we're very happy to welcome Theresa into the family.<br /><br />Here are some pictures:<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0eDnDxbAQcVoskz3UiQA3g56B77yOqlppqr_ndRj1HfDLjzEieZG-BSHmnqJH_xvXikgypv8IWplLPQZNTX9vYTufxsYYlydSTU7gJEE_UYZKZBw8-33umIEGDiNmRc6bOiQJHM2U8T8m/s1600/DSC02218.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 194px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680469957079881682" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0eDnDxbAQcVoskz3UiQA3g56B77yOqlppqr_ndRj1HfDLjzEieZG-BSHmnqJH_xvXikgypv8IWplLPQZNTX9vYTufxsYYlydSTU7gJEE_UYZKZBw8-33umIEGDiNmRc6bOiQJHM2U8T8m/s320/DSC02218.JPG" /></a> This is a picture of all the Maynard family in attendance, except for John and Theresea who were off doing other bride and groom activities during the cocktail hour.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1Q8evSgz1N8s6Pb8MqTm3UnN2fCU_dUg5o0a7JaiDvxvrvWNUvLE5TmKMgCey_ka5PjjNYSBA4PodiP5UlVn9ACYOI7QyKWiCq9L5Io_LAqKzoYegq9lXlru9QDm2_RXsijD7IW3lAhh/s1600/DSC02217.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 226px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680469880558676930" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA1Q8evSgz1N8s6Pb8MqTm3UnN2fCU_dUg5o0a7JaiDvxvrvWNUvLE5TmKMgCey_ka5PjjNYSBA4PodiP5UlVn9ACYOI7QyKWiCq9L5Io_LAqKzoYegq9lXlru9QDm2_RXsijD7IW3lAhh/s320/DSC02217.JPG" /></a>Keith and his youngest daughter Megan.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgY9rwK412Lzi_vYP9Fdv8UQEhuZFFWoBSddhUCOHMqP1E6saHl1u39f2aEmsmPNtnga-3FLQ1f-FqXYzkH6lwU3y4c1QdjHVvfnLAP3lPoeJJmC2NbiHYs_pKq_vucwkGMk0GcAGvWA7w/s1600/DSC02214.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 297px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680469786754804626" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgY9rwK412Lzi_vYP9Fdv8UQEhuZFFWoBSddhUCOHMqP1E6saHl1u39f2aEmsmPNtnga-3FLQ1f-FqXYzkH6lwU3y4c1QdjHVvfnLAP3lPoeJJmC2NbiHYs_pKq_vucwkGMk0GcAGvWA7w/s320/DSC02214.JPG" /></a>Sueann, Keith, Nancy and I.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBkpv3pR3tfEXoL_zLFHF0UguCnlqJX40BHRxZWRiiKSnzapVKG2D_IG7vaRk0QXErImEJIiLFsFsh1S9lEVt2vf2q4OVWaSz7qbPFowZyAwo_YwLzW0k0a00jjqwZ9CdFgY7-DiadT1n/s1600/DSC02213.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 301px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680469697246807842" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkBkpv3pR3tfEXoL_zLFHF0UguCnlqJX40BHRxZWRiiKSnzapVKG2D_IG7vaRk0QXErImEJIiLFsFsh1S9lEVt2vf2q4OVWaSz7qbPFowZyAwo_YwLzW0k0a00jjqwZ9CdFgY7-DiadT1n/s320/DSC02213.JPG" /></a> My parents with John and Theresea.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCAbkHK86a0gcLclTE58ImbELw1Bjic2RTS4CQ1fisvCj9hrXe-c8lDtkjhNxAFt5YmYiCGF6HAdHpYqKSQatUL1fn9vxGu1fzje_SgmxhXLdw6XUmVn9D4hwc7L_FKmBw68rwdGOF9LE/s1600/DSC02189.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680469601155176018" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTCAbkHK86a0gcLclTE58ImbELw1Bjic2RTS4CQ1fisvCj9hrXe-c8lDtkjhNxAFt5YmYiCGF6HAdHpYqKSQatUL1fn9vxGu1fzje_SgmxhXLdw6XUmVn9D4hwc7L_FKmBw68rwdGOF9LE/s320/DSC02189.JPG" /></a> Here's all the groomsmem before the ceremony - left to right - Harry (Theresea's brother), Matt, Keith, John, Tommie (best man), me, Jason (nicknamed Veggie) and Kyle (nicknamed Zorro).<br /><br /><div><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBuyPPNRbemPSRLReQaRmF2kAPb6ipBIH9apiOcz2JrMp27BpwL5NBwVxzeDJW8T3dVYUzYF-Mq9FEYNqtfPM-HK3qe7BgYy7Cd0sdSkGjg19kvs8L9pKClXZcE3zvEBJ-XLfKyGUzzAR/s1600/DSC02226.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 241px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5678667541629151122" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBuyPPNRbemPSRLReQaRmF2kAPb6ipBIH9apiOcz2JrMp27BpwL5NBwVxzeDJW8T3dVYUzYF-Mq9FEYNqtfPM-HK3qe7BgYy7Cd0sdSkGjg19kvs8L9pKClXZcE3zvEBJ-XLfKyGUzzAR/s320/DSC02226.JPG" /></a> John and Theresea just sitting down for dinner.</div><br /><div></div><br /><div>The day after the wedding we drove back to Rochester, I spent about 12 hours at home before heading to the airport to leave for West Yellowstone, Montana...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgt-YeWx4vH5PRmdyBvLncZx4autEWix0qk8L-xCWPtj5m-VFL9c2p0ohMnwQaby6sEi_T_YQpLJSjV8S7ATxay6pjKXPg2l3NuLPnID0z3a_5-unwh0aGipLrFGhVPvddNdunzk4j855a3/s1600/DSC02226.JPG"></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-62393617914498916802011-11-13T15:17:00.000-08:002011-11-15T12:24:03.525-08:00Long sleeve shirts in Rotterdam<p>I got home last Wednesday from a 10 day trip to Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and Germany again. It was pretty hectic and I was moving hotels almost every night, but I was able to pack a lot in to the trip. I'm also slowly becoming a little more familiar with the different areas of these countires. As with most countries, there are regional disagreements. In Belgium, this is a pretty serious situation between the Flemish speaking region and the French speaking region. The disagreements have essentially brough the political process there to a standstill for the past couple years. </p><br /><p>In Holland, they also have some differences, but from what I've gathered, there are less serious. They seem to be NY-Boston type of rivalry between Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The way it was explained to me is the following - people from Rotterdam think people from Amsterdam are stuck up, over educated and all talk, conversely people from Amsterdam think people from Rotterdam are ignorant and have no culture. Anyways, our local partner there is a "Rotterdamer" and proud of it, and he had a great one-liner - "If you buy a long sleeve shirt in Rotterdam, the sleeves come rolled up, so you're ready to go to work right away." </p><br /><p>I had one free day on this trip and was able to see some of downtown Brussels. I also visited the Delerium Cafe on the recommendation of my buddy Scott. It was quite a journey finding the place, but I eventually made it, only to find it closed...after I'd been walking around for most of the afternoon. Anyways, I found a place around the corner which had some type of affiliation with the Cafe and sampled some of the Abbey beers there. Here are some pictures from the trip:</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioJBlBim1a593HkXrFJCmkSfe2AYgDXznejn8_j5XCnsupzmIl0zspt-DfmVxKMinXlmwp5JBcVw5zLSF_HkoLt8IAsXRbgKASH29auZOeDsz1eTLKxPGhwm9L9AxnzVKqTfjU5rIl4jPN/s1600/DSC02150.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674624678474956562" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioJBlBim1a593HkXrFJCmkSfe2AYgDXznejn8_j5XCnsupzmIl0zspt-DfmVxKMinXlmwp5JBcVw5zLSF_HkoLt8IAsXRbgKASH29auZOeDsz1eTLKxPGhwm9L9AxnzVKqTfjU5rIl4jPN/s320/DSC02150.JPG" /></a> Old looking cathedral in Brussels.<br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpHJsCcb_qFZYmWg1kv9608e3A8dpLFr8k3y2wGpgkJQriL-fZjvxaHwQXx_9aH7DF_VmmchcBU8lY3xJEuffDodD7Bu_qahezG3tRAl3FK_x6hRT9xo7lXGiHNo1LyiIaT9jMx_yCa2bL/s1600/DSC02151.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674624604875457106" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpHJsCcb_qFZYmWg1kv9608e3A8dpLFr8k3y2wGpgkJQriL-fZjvxaHwQXx_9aH7DF_VmmchcBU8lY3xJEuffDodD7Bu_qahezG3tRAl3FK_x6hRT9xo7lXGiHNo1LyiIaT9jMx_yCa2bL/s320/DSC02151.JPG" /></a> City street in Brussels.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEbs70GVbC0bnUVWw5umwsQS0bB5UmV1JX1EZTCULmDeLtsN4rRFwNYeo0jG5Z5aYEgf_my_77BiZcLolXuYvGZBEPXimR67lHOS1edAoRFcl8-wWb_cQh2e8nHX5ljX-eXNo1MN3M1WMg/s1600/DSC02157.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674624528419157890" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEbs70GVbC0bnUVWw5umwsQS0bB5UmV1JX1EZTCULmDeLtsN4rRFwNYeo0jG5Z5aYEgf_my_77BiZcLolXuYvGZBEPXimR67lHOS1edAoRFcl8-wWb_cQh2e8nHX5ljX-eXNo1MN3M1WMg/s320/DSC02157.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZHnTXj4CtIQBMC8tTyhm9YrdRWJvbKj5caPW497ikKfJSXKMHJ52woWogxH7KIHemZRM8qiIOmbKhQmOcTxfZZPjGaaZomN4OHbtlxnIt5JeYR_KON4fo95PiR-sqXg3TEmlVAxWQ31z/s1600/DSC02160.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674624456832799746" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXZHnTXj4CtIQBMC8tTyhm9YrdRWJvbKj5caPW497ikKfJSXKMHJ52woWogxH7KIHemZRM8qiIOmbKhQmOcTxfZZPjGaaZomN4OHbtlxnIt5JeYR_KON4fo95PiR-sqXg3TEmlVAxWQ31z/s320/DSC02160.JPG" /></a> Massive cathedral in center city area of Brussels. This was only one section, my camera didn't have a wide enough lens to get the whole thing.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQ0NUZh1mMdZWY6EsMyQxbUMBXlW8yUWtFf3B3jbdZXNbDI5f4lHjLalVi2E5GmVLXWRbXJH-s7kin-QAYCGC5ihqkFWcXOEWIqdKlW2xBW0Bfv3JPceAfWzhWH__iDWf5WaT7X1Bynbb/s1600/DSC02162.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674624374488582738" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGQ0NUZh1mMdZWY6EsMyQxbUMBXlW8yUWtFf3B3jbdZXNbDI5f4lHjLalVi2E5GmVLXWRbXJH-s7kin-QAYCGC5ihqkFWcXOEWIqdKlW2xBW0Bfv3JPceAfWzhWH__iDWf5WaT7X1Bynbb/s320/DSC02162.JPG" /></a> Here's the place that was closed.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizboh7Zp5zbrnS3QdiHnjzyTQunzxkN-EvfsfOEws4kbSzD72HO2kaW7pX8vyWzI_crrZTxeSeGHpWnL9hihovKRmUgDlvzmnyQxqHVarq_EmQ5Ia_WHMvRPAW3FyZ0bAU9MeYUFCJVTji/s1600/DSC02163.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674624306644817970" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizboh7Zp5zbrnS3QdiHnjzyTQunzxkN-EvfsfOEws4kbSzD72HO2kaW7pX8vyWzI_crrZTxeSeGHpWnL9hihovKRmUgDlvzmnyQxqHVarq_EmQ5Ia_WHMvRPAW3FyZ0bAU9MeYUFCJVTji/s320/DSC02163.JPG" /></a> Here's a shot of the place I found inside. The barrels served as tables.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEMyjrGmvsuz_bFU80cL4EZjBMEzaiKmpat_N3iJvqRtcHkMZBCrLGUBPMr9nA0um-4Lw8Ad_NVcFKaww8FQXGNsZMF94BV-WIv05-oYwhdCnJP0zHbKh4p6pHQAxFwMenK3-Bs9a6cwoA/s1600/DSC02164.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674624240233971522" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEMyjrGmvsuz_bFU80cL4EZjBMEzaiKmpat_N3iJvqRtcHkMZBCrLGUBPMr9nA0um-4Lw8Ad_NVcFKaww8FQXGNsZMF94BV-WIv05-oYwhdCnJP0zHbKh4p6pHQAxFwMenK3-Bs9a6cwoA/s320/DSC02164.JPG" /></a> They had like 300 beers available. It's a good thing Scott had given me a recomended list before I went to this place because I'd never heard of any of these.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIF1xMjySoDoTNMtcLXJjBhSgrnbWkzuu2wnWb8BUz1Ej1XJZxOGdRWY4z2zjGxZN-uRBMbk4K_GO29EFp8ShTT8UKQOviSj3betDSE1JyGVKM3CZInGyeLcL1vGjkmUfvcod9Vnua7_Im/s1600/DSC02166.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674624145046416962" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIF1xMjySoDoTNMtcLXJjBhSgrnbWkzuu2wnWb8BUz1Ej1XJZxOGdRWY4z2zjGxZN-uRBMbk4K_GO29EFp8ShTT8UKQOviSj3betDSE1JyGVKM3CZInGyeLcL1vGjkmUfvcod9Vnua7_Im/s320/DSC02166.JPG" /></a> This is a church in a small town in Northern Germany near Kempen.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3xS9soN3rrxhdHRBc4NyoZ59bwz-iQpDJmDzkj0f2WJdSAxqqf61sxkMYoOQ9YX9vN0soki05DDMZnyimLTKUKz4WykKFx63kgtQVaEUvJyI_aw2zPs9FYPYFmeoA-UW2gU881PoRam6F/s1600/DSC02169.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674624065164851650" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3xS9soN3rrxhdHRBc4NyoZ59bwz-iQpDJmDzkj0f2WJdSAxqqf61sxkMYoOQ9YX9vN0soki05DDMZnyimLTKUKz4WykKFx63kgtQVaEUvJyI_aw2zPs9FYPYFmeoA-UW2gU881PoRam6F/s320/DSC02169.JPG" /></a> Center city of that city.<br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggRCxsGfg5b_d0v2YllL_jLSbma7lp4Df1Rfi0BwEekcxbPBQTVEr7e95M2TeA9DnANmPUlV5ZWiaBZflfwAipLrq0A-jjPw8RknSfFAYUh7KDhy5WlrpRuYkgyMBx24lN-p2MNdHNw6-o/s1600/DSC02170.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674623970540993874" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggRCxsGfg5b_d0v2YllL_jLSbma7lp4Df1Rfi0BwEekcxbPBQTVEr7e95M2TeA9DnANmPUlV5ZWiaBZflfwAipLrq0A-jjPw8RknSfFAYUh7KDhy5WlrpRuYkgyMBx24lN-p2MNdHNw6-o/s320/DSC02170.JPG" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqIWuX-K3h7cvDtjybPUnStd33KcOHsRTK-n-CZ9A4Q7iv0rhy_HhcYd1GiKnQ241Of38x_XqiD2-UPdwfizRgERieC1VG2YR8zimhv1UKtHOTRrq6iBFagrAtMef5-k9NOqpuLH06bMuW/s1600/DSC02171.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5674623900189520274" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqIWuX-K3h7cvDtjybPUnStd33KcOHsRTK-n-CZ9A4Q7iv0rhy_HhcYd1GiKnQ241Of38x_XqiD2-UPdwfizRgERieC1VG2YR8zimhv1UKtHOTRrq6iBFagrAtMef5-k9NOqpuLH06bMuW/s320/DSC02171.JPG" /></a> Definitely a cool area, there was some type of festival going as well when we were there.<br /><br /><div></div><br /><div>I'm headed to Philly for my brother's wedding and on to West Yellowstone on Monday, where the skiing looks to be shaping up to be amazing.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-27806206167713778572011-11-05T01:22:00.001-07:002011-11-05T04:02:54.303-07:00Penultimate wedding of 2011<div><span style="font-size:85%;">I'm a few blog posts behind, so I'll try to catch up over the next few days. Last weekend was our 2nd to last wedding of the year. It's been a pretty hectic year with a lot of weddings of all types (in-town, out-of-town, traditional, non-traditional, etc). Nancy's college roomate Sarah (also one of the bridesmaids in our wedding) got married to a very close friend of Nancy's brother Doug, who's also from Penfield. Needless to say, there was a lot of "wow, it's a pretty small world" going on. They did everything for the wedding themselves and all of the food was locally grown or raised, which was a very cool concept. In addition to it being a cool concept, I'm more than certain it took an incredible amount of work and planning, but everything went off without a hitch and was excellent. Overall, it was a very unique wedding, but I think it was exactly what they wanted it to be. I hope that Sarah and Sky will be documenting everything that they did to pull this off, as I'm sure it would be a great case study in project management. Anyways, here are some pictures.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihM5pIrNd_1JnblpLnerocm_vMmX1yjHJt3V2C9VmJp6Ze8JYHEHip4YoaCeJu5UibYvAaz_fSTrPwszXImmVSzq21L8sKHdYztGcCLCiBCLtYICU-HY0AqPWr4JCAsVnKK8Mxa_wv-rW_/s1600/DSC02139.JPG"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671424708202726354" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihM5pIrNd_1JnblpLnerocm_vMmX1yjHJt3V2C9VmJp6Ze8JYHEHip4YoaCeJu5UibYvAaz_fSTrPwszXImmVSzq21L8sKHdYztGcCLCiBCLtYICU-HY0AqPWr4JCAsVnKK8Mxa_wv-rW_/s320/DSC02139.JPG" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> Sarah and Sky.<br /><br /><br /></span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpzeQNLZqZPkJ0Nraiqaoh3A7ZS_v3vC4Cf7YbQc2nnkbG26tHLFqyjD6MnaP-peoZk-QdyF7qZfRUptu2xI5QDEU-_wS4Xd6GsmYi7motC7aSDmswfDwJbLA58pjenh-zhdFRu245352y/s1600/DSC02129.JPG"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671424635144648242" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpzeQNLZqZPkJ0Nraiqaoh3A7ZS_v3vC4Cf7YbQc2nnkbG26tHLFqyjD6MnaP-peoZk-QdyF7qZfRUptu2xI5QDEU-_wS4Xd6GsmYi7motC7aSDmswfDwJbLA58pjenh-zhdFRu245352y/s320/DSC02129.JPG" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;"> There were a lot of Colgate Alum there. Nancy's 2nd from the left and her brother Doug is in the back with the beard. One other item of note - Sky went to Dartmouth, so there were also a lot of his college friends there - apparently they have a dance that they teach to all incoming freshman. In the middle of the dancing portion of the night, they cleared the dancefloor and all the Dartmouth alum did this syncronized dance, which was one of the more impressive things I've seen recently.<br /><br /><br /></span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipB_T2kl0w141kzPWQCsRsNb3KGpZIivocoNz86dWMGI9jkrPf5yVxa5-YPWEoWSMiGZd4CLt07pun7fixy5XSiwJzmXiQMwsDfggTTjQ_YwUK-ohUJdvgE7TM65Y6uEhT2L0gCCsO8bQV/s1600/DSC02127.JPG"><span style="font-size:85%;"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671424567144205266" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipB_T2kl0w141kzPWQCsRsNb3KGpZIivocoNz86dWMGI9jkrPf5yVxa5-YPWEoWSMiGZd4CLt07pun7fixy5XSiwJzmXiQMwsDfggTTjQ_YwUK-ohUJdvgE7TM65Y6uEhT2L0gCCsO8bQV/s320/DSC02127.JPG" /></span></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Nancy and I contemplating whether to go to the snack setup or go hit up the lawn games during cocktail hour. The beer for the wedding was from Custom Brewcrafters (sticking with the locally produced theme) and everyone was issued a mason jar to drink out of for the night.<br /><br /><br /></span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBisa_BxfQDoQlKw50iRW2V5DOX_E6NqAx74iThx9jzQzGH8ydkYU0acz-9JkG4HNS4hKOn7M6u35aKCxUy0ko0Fv7wFPkXupLSxcdsw6C7U29cwyD1BIC-0vv3TdTzCEX2-52MUX8VGvg/s1600/DSC02122.JPG"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5671424486502058386" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBisa_BxfQDoQlKw50iRW2V5DOX_E6NqAx74iThx9jzQzGH8ydkYU0acz-9JkG4HNS4hKOn7M6u35aKCxUy0ko0Fv7wFPkXupLSxcdsw6C7U29cwyD1BIC-0vv3TdTzCEX2-52MUX8VGvg/s320/DSC02122.JPG" /></span></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"> The guitarist (Ben) on the left also happened to be a teammate of mine in little league, high school and college baseball and we coached for several years together after college. He is also a great guitarist and Sky's brother-in-law, hence his involvement in the wedding. It was great to catch up with Ben and hopefully I'l be doing some coaching with him again soon.</span></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVilbtNK124R7Qa4BeZ8hdT4gScES28rA0QQjEBlkF9lpydfsGKjd24JMJi6NfA3Tl_gLR1vrs2_FLLRiMohkkCMq-4LoJqSBPmSyXQ0AoYcJxp6p-ipMTV7zY_TW6kqSs6kP6bgtpAwx/s1600/DSC02140.JPG"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVilbtNK124R7Qa4BeZ8hdT4gScES28rA0QQjEBlkF9lpydfsGKjd24JMJi6NfA3Tl_gLR1vrs2_FLLRiMohkkCMq-4LoJqSBPmSyXQ0AoYcJxp6p-ipMTV7zY_TW6kqSs6kP6bgtpAwx/s1600/DSC02140.JPG"></a><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">As I mentioned, this was out 2nd to last wedding of 2011. The last one is a big one - my brother John is getting married down in Philly two weeks from today, so I'm definitely looking forward to that. I'm currently in Belgium and have been bouncing around a lot the last week. I'll be in Germany early next week then get home Wednesday night.</span></div></div></div></div></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-7290930866491488702011-10-22T16:51:00.000-07:002011-10-22T17:26:16.488-07:00Lots to say, not a lot of time to say it....<span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">just a very quick post to say the following:</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- I went to Georgia, had a very productive trip.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- had a really long trip home.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- enjoyed a great weekend with the Ogbornes celebrating the life of their wonderful mother and wish I could have spent more time with both Ron and Rob and their great families.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- follwing that, I received an Ali-style knockout punch for 4ish days. I was boomerang-ing between a temperature of 103 and about 95, going back and forth between shivering and exploding with heat. I was easily the sickest I've been in at least 10 years, couldn't get off the couch for anything. Went to the doctor, they were useless...and I say "they" because I never actually saw my doctor (although I did speak to two others), even though this is the first time I've tried to see him in like 5 years. In fact, couldn't even get him on the phone over the course of 4 days. F-ing useless, anyone know a good general physician?</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- things seem to have turned around, but I'm pretty exhausted.</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- had to skip the trip to Texas with Nance. I spend so much time travelling alone, not that fun that I had to drop my wife off at an airport for a plane I was supposed to be on with her, also had to cancel dinner plans with my Uncle in Houston who I rarely get to see, bummer all around...</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">-I will say one thing though - Delta refunded the full price of my ticket - as much as people slam the airlines, that was cool...I didn't expect that at all, and they upgraded Nance to first class on the way there, so pretty sweet...</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">So, as much as this post might sound negative, I always try to be a half-full sort of person...I'm looking forward and not back...but I will say one thing looking back </span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:85%;">- Here's to you Mrs. O: You were too amazing of a person for me to describe here, and you left the world a better place than you found it!!</span>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-59320035549660648582011-10-09T10:39:00.001-07:002011-10-09T11:33:21.500-07:00Knodel's wedding<div style="text-align: left;">I tried to come up with a witty or creative title for this post, but it's actually pretty straight-forward. My good buddy from college Matt got married last weekend in Buffalo and I was extremely honored to be apart of it. Matt and I were teammates and roomates in college and for another year after college. Since then, he's settled in Buffalo where I've hung out with him quite a bit over the years. For a while after college, Nancy lived in Buffalo and it seemed like I was there every weekend hanging with that crew.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There were a lot of other RIT baseball alum at the wedding including my other college roomates. Since I missed alumni weekend this year, it was the first time I'd seen many of those guys in over a year if not longer. I'm always amazed that we all came together at the same school at the same time and became such close friends and although we don't see eachother that often, as soon as we come together, it's like we've seen eachother everyday for the past ten years. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The weekend kicked off on Thursday night, when I made it to Matt's house after getting lost in Buffalo (my GPS led me awry again). I stayed Thursday and Friday at the house of another college buddy, Doogie (pics below) and helped Matt with wedding prep stuff and met up with a bunch of other Buffalo friends. The rehearsal dinner was Saturday at Pearl St and the wedding was Sunday in Delaware Park. The whole weekend was a blur and went by too fast, but it was great to see everyone and great to see Matt and Sarah so happy on their big day. Oh, and we also made sure to act like college-age guys as much as possible. Here are some pictures:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfS_DGL8xVT8d16uTZnYZEbWZcvFvJ84OAiVVF_xJr0bzoZHyVwbY7vc-DZl-n6xtnW3xb3OkabcDS3Rny_36PlnAHuOXYSZH4g5PPFsR1IrQk51jkrd84YAGN9DRbEL0BxUUEzeBBTdN5/s320/DSC02108.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661553441252097330" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div>Sarah and Matt right after the ceremony.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMiKGBLhB0acmqZBjGmDBgheaVuyrHwiKFZzsRVDtqsETjKTenZI7so1m2ayCme0o4M4JioYjq7q7nqk6DM4ohIGMqb0c10qwwo7on8XjzQAWL0xxUpCFlTDKMfhKuHyC4rWD6gCBjrwQl/s1600/photo+%25281%2529.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqVhCbiRV71ISm-c0uyh5jWeCJzV_SkHzfi3Z99HvLgVGxOEBWWGTDBEzfxDrsGMGvgOikX5SyrjXW2fEmYy9oBfDrmxG6_EES6DBmm_UOXgq4USCrdEuJ7I4qtLYrPY5SaHoYFE21CANG/s1600/DSC02104.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqVhCbiRV71ISm-c0uyh5jWeCJzV_SkHzfi3Z99HvLgVGxOEBWWGTDBEzfxDrsGMGvgOikX5SyrjXW2fEmYy9oBfDrmxG6_EES6DBmm_UOXgq4USCrdEuJ7I4qtLYrPY5SaHoYFE21CANG/s320/DSC02104.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661553607528771330" /></a>This is us waiting for Sarah to come down the aisle.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAJlU5QXKv2PEBASFWkBr4tXu2JbVt6hc_wSstIxnpf7zIyrEVqJzSwfDDHRaO_gSaKQC9ASE2VStc_Otx6emFkgmSd6h_DqEmeoz3sPHLwHuDBnadJnuo5SFBzzEoJ3veV-KDbruQDZss/s1600/DSC02105.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 190px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAJlU5QXKv2PEBASFWkBr4tXu2JbVt6hc_wSstIxnpf7zIyrEVqJzSwfDDHRaO_gSaKQC9ASE2VStc_Otx6emFkgmSd6h_DqEmeoz3sPHLwHuDBnadJnuo5SFBzzEoJ3veV-KDbruQDZss/s320/DSC02105.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661553522039727218" /></a>Matt and Sarah's lovely daughter Julia, also the flower girl.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfS_DGL8xVT8d16uTZnYZEbWZcvFvJ84OAiVVF_xJr0bzoZHyVwbY7vc-DZl-n6xtnW3xb3OkabcDS3Rny_36PlnAHuOXYSZH4g5PPFsR1IrQk51jkrd84YAGN9DRbEL0BxUUEzeBBTdN5/s1600/DSC02108.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjehycHkGIMg6nqAaIhZTWqD8Zy9Ne0S0iYl37x7iD4SqnOjXJ6sl0AMYzyYDdUOPCVBz57RFQx5nm2M5jQNauQlzCj9L3fgTqhmadnlh7_JVjoPYZV0Ma5apgrDXrOcVs_C0Erl9kww_Iq/s1600/DSC02113.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjehycHkGIMg6nqAaIhZTWqD8Zy9Ne0S0iYl37x7iD4SqnOjXJ6sl0AMYzyYDdUOPCVBz57RFQx5nm2M5jQNauQlzCj9L3fgTqhmadnlh7_JVjoPYZV0Ma5apgrDXrOcVs_C0Erl9kww_Iq/s320/DSC02113.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661553358817081730" /></a>Three sharply dressed gentleman, if I do say so myself. <br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9qtqI_Xw3isoO-EoJcYbClwJI2sf5u8T3K_NEXZTHsHVKijO90qndWVMCeyaO7KDoqpFblD_j1u1KMZiV80Vq-x6N9ybKR13g_gsmtYxVX6UkBoa-ApUUjtzDeszT50kpXfoo9R5K831k/s1600/DSC02115.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 261px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9qtqI_Xw3isoO-EoJcYbClwJI2sf5u8T3K_NEXZTHsHVKijO90qndWVMCeyaO7KDoqpFblD_j1u1KMZiV80Vq-x6N9ybKR13g_gsmtYxVX6UkBoa-ApUUjtzDeszT50kpXfoo9R5K831k/s320/DSC02115.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661553247204258642" /></a>Here's the RIT baseball alumni picture. As always Joe B in the orange tie (future mayor of Rochester) is front and center.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmuEtXWMFtPBd5Ky0boQpbXz11OIXnzNckmWVcU-AH6PIKb9cXrUsMvQKPM_e0KymeYAUMK0kdR3lqXh3oyJ_Rt3Mi8IJb2GvFhZGI9dRAhnji19MXdLdpWrG9mmmp_VPorRoQaR2XDuVt/s1600/DSC02117.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmuEtXWMFtPBd5Ky0boQpbXz11OIXnzNckmWVcU-AH6PIKb9cXrUsMvQKPM_e0KymeYAUMK0kdR3lqXh3oyJ_Rt3Mi8IJb2GvFhZGI9dRAhnji19MXdLdpWrG9mmmp_VPorRoQaR2XDuVt/s320/DSC02117.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661553179941035154" /></a>Two outfielders, a pitcher and a catcher walk into a bar...Left to right - Brendan, Doogie, Joe and I.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ikxiZWnexx9gR5NsQfHulm-EOFmbblFTuXbe42P4vawlu5Q-_p1RUnOA3atCiIlnwsUrbfwQOGmHPca9OdtClCXUwpvOx5NUNKfdjYL01gKoqeVQKJM39xJq_RO9huOmYPom1YT6ribk/s1600/DSC02119.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5ikxiZWnexx9gR5NsQfHulm-EOFmbblFTuXbe42P4vawlu5Q-_p1RUnOA3atCiIlnwsUrbfwQOGmHPca9OdtClCXUwpvOx5NUNKfdjYL01gKoqeVQKJM39xJq_RO9huOmYPom1YT6ribk/s320/DSC02119.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661553108298987618" /></a>Erin and Jeff, Ski and Courtney. Interestingly enough, I have a friend that we all call "Ski" that doesn't ski at all.<div><br /></div><div>...and for two random pictures from the weekend:<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihLvIYNom3qi_yOrVvqTvC3HP2u2Jzy_rRxnNDmU1nKfMiQxbqr7nTe5IIgoRS5k81E3OUUo9-KoaBmNS_8deeOjm03xYzyHqQExQQQhuGQ7sJyvb-TggADyVAZ5M8aISwXtzT9WqQjijr/s1600/DSC02103.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihLvIYNom3qi_yOrVvqTvC3HP2u2Jzy_rRxnNDmU1nKfMiQxbqr7nTe5IIgoRS5k81E3OUUo9-KoaBmNS_8deeOjm03xYzyHqQExQQQhuGQ7sJyvb-TggADyVAZ5M8aISwXtzT9WqQjijr/s320/DSC02103.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661553705750229650" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;">The day before the wedding we had some time to kill before the rehearsal, so logically enough, a few of us found ourselves in a bar. The people in the picture are (L-R) George, Allison, Drew and Jeff (also a groomsmen). Two things that are unexplainable in this picture - 1) what is Jeff doing with his phone? 2) it appears that he's drinking his beer with a straw. This might be ok for some people, but Jeff sells beer for a living...here's to hoping Sam Adams never gets a hold of this pic.</div></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMiKGBLhB0acmqZBjGmDBgheaVuyrHwiKFZzsRVDtqsETjKTenZI7so1m2ayCme0o4M4JioYjq7q7nqk6DM4ohIGMqb0c10qwwo7on8XjzQAWL0xxUpCFlTDKMfhKuHyC4rWD6gCBjrwQl/s1600/photo+%25281%2529.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMiKGBLhB0acmqZBjGmDBgheaVuyrHwiKFZzsRVDtqsETjKTenZI7so1m2ayCme0o4M4JioYjq7q7nqk6DM4ohIGMqb0c10qwwo7on8XjzQAWL0xxUpCFlTDKMfhKuHyC4rWD6gCBjrwQl/s320/photo+%25281%2529.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5661554157020745538" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 239px; height: 320px; " /></a><div style="text-align: left;">On the way walking to that bar, I saw this sign. I am very happy to know that in the event of a nuclear attack, I know that I can go to this church to avoid any danger.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihLvIYNom3qi_yOrVvqTvC3HP2u2Jzy_rRxnNDmU1nKfMiQxbqr7nTe5IIgoRS5k81E3OUUo9-KoaBmNS_8deeOjm03xYzyHqQExQQQhuGQ7sJyvb-TggADyVAZ5M8aISwXtzT9WqQjijr/s1600/DSC02103.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></div><div><br /></div></div><div>All in all, it was a great weekend, although it did take a few days to recover from (getting too old to act like I'm in college, if you get my drift), but it's always great to see everyone and worth every second of the time we get to see each other.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'm currently writing this from the JFK airport on my way to Georgia. I get home on Friday and the Ogborne's are in town this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing their ever-expanding family. Although I do wish the circumstances were better, it will be great to see them nonetheless. Hopefully I will have time to update again in the next few days.</div><div><br /></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-31382174952594308812011-09-29T10:32:00.000-07:002011-09-29T10:47:01.093-07:0013.1 miles, take 2Last Saturday I ran my 2nd half marathon. I ran my first one earlier this year on very little specific running training. With all the travel I've had over the past couple months, I'm not in town all that much on the weekends so I wanted to pick a race that I knew I would be in town for, focus on it and train pretty specifically for it and also try a few different things in the week leading up to the race. The idea being to finetune my rest and nutrition in the 3-5 days before a big event (of which, I have several this winter).<div><br /></div><div>I found this race a couple months ago that seemingly no one I knew had heard. It was called the Niagara Hospice Dash in Niagara Falls. This was the first year they had a half-marathon option (previously it was only a 5k). I knew I would be in town and with the proximity, it also gave me an opportunity to visit my Grandfather, who lives in Lewiston. The race course started in Artpark in Lewiston, which incidentally is about 3/4 mile away from the house that my Grandparents used to live and my mom grew up in. The course went through Lewiston, north along the Lower Niagara, through Fort Niagara (literally through the Fort) and continued north to the finish line in Youngstown. It was an extremely well run event and also included a lot of water stations and live music at several points on the course, which was very cool.</div><div><br /></div><div>The race itself went pretty well, I finished in 1:25:41 (6:33/mile pace), which is about the pace I was expecting and was 4 minutes faster than I ran in Buffalo earlier this year. Additionally, the 2nd half of the race was as fast as the first half, which is probably the first time that's ever happened for me in a running race. I usually start way too fast and slow down big time. So, I took that as a positive sign for both my pacing and my fitness level. Also, I think my nutritional strategy worked well as I never felt out of gas and was even able to pick up the pace pretty well in the last mile.</div><div><br /></div><div>The visit with my grandpa was also a nice added benefit as I don't get enough opportunities to visit him with my travel schedule.</div><div><br /></div><div>Tonight, I'm headed to Buffalo for my good friend Matt Knodel's wedding. There's sure to be a story or two to come out of the next 4 days...stay tuned for the blog recap of that one!</div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-52477593186805113032011-09-20T13:30:00.001-07:002011-09-20T14:36:45.824-07:00Three countries and two states later...<div><br /></div><div>It's been far too long since I've updated this. Since my last post, I spent another week and a half in Germany and Holland, then flew home, spent one night at home and drove to Vermont for our good friends Rick and Shannon's wedding. Germany and Holland were relatively uneventful all things considered, although there were a few decent stories from the Germany leg of the trip, hopefully I'll post about those in a separate post.</div><div><br /></div><div>We left for Stowe, Vermont last Wednesday, with the bikes loaded up - the wedding was on Friday and we decided to make a long weekend out of it and stay until Sunday. The first day we were there it rained heavily, so our planned bike ride was cancelled. Instead, Jason and I took the groom-to-be on a nice trail run on the ski trails at Trapp Family Lodge. Rick bikes and bike races a lot, but isn't much of a runner, and the 7ish mile run we went on ended up being the longest of his life. He was able to make it down the aisle just fine the next day though. In fact, we went for a bike ride the morning of his wedding up to the top of smuggler's notch, which was a pretty fun ride and had some beautiful views all around.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here are some pictures of the main event:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF8tuS05LDAyKWd0ETxEew19kHQZqm8YKZ1x9s03v3opMIXJkg7mjmTtpsa8ksCcvMBM2aa1qAVwvOM4z-fvoH8fb84ePfqoH6ItWd49Tu8oUFfY9rJlF9_mYePkQBFweFzgGctxsJlDlY/s320/DSC02064.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542511286622962" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px; " /></span></div><div>Here's a picture of the program. Skiing is a big part of Shannon and Rick's life and, given that we were in an area of the Northeast known for skiing, it was definitely a strong theme throughout the weekend.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGR4GOZq4muCJ806hcMdVXUqQlVfJNQqf_AGOAEepbRkA7ki4VR3AmrxJpU4owBXwByS2GAvHR7p4kWnz-fexiTL9N6AVebtbxNC-YEVRIsKikpYv5yiAzDB9-C0Cuzx-bwADpiAeP7HAw/s1600/DSC02086.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGR4GOZq4muCJ806hcMdVXUqQlVfJNQqf_AGOAEepbRkA7ki4VR3AmrxJpU4owBXwByS2GAvHR7p4kWnz-fexiTL9N6AVebtbxNC-YEVRIsKikpYv5yiAzDB9-C0Cuzx-bwADpiAeP7HAw/s320/DSC02086.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542613843740850" /></a>Here's a shot of the ceremony - it was a huge honor for me to be able to perform the ceremony for two close friends. It was also a pretty amazing scene with the mountains in the background.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcuh_wPgtUuwOcendBqDCDkThlF_r5Czl_7dn_9ecDiQhyuVsJqJToY8UaoSOYE9OCdaf9yRpcOeTNs3svFJjDlJji0HJs_d06mqqWo7ZKwaEiunEzIy5tTaPM_Q42ojfv1uZYLqUglSkx/s1600/DSC02052.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcuh_wPgtUuwOcendBqDCDkThlF_r5Czl_7dn_9ecDiQhyuVsJqJToY8UaoSOYE9OCdaf9yRpcOeTNs3svFJjDlJji0HJs_d06mqqWo7ZKwaEiunEzIy5tTaPM_Q42ojfv1uZYLqUglSkx/s320/DSC02052.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542565970344066" /></a>Libby, Nancy and Anne - these three hung out a lot over the weekend while Chad, Jason and I were biking and running. I think the shoe stores in Stowe may have been a primary beneficiary of this dynamic.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF8tuS05LDAyKWd0ETxEew19kHQZqm8YKZ1x9s03v3opMIXJkg7mjmTtpsa8ksCcvMBM2aa1qAVwvOM4z-fvoH8fb84ePfqoH6ItWd49Tu8oUFfY9rJlF9_mYePkQBFweFzgGctxsJlDlY/s1600/DSC02064.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Zr-PYmMejPhMcg1gqrB3kc67eD5p5Dp-nWL4sWkSo2VuBM18lKhSiylClWaY_PVmAbFmcjEYdIwU_8DPlxovuZQZFDoTyCaD0EZ95og0El4vhiKmxGaWnuuYofhdm-u8y5da-lqHUisF/s1600/DSC02066.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Zr-PYmMejPhMcg1gqrB3kc67eD5p5Dp-nWL4sWkSo2VuBM18lKhSiylClWaY_PVmAbFmcjEYdIwU_8DPlxovuZQZFDoTyCaD0EZ95og0El4vhiKmxGaWnuuYofhdm-u8y5da-lqHUisF/s320/DSC02066.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542466054204674" /></a>Here are the groomsmen (Rick in the middle) - coincidentally the best man (2nd from the left) and the guy all the way to the right both work at Harris and the guy 2nd from the right used to work at Galyan's with me...oh and that guy all the way to the left was a groomsmen in my wedding as well...so yea, pretty small world I guess.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xeUTJrTOamDLee94ZTKEVz8tFXx7EcgLmsq86BfAzSx-_wjhZHugYFtqWo9TZPBLMSqmzN6mCBOozRA6HhzHnaixPjFthpRr6jCVYIWt_ylcaYNY01ILi_r1qtm6wsksAJYf2zOZACcU/s1600/DSC02068.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6xeUTJrTOamDLee94ZTKEVz8tFXx7EcgLmsq86BfAzSx-_wjhZHugYFtqWo9TZPBLMSqmzN6mCBOozRA6HhzHnaixPjFthpRr6jCVYIWt_ylcaYNY01ILi_r1qtm6wsksAJYf2zOZACcU/s320/DSC02068.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542415450426962" /></a>This was taken right before the ceremony, I had to have my game-face on!<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisvP-MjO0rauNhoDIeGivZkfFR0qW9BCiWvBcVwq2R2wrzbzhbvZRkbaE_odacwErp1yuTy6KjySPJO64k5SVWcm5gonGWexPpdhWTIUsExhlGg6I032Ki9NHybgD14yf4amzWFsR4-3Nu/s1600/DSC02076.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 238px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisvP-MjO0rauNhoDIeGivZkfFR0qW9BCiWvBcVwq2R2wrzbzhbvZRkbaE_odacwErp1yuTy6KjySPJO64k5SVWcm5gonGWexPpdhWTIUsExhlGg6I032Ki9NHybgD14yf4amzWFsR4-3Nu/s320/DSC02076.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542303829034690" /></a>This was Rick and I while we were waiting for the ceremony to kick off.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF79RQC8QGk8OJuSQQo3rQOdxfECZbMYIiudVoqF2s2_ufx_2Gk-NCfjS1YifnAWDqwvy0yYa-hJX9xOC9DuNY0ZelpGnQ5Q_QM15Fbofgy5CuwPjE8VM-V-rYppoyA4vgK_bL8Rrclj80/s1600/DSC02087.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF79RQC8QGk8OJuSQQo3rQOdxfECZbMYIiudVoqF2s2_ufx_2Gk-NCfjS1YifnAWDqwvy0yYa-hJX9xOC9DuNY0ZelpGnQ5Q_QM15Fbofgy5CuwPjE8VM-V-rYppoyA4vgK_bL8Rrclj80/s320/DSC02087.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542243003600162" /></a>Here's our table for the reception. They named all of the tables after famous ski runs from different resorts in Vermont.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdCnDvKf4K3NZPrHXKrRYQ5wE2JaoBMynUbDwSKxl3gwfGXBFRXYtYpj_WTZ5hGeB0kaTp29sbJubXEaJUvwUQRWGr2OMRuR7qi9gYfh9MbYnJmq8LvK9IMfQTbYDtlyJe0QOkhyehypM/s1600/DSC02092.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTdCnDvKf4K3NZPrHXKrRYQ5wE2JaoBMynUbDwSKxl3gwfGXBFRXYtYpj_WTZ5hGeB0kaTp29sbJubXEaJUvwUQRWGr2OMRuR7qi9gYfh9MbYnJmq8LvK9IMfQTbYDtlyJe0QOkhyehypM/s320/DSC02092.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542201968011618" /></a>There's the happy couple.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUH-h4KNhSQEcSNktoMQor6XbxH60alnBzZZ3Opk0qgGMLvypu_9DwJl-AFVwUjtb9emIuEcylL4_4tfyoJMjdSrfx-KZdIC5FZXP5XRCSAuVCTqgpyCJ-c59iUVrNbuy9IlgN2XcoQdSx/s1600/DSC02093.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUH-h4KNhSQEcSNktoMQor6XbxH60alnBzZZ3Opk0qgGMLvypu_9DwJl-AFVwUjtb9emIuEcylL4_4tfyoJMjdSrfx-KZdIC5FZXP5XRCSAuVCTqgpyCJ-c59iUVrNbuy9IlgN2XcoQdSx/s320/DSC02093.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542153548426914" /></a>I don't know who these idiots are, but it looks like they found out where the Vienna Lager was being served.<div><br /></div><div>All in all, the ceremony and reception were great. I think we were all also relieved that we had a free day after the wedding before having to make the long drive back to Rochester.</div><div><br /></div><div>On Saturday, Nancy and I sampled the Trapp Brewery's new Oktoberfest seasonal beer and had lunch outside overlooking the mountains. Not a bad view.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilZziihc_lYUC8IsJhREaDC18KQAUQtV5CmvbgKwYQq-A3pZEov1sWLhFuS8YSPh-e0MsL4oL6SvIOHZGxnBhoa9jSZPhnwFCZ8FwHQZdHLLgraWxmkO2QAzcGbZebjR2-c3eqyojcoQvs/s1600/photo+%25282%2529.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilZziihc_lYUC8IsJhREaDC18KQAUQtV5CmvbgKwYQq-A3pZEov1sWLhFuS8YSPh-e0MsL4oL6SvIOHZGxnBhoa9jSZPhnwFCZ8FwHQZdHLLgraWxmkO2QAzcGbZebjR2-c3eqyojcoQvs/s320/photo+%25282%2529.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654542093016794386" /></a><div style="text-align: left;">After lunch, we all went up to Williston, Vermont and watched a pro cyclocross race, which was pretty exciting and involved a lot of heckling from some of the spectators. Not going to lie, Cyclo-cross looks really fun!</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1hMtOs3o-gUv6WTBpMzjRmZPvg-4Ib9rfu4J_-CL-yYQEiGPwLCTJhWXLdeq52NyEX-24p3r_rZRo6MX7rLc1HE_8hnMOFX6OiUGfz5K6VfemZIIzwAbeeyOCSgsfrhyphenhyphenxyoUk0e57bkT/s1600/photo.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1hMtOs3o-gUv6WTBpMzjRmZPvg-4Ib9rfu4J_-CL-yYQEiGPwLCTJhWXLdeq52NyEX-24p3r_rZRo6MX7rLc1HE_8hnMOFX6OiUGfz5K6VfemZIIzwAbeeyOCSgsfrhyphenhyphenxyoUk0e57bkT/s320/photo.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5654541976535998930" /></a><br /></div><div>After one final dinner Saturday night and one last trail run Sunday morning, we hit the road and headed back for Rochester. After doing about 3 weeks worth of laundry and mowing the lawn, I was back in my office today for the first time in a few weeks. I seem to have picked up some type of a head cold, which I don't really have time for as I'm running a half marathon this Saturday in Niagara Falls. Hopefully I can shake it off quickly. I'm also looking forward to being home for a little bit here and hopefully get back into some type of normal routine for the next few weeks.</div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-30317338602534189712011-09-04T03:38:00.000-07:002011-09-04T04:15:53.449-07:00Bachelor parties, Supras and long runsI've been too busy to update this is in a while. I'm pretty much been on the road since my last update. Last weekend, my dad and I drove down to Philly for my brother John's bachelor party. Unfortunately Hurricane Irene didn't want us to execute our original plan for the weekend, but we still ended up making it to a Phillies game before having to head home. Coincidentally, Nancy's brother Doug was also at the game for a different bachelor party for a different guy from Penfield High School, so it was also great to catch up with him a little. So, it wasn't great to drive down to Philly on Friday and come right back Saturday, but after seeing the devastation that storm brought to some areas of Vermont and Northern New York, it seems pretty silly to complain that we had to cut a party short because of it, so we're not complaining. It was great to catch up with some of John's friends and to meet John's future brother-in-law and father in-law.<div>
<br /></div><div>The upside of weekend getting cut short was that I got an extra night at home. Incidentally, I would get an additional night at home due to cancelled flights from the storm. I finally got on a plane headed for Georgia on Tuesday. It was pretty smooth sailing once I finally got going. We ended up getting two solid days of meetings in and getting everything we needed to get accomplished. My friends there also threw an early birthday "Supra" for me, which involved a large Georgian feast, a cake and a healthy (or unhealthy?) amount of vodka. Birthday's are a much bigger deal in Georgia than they are in the US, which I wrote about previously while I was there for <a href="http://martymaynard.blogspot.com/2010/04/what-day-is-it.html">Ivane's birthday</a>. Everytime someone that works with Ivane has a birthday, they shut down the office at about 3pm and have a large celebration in the kitchen. All in all it was a good trip.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Now, I am currently in Weiden, Germany. I had originally planned to be in Oberhof to ski in the ski tunnel there then drive to Weiden tonight, where I will be for work this week. However, I was delayed getting to Munich and didn't land until 7pm yesterday, so it didn't make sense to drive 3 hours in the wrong direction to get to Oberhof, only to turn around and drive 4 hours again today. So, that was a little disappointing, but I did manage to get a long run in this morning and will catch up on some work this afternoon before the rest of the team arrives this evening. I had my first driving experience in Germany yesterday and they drive really fast here, do not get in the fast lane unless you know what you're doing! My hotel is pretty small, one of those deals where the hotel manager is also the waiter, bar tender, chef and lives in the hotel. I'm also relatively sure that my TV is much older than me. It's about 10-inches and there is one English TV station. I am currently watching the Track world championships in German. I have to get a slingbox set up or something.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>About that run this morning...that's a good story - I intended to go for a ~2 hour run. There are bike paths that go everywhere in this town, so I figured I would run for an hour in one direction, turn around and come back, perfect, right? How could I screw that up? Well, I'm not sure how it happened, but I managed to get very lost and my "2 hour run" started to remind me of <a href="http://www.jackedupoldman.com/2009/06/2-hour-run.html">this story from Duncan</a>. After asking for directions from several people who didn't have any idea where my hotel was. I finally found another runner who knew where it was and pointed me in the right direction. Or at least I thought it was the right direction, I somehow ended up running in a circle from there and ran into the same runner about 40 minutes later. Thankfully, he saw me asking someone else for help, ran over, patted me on the back and ran with me all the way back to the hotel. That guy gets massive training karma points for that because I'm not sure how long it would've taken me to find someone else who knew where this hotel is. I wasn't too worried as I don't have a real agenda for today, but still not the greatest feeling to be lost in a foreign country, especially when you know about 3 words of their language, and you've already ran about 18 miles without water, not my brightest moment, but huge thank you to that guy whoever you are! So, my run ended up being a little longer than anticipated, but I felt pretty good.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>I'll be in Weiden for a NATO exercise this week and will head to Amsterdam a week from today for meetings on Monday, then fly home Tuesday, drive to Vermont Wednesday and stay there for a few days for a wedding after which I'm going to take a long nap...like a 3-day nap...</div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-17795201819495570092011-08-21T12:51:00.001-07:002011-08-21T13:18:14.814-07:0012 year olds throwing curveballs and oven doors...I honestly think that ESPN is being irresponsible by not addressing the simple fact that kids should NOT be throwing curveballs until they are finished growing. I cannot overstate this. I don't know much about much, but I do have some experience in baseball, and I can tell you unequivocally that the most irresponsible thing that parents can do for their "future derek jeter" is allow him to throw a curveball before he can drive. When I was coaching modified baseball (13 and 14 year-olds), breaking balls were outlawed. I had several arguments with parents about this. I basically had to break it down for them...I actually drew a picture for one parent... Until your done growing, trying to throw them leads to shoulder problems, plain and simple...If you want to do your son a favor, teach him to throw a change-up, it's much more effective pitch to begin with, even at the big-league level.<div>
<br /></div><div>Ok, now that I got that rant out of my system - I made my debut at the oven door run yesterday. I've heard for years about the "door" from one of my co-workers Dave (who I run with frequently on our lunch break), but had never shown up for it. It's basically the runner's version of the latte ride, essentially an unofficial race/group hammerfest. The run meets at 630am every saturday and does one of a few different loops every week. Yesterday we did the "classic linear park" loop. It was a relatively tame pace for about 3 minutes, then someone decided it shouldn't be, that someone happened to be a guy I know well from skiing...and after about the 3rd half mile clip, that the aforementioned Dave, threw in at a 5 minute/mile pace, I realized this was going to be a tough one, I managed to hang one for the bronze medal in the oven-door-lympics, but it was super tough...it was a great workout and given that I'm doing a half marathon next month, and want to have a good one there, this is the type of workout I needed. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>This was my last weekend in Rochester until late September, but I will say, it was such an amazing weekend. I am definitely looking forward to some of the adventures to come, but I will miss home.</div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-78123792171337883702011-08-07T13:52:00.000-07:002011-08-10T09:47:52.774-07:007 days - 1 baby, 1 wedding, 1 weekend-long going away party...<div>
<br /></div><div>The items listed in the subject of this post have all happened since my last post...and some work a lot of training and an awful lot of humidity, but other than that, it was a pretty normal week...all of these events are worthy of their own entry, but since they all happened in such rapid succession, they'll have to be combined...</div><div>
<br /></div><div>First, two weekends ago was a going away party/30th birthday party for my buddy Kevin. He's moving to the UAE later this month and turns 30 in September (about 3 weeks after I do). There were several events all day on Friday and Saturday, of which I participated in most. I think this was my 4th or 5th 30th birthday part that I've been to and all of them were pretty heavy weekends all around. This one was no different, especially when you factor in that Kevin is also moving to the Middle East for a couple years. I'm lucky in that I'll still be able to see him pretty frequently because of work, however, many of his close friends and family won't see him much more than once a year for the next couple years. I will say that I think everyone gave him a great send-off.</div><div>
<br /></div><div>On to last Thursday. My sister-in-law Sueann gave birth to their 3rd child (2nd daughter), Megan Elizabeth. Here are a couple pictures.</div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyxU-lsnq81q66qp9nt40BJuLi6FvkucsL0AtVbwOuC8q0zQDd_pZ_k-ck5iazr3nQedBB3c-Jdgyu0BHhQqBoljdQ1-WqbYqM_dpqIopXkqgYxpsc0-bJFTuhayx7CTu5AywkNSNHxn0N/s1600/IMG_0093.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyxU-lsnq81q66qp9nt40BJuLi6FvkucsL0AtVbwOuC8q0zQDd_pZ_k-ck5iazr3nQedBB3c-Jdgyu0BHhQqBoljdQ1-WqbYqM_dpqIopXkqgYxpsc0-bJFTuhayx7CTu5AywkNSNHxn0N/s320/IMG_0093.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638220490772739698" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 239px; height: 320px; " /></a>Aunt Nancy
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFKkmyfIvj8FJ-S-5hczycU3vwkv7jGP17qkIIdCv8PCO9I1oR_B6oAyLzFRaA22tSdznxWxEqo-ZaW_xQ-tf3D7zAy-yjPxcN6zzsHnr3QQp5AbiAAH-sQ9AFVeG_YubippshTl8yQxcL/s1600/IMG_0092.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFKkmyfIvj8FJ-S-5hczycU3vwkv7jGP17qkIIdCv8PCO9I1oR_B6oAyLzFRaA22tSdznxWxEqo-ZaW_xQ-tf3D7zAy-yjPxcN6zzsHnr3QQp5AbiAAH-sQ9AFVeG_YubippshTl8yQxcL/s320/IMG_0092.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638220187425990226" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 239px; height: 320px; " /></a></div><div>Keith and Megan</div><div>
<br /></div><div>The day after visiting Megan in the hospital, we went to Kate's wedding. Kate was one of Nancy's bridesmaids in our wedding and one of her closest friends. She's also really into biking and a lot of other outdoor activities. Below are some pictures of the wedding.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfRFroOEjn16yJNetJ_xVkRCYqm1zTUAH9rBF-18sTKjAhwIuGMM4RIlnQDR5QreMyvHDF1GuejPRsEkIdppJdTY9gqRA87k2EbsDZXPHEwYW9FwOwoGsLpEiWD_h6vxqMh1YR_z3UAB3G/s1600/aisle.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfRFroOEjn16yJNetJ_xVkRCYqm1zTUAH9rBF-18sTKjAhwIuGMM4RIlnQDR5QreMyvHDF1GuejPRsEkIdppJdTY9gqRA87k2EbsDZXPHEwYW9FwOwoGsLpEiWD_h6vxqMh1YR_z3UAB3G/s320/aisle.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638592005923346034" /></a>Kate and JT.
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYDs-bic29Rt2bkSeaLI5QffGfMFuGIz1ZBtv6OGAaq5T45BtQ_m8rzP9QouaQwEvlUGrEqfBADPsTmTi6cSyaG644BNdAmZXrltGdlyR9t5kW89rQtpOPzsQUWUnJwNZvCveLmKkDCG5g/s1600/kate_and_dad.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYDs-bic29Rt2bkSeaLI5QffGfMFuGIz1ZBtv6OGAaq5T45BtQ_m8rzP9QouaQwEvlUGrEqfBADPsTmTi6cSyaG644BNdAmZXrltGdlyR9t5kW89rQtpOPzsQUWUnJwNZvCveLmKkDCG5g/s320/kate_and_dad.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638591961044191282" /></a>Kate and her father. Not going to lie, the kilt was a pretty cool touch.
<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjff4ef4mLzXesh4WwnOGLdqXfMgczOsvpxNbiMVzx3zMwcw0iImzICqYkQdIPjjLbyDeG1pIfSkxRvZRCout3febQrwUBA5bJh_PHcMaijYr3boGYe3a0Ff5es__i2Y4lIcqv4ylcDi2PM/s1600/IMG_0102.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 239px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjff4ef4mLzXesh4WwnOGLdqXfMgczOsvpxNbiMVzx3zMwcw0iImzICqYkQdIPjjLbyDeG1pIfSkxRvZRCout3febQrwUBA5bJh_PHcMaijYr3boGYe3a0Ff5es__i2Y4lIcqv4ylcDi2PM/s320/IMG_0102.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5638220771912803842" /></a>Kate and Nancy.
<br /><div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Since I got back from Georgia, I've managed to string together a few solid weeks of volume training doing all types of stuff - lots of running and roller skiing, but also some mountain biking (still a trainwreck) and road biking, so I'm feeling pretty good about that. I've got nothing going on this weekend coming up which will be really strange. I am planning on doing a 5k running race on Saturday and get in some other training through the weekend. I'm also trying to put some plans in place to ski (that's right, ski, on snow) on my 30th birthday in a few weeks, we'll see how that materializes. So, plenty of good stuff coming up.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyxU-lsnq81q66qp9nt40BJuLi6FvkucsL0AtVbwOuC8q0zQDd_pZ_k-ck5iazr3nQedBB3c-Jdgyu0BHhQqBoljdQ1-WqbYqM_dpqIopXkqgYxpsc0-bJFTuhayx7CTu5AywkNSNHxn0N/s1600/IMG_0093.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-71603915546948564912011-07-28T13:11:00.000-07:002011-07-28T13:39:21.803-07:00Pictures from Georgia<div>I haven't had much of a chance to update this site recently. Literally been on the go since July 2nd. I've been all over the place recently, but all things considered, things have gone very well. I was in Georgia last week and arrived home late Saturday. </div><div><br /></div><div>My role at work has changed, so I took the replacement for my old role in Georgia (Jim) with me to introduce him to everyone. Since I took over Kevin's role in Georgia, every customer meeting started with Temuri saying the following - "Marty is the new Kevin, Kevin is the new Marty". Ok, now we can begin. This was Jim's first time in Tbilisi, and I have to say, he fit right in. Below are some pictures.</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOj1FfN8utVSS4zBXazMwKqWu3U9ONq35_jr_t4rqA2XZSlrRP0x2ohRc97QO4ffYN0tV0UscURchKqW44y-D2yozYv6tXvtLjRqzzQG0FEvyPlTl6M1wryKu7iDj6SqQ2WstRlxqyajm/s1600/IMG00121-20110719-2137.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPOj1FfN8utVSS4zBXazMwKqWu3U9ONq35_jr_t4rqA2XZSlrRP0x2ohRc97QO4ffYN0tV0UscURchKqW44y-D2yozYv6tXvtLjRqzzQG0FEvyPlTl6M1wryKu7iDj6SqQ2WstRlxqyajm/s320/IMG00121-20110719-2137.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634498986235030114" /></a>That's Jim standing up and digging into a traditional Georgian feast.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EiJSv5eus2C1FWwIOF7vFpnN-PJAKN9qbMSdayNwPRxMXreFZpKxivyBbE-NHlrAm8QYv92QbZCc7t0bV1iR9C5XHBwmqzX5qazVv_8DReRG9GzSrAwxfF0c7GprBIARYK5pJwVfVq23/s1600/IMG00122-20110720-2339.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2EiJSv5eus2C1FWwIOF7vFpnN-PJAKN9qbMSdayNwPRxMXreFZpKxivyBbE-NHlrAm8QYv92QbZCc7t0bV1iR9C5XHBwmqzX5qazVv_8DReRG9GzSrAwxfF0c7GprBIARYK5pJwVfVq23/s320/IMG00122-20110720-2339.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634498938862121634" /></a>...and you can't come to Georgia and not give Cha-Cha a try, first shot documented here.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs9aUwAj8iEEoLCwqUYeZWECLH6xv7LUtI8TO3QagX1efSWsMGlLGU8_aHPcIMnXVvXVRym7HClxr0pbQVeh4fEtj5yPQs5Lrta9HlO5zHJZXjE0m5pcLsoyc2zE74koKJDWzW48BRdWqc/s1600/IMG00123-20110722-1632.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs9aUwAj8iEEoLCwqUYeZWECLH6xv7LUtI8TO3QagX1efSWsMGlLGU8_aHPcIMnXVvXVRym7HClxr0pbQVeh4fEtj5yPQs5Lrta9HlO5zHJZXjE0m5pcLsoyc2zE74koKJDWzW48BRdWqc/s320/IMG00123-20110722-1632.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634498896249377554" /></a>This is the old church on top of the hill over looking Mskete (the old capital). This church was build around 600 AD.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDO8WCCJTxqexo4i0F-I_eOEh53n9a4EuxJDQBmXKHiuk5vav1hS35D4Royg6UDqBuJDyTxFZFkcv-5CcI7agaD0GejZz9dIixqN-PYxQPVdLs4Uu0rsnuLlgFkpCn3YIO22quwty8oOY_/s1600/IMG00124-20110722-1635.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDO8WCCJTxqexo4i0F-I_eOEh53n9a4EuxJDQBmXKHiuk5vav1hS35D4Royg6UDqBuJDyTxFZFkcv-5CcI7agaD0GejZz9dIixqN-PYxQPVdLs4Uu0rsnuLlgFkpCn3YIO22quwty8oOY_/s320/IMG00124-20110722-1635.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634498841319537970" /></a>View from the church.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0aUtMtk1XDZhv8zrXlIMTCz41h1eisTKyh-AasnM3_jDjBTDhuJEiQyYqbzu5EqSoy6X0C71e_0FsCe7N9KaBxyuRc4f1L3tx7B2dD1br_qKzCKOJpQsbwgbw_zqTCIi5OvyBf15L_eRu/s1600/IMG00125-20110722-1635.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0aUtMtk1XDZhv8zrXlIMTCz41h1eisTKyh-AasnM3_jDjBTDhuJEiQyYqbzu5EqSoy6X0C71e_0FsCe7N9KaBxyuRc4f1L3tx7B2dD1br_qKzCKOJpQsbwgbw_zqTCIi5OvyBf15L_eRu/s320/IMG00125-20110722-1635.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634498781145807842" /></a>View from the other side of the church. There are mountains everywhere.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCY5OLcXVYXvJ42Db_UbvcXOAc1SMyaZbb5Zl6VXoDaEdrtOQdK7K54JTNqeBq3W75mL78kySr4dp1fys-mP8hY_9jATWF-lf2H2FEmofE-HYcKjfLSH1yFMPQJZNt-ccdDGZSmaYN08Y/s1600/IMG00126-20110722-1637.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzCY5OLcXVYXvJ42Db_UbvcXOAc1SMyaZbb5Zl6VXoDaEdrtOQdK7K54JTNqeBq3W75mL78kySr4dp1fys-mP8hY_9jATWF-lf2H2FEmofE-HYcKjfLSH1yFMPQJZNt-ccdDGZSmaYN08Y/s320/IMG00126-20110722-1637.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634498733194343826" /></a>This is the major river that flows from the Black Sea to all the way to the Caspian Sea. It goes through downtown Tbilisi.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhir5waPDJsgDXWeF996I8Kj5U5GEX3UV12h8fxds44ekfnB5gTRRt6JKmXkCsVIsdFsSWn7TBJelQMaT_aeu5KF6TxL_ZVwJR7T7MOiXE6mspHrH1bfyhyTBgUSDUL5doWPvp6kocLnoNb/s1600/IMG00128-20110722-1637+%25281%2529.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhir5waPDJsgDXWeF996I8Kj5U5GEX3UV12h8fxds44ekfnB5gTRRt6JKmXkCsVIsdFsSWn7TBJelQMaT_aeu5KF6TxL_ZVwJR7T7MOiXE6mspHrH1bfyhyTBgUSDUL5doWPvp6kocLnoNb/s320/IMG00128-20110722-1637+%25281%2529.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634498674639871490" /></a>Another shot of the church.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Zfy-3zgSPYOWSzsVk_zTXp2FVPQr9JDzJbwWg8aZVXkz3CDZ52en6XJsONNRD96jcJqTX76LpQFQ9yfB5f25QdO4p_Zeq3QNvYdqMdfQyIzm8GyAsq1hWnE-A8tCP9Xf85HFzLhHpvth/s1600/IMG00129-20110722-2331.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Zfy-3zgSPYOWSzsVk_zTXp2FVPQr9JDzJbwWg8aZVXkz3CDZ52en6XJsONNRD96jcJqTX76LpQFQ9yfB5f25QdO4p_Zeq3QNvYdqMdfQyIzm8GyAsq1hWnE-A8tCP9Xf85HFzLhHpvth/s320/IMG00129-20110722-2331.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5634498628141202690" /></a>Our old friend Bata opened a new pub near the hotel where we ate twice during our stay, here's a shot of Jim and Irakli in front of "Gold Time". Nice place, I have a feeling we'll be back there soon.<div><br /></div><div>I'm in town for the next few weeks, but things are still pretty hectic...hopefully I'll be able to update again soon, more big stuff coming up later this summer and fall...<br /><br /></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-59569936440950372902011-07-10T12:58:00.000-07:002011-07-10T13:15:02.507-07:00still a terrible golfer, still have awesome friends<div>This weekend was Knodel's bachelor party. We ended up renting a house down in Ellicottville, NY, played some golf and had a more than a few beers in the woods. It was pretty awesome to catch up with so many old friends. It's amazing how, even though most of us don't see each other nearly enough, there's nothing but big hugs and serious hi-fives everytime we do see each other. Here are a few pics.</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifAkBo_R-NcpxXo3_va4qw32O04mNX4NTuodiAUYlytrw7AQ3xRdQ301DEiWV9nGAodbyUWzWGuUPZqHi_yMPmkwc2q08x4EVpGoN75zT5NjjoyKa0gKWj7GNbOkCMKR341SAwvzhcY7Yi/s320/DSC02013.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627816498979949554" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span></div><div>Here's the man of the hour. So pumped for Matt and very honored to be involved in the wedding!</div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBtnNjvYy7WR3hrbJjdbmd600mXQmGjkh12Lzvc7ra6gp1P6OQrLkvuo2FBvibmnyV96Sizz_G1M2Dfb6Dk3QH3Ag1YfW0XtfXdHRGQe0nay3LDA7qnmSw49mtTMubbn-hGncf4cRUwnTA/s1600/DSC02035.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 314px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBtnNjvYy7WR3hrbJjdbmd600mXQmGjkh12Lzvc7ra6gp1P6OQrLkvuo2FBvibmnyV96Sizz_G1M2Dfb6Dk3QH3Ag1YfW0XtfXdHRGQe0nay3LDA7qnmSw49mtTMubbn-hGncf4cRUwnTA/s320/DSC02035.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627816855733566546" /></a>Drew and Doogie showed up late, but we still decided to fire up the grill for them once they arrived.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3GngG4EzqiuAm7Ht_k99A1u-tHfrfF8w9_-dTAKX-Onc2fEY0kInvd7FGyLq02FBK4Y2tZwiFa4nF2E-_2IKa-Rrnq1JlSfaBG_JZ61tNEe_pv3hWmqo3z9mRHe2nmTwaDo5Rc0kZh1S/s1600/DSC02034.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 318px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgH3GngG4EzqiuAm7Ht_k99A1u-tHfrfF8w9_-dTAKX-Onc2fEY0kInvd7FGyLq02FBK4Y2tZwiFa4nF2E-_2IKa-Rrnq1JlSfaBG_JZ61tNEe_pv3hWmqo3z9mRHe2nmTwaDo5Rc0kZh1S/s320/DSC02034.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627816757595683842" /></a>Doogie on the left, John on the right. Pretty psyched that Doogie moved back from LA to Buffalo, not that psyched that John's pretty much naturalizing in Canada, but, it also doesn't suck to have a place to crash in Toronto if needed.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG4oUW11SbvE5IZqKMG8IO20Oqykk_Kujnf-eElHcY56xRfDtacqUlvF6M4sDCqqSzNoW0YLxkv_N_VU_cZMwnCUN-qeQU0fnz-gG5blwR44PqglmzlEfyMcRayQMxIPd0CKvdSxduuLIi/s1600/DSC02032.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG4oUW11SbvE5IZqKMG8IO20Oqykk_Kujnf-eElHcY56xRfDtacqUlvF6M4sDCqqSzNoW0YLxkv_N_VU_cZMwnCUN-qeQU0fnz-gG5blwR44PqglmzlEfyMcRayQMxIPd0CKvdSxduuLIi/s320/DSC02032.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627816683507495362" /></a>left to right - Knodel, Colin, Jamie, and Jim P...other than the Mets hat, that's a great pic.<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIPvzRZCYLuOTTk-uTLhTVfEWhr6-lS5fhlAotfn0jEgu00kkkeawDTFabcFVr1km3n7PHXLfRJcuNHMHtIISmZqEF_urLyjCR_kk8q9A4EjUoBESEBNNVHZ5in5iJOJEtwnbzqQYMr26S/s1600/DSC02025.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIPvzRZCYLuOTTk-uTLhTVfEWhr6-lS5fhlAotfn0jEgu00kkkeawDTFabcFVr1km3n7PHXLfRJcuNHMHtIISmZqEF_urLyjCR_kk8q9A4EjUoBESEBNNVHZ5in5iJOJEtwnbzqQYMr26S/s320/DSC02025.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5627816593233586338" /></a>This was a shot of our "neighbor" for the weekend. The confederate flag was the tip of the iceberg on the sketchiness of this set up, but there weren't any encounters. George actually sprinted through this cornfield in 1 minute 20 seconds...which cost a few of us a few bucks, but was worth it in my opinion...<div><br /></div><div>I also hit up England and Holland and went to a wedding in the last week. I ran into a bunch of old teammates (high school) at the wedding and everyone I ran into fell into the "I wish I kept in contact with (insert name here)" category, so that was really great. Overall life is more hectic than usual but so much to be thankful and excited about.<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifAkBo_R-NcpxXo3_va4qw32O04mNX4NTuodiAUYlytrw7AQ3xRdQ301DEiWV9nGAodbyUWzWGuUPZqHi_yMPmkwc2q08x4EVpGoN75zT5NjjoyKa0gKWj7GNbOkCMKR341SAwvzhcY7Yi/s1600/DSC02013.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><br /></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-45788995602526368542011-07-02T03:49:00.000-07:002011-07-02T04:05:00.616-07:00Buckle up and hang on tight<div>Here's my itinerary for the next 3 weeks - London, UK (1 day), Amersfoort, Netherlands (2 days), Rochester (15 hours), Ellicotville (2 days), Rochester (1 day), Verona, NY (2 days), Rochester (1 day), Poconos (2 days), Rochester (15 hours), Tbilisi, Georgia (4 days)....</div><div><br /></div><div>This might seem like a pretty random list of places to go. It's a combination of work and personal travel. I also started a new job at work and will be responsible for a slightly different list of countries from what I'd been handling. I will still be headed to Georgia (more frequently than before), but will now have responsibility for a few other countries in Europe that I haven't traveled much too including Netherlands, Belgium and Germany.</div><div><br /></div><div>I'll try to update frequently as I'm sure this will be an adventure.</div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-56282716657811418192011-06-27T14:05:00.000-07:002011-06-28T14:20:58.149-07:00Looking for focus<div>It's been a while since I posted about anything specific to training and racing, so here goes an update on that front. My intent is not to come across as negative, I'm having fun still, but as the first sentence of the next paragraph might imply, I'm not exactly tearing it up on my road bike, and as any competitive person knows, it's always more fun when you're winning...</div><div><br /></div><div>The past two weekends I've had bike races with relatively underwhelming results. One was a long time trial and one was a circuit race on the Watkins Glen race track. Both races were fun unique and something new, but I walked away still not sure what to make of my own performance.</div><div><br /></div><div>I don't really have a good explanation, I just wasn't great in either race and I'm not sure why. I feel like I'm training a lot of hours and having productive training sessions, but I'm just not going that fast. At the finish line Saturday a former teammate of mine, who noticed that I was absent from the front group for the last several laps of the race, asked "what happened?" I really had no response other than to just shrug my shoulders and say something to the effect of "you guys were just too fast for me today"...not really something that's too fun to admit. </div><div><br /></div><div>I think part of it is that I've still been running, lifting and roller skiing and not focusing just on biking. That's sort of a catch-22 that I'm in right now. When I'm on the road for work, I have to run to stay in shape because I can't exactly carry my Felt road bike on a trans-atlantic flight, but running shoes, shorts and a singlet fit very nicely into my "never check a bag on a business trip" policy. The puzzling part however, is that I don't think this has changed drastically since last year. One of the great parts about having a training log is that it's really easy to look back on last year and see what you were doing, etc. Compared to 2010, I'm doing almost everything the same, slightly less biking, slightly more running, but overall hours and intensity is pretty similar, a little higher this year, but not drastically higher. Maybe I'm reading too much into a few races where things didn't go great for me, but between the crash and a general lack of continuity, it is getting frustrating. In the winter, it's always really cut and dry - GO SKI, and the only thing I might be guilty of is skiing too hard or too much. </div><div><br /></div><div>So, I'm not really sure where this leaves my training goals right now. I'll be on the road a lot over the summer, which means I'll be running more. Maybe I shouldn't fight it and just try to do some focused running training. It's not like I dislike running (like most of the guys I bike with do), I enjoy it. Who knows...For the next few weeks though, I'm not going to stress about any specific racing, just train to have fun and be fit and take some time to figure out what I can realistically focus on given my current career choice. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am looking forward to all the travel coming up as well as all of the great weddings that Nancy and I will be invited to and involved in. </div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2647165733999521257.post-45939378843817054402011-06-18T12:19:00.001-07:002011-06-18T13:03:08.353-07:00Ever Better<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFRvUyUmfqBdAPDrRGgj1pjEOJqlvz5QG3NfWypi7Zra8iDeWaY5aiHr5iueNohWDG-pFQbm6dbTX62uf1SJQQ3TMRfV57hUmM37bg8GmFWAHkhlJ6y-1tNYNzJ5QEAsKN2lcdyL1tkx_2/s1600/IMG_0078.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh_uFFbJrlyQV2RiTnSNoRugMW665VZ0j-Mq6NPLVJbZRLtqoZOPYPIP9xQTggOZa3546-f6hIY2oauD5ZTijUKGapsfBB6buDV_M3Q73-9OGo6umS3x4qNZM_RQeR8_FudIlK0oORR1gj/s1600/ur_meliora.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><div>Given that I graduated from the U of R over four years ago, it's somewhat embarrassing that I just learned what the school motto (Meloria) means - "Ever Better". </div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh_uFFbJrlyQV2RiTnSNoRugMW665VZ0j-Mq6NPLVJbZRLtqoZOPYPIP9xQTggOZa3546-f6hIY2oauD5ZTijUKGapsfBB6buDV_M3Q73-9OGo6umS3x4qNZM_RQeR8_FudIlK0oORR1gj/s400/ur_meliora.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619641908632815522" style="text-align: right;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 150px; " /></span><div>I could blame that on being a part-time commuter student, but that's just as much of an excuse as the co-worker of mine that told me he's been too busy to work out for the last 7 years. Hmmm, seven years? That's a cop-out dude. The truth is, I really didn't care. I'm a lot different than I was four years ago, and even more different than when I graduated from RIT eight years ago. I never cared about school motto's or what they might mean or what significance they might have. When I finished my last final, I was more interested in getting down to the St. Patty's Day parade to meet up with my friends and have far too much to drink, than I was about digging deep into how I could be more successful in business or in life or any type of tradition from the school I just graduated from.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyways, last weekend was Nancy's official graduation from the Simon School and since I did not attend mine (for some of the reasons mentioned above), I was pretty curious to see what it would be like. It was a great ceremony (although it was not short). The three main speakers were all excellent. They did all speak of the typical cliche advice to graduating students like "Dream big" and "The future's ahead of you" and "Don't be afraid to fail" that I've heard in every commencement type address I've been to. </div><div><br /></div><div>They all did provide a unique perspective however. One speaker was a Simon School alum who's now a very successful wall-street executive. He spoke of the importance of risk taking, but also of the progress that comes from failure and to take things step by step (I hope my Georgian friend Ivane reads this, he's been telling Kevin and I that for years now), success doesn't happen overnight unless you win the lotto. Another of the speakers was an entrepreneur from India that inherited a real-estate business and led it to grow 125x (not a typo) over a ten year period. He didn't go into much detail about how he drove that growth, but his underlying dream is homeownership for every Indian and that seemed to be the major thing driving him, which was pretty inspirational - his goal wasn't to make a ton of money (although I'm sure he's not complaining), his goal is to make home ownership a reality for as many of his compatriots as possible and make money as a bi-product of that over-arching goal - which seemed like a unique concept. </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtqMW6CWP0FeGPRCc9Rkbr4i3-dS08eoAjj0OT78tWQewV4KA5K9YIBe2rlC_866rhyphenhyphena2Q2Byq66mp6KCudIhyNRlvdJnUmY3SwJTWdWQ-PnTCqpnl-GWmDkSuQPlW3q48xXobGQY5ZI27/s400/UR_grad1.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619645805233495842" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 298px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div>The headline speaker for me was Louis Zamperini (pictured in the middle above), the subject of the book <a href="http://books.google.com/books/about/Unbroken.html?id=injpY-EerZgC">Unbroken</a>, which I just recently read. If you don't know about his story, I highly suggest that you read this book. Trust me, it will make tomorrow morning's alarm clock going off seem like a blessing. His presence alone was a jaw-dropping testiment to what will-power and perserverence can accomplish. He didn't really need to say much, his life story did all the talking for him. He did tell a few stories and crack a few jokes, which was very inspirational. I hope I'm that active and sharp when I'm 94. While introducing him, Dean Zupan (pictured on the left above) mentioned that he just quit skiing four years ago at the age of 90!</div><div><br /></div><div>All of the speakers had clearly overcome a lot of adversity in different ways, but none of them were all that interested in talking about their past accomplishments, they were truly looking forward to the challenges that lay ahead and how they would react to them, grow through them and become more successful and better people through them. That was compelling to me. So what I took out of it was Meloria - Ever Better (not just a clever latin word to print on the scotch glasses in the bookstore I guess).</div><div><br /></div><div>Alright, enough of my nonsensical diatribe, here are some pictures of the real stars of the day:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxfgfoUVzoUs9YKG8qTC5Hr-Sb-WVj12x5jJpE_Q1y1ICohYgMoZcYTVlRwnM5VqIw6NerIKsd-ZF_2loD1V0OslyfO2yPkPiilOf3woltJEV1A0HnjuZvUHYEmNvY6sduywt7wjj5Zxrx/s400/UR_grad2.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619645902374034562" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 285px; " /></span></div><div>Nancy getting "Hooded". Another thing I did not know is that each Master's discipline (Arts, Science, Business Admin, etc) has a different color hood associated with it. The other ones are all very colorful, Business is "Drab". Yup, welcome to Corporate America graduates, here's your drab hood, don't worry, it'll match the light gray cubicle and the dark gray Dell Laptop you'll be assigned your first day on the job....</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3kgdTjgg884NCZyyedf3XU41kHfJaU9SSj6i2y9wA-Jp9h07tRKAmu2OpAdzZ_UzijONzWQwvTwbauiYJ1iGtqVtMQayya2g-MapF5LV9P9pWZLLTwPwXT2Iqa2ekSWyoOlqzq1xD9h3/s320/IMG_0075.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619649633284639042" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 239px; height: 320px; " /></span>Nancy showing off her new degree!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFRvUyUmfqBdAPDrRGgj1pjEOJqlvz5QG3NfWypi7Zra8iDeWaY5aiHr5iueNohWDG-pFQbm6dbTX62uf1SJQQ3TMRfV57hUmM37bg8GmFWAHkhlJ6y-1tNYNzJ5QEAsKN2lcdyL1tkx_2/s1600/IMG_0078.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFRvUyUmfqBdAPDrRGgj1pjEOJqlvz5QG3NfWypi7Zra8iDeWaY5aiHr5iueNohWDG-pFQbm6dbTX62uf1SJQQ3TMRfV57hUmM37bg8GmFWAHkhlJ6y-1tNYNzJ5QEAsKN2lcdyL1tkx_2/s1600/IMG_0078.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFRvUyUmfqBdAPDrRGgj1pjEOJqlvz5QG3NfWypi7Zra8iDeWaY5aiHr5iueNohWDG-pFQbm6dbTX62uf1SJQQ3TMRfV57hUmM37bg8GmFWAHkhlJ6y-1tNYNzJ5QEAsKN2lcdyL1tkx_2/s320/IMG_0078.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5619649834496168546" style="text-align: left;display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; cursor: pointer; width: 237px; height: 320px; " /></a>Left to Right - Meghan, Nancy and Laura. These three took almost every class together going part time while all working full time. Not a small achievement by any stretch of the imagination. The day before the ceremony, we had a joint graduation party for these three. Great time for sure. Congrats again ladies!<br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjf3kgdTjgg884NCZyyedf3XU41kHfJaU9SSj6i2y9wA-Jp9h07tRKAmu2OpAdzZ_UzijONzWQwvTwbauiYJ1iGtqVtMQayya2g-MapF5LV9P9pWZLLTwPwXT2Iqa2ekSWyoOlqzq1xD9h3/s1600/IMG_0075.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a></div><div><br /></div>Martyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15924436208327973165noreply@blogger.com0