Today's pizza a day diet pizza came from the Austin Beer Garden Brewing Co. at 1305 W. Oltorf (right next to the train tracks).

I hit the place in mid-afternoon, so it was pretty empty (Happy hour is from 3 pm to 7 pm, though, so it filled quickly :-)).  You order food and beer at the bar and they bring it to your table.  Inside are long wooden tables with benches, for social/communal beer-gardening in the Bavarian tradition.  Outside are round tables under the live oaks for beer gardening in the Austin tradition. :-).

I ordered a sausage pizza (boring, I know :-), but I like to try new places out on the basics).  It was delivered hot and fresh; the crust was somewhat soft but firmed up after I let it cool a little.  It had a nice chew and stood up to the ingredients.  The sausage had a more subtle flavor than I was expecting, but I really liked it and its freshness.  The cheese and sauce were also quite good.


One of their "by the slice" choices had also caught my eye, so I ordered it as well.  This was venison, spinach, pesto, white bean, roasted tomato, roasted garlic, and ricotta.  This one was amazing (not that the sausage was bad).  The crust had just the right amount of crispness and chew, but the combination of toppings really made it.  It had a richness from the venison without being gamy or overwhelming, and the remaining ingredients provided a terrifically contrasting texture in every bite.


Oh, and the beer was darn good, too. :-).

Today I went back to the Cook's Illustrated Cookbook for their Chicago-style pizza recipe (No, they're not from Chicago, but their recipe is actually pretty close to others I've used in the past.). 

They've got a technique where you "laminate" the crust with butter to make it crispier.  It worked well with the sides, but I'm not sure that it quite worked with the bottom, but the crust did turn out pretty firm and full-bodied.  And rich.  Next time I might let it cook a little longer to see what happens.

The recipe for the sauce and the cheese were a bit different than what I've done before: using shredded mozzarella and diced tomatoes instead of mozzarella slices (or a fresh ball) and crushed tomatoes, but it turned out pretty well.  Next time, though, I think I'll go back to crushed with slices.

And the Star Trek pizza cutter is actually big enough to use on deep dish...

I had Brian Yansky and Frances Yansky over to share the results, so I didn't end up taking too many pictures, but here are a couple:

Pizza! And the Star Trek pizza cutter!

Frances poses with a slice.

The cat inspects the table.

 

Today's Pizza a Day Diet pizza is technically not a pizza.  It's a flatbread. NB: All pizzas are flatbreads but not all flatbreads are pizzas (A flatbread has an unleavened crust).

I happened to be up north during rush hour so I decided to find the closest Italian place and see what they had that resembled a pizza. :-). This happened to be the Maggiano's in the Domain.  The place has sort of a Disney-fied feel of a downtown Italian restaurant, which is not surprising since the first Maggiano's was founded in Chicago by the Lettuce Entertain You chain whose specialty is theme restaurants. 

Anyway, I took a table in the bar and ordered a Caesar salad and the sausage flatbread.  The sausage was removed from the casing but still distributed in large chunks and had that good Italian-sausage flavor.  The cheese was also abundant and flavorful.  And the crust? Nice and crispy at first and then steamed through. 

Here are a couple pics:

Day 8 of ‪#‎PizzaADayDiet‬ is another thin crust, this one from Southside Flying Pizza. They call it “Neapolitan style,” which I guess is a really thin crust. I chose the whole wheat crust and it was pretty good – it stood up to the ingredients but I wouldn't have minded if it had been a tad crisper. The cheese was thoroughly melted and excellent, though, as were the toppings. The sausage had a good flavor and the peppers were nicely al dente. And the side salad was really good, as well.

Today's ‪#‎PizzaADayDiet‬ occurred at Home Slice Pizza -- Don Tate joined me for the sausage, mushroom, and green pepper pie! This was the thickest thin crust I've had so far, and was sufficient to be not -floppy, yet not doughy, with a good, chewy texture. The cheese was flavorful and the toppings were each present in every bite.


Altogether, a most excellent pizza -- and they put the leftovers in a tinfoil swan (I've never seen that before in real life :-)).

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of being one of the authors at the inaugural Lone Star Book Festival in Kingwood, Texas (just outside Houston)!

Here are some pics:

Edward Carey, Emma Virjan, Jennifer Ziegler, Bethany Hegedus, Carmen Oliver, and me

Carmen Oliver presents BEARS MAKE THE BEST READING BUDDIES

Jennifer Ziegler and Jo Whittemore discuss encouraging reading

I present CHRONAL ENGINE and BORROWED TIME

 Thanks to all the organizers, sponsors, and attendees! It's on its way to becoming a grand, annual tradition!

Just back from the Texas Library Association Conference in Houston! 

As always, it was great to see fellow authors and illustrators, as well as the librarians who've supported our books through the years.  And I always enjoy seeing what's new at the publisher booths.

We had a great time for my panel Tuesday afternoon, "What's New with Texas Middle Grade and YA Authors," organized by Susie Kralovansky, featuring Jessica Lee Anderson moderating, and fellow panelists Paige Britt, Cory Putnam Oakes, P.J. Hoover, Cynthia Levinson, Liz Garton Scanlon, Jennifer Mckissack, and Joy Preble.  Conversation was entertaining and enlightening.  

Many thanks to everyone who puts in the work to make TLA the best state library conference in the country!

Here are some pics:

Hitting the road

Rainy Houston from the hotel

Me, Cynthia Levinson, PJ Hoover

Carmen Oliver signs

Jennifer McKissack, Jennifer Ziegler, Joy Preble

Paige Britt and Donna Janell Bowman

Me and the world in the lobby of the Hilton

Signing BORROWED TIME

Janet Fox and Jennifer Ziegler

PJ, Jessica, and Joy

Me and Elaine Scott

Buffalo Bayou on my early morning run

Back in Austin!

I'm just back from a twelve day trip up to Chicago, Milwaukee, and Minneapolis-St. Paul, where I did a bit of research and visited a bunch of schools and children's indie bookstores.

The trip started inauspiciously, when my flight was canceled because the wind blew the plane onto a belt conveyor.

Eventually, I made it to Chicago, though, where the weather looked like this:
Still, I had arrived ahead of time so I could go down to the Museum of Science and Industry, which has a World War II German u-boat and a chicken incubator.
Next two days were the actual school visits, arranged at Henry Puffer Elementary  and Liberty Elementary by Anderson's Book Shop and at Attea Glenview School and Rondout School by The Book Stall.  Afterwards, I got to hang out with Robert from The Book Stall and stopped by for a couple of pics.

Posing with posters

Then I was off to Milwaukee for a school visit at Atwater Elementary arranged through the Boswell Book Company.
It was my first time I'd ever been to Milwaukee, but sadly didn't have a chance to sightsee, because it was off to Minneapolis-St. Paul for three days of school visits.

Visits at North Trail Elementary and Brimhall Elementary were through Addendum Books; those at Crestview Elementary and Little Canada Elementary were through the Red Balloon Bookshop; and at Valley View Middle School, through Wild Rumpus Books.

Snake!

I had some free time, so I went over to Addendum Books for some pics and had a fun lunch with Katherine and Marcus, the proprietors.

In front of the "Purple Rain" wall

Since I was there over the weekend, I spoke at Red Balloon for the Minnesota SCBWI about Research and the Suspension of disbelief.

I also had the chance to go run a couple times on the Mississippi Riverfront trail and visit the Science Museum of Minnesota.

T.rex!

Triceratops

Stegosaurus!

After Monday's school visit I had a fun lunch with Drew and Jordan of Wild Rumpus Books at Pizzeria Lola (a separate Pizza-a-Day Diet post will be forthcoming).  Then I visited the bookstore, where I met the menagerie.

Copper oven and decorative birch logs

Chicken!

Ferret!

Then I was back to Chicago and spent a day at the Field Museum of Natural History and showed Madeline Smoot of CBAY Books a bit of the city!


Many thanks to all the librarians and booksellers and Blue Slip Media and everyone else who made this happen.  Thanks also to Quinette Cook and all the folks from MN SCBWI who came out for the workshop.  It was great fun meeting you!

For information on how to book me for school visits for the 2016-2017 school year, contact Carmen Oliver at The Booking Biz.

The famous Distance Challenge fridge magnets

It's been a few months, but I finally have some time to sit down and blog my having completed the Austin Distance Challenge (long course), sponsored by the Austin Runners Club.  I'd done most of the events before, but decided to do the challenge itself (six races, culminating in the Austin Marathon), because I wanted to put more structure into my training for the marathon. I'd done several in the 90s, but this was my second of the century and I wanted to do better than my last one (2013).

The first race was the Run Free Texas 80s 8k (for those who don't think in metric, that's about five miles) up in Cedar Park.  Naturally enough, there were a couple of DeLoreans, each outfitted with a flux capacitor.  Time travel being what it is, they were obviously the same car but from different time periods. :-).  The course was through residential neighborhoods and parks and had some rolling hills -- nice for a beginning of the season race.

Back to the Future!

The second race of the Challenge was the Run for the Water Ten Miler.  The course was along Lady Bird Lake and up through Tarrytown and then back downtown, There were some great hills on this course and let me know I needed more hill work...And, ironically enough, it was raining. :-)

Rain and hills

Race three was the Decker Challenge, a half marathon in early December with a course around Decker Lake.  It's notorious for hills and really bad weather.  (The last time I ran it, it was in the 40s and pouring rain).  If anything, last year, it was a bit too warm.  The hills were pretty brutal, though. 

My face when attacking the hills

But Santa was there!
After that, we had a month break until the Rogue Distance Festival 30k (about 18.6 miles) in early January.  This one was fairly cold and probably my least favorite of the events.  It was up in Cedar Park again and ran through residential neighborhoods which was fine.  There was an issue with marking the course, though, so most of us got off track, which meant the mile markers were out of order so it was impossible to figure out a pace. (I think at some point, we were going in circles -- and ended up going about a mile farther than we should've.).  Still, it was my longest run before the marathon and I was kind of glad it happened that way. 

Yay!  I'm done! :-)

With four events done, it was all downhill from there.  Literally.  The 3M Half Marathon starts up in the Great Hills area and runs a straight line down to downtown. It also has a swag bag filled with useful (and not so useful) 3M products.:-)

Leo checks out the swag bag

This one also started out pretty cold and way too early :-). 

Before dawn, in the warm car before the cold race.

I really enjoyed this one, though, and it was a nice preview of many of the neighborhoods on the marathon route.

Finisher!

The piece de resistance, of course, was the Austin Marathon in mid-February.  I like the course, but the first time I ran the Austin Marathon, it was all downhill, starting up north and snaking its way downtown.  Now, there's a good bit of uphill until around mile 18.  I still like the course, though, and it's not like the hills from the Decker Challenge or the Run for the Water races.

I was pretty happy with my time -- my second fastest of the century!  I did it in under 4 hours, which had been my goal.  Next year, I'll work more on speed, but this time, I just wanted to not have my quads seize up in the last two miles :-).

Running through UT campus

Made it! Best time of the century!

Anyway, thanks to everyone involved in putting on the races and the challenge itself: organizers, volunteers, emergency personnel, and all the rest!  You keep Austin running!

Monday I'm going to be running in the 25th Capital of Texas Triathlon!  It's my first triathlon (Olympic distance) in twenty years and I'm pretty jazzed.

Steely-eyed determination 20 years ago. :-)

One of the great things about triathlons (and running races in general) is that you get to occupy unusual spaces: the last ones I did were Leon's Triathlon in Hammond, Indiana, a couple of Bud Light triathlons and others in Chicago. Leon's had a swim in Wolf Lake (shudder), followed by a cycle leg on an elevated highway that ran past the old U.S. Steel plant, and a run leg through an industrial downtown.  The Chicago ones were on the lakefront, just north of Navy Pier, with a bike on Lake Shore Drive and a run along the lake.

2013 CapTexTri

The CapTexTri also has a great location in downtown Austin, with a 1.5k swim in Lady Bird Lake; a 40k (24.8 mile) bike on a quadruple loop through downtown Austin, including Congress Avenue and Cesar Chavez; and a 10k (6.2 mile) run through Zilker Park.

The only thing I'm not too keen on is the bike route, since it requires you to do the same loop four times with a bunch of corresponding hairpin turns.  I don't like loop routes because I always think of how many more times I have to do the thing...Still, going up and down Congress Avenue without any cars is going to be pretty cool. As long as there are no poles in the middle of the road, I should be okay. :-).

Don't ask.

I feel fairly good about my training.  I've maintained good running mileage after the Austin Marathon and Austin Distance Festival and got some good workouts in even while traveling doing school visits.

On Stone Arch Bridge in Minneapolis

The swim is probably my weakest event -- I could stand to do more work on technique and probably do more open water swimming, but the distance won't be an issue.  Also, Lady Bird Lake isn't going to have waves (I seem to recall a couple of triathlons in Chicago with 3-4 foot waves on Lake Michigan (and this was on the near side of the breakwater).  Also, I won't have to deal with a wet suit.  My biggest concern is to not get kicked in the face. :-).

Lady Bird Lake during 2013 CapTexTri

The bike I'm feeling good about as well.  I'll be using the bike I used for my triathlons back in the day - a Trek 1000 I bought when I was in grad school for $450 (a guy at one bicycle shop here tried to sell me a new one, asking if I had a "nostalgic attachment" to it.). I do, but I also don't think a new bike is going to drastically transform my performance.  At least not $2000 worth :-). (A guy at another bike shop told me the Trek 1000 was his first road bike and he wished he still had it.  It's possible he was being kind :-)).

Tomorrow is packet pick-up, bike drop-off, and a chance to scope out the transition area, which I'll need because I can't see without my glasses...:-)

Oh, well.  Qapla!

So my plan to do my first triathlon in twenty years on Monday didn't turn out so well.

It rained.

A lot. But not so much in town.

At Camp Mabry, just north of central Austin, we got less than an inch of rain last Thursday. At Bergstrom Airport, just south and east of downtown, they got about nine inches.  And it was much worse farther east, along the Colorado River (which also runs through Austin).

On Friday and Saturday, it rained in the Hill Country.  West of Austin.  Upriver.

On Sunday, there was the CapTexTri expo and packet pickup and bike dropoff.

Swag!  My first cowboy hat since I was around seven.

Bike drop off.  I got there early.

Packet pickup

Coveting my neighbor's bike, Part I.

It was clear and sunny.  But because of all the rain, the LCRA opened at least one floodgate from the Tom Miller Dam, releasing water into Lady Bird Lake.  Which was where the swim portion of the CapTexTri was supposed to take place.

At the course talk at the expo, they announced that there was a flow of about 3 mph and they were considering changing the course so that it ran point to point (downriver).

Course talk.  Could've used a projector.

Later that day, they announced the swim was canceled.  Which was disappointing, but I've weathered a couple of triathlons in Chicago where that had happened and one when it probably should've.

Monday, race day, I awoke at 5 AM, fed the cats, ate breakfast and drank coffee, and then I heard rain.  Lots of rain.

Nevertheless (discovering, to my chagrin, that I am apparently an optimist), I headed out.  When I arrived at the transition area, I was told it was closed, and that we should shelter at Palmer Events Center or its garage.  This was around 6-620.

In the garage and on the deck of the Palmer Events Center, folks seemed to take things in stride and with humor.  Some people were concerned about hairpin turns on a wet course, but were generally willing to take it slow.

Sheltering in the garage

We heard a tentative plan to cut short the bike portion to 20k, but the rain and lightning continued. Finally, at around 830, race officials called off the bike portion entirely because of flooding on the course. 

Still a bit lightning-y

They announced that Olympic distance participants could do a 10k, while sprint participants could do a 5k and that start time would be at 10 am. Most folks removed their bikes and went home or back to their hotels. There was some grumbling -- last year the event had been cut short due to flooding, as well, and I gather there had been similar problems in 2014, too.

Athletes clearing out the transition area

I took my bike back to my car, but decided that I'd gotten up at five that morning to run a race and so, I was going to do one.  Besides, I didn't want to waste all those carbs I'd eaten in the past few days. :-).

At ten o'clock, the rain pretty much stopped.  And then we were off!  By 10:15, the sun came out.  No, really. 

Everyone who's still there seems in good humor :-)

And we're off!

Turned out, there were only about 200 of us who stuck around for the 10k, with another 150 for the 5k (out of around 3000 original participants), but everyone seemed to be having a good time.  I was pretty happy with my race -- I'm not sure it was exactly 10k, but I still did one of my better overall times and paces. At least this century :-).

The view from the Biergarten.  Note the utter absence of rain.

Sunny skies.

On the whole, it was a bit surreal but fun, although in the moment sometimes frustrating.  And, in retrospect, kind of funny.  I think the organizers did a good job under trying conditions and kept us pretty well informed via social media.  So, thanks (And I am really glad I wasn't in charge :-)).  Thanks also to all the volunteers who stuck around to the bitter end.

 Oh, and I actually ended up getting a bit of a tan.

Coveting my neighbor's bike, Part II

Epilogue: Late Monday, the Austin Fire Department closed Lady Bird Lake and Lake Austin to all boat traffic.

And they're giving us a discount for the 2017 race. :-).

Here's what the lake looked like Tuesday morning (Normally, there is no current at all):
















 

Well, it's been a busy summer writing-wise.  I'm letting a draft of a middle grade sci-fi adventure cure for a bit and also completed a work-for-hire project, and two-and-a-half nonfiction projects. (The half is still in-progress :-)).

Circa 1995.  No hills :-).

After the Cap Tex Tri weather debacle, I reconsidered my original plan to try the Austin Half-Ironman (or Ironman 70.3 as they're calling the things these days).   I'd wanted to do a couple Olympic distance races this summer (the other would've been the Tri Rock Austin Triathlon over Labor Day weekend) to get the kinks out before going for the longer distance.

Unfortunately, the schedule didn't quite work out (and I'm going to be doing some school and bookstore visits in October, prime training time :-)).  Also, this allows me to delay buying a new bike -- my current one is a 1989 Trek that is fine, but riding 50+ miles around the Hill Country, I can see where handlebar shifters would be useful :-).

So I decided to dive back in to the Austin Distance Challenge and take up the Austin Runners Club on the marathon training (which would also help with next year's triathlons).  My goal is a personal best or possibly Boston Marathon qualifying. (With the age-group corrections, BM qualifying has finally caught up with my PB :-)).

The ARC program is based on the Runner's World "Run Less, Run Faster" program, which has you run three days a week and do other cardio work two days a week.  One of the days is a track workout, one is a tempo run and the third is a long run, with pace times based on a one mile time trial we did a couple weeks ago. I have no idea if it will work, but I like it because I want to keep up the biking and running as well.

After the long run

I just completed the first week of the program and didn't actually hit any of my goal times, but I've never actually tried running for time, so at least the effort is interesting.  I ran a trial mile of 7:10, slightly slower than my 6:50 from last spring and a lot slower than my PB of 5:55 (granted, twenty years ago :-)).

From this, the track workout was supposed to be 4x1000 m at 4:09; my times were 4:20; 4:14; 4:15; and 4:22, so not terrible.  The tempo workout was supposed to be 4 miles at a 7:38 pace and my actual pace was 7:46. I figured it would be a challenge to hit those marks but was glad to have been close.  

The long run was supposed to be 11 miles at 8:57, which I though I could do, no problem, since I'd done my half marathons last year at around 8:24.  But with the humidity and heat (in August, hydration tends to be my biggest problem) and having only three hours of sleep (due to small feline mammals), I only did seven miles at a 9:07 pace.

Based on limited data, I like the program because it's not just about racking up mileage, which was getting a bit old. Also, the track workouts are not far from where I live :-). 

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the challenge of a new marathon best time, at the 2017 Austin Marathon!

Setting my PB on a wintry spring day

    



 

Every Cubs fan is ten years old tonight.

For the first time since 1945, the Cubs are in a World Series.  They haven't won one since 1908.  In that year, Harriet Tubman was still alive.  So was Mark Twain.  And Leo Tolstoy. And Geronimo. And Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

My high school was founded that year.

It's just baseball, yes, and I have philosophical objections to the culture of professional sports in this country and elsewhere.

But let me repeat: in this, the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Sixteen, the Cubs are in the World Series. For all the years since '08, for all the years they had great players like Ernie Banks and Billy Williams and Ron Santo and Ryne Sandberg, this time, they finally, finally made it. 

For fans who remember 1945 and bovid mammals of the genus Capra; for those who recall the implosions of 1969 and 1984 and 2003, this time, they did it (Yeah, there were a couple other times they were in the playoffs since '84, but those never felt like their year).  This time, they finally did it.

I remember, in the 70s, my mother taking me and my brother and our friends to the Cubs games, especially on Fridays, which was Ladies' Day and tickets were cheap (Fridays didn't become popular until the 80s).  It was the era of Reggie Jackson and the Pirates and the Big Red Machine of Cincinnati.

There were peanuts outside and hot dogs inside and vendors selling Old Style beer (which of course we didn't drink). There were Andy Frain ushers and no one had even thought about putting seats on the roofs of buildings across the street. There was that deliciously analog giant scoreboard in center field.  (And, of course, there were no big screen high definition TVs.).

I remember our neighbor's cousin from Japan coming to see a baseball game in America and being wowed by Wrigley Field.

I remember some of the coldest spring days of my life sitting along the unreserved seats of left field.

I remember when the Cubs scored 22 runs in a single game. And lost. (I also remember when WGN replayed the game just because it was so awesome.).

I remember when they installed lights and being relieved they architecturally matched the stadium.

I remember commemorating the 50th anniversary of my high school's new building and the seventy-fifth anniversary of its founding by walking down Addison to see the Cubs play.

And I remember when Hank Aaron came for his first appearance in Chicago after breaking Babe Ruth's home run record and the entire stadium stood and gave him a standing ovation even though he was on the other team. 

I remember Jack Brickhouse and being kind of disappointed when he retired and was replaced by Harry Caray who, of course, had covered the White Sox, which was just wrong.

I remember friends being fans of the Reds and the Pirates and the Dodgers and the White Sox, which was just wrong. (For the record, I was not opposed to their winning the World Series a couple years back.  I don't like their new stadium, though.  Or the fact that they took Comiskey off the name).

I totally shouldn't care about professional athletes making millions for their billionaire employers for mediocre performances over the course of a century.  And part of me doesn't.

But it's the Cubs.  And today, every Chicagoan who remembers is ten years old again.  And tonight, that's sublime.

Even if they don't beat Cleveland.  But they will. Unless they don't.  In which case they will do so in the most heart-breakingly way possible. Because they're the Cubs.

And it's what they do.

And there will be a next year.

Ever since November 2, 2016, I've been meaning to blog about the Cubs winning the World Series, and I may yet, but I think my post about their getting into the World Series ("Every Cubs Fan is Ten Years Old Tonight") pretty much sums things up (though obviously it didn't cover their blowing the lead in game 7, extra innings, and that rain delay...).

But for now, I thought I'd blog about what happened this year, between January 9 and 15, when I boarded a very large ship for the first time and set sail with some 2000+ like-minded individuals for the first annual Star Trek Cruise.

All the elevators were decorated like this

Many of the restaurants and bars were similarly themed...

It was an absolutely fantastic and fun experience: the cruise ship was decorated (as much as possible on a finite budget) to recreate Federation technology and decor and there were activities and performances and autograph and photo opportunities by and with the likes of William Shatner, John deLancie, Denise Crosby, Marina Sirtis, Terry Farrell, Ethan Phillips, Max Grodenchik, Robert O'Reilly, Casey Biggs, and Chase Masterson.

My mess dress uniform for the formal

There were also four official theme nights: (i) A Night in the Holodeck, where you were supposed to dress as your favorite holodeck/holosuite character; (ii) Q's Masquerade Ball, where the sky was the limit; (iii) the Captain's Formal Gala; and (iv) an Evening on Risa.

I first heard about the cruise back in August of 2015 or so, when it was first announced, and decided that I really had to go. Now, although I've been a Star Trek fan since I was a kid, I've never been to a con or on a cruise, but there was just something about this idea that I found fascinating. 

So I decided I'd go, and I made the affirmative decision that I was going to embrace the cosplay.  Granted, I didn't have to, and there were a significant number of folks who ended up wearing Star Trek-related garb or generically appropriate clothing, but I decided that I would dive in, as it were (In part, I did so because half the fun of a vacation is anticipating it, and preparing the cosplay was an engaging extension.

At first, I debated doing makeup and going all out as a Trill or a Vulcan (and took the appropriate

Go Niners!

accoutrements onto the ship, but ended up not going that extra step for logistical reasons).  And there were a couple costume ideas I considered and then discarded as either too unwieldy or just not right.

Eventually, though, I decided to do costumes not based on individual particular characters per se, but ones that would evoke an episode or the world of an episode (Incidentally, I tend to think this is one of the reasons for the appeal of books like Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. Readers who like imaginative play like to imagine themselves in those worlds, perhaps more so than they imagine themselves as Harry Potter or Frodo).

So, what were my favorite episodes that lent themselves to cosplay? Well, for the favorite holodeck character, I decided early on that I wanted to do something related to baseball, since it was the favorite game of Captain Sisko on Deep Space Nine and the subject of one of the more goofily charming episodes, "Take Me Out to the Holosuite," in which a Vulcan captain challenges Sisko and the crew of DS9 to a baseball game.  Both sides had their own uniforms and the DS9 crew were the "Niners."

I ended up having problems figuring out how to do the uniform in a screen accurate manner, so decided to wing it and do what I ended up calling a "Deep Space Nine throwback uniform," complete with Terok Nor (the former name of Deep Space Nine) logo. :-). As you can see, though, there were a number of people who had less difficulty than I did in getting a screen accurate uniform :-):
  

And people were already pulling out the stops for the evening. Here are a couple pics:

The Q Continuum made an appearance

Really creative holodeck no. 1

A transport in progress. The photo doesn't really do it justice

Really creative holodeck no. 2

A very nice historical look

For Q's Masquerade, I found myself with a dilemma: the idea was that it would be a masked ball, but when you wear eyeglasses, masks can prove to be a bit difficult.  In the end, I went with a wild west outfit, because I figured I could wear an "outlaw bandana" as the mask.

The costume is based on the worlds of either the Original Series episode "Spectre of the Gun" or the Next Generation episode "Fistful of Datas." Ultimately, I kept the mask in my pocket since it interfered with the eating and drinking.

As you can see, there were a number of folks who had similar ideas:


They had to change the venue for the masquerade due to weather, so I didn't get as many shots as I'd've liked, but here are a few:



For the Captain's Formal Gala, I decided that I could wear my tux, but I'd always liked the formal dress uniform that was introduced in Star Trek: Insurrection and also appeared in DS9, so I went with that.  I confess that at first I had thought it would be the most boring night of cosplay, since everyone would be in Star Fleet formal uniforms.  And people did that, but there was a bit of variety as well...

The last official theme night, an evening and barbecue ("Targ-BQ") on Risa, seemed to be the most troublesome costume-wise, or at least the one that stretched people's creativity, especially since the only really distinctive Risan outfit was Picard's infamous "silver speedo."  There actually were brave folks who went with that, but one of my favorites was the couple who dressed up as George and Gracie, the humpback whales from Star Trek IV.

And what am I wearing? A conventional pair of board shorts and a garment called a "sleeveless hoodie." It's actually off the rack, but I did have someone ask me if I'd made it myself. I bought it because I'd never heard of such a thing before and the idea of a sleeveless hoodie seemed kind of bizarre to me and therefore suitably Risan :-).

Another of my favorites of the night was The Game headsets (from the eponymous Next Gen episode) that a couple of guys brought:
And then there were these guys whose three hour tour seemed to have gotten a bit sidetracked:

There was a lot of other stuff going on, as well, including the chance to randomly encounter the actors...

...pictures and autographs...

The Grand Nagus signed my novel! :-)

...shore excursions...
...on board lectures, panels, and performances...

William Shatner "christens" the cruise

Terry Farrell leads yoga

Lolita Fatjo discusses script coordinating...

Terry Farrell, Chase Masterson, and James Darren

Casey Biggs leads a wine tasting

...and, of course, the great tribble hunt:
There was way too much going on for me to have caught even a fraction of it, but you can see a ton of pictures at the 2017 Star Trek Cruise photo gallery and there's a great video here.

You can also check out the blog reports from StarTrek.com here: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6.

Live long and prosper!

I'm a bit late this year, but here is a preliminary listing of books written and illustrated by Austinites with releases in 2017!  Note that publication dates may change and/or slip...

For books from earlier years, go here.

Picture Books

BOOK OR BELL, by Chris Barton, ill. by Ashley Spires (Bloomsbury 2017).

MIGHTY TRUCK: MUDDY MANIA, by Chris Barton, ill. by Troy Cummings (HarperCollins 2017).

DAZZLE SHIPS: WORLD WAR I AND THE ART OF CONFUSION,  by Chris Barton, ill. by Victo Ngai (Millbrook 2017).

 WHY AM I ME?, by Paige Britt, ill. by Sean Qualls & Selina Alko (Scholastic Press, Sept. 2017).
 
WHOBERT WHOVER, OWL DETECTIVE, by Jason Gallaher (@DraftingJason), ill. by Jess Pauwels (Margaret McElderry Books/Simon & Schuster, July 2017).
 
 CINNAMON, by Neil Gaiman, ill. by Divya Srinivasan (HarperCollins, May 2017).

THE YOUNGEST MARCHER; THE STORY OF AUDREY MAY HENDRICKS, A YOUNG CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST, by Cynthia Levinson (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster 2017)

BOB, NOT BOB, by Liz Garton Scanlon, ill. by Audrey Vernick (Disney Hyperion, Winter 2017)

ANOTHER WAY TO CLIMB A TREE, by Liz Garton Scanlon, ill. by Hadley Hooper (Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press, Aug. 2017).

STRONG AS SANDOW: HOW EUGEN SANDOW BECAME THE STRONGEST MAN ON EARTH, by Don Tate (Charlesbridge, Aug. 2017).

WHAT THIS STORY NEEDS IS A BANG AND A CLANG, by Emma Virjan (HarperCollins 2017).

Middle Grade/Tween

THE GREAT HIBERNATION, by Tara Dairman (Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, September 2017).

GNOMEAGEDDON, by K.A. Holt (McElderry Book/S&S, Fall 2017)

TUT: MY EPIC BATTLE TO SAVE THE WORLD, by P.J. Hoover (Tor 2017).

FAULT LINES IN THE CONSTITUTION: THE FRAMERS, THEIR FIGHTS, AND THE FLAWS THAT AFFECT US TODAY, by Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson (Peachtree 2017).

IF THE SHOE FITS, by Mari Mancusi (Aladdin/Simon & Schuster, Fall 2017).

IN A DARK LAND, by Christina Soontornvat (Sourcebooks 2017).

REVENGE OF THE HAPPY CAMPERS, by Jennifer Ziegler (Scholastic 2017).


Young Adult

THIS IS NOT THE END, by Chandler Baker (Disney-Hyperion, Aug. 2017).

WITCHTOWN, by Cory Putnam Oakes (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Oct. 2017).

THE SANDCASTLE EMPIRE, by Kayla Olson (HarperTeen 2017).

AVENGED, by Amy Tintera (HarperTeen May 2017).

This past year, I signed up for the Austin Distance Challenge again, because it was intrinsically fun, but also to ensure that I would get enough running in for the Austin Marathon. The Distance Challenge, sponsored by the Austin Runners Club, involved five races: The Run Free 8k, the Run for the Water 10 miler, the Decker Challenge half marathon, the 3M Half Marathon, and the Austin Marathon.

The Run Free 8K is out in Cedar Park, a considerable distance from downtown.  It leaves from one of the high school football stadiums and winds through residential neighborhoods before returning to the starting line. It's a nice start to the fall training season.

The first piece of the puzzle

Run for the Water goes through downtown and along the lakefront. It's one of the prettiest routes in the challenge and much of it is along routes I train on.

Starting line on Cesar Chavez

The drum group at the finish line

A friend got this shot of me at the starting line.

After that came the Decker Challenge -- a hilly route just east of Austin in Decker, and notorious for terrible weather.  This year, it wasn't bad --- a bit misty with a steady drizzle. By the finish line, my glasses were so fogged up I had to take them off to see anything at all. Which made it difficult to see things like potholes...

Glasses fogging up as I climb the hills

Blindly crossing the finish line

 Not on the Challenge, but still an Austin staple was the Turkey Trot!  One of the more fun races, it usually features a good number of costumes and a large helping of whimsy.



After the holidays, the next race was the 3M Half Marathon. It's almost the exact opposite to the Decker Challenge, because it's all downhill. It starts up in the Great Hills area and winds its way downtown. This year it was a particularly fast run because there was an incredible wind out of the north. Several folks, including myself, were nearly blown over as we ran past the UT football stadium.

A selfie at the starting line

the 3M photographer got a shot of me taking my selfie

After the finish in sight of the Capitol

And the last race was the Austin Marathon!

But. About three weeks before the race, in the middle of the night, I slipped and came down on the edge of my entertainment console and tile floors. Result? A nice set of bruised ribs and a strangely linear scar on my right side.

By race day, I could still feel it a bit but had gone on short runs with only minor discomfort, so I decided to go for it.  The first half went pretty well, but the second was less pleasant.  But I'm still glad I did it...

Looking all chipper and optimistic before the race starts

Vulcan salute for the photographer

Gritting it out with a hundred yards to go

Finished!

So my time for the marathon ended up being a personal worst, although I did make it under five hours :-).

Anyway, thanks to all the organizers, volunteers, emergency personnel, and everyone else involved in putting on these races! You keep Austin running!
Next up? The Capital of Texas Triathlon! Hopefully there won't be rain...

This summer I was finally able to complete my first triathlon of the century! I've actually managed two: The Capital of Texas Triathlon, which takes place in downtown Austin over Memorial Day, and Jack's Generic Triathlon, which is in Pflugerville in August.

Unlike last year, the CapTexTri went off without a hitch and with nearly perfect weather. I was fairly happy with my swim -- my time was actually comprable if not better than my times from back in the day. My only problem was that I kept drifting off course since I couldn't see -- my glasses kept fogging up and I couldn't see the marker buoys...

The bike went well, too: again, my time was comparable to the last time I did an Olympic distance event, undoubtedly due to my brilliant training regimen. (Either that, or the new bike that's half the weight of my old one).

My only problem was that I didn't hydrate enough on the bike, which affected my run. I got really hot and crashed a bit on mile 4, so my run time was less than optimal. Also, I probably should've indulged in some on-course solid or semi-solid nutrition. Oh, well, live and learn... 

Here are a few pics:

Packet pickup at the back of the exhibit hall

The Cutco cutlery booth. I think this is for the "Game of Thrones" division

Everything you always wanted to know about how to mark your body for a triathlon

Alas, fixed-gear bikes are not legal in USAT sanctioned events

Setting up the swim venue

Shiny bikes all in a row (race morning)

On the bike!

And the run!

At the finish line!

I'd originally planned to run the TriRock triathlon over Labor Day, but that one was canceled this year, so I decided to run Jack's Generic Triathlon, in early August.

Again, I was fairly pleased with my swim, although I may have cut the course a bit. My goggles were fogged and I have no memory of rounding one of the triangular marker buoys. But my time was in the right ballpark, so it's enitrely possible I did it correctly :-).

The bike portion was two loops through rolling corn fields, which reminded me a lot of central Illinois where I would ride back when I was an undergrad at U. of I. It was rather windy, and I was very happy to have my new aero handlebars...It felt pretty good, too, and I made an effort to hydrate more than during the CapTexTri.  Apparently not enough, though, because I again crashed and overheated during the run.  But there were ice sponges on course and plenty of water and Nuun and there was an ice bath at the end...Also, I now understand why some teams provide their riders with Coca-Cola during the Tour de France...

All in all, a fun race that I will probably do again next year.

Because it's out in Pflugerville, I decided to check out the course beforehand:

Lake Pflugerville!

The Hydrilla-eating Monster

Panorama of the bike route. Lots of corn

Yes, I had my Bat Shark Repellent. Because you never know what the hydrilla monster is going to dredge up.

As usual, the race started way too early in the morning, but I managed to get a few pics:

Bicycles at dawn

Prepping for the afterparty

The swim exit is prepared

Posing before the swim just before warmups

The squint of the near-sighted swimmer racing to the transition area

Made it to the bike. I'm now a fan of aero handlebars

The transition area post-race

Post-race ice bath, yay!

Coca-Cola is our friend

It's the eve of the Texas Book Festival so make sure you check out the festivities on the Capitol grounds! And here's a tentative list of projects from Austin authors and illustrators releasing next year! For previous years, go here.

Picture Books, Easy Readers, and Board Books

WHAT DO YOU DO WITH A VOICE LIKE THAT? by Chris Barton, ill. by Ekua Holmes (Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane 2018).

MIGHTY TRUCK: ON THE FARM, by Chris Barton, ill. by Troy Cummings (HarperCollins, May 2018).

PENGUIN AND TINY SHRIMP DON'T DO BEDTIME, by Cate Berry, ill. by Charles Santoso (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins 2018).

ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S DUELING WORDS, by Donna Janell Bowman, ill. by S.D. Schindler (Peachtree, 2018)

THE BOOK THAT JAKE BORROWED, by Susan Kralovansky (Pelican 2018).

COUNTING COLORS IN TEXAS, by Susan Kralovansky (Pelican 2018).

KATE, WHO TAMED THE WIND, by Liz Garton Scanlon, ill. by Lee White (Schwartz & Wade, Spring 2018).

FRANCES IN THE COUNTRY, by Liz Garton Scanlon, ill. by Sean Qualls (Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook Press, Summer 2018).

DEAR SUBSTITUTE, by Liz Garton Scanlon, ill. by Chris Raschka (Disney-Hyperion, Summer 2018).

STALEBREAD CHARLIE AND THE RAZZY, DAZZY SPASM BAND,  by Michael Mahin, ill. by Don Tate (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018).

PAR-TAY: DANCE OF THE VEGGIES (AND THEIR FRIENDS), by Eloise Greenfield, ill. by Don Tate (Alazar Press 2018).

POTATO KING: THE STORY OF JUNIUS G. GROVES, by Don Tate (Knopf 2018).
 

Middle Grade

THE BOY, THE BOAT, AND THE BEAST, by Samantha Clark (Paula Wiseman Books/Simon & Schuster, Summer 2018).

KNOCKOUT, by K.A. Holt (Chronicle, Spring 2018).

DEAR ME (tent. title), by K.A. Holt (Scholastic, Summer 2018).

THE PARKER INHERITANCE, by Varian Johnson (Scholastic, Spring 2018).

THE CAMELOT CODE: THE ONCE AND FUTURE GEEK, by Mari Mancusi (Disney-Hyperion, Oct. 2018).

GIRLS WHO CODE: LIGHTS, MUSIC, CODE, by Jo Whittemore (Penguin Workshop, Spring 2018).

REVENGE OF THE TEACHER'S PETS, by Jennifer Ziegler (Scholastic, June 2018).

Young Adult

HEARTS UNBROKEN, by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick Press, 2018).

AVENGED, by Amy Tintera (HarperTeen, May 2018).

Never actually saw anyone on a horse

So after having completed my first triathlon in 20 years, I decided to sign up for the Austin Ironman 70.3 on October 29! It's a "half Ironman" distance race, meaning it's a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run. I figured the swim's only a little longer than an Olympic distance tri and the bike and the run are only about twice the distance, so why not?

Even better, the race was just outside Austin, so I wouldn't have to travel. The swim was in Decker Lake (Walter E. Long Lake), the bike was a 56 mile loop almost out to Elgin, and the run would be in the park by the lake and up to the Travis County Convention Center.  I was a little concerned about the hills (having run the Decker Challenge Half Marathon more than once) but decided that that was what training was for.

That started in June, not long after the Capital of Texas Triathlon. Yes, training would be through the height of a Texas summer.  And every time I went out, I would remember Noel Coward's line that "[m]ad dogs and Englishmen go out in the mid-day sun..."

My training program was based Triathlete Magazine's Week by Week Training Guide and involved nine workouts a week. I didn't completely adhere to all of the mileage suggestions (some weeks doing more, some less), but mostly kept to the program of two a days.  

By early August, the mileage was starting to pile up but it didn't seem particularly efficient (and also was getting a little tedious), so I decided to join the triathlon training/masters swim group at Pure Austin Gym and, really, it was the best decision I made in the entire process.  The awesome Coach Peri Kowal leads two swim workouts a week, mostly in a pool but also including two a month in the Quarry Lake, so participants can get used to open water swimming. (Also, during the summer, the gym does a Splash N Dash (Swim 750k, then run 2k) once a month; it's good practice for the whole "group of people in the water, don't get kicked in the face" thing).

Quarry Lake

Somewhat to my surprise, the group was a mix from beginning triathletes to multiple Ironman (and Kona) finishers.  Everyone was enthusiastic and supportive, even when insufficiently caffeinated during the Thursday morning (6 AM) workouts.

Insufficiently caffeinated

Best of all, there were a number of folks for whom the Austin Ironman 70.3 was to be their first half Ironman, as well, so we fell into an ad hoc training group of the equally blissfully ignorant, typically doing our long bike rides and BRicks together on weekend mornings. It was great having a mutual support group and not just when we got flat tires...(Incidentally, if you get a flat in Texas, watch out for fire ants).

Anyway, here are some pics of the process:

Training happens even when you're away on business

Igloo coolers are our friends!

Monkey Road really needs to be resurfaced

Don't drive off with your cell phone on the roof of your car

The gang poses after a long BRick

Starting the run after a 40 mile bike ride...

Kevin and Alec hamming it up...

My first shoes to come with an instruction manual

Celebrating Coach Peri's birthday!

Sights you see along Town Lake

More sights...

About to test out a wetsuit

Went through a lot of these...

Feeling punchy three days before the race...

On the whole, training took a lot of time and work and there were moments in early October when I was really ready for race day to arrive. OTOH, I'm also happy I had that extra three weeks of training....

In the end, I was really glad to have been able to do race-distance open-water swims in the Quarry Lake and to bike the race route. I think we ended up riding the route about 5-7 times altogether and it was helpful not just for putting in mileage but in learning where the potholes and seams were. Also, the BRick workouts were really helpful -- when I had done triathlons in the 90s, the bike to run transition was always terrible. This time, not so much...but that's for another post :-).

I finished training feeling cautiously optimistic -- I'd put in the time and the mileage and the BRicks and the intensity and worked out my nutrition and hydration requirements and figured out how to change a flat tire without getting bit by fire ants in under ten minutes.  We had generally accounted for every possible variable and had kept in mind the mantra, "Don't try anything new on race day."

Except that having trained through blistering heat and humidity of Texas in the summer and fall, the weather was forecast to be 39 degrees at race start... 
















So, how did that go? Well, I'll do Race Day Weekend in another post...

Okay, it's been a while, but I thought I'd finally post about the 2017 Austin Ironman 70.3 race weekend. :-). Like I mentioned in my last post, I felt fairly optimistic -- if anything I was a bit burned out on training.

The big kicker, though, was that the weather was forecast to be 38 degrees race morning, which resulted in a bit of last-minute anxiety, mostly due to the mantra, "Don't do anything different on race day." That is, it is unwise in the extreme to test out new equipment or clothing on race day. Unfortunately, faced with the prospect of a 38 degree swim and bike ride (and the fact that it would warm up quickly), we had to make some last minute adjustments.

The week before the race, I picked up a triathlon jersey that had sleeves, and borrowed some arm warmers from one of my training partners.  Saturday morning, I went for a five mile test ride and realized I needed gloves, which necessitated a trip to Austin Tri-Cyclist, where I was not the only one making such a purchase :-). 

I was still a bit concerned about the swim, but I had a wetsuit, so I figured I'd done all I could do. Still, I was coveting one with sleeves...
I next headed over to the Travis County Expo Center to pick up my swag bag, drop off my bicycle and gear, and check out the transition areas.

Our happy faces before we get out of the car into the cold...

 Next morning, three of us drove out together and arrived in the cold dark of the Travis County Expo. Center at around 5:30. Did I mention that it was cold? Eventually, we got on the bus to take us to the staging area at Walter Long (Decker) Lake. There, we put on wetsuits, met up with our other training partners, and shivered a lot.

Eventually, though, as the sun started to peak above the horizon, we lined up according to our projected swim times and prepared for the start of the race. I was still worried about the swim and the cold -- even though I was wearing socks (to be discarded just before start), my feet were starting to go numb and my arms were not happy either.

But then it was time! I ran into the water and dived in as soon as I could. To my surprise, it was actually pleasant -- the water itself was around 68-72 degrees, so compared to the air temperature, it was balmy.  The only real problem was that fog on the water and the glare of the sun were making it hard to see the buoys. About halfway through the swim I began thinking that the temperature really wasn't bad -- if anything, it was a bit too warm. 

Emerging from the water...

But then I finished the swim and stood and was confronted by the reality of confronting an air temp of around 40 while being soaking wet.  I grabbed my glasses from the special needs table and a nice man helped me get the wetsuit off. (This basically involved lying back on the wet ground, sticking my feet in the air and having him pull. Thank you, sir.). My time was a little slower than I would've liked, but I was fairly happy with it.

I made it to transition, took a big swig of water, swallowed the contents of an energy gel pack, and put on my winter cycling garb. Then I was off!

And it was frickin' cold.

Contemplating that wind chill...

 It was this weird Catch-22 where you want to go as fast as possible (for the race, of course, but also so you warm up), but also kind of are thinking that if you slowed down a touch the wind chill wouldn't be quite so bad.  I ended up spending the next hour shivering until the ambient temperature and I warmed up.
Now, I actually kind of like the bike route -- it's mostly country roads with little traffic, and I rode the route about a half-dozen times in training. The problem with it is that a number of the roads are not exactly well=paved. Bumps and potholes and patches proliferate, especially on Monkey Road. In fact, the dip where it crosses a creek is so bumpy that by the time I got there, there were at least a dozen water bottle scattered on the ground.

There were way too many hills, however :-).

Beyond that, the ride felt fine, although my back began to hurt about halfway through -- I wasn't used to spending that much time in the aero position, so most of the second half of my ride was with hands on the brake hoods. I made sure to stick with my hydration and nutrition plan, so I felt pretty good by the end of it.

Again, my time wasn't quite what I wanted it to be, but I was not displeased.

By the time I finished the ride, it was around noon and fairly warm, so I took the time to change from my sleeved singlet to a sleeveless one (Ironman rules require that you wear a shirt). 

Starting to feel the legs...

The run wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although there were again too many hills :-).  I was pleased at the number and size of the aid stations -- water, electrolyte drink (Gatorade, iirc), Clif energy gels, Coca-Cola, and Red Bull were all available.  

I was definitely feeling my legs, but my quads didn't feel like they were going to seize up like they had when I did triathlons in the 90s -- all that training paid off, I guess :-). I managed to make it through without slowing to a walk (other than at aid stations, because I can't drink and run at the same time) and ended up with a run time that was comparable to my stand-alone half-marathon times.

At the finish line!

My final time was 5:50:36, which I'm pretty happy about. My goal had been 6:00:00, although I did think that 5:45:00 was not out of the question. :-).

Finisher photo! And medal!

The gang...

All in all, it was a great experience. I got out of my comfort zone, made some terrific friends, learned how to most efficiently change a bike tube, and never once thought, "I can't believe I'm paying to do this." (Okay, maybe once...).

After the race!

Celebrating the next day with Coach Peri!

I just completed my second Ironman 70.3 ("half-Ironman") in Galveston, Texas!

It was different, but not too different than the first. In some ways it was more challenging than Austin, although I did manage to eke out a personal best, so I count myself pleased, although I've identified several areas where I can improve :-).

The Galveston site presented a couple more difficulties than the Austin one, viz., transportation of people and bicycles, as well as housing therefor.  The race site was at Moody Gardens, which has its own resort hotel, which we might have done if we had planned on going on Friday and staying until Monday.  Ultimately, we decided to drive down the morning before the race with our bikes, rent a house via Airbnb, and drive back the evening of the race.

Leaving Austin at 7 AM...

With two bikes on the back, three people (and one bike) in the car, and all our gear, we were pretty packed, but the drive only took about three and a half hours, even accounting for coffee breaks.

We drove directly to Moody Gardens to pick up our race packets and drop off our bikes.  The first thing we discovered when we arrived was that it was cold and rainy and the swim venue (Offats Bayou) was a bit choppy...

Under the triumphal arch the day before the race...

Registration/packet pickup was in a big white tent overlooking the bayou (the same big white tent Moody Gardens had used for a cool dinosaur thing a couple years back).

The white tent with dinosaurs five years ago...

The pickup and registration and dropoff were strangely inefficient: You wait in line at a first table to show your ID and USA Triathlon membership; then you go to a second table to pick up your waiver and other forms. Next, you go to a third table to fill in and sign your waiver and forms, and go to a fourth table to drop off your signed waiver and forms. Thereafter, you go to a fifth table to pick up your wristband and swim cap and bike and helmet stickers; go to a sixth table to pick up your backpack/goodie bag and T-shirt; and finally, go to a seventh table to pick up your timing chip.

Then you exit via the Ironman store and vendor village where you can wait in line to buy stuff.

Inside the big white tent

The course talk was outside and the rain had died down enough so that it wasn't all that unpleasant. Behind us was the paddlewheeler Colonel and a whole lot of choppy water with whitecaps. We were assured that the weather could be better the next day, however. No rain and significantly less wind, although there would be a headwind on the return portion of the bike route.

The paddlewheeler Colonel.

The swim course, with the finish right by the paddlehweeler

The Airbnb was a nice little three-bedroom cottage about five miles from the event site and across from a large cemetery.  It had a complete kitchen that would come in useful later that night when we couldn't get into any of the nearby Italian restaurants without reservations.

The house we rented

Cemetery across street.

Making spaghetti dinner

That evening, we gathered all of our gear and made dinner and looked forward to the race. I went for a three mile run around the nieghborhood to loosen up a bit, and then we made dinner.

I managed to get around five or six hours of sleep and only hit the snooze button once when the alarm went off at 4:30 in the morning. After a couple cups of coffee, a banana, and a bagel, we were off!

The temperature felt good: low fifties, not too much of a breeze. I decided I didn't need gloves, but would take along my arm warmers for the bike just in case. We arrived at Moody Gardens a little after six and discovered we had had to park about a fifteen minute walk from the actual transition area.  A remarkably long line greeted us to enter transition (for body marking), but since we had already done so, we were able to get in with only a brief wait and some judicious weaving through the crowd.

Testing out the wetsuit when I first got it.

There was then the ritual of putting on the wetsuit and pumping the bike tires and then transition closed! (We might have cut the timing a little close).

We then made our way separately to the swim start: they did a wave start by age group. You jump off the pier (see above map), hang around in the water for a couple minutes, and then swim like the wind when you hear the starter's horn.

The water was a nice 72 degrees, about twenty degrees warmer than the outside temperature. The water felt good, although it took a few minutes to get used to the waves and occasional mouthful of salt water. I felt pretty good, though, and noticed myself passing a lot of people.  More importantly, I managed to beat my swim time from last fall's Austin Ironman 70.3.


 Once I was out of the water, the wetsuit strippers were efficient and I had no problem getting to my bike (even without my glasses), stowing my wetsuit and taking off. Because it was relatively warm, I decided not to bother with my sleeves, and I wouldn't have worn gloves even if I had brought them.

The first half of the bike portion was glorious. The temperature was perfect and I had no problems staying in aero position almost the whole way.  Unfortunately, at the turnaround, I was made to realize just how much of a tailwind I had been benefitting from. The rest of the ride felt like I was pulling a mobile home...

Grimacing with miles to go...

Also about that time, the temperature dropped by about ten degrees, and it started to rain. And then my back started to hurt from being in aero position for so long.  In short, the ride back was completely miserable...But I managed to break three hours, which had been my goal.

In addition to the lower back pain, I got a pain between my shoulders, and every time I tried to stand up in the pedals to stretch, my legs felt like they wanted to cramp up.  And my hands were so cold I could barely move them to squeeze my water bottles.

Trying to squeeze out the last drop from my water bottle.

By the time I got back to transition, my hands were so numb that I couldn't operate the clip on my helmet. Putting on my shoes and tying my laces was equally an ordeal. It didn't help that my legs and abs kept cramping up when I bent to tie the laces.  After a ridiculously long transition, I made it onto the run course and my watch died.


But my legs felt good and I enjoyed the run a lot more than I thought I was going to on the return bike. :-). My pacing was a bit off and I came in somewhat slower than I would've liked, but it still felt pretty good.

Victory!

Overall, I came in a couple minutes better than the Austin Ironman 70.3, which I'm pleased with (although I think my run could've gone better).

Mugging with the finisher's medal

Using the R8 recovery roller thing...

All in all, it was a great experience and I'd definitely do the race again. A big thanks to all the organizers, volunteers, sponsors, and first responders who made the event a success!

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The #MeToo movement seemed poised to help us create more equitable workplaces — where women thrive as much as men. Unfortunately, we have yet to see this come to fruition in any significant way. And, in some cases, the backlash has made it even more difficult for women to get ahead. The hashtag #MeToo was […]

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White males make up the largest sector of the U.S. workforce and have, on average, always made the highest salaries. If we compare their salaries to those of women, ethnic minorities, the differently-abled, and LGBTQ+ persons, we see a large disparity between the wages of similarly-qualified candidates in the same fields. The gap is glaring, […]

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Many people told Lareesha H. that she would never work for the National Security Agency (NSA) due to its perceived lack of diversity. They were wrong. “Through hard-work, late nights and additional schooling. I made sure I possessed the necessary skills to obtain a position at NSA,” she says. “In 2009, my dream came true […]

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How inclusive is NSA in terms of diversity? Recently, two employees answered that question and more. Let’s go straight to the source. Michelle E. Prior to joining the National Security Agency (NSA) as a recruiter, Michelle E., pictured life at the agency like many of us do. “Whenever thinking about NSA, I always thought of […]

The post Diversity in the NSA Workplace: ‘Your Unique Voice and Skillset will be an Asset’ appeared first on DiversityJobs.com.

They come and they go into our bookstores and libraries and out again without a whisper of awards or significant praise. Yet the true mark of whether or not you are opening up your child to the world is to show them books made internationally. Today we celebrate translations. Even the weird ones. I take that back. ESPECIALLY the weird ones!

The earliest American picture books had only one goal: To provide some form of moral instruction. These days books with clear messages are exceedingly common. The ones that do it well? Much rarer. Here are the 2018 titles that knew what they were doing this year.

Every year I try to keep an eye out for any children's book that gives ample attention to photographs in some way. Thanks to advances in technology and printing, it's never been easier to make books with photographic images. Yet despite this, few come out. Today's list is a small one, but I'm grateful that each and every single one of these books exists.

Interestingly, 2018 turned out to be a very strong year for folktales, fairy tales, and religious stories. Why? Well, look closely and you'll see that this is nothing so much as a gathering of small publishers. It's like I always say. The more the big guys consolidate, the more cracks and fissures remain for the little folks to sneak through. Here then are the titles published in 2018 that really stood out and shone:

What one person might consider "odd" could easily be another's cup of tea. It's important, then, to clarify that I don't see "odd" as a bad thing at all. It's healthy for a kid to see a book written for their age level that's outside the norm and dares to get a little bit freaky.Here then, are the 2018 titles that dared to be strange in some way. May they inspire others in the future!

Poems used to be the sole property of April a.k.a. Poetry Month. Now that's changing. Publishers are rapidly putting more faith into the poetry books they produce. So let's take a look at what we saw this year, and the wide range of topics that were touched.

I think you've heard me say before that in many ways easy books are the most difficult titles to write. They are most perfect when they are most simple. And they are most simple, when they limit their text complexity. Can you make complex characters and plots with such small words? You can. These did.

Perhaps my favorite episode of this podcast in a long time. We talk about Thurl Ravenscroft, odd Grinch theories, like the fact that his heart may expand and shrink regularly, if the chimneys are essentially pneumatic tubes, and that the Jim Carrey Grinch film had a key party in it.

Older than easy but not yet novels. The fact of the matter is that while Easy Books are hard to write, Early Chapter Books are hard to categorize. They're also ideal bedtime books for older children, which means that with the European imports you get a lot of experimentation. American early chapter books are pretty much just written to please. Here then are the books written with 6-9 year olds in mind.

This year, ALA established the first Graphic Novels & Comics Round Table (GNCRT). Long gone are the days when we would pooh-pooh anything with a panel or a little sequential art. And so, in celebration of their status, I cast aside the "graphic novel" moniker. Long live, comics! Long live, panels! And long live speech balloons!

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