Reagan and I were able to take a little road trip down south, this weekend to Virginia Beach. Some of our friends have access to a great beach house down there and invited us to tag along. For the most part, the weather was awesome. It was mid 80′s for the entire time. Sunday was a little overcast, at times, but still pleasant beach weather.

It was really cool to drive across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel. I saw a thing about how they built it on Modern Marvels, one time and had been curious about it ever since. I also loved watching all of the ship traffic come in and out of the bay, while we were there. We even saw an aircraft carrier on its way out to sea.

On the way home, we stopped for dinner in Delaware. When I came outside afterwards, there was a group of guys with motorcycles, in the parking lot, by our car. One of the guys had done his whole bike up in red carpet. Hahahaha. It was awesome. I snapped a couple of shots (below) and chatted it up with the riders for a few minute while I was waiting for Reagan to come out.

We had a really great time down there and were glad to become a little better acquainted with some of our friends and their families. More photos can be seen here.

Les Claypool is legendary in the realm of bass players. I’m not just talking about bass guitars. Claypool is not afraid to break up the stand-up bass and bow on occasion, to wow the masses. His infectious ultra-complicated slap-heavy bass playing is the backbone of the group Primus. Primus is not to be confused with, and is in no way related to Prius, which is a weak little tin can of a Toyota hybrid car.

When I was in high school, the group released an album called “Sailing the Seas of Cheese.” It was an amalgamation of the weirdest/coolest music that I had heard, at that time in my life. Claypool also does vocals and has a very Kermit the Frog-esque voice. Despite the odd vocal quality, Claypool’s voice doesn’t detract from the music, as much as it does give it character.

When I first obtained a copy of “Sailing the Seas of Cheese,” I was in the beginning stages of learning to play bass guitar, myself. As I would listen to the album, I though that there was no way that all of that noise was coming out of a single bass track played by one person. It was not until attending Lollapalooza 1994, and seeing Primus live, that I truly appreciated Claypool’s skills. He is amazing to watch.

The song that I’m sharing today is from the seas of cheese album. It was one of the more heavily played singles from the album. It is called “Jerry was a race car driver.” Give it a listen.

Ugh. I go away for the weekend, and this is what happens.

Sorry, that this is going to be kind of a rant. So, skip it and I won’t be offended. I have been really frustrated with my running for the past couple of weeks. I have been having problems with my ITB (I think), since the BK half marathon. I ran it with some new shoes that have less support and are made for a more neutral stride. I didn’t think that it would make that much of a difference. I thought that maybe they were just wearing out (since that also tends to make the knees a little sore). So I switched to some even heavier shoes with less support. After that I noticed the problem getting worse. It was to the point that it hurt every time I would descend stairs.

I started reading a lot of articles about knee pain caused by running, including a few that gave me ideas on some stretches to do. I also talked to the people at  the running store where I shop, about it. I started doing the stretches and it seemed like things were getting better, especially after I switched back to my old shoes. After my race last weekend, I didn’t have any pain at all.

Then yesterday, I wanted to run 12 mi.. It had finally stopped raining, and I was home early enough to do the whole run before it got dark. I could only make it about 7 and 1/4 before the knee pain was too much. What is wrong with my stupid legs? So freaking frustrating!!! In fairness, It could be because I haven’t been doing the ITB stretches since last week.

When running in pain, everything else starts to bug the crap out of me. I start hating what ever song is playing in my headphones. I get pissed off at all of the people who aren’t walking or riding on the correct side of the path (especially on the bridge). Of course I never say anything to them, or even give them dirty looks. This is the best part:

For whatever annoying reason, the GW generally only has one side that is open for pedestrian traffic. I prefer it when the south side is open, because there are no stairs, and the breeze is generally blowing north (blowing exhaust away from the path). Last night I had already done several laps of the bridge (was already in pain and pissed off) when an 18 wheeler came across spewing thick black smokey exhaust. The breeze was blowing it all straight into the faces of the people on the ped path. The stuff smells like a trash fire.  In an act of defeated anger, I pulled the collar of my jersey up over my nose, and gave the driver the bird as he drove by. He probably didn’t even see me. Or if he did, he was probably laughing. It’s kind of pathetic the way that I let myself become indignant just because of a little knee pain.

On a positive note, I plan to be at the beach for the next 2 weekends in a row. Which means, no shoes getting in the way. I heard that running in the sand is supposed make your calves super toned. So, maybe if I work really hard, I can get some sexy calves like Reagan’s.

… is lining the bottom of the cage this week.

Timing has not been my forte, today. First I had the train incident, this morning. Then, as luck (or lack thereof) would have it, the only 10 minutes that mother nature decides to make it rain today, occurred right as I walked outside to go get a passport photo taken. As a result,  any and all customs officials who look at the document for the next 10 years will be able to see my impersonation of an angry drowning rat.

On the bright side, there is a Wendy’s right across the street from the place that I had my photo done. I never really eat lunch, and I never really get to have Wendy’s (since there is no veggie-burger for Reagan). So at least I was able to stop in and grab some JBCBs, which I have not had in quite a while.

Another possible upside is that the angry look on my face, may actually come to my advantage. During my travels abroad it is possible that upon viewing the photo, any customs agents who were thinking about giving me trouble, will think twice. At least he will if there is any truth to the excerpt in the image below:

This, incidentally, was taken from the book “Ghosts/Aliens” (by Trey [Robert] Hamburger), which was given to me as a Christmas gift from my brother-in-law, Nathan. I’m still making my way through it. This was one of my favorite parts, so far. All tough guys have mustaches and crew cuts.

A lot of the time, commuting sucks. Especially when going all of the way from one end of the island, to the other, twice a day. This morning, for example, I needed to be in a bit early. So I made sure to get out the door at a reasonable hour. My efforts were, however, thwarted by a tunnel fire, which caused my train to sit idle on the tracks for nearly an hour.

But there are those intermittent moments that occur in the subway, that make it not suck so bad, at all. Last night, for example, I descended the stairs at the south end of the “A” train platform, at Chambers Street, and stumbled upon the scene in the photo above. There must have been 10 of those large bags full of balloons. I was temped to go ride in the car that they got into, just to see people’s reaction. Anyway, it brightened my evening.

I first saw these dudes on Fuel TV’s Daily Habit. I has probably only been about two years, or so. I saw them when I was recovering from the nasty spider bite that got on vacation, a couple of years back. So, I guess that I missed the boat a little bit on these guys, since they have been around since 2000. But I liked them pretty much, right away when I saw them perform on TV. There is something really weird about them, in a cool Scandinavian way. After all, they are Norwegian, which is pretty awesome. I mean, they make some pretty sweet music over in Norwegia. I had to use that joke, sorry.

They have 3 albums out, but I have only heard their self title album. This post is actually a reminder to myself to get the remainder of the released material. The song that I’m sharing is  probably one of their most popular. Chances are, people have heard it, even if they haven’t necessarily heard of Datarock. It is called “Fa Fa Fa.” What a great title. Press Play.

BTW: Musica Coolica is now officially moving to Tuesdays. It seems like I always have a lot of crap to post on Monday, w/o LMC. Now that JKE (formerly published on Tuesdays)  is on indefinite hiatus, it just makes sense.

Sunday morning’s race was a pretty fun one. Luckily, the rain held off for just long enough. There was actually some pleasant misting during the last portion, that felt awesome. After switching back to my “Wave Inspire” shoes, I’m happy to report that I was able to run without any knee pain, whatsoever, on Sunday. My time wasn’t the most amazing. I was aiming for a 6:30 pace, which I managed to pull out, for the first 3 miles. But I couldn’t sustain it. I ended up with a 34:38. I felt extra slow though, since it was a club points race. Club points meant that all of the NYRR track clubs had their fastest guys  in, trying to score points.

Reagan, kind of took it easy for her race. She had a respectable pace, but wasn’t feeling to hot. She ended up with a 40:36. For me, I was just proud to be sporting my custom made Fathers Day jersey. Another kind of cool thing, was that, for the second race in a row, I had a symetrical number. Last weekend I was 77. This week, I was 88. Hahahah.

Saturday was a banger, in these parts. Although we slept in a little bit on Saturday (which we were allowed to, since it was raining), we made every minute count, for the rest of the day.

We trekked out to Brooklyn for the Mermaid Parade, and decided to check out the Brooklyn Aquarium, first. It was a great idea, since the rain wasn’t really letting up. There was an event at the aquarium that included face painting and hula hooping. Both Reagan and I, got in on the hula hooping action.

We ended up only catching the tail end of the parade, which was ok with me. This is the only photo of the parade that I took, that was fit to post.

Saturday night, we were invited to a Brasil party. Everyone who went brought some sort of traditional Brazilian food, we all dressed up in soccer jerseys, etc. It was a really good time. Afterward, Reagan and I decided to walk home through the park. Here we are goofing off.

More photos of Saturday’s festivities can be found here.