Apr 30, 2012

I worked at Lakeside during the day and has mostly good classes, contrary to what the sign says. I finished my book finally! I would recommend the Millennium trilogy to anyone. I really enjoyed them. I wish there were more.

I was still somewhat tired when I got done work so I had a nap that lasted longer than I expected and then I pretty much just watched 24 for the rest of the night.

Apr 29, 2012

I got up in the morning feeling much better than I expected to and we went to get some breakfast before making our way an hour north to Pocono Raceway where we had to park the car and then catch a shuttle to the actual location for the Tough Mudder race. It was cold in the morning too so we wore our sweatshirts until right before the race and then checked our bags.

A bunch of us lined up before our start time and listening to a motivational (?) speaker try to get us pumped up. Didn't work for me, but I think the other people were into it. We were just ready to start. They sounded the horn and we started running. The beginning was a bit aggravating because it was packed with people and it quickly became a narrow path where we couldn't pass anyone and we were running over small tree stumps so I kept almost turning my ankle.

Our first obstacle also may have been one of the most painful. We had to crawl under barbed wire in the mud, but the mud was filled with rocks so it was tearing into my knees and elbows the whole time. I will say it was much shorter than the Spartan Race version of this one. Shortly after this we had to jump into a pool filled with ice water. On second thought, that might have been the most painful part. It sucked.

We quickly warmed up and dried off as we did the death march up a hill that was not a fun ascent. We walked. It's okay. We had a few small walls to climb and a tunnel to crawl through in total darkness after this.

Another trudge up a hill slowly turned into a murky pit of mud that gurgled with each stepped and threatened to suck a shoe down if we weren't careful. At least this one is properly muddy.

The log carry was one of the most trying parts where I was holding it on one shoulder after another trying to get comfortable. I made it to the end even though I didn't think I'd make it.

After another much-needed water station there was a cargo net climb where we had to pull down on the bottom to help others over without it swinging. There was a lot of running in between all of these events, it's just not as exciting to photograph. There was a long series of pits filled with mud and water that we had to wade through and then monkey bars that ascended and then descended that were surprisingly easy.

The big jump was a lot of fun. The water was freezing though so I was swimming for the shore as soon as I hit the water. Another unpleasant obstacle was this pool with a little bit of water in the bottom that we had to belly crawl under hanging electrified wires that gave a really strong shock whenever you came into contact. Not cool. There were two big walls that were a challenge to get over, we had to give each other a boost to help out and then lower down the other side.

After a cluster of things at the end including a long wait in line at a balance beam walk across water that we both fell in at and a run through more electrified wires, we had made it to the end! Just over twelve miles and twenty-something obstacles! It was a challenge for sure, but it was easier than I thought it would be. I had a lot of fun though!

We got some ribs at a restaurant on the way home that were just what we wanted. The drive home went by pretty quickly and it was nice to come home and relax after a really fun weekend.

Apr 28, 2012

I went up to Rowan in the morning and brought Shannon out in front of Bunce with her cap and gown to do a quick photo shoot so I could post up some fliers for graduation photos. I got some nice ones of her in a few different places on campus. I'm hoping to get some business from this.

After that I went to Philly and met Ashley around the Water Works area and we started our run around the Fairmount Park trail. It was much nicer running with someone else. It felt easier, plus I was running somewhere fairly new, as I'd never been on the other side of the river.

We stopped when we got across from Boathouse Row after doing a few sets of sprints. They were nice as well. This will need to happen again. After I dropped her off at her place I headed home to get ready for the night.

Kate, Chuck, and I went up to Blue Monkey Tavern in Cherry Hill for their Spring Fest beer celebration. There were over 70 breweries there with samples and I got in free thanks to NJCB! Thanks!

We drank a lot and they were really pouring in the samples. We started sharing our samples so we didn't have to drink a full cup of each one. They definitely gave us too much because we were feeling drunk much too soon.

There was a lot of good beer and we had a fun time until some of us started feeling not so good. Ryan picked me up and I wasn't feeling too great once the car started moving. Motion and drunk don't do me good. I feel bad for Ryan having to drive all the way to Allentown with me drunk and falling asleep and asking him to pull over, but he did it. He got us to our hotel and I went and passed out.

Apr 27, 2012

I worked at Memorial today for an art teacher who had a student teacher anyway, so I literally did nothing but read all day. I'm okay with that. I managed to get my car inspected quickly after work and then went up to Landmark to meet Kat and friends for dinner and drinks for her birthday. It was good to see people I hadn't seen in months, though it felt a bit awkward.

After I left I drove around for a bit and felt like being alone and listening to music.

Apr 26, 2012

I worked at Lakeside during testing today so I basically had to monitor the hallways along with about fifty other teachers. That meant I just sat on a chair in the hall and read all day. I got to leave early too, so not a bad day. Ryan, Chuck, and I went to see Guys and Dolls at the high school in the evening. I thought the show was very well done and entertaining.

Chuck and I went to the Oar House for a couple beers after the show. They had some Turtle Stone on tap again, but we found out that Todd decided to limit our club discount to one beer per visit (which is not what he said and it's not a very good deal at all so that's lame.)

Apr 25, 2012

I worked at the senior high and had this fantastic machine at my disposal. I really couldn't do anything with it as it wasn't connected to the internet, but it was fun to look at. The classes were all good. I got a lot of reading done.

I went to East Point Lighthouse with Dave and Chelsea to shoot their engagement photos. This one came out really good, I think. I was a little worried about some of them. I'm hoping the rest are good as well. I went to the gym with Ryan after we finished the shoot and then I joined Kate and Chuck to finish out trivia at Applebee's.

Apr 24, 2012

I had a pretty easy day at the senior high covering for meetings and then went to the course to play a game of disc golf with Kate. After we played I ran a few miles around the lake.

I came home and worked on some things and felt like I needed to run again so I did four miles around the neighborhood at a pretty good pace. I don't know how I change my pace so often.

Apr 23, 2012

I worked at Holly Heights as an art teacher today. It was a pretty good day. Having elementary school once in a while is a nice break from middle school. The kids are really nice usually. Later I went to the gym with Ryan and that was my day.

Apr 22, 2012

It was nice sleeping in after the fast-paced day I had yesterday, but I got back to it with an impromptu early-afternoon U Buy the Glass event at The Abbaye for Earth Day.

Kate, Chuck, and I each got a Long Trail Glass in a little Earth Day box that also came with seeds for a tree. It was a cool idea. The beer was also good. None of us drank too much though. I guess after yesterday we had had enough for a while.

I went to Ryan's later and played some Mario Kart for the first time in months and then came home to get ready to go back to work.

Apr 21, 2012

After having a tasty omelet and a smoothie for breakfast, Ashley and I went to Valley Forge National Park for a trail run. We took opposite directions on a path that was quite hard to follow since it wasn't marked and it branched off frequently. Either way we had a good run and met back up near the covered bridge and ran together for a bit.

I came home after we made our way through traffic back to the city and got ready to go to the Oar House for Turtle Stone's launch party. I covered it for NJCB, but I was there to support Ben as well. Beers were on special and all three of the ones they brought were really good.

It was a really good turnout for them and it seemed like a lot of people really enjoyed their beer. I made a few contacts that I hope will pan out somehow. I'm looking forward to trying more of their beer.

At the last minute Ryan offered me his ticket to the Ultimate Mud Run in Millville so I took it and got my stuff ready quickly. It was an interesting environment and it seemed like the staff had no idea what they were doing. There were long lines and no directions at all. It was hard to find the starting line and once I did we stood there waiting and there was no ceremony to the start at all, we just all started running eventually.

The course was basically all flat so I was hoping the obstacles would make up for it. There were some good ones, like the cargo net. That was fun. There were a lot of tire climbs and stacks of hay bails.

About halfway through it started raining. This obstacle was fun and really difficult. I got almost across before I slipped off one of the hand holds and fell in the water. Shortly after this it started pouring. That's when I really started to enjoy it. Running in pouring rain and climbing over walls and through nets was really fun.

I wasn't all that muddy when I finished, partially due to the rain and partly because there wasn't much mud. I felt like I did pretty well over the 8 mile course. It was an overall disappointing course after doing things like the Spartan Race though.

Kate picked me up and we went back to the Oar House with Chuck. We had another beer or two as the bartenders got weird and started dancing on the bar instead of getting Chuck another beer. It was definitely different.

It was quite a fun-filled day and despite the disappointing nature of the race, it was nice being two miles from my house so I could come home and shower and put on clean clothes right after.

Apr 20, 2012

I worked day two of my English job at the senior high, watching videos for most of the classes so the day went quickly. I met Ashley near UPenn and we went to Sitar for Indian buffet. It was delicious. I love Indian food and I don't get it nearly enough.

After printing my ticket I found an amazing free parking spot around the corner from the TLA and hung out at Dobb's and had a beer before going into the show. I got in to see Transit start their set and play some good stuff. The crowd wasn't too into it. Polar Bear Club played next and they were really good, but with a similar crowd reaction.

The Wonder Years were fantastic. They played pretty much every song I could possibly have wanted to hear and the crowd was great and energetic and fun. I can't believe I waited so long to get into these guys. I should have listened to Joanna. All of the bands came out at the end of "Bar Bands" to sing along and then get crazy on stage since it was the final night of the tour.

After a great show I went back to Ashley's and hung out looking through travel books and then trying to plot a route on Google Maps. After we did that we had some beers and spent the next few hours watching old music videos on YouTube. It was actually a lot of fun.

Apr 19, 2012

I finally worked again at the senior high for a class I always enjoy. The job was requested quite a while ago because of a trip, but that's fine with me. We had a good, fairly easy day. I went to lake to take some photos at sunset and got some really cool shots of a spider in its web.

That was basically the night. I came home and edited some of the photos I took and not much else.

Apr 18, 2012

It was a mainly uneventful day spent inside editing videos and sorting through files that I had to work on. We went to The Abbaye in the evening for Flying Fish U Buy the Glass night. They had the Farmhouse Summer on tap so that was nice.

We saw the rep who we met at the brewery when we toured it and talked to her for a while. We had some good food, as always, and enjoyed a couple hours of beer and chatting.

'Twas a fun evening out and it was good to see Jordan again for a little while.

Apr 17, 2012

Another day I didn't get a job left us a nice day to go play disc golf at the Landis course. It was relatively calm so we could play without issue. We played about half the course before it was time to go pick up Aiden from school.

We took him to the zoo in Cape May where he immediately wanted to feed the goats so he did that and seemed to enjoy it. As did the goats.

It turns out he's not a fan of a lot of animals and he has a short attention span. He wanted to see the giraffes (the real ones) so we went all the way to the back of the zoo to see them and then he was like, "Yep.. okay can we go?" We walked around a bit more and he was transfixed by the otters for a bit before he lost interest in that as well. He doesn't like lions and the monkeys weren't being entertaining.

He did seem to have a lot of fun at the playground outside the zoo. He made some friends, as it seems like he can do very well, and began playing with them and crawling through tubes. There is a small rock wall that I got him to climb as well and he seemed pretty good at it. Eventually we had to tear him away and head home.

I met with Kim in the evening about the wedding to go over a few specifics and ideas. Later I met Ryan at the gym to do some circuits.