This morning, I’ll be heading off to California for a long weekend, with Angelina’s skating competition in Anaheim being the centerpiece. Also on tap is a day trip to Disneyworld, echoing my earlier trip to Disney World this summer.
Tag / Disney World
Fitbit III: Week 25
Another good week, as I was above goal for all 7 days and finished above 50,000 steps for the 5th consecutive week. Things got off to a slow-ish start on Sunday, where I was still recovering from the trip to Disney World but still managed to finish a whole 6 steps above goal. Monday was a big improvement, as I finished above 8500 thanks to some work day trots around the building. Tuesday was back down near goal again, with an impressive 36 step cushion. Wednesday was the high point of the week, clocking in at nearly 9000 steps thanks to an after work trip to Guaranteed Rate Field to see the White Sox debut of Yoan Moncada. Thursday used a trip out to dinner after work to surpass 7500 steps. Friday was back down closer to goal, but still managed to surpass it by over 100 steps. Saturday was another big day, thanks to a trip to Ravinia to see Garbage and Blondie.
Total steps: 53,181
Daily average: 7597.3
Rocking Out 90s Style
The last two weeks have seen me revisiting the 90s with 2 concerts, Matthew Sweet and Garbage. Things started last Thursday when I headed in to the city to see Matthew Sweet at the City Winery. I was pleasantly surprised that I knew 3 of the songs Sweet performed, which was 2 more than I thought I would going in. A good night, though poorly timed due to my trip to Disney World the following morning.
The second gig was last night, as I traipsed up to the northern suburbs for my first visit to Ravinia, as Garbage and Blondie had come to town for their Rage and Rapture Tour. This was my 6th Garbage show, though the first outdoors. Shirley Manson and the boys did not disappoint, putting together a strong set and overcoming a crowd that seemed more interested in sitting down and relaxing than rocking out. We abandoned the pavilion for Blondie’s portion of the show, eventually heading back to the train for the ride back in to Chicago.
Fitbit III: Week 24
A tremendous week, as I posted my best total since late March/early April. The week got off to a great start on Sunday with a 10,000 step day, thanks to a morning walk to Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast. Monday used an impromptu day-long meeting in North plaza to surpass 8000 steps. Tuesday nearly made it to 7000 steps, in part due to a walk over to Willow for day 2 of the impromptu meeting. Wednesday was my second 10,000 step day of the week, surpassing 11,000 steps thanks to an after work walk. Thursday was back down to 7000 steps, in part due to a post-work trip to the City Winery to see Matthew Sweet. My best day of the week (and year) came on Friday, as I flew down to Florida with Angelina for a day at Disney World. The 20,208 steps I logged are currently the 4th highest total I’ve accumulated in the 7 years I’ve been tracking. Saturday only managed just over 5000 steps as I recovered from the previous day lounging around the house before heading out to Guaranteed Rate Field to watch the White Sox lose to the Mariners.
Total steps: 68,650
Daily average: 9807.1
An Adventure
Earlier this morning, I got on a plane, with Angelina, to head to Disney World. Later tonight, we will hop back on another plane and return home. What would cause someone to something this, well, goofy? A day of adventure! Which, was my graduation gift to her.
Odds are good that it will turn out slightly better than my last trip to the house of the mouse. How much can we fit in one day? Time will tell.
The Still Growing 10,000 Step Club
Last year, as I was finishing my first year with a Fitbit, I took my last look at the top 20 step days I’ve had since I first started tracking my steps way back in July of 2011. At the time, I had only surpassed the 10,000 step plateau 81 times. In the past year, I have managed to add an additional 35 occurrences, raising the total to 116. With my second year using the Fitbit coming to an end last week, I thought it would be appropriate to take a new look at my now top 25 step days over the past 5 1/2 years, featuring 12 new entries.
1: 6/6/2013 – 24,988 steps
My best single day total continues to be from my 2013 trip to Disney World. The day’s excursion to both Epcot Center and the Magic Kingdom ended up with a total of approximately 12.5 miles. And yes, it still bothers me that I didn’t get those 12 additional steps to reach 25,000.
2: 3/22/2016 – 22,493 steps
My first new entry shares much in common with my #1 day, taking place in Disney World last March. The day’s excursion started at Hollywood Studios before heading over to Epcot Center with Jeff and Val.
3: 7/27/2013 – 20,592 steps
My now third highest total came nearly 2 months after my highest, thanks to the BTN 5K and a, for lack of a better word, misunderstanding about where I should be picked up after the race. These 3 days are the sum total of my days over 20,000 steps.
4: 6/2/2016 – 18,725 steps
The second new entry comes from last June’s trip to Universal Studios. Our first full day at the park, we split the day between Universal and Islands of Adventure, taking in all of the different Harry Potter options.
5: 6/4/2016 – 18,617 steps
The third new entry rounds up the top 5 with another entry from last June’s trip to Universal Studios. The day included another trip to Islands of Adventure, and would have ended up even higher but for an afternoon trip to the hotel pool.
6: 9/6/2015 – 18,259 steps
Down three slots from last year, my now-sixth highest total comes courtesy of my trip to Toronto in September 2015. This Sunday consisted of traversing around Toronto, with trips to Royal Ontario Museum and, at night, the Molson Canadian Ampitheatre for the Oddball Comedy Fest.
7: 9/11/2015 – 17,889 steps
My seventh best total also occurred during my trip to Toronto. My last day in the city was spent at the Eaton Centre mall, the Hockey Hall of Fame, and a few other stops.
8: 6/8/2013 – 17,852 steps
My now-eighth highest output brings us back to Disney World in 2013, this time for a day split between Animal Kingdom in the morning and Hollywood Studios in the afternoon.
9: 6/1/2016 – 17,243 steps
My fourth new entry again comes courtesy of last summer’s trip to Universal. This first day of the trip started in Chicago at O’Hare and took us to the Hard Rock Hotel for check-in and a round of mini-golf at City Walk before taking a quick trip in the afternoon to Islands of Adventure to reacquaint ourselves with the original Harry Potter attractions.
10: 6/5/2016 – 16,317 steps
We round out the top 10 with my fifth new entry, which again took place last summer at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure, where we tried to take in all of the non-Harry Potter attractions.
11: 9/5/2015 – 16,083 steps
We head back to Toronto for my eleventh highest day, my first full day in the city. There was exploring along the riverfront and, of course, a trip to Rogers Centre for a Blue Jays game.
12: 9/23/2014 – 15,728 steps
This total was accomplished thanks to the 2014 Sprint & Stride 5K race that was held at work.
13: 4/11/2016 – 15,597 steps
My sixth new entry took place last April, where an exciting day of work was followed by a trip to Wrigley Field for Opening Day festivities.
14: 9/9/2012 – 14,957 steps
My now-fourteenth highest total comes thanks to a Sunday in Belfast spent walking from our hotel, down to the Titanic museum, and then back again.
15: 6/7/2013 – 14,940 steps
Another day of 2013’s vacation to Disney World, this day started with a morning trip to the hotel pool, followed by an abbreviated day at the Magic Kingdom.
FB2: Week 14
I posted my highest step total since the Disney trip last week, despite 2 days falling short of my 6000 step goal. Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, as I barely hit 3500 steps. Things picked back up on Monday and Tuesday thanks to normal work activities. Wednesday had a pretty good total, good enough for my 14th highest total to date, thanks to a post-work trip down to US Cellular Field for a pre-game session with White Sox GM Rich Hahn followed by a tilt between the Sox Red and White. Thursday also had a decent total due to post-work activities, this time a trip down to the Adler Planetarium for an exciting science lecture with Val. Friday, I failed to hit the 6000 step mark after working from home then making a return trip to US Cellular Field to watch batting practice and then a tilt between the White Sox and the Twins. Saturday’s regularly scheduled baseball game enabled me to surpass the 6000 step mark for the day and 54,000 steps for the week.
Total steps: 54,080
Daily average: 7725.7
Vacation Recap – Florida Roadtrip Part 3
When we left off last time, we had arrived late at Disney World and Jeff and I had just shown up at the Reach For The Stars gala event.
Monday
The appetizer course had already been served when Jeff and I arrived at the gala dinner, along with Tom and his wife.
After dinner and the awards ceremony had concluded, they opened up the event to all guests, and brought in different groups of characters for photo opportunities. This was our chance to sneak Val in, who we never registered as an official guest due to the insane cost for very little benefit. Meredith had to go gather her kids from wherever they were during the gala, so we used her conference badge to get Val in. With drinks in hand, we lined up for pictures with the Beast and Belle, the one character Val was looking forward to meet. Tom jumped in and the four of us got snapped.
After that, I got a text that Meredith was on her way back and would need her badge. I headed out to meet her, where I ran into Jacqueline and her husband, who you would think I would have been introduced to but you’d be wrong, for the first time. After I found Meredith and her family, we headed back in to the party for more drinks and more photo opportunities.
Once the gala kind of wrapped up, Jeff, Val, Tom, and I headed out in front of the hotel, where a heated discussion broke out on the topic of the free breakfast and whether or not it was a huge imposition placed upon us by the evil that is Suren. Things must have gotten a little loud, as Jacqueline made her second (and final) appearance of the night, questioning why we were arguing about breakfast. Once things calmed down, we retreated back inside, where we found the hotel bar.
The night of drinking continued, until we all headed out for a smoke break. Tom finished his drink and casually tossed his empty glass over his shoulder into the shrubbery, before leaving to use the facilities. As Jeff and Val enjoyed their numerous cigarettes, it became increasingly clear that Tom was not returning from the bathroom, and we decided to call it a night.
Tuesday
The next day was supposed to start with the officer forum, but Jeff had declared he had no intentions of attending the last remaining mandatory event. Tom, who was a few doors down from us, apparently did not get that memo, as he came and knocked on the door while everyone was still in bed/asleep. He returned after the officer forum, to much the same response. Eventually, everyone got up and got ready to attack the day.
But first, we had to sit in the hotel room some more to try and get Lollapalooza tickets, which, due to the time change, went on sale at 11 am. Once the tickets were acquired, we finally made our way to one of the parks, walking over to Hollywood Studios. With Fast Passes for later in the day, we headed over to the new Star Wars Launch Bay, where movie memorabilia and shopping was available, along with picture opportunities with Kylo Ren and Chewbacca. The half hour wait time for photos was much too long, so we looked around at the movie stuff before checking out the gift shop. After finishing there, we headed toward the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame, at which point Jeff had enough of Hollywood Studios. So, after a whole hour at the park, we headed back to the hotel.
We hit the boardwalk, where we found a crappy little food stand that offered pizza and chips for lunch. Jeff was anxious to get his drink on, but was unwilling to go to the margarita stand due to its name. He was willing, however, to partake in said margarita if someone else were to purchase it and deliver it to him.
After killing an hour or so on the Boardwalk, we called an audible and went over to Epcot, where Jeff could imbibe at will. We walked around the World Showcase, where Jeff kept looking for opportunities to buy beer, but he passed by them all. After spending some time in the butterfly enclosure, we managed to go on our first ride of the trip, the Finding Nemo ride. Sadly, despite being possibly the slowest-moving ride at Disney World, the ride did not agree with Val, so we called it a day and went back to the boardwalk for dinner at the ESPN Club.
Digressing a bit, at the bar on Monday night, Jeff was complaining that, for a free trip, there were a lot of expenses that the company was not picking up. As if on cue, a $150 gift card arrived in the room on Tuesday, to help offset some of those costs. Of course, Jeff saw this as in insult and refused to use it. Val and I had to work at convincing him to use it for dinner, where he wanted to just leave the whole thing for the waiter, which would have included a tip of more than 100%.
After dinner, it was back to the bar, where we were eventually joined by Tom. Drinking ensued, until the place shut down and we were forced to call it a night. We returned to the room, where Jeff got an email from iTunes. You may recall drunk Jeff purchasing some songs during the ride down the previous Friday. Well, the arrival of the receipt threw him for a loop, as he had no recollection of the songs involved, let alone having made the purchases. After this, we called it a night and hoped for better results on Wednesday, which seems like a good time to wrap things up for this week.
Vacation Recap – Florida Roadtrip Part 2
When we left off last time, we were two days into the road trip and had finally made it to Virginia. We pick up the tale the following morning.
Sunday
Things got off to an early start, for me at least, as I found Saturday night’s dinner not agreeing with me very well. After taking care of that particular problem, I found that the guest bathroom in Jeff’s apartment was missing one very important item: toilet paper. Nothing on the roll, nothing under the sink, and nothing in the little closet. Thankfully, there was some Kleenex on the back of the toilet, so I was forced to kill that off in order to go about my night.
When I woke up for real on Sunday morning, Jeff had been out to the market and had returned with bagels and other items and fresh coffee being brewed. After some initial difficulties using the toaster (turns out you need to push the handle all the way down for it to work), I was good to go. Eventually, Val woke up and the three of us spent the morning eating breakfast and watching the Sunday morning news shows.
At some point, either while waiting for Val to wake up or while she was in the shower (I forget the exact order), Jeff pulled out some of his art books for me to look through, most of which focused on the fantasy realm. While I’m not the biggest fan of fantasy, my years of comics reading means I can appreciate good art, so, aesthetically, I could appreciate it. Later, he pulled out his old portfolio and showed Val and me some of his work from college, when he was an art major. Seeing as I can hardly draw a stick figure, I was impressed by his talent.
After taking in a 5th episode of the new season of Daredevil, we decided to head out on the second leg of the trip, with Disney World our next destination. Our first stop was at the Wendy’s in Ridgeway, Virginia, about an hour into the trip. While certain people tried to once again get their bearings, I went in and bought lunch for both Jeff and myself. Val expressed interest in some curly fries, perhaps intrigued by the previous day’s stop at Arby’s, but the Hardy’s across the street did not offer them and there was no Arby’s in sight. Over Val’s objections, Jeff vowed to stop at the next Arby’s we found to get her those curly fries, but we oddly did not see one for the rest of the day.
While traveling through the Carolinas, we kept passing signs for a restaurant called Zaxby’s. Those of us from Chicago have never encountered such a restaurant, to the point that the website won’t even tell me the closest location to my house. Anyway, Val asked what type of restaurant it was and Jeff explained that it was a department store, similar to Nordstrom. Because in the deep south, there is no difference between Zaxby’s and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Around 300 miles into the 750 mile journey, we decided to stop for the night. We found a Hampton Inn in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and, thankfully, this one met with Jeff’s approval. Once again, got 3 hotel rooms and, since everyone was feeling relatively good and it was still pretty early, we decided to order in some dinner. Our first attempt failed when the BBQ joint did not have a dinner-time vegetarian option, so we ordered Papa John’s.
When dinner showed up, we found the smash hit Pitch Perfect II on the television, which apparently every one had seen except me. Once the movie ended, we decided to call it a night a retreat to our separate rooms for the night. Continue reading →
Vacation Recap – Florida Roadtrip
A few weeks back, I headed out on a road trip to Florida and Disney World by way of Virginia. To say things did not go as planned would be an understatement. This is the story of that trip.
Friday
The plan was to leave work around noon, thanks to a meeting I had with the fine folks in AF. Our first stop was across the street at Mariano’s, to get lunch, snacks for the trip, and a opaque container that would allow Jeff to drink during the drive outside the view of law enforcement. An hour later, we were on the road, with Val behind the wheel, me in the passenger seat, and Jeff and a case of Blue Moon in the back. Our destination, Roanoke, Virginia, lay 700 miles away, with an estimated arrival time of 11:30 PM. Jeff, thinking this road trip was taking place in the early 2000s, had brought along a collection of CDs for us to listen to, which lasted through much of the Illinois portion of the trip. Eventually, though, we switched to the playlist I had put together, which led to the first amusing tale of the trip.
When Lily Allen’s hit song Fuck You came up on the playlist in Indianapolis, a not-so-slightly inebriated Jeff instantly took to its charms, seeing it as an anthem against his perceived work antagonists. As the song played, he dialed it up in the iTunes store on his phone, passed it up front to make sure it was the right one, and then purchased it. More on this later.
Speaking of drunk Jeff, his plan on drinking throughout the drive had an unintended consequence: our estimated arrival time. He made the cardinal sin of breaking the seal, after which we needed to stop for him to use the bathroom practically ever hour. Once you added in his smoking time, we spent approximately 20 minutes of every hour standing still, which pushed our expected arrival in Virginia well past midnight. During one of these stops, in the lovely town of New Castle, Indiana, we even had to find a WalMart in order to replenish the supply of Blue Moon. Eventually, we made it out of Indiana and into Ohio with Val still behind the wheel. However, around 7 PM, things started to go wrong.
We were starting to go through some mountainous terrain when Val suddenly started to feel sick. She pulled off at the next exit, found a driveway next to what appeared to be a trailer park, and stopped to walk around and catch her breath. Meanwhile, Jeff, claiming he was now sober (but lying through his teeth) decided he would drive once we got back on the road. I tried to stop him, but he had the keys, it was his car, and Val was in no position to back either one of us, so he won out. Eventually, we tried to get going again, but had to pull off again at a gas station before we made any real progress.
While Jeff and Val came in and out of the gas station, I started looking for local hotels. It was obvious at this point that we would not be making it to Virginia, so this was as good a spot as any to stop for the night. The closest Hampton Inn was about 10 miles back in the other direction, so, after purchasing some Pepto-Bismal, we slowly reversed our course and found the hotel, where Jeff decided he and he alone could help Val, leaving me to babysit the car which he had left in front of the door. Unfortunately for us, the hotel did not have any double rooms, so, after a bit of finagling, we ended up with 3 rooms for the night in Chillicothe, Ohio, a mere 300 miles short of our intended destination.
Saturday
Waking up in beautiful Chillicothe, I showered and headed down for the free breakfast in the hotel lobby, where I ran into a now sober Jeff. The day was off to a great start, as he had thoughts about this Hampton Inn and how it did not live up to his expectations for the chain. I had a bed to sleep in and was able to make my own Belgian waffle, so I was content. Neither one of us had heard from Val since the night before, so we were both anxious to see how she was holding up, hoping, of course, for the best.