Training Log Archive: barb

Errands around town. Sent some orienteering related items off at the post office. Delivered raw materials for writing 150 biographies for the opera program to 4 writers and discussed it with 3 of them. So that was good, given my general reluctance to actually talk to people.

The kids went to Pennsylvania this morning; the plane left at 6. I had those weird cramps in the middle of the night, like I did on my birthday a year or two ago (when I went to the hospital). I was the only adult in a house with 4 kids, though, so I couldn't go to the hospital. Which would have been silly anyway, as it got better after some tea and baking soda and sitting up reading a book about China - by a guy who was there in 1999 when there were riots after the US bombed a Chinese embassy in Kosovo. After I went back to sleep I had a lot of vivid dreams about art and not waking up in time to get to the airport. When I told the kids about the dreams, David said, pay careful attention to any art you see in your dreams, because I could use those ideas - if it's in a dream, it's probably not been done in the real world.

Dave is ice climbing so I'm on my own this weekend, except for a bit of neighbor kid wrangling.

Out to the south end of Prospect Hill Park, around, and back.

Only visited the first half of the controls, then came back on trails. It was fun wandering around in the snowy woods in the winter night. Ice Bugs would have been good; just had my Italian light hikers. Brendan set this up; Lori and Ian were also there. Found out that Ian is working doing algorithms for analyzing big corporate data sets.

It's never too cold to exercise. The cracking ear is just gross though.

to work, home, then from gymnastics to work then home. then to the high school to learn about high school for David, then to a reception at the Broad institute where I saw some old Millennium-ites and scored a couple hugs from Mark Levin. Then to Tosci's which was all dark and has been SEIZED for non-payment of taxes, so no ice cream for me tonight, then on to home.

C • SEIZED! 8

So if I exercise for 45 minutes in the course of a day, not all at once but in 7 chunks of as few as 4 minutes, is that better or worse (from the point of view of maintaining fitness) than doing it all at once? Most everyone exercises in much larger chunks. 4 minutes is enough time that I warm up.

Commute, including DD. Cold fingers & toes.

Started reading some of the B Franklin biography last night. The night before, I dived into the book that my parents gave David for Xmas, Oliver Wiswell. Written in 1940, the protagonist is a British royalist during the American Revolution.
Wow, I just realized you can read it online. Apparently this was a popular book when my dad was a kid. I like the writing. And it takes place around here (of course) - eg
I was skirting one of the shoulders of Great Blue Hill, expecting
each moment to see spread before me the distant twinkling lights on
Brush Hill and Milton Hill, and beyond them the rising triple wave
of golden pin points that meant Boston, when my mare threw up
her head and shied; and in the same moment I saw, at the foot of the
slope before me, a sliver of golden flame licking at the corner of a
barn.
Hm, maybe we can have a "Boston mob" on the next Traverse T shirt.

Monday afternoon during the snow day I took David to MIT for a lecture by one of the GAMBIT videogame people. It was OK, not great. She talked about the adventure game genre, and stories.

This afternoon I'll meet the kids at the bus stop and take them to MIT to get a fencing demo. This is thanks to Geoff, who was a champion fencer back when we were in college, and maintains a relationship with the coach.

C • coach 4

My first cell phone video!

Went with Isabel to a new place at 6:30 am. Isabel did a good job of getting up and getting dressed so early. The instructor went over time so we had to leave before shivasina. Or whatever it's called. In order to make the school bus.

Today was a good day for knocking off some things that were in the "dreaded" category on my to-do list. Dreaded because of how long I procrastinated, and how visible the assignments were. I had to draft a proposed revised policy statement (on software sharing), and provide all the background justification including summarizing (but first getting) feedback from the community. And I had to draft a recommendation on whether our society should remain a member of a federation. And I had to propose a replacement for myself as committee chair. And I had to do it all by yesterday when I met with the Executive Committee. So I sat down yesterday morning and knocked it all off, and did a pretty good job if I do say so myself. The meeting was actually quite a let-down because they didn't acknowledge all my hard work or even let me finish presenting, but jumped in with sudden, not-thought-ought ideas about changes to one minor part of our recommendatoin. Sigh. But it's not all over yet - we go to the full Board in a few weeks, and I can carry out the battles by email in the meantime. I'm extracting myself from this society - stopped being VP last year, and as of now am no longer on the Board, and am finding a replacement for me as committee chair - and I must say I'm glad because I find the president (though I am fond of him) quite awkward to work with, and it will be nice to have rid myself of one source of stress and over-commitment. I love the executive officer though, and plan to remain friends with her!

Inch of slush on the bottom - heavy.
No school for the kids.