A Run blog, cause I need to get serious

Time of departure: 11:15am-ish

Return: 12:00pm-ish
Temperature: 43 F

Route: Around ICC
Approx Distance: 3.3 miles
Running buddy: 2008 Mix CD
Clothing: Athletic pants, sweat wicker, pink running zipper top

What did I eat pre-run? nothin'
How did I feel? Running sucks when you haven't been running. My left knee/ITB attachments were whining periodically. I was really slow for most of it.
What do I like about running? Running makes me feel happy and content.
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Since moving to Peoria, there have been a few necessary-to-a-happy-life things that I haven't established. One of those things is a running routine. Of course, it doesn't have to be running, it could be some other sort of fitness routine, but running is the best for a couple of reasons. 1) It's inexpensive. I already have all the shoes and gear I need. 2) I can do it on my own schedule at any time. 3) I already know how to do run, how to ready my body when it's cranky or isn't feeling quite right. 4) I can get fresh air and sunshine at the same time I get my exercise. 5) Running really is just the best. Nothing clears my mind as completely as a long hard run does...with the possible exception of a West African Dance class, but that is not an option here in central Illinois.

For awhile after my move, I really wasn't running at all. Then, a couple weeks ago, I started walking more, but still running less. Today though, I decided walking doesn't really do it for me. It's nice enough, it moves my blood around a little, makes my body feel a little less stagnant, but that's not enough for me. I remember talking to Eric way back when about running for the feeling you get after running. That post-run high. That's why I have to run, because running makes me happy. It's gives me a feeling of peace and contentedness. I feel calm in my joints and muscles and relaxed in my mind after a run. I can breathe deeper.

So, it was a beautiful fall day. The whole nice fall day deal: crisp air, golden-sunny blue skies, brown leaves scuttling across the pavement. And it's Halloween! A day of infamous bad weather! But it was a good day for a run. There's a cross country running course carved in amongst the cornfields on the ICC campus and it looked as though a big conference match and just ended. Hundreds of people were dispersing from that area carrying signs like, "Run, Joe, Run!" I picked up my pace running through the herd of running fans, otherwise, I was pretty much at a snails pace. Not my favorite speed to run, but I guess that's where you begin, when you're beginning again.

Merry Halloween!

Motorcycle Diaries - Part I

Since we live in a cold weather climate racing season is over. Which means it's time to start working on my dad's motorcycle! To remind you what it looked like, here are two "before" pictures that I took when we were loading it up in Frank's truck to take it home:

Here it is today after we spent two hours delicately eviscerating it:

Which was a very very dirty job. Thirty years in a damp dirty barn makes for a filthy rusty motorcycle.

There was 30 year old gasoline in the tank, too! The gas tube was rusted shut, so we had to dump it out the top--a messy job. And very foul smelling. Unlike the usual fragrance of fresh gasoline!

Other guts: the battery (cracked and completely empty of battery acid), filthy air filters, the side panels, spark plugs, and carburetors:

Next on the agenda: do some reading of the manual and figure out how the drive chain comes out. It's all very interconnected and how to disassemble it is not intuitive.

*****

I wanted sweet potato fries (again). They are so easy to make! And so delicious.

This is the recipe I'm very roughly following.

And, I was going to take an after-cooking picture...but they were too hot and yummy and I ate them all up already... Yum!

NS & SC trip report

Frank and I recently returned from a whirlwind trip of Greensboro and Charlotte, NC and Greenville, SC. Frank is scheduled to graduate from his MBA program in May, and we're trying to determine if we want to stay here or trade in Peoria-living for a city that ranks higher on the Frankenmary Index.

*****

Here's an overview of Greensboro, NC:

-A b*tchy waitress at Applebees

-Socially, it may be very college-towny?

-Outside of town: lots of random trailer homes interspersed with nicer houses and subdivisions--not very appealing

-Greensboro-proper had some pretty areas, but not Frank-appropriate housing. Some areas reminded me of old Urbana near U of I.

-We had a drink at sports bar near campus that cousin Jimmy recommended

-Frank-jobs are limited--all they really have would be Volvo Trucks

-We found some potential neighborhoods/houses in Jamestown, SW of Greensboro. 17 min from Volvo Trucks, 22 min from DT Greenville

-We only spent half a day here, really, but weren’t too inspired to spend more time.

-Close to mountains & to ocean & racetracks

*****

And an overview of Charlotte, NC:

-Reputed, at least among its residents, to be growing into the next big metropolis

-Banking center. Lots of money moving around these parts.

-No one we talked to seems to love it, but “you get used to it” after 5-7 years, they say

-Some people seem proud that it is growing into a big city--this is the big thing it has going for it

-Commonly understood fact: no one in Charlotte is from Charlotte. If you’ve been there 7-9 years, you’re a native. (Compare that with areas of New England where they say you aren't a local unless you've been there 7 generations.)

-Seems like the time to (Frank) work->(Frank-friendly) home->fun factor would be a problem. Potentially very difficult to be close to all, as is the case with bigger cities.

-One neighborhood we looked at had some diversity, but mostly, our impression was that the city and suburbs were rather segregated.

-We had drinks at a sports bar downtown (all white people), the Tasty Beaver with lots of Bloody Mary's on the menu and the pig roast or whatever out front (all white hipsters), and another sports bar near the small venue Third Eye Blind concert where we met this guy Taylor, his Montreal girlfriend, and Jeane, the bassist of Wavy Space, and food runner for 3EB...there was a little racial diversity here. A lot of Bears fans too at that bar.

-Close to mountains & to ocean & to racetracks

*****

But things got a lot more interesting once we headed down into South Carolina.

I have said more than a few times that I want a peach tree some day. I thought this was a sign:

About Greenville:

-Lots of Frank jobs! Great weather! Friendly people! I could live here!

-We spent basically 2 full days here, and easily could have filled more days with activities!

-Hotel staff was notably friendly, as was everyone else we encountered.

-We had dinner Monday night downtown at a sports bar with live acoustic guitar (who gave us his CD! and was very friendly), had pizza at a local pizza place, lunch at Quiznos; all experiences were pleasant, people were friendly, diversity felt healthy & nice.

-People's accents are nice here.

-Had 1.25 hour meeting with a friend of a friend of Frank's at Caterpillar. He loves living in Greenville, moved from Ohio 35 years ago--had great things to say! People like living here, it seems.

-Weather is mild in winter, hot but not humid in summer

-Dirt is red clay, will have to lay down black dirt for gardening.

-Gun culture (which is perhaps surprisingly not a negative). I like the independent spirit that comes with this, I think. The law seems to be a little hands off.

-Rated/voted one of the bike friendliest cities. On a related note, Lance and whatshisname train here. It's what'shisname's hometown.

-100-mile moped competition--has interesting local character. Also: has a subdivision for anyone: including those who want to keep an airplane in their garage...

-A number of housing areas have potential. Location of Frank-job would influence what neighborhood. (eg. Greer, Five forks)

-Downtown Greenville is revitalized and nice--both walking, biking, and driving. Active at night, even on a Monday night

-Greer, a suburb of Greenville that has the BMW plant and housing potential, spoken highly of on city data forum

-Schools are generally bad in SC, but the Greenville area has some good ones

-The Frank-job capital of the world! Catepillar, BMW, GE, Belcan, Michelin! All great possibilities. Also maybe: Standard Motor, Baldor, Rexroth, Automotive Products, Siemens.

-It's near mountains & ocean & racetracks & low commute times to work, fun, home...sounds ideal!

*****

Here are some other photos from the trip:

We allowed ourselves one hour of fun, a break from research, and hung out at the BMW museum:

This is a super cute little car from the 60s, I think, the door is in front. So cute!!!!

This Formula One engine is only 1.5 liters. Just like my little ECHO! :) It has a lot more horsepower though.

On the drive home, we took the long cut through the mountains:

Here's a view from the Blue Ridge Trail:

It looks really bike friendly up here in the mountains until you notice the bullet holes...

*****

We've started tearing apart my dad's old motorcycle, but more on that later...

Welding Vertical Ups and Beginning Overheads

My mother tells me she checks my blog every morning, and likes it when she has something to read. So...this one's for you, Mom. :)

Frank has been working on updating his resume, and conversations about that have led to short lectures (for me) on many a controls engineering thing. This morning it was on solenoids. Solenoids are some rather magical sounding things that, among other things, control or initiate the flushing of this automatic toilet, which I observed in action today:

There was a request pics of me in my welding get up. Here's one. Maybe I should have taken it with the hood down. :)

This (below) is NOT me, it's a classmate. That's a fire proof/fire retardant jacket he's wearing. It had caught on fire when he got too close to his welding rod. Imagine if he had NO fire retardant jacket. I think I need to get one. Also, because, I started welding in the overhead position today and the weld berries (the sparks) were attacking my bicep and armpit. OUCH!! I also felt one shoot across my eyebrow, though luckily it didn't leave me bald. Not that a jacket would help with that, but it made me pull my bandanna lower (as you can see above).

This is a vertical up corner weld with a GMAW machine. I had to turn the voltage and wire speed way down. I think I did this at 15.5volts and a wire speed of 145...inches per minute is the unit, I think.

This is the GMAW (a.k.a. MIG) machine I use in class. It's very heavy duty.

This is what my weld station looks like: It's inside a booth of vinyl curtains. That's a vertical up 3-layer pad that's clamped up there.

Vertical up 3-layer pad close up with welding nozzle in view.

Here you can see my earliest attempts at overhead welding. Pretty nasty, right? That's how it is starting a new position. Perhaps you can understand why I didn't like welding my first couple of weeks. It's very frustrating at first.

Overhead welding string beads (below) once I got the swing of things. This was with 19.5 volts and a wire speed of 320 (inches per minute, I think). The two welds on the sides are butt welds. Two pieces of metal butt to butt, welded together.
Today was the first day I felt like:


1) I really wanted a welding fire proof jacket because the weld berries fall onto your bicep/armpit and attack it when you're welding overhead. I have four little singes on my bicep.


2) I really wanted an auto adjusting hood. I've been using Frank's dad's old hood which it quite ancient. A couple of my classmates *still* like to give me poop about it. If you don't know, an auto adjusting hood is one that when you look through it in normal like, it's like looking through dark sunglasses. As soon as you begin to weld, it darkens immediately to the appropriate darkness. The advantage of this is that you can place the electrode at the exact place you want to begin your weld, so it can be much prettier. Without it, I can't see exactly where I'm starting the weld until after the arc has been struck. Also, the newer hoods have much larger lenses which make it easier to see up, when I need to look up for these overhead welds.


and 3) ...I don't remember. Frank just got home from band practice and distracted me...and now I'm hungry. Later, ya'll!

I baked sourdough bread!

I made my sourdough bread today. Here it is after the 1st rising, after being shaped into loaves:

And after the second rising! Aren't they cute and pump?

And after the baking! Smells good and yeasty!

And then the eating. Hot bread right out of the oven--so yummy!

We went grocery shopping yesterday after not going for three weeks--not sure how we managed that. Isn't a bowl of fresh produce a beautiful sight?

I can't wait to eat those sweet potatoes. Mmm. Autumn.

Welding & Racing & Cooking

Frank tells me I'm behind on my blogging. This is true. I've been spending my writing time working on a website. It's not published yet, but I'll let you know when it is. I'll be open to feedback.

For all you Chicago folks (and anyone else), who wonders if I miss the big city: not really. I miss WAD (West African Dance) and Ethiopian Diamond and friends...but overall, no. Check out this view I drive by once or twice a day:

Peoria is a beautiful little city or big town that's retained a lot of natural prettiness. I like that.

Overall, life has been good. I've been welding! At first, I really did not like it. But, as I have started to understand how I needed to adjust my technique in order to improve a weld, it has become a lot more fun. I enjoy focused work and learning new skills that require hand-eye coordination, and a different, deeper understanding of our environment--how electricity and metals behave--very interesting! The guys in my classes are fun, and very supportive of me (being a girl) learning to weld. I feel it is appropriate for me to learn how to weld in Peoria; so much industry and manufacturing in this town!

Below is a weld I did last night. It is an Vertical Upward weld on steel. Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW) also known as MIG or MAG welding. The piece of metal is in a vertical position when I'm welding on it, and I'm moving up (not down) as I weld. This is one of the more difficult welding positions, because the melted steel is 2800+ degrees F and wants to pool and succumb to gravity, so I'm rather proud of it being (relatively) pretty. One of my classmates told me to "take it home and frame it." I thought I'd post it on a blog instead. This is a butt joint and a lap joint.

Below is a 3-layer pad in the Vertical Downward position with GMAW. Not so difficult, really. 3-layer pads are what they sound and look like: a pad of overlapping stinger beads, then a second layer of stringer beads in a perpendicular direction, and a third in the original direction. You want to get it as smooth as possible.

This (below) is a 3-layer pad with a Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW or ARC or stick welder) in a flat position with an E-6013 rod that I did on Monday. Stick welding has a lot more spatter because the rod is covered with a flux. Instead of the shielding gas (such as Argon) in GMAW, the weld pool is shielded from the harmful gases in the atmosphere by the gas given off by the burning flux. The flux turns to gas and to slag, which is sort of a cocoon for the weld bead. Slag protects the weld and slows down the cooling process, making the metal less prone to cracking and shrinking. But, slag is really annoying because you have to hammer and wire brush it off after ever weld, and any slag left behind will make any future welds done on top of it ugly and weak from impurities. Stick welding is more time consuming than GMAW welding, and doesn't make as pretty of welds. I do enjoy learning it though, because it is a much more difficult to do well.

*****

We went racing last weekend. I had a great time--I rode with Frank 5 of 10 times! Frank was frustrated by the poor handling of the mustang. I think that the chassis is floppy, but what do I really know?

Here is Frank buckling up for a test drive a couple days beforehand (I think he's so cute!):

Sig wanted to go too, but I pulled rank:

On the way there we stopped and visited with an old friend of mine in C-U. That was nice.

I tried to upload some video footage...but it was taking way too long. Anyhow, we raced.

*****

In other news, I tricked Frank into eating tofu again...by putting it in lasagna. Looks like cheese, right?

The sauce is my homemade sauce! plus Boca crumbles for the lasagna. I think we've just about nailed a recipe. Next time I made the sauce, I'll post it.

The lasagna put together:

Eric's old college recipe for lasagna. Yum!

And I've decided to start baking bread. I started some Sourdough starter today. I'm excited about this!

First the warm water, yeast, and sugar:

And 10 minutes later...yay, they're alive! (Yeast really take great pictures, don't they?)

Then mixing in the flour, to let it sit for 2-3 days.

My sister is going to be visiting her bf in Iowa City (from Boston), and I'm thinking of popping over to see her on Sunday. Maybe I'll have a fresh sourdough loaf for her, if all turns out well!

Frank and I are planning a trip to the Carolinas in a couple weeks to check out Greensboro, Charlotte, and Greenville. Frank is planning on graduating in May and we're exploring our options...more on that later.