Fall Break 2007, Cool Hikes, Hot Marathons, Hot Wives.

Yes, we have Fall Break (Columbus day to some). No, I am not anti-Columbus, though I understand that his coming over helped lead to

• Some wonderful countries (Canada, the United States, Mexico)
• The deaths of thousands (often due to diseases for which the native people had no natural immunity)

When remembering the day, it is often useful to consider several aspects.

Workout notes Easy 3 mile hike in Allerton Park yesterday. Barbara and I took a short day trip.
The park features several miles of shaded hiking trails (easy walking, but some roots and rocks).

I forgot my digital camera so I bought a disposable one. However someone else took some excellent photos back in 2005.

I’ll post my own, but they won’t be this good.

One aspect of the park is that one can take trails out into the woods only to come right up to various statues, such as this one (photo hotlinked from the site that I mentioned)

(many photos at this site).

I also went to the pond to see the frogs. These frogs are much smaller than bull frogs, but considerably larger than cricket frogs. When you came up to them, they would make one high pitched cry (kind of like a “peep”) and jump into the water very quickly. These were good jumpers!

Then they would float (sort of a almost vertical float) and look at the shore. They were greenish-brownish, had some red in their eyes (but these were NOT red eyed frogs) and perhaps 1-2 inches long. I haven’t determined what kind of frogs they were; perhaps chorus?

We walked about 3 easy miles. It was somewhat warm, but the shade and the trail kept things relatively cool.

This was NOT the case in Chicago where they ran the Chicago Marathon.

The professionals ran 2:11, which is 4-6 minutes slower than the usual winning time (remember, that is about a mile slower for them).

Marathon Pundit (someone who is often very confused about politics) posted a nice photo spread about the race. It was so hot that they closed the course 3:30 into it, and made everyone else walk it in!

Julie Berg posted a story about her hot weather marathon: Twin Cities. Keep in mind that Julie has finished several 100 mile races and has won performance awards at these.

Politics

Dennis Kucinich posted a video which features him and his wife Elizabeth.

If nothing else, watch the first few minutes. She has more awareness of the issues than some of the candidates (e. g., Fred Thompson).

Hat tip to Crooks and Liars.

Football

Da’ Bears pulled it out last night, 27-20! I went to bed when it was 17-7, Packers.

Colleges: check out the USA Today Top 25 poll. Ok, look at the “also receiving votes”:

Virginia 67, Tennessee 60, Texas A&M 52, Rutgers 44, Texas Tech 44, Boise State 37, Connecticut 36, Indiana 30, Penn State 27, Michigan 22, Maryland 20, Wyoming 18, Clemson 16, Colorado 15, Wake Forest 12, Nebraska 10, Alabama 6, Brigham Young 6, Mississippi State 6, Kansas State 5, Stanford 4, Michigan State 3, UCLA 2

Stanford? 2-3. Michigan State? Lost two in a row, including last week to Northwestern? Nebraska? Two blowout losses. Michigan? Blown out at home, lost to I-AA team at home, almost lost to Eastern Michigan?

But….UCLA?????????????? 44-6 losers to Utah, and the one team that managed to lose to Notre Dame???? Read how they get pillared by the Los Angeles press. Also here and here.

My conclusion: some of the coaches are on crack when they vote in these things.