Hudy A blog about all things Hudy...

Not too much explanation needed here.  I thought this would be good training for my Race the Lake race that I did.  I have been wanting to ride to work for a while, I did it last year once when I got off work early to see how long it would take.  It is about 16 miles one way and I can take the New Berlin Trail for about 9 of that, so it is a pretty decent ride.
I am going to see if I can try and ride a few more times before it gets too cold in the morning and too dark for the ride home.

What I would not do next time is wear a back pack - need to get saddle bags!

This was a race that I wanted to do last year, but because of the lack of training I had, I figured I would just hold off until this year.  Well, the training didn't increase that much more this year, but I am in better shape this year from the marathons that I have done.
 
The race was a 88.5 mile race around Lake Winnebago, starting in Fond du lac and going northwest around the lake to High Cliff State Park, then riding south along the eastern side of the lake and back to the starting point.

I ended up riding with my cousins Tim and Sam and two of their friends, Wade and Phil, most of the way which was alot of fun.  Here they are:


The best part of the race was when me and about 12 or so others were coasting down a slight decline at about 30 mph and just laughing at how easy it was - its amazing what drafting can do.

I ended finishing in just under 5 hours - 4:59:15.  I think it would be fun to do the race again and try to beat that time, but I was really happy with how I did.

 (not the actual flooring, but pretty dang close!)

Forgot that this was one of my goals, but I guess I can mark it off now :-)
This Saturday, I went over to Paul's house and we tore up some the old linoleum in his office and the back stairwell because there was existing hard wood floors that had been covered up years ago.   That is the most I have sweat in a long time!  It was a fun thing to do and it is going to look awesome when they get it re-finished.

The hardest part was scraping off the old asbestos tile in the stairwell - we think it was put down with some sort of tar based adhesive!

Looking forward to the next home project, they are soo much fun!

I decided to do this goal more or less to save a bit of money, I thought that $18-$25 for a guy's haircut was just too much to fork out.  I used to buzz cut my hair and that was pretty easy, but I think I got pretty good at getting the whole "blend" style down too.

This one took a bit longer than I was hoping it would, but the end result looks pretty decent in my opinion.  I learned many things about deck staining/refinishing and I will share them for those wanting to take up the same task.
1.  It will take longer than you think
2.  Don't believe everything you read/hear about with deck stripper solutions, they DON"T work... Period.  In fact that is the only thing you should believe about them.  All they do is change the color of the paint/stain you are trying to remove.
3.  Use a sander instead - a big one from Home Depot and a hand one borrowed from a friend - Thanks Jon! 
4.  Rent the biggest one you can from Home Depot - use around a 60 grit or so to really give it a good sanding.
5.  Don't try to lift the sander yourself, it will be the worst back pain you will ever experience.
6.  Try to do as much work in the shade - the sun can cause the stain to dry too fast and leave streaks.
7.  Wear bug spray.
8.  Staining spindles is best left to your wife - Thanks Angie :-)

Happy Staining!!

Living in Milwaukee for a few years and within 15 miles from their the rest of my life you would think that I would have done this before, but it took 28 years for me to get out and get this one done.

My buddy Paul and I went to the Lakefront Brewery for the tour.  Paul had been there before so he knew it would be a good tour.  For $7 you get about a 45 minute tour, 4 beers and a Lakefront Brewery pint glass, pretty good deal if you ask me.

Our trip was on the Carnival Legend to Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Roatan and Belize!

I wasn't quite sure I was going to get this goal accomplished because there are only so many times that we could go, but it actually worked out great and we were able to go this past week.  For anyone contemplating going on a cruise, I would say, "Go for it!"  It was alot of fun and I would definitely go on another one.  One suggestion that I would say is to make sure you get to the city the day before.  We had some troubles trying to get there - our first flight was delayed 2 hours which then we would have missed our connection so we flew into another city and when we were leaving there a stewardess came on the loud speaker and said we didn't have a pilot, which they later found.

There were so many things to do while we were on the ship - Relax, sit at the pool, eat good food, explore the ship, sit in the sun, eat good food, go to the shows, eat good food, did I mention you can visit the buffet whenever you wanted?  They even has a midnight snack buffet for those needing it.

The advice I got from a veteran cruiser on the ship on the first day was, "Ease into the buffet, don't overdo it the first day."  Well, I didn't... I dove right in from the first day and didn't look back and it was well worth the calories :-)

We went on 3 different excursions - a Deluxe Beach Bash, Catamaran ride to a snorkeling location, and a Eco-Park Jungle Kayak trip.  Here are a few pictures from those days.

So I have been working on this goal a bit, which is turning out to be pretty fun - I found a great site that has a 6 week schedule to follow.  It is www.hundredpushups.com

I am currently starting week 4 of 6, hopefully I will make it through and be able to finish them all.  One thing about the above link is that when I finish the 100 push ups I can get to put a little graphic on my blog to say I did it!  Pretty cool, I know.

I had heard from Matt that this race, the Cristie Clinic Illinois Marathon, was a pretty good one, well organized, good swag, decent medal, and plenty of port-o-potties!  And to my amazement each one of those things was right.

Well this came as a complete surprise for me as I was about 2 weeks before my second marathon in 6 weeks (third marathon overall).

Crazylegs, for those of you that don't know, is a 8K (4.97 miles) race in Madison that is held every year. It draws roughly 20,000 runners!! It is an awesome run to be a part of because of all the people and for the great course and finish. You run all through downtown Madison, starting at the Capitol and ending at the 50 yard line at Camp Randall Stadium.

I had ran Crazylegs 2 other times and had not really gotten close to 40 minutes, but I knew it would be possible especially with all the running I had been doing.  Matt, Andrew and I started together at a pretty decent pace (we got to the first mile marker in 7:30) and we were able to keep the pace going throughout the next 4 miles.  I didn't really think it was going to be for sure until I got to the 4th mile and had enough time to even slow down to a 10 minute mile and still come pretty close.

Needless to say I finished under 40 minutes, 38:17 to be exact!  That is going to be a tough one to beat.

We have lived in our house for almost a year now and other than having our house warming party and inviting our neighbors to that, we have not had them over yet.  I guess a good excuse was that we just moved in and then it was winter after that, so everyone pretty much hibernates for that if you are in the northern part of the US like us - that is why we have these.  But now it is the spring so we finally decided to have them over.  Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to verify this event, but I know that it won't be the first time we have them over, so I can post pictures another time. 
We had a great time hanging out and just catching up with them.  They are our age and have a big fluffy dog named Bernard.  I usually get to see all of them outside a few times a week during the warmer months while we are all doing yard work.  I think this weekend we may even do some tree trimming together.  If we are lucky we will get some pictures of that!

I have wanted to serve at a food pantry type place for a while and always kept putting it off or never really acted on it, so I added it to my goals and that got me more involved... Well, to be honest, Angie told me about a week before we served that we were going to do it, I really had no hand in the planning of it, but I was there none the less.

We served at the Hope Center in Waukesha.  I mostly went around pouring drinks and clearing plates and cleaning up the hour and a half I was there, but boy is it a treat to be able to serve in that capacity.  There were probably about 75 or so people of all ages that where there taking part in the dinner.  There were a few I recognized from around town here.  I would highly recommend finding a local pantry or kitchen to serve, it will be just as rewarding for you as it is for them. 

There were some really great people there that would be great to get to know a bit more, some, despite their situations, really seemed to have a love for life and the people in their lives.  It is a good reminder to be thankful for what we have and to not expect things handed to up on a silver platter.

If you want to learn more about the Hope Center in Waukesha you can visit their website to find out more info.

It's hard to think back to May 24th of 2009, it seems so long ago.  That was when I completed my first marathon in Madison.  It was a hard finish but I had alot of support keeping me going, my family, friends, my wife, and a good friend Andrew.  We ran the whole race together, start to finish and when I finally did cross the finish line there was such a sense of accomplishment for me and all the emotions leading up to it that I can actually say I got a little misty eyed.  Despite the great emotions from the race, I decided because I felt so tired and sore and altogether pooped, that I was never going to do another one...  

Fast forward to March 27th and that is when I finished my second marathon and am already signed up for my third - crazy stuff. 

I felt 20x better finishing this one than I did finishing Madison and I had Andrew and Matt as running partners the entire way.  It was alot of fun, albeit not a great race if you are expecting lots of spectators to cheer for you.  I think I saw about 10 - 15 spectators the entire time we were out there.

There are many things that I am learning about owning my first home - #1 Craigslist is one of my best friends, #2 my neighbors can be a close second, and last but not least, #3 anyone that gives us something for free trumps the above two and goes straight to the top of the list, especially if it is an outside tool that can make my life alot easier!!

Angie and I have received a lawn mower from my grandparents, who they got from their neighbor because he we going to get rid of it, so my grandparents thought of us and with a little help from my grandpa and a little TLC, we got it up and running.  The second item, which I nick-named "Red Bull" is pictured above and I think is the best free tool that I have received so far!  We got it from Angie's parents all the way from Lake Crystal, MN and Angie's mom was so very gracious to have it in her trunk for the 6 or so hour drive - Thanks Susan and Jim!!  They gave it us in AS-IS condition, which was, if you can get it running, you can have it.  Unfortunately I waited until after I shoveled 3 days of super heavy wet snow to try to fix old "Red", but it only took a few hours or tinkering and I got it running - I will have to say, I shouted for joy even louder than the snow blower (Angie can attest to that :-).  I was able to get a few good runs in it before the snow stopped and am excited for next years powder - Bring it on old man winter!!!   Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!

Say Cheese!  I don't know how many times I have driven past the Mars Cheese Castle and thought to myself, 'Boy, that would be fun to go to'.  Well, the day finally arrived - Angie and I were headed down to Chicago to pick up my Mom from her friend's house and Angie noticed it and said, "Isn't that on your goals list?"  I was so excited, I swerved across 2 lanes of traffic just to get off the freeway in time. 
So I bet you are wondering - "How was it?" Well, to be honest, think of a cross between Elegeant Farmer and Freeway Quickie Mart and you got it.  They had similar stuff like Elegeant Farmer, but it all seemed to be all 50% off because it was all out dated. 
All in all, it is another goal off the list and another goal closer to the 101.

Thanks for the reminder Angie!!



Here I am signing the official Mars Cheese Castle Guest Book!

To preface this, I really like Pink Floyd and The Wall and the Dark Side of the Moon are great disks in my opinion.

This was another one of those things that I have always heard of but never tried myself - "Watching the Wizard of Oz" while playing Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon".  To be honest it wasn't as cool as I thought it would be although I counted about 7 or 8 times during the movie/disk that the scenes really did seem to go together pretty well, the best being at the very end of the "DSotM" there is a heart beating sound and that is right when Dorothy and the Scare Crow find the Tin Man and he taps on his chest.  (Spoiler alert - He is the one that gets a heart from the Wizard).  Thanks Andrew for getting both the DVD and CD from the library for our enjoyment!

Anyway, it was a fun goal to get done, but I am more looking forward to the other movies on my list, those being "The God Father" movies and the "Star Wars" movies.