Another Valentine's Day - and I'm still voting no

Utterly brilliant and I could not have said it better myself. And Heaven knows I've tried to articulate the above sentiment for years.

Now that being said, I am married, happily, to the most amazing woman in the world. Blog readers know her as the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML. I summed up my feelings for her last year on this lamest of days in my Valentine's Day 2009 post. Read it and you'll see I'm not heartless. I'm not. As one person who knows us said earlier this morning, upon learning about my staunch anti-Valentine's Day stance, "At least she's been on some great vacations." Thank you. Yes she has. My feelings for the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML only grow stronger and deeper with each year. We'll celebrate twenty-two years (22!) of marriage this year. Not bad. Not bad at all. Living with me is no walk in the park, I know. I'd be in a world of hurt without my wife. Seriously. My mother told her this past Friday, "I'm glad you love him, because I'm not taking him back." Aah,a mother's love is timeless, isn't it?

Now, to the anonymous (so far) person who sent the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML the dozen red roses yesterday, please identify yourself. We'd like to thank you. Really.

Did I Suddenly Become the Bionic Man?

My work day dawned before the dawn today, as I was up and going at 530AM. I really needed to track down someone in Europe for some answers, which alas, I never got. I also had a lunch meeting with one of the company's preferred suppliers so I had to break away to make that. By the time 430PM rolled around, I was ready to be done with my work day.

With temps in the high 20s and the sun falling, I went for a run. I'd gotten through the drama of linking the new Nike+ device and as I started my run, I saw that it was tracking. Yes! All good. It was a good brisk run. No ice on the roads I ran, which was a relief. I wasn't paying much attention to my pacing as I was feeling good. So I was more than a little shocked when I got home and checked my stats. According to the Nike+, I'd become a bit of the Bionic Man on my run:

DISTANCE 4.57 Miles
TIME 36 Minutes
PACE 7:54 min/mi
CALORIES 666

Um, as much as I'd like to think that I'd become some kind of speed demon, there was just no way. The only thing demonic about it was my calorie burn -666- thank you, Mark of The Beast.

I went to the USATF website and traced my run-it showed a 3.57 mile course-and from what I can tell, the calibration is off by a mile. Lovely. So I'll need to reset and recalibrate tomorrow for my long run. If that doesn't do the trick, I may have to get a Garmin. But do I really want a laptop on my wrist? Not so much.

I mentioned I had lunch with a supplier today. It was pretty funny to find out that several of them had found my blog (yes, this blog) and had read up. Realizing that they had read about me puking a lung at 37,000 feet made me laugh. I don't think I've ever made much of a secret of who I am and what I experience. This blog certainly reflects that. And I'm going to keep it going.

Trying to class up the family

Based on what the local weather liars were saying, we weren't quite sure what we'd wake up to this morning. What it was was a whole lot of nothing. We got a dusting of snow and that's it. Nothing compared to what our friends in our nation's capital are currently enduring. Frankly, that's fine with me. I had a long run planned for the morning and then we wanted to go in to the city. We were able to pull off both today.

MY LONG RUN - left the house at about 730AM, with a pretty stiff wind blowing and temps in the mid-20s. It didn't matter. I wanted to get in a long (for me) run. And I did it. Here are the stats:

DISTANCE: 8.02 miles
TIME: 1:18:53
PACE: 9:49 min/mile
CALORIES: 1125

Now I know I'm not setting the world on fire with times like that, but save for about two minutes worth of slowdowns for water, I ran the whole thing. For someone who two years ago really wasn't bothered that his man-boobs were blocking his sightline to the TV, this is nothing short of miraculous. I start my group runs with my half-marathon training group in two weeks and I am completely excited about that. I really think I may not humiliate myself. Don't worry...I'm not getting cocky. I don't have that luxury.

So after getting home on a pretty big runner's high (it's true), the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML, CAL, and the Boy and I drove into the city. It's the first weekend of the month which means free museum entrance to the Art Institute of Chicago, thanks to Bank of America. This is an amazing program and I encourage you to check out what is available in your area and take advantage of it. Well, three of the four of us hold BofA cards, so we were only going to have to pay for the Boy, but, bonus, February is free for all, thanks to ComEd. AWESOME! Let me just say that ARTIC is amazing. The Asian Art collection - a whole lot of Vishnu - is spectacular. The new Modern Wing and its collections make you go "huh?" The Impressionism collection is stunning. Seurat's "Sunday in the Park" is the showcase piece of work and it was amazing to see. I would have included the picture I took of it but it went horribly wrong as it included an unintended shot of someone's prominent crack as they bent down to count the dots in that incredible piece of work.

It was so cool to take in some of the other artists - Van Gogh and Lautrec, come to mind. The American collection is pretty awesome, too. Here are shots of Lautrec's "Moulin Rouge" and Garth Wood's classic "American Gothic:"

It amazes me that these amazing works of art, and so many others, are so readily available for us to take in. So this was our attempt to class up our kids and I think it went OK. For some reason, they weren't as taken by the Asian art as I was. C'mon, guys, it's Vishnu! And it wasn't long before the Boy began to lament that he might DIE if he didn't eat. So we caved and decided to head out in search of food.

We planned on trying the new Chicago French Market in the Ogilvie Transportation Center. This is an amazing walking city even with its infamous winds barreling off the Lake so our walk wasn't that bad. The French Market is just what it sounds like - a collection of food vendors all under one roof, with a couple of French bakeries as a nod to the French name. We all wound up with something different for lunch - CAL, an organic turkey sandiwch; the Boy, steak tacos from the Mexican taqueria; me, a pork bahn mi from Saigon Sisters; and the stunningly patient and mighty fine SML, Belgian fries from Frietkoten. If you've never had the goodness of the golden double-fried goodness that is the Belgian fry, you have not lived. I ate these twice a day whenever I was in Belgium or the Netherlands. There used to be a place in NYC just south of David Letterman's studio on Broadway called BFrites that sold them - again, twice a day whenever I was in the City. When it closed, I nearly died. Seriously. While I liked my pork bahn mi, it didn't fill me and the scent of the double fried goodness was more than I could take, so I got my own order, with a side of curry mayo. This was an outstanding choice. So I'll close with a shot of the golden goodness:
So if the art didn't class us up, this did.

Waiting for my recall notice

A few weeks ago, the Swedemobile and I ended our tortured two-plus year relationship. It was time. I went back to the comforting arms of my Japanese friend, Toyota. This time, the arms had a little more heft and were covered in leather, with a few bells and whistles to boot. And now, it's now a part of what is shaping up to be the largest automotive recall in history. The car I bought is currently NO LONGER being produced and is NOT BEING SOLD. Fantastic.

But here's the thing...I don't care. Am I concerned that my floor pat is suddenly going to seize up and force my gas pedal to do all sorts of craziness. That would be no. My floor mats are anchored at the bottom and so long as they remain in their tethered position, they aren't going anywhere.

So I'm going to wait for my recall notice and when I get it, I'll take the car in for the obligatory inspection and get a free oil change. And I'll keep driving.