My weekend in pictures

The first phase of my move is now complete! As I'm typing from Muscatine with my car parked out front with a lot of crap in it, my bed, futon, and lots more crap are all sitting in the basement of my brother's current place of residence in Iowa City. On Saturday, Travis will be moving into his new house, one that he's actually buying. (Ridiculous stuff, right? My younger brother is buying a house and starts his full-time job on Monday. In the meantime, I'll be "temporarily homeless" for the next month, surfing from couch to couch. And I'm fine with that.) Hopefully a majority of my stuff will be moving up there with him this weekend, at least the larger items (bed, futon, tv) that I can't get with my car. The best part about it? I will not be around to help out, as I will be invading DC for Flenkerfest 2007 (apparently my first 2007 trip that way wasn't the "official" Flenkerfest. That one might have been Birthday Bash). I feel bad about not being able to help out, I mean it's my brother's first house and all, but the timing on everything just didn't work out. And besides, he only helped me a little bit, while he was extremely drunk, around 3:00 Tuesday morning. Yes, I was up, moving at 3 am yesterday. I didn't really sleep between 9 am Monday and 11 pm Tuesday. Poor planning on my part. Not packing early was a poor choice. But, my room went from looking like this:

To looking like this:

(that brown spot was on the floor when I moved in, I swear. It was under my bed the whole time, how could it have gotten there with my bed over it???)

Many thanks to my friends Travis (not to be confused with my brother Travis) and Erin for helping with my move by providing a truck and moral support!

To keep the theme of some recent-Flenker pictures, here are a few from the Bix weekend festivities!

This is LeClaire Park, one of 3 or 4 venues hosting jazz bands during the weekend, right on the Mississippi River.


Every year a building on the Illinois side of the Quad-Cities turns on the lights in some offices to spell out "Bix". I think it's pretty neat.


This is the Centennial Bridge, right near LeClaire Park, a nice site when it's all lit up. It's even better in person or in a photo taken by a good photographer.


And this is the only photo that's been posted so far of me from the run. I'm hoping that there will be a couple more, but this one will do for now!

Now I really should be getting to bed, I've got a long day of travel ahead of me. I'll try to check in from the east coast while I'm there, but be sure to be on your best behavior if I'm not around.

nap time

For the second year in a row, I did not win the Bix. I did improve on my time from last year, though, by over 20 minutes, coming in at just over 1 hr 20 min. It was a little bit slower of a pace than I wanted, but I felt ok about it.

More in the near future, right now, I need to go into recovery mode. Which involves not much of anything.

See you soon.

ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Well now, I've been in and out for a bit here, and my poor little blog has been ignored. Sorry blog. I do have to warn you, that could happen again, at any moment, without warning. It all depends on how ambitious I'm feeling (which, at the moment, may be at an all-time low) and how good of a connection I can get (also very low lately). I apologize in advance. Hopefully after this next week or so, things will be a little more reliable for me.

What have I been up to in the past few days? For starters, today was my last day of work here in town. That was nice, although uneventful. The only thing I really have to do right now is pack pack pack. I'm moving out of my current location on the 31st, back home to Muscatine for a month. But that month will be spent on the go go go, with stops in DC, long layovers in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids (where my brother now owns a house!!!), and possibly a trip to the Ames area and maybe even Minneapolis, if I can swing it. Also, I'll be up in Chicago on Labor Day weekend, there's going to be a Hawkeye invasion as Iowa takes on Northern Illinois in Soldier Field on September 1. I'll be there on the 31st of August for the Cubs game, then hanging out that night and hitting up the game the next day. I'm very excited for it! And maybe if some of my Chicago-land blog friends are lucky, we could work something out to meet up.

Also, the Bix is coming up this weekend, on Saturday to be exact. Mentally, I feel ready. Physically, I'm hoping my mental readiness will carry me. At least this year I won't have to move the very next day. I at least have a day off in between now. yay

I promised some photos of my haircut the other day, and I'm not one to break promises. I just hope you are all ready for it.

First is Flenker on Friday

The shaggy do that everyone has known and loved. But now, it's time for a change. A new phase of my life is coming up, so a new style was needed. So may I introduce to you, ushering in a new era, the New Flenker!!

At first I wasn't quite sure of the new look, but I'm starting to come around to it. It needs to grow out just a tiny bit, but I think I'll enjoy it. I haven't had my hair this short in quite some time (possibly years), so it was time to go back.

I think that's going to be it for now. I have a post started about this past weekend that I'll try to have up some time soon, hopefully tomorrow.

A bit of wind

2 tornado warnings in the past 3 days were fun, especially since I was at work. We herded all of the customers to the back room, and handed out cookies and water while we waited for everything to pass over. A friend of mine and I just kind of wandered around the empty store checking things out. Monday was nothing really, just some strong winds and a reported touch-down somewhere, but not much threatening Iowa City. Yesterday, however, was some pretty intense weather, I was outside watching and saw a huge wall cloud come through, and felt the much cooler temperatures and strong winds that came with it. I didn't see any funnel cloud or rotation or anything, but some friends said that they did, but no reports of anything touching down. Still a kind of exciting time. Today, finally, the weather is beautiful, so I'm going to enjoy it tonight as much as I can.

Other than that, nothing has been going on around here of any note. I've been playing a lot of the new NCAA football game, and love it. I had some wonderful sushi today, and have been running/walking almost daily (when I can between the raindrops). This weekend I'm heading to a party I'm co-hosting at my brother's place here in town, but other than that, nothing exciting on the horizon until the Bix on the 28th. I need to get my ass in shape, or at least to a point where I won't want to vomit after running 7 miles.

Anyways, that's about it for now. Just thought I'd let everyone know that I'm still kicking it in Iowa City, just livin the dream.

Weekend Videos

It seems like a good time to post some videos. I don't know what qualifies today over any other time, but whatever. Maybe this could be a recurring theme on the weekends, when I'm feeling too lazy to write any actual posts. We shall see.

Far

This is a band I listened to a lot in high school. You may recognize the lead singer, he's Jonah Matranga of onelinedrawing and New End Original. This song, "Mother Mary" is off of the album Water and Solutions, one of my all-time favorites. I was hoping for a video of their song "Bury White", but this will suffice.




Hum

Another band that I listened to a lot in high school, hearing them and Far right now take me back to trips to and from tennis practice. These two bands were about as close to the "grunge" genre as I got.

Their more popular song is probably "Stars", but I always loved this song, "The Pod". Both are off the album You'd Prefer an Astronaut, again, one of my favorites.





The (International) Noise Conspiracy

I'm moving more into my early college days with this group. T(I)NC came from the ashes of Refused (featured in a video post before), so to speak. They share a lead singer in Dennis Lyxzen (who may get my award for favorite last name, after Flenker of course), but this band is a little more 60's-rock influenced, with definite agendas and messages. This is "The Reproduction of Death" from Survival Sickness.





Rival Schools

This is another band from the first year or two I spent at Ames, and a regular contributer to my weekly radio shows. Charczuk and I would totally rock out while this song, "Used for Glue" was playing, doing some pretty intense air-guitaring at around the 2:22 mark of this video (embedding is disabled, so I can't post it here, but definitely check it out. This song rocks pretty hard, and I used to have a crush on the girl in the video.)


The Weakerthans

One of my favorite bands, this was my favorite song from their latest album Reconstruction Site. "Psalm for the Elk's Lodge Last Call" is a slower-paced song, kind of has a reflective tone, but the video always cracks me up. I love it!





Bonus Video!!!

I thought I'd add this Hum video that I just found, a live performance of "Stars". Matt Talbot is wearing a Bix 7 shirt, and that amused me to no end! These (nerdy-looking) guys from Champaign/Urbana get pretty heavy in this awesome version. (They're probably the only good thing to come from the University of Illinois campus.)

Just imagine the "Chariots of Fire" theme while reading this

I think these new shoes are going to work out. I've just been walking around in them to make sure I like the feel, but from now on they will be exclusively used for running. And in the past, that meant that I would wear them twice a year and forget about them, but since I actually spent the money on them this time, I feel obligated to used them more often. On days like today, it's hard not staying outside. It's absolutely perfect. Which works out well for me, I don't have to work until 5, so I've had most of the day to do whatever I'd like. This has involved getting some sushi for lunch, doing some laundry, walking downtown to the Java House, and very soon, going for a jog. I was planning on jogging this morning, but while I was sleeping, I got a massive cramp in my left calf, to which I woke up, screaming in pain. I think I was saying something like "damn this hurts," or maybe something with more swears. Then this morning it was still hurting when I tried to walk, so I decided to take it easy for a little while. It figures that I'd hurt myself while sleeping.

Anyways, the weather is too nice to not go for a run right now. I've got my headband on and everything, I mean business. I've got 2 weeks to break these shoes in and get in shape myself to run 7 miles.

Shit.

UPDATE!!!

Just got back from the run. The shoes and socks combine well to keep my feet very dry and well-ventilated. The sushi and cookie combine to keep my lungs not-well-ventilated. All in all I think I did about 2.5 miles in about 30-minutes. I need to step it up a little, but feel alright. I only slightly feel like puking!

A Good Chris Day

Today's been pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie. I got up refreshed, and went to play racquetball with a friend of mine. I honestly haven't played in probably 4 or 5 years, but I did alright. I didn't win, but improved along the way, and made it respectable.

Once home, I had a leftover brat with some grilled onions and a Diet Dr Pepper. Tasty! After that, I showered and got my hair cut! Not too much, just a trim. But it looks damn fine, if I do say so myself. The only bummer for the day has been the "internet" not working at home, but I'm at the library now for this quick update. Nothing The Flenker! can't handle.

Next, I will be heading to a matinee of Hot Fuzz, and then going and getting some new running shoes to break in for this year's Bix 7! Then I'll probably just chill, eat a delicious dinner, and relax with a Tom Collins, maybe watch a movie at home or something. But damn, don't that sound like quite the day? Right on!

Oooh, one last thing, the emails have been sent for the Great Blogger Mix CD Exchange! If you wanted to participate and didn't receive the email, let me know. Address have been sent out, so hopefully some mix CDs will be sent out!!! I'm excited for this. If you still want to participate, let me know, I'll get you in!!!

Alright, later folks! Have a wonderful day, I know I am! Beeyah!

At least I didn't get last. . .

This past July, I walked/ran the Bix 7 with my dad, my first time doing the event, his 15th or 16th. My dad's been trying to get me and my brother to do it for sometime now, last year was the first either of us had gone. And I'm extremely glad I did, it was a fun experience and an overall good time. We signed up as walkers, because neither of us had trained very much, and wanted to enjoy the seven miles at a leisurely pace. We started near the end of the 15,000+ large pack of people, and took about 10 minutes for us to actually get to the starting line after the race had commenced. Our "official" race time was 1 hour, 44 minutes, and 32 seconds for myself, with my dad coming in three seconds later, so we probably actually did it in just over an hour and a half, which is not bad at all for walking. We did run the last mile or so, so we did make up some time, but we still did ok for an out-of-shape 25 year-old and a slightly more in-shape 57 year-old. Plus, we had a pretty awesome picture taken of us, which I'll get to in a minute. (They have a stand set up near the finish line that takes a picture of everyone as they come in, then a couple of weeks later the photos are sent out and you have the option of ordering photos. We had to order a copy of ours, you'll see why in a minute.)

I bring this up because my dad just got an entry form for this year's Bix, on July 29th. I am already pumped up to do it again. The race was a great time, then there's the "after party" where they have tons of free food, music, and even free beer once you've finished. (The beer line is always the longest, go figure.) There's also bands set up along the route, and people cheering on the participants the whole way. The route's pretty intense, a fewI bring all of this up because my dad got some information recently about signing up for this killer hills, and the first mile is entirely uphill. But that's not the worst part, that comes a few miles into it, shortly before the turn-around point, when the hill grade gets near 25%. (I don't know if that's the actual grade, but it sure as hell feels like it after you've gone 3 miles.) The map of the course is to the right. Also, the road race is just a part of the festivities. The entire weekend is the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival, with a street fest in downtown Davenport, and jazz bands playing the entire weekend all throughout the town, including my favorite venue, LeClaire Park, on the Mississippi River. (For those unaware, Bix Beiderbecke was a talented trumpet player in the 1920's, a Dixieland jazz artist, from Davenport, IA. Good stuff.)

Anyways, besides having an entry form for this year's Bix, there was a postcard with last year's results. I had thought I did ok, but it turns out in my age division, I finished 1343 out of 1404, meaning I beat 61 people. Great. But it gives me a goal now, I gotta improve that. And this year, we're running it the whole way. Or at least jogging most of it. Probably a few breaks to walk. And maybe re-tie a shoe. My overall place wasn't that bad, at 8782, right around 50%. So I can feel better about that, I guess. And this year, I may have even moved up a bracket, into the 26-30 age range. So with age comes slowness, right? Well, not for me. I'm actually going to kind of train this year, I've started working out a little, and will increase that with improving weather. My goal is to get closer to a 10-minute mile pace, maybe even try to push it to an hour. I think I can do that. I will do that.

So, as promised, here's the picture of my dad and me as we neared the finish line for 2006's Bix 7. This may be one of my favorite pictures of myself, just because I look ridiculous (I was going for the Howard Dean "BEEYAH!" look, and I am absolutely rockin' that headband. I need to bust that out more often), my dad looks a little ridiculous, and, as many people have pointed out, we look like we've been running hard, while the woman behind us is casually strolling. Our shirts are soaked, mostly from pouring water out over ourselves to try to cool off on a hot day.


Beeyah indeed.